prudent to throw into the disaffected parts of North America. His
daughters were just growing into life, and their education required all
the advantages the city could afford. His wife had been for some years
in declining health, and had barely time to fold her son to her bosom,
and rejoice in the reunion of her family, before the Revolution burst
forth, in a continued blaze, from Georgia to Massachusetts. The shock
was too much for the feeble condition of the mother, who saw her child
called to the field to combat against the members of her own family in
the South, and she sank under the blow.

There was no part of the continent where the manners of England and its
aristocratical notions of blood and alliances, prevailed with more force
than in a certain circle immediately around the metropolis of New York.
The customs of the early Dutch inhabitants had, indeed, blended in some
measures, with the English manners; but still the latter prevailed. This
attachment to Great Britain was increased by the frequent
intermarriages of the officers of the mother country with the wealthier
and most powerful families of the vicinity, until, at the commencement
of hostilities, their united influence had very nearly thrown the colony
into the scale on the side of the crown. A few, however, of the leading
families espoused the cause of the people; and a sufficient stand was
made against the efforts of the ministerial party, to organize, and,
aided by the army of the confederation, to maintain an independent
republican form of government.

The city of New York and the adjacent territory were alone exempted from
the rule of the new commonwealth; while the royal authority extended no
further than its dignity could be supported by the presence of an army.
In this condition of things, the loyalists of influence adopted such
measures as best accorded with their different characters and