the main revolutionists. The revolutionist cause was
often strongest in those colonies, such as Connecticut,
where the Church of England was weakest. But the division
was far from being a strict one. There were even members
of the Church of England in the Boston Tea Party; and
there were Presbyterians among the exiles who went to
Canada and Nova Scotia. The Revolution was not in any
sense a religious war; but religious differences contributed
to embitter the conflict, and doubtless made Whigs or
Tories of people who had no other interest at stake.

It is commonly supposed that the Loyalists drew their
strength from the upper classes in the colonies, while
the revolutionists drew theirs from the proletariat.
There is just enough truth in this to make it misleading.
It is true that among the official classes and the large
landowners, among the clergymen, lawyers, and physicians,
the majority were Loyalists; and it is true that the mob
was everywhere revolutionist. But it cannot be said that
the Revolution was in any sense a war of social classes.
In it father was arrayed against son and brother against
brother. Benjamin Franklin was a Whig; his son, Sir
William Franklin, was a Tory. In the valley of the
Susquehanna the Tory Colonel John Butler, of Butler's
Rangers, found himself confronted by his Whig cousins,
Colonel William Butler and Colonel Zeb Butler. George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, were not inferior
in social status to Sir William Johnson, Thomas Hutchinson,
and Joseph Galloway. And, on the other hand, there were
no humbler peasants in the revolutionary ranks than some