History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

'• B. E."

No further attempt to answer this Address nor to counteract the effects of the Association appears to have been made until late in the Spring, a long time after the farmers throughout the Manor had com-

,menced their work of ploughing and sowing and planting, when the following letter, signed by "An "Inhabitant," was published in Gaine's New-York Gazette: or the Weekly Mercuri/, No. 1236, New- York, Monday, June 19, 1775.

" To THE INHABITANTS OF THE MANOR OF CORT-

" LANDT, New- York.

" Manor of Cortlandt, May 19, 1775. " Gentlemen :

" The dangerous innovations and iu- " fringements attempted by certain mercenary Min- "isterial tools and infamous traitors (in this Manor) " to their Country, who assume to themselves the " name of Loyalists, on the liberties of their fellow- " subjects, have greatly alarmed the impartial friends " of Liberty herein. A fool, says an author, has "great need of title; it teaches men to call him "Count and Duke, and to forget his proper name of " Fool.

" In a day when American pulse beats high for " Liberty ; when it is the subject of almost every " public [laper, as well as topic of discourse, it might "justly have been expected that no American would " be so hardy as to violate the rights of his fellow- " subjects ; and if any such monster should ai)pear " in this land of Liberty, that there would not be " wanting advocates for so glorious and important a "cause, as to expose those of its members who are " trampling on the sacred rights of the people.