There were some w ho were smarting under the outrages which had been inflicted on them or on their friends, by local and other despots, of high or low degree ; and these were, sometimes, compelled to find refuge and protection w ithin the lines of the lioyal Army : and there was a float ing, vicious class, within the County, which the lawlessness of the revolutionary faction and the succeeding War had produced-- ready to enlist on that side which offered the greater inducements-- but the great body of the farmers was patient, law-abiding, peacefully inclined, stayers at home, industrious, and severely conservative.

THE AxMERICAN REV

;OJiUTiOi\, 1774-1783.

of 1774-75 and early in the Spring of the latter year, there was considerable activity, among the farnn.ers on that particular ^lanor, in opposition to the revolutionary spirit which was seeking to force itself on them. All Association, referred to in the Note 2, on page 42, ante, had been prepared and numerously .signed in Duchess-county ; and co])ics of it had been also circulated and signed within Westchestercounty, especially within the Manor of Cortlandt, which adjoined the Duchess-county of that period ; ' and, about the same time, an Address, accompanied with an Association adapted to that particular locality, was prepared and widely circulated ; and the Association was numerously signed. That very interesting and very important ^rf(^?rss and the Association which accompanied it, -- the latter, generally known, among those who favored the revolutionary faction^ as " Thr Loya/ist's Test" -- because they form very important specimens of tlie literature of revolutionary Westchester-county, and because of their importance as reliable authorities for the guidance of the student of the liistory of that County, during that eventful period, may properly find a jdace in ihis narrative; and we have carefully copied them from Rivinfjtons New-York Gazetteer, No. 96, New-York, Thursday, February 16, 1775.