This house stood till after the Revolution, and was used by the Legislature of New York after the burning of Kingston. About 1835 it was torn down. Poughkeepsie was incorporated as a city in 1854. It early became the centre for the trade of Dutchess County, which, it must be confessed, was at first but meagre; but it was also connected by the Dutchess turninke with Sharon, Conn., and thence with Litchfield, and over this line the stages and market waggons travelled with profitable frequency. Mr. Joel Benton, long a resident of Poughkeepsie, has written concerning its early history : In colonial days few were the people here; but they were a bright and stirring handful. It seems as if every man counted

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as ten. ... I suppose it need not now be counted strange that the strong mixture of Dutch and EngHsh settlers, with a few Huguenots, which finally made Dutchess County, were not a little divided between Tory and Whig inclinations. Around Poughkeepsie, and in its allied towns stretching between the Hudson River and the Connecticut line, there was much strife. Gov. George Clinton in his day ruled in the midst of much tumult and turbulence; but he held the reins with vigour, in spite of kidnappers or critics. When the British burned Kingston he prorogued the Legislature to Poughkeepsie, which still served as a "safe harbour." As the Revolution progressed, the Tory faction was weakened, either by suppression or surrender. It was in the Poughkeepsie Court House that, by one vote, after a Homeric l)attle, the colony of New York consented to become a part of the American Republic, which consent was practically necessary to its existence. . . . Poughkeepsie honoured, in May, 1824, the arrival of Lafayette. . . . Daniel Webster has spoken in her Court House; and Henry Clay, in 1844, when a presidential candidate, stopped for a reception.