USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > The history of Newark, New Jersey : being a narrative of its rise and progress, from the settlement in May, 1666, by emigrants from Connecticut to the present time, including a sketch of the press of Newark, from 1791 to 1878 > Part 8
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69
"A PRUDENT AND PIOUS INTENTION !"
In the Provincial Legislature these parties were vigorously de- nounced by Samuel Nevill, a member of Assembly and one of the General Proprietors of both the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Province. Threats were made to "pull down about his ears" Nevill's house at Perth Amboy. With a view to obtaining some excuse other than distasteful words used in legislative debate, a man named Clawson essayed to pick a quarrel with Nevill. At once Nevill called to his aid a Justice of the Peace. The latter demanded security for Clawson's good behavior. Immediately Clawson assaulted the magistrate with a club, "saying that was his security, and went off huzzahing." The "rioters " themselves, speaking of the "Great Riots," refer to them as the "late stirs among us, particularly at Newark."
What were the merits of the dispute? Addressing "our trusty and well-beloved Friends, the Planters and Inhabitants of the Province of East New Jersey," Lady Proprietrix Elizabeth Carteret, John, Earl of Bath ; and Baron Atkins, Trustees of Sir George Carteret's estate, set forth that in the Concessions it was provided by Sir George "for the better settling of the Province" that the Governor and Council should, "as there was occasion, purchase land from the Indian Natives in the name of the Lords Proprietors," which direction, it is suggested with charming naivete, was “ given only out of a prudent and pious Intention of establishing a Friendship and correspondence with the Indians and thereby converting them to the Christian Faith (! ), and not for want of a sufficient title from the King of England who had an absolute dominion and propriety therein." On the other hand, it was "insinuated " by the New York Weekly Post-Boy, of February 17th, 1746, "that the persons in whose interests those riots were made have a better title to the Land in Dispute than the General Proprietors and those claiming under them; that they have been put to great expense by many vexatious suits ; that they are prevented from bringing their causes fairly before the King; that the conduct of the General Proprietors has been cruel, harrassing and vexatious, and that in the particular Transaction between the settlers of the Land called the Horse Neck, and the Persons claiming it under the General Proprietors, the settlers have made fair and reasonable proposals and the Claimers have rejected them." Preliminary to a petition addressed to the House of Representatives, signed by John Condict, Samuel Baldwin.
0
70
"THE ONLY SPRING OF THEIR MOTIVES."
Michael Cook, Michael Vreelandt, Nathaniel Wheeler, Samuel Harrison, Jonathan Pierson and Nathaniel Camp, and cited by Mr. Nevill in his speech before the Assembly on April 26th, 1746, it is set forth, as follows :
We, our Ancestors, Predecessors, &c., having (as we suppose ) made a Full and Just Purchase of sundry Tracts of Land (situate in this Province) of the Heathen Native Proprietors thereof, and of and from them obtained good and Lawful Grants or Deeds of Conveyance of the same, some of which Lands having been Purchased by our Fathers and us some Scores of Years we thought our Right and Properties secure from Invasion, &c.
It was still further set forth by the " rioters " as reasons for their conduct, "that the Proprietors have been guilty of the Invasions of Men's Rights, Properties, and Possessions, and of manifold oppressions and Frauds ; that they have under colour of Right sold the same Lands sundry Times, whereby the Purchasers are not only defrauded but that even the whole country is in confusion, and that this was the only spring of their motives." To all these allegations the Proprietors put in a strong, general and specific denial. They declared that the people-the mass of the "rioters " -- "had no thoughts of opposing their [the Proprietors'] titles, or of committing such Riots, till spirited up by some men who have formed the daring design aforesaid of wresting from the General Proprietors both their rents and Lands and of setting up sham deeds procured from strolling Indians in place of the title of the Crown of England." "Possibly," they continued, " many of the Rioters, being ignorant men, and many of them strangers to this Province and since they came to it living retired in and behind the Mountains of Newark upon any land they could find, without enquiring who the owners thereof was, have of late been animated and stirred up to believe that they owned the property." These, therefore, were excused, but not their "seducers." "And upon the whole," concluded the Council of Proprietors, "we conceive its no Wonder that the Bait of the Seducers has been catch'd at by a Number of poor, weak and ignorant People, seeing it was covered with so great seeming Advantages, as for a few Bottles of Rum bestowed for Indian Deeds to be not only discharged of Quit-rents, and to be clear of paying rents for the future, but also instead of paying Ten or Fifteen shillings per Acre to the Proprietors for Land they can in this Method have them for Ten or Fifteen Pence per 100 Aeres." Accepting the foregoing as a fair statement of both sides to the dispute, there can
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71
DRAWING THE LINE BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE.
be no question but the Proprietors had the recognized law of the case, even if it be conceded that the " rioters " shared with them the equities. Careful search through the Newark Town Records, from 1716 to 1750, failed to discover the slightest reference to any of these proceedings. It is recorded in the minutes of a meeting, held August 10th, 1716, that "great strifes and contentions have been had, moved and stirred up between Hugh Robarts and John Robarts of Newark, in the County of Essex and the Inhabitants of Newark aforesaid concerning the bounds of the meadows between the said Hugh and John Robarts and the meadow called the Parsonage meadow near the mouth of Bound Creek," but there is nowhere any mention of the "Two Great Riots."
During President Burr's time, the rule of the Church in temporal matters was completely ended. As previously stated, the Funda- mental Agreements were early subjected to serious inroads, and as years multiplied the "iron bedstead rule " became more and more a dead letter. Pastor Burr's salary was voted for in town meeting, as had been the salaries of his predecessors, but it was only a matter of form. Payments were made alone by those who voluntarily obligated themselves so to do.
But the decisive and complete act of civil and ecclesiastical separation was yet to be accomplished. This was done on June 7th, 1753, by securing for the First Presbyterian Church a distinct act of incorporation, granted by Governor Belcher, under the great seal of New Jersey. From the time hallowed parchment itself, submitted to the use of the author by the courteous successor of Christopher Wood, Joseph Alling, Elisha Boudinot, Jesse Baldwin, Stephen Hays, Silas Condit, Caleb S. Riggs, William Pennington and Isaac Baldwin, all Presidents in succession of the Boards of Trustees, the following is transcribed :
GEORGE, THE SECOND, by the Grace of GOD of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and to all whom these Presents shall come, GREETING :
Whereas the advancement of true Religion and virtue is absolutely necessary
[L. S.] for the promotion of the peace, order, and prosperity of the State, and Whereas it is the duty of all Christian Princes and Governors by the law of God to do all they can for the incouragement thereof and Whereas sundry of our loving subjects of the Presbyterian Persuasion, inhabitants in and about the town of NEWARK, within our colony of NEW JERSEY by their humble petition presented to our trusty and well-beloved JONATHAN BELCHIER Esq. our Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of our Province of NEW JERSEY, and Vice Admiral in this cause, showing that the petitioners and others of the same persuasion, inhabi- tants in and about the town of NEWARK aforesaid, do make up a very large and considerable
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FIRST CHARTER OF THE FIRST CHURCH.
congregation that the most advantageous support of religion among them require that some persons should be incorporated as trustees for the community ; that they may take grants of lands and chattels, thereby to enable the petitioners to erect and repair public buildings for the worship of God and the use of the ministers, and school houses, and almshouses, and suitably to support the minister and poor of the church and to do and perform other acts of piety and charity ; and that the same Trustees may have power to let and grant the same under public seal for the uses aforesaid and that the same Trustees may plend and be impleaded in any suit touching the premises and have perpetual succession." &c., &c., &c.
The document proceeds to speak of "the known loyalty of the petitioners and Presbyterians in general to us -their firm affection to our person and Government and the Protestant succession in our Royal house," and is particular to frequently remind the petitioners, and everybody else, that the grant was all "of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion." It formally constitutes seven persons named " one body politic and corporate, in deed, fact, and name, by the name of the First Presbyterian Church in Newark ;" the seven original incorporators and Trustees being Christopher Wood, (first President of the Board of Trustees), John Crane, Nathaniel Camp, Joseph Camp, Jonathan Sergeant, Joseph Riggs and Israel Crane. The parchment ends as follows :
In testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent and the great seal of our Province of NEW JERSEY to be hereunto affixed, witness our trusty and well- beloved Jonathan Belcher, Esquire, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of our said Province of NEW JERSEY.
This 7th day of June, in the twenty-sixth year of our reign and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fifty three.
JONATHAN BELCHER
[Seal of the Province.]
Governor and Commander-in-chief of His Majesty's Province of New Jersey.
With some modification in its practical operations, this charter is the same under which the Church holds to this day its corporate existence, its rights and its privileges.
Upon the dismission of President Burr, the pastoral functions were performed by Rev. John Brainerd, a younger brother of the famous missionary of the same name. Like the latter, he had decided gifts as a missionary among the aborigines, and in order to give himself wholly to this work he resigned his connection here. He was a Trustee of the College of New Jersey, was Moderator of the Synod in 1762, and died March 21, 1781, at Deerfield, Cumber- land County. The pastoral successor of Mr. Brainerd was Rev. Alexander Macwhorter, a man who, like the Piersons and Burr, stamped his name on the sacred and- secular records of Newark in
73
ESTHER BURR'S DEATH-AARON'S BIRTHPLACE.
letters that time can neither tarnish nor efface. Before we exorcise from the past this illustrious spirit, let us recur to the Burr family.
Within less than a year after his death President Burr was followed to the grave by his beloved Esther. Mrs. Burr died April 7th, 1758, leaving two children, Sarah and Aaron, both born in Newark. Sarah married Hon. Tappan Reeve, who had been tutor to her and her brother, but afterwards became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Of the boy, Aaron, we shall now speak.
AARON BURR, the second, was born in Newark, February 6th, 1756. The place of his birth was a fine stone mansion situated on the west side of Broad street, thirty-four feet south of what is now the south-west corner of William street. It stood in from the street some distance, and was still standing in 1835, being then occupied by John Halsted, who married Mary Pennington, the oldest daughter of Governor William Sandford Pennington, and sister of Governor William Pennington. At that time there was a step down from the pavement to the front yard, the street having been raised to a higher grade some years before. In the yard stood four large trees. These, after the house had been demolished, were transplanted and are now flourishing on Broad street south of Pennington street. The house, built in 1734, was two and a half stories high, with walls two feet thick and broad window sills. The entry was eight feet wide, and upon each side was a room eighteen feet square. At the rear of one room was a piazza opening upon the back yard, and in the rear of the other was a frame addition, comprising dining room, pantry, kitchen, &c. In its day, as may well be imagined, it was one of the best known dwellings in this section of the country. Beneath its quaint roof were united " for richer, for poorer-for better, for worse," hosts of young people. It is suggested by a recent sketch writer that "in no other house in New Jersey were so many people made happy or miserable." In it lived for almost half a century after President Burr, Rev. Dr. Macwhorter. Upon the Doctor's death the building passed into the hands of a firm of chair-makers and was used as a factory. Subsequently it was changed again into a dwelling, and, as stated, was occupied as such by Mr. Halsted. About the year 1835 it was torn down to give way to what is styled the grand march of modern improvement- unsightly brick buildings and the bustle of trade. All that remains
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74 "A LITTLE, DIRTY, NOISY DOG "-" SLY AND MISCHIEVOUS."
at the present day of this noted abode is the site and the well, both of which are now doing duty in the service of a tobacconist.
The lines from " Paradise Regained "-
" The childhood shows the man As morning shows the day,"
are strikingly illustrated in the life of Aaron Burr. When he was thirteen months old his mother frankly said of him: "Aaron is a little, dirty, noisy dog, very different from Sally, almost in every thing. He begins to talk a little, is very sly and mischievous. He has more sprightliness than Sally, and most say he is handsomer, but not so good tempered. He is very resolute and requires a good governor to bring him to terms." Alas for Aaron, and alas for many tarnished pages in American history, the "good governor" who might have moulded " the father of the man " so that posterity could not have been taught to execrate the name of Burr, was removed by the hand of the Almighty; and, as the twig was bent, so was the tree inclined, even unto the end. Within a period of thirteen months Aaron and Sally were of father, mother, great-grandfather and grandparents bereft, and no one was left to properly care for the infant orphans-a fact that is of great importance in arriving at a just judgment of the character of Aaron Burr. President Burr left ample means for the support of his children. They were taken in charge by Hon. Timothy Edwards, their uncle on the maternal side, whose residence was at Elizabethtown. Here they were reared, their studies being superintended by Tappan Reeve. When Aaron was but four years of age he gave forcible evidence of the accuracy of his mother's pen-picture above referred to. He took offence at his tutor and ran away, remaining about three or four days. When he was eight years old he gave still further illustration in the same direction. He was perched aloft in a cherry tree one day, when his aunt, a very prim dame, went into the garden and ordered him down. His response was a shower of over-ripe cherries on " the lovely silk gown " of the lady, ruining it and sending her into the house angered and mortified beyond description. Aaron was summoned to the study by his uncle. After a long prayer came a long lecture and, finally, a severe thrashing. " He licked me like a sack," said the unruly boy, subsequently. Two years later, he is found "running off to sea." He obtained a berth on board of a
75
BURR'S BOYHOOD-HIS MILITARY SERVICES.
vessel in New York harbor as cabin boy. Before the vessel left port, however, his uncle discovered him, but before Mr. Edwards could lay hands on his agile nephew, the provoking youngster was beyond reach. Into the rigging the boy sprang and ascended it with the agility of a monkey. From his elevation he held an armistice with his guardian, who, of course, was too stiff to follow. The result was an agreement that if Aaron would go home peaceably he would be spared castigation. The agreement was fulfilled. In 1769 Aaron entered Princeton College, and appears to have conducted himself in a much more exemplary manner than was expected. He was a college-mate of William Patterson-a name inscribed in letters of gold on the brightest pages of New Jersey's history. One of young Burr's college essays furnishes a remarkably prophetic piece of self-portraiture. "The passions, if properly regulated," wrote young Burr, "are the gales which keep life from stagnating, but, if let loose, the tempests which tear everything before them. *
Do we not behold men of the sprightliest genius, by giving the reins to their passions, lost to society and reduced to the lowest ebb of misery and despair?" This was written shortly before he left college, and not a great while before the firing at Lexington of "the shot heard round the world." Burr was only nineteen years of age when the war of the Revolution broke out. With the warm ardor of his nature, he threw himself into the cause of American freedom, and, accompanied by his friend and compatriot, the famous Matthias Ogden, entered the American army as a volunteer, He went with Arnold to Canada, and captivated the illustrious Irish- American martyr, General Montgomery, so that the General appointed him an aid-de-camp on his staff, with the rank of captain. In the ill-fated storming of Quebec, December 31st, 1775, Burr behaved with great gallantry. When Montgomery fell dead, pierced with the first volley of British grape, and a retreat was rendered imperative, the brave Newark boy-captain made a heroic effort to recover the body of "the gallant and princely Irishman," as he styled his beloved commander. Subsequently, during the war, Burr rendered military services of unquestioned value to the cause of his country. The salvation of Putnam's army from Lord Howe's red-coats in New York, in September, 1776, was due to Burr's skill as a guide, together with the conjunctive incident of Mary Lindley Murray's delightful hospitality, which charmed and beguiled Howe
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76
JUSTICE TO AARON BURR'S MEMORY.
and his officers into a two hours' delay in the pursuit-just time enough for Putnam, under Burr's guidance, to make good his escape. With the later history of Aaron Burr all are familiar. His elevation to the highest official position but one in our country ; his ill-fated · duel with Alexander Hamilton; his relations with poor Blenner- hassett; his ill-starred south-west expedition, and his trial for and acquittal of treason against the United States ; his exile in Europe ; the tragic fate of his adored daughter, the beautiful and remarkable Theodosia ; his return to his native land, and what followed until his death, are matters which do not come within the sphere of our attention. It is proper, however, that we should devote a little space to the consideration of the true character of this Newark prodigy, and that we should do simple justice to Aaron Burr's memory.
It has been remarked of Aaron Burr that he was " the heir of his father's accomplishments but not of his virtues." That is true, but not wholly so. The younger, like the elder Burr, was a man of con- cededly great abilities. Both were born leaders of men. One was a soldier of the Cross, and nobly sustained the rank of captain ; the other was a soldier of his country, and likewise nobly sustained his captaincy. The son, unlike the father, was deprived in infancy of the two beings who were his natural protectors -his loving, never- tiring guides. It is fair to presume, as already intimated, that had the lovely and excellent Esther been spared to watch and guide the early footsteps of her boy; had it been ordained that she, the loving, affectionate and influential mother, could have been "the good governor to bring him to terms," the whole current of Burr's life would have been relieved of its turbulence, if not entirely changed. It would be an easy task to cite very many instances of distin- guished and illustrious men in the world's history, whose greatness and success in life were primarily due, upon their own testimony, to the gentle yet peaceful influences of excellent mothers. It was George Washington's good mother who taught him the great lesson, so useful to him in his public life, in the field and in the council, that " he who ruleth himself is greater than he that taketh a city." As a boy, Burr does not appear to have been any better or any worse than the majority of boys, born and reared under similar circumstances. In these remarks it is not designed to make the slightest reflections upon the memory of Burr's excellent relatives,
77
WAYWARDNESS DUE TO HIS ORPHANAGE.
the Edwardses. Doubtless they were as much as they could be a father and mother to the fatherless and motherless; but still it cannot be forgotten that no care, no love, no influence is like that of the natural parents. This point has been dwelt upon because the orphanage in infancy of Aaron Burr was undoubtedly the primary cause of his tempest-tossed career. If, up to the time he wrote his essay on " The Passions," he had had the sweet and loving rule of father and mother with their affectionate counsel to guide his budding manhood, his "Passions," it may reasonably be pre- sumed, would have been "properly regulated," and not been "let loose" to become "the tempests which tear everything before them." Ah! how true, how very true it is, indeed, that we " behold men of the sprightliest genius, by giving the reins to their passions, lost to society and reduced to the lowest ebb of misery and despair !"
For more than half a century the name of Burr has been held up before the world as something to regard forever with horror. It has been linked with that of Benedict Arnold, who sold his country for British gold, even as Iscariot sold the Master for thirty pieces of silver. It has been united with that of the murderer, that" of the libertine, and that of the debauchee. It is time to stop all that. Burr was no traitor, the almost matchless massing together of affirmative evidence by the illustrious Jefferson to the contrary notwithstanding. The record of the highest tribunal of his country said so, still says so. He shot and killed Hamilton in a duel,
-'tis true, 'tis pity ;
And pity 'tis, 'tis true ; "
but it must be remembered that duelling was not then, as now, generally considered wicked or criminal. Whatever was or may be thought of duelling, it is clear that Hamilton in accepting Burr's challenge shared equally with him the culpability. Burr was no mur- derer, and those "unco guid" people who insist that he was, should recall that chapter in the Good Book which narrates the slaughter of poor Uriah, the Hittite (whose only crime was the possession of a beauteous wife), and then reflect whether even the lustful but royal David, " the Lord's Anointed," was not decidedly more of a murderer than the slayer in an open field of Alexander Hamilton. That Burr had his faults, grievous faults, is not to be doubted. That he had his virtues is not to be denied. He had rivals, jealous
78
HIS TRUE CHARACTER.
and unscrupulous rivals, who were ready to go to any extent in order to blacken his character and transmit it to posterity as an incarnation of wickedness. How far they succeeded is known by the necessity there is to this day for an exhaustive vindication of the name and fame of their victim. In the light of such revelation as is before us, in the light of the truth as separated from the false, the true character of Aaron Burr appears to be that of a man who, while he had more than his full share in the common heritage of human frailty, had also more than one manly virtue of the truest and brightest description. In battle he was brave as a lion, as witness his gallantry at Quebec. At other times he proved his prowess and his patriot- ism. He was a man of exalted genius, large culture, and of decidedly statesmanlike abilities. In his nature there was nothing mean, nothing low, nothing narrow, nothing sordid. On the contrary, there was in it much that was noble, much that was elevated, and everything that was brave and dashing. It is not pre- tended that Burr was a very good man ; no one denies that he was a very great man. Certainly he was not the monster of iniquity he has so long been regarded, and, assuredly, the day has gone by when he is to be regarded as a miscreant. "Let any man sit down and read a truthful history of Aaron Burr," remarks a contemporaneous commentator, " and if he does not rise up with the highest estima- tion of him as a brave and active patriot during the Revolution, as a man of exalted genius, and a gentleman of true politeness, and with pity and commiseration for his misfortunes, then let no such man be trusted-he has not the common feelings of humanity."
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