1 teller to the Committee of Orange-couiily, " New-Tobk, December let, "1775."

^ Letter from Paul Micheaa to Robert Benson, " Richmond-coixtv, Do- "cembcrlst, 1775."

3 "The evil couscquuncea tliat will attend the not having a Provincial "Congress to determine on the measures necessiiry to be adopted and "carried into execution, at this unhappy crisis, are more easily con- "ceivedthan e.xpressed ; and rest assured, Geullemen, that the neigh "bouring I'olouies will not remain inactive spectators, if you show a " disposition to depart from the Continental I'uiou. Confusion and dis- " order, w ith numberless other evils, you must suppose, will atteud the " want of a Congress for the goverunient of this Colony, until a recon- "ciliation with the Mother Country can be obtained," (Letter to the (^mmillee of Uklimimd-couiilij, " Xkw-Yokk, 2d Dec. 1775.")

* It is very well known that the Jlorrises were zealous loyalists, in Europe as well as in .\merica, until the family lost its hold on the Colonial Government, by the removal of the elder Lewis, from the office of Chief Justice of the Colony. The appointment of Thonuis Hutchinson to the Bench, to which James Otis, the elder, aspired, transferred the weight and influence of the Otis family from the side of the Government to the leadership of the Opposition, in Massachusetts. Israel Putnam was too highly appraised for the Royal shambles, and so remained in the market, until, on the demand of the Livingstons, he was placed where he could do no further harm. The greater success of Benjamiu Pratt, of Boston, and, subsequently, that of Daniel Ilorsmauden, in the race for the place of Chief Justice of the Colony of New York, when James De Lancey died, added fresh bitterness to the Morrises, in the disappointment of Robert Uunter Morris ; and the disappointment of William Smith, on the same occasion, threw the Smiths into the front rank of the malcontents, in New York.