[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] The Morrises were known chiefly as an aggressive polit-ical family, with a well-defined follow-ing, but hardly adapted to attract the normally conservative or as yet unde-cided classes. Thomas represented a constituency of sturdy settlers, mostly of New England antecedents and largely belonging to zealous religious sects. Van Cortlandt was in all re-spects a match for Philipse and the de Lanceys, to whatever elevation of dignity or social importance they pre-tended; and it was his personality to the Revolutionary movement in Westchester County a far different aspect than that of a mere propaganda of agitators. His support of the cause stamped it necessarily as one demanding Hie most respectful consideration of honest and intelligent men; for it was beyond question that his attachment to it was wholly due to a conception of its singular righteousness and of his high duty. He was no new convert, but had stood for the rights of the colonies from the beginning. The arts of the tempter and briber had, moreover, been practiced upon him in the British interest. The late Mrs. Pierre E. Van Cortlandt, in her historical account of the Van Cortlandt family, tells how he nobly rebuked the royal Governor Tryon when approached by that personage with corrupt offers: In 1774 Governor Tryon came to Croton, ostensibly on a visit of courtesy, bringing with him his wife, Miss Watts, a daughter of the Hon. John Watts (a kinsman of the Van Cortlandts), and Colonel Fanning, his secretary.