The local Committees, sometimes, consequentially assumed to interrupt their traffic ; * and the Committee of Safety, in order to prevent "sundry persons from Connecticut" from purchasing, for the evident purpose of forestalling the market, "requested the Committee of the County " of Westchester to take effectual means to prevent " the sale and transportation of any barrelled Beef " or Pork out of Westchester-county, to any person or "persons residing out of this Colony, or for the use of *' any person or persons residing out of this Colony, " until the further order of the Provincial Congress ** or of the Committee of Safety of this Colony ; " 2 but, nevertheless, the fertility of the County and the patient industry of the greater number of those who lived therein were known and utilized, throughout the entire seaboard.
The same local terrorism which had prevailed, throughout the County, under the auspices of the former Provincial Congress, was continued, with the sanction of this; 3 numbers of the inhabitants of the County were seized, only on information secretly conveyed by unseen accusers, and cast into prison, without a hearing ; 4 and some of them were severely
the period now under examination, prove, beyond a question, and apart from every other consideration, how short-sighted the leaders of the Rebellion were, when, through the violence of their lawlessness, they impaired the productiveness of so fruitful a source of supplies, both for the City and for their Armies.
1 See pages 149, 150, post.