A careful examination of the history of England--of her Magna Charta and Constitution--of the rights by them secured and of the gross violation of those rights at various periods will show the reader why so many men of high attainments and liberal minds came to America. Disgusted with oppression at home they sought Liberty abroad. They fled from religious and political persecution as from a pestilence. The same cause that induced them to leave their native land prompted them to vigorous action when imported tyranny invaded their well earned privileges. The mind of every man and woman who came to this asylum of the oppressed for the sake of freedom was as well prepared to meet the crisis of the Revolution as were our native citizens. The feelings created by remembered injuries which drove them from the mother country rendered them as formidable opponents to the unjust pretensions of the crown as those who had never breathed the atmosphere of Europe. In tracing our own history back to the early settlements we find frequent struggles between the people and the officers sent by the king to rule them--the former claiming their inherent rights--the latter often infringing them. The time finally arrived when forbearance was no longer a virtue. Among those who espoused the cause of inalienable rights at an early period was Edward Middleton the great grandfather of the younger Arthur. He came from England to S. C. near the close of the 17th century. He left a son Arthur who imbibed the liberal views of his father. In 1719 he headed an opposition that boldly demanded and obtained the removal of the insolent crown officers then in power. He left a son Henry, one of the same sort who was the father of the subject of this sketch and took an active part at the commencement of the Revolution by rousing his fellow citizens to action.