HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
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ton, who attended a session of a Masonic Lodge in Poughkeepsie. In that house Clinton wrote a vast number of letters, and from it he sent forth several proclamations. Among the earlier of the latter documents is one now in possession of Lossing, which closes thus "Given under my hand, and the Privy Seal of New York, Poughkeepsie, in the county of Dutchess, the aid day of February, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight. God save the people."
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The New York Gazette, for the 4th of July, 1781, thus refers, in not very complimentary terms, to the Legislature here "There is a set of mob legislators met at Poughkeepsie; a little time will show whether they mean to expose themselves to all the vengeance, of which the majority of the late Assembly and Senate live in constant dread, many of them changing their lodgings to elude the search of the avengers of the innocent blood they have shed. Mr. Clinton, the titular Governor, has fortified his but [the fine stone mansion of Clear Everett] against a sudden surprise, and the rebel slaves of Poughkeepsie guard it every night." The allusions in this paragraph are explained by a letter written at Poughkeepsie, by Governor Clinton to General
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Schuyler, on the i4th of August, congratulating the general because of •his narrow escape from abduction by a band of Tories and Indians. In that letter Clinton wrote he had received a dispatch .from General Washington by express, informing him .that .a patty .had been sent out from New York to seize the Governooi, and deliver him to the British authorities
Dutchess County Historical Society
