It must have been peculiarly galling, among those who had been accustomed to hear of the " Rights of " Man " and of the " Constitutional Rights of Engiish- "men " and all the other catchwords and maxims in the science of government -- generally true, in theory, although, practically, they had been seized and employed by demagogues, in those instances, only for the advancement of personal and partisan ends -- when a military force, no matter by whom commanded nor of what troops it was composed, was moved from farmhouse to farmhouse, failing to call only on those who were in favor with the Chairman of a County Committee, for the seizure of whatever " Muskets, Guns, " and Firelocks " the occupants of those several farmhouses owned or had in their possession.
Not an exception was made, no matter what reason there might have been for such an exception ; and everything which had a gun-lock on it, whether useful or useless for military purposes -- whether a young man's fowling-piece, with which he was wont to have a few hours' sport, when squirrels and robins abounded, or to have more serious work, when foxes and more formidable marauders poached in the poultry-yards or in the sheep-pastures ; or an old man's worn-out musket, a trusty friend in earlier Wars and, now, only a remembrancer of other days and other hardships--everything was doomed, by that new-formed
5 .Journal of the Committee of Safety, ■' ber 16th, 1775."