Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey

STATE OF NEW JERSEY. MANUAL ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH SESSION legislature of |lelu ferseg. I§8S. COPYRIGHT SECURED. TRENTON, N. J.: r-^;^ Compiled from Official Documents anu Careful Research, by/ FITZGERALD & GOSSON, Legislative Reporters. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1882, by THOMAS F. FITZGERALD AND LOUIS C. GOSSON, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. >8®='The newspaper press are welcome to use such parts of this work as thej' may desire, on givmg credit therefor to the Manual. John L. Murphy, Printer. PREFACE. WE present the Legislative Manual, for this year, to the public, confidently expecting that it will be received as favorably as the editions of former years. Our best efforts have been put forth to make the work as interesting and reliable as possible. Our data has been obtained from official sources, and all the personal sketches have been compiled from information received directly from those concerned. Preceding Legislatures have seen fit to officially recognize and endorse our little hand-book, and we hope to merit a similar favor from the present Senate and General Assembly. Con- sidering the vast amount of detailed and minute facts relating to every department of State which the volume contains, and which must prove of great interest to every Jerseyman, we feel that we can safely assert that the price charged (one dollar per volume) is not im- moderate. We are under obligations to State officials, the press and other friends, for favors willingly con- ferred, and with a hope that the liberal support hereto- fore given to us will be continued, we remain. Gratefully, THE COMPILERS. X 'f&-^ ".,0 "^^r^ i ^ ^ ^^^ 1883. ^^ f * 1883 ; HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY. In 1606, King James of England granted a new patent for Virginia (ignoring that of Sir Walter Raleigh, dated in 1584), in which was included the territory now known as the New England States and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The possession of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the adjacent lands was claimed respectively by the Dutch and Swedes. The former built Fort Nassau, on the Delaware, near Gloucester Fort Orange, on the Hudson, near Albany ; and the Hirsse of Good Hope, on the Connecticut. Disputes as to the rightful possession of territory continued for years, until the early summer of 1664, when Charles II. sold to John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret " all that tract of land adjacent to New England, and lying and being to the westward of Long Island ; bounded on the east part by the main sea and part by the Hudson river, and hath, upon the west Delaware bay or river, and ex- ten deth southward to the main ocean as far as Cape May, at the mouth of Delaware bay, and to the northward as far as the northermost branch of said bay or river of Dela- ware, which is forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and worketh over thence in a straight line to Hudson river, which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name, or names, of NovA Cesarea or New Jersey." The name was given in honor of Carteret, on account of his gallant defence of the Island of Jersey, at the time he was Governor of the island. This grant regarded the Dutch as intruders, and Berkeley and Carteret not only became rulers, but acquired the right to transfer the privilege to others. Measures were speedily devised for peophng and govern- ing the country. The proprietors published a constitution, dated February loth, 1664, by which the government of the province was to be exercised by a Governor and Council and General Assembly. The Governor was to receive his appointment from the proprietors ; the Coun- cil was to be selected by the Governor, who might make 7 8 MANUAL OF THE LEGISLATURE choice of six Councillors, at least (or twelve, at most), or any even number between six and twelve. On the same day that the instrument of government was signed, Philip Carteret, a brother of one of the pro- piietors, received a commission as Governor of New Jersey. He landed at Elizabeth in August, 1665. The precise date of the first settlements in New Jersey is not known, though it is believed that the Danes or Norwegians, who crossed the Atlantic with the Dutch colonists, began a settlement at Bergen about the year 1624. Ten years previous an attempt was made to form a settlement at Jersey City. In 1623, the Dutch West India Company sent out a ship under the command of Capt. Cornelius Jacobse Mey, who entered the Delaware bay and gave his name to its northern cape, and, sailing up the river to Gloucester, built Fort Nassau, which may be considered the first permanent settlement of the State. Upon the arrival of Governor Carteret, he entered at once upon a vigorous discharge of his duties. A large number of settlers flocked thither, and at an early period the executive authority of the province was established by the appointment of a Council, composed of Captain Nicholas Varlett, Daniel Pierce, Robert Bond, Samuel Edsall, Robert Vanquellen and WiUiam Pardon. James Bollen was appointed Secretary of the province. The first Legislative Assembly in the history of New Jersey met at Elizabethtown on the 26th of May, 1668. The session lasted four days, and was characterized by harmony and strict attention to the business for which the Burgesses and Representatives were summoned by Governor Carteret. It may be noted that this Assembly passed laws by which twelve distinct offenses were made punishable with death. The Assembly adjourned sine die, and seven years elapsed before another convened. The capture of New York by the Dutch, July 30th, 1673, was followed by the subjection of the surrounding country, including the province of New Jersey. The whole of the territory, however, swung back to the possession of the English crown, by the treaty of peace with Hol- land on the 9th of Februar)'-, 1674. The second General Assembly began its session on the 5th of November, 1675. Eight members of Council, including the Governor, were present, and fourteen Representatives appeared from the towns. Laws were enacted looking to the proper military defence of the OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY. 9 province, for the institution of regular courts, and for the assessment of taxes. A code of capital laws was also adopted, similar in its provisions to that passed in 1668. On the i8th of March, 1673, Lord Berkeley, one of the original proprietors of New Jersey, disposed of his right and interest in the province to John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, members of the Society of Quakers, or Friends, who paid the sum of one thousand pounds for the same. John Fenwick received the conveyance in trust for Edward Byllinge, and a dispute, as to the terms having arisen, William Penn was called in as arbitrator. He gave one-tenth of the province and a considerable sum of money to Fenwick and the remainder of the territory was adjudged to be the property of Byllinge. A permanent settlement was made at Salem, in June, 1675. Owing to the continued disputations and dissensions, a division of the territory of the province was agreed upon. By this "Indenture Quintipartite," dated July ist, 1676, the line of division was made to extend across the province, from Little Egg Harbor, to a point in the Delaware river in forty-one degrees of north latitude. These divisions were known respectively as East and West Jersey, until the charters of both were surrendered, and the two portions included together under a Royal government. By the retercession of New Jersey to Great Britain by the treaty of 1674, the question arose whether the title returned to the proprietors or to the King. To avoid all difficulty, the King recognized the claim of Carteret, and made a new grant to the Duke of York, who also exe- cuted a fresh conveyance to Carteret, covering, however, only a part of the original territory of New Jersey. But before making this conveyance, the Duke included the province in a commission given to Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of New York, who refused to recognize the authority, as Governor, of Philip Carteret, arrested all magistrates who would not submit to his own jurisdiction, and finally, on April 30th, 1680, carried Carteret himself prisoner to New York. The Duke was finally prevailed upon to acknowledge the claims of the proprietors, and in 1681, the government of Andros came to an end. West Jersey, in February, 1682, was purchased by William Penn and eleven other Quakers. The first Gov- ernor under the new proprietors was Robert Barclay, a Scotchman, and one of the twelve purchasers, under whom the country became an asylum for the oppressed 10 3rANUAL OF THE LEGISLATURE members of his creed, and for a time enjoyed great pros- perity. But the number of proprietors, the frequent sub- divisions and transfers of shares, and various other difficulties in the way of good government, soon involved the province in trouble, and in 1702, the proprietors surrendered the rights of government to the Crown. Queen Anne appointed Lord Cornbury Governor of New York and New Jersey, but each continued to have a separate Assembly. In 1738, New Jersey petitioned for a distinct administration, and Lewis Morris was appointed Governor. The population was then about 40,000. The last Royal Governor was WiUiam Franklin, the natural son of Benjamin Franklin. A State Constitution was adopted in 1776, and some of the most important battles of the Revolution took place upon its soil.

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