It can readily be seen why this removal to a place inside the American lines was necessary. Admiral Howe and the British Governor, Tryon, were doing all in their power to organize the activities of the Tories, while cowboy bands were committing all sorts of depredations throughout Westchester, and the family of so active a patriot could not -;ong escape. Already (June 16, 1775) the convention, on motion of Jay, had passed a resolution declaring all persons giving aid or comfort to the enemy guilty of treason, with the penalty of death, and had appointed Livingston, Jay and Gouverneur Morris a secret committee to "examine disaffected persons." There is no record of any executions but, when Lord Howe's fleet landed at New York, there were twenty-seveii prisoners in the City Hall and forty-three in the new jail, one of whom was the mayor of the city. In September a new committee was appointed: "A Committee for Inquiring into, Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies." This committee was given almost unlimited power. It could call out local militia, employ all sorts of secret agents, arrest and remove any person it might judge to be dangerous to the State; it could make drafts upon the treasury of the State and was empowered to raise and officer two hundred and twenty men and employ them as it saw fit. The committee met October 8, 1775, at Connor's Tavern at Fishkill and organized itself with James Duer as chairman and John Jay as secretary. At Fishkill the committee held many meetings, Mr. Jay acting as chairman most of the time, and sub-committees were formed throughout eastern and southeastern Dutchess (a portion of Dutchess having since been set off as Putnam County). Militia units were created and officered, each organization to cover a certain section known as a "beat". The minutes of the central committee show a tremendous activity but as much of the work was secret many of the acts of these patriots never will be known. The membership of the committees comprised many names still familiar in southern Dutchess and in Putnam County: as, Dykeman, Townsend, Luddington, Crosby, Van Wyck, &c. Enoch Crosby, one of these "secret agents for detecting Tory plots", was forever made famous by James Fennimore Cooper as Harvey Birch, "The Spy", and there is good authority* for stating that it was the story of Crosby's activities, told by John Jay to Cooper, which gave the novelist material for his book. It is a remarkable fact that bitter as was the feeling and great as was the number of reprisals made by both sides there was comparatively little bloodshed. Large numbers of men and women were arrested and brought before Judge Jay and a variety of sentences was imposed,property was confiscated and sold at auction; those suspected or *\5,T L. Phelps, Some Makers of American Literature, p. 41.
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