USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 20
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In the series of nine resolutions which formed the " Plan " the most essential feature was New Jersey's oft-repeated contention that Congress should regulate domestic and foreign trade, levy duties on imports, and require stamps on paper, vellum, and letters. Litigation thus arising should be instituted in State courts with right of appeal to the tribunals of the United States. Con- gressional quotas should be apportioned according to the number of white and other free citizens and inhabitants, including those bound to servitude for a term of years, and three-fifths of all other
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persons, excluding Indians not taxed. Congress should have the power of collecting the revenue under authority of the States.
The federal executive was designed to consist of several individuals elected by Congress, to be paid from the federal treasury, be ineligible for reëlection, and removable on application of a ma- jority of the governors of the States. Not only should they direct all military operations, but they should appoint, for terms during good be- havior, a supreme court having original jurisdic- tion in all cases of impeachment, and appellate jurisdiction in all cases affecting ambassadors, piracies, felonies, captures from an enemy, in all to which foreigners might be a party, in the con- struction of treaties, and in matters regulating trade and collection of federal revenue. The su- preme law of the nation should be acts of Con- gress and treaties, by which State tribunals were bound. To enforce the execution of a law the fed- eral government should call forth the power of the confederation, while naturalization should be uniform. If a citizen of one State committed an offense in another State he should be esteemed as guilty as if he had committed it in his own.
The debate that resulted upon this plan was one of the most notable in the history of the con- vention. In it there participated John Lansing, of New York, who contended that the Virginia
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plan would destroy all State power, and that the New Jersey plan would alone save the States from the oppression of a central government.
In presenting his plan Paterson said the con- vention had its limitations, and that the delegates could go no further than the limits of their ex- pressed powers and had no option under its call to form a "National Legislature." The convention had no right to destroy State sovereignty. Is the welfare of New Jersey, with five votes, he asked, to be submitted in a council to Virginia's sixteen votes ? Neither his State nor himself, he said, would submit to despotism nor to tyranny.
James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, drew the dis- tinction between the New Jersey and Virginia plans in a few pithy sentences, in which he said: " Virginia proposes two branches to the Legisla- ture. Jersey one. Virginia would have the legis- lative power derived from the people; Jersey from the States. Virginia would have a single execu- tive; Jersey more than one." In other words, upon the two plans began that crystallization of senti- ment which led to the later formulation of the doctrines of centralization and State rights. In this view Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, and Edmund Randolph sustained Wilson's view.
Alexander Hamilton, of New York, who spoke in the convention for the first time, defined the New Jersey plan as the old articles of confeder-
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ation with new patches; it was pork still, with a change of sauce. James Madison, of Virginia, then assailed the New Jersey plan, in which he called Paterson's attention to the fact that as New Jersey had refused to obey a requisition of Congress, she had thereby broken her compact. The articles of confederation, Mr. Paterson urged, should be sustained by every State. New Jersey and Pennsylvania had set bounds to Delaware, and would New Jersey and the smaller States be safe in the hands of larger ones?
It was plainly evident that the New Jersey plan had utterly failed, a fact clearly brought out in the final vote, when Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia voted against the plan, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware alone sus- taining it.
In a series of great compromises the first was that suggested by Connecticut. Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina arrayed themselves upon the side of representation based upon population or wealth. Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey demanded equal suffrage. New York was divided, while New Hampshire and Rhode Island were unrepresented. Hence came the plan that in the Senate the States be given an equal
James Madison
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vote, with a representation, based on population, in the house.
The next great question subjected to compro- mise was the counting of slaves in ascertaining population. New England and Pennsylvania were free soil; the rest, including New Jersey, were slave States. The result was that three-fifths of the slaves were to be counted in apportioning representation.
The remaining compromise that did not serious- ly affect New Jersey was the demand of the com- mercial States that Congress be forbidden to lay export duties. The planting States demanded the right to import slaves. To this the commercial States were opposed, as five slaves equalled three free men in apportioning representation. It was agreed that after 1808 no slaves should be im- ported, nor should export duties be charged. In the routine of the convention every member of the New Jersey delegation obtained prom- inence. Governor Livingston was a member of the " grand committee " of eleven appointed on August 18 to consider the necessity and expedi- ency of the United States assuming all the State debts, as well as the government of the militia. Upon the 21st he brought in the report of the committee, favoring both proposals. Upon the 24th of August he also delivered the report of the grand committee relative to the slave trade capi-
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tation tax, and on September 13th consented to serve upon a committee charged with reporting " articles of association for encouraging by the advice, the influence, and the example of the mem- bers of the Convention, œeconomy, frugality and American manufactures."
It was not until June 21 that Jonathan Day- ton took his seat. He plunged at once into the work of the convention. Upon the 24th of August Dayton was appointed on a grand committee on tariffs and port charges. In his attitude upon the questions before the convention he favored the election of President by Congress, each State hav- ing one vote, the equal vote of States in the house, the payment of senators from national treasury funds, the submission of controversies between States to the national judiciary, and insisted upon equal representation in the Senate. To this strong- ly federalistic attitude he added the principle that the general government on its own motion had the right to protect a State against domestic violence. Dayton upon the other hand opposed the uniform- ity of organization and equipment of the militia, restricting the power of Congress to such part as might be in the service of the United States, and also opposed slave representation.
William Churchill Houston, on July 17th, op- posed the ineligibility of a President for a second term.
[Vol. 2]
Jonathan Dayton, LL.D., b. Elizabethtown, N. J., Oct. 16, 1760; son of General Elias Dayton, first president of the New Jersey Society of the Cincin- nati ; grad. Princeton College 1776 ; paymaster in his father's regiment 1776 ; admitted to the bar ; member of the federal constitutional convention 1787 ; mem- ber of Congress 1791-99 ; speaker of the house ; United States senator one term; d. at Elizabethtown, Oct. 9, 1824.
Jonathan Dayton
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David Brearley, on July 9th, was elected upon a " grand committee " concerning representation in the house, while upon the 31st of August he ap- pears as a member of the "omnibus committee," to which was referred "such parts of the Constitu- tion as have not been postponed and such parts of Reports as have not been acted on." From this committee he frequently reported to the conven- tion. In favoring equal representation in Con- gress Mr. Brearley opposed the election of a Presi- dent by joint ballot, favoring a plan of giving each State a vote in the election of President by Con- gress.
It was upon June 9th that Mr. Brearley pre- sented a curious plan to remedy the inequalities of representation. It was "that a map of the United States be spread out, that all the existing boundaries be erased, and that a new partition of the whole be made into thirteen equal parts." There were three large States and ten small ones, and all the " little States will be obliged to throw themselves constantly into the scale of some large one to have any weight at all." The evils of such a system he had seen "within N. Jersey," that where large and small counties were united into a district for electing representatives for the dis- trict the large counties always carried their point. In this view Mr. Brearley was sustained by Mr. Paterson.
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William Paterson was a man of extreme views, ardent in thought, forceful in expression. He was a familiar figure in debate, and upon one occa- sion, through his Scotch-Irish impetuosity, was privileged to excuse his warmth of language. He served on a committee on representation in the Senate, had favored coercion of the States, the election of a President by State electors chosen in the ratio of one elector to the smallest and three to the largest States, was determined upon equal representation in the House and Senate, and was opposed to the representation of slaves.
Upon the 17th of September, 1787, the conven- tion finished its work and the constitution was sent to Congress, and by it submitted to the sev- eral States for ratification. To the people of New Jersey the constitution was entirely acceptable.
There were apparently no dissenting voices, for the Legislature by a unanimous vote on the 1st of November authorized a convention of the peo- ple of New Jersey to accept the new organic law of the United States. Late in November those electors qualified to vote for members of the Gen- eral Assembly chose thirty-nine delegates, three from each county, who assembled in Trenton upon the 11th of December, 1787. The convention re- mained in session for one week. The constitution was four times read and discussed section by sec- tion. Ratifying and confirming the document
William Paterson, LL.D., b. at sea 1745; grad. Princeton College 1763 ; lawyer ; member federal con- stitutional convention 1787 ; member State Senate 1789 ; governor of New Jersey 1790-92 ; associate jus- tice United States Supreme Court 1793-1806 ; d. in Al- bany, N. Y., while on a visit to his daughter, wife of General Stephen Van Rensselaer, Sept. 9, 1806.
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upon December 18th, duplicate copies of the con- stitution were signed, one of which was sent to Congress, the other retained in New Jersey. Be- ginning with Bergen, the oldest county, the mem- bers subscribed their names, ending with Sussex. At one o'clock of the same day the secretary of the convention read the ratification " in the hear- ing of the people," a large crowd having assem- bled in front of the court house, whither the con- vention had gone in procession.
It would be unfair and unjust to charge to an altruistic sentiment alone the activity displayed by New Jersey in entering upon a federal union. The cause leading her thereto was largely the pro- tection of her commercial interests, which had not only been assailed, and which were threatened to become annihilated in the growth of New York's and Philadelphia's great interests. But this motive lost none of its value because at the time no real attempt was made to conceal it. The States had drifted apart too far for reconciliations to be effected by any means other than early coer- cion and later compromise. Such was the position of New Jersey in her advocacy of the Annapolis convention and in the presentation of her " Plan "; such indeed to a greater or less degree was the his- tory of every other State in its relation to one of the greatest, in some respects the greatest, of hu-
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man documents-the constitution of the United States.
In the debate upon the Virginia plan, the basis upon which much of the subsequent action of the convention was based, two of the delegates from New Jersey concurred in these sentiments:
Let them unite, if they please, but let them remember that they have no authority to compel others to unite. New Jersey will never confederate on the plan before the Committee.
And one said he would not only oppose the plan here, but on his return home would do everything in his power to defeat it there.
And beneath every printed copy of the consti- tution of the United States, as upon the original, sacredly guarded in Washington, one finds the names of William Paterson and David Brearley, who submitted to fate, and to a course which alone could have preserved the Union.
HAMILTON'S RESIDENCE : "THE GRANGE," NEW YORK.
CHAPTER XXV
THE STATE CONSTITUTION OF 1776
U PON the 15th of May, 1776, "the honorable the Continental Con- gress, the supreme council of the American Colonies," advised each of the colonies to adopt for itself such government as should secure its own happiness and safety and the well being of Amer- ica in general.
Upon the 2d of July, within six short weeks after the recommendation of Congress had been received by the Provincial Congress of New Jer- sey, the members of that body had devised and passed " a set of charter rights and the form of a constitution," which, in spite of later opposition, remained until 1844 as the declaration of New Jer- sey's organic law.
Beyond brief references to the presentation of petitions and the reports of progress on the part of the committee charged with framing the docu- ment little is known as to the debates upon the subject. The members of the Provincial Con- gress, "having been elected by all the counties in the freest manner," were in direct touch with public sentiment, and were strongly influenced by the swinging tides of Whig and Tory senti- ment. As late as July 2 New Jersey had still within her borders a powerful minority to whom such an act was treasonable, yet so rapid- ly did events move that upon the 10th of June,
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when the Provincial Congress met in Burlington, a large proportion of the delegates were favor- able toward independence, and were ready to es- pouse the cause.
The action of the Continental Congress in call- ing upon New Jersey to prepare a constitution brought forward the divergent views of the cit- izens of the colony. The first town to give ex- pression to an opinion was Perth Amboy, where the lines of demarcation between the "King's men" and the "Friends of Freedom" were sharp- ly drawn.
Two days after the meeting of the Provincial Congress the inhabitants of the South Ward of Perth Amboy presented a petition praying that the government of New Jersey, under the King of Great Britain, be suppressed, and that the Congress devise a more suitable form of govern- ment. This revolutionary petition was followed upon the 16th by a petition from the inhabitants of the North Ward of Perth Amboy urging the Congress to refrain from changing the form of provincial government, in which request certain of the inhabitants of Shrewsbury Township joined. Favoring a new form of government, petitions were presented from the Township of Windsor, Middlesex County, and from Maiden- head (now Lawrenceville) in Hunterdon (a part of which is now Mercer) County. In the latter region
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the spirit of democracy had taken close hold upon the people, and, in imitation of the plan adopted by the West Jersey Quakers, the Maidenhead in- habitants urged that all elections be held annually by ballot, and that the doors of the Provincial Congress be kept open.
The first indication of official action looking toward constitution-making was the selection for that purpose of Friday, June 21st, when the con- vention resolved to "consider the propriety of forming a government." This action was taken upon June 17. Upon the 19th the inhabitants of Shrewsbury presented a further petition in favor of the continuance of their existing conditions, hoping that no measures would be adopted tending to separate the colony from Great Britain. Again the residents of the South Ward of Perth Amboy prayed that a new government be established and that independence be speedily declared. Morris Township, in the County of Morris, upon June 21st petitioned that all civil officers should be annually elected by the people, and that the of- ficial fees be established upon as moderate a basis as possible. Shrewsbury, aided by Middletown, with four petitions again requested that the government of the colony be not changed, while two petitions from Freehold prayed that the con- vention act under the advice of the Continental Congress.
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In accordance with its decision the Provincial Congress, upon the 21st of June, adopted a res- olution to the effect that a government "be formed for regulating the internal police." The ballots disclosed a strong Whig sentiment, the vote being fifty-four to three. The negative bal- lots were cast by members from the Counties of Bergen, Hunterdon, and Monmouth. Upon the 24th petitions appeared from Middletown and Freehold favoring the creation of a new govern- ment. Immediately upon its receipt the "Com- mittee to prepare the draught of a constitution" was ordered to be thus composed: Jacob Green, of Morris; John Cooper, of Gloucester; Jonathan D. Sergeant, of Middlesex; Lewis Ogden, of Essex; Theophilus Elmer, of Cumberland; Elijah Hughes, of Cape May; John Covenhoven, of Monmouth; John Cleves Symmes, of Sussex; Silas Condict, of Essex; and Samuel Dick, of Salem County.
In its personnel this committee was distinctive- ly representative. Jacob Green, the chairman, was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Han- over and a man of so many interests that a letter was once directed to him:
To the Rev. Jacob Green, Preacher, And the Rev. Jacob Green, Teacher; To the Rev. Jacob Green, Doctor, And the Rev. Jacob Green, Proctor; To the Rev. Jacob Green, Miller, And the Rev. Jacob Green, Distiller.
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John Cleves Symmes, Lewis Ogden, and Jona- than D. Sergeant were members of the bar, Silas Condict was a political power in the County of Morris, while the South Jersey members were large landowners and had held position under the crown government.
But two days intervened between the appoint- ment of the committee and its presentation of the draft of a constitution. No separate record of the action of the committee has yet been discovered, although tradition points to Jacob Green as the framer of the constitution. As a war measure haste was imperative. Thus it was that upon the 26th of June the draft was reported and ordered a second reading. The constitution was under discussion by the Congress sitting as a committee of the whole upon both the 27th and 28th. Dur- ing their deliberations two petitions were pre- sented from the Township of Upper Freehold, praying that the convention should establish such mode of government as should be fully equal to the exigencies of the colony.
The arrival of General Howe at Sandy Hook threw the Congress into confusion. In view of military exigency it was agreed, upon June 29th, that twenty members should be a quorum to transact sufficient business, "except such as may respect the formation of the constitution." Upon the same day the committee of the whole reported
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that it "had come to several resolutions" and designated July 2 as the day upon which the con- vention would receive the report of the committee of the whole, "at which time every member was enjoined to be punctual in his attendance."
That a sentiment looking toward delay and a possible adjustment of existing difficulties be- tween New Jersey and the crown existed is pos- sibly best proved by a vote taken on July 2. The question was whether the constitution be at once adopted or deferred for further consideration. Twenty-six members voted for immediate con- firmation of the report of the committee of the whole, while nine votes were cast in the negative Bergen, Salem, and Cape May each cast two votes of the nine, while Essex, Somerset, and Burling- ton each cast one. The matter reached a final de- termination upon the 3d of July, when a vote was taken as to whether the draft of the constitution be immediately printed or deferred for a few days in order to reconsider the proviso respecting rec- onciliation. The vote upon the matter was seventeen to eight. Frederick Frelinghuysen and William Paterson, of Somerset, John Me- helm, of Hunterdon, Josiah Holmes, of Mon- mouth, Joseph Ellis, of Gloucester, Jonathan D. Sergeant, of Middlesex, John Cleves Symmes, of Sussex, and Samuel Dick, of Salem, voted in the negative, whereupon it was ordered that one
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thousand copies of the constitution be printed for the use of the inhabitants of the colony.
The new constitution was proclaimed through- out the State in conjunction with the Declaration of Independence and the resolve of the Provincial Congress for continuing the administration of justice until the new Legislature should assemble. At Trenton on the Sth of July, according to the Pennsylvania Packet of the 15th of that month, the members of the Provincial Congress, the commit- tee, militia officers and privates, "and a large concourse of the inhabitants attended on this great and solemn occasion. The declaration and other proceedings were received with loud ac- climations."
In honor of independency Nassau Hall at Princeton was illuminated upon the following night, and a triple volley of musketry was fired amid "universal acclimation for the prosperity of the UNITED STATES. The ceremony was con- ducted with the greatest decorum."
On the 7th of August the inhabitants of Cum- berland County met at Bridgeton, where, at the court house, the Declaration of Independence, the new constitution and the treason ordinance were read. Following a "spirited address" by Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, "the peace officers' " staves, on which were depicted the King's coats of arms, with other ensigns of royalty, were " burnt in the
NASSAU HALL.
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streets." Warning the people against the dangers of falling into the power of a Julius Cæsar or an Oliver Cromwell, Elmer urged that only true and tried friends of liberty be voted for at the suc- ceeding election. The grand jury of Burlington, in November, upon the occasion of the opening of the supreme court, stated in their address that the constitution had given great satisfaction.
The constitution adopted made no startling in- novations in the existing mode of government; indeed it reflected to a large degree the political customs and habits as well as the administrative theories of the colony. One seeks in vain for novelties, such as characterized the constitution of Pennsylvania. New Jersey, in her constitution, in a degree changed the substance but scarcely altered the form of those phases of political life to which she had been accustomed for three- quarters of a century.
The preamble of the organic law of New Jersey declared that all the constitutional authority pos- sessed by the Kings of Great Britain over the col- onies was derived from the people by compact, and, being held in trust, allegiance and protection were therefore reciprocal and liable to be dissolved when refused or withdrawn. The refusal of pro- tection to the colonists, the attempt to subject them to the absolute dominion of the King, the waging of a cruel and unnatural war, were causes
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sufficient for the dissolution of reciprocal rela- tions and the abrogation of England's civil author- ity. A government being necessary, not only for the preservation of good order, but to effectually unite the people in their defense, the represent- atives of the colony of New Jersey, in accordance with the advice of the Continental Congress, agreed upon the constitution.
In accordance with the declaration of the or- ganic law the government of New Jersey was vested in a governor, legislative council, and general assembly. To "all inhabitants of this Colony, of full age, who are worth £50 proclama- tion money," and who had resided for one year in the county in which they claimed a vote, was given the elective franchise in balloting for mem- bers of council and Assembly. Legislative elec- tions were directed to be held annually upon the second Tuesday in October, each county being en- titled to a member of council and three members of Assembly. Councilmen were required to be worth £1,000 and assemblymen £500 proclama- tion money, in real and personal estate. Mem- bers of both houses were required to live in the county from which they were chosen for at least a year before election. The usual privileges of free political action were given both branches of the Legislature, the Council being prohibited from
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