[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] New York at this time. I have had the misfortune, gentlemen, of being deprived, totally, of the sight of my left eye; and the other is so much affected and inflamed as to make me very cautious how I expose it, for fear of a total loss of sight. This being my real situation, I must request the favour of you to excuse my attendance to-morrow; but you may rest assured, Gentlemen, that I shall punctually attend, as soon as I can, consistent with my health, flattering myself, in the meantime, that, upon further consideration, you will think that my being a friend to the rights and interests of my native country is a fact so strongly implied as to require no evidence on my part to prove it, until something more substantial than mere suspicion or vague surmises is proved to the contrary. I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant, Frederick Philipse. To Leonard Gansevoort, Philip Livingston, Thomas Tredwell, Lewis Graham, Gouver-neur Morris, Thomas Randall, Esquires. The terms of this letter, considered apart from Philipse's specific excuse for declining to attend, are entertaining to a degree. Sum-moned by a Revolutionary tribunal to appear before it and answer the accusation of hostility to American liberty, he recognizes in the situation which confronts him no circumstance of gravity. He delays his reply until the day before the lime appointed for his attendance, and the peremptory command sent to him lr\ the committee he al-ludes to as " a paper...