An Account of the State Prison Or Penitentiary House, in the City of New-York

He offered land and money to those colonials willing either to join the British forces or to work as spies in a contested area along the Hudson River, providing information on American activities. American counterintelligence efforts against these Tory operations were conducted under the auspices of the "New York State Committee and Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies," which Jay headed until mid-February 1777. While in this post, he conducted hundreds of counterintelligence investigations, arrests, and trials. Most of the suspects were influential businessmen and political figures with longstanding ties to the Crown. Jay also stationed prison ships on the Hudson River to house the more dangerous of the loyalists arrested by American forces. The "Committee and Commission" investigated, tried, and sentenced suspects outside the established legal system. In May 1777 Jay proposed that civilian courts be established to handle cases of treason, insurrection, and violation of oaths of allegiance. He maintained that such courts would conduct more objective investigations and trials than those that had prevailed under the "Committee and Commission." Subsequently, however, American military courts gradually took over the judicial process for such cases ...»