They had known her chiefly by benefactions; they did not conflict with her in shipping or in manufactures; and the arguments for discontent and resistance, as urged by the patriot leaders, did not reach them with sufficient force.

What was the tax on tea, of which they drank little, and the duty on stamps, when they had but little need for legal papers?
And why should not taxes follow protection, which Great Britain had not often withheld in the need of a favorite colony, as South Carolina had unquestionably been?
Let us do justice to this people.

The loyalists--or, as they were more commonly called, and as we shall hereafter be compelled to call them, the Tories--were, probably, in the majority of cases, governed by principle, by a firm and settled conviction, after deliberate examination of the case.

That they might have thought otherwise, nay, would gradually have adopted the opinions of the patriots, is not improbable, had more time been allowed them, and had the course of the latter been more indulgent and considerate.
Unfortunately, this was not the case; and the desire to coerce where they could not easily convince, had the effect of making a determined and deadly, out of a doubtful foe.

This was terribly proved by the after history.