In The Olden Days 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY SHERRERD CLARK 
 
Chiss F \ ^ S 
 
 DOUK 
 
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 COPYKlCirr DKPOSIT. 
 
IN THE OLDEN DAYS 
 
IN THE OLDEN DAYS 
 
 PAPERS COLONIAL AND 
 REVOLUTIONARY 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY SHERRERD CLARK 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 AT THE LITERARY COLLECTOR PRESS 
 
 GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT 
 
 1905 
 

 OF THIS BOOK ONE HUNDRED 
 COPIES ARE PRINTED 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Conies Received 
 
 NOV 28 1905 
 
 Cotiyriffht Entry 
 
 GUSSf CI. XXc. No 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by 
 MARY SHBRRERD CLARK 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 TNTEREST in American history of the colo- 
 ■^ nial and revolutionary times is a matter of 
 comparatively recent growth. I mean a gen- 
 eral interest, not merely the devotion of a 
 few antiquarians. It is gratifying to know 
 that the women of America are sharing in 
 this interest and are doing good work. The 
 organization of chapters of Daughters of the 
 American Revolution and of Colonial Dames 
 and of kindred societies has undoubtedly 
 stimulated the spirit of inquiry and it has 
 been followed by excellent results. 
 
 In this book some papers are presented 
 which were originally prepared for societies 
 such as those I have mentioned and two or 
 three of them have been printed in periodi- 
 cals. The writer did not regard them as de- 
 serving of further publication, but some of 
 her friends, believing that they ought not to 
 be allowed to share the fate of essays of that 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 order, have persuaded her to preserve them 
 in this privately printed volume. 
 
 The modest author would be among the 
 last to ascribe to them any great historical 
 value ; but there are those who have a differ- 
 ent judgment about them, and who are con- 
 fident that their sincerity of purpose and 
 their grace of style will commend them to 
 readers who love the study of the story of 
 olden times. 
 
 I am permitted to make a confession, on 
 behalf of the author. The autograph letter 
 of Carteret is purely the product of her his- 
 torical imagination. The governor might 
 have written it, but there is no evidence that 
 he ever did write it. The other autographs 
 mentioned are true, valid and genuine be- 
 yond question. 
 
 A.H.J. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 1 
 
 A CABINET DINNER AT THE REPUBLICAN 
 
 COURT 17 
 
 MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED THE 
 
 PROGRESS OF NEW JERSEY 35 
 
 THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 49 
 
 THE WOMEN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTER- 
 DAY 73 
 
 AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 89 
 
 POOR HUDDY 105 
 
 THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 117 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 GENTLEMAN 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 GENTLEMAN 
 
 NOT many months ago the great-great- 
 granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin 
 appHed for membership in one of the women's 
 patriotic societies, and was refused admis- 
 sion because the ancestor named was not a 
 gentleman. 
 
 I shall not discuss the question, ''What 
 constitutes a gentleman?" for the press was 
 filled at the time with satirical paragraphs 
 concerning the matter, but I shall look back 
 for a few moments at the character and deeds 
 of the great American — the most complete 
 representative of his time; and as we gaze 
 into his kindly face, or try to visualize him, 
 with his stout, middle-sized figure, his trim, 
 sober clothes, his fresh complexion ; as we read 
 his lazy, familiar letters ; as we tell over his 
 innumerable acts of kindness ; as w^e follow, 
 day by day, his life spread out before us in 
 1 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 that genuine classic, the Autobiography y I 
 think we shall find that, as a wit, scientist, 
 leader, and man of letters, Franklin was the 
 epitome of his age, and that his great-great- 
 granddaughter's claim was not based too 
 high. 
 
 Some one has recently said, with humorous 
 sarcasm, in reference to a person who had 
 much to say of his lineage, that "he perched 
 on the upper branches of his genealogical tree, 
 and hurled down the cocoanuts of his ances- 
 tors at common folk," and if you will pardon 
 a little clever nonsense in rhyme, I will quote 
 it before taking tip my serious study : 
 
 A QUESTION OF PEDIGREE 
 
 'Now who is that,' asked a dignified hen, 
 
 ' That chicken in white and gray ? 
 She's very well dressed, but whence did she come, 
 
 And her ancestors, who are they ? ' 
 
 'She never can move in our set, my dear,' 
 Said the old hen's friend to her, later; 
 
 'I've just found out, you'll be shocked to hear, 
 She was hatched in an incubator! * 
 
 Not to dwell too much upon the question of 
 pedigree, let us quote a sentence from Burke's 
 Peerage: " Franklin, Josiah, of Ecton, North- 
 amptonshire, came to Boston in 1682. The 
 family of Ecton traced back four centuries to 
 2 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 1250. One of his sons, Benjamin, born in 
 1706." 
 
 This son was our Franklin, appropriately- 
 christened Benjamin, as he was the youngest 
 of seventeen children, born in Boston, January 
 17, 1706. It was intended that he should be 
 a clergyman, but a tallow chandler who had 
 sixteen other children to provide for naturally 
 found this scheme impossible, and the late 
 comer was set to making candles. However, 
 Benjamin threatened to run aw^ay, so he was 
 placed with his brother James to learn the 
 trade of a printer. 
 
 Although only sixteen years of age, he 
 already wrote poetry, and had read Locke on 
 The Understanding-, Xenophon's Memora- 
 bilia, Defoe's works, and many others ; yet no 
 one could foresee that he was destined to 
 become the most famous master of his craft 
 since Caxton. But Franklin soon tired of 
 serving his brother, sold his books and ran 
 away from Boston. This time it w^as more 
 than a threat. He first tried his fortunes in 
 New York, but failing there he went on to 
 Philadelphia, where he arrived one Sunday 
 morning in October, 1723. This is minutely 
 described in his Autobiography . Whittington 
 and his cat entering London were no more 
 picturesque than Franklin, with his three 
 3 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 rolls, one under each arm and the third in his 
 mouth, walking up Market Street and pass- 
 ing before the eyes of the young girl destined 
 to become his wife ! He says, " Then I walked 
 up the street, gazing about, till I met a boy 
 with bread, and on inquiring where he got it, 
 I went immediately to the baker's, in Second 
 Street, and asked for bisket, intending such as 
 we had in Boston, but they were not made in 
 Philadelphia. Then I asked for a threepenny 
 loaf, and was told they had none such. So 
 then I bade him give me three-penny worth of 
 any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three 
 great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the 
 quantity, but took it, and having no room in 
 my pockets, walked off with a roll under each 
 arm and eating the other. Thus I went up 
 Market Street, as far as Fourth Street, pass- 
 ing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's 
 father, when she, standing at the door, saw 
 me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a 
 most awkward, ridiculous appearance." 
 
 Time will not permit me to quote further 
 from the Autobiography. Henry Cabot 
 Lodge, in his admirable essay on Colonialism 
 in the United States, calls Franklin's Auto- 
 biography "the corner stone, the first great 
 work of American literature." The next 
 thirty -four years of Franklin's life are really 
 4 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 the history of Philadelphia — I may say of 
 Pennsylvania — if we except the time between 
 December, 1724, and October, 1726, which he 
 spent in London working at his trade, read- 
 ing, studying, and gaining a knowledge of the 
 world. In 1726 he returned to America and 
 worked as a printer until 1729, when he took 
 entire charge of The Pennsylvania. Gazette. 
 
 On September 1, 1730, he married his old 
 sweetheart, Deborah Read, and they lived 
 happily together for more than forty years. 
 Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, of Philadelphia, his 
 great-granddaughter, and the records of 
 Christ Church, in that city, are my authori- 
 ties for this date. 
 
 In 1733 he began to publish Poor Richard'' s 
 Almanac, and continued it until 1758. One 
 smiles now to see the little, soiled brown 
 pamphlets of a dozen leaves each, which were 
 so eagerly anticipated and so widely read by 
 our forefathers. We can hardly appreciate 
 the importance of the little books, for to the 
 present generation an almanac is merely a 
 cover for soap or patent medicine advertise- 
 ments; but then it was the vade mecum of 
 every household, a calendar, diary, recipe, and 
 sometimes school, book. Its jokes and anec- 
 dotes were served as fresh year after year, and 
 were greeted by no chestnut bell. It is hardly 
 5 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 necessary for me to tell you that Franklin, or 
 Richard Saunders, as his pen-name reads, did 
 not originate all the "sayings of Poor 
 Richard," and a reader of Bacon, La Roche- 
 foucauld, and Rabelais will recognize many 
 old friends. The subject is a fascinating one, 
 and I should like to devote my entire paper to 
 a study of the little almanac, but a few quo- 
 tations must suffice. 
 
 First came the title-page : Poor Richard— 
 
 An Almanack for the year of Christ . 
 
 This was followed by an address to the 
 "Courteous Reader." Then came a calendar 
 for each month, with weather reports, as 
 accurate, perhaps, as some of those of our 
 forecasters ! The remaining space was filled 
 with rhymes, anecdotes, and advertisements. 
 " Poor Richard " saj^s, "Blessed is he that 
 expects nothing, for he shall never be disap- 
 pointed;" and were there ever truer words 
 than these ? " Three may keep a secret if two 
 of them are dead." 
 
 The following will delight the cynic : "Three 
 things are men most likely to be cheated in : 
 a horse, a wig, and a wife ; ' ' and we couple 
 him with Lincoln as we relish the wit of 
 a sentence like this: "We must all hang 
 together, if we would not all hang sepa- 
 rately;" or the ending of the letter to 
 6 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 Strahan, "You are now my enemy, and I am 
 Yours, B. Franklin." 
 
 This is true American humor, which we all 
 can understand as well as we can Franklin's 
 interest in silkworms and rice culture. 
 
 Interspersed among the proverbs we find 
 such notices as the following : '* Ready money 
 for old rags may be had of the printer hereof, 
 by whom is made and sold very good lamp- 
 black." With what rapture must the afflicted 
 possessor of an aching tooth have read this : 
 "An infallible remedy for the toothache is, 
 wash the root of an aching tooth in elder 
 vinegar, and let it dry half an hour in the sun, 
 after which it will never ache more." 
 
 But I must not linger over the little primer 
 which gained for Franklin a reputation such 
 as few men have enjoyed, for it has been, and 
 will be, printed in every size, from a duo- 
 decimo to an imperial folio, and in nearly 
 every language, including Swedish, Chinese, 
 and modem Greek ! 
 
 Nor can I more than mention a few of the 
 leading facts of his increasingly useful life 
 before going on to my glance at "Franklin 
 the Diplomat." Franklin was the earliest 
 American who had fame among foreigners, 
 but his wide popularity was due rather to his 
 successes as a physicist, as a statesman, as a 
 2 7 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 philosopher, than as a writer, and Lord 
 Jeffrey wrote of him, " He never lost sight of 
 common sense," and the following list of his 
 achievements shows this most conclusively : 
 
 1. He established the "Junto," 1743, now 
 the American Philosophical Society. 
 
 2. He created the post-office system of 
 America. 
 
 3. He invented the Franklin stove and 
 suggested valuable improvements in ventila- 
 tion and the building of chimneys. 
 
 4. He founded the Philadelphia Library, 
 the parent of a thousand libraries. 
 
 5. He made many wonderful experiments 
 in electricity. 
 
 6. He measured the temperature of the 
 Gulf Stream, and discovered that northeast 
 storms may begin in the southwest. 
 
 7. He pointed out the advantage of build- 
 ing ships with water-tight compartments, 
 and first urged the use of oil as a means of 
 quieting dangerous seas. 
 
 Franklin has helped the whole race of 
 inventors by his words, now historic, in reply 
 to some one who spoke contemptuously of 
 Montgolfier's balloon experiments, asking of 
 what use they were : " Of what use is a new- 
 born babe?" 
 
 Franklin was as honest and proud as he 
 
 8 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 was shrewd. He accepted with composure 
 the honors paid him, and formed fast friend- 
 ships with men Hke Lord Kames, Sir John 
 Pringle, Burke, and others, but he never for- 
 got that he was plain Ben Frankhn, whose 
 primary purpose for being in England in 1762 
 was to watch over the interests of the Prov- 
 ince of Pennsylvania. And this brings us to 
 the real reason of his being sent to France as 
 a diplomat. 
 
 It is necessary to look back at France in 
 1770, when the Due de Choiseul was over- 
 thrown, for this, strange to say, marks an 
 important point in American independence. 
 Had the colonies then taken part with France 
 against England, a French general might 
 have led our armies, and French gold paid 
 our troops ! In 1774, however, when Louis 
 XVI. came to the throne and Yergennes was 
 made foreign secretarj^ American affairs were 
 again brought to their notice, and they could 
 not fail to unite with us against a country 
 that had openly violated international law 
 by seizing three hundred French ships and 
 casting ten thousand French sailors into 
 prison. 
 
 Franklin's keen mind saw at once that a 
 crisis was at hand, and in 1775, when the 
 Committee of Secret Correspondence was 
 9 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 formed in Philadelphia, he found from Mon- 
 sieur de Bonvoulois, who had been sent from 
 France, that his surmises were correct, and 
 he asked the crucial question, " If we throw 
 off our dependence on Great Britain, will any 
 court enter into an alliance with us for the 
 sake of our commerce ? " This, then, was the 
 starting point of our diplomatic history — 
 "alliance and aid for the sake of our com- 
 merce." 
 
 Then came the Declaration of Independence, 
 which he signed with a witticism on his lips, 
 and with it the question of recognition ; but 
 recognition was a declaration of war, and to 
 bring the French government to this decided 
 stand required the highest diplomatic skill. 
 The colonies had but one man equal to the 
 task, and that man was Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 We maj^ fittingly apply to Franklin the 
 words used by Dr. Lyman Whitney Allen 
 with reference to Abraham Lincoln : 
 
 The hour was come, and with it rose the man 
 Ordained of God, and fashioned for the hour. 
 
 At this juncture he certainly merited Ban- 
 croft's encomium: "Franklin was the greatest 
 diplomatist of the eighteenth century. He 
 never spoke a word too soon ; he never spoke 
 a w^ord too late ; he never spoke a word too 
 
 10 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 much ; he never failed to speak the right word 
 in the right place." 
 
 Fancy this old man as he enters France 
 unattended in December, 1776 ! They do not 
 know of his coming until he stands before 
 them, and as they look upon his serene yet 
 grave face, upon his hand now stretched forth 
 to strip from a scepter they all hated its 
 richest jewel, a feeling of reverence steals over 
 the French Court, and they bow before him as 
 they have never done before to prince or king. 
 
 So great was the confidence of the French 
 Government in Franklin that he was able to 
 secure arms and loans, to effect a treaty of 
 alliance, and to keep French interest in 
 America from flagging during the progress of 
 our war. How he managed to wring so 
 much money from an exhausted treasury will 
 always be a matter of wonder and gratitude, 
 but he did not ask more than he was person- 
 ally willing to perform, for he had loaned his 
 country nearly all the money he could raise — 
 about twenty thousand dollars. 
 
 It was not until February 6, 1778, that the 
 first treaty between the United States and a 
 foreign power was signed. What a scene that 
 must have been on March 20th of the same 
 year, when the commissioners were presented 
 to the king and came forward to receive their 
 11 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 recognition as the representatives of a nation 
 which took its place, not by the divine right 
 of kings, but in the name of the inahenable 
 rights of the people ! Only one condition was 
 stipulated, and that as much in the interest 
 of the colonies as of France, that they should 
 never return to their allegiance, and one recip- 
 rocal obligation, that neither country should 
 make peace with England without the con- 
 sent of the other — an arbitration treaty that 
 statesmen of our day find it hard to improve 
 upon. It was not until September 3, 1783, 
 however, that another "Treaty of Paris" 
 gave us the precious boon of peace. It was 
 signed by Franklin, Jay, and Adams, and to 
 Franklin was assigned the task of explaining 
 how the treaty came to be signed without due 
 consultation with Yergennes. This he succeed- 
 ed in doing, though English historians are 
 still MTondering how the three clever Yankees 
 managed to make their infant country come 
 out of such a complex diplomatic situation 
 with all the honors and most of the profits. 
 
 On his return to America Dr. Franklin was 
 enthusiastically greeted by all classes. Gen- 
 eral Washington thanked him publicly and 
 privately. He was elected president of Penn- 
 sylvania a month after his return, and was 
 reelected for two successive terms. 
 12 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 His last service, true philanthropist that he 
 was, was for the cause of liberty — a petition 
 to Congress for the abolition of the slave 
 trade and the emancipation of slaves. Again 
 we are reminded of Lincoln, who completed 
 this noble thought. Two months later, April 
 17, 1790, he passed away, and the nation he 
 had served so faithfully and so well gave him 
 such homage as had never before been paid to 
 an American citizen. 
 
 The following epitaph on Benjamin Frank- 
 lin was written by himself many years before 
 his death : 
 
 The Body 
 
 of 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer, 
 
 Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, 
 
 and stripped of its lettering and gilding. 
 
 Lies here food for worms. 
 
 Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will 
 
 (as he believed) appear once more in 
 
 a new^ and beautiful edition, 
 
 Corrected and amended 
 
 by 
 
 The Author. 
 
 . Mirabeau says, ** Antiquity would have 
 raised altars to this mighty genius who alike 
 was able to restrain thunderbolts and 
 tyrants." 
 What more can we say in conclusion and 
 13 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, GENTLEMAN 
 
 epitomizing this great man save to repeat 
 that he is the most typical American of us all, 
 and the most complete representative of his 
 time, as well as of his age ? For Howard was 
 no greater philanthropist; Priestly had no 
 keener interest in science, Franklin had the 
 public spirit of a Turgot, and was a diplo- 
 matist w^hom Talleyrand would not have 
 despised. There have been greater men, 
 perhaps, but none who have succeeded in so 
 many lines of activity. 
 
 Have I not conclusively shown that his 
 great-great-granddaughter may be proud to 
 claim descent from Benjamin Franklin, pa- 
 triot, philanthropist, philosopher, physicist, 
 diplomat, gentleman ? 
 
 14 
 
A CABINET DINNER AT THE 
 REPUBLICAN COURT 
 
A CABINET DINNER AT THE 
 REPUBLICAN COURT 
 
 AFTER the close of the Revolutionary 
 War, General Washington observed 
 with infinite concern the development of the 
 infant republic, although until he became its 
 President he did not participate actively in 
 public affairs. He wrote to a friend: "Hav- 
 ing happily assisted in bringing the ship into 
 port, and having been fairly discharged, it is 
 not my business to embark again on the sea 
 of troubles." 
 
 His desire to retire to private life was well 
 known, yet from the moment of the adoption 
 of the Federal Constitution, all eyes were 
 turned to him as the one man capable of oc- 
 cupying the highest office in the new nation. 
 A distinguished Maryland patriot wrote to 
 him, "We cannot do without you." Of him 
 17 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 it might have been said, as it was said of 
 Abraham Lincoln, that he was 
 
 The nation's only soul 
 For whom wrought ever since the race began 
 The subtle energies of thought and power 
 Toward the predestined goal. 
 
 The struggle between duty and inclination 
 was long and severe, but at the first election 
 held under the Constitution, Washington v^as 
 the unanimous choice of the people to be 
 their President. It was his wish to avoid 
 ostentation, but as we know his triumphal 
 march to New York was one long ovation. 
 At Trenton the young women and the 
 matrons met to do him honor as he passed 
 across the Delaware. On the twenty-third of 
 April, 1789, he reached New York, and was 
 received by Governor Clinton v^ith military 
 honors among a vast concourse of people. 
 
 Despite the fact that a rigid simplicity was 
 insisted upon, complaints were soon heard 
 that we w^ere adopting monarchical customs 
 — establishing a "Republican Court" — and 
 even the Society of the Cincinnati was criti- 
 cised by a few over-zealous "patriots," who 
 thought that they discerned in its organiza- 
 tion an attempt to plant in the virgin soil of 
 the republic the seeds of an order of nobility. 
 18 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 Macaulay says that it is the duty of the 
 historian "to make the past present, to bring 
 the distant near, to call up our ancestors 
 before us with all their peculiarities of lan- 
 guage, manners and garb; to show us over 
 their houses, to seat us at their tables, to 
 rummage their old wardrobes." Let us fancy 
 that we are entering the house of President 
 Washington on some Thursday afternoon in 
 the year 1789, and are unseen spectators at 
 one of his Cabinet dinners. Naturally our 
 first attention should be given to the host 
 and the hostess. 
 
 In describing General Washington we think 
 at once of Houdon's profile, with Stuart's 
 canvas for the full face and Trumbull's por- 
 trait for the figure. We are all familiar with 
 the fact that his presence was imposing, and 
 that his stature was lofty, rising to six feet 
 and three inches. His favorite dinner dress 
 w^as a coat of black silk velvet, with embroid- 
 ered satin waistcoat, and his shoe and knee 
 buckles were of gold. His hair w^as pow- 
 dered and gathered behind in a large silk bag. 
 He received his guests with a stately bow, but 
 avoided shaking hands, even with his clos- 
 est friends. His manner was grave, almost 
 sad, and inspired a feeling of awe rarely expe- 
 rienced in the presence of any man. He spoke 
 19 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 slowly and deliberately, not searching for fine 
 words but choosing those best fitting his sub- 
 ject. He was one upon whom 
 
 Every god did seem to set his seal 
 To give the world assurance of a man. 
 
 Mrs. Washington — or Lady Washington, 
 as she was generally called, — belonged to the 
 Virginia order of aristocracy and, as Miss 
 Dandridge, had been a belle in the Colonial 
 Court at Williamsburg. As Mrs. Custis, the 
 beautiful young widow, she had reigned su- 
 preme among the chivalrous Virginians ; and 
 now it is as the wife of the Commander-in- 
 Chief and the President of a new nation that 
 we acknowledge her gracious sway and bend 
 to do homage to this fair gentlewoman. 
 
 We have all read of how Colonel Washing- 
 ton lost his heart to the charming widow, — 
 for she was lovely to look upon and her man- 
 ners were most engaging. It was not his first 
 appearance in the train of Cupid, for at fif- 
 teen he had become enamored of a maiden 
 who bore the name of Frances, and to whom 
 he indited an acrostic ; at seventeen he loved 
 "a lowland beauty," as he called her; and 
 later he transferred his affections to the 
 Misses Sallie and Molly Cary, and to Betsy 
 Fauntleroy, all handsome Virginia ladies ; but 
 20 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 it was not until 1758 that the hero was con- 
 quered by the bright eyes and fascinating 
 manners — and, some are wicked enough to 
 saj', the broad estates — of the young widow 
 Custis. 
 
 The arrival of Lady Washington at head- 
 quarters at the close of each campaign was a 
 much anticipated event, and when her car- 
 riage was driven up, with her servants in 
 scarlet and white livery, it seemed as if a ray 
 of summer sunshine were piercing the clouds, 
 particularly in the dreary days of Valley 
 Forge and Morristown. She was often 
 known to say that it had been her fortune 
 "to hear the first cannon at the opening, and 
 the last at the closing, of all the campaigns 
 of the Revolutionary War." 
 
 As she stands by the side of her husband, 
 greeting their distinguished guests, we are 
 reminded of Woolaston's picture — with her 
 steinkirk or neck-cloth of sheerest linen, its 
 ends tucked into the bodice of her satin- 
 brocaded gown. 
 
 First in order among those guests w^e see 
 the Vice-President and Mrs. Adams. That 
 eminent and successful lawyer, John Adams, 
 was well versed in the etiquette of " loops and 
 buttons," and we are tempted to fancy that 
 court dress and court ceremonial pleased him 
 21 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 well. His wife, Abigail, is worthy of a longer 
 look. She was a w^oman of great personal 
 beauty and high intellectual endowments. 
 She was born in IT-i'i, a descendant of the 
 early Puritan settlers, and in 1764 she mar- 
 ried Mr. Adams. When he went to England 
 on his difficult mission she accompanied him, 
 and did much to represent the colonies so- 
 cially. Again, when her husband became 
 second in position to Washington, her wom- 
 anly grace and dignity added not a little dis- 
 tinction to his high office. One great charm 
 of Mrs. Adams's conversation was the perfect 
 sincerity apparent in all that she said. Her 
 ready tact and her practical knowledge of life 
 sustained her husband in many of the most 
 trying cares of his position. Can we not 
 almost see her to-day — having studied the 
 Boston portrait — as she stands therein her 
 dinner gown of celestial blue paduasoy over 
 a white satin petticoat, with a large gauze 
 kerchief crossed demurely over her bosom? 
 Her hair is drawn back over a roll, a la 
 Pompadour, and on her head is a puflf of 
 gauze and a w^reath of artificial roses. 
 
 Next we see Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of 
 State. We are as familiar with Stuart's por- 
 trait of him as we are with that of Washing- 
 ton. We know how highly Washington 
 22 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 esteemed this man, when he asked him to 
 become a member of his Cabinet, and said : 
 
 "I was naturally led to contemplate the 
 talents and dispositions which I knew you to 
 possess and entertain for the service of your 
 country." 
 
 Mrs. Jefferson was a widow when he 
 married her, a Mrs. Martha Skelton, but she 
 was only twenty-three, beautiful, and greatly 
 admired. The story goes that, as two of her 
 numerous suitors were approaching her house 
 one evening they heard her playing on the 
 harpsichord, accompanied by Jefferson's voice 
 and violin. Some note in the voices seemed 
 to tell them of the hopelessness of their woo- 
 ing, and they sadly turned back. 
 
 Jefferson was devoted to the violin. When 
 his house was burned he asked a servant if all 
 of the books had been destroyed, and the man 
 answered: "Dey is, massa, but we saved de 
 fiddle!" 
 
 During the brief period of their married life 
 Mrs. Jefferson made Monticello an earthly 
 paradise for her young husband. Their 
 daughter Martha married Thomas Mann 
 Randolph, and John Randolph once called her 
 "the sweetest young creature in Virginia." 
 
 But who is the handsome man whom the 
 President greets so cordially? Is it not 
 4 23 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, restored to the favor of 
 Washington after that singular incident at 
 Morristown in 1781, when Hamilton, resent- 
 ing a hasty reproof from his General, resigned 
 his position as aide-de-camp on General 
 Washington's staff? All of this unpleasant- 
 ness is forgotten, and he holds the most im- 
 portant place in the Cabinet — that of Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury. This man of thirty-two 
 is expected to bring order out of chaos, to 
 put the shattered finances of the nation on a 
 sound basis, — an herculean task. Washing- 
 ton knew and appreciated his great talents. 
 Robert Morris, one of the greatest financiers 
 of America — who had been first selected for 
 the office — approved the choice, and Hamil- 
 ton's ability saved the country from ruin. As 
 was said of him, like Moses of old he smote 
 the barren rock of the national finances 
 with the rod of a magician, and golden 
 streams issued forth. 
 
 Although under middle size, he was very 
 erect, courtly, and dignified in his bearing. 
 His hair was combed back from his forehead, 
 powdered, and worn in a queue. His com- 
 plexion was delicate and fair, his voice musi- 
 cal, and his manner frank and impulsive. As 
 he stands before us in his blue coat with gilt 
 buttons, black silk small-clothes, and white 
 24 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 silk waistcoat, we cannot but think of that 
 fatal twelfth of July, 1804, when, after the 
 duel with Burr, he passed from earth — one of 
 the most illustrious men who ever figured 
 upon the stage of human affairs. 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton was born Elizabeth Schuy- 
 ler, the second daughter of General Philip 
 Schuyler and a granddaughter of John Van 
 Rensselaer, the patroon. Among the distin- 
 guished men wno visited her father's house 
 there were many admirers of Miss Elizabeth, 
 but the young West Indian bore away the 
 prize. She -was a beautiful and charming 
 woman, and there have been few marriages 
 more congenial than that of Alexander Ham- 
 ilton and Elizabeth Schuyler. 
 
 Chatting with Mrs. Hamilton is the Secre- 
 tary of War, Henry Knox, a soldier who 
 commands our highest esteem and admira- 
 tion. It v^as Knox who suggested the idea of 
 perpetuating the memory of the toils and 
 friendships of the war, and thus was founded 
 the Society of the Cincinnati, whose vice- 
 president he was through life. The general, 
 we are told, was a large man, above middle 
 stature, and slightly bow-legged. He wore 
 his hair short in front, powdered and queued, 
 and below his somewhat low forehead his 
 small, dark eyes shone brilliantly. He had 
 25 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 been wounded in the left hand, which he kept 
 covered by a black silk handkerchief to con- 
 ceal its mutilation. In every line of his 
 strong face he showed his sturdy Scotch-Irish 
 ancestry. 
 
 Mrs. Knox had been a Miss Lucy Flucker, 
 daughter of a loyalist. She was a remark- 
 ably fine looking woman, with blooming 
 c omplexion and brilliant black eyes . Although 
 she was not tall, her dignity of manner — 
 which some called hauteur — gave her a com- 
 manding presence. Stuart, who painted a 
 portrait of Knox, began one of her but 
 became dissatisfied and would not finish it. 
 Mrs. Knox and Mrs. Washington were dear 
 friends, and the wife of the Secretary of War 
 occupied a post of honor at the new 
 "Court." It is said that Washington was 
 not averse to listening to her wise and witty 
 counsels, and that, with all her friendship for 
 Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Washington was a bit jeal- 
 ous of the charming Lucy. It may not be 
 amiss to quote the description of her head- 
 dress, recorded by a New England clergyman. 
 " Her hair in front is craped up at least a foot 
 high, much in the form of a chum, bottom 
 upward, and topped off with a wire skeleton 
 in the same form, covered with black gauze. 
 Her hair behind is in a large braid, turned up 
 26 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 and held by a large comb. She reminded me 
 of the monstrous cap worn by the Marquis 
 de Lafayette's valet, commonly called "the 
 Marquis's devil ! " 
 
 Of Edmund Randolph, the Attorney Gen- 
 eral, and Mrs. Randolph, I have been able to 
 find little of personal reminiscence, although 
 they undoubtedly attended the Cabinet din- 
 ners. 
 
 Mr. Lear and Mr. Lewis, Washington's 
 private secretaries, were always present. Mr. 
 Lewis's mother was Washington's sister and 
 some of his descendants are now living in 
 New Jersey. 
 
 At four o'clock promptly, no guest ever 
 being w^aited for longer than five minutes — 
 "My cook," Washington would say, "never 
 asks whether the company has come but 
 whether the hour has come" — this small 
 gathering of distinguished men and women is 
 ready to be ushered into the dining-room, a 
 room which might perhaps seem homely to us 
 had not a revival of the colonial style of fur- 
 niture made us familiar with its quaint 
 charm. In one corner stands a closet with 
 glass doors, through which may be seen china 
 and glassware, a conspicuous object being a 
 great punch-bowl. Other china is decorated 
 with figures of birds — doves, hawks and 
 27 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 swallows — while the old sideboard bears a 
 precious load of cut glass decanters, wine 
 glasses and brandy glasses and "egg-nogg" 
 bowls. Another corner is occupied by a tall 
 clock which reaches nearly to the ceiling, 
 while around the room are ranged small ma- 
 hogany "tea-boards" or side-tables, which 
 stand upright, like expanded fans, when not in 
 use. Afterwards, at Mount Vernon, Wash- 
 ington had a separate room for the Sevres 
 and other china not in common use. One set 
 was presented by the officers of the French 
 army and was of dull white china, with a 
 band of deep blue, and on each piece was the 
 Order of the Cincinnati painted in delicate 
 colors. 
 
 Happily the colonial fashion of arranging 
 the table has not come down to us, who so 
 willingly follow most of the leadings of our 
 distinguished fore-mothers. We shudder in 
 contemplating the mythological figures and 
 artificial flowers with which the festal board 
 was decorated on such occasions. 
 
 The President and Mrs. Washington always 
 sat opposite each other on either side of the 
 table, and the guests were arranged in the 
 order of precedence, Mrs. Adams sitting on 
 the right of the President, and the Vice- 
 President on the right of Mrs. Washington. 
 28 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 Next came Mr. Jefferson and the beautiful 
 Mrs. Hamilton, and the others placed in due 
 ceremonial order. The two private secre- 
 taries always sat one at either end of the 
 table. 
 
 The menuyvsis seldom varied, and consisted 
 of soup ; a boiled fish, followed by meats, 
 game or fowls; the dessert, apple pies, pud- 
 dings of various kinds, iced creams and fruit, 
 with no "releves," "entrees," "sorbets," or 
 "salades" to lighten its heaviness. It was in- 
 deed a solemn feast, apparently unrelieved by 
 anything resembling the famous "life saving 
 station" of the dinners of President Hayes, 
 made immortal by Mr. Evarts. Nor can I, 
 without too great a strain upon my imagina- 
 tion, regale j^ou with the brilliant bon mots 
 v^hich passed gaily from mouth to mouth — 
 for I fanc3^ the mirth was not hilarious. Not 
 until the cloth was removed was a toast 
 drunk. Then, with formal courtesy, the 
 President drank to the health of each one by 
 name, and "Health, sir," "Health, madam," 
 and "Thank you, sir," "Thank you, madam," 
 went around the table. Our ancestors, like 
 the English, took their pleasures sadly. 
 
 When, after another dreary silence, Mrs. 
 Washington and the ladies withdrew, the 
 same solemn and decorous stillness continued, 
 29 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 save, perhaps, for an occasional witticism. 
 Whether in these days the men preserve a Hke 
 decorum after the departure of the dames I 
 cannot tell for reasons which do not require 
 any elucidation. 
 
 An amusing custom of Washington at these 
 state dinners has been preserved for us in 
 memoirs. He always retained a fork in his 
 hand after the removal of the cloth, and with 
 this he continued to toy, striking the edge of 
 the table from time to time. Of course no 
 human being can explain why he found pleas- 
 ure in such a performance, but great men 
 seem to be addicted to odd table customs. 
 General Scott had a way of leaning his left 
 elbow on the table and pouring wine from one 
 glass into another, I am told by a friend that 
 a learned and distinguished Federal judge, 
 who tells a story very attractively, usually 
 rises at the conclusion, deliberately walks 
 around his chair, and then resumes his seat. 
 A volume might be written about the way of 
 a man with his dinner, but I do not know- 
 that women have any peculiar custom on 
 those occasions unless it be that of dropping 
 gloves and handkerchiefs, and compelling cor- 
 pulent dinner companions to go on hands and 
 knees to recover them. 
 
 Up-stairs the ladies are drinking their 
 30 
 
A CABINET DINNER 
 
 after-dinner coffee, gossiping right merrily 
 over the latest Paris fashion, at least three 
 months old when it reaches them. The gen- 
 tlemen join them, and here we leave them, the 
 brave and courtly men and the beautiful 
 women who graced the Cabinet dinners of the 
 Republican Court in the days of simple 
 dignity, of courtesy, refinement, and honor- 
 able life, the unstrenuous days when we had 
 no multi-millionaires to emulate in their 
 feasts the prodigalities and the enormities of 
 Lucullus and of the emperors who disgraced 
 the imperial city in its time of decadence and 
 extravagance. 
 
 31 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 THE PROGRESS OF NEW JERSEY 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 THE PROGRESS OF NEW JERSEY 
 
 SAINTE BEUVE once said that history is in 
 large part a set of fables which men 
 agree to believe in; but in these days men 
 have given up believing in fables. Historical 
 statements undergo a process of sifting ; and 
 the winnowing, the sifting of the false from 
 the true, is not weakening but strengthening 
 history. 
 
 Fiske says that we ought to be thankful 
 that our forefathers did not burn their letters 
 and documents, but only hid them in garrets 
 and cellars. I could tell a tale, if I would, of 
 the rescue not many years ago of a great 
 accumulation of Franklin letters and papers 
 which was saved by an observant w^oman — 
 it was on its way to the paper mill — and 
 which is now carefully preserved in the treas- 
 ure house of an historical society in Pennsyl- 
 vania. Before considering the subject which 
 35 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 has been assigned to me, let me bring to you 
 as a colonial greeting a treasure from the 
 past, which will, I trust, put you at once in 
 closer touch with one of the men who 
 " helped " in the early days — Governor Philip 
 Carteret. Old letters are often eloquent with 
 association and pathos, and they grow into 
 an importance of which the writers never 
 dreamed. 
 
 It iis with sincere pleasure that I offer to 
 you this letter written by Governor Carteret 
 soon after his arrival from England in 1665, 
 in which he appears in the guise of an ardent 
 lover. The student of graphology could not 
 fail to be intensely interested in this quaint 
 epistle, and would decide at once that it came 
 from a man straightforward, determined, firm 
 to the point of obstinacy, with great simplic- 
 ity of manner. The signature, with its 
 flourish at the end and the large capitals, 
 characteristic of the chirography of the day, 
 indicate that the governor was not a little 
 egotistical; but I am not attempting to in- 
 dulge in a study of handwriting as an index 
 of character. This is the letter : 
 
 Elizabeth Town, August, 1665 
 Fair Mistress Penelope — Believe me you are not forgot 
 because I have lett some time pass before I have w^rit 
 you, but it was scarce possible even tho' I had more than 
 36 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 ordinary mind to do so. Since I left you far away in 
 Devon, not a day hath past in which your face doth not 
 appear before me, and I have wisht myself back many 
 times and oft from this barbarous country. I dare not 
 declare my mind on this subject lest I give offence to the 
 good people here about who aflfect to find it a Paradise, 
 
 The Savages, or Indians as they are called, seem well 
 inclined towards us, and one Oraton, a Sachem of great 
 importance, we have had many dealings with, and w^e 
 hope to live in unity and amity with hira. 
 
 But 'tis not of this, my Penelope, that I fain would 
 write you. My absence may, I fear, make you forget me, 
 but consider how I love you, and nothing but knowing 
 that when the good ship Philip sets sail again for these 
 parts you will be on your way to me, can make the resi- 
 due of my stay here tolerable. Give me a word of com- 
 fort, and believe me sincere when I assure you I am, dear 
 Lady 
 
 Your everlasting Adorer, 
 
 Ph. Carteret. 
 
 The English Penelope did not brave the 
 terrors of an ocean voyage of months to be- 
 come the lady of the manor at old Elizabeth- 
 town, forw^e shall see later that the Governor 
 remained unmarried until 1681, when the 
 widow of William Laurence of Long Island 
 became his wife — a woman of more than 
 ordinary attainments, who survived the 
 Governor many years. 
 
 As to the man Philip Carteret, who 
 was he ? Whence came he ? Did he help or 
 37 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 hinder the progress of New Jersey in colonial 
 days, the troublous, formation days of the 
 commonwealth ? 
 
 In 1664 — March 12, O. S. — a charter 
 was granted to James, Duke of York and Al- 
 bany, for all lands lying between the western 
 bank of the Connecticut River and the east 
 side of Delaware Bay, and in April of the same 
 year a fleet was dispatched to put the Duke 
 in possession. The expedition was com- 
 manded by Colonel Richard Nicolls — a hin- 
 derer of whom we shall hear more hereafter — 
 upon whom the government of the Province 
 had been conferred by the Duke of York. 
 New Amsterdam at once became New York, 
 and both Oranges Albany, thus preserving 
 the titles of the great grantee. But before 
 the royal Duke was actually in possession of 
 the territory, he had granted to Lord John 
 Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, "the por- 
 tion of land lying on the westward of Long 
 Island and Manhitas Island bounded on the 
 east part by the main sea and Hudson's Riv- 
 er, and upon the west by the Delaware Bay or 
 River" — in other words, our own New Jersey 
 — "said part to be called Nova Caesarea or 
 New Jersey" — a compliment to Lord George 
 Carteret who had so ably defended the island 
 of Jersey against the Long Parliament in the 
 
 38 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 civil war in England. So we come to Philip 
 Carteret. He was a relative of Sir George, 
 but we have little knowledge of his early life 
 in England or of his experiences there, except 
 that he was known as Captain Carteret, He 
 received his commission as Governor of New 
 Jersey in 1665. A storm drove his ship, the 
 Philip, into Chesapeake Bay, but in July of 
 the same year she arrived in New York, and 
 a few days later anchored off of the point 
 which he named "Elizabethport," where he 
 landed his thirty emigrants. At the head of 
 his little band, and with a hoe over his 
 shoulder, he marched to the spot he had se- 
 lected for a settlement, two or three miles 
 inland, and which he named "Ehzabeth," 
 not after the Queen, but in honor of the wife 
 of Sir George Carteret. 
 
 From an old affidavit we learn that when 
 Governor Carteret arrived, there were but 
 four families in New Jersey and that "few or 
 more would have come thither had it not 
 been for him." At this point one of our " hin- 
 derers" comes to the front in the person of 
 Colonel Richard Nicolls. You will remember 
 that when he came over to New Amsterdam 
 at the close of August, 1664, he fully believed 
 that the province of New Jersey w^as also in 
 his jurisdiction, not having heard of the deed 
 6 39 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 to Berkeley and Carteret ; and there at once 
 arose a conflict of authority between him and 
 the newly arrived Governor Carteret. The 
 latter seems to have possessed an iron will, 
 for he calmly assumed the reins of government, 
 ignoring the authority of Governor Nicolls, 
 and naturally made a bitter enemy of him. 
 
 Philip Carteret's simplicity of manner 
 was exemplified when he went from his vessel 
 to the settlement with that hoe on his shoul- 
 der to show his people that their work was 
 his also. He at once began his task of 
 colonization, sending messengers to New 
 England and elsewhere, inviting settlers to 
 come to the new province. 
 
 The ship Philip having by this time re- 
 turned from England (but unhappily with- 
 out the fair Penelope) with more people and 
 chattels, we find New Jersey well to the front 
 then, as now. I may not speak of the trials 
 and tribulations of these early settlers, of the 
 Indian raids and the quarrels over titles and 
 lands. But it was not an altogether joyless 
 place and one historian goes so far as to say 
 "It is worthy the name of Paradise because 
 it hath no lawyers, physicians or parsons." 
 
 It was not until 1668 that Governor 
 Carteret considered it necessary to have any 
 regular legislation for his people. In April 
 
 40 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 of that year he issued a proclamation 
 requiring each town to send two representa- 
 tives to the general assembly to be held May 
 11, at Elizabethtown. This first Assembly 
 lasted just four days, an object lesson to 
 the legislators of our day who w^ould have 
 lengthened the sitting to as many weeks or 
 months. 
 
 The next session w^as held in November, 
 1668, and after this brave beginning we have 
 no record of another session for seven years, 
 although there were probably meetings 
 whose doings were not recorded. It was at 
 this crisis that the clash between Governor 
 Carteret and Governor Nicolls occured, and 
 Carteret was advised to go to England and 
 to explain matters at headquarters. This he 
 did, leaving John Berry as Deputy Governor 
 during his absence. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had he started when 
 another small hinderer appeared on the hori- 
 zon in the person of James Carteret (a nat- 
 ural son of Sir George) who announced 
 himself as " President of the country" and 
 prepared to take up the reins of government. 
 His reign was short, for Philip, the real Gov- 
 ernor, soon returned (in 1674) completely re- 
 instated, and Lovelace, who had succeeded 
 Nicolls in New York, was forced to recognize 
 
 41 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 the rights of the Governor of Nova Caesarea. 
 But when everything seemed at peace, an- 
 other hinderer appeared on the horizon — 
 Edmond Andros, w^ho in 1674 was Governor 
 of New Netherlands, or (as the "New" name 
 was universal) — New York. His aim seems 
 to have been to regain possession of lost New- 
 Jersey, and his surest way to accomplish this 
 was to arrest and imprison our sturdy gov- 
 ernor, Philip Carteret. 
 
 Of this most interesting chapter of our 
 histor3'- I may give only the briefest outline. 
 On the 30th of April, 1679, a party of soldiers, 
 sent to Elizabethtown by Andros, dragged 
 the Governor from his bed, brutally mal- 
 treated him, and carried him to New York 
 where he was kept a close prisoner until May 
 27, when a special court was convened to try 
 him, on the accusation of "having persisted 
 and riotously and routously endeavored to 
 the exercise of jurisdiction over his majesty's 
 subjects." Carteret pluckily refused to abdi- 
 cate, and demanded his release. The jury 
 brought in a verdict of "not guilty," but he 
 w^as not allowed to resume his authority in 
 the province until the matter was referred to 
 England. 
 
 Meanwhile Sir George Carteret had died, 
 but after some delay the Lady Elizabeth, his 
 42 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 widow, wholly disowned the acts of Andros 
 and obliged him to write a letter to Governor 
 Carteret in November, 1680, relinquishing all 
 claims to the province. 
 
 Thus we find our Governor brave in spite 
 of his hinderers, although he lived but a 
 short time to enjoy his triumph, for he died 
 in 1682. His widow, who had formerly lived 
 on Long Island, returned there to her friends. 
 
 Governor Carteret w^as buried at Eliza- 
 bethtown, and from his will, dated December 
 10, 1682, we learn that he was survived by 
 his mother in England, Rachel Carteret, to 
 whom he bequeathed his property on the Is- 
 land of Jersey. At her death it w^as to descend 
 to the children of his brothers and sisters. As 
 an evidence of his charitableness, we learn 
 from the will that he directed that "two 
 quarters of wheat should yearly for ever be 
 distributed to the poor of the Parish of St. 
 Peters, in the Island of Jersey." One cannot 
 help wondering if this strange bequest still 
 continues to be followed after a lapse of more 
 than two centuries. 
 
 I have perhaps dwelt too long upon Philip 
 Carteret who helped and not long enough 
 upon Nicolls, Andros and the rest who "hin- 
 dered," but let us "step lightly on the ashes 
 of the dead " and be thankful for our sturdy 
 
 43 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 old Governor, who though not faultless is 
 entitled to his niche in the hall of fame — 
 Philip Carteret. 
 
 Our Quaker ancestors furnish us with 
 much interesting historical data, but I can 
 speak briefly of one who "helped" right no- 
 bly in the early times "that tried men's 
 souls" — John Fenwick. 
 
 In June, 1675, John Fenwick, a Major in 
 Cromwell's army, came over to West Jersey 
 in the ship Griffen. He also suffered much 
 from the persecution of the "hinderer" And- 
 ros. Fenwick was a close friend of William 
 Penn, and came with the intention of pur- 
 chasing the Berkeley and Carteret interest in 
 New Jersey, and making it a Colony of 
 Friends, as the Quakers preferred being called. 
 
 The letters which passed between Fen- 
 wick and Andros are very interesting, but I 
 can quote from one only, a reply which Fen- 
 wick sent to a summons from Andros, order- 
 ing him to appear before him and his Council 
 at New York. 
 
 He says : " I did not know that the gover- 
 nor of New York had anything to do with 
 me, and I will obey nothing but what shall 
 come of his Majesty the King or his Highness 
 the Duke of York, and I am resolved not to 
 leave my house unless I am carried away dead 
 44 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 or alive and I dare any one to come and take 
 me at their peril." 
 
 In spite of this brave stand a warrant 
 was issued and authority granted to "pull 
 down, break, burn or destroy" Fenwick's 
 house, and full power to fire upon him if he 
 resisted. He was then imprisoned, and after 
 many trials was released on parole. He lived 
 until 1684, having in 1682 sold all his landed 
 estate in the province to WilHam Penn. The 
 deed from Fenwick to Penn is in the library 
 of our ow^n Historical Society of New Jersey, 
 and it is a document of much interest and 
 value. 
 
 I should be glad to speak of another docu- 
 ment, "the great concession of 1676," which 
 some assert is of as much importance as the 
 Declaration of Independence, uttered just one 
 hundred years later. This, however, justly 
 demands a paper of its own, and I may only 
 refer you to "Johnson's Historical Account 
 of the First Settlement of Salem " for the full 
 story of Fenwick's agreement with the set- 
 tlers, as well as the letters of William Penn, 
 for they are too long for quotation, and if I 
 should repeat them here, I might be justly 
 accused of wandering from the subject. I 
 might also speak of the Scotch element and 
 of some of the "helpers" who belonged to 
 
 45 
 
MEN WHO HELPED OR HINDERED 
 
 that sturdy race ; but I am reaching the limit 
 of my time and subject — the end of the sev- 
 enteenth century. In 1702 the two Jerseys 
 were finally united in one province. 
 
 While it is not strictly pertinent to Carte- 
 ret or to Fenwick, I may be allowed to quote 
 a few titles of books published at this time, 
 in order that we may sympathize v/ith our 
 forefathers who had a taste for literature: 
 " Crumbs of Comfort for the Chickens of the 
 Covenant" ; " High Heeled Shoes for Dwarfs 
 in Holiness"; "The Spiritual Mustard Pot 
 to make the soul sneeze with devotion." I 
 am not sure that such books either helped or 
 hindered the progress of New Jersey in the 
 early days. 
 
 46 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 BODIES of men sometimes become famous, 
 irrespective of the distinction of the in- 
 dividuals who compose them. We all know 
 of the barons who compelled King John to 
 sign Magna Charta at Runnymede, but we 
 know almost nothing of the personality of 
 any particular baron. I am quite aware 
 that in recent years some iconoclast has 
 demonstrated, to his own satisfaction at 
 least, that there is a doubt whether the 
 Magna Charta story is altogether what we 
 have always believed it to be. I shall not 
 give up my faith in it lightly, but I shall not 
 waste time in discussing the question now. 
 The Signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence have won a fame not unlike that of the 
 Runnymede barons. It was almost a fortui- 
 tous circumstance that they happened to be 
 the subscribers of the revered but faded 
 49 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 document which, almost illegible, as to signa- 
 tures at least, reposes in a sealed wrapper 
 among our national archives. When most 
 of them were chosen to their seats in the Con- 
 tinental Congress it was not foreseen that 
 they would become the immortals of our his- 
 tory. Some of them were leaders, some were 
 commonplace but worthy patriots, and some 
 were mere accidents. Their autographs are 
 sought for eagerly, command exalted prices, 
 and are exhibited with pride by the conceited 
 owners. The value of the autographs varies 
 inversely with the notoriety of the writer, so 
 that while John Adams and Benjamin Frank- 
 lin are within the reach of the moderately 
 wealthy, Thomas Lynch the younger and 
 Button Gwinnett, of w^hom nobody ever 
 heard except the burrower in American his- 
 tory, are attainable only by magnates and 
 millionaires. A friend of mine was asked by 
 the Librarian of Congress how much a col- 
 lection of the autographs of the Signers 
 would cost, and the answer was, that a com- 
 plete collection of full autograph letters 
 signed, all of the year 1776, would be worth 
 a million dollars. He might well have said a 
 billion, for such a collection never existed and 
 can never exist. I confess that while I admit 
 the peculiar value of a letter — an A. L. S. in 
 50 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 the slang of the collector — beyond that of a 
 mere document or of a "letter signed," I am 
 unable to understand why a Signer's letter of 
 1776 is more desirable than one written in 
 1777 ; yet the letter of 1776 is regarded as 
 deserving the blue ribbon. In my judgment 
 the interest of the contents is vastly more im- 
 portant than the mere date. 
 
 There were five members of the New Jersey 
 delegation in the Continental Congress who 
 were fortunate enough to have the privilege 
 of affixing their names to the greatest docu- 
 ment in American history; and few know 
 how nearly they came to missing it alto- 
 gether. The Continental Congress of the 
 Revolutionary days was a casual sort of 
 Congress, its membership changing continu- 
 ally according to the whims of the States and 
 of the members themselves, most of whom 
 were obliged to make many sacrifices in order 
 to attend the sessions. On February 14, 
 1776, New Jersey took it into its sovereign 
 head to resolve that WilHam Livingston, 
 John DeHart, Richard Smith, John Cooper 
 and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant "be dele- 
 gates to represent this province in the Conti- 
 nental Congress, for the space of one year or 
 until others shall be legally appointed in their 
 stead ; " and on the 20th of February, 1776, 
 51 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 three of these gentlemen attended in Phila- 
 delphia and presented their credentials. The 
 Public Journal of Congress, as printed, —a 
 provoking record,— does not give the names 
 of the faithful three, the compiler manifestly 
 considering it a matter of no importance. A 
 little more than four months later, the 
 "province" made what is colloquially styled 
 "a clean sweep" of all these delegates, and 
 on June 21, 1776, the Provincial Congress at 
 Burlington assembled, "proceeded to the 
 election of delegates to represent this colony 
 in Continental Congress, when Richard 
 Stockton, Abraham Clark, John Hart, and 
 Francis Hopkinson, Esqr., and Dr. John 
 Witherspoon were elected by ballot to serve 
 for one year, unless a new appointment be 
 made before that time," and followed its of- 
 ficial announcement of the fact with a ringing 
 resolution, sajang to the newly chosen men : 
 "The Congress empower and direct you, in 
 the name of this Colony, to join with the 
 delegates of the other colonies in Continental 
 Congress assembled, in the most vigorous 
 measures for supporting the just rights and 
 liberties of America; and if you shall judge it 
 necessary or expedient for this purpose, we 
 empower you to join with them in declaring 
 the United Colonies independent of Great 
 52 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 Britain, entering into a confederation for 
 union and common defence, making treaties 
 with foreign nations for commerce and assist- 
 ance, and to take such other measures as may- 
 appear to them and you necessary for these 
 great ends ; promising to support them with 
 the whole force of this province." The cau- 
 tious Jerseymen, mindful of the autonomy of 
 the "Colony," added, however, this signifi- 
 cant proviso: "Always observing that, 
 w^hatever plan of confederacy you enter into, 
 the regulating the internal police of this 
 province is to be reserved in the Colony 
 legislature." 
 
 On the 28th of June, 1776, less than a week 
 before the adoption of the Declaration, 
 Francis Hopkinson appeared in Congress 
 with these resolutions, and was forthwith 
 made a member of the committee for prepar- 
 ing the plan of confederation; and on the 
 same day the committee to prepare the Dec- 
 laration submitted its "draught." The ex- 
 asperating Public Journal does not disclose 
 the presence of any other New Jersey delegate 
 at any time on or before July 4th. The 
 "Declaration," as there set forth in full, pur- 
 ports to have been signed by all five, and it is 
 prefaced by the statement that "the follow- 
 ing Declaration was by order of Congress, 
 53 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 engrossed and signed by the following- mem- 
 bers, ^^ but when they actually signed it does 
 not appear. It is now a matter of general 
 knowledge that in the statement I have 
 quoted, the printed Journal is misleading and 
 inaccurate, and that the signatures were not 
 affixed until some later time, — Matthew 
 Thornton, of New Hampshire, signing as late 
 as November 4, 1776, and Thomas McKean, 
 of Pennsylvania, not until 1781. Indeed, the 
 Secret Journal under date of August 2, 1776, 
 contains this record: "The Declaration of 
 Independence being engrossed, and compared 
 at the table, was signed by the members." 
 Those who are curious about the subject will 
 find it exhaustively considered by Mellen 
 Chamberlain in his paper on "The Authenti- 
 cation of the Declaration of Independence," 
 in the proceedings of the Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society, November, 1884, reprinted in 
 the volume of Mr. Chamberlain's essays en- 
 titled "John Adams, with Other Essays," 
 published in 1898. 
 
 But it is not my purpose to enter upon an 
 historical study with respect to the Declara- 
 tion, or of the circumstances attending its 
 adoption ; I intend only to say a few words 
 about the New Jersey Signers, whose auto- 
 graphs are now before me, bringing to my 
 54 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 mind and to my imagination the personality 
 of each one of the lucky individuals who 
 came in at the eleventh hour, but who 
 achieved as much as all the others. 
 
 At the head of the delegation was Richard 
 Stockton, of Princeton, one of the most emi- 
 nent lawyers in the Colony, whose ancestors 
 as early as 1680 owned several thousand 
 acres of land in New Jersey, including the site 
 of the present town of Princeton. He was a 
 leader at the bar and in Colonial politics ; he 
 was the man who, while in Scotland, per- 
 suaded John Witherspoon to reconsider his 
 refusal to become the President of Princeton 
 College, and for his services received the 
 thanks of the Trustees of that famous institu- 
 tion. He did his best to keep peace between 
 the Colonies and the mother country, and in 
 1774 he sent to Lord Dartmouth a paper 
 containing An Expedient for the Settlement of 
 the American Disputes. It proved to be about 
 as useless as most of the fair and reasonable 
 suggestions which were made at the time by 
 cool and sagacious patriots who, in spite of 
 their sagacity, indulged in the illusion that 
 the quarrel between the Colonies and the 
 Crown could be settled without bloodshed. I 
 do not find in this attempt to make peace 
 any justification for the assertion, made by 
 8 55 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 careless observers, that he was lukewarm in 
 his patriotism. It has been said that "his 
 silence during the opening debates on the 
 question of independence leads to the conclu- 
 sion that at first he doubted the expediency 
 of the Declaration." When it is remembered 
 that he did not become a member of Congress 
 until the day the draft of the Declaration 
 was submitted and only six days before its 
 adoption, the futility of the "conclusion" is 
 so manifest that the accusation needs no re- 
 futation. It afi'ords another instance of the 
 tendency of thoughtless persons to arrive at 
 "conclusions" on premises utterly insufli- 
 cient. The cruel injustice of the "conclu- 
 sion" is abundantly demonstrated by the 
 story of Stockton's life. On November 30th, 
 1776, at night, Tories took him prisoner at 
 Monmouth, his temporary home. He was 
 thrown into prison in New York, was abused 
 and severely treated, and he never regained 
 his health. His fine library w^as burned by 
 the English and his lands were laid waste; 
 his fortune was annihilated, and he died at 
 Princeton in 1781, when he was only a few 
 months past the age of fifty, — a great man, 
 an honor to New Jersey, and deserving of the 
 admiration of his countrymen for all time. 
 His portrait is preserved in the [gallery of 
 56 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 which Princeton University is justly proud. 
 It is said that the head of this portrait was 
 cut out by an English officer during the Revo- 
 lution, and for a long time it was supposed 
 to have been lost, but it was discovered at 
 last behind the picture where it had fallen 
 when the decapitation took place. Fortu- 
 nately it was not so injured that it could not 
 be restored. Many years later it was repro- 
 duced in an etching by H. B. Hall, after a 
 likeness furnished to Dr. Emmet by Mrs. 
 George T. Olmsted, of Princeton, Stockton's 
 granddaughter; and the portraits of the 
 Signer extant in the present time are all 
 founded upon this likeness. 
 
 Stockton inherited from his father the 
 lovely mansion known as "Morven," which 
 is still preserved in almost its original condi- 
 tion, in spite of the iconoclasm of these bust- 
 ling days ; a beautiful example of the simple 
 and dignified architecture of the eighteenth 
 century. The boasted wealth of the pluto- 
 crats could never duplicate it. It must never 
 be permitted to fall into decay, for it is even 
 better than an autograph, and if the throngs 
 of visitors who year after year frequent the 
 Princeton Inn, standing within a stone's- 
 throw of the Signer's home, will look upon it 
 as they ought to do, it will always be an 
 57 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 object lesson in patriotism. It is fortunate 
 that it has remained in the possession of 
 loyal descendants of the Stockton family, who 
 know its historical value; and we may rely 
 confidently on them to see to it that it shall 
 never be destroyed. It would have been a 
 great thing if all of the representatives of our 
 Revolutionary leaders had been as mindful of 
 the w^orth of their possessions as have been 
 the Stocktons of to-day, justly esteemed and 
 distinguished in our contemporary history. 
 
 I cannot, in justice to my own sex, refrain 
 from referring to Annis, the wife of Stockton 
 and the daughter of Elias Boudinot. She was 
 lovely in person and, for those days, a literary 
 light. She addressed a poem to Washington 
 after the surrender of Yorktown, which he 
 acknowledged in his stately fashion. She 
 also w^rote the ode beginning "Welcome, 
 Mighty Chief, Once More," which the young 
 ladies of Trenton sang as they scattered 
 flowers before the "Father of his Country" 
 on his way to his inauguration in 1789. 
 If the verses are not of the highest poetic 
 order, we must remember that the men could 
 not or did not do much better. 
 
 I am not ashamed of my Stockton auto- 
 graph. He is what the dealers call "rare," 
 and few of his letters survive. Mrs. Olmsted 
 58 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 had one, reproduced in Brotherhead's "Book 
 of the Signers," and Mr. Dreer had one, also 
 reproduced in one of Brotherhead's books. 
 But almost all of us must be content with the 
 documents. My own is a long bill of costs in 
 the suit of Woodward vs. Allen, filed May 
 27, 1775 — a paper thirteen inches by four. 
 The bill amounts to the disproportionate 
 sum of £5, 14s, 6d ; and at the end, in 
 Stockton's hand, is written : " I Tax this Bill 
 of Costs at five pounds fourteen shillings 
 Proclamation Money." It is amusing to 
 think of the Signer busying himself with such 
 trifles as "bills of costs." 
 
 John Witherspoon's name follows Stock- 
 ton's on the roll, and I might easily devote a 
 volume to the story of his honorable life. 
 The fact that he was President of Princeton 
 gave him a fame apart from that which he 
 enjoys as a Signer. Descended from John 
 Knox, he w^as prominent in Scotland as a 
 Presbyterian minister and author; and in 
 1766 he declined to come to Princeton, In 
 1768 he yielded to Stockton's persuasive 
 powers, and he was inaugurated to fill the 
 seat of Burr and Edwards just one hundred 
 years before that other distinguished Scotch- 
 man, James McCosh, came to fill the chief 
 ofiice in the College of New Jersey. The story 
 
 59 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 of his life is too well known to need recital ; I 
 will not dwell upon it. He was "as high a 
 son of liberty as any man in America." No 
 one ever had a shadow of a doubt about his 
 attitude concerning independence. It has 
 been well said of him that if the greatness of 
 a man is to be measured by the influence he 
 has exerted on other minds, John Wither- 
 spoon must be remembered as one of the fore- 
 most men of the Republic during its heroic 
 period. He presided at the Commencement in 
 September, 1794, but eight weeks later, on 
 November 5, he passed from life ; ** veneratus, 
 dilectus, lugendus omnibus,'^ as you may 
 read upon his tombstone in the quiet ceme- 
 tery where repose so many of the men who 
 have given lustre to the fame of Princeton. 
 His colossal statue stands in Fairmount 
 Park, Philadelphia. There was no more dis- 
 tinguished Signer. For two years before his 
 death he was blind, but he enjoyed his farm 
 near Princeton, which he called ''Tusculum,'* 
 in the old-fashioned classical manner of the 
 day. The house still stands, somewhat 
 altered and modified, but it is substantially 
 the same as it was in the days of its builder. 
 I have only an ancient deed executed by him 
 in 1786, but I have seen with pleasure a num- 
 ber of his autographs, including a letter in 
 60 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 the possession of a graduate of Princeton, in 
 which he speaks kindly of my friend's great- 
 great-grandfather, and oflfers to be his surety 
 to the extent of sixty pounds sterling, which 
 in those days was a goodly sum. 
 
 Francis Hopkinson, statesman, law^yer and 
 poet, was more identified with Philadelphia 
 and Pennsylvania than with New Jersey, but 
 he lived for some years at Bordentown, and 
 during that period he was one of New Jersey's 
 Congressmen. With this exception and a 
 service in the Provincial Congress for a short 
 time, he was not at all identified w^ith New 
 Jersey. Hopkinson was not only a lawyer 
 and a judge, but he was familiar with the 
 science of his day — rather a funny sort of 
 science — and also with music and painting. 
 He composed airs for his own songs, and I 
 love him most for his humorous ballad ' ' The 
 Battle of the Kegs," published in 1778, de- 
 scriptive of the alarm caused by the attempt 
 of certain Bordentow^n patriots to destroy 
 the English ships at Philadelphia by means of 
 torpedoes inclosed in kegs and floated down 
 the Delaware. He died in 1791, at the age of 
 fifty-four. We always think of the Signers as 
 venerable men, but Hopkinson was under forty 
 when the Declaration was fulminated. He 
 was a versatile man, and notwithstanding 
 61 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 his Pennsylvanian proclivities, New Jersey 
 may well be proud of him. I am glad to have 
 an autograph letter of his, even if it is dated 
 September 20, 1786, addressed to the Presi- 
 dent of Pennsylvania, asking for payment of 
 his salary as Judge in Admiralty. 
 
 These men — Stockton, Witherspoon, and 
 Hopkinson — you may find described fully in 
 all the encyclopaedias and Dictionaries of 
 Biography, whose details I do not care to 
 reproduce ; but there are scant memorials of 
 John Hart and Abraham Clark. They are the 
 obscure signers, with whom no one except the 
 expert is well acquainted. Many of the other 
 signers are in the same category ; few of our 
 day can remember even their names. 
 
 John Hart was a plain and honest farmer, 
 ■who dv^elt in Hopewell Township. He won 
 the title of "Honest John Hart," and he was 
 an early patriot. When the New Jersey dele- 
 gates faltered in 1776, and their faltering was 
 the cause of the new election of June, 1776, 
 to which I have referred, he was named for 
 Congress because he was known to be an 
 enthusiastic advocate of independence. Hart 
 suffered sore trials by reason of his patriot- 
 ism. His stock and farm were destroyed by 
 the Hessians, his family was forced to fly, and 
 he hid in the forest, never venturing to sleep 
 62 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 twice in the same place, and suffered the 
 greatest distress until Washington won at 
 Trenton and at Princeton in 1777. Then he 
 returned to his farm. He was tall and well- 
 proportioned, with very black hair and blue 
 eyes, and he was much loved by his neigh- 
 bors. Hart had a grist, saw and fulling mill 
 at Rocky Hill, which were all destroyed by 
 the British. He died in 1780, and was buried 
 in what is called "John P. Hunt's burial 
 ground," about two and a half miles from 
 his residence ; but I believe there is no stone, 
 except a red square one, said to have been 
 placed at the head of the grave by General 
 James P. Hunt. 
 
 The only grudge I have against Hart is 
 that his autographs are so scarce and that he 
 never had a real portrait. Only five Hart let- 
 ters are known to be extant. Dr. Emmet, the 
 dean of autograph collectors, is under the im- 
 pression that no genuine letter or document of 
 Hart is in existence "that does not show his 
 lack of scholarship, either in spelling, misuse 
 of capital letters, or want of punctuation, and 
 that his signed letters appear to have been 
 written by some one writing a very similar 
 hand to that of the Signer, without betray- 
 ing his deficiencies." Mr. Gratz, the great 
 Philadelphia collector, to whom we humble 
 9 63 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 persons pay much reverence, says: "Hart 
 was a poor speller, using capitals at his 
 pleasure, and in utter disregard of rules. 
 These errors are numerous in both of the let- 
 ters I have of his writing. I have seen some 
 orders of the Assembly of New Jersey that 
 were signed by Hart, but written by a clerk, 
 whose handwriting does bear some re- 
 semblance to Hart's. I can scarcely believe 
 that he ever had a private secretary, but 
 when he was Speaker of the Assembly of New 
 Jersey, and Chairman of the Council of Safety, 
 it is likely that he utilized the services of the 
 clerk and his assistants. I have one such 
 specimen, and have seen several others, the 
 bodies of which are written respectively by 
 different persons." 
 
 I have in my possession two autographs 
 of Hart. One is a bill rendered by Andrew 
 Robinson to the Province in 1761, upon 
 which is endorsed "Ex & al'd John Hart." 
 The other is quite unique, because it is a 
 document signed by both Abraham Clark 
 and John Hart — two Signers. It appears 
 to be in Clark's handwriting, and it reads 
 thus: 
 
 " These are to Certifie that Hendrick Fisher 
 Esq. hath attended the Committee of Safety 
 two days since the 20th Instant for which he 
 64 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 is to receive twelve shills. dated the 22d of 
 April 1776. 
 
 Abra. Clark 
 John Hart 
 
 To either of the Treasurers appointed by 
 Congress." 
 
 It is endorsed "Examined and allowed — 
 Jesse Hand, Silas Condict." Notwithstand- 
 ing my professed indifference to 1776 auto- 
 graphs, I cannot refrain from calling attention 
 to the date. 
 
 The few autograph documents of Hart, like 
 the five letters, adorn the most choice collec- 
 tions. Those who care for more detailed in- 
 formation about Hart's autographs will find 
 much lore in Dr. Lyman C. Draper's "Essay 
 on the Autographic Collections of the Signers 
 of the Declaration of Independence and of the 
 Constitution," published in 1889. 
 
 There is no real portrait of him. In 1870 
 Mr. Burns published a set of portraits of the 
 Signers, copied, engraved, or etched by H. 
 B. Hall, the famous engraver, for Doctor 
 Emmet. Emmet said that the Hart portrait 
 was taken from Hunt's American Biographi- 
 cal Panorama. After the issue of the Burns 
 portrait, Mr. Paschal, of West Philadelphia, 
 a great-grandson of Hart, said of it: "His 
 (Hart's) descendants know by tradition that 
 65 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 there was, years ago, a portrait of him in ex- 
 istence, and as one of them I am willing to 
 accept this engraving as from the long lost 
 picture, because the family likeness is seen 
 distinctly in the descendants. I believe, there- 
 fore it is correct and am willing to accept it 
 as authentic and will do all in my power to 
 prove the same, while some of my relatives 
 still live to assist me, though at an old age." 
 The Bums portrait is before me now, and I 
 am bound to say that notwithstanding Mr. 
 Paschal's pardonable willingness to accept it, 
 I am not convinced by it. This handsome, 
 courtly, well-dressed, aristocratic personage 
 was never John Hart, the Jersey farmer, the 
 sturdy patriot. I can understand how the 
 great-grandson, with pardonable pride, might 
 "accept" it, because of a fancied resemblance 
 to contemporaneous descendants, but to me 
 it is very much in the same category as the 
 celebrated autograph of John Phoenix, which 
 was "written by one of his most intimate 
 friends." I am reminded of the portrait of 
 Robert Smith, Attorney General, in the De- 
 partment of Justice in Washington, which is 
 reproduced by Mr. Rosenthal in his admirable 
 series of etchings, but of which he says: "No 
 portrait of Robert Smith exists. The picture 
 by St. Memin, we are assured by Mr. J. Donell 
 66 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 Smith, of Baltimore, a grandson of the At- 
 torney General, is a portrait of Isaac Smith, 
 of Accomac County, Virginia, and that which 
 purports to be his portrait in the office of the 
 Attorney General was painted entirely from 
 his imagination by the artist employed." 
 Still, it is pleasant to have even a pseudo- 
 portrait; for we cannot be content with 
 merely a view^ of Hart's monument and one of 
 a church which he built at Hopewell, all 
 that Brotherhead condescends to give. 
 
 And finally we come to Abraham Clark, 
 whose autograph I have already mentioned. 
 Clark's three portraits, now under my 
 eyes, have very little resemblance one to 
 another. He lived in Elizabeth, and the pic- 
 tures of his modest little house are familiar to 
 the students of the Signers. He must have 
 been a man of power. Born in Elizabethtown 
 in 1726, he had a fine education, was devoted 
 to mathematics and civil law, and engaged in 
 surveying and conveyancing. It is said that 
 he gave legal advice gratuitously and w^as 
 called "the poor man's counsellor," but I 
 doubt if that sort of advice is worth any 
 more than is paid for it. He was Sherifif of 
 Essex County and served in the Continental 
 Congress for many years. He was an influ- 
 ential member of the Legislature of his State 
 67 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 for several years — a leader, as they call it 
 now — and he was responsible for what was 
 known as "Clark's law," which regulated 
 court practice and excited the angry pas- 
 sions of all the real lawyers of the State. He 
 was called the "Father of the Paper Cur- 
 rency," which leads me to believe that he may 
 have been a sort of Bryan of the eighteenth 
 century. He was a delegate to the Conven- 
 tion which framed the Federal Constitution 
 in 1787, but he did not attend, and he was 
 opposed to the adoption of the Constitution. 
 He served in Congress from 1791 until his 
 death, and moved a resolution to prohibit all 
 intercourse with Great Britain until full com- 
 pensation was made to our citizens for the 
 injuries sustained by them from British armed 
 vessels and until the western ports should be 
 delivered up. He died from sunstroke in 
 1794. Somehow he impresses one with a 
 doubt as to his wisdom — but not as to his 
 sincerity. That he meddled with practice 
 acts, although not a lawyer, that he advo- 
 cated a paper currency, that he antagonized 
 the Constitution, and that he committed him- 
 self to the absurdity of "non intercourse" as 
 a remedy for wrongs, indicate to me that he 
 was more positive than reasonable. I can 
 imagine what sort of man he was — forceful 
 68 
 
THE NEW JERSEY SIGNERS 
 
 but erratic, honest and patriotic but wrong- 
 headed — and he has reaped his reward in 
 being practically forgotten by succeeding 
 generations. 
 
 Compared with the representatives from 
 the other states, the New Jersey Delegation of 
 Signers is, to speak modestly, extremely re- 
 spectable — even distinguished, when placed 
 side by side with the delegation from New 
 York — William Floyd, Philip Livingston, 
 Francis Lewis, and Lewis Morris — none ot 
 whom could rival either Stockton or Wither- 
 spoon in the matter of intellectual powder. 
 But New York was almost a Tory prov- 
 ince, and its most eminent men were dis- 
 posed to hesitate about declaring inde- 
 pendence. The New Jersey men were all of 
 them chosen with independence clearly in 
 view. They were sent to Congress for the 
 purpose of making a final announcement of 
 the perpetual severance of the bonds which 
 had linked us to the mother country. They 
 were distinctly the apostles of the new dis- 
 pensation, and every one of them deserves a 
 lofty seat in the national hall of fame. 
 
 69 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND 
 OF YESTERDAY 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND 
 OF YESTERDAY 
 
 A FAMOUS minister of the gospel once 
 began his discourse by announcing that 
 his text divided itself in two parts, and that 
 he would consider the second part first, which 
 he proceeded to do at great length. After- 
 wards he apologized to his hearers, assuring 
 them that he would take up the first part 
 on some future occasion. In choosing my 
 own text I will follow the clergyman's exam- 
 ple, and will speak chiefly about the Woman 
 of Yesterday, and if time fails me to tell of 
 the "New Woman," you will be able to sup- 
 ply the omission because you know person- 
 ally all about her charm, her ability, and her 
 entrancing qualities. 
 
 Speaking of the "New Woman," recalls to 
 my mind a remark of one of New York's emi- 
 nent men — also an eminent Virginian, and an 
 author whose books are delightful. At a din- 
 ner some years ago, John Sergeant Wise had 
 73 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 assigned to him the toast of "The New 
 Woman." There were many speakers who 
 talked tediously, and Wise had been reserved 
 for the last, in order to hold the audience. 
 When his time came it was long past mid- 
 night, and he said: "My friends, I am to 
 speak of the 'New Woman'; but (and he 
 looked at his watch) it is the old woman I am 
 thinking of just now." It is needless to say 
 that I was not present on that occasion, but 
 I am relying on the authority of one who 
 was there, and who remembers the laughter 
 which followed. 
 
 More than two thousand years ago Plato 
 delivered himself of an opinion in regard to 
 the intellectual character of women, and from 
 his day until the present time there have been 
 countless dissertations on the absorbing sub- 
 ject, more or less sapient and instructive — 
 usually less. The opinion of the Greek phil- 
 osopher was in conformity with the mythol- 
 ogy of his people, which gave Pallas the 
 higher place over Ceres and put the Muses by 
 the side of Venus and of Diana. In the Faery 
 Queen we become well acquainted with 
 Spenser's loveliest heroine, the teacher of the 
 Satyrs, who plied her gentle wit with 
 
 Wisdome, hevenly rare 
 Her discipline of faith and verity, 
 74 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 and what Satyrone saw when he repaired to 
 his native woods, 
 
 When he, unawares, the fairest Una found 
 (Straunge lady in so straunge habiliment) 
 Teaching the Satyrs, while he sat around 
 Trew^ sacred love, w^hich from her sweet lips did 
 redound. 
 
 Had we read none of the biographical gos- 
 sips but known Milton only as an author, we 
 should never have imagined him as excluding 
 woman from that "hill side" (education), 
 laborious indeed at the first ascent, "else so 
 smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospects 
 and melodious sounds." Certainly the collo- 
 quy of the Wondrous Lady with Comus or 
 the delineation of Adam's "Immortal Eve" 
 are somewhat at variance with his reputed 
 conduct towards his daughters. 
 
 Gibbon writes to Miss Holroyd : "I am 
 really curious to have an account of your 
 studies and occupations. What books do 
 you read, and how do you employ your time 
 and your pen ? I have often observed that 
 women read much more than men, but for 
 want of a plan or method their reading is of 
 little benefit." This neglect of study is the 
 occasion of Kant's description of learned 
 women: "They use their books like their 
 watch, namely to wear it, that it may be 
 
 75 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 seen; they wear one, though it commonly 
 stands still, or is not set by the sun." 
 
 The satires of Swift, Pope, Boileau, and 
 Young on woman amuse us greatly, but it is 
 strange that Swift, after his acquaintance 
 with Miss Van Homrigh, should have clung 
 so blindly to the mere undemonstrative quali- 
 ties — silence, discretion, modesty. The crea- 
 tors of Beatrice, Una and The Lady were 
 richer observers. But there is much about 
 Swift which defies understanding. 
 
 Miss Edgeworth in her Letters for Literary- 
 Ladies, written nearly a century ago, laments 
 the change for the worse as to this point from 
 the days of Elizabeth, and Bulwer in the 
 Edinburgh Review, in 1831, said that the il- 
 literacy of women is answerable for the great 
 preponderance of novels in literature as well 
 as for extensive political corruption ! 
 
 A celebrated archbishop described woman 
 as a creature that cannot reason and pokes 
 the fire from the top. In olden daj'-s, indeed, 
 she was less troubled about her soul than she 
 is now, possibly because it was then consid- 
 ered doubtful whether or not she possessed 
 such a thing. A German v^oman-novelist 
 says that this consciousness of the Ego in 
 woman is of recent growth, unknown to our 
 mothers and our grandmothers who compre- 
 76 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 bended their sensations as little as a cabbage 
 comprehends the reason of its growth. 
 
 Readers of tradition and students of myth- 
 ology will find abundant evidence of the fact 
 that among all peoples, from the time of 
 Adam until the present, women were organ- 
 ized leaders. 
 
 When Lycurgus was law-giver in Sparta, 
 women possessed much power and liberty, 
 and history records that while the men were 
 away from home engaged in warfare, the 
 land became rich and powerful under the con- 
 trol and management of the Spartan women. 
 
 It has been written that women took little 
 or no part in the intellectual development of 
 Greece, but we do not forget Aspasia, who 
 was the compeer of the ablest statesman of 
 her age, nor Hypatia, mathematician and 
 philosopher, w^ho kne^v more of the Divine 
 Essence than did Cj^ril, Patriarch of Alexan- 
 dria, w^ho had her stoned and torn in pieces 
 by his monks. 
 
 In feudal times ladies of rank were taught 
 to weave and to embroider, and old account 
 books bear many entries of paj^ments for 
 their working materials. Matilda of Flan- 
 ders, wife of William the Conqueror, wove 
 into the Bayeux tapestrj' a pictured chronicle 
 of the conquest of England. This curious 
 
 77 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 piece of work, two hundred and twenty-two 
 feet long, is embroidered in yams, and 
 Matilda evidently had few colors at her dis- 
 posal, the horses being of such remarkable 
 hues, blue, green or yellow, that our modern 
 art w^orkers would bewail it as hopelessly un- 
 assthetic. 
 
 The deeds of Joan of Arc need no recital. 
 Mark Twain, in his Life of "the Maid," says : 
 "She was truthful w^hen lying was the com- 
 mon speech of men. She was honest when 
 honesty w^as become a lost virtue. She was 
 true in an age that was false to the core. 
 She was perhaps the only entirely unselfish 
 person whose name has a place in profane 
 history." 
 
 Pardon me for leading you along paths so 
 remote, but it is to the past that the 
 historian must turn by instinct to re-create 
 the days which are dust and ashes, to set in 
 dead hands the weapons that rust has eaten, 
 and to endeavor to re-tenant those houses 
 whose bars the great Thief has broken 
 through. 
 
 Many are the names of which I might 
 speak, — of women of feudal days and of the 
 Renaissance, names like Marie de France and 
 Christine de Pison, w^riters and translators, 
 but I must hasten to those whose lives touch 
 78 
 
THB WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 our own more closely, and from whom we 
 claim descent. 
 
 The subject is so fruitful that I find it 
 difficult to select a field which has not already- 
 been gleaned. We have been told of woman 
 in the home, her trials during the settlement 
 of our country, her courage and her bravery, 
 her amusements and her accomplishments, 
 of the apple-parings and corn-huskings in the 
 autumn, and the wildly exciting singing 
 school in the winter, and, leaving stern New 
 England and glancing at Maryland and Vir- 
 ginia, w^e find that balls and country dances 
 were the delight of our Southern fore- 
 mothers. Smart functions they were, al- 
 though they did begin in broad daylight. 
 
 Then in Philadelphia, we hear of the Assem- 
 bly balls as early as 1780, and the Mischianza 
 ■which took place there on May 18, 1778, is 
 famous enough to be worthy^ of a special 
 paper devoted to its gay scenes. 
 
 Her "fancy work," too, deserves a word, 
 the "samplers" and "mourning pieces," with 
 their weeping willows and funereal urns with 
 pious little verses below^ them. 
 
 Cutting "watch papers" was a favorite 
 
 amusement, and some of them were painted 
 
 with sentimental legends. We are told that 
 
 Jefierson once dropped his watch in the 
 
 79 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 water, and the watch paper being ruined, he 
 cries "My cursed fingers gave it such a rent 
 as I fear I shall never get over," and trusts 
 that the fair Belinda will give him another 
 paper of her own cutting. 
 
 "But," you ask me, "w^as she clever, this 
 eighteenth century maid ? Did she w^rite 
 books ? " 
 
 Shakespere portrays his women as holy, 
 wise and fair, but from book making they re- 
 frained, and although radiant with intelli- 
 gence and ready for any emergency, our fore- 
 mothers, as a rule, followed the example of 
 the Shakesperian heroines. 
 
 Anne Bradstreet is the earliest American 
 poet of whom we hear. In the first London 
 edition of her book she is spoken of as "The 
 Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in America." 
 One verse must suffice to illustrate her style. 
 It was written during her husband's absence 
 from their Ipsw^ich home. 
 
 My head, ray heart, mine eyes, my life, my more, 
 
 My joy, my magazine of earthly store, — 
 
 If two be one, as surely thou and I, 
 
 How stayest thou there, while I at Ipswich lie ? 
 
 The Governor's affection for his wife was 
 so strong that after her death in 1675 he 
 remained a widower for three years, a long 
 period of mourning in Puritan New England. 
 
 80 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 Another literary woman, who will probably 
 be remembered by posterity in connection 
 with her quarrel with John Adams, was 
 Mercy Otis, afterwards Mrs. Warren. She 
 gloried in the title of "Historian," but she 
 also wrote tragedies, and in 1790 a little vol- 
 ume was printed entitled "Dramatic and 
 Other Poems," dedicated to "George Wash- 
 ington, President of the United States," 
 which brought Mistress Mercy a very court- 
 ly letter of thanks. Her style seems verbose 
 and heavy to us, though as a satirist her por- 
 traits are bold and trenchant. So stern a 
 little patriot was she that even "The Society 
 of the Cincinnati " came in for a bit of satire, 
 but she had not the heart to censure her be- 
 loved Washington when on the thirteenth of 
 May, 1783, he became the honored President 
 of a Society which has continued to have 
 most worthy successors in the Presidential 
 chair. "Liberty ! " was her cry, and had she 
 been asked to name'the crowning work of her 
 life she would have said, " My History of the 
 Revolution." She never deviated from the 
 sternest patriotism. We "Daughters of the 
 American Revolution" may well take her as 
 our model of loyalty. 
 
 As an historical relic the following letter by 
 the "Mother of her Country" is of interest 
 
 81 
 
THE WOMAN OF TODAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 to US, as it is one of the few in existence. 
 
 "Philadelphia, February the 3d, 1793. 
 
 "My dear Fanny: The Southern post not getting in 
 this week, I have not had the pleasure to hear from you ; 
 we are all tolerable well. The wnter has been remark- 
 able warm, which occasions the season to be very sickly. 
 1 hope you and the children are well. Mr. Blair is arrived 
 here and tells his friends that a great number of our 
 acquaintances are dead below. The winter has been so 
 warm here that the farmers have been plowing all win- 
 ter, and we are in fear that there will not be ice to fill the 
 ice houses in the city, which will be a great disappoint- 
 ment to us in the warm season. Ice is the most agree- 
 able thing we can have here. 
 
 " I hear from Mrs. Stuart and the girls often. She tells 
 me that she has not seen Mr. Fairfax since he was at 
 Hope Park with me, but does not say where he is — 
 whether he has got to England or not. Mrs. Harrison 
 is w^ell. She often enquires very kindly after you. Mrs. 
 Mercer is in town, but she is so often sick that I see her 
 but very seldom. My love to the major. I hope ere this 
 that he has got the better of the spitting blood you 
 mentioned in your last. 
 
 "My love to your brothers and sisters, in which the 
 President joins. Kiss your dear little babies forme and 
 believe me, my dear Fanuy, your most affectionate, 
 
 " M. WASHINGTON. 
 "Mrs. Frans. Washington." 
 Endorsement : 
 "From Mrs. M. Washington, February 8, 1793." 
 
 Annis Boudinot, a New Jersey girl, after- 
 ward Mrs. Richard Stockton, was to poetry 
 82 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 inclined. Read her "Verses on Peace," "The 
 Surrender of CornwalHs," not forgetting the 
 "Triumphal Ode" to the Commander in 
 Chief, for which Washington thanked her 
 most charmingly in these words : 
 
 " You apply to me, my dear Madam, for absolution, as 
 though I was your Father Confessor, and as though 
 you had committed a crime, great in itself, yet of the 
 venial class. You have reason good, for I find myself 
 strangely disposed to be a very indulgent ghostly advis- 
 er upon this occasion, and notwithstanding you are a 
 most oflfending soul (that is, if it is a crime to write 
 elegant poetry) yet, if you will come and dine with me 
 on Thursday and go through the proper course of peni- 
 tence which shall be prescribed, I will strive hard to as- 
 sist in expiating these poetical trespasses on this side of 
 purgatory." 
 
 We can think of her at "Morven," her 
 Princeton home, writing most poetical let- 
 ters to her husband during his absence in 
 London and signing them "Emilia," to which 
 he as gallantly replied, subscribing himself 
 "Lucius." 
 
 Turning from the dames of long ago, let us 
 glance for a moment at our twentieth century 
 sisters. I should like to paraphase Longfel- 
 low and to say : 
 
 Wives of great men oft remind us 
 They may make those men sublime ; 
 
 That if husbands could not find us, 
 They'd be failures half the time. 
 83 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 Men must recognize the fact that many 
 valuable inventions are due to women. Mrs. 
 Harriet Strong, for example, began by invent- 
 ing a corset and ended by taking out patents 
 for dams and reservoirs. A woman invented 
 the Burden process for making horseshoes. 
 The woman of to-day is practical and does 
 not waste precious hours of toil over sense- 
 less tapestries and eye-blinding embroidery. 
 She is acquiring a store of health which 
 means so much to the next generation. The 
 doll-wife — poor little Dora Copperfield — is 
 no longer in evidence as shew^as in the "lady- 
 like" period as distinguished from the "wo- 
 man" period of the present. 
 
 A writer in an English magazine predicts 
 that when another century rolls around, 
 -women will be six feet tall, while the average 
 height of man w^ill be five feet nothing. The 
 woman of A. D. 2000 will be broad and 
 heavy in build, and will be very proud of her 
 large feet, thick wrists, powerful limbs and 
 great muscular development, while men will 
 have grown vain of their trimly corsetted 
 waists, their pink and white complexions, 
 and their soft and gentle voices. This will be 
 due to the dominant influence of the feminine 
 in the children who are given to the world by 
 mothers who are really stronger than their 
 
 84 
 
THE WOMAN OF TO-DAY AND OF YESTERDAY 
 
 husbands. In the coming time it may be 
 that every woman will be required to marry 
 and to support two husbands, one of whom 
 must be a useful, domesticated creature, cap- 
 able of looking after the household while 
 the wife is away earning money to keep the 
 home together, while the other will be an 
 ornamental personage, whose duties are to 
 act as companion or "gentleman help" to 
 the mistress and ruler of the house. Cooks 
 will then be no longer at a premium, as food 
 tablets will take the place of the elaborate 
 dishes of the past, and we shall be able to 
 finish a six course dinner in as many minutes. 
 Attractive as these prospects may seem to 
 those restless spirits who are always crying 
 out for "progress," I cannot refrain from 
 congratulating myself and you, my sisters, 
 that v^hile we may not always be as heroic 
 and as serious as the women of yesterday, w^e 
 enjoy the piquancy and the privileges of the 
 women of to-day, and w^e are not likely to be 
 subjected to the dire consequences of advance- 
 ment and reform so gloomily foretold by the 
 scribe from whose prophecy I have quoted. 
 
 85 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 'T^HE way of the historian is hard. When 
 -*- I was asked by the Daughters of the 
 American Revolution to tell them of some 
 battle of revolutionary times occurring in 
 New Jersey in the month of March, I thought 
 that the task would be easy, and that I could 
 without difficulty find the record of some im- 
 portant conflict which marked the month of 
 storms. I busied myself in history, searched 
 eagerly for information in the numerous biog- 
 raphies of Washington, thumbed my well- 
 worn cop3^ of Lossing's Field Book, and 
 pored diligently over Barber and Howe's 
 Historical Collections, with their amusing 
 illustrations and amazing text; but I was 
 unable to discern anything remarkable about 
 the month of March in the way of New 
 Jersey battles. Many thrilling events came 
 89 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 to pass and many valorous deeds were done 
 in those days in the old Province of Nova 
 Caesarea, but they all seem to have happened 
 in some other month. Why March ? Is it 
 because Caesar was killed on the Ides of March 
 of which the soothsayer bade him beware? 
 Is it because, hj some impulse which defies ex- 
 planation, the fathers decreed that every 
 President of the United States should assume 
 his office on the Fourth of March ? It is a 
 most unjustifiable day, coming in an inclem- 
 ent and disagreeable season ; an inconvenient 
 day, a ridiculous day. The fathers did many 
 "^^onderful things and their choice of Inaugu- 
 ration Day is not the least marvellous of their 
 performances. I will admit that they were 
 almost infallible, — although they used to 
 quarrel among themselves very much after 
 the fashion of modern statesmen — but I ven- 
 ture to suggest that they fell into lamentable 
 error about Inauguration Day. Surely they 
 would have been more considerate if they had 
 anticipated the fatal colds which dignitaries 
 in future years would contract in doing hom- 
 age to the coming chief. Washington City is 
 very pleasant in the later spring, and Con- 
 gress might well amend the law if it can spare 
 the time from enacting legislation about rail- 
 ways, rivers and harbours, and the awful 
 
 90 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 trusts which trouble so many easily worried 
 people. 
 
 In despair, I feared that I might be com- 
 pelled to draw upon my imagination and 
 invent a battle ; but I hesitated lest I should 
 share the fate of the ambitious school boy 
 who, in competition for the prize offered "for 
 the best composition" presented the follow- 
 ing essay : 
 
 I will tell you the story of George Washington. He 
 was born February 12, 1726. He was educated at West 
 Point and, after graduating, served in the Mexican War. 
 When the French and India War broke out, he was made 
 Captain and General and Major, and performed many 
 important services. In 1759 he resigned and married 
 Miss Martha Augusta and lived on his estate at Mount 
 Vernon. In 1743 he was elected President and took an 
 active part in public affairs. He fought many battles, 
 and finally captured General Lee and his whole army, 
 April 19, 1865. He finally surrendered at Yorktown and 
 the war ended in 1760. He served two terms as Presi- 
 dent but refused to serve a third time having taken a se- 
 vere cold from a ride in the rain. He died at Mount 
 Vernon, aged sixty-seven. 
 
 This reads very much like a newspaper 
 obituary notice or a sketch from the pages of 
 Who's Who. 
 
 I come back to my quest of a battle. 
 Although it receives its name from the god ol 
 war, the month of March was not a battle 
 month in the Revolution. In March, 1776, I 
 
 91 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 note the fights at Hutchinson Island, Georgia, 
 and at Nook's Hill, Massachusetts; in 1777, 
 there were Perth Amboy, Punk Hill, and 
 Westfield, New Jersey, and Wood's House 
 and Peekskill, New York ; in 1778, there was 
 Thompson's Bridge, New Jersey; in 1779, 
 Briar Creek, Georgia, and West Greenwich, 
 Connecticut ; in 1780, Paramus, New Jersey ; 
 in 1781, Clapp's Mills and Wetzel's Mill, and 
 Guilford, North Carolina; in 1782, Morris- 
 ania, New^ York, and Tom's River, New Jersey. 
 There were also the two I intend to relate 
 briefly. They were all rtiinor engagements, 
 and no one but the antiquary ever heard of 
 them, except Guilford. 
 
 It is suflEicient for me to speak of two small 
 fights — or, more accuratel3% of one fight and 
 one massacre — which took place in March, 
 1778 — the skirmish at Ouinton's Bridge, 
 March 18, and the attack at Hancock's 
 Bridge, March 21. Both of them occurred in 
 Salem County, New Jersey. They are de- 
 scribed in Barber and Howe's book, the ac- 
 count being taken from Johnson's History of 
 Salem — books which seldom meet the eye of 
 any one save the collector of Americana. 
 
 Towards the close of February, 1778, a 
 detachment of British troops came down 
 the Delaware from Philadelphia, then the 
 92 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 headquarters of King George's army, to 
 Salem, thirty-five miles away. There were five 
 hundred men, commanded by Colonel Aber- 
 crombie of the Fifty-Second Regiment. Their 
 purposes were predatory, and they plundered 
 at will; they were also spying out the re- 
 sources of the country. After a few days, 
 they returned by water, as they had come, 
 carrying their booty with them. 
 
 On March 17, 1778, a force selected from 
 the Seventeenth and Forty-fourth Regiments, 
 mostly Scotchmen, numbering between twelve 
 hundred and fifteen hundred, went down the 
 river under the command of Colonel Charles 
 Mawhood of the Seventeenth, aided by 
 Majors Sims and Simcoe. They encamped at 
 Sharptown, and next morning they marched 
 into Salem, expecting to surprise Colonel 
 Anthony Wayne, who had charge of the mili- 
 tia in that part of New Jersey. They could 
 not catch that wary fox napping, and he de- 
 clined to be taken unawares. As soon as 
 Mawhood held Salem, the Loj^alists, or Tories, 
 gathered about him, and made up two com- 
 panies, who, that they might not be mistaken 
 for Regulars, wore a uniform of green, faced 
 with white, and cocked hats with a broad 
 w^hite binding; and they were known as 
 "Greens." From them he learned that there 
 93 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 were about three hundred militia at Quin- 
 ton's Bridge, posted on the south side of 
 Alloway's Creek, under Colonel Benjamin 
 Holmes; and he resolved, as he said, "to 
 chastise the insolent rebels," as he was 
 pleased to call the American people, "for 
 daring to show resistance to his Majesty's 
 arms." He robbed the farmers of horses 
 enough to equip a troop. 
 
 Holmes was not to be taken bj^ surprise 
 any more than Wayne, and he made such 
 preparations as he could to meet the enemy. 
 On March 18th, before dajdight. Major 
 Simcoe with his battalion advanced to a 
 point about half a mile from Quinton's 
 Bridge, and there in a swamp and in the 
 woods on the bank of the creek, and also in a 
 two-story brick house and a barn, the main 
 body hid, thus forming an ambuscade, which 
 later on proved to be fatal to many of the 
 militia. When the arrangements were com- 
 pleted, a few of the red-coats and some of the 
 light-horsemen came out, riding and march- 
 ing down the road in a taunting manner, 
 behaving as if they were challenging their 
 foes to a contest. 
 
 Captain William Smith, of the Second Bat- 
 talion of Salem militia, was in command. 
 His men were aroused to anger, and were 
 94 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 eager to attack the provoking British. They 
 had been instructed to hold their ground and 
 defend the bridge. But a Httle Frenchman, 
 Lieutenant Decoe, persuaded Smith to go 
 over and "drub the insolent rascals." Smith 
 got on his horse and called to his men, who 
 with more courage than wisdom, and wholly- 
 unsuspicious of the trap, rushed after him, 
 across the bridge, in a disorderly column, 
 with no attempt at military order. Smith 
 called on his men to hurry, saying, "We will 
 have them before they get to Mill-hollow," — 
 a ravine about tv^o miles from the bridge. So 
 on they went, militia-like, more a mob than 
 an army, — looking not in the barn, or the 
 house, or in the swamp, but childishly pursu- 
 ing what they believed to be a fleeing foe. 
 Scarcely had they passed the house, when 
 from house and barn and from behind fences 
 poured a withering fire. Smith was brave 
 enough, and he vainly strove to rally his men; 
 but their surprise was complete, and he could 
 not form them into line. Out came the light 
 horsemen from the woods, but now the rebel 
 horses, with loyal attachment to the Ameri- 
 can cause, refused to advance. They did not 
 like the noise of combat and they punished 
 their captors by declining to go to the 
 front. The militia, fighting in small squads, 
 13 95 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 retreated across the bridge, with a loss of 
 between thirtj'^ and forty men. 
 
 The loss would have been greater had not 
 Colonel Elijah Hand, of the Cumberland 
 militia, arrived most opportunely. He had 
 been informed by Holmes of the arrival of the 
 British in Salem, and hurrying to Quinton's 
 Bridge, reached there with his regiment just 
 as the battle was at its height. Occupying 
 the trenches which Smith's men had unwisely 
 abandoned, he poured such a fire upon the 
 British that their advance was checked. His 
 two pieces of artillery did good service. 
 
 Just here was displayed a signal act 
 of bravery which deserves especial mention. 
 Private Andrew Bacon, after the militia of 
 Smith had crossed the bridge, seized an axe 
 and set himself to the task of cutting the 
 draw so that the enemy could not effect a 
 passage. He persevered in his chopping, 
 under a fierce fire, until the draw was de- 
 stroyed; and then as he retreated to the 
 trenches he received a wound which made him 
 a cripple for life; but he was past eighty 
 years when he died. His heroism completely 
 saved the day. Unable to cross the bridge, 
 the British gave up the fight and retired to 
 Salem. 
 
 Mawhood was chagrined, and determined 
 96 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 to send Simcoe forward the next day with all 
 the men who could be spared from Salem. 
 Holmes and Hand resolved that "no British 
 soldier should eat bread or set his foot" on 
 their side of AUoway's Creek, as long as there 
 was a man left to defend it. During the re- 
 mainder of the day and that night they 
 strengthened their position and arranged 
 their plans. At ten in the morning the Brit- 
 ish advanced in battle array, their bands 
 playing, in order, Chinese fashion, to intimi- 
 date their rustic antagonists. Holmes had 
 placed his men in their intrenchments in such 
 a way that he could fire upon the invaders 
 from the front and on both flanks. In their 
 effort to gain the bridge, the British were so 
 assailed by musketry and by the two invalu- 
 able pieces of artillery, that they -were thrown 
 into confusion, and very soon abandoned 
 the fight and retreated again to Salem. 
 
 Mawhood now renewed the congenial occu- 
 pation of plundering the farmers, in which he 
 w^as more successful than he was in actual 
 warfare. A day or two after his repulse, he 
 addressed to Colonel Hand a characteristic 
 and impudent letter. The fatuity of the or- 
 dinary English officer during the Revolution 
 passeth all understanding. After his decisive 
 repulse, he says, with a mighty self-assurance, 
 
 97 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 ** Colonel Mawhood * * * proposes to the 
 militia at Quinton's Bridge and the neighbor- 
 hood, the officers as well as private men, to 
 lay down their arms and depart, each to his 
 own home." He proceeds to promise, if that 
 be done, to go back without further depreda- 
 tions and to pay for the cattle, hay, and com 
 which he has taken. If his proposal is de- 
 clined, he announces his purpose to attack, 
 to bum and destroy the houses of the citizens, 
 and to "reduce them, their unfortunate 
 wives and children, to beggary and distress," 
 and he adds a list of the names of those who 
 "will be the first objects to feed the vengeance 
 of the British nation." 
 
 A silly and stupid creature this Mawhood ; a 
 type of the slow-witted English officer of his 
 day and generation; one of the dull and 
 pompous martinets who vainly supposed 
 that they could overcome a brave and intelli- 
 gent people by waving a sabre and crying 
 out " Disperse, ye rebels, disperse ! " The reply 
 of Hand was dignified and determined. After 
 calling attention to the inhumanity exhibited 
 at the battle of the Bridge, he says : "Your 
 proposal that we should lay down our arms, 
 w^e absolutely reject. * * * Your threat 
 to wantonly burn and destroy our houses 
 and other property, and reduce our wives 
 98 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 and children to beggary and distress, is a 
 sentiment which my humanity almost forbids 
 me to recite, and induces me to imagine that 
 I am reading the cruel order of a barbarous 
 Attila, and not of a gentleman, brave, gen- 
 erous, and polished, with a genteel European 
 education." I wish that I could quote the 
 whole letter, for it is marked by a simple elo- 
 quence and a wonderful calmness of tone un- 
 der severe provocation. Mav^hood did little 
 to carry out his threats, but what he did was 
 characteristic. 
 
 There were about four hundred militia at 
 Hancock's Bridge, and Mawhood conceived 
 the plan of making a night attack upon 
 them. Major Simcoe, with a force of regu- 
 lars and Tories, was sent for the purpose, 
 with orders to "spare no one — put all to 
 death — give no quarter." The British w^ere 
 carried by boats for a part of the way, and 
 after a short, rapid march, reached their des- 
 tination to find that the militia had de- 
 parted, with the exception of a small guard 
 quartered in the house of Judge Hancock. 
 Entering the house, they quickly mastered the 
 little force, and killed the Judge, a few non- 
 combatant Quakers, and the guard of some 
 twenty -five. But few escaped or were made 
 prisoners. Most of them were slaughtered 
 99 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 as they slept, or murdered as they vainly 
 endeavored to save themselves, for the deed 
 was nothing short of murder, the killing be- 
 ing wholly unnecessary. After this valiant 
 performance, the plunderers went back to 
 Philadelphia, carrying the fruits of their rob- 
 beries. 
 
 Years later Simcoe — who became lieuten- 
 ant governor of Upper Canada — attempted 
 in his "Journal" to excuse his butchery, and 
 to take great credit to himself for his achieve- 
 ment, saying airily of his slaughter of non- 
 combatants — "Events like these are the real 
 miseries of war." Of the final withdrawal 
 of the troops from Salem County, he says: 
 "The enemy, who were assembled at Cohan- 
 sey, might easily have been suppressed, but 
 Colonel Maw^hood judged, that having com- 
 pleted his forage with such success, his busi- 
 ness was to return, which he effected." True 
 enough ; he went forth to steal, and his suc- 
 cess lay in that enterprise, not in honourable 
 warfare. If he had been a soldier, and not a 
 mere marauder, he could easily have over- 
 whelmed with his superior numbers and his 
 well-drilled soldiery the raw and undisciplined 
 troops of Holmes and Hand. In fact, he 
 failed miserably. 
 
 The affair at Hancock's Bridge was really 
 100 
 
AN ECHO FROM OLD SALEM 
 
 not a fight; it was a massacre. But the 
 story of the Salem expedition reveals the 
 courage and patriotism of the citizens of New 
 Jersey. The motto " dulce et decorum est pro 
 patria mori'^ applies as well to those farmer 
 boys with their fowling pieces as to the 
 trained soldiers of the Continental line. 
 Trivial as these contests seem in comparison 
 with the struggles of great armies in the war 
 of 1861-1865, they speak to us of the brav- 
 ery and fortitude of our ancestors, and kindle 
 in our hearts an admiration for those sturdy 
 patriots who lived in "the times that tried 
 men's souls." 
 
 101 
 
POOR HUDDY: A BRIEF STUDY OF 
 A NEGLECTED HERO 
 
POOR HUDDY : A BRIEF STUDY OF 
 A NEGLECTED HERO 
 
 AT a "Tea" given by the Nova Caesarea 
 Chapter in Newark, I gave a short ac- 
 count of two Revolutionary engagements — 
 for they cannot be called battles — which 
 took place during the month of March, 1778, 
 in Salem County, New Jersey. I called atten- 
 tion to the remarkable dearth of battles in 
 that martial month, and casually referred to 
 a fierce little conflict which occurred in Mon- 
 mouth County on March 24, 1782. Perhaps 
 it may not be amiss to recall to your memory 
 the salient points of a little drama which to 
 my mind is one of the most interesting in the 
 whole war; I mean the fight at the Block 
 House at Tom's River, and its valiant defense 
 by Captain Joshua Huddy, followed by his 
 capture and brutal execution by the British. 
 Volumes have been written about Nathan 
 Hale and John Andre, who seem to have been 
 
 105 
 
POOR BUDDY 
 
 chosen as the typical martyrs of their re- 
 spective countries ; and a great deal of mis- 
 placed sympathy has been lavished upon the 
 Englishman — no doubt because he was 
 young, clever and handsome. But he deliber- 
 ately perpetrated a deed which has always 
 been regarded as a military crime, punishable 
 by death, whether committed by a private 
 soldier or by a major general, and when he 
 was detected and seized he basely endeavored 
 to bribe his captors. The name of Huddy is 
 forgotten. He was not a spy ; he was neither 
 a British aristocrat nor a New England 
 school teacher ; he was only poor Huddy, an 
 humble citizen of New Jersey, and his name is 
 not one to fill the trump of fame. 
 
 Let us look aw^ay from the quiet Quaker 
 City where Washington was passing the win- 
 ter, away from New York, where Sir Henry 
 Clinton was aw^aiting the pleasure of the 
 British Ministry, to the county of Monmouth 
 and the little village of Dover, on Tom's 
 River where, with a force of twenty-three 
 men, Huddy guarded a rude block-house 
 equipped with four small pivot-mounted 
 cannon. The reason for the erection of a 
 fort, if it may be called by that name, at 
 this quiet spot was, that it was the site of 
 the salt works built by Thomas Savadge for 
 
 106 
 
POOR BUDDY 
 
 the State of Pennsylvania, and salt was in- 
 dispensable for the army. 
 
 Huddy had been placed in command of a 
 company of artillery in September, 1777, and 
 had been a scourge of the Tories. In the 
 summer of 1780, one Tye, or Titus, a mulat- 
 to, who had gathered around him a number of 
 negroes and loyalists, came with about sixty 
 men to Colt's Neck and attacked Huddy's 
 home. The Captain and one servant-maid, 
 Lucretia Emmons, defended the house cour- 
 ageously, and Tye received a wound in the 
 wrist which later caused his death, from lock- 
 jaw. The Tories set fire to the house, and the 
 gallant defenders w^ere compelled to surren- 
 der. While being transported in a boat, 
 Huddy leaped overboard near Black Point, 
 swam ashore, and escaped. He was not a 
 man to be intimidated by mere numbers. 
 
 About the middle of March, 1782, a force 
 of forty refugees, with eighty armed sailors, 
 set out from New York in whaleboats with 
 the purpose of destroying the primitive fort- 
 ress at Tom's River and incidentally of firing 
 the hearts of the loyalists in that neighbor- 
 hood. On landing, on the midnight of March 
 23d, they were joined by another band of 
 armed Tories, and evading Huddy's scouts, 
 they reached the block-house on Sunday, 
 
 107 
 
POOR HUDDY 
 
 March 24th, and summoned the little garri- 
 son to surrender. The American commander 
 promptly refused, and the attack followed. 
 The conflict was short and bloody. Over the 
 sharpened logs which formed the inefifective 
 wall of the little fort swarmed the assailants, 
 only to be repulsed by pike and musket, with 
 a loss of two officers. Back they charged, 
 and the fort was crimsoned with the blood of 
 its sturdy defenders. But the powder gave 
 out, and the little band was overwhelmed. 
 Having done "all that a brave man could do 
 to defend himself against so superior a num- 
 ber," Huddy swallowed the bitter pill and 
 surrendered with the sixteen men left to him 
 out of the original twenty-three. A trifling 
 battle it was when compared with Antietam 
 and Gettysburg, but surely it is notable in 
 our annals. The heroism of twenty-three 
 really surpasses the wholesale heroism of 
 hundreds of thousands. 
 
 The Tories burned the block-house, the 
 mills, the salt--works, the store-house, and 
 every dwelling but two in the village. On the 
 brigantine "Arrogant," justly named, the 
 prisoners and some of the villagers were 
 transported to New York; and Huddy was 
 cast into the old Sugar House Prison, a place 
 forever famous and infamous in our history. 
 108 
 
POOR BUDDY 
 
 He was removed thence to the guard-ship 
 "Brittania," and put under the charge of one 
 Richard Lippincott, a Tory refugee, captain 
 of a loyalist company. On April 12, Huddy 
 was hurried to Gravelly Point, at the foot of 
 the Navesink Hills, about a mile north of the 
 Highland light-houses. Three rails were 
 placed in the form of a gallows, and Huddy, 
 after he had written his will on the head of a 
 barrel, mounted the barrel and was hung. It 
 was pretended that he was executed in return 
 for the killing of one Philip White ; but it was 
 only a shallow pretense, for White was cap- 
 tured and was shot while trying to escape in 
 a time when Huddy was a prisoner in New 
 York. Upon Huddy's heart was affixed this 
 lying placard : 
 
 We, the refugees, having long with grief beheld the 
 cruel murders of our brethren, and finding nothing but 
 such measures daily carrying into execution, — we, there- 
 fore, determined not to suffer without taking vengeance 
 for the numerous cruelties, and thus begin, and I say, 
 may those lose their liberty who do not follow on, and 
 have made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to 
 present to your view ; and further determine to hang up 
 man for man, while there is a refugee existing. Up goes 
 Huddy for Philip White. 
 
 I am not one of those who confidently 
 believe that the Tories were alw^ays wrong 
 and the Whigs always right ; in the calmness 
 
 109 
 
POOR HUDDY 
 
 of this century we may willingly own that 
 neither party was perfect. But a study of 
 this episode in history convinces me that 
 there can be no pardon for this slaying of a 
 brave soldier. It was simply a wanton, in- 
 human murder of one of the manliest and 
 truest men. It is sad to know that for his 
 dastardly deed, this Lippincott creature re- 
 ceived as a reward a grant of three thousand 
 acres of Canadian land, upon w^hich part of 
 the City of Toronto is built. I wonder that 
 the inhabitants are not haunted by the ghost 
 of Huddy. 
 
 As the fatal noose was fastened about his 
 neck, Huddy cried out: "I shall die innocent 
 and in a good cause," while the cur Lippin- 
 cott swore at his men because they would not 
 pull the rope ; and himself dragged aloft the 
 body of his victim. When Lippincott, whose 
 name has justly perished, returned to New 
 York, he reported that he "had exchanged 
 Huddy for one Philip White." 
 
 All Monmouth County called out for 
 revenge. A petition from leading citizens was 
 presented to Washington demanding instant 
 retaliation, and at a council of war held on 
 April 19th, twenty-five general and field-offi- 
 cers "agreed that retaliation was justifiable 
 and expedient." A majority desired the sur- 
 
 110 
 
POOR HUDDY 
 
 render of Lippincott, or, in case of refusal, the 
 selection by lot of a British prisoner having a 
 rank equal to Huddy's. Sir Henry Clinton 
 refused to give up Lippincott, v^ho said that 
 he had acted under orders from Governor 
 Franklin — the last Royal Governor of New 
 Jersey. Sir Guy Carleton had taken com- 
 mand of the British forces in New York, and 
 when appeal was made to him, he merely ex- 
 pressed his regret, — but he abolished the 
 Board of Loyalists and assured Washington 
 that he desired "to pursue every measure 
 that might tend to prevent these criminal ex- 
 cesses in individuals." Carleton was a wise, 
 just, and humane man, one of the notable 
 exceptions among the English commanders 
 in America during the Revolution. 
 
 It is said that during the pendency of the 
 correspondence, Captain Adam Huyler, of 
 New Brunswick, a warm friend of Huddy's, 
 went disguised to New York to capture 
 Lippincott ; and if that worthless individual 
 had not been attending a cock-fight, he 
 "would have been offered as a sweet revenge 
 to the manes of poor Huddy." 
 
 There were thirteen British captains in 
 
 York, Pennsylvania, and on May 3d General 
 
 Moses Hazen was ordered to select one by lot 
 
 to suffer for Huddy's murder. The drawing 
 
 15 111 
 
POOR HUDDY 
 
 took place on May 27th, and the lot fell on 
 Captain Charles Asgill, Jr., of the First Regi- 
 ment of Foot, only nineteen years of age. It 
 turned out that Asgill was not an uncondi- 
 tional prisoner of war but one of those in- 
 cluded in the Yorktown surrender. This 
 caused Washington much distress. More- 
 over, a sympathy for Asgill swept like wild- 
 fire to the Court of St. James and thence to 
 Versailles, where the Count de Vergennes im- 
 plored Marie Antoinette to intercede. Wash- 
 ington received a pathetic letter from Lady 
 Asgill, the boy's mother, and many other let- 
 ters passed between England and America on 
 the subject. A request for clemency came to 
 Congress from the States-General of Holland. 
 Tom Paine wrote to the British Commander 
 in Chief: 
 
 The villain and the victim are here separated charac- 
 ters. You hold the one and we hold the other. You 
 disown or affect to disown or reprobate the conduct of 
 Lippincott, yet you give him sanctuary and by so doing 
 you as effectually become the executioner of Asgill as if 
 you put the rope around his neck and dismissed him 
 from the world. * * • Deliver up the one and save 
 the other, withhold the one and the other dies by your 
 choice. 
 
 While the correspondence was going on, 
 Asgill was on parole about Chatham and 
 Morristown, New Jersey. The letter of 
 112 
 
POOR HUDDY 
 
 Vergennes was of great weight, and on No- 
 vember 7, 1782, Congress passed this resolu- 
 tion: 
 
 Resolved, that the Commander in Chief is directed 
 to set Captain Asgill at liberty. 
 
 This was sent to him forthwith with a polite 
 letter from Washington, which certainly mer- 
 ited a reply, although history does not record 
 it. Asgill at once returned to England as the 
 "conquering hero." He received both in 
 France and England an enthusiastic recep- 
 tion, and became a general officer in the 
 British Army. Lippincott went to Toronto, 
 and died in 1826 at the age of eighty-two. 
 
 And what of poor Huddy ? While his mur- 
 derer enjoyed the recompense of the murder, 
 and a lad who had done nothing to merit them 
 was receiving the silly plaudits of a silly peo- 
 ple, — the true hero was being sedulously 
 forgotten. 
 
 Cicero said: "The perfection of glory- 
 consists in three things : first, that the people 
 love us ; second, that they have confidence in 
 us; third, that they think we deserve to be 
 honoured." If this be true, then to-day we 
 may place Huddy on a pedestal, feeling that 
 he fitly deserves a place among the martyrs 
 of the War of Independence. 
 
 Philip Freneau, a poet of the Revolution, 
 113 
 
POOR HUDDY 
 
 lies near poor Huddy in the old Freehold 
 graveyard. He wrote in a humorous poem: 
 
 I '11 petition the rebels (if York is forsaken) 
 
 For a place in their Zion, which ne'er shall be shaken, 
 
 I 'm sure they '11 be clever, it seems their whole study, 
 
 They hung not young Asgill for old Captain Huddy, 
 
 And it must be a truth that admits no denying. 
 
 If they spare us for murder, they'll spare us for lying. 
 
 I am not a believer in the wisdom of 
 retaliation such as w^as contemplated in the 
 selection of Asgill as a sacrifice. The impolicy 
 of such a method of procedure has been 
 demonstrated over and over again, and mod- 
 ern civilization has set upon it the mark of 
 disapproval. But there is in my heart a 
 sense of injustice in the ascription to Asgill of 
 some heroic quality, — he could not help him- 
 self, he was only a puppet — and that the na- 
 tions of the old world should have been agi- 
 tated to their foundations about him, when 
 almost every one forgot and gave never a 
 thought to the fine old soldier, the typical 
 American of his day — poor Huddy. 
 
 114 
 
THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 
 
THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 
 
 THE battle of Princeton took place on the 
 morning of January 3, 1777. In a recent 
 address at a dinner given by the Sons of the 
 American Revolution on the anniversary of 
 the battle, Professor Sloane quoted Lord 
 George Germaine's famous sentence: "All 
 our hopes were blasted by that unhappy af- 
 fair at Trenton." Said Professor Sloane, 
 "He might have added, as a proper pendant 
 to this doleful remark, 'this wretched busi- 
 ness at Princeton has confirmed all our 
 fears.'" 
 
 The battle of Princeton was a small one, 
 but its consequences were far-reaching. The 
 enemy was routed ; one hundred of the Brit- 
 ish soldiers were killed; three hundred were 
 taken prisoners, fourteen of them being ofii- 
 cers ; while our loss was twenty-five or thirty 
 117 
 
THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 
 
 men and several officers, of whom Colonel 
 Haslet of Delaware was one, and General 
 Mercer, Washington's true friend, another. 
 General Mercer died from the effect of his 
 wounds at the house of Mr. Clark, near 
 Princeton, where Mrs. Hale, a Daughter of 
 the American Revolution, now lives. Mrs. 
 Hale has recently told me many incidents 
 concerning that historic house. 
 
 I shall not burden you with the details of 
 the battle, w^hich was composed of several 
 engagements. Like many other great victor- 
 ies, it was a small battle when compared 
 with its momentous results, for this strategic 
 move of Washington revived the spirits of 
 our troops, and showed Cornwallis that he 
 had "foemen worthy of his steel," a fact 
 which he seemed to have doubted a day or 
 two before, when he ^vas about to sail for 
 England. 
 
 There has perhaps been more discussion as 
 to w^hom belongs the honor of the conception 
 of that brilliant flank movement of the 
 American Army at Princeton on the night of 
 January 2, and in the early morning of Janu- 
 ary 3, 1777, than there has been on any 
 other question of the Revolutionary War. 
 
 Many authorities give the honor to Gen- 
 eral St. Clair, and insinuate that Washington 
 118 
 
THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 
 
 was not aware of the danger which threat- 
 ened him from the superior force of Lord 
 ComwaUis. Yet Washington surely knew 
 his peril, and possibly may have heard that 
 Cornwallis had boasted that he "would be 
 sure to bag the fox in the morning." At the 
 council of war which Washington held with 
 his officers the plan of surprising Princeton 
 was fully discussed. 
 
 In a review of this subject in the Maga- 
 zine of American History by General Stryker, 
 he says : 
 
 "It is impossible for me to suppose that 
 General Washington did not know well what 
 he was doing all the day of January 2, and 
 into what a critical condition he was being 
 driven. It is quite impossible for me to think 
 that he deliberately allowed himself to be 
 placed in a trap and then after dark, in deep 
 despair, called upon his generals to get him 
 out of a scrape from which he felt himself 
 powerless even to suggest a plan of escape." 
 
 Washington reminds me of the Viscount de 
 Turenne, Marshal of France under Louis 
 XIV. If he gained a battle he always said 
 " We succeeded," so as to give the army cred- 
 it, but if defeated, he wrote, "J lost," and so 
 I am sure that had General St. Clair, or any 
 other officer, planned the attack, Washington 
 
 16 119 
 
THE SURPRISE AT PRINCETON 
 
 would have given him his full share of the 
 credit. 
 
 Von Moltke, the great German strategist, 
 considered this the most skilful movement of 
 Washington during the entire war, and it 
 was the campaign in the Jerseys that won 
 for General Washington his significant appel- 
 lation, "The American Fabius." 
 
 120