USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 14
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tion to the Stamp Act was so determined that the English captain who had the stamps for New Jersey in charge did not dare land them.
The New Jersey Legislature, however, was the central figure in the opposition. A communication from the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives suggesting a meeting of Representatives from all the Colonies at New York in October, 1765, was laid before the New Jersey As- sembly on June 20, 1765, the last day of its session. The mem- bers had then mostly returned to their homes, others were preparing im- patiently to be released from attendance, and amid the hubbub which seems unseparable from the last days of the session of every American legislature, Governor Franklin seems to have had no difficulty in procur- ing the passage of a resolution in which it was stated that the Assembly "unanimously, after deliberate consideration," decided against taking any part in the proposed Congress. It seems that Robert Ogden, the Speaker, was at first inclined to the opinion that the Colony should send Repre- sentatives, but that he changed his mind on some "advice" being given him, but as to the nature of the "advice" or the name of the adviser his- tory is silent. The news of the cavalier treatment accorded to the Massa- chusetts proposals, however, aroused such hearty and outspoken denuncia- tion that it caused the Speaker to disregard his advice and reconvene the Assembly, with the result that the invitation was accepted, and Ogden, Hendrick Fisher and Joseph Borden were selected to represent New Jer- sey in the proposed Congress. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, South Carolina, Maryland and New York were the other Col- onies represented at this momentous gathering, and while Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and New Hampshire, for various reasons, did not send delegates, their people soon showed that they fully appreciated what was said and accomplished by those who were present-by the majority of those who were present. Memorials were drawn up addressed to the King and to Parliament, protesting against taxation except by consent, and up- holding the power of the Colonial Legislatures-a sort of Declaration of Rights. What was done at this Congress in that way had little effect, no effect at all, in fact, in Great Britain, and it is questionable if it had any real influence in America so far as its resolutions and the words of its memorials went. These things were foregone conclusions. They but re- iterated the sentiments of the people. But the practical accomplishment, the real step forward which the Congress contributed to the story of frec- dom, was taken just before the close and as the members were about to separate, although important as was the accomplishment, its real import passed generally unnoticed at the time. At the conclusion of the dis- cussion the point arose whether the memorials should be signed by the
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Congress and sent direct to London as expressive of the voice of a united people, or be forwarded to the different local Legislatures, and then de- bated over afresh and, if satisfactory, forwarded by each to London. By an almost unanimous vote the Congress determined to act as a unit, and so the first practical step to the formation of the United States was taken.
The most determined opponent of all this was Robert Ogden, Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly. He contended that the opposition to the stamps was but a form of treason, upheld the supremacy of Parliament, and as a last resource declined to sign the memorials, advocating their being sent to the various Assemblies for consideration and final action, thus practically shelving them. There is little doubt of his patriotism and sterling integrity, but his opposition to the methods adopted, temporarily, at least, placed him in a dubious light before his fellow-colonists. They burned him in effigy, denounced him as a traitor and all manner of villain, and public excitement grew so intense that he was forced to resign his seat and retire for a time to private life. Afterward, however, as chair- man of the Elizabethtown Committee of Safety, in 1776, he fully vindi- cated his claim to be a patriot.
When the Congress terminated its sittings, Governor Franklin at once called a meeting of Assembly, hoping thus to be able, so far as ,New Jersey was concerned, to nullify the action of the delegates in New York by a vote at Trenton condemning the proceedings. That call seemed to arouse the people as they had never been aroused before, and the doings of the Congress were endorsed at every cross-roads throughout the Colony. Ogden declining to face the music, a new Speaker was chosen in Court- landt Skinner, who, when the crisis became one of deeds and the time for words was past, threw his lot with the loyalists, raised three battalions of loyal volunteers, and died in England in 1799, an exile from his native land but honored with the rank of brigadier general and comforted with a pension. The report of Messrs. Fisher and Borden justifying the pro- ceedings at New York was adopted, and Speaker Skinner, John Johnson, John Lawrence and David Cooper were appointed a committee to cor- respond on affairs in the Colony with its agent in London,-Joseph Sher- wood. The Assembly then passed on its own account a series of resolu- tions re-echoing those of the New York Congress.
In June, 1766, Governor Franklin announced to the Assembly the repeal of the Stamp Act, but even in this announcement his duplicity was too evident to be permitted to pass without notice, and it was evident that he had utterly lost whatever degree of confidence-never very much- the people had entertained of his wisdom and his patriotism.
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But remonstrances, while they had removed for the time the Stamp Act, had not fixed the status of the colonists or determined the question of the right of Parliament to tax as it pleased, or removed any of the imposts except the stamp duties, and these, after all, were simply held in abeyance. In 1768 the Assembly of New Jersey adopted a petition to the King in which it was said :
"One of the rights and privileges vested in the people of this Colony is the privilege of being exempted from any taxations but such as are imposed on them by themselves, or by their representatives, and this they esteem so invaluable that they are persuaded no other can exist without it. * Penetrated by these sentiments, this, your people, with the utmost concern and anxiety observe that duties have lately been imposed upon them by Parliament for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue. This is a taxation upon them from which they conceive they ought to be protected by the acknowledged principles of the constitution : that freemen cannot be taxed but by themselves or their representatives ; and that they are represented in Parliament they not only cannot allow, but are convinced from their local circumstances they never can be. Very far is it from our intention to deny our subordination to that august body, or our dependence upon the people of Great Britain; in these connections and in the settlement of our liberties under the auspicious influence of your royal house we know our happiness consists, and therefore to con- firm these connections and to strengthen this sentiment is at once our in- terest, our duty and delight."
Such, there is no question, were the real views of the people of New Jersey at this juncture, and, such it may be admitted were the views of the people throughout the country. At the same time it must be confessed that even then the war was on, although neither side was aware of it, or would have admitted it. But we know now that a commercial war is as much a conflict between two States as is one in which arms are matched. Great Britain had no intention of receding from her position, the Colonies were determined to uphold theirs; Great Britain continued to impose taxes on her exports to the United States, and to lay obnoxious restrictions on American shipping, restrictions calculated to suppress American com- merce and retain the Atlantic carrying trade in British hands. So a pop- ular edict of non-importation went forth. New Jersey had at that time no foreign trade, but her Assembly passed resolutions thanking its own mer- chants and traders and those of New York and Pennsylvania "for their disinterested and public spirited conduct in withholding their importations of British merchandise until certain Acts of Parliament levying restric- tions on American commerce for the express purpose of raising a revenue in America be repealed.
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This was a most effective measure, inasmuch as its operation was felt by the merchants of Britain more than by those in America, and by the latter it was carried out so loyally that in 1770 all the taxes were repealed excepting one on tea. This again led to confusion. Merchants in New York and Rhode Island at once declared the non-importation plan aban- doned on all goods with the exception of tea, and hurried large orders to London. This aroused a general feeling of indignation, nowhere more intense than in New Jersey, where such conduct was denounced at public meetings in Elizabethtown and elsewhere. Indeed, at New Brunswick the agents of some of those merchants, while attempting to sell their goods, were rather roughly handled. Practically the trouble was over so far as New Jersey was concerned, for the amount of tea then needed to sup- ply the wants of the people there would not at that time have yielded annually in taxation enough to clothe and maintain a single red-coated soldier. So from 1770 the opposition which undoubtedly not only existed but steadily grew in intensity against the Home Government, was one of sentiment-that is to say, it was inspired solely by patriotism, by a pro- found belief that the freedom of the Colony, of all the Colonies, was in danger. They were not, apparently, so watchful of their own interests as were their co-patriots in Massachusetts, nor was it possible for them to be, for they were then pretty far removed from the centre of political life, and, being mainly an 'agricultural people, living on their own farms, they had less interest in following the daily unfolding of affairs which of necessity on account of its geographical position made Boston become the watch-tower of the Revolution. Besides, the Colony had a full share of troubles of its own. With the close of the French war a momentary stringency had shown itself, the result of a false "boom" which had been caused by the exigencies of those times. An unwarranted increase in the value of farm lands, a temporary rise in the value of produce of all kinds, a plentiful circulation of money-to a considerable extent bounty money- in the hands of people not accustomed to a plethora of readily available wealth, led to extravagance and speculation, with the result that when the excitement of the war and its results had died out, the inevitable shrinkage took place, land and produce settled down to their old values or even less, money was scarce, payments could not be met, and, as usual. foreclosure, law suits, distress and discontent followed. As seems in- evitable in such circumstances, the laws did not prove elastic enough to meet particular cases of distress, lawyers were denounced as fattening on the exorbitant fees which they wrung from their hapless clients, and judges were denounced for no other reason than, as in duty bound, they carried
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out the laws of the Colony. The popular discontent seemed to be con- centrated against the entire legal machinery of the commonwealth, and in several places it broke out into open riot. At Freehold, in 1770, the judges were even prevented by force from executing their office, and else- where were similar attacks upon the judiciary. The worst feature of the trouble was that, in most cases, the rioters escaped any punishment, simply because the sympathies of the people were with them in their law- lessness.
Had a strong man been in the Governor's chair at this crisis, he might have accomplished much for the Province, and even for the cause of his royal master. Writing with a full view of the history of the time, it must be said that even the strongest man could not have moved the finger of destiny rigidly pointing at separation and independence-that was, in fact, one of the developments of historical progress that was bound to come one way or another, sooner or later -- but Franklin might have changed much of the story, and made New Jersey, at the parting of the ways, less eager to leave the old beaten track, rough and full or pit- falls as it was, for that which led to independence, and which seemed, so far as the eye could see, to be as rough and toilsome as the one on which they stood. Had a patriotic man been Governor, he might have aided the cause of freedom by telling the exact truth to his royal master, although the case of Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, shows of how little avail his undoubted patriotism proved in stemming the progress of events on either side, and Hutchinson was probably the most hated man in New England.
But if we read the story of New Jersey aright, if we try to under- stand correctly the feelings of the people of that time, their sentiments toward Franklin were those of contempt rather than of hatred. If he had any statesmanlike qualities, they do not mature with opportunity; if now and again he caught a breath of popular favor, it proved feeble and fleet- ing. If he had originally any spark of patriotism, of love of country, in his heart, it was crushed out by the glamour of the reflected light of royalty with which he tried to lighten his pathway. If he came to New Jersey a man, he developed into a puppet, and his own pettiness is clearly shown by his miserable squabbles with the Assembly, as well as by his ignominions exit from the scene of his borrowed glory. Hutchinson, even in exile, remained a patriot in his heart and refused royal honors, but Franklin fawned on the royal court, or rather on the royal ministry, to the end of his career.
It has been stated that Governor Franklin tried to promote the welfare
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of the Province, that he developed its silk industry, that he urged the Assembly to provide bounties for agricultural enterprises, and the like. There is no doubt that he did attempt something in that direction, but his attempts proved of little avail. There is little use in improving the attic of a house when it is afire in the basement. The only real tangible service he performed was in permitting the Assembly in 1772 to increase its mem- bership from twenty to thirty. The act authorizing this change, after it had passed the Assembly, received the royal assent on the Governor's recommendation. His course in this instance did much to remove the un- pleasantness created by the squabble over Treasurer Stephen Skinner's bonds. The house of that official in Perth Amboy had been entered by thieves, and the funds of the division of the Province in which he held office (East Jersey) were stolen from an iron chest, £6,600 in all. The robbers were not discovered, although diligent search was instituted and, after two years or so, when there appeared to be no sign of the re- covery of the money, the Assembly took a hand in the matter, decided that the Treasurer had kept the cash or securities in a careless manner, and declined to release him from the loss. The matter remained in abey- ance for two years longer and then, in September, 1772, it again became an issue. Skinner remonstrated against the theory that he should be held re- sponsible for the money, but the Assembly not only upheld what had been done, but asked the Governor to compel the Treasurer to recoup the amount. They even suggested a doubt of its having been stolen at all, but that seems to have been merely a bit of political extravagance, for there appears no doubt of Skinner's personal honesty. Franklin declined to take any action, reproaching the Assembly, very properly, with the fact that for some four years it had itself done nothing in the matter. Thereupon the Assembly asked him to remove Skinner from office. This he refused to do, and a criminal prosecution was talked of but dropped. The Treas- urer himself desired a legal determination of his liability, and at length, to bring the matter to an issue, he resigned, handing over all the funds then in his possession. The Assembly directed his successor to institute suit for recovery of the contents of the iron box, but the matter ended there. Greater issues came up for consideration, and Skinner, retaining his British loyalty, forfeited all his estate and possessions by confiscation and so passes from view.
From 1770 until 1774 it may be said that New Jersey was rather a passive factor in the events which led up to the famous "Boston Tea Party" of December 16, 1773, and to the similar destruction of tea in New York harbor in April following. The efforts of the British Ministry
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were concentrated upon Massachusetts, and such measures as the Boston Port bill, which prohibited all trading with that city, the repeal of the Massachusetts Charter, the removal of the State capital from Boston to Salem, the deportation act, and the military display under General Gage, were all directed against that Colony with the idea that if the spirit of rebellion could be stamped out there, it would die out among the others. Cruel and despotic in its measures against New England, the ministry was disposed to overlook the unrest in the other Colonies, and even at- tempted to placate some of them, as by the appointment of Lord Botecourt to the Governorship of Virginia. But if New Jersey was passive, she was ready for action when the time came. The doings of the patriots in New England and elsewhere met with her heartiest endorsement; her Sons of Liberty were as active watchmen as were the members of that historic association elsewhere, and her Committee of Correspondence was busy forming and uniting public sentiment and preparing for the final step toward which everything had been tending for a decade or more-separa- tion and independence. The Acts directed against Massachusetts, if suc- cessfully put in operation, could be turned against any Colony, and the truth and importance of this was not more clearly understood anywhere than in New Jersey. The great weakness of the British ministry was its blindness to the fact that the Colonies could ever become united into one solid phalanx in support of any object. On this it was undeceived when it was too late.
The Massachusetts Assembly, in regular session at Salem, locked its doors to prevent any action or interference by General Gage; passed a "resolve" asking the other Colonies to send delegates to Philadelphia, on September I, following, to consider matters, and elected five delegates as its own representatives. New Jersey quickly proved her mettle. Dur- ing the month of July a number of meetings were held in the various county towns, at which the policy and acts of the British Ministry were openly condemned, and such measures as the closing of the port of Boston and the suspension of the charter of Massachusetts were especially de- nounced. At these meetings the opinion was very generally expressed that the time for action had come; that there was no further need of any dalli- ance with a Government that seemed determined to deprive "free-born Englishmen" (as they still called themselves) of their rights, rights which were theirs by inalienable law, by custom, and by practice. At these meet- ings the existence of legislative assembly was forgotten, or rather ignored; it no longer, as it was constituted, represented the people, and was re- garded rather as an appenage of the royal Governor, whose position even
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then had become somewhat equivocal for, though he retained the trappings of state, the actual power was daily slipping from his hands. So at these county meetings representatives were appointed to meet in convention and nominate delegates to the Congress in Philadelphia called by Massachu- setts. The representatives so chosen-seventy-two in number-met at New Brunswick on July 21, 1774, with Stephen Crane as their presid- ing officer and Jonathan D. Sergeant as clerk, and elected James Kinsey, William Livingston, John DeHart, Stephen Crane and Richard Smith to the Congress. A Committee of Correspondence was also appointed, comprising William Peartree Smith, John Chetwood, Isaac Ogden, Joseph Borden, Robert Field, Isaac Pearson, Isaac Smith, Samuel Tucker, Abra- ham Hunt and Hendrick Fisher. Most of these patriots, however, had been actively at work with correspondence duties long before receiving this public appointment.
It cannot be said that New Jersey was more fortunate in its selection of delegates to this Congress than to its predecessor. The men selected were all of superior intelligence, but their ideas of patriotism were some- what graduated, and they seemingly, when events began to shape them- selves, did not approve all that was done by the majority at Philadelphia. In fact, Kinsey refused in 1775 to take the oath of allegiance to the Re- public, and both he and DeHart tendered their resignations to the New Jersey Assembly on November 17, 1775, and these were accepted. Smith was also apparently in a state of dubiety as to the current in which affairs were drifting. At first, however, this want of unity was not apparent, and, when the delegates reported the proceedings of Congress to the New Jersey Assembly, that body approved all that was done, only the Quaker members venturing a formal protest against whatever seemed to point to the arbitrament of war. The Assembly instructed its delegates to see to it that each Colony was equally represented in the Congress as to num- ber of representatives, irrespective of its numerical strength, and in par- ticular insisted, as a leading principle, that no decision in Congress should be obligatory upon any one of the Provinces or Colonies or ,Common- wealths unless its own Representatives voted in favor of it. New Jersey, however, was not the only Colony which insisted on that point, and in- deed it may be said that Congress watched such scruples very carefully, fully satisfied that any serious revival of the old provincial jealousies might retard the thorough union which was absolutely necessary if the wishes of the American people were to prevail over the decrees of the British Parliament.
The Assembly had met under unusual difficulties, and its evident sympathy with the doings of Congress gave great pain to Governor Frank-
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lin. He had avoided calling it together as long as possible, although often urged to do so. He knew it would not be as amenable to his wishes as it formerly had been; that the changes in its membership had brought it, somewhat at least, he did not understand clearly how far, into touch with the movement which was now so active throughout the Colonies for autonomy, if not for separation. But when, finally, he was com- pelled to call the Representatives together, he felt bound to open their session with an address that would fully remind those in attendance of the duty they owed, under their oaths, to the King. He warned the delegates against "giving any countenance or encouragement to that destructive mode of procedure which has been unhappily adopted, in part, by some of the inhabitants of this Colony, and has been carried so far in others as totally to subvert their former constitution." He held that each Colony should separately approach the King by petition, on the subject of its grievances, and promised that the matter would be "properly attended to." He did not in the least blink the issue on this occasion, but put it clearly and forcibly before the legislators in words that were worthy of his hon- ored father. He said :
"You have now pointed out to you two roads-one evidently leading to peace, happiness and a restoration of the public tranquility; the other inevitably conducting to anarchy and misery, and all the horrors of civil war. Your wisdom, your prudence, your regard for the true interests of the people, will be best known when you have shown to which road you give the preference. If to the former, you will probably afford satisfac- tion to the moderate, the sober and discreet part of your constituents. If to the latter, you will perhaps give pleasure to the warm, the rash and in- considerate among them, who, I would willingly hope, violent as is the temper of the present times, are not even now the majority." .
From this it will be seen that Franklin had then become fully aroused to the danger of the crisis, although he evidently had not the slightest doubt that it would end in the complete discomfiture of those who chose as their road that which led to "anarchy and misery."
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