1 The reader of the two preceding paragrajjhs, in which the captive responded to the first and fourth of tlie charges which his cajilors had presented against liim, cannot fail to find evidence, of the higliest character, that, in his political opinions, Samuel Seabury was, at that time, as he had previously been, in exact accord with Isaac Wilkins and Frederic Philipso, also of W'estchester-county ; and that he was and had been in accord with the great body of Americans, believing and maintaining that the Home Government had invaded the personal and political rights of the Colonists ; that the latter had just reason for complaints and opposition to the Colonial and Tlome Governments, because of those grievances ; that the Colonists were justified in their opposition to those obnoxious measures and to those who enacted and promoted the execution of them, as far as that opposition involved no violation ot the Rights of Persons or Properties nor of the Laws of the Land ; and that the Continental Congress of 1774, until it pasised beyond the prescribed limits of its authority, as that authority had been specifically defined by its constituent Colonies, and until it assumed the unwarranted authority of legislation, thereby closing the open door of reconciliation with the Mother Country, for the [iromotion of which it had been expressly and solely constituted, was worthy of the respect and supi)oit which were given to it, by nearly every one, in the Colony. In common with the great body of the Colonists, throughout the entire seaboard, he was sincere in his convictions that the Colonies were suffering from the wrongs which had been inflicted on them by the Mother Country ; and he was willing to resort to all lawful means for their relief. But when the entire machinery of the party of the Opposition was seized by those who only cared for the offices which they could secure and for the promotion of only a factional struggle for tlie control of the political power of the Colony, he i>referred to remain among the conservatives, and to act, if