USA > New Jersey > The history of New Jersey : from its earliest settlement to the present time : including a brief historical account of the first discoveries and settlement of the country, Vol. I > Part 17
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The funds for sinking, by tax, the money created for the expedition and other purposes, were mortgages (secured in the acts that made the respective emissions,) on the estates, real and personal, in the province.
Hence they were secured as firmly as the province itself. They were a
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third for the encouragement of volunteers going on the Canada expedition. These bills having received the governor's assent, the house was adjourned to November Ist, to meet at Burlington.
They accordingly met pursuant to their adjournment, but deferred business until December, at which time they sat ten weeks, and passed eighteen bills. They were then adjourned, and afterwards prorogued from time to time, until they were dissolved by Governor Hunter, in 1710.
For a few months before Governor Hunter's arrival, William Pinhorne, as president of the council, exercised the office of commander-in-chief.
· In the latter part of the year 1708, Colonel Vetch first applied to the court of Great Britain, for sea and land forces, to reduce Canada.
He, with Colonel Nicholson, obtained a small force from England, with instructions from the several governors on the continent to give them what assistance they could. They had a promise of a fleet of ships of war to follow them in due time. They came over in the beginning of the summer of 1709,* and
legal tender to all the inhabitants, in the province and elsewhere, but not to others, except while in the province. The remittances of this province to England, being chiefly from New York and Philadelphia, and these bills not being legal tenders there, they could not operate to the prejudice of English debts, let exchange be what it may, because none were obliged to take them. This was a particularity only belonging to the state of trade of New Jersey, and rendered a paper currency here, free from the objections usually made against it in England.
* Colonels Nicholson and Vetch both appearing at a council held at Amboy, May 30th, 1709, it was concluded that George Riscarricks should be forthwith sent to Weequehala, the Indian Sachem, to acquaint him that the lieutenant- governor, Ingolsby, expected his attendance on that board forthwith, and that Captain Aarent Schuyler should forthwith send for Macotuinst, Cohcowickick, Ohtoffolonoppe, Meskakow, and Teetee, Sachems of the Minisinks and Shaw- hona Indians, who, appearing soon afterwards, joined in the undertaking, and Ingolsby, governor of New Jersey, G. Saltonstall, governor of Connecticut, and G. Gookin, governor of Pennsylvania, jointly commissioned Colonel Peter Schuyler, on the 23d of May, 1709, to be over these and the other Indians on this expedition, and soon afterwards the three governors joined in a petition to Nicholson, that he would take upon him the chief command of the expedi- tion, after which he bore the name of General Nicholson.
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brought with them full instructions from the Queen in reference to the expedition, directed to Colonel Vetch. These instructions were signed by the Queen at the Court of St. James, the 28th of February, 1708-9.
New York was to furnish eight hundred men, New Jersey two hundred, Connecticut three hundred and fifty, and Pennsylvania one hundred and fifty, making fifteen hundred in all.
Colonels Nicholson and Vetch brought over with them four regular companies from England.
The provincial troops were formed into four battalions, with each of which was attached one company of regulars.
All things were to be in readiness by the middle of May, the arms and ammunition were furnished from the magazine at New York. Three months provisions were furnished them. A large storehouse was built to contain the provisions, and six large boats to carry sixty men each for the transportation of the heavier stores by water, and a contract was made with the Five Nations of Indians to make with all speed as many canoes as would be wanted for the expedition. They also engaged the Five Nations, as well as the Indians on the river, to join the expedi- tion, and inducements were held out to all who were willing to go as volunteers.
The governors of New England and Rhode Island were required to raise at least twelve hundred of their best men, and to give encouragement to such as were willing to go as volun- teers, and to furnish transports, with three months provisions, and able pilots. Captain Southwick* volunteered with his own galley.t
They were to contract with ship carpenters to build ten or more large flat bottomed boats, to carry sixty men each, for the landing of troops, and also to contract with proper persons for furnishing eight months provision to the troops that were to be left at Quebec or Montreal.
As an inducement to furnish the quota of men required for
* He was master of the province galley, belonging to the Massachusetts government.
t A light open boat, used by custom house officers, as well as for pleasure.
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the expedition, they were to assure the different governments that such as contributed towards the reduction of Canada should have a preference both with regard to the soil and trade of the country when reduced, to any other of the subjects of the Queen, and she would on her part sanction the same, when the country should be reduced.
Colonel Francis Nicholson offered himself as a volunteer on this expedition, and having in due time arrived in the country and went to work raising the necessary forces on this continent, but in consequence of a difference of opinion having arisen in the ministry at home, the ships of war in accordance with their expectation did not arrive.
They waited without doing anything until winter, when Nicholson returned to England to solicit further assistance, and to send forward what had been proposed.
To do this with more probability of success, they prevailed upon four Indian Sachems of the Five Nations to accompany him to England, to assist in getting up the expedition .* With
* Indians in England were at that time a strange sight. These Sachems also met with great consideration on account of the faithfulness and impor- tance of the nation they belonged to, and accordingly were much taken notice of. The English court was at this time in mourning for the death of George, Prince of Denmark; the Queen therefore had under garments of black cloth made for them, and covered with a scarlet mantle edged with gold. They were carried to court in coaches, and introduced in form to the Queen. One . of them made a speech, setting forth that they doubted not the Queen was acquainted with their long and tedious war against the French, in conjunction with her children (subjects); that they had been a strong wall for the security of these, even to the loss of their best men, as Quider and Anadagarjaux (Schuyler and Nicholson) could testify ; that they were glad an expedition to Canada had been undertaken, and had assisted in the preparations on the lake, whilst Anadiasia (Vetch) at the same time was raising an army at Boston ; that as some important affair had prevented the expected fleet, and rendered the design for that season abortive, they were left much exposed, and if the Queen was not still mindful of them, they, with their families, must forsake the country and seek other habitations, or stand neuter, either of which would be much against their inclinations. They concluded by presenting some belts of wampum.
After this they were magnificiently entertained by several of the nobility, and were once present at the review of the guards at Hyde Park, with the
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these went over Colonel Schuyler. They sailed early in the year, had several conferences with the lords of trade, and with Nicholson and the forces he brought. They returned in the summer, arriving at Boston.
According to the instructions to the governments on the con- tinent for getting their assistance in readiness, a considerable armament was raised, and set out from Boston on the 18th of September. The fleet consisted of the Dragon, Falmouth, Leostaff and Feversham, men of war; the Star, Bomb, and the Massachusetts province galley,* with transports, in all thirty-six sai'. The forces on board were one regiment of marines from England, two regiments from Massachusetts Bay, one regiment from Connecticut, and one from New Hampshire and Rhode Island, commissioned by the Queen, armed and provisioned in . part by her gift, and part by the several colonies, toward which New Jersey contributed three thousand pounds. They arrived at Port Royal, now Annapolis, t in six days from Boston.
After some small cannonading and bombarding, the French governor, Lubercasse, capitulated on the 5th of October, when the fort was given up, and Colonel Vetch, according to instruc- tions, became governor.
The terms of capitulation were, that all the French, numbering four hundred and eighty-one persons, within three miles of the fort, should be under the protection of Great Britain, upon
Duke of Ormand at their head. To him they made a speech, and presented him with three skins, to enforce a request that he would forward their business with the Queen.
On their return, at Southampton, Admiral Aylmer, who commanded a fleet there, sent his yacht to bring them on board. They dined with him, and then set sail for America.
* A low, flat built vessel with one deck, and navigated with sails and oars, formerly used in the Mediterranean. It was long and narrow, and carried two masts with lateen (triangular) sails. The largest sort was 166 feet in length, and had 52 oars.
t It was afterwards called Annapolis Royal, but now simply Annapolis, and is a fortified seaport town of Nova Scotia, at the mouth of the Annapolis river, in a fine inlet of the Bay of Fundy, 95 miles west of Halifax. The town was founded in the time of Queen Anne, and was called Annapolis, or "City of Anne."
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their taking the oath of allegiance. The other French settlers were left to their own discretion. In case the French made in- cursions upon the frontiers of New England, the British should make reprisals upon the French in Nova Scotia, by making some of the chief of their inhabitants slaves to their Indians.
Notwithstanding this, the French of L'Acadia soon after committed hostilities, though the Port Royal and Cape Sable Indians desired terms of amity and alliance might be settled with them, which was accordingly done.
On the 14th of October, the men of war and transports sailed again for Boston, leaving a garrison in Port Royal of two hun- dred marines, and two hundred and fifty of the new raised volunteers from the continent. These were the next year relieved by four hundred of the troops destined for Canada.
Nova Scotia had continued with the French from the year 1662 (except the momentary reduction and possession of it by Sir William Phipps, in 1690,) until now. This acquisition was afterwards confirmed to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht.
The design respecting Canada was for this year laid aside. Governor Hunter received a letter from the Earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state, upon the subject of encouraging an attempt upon Port Royal, which the Queen was obliged at present to abandon, by reason of the contrary winds which happened at the time the fleet was about to set sail, as well as other important matters which intervened. She had however, this year caused all necessary preparations to be made for the expedition. He wrote that the Queen, out of her tender care for the good and prosperity of her people in these colonies, intends to pursue her design as soon as the state of her affairs will permit it, being sensible of the great advantages which may be thence expected.
Brigadier Hunter arrived, as governor, in the summer of 1710, and called a new assembly to meet the 6th of December. They chose John Kay, of Gloucester, speaker. They received the governor's speech, which breathed the true spirit, and as it differs so materially with the address of Cornbury, given two years before, and being brief, we give it entire, and in his own words, as follows:
" GENTLEMEN :- I am little used to make speeches, so you
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hall not be troubled with a long one. If honesty is the best policy, plainness must be the best oratory. So, to deal plainly with you, so long as these unchristian divisions, which Her Majesty has thought to deserve her repeated notice, reign amongst you, I shall have small hopes of a happy issue to our meeting.
"This is an evil which everybody claims of, but few take the right method to remedy it. Let every man begin at home, and weed the rancor out of his own mind, and the work is done at once.
"Leave disputes of property to the laws, and injuries to the avenger of them, and like good subjects and good Christians, join hearts and hands for the common good.
" I hope you all agree in the necessity of supporting the gov. ernment, and will not differ about the means. That it may the better deserve your support, I will endeavor to square it by the best rule that I know, that is the power from whence 'tis derived, which all the world must own to be justice and goodness itself.
"There are several matters recommended to you by Her Majesty, to be passed into laws, which I shall lay before you at proper seasons, and shall heartily concur with you in enacting whatsoever may be requisite for the public peace and welfare, the curbing of vice, and encouraging of virtue.
" If what I have said, or what I can do, may have the blessed effect I wish for, I shall bless the hour that brought me hither. If I am disappointed, I shall pray for that which is to call me back, for all power except that of doing good is but a burthen."
The address of the assembly, also being brief, we here insert it, as follows :
" May it please Your Excellency :
"We sincerely congratulate your accession to the government of this province, and hope the long wished for time has come, in which the unchristian causes of our divisions will be taken away, which we persuade ourselves you will be as willing, as we conceive you are able to do, by divesting a few designing men of that authority, which they use to the worst purposes.
" We have experienced repeated instances of Her Majesty's care over us, among which one was, the sending the good Lord
-
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Lovelace, who put an end to an administration the then assem- bly of this province, with great justice, the worst New Jersey had ever known.
"That good man lived long enough to know how much the province had been oppressed, though not to remove the causes. Another instance of Her Majesty's royal favor, we esteem, is the sending Your Excellency to govern us, and we persuade our- selves, your conduct will evince it so to be.
" We hope great things from you, and none but what are just. Let not ill men be put or continued in power to oppress. Let Her Majesty's subjects enjoy their liberties and properties, according to the laws, and let not those laws be warpt to gratify the avarice or resentment of any, and then we may safely leave disputes of property to them ; this, we are humbly of opinion, is the greatest honesty, and we make no question you esteem it to be the best policy.
" We always thought it equally reasonable to support a gov- ernment, and to deny that support to tyranny and oppression. We should be glad our abilities would come up to what we esteem your merits. What we are able to do shall be sincerely done, and in as agreeable manner as we are capable. All your desires, which we doubt not will be reasonable, shall be com- mands to us, who will be always ready to join in any thing that may conduce to the public benefit, and your own, and hope · you may never want will and power to punish wickedness and vice, and encourage true religion and virtue, which if you do, we shall esteem you our deliverer, and posterity shall mention your name with honor."
This address was concurred in by a number of the members who were Quakers, as to the substance of it, but they took exceptions to the style.
This session continued more than two months.
The governor and assembly agreed with great cordiality, but a majority of the council differed from both, although it was composed almost entirely of new members.
Ever since the surrender, the province had been involved in great confusion, on account of the people called Quakers being denied to serve on juries, under pretence that an oath was abso-
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lutely necessary. The inhabitants in many parts were chiefly of that persuasion, and juries could not be got without them. The assembly, seeing the confusion that had and would unavoidably follow such refusal, passed a bill for ascertaining the qualifica- tions of jurors, and enabling the people called Quakers to serve on them, &c., and another respecting the affirmation.
The house was anxious to pass a bill to meet the case, but were always opposed by objections from the council, who refused even to submit the matters to a committee.
The assembly also passed a militia act to relieve the Quakers from militia fines, which the council also rejected.
They also took into consideration the charges made to the Queen against a former assembly in Lord Cornbury's time, by lieutenant governor Ingolsby, and eight of the councilmen who sustained the governor in his unwarranted acts in the year 1707.
The address having been read, the question was put whether the said humble address (as it was called) be a false and scandal- ous misrepresentation of the representative body of this province or not? When it was decided in the affirmative.
The house then resolved to address Her Majesty in justifica- tion of the proceedings of the representative body of this province, in the present and former assemblies.
It was also resolved in the affirmative that no person who had signed the above-mentioned false and scandalous representation of the representative body of this province, was a fit member to sit in this house, unless he acknowledged his fault to the house.
Major William Sandford, one of the members of the house at this time, having acknowledged that he signed the above- mentioned address to Her Majesty, was asked if he would acknowledge his fault to this house for the same. His answer was, he signed it, as he was one of Her Majesty's council, and was only accountable to Her Majesty for the same. Whereupon the question was put whether Major Sandford be expelled this house for the same or not, and it was resolved in the affirmative. Whereupon it was ordered that Major Sandford be expelled this house for signing a false and scandalous paper called, the hum- ble address of the lieutenant governor and council to Her Majesty, in the year 1707, and he is expelled this house accordingly.
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Pursuant to the resolutions of the house, an address was pre- pared and sent to the Queen, and a representation to Governor Hunter. This last was a particular answer to the charges.
In this they extolled Governor Lovelace, and stated that had he have lived they would not have been under the necessity of laying their representation before His Excellency.
They also state that they were sorry to have so much reason to say, that it was lately their misfortune to be governed by Lord Cornbury, who treated Her Majesty's subjects here not as free- men who were to be governed by laws, but as slaves, of whose persons and estates he had the sole power of disposing. Oppres- sion and injustice reigned everywhere in this poor, and then miserable, colony, and it was criminal to complain or seem any way sensible of the hardships they then suffered, and what- ever attempts were made for their relief not only proved ineffec- tual, but was termed insolence, and was flying in the face of authority.
Bribery, extortion, and a contempt of laws, both human and divine, were the fashionable vices of that time, encouraged by his countenance, but more by his example, and those who could most daringly and with most dexterity trample upon their liberties, had the greatest share both in the government of this province and his favor.
This usage they bore with patience a great while, believing that the measures he took proceeded rather from want of infor- mation or an erroneous judgment, than the depravity of his . nature. But repeated instances soon convinced them of their mistaken notions.
His treatment to the Quakers in reference to compelling them to enroll in the militia or pay militia fines, was severely con- demned.
That the rights of the general proprietors were invaded in a very high degree, their papers and registers being the evidence, they had to prove their titles to their lands and rents, were violently and arbitrarily forced from them, and they were inhib- ited from selling or disposing of their lands.
After eulogizing the administration of Governor Lovelace, the review of the address of the lieutenant governor, Ingolsby and
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the eight councilmen that signed it, and taking the same up seriatim, they fully answer every charge therein contained.
The memorial was signed by order of the house of represen- tatives by William Bradford, their clerk, and dated February 9th, 1710.
This representation was kindly received by the governor, and he returned answer, that Her Majesty had given him -directions to endeavor to reconcile the differences that were in this province, but if he could not that he should make a just repre- sentation to her, and that he did not doubt but that upon the representation he should make, Her Majesty would take such measures as should give a general satisfaction.
The governor accordingly backing the remonstrance to the Queen, all the councillors were removed that were pointed out by the assembly as the cause of their grievances, and their places were supplied by others.
The business of this session having been concluded, the gov- ernor prorogued the house.
1
CHAPTER X.
1711-1776.
Second expedition against Canada-Arrival of transports contain- ing troops from England-Passage of bill permitting Quakers to affirm-Governor Hunter's administration satisfactory to the people-Accession of King George the First-Severe storms- Acts for running the division line between New York and New Jersey.
G OVERNOR Hunter convened the assembly in the summer Y of 1711, and the business was commenced by his telling them "that Her Majesty's instructions, which he was com- manded to communicate, would discover the reason of his call- ing them together at this time, and that he doubted not the matters therein contained, would be agreeable to them, and the success profitable.
" That the fleet and forces destined for the reduction of Can- ada, were arrived in good health and condition, and would pro- ceed in a short time. That what was required on their parts, was the levying in each division one hundred and eighty effec- tive private men, beside officers, and to provide for the en- couragement, pay, and provisions, as well as transportation over the lakes, and other incidental charges attending the forces.
The assembly at once resolved to encourage this expedition, by raising to the value of twelve thousand five ounces of plate, in bills of credit,* to be sunk, together with the former three thousand pounds, by a subsequent tax, and provided bills
* Equal to five thousand pounds currency at that time.
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for raising volunteers to go on the expedition and for emitting the money. The governor passed the bills, and dismissed them with thanks for the cheerful dispatch they had given.
This was the second expedition against Canada, and made quite a formidable appearance.
Nicholson's designs having hitherto failed through various disappointments, he now, under the scheme of reducing all Canada, and thereby engrossing the cod fishery, so prevailed on the new ministry that the regiments of Kirk, Hill, Windress, Clayton, and Kaine, from Flanders, Seymour's, Disney's, and a battalion of marines from England, under command of Brigadier Hill, were sent to him on this occasion.
They came in forty transports, under convoy of twelve ships of the line of battle, commanded by Admiral Walker, several frigates, and two bomb vessels. They brought a large train of artillery, under Colonel King, with forty horses and six store ships. They arrived at Boston early in the summer.
By orders from home a congress was held at New London, consisting of all the plantation governors north of Pennsylvania, with Nicholson to arrange the details of the expedition.
Two regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, joined the British forces, while the militia of Con- necticut, New York, and New Jersey, with the Indians of the Five Nations, under Nicholson, marched by land from Albany to attack Montreal.
The fleet having been retarded at Boston for want of provi- sions, Admiral Walker wrote to Governor Dudley at Boston : "I concur with the opinion of all the sea and land officers here that the government of this colony have prejudiced the present expedition instead of assisting it."
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