USA > New Jersey > Documents relating to the revolutionary history of the state of New Jersey, Vol. III > Part 28
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two extremes in republican governments, which it behoves us care- fully to avoid. The one is, that noble birth, or wealth and riches, should be considered as an hereditary title to the government of the republic. Wisdom and virtue, the two necessary qualifications of good civil rulers, are no hereditary endowments of human nature. The very titles of honour and wealth expose such to the danger of oppress- ing others for their support. Was it necessary, I could prove these assertions by incontestable arguments. The other extreme is, that the government be managed by the promiscuous multitude of the com- munity, as in some of the states of ancient Greece. The many imperfections incident to human nature, will ever prevent the majority of every nation to be fitly qualified to manage civil govern- ment. Comparatively few are fit to direct the great machine of state. The multitude, though honest, yet from many natural defects, are generally in the execution of government, violent, changeable and liable to many fatal errors .- The happy medium is, where the people at large have the sole power of annually electing such officers of state as are to be entrusted with the most invaluable rights, liberties and properties of the people, and the appointment of the executive author- ity under their proper controul .- America enjoys an opportunity, which no other nation ever had, and that is that of coolly and delib- erately forming constitutions for their civil government, without fear of offending a powerful nobility, or dreading the displeasure of a mili- tary despot .- Thus have the civil constitutions of the thirteen United States been formed, and according as this important business has been committed to men of skill, integrity and prudence, they have suc- ceeded.
I have carefully perused the Constitution of New Jersey, and com- pared it with some of the other states, and I humbly conceive the compilers have happily hit upon the requisite medium. Give me leave, my fellow-citizens, to show this in a few particulars, for some reasons I have in view. Our Legislature is annually to be appointed on a fixed day, only by the free voices of the people. And in order to give the community an opportunity of improving by the wisdom and learn- ing (which are generally on the side of the rich and wealthy ) without exposing them to danger, this Legislature is divided into two branches ; the most learned and rich being thus generally chosen in the Council, will not have that opportunity by subtility and sophistry, to mislead the more unlearned, though honest, in the Assembly, to betray the common interest to their private emolument, they would have, were they mixed with them in one body. All money matters and impeachments for mal-administration, are for that reason com- mitted to the Assembly .- Because the duty of civil officers is to execute the laws upon subjects, and mostly upon their neighbors and acquaintances, it is evident what tendency it would have to relax the most wholesome and necessary laws, in case those magistrates were to be elected by these their neighbours: Therefore their appoint- ment is committed to the joint body of the people's Representatives.
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These hold their commissions on good behaviour, during certain fixed periods, at the expiration of which, they may be renewed or not, as their merit shall require. The different periods are suited to the necessary trials. This gives a continual check on mal-administra- tion, and a spur to a proper discharge of duty. Though prejudices, derived from our former very different constitution, may urge reasons in favour of judges being independent, both as to their offices and salaries, yet their conclusions will by no means hold good in our present constitutions. I acknowledge they ought to be independent of the individuals whose cases they are to judge; but hence does not follow that they ought to be independent of the community at large, whose interest they are bound to promote, by an impartial distribu- tion of justice. As a further precaution, it prohibits all persons from holding offices of profit in the state from a seat in the Assembly, the branch to which care of the public money is committed. I wish it had been more explicitly prohibited that judges should have any seat in our Legislative Council; because-judges of the laws ought to have no hand in framing them.
Such constitutions, formed by persons appointed and empowered by the people for that purpose, being published and generally approved by the community, become sacred and inviolate. No Legis- lature ought to presume to alter or amend one single article in them : And any bill enacted contrary to the constitution, I humbly conceive to be no law.1 For the constitution is, as it were, the chartered right both by which they enjoy and exercise their power, and the people hold their rights, privileges, liberties and properties. Thus, if our Legislature should permit one member to take a seat in the House of Assembly, who at the same time holds an office of profit within the state, I doubt whether any law enacted while such member holds his seat, is binding upon the subjects ; because they thereby counteract the very authority by which they enjoy their Legislative capacity, and undermine the very barrier of the people's safety. And if they lawfully may do it in one instance, they may in a thousand. At what a precarious tenure then should we hold our most sacred rights and privileges ? Defects in constitutions may be altered and amended, but it must be done by the original power of the people.
Having premised these remarks. I beg leave humbly to address myself to the Honourable our Legislature. Gentlemen, this machine
1 This principle was established in New Jersey in the famous case of Holmes v. Walton, tried before a justice of the peace on May 24. 1779, and a jury of six men. under a recent statute, although the constitution of 1776 expressly provided that the right of trial by jury should be forever preserved. On certiorari to the Supreme Court, that tribunal, after long delay, reversed the judgment below. September 7, 1780. holding that the statute was contrary to the constitution, and was therefore null and void, as the right of "trial by jury" meant a jury of twelve men. See a very full account of the case. by President Austin Scott, of Rutgers College, in American Historical Review, IV., 456.
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of state is given unto you by your constituents, not to amend and new form it, but to preserve it inviolate, and pursuant to it, pro- mote as much as possible the interest and happiness of this people. Permit me to remind you on this occasion of a leading principle in good policy, that is, that the Legislature of a state be particularly careful to support and encourage those principally employed in the staple commodities for trade, on which the well being and pros- perity of the whole chiefly depends. Trade is as it were the life and soul of civil society ; and this depends upon the staple commodities . of the nation. Hollanders are called the carriers of Europe; they chiefly subsist and enrich themselves by their shipping. Therefore shipbuilding, and the raising of sailors, is principally promoted among them. The English trade much depends upon their manufactures ; therefore these have always been chief in the view of their Legisla- ture. America is so particularly situated, that her only staple for trade is the produce of the husbandman. I feel confident that in pro- portion as these men are encouraged and supported, so will the wealth and happiness of America increase. And that from the moment these should be neglected or oppressed, directly the reverse will immediately ensue. From a full persuasion that you are sensible of this, I beg your attention to two important matters.
1. The main subject of some of my former numbers. If you will take the trouble to peruse them with attention, and properly exercise your own judgment, I think you must be sensible of a two-fold evil, which threatens this most useful class of men among us.
The first is, that in case the whole of the basely depreciated money is chiefly to be made good by taxes on husbandry, that this will be great injustice and an intolerable oppression upon them ; which will inevitably ruin some and discourage others.
2. What influence such an event would probably have upon the fundamental part of our most happy constitution. I have before observed, that if so great an over-balance of wealth was cast into the scale of the rich, it would in all probability prove the means of subverting it. I would here humbly offer a hint of an additional danger of this sort .- If you recollect that this state is a member of an extended empire, you must be sensible that any prevailing party in the Supreme Council must have great influence, either beneficial or detrimental, upon the particular members. The spirit of the different constitutions on this continent will point out to you what you have particularly to guard against. That of ours, with some others, is truly democratical; That of some borders upon Aristocracy. Hence you will find the latter always favour plans calculated for the advantage of the rich and wealthy. The former such as have a tendency to benefit the commonalty. In perusing the New-York con- stitution it appears evident to me that the powers of government are thrown into the hands of the rich and wealthy in the two cities. The manifest conduct of the merchants and traders among us, have
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fully showed throughout the course of this contest, what kind of patriots and governors the body of them are, worthy individuals excepted. From thence, I apprehend, has proceeded the maugreing of the constitution, such as it is, in favour of those citizens, by appointing members for the city and counties under the jurisdiction of the enemy, without any election of proper constituents, both in Assembly and Senate. It appears highly probable to me, that men who have thus carried their point against the commonalty in their own state, being delegated to the august Council of the empire, will endeavour to favour every scheme which may have the same tendency in the other states .- He that is in any degree acquainted with the government of nations, will be convinced that riches and wealth ever lay human nature under the strongest temptations to grasp at the reins of government; and, when obtained, to lord it over the honest commonalty in society .- Hence I would almost venture to assert, that if you enquire of your delegates you will become sensible that individuals in the Supreme Council of this empire have already discovered symptoms of such ambitious designs. I would therefore most humbly and earnestly entreat you to bend your minds upon, and earnestly exert yourselves for, the preservation and promotion of that political happiness of the community at large, for which they have contended at the expense of so much labour, treasure and blood. I would hence submit a few particulars to your most serious con- sideration.
1. Whether the delegates of the different states in Congress, being men of like passions as others, and under such powerful temptations, ought not to be narrowly and strictly watched by their respective constituents, in all the transactions of their station?
2. Whether the delegates are not, or at least ought not to be, responsible to their respective constituents for the application of the many millions of public money the expenses of the empire require?
3. Whether you are sufficiently sensible that proper measures have been pursued, throughout the course of this war, to satisfy the Legislature of the different states in the union, on this head?
4. Whether, while the confederacy of the several states is forming, you consider it safe and prudent to give to fifty or sixty representa- tives (if even we suppose them all the most virtuous) an unlimited power to raise or grant and apply any sum or sums of money, with which the different Legislatures are to have no further concerns than to be informed of, and furnish their respective quotas?
5. Whether your constituents have not some reasons to suspect that too little attention has been paid, during the confusions and convulsions of this unnatural war, to these important matters of state? And in case of former neglect, whether that does not now claim a double degree of attention to matters of such moment .?;
6. If there should be any foundation for the reports that some members of Congress dare presume to insinuate their atheistical
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blasphemy, even in the august Council; and that it is common for such, together with others, to be engaged in gaming, balls and assemblies .- Whether such conduct is to be considered as consistent with that dignity and majesty, which is necessarily required in the representative body of so extensive an empire, and best fits such members for that close attention and deep penetration which the many intricate and important concerns of a nation, involved in a calamitous war, demands; and is best calculated to procure the con- tinuation of the kind interposition of Providence in our favour?
7. Whether the base depreciation of our currency, so evidently pregnant with ruin to thousands, does not demand the most disinter- ested care and concern of the representatives of a free people, in order to prevent as much as possible, its dangerous effects to the prejudice of the community ?
8. In case a loan should be procured from Europe, whether the greatest prudence and precaution ought not to be used to make such a loan answer some valuable purpose for the common advantage of the nation, and not for the private emolument of individuals?
Permit me, Gentlemen, to offer you a few hints in explanation of the last case; I take it for granted that such a loan is intended to be procured for some important advantage to the community, and not to enable merchants and traders to attempt the importation of superfluities and luxuries of life to the amount of many millions. It is not that we want to secure to us liberty and peace, but powder and ball !- I find among men of judgment and candor that some are of opinion the loan, when procured, should be drawn for in bills of exchange; Others that it should be transported to our continent. Each opinion deserves serious consideration.
As to the former, I beg leave to observe,
1. That exchange is even now but five for one, while all the necessaries for the army are, at the lowest medium, fifteen for one.
2. That as foreign traders would have the monopoly of all these bills, they would immediately lower their value.
3. On the improbable supposition that they would not, it would undoubtedly require a considerable length of time to dispose of them. For if we suppose the whole of our emissions an hundred and thirty millions, and a loan of fifteen millions; then that at five for one will be seventy-five millions. Is it to be supposed that these traders possess of our present money seventy-five millions, and all the rest of the community, but fifty-five millions? Hence, it is evident, to every person of judgment, that it will require a considerable length of time to sell all these bills for ready money.
4. And then all what five is below fifteen the community, will lose and these traders gain.
5. In the mean-time the expences of the war accumulate upon us in proportion of fifteen for one, and that will be for the present year amount to three hundred millions; of which sum it is impossible to
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raise one quarter by tax, consequently Congress will be under the unavoidable necessity of re-issuing all the money they get for the whole loan, and to strike more instead of sinking any. Thus will the end, namely, the recovery of the value of our money, be entirely frustrated ; our national debt immensely increased ; and only a few traders enriched. Therefore this scheme must needs be highly impolitick.
It remains then manifest, that if such a loan shall prove of real advantage to the community, it must be transported to our continent. How to be applied when arrived, is another important question.
1. To exchange it dollar for dollar would be evidently calculated to give millions of public money to enrich a few favourite individuals. The persons guilty of such an action would doubtless as much deserve capital punishment as any public robber or highway-man.
2. To pay it out for the exigencies of the army would be a squander- ing of it; giving a few an opportunity to hoard it up, and leave the original evil unredressed.
3. To purchase continental money with it, I am persuaded would have this pernicious tendency, that designing men would immediately lower its value; it would be soon laid up out of circulation; and the forementioned grievances remain unredressed and rather increase.
Thus, Gentlemen, I leave you and others whom it concerns, to judge of and compare the different schemes suggested (in case a loan was procured ) with the one I have before recommended. And I hope you and those to whose more immediate management such matters are committed, may be directed to that which may prove most safe and advantageous to the community !
I have submitted the foregoing cases to your consideration foras- much as you are the representatives of a member in the grand union, who have the appointment and instructing of your delegates in Con- gress. And I leave it with you to recollect how much the safety and happiness of your constituents depend upon your judgment, prudence, integrity, vigilance and care in matters of such moment.
2. The other important subject I would beg your attention to, is. the internal government of this state, which is particularly com- mitted to your charge. Permit me, Gentlemen, to remind you
1. Of what singular advantage it is to your constituents. to be encouraged in the purchase of freeholds. I am daily more confirmed in my sentiments respecting the pernicious policy of taxing money borrowed for such purchase, which I have submitted to the considera- tion of my respectable fellow-citizens in September last. Two things in the last laws for raising money, appear alarming to me. The one is the flagrant injustice of the double tax on money borrowed and the real property purchased with it.1 The other is, the tax on this money, while bank notes are exempted. I plainly foresee if these precedents
1 This "flagrant injustice" was continued in New Jersey until 1865, and was attempted in New York in 1905.
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are drawn into practice by our future legislatures, that the generality of our farmers may henceforth bring up their children to be not free- holders, but tenants at will to others.
2. Also of your privilege and duty to exercise the powers com- mitted to you with zeal and vigour, in order to stop the present torrent of profanity and vice; the curse and bane as well of civil as of religious society .- May God give you wisdom and zeal in managing the great machine of state to your own satisfaction, and the true interest of those you represent ! is the cordial prayer of him who esteems it his greatest privilege in reality to be,
A TRUE PATRIOT.
TO AZARIAH DUNHAM, Esq
SIR,
I AM no divine, I never was a president, I never was a judge. I am, sir, a friend to the freedom and independence of America ; have frequently risqued my life, and nearly spent my all in its defence. This being my character, I trust it will not be thought impertinent if I presume to address a gentleman who is one of the assistant purchasing commissaries, and who superintends chief of the purchases made for the army in the eastern division of this state.
Whether, Sir, the author of the True Patriot will take any notice of your publication, I know not, for my part I shall be short with you, and I hope decent.
I have, Mr. Dunham, long known you : I believe I am well acquainted with your character and principles, and I cannot help smiling when I see you step forth so boldly like a champion ready to fight the battles of the immaculate tribe of commissaries and quarter- masters. I shall reserve for another opportunity what I have to say respecting the conduct of those your illustrious friends whose honesty and fidelity you can prove in a thousand instances not doubting but I shall be able to satisfy my countrymen that they have indeed been 'harpies' who have preyed upon 'our vitals.'
Did you, Mr. Dunham, or did you not, whilst acting as purchasing commissary, buy necessaries for the army and sell them again at an advanced price for your private emolument? Does not a concious blush cover your face when you read this question, and compare it with that seemingly bold honesty which appears in your famous publication in the Gazette of the 21st of April? I call upon you to answer me, whether as an officer paid by the publick, you had any right whatever to make such purchases for the advancement of your own fortune? If you answer in the affirmative, I shall not wonder that you so warmly deny the charges exhibited by the True Patriot against the gentlemen of the commissary and quartermaster depart -. ments. But, Sir, I conceive that though you may be brought to a
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disagreeable dilemma you will not be hardy enough to declare, that either a quartermaster, or a commissary of purchases, or even a DIRECTOR-general, has a right to speculate with the publick money ; or to engross those things, which by his office he is bound to buy for the army, in order to sell them either to the publick or to individuals at a more exorbitant price.
You have, Sir, declared to the world that the True Patriot has vilified the character of quarter-masters and commissaries; I trust you will on this occasion behave as becomes an honest man, and if possible defend every individual of their THOUSANDS if necessary in 'a thousand instances.' In the first place I hope you will not in your zeal for your brethren forget to do justice to your own character, so that the world may not be convinced that after all your seeming integrity you are in truth but a speculating commissary. If, Sir, you will declare to the world that you do not recollect any instance of your transgressing in the above particular, you may hear further from, Your obedient servant,
TIMOLEON.
P. S. As you are cavilierly turned out, name and all, you may think yourself entitled to a different signature from the above. You will please to be informed that when you think proper to bring the matter to an issue as above hinted, mine shall be at your service, for which purpose it is left with the Printer. T.
TRENTON, MAY 12.
We learn that on the 5th instant a fleet of about 70 sail of British vessels put to sea from Sandy-Hook, with troops on board, said to be bound to the southward.
Extract of a letter from New-Barbadoes, Bergen county, April 22, 1779.
"Yesterday evening Captain JONATHAN HOPPER, a brave and spirited officer of the militia of this county, was basely murdered by a party of ruffians from New-York. He discovered them breaking open his stable door, and hailed them, upon which they fired and wounded him; he returned to the house, they followed, burst open the door and bayonetted him in upwards of twenty places.
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One of them, named Stephen Rider, had formerly been one of his neighbors.1
"Early this morning Captain BOWMAN, of the North Carolina brigade, with a party of the continental troops and a few of the militia of this county had a smart skirm- ish with the enemy near De Groot's, about seven miles from Hoebuck, and drove them. Two of the continental soldiers and one of the militia were wounded. The loss of the enemy is not certainly known; one of them was taken prisoner and 2 or 3 were carried off dead or wounded."
Extract of a letter from Closter, Bergen county, dated May 10, 1779.
"This day about 100 of the enemy came by the way of New-Dock, attacked the place, and carried off Cornelius Tallman, Samuel Demarest, Jacob Cole, and George Bus- kirk; killed Cornelius Demarest; wounded Hendrick Demarest, Jeremiah Vestervelt and Dow Tallman, &c. They burnt the dwelling-house [s] of Peter Demarest, Matthias Bogart, Cornelius Huyler, Samuel Demarest's house and barn, John Banta's house and barn, and Cor- nelius Bogart and John Vestervelt's barns. They attempted to burn every building they entered, but the fire was in some places extinguished. They destroyed all the furniture, &c., in many houses, and abused many of the women. In their retreat they were so closely pursued by the militia and a few continental troops, that they took off no cattle.
1 Jonathan Hopper, son of Albert and Rachel (Alje) Hopper, was bap, Oct. 29, 1752. He was b. and brought up at Hoppertown (Hohokus), Bergen county, but at the time of his murder was running a grist- and saw-mill at Wagaraw, or near the Bergen county end of the present River street bridge crossing the Passaic river from Paterson to Bergen county. For a fuller account of this shocking affair, see History of Paterson, by William Nelson, I., 345-6.
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