It is an emphatic protest against the agitation of the period, as follows: We, the subscribers, Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Town of Rye, in the Comity of Westchester, being much concerned with the unhappy situation of public affairs, think it onr Duty to our King and Country, to Declare that we have not been concerned in any Resolutions entered into or measures taken, with regard to the Disputes at present subsisting with the Mother Country ; we also testify our dislike to many hot and furious Proceedings, in consequence of said Disputes, which we think are more likely to ruin this once happy Country, than remove Grievances, if any there are. We also declare our great Desire and full Resolution to live and die peaceable Subjects to our Gracious Sovereign, King George the Third, and his Laws.

Then follow eighty-three signatures, headed by Isaac Gidney. Evidently some local pressure hostile to the Thomas interest was brought to bear upon the conservative element of the Rye people; and evidently, also, not a few of the signers had been overpersuaded, for in Rivington's next issue appears a humble disclaimer, signed by fifteen of them, who say that, after mature deliberation, they are fully convinced that in indorsing the former paper they " acted preposterously and without properly adverting to the matter in dispute," and " do utterly disclaim every part thereof, except our expressions of Loyalty to the King and Obedience to the Constitutional Laws of the Realm." A " Weaver in Harrison's Purchase" writes to Holt's New York Journal of December 22, 1774, combating the sophisms of the Tory pamphleteer, "A. W. Farmer"; and letters from correspondents in Cortlandt Manor, representing both sides, appear in Rivington's Gazetteer and Gaines's New York Gazette during the early months of 1775.