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COPYRIGHT 1S94 3Y ALONZO CHUUCII ^. ^ ^o .si i o t TO URANIA THE GODDESS OF MY INSPIRATION WHATEVER IS WORTHY IN THESE PAGES IS INSCRIBED A. C. PREFACE T^HERE has been no attempt at originality or exhaus- -* tive research in these pages. They were written some time ago during the hurry of a busy life and for the local press — where such qualities are not insisted upon. It was thought then that their appearance would stimulate interest in the Historical Society and call attention to its needs — especially the pitiable lack of any- thing like suitable quarters, which compels the heaping together in crowded confusion of priceless collections, and subjects them at all times to total loss by fire. Several members of the Society read the articles as they appeared, and were good enough to praise them and advised their collection in a inore permanent form. What their kindness urged their liberality made possible, and thus a series of newspaper clippings has become a pamphlet. Only a few alterations have been made in the transition, and now, as when they first appeared, the only effort has been to bring to the notice of the public some of the more striking of the splendid collections. If any interest is aroused which will result in rescu- ino" the may-nificent series of historic treasures from the dang'er of utter ruin wiiich assails them in their present quarters, the writer will feel that his pamphlet has well fulfilled its mission. These " forewords " would be incomplete without some acknowledgement of the unfailing kindness of Judtfc Ricord, the Society's Librarian. His thorough knowledge of all the collections, his keen appreciation of thintrs historic and his wise discrimination and advice were always at the service of the writer, and it is not too much to say that if there be any inerit in these pages, Judge Ricord's courtes\- has called it into being. A. C. Newark, Sept. 1894. I. ANUSCRIPTS, FEW people realize the scores of valuable papers, books, manuscripts and curios which are stored away among- the archives of the New Jersey His- torical Society. The Society has not been organized as long' as some of its kindred associations in other States, and its accommodations to-day are probably the worst in the country; yet it has had always a host of cultured and enthusiastic members, who have collected much valuable data pertaining to American history, even if they have failed to house it properly. The Society was founded in 1845, and among its charter members were Chief-Justice Hornblower, Justice Joseph P. Bradley of the United vStates vSupreme Court, Governor Pennington, vSecretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, President McLean, of Princeton College, Professor Archibald Alexander, T. J. vStryker, Bishop Doane, and other men eminent in professional life, of broad culture and noble g"enerosity. Almost immediately after its foundation the gifts began to be presented, and the Society soon took its 8 MANUSCRIPTS. place among the leading" historical organizations of the country, which it has ever sihce retained. Perhaps the most valuable part of the collection is the series of manuscripts relative to every portion of the country's history, from its early settlement. The oldest document in the archives is a Latin deed to a piece of property in Middlesex Count v, dated 1601, but historically it is of little value. The most priceless treasures which the library contains of this kind are the proprietary deeds, royal grants, releases of property, etc. These curious old manuscripts are two and some times three yards long, written in the quaint, crabbed hand of the Seventeenth Century, and bearing the seals and signatures of James, Duke of York, afterwards King of England; William Penn, King Charles II., Lord Berkeley, Sir George Carteret, and almost every other name which is prominently associated with the settlement of the State. There is an exemplified copy (made in 1664 for John Fen wick) of the patent from King Charles II. to his brother James, Duke of York, " for a tract of land in New England, including New Jersey." The lands in New Jersey did not appear to please His Royal Highness, however, for, according to an enormous and very pompously worded manuscript, dated June 23, 1664, he deeded to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret "all that tract of land adjacent to New England and lying and being to the westward of Long Island and Manhitas Island, and bounded on the east part by the Maine Sea and part by Hudson's River MANUSCRIPTS. 9 and hath upon the west Delaware Bay or river and extendeth southward to the Maine Ocean as farre as Cape May." The munificent consideration for this transfer was *' tenn shillings." The first seal of New Jersey can be seen on the commission of Robert Vauquillin as Surveyor-General of the province. It is an ingenious mingling of the Berkelev and Carteret arms stamped upon faded wax. The signatures of the Lord Proprietors also appear on several old deeds, and do little credit to them, so awkward and uncouth are the characters. These musty-smelling parchments with their curious seals and pompous verbiage form one of the Society's most cherished collections, and are of priceless value in determining questions concerning the State's infancy. Yet the safest place which the Library's accommo- dations permit them is a wooden box on the floor of a crowded closet ! In the Colonial and Revolutionary eras the Society is no less rich in valuable material. A letter written at "Amboy, July 24, 1700," from Governor Andrew Hamilton advises the Proprietors to turn over the Gov- ernment to the Crown, but although writing on so important a matter he suddenly winds up with: "/ am itmvilling to begin a new sheet and therefore take leaved Brushing against the stately phrases of this letter lie a pile of old lottery tickets dated 1 761-1762, and a worn and time-stained paper on which some anxious MANUSCRIPTS. colonial gambler has carefully written down all the winning; numbers and the prizes, which are either pounds, shillings and pence, or such articles as English mill'd stockings, crimson and black barragon, saxon green or blue mohair coats, all kinds of callimancoes, etc., etc. Next to this again is a statement of the Perth Amboy church lottery prizes, which were awarded, it appears, " under the inspection of the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the city." The signatvire of King George III. appears on a commission appointing John Skinner captain in the British Army during the French and Indian War, and George II.'s can be seen on a commission under the provincial seal creating James Johnston " High vSheriff of Middlesex." The Society, too, possesses State papers signed by almost every Governor of the State ; autograph minutes of the various committees of safety that flourished just before the Revolution, and innumerable letters written about local. State and National affairs. One of the most curious of the parchments is a diploma granted by Yale College in 1752 to one Thomas Wiggins. IL is about six inches square, written with many flourishes in red, brown and black ink, and bearing the signature of Thomas Clap, President ; David Eliot, Joseph Noyes, Benjamin Lord, vSolomon Williams and Noah Hobart, as fellows. Besides the unbound parchments, the Library has a large number oi valuable manuscripts carefiilly bound MANUSCRIPTS. It together, and referring to certain periods of governmental progress. One large volume contains the papers of Robert Morris, Chief -Justice of New J ersey, and also Governor of Pennsylvania. Another is filled with Lewis Morris's letters and papers. There are several bulky volumes of petitions, bills and resolutions, in manuscript, presented to the Provincial Legislature of New Jersey and to the National Congress which sat at Princeton in 1783, and one or two commissions signed by Washington. Concerning the War of 1812, there are muster rolls of the various New Jersey companies; letters from the field to anxious relatives, and journals of the marches and encampments. Covering the Mexican and the Civil Wars, the Library is also rich in historic treasures. Many of the papers refer exclusively to Newark affairs, among them the "Town Book" for 1691, and the constitution of " A Voluntary Association of the People of Newark to Observe the wSabbath," dated 1798. There is also an act which seems to have been passed by the Aldermen in 1765, or at least proposed, "to relieve the inhabitants of Sussex from famine," which shows that Newark then, as now, was willing to give to distress from her abundance. vSo one might continue roaming about the Library rooms, guided by Judge Ricord's unfailing courtesy to all that was most interesting ; but to see and read and appreciate the large mass of manuscripts would take many days. This the members realize, and the various collections have been published in readable form under MAX use RIP IS. the Society's direction, and twenty octavo volumes of its proceedings have also been printed. In this way the general public, as well as the curious antiquary, can be brought to appreciate the treasures that are contained in the crowded Library, and for this reason also the New Jersey Historical vSociety has the reputation not only of possessing one of the most valuable manuscript collections in America, but of being also ever ready to put it to practical and general use. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. VALUABLE as are the manuscripts and parchments which crowd its archives, the Library is almost as rich in the treasures of the book-maker's art. There are about fourteen thousand volumes in all, and each has an individuality so much beyond the ordinary that it would be almost impossible exactly to estimate the value of the entire collection. To make some rough approximation to it the other day, however. Judge Ricord took down from the nearest shelf one hundred volumes that were within easy reach, and by learning from sales' catalogues the prices at which similar volumes were held, he reckoned out the books to be worth, at regular market value, over five thousand dollars. And yet these rare old tomes, full from cover to cover of valuable historic data or " the quaint and curious legends of forgotten lore," are piled in heaps in dusty closets or stacked upon the floor, an easy prey to rats and moths and fire. Biit the transient visitor at the Society's rooms does not take into consideration the wretched accommodations in which these treasures are stored, but becomes absorbed 14 BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. at once in their contents, and in turning back the pages of the past to read of by-gone generations the present fades slowly out of mind till at last it seems as if he too lived in "good old colony days," took active interest in the Revolution, or viewed with anxiety the progress of the United Colonies. Here he can read all the old "Blue Laws" of the province embodied in the first colonial code. Learning and Spicer's, made in 1702, or Bradford's Digest of 1730, or Nevill's Laws of 1752, and from these beginnings can trace the gradual development of statutory provision down to the present day. The earliest legal volume which pertains to New Jersey is George Scot's " Model of Government of the Province of East Jersey," written in 1685 at the instance of the Lord Proprietors. It is a trifle laudatory in tone, but interesting in the light it throws on the State's be- ginning. Elizabethtown, its writer informs its readers, contains forty thousand acres and one hundred and fifty families ; Newark, fifty thousand acres, but only one hundred families. The vSociety's copy of this book is one of five known to exist. It is in splendid preservation^ bearing the arms and motto of the noted Constable family of Edinburgh, and is valued at four hundred and seventy- five dollars. On a shelf near this is a copy of the celebrated ^'Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery," a suit l\v John, Earl of Stair, against Benjamin Bond and others known as the ''Clinker Lot Right Men." This, together with "The BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 15 Answer to the Bill in Chancery," which the Library also contains, throw more light than any other book or docu- ment on the proprietary interests in New Jersey, and many legal decisions have been based on their contents. The " answer" is so rare that some authors have declared that it never existed. The Society has gospel, too, as well as law, and sev- eral shelves are taken up with rare old copies of the Holy Scriptures. There are Dutch, Gaelic, French and Latin editions, and some that controversy or error has made famous. Of these the most valuable is the "Breeches Bible," printed in London in 1577, and so nick-named because of the following rendering of Genesis iii. 7 : "Then the eyes of them both were opened, they knew that they were naked, and they sewed figge leaves together and made themselves breeches." The copy is specially interesting as it contains " the whole Booke of Psalmes and tunes, with apt notes to sing them withall." Next to this is a copy of the Vulgate beautifully bound in white vellum with the arms of some long since departed owner stamped in gold upon the cover, and further along is a finely preserved " Douay." Brushing against these Christian Gospels and mingling with them the dust of their crumbling leaves are the utterances of the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, Plato, Pliny and the rest. Many are the first printed editions and not one of them worth less than one hundred dollars. In Colonial, Revolutionary and early constitutional l6 BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. volumes the Library is especially rich. One time-worn book recites the history of "The Negro Plot of New- York, with a journal of the proceedings, the names of those arrested, their executions by hanging or burning and a variety of other useful and highly interesting- matter." Another is the journal of the ship "Catherine," which was a pirate-boat and a slave-trader in 1732, plying between New York and the coast of Africa, and still another is a story of the Revolution, published in 1788, which contains the first map of the United States. The first magazine published in New Jersey was " The New American Magazine," edited by Judge Nevil, Mayor of Amboy in 1758-60. It contains selec- tions from " The Spectator," — which Addison had re- cently edited in London — Pope, Prior and other noted men of the times. " A History of North America" forms its serial, and begins very properly with a biography of Columbus. Among the fugitive pieces is one, " On Marriage, by a Female," which recites the writer's numerous misfor- tunes and final success in the matrimonial market. The verse of the time is embodied in a volume of poems 1 y Philip Freneau, written in 1768. Freneau was widely known both in Europe and America as "the patriot poet;" his effusions were praised most highly by Jefferies, the remorseless Scotch reviewer, and Campbell honored him by plagiarizing some of his finest lines. The pcet was a bit gay, apparently, and one of his poems, BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 17 "On a legislative act prohibiting the tise of spirit- uous liquors to prisoners in certain United States jails," begins in this way : " They that are unconfined drink what they will, Who gave the right to limit men in jail ? " His descriptions of his student-life at Princeton, too — where he was a room-mate of James Madison — would astonish the staid under-graduate of modern times. One of the most interesting, and among the rarest of the Society's volumes, is a small vellum-covered octavo, which contains Alexander Hamilton's defense against the charges of speculating with the United States Treasury funds, which his political opponents made against him in 1797. He wrote it himself and it was pub- lished by him in Philadelphia. In defending his official honor, however, he has made serious reflections on his own morality, and some readers of this exceedingly rare old book might feel that Burr's opponent was at least as bad as the man who .shot him. Among other information, it contains a series of letters which passed between Monroe and Hamilton, in which the latter became so belligerent that Monroe wrote : " If you meant this last letter as a challenge to me, I have to inform you that my friend Colonel Burr will communicate with you on the subject." A remarkable and little known coincidence that Hamilton's slayer might have been his opponent's second. It is not stated why the duel did not come 2 l8 BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. off ; perhaps because of Burr's intervention and set- tlement in his capacity of second. Passing over the many other books of ecjual interest and value, one comes to the quantities of pamphlets, which are often as quaint and as curious as the bound volumes. This is the way in which Samuel Jennings in 1699 began his answer to an opposing pamphleteer : " Truth rescued from forgery and falsehood, being an answer to a late scurrilous piece which stole into the world without any known author's name affixed, and renders it the more like its father who was a Iyer and murderer from the be- ginning." Hardly less bitter, though couched in more elegant English, is Dr. Samuel Johnson's " Taxation No Tyranny," which the Library possesses algo. Among the other pamphlets may be mentioned the '' funeral elogiums " which flooded the country on the death of Washington. Here one can read the official oration delivered before Congress by General Henry Lee, in which the immortal words, " first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," originated ; the one by Gouverneur Morris, delivered at New York ; Fisher Ames's address to the Massachusetts Legislature ; the Latin elogium of President Willard, of Harvard, and the addresses of Dr. Macwhorter, of the First Presby- terian, and Dr. Ogden of Trinity Church, in Newark. Dr. Macwhorter's covers forty-nine printed octavo pages, and Dr. Ogdcn's closes with a diagram of tne funeral procession. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. I9 The Library also has an orig-inal sheet of the music and words sung- at Trenton as Washington passed through en route for his first inauguration, written by Annis Stockton, wife of one of New Jersey's signers of the Declaration. One of the stanzas is : "Virgins fair and matrons grave, Those thy conquering arms did save, Build for thee triumphal bowers, Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers. Strew your hero's way with flowers." A note at the end says : " The elegant taste with which the arch was adorned, and the innocence of the white-robed choir, who met him with this gratulatory song, made a lively and strong impression." There is also preserved a very curious oration deliv- ered on the first anniversary of Tammany Hall, in which, among other things, the speaker says : " On you devolves the task of preserving in their pristine purity the princi- ples for which Tammany is distinguished. From you is expected not only wisdom and courage, but also a display of virtue." How sarcastic do these earnest words now sound I It is impossible to complete the catalogue of valuable books and pamphlets covering all portions of American history down to the present time which the Library con- tains ; but enough has been said to prove that interest and instruction alike could be derived from a visit to its archives. in. NEWSPAPERS, IN looking- back over the years that are gone, and in studying- the deeds and desires of past generations no truer guide can be found than the newspapers of the day. Then, as now, they reflected the peculiarities of the people, and to them the antiquarian and historian turn not only for the facts themselves, but also for those ephemeral happenings, those every-day doings which form after all the most attractive portions of history. Realizing this very fully the New Jersey Historical Society has arranged upon its shelves the files of almost every paper published in this State, and many from neighboring communities as well. In studying these musty folios — on which a broken-nosed bust of the great printer, Benjamin Franklin, smiles down from a neigh- boring shelf — two lines of development suggest them- selves. One can find in them a clear reflection of the Nation's history with all the side light of contemporary opinion, or he can trace in their pages the rise and devel- opment of modern journalism from its humble beginnings of one hundred years ago. One of the first papers published in New Jersey was NEWSPAPERS. 21 "The New Jersey Gazette," printed by Isaac Collins, at Trenton, beginning in 1778. It is a four-page sheet, fourteen by nine inches. Advertisements '' of moderate length" were inserted for " four dollars each first week, and two per every continuance." The price was "three shillings nine pence hard cash." In these earlier days of newspaper -making the pages were chiefly the medium of exchange for busi- ness, and news is scarce and briefly told. The front page is taken up almost wholly with notices of sale, advertisements, etc. In an early number of " The Ga- zette" Brockholst Livingston — afterwards Justice of the United vStates Supreme Court — -announces the loss of a "parchment pocketbook" in an advertisement so long and elaborately worded that it reads like an essay. The worthy Judge admits that there were "sundry valuable lottery tickets" among the other lost possessions, and concludes in this way : " The subscriber flatters himself that if any person finds the pocketbook and feels no compunctions of con- science in converting the money to his own use, he will still be honest enough to fall upon some method to con- vey the papers to their owner, and cunning enough to conceal from what quarter they came." Joseph Titus, in another issue, blossoms out into dog- gerel over a remarkable horse, who was black all over and yet had a white foot. He says : " On the sixteenth day of May, Sometime in the night, I lost a mare all over black But the near hind foot white." 22 NEWSPAPERS. Servants and apprentices — judging from numerous advertisements — had a bad habit of running away. Thomas Higginson, with amazing liberality, offers six cents reward for the return of his "low Dutch ser- vant man." Jabez Wiggins, however, finds trouble at the other extreme, and is desirous of selling "a likely negro wench, age seventeen," remarking among her other qualifica- tions, that " she has had both small-pox and measles." In these early prints editorials do not appear, and in their stead was inserted the foreign news which came by "packet," and was invariably three or four months old. Communications are frequent, however, and signed with such pretentious noms de plume as Homo Sum, Cassius, etc., although the " Constant Reader" who has contributed so generously on every subject to every paper began his journalistic career as early at least as 1781. Each one of these sheets had its poetry column, some good, but almost all amusingly poor. Here is a specimen taken from some verses written " in defense of the fair sex to a slanderer thereof:" "A man of your vein is always in pain Unless he is writing of satire, And rather than fail, the ladies assail, When destitute of other matter." wSeveral other papers succeeded " The Gazette," but almost all of them soon ceased to be, and it was not until 1796, when the first copy of what was then known as "The Centinel of Freedom," appeared at Newark, that modern journalism really began. In this the interest NEWSPAPERS. 23 ceases to centre in the form and manner entirely, as the happenings of the day are presented elaborately enough to be well worth perusal, the comments, anecdotes and "occasional pieces" are quaint and often clever, and as the reader turns the leaves of the time-worn volumes the history of a century passes like a panorama before him. The first issue is taken up almost entirely with Washing- ton's Farewell Address, although the editor finds room to make a very gracious bow to the public— the first utter- ance in a New Jersey paper that can strictly be called an editorial. "The editors have made such arrangements," it says, "as will assure them the earliest foreign and domestic intelligence. * * * Original essays on subjects inter- esting to the public shall be carefully attended to, and admitted if free from scurrility and personal abuse." The tone of the paper was conservative and stately — even the obituaries being couched in Addisonian English. Here is one of " Mr. Isaac Pierson Jun. of this town :" " His faith and belief in the Gospel scheme of re- demption, through the propitiatory sacrifice, sustained him in the hour of trial. He was not the least intimi- dated at the approach of death though sensible for some time of his hastening dissolution. His remains were respectfully interred in the family burying ground in the new Presbyterian Church yard, attended by a numer- ous collection of relatives and friends." It was reserved for Washington's death, however, to lavish all the fulsomeness of praise possible in the English 24 NEWSPAPERS. language. The paper appeared bordered in black, a tombstone took the place of the modern cut of the de- ceased, and the following is the beginning of the obituary : " Mourn O Columbia ! Thy father and protector is no more ! Mourn reader of whatever kindred, tongue or clime thou be ; thy friend, the friend of Liberty and Man, is Gone ! Gone to that country from whose bourne no traveler returns. The Hero, Patriot, Sage, sent a while as a kind emanation from the Deity to enlighten the dark night of our tribulation and to guide the youthful steps of our country, is snatched back to the bosom of his God." The next issue, still in mourning, gives an account of the " day of special mourning" as observed in Newark. " The Rev. Dr. Macwhorter," one learns, " delivered an animated, instructive and pathetic discourse," and that he wept may be judged from the reporter's remark : " The big drop of manly sorrow trickled involuntarily down the cheek of the hoary veteran of 1777." The succeeding issues teem with odes in memory of the departed patriot. Cries one poet : "The mournful muses wrapt in pious woe, To George's manes this last tribute owe " And another, who signs himself '* Orange :" " Columbia long^ his loss shall weep, Ne'er again his likeness see. Long her strains in sorrow steep. Strains of immortality." Thus is the Nation's history quaintly told through the varied events of nearly a century. But it is, perhaps, NEWSPAPERS. 25 even more interestin,^- to study the every-day life of by- gone g-enerations as the " Centinel's'' pages disclose it. Then, as now, newspaper-readers seemed to fancy the sensational. In 1806 one reads of a "Horrid Murder," which the heading states was " One of the most horrid ever committed in the upper end of the country," and a serial running through many numbers is a very dime- novel kind of tale entitled, " Louisa, the Lovely Orphan." Even the anecdotes are startling — with sometimes a most decided double entendre. It is popularly supposed that illustrated journalism is a modern growth, but as early as 1800 " The Centinel" was published "with cuts." The first was a tomb-stone, which headed the announcement of Washington's death. The poetry column was illustrated by a harp on a willow. The stage-coach column contained a cut of the " swift, sure stage," which was advertised to "pass through New- ark at twelve o'clock a. m , lodge at vSomerset and arrive at Philadelphia next day afternoon. Way passengers six cents per mile. From Newark to Philadelphia four dol- lars. Fourteen pounds of baggage allowed." Then there are pictures in the shipping column, where Nathaniel Budd announces that " the subscriber has obtained liberty from the city of New York to take off goods at the Ferry stairs at the foot of Cortland street, and will start a ferry to Hoboken ; the racing column — for there were race-tracks even then ; and several other ■departments of the paper also had their illustrations. The first " extra" issued in New Jersey came from 26 NEWSPAPERS. the presses of '* The Centinel of Freedom on March 24, 1797. It is only a single page, printed on one side, but entitled " The Centinel of Freedom. Extraordinary." " The following important foreign intelligence, which we received, by this morning's mail, from Philadelphia," says the editor, " was received there by the arrival of the ship Hamburg Packet in forty-five days from Liverpool. We are induced to lay it before our readers at this early hour by a ' Centinel' extra" The news relates to the war in Europe, starting with the announcement that "Buona- parte is besieging Mantua with greatest assiduity." The reader is also informed, " to relieve his tedious suspense," that " Mr. Munroe, our minister, left Paris on January 7." The dusty corner of the library, where these files are treasured, is one of the most entertaining portions of the Historical's wSociety's collection. " This folio of four pages — what is it but a map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast concerns ?" said Cowper, and in studying their time-worn pages, the read- er can see and realize the life of the long ago ; can appreciate the greatness of the past, and still thank God for the present, which that past made possible, and the glorious future which will succeed them both. IV. ART WORKS AND CURIOS. STOWED away among the piles of books and manu- scripts in the Society's rooms are many valuable works of art and interesting- curios, which lend an air of completeness to the collection and engage the visitor's attention as soon as he enters the dingy rooms. They represent almost every phase in national history, and tell in their silent way stories as full of entertainment as those which the musty volumes and time-worn parchments unfold. To the right of the door as one enters, propped up against a pile of huge folios, is a finely executed likeness of Vice-President Aaron Burr, by Gilbert Stuart. The back-ground is dark and time-stained, but the features are beautifully distinct, and by an odd freak of location the proud brown eyes continually look out on a book- case near-by where " The Life and Letters of Alexander Hamilton" confront them. The portrait, like its original, was subjected to many vicissitudes before it reached its final resting place, and the story of its acquisition is most singular. Judge Ogden Edwards, of New York, a relative of the Burr 28 ART WORKS AND CURIOS. family, in 1847, started out to search for some of the family portraits which tradition said had been given by Colonel Burr to an old body servant named Keaser. For a long time his search was unsuccessful, but at last one day, as he was hurrying down Pearl street, he heard some one say : " Keaser, cart away these boxes." Turning instantly he questioned the drayman, who said his father had been the much-sought-for lackey. About the pictures he knew nothing, but referred Judge Edwards to a sister who lived in " the vShort Hills of New Jersey." The place was wholly unfamiliar to him, but, de- termined not to give up the hunt, he came to this city to ask advice of John Chetwood. Together they went to Short Hills, and after much hunting found the woman they sought in an old tumble-down log cabin. On enter- ing the house Judge Edwards recognized at once a magnificent picture of Col. Burr, and one of his daughter Theodosia, who married Governor Ashton, of South Carolina, and was lost at sea. These he bought for five dollars. On inquiring if there were any more, he was conducted to the attic, where he found a portrait of Burr's mother on the floor, and, stuffed into a broken window, one of President Burr, of Princeton — a striking illustration of the Shakspearean couplet : "Imperious Cesar dead and turned to clay, May stop a hole to keep the wind away." These he also obtained, and in token of his appreci- ART WORKS AND CURIOS. 29 ation of Mr. Chetwood's kindness, gave him the one of Colonel Burr. In 1849, Mr. Chetwood moved to California, but before his departure presented the portrait to the Society, where it now rests among more fitting surroundings, though still liable to a fire's destruction. Next to this, and in striking contrast to it in every facial feature, is a likeness of Commodore James Law- rence, also painted by Stuart, but on a panel instead of canvas. Crowded quarters necessitate paying but scant respect to the memory of General Philip Schuyler, for his picture is wedged in behind a book-case with " the face turned toward the wall." The Society also has handsome portraits of Richard Stockton, Levi Holden and Chief-Justice Joseph C. Hornblower. One of the largest canvases is that which portrays Hendrick Hudson, "the discoverer of Hudson's River," and his remarkably large collection of children. It is said to be an original " old Dutch master," but Judge Ricord is unwilling to vouch personally for its genuine- ness. One of the most beautiful pictures, in point of artistic merit, is an exquisite portraiture of Mrs. F. B. Ogden, called " the belle of Liverpool" during her husband's resi- dence there as Consul-General. It is done on a very large panel of ivory by the famous English miniaturist. Sir William Newton, and the colors are soft and graceful, yet accurate to the most minute detail. Among the photographic curios are two tintypes of 30 ART WORKS AND CURIOS. the Emperor Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, of Mexico, who was shot by the Republicans on the fall of the Empire which he tried to set up there, aided by Louis Napoleon. One was taken just after he fell, and shows distinctly the outline of his features, and the uniform he wore when he faced death. The other was taken after the body had been stripped to the waist, and the dark blo.-'hes on the white skin about the breast are a sad evi- dencv of the xmerring aim of his executioners. In one of the few shabby show-cases is a voluminous botile-blue tail-coat and large continental cocked hat which bears the inscription : " Coat and Chapeaii of Commodore Lawrence." The multiplicity of garments treasured in various museums as belonging to distinguished men might lead the visitor to doubt the genuineness of this coat, were it not for the autograph letter from Mrs. Lawrence, in which she presents it to the vSociety, and declares it to be the identical garment which he wore when he expired with the immortal words, " Don't give up the ship" upon his lips. Underneath this is pinned a pompously worded eulo- gium woven in silk, which begins : "Spirit of Sympathy from Heaven descend. A Nation weeps ! Columbia mourns a friend !" In the same case are a large num])cr of Robert Ful- ton's original drawings, and the diplomas and certificates of election of Governor Fort (1851-54), which he left to the Society in his will. In a jar of alcohol is an orange, ART WORKS AND CURIOS. 31 and the label states that " it was grown on a tree which was planted by George Washington." There is no record in the archives of any hatchet, little or big, which renders the exhibit incomplete ; but, at any rate, one can infer that the ancestral fruit was sometimes picked. The Library has a large collection of swords — found upon various battlefields or presented — belonging to noted generals ; but owing to the pitiful lack of room they are packed away in a dark closet. Indeed all the col- lections are jumbled together in somewhat incongru- ous confusion. A torn Confederate battle-flag hangs near and a little above the remnants of the Stars and Stripes which were shot to pieces at Pilot's Knob. An old-fashioned beaver hat, nine inches high, with a three-quarter inch brim, rests upon the brow of a plaster Shakespeare, which in turn stands upon a Fifteenth Cen- tury Dutch Bible almost crowding Napoleon's clock onto the floor, and triumphantly surmounted by a campaign banner of Clay and Frelinghuysen. The phrase, " not worth a continental," is illustrated in the moulding piles of State currency tucked away in the drawers. They are of every denomination, and many of them bear the beligerent motto, " To Counterfeiters Death." One states that " the First Presbyterian Church of Newark promises to pay to bearer on demand one pen- ny." It is dated December i6, 1790, so that the interest thereon might now be a snug sum. 32 ART WORKS AND CURIOS. There are a great many Indian relics, wampum, tom- ahawks and beads, and near an Indian stone pipe is a lit- tle bit of bark which the donor declared was taken from the very tree under which Sir Walter Raleigh smoked his first pipe ! Although the relics tell of almost every phase of American endeavor, those which relate to State history are more numerous. Among the inost valuable of these from an historic point of view, are about three hundred photographs of inembers of the Society, carefully in- dexed, and in almost every instance accompanied by biographical sketches. This list comprises some of the most distinguished of New Jersey's sons, and its use to a historian or biographer is apparent. Apart from all this various mixture of " material history," on the top of one of the cases stands a magnifi- cent bust by Canova, of the Princess Pauline, sister of the first Napoleon. It seems to look out from its marble, sightless eyes, with a sort of impassive scorn at the relics of the Republic strewn about it, and its treatment has been an ample justification for such stony feeling. When the family of Joseph Bonaparte left Bordentown, this bust w^as sold, among other things. It lingered along for a few years in neglect when the worthy matron who lived in the old homestead found it in the garret. Thinking it would make a good ornament for her posy bed she carefully white-washed its classic marble features,- and set it out in the garden for her vines to trail upon. It stood there for many years until ART WORKS AND CURIOS. ;^;^ recognized and purchased by an art connoisseur who pre- sented it to the Society. *' Sic transit gloria /nundi.'" One might spend hours in interested inspection of these relics, and as he looks them over the thought is forced home most strongly that here the hour glass of time turns far more slowly than in the hurrying crow^ded streets below. And here in the books they have written or in the records of the deeds accomplished, the illus- trious dead still live and excercise upon those who visit them a potent charm. V. NEWARK'S BEGINNINGS. NEWARK has been especially fortunate in having- the history of its local achievements preserved in these collections. Here in its attic rooms, looking- out on the busy, bustling- life of the modern city, the visitor might easily forget the present, as he unfolds the old parchments or studies the time-'worn volumes which trace the foundation and growth of what the Rev. Abraham Pierson called " our town on the Passayack." Newark, at its beginning in 1666, was a church, an offshoot of the sturdy Congregationalism of Connecticut. The first settlers, the records state, were "godly and learned men from Branford." who moved to Newark as a unit, taking with them the town and church records, and re-establishing their New England colony on New Jersey soil. They had purchased their land, including Newark, Belleville, Bloomfield, the Oranges and Caldwell, from the Indians, as the time-stained inanuscripts show, for the following consideration : " Fifty double hands of powder, one hundred barrs of lead, twenty axes, twenty coates, ten gims, twenty pistolls, ten kettles, ten swords, four blankets, four barrells of beere, ten paire of breeches, NEWARK S BEGINNINGS. 35 fifty knives, twenty howes, eight hundred and fifty f athem of wampem, two ankors of licquers, and three troopers' coates." Having driven this thrifty bargain, they settled them- selves under the stern laws of Puritanism, and, in a resolution still preserved, declared "that none shall be admitted freemen or free Burgesses upon our town upon Passaic River in the province of New Jersey, but such planters as are members of some or other of the Con- gregational churches, nor shall any but such be chosen to magistracy or to carry on any part of the civil judicature, or any chief military trust or office. Nor shall any but church members have any vote in any elections." Thus it was that the church became the centre of the town, and the earlier town meeti-igs were occupied with discussions of the merits of the relative ministers, and bickerings about the salary. The first public building was the church, and the first town meeting was held "to decide upon its location." But a Satan enters every Eden, and even the most worthy sometimes fall. One vSabbath day, discord, permanent and bitter, came. The morning dawned with threatening aspect, and the church-going crowds knew that a storm was imminent. Colonel Josiah Ogden, a veritable " elder in Israel," knew it, too, and to the lasting scandal of all the truly pious, stayed at home from meeting to gather in his hay. The wrath of the righteous knew no bounds, and the wandering sheep received the official censure of the fold. He appealed to the Presbytery and was sus- ;^6 Newark's ueginnings. tained, but the breach was too wide to heal ; the Rev. Mr. Webb, the pastor, was requested to resign for his half- hearted condemnation of Colonel Ogden, and the in- iquitous hay-gatherer became the founder and one of the pillars of Trinity Episcopal Church, which resulted ulti- mately in the disestablishment of Congregationalism. It is difficult now to appreciate the powerful effect of such a trivial incident, but the old-time books and records are filled with it, and the horror of the godly appears to have been the more intense becatise this second Jeroboam "did make others also in Israel to sin." A lingering memory of this iniquity, perhaps, caused " sundry worthy citizens " to prepare, in 1798, "a volun- tary association of the people of Newark to preserve the Sabbath." The agreement contains the names of up- wards of a hundred men who signed themselves to the following provisions : We agree, Fi'rsf. That we will neither give nor par- take of pleasure or entertainment on that day. Second. That we will neither ride nor travel on that day. Third. That we will regularly attend divine service on that day, and compel our children, servants and apprentices to do the same. Fourth. That after divine service is over we will keep our children, apprentices and servants at home, and not suffer them to go abroad. Worthy souls ! They have long since ceased from their godly avocations, and, NEWARK S BEGINNINGS. 37 " Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." The works they began and the industries they started, have come down to the present generation ; even the *' four barrells of beere " they gave the Indians have increased more wonderfully than the Israelitish woman's pot of oil, but of them personally only the mouldering headstones in the churchyard tell. These also would have vanished were it not for the care- ful forethought ot the Historical Society which has preserved drawings of many old tombstones and copies of all the old inscriptions. The epitaphs are indicative in some cases of the stern and melancholy minds that framed them — as this one, copied from the tomb of George Linch, who died 1794 : " You living men as you pass by, As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be ; Prepare for death and follow me." The grave-Stone of "Sarah, relict of Abner Ward, who disceased June 12, 181 8," was a little more cheerful, exclaiming, " Why should we morn departed friends, or quake at death's alarms?" and the following has a ring of of such perfect resignation that one is tempted to believe it may have been born of love for another : "Lie still, dear wife, and take thy rest; God called thee hence because He thought it best." The Historical Society possesses also the old " town book," a record of the deeds and transfers of land from ^O NEWARK S BEGINNINGS. 1691 to 1737. Among the miscellaneous papers is "a faire copy (it is without date) of ye Ingen sent from London and now in ye city halle — seven feet wide on ye board, nine feet on ye worke pole, seventy-three feet long in ye whole. Mounted by twelve tug men, eleven bucket men and one pipe man." With this are the minutes of the meetings of Engine Company Number One, from 1799 — 1801. Next to them. and crumbling with them into dust, is an old deed, on the back of which some Eighteenth Century school boy has written a glowing account of a trotting horse, " Young Pastime," whom he declares he will see and bet on "speedily." The cupola of Cockloft Summer House is treasured among the Society's valued possessions, as it was under the roof of this arbor — on the old Gouverneur home- stead — that Washington Irving, James K. Paulding and others of that famous coterie used to gather " to forget on the banks of the Passaic the city's din." It was here that Irving wrote one of the earliest of his works, ' Salamagundi, or Whim Whams of Opinion." In it he makes the following reference to Newark : " Newark — noted for its fine breed of fat inosquitoes — sting through the thickest boot. A knowing traveller always judges things by inn-keepers and waiters, therefore Newark people are fat as butter. Remember to note a learned dissertation on Archie Gifford's green coat to which reasons might be added as to why Newark people wear Newark's beginnings. 39 red worsted night caps and turn their noses to the south when the wind blows." Irving, however, made up for these ungracious re- marks in later years when in a long letter to the Histori- cal Society he said : "With Newark are associated in my mind many pleasant memories of early days and social meetings at an old mansion on the banks of the Passaic." Near one of the windows of the Library stands the study chair of Dr. Macwhorter, half turned toward the light, as if the owner had but just risen from a view of the First Presbyterian Church, whose destinies he guided so faithfully for so many years. Near his chair stands his cane, and in the quaintness and quiet of the surround- ings one almost expects to see the reverend gentleman step down from his picture on the wall near by and min- gle once more in the busy world. Yes, and next the cane is a huge old beaver-hat, which fancy says was just like the one he wore, though it really belonged to Dr. Griffin, his successor from 1801- 1843. It is an enormous old affair, nine inches high, with a two-inch brim, eight inches across at the bottom, and nine and a half at the top. The inside is lined with red silk, decorated with a pretentious coat of arms, and the motto, " Under this We Prosper." It bears the name of " William Rankin, maker, opposite the church." The Society's collection of portraits of Newark's citi- zens is especially valuable. It includes that of Aaron Burr, who was born here near the corner of William and 40 NEWARK S BEGINNINGS. Washington streets ; Judge Hornblower, Justice Bradley, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Abraham Coles, Ireneaus Prime, Governor Pennington, and many others whose achievements in State and National affairs have made Newark proud to call them her sons. Thus, as one wanders through the dusty rooms, runs his eye along the crowded book-shelves, or gazes at the pictures on the wall, time seems to turn backward in its flight ; he notes the records of every phase of the Nation's history, the State's, the city's. He sees again the faces of by-gone generations. He can almost hear their long-silent voices, and can in truth — " Hold converse with the dead who leave the stamp Of ever-burning thought on many a page When they have gone into the senseless damp of graves." THE END. =^ OC ' < < ••«^ 5< ^ ^r - ^ . ^ -^ c«r c ■ <: % «' ic:<: <.• r < ,. >;, ^*-^ CC <^ tic . cc" r km. 5:c v..^Cc Cc ■ , «^C '< c^ ^^"^^^^^ ^i . * c ^ c. <^ c < c <^ ^ c«acsc c; < vf;cc>'^c <^ C: C <^'' ^CC'-t C'C ^^C CC.v.; c.c <:i<^c, c^ V c < c c ccr^v-. c: ac c^vC' cd e^'^c - C'CC CiC C€^cc^ ' ' <;<' cc: cr;^. ^ ^ d< cc <:^ V . •■^^- d Ct '^CC'C c :icrt: CCC ddCCcct: ^^C'C C d ; ^.C ^^c :c cc_c < ^