298 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

of His Majesty’s paternal goodness, and encouraged by the affectionate manner in which his Majesty’s gracious purpose hath been conveyed to us by your Excellencies, who have thereby evinced that humanity is inseparable from that true magnanimity and those enlarged sentiments which form the most shining characters,” they beg leave to represent that they have all signed the Oath of Allegiance, and proceed to say, “that we esteem the constitutional supremacy of Great Britain over these colonies and other depending parts of His Majesty’s dominions, as essential to the union, security, and welfare of the whole empire; and sincerely lament the interruption of that harmony which formerly subsisted between the parent State and these her colonies.’1

The submission of the rank and file was soon followed by that of the leaders, or, at least, the majority of them, who, in December following, presented to Governor Tryon the following “wholesale clearance” of themselves from all complicity with the Rebellion:

“We, the members of the Provincial Congress, the County Committee, and the Committees of the different townships, elected for and by the inhabitants of Kings County, feel the highest satisfaction in having it in our power to dissolve ourselves without danger of the County being desolated, as it was by repeated threats, some short time ago. We do hereby accordingly dissolve ourselves, rejecting and disclaiming all power of Congress and Committees, totally refusing obedience thereto, and revoking all proceedings under them whatsoever, as being repugnant to the laws and constitution of the British Empire, and undutiful to our sovereign, and ruinous to the welfare and prosperity of this County. We beg leave to assure your Excellency we shall be exceeding happy in obeying the legal authority of government, whenever your Excellency shall be pleased to call us forth, being from long experience well assured of your Excellency’s mild and upright administration.” This was signed by forty persons.(1)

The corps of militia in Kings County, in January, 1777, further testified their “loyalty to their sovereign and zeal to the constitu-

1 This document, with the names appended, will be found in Onderdonk’s Kings Co., see. 829.