USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume I > Part 14
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In the presidential election of 1836 the electoral vote of New Jersey was in the hands of the Legislature, for the reason that by an Act of Congress the election of the electors of the several States should take place thirty-four days prior to the meeting of the electoral college, which was fixed in 1836 on December 7th. The New Jersey State Legislature by an act passed in 1807 required the presidential election to be held the first Tuesday in November, this being in 1836 thirty-six days before the meeting of the electoral college. This difficulty also occurred in 1808, when the responsibility devolved on the Legislature. The New Jersey electoral vote in the thirteenth presidential election was cast for Harrison and Granger, the candidates of the Whig ticket. The Whig nominee for council, George T. McDowell, received a majority of only twenty votes. Three of the Van Buren candidates, William C. Alexander, Thomas Edgar and Samuel C. Johns, with George P. Molleson, an anti-Jacksonite, were elected to the Assembly. The county went for Harrison and Granger by a majority of two hundred and fifty.
In the presidential election of 1820 the Democratic party strived to elect Van Buren for a second term. The Whigs presented their defeated presidential candidate of 1836. There was unprecedented excitement during the campaign, and more attention was bestowed upon politics and the numerous questions at issue than had ever been the case at any previous time. There was hardly a definable limit to the conventions, the speeches, the political phamphlets, the newspaper engineering, on the thousand topics which were brought forward and debated at the time. The "hard cider" campaign with its log cabins fully supplied with barrels
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of cider all over the country, in hamlets, villages and cities, marked an important epoch in the political history of the United States. Van Buren as candidate of the Democratic party carried only seven States-New Hampshire, Virginia, South Carolina, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas, the Whigs being triumphant in every State north of the Mason and Dixon line with the exception of those mentioned above, and gaining victories in some of the Southern and border States. In Middlesex county, though prodigious efforts were made by the Administration party, a full Whig delegation was elected to the Assembly. Harrison and Tyler received a majority of 310 votes, which was a gain of 159 over the majority given Harrison and Granger.
In the campaign for the fifteenth election for President, the Whigs were handicapped by the administration of affairs by President Tyler, who by the death of General Harrison filled the executive chair. They presented as their candidate Henry Clay, who received the cognomen "The Friend of Popular Rights." The war-cry of the Whigs was the purification of the Federal Government, the maintenance of a protective tariff, the distribution of the moneys from the sales of the public lands, the maintenance of the Union. The Democratic party was condemned for the corrupt system of making Federal offices bribes, for the destruc- tion of the existing tariff laws, the increase of taxation, the extension of territory already too vast for safe government.
The nominee on the Whig ticket for Vice-President was Theodore Frelinghuysen, a native of New Jersey, who spent the later years of his life in New Brunswick, where he died April 12, 1861. Mr. Frelinghuysen was a man of great piety, possessed of the deepest religious feelings, and was well known by the sobriquet "The Christian Statesman." He was endowed with a power of quick and determined action and the leadership of men, which secured for himself a success in the affairs of the world. He was equally successful as educator, lawyer and statesman. He had filled the position of United States Senator, and declined a seat on the Supreme Court bench of the State. After the defeat of the Whig ticket, he became chancellor of the University of New York, and in 1850 he resigned this position to become president of Rutgers College, which office he held until his death.
Middlesex county gave the Clay and Frelinghuysen ticket a majority of 304, electing a solid Whig delegation to the Assembly. The Third Congressional District, which combined with Middlesex county, Hunter- don, Mercer and Somerset counties, elected John Runk, a Whig, as Rep- resentative, by a majority of only twenty-seven votes.
The Whigs in 1848, passing over the claims of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster for their candidates, selected General Zachary Taylor as their standard-bearer. The Democrats, with a split in their ranks in New York
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State, placed in nomination Lewis Cass, his running mate being William O. Butler. The Whig candidate had distinguished himself in the war with Mexico, and the candidate for Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, was a prominent statesman of the Empire State. The split in the Democratic party, mentioned above, consisted mainly of dissatisfied politicians in New York State who met in convention at Utica in that State and nom- inated Martin Van Buren for President. The Free-soil party, consisting mainly of Abolitionists, in a convention held in Buffalo, New York, endorsed the nomination of Mr. Van Buren, selecting as their candidate for Vice-President Charles Francis Adams.
Previous to 1848 the New Jersey State elections had been held in October, and the polls for voting had been kept open two days. The presidential election in 1848 was the first time the ballots for National and State offices were cast on the same day, and the time of voting was limited to one day. A distinct opposition was made by the Clay Free Soil Whigs to the candidates for President and Vice-President on the Whig ticket, and they were even more antagonistic to their own party than they were to their Democratic opponents. The normal majority of the Whigs in Middlesex county was not, however, materially diminished. A solid Whig delegation was elected to the Council and Assembly, the majority in these bodies on joint ballot being twenty-three in favor of the Whig party. Middlesex was the banner Whig county in the State, every town giving "Old Zack" for President a majority, with the exception of South Amboy, which was carried by Cass by a majority of 211.
The presidential campaign of 1852 was devoid of any political excite- ment. Both of the great parties set aside their legitimate leaders, and turned for their candidates to those who had distinguished themselves by military exploits in the Mexican War. There was also injected into the campaign the Free-soilers, who met in convention at Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, nominating John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, for President, and George W. Julian, of Indiana, for Vice-President. Though General Winfield Scott had gained more distinction than his opponent in the mili- tary operations in Mexico, he was badly defeated by General Franklin Pierce, who received the largest electoral vote ever cast for a presidential candidate previous to this period, he receiving in the electoral college the votes of all the States with the exception of Vermont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky. The Whigs of Middlesex county, however, gave a majority of one hundred and eighty for their presidential candi- date, electing Martin A. Howell in the First Assembly District, Abraham Everett in the Second District, and Josephus Shann, a loco-foco, in the Third District. Samuel Lilly, a Democrat, member of the medical profes- sion, was elected representative to Congress.
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To the student of the political history of the country the presidential campaign of 1856 was to see the dissension between the free and slave- holding States that was afterwards to culminate in open hostilities. The waning power of the South in the United States Senate by the creation of free States in the Great West, which they had bitterly fought in the State of Kansas, curtailed the extension of slavery. The Democrats pre- sented as their candidates James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge. The newly formed Republican party had for their standard-bearers John C. Frémont, "The Great Pathfinder," and William L. Dayton, a prominent citizen of New Jersey. The political situation was further complicated by the introduction of the American party, with Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson Donelson as its candidates. This split in the ranks of old Whig party placed Middlesex county for the first time in the Demo- cratic column, her vote for President being for Buchanan 2,468, Fre- mont 1,200, and Fillmore 1,979. In the Third District, Garnett B. Adrian was elected to the Thirty-fifth Congress. The newly elected member of Congress was of French extraction ; his paternal grandfather settled in Ireland, fleeing from his native France, with his two brothers, from reli- gious persecution following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was a man of fine cultivation, remarkable for his brilliant wit and versa- tile power of conversation. He engaged in his new home in teaching, married, and reared a family of five children. Of these, Robert, the eldest, early developed an aptitude for learning that amounted to genius. The death of his parents when he was fifteen years of age changed his life as a pupil to that of a teacher. In the rebellion of 1798 he commanded an Irish company, but on account of his independent spirit gained the ill will of the government, and a reward was offered for his capture. His having been wounded by one of his men gave rise to a rumor of his death, and he eventually escaped to America disguised as a weaver. Here he became noted for his mathematical talents, and after being in charge of several academies in 1810 was called to the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy in Queen's (Rutgers) College; subsequently he was elected to the chair of natural philosophy at Columbia College. Returning to Rutgers in 1826, he accepted after three years a professor- ship in the University of Pennsylvania, of which institution he was also vice-provost. He returned to his home in New Brunswick in 1834, and from that time until his death, August 10, 1843, with the exception of three years, he relinquished teaching. Garnett B., his son, was born in New York City, December 20, 1815. After receiving a collegiate educa- tion he entered the law office of his brother, Robert Adrian, at New Brunswick, and remained in continuous legal practice until his death on August 17, 1878. He inherited the genius of his father and a good deal of his independent spirit. He was recognized by the members of the
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bar of the State as a legal light of the highest order, a favorable, ready, witty, eloquent speaker, who had few equals in the State. In politics a Democrat of the old school, he was an ardent adherent of Stephen A. Douglas. After his two terms in Congress he retired from active politics.
The campaign for the presidential election in 1860 opened with four political parties in the field. The Republicans, who had nominated Abra- ham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, declared that freedom was the nor- mal condition of all the territories, and that slavery could exist only by the authority of municipal law. The Democratic party was divided; the radical pro-slavery wing, whose candidates were John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane, declared that no power existed that might lawfully control slavery in the territories, and it was the duty of the national gov- ernment to protect the institution. The other wing of the party, whose platform assumed not to know positively whether slavery might or might not have lawful existence in the territories but expressed a willingness to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court, had for its candidates Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson. The National Constitu- tional Union party adopted as its platform, "The Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws," and declined to express any opinion upon any subject. Its candidates were John Bell and Edward Everett. The conflict waged desperately from July to November. New Jersey was the only State in the Union that presented a ticket which combined fusion electors opposed to the Republican nominees. This ticket received a majority of 650 in Middlesex county, but in the electoral college the Republican candidates received four votes, the other three being cast for the ticket headed by Stephen A. Douglas. In the Third Congres- sional District, William G. Steele, a Democrat, was elected by a majority of 2,115. The State Senate consisted of eleven Republicans to ten Democrats, the Middlesex representative being Abraham Everett, a Republican. Three Democrats-Elias Ross, James T. Crowell and Orlando Perrine, were elected in Middlesex county to the Assembly by a majority of two hundred.
Abraham Lincoln in the electoral college received the combined votes of the State north of the Mason and Dixon line, with the exception of three votes in New Jersey. Breckinridge carried all the Southern States with the exception of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, whose entire vote was received by Bell. Douglas, the idol of the Democratic party, received the three votes of New Jersey and nine from Missouri. The Republican party had won its first national victory, and the seeds were sown that was to cause slavery to be forever removed as a national issue. Grimvisaged war to take place before the consummation of this momentous question, father was to be arrayed against son, brother against brother, and the country was to be plunged into the horrors of civil war.
CHAPTER XVI. WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.
The smoke from the guns that were fired at Fort Sumter had hardly dissolved in the air when President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand militia to serve in the Union army for three months. The quota of this call for New Jersey was 3,120, or four regiments of 750 men each. The War Department also required that in addition to the regiments called, a reserve militia should be organ- ized as rapidly as possible. Governor Olden, who at this period filled the executive office of the State, issued a proclamation directing all individuals or organizations to report for duty within twenty days. The whole State rose with glorious unanimity to vindicate the majesty of insulted law. The banks pledged a fund of $451,000 to support the governor in his extraordinary expenses, of which sum the State Bank of New Brunswick subscribed $25,000. The first regimental offer was made by the First Regiment of the Hunterdon Brigade, under date of April 18, 1861. The first company actually mustered into service was the Olden Guards, a militia organization of Trenton, on April 23, 1861. New Jersey was a carnival of patriotism from one end of the State to the other; volunteers came forward so rapidly that the quota of the State was completed on April 30, 1861, and the regiments stood ready to march to the seat of war.
The four regiments were quickly mustered into a brigade known as the New Jersey Brigade, afterwards as the First Brigade. There was not in this brigade an organized company from Middlesex county.
Governor Olden selected for commander of the First Brigade, Theo- dore Runyon, a prominent lawyer of Newark, then about thirty-eight years of age, and who had for some years manifested a deep interest in military affairs. General Runyon, though not born in Middlesex county, was a descendant of Vincent Rognion, a native of France, and one of the early settlers of Piscataway township. On May 2, 1861, the brigade embarked by the way of Annapolis for Washington, and on the 6th reported to General Scott. The three thousand Jerseymen were thoroughly armed and equipped, and their arrival at the capital city was hailed with pleasure, as they could be depended on to repel all assaults. In the First Brigade of the New Jersey Volunteers, which was mustered into service under the call of the President for three-year volunteers, in the First Regiment of Infantry, Middlesex county had three full companies, C, F and G, while some of the members of companies A, B and E were from that county.
Mid-9
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First Regiment-The First Regiment, with other members of the First Brigade of three-year volunteers, left Trenton on June 28, 1861, and immediately on arrival in Virginia formed a part of General Runyon's division of reserves in the battle of Bull Run, aiding materially in cover- ing the retreat of the Union forces on that fatal day. Immediately after the battle, the regiment went into camp near Alexandria, Virginia. Major Philip Kearny, having been commissioned a brigadier-general, was put in command of the New Jersey troops. The fall and winter months were passed in camp duties. On October 15 a detachment of the First Regiment fell in with the enemy cavalry, when a brisk skirmish took place ; after emptying a number of saddles, they retired with a loss of three or four killed. In the spring of 1862 the regiment was ordered to Burke's Station, on the Orange & Alexandria railroad, to protect laborers. The First Regiment was finally advanced to Fairfax Court House, and a detachment was sent forward to Centreville, where the remainder of the regiment shortly after joined them. Thus this regi- ment that was the last to leave Centerville at the first Bull Run, had the honor of being the first to occupy the place in the second advance. The brigade in April, 1862, was attached to the First Division of the First Army Corps, was advanced to Bristow Station, and took a position two miles from Warrenton Junction, at Catlett's Station. This was a stra- tegic movement to engage the attention of the enemy while General McClellan transferred his main body of the army by transports to the Peninsula. . The First Regiment, as part of the First Brigade, abandon- ing their position at Catlett's Station, returned to Alexandria, where it embarked on steamers for the rendezvous at the mouth of the York river, thence proceeding to Yorktown, and finally to West Point, on the York river. Here the regiment was disembarked and deployed as skirmishers, and a sharp engagement took place with some of the best soldiers of the rebel army. A junction was finally effected with McClel- lan's army near the White House, whence the regiment advanced to Chickahominy, remaining in camp at this point about two weeks.
The fighting for the possession of Richmond had commenced, and on the night of May 21 the First Regiment was detailed to guard a working party. Six days later the regiment, leaving its entrenched camp on the right bank of the Chickahominy, moved down to Wood- bury's Bridge, where the brigade was formed into two lines, and though the odds of position and numbers were against them, the Jersey Blues fought steadily on until nightfall. One by one their officers were shot down, and though the day was lost, it was not the fault of the New Jersey Brigade, which went into action with 2,800 stout-hearted men, of whom but 965 wearied, scarred and dark with grime of battle, answered to their names in the solemn midnight when the morning camp was reached. In the First Regiment, Major David Hatfield was wounded, and subse-
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quently died of his injuries; Captain E. G. Brewster was killed; while Captains Way, Mount and others were wounded; the total loss of the regiment being 21 killed, 78 wounded and 60 missing. The following morning the First Brigade was withdrawn to the woods in the rear of the battlefield, where it rested until midnight, when it marched towards Savage Station, pausing to take part in the battle of Malvern Hill, and finally reached Harrison's Landing, where it found a brief respite.
In the latter part of July, General John Pope was appointed to com- mand the forces designated as the Army of Virginia, with instructions to make fresh demonstrations against Richmond from the Rappahan- nock in order to effect a diversion in favor of General McClellan's army. The First Regiment, now numbering about three hundred men, in con- nection with other regiments of the First Brigade, was sent forward by rail to Bull Run bridge, where it was supposed that there was no more formidable body of enemy than gangs of guerillas. This, however, was found to be a mistake, and the Jersey troops were confronted by the enemy's forces, who gave battle, causing sad havoc amongst their ranks. Stonewall Jackson, who was present on the field of battle, afterwards said he had rarely seen a body of men who stood up so gallantly in the face of overwhelming odds as did the Jersey troops on this occasion. By the official statement the First Regiment casualties in this engage- ment were, one killed, 47 wounded, 80 taken prisoners.
General Pope, realizing his dangerous position, pushed forward all of his available forces upon Centerville. Here General Kearny's division advanced against General Stonewall Jackson, stationed near Gainesville. At this point a large part of both armies became engaged, victory and repulse following each other in quick succession, and Pope, struggling with a hope of reinforcements that never came, was badly beaten. The army was withdrawn to a position near Centerville, where the First Brigade as a part of Franklin's Corps joined the main army. General Lee determined to harass the right wing of Pope's army, advanced General Jackson's army toward Fairfax Court House, where on the eve- ning of September Ist they were confronted by two divisions of Sumner's Corps, and subsequently by Kearny's Division, the latter closing the fight by driving the enemy from the field. The victory, however, was a costly one. General Kearny being shot dead when almost within the rebel lines, on a reconnaissance.
Here fell on the field of battle a beau ideal of an American soldier. General Philip Kearny, though not a native of Middlesex county, was descended from a family that was connected with its history in the eighteenth century. It was in 1716 that Michael Kearny, then residing in Monmouth county, purchased a lot of ground in Perth Amboy and soon after removed thither. He was originally from Ireland, and before coming to Perth Amboy had married for his second wife, Sarah, daughter
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of Lewis Morris, governor of the province of New Jersey. Mr. Kearny had not been long a resident of Perth Amboy when various offices were bestowed upon him. He was secretary of the province, surrogate, clerk of the Assembly, also of the Court of Common Pleas. His eldest son, Philip, was eminent as a lawyer, and married (first) Lady Barney Dexter, whose maiden name was Ravaud; the issue of this marriage was Philip, Elizabeth, Susannah and Ravaud. The eldest Philip resided for many years at Perth Amboy, but finally removed to Newark, locating on what was known as the Kearny homestead. There he lived until his death, and his son Philip, who married Susan Watts, succeeded to his father's estate. These were the parents of General Philip Kearny, who was born in New York City, June 2, 1815, while his mother was there visiting relatives. Graduating from Columbia College in 1833, young Kearny visited Europe, and while there was especially impressed by the manœuvering of the armies. Returning to New York, he studied law, but by the death of his grandfather, John Watts, in 1836, he inherited $1,000,000. He then turned his attention to army life, and was commis- sioned second lieutenant in the First United States Dragoons. He served through the war with Mexico, and lost his left arm at the battle of Cherubusco, being brevetted major for his gallantry. After the close of the war he built on his property, "Belle Grove," on the Passaic, a French chateau, and on the broad acres of the old homestead exercised his horses, which he had imported from Europe. At the outbreak of the Civil War, after offering his services to the United States and his native State without success, he aided in the organization of the First New Jersey Brigade. He was commissioned brigadier-general, and it was through his superb soldierly qualities and masterly drill that the First Brigade came to be noted for its wonderful efficiency and esprit de corps.
The weary and footsore soldiers of the First Regiment were not yet to find rest. General McClellan was again in supreme command, and the regiment was moved towards South Mountain, taking part in the battle of Crampton Pass, Maryland, where three brigades of the rebels under General Howell Cobb were advantageously posted. After a short but severe engagement, the rebels were routed, the First Regiment suffering a loss of seven killed and thirty-four wounded. The battle of Antietam followed in three days, and though this was one of the blood- iest and costliest of the war, the First Regiment was not actually engaged, it being stationed in a woods for forty-two hours, six of which they were exposed to a severe artillery fire. Lee with his bleeding columns, leaving his dead on the field of battle, crossed the Potomac, effecting a lodgment in Virginia and leisurely retreating down the Val- ley, awaiting the development of McClellan's programme.
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