ongress,
Provincial Legislatures and Convention professed to
act from the beginning of the contest; proofs and
illustrations 496

II. The Declaration of Independence was a violation of
good faith to those statesmen and numerous other parties in
England who had, in and out of Parliament, defended and
supported the rights and character of the Colonies during
the whole contest; proofs and illustrations 499

III. The Declaration of Independence was also a violation,
not only of good faith, but of justice to the numerous
Colonists who adhered to connexion with the mother country;
proofs and illustrations 501

IV. The Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776, was the
commencement of persecutions and proscriptions and confiscation
of property against those who refused to renounce the oaths
which they had taken, as well as the principles and traditions
which had until then been professed by their persecutors and
oppressors as well as by themselves; proofs and illustrations 504

The plea of tyranny (in a note) 504

Numbers, character, and position of Loyalists at the time,
as stated by American writers; laws passed against them 504

The beneficial results of the Congress had it adhered to
the former principles of its members, and acted justly
to all parties 507

V. The Declaration of Independence was the commencement
of weakness in the army of its authors, and of defeats
in their field of battle; proofs and illustrations 508

VI. The Declaration of Independence was the avowed
expedient and prelude for an alliance with France and
Spain against the Mother Country; proofs and illustrations;
the secret and double game played between the Congress and
France, both before and after the Declaration of Independence 513

LOYALISTS OF AMERICA

AND

THEIR TIMES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.--TWO CLASSES OF EMIGRANTS--TWO GOVERNMENTS FOR SEVENTY
YEARS--THE "PILGRIM FATHERS"--THEIR PILGRIMAGES AND SETTLEMENT.

In proceeding to trace the development and characteristics of Puritanism
in an English colony, I beg to remark that I write, not as an
Englishman, but as a Canadian colonist by birth and life-long residence,
and as an early and cons