270 The Winning of the West 



a slight difference in forms, proceeded against all 

 offenders with their former vigor. Being eminently 

 practical men, and not learned in legal technicalities, 

 their decisions seem to have been governed mainly 

 by their own ideas of justice, which, though gen- 

 uine, were rough. As the war progressed and the 

 Southern States fell into the hands of the British, 

 the disorderly men who had streamed across the 

 mountains became openly defiant toward the law. 

 The tories gathered in bands, and every man 

 who was impatient of legal restraint, every mur- 

 derer, horse-thief, and highway robber in the com- 

 munity flocked to join them. The militia who hunt- 

 ed them down soon ceased to discriminate between 

 tories and other criminals, and the courts rendered 

 decisions to the same effect. The caption of one in- 

 dictment that has been preserved reads against the 

 defendant "in toryism." He was condemned to im- 

 prisonment during the war, half his goods were con- 

 fiscated to the use of the State, and the other half 

 was turned over for the support of his family. In 

 another case the court granted a still more remark- 

 able order, upon the motion of the State attorney, 

 which set forth that fifteen hundred pounds, due 

 to a certain H., should be retained in the hands of 

 the debtor, because "there is sufficient reason to be- 

 lieve that the said H's estate will be confiscated to 

 the use of the State for his misdemeanours." 



There is something refreshing in the solemnity 

 with which these decisions are recorded, and the 

 evident lack of perception on the part of the judges 



