In the historic assembly of 1775, when the issues for and against aggressive resistance to England were sharply drawn, Westchester County's representatives were Van Cortlandt, Thomas, Philipse, and Wilkins. It is thus seen that, as concerns representation in the assembly, the opposing parties of liberty and loyalty were exactly balanced in this county. On the one side were Pierre Van Cortlandt ami Judge Thomas; on the other, Frederick Philipse and Isaac Wilkins. Philipse, of course, had at his back the whole of his great manor. Wilkins really represented the de Lancey interest, which controlled the Bor-

HISTORY

WESTC1IKSTKK

COUNTY

eugh of Westchester, where also a Tory mayor, Nathaniel Underbill, grandson of the " redoubtable " Captain John, presided. Against this powerful conservative combination stood the Morrises in the extreme southern part of the county, Judge Thomas, representing no landed estates but the simple yeomanry of Rye, Harrison's Purchase, and the central sections, and Pierre Van Cortlandt, the bead of the great Van Cortlandt family. The popular side, therefore, comprised diverse elements. The Morrises were known chiefly as an aggressive political family, with a well-defined following, but hardly adapted to attract the normally conservative or as yet undecided classes. Thomas represented a constituency of sturdy settlers, mostly of New England antecedents and largely belonging to zealous religious sects. Van Cortlandt was in all respects a match for Philipse and the de Lanceys, to whatever elevation of ISAAC WILKIN!: dignity or social importance they pretended; and it was his personality which gj to the Revolutionary movement in Westchester County a far different aspect than that of a mere propaganda of agitators. His support of the cause stamped it necessarily as one demanding Hie most respectful consideration of honest and intelligent men; for it was beyond question that his attachment to it was wholly due to a conception of its singular righteousness and of his high duty.