CHAPTER L.

THE day prior to the ratification by Pennsylvania, the Convention of New Jersey assembled. Her previous course left no doubt as to the policy of this State.

From the commencement of her Colonial existence to its end, it had been a scene of frequent discord. Though with a large maritime front and a various surface, her natural advantages were not great. From Shrewsbury to Cape May there is not a single harbor of any value. The low level of the southern portion is a pine barren. On the west, inhabited by Quakers, the soil is good. The residue of the State, where Dutch and Swedes and Scotch toiled, with some exceptions, is hilly and rugged. The people were poor. The earliest charter had secured religious freedom and the power of imposing taxes to an Assembly, chosen by the freemen; but the Government was Proprietary, and unhappily the grant was to different Proprietors. Thus, the Colony was early divided. Beside the questions which had disturbed the other Colonies-of grants of revenue, requisitions of militia, paper emissions, the duration of their Assembliescontroversies had arisen as to the titles of the lands, which the surrender of the Government to the Crown did not quiet. The Proprietary titles were retained; and, of the population, many regarded them with jealousy. Attempts to enforce

these titles were resisted, and the resistance was countenanced by the popular branch of the Legislature. It was amidst all the excitement of such controversies, that the Revolution opened. The successive measures of opposition were entered into warmly. The Royal Governor of the Colony was denounced-seized as an enemy, and held a prisoner in Connecticut, until the close of the contest. A new Government was organized before the Declaration of Independence, and its powers were steadily exerted until independence was attained.

But New Jersey, with little to spare, felt grievously the severities of the War, increased by the impotence of the Confederation; and is seen among the earliest and most urgent advocates of its invigoration.

Although her proposed form of Government had not obtained in the Federal Convention, she had gained much in the modification of the Virginia plan. The narrow policy of New York was not unwelcome to her, for it served the supposed interests of a small State. The larger scope of Pennsylvania she would disapprove, as reducing her relative importance. But with neither State had she any strong political affinities. Both, from their superior power and superior advantages, would be, at first view, objects of jealousy. The mind of the State had, from this very jealousy, and, also under wise and happy influences, been long preparing for a change of system; and, when the Constitution was presented for her adoption, the Convention, after a session of four days, adopted it on the twelfth of December, unconditionally, and without a dissenting voice.

Though Georgia had withheld from Congress the power of levying an impost, and, from jealousy of Eastern influence, had opposed the admission of Vermont into the Union, thus showing Anti-National tendencies, yet

there could be little doubt she would accept the Constitution.

With an area twice that of her neighbor, South Carolina, she had only one-third of the population, who were chiefly engaged in planting the rich lands upon the coast, and on the Savannah, where the first settlement had been made by the English, a century later than most of the other Colonies.

*

Her earliest Government was an incorporation of Trustees, who-as a principal object of the colonization was to erect a barrier to Carolina against aggressions from Florida and Louisiana-granted the lands to settlers to be held as military fiefs, revertible. Further, to prevent the weakness incident to their introduction, these Trustees expressly forbade the importation of slaves.

So uncertain a tenure of property could not long endure in any of the North American Colonies. The restriction as to slavery delayed the culture of crops suitable to the soil and climate. The cost of the settlement had been large-the returns small; and, at the expiration of twenty years, the charter was surrendered, and a royal government was established. During this period a number of Scotch Highlanders were settled at Darien. A body of Germans also found their way here, and a few French. The principal change which took place in its condition was the introduction of slaves. Though wealth increased, her white population continued small. Her great resources were not developed. Spanish possessions of no friendly temper, were her Southern neighbors. Dense tangled forests covered her large interior, occupied by numerous tribes of warlike Indians, against whose menacing ravages the inhabitants of Savannah were engaged in throwing up defences after the Federal Conven

* 1732.

tion had closed its labors. A sense of weakness and impending dangers overruled all local or sectional jealousies, and, eager to place herself under the shield of an efficient general government, on the second of January, Georgia, by a unanimous vote, adopted the Constitution.

Connecticut was next. The most southern of the New England Colonies, divided by three nearly parallel streams, retaining their descriptive Indian appellations, from the largest of which, the CONNECTICUT, it is known, shows in the names and the number of its towns its origin and its policy.

These towns all bear English names, and were settled by emigrants from three contiguous south-western counties of England, soon after the first colonization of Massachusetts.

Dissenters from the Church of the mother country, they came hither in separate bodies, each with its minister at its head, and planted themselves in separate communities, at not remote points-forming at first two Colonies, those of Connecticut and New Haven, which, after a third of a century, were united in one. The lands of the former were held under a patent from the crown; those of New Haven were purchased directly from the Indians. Both enjoyed, except for an inconsiderable time, a government chosen by themselves, composed of a Governor and his council, and of an assembly which met twice a year, all elected annually by the ballots of the admitted. freemen of each town, no person being eligible more than once in two years. The Constitution of the New Haven colony restricted the choice to Church membersthe government and its laws being founded on Scripture rules. One of the first acts of its earliest assembly was, the incorporation of towns; each empowered to elect a court for its own government in lesser matters, with a

moderator, and each carefully guarded as to its bounds and powers by a distinct, recorded demarcation.

These towns were soon divided into small, nearly equal, farms. No disputes of title disturbed their peace. Save the double portion to the eldest, these farms descended equally among the males; and these two United Colonies, under one charter, subsequently obtained, of largest franchises, exhibited a community in all its ordinances, carrying the system of self-government to the utmost extent consistent with a system of laws. But over this political equality one influence was powerful and dominant, nor was it reluctant to exert its power or to extend its control,-the influence of the clergy. Thus a College was founded, but it was under the control of the ministry, each of whom was elected by the inhabitants of his town, being Church members, whose duty it was, in the several precincts, to make "warning" visits of inquiry. Four years after, a small Episcopal church was founded at Stratford; and four years more were only permitted to elapse, when the Legislature passed an act requiring the dissenting churches to form an ecclesiastical Constitution for the "Association of Ministers" and the "Consociation of Churches." "Visible Saints" were pronounced the only fit members, and confederation the only form of a "Visible Church." A "Confession of Faith" was adopted, and "Heads of Agreement" were entered into, called the "Saybrook Platform;" and all Churches agreeing in it, were declared established by law.*

As a natural and necessary consequence, divisions of opinion, violent and extreme, arose. "Separatists" were seen in large numbers, burning their religious books and their ornaments, which they called their "idols," and sol

*Other churches were nevertheless permitted-1708.