At this period, and from these controversies and others allied to them, arose the two great parties, which ever afterwards divided the people of the Province. The one maintaining principles moderate and conservative; the other, those of a more radical tendency.

Both professed the strongest attachment and loyalty to the British constitution, and vied with each other in claiming and upholding all the rights of Englishmen.

In New York, as in some of the other colonies, the religious element entered largely into politics. In point of wealth and

1 N.Y. Hist. Soe. Collections; III., 355.

2 Smith's Hist. N. Y.; II., 22. 8 See Report of the trial published by Zenger himself, in Boston, 1738.

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influence the Episcopalians were the leading denomination, the Dutch Reformed Church came next, and the Presbyterians last ; while in point of numbers their positions were exactly reversed, the Presbyterians outnumbering the Dutch, and the Dutch the Episcopalians, The last with most of the Dutch chiefly belonged to the conservative party; while the remainder of the Dutch, and the Presbyterians almost to a man, were found in the ranks of the opposition.

Another and very striking peculiarity in the composition of the colonial parties; was the remarkable preponderance of the wealth and social position of the Province on the side of the conservatives. In their ranks were found the Philipses, Van Cortlandts, De Lanceys, Bayards, Crugers, Wattses, Waltons, Van Rensselaers, Beekmans, Bleeckers, Barclays, Joneses of Long Island, Jays, Verplancks, Harrisons, and other substantial families, while in those of the opposition, the Livingstons, Morrises, Alexanders and perhaps the Smiths and one or two more were probably all that belonged to the same class.