The Colonial Government was decidedly and peculiarly opposed to the adoption of any measure, either by the people or the Congress, which would possibly disturb the Trade and Commerce of Great Britain ; and James Duane, a dependent on that Government, was not at liberty to sign such a letter, approving the establishment of a Non-Importation Agreement, as that which his four associates on the aristocratic ticket, thus smeared with corruption, had signed, even if the consequence had been a sacrifice

8 The fourth Besolution or "Rule of Conduct to be observed," etc., is in these words : " Resolved : That the Doors be kept shut during the Time "of Business; and that the Members consider themselves under the "strongest Obligations of Honour to keep the Proceedings secret, until "the Majority shall direct them to be made Publick." -- (Journal of the Congress, "Tuesday, September 6th, 1774, ten o'clock, A M."J

i Tlie Despatch of Lieutenant-governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmoulh dated, "NbwToek, December 7th, 1774," in which the Home Government was informed of these dishonorable revelations of the action of the Congress, is too extended to be copied into this Note. The reader is consequently referred to it.

5 A carefully prepared fac-6imile of the last sheet of that Association, which contained the signatures of the several Delegations-- those of James Duane and Joseph Galloway being among them-- may be seen in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., opposite folios 915, 916.

WESTCHESTEE COUNTY.

of that opportunity to obtain, for himself, a seat in that Congress, a contingency which the Colonial Government was, probably, quite as anxious to avoid, and one which was evidently guarded against by means which were entirely effective. James Duane was not among those who were suddenly converted, in order to ensure their success at the Polls; but, nevertheless, on the day after the disgraceful political somersault of Philip Livingston, Isaac Low, John Alsop, and John Jay had been declared satisfactory by their plebeian and revolutionary auditory, that eminent adherent to the original policy of the Committee of Correspondence, as well as those who had so ignominiously abandoned it, was elected, at the Polls, by the unanimous vote of "thelnhabitants," x affording an example, in political engineering, which has been too often followed, at the expense of individual integrity and of the good of the country, from that time until the present.