left the amount in trust by his will for the payment of his debts, and
his heirs proceeded to collect it, and persisted in the attempt during
the ensuing seven years. What then happened I shall describe in the
words of Mr. John Bigelow. Mr. Tilden was a member of the State
Legislature in 1846, and was appointed Chairman of a Committee to
investigate the rent troubles, and make the report which furnished the
basis for the legislation by which they were subsequently settled. Mr.
Bigelow, who has edited Mr. Tilden's _Public Writings and Speeches_,
prefaces the report with the following explanatory note:--

"Attempts were made to enforce the collection of these rents. The
tenants resisted. They established armed patrols, and, by the adoption
of various disguises, were enabled successfully to defy the civil
authorities. Eventually it became necessary to call out the military,
but the result was only partially satisfactory. These demonstrations of
authority provoked the formation of 'anti-rent clubs' throughout the
manorial district, with a view of acquiring a controlling influence in
the legislature. Small bands, armed and disguised as Indians, were also
formed to hold themselves in readiness at all times to resist the
officers of the law whenever and wherever they attempted to serve legal
process upon the tenants. The principal roads throughout the infected
district were guarded by the bands so carefully, and the animosity
between the tenants and the civil authorities was so intense, that at
last it became dangerous for any one not an anti-renter to be found in
these neighbourhoods. It was equally dangerous for the landlords to make
any appeal to the law or for the collection of rents or for protection
of their persons. When Governor Wright entered upon his duties in Albany
in 1845, he found that the anti-rent party had a formidable
representation in the legislature, and that the questions involved were
assuming an almost national importance."