USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey, from its discovery by Europeans, to the adoption of the federal Constitution > Part 14
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In the latter, prepared, most probably, by Morris, they express their regret, that, instead of granting to the governor the revenue required from them, it became their duty, to lay before him the unhappy circumstances of the pro- vince, which they attributed, in some measure, to his long and frequent absence from his government. They then proceeded to allege-That, he had obstructed the course of justice, by suspending, for years, the execution of the sentence of death, pronounced against some women, convicted of murder; and that this delay " was not only a very great charge, but that the blood of the innocents cried aloud for vengeance-and just heaven would not fail to pour it down upon their already miserable country, if the guilty were not made to suffer according to their demerits : That, in criminal cases, the accused were condemned to the payment of costs, even when no bill was found: That, the sole office for the probate of wills, together with the secre- tary's office, were holden at Burlington, to the great inconvenience of the inhabitants, who dwelt in the remoter parts of the province: That patents
* Smith's New Jersey, 281. See Appendix, P.
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for the exclusive carriage of goods, on the road from Burlington to Am. boy, had been granted for a term of years, contrary to the statute of 21 Jac. 1, against monopolies : That fees had been established without the au- thority of the General Assembly: And that the governor had put the re- cords of the eastern division of the province into the hands of one, the pre- tended agent of the proprietors,* who did not reside in the province. Some of these grievances were certainly of a character to rouse public indignation, whilst others were, probably, more the result of circumstances, which would have been removed by the Legislative power, as they were offered for con- sideration.
But there were other grievances, which the Assembly deemed of higher nature, and attended with worse consequences. Such were-the prohibition to the council of proprietors, to issue warrants for land in West Jersey, and other unauthorised interferences with proprietary rights-the exclusion of the three members from the last House-and the corruption of the governor in receiving large sums of money for the dissolution of the first Assembly, in order that no act should be passed to compel the payment of proprietary quit- rents, and to obtain such officers as the contributors should approve. "This House," continues the remonstrance, " has great reason to believe, that the money so gathered, was given to Lord Cornbury, and did induce him to dis- solve the then Assembly, and by his own authority to keep three members out of the next Assembly, and put so many mean and mercenary men in office; by which corrupt practice, men of the best estates are severely ha- rassed, her Majesty's good subjects in this province, so impoverished, that they are not able to give that support to her Majesty's government, as is de- sired, or as they would be otherwise inclined to :- And we cannot but be very uneasy, when we find by these new methods of government, our liber- ties and properties so much shaken, that no man can say he is master of either, but holds as tenant by courtesy and at will, and may be stripped of them at pleasure. Liberty is too valuable a thing to be easily parted with, and when such mean inducements procure such violent endeavours to tear it from us, we must take leave to say, they have neither heads, hearts, nor souls, that are not moved by the miseries of their country, and are not for- ward with their utmost power, lawfully to redress them."
" We conclude by advising the governor to consider what it is, that princi- pally engages the affections of a people, and he will find no other artifice need- ful, than to let them be unmolested in the enjoyment of what belongs to them of right ; and a wise man that despiseth not his own happiness, will earnestly labour to regain their love."
This free and unceremonious remonstrance lost nothing of its force, in the delivery by speaker Jennings. In vain did his lordship attempt to awe his constant and spirited temper, by assumed airs of greatness, and by repeated interruption, with the cry of stop! what's that? as the most offensive passages were read to him. Jennings, with an affectation of deep humility, whenever interrupted, calmly desired leave to read the passages again; to all of which, he gave additional emphasis, so that the second reading was greatly more offensive than the first.t
IV. The indignation of the governor, at this remonstrance, is strongly pour- trayed, in a long circumstantial, but not very successful, reply; in which he denied the truth of some of its charges, and sought to justify the others. On the dread, expressed by the house, of divine vengeance for punishments delayed,
* Peter Sonmans.
t When the House had retired, Cornbury, with some emotion, says the historian Smith, told those with him, that Jennings had impudence enough to face the devil.
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he remarked; "I am of opinion, that nothing has hindered the vengeance of just heaven, from falling upon this province long ago, but the infinite mercy, goodness, long-suffering, and forbearance of Almighty God, who has been abundantly provoked by the repeated crying sins of a perverse generation among us; and more especially, by the dangerous and abominable doctrines, and the wicked lives and practices of a number of people; some of whom, under the pretended name of Christians, have dared to deny the very es- sence and being of the Saviour of the world." The practice of extorting fees from the accused against whom no bill was found, he defended on the ground of established custom; admitting, however, that if the juries of the country were such as they ought to be, a different rule might be proper.
"But," he continues, "we find from woeful experience, that there are many men, who have been admitted to serve upon grand and special juries, who have convinced the world, that they have no regard for the oaths they take; especially among a sort of people, who, under a pretence of conscience, refuse to take an oath: and yet, who, under the cloak of a very solemn affirm- ation, dare to commit the greatest enormities, especially, if it be to serve a " friend," as they call him; these are the designing men, and the vindictive tempers of which all the Queen's good subjects ought to beware, and be pro- tected from; and these are the crying sins which will undoubtedly draw down the vengeance of just heaven upon this province and people, if not timely and seriously repented of." .
In considering the more heinous charge of corruption, the truth of which he peremptorily denies, his lordship demands; " who would not, after such assertions, expect to see the governor proved guilty, either of treason or be- traying the trust reposed in him, by the Queen, by depriving the subjects of their lives, their estates, or their properties; or, at least, denying them justice, and perverting the laws to their oppression? These, or the like crimes, manifestly proved, are the only things that can justify men in the accusing a governor of corrupt practice, and of shaking the liberties and properties of the people. But if none of these things can be proven, but on the contrary, it does appear plainly, that no one act of severity, much less of injustice or oppression, has been done, since the government of this province come under the Queen, but there has been an impartial, just, and equal administration of justice observed throughout the whole course of my government, and that many acts of mercy have been extended to persons who deserved to be se- verely punished ; then what sort of creatures must these bold accusers appear to be, in the eyes of all impartial and judicious men? That these are truths beyond all contradiction, and which all the people of this province know, I do challenge you, and every one of you, to prove to the contrary. And though, I know very well, that there are several unquiet spirits, in the pro- vince, who will never be content to live quiet, under any government, but their own; and not long under that neither, as appears by their methods of proceeding, when the government was in the hands of the proprietaries, when many of these very men, who are now the remonstrancers, were in authority, and used the most arbitrary and illegal methods of proceeding, over their fellow subjects, that were ever heard of; yet, I am satisfied, there are very few men in the province, except Samuel Jennings and Lewis Morris, men known, neither to have good principles, nor good morals, who have ventured to accuse a governor of such crimes, without any proof to make out their accusation; but they are capable of any thing but good." -
V. New fuel was added to this flame, already unextinguishable, by a dispute relative to the accounts of Peter Fauconier, the provincial treasurer. In the examination of which the House found several objectionable items, paid upon the governor's order, merely, and without vouchers, which the treasurer re-
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fused to render without the governor's commands. Upon application for these, his lordship replied, that, he had already ordered them; therein ex- ceeding his powers; inasmuch as the Lord High Treasurer had appointed an auditor-general, for the province, who had deputed one to settle the accounts of the provincial treasurer; he being responsible only to the Lord High Treasurer. His lordship proffered to explain any articles with which the Assembly were dissatisfied; but this, they very properly, declined, as they would have sanctioned the preposterous claim of irresponsibility of the pro- vincial treasurer to a provincial Assembly, for the funds of the province, and would have placed them still more at the mercy of their extortionate rulers.
VI. In the temper which now prevailed among the officers of the state, there was no prospect of joint and beneficial labours; and the governor, probably, dreading a caustic rejoinder to his reply, prorogued the House on the 16th, to meet in the following September, at Amboy. A subsequent order convened them in October, when they resolved to answer the go- vernor's replication, and to raise no money unless their grievances were redressed; in which case, they proposed to grant, for the support of govern- ment, fifteen hundred pounds. On the 25th, they informed the governor, that having seen his reply in print, they were disposed to answer it, and requested to know, when they might present their rejoinder. He promised to receive them in due time; but having waited for his message until next day, and then concluding that he purposed to elude their request, they sent a committee with their message, which, he refusing to receive, they caused to be entered on their journal.
In this address the House reiterated and amplified their former complaints, and spared no opportunity to give to his excellency the retort courteous. From the following examples, the reader will, probably, agree with us, that, their shafts were keen, if not polished. "It is," say they, "the General Assembly of the province of New Jersey, that complains, and not the Qua- kers, with whose persons (considered as Quakers) or meetings we have nothing to do; nor are we concerned in what your excellency says against them; they, perhaps, will think themselves obliged to vindicate their meet- ings, from the aspersions which your excellency, so liberally, bestows upon them, and evince to the world how void of rashness and inconsideration your excellency's expressions are, and how becoming it is, for the governor of a province, to enter the lists of controversy, with a people who thought them- selves entitled to his protection, in the enjoyment of their religious liberties ; those of them who are members of this House have begged leave, in behalf of themselves and their friends, to tell the governor they must answer him in the words of Nehemiah to Sanballat, contained in the eighth verse of the sixth chapter of Nehemiah; viz. There is no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine oun heart."
In reply to the governor's boast, of the purity of his administration, they ask, "are not his Majesty's loyal subjects hauled to gaols, and there lie without being admitted to bail ? And those that are," they continue, " is not the condition of the recognizances, that, if your excellency approves not of their being bailed, they shall return to their prisons? Are not several of her Majesty's good subjects forced to abscond, and leave their habitations, being threatened with imprisonment, and having no hopes of receiving the benefit of the law, when your excellency's absolute will is the sole measure of it ! Has not one minister of the Church of England, been dragged by a sheriff, from Burlington to AAmboy, and there kept in custody, without assigning any rea- son for it, and at last hauled by force into a boat, by your excellency, and transported, like a malefactor, into another government, and there kept in a
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garrison, a prisoner ; and no reason assigned for it, but your excellency's pleasure! Has not another minister of the Church of England been laid under the necessity of leaving the province, from the reasonable apprehen- sion of the same treatment ! Is any order of men, either sacred or civil, secure in their lives, their liberties, or cstates? Where these procedures will end, God only knows."
" If these, and what we have named before, be acts of mercy, gentleness, and good nature-if this be the administering laws, for the protection and preservation of her majesty's subjects, then have we been the most mistaken men in the world, and have had the falsest notion of things ;- calling that cruelty, oppression and injustice, which is their direct opposite, and those things, slavery, imprisonments, and hardships, which are freedom, liberty, and ease; and must henceforth take France, Denmark, the Muscovian, Ottoman, and Eastern empires, to be the best models of gentle and happy government."
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VII. Beside these measures of resistance, in the province, to the usurped authority and irregular proceedings of the governor, the West Jersey pro- prictors, residing in England, addressed a memorial condemnatory of his conduct, to the lords commissioners of trade and plantations; in which, they exposed at length, the evils resulting from his interference with their lands. The governor sought to repel these attacks, by an address, from the lieuten- ant-governor, and his council, to the Queen. After partially stating the dissentions in the province, they added, "We are now obliged humbly to represent to your majesty, the true cause; which, we conceive, may lead to the remedy of these confusions."
" The first, is owing to the turbulent, factious, uneasy, and disloyal prin- ciples of two men in the Assembly, Mr. Lewis Morris, and Samuel Jennings, a Quaker; men notoriously known to be uneasy under all government- men never known to be consistent with themselves-men to whom all the factions and confusions in the government of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for many years, are wholly owing-men that have had the confidence to declare, in open council, that your majesty's instructions to your governors, in these provinces, shall not oblige or bind them, nor will they be concluded by them, further than they are warranted by the law, of which, also, they will be the judges; and this is done by them, (as we have all the reason in the world to believe,) to encourage, not only this government, but also the rest of your governments in America, to throw off your majesty's royal pre- rogative, and, consequently, to involve all your dominions, in this part of the world, and the honest, good, and well-meaning people in them, in confusion ; hoping, thereby, to obtain their wicked purposes.
" The remedy for all these evils, we most humbly purpose, is-that your majesty will most graciously please to discountenance those wicked, design- ing men, and show some dislike to this Assembly's proceedings; who are resolved, neither to support this your majesty's government, by a revenue, nor take care to defend it, by settling a militia. The last libel, called 'The Reply, &c.' came out so suddenly, that as yet, we have not had time to answer it in all its particulars; but do assure your majesty, it is.for the most part, false in fact; and in that part of it which carries any face of truth, they have been malicious and unjust in not mentioning the whole truth; which would have fully justified my Lord Cornbury's just conduct."*
It might be questionable at the present day, whether the lieutenant- governor, and his council, did not design to betray the cause they seemed to defend, when they charged it as a crime upon the citizens of a government
* Sec Appendix, Q., for names of Council.
L
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of laws, that they preferred the laws, as they understood them, to the in- structions of the Queen, and would obey the latter, so far only, as they were consistent with the former. But we have, here, only, an additional instance of the subserviency, which the love of power and place, every where pro- duces. It is the law of society, if not of nature, that men should strengthen the hand that feeds them. And ordinary men, like the beast of the stall, lick the hand that fattens them, even for the shambles. The dispenser of official favours, whether he be a prince or a president, will always find minions, ever ready to maintain his prerogative above the law, and we are, therefore, not surprised, that such hoped for protection, from a daughter of James the Second.
VIII. Two days after Lord Cornbury had refused to receive the Address of the Assembly, he prorogued that body, to the spring of the ensuing year; and thus avoided the necessity of a defence, which he found difficult to sustain. The house met in Burlington, on the 5th of May, 1708; and in the illness of Jennings, their former speaker, named Thomas Gordon to that office .* The governor addressed them with the customary speech; to which, they replied, by repetition of former grievances, and recounting of new ones. Perceiving that nothing could be obtained, without the abandonment of the ground he had taken, he adjourned them, until September, to meet at Amboy; and in the interval, dissolved them.
IX. In his government of New York, the conduct of Lord Cornbury · was, if possible, more offensive to the people, than in New Jersey; and had been productive of like results, universal dissatisfaction of the people, and entire suspension of legislative action. His character is described as a com- pound of bigotry and intolerance, rapacity and prodigality, voluptuousness, and cruelty, and the loftiest arrogance, with the meanest chicane. Whether from real difference in sentiment, or from a policy, which in those days was not uncommon, whilst his father adhered to James, the son attached himself to king William, and was among the first officers who deserted to him, on his landing at Torbay. Having dissipated his substance in riot and de- bauchery, and being obliged to fly from his creditors, in England, he obtain- ed from his patron, the government of New York, which was confirmed by his kinswoman, Queen Anne, who added the government of New Jersey. He first excited the odium of the people of the former province, by the into- lerance he exercised against the Presbyterians, and every other religious sect, except the protestant Episcopalians. Though the great body of the in- habitants, including the principal families of the province, were of the former persuasion, he prohibited their ministers from preaching without a license . from himself; implying, that they officiated not of right, but by his indulgence. He, in one instance, fraudulently seized upon their church property, and delivered it to the Episcopal party; in another, he indicted two ministers from Virginia, who preached without license, for a misdemeanor; but his malice was defeated, by the independence of the jury, who refused to con- vict. In every part of the province, he tendered his assistance to the Epis- copalians, to possess them of the churches, which other sects had built. Happily, his.conduct in other departments of his government, by uniting all parties against him, soon deprived him of the power of instigating one por- tion of society to harass or oppress the rest. Not content with the liberal grants which the Assembly had made him, for his private use, he embezzled large sums appropriated to the ervetion of public works, and unable to sub- sist on his lawful emoluments, even with the addition of enormous pillage, he contracted debts, with every tradesman who would trust him, and set his
* See Appendix, R.
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creditors at defiance, by means of his official station. The Assembly proposed, in vain, to establish a body of functionaries, to control the public expenditure, and to account to themselves; and, with as little success, did they transmit remonstrances, against him, to the Queen .* The only imme- diate result of the latter, was some private instructions to the governor. The proposition, to control the public disbursements, was rejected; and, when they insisted on a scrutiny of his accounts, he warned them not to provoke him, to exert " certain powers entrusted to him by the Queen, and to trouble him less about the rights of the House; as the House possessed no rights, other than the grace and good pleasure of her Majesty, suffered it to enjoy." By such declaration, and a line of policy strictly conformable therewith, he alienated all his adherents; and when he dissolved one Assembly, for its at- tention to the public interest, he was unable to convoke another of different character. At length the Assemblies refused to vote the smallest supply for the public service, until he should account for all his past receipts and appli- cations of public money, and perform the impossible condition of refunding the sums he had embezzled. His dissolute habits and ignoble tastes and manners, completed and embittered the disgust with which he was, now, uni- versally regarded; and when he was seen rambling abroad in the dress of a woman, the people beheld with indignation and shame, the representative of their sovereign and ruler of their country.t
X. At length Queen Anne was compelled, in the year 1709, by the reite- rated and unanimous complaints of New York and New Jersey, to supersede his commission. No sooner was he deprived of office than his creditors threw him into prison. And thus degraded from an honourable station, by his public crimes, and deprived of liberty by his private vice and dishonesty, this kinsman of his Queen, remained a prisoner, for debt, in the province he had governed, till the death of his father, elevating him to the peerage, enti- tled him to liberation. He then returned to Europe, and died in the year 1723.į
* See Appendix, S., for resolutions of the Assembly of New York.
t Grahame's Col. Hist. vol. ii. 302. Smith's New York.
# Smith's New York, 144, 145, 146, 164. Grahame's Col. Hist. 306. Biograph. Brit.
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CHAPTER VI ..
Comprising Events from the Removal of Lord Cornbury to the Close of the Administra- tion of Governor Ilunter-1700-1719 .- I. Lord Cornbury succeeded by Lord Lovelace-His conciliatory Address to the Assembly .- II. Ready disposition of the House to provide for the Support of Government-Change in the Constitution of the Assembly-Assembly obtain a Copy of the Address of the Lieutenant Governor and Council, to the Queen, in favour of Lord Cornbury-Demand a hearing for their Defence before the Governor .- III. Death of Lord Lovelace and Accession of Lieutenant Governor Ingoldsby .- IV. Promptitude of the Province to aid in reducing the French Possessions in North America .- V. Failure of the Expedi- tion, and renewed Efforts of the Colonists to revive it-Visit of the Chiefs of the Five Nations to England .- VI. Capture of Port Royal, &c. by Colonel Nicholson and the American Forces .- VII. Governor Ingoldsby removed-Government administered by William Pinhorue as President of Council-succeeded by Go- .vernor Hunter .- VIII. Biographical Notice of Governor Hunter .- IX. Meets the Assembly, which prefers Charges against Members of Council .- X. Expul- sion of a Member of the House for his Conduct in Council -- Address to the Queen .- XI. Bills proposed for the relief of the Quakers defeated by the Coun- cil .- XII. New Efforts for the Conquest of the French Provinces-Unfortunate Result .- XIII. Continued quiet of the Province .- XIV. Division of the Assem- bly .- XV. Governor Hunter returns to Europe-Testimonials in his favour by New Jersey and New York-Exchanges his Commission with William Burnet.
I. Lord Cornbury was succeeded in his governments of New York and New Jersey, by John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, who met the council of the latter province, at Bergen. December 20th, 1708, and a new Assem- bly, at Perth Amboy, in the following spring.
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