Defacing of a Picture

From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol II.  Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859.

We think the defacing of a picture, though it were of a man stained with the crimes of murder and rebellion, is a poor expression of scorn or resentment, which no man of a generous mind can justify. What then shall we say? What must be thought by the lovers of humanity and of the liberal arts, when it is remembered, that in the commencement of the American rebellion an elegant equestrian statue of our most gracious sovereign was openly profaned by the sacrilegious hands of traitors, set on by public orders of seditious leaders, who called themselves gentlemen; who had often in the most solemn manner appealed to heaven as a witness of their immaculate loyalty to that amiable prince, whom now they insult in pamphlets and printed speeches, with the title of ‘Royal Brute;’ that after shamefully mutilating the highest ornament of New York, they carried it about in scandalous procession, treating a noble image of the sacred Majesty of Britain with indignity most atrocious, most impious, and diabolical. Remember this, ye seditious Upstarts, and for shame be silent on the subject of indignities offered to the memory of a deserter, and to the character of one on whose guilty head the blood of Andre and of a train of loyal martyrs call aloud for vengeance, and whose name as a traitor is consigned to infamy by the indignant voice of truth and loyalty.¹

¹ Rivington’s Gazette, September 22.