The Life And Times of Alexander Hamilton

CONFIDENCE?HIS CONDUCT IN HIS NEW SPHERE. During 1774 the political excitement in New York became more and more intense. In September of that year the Congress had assembled in Philadelphia, and measures of resistance to George III. had been deliberated on and adopted. The community had become divided into two great parties; but in New York, as elsewhere, the patriots were vastly in the majority. The chief supporters of British despotism and supremacy were the Episcopal clergy, who derived their appointments and their livings from the crown, and who had been taught to regard the king as supreme head both of the church and state. A written controversy now ensued on the subject of colonial affairs in New York, and a series of pamphlets were issued on both sides of the dispute. It was in this controversy, in which someol the ablest men then living participated, that the youthful Hamilton won his second wreath of laurels, and received the meed of well-deserved renown. Rev. Dr. Cooper, the president of King's or Columbia College, published a labored defense of the acts of the British monarch. He was followed on the same side by Dr. Ingles, father of the subsequent Bishop of Nova Scotia, Dr. Chandler, Dr. AVilkins, and Dr. Seabury, afterward Bishop of Connecticut. On the side of the people were found Governor Livingston of New Jersey, Mr. John Jay, and Mr. Hamilton, all of whom put forth in reply pamphlets of equal power, and of superior truth and conclusiv... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.