[Pg. 138]
September 19. [1775]
Affair in Duchess County.
Last Saturday night, in Duchess County, New York, James Smith, Esq. a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for that county, was very handsomely tarred and feathered, for acting in open contempt of the resolves of the county committee, as was Coen Smith, of the same place, for the like behavior. They were carted five or six miles into the country. The judge undertook to sue for, and recover the arms taken from the Tories[*] by order of said committee, and actually committed one of the committee, who assisted at disarming the Tories, which enraged the people so much, that they rose and rescued the prisoner, and poured out their resentment on this villanous retailer of the law.[3]
[*] “Tories” were American colonists who supported the British side during the American Revolution.
[3] Upcott, iv. 327
[Diary of the American Revolution. From Newspapers and Original Documents. By Frank Moore. Vol. I. New York: Charles Scribner, Grand Street. London: Sampson Low, Son & Company. MDCCCLX.]
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