However, it was
legally his property at the time of the adoption of the Constitution
of the United States, and so it was not confiscated. It probably is
safe to assume that Mr. Andrew Elliott still remained the power behind
the throne, and benefited by the subsequent sale of the land to Capt.
Robert Richard Randall.
Which brings us to a most picturesque page of New York history.
I wonder what there is about privateering that attracts even the most
law-abiding imagination. This ancient, more than half dishonourable,
profession has an unholy glamour about it and there are few
respectable callings that so appeal to the colour-loving fancy. Not
that privateering was quite the same as piracy, but it came so close a
second that the honest rogues who plied the two trades must often have
been in danger of getting their perquisites and obligations somewhat
merged. It would have taken a very sharp judicial mind, or a
singularly stout personal conscience, to make the distinctions between
them in sundry and fairly numerous cases.
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