George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition.

[212] association. On the twenty-third of February, it was

Chap. XIX.} 1775. Feb. 23.

moved to send delegates to the general congress in May. Strenuous debates arose; Schuyler and Clinton speaking several times on the one side, Brush and Wilkins very earnestly on the other; but the motion was defeated by a vote of nine to seventeen.

The vote proved nothing but how far prejudice, corruption, pride, and attachment to party could make a legislative body false to its constituents. The people of New York were thrown back upon themselves, under circumstances of difficulty that had no parallel in other colonies. They had no legally constituted body to form their rallying point; and at a time when the continental congress refused to sanction any revolutionary act even in Massachusetts, they were compelled to proceed exclusively by the methods of revolution. Massachusetts was sustained by its elective council and its annually elected assembly; New York had a council holding office at the king's will, and an assembly continued in existence from year to year by the king's prerogative. Yet the patriotism of the colony was sure to emerge from all these obstacles; and its first legitimate organ was the press.

Charles Lee denied the military capacity of England, as she could with difficulty enlist recruits enough to keep her regiments full; and he insisted that in a few months efficient infantry might be formed of Americans.

A pamphlet from the pen of Alexander Hamilton, had been in circulation since December; in February, when the necessity of the appeal to the people was become more and more urgent, thegenial pilgrim