Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution
1 Tlie official record of the votes of the several Members of the Assembly, of both factions of the party of the Opposition, as it may be seen in the Journal of the House, is one of the most curious and most unaccountable, within our knowledge.
and quite as boldly sustained the Home Government, in what it had done, as any open and avowed " friend of the Government " could have done, had one been present, -- a lesson of the highest importance to those who shall incline to ascertain the exact truth, concerning the origin of the American Revolution and the purposes of those who promoted it, within the Colony of New York, may be seen in the simple record of this single action of the Representative 8 of Colonial New York, in her General Assembly, in 1775.
On the day after these Resolutions had been adopted by the Assembly, [March 9th,] that body ordered the appointment of "a Committee to prepare and lay " before the House, with all convenient speed, the " Draft of an humble, firm, dutiful, and loyal Petition, " to be presented to our most Gracious Sovereign," pursuant to Colonel Peter R. Livingston's Motion on the thirty-first of the preceding January; and William Nicoll, of Suffolk-county, Leonard Van- Kleeck, of Duchess-county, and Isaac Wilkins, of the Borough of Westchester, were appointed the Committee for that purpose. During the same day, Crean Brush, from Cumberland-county, Colonel Benjamin Seaman, of Richmond-county, and Samuel Gale, of Orange-county, were appointed a Committee " to prepare the Draft of a Memorial to the Lords;" and Daniel Kissam, of Queens-county, and James De Lancey and Jacob Walton, of the City of New York, were appointed a Committee " to prepare the " Draft of a Representation and Remonstrance to the " Commons of Great Britain," both of them pursuant to the Resolution offered by James De Lancey, to which reference has been already made. 2 The House directed, also, that the Drafts of those several papers should be laid before it, " with all convenient "speed." 3