Lord John Lovelace having succeeded Lord Cornbury as Governor of New Jersey, ordered an election for a new Assembly, which met at Perth Amboy March 3, 1708–9. They were not willing to forgive and forget, any more than are modern partisans. A fulsome address to the Queen had been adopted in 1707 by the gentlemen of the Council, praising Lord Cornbury, and assailing the House, and particularly Lewis Morris and Samuel Jenings, two of its members. The Assembly had got wind of this document, and now requested a copy from the new Governor, who caused it to be furnished to them and it was treasured up for future use.
The wheels of legislation rolled smoothly along for several weeks. There was a sudden jolt, however, on June 11, 1709, when the Council had the temerity to appoint a committee to inspect the journal of the House. The latter body at once retorted in kind, by appointing a committee to inspect the journal of the Council, and desired them to send their journal to the committee that afternoon! The Council of course objected, urging that their proceedings were secret; but the House insisted, and desired to have the journal sent down at seven o’clock the next morning.
And that was the last that was heard of either house attempting to “inspect” the minutes of the other. The Assembly—the representatives of the people—had again triumphantly asserted and maintained their independence.
The Fifth Assembly, which met and organized December 1, 1709, had a number of contested elections before it, which were in general decided in favor of the sitting members. The business of the session proceeded steadily and with unusual monotony until January 2, 1710, when it was enlivened by this incident: A certain bill having been referred to a committee, Mr. Lawrence, one of the members, reported that “they had blotted out the whole of the bill, except the title, which he thought was the best amendment they could make to it.” This seemed to be quite a joke, until the chairman complained that while the committee were discussing the measure Mr. Lawrence “Did contrary to his Consent blot out & Cancell the sd bill and had left nothing remaining Except the title. And that Mr Gershom Mott another of the sd Committee forcibly detained him when he would have departed the room whilst Mr Lawrence was blotting and Cancelling some part of the said Bill.” The House voted that the action of Messrs. Lawrence and Mott was a contempt, and ordered them to be brought before the bar “and there ask forgiveness, with an acknowledgement of the favour of the Hos that they were not Expelld the Hos & rendered uncapable for ever Serving in this Hos againe & other punishmts which this Hos might inflict. And that they promise for the Future to behave themselves as becomes Members of this Hos.” The two practical jokers made the required amende and were allowed to resume their seats.
There was another break in the tedium of the session on January 5, when “Mr Sharp Complained that Capt George Duncan this morning, Early had called him out privately & drew his Sword upon him unawares he being unarmed, & made at him with his drawn Sword, upon which the said Sharp fled & was pursued by the sd Capt Duncan who hee believes had a designe to kill him.
“And desired the protection of ye hos.”
Capt. Duncan was ordered into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, and to be kept disarmed until further orders. There he was detained for six days, when, being apparently both sober and sorry, and having asked Mr. Sharp’s forgiveness, he was brought before the House, made his apologies all around and “promised to behave himself for the future as becom’s a Loyall Subject and a good member of this House,” and was allowed to take his seat.
The Assembly elected in 1716 was violently rent by factions for and against the impatient and impetuous Governor Robert Hunter. Col. Daniel Coxe, who had served for several years in the Council, was removed at Hunter’s request, and forthwith set about getting even. To that end he secured his election to the Assembly in 1714, having cleverly manipulated the “Swedish vote” on his immense paternal estates in the southern part of the Province. He was again chosen in February, 1716, from both Gloucester County and the town of Salem, although Sheriff William Harrison, of Gloucester, was accused of resorting to sharp practice to secure his defeat, by removing the polls several miles from the usual place of holding the election. Coxe declared to serve for Gloucester, and being chosen Speaker on April 4, lodged a complaint against Harrison, had him arraigned at the bar of the House, and by order of that body publicly reprimanded him. Governor Hunter was intensely disappointed at the result of the election, and prorogued the Assembly until May 7. On that day the members in opposition stayed away, to prevent a quorum, but after two weeks the friends of the Governor managed to get together thirteen members—a bare majority,—and elected John Kinsey Speaker in the absence of Coxe, and then proceeded to expel Coxe and his whole party for non-attendance, and moreover declared them incapable forever of sitting in that body. Several of them were re-elected, nevertheless, and were gently but firmly again expelled.
I might speak of the action of the West Jersey Assembly in 1685–6, when they “declared to ye Governor yt officers of State & Trust belong to them to nominate and appoint.” And to that other assertion of their independence when they refused to recognize the course of the Proprietors in appointing John Tatham as Governor. Even in the opening days of the Revolution, when the friends of the new government were welded by the force of circumstances into a harmonious body, strongly disposed to uphold the patriotic Governor, William Livingston, they nevertheless enunciated an important construction of the constitution, in 1778, in declaring void a patent granted by him, incorporating a church, after the manner of his Royal predecessors, and asserting that “the power of granting patents and charters of incorporation, under the present constitution, is vested solely in the Legislature of the State.”
Something has been said in this paper of the scandalous conduct of elections. It is gratifying to find a popular reaction as early as 1738, at least in Quaker Burlington, where, though the election was so vigorously contested as to require three days to conclude the polling, it was, notwithstanding, managed “in such a candid and peaceable Manner,” according to a newspaper of the day, “as gave no Occasion of Reflection to each other, nor was there any reaping of Characters, or using of Canes in a Hostile Manner on one another, being sensible that such a Practice is inconsistent with the Freedom which ought to Subsist in our Elections.” The inference is irresistible that the conduct of this canvass was in violent contrast with the usual practices.