f
Safety by a resolution of the Provincial Convention of 1776, then
meeting in Philadelphia to draw up a new constitution for Pennsylvania.
It was continued by an act of the assembly that same year. It functioned
from July 24, 1776, until it was dissolved on December 6, 1777, by a
proclamation of the Supreme Executive Council.[49] Locally, however,
the township branches continued to function and were still referred to
as "committees."

It appears from the resolutions and actions of the local committee that
the Fair Play men maintained jurisdiction in land questions, but that
all other cases were within the range of the committee's authority. In
fact, a resolution dated February 27, 1776, asserted that "the committee
of Bald Eagle is the most competent judges of the circumstances of the
people of that township."[50] This resolution was made in conjunction
with an order from the county committee to prevent the loss of rye and
other grains which were being "carried out of the township for
stilling."[51] Although cautioned against "using too much rigor in their
measures," the committee was advised to find "a medium between seizing
of property and supplying the wants of the poor."[52] The county
committee even went so far as to recommend the suppression of such
practices as "profaning the Sabbath in an unchristian and scandalous
manner."[53] In April of 1777, the county committee required an oath of
allegiance from one William Reed, who had refused military service for
reasons of conscience.[54]

Although Bald Eagle Township did not, at this time, extend into Fair
Play territory,[55] it is interesting to note that the local committee,
whose three members frequently changed, often included settlers from
that territory or those who were in close association with the Fair Play
men.[56] The Revolution apparently gave a certain quasi-legality to the
claims of the "outlaws" of the West Branch Valley.

One further political note is worthy of mention. After Lexington and
Concord and the formation of the various committees of safety, the
civil officers of Bald Eagle Township, that is to say the constable,
supervisor, and overseers, were often chosen from among settlers on the
borders of, or actually in, Fair Play territory.[57]

The politics of fair play then was nothing more than that--fair play. It
was a pragmatic system which the necessities of the frontier experience,
more than national or ethnic origin, had developed. The "c