A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume I, Part 20

Author: Urquhart, Frank J. (Frank John), 1865- 4n; Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 4n
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: New York, N.Y. ; Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1186


USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume I > Part 20


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New Jersey's loyalty to the home government was surpassed by hardly any of her sister provinces. In two years alone, she had raised £140,000 for the war. Her troops sent to the front under Schuyler in New York, as well as those on the western borders of her own Province, were unusually well equipped. Her assistance to New York during the war was of the greatest possible value, for New Jersey was then stronger than her sister colony to the East. Immediately after the war New Jersey paid heavy taxes to meet the war expenditures, and by 1776 had reduced her war debt to £190,000. Her average annual expenditures during the war were £40,000.1


1 "If England had assumed even her own share of the expenses of war, the question of separation might not have arisen. Instead of that she tried to tax the colonies. In 1771 the question came up flatly whether New Jersey would tax herself to support the regiments of the line here. She refused." R. Wayne Parker in Shaw's History of Essex and Hudson Counties, p. 28.


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But Lord Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had deter- mined that if the Colonies could contribute so splendidly upon occasions such as the French and indian wars, just closed, they could be made a constant and fruitful source of revenue. He wished also to establish the supremacy of Parliament over the Colonies. So, late in 1763, a stamp duty upon imports, to be levied by act of Parliament, was proposed, in the face of the fact that the Colonial constitutions were diametrically opposed to "taxation without representation," and representation in Parliament was impossible, largely because of the wide separation of the Colonies and the mother country.


NEW JERSEY'S "SONS OF LIBERTY."


The Stamp Act was passed on March 22, 1765,-and the preliminary struggles of the War for Independence were begun. By this act no document was legal unless written or published on stamped paper. This included all bonds, bills of sale, marriage licenses, property deeds, etc. The stamped paper cost from one cent to fifty dollars. The people of New Jersey, as well as through- out the Colonies, were instantly on their guard. Patriotic organiza- tions, such as the "Sons of Liberty," originating in Connecticut and New York, were organized everywhere. The headquarters of the New Jersey "Sons" was at Woodbridge. Its members pledged themselves "to march to any part of the continent, at their own expense, to support the British constitution and to prevent the enforcement of the Stamp Act." The lawyers of New Jersey solemnly resolved not to do business while the obnoxious act was in operation and all legal proceedings were suspended for several months. Later, at the solicitation of the "Sons of Liberty," the lawyers resumed business but did not use the stamped paper.


William Cox, of Philadelphia, was appointed distributor of stamps for New Jersey. He promptly refused to serve. As there were some doubts as to his having sent in his resignation to the home government, he was waited upon by a committee from the Sons of Liberty sent from Woodbridge, who made it plain that


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trouble was in store for him if he did not absolve himself of all connection with the administration of the hated act. His successor, John Hughes, also of Philadelphia, was approached in much the same manner by the New Jersey "Sons" and speedily gave up the oflice.


JERSEY "SONS" AND THE STAMP ACT.


The temper of the times, in which Essex County and Newark shared, with all the communities, especially the upper half of the Colony, is graphically illustrated by the following:


"At a meeting of the Sons of Liberty of the Township of Freehold, in the County of Monmouth, and Province of East New Jersey, this 2d Day of April, 1776. Animated with Zeal and Love for the Good of our Country, at the same time paying due abeyance to, and having the highest esteem for, the British Parliament, &c. In order to shew out public Disapprobation to the last Act of Parliament, to wit, The Stamp Act; therefore, We, the Sons of Liberty, do unanimously enter into the following Resolves:


"Ist. We acknowledge King George the Third, to be our right- ful and only Sovereign, and we will, to the utmost of our Power, support, maintain and defend, all his just and legal Rights of Government.


"2d. That we will to the utmost of our Powers, support, main- tain and defend, all our Rights and Privileges as English Subjects.


"3dly. That the Act called the Stamp Act, is by us deemed unconstitutional, and destructive to our sacred Rights and Privi- leges; and that we are resolved to oppose it to the utmost of our Powers, if the glorious cause of Liberty requires it.


"Ithly. That we will, with all our Might, join with the several Towns and Counties, in this, and the several neighbouring Prov- inces, and all others who are the true Sons of Liberty, to uphold and ever maintain that near and dear Friend Liberty, as far as our Might, Influence and Power extends.


"5thly. That a Committee be appointed to correspond with the committees of this and the neighbouring Provinces, to consult on the properest Measures to prevent the said Stamp Act from taking place; and that these, our Resolves, be made public.


"6thly. That we will, from time to time, as much as in our Power lies, keep and maintain his Majesty's Peace and good Order in our respective Stations.


"7thly, and lastly. That we do hereby proclaim ourselves the true Sons of Liberty, and firmly join ourselves in the solemn Union


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with the Rest of our Brethren in this and neighbouring Provinces, to hold and maintain our dear Friend Liberty."


Similar resolutions were adopted by the "Sons" of Hunterdon County about a month previous to the adoption of those given above, and concluding:


"At the same time, we conceive it the indubitable Right of British Subjects to be taxed only by their own representatives, and of Trials by Juries: We are therefore of Opinion, that the Stamp Act is an arbitrary and tyrannical Imposition, that robs us of those inherent and darling Privileges, and as such, we are deter- mined, in conjunction with the rest of the free born subjects in America, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, to give effectual Opposition to its intrusion.


"We will likewise endeavour to support all Persons that pro- ceed in business as usual, without paying any Regard to said detestable Act." 2


Declarations like those quoted above were issued in all sections of the Colonies. The ring of defiance was always in them, and also the touch of deference to the Crown of England. But the warning of coming trouble was there, although only a minority in Parliament could hear it and understand its portent.


THE NEW JERSEY ASSEMBLY AND THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS.


On June 16, 1765, three months after the passage of the Stamp Act, a circular letter, which had originated in Massachusetts and which called for the appointment of deputies from the Assemblies of the several Colonies, to attend a congress to be held in New York on the first Tuesday in October of the same year, was sub- mitted to the New Jersey Assembly. It was the last day of the session. The letter called upon the speaker of the Assembly to name three deputies to the Congress. The speaker, Robert Ogden, of Elizabethtown, which was then in Essex County, first favored the selection of deputies as urged in the letter from the Massa- chusetts Legislature. Then he changed his mind. Some said at the time that Ogden was influenced to reconsider by the Governor of the Province, William Franklin, natural son of Benjamin Frank-


2 New Jersey Archives. First Series. Vol. xxv, pp. 71, 72.


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lin. At all events Franklin announced that the Assembly had decided "unanimously, after deliberate consideration, against connecting on that occasion."


The attendance in the House at the time was meagre, and the delegates present were chafing and anxious to get away to their homes. The deputies were not chosen. No such sentiment as that given out by Franklin could ever be found on the minutes, and there was a widespread belief that he manufactured it to suit his ends as a loyal governor of the Province.


No sooner did the Assembly delegates return to their constitu- ents, however, than they found themselves in hot water. The demand that New Jersey send representatives to this, the first Congress in America, was loud and insistent, showing that the opposition to the Stamp Act was not the work of a few turbulent characters. Richard Stockton urged speaker Ogden to re-convene the House. A few days later the Assembly was forced by public opinion to gather in special session to select deputies, and Speaker Robert Ogden, of Essex; Hendrick Fisher, of Bound Brook, and Joseph Borden, son of the man for whom Bordentown was named, were chosen. Fisher, it is interesting to know, was of foreign birth, a German from the Rhine Country, in the Lower Palatinate, and a fearless patriot.


Nine colonies were represented at the Congress. New Hamp- shire and Georgia sent assurances of sympathy in the movement. Virginia and North Carolina were unrepresented, because their Legislatures had not been in session for some time previous and could not therefore appoint deputies.


THE CONSERVATISM OF OGDEN OF ESSEX.


Ogden of Essex, New Jersey, and a deputy from Massachu- setts, were the only ones who refused to sign the declaration of rights and petition drawn up by the Congress, because they were to be forwarded to the King. These two contended that the docu- ment should be submitted to His Majesty by the Assemblies of the several Provinces. The declaration was sent to the King, however.


· S


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and the Stamp Act was repealed, March 18, 1766. Thus the Colonies began to learn that it was sometimes profitable to show spirited and fearless resistance to oppression.


The main principles laid down in the petition to the King were: That the colonists were entitled to all the rights and liberties of subjects born in England. That the colonists should be taxed like other Englishmen, by their own representatives only, and as the colonists could not be represented in England they should not be taxed there but at home. It was contrary to the constitution of England for the colonists to have their property given to the King by any but their own legislatures. That it was the right and privilege of every British subject to have the benefits of trial by jury and of petition.


OGDEN BURNED IN EFFIGY AT ELIZABETHTOWN.


When Robert Ogden returned to Elizabethtown after the Congress he found that instead of being the most popular man in the Province, as formerly, he was now the object of rage akin to hatred. He promptly resigned the speakership of the Assembly. He was burned in effigy at New Brunswick 3 and other indignities


" The radicals In New Jersey worked themselves into a state bordering upon frenzy over Ogden's stand. The following undoubtedly refers to him und proves most forcibly that there have been periods of popular hysteria before our own time:


"New Brunswick, October 29, 1765 .- This morning, on an eminence in this city, was hung the effigy of a wreich, who on a late solemn occasion, subtilly proenred himself an employment | delegate to the Stamp Act Con- gress} and at once shewed the wickedness and dirtiness of his head, and the vlleness and ranconr of his heart, by basety betraying that Important trust. Papers denoting his horrid crime were atlixed to his breast, and from his mouth hung labels expressing such words and sentiments as may well be supposed to come from the lips of such an abandoned miscreant in his last moments. The figure is to hang all day, and in the evening will be atiended by all true sons of freedom, to a funeral pile erected on the common, where it will be reduced to ashes, amidst the acclamations of the beholders.


"May such be the fate of every vile traitor, in whatever sphere they move! may they live despised! die unpitied! and if they are remembered, let that remembrance only increase the detestation of posterity.


"This signal act of justice ( tho' we own the object almost too low for resentment) will, however, we think, evince to the neighboring colonles, that neither the dirty Insinuation of pimps and panderers nor the frown of power, have been as yet able to extinguish the spirit of liberty in the province of New Jersey."


See New Jersey Archives, First Series, vol. xxlv.


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were heaped upon him. He was grossly misunderstood. His attitude was to an extent typical of that of many of the leading men in Essex County at that time, which no doubt accounts in great measure for the absence of any "Sons of Liberty" group in Newark or elsewhere in Essex County so far as the old records show. Ogden, whatever may have been his personal feelings, felt, as a representative of New Jersey, that as his Province would be affected less than most of the others by the Stamp Act, since it had almost no industries, it should proceed cautiously in those stormy times, and not plunge head-long into a sea of difficulties from which it might emerge disastrously. Apparently he, and many of the men of Essex, felt that the times were not ripe for such high-tempered proceedings as those going on all about them. They were loyal to the King and to England and they were deeply distressed that a faction hostile to the colonies held the reins of government in England.


A few years later, when the crisis really came, Ogden at once became active in the cause of the country, serving on several patriotic committees. His son and his two sons-in-law were officers in New Jersey regiments in the Continental Army, while others of his former colleagues in the Assembly, including Courtlandt Skinner, who had succeeded him as Speaker, headed bands of mili- tant Tories and fought to uphold the King. Ogden was not of that large number of Essex County folk who refused to join their neighbors in open opposition to Great Britain, but rather of the party that declined to respond to popular clamor until it had weighed all the possibilities of a decisive step. Like many of his type in Essex County he was of great value to the cause of his country, once the war began.


THE TEA TAX-GLOOM AT PRINCETON.


The repeal of the Stamp Act brought but a lull in the gather- ing storm. Parliament accompanied the repeal with a declaration of the right to tax the Colonies. The Townshend act, adopted by Parliament in 1767, imposed duties on tea, glass, paper and painters'


2


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colors imported into the colonies from Great Britain. It was thought in England that the colonists would not object to such a tax since it was to be imposed within the colonies, not from without, at the ports of entry. But it was simply just so much more fuel to the fire. About the same time the colonial governors were directed by the ministry to have the Legislatures prepare and maintain barracks. New Jersey promptly agreed to do this and barracks were provided at Perth Amboy and Elizabethtown, but the colony continued, like all the others, firmly opposed to the tax on tea and other commodities. Parliament was forced to remodel the Townshend act, and in 1770 took off the duty on everything but tea, on which the colonists were to pay a tax of three pence a pound. But the principle remained the same: it was still "taxation without representation." The people were not to be fooled by any such sugar-coated pill. The merchants maintained the non- importation policy inaugurated when the Townshend act was first put in operation, all except a group in New York who in the early summer of 1770, sent orders for all the articles from which the duty had been removed. Their action roused the wrath of the people in all the other colonies. In New Jersey, the students of Princeton, among whom was James Madison, later to become President of the United States, put on their black gowns and gathered on the college green. There they burned the letter telling of the act of the New York merchants, while the church bells were tolled. .


NEW JERSEY'S "TEA BONFIRE."


In March of the same year the Boston Massacre had occurred. In December, 1773, came the "Boston Tea Party," while on November 22, 1774, New Jersey had a "tea bonfire." A few days before, a vessel from England laden with tea had entered Cohansey Creek and its cargo had been landed, at Greenwich, in Cumberland County. Forty men, in Indian garb, like their brethren in Boston,


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piled up the tea chests in a field and set the torch to them.+ It was the first physical act of rebellion in the Province. All efforts to punish the tea burners were foiled.


Inter-colonial Committees of Correspondence, by means of which the several Provinces could keep well informed of the progress of events in each of the others as well as in England, were inaugurated, at the direct instance of Virginia, in 1774, but with Massachusetts Bay as the real inspiration for their being. That Province formed such committees in its territory, in 1772. On February 8, 1774, the Assembly of New Jersey appointed a "standing committee of correspondence" from its members. Among its members was Stephen Crane, of Essex, a resident of what is now Glen Ridge, a descendant of Jasper Crane, one of Newark's founders, and on his mother's side from Robert Treat, the leader of the Newark settlers.


ESSEX COUNTY TAKES THE LEAD.


The first local committee of the sort to be formed in New Jersey, so far as is known, was organized at a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of lower Freehold, Monmouth County, on June 6, 1774." The first county to make such provisions, as well as to attend to other matters of great moment, was Essex. as will be shown later in this chapter. Unfortunately, records of these early meetings at which the Committees of Correspondence were chosen are hard to find, apparently not being considered at the time of sufficient importance to preserve. 'Enough is known, however, to show that the protests against the tyrannies of the


* One of the chief substitutes for tea used by the Colonists was a small shrub (ceanothus Americanus), belonging to the Buckthorn family and known throughout the colonies as "New Jersey tea." Just why New Jersey was thus honored does not appear, for the plant grows as far north as Canada and down as far as the Gulf of Mexico. If the people of New Jersey were the first to use it in place of tea, the writer has not been able to find any record of the fact.


" Lee's New Jersey as a Colony and as a State. Vol. ii, p. 48.


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British ministry first took tangible form in East Jersey, and from this section as the focal point steadily permeated to every section of the Province.


The township and county committees of correspondence were unsanctioned by the constituted authorities of the Province. The meetings which created the committees drew their first incentive out of the old town meeting system, which was dominant in the affairs of all East Jersey, and nowhere more deeply rooted than in Newark. They were, of course, subordinate to the Provincial committee. Later Committees of Safety were formed to look after the conduct of the rising revolt in each neighborhood.


England's reply to the "Boston Tea Party" was the enactment of the Boston Port Bill and four other measures, all exceedingly offensive to the colonies. The port bill closed Boston harbor to commerce until the town should pay for its "tea party," reimburse the East India Company for the loss of its tea, and until the town should virtually say it was sorry and promise not to offend in similar manner again. General Gage was ordered to Boston, and closed the port, on June 1, 1774. Thus were the colonists brought to the wall. They felt that a condition little short of slavitude faced them. There was nothing left but to submit, or fight. Almost instantly a voice came out of the Colony of Virginia: Colonel Washington stood ready to raise one thousand men to defend the cause of liberty, and to take the field at the head of his regiment.


AN EPOCH-MAKING NEWARK MEETING, JUNE 11, 1774.


We shall now see how Newark and the county of Essex met the situation. Seven days after the Boston Port Bill went into effect the following call to action, issued by the local Committee of Correspondence, was issued:


"All the inhabitants of Essex in New Jersey, friends to the constitution, the liberties and properties of America, are hereby notified and desired to meet at the court house, in Newark, on Saturday, the eleventh of June, instant, at two of the clock in the afternoon, to consult and deliberate and firmly resolve upon


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the most prudent and salutary measures to secure and maintain the constitutional rights of his majesty's subjects in America. It is therefore hoped that from the importance of the subject, the meeting will be general.


"Signed by order, at a meeting of a number of the free holders of the county of Essex, the seventh day of June, 1774.


John De Hart, Aaron Ogden."


The meeting was held, and it struck the keynote of the situa- tion for the whole Province. It called for the selection by the people of the several counties of delegates to a Congress, the first Continental Congress. It was the first county meeting to that end in all New Jersey, and it was held in the court house, opposite the present First Presbyterian Church, the same building where the first sons of Princeton College are believed to have assembled for some of their recitations, and around which the land riots had raged intermittently for half a century. Here, the preamble and resolutions which were to crystallize New Jersey's sentiment of protest against tyranny were adopted on that day :


ESSEX'S CALL TO HER SISTER COUNTIES.


"At a meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Essex in the Province of New Jersey at Newark in the said County, on Saturday the 11th day of June, 1774; This meeting taking into serious consideration some alarming measures adopted by the British Parliament for depriving his Majesty's American subjects of their undoubted and constitutional rights and prin- ciples, and particularly the Act blockading the port of Boston, which appears to them pregnant with the most dangerous conse- quences to all his Majesty's Dominions in America, do unanimously resolve and agree:


"1. That, under the enjoyment of our constitutional privi- leges and immunities, we will ever cheerfully render due obedience to the Crown of Great Britain, as well as full faith and allegiance to his most Gracious Majesty King George the Third and do esteem a firm dependence on the Mother Country essential to our political security and happiness.


"2. That the last Act of Parliament relative to Boston, which so absolutely destroys every idea of safety and confidence, appears to us big with the most dangerous, and alarming consequences,


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especially as subversive of that very dependence which we should earnestly wish to continue, as our best safeguard and protection ; And that we conceive every well-wisher to Great Britain and her Colonies is now loudly called upon to exert his utmost abilities in promoting every legal and prudential measure towards obtaining a repeal of the said Act of Parliament, and all others subversive of the undoubted rights and liberties of his Majesty's American subjects.


"3. That it is our unanimous opinion, that it would conduce to the restoration of the liberties of America, should the Colonies enter a joint agreement not to purchase or use any articles of British Manufacture, and especially any commodities imported from the East Indies, under such restrictions as may be agreed upon by a general Congress of the said Colonies hereafter to be appointed.


"4. That this county will most readily and cheerfully join their brethren of other counties in this Province, on promoting such Congress of Deputies, to be sent from each of the Colonies, in order to form a general plan of union, so that the measures to be pursued for the important ends in view, may be uniform and firm; to which plan, when concluded upon, we do agree faithfully to adhere and do now declare ourselves ready to send a Committee to meet with those from the other counties, at such time and place. as by them may be agreed upon, in order to elect proper persons to represent this Province in the said general Congress.


"5. That the freeholders and inhabitants of the other counties in this Province be requested speedily to convene themselves together, to consider the present distressing state of our public affairs; and to correspond and consult with such other Committees as may be appointed, as also with those of any other Province; and particularly to meet with the said County Committees, in order to nominate and appoint Deputies to represent this Province in General Congress.


"6. We do hereby unanimously request the following gentle- men to accept of that trust, and accordingly do appoint them our Committee for the purpose aforesaid, viz: Stephen Crane, Henry Garritse, Joseph Riggs, William Livingston, William P. Smith, John De Hart, John Chetwood, Isaac Ogden and Elias Boudinot, esquires."




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