--"Revolutionary Majorities" continued

their struggle for freedom in the face of disapprobation and rejection by their peers prior to the time of actual armed conflict and, after its commencement, to charges and cries of "incendiaries and traitors." L} Indeed, "the friends of government" knew little restraint when it came to condemning the Republic's founders. The loyalist called Washington, among other things, a liar, perjurer, murderer, blasphemer, criminal, traitor, patron of villainy, and a vil1ain's chief.5 The other founders fared little better and were variously referred to as being dregs,_il1iberal (sic!) and violent men, despicable wretches, bandits, rude, -and depraved;6 _ While thus labeled by "respectable citizens," these men led the country toward rebellion.

One Man's Terrorist Is Another's Freedom Fighter

Correspondingly, the founders had an analogous movement among the common people which, although the objective of overthrowing the government was the same, the methods were those resorted to by people in every age when faced with overpowering force of all-powerful government, namely, mob action, riots, uprisings, midnight forays, and harassment, intimidation or terroristic acts directed against governmental supporters - all of these and other acts came under the single heading of patriotism so far as their perpetrators were concerned.

After a review of non-battlefield hostilities, it becomes apparent that the American Revolution was won more by mob action than by armed conflict!

Thus, any idea that the Revolution was won in an ordeal of battle is out of place in view of the facts.

During the entire length of the armed conflict from 1775 to 1781, the king's armies lost only 1,512 men killed in battle. This seven-year, battle death casualty rate was exceeded by Union Forces at Cold Harbor in 1864, during the first eight minutes of a single engagement. The King's armies had previously lost far larger numbers of men in the Seven Years War (French and Indian wars) yet pressed on to victory. An adequate explanation, then, of the patriots' final triumph over the government must be provided by other than a military victory.

Sons of Liberty

An answer in great part lies in the violence and vigilante action carried on by the patriots against the government and its supporters!

Though most Americans today are familiar with the story of the Boston Tea Party, few know much about the secret organization that conducted it, the Sons of Liberty. Led by Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Dr. Warren ("the greatest incendiary of them all"), and Paul Revere, they met in secret, dressed in disguises and carried out vigilante actions under the cover of darkness. This Revolutionary Ku Klux Klan was as much dreaded by "the friends of government" as its ideological offspring the Klan ever was by unruly blacks. The Sons of Liberty and other similar groups were responsible during the course of the conflict for independence for causing tens of thousands of loyalists to flee the country (the Klan was usually satisfied with merely running undesirables out of the county).

A Whip, A Torch, and A Rope = Freedom

The means were simple and effective. Terror and intimidation were directed against the loyalists. Methods used to create these twin scourges of "the friends of government" included, but were not limited to, whippings, coats of tar and feathers, banishment, church burnings (if run by a loyalist preacher or used for a loyalist meeting place), confiscation of property, and wherever deemed necessary, death by anyone of several reliable methods.:7

Other patriotic groups of similar nature were spontaneously' formed throughout the thirteen colonies to carryon a relentless persecution of "the friends of government." Each organization operated independently of the other, though often exchanging information on loyalists.

Often these ad hoc associations went by the name of "Committees of Public Safety," though the name, as well as the tactics employed, varied fro~ place to place. Thus, in the colony of New York, the patriots bluntly called themselves "The Oppressors of the Friends of Government" and stated proudly that they tarred and feathered governmental supporters with the "decorum that ought to be preserved in public punishments. "8 Boston -- had its mysterious "Joyce Junior" who led a group of night riders and enforcers continued---