Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/305

 DELAWARE COUNTY. 281 our neighbors who are implicated in this transaction, we tender to the law and its officers our faithful allegiance and support. ^'Resolved, That those political demagogues who have decoyed a confiding community into this vortex of crime and misery, deserve the execrations of an injured people.^' The same day a meeting was held in the school-house, at Bovina Centre, and the Hon. James Cowan, was chosen chair- man. A preamble and resolutions were unanimously passed, among which was the following : Resolved, That the only safety we have for our lives or property, is to be found in the steady and inflexible adminis- tration and maintenance of the laws.'' Meetings expressive of the indignation of the inhabitants were also held at Hobart, Delhi, Middletown, and several other places in the county. Nor was this exhibition of obedience to law confined to the limits of the county. Even the citizens of adjoining counties held numerous meetings of this character. And I perceive by a reference to a file of Kingston papers, that a large and respectable body of citizens assembled at the court-house in that village, " to express their indignation at the recent outrage in Delaware county.'' John Yan Buren was called to preside. The meeting was addressed by Messrs. H. M. Romeyn, and Gen. J. Gr. Smith, in their usual forcible style. The preamble and resolutions were responded to with great applause. These numerous assemblies, with the strong and emphatic language of the resolutions, in every instance unanimously passed, is sufficient of itself to illustrate the wonderful sum- merset anti-rentism had taken. The novelty of a calico dress, or a sheepskin face, lost all its magic fascination to those who had become the unfortunate dupes of its flattering pretensions, when it came in contact with the dark realities of an unpro- mising future. Even those who had secretly aided, and 24*