Home Government was said to have subjected it ; but, at the same time, their inclinations were peaceful; and they preferred a reconciliation with Great Britain, instead of a Civil War, which had been already commenced; and, because they had not yet been corrupted by the social influences of life in the City nor by the allurements of official plunder, they were ready to join with all or with any, regardless of their factional affiliations, who entertained similar views, in the practical establishment of those fundamental principles. The individual members of the first Provincial Congress of New York, at the opening and during the earlier period of the existence of that body, may, therefore, be classed as, first, the avowed Conservatives, who were led by such as John De Lancey and Benjamin Kissam and Abraham Walton and Richard Yates and George Folliot and Walter Franklin; as, second, the "Corporal's Guard" of avowed Revolutionists, who were led by John Morin Scott and Alexander McDougal and Abraham Brasier ; as, third, a larger number, those who, under the guise of patriotism, were aiming at nothing else than at places and at the influences and emoluments to be produced by those places, who were led by the Livingstons and the Van Cortlandts, by Gouverneur Morris and John Thomas and Melanthon Smith and Abraham Ten Broeck and Egbert Dumond and Nathaniel Woodhull and John Sloss Hobart; and as, last, outnumbering all others, those who had left their several rural homes and come to the City of New" York, for the purpose of serving their country, without having had, at that time, any other aim.