AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 273 



latter withdrew from the country at the beginning 

 of the contest, carrying with them their personal 

 effects, but abandoning their real estate. Society 

 was already so disorganized, the future was so un 

 certain, and money was so universally hoarded, that 

 more were desirous of selling than of buying. 

 Titles had already become uncertain. As the war 

 progressed, the condition of things became worse. 

 Each State enacted confiscation laws designed to 

 cripple the Tories by stripping them of their prop 

 erty. They abandoned lands and houses precisely 

 as the Rebels have been abandoning theirs, and 

 thousands of them never returned to reclaim their 

 possessions. As the American armies advanced, the 

 Tories fled ; when the British army moved, others 

 were induced by fear to follow it. The fugitives 

 had no rest So large a quantity of their real estate 

 was thus brought within reach of the confiscation 

 acts that much of it was overlooked and escaped 

 condemnation and sale. 



As the cities and their vicinity had been crowded 

 with Tories, so in those localities their abandoned 

 property abounded. Some of .them had been killed 

 in battle, others had fled the country, and dare not 

 return to reclaim what they had left. The few who 

 ventured to do so were again compelled to fly. In 

 multitudes of cases even the voluntary absentees 

 failed to return and resume possession. Titles thus 

 became unsettled. Their properties were entered 

 on by squatters, who eventually gained good titles 

 by long possession. Property of this description is 

 found in all our seaboard cities. Some of it has 



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