Governor Moultrie's letter of June 21, 1786, informs us, that most of the confiscations had been restored; that the value of those not restored, was far less than that of the property of their citizens carried off by the British, and that fifteen, instead of twelve months, had been allowed to the persons for whom permission was recommended to come and solicit restitution.
Sec. 12. North Carolina.—1784, October. An act directing the sale of confiscated property.
1785, Dec. 29. An act to secure and quiet in their possessions, the purchasers of lands, goods, &c., sold, or to be sold by the commissioners of forfeited estates. These two acts relate expressly to property "heretofore confiscated," and secure purchasers under those former confiscations.
1790. The case of Bayard v. Singleton, adjudged in a court of judicature in North Carolina. Bayard was a purchaser of part of an estate confiscated during the war, and the court adjudged his title valid; and it is difficult to conceive on what principle that adjudication can be complained of, as an infraction of the treaty.
1785, Nov. 19. An act was passed to restore a confiscated estate to the former proprietor, Edward Bridgen.
1784, Oct. An act to describe and ascertain such persons as owed allegiance to the State, and impose certain disqualifications on certain persons therein named.
1785, Nov. An act to amend the preceding act.
1788, April. An act of pardon and oblivion. The two first of these acts exercised the right of the State to describe who should be its citizens, and who should be disqualified from holding offices. The last, entitled An act of pardon and oblivion, I have not been able to see; but, so far as it pardons, it is a compliance with the recommendation of Congress under the treaty, and so far as it excepts persons out of the pardon, it is a refusal to comply with the recommendation, which it had a right to do. It does not appear that there has been any obstruction to the return of those persons who had claims to prosecute.
Sec. 13. Virginia.—The catalogue under examination, presents no act of this State subsequent to the treaty of peace, on the subject of confiscations. By one of October 18, 1784, they declared there should be no future confiscations. But they did not choose to comply with the recommendation of Congress, as to the restoration of property which had been already confiscated; with respect to persons, the first assembly which met after the peace, passed—
1783, October, The act prohibiting the migration of certain persons to this commonwealth, and for other purposes therein mentioned, which was afterwards amended by,