After due consideration of the subject, the Committee of Safety determined to limit the price to be paid for the Pork, leaving the rival buyers undisturbed, which was undoubtedly done for political reasons -- it would not have been prudent to have arrested the Deputation of a County, while it was so eagerly engaged in a still-hunt for some of the pickings which had been placed within its reach, by the revolutionary leaders. The enactment of the Committee of Safety was in these words :
" Whereas different appointments have been made "by the Provincial Congress, for the purchase of " barreled Pork, in Westchester-county ; it is there- " fore
" Ordered, That no person employed in that ser- " vice pay more for that article of Provision than four " pounds per barrel, subject to the expense of the " sellers for cartage to the place of delivery in the " County." 3
On the first of April, 1776-- ample time having elapsed, since the two Orders were made, to enable all which could be done in the way of purchases and sales of Pork and Flour, to have been done, satisfactorily to those who were originally in the secret -- the Committee of Safety discovered what it regarded as a fact, that such a Military Magazine as General Lee had called for and which the Provincial Congress had deliberately established, would " not be absolutely necessary ; " and it accordingly " Ordered, That Colonel
1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Sabbati, 9 ho., A.M., March "16, 1776."