USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 16
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As an instance of the weight which the most incidental acts of the Assembly carried at that early period of its existence, I would allude to a letter to the Moderator of 1790 from the Rev. David Rice, often called the Presbyterian pioneer, or Apostle of Kentucky, in which he states that having received from Mr. Armstrong, as Clerk of the As- sembly, a notification of the action in reference to the Collins Bible, he had procured the calling of a special meeting of the Transylvania Presbytery, "that we might be in a capacity to obey the order of the General Assembly." "Such is our dispersed situation," that it was some weeks before the meeting could convene. "After two days' delib- eration on the subject," they found that a compliance was impracti- cable, and on Mr. Rice was devolved the office of explaining the cause of the delinquency. One of the difficulties was that of sending a mes- senger to Philadelphia in time for the Assembly, to carry the advanced
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subscription money; "the want of horses sufficient for so long a jour- ney, or of other necessaries, laid an effectual bar in our way."*
There was a paper-mill in Trenton before the time of the publica- tion of Collins's Bible. In December, 1788, it was advertised by its proprietors, Stacy Potts and John Reynolds, as "now nearly com- pleted." The manufacturers issued earnest appeals for rags; in one of their publications, presenting "to the consideration of those mothers who have children going to school, the present great scarcity of that useful article, without which their going to school would avail them but little." In January, 1789, "the Federal Post, or the Trenton Weekly Mercury," printed by Quequelle and Wilson, was obliged to have its size reduced "on account of the scarcity of demy printing-paper."
* Green and Hazard MSS.
4
CHAPTER XVII.
PUBLIC OCCASIONS IN TRENTON -- NOTES.
1789-1806.
The twenty-first of April, 1789, was a memorable day in the history of Trenton. On his journey from Mount Vernon to New York, for the purpose of being inaugurated as the first President of the United States, General Wash- ington rode through the town, and was received at the Assanpink bridge in the manner which has become too familiar to require repetition here .* In the procession of matrons who met the President, was the wife of Mr. Arm- strong ; and one of "the white-robed choir" who sang the ode was their daughter, afterwards the wife of Chief Jus- tice Ewing. Washington's note acknowledging the compli- ment was first delivered to Mr. Armstrong, and read to a company of ladies at the house of Judge Smith. The auto- graph is now in possession of the family, who also preserve the relics of the arch or arbor under which the illustrious traveler. was received.1
It was formerly required that the names of all persons duly proposed as candidates for Congress should be adver- tised by the authority of the Governor. In the list of 1792 is the name of Mr. Armstrong, but from what nomination or whether with his consent, I have no information.
On the seventeenth June, 1795, Mr. Armstrong preached in Basking Ridge, at the ordination of Robert Finley and Holloway W. Hunt, when the former was installed minister of that congregation.2 In August of that year we find Mr.
* Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. v., ch. 3. Sparks's Writings of Washing- ton, vol. xii., p. 150. Irving's Washington, vol. iv., ch. 37.
(201)
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Armstrong taking a prominent part in a public meeting in reference to an expression of popular opinion on the recent treaty between the United States and Great Britain. There were, indeed, few objects of public interest, whether political or philanthropical, with which his name was not found con- nected.3 It even stands on the roll of the "Union Fire Com- pany" (instituted February 8, 1747), which included the most respectable citizens among its working members. The few minutes that are extant (1785-94) show that the clergyman's membership was more than nominal.4
When the "Trenton Library Company" was founded, in May, 1797, Mr. Armstrong was immediately among its. supporters and directors. The same interest was evinced by him in the "Christian Circulating Library," established by the excellent Daniel Fenton, in 1811.
The third General Assembly (1791) began to take meas- ures, through the Presbyteries, for collecting materials for a history of our Church in North America. The New Brunswick Presbytery directed each of its pastors to furnish. the history of his own parish, and assigned that of the vacant congregations to committees. Mr. Armstrong was appointed the collector for Amwell.
In 1792 Dr. Witherspoon and three others were ap- pointed to write the history of the Presbytery; in April, 1793 (before the discovery of the old minutes), Mr. Arm- strong reported that, "either through inattention in the first ministers and congregations, or the loss of records during the war, no documents are to be found from which to fur- nish materials respecting the first formation of congrega- tions, or the early settlement of ministers." The order, however, was renewed, and the historical committee con- tinued. In 1801-
"The Presbyteries of New Brunswick and Ohio reported that, agree- ably to order, they had drawn up histories of their respective Pres- byteries, which were produced and laid on the table."5
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On the eleventh of May, 1794, Mr. Armstrong preached at the first opening of the new church at Flemington. In 1797 he was on the Assembly's delegation to the General Association of Connecticut, which met at Windham, and again in 1806 to the same body at Wethersfield.
The enthusiasm of the Revolutionary soldier and chaplain was never wanting on the public occasions which appealed to it. The New Jersey branch of the Society of the Cin- cinnati, of which Mr. Armstrong was a member (and for a time Secretary), usually made it a part of their celebration of the Fourth of July to hear the Declaration read at his Church, in connection with devotional services. On the anniversary of 1794, according to the Gazette of the week, that Society proceeded to the Church,
"where an elegant and well-adapted discourse was delivered by the Rev. James F. Armstrong, in which the citizen, the soldier, and his brethren of the Cincinnati were addressed in a strain truly animated and pathetic, as the friends of freedom, of government, and of neutrality."6
A fast-day was observed, by appointment of President Adams, in May, 1798, on account of the warlike aspect of our relations with the French Republic. The' Trenton pastor appears to have aroused his audience on the occasion to a mode of response not common in our churches. Ac- cording to the newspaper report, the sermon,
"while it deprecated the miseries of war, yet unequivocally showed that our existence and prosperity as a nation depended, under God, on the union of our citizens, and their full confidence in the measures: adopted by our government; to which all the congregation, rising with him, said, Amen !"
A few months later there was a still more vociferous demonstration in the same place. I take the account of it from "The Federalist and New Jersey Gazette" of July 9, 1798 :
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"We should do injustice to the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, orator of the day, [Fourth of July] were we to pass in silence the universal appro- bation with which was received his animated, patriotic, and elegant address, delivered before the Order of Cincinnati, and the most crowded audience we ever remember to have seen on any former occasion in this place. One circumstance demands our peculiar atten- tion : the orator, in closing his address, observed in substance, that as in defense of the American Revolution they had pledged their honors, their lives and fortunes, to defend the American cause, it might be expected that the Government would again solicit their aid to preserve and defend her from tributary vassalage; and then called on his brethren of the Society again to join him in pledging their sacred honors, lives and fortunes to defend the government and laws of their country. With animated firmness and glow of patriotism the orator then pronounced, 'I resolve to live and die free;' to which the whole Society, as with one voice, made the response; and three animated cheers heightened the scene of sublimity and grandeur, far better to be conceived than expressed."
It appears from another column that the Cincinnati re- peated the emphatic sentence after the orator, and that "the whole military and audience" joined in the cheers, and afterwards in singing the chorus "Hail Columbia."7
Two days after this celebration Mr. Armstrong, with Generals Dayton, Bloomfield, Beatty, and Giles, as a com- mittee of the Cincinnati, presented to President Adams, in Philadelphia, an address appropriate to the politics of the day.8 .
In 1799 and several subsequent years Mr. Armstrong's health was so much impaired that he was obliged to ask for supplies for his two pulpits. There were intervals in which he was able to officiate, but during the remainder of his life he suffered severely from the rheumatic disorder contracted during his service in the camp, and he was frequently de- prived of the free use of his limbs. Among those often ap- pointed in these emergencies were President Smith, Dr. John Woodhull, Geo. Spafford Woodhull, Robert Finley, Andrew Hunter, David Comfort, Samuel Snowden, Matthew: L. Per- rine, Joseph Rue, John Hanna. In a written exhortation
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sent to the people during one of these illnesses, Mr. Arm- strong, after enumerating some of the reasons for their gratitude, said :
"Added to this, if variety of faithful preaching is to be esteemed an advantage, you have enjoyed it in a signal degree. Though I am bold to say that no congregations were less neglected in the stated administrations of the Gospel ordinances while I was well, so also during the many years of sickness and inability to preach, you have enjoyed the abundant labors of love and of friendship of my brethren in the ministry, with all that variety of faithful preaching with which the best-informed mind or the most curious ear could wish to be indulged. Paul has planted-Apollos watered."
The newspaper of Monday, December 30, 1799, preserves another instance of a communication made by Mr. Arm- strong to the people on one of the Sabbaths in which he must have peculiarly lamented his inability to be in the pulpit :
"The Rev. Mr. Hunter, who officiated yesterday for Mr. Armstrong, after reading the President's proclamation respecting the general mourning for the death of General Washington, gave the intimation, in substance as follows, by the particular request of Mr. Armstrong :9
"'Your pastor desires me to say on the present mournful occasion, that while one sentiment-to mourn the death and honor the memory of General Washington-penetrates every breast, the proclamation which you have just heard read, he doubts not, will be duly attended to; yet believing, as he does, that he but anticipates the wishes of those for whom the intimation is given, Mr. Armstrong requests the female part of his audience in the city of Trenton and Maidenhead, as a testimony of respect for, and condolence with Mrs. Washington, to wear for three months, during their attendance on divine service, such badges of mourning as their discretion may direct.' "10
Mr. Armstrong's ill health now often interrupted his habitual punctuality at the church courts; but he continued to take an active part in their work whenever present. He was one of a committee that endeavored in vain from 1803 to 1812, to obtain a charter of incorporation for the Pres- bytery-a measure that was desirable in consequence of two
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legacies (Miller's and Patterson's) that had been left to the Education Fund.11 In 1805 he was appointed to receive from the Assembly's Committee of Missions the Presby- tery's share of certain books and tracts for distribution on the seaboard of the State, and in the counties of Sussex, Morris, and Hunterdon. In June, 1804, he preached at the installation of the Rev. Henry Kollock in Princeton, and in 1810 presided at the ordination and installation of the Rev. William C. Schenck in the same church. He sat as a Com- missioner in most of the General Assemblies from the first in 1789 to that of 1815. In 1804 he was elected to the chair of Moderator, and, according to rule, opened the sessions of the following year with a sermon. The text was John 14: 16. He also preached the sermon at the opening of the Assembly of 1806, in consequence of the absence of Dr. Richards, the last Moderator. On that occasion his text was John 3 : 16, 17.
Mr. Armstrong was elected a Trustee of the College of New Jersey in 1799, and Dr. Miller observed at his funeral that, "few of the members of that Board, as long as he en- joyed a tolerable share of health, were more punctual in their attendance on its meetings, or more ardent in their zeal for the interests of the institution."
NOTES. I.
A public commemoration of the death of Washington was observed in Trenton on the fourteenth January, 1800. By invitation of the Governor and Mayor, with the Rev. Messrs. Hunter, Waddell, and Armstrong, on behalf of the citizens, President Smith delivered the oration, and it was published. The late Dr. Johnston, of Newburgh, who was then in college, relates in his Autobiography (edited by Dr. Carnahan, 1856) that a large number of students walked from Prince- ton to hear the oration. A procession was formed opposite the Epis- copal Church, from which a bier was carried, preceded by the clergy, and all passed to the State House, where the ceremonies were per-
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"formed. At a certain stanza in one of the elegiac songs, "eight beau- tiful girls, of about ten years of age, dressed in white robes and black sashes, with baskets on their arms filled with sprigs of cypress, rose from behind the speaker's seat," and strewed the cypress on the mock coffin.
II.
Some idea of the appearance and condition of Trenton at the date of this chapter may be formed from the observations of passing trav- elers.
Brissot, the Girondist, who died by the guillotine in 1793, was here in 1788. "The taverns," he writes, "are much dearer on this road than in Massachusetts and Connecticut. I paid at Trenton for a dinner 35. 6d. money of Pennsylvania. We passed the ferry from Trenton at seven in the morning. The Delaware, which separates Pennsylvania from New Jersey, is a superb river. The prospect from the middle of the river is charming. On the right you see mills and manufac- tories; on the left two charming little towns which overlook the water. The borders of this river are still in their wild state. In the forests which cover them there are some enormous trees. There are likewise some houses, but they are not equal, in point of simple ele- gance, to those of Massachusetts."*
In 1794 an English tourist says of our town: "The houses join each other, and form regular streets, very much like some of the small towns in Devonshire. The town has a very good market, which is well supplied with butcher's meat, fish, and poultry. Many good shops are to be seen there, in general with seats on each side the entrance, and a step or two up into each house." The market prices on the day of this visit were, beef 8d., mutton 4d., veal 4d. "This was dearer than common on two accounts: the great quantity lately bought up for exportation upon taking off the embargo, and the As- sembly of the State being then sitting at Trenton. Land here sells, of the best kind, at about ten pounds [twenty-seven dollars] an acre."+
The Duke de la Rochefoucault, about the same time, makes this entry in his journal: "About a quarter of a mile beyond Trenton is the passage over the Delaware by a ferry, which, though ten stage- coaches daily pass in it, is such that it would be reckoned a very bad ferry in Europe. On the farther side of the river the retrospect to Trenton is, in a considerable degree, pleasing. The ground between that town and the Delaware is smooth, sloping, decorated with the flowers and verdure of a fine meadow. In the environs of the town,
* Nouveau Voyage dans les Etats-unis, fait en 1788. J. P. Brissot de Warville. i. 148.
Journal of an Excursion to the United States in the summer of 1794, by Henry Wansey, F.A.S. A Wiltshire clothier.
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too, are a number of handsome villas which greatly enrich the land- scape."12
The celebrated French naturalist, F. A. Michaux, son of A. Michaux, sent over by Louis XVI. for botanical research, passing in 1802, gives. us this paragraph: "Among the other small towns by the roadside, Trenton seemed worthy of attention. Its situation upon the Delaware,. the beautiful tract of country that surrounds it, must render it a most delightful place of abode."13
The situation of the town seems to have something that takes the French eye. In 1805 General Moreau established his residence on the opposite bank of the river, and Joseph Bonaparte was disap- pointed in the purchase of a site adjoining (now in) the town, before he settled a few miles below.14 It may have been the reputation of the river scenery that gave the hint to the wits of Salmagundi, in the journal of an imaginary traveler: "Trenton-built above the head of navigation, to encourage commerce-capital of the State- only wants a castle, a bay, a mountain, a sea, and a volcano, to bear a strong resemblance to the bay of Naples."*
An Englishman found nothing to remark of Trenton in 1805, than an exemplification of what he calls the American "predilection for wearing boots." "At Trenton I was entertained with the sight of a company of journeymen tailors, at the work-board, all booted as if ready for mounting a horse."t
An Italian savant, crossing the State, takes time only to say: "Although Trentown is not very large, nor very populous, it is to be regarded as the capital, where the Council and the Assembly con- vene."#
III.
In the Trenton newspaper of July, 1799, is an advertisement by Mr. Armstrong, relative to a suit in the English courts. the latest report of the progress of which is given as follows in the London papers. of May, 1856:
EQUITY COURT, LONDON, MAY 7. Before Vice-Chancellor Kindersly. PARKINSON VS. REYNOLDS.
"About the middle of last century there lived in the north of Ireland a family of the name of Rutherford. Between the sons a quarrel arose, and the father, conceiving that the younger, Robert, was in
* Salmagundi, by Irving, Paulding, etc. 1807.
Travels in some parts of North America in 1804-6, by Robert Sutcliff.
# Viaggio negli Stati Uniti, 1785-7. Da Luigi Castiglioni, Milan, 1790.
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fault, chastised him. Robert Rutherford thereupon quitted his father's house, and shortly afterwards enlisted in Ligonier's troop of Black Horse. After a time he came to England, but he soon quitted the Kingdom and settled at the village of Trenton, in the United States, where he opened a tavern, which he called "The Ligonier or Black Horse.' In the course of his migrations he had married, and the year 1770 found him settled at Trenton, at the 'Black Horse,' with a family consisting of one son and four daughters. About that period there one day drove up to the tavern, in a carriage and four, an English officer, by name Colonel Fortescue. Colonel Fortescue dined at the tavern, and after dinner had a conversation in private with one of Rutherford's daughters. Within two hours after this conversation Frances Mary Rutherford had, notwithstanding her sister's entreaties, quitted her father's house in company with Colonel Fortescue. With him she went to Paris, where after a few years he died, leaving her, it is supposed, a considerable sum of money. On his death she quitted Paris and came to England; and here she married a gentleman of considerable property, named Shard. In 1798 Mrs. Shard had a great desire to discover what had become of her father's family, whom she had quitted nearly thirty years previously, and through her confidential solicitor inquiries were made of Mr. Armstrong, the Presbyterian minister at Trenton. The inquiries were fruitless-her brother and all her sisters were dead; it appeared hopeless to expect to find a Rutherford, and the matter was dropped.15 Mr. Shard died in the year 1806, and in 1819 Mrs. Shard died a widow, childless and intestate. No next of kin appearing, the Crown took possession of the property. In 1823 an attempt was made to set up a document as the will of Mrs. Shard, but it was declared a forgery. In 1846 the present plaintiff made a claim to the property, setting up that claim through a Mrs. Davies, who was alleged to be first cousin of the deceased. It turned out that Mrs. Davies was not first cousin; but further evidence having been procured, the claim was again made, through the same Mrs. Davies, who was now alleged to be a second cousin of the deceased.
The Vice-Chancellor now delivered judgment, and came to the con- clusion that as between the Crown and the claimant the latter made out a case. It was sufficiently proved that Mrs. Davies was a second cousin of the deceased Mrs. Shard; but as it did not follow that there might not be a still nearer relative than the claimant in existence, and as the evidence on this latter point was not conclusive, the matter must go back to chambers for further inquiries,"
IV.
Public morals were in such a low state in Trenton in 1804, that on the third of August a public meeting was held to consider measures for reform. Intemperance, obscenity, noisy assemblages on the Lord's
14 PRES
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day, brawling, fighting, and throwing stones in the streets were named among the signs of disorder. The causes assigned were the unlicensed selling of spirituous liquors, especially on Sunday, and "the relaxa- tion of discipline in family government." In August, 1806, Stacy Potts, the Mayor, publicly solicits Christians of all denominations, who as parents, guardians, masters or mistresses have charge of the young, to restrain them from vice and temptation. The same officer made a similar appeal to "the serious and prudent inhabitants of Trenton," in April, 1810, and trusts that the public authorities may be so assisted by the citizens "that religious people abroad may no longer be deterred from placing their children apprentices in this city, lest they become contaminated with the vicious habits which have too much prevailed among the rising generation in the city of Trenton."
V.
Half a century ago, as now, political animosity was ready to take any handle to create prejudice against an opponent. Thomas Paine was a strong partisan of Jefferson.16 Having rode up (Feb. 28, 1803) from his residence in Bordentown to Trenton, to take the stage for New York, the proprietors of both the stage offices, being Federalists, refused with strong oaths to give a seat to an infidel. When he set out in his own chaise, accompanied by Col. Kirkbride, a mob sur- rounded him with insulting music, and he had difficulty in getting out of town. The author of "Common-sense" showed neither fear nor anger, and "calmly observed that such conduct had no tendency to hurt his feelings or injure his fame, but rather gratified the one and contributed to the other."
Mr. Lyell, the geologist, gives a better account of the temper of Trenton politicians as he saw it in the processions of October, 1841. (Travels, 1841-2, vol. i, p. 82.)
VI.
The incidental reference to Mrs. Washington on p. 205, may recall a record in the Trenton newspaper of December 29, 1779: "Yesterday Mrs. Washington passed through this town on her way from Vir- ginia to Head Quarters at Morris-Town; when the Virginia troops present (induced through respect) formed and received her as she passed, in a becoming manner."17
VII.
I may add, as one of the illustrations of those times, a translation of a letter in French which I find in Mr. Armstrong's papers. The writer
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was the widow of one of the several French-Canadian Roman Catholic families who found their way to Trenton as refugees from the bar- barities of the revolution in St. Domingo. On one of the tablets in the church vestibule which contain the names of persons whose graves are covered by the present edifice, is the line "Simeon Worlock, July, 1792, 39 yr." He is said to have resided in the Kingsbury mansion mentioned on p. 46.
PHILADELPHIA, November 3, 1792.
"SIR: I leave to-morrow for St. Domingo without having the satis- faction of knowing that the marble which I caused to be made is placed on the grave of my husband. I have earnestly impressed on a mer- chant of this city named Wachsmath to spare no pains to have it fin- ished as soon as possible. I rely on his promise to give every atten- tion, but, sir, in addition to all the obligations I have already incurred, may I venture to beg you to assist me in a matter so essential to my repose, viz., when you have received the marble in which he is to be placed, to write to me to inform me. I shall not be at ease until I am sure that no strange dust shall mingle with that of the adored hus- band whom I shall lament all my life. Remember, sir, your promise that whilst you live these dear remains shall be respected. I trust and conjure you not to forget it, and to join your prayers with mine for the eternal happiness of my poor friend [mon malheureux ami] !
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