History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

Some time in the beginning of April, as "your Memorialist thinks, the people were invited to " meet at the White Plains to choose delegates for a "Provincial Congress. Many people there assembled "were averse from the measure. They, however, gave " no other opposition to the choice of delegates than " signing a Protest. This Protest your Memorialist "signed in company with two members of the assem- " bly, and above three hundred other people.' Your " Memorialist had not a thought of acting against the " liberties of America. He did not conceive it to be "a crime to support the measures of the representa- "tivcs of the people, measures which he then hoped "and eypected would have good effect by inducing a " change of conduct in regard to America. More "than eight months have now passed since your "Memorialist signed the Protest. If his crime was "of so atrocious a kind, why was he suffered to "remain so long unpunished? or why should he be " now singled out from more than three hundred, to "endure the unexampled punishment of captivity " and unlimited confinement?

" The other crime alleged against your Memorialist is " that he neglected to open his church on the day of the " Continental Fast. To this he begs leave to answer : "That he had no notice of the day appointed but " from common report : That he reci ived no order " relative to said day either from any Congress or " committee: That he cannot think himself guilty of " neglecting or disobeying an order of Congress, " which order was never signified to him in any way :