History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900
In earlier times the name "Presbyterians" was generic for all who were not of the "Court" party-- that is, for all who arrayed themselves politically against the " Episcopalian," or arrogant ruling, class-- the Church of England having been the institution of those who cherished peculiarly their British breeding and antecedents, holding themselves as a superior society amid a mixed citizenship of colonials, ami, consistently with such pretensions, forming an always reliable prop for the crown and the crown's officers. To be a " Presbyterian " in the political meaning of the word in New York at that early period was to be identified with the factious populace, the populace of Smith and Alexander, Chief Justice Morris and Peter Zenger, al-
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though that populace was far too respectably led for the designation ever to have been one of derision. Later, the part}* names Whig and Tory came into vogue. At the time when Governor Golden made the above quoted analysis of popular sentiment in the province the Presbyterian religious sect, like every other non-conformist English-speaking denomination, was almost solidly against British oppression, with only here and there an influential opponent of the popular cause. Nor did the defenders of the crown at all hazards make up in relative influence and ability what thev lacked so distressing! v in numbers. With all their boasts of superiority, the Tories of New York have left few names remarkable for anything more meritorious than proud faithfulness to the British monarchy, which faithfulness, moreover -- as, for example, in the lamentable case of our Frederick Philipse, -- was p r o m p t e d quite as often by miscalculating conceptions of the chances of the war as by nervous scorn for sordid selfinterest. On the other hand, the contributions made by X«-w York to the roll of Revolutionary patriots of the more eminent order are impressively numerous.