upon doubtful men.
Still more unfortunately, they were, as a rule, outside the
revolutionary organizations of conventions and committees, and were
themselves without means of co-operating.

In the excitement and tension of the time, the ruder and rougher
classes tended to regard all reluctance to join in the revolution as
equivalent to upholding the North policy, and to attack as Tories all
who did not heartily support the revolutionary cause. Violence and
intimidation rapidly made themselves felt. Loyalists were threatened,
forced by mobs to sign the Association; their houses {71} were defiled,
their movements watched. Then [Transcriber's note: Their?] arms were
taken from them, and if they showed anger or temper they were
occasionally whipped or even tarred and feathered. In this way a
determined minority backed by the poorer and rougher classes, overrode
all opposition and swelled a rising cry for independence.

The Congress was slow, for it felt the need of unanimity; and such
colonies as New York and Pennsylvania were controlled by moderates.
But at length, in June, 1776, spurred on by the Virginia delegates and
by the tireless urgings of the Massachusetts leaders, the body acted.
Already some of the colonies had adopted constitutions whose language
indicated their independence. Now the Continental Congress, after a
final debate, adopted a Declaration of Independence, drafted by
Jefferson of Virginia and supported by the eloquence of John Adams and
the influence of Franklin. Basing their position on the doctrines of
the natural right of men to exercise full self-government and to change
their form of government when it became oppressive, the colonies, in
this famous document, imitated the English Declaration of Rights of
1689 in drawing up a bill of indictment against George III's
government. In this can be discovered every cause of resentment and
every variety of {72} complaint which the thirteen colonies were ready
to put forward. Practically all were political. There were allusions
in plenty to the wrangles between governors and assemblies,
denunciations of the parliamentary taxes and the coercing Acts, but no
reference to the Acts of Trade. To the end, the colonists, even in the
act of declaring independence, found their grievances in the field of
government and not in economic regulation. What they wanted was the
unrestricted power to legislate for themselves and to tax or refrain
from taxing the