general was necessaryConsequently to sternly punish abusessafety," of suchit privileges. all persons were prohibited from opposing or denying "the authority of the continental or this congress, or the committee of safety, or the committees of the respective counties, cities, (owns, manors, precincts, or districts in this colony" and from "dissuading any person or persons from obeying the recommendations of the continental or this congress, or the committee of safety, or the committees aforesaid." Suspects were to be tried before the county committees, and, if convicted, were to be disarmed for the first offense and committed to close confinement, at their respective expense, for the second. Committees and militia officers were enjoined to apprehend every person discovered to be enlisted or in arms against the liberties of the country, and to keep him in custody until his fate should be determined by the congress; and the estate of every such individual was to be seized and confiscated. Very soon after the passage of this measure the zealous local committeemen in Westchester County began to take steps for its wide-

FROM

JANUARY,

1775,

JULY

9, 1776

spread and stringent enforcement. With the autumn of 1775 commenced those numerous acts of information, frequently by neighbor against neighbor, and as frequently violative of every private confidence and decent obligation between man and man, which form so much of the history of our county during the Revolution. In no other county of the province did such abundant and inviting material exist for the exercise of the peculiar activities of the patriotic informer. It is true that Kings, Queens, Suffolk, and Richmond Counties contained a large Loyalist population -- perhaps as numerous and important, proportionately, as that of Westchester. But with the capture of New York City in the summer of 1776 these island counties came under the complete protection of the British forces, and their Tory inhabitants were consequently exempted from the inquisitorial observation and regulation through a long term of years which the British sympathizers in Westchester County had to suffer.