This period was full of anxiety and danger. A war was deprecated by all the leading patriots of the day; they were fully persuaded that it must take place; they therefore unitedly determined to prepare for the storm in the best manner they were able. All material business was in a manner suspended in New-York; the face of things wore a dismal aspect, and the greater part of the community were in dismay. A heavy gloom hung over the inhabitants generally, while all their affairs appeared in a declining state, discouraging to the industry and best prospects of the people. [_Lives of Signers_: John Adams of Massachusetts: The period was full of anxiety and danger.] [_Lives of Signers_: Gerry of Massachusetts: A civil war was deprecated by all the leading patriots of that day. But the measures which the British government had long pursued towards the colonies, had fully persuaded them that it must take place.... and they unitedly determined to prepare for the storm in the best manner they were able.] [_Alida_ page 143 (chapter XVIII): All business of importance, at this time, was in a manner suspended in New-York; the face of things wore a dismal aspect, and the greater part of the community were in dismay; occasioned by the continuance of hostilities with Great Britain. All appeared in a declining state, discouraging to the industry and best prospects of the inhabitants.] Alida's father was no friend to political controversy, yet he passed much of his time in conversing with his friends on the present affairs of America. He knew that party spirit and animosity existed more or less at this time, and that he must consequently often meet with those of opposite opinions; yet his honest and patriotic zeal for the good of his country still remained the same. He was attached to liberty from principle; he had talents to discriminate and see into the justice of the measures of government; his retirement gave him full opportunity to reflect on them seriously, and solve them in his own mind, and see their absolute necessity, in order to maintain the honour, freedom, and independence of the American nation. Would the same wisdom in the government continue that had so nobly preserved us since our independence? But he had no reason at present to suppose otherwise, and that he who now guided the helm of affairs, was one of steady and uncorrupt principles, of stable character, altogether uninfluenced by any sinister views, and was willing to sacrifice his individual repose for the noble purpose, and with the hope of settling it again on the nation, with a firmer basis, at some future period, when the expected contest should be decided. [_NY Weekly_: "Champagneaux" in "Anecdotes and Remains of Persons Connected with the French Revolution": He ... was attached to liberty from principle, at a time, and in a country, when it was not unusual to be so, from mere speculation!]