USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey, from its discovery by Europeans, to the adoption of the federal Constitution > Part 48
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New Jersey seems to have used her right of making money, with great moderation, and that dreatt of debt, which has peculiarly characterized her. By the act of June Sth, 1779, she called in all the bills of credit issued during her colonial state; and directed, that all not presented before the first of January, 1780, should be irredeemable. The provincial conventions, be- fore the constitution of the State, authorized the issue of sixty thousand pounds, and provided for its extinction by taxation. This debt was adopted by the State. Under the requisition of Congress, March, 1780, the State authorized the issue of two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds, pay- able with interest in yearly instalments, and the whole within six years.
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But of this sum the whole was not emitted. On the 9th of January, 1781, a further emission of thirty thousand pounds was authorized, also, redeema- ble within six years. This sum was in small bills. And there were, pro- bably, some other inconsiderable issues. But for the redemption of all, taxes were duly and timely laid. The State bills ceased to be a tender under the act of June 13th, 1781; and the continental bills, by an act of the 22d of the same month. The taxes were, during the depreciation, nominally enormous; and the amounts proposed to be raised at different times, strong- ly mark the course of depreciation. By a resolution of November, 1778, the Assembly proposed to raise one hundred thousand pounds, for the sup- port of the government during the succeeding year; of which sum they pro- posed to pay to the governor one thousand pounds, and to Robert Morris, chief-justice, five hundred pounds, and the salaries of the other officers pro- portionately. And in November 20th, 1779, they resolved to raise nine millions of dollars, by the first of October following; and appropriated for the salary of the governor, seven thousand pounds, and for that of David Brearly, chief-justice, five thousand, and to the other officers propor- tionably.
During the war, there were large amounts of property belonging to the tories, confiscated; but they proved of little avail to the public treasury. The sales were generally made on credit, and by the progressive deprecia- tion, what might have been dear at the time of purchase, became dog cheap at the time of payment.
The most extensive evils resulted from making the paper bills a tender in payment of debts contracted to be payable in gold and silver. They fell chiefly on those who lived upon fixed incomes, or possessed capitals, previously accu- mulated or invested. The annuitant, the widow, the heir, and the legatee, in receiving the nominal amount of their respective interests, did not, in many cases, receive a cent in the dollar. In a vast number of instances, the carn- ings of a long life of care and diligence, were wrested from their possessors. But the subject was not one of unmixed evil. It was generally useful to the poor ; to those who hoarded not, but lived to-day upon the labour of yester- day or to-morrow. Whilst the paper money was current, none were idle from want of employment. Expending their money as fast as they received it, they always had its full value. No Agrarian law could have more effec- tually equalized the conditions of the State, than the tender of these depre- ciating bills. The poor became rich, the rich poor. All that the money lost in value was taken from the capitalists; but the active and industrious were safe, in conforming the price of their services to the state of the depreciation. The debtor who possessed property of any kind, could easily extinguish his debts. Every thing useful found a ready purchaser. The price of a bul- lock to-day would pay that of a slave purchased a few months before-that of a good horse, the value of an improved plantation.
The worst evil of the paper system was its demoralizing effect upon the community. The nature of obligations was so far changed, that the honest man, only, withiheld the payment of his debts. A flood of specula- tion and fraud deluged the land, and found its way into its courts and its legislative halls, overwhelming truth, honour and justice .*
VIII. The summer of 1779 passed away, without furnishing, in America, any event which could have a. material influence on the issue of the war. But it was otherwise in Europe, where a coalition, long looked for, and from which arose sanguine expectations, was effected. Spain resolved to unite with France, and to make, with her, common cause against Great Britain.
* Ramsay.
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These two powers, it was believed, would be able to obtain complete as- cendency at sea, and their fleets to maintain their superiority on the American coast, as well as in Europe. Yet, the United States were not acknowledged by Spain, as sovereign and independent; nor was their min- ister, Mr. Jay, who had been, some time before, sent to the Spanish court, accredited.
IX. As the campaign drew towards a close, without realizing the hope which had been cherished, that the war would terminate with it, General Washington laboured to induce the civil authorities to prepare in season for the ensuing campaign, exhibiting the alarming fact, that between October, 1779, and the last of June, of the coming year, the terms of service of near one-half of the soldiers of the army would expire. But it was impossible to remove the obstacles to prompt and united action. They were inherent in the system of confederation, in the novelty and untried circumstances of the States, and in that selfishness which had succeeded the first glow of patriotic indignation. Thus, the resolutions of Congress, relating to the military establishment, were not passed until the 9th of February, 1780; and did not require the troops to rendezvous before the first of April. The necessary acts of the State Legislatures, to give effect to these resolutions, were slow and irre- gular, uncertain and unseasonable; and the army could not possess that consistency and stability, which a better system would have given.
X. The season for active operations, in a northern climate, having ceased, the army retired into winter quarters. It was divided into two divisions- the northern under the command of Major-general Heath, had for its princi- pal object, the security of West Point, and the posts on the North river, as low as King's Ferry; subordinate to which, was the protection of the country on the Sound, and the Hudson towards King's Bridge. The other and prin- cipal division, under Washington, originally proposed to encamp on the heights in the rear of the Scotch Plains, New Jersey; but Morristown was subsequently chosen, near which, the army was disposed in huts, late in De- cember. From this post detachments were thrown out, towards the North river and Staten Island, for the purpose of covering the country from the depredations of the enemy.
XI. During the year 1779, the marauding parties of tories from New York and Staten Island, and occasionally, some of the enemy's regular troops, made devastating excursions into the State; the former for the purpose of plundering and capturing the unarmed inhabitants, and the latter, under the cover of legitimate war, to do the office of brigands. The enormities thus in- flicted, were greatly increased, by associates sheltering themselves in the deep pine forests of Monmouth county, who, scarce regarding the distinctions of whig and tory, preyed on all within their power. Of these freebooters, Fagan, Bourke alias Emmons, Stephen West, Ezekiel Williams, and one Fenton, were most noted. Fagan was hunted and killed by a party of militia, under Cap- tain Benjamin Dennis, who soon after, (January) by the agency of one Van- kirk, entrapped Bourke, West, and Williams, whilst setting off from Rock Pond, for New York, with their booty. A small party, which lay concealed, shot them as they approached their boats. Their bodies, with that of Fagan, were hung in chains. Fenton was soon after killed by stratagem.
Bergen county was particularly exposed to hostile inroads, and the malice of the tories. On the 10th of May, about an hundred of the latter approach- ed, by the way of New Dock, the settlements of Closter, and carried off Cornelius Talfinan, Samuel Demarest, Jacob Cole, and George Buskirk ; killed Cornelius Demarest, wounded Hendrick Demarest, Jeremiah Wester- velt, Dow Tallman, and others; burned the dwellings of Peter Demarest, Matthias Bogart, Cornelius Kuyler, Samuel Demarest, together with many
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out-houses of other persons. They attempted to consume every dwelling they entered, but the fire was, in some, extinguished. They wantonly de- stroyed the furniture and stock, and abused the women. They were so closely pursued in their retreat, by the militia and a few continental troops, that they carried off no cattle, although that was a principal object of the in- cursion. This party belonged to the provincial corps of Colonel Vanbuskirk, an active and violent tory partisan, and consisted of former residents of Closter and Tappan, and some negroes.
On the 17th of May, a detachment of one thousand men, under that com- mander in person, swept over the county, marking their course with desola- tion and slaughter. Not a house within their reach, belonging to a whig inhabitant, escaped. Mr. Abraham Allen, and Mr. George Campbell, were barbarously murdered; Mr. Joost Zabriskie was stabbed in fifteen places, and two negro women were shot down, whilst endeavouring to drive off their · master's cattle. The party avoided the vengeance of the militia by a speedy retreat with their plunder.
On the 9th of June, a party of more than fifty tories, from New York, landed in Monmouth county, and reached Tinton Falls undiscovered. They . surprised and carried off Colonel Hendrickson, Lieutenant-colonel Wikoff, Captains Shadwick and Mr. Knight, with several privates of the militia, and drove away a few sheep and horned cattle. They were assailed by about thirty militia, whom they repelled, with the loss of two killed and ten wounded.
About the first of August, the house of Mr. Thomas Farr, near Cross- wicks Baptist Church, was attacked by several of the forest ruffians. The family consisted of himself, wife and daughter. The assailants broke into the dwelling, mortally wounded Mr. Farr, and slew his wife outright. The daughter escaped to the house of a neighbour; and the alarmed villains fled without plunder.
On the 18th of October, a party of the enemy's light dragoons landed at Sandy Point, above Amboy, and proceeding to Bound Brook, burned some stores ; thence by Van Veighton's Bridge, where they destroyed a number of boats, they marched to Somerset Court-house, which they fired. On their return, by the way of Brunswick, to South Amboy, they were annoyed by the militia. Their colonel and commandant, had his horse killed under him, and was himself made prisoner.
XII. Among the evils most dreaded, from the depreciation of the conti- nental currency, was the difficulty which must necessarily arise in subsisting the army. This calamity was more hastened than deferred, by the parsi- mony with which Congress withheld, from the public agents, the money ne- cessary for public purposes. Contracts could not be made co-extensive with the public wants, and many formed, were not fulfilled. A modification of the commissary department, in January, 1780, unfortunately, produced new embarrassments, and, at lengthi, the credit of the purveying agents was wholly destroyed. Gaunt famine invaded the American camp at Morristown; and the procurement of supplies, by forced levies, became indispensable.
The commander-in-chief required, from each county in the State of New Jersey, a quantity of meat and flour proportioned to its resources, to be for- warded to the army within six days. To mitigate the odium of this measure, he addressed a circular letter to the magistrates, stating the urgency of the wants of the army, but with assurances, that if voluntary relief could not be obtained, a resort to force would be inevitable. To the honour of the State, notwithstanding its exhaustion, the required supplies were instantly furnished. Nor is less honour due to the soldiery, for the patient and unrepining forti- tude with which they bore their sufferings. In the Highlands, similar wants
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were relieved by similar measures, which were more than once necessary to both camps. Soon after, the energies which the French displayed in the war. awakened a corresponding disposition in Congress, and in several States, which, in a new system of finance, gave adequate relief; but not until more serious evils, as will appear in the progress of the narrative, had developed themselves.
XIII. The isolated position of New York, had been much relied upon by the British commander for its defence. But the barrier which the waters afforded, was entirely removed by the severity of the frost in the winter of 1779, 1780. The ice becoming of such thickness, as to permit the army, with its wagons and artillery, to pass without danger, invited the enterprise of the commander-in-chief. His judgment and love of fame, alike, prompted him to attempt the city ; but, the numerical inferiority of his force, still more the feebleness of his troops from the want of food and raiment, were in- superable obstacles. He eagerly engaged, however, in such enterprises to distress the enemy, as were in his power, without departure from the cau- . tious system which had proven so beneficial to his country. The British · troops, on Staten Island, were computed at twelve hundred men. The bridge of ice, over the waters, offered him, seemingly, a fair opportunity to surprise and bear off this corps, particularly, as the communication between Staten, and Long, and York islands, was supposed impracticable.
The enterprise was confided to General Lord Stirling, with a force of two thousand five hundred men, united to a detachment under General Irvine. On the night of the 14th of January, 1780, he moved from Dehart's Point ; and detaching Lieutenant-colonel Willet to Decker's house, where Buskirk's regiment of two hundred men was stationed, proceeded, himself, to the water- ing place, where the main body was posted. But the enemy, apprehensive of attack, was abundantly vigilant; and, contrary to the intelligence pre- viously received, the communication between the island and New York was still open. The object of the expedition, therefore, was unattainable, unless at an unjustifiable risk, as a reinforcement from New York might endanger the American detachment. Lord Stirling retreated on the morning of the 17th, sustaining an inconsiderable loss by a charge of cavalry on his rear. The excessive cold continuing, the rivers were soon afterwards completely blocked up. Even arms of the sea were passable on the ice, and the islands, about the mouth of the Hudson, presented to the view, and in effect, an unl- broken continent.
XIV. The want of power in Congress, to raise funds, and to enforce its decrees of every character, almost deprived it of the semblance of a national council. The articles of confederation had been slowly approved, and were totally inefficient to protect the many general interests which it embraced. The establishment of the army, for the ensuing campaign, was fixed at thirty- five thousand two hundred and eleven men, and the measures for recruiting it, which preceded, a few days, those for its support, partook of the State system, which was entirely predominant. No means were used for raising men under the authority of Congress; and the several States were required by draught, or otherwise, to bring into the field, by the first day of April, the numbers necessary to their respective quotas. This course gave, unhappily, to the American confederacy, the semblance, nay, substantially, the character of an alliance of independent nations, whose embassadors assembled in ge- neral Congress, to recommend to their respective sovereigns, a plan of ope- rations which each might pursue at pleasure. The measures productive of great uncertainty and delay, were reprobated by the commander-in-chief in vain, and he was doomed to struggle with embarrassments, of which he had never ceased to complain.
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Famine was not the only great evil which beset the military service in 1780. Others, of a serious nature, presented themselves. The pay of an officer was reduced. by the depreciation of money, to a pittance wholly in- competent to his wants. 'That of a major-general would not compensate an express rider; nor that of the captain, furnish the shoes in which he marched. Generally, without fortune, the officers had expended the little they possessed, in the first equipments for their station ; and were, now, com- pelled to rely on the States, to which they respectively belonged, for such clothing as they might furnish; which was so insufficient and unequal, as to produce extreme dissatisfaction, and great reluctance to remain in service.
XV. Among the privates there grew out of the very composition of the army, causes of disgust, which increased the dissatisfaction flowing from their multiplied wants. The first effort, towards the end of the campaign of 1776, to enlist troops for the war, had, in some degree, succeeded. In some States, especially in Pennsylvania, many recruits had, for small bounties, thus en- gaged. Whilst they served without pay, and almost without the necessaries of life, they had the mortification to behold their vacant ranks filled by men, who enlisted for a few months, only, and, for that short service, received high bounties, which, in depreciated money, seemed immense. In their chagrin, many were induced to contest their engagements, and others to de. sert. A representation of these circumstances, to Congress, produced a com- mittee of inquiry, who reported, " that the army was unpaid for five months; that it seldom had more than six days' provisions in advance ; and was, on several occasions, for sundry successive days, without meat ; that it was des- titute of forage ; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea, choco- late, wine, or spirituous liquors of any kind; that every department was with- out money, and had not even the shadow of credit left; and that, the patience of the soldiers, borne down by the pressure of complicated sufferings, was on the point of being exhausted." In the mean time, Congress resolved, that they would make good to the line, and independent corps of the army, the depreciation of their pay, by which all the troops should be placed on an cqual footing. But this benefit, dictated by simple justice, was limited to those in actual service, and to those who, after, came into it, engaging for three years, or the war.
These resolutions mitigated, but did not cure the prevailing griefs. A long course of suffering had produced some relaxation of discipline, and the dis- contents of the soldiery, at length, broke forth into actual mutiny.
On the 25th of May, two regiments from Connectient, paraded under arms, with a declared resolution to return home, or to obtain subsistence at the point of the bayonet. The soldiers of other regiments, though not actually uniting with the mutineers, showed no disposition to suppress the mutiny. By great exertions of the officers, and the appearance of a neighbouring brigade of Pennsylvanians, then commanded by Colonel Stuart, the leaders were se- cured, and the troops brought back to their duty. But the temper of the soldiers, as apparent in their replies to the remonstrances of their officers, was of an alarming nature. They turned a deaf ear to the promises of Congress, and demanded some present, substantial, recompense for their ser- vices. A paper was found in the brigade, supposed -from New York, stimu- lating the troops to abandon the cause of their country.
XVI. The discontents of the army, and the complaints of the people of New Jersey, on account of the repeated requisitions upon them, had been commu- nicated, with such exaggerations, to the general, commanding in New York, as to induce the belief, that the American soldiers were ready to desert their standards, and the people of New Jersey to change their government. To avail himself of these dispositions, Knyphausen crossed over, on the sixth of
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June, with about five thousand men, from Staten Island, and landed in the night at Elizabethtown Point. Early next morning he marched towards Springfield, by the way of Connecticut Farms, but soon perceived, that the temper of the country and army, had been misapprehended.
Washington had taken measures, in concert with the government of New Jersey, to call out the militia, so soon as occasion should require; and, on the appearance of the invading army, they assembled with great alacrity. On their march to Connecticut Farms, distant five or six miles from Eli- zabethtown, the British were harassed by small parties of continental troops, whose numbers were augmented, every instant, by the neighbouring militia. This resistance manifested, too clearly to be misunderstood, the resolution and temper to be encountered in the further progress of the expe- dition. A halt was made at the Connecticut Farms, where a spirit of revenge, more probably dwelling in the bosom of Governor Tryon, who was present, than in that of Knyphausen, who commanded, directed this village, with its church and parsonage, to be reduced to ashes. Another enormity was com- mitted, at the same place, which aroused great indignation, not only in the vicinage, but every where throughout the Union. Mrs. Caldwell, the wife of the clergyman, had remained in her house, under the conviction, that her presence would protect it from pillage; and, that her person would not be endangered, as in the hope of preserving thie Farms, Colonel Dayton, then commanding the militia, had determined not to halt in the settlement, but to take post, at a narrow pass, on the road leading to Springfield. Whilst sit- ting in the midst of her children, having a sucking infant in her arms, a soldier came to the window, and discharged his musket at her. She received the ball in her bosom and instantly expired. Ashamed of an act so univer- sally execrated, the British contended, that the lady was the victim of a ran- dom shot from the militia. Circumstances, however, too strongly negatived this assertion, and a pathetic representation of the fact, published by the afflicted husband, received universal credit. The husband was distinguished for zeal to the American cause, and his fate was very like that of his wife. He was, some months after her decease, also shot to death, by a drunken tory, or British soldier, at Elizabethtown Point.
From the Farms, Knyphausen proceeded towards Springfield. The Jersey brigade, under General Maxwell, and the militia of the neighbourhood, who assembled in great force, took an advantageous position at that place, with the resolution to defend it. Knyphausen halted, and remained on the ground all night; but made no effort to dislodge the Americans. Washington having intelligence of this movement, marched his army early in the morning that Knyphausen left Elizabethtown Point, and advanced to the Short Hills, in the rear of Springfield. An impending battle was avoided by the German commander, who, hopeless of success, retired to the Point from which he had marched. He was followed by a detachment, which attacked his out-posts, supposing it had to contend with the rear of his army only; but on disco- very, that the main body was still at the Point, the pursuers were recalled.
XVII. At this period, the numerical force of the American army, was fifty-five hundred and fifty-eight continental troops, of whom, only three thousand were effective. By return of Sir Henry Clinton, from his southern conquests, the British regular force, in New York, and its dependencies, was increased to full twelve thousand, which could be employed in the field, whilst four thousand militia and refugees performed garrison duty. With this disparity of numbers, the British commander might well hope to gather important fruits from again invading New Jersey, particularly, by penetrating to the American stores near Morristown. After masking his purpose, and dividing the small force of his adversary, by demonstrations against West
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Point, he marched, on the morning of the 23d of June, from Elizabethtown, with five thousand infantry, a large body of cavalry, and from ten to twenty field pieces, towards Springfield.
In anticipation of this enterprise, General Greene had remained at Spring- field, with two brigades of continental troops, and the Jersey miltia: but in apprehension for the posts in the Highlands, the greater part of the army had been directed, slowly, towards Pompton. On observing the force which had entered the State, Washington halted and detached a brigade to hang on its right flank, whilst he prepared himself to support Greene, or otherwise to counteract the designs of the enemy.
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