Before we got to the point where we could have a Constitution and Nice Things, we had to put a boot on the necks of the Tories. There was a fun game Patriots used to play with Tories called the Spigot. It involved a nail or bare spike, and the bare foot of a Tory. The smart ones either got out of the country to Canada or the UK, or learned to shut their mouths and keep a low profile. Norfolk Naval Base? Norfolk was a hive of Tory traitors, so Patriot militia spent a week systematically burning the town to the ground. Then Congress appropriated the land for a navy yard.
After that, we had a Constitutional Republic.
Good to remember.