After the capitulation, Sir Henry Clinton sent out three expeditions and issued three proclamations, all having in view the subjugation of South Carolina. The butchery which Tarleton inflicted is well known; and even the British historian, Stedman, who was then an officer under General Clinton, says of it: "The virtue of humanity was totally forgot." The enemy's detachments, sent to various parts of the State, paid little regard to the rights and property of its inhabitants. Sir Henry, assuming that the province was already conquered, issued, before his departure to New York, a proclamation discharging all the military prisoners, except those captured in Fort Moultrie and Charleston, from their parole after June 20, 1780. Thus, without their own consent, by Clinton's arbitrary fiat, these paroled persons were converted from their neutrality into British subjects, and compelled to take up arms against their neighbors, or, failing to comply with this enforced allegiance, were treated as rebels. The Whig inhabitants were worried, plundered, and murdered by Tories, in open violation of all British pledges; leading men were confined in prison-ships; and patriotic citizens, who had resumed their swords upon finding all guaranties violated, had their property sequestrated, and themselves were severely punished, sometimes with death. The British rule was truly a reign of terror. Lord Mahon stigmatizes in the severest language American faith as utterly derelict in carrying out the Convention of Saratoga,[742] while of the sequel of the capitulation of Charleston he has no holy horror. His only remark is: "_Perhaps_ these measures exceeded the bounds of justice; certainly they did the bounds of policy." This same English historian, in his account of Arnold's treason, speaks of the death of André as the "greatest blot" upon the career of Washington. He contends that it was unjust to arrest André, because he had a safeguard from Arnold; and sneers at the twelve distinguished American generals upon the Board which condemned the spy, as incompetent plebeians, drawn from "the plough-handle and from the shop-board." According to Mahon's fallacious mode of reasoning, Washington should not only have let André go free, because protected by the traitor's pass, but should have given up West Point, its garrison and arms, to Sir Henry Clinton, as fully agreed upon by Arnold, the duly constituted American commander. According to such reasoning, Judas Iscariot was justified in betraying the Saviour, because he had been one of the trusted twelve who sat down to the Last Supper. The just fate of the spy and betrayer was the same, except that Judas was his own executioner.