y the governor,
and it being traced to Alexander McDougall, he was arrested in February,
1770, and refusing to give bail was committed to prison by order of
chief justice Horsmanden. As he was being carried to prison, clearly
reading in the signs about him the future of the country, he exclaimed,
"I rejoice that I am the first sufferer for liberty since the
commencement of our glorious struggle." During the two months of his
confinement he was overrun with visitors. He poured forth continued
appeals to the people, and boldly avowed his revolutionary opinions. In
every circle his case was the subject of impassioned conversation, and
in an especial manner he became the idol of the masses. A packed jury
found an indictment against him, and on December 20th he was arraigned
at the bar of the Assembly on the same charge, on which occasion he was
defended by George Clinton, afterwards the first governor of the State
of New York. In the course of the following month a writ of habeas
corpus was sued out, but without result, and he was not liberated until
March 4, 1771, when the assembly was prorogued. When the Assembly
attempted to extort from him a humiliating recantation, he undauntingly
answered their threat, that "rather than resign my rights and privileges
as a British subject, I would suffer my right hand to be cut off at the
bar of the house." When set at liberty he entered into correspondence
with the master-spirits in all parts of the country; and when the
celebrated meetings in the fields were held, on July 6, 1774,
preparatory to the election of the New York delegates to the First
General Congress, he was called to preside, and resolutions prepared by
him were adopted, pointing out the mode of choosing deputies, inveighing
against the Boston Port Bill, and urging upon the proposed congress the
prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Great Britain. In March
1775, he was a member of the Provincial Convention, and was nominated as
one of the candidates for the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, but
was not elected. In the same year he received a commission as colonel of
the 1st New York regiment, and on August 9, 1776, was created
brigadier-general. On the evening of the 29th of the same month he was
selected by Washington to superintend the embarkation of the troops from
Brooklyn; was actively engaged on Chatterton's Hill and in various
places in New Jersey; and when General William Heath, in the spring of
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