Home / Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. / Passage

History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. 380 words

By the direct action of the body of the inhabitants of the City, thus duly called, and assembled at the Coffee-house, for that specific purjiose, all the discordant elements of the party of the Opposition to the Home Government, in New York, were seemingly consolidated and placed under the leadership of the Committee of Fifty-one, which was, then and there, appointed for that ostensible purpose ; and those who had taken alarm at the growing audacity of those who were assuming to be the leaders of the unfranchised masses, were gratified with ample evidence of the fact that the well-considered " art" which those who had planned the Caucus at Sam. Francis's and the Meeting at the Coffee-house had employed, in order to check the rising pretensions and power of the working, revolutionary multitude, in political affairs, had been crowned with an abundant success. There had been, indeed, a display of wise caution and great tact, as well as of well-concealed duplicity, in all which had been done by those aristocratic, conservative politi-

" Ijiberty,'" " convoke the inliabitants of their City " to the Caucus at Sam. Francis's, although it H a.< calk'd by their aristocratic and conservative rivals in the party of the Opposition, and nitliout any consultation with that Committee, if there was one, or with tliose who were in harmony with it. Ho said, also, " tlie Motion prevailed to supersede the " old Committee of Corrcppondence by a new one of fifty ;" although neither of the three Resolutions of the Caucus contained the slightest allusion to any such supersedure, nor to any other Comnu'ttee or body or person whatever than to the proposed Committee of fifty, which it nominated. lie said of the Meeting at the CofTee-honse, "and the nom- " ination of the Committee wasaccepted, even w ilh the aildition of Isaac "Low as its Chairman, who was more of a loyalist than a patriot;" although, in fact, Isaac Low's name was on the list which had been nominated at the Caucus, against which no opposition was made ; and the only " addition " which was made by the .Meeting was that of Francis Lewis, whose name had been indmled on the original list of the minority, and rejected by the Caucus.