USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 3
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PHILADELPHIA FROM THE NEW JERSEY SHORE IN 1754.
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while his twin brother, Lewis, becoming associ- ated in the expedition, later laid down his life during the battle of Monmouth. And there were more as enthusiastic if not equally prominent.
The tea burning was at once carried to the courts. Action of trespass was begun in the Su- preme Court of New Jersey against the " Green- wich Indians," counsel for the plaintiffs, the Philadelphia owners of the tea, being Joseph Reed, of Philadelphia, and Charles Pettit, of Bur- lington. For the defendants appeared Joseph Bloomfield, later governor of New Jersey; George Read, of New Castle, Delaware; Elias Boudinot, of Elizabethtown; and Jonathan D. Sergeant, of Philadelphia. The plaintiffs neglecting to enter security for costs, in May Term, 1776, a non-pros was entered. Subsequently security was given and the non-pros set aside; but the crown's jus- tices of the Supreme Court having been dis- placed by the operation of the constitution of July 2, 1776, the matter was discontinued.
Concurrent with the civil trial an attempt was made to institute criminal proceedings. Late in May, 1775, Chief Justice Frederick Smyth, pre- siding at the Court of Oyer and Terminer, ac- cording to the diary of Ebenezer Elmer, " gave a very large charge to the grand jury concerning the times, and the burning of the tea the fall be- fore, but the jury came in without doing anything,
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and the court broke up." But the foreman of the grand jury was Daniel Elmer, nephew of the Whig high sheriff, and no one looked for any other result except possibly Governor William Frank- lin, who, removing Ebenezer Elmer, placed in his stead David Bowen, who was supposed to have strong Tory proclivities. High Sheriff Bowen drew a Tory grand jury, who made a presentment against Ebenezer Elmer and others, who, in addi- tion to burning the tea, had caused the arrest of one Wheaton, notoriously disaffected to the cause of liberty. Wheaton had made a complaint of as- sault and battery and false imprisonment, but in spite of the judicial administration of the county being in the hands of the loyalists the court did not order a formal indictment to be presented. Thus the incident of the " Greenwich Tea Party " was formally closed.
The spirit of the tea-burning could not so easily be stifled. The very act itself partook of the prin- ciple of armed opposition. In New Jersey it was the first blow physically directed against the au- thority of the crown. It was rebellion in petto, but none the less rebellion. Yet so powerful was local sentiment, so strong the feeling in that section of Cumberland County, that all attempts to bring the offenders to justice proved abortive. The very boldness of such an act further stimulated the Whigs throughout the colony and made the names
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of the participants noted, not only in New Jersey, but throughout the colonies. But following so soon after the affair in Boston, and attended with less dramatic incidents, the "Greenwich burning" became less and less important until it finally be- came little more than a memory.
THE NEWS FROM LEXINGTON.
CHAPTER III
LOCAL COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE
I T WAS from the State of Massachusetts, where, in defense of popular rights, a movement was inaugurated in the autumn of 1772, that New Jersey caught the in- spiration of the idea underlying the es- tablishment of township and county committees of correspondence. Taking their vitality from the self-centering influences of the town meet- ing, these committees were established through- out the colonies and became formative agencies in the development of the political life of the communities in which they were organized.
In New Jersey the township and county com- mittees came into being without official authori- zation. They were the means by which localities at first sought to give expression to public opin- ion, and later, when the very foundations of civil government seemed to be slipping away, when public opinion led on to independence, these committees assumed powers which, in some cases, made them autocratic. But few if any of the proceedings of these committees have been preserved. Enough remains to show the lines of their growth, and to indicate that the storm and stress of the Revolutionary movement centered in East Jersey and gradually spread it- self over the colony.
Of the meetings leading to the establishment of committees of correspondence-although the
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NESB
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COCKED HAT.
associations were known by various names-that which appears first as a matter of record was the "meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Township of Lower Freehold," in the County of Monmouth, upon the 6th of June, 1774. De- signed to express sympathy for Boston, this meet- ing recommended the stoppage of importations and exportations from and to Great Britain and the West Indies until the Port Bill and other acts should be repealed. Within the same month three counties-Essex upon the 11th, Bergen upon the 25th, and Morris upon the 27th-held meetings in their respective court houses. The resolutions expressed allegiance to the crown, yet urged action concerning the repeal of the Port Bill and offered to become parties to a plan of union to redress the grievances of not only New Jersey but likewise of the other colonies. Upon the 8th of July Hunterdon County citizens met at the house of John Ringo in Amwell for a similar purpose.
Owing to the large number of the freeholders and inhabitants of Middlesex County who met in New Brunswick upon the 15th of July, 1774, the meeting was adjourned from the court house to the Presbyterian Church. The action of Sussex County was taken upon the following day at Newton, and, upon July 19th, by the County of Monmouth at Freehold. Monmouth also selected
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delegates "to faithfully serve the labouring cause of freedom " at the Provincial Convention. In every instance committees of consultation and correspondence were elected, who were either to select representatives to attend the New Bruns- wick Provincial Convention upon the 21st of July, 1774, or attend themselves.
Seventy-two delegates assembled in New Brunswick, and, coming direct from the people, unhampered by partisan machinery, the con- vention gave free expression to its views. From the various plans and suggestions made at the county and township meetings the delegates presented a series of "sentiments and Reso- lutions." It was declared that the people of New Jersey "are and ever have been firm and un- shaken in their loyalty to his Majesty King George the Third, * * and that they de- test all thoughts of an independence on the Crown." This convention was called to nominate delegates to the Continental Congress.
But it was further asserted that the principle of "taxation without representation " was un- constitutional, and that constitutional means should be used to oppose such acts of Parliament. The shutting up of the Port of Boston, the in- vasion of the chartered rights of Massachusetts Bay, the sending of political offenders to distant parts for trial, and the forwarding of an armed [Vol. 2]
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force to America were not only subversive of the rights of subjects, " but also repugnant to the common principles of humanity and justice." To procure redress a " General Congress of Commis- sioners of the respective Colonies " was demand- ed, the Congress to regulate a "general non- importation and non-consumption agreement."
It was also requested that the province send some relief to Boston by means of subscriptions of money or benefactions. To the "noble and worthy patrons of constitutional liberty in the British Senate " the convention sent its grateful acknowledgments. The closing act of the ses- sion was the selection of James Kinsey, William Livingston, John de Hart, Stephen Crane, chairman of the convention, and Richard Smith as deputies to the general Continental Congress.
So far as the organization of county and town- ship committees is concerned no further action seems to have been taken during 1774. But in November of that year Essex County became a center of political activity. In his charge to the grand jury Chief Justice Frederick Smyth had warned that body that while they were guarding themselves against "imaginary tyranny three thousand miles distant " they ought not to expose themselves to a real tyranny at home. To this the grand jury, some of whose members were
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identified with the committee movement, gave a spirited answer to the effect that in their opinion no tyranny was imaginary where taxes were im- posed upon a people unrepresented in Parlia- ment, and where the right of trial by jury was denied. They further argued that the screening from punishment of those guilty of murder was not a bare idea, and that the scheme to estab- lish French laws and the Popish religion to further the schemes of the British ministry in Canada had something more than a mental ex- istence. The British army and navy, continued the grand jury, were substantial and formi- dable realities in and around Boston, and did not exist entirely as creatures of the imagination.
Later in the month a call was issued in the County of Essex for the election of committees of "observation of the conduct of individuals." This call was in accordance with the recom- mendation of the Continental Congress regarding non-importation and non-exportation under the articles of association. Ten delegates were to be chosen for " Achquahanung," fifteen for New- ark, and twenty for Elizabeth. Upon the 1st of December the freeholders of Elizabethtown met and approved the action of the Continental Congress, while provision was made for the election of delegates to the "next , General Congress in Philadelphia." On this occasion
ONE OF THE PRISON HOUSES IN NEW YORK.
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there was publicly burned, before the court house, two lately published Tory pamphlets, "A Friendly Address, &c.," and the other signed " A Farmer," the act being done " in detestation and abhorrence of such infamous publications."
With the opening of the year 1775 the activity of Essex County continued unabated. The free- holders of the township of Newark having re- cently chosen a committee of observation, this committee met in Newark, January 5, and, after presenting its thanks to the delegates from New Jersey to the Continental Congress, begged leave to inquire whether a press that slandered Con- gress and sowed the seeds of faction and discord was not inimical to the country, and whether the printer was not an enemy to his country, raised to affluence from bankruptcy by his prof- its, and a moderate rate per cent. on Keyser's Pills? Whereupon the committees of Newark, and Elizabethtown resolved to boycott Rivington, "printer of one of the New York gazettes," as " a vile Ministerial hireling."
Throughout Middlesex the districts of the county, late in December, had chosen committees of observation, members having been selected in Woodbridge, Piscataway, South Amboy, New Brunswick, South Brunswick, and Windsor. Upon the 16th of January the general committee of observation and inspection for the county met
NEW YORK CITY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
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at New Brunswick, approved of the proceedings of the Congress, whom they felicitated, and ap- pointed a committee of correspondence to urge the General Assembly to nominate "Deputies from this Province to the General Congress to be held in Philadelphia in May next." The com- mittee also declared their contempt "of those insidious scribblers * who skulk be- hind prostituted printing presses," and " who, with the most unexampled effrontery against the sense of every man of the least information, will persist in retailing the rotten, exploded, and ten thousand times confuted doctrines of a passive acquiescence in the measures of Government, how- ever distempered and tyrannical." The inhabit- ants of Woodbridge met upon the 10th of January and among other matters recommended " Frugal- ity, Economy, and Industry and the prohibition of all kinds of Gaming." During the same month, upon the 9th, the Morris County meeting was held in Morristown, while upon the 18th of January several of the township committees of Hunterdon met at John Ringo's. Elizabethtown, upon February 13th, resolved to break off all " trade, commerce, dealings, and intercourse " with the inhabitants of Staten Island, as the is- landers had " manifested an unfriendly disposi- tion towards the liberties of America," like action being had by Woodbridge upon the 20th.
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It was not until the 15th of February, 1775, that there is any record of the West Jersey counties taking action. Upon that date Burling- ton City and County chose a committee of ob- servation. In March the Cumberland County committee disciplined one of its members be- cause he "had drank East India tea in his family," but the offender having agreed to regu- late his conduct agreeably to the will of the majority of the committee, and having "apol- ogized handsomely," he was reinstated.
The resolutions adopted in February, 1775, by the committee of observation for the Township of Hanover, Morris County, were of an economic and social rather than polit- ical character. The committee bound itself to suppress all unlawful, tumultous, and dis- orderly meetings, as well as to punish offenders against the laws prohibiting horse racing, cock fighting, gaming and every species of extrav- agant entertainment and amusement. The kill- ing of sheep under the age of four years, or the sale of such an animal for market purposes, was deemed a violation of the seventh article of the association, while the cultivation of flax and hemp was recommended. Forestalling and en- grossing in the case of goods made in the town- ship branded the offender an enemy of his country.
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The Freehold committee, which met early in March, had given consideration to a Tory pam- phlet entitled "Free Thoughts on the Resolves of the Congress," which was treated to a suit of tar and turkey buzzards' feathers and then, “in its gorgeous attire," was nailed firmly to the pillory post.
Organized force presents itself upon the oc- casion of the passage of the Freehold resolutions, when it is noted as a part of the proceedings that a considerable number of the inhabitants of Freehold had formed themselves into companies and had chosen military instructors, under whose tuition they had made rapid improvement. A subsequent meeting of the Freehold committee bore "publick testimony " against the inhab- itants of Shrewsbury Township, because they, unlike the rest of the county, had neglected to provide a committee of observation. In spite of the neglect the Freehold people were ready to receive and treat them " as returning prodi- gals."
Bergen County, at least so far as the sentiment of the extreme northeastern portion of New Jer- sey was represented by Hackensack, still held to the hope that a reconciliation between New Jer- sey and the crown might be effected. In the meet- ing of thirty-seven of the inhabitants of Hacken- sack, March 14, 1775, they declared their loyalty
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to the King and their willingness to venture their lives and fortunes to support the dignity of the crown. They further pledged themselves to sus- tain all civil officers in the lawful discharge of their duties. Furthermore, humble petitions to the throne, said these Bergen men, were the only measures which could remove grievances. An emphatic disavowal of riotous mobs and of un- constitutional acts was also placed upon record. Not so, however, in the adjoining County of Essex, where, upon the 24th of April, the members of the committee declared they were willing to risk their " lives and fortunes," not for their King, but "in support of American liberty." It was recom- mended that the militia captains muster and exercise their companies, that each man be pro- vided with arms and ammunition, and that ap- prentices be permitted by their masters " to learn the military exercise."
In Morris County, at Morristown, upon May 1, the inhabitants and freeholders placed in the hands of nine delegates, who were vested with the " power of legislation," the raising of "Men, Money, and Arms for the common defence." The succeeding day the committee voted that three hundred volunteers be raised, divided into com- panies of sixty men each, provided for the char- acter of the official staff, military discipline, the form of enlistment, the pay of the men, and that
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five hundredweight of powder and a ton of lead be purchased for the use of the Morris County regiment. In other sections of East Jersey active preparations were made for war. Upon the 3d of May the inhabitants of Acquackanonk met at James Leslie's, near the bridge, and adopted the Newark resolutions. The next day the inhab- itants of Upper Freehold met at Imlay's Town, subscribed £160 to purchase powder and ball, rec- ommended every man to enter into companies, " to train and be prepared to march at a minute's warning," and chose officers of four military com- panies. While the people of Upper Freehold were taking action a town meeting in Newark resolved to support and carry into execution whatever measures might be recommended by the Continen- tal Congress or the State convention. Within a few days the Somerset committee of correspond- ence met in the court house and heartily agreed to " arm and support " such number of men as the authorities should order raised in Somerset Coun- ty. Bergen County created a standing committee of correspondence upon May 12, 1775, while upon the 18th the " General Committee of Association for the Township of Newark " recommended to the "gentlemen Traders of this Town," and generally to their constituents, that they do not supply any kind of exports to Quebec, Nova Scotia, Georgia, Newfoundland, the
Thomas Gage, b. in Sussex, England, 1721; ap- pointed major in English army 1747; was in Brad- dock's expedition 1755; served in Canada; com- manded the British in Boston 1774 to Oct., 1775 ; d. in England, April 2, 1787.
GENERAL THOMAS GAGE.
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fishing coasts, and fishing islands, nor furnish provisions clandestinely to the King's ships or boats. In the house of John Imlay, in the Town- ship of Mansfield, June 24, 1775, the general com- mittee of observation for the County of Burling- ton recommended the maintenance of peace and good order, and sustained the action of the Provincial Congress in raising £10,000 at a critical moment.
Henceforth the activities of the county and township committees shift from the discussion of constitutional rights to the preparation for a struggle vastly momentous. In July the Eliza- bethtown committee was engaged in forwarding powder from Philadelphia to Dobbs's Ferry, offer- ing £20 proc. for every hundredweight of salt- peter made in New Jersey within three months. This committee also sent forward prisoners to the New York Congress. The New Brunswick committee, on July 27, assured the New York committee that it was ready to render the coun- try every service in its power. The following day the freeholders of Somerset County provided for a series of committees of inspection, to be chosen for the different townships of the county, with a general committee of inspection, to whom all appeals should lie. In the latter part of August Bergen County provided for the enrollment of
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its militia, comprising all male persons between the ages of sixteen and fifty.
The opening of the year 1776 found the com- mittees of correspondence active in the discharge of their self-assumed duties. Following to a degree the example set by Morris County, no one act of a county committee of correspondence was of greater special interest than an attempt of the Somerset County committee to promote local manufactures. Upon the 14th of February the committee met at Hillsborough, with Dr. John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey, as chairman. With a primary object to benefit the "inland Trade " of Somerset, the fol- lowing was declared to be the fundamental principle of action:
That whatever will make it easy for every Person, old or young, rich or poor, to do a little and immediately to turn that little to their own Advantage as well as throw it into the Public Service, must have the most immediate and powerful Influence.
In the establishment of such a plan it was designed that markets be held for wool, woolen yarn, cloth, fine and coarse wool cards, rough and dressed flax, linen yarn, green and whitened cloth, reeds and mounting for looms, wheels, and reels. These markets were to be established monthly at Princeton, at Pluckemin, at Bernards- town, Bound Brook, and at Somerset Court House. giving to a county having extensive terri-
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tory a weekly market. In brief the plan was not unlike that later devised in Ireland for the es- tablishment and perpetuation of the so-called " cottage industries," of which the Somerset plan was the prototype, and which plan received the unqualified support of Dr. Witherspoon himself.
Upon the 15th of March, 1776, the Newark com- mittee passed resolutions regulating the price of West India produce for sale in that township. The rates fixed were those established by the New York committee, with the additions caused by the retailer's loss in gauging, waste, small drafts, freight, cartage, and commissions. The articles upon which the prices were regulated were West India rum, Jamaica spirits, country rum, molasses, coffee, chocolate, loaf, Muscovado, and lump sugar, salt and pepper. Any retailer acting in defiance of the regulations was to be de- clared " an enemy to his country," and "neither his person nor estate will receive protection from the enemy." The Newark committee in May also recommended that no inhabitant of the township kill or eat any lamb or sheep until the following August, presumably for the purpose of fostering the wool industry.
In Trenton, during this period, the committee of observation was particularly active. The vil- lage was in the center of a community where Tory influences were powerful, and where Whig
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vigilance must necessarily be alert in watching suspicious characters passing between Philadel- phia and New York. In fact the Delaware Valley was overrun with crown sympathizers, who, with specious argument and gold, did their part in at- tempting to force back the on-rushing tide of revolution.
With the organization of civil government the need for the local committees came to an end. From time to time the organizations dissolved, leaving the administration of local affairs either to the newly created council of safety or to the peace officers of the locality.
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CHAPTER IV
THE CONTINENTAL LINE, MILITIA, AND STATE TROOPS
T HE first call upon New Jersey for continental troops was made upon October 9, 1775, when the Continen- tal Congress recommended that the colony raise " at the expense of the Continent " two battalions, each containing eight companies, while each company be composed of sixty-eight privates. The term of enlistment was for one year at the wage-rate of five dollars per cal- endar month. In place of bounty each private was allowed one felt hat, a pair of yarn stockings, and shoes, "the men to find their own arms." The Continental Congress provided commissions for captains and subaltern officers. Advertise- ments issued under the authority of the Provincial Congress were immediately circulated throughout New Jersey calling for recruits, the colony providing two and two-thirds dollars per week for each officer's subsistence, while each private was allowed one dollar per week " whilst in quarters " and one and one-third dollars when on march to join the army. Four muster masters were appointed to carry out the intent of the Provincial Congress.
Throughout the autumn the Continental and Provincial Congresses politely wrangled over the matter of the selection of field officers. The influences of politics had led the Continental Con- gress to assume the right of appointing New Jer-
[Vol. 2]
A CONTINENTAL SOLDIER.
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sey's field officers. This, the colony contended, should be reserved to itself, in that the service would be expedited by the selection of men of high standing, tending to encourage others of reputa- tion to become captains and subalterns and to stimulate the enlistment of privates. After more discussion the Provincial Congress, upon October 28, recommended the names of those fitted for field officers of the First or Eastern Battalion and the Second or Western Battalion. This organiza- tion was known as the First Establishment of the continental troops "Jersey Line." Of the First Battalion William Alexander, titular Lord Stirling, was colonel, while William Maxwell was colonel of the Second Battalion.
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