roclamation of
the Governor, none but the most implacable and virulent of the Tories
were liable to its operation--none but those who had rejected very
liberal offers of indulgence and conciliation. This proclamation had
opened the door to reconciliation with the State, on very easy terms to
the offenders. It gave them timely warning to come in, enrol themselves
in the American ranks, and thus assure themselves of that protection and
safety which they had well forfeited. Their neglect or refusal to accept
this proffer of mercy, properly incurred the penalties of contumacy.
These penalties could be no other than confiscation of property and
banishment of person. Reasons of policy, if not of absolute necessity,
seemed to enforce these penalties. How was the war to be carried on?
Marion's men, for example, received no pay, no food, no clothing. They
had borne the dangers and the toils of war, not only without pay, but
without the hope of it. They had done more--they had yielded up their
private fortunes to the cause. They had seen their plantations stripped
by the enemy, of negroes, horses, cattle, provisions, plate--everything,
in short, which could tempt the appetite of cupidity; and this, too,
with the knowledge, not only that numerous loyalists had been secured in
their own possessions, but had been rewarded out of theirs. The proposed
measure seemed but a natural and necessary compliance with popular
requisition. Besides, the war was yet to be carried on. How was this
to be done? How long was it yet to last? What was to be its limit? Who
could predict? Congress was without money--the State without means. For
a space of three years, South Carolina had not only supported the war
within, but beyond her own borders. Georgia was utterly destitute, and
was indebted to South Carolina for eighteen months for her subsistence;
and North Carolina, in the portions contiguous to South Carolina, was
equally poor and disaffected. The Whigs were utterly impoverished by
their own wants and the ravages of the enemy. They had nothing more to
give. Patriotism could now bestow little but its blood. It was with an
obvious propriety resolved, by the Jacksonborough Assembly, that those
who had proved false to the country should be made to suffer in like
degree with those who had been true, and who were still suffering in
her defence. As a measure of prolonged policy--contemplated beyond the
emergency--there may be objections to the Confiscatio