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New-York, May 1, 1775.
Mr˙ GAINE: In your last Paper appeared an uncommon advertisement, with a Protest annexed, as was said from the Freeholders of seven Precincts, which were said to contain three-fourths of the inhabitants of Dutchess County. I choose to make no reflections on the author, since I would not wish to heighten the resentment or contempt of the County in which he lives; but, in justice to the County of which I am a freeholder, I hereby challenge him to show that that Protest was ever publickly read, or approved by any one of the Precincts he mentions, before it was published. I likewise deny, and call upon him to prove that the seven Precincts, in whose name, (but without whose authority) the above Protest was published, contains above
N˙ B˙ No person will be considered as a freeholder, whose Precinct is not annexed to his name, as that is the only way to guard against misrepresentations.
A Freeholder of Dutchess County
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half of the freeholders of Dutchess County, after deducting those that voted for Delegates in Poughkeepsie and Charlotte Precincts, although he so confidently asserts that they contain three-fourths. But that the publick may no longer be deceived by more presentations of the state of that County, I am willing to put it upon this issue: the County of Dutchess contains eighteen hundred freeholders; if the author of the Protest will publish a list of six hundred freeholders that are opposed to the election of Delegates, or will sign his Protest, I undertake to show double the number who approve of their appointment.