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. 337 words

About the same time that this letter appeared, there was a movement, in the vicinity of the White Plains, to obtain a nominal approval, if no more, of the action, the revolutionary action, of the Committee of the City of New York ; but if what was said of the result of the effort by those who were opposed to the movement, without contradiction, may be believed, only " three or four persons in the White Plains " participated in it; and, practically, it was a failure.

Very soon after the end of the movement referred to, however, there was a counter-movement, in the same vicinity, in which a Declaration was circulated and signed by the Freeholders and principal Inhabitants, in which the conservatism of those who signed it was distinctly asserted. As a part of the earlier literature of the Revolution, in Westchester-county, we have thought that Declaration possesses sufficient of interest to entitle it to a place in this narrative. It was in these words, very carefully copied from the original publication, in Rivington's Xew-York Gazetteer, No. 91, Nem'-York, Thursday, January 12, 1775 :

"To the PRINTER.

"Sir,

"TTTE the subscribers, freeholders and inhabit- VV " ants in the White Plains, in the county " of Westchester, think it our duty to our King and "country, to declare, that we have never given our " consent to any Resolves touching the disputes with " the mother country, nor are we any ways concerned " in any measures entered into relative to them. We " are rather induced to do this, because we under- " stand, that three or four persons in the White "Plains, have taken \\\im\ them to declare to the "Committee at New-York, the consent of the "inhabitants of the White Plains to the resolutions " entered into, in New-York, and their acquiescence " with the measures taken there ; when the major " part of the few people who attended the meeting, " did not choose to be concerned in the matter.