This being my real situation, I must request the favour of you to excuse my attendance to-morrow ; but you may rest assured, Gentlemen, that I shall punctually attend, as soon as I can, consistent with my health, flattering myself, in the meantime, that, upon further consideration, you will think that my being a friend to the rights and interests of my native country is a fact so strongly implied as to require no evidence on my part to prove it, until something more substantial than mere suspicion or vague surmises is proved to the contrary. I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant, Frederick Philipse. To Leonard Gansevoort, Philip Livingston, Thomas Tredwell, Lewis Graham, Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Randall, Esquires.

The terms of this letter, considered apart from Philipse's specific excuse for declining to attend, are entertaining to a degree. Summoned by a Revolutionary tribunal to appear before it and answer the accusation of hostility to American liberty, he recognizes in the situation which confronts him no circumstance of gravity. He delays his reply until the day before the lime appointed for his attendance, and the peremptory command sent to him lr\ the committee he alludes to as " a paper ... in which you suggest that you are authorized," etc. A naive interpretation, indeed, of a stern Revolu-

FROM

JANUARY,

1775,

JULY

9, 177G

tionary summons. Finally, he dismisses the inconvenient matter by flattering himself that the committee really will not require his presence at all. The lord of Philipseburgh Manor deemed himself well within the bounds of political sagacity in treating the committee with such exact though courteous reserve. The overpowering fleet and army of Great Britain had just arrived, the provincial congress was scurrying out of New York ( V.y, and, indeed, if Frederick Philipse had been so obliging as to journey to the city on that 3d of July conformably to the " suggestion " which had been conveyed to him, he would have found no committee there to interrogate him.