bosoms and the remainder of the day was spent in carrying out the
details of their plan, which all agreed should now be put into
execution with the greatest possible promptitude and secrecy. In this,
as soon as the different appointments, made necessary for the
execution of the decree, were completed by the united action of the
council, all the members, individually, took an active part. And for
many hours, they might have been seen sitting round the tables,
silently and intently engaged with their pens; some in drafting
despatches to be sent to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, some in
writing confidential letters, unfolding their plans and asking the
co-operation of the leading men in the different parts of their own
state, and some in making out commissions for the military officers,
or the commissioners and other officers of confiscation, while others
were out, scattering themselves about town, warily and cautiously
inquiring out prompt and trusty messengers, to be despatched, as soon
as it was dark, simultaneously and post-haste, to convey these
important missives to their different destinations round the country.
And all being accomplished,--the blow struck, and the machinery put in
motion,--the council concluded to adjourn, to meet again in a few days
at Bennington, the interim to be spent by them in repairing to their
respective spheres of influence among the people, and there taking an
active part in defending and explaining their measures, and assisting
to carry them into operation.

Such was the origin of those temporary tribunals in Vermont,
subsequently termed courts of confiscation, which formed a prominent
feature in her early history, and which furnished, it is believed, the
first example of the exercise of this extraordinary power ever known
in the United Colonies during the revolutionary struggle. And whatever
may have been the effects of this retributive policy in other states,