In all that had previously been said or done, in behalf of the Colony, in its dispute with the Home Government, not a Morris had been heard, except in that instance when one of them described the unfranchised masses of the Colonists as " poor reptiles" {vide Page 188, ante); but the fragrance of the distant emoluments and influences of office, more fully developed than ever before, had passed over from the City into Westchester-county ; and, reasonably enough to all who knew of the greed for office which every Morris of every period had possessed, both Lewis and Gouverneur, to say nothing of others, were no longer torpid and indifferent.

2 Subsequently distinguished as Loyalists.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

in that selection, having been left to hiiu by whom the Caucus had evidently been controlled -- and having, in behalf of somebody else more than in behalf of the body of the County, thus put the political machinery in motion, satisfactorily to themselves and to their chief, the twelve gentleman waded through the 8pring-tiinc mud, back, to their respective homes.

The "Notification" to which reference has been made, that which the Caucus authorized to be sent to the elect, among the Freeholders of the County, was in these words :

"March 28th, 1775.

'• Sir :

"A number of gentlemen from different districts in " the county of Westchester having this day met at " the White Plains to Consider of the most proper " method of taking the Sense of the Freeholders, of " the Said County, upon the Expediency of choosing " Dei)uties to meet the Deputies of the other Coun- " ties, for the purpose of Electing delegates to repre- " sent this Colony in the General Congress to be held " at Philadelphia on the 10th of May next, are of " opinion that the best way of proceeding for that " purpose, will be to have a general Meeting of the " Freeholders of the Said County.