Читать книгу The Claim of the American Loyalists - Joseph Galloway - Страница 4

IF any apology can be necessary for the following review, we have many to offer, any one of which, we trust, will satisfy the ingenuous enquirer.

The claim of the American Loyalists, upon a candid examination, will appear to stand upon the highest ground of national honour and national justice. Their pleas of merit are, a faithful obedience to his Majesty’s commands,—a firm confidence in his Royal Faith—a perfect reliance on the assurances of both Houses of the British Legislature; and a faithful discharge of the first of all political duties, by their undaunted exertions in the support and defence of the authority of the Crown, and the rights of Parliament; in consequence of which, their fortunes have been sacrificed to the national safety. Their pleas of right are the unchangeable principles of reason and justice—the fundamental laws of the British constitution—the sacred obligations, by which the Sovereign Authority is bound to indemnify its faithful subjects—the faith of their gracious sovereign, and the solemn promises of Parliament pledged to them for that indemnity.

It must be confessed, that in a claim established upon such principles, the dictates of reason and justice forbid all delay; and yet (from what causes we presume not to suggest), five years have elapsed since the right was perfectly vested, and since it was clearly acknowledged by the Ministers, who devoted their fortunes to the national necessities; and by many others of the most eminent and learned speakers of both Houses of Parliament. Their Sovereign has been graciously pleased, long since, to recommend it to the consideration of Parliament. A Bill has been passed to enquire into their losses, and reports have been made, from time to time, of the value of those losses to the Lords of his Majesty’s Treasury, which have been laid before the House of Commons; notwithstanding which, the claimants still remain altogether in the dark, respecting the issue of their claim. Their humble prayers for justice have not been wanting. Their petitions to Parliament have been repeatedly presented, and, contrary to many, and, as we believe, to all precedents in cases of much less public merit, have been ordered, session after session, to lie on the table. Their claim of justice has not been fulfilled, discussed, or even examined. Hence it is, that their minds, before too much oppressed by their misfortunes, have remained in the most painful and distressing uncertainty, suspense, and anxiety. Many of them, who might have been made happy by the sums reported to be due to them, are at this moment labouring under all the distresses incident to poverty and want. Numbers in Nova Scotia have been supported by the charitable donations of their friends ^{Ref. 002}, the subjects of the American States. Many are labouring under the want of means to subsist themselves on their uncultivated farms; many, through the prospect of want, have died of broken hearts; and others have been driven, by their extreme distress, into insanity, and from insanity to suicide, leaving their helpless widows and orphans to prolong their miserable existence on the cold charity of others.

In stating these melancholy truths, and in publishing the following review, we trust no person will think that we can mean to give offence. Our design is simply to revive a claim of the first public merit which seemed to be sinking into oblivion, and to give information to those on whose liberality and justice we most sincerely rely; and who, we are firmly persuaded, when they shall candidly and maturely consider the facts upon which their claim is founded, will make that compensation which is due to them as British subjects by the faith of Majesty, and the honour of Parliament, and the fundamental laws of the British constitution.