USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume I > Part 9
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A great improvement was made in stage-coaching in New Jersey when John Mersereau in 1772 established what became known as the "flying machine" route between Philadelphia and New York, the time of passage being fixed at one day and a half. This, however, proved to be too short. and two days became the scheduled time. His machines, which combined all of the improvements known at that date, had some semblance of a coach. Mersereau established another line of stages leaving Paulus Hook every Tuesday and Friday morning at sunrise, proceeding as far as Princeton; there the passengers were exchanged for those that had arrived from Philadelphia. The rates of passage were thirty shillings for inside accommodations, outside twenty shill- ings, each passenger being allowed fourteen pounds of baggage, in excess of that amount to pay two pence a pound. By these two lines of stages leaving on different days, there was opportunity of leaving the terminal points of the route four times a week. During the Revolution, all regular lines of transportation were broken up, and when reëstab- lished at the close of the war there was a retrograde movement both as to speed and comfort.
The first public packet was established by Governor Lawrie in 1684 to carry freight as well as passengers. These packets supplied the demand of travelers until the establishment of the land routes between Philadelphia and New York, and when Perth Amboy ceased to be one of the terminals. The packets continued to run for the transportation of merchandise, but became less numerous until about 1775, when there was but one sailing ship making the trip between Perth Amboy and New York.
The use of runners and messengers for sending messages and dis- patches dates back many centuries. To Andrew Hamilton, proprietary governor of New Jersey, belongs the honor of devising a scheme by which a postoffice was established. He inaugurated a general post-
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office in Philadelphia on which he obtained a patent from the Crown in the year 1694, and which, on receipt of an adequate remuneration, he reconveyed to the government. It is presumed that the mails were carried regularly either by riders or by the wagon already mentioned. Governor Hamilton for some years acted as Postmaster-General over the infant establishment. The progress in extension of the mail routes was, however, slow, there being but few south of Philadelphia as late as 1732. In 1754 the postal affairs of the colonies were placed in the hands of Doctor Franklin, when a marked improvement took place, though for some time the only offices in New Jersey were at Perth Amboy and Burlington, they being on the direct route from New York to Philadel- phia. As late as 1791 there were only six offices in New Jersey : Newark, Elizabethtown, Bridgeton (Rahway), New Brunswick, Princeton and Trenton ; Perth Amboy and Burlington being then off the mail route. The total receipts of these six offices in that year were $530, of which sum the postmasters received $108.20. A postoffice was established at Perth Amboy in 1793 ; others soon followed throughout the county.
At the opening of the nineteenth century, the agitation for the build- ing of canals was prominent amongst the people; this, with the intro- duction of steam as to navigation, was to revolutionize transportation facilities. The Legislature of New Jersey in 1800 empowered the gov- ernor of the State to incorporate a company to shorten the navigation of Salem creek. The first waterway development of a national character was the proposition to connect the largest cities in the nation by a canal. The agitation for the Delaware and Raritan canal began about 1804, and the New Jersey Legislature of that year chartered the New Jersey Navigation Company, which proposed to join the Delaware river with Raritan bay. This effort, however, led to no direct results, and it was not until 1824 that a private company was authorized to construct the canal. A joint stock company was organized, the State of New Jersey receiving $100,000 for the privilege of building the canal; the assent of the State of Pennsylvania could not be obtained for the waters of the Delaware river, for the project, and the premium received by the State of New Jersey was returned to the company. The object of the building of the canal was to connect the coal fields of Pennsylvania with the eastern markets. There was, however, a healthy opposition to the canal project, as the building of the railroad between New York and Philadelphia was being agitated. The State Legislature of New Jersey finally on February 4, 1830, passed an act incorporating the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, and on the same day by another act brought into existence the Camden & Amboy Railroad Transportation Company.
The canal was to commence at the confluence of the Crosswicks creek with the Delaware river at Bordentown, to run northeasterly to Bound Brook, thence southeasterly following the valley of the Raritan
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river to New Brunswick, a distance of forty-three and one-half miles. It was to be fifty feet in width and five feet deep, which was amended in 1831 to seventy-five feet in width and a depth of seven feet. In lieu of a premium, the company was to pay the State eight cents for each pas- senger and the same amount for each ton of freight transported. The traffic was largely drawn from the coal regions of Pennsylvania, but its usefulness as a competitor against railroad transportation became neg- ligible in 1871, when the Pennsylvania Railroad Company acquired a 999-year lease of the property.
The era of steamboat transportation in Middlesex county was of short duration. On the completion of the Camden & Amboy railroad, Robert L. Stevens built three steamboats, the "Swan," "Thistle" and "Independence," to connect with the railroad at the eastern terminus at South Amboy, to convey passengers to and from New York. In connection with his brothers, John L. and Edwin, they placed on the Raritan many fine boats, among them the well known "Raritan," "John Nelson," and others. The regular fare between New Brunswick and Perth Amboy was twenty-five cents, but as soon as a competing line was built by James Bishop, who placed in commission the steamboat "Antelope," a rivalry between the two lines reduced the fare to six and one-quarter cents.
The multiplying of the railroads soon brought the outmost limits of Middlesex county in touch with a common center; within its area the lines of two great railroad systems traversed its surface. This, with the development of the interurban lines of trolleys and jitneys, brings the citizens of any portion of its limits within ready communication with each other. The days of steamboating and coaching are at an end, the whirling steam and electric conveyances annihilate space; inter- course of communication travels with lightning rapidity, by the use of the electricity of the air, the telegraph key, and the word of the human mouth transmitted by telephonic connections.
GILBERT STUART'S PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON
CHAPTER XII. REVOLUTIONARY DAYS.
In the days antecedent to the Revolution, the inhabitants of Middle- sex county were enjoying an era of prosperity and happiness. The hardships of the pioneer settlers of the county had been overcome, and their succeeding generations were living in a flourishing agricultural district, dotted here and there with small villages.
The modes of transportation were limited, the country roads were few and rugged. Journeys were mostly undertaken on horseback, vehi- cles being confined to heavy lumbering wagons, chaises, and gigs whose bodies sank down between two high wheels on wooden springs. Their homes were furnished with simple taste, the principal articles of fur- niture even in the best ordered household were not numerous. Many of the most costly were made of mahogany, white pine, walnut, cherry, or red cedar, the latter being a prime favorite, were used in the construc- tion of the high-backed bedsteads, chests, drawers, stands, tables and buffets. A slawbank or slabank, a name derived from the Dutch, signi- fying "sloop banck" or sleeping bench, took the place of our modern folding-bed. It was simply a cupboard with folding doors, and con- tained a bed. or more commonly a box attached to the wall by hinges holding the bedding, which was folded up against the wall by day and let down at night to serve as a bed. Occasionally it took the shape of a bench or sofa to sit on during the day, opening on hinges to form a bed by night. The housewife had her wheel for spinning wool, linen and cotton, also her loom for weaving these into cloth for the varied uses of the household. The people were respectably and comfortably clad, the men adorning themselves in breeches of leather, buckskin, worsted, homespun, stockinett, black and brown broadcloth, plush and velvet, for the winter, and for summer, linen, cotton, nankin, white dimity and drilling. Dress-coats, surtouts and great-coats were made of bearskins, buckskins, homespun, denim, wilton, camlet, broadcloth, velvet and sagatha, and a kind of serge. Cloaks and vests were made of these dif- ferent woven materials; gloves were usually of leather, cotton, home- spun and tow ; the stockings were knit of woolen, cotton and linen yarn. Boots and shoes were made of calfskin, with durable soles.
The apparel of women was still more varied, exhibiting their charac- teristic love of gay colors and beautiful fabrics. The assortment was endless, combining the useful with the ornamental. Bonnets and hoods of beaver, satin and bright colored silks and velvets, cloaks of broadcloth, white and black satin, black and blue velvet, and brilliant scarlet cloth ; dresses and gowns made of boundless variety of material-
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gloves knit of silk, also of leather ; stockings of linen, worsted and silk ; with shoes of cloth, silk and leather. In table service, china was rare as gold ; plates, platters, spoons, tea and coffee pots and tankards were made of pewter, but so brilliantly polished as to rival the richest silver in lustre. Pewter and copper were largely used in ornamentation, and from them were made basins, ewers, pint and quart mugs, porringers, ladles, tea and coffee kettles. There was but little white glassware in use ; wine glasses, salt-cellars, tumblers and punch goblets, as well as china cups and saucers, were highly prized. Looking glasses and clocks were only found in the homes of the wealthy. Stoves were not in gen- eral use, wood, charcoal and turf being the only fuel, but there were always fireplaces provided with dogs and andirons. In the kitchens the huge caverns were garnished with a forest of chains and hooks, pots and trammels swinging on iron cranes, the fires being fed with great logs from four to six feet in length.
The comforts of life were not forgotten. The men of these days were liberal providers as far as the creature comforts of food and drink were concerned. In the cellars were stored barrels of pork and beef, sides of bacon, carcasses of venison and mutton. Roasting pigs, ducks, fowls, turkeys and geese, were raised in great abundance, while the menu was often supplied with wild fowl, corn and beans. The water course furnished shad and herring plentifully in their season, and were laid down by the barrel and hogshead for winter use.
The farms produced wheat, rye, buckwheat, Indian corn, potatoes, beans, turnips and other vegetables. From the orchards came a great wealth of apples, cherries, peaches and pears. Every household was supplied with butter, lard, eggs, molasses, sugar and honey, the last being common, as every farmer had his hive or more of bees. The common beverages were tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate; the apples furnished cider, while metheglin was made from the honey. Nor were the stronger alcoholic drinks lacking; the hospitable host could offer from his wine cellar to his guest or a tired traveler brandy, gin and rum, in all their variety, besides cordials and wines of all kinds. Tobacco smoked in pipe, and chewed, was a daily solace, while the gentility gen- erally used snuff. Books were rare as rubies, but the Bible or a psalm book was found in the most of families, and commonly constituted the entire library. Thus we have briefly sketched the elysium of content- ment that prevailed in Middlesex county, and that was soon to be visited by the grim visage of war.
By the treaty of Paris, France surrendered Canada, and Spain Flor- ida, to England, who thereby obtained sole control of the entire territory in North America from the Atlantic ocean westward to the Mississippi river. George III., who Green, in his "History of the English People," says "had a smaller mind than any English King before him save James
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II.," was seated on the throne of Great Britain. The Mother Country thought she had gained preeminence in renown and as the acknowledged mistress of the seas. This success had been attained by vast expenditure of moneys, and had saddled upon the country a debt amounting to £ 140,000,000. It was but natural that the suggestion of Pitt, the then prime minister, that some steps should be taken to obtain a revenue from the colonies, was popular with the Crown and the people of Eng- land. The colonies had also made sacrifices to rid themselves of the French invaders and the scalping knife and tomahawk of the Indians ; £ 16,000,000 had been spent, of which five millions had been reimbursed by Parliament, and thirty thousand of their soldiers had fallen in the struggle, either in battle or by disease. The colonies, however, were no longer weak and inexperienced; they had grown from childhood to a vigorous youth, able and willing to manifest the fact whenever it might become necessary. Though Parliament had exercised its power in regulating colonial trade for the exclusive benefit of the Mother Country, and to which the colonists had submitted, it never had attempted the levying of taxes for revenue. The English populace, heavily burdened with taxation, was in sympathy with the ministry and Parliament to tax the colonists, thinking thus to relieve themselves. This enmity was further enhanced by reports that were circulated in England that the Americans were indulging in gaiety and luxury, that the planters lived like princes, while the inhabitants of Britain labored hard for a subsistence. The returning officers represented the colonists as rich, wealthy, and overgrown in fortune. These statements were caused on account of the generous and hospitable people who since the wars were terminated, and having no further apprehension of dan- ger, the power of their late foe in the country being totally broken, indulged themselves in many uncommon expenses to honor those who had contributed to this security. The plenty and variety of provisions and liquors, with the borrowed use of their neighbors' silver plate, enabled them to make a parade of riches in their several entertainments. Sir Robert Walpole, prime minister of England, when it was suggested to levy a direct tax upon the colonies, declined making so dangerous an experiment, saying : "I shall leave this operation to some one of my successors who may possess more courage than I, and have less regard for the commercial interests of England. My opinion is that, if by favoring the trade of the colonies with foreign nations, they gain £ 500,000 at the end of two years, fully one-half of it will have come into the royal exchequer by the increased demand for English manufactures. This is a mode of taxing them more agreeable to their own constitution and laws, as well as our own."
Walpole's successor, George Grenville, while he doubted the propriety of taxing the colonies without allowing them representation, loved power
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and the favor of Parliament, and contemplating the immense debt of England with a degree of horror, was ready to insist upon the colonies helping to bear the burden, bringing forth the famous Stamp Act. The act proposed to impose upon the colonists the payment of a stamp tax on all bills, bonds, notes, leases, policies of insurance, legal papers, etc., and afterwards by resolutions, additional duties on imports into the colonies from foreign countries on sugar, indigo, coffee, etc., it being openly avowed that the object in view was to raise a revenue for defray- ing the expenses of defending, protecting and securing His Majesty's dominions in America. To enforce the provisions of the act, penalties for violating it and all other revenue laws, might be recovered in the admiralty courts presided over by judges dependent solely on the King, without the intervention of a jury. The act and resolutions passed the House without a division, it being resolved "that Parliament had the right to tax the colonies." The colonial agents in London forwarded the resolutions to their respective colonies. When the intelligence reached America, it was regarded as the commencement of a system of oppression which if not vigorously resisted would eventually deprive them of the liberty of British subjects. The colonial Houses of Repre- sentatives openly defied the right of Parliament to pass unjust tax laws, and they were vigorously denounced by Samuel Adams and James Otis in Massachusetts, and the prophetic words of Patrick Henry resounded throughout the colonies. The agitation in America increased ; private citizens, members of public and corporate bodies, asserted that Parlia- ment had no right to tax the colonies. Political circles and clubs were formed ; the subject of all conversations was the fatal tax. On October 7, 1765, committees from nine of the colonies assembled in New York, and in the course of a three weeks' session a declaration was made as a birthright of the colonists-among the rest, the right of being taxed only by their own consent. A petition to the King and memorials to each house of Parliament was prepared, in which the cause of the colonists was eloquently pleaded. Robert Ogden, one of the New Jersey dele- gates, withheld his signature on the plea that the petition and memorials should first be approved by the several colonial assemblies, and he was afterwards buried in effigy by the people of New Jersey for this action.
November 1, 1765, was the day appointed for the Stamp Act to go into operation. Ten boxes of stamps in New York were committed to the flames. An organization known as the Sons of Liberty was organ- ized, who entered into an agreement to march at their own expense to the relief of those who put themselves in danger from the Stamp Act: Collectors were mobbed and maltreated, and the Act, as far as becoming operative, became inactive. A change occurred in the English ministry, the Marquis of Rockingham became the new prime minister, and Par- liament at its session in January, 1766, turned its attention to colonial
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affairs. The Stamp Act was repealed by a vote of one hundred and five against seventy-one, and the King, who was opposed to the repeal, but loath to proceed to force, gave his consent March 19, 1766. Thus the colonists scored the first victory for American independence.
The contumacy of the colonists greatly annoyed the King and min- istry. Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, of a new ministry under the nominal leadership of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, introduced to Parliament a new scheme of taxation based upon his chief's distinction between a direct tax and commercial imposts for regulating trade; thence he proposed to lay a duty upon teas imported into Amer- ica, together with paints, paper, glass and lead, which were articles of British production, the alleged object being to raise a revenue for the support of civil government, for expenses of a standing army, and for a permanent salary to the royal governor. This bill passed Parliament with little opposition and received the royal assent. These acts were received with no favor in America, and excitement was rekindled. A party sprang into existence to resist in the name of right and national honor. The taxes were light and imposed no burden upon the colonists, but they felt more keenly the wrongs which affected the mind, and could feel no repose while honor was unsatisfied. The English ministry dreaded any step which seemed to encourage a prospect of a cause of action on the part of the colonies. The presence of the newly appointed officers for collecting the custom house duties did not tend to allay the excitement of the public mind. The excitement was enhanced at Boston by the quartering of two British regiments in their midst, which finally led to the Boston Massacre. Lord North, on becoming prime minister, forwarded a motion to Parliament to repeal the whole of the Townshend Act, except the duty on tea. This was retained in order to let it be seen that the right of taxation was never to be given up.
The excitement among the colonists was maintained by popular meetings and discussions. The trouble was augmented by making the governors and judges independent of the provinces, the injustices and insults heaped upon Franklin by Parliament, and the irritating course of the English ministry. These grievances all tended to urge on the Americans to proceed to extremities. The attempt to force upon the colonists cargoes of tea brought matters to a crisis. Vessels were loaded with the commodity and dispatched to various colonial seaports. Public meetings were held protesting against this action, in which it was resolved that "whosoever shall aid or abet in unloading, receiving or vending tea" was an enemy of his country. The cargo destined for Boston was thrown overboard in Boston harbor ; that for New York was dumped into the river, and the captain of the vessel was sent back to England. The captain of a vessel with a cargo destined for Philadelphia stopped four miles below the city, and deeming it most prudent, returned
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with his cargo to England. At Charleston the teas were landed, but were stored in damp cellars, where they soon spoiled.
These acts of the colonists aroused the indignation of Lord North and on the assembling of Parliament, March 7, 1774, he presented a message from the King advocating the adoption of resolutions for pun- ishment of the unwarrantable practices carried on in North America. This was the cause of the passing of a bill for the immediate removal of the custom house officials at Boston, and to discontinue the landing and discharging, loading and shipping of goods, wares and merchandise, at that town or within its harbor, commonly known as the Boston Port Bill. Another bill for the better regulating of the government of Massa- chusetts Bay was practically a complete abrogation of its charter. A third bill provided that any person indicted for murder or any other capital offense committed in aiding the magistracy, the offender could by the governor be sent to another colony or to Great Britain for trial. The fourth bill provided for the quartering of troops in America; and the fifth, known as the Quebec Act, placed the Roman Catholics and Protes- tants on an equality, that confirmed to Roman Catholic clergy their extensive landed property, allowed the administration of justice to be carried on by the old French law, created a legislative council to be named by the Crown, and enlarged the boundaries of the province as far as the Ohio river. It was most likely owing to these judicious measures that the Canadians declined taking part subsequently in the open resistance which the other colonies organized against England.
These acts of Parliament were received by the colonists with strong expressions of determined opposition. Boston naturally became the head center of the revolt, and addresses assuring their support were sent by the other colonies to its committee appointed for that purpose. The subject of a General Congress of the colonies was agitated, and town meetings were held advocating the organization of such a body. The first held in New Jersey was a county meeting at Newark, June II, 1774. This was followed on July 21 of that year by a political convention which met at New Brunswick. The session lasted three days, and among the resolutions adopted was a recommendation for the appointment of a General Committee of Correspondence for the whole colony, with author- ity to call a Provincial Congress when in its judgment it should become necessary.
The first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. It consisted of fifty-three delegates, and all the colonies were represented with the exception of Georgia. The delegates had generally been elected by the authority of the provincial legislatures, but in New Jersey they were chosen by a committee chosen in the several counties for that purpose. The New Jersey members to the First Continental Congress were James Kensey, Stephen Crane, William Livingston, John
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