George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[384] method by which the wrath of Fanning was

Chap. XLVI.} 1770. Dec.

to be appeased. In the wish to establish order, full license was given to the ruthlessness of revenge. The Governor also sent letters into the neighboring counties, to ascertain how many would volunteer to serve in a military expedition against ‘the rebels;’ but the Assembly, by withholding grants of money, set itself against civil war.

Tryon's smooth exterior and determined purpose had won for him at the Colonial office the reputation of being the ablest Governor in the thirteen Colonies; the death of Botetourt opened the way for his promotion to the chief magistracy of New-York. The Earl of Dunmore, a needy Scottish peer of the House of Murray, passionate, narrow, and unscrupulous in his rapacity, had hardly taken possession of that Government, when he was transferred to what was esteemed the more desirable one of Virginia. But before he made the exchange, his avarice had involved him in a singular strife. Fees for grants of land had swollen the emoluments of office during the short administration of Colden; Dunmore demanded half of them as his perquisite; and to make sure of four or five thousand pounds, prepared as Chancellor to make, in the King's name, a peremptory award in his own favor. He came over to amass a fortune, and in his passion for sudden gain, cared as little for the policy of the Ministers or his instructions from the Crown, as for the rights of property, the respective limits of jurisdiction of the Colonies, or their civil and political privileges. To get money was the rule of conduct, which included his whole administrative policy.

Dunmore did not remain in New-York long