ssity of providing for the emergencies of the State and military,
during the continuance of the war. Under existing circumstances, the
measure was sustained by our partisan. But the case was altered when the
British ministry abandoned their pretensions to the country, and when it
was left by their armies. It was then that numerous offenders--those who
had been least conspicuous for their Tory predilections--applied for the
indulgence and forbearance of the State. Petitions were poured into the
Legislature, sustained by such pleas and friends as the circumstances
of the suppliants could procure--excusing their conduct, asserting their
repentance, and imploring the restoration of their possessions. Marion's
course in regard to these suppliants may be inferred from his previous
character. There was nothing vindictive in his nature. He was superior
to the baser cravings of a dogged vengeance, and his vote and voice
declared his magnanimity. It so happened that the first of these
petitions upon which he was called to act, came from one of that class
of timid, time-serving persons, who, with no predilections for virtue,
no sympathy for principles or country, simply shape their course with
regard to safety. He was a man of wealth, and the effect of wealth
in perilous times is but too frequently to render selfishness equally
cowardly and dishonest. The amount of his offence consisted in trimming,
while the strife was doubtful, between Whig and Tory, and siding with
the latter when the British gained the ascendency. He did not take up
arms, took no active part in public affairs, and was content to shelter
his person and possessions under a cautious insignificance. About
eighteen months before, Marion had met the petitioner at a gathering of
the people. The latter approached and offered our partisan his hand. But
the juncture was one in which it behooveth patriotism to speak out at
all hazards. The struggle was for life and death, on the part equally
of Whig and Tory. Marion knew the character of the person, and disdained
it. To the surprise of all, who knew how scrupulous of insult he
was,--how indulgent and forbearing,--he turned away from the trimmer and
the sycophant without recognition. This treatment was greatly censured
at the time, and when Marion rose in the Senate, to speak on the subject
of the petition of the man whom he had so openly scorned, it was taken
for granted that he would again give utterance to feelings of the