The day appointed for the organization of the new Provincial Congress was the fourteenth of November; but, on that day, there was not even a respectable minority of the Delegates present, which may well be considered as indicative of the coolnes-* with which the Rebellion was regarded by the great body of the Colonists, in New York, even at that early period; and of how little warrant there had been, in fact, for the outrages which had been committed by the preceding Congress and by its Committees, in their name.
Day by day, the handful of punctual Delegates met and adjourned. They amused themselves by dictating letters to the Committees of the faltering Counties, urging the attendance of their several Delegations, " in order that the business of the great cause " we are engaged in may be no longer delayed or " neglected." * Threats were made, in some instances, that " the Continental Congress'' might " find " it necessary, for the public service and for the want of "a Congress, to put the Colony under a Military " Government, directed by a Major-General and an " Army, and that at the sole expense of this Colony," adding that " many Gentlemen present are apprehen- " sive " that such " would be the consequence if a Con- "gress [were] not speedily formed, so as to proceed to "business," etc.* On the first of December, tlieCommittee of Orange-county was asked -- the second request of the kind -- "that you will not delay sending down your "members by next Monday morning, that the public " business may no longer suffer for the want of a repre- " sentation of your County; for such is the perilous ," state of America, and this Colony in particular, that