New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-28
A Word for the Tories
The Loyalist View Of an Ancient
Unpleasantncss
To the Editor OF The Tribune.

Onplcasantnc3S
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir. II was with much pleasure that read
your editorial in the issue OF Sunday on
Truth and American History" In which you
say that "thcre is no question OF the wide
spread American antipathy to England
which antipathy is largely legacy from the
Revolution and the War Of lSl2-1a, the MS
tory Of which wars has been so much DIS
tortcd in american schoolbooks.
You draw attention 20 the fact that many
Of the eminent men OF Britain were with the
insurgent colonists in their demands. This
is, TO large extent, correct; but another
truth. generally forgotten, is that the Revo-
luton was not a rising en- masse OF an OPP
pressed population to throw of the tyrants
yoke, etc, etc, as per popular histories; u
was civil war; in which the majority
whether of their own free will or skilfully
manauvred into il took sides against the
government, while the minority comprising
in the main, the educated and law abiding
part Of the population refused to haul down
the old flag. As a matter Of fact, they, the
Loyalists or Tories, took exactly the same
position taken by the Unionists in Kentucky
Missouri and Maryland in the Civil War
They may have been right or they may have
been wrong in their views, but certainly they
were sincere and sealed their loyalty, against
enormous odds, with their blood.
Their descendants in Canada and else
where believe that they were right in their
views, and that without the Revolution the
United States would have made even more
rapid progress than it has made possibly as
rapid progress as Canada has made that the
:wo wars between Britain and America would
have been avoided that there would have
been TO Civil War in the States. as slavery
would have been abolished without blood
shed. as il was in British dominions; that
there would have been the same respect for
law and order as there is now under the
British flag con the same basis of population
Canada has only one fortieth of the number
of homcdcs that this country has), and
that, in the fulness of time, there would
have been evolved one united empire, the
great peace power Of the world, or else
peaceful separation of the daughter from the
mother state.
lHt utN'tHudHlS VI lHe 'OHllHcHldlS
take the opposite view. The point, however,
IS this: Hoy many Americans have ever
read the other side? How many Americans
have ever read Sabine's "Loyalists," or Ryer-
sons "Loyalists," or Fishers "True History
of the Revolution? How many Americans
who have been fed upon the story OF Indian
atrocities know that the Continentals did
their best to get Indian aid, and that Ameri-
cans have again and again employed Indians
as fighters? How many Americans have ever
read of the awful treatment of the Loyalists.
a treatment almost without parallel, simply
because they remained faithful to their al
legiance? How many Americans are aware
-speaking of the War of 1912 that the
burning of the government buildings in
Washington was in retaliation for the burn
ing of the Parliament buildings at York NOW
Toronto and for the cruel burning in the
depth of winter Of the town of Newark NOW
Niagara. the provincial capital? How many
Americans know, as Mr.. Roosevelt says in
his history, that the uch-lauded individual
frigate victories in that war were by
vessels of superior tonnage or guns or crew.
and that at the end of the war not a pound
Of freight was carried in American bottoms?
How many Americans know that Canadians
and Canada had only one thirty-second
part Of the population of the States-with
few British soldiers, captured and held until
the end % that war the whole Territory OF
Michigan, and that in that war, as in the
Revolution, Britain was fighting against
world in arms?
IL is not pleasant to recall these things
but it is sometimes necessary to do So as
the British and the hated Tories have been
subjected to so much absolutely unjust crit
icism and obloquy. American schoobooks
and popular histories are responsible for
much OF this, as you suggest Fortunately,
fair-minded Americans are beginning to see
that there is another side to the shield.
New York, Sept %, 1917. X.