AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 107 



York in time to exert a powerful influence upon the 

 great assemblage in the fields. The practical result 

 of the meeting was seen a few weeks later, when the 

 delegates embarked at Cortlandt Street to the sound 

 of drum and trumpet, pledged to " support at the risk 

 of everything dear" such resolutions as the Conti- 

 nental Congress might see fit to adopt. 



Soon after the Congress had adjourned in October, 

 to await the results of its action upon the British gov- 

 ernment, its proceedings were adversely criticised in 

 two able pamphlets written jointly by two Episcopal 

 clergymen, the famous Samuel Seabury, afterward 

 Bishop of Connecticut, and Isaac Wilkins of West- 

 Chester County. The pamphlets, which purported to 

 come from " A Westchester Farmer," cast dismay into 

 the ranks of the Whigs. They were extremely plau- 

 sible, and were already making converts, when within 

 a fortnight there appeared an anonymous tract in 

 vindication of Congress, which at once threw the 

 " Farmer " upon the defensive, and ruffled his temper 

 withal, as his next pamphlet showed. The anony- 

 mous writer returned to the charge with a voluminous 

 essay quite properly entitled " The Farmer Refuted " ; 

 it completely unhorsed and disarmed the adversary; 

 the two ministers had no more to say. Great curios- 

 ity was felt as to the anonymous writer. Some thought 

 it must be Jay, others his father-in-law, Livingston. 

 When it was at length ascertained that it was a boy 

 of eighteen, and the same boy that had addressed the 

 meetings in the fields, the astonishment was profound. 

 There was no trace of immaturity in thought or ex- 

 pression in his two essays, and their boldness of tone 

 was accompanied by a grasp of the political situation 



