Whatever may have been their standing in the social scale of aristocracy, but for the co-operation of those who constituted the so calleil, " Society of Mechanics in Union," there would have been no place for either James Duane or John Jay in the Continental Congress of 1774 or in that similar Congress which succeeded it ; and without their assent and approval, corruptly secured, in every instance except one, the members of the Delegation to the first-named of those Congresses, if not those to both, had lived in fretful obscurity, and have died as their respective ancestors had died, " unwept, unhonored, and " unsung." There was a fitness, therefore, in the alarm of these Workingmen of the City of New York, because of the contemptuous disregard of their political Rights, by those, of the Provincial Congress, who were only the creatures of their plebeian will and the administrators of their inherent authority. The Addiess of the Society, which those workingmen subsequently presented to the I'rovincial Congress, on that subject, a master-piece of political reasoning, has been preserved iu the archives of the State, and will be referred to hereaftei-.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

"Liberty," and from whom has proceeded that excellent body, still existing, which is distinguished by the title of "The General Society of Mechanics and "Tradesmen of the City of New York"-- presented an Address to the Provincial Congress, on the subject of Independence.

The signers of that Address, the first movement concerning Independence in the Provincial Congress, stated that they were devoted friends to their bleeding country; that they were afllicted by beholding her struggling under heavy loads of oppression and tyranny, and the more so, when they viewed the iron hand lifted up against her; that their Prince was deaf to PetUiom for interposing his Royal authority for redressing their grievances; that one year had not sufficed to satisfy the rage of a cruel Ministry, in their bloody pursuits designed to reduce them to be slaves taxed by them, without their consent; that, therefore, they rather wished to separate from, than to continue connected with, such oppressors; and they declared that if the Provincial Congress should think proper to instruct their Delegates in the Continental Congress to use their utmost endeavors, in that august assembly, to cause these United Colonies to become independent of Great Britain, it would give them the highest satisfaction ; and they sincerely promised to support the same with their lives and fortunes.'