On May 17, 1775, more than 220 freeholders and inhabitants of the Cocksakie District in Albany County signed or marked a document they knew as The Association, popularly called the Coxsackie Declaration. Their signatures showed alignment in the controversy with the parent government and authorized representatives in the Provincial Convention and Continental Congress. The text was almost identical to the General Association adopted in New York City and County on April 29, 1775, and sent to counties across the province for signing, with the signed articles to be returned to the General Committee of New York by July 15. The surviving Coxsackie document appears to be the only original of its kind still in existence and reflects an early spirit of unity and common cause among scattered communities and previously unrelated colonies. In it, the freeholders and inhabitants declared that the salvation of America’s rights and liberties depended on firm union, vigorous action for safety, and the prevention of anarchy and confusion. Alarmed by the ministry’s design to raise a revenue in America and shocked by the bloodshed in Massachusetts Bay, they solemnly resolved never to become slaves, to support whatever measures the Continental Congress or Provincial Convention adopted to preserve their constitution and oppose arbitrary and oppressive acts of the British Parliament until reconciliation with Great Britain on constitutional principles could be achieved, and to follow the advice of their general committee in preserving peace, good order, individual safety, and private property.