There were others who left their homes,
though not to go to Boston. Of these Judge
Curwen of Salem is a type. He was con-
sidered — unjustly, he protests — as a Tory,
and finding his neighbors daily becoming
"more and more soured and malevolent
against moderate men," he left Massachu-
setts. In this case it was the wife who re-
mained behind, "her apprehensions of danger
from an incensed soldiery, a people licentious
and enthusiastically mad and broken loose
from all the restraints of law and religion,

1 "Memorial History of Boston," iii, 77.
230 The Siege of Boston

being less terrible to her than a short passage
on the ocean." * Curwen went to Philadel-
phia, but finding the situation the same,
proceeded to London and there lived out the
war. Many others, like him, repaired to the
capital, and formed a miserable colony, living
on hope, watching the news from home,
pensioned or grudgingly maintained by the
government, and sadly feeling themselves
strangers in a strange land.
Without doubt the times were very hard
for men who, like Judge Curwen, wished
to take no side, but to live at peace with all
men. Of such men there was a very large
class, so large in fact that more than one
Tory sympathizer has claimed that the Revo-
lution was fought by a minority of the people
of the colonies, who were so virulent as to
force the moderates into their ranks from
dread of personal consequences. Such a claim
is weak upon its very face, and will not
bear examination. Most of the moderates
were but waiting to see how the cat would

1 Curwen's "Journal," 25.
Boston Beleaguered 231

jump, and when once a preponderance of
sentiment showed they speedily took sides.
