What must have been tlie consternation in the lower towns as, in May, 1765, five hundred men -- country levelers they are called -- at first reported to be two thousand strong, marched down to Kingsbridge, and sent into town the threat to Mr. Van Cort- ' land, that unless he would give them a grant forever of h\< lands, they would enter the city and pull down his house, and also one belonging to Mr. Lambert Moore.'

The arrest and condemnation of the ringleaders in these disturbances were satisfying and quieting, but it is not reasonable to suppose that they would allay the apprehension that like outrages would follow should there be a breach with the mother-country.

A glance at the action of the four Westchester representatives at this time of excitement would seem to show at first entire accord with their fellow-members in the Assembly, in their regret at the Stamp and Tariff' Acts, in their assertion of the right of the Colonial Assembly of each province exclusively to impose taxes upon its inhabitants, in the lawfulness of intercommunication between the Legislatures of the several colonies and of united petitions to the King " in favor of the violated rights of America." '^

liut the journal of the House in March, 1775, evidences the differences that had developed.

In the i)rei)aration of an address to the King, Mr. Clinton (afterward Governor George Clinton), the Assembly having before it for approval the words, " AV^e, in many instances, disapprove of the conduct of that province (Massachusetts)," moved to substitute in place of them the following strong assertion: "The ill-policied schenie of colonial administration pursued by your Majesty's ministers since the close of the late war has been productive of great warmth in every part of your empire, nor can we avoid declaring that we view those acts with that jealousy which is the necessary result of a just sense of the blessings of freedom, and abhor the })rinciples they contain as establishing precedents subversive of the rights, privileges and proi)erty, and dangerous to the lives of your Majesty's American subjects." Mr.