tion and success. In council, he was wise and firm, but always prudent and moderate. The office of Judge of the province was never filled with more integrity and learning than it was by him for several years before the Revolution. As a man of letters he possessed a superior genius, highly cultivated by long and assiduous application. His researches into the principles of morals and religion were deep and accurate and his knowledge of the laws of his country, extensive and profound. He was well acquainted with all the branches of polite learning, but he was particularly admired for a flowing and persuasive eloquence by which he long governed in the courts of justice."

He was the last associate justice in New Jersey prior to the Revolution, and of all those who adorned the bench before that event, he was undoubtedly the best.

At the Provincial Congress of New Jersey which met on the 10th of June, 1776, at Burlington, the Rev. Jacob Green was chairman of the committee charged with the duty of preparing a constitution. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and ability, was a Presbyterian minister, one of the first of his denomination who ever settled in Morris County, and preached at Hanover at the time of his election to Congress. He was not only the pastor of his people, but he was their counsellor and adviser; drew their wills, their deeds and their contracts; arbitrated their disputes and settled their estates. He was

a practical man of business, as well as an earnest and devout divine. His various avocations were wittily summed up in the direction of a letter once sent him:

"To the Rev. Jacob Green, Preacher,
And the Rev. Jacob Green, Teacher;

To the Rev. Jacob Green, Doctor,

And the Rev. Jacob Green, Proctor;

To the Rev. Jacob Green, Miller.

And the Rev. Jacob Green, Distiller."

John Cleves Symmes, afterward one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court, and another lawyer, were also members of the committee; but, it is the universal tradition that the chairman was the framer of the Constitution. By its terms the Justices of the Supreme Court were elected by the Council, as the higher body of the Legislature was then called, and the House of Assembly, in joint meeting, and could hold office for seven years.

There was little business done by the Supreme Court, or by any

other court of New Jersey, while the war continued, except in the punishment of traitors and other criminals, confiscating estates and providing for the confinement of suspected rebels; in fact, regular terms could not be and were not always held. It became necessary, in consequence of the many irregularities in suspending terms and in other proceedings, for the Legislature to pass a statute legalizing the acts of the Supreme Court, reviving writs and other processes and giving efficiency to the tribunal as if it had regularly met.

The last term of the court held by the justices appointed by the colonial authorities was in May, 1776, when Frederick Smyth was Chief Justice and David Ogden and Richard Stockton were associate justices. The Chief Justice and Justice Ogden were the only judges. then present.

The first session under the new Constitution was held in November, 1776, only one judge-Samuel Tucker-being present. He was one of the Associate Justices who had been elected in the month of September preceding. The office of Chief Justice was tendered to Richard Stockton immediately upon the adoption of the new Constitution, and he would have been unanimously elected had he not refused to accept the position.

When Mr. Stockton rejected the proffered office, it was tendered to John De Hart, a leading lawyer in Newark, who accepted in writing, but for some reason which cannot now be ascertained, did not serve. At the same time that he was elected, Francis Hopkinson was appointed an Associate Justice; but he was a member of the Continental Congress and declined to serve. This left Samuel Tucker the only judge of the Supreme Court.

Mr. Tucker was not a lawyer; but he had been much in public life and had held some most important offices. He had been Sheriff of Hunterdon County, a member of the Legislature and was President of the Provincial Congress when the Constitution was adopted. At the beginning of the war he was treasurer of the province and had in his possession a large amount of the paper currency issued by the colony. In February, he was called to an account and then asserted that the British had captured him and stolen the money during the preceding December, when Washington was on the west bank of the Delaware, resting after the terrible struggle succeeding the Long Island campaign. Mr. Tucker had obtained a protection from Col. Rall, the German officer in command of the British forces at Trenton. During

the preceding summer, Howe, the English General, had issued a proclamation inviting the colonists to seek protection by submission to him as the representative of the mother country. Tucker had availed himself of this invitation and had sought pardon, and then, as he alleged, was robbed. His submission to the English leader was a very weak measure; his fellow citizens clamored for his resignation, and he was obliged to yield to the popular indignation. He lost favor; the accuracy of his statements as to the robbery was not only doubted, but openly questioned as untrue, and he never recovered from the disgrace. He died in 1789, still resting under a cloud which has never been removed.

Two excuses may be urged for his disloyalty to the patriot causeone the apparent hopelessness of success, on the part of the colonists; the other, the influence of his wife, an English lady, over his actions, which, it was then believed, led him to prove recreant to his prior actions and promises. Neither excuse, however, was sufficient in the eyes of his contemporaries, as he ever afterward lived a dishonored

man.

There is no report of any of his decisions, and no estimate can be formed of his ability as a judge; his career in that position was too short to enable him to demonstrate his capabilities. He was, however, a man of decided intellect and, in less stormy times, might have left an enviable memory as a member of the highest tribunal of his State. No record of any resignation by John De Hart, as Chief Justice, can now be found; but he never served and it became necessary to fill the vacancy which had already existed too long. In February, 1777, Robert Morris was elected and immediately assumed the discharge of the duties of the position. He was a member of a family distinguished in colonial history for a century, in many directions, not only in New Jersey, but elsewhere. His father was Robert Hunter Morris, who had been Chief Justice for twenty six years, from 1738 to 1764, and had died while holding that office. Robert Morris was appointed at the darkest hour of the Revolution. Little civil business was done by the courts, but a very large volume of criminal cases engaged the attention of the judges. Terms were held regularly for about a year; grand juries were summoned and sworn and criminal business was transacted. The Courts of Oyer and Terminer were held by one or more justices of the Supreme Court, assisted by county judges who were not lawyers. Venires for grand and petit juries were issued to the sheriffs of the several counties. Under the colonial government

commissions for holding the Oyer and Terminer were sent by the Governor and his Council to the justices, as exigencies required. In the Constitution of 1776, no express authority was given to any one to issue these commissions; but an act of the Legislature was passed very soon after, which gave full power to the Governor and Council to convene the court; and, at last, after some persistence, despite the grave doubts of many excellent lawyers, the practice was fully recognized and never afterward questioned. Very soon, too, the word "Colony' was dropped from all commissions and laws and the word "State" substituted. The commissions for holding courts of Oyer and Terminer were invariably issued until 1794, when they were abolished and those courts were regularly convened in the several counties.

Chief Justice Morris was very busy in performing the duties of his office. There were no public conveyances then, and he was obliged to use his own horse in passing from county to county. A letter written by him to Governor Livingston and dated June 14, 1777, is particularly interesting, as it gives evidence of the difficulties attending the travel from one court to another; of the ignorance of the officers of the proper manner of performing their duties; of the doubts of the Chief Justice whether the court had met or could properly meet the obligation of its office in the very trying circumstances which surrounded it, and their limited knowledge of the law involved in the cases of treason submitted to them.

Robert Morris held his position for less than two years. In 1779, he resigned and retired to private life, until 1790, when, on the death of Judge Brearley, General Washington made him Judge of the United States District Court for New Jersey, which position he held until his death, in 1815. During the last year of his life he was in infirm health; and often his court, in consequence, would not be held at the regular terms. This occasioned very little inconvenience, as the business was very small and rarely required the attendance of the judge more than a day at each term.

The Associates or as they were then called, the second and third Justices with Chief Justices Morris and Brearley, were Isaac Smith and John Cleves Symmes. Of Isaac Smith very little can be said. He was not a lawyer; he was educated at Princeton College, where he graduated in 1758, when only eighteen years old. He then studied medicine and became a practicing physician. During the troubles. with England, and as early as 1776, he strongly identified himself with

the cause of the colonies and commanded a regiment in the Continental army. He soon became distinguished as an efficient officer and ranked high as a 'patriot. His talents were of a very high order and he was especially noted for his wisdom and sagacity. In February, 1777, the joint meeting of the Legislature raised him to the office of second justice, and he assumed the duties of the position at once. Although he had no legal education and had never practiced law, his native ability and his untiring industry soon made him a good lawyer and he became able to decide the cases submitted to him, with judgment and accuracy. He was thrice re-elected and held the position longer than any other associate justice. In 1803, at the expiration of his fourth term, the political party opposed to him came into power and he failed to obtain a reappointment. He then retired to private life, made his home at Trenton and became the president of the Trenton Banking Company, which position he retained until his death in 1807.

John Cleves Symmes was born at Riverhead in New York, in 1742, and received a good, sound education, but never graduated at any college. In early life he was a teacher and a surveyor, but subsequently studied law, was licensed and began the practice of his profession in his native State. At the breaking out of the Revolution, he became an intense patriot, was a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, in 1776, and, in September of that year, was appointed one of two commissioners to visit the troops of the State, which were serving in New York, to learn their condition “and their disposition farther to engage in the service in the new establishment." He subsequently entered the army as Colonel of the Third Battalion from Sussex County, was present at several severe battles and aided at that of Saratoga. At the beginning of the war he was a resident of Newton, in Sussex County, New Jersey. In 1776, he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress and was put upon the Committee which framed the Constitution. In February, 1777, he was appointed third justice of the Supreme Court and retained the office until 1788. In 1784, he was sent as a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, still retaining his office as third Justice. In 1788, he was appointed a judge of the Federal Court in the Northwest Territory, removed to Ohio, and, in company with some other Jerseymen, attempted to purchase from the Government a tract of about one million acres of land. In this, however, he did not succeed; but, afterward,