With the fact before him, that the " large number "of the inhabitants" of the Town of Salem which was referred to, in that letter, was composed of farmers, neighbors of the writer of it, and peacefully and industriously pursuing their usual vocations ; and, with the additional fact before him, that none of these were even pretended to have committed any other offense, against either the King or the Congress, than the entertainment of political opinions which were different from those entertained by Ezekiel Hawley and his handful of "patriotic" confederates, tbereader will be enabled to judge, with some degree of accuracy, concerning the really diabolical character of the letter and that of him who had written it.

The number of those who were thus proscribed and whose properties were so eagerly hankered for, was said to have been " large ;" the proposed victims were "inhabitants" of Salem, and neighbors of Hawley and his confederates ; they were quietly pursuing their usual rural occupations, doing no harm to any one, and violating no law, although their opinions, on

1 Mr. Bolton said this Hawloy was a grandson of Rev. Thomas Hawley, Pastor of tho Congregational-church at Ridgefield, Connecticut ; that he wits one of the proprietors of the Oblong ; that ho hold a Commission in the Continental Army ; and that he was taken off by death, suddenly, in 1788. (History of Westchester-county, original edition, i., 474 ; the same, second edition, i., 738.)

The "Continental" Commission referred to, by Mr. Bolton, was nothing else than that of First Lieutenant in Captain Truesdalo's Com. pany nf Colonial Militia, " for the North End of Salem "--a local Company of notoriously very little account, (Returns of Election of Officers, December 18, 1775, in the Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Returns, xxvii., 245.)