USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 15
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It was at Bordentown in 1783, in that glorious autumn when New Jersey and the nation paid homage to Washington at Rocky Hill, that " Tom " Paine sat in the ashes of his poverty. In vain, from his cottage, he had begged from Con- gress, then at Princeton, a miserable pittance as a
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recognition of his services. Sustained by his friend, Colonel Kirkbride, he had learned the bit- ter lesson that republics are indeed ungrateful. Although Paine had rendered such inestimable services to the cause of independence, had writ- ten the first number of "The Crisis" in New Jer- sey, the citizens of Bordentown looked askance at a man about whom the tongue of gossip wagged, largely because he was somewhat of a re- cluse and was unconventional in his mode of life.
What "Tom" Paine was or was not, either then or in after years at Bordentown, is small matter. He had been raised up, as if by a mighty hand, to do the bidding of liberty. As a " literary freelance " he had roamed through the Revolution doing good to all men, and giving his all to that supreme effort which brought forth a nation.
But there was a woman of New Jersey, in this manifestation of Revolutionary literary life, a writer of delicate yet strong-purposed verse, whose songs of freedom struck tender, sympathet- ic chords, and drew from Washington an expres- sion of his highest appreciation. Annis Boudinot Stockton, wife of Richard Stockton, "the Signer," mistress of " Morven," was the central figure of social life at Princeton. Her graceful hospitality had given her home a reputation throughout the colonies. She had lived to see it ravaged by Anglo-Hessian troops, whose Hunlike desires for
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lust and loot were never satiated. Yet this but nerved her to higher purpose, and gave her efforts spirit and power.
New Jersey thus played her part in the literary life of the great movement. While troopers sharpened their swords or the militia cleaned their flintlocks, " Tom " Paine sat in the Newark camp by candle light penning " The Crisis " while the beaux of the army danced in Philadelphia at the "Meschaenza "; Francis Hopkinson of Borden- town wrote the "Battle of the Kegs" while Washington lay at Morristown in 1777; Governor Livingston and John Witherspoon were contribu- ting to the columns of Isaac Collins's Gazette, both at Burlington and Trenton. And all the while Philip Freneau, of Monmouth County, was raging through the world, the devil of satire incarnate, seeking whom he might devour.
CHAPTER XIX
JONATHAN ODELL: THE TORY SATIRIST
A® CANDID view of the writings of the loyalists of the Revolution, infe- rior to the Whig productions ei- ther in amount or in the presenta- tion of argument, leads one to a conclusion that their literary failures were due to an overweening self-confidence. As succinctly pointed out by Moses Coit Tyler in his "Literary History of the American Revolution," three pecul- iarities mar the attitude of the loyalists: the con- fidence in the soundness of their own opinions, their contempt, as members of the aristocracy, for the obscure lawyers and yeomanry who took part in the movement, and their perfect expectation of the success of the British arms. For these rea- sons the Tory literature of the period is a mass of sarcasm, of bitter invective, of scornful vitupera- tion, and of exultant celebration " of the nobility and might of their own cause."
To the Tories most of the printing presses of the American colonies were closed, except in the City of New York and for a time in Philadelphia, Charleston, and other places under the temporary control of the King's troops. But of all their pub- lications James Rivington's New York Gazette, justly called " the great reservoir for loyalist hu- mor and sarcasm," was preëminent. Circulating openly in New York City, and surreptitiously in New Jersey, the Whigs of this State were moved
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to intense anger by the constant bitterness and frequent vulgarity stamping both Tory prose and poetry. At the beginning of the struggle the Whigs were charged with the use of coercive measures in furthering the cause of liberty by means of " associations." Then came the taunts concerning the plebeian origin and occupations of Revolutionary leaders, among whom General Maxwell, of New Jersey, was characterized as a " swineherd."
The Continental Congress was largely the ob- ject against which all Tory wit and sarcasm was cast. Described as composed of a body of profli- gate place hunters, "mushroom champions," " poltroons," and "traitors," its attempts to check the depreciation of the currency and to provide for the naked, hungry, and half-riotous militia and line, were the subjects of jest and of rollicking verse. But once throughout the Revo- lution was a really serious note sounded by the Tory writers, and that was after the ultimate success of the joint forces of America and France, although during the failures of the allied cam- paigns of 1778 and 1779 the Tory pamphleteers, versifiers, and paragraph writers were merry enough.
Aside from Joseph Stansbury, the "writer of festive political songs " and of playful satire, the one great figure of the Tory satirists is Jonathan
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Odell, aforetimes rector of Saint Mary's Church in Burlington. Jonathan Odell was deep, stern, and virile, says his latest critic, and his sarcasm grim, scathing, and absolutely implacable. As Joseph Stansbury may be compared to Francis Hopkin- son, so may Jonathan Odell be likened to Philip Freneau.
Newark, the center of the Revolutionary move- ment in East Jersey, was the birthplace of Jona- than Odell. Graduating from the College of New Jersey in the class of 1754, when seventeen years of age, he for a time later acted as surgeon in the British army, but subsequently, taking holy or- ders, was inducted into the rectorship of Saint Mary's, Burlington, where as physician of bodies and souls he remained until driven thence by the war.
Throughout the period of constitutional debate, from 1767 to 1775, Jonathan Odell remained pas- sive, hoping for peace. Arrested by the Burling- ton committee in October, 1775, for certain senti- ments which he had expressed in his letters touch- ing the attitude of the Continental Congress, he brought upon himself the heavy hand of the Pro- vincial Congress. Upon the 4th of June, 1776, in honor of the King's birthday, Odell had written a few intensely loyal verses to be sung by some British officers then prisoners in Burlington. The celebration had been held upon a nearby island
JONATHAN ODELL.
Jonathan Odell, A.M., fourth rector of Saint Ann's (now Saint Mary's) Church, Burlington, 1767-77 ; b. in Newark, N. J., Sept. 25, 1737 ; son of John Odell and Temperance, daughter of Jonathan Dickinson, first president of Princeton College ; grad. College of New Jersey 1754; studied medicine ; surgeon in Brit- ish army; ordained to the priesthood in England 1766 ; secretary, registrar of records of the Executive Council of New Brunswick, Can. ; d. there, In Fred- ericton, Nov. 25, 1818.
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in the Delaware, but the echoes of the song rang throughout the colony. It was upon the 20th of July that the Provincial Congress directed that " a person suspected of being inimical to Ameri- can liberty "-Jonathan Odell-be paroled, pledging himself to remain within a circle of eight miles, the center of which was the Burlington court house.
Until the middle of December, 1776, Jonathan Odell remained peacefully in Burlington, and upon the arrival of Count Donop, for whose winter quarters Burlington had been selected by the Brit- ish commander, unquestionably secured the in- habitants of the town from insult and pillage. But the appearance of American gondolas on the river front was the signal for a chase with the rector as quarry. Hunted by a body of armed men, Jonathan Odell was later compelled to take refuge among the King's troops, leaving his wife and three children to the mercies of the soldiery. For several days he remained concealed in Gov- ernor Franklin's mansion at Green Bank, on the Burlington river front, where in a secret room, under the care of the witty Quakeress, Margaret Morris, he evaded the search parties of New Jer- sey militia. Here the rector of Saint Mary's hid himself in this room, called the "auger hole," un- til the 18th of December, when Margaret Morris records in her journal: " Our refugee gone off to
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day out of the reach of gondolas and Tory hunt- ers."
Upon his arrival in New York Odell was active, not only in the discharge of his duties as chaplain of a corps of loyalist troops, but was much sought after for his fund of information concerning the personnel of the American leaders and his knowl- edge of the physical and social conditions of the Middle States. In 1778 he plunged into the boil- ing sea of satire. In the latter part of 1779 ap- peared his three famous productions: the " Con- gratulation," " The Feu de Joie," and " The Word of Congress," and early in 1780 "The American Times." Framed upon the classic models of Dry- den, Pope, and Churchill, the prevailing note of the four, as shown by Tyler, is the general idea which formed the basis of the political system of the American loyalists. While it was recognized by them that the English ministry had blundered in a system of taxation, nevertheless, by appeal- ing to the sympathies of the English people and the Parliamentary leaders, the colonies could defeat this policy by keeping their opposition within constitutional limits. But the greater. blunder, in fact the national crime, was the pushing of constitutional opposition into open rebellion, into treason, and into ultimate dismem- berment. In poetic terms Odell characterized the Revolution as " a sort of insane phrensy, pro-
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duced by the wicked few in administering to their victims this potion of political necromancy-this hideous hell-broth made up of lies, sophistries, ambitions, hatreds, hallucinations."
Upon the leaders of the movement Odell pours the vials of execration. Here he scathes those whose pens had promoted the cause of American freedom,
And chief among them stands the villain Paine- This scribbling imp, 't is said from London came.
Or yet
Amidst ten thousand eminently base, Thou, Sullivan, assume the highest place * *
* *
* His banners last on Susquehanna waved. Where lucky to escape, his scalp he saved.
But in the " American Times," where, summon- ing the demons from pandemonium, Odell calls before him for sentence John Jay, Samuel Chase, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, and especially William Livingston, New Jersey's war governor, to whom he says:
Whence and what art thou, execrable form, Rough as a bear, and roaring as a storm ? Ay, now I know thee,-Livingston art thou,- Gall in thy heart and malice on thy brow; Coward, yet cruel; zealous, yet profane; Havoc and spoil and ruin are thy gain! Go! glut like Death, thy vast unhide-bound maw, Remorseless, swallow liberty and law; At one enormous stroke a nation slay, But thou, thyself, shall perish with thy prey.
Saroch Bloomfield Dan glite of Moremich Bloomfield and Eggabeth his Wife was Born March the 00 07747 flot in the Me
And Day Baptized in J. Mary fonds in Formalwagon Maythe 15: 0174: 38# 8480829999
By the Reverend $ 9 9 99 9 NC. Jonathan Odell-
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Upon Lord Stirling Jonathan Odell's attack was as intensely vicious as it was untrue:
What matters what of Stirling may become? The quintessence of whiskey, soul of rum! Fractious at nine, quite gay at twelve o'clock ; From thence to bed-time, stupid as a block.
Nor is he less choice in the language which he applies to John Witherspoon, the president of the College of New Jersey:
Known in the pulpit by seditious toils, Grown into consequence by civil broils. * * *
Meanwhile, unhappy Jersey mourns her thrall, Ordained by vilest of the vile to fall-
To fall by Witherspoon! O name, the curse Of sound religion and disgrace of verse!
* * * * * Fierce as the fiercest, foremost of the first, He'd rail at kings, with venom well nigh burst; Not uniformly grand-for some bye-end To dirtiest acts of treason he'd descend. * * * *
*
Whilst to myself, I've hummed in dismal tune, I'd rather be a dog than Witherspoon.
Later came the end of the struggle, but never to Jonathan Odell. Remaining in America, he cried aloud that the contest should be renewed, and, finding all in vain, sought in Nova Scotia an asylum, where he died at a ripe old age. But the Jonathan Odell in the Northern wilderness was the Jonathan Odell of Burlington and New York -proud, defiant, unbending, unconquered, and unconvinced.
[Vol. 2]
CHAPTER XX
MINOR MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE JERSEYS
I T FELL to the lot of New Jersey, whose soil was the theater of constant strife during the Revolutionary War, to furnish the scenes of four of the most conspicuous battles of the period: Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth, and Red Bank. Of the four Trenton and its climax, Princeton, ranking with Saratoga in point of military importance, has become world-famous, not only as the turning point of the Revolution, but for the remarkable strategy dis- played by General Washington.
Trenton and Princeton ended the struggle for the control of the mouth of the Hudson River and of the dependent territory in East Jersey, yet here began the military evolutions preparatory to that even more wonderful contest, the struggle for the control of the Delaware Valley, which terminated only with the battle of Monmouth. Of this latter struggle Red Bank must remain ever memorable.
Beyond these a long series of events of minor importance partake distinctively of the nature of forage and provision raids, in the main organized in New York City. The only exceptions were the movements against the Whigs of Salem County, while Philadelphia was in the occupation of the British, which were partially retaliatory. These raids were organized upon certain well defined lines, were never wholly successful, but, from 1776 to 1782, kept East Jersey in a state of con-
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stant alarm. At the base of all these expeditions lay murder and rapine. They were both frequent- ly inspired and often nominally led by Tory refu- gees from New Jersey, and they served to create in the raided communities a sentiment of hatred against the British nation which time has not yet effaced. In the wake of most of these raids were burned homes and outbuildings, devastated fields, murdered farmers and their servants, outraged women, and general disorder. Neither young nor old was spared, friend and foe fell victims to the barbarities of the troops, instigated in no small degree by the board of associated loyalists in New York City.
In the extent of territory covered by the raid- ers much of the State was exempt; yet the por- tions that suffered more than compensated for the immunity enjoyed by the rest of the citizens. Of the old counties Bergen, along the valley of the Hackensack, Essex, with Newark and its terri- tory within a radius of fifteen miles, Elizabeth- town, and a district reaching toward Morristown, Rahway, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy, the en- tire north shore of Monmouth County, including Middletown and Shrewsbury Necks, Tom's River, Cedar Bridge, and Tuckerton were exposed to constant attack. Staten Island was a frequent point of departure for armed fleets operating
HOBOKEN IN THE REVOLUTION- ARY PERIOD.
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against all points from Elizabethtown to Sandy Hook and thence to Tuckerton.
Upon the seacoasts of old Gloucester (now At- lantic) and Cape May Counties the naval opera- tions were of a purely subsidiary character, while on the shore of Delaware Bay and River, with the exception of the river expeditions against Salem and Bordentown, no events of any im- portance occurred. All that section of New Jersey northwest of a line drawn from Trenton to Somer- ville, Morristown, and Greenwood Lake included nearly all the old counties of Hunterdon and Sus- sex as well as half of the counties of Morris and Passaic. Through Sussex, however, Moody, the Tory refugee, roamed, his traditional headquar- ters being near Newton in the region of the Big and Little Muckshaw. Further, with the excep- tion of the British retreat through the Jerseys previous to the battle of Monmouth, the farm lands of Burlington and Monmouth west of the " Pines " were free from raids.
Of all the districts that suffered most from raids Elizabethtown and its vicinity was one of the most conspicuous. No less than a dozen of these expeditions, crossing from Staten Island, swept through the town and the country side, stealing cattle and crops and wantonly destroy- ing what could not be plundered. While the army lay in the cantonments at Somerville and the two
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winters at Morristown the outposts of the Ameri- cans offered fair opportunities for guerrilla war- fare, although victory perched indiscriminately upon the banners of the opposing hosts.
That the character of one of these raids may be understood-all of at least fifty had much in com- mon-the outline of one of the most prominent, as told by the British themselves, is thus pre- sented.
While the struggle for the Delaware was in progress an effort was made by Sir Henry Clin- ton to devastate the Hudson Valley in East Jer- sey. The purpose of this expedition, between the 12th and 16th of September, 1777, is best told by the English commander himself in a letter written at Kingsbridge, September 23, 1777, and printed in the Pennsylvania Garette, Philadelphia, during March of the following year. The principal mo- tive was to attempt a stroke against any detached corps of the Americans, to collect a considerable number of cattle, providing a seasonable re- freshment to the troops, and depriving the Whigs of resources upon which they much depended. With these plans effected the King's troops would reëmbark, return to their camp, or proceed to some other expedition. Ac- cordingly troops were landed at Elizabethtown Point, Schuyler's Ferry on the Hackensack, Fort Lee, and Tappan early in September. The main
.
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purpose seems to have been to center the forces at Acquackanonk, toward which point the Eliza- bethtown party moved by way of Newark, driving the cattle and disarming the inhabitants. The ad- vance of this body was protected by the King's troops upon the " Heights of Schuyler," command- ing the environs of Newark. The troops crossing at Fort Lee were directed to proceed by New Bridge, Hackensack, and Sloughterdam to Acquackanonk, posts being left at New Bridge and Hackensack to cover a possible retreat. The Tappan party was ordered to remain awaiting orders. The subse- quent events may be told in Sir Henry Clinton's own words:
I then went by Newark Bay to Schuyler's landing. The cannon were that instant landed, and I ordered them to proceed, through the Cedar Swamp, to the high grounds near Schuyler's house, * * Finding it necessary to amuse the enemy, who * * * * were retiring with their cattle, the troops were ordered to shew themselves. * *
* Firing of musquetry and cannon continued the whole day with little or no loss on either side. Much loose firing was heard beyond Newark, and at night we had a private report that General Campbell had taken possession of that town. I sent immediately to tell him our situation, but soon afterwards, by the noise of cattle driving and march of troops, found he had continued his route, was opposite to us, and on his way to Aquaki- nac. I judged it best to order him to halt till morning. At day break, the Rebels appeared in some force, and about noon, they had three pieces of cannon in battery on their side of the river. I went over to observe them, and had every reason to suppose, from their clothing and artillery, that they were reinforced by what is called continental troops. To try their countenance, and give an oppor- tunity to the provincials, I ordered Buskirk's battalion to march
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through a corn field, with an intention of taking in flank a body of the rebels posted behind a stone wall, and which it would have been difficulty to have removed by a front attack. The regiment marched with great spirit, and their march with some little movement to favour it, obliged the rebels to quit without a shot. I then re- passed the river. *
I received a letter from General Vaughan acquainting me, that, by information from his patrols, the Rebels were assembling in great force at the Clove. This intelligence, and their leaving us so suddenly, gave me some suspicion of their intention, and made it necessary for me to assemble our little army as soon as possible, occupy Newbridge in some force, and send Lieut. Colonel Campbell from Newbridge towards Tappan, to observe their motions in that quarter.
The whole assembled at Newbridge on the 15th, and then hear- ing nothing of the enemy, having collected our cattle, the soldiers without tents or blankets, and the weather threatening, I thought it advisable to fall back. I accordingly ordered General Campbell to continue his march to English neighbourhood, taking with him the cattle, amounting to 400 head including twenty milch cows for the use of the hospital, (which is all I would suffer to be taken from the inhabitants) four hundred sheep and a few horses.
On the 16th General Campbell marched to Bergen-point, where he embarked for Staten Island, and General Vaughan to Fort Lee not followed by a single man, where he re-passed the North- river.
This raid was similar to the movement made from New Brunswick upon the 13th of April, 1777. A strong force under Lord Cornwallis made a sud- den descent upon the detachment commanded by General Lincoln, whose duty it was to protect the upper valley of the Raritan River. The contest between the Americans and the King's troops was quickly determined, the former retreating with a The fort OG aniver
Honey Point Dear Gene
our Officers Sirven Behaved like a who are determined to the frece Jours many Sincerely
Gen Washington
MMagne
ANTHONY WAYNE'S NOTE TO WASHINGTON ON THE CAPTURE OF STONY POINT.
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loss of twenty men, two pieces of artillery, and some baggage.
The year 1778 was marked by a series of brutal raids not only in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Valley, New York, but in the State of New Jersey. Trenton and Princeton had turned the tide of war; the evacuation of Phila- delphia had followed in 1778; Monmouth closed the campaign in the North. Upon New Jersey, which by this time had swung squarely into the van of an intense patriotism, the British com- mander in New York City attempted to wreak his vengeance. It was then that the raids became more frequent, more barbarous.
In the months of September and October, 1778, two British raids occurred within the limits of the State of New Jersey which brought no little discredit upon Sir Henry Clinton and served to in- furiate the already inflamed minds of the Whigs. The first of these occurred near Tappan village, near the boundary between New Jersey and New York, the other at Egg Harbor, near and upon the southeastern termination of the old province line between East and West Jersey.
The expedition against the Dutch farmers of Northeastern New Jersey, in the vicinity of Tap- pan, was designed not only as a retaliation, but to secure much needed supplies for the British army in New York City. To accomplish this end
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Lord Cornwallis and Major-General Sir Charles Grey, a noted raider along Long Island Sound, were dispatched with five thousand men across the Hudson with orders to move northward. They were supported by General Knyphausen on the east side of the river, who was directed to march to Dobbs's Ferry. In the meantime General Wash- ington was established due east of West Point, the American army being encamped in Freder- icksburg. Apprised of the design of the British, the commander-in-chief directed Colonel George Baylor, with the Third Regiment Light Dragoons of Virginia, to move from Paramus and, occupy- ing · vantage ground on the Hackensack River, watch the movements of the enemy.
Among the farmers of the Overkill Neighbor- hood road, upon the night of September 27th, Colonel Baylor quartered his troopers, num- bering twelve officers and one hundred and four enlisted men. The headquarters of Colonel Baylor was the farm house of Cornelius A. Har- ing, nine miles from the British encampment at New Bridge and Liberty Pole. Between Overkill Neighborhood and Cornwallis's camp there were two roads, one on each side of the Hackensack River.
It was the marauding Major-General Grey, the " no flint general," so called because he compelled his men to fall to their bloody tasks using only-
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their bayonets, who was directed to attack Colonel Baylor. Led by some Tories and evading the American pickets, it was after midnight when the country side was thrown into terror by the onrushing British. The order had been given: " Show no quarter to the rebels," as the troops of the Second Battalion Light Infantry reached the Haring house, bayoneting, stabbing, and club- bing as they searched this mansion and those of the Blauvelts, Holdrums, Demarests, Harings, and Bogarts. Death followed in the wake of the merci- less raiders; Colonel Baylor was thrice stabbed. and his major, Alexander Clough, was mortally wounded. Adjutant Robert Morrow was left for dead. Of the sleeping, unprotected regiment eleven were bayoneted to death, seventeen were left for dead, and thirty-nine were taken prison- ers. Remaining until morning, the British then departed for Tappan, taking their prisoners to the village church, which was used for hospital and prison purposes.
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