[ChinaThreat]

Liberals were called Torries at the time. Trusted in a tyrannous govt and failed.

[tjwmason]

Liberals were called Torries at the time.

I beg to differ. At that time politics which were not split on the issue of independence vs. loyalism wer split Tory vs. Whig. The Tories later became the Conservatives, and the Whigs the liberals.

Liberals, in the modern American sense were not around then; the Tories were, and are, as far removed from Kerry et al. as one can get.