Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

"INSTRUCTIONS" AND "CONCESSIONS" COMPARED.

177

posed for misdemeanors, provided the fine amounted to two hundred pounds sterling and the appellant enter into bond to prosecute his appeal, pay costs and answer the condemnation, if the fines be confirmed.

The Governor was to propose an act in the Assembly for a bankrupt law.

The Queen provided for the liberty of the press as follows: "Forasmuch as great inconveniences may arise with the liberty of printing in our said Province, you are to provide by all necessary orders, that no person keep any press for printing, nor that any book, pamphlet or other matters whatsoever be printed without your especial leave and license first obtained."

These seem to be the important matters contained in the instructions which affect the present purpose and relate more particularly to the rights of the citizens at large. There were other and more minute provisions which would not aid in this discussion. A comparison between this document and the "Grants and Concessions" of Berkeley and Carteret, and the "Concessions and Agreements "of the Proprietors of West Jersey reveal very important differences. In the "Instructions," great prominence is given to two main principles: First, that the Crown was the fountain of all justice and that from it emanated all right to govern; and Second, that the interests of the colonists were of minor importance. The "Grants and Concessions" and the "Concessions and Agreements" were both directed to the people and acknowledged that all authority must come from them and the fullest scope was given to the enjoyment of personal liberty and individual right.

Lord Cornbury's commission granted by the Queen, no more definitely guarantied the rights of the citizens than did the "Instructions. It is true, that by this commission Cornbury might, with the advice and consent of his Council, summon a Legislature composed of representatives elected by the people, and that Legislature might pass faws, but those laws would be of no effect, unless approved by the Sovereign. and "such and so many of them as shall be disallowed and not approved shall from thenceforth cease, determine, and become utterly void and of none effect." Not only that, but the Governor had a power of veto, and also, the power to "adjourn, prorogue and dissolve all general Assemblies."

The Governor with the advice and consent of the Council had the

authority to constitute such and so many courts within the province as they might think necessary and also, to appoint all judges and officers

in these courts.

Lord Cornbury had no possible fitness for the office of governor, except such as might be derived from his consanguinity to the Queen. He was as graceless a scamp as was ever intrusted with authority in the colony, or as ever dishonored noble ancestry. He was effeminate, grasping and tyrannical. He delighted to array himself in woman's apparel and parade the streets of New York. A spendthrift, he involved himself in enormous debts, and when ousted from the governorship, was thrown into prison by his clamorous creditors until, fortunately for him, the death of his father relieved him from the consequences of his fraud and elevated him to the peerage of England upon which he reflected no honor. He was the grandson of the celebrated Edward Hyde, the Earl of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor of England. In his early life, Clarendon was a briefless barrister. He made the acquaintance of a wealthy brewer, who by marriage had elevated a Welsh scullion to the head of his household. Before his elevation to high office in England, Clarendon married the Welsh scullion, who was then the widow of the brewer. Anne, a daughter of this marriage, became the wife of James, Duke of York and the ancestress of Queen Victoria. Cornbury was the grandson of the Earl of Clarendon and the brewer's widow, and in this way became the cousin of Queen Anne.

Cornbury remained governor of both New York and New Jersey, until 1708, when, after repeated complaints made to the Queen, by the colonists, he was removed.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONTENTS.

Change of Government; Only one Governor Prior to the Division; Philip Carteret; Quarrel between Him and the Legislature; Robert Barclay, Governor; Sketch of; Thomas Rudyard, Deputy; Sketch of; Gawen Lawrie, Deputy; Sketch of; Lord Neill Campbell, Deputy; Lawrie and Rudyard Removed for Disobedience; Correction of Date of Barclay's Term; Tatham and Dudley; Moneybaird's Eccentric Devise; Andrew Hamilton Substituted Deputy; Sketch of; Andross's Invasion; His Arrest; Question as to Legality of Hamilton's Commission; Removed; Jeremiah Basse; Sketch of; Andrew Bowne; Question as to Hamilton Decided in his Favor; Edward Billinge, Governor of West Jersey; Samuel Jennings, Deputy; Daniel Coxe, Governor of West Jersey; Sketch of; Andrew Hamilton Reinstated; Sketch of Daniel Coxe; Legislature of the Whole Province After the Surrender; Cornbury, Governor; How Legislature Constituted; Thomas Gardiner, Speaker; Legislature Demands Certain Rights; Speech of Cornbury; Law about Purchase of Land from Indians; Process of Enacting a Law; Laws Introduced; Richard Hartshorn's Right as Delegate, Challenged; Journal of the Votes of the Legislature; Controversy between Legislature and Cornbury about Raising Money; Cornbury Dissolves the Legislature; Cornbury Attempts to Control the Elections; Unsuccessful; The Right of Gardiner, Lambert and Wright to Sit as Delegates, Challenged; They were Rejected; After a Year's Time, Admitted; Qualifications of Voters; of Representatives; Servility of Legislature of 1704 to Governor; Change of Action of the Assembly; Legislature Refused to Raise any Money for Payment of Governor's Salary; Governor Prorogues the Legislature until 1706; During the Vacation, Discontent; Third Assembly Met April 5, 1707; Address of Governor; Assembly Considers Speech in Committee of the Whole; William Anderson, Clerk of the House, and the Assembly Quarrel; Legislature Unanimously Decide that Committee of the Whole has a Right to Select its Own Secretary; Cornbury Makes Another Speech; Assembly Stand Firm; Matter Referred to Governor; Anderson Discharged; Remonstrance Against Governor; Thirteen Grievances; Remonstrance Presented to Governor; Incidents Accompanying the Presentation to the Governor; Answer of Governor; Peter Fauconnier, Receiver General; Legislature Require His Vouchers; Action of Legislature; Quarrel between Governor and Assembly Brought to the Attention of the Queen; She Dismisses Cornbury; Lewis Morris Rival Candidate for Governor with Cornbury; Comparison of Proprietary and Royal Rule; Lord Lovelace, Governor; Sketch of; Governor's Address; Reply; Lieutenant-Governor Ingoldsby and Part of Council Write a Letter to the Queen; First Issue of Paper Currency; Legislature Adjourned to November, 1709; Lovelace Dies; Succeeded by Robert Hunter; Sketch of; Composition of Assembly; Parker Family; Answer to Governor's Speech; Representa

tion by Counties Appears; Salem, Sketch of; Freehold, Sketch of; Burlington, Sketch of; Quakers not Permitted to Sit on Juries; Attempt of Legislature to Remedy this Evil; Council Reject the Law Passed for that Purpose: Action of the Legislature with Reference to the Letter from Ingoldsby and Council to Queen; Members of Council Who Signed Letter Expelled; Legislation of 1713; Slaves; White Servants; Ferry Across the Delaware at Burlington; Duty on Slaves; Conveyances of Land; Recording of Deeds; Quakers Permitted to Sit on Juries; George I Becomes King: Legislature of 1716 Opposition to Hunter; Daniel Coxe, Speaker; Legislature Prorogued to May, 1716; Then only Nine Members Appeared: Four Brought in by Warrant; Speaker Coxe and Absentees Expelled; Some Re-elected, but Rejected; Legislature of 1717; Acts Appointing Commissioners to Define Boundary Line Between New Jersey and New York, and Division Line Between East and West Jersey; William Burnet, Governor; Sketch of; John Montgomerie, Governor; Lewis Morris, President of Council, Acting Governor; William Cosby, Governor; Question of Separation from New York Advocated; John Anderson, Acting Governor; John Hamilton, Acting Governor; Separation of the Two Provinces; Lewis Morris, Governor of New Jersey; Sketch of; Morris's Administration; Failure of Morris as Governor; John Hamilton, Acting Governor; Jonathan Belcher, Governor; His Administration; Influence of French War on the Colony; John Reading, Acting Governor; Francis Bernard, Governor; Josiah Hardy, Acting Governor; September, 1762, William Franklin Became Governor; Last Royal Governor; Troubles Between the Mother Country and the Cololnies; Franklin's Administration.

The formative period in the history of New Jersey ceased with the surrender to Queen Anne and the Colony then entered on a new phase of its existence. Its government was changed in a most material manner. The rule of the Proprietors had been forceless and inefficient.

Only one governor had been appointed for the whole province prior to its division and he had not been acceptable to the people. Sometimes he had been so repulsive that the colonists had actually refused to recognize him and had openly rebelled against him, and his principals had no power behind them to enforce his authority.

Philip Carteret, appointed governor over the whole of New Jersey in 1665, ruled until 1682; in the latter part of which year he resigned his authority into the hands of Robert Barclay, his successor. Carteret survived this event a little less than two months and died in December, 1682. His term of office was an exceedingly stormy one, almost from. its beginning, certainly to its close. In October, 1681, he met with the last legislature which he attended as governor. A violent dispute arose between him and his Council and the Legislature relative to the right of the Proprietors to change the terms of the "Grants and Concessions." The dispute became so acrimonious that the Governor, for

the first time in the history of New Jersey, dissolved the Legislature. The members were vehement in their protests against this action, claiming that it was inconsistent with his instructions and with his commission and that it worked a deprivation of their rights. Before the next Legislature convened he made way for Barclay, as governor of East Jersey only, however, for by this time West Jersey had an independent Governor of its own.

Barclay was of distinguished descent and could trace his lineage back through fifteen generations to a Norman nobleman. He was a Quaker, a scholar, a philosopher and an author of several books, the most celebrated of which was his "Apology." He acquired a part of his education at Scot's College, an institution of learning in Paris, of which his uncle was principal. His uncle was a Roman Catholic and offered to make his young nephew his heir, if he would become a communicant of that church, to the forms and ceremonies of which he had for some time been accustomed. He was then only sixteen, but he refused to comply with the requirements of his uncle and, in accordance with the wishes of his mother, expressed on her dying bed, soon returned to Scotland. His father and he became Quakers, from motives which were little appreciated at that time, but which would now be highly respected. After this event, Barclay, although frequently a sufferer for his adherence to his new faith, devoted himself with all his energy and perseverance, with his heart and intellect, his fortune. and influence, to the furtherance of the interests of this denomination of Christians. He was selected by the Proprietors because they supposed that he would not only influence the Quakers to settle in New Jersey, but that he would be a most efficient ruler of the province. In addition to this, he was one of the Proprietors of the colony and largely interested in its welfare, thus having every inducement to administer its affairs in the best possible manner. He was appointed for life, and was not required to visit the colony, but was permitted to rule it by proxy. He selected Thomas Rudyard to act as his deputy.

Mr. Rudyard was also one of the Proprietors, was a lawyer of eminence and resided in London. He had been of Counsel with the Defendants, William Penn and William Mead, who were indicted in 1670 for preaching "at an unlawful, seditious, and riotous assembly," in violation of the "conventicle act." By this law, the Quakers were prohibited from assembling in their "meeting houses," but Penn and Mead, in defiance of the statute, preached to an assemblage which met

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »