The County of j Westchester, in her rural contentment, as has been seen in other portions of this narrative, had contin- j ued, during the entire period of that earlier revolutionary era, in the City of New York, to enjoy peace and good-will among her inhabitants ; but the Meeting at the White Plains, on the eleventh of April,

I Pnctedingt of tha Committee of One hundred, .\(^ourned Meetiog, May 3, 1775 ; Leakt:*s 2demoir of General John Lamb, 103 ; etc.

and the military Expedition to Concord, on the nineteenth of that month, with their respective trains of discord and malevolence, appear to have rapidly disturbed that ([uiet and neighborly feeling which had previously prevailed, and to have originated that reign of terror, throughout that County, which, subsequently, distinguished it so highly in the annals of partisan strife. History has recorded two notable instances of that rapidly develoi)ed, so called, " pub- '"lic opinion," among the new-born and, consecjuently, unnaturally zealous "fire-eaters" of that ancient and orderly County ; and they may properly find attention, at this time, not only as portions of the history of Westchester-county, during the era of the American Revolution, but as instances of the dangers which attend an unchecked zeal, even when exercised in behalf of what may be regarded as purely commendable purposes.

The first of these acts of terrorism, exercised by the rampant revolutionary elements in Westchestercounty, was that in the case of Jonathan Fowler and George Cornwell, two respectable residents of the County, both of whom had signed the Declaraiion and Protest, at the White Plains, on the eleventh of April, as well as the Eesolves which were referred to, in that Declaration and Protest, both of whom were compelled by that, so called, " public opinion," to publish a recantation of their evidently well-considered political opinions, which was done in the following words, carefully copied from the original publication, in Gaine's New- York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, No. 1229, New- York, Monday, May 1, 1775: