No further action, of any kind, concerning Independence, was taken by the Provincial Congress ; and, guided by the restricted authority expressed on its Credentials and by the Resolutions which are now under consideration, without having been told of the treacherous Agreement, the Delegation in the Conti' nental Congress continued to withhold the assent of New York to the Resolution of Independence, adopted by that body, on the second of July, and to the Declaration which it approved, two days afterwards.

During the very brief period of the existence of the third Provincial Congress, besides those general enactments in which its conservative farmers were more than ordinarily interested, Westchester-county was, sometimes, made the especial object of the

' Francit Lewis, Robert R. Livingstnn, John AUop. WUli-im Floyd, and Henry Wisner to Hon. Nnthauiel fToodhuU, President, etc., " PiliLAnEI.PIlIA, "17 .lime, 1776."

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

attentions of that body. An instance of that class of special doings may be seen in the Order which was made by the Provincial Congress, on the twenty-first of May, in these words: "Ordered, That Colonel '■ Ritzema send such prudent Officer as he shall think ' proper, to Westchester- county, to apply to the '■ Chairman of the County Committee and to the re- "spective Sub-committees, in that County, for such " good Arms, fit for soldiers' use, as they may have " collected by disarming disaffected persons, in that ." County; and the respective Committees are hereby " requested to deliver such of those Arms as are fit "for the Army, to such Officer, taking and preserving " his receipts for the same : that the said Committees, " respectively, take care that all such Arms be " appraised, and an account of the value of each kept " agreeable to the directions heretofore given for that "purpose ; and such Officer as Colonel Ritzema shall "send to collect those Arms is hereby directed to de- " liver all such Arms as he shall so receive, to Colonel " Curtenius, that they may be repaired, where it may " be necessary." *