It is true that Doctor Sparks made no mention of the subject, in his Life of Gouverneur Morris -- it was not his purpose to expose the weaknesses and the wrong-doings of his aristocratic and pretentious subject, but to magnify the man and his doings, and to eulogize them -- and all those who have preceded us in narrating the events of that period, have, alBO, preferred to know nothing of this infamous enactment and of its consequonces ; but it was really enacted, in New York, for the promotion of the purposes of intended confiscations of individual and family properties ; and, unquestionably, Gouverneur Morris was the author of it, and one of the master-spirits in the execution of its provisions.

2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Friday Afternoon, June 14, "1776."

4 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Sabbati, A.M., June 15, "1776."

5 Ibid.

« Ibid.

being present, the Committee proceeded to the discharge of the duties which had been laid on it. 7

This secretly acting, inquisitorial body, of which John Jay was made the Chairman, held secret sessions on the fifteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twentyfirst, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, and twenty-ninth of June, 8 beyond which period we do not propose, at this time, to follow it; and on the following day, when the Provincial Congress itself was disbanded and fled, every member of this mighty Committee, with the single exception of Gouverneur Morris, had, also, left the City. 9 Besides receiving an anonymous information that William Sutton, of Mamaroneck, had been heard to say " that, in case "Independency was declared by the Continental Con- " gress, there were three Colonels in the Service who " would join the Ministerial Party ; " 10 and the issue of Summonses to Frederic Philipse, of Yonkers, Richard Morris, of Scarsdale, and Samuel Merritt, of the Manor of Cortlandt, to appear and answer before the Committee, on the third of July ; the issue of similar Summonses to Solomon Fowler, of Eastchester, Nathaniel Underbill, of Westchester, and James Horton, Junior, and William Sutton, both of Mamaroneck, to appear and answer, on the fourth of July ; the issue of similar Summonses to Peter Corne and Doctor Peter Huggeford, both of Westchester-county, to appear and answer, on the fifth of July ; and the issue of similar Summonses to William Barker, Joshua Purdy, and Absalom Gedney, all of Westchestercounty, to appear and answer, on the sixth of July, 11 the Committee appears to have done nothing which particularly concerned Westchester-county, during the period now under consideration ; and, for the present, its doings are dismissed. 12 It may not be