THE TOWN OF CORTLANDT. 



J 43 



the inhabitants of Westchester County, who had come to assist in the 

 last honors, to the memory of their fellow citizen. Among them were 

 many aged and venerable men, who passed through , the perils of the 

 revolution and shared its dangers with the deceased. 



A procession was formed to the church yard, where the monument 

 stands, about two and a half miles from the village of Peekskill; and the 

 column being lowered to its place on the pedestal, William Paulding, 

 mayor of the city of New York, addressed the assembled citizens as fol- 

 lows : 



My Friends: — History bears testimony to the importance of the act we are 

 here assembled to commemorate. The capture of Andre, while it prevented the 

 most fatal disasters, and led to the most signal results, afforded at the same time 

 a memorable example of the fidelity and patriotism of the yeomanry of these 

 United States. As such it has always been viewed, and will appear in the eyes 

 of posterity one of the most honorable achievements of our great revolutionary 

 struggle. 



It was in the year seventeen hundred and eighty. 



There is not an aged man here present, but must remember that gloomy and 

 disastrous period, when, if ever, the freedom of our country was almost a des- 

 perate hope. The money, the credit, the men, the means, and I may almost 

 say, the sentiment necessary for continuing the great contest, were either qu:te 

 exhausted, or fast melting away. 



Hardship, ill success, and a miserable scarcity of every necessary of life, had 

 checked present exertion, and produced almost a hopelessness of the future. Our 

 little army, the last reliance of the country, was cooped up at West Point, almost 

 the last refuge of liberty remaining. Had that army, with its illustrious com- 

 mander, been treacherously surrendered, and that strong-hold given up to the 

 enemy, the communication between Canada and New York, then in his posses- 

 sion, would have been open — the North and the South could no longer have co- 

 operated with each other — the spirit of our people had been broken — the last 

 stay of freedom destroyed, and the last ray of hope perhaps extinguished. What 

 the final issue might have been, God only knows ; but we all know, the con- 

 sequences would have shaken our good cause to its- foundation. A plan for 

 this purpose was agitated — matured — almost consummated by the treason of 

 Arnold. To you it is not necessary to detail the particulars of this infamous and 

 dangerous project, so familiar to the memory and hearts of our people. I see 

 among you many venerable and aged men who bore a part in the struggle, and 

 shared in the hardships, anxieties, dangers and sufferings of those dismal times. 

 I see at the head of these, a faithful and gallant officer, still happily and honor- 

 ably surviving to enjoy that invaluable freedom which his own efforts con- 

 tributed to secure. « I see, too, among them one who was himself a companion 

 and sharer in the virtuous act by which these imminent dangers were averted. } 



If you wish for the story of this high achievement of honest, unpretending 



a General Philip van Cortlandt. 

 & Isaac van Wart. 



