[302] Dawson's Westchester County, pp. 36, 37.
[303] On the Tory side were Doctors Cooper, Inglis, Seabury, and Chandler; on the Whig side, William Livingston, John Jay, and Alex. Hamilton. Cf. Lossing's Schuyler, i. ch. 17.
[304] Dawson, Westchester County, p. 137 (see also Hist. Mag., 1868, p. 9), contends for Wilkins, and doubts what is put forward as Seabury's own evidence in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., Feb., 1882, p. 117. Cf. Amer. Quart. Church Rev., April, 1881; Shea's Hamilton, ch. 7; Manual of N. Y. City, 1868, p. 813.
[305] The Seabury-Wilkins tracts are:
Free thoughts on the proceedings of the Continental congress, held at Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1774: wherein their errors are exhibited, their reasonings confuted and the fatal tendency of their non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption measures, are laid open to the plainest understanding [etc.]; in a letter to the farmers, and other inhabitants of North America in general, and to those of the province of New York in particular. By a farmer. [Signed A. W. farmer.] (Without place, 1774.)
The congress canvassed: or, an examination into the conduct of the delegates, at their grand convention, held in Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1774. Addressed to the merchants of New York. By A. W., Farmer (Philad., 1774).
There was a reply to the Farmer in Holt's New York Journal, Dec. 22, 1774 (Dawson, p. 40); but the most extraordinary rejoinder was that of the youthful Alexander Hamilton, then eighteen years old, in A full vindication of the measures of the congress, from the calumnies of their enemies; in answer to a letter, tender the signature of A. W., Farmer. Whereby his sophistry is exposed [etc.]; in a general address to the inhabitants of America, and a particular address to the farmers of the province of New York. [Signed, A friend to America.] (New York, 1774.) Cf. P. L. Ford's Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana (N. Y., 1886), no. 1.
The "Farmer" replied in A view of the controversy between Great Britain and her colonies. In a letter to the author of A full vindication of the measures of congress, from the calumnies of their enemies. By A. W., Farmer? (New York, 1774.)
Hamilton's final rejoinder is The farmer refuted; or, a more comprehensive and impartial view of the disputes between Great Britain and the colonies. Intended as a further Vindication of the congress, in answer to a Letter from a Westchester farmer, entitled a View of the controversy between Great Britain and her colonies. By a sincere friend to America (1775). Cf. Ford, no. 3.
These productions of the young Whig are contained in the various editions of Hamilton's Works. Cf. J. Hamilton's Repub. of the U. S., i. 65; Shea's Hamilton, p. 330.