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Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. III

O'Callaghan, E.B., ed. The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. III. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1850. 309 words

On the 20th Dec. following McDougal was arraigned at the bar of the Assembly as " the supposcl author or publisher" of the address signed " A Son of Liberty." He pleaded, in reply, that as the grand jury and Assembly had declared the paper in question (o be a libel, he had nothing to say further than, being under prosecution already in (he Supreme Court, he conceived it would be an infraction of the laws of Justice to punish a British subject twice for the same offence, for that no line could be run -- he might be punished without end. This defence was voted " a high contempt," and McDougal was sent to jail, Messrs Gale, Van Cortlandt, Col. WoodhuU, Capt. Seaman and Mr Clinton voting in the negative. A writ of Habeas Corpus was sued out of the Supreme Court in the course of the follow ng month, to which it was returned that the prisoner was " committed by a warrant of the Speaker for a contempt of the authority of this House." The Assembly was eventually prorogued on the 4th March, 1771, when Mr McDougal was liberated after an imprisonment of 81 days. His recognizance was discharged on the 27th of same month after being under bonds nearly twelve monthB and actually suffering twenty-four weeks imprisonment, in consequence

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PAPERS RELATING TO THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. 537

of both these arrests. He was subsequently a member of the Provincial Convention, and in 1775 was appointed Colonel of the 1st N. Y. Regt. He rose in the course of the war of the Revolution (1776) to the rank of Brigr General, and in 1777 to that of Majr Genl in the U. S. army; was a prominent member of the N. Y. State Senate from 1784 until his death, which occurred in June, 1786.