y - "^>^ >> o^ * •> s -^/^- *o no'" .^ "'oo'^ // C> \> ». ^ * A > .0 >. ^ '^^'^^^ -''o^ >^'^ V A '.> -i oV' \' ^ •" * o /■ o ^%. \V >;• ^^^'^- xOo^. !%:'"-''^'"^>^.. / COLLECTIONS OF THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, VOL. VII. NEWARK, N. J. PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY, By martin R. DENNIS & CO. 1872. Z OFFICERS OF THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. ELECTED 1872. RAVAUD K. RODGERS, D. D., Pkesidext. HENRY W. GREEN, LL. D., 1st Vice President. SAJMUEL M. HAMILL, D. D., 2d Vice President. WILLIAM B. KINNEY, 3d Vice President. WILLI A]M A. WHITEHEAD, Corresponding Secretary. DAVID A. HAYES, Rkcording Secretary. ROBERT S. SWORDS, Treasurer. SAMUEL H. CONGAR, Librarian. EXECUTIVE COMOTTTEE. SAMUEL H. PENNINGTON, M. D., N. NORRIS HALSTED, JOHN HALL, D. D., JOHN CLEMENT, CHARLES C. HAVEN, PETER S. DURYEE, SA3IUEL ALLISON, THEODORE F. RANDOLPH, HUGH H. BOWNE. COMJIITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS. WILLIA]M A. WHITEHEAD, SAMUEL H. PENNINGTON, M. D., JOHN HALL, D. D., WILLIAM B. KINNEY JOSEPH N. TUTTLE. THE CONSTITUTIO:^ AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE AND STATE OF I^EW JEESEY, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE GOVERNORS FROM 1776 TO 1845. AND REMINISCENCES OF THE BENCH AND BAR, DURING MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY. BT LUCIUS Q. C. ELMER, LL. D. LATE OKE OK THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW JERSEY. NEWARK, N. J. MARTIN R. DENNIS AND COMPANY. 1872. fill Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Martin R. Dennis and Company, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 8TERB0TTPED AND PRINTED BT H. 0. HOUOHTON AND COMPANY. PREFACE. T^HE Reminiscences contained in this volume were commenced at the request of the late Judge Field, when president of the New Jersey Histor- ical Society, and portions of them were read at meetings of the society in 1870. Having thus com- menced, it was proposed that I should complete such a history of the judiciary of the State as would make a proper sequel to the " Provincial Courts of New Jersey," prepared by Mr. Field, and published by the society in 1849. This I have undertaken; and at his suggestion I have written with entire freedom, and have expressed without reserve my individual opin- ions respecting the men and measures introduced, so as to give to the best of my ability an authentic his- tory of the age in which I have lived, so far as that history related to the men who have belonged to the bench and bar of New Jersey. Any further notice of Judo-e Field himself has been rendered unneces- o sary by the extended memoir of him written by Mr. Keasbey, and published by the society. Having retired from office and from professional pursuits, I have had leisure which I thought would not be wasted by endeavoring to preserve for those ^^ PREFACE. who shall come after us a reliable account of those who have preceded us, and finished their labors m the same sphere of duty. With only the exceptions of Governors Vroom and Haines, who have been in- troduced for the sake of making complete biograph- ical sketches of the governors since the Revolution, who were a part of the judiciary of the State, all the individuals commemorated have passed away. All the judges of the state courts, who have held office since the Revolution, and who are not still living, have been noticed with more or less particularity. Some of the persons of whom I have written held opinions on the political topics of the day in the main agreeing with my own ; while others belonged to a different party, and differed from me on many important subjects. My earnest endeavor has been to do equal justice to all. With all personally known to me, my relations have been altogether friendly ; and I have kept in mind that while holding firmly to my own opinions, those differing from me were equally entitled to adhere to theirs, and that it is quite possible they were right and I was wrong. My hardest task has been to avoid mere eulogy, and to give, as f\ir as possible, a correct impression of the true character of each individual as he appeared to me, of course touching lightly on faults, of which we all have enough, and giving full prominence to what- ever seemed to me commendable. For the purpose of making more complete the ju- dicial history of the State, I have introduced an ac- PREFACE. count of the constitution and government of the col- ony while it was a province of Great Britain, and a history of the constitution formed in 1776. A care- ful study of these histories will show us that our state and our federal republics, on the excellence of which we so justly pride ourselves, are not mushroom growths which sprung up in a night, and are there- fore liable to perish in a day, but that they have been the slow and sure growths of nearly two centu- ries of experience, the germs of which are found in the sound principles of the common law brought with them by our English forefathers. The consti- tution of 1776 was defective, in blending the duties of the executive and the judiciary; but this defect was much relieved, and perhaps quite remedied, by the fact that while it existed the governors were necessarily men learned in the law, and thus the State commenced its independent career, and for years had the benefit of rulers having high qualifi- cations for the office. I have also added, by way of Appendix, a short account of the Titles to Land, as held in New Jer- sey, originally prepared for Nixon's Digest, which I trust will be found interesting and useful, not only to lawyers, but to proprietors generally. Bridgeton, January 1, 1872. COl^TEE'TS. CHAPTER I. PA8E Constitution and Government of the Province op New Jersey 1 CHAPTER n. The State Constitution adopted in 1776, and the Gov- ernment under it 21 CHAPTER m. Governors during the War for Independence : William Franklin; William Livingston 50 CHAPTER IV. Governors after the War for Independence : William Paterson; Richard Howell 77 CHAPTER V. Governors I have known : Joseph Bloomfield ; Aaron Ogden 114 CHAPTER VI. Governors I have kno-wn : William S. Pennington ; Mahlon Dickerson ; Isaac H. Williamson ; Peter D. Vroom 158 CHAPTER Vll. Governors I have known : Samuel L. Southard ; Elias P. Seeley 201 CHAPTER VIII. Governors I have known : William Pennington ; Phile- mon Dickerson; Daniel Haines 237 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. PAGI Judges during and soon after the Revolution: Samuel Tuckek; Robert Morris; David Brearly; James Kin- bey; Isaac Smith; John Cleves Symmes; John Chet- wood; Elisiia Boudixot 264 CHAPTER X. Judges I have known : Bushrod Washington ; William Grip'fitu 281 CHAPTER XI. Judges I have icnown: Andrew Kirkpatrick; William Rossell ; Gabriel H. Ford ; George K. Drake ; Thomas C. Ryerson 301 CHAPTER XII. Judges I have known: Charles Ewing; John Moore White ; Daniel Elmer ; James S. Nevius ; Ira C. Whitehead; Elias B. D. Ogden; Stacy G. Potts . 326 CHAPTER XIII. Judges I have known : Joseph C. Hornblower ; William L. Dayton; Edward W. Whelpley; George H. Brown 361 CHAPTER XIV. Lawyers I have known : Samuel Leake ; James Giles ; Richard Stockton ; Lucius H. Stockton ; George Wood; Garret D. Wall; William W. Miller; Jacob W. Miller 403 CHAPTER XV. Lawyers I have known : Theodore Frelinghuysen ; John Rutherfurd ; AVilliam Chetwood ; John J. Chktwood; Aaron O. Dayton; William N. Jeffers ; Alphonso L. Eakin ; Josiaii IlARitisoN ; Francis L. Macculi.och ; Richard P. Thompson ; Asa White- head; Joseph W. Scott 440 APPENDIX. — Titles to Land 481 PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW JEESEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY For Sale by Martin R. Dennis & Co., Newark, N. J. "COLLECTIONS, VOL. I.," containing "East Jersey under the Provincial Governments ; a Narrative of Events connected with the Settlement and Progress of the Province, imtil the Surrender of the Government to the Crown in 1702. Drawn principally from Original Sources: hy William A. Whitehead. With an Appendix, containing a Model of the Govern- ment of P.ast New Jersey, by George Scot, of Pitlochie, now first reprinted from the original edition of 1685." 8vo, pp. 342 — xv., with Maps and Plates (Out of print.) " COLLECTIONS, VOL. II.," containing " The Life of William Alexanaer, Earl of Stirling, Major-general in the Army of the United States during the Revolution : with Selections from his Correspondence, by his Grandson, William Alexander Duer, LL. D." Svo, pp. 284, with Portrait and Maps. $1. " COLLECTIONS, VOL. III.," containing " The Provincial Courts of New Jersey, with Sl-cetches of the Bench and Bar : by Richard S. Field." Svo, pp. 324. $1..50. " COLLECTIONS, VOL. IV.," containing the Papers of Lewis Morris, Gov- ernor of the Province of New Jersey from 1 738 to 1 746. With Portrait. Svo, pp. 336— XXX. $2. "COLLECTIONS, VOL. V.," containing "An Analytical Index to the Colonial Documents of New Jersey, in the State Paper Offices of England, comjiilcd by Henry Stevens. Edited, with Notes and References to printed works and manuscripts in other depositories, by William A. Whitehead." Svo, pp. 504 — xxx. $2.50. " COLLECTIONS, VOL. VI.," containing " Records of the Town of Newark, New Jersey, from its Settlement in 1666, to its Incorporation as a City in 1836 — with Majjs." Svo, pp. 294— x. $2. And Supplement thereto, containing "Proceedings Commemorative of the Settlement of Newark, New Jersey, on its Two Hundredth Anniver- gary, May 17, 1866," comprising: I. Historical Memoir, by "William A. Whitehead ; II. Lyrical Poem, by Thomas Ward, M. D. ; III. Ora- tion, by William B. Kinney; IV. Genealogical Notes of the Settlers, by Samuel H. Congar ; V. Notes. 8vo, pp. 182. $1.50. %* The Volumes of " Collections " are bound and lettered as distinct works, as well as in sets. "PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY." In Paper Covers. VOL. I. contains — Proceedings of Meetings at Trenton to organize the Soci- ety, February, 184.5. Proceedings at Newark, May 7, 1845. — Discourse by Charles King, Esq. Proceedings at Trenton, September 4, 1845. — Journal of Capt. John Schuyler, on an Expedition to Canada, in August, 1690. — Three Letters from Rev. Samuel Davies, President of Princeton College, 1759-60. — Address by Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D. Proceedings at New Brunswick, November 6, 1845. — Three Letters from Governor Franklin to his Father, June and October, 1767, and May, 1759. — Letter from William Strahan, London, 1766. Proceedings at Trenton, January 15, 1846. — Letter from Lord Cornbury to the Inliabitants of Bergen, 1706. Proceedings at Burlington, May 7, 1846. — Letter from William Dockwra, Proprietaries' Register, to Governor Andrew Hamilton, April 1, 1693. — An Account of a Journey in the Southern States in 1781, by Abel Thomas. — An Account of the Capture and Death of the Refugee John Bacon, by George F. Fort, M. D. — Extracts from a Paper on the Discovery and Settlement of Monmouth County, by Rev. A. A. Marcellus. Proceedings at Salem, September 3, 1846. — Corrections of Errors in Mr. King's Discourse. — Exports of Salem County. — Criminal Statistics of Essex County. — Proceedings of the Committees of Freehold and Shrewsbury on the opening of the Revolution. — Index. $1.50. VOL. 11. contains — Proceedings of Society at Elizabethtown, November 5, 1846. — Proceedings of the Government of New York, December, 1675, to December, 1678, in Relation to the Settlement and Jurisdiction of Major John Fcnwick in AVest Jersey. — Journal of Lieut. William Barton, during Sullivan's Expedition against the Indians, in 1779. — Extracts from Journal of Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, during the same Expedition. Proceedings at Trenton, January 1, 1847. — Second Annual Address, by Hon. Joseph C. Hornblowcr, LL. D., President of the Society. Proceedings at Newark, May 27, 1847. — Diary of Events in Charleston, S. C, from March 20 to April 20, 1780, during the Siege by the British : by Samuel Baldwin. Proceedings at New Brunswick, June 25, 1847. — Journal of an Expedi- tion to Canada, in 1776, by Lieut. Ebenezer Elmer, of the New Jersey Forces. Proceedings at Freehold, September 16, 1847. — Letter from Richard Stockton to Robert Ogden, about Public Affairs, 1765. — Index. $1.50. VOL. III. contains — Proceedings of the Society at Trenton, January 20, 1848. — Letter from James Logan to Colonel Cox, June, 1719, relative to the Dividing Line of East and West Jersey. — Journal of Lieut. Ebenezer Elmer (continued from Vol. II.). Proceedings at Newark, May 25, 1848. — Letter from David Ogden, February 20, 1767, to the Claimants under Indian Purchases. — Memoir of Rev. James Caldwell, by llev. Nicholas Murray, D. D. — Extract from a Diary of Mr. Jacob Spicer, 1757. — A Brief Account of the Swedish Mission in Racoon and Penn's Neck : by Rev. Nicholas Collin, D. D. Proceedings at Princeton, September 27, 1848. — A Biographical Sketch of Governor William Franklin: by Wil- liam A. Whitehead. Proceedings at Trenton, January 18, 1849. — Letter from Governor Franklin to his Father, December 24, 1774. — Journal of Major William Gould during an Expedition into Pennsylvania, 1794. — Index. $1.50. VOL. IV. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 17, 1849. — Memoir of Governor Lewis Morris, by Rev. Robert Davidson, D. D. — Census of Northampton, Burlington County, 1709. — List of Judges, Clerks, Sheriffs, Surrogates, and Attorneys of Salem County, from the Settlement. — Memoir of John Fenwick, Chief Proprietor of Salem Tenth, by Robert G. Johnson. — Letters from William Strahan to David Hall, describing the Trial of John Wilkes. Proceedings of Meeting at Freehold, September, 1849. — State of Religion in the Provinces of East and West Jersey in 1700. — The Battle of Monmouth Court House, by Charles King, Esq. — Letters from William Peartree Smith, to Elias Boudinot. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 17, 1850. — Letter from Rev. Uzal Ogden, Missionary to Sussex County, 1771. — Lease for a Year from Dame Elizabeth Carteret, to the Twelve Proprietors, for East Jersey, — The Aborigines of New Jersey, by Archer Gifford, Esq. — Index. $1.50. VOL. V. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 16, 1850. — Letter of Major-general Baron Steuben to Officers of the New Jersey Line, July 19, 1793. — Tables of the Sittings of the Provincial Assemblies, and Names of Members. — Orders of Generals Schuyler and Sullivan to Colo- nel Jonathan Dayton, 1776. Proceedings of Meeting at Morristown, September 12, 1850. — The Robbery of the Treasury, in 1768 : by W. A. Whitehead. — The Hollanders in New Jersey : by Rev. Abraham Messier, D. D. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 23, 1851. — The American Union, and the Perils to which it has been exposed : by J. P. Bradley, Esq. — Letters of Joseph Sherwood, Pro^dncial Agent. Proceed- ings of Meeting at Newark, May 15, 1851. — Letter from Major F. Barber, 1776. — Letter from Joseph Shippen, Jun., 1752. — Selections from Corre- spondence of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling. — Index. $1.50. VOL. VI. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Somerville, September 11, 1851. — Letter from Robert Morris, 1781. — Journal of Andrew Bell, Sec- retary of General Clinton, kept during the March of the British Army throusih New Jersey, in 1778. — Inquiry into the Location of Mount Ploy- den : by Rev. George C. Schanek. — Review of the Trial of the Rev. Wil- liam Tennent, 1742: by Richard S. Field. — Selections from Correspond- encc of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, in 1755. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 15, 1852. Selections from Correspondence of AVilliam Alexander, Earl of Stirling, in 1755. Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 20, 1852. — The Uses and Benefits of Historical Socie- ties: by Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, LL. D. — Selections from Corre- spondence of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, in 1755. Proceedings of Meeting at New Brunswick, September 8, 1852. — Description of the Site of Fort Nassau on the Delaware: by Edward Armstrong. — The Pennsylvania Insurrection of 1794: by Rev. James Carnahan, D. D. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 15, 1853. — Report of Cor- responding Secretary on the Belcher Papers. — Report of Committee au- thorized to examine supposed Site of Fort Nassau. — The Discoveiy of the Northmen : by Charles C. Rafn, Secretary of the Society of Northern Antiquaries. — The History and Location of Fort Nassau on the Delaware: by Edward Annstrong. — Index. $1 .50. VOL. VII. contains — Proceedings at Newark, May 19, 1853. — Letter from "Pierwim, ye Sachem of Pan," relative to " Cooks of Dozens " in Collec- tions, Vol. I. — Biographical Sketch of General William Winds : by Rev. Joseph F. Tattle. — Selections from Correspondence of William Alexan- der, ICarl of Stirling, Major-general during the Revolution. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 19, 1854. — Proceedings on Announce- ment of Death of Hon. James G. King. — "The Iron State, its Natural Position, Power, and Wealth ; " an Address by Hon. Jacob W. Miller. Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 18, 1 854. — Diary of Joseph Clark, attached to the Continental Army, from May, 1778, to November, 1779. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 18, 1855. — Letter from Rev. Dr. Hopkins to Rev. Dr. Bellamy, July 20, 1758. Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 17, 1855.— Index. $1.50. VOL. VIII. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 17, 1856. — Drawings and Pa])ers of Robert Fulton in the possession of the Society. — Account of the Establishment at Morristown of the first Academy, Li- brary, and Printing Press. Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 15, 1856. — Supplement to the Act of Incorporation. Proceedings of Meeting at Jersey City, September 25, 1856. — Extracts from Manuscripts of Sam- uel Smith. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 15, 1857. Pro- ceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 21, 1857. — Field and Staff Officers New Jersey Regiments in Revolution. — Appointment of Nathaniel Jones as Chief Justice in 1759 : by W. A. Whitehead. — Journal of Capt. David Ford, during the Ex])edition into Pennsylvania in 1794. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 21, 1858. — Proposals of Colonel MaAvhood to the Militia of Salem County in 1778, and Answer of Colonel Hand. — Female Suffrage in New Jersey : by W. A. Whitehead. — Brief History of tlic Boundary Disputes between New York and New Jersey : by Hon. James Parker. — Staten Island part of New Jersey. Proceedings of Meet- ing at Newark, May 20, 1858. — Extract from Journal of Lieut. Isaac Bangs. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 20, 1859. Proceed- ings of Meeting at Newark, May 19, 1859. — The Circumstances leading to the Establishmont in 1769 of the Northern Boundary Line between New Jersey and New York : by W. A. Whitehead. — Index. $1.50. VOL. IX. contains — Procccdinf,'s Jit Trenton, January 19, 1860. — Extract from the MSS. of Samuel Smith. — Marria;L?es of Friends in Pliiladelphia, 1682-1714. Proceedings at Newark, May 17, 1860. — Origin of tlic name " Pavonia," by Solomon Alofsen. — Memoir of Samuel G. Smith : by John Jay Smith. — Project for raising Money in 1716, by William Pinhorne. Proceedings at Trenton, January 17, 1861. — Extracts from the Minutes of New Jersey Su])reme Court, 1765. — Battles of Trenton and Princeton : by C. C. Haven. Proceedings at Trenton, January 16, 1862. — Announce- ment of Deaths of Rev. Dr. Murray and John P. Jackson, Esq. — Memo- randa relating to Dr. Franklin's Administration of the Colonial Post Office. — Memoir of Mrs. Abigail Stafford and her Times. — Proprietors' Order respecting "Perth Towne," 1683. — Aifairs of New York and New Jersey under the Joint Governors: by Cadwallader Colden. — Letter to Governor Franklin from Hon. H. S. Conway, Under Secretary of State, 176.5. Proceedings at Newark, May 15, 1862. — Steamboat Controversy between New York and New Jersey, 1811 to 1824: by John D. Ward. Proceedings at Trenton, January 15, 186.3. — Scandinavian Settlements in New Jersey. Proceedings at Newark, May 21, 1863. Proceedings at Trenton, January 21, 1864. — Papers of General Elias Dayton. Proceed- ings at Newark, May 19, 1864. —Index. $1.50. VOL. X. contains — Proceedings at Trenton, January 19, 1865. — Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, LL. D. : by tho Hon. Richard S. Field. Proceedings at Newark, May 18, 1865. — Sketch of the McWhorter Family in New Jersey, by George C. McWhortcr. — Proceedings at Trenton, January 18, 1866. — Description of an Ancient Brass Tobacco Bo.x, by S. Alofsen. — Instructions of Freeholders of Hun- terdon to the Representatives of the County, 1771. — Papei-s on the East- ern Boundary of New Jersey : by W. A. Whitehead. Proceedings at New- ark, May 17, 1866. — Communication from Asher Taylor on the derivation of " Nevcrsink." — Letter to Dr. Benjamin Franklin from the House of Assembly of New Jersey, December 7, 1769. — Account of the Portrait of Aaron Buit in the Possession of the Society : by David A. Hayes. — Objec- tions of New Jersey to the Articles of Confederation submitted to Congress, June 23, 1778. — Report of the Commissioners of the States at Annapolis, September 14, 1786, relative to the adoption of a better System of Govern- ment for the States. — Act of Incorporation of the Society. — Members of the Society, December, 1866. — Index. $1.75. NEW SERIES— VOL. I. contains — Proceedings at Trenton, January 17, 1867. Proceedings at Newark, May 16, 1867. — Pedigree of Governor Carteret. — Staten Island and the New Jersey Boundary. — Regimental Returns, Haddonfield, Bordentown, Morristown, December, 1776, and January, 1777. — Letter from David Ogden to Philip Kearney, January 14, 1766. Proceedings at Trenton, January 16, 1868. Proceedings at Newark, May 22, 1 868. — Inscriptions on Tombstones near Freehold. — Letter from Quartermaster-general Greene to Col. James Abeel, June 4, 1779. — Letter from Gen. Washington to Dr. Franklin. — Notes on the State of New Jersey, 1786: by John Rutheifurd. — Letter from Wra. S. Livingston to Col. Burr, July 10, 1782. — Officers of Col. Peter Schuyler's Regiment, 1759. Proceedings at Trenton, January 21, 1869. — Letter from Gen. Washington to Rev. Samuel Haven, March 10, 1787. — Inscrip- tions on Tombstones at Ringwood, N. J. — Grant from Berkeley and Car- teret to the People of Woodbridge and Samuel Moore, December 7, 1672. — Address on the Life and Character of Hon. James Parker : by the Hon. R. S. Field. Proceedings at Newark, May 20, 1869. — Review of some of the Circumstances connected with the Settlement of Elizabeth, N. J. : by W. A. Whitehead. — Commercial Prospects in New Jersey during the Confederation: by John Rutherfurd. — Index. $1.75. NEW SERIES— VOL. II. contains — Proceedings at Trenton, January 20, 1870. — Early History of Mon-is County : by Rev.' Joseph F. Tattle, D. D. Proceedings at Newark, May 19, 1870. — Sketch of Rev. Barnabas King, D. D. : by Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, D. D. — Obituary Notice of Rev. David v. McLean, D. D. — Sketch of Life of AndreX^ Kirkpatrick, Chief Justice of New Jersey, 1803 to 1824: by James Grant Wilson. Proceedings at Trenton, January 19, 1871. — Memoir of Hon. Richard S. Field: by An- thony J. Keasbey — History of the First Constitution of New Jersey, and of the Government under it: by Hon. Lewis Q. C. Elmer. Proceedings at Newark, May 18, 1871. Proceedings at Trenton, January 18, 1872. — Memoir of John Rutherfurd, late President of the Society : by Robert S. Swords. — History of the Circumstances attending the Election of Will- iam Pennington of New Jersey, as Speaker of 36th Congress : by Hon. John S. Nixon. — Index $1.75. CHAPTER I. CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW JERSEY, THE government of New Jersey . was first estab- lished by the proprietors, who claimed to derive the rio-ht from the o-rant of the Duke of York. Berke- ley and Carteret, his grantees, framed, or had framed for them, in England, a constitution, which was en- grossed on a parchment roll and signed by them, February 10, 1664, under the title of "The Con- cession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New C^saria or New Jersey, to and with all and every the Adventurers, and all such as shall settle or plant there." It is contained in " Leaming and Spicer's Grants and Concessions," page 12, printed by virtue of an act of the legislature, in 1758, at Phil- adelphia, by W. Bradford, printer to the King's most excellent Majesty, for the Province of New Jersey. Under these concessions, which were republican in their character, a government was commenced, and with some interruption, occasioned by the Dutch conquest and other causes, continued until the par- tition into East and West Jersey, by means of the Quintipartite deed in 1676. After this, the govern- ment of the two provinces was distinct, until the sur- render to Queen Anne in 1702. 2 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. In 1682, Robert Barclay was appointed Governor for life by the proprietors of East Jersey, and exe- cuted the office by a deputy, who convened an assem- bly elected by the people. Counties were established, and a high sheriff appointed for each, and courts were organized. No other assembly appears to have sat until 1680, In 1688, it sat again. From 1692 to 1695 assemblies convened yearly, and afterwards at irreg- ular intervals. Much doubt existed as to the legal- ity of this proprietary government, and difficulty was experienced in carrying it on, much aggravated by disputes about Indian grants and the quitrents re- served by the proprietors. Proceedings were com- menced in the court of king's bench in England, to deprive the proprietary officers of their places, by means of a writ of quo ivarranto, and this led to the sur- render of the government to the crown, the proprie- tors retaining their exclusive right to dispose of the soil. West Jersey was governed according to the provis- ions of " The concessions and agreements of the pro- prietors, freeholders, and inhabitants of the Province of West New Jersey in America," dated March 3, 1676, and signed by William Penn, and one hundred and forty-eight others, the original of which, beauti- fully engrossed on vellum in a well-bound quarto, is preserved in the land-office at Burlington.^ Some of the governors were appointed by the proprietors, and others by the legislature ; which latter body appears to have appointed all the other officers necessary to carry on the government. Difficulties, however, arose, and the proprietors joined with those of East Jersey, in the surrender. ^ See Learn, and Spic. 382. CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 3 The laws enacted by these two governments do not appear to have been printed, until such of them as were extant were collected by Learning and Spicer. They were sent in manuscript to the counties and read at public assemblies of the people. The minutes of the county court of Cape May for 1694, contain this entry : " We, the grand jury, see cause to pre- sent George Taylor (he was the Clerk), for publishing a false copy of the act of Assembly, on a court day in December, 1693." He pleaded not guilty, and was tried. Some witnesses swore that he read the laws differently at two courts, and that when he first read them " they was not interlined." " Jeremiah Basse, President of the Court, asserteth them to be the same laws and written by the same hand ; the rest of the Justices say it is like the same hand, and they believe it to be the same hand." The jury found him not guilty, and he was cleared by proclamation. None of these laws are now in force, although several of them, slightly modified, are still on the statute book as substantially reenacted after the surrender, and the influence of the correct principles contained in the Concessions still continues, and it is hoped will never be lost. Upon the assumption of the government by the Queen of England, in 1702, a governor of the Prov- ince of " Nova Caesaria or New Jersey," was ap- pointed and commissioned under the great seal of Great Britain, to hold his office during the pleasure of the sovereign, and continued to be so appointed and commissioned until the Revolution. The commis- sion and the instructions accompanying it, drawn with great care and ability by the law officers of the crown, contain the constitution under which the gov- 4 REMTNTSCF.NCES OF NEW JERSEY. ernment of the province was administered, with but little variation, until the adoption of the new consti- tution in 1776. They, in fact, introduced the main features of the British Constitution, as improved by the Revolution of 1G88, with a still larger infusion of the republican element, suited to a people already accustomed to self-government. The executive power was confided to the governor with the advice of twelve counselors, appointed orig- inally, and occasionally afterwafd, by the crown, but more commonly by the governor himself, six of whom were residents of East, and six of West Jersey, five constituting a quorum. The title adopted by the governors, with unimportant variations, was " Cap- tain-General and Governor-in-chief, in and over the Province of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey and ter- ritories thereon depending in America, Chancellor and Vice-Admiral in the same." The legislative power was vested in the governor, the council, and a General Assembly. The Assembly was convened, adjourned, and dissolved at the pleas- ure of the governor and council, and elected by vir- tue of writs under the great seal of the colony ; two by the inhabitants and householders of the town of Perth Amboy, and ten by the freeholders of East Jer- sey ; two by the inhabitants and householders of the town of Burlington, and ten by the freeholders of West Jersey. The governor usually sat with the council, but no law could be passed without his assent, the style used being, " Be it enacted by the Governor, Council, and General Assembly." In 1709, they passed an act reciting that the present constitu- tion granted by the Queen, was found inconvenient, and to remedy the same, enacting that after the dis- CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 6 solution of the present assembly, the representatives should be chosen by the majority of voices or votes of the freeholders of each county, having one hun- dred acres of land in his own right, or be worth fifty pounds current money ; and that the person elected should have one thousand acres of land in his own right, or be worth five hundred pounds in real and personal estate. Two were to be elected for Perth Amboy, and two for each of the then five counties of East Jersey ; two for each of the towns of Bur- lington and Salem, and two for each of the then four counties of West Jersey. This equality between the two ancient divisions was carefully adhered to. Hun- terdon County was established in 1714, but continued to choose representatives in conjunction with Burling- ton until 1727, when it was authorized to choose two, and Salem town was deprived of its separate repre- sentation. Cumberland County was set off from Sa- lem in 1747, but continued to elect representatives as before, until 1768, when two additional members were added from Morris County, two from Cumber- land, and two from Sussex, this last county extend- ing into both divisions. In 1725 an act was passed requiring the sheriff and other officer to whom a writ of election was directed, to give public notice of the day and place of election ; and on that day, between the hours of ten and twelve, to proceed to the election, by reading his writ, and that he should not declare the choice upon the view (that is merely from a vote by holding up of hands), nor adjourn, without the consent of the candidates, but should, if a poll was required, proceed from day to day, and time to time, until all the electors then and there present be polled ; and he was required to 6 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. appoint a clerk who should set down the names of the electors and the persons they voted for. There was of course but one place of election in each county. This mode of election continued for some time after 1776. The poll, if one was required, generally closed the first day ; but on some occasions was kept open a week, or longer. In 1789, in consequence of the rivalry between East and West Jersey, as to wliether the seat of the general government should be tempo- rarily at New York or Philadelphia, the polls were kept open, in some of the western counties, three or four weeks. Voting by ballot does not appear to have been practiced until after the Revolution. It was intro- duced in some of the counties in 1779, but was soon discontinued during the war. In 1783 the election by ballot was restored in several counties ; in 1790 it was required in others; and in 1797 in all the counties. From the surrender until the Revolution, a period of seventy-four years, there were twenty-two assem- blies, some of which continued but one year, others longer, and one from 1761 to 1769, — eight years. In 1768 an act was passed — of course with the concur- rence of the governor — that a general assembly should be holden once in seven years at least; to which Al- linson, in his edition of the laws published in 1776, just before the Declaration of Independence, appends a note, that " although this act never had the royal assent, it is here inserted, on the probability that so reasonable a law will be regarded." The Assembly first elected after this act, was dissolved at the end of three years ; and that convened in 1772, dissolved itself in 1776. The number and duration of the sit- CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 7 tings of the several assemblies were very diverse, the'I^e having been on some occasions five or six within one year; and on others there was an inter- val of two, and once of five years, without an assem- bly being convened. All the provincial officers for the whole colony or a county, including even the clerks of the Assembly, were appointed directly by the crown, by writ of privy seal, or by the governor and council, and were commissioned in the name of the reigning king, un- der the great seal of the province, which was m the keeping of the governor. The instructions required him to° take care that the officers be men of good life, and well aff'ected to our government, of good estates and abilities, and not necessitous people, or much in debt. For several years the proprietors in England had much influence in the appointment of the officers. In 1715, by an instrument under their hands and seals, they appointed James Smith clerk of the su- preme court, and James Alexander surveyor-general ; and a letter was directed to Governor Hunter, in the name of King George, requiring him to receive, assist, and countenance them in the execution of their offices. Occasionally, the officers appointed by the governor and council were superseded, by direct appointments from the crown. The governor and council were empowered to erect, constitute, and establish such courts as they should think necessary, and to appoint and commission judges and all other necessary ofdcers and magis- trates, and were instructed not to displace any of the judges or other officers without good cause, to be sig- nifie'd to the crown, and not to express any limitation 8 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of time in the commissions. According to the Eng- lish Constitution, the King or Queen is considered the fountain of justice, and general conservator of the peace, and this branch of the royal prerogative was delegated, so far as the province was concerned, in a very ample manner, to the governor and council. By virtue of this power, they granted patents estab- lishing and altering the boundaries of townships, con- stituting municipal and other corporations, and estab- lishing and regulating ferries ; and by ordinances, established courts of justice, defined their powers, appointed the times and places at which they should be held, and regulated the fees. Lord Cornbury, the first governor, promulgated an ordinance in 1704 ; and as is remarked by Mr. Field in his interesting account of the provincial courts of New Jersey, " he is entitled to the credit of having laid the foundation of our whole judicial system, and laid it well." Justices were to have cognizance of cases to the value of forty shillings. In each county, there was established a court of common pleas, hav- ing power to try all actions at common law, and a court of general sessions of the peace, each with quar- terly terms ; and for the province, a supreme court, to sit once in each year at Perth Amboy and at Bur- lington, and to have cognizance of all pleas, civil, crim- inal, and mixed, as fully as the courts of queen's bench, common pleas, and exchequer in England. In 1714 the supreme court was required to hold two terms yearly in each place, and courts for the trial of issues were appointed to be held yearly in each county. The ordinance of Cornbury is in his own name, by the advice and consent of the council ; and this ex- ample was followed by Governor Hunter. Afterwards CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 9 the ordinances are in the name of the king ; but they all emanated from the same authoritj^, namely, the governor and council. It does not appear that any of them were, like the commissions of the governor, by privy seal. The times and places of holding the courts, and the length of the terms, were from time to time altered, but the constitution and powers of the courts remained the same, except that in 1724, no doubt through the influence of the proprietors, the jurisdiction of the common pleas was restricted so as to except causes wherein the right or title of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, were in any wise concerned. After 1751 the supreme court fixed the times of holding the circuits. The jurisdiction of these several courts remains to this day, as established by the ordinance of 1721. The legislature from that time endeavored to regulate the practice and fees, generally without success, their acts, except in refer- ence to justices' courts, the jurisdiction of which was gradually enlarged, having been commonly disallowed by the king. It was provided by the original instructions, that appeals might be made from the courts, to the gov- ernor and council, in all cases where the sum or value appealed from exceeded one hundred pounds, with an ultimate appeal to the king's privy council, where the sum or value appealed from exceeded two hundred pounds. The only material changes since made in the judicial system first established, have been the estab- lishment of an orphans' court in each county, and the giving to the circuit courts in each county original jurisdiction in all cases at common law, including cases where the title to land is in question, and equity powers in mortgage cases. 10 REmNISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. A court of chancery was recognized as an essential part of the judiciary, from the first, although no sep- arate tribunal for the exercise of equity powers ap- pears to have been instituted, either in East or West Jersey. Lord Cornbury provided by ordinance, that the governor or lieutenant-governor for the time be- ing, and any three of the council, should constitute a court of chancery, and hear and determine causes, accord ino- to the usao;e or custom of the hisrh court of chancery in the kingdom of England. Afterwards Governor Hunter claimed a right to exercise the powers of chancellor alone, without the aid of his council, and this course was sanctioned by the king. In 1770 Governor Franklin, with the advice of his council, adopted an ordinance, by which, after recit- ing that there had always been a court of chancery in the province, and that the same required regu- lation, it was ordained, that his Excellency, William Franklin, be constituted and appointed chancellor, and empowered to appoint and commission such mas- ters, clerks, examiners, registers, and other necessary officers as should be needful in holding the said court, and doing the business thereof- and also to make such rules for carrying on the business of the said court as from time to time should seem necessary. The constitution and powers of this court remain un- altered, except that the governor is no longer chan- cellor ; the office of register has been abolished, and the appointment of a clerk conferred on the gov- ernor and senate. The rules of practice were first systematized, so that the business transacted therein became important, in 1818, during the chancellor- ship of Governor Williamson. No appeal was pro- vided for, unless it was to the king iji council, and no CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 11 one is known to have been otherwise demanclecl until in 1799, the legishiture enacted, that an appeal might be taken to the court of errors and appeals. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction was reserved to the Bishop of London, excepting only, " the collating to benefices, o-rantino- licenses for marriaojes, and the probate of wills," which were assigned to the gov- ernor. By virtue of this grant, he became the Or- dinary and Metropolitan of the province, having all the powers in regard to the estates of deceased per- sons, which, in England, belonged to the courts of the bishop and archbishop. As judge, therefore, of the " Prerogative Court," which is the title of the archbishop's court, he had the sole and exclusive juris- diction of matters relating to wills, to administrations, and to guardianships, with no superior but the king and his privy council. It being very inconvenient, and indeed almost im- possible, for the people in all parts of the province to resort to the governor, especially when he resided in New York, he appointed deputies, called surrogates, as was also the practice in England, to act for him. In 1720, Michael Kearney was commissioned, under the great seal, surrogate of the Province of New Jersey, with full power to swear the witnesses to last wills and testaments, and to admit administrations on the estates of persons dying intestate, and administer the oaths to executors and administrators, for the due execution of their offices, and their bonds in his name to take, to call to account and reckoning with execu- tors and administrators, and their accounts to exam- ine, approve, allow, and discharge, and quietus there- upon to give and grant, and the balance of said account to receive, for which he was to be accounta- 12 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. ble to him. Afterwards, one was appointed for each division, and as occasion required more, sometimes one for two or three counties, and sometimes more than one in the same county. They were of course removable at the pleasure of the governor, and were simply deputies, the probate of wills and other offi- cial acts being generally in his name and under his hand and official seal as ordinary. He retained the power of acting himself in the first instance, in all cases brought before him, in his court. The acts of his surrogates were recognized as valid by the courts, and they were considered lawful and competent judges of the matters submitted to their cognizance. When disputes arose, they were settled in the pre- rogative court. The surrogate's commission, it will be perceived, required him to be accountable to the ordinary for the balance of an account in the hands of an administrator. This was to enable him to distribute it to the next of kin, pursuant to the English Stat- ute of Distribution, enacted in the time of Charles II., not long before the surrender. Unless some dis- pute arose, it is supposed that the balance was com- monly paid over by the administrator himself to those entitled. In 1784, orphans' courts were established, and pro- vision was made by law for one surrogate being ap- pointed in each county, whose power was limited to the county. The original jurisdiction of the ordinary remained as before, until in 1820 it was restricted to the granting of probates of wills, letters of adminis- tration, letters of guardianship, and to the hearing and finally determining of disputes that may arise thereon. In these matters it is still concurrent with CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 13 that of the surrogates and orphans' courts ; and from all orders and decrees of the orphans' courts an ap- peal may be taken to the prerogative court. In 1822 the appointment of the surrogate was given to the joint meeting, and so remained until the new consti- tution provided for his election by a popular vote. By the constitution of the supreme court, it was invested with plenary jurisdiction in criminal, as well as civil cases. Until several years after the Revolu- tion, it was the practice to summon grand juries, by virtue of a writ for that purpose, directed to the sher- iff of the county in which it sat, who inquired and made presentments, and passed on indictments for offenses committed in that county. Other criminal cases were brought there by the attorney-general, or on special leave by the defendant. Trials of criminal and civil cases, by a jury of the county in which the offense was alleged to have been committed, or the cause of action arose, were quite frequent, there being seldom a term without one or more. Special* commissions of oyer and terminer were issued for the trial of felonies in the different coun- ties, when considered necessary, and regularly at the times of the yearly circuit courts. They were com- monly directed to the justices of the supreme court, or two of them, and to the judges and justices of the county, empowering them, or any three of them, of whom a justice of the supreme court should be one, the jail of the place of sitting, of the prisoners there- in being, to deliver, and at a day by them to be ap- pointed, diligently to make inquiry upon the prem- ises, and all and singular the said premises hear and determine, and the jail there deliver, and those things do and perform according to the law and custom of 14 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. the kingdom of England, and of the Province of New Jersey ; and commanding the sheriff to bring before them the prisoners with their attachments ; the com- mission to continue in force a certain specified time, sometimes a few days and sometimes several months. These commissions continued to be issued until the passage of the act of 1794. Clerks of the courts were appointed by the gov- ernor, and commissioned to hold during pleasure. There Avere, besides, one or more clerks of the cir- cuit, who attended the sittings in the counties, and kept their own minutes. A book containing such minutes of the oyer and terminer and circuit courts, held in most of the counties from 1749 to 1762, is preserved in the clerk's office of the County of Middlesex. The oyer and terminer, as well as the circuit, were regarded as branches of the supreme court, and the proceedings therein subject to its con- trol. The clerks seem to have exercised the power of appointing deputies. Benefit of clergy was prayed for and allowed, as in England. In one instance, the entry in the minutes of the oyer is, " the prisoners being asked if they had anything to say why sentence of death should not pass on them, according to the verdict found against them, prayed the benefit of the clergy ; the court be- ing of opinion that the}^ were entitled to the ben- efit of their clergy, their judgment is that they be branded in the brawn of their left thumb with the letter T. immediately in the face of the court, which sentence was executed accordingly ; and ordered that they be recommitted till their fees are paid, and they each enter into recognizance in one hundred pounds, to be of good behavior for one year." CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. lo The ordinance establishing the circuits, required the high sheriff', justices of the iDcace, the mayor and aldermen of any corporation within the counties, and all officers of any of the courts, to be attending on the chief justice and other justices going the circuit, at his coming into and leaving the several counties, and during his abode within the same ; and the prac- tice, as it was in England until the introduction of railways, was for the sheriff, with as many justices and other gentlemen on horseback as he could con- veniently collect, to await the arrival of the judge at the county line, to which he was in like manner escorted by the officers of the adjoining county, and escort him to his lodgings. At the opening and clos- ing of the court, from day to day, the sheriff and con- stables with their staves of office, escorted him from and to his place of lodging to the court-house, as was indeed the usual custom until very recently. When sitting in court, the justices of the supreme court wore a robe of office, and commonly a wig, although it is not probable, that like their brethren in England, they considered it necessary to carry four of these indispensable articles, namely, " the brown scratch wig for the morning when not in court ; the powdered dress wig for dinner; the tie wig with the black coif when sitting on the civil side of the court ; and the full-bottomed one for the criminal side." At May term, 1765, the supreme court promulgated the following rule : " The court considering that it is the usage in England for counselors at law, during term time at Westminster, and on the circuits through the kingdom, constantly to appear in the court hab- ited in robes or gowns adapted to the profession of the law, and a,s the introduction of the like usage 16 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. into this province may tend to advance the dignity, solemnity, and decorum of our courts, and have many other useful consequences : It is therefore ordained, that no person practicing as counsel at the bar (ex- cept those of the people called Quakers), shall for the future appear at any supreme court to be held in this province, or in any of the courts on the circuits, unless he be habited in the bar gown and band, com- monly worn by barristers at Westminster, and on the •circuits in England, under a penalty of a contempt of this rule." It continued to be observed until 1791, when the leading counselors presented a petition, setting forth that it was found to be troublesome and inconvenient, and deemed by them altogether useless, and it was rescinded. In 1763, in the absence of Chief Justice Morris, the court, upon the ground that his majesty's subjects inhabiting within this province, who were possessed of entailed estates, labored under great disadvantages on account of the small number of persons empowered to pass fines or suffer recoveries, appointed Cortland t Skinner and Richard Stockton, sergeants at law. But the next day, the chief justice being in attendance, Mr. Skinner, the attorney-general, expressing great doubts as to the regularity of the proceeding, an- nounced that he was unwilling to practice as a ser- geant under this appointment, whereupon the court took the matter into consideration, and being of opin- ion that sergeants could not be regularly made or ap- pointed by rule of the court, but ought, on the recom- mendation of the judges, to be called up by w^it out of chancery, and then sworn, agreeable to the practice in England, annulled what had been done. Commissions of the peace were issued by the gov- CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 17 ernor and council, agreeably to the practice in Eng- land, whereby justices were appointed for the differ- ent counties, yearly or otherwise, as they chose ; a part of whom were designated as of the quorum, so that a court of sessions could not be held without the presence of one of them. These commissions appear to have generally included in each one, the members of the council, or some of them, the justices of the supreme court, and the attorney-general, so that they thus became conservators of the peace throughout the province. Judges of the pleas were commissioned, sometimes three or more together, and sometimes separately. The commissions used varied in their terms ; but it is believed that they in express terms declared that the office was to be held, "for and during our will and pleasure ;" *or that they desig- nated no particular tenure, thus leaving the office to be in fact held during the pleasure of the execu- tive. Justices of the supreme court appear at first to have been commissioned, agreeably to the original instructions, without any express limitations; but they were by these instructions removable for cause, to be made known to the king. In some cases, the commission authorized the incumbent to execute his office, according to the laws, statutes, and custo)ns of that part of our kingdom of Great Britain called Eng- land ; but no settled form was adhered to. Chief Justice Morris was commissioned during good be- havior, as early as 1738. In 1748, Samuel Nevill was commissioned to hold during pleasure ; but the next year this commission was revoked, and he was com- missioned to hold during good behavior, and this ap- pears to have been afterwards the usual tenure, until 18 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 1776, when the convention adopted the very ques- tionable term of seven years, still adhered to. Sheriffs were commissioned in this wise, or in some similar form : " We commit unto you, our County of E., in the Province of New Jersey, to keep from the date of these presents, during our pleasure, yielding unto us and our successors, our dues and other things to us belonging, and we command all our loving sub- jects in our said county, that to you in the execution of the office of high sheriff of our said county they be aiding, helping and assisting." In 1747, an act of the legislature confirmed by the crown, provided that the sheriff and under-sheriff should not continue in office above three years, and should be incapable of holding office again, until they had been out of office three years, and that no sheriff should be appointed who was not a freeholder and resident of his county and who had not been such for the three preceding years. Coroners were also appointed by the governor and council. An act was passed in 1714, to raise money for build- ing and repairing jails and court-houses, which au- thorized the inhabitants of each town and precinct, to assemble on the second Tuesday of March yearly, and choose two freeholders for the ensuing year, which said freeholders, together with all the justices of the peace of each county, or any three of them, one whereof being of the quorum, should meet to- gether, and appoint assessors and collectors, to assess the inhabitants, and collect the taxes. In case any town or precinct should neglect to elect freeholders, the justices were authorized to appoint them. The board thus constituted continued to have the care of the county business, until the act of 1798 incorporated the freeholders alone. CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 19 Some of the townships, as has been stated, were established by patents under the great seal, which authorized the inhabitants to choose overseers of the highways, constables, overseers of the poor, an asses- sor, and a collector. In 1717 the inhabitants of all the townships were required to elect, annually, as- sessors and collectors of the taxes, and in case of neglect, any three justices, one being of the quorum, were authorized to appoint thein. Constables, ex- cept in the patent townships, were appointed yearly, by the courts of general sessions of the several coun- ties, as they deemed necessary : one or more for each township or town, or precinct without definite bounds. This was a common law powder, held to belong to this court in England and in New Jersey, in all necessary cases, to prevent a fiiilure of justice. A " Register and Calendar," printed at Philadelphia, for 1774, which contains a list of the British parlia- ment and miuistry, and of the officers of each of the American colonies, states the officers of the Province of New Jersey to be as follows : — Governor, his Excellency, William Franklin, Esq. Lieutenant-governor, his Excellency, Thomas Pow- nall, Esq. His Majesty's Council, twelve gentlemen, named. Secretary, Maurice Morgan, Esq. ; deputy, Charles Petit, Esq. Note. — The council in their legislative capacity is a distinct branch of the legislature, in the nature of the House of Lords in Great Britain. Representatives in General Assembly, thirty gen- tlemen, who are named. Treasurer for East Jersey, Stephen Skinner, Esq. Treasurer for West Jersey, Samuel Smith, Esq. 20 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. Surveyor-general for East Jersey, the E. of Ster- ling. Surveyor-general for West Jersey, Daniel Smith, Esq. Agent in Great Britain, Benjamin Franklin, Esq. Attorney-general, Cortlandt Skinner, Esq. Court of Chancery. — Chancellor, his Excellency, the Governor. Masters, James Hude, James Bowman, Joseph Reed, Esqrs. Registers, Josiah F. Davenport and John Smyth, Esqrs. Clerks, Josiah F. Davenport, Jonathan Deare, Joseph Warrell, John Antill, Daniel Ellis, Robert Ogdeu, Esqrs. Examiners, J. Smyth, D. Ellis, Robert Stockton, Esqrs. Supreme Court. — Judges, Hon. Frederick Smyth, chief justice; Hon. Charles Read and Hon. David Ogden, Esqrs, Clerk,^ Maurice Morgan, Esq. ; deputy, Charles Petit, Esq. Note. — This is a court of king-'s bench, common pleas, and exchequer. The four annual terms begin on the second Tuesdays in May and November, at Burlington, and the first Tuesdays in April and Sep- tember, at Perth Amboy. 1 Maurice Morgan does not appear is said to have been chief cook of the eyer to have been in New Jersey. He Duke of Newcastle. CHAPTER II. THE STATE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED IN 1776, AND THE GOVERNMENT UNDER IT. A LARGE majority of the people of New Jersey were resolute in their opposition to the tyran- nical measures of the British government, and de- termined to resist, if needful, by a resort to arms. Governor Franklin and most of the councilors, who held their appointments under him, were determined to adhere to the royal cause. But most of the mem- bers of Assembl}', who had been elected in 1772, sympathized with the people they represented. Early in 1774, the Assembly, following the lead of Virginia, adopted a resolution for the appointment of a Standing Committee of Correspondence, and re- quested the Assembly of the other colonies to follow their example, and this they did. Massachusetts pro- posed that a general Congress should meet at Phila- delphia in September. Governor Franklin was re- quested to convene a meeting of the legislature for the purpose of appointing delegates to this Congress ; but he refused to do so. In consequence of this re- fusal, a meeting of the people of Essex County was held at Newark, in June, which directed a circular letter to be sent to the several counties, requesting delegates to be chosen, to meet a general committee at New Brunswick on the ensuing twenty-first day of July. This request was complied with, so that a 22 REMINISCENbES OF NEW JERSEY. committee (as they styled themselves), composed of seventy-two delegates, convened at the appointed time and place, which passed resolutions condemna- tory of the proceedings of parliament, and chose five delegates to represent this colony in the proposed general Congress ; but they did not assume any of the powers of a legislative body. The General Congress met at Philadelphia in Sep- tember, as proposed, and after adopting various reso- lutions and addresses, resolved that another Congress should be held on the tenth of May, and that all the colonies in North America, should choose deputies to attend the same. The Legislature of New Jersey met at Perth Amboy in January, 1775, and passed a few laws. The governor in his message strongly con- demned the meeting of a general Congress ; but the Assembly, as the minutes say, by a unanimous vote, appointed five delegates, who attended the Congress, held in May, 1775. A committee of correspondence, appointed by a convention held in New Brunswick on the second day of May, appointed a general convention to be held at Trenton on the twenty-third of the same month ; and meetings were held in the several counties, which chose one or more delegates, — in one county as many as fifteen, — who met at the appointed time and place, under the name of a " Provincial Congress," and proceeded to aid the Revolution, now fairly com- menced, by assuming powers of government. This Congress adopted the form of an association, which was directed to be sent to the committees of correspondence in the several counties, to be signed by the inhabitants. It pledged every person signing it, under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 23 country, personally and as far as their influence ex- tended, to endeavor to support and to carry into exe- cution, whatever measures might be recommended by the Continental and Provincial Congresses. Only per- son's siij-nino; this association were allowed afterwards to vote for deleo^ates to the Cong-ress of the Province. A committee of safety was appointed, to act dur- ing the recess of Congress ; and such committees were afterwards continued, and met from time to time until a regular government was organized. They in in fact exercised powers similar to those assumed by the bodies of representatives that met under the name of Provincial Congresses ; deriving their force from the active support of a large majority of the people. By the existing laws, elections for members of the Assembly were held by the sheriffs under the au- thority of writs issued by the governor and council. As these officers were appointed by and held their offices during the pleasure of the governor, it be- came necessary to provide a different mode of proced- ure. On the twelfth of August, 1775, the Provincial Congress adopted an ordinance, that the inhabitants in each county, qualified to vote for representatives of General Assembly (who were persons worth fifty pounds in real and personal estate), should meet at the respective court-houses, on the twenty-first day of September then next, and by plurality of votes, elect any number, not exceeding five, with full power to represent each county in a Provincial Congress to be held at Trenton, on the third day of October then next. The chairman of the meeting chosen by the voters present, and any five or more freeholders, were required to sign certificates of the election. It was 24 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. also resolved, that a committee of observation and correspondence be elected in each county, with full power as well to superintend and direct the necessary business of the county, as to carry into execution the resolutions and orders of the Continental and Provincial Cono-resses : and the inhabitants of each township were directed to choose a sufficient num- bers of freeholders, in March, yearly, to aid the county committee. By these means the government was to a great extent taken out of the hands of the officers holding under the king ; and by the cooperation of most of the people, the committees thus chosen, arrested and imprisoned persons be- lieved to be disaffected to measures of resistance, or as they soon were called, the Tories ; and they became, in most parts of the colony, the governing power. The ordinance of August was carried into effect ; delegates from each county were elected, and the Provincial Congress met at the time and place ap- pointed. This body enacted ordinances (so-called, it would seem, to distinguish them from regular laws) for organizing a military force, and for raising money by taxation, and these ordinances were submitted to and carried into effect by the people as of binding obligation. The regular legislature met in Novem- ber, 1775, for the last time, and enacted two or three laws ; but made no attempt to interfere with the pro- ceedings of the Congress. There were thus two dis- tinct bodies, claiming and exercising legislative pow- ers, and several members of the one were at the same time members of the other. The regular legislature was prorogued by the governor, until the third day of January ; but they fiiiled to meet on that day THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 25 Franklin then summoned them, by a proclamation in the name of the king, to meet on the ensuing twen- tieth day of June. But the Provincial Congress on the fourth day of June, by a vote of thirty-eight ayes to eleven noes, resolved that the proclamation ought not to be obeyed. On the sixteenth of June they ordered the arrest of the governor, and he was taken into custody and afterwards sent as a prisoner into Connecticut, by order of the Continental Congress, where he remained a prisoner until regularly ex- changed. However hard this proceeding may seem, it was a necessary severity, justified by the special emergency ; and the effect was to put an end to the royal government, as was designed. The only persons entitled by law to vote for mem- bers of Assembly, were freeholders, and only such voted for the delegates to the Provincial Congress. But as there were now many able-bodied inhabitants who were not freeholders, and whose services in aid of warlike measures were needful, this restriction was much complained of, so that after much discussion, it was resolved, on the sixteenth day of February, 1776, by a vote of nine counties in the affirmative, and four in the negative, that every person of full age, who had resided one whole year in any covuity immedi- ately preceding the election, and was worth at least fifty pounds (one hundred and thirty-three dollars), in real or personal estate, should be admitted to vote. Subsequently, a regular ordinance was passed em- bracing this provision, and requiring all voters and office-holders to be joersons who had signed the pre- scribed articles of association. This ordinance re- quired the elections to be held at the court-houses of each county, on the fourth Monday in May then 26 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. next, and in subsequent years, to elect not more than five, and not less than three substantial freeholders, worth five hundred pounds (the value then of a good farm). It prescribed the manner of advertising the election, the officers who should hold it, and how it should be conducted and the result certified. According to the mode of proceeding thus speci- fied — which, except as to the presiding officer, was substantially the same as had long been practiced, — at the time of commencing the election, usually ten o'clock in the morning, the voters of the county who had assembled, chose a presiding officer. Unless a poll was demanded by a candidate; he took the sense of the meeting by naming the candidates, and requir- ing the voters to hold up their hands. If a poll was demanded, as was usually the case if there were more candidates named than the number to be elected, then each candidate who chose to do so, nominated an inspector and a clerk, and the voters severally named the persons they voted for, and the clerks wrote down their names and recorded each one's vote. Generally the election closed the same day it was commenced; but if a majority of the candidates required its adjournment, the election might be ad- journed to another day or another place. As many of the voters were obliged to ride on horseback, that being the only mode of travel then in use, in many cases nearly or quite a day's journey, it of course often happened that a large number of the voters were prevented from attending. This mode of vot- ing prevailed until 1790, when a law was passed au- thorizing in some of the counties voting in the town- ships of each county, and with written or printed ballots; and in 1797 this law was extended to all the THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 27 counties. The change from a county to a township place of voting was undoubtedly a great improve- ment, and it becomes each day more and more evi- dent, that the election precincts require to be made still smaller. But it may well be doubted, I think, whether the boasted privilege of voting by ballot, is not rather a mistake than a privilege ; and whether it will not be well to return to an open viva voce vote, so that each voter's choice may be distinctly recorded. The frauds that are now so frequently perpetrated, would thus be made more easy of detection. The purpose relied upon by the advocates of a ballot, of thereby enabling the voter to avoid the danger of be- ing subjected to the dictation of an employer or land- lord, amounts practically to nothing. The case of a secret vote, unknown to the bystanders, is a rare ex- ception to the general rule; and it is more than prob- able, that the practice of an open vote known to all, would tend to increase the independence and self- respect of the voter, and thus diminish the danger of his beino; influenced to vote otherwise than in ac- cordance with his own convictions. The Provincial Congress elected in May, 1776, in accordance with the ordinance of the previous Con- gress, convened at Burlington on the eleventh day of June, and an equal number of delegates being returned from each county, they voted separately. Agreeably to the recommendations of the Continen- tal Congress, they adopted a provisional form of gov- ernment for the colony. On the twenty-first day of June it was resolved, by a vote of fifty-four affirma- tives to three negatives, " that a government be formed for regulating the internal police of this col- ony, pursuant to the recommendations of the Conti- 28 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. nental Congress of the fifteenth of May last." At the same time five delegates were chosen to represent them in the General Congress, and they were em- powered to join in declaring the United Colonies in- dependent of Great Britain, and to enter into a con- federacy for union and common defense ; " always observing that whatever plan of confederacy they entered into, the regulating the internal police of this province was to be reserved to the colony legisla- ture." A committee of ten members, of which Rev. Jacob Green, a Presbyterian minister, who was a delegate from the County of Morris, was the chairman, was ap- pointed to prepare the draft of a constitution, on the twenty-fourth of June. Two days afterwards, the committee accordingly reported. Who was the au- thor of the draft does not apjDcar. It has always been understood that the Rev. Dr. John Wither- spoon, President of Princeton College, took an ac- tive part in preparing it. He was a delegate to the Provincial Congress ; but having been appointed by that body a delegate to the Continental Congress, his name does not appear on the committee, nor did he afterwards vote on the question of adopting the Constitution. Two eminent lawyers, Jonathan Dick- inson Serjeant, and John Cleves Symmes, were on the committee ; but the instrument bears quite as prominent marks of a clerical as of a legal origin. The draft as reported, was referred to a commit- tee of the whole, and considered durinsr the ensu- ing three days, but does not appear to have been printed. On Saturday the twenty-eighth, it was re- solved that Congress would receive the report of the committee of the whole on the next Tuesday, at THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776, ' 29 which time every member was enjoined to be punc- tual in attendance. On Tuesday, July second, Con- gress resumed the consideration of the report of the committee of the whole, which (as the minutes state), after sundry amendments, was agreed to. Then " on the question whether the draft of the constitution, formed on the report of the committee of the whole, be now confirmed, or be deferred for further consideration ? " it was carried to confirm " now." The names of twenty-six members are re- corded as voting for " now," and nine " for defer- ring." On tlie next day, the minutes state, that " on the question whether the draft of the constitution be now printed, or the printing be deferred for a few days, in order to consider in a full house the pro- priety of the last clause containing the proviso re- specting reconciliation ? " seventeen voted for printing " now " and eight " for deferring ; " less than the reg- ular quorum, but it had shortly before been resolved, that twenty should be a quorum for any business, except for the formation of the constitution. One thousand copies were ordered to be printed and cir- culated. No attempt was made to submit the adop- tion of the instrument to a direct vote of the people. Under the circumstances, it was probably wise to omit doing so. It undoubtedly met the wishes, and received the hearty assent of all the inhabitants in favor of an independent government, and it was not intended to harbor those who did not belomj; to this party. It was expected to be only temporary, but it continued to be acted under, and to provide the essentials of a good local government for sixty-eight years. It was indeed so popular, that it was only 30 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. after several attempts that its defects could be par- tially remedied, by the substitution of that now in force. The Congress also resolved, " That in order to prevent a failure of justice, all judges, justices of the peace, sheriffs, coroners, and other inferior officers of the late government within this colony, proceed in the execution of their several ofl&ces, under the au- thority of the people, until the intended legislature, and the several officers of the new government be settled and perfected ; having respect to the present Constitution of New Jersey as by the Congress of late ordained, and the order of the Continental and Pro- vincial Congresses ; and that all actions, suits, and processes, be continued, altering only the style and forms thereof, according to the terms by the said Constitution prescribed, in the further prosecution thereof " Independence was declared by the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, two days after the adoption of the New Jersey Constitution. On the eighteenth day of July the Provincial Congress resolved that, " Whereas the Honorable Continental CouQ-ress have declared the United Colonies independent States, we, tlie delegates of New Jersey in Provincial Con- gress assembled, do resolve and declare, that we will support the freedom and independence of the said States, with our lives and fortunes, and the whole force of New Jersey." The next day it was resolved, that this House from henceforth, instead of the style and title of " The Provincial Congress of New Jer- sey," do adopt and assume the style and title of " The Convention of the State of New Jersey." This reso- lution seems to have been deemed equivalent to a vir- tual substitution of the title "State," instead of " Col- THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 31 ony," as used in the constitution. The governor and the legislature, acting under its provisions, assumed the name, " State of New Jersey," and indictments were framed in the same way. Subsequently a law was passed directing that all commissions and writs, which by the constitution were required to run in the name of the Colony, run in the name of the State of New Jersey, and all indictments should conclude against the peace of this State, the government and dignity of the same ; and that all commissions, writs, indictments, before issued, preferred, and exhibited, which had the word State, and not the word Colony, should be and were declared to be, good and effectual in law. The Constitution thus hastily prepared and pro- mulgated, made as little change in the form of the government prescribed, as was consistent with the changed circumstances. The council, consisting of one from each county, and three members of Assem- bly, which number it was expressly declared might be added to or diminished by the legislature, were directed to be elected, that year on the second Tues- day of August, and afterwards on the second Tuesday of October, yearly ; — and the legislature so elected was to meet on the second Tuesday after the day of election, that is to say, in a fortnight after the elec- tion took place. The right of voting was left as it had been previously settled, to wit: all the inhab- itants of the colony, of full age, worth fifty pounds clear estate in the same, and who had resided within the county, in which they claimed a vote, for twelve months immediately preceding the election. Mem- bers of the Council were required to be worth one thousand pounds, and members of Assembly five hun- dred pounds each. 32 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. In regcard to this provision regulating the right of voting, it is important to notice that the same Con- gress which adopted the constitution, on the fifteenth day of July, enacted an ordinance, which prescribed the places of holding the elections in August, how they should be conducted, and the place for the ineet- inir of the leo-islature ; and which contains this im- portant proviso: "That no person or persons shall be entitled to a seat in council or Assembl}', unless he or they so elected, shall have first taken the follow- ing oath or affirmation, to wit, I, A. B., do swear (or affirm) that I do not hold myself bound to bear alle- giance to George the Third, King of Great Britain ; that I will not by any means, directly or indirectly, oppose the measures adopted by this colony or the Continental Congress against the tyranny attempted to be established over these colonies by the court of Great Britain, and that I do and will bear true alle- giance to the government established in this colony under the authority of the people ; and as it is highly reasonable, that the enemies of America should not be admitted to take an active part in our public measures, no person or persons shall be admitted to vote at the said election, unless he first take the same oath or affirmation, if thereunto required, by any one of the judges or inspectors of the said elec- tion, which oath or affirmation any one of the judges aforesaid shall be empowered to tender and adminis- ter to any or either of the said electors." And it may be noticed also that although females, who were worth one hundred and thirty-three dollars in their own risj;ht, were nominallv embraced within the words of the constitution, this ordinance refers only to males, the word, being " unless he take the same oath." THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 33 The governor, and all the other state, as well as many of the county officers, were directed to be chosen by the Legislature in joint meeting : the gov- ernor yearly ; the judges of the supreme court for seven years; judges of the pleas, justices of the peace, clerks of the supreme court and common pleas, and the provincial secretary and attorney gen- eral for five years each. Sheriffs and coroners by the people of the counties yearly, to hold however only three years successively. Township otticers to be elected at annual town meetings. The governor was to be president of the council, having no veto and only a casting vote ; in his absence, the vice presi- dent of the council to exercise his powers. He was, as the governor of the colony had always been, con- stituted the chancellor and captain -general and com- mander-in-chief of the military force and ordinary or surrogate general. Any three or more of the councilors were constituted a privy council to advise him; and the governor and council, seven whereof were a quorum, were to be the court of appeals, and to possess the power of pardoning criminals, after condemnation. No law could be passed, unless there should be a majority of all the representatives of each body personally present and agreeing thereto. The establishment of any religion was prohibited ; and provision made that no Protestant inhabitant of the colony should be denied the enjoyment of any civil right, and that all persons of the Protestant re- ligion should be capable of being a member of either branch of the legislature, and of holding office. All the laws contained in Allison's edition of the laws, which had then just been compiled and pub- lished by authority of the legislature, and which 3 34 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. contained the titles of all the private acts and all the public acts supposed to be in force, were declared to be in force, excepting such only as were incompat- ible with the constitution ; and the common law of England, as well as so much of the statute law, as had been before practiced in the colony were to re- main in force, until altered by a future law of the legislature. The inestimable right of trial by jury was to remain confirmed as a part of the law of the colony without repeal forever. Every member of the council and Assembly was re- quired to swear or affirm, that he would not assent to any law, vote, or proceeding, which should appear to him injurious to the public welfixre, nor that should annul or repeal that part of the third section in the Charter, which establishes an annual election of mem- bers of council and Assembly, or that part respecting the trial by jury, or that should annul, repeal, or alter any part of the eighteenth and nineteenth sections of the same ; these last being the sections in regard to religion. The concluding clause, so much objected to by some of the more ardent members of the Congress, was as follows : " It is the true intent and meaning of this Congress, that if a reconcilement between Great Britain and these Colonies should take place, and the latter be again taken under the protection and government of the Crown of Great Britain, this Charter shall be null and void, otherwise to remain in force." It is declared by the first article of this constitu- tion, "that the government of this province shall be vested in a governor, legislative council, and Gen- eral Assembly." There is no reason to doubt, from THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 35 the fact that the members of the legislature are re- quired to swear or affirm that thej would not assent to any law altering certain parts of it, that it was then supposed, the government they constituted would be supreme in the sense declared by Black- stone in his Commentaries, then the text-book of the lawyers and judges, and might alter the constitution if not restrained. The principle now so well estab- lished, that a law not in accordance with the consti- tution is null and void, and must be so held by the courts, whenever the question is brought before them, had not then been recognized.^ In pursuance of this constitution, and of the ordi- nance to carry it into effect, elections were held in all the counties, and the new legislature met in Prince- ton on the twenty-seventh day of August, 1776, and continued in session until the ensuing eighth day of October. On the thirty-first day of August, William Livingston was chosen by the joint meeting of the two Houses, governor, and subsequently the other officers. The State of New Jersey thus became an independent sovereign State, not in the absolute sense sometimes insisted upon, but substantially and relatively. The inhabitants declared themselves free from their previous allegiance to the king of Great Britain, and independent of him and of the parlia- ment ; but they were not independent of the other States, who were unitedly engaged in waging a war, to the hazard, as all knew and acknowledged, of their 1 This question was agitated in the And although the doctrine was at case of The State v. Parkhurst, decided first disputed, it was not long before in 1804, in which Chief Justice Kirkpat- it became an acknowledged principle, rick delivered an able opinion, atfirm- that no legislature can enact a valid iug the duty of the court to declare a law in conflict with the Constitution law void which was in conflict with of the State, or of the United States, the constitution. 4 Hals. Rep. 442. 86 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. fortunes and lives. The independence declared by the Continental Congress, and recognized by the Con- gress of New Jersey, was, that the United Colonies were, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. The people of New Jersey and their government ceased to be a colony, and subject to the control of a foreign power, and assumed the most important rights and duties of sovereignty. They possessed and exercised the power of punishing as traitors all persons who resisted their authority. But from the beginning, they owed and acknowledged allegiance to the Continental Congress. As has been seen, the constitution adopted, was designed " for regulating the internal police of this colony." The delegates to the Continental Congress were empowered to join in entering into a confederacy for union and common defense, reserving only the regulating of the internal police of the province to its legislature. Before and after this confederac}^ was formed, and until the adop- tion of the Constitution of the United States in 1789, the individual inhabitants were not directly amenable to any laws of the Congress, which had no judiciary and no executive to declare or enforce such laws ; but they were willing subjects of the higher power of was^ino^ war intrusted to it. No citizen owed allegiance to the government of the United States, in the strictly legal and technical sense of being tried and punished as a traitor; and on account of this material defect in the confederacy, the laws of the several States provided for the judicial punishment of offenders against the laws of Congress. But had the authorities of any of the States undertaken to array the power of that State against the Continental Con- THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 37 gress, while the conflict with Great Britain was going on, the military force at the command of Congress would of necessity have been turned against the forces of the State, and the persons adhering to it would have been treated as rebels. Governor Frank- lin was not subjected to any judicial action ; he had violated no law ; but he was treated as a prisoner of war; and had he been placed in the same situa- tion a century or two earlier would probably have lost his head. The colony of New Jersey, as well as other colo- nies, always exercised some sovereign powers ; but they were subject to the supreme sovereignty of Great Britain, and the proper limits of this sov- ereignty was the subject of constant dispute, and at length produced a war, which made them inde- pendent. From 1776 to 1789, as has been already remarked, some powers of superior sovereignty, im- perfectly defined, but real, were acknowledged to exist in the Continental Congress, wanting, as that body did, most of the attributes of a government. When the Constitution of the United States, under which it is our happiness now to live, was adopted, a government was established with full powers, and every individual inhabitant of the States was made personally subject to its rule. They became liable to punishment by means of a judicial proceeding, and it was declared to be treason, to levy war against that government. The several States were still left to be sovereign States, and as such may still punish treason against their separate governments. But over the subjects exclusively confided to the rule of the general government, embracing among them many of what may be called the higher attributes 38 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of sovereignty, the sovereignty of the State is abol- ished. The sovereignty of this general government extends only to such objects as are in terms, or by necessary implication, expressed ; but over these ob- jects its right to command is absolute, and subject to no control but that provided in the Constitution itself Every citizen has thus become plainly subject to two distinct sovereignties, acting upon him indi- vidually, in respect to different objects, and he there- fore owes allegiance to them both ; that is to say, he is bound to obey their laws. It cannot be doubted, however, that many intelli- gent politicians have believed, and I suppose yet be- lieve, that a paramount allegiance is still due to the individual sovereign States, and that these States may discharge their allegiance to the Union by an act of formal secession. This opinion has evidently been founded on the notion that sovereignty, or the right of command, is of necessity one and indivisible. This was the teaching of the ancient Greek authors, and especially of Aristotle ; and as these authors had no conception of a government restrained by express limitations of its powder, and had no proper conception of a divine superintending Ruler of Nations, such a notion is not to be considered wonderful. But the wonder is that such views should be thought appli- cable to circumstances so radically different. It is a sii>;nal instance of the lonij; abidins: influence of wronsr principles, when once adopted, as undisputed axioms. No State was ever sovereign in any such sense. Now, under the constitution, it is simply a question of in- terpretation. As was clearly discerned and stated by De Tocqueville in his " Democracy in America," our united government " rests upon a wholly novel the- THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 39 cry, which may be considered a great discovery in modern political science." It would seem impossible for language to make it plainer than that used in the remarkable instrument. It is not only declared that the constitution, and laws made in pursuance of it, shall be the supreme law of the land, but that the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any- thing in the constitution and laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding ; and that all the executive and judicial officers and members of the legislature of each State, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution. A supreme power is necessarily the judge of the duty of the inferior to obey, otherwise it could not be supreme. And to guard the citizens against any unconstitutional use of such a power, a supreme judiciary was provided, as independent of all undue influence as circumstances permitted, whose authority was made to embrace all cases in law or equity, arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States. That these provisions constitute the government of the United States the ultimate judge of all ques- tions arising between it and the governments of the separate States, is too plain to admit of dispute ; and so far as this question is concerned, it is immaterial whether we regard the Union as properly a Federal Union, or as something entirely different. It is in truth a very complex Union, without any previous example in the history of the world : in some of its aspects a federation of sovereign States, in others a government over all the citizens. Some of the more candid advocates of secession admit the para- mount power of the general government over the governments of the States, and deny the power of a 40 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. State, while remaining in the Union, to nulUfy the laws of the general government. But they insist that there is still an ultimate sovereignty in the peo- ple of each State, which is so supreme and incapable of limit, that they have the reserved right to with- draw from the Union at their pleasure, responsible to no other power than to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, for the reasons they may deem sufficient to justify such a course.^ If this was put forward merely as a statement that for sufficient reasons, a people may be morally justi- fied in revolting against the established government, as our forefathers did when they cast off the govern- ment of Great Britain, it need not be objected to. Even a part of any State may be justified in doing this. The right, if such it may be called, is the right of self-defense, and paramount to all laws and consti- tutions. It is therefore no legal or constitutional right. It can never be exercised as-ainst the consent of the existing government, unless those endeavoring to exercise it have sufficient force to displace that government, and to deprive it of its power. The in- dividual actors in such cases understand that they go into the conflict in full view of the halter, and of all the other consequences of treason. It is a part of the divine government of the world, apparently necessary to prevent constant anarchy and confusion, that it is usually a hard thing to make a successful revolution. The theoretical line of distinction between secession ^ This is the ground assumed by Al- The right of an oppressed people to exander H. Stephens, in his elaborate revolt, is taught and is set forth in the work, A Constitutional View of the Declaration of Independence ; but that late War between ike St-ates. (See State sovereignty is so indivisible in its vol. ii- p. 22.) He claims that his doc- very nature, that it cannot even bind trine is that taught by all writers, an- itself to a paramount power, is not cient and modern; but he cites none, taught by any writer of repute. THE CONSTITCTION OF 1776, 41 and revolt may seem very thin ; but the difference practically is very great. Men will readily enter into measures considered legal and constitutional, who will start back with horror from embarking in a treason- able revolt. The defects of the State Constitution of 1776, were mostly on the popular side, and except the most pal- pable error of failing properly to separate the legisla- tive, executive, and judicial powers, so essential to every good government, they have, in my opinion, been very imperfectly remedied, by that adopted in 1844. Instead of a tenure during good behavior, so important to secure an independent judiciary, the judges are still appointed for the limited term of seven years, and the office is thus made the coveted prize of party conflicts ; and the highest court is still encumbered with uneducated judges. But a still more important defect is that the governor, has no effective veto. A bill which has been passed by cor- rupt means, will be pretty sure to become a law, in spite of the governor's objections, as has been more than once made evident. If anything can be said to be fully established by the experience of over a cen- tury, it is that in a democratic government, the legis- lative power is most to be feared, and most needs control. Our present constitution has interposed several important checks to improvident legislation, that were wanting in that first adopted ; but there is no reason to doubt, that sooner or later the people will demand and provide stronger restraints. Most of the laws enacted during the existence of the war were of a temporary character, relating to the organization of the militia, the laying and col- lecting of taxes, the issue and redemption of paper 42 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. money, providing for its being a legal tender, con- tinuing the courts, the sitting of which was often in- terrupted, the definition and punishment of treason, and the forfeiture of the estates of persons guilty of that crime. An act was passed at the first session of the legislature, declaring that the several courts of law and equity of the State should be confirmed and established, and continued to be held with like pow- ers, at the same time and places, as they were held before and after the Declaration of Independence. And afterwards, to prevent all doubts on the subject, it was enacted that all the private acts (only the titles of which were contained in Allison's edition) before passed into laws by the legislature, except such as had become obsolete, or had been disallowed by the king in council, or had been repealed, or had expired, should remain in full force. Before and after the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, and prior to the ratification of the Constitution of the United States in 1789, a consider- able part of the state legislation grew out of the cir- cumstance that the State had become a sovereign power, and, so far as laws obligatory on individual citizens were concerned, independent of other gov- ernment. Some of these laws provide for punishing offenses against the confederacy, by counterfeiting or refusing to receive its paper money, and made that money a legal tender. By a law passed by the State Legislature in 1778, "the United States of America," were declared to be a body politic and corporate, in New Jersey, and capable of suing in that name for debts due to them. Attempts were made, in conjunc- tion with some of the other States, to regulate the prices of labor, and of" many articles of merchandise, THE CONSTITUTION OF 177G. 43 and especially of provisions ; but these like the Legal Tender Act, proved worse than useless, and were soon abandoned. Provision was made by the state laws for imposing duties on imports, and for enforcing those imposed by the Continental Congress, and for establishing cus- tom-houses and naval officers. An act passed Octo- ber 5, 1776, authorized the governor and council, by ordinance and commission, to establish a court of admiralty, and custom-houses, with the necessary offi- cers, which was limited to one year, and in 1778 was continued, and supplied with a new act. No record of the ordinances or commissions are now to be found ; but it appears by' numerous advertisements hi Collins' "New Jersey Gazette," that in 1778 and 1779 a court of admiralty existed, of which Joseph Lawrence was judge, and afterwards J. Imlay ; and Joseph Bloom- field was register. The court is advertised to sit, sometimes in AUentown, sometimes in Trenton, and in other places, to determine the cases of certain ves- sels named, which were taken from the enemy as prizes, and sales are advertised by John Stokes, mar- shal. It appears by the case of Jennings v. Carson, in the supreme court of the United States, reported 4 Cranch, 2, that the sloop George, and her cargo, cap- tured in the year 1778, by a privateer, was libeled and condemned by the court of admiralty of New Jersey, in October, 1778, from which sentence there was an appeal to the Continental court of appeals, established by Congress, where the sentence of con- demnation was reversed in December, 1780, and res- titution ordered. The vessel had been sold by the marshal of the state court for paper money, but it 44 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. did not appear what had become of the money ; and the object of this suit was to render the owner of the privateer liable for it, which, however, did not succeed. In 1782 a very carefully prepared act of the legis- lature was passed, regulating the proceedings in ad- miralty, and the fees ; and requiring the judge and other officers to be appointed hy the joint meeting for three years. In cases of prize, capture, recapture, and seizure upon the water, an appeal was allowed to such judges as Congress had appointed, or might ap- point to hear appeals. One of the sections provides for a trial before a court of oyer and terminer, to be held by virtue of a special commission before any tWo justices of the supreme court and the judge of ad- miralty, according to the course of the common law, of all traitors, pirates, felons, and criminals, who shall offend upon the sea, or within the admiralty jurisdic- tion. Whether any such court was ever held, I have not been able to ascertain. The joint meeting ap- pointed John H. Imlay, judge of the admiralty, and Joseph Bloomfield, register, and at the end of three years they were reappointed. Captures as prize were very infrequent after 1782, and the business of the court was probably not important. The papers and records of the court have not been preserved. After the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, which vested the admiralty jurisdiction ex- clusively in the courts of the United States, the state laws were repealed. After the peace, the people, who were greatly im- poverished, were clamorous for stay laws, as has been commonly the case in all similar circumstances ; and much hostility was shown to the courts, and especially to lawyers, who had to bear the odium of endeavoring THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 45 to enforce the payment of debts and fulfillment of contracts. The prevailing feeling was very much' like that which existed in 1769, described in Judge Field's "Provincial Courts," p. 165. Happily it did not assume the shape of an open rebellion, as it did in Massachusetts ; but it was very marked in many of the proceedings of the legislature. The popular party had the ascendency, and defeated every attempt to adopt a new constitution, or to amend that in ex- istence. x\braham Clark of Elizabethtown, a surveyor by occupation, and a strong-minded man, whose inten- tions appear to have been good, but whose prejudices were very strong, was the leader of this party. He was several times a deles-ate to the Continental Con- gress, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Being a member of the legislature of 1784, he was the main advocate, and had the rep- utation of being the author of a law which passed without serious opposition, entitled "An Act for Reg- ulatino- and Shortenino: the Proceedino:s of the Courts of Law." It was known afterwards as Clark's law, and the spirit which produced it was shown by his declaration : "If it succeeds, it will tear off the ruffles from the lawyers' wrists." But it did not succeed. Governor Livinsrston describes it as prolonging, rather than shortening lawsuits. It had some good provisions, afterwards adopted with the necessary modifications ; but like all such attempts at reform, made b}^ incompetent persons, the innovations attempted were too great, and rendered it incongruous to other provisions of the law. It was soon altered, and after a few years en- tirely superseded by the practice act of Governor Paterson, still the basis of our system. 46 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. An anecdote of Clark was told me by Judge Rossel as having been received by him from Clark himself, which is perhaps worth preserving : " In the month of March, 1788, he was a member of the Congress from New Jersey, and boarded with a widow lady in New York, where Congress then sat. who lived in a very plain way. Sometime after dark, he was sit- ting in her little parlor, at a stand with a single tal- low candle, which was all the light in the room, when there was a loud knocking at the front door. It soon appeared that the French Minister had called in his carriage to pay his respects to the member of Con- gress. Mr. Clark met him at the door, and as he ad- vanced into the room, retired backwards toward the stand where he had been sitting. He then attempted to sit down in the chair he had left, but which the landlady, unperceived by him, had removed. Find- ing himself falling to the floor, he unconsciously seized the stand, upset it, and extinguished the light, so that his Excellency the Minister — for titles were scrupulously observed in those days — was received by a member of Congress lying on his back, but hap- pily screened by total darkness. Upon referring to the journals of Congress, it ap- pears that on the fourteenth of February, 1788, it was resolved that the Count de Moustier be received as Minister Plenipotentiary from his most Christian majesty, and be admitted to a public audience on the twentv-sixth of that month. There beino; then no Executive, this was the ceremonial formally adopted by the Congress ; and it was also prescribed that after such a public reception, the minister should wait per- sonally on the members at their lodgings. On the designated day, the minister was personallj^ intro- THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 47 dnced by a committee appointed for the purpose, and having deUvered his letter of credence, he addressed Congress in a set speech, to which the President of that body made a reply. All this is formally recorded ; but the proceedings outside rest only in memory. Clark was a rigid economist, and a steady advocate of popular measures. In 1787, although known to be opposed to the new Constitution of the United States, he was appointed by the legislature a member of the convention of this State called to ratify it ; but ill- health prevented his taking his seat in that body. In 1791 and 1793 he was elected a member of Congress, and died in 1794, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. By the terms of the State Constitution of 1776, all the inhabitants of the State, of full age, and worth fifty pounds, who had resided for twelve months in the county where they claimed a vote, were entitled to a vote. It is evident, however, that the Provincial Congress which framed this constitution, understood that it would be in the power of any subsequent leg- islature to restrict this privilege ; for they themselves enacted an ordinance, as has been stated, which did this, and the first legislature prescribed oaths to be taken not found in it. But it was not lono; before it was found that a diversity of practice prevailed in different parts of the State. At an election held in 1806, for the selection of the county seat of Essex County, at which there was a warm contest between Elizabethtown and Newark, females and colored per- sons were allowed to vote, without inquiry as to their property ; some persons, and among them some fe- males, boasted that they voted under different names several times during the day and night the polls were kept open ; and the fraudulent voting was so great, 48 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. that the legislature set aside the election. The fact disclosed by the evidence produced to the legislature in this case, occasioned the enactment of a new elec- tion law in November, 1807, which passed the Assem- bly by a vote of thirty-one ayes to five noes. There was at this time a majority of Democrats in the leg- islature, but it was not a party measure ; the leading Federalists in the body, including the members from Burlington County, and the late James Parker of Middlesex, voted for it. The universal public opinion of the people sanctioned its provisions, which with but little change continued in force until altered by the Constitution of 1814, and the fifteenth amend- ment of the Constitution of the United States. This law commences with the following preamble : — '' Whereas doubts have been raised and great diver- sities in practice obtained throughout the State, in regard to the admission of aliens, females, and persons of color, or negroes, to vote in elections, and also in regard to the mode of ascertaining the qualifications of voters in respect to estate ; and whereas it is highly necessary to the safety, quiet, good order, and dignity of the State, to clear up the said doubts, by an act of the representatives of the people declaratory of the true sense and meaning of the constitution, and to insure its just execution in these particulars, accord- ing to the intent of the framers thereof; '* therefore, it was enacted, that no person should vote, unless such person be a free, white male citizen of the State, of the age of twenty one years, worth fifty pounds proc- lamation money; and that in order to establish a uniform practice throughout the State, and to avoid all questions in regard to the qualification of the voter as to estate, every person in other respects en- THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 49 titled to vote, who should have paid a tax, should be adjudged by the officers conducting the election to be worth fifty pounds clear estate, and entitled to vote. It occasionally happened, however, that the officers of election disregarded this law, holding it to be un- constitutional and void, so far as it prevented aliens, females, and colored persons from voting. This hap- pened in at least one township in Cumberland County at a contested election for the place of erecting a court- house in the year ]8o7; and this in part produced what was called the broad seal war the next year. From 1809 to 1845 the polls were required to be kept open two days, and it was customary in the large townships to hold the election at different places each day. 4 CHAPTER HI. GOVERNORS DURING THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. WILLIAM FRANKLIN. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. TT7ILLIAM FRANKLIN was the Governor and » T Chancellor of the colony of New Jersey at the commencement of the Revolution. He was the son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, but not of his wife (who his mother was' is not known), and was born about the year 1730, his precise age being left in doubt, and apparently for a purpose. Upon the marriage of his father when he was Jibout a j-ear old, he was taken to his home, and brought up as if he had been born in wedlock. His flither had but one other son, named Francis Folger, who died when a little more than four years old. William was carefully educated, aided his father in his philosophical experiments, and, through his influence, was at an early age appointed clerk of the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania, and post- master at Philadelphia. In 1756, when he was about twenty years of age, his father was appointed the agent for Pennsylvania (and afterwards of New Jersey) in England; and the son had leave from the Assembly to resign his office of clerk, that he might accomj)any him to London. Upon his arrival there he entered the Middle Temple, to prepare himself for practice as a lawyer in Phila- delphia, and was in due time called to be a barrister; WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 51 afterward he received from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Like his father, he became the parent of an illegit- imate son, born about 1760, and named William Temple Franklin, who lived with his grandfather in London, and afterwards in France, becoming a great favorite with him, and as such remembered in his will. Li 1762, William Franklin, who had ingratiated him- self with Lord Bute, then the principal favorite of the king, through his influence, without the solicitation of his father, was appointed Governor of the Province of New Jersey, an office then much sought for. The first announcement of this preferment is stated to have been by a paragraph in the newspaper : " This mornino", was married at St. George's Church, Hano- ver Square, William Franklin, Esq., the newly ap- pointed Governor of New Jersey, to Miss Elizabeth Downes, of St. James' Street." Governor Franklin and his wife arrived in the Delaware River in February, 1763 ; and reached Perth Amboy on the twenty-fourth of that month. He was received with the usual demonstrations of respect, had his commission publicly read, and took the oaths of office there. In a few days he proceeded to Burlington, and published his commission there, according to the usual custom. These two places had been the seats of the separate governments of East and West Jersey, under the proprietors, and after the two were united by the surrender to the Queen in 1702, they continued down to the Revolution to be alternately the places at which the legislatures met, and the courts of the province were held. Congrat- ulatory addresses were made to him from all quar- ters ; and in June, with his wife, he was entertained 52 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. by the corporation of Elizabethtown. He soon took his residence at Burlington, occupying, during a con- siderable part of his time, a house situate on the beautiful banks of the river there, where he remained until 1774, when he removed his residence to Perth Amboy. The task undertaken by a governor of one of the provinces of Great Britain was one of great difficulty. That government did not go so far as Spain in its suicidal policy ; but the only idea tlie king and his ministers and people had of a colony, was that it should be made to promote the real or supposed in- terests of the mother country. The welfare of the settlers, if regarded at all, was but a secondary con- sideration. Above all, they were expected to be en- tirely subservient to the prescriptions of the ruling power, and to dream of acting for themselves was treason. Where there was a local leo-islature, as in New Jersey, subject to the absolute veto of the crown, and the assent of the governor was a neces- sary prerequisite to the enactment of a law, it was thought necessary to restrain him from the exercise of his own judgment, by the most precise and strin- gent instructions. Every measure, thought likely to interfere with that monopoly of trade* claimed as the absolute right of the British, was absolutely prohib- ited. Even many of the offices of the colony were expected to be sinecures for the dependents of the ministry. A necessary consequence of this state of things was, that Franklin, like most of his predecessors, was engaged in a constant warfare with the Assembly elected by the people ; the council he could manage, their appointments being at his disposal. His posi- WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 53 tion was probably very different from what he had expected. Very soon his difficulties were greatly in- creased by the persistent attempt of the king, and his ministers and parliament, to tax the people of the colonies, without the consent of their representatives, which they were resolute in resisting. He seems to have been an amiable man, and to have performed what he considered his dutj^, with so much forbear- ance and good temper as to have become quite as popular as any governor, who did not absolutely repudiate his instructions, could be. He was earnest in his endeavors to promote the welfare of the prov- ince, by recommending and encouraging measures for the improvement of roads, for the mitigation of the laws relating to the imprisonment of debtors, and for successful agriculture. He purchased and im- proved a farm, imported from England agricultural implements, and collected one of the best libraries in the province. He was a handsome and very agree- able man, abounding in facetious anecdote, and thus resembling his father. That father continued on good terms with him until the war was in active progress. In 1773, he wrote to him from London : "I only wish ■you to act uprightly and steadily, avoiding that du- plicity which, in Hutchinson, adds contempt to indig- nation. If you can promote the prosperity of your people, and leave them happier than you found them, whatever your political principles are, your memory will be honored." His last visit to him was after he removed to Perth Amboy in 1774. They then dis- cussed the controversy between the mother country and her colonies. They were far from agreeing. No man in America was more fully resolved upon resistance, at whatever cost, than the elder Franklin. 6'4 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. The son, who disapproved the earlier measures of the British ministry, was still mindful of his oath as a royal governor; and remained a thorough govern- ment man, deeming the opposition of the colonists more mad than the measures of the ministry. They did not meet again until the lapse of ten years. The ftither, after the governor's arrest, sent the grandson to Perth Amboy, to aid and console his afflicted daughter-in-law, and a small sum of money. She returned a grateful letter of thanks ; but she never again saw her husband or her father. Dr. Franklin felt the defection of his son from the cause he had himself so much at heart very keenly. He wrote, nine years later, " that nothing had ever affected him with such keen sensitiveness, as to find himself de- serted, in his old age, by his only son ; and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against him in a cause wherein his good fame, fortune, and life were all at stake." All the hopes, no doubt for several years fondly indulged in by Governor Franklin of the final success of the royal cause, were doomed to disappointment. He was arrested by order of the Provisional Congress in 1776, and confined as a prisoner of war. Had he lived a hundred or two years earlier, he would prob- ably have lost his head. He was not exchanged, and in that way released, until he had suffered an im- prisonment of two years and five months. In the mean time his library was burned by an accidental fire ; and his wife, who is represented as an elegant woman, amiable and intelligent, died in New York. He took up his residence in that city, remaining there several years, aiding the royal arms, as President of the Board of Associated Royalists, and by all other I WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 55 me.ans in his power. In 1782, he returned to Eng- land, after a sojourn in America of twenty years. His son, William Temple, remained with his grandfather. Thus, in the language of Parton, "was the strange coincidence made complete : Dr. Franklin lost his son ; that son lost his ; both sons were born just before their fathers' marriage ; both were reared and educated in disregard of that circumstance; both abandoned their fjxthers, at the same time and for the same .cause; afterwards they were both recon- ciled to their fothers, at about the same time, and in about the same imperfect degree." In consideration of the losses he had sustained by the confiscation of his propert}^ and otherwise, the British si-overnment "granted to him eio;hteen hundred pounds, nearly nine thousand dollars, and allowed him a pension of nearly four thousand dollars a year, thus placing him, in a pecuniary point of view, in a better situation than if he had remained Governor of New Jersey. He afterwards married again, an Irish lady, and died in 1813, at the age of about eighty- three. He left no les^itimate descendants. His son, William Temple Franklin, resided in France, wrote a biography of his grandfather, and died in 1823, at the age of sixty-one. The author of a work published in London in 1802, containing biographical notes of living characters, who professes to write from personal observation, says : " Governor Franklin, in point of person, is above the common size, with the eye and figure of a veteran. Although subject to the gout, he appears to be strong and athletic, and was accounted one of the handsomest men in America. He is now about sixty-five years of age, and resembles his father in a variety of partic- 56 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. ulars. Like him he is cheerful, facetioas, admirably calculated for telling a pleasing story, and no enemy to social converse, hilarity, and the pleasures of the table, when indulged in moderation. Like him, too, he makes his ablutions every morning, and is equally partial to an air and a water bath." William Livingston. The first Governor of New Jersey under the Constitution of 1776, was one of a family for many years very distinguished in the his- tory of the United States, which of late years has ceased to be remarkable. He was the grandson of Robert Livingston, whose father was eminent in Scot- tish history, as a minister of the Kirk. After the restoration of Charles II., father and son fled to Hol- land, and from there Robert came to America, about the 3^ear 1675, and in 1679 married Alida, the widow of Nicholas van Rensselaer; and resided at Albany. Having made large purchases of land from the Indians, the manor and lordship of Livingston was granted to him in 1686, and confirmed by royal authority in 1715. It was the second larojest of the five great manors granted in the province of New York, which in later days have been so fruitful of anti-rent troubles, and comprised nearly one hundred and fifty thou- sand acres of land, commencing about five miles south of the present city of Hudson, running twelve miles along the east bank of the Hudson River, and extending back to the line of Massachusetts. It was somewhat divided at an early period, but the greater part of it was strictly entailed and transmit- ted through the two next generations, in the hands of the eldest son and grandson. Philip, the father of William, was the second son of Robert; but the elder WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 67 brother having died, he succeeded to the manorial estate. He married Catharine van Brugh, of a re- spectable Dutch family, at Albany. Their son Wil- liam was the fifth child, and was born at Albany in the year 1723. In ]741 he graduated at the head of his class at Yale College. It is said that at that time, besides himself and three elder brothers, there were only six persons not in orders, in the province of New York, who had received a collegiate education. He studied law with James Alexander, at that time one of the most eminent lawyers in the city of New York, Avho was distinguished by his constant ad- vocacy of popular rights and steady opposition to ministerial assumptions. In a letter to his father, dated in 1744, young Livingston says : " I have re- ceived your letter of November 21, whereof the first two lines are, ' I am much concerned to hear that you neglect your study, and are abroad most every night.' As to neglecting my study, I am as much con- cerned to hear it as my father, having read the great- est part of this winter till twelve and two o'clock at night, and since I have had a fire in my room have frequently rose at five in the morning and read by candle-light, of which I suppose your informer (whatever ingenious fellow it be) was ignorant, as it was impossible he should know it without being a wizard. As to my being abroad almost every night, I have for this month stayed at Mr. Alexander's till eio-ht and nine o'clock at night, and shall continue to do so all winter, he instructing us in the mathe- matics, which is indeed being abroad." In the year 1745 he married Miss Susanna French, whose father had been a large proprietor of land in New Jersey. He w^as licensed to practice law in 68 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 1748, and soon became a prominent member of the bar, and employed in most of the important legal controversies of that day, in New York and New Jersey. In 1752 he was one of the counsel of the defendants, in the great suit in chancery, between the proprietors of East Jersey and some of the set- tlers, wdiich, although never brought to a final decis- ion, has been much referred to in reference to the title to a considerable part of East Jersey. He was brought up in the Reibrmed Dutch Church, and eno^atj^ed earnestlv in the controversies which arose with the Episcopalian party, in reference to an established religion. These controversies, in which the feelings of the Congregationalists and Presby- terians became so strongly excited, had much to do with the resistance subsequently mad^ to the attempt of the British ministry to impose taxes on the Amer- ican Colonies, and resulted in their unanimous sup- port of the measures adopted for that purpose. Liv- ingston engaged earnestly in this controversy, and wrote largely on the subject. He was fond of using his pen, and was distinguished for sarcastic wit. As early as 1747 he published a poem of seven hundred lines, entitled, " Philosophic Solitude," which has since been several times reprinted, but is now seldom read. During most of the time he remained in New York, he wrote extensively on the political subjects of the day, and published a " Eulogy on the Rev. Aaron Burr" and various poetical effusions. In 1772, when he had arrived to the age of nearly fifty years, he removed to EHzabethtown, in the vicin- ity of which he had purchased, at different times, a tract of land comprising about one hundred and twenty acres, and which he had improved by import- WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 69 ing and setting out various species of fruit-trees. After his removal, lie erected a new house, in which he placed his family in the fall of 1773, and made it his home, except while obliged to be absent during the war, the remainder of his life. This place was generally known, while he occupied it, as Liberty Hall ; but after his death, it became the property of Mrs. Niemsiwitz, who was a Livingston (his cousin, I believe), the widow, first of Peter Kean, at one time cashier of the Bank of the United States, and after- wards of a Polish nobleman, a follower of Kosciusco, who resided for a time in this country, and was then called Ursino. It is now owned by John Kean, Esq., her grandson. A statement of his property, drawn up at this time, valued it at £8,512, New York currency, about twenty- one thousand dollars, esteemed at that time sufficient for the comfortable support of a family. A memo- randum he afterwards wrote on this statement, is to this effect: " The sum at the foot of this, I was worth when I removed, besides leaving behind me £2,000 due me for costs, and besides the land left -me by my father. As I was always fond of a country life, and thought that at that time I could with justice to my dear children go into the country, where the interest of that sum would more than maintain me, I ac- cordingly went with the intention to lay up the sur- plus for their use ; but so it has fortuned, by the breaking of some of my debtors, and by others pay- ing me in Continental depreciated money, that I have not been able to answer that agreeable object ; and for those unforeseen occurrences, I hope my children will not blame me, having not spent my fortune by extravagant living, but have lost it by inevitable accident." 60 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. As he had been admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1755, and like other lawyers in the adjoining prov- inces, had been more or less engaged in suits here, he still continued to practice his profession in a few cases. Before his removal the public money chest of Stephen Skinner, treasurer of the eastern division, was broken open, and six or seven thousand pounds of paper and coins stolen. A majority of the As- sembly resolved that this had happened through the negligence of the treasurer, and insisted upon the money being repaid by him. Although Governor Franklin warmly espoused the side of Skinner, Liv- ingston was consulted, and Skinner having after much delay resigned, a new treasurer was appointed and an action brought to recover the missing money. The action however was never brought to a trial. Skinner adhered to the British, and all his New Jersey prop- erty was confiscated and sold, Livingston was appointed by the committee which met at New Brunswick July, 1774, a majority of whose members were also members of Assembly, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was a member of the committee of that body, appointed to prejDare the address to the people of Great Britain. He joined in signing the non-consumption and non-importation association, and faithfully maintained the pledge. It is said some of the members of his family were accustomed in his absence to drink what they called " Strawberry Tea," but which was strongly suspected to be the genuine Chinese beverage. In January, 1775, he was reelected delegate to the Congress by the Assembly ; and was a very constant member of the most important committees. He was a steady attendant, and was reelected a delegate by the Pro- WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 61 vincial Congress in Febru.ary, 1776, serving with Adams, Jefferson, and Lee on committees. In June, he left the Congress at Philadelphia, to take com- mand of the militia of New Jersey as a brigadier- o-eneral, to which he had been some time before appointed by the Provincial Congress. He was among those — including, as is well known, many of the most determined Whigs — who doubted the expediency of the Declaration of Independence, at the time it was made. In a letter dated in Feb- ruary, 1778, he says : " As to the policy of it, I then thought, and I have found no reason to change my sentiments since, that if we could not maintain our separation without the assistance of France, her alliance ought to have been secured, by our stipulation to assert it on that condition. This would have forced her out into open day, and we should have been certain either of her explicit avowal, or of the folly of our dependency upon it." But he assumed a prom- inent military command, although he had no mili- tary training or experience. In another letter he says: ''.We must endeavor to make the best of every- thing. Whoever draws his sword against his prince, must fling away the scabbard. We have passed the Rubicon, and whoever attempts to cross it will be knocked in the head, by the one or the other party, on the opposite banks. We cannot recede, nor should I wish it if we could. Great Britain must infallibly perish, and that speedily, by her own corruption, and I never loved her so much, as to wish to keep her company in her ruin." In October, 1775, he had been appointed by the Provincial Congress second brigadier-general of the military forces of the colony, General Dickinson 62 REffiNISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. being his senior. On the twenty-first day of June, 1776, it was resolved that the President write to Gen- eral Livingston and inform him that it is the desire of Congress that he would take the command of the militia destined for New York. This he hastened to do, having his head-quarters at Elizabethtown point. His family were soon obliged to abandon their home, no longer a safe residence, and during the next three or four years, they resided at Parsipany. He was thus prevented from taking part in the Declaration of Independence. If he had remained a delegate to the Continental Congress, and been directly em- powered, as those designated for that position suc- ceeding him were, so to do, he would no doubt have signed that instrument, as they did. It appears by a letter he addressed to Samuel Tucker in August, that he somewhat resented appointing him to a* command, which he says he jDlainly refused, instead of continuing him a delegate to the Congress. Resolute however in answering the call of his coun- try, even by accepting a situation for which he had no special fitness and very irksome to him, he dis- charged the duties thus devolved upon him with vigilance and ability. In a letter written in July to the Congress he says : " I must acknowledge to you, that I feel myself unequal to the present important command, and therefore wish for every assistance in my power." And in August he wrote to a Congress- man at Philadelphia : " I received yours of yesterday's date, just after I had got into my new habitation, which is a marquee tent in our encampment. You would really be astonished to see how grand I look, while at the same time I can assure you I was never more sensible (to use a New England phrase) of my WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 63 own nothingness in military affairs. I removed my quarters from the town hither to be with the men, and to inure them to discipHne, which by my distance from the camp before, considering what scurvy sub- altern officers we are ever like to have, while they are in the appointment of the mobility, I found it im- possible to introduce. My ancient corporal fabric is almost tottering under the fatigue I have lately under- gone, constantly rising at two o'clock in the morning, to examine our lines, which are — and very extensive, till daybreak, and from that time till eleven, in giving orders, sending dispatches, and doing the proper busi- ness of quartermasters, colonels, commissaries, and I know not what." He was soon relieved from his military command, and placed in a situation more conspicuous and more important, and to which, by all the habits of his life, he was better fitted. The first leo-islature under the o new constitution assembled at Princeton, and on the 27th of August, 1776, the joint meeting pro- ceeded to elect a governor. The vote was by a secret ballot, and at first there was a tie between him and Richard Stockton. On the next day, prob- ably in pursuance of a previous arrangement, Liv- ingston was elected governor, and Stockton chief justice of the supreme court. Livingston accepted the trust, but Stockton declined. As the State had no seal, it was resolved that the seal at arms of his Excellency William Livingston, should be deemed taken and used, as the great seal of the State, until another could be procured. In a short time a great seal of silver was engraved in Philadelphia, having the devices still in use, and was lettered, " The great seal of the State of New Jersey," the word colony used in the constitution being entirely discarded. 64 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. On the thirteenth of September, the governor made an address to the two Houses, in which he says : " Considerin<^ how long the hand of oppression had been stretclied out against us ; how long the system of despotism, concerted for our ruin, had been in- sidiously pursued, and was at length attempted to be enforced by the violence of war; reason and con- science must have approved the measure had we sooner abjured that allegiance from which, not only by a denial of protection, but the hostile assault on our persons and properties, we were clearly absolved. That beino; thus constrained to assert our own in- dependence, the late representatives of the colony of New Jersey in Congress assembled, did, in pur- suance of the advice of the Continental Congress, the supreme council of the American colonies, agree upon the form of a constitution which, by tacit con- sent and open approbation, hath since received the consent and concurrence of the good people of the State ; and agreeabl}^ to this constitution, a legis- lative council and assembly have been chosen, and also a governor. Let us then, as it is our indispen- sable duty, make it our invariable aim to exhibit to our constituents the brightest examples of a disin- terested love for the common weal ; let us both by precept and example," encourage a spirit of economy, industry, and patriotism, and that public integrity and righteousness that cannot fail to exalt a nation ; settinu' our faces at the same time like a flint ag:ainst that dissoluteness of manner and political corruption, that will ever be the reproach of any people. May the foundation of an infant State be la'd in virtue and the fear of God, and the superstructure will rise glorious and endure for ages. Then may we humbly I WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 65 expect the blessings of the Most High, who divides to the nations their inheritance and separates the sons of Adam." An expression in this address, it is said, occasioned the governor to be Iviiovvn for a time by the name of ''Doctor Flint." He was reelected the governor, from year to year, with occasionally slight opposition, as loner as he lived ; and with an interreo;num from August 31 to November 1, 1777, — during which time there was no governor, growing out of the fact that his term of office was one year, and the second legislature uniler the constitution did not meet until two months after his fir.st term expired, — he held the office of governor and chancellor of the State nearly fourteen years. His task, especially during the first two years of his service as governor, was most difficult and dan- gerous. The State was in every part of it more ex- posed, and suffered more from military operations than any other. Within a few months after his in- auguration, the upper part of it was occupied by the enemy, and until the happy turn of affairs, occasioned by the victories at Trenton and Princeton, during the winter of 1776-77, everything was in jeopardy. Many who had been prominent in all the prepara- tions of resistance despaired of success, and took protections from the British officers. The legislature was obliged to meet sometimes at Trenton, and then at Princeton, at Pittstown, in Hunterdon County, and at Haddon field, and during severid years occasioned much inconvenience by moving from place to place, sometimes for no bettor reason than because the members thought the charges for board were too high. The governor stood firm, and was unremitting QQ REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. in his efforts to procure the passage of efficient mil- itia laws, and in otherwise organizing a new govern- ment. One of the first laws enacted by the new legis- lature, September 19, 1776, for the security of the government of New Jersey, required every officer, civil and military, then in office or thereafter to be appointed, to take an oath or affirmation that he did not hold himself bound to bear allegiance to the king of Great Britain, and that he did and w^ould bear true faith and allegiance to the government established in this State under the authority of the people ; and provision was made in this and subse- quent acts for requiring jurors and voters and all others, under heavy penalties, to take the same oaths. An act was also passed to punish traitors and disaf- fected persons, which defined the crime of treason, and prescribed a punishment by fine and imprison- ment against all persons who should by speech, writ- ing, open deed or act, maintain and defend the au- thority, jurisdiction, or power of the king or parlia- ment of Great Britain. The Assembly convened at Burlington on the thir- teenth day of November, and passed one law, but on the second day of December, they dispersed without fixing upon any place of future meeting. But on the twenty-second day of the ensuing January, they assembled on the call of the speaker, at Haddon field, and continued in session there until the middle of March. Here a law was passed, that a dollar in silver or in the paper bills of Congress, should be equal to and pass for seven shillings and sixpence. And what was still more important, an act was passed, tem- porary in its duration, but extended from time to WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 67 time, constituting a committee of safety, consisting of twenty-three persons, — the governor or vice-pres- ident being one, — and declaring them to be a board of justices in criminal matters, and Avith power to fill up vacant military offices ; to apprehend disaf- fected persons, and commit them to jail without bail or mainprise, and to remove them from jail to jail ; to call out the militia to carry out their orders ; to send the wives and children of fucritives with the enemy, into the enemy's lines; to cause offenders to be tried in any county of the State ; to cause persons refusing to take the oaths to government to be com- mitted to jail, or to send them, if willing, into the enemy's lines ; to make any house or room a legal jail ; to negotiate exchanges ; disarm the disaffected, etc. This committee was of special importance during the two months while there was no governor. It could not be otherwise than that the governor of a State, situated as New Jersey was at this time, should be subject to constant alarm and danger. He was determined in his hostility to tlwse who em- braced the cause of the enemy, and recommended and enforced the strong-est measures a^jainst them, thereby of course exciting their bitter hostility, A letter from one of his daughters, dated in November, 1777, says: "K has been to Elizabethtown ; found our house in a most ruinous situation. General Dickenson (an American general) had stationed a captain with his artillery company in it, and after that it was kept for a bullocks' guard. K waited on the general, and he ordered the troops removed the next day, but then the mischief was done ; every- thino; is carried off that mamma had collected for her accommodation, so that it is impossible for her to go 68 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. down to have the grapes and other things secured; the very hinges, locks, and panes of glass are taken away." " Rivington's Gazette," the organ of the British party in New York, was very bitter in its denuncia- tions of Livingston. He is called the " Spurious Gov- ernor," " Don Quixote of the Jerseys," "Despot in chief in and over the rising State of New Jersey, ex- traordinary Chancellor of the same," "Knight of the most honorable order of starvation, and chief of the Independents." "If Rivington is taken," he wrote in 1780, " I must have one of his ears ; Governor Clinton is entitled to the other; and General Wash- ington, if he pleases, may take his head." To counteract in some measure the influence of the royal gazette, a paper was commenced in December, printed by Isaac Collins, sometimes at Trenton and sometimes at Burlington, called the " New Jersey Ga- zette." This paper was continued mostly through the war, and was essentially aided by the governor, who contributed many articles, which attracted much attention, and were of important service. Some of them were afterwards reprinted by Carey in his " American Museum." Popular as Livingston evidently was, he did not escape personal hostility and bitter opposition. On the 2Tth of October, 1779, just before his reelection by the joint meeting, a virulent attack upon him not by name but by plain allusions, appeared in Collins' gazette over the signature of " Cincinnatus." The council on the next day passed the following reso- lutions by a large majority, and sent it to the As- sembly for concurrence : — "Whereas, by a late publication, inserted in the 'New Jersey, WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 69 Gazette,' called, ' Hints humbly offered to the consideration of the legislature of New Jersey, in the future choice of a governor, signed ' Cincinnatus,' being apparently designed to have an undue influence in the ensuing election of a governor of this State, and though in an ironical way, fully and clearly implies, not only a slur upon the seminary of learning in this State, and the president and tutors thereof, but also a tacit charge against the legislature of this State, as being greatly deficient in point of integrity or ability and judgment, in the choice of a governor, and an express declaration against our excellent constitution ; and also an unjust, false, and cruel defamation and aspersion of his excellency the governor ; all which evidently tends to disturb the peace of the inhabitants and promote discord and confusion in the State, and to encourage those who are disaffected to the present government ; and notwithstand- ing the freedom of the press ought to be tolerated as far as is con- sistent with the good of the people and the security of the govern- ment established under their authority ; yet good policy as well as justice require that those who speak anything that directly tends to encourage the enemy and disaffected, and to discourage or disquiet the minds of the good people of this State, ought to be detected and brought to such punishment as may be agreeable to law and justice ; therefore. Resolved, that Isaac Collins be required imme- diately to inform the legislature of this State, who is the author of the abovesaid publication, and at whose request the same was pub- lished." This resolution was negatived in the Assembly by seventeen nays to eleven yeas. On the next day, however, the council " Resolved, that Isaac Collins be required immediately to inform the council who the author of the publication inserted in the ' New Jersey Gazette,' No. 96, under the signature of ' Cincinnatus ' is, and at whose request the same was published." A copy of this resolution was served on Collins, but he declined making any answer. On the thirtieth the joint meeting reelected Livingston governor, by a vote of twenty-nine in his favor, against nine votes for Philemon Dickinson. In consequence of this proceeding Livingston 70 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. ceased for some time to write for the " Gazette " ; but afterwards the breach was healed, and he continued his contributions. It is said by Sedgewick in his valuable and full memoir of Livingston, that he ceased for some time to write for the newspapers in consequence of the remonstrances of some of the members of the legislature, who considered such an employment rather undignified for his excellency the governor of a State. This is quite probable, especially as some of his articles may have been deemed rather personal to them. One of them pur- ported to state what the writer " had seen and had not seen;" and bore with much severity on some of the legislative proceedings. Another article, entitled '' Strictures of Liliput," not published, however, until after the peace, is so plainly leveled at the proceed- ings of the legislature of New Jersey, as to be worth perusal. It was republished in Carey's "Museum" for May, 1791. Of the date of 9th of October, 1778, he wrote to Laurens : — " Our assembly being dissolved by the constitution, and the act constituting our council of safety expired by its own limitation, I stand some chance of seeing my family at last, and perhaps the devil and the Tories may so manage their cards at the ensuing election that I may have no avocation to leave it in future. "• Your Excellency has by this time seen (the last, I know not whether I can say, considering that some people make more dying speeches than one) but the second dying speech of the British com- missioners. Does not the very pomposity of the vellum, and the grandeur of the types and margin, strongly operate towards your conversion ? No ! well, I am sure the matter will not. " Thanks to their excellencies, however, for the quantity of waste paper with which they have furnished me, under the denominations of proclamations, and the excellent tape which surrounded the packets, of both of which I stood in most lamentable need. Con- WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 71 ceiving that they would afford very little edification to the several bodies in this State, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, to which they were directed, I have made prize of almost the whole cargo, with- out any lawful condemnation of the admiralty, with felonious intent to convert them to my own private use. ilis Majesty's arms, how- ever (having in days of yore heard so much about the Lord's anointed), I shall carefully separate from the rest of the sheet, and apply to the embellishment of my little grandson's kite. And O ! for the vellum original, signed and sealed with their excellencies' own proper hands and seals : I'll certainly lay it up in lavender, that if 1 am hanged at last, my latest posterity may know that it was through downright love of hanging, after having refused so gracious and unmerited a pardon on repentance, with so grim frown- ing a lion at the top, denouncing the royal vengeance in case of contumacy." Governor Livingston's peculiar fitness for the sta- tion in which he was placed, was shown in the circum- stance, very evident in the correspondence between them, that he had the most implicit confidence in General Washington. General Hamilton, while an aid of the latter, remarked in a playful letter to one of Livingston's daughters, refusing her application to obtain leave for some of her lady friends, residing in New York, to pass a short time with her in New Jersey, most truly : " I shall therefore only tell you, that whether the Governor and the General are more honest, or more perverse than other people, they have a very odd knack of thinking alike ; and it happened in the present case, that they both equally disapprove the intercourse you mention, and have taken pains to discourage it." He was frequently appealed to, in regard to the enforcement of the laws of the State, making the Continental money a legal tender, and of course did so in all his official acts; but he always opposed the passage of such laws, and would not avail himself 72 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of them in his own favor. He writes : " No acts of Assembly have hitherto been able to reconcile me to cheating according to law, or convince me that hu- man legislation can alter the immutable duties of mo- rality." His strictures of Liliput were evidently writ- ten to disparage all such laws. He was also addicted to versifying, and wrote, — "For useless a house-door, e'en if he would lock it, When any insolvent lei4islative brother Can legally enter into a man's pocket, And preamble all his cash into another." As soon as peace was proclaimed, he left Trenton, where he had resided for three years, and returned to his house at Elizabethtown, rejoiced to be again able to relinquish his w^andering life, enter again his deserted library, and employ some of his leisure in the superintendence of his garden and orchards. In a letter to his wife, dated in 1783, he had said : — " As to your opinion about disposing of our place at Elizabeth- town, I cannot think that I am under any necessity of" doing it, because, though I have greatly suffered by the war, I have good estate left, if I can but get the time to put it in order. However, anything that may appear most advantageous to my children, I would readily consent to, especially for the sake of my two un- married daughters, whom I am determined not to leave to the mercy of an unfeeling world. But as to hiring a place, I should not like it, because in that case, if I should die before you, you would be at the mercy of a landlord, without a house of your own to put your head in." In a letter to the speaker of the Assembly, in 1781, he had written : — "On being elected to the government in October, 1780.1 in- formed the then Assembly, by letter to the speaker, after having pointed out how greatly I had suffered in the payment of my salary by the depreciation of the money, that I accepted the ap- pointment for the then ending year, in confidence that, whatever WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 73 the salary might be, tlie honorable house would make it good. As I never received any answer to the terms of the acceptance, I had reason to conclude that this silence evinced their acquiescence ; and as our legislatures are annual, unless each succeeding one thinks itself bound by the engagements of its predecessors, it is certain that all faith in government must necessarily be annihilated. And, indeed, had I made no intimation whatever on tlie subject, I can- not presume that the present legislature would think it reasonable that I should be paid the nominal sum stipulated, without any allowance for the depreciation of the money, which would in effect amount to a declaration that my services were not worth above four hundred pounds a year, and that such salary was a sufficient sup- port for any creditable family." The sum of £300, in state lawful money, less de- preciated than the Continental money, was added to his salary ; but altogether his salary and perquisites did not exceed one thousand dollars in specie. In June, 1785, he was appointed by Congress to be our minister at the court of Holland, and for several reasons was at first disposed to accept it; but event- ually declined. In 1786 he became a member of the society in New York for promoting the emancipation of slaves; and himself emancipated the two slaves he owned, resolving never to own another. He was naturally much alarmed, as so many of the best and most ardent patriots of the nation were, for several years after the peace, at the gloomy prospect of our national affairs. In a letter of 1787, he says: " Our situation, sir, is truly deplorable, and without a speedy alteration of measures, I doubt whether you and I shall survive the existence of that liberty, for which we have so strenuously contended." In May, 1787, he was appointed by the legislature one of the deleo-ates to the convention assembled to form a con- stitution for the United States, which so happily suc- ceeded. He took his seat early in June, and was a 74 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. very constant attendant on its deliberations. Mr. Madison says in a letter on this subject : — " Mr. Livingston did not take his seat in the convention till some progress had been made in the task committed to it, and he did not take any active part in the debates ; but he was placed on im- portant committees, where it may be presumed he had an agency and a due influence. He was personally unknown to many, per- haps most of the members ; but there was a predisposition in all to manifest the respect due to the celebrity of his name. The votes of New Jersey corresponded generally with the plan offered by Mr. Paterson, but the main object of that being to secure to the smaller States an equality with the larger, in the structure of the govern- ment, in ojiposition to the outline previously introduced, which had a reverse object, it is difficult to say what was the degree of power to which there might be an abstract leaning. The two subjects, the structure of the government and the quantum of power for it, were more or less inseparable in the minds of all." He was among those who affixed his name to the draft finally agreed upon, and was a decided advocate of its ratification. In his message to the legislature in August, 1788, he says : — " I most heartily congratulate you, gentlemen, on the adoption of the Constitution proposed for the government of the United States, by the federal convention, and it gives me inexpressible pleasure that New Jersey has the honor of so early and so unanimously agreeing to that form of national government, which has since been so generally applauded and approved of by the other States. We are now arrived to that auspicious period, which, I confess, I have often wished that it might please Heaven to protract my life to see. Thanks to God, that I have lived to see it." The faculty of Yale College, in 1788, conferred on him the degree of LL. D. The next year, he had the misfortune to lose his wife, with whom he had lived happily forty-five years. On the twenty-fifth day of June, 1790, he died himself He had thirteen children, of whom six died before him. One son. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 75 Brockholst Livingston, became a distinguished law- yer in New York, was several years one of the judges of the supreme court of that State, and from 1807 until his death in 1823, one of the justices of the supreme court of the United States. The Rev. Dr. McWhorter of Newark, at his funeral, spoke of him as follows : — " Our governor was a person of inflexible uprightness and the strictest honesty ; an eminent example of virtue in his life and con- versation, as well as fixed and unshaken in his Christian principles. His religion partook not in the least of any deistic complexion, which is too prevalent among the greatest of our day. After the fullest investigation of the subject, he rested in the certain convic- tion of the divinity of Christianity. He obeyed its precepts, and experienced its power. " It is no uncommon loss that we this day mourn, therefore no common sorrow can be adequate to the gloomy, the dark and awful! occasion. It is not a single family that this day mourns. It is not a single society, town, or county, but our whole land feels the stroke, and our bereaved State is most sensibly affected. The head, the guide, the director, and he who held the helm of our government, is no more." It was certainly a most happy Providence that gave to NeAv Jersey, during the trying time of the Revolution, and for several following years, a gov- ernor so well fitted by his character and acquire- ments, not only to inspire the people with courage and perseverance, and to cooperate heartily with Washington, during all the changes of a war to which they were especially exposed, but to guide the legis- lature in the inauguration of a new and untried system of government. Chosen but for a single year, it was important to have a man of sufficient popu- larity to secure a reelection in spite of the cavils of those whose plans he found it necessary to oppose. With but the smallest amount of power or patronage, 76 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JEESEY. and besides his important judicial functions as chan- cellor and ordinary, being only the presiding officer of the legislative council, with only a casting vote, it was equally important to have a man of decided re- publican principles and of sound legal attainments, that he might exercise a salutary influence over legis- lation, so liable to take a wrong: direction. All these qualities were combined in Livingston; and although his writings show how much he was dissatisfied with those leg:islative measures which interfered so wron";- fully between debtor and creditor, it is evident from an inspection of the statutes, enacted while he was governor, that many of the most important of them were drawn by him, or underwent his careful revision. And it was fortunate, too, that he was succeeded by an equally well-informed and able lawyer ; and that thus it has happened that no State of the Union started in the career of independent sovereignty w^ith a code of laws so nearly perfect, and so well adapted to secure to the people vigorous and safe progress; and an administration of justice, pure and enlightened, upon which the suspicion of a corrupt taint has never fallen. CHAPTER IV. GOVERNORS AFTER THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. WILLIAM PATERSON. RICHARD HOWELL. TT7ILLTAM PATERSON, Governor from 1790 to ' » 1793, was a native of the north of IreLand, from whence he came with his father in the year 1747, when he was about two years old. They lived at Trentown, as the place was then called, at Prince- town, and finally at Raritan, now Somerville, where his father died in 1781. William graduated at Princeton in 1763, and then studied law with Rich- ard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Jonathan Dickerson Serjeant being a fellow student. He received his license as an at- torney in 1769, and settled for a short time in Hun- terdon County, at a place then called New Bro!nle3\ He passed, however, some part of his time with his father at Princeton, and took a part with him and his brother in mercantile business. In 1775 he was chosen one of the delegates from the County of Somerset to the Provincial Congress, which met in May, and was appointed one of the as- sistant secretaries of that body ; and upon Mr. Ser- jeant being elected treasurer of the province, and resigning his appointment as secretary, Paterson was chosen his successor. At the meetino; of the Cono;res3 in October, he was again appointed secretary. He 78 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. was also a delegate to the Congress which met at Bur- lington in June, 1776, and was again unanimously chosen secretarj^ The journal of that body fehows that he voted with the majority on the second day of July for then confirming the draft of the Constitu- tion of the State ; but on the next day he voted with Frelinghuysen and Serjeant for deferring the printing a few days in order to reconsider, in a full house, the propriety of the last clause, contaming the proviso respecting reconciliation. He was one of those who considered it as a temporary expedient, and, some years after the peace, wrote and published several articles in favor of revising it. Upon the organization of the state government in 1776, Paterson was selected for the important station of attorney-general, he being at the time a member of the legislative council. His duties in this office were difficult and arduous. It became necessary for him to attend the criminal courts in the different counties, at a time when the armies of a hostile power were frequently invading the State, and the only means of communication were by long and painful journeys, mostly on horseback. He appears to have resided at Raritan, where, in 1779, he married his first wife. It appears by a letter he wrote to Governor Livingston in August, 1777, that a court was held in Newark. He says : " I am amazed that the Congress do not act agreeably to their resolution, and jDush into exercise the law of retaliation. We deserve to be in- sulted, because we bear it. If we were to treat the soldiers of the enemy, who are prisoners with us, in the same manner that they treat our soldiers, who are prisoners with them, it would soon produce a mild and humane course of conduct. All the Jersey officers WILLIAM PATERSON. 79 who have been taken by the enemy are now in the Provost, and treated in the most severe and barbarous manner. Perhaps a letter from your excellency and the council, addressed to Congress, might be produc- tive of the happiest effect. Mr. Justice Smith arrived at this place yesterday about noon. The chief jus- tice and Mr. Smith agreed that it would be improper to hold the next supreme court at Amboy, and I make no doubt your excellency will be of the same opinion. I wish that your excellency and the privy council would direct an ordinance to be made out altering the place, but not the time of holding court. I requested the judges to give theh' opinions respect- ing the most proper place to have it held ; and, on considering the matter, they agreed that Princeton, which lies in the eastern division, would be the most proper j^lace. The supreme court will come on the first Tuesday of next month." Under the colonial government, the governor and council appointed the times and places of holding the courts by ordinance, and issued commissions of oyer and terminer, — a practice which, of necessity, seems to have been for some years followed by the governor and council under the constitution. In December, 1780, the attorney-general writes to Mr. Stevens, speaker of the Assembly, as follows : " On my return from Sussex Court I met with your letter, which notifies me of my being in the delega- tion of Congress. The appointment was unexpected, especially as some of the gentlemen of the legislature were fully possessed of my sentiments on the oc- casion. From the commencement of this contest I have held myself bound to serve the public in any station in which my fellow-citizens might place me, 80 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. and it is therefore with regret that I find myself under the necessity of declining the present appointment. I look upon it, however, as an act of justice to my- self, as well as of respect to your honorable body, to declare that my non-acceptance of the delegacy is owing to its interference with my official duty in another line. The business of a criminal nature in this State is at present intricate and extensive ; it un- avoidably occupies the far greater part of my time. I feel its weight, and have more than once been ready to sink under it. Of the business of Congress, its variety, extent, and importance, I shall forbear to speak. Viewing these offices as 1 do, I am convinced that no one man can execute them both at the same time. If he can acquit himself well in one of them at once, it is ftdl as much as can reasonably be ex- pected. I am sure I shall count it one of the happiest circumstances of my life, if, in the execution of my present trust alone, I can give satisfaction to the public under which I act." The members of the Continental Congress, for the first two or three years of the war, consisted of the leading spirits from the different colonies, who were justly the admiration of the best men in Great Britain and on the continent ; and by their measures and addresses they gave a character to the Revolu- tion which procured for them the support they so much needed. But after the state governments were fonned, and the war was in fidl progress, so many of the best men were withdrawn from Congress as to excite the fears of careful observers. This was indeed one of the causes of the little success of the confedera- tion. It was with the greatest difficulty that a quorum of Congress could be kept in session; and they failed, WILLIAM PATEESON. 81 when they met, to command the respect of the people. John Adams, in one of his letters, remarks of the members, " that a large part of them were unworthy of confidence." Paterson was reelected at the end of his first term, but upon the return of peace in 1783 he resigned this appointment, and resumed his practice as a lawyer, taking up his residence in New Brunswick, where he continued to reside until his death. The Rev. Mr. Clark, minister of the Presbyterian Church which he attended, says of him in his funeral sermon : " I need not remind you of his virtues as the citizen and the friend, and how they adorned his character in the walks of private life, or amid the more secluded retreat of the domestic circle and the home fireside. You knew him well, and the grief you manifest for his loss is the best evidence how affectionately you regard his virtuous example, his distinguished pru- dence, his love of justice, his fidelity in friendship, his readiness to oblige, his kindness to the poor, his gen- erous hospitality, and the dignity of his deportment, tempered with the mildness of the amiable citizen, the agreeable, the interesting, and the instructive companion." During^ the war the o-reat defects of the articles of confederation were apparent; but upon the establish- ment of peace they became so manifest as to excite the apprehensions of the most intelligent and patriotic citizens throughout the different States. The legis- lature of New Jersey, as early as 1783, had sent a representation to the Congress, pointing out some of these defects, and containing the most just and en- lightened views respecting a federal compact, in ad- vance, indeed, of those then generally prevailing. 6 82 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. The J especially objected to the articles by which the reo-ulation of trade and ccmmerce was committed to the several States within their respective jurisdictions. They say, "We are of opinion that the sole and ex- clusive power of regulating the trade of the United States with foreign nations ought to be clearly vested in the Congress ; and that the revenue arising from all duties and customs imposed thereon, ought to be appropriated to the building, equipping, and manning a navy for the protection of the trade and defense of the coasts, and to such other public and general pur- poses, as to the Congress shall seem proper, and for the common benefit of the States." Several other defects were pointed out, the most important of which was that the vacant and unpatented lands, commonly called the crown lands, within the limits of the States, which had been conquered hy the prosperous issue of a war undertaken for the general defense and in- terest of the confederating colonies, were not author- ized to be disposed of for defraying the expenses of the war and other public and general purposes. After various efforts in the Confederate Congress to induce the States to give their delegates authority to grant additional powers to that body, Virginia took the lead in calling a convention to propose amend- ments, which resulted in a meeting of commissioners from five States, of which New Jersey was one, in September, 1786. This convention recommended to the several States to send delegates to meet in Phil- adelphia in the succeeding May, and sent copies of its proceedings to the respective legislatures and to the Congress. Congress resolved that, in its opinion, such a convention should be held for " ^lie sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confedera- WILLIAM PATERSON. 83 tion, and reporting to Congress and the several legis- latures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union." The legislature of New Jersey approved the plan as early as November, 1786, and sent as commis- sioners David Brearly, chief justice ; William C. Hous- ton, William Paterson ; William Livingston, governor ; Abraham Clark, and Jonathan Dayton. Clark was prevented by ill health from attending ; the others, except Houston, took part in the proceedings, and eventually signed the constitution agreed upon. They were undoubtedly the first men of the State in char- acter and attainments ; and Paterson seems to have been their leader. Seldom, indeed, if ever, in the history of the world, has a body of men assembled superior in ability and acquirements to the conven- tion which met in Philadelphia in May, 1787, and concluded its labors by promulgating the Constitution of the United States on the seventeenth of the suc- ceeding September. General Washington, a com- missioner from Virginia, was unanimously chosen as president. Two plans were submitted to the convention, which for some time formed the basis of the discussion. One by Edmond Randolph of Virginia was referred to as the Virginia plan, and proposed in substance a na- tional government, and received the support of the larger States. The other was offered some days later by Paterson, was called the New Jersey plan, and was substantially concurred in by the smaller States, of which New York was then reckoned one, the others 84 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. being Delaware and Maryland. The object of this plan was to preserve the state sovereignties, while sufficient power was given to the general government to enable it to provide for the common defense and general welfare. This plan appears to have received the support of all the commissioners from New Jersey. The result was a most happy compromise, by which there was formed what was properly termed by Mr. Ellsworth, a " general government, partly federal and partly national." His remarks on this question were forcible and just. He had moved that in the senate each State should have an equal vote, and said : " This will secure tranquillity, and will make it ef- fectual ; and it will meet the objections of the larger States. In taxes, they will have a proportional weight in the first branch of the legislature. If the great States refuse this plan, we shall be forever sepa- rated. If all the States are to exist, they must neces- sarily have an equal vote in the general government. Small communities, wdien associating with greater, can only be supported by an equality of votes. I have always found in my reading and experience, that in all societies the governors are ever rising into power." After a full and earnest discussion in which the leading men from the different States participated, the question of representation, the most vital of all, was referred to a committee of one from each State, in which Paterson represented New Jersey, which agreed upon a report that was finally adopted in substance, and thus New Jersey preserved her integrity ; and the plan received the sanction of all the States, a result which there is no reason to believe would have fol- lowed any plan radically different. Mr. Paterson "WILLIAM PATERSON. 85 said emphatically and truly in the convention, " thir- teen sovereign and independent States could never form one nation, and that New Jersey would not have sent delegates to any assembly that would destroy the equalities or rights of the States." Fortunately a spirit of harmony and conciliation overruled the final deliberations of the convention, and the plan adopted received the signature of thirty-eight out of the fifty-five delegates, including all that attended from New Jersey. A few of those who did not sign were in favor of it, but were necessarily absent when it was finally adopted. The convention recommended that the constitution should be committed to State conventions, and that as soon as the same should be ratified by the requisite number, namely, nine States, Congress should take measures for the election of a president, and fix the time for commencing proceedings under it. This was complied with ; the State of New Hampshire making the ninth having ratified it, in June, 1788, Congress passed an act that electors of president and vice- president would be chosen on the first Wednesday of January, 1789, and that on the first Wednesday, the fourth of March ensuing, the new government should commence. There was no organized opposition to the adoption of this constitution in New Jersey, it being very ap- parent that the Anti-federalists, as they were then called, were few and without influence. It may be remarked in passing, that for several years the term Federalist was used to designate a person favorable to the new constitution, the government it established being commonly and rightly considered as a federal go \^ernment, although it would seem now that many 86 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. are disposed to overlook this important feature of the system; and to regard its national characteristics as most entitled to favor. When the two opposing political parties came to be fully developed during the administration of John Adams, his supporters called themselves Federalists, and those favorable to the election of Jefferson called themselves Republicans, the term Democrats being applied to them by their opponents, but soon adopted and still used by the party claimed still to exist under that name. New Jersey was the third State to ratify the new constitution. The convention elected for the purpose met on the eleventh day of December, 1789, and re- solved unanimously to ratify and confirm it. The members of the convention then marched in pro- cession to the court-house, and the ratification was proclaimed to the people. Subsequently several amendments were proposed by Congress, and ten were ratified by three fourths of the States in 1791, and another, the eleventh, in 1798, produced by a decision of the supreme court, that citizens could maintain suits against the States. The twelfth was ratified in 1804. Three others, making fifteen in all, which grew out of the late rebellion, have been since rati- fied. Some of the provisions of these last are plainly desirable amendments, while others are much more questionable. But however that may be, it is cer- ■ tainly greatly to be lamented that it should have been thought necessary to secure the assent of the requisite number of States by a species of coercion now for the first time adopted. It will be a new experience in political afilxirs, if in the end the fed- eral government is not sensibly weakened, instead of receivino; streno-th from changes so introduced. WILLIAM PATERSON. 87 Mr. Paterson was chosen by the legislature of New Jersey, as he well deserved to be, one of the senators of the United States ; Jonathan Elmer, of Bridgeton, Cumberland County, being his colleague. He first took his seat on the nineteenth day of March, 1789; but a quorum did not appear, so that the body could be organized, until the sixth day of April. He was, as a matter of course, a prominent member of that body. He was one of the tellers, to count the electoral votes, and chairman of the com- mittee to prepare the certificates of the election, and to certify the elected officers. His most important position was as a member of the committee on the judiciary, upon whom the important duty was de- volved of giving efficacy to the federal courts. No act of the first Congress was more important or more difficult to frame than the act to establish the judi- cial system of the United States. It required, and happily it received, the earnest attention and deliber- ation of men fully acquainted with the judicial sys- tems of Great Britain and the several colonies of America, imbued with sound principles of jurispru- dence, and who perfectly understood the purposes designed by the necessarily general language of the constitution ; and they produced a system not in- deed perfect, but the substantial principles of which still regulate this department of the government, and still command the approbation of those best qualified to understand its merits. While it properly maintains the supremacy of the laws of the United States, within their designated sphere, it carefully ab- stains from unnecessary interference with the judicial tribunals of the States. In a speech delivered by Mr. Paterson, advocating the law proposed, he gave »» REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. a definition of the federal government, in hamiony with the sentiments he had expressed in the conven- tion. He asks : "" What are we ? Of what do we con- sist? Of what materials compounded? We are a number of free republics, confederated together and forming a social league. United we have a ]iead, sep- arately we have a head, each operating on different objects. When we act in union, we move in one sphere ; when we act separately we act in another, totally distinct and apart. God grant they may always remain so." Although he here spoke of the Union, as for some purposes a league, the .provisions of the act he was advocating, which gives to the supreme court power to revise and annul the decis- ions of the highest courts of the several States, in cases involving the construction of the constitu- tion or laws of the Union, prove that he gave no sanction to the unfounded inference that the States held a reserved right to secede from the Union at their own pleasure. Upon the death of Governor Livingston, in 1790, Paterson was chosen by the legislature to succeed him, and resigned his commission as senator to ac- cept the appointment of governor and chancellor of the State. In this important office he met the just expectations of the people, and was at the end of his first year reelected without serious opposition. While he held this appointment, he commenced a work which he continued for several years, after he left it for another, and which he finished in 1800, and for the accomplishment of which he proved to be especially qualified. In November, 1792, a law was passed, providing that his Excellency, William Pater- son, should be appointed and authorized to collect WILLIAM PATERSON. 89 and reduce into proper form, under certain heads or titles, all the statutes of England or Great Britain, which before the Revolution were practiced, and which by the constitution extend to this State ; as also all the public acts which had been passed by the legislature of this State, both before and after the Revolution, which remain in force, which said bills, as soon as the whole should be completed, he should lay before the legislature, to be by them, if approved, enacted into laws. Other provisions of the act were that he should cause the work, when completed, to be printed, and comprise in it the titles of all acts that had been passed. The design evidently was, to have a compilation similar to that previously so well prepared by Samuel Allinson, and that, besides add- ing all the new acts, he should embrace in it all the British acts in force that should be deemed important for the judiciary system of the State. This important work he entered upon, departing, however, from the plan at first proposed, probably as well because his duties as judge soon interrupted his labors, and because it was more convenient to the legislature to act upon the newly prepared stat- utes from time to time, rather than to undertake such a work at one sitting. He continued to revise, and, so far as necessary, to remodel the British stat- utes proper to be reenacted, during the succeeding five or six years ; and they were from time to time enacted by the legislature as a part of the statute law of the State. By an act passed in 1793, he was au- thorized to modify and alter the criminal law, and was directed to reduce the said criminal law into proper form under certain heads or titles, and to lay the same before the legislature, to be by them, if approved, 90 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. enacted into laws. In 1795 it was enacted that he be authorized, according to his discretion, to correct, alter, and modify such of the statutes and laws which he had not reported on, and also to draft and pro- pose for the consideration and approbation of the legislature such bills as should appear to him con- ducive to the interests of the State, and to the com- pletion of the revision and system of the laws of this State intended by the act, and that he be requested to translate the Latin and French terms as near as may be into English. He appears to have ceased to report any new laws after 1798. In that year it was enacted that the sum of sixliundred pounds be paid to him to defray the expense of printing; and another act, passed in 1799, provided that he might omit the titles of acts passed, and insert only such as he should deem necessary and proper. Upon the completion of his revision of the British statutes, an act was passed which enacted that there- after no statute or act of parliament of England or of Great Britain shall have force or authority within this State, or be considered as a law thereof. This section appears in the draft prepared by him (for fortunately all his drafts have been preserved and bound together), but another section was added, which he did not prepare. It enacted " that no adjudication, decision, or opinion made, had, or given in any court of law or equity in Great Britain, or any cause therein depending, nor any printed or written report or statement thereof, nor any compilation, commen- tary, digest, lecture, treatise, or other explanation or exposition of the common law, made, had, given, written, or composed since the fourth day of July, WILLIAM PATERSON. 91 1770, in Great Britain, shall be received or read in any court of law or equity of this State, as law, or evidence of the law, or elucidation or explanation thereof, any practice, opinion, or sentiment of the said courts of justice, used, entertained, or expressed to the contrary hereof notwithstanding." The intensity of the language employed in this act shows the strong repugnance to everything British which had been produced by the war. It was somewhat modified the next year, but in 1801 it was reenacted, and an addi- tional section added, requiring that any attorney who should offer to read any such book should be deprived of his license. And so this extraordinary law re- mained until 1818, when, through the influence of William Griffith and Joseph Hopklnson, who were that year members of the Assembly, and of Gov- ernor Williamson, it was repealed. An examination of the statutes Mr. Paterson com- piled, to take the place of those English statutes which had been considered in force before the Revolu- tion, will convince any lawyer of the care he took to make them complete, and to preserve, so far as cir- cumstances would allow, the old terms, most of which had undergone judicial examination. The first act of this kind that appears, which the legislature passed into a law in November, 1794, is the act re- specting amendments and jeofails (Pat. R. 126). This act embodies provisions from not less than fifteen English statutes, from the time of 11 Edward III. to George IT., and still continues on our statute books unaltered. Subsequent statutes and decisions have, however, greatly extended the power of the courts to order amendments. Most of the acts passed by the legislature from 92 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 1704 to 1798, are transcripts of English statutes, sometimes much improved, but generally retaining the orig;inal lano-uasre, the construction of which had been settled by adjudications, which were thus adapted to our circumstances, and still continue an important part of our legal system. Very difficult questions, in regard to what British statutes applied to the colony, had from time to time arisen. One, and perhaps the best opinion, was that none passed after a local legislature was established in 1702, were in force here, unless the colonies were expressly named ; but the courts did not strictly adhere to this principle. In some cases a local statute had declared that all Eng^lish statutes concerning;: a certain matter should be in force in this province, as, for instance, the statutes concerning the limitations of actions passed in 1727-8 (Allinson, 72), but many important ones were left apparently to the discretion of the courts. It may be safely said, that when he completed the work assigned him, and included all the public acts in the book entitled " Laws of the State of New Jer- sey, revised and published under the authority of the legislature, by William Paterson," he completed a system of statute law more perfect than that of any other State, and thus laid the foundation of a body of laws which has continued to this day to deserve the highest praise. The act to regulate the practice of courts of the law, passed in 1799 (Pat. 353), which took the place of the crude system known as Clark's Practice, shows the hand of a master. Instead of at- tempting a perfectly new system, he wisely took, as his principal model, the j^ractice of the English court of k.ng's bench, which had been always the practice of the courts of New Jersey, and introduced amend- WILLIAM PATERSON. 93 ments which made it more suitable to our altered cir- cumstances, many of which were soon adopted in Eng- land. It may be doubted whether many of the modern alterations of this system have been any improve- ment of it. He also greatly improved the practice of the court of chancery, of which he was himself the judge, by the act respecting the court of chancery, re- ported soon after his appointment, but not passed into a law until June, 1799. Upon the completion of his work, Paterson was paid the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars for his services, and two editions of the compilation were published, one in large folio, and the other a large octavo, which were used during the ensuing twenty years. In 1811 Governor Bloomfield, by authority of the legislature, compiled and published the public acts passed after Paterson's edition, with an index and the titles of the private acts. In 1819 a com- mittee of the legislature were authorized to employ a fit person to examine, compile, and prepare all the acts in force, and to prepare and* report to the next leo-islature such laws as he should deem advisable for consolidating into one act the same subject mat- ter, with such corrections and amendments as he should think proper to recommend. The committee selected Judge Pennington, and he undertook the duty, so that the legislature of 1819-20, which had three sittings for the purpose, having completed the revision, authorized Samuel L. Southard and Charles Ewing, Esqrs., to superintend and direct the printing of the same. In 1821 this compilation was published as "Laws of the State of New Jersey, revised and published under the authority of the legislature," and has since been quoted by the judges as Revised Laws. 94 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. In 1838, Mr. Harrison, by authority of the legislature, published a compilation of the public laws passed since 1820, with a reference to the private laws, and a very full index. After the adoption of the new constitution in 1845, Peter D. Vroom, Henry W. Green, and Stacy G. Potts were authorized to revise the laws and reduce them into one, so as to conform them to the present constitution, and lay them before the legislature, provided that no change should be made in the phraseology or distribution of the sec- tions that had been the subject of judicial decisions, by which the construction thereof, as established by such decisions, might be affected or impaired. After- wards these revisors were authorized to superintend the printing of the completed work, which was pub- lished in 1847, and has been since quoted as Revised Statutes. The index, it was understood, was prepared by Mr. Potts. The Digests since published as Elmer's and Nixon's Digests, of which the fourth edition is now in use, were prepared without any previous sanction of the legislature, but have been since pub- lished by its authority. In March, 1793, Governor Paterson was nominated by President Washington as a justice of the supreme court of the United States, an office which he held the remainder of his life. This appointment, con- sidering the source of it, and the means of knowing his fitness for it afforded by the part he took in the proceedings of the constitutional convention, over which Washington presided, must be considered as a flattering testimony of his fitness. It seldom happens, indeed, that the executive has such an opportunity of judging for himself of the qualifications of those he appoints to important offices as happened in this WILLIAM PATERSON. 95 case. It has been stated that Washington, when he nominated anotlier of the judges, supposed he was appointing an entirely different man, and was much surprised when he discovered his error. There beino- at that time no such division of judicial districts as now prevails, the judges travelled from Maine to Georgia. When Paterson held the federal court at Richmond, Virginia, it happened that some foolish official who had control of the bell in the State House, refused to allow the marshal to have it rung for that court. The judge advised his officer to procure a tin horn and have it blown at the proper times, and this was done. The circumstances being made known to the governor he promptly interfered and ordered that the bell should be put at the control of the marshal. The judge, when informed of this change, sent his thanks to the governor, but said he had got along very well with his horn, and continued to have it blown as lono; as the court sat. The opinions delivered by Paterson while a judge of the supreme court, so far as they have been re- ported, will be found in Dallas' and Cranch's Reports ; and it is perhaps sufficient to say that he fully sus- tained his reputation. In the case of Yanhorne's Lessee vs. Dorrance, tried in 1795 before the United States circuit court for Pennsylvania, which occupied fifteen davs, and involved the title to land in the val- ley of the Wyoming in Pennsylvania, claimed by the plaintiff under a title derived from Penn, and by the defendant under a title from Connecticut, fortified by a deed purporting to be from Indians, and by an act of the legislature of Pennsylvania, he delivered a very elaborate and manifestly correct charge in flivor of the plaintiff The main reliance of the counsel 96 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. for the defendant was on the act of Assembly for quieting the Connecticut claimants, which he held to be contrary to the constitution of that State, and therefore invalid. He also presided in the trial of several. of the persons charged with treason in resist- ing the authority of the United States during what was called the Whiskey Insurrection, who were con- victed, but afterwards pardoned. It is scarcely possible to overestimate the impor- tance of the questions that have been presented to the supreme court for its decision, from its first ses- sion to the present day ; and it is a subject of great gratification that, however individuals may have dis- sented from particular opinions, or however frequently the judges may have differed among themselves, as from the nature of the matters submitted to their jurisdiction, so commonly more or less involving questions of policy, was inevitable, the general result has been so beneficial. A recent decision, holding one of the most important laws ever passed by Con- gress, so far as it attempts to authorize the payment of existing debts in anything but gold and silver to be contrary to the constitution, and therefore void, if it satisfies the sober second thous-ht of the leadino; minds of the country, as there is every reason to expect, will do more to establish the credit of the nation for all future time than could have been ef- fected in any other mode, and if, on the contrary, the lapse of time and of events shall prove it to be erro- neous, there will be found no insuperable difficulty in establishing a different doctrine by a direct amend- ment of the constitution, or by the reversal of an improvident opinion.^ 1 Since this paragraph was penned, pointed to be committed on the subject, two new judges, known when ap- have hastened to unite with the prior WILLIAM PATERSON. 97 In the case of Penhallow vs. Doane's Administrators, (Dallas R. 80), Avliich grew out of the proceedings in a court of admiralty of the State of New Ilamp- .shire, and upon an appeal to a court established by Conii-ress during the confederation, Judiz-e Paterson delivered an able opinion, a part of which I quote, because of its bearing upon questions respecting the nature of our complex government, which have re- cently occasioned so much difficulty : — " Much has been said respecting the powers of Congress. On this part of the subject, the counsel on both sides displayed great ingenui^ty and erudition, and that too in a style of eloquence equal to the magnitude of the question. The powers of Congress during the war were revolutionary in their nature, arising out of events ade- quate to every national emergency, and coextensive with the object obtained. Congress was the genei-al, supreme, and controlling coun- cil of the nation ; the centre of union, the centre of force, and the sun of the political system. To determine what their powers were, we must inquire what powers they exercised. Congress raised armies, fitted out a navy, and prescribed niles for their government. Congress conducted all military operations, both by land and sea. Congress emitted bills of credit, and sent ambassadors and made treaties. Congress commissioned privateers to cruise against the enemy ; directed what vessels should be liable to capture, and pre- scribed rules for the distribution of prizes. These high acts of sovereignty were submitted to, acquiesced in, and approved by the people of America. In Congress were vested, because by Congress were exercised, with the ajaprobation of the people, the rights and powers of war and peace. In every government, whether it consists of many states or of a few ; or whether it be of a federal or con- solidated nature, there must be a supreme power or will : the rights of war and peace are component parts of this supremacy, and inci- dental thereto is the question of prize. The question of prize grows out of the nature of the thing. If it be asked, In whom, during our Revolutionary War, was lodged, and by whom was exercised, this minoritv of the court in overrulinnr a constitutional Icnislation of state legis- .* . . . deliberate opinion ; and have thus given Jatures, it cannot be reli: a man of strono- intellect and a dili- gent student, he became an excellent surgeon, well informed in politics, and an active influential man to the end of his life. Notwithstanding the appearances of dissatisfaction in the journal, Joseph Bloomfield and Ebenezer Ehner were personal and political friends during their joint lives. Early in November the troops marched to Ticon- deroga ; here Captain Bloomfield was appointed judge advocate of the Northern Army. At this post JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 121 there was much exposure and sickness, the cap- tain beinii; for some time ill. On the 25th of Decem- ber he left for home. Shortly after, he was promoted to be major of the third regiment. It is stated in the register of the Cincinnati of New Jersey, that he was wounded, but upon what occasion, I have not been able to ascertain. His reo-iment was at the batr tie of the Brandywine, and actively engaged there, and also at Monmouth. Sometime in 1778 he ap- pears to have resigned his commission in the army. In the fall of that year he was chosen clerk of the Assembly, and he was for several years register of the court of admiralty. Upon the organization of the Society of Cincinnati in 1783 he was enrolled as one of the members; in 1794 he was elected the vice-president, and in 1808 the president. In 1783, upon the resignation of William Pater- son, he was elected by the joint meeting attorney- general of the State ; was reelected in 1788, and re-' signed in 1792, being then succeeded by Aaron D. Woodruff During the time he held this office, courts of oyer and terminer were held in the differ- ent counties, usually twice a year, but in some only once, and by virtue of a special commission issued by the governor, which designated the judges who were to hold it, commonly including two justices of the supreme court ; and these courts had their own clerks, who kept records of their proceedings, many of which have not been preserved. The attorney- general attended such of these courts and the courts of quarter sessions as he conveniently could, and having only a nominal salary of thirty pounds a year, derived his support from the fees allowed, which were twenty-five shillings for a conviction in a capi- 122 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. tal case, and fifteen shillings in other cases, and one fourth more for services in king's cases, than other at- torneys for like services. As costs were then allowed to be taxed for motions, etc., when there was an ac- quittal, as well as in cases of conviction, the remune- ration of a prosecuting attorney in criminal cases probably averaged quite as much then as now, allow- ing for the difference in the value of money. For the courts which the attorney-general did not attend in person, he was accustomed to appoint deputies. Soon after his retirement from the army, Bloom- field married Miss Mary Mcllvaine, a daughter of Dr. William Mcllvaine of Burlington, and sister (I believe) of Joseph Mcllvaine, Esq. He settled in that place, and made it his home when not absent in the public service. During his life he was much re- spected as a man of integrity, and great courtesy of manners, "benevolent in little things," as it is termed most happily by Chesterfield. He was mayor of the city several years, and lived in the style of a gentle- man of fortune. In 1783 he was appointed register of the court of admiralty, established by the State. In 1793 he was chosen one of the trustees of Prince- ton College, a place which he resigned when he be- came ex-officio president of the board as governor ; and in 1819 he was chosen anew, holding the office until his decease. He was a general of militia, and in 1794 took the field as commander of a brigade of militia, called into service to quell the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, proceeding with the troops into the immediate neighborhood of Pitts- burg, and accomplishing the object intended with- out bloodshed. In 1792 he was appointed by the legislature one of the presidential electors, and gave JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 123 his vote with his associates for Washington and . Adams. In 1796 he was not appointed an elector, perhaps because thus early he had shown that he was not favorable to the election of Adams, the Federal candidate. During; his residence in Burlino;ton he was an active member and president of the " New Jersey Society for the Abolition of Slavery." This society was very different from those abolition societies which have sprung up in modern times, and may be truly stated to have been fonatical in their character ; whose benevolence has been justly characterized as " a benevolence of hate," who for the attainment of their object did not hesitate to revile the Christian Church, and, to use their own language, "spit upon the constitution" that protected them ; and who were permitted by the supreme ruler of the universe to accomplish a good end by unholy means. And this I say to record my protest against one of the most com- mon errors into which follible men are prone to Ml, that the end sanctifies the means. The societies of 1780 took no measures to aid the slaves in escaping from their masters, but confined themselves to pro- tectinsr them from abuse, and to aiding their manu- mission by legal proceedings. Writs of habeas cor- pus were sued out, and many negroes claimed as slaves were declared by the supreme court of the State to be free ; indeed, it appears by a pamphlet published by the society, that it was held that a mere promise of the master to free his slave, was sufficient. These decisions probably produced the act of 1798, regulating slavery, and prescribing a formal mode of manumission, which remained in force until the act of 1804 altered it in part, and provided for the 124 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. gradual abolition of slavery. In 1794, several of the societies met at Philadelphia, Bloomfield being one of the representatives of the Jersey society, and adopted resolutions and addresses strongly objecting to the continuance of slavery, and advocating its speedy abolition. Whatever may have been his previous leaning, General Bloomfield, in 1801, took a decided stand on the side of the Republicans, as a supporter of Mr. Jefferson, and presided at a meeting of that party, held at a place then called Slabtown, now Jackson- ville, near Mount Holly, and afterwards when elected governor, was called by his violent opponents, who accused him of being a deserter, the " Slabtown governor." The charge of desertion was no more applicable to him than to a majority of his polit- ical friends. They had great reverence for the vir- tues and judgment of Washington, and so long as he remained at the head of affairs, and indeed during his life, were reluctant to oppose any measure he was led to sanction, even when thev thous:ht he had fol- lowed unsafe counselors. But when the party calling themselves Federalists became more and more violent and proscriptive, as they did during the presidency of Adams, it was to be expected that many of the true friends of well regulated liberty would desert them. It appears that Bloomfield, as one of a committee of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, Colonel Ogden and General Giles being the others, reported an address to President John Adams, on the fourth of July, 1798, which was unanimously adopted, in which they address him, as they say, " for the purpose of expressing our entire satisfliction with his administra- tion of the government, and in particular as it relates JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 12i5 to the injuries and insults wliicli had been received from the French Republic, as also of making assur- ance of our readiness again to take the field in obe- dience to any call of our country, in vindication of its national honor, and in support of that independ- ence, for the establishment of which we patiently en- dured the toils, hardships, and da.ngers of an eight years' war." The main object of this address was to express their resentment of the arrogant conduct of France, and to show their willino;ness as soldiers, agjain to take the field. Many of those who ranged themselves on the republican or democratic side, were no doubt car- ried away with an undue favor for the leaders of the French Revolution ; but this was not the case with all, and probably not even of a majority of them. And it must be remembered that those justly ob- noxious measures, the sedition and alien laws, had not then been passed, nor had Hamilton exposed the weakness inherent in the character of John Adams, as he afterwards did. It is certain that a political change had become in- evitable at the opening of the present centurj', and in the providence of God, a man was raised up, en- dowed with the oj)inions and the talents necessary to lead the movement. The best abused politician the country has produced, was certainly Thomas Jeffer- son. Whatever opinion we may now form of his polit- ical principles, — and it must be admitted that like most great reformers he held some of them in ex- cess, as for instance, when he wrote, '• God forbid we should ever be twenty years without a rebellion ; what country can preserve its liberties, if rulers are not warned from time to time that people preserve 126 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. the spirit of resistance," — he was no demagogue, but a true patriot, who thoroughly believed the doctrines he inculcated, and did not profess them merely to win the popular applause. From the beginning to the end of his career he never faltered, but adhered to his opinions with undeviating firmness. This obvious trait of his character, joined to his great influence over the opinions of others by his conversation and his writings, for he never shone as a speaker, was in- deed Avhat made him so extremely obnoxious to those from whose hands he snatched the reins of power; who hated him because they feared him, and knew he could not be won by flattery, nor terrified by menaces. The other great man of that day, and in some respects the superior man of the two, was Alexander Hamilton. He favored a strong government, and re- lied especially upon the influence of the money power of the country to secure it. As is so well stated by Mr. Van Buren, in his work entitled '• Inquiry into the Oritrin and Pros-ress of Political Parties in the United States," the wonder is, considering their origin and training, that Jefierson was not the aristocrat and Hamilton the democrat. But the contrary was the fact. Neither of them were Anti-federalists, in the sense of being opposed to the adoption of the consti- tution prepared by the convention ; but they were, both of them, dissatisfied with some of its features for opposite reasons. Hamilton did perhaps more than any other man to secure its ratification, but he doubt- ed its success, and became the acknowledged leader of those favorable to such a construction of it, and to such measures as it was supposed would strengthen the government formed under it. Every implied power was to be stretched to the uttermost. His JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 127 mind dwelt habitually upon great ideas ; but at the same time he was, as described by his friend, Governeur Morris, "more a theoretic than a practical man." He said to Mr. Jefferson, " it is my opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that, the present government is not that which will answer the ends of society, by giving stability and protection to its rights, and it will probably be found expedient to go into the British form. However, since we have under- taken the experiment, I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be." He wms re- garded as the leader of the Federal party by most of its prominent members (Mr. x\dams and a few of his friends excepted), was freely applied to for advice, and gave it quite as freely when it was not asked as when it was. As late as 1802, in a letter to Morris, he designates the constitution as " a frail and w^orth- less fabric." Mr. Jefferson, giving an account of his going to Philadelphia, after his return from France, to take upon himself the office of secretary of state, says : " The president received me cordially, and my col- leagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently with welcome. The courtesies of dinner parties given me, as a stranger newdy arrived among them, placed me at once in familiar society. But I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversation filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over repub- lican governments, was evidently the favorite senti- ment." This sort of preference was by no means universal amono; the Federalists. Most of them were not only devoted, honest patriots, but believers in a republic. Many, however, had no faith in such a 128 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. government. My classical teacher, when I was a youth, often told me if I lived to old age, I should live to come under the dominion of a kintr. As I have said, a change was inevitable ; a social as well as a political change. The influence of the kingly government under which the colonial subjects so long lived, was more or less apparent in all the arrangements of society. Laws of etiquette as to the preference certain classes were entitled to in going to a dinner table, and in composing social parties, had great influence over many minds. Even our well to do fiirmers considered the laborers they employed as an entirely different class, and some of them were opposed to their being taught even to read and write. I well remember that this sentiment was openly ex- pressed by more than one in my boyhood. Every effort was made during several of the first years of the conflict by the federal families to put those of the other party under a social ban ; and in this way the ftimilies of brothers and sisters were sometimes so divided as to cease all friendly intercourse. The extent to which the change was carried by the ultimate success of the democratic party, is dwelt upon by Goodrich, a Federalist himself, in his recollec- tions of a lifetime. He says, " The change in manners had no doubt been silently going on for some time ; but it was not distinctly visible to common eyes, till the establishment of the new constitution. Powder and cues, cocked hats and broad-brhns, white top- boots, breeches, and shoe-buckles, signs and symbols of a generation a few examples of which still lingered among us, finally departed ; while short hair, panta- loons, and round hats with narrow brims, became the established costume of men of all classes. Jefferson I JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 129 was, or affected to be, very simple in his taste, dress, and manners. He wore pantaloons instead of breeches, and adopted leather shoe-strings in plac9 of buckles. These and other similar things, were praised by his admirers, as signs of his democracy ; a certain coarseness of manner, supposed to be en- couraged by the leaders passed to the led. Rude- ness and irreverence were at length deemed demo- cratic, if not democracy." One of the Federal papers of the day attempted to ridicule Mr. Jefferson, be- cause he sometimes rode on horseback, unattended, to the capital, and hitched his horse to a post, like kny other citizen. The ascendancy of General Hamilton over the Federal party, composed of the educated and busi- ness men of the day, was the result of his intellectual greatness. That sagacious observer, Talleyrand, in conversation with two Americans, Mr. Ticknor and Mr. Van Buren, spoke of him as the ablest man he became acquainted with in America, and was not sure that he might not add without injustice, or that he had known in Europe. But he could brook no opposition. When a very young man, much trusted by Washington as a part of his military family, he took exception to something the general did, and left the situation. In 1793, when secretary of the treasury, he announced to the President, that con- siderations relative both to public service and his own dignity had brought his mind to the conclusion to resign his office, at the close of the next session of Congress. In 1800 he published, in his own name, a letter " concerning the public conduct and character of John Adams," which undoubtedly did much to prevent his reelection, and secure the success of jNIr. 9 130 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. Jefferson. What would have been the result had the latter died in 1804, instead of Hamilton, who sacrificed his life to his fear of tarnishing his name as a soldier, in his duel with Burr, we cannot now pretend to con- jecture. The great leader of the one party was taken away, while the head of the other was spared to extreme old age. The party thus despoiled soon lost its hold upon the affections of the people, and after an unavailing contest of twenty years, ceased to exist, while the other grew in strength, and so impressed its principles upon the public mind, that durilig man}^ years, a candidate for the place of chief ma(>:istrate of the nation deemed no recommenda- tion to the people could be stronger than the an- nouncement that his political principles were those of Jefferson. And now the party that rules the coun- try has not only adopted the old name of Repub- lican, but carries many of its old maxims and prin- ciples to excess, as in England the Tories, under the lead of D'Israeli, lately endeavored to outbid their old opponents the Whigs and Radicals, by introdu- cing an extent of popular suffrage from which the others had shrunk. An objection to Mr. Jefferson, strongly urged by many good people, was, that he was an infidel, and to elevate him to the presidency would be equivalent to a banishment of the Bible and all its precepts. I have now in my possession a file of letters, addressed to my lather, as a man known to have great rever- ence for religious things, from several clergymen of his acquaintance, strongly adjuring him to abstain from the support of so bad a man. He was not, how- ever, without the support of several excellent minis- ters, who agreed with him in adhering to Jefferson ; JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 131 not indeed so much for the sake of the man, but for the sake of the great principles they believed to be involved. And the folly of the demonstrations indulged in by the good men wedded to-the Federal party was shown, when in their old age the rival candidates corresponded in friendly terms, and it was found their religious opinions were curiously identi- cal. Both had a reverence for God the Creator ; but both rejected Christ as a divine mediator. One of Mr. Jefferson's innovations upon what were considered the monarchical forms introduced by Wash- ington, led to bad results, and will sooner or later oblige some president, sufficiently bold and strong in the affections of the people, to return to the first usag-e. In a conversation I had with Mr. Buchanan during the last year of his presidency, when I met him at Bedford Springs, he introduced the subject, and declared very emphatically that it would be impossible for the President much longer to per- mit every applicant for office to appeal to him per- sonally, as was now the practice. Several of the presidents, it is believed, were literally killed by this pressure upon them. Even in Mr. Jefferson's time, it was not thought decent to introduce the subject, unless he himself invited it ; but he broke down the barriers of reserve, which were the only effectual guards to prevent it. I have always understood that the present practice began with Monroe. It would seem that General Grant is making some effort to correct this evil, but apparently with bat indifferent success. He has stirred up the hostility of those senators who desire to retain their accustomed pat- ronage ; but it remains to be seen whether he will persevere, and establish a much needed reform. 132 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. That the objects had in view by the democratic republicans, in their opposition to the party m power, were in the highest degree wise and benevo- lent, will be perceived by a recurrence to their pub- lished reasons. In an address by Ebenezer Elmer, published in the spring of 1801, he writes of the Re- publican party : — "They have been perversely abused. Because they talk of equal rights, they are accused of holding a pernicious leveling prin- ciple. But the representation is not correct. They do not even dream of destroying the natural inequality among men, for they know that this is" wholly impossible ; nor would they annihilate the inequality which arises from different acquirements, for this would be unjust. But the precise idea is, that so far as political mstitu- tions are concerned, in the formation and regulation of society, a moral and legal equality should be established, as far as practicable, as a kind of "counterpoise to the natural and physical inequalities which continually exist." Whatever may have been the controlling motives that influenced General Bloomfield, it is certain that he became an undeviating adherent of the demo- cratic party. This party did not succeed in New Jersey, at the contested election held in 1800, in electing a majority of the members of the legislature, who at' that time held in their own hands the ap- pointments of presidential electors, and gave the vote of the State for Adams, although a majority of the voters of the State were democratic, and elected their candidates to Congress. In the fall of 1801, the leo-islature was democratic, and at a joint meet- ing held on the thirty-first day of October of that ye'ar, Joseph Bloomfield received thirty votes for governor, against twenty cast for Richard Stockton. In 1802 the parties were equally divided, so that on the first ballot Bloomfield received twenty-six JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 133 votes and Stockton twenty-six ; and on the second ballot there was a like result; on the third ballot Aaron Ogden was substituted for Stockton, but there was no change in the vote. An attempt was made to compromise, the Federalists offering, in a written correspondence between committees of the two par- ties, to allow the Democrats to take their choice of electing the governor or the senator, whose place was also to be filled, if they would agree to give the other to the Federalists. But the Democrats, under the lead of William S. Pennington, afterwards gov- ernor, refused the proposition ; and the consequence was that the State had no governor during that year, the duties of the office being performed, agree- ably to the constitution, by the democratic vice-pres- ident of the council, John Lambert. The next year Bloomfield had thirty-three votes, and Richard Stock- ton seventeen; and in 1804 he had thirty-seven, and Stockton sixteen votes. Afterwards he was reelected up to 1812, without opposition. I have heard from one of the old lawyers, op- posed to him in politics, that when he first presided in the court of chancery he made a short address to those present, saying that he was a Republican, and did not desire to be addressed by the title of excel- lency. Mr. Samuel Leake, an old and rather eccen- tric lawyer, immediately rose and made him a formal address, with much earnestness and solemnity, say- ing : — " May it please your excellency : your excellency's predecessors were always addressed by the title ' your excellency,' and if your excellency please, the proper title of the governor of the State was and is your excellency ; I humbly pray, therefore, on my own behalf, and in behalf of the bar generally, that we may be permitted by your excellency's leave, to address your excellency, when sit- 134 EEmNISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. ting in the high court of chancery, by the ancient title of your ex- cellency." . The Federal lawyers did not give him credit for sincerity in the wish he expressed about his title. However that may have been, the title was contin- ued, and was never afterwards objected to. He sealed his letters, and some of his official documents, with his private seal, a very handsome coat of arms, an impression of which is afftxed to a commission as master in chancery, issued to my father. It cannot be said that Governor Bloomfield had high qualifications for the position of chancellor ; but it is believed that he was distinu:uished for Indus- try and probity, and that he succeeded in giving general satisfaction by his decrees. The business of the court of chancery considerably increased dur- ing the time he sat in that court; but none of the opinions delivered were reported until some years after his retirement. War was declared against Great Britain in May, 1812, and soon afterwards Bloomfield was appointed by President Madison a brigadier-general in the armv desio-ned for the invasion of Canada. His brio-- ade marched to Sackett's Harbor, and early in the spring of 1813 a part of his troops, under the com- mand of General Pike, crossed into that province, and made an attack on Fort George, but were re- pulsed, and General Pike was killed by the fall of stone * from the blown-up magazine. A nephew of the general, who was a lieutenant in the 15th regi- ment, originally commanded by Pike, was killed in that attack. But it does not appear that General Bloomfield ever gained any laurels as a military commander. With General Dearborn, like himself JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 135 an officer of reputation in the army of the Revolu- tion, he was soon withdrawn from active duty on the frontiers, and assigned to the connnand of a military district, whose head-quarters were at Philadelphia. He remained in the service to the end of the war. The blunders of the democratic administration, in the measures adopted and the men selected to carry on the war against Great Britain at the commence- ment of the conflict in 1812, can hardly be under- stood now. They were such, however, as were to be expected in the case of a nation which for thirty years had been directing its energies to the accumu- lation of wealth. They were the same in character, and produced very much by the same causes, as the disasters that befell the British army during the first year of the war against Russia in the Crimea. But beside these causes, it must be acknowledged that our president, James Madison, perhaps in many re- spects the ablest statesman our country has known, was singularly deficient in administrative ability. The qualification most needed by an American pres- ident — the ability to discern the capabilities of his subordinates — he was destitute of He commenced a war with a power the most dangerous for us to en- counter of any then in existence ; with a secretary of war who was as deficient in military knowledge and spirit as himself — a Dr. Eustis, of Massachusetts. And when his incapacity was fully demonstrated, he summoned to his aid John Armstrong, the author of the celebrated Newburgh letters, at the close of the Revolutionary War, who, whatever his talents, could not command and did not deserve the confidence of the country. The generals selected to command a newly raised army were old men, who, however 136 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. gallant as soldiers they may have been in their youth, had been too long engaged in peaceful pur- suits to enter late in life upon a new career as war- riors. As a secretary of state or a member of Con- gress, Mr. Madison was a far abler man than James K. Polk ; but the latter surrounded himself with a cabinet composed of the men best fitted for their sta- tions, and carried through the war against Mexico almost without a sino-le disaster. General Bloomfield was a worthy man, and a good governor ; but he was not the fit man to head the forces sent to invade Canada. Seldom, however, in the history of the world has a war so poorly waged ended so happily as our war with Great Britain. In my opinion it was a war that could not be avoided ; and was in part made necessary by the extent to which Mr. Jefferson had gone in his endeavors to avoid it, and by his neglect to provide against such a contingency. When the war waged in Europe ended, our enemy, although thus left to direct his whole force against us, was ex- hausted, and longed for peace. The people of Amer- ica, including the strongest advocates of the war, had had enough of it; and the administration was wise enough not to insist upon the formal abandonment by the British government of those pretensions and practices, in regard to the impressment of our sea- men, and the interference with our commerce which had produced the war, relying upon what proved to be a well-founded expectation, that the resistance we bad made would prevent their future recurrence. And to crown all, a splendid victory closed the con- flict, and won for us the respect of the world. With the war also ended the federal party. They had AARON OGDEN. 137 gone too far in their opposition, and could not retrace their steps. James Monroe was elected president by the vote of all the States but three; and in 1820 he was reelected with but a single dissentient elector, who voted for John Quincy Adams. General Bloomfield returned to his residence in Burlington, and in 1818 had the misfortune to lose his wife, with whom he had lived in unbroken har- mony and affection. A few years after he married again, a lady who survived him. In 1826 he was elected, on the general ticket nom- inated by the Democrats, a member of Congress, and was reelected in 1818, serving from March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1821. He was very appropriately placed at the head of the committee on revolutionary pen- sions, and introduced and carried through the bills granting pensions to the veteran soldiers of the Rev- olution and their widows. He died in 1825, the in- scription on his tomb recording simply the. truths that he was a " a soldier of the Revolution ; late gov- ernor of New Jersey ; a general in the army of the United States ; he closed a life of probity, benevo- lence, and public service, in the seventieth year of his age." Aaron Ogden, familiarly known and designated as Colonel Ogden through life, was governor one year, commencing in October, 1812. He was the greats grandson of Jonathan Ogden, who was one of the original associates of the Elizabethtown purchase, and who died in 1732, at the age of eighty-six. He had a son named Robert Ogden, and his son Robert, the father of Colonel Ogden, resided at the old borough of Elizabethtown, and, filled several offices of honor 138 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. and trust ; amono- others that of surroo^ate for the County of Essex. He was a member of the council, and several years speaker of the House of Assembly. Being appointed one of the delegates from the legis- lature of New Jersey, to the convention that met in New York, in 1765, to protest against the stamp act, he, with the chairman of the convention, refused to sign the protest and petition to the king and parlia- ment, upon the ground that it ought to be transmit- ted to the Provincial Assembl}^, and be presented to the o-overnment of Great Britain through them. This SO displeased his constituents, that he resigned his seat in the Assembly ; saying, in the address he de- livered on the occasion : " I trust Providence will, in due time, make the rectitude of my heart, and my in- violable affection to my country appear in a fair light to the world, and that my sole aim was the happiness of New Jersey." When the War of the Revolution commenced, he took a firm part on the side of freedom, and was one of the committee of vigilance for the town. His chil- dren were all ardent Whigs ; Robert Ogden, Junior, was a lawyer, and had a large practice, and was called the " honest lawyer." He was disabled by a fall in childhood, which prevented him from active service in the field ; but he was a quartermaster and com- missioner of stores, in which capacities he rendered good service, giving his time, talents, money, and credit freely, to supply the army. Matthias was ap- pointed lieutenant-colonel of the first regiment in the Jersey line, in December, 1775, and was wounded in storming the heights of Quebec, and distinguished throuo'hout the war as colonel of the regiment and brigadier-general by brevet. AARON OGDEN. 139 Towards the close of the Revolution, Robert Ogden, Senior, retired -to Sparta, in the County of Sussex, where he owned large tracts of land, and where he con- tinued a life of usefulness, to both church and state, until the year 1787, when he died at the full age of threescore and ten. His son Aaron was born in the year 1756, at Elizabethtown, and carefidly educated, having graduated at Princeton College in 1773, before he had attained the age of seventeen. After leaving- this institution he eno-aijred himself as an assistant to Mr. Francis Barber, who was the teacher of a cele- brated grammar school, at Mhich Judge Brockholts, Livingston, and Alexander Hamilton were pupils. But the times soon became too exciting to permit the quiet pursuits of literature. In the spring of 1777 both pupils and teacher entered the army. Ogden was appointed a lieutenant and paymaster in the first regiment, and continued in service to the termination of the war, as aid-de-camp, captain, and brigade major and inspector. This last named office, now abolished, was, during the Revolutionary War and long after- wards, the most important of the staff offices of the brigade. Near the close of his life, protracted to a good old age. Colonel Ogden had occasion to draw up an ac- count of his military services during the Revolution, in which he states with modest simplicity the particu- lars of the most important actions in which he partic- ipated, only differing from the official accounts in that he goes more into detail. His gallantry as a soldier, and his veracity as a man, were never questioned. In the winter of 1775-76, he entered a volunteer corps formed at Elizabethtown. Lord Sterling, who commanded a regiment of militia there, prepared an 140 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. expedition to take a large ship at sea, plying off Sandy Hook, while the Asia man-of-war, a ship of the line, was lying in the bay of New York, of which the volunteer company formed a part. They -em- barked in small crafts, boarded the ship, and made her their prize. She proved to be the Blue Mountain Val- lei/, of three hundred tons, loaded with coal, flour, and live stock for the British troops at Boston. This exploit was commended in a formal resolution of the Congress at Philadelphia. He was with his regiment, commanded by his brother, at the battle of the Brandy wine, in Septem- ber, 1777. The regiment was posted in advance, with directions to cross the river and commence the attack intended by General Washington, as soon as he should receive the orders to that effect. The colonel in his impatience sent Lieutenant Ogden to inform the general that everything was ready. He found him surrounded by his staff, but was informed that the intelligence he had received was contradictory, and he therefore did not give the expected order. It appeared that Hamilton had reconnoitered the enemy, and had informed the general correctly, that they were in full march towards his right, but at the same time an express arrived from General Sullivan, who had been placed on the right for the express purpose of observing the movements of Howe's army, stating that there were none of the enemy there. It was afterwards stated to Ogden by Colonel Morris, an aid of Sullivan's, that the scouts sent out by him had spent their time drinking at a tavern, and made a false report, upon the receipt of which Sullivan wrote his dispatch upon a drum-head. And owing very much to this circumstance, the British forces were AARON OGDEN. 141 enabled to turn the right of the American army, and win the battle. At Monmouth he received the personal direction of General Washington, at the most critical period of the engagement, to reconnoitre an important posi- tion, all the circumstances of which he has fully de- tailed in his memoir. Upon his report, Washington gave the order to advance, which determined the re- sult of the action. Durino; the movements which succeeded, Captain Ogden, as aid to General Maxwell, and as brigade major, had a large share in the com- mand of the brigade. At the battle of Springfield he greatly distinguished himself, by holding a very superior force of the enemy for some time in check ; and more particularly by his judicious disposition of the militia, who, at a late period of the engagement, were subjected to his command. In the following winter, Maxwell's brigade was quartered in Elizabethtown, in the immediate vicin- ity of the British army, when an attempt was made by General Grey, of that army, to surprise them, by an expedition which came over from Staten Island. While Major Ogden was sleeping in the same room with Maxwell, they were informed that one of the pickets had heard the rowing of boats. He volunteered to reconnoitre ; and approaching a house near the meadows, he observed a light ; slack- ing his pace, the night being very dark, he found himself all at once surrounded by British soldiers, and within reach of a sentinel, who ordered him to dismount. Determined at all hazards to alarm his troops, he immediately wheeled and put spurs to his horse, expecting a shot ; he received from another sentinel a thrust from a bayonet into his chest. He 142 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. had strength, however, to reach the garrison, about two miles distant, and gave the alarm. General Max- well's remark was, " The pitcher that goes oftenest down the well will come up broken at last," By proper attention and care, at his home, he recovered from this wound, which was a very dangerous one. His timely alarm prevented the enemy from doing any mischief While confined to his room he was frequently visited by the ladies of the town, ac- quainted with him from the days of his boyhood. One of the "on dits" of the place was, that upon the occasion of one of these visits he received a wound from one of Cupid's darts, deeper and more lasting than that inflicted by the enemy. This wound was healed two years afterw^ards, by a happy mar- riasre with the author of it. In the campaigns of 1779 under General Sullivan against the hostile Indians, in the western part of New York, Oorden served as aid to General Maxwell. After the resignation of Maxwell, Captain Ogden com- manded a company of light infantry, and served in the corps commanded by Lafayette. He was selected by General Washington to carry a flag of truce to General Sir Henry Clinton, the commander-in-chief of the British forces then at New York. He received his instructions from Lafayette, which were, that if possible, he should get within the British lines at Paul us Hook, and in a private way inform the com- manding officer, that he was directed to say that if Clinton would in any way permit Washington to get hold of General Arnold, Major Andre should be im- mediately released. He contrived to make the com- munication to the commanding officer at the supper table, who immediately rose from the table, and re- AARON OGDEN. 143 turned in about two hours, with a message from Clin- ton that "a deserter WMS never given up." Captain Ogden was with Lafayette in Virginia, when Lord CornwalHs made his attempt " to catch the boy," as he called the young marquis ; and the captain had the good fortune to cover the retreat of Lafayette, by throwing a body of the infantry and militia placed under his command into a wood, in the line of march of the right wing of the British army, which was rapidly advancing to turn Lafayette's left wing, and posting them behind a fence. This caused the British to halt and reconnoitre, and consume time in forming their line of attack ; and when they ad- vanced into the woods, they were met by a galling fire, and so retarded, as to give time to the American forces to get beyond their reach. He took an active part in all the fighting at the siege of Yorktown, and was commended for his conduct by General Wash- ino;ton. When Lafayette made his visit to the United States, long afterwards, in a letter to the secretary of war, he made honorable mention of Captain Ogden and his valuable sei*vices, while serving under him daring the campaign in Virginia. When the war ended, he was among those who, after they had borne the toils, the perils, and the sacrifices of a long, and at times apparently a des- perate contest, laid down their arms and retired, most of them to private life and poverty. Li June, 1783, the officers of the Jersey line convened at Elizabeth- town, and agreed to become members of the Society of the Cincinnati. In 1824, he succeeded General Bloom field as the president of this society, and con- tinued the president until his death, when he was 144 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. succeeded by Ebenezer Elmer, the last surviving offi- cer of the New Jersey line. The Society of the Cincinnati was organized at the cantonment of the American army, on the Hudson Eiver, in May, 1783, and its constitution then adopted, as follows : — " It having pleased the Supreme Governor of the Universe in the disposition of human affairs, to cause the separation of the colo- nies of North America from the domination of Great Britain, and after a bloody conflict of eight years, to establish them, free and independent and sovereign States, connected by alliances founded on reciprocal advantages with some of the great princes and powers of the earth : " To perpetuate, therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast event, as the mutual friendships which have been formed under the pressure of common danger, and in many instances cemented by the blood of the parties, the officers of the American army do here- by in the most solemn manner, associate, constitute, and combine themselves into one society of Friends, to endure as long as they shall endure — or any of their eldest male posterity, and in failure thereof, to the collateral branches who may be judged worthy of be- coming its supporters and members. " The officers of the American army having generally been taken from the citizens of America, possess high veneration for the char- acter of that illustrious Roman, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, and being resolved to follow his example, by returning to their citizen- ship, they think they may, with propriety, denominate themselves the Society of the Cincinnati. " The following principles shall be immutable, and form the basis of the society. " An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liberties of human nature, for which they have fought and bled, and without which the high rank of a rational being is a curse in- stead of a blessing. " An unalterable determination to promote and cherish between the respective States, that union and national honor so essentially necessary to their happiness and the fixture dignity of the American empire. " To render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the AARON OGDEN. 145 officers ; this spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, and particularly extend to the most substantial acts of beneficence, according to the ability of the society, towards those oHicers and their families who unfortunately may be under the necessity of re- ceiving it. " The general society will, for the sake of frequent communica- tions, be divided into s'ate societies, and these again into such dis- tricts as shall be directed by the state society." The otlier provisions were regulations of detail. Each state society meets on the fourth day of July, 3^early ; and the general society, composed of dele- gates, on the first Monday of May, once in threo ^•ears. To form the funds, each officer was required to pay into the treasurer of the state society one month's pay. There were originally nine or ten state societies ; but in consequence of the clamor that was raised ao-ninst them on account of their badi:;e and their here(]itary principle, three or four of the societies have been di-ibanded. Six still remain, namely, Massachu- setts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina, each of which has preserved its separate fund, even South Carolina, although much crippled, not being extinct. The officers entitled to be members were those who had resigned with honor after three years' ser- vice, or had been deranged by reforms in the army ; and the elder and male branch of such as had died, and those who had served to the end o-f the war. Generals and colonels of the French aruiy were in- formed that they were considered members. Honor- ary members are also admitted by the state society, not exceeding one to every four of the regular mem- bers. The badge adopted by the society is a. bald eagle of 10 146 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. gold, bearing a medal on its breast, the head and tail of silver, suspended by a deep blue watered ribbon, edged with white, descriptive of the union of France and America. Those in actual use are generally all of gold, but are not uniform in size and appearance. They are worn now only at the meetings of the society ; and some of the members have declined to do more than suspend the ribbon at the button-hole. The eagle of the president general is adorned with several jewels, and was procured and presented to the society by the French naval officers and seamen. The motto on the medal and seal, which have on them a figure of Cincinnatus, is " Omnia reliquit ser- vare rempublicam." All the societies have preserved more or less of their funds, and most of them have so used them that they have accumulated. The fund of the New Jersey society amounts now to thirteen thousand five hundred dollars, vested in United States bonds, the interest of which is used to defray the expense of the meetings, and to distribute in aid of the fami- lies of deceased members. It appeared by a report made in 1866, that since its formation there has been expended for the expenses of the society the sum of $11,821, and for benevolent purposes, the sum of $25,629. About twenty-five members, several of whom reside in other States, are now on the roll, about twenty of whom attend the annual meetings. Colonel Ogden was chosen vice-president of the general society in 1825, and the president in 1829 — succeeding in that office to Generals Washington, Hamilton, €. C. Pinckney, and Thomas Pinckney. At the late meeting of the general society in May, 1869, all the seven state societies were represented. Ham- AARON OGDEN. 147 ilton Fish, the secretary of state of the United States, is now the president general. Colonel Popham, of New York, was the last surviving original member of the Cincinnati. When dismissed from the army with the other offi- cers, at Newburg, in 1783, Major Ogden returned to Elizabethtown. On his way there, as he has been heard to say, the thought arose, "I am in my 27th year without a profession ; what shall I do ? " and soon he said to himself: " I am resolved what to do ; I will enter the office of my brother Robert at Eliza- bethtown, and read law." This resolution he carried out, spending the winter at his father's in Sparta, and devoting his time assiduously to the study of Black- stone. He was licensed as an attorney in September, 1781, the regular period of study no doubt being shortened in consideration of his military services, as has been done in other cases. In due time he was licensed as a counselor, and in 1794 was made a ser- geant at law. Soon after his licensure he commenced the practice of law at Elizabethtown, and in October, 1787, mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of John Chetwood, Esq., the lady w^io had been the object of his affections from the time he was wounded. He soon had a good prac- tice as a lawyer ; and whatever may have been his own reflections on the subject, I think, in view of what afterwards befell him, it is to be regretted that he did not adhere to that profession during his life. He was an accomplished lawyer, and took a high position at the bar. Mr. Coxe's Reports begin in 1700, and it appears that he was much employed in the most im- portant cases argued before the supreme court. Adopting the language of an address delivered be* 148 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. fore the societies of Princeton College, in September, 1839, by Aaron Ogden Dayton, Esq., as just and ap- propriate, it may be said of Mr. Ogden, that, "Pro- fessing strong analytical and logical powers of mind, his disposition always led him to an examination of the principles by which a case was governed, and having made himself master of these, he reasoned from them with great clearness and force, and was seldom surprised or thrown oif his balance, by the argument of his adversary. Although his first re- liance was upon a knowledge of the elements which entered into the question, he was by no means negli- gent of the cases in which those elements had been applied. Seldom was there a more industrious lawyer. He never thought his duty discharged to his client or himself, while a simple corner of the case committed to his care remained unexplored. He studied the cause on both sides, and made most copious notes for his aro;ument and authorities. To learnini^ and in- dustry, he united great ingenuity and fertility of re- sources, quickness and accuracy of discrimination, and an eloquence, which at times, when he was deeply moved or strongly excited, was of a very high order. His manner was graceful and impressive ; his voice, though not musical, was strong and varied ; his coun- tenance had great power and diversity of expression ; but more than all this, he understood well the springs of human action. He was an enthusiastic admirer, and might almost be called a pupil of Shakespeare, whose works he was never weary of perusing. He was an ardent admirer of the ancient classical authors; and his conversation w^ith literary friends was frequently embellished by ready and felicitous quotations fiora their works. He is one among many proofs of the AARON OGDEN. 149 great advantage a student derives from becoming an instructor of others. His critical knowledge and ac- curate recollection of the classics he always attributed principally to that cause. The taste never forsook him, and often led him back, during the busiest part of his life, to the fountain at which he had drunk with so much pleasure in his early years." I well recol- lect, th;it the first time I saw him, at a fourth of July dinner of the Cincinnati, in 1812, of v^^hich I partook, according to the custom of the society, as an heir ap- parent to the membership, he questioned the ele- gance of the society's motto, insisting that although perhaps good Latin as it stood, it should have been "omnia reliquit ad servandam rempublicam." He was elected a trustee of Princeton CoUegre in 1803, and again after he had been ex-officio president in 1817, holding the office until he died. In 1816 he was com- plimented with the honorary degree of L.L. D. As was natural, considering his early career, his talents and disposition were decidedly military. To the last years of his life it beamed in his eye ; it was seen in his erect carriage and measured step ; it animated his conversation, and in the visions of his dying bed transported him back to the stirring scenes of the army and the camp. When in 1797 a provisional army was raised, in consequence of the hostile proceedings of the French government, he was appointed colonel of the 15th regiment, and held this rank for several months, and until the additional troops were discharged. From this appointment, which in effect put an end to his professional life, he derived the title of colonel, by which he was after- wards usually addressed. He was one of the prominent leaders of the 150 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. Federalists in New Jersey, and in February, 1801, was chosen by the legislature senator of the United States, for two years, in the room of Schureman, who resigned. This place he held, and was an influential member of the senate, during two ses- sions. Upon the expiration of his term, the repub- lican party had succeeded in carrying a majority of the members of the legislature, and, of course, he was not reelected. He held, however, at this time, and had for several years held the office of clerk of the County of Essex, which at that time did not interfere with his practice as a lawyer. But in De- cember, 1801, an act of the legislature was passed declaring that if any person holding an office under the State had been elected a member of the senate or house of representatives, and had taken his seat, the commission under the State should be considered vacant, unles she should resign his seat in Congress within twenty days after the passing of said act. Colonel Oo-den declinino* to resisTn, the legislature elected Jacob Parkhurst clerk, and he took posses- sion of the office. A writ of quo warranto was thereupon prosecuted by Ogden, and two judges, namely. Smith and Boudinot, who were Federalists, pronounced opinions in his favor, Kirkpatrick taking the other side. 4 Hals. R 431. But the court of errors reversed the judgment of the supreme court, and Parkhurst not only continued to hold the office, but his expenses in defending his position were paid by the State. Accustomed as we now are to the frequent changes in the politics of New Jersey, and the consequent changes of the office holders, we can hardly appre- ciate the feelings of the Federalists, when the power AARON OGDEN. 151 was first wrenched from their hands, and when, not" withstandmo; their strenuous efforts to reojain their position, they found themselves growing weaker, year by year. Scarcely a lawyer of eminence in this State could be counted on the republican side ; and in fact most of the educated men and. men of prop- erty in the State were Federalists. They held all the offices. It was not until the War in 1812, that, with the aid of a few timid Democrats, who were induced to join them under the name of " Friends of Peace," they could again obtain a majority in the State. In the fall of 1812 they nominated full tickets for elec- tors and members of Congress, and succeeded in ob- taining a majority in both houses of the legislatiu'e. Aaron Ogden was elected by the joint meeting gov- ernor, thirty votes being cast for him, and twenty- two for William S. PenniniJ-ton. In 1807 an act had been passed requiring the electors of president and vice-president to be chosen by a vote of the people on the first Tuesday of No- vember. Members of Cono-ress had from the beg^in- ning been elected by a general ticket. The peace party of the United States had nominated De Witt Clinton, before this time a Democrat, who now (it is said by James A. Hamilton, in his "Reminiscences," page 44) declared, "that the policy of the federal party, which was that adopted by Washington and Adams, was the only course of measures which could promote the interests and preserve the honor of the country ; I well know the views and purposes of the democratic and jacobin parties, and have no confidenco in them ; as president I would administer the govern- ment upon the system of Washington and Hamilton." This was satisfactory to such of the Federalists as were 152 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. willing to trust him ; but it induced Governor Jay to ask, " Mr. Clinton, do your democratic friends know that these are your opinions and purposes?" To in- sure, as they hoped, the election of Clinton, the legis- lature hastened to repeal the act of 1807, and to pro- vide that the' electors should be chosen by themselves in joint meeting. This act did not become a law until the 2Utli of October, and the succeeding Tuesday was the day of the election by the people. Express riders were sent out with certified copies of the new law, who did not reach some of the counties until the vot- ing had actually commenced. It should not be forij-otten that one federal mem- ber was found wise and firm enough to resist this, under the circumstances, wrong and injudicious meas- ure ; and to vote against it from its inception to its final passage, regardless of the entreaties and re- proaches of his friends. This was James Parker, of Perth Amboy, who died recently at the age of ninety- two, after a life of great public usefulness. He be- came a member of the legislature in 1806, and was elected eleven times to that place, taking an active part in the business, and especially in establishing the public schools. He was one of the commissioners to settle the boundary between the States of New Jersey and New York, in 1807, 1827, and 1833, and from his thoroug-h knowledge of all the circum- stances of the case, had great influence with the com- missioners of this State, and in the final adjustment of the controversy. It may be remarked, however, in passing, that all the New Jersey commissioners en- tered upon and concluded that negotiation under the opinion that the title to the land on the shore from high water mark to low water mark, was in the own- AARON OGDEN. 153 ers of the adjoining upland, and not, as it has since been held, in the State. That the State would un- dertake to sell the shore to railroad companies or others, was not then contemplated. Mr. Parker was among the Hamilton Federalists who gave his support to Jackson in preference to John Quincy Adams, hav- ing been chosen an elector in 1828. He was a repre- sentative in Congress from 1833 to 1837, but after- wards acted with the Whigs. It would be well for the country if his example in resisting his party, when he believed them to be clearly wrong, should be followed by more of our leading politicians, who might thus in many cases defeat measures urged by extremists, to the public injury. De Witt Clinton failed to be elected, and the peace party came to an end ; so that in October, 1813, Colo- nel Ourden was succeeded as jrovernor bv William S. Pennin! in- troiliiced by his excellency, who, 1 think, discussed the subject with a great degree of judgment and knowl- edge. The wine circulated with liberality, but the gi'eatest degree of decorum was observed through tiie whole course of the aftsruoon." January 0, 1781, the mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops at Morristown is mentioned. " Moiulay, 22d, we received infi)r!nation that the Jersey line had followed the exunpk* of Penn-^ylvania in mutinying, in consequencj of which a detachment of artillery consisting of three 3-pountlers, to be commanded by Captain Stewart, was ordered to parade immediately. I was ordered to join the above detachment, vice Ailing. 25tli. — This day the de- tachment marched to Smith's Cove, and halted for the night. 2Gth. — This day we marched to Rlngwood, and joined a detachment under Major-general Howe. Saturday, 27th. — This day the above detachment marclied at one o'clock, and at daylight surrounded the Jersey encampment near Pompton, where the mu- tineers were quartered. No other terms were offered to them, than to iuunediately parade without their arms. General Howe likewise sent them word by Lieutenant colonel Barber, that if the\' did not comply in five minutes, he w^ould put them all to the sword ; rather than run the risk of whii;h they surrendered. Upon which the general ordered a court-martial in the field to try some of their leaders ; three of wliom, namely. Grant, Tuttle, and Gilmore, were sentenced to suffer death. Grant, from some circumstances in his behavior, was pardoned. Tuttle and Gihnore were immediately executed. The mutineers returned to their duty, and received a general pardon."' "February 8. — This afternoon an entertainment 11 162 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. was given by Lieutenant-colonel Stevens, of the sec- ond regiment, his excellency General Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette and families, and the officers of the park of artillery. His excellency and the marquis left us at dark, upon which we immediately opened a ball, and spent the evening very agreeably, but la- mented the absence of the ladies of our acquaintance, who would have graced the ball had they been there, and rendered the entertainment perfectly consum- mate. Mrs. Stevens was the only lady that graced the assembly." His service after this year I have not been able to ascertain, except that the park of artillery to which he belonged took part in the siege of Cornwallis at Yorktown, in Virginia. It appears that he was wounded, but when and where is unknown. He left the service with the rank of captain by brevet. After the w^ar he carried on the business of a hatter for a short time, and is supposed to have worked at that trade before he entered the army. He soon engaged in mercantile business in Newark ; and in 1797 was elected a member of the Assembly from the County of Essex, remaining a member of that body three years. In 1801 he was elected a member of the council, and again in 1802. Upon the great di- vision of parties which occurred about this time, he and his brother Samuel warmly espoused the repub- lican side, in opposition to the federal party of that day, and continued to be leaders of their party for the ensuing twenty years. In the fall of 1820, when a successful effort was made to assuage the fierce party spirit which had prevailed, I had the pleasure of meeting Samuel Pennington in the House of As- sembly, where we heartily cooperated in leaving the WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 163 responsibility of electing the county officers, then mostly chosen in joint meeting of the two houses, to the members of the county, without regard to party affinities, never interfering if they could agree. His brother William was the leader of the Republicans in 1802, when there was a tie in the joint meeting, so that no governor could be chosen during the year. As a senator was also to be chosen at this time, the Federalists, by their committee, offered to the Repub- licans their choice of these two offices ; but the re- publican committee, headed by Pennington, were too confident that a strong current was running in their favor to accept this compromise, so that during this year both the offices were left vacant. Being of an active mind, Pennington entered the office of Mr. Boudinot as a student of law, and in May, 1802, was licensed as an attorney. In February, 1804, he was elected by the joint meeting an associate jus- tice of the supreme court, less than two years after he was licensed as an attorney, and before he could become a counselor. The Repubhcans had but few lawyers belonging to their party, and were obliged to take the best they had or appoint their opposers, — as matters then stood, a thing not to be thought of. The vacancy filled by Pennington was occasioned by the promotion of Andrew Kirkpatrick to be chief jus- tice, who not being a politician acted with the Repub- licans, and was accepted as belonging to their party, although never accredited as a partisan. In the fall of 1804, William Rossell, a man of good judgment and excellent character, a saddler, with but the slightest knowledge of law, was appointed an associate justice of the supreme court. The latter never acquired the confidence of the bar ; but Judge Pennington, who 164 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. was a strong minded man and diligent student, was soon accepted as a good judge. He was appointed re- porter in 1806, by virtue of a law then recently passed. Kirkpatrick, who was an accomplished lawyer, of course led the court; but Pennington did not hesitate when he thought him wrong, to differ, and seldtmi failed to support his opinions by sound reasons. I re- member being present in court, before I was licensed, and for the first time, when an important cause had been noticed for trial at the bar, and when a jury of view and many witnesses were in attendance from Cumberland. The plaintiff not being prepared to bring on the trial, his counsel objected to doing so, on the ground that the defendant's attorney had neg- lected to add the similiter to the plaintiff's replication tendering an issue. The chief justice held this indis- pensable, and Judge Rossell concurred ; but Judge Pennington held that the similiter was so purely a matter of form that it might be at any time added. Now, as is known to the bar, a statute has declared even the form unnecessary. The consequence of this decision was to save the plaintiff from the payment of heavy costs. When the peace party obtained a majority in the fall of 1812, Pennington was the candidate of the re- publican, or as they were then and afterwai-ds called, the democratic party, and received twenty-two votes in the joint meeting for governor, against thirty cast for Colonel Aaron Ogden. In 1813 he received thirty votes for that office, while Oi^den's vote was reduced to twenty. In 1814 Pennington received twenty-nine votes and Ogden twenty-three. In the year 1815 Robert Morris, who held the place of judge of the United States district court for New WILLIAM S. PKNNINGTON. 165 Jersey, and hud for several years been in such bad health as to be unable to hold the court, died. Pen- nini;ton was nominated by President Madison to suc- ceed hiui, and being conliruied by the senate, held that office until his death, residing, as he had after he ceased to be governor, at Newark. At this time the district court held two terms in each 3'ear at Burliugton and two at New Brunswii.-k. The court rarely sat more than one day, very little business coming before it. In 1824 Joseph M'llvaine, who had been for several years the district attorney for the United States, haviug been elected to the sen- ate of the United States, I was appointed district at- torney in his place, and thus became more intimately acquainted with Judge Pennington. His son William (afterwards governor) was clerk of the court. Our united eflbrts, I remember, were always unavailing, to induce him to keep his court open one day beyond what was absolutely necessary for the transaction of the public business, and thus to permit us to receive a little more daily pay. He belonged, indeed, to that old- fashioned race of politicians, now apparently extinct, who thought first of their duty to the country, and did not subordinate that to the interests of themselves or their friends. Judge Washington, with whom he sat in the circuit court, although an incorruptible judge, was much more liberal (lavish, perhaps, is the proper designation), saying, very pleasantly, that Uncle Sam was rich, and a public debt was a public blessing, — a common sentiment then among the old Federalists, upon the idea that a heavy debt tended to strengthen the general, or, as was then the favorite phrase, the federal government. During the five years I held the office of district 166 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. attorney, no grand jury was summoned in the United States district court ; but such a jury was convened twice in each year in the circuit court. But one in- dictment, however, was drawn by me, and that was for an alleged obstruction of the mail, which, as it turned out on the trial, happened from the fact that Ball (a well known deputy sheriff of Essex County) could not win a bet he foolishly made with Reeside's driver, that his horse could outtrot the splendid team of full blooded animals then on the route between Eliz- abeth and Newark. The charge against Ball, sup- ported by evidently hard swearing, was by way of offset against an indictment of the driver in the state court, for purposely driving his heavy stage upon Ball's light carriage, and upsetting him into the ditch. Since the Wa,Y of the Rebellion the criminal business of the United States courts has been much increased, and the tendency is to increase it still more. This, added to the business of the bankrupt court, has made the district court a very busy and very important tri- bunal. The business transacted in Judg-e Pennino-ton's court consisted of a few informations for violations of the revenue laws, and suits for debts due the United States and the postmaster-general. I remember but one decision of the judge important enough to be stated, and that was the construction of the New Jer- sey statute, enacting that a scroll or other device, by way of seal to an instrument for the payment of money, should be of the same force as a wax seal, so as to bring within that description the official bond of a postmaster. One case which went before Judge Washington upon a writ of error, and is reported in 4th Washington Circuit Court Reports, presented a W7LLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 167 complexity of pleading and issues so singular and so complete, that the judge took the papers to Philadel- phia, as he said, to show some of the lawyers there a perfect common law record. It was an action at the suit of the Postraaster-o;eneral vs. Reeder and his sureties, the pleading in wdiich had been filed when I took charge of it. The declaration, in accord- ance with the practice, was simply upon the penalty of the bond, without assigning the special breaches. Ten pleas were interposed, to some of which there were demurrers, and to some an issue of fact was joined, one of them being a general allegation of fraud. The demurrers were all held to be well taken. Upon the trial of the issues of fact before a jury, made up mostly of residents in Trenton, it became pretty manifest that, owing to the sympathy felt for Mr. Reeder's sureties, the jury on the issue of fraud, which consisted only in long forbearance to prose- cute, would be sure to disregard the judge's charge, and render a verdict for the defendant. By the ad- vice of Richard Stockton, who was associated with me as counsel for the government, I demurred to the evi- dence. Defendant's counsel insisted that it was op- tional with them whether they would join in the demurrer, but the judge ruled they were bound to do so, and the jury was dismissed. Upon the argument of this demurrer, it appeared one of the pleas upon which issue was taken was fully proven, so that it be- came necessary to insist that the plea itself was rad- ically bad, and presented no defense, and that the case was substantially the same as if the jury had ren- dered their verdict finding it true, when it would be open to the plaintiff to move for judgment non obstante veredicto, as it is technically called. This view was 168 REMINISCENCKS OF NEW JERSEY. Bustained by the judge, and a judgment ordered for the plaintiff overruling all the. pleas. It then became necessary to assign the breaches and assess the dam- ages upon a writ of inquiry, which was done, and a final judgment entered for the plaintiff After an elaborate argument before Judge Washington, he affirmed this judgment. Althouii-h, as I have remarked, Judo:e Penninsrton was an ardent Democrat, there is every reason to be- lieve that, had he lived until the formation of the whig party, he would have sympathized with them, as his sons and most if not all his family connections and friends afterwards did. He looked upon John Quincy Adams as the true republican successor of Jefferson and Madison. I remember hearing him, at a Cincinnati dinner, about the beu-innino; of Mr. Adams' presidency, say, that if Jackson should be elected president, he should feel his neck every morn- in- tacked. He is no exception to the remark of Mr. Duponceau, that "lawyers leave nothing behind but the echo of a name." There are few remains of his learning or his eloquence, He was very little in the habit of writing for the newspapers or otherwise. The argument in favor of the New Jersey claims to the waters of the Hudson, appended to the report of the commissioners, published by order of the legisla- ture in 1828, is the only document in print from his pen of which I have any knowledge. It will be found to be a very able discussion, considering that he had to advocate a very doubtful claim ; but it is rather a lawyer's brief than a carefully prepared essay. Of his eloquent addresses to juries, wliich were often considered almost unequaled, there are no reports. In 1796 he was chosen by the joint meeting to a vacancy in the senate of the United States, and sat 412 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. in that body until 1799. Being a very decided Fed- eralist of the Hamilton school, when that party be- came the minority in the State, as it was during most of his life after 1800, he of course shared their fate in being excluded from official position. Upon the declaration of war against Great Britain, when the opposition obtained a temporary majority in the State, and provided for the election of members of Congress by districts, he was elected in January, 1813, a mem- ber of the thirteenth Congress. He took a leading part among the able men then in the house of representatives, including Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, the three most distinguished states- men of the nation, although all failed to reach its highest position. One of his speeches, delivered Jan- uary 14, 1814, imperfectly reported in the "Na- tional Intelligencer," produced a strong impression in the house, and distinguished him as a powerful orator dang-erous to attack. It was delivered in answer to some remarks, pointed especially at him, made by Charles J. Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, who although as a youth known and received by Mr. Stockton as a warm Federalist, had now taken the side of the ad- ministration. For keen retort and powerful invective, this speech has seldom been excelled, and the tradi- tion is that it completely humbled his assailant, even to drawing tears from his eyes. He probably had not intended to be personally offensive, but did not make sufficient allowance for the sensitive pride of his fa- ther's old friend. He promptly disclaimed all inten- tion to be personally disrespectful, avowed his own change of politics, and acknowledged the private worth, the high character, and the professional emi- nence of the member from New Jersey, declaring RICHARD STOCKTON. 418 him to be, "in all respects, except his politics, unex- ceptionable." Once, at the bar of the supreme court, I heard him address Chief Justice Kirkpatrick in language and with a manner no one else at the bar would have dared to imitate. He did not like the chief justice very much, partly because he regarded him as a de- serter from the federal party, an offense not easy for him to forgive. We youngsters used to say the chief was afraid of him. When in the case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, reported in 1 Halsted R. 300, the chief jus- tice read his opinion, in which he stated he thought the law was with the defendant, but concluded by saying, "yet from a real diffidence in my own judg- ment upon this question, especially when set in oppo- sition to that of the chancellor, and from a full per- suasion that it will be better for both parties to let the judgment be entered for the plaintiff here, and the case be carried up by appeal, to a superior judi- catory, to which great constitutional questions of this kind ultimately belong, I have thought it best upon the whole to say the demurrer to the plaintiff's dec- laration must be overruled." Mr. Stockton immedi- ately arose and asked the court, with an air not a little sarcastic, whether, as it appeared a majority of that court was in favor of his client, he should enter the judgment in accordance with that opinion, or ir> accordance with the opinion of the judge of another court. To this the chief justice of course replied, that he had stated very plainly what judgment was to be entered. He was from 1791 one of the trustees of Princeton College, taking always a lively interest in the con- cerns of that institution. The honorary degree of 414 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. LL. D. was conferred on him by Rutger's and Union colleges, and no doubt would have been by his Alma Mater, had it not been that the invariable iisao-e of the board is to decline voting honorary distinctions to one of their own number. Mr. Stockton was a large man, but of the most im- posing personal appearance and captivating address. Among the junior members of the bar, he was gen- erally spoken of as " the old duke." No other man has come under my observation, to whom such a title could be so appropriately applied. He was a noble man, in the true sense of that epithet. While he was entirely free from any assumption of personal impor- tance, his whole deportment and demeanor were those of a man of the highest distinction. Perfectly affable in his manners, and easy of access to those who en- joyed his friendship, there was something about him which led all who approached him to show him re- spect. And those best acquainted and most intimate with him respected him most. When Judge Pennington died in 1826, it was ex- pected by the friends of Mr. Stockton that the situ- ation of judge of the United States district court would be conferred on him. His superior qualifica- tions and willingness to accept it were well known to President John Quincy Adams and Mr. Southard, then in his cabinet. But other influences prevailed. The political prospects of the administration were known to be rather doubtful, and to appoint so j)ronounced a Federalist to office was no doubt considered unadvis- able. Mr. Stockton peremptorily declined allowing his friends to take any steps to secure his appointment. He said to me and to others, that although it would LUCIUS HORATIO STOCKTON. 415 be very agreeable to him to retire from the toils of the profession, and that the moderate salary annexed to the office, joined to his private fortune, would en- able him to continue the style of living to which he had been accustomed ; yet he would not solicit the office; if it was conferred on him, it must be because the President and his advisers thought him the fit man. Unfortunately mere fitness for the office was not then, and has seldom ever been, the principal rea- son for an appointment. I confess I was a good deal grieved that Mr. Southard did not, on this occasion, rise above mere party expediency. A letter to me from him, dated November 26, 1826, remarks: "You are all, I mean my friends in New Jersey whom inti- macy justifies me in looking to for advice, very cos- tive, as southern politicians say, about the district judgeship. Not one word can I get from those I ask. Now take notice, after the decision is made, I hold you all responsible for it, and bound to justify it; you have no right to keep dark, and after I get into diffi- culty, abuse me for my blindness " He knew per- fectly well, however, what keeping dark, as he called it, meant in my case, and I suppose in others. No other member of the bar has since held quite the same position as did Richard Stockton. The late Commodore Robert F. Stockton was his son. Lucius Horatio Stockton, known to his associates as Horace Stockton, was a younger brother of Rich- ard, and in early life was thought to be quite equal if not superior to him in talent. He graduated at Princeton in 1787, was licensed in 1791, and died in 1835. But a disposition to eccentricity was soon ex- hibited, and so increased as in a great measure to de- 416 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. stroy his usefulness. He resided in Trenton, and at one time was in good business, especially in the south- ern counties. I used to hear in my youth of a case before the Cumberland quarter sessions, in which he was one of the counsel, that was much talked about. In the year 1793, and while the yellow fever pre- vailed in Philadelphia so fatally, a man who was con- fined in the jail at Bridgeton for a small debt, sick- ened with the disease, to the great alarm of the in- habitants. My uncle, Jonathan Elmer, who had been a member of Congress during the Revolution, and one of the first senators under the new Constitution, and who, although educated as a physician, was also a well read lawyer, was the presiding judge of the county court, and following the example of the judges at the time of the great plague in London, he ordered the man to be removed to the house of his mother, where he died. The creditor sued the sheriff for an escape, and obtained a judgment against him before a justice. There was an appeal to the sessions. When the case came on for trial, the first effort of Mr. Stock- ton, as counsel for the creditor, was to prevent Judge Elmer from remaining on the bench; but he declined to withdraw, and in the course of the proceedings, protracted into the night, said something which Mr. Stockton deemed offensive, so that he demanded to know whether he spoke as a man or as a judge. To this the judge replied that he spoke both as a man and as a judge ; and thereupon Mr. Stockton an- nounced, with many expressions of deference to the court, that if he would come off from the bench and repeat his remark solely as a man, he would pull his nose as a man. He lost his cause for want of proper evidence of any valid judgment against the debtor. GEORGE WOOD. 417 Mr. Stockton was a warm politician, and accustomed to write in the newspapers of the day. Under the administration of the elder Adams, he held the office of United States attorney for this district ; and to- wards the close of that administration was nominated as secretary of war, but was not confirmed. When I knew him he had declined in business and efficiency. A gleam of his old spirit, however, broke out upon one occasion before Judge Washington, who always treated him with great respect and forbearance. Upon the argument of his cause, as had come to be very much his practice, he cited case after case in support of the most familiar principles, until at last the judge re- marked to him very pleasantly, '- Mr. Stockton, you are shooting a dead duck." He said nothing at the time, but happening during the same term to have a case that involved a question of some nicety, he af- fected to consider that point as too plain to require argument; and whea told by the judge that he wished to hear it discussed, he said, very meekly, " 0, may it please your honor, I was afraid of being accused of shooting the dead duck." George Wood was probably the ablest man New Jersey has produced. He was born in Burlington County, graduated at Princeton in 1808, studied law with Richard Stockton, and was admitted to the bar in 1812, taking up his residence in New Bruns- wick. It was not louo; before he rivaled his master, to whom in some respects he was superior. His in- tellect was of the highest order, entitling him to rank with Mr. Webster. His power of analogical reason- ing was very striking ; the most difficult subject seemed to arrange itself in his mind in its true pro- 27 418 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. portions. He had the faculty attributed to Lord Mansfield, of so stating a question as to make the mere statement a sufficient argument. He generally spoke from mere short memoranda in pencil, and was so accurate in the use of language, that what he said would, when written down, prove entirely cor- rect. After a few years' practice at the bar of this State, he removed to New York, where he took rank among the leaders, and was the equal if not superior to the best of them. Until his death in 1860, he was en- gaged in the most important causes not only in New York, but in other States. He was among the few eminent lawyers of the country who held no office. Upon the death of Judge Thompson in 1845, he was strongly recommended to President Tyler, to take his place on the bench of the supreme court of the United States, and there can be no doubt he would have adorned the station. His political education was as a Federalist ; but he was not addicted to pol- itics, and never supported the republican party. Not long before his death, he spoke at a public meeting in New York, strongly in ftivor of maintaining the compromises of the Constitution, and thus obtained the honorable designation from some of the radical papers of "Union saver." In my early practice, it was my fortune several times to encounter him at the bar, and a most for- midable adversary he was. The last time I heard him was in the year 1855, when he appeared before the New Jersey court of appeals, in the case of Gif- ford vs. Thorn, reported in 1 Stock. 708. I have always thought his speech in that case, upon the whole, the ablest to which I ever listened. It com- GARRET DORSET WALL. 419 bined almost every kind of eloquence : in solid rea- soning quite equal to that of lii.s leading opponent, Charles O'Connor; in playful wit, in occasional ap- peals to the sympathy of the judges, and in impas- sioned declamation, quite superior. Garret Dorset Wall was the fourth child of James Wall, and was born in the township of Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1783. The first of the family who came over from England was Walter Wall, who, after living a short time in Mas- sachusetts and in Long Island, settled in Monmouth County in the year 1657. James Wall was the fourth in descent from Walter, and married the dau"-hter of John Dorset. James Wall was an officer of the militia during the War of the Revolution, was engaged in the Battle of Monmouth, and received the sword of a British of- ficer, w^hom he captured on that occasion. Upon his death in 1792, leaving a widow with six children in straitened circumstances. Garret, a boy of ten years old, was sent to reside with his uncle, Dr. John G. Wall, at Woodbridge, where he continued until the death of the Doctor in 1798. He was there associ- ated with the late Judge Crane, who removed many years ago to Dayton, Ohio, and was several years a. representative in Congress. He informed me, that although older than Garret, they were members for about two years of the same class in a good classical school, where most of the pupils were engaged in the ordinary English course; but a small class, includ- ino; Crane and Wall, studied the Greek and Latin languages. They w^ere afterwards members of Con- gress at the same time, and had the pleasure of re- 420 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. newing their old friendship, although taking opposite sides in politics. The scanty store of learning obtained at Wood- bridge was all that Wall's circumstances allowed him to acquire. In the spring of 1798, when in his fif- teenth year, he commenced the study of the law at Trenton, in the office of General Jonathan Rhea, then clerk of the supreme court, one of whose daughters he afterwards married. He is said then to have been a tall, awkward boy, but giving promise of great cleverness ; and he rapidly improved in his personal appearance and manners. He became, indeed, re- markable for comeliness and an eno-ag-insi: and win- ning address. He studied pretty faithfully, and prof- ited by his studies. He also performed much of the duties of the clerk's office, deriving his principal sup- port from his services there. By diligent attention to the duties of the office, and by careful study, he made himself perfectly familiar with the practice of the court, and with the original sources from which it was derived ; so that his authority on all subjects connected with the practice was afterward confidently appealed to and relied on by the bar and the bench. In the year 1804 he was licensed to be an attorney, in 1807 as a counselor, and in 1820 was called to be a sergeant at law. Soon after he was first licensed, he married and commenced practice in Trenton. In 1812 the federal party, to which he belonged, having obtained a temporary ascendancy in the State, he was elected by the joint meeting clerk of the supreme court, an office valuable to him from its considerable income, and as aiding to introduce him to business in his profession. Upon the expiration of his term in 1817, although the democratic party had then GARRET DORSET WALL. 421 the majority, it was well understood that he would have been reelected but for the circumstance that one of his own party absolutely refused him his sup- port, on the avowed ground that when the federal party had the majority, Wall, with that disinterested generosity which distinguished him through life, used his influence with success to retain in office the dem- ocratic treasurer, wlio was a personal friend, and at that time held in hii>:h esteem. During his period of study, and after he came to the bar, although not a systematic student, he was a diligent reader, and fond of tracing legal principles to their original sources. As soon as his means per- mitted, he collected a large and valuable law and mis- cellaneous library, and made a good use of it. Far from beino; satisfied with mere abrido-ments and com- pends, like every lawyer who attains to even mod- erate eminence, he had recourse to the original black letter, and mastered the more abstruse as well as the more attractive portions of the law as a science. He was well grounded in the doctrines of the common law in relation to real estate, and fully able to unravel its most intricate subtleties. He read, also, and imbued his mind with the productions of the best authorities in the Ens-lish lano-uao-e, and continued to do so to the close of his life. But although his native powers were of the highest order, they were never subjected to that exact disci- pline necessary to their full exercise, and they devel- oped themselves very slowly. He had at first great difficulty in expressing himself, was timid and dis- trustful of himself, and exhibited through life some- thing approaching to an impediment in his speech. It was not until deprived of office that he took a high 422 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. place in his profession. That place, however, he did take, and maintained it until diverted by other pur- suits. I have heard him say, that, give him William Griffith and Richard Stockton for his associates, he would not be afraid to meet any three lawyers that could be selected in the United States ; and it was no idle boast. It would have been hard to match three such advocates, and harder still to beat them. The immediate descendant of a revolutionary sol- dier, he partook himself largely of the militarj^ spirit. It was seen, so long as he retained his health, in his erect carriage, his measured step, his glowing eye, and in the very style of his dress ; and hence the military title of general, with which we were so long accus- tomed to greet him, and which he derived from hold- ing for a time the office of quartermaster-general of the State, was not, as in many instances, a title to which he seemed to have no proper claim, but one that naturally belonged to him, and which came to our lips spontaneously, as his rightful due. During the War of 1812, he took command as cap- tain of the Phoenix Company of uniformed militia, which had been first established during the Revolu- tion, in which he had for some time held the post of lieutenant, and with them volunteered a tour of ac- tive service, as a part of the force detailed for the protection of New York. He earnestly advised Colonel Ogden to accept the appointment of major-general, and offered to resign his office, then yielding him a large income of which he had much need, and to take whatever place might be assigned to him in his mili- tary family. It is not easy to exhibit the proofs of genius and capacity exhibited by a lawyer, while actively engaged GARRET DORSET WALL. 423 at the bar. In the words of Mr. Duponceau, liiinself an example of what he described, "The life of a hiw- yer in the full practice of his profession offers very little but the dismal round of attendance upon courts, hard studies at night, and in the day fatiguing exer- tions, which, however brilliant, are confined to a nar- row theatre, and leave nothing behind but the echo of a name." One of the most important cases in which he was concerned, and whicli he argued with " great care and ability," was that of Arnold vs. Mun- day, in the first volume of Halsted's Reports. He was on the side that eventually failed, although sub- sequent study and reflection have satisfied me it would have been better had he succeeded. The distinguishing characteristics of General Wall as an advocate were liis quick sensibility, an intuitive insight into character and motives, and that ready tact which enabled him easily to recover from his own mistakes, and promptly to take advantage of those of his adversary. Although he had often a hes- itating and confused manner of expressing himself, which in his early efforts was very discouraging, and which it cost him the most strenuous efforts to over- come; yet he not unfrequently rose to the highest eloquence. He scorned everything like trick and un- fairness ; but it cannot be denied that he often erred in being too willing to press an accidental or even un- fair advahtaore, when on the side of his client, and to confuse a jury if possible by the intricacy of his state- ments. These are errors to which lawyers are too prone. But he never adopted the extravagant and false doc- trine gravely advanced by Lord Brougham in the English house of lords, that " to serve that client by 424 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. all expedient means, to protect that client at all hazards and cost to others, and amongst others to him- self, is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties." No lawyer, whatever examples to the contrary may have been set by those high in the profession, can safely imitate the course pursued by Mr. Phillips, a famous advocate for criminals in England, in the defense of the assassin Courvoisier (even although adopted, as that was said to have been, by the advice of the judge who tried the case), which exposed him to' such severe, and to some extent to such just re- proach. After the criminal had confessed to him his guilt, he attacked and endeavored to discredit wit- nesses he knew were telling the truth. I was informed by the late Judge Potts, who was a student in General Wall's office, that he was re- markably candid with his clients, when they fairly disclosed their cases to him, and if he felt clear that they were wrong, did not hesitate to tell them so ; but at the same time he was cautious not to decide against them, saying, with some humor, that lawyers might err as well as judges, and that it was hardly fair to make a client pass through two ordeals, wdth two chances to be beaten, — one by the error of his law- yer in prejudging his case, and the other by the error of the court or jury in not deciding it right- fully. When he had undertaken a case, he j)repared it with great pains, and managed it with dexterity, being full of resources, and ready at expedients. His mind dwelt very little on the details of his of- fice business ; his great fault, indeed, was that he had not the habit of steady application. He was kind and gentlemanly, never leaving his students without shak- GARRET DORSET WALL. 425 ing hands with them. The idea of distrusting any one seemed never to enter his head. When about to leave home, he would often say to a student, "Get my keys, and hunt up all the money you can find and deposit it in bank." The hunt had commonly first to be made for the keys, and then a longer hunt for the money, which would be found scattered in the draw- ers of his secretary or table, wherever he had hap- pened to empty his pockets. He showed the gener- osity of his nature by the deep interest he took in his students after they left him, always using his in- fluence in their ftivor when he could. He was distinguished for his hospitality, carrying this virtue often to the extreme limits, and even be- yond the bounds of prudence. His clients and his neighbors ran to him for all sorts of counsel, and at all times, convenient or inconvenient. For the ad- vice thus sought, and always freely given, he seldom made any charge. But few lawyers ever did so much business without being adequately paid, and I may add but few ought to. If anybody got into trouble, the first man he would think of applying to for relief would be General Wall ; and rarely did any one apply without (jettinii: what he asked for, if it was in his power to give it, and often when it was much to his injury. Faithful and self-sacrificing as a friend, he was placable as an enemy; and although sometimes violent in his resentments, he was always easily paci- fied, and had no memory for injuries. The early training of General Wall was as a Feder- alist, and, like many of those with whom he asso- ciated, he was far from moderation in his opposition to the Republicans. But in process of time he changed his political relations and his views of men and meas- 426 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. ures. His own language, in a speech made in the senate, was: "My colleague (Mr. Southard) with some scorn speaks of modern democracy, and says that he went to bed one night a Democrat, and rose the next morning a Federalist. Sir, if such a sudden metamorphose took place, his democracy must have been composed of • such stuff as dreams are made of; like shadows it came, and like shadows it de- parted.' My democracy, however modern it may be, neither came so suddenly, nor will it, I hope, be so evanescent. I admit that my democracy is a plant of slow growth ; it neither came up in a night, nor will it be found withered in the mornino;. It resulted from reflection, experience, and the conquest over error and prejudice ; and I hope that, like all plants of slow growth, it will be the more enduring. I have no pretension to that unctuous democracy which arises from hereditary descent. I cannot boast that ' I was born in the purple.' Hereditary democracy savors rather of aristocracy, and, like hereditary property, is apt to be dissipated." In the year 1822 he was elected a member of the Assembly from the County of Hunterdon, running on a union ticket, and was the only one of that ticket who succeeded. I met him there as a fellow-member, and I well recollect the part he took in our proceed- inars. His frank and amiable manners made him a general favorite, while his intimate acquaintance with the common law, the statutes of the State, and the practice of the courts, enabled him to render essential service in the ordinary business of legislation. Polit- ical contests did not disturb us, and no very impor- tant questions arose for discussion. Upon one occasion, however, he spoke with great eloquence and effect. GARRKT DORSET WALL. 427 Divorces were at that time granted by private acts, often for very insufficient reasons, without anything like a careful investigation of the alleged causes, and sometimes even without reasonable notice to the op- posite party. After several such acts had passed against his vote, he was at length aroused to such an exposure of the injustice of the proceeding, and the danger of thus tampering with the dearest and most sacred relation of life, as for a time to arrest the prac- tice. He was one of the earliest supporters of General Jackson for the presidency. I remember that early in the flxll of 1824 I heard him predict, greatly to my surprise, that the electoral vote of the State would be given to Jackson, as it was ; but I was not then aware of a fact which was known to him, that many of the most influential Federalists in all parts of the State would oppose Mr. Adams. In 1827 he appeared before the democratic caucus of Hunterdon County, consisting of a great crowd, numbering some twelve hundred persons, who voted for the candidates by a regular ballot. His success in obtaining a nomination, in spite of the opposition of the leaders of the party, was the strongest proof of his personal popularity and of his powers as an ora- tor. It was with difficulty he obtained a hearing, a great eff*ort being made to drown his voice and cry him down. But soon the clear tones of his voice be- gan to ring through the room, and within five minutes he talked the meeting into silence. Judge Potts, who was secretary of the meeting, said of his speech, " He spoke for an hour; it was the boldest, the most spirit- stirring and powerful popular address I ever heard, before or since." It used to be said that in the course 428 ^ REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of it, he literally took off his coat and turned it inside out, so wearing it during the remainder of the meet- ing. He not only obtained the nomination for mem- ber of Assembly, but was elected by the people. From the time of his adoption as a candidate of the democratic party, he held a high position in the confidence and respect of that party. His democracy being, as he said, " a plant of slow growth," was pro- gressive and enduring. Tt did not consist in mere adherence to party usages and party discipline, but a steady principle, leading him to earnest efforts " to produce the greatest good to the greatest number." To that portion of the party to which he was first at- tached, who had no real confidence in our republican system, and who only endured it as an experiment they expected to fail, he never belonged. His nat- ural sympathies were with the onward movement of the popular cause. It was the profound remark of a great statesman, " that a young man who was not an enthusiast in matters of government must possess low and groveling principles of action ; but an old man, who was an enthusiast, must have lived to no pur- pose." The enthusiasm of his youth was abated by age and experience; but he never lost his trust and hope in the advance of society, under free democratic institutions. Although a party man, and ready enough to em- bark in party measures, seldom was any one more free from party bitterness. He never allowed polit- ical preferences to estrange him from a friend ; and however high the political ferment of the day, he never permitted what he conceived to be the error of a political opponent to harden his heart or sever the bonds of friendship. He was held in strong personal GARRET DORSET WALL. 429 esteem, and was always in habits of intimate social intercourse with his political opponents, while living; and when he died, was honored and mourned by mU who knew him. In the Ml of 1828 he married the second time, and removed to Burlington. His party having a majority in the legislature of 1829, elected him governor, a position he declined accepting. He was however ap- pointed by Jackson, without his solicitation, and in- deed desirous of leaving the incumbent undisturbed, to the office of district attorney of New Jersey, the duties of which he fulfilled for several years with his accustomed ability. He was elected United States senator in the year 1834, and remained in that office the constitutional term, an active supporter of the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. Several of his speeches have been published, and are among the ablest of which that period of high excitement and keen controversy gave birth. Among them was one opposing earnestly and vigorously a national bank, partaking in the hos- tility of his party to that institution, " whose directory seated in their marble palace at Philadelphia, like the gods on Olympus, would- make rain or sunshine as it pleased their sovereign will." He opposed the bank- rupt bill, passed at one session and repealed the next, as partial and unjust. One of his speeches in reply to Mr. Crittenden, and in opposition to his proposed act punishing federal officers for interfering even by per- suasion with voters, has not been preserved, but is said to have been one of the most brilliant and spirited of his effi)rts while senator. The bill received but five votes in its favor. One of the prominent traits in the character of 430 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. General Wall was his attachment to his native State. No one appreciated more highly the natural advan- tages of this, one of the Old Tiiirteen States, whose people took so prominent and patriotic a part in the struggles of our Revolution, and no one was more anxious to improve them. He never forgot that he was a Jerseyman. Here he was born, and here he spent his life ; here was his home, and here the friends he loved. Here he commenced life a poor orphan boy J and here by his own native energy, and by that self-reliance which is ever the surest element of sue- cess, he had risen to honorable distinction. But because he was a Jerseyman, he was not less an American ; he was in truth an American, because he was a Jerseyman. He differed essentially from those abolitionists whose measures helped to produce a ter- rible civil war, but like most of our public men who have been honored with the confidence of our people, of whatever political name, he deprecated the violence of the South ; and had he lived to see armed hosts madly engaged in hostility to the flag of our Union, he would without doubt have been found among those fighting to support it. But the conflict ended, and the Union restored, it is safe to infer that he would have earnestly opposed measures of " recon- struction " that have produced doubtful alterations of the Constitution, in opposition, as there is too much reason to believe, to the real wishes of a majority of our people. Upon the expiration of his senatorial term, his po- litical friends were in the minority, and he returned to the pursuits of his profession. It was not long be- fore he was prostrated by disease of such a character as might have been expected, if it did not prove im- WILLIAM W. MILLER. 431 mediately flital, would so affect his physical and his mental energies as to prevent him from attending to business. It was indeed a striking proof of the in- domitable energy of his character, that, upon his par- tial recovery, he engaged in some important trials, and conducted them with almost his wonted skill and ability. He manifested a deep interest in the adoption of the new constitution of New Jersey, and although not a member of the convention which prepared it, he contributed materially to the success of the measure. He took a lively interest in the promotion of learn- ing, and was an active member of the board of trus- tees of Burlington College. A year or two before his death, he accepted a seat in the court of errors and appeals, and is understood to have evinced much legal discrimination in the decision of some of the impor- tant questions which came before that tribunal. But this was only the gleam of the setting sun. In the month of November, 1850, his disease assumed a fatal character, and terminated his life. William W. Miller was born in Hunterdon County in the year 1797. Although living in the country, which commonly presents so many more alluring pas- times for a boy, and having the companionship of a large fiimily of brothers and sisters, yet his fondness for and his application to study was so great, that at the age of twelve years he w\as prepared to enter the Freshman class at college. The regulations of the institution not permitting this, he pursued his studies alone, and at the age of fourteen entered the junior class of Princeton College half advanced. Before he was sixteen he graduated, taking one of the honors 432 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of his class, several members of which were afterwards quite distinguished men. Owing to his youth, he was advised not to enter immediately upon his professional studies, but to re- view the studies he had gone over. For this purpose he went to Somerville, and there instructed in the languages a class of young men all older than himself. Pretty soon, however, he entered upon the study of the law with Theodore Frelinghuysen, and was licensed as an attorney in 1818, and as a counselor in 1821. He commenced practice as a lawyer in Morristown, and continued there five or six years, then removing with his family, consisting of a wife and three children, to Newark. His reputation as a public speaker be- gan at this time to attract attention, not only in his own neighborhood, but also in the city of New York, so that frequent calls were made upon him to address public meetings. His speech in behalf of the Greeks, then struggling to relieve themselves from the oppres- sion of the Turks, made in Trinity Church, Newark, July 13, 1824, won for him applause which rang through the whole country, and is still spoken of as a masterpiece of eloquence. In February, 1825, he was retained as counsel for a minister of the Dutch Church, who had sued his son- in-law in New York for a gross slander. The case was one which excited universal interest, and the City Hall was crowded to excess. .The celebrated Thomas Addis Emmet was one of the counsel of the defend- ant ; so that every circumstance was calculated to enlist the sympathy and stimulate the ambition of a young lawyer. Mr. Miller spoke nearly three hours, during which the excitement of the crowd was in- tense, and when at last he sank exhausted in a chair. WILLIAM W. MILLER. 433 Emmet embraced him, and the defendant sobbed so loud as to be heard all over the house. The cause was gained, but it was the last effort of the gifted orator ; that night he had a hemorrhage of the Uunrs. By the advice of his physicians he left home and went into the South of France, and for a time seemed better; but on the 24th of July, 1825, he was again attacked by a hemorrhage at a hotel in Paris, and died at the early age of twenty-eight years and a few months. He lies buried in the well-known cemetery of Pere la Chaise, where an iron railing marks the spot, and which is visited with melancholy interest by his American friends. Upon the news of his death, a meeting of the bench and bar was held in the court room at Trenton, of which Richard Stockton was chairman, and Peter D. Vroom secretary. Very complimentary resolutions were adopted. Lucius H. Stockton, with the readiness and tendency to exaggeration always disjDlayed, ex- pressed the feeling that animated those present by saying : "I do not think it possible that a greater loss could have been sustained by society at large, or by our own fraternity, than that which has been this day announced. We sincerely lament his premature death, cut off in the morning of a life which opened with such splendid prospects, and gave so fair a prom- ise. It is not, sir, merely that he was eloquent in debate, profound in erudition, highly adorned with the most eleg-ant embellishment of classical science: not that he was a man great in practical wisdom, and powerful intellectual capacity ; it is not merely on account of these, however important traits of his character, that we so much mourn his loss. We are more deeply and solemnly affected when we reflect 28 434 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. upon his amiable and affectionate temper, the active benevolence of his useful life, the honorable and del- icate purity of his principles, and especially the un- affected simplicity and sincerity of that piety for which, without the least tincture of superstition or sectarian bigotry, he was so much distinguished." Although so long in his grave, Mr. Miller was younger than myself I had only a slight acquaint- ance and no professional intercourse with him ; but I well remember his reputation for splendid oratorical powers, and his high character as a Christian gentle- man. His Greek speech was published, and univer- sally admired. Jacob W. Miller was a younger brother of William W. Miller, and in early youth came near to rival him as a speaker. He was born at Cherry Valley, in Mor- ris County, in the year 1800, and studied law with his brother. He was licensed as an attorney in 1823, as a counselor in 1826, and in 1837 was one of those last called to be a sergeant at law. He lived and practiced his profession in Morristown, where for many years and in the adjoining counties, he was a leadino; and influential advocate. He had a larjj-e practice, insomuch that T recollect when at one time a circle of lawyers were discussing the probable gains of the prominent members of the profession, and wdien three thousand dollars a year was supposed to be about the highest mark, he was spoken of as prob- ably gaining more than any other counselor in the State. He was distinguished not only as a fervent and impressive speaker, but for patient industry, faithfulness, and tact. He was distinguished also for that sound common sense, which is above all other JACOB W. MILLER. 435 sense, and was by its exhibition in pnblic and private, a man of great personal influence. In 1838 he entered public life, becoming a member of the legislative council of tliis State. In 18 iO, and subsequently in 1846, he was elected by the Whig party, to which he belonged, to the senate of the United States. That body was then in the zenith of its distincticin. All the great men were there. He was not equal to several of them; but the sterling quali- ties of his intellect and character were not overshad- owed. He gained and retained the respect of his as- sociates and of the country at large. In April, 1850, I visited Washington and saw him in the senate chamber. The compromise measure in reference to the admission of California into the Union as a State, was before that body. He was fjivorable to the immediate admission of the State, as recom- mended in his message by President Taylor, and of course differed from the leader he had been accus- tomed to follow. Upon this occasion I saw, with no little surprise and amazement, Miller and Dayton, and most of the other Whig members, following the lead of Mr. Benton, the man of all others they had been ac- customed to contemn ; while most of the Democrats were just as implicitly following the lead of Mr. Clay. I could not help rather ironically congratulating Mr. Miller on his very remarkable choice of a leader, about the last man he had ever expected to follow. He replied with very good humor, that it certainly was a very unlooked for change, but circumstances had rendered it necessary. On the next day I went with him to wait on the President, and here a conversation occurred still more curious than the proceedings in the senate 436 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. chamber. No other person accompanied us but his young son ; and we found only one person in the reception room, who left directly upon our entrance. I was introduced as the attorney-general of New Jersey. After a polite reception the President com- menced talking to Mr. Miller very rapidly, and with considerable excitement in reference to the proceed- ings in the senate, and declared himself "in favor of admitting California without terms, and opposed to Mr. Clay's propositions. The resolutions introduced by Mr. Clay, which he hoped would make an amicable arrangement of the whole slavery controversy, were to the effect that California should be admitted as a State without re- striction as to slavery ; that appropriate governments should be established in all the other Territories with- out restriction as to slavery; that slavery should not be abolished in the District of Columbia, while it existed in Maryland, without the consent of the people of that State and of the District; that the slave-trade should be abolished within the District ; that more effectual provision should be made for the restitution of fugitive slaves; and that Congress had no power to prohibit the trade in slaves between the slaveholding States. Without particularly discussing the difference be- tween the two measures, the President spoke of a speech Mr. Clay had recently made, in which he had praised General Scott very highly, and declared him to be the greatest general for strategy then in the world. Yes, Taylor said, "some senator might have replied and told him what his strategy or stratagem was; by licking Polk's boots he had got my army away from me, and left me at the mercy of Santa JACOB W. MILLER. 437 Anna, — that was his strategy or stratagem ; and thus he sacrificed Mr. Clay's son, — that was his strat- egy or stratagem." Upon every emphatic pronuncia- tion of the word stratagem, repeated many times, he shrugged his shoulders and spit. He then went on to speak of the celebration of Mr. Clay's birthday, which was soon to take place at New York, when Mr. Cooper, senator from Pennsyl- vania, was to deliver an address. The plan agreed upon, he said, was to run Mr. Clay for the next presi- dent with General Scott for vice-president, to which he said the latter had reluctantly assented. I under- stood Mr. Miller to say that he believed such a plan was on foot. It was afterwards frustrated by the death of Mr. Clay before the time for the new elec- tion arrived. General Scott, as is well known, was set up as the Whig candidate, and was beaten by Pierce, and the Whig party dissolved. I was informed, and believe it to be true, that Scott, although commander- in-chief of the army, never saw Taylor after his election to the presidency. It was said that upon one occasion he got half way up the stairs on his way to the reception room, but something occurred which made him beat a retreat, almost as hasty as his dis- patch of the plate of soup mentioned in one of his letters, and which gave to his opposers such a fine chance for ridicule. General Taylor spoke also of Mr. Webster, but with much more of good humor than characterized his talk about Scott and Clay. He said laughingly that Mr. Webster had made a very smooth speech, but had lost one of the leaves, and had to make a supplement the next day. He had been told by a mutual friend that Mr. Webster would support his administration, but if 438 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. lie had ever made such a pledge he had forgotten it. He mentioned having been shown a newspaper arti- cle, which stated that he had not consulted Mr. Web- ster or Mr. Clay about his cabinet, which he said was very true. All this was spoken directly to Mr. Mil- ler, without his appearing to notice that anybody else was in the room. It seemed to both of us so ex- traordinary, that after leaving the White House I suggested that it would not be proper to make what was said publicly known ; and Mr, Miller requested me to abstain from publishing it until there was no longer any danger of its doing harm. It is curious to compare Taylor's estimate of Scott with what the latter says of him in his autobiogra- phy, vol. ii. page 382 : — " General Taylor's elevation to the presidency, the result of military success, though a marvel, was not a curse to the country. Mr. Webster in his strong idiomatic English, said of the nomination, ' It wa,s not fit to be made.' " With a good store of common sense. General Tay- lor's mind had not been enlarged and refreshed by reading, or by much converse with the world. Ri- gidity of ideas was the consequence. The frontiers and small military posts had been his home. Hence he was quite ignorant for his rank, and quite bigoted in his ignorance. His simplicity was child-like, and with immeasurable prejudices, amusing and incorri- gible, well suited to the tender age. Yet this old soldier and neophyte statesman had the true basis of a great character; pure, uncorrupted morals, combined with indomitable courage. He had no vice but pre- judice." This strikes me as a pretty fair, although certainly JACOB W. MILLER. 439 not a friendly appreciation of General Taylor's fit- ness for the presidential chair. The triumpliant elec- tion of Jackson affected all our subsequent elections. The statesman has gone under, and a soldier Avill be the man, whenever a war occurs to give him a chance of prominence. Scott has been as yet the only fail- ure. After the demise of the Whig party, Mr. Miller attached himself to the Republicans, although not an abolitionist. He had all his life acted in opposition to the Democrats, deplored the existence of slavery, and was hostile to its extension. He opposed Mr. Clay's compromise measures, and regarded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as the prelude to an attempt at dissolution of the Union. As a matter of course he was a warm supporter of the general government in the measures adopted for preventing or suppress- ing; the rebellion. After his retirement from the senate, he returned more actively to the business of his profession, which he had never entirely relinquished ; but his so long engrossment in other pursuits made it irksome to him, and foiling; health soon rendered him more and more averse to exei'tion. He argued a few cases in the courts in which I sat, with marked ability. But a cold which affected him in 1861, ripened into con- sumption, to which he was constitutionally prone, so that in the following year he died. He may be truly characterized as having been an amiable Christian gentleman ; of abilities not of the highest, but above the common order ; and as one who lived beloved and respected, and died lamented by all who knew^ him. CHAPTER XV. LAWYERS I HAVE KNOWN". THEODORE FRELINGHDYSEISr. JOHN RUTHERFURD. WILLIAM CHET- WOOD. JOHN J. CHETWOOD. AARON O. DAYTON. AVILLIAM N. JEFFERS. ALPHONSO L. EAKIN. JOSIAH HARRISON. FRANCIS L. MACCULLOCH. RICHARD P. THOMPSON. ASA WHITEHEAD. JO- SEPH W. SCOTT. rpHEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN was the grand- son of the Rev. John Frehnghuysen, who came from Holland in the year 1720, and ministered more than a quarter of a century to the Dutch settlers in Somerset and Middlesex counties. His grandmother, the daughter of a rich merchant of Amsterdam (after the death of her first husband, long known as Juf- frouw Hardenbergh), was a woman of keen intellect, strong will, and ardent piety, and from her, as well as her husband, his descendants no doubt derived that high character which distinguishes them to the pres- ent day. His father, Frederick Frelinghuysen, was educated at Princeton, and was a distinguished law- yer, and early in life a member of the Provincial and Continental Congress. During the Revolution he was a captain of artillery ; in that capacity being engaged in the battle with the Hessians at Trenton, and after- wards as a colonel of militia at several engagements with the enemy. In 1793 he was elected senator of the United States, a place which he resigned in 17b6. During the administration of General Washington he had a command as major-general of a portion of the THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 441 militia sent into Western Pennsylvania to quell the disturbance known as the Whiskey Insurrection. He died in 1804, at the age of lifty-one, and, as is be- lieved, justly entitled to the eulogium engraved on his tombstone : — "He died greatly beloved and lamented. Endowed by nature with superior talents, he was from his youth intrusted by his country with the most im[)ortant concerns. At the bar he wa;; eloquent, in the senate he was wise, in the field he was brave. Candid, generous, and just, he was constant and ardent in his friend- ship. Ever the patron and protector of merit, he gave his hand to the young, his counsel to the middle-aged, his support to declinin:^ years. He left to his children the rich legacy of a life unsullied by a stain, and adorned with numerous expressions of public useful- ness and private beneficence." My father, who knew hitn during the Revolution, and afterwards as a fellow-member of the legislature, always spoke of him with the highest respect, as an able legislator, and rather remarkable for his sprightly vivacity. Three of General Frelinghuysen's sons were law- yers. John, the eldest, born in 1776, admitted to the bar in 1797, died in 1833. He was highly respected, and of deep and ardent piety ; not distinguished as an advocate, but of excellent business talents, and ex- tensively occupied in public afliiirs, holding the office of surrogate, and frequently a member of the legis- lature. In that capacity I had the opportunity of knowino; how deserving he was of the esteem hi which he was always held. Frederick Frelinghuysen, the younger brother, born in 1788, a graduate of Princeton, was licensed as an attorney in 1810. He was distinguished as an advocate, and had a large practice, but he died in 1820, at the early age of thirty-two. Both these 442 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. Ijrothers, I believe are still represented at the bar, by their descendants. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, the distinguished senator, is a son of Frederick ; he was adopted and educated by his uncle Theodore, who had no children. Theodore Frelinghuysen was born in 1787, grad- uated at Princeton in 1804, studied law with Richard Stockton, was admitted to the bar in 1808, and died in 1862. I have always esteemed it one of the great blessings of my life that I was brought early into association with him, and could claim him as my friend. While he was a member of the senate at Washington I had occasion to pay a visit to Boston, and took wdth me a letter of introduction from him to a clerical friend there, who introduced me to sev- eral of tlie best religious circles of that city, as the friend of Mr. Frelinghuysen, and upon one occasion I was for a short time mistaken for Mr. Frelinghuy- sen himself The manner in which I was received by persons who had no personal acquaintance with him, gave unmistakable evidence of the high char- acter he had justly acquired ; and I was enabled to understand more fully the sentiment which induced Fulke Greville, created Lord Brooke by Queen Eliz- abeth, to desire to have inscribed on his tomb, that he was a friend of Sir Philip Sidney. The powers of Mr. Frelinghuysen were not equal to those of Mr. Webster, or of Mr. Southard, or of several others of our distinguished men; but in many respects he was superior to any of them. First of all in importance, his piety was deep and ardent. Of all the men I have ever known, he was the most faithful and untirino; in exercisino; a Chris- tian influence over others. This indeed may be truly THEODORE FKKLINGHUYSEN. 448 said to have been bis great talent. His piety was so unostentatious and yet so manifest, his manner ol" address so winning, bis integrity so complete, and his desire to do good so intense, that he could not fail to exercise a good influence over those with whom he came in contact. Even those who would turn witli disgust from any attempt of others to introduce relig- ious subjects, would listen to him at least with as- sumed patience, and thank him for his ftiithfulness. His natural temper was quick and irritable, and although generally under complete control, I Once witnessed a manifestation of it, unexpected and at the moment painful. But this quick sensibility was one of the elements of his power. It was manifested in his voice and demeanor. He was indeed the most persuasive speaker I have ever listened to. His speeches, when reported and read, cannot be said to be at all remarkable. But like Whitefield, and all great natural orators, his voice and manner w^ere such as to bring his hearers into entire sympathj^ with his own feelings, and thus to overmaster them. It cannot be said' that Mr. Frelinghuysen was un- commonly learned ; but he had a rapid, correct, and comprehensive mind, which enabled him fully to un- derstand any subject to which he applied himself. His judgment was quick and seldom erroneous. He was thus a safe counselor as well as a most success- ful advocate. With these great advantages, it is not wonderful that he took so high a position among competitors distinguished for the best qualities of successful law- yers. From his admission to the bar until he with- drew from the profession in 1838, a period of thirty years, he was fully employed, and engaged in most 444 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of the important causes arising within the sphere of his practice. In 1817 he was chosen by a joint meeting, a majority of which were of different politics from his, attorney-general of the State, and was re- elected, holding the office until he was elected to the senate of the United States in 1829. In 1826 he was elected one of the justices of the supreme court, a place which he declined to accept. As a senator, he did not quite rank with those called our greatest men, of whom not a few were his associ- ates ; but no one exercised a more salutary influence, and was listened to with more respect. He filled the place in the senate which was for a much longer pe- riod filled by Mr. Wilberforce in the British parlia- ment. His voice was always heard on the right side of all questions partaking of a religious or moral character, like the Sunday mail and Cherokee Indian bills. The congressional prayer-meeting, which I found in full activity several years after he left the senate, if not originated by him, was as constantly attended by him as the sittings of the senate itself There is indeed no reason to doubt that his personal influence at Washington was equal if not superior to that of any other individual. Those who differed from him in regard to the political questions of the day, did not fail to do justice to the purity of his mo- tives and the integrity of his character. When the term of Mr. Frelinghuysen was about to expire, and it was known that the election in this State, in the fall of 1834, would determine the ques- tion of his reelection, I was among those who, like himself, had not become reconciled to General Jack- son as a chief magistrate of the nation, and for the last time in my life, impelled by an anxious desire to THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 445 see him retained in a place lie so well filled, I engaged earnestly in the political canvass. It proved a vain efTort. The popularity of Jackson carried away the public voice, and brought into the list of supporters a large number of the old Federalists of the State, who, following the lead of Hamilton, were dissatisfied with the x\damses, both father and son. It has been supposed by some that a conscientious man like Mr. Frelino-huvsen could not enj>;au:e as an advocate, to plead for those he was not entirely con- vinced had the ritrht side of a cause in which he took a fee. But he certainly never so misconceived the duty of a lawyer. To do this would be to determine that the profession of an advocate is not a lawful call- ing, and cannot be undertaken and practiced by one who desires to be governed by the holy law of God ; and not only this, but that no Christian can rightly employ a lawyer. If the calling be lawful for any one, it is not only lawful for the Christian, but it is exceedingly desirable that all who follow it be not merely professedly, but truly godly and righteous. All who have even a slight acquaintance with the complicated nature of the laws in a civilized society, and with the difficulty rightly to administer such laws, so as to do equal justice to the ignorant and the intelligent, the obscure and the influential, must see that the existence of a trained body of men, ready to aid those who have occasion to appeal to the laws, either as complainants or as defendants, is indispensa- ble. So indispensable, indeed, that the laws of this and of probably all other well regulated governments provide, not only that a litigant party shall be enti- tled to employ an advocate if he has the means of compensating him for his services, but that if he has 446 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. not, he shall have one assigned to him by the court, to perform this service gratuitously. The lawyer who should undertake to make it his rule to engage in no case he was not convinced be- forehand was just, or who should determine to aban- don a case the moment he felt persuaded he was on the wrong side, would set very dangerous snares for his conscience. To avoid fallinsi: into one error he would be pretty sure to fall into a greater. Every lawyer of experience soon learns that cases, the legal- ity or justice of which have appeared to him doubtful, have turned out, or at any rate have been thought by those whose duty it was to decide them, perfectly just and legal. In fact a majority of the causes brought into the courts are more or less doubtful, either as to the facts or the law, and often as to both. Many things may be properly urged on both sides of such questions ; and the very object of a public discussion by skilled advocates on both sides, is to afford the means of fully understanding and rightly deciding them. With all the aid thus afforded, judicial opin- ions are not always correct ; but without them the dang'er of error would be fir greater. But while all this is perfectly true, and was well understood and acted upon by Mr. Frelinghuysen, it does not follow that the profession is free from very peculiar dangers. The wish to succeed is natural, and without it an advocate would be apt to lack energy and earnest effort. To keep this wish within due bounds, and never to permit it to induce him to aid in any attempt to pervert tlie truth or the law, is the duty of every truly conscientious lawyer, and one that will keep him ever vigilant. The temptation to swerve from the strict path of integrity is constantly THEODORE FRELTNGTITTYSEN. 447 besetting him, and as constantly calls for self-deniiil and moral courage, to enable him to conquer it. The constant desire and aim of the law^^er should be to aid the court and jury in arriving at the truth. While he argues for a fee, and is justly entitled to live by his profession, he should never forget that he is one of the officers of justice, and, as such, has taken upon himself solemn responsibilities. His duty to his client should be, not the highest in his regnrd, but second to the claims of truth and justice. One great duty he should never forget, and that is the duty of discouraging unnecessary litigation. Clients are fre- quently not only blinded by self-interest, but inflamed by passion. To take advantage of such feelings is a worse sin than he is gnilty of who indulges them The lawyer who upon the retrospect of his profes- sional life can feel that he has faithfully endeavored to be a wise and safe counselor, has abstained from seekiun; to g-ain advantas-e from the weakness or passions of those employing him, has endeavored to heal rather than to widen breaches, has declined to obscure or pervert the truth in the examination of witnesses, has kept himself free from a desire to tri- umph over an adversary at the expense of right, and has desired to fad when the cause of justice so re- quired, may look back upon a safe and honorable career ; and upon such a professional career as this Mr. FreliuQ-huysen undoubtedlv did look back. As a public prosecutor of criminals, while careful to enforce the laws faithfull}^ he was never willing to UY^re a conviction unless the case was reasonably cleai- of doubt. He considered it one of the advantages of this position that it gave him more discretion in tin- conduct of the case, and freed him from the pressure 448 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. of clients prone to think that because he had received their money he was bound to gratify their sometimes unreasonable exjDectations. In exercising this discre- tion, however, it may have happened, as it once did to myself, when prosecuting an accused person for murder, before the statute had made a distinction be- tween murder of the first and second degree, and nothing appeared to indicate any malice, but the mere fact that a blow had been given from which death ensued, and I declined to insist upon any other verdict than manslaughter. Chief Justice Ewing not only felt it his duty to instruct the jury that malice ought to be implied from the fact of killing, as was undoubtedly then the severe rule of the common law, but he decidedly though gently rebuked the prose- cutor for having fjiiled in what he considered his duty so to insist. I may add that I was not grieved either by the rebuke, or by the verdict of the jury for the minor offense. The profession of a lawj^er in full practice is not only arduous, but to a truly conscientious man is beset with many and peculiar trials. These trials are in- creased, I think, by the erroneous opinions in regard to his duty which have been expressed by those who, without any adequate knowledge of his true position, have undertaken to instruct him. Dymond, a Friend, takes the ground in Jiis " Moral Philosophy," that a conscientious hiwyer cannot aid a criminal in escaping justice by taking advantage of a defect in the indict- ment, or a defendant in evading the payment of an honest debt by pleading for him the statute of limita- tions; and even Mr. Hoffman, a lawyer himself, in his excellent work, entitled " A Course of Legal Study," states as one of his rules, " I will never plead the THEODORE FRELLNGHUYSEN. 449 statute of limitation when based on the mere eftlux of time, for if my client is conscious he owes a debt, and has no other defense than the legal bar, he shall never make me a partner in his knavery." Edward O'Brien, an Irish barrister, and evidently a most sincere Christian, who died in 1840, at an early age, in a work entitled, "The Lawyer; his Character and Ride of Holy Life," published by Cary & Hart, in 1843, and which ought to be carefully read by every lawyer, goes so far as to declare : " First he makes it known that he will undertake the conduct of none but just causes; and here he esteems those causes alone to be just which natural law, or positive laws not con- tradicted by natural laws, do make such. The judge is appointed to administer the laws according to their letter; he is bound to do so by the command of the prince and the oath of his office, and if at any time he is obliged to give a judgment which he knows must v;ork injustice, he does so against his will. But the lawyer who being counsel and assists his client will- ingly, no law compelling him, counsels and assists him in that which is unjust, becomes before God a partaker in his client's evil deeds." All this proceeds, T think, upon a mistake as to the real position of the lawyer. The earnest desire of these writers to enforce upon the lawyer's conscience the claims of justice has misled them, as the popular notion that the advocate is simply the representative of his client, has misled others. It is ;in error into which I think Mr. Frelinghuysen did not fall, although undoubtedly he did feel and act upon the principle, that it is far safer to err on this side of the question than on the opposite. It is a plain truth that no one can properly do that 29 450 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. for another which he cannot honestly do for himself; provided, that when he acts for the other, he acts as freely and with the same moral relations as when he acts for himself. But the lawyer does not so act when he appears for his client. So far as he is merely his adviser and friend, and this is a part of his character, he is undoubtedly bound honestly to advise and per- suade his client to be not only just but generous ; but he is something more than a mere willing counselor and friend ; he is a minister of the law, holding a situa- tion as a sworn officer of the court, whose duty it is to assist parties in bringing their cases before the court, that they may be adjudicated according to law. A man who is entitled to sue or dei^end, in forma pauperis, may compel this service, without fee or reward, and in all other cases, upon being suitably paid, the duty must be the same, and in case of necessity. I suppose may be and would be enjoined by the judge. In my opinion it must be an extreme case which will justify a lawyer in refusing to apply plain prin- ciples of law either in the prosecution or defense of actions. Taking the instance of the statute of limita- tions, in regard to which many have doubted, and which at one time even our judges regarded as "a rogue's law," and did their best to evade, experience lias proved its beneficial influence. Whether it shall be interposed in any particular case, or whether he ishall wait to be sued for a just demand, depends on cir- cumstances, and is a matter for the conscience of the party, which the law does not meddle with. The plea of this statute must be interposed in a technical man- ner, w^hich ordinarily no one but a lawyer can do. The very design of his office is to bring forward the legal question for the decision of the judge. By what right, THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 451 then, shall he refuse? Shall he say, "Sir, in my jiidg- ment, your defense is unconscientious." His client may truly answer, "The law gives me this defense unconditionally ; my conscience is my own, and for the right use of it I am accountable only to God. I respect and have duly weighed your advice ; but you have assumed a public office, specially charged with the duty of enabling litigants to avail themselves of the law, and you have no more right to deny me the plea, if I insist upon it, than the judge has to overrule it." Shall he say, "Seek a more pliant advocate?" But all advocates are bound by the same moral law and ought to be Christians, and if one ought to refuse the plea so ought all. And we have this anomaly : the law has provided a bar against every action not com- menced within a certain time, and has provided an officer to set up that bar, but it must depend on the conscience of the officer whether it shall be enforced. If this view of the subject is not correct, I think it must be conceded that no conscientious man can safely follow the business of an advocate. The whole system of human law is, from the necessity of the case, artificial and imperfect, by which no more is effected than by general rules to approach as near to justice as the imperfect nature of all human institu- tions will allow. Some contracts to be legal must be in writing ; an infmt cannot legally bind himself at all, except for necessaries; a deed or will must be formally executed, or it does not operate ; an indict- ment for a crime must have certain formalities. Yet all these and many other regulations of daily occur- rence may work a particular wrong. Must the lawyei-, before he can conscientiously apply these rules, be satisfied that his client may conscientiously avail him- 452 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. self of them? If such be his duty, it must be con- fessed that he h«ad better never enter into the pro- fession. In the language of Hooker, " So natural is the union of religion with justice, that we may boldly deem there is neither where both are not. For how should they be unfeignedly just, whom religion doth not cause to be such, or they religious which are not found such by the proof of their just actions. If they which employ their labor and travail about the public administration of justice, follow it only as a trade, with an unquenchable and unconscionable thirst of gain ; being not in heart persuaded that justice is God's own work, and themselves his agents in this business ; the sentence of right God's own verdict, and themselves his priests to deliver it; formalities of justice do but serve to smother right, and that which was necessarily ordained for the common good, is, through shameful abuse, made the cause of common misery." The advocate who willingly aids in perverting legal proceedings, to enable unscrupulous persons to plun- der the public, by fraudulent schemes, or by the cor- rupt management of railroads or other corporations ; or who so conducts the defense of criminals as to at- tract the general applause of notorious offenders, in- somuch that they instinctively apply to hiui, ought not to be accounted an honorable man, and certainly cannot be a Christian. And when such men are found to do these things for enormous fees, they cannot be otherwise regarded than as a reproach to the profes- sion. But althouo;h there is too much reason to fear that men aspiring to hold an honorable rank in the profession do sometimes err even to this extent, the THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 453 • much more common error into which they foil is to willingly and earnestly advocate grounds of" defense for criminals which they cannot help knowing are im- proper or entirely unsupported by the evidence, the most flagrant example of which is the plea of insan- ity in certain cases of murder. And when it is considered how important legal knowledge is, and how large a part lawj'ers neces- sarily take in the proceedings of our republican in- stitutions, the importance of this subject can hardly be overrated. Many persons are greatly prejudiced against lawyers ; but what would be the end of a government depending upon a system of law, if those who are trained to expound it are corrupt, or are discarded ? Lawyers are exposed to special tempta- tions and have need of all their vigilance, and indeed of earnest prayer, to overcome them. But long ex- perience has satisfied me, that as a class they are quite as honest as any other class of the community ; and I trust it is not mere partiality makes me say that upon the whole they are even the most trustworthy men we have. There are knaves in all trades and professions ; but a lawyer of the average honesty of disposition is in general better acquainted with the true rules of morality and with the evils of departing from them, and hence, as he ought to be, is more to be relied on to observe them ; and the extent to which they are trusted is evidence that this is the sober sentiment of the community. Mr. Frelinghuysen was a man of prayer, and was in the daily habit of seeking aid from the only true source of power to resist temptation. Could every lawyer be persuaded to adopt the prayer given by O'Brien, he might hope never greatly to err : " 454 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. Lord, our heavenly Father, who in thy providence hast appointed governors, thy ministers, to dispense thy laws among all nations ; grant that we and all thy servants ministering in things pertaining to justice, may faithfully fulfill the duties of our calling with a single eye to thy glory, and a humble dependence upon thy heavenly blessing. Mercifully, we beseech thee, turn us away from all undue love of wealth and earthly power; keep us from all pride, malice, and evil speaking ; preserve us from the fear of evil men, and the contagion of ill example ; strengthen in us the love of truth, justice, and mercy ; and so quicken our hearts with love towards thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may so love our fellow-creatures, even as thou hast loved us. Grant this, Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Saviour and Redeemer. Amen." Feeling deeply the dangerous temptations, and the incessant fatigue to which a large practice exposed him, Mr. Frelinghuysen, was often on the point of giving it up, and becoming a preacher of the gospel. Satisfied, however, not only from his own experience, but from the advice of judicious friends that he was probably doing as much good for the cause of religion, in his situation at the bar and in public life, as he could in the ministry, he resisted these temptations, and continued at the bar until he had passed the middle of life. And no man was more faithful in using every suitable opportunity of exercising an in- fluence for good. But few, if any, of his associates at the bar, or in public life, were left without his having taken some opportunity of bringing before them, orally or in writing, the subject of personal religion. And seldom did he fail to make a deep and serious THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 455 impression upon those he addressed. The influence of a few well cliosen, sympathetic, earnest words, like his most impas>ioned addresses to a jury, often seemed irresistible. 1 doubt if any layman in the land, or il" few or any ministers of the gospel, ever made so many personal appeals on the subject of religion as during his life he did. He was an early and earnest supporter of the meas- ures adopted to discourage the use of intoxicating drinks, and besides his own example of entire absti- nence from their use, made many powerful addresses in favor of the practice of total abstinence. But in this as in all his efforts to do good, he was careful not to overstep the bounds of Divine truth and reason- able prudence, as so many have done, to the great in- jury of this and other benevolent objects. Early in 1839 he was chosen chancellor of the Uni- versity of New York, and after considerable hesita- tion he accepted the situation and removed to New York. He had attained an age when, like most of those who have enjoyed a large practice as an ad- vocate, he began to feel a growing repugnance to the conflicts of the profession, especially in the trial of causes involving disputed facts, and such a decision was to be expected. But I have always doubted whether he would not have done better to remain where he was ; and am by no means certain that he did not himself regret the change. In 1844 he was selected by the whig party as their candidate for vice-president, with Mr. Clay, then the great leader of the party, as the candidate for the presidency. Greatly to the surprise of their supporters, these popular men failed to be elected. The great conflict between the North and the South, in regard 456 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. to slavery, soon became the absorbing question, and resulted in tlie triumph of the party of the north, which assumed the name, once so denounced, of Re- publicans. Although never ranked among abolition- ists, but a supporter of the Colonization Society, Mr. Freringhuysen threw the whole influence of his high character on the side of the Republicans. He did not live to see slavery finally overthrown, but so long as he lived he aided to the extent of his power in the maintenance of the Union. In 1841 he was chosen President of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; and in ] 846, President of the American Bible Society. In the year 1850, he was chosen President of Rutger's College, and removed to New Brunswick, thus in the evening of his days re- turning to the cherished spot where its morning began, and was permitted to end a life of singular distinction and usefulness, dying at the age of seventy- five years. John Rutherfurd, with whom I became well ac- quainted while we were associated as commissioners on the part of New Jersey, for settling the contro- versy with New York respecting the waters between the two States, was licensed as an attorney in 1782. He was the son of Walter Rutherfurd and a daus-hter of James Alexander, and was born in the city of New York in the year 1760. Having graduated at Prince- ton College, he studied law partly with Richard Stock- ton, the elder, and partly with Judge Paterson. Directly after his admission to the bar, he married a daughter of General Lewis Morris, of Morrisania, and settled at first in the city of New York. Being one of the vestry of Trinity Church, he had the care of JOHN RUTHERFURD. 457 the real estate of that wealthy corporation, and his name is found in the Directory of 1786, among the lawyers, as of 50 Broadway. In 1787 he took up his residence at his form called " Tranquillity," in Sussex County, and the next year was elected a member of the Assembly. Having a large property, as one of the proprietors of East Jersey, and otherwise, he does not appear to have engaged in active business as a lawyer. In 1790, when he had barely reached the age of thirty, required by the Constitution, he was elected a mem- ber of the senate of the United States, in the place of my uncle, Jonathan Elmer, who was one of the first senators, and drew the class whose seats became va- cant at the end of two years, and was denied a reelec- tion, as was said, because he was absent when the vote was taken fixing the seat of the general government. Mr. Rutherfurd' was reelected in 1796, but resigned in 1798. As during his time the senate sat with closed doors, but little is known of the part he took in the business transacted. About the time he left the senate, he took up his residence at Trenton, at a beautiful site on the banks of the Delaware, where he continued until 1808, when he removed to a seat on the east bank of the Passaic, a few miles above Newark. At that place he died in 1840. Although not following the profession for which he was educated, his time was fully occupied in the care of his large possessions, in the business of the East Jersey Proprietors, of whom he was president from 1804, and in various public affairs of consequence. During ten years from 1801, he was a commissioner with Simeon De Witt and Governeur Morris, to lay out the city of New York, by whom the plan of the city was adopted, and the survey and map completed. 458 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. In 1827, in conjunction with Richard Stockton, Theodore FreUnghuysen, James Parker, and myself, he was a commissioner appointed by Governor Wil- liamson, in pursuance of a law of this State passed in 1824, entitled "An act for the settlement of territorial limits and jurisdiction between the States of New Jersey and New York." There had been an attempt to settle this long pending dispute in 1807, when Aaron Ogden, Alexander C. McWhorter, William S. Pennington, James Parker, and Lewis Condict were the commissioners on the part of New Jersey, who had a long and rather angry controversy on the sub- ject with the New York commissioners, published by order of the legislature, without any result. The commissioners appointed in 1827 had several con- ferences with the New York commissioners at Newark and Albany, but failed to agree upon any terms of settlement. So little disposition was there at that time on the part of New York to yield any part of their pretensions, that while we were actually in con- ference at Albany, a bill passed one branch of the legislature in session there, which afterwards became a law, asserting and declaring the boundary line of New York to extend " along the west shore at low water-mark of the Hudson River, of the Kill van Kull, of the sound between Staten Island and New Jersey, and of Raritan Bay to Sandy Hook." The proposition on both sides, and the argument in behalf of New Jersey, will be found fully stated in a message com- municated to the legislature of New Jersey by Gov- ernor Williamson in February, 1828, and printed for the State. It is somewhat curious to notice, that the original right of New Jersey to the whole of Staten Island, was much plainer than her right to the middle WILLIAM CHETWOOD. 459 of the Hudson River, as we claimed, and as New York finally conceded to iis. Between 1828 and 1833, many conflicts arose be- tween persons claiming rights on the shores and oyster beds west of the middle of the Hudson, and of the waters between Staten Island and New Jersey, which at times came near to actual warfare. In 1833 new commissioners were appointed on the part of New York, and Frelinghuysen, Parker, and myself were reappointed for New Jersey ; and it soon appeared that we were to be met with an entirely different spirit from that which had before prevailed. Instead of stubborn persistence in the claims put forward on the two sides, the single question was, how we could arrange terms of settlement that would be just and equitable, and prove acceptable to the people of the two States. It beino- suo;trested on behalf of New Jersey, that, waiving all considerations of abstract riiJ-ht, New York should acknowledcj-e the true bound- ary line to be the middle of the river, and that New Jersey should agree that New York should have all such rights west of that line as might be deemed im- portant to secure to that State the right to regulate the police and the quarantine on the whole of the waters dividing the States ; this proposition, after time had been taken for full consideration and con- sultation, was acceded to by the New York commis- sioners. The result was the consummation of the agreement entered into September IGth,- 1833, which was ratified by the legislatures of both the States, and approved by the Congress of the United States. William Chetwood was the son of John Chetwood, one of the justices of the supreme court, and was born 460^ REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. at Elizabethtown in 1771. The family were originally Quakers, and settled first in Salem County, but after the removal of Judo-e Chetwood to Elizabethtown be- came connected with the Episcopal Church. William Chetwood graduated at Princeton in 1792, and then studied law with his father. He was a volunteer, and served on the staff of General Lee during the Whiskey Insurrection, having the rank then or afterwards of major, by which title he was usually addressed when I first knew him. He was licensed as an attorney in 1796, as conn, selor in 1799, and in 1816 was made a sergeant at law. He married a daughter of Colonel Francis Bar- ber, killed during the Revolutionary War by the fall- ing of a tree, and settled in his native place, where he resided until his death in 1857, at the advanced age of eighty-six years and six months. Living in different parts of the State, I only knew him as for some years a constant attendant on the sittings of the supreme court at Trenton. He was one of those indefatigable workers who, by persistent industry, are pretty sure to succeed. A story used to be told of him, that upon one occasion he went to the court in his own carriage, as the custom then was, ex- pecting to remain only a day, and without a change of linen. Unexpectedly detained, it became necessary for him to go up to Sussex County without returning home ; and he turned his shirt, so as to appear as de- cently as circumstances would permit. But before he could procure a change he found it expedient to turn it back again, and so arrived at home about as he left, but with a shirt rather the worse for wear. This was the opposite of Chief Justice Black, of Pennsylvania, whose wife, it has been reported, when she examined JOHN JOSEPH CHETWOOD. 461 his clothing upon his return from a circuit, found three shirts nnssing, which after considerable search were foiuid all safe on his back. Mr. Chetwood was elected a member of Congress hy the Jackson party, being one of those Federalists who preferred him to Adams. Afterwards, however, he acted with the Whigs. He accumulated a very handsome estate, a considerable part of which I have understood was invested in New York insurance com- pany stocks, and was lost by the great fire which occurred in 1835, leaving him, however, a competent support. He had retired from active business before I became a judge. John Joseph Chetwood was a grandson of Judge Chetwood, and the son of Dr. John Chetwood, a physi- cian of large practice who died of the cholera in 1832, surviving but a few hours after he was attacked. The son was born in 1800, and graduated at Prince- ton m 1818. He studied law with his uncle William, was licensed as an attorney in 1821, as a counselor in 1825, and was called as a sergeant at law in 1837. He married a granddaughter of General Elias Dayton, and resided at Elizabeth town, where he died in 1861. He was a member of council, and surrogate of the County of Essex. For many years he was prosecutor of the pleas of Union County, and an active business man, highly esteemed in and out of his profession, and although of a generous disposition, successful, as I have understood, in accumulating property. He was a trustee of Burlington College, and ready to second every effort in aid of education. In social intercourse I found him a genial companion, well informed, and well deserving the popularity he evidently enjoyed among his neighbors and friends. 462 REMINISCENCES OP' NEW JERSEY. Aaron 0. Dayton was born at Elizabethtown in 1796, and was the son of Elias B. Dayton, of that place, his mother being a daughter of Dr. Thomas B. Chandler. His grandfather, General Elias Dayton, was a well known and distinguished officer during the War of the Revolution. Their ancestor, Ralph Day- ton, came from England to Boston, and thence to East Hampton, Long Island, about the year 1650. His son Jonathan, father of General Elias Dayton, emigrated to Elizabethtown about the year 1720. Young Aaron Ogden Dayton, named in honor of Governor Aaron Ogden, after the usual preparatory studies in the grammar school at his native place, en- tered Princeton College, and graduated with the high- est honor in 1813, in the same class with Governor Pennington. After the usual course of study with Aaron Ogden, he was licensed as an attorney in 1817, and as a counselor in 1821, being a little more than two years behind me. Directly after obtaining his first license, he went out to Cincinnati with a view to settle, and was admitted to the bar there. But he soon returned, and selected Salem as his place of business. During his residence and practice here, I became well acquainted with him, meeting him in business and in social intercourse, and we remained friends to the end of his life. In 1823 he was elected a member of the Assembly from the County of Salem, in opposition to the regular democratic ticket, and we were associated and gener- ally acted together in the legislature. He was the youngest member of the house, taking an active and influential part in all the proceedings. The next year he declined being a candidate, but entered heartily into the contest for the presidency in behalf AARON 0. DAYTON. 463 of General Jackson. He was a member of the con- vention for the nomination of electors, and drafted the address which aided in carrying the State for their candidate. Just before the election, I was much surprised to hear General Wall say Jackson would carry the State, and did not believe it possible ; but I did not know, as he did, that so many of the leading Federalists were prepared to advocate him. In 1825 Mr. Dayton removed to Jersey City, and the next year to New York, proposing to engage in his profession there. But he was soon induced to en- ter the political arena, and in 1828 was elected by the democratic party, as the Jacksonians were now called, to the legislature, by a large majority. Afterwards he was appointed a master of chancery and injunction master, then of some importance, for the city of New York and Long Island. But owing to the increasing severity of a nervous disease which culminated in his death, he was induced to abandon the law, and to ac- cept a position in the diplomatic bureau of the state department at Washington, tendered to him upon the recommendation of General Wall, then a senator. In 1836 he was appointed chief clerk of the depart- ment of state, then of even more importance than now, and for which he was well fitted. In 1838 he was appointed fourth auditor of the treasury, charged with the settlement of the navy accounts, and remained in that office through all the varying administrations un- til his death in 1858. Fie occupied that position dur- ing the time I was a member of the house of repre- sentatives, and was universally regarded as one of the best officers of the g-overnment. He represented his grandfather in the New Jerse}'' Society of the Cincinnati, and in 1835 delivered a very 464 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. eloquent eulogy of Lafayette, before that body. In 1839 he delivered the address before the societies of Princeton College. These were both productions ex- hibiting a high order of talent. Had his health per- mitted him to remain at the bar, there can be no doubt that he would have ranked among our most respectable advocates. During my early professional life, when I attended the courts at Salem, that place was of more impor- tance than Bridgeton. The county was richer, and the business of all kinds better than that of Cumber- land. Lawyers from Trenton and Woodbury were constant in attendance, and well employed. But within the last quarter of a century, the County of Cumberland has gone ahead of Salem in professional and other business, and in population. The latter county, within my memory, had no lawyers who at- tained to much distinction. William N. Jeffers was too important a man in West Jersey, for many years, to be overlooked. He was born in the State of New York, and after being admitted to the bar in that State, as I understood from himself, went to New Orleans, in the employ of John Jacob Astor. After a short stay there, he went to Cincinnati, and undertook to practice as a lawyer ; but soon became involved in some transaction which occa- sioned an indictment to be found ao-ainst him in the o criminal court there, for the forgery or falsification of a bond. He was, however, permitted to put in bail of a nominal character, and to leave without a trial. He came to New Jersey about the year 1813, and after a short residence in Mount Holly, where he se- cured the friendship and patronage of Judge Rossell, WILLIAM N. JEFFERS. 465 who remained his warm friend as loiiii: as he lived, he was in 1814 examined and licensed as an attorney of this State, and took up his residence in Salem, and in 1817 he was admitted as a counselor. In 1831 he was called to the degree of sergeant. He was never a well read lawyer, but had some remarkable char- acteristics. He was a very handsome man, and dis- tinguished for polite manners and a winning address. Soon he acquired a large and lucrative practice as a lawyer; and as an advocate before a court of common pleas or a jury, was a most formidable adversary ; and he had the faculty of always retaining his clients, who seemed never, even if worsted, to attribute blame to him. He soon engaged in politics, taking the democratic side. In 1827, and in several years afterwards, he was elected a member of the Assembly, and in 1829 was a candidate in the caucus of the Jackson members for the situation of governor, but did not succeed in ob- taining the nomination. He was also named for the senate of the United States, and at one time con- fidently expected to succeed. Salem has always been a warmly contested county, sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other. Mr. Jeffers was one of the first who engaged personally in canvassing for votes, now so common as to occasion no surprise, then considered unbecoming. He was accused, too, of com- mencing the free use of money ; and it is certain that although he had warm personal friends, he contrived to excite equally violent opponents. He had much to do in the early management of the Salem Bank, originally chartered in connection with a steam flour mill, and in setting up a manufacturing company in the name and under the direction of a brother, being 30 466 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. accused of fraudulent transactions which occasioned a legislative investigation. In the early part of Jackson's administration, he was appointed minister to one of the South American re- publics, and got so far as Mobile on his way to the mission. But in the mean time some of those persons whose hostility he had provoked, procured a copy of the old indictment against him, and he was recalled before he left the country. This occasioned him to renounce politics, and soon he removed to Camden, where he resided and was actively engaged in his profession, holding no other office but prosecutor of the pleas, until his death in 1853, at the age of about sixty-five years. JosiAH Harrison was born in Essex County in the year 1776 ; graduated at Princeton in 1795; was li- censed as an attorney in 1800, and as a counselor in 1803. After teaching a classical school for a few years at Deerfield, in Cumberland County, he settled as a lawyer in Salem, where he married a lady of great respectability and worth. He was a man of small stature, and by no means strong in mind, but had a respectable business as a conveyancer and attorney. The most remarkable cir- cumstance in his life was his connection with the will of John Sinnickson, a citizen of Salem, who died without descendants, leaving a large property, consist- ing principally of real estate, about the year 1815, whose will he drew and witnessed. The contest about this will lasted several years, was of a very exciting character, and divided the society of Salem into two very hostile parties, making breaches in very respect- able families which are hardly healed to this day. The JOSIAH HARRISON. 467 principal opponent of the will was Dr. Rowan, who married a niece. Mrs. Harrison was also a niece, and there were several other nephews and nieces. Probate of the will was refused by the orphans' court, and upon an appeal to Governor Mahlon Dick- erson, as judge of the prerogative court, he affirmed this decree. Besides Mr. Jeffers and Joseph M'llvaine, who were counsel adverse to the probate, and Charles Ewing and Richard Stockton, counsel for Harrison, Joseph R. Ingersoll and Alexander J. Dallas (Dither of vice-president George M. Dallas) were employed, and received large fees. The last case in which Mr. Dallas spoke was this, he having been taken ill in Trenton, and living only a short time after he reached his home in Philadelphia. Mr. Harrison then removed his residence to Phil- adelphia, and filed a bill in the circuit court of the United States for the establishment of the trusts in the will. An issue of will or no will being ordered, the case was brought on before Judge Washington and a very intelligent and select jury, who, after n protracted trial, rendered a verdict establishing the will. The case is reported in 3 Wash. C. C. R. p. 680, Harrison vs. Rowan. The opinion of Judge Washington, especially in reference to the question of testamentary capacity, has been more quoted and relied on, even in England, than any other with which I am acquainted. A motion for a new trial being made, and argued by Ewing and Stockton for Harrison, and J. R. Ingersoll and Southard for Rowan, was decided in 1820 ; 4 W. C. C. R. 32. Judge Washington de- clared himself perfectly satisfied with the verdict ; but as Judge Pennington, who sat with him, was not entirely satisfied, a new trial was ordered. The 468 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. parties then compromised, and allowed a decree to be entered establishing the will, releases and other pa- pers being executed by the heirs and devisees, A life estate was thus settled on Dr. Rowan, who lived to extreme old age, and died only about two years since. After this trial, Mr. Harrison, whose wife had in the mean time died, resided several years in Camden, and carried on business as a printer. During this time he was reporter of the supreme court. He removed to Salem, and died there in the year 1865, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-nine years. Alphonso L. Eakin was a lawyer in Salem about forty-five years, who was distinguished only as being one of the most careful and accurate attorneys in the State ; and who by steady industry, careful collection of costs, and the art of compounding interest, accu- mulated a large fortune. He died in 1867. Francis L. Macculloch was the son of George Mac- culloch, of Morristown, who was a Scotchman, and was born in 1801, before his parents arrived in America. He was licensed as an attorney in 1823, and in 1826 as a counselor. He settled in Salem, and resided there till his death in 1859. He was a very fair lawyer, but confined his business almost entirely to the County of Salem, and such cases originating there as required to be decided in the courts at Trenton. He was an efficient prosecutor of the pleas two or three terms, and was justly considered a safe and reliable counselor, and of undoubted integrity. His business was very respectable ; and besides affording him a handsome competence, enabled him to leave a sufficient support RICHARD P. THOMPSON. 469 to an only daughter, who, however, did not survive him many years. Richard P. Thompson was born in Salem in the year 1805. He studied law with William N. Jeffers, and was licensed as an attorney in 1825, and as a counselor in 1828. He resided in Salem until his death in 1859. Although never entitled to rank as a well instructed lawyer, Mr. Thompson was, within the sphere of his legal knowledge, a very adroit and respectable advo- cate. His expertness in the trial of causes and in the transaction of business was very great, and for several years his practice was large and lucrative. He pros- ecuted the pleas of the State for several years with great success. While holding this latter office, he was appointed by Governor Haines attorney-general of the State, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Attorney-general Molleson. When this tempo- rary office expired, he resumed the duties of prosecu- tor, and w^as met by a writ o^ quo imrranio sued out b}' the late Judge Clawson. The supreme court decided that by the acceptance of the office of attorney-gen- eral, the office of prosecutor was vacated, the two offices being incompatible. Although as his counsel I was dissatisfied with this decision, on the ground that admitting the two offices to be incompatible, it was the office of attorney-general that could not be legally held, it was not thought advisable to carry the case into the court of errors, Mr. Cla\vson having relinquished all claim to the fees received as pros- ecutor. In 1852 he w\as appointed by Governor Fort at- torney-general; and being confirmed by the senate,. 470 . REMINISCENCES OF NEW .JERSEY. held the office the full term. He succeeded, too, in inducing the legislature, by the act passed in 1854, to place the office upon its present respectable foot- ing, relieving the attorney-general from the necessity of taking upon himself the ordinary prosecution of criminals, giving him a respectable salary, and extra compensation for his aid in all extraordinary cases. On the last day of the year 1852, he carried through the prosecution of Treadway for the murder of his wife in a manner that strikingly contrasts with many modern cases of this kind, and therefore deserves special mention. The case was well tried on both sides. The court of oyer and terminer of the County of Salem, for this trial, was opened at nine o'clock in the forenoon ; thirty witnesses were examined, the case was ably summed up on both sides, Mr. Mac- culloch being the counsel for the defendant; the jury retired at ten o'clock in the evening, and at eleven returned with a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. The criminal afterwards confessed his guilt, and was executed. Although the evidence was circumstantial, it was entirely satisfactory. The defendant, several days before he committed the crime, had been heard to threaten it ; he was shown to have had a gun, and to have purchased powder and buckshot in the morn- ing, the shot precisely of the kind extracted from the body of his victim ; he was shown to have been seen, late in the afternoon, with his gun in the neigh- borhood of the house where his wife was. She stood near a window, in the evening, employed at a table on which there was a lamp, wdien she was shot through the window, several buckshot penetrating her body and heart, so that she ran into an adjoining room, fell RICHARD P. THOMPSON. 471 down, and immediately died. The place where the person who shot her stood was easily determined, and upon being examined the next morning, a slight rain having fallen during the night, the paper wadding of the gun was found discolored, but whole, and this upon being pressed smooth, exactly fitted the torn part of a newspaper found in the criminal's pocket. The attorney-general had made himself fully ac- quainted with all the circumstances of the case, and had arranged the evidence so that each witness testi- fied to the material facts known to him, and nothing else. No case ever tried before me, during an expe- rience on the bench of fifteen years, was better con- ducted, or more satisfactory in the result. An action involving the title of a tract of land sit- uate in the County of Atlantic, was tried before me, which I take this opportunity of mentioning, because the value of genealogical inquiries was shown in a very remarkable manner. Mr. Robeson, now secre- tary of the navy, and Mr. Voorhees of Camden, were counsel for the plaintiff, and Mr. Bradley, now one of the justices of the supreme court of the United States, and Mr. Brownino- of Camden, were for the defendant The case was contested with great zeal and abilit}^ on both sides, and lasted ten davs, resultino; in a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff claimed under an original survey made by one Thomas Wanton in the year 1750. In support of his title a very handsome parchment deed was pro- duced, which purported to have been made by one Thomas Wanton in 1832, described as sole heir at law of the original Thomas Wanton deceased, and was cer- tified to have been acknowledged before a commis- sioner at Jersey City. The commissioner was dead, but it was admitted that his signature was genuine. 472 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. This deed was attacked on behalf of the defendant as a forgery, or at any rate, executed by a fictitious personage. A Mr. Gould, of Hudson County, New- York, a gentleman of great intelligence and respect- ability, was produced, who testified that he was a de- scendant of the original Thomas Wanton, and having a daughter named Mary Wanton Gould, about to be married, he had without any knowledge of or refer- ence to the property in New Jersey, made a thorough investigation of the genealogy of the Wanton family, who were at one time quite distinguished in Rhode Island, where it appeared the original owner of the land lived at the time he had the survey made. He had been able very satisfactorily to trace every branch of the family down to the living descendants, and fully disclosed the sources of his information, thus proving as completely as it seemed possible in any case to es- tablish a negative, that no such man as was described to be the maker of the deed of 1832 ever existed. His testimony was corroborated by another member of the same family, and the plaintiff being unable to produce the slightest evidence in support of the deed, the jury had no hesitation in rejecting it as spurious. Indeed it afterwards appeared that the plaintiff had been himself imposed on, having no suspicion of the yrenuineness of the deed until the disclosure of the trial showed its true character. Asa Whitehead, of Newark, was licensed as an attor- ney in 1818, as a counselor in 1821, and was one of those called to the degree of sergeant at law in 1837, after which time this degree ceased to be con- ferred. He was the son of Silas Whitehead, who was appointed in 1817 clerk of the County of Essex, but ASA WHITEHEAD. 473 who (lied the next year. The son was commis- sioned by the governor to fill the vacancy, and at the meeting of the legislature in 1819 he was regularly appointed his successor. Being reappointed in 1824, he held this office ten years. Connected with the Pennington family by marriage, his politics were like theirs, democratic, until the contest between Adams and Jackson, after which he became a Whig, and con- tinued an active and influential supporter of that party as long as it existed. His office of clerk expiring in 1819, when the Jackson party were largely in the majority and polit- ical feeling was very strong, he failed to be reelected at the moment, very much to his regret. But I re- member hearino; Chief Justice Ewins^ remark at the time that it would prove a great benefit to him, for the reason that although he did not seem himself to be aware of it, he had the ability to make a first class lawyer, and now he would be obliged to rely upon his profession. The opinion thus expressed proved to be entirely correct. It was not long before Mr. White- head took rank as a safe counselor and an able advo- cate, so that during the last twenty years of his life he stood, if not at the head of the profession in the northern part of the State, yet among those relied upon in all important cases. In the years 1833 and 1834 he was a member of the Assembly, and in the year 1848, after the adoption of the new constitution, he was chosen a member of the state senate for three years. Of un impeached in- tegrity, and thoroughly imbued with the conservative spirit of the old school politicians, he exercised a salu- tary influence in legislation, and was active in pro- moting the success of the Whig party. He was the 474 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. leading member of the delegates from this State to the Whig Convention of 1840, and united with them in voting for General Scott, as I have heard him say, without even consulting Mr. Southard, upon whom Mr. Clay laid the blame of their not voting for him, as he expected. Although he did not favor the selec- tion of General Harrison as the Whig; candidate for the presidency, partly as I have reason to believe because he knew his physical and mental strength had begun to wane, he cordially supported him at the election, and aided materially in giving him the vote of this State. He died universally lamented in the spring of 1860. Joseph W. Scott, who had long stood at the head of the list of counselors, but who had for many years ceased to appear among us at the bar of the court, ended his mortal career at the great age of nearly ninety-three years, as I was about to commit these reminiscences to the press. Colonel Scott, as he w^as usually called, deriving his title from an appointment years ago as one of the staff of the governor of this State, was a remarkable man. Although, perhaps in consequence of a certain instability of character, which caused him often to disappoint the expectations of his friends, he never attained to that distinction which his talents and acquirements seemed to promise, he was a learned lawyer and a brilliant advocate. During the last fif teen or twenty years he has been but little known, except as president of the Society of the Cincinnati, at whose meetings and dinners on the Fourth of July, he never failed to appear, and where he continued to preside with a grace and dignity which were con- JOSEPH W. SCOTT. 475 spicuous even in his extreme old age. The reverence with which he was accustomed to announce the never omitted toast," To the memory of Washington," always received by the society standing and in si- lence, and the heartfelt eloquence with which year after year he was accustomed to introduce it, will not soon be forgotten by those whose privilege it was to be associated with him on these occasions. He well remembered, and often told how, when a little boy, playing in front of his father's house, a gentleman called and asked him. " Is Dr. Scott at home ? " " No, sir ! " "Mrs Scott?" " Yes, sir ! " " Please go in and tell your mother that General Washintrton would like to see her," The boy, as he said, gazed at him eagerly, much impressed with the idea that he was only a man and much like other men of imposing presence ! He was the grandson of John Scott, who came to this country from Scotland at an early period, and was an elder in the old Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His father. Dr. Moses Scott, removed from the paternal residence to New Brunswick before the War of the Revolution, and was in full practice there many years as a physician, living until near the age of eighty-three. He was a rigid Scotch Presbyterian elder, and a most devoted Chris- tian, who trained his son, a great fiivorite, by religious precepts and a virtuous example, for duty, and useful- ness, enjoining upon him, when he commenced his profession, " M}^ son, however busy, never turn a deaf ear to the widow and the orphan ; " and this injunc- tion was not forgotten, if others were. 476 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. Dr. Scott was in the battles at Princeton and Brandy wine, and by virtne of a special act of Congress became the senior physician and surgeon of the gen- eral hospital in the middle district, and was long connected with and an intimate friend of General Washington. He was also a personal friend of Gen- eral Joseph Warren, after whom he named his eldest son. This son dying in infancy, he continued the name to his second son, the subject of this notice, who was born November 28th, 1778. After the usual preliminary education in the schools at the place of his birth and at Elizabethtown, he was sent to Princeton, and graduated there in 1795, before he had attained the age of seventeen years. He was a student under the presidency of Dr. Witherspoon, and in 1868 attended the inauguration of Dr. M'Cosh, thus wdth his associate. Judge Herring, then the two oldest living graduates of Nassau Hall, the links between two disting-uished men invited from O Scotland to preside over this institution. On this oc- casion he received the honorary distinction of LL. D. For a short time he studied medicine wnth his father, and then entered upon a course of study in theology ; but soon he abandoned the design of being either a physician or a minister, and determined to become a lawyer. He studied law with General Fre- linghuysen, was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1801, as a counselor in 1804, and was made a sergeant at law in 1816. He married soon after he was li- censed as a counselor, and settled in New Brunswick, and had a large practice. He was several times voted for as attorney -general of the State and as judge of the supreme court, but I think never held any office but that of presidential elector in 1824 (when he JOSEPH W. SCOTT. 477 voted for General Jackson,) and prosecutor of the pleas of the State for the county of Middlesex. He was profoundly learned m the law, and apt at tracing principles to their source; had a wonderfully retentive memory, and was sometimes truly eloquent. The last time he appeared in court was as counsel for Donnelly (2 Dutch. 463), on his trial for murder in 1857, when he was nearly eighty years old, and his argument against the validity of the indictment, which I heard, was creditable to his learning and ability, especially when it was remembered that he had prac- tically given up his profession nearly twenty years. It is stated by the Rev. Mr. Jewett, in the address delivered at his funeral, in May, 1871, I have no doubt correctly : — " He was an accomplished scholar, well versed in the Latin clas- sics, and accustomed frequently to correspond with his friends in the Latin language, even to the last year of his life. With the Westminster Catechism in Latin, as well as English, he was familiar ; to him it seemed the work of logical and master minds, the ablest uninspired work ever written. His Latin Bible was always by his side, his daily companion. He loved it ; in my pastoral visits with him it was almost always in his hand and ready for reading or refer- ence. He was a fine belles-lettres scholar, and had 'the pen of a ready writer.' He was well versed in English literature, and familiar with the old poets. " We stand to day by the side of one who looked upon and was familiar with the forms of generals, statesmen, and theologians, men whose names are sacred to America and the world. We stand by the coffin of one who served in the War of 1812; of one who stood by the bedside of the dying Hamilton (that brightest intellectual star in the galaxy of patriots) ; of one who heard, amongst divines, men great in the history of the American Church, — Witherspoon, Samuel Stanhope Smith, John M. Mason, Livingston, and Bishop Hobart. Not a few of the great men of the church and in the state were his warm personal friends. So attached to him was Dr. John M. Mason, that ' prince of preachers,' that, when shattered 478 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. in health and broken in intellect, he wandered away from home, his son came in search of him to this city, and found him at the residence of Colonel Scott." Joseph Warren Scott was received as a member of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, as the rep- resentative of his father, Surgeon Moses Scott, in 1825. In 1832 he was chosen assistant-treasurer of the general society, and in 1838 the treasurer-general. In 1840 he became the vice-president of the state so- ciety, and from 1844 until his death was the president. A letter from Hamilton Fish, president-general of of the Cincinnati, to Colonel Alexander Hamilton, upon receiving information of his death, notices very appropriately a conspicuous trait of Colonel Scott's character : — " Your telegram announces the death of one who, full of years, closes a life of much activity and marked ability. Genial and bright in intellect, fourscore and ten years had not, when last I met him, quenched the ardor of his warm and impulsive nature ; and I shall ever remember Colonel Warren Scott as one of the most at- tractive talkers and agreeable companions whom it has been my fortune to meet." Having now reached the close of these reminis- cences of a protracted life, I must be permitted to re- mind those who shall read them, whether they have only commenced the voyage of life buoyant with youthful hopes, or may be still absorbed by the en- grossing cares of active business, or have passed the meridian of their days, that several of those I have commemorated died even before they had attained the full maturity of their powers, while others were spared beyond the allotted three score years and ten ; and many of them CONCLUSION. 479 " Once trod the paths of glorv, And sounded the depths and shoals of honor ; " but of each one, with only two exceptions, it has been recorded, He died ; and of every one whom I now ad- dress, it will be said at an unexpected hour, He has departed this life. " O listen, man ! A voice within us speaks the startling word, ' Man thou shalt never die ! ' Celestial voices, Hymn it round our souls ; according harps, By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars Of morning sang together, sound forth still The song of our great immortality ; Thick clustering orbs, and this our fair domain. The tall dark mountains and the deep-toned seas, Join in this solemn universal song. " listen ye, our spirits ; drink it in From all the air ! 'Tis in the gentle moonlight ; Is floating in day's setting glories ; Night, Wrapped in her sable robe, with silent step Comes to our bed, and breathes it in our ears ; Night and the dawn, bright day and thoughtful eve, All time, all bounds, the limitless expanse, As one great mystic instrument, are touched By an unseen living hand, and conscious chords Quiver with joy in this great jubilee ; The dying hear it, and as sounds of earth Grow dull and distant, wake their passing souls To mingle in this heavenly harmony." APPENDIX. TITLES TO LAND. TITLES to land in New Jersey are derived from the English crown. It is a principle of law, recognizied by all the Eu- ropean governments, that an uninhabited country, or a country inhabited only by savages, of which possession is taken under the authority of an existing government, becomes the property of the nation taking the possession. According to the theory of the British constitution, all vacant lands are vested in the crown, as rep- resenting the nation ; and the exclusive power to grant them resides in the sovereign, as a branch of the royal prerogative. The Indian title to the land in America was to some extent recognized, but the government, here and in England, has always asserted the exclusive right to extinguish that title, and to give a valid title to settlers by its own grant of the soil. 8 Wheat. R. 543. Individuals were forbidden to purchase land from the Indians, without the consent of the English proprietors, at an early date, both in East and West Jersey, and after the surrender of the gov- ernment to the crown. Deeds from Indian claimants are held by some of the present owners in both divisions of the State ; but unless patents or surveys were also obtained, the legal title to the premises rests upon possession, and not upon the deeds. The gen- eral proprietors were careful to purchase the land of the Indians, and except in those cases in East Jersey where grants were made sub- ject to an extinguishment of the Indian title, they refused to allow grants or surveys until this was done. Every foot of the soil claimed by the original inhabitants of this State, has been obtained from them by a fair and voluntary purchase and transfer. Without going into a full detail of the several conveyances and releases contained at length in Leaming and Spicer's "■ Grants and Concessions," commencing with the grant from lOng Charles 11. to 31 482 APPENDIX. his brother, the Duke of York, in 1663, it may be stated that the title having been vested in Carteret, Penn, Lawry, Lucas, and Byllinge, these five persons executed what is known as the Quin- tipartite deed in 1676, whereby the eastern half of the province was conveyed in severalty to Carteret, and the western half to the other four. After the division, East Jersey was conveyed to twenty-four pro- prietors ; and West Jersey was sold in hundredths. Feuwick, to whom a conveyance had been made in trust for Byllinge, and who himself executed a long lease to P^ldridge and Warner, was recog- nized as entitled to ten hundredths, and other persons became pro- prietors of ninety hundredths ; so that a full proprietary right in East Jersey is a twenty-fourth part of that province, and in West Jersey, it is a huniTredth part. The original grants were considered by the proprietors as convey- ing a right of government as well as the soil, and they instituted separate governments ; but in 1702 joined in surrendering that right to the crown. The title to the soil was not surrendered, and continues to be derived through the original proprietors, by regular descent or purchase, to the present day. Much difficulty was experienced in settling the division line, and indeed it cannot be said that the dispute is even now at an end. It was held in the case of Cornelius vs. Giberson, 1 Dutch. 1, that the line run in 1743, called Lawrence's line, running from the mouth of Little Egg Harbor River to the River Delaware, at the latitude of 41° 40^ is the true line. At the commencement of the settlement of East Jersey, land was given to settlers, masters and servants, males and females, in designated quantities, according to the number of each, subject to an annual quit-rent, and the extinction of the Indian title. The lands thus granted were called " head lands," and included very considerable quantities, this being the usual tenure until 1685, and, in some few cases, still later. A warrant, signed by the governor and major part of the council, was directed to the surveyor-general, who made his return of the survey, and both were recorded by the register. A patent was thereupon issued, under the great seal of the province, which was signed by the governor and council, and duly recorded. It would seem, also, that patents were issued by the governor and council to cover lands claimed under the Dutch government, and for other special reasons. Shortly after their purchase, several of the twenty-four pro- APPENDIX. 483 prietors sold undivided shares of their several proprietaries to others, some of whom came into the province. It then became necessary to provide for dividing the lands remaining in common, among themselves, in proportion to their rights. A written instru- ment was accordingly signed in 1 G84, establishing a council of pro- prietors, which was slightly modified in 1725. This council con- sists of at least ten members, owning or holding proxies for eight full shares, each full proprietor having one vote, but no one more than twelve. It continues to meet at Perth Amboy, and has the general management of the proprietary interest, the appointing of dividends to the particular proprietors, the examination of the re- spective rights, and granting warrants of survey to their surveyor- general, thus appropriating to each owner his due quantity of acres. Patents contmued to be issued until the surrender as before, ex- cept that in patents to proprietors no quit-rents were reserved. After the surrender of the government, whereby the governor ceased to be an officer of the proprietors, and they had no longer the control of the great seal, patents ceased. Such as were granted are on record in the books pertaining to the government of East Jersey, now in the secretary of state's office at Trenton, and also in the land office at Amboy. No patents were issued in West Jersey- The first dividend to each full proprietor of East Jersey was of ten thousand acres ; jDcrsons holding shares or fractions of a share, or a conveyance from a shareholder or his grantees of a specified number of acres, having a right to locate such number of acres as they thought proper, not exceeding their due share of the dividend, wherever they could find land not before appropriated, and of such dimensions as interest or caprice might dictate. A register being kept of all titles to unappropriated land exhibited to procure a warrant of survey, it could thus be ascertained what land was sur- veyed to claimants under each proprietary share. Additional divi- dends have from time to time been declared, amounting in all to fourteen, and covering in all (including the " pine dividends," which at first gave only a right to cut the timber, but a part of which was afterwards exchanged for rights to a full title) about six hundred and thirty-five thousand acres. To this number must be added fifty-four thousand acres in Sussex County, run out and al- loted to the proprietors. So that it would seem, that less than seven hundred thousand acres of land remained open to survey in East Jersey, after the council was formed. The unlocated land, at pres- ent, cannot be of much value, and probably exists only in small 484 APPENDIX. parcels ; except, perhaps, in the territory so long in dispute between the two divisions of tlie ancient province. The register appointed by the council issued warrants of survey to those exhibiting a title to unlocated rights, and the land being surveyed by the surveyor- general or one of his deputies, tlie survey is certified to, inspected by the council, and ordered to be recorded. These records are pre- served in the office at Perth Amboy. In West Jersey, the proprietors, freeholders, and inhabitants established and signed certain concessions and agreements in 1676, regulating the government and the mode of acquiring a title to the land. " Head lands " were to be granted to settlers, and commis- sioners were appointed to regulate the setting forth and dividing them. Afterwards commissioners were elected by the legislature. The quantity of land appropriated in this way does not apjiear to have been large. It was originally intended to run out the prov- ince into tenths, fronting on the Delaware ; but this was never fully carried out, comities having been established as soon as the conven- ience of the inhabitants required. Burlington appears to have in- cluded two of the original tenths, Gloucester one, and Salem one. In 1 678 the proprietors resolved to constitute a proprietary council, to consist of representatives, elected yearly from among themselves, at first eleven, afterwards nine, five of whom were to be elected in Burlington and four in Gloucester, any five of whom are a quorum ; and so they continue to be elected. Salem tenth did not at first come into this regulation, Fenwick being ambitious to act as the sole lord proprietor ; but it was soon included, and, after his death, a proprietor residing therein was often elected in Gloucester. Ac- cording to an ancient usage, the origin of which is now unknown, the proprietor of a thirty-second part of a hundredth has the right of voting, and being elected. The owner of any sjiecified number of acres, having no interest in the undivided remainder, has no right to vote. Many of the original proprietors never came into the prov- ince, and in consequence of the failure of heirs claiming rights, only about twenty persons are now known to be proprietors, some of whom own several hundredths, while others have only the thirty- second of a hundredth. They meet statedly at Burlington ; but as the unlocated property is of but little value, and the business, and consequent fees and perquisites, become less and less every year, it is probable that the time is ' not very distant when they will cease to act, and some new mode of preserving and authenticating their valuable records will have to be prescribed by law. APPENDIX. 485 A dividend of each proprietor's share was first fixed at five thou- sand two hundred acres, but it was soon enlarged to twenty-five thousand acres, of which Fenwick and his assignees were credited with ten shares. Six additional dividends have been made, assigning, in all, thirty-five thousand acres to each, the owner of a fractional part being, of course, entitled to his proportion. These dividends include much more land than is found within the limits of West Jersey ; but a large number have never been claimed, and it is not known who are entitled to them. The number of acres actually located cannot be ascertained. In many cases, the same lands have been covered by different surveys. After the right to head lands ceased (with the exception perhaps of a few cases of specified lots sold by some of the proprietors in Burlington city and elsewhere, which the council has left undis- turbed), titles in West Jersey are derived from some one of the original proprietors of the hundredths. Regular deeds of conveyance are made (formerly by lease and release, in modern times by deeds of bargain and sale) either of a fractional part, or of a speci- fied number of acres. A proprietor, or a grantee under him, upon presenting his title to the council, obtains an order for a warrant, which is signed by the clerk and recorded, and which authorizes the surveyor-general or his deputy to survey a specified number of acres, from any of the unappropriated lands. By virtue of this war- rant, a deputy surveyor, who is a sworn officer, runs out a survey including any number of acres, not exceeding the number specified, as the owner chooses to have it, wherever it is supposed other sur- veys do not cover the ground. The deputy having returned his survey reciting the warrant and the deductions of the title, with a map, to the surveyor-general, he certifies it to the council, and being by them inspected and approved, it is ordered to be recorded. If other persons, claiming surveys before recorded, think their boundaries encroached upon, they are allowed to caveat against re- cording the new survey, and the council enters into an investigation of the matter, agreeably to their prescribed rules. Should they re- fuse to allow the survey, it fails. If they order it recorded, the question of interference is still open in the courts, who decide the questions involved, upon such principles of law as are applicable to other grants and conveyances. Substantially the same mode of pro- ceeding is adopted in East Jersey. During the early years of the settlement of West Jersey, there was much irregularity in the mode of making surveys. Fenwick 486 APPENDIX. brought over his children and servants, with other settlers, to Salem, and undertook not onl}"- to grant manors and lands, but to establish a separate government. None of his grants for specific tracts or parcels of land were recognized as valid, exce2)t the land and marsh laid out for Salem town (Leam. & Spi. 461). Grants by him and his executors, and by his assignees, of undivided rights, were re- ceived by the council, to the extent of his ten dividends, as a suffi- cient foundation for warrant of survey. Many of them were not presented to the council, and were not recorded in tlie office at Bur- lington ; but are found in a book called " Revel's Surveys," now in the secretary of state's office at Trenton, and appear to have been made under the direction of James Nevill, Fenwick's secretary, and afterwards agent of William Penn, a large proprietor in his own right, and as one of Fenwick's executors. Others are contained in a book in the secretary's office, called " Leed's Surveys." A rule was adopted at an early date, that surveys should not ex- tend to both sides of a navigable stream. The communication to diffijrent parts of the province was most easily made by water. Be- tween 1G87 and 1700, surveyors seem to have been sent, by several of the proprietors, into the southern part of the State, and ran out (as the tradition is, by means of a mariner's compass, and often on horseback) large surveys of from five to twelve thousand acres each, on the most accessible rivers and creeks. They were often not re- corded ; but in some cases, maps were filed. Most of these tracts were afterwards regularly resurveyed and recorded ; but they seem to have been allowed to date from the original survey. One of these surveys for five thousand acres, lying on the Coliansey, called by the proprietor " Winchcomb Manor," after a manor of that name which he owned in England, was carried to London, retained there, and not recorded until 1764, when it was laid before the council, and they being satisfied, as the record states, that it had been made agreeably to the custom prevailing in the Salem tenth, approved it and ordered it recorded. Several lawsuits, as might be expected, grew out of this procedure, before and after the Revo- lution. An allowance of five acres in the hundred was made in West Jersey for highways, and in East Jersey of six ; which accounts for the fact that lands were so long taken in this State for roads, with- out compensation to the owner. For many years, the surveys called for fixed monuments, and the measurement of the lines being returned much shorter than they were, great frauds were perpe- APPENDIX. 487 trated, by making tlie surveys to include more land than the number of acres specified. This led to orders, about 178G, requiring the surveyors to establish a beginning corner, and then to confine them- selves to strict course and distance. This remedied the abuse to some extent, but not entirely ; it being found, in many cases, that although no fixed corners were specified in the return, they were in fact marked on the ground, and being respected by other surveyors and proprietors, they were, after a lapse of time, necessarily recog- nized by the council and the courts as established monuments, al- though a large overplus of land became thus included in the survey. An act of the legislature, passed in 1719, which provided for running the boundary line between East and "West Jersey, directed, that the surveyors-general of each division should hold a public office in Perth Amboy and in Burlington, where all surveys should be kept, and that all surveys should be recorded within a pre- scribed time in those offices, or be forever void. It is stated by Al- linson, in a note to this act (Allin. Acts, 31) that, " notwithstanding the extensive import of these words, it has been held that such surveys shall only be void and of none effect against such persons who, by reason of the non-record thereof, were ignorant of it ; and therefore no person, who knew of the survey, shall avail himself of of its not being recorded, such not coming within the mischief or remedy of the act." It must be understood, that a survey, duly recorded, does not properly speaking constitute the title of the owner, but is only evidence that he has severed a certain number of acres from the common stock, his title to which rests upon his deeds from the pro- prietors. 1 Halst. R. 63. Formerly, when it became necessary to prove the title, the regular chain of deeds, in some cases even from the king down to the claimant, were produced in evidence, as the only valid foundation for the survey. In process of time, the courts took judicial notice of the original grants, as matters of authentic history ; and since the act of 1787 (Title Limitation, 3, Nix. Dig.) the record of a survey, duly inspected and recorded, is received as prima facie evidence of a good title. Until the act of 1838, sur- veys were proved by producing a witness who could swear that he had compared the copy with the original record. For many years, the proprietors claimed to own the land covered by the water of navigable rivers and bays, and frequently made grants or authorized surveys, which extended to low-water mark, and in some cases further. It has, however, been finally settled 488 APPENDIX. that the rule of the common law of England, which limited the title under grant to the ordinary high-water line, the shore below that line and the soil under the water belonging to the crown, or the state, is the law of New Jersey, and that consequently all titles under the proprietors extend only to the ordinary high-water mark, except in cases where the owner of the upland has reclaimed the land originally overflowed, by wharves or banks, and excepting all established shore fisheries, wliich are held to be private property. 16 Peters R. 367. 3 Zab. 624. 1 Dutch. 527. 5 Vroom. Owing to the fact that deeds wei-e not commonly recorded until about the commencement of this century, and some are not now recorded, and that old deeds and muninients of title are seldom preserved for any great length of time in this State, our statutes of limitation must be regarded as a very important protection to titles. Without their aid, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain many titles which are now perfectly valid. Before the Revolution, there was no statute of limitations, barring a recovery of lands, rec- ognized by the judges of the province, who were in the interest of the proprietors, except the first section of 32 Hen. VIII., which required sixty years adverse possession to limit an action of eject- ment by the holders of a paper title. 2 Halst. 10. In 1787, this provision was reenacted, and an adverse possession of thirty years, under a deed or survey, was made a bar, which provisions are still in force. The act of 1799 went further. It was then enacted (Title Lim- itation, 16, 17, Nix. Digest) that no person shall enter into, or sue for lands, but within twenty years after his right or title shall ac- crue, provided that tlie time during which the person who had such right or title shall have been under the age of twenty-one, ye/we covert, or insane, shall not be computed as part of the said twenty years. This act applies to the general pro2irietors as well as to others. 1 Dutch. 1. It has been always understood that the twenty years commence when the possession of the defendant, or of the person under whom he claims, first became adverse, as against the then owner, under whom the plaintiff claims. For a long time after this act was passed, it was supposed that the whole time during which the plain- tiff, or tliose under whom he claimed, happened to be under age, a married woman, or insane, between the beginning of the adverse possession and the commencement of the suit, was to be deducted from the time that had elapsed, so that some person of age, un- APPENDIX. 489 married and sane, must have existed and been capable of entering on the land, under the plaintiff's title, for twenty years before the action was brought, to bring the case within the protection of this statute. 4 Wash. C. R. 691. But it was decided by our supreme court in 1836, that the twenty years are to be computed from the time when the plaintiff, or those under whom he claims, were first of age, unmarried, or sane, and that any subsequent disability is not to be deducted. Clark vs. Richards, 3 Green, 347. This decision, although the soundness of it has been, not without reason, much questioned, has now remained the rule of property more than twenty years, and was afterwards held to be not only of binding authority, but originally correct, by the circuit court of the United Stated. Rob- erts vs. Moore, 9 Amer. L. Reg. 25.* It may therefore probably be considered as the established law of the State, and in many cases the best security of titles originally good, the evidences of which have been lost. Public policy certainly requires that claims to land should be prosecuted withm a reasonable time ; it being better that a title once good should be defeated by a delay of twenty years to prosecute it, than that titles should be rendered insecure by render- ing them liable to dispute between rival claimants for an unreason- able length of time. By the law, as it now stands, possession, as the owner for twenty years, confers a good title, except as against a person who, when the possession commenced, was an infant, a married woman, or insane, and when twenty years have not elapsed since such person was of age, unmarried, or sane. * See infra, p. 369. IISTDEX. A. Abolttiox Society, 123, 294. Adams, John Qnincy, 218, 243, 331. Admiralty, coui'ts of, 43. AlcxaiukT, James, .57. Alexander, William C, letter of, 192. Alexander, Mev. Dr. James W., 203, 20,5, 227, 2-33, 332. Amboy, Perth, scat of government, 51. Andre, Major, 142, 160. Auecdote of Abraham Clark, 46. Governor Paterson, 9.t. Chief Justice Marshall, 292. Samuel Leake, 404. President Taylor, 436. L. II. Stockton, 416. Armstrong:, Amzi, 257. Army of Hcvolntion, mutiny in, 161. Arnold I's. MuTuly, case of, .308. Assembly of the I'rovince, 5-7. Assiiz;nmcnt law, drawn by Mr. GriiBth, 298. Attorney-General, 173, 4G9. Aylmer, name changed to Elmer, 341. B. Barclay, Eobcrt, first governor, 2. Bayard, Colonel John, 307. Bigelow, Mr., speech of, 396. Bloomfield, Joseph, Governor, life and character, 1 14. Boudinot, Elisha, Judge, life and char- acter, 279, 294. Boyd, Martha, 326. Brandywine, i)attle of, how lost, 140. Brearly, David, Judge, life and char- acter, 274. Bridgeton, alarm at in War of 1812, 343. Bright, General, trial of, 286. Broad seal war, account of, 187, 242, 257. Brown, George H., Judge, life and character, 401. Brougham, Lord, 423. Buchanan, James, 131. Burlington, seat of government, 52. Burnet, Dr. William, 237, 362. Butler, Benjamin F., 199. Caldwell, Rev. James, munler of, 272 Camden ferry, charge of nianslaughtei against directors of, 357. Chancery, courts of, 10, 176. Chetwood, John, Judge, life and char- acter, 279. Chetwood, William, life and character, 458. Chetwood, John J., life and character, 461. Cincinnati Society, 144, 474. Circuit courts, alterations, 314,376; judges required to alternate, 312. Clark, Abraham, 45, 46. Clerks of courts, a]ipointnient of, 14. Clergy, benefit of, 14. Clinton, De Witt, 151, 223. Collins, printer of " Gazette," 68. Committee of Safety, 66. Congress, Continental, 22, 80, 97,299. Congress of Province of New Jersey, 22 27. Constitution of New Jersey, before the Revolution, 1-20 ; as adopted in 1776, 21-49; of 1844, 370. Constitution of United States, 37 ; part taken by Gov. Paterson in framing, 83 ; how ratified by isew Jersey, 86 ; amendments of, 199. Corficld vs. Coryell, case of, 288. Cornbury, Lord, ordinance of, 8. Cornelius vs. Giberson, case of, 357. Council of New Jersey, 4. Courts, how first instituted, 7, 8, 11 ; during Revolution, 79. Coxe, Richard S., 215 ; first reporter, 278, 300. Crane, Joseph, 419. 492 INDEX. D. Davis, Jefferson, 113. Dayton, William L, Judge, life and character, 372. ' Davton, Aaron O., life and character, 148, 4G2. De Hart, John, 26.5, 272. Democratic party, originally called Kejiublican, 124,407 ; principles pro- fessed, 132, 428; changes of, 189. Dickerson, Mahlon, Governor, life and character, 168, 210, 221. Dicker.son, Philemon, Governor, life and character, 254. Dickinson, Philemon, 69. Dod, Daniel, 1.54. Dodd, Amzi, 397. Donnelly, trial of, for murder, 387. Draft law, opposition to, 196. Drake, George K., Judge, life and character, 317, 321 ; opinion of, in Quaker case, 336. Duane, William, 169. Dudley, Thomas H., letter of, 395. Duponceau, Mr. 411. Eakin, Alphonso L., 468. Ecclesiastical disputes, eifect of, 58. Eldon, Lord, 174. Election laws, 5, 6, 47, 245. Elmer, Daniel, Judge, life and charac- ter, 340. Elmer, Ebcnezer, 105, 119, 120, 132. Elmer, Lucius Q. C, early politics, 407 ; visits Gov. Bloomtield, in 1804, 114; studies law, 342; licensed as attorney in 1815, 158; as counselor, 1818, 301 ; elected member of the assembly, 1820, 162, 211 ; speaker in 1823, 3"l0; district attorney, 1824, 237 ; befriended by Stockton and Frelinghuysen, 409, 442 ; opposed to election of Jackson, 444 ; meuibcr of Congress, 1 845, 380 ; attorney-gen- eral, 1850, 436 ; judge in 18.52, 355, 397 ; voted against Lincoln but sup- ported the war, 261. Elmer, Jonathan, 87, 416. Emmet, Thomas Addis, 154, 432. Errors, court of, 398. Ewing, Charles, Judge, life and char- acter, 326, 448. Ewing, James, 327. Ewinii', Tliomas, 326. Ewing, William B., 171. F. Federalists, old, 124, 128, 129, 157, 185, 407. Fen wick, John, 484. Fillmore, Millard, 384. Finley, Rev Robert, 202. Fish, "Hamilton, 147, 478. Flint, Dr., name given to Govei'iior Liv- ingston, 65. Ford, Gabriel H., Judge, life and char- acter, 313. Franklin, William, Governor, life and character, 50. Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 51. Franklin, William Temple, 55. Frelinghuysen, Theodore, life and character, 440. G. Genealogical researches, benefit of, 472. Gibbons, Thomas, 155, 303. Gibbons, William, 351. Gitford vs. Thorn, case of, 245, 418. Giles, James, 404. Goodrich, account of parties, 128. Government House in Trenton, 111. Green, Henry W., 246, 367, 400. Greville, Fulke, 442. Grittith, William, Judge, life and char- acter, 293. H. Haheas corpus, writ of, 194. Haglev, plantation of Colonel Talia- ferro, 20'4. Haines, Daniel, Governor, life and character, 256. Hamilton, Alexander, 71, 126, 153, 157. Hamilton, James A., reminiscences, 213. Hampton, James G., 406. Harrison, Josiah, life and character, 466. Plarrison, William H., 219, 474. Harrow, Rebecca, 207. Holcombe, Dr. George, 216, 222. Honorary degrees, 182, 414. Hopkinson, Joseph, 91, 284. Hornblower, Joseph C, Judge, life and character, 361. Howell, Richard, Governor, life and character, 102. I. Independence, declaration of 30, CI, 119 J states never absolute, 35. INDEX. 493 Indians, land all bought of, 481. Ingersoll, Cliarlcs J., 412. Inskcc']), xMaria, 407. Instiliitio legalis at Newark, 294, 313. Instruction of senators, 379. Jackson, Andrew, 22.'>. Jackson party, 172, 180, 427. Jauncv, William, will of, 246. Jctt'ors, William N., 186, 464. Jetfer.sun, Thomas, 125. Jersey 151uc, song of, 111. Johnson, Andrew, 199. Judges, wore robes, 15; appointment of, 17, 33 ; opinions of, 363. Jurors, challenge of, law settled, 366. K. Kean, John, 59. King, William R., 233. Kinney, Colonel John, 372. Kinsey, James, Judge, life and char- acter, 275. Kinsey, Charles, 310. Kirkpatrick, Andrew, Judge, compli- ment to Vroom, 185; life and char- acter, 301. Lafayette, Marquis de, 143. Land, titles of, 481. Laws not printed, 3 ; style of, 4 ; when void, 35. Lawyers, wore gowns, 15 ; duties of, 448. Leake, Samuel, 133, 327, 403. Leaming and Spicer, Grants and Con- cessions, 1. Limitation, statutes of, 368, 488. Lincoln, Abraham, 388. Livingston, William, Governor, life and character, 56. Livingston, Brockholst, 75, 139. Livingston and Fulton, steamboats, 154"^ 207. Lyon, Matthew, trial of, 98. M. Macculloch, Francis L., 468. Madison, James, 135, 1.53. Marriage in court, 315. Martial law, 194. Maxwell, Colonel, 105, 106. McClellan, General, 198. McCosh, Kcv. Dr., 476. McWliortcr, Kev. Dr., 75. Mendliam, Mr. Southard teaches at, 204, 320. M'Koan, governor of Pennsvlvania, 170. Miller, William W., life and character, 431. Miller, Jacob W., life and character, 434. Morgan, Maurice, said to have been a cook, 20. Morris, Kobert, Judge, life and char- acter, 2G6. Moustier, Count de, French Minister, 46. N. Napoleon III., o]5inion of Dayton, 392. National Kepul>lican party, 181. Naturalized citizens, rights of, 190. Nevius, James S., Judge, life and char- acter, 347. New Jersey, fortunate in her early gov- ernors, 75 ; politics of, alwavs doubt- ful, 240. New York, controversy with, 152, 409. Niemsiwitz, Mrs., 59. Nixon, John T., 388. O. O'Connor, Charles, 247, 419. Officers, how ajipointcd, 7, 19, 33, 35. Officers of Kevolutionary army, 106. Ogden, Aaron Governor, lile and char- acter, 137. Ogden, Elias D. B., Judge, life and character, 351. Ogden vs. Gil)bons, case of, .TOl. Olden, Governor Cliarles, 192 Olmstead case in Pennsylvania, 286. Opposition party, importance of, 195. Orphans' courts", 12, 242. Oyer and terminer, courts of, 13, 44, 270. Parker, James, 152. Parker, Cortlandt, 250. Parkhurts, Jacob, against Colonel Og- den, 150. Patents for land in East Jersey, 483. Paterson, William, Governor, life and character, 77. Peace party in 1812, 151 ; in 1861, 191, 193. 494 INDEX. Penn, William, 2. Pennington, Epliraim, 158. Penninf^toii, VVilliam S., Governor, life ;uul clianicter, 133, 158. Peiininii'ton, Samuel, 162. Pennington, William, Governor, life and ciiar icter, 237. Petigru, James Lr, 408. Petit, Charles, 19, 269. Philosophical Solitude, poem, 58 Portraits in room of supreme court, 182. Postmaster-general is. Reeder, case of, 167. Potts, Stacy G., Judge, life and char- acter, 35;j. Practice act, of Clark, 45 ; of Pater- son, 92. Prerogative court, 11, 241. Smith, Isaac, Judge, life and charac- ter, 271. Smith, Samuel Stanhope, 203. Southard, Samuel L., Go\crnor, life and character, 154, 171, 201, 415. Spies, employed by Washington, 108. State sovereignty, 36-43. Statutes, EuLilish, rei;ealed and snj)- plicd bv Governor Paterson, 83-98. Stevens, Thaddeus, 199. Stockton, Richard, life and character, 302, 409. Stockton, Lucius H., 98, 208, 415. Strawberry tea, 60. Supreme court, 13, 96, 282. Surrogates, 11. Surveys of land, 485. Symmes, John Clevcs, Judge, life and character, 266, 271. Q. Quaker case, 235, 334. R. Rahl, Colonel, 266. Religious disputes, effect of, 58. Republiciin ])arty, 124, 132. Revision of the .statutes, 88-94. Rittenhouse, David, 286. " Rivington's Gazette," 68. Rossell, William, Judge, life and char- acter, 46, 311. Ruthcrfurd, John, life and character, 456. Ryerson, Thomas C, Judge, life and character, 319. Ryerson, Martin, 324, 399. Savigny, Professor, remark of, 330. Saxton, Nathaniel, 183. Scott, Jose])h W., life and character, 474. Scott, Dr. Moses, 47. Scudder, Smith, 183. Secession of states, 38, 191-194. Seeley, Elias P., Governor, life and character, 233. Sergeant at law, 16, 254. Serjeant, John, 169. Seward, William H., 390. Sheriffs, 15, 18. Skinner, Cortiandt, 115,117. Skinner, Stephen, 60, 276. Taliaferro, Colonel John, 204, 306. Taliaferro, James Monroe, 205. Tea, burning of, at Greenwich, 102. Tender acts, disapproved by Livings- ton, 71. Thompson, Richard P., attorney-gen- eral, 469. Thompson, Smith, 216. Tilghman, William, 170. Titles to land, 481. Townships, how established, 19. Ti-enton, lawyers at, 182. Tucker, Samuel, Judge, 265. V. Van Arsdale, Elias, 1 77. Veto of governor, 41. Virginia, manners of people, 205. Voters, 5, 47. Vroom, Peter D., Governor, life and character, 180, 184, 373. W. Wall, Garret D., life and character, 419. War of 1812, 135. Washington, General, 71, 106, 160, 475. Washington, Bushrod, Judge, life and character, 281. Webster, Daniel, 217. West Jersey, 2, 5 ; titles to land in^ 484. INDEX. 495 Whclplcy, Edward W., Judge, life and churaetcr, 396. Wliiii- i)aity, 247. Wliiteliead, Ira C, Judge, life and cliaracter, 349. Whiteliead, Asa, 472. \VIiitc, John Moorc, Judge, life and character, 337. Williamson, Isaac H., Governor, life and character, 1 73. Williamson, Matthias, 173. Wilson, James, 281. Wilson. James J., 211. Wirt, William, 206. Witherspoon, Rev. Dr., 30.5, 477. Wood, George, 177, 247, 290, 417. Woodbury, Levi, 378. Woodrnft" A. l")., Attornev-general, 121. %^ 4^ %4' ,-i.^ .^ ... *x o^ P°^. ^^. Qp.^^ c>^^ ,^^ % /.-'/' I « «^ •^^.. ', "^^ ^'^' >^ '"^ V^ cP' v; ^ •^. \ vO^^. * » I A 3- 0' \ * ^ » >S> » -1 ■ *^ ■*bo^ \0o,. v-iv- .V _ •i"^ ' o , V • 'Kl. 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