A History of the County of Westchester, Vol. I
In this council he was urged and pressed to execute the sentence immediately !'' Sloughter is said to have been unwilling. Was he not fearful ? The historian Ebeling, says," when every thing else failed, he (Sloughter) was made drunk, and the execution took place May 17th. Every tiling proves that Leisler was cpndeinned unlawfully, and executed unjustly. Afterwards the act of attainder was reversed ; this was done at the instance of young Leisler,"'iJ and the Huguenots,c " Governcur, and all the others except Mi I bourne were released."
It has been the policy (continues Dunlap) of men of all a^es tG preserve the memory of the founders of the nation tliey claimed as their own. It serves to perpetuate nations. Rome, the eternal, bears the name of its reputed founder. The founder of the democracy of New York, was Jacob Leisler: and New York is now an empire founded on democracy. The line that says, "an honest man is the noblest work of God," has been received as a
» la the possession of E. N. Boeby, Esq., of Youkers, Westchester County, is a gold piece, of the time of James II., said to have been in the possession of the unfortunate Leisler, the night preceding iiis execution. Around the edge is the following inscription, cut with the penknife of Leisler.
" Remember well and hear in mynd, a faithful friend is hard to find.''
b Dunlap's Hist. N. Y. vol. i. 210.
c A petition in favor of reversing Leister's attainder was signed by the Huguenots of New Rochelle. -- Editor.