Home / Bolton, Robert Jr. A History of the County of Westchester, from its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. II. New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848. / Passage

A History of the County of Westchester, Vol. II

Bolton, Robert Jr. A History of the County of Westchester, from its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. II. New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848. 257 words

Speaker, nothing more to add, than that, if contrary to my hopes and my most ardent wishes ; if, contrary to the honor and dignity of this house; if, contrary to the dictates of humanity, and to the duty which we owe to our constituents and our country, you adopt the unjust and destructive measures of the congress, and by that means, involve our country in a civil war, the most dreadful calamity that can befall a people, I hereby declare my honest indignation to that measure, and now call Heaven and the house to witness, that I am guiltless of the blood of my fellow subjects that will be shed upon the occasion. I am guiltless of the ruin of my country.

" Mr. AVilkins's zeal and extreme loyalty, rendered him very obnoxious to the whigs. Besides his prominent position in tlte Assembly, he gave utterance to his thoughts, in essays. It is a singular circumstance, that the youthful Hamilton, who was also born in llie AVest Indies, undertook the task of replying to two of his poetical effusions. One of these, The Congress Canvassed, &c., which was signed, A. W. Farmer, was extensively circulated, and with that called, A View of the Controversy between Great Britain and Iier Colonies," was burnt, " whenever they fell into the hands of those whose measures they criticised and condemned."

"A few months after the delivery of this speech, he abandoned the country and went to England. At the moment of his departure he issued the following address :