Manners and Customs in Colonial Days 107 



of iron and heavy locks were sufficient protection against the 

 robber of that day, and which, for further security, were kept 

 in the bedroom of the proprietor. A mattress, a stocking, or 

 a cuddy-hole was equally safe for the small possessions of the 

 poor. 



When the Revolution occurred, the Congress was hard 

 pushed to provide funds, and so quantities of Continental 

 currency were issued. The more of it that was issued, the less 

 did its value become, as there was nothing back of it to give 

 it value. After the French alliance of 1780, hard money 

 became less scarce; though in 1782, the Continental currency 

 was so depreciated that it took five hundred dollars of it to pay 

 for one dollar's worth of merchandise or labor. Acts of the 

 legislatures, and even of Congress itself, could not make the 

 Colonial and Continental currency pass at its face value, even 

 when penalties were attached for failure to accept it. The 

 same conditions prevailed after the Peace of 1783; and the 

 experiences of the period from 1783 to 1789, which Professor 

 John Fiske calls the "Critical Period of American History," 

 resulted in the safeguarding of the money question in the 

 Constitution by giving the Federal Government absolute 

 power over the issue of coin and currency. 



During the Revolution, the British paid in good money for 

 what they bought, so that it is not to be wondered at that the 

 farmers of a section so close to the British base of supplies at 

 New York as was the Borough, were more inclined to be loyal- 

 ists or neutrals than to be ardent patriots. After all, a man's 

 politics are usually in his pocket; and when we take into 

 account the material inducements to enlist, we can see why 

 the Tory regiments of Rogers and De Lancey were recruited 

 principally from the sections adjacent to New York. 



So far in this chapter we have treated of the practical side 



