might be financed by the confiscation of Loyalist estates.
Late in 1777 the plan was embodied in a resolution of
the Continental Congress, and the states were recommended
to invest the proceeds in continental loan certificates.
The idea proved very popular; and in spite of a great
deal of corruption in connection with the sale and transfer
of the land, large sums found their way as a result into
the state exchequers. In New York alone over 3,600,000
pounds worth of property was acquired by the state.

The Tory who refused to take the oath of allegiance became
in fact an outlaw. He did not have in the courts of law
even the rights of a foreigner. If his neighbours owed
him money, he had no legal redress. He might be assaulted,
insulted, blackmailed, or slandered, yet the law granted
him no remedy. No relative or friend could leave an orphan
child to his guardianship. He could be the executor or
administrator of no man's estate. He could neither buy
land nor transfer it to another. If he was a lawyer, he
was denied the right to practise his profession.

This strict legal view of the status of the Loyalist may
not have been always and everywhere enforced. There were
Loyalists, such as the Rev. Mather Byles of Boston, who
refused to be molested, and who survived the Revolution
unharmed. But when all allowance is made for these
exceptions, it is not difficult to understand how the
great majority of avowed Tories came to take refuge within
the British lines, to enlist under the British flag, and,
when the Revolution had proved successful, to leave their