Of course, the test laws were not rigidly or universally
enforced. In Pennsylvania only a small proportion of the
population took the oath. In New York, out of one thousand
Tories arrested for failure to take the oath, six hundred
were allowed to go on bail, and the rest were merely
acquitted or imprisoned. On the whole the American
revolutionists were not bloody-minded men; they inaugurated
no September Massacres, no Reign of Terror, no
_dragonnades_. There was a distinct aversion among them
to applying the death penalty. 'We shall have many unhappy
persons to take their trials for their life next Oyer
court,' wrote a North Carolina patriot. 'Law should be
strictly adhered to, severity exercised, but the doors
of mercy should never be shut.'

The test laws, nevertheless, and the other discriminating
laws passed against the Loyalists provided the excuse
for a great deal of barbarism and ruthlessness. In
Pennsylvania bills of attainder were passed against no
fewer than four hundred and ninety persons. The property
of nearly all these persons was confiscated, and several
of them were put to death. A detailed account has come
down to us of the hanging of two Loyalists of Philadelphia
named Roberts and Carlisle. These two men had shown great
zeal for the king's cause when the British Army was in
Philadelphia. After Philadelphia was evacuated, they were
seized by the Whigs, tried, and condemned to be hanged.
Roberts's wife and children went before Congress and on
their knees begged for mercy; but in vain. One November
morning of 1778 the two men were marched to the gallows,