Saint John Globe - 1882-03-07

Year
1882
Month
3
Day
7
Article Title
The Loyalist Idea
Author
"D."
Page Number
n/a
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
To the Editor of the Globe: Sir-Under this heading I read a letter signed C. in your issue of the 1st. which, in my opinion, furnishes a good deal of chaff for a small amount of grain. He premises by saying that the Loyalists were neither Gods nor demigods, nor did they spring from the Pilgrim Fathers. The first assertion will not be challenged, as I presume no one would claim anything God-like for them, saving so far as they were made in the image of their Maker; but as a matter of fact some of their forefathers were emigrants by the “Mayflower.” “F.” also says that their ancesters were British Tories, impressed with the idea that their mission was to establish Church and State in the land of their adoption, which idea they left as an heirloom to their descendants; and this idea, after some two hundred years of labor and cogitation, resulted in the rebellion of the thirteen Colonies! Is not this chaff? Was not the rebellion caused by England imposing on the Colonies taxation without representation? And was it not a sufficient cause? How many of the descendants of the Loyalists in Canada to-day would do as their forefathers did if subjected to the same treatment? I think not many. The men who resisted England’s arbitrary enactments were patriots to their country though rebels to the Crown. Your correspondent goes on to say that “The Loyalist Idea is to-day a State Church and a Royal Court.” I think that idea has no existence excepting in “C.’s” vivid imagination. Does “C.” suppose that his soul would be more likely to be saved in a “State Church,” and if not is he so uncharitable as to attribute such a silly idea to the descendants of the Loyalists? But what we accord to the Loyalists is that they did what they conceived to be their duty, and in doing so they merit the regard of every fair minded man, and the one who would sneer at them that cupidity was the motive of their course, is one whose soul knows not the meaning of magnanimity, and one to whom may justly be applied Honi soit qui mal y pense.