1 See page 52, ante.

2 Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for the City and County of New York, at its Adjourned Meeting, February 27, 1775.

^'Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for the City and County oLJfew York, at its Adjourned Meeting, 1st March, 1775. /^Jlolt's Jfejf -York Journal, No. 1678, New- York, Thursday, March 2,

purpose of joining issue with the latter, at the proposed Meeting, on the questions which had thus been referred only to those who were either Freeholders or Freemen of the City, in whom, alone, the right of the elective franchise was, then, legally vested. 5

An unusual excitement appears to have been aroused by the placards with which the walls and the fences throughout the City were covered, 6 and by the impassioned appeals with which the newspapers were filled ; and the morning of the sixth of March opened with many appearances which betokened the approach of a serious conflict between the rival factions. As early as nine o'clock, the revolutionary faction, strengthened by many who were neither Freeholders nor Freemen, began to assemble around the Libertypole,' on which a large Union Flag had been raised, at an early hour; and, at eleven o'clock, preceded by a Band of Music and a large Union Flag, it moved, by a circuitous route, toward the appointed place of meeting, picking up, as it went, such a motley crowd of "boys, sailors, negroes, and New England and "New- Jersey boatmen" as a noisy Band and continuous invitations to " fall in," which have alwaysbeen incidental to partisan political processions, could not have failed to secure. The conservative faction, strengthened by " some Officers of the Army- "and Navy, several of His Majesty's Council, and "those Members of the House of Representatives " who had refused taking into consideration the Pro- " ceedings of the Congress, together with the Officers- " of the Customs and other Dependents of the Court, " &c." -- the Governmental Party, as far as there was one, having evidently united with the conservative faction of the party of the Opposition, on that occasion -- assembled at the Widow De La Montagnie's, at ten o'clock ; and that, also, moved, quietly, in a procession, to the Exchange, in season to take part in, the proceedings of the proposed Meeting.