There was more than a suspicion that this had been done deliberately, though insidiously, in 1774, when Frederick Philipse, the head and front of the conservatives, had been chosen chairman of the county convention, and that representative body, the first of its kind to meet in the county, had adjourned without adopting any aggressive resolutions or appointing a committee of correspondence to co-operate with the one in the city, or making any provision for the calling and assembling of future conventions of the county. With the issues now more closely drawn by the unfriendly

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

attitude of the provincial assembly, it was certain that Philipse, Wilkins, the de Lanceys, and their friends would assume to again control the course of Westchester County and to keep it well within the former moderate bounds. Principally through the efforts of Colonel Morris, a temporary committee or caucus for the county was improvised, which on the 28th of March met at White Plains " for the purpose of devising means for taking the sense of the county ,? relative to the appointment of delegates to the proposed provincial convention. There were present Colo n e 1 Lewis Morris, T h o m as Hun t, and Abraham Leggett, of Westchester; Theodosius Bartow, J a m e s Willis, and Abraham Guion, of New Rochelle; W i 1 1 i a m Sutton, of Mamaroneck; Captain Joseph Drake, Benjam in D r a k e, Moses Drake, and Stephen Ward, of Eastchester; and James Horton, Jr., of Rye. A call was issued for a general meeting of freeholders of the county, to be held in the court house at White Plains on Tuesday, the 11th of April, a n d communications were sent to represenTHE TIII1!I> KKFbKRIt'K I'll I LII'SK. tative persons in every locality, requesting them to give notice to all the freeholders, without exception, " as those who do not appear and vote on that day will be presumed to acquiesce in the sentiment of the majority of those who vote." Because of the well-known radical views of Colonel Morris and most of his associates, this action at once became a subject of general discussion, causing much disquietude to the opposing faction.