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 31
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As, in the preceding Indian contest, the frontier inhabitants were driven in, and the enemy again penetrated into the thickly settled country, but more skill and courage were generally dis- played in resisting them. Niagara and Detroit were protected by detachments sent to their relief by General Amherst, while Colonel Boquet, after much fatigue and a bloody battle, suc- ceeded in succoring Fort Pitt. The distressing hostilities con- tinued until October, 1764, when they were terminated by Colo- nel Boquet, who, with fifteen hundred men, over-ran the Indian country in Ohio, compelling the submission of the tribes, and releasing many white prisoners. The Indians soon after entered into a final and satisfactory treaty with Sir William Johnson, who was authorized for that purpose by the crown.
Governor Franklin, on the approach of the savages to the western frontier of New Jersey, ordered out the militia, reman- ned the fortifications which had been previously erected, and built several new block houses. Yet some parties of Indians crossed the Delaware, made their way through the lines, and massacred several families. The house met on the 15th of No- vember, when the governor recommended them to provide six hundred men, upon the request of General Amherst, to unite with other forces to invade the Indian country, and to provide more effectually for defence of their own limits. The latter the house undertook, directing two hundred men to be raised for this purpose, and appropriating ten thousand pounds for their support, but they declined to furnish troops for general opera- tions, until a general plan should be formed, and a requisi- tion should be made for aid to the other colonies. At their next session, however, they passed a bill for raising six hundred men on condition that a majority of the eastern colonies should come into the requisition, and when this bill was rejected by the council, and the governor prorogued the house, in order to give them an opportunity to bring in another, they authorized the force required, provided, New York should contribute her full proportion. In this shape the bill passed. and the troops joined the northern army.
A more favorable occasion seemed now to present itself. The war which had grown out of American interests, had been honora-
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bly terminated, and it was supposed, that the provinces, grateful for their deliverance, would cheerfully repay the care of a foster- ing mother. Nor would such anticipations have been disap- pointed, had the designs of the ministry no other consequences than a single pecuniary burden upon the people.
Towards the end of the year 1763, Mr. Grenville communicated to the colonial agents in London, his purpose of drawing a revenue from America, by means of a stamp duty imposed by act of parliament, and directed them to transmit this intelligence to their respective assemblies, that they might suggest any more preferable duty, equally productive .*
The colonies were considered as integral governments, of which the crown was the head, having exclusive political power within their respective territories, except in cases involving the general interests of the empire, in which, from principles of con- venience and necessity, they admitted the supremacy of the British parliament.
While the colonists were willing to pay what was just and right towards the crown, they were unwilling that parliament should impose upon them, and looked upon the proposition as unne- cessary, cruel and unjust, and if persisted in determined to resist with all the means in their power.
Mr. Grenville, when forming his American plan of taxation, did not consider all its consequences. But, aware that it would be opposed, he was desirous of trying an old measure under a new aspect, and proposed in distinct terms, to raise a revenue, by taxes or colonial imports. This measure, sufficiently obnoxious in itself, was accompanied by a resolution of parliament, " that it may be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies."
The act of parliament, based on the first proposition was ex- tremely onerous to the American trade, the duties thereby im- posed amounting almost to a prohibition of commercial intercourse with the French and Spanish colonies.t It is true, that this
* The sum required by Mr. Grenville, was one hundred thousand pounds sterling.
t This act was entitled, " An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations, in America, for continuing, amending and making
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trade, previous to the passage of the act of which we now speak, was unlawful, but it was connived at, and was highly profitable, furnishing to the provinces gold and silver for their remittances to England. The minister in his care to prevent smuggling, did not pause to consider the difference between an advantageous trade in the western hemisphere, and the illicit commerce on the British coast. Converting naval officers into officers of the customs, he nearly destroyed the whole colonial trade with the Spanish and French islands. The preamble to the new impost law, declaring it to be just and necessary, that a revenue should be raised in America, and the resolution to follow it up, with a stamp act, gave an unequivocal and odious character to the law, and sent it forth to the colonies, the pioneer of a system of boundless oppression.
The revenue act became still more unpopular, by the means used to enforce it. The penalties for breach of its provisions, . were made recoverable in the courts of admiralty, without the intervention of a jury, before judges dependent upon the crown, and drawing their salaries from forfeitures, adjudged by them- selves. The duties were required to be paid in gold and silver, now scarcely attainable, and consequently, the paper currency, more than ever necessary, was rejected and depreciated.
The impressions caused by these measures on the public mind, was uniform throughout America. The legislature of Massa- chusetts, whose population; essentially commercial, felt most severely the late restrictions, was the first to notice them. That
perpetual, an act passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George II, (entitled an act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of His Majesty's sugar colonies in America), for applying the produce of such duties, and of the duties to arise by virtue of saidl act, towards defraying the ex penses of defending, protecting and securing the said colonies and plantations, for explaining an act, made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Charles II, (entitled an act for the encouragement of the Greenland and East- land trades, and for the better securing the plantation trade,) and for allowing and disallowing several drawbacks on exports from this kingdom, and thus effectually preventing the clandestine conveyance of goods, to and from the said colonies and plantations, and improving and securing the trade between the same and Great Britain." .
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body resolved, " That the act of parliament relating to the sugar trade with foreign colonies, and the resolution of the house of commons, in regard to stamp duties, and other taxes proposed to be laid on the colonies, had a tendency to deprive the colonists of their most essential rights, as British subjects and as men- particularly the right of assessing their own taxes, and of being free from any impositions, but such as they consented to by them- selves or representatives.
They directed Mr. Manduit, their agent in London, to remon- strate against the ministerial measures, to solicit a repeal of the sugar act, and to deprecate the imposition of further duties and taxes on the colonies. They addressed the assemblies of the other provinces, requesting them to unite in a petition against the designs of the ministry, and to instruct their agents to re- monstrate against attempts so destructive to the liberty, the commerce and prosperity of the colonies. The colony of Rhode Island proposed to the provincial assemblies, to collect the sense of all the colonies, and unite in a common petition to the King and parliament.
All the efforts of the American colonies to stay the mad career of the English ministry, proved unavailing. The stamp act was passed with slight opposition by the commons, and unanimity by the Lords .*
Dr. Franklin who had been dispatched to Europe, in Novem- ber, 1764, as the agent of Pennsylvania, labored earnestly to avert a measure, which his sagacity and perfect knowledge of the American people, taught him was pregnant with danger to the British empire. But, even he does not appear to have entertained the idea that it would be forcibly resisted. He wrote to Mr. Charles Thompson : " The sun of liberty is set, you must light up the candles of industry and economy." To which Mr. Thompson replied ; "He was apprehensive that other lights would be the consequence." To Mr. Ingersoll, the agent of
* The stamp act was passed on the 22d of March, 1765. It was under the consideration of parliament in March of the foregoing year, but was postponed, it was said, by the exertion of Mr. Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania, at that time on a visit to London.
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Connecticut, the doctor said : " Go home and tell your people to get children as fast as they can." Intimating that the period for successful resistance had not yet arrived.
The ministry desirous of rendering the stamp act as little ob- noxious as possible, resolved to appoint the officers of distribution and collection, from among the discreet and reputable inhabitants of the provinces. But, there was no means by which to reconcile the people to a law, every where regarded as the forerunner of political slavery. The stamp officers, either voluntarily or com- pulsorily, resigned their offices ; some were hung or burned in effigy, in several of the provinces, and violent outrages were com- mitted on the person and property of the deputy governor and other officers, at Boston. William Coxe, Esq., who had been appointed stamp officer for New Jersey, voluntarily resigned his office in September, 1765. Subsequently, upon the application of the Sons of Liberty of East Jersey, he published a copy of his letter of resignation, which had been made to the commissioners of the treasury, and declared that he had appointed no deputy, and would never act under the law. Towards the end of Novem- ber, a number of the inhabitants of Salem county, learning that a Mr. John Hatton was desirous to be employed in the dis- tribution of stamps, compelled him to a similar declaration. .
On Saturday, the 5th of October, the ship Royal Charlotte, bearing the stamp papers for New Jersey, Maryland and Penn- sylvania, convoyed by a sloop of war arrived at Philadelphia. As these vessels rounded Gloucester Point, all those in the harbor hoisted their colors at half-mast ; the bells were muffled, and every countenance assumed the semblance of affliction. At four o'clock in the afternoon, many thousand citizens assembled at the State House to consider the means to prevent the distribution of the stamps. Their deliberations resulted in forcing Mr. Hughes, the stamp officer, most reluctantly to decline the exercise of his office, and in securing the stamps on board of his Majesty's sloop of war, Sabine.
The universal refusal of the colonists to submit to the stamp act, occasioned the entire suspension of legal proceedings. In some of the provinces, however, business was speedily resumed, and in nearly all, the penalties of the act were set at defiance
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before its repeal. The members of the bar in New Jersey, met at New Brunswick about the middle of February, 1766, to con- sider the propriety of continuing their practice ; and being waited on by a deputation of the Sons of Liberty, who expressed their dissatisfaction at the suspension of law proceedings, they determined at all hazards to recommence business on the first of the ensuing April. At the same time deputies from the self-con- stituted regulators of public affairs, waited on Mr. White, pro- thonotary of the county of Hunterdon, who was induced by their politeness, as well as by their energy, to promise that his office should be re-opened at the same period. By law the stamp duty was to commence on the first of November. On the previous day the newspapers generally were put in mourning for their approaching extinction, the editors having resolved to suspend their publication until some plan should be devised to protect them from the penalties for publishing without stamps. The term of suspension was, however, short. On the 7th of November, a half sheet was issued from the office of the Pennsylvania Gazette, without title or mark of designation, headed, " No stamped paper to be had," and on the 14th another, entitled, " Remarkable occurrences." Both were in form of the Gazette, which, after the 2Ist, was again regularly published .*
Associations were formed in every part of the continent for the encouragement of domestic manufactures, and against the use of those imported from Great Britain. To increase their quantity of wool, they determined to kill no lambs, and to use all the means in their power to multiply their flocks of sheep.
The association styled the " Sons of Liberty," originated in Connecticut and New York, which very soon extended into New Jersey and other colonies. They bound themselves, among other things, to march to any part of the continent at their own ex- pense, to support the British constitution in America, by which was expressly stated to be understood the prevention of any attempt which might anywhere be made to carry the stamp act into operation.
A corresponding committee of the Sons of Liberty was
*Pennsylvania Gazette.
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HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY. 369
established, who addressed letters to certain conspicuous charac- ters throughout the colonies, and contributed materially to increase the spirit of opposition, and perhaps the turbulence with which it was in some places attended.
On receipt of the intelligence of the passage of the stamp act, several of the colonial legislatures, of which Virginia was the first, asserted the exclusive right of the assemblies to lay taxes and impositions on the inhabitants of the colonies respectively. But the house of representatives of Massachusetts contemplating a still more solemn and effectual expression of the general senti- ment, and pursuing the suggestion of Rhode Island, recom- mended a congress of deputies from all the colonial assemblies to meet at New York on the first Tuesday in October, to consult on the present circumstances of the colonies. Circular letters signed by the speaker, communicating this recommendation, were addressed, respectively, to the speakers of the assemblies in the other provinces. Wherever the legislatures were in session, this communication was immediately acted upon.
It was laid before the assembly of New Jersey on the 20th of June, 1765, on the last day of their session, when the house was there, and the members, as Governor Franklin asserts, determined " unanimously, after deliberate consideration, against connecting on that occasion," and directed a letter to be written at the table, to the speaker of Massachusetts Bay, acquainting him with their determination. The house, at a subsequent session, question,*
*June 27th, 1766. The statement of the assembly is curious, and evidently betrays a design to make the best of a circumstance, with the remembrance of which, they were not very content. They say-" This house acknowledges the letter from the Massachusetts Bay ; that it was on the last day of the session, some members gone, others uneasy to be at their homes ; and do assert, that, the then speaker agreed to send, nay urged, that members should be sent to the intended congress; but changed his opinion upon some " advice " that was given to him ; that this sudden change of his opinion displeased many of the house, who seeing the matter dropped, were indifferent about it; and as no minute was made, and no further notice taken of it, the house is at a loss to determine whence his excellency could get the information, that the house took the same into " deliberate consideration," "determined " (as his excellency says from their own words) "unanimously against connecting, on that
2 A
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but do not disprove this statement. But this determination was so highly condemned by their constituents, that the speaker found it necessary, in order to avoid the indignation of the people, and to preserve the public peace, to convene the mem- bers by circulars at Amboy, and with them proceed to the nomination of delegates to the convention of New York, consist- ing of Mr. Ogden, the speaker, Mr. Hendrick Fisher and Mr. Joseph Borden.
This measure was severely reprehended by the governor, and caused an angry contention between him and the assembly.
Delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina, assembled at New York, at the time appointed. New Hampshire, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina were not represented, but the two former gave assurances of their disposi- tion to unite in a petition to the King and parliament.
The assemblies of the two latter not having been in session since the proposition for a congress had been made, had no opportunity to act upon the subject.
This congress adopted a declaration of rights and grievances, upon which they founded a petition to the King, and a memorial to parliament.
occasion ; " they have recollected the whole transaction, carefully examined their minutes, and can find nothing like it inserted therein; an answer to the Massachusetts letter was written, and if the expressions his excellency men- tions, were made use of in it, this house is at a loss to know how they are ac- countable for it, when it does not appear to be an act of the house; but reflec- tion on this passage, satisfies the house that his excellency has more knowledge of the contents of the letter in answer, than the members of the house them- selves." It is impossible not to perceive that the members of this assembly. had not that vivid sense of evil resulting from the stamp act, which was dis- played in other colonies, particularly, when we consider that this was the first opportunity for expressing their sentiments upon the odious pretentions cf parliament. Upon their return to their constituents, however, the members in- bibed opinions and zeal more befitting the times; and hence we have additional evidence, that, resistance to British oppressions, was not produce !! by the efforts of a few leading and aspiring men, but was the spontaneous act of a high spirited people, well instructed in their rights, and resolutely de- termined to maintain them.
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In these they claimed the full privileges of English subjects, averred the plenary legislative power of the colonial assemblies, protested against taxation by parliament, and dispensing of the trial by jury ; and earnestly pressed upon the attention of the parent state, the burdens imposed by the stamp and other acts, with the utter impossibility of continuing the execution of the former, in consequence of the drain of specie it would produce. A difference of opinion prevailed upon the question, whether the petitions and memorials should be signed and transmitted by the congress, or be sanctioned and forwarded by the provincial assemblies, as their several acts. Messrs. Ruggles of Massa- chusetts, the chairman of the convention, and Ogden of New Jersey, believing in the propriety of the latter mode, refused to sign with the other delegates ; but their conduct was censured by their constituents, and Mr. Ogden, therefore, resigned his seat in the assembly, which was convened by the governor, at his special instance,* that they might consider and adopt the best mode of expressing their sense of the obnoxious measures.
he house received from Messrs. Fisher and Borden their re- port of the proceedings of the congress, and, unanimously approved them, voting their thanks to those gentlemen for the faithful and judicious discharge of the trust reposed in them. Mr. Courtland Skinner, the newly elected speaker, Mr. John Johnson, Mr. John Lawrence and David Cooper were appointed to correspond with Joseph Sherwood, Esq., the agent of the colony in Great Britain, which was accordingly done, and a long petition was unanimously adopted by the house, setting forth that the stamp act was utterly subversive of the privileges inherent to, and originally secured by grants and confirmations from the crown of Great Britain to the settlers of this colony; that His Majesty's subjects inhabiting the province, are from the strongest motives of duty, fidelity and gratitude, inviolably attached to his royal person and government, and had ever shown, and will show the utmost readiness and alacrity for acceding to the constitutional requisitions of the crown, as they have been from time to time made to this colony. That His
* November 27th, 1765.
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Majesty's subjects are entitled to all the inherent rights and lib- erties of his natural born subjects, within the kingdom of Great Britain That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed upon them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives. That the people of this colony are not, and from their remote situation cannot be represented in the parliament of Great Britain ; and if the principle of taxing the colonies without their consent, should be adopted, the people here would be subjected to the taxation of two legislatures, a grievance unprecedented, and not to be thought of without the greatest anxiety. That the only representatives of the people of this colony are persons chosen by themselves ; and that no taxes ever have been, or can be, imposed on them, agreeably to the constitution of this province, granted and confirmed by His Majesty's most gracious predecessors, but by their own legisla- ture. That all supplies being free gifts ; for the people of Great Britain to grant to His Majesty the property of the people of this colony without their consent, and being represented, would be unreasonable, and render useless legislation in this colony in the most essential point. That the profits of trade arising from this colony, centering in Great Britian, eventually contributed to the supplies granted there to the crown. That the giving unlimited power to any subject or subjects, to impose what taxes . they please in the colonies, under the mode of regulating the prices of stamped vellum, parchment and paper, appears to us unconstitutional, contrary to the rights of the subject, and apparently dangerous in its consequences. That any incum- brance which, in effect, restrains the liberty of the press in Ameri- ca, is an infringement of the subject's liberty. That the exten- sion of the powers of the court of admiralty, within this province, beyond its ancient limits, is a violent innovation of the right of trial by jury-a right which this house, upon the principles of their British ancestors, hold most dear and invaluable. That, as the tranquillity of this country hath been interrupted through fear of the dreadful consequences of the stamp act, that, therefore, the officers of the government, who go on in their offices for the good and peace of the province, in the accustomed manner,
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while things are in their present unsettled situation, will, in the opinion of this house, be entitled to the countenance of the legislature ; and it is reccommended to our constituents, to use what endeavors lie in their power to preserve the peace, quiet, harmony and good order of the government ; that no heats, dis- orders and animosities, may in the least, obstruct the united en- deavors, that are now strongly engaged for repealing the act above mentioned, and other acts affecting the trade of the colonies.
The eleven reasons were at once forwarded to our agent at Great Britain, to be laid before parliament.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Colonel Isaac Barre, in the house of commons, was the champion of the people on this side.
Mr. Charles Townshend, one of the ministers, propounded this inquiry :- " And now, will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence, till they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms-will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under."
Instantly Colonel Isaac Barre arose to reply. He had before spoken, and was one of the very few who knew how to appreciate the Americans. His words were listened to with the attention they deserved. Taking up Townshend's interrogation, he ex- claimed : " They planted by YOUR care ! No; your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny, to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others, to the cruelty of a savage foe, the most. sub- tile, and I will take upon me to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth ; yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, that met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those that should have been their friends.
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