Liberty," "Observer," "An Officer of the Continental Army," "Medium," "A Countryman" (Duchess County), "A Citizen," "An Old Whig," "A Countryman" (Orange County), "One of the Common People," and other writers, in the same and other newspapers of the day, and in rapid succession, sustained the same cause, with great acuteness and ability. Tracts, also, in opposition to the proposed Constitution, were prepared, both in New York and Albany, for distribution in New York and Connecticut, possibly in other States; and through the ancient organization of "The Sons of Liberty," practically revived under its former leaders, Colonels John Lamb and Mariunus Willett, the most thoroughly organized opposition confronted the friends of the proposed Constitution, in every part of the State, and rendered their undertaking a desperate one.
At the same time, while the opponents of the "new system"—harmonious in their sentiments and united in their action—were thus resolutely and skilfully resisting it throughout the State, its nominal friends were widely separated in their sentiments; and, in many cases, they were apathetic, if not discordant, in their action. At best, they were only few in number, when compared with their adversaries; and, in the lukewarmness of some of them, and in the entire inaction of others of their number, there was little to afford encouragement, nothing to insure success.
But, not alone by reason of the apathy and the discord which existed among the nominal friends of the proposed Constitution, nor of the harmonious and energetic opposition of those who disapproved its provisions, nor of the numerical weakness of the former when compared with the strength and perfect organization of the latter, was the position which New York then occupied so peculiar, and at the same time so important.
