I see among you many venerable and aged men who bore a part in the struggle, and shared in the hardships, anxieties, dangers and sufferings of those dismal times. I see at the head of these, a faithful and gallant officer, still happily and honorably surviving to enjoy that invaluable freedom which his own efforts contributed to secure.*1 I see, too, among them one who was himself a companion and sharer in the virtuous act by which these imminent dangers were averted.6

If you wish for the story of this high achievement of honest, unpretending

a General Philip van Cortland!. b Isaac van Wart.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

patriotism, ask it of him. He will tell it in such a way, as shall neither wrong the living or the dead. He will tell you of the capture of Andre, who from a spy, was elevated by a false estimate and a mistaken sympathy, into a hero and a martyr -- of the temptations which had corrupted the second man in the nation's estimation, being rejected by the sons of the farmers of Westchester -- of the delivery of the spy into the hands of the great good man of the age -- of modern times - of all times whatever, and of their receiving his glorious approbation-- of the applauses of the nation -- and the thanks of that most illustrious body, the old Congress of the United States -- the noblest reward which was ever bestowed on a private citizen. Lastly, my friends, he will tell you what a source of honest pride -- of heart-felt pleasure -- of unutterable happiness has been to him, and will be to the last hour of his life, the reflection that he did his duty to his country in her hour of peril.