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The Life of Gouverneur Morris Index < Prev      Page 33      Next > either under the corruption of the few, or the licentiousness of the many, or both combined. The first Provincial Convention of New York assembled in the city of New York on the twentieth of April, 1775, and continued its sittings three days.  It consisted of forty-three members, elected from the different counties, and empowered only to choose delegates to the second continental Congress, which was to convene in May.  Having executed this trust the Convention was dissolved.  The old colonial Assembly had been in session during the winter, and adjourned on the third of April, never to meet again.  Several attempts were made in it to bring up the subject of the Continental Congress, to approve their proceedings, and appoint new deputies.  All these attempts failed, for though there were several friends of the new order of things in the Assembly, yet the majority were royalists, and refused to sanction in any manner whatever the movements of the people.  When this experiment had been fairly tried in the Assembly without success, the committee of the city of New York sent circulars to the other committees, advising a deputation of delegates in Convention, who met as above stated. These delegates, or deputies, were chosen in the city of New York by ward meetings; in some of the other counties by the committees of correspondence; in others, by a convention of committees chosen in different parts of the county; in others again the several towns chose each a delegate; in Orange county they were chosen by the freeholders after the manner of the old elections.[9]  Each member produced in < Prev      Page 33      Next > From The Life of Gouverneur Morris: With Selections from His Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers; Detailing Events in the American Revolution, The French Revolution, and in the Political History of the United States, by Jared Sparks, Volume 1, Boston: Gray & Bowen, 1832, p 33. Some minor edits may have been made, but an attempt has been made to preserve the original spelling. Although some effort has been made to correct the limitations of OCR technology, if you find an error please report it to jvinci@colonialhall.com.     Designed and Edited by John Vinci Last modified August 20, 2006