USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 22
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The Second Regiment had for its lieutenant- colonel Amos Stark. There were companies from Essex, Bergen, Morris, and Sussex. The lieuten- ant-colonel of the Third Regiment was Jonathan Forman. To this regiment Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon, Sussex, and Monmouth Counties sent companies.
William Crane was lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Regiment. Middlesex, Essex, Somerset, and Hunterdon Counties sent companies.
A characteristic figure in the "Whiskey War" was that of Joseph Louis, Count d'Anterroches, kinsman of the Marquis de Lafayette and leader of the French colony at Elizabethtown. In the private manuscript collection belonging to War-
Joseph Bloomfield, b. Woodbridge, N. J., 1755; son of Dr. Moses, a member of the Legislature and Provincial Congress ; admitted to the bar 1775; en- tered the Continental army 1776 ; president Society of the Cincinnati 1808; attorney-general of New Jersey 1783 and 1788; governor 1801-12; member of Congress 1816-21 ; d. in Burlington, Oct. 3, 1823.
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ren R. Dix, Esq., of Elizabeth, great-grandson of the Count d'Anterroches, has been preserved a series of quaintly written, unpublished letters written to the Countess d'Anterroches, née Mary Vanderpool, of Bottle Hill.
From these letters it is learned that the Count d'Anterroches, with the body of troops, arrived in Reading, Pennsylvania, Sunday afternoon, Sep- tember 21, 1794,
To the sounds of the Bells of the Court House, &c. The streets were lined with people which is very large, and in fact we are a show; our line by two a breast extends near Halfe a mile. * * * I am happy in informing you that our governor who is our Com- mander in chief treats me with great friendship, and have lived in his familly composed of Colnl A. Ogden and Colnl Ray (Rhea) his aids de camps since we left Trenton. You know that I expect that I am the adjutant of all the Cavalry of New Jersey and that I have four under me to assist me in my duty.
On Friday afternoon, September 26th, the Count arrived in Carlisle,
Surrounded by men opposing our good government, but without fear of them. We have sent few of them already to jail and one unfortunately was killed hiester day by a dragoon from Philadel- phia. * * * We are only 200 miles from Elizabethtown or very little more, and we have been twenty days doing of it. 25 miles in one day has been the highest journey we ever had, 14 and 15 has been our common travelling per day. We crossed the Susquehanna at Harrisburg Friday morning, one mile and a quarter wide there. We all foorded it, the water not being but a little higher than our horses bellay. It was a fine sight to see about four Hundred horses all mounted by their riders, all at once in the middle of that beautiful River. The weather has been very hot and very damp since we came to this place. We are 180 miles from
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fort Pit and the Roads are very mountaignous and very bad they says.
Again upon the 9th of November the Count d'Anterroches writes to Elizabethtown from "Westmoreland County," sending the letter by a dragoon. For some time the count had been at points distant from the post road, but at last ar- rived at Bonnell's Camp. Here the count joyfully says that he will be home by Christmas,
Governor Miffling mentioning to me confidencially this morning that we should not go further than 13 miles from this camp, and that all our campaigning would soon be at an end matters taking a good Turn. We march for that place tomorrow morning, where the whole army shall meet together under the command of Genrl Lee. We have had for Twelve days Raine night and days and the worstest roads ever can be on earth. number of waggons have been Broken to pieces and several of the Horses have died of fatigue. I write by the light of a lamp full of greese. I can hardly see.
In consideration of the services of the Count d'Anterroches Governor Henry Lee, of Virginia, writing from headquarters, Powers Farm, on No- vember 10th, addressed the following letter to General White:
SIE,
I have reflected on your proposition respecting Chevalier D'An- terroches, who has acted with your Brigade and about your person.
His merits and services during the expedition are highly spoken of by all, and particularly by the Governor of New Jersey. Com- pensation ought to be made to him, or he will not be treated justly.
The various and constant exertions, to which you must be ex- posed, in the command of so large a Brigade of Dragoons, certainly authorizes you to annex to your person the necessary assistance.
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In such situations, not only a Brigade Major is allowed, but also a Brigade Aid, who has the rank and pay of Major, in this latter character, you had better consider and use the Chevalier.
It will secure to you a continuation of his useful assistance, and to him proper & honorable compensation, you are therefore hereby authorized to invest him with that appointment, & thereby secure to him the emoluments attached to it, from the beginning of his service.
Later in life other honors were conferred upon the Count d'Anterroches. On February 10, 1799, President Adams, in view of the possible war with France, appointed the count to the captaincy of a company of volunteer infantry raised in Elizabeth- town for service in the provisional army.
Incidentally it may be said that, but three years previous to the "Whiskey War," three hundred and twenty-five Jerseymen had taken part in a frontier expedition in the State of Ohio.
Under the act of Congress approved March 3, 1791, providing for the protection of the frontiers of the United States against Miami Indian raids and massacres, the "New Jersey Battalion," con- sisting of four companies of infantry, was raised under the denomination of levies. This battalion, known as the Second Regiment, being a part of the command of Major-General Arthur Saint Clair, was called into service for six months, the colonel of the regiment being George Gibson, of Virginia. After an arduous march to the frontier the New Jersey companies took part in Saint Clair's dis-
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A FIGHT IN CONGRESS.
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astrous defeat near Fort Recovery, Ohio, upon No- vember 4, 1791. The major of the regiment was Thomas Paterson, who had been captain in the Third Battalion, Second Establishment, New Jer- sey Continental Line, during the Revolutionary War.
CHAPTER XXVIII
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY
T HE immediate changes wrought by, the completion of the War for In- dependence were largely of a polit- ical character. Particularly in governmental matters were the transformations most marked. In less than a quarter of a century a new-born nation had wrest- ed supremacy from the crown, had united thirteen semi-independent States, had adopted a constitu- tion, had passed though the bitter personal antagonisms incident to the formation of national political parties, and had received recognition as the world's greatest republic. But in the stupen- dous metamorphosis there had been but little out- ward change from the habits and customs of colo- nial times, and as little alteration in the State of New Jersey as elsewhere in the Union.
The close of the eighteenth century found social lines in New Jersey clearly defined. Families dominant in the colonial life of the State, in the microcosms of politics, conventional society, theology, or the law, had their representatives of equal prominence in 1800. A family name was still potent, a family influence still gained prompt recognition. Not even the taint of Toryism, and the fact that cousins were beginning life anew as refugees in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, altered the respect paid to the head or scions of a distinguished house. Caste distinctions were
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well defined and the colonial demarcations were projected until well into the nineteenth century. First came the families whose sons were members of the bar and clergy, and from which most of the State officials, members of Council, and a por- tion of the House of Assembly were usually selected. In West Jersey, as in the Southern colonies, the members of the Society of Friends, with their large plantation interests, formed a dignified landed aristocracy, which had a coun- terpart in East Jersey in the descendants of the Dutch settlers who retained ancestral holdings along the valleys of the rivers emptying into New York Bay. These may be termed the country gentry. A large portion of the population form- ing another group was composed of small farm- ers, store keepers, and artisans. Day laborers and apprentices composed another element, while slaves and half-breed Indians were at the base of the social structure. The opportunities to sud- denly acquire vast wealth did not exist, con- sequently its employment as a factor in personal advancement was unknown. There were no sud- den changes of fortune, and patrimonies were usually as slowly dissipated as they were ac- cumulated. In such static conditions any altera- tion was an evolution rather than a revolution.
Social life among the men was limited to polite intercourse at their homes or in the taverns. In
COLONIAL FURNITURE.
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New Jersey there were no clubs, in the modern sense of the term. Organizations, however, ex- isted, which from their slow growth apparently met all demands. The most exclusive was unques- tionably the Society of the Cincinnati, which or- ganized in 1783 with George Washington as its president-general, and which was instituted the same year in the State of New Jersey with Gen- eral Elias Dayton as its first State president. Annually meeting upon the Fourth of July, with a membership largely composed of Federalists in New Jersey, the organization embraced men dis- tinguished in the annals of the Revolution. But in New Jersey its career was not marked, as in other States, by the later violent opposition which threatened its downfall and led to the establish- ment of the Tammany societies. The conservative spirit of the State recognized the purposes for which the society was formed, and good naturedly appreciated the display of insignia and the pro- visions of its constitution relating to member- ship by right of primogeniture. By its side stood the Masonic order, which laid claim to military lodges founded during the Revolution, and which had secured a membership among the most re- spectable citizens of the State.
It was, however, in political gatherings that the social spirit was dominant. Feeling ran high at all seasons of the year. Every election was bit-
[Vol. 2]
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terly contested, every prominent man was called upon to positively declare his sentiments, if not in the press, at least at dinners, where toasts were drunk to the success of one side and confusion to the other. It was an age of feasting and drink- ing, when every public occasion was the proper opportunity for a dinner and hearty potations. The successful candidate was dined, the baby was welcomed into the world with a gathering around the punch bowl, the barn raising or the laying of a frame of a new church meant the consuming of small beer, canary, and metheglin, and even the dead were hastened through the dark valley with a fitting banquet and the distribution of stimulating beverages among those who mourned. No gentleman ever neglected to keep his mahog- any sideboard spotless, bright with glass and silver, and his stock of liquors in plenty. Even the humblest laborer had a bottle of spirits in the painted cupboard, if only one tin cup was in the house.
It was, however, at the taverns that the social life of the day found its freest expression. Here gathered all classes and conditions of men, par- ticularly in the county capitals. Associate jus- tices of the Supreme Court and lawyers on cir- cuit, leading men of the community, ambitious politicians, postriders and coach drivers with the latest news from the cities, petty chapmen, char-
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latans, impostors, and travellers, occupied pri- vate apartments or the tap room, while standing around the door were slaves, apprentices, and the rabble of the town. Day and night there was noise and bustle in the inns, with late arrivals and early departures of horsemen, coaches, mail wagons, carters, and pedestrians. Here gossip and news were retailed and disseminated, and what with drinking, card playing, and disorder in- cident to frequent fights the taverns of the day were usually as demoralizing as they were numer- ous.
Among women the Old World conditions were still binding. As an economic factor she was scarcely worth consideration, and as late as sixty years ago Miss Harriet Martineau, while visiting America, says that there were only seven employ- ments open to women, namely, teaching, needle- work, keeping boarders, working in cotton mills, typesetting, bookbinding, and household service. This list for the year 1800 may be reduced by abolishing working in cotton mills, typesetting, and bookbinding. Female activity and interest lay almost exclusively in the home. Every girl learned the elements of domestic science, and left for women yet unborn the problems of sex-emanci- pation.
The standard of living embraced fewer com- forts than at present, the diet being heavy and
PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S WRITING TABLE ( Used by him in Federal Hall, New York )
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coarse. The physical difficulties of preparing meals, to which much of a woman's life was then devoted, required close attention to de- tail. In all America there was no cookstove; coal was simply a curiosity, wood and charcoal in an open fire being the only fuel. Not a single canned vegetable could be bought, ice houses were infre- quent, water was drawn from wells, artificial light was had from wax candles or "tallow dips," while the score of kitchen conveniences, now so common, were unknown. From domestic duties the average young woman turned to her needle- work and to her lover. True, in families where there was little religious prejudice the girls were permitted to dance at home or at the "assem- blies," play cards, and sing, and if by chance she had visited the Park Theater in New York or the Chestnut Sreet Theater in Philadelphia, and had seen Mrs. Oldmixon, Mrs. Hogg, Mr. Holcroft, or Mr. Jefferson, her wide social experience was the talk of the town.
Though usually an atrocious speller, the wom- and of 1800 was an omnivorous reader, particular- ly when the romantic, bombastic novel came from faraway England. She was neither hysterical nor morbid nor given to the analysis of sex-prob- lems, but she had genuine hearty affections, flirted with this flame or that, and ultimately settled down to a quiescent matrimonial state. Divorce
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in New Jersey was practically unknown, and the marriages of the day were the results of normal love making.
The mass of the people lived much in the open air, and were accustomed to athletic exercises, but not to any of the modern games. In the larger towns of New Jersey in 1800, such as Newark, Elizabeth Town, Perth Amboy, New Bruns- wick, Trenton, Burlington, and Bridgeton, it was but a step to a river or stream abound- ing in fish or wild fowl, or to a nearby woods or fields where small game was abundant. Deer roamed through the "Pines" and bears were frequent in the mountains of the northern part of the State. Fox hunting had its devotees, and many gentlemen throughout New Jersey kept hounds. From Philadelphia members of the famous old "State In Schuylkill" club came fre- quently to New Jersey, and in Gloucester County were joined by the fox hunters, with whom they rode to the sea shore. From New York fishermen went by schooner or shallop to Newark or Raritan Bays to engage in contests with the gentry of Middlesex and Monmouth Counties, while the Delaware, from the shad fisheries at Gloucester to the "Forks" at Easton, was a resort for many sportsmen of prominence. Horse breeding and turf-racing had their admirers, and so prominent were the horse breeding interests of the State that
A FOOT STOVE.
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the great seal of New Jersey, adopted in 1776, bears for its crest a nag's head, as does the seal of the City of Trenton, designed in 1793. Monmouth, Somerset, Burlington, Gloucester, and Salem were counties famous for strains of racing stock, while the newspapers of the day teem with advertise- ments of the merits of notable horses. Road and turf racing were common, and were always for prizes of money and plate. Here, as in lotteries and card playing, there was constant gambling. Jockeys, as now, were trained, being negro boys who, like the horses, belonged to their masters.
In contests of physical strength boxing and fencing were the amusements of gentlemen. A recent writer calls attention to the fact that Thomas Jefferson boxed and fenced, and George Washington, who all but saw the nineteenth century open, could jump further and throw a stone a greater distance than any other man in Virginia.
There are allusions in old letters to prize fight- ing, which was always conducted in a brutal man- ner. Election and training-day fights, which were a mixture of tests of strength and personal antag- onisms, were held in the stable yards of taverns, when eye-gouging and chewing of ears were al- lowable under the rough and ready "rules" gov- erning such affairs.
One form of social entertainment, if such it
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may be called, and which reached all classes, was a morbid desire to attend funerals. The death of a man or woman-children, owing to their plenitude, were not considered-was the occa- sion of a concourse of people varying in size with the individual's local prominence. Owing to the narrowness of environment, any person of more than mediocre ability gained a more or less con- spicuous place and possessed a large though highly intensified acquaintanceship and friend- ship. Riders were sent with notifications of the death. To provide for the dinner extensive though hurried preparations were made. All available persons were pressed into service, and at the hour of interment the house was crowded. Either at the home or in the church the "funeral was preached," sometimes among the Society of Friends the exercises occupying two or three hours. Then the cortege took its way to the grave- yard or the family burial lot, which often lay adjacent to the residence. There was intense solemnity on these occasions, in which women took an active and tearful part.
Beyond this, life was blank. Art and music, great exhibitions of the world's progress in science, travel to remote lands, study, and a wide course of reading were within the experience of but few. ' Simple, even crude, pleasure, a routine broken only by election or training days, by hunt-
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ing or fishing and infrequent visits to Philadel- phia and New York, comprised the social pleas- ures of even the most fortunate. With women the range was far less extensive.
The rigidity of church discipline was a power- ful restraint. No one for a moment seriously ques- tioned the declaration ofthe pulpit in the matter of amusement. The Society of Friends, the young but rapidly growing Methodist Episcopal connection, the Presbyterian and Reformed Dutch denomina- tions had all spoken upon the subject, and for the time had spoken finally. All denominations were opposed to dancing, most had denounced lotteries and other forms of gambling. Excessive drink- ing was under the ban, and card playing was a thing of evil. Theaters, to all, were an abomina- tion, and the sum and substance of the matter was that a woman's place was at home, and a man's place in tending to his commercial or polit- ical affairs. Thus the latitude allowed individual consciences was limited, and only those whose church membership was nominal took part in the pleasures of the age.
(END OF VOLUME TWO)
A WASHINGTON CHAIR.
( Made from the timbers of " the first presidential mansion " in Franklin Square, New York, erected by Walter Franklin in 1770.)
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شكيب
يعيد
لل بانيه
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