USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 14
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Professor Moses Coit Tyler, in his scholarly compend, "The Literary History of the American Revolution," justly states that the spirit of Ameri- can literature during the struggle for freedom was that of a strong man arming for war. He further shows that the period between 1763 and 1783 may be divided into three unequal but well defined parts. From 1763 to 1775 Americans, feel- ing their political safety attacked, resented the blow, but desired to keep within constitutional bounds. From 1775 to the summer of 1776 they discussed the possibilities of declaring their lib- erty, and thence until 1783 it was a struggle at any cost for the preservation of human rights. During this cycle of twenty years literary expres- sion took no less than nine forms, appearing as correspondence, private and public; State papers, as the proceedings of Congress, of the State
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1
Legislatures, and treaties; oral addresses, secular and religious, which were frequently reduced to print; political essays appearing in newspapers and pamphlets; political satires in verse modeled upon the forms used by Dryden, Pope, and Churchill; popular lyric poetry sung most fre- quently in camp and tavern; facetiæ; dramatic compositions; and prose narratives of experiences of individuals during the war, as journals, diaries, and memoranda kept during campaigns, and particularly those of Whig captives on the prison ships.
While possibly of less literary value and of less general influence than the work of more conspic- uous writers in New Jersey the contributions of Governor William Livingston had a wider cir- culation and came closer to the popular heart. Although Livingston did not remove to the colony until shortly before the Revolution he im- mediately became an integral part of his adopted home, and threw into the material and spiritual advancement of New Jersey all the vast energy of his being. Scarce had he left college, and, under the protection of a powerful family name, commenced the study of law in New York City, ere he became a candidate for literary honors. There was issued from one of the New York presses a poem of about seven hundred lines en- titled "Philosophic Solitude, or The Choice of a
WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, EL.D.
First governor of New Jersey 1776-90; born New York, Nov., 1723; educated Yale College; member New York and New Jersey bars; elected New York Assembly 1757; moved to Elizabethtown, N. J., 1773.
Delegate to Continental Congress 1771. and 1775; brigadier general" militia ITT5; succeeded William Franklin as *governor 1776; called by the British : "The Don Quixote of New Jersey"; delegate to first federal constitutional convention; declined position of minister to Holland.
Died Elizabethtown. July 25, 1790.
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While polsidi bulus, nrerty asiel and bf less general influence than the work of more conspic- uons writers in New Jersey the contributions of Governor William Livingston had a wider cir- culation and came closer to the popular heart. Although Listeaston did not remove to the colony anti shortly before the Revolution he im- midiately became av in coral part of his adopted hoge, and threw into the matisiu) and spiritual ontorebent of New Jersey wil the vast energy hip being. Beamve had he left college, and, obr The protection of a powerful family name, Poprimena.1 the study of law in New York City, era lé berare a candidate for literary honors. There was lo med from one of the New York presas a poem of about seven hundred lines en- red "Philosophic Solitude, or The Choice of a
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Rural Life," which, while constructed upon the models of Alexander Pope, contained not a little of sparkling originality.
Thence for a time, except for occasional efforts in the New York newspapers, one hears but little of the future governor until the appearance of the pamphlets of the " Westchester Farmer" in 1774-75, and the storm of controversy which they provoked. The Whig answers to these Tory pub- lications attracted the widest attention. The authorship of these Whig replies was unknown, but two men popularly shared the honor-John Jay and William Livingston.
With a wealth of Scotch acumen, a sterling, positive character, Livingston delighted in con- troversy that struck home and felled with a de- cisive blow. In the establishment of a newspaper which should be at once a vehicle for the dis- semination of military information and a tilting field where he could meet all contestants he called to his aid a Burlington Quaker, of ancient family, a strict noncombatant, but who, not fighting, would be willing to print. This was Isaac Collins, whose press in Burlington had al- ready gained a reputation. So it was upon the 5th day of December, 1777, that the first number of the New Jersey Gazette appeared, and through vicissitudes lasted until November 27, 1786. This was New Jersey's first newspaper, founded by an
John Jay, b. New York City. Dec. 12, 1715 ; grad. King's ( now Columbia) College 1766 ; admitted to the bar 1766; delegate to Congress 1775-76; drafted the New York State constitution ; chief justice 1777 ; president of Congress 1778; minister to Spain 1778 : member of the American peace commission , d. Bed ford, N. Y., 1829.
one Day
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English Quaker, sustained by a Scotch war govern- or, and supported by Whigs throughout the States. The services rendered by the Gazette were immeas- urable. By Livingston the establishment of the Gazette was thought to be one of the most effective acts of his war administration. For a year, under the pen-name of "Hortentius," Governor Liv- ingston slashed, bit, satirized, and made himself so obnoxious to the Tories that he himself said the King's party in New York would rather cut his throat for writing than for fighting.
It was designed to be printed once a week, "to contain a faithful Account of remarkable Occur- rences whether foreign or domestic," with such proceedings of the Legislature and courts of jus- tice " as may conduce to the Benefit or Entertain- ment of his Readers Essays, useful or entertaining, Schemes for the advancement of Trade, Arts and Manufactures, Proposals for Im- provements in Agriculture and particularly in the Culture of Hemp and Flax, will be inserted with Pleasure and Alacrity." Sustaining the interests of religion and liberty, treating "with disregard the intemperate Effusions of factious Zealots, whether religious or political," Isaac Collins promised to "reject every Proposition to make his Paper a Vehicle for the dark Purposes of private Malice, by propagating Calumnies against Individuals, wounding the Peace of Families and
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inflaming the Minds of Men with Bitterness and Rancour against one another."
Buried in the proceedings of the New Jersey House of Assembly are his excellency's speeches and messages, to which form of literary composition his efforts were largely directed after the members of the Legislature had pro- tested against their governor's writing for the press. One of these speeches was pronounced by John Adams to be " the most elegant and master- ly ever made in America." They are replete with Scriptural allusions-wherein the wrath of Jehovah plays no inconspicuous part, and where the vengeance of the righteous and oppressed at last seeks the destruction of the iniquitous.
Of all those who aided William Livingston in his struggle to sustain the cause of independence in New Jersey none was more distinguished than John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey from 1768 to 1794. Already famed in Scotland for his ability as preacher and publi- cist, his advent in Princeton was marked by ex- pressions of pleasure and approval from every part of the colony. Erudite, fearless, and con- sistent, whether in the pulpit or in Congress, he became surcharged with the spirit of independ- ence, and in newspapers, in tracts, or in more pretentious publications, dealt with a variety of problems, both religious and secular. While
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John Witherspoon, D.D., sixth president of the Col- lege of New Jersey ( Princeton) 1768-94; b. near Edinburgh, Scotland, Feb. 5, 1722 ; educated at Uni- versity of Edinburgh ; licensed to preach 1743; came to America in May, 1768 ; published numerous essays, sermons, and serious works; member New Jersey State constitutional convention, of the Continental Congress, of the board of war, and of the committee on finance ; d. Nov. 15, 1794.
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much of his work has perished, that which re- mains shows him to have been a man who had much in common with Livingston, and one whose type of mind was sadly needed in a day when New Jersey was yet uncertain as to her course. In the lapse of years, many of the evidences of the direct influence of John Witherspoon have been lost. Sufficient, however, remains to show that his unqualified position upon every question of policy, and his uncompromising attitude in favor of separation from the mother country, so stimu- lated the students of the College of New Jersey that, when they later struggled for freedom, the name of Princeton became synonymous with that of liberty.
" One of your pretty little curious, ingenious men- * * yet he is genteel, and well bred and is very social "-so, in brief, John Adams, writing to his wife on an August day, 1776, de- scribed Francis Hopkinson, member of Congress from New Jersey, whom he had just met in the studio of Charles Willson Peale, the Philadelphia artist.
Among Jerseymen of his time, Francis Hopkin- son, whose fame had already graced Bordentown, ' was unquestionably the most versatile. Chosen to his seat in Congress by reason of his legal abilities, and statesmanship, he had earlier de- voted himself to scientific research. In the world
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of fine arts, Francis Hopkinson composed music, was "a writer of airy and dainty songs," an artist-under his direction, Du Simitiére drew the design for the great seal of New Jersey, which design Hopkinson is said to have conceived-and a satirist, second only to that other Jerseyman, Philip Freneau, of Monmouth County.
Under the inspiration of his father, who was a most active spirit in the founding of the Col- lege of Philadelphia, now the University of Penn- sylvania, Francis Hopkinson was the first pupil upon the rolls of the institution, and was a mem- ber of its first class-that of 1760. After practic- ing law for five years he departed for England in the year 1766. Arriving in the Old World at the age of twenty-nine, he sought that society for which his artistic soul longed, being received by Benjamin West, the Quaker president of the Royal Academy, himself a Pennsylvanian, John Penn, the proprietor of Pennsylvania, and Lord North, to whom he largely owed his future ad- vancement. To the foreign favor of Lord North must be added the local influence of Francis Hop- kinson's marriage to Ann Borden, descendant of Joseph Borden, founder of Bordentown.
It was in the year 1774 that Hopkinson first appears in New Jersey politics as mandamus member of council, but in spite of temptations never faltered in the discharge of that duty he
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owed his country when he boldly signed the Declaration of Independence and afterward de- voted his pen to the cause he so much loved.
During the early months of the year 1775 ap- peared "The First Book of the American Chron- icles of the Times," which, as a scriptural parody, embracing the tea troubles, attracted a deal of attention, has been credited to Hopkinson. There is no doubt, however, as to the authorship of " A Pretty Story," by " Peter Grievous, Esq.," which was printed during the session of the Con- tinental Congress which met in September, 1774. The " Pretty Story " is a delightful bit of satire, in which the disturbed relations between the Old Farm and the New Farm-England and America -are depicted. The " Pretty Story " ends abrupt- ly, for only time could tell to what lengths the settlers upon the New Farm would be driven by the tyranny of the owners of the plantation.
In the debate upon the question of independ- ence, Hopkinson had thrown himself with fervor. As a reply, to "Cato," who was the Reverend William Smith, provost of the College of Phila- delphia, he had written a well conceived and well executed " Prophecy," in which effort he had been seconded by the contemporaneous newspaper articles of "Tom" Paine. Shortly afterward came his " Letter written by a Foreigner on the Character of the English Nation." Weighted
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down with official cares, too busy in Congress with framing the articles of confederation and the " business of the navy " to accept the position of associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, Hopkinson devoted himself to his literary labors and as Professor Tyler suggests became the apostle of political free-mindedness-neces- sary to rid Americans of their sentimental attach- ment to the crown. Toward the " military in- vaders of the country and their American allies " Hopkinson drove the shafts of his ready wit. All hope of reconciliation having passed away, Fran- cis Hopkinson sent flying through America a " series of his writings," most of which were " peculiarly characteristic of him, and of his ability to be severe without being either violent or uncivil." While Washington was retreating through the Jerseys came " A Letter to Lord Howe," and shortly afterward "A Political Catechism," a clear, succinct history of the causes of the war, and the war itself until 1777. Then for the soldiers, he wrote his "Camp Bal- lad," of which the last stanza is more than a memory:
On Heaven and Washington placing reliance We'll meet the bold Briton and bid him defiance; Our cause we'll support, for 't is just and 't is glorious. When men fight for freedom, they must be victorious.
The summer of 1777 brought the counter proc-
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WASHINGTON'S BOOKPLATE.
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lamation to Burgoyne, a peculiarly happy effort, as was his ballad dealing with the surrender of that English general.
The "Battle of the Kegs," far from being in Hopkinson's best style, gained a vast circulation. By the "Battle of the Kegs" he is best known to the mass of the people. David Bushnell, of Connecticut, had prepared kegs filled with gun- powder, which were floated down the Delaware for the purpose of annoying the British shipping at Philadelphia. At these objects, as well as ev- erything else visible in the river, the British are said to have "discharged their small arms and cannon." The " Battle of the Kegs " seldom ap- pears, without expurgation, on account of an al- lusion to Lord Howe and his relations to Mrs. Loring, a woman of prominence in Philadelphia, the wife of a member of his military family.
Nor were his attacks against the loyalists in America less satirical. His "Two Letters," his " Birds and Beasts and the Bat," the fable of the " political trimmer," his " Letter " to Joseph Gal- loway, and a " Letter " to Isaac Collins are but a part of his voluminous writings, which culminated in 1781, in a list of books, plays, maps, and prints, philosophical apparatus and patent medicines al- leged to be offered for sale by James Rivington, the Tory printer of New York. ʻ
Upon the commencement day of the College of
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New Jersey, in the year 1771, there received the degree granted by that temple of learning one whose after life forms a true romance in the his- tory of the American Revolution. With him ap- peared before the faculty and an auditory com- posed of people of the highest reputations Hugh Henry Brackenridge, who, like his associate, did so much to advance the cause of American liberty. By the side of these young men sat their classmate, James Madison, a future Presi- dent of the United States. This was the public introduction to the world of letters of Philip Freneau, a youth of eighteen. It was then that he appeared as "interlocutor in a metrical dialogue, written by himself and Brack- enridge," under the imposing title of "The Ris- ing Glory of America." Privately, to his fellow students if not to a wider circle, Philip Freneau was by no means unknown, for in his college ca- reer he had already written a poem "The Prophet Jonah," and a dramatic bit of blank verse "The Pyramids of Egypt."
Born of Huguenot ancestry, his mind was ever alert, his pen filled with imagery-often that of the sea, which he so dearly loved. But, in the mass of literary workmanship, which was a part of his contribution to the Revolution, one seeks well nigh in vain for the vivacity, the abandon, the sunlight of Francis Hopkinson. Before us
Philip Freneau, b. New York City, Jan. 2, 1762; grad. Princeton College 1771 ; d. near Freehold, N. J., Dec. 18, 1832.
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Freneau stands with the broadsword, his armor impregnable. Rushing upon his enemy, his satire bruises, crushes, and dismembers. He is ever impressive, at times sublime. At his feet lie his victims; for them he has neither sorrow nor pity. He neither forgives nor forgets.
After leaving college he apparently drifted to the eastern shore of Maryland, where for a sea- son he taught school in Princess Ann County.
Of all the Freneau poems not devoted to fierce invective and denunciation his "Indian Burying Ground," and "To the Memory of the Brave Americans, under General Greene, who fell in the Action of September 8, 1781," are the best. In the former occurs the stanza:
By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews, In vestments for the chase arrayed,
The hunter still the deer pursues, The hunter and the deer-a shade.
It is the latter line that appears in Campbell's " O'Conner's Child "-and Campbell was so sat- isfied with Freneau's tender imagery that he neglected to give credit to the New Jersy poet!
Sir Walter Scott, from the poem to the "Brave Americans," also filched a line:
And snatched the spear-but left the shield,
but compensated by saying that Freneau's " Brave Americans " was " as fine a thing as there is of the kind in the language."
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With abruptness Freneau turned to satire, cry- ing as he did so:
Rage give we wings, and, fearless, prompts me on To conquer brutes the world should blush to own; No peace, no quarter, to such imps I lend,
Death and perdition on each line I send.
Thence to the end he pursued Tories at home and abroad, from the King to the humblest farm er, allied in a common cause-the destruction not only of American liberty, but of Americans them- selves. Of his earlier efforts the " Midnight Con- sultations," and his "Libera Nos, Domine," are his best. Both appeared in the autumn of 1775, and in the latter Freneau prays:
From an Island that bullies and hectors and swears I send up to heaven my wishes and prayers,
That we, disunited, may freemen be still,
And Britain go on-to be damned if she will.
From 1776 until the middle of 1778 Philip Fre- neau was in the West Indies, where he turned to the writing of verse of tropical brilliancy, and yet of intense sadness. Confident of the final suc- cess of the Revolution, he returned to America and renewed his attacks upon the oppressors- chiefly upon the King and Burgoyne. Once more he finds his college friend Brackenbridge, now editor of the United States Magazine, and to its willing pages Freneau contributed until its sud- den death in 1779. Essaying a second voyage to [Vol. 2]
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the West Indies, he was captured off Cape May, and, prize of all literary prizes, was forthwith cast into the foul hold of the "Scorpion " and later transferred to the " Hunter," prison-ships in the harbor of New York. Upon escaping from these " floating hells," Freneau seemed to have concentrated all his powerful wrath upon the " base born Hessian," " the servile Scot," in whose company
Hunger and thirst to work our woe combine, And mouldy bread and flesh of rotten swine, The mangled carcase, and the battered brain, The doctor's poison, and the Captains cane; The soldiers musket, and the stewards threat, The evening shackle, and the noonday threat!
from which, driven to the hold, crowded like sheep in a pen,
Shut from the blessings of the evening air, Pensive we lay with mangled corpses there; Meagre and wan and scorched with heat below, We loomed like ghosts ere death had made us so!
Thence until the end of the Revolution Philip Freneau poured out his soul for American democracy, saw the birth of the nation and par- ticipated in the struggles which made Jefferson the idol of the people. The end came while yet he was vigorous, although past fourscore, when, upon a December evening, 1832, he was last seen walking across the Freneau estates near Mata- wan in the County of Monmouth. In the morning
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he lay dead in a meadow, having lost his way. Sadly typical of his life was that death in the cold, gray marsh land of New Jersey, of that life of deep shadows, of but little light-a life of strange commingling of ambition, sacrifice, hope, and suffering.
When Dr. Benjamin Franklin gave to that young Englishman, Thomas Paine, a letter of in- troduction to old friends in a new world he sent to the goodly city of Philadelphia an "ingenious, worthy young man " for whom life had had as many hardships as usually fall to the lot of any individual. But straightway upon his arrival in November, 1774, forsaking aught else, this man of thirty-seven plunged at once into the business of friend-making and the study of American politics. He became associated with Robert Aitken, and inferentially with his employer in the publication of the Pennsylvania Magazine. Absorbing Amer- ica, he became a thorough American. With his " mind agile, alert, vivid, impressable, humane," he marshaled his facts and his conclusions, ere there came from his pen, " marvelous in its power of stating things-stating them with lucidity, with sparkling liveliness, with rough incisive and captivating force,"-a pamphlet designed to be known as "Plain Truth," but which, under the suggestion of Dr. Benjamin Rush, was called " Common Sense."
Thomas Palne, b. at Thetford, England, Jan. 29, 1737 ; learned stay-making ; preached as a Dissent- ing minister ; editor Pennsylvania Magazine; clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly 1779; constructed the first Iron bridge, which he had invented, at Sunder- land, England ; d. at New Rochelle, N. Y., June 8, 1809.
Jaine
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Of all the factors which altered the current of public opinion in America this " first open and · unqualified argument for American Independ- ence " was by far the most powerful. It was, says Professor Tyler, " an appeal from technical law to common sense," it stripped the constitutional ar- gument of all sentimentality, such as filial senti- ment and former prosperity and happiness, as colonies, and showed the positive disadvantages of the connection of America with England. In its arguments it presented no new facts, but it pre- sented those already known in so clear, so unmis- takable a manner, that it appealed to multitudes throughout the world. From nearly every Ameri- can printing press, and in England, Scotland, Hol- land, and France, "Common Sense" was reprinted, while inside of three months it had reached an unprecedented edition of one hundred and twenty- five thousand copies. Received everywhere as gospel, it turned Tories into Whigs, altered men's ideas and lives, and gave to its author, the un- known Paine, the well desired title of the " Morn- ing-Star of the American Revolution."
But " Tom " Paine, as he now became generally known, was as anxious to fight as he was to write. Volunteering in the "Flying Camp," he was at Perth Amboy and Bergen and at Fort Lee, and, daring to die as well as to do, took part in the retreat across the Jerseys. At Newark he com-
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menced the writing of the first number of "The Crisis." This was continued at every subse- quent stopping place, probably completed at. Trenton, and signed "Common Sense," appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal in Philadelphia upon the 19th of December, 1776. If " Common Sense " had helped to arm men for fight, "The Crisis " helped men to suffer and be strong. Thence until December, 1783, " The Crisis " in sixteen numbers appeared that Americans might the better know what it was to love their country, to lay upon her altar their treasure and their life blood. Each number was adapted to the needs of the hour, and whether in the field, in camp at Valley Forge, in the discharge of clerical duties for Congress, or in begging money from France, Paine was none the less a hero. Though not a great figure in literature, he was none the less a great journal- ist, far greater even than William Livingston, but like him, no matter however he may have been assailed, represented " the faith of the American people in themselves and a Higher Power help- ing them."
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