As early as November, 1774, the freeholders of the city appointed a _Committee of Safety and Correspondence_, which proved a vigorous agent in propagating the war spirit and furnishing men and money for the Continental army. The following names appear on its lists: John Barclay, _Chairman_, Jacob C. Ten Eyck, Henry I. Bogert, Peter Silvester, Henry Wendell, Volkert P. Douw, John Bay, Gysbert Marselis, John R. Bleecker, Robert Yates, Stephen De Lancey, Abraham Cuyler, John H. Ten Eyck, Abraham Ten Broeck, Gerret Lansingh, Jr., Anthony E. Bratt, Samuel Stringer, Abraham Yates, Jr., and Cornelis van Santvoordt. In the records of the committee occurs this significant minute: “Pursuant to a resolution of yesterday, the Declaration of Independence was this day read and published at the City Hall to a large Concourse of the Inhabitants of this City and the Continental Troops in this City and received with applause and satisfaction.” At the beginning of, and all through the struggle for independence, Albany was a strategic point of the utmost importance. The war-office in London and the British commanders in the field recognized that it was the key to the situation in the north. There is a passage in the oration of Governor Seymour at the Centennial Commemoration at Schuylerville, the actual scene of Burgoyne’s surrender, which condenses and interprets one of the most important chapters in the history of the Revolution. “It was the design of the British government in the campaign of 1777 to capture the centre and stronghold of this commanding system of mountains and valleys. It aimed at its very heart,—the confluence of the Hudson and the Mohawk. The fleets, the armies, and the savage allies of Britain were to follow their converging lines to Albany, and there strike the decisive blow.” As sometimes happens, the blow struck the striker. Col. Philip Schuyler, the young officer who brought the body of Lord Howe to its burial, was an ardent patriot and the most distinguished citizen of Albany. On the recommendation of the Provincial Congress of New York, he had been appointed by the Continental Congress a major-general in the armies of the United Colonies and had assumed command of the Northern Department. He was displaced in favor of General Gates, but he retained the confidence of Washington, and it was he who planned and conducted the campaign which resulted in the victory of Bemis Heights and the surrender of Burgoyne. This event broke the formidable menace that hung over the province and the colonial cause. The defeated British general found himself in the hands of a courteous foe, and for several months he meditated and mitigated his disaster amid the elegant hospitalities of the Schuyler mansion in Albany. [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER. (FROM A PAINTING BY COL. TRUMBULL.)]