CHAPTER V. A RESUME OF THE HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY. In the foregoing pages have been presented the salient points in the history of New Jersey. In various chapters is contained the narrative of discovery, of settlement and of political changes—all leading up to the firm establishment of a civilization of the highest type. But of greater value are those descriptions of character of a people of diverse origin and habits of living and of thought, whose welding together resulted in the New Jersey and the New Jerseyman of the present day. The narrative written in this work has to do with a people heterogeneous in its origin. Until 1702 the Jerseys were not even politically united, and, after two centuries, East Jersey, founded in large part by Hollanders, is in many respects a dependency of the greater community of Dutch origin across the Hudson, while West Jersey, established by Quakers, is in closest touch with the Quaker State across the Delaware. Entered upon the scene in 1666 a third group of founders, who came to be Jerseymen, not to be outlying colonists of New York or Philadelphia. These Puritans, driven by the rising tides of Connecticut laxity from that first refuge which they had called their New Haven, put forth upon the stormy seas of destiny in their New Ark, for so they named it, and it rested upon the banks of Passaic—the Plymouth Rock of New Jersey. The common sense and conscience of New Jersey Presbyterianism there and thus established have remained the uniting and guiding forces in Colony and State. It is necessary to recognize this, and, at the same time, not to overlook but to comprehend the contributions to the character and development of the people which have been made by Dutchman, Scotchman, Huguenot and Quaker. To trace the history of such a people in a spirit of unity were a difficult task, and our work is rather to be classified with illustrative monographs, each covering some particular phase of the general subject. The war for independence over, the people of the State turned themselves to the work of repairing war losses and to the establishment of all that is included in the word advancement. The foundations for a splendid judicial establishment were laid, and upon the bench were seated jurists who honored their high office and set up standards of legal knowledge and personal conduct which have been examplars to the very present. The feeble educational institutions, wellnigh uprooted during the war period, were resuscitated and placed on the highway to monumental success and usefulness. The Society for the Promotion of Useful Manufactures, with the aid of Alexander Hamilton and his associates, applied itself to commercial development—wagon and post roads were laid out and made passible, ferries were established, manufacturing towns were founded, shipyards sent out their craft into all waters, and the tillable lands began to receive a larger and busier population. With the decade beginning in 1800 began a new era of development. Looking to commercial activity, great transportation enterprises were engaged in. A bridge was thrown across the Delaware, uniting New Jersey and Pennsylvania at Trenton. Various canals were constructed, and John Stevens and his son, Robert, built the first ocean-going steamboat. Within the same period the first banks in the State (at Trenton and Newark) were chartered. The close of the second war with. Great Britain marks distinctly the beginning of the real industrial era. In 1815 the legislature granted a railroad charter—the first in the United States. Within a few years, a vast industrial population had come into the state. Camden and Paterson and Jersey City had become considerable manufacturing centers. Numerous railroads were built, leading to the development of iron, zinc and copper mines, and to the opening up of fertile agricultural regions throughout the State. The public school system was extended, while reforms in penal and charitable institutions were instituted. In 1844 the outgrown constitution of 1776 was abandoned, and a new constitution, more in harmony with the spirit of the times, was adopted. During the Civil war period, while more than three-fourths of the men of New Jersey of arms-bearing age performed military duty in defense of the government, the wheels in her factories were ever busy, and her marts of trade were ever active. Following the restoration of peace, all manufacturing industries experienced a new stimulus and new and greater ones were established, while the agricultural regions were invaded by pioneers in new enterprises of great moment. The pressing needs of Philadelphia and New York led to the development of dairying and the establishment of railroad milk service. Market gardens were cultivated within the merropolitan areas. Vineland, Hammonton and Egg Harbor were laid out, and the culture of small fruits, berries and grapes was begun, practically assuring the future of these industries. The oyster and fishing industries attracted more intelligent attention and were pursued with larger remuneration and less wastefulness, and became famous throughout the world. In recent years many of the coast towns have had their establishment or have entered upon a new era of development and prosperity, and some of these--Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove and Cape May—are famous the world over for all that contributes to health and pleasure. But before and above all these excellent material conditions is to be admired the power which has made them--the people. In great numbers native to the soil, these cherish with affection and pride the ancestry whence they sprung, and whose worth and names they have conmemorated, in many instances, in stately public edifices, and in chairs of instruction in colleges and hospitals. For the people, despite the turmoil of business and the glamour of society, are, after all, a home-loving and family-loving people, and in their homes, their schools and their churches, they are rearing to-day a generation which, in its own time, will doubtless be called upon to engage in effort and confront obstacles and conquer success after the manner of those who have gone before them. APPENDIX. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. William Livingston, the first governor of New Jersey under the constitution of 1776, was born in Albany, New York, in the year 1723. He was the grandson of Robert Livingston, a very distinguished minister of the Established Kirk of Scotland. After the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II, this minister with his son fled to Holland, whence Robert came to America about the year 1675. In 1679 he married Alida, the widow of Nicholas Van Rensselaer, and resided at Albany. Philip, the father of William, was the second son of Robert; but, the elder brother having died, he succeeded to the manorial estate. His wife was Catherine Van Brugh, a member of a respected Dutch family of Albany. William was their fifth child. He was accorded the best education the country afforded. After due preparation he entered Yale College, from which institution he was gradnated in 1741 at the head of his class. He was brought up for the legal profession, and began study therefor with James Alexander, a most distinguished lawyer of New York City, and a sturdy advocate of popular rights and opponent of ministerial assumptions. Studying diligently, he in due course was licensed to practice law in 1748. Such close study being combined with great natural ability and qualifications for a lawyer, he soon won a high position at the bar, and was retained in most of the important litigation of the day, not only in New York, but in New Jersey. Among other notable engagements in his legal career, he was in 1752 one of the counsel of the defendants in the great suit in chancery, between the proprietors of East Jersey and some of the settlers, which, although never brought to a final decision, has been much referred to in respect of the title to a considerable part of East Jersey. Brought up in the Reformed Dutch church, he engaged earnestly in the controversies which arose with the Episcopalian party in reference to an established religion. It was not a little owing to the feelings so strongly excited in Congregationalists and Presbyterians by these discussions that the resistance eventually advanced to the attempted imposition of taxes on the American colonies by the British ministry arose, and the unanimous support by the colonies of antagonistic measures resulted. In 1772 he changed his residence to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he had acquired by purchase at different times an estate of about one hundred and twenty acres. He had been admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1755, and he continued to practice his profession, but not in any very close fashion. In 1774 he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress by the committee which met at New Brunswick in July of that year, and became a member of the committee of that body, appointed to prepare the address to the people of Great Britain. In January, 1775, he was re-elected delegate to the Congress by the Assembly, and served on the most important committees thereof. He was again elected delegate in February, 1776. to the Provincial Congress, and labored on the same committees with Adams, Jefferson and Lee. During the ensuing June, however, he left the congress at Philadelphia in order to take command of the militia of New Jersey as a brigadier general. While thus patriotic in spirit, and doing everything in his power to advance the American cause, he was yet among those, and the number included many pronounced Whigs, who doubted the expediency of the Declaration of Independence at the time it was made. In June, 1776. by desire of congress, he took command of the militia destined for New York, and established his headquarters at Elizabethtown Point. There is good reason to believe, however, that he would have much preferred to continue a delegate to the Continental Congress, in which case he would undoubtedly have signed the Declaration of Independence. It was not long that Livingston served as a soldier, his abilities being called into play in a position where they were calculated to prove of far greater value to his country. A new constitution having been adopted, and a legislature chosen under it, that body assembled at Princeton, and on August 27, 1776, proceeded in joint convention to elect a governor. The vote was by a secret ballot, and it resulted for a time in a tie between him and Richard Stockton. By next day, however, an arrangement had been reached, and Livingston was elected governor, Stockton being chosen chief justice of the supreme court. The former accepted, but the latter declined. For a while after installation, Governor Livingston, by resolution of the legislature, used his own seal as the great seal of the state, but in a short time it was replaced by a seal of silver, engraved in Philadelphia, which bore 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. On September 13th the Governor made an address to the legislature, in which he says: "Considering how long the hand of oppression had been stretched out against us, how long the system of despotism, concerted for our ruin, had been insidiously pursued, and was at length attempted to be enforced by the violence of war; reason and conscience 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 closely absolved. That, being thus constrained to assert our own independence, the late representatives of the Colony of New Jersey, in Congress assembled, did, in pursuance of the advice of the Continental |