The Indians were considered generally as beneficial to the new settlements. The obtaining of furs, skins, and game, which added both to the traffic of the Province and to the support of the inhabitants, was thus secured with less difficulty than if they had been obliged to depend upon their own exertions for the needed supply. The different tribes were more or less connected with or subordinate to the confederated Indians of New York, and the settlers in New Jersey enjoyed, in consequence, peculiar protection. As the Proprietors evinced no disposition to deprive them of their lands, but in all cases made what was deemed an adequate remuneration for such as were purchased, New Jersey was preserved from those unhappy collisions which resulted in such vital injury to the settlements in other parts of the country.
Governor Carteret did not think that any legislation was immediately necessary for the government of the people or administration of the affairs of the Province. The Concessions having been tried were found quite adequate to the requirements of the new settlements, but on April 7, 1668, he issued his proclamation ordering the election of two freeholders from each town to meet in a general assembly the ensuing month at Elizabethtown; and on May 26 the first Assembly in New Jersey began a session which closed on the 30th. During the session a bill of pains and penalties was passed, identical in some respects with the Levitical law. Other subjects were considered; but “by reason of the week so near spent and the resolution of some of the company to depart,” definite action was postponed until the ensuing session, which was held on November 3, in which deputies from the southern portion of the Province on the Delaware took part. A few acts were passed relating to weights and measures, fines, and dealings with the Indians; but on the fourth day of the session the Assembly adjourned sine die, the deputies excusing themselves therefor in a message to the Governor and Council, in which they say:—
“We, finding so many and great inconveniences by our not sitting together, and your apprehension so different to ours, and your expectations that things must go according to your opinions, they can see no reason for, much less warrant from the Concessions; wherefore we think it vain to spend much time in returning answers by meetings that are so exceeding dilatory, if not fruitless and endless, and therefore we think our way rather to break up our meeting, seeing the order of the Concessions cannot be attended to.”
A proposition by the Governor and Council, that a committee should be appointed to consult with them upon the asserted deviations from the Concessions, was not heeded, and the Assembly adjourned. Seven years elapsed before another, of which there is any authentic record, met. There are intimations of meetings of deputies on two occasions in 1671; but what was done thereat is not known, excepting the establishing of a Court of Oyer and Terminer.
This neglect to provide for the regular meeting of the General Assembly of the Province was doubtless owing to the disaffection then existing among the inhabitants of what was subsequently known as the Monmouth Patent, including Middletown, Shrewsbury, and other settlements holding their lands under the grant from Nicolls, which has been mentioned. As they considered themselves authorized to pass such prudential laws as they deemed advisable, they were led to hold a local assembly for the purpose as early as June, 1667, at what is now called the Highlands; and not being disposed to acknowledge fully the claims of the Lords Proprietors, they refused to publish the laws passed at the first session of the General Assembly and would not permit them to be enforced within their limits, on the ground that the deputies, professedly representing them, had not been lawfully elected. Certain differences in the Nicolls grant, from the Concessions, were insisted on before the deputies representing those towns could be allowed to co-operate in any legislation affecting them.
These views were not acceded to, and the towns were consequently not represented in the Assembly of November, 1668, and the first open hostility to the government of Carteret was inaugurated. This, however, did not interfere materially with his administration of the affairs of the Province. In every other quarter harmony prevailed until the time came when, by the provisions of the Concessions, the first quit-rents became payable by those holding lands under the Proprietors. The arrival of March 25, 1670, when their collection was to begin, introduced decided and, in many quarters, violent opposition. Information received from England of a probable change in the proprietorship, which promised a reannexation of New Jersey to New York, no doubt added to the apprehensions of the Governor and his Council, and gave encouragement to the disaffected among the people.
The Elizabethtown settlers, asserting their right to the lands confirmed to them by Governor Nicolls independent of the requisitions of the Concessions, became the central instruments of action for the disaffected. The claims of the Proprietors’ officers, the oaths of allegiance which many of them had taken, as well as their duty to those whose liberal concessions constituted the chief inducements for settlement within their jurisdiction, were alike unheeded. The titles acquired through Nicolls they attempted to uphold as of superior force, and, following the example of Middletown and Shrewsbury, although on less tenable grounds, they were disposed to question the authority of the government in other matters. For two years there was a prevalent state of confusion, anxiety, and doubt.
On March 26, 1672, there was a meeting of deputies from the different towns; but the validity of such an Assembly, as it was called, the governor and council did not recognize. The proceedings are presumed to have had reference to the vexed question of titles; but the documents connected with the meeting were all suppressed by the secretary, who was also assistant-secretary of the council, and he acted, it is presumed, under their instructions. Another meeting was held at Elizabethtown on May 14, composed of representatives of Elizabethtown, Newark, Woodbridge, Piscataway, and Bergen; but assembling “without the knowledge, approbation, or consent” of the governor and council, they of course did not co-operate. The Concessions stipulated that the general assembly should consist of the “representatives, or the majority of them, with the governor and council,” and their absence afforded an excuse for another step toward independence of the established authorities. The Concessions provided that, should the governor refuse to be present in person or by deputy, the general assembly might “appoint themselves a president during the absence of the governor or the deputy-governor;” and the assembly proceeded to do so (not, however, a president merely to preside over their deliberations and give effect to their acts, but a “president of the country,” to exercise the chief authority in the Province), finding a ready co-operator in James Carteret, a son of Sir George, then in New Jersey on his way to Carolina, of which he had been made a landgrave.
He appears to have been courteously received by the authorities of the Province, from his near relationship to the proprietor, but his course argues little consideration for them or for the interests of his father. He did not hesitate to assume the chief authority; and, although the governor issued a proclamation denouncing both him and the body which had conferred authority upon him, yet power to enforce obedience seems to have been with the usurper. Officers of the government were seized and imprisoned, and in some instances their property was confiscated.
