102 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



held, and such expressions of opinion had come from 

 that quarter as to leave no doubt as to what its action 

 would be. The time had arrived when New York 

 must do something. But what she should do was 

 hard to determine, for parties were quite evenly 

 balanced. 



The king, indeed, in his harsh measures against 

 Massachusetts relied confidently upon the support of 

 New York. He believed that his Tory friends there 

 were in a decided majority, and they declared there 

 would be no Congress. As for New York, they said, 

 "She will never appoint delegates; Massachusetts 

 must be made to feel that she is deserted." There 

 was something more in this than the old local dislike 

 between New York and New England. For thirteen 

 years Massachusetts had been suffering 'acute irrita- 

 tion at the hands of crown officers, and her temper 

 had thus grown so belligerent that in most parts of 

 the country there was a disposition to regard her as 

 perhaps a little too obstinate and fierce. There were 

 people in New York who thought that both Massa- 

 chusetts and the king were going too far, and per- 

 suaded themselves that the tea might be paid for 

 without surrendering the principles which had led to 

 its destruction. Some who were about to become 

 eminent as Revolutionary leaders had not yet fully 

 made up their minds. Tory politicians led in the 

 Committee of Correspondence, and on the 4th of July, 

 while it was decided to take part in the Congress, on 

 the other hand the delegation which was appointed 

 seemed to the extreme Whigs too conservative in 

 character. The Sons of Liberty, who feared that 

 Massachusetts would not find due support in the Con- 



