USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > The discovery and early history of New Jersey; a paper read befores the Passaic County historical society, 1872 > Part 3
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places that have so often rippled through the dewy lips of dusky maidens a century or two ago seem by a potent spell of sympathizing Nature to have been affixed forever to the places all about us, as a "memento mori," to com- pensate in some measure for the destruction of the people who first applied those names. And so long as the Great Falls of the Passaic are remembered in song or story or the annals of the chronicler; so long as the bare, scraggy Preakness mountain rears its rude barriers skyward; while the sonorous name Totowa clings to the Falls neigh- borhood; and the peaceful valley of the Sicomac reminds us of the Indians' hopeful burial-customs; and the Singack still describes the sunken flats or valley; and the Wagaran yet reminds us of the river's abrupt bending at Riverside; and the Pequannock ripples and dashes and dances over its rocky bed as merrily as the vowels and consonants of its appellation do over the tongue; while the softly-spoken Wanaque recalls one of the most charm- ing of valleys and prettiest of streams; or the name Macopin savors of delicious pickerel; or Watchung de- scribes the bold bluffs of Garret Mountain-while all these aboriginal names cling to spots so familiar to us, and so dear to many of us, even though their meanings be lost to us, yet still we shall not utterly forget the mysterious children of Nature who came and went, and whose coming and going seem to us to have been only as a shadow flitting across a sunny landscape.
THE EARLY GOVERNMENT OF NEW JERSEY.
But this paper has been extended beyond all intention or expectation. The part of New Jersey history already gone over is so fresh, and has had so little written about it, that an unusual interest naturally attaches to it in the mind of one with a taste for historical research.
At this late hour you will gladly pardon me if I give
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but the merest outline of the leading subsequent events of New Jersey history.
First let it be understood that this whole territory was included in "Florida" by the Spaniards in 1535 (vide supra) ; in 1610 was called the "New Netherlands"; in 1648 was called "New Albion" by an ambitious English adventurer; but retained the name "New Netherlands" till 1664. New York and New Jersey were all this time under one Dutch government, Wouter van Twiller being sent out in 1630 by the West India Company, as above stated. He was succeeded in 1638 by Wm. Kieft, a murderous, cowardly rascal, who early in 1643 insti- gated his soldiers to commit one of the most atrocious massacres recorded in history, upon a party of friendly natives at Pavonia. The redoubtable Peter Stuyvesant came after, and remained Governor, Director-General, etc., of the whole country till 1664. Then the English, who laid claim to the continent ever since Cabot dis- covered it in 1497, again because Hudson was an Eng- lishman, and again because a daring English captain (Argal) had in 1613 or 1614 compelled the hauling down of the Dutch flag over Fort Amsterdam. The New Haven settlers were very jealous of their Dutch neighbors, and once had the temerity to attack New Amsterdam, but were promptly repelled by the doughty Stuyvesant. Foiled, but not despairing, the New England people called on the Protector, Cromwell, in 1653, to establish the English claim to the New Netherlands, and he actu- ally fitted out a fleet for the purpose, but an unexpected peace with Holland stopped the meditated expedition. Charles II succeeding Cromwell lost no time in assuming the sovereignty over the Dutch possessions in America, and then at once transferred that sovereignty to his brother, the Duke of York, March 12, 1663-4, who in
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turn (June 23-4, 1664) transferred to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret the sovereignty over what we call New Jersey. Up to this time this territory had been identified with what is now New York, as the New Netherlands, there being one Governor over the whole country. The Duke of York on his accession to the ownership sent out an expedition under Col. Richard Nicolls to take possession, and Fort Amsterdam peace- ably surrendered to him Sept. 3, 1664, when the place was christened New York. The terms granted the Dutch were so favorable that they generally remained and be- came subjects of Great Britain. Col. Nicolls acted as Governor over the united province for a year, and was Court, Legislature and all. He prescribed the manner of purchases from the Indians, and required a public registry of all contracts with them for the soil, before their validity would be acknowledged.
In the Duke of York's grant to Berkeley and Carteret it was provided that the tract transferred to them should thereafter be called Nova Caesarea or New Jersey- because Sir George Carteret had been governor of the Island of Jersey, in the English channel, and had there afforded a refuge to the future Charles II. (Whitehead's E. J., pp. 30, 31.) The new proprietors in 1665 made arrangements to induce settlements, and proclaimed a written constitution for the government of the new colony -perhaps the very first in America, for it went far beyond the Dutch "Charter of Liberties" granted in 1629. The government of the province was entrusted to a governor (appointed by the proprietors), and a council of 6 to 12 persons chosen by the governor, and an assembly of twelve representatives, chosen annually by the freemen of the province, and this Legislature was given, virtually, absolute power in the government of the
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province, so much so, indeed, that "no tax could be justly imposed on them, without their own consent and the authority of their own general assembly"-which right they insisted upon, and successfully, too, as early as 1680 (Whitehead's E. J., p. 81), or nearly a century before that plea was generally raised by the American colonies, and with far greater justification than in the case of most of the others.
As Grahame puts it: "Thus the whole of New Jersey was promoted at once from the condition of a conquered country to the rank of a free and independent province, and rendered in political theory the adjunct, instead of the mere dependency, of the British empire. It would not be easy to point oui, in any of the political writings or harangues of which that period was abundantly prolific, a more manly and intrepid exertion for the preservation of liberty, than we behold in this first successful defence of the rights of New Jersey. One of the most remarkable features of the plea which the colonists maintained, was the unqualified and deliberate assertion, that no tax could be justly imposed on them without their own consent and the authority of their own provincial assembly. The re- port of the commissioners and the relief that followed, were virtual concessions in favor of this principle, which in an after age was destined to obtain a more signal triumph in the national independence of North America." (Grahame's Col. Hist., quoted by Judge Field, ut supra, pp. 38, 39.)
Philip Carteret, brother1 of Sir George, was commis- sioned as Governor in 1665, sailed for New Jersey, and landing at Elizabethtown gave that spot (settled a year or two earlier) its name, in honor of his brother's wife. . He made arrangements to settle Perth Amboy and 1 [A fourth cousin. Note, 1912.]
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Woodbridge, and the former was the seat of government of East Jersey for a century afterwards, and to this day there are deposited there the earliest registers of land- titles and transfers, from 1676-1702.1 In 1668 Gov. Carteret summoned the first Assembly, which met at Elizabethtown, fifteen years before the first Assembly of New York. Bergen sent Casper Steenmetts and Bal- thazar Bayard to this first Legislature in New Jersey. At this time and for some years later, judicial powers were also vested in the Governor and his Council. (Field's Provincial Courts of N. J., pp. -. )
Under the new government the land was granted on condition of the payment of a yearly quit-rent to the pro- prietors, of half a penny an acre. In 1672, on one plea and another, many of the settlers refused to pay this rent, and anarchy ensued. Governor Carteret went to Eng- land (leaving John Berry as Deputy), and had his authority confirmed by the Duke of York and King Charles himself, and Berkeley and Carteret.
Now the Dutch suddenly swept down on the country and again took possession of the quondam "New Nether- lands," but they interfered with no individual rights, and the code of laws promulgated "By the Schout and Magis- trates of Achter Kol Assembly," held at Elizabethtown, Nov. 18, 1673, was very mild. A few months later peace was declared between England and Holland, and the American provinces were restored to the English.
Now the Duke of York obtained from King Charles a new patent for New York and New Jersey, and sent out Edmund Andros as Governor, July 1st, 1674, all former grants being reaffirmed. About this time Carteret's title
1 [An error. These records were transferred to Trenton, in accord- ance with an Act of the Legislature, passed November 25, 1790. Note, 1912.]
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was renewed by the King, and the Duke gave him indi- vidually the northern half of New Jersey, and Philip Carteret returned to assume the rule of the province. The southern or West Jersey half of the province had been sold by Lord Berkeley, and a few years later passed into the hands of a company. The two halves of the Province were thenceforward, for nearly a century, known as East Jersey and West Jersey, sometimes having two Gov- ernors, and always having two Assemblies, and their government, mode of selling lands, etc., were entirely different. The line between the two Provinces gave no end of trouble for sixty years. The general course of that line as laid out in 1687 may be noticed on any county map of New Jersey.
Gov. Andros of New York continually interfered with Gov. Carteret, and finally assumed authority over East Jersey, at Elizabeth, in 1680; brutally seized Carteret, carried him to New York, and had him tried by a special court on a charge of unlawfully assuming authority. The court refused to convict, though ordered to do so by Andros, but Carteret was required to stay away from East Jersey, while Andros went over to Jersey and asked the Assembly to confirm him in possession. This they nobly refused to do, and asserted that the great Magna Charta and the "Concessions" of the Lords Proprietors were superior to his claims, or even to a subsequent decree of royalty itself! A few months later the Duke of York disclaimed Andros's acts, and Carteret was restored to the government of East Jersey. Sir George Carteret dying in 1679, devised East Jersey to certain trustees, who offered it for sale to the highest bidder, and in 1681-2 it was bought by Wm. Penn and eleven other Quakers, for £3,400, and they took in twelve other associates.
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Gov. Carteret died December, 1682, and was buried in New York-the precise place being unknown.
He was succeeded by others from time to time, who ruled with indifferent success, the people gradually grow- ing more discontented, till in 1702, in response to the popular demand,1 the Lords Proprietors resigned the gov- ernment to the English Crown. For some years New York and New Jersey were under one Royal Governor, but this did not suit the Jerseymen, who were ever jealous of their liberties, and thereafter they were given a Gov- ernor of their own. Of the events that led to the Revolu- tion, there is not time now to speak. Suffice it to say, that New Jersey was in the van of patriotic colonies, and her Provincial Congress proclaimed the independence of the Province, July second, 1776,-two days before the immortal Declaration of the United Colonies at Phila- delphia. New Jersey's part in the subsequent Revolution, and her career from then till now has been glorious, and unmarked by a single stain on her bright escutcheon. That it may be ever so, should be our earnest wish and constant endeavor.
1[And conceding the doubtful legality of the royal grant of Charles II, alienating from the crown its sovereignty over New Jersey.]
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