Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution
" B. E."
No further attempt to answer this Address nor to
counteract the effects of the Association appears to
have been made until late in the Spring, a long time
-after the farmers throughout the Manor had commenced their work of ploughing and sowing and planting, when the following letter, signed by "An " Inhabitant," was published in Gaine's New- York Gazette: or the Weekly Mercury, No. 1236, New- York, Monday, June 19, 1775.
" to the inhabitants of the manor of cort* " landt, New- York.
" Manor of Cortlandt, May 19, 1775. "Gentlemen :
" The dangerous innovations and in- " fringements attempted by certain mercenary Min- " isterial tools and infamous traitors (in this Manor) " to their Country, who assume to themselves the " name of Loyalists, on the liberties of their fellow* " subjects, have greatly alarmed the impartial friends " of Liberty herein. A fool, says an author, "has "great need of title; it teaches men to call him "Count and Duke, and to forget his proper name of " Fool.
" In a day when American pulse beats high for " Liberty ; when it is the subject of almost every " public paper, as well as topic of discourse, it might "justly have been expected that no American would " be so hardy as to violate the rights of his fellow- " subjects ; and if any such monster should appear " in 'this land of Liberty, that there would not be " wanting advocates for so glorious and important a "cause, as to expose those of its members who are " trampling on the sacred rights of the people.