It will be evident to the reader that, until the appointment of the "Committee for the County of West- " Chester," by the Meeting which was held at the White Plains, on the eighth of May, 1775, as has been already stated, there had not been even the slightest appearance of any central organization, for political purposes, within the County ; that, until they were crowded into the political arena, by the place-seekers who were among them, the hardworking farmers throughout the County had not permitted the political questions of the day to disturb their peacelul labors ; and that the place-hunting few, as insignificant in numbers as they were in honest patriotism,

apparent reason) appended to the Journal of the Provincial Convention, which Convention had adjourned a week before the Association was written and before it was known that any reason for such an Association wub imminent. In de Lancey's Notes to Jones's History of New-York during the Revolutionary War, i., 505, 506, it has been again re-printed, this time from the inaccurate re-print just referred to, and, of course, with its imperfections, together with a more serious omission than any which that had presented.

Judge Jones, in his History of New York, i,, 41-45, gave a very interesting account of the Association and of the signing of it, warmly tinted, of course, with his peculiar bitterness ; but, nevertheless, he is our principal authority on those subjects.

1 This statement if the proceedings of the Meeting at which a Deputation was chosen to represent WestcheBter-county, in the first Provincial Congress, is made on the authority of the official report of that Meeting, signed by " James Van Cortlandt, Gliairman for the Day," and pub_ llshed in Bivmgton's New-York Oanetteer, No. 108, New-Yobk, Thursday, May 11, 1775 ; and on that 0f the Credentials, Bigned by each of the twenty -three Members of the Committee for the County who were then present, which Credentials have been preserved among Credentials of Delegates, in the Historical Manuscripts, relating to the War of the Revolution, in the Secretary of State's Office at Albany, Volume XXIV., Page 133.