Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/323

 NEW JERSEY 311 and Connecticut rivers to his brother the duke of York, and sent an expedition to take pos- session of it. New Amsterdam was first con- quered, the New Jersey settlements at once submitted, and under the authority of Nicholls, the commander of the expedition and first governor, a patent was granted to immigrants from Long Island and New England. Eliza- bethtown, Newark, Middletown, and Shrews- bury were now founded. In the mean time, however, the duke of York had sold his claim to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret; they named the tract New Jersey in honor of Sir George, who had been governor of the island of Jersey, and had held it for King Charles in his contest with the parliament. They formed a constitution for the colony, and in 1665 sent out Philip Carteret, brother of Sir George, as governor. He fixed the seat of government at Elizabethtown ; but his admin- istration was unpopular, and in 1670 the peo- ple revolted and chose James Carteret, an ille- gitimate son of Sir George, for their governor. Philip Carteret, however, obtained several con- cessions and promises from the proprietors, which induced the people to submit again to his authority. The first legislative assembly of New Jersey, which had been held under his proclamation in May, 1668, passed a bill of pains and penalties remarkable for its extreme severity, the punishment of death being assign- ed for no fewer than 12 offences. In March, 1673, Berkeley sold his interest in the proprie- torship to John Fen wick and Edward By Hinge, Quakers. In July of the same year the Dutch recaptured New York, and the surrounding country, including the whole province of New Jersey, at once fell into their hands. New Jersey was called by them Achter Kol. It re- verted to Great Britain by the treaty of 1674, and the question now arose whether the title returned to the proprietors or the king. To avoid all difficulty, the king recognized the claim of Carteret, and made a new grant to the duke of York, who also executed a fresh conveyance to Carteret, covering however only a part of the original territory of New Jersey. But before making this conveyance, the duke had included the province in a commission ?'ven to Sir Edmund Andros, governor of New ork, who refused to recognize the authority as governor of Philip Carteret, arrested all magistrates who would not submit to his own jurisdiction, and finally, on April 30, 1680, car- ried Carteret himself prisoner to New York. The duke was at last prevailed upon to ac- knowledge the claims of the proprietors, and in 1681 the government of Andros came to an end. In the mean time Fen wick and Byllinge, to whom Berkeley had sold his share in the province, conveyed an interest in it to William Penn and two other Quakers, Garven Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas ; and Fenwick in 1675 es- tablished a Quaker settlement at Salem, near the Delaware. He claimed authority as chief proprietor over all that part of New Jersey S. W. of a line drawn from Little Egg harbor to a point on the Delaware in lat. 41 N. ; and the province continued for some years to be divi- ded into East Jersey, subject to Sir George Car- teret and his heirs, and West Jersey, under Fen- wick and his associates. In February, 1 682, the whole territory was purchased by William Penn and 11 other Quakers. The first governor un- der the new proprietors was Robert Barclay, a Scotchman, and one of the 12 purchasers, under whom the country became an asylum for the oppressed members of his creed, and for a time enjoyed great prosperity. But the number of proprietors, the frequent subdivi- sions and transfers of shares, and various oth- er difficulties in the way of good government, soon involved the province in trouble ; and in 1702 the proprietors surrendered the rights of government to the crown. Queen Anne ap- pointed Lord Cornbury governor of New York and New Jersey, but each continued to have a separate assembly. In 1708 New Jersey peti- tioned for a distinct administration, and Lewis Morris was appointed governor. The popula- tion was then about 40,000. Until the revolu- tion New Jersey was the scene of no impor- tant event, and it was never much exposed to the ravages of the Indians. The last royal governor was William Franklin, the natural son of Benjamin Franklin. A state constitu- tion was adopted in 1776, and throughout the revolution the country was frequently the the- atre of war. The battles of Trenton, Prince- ton, Millstone, Red Bank, and Monmouth were fought on its soil. The first legislature met at Princeton in August, 1776, and chose Wil- liam Livingston governor. The federal consti- tution was adopted by a unanimous vote, Dec. 18, 1787. The state capital was established at Trenton in 1790. The present constitution was ratified Aug. 13, 1844. In the summer of 1873 a board of 14 commissioners appointed by the governor agreed upon certain amendments to the constitution. Several of these were ap- proved by the legislature of 1874; but before becoming a part of the constitution they must be approved by the legislature of 1875 and be ratified by the people at a special election held within four months after the dissolution, of the legislature. New Jersey furnished 79,511 troops to the federal army during the civil war, or 55,785 reduced to a three years' stan- dard. The legislature of 1870 refused to rati- fy the fifteenth amendment to the federal con- stitution, on the ground that the right to regu- late suffrage was vested in the respective states. The first geological survey of New Jersey was made in 1839-'40 under the direction of Prof. Henry D. Rogers. A second survey was begun in 1854 by Dr. William Kitchell, but was dis- continued in 1856. The work was resumed in 1864, with Prof. George H. Cook as state geologist, and is still (1875) in progress. The results obtained up to 1868 are given in the "Geology of New Jersey," published in 1868; and annual reports have since been published.