# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/New Jersey

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​NEW JERSEY, one of the Middle Atlantic states of the American Union, lying between 41° 21′ 22·6″ and 38° 55′ 40″ N. lat., and 75° 35′ and 73° 53′ 39″ W. long. It is bounded, N., by the state of New York; E., by the Hudson river, which separates the state from New York, and by the Atlantic Ocean; and S. and W. by the Delaware Bay and river, which separate New Jersey from Delaware and Pennsylvania. All the boundaries except the northern are natural. New Jersey has an extreme length, N. and S., of 166 m., an extreme width, E. and W., of 57 m., and a total area of 8224 sq. m., of which 710 sq. m. are water-surface.
Physiography.—There are within the state four distinct topographic belts—the Appalachian, the Highlands, the Triassic Lowland and the Coastal Plain. The folded Appalachian belt crosses the N.W. corner of the state, and includes the Kittatinny Mountain and Valley. The mountain has a north-east-south-west trend, crossing the Delaware river at the Delaware Water Gap and continuing S.W. into Pennsylvania. In width the range varies from 4 or 5 m. in the N. to about 2 m. in the S. Its western foot lies along the Delaware river, which for some distance flows parallel with the range, and has an altitude of about 400 ft. above the sea at Port Jervis, where it enters the state, and of about 300 ft. at the Water Gap, where it leaves it. Where the crest of the ridge enters the state its elevation is 1539 ft.; at High Point, 11/4 m. S.W. the ridge attains a height of 1803 ft., the highest point within the state. A short distance S.W. of this point, in a depression in the mountain crest, is Lake Marcia, at an elevation of 1570 ft. Beyond Culver’s Gap the mountain again narrows to a ridge, and for a portion of its length it is double-crested. On the eastern side the slope is so abrupt as to make ascent difficult and at places impossible, but the western slope, on account of a dip of the rock to the N.W., is more ​gradual. The eastern foot has a very uniform altitude of from 900 to 1000 ft. above the sea. The crest of the ridge is from 600 to 1200 ft. W. of the foot, and from 450 to 600 ft. above it. At the Water Gap the ridge is cut through to its base, and the Delaware river flows through the opening. This gap, 900 ft. wide at the base and 4500 ft. wide at the top, with sides rising very abruptly to a height of 1200 ft. and more, is an impressive sight. The Kittatinny Valley, S.E. of and parallel to the Kittatinny Range, is about 40 m. long and 12 m. wide and has an average elevation of 700 ft. Its western margin is from 900 to 1000 ft. above the sea, and its eastern border is from 400 to 500 ft. lower. The floor of the valley is very undulating, and contains numerous small streams, whose divides are from 700 to 900 ft. above the sea. South-east of the Kittatinny Valley, and parallel with it, lies the second topographic belt, the Highlands. This region embraces an area of 900 sq. m., having a length, N.E. and S.W., of 60 m., and a width varying from 9 to 18 m. It consists of an upland plateau now dissected by streams into a series of hills and ridges, and corresponds to the Piedmont Belt farther to the S.W. and to the upland region of southern New England. The average elevation of the Highlands is about 1000 ft.; the highest point, between Canisteer and Vernon, in Sussex county, being 1496 ft. The third belt, called the Triassic Lowland, occupies about one-fifth of the surface of the state. Its N.W. border is marked by a line drawn S.W. across the state through Pompton, Morristown, Lebanon and Highbridge to the Delaware; its S.E. border by a line drawn from Woodbridge to Trenton. The surface is irregular, with altitudes ranging from about sea-level to 900 ft. A noteworthy feature of this area is the series of trap rock ridges, between which the Passaic river makes its irregular way through a region of flat bottom lands. On the N. E. border of the Lowland, one of these trap ridges lines the western bank of the Hudson river for about 25 m., and is known as the Palisade Ridge, or simply the Palisades, because of the scenic effect produced by the columnar jointing and steep eastern wall of the trap sheet. To the W. the slope of the ridge is very gentle. The Palisades extend from a point N. of the New York boundary as far S. as Weehawken, their height gradually decreasing southward. A slope of débris occurs at the E. base of the Palisade Ridge, but the summit is covered with trees. The trap formation extends to the Kill van Kull Channel, and includes, among other ridges, the so-called First and Second Watchung (or Orange) Mountains W. of the group of suburbs known as the “Oranges,” but S. of Weehawken it has no scenic attractiveness. With the exception of the ridges, the Triassic Lowland N. of the Raritan river is usually below 200 ft. in altitude; S. of the Raritan the topography of this belt is similar to the northern portion, but much of the area is over 200 ft. above the sea. South-east of the Triassic Lowland lies the fourth topographic belt, the Coastal Plain, containing an area of 4400 sq. m., or slightly more than one-half the entire surface of the state. This belt, bordered on the E., S. and W. by water, is highest near its centre and lowest along its margins. It is free from mountainous ridges, but there are a number of isolated hills, such as the Navesink Highlands (259 ft.) in Monmouth county. One-third of the Coastal Plain is below 50 ft. in altitude; two-fifths are between 50 and 100 ft.; and somewhat more than a fourth of the area is over 100 ft. above sea-level. The total area of the belt as high as 200 ft. above the sea does not exceed 15 sq. m. About one-eighth of the area consists of tidal marsh, lying chiefly between the long sandy ridges or barrier beaches of the Atlantic coast and the mainland. The width of the marsh varies from 1 to 6 m., being least in the extreme N. and S. and greatest near the mouths of streams. There is also a marsh along Delaware Bay, unprotected by a beach. The waters between these beaches and the mainland are gradually filling with sediment and changing into tidal marsh. In addition to the stretches of marsh along the coast, the eastward-flowing rivers of the Coastal Plain are fringed with large areas of swamp land, some of which is well forested.
For the entire state the average elevation is 250 ft., with 4100 sq. m. below 100 ft.; 2100 sq. m. between 100 and 500 ft.; 1400 sq. m. between 500 and 1000 ft.; and 215 sq. m. between 1000 and 1500 ft. The four topographic belts of the state correspond very closely to the outcrops of its geological formations; the rocks of the Appalachian belt being of Palaeozoic age; the formation of the Highlands, Archaean; that of the Triassic Lowland, Triassic; that of the irregular hills of the Coastal Plain, Cretaceous and Tertiary.
The great terminal moraine of the glacial epoch crosses the N.E.-S.W. topographic belts of the state, in an irregular line running W. and N.W., from Staten Island, N.Y. North of the morainic belt the effect of the glaciation is seen in the irregular courses of the streams, the numerous lakes and freshwater marshes and the falls and rapids along those streams displaced by the glaciers from their former courses. The effect of glaciation on the soil is noted in a later paragraph.
The Delaware river, from its junction with the Neversink Creek to the capes, flows along the western and southern borders of the state for a distance of 245 m., and has a total drainage area in New Jersey of 2345 sq. m. Of equal importance is the Hudson, whose lower waters, forming the north-eastern boundary of New Jersey for a distance of 22 m., drain a very small part of the state, but have contributed materially to the state’s commercial development. The streams lying wholly within the state are relatively unimportant. Of the tributaries to the Delaware river the northernmost is Flat Brook, 25 m. long, draining an area of 65 sq. m. W. of the Kittatinny Mountain. The Kittatinny Valley is drained by Paulins Kill and the Pequest river in the E. and S.E., and by the Walkill river in the N.E. Of the streams of the Highlands and the Triassic Lowland, the Passaic river is the most important. Rising in the N.E.—in the southern part of Morris county—it pursues a winding north-easterly course, passing through a gap in the trap rock at Little Falls, and by means of a cascade and a mile of rapids descends 40 ft. At Paterson, 3 m. farther, the stream passes through a crevasse in the trap rock and has a sheer fall of 70 ft. (the Great Falls of the Passaic). The stream then makes a sharp bend southward and empties into Newark Bay. The Passaic and its small tributaries—the Whippany, Rockaway, Pequanac, Wanaque, Saddle and Ramapo—drain an area of about 950 sq. m. On account of the rapid fall of its tributaries, the union of so many of them with the main stream near its middle course and the obstructions to the flow of the water in the lower course, the Passaic is subject to disastrous floods. In 1903 a heavy rainfall caused a flood which continued from the 8th to the 19th of October and destroyed not less than $7,000,000 worth of property. Another, which continued from the 25th of February to the 9th of March 1902, destroyed property valued at $1,000,000 or more, and there were less disastrous floods in 1882 and 1896. The Hackensack river enters the state about 5 m. W. of the Hudson river, flows almost parallel with that stream, and empties into Newark Bay, having a length of 34 m. and a drainage area of 201 sq. m. The Raritan river, flowing eastwardly through the centre of the state, is the largest stream lying wholly within New Jersey, and drains 1105 sq. m. Commercially, however, this stream is less important than the Passaic. In the southern half of the state the drainage is simple, and the streams are unimportant, flowing straight to the Delaware or the Atlantic. The westward streams are only small creeks; the eastward and southward streams, however, on account of the wider slope, have greater length. Among the latter are the Maurice river, 33 m. long, emptying into Delaware Bay; and the Great Egg Harbor river, 38 m. long, and the Mullica, 32 m. long, emptying into the Atlantic. In the northern part of the state, and especially among the Highlands, are numerous lakes, which are popular places of resort during the summer months. Of these the largest and the most frequented are Lake Hopatcong, an irregular body of water in Morris and Sussex counties, and Greenwood Lake, lying partly in New York and partly in New Jersey.
Fauna and Flora.—The fauna of New Jersey does not differ materially from that of the other Middle Atlantic states. Large game has almost disappeared. The red, or Virginia, deer and the grey fox are still found in circumscribed localities; and of the smaller mammals, the squirrel, chipmunk, rabbit, raccoon and opossum are still numerous. Among game birds are various species of ducks, the quail, or “Bob White,” and the woodcock. The waters of the coast and bays abound in shad, menhaden, bluefish. weak-fish (squeteague), clams and oysters. The interior streams are stocked with trout, black bass and perch.
The conditions of plant growth are varied. In the northern and north central parts of the state, where the soil consists partly of glacial drift, the species have a wider range than is the case farther S., where the soil is more uniform. New Jersey is a meeting ground for many species which have their principal habitat farther N. or farther S., and its flora therefore may be divided into a northern and a southern. Still another class, and the most clearly marked of all, is the flora of the beaches, salt marshes and meadows. The total woodland area of the state is about 3234 sq. m. Two distinct types of forest are recognized, with the usual transition zone between them. South and east of a line drawn approximately from Seabright to Glassboro, and thence southward to Delaware Bay, is a nearly level, sandy region known as “The Pines.” This is the great forest area of the state; it contains about 1,200,000 acres of woodland, practically continuous, and portions of it still but sparsely inhabited. The original forest has been entirely removed, but a young growth of the same tree species, chiefly pitch pine with a variety of oaks, replaces it. Within “The Pines,” immediately north of the Mullica river, lies an area of about 20,000 acres called “The Plains.” These are sparsely clothed with prostrate pitch pine, scrub oak and laurel. Tree forms are entirely absent. The cause of this condition is still undetermined. Along the streams in this section are many swamps, valuable for the white cedar that they produce, or when cleared, for cranberry bogs. The northern part of the state is much more rugged, ​ and the forests are chiefly of chestnut and various species of oak. Though much broken by farms and other elements of culture they aggregate about 740,000 acres. New Jersey's forests have suffered much from fire, but with the exception of “The Plains” the soil everywhere is well adapted to tree growth. A comparatively mild climate and good market facilities increase the potential value of the whole woodland area. The state maintains a Forest Commission whose chief concern is to control the fires and thereby give value to private holdings. In this effort it is meeting with considerable success. The state is also acquiring, and maintaining as demonstration acres and public parks, forest reserves in various parts of the state. The five reserves now held are in Atlantic, Burlington and Sussex counties and aggregate 9899 acres.
Climate.—Between the extreme northern and southern sections of the state there is a greater variation in climate than would naturally result from their difference in latitude. This is due to the proximity of the ocean in the S. and to the relatively high altitudes in the N. Near Cape May fruit trees bloom two or three weeks earlier than in the Highlands. The mean annual temperature ranges from 49·2° F. at Dover, in the N., to 55·4° at Bridgeton, in the S. The average date of the first killing frost at Dover is the 4th of October, and of the last, the 10th of May; at Atlantic City, on the sea-coast, these dates are respectively the 4th of November and the 11th of April. At Dover the mean annual temperature is 49°; the mean for the winter is 28°, with an extreme minimum recorded of −13°; and the mean for the summer is 70°, with an extreme maximum recorded of 102°. At Atlantic City the mean annual temperature is 52°; for the winter it is 34°, with an extreme of −7°; and for the summer, 70°, with an extreme of 99°. At Vineland, a southern interior town, the mean annual temperature is 53°; for the winter it is 33°, with an extreme of −13°; and for the summer, 74°, with an extreme of 105°. These records of temperature afford a striking illustration of the moderating influence of the ocean upon the extremes of summer and winter. On account of the proximity to the sea, New Jersey has a more equable climate than have some of the states in the same latitude farther west. During the summer months the general course of the wind along the sea-coast is interrupted about midday by an incoming current of air, the “sea breeze,” which gradually increases until about three o’clock in the afternoon, and then gradually lessens until the offshore wind takes its place. As the heat is thus made less oppressive along the coast, the beaches of New Jersey have rapidly built up with towns and cities that have become popular summer resorts—among the best known of these are Long Branch, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Atlantic City (also a winter resort) and Cape May. Among the interior resorts are Lakewood, a fashionable winter resort, and Lake Hopatcong, and Greenwood Lake and surrounding regions, much frequented in the summer. In the summer the prevailing winds throughout the state are from the S.W.; in the winter, from the N.W. The normal annual precipitation is 47·7 in., varying from 46·6 in. on the sea-coast to 49·1 in. in the Highlands and the Kittatinny Valley. Precipitation is from 1 to 3 in. greater in the summer than in the other seasons, which differ among themselves very little in the average amount of rainfall. From December to March, inclusively, part of the precipitation is in the form of snow. In the extreme S. there is more rain than snow in the winter; but no part of the state is free from snow storms. In the summer thunder storms are frequent, but are generally local in extent, and are much more common in the afternoon and early evening than in the morning.
Soils.—The soils of the state exhibit great variety. Those of the northern and central sections are made up in part of glacial drift; those of the S. are sandy or loamy, and are locally enriched by deposits of marl. The most fertile soils of the state lie in the clay and marl region, a belt from 10 to 20 m. wide extending across the state in a general south-westerly direction from Long Branch to Salem. South of this belt the soils are generally sandy and are not very fertile except at altitudes of less than 50 ft., where they are loamy and of alluvial origin.
Agriculture.—In 1900 very little more land was under cultivation than in 1850, the total acreage for these years being respectively 2,840,966 and 2,752,946. The number of farms, however, increased from 23,905 to 34,294, and the average size of the farms decreased from 115·2 acres to 82 acres, an indication that agriculture gradually became more intensive. In 1900, 22% of the farms contained from 20 to 50 acres, 48·3%, 50–175 acres and only 7·8% contained over 175 acres. Farms were smallest in Hudson county, where the average size was 7·9 acres, and largest in Sussex county, where the average size was 143·4 acres. The counties with the largest total acreage were Burlington (343,096), Sussex (256,896) and Hunterdon (248,733). Between 1880 and 1900 the percentage of farms operated by owners decreased from 75·4 to 70·1; the percentage of cash tenants increased from 10·5 to 15·3; and that of share tenants remained about stationary, being 14·1 in 1880 and 14·6 in 1900. In this last year 27·5% of the farms derived their principal income from live stock, 20·3% from vegetables, 17·2% from dairy produce, 7·8% from fruits and 7·8% from hay and grain.
In 1907, according to the Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture, the principal crops were: hay, 634,000 tons ($10,778,000); potatoes, 8,400,000 bushels ($6,216,000); Indian corn, 8,757,000 bushels ($5,517,000); wheat, 1,998,000 bushels ($1,958,000); rye, 1,372,000 bushels ($1,043,000); oats, 1,770,000 bushels ($991,000). The number and value of each of the various classes of live stock in the state on the 1st of January 1908 were as follows: horses, 102,000 ($11,526,000); mules, 5000 ($675,000); milch cows, 190,000 ($8,170,000); other neat cattle, 82,000 ($1,722,000); sheep, 44,000 ($220,000); swine, 155,000 ($1,555,000). In 1899, 5959 farms were classified as dairy farms, i.e. they derived at least 40% of their income from dairy products; and the total value of dairy products was $8,436,869, the larger items being $6,318,568 for milk sold and $818,624 for butter sold. Poultry raising also is an important agricultural industry: poultry in the state was valued at $1,300,853 on the 1st of June 1900; and for the year 1899 the value of all poultry raised was $2,265,816, and the value of eggs was $1,938,304. In the production of cereals the state has not taken high rank since the development of the wheat fields of the western states; but in 1899 the acreage in cereals was 45·4% of the acreage in all crops, and the value of the yield was 25·3% of that of all crops. Of the total acreage in cereals in 1907, 278,000 acres were in Indian corn; 108,000 in wheat; 78,000 in rye; and 60,000 in oats. The chief cereal-producing counties in 1899 were Burlington, Hunterdon, Monmouth and Salem. The most valuable field crop in 1907 was hay and forage, consisting mostly of clover and cultivated grasses; in 1899 the value of this crop was 20·2% of that of all crops.
Since 1830 market gardening in New Jersey has become increasingly important, especially in the vicinity of large cities, and has proved more profitable than the growing of cereals. In the total acreage devoted to the raising of vegetables in marketable quantities New Jersey in 1900 was surpassed by only two other states. The value of the marketable vegetables in 1899 was $4,630,658, and the value of the total vegetable crop, $8,425,596, or 30·7% of that of all crops. Among the vegetables grown the potato is the most important; in 1907 there were 70,000 acres in potatoes, yielding 8,400,000 bushels, valued at $6,216,000. Between 1899 and 1907 the value of the potato crop more than doubled. In 1899 the state also produced 5,304,503 bushels of tomatoes; 2,418,641 bushels of sweet potatoes; 2,052,200 bunches of asparagus; 17,890,980 heads of cabbage; 21,495,940 musk melons; 3,300,330 water melons; and 1,015,111 bushels of sweet corn. Fruit-growing has also attained considerable importance. In 1899 the total value of the crop was $4,082,788; the value of the orchard fruit was $2,594,981; of small fruits, $1,406,049; and of grapes, $81,758. Peaches grow in all parts of the state, but most of the crop comes from Hunterdon, Sussex and Somerset counties. Apples are grown there and also in the western part of Burlington county. In the decade 1889–1899 the apple crop increased from 603,890 to 4,640,896 bushels. In Monmouth, Camden and parts of Burlington and Gloucester counties great quantities of pears are grown. Atlantic, Burlington, Camden and Salem counties are the great centres for strawberries; Atlantic, Cumberland and Salem counties lead in grape-growing; and a large huckleberry crop is yearly gathered in “the Pines.” In 1899 New Jersey produced nearly a fourth of the cranberry crop of the United States, the chief centre of production being the bogs of Burlington and Ocean counties. Other fruits grown in considerable quantities are cherries, plums, blackberries and raspberries.
Minerals and Mining.—In 1907 the total value of the state's mineral products was $32,800,299. Clays of different degrees of value are found in nearly every section, but the principal clay mining areas are: the Middlesex county area, where the best clays are found along the Raritan river and the coast; the Trenton area, in which clay is mined chiefly at Dogtown, E. of Trenton; the Delaware river area, in the vicinity of Palmyra; and the Woodmansie area, in Ocean county. As the clay pits contain only small amounts of any one kind of clay, it has proved more profitable for manufacturers to buy their raw materials from a number of miners than for them to operate the mines themselves, and consequently clay mining and the manufacture of clay products are largely distinct industries. In New Jersey the mining of clays is more important than in any other state, the amount mined and sold in 1902 being a third of the entire output of the United States, and the amount in 1907 (440,138 tons) being more than one-fifth of all clay mined and sold in the United States; and in 1907 in the value of clay products ($16,005,460; brick and tile, $9,019, 834, and pottery, $6,985,626) New Jersey was outranked only by Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Warren and Sussex counties are abundant materials for the manufacture of Portland cement, an industry that has attained importance since 1892; in the value of its product in 1907 ($4,738,516) New Jersey was surpassed only by Pennsylvania. Granite is found in Morris and Sussex counties, but is not extensively quarried; there are extensive quarries of sandstone in the Piedmont ​ section; and limestone and trap rock are important mineral resources.
In 1907 the total value of stone quarried in the state was $1,523,312, of which $995,436 was the value of trap rock, $274,452 of limestone, $177,667 of sandstone and $75,757 of granite. Some roofing slate is produced in Sussex county; in 1907 the output was valued at $8000. The mining of natural fertilizers—white and greensand marls—is a long established industry; the output in 1907 was 14,091 tons, valued at $8429.
Of mineral ores the most important are iron, zinc and copper. The manufacture of iron in New Jersey dates from 1674, when the metal was reduced from its ores near Shrewsbury, Monmouth county. Magnetic ores, found chiefly in Morris, Passaic and Warren counties, form the basis of the present industry. Bog ores were mined until about 1840; since that date they have had no market. The product of the iron mines has fluctuated greatly in quantity, being nearly 1,000,000 tons of ore in 1892, 257,235 tons in 1897, and 549,760 tons in 1907, when the output was valued at $1,815,586, and was about nine-tenths magnetite and one-tenth brown ore. The chief places of production are Hibernia (Morris county) and Mt Pleasant (Hunterdon county); in 1907 four mines in the state produced 316,236 tons. In the production of zinc New Jersey once took a prominent part; in 1907 the only producer was The New Jersey Zinc Company’s mine at Franklin Furnace, Sussex county, with an output of 13,573 short tons, valued at $1,601,614. The chief deposits consist of red oxide, silicate and franklinite, and the average zinc content is 23%. The copper deposits of the state were worked to a small extent in colonial days. One of the brass cannon used at Yorktown was made of copper taken from the Watchung Mountains during the War for Independence. These mountains are still the chief source of copper, but the ores, chiefly cuprite, malachite and chrysocolla, are also found in various parts of the Piedmont region. In the years following 1900 there was renewed interest in copper mining. There are many valuable mineral springs in the state: for 1907 eleven springs (three in Bergen and two each in Morris, Camden and Somerset counties) reported to the U.S. Geological Survey the sale of 982,445 gallons (mostly table water), valued at $103,082. Other minerals, which are not found in commercial quantities, are lead in the form of galena, in Sussex county; graphite, in the crystalline schistose rocks of the Highlands; molybdenum, in the form of a sulphide, in Sussex county; and barytes in Mercer and Sussex counties. In Bergen, Warren, Sussex and Morris counties are numerous bogs containing peat of a good quality.
Manufactures.—After 1850 New Jersey made rapid progress in manufacturing, which soon became its leading industry. In 1850 7·7% of the population were employed as wage-earners in manufacturing establishments; in 1900, 12·8%. The value of the products in 1850 was $39,851,256; in 1890, $354,573,571; in 1900, $611,748,933. Such figures of the census of 1900 as are comparable with those of the special census of 1905, when only the establishments under the factory system were enumerated, show that between 1900 and 1905 the number of factories increased 9·3%; the capital, 49·8%; and the value of the products, 40% (from $353,005,684 to $774,369,025). This rapid development is due to the excellent transportation facilities, and to the proximity of large markets and of great natural resources, such as the clays of New Jersey and the coal and iron of Pennsylvania. The chief manufacturing centres in 1905, as judged by the value of their products, were Newark ($150,055,277), Jersey City ($75,740,934), Bayonne ($60,633,761), Paterson ($54,673,083), Perth Amboy ($34,800,402), Camden ($33,587,273), and Trenton ($32,719,945). In 1905, 67·1% of the factories were in municipalities having a population of at least 8000 in 1900, and their product was 74·1% (in value) of the total. There are indications, however, that industries are slowly shifting to the smaller towns.
The textile industries taken together are the most important of the manufacturing industries, having a greater output (in 1900, $81,910,850; in 1905, $96,060,407), employing more labourers and capital, and paying more wages than any other group. Among the various textiles silk takes the first place, the value of the factory product in 1900 being $39,966,662, and in 1905, $42,862,907. In 1900 the value of the silk output was 48·8% of the total value of the textiles, and silk manufacturing was more important than any other industry (textile or not); in 1905, however, owing to the great progress in other industries, silk had dropped to fourth place, but still contributed 44·6% of the value of the textiles. In 1900 New Jersey furnished 37·3%, and in 1905, 32·2%, of the silk products of the United States, and was surpassed by no other state. The silk industry is centred at Paterson, the chief silk manufacturing city of the United States. West Hoboken and Jersey City are also important producers. A second textile industry in which New Jersey in 1900 and in 1905 took first rank was the manufacture of felt hats; the total value of the product in 1905 was $9,540,433, a gain of 32·3% since 1900, and constituting 26% of the value of the product of the entire United States. Most of the product comes from the cities of Newark and Orange. From 1900 to 1905 the value of the worsted goods increased from $6,823,721 to $11,925,126, or 74·8%, the greatest gain made by any of the textiles. In this industry New Jersey was surpassed only by Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. During this five-year period there was an increase of 31·2% (from $6,540,289 to $8,518,527) in the value of the cotton goods manufactured in New Jersey; of 12·6% (from $2,168,570 to $2,441,516) in that of linen goods; of 45·3% (from $1,748,148 to $2,539,178) in that of hosiery and knit goods, and of 14·8% (from $1,522,827 to $1,748,831) in that of carpets and rugs. In dyeing and finishing textiles New Jersey was first among the states of the Union in 1900 (value, $10,488,963, being 23·3% of the total for the country) and in 1905 (value, $11,979,947, being 23·6% of the total for the country); Paterson is the centre of this industry in New Jersey.
In the manufacture of clay products, including brick, tiling, terra cotta and pottery, the state takes high rank: the total value of pottery, terra cotta and fire-clay products increased from $8,940,723. in 1900 to $11,717,103 in 1905; in 1905 the most valuable pottery product was sanitary ware, valued at $3,006,406; and in that year New Jersey furnished 18·2% of the total pottery product of the United States, and was surpassed in this industry only by Ohio. The city of Trenton is one of the two great centres of the American pottery industry, and in 1905 it manufactured more than one-half of the state’s output of pottery, terra cotta and fire-clay products. The pottery products include china, c.c. ware, white granite ware, sanitary ware, belleek and porcelain. Much of the raw material for this industry, such as ball, flint, and spar clays and kaolin, is imported from other states. In 1905 the value of brick and tile manufactured in the state was $1,830,080. Glass is also an important product of New Jersey; the output being valued at $5,093,822 in 1900 and at $6,450,195 in 1905. Since 1880, however, the state had fallen from second to fourth place (in 1905) in this industry.
The leading single industry in the state in 1905, as determined by the value of its products, was the smelting and refining of copper. In 1900 the output was valued at $38,365,131; in 1905, at $62,795,713, an increase of 63·7%; and in 1905 21·6% of the product of the United States came from New Jersey. The raw materials for this industry, however, are imported into New Jersey from other states. In the smelting and refining of platinum, nickel, gold and silver (not from the ore) there was a striking development between 1900 and 1905, the value of the product increasing from $469,224 to $7,034,139. The value in 1905 of gold and silver reduced and refined (not from the ore) was $5,281,805. The values of the other leading manufactures in 1905 were as follows: products of foundry and machine shops, $49,425,385; iron and steel (including products of blast furnaces and rolling mills), $23,667,483; wire (exclusive of copper wire), $11,103,959; petroleum refining, $46,608,984; tanned, curried and finished leather, $21,495,329, (5th in the United States in 1900 and 1905); malt liquors, $17,446,447; slaughter-house products and packed meats, $17,238,076; electrical machinery, supplies and apparatus, $13,803,476 (5th in the United States in 1900 and in 1905); chemicals, $13,023,629; rubber belting and hose, $9,915,742; jewelry, $9,303,646 (4th in the United States in 1900 and in 1905); tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, $8,331,611. Other manufactures valued in 1905 at more than $5,000,000 were: boots and shoes, cars and general railway shop work, illuminating and heating gas, lumber and planing mill products, phonographs, fertilizers, flour and grist mill products, iron and steel ships, refined lard and paper and wood pulp.
Fisheries.—The fisheries of the state are of great commercial value. In 1904 the fisheries and the wholesale fish trade gave employment to 9094 persons. Until 1901 New Jersey’s fisheries were more important than those of any other state in the Middle or South Atlantic groups; but after that date, owing to a decrease in the catch of bluefish, shad, clams and oysters, the annual catch of New York and Virginia became more valuable. The great length of river and sea front, and the easy communication from all parts of the state with the leading urban markets, have brought about the development of this industry. The total catch in 1904 was 90,108,068 ℔, valued at $3,385,415, a decline of 28% in value since 1901. The chief varieties of the product in 1904, with their value, were as follows: oysters, $1,691,953; clams, $430,766; shad, $238,517; squeteague (weak-fish), $253,200; bluefish, $120,085; menhaden, $109,090; sea bass, $97,903; cod, $53,789. Fishing, as a commercial pursuit, is carried on in seventeen counties, and attains its greatest importance in Cumberland county, where the catch in 1904 was valued at $1,090,157, and the oyster catch alone at $1,046,147. In the other counties along the Delaware shad is the chief product, and these counties furnish nearly nine-tenths of the catch. A small amount of shad is taken also in the Hudson river. The value of the shad fisheries has greatly declined since 1901. Along the coast squeteague is the most abundant edible variety taken. Bluefish are very plentiful from 4 to 10 m. off Seabright. The shell fisheries (oysters particularly) are centred in Delaware Bay and at Maurice River Cove, in Cumberland county, but are important also in Cape May, Atlantic, Ocean and Monmouth ​ counties on the Atlantic seaboard. This industry declined for a time, partly on account of the pollution of the streams by sewage and the refuse of manufacturing establishments, but laws have been enacted for its protection and development. Clams are gathered from Perth Amboy to the upper Delaware Bay; the most important fisheries being at Keyport, Port Monmouth and Belford. In 1909 the State Bureau of Shell Fisheries estimated the annual value of shell fisheries in the state at nearly $6,000,000, of which $500,000 was the value of clams. Monmouth, Ocean and Cape May counties furnish large quantities of menhaden, which are utilized for oil and fertilizer. This industry in 1904 yielded fertilizer valued at $154,360 and oil valued at $33,110.
Transportation.—In 1905, with a total railway mileage of 2274·40, New Jersey possessed an average of 30·22 m. of railway for each 100 sq. m. of territory, an average higher than that of any other American state; in 1909, according to the State Railroad Commissioners, the mileage was 2354·63 (including additional tracks, sidings, &c., 5471·38 m.). Owing to its geographical position the state is crossed by all roads reaching New York City from the S. and W., and all those reaching Philadelphia from the N. and E. The eastern terminals of the southern and western lines running from New York City are situated on the western shore of the Hudson river, in Weehawken, Hoboken or Jersey City; whence passengers and freight are carried by ferry to New York. Jersey City and Hoboken are also connected with New York by tunnels under the Hudson river. Among these lines are the Erie system, extending W. from Jersey City via Buffalo; the New York, Susquehanna & Western (subsidiary to the Erie), from Jersey City to Wilkes-Barré, Pennsylvania; the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, from Hoboken to Buffalo; the Lehigh Valley, from Jersey City to Buffalo; the Pennsylvania, from Jersey City to the S. and W.; the New York, Ontario & Western (controlled by the New York, New Haven & Hartford), from Weehawken to Oswego; the West Shore (leased by the New York Central), from Weehawken to Buffalo; and the Central railway of New Jersey (controlled by the Philadelphia & Reading), with numerous short lines from Jersey City to the S. and W. These roads also operate numerous branch lines and control other short lines built independently. Among the latter class are the Atlantic City railway (controlled by the Philadelphia & Reading) from Philadelphia to various coast resorts in southern New Jersey; and the West Jersey & Seashore (controlled by the Pennsylvania), from Philadelphia to Atlantic City and Cape May. The railways operating independently of the great “trunk” systems are few and unimportant. The excellence of the waggon roads of the state is largely due to the plentiful supply of trap rock in New Jersey.
Of New Jersey’s 487 m. of boundary, 319 m. are touched by waters navigable for boats of varying draft. There is tidal water on the E. and S., and also on the W. as far N. as Trenton. The lower Hudson is navigable for the largest ocean-going steamers. From Bergen Point to Perth Amboy, W. of Staten Island, lie the narrow channels of the Kill van Kull and Arthur Kill, with a minimum depth of 9 or 10 ft. at low water. Raritan Bay, to the S., is navigable only for small vessels. There are no good harbours on the Atlantic coast. The lower Delaware is navigable for ocean steamships as far N. as Camden (opposite Philadelphia), and for small vessels as far as Trenton, which is the head of navigation. The only deep water terminals of the state are Jersey City and Hoboken. Among the rivers the Raritan is navigable to New Brunswick, the Hackensack for small boats for 20 m. above its mouth, the Rahway as far as Rahway, the Great Egg Harbor river as far as May’s Landing, the Mullica for 20 m. above its mouth, and the Elizabeth river as far as Elizabeth, In 1907 an inland waterway from Cape May to Bay Head was planned: the length of this channel, through and between coastal sounds from the southernmost part of the state to the northern end of Barnegat Bay in the N.E. part of Ocean county, was to be about 116·6 m., and the channel was to be 6 ft. deep and 100 ft. wide. The Delaware and Raritan canal was long a very important artificial waterway. Its main channel (opened for traffic in 1838) extends from Bordentown, Burlington county, on the Delaware to New Brunswick, on the Raritan, 44 m. by the canal route, and thus carries the waters of the Delaware river entirely across the state, discharging them into the Raritan at New Brunswick. It is 40 ft. wide at the bottom, 80 ft. at the top and 9 ft. deep; it has a navigable feeder (30 ft. wide at the bottom and 60 ft. wide at the top, with a depth of 9 ft.), which is 22 m. long, extending from the Delaware at Bull’s Head to Trenton. The canal passes through Trenton (the highest point—56·3 ft. above mean tide), Kingston, Griggston, Weston and Bound Brook, and has one lock (or more) at each of these places. It is used chiefly for the transportation of Pennsylvania coal to New York, and is controlled by the Pennsylvania railway. The total cost up to 1906 was $5,113,749. The Morris Canal, opened in 1836, is 50 ft. wide at the surface, 30 ft. wide at the bottom and 5 ft. deep, and (excluding 4·1 m. of feeders) 102·38 m. long, beginning at Jersey City and passing through Newark, Bloomfield, Paterson, Little Falls, Boonton, Rockaway, Dover, Port Oram, Lake Hopatcong, Hackettstown and Washington to Phillipsburg on the Delaware; it is practically in two sections, one east and the other west of Lake Hopatcong (Sussex and Morris counties; about 928 ft. above sea-level; 9 m. long from N.E. to S.W.; maximum width, 1 m.), which is a reservoir and feeder for the canal’s eastern and western branches, and which was enlarged considerably when the canal was built. There is another feeder, the Pompton, 3·6 m. long, in Passaic county. The canal crosses the Passaic and Pompton rivers on aqueducts. The Canal (the Morris Canal Banking Company) was leased in April 1871 to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company for 999 years. It is no longer of commercial importance as a waterway. At Phillipsburg it connects with an important coal carrying canal (lying almost entirely in Pennsylvania), the property of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. (leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey), which follows the Lehigh river to Coalport (Carbon county, Pennsylvania), penetrating the coal regions of Pennsylvania.
Population.—The population of the state in 1880 was 1,131,116; in 1890, 1,444,933; in 1900, 1,883,669 (431,884 foreign-born, and 69,844 negroes); in 1905 (state census) 2,144,134; in 1910, 2,537,167. Of the native-born white population in 1900, 556,294 were of foreign parentage, and 825,973 were of native parentage. Among the various elements comprising the foreign-born population were 119,598 Germans; 94,844 Irish; 45,428 English; 41,865 Italians; 19,745 Russians; 14,913 Hungarians; 14,728 Austrians; 14,357 Poles; 14,211 Scotch; and 10,261 Dutch. In 1800 barely 2% of the population was urban; in 1900 80% of the inhabitants either lived in cities or were in daily communication with Philadelphia or New York. The rural population is practically stationary. The chief cities in 1910 were Newark (pop. 347,469), Jersey City (267,779), Paterson (125,600), Trenton (96,815), Camden (94,538) and Hoboken (70,324). Owing to its milder climate and its larger number of cities New Jersey has a negro population somewhat larger than that of the states of the same latitude farther west. The rate of increase of this element, which is greatest in the cities, is about the same as that for the white inhabitants. Since 1881 colonies of Hebrews have been established in the southern part of the state, among them being Alliance (1881), Rosenhayn (1882), Carmel (1883), and, most noted of all, Woodbine, which owes its origin to the liberality of Baron de Hirsch, and contains the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural and Industrial School. As regards church affiliation, in 1906 Roman Catholics were the most numerous, with 441,432 members out of a total of 857,548 communicants of all denominations; there were 122,511 Methodists, 79,912 Presbyterians, 65,248 Baptists, 53,921 Protestant Episcopalians, 32,290 members of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America, and 24,147 Lutherans.
​ Administration.—The state is governed under the constitution of 1844, with subsequent amendments of 1875 and of 1897. The only other constitution under which the state has been governed was that of 1776 (see History below). The right of suffrage is conferred upon all males, twenty-one years of age and over, who have resided in the state for one year and in the county for five months preceding the election. Paupers, idiots, insane persons and persons who are convicted of crimes which exclude them from being witnesses and who have not been pardoned and restored to civil rights are disfranchised. The executive power is vested in a governor, who is elected for a term of three years and may not serve two successive terms, though he may be re-elected after he has been out of office for a full term. He must be at least thirty years of age, and must have been a citizen of the United States for a least twenty years, and a resident of the state seven years next preceding his election. He may not be elected by the legislature, during the term for which he is elected as governor, to any office under the state or the United States governments. He receives a salary of $10,000 a year. If the governor die, resign or be removed from office, or if his office be otherwise vacant, he is succeeded by the president of the Senate, who serves until another governor is elected and qualified. The governor’s powers under the constitution of 1776 were greatly limited by the constitution of 1844. His appointive power is unusually large. With the advice and consent of the state Senate he selects the secretary of state, attorney-general, superintendent of public instruction, chancellor, chief justice, judges of the supreme, circuit, inferior and district courts, and the so-called “lay” judges of the court of errors and appeals, in addition to the minor administrative officers who are usually appointive in all American states. The governor may make no appointments in the last week of his term. The state treasurer, comptroller and the commissioners of deeds are appointed by the two houses of the legislature in joint session. The governor is ex officio a member of the court of pardons, and his affirmative vote is necessary in all cases of pardon or commutation of sentence (see below).
The legislative department consists of a Senate and a General Assembly. In the Senate each of the 21 counties has one representative, chosen for a term of three years, and about one-third of the membership is chosen each year. The members of the General Assembly are elected annually, are limited to sixty (the actual number in 1909), and are apportioned among the counties according to population, with the important proviso, however, that every county shall have at least one member.
The arrangement of senatorial representation is very unequal; and the densely populated counties are under-represented. A senator must at the time of his election be at least thirty years old, and must have been a citizen and inhabitant of the state for four years and of his county for one year immediately preceding his election; and an assemblyman must at the time of his election be at least twenty-one years old, and must have been a citizen and inhabitant of the state for two years, and of his county for one year, immediately preceding his election. The annual salary of each senator and of each member of the General Assembly is $500. Money bills originate in the lower house, but the Senate may propose amendments. The legislature may not create any debt or liability “which shall, single or in the aggregate with any previous debts or liabilities, at any time exceed $100,000,” except for purposes of war, to repel invasion or to suppress insurrection, without specifying distinctly the purpose or object, providing for the payment of interest, and limiting the liability to thirty-five years; and the measure as thus passed must be ratified by popular vote. The constitution as amended in 1875 forbids the legislature to pass any private or special laws regulating the affairs of towns or counties, or to vote state grants to any municipal or industrial corporations or societies, and prescribes that in imposing taxes the assessment of taxable property shall be according to general laws and by uniform rules; and anti-race-track agitation in 1891–1897 led to a further amendment prohibiting the legalizing of lotteries, of pool-selling or of other forms of gambling. The governor may (since 1875) veto any item in any appropriation bill, but any bill (or item) may be passed over his veto by bare majorities (of all members elected) in both houses. Bills not returned to the legislature in five days become law, unless the legislature adjourns in the meantime. Amendments to the constitution must first be passed by the legislature at two consecutive sessions (receiving a majority vote of all members elected to each house), and then be ratified by the voters at a special election, and no amendment or amendments may be submitted by the legislature to the people oftener than once in five years.
The judicial system is complex and is an interesting development from the English system of the 18th century. At its head is a court of errors and appeals composed of the chancellor, the justices of the supreme court and six additional “lay” judges. The supreme court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices, but it may be held by the chief justice alone or by any one of the associate justices. The state is divided into nine judicial districts, and each supreme court justice holds circuit courts within each county of a judicial district, besides being associated with the “president” judge of the court of common pleas of each county in holding the court of common pleas, the court of quarter sessions, the court of oyer and terminer and the orphans’ court. One of five additional judges may hold a circuit court in the absence of a justice of the supreme court, or the “president” judge of a court of common pleas may do so if the supreme court justice requests it. In each township there are from two to five justices of the peace, any one of whom may preside over the “small cause court,” which has jurisdiction of cases in which the matter in dispute does not exceed $200 and is not an action of replevin, one in which the charge is slander, trespass or assault, battery or imprisonment, or in which the title to real estate is in question.
The court of common pleas, which may be held either by the “president” judge or by a justice of the supreme court, may hear appeals from the “small cause court,” and has original jurisdiction in all civil matters except those in which the title to real estate is in question. The court of quarter sessions, which may likewise be held by either the judge of the court of common pleas or by a justice of the supreme court, has jurisdiction over all criminal cases except those of treason or murder. The court of oyer and terminer is a higher criminal court, and has cognizance of all crimes and offences whatever. Except in counties having a population of 300,000 or more, a justice of the supreme court must preside over it, and the judge of the court of common pleas may or may not sit with him; in a county having a population of 300,000 or more the judge of the court of common pleas may sit alone. Writs of error in cases punishable with death are returnable only to the court of errors and appeals. No appeals are permitted in criminal cases. The orphans’ court may be held either by the judge of the court of common pleas or by a justice of the supreme court; and it has jurisdiction over controversies respecting the existence of wills, the fairness of inventories, the right of administration and guardianship, the allowance of accounts to executors, administrators, guardians or trustees, and over suits for the recovery of legacies and distributive shares, but it may refer any matter coming before it to a master in chancery. The prerogative court, which is presided over by the chancellor as ordinary and surrogate-general, or by a vice-ordinary and vice-surrogate-general, may hear appeals from the orphans court, and has the authority to grant probate of wills and letters of administration and guardianship, and to hear and determine disputes arising therein. The court of chancery is administered by a chancellor, seven vice-chancellors and numerous masters in chancery. Besides the ordinary chancery jurisdiction it hears all applications for divorce or nullity of marriage. Appeals from the court of chancery as well as writs of error from the supreme court are heard by the court of errors and appeals. New Jersey has a court of pardons composed of the governor, chancellor and the six “lay” judges of the court of errors and appeals, and the concurrence of a majority of its members, of whom the governor shall be one, is necessary to grant a pardon, commute a sentence or remit a fine. This court has, also, the authority to grant to a convict a licence to be at large upon such security, terms, conditions and limitations as it may require. The judges of the several New Jersey courts are appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate for a term of years, usually five to seven.
For the purposes of local government the state is divided into counties, cities, townships, towns and boroughs. The government of the towns is administered through a council, clerk, collector, assessor, treasurer, &c., chosen by popular vote; that of the townships is vested in the annual town meeting, at which administrative officers are elected. Any township with more ​ than 5000 inhabitants may be incorporated as a town, with its government vested in a mayor and council. Any township or part thereof with less than 4 sq. m. of territory, and less than 5000 inhabitants, may be incorporated as a borough, with its government vested in a mayor and council.
In 1903 a law (revised in 1908) was passed providing for the conduct at public cost of primary elections for the nomination of nearly all elective officers, and for the nomination of delegates to party nominating conventions; nominations for primary elections are made by petitions signed by at least ten voters (except in very small election districts) who make affidavit as to their party affiliations; the nominee thus indorsed must file a letter of acceptance. Under this act a “political party” is one which polled at least one-twentieth of the total number of votes cast in the next preceding election in the area for which the nomination is made; and in party conventions there must be one delegate from each election district, and one delegate for each 200 votes cast by the party in the next preceding gubernatorial election.
An act approved on the 10th of April 1908 authorized a Civil Service Commission of four members appointed by the governor, who choose a chief examiner and a secretary of the commission. Civil service rules adopted by this commission went into effect in the same year for certain state employes. In 1910 that part of the law permitting municipalities to adopt these rules through their governing bodies was declared unconstitutional; but municipalities may adopt them by popular vote.
A state Board of Railroad Commissioners (three appointed by the governor), created in 1907, became in 1910 a Board of Public Utility Commissioners with jurisdiction over all public utilities (including telephones and telegraphs); its approval is necessary for the issue of stock or bonds, but it has no power to fix rates.
The state acts concurrently with New York in preserving the natural beauties of the Palisades of the Hudson river; and in 1909 the Palisades Interstate Park, with a front of 13 m. on the Hudson, from Fort Lee to Piermont, was dedicated.
The homestead exempt from sale under seizure is limited to the house and lot, not exceeding $1000 in value, of a debtor having a family. To entitle the property to exemption, it must be registered as a homestead in the office of the county clerk, and it may be sold, then, only with the consent of the husband and wife, and the proceeds of the sale, to the amount of $1000, must be applied to the purchase of another homestead. The exemption does not extend to a sale for unpaid taxes, for labour done on the homestead, materials furnished to it, or for a debt contracted in the purchase thereof, or prior to the recording of the notice. The exemption inures to the benefit of the widow and family of the householder until the youngest child becomes twenty-one years of age.
Capital punishment is by electrocution. A law of 1902 provides the death penalty for any murderous assault on the president of the United States, the chief executive of any state, or the heir to any foreign throne.
The grounds for an absolute divorce are only two: adultery and “wilful, continued and obstinate” desertion for two years; but a decree of limited or permanent separation may be obtained in case of extreme cruelty. Unless the cause of action is adultery or at least one of the parties was a resident of the state at the time the cause of action arose and has continued to reside there, no suit for a divorce can be begun until one of the parties shall have resided in the state for the two years next preceding. Furthermore, the cause of action must have been recognized in the jurisdiction in which the petitioner resided at the time it arose.
No child less than fourteen years old is permitted to work in any factory, workshop or mill; and the penalty for each offence is $50. The employment of children under sixteen years of age in any mercantile establishment for more than 10 hours a day, or 55 hours a week, or between 6 o’clock in the evening and 6 o’clock in the morning is prohibited, except one evening each week when they may be permitted to work until 9 o’clock, and except in the evenings from the 15th to the 25th of December when they may be permitted to work until 10 o’clock. There are strict provisions for the protection and for the sanitary housing of factory employees, and prohibiting sweat-shops. A state law (1899) requires the payment of wages in lawful money at least every two weeks to its employees on the part of every firm, association or partnership doing business in the state.
Education.—During the colonial period there were schools maintained by churches, a few town schools of the New England type, and, in the latter part of the era, a number of private schools. But the schools of colonial New Jersey, especially the private schools, were usually taught by incompetent masters, and many children were permitted to grow up without any schooling whatever. Public interest in education, however, began to awaken soon after the close of the War of Independence. Under the encouragement of an act of the legislature passed in 1794 several academies were established. A public school fund was established in 1817. Three years later townships were authorized to levy taxes for maintaining schools for poor children. The division of townships into school districts and the election of three trustees were provided for in 1829. In 1846 each township was required to raise as much money for school purposes as the state contributed. In 1855 a normal school for training teachers was established at Trenton. And in 1867 a school law was passed which established the main features of the present school system, although it was four years later before a state school tax was imposed and schools were made free to all children in the state. The public school system is administered under the direction of a superintendent of public instruction and a state board of education. The former decides all controversies arising under the school law, and exercises a general supervision over the public schools; the latter has the control of a number of special state educational institutions, appoints the county superintendents and supervises the execution of the school laws of the state. In general each city, town and township in the state constitutes a separate school district, although two or more of these may unite to form a single district. Each district is required to furnish free textbooks. All children between the ages of 7 and 15 are required to attend school for the full school year, and those who at 15 years of age have not completed the grammar school course must continue to attend until they either complete it or arrive at the age of 17. Furthermore, children past 15 years of age who have completed the grammar school course but are not regularly and lawfully employed at some useful occupation must attend a high school or a manual training school until 17 years of age.
Funds for the support of the public schools are derived from various sources: (1) the interest on the “surplus revenue” ($760,670), deposited with New Jersey by the Federal government in 1836; (2) the income from the state school fund, consisting largely of receipts from the sale and rental of riparian lands; (3) a state school tax; (4) a direct appropriation by the legislature to supplement the school tax, so that the two combined will form a sum equal to a tax of two and three-fourths mills on each dollar of taxable property; and (5) local taxes. At the close of the fiscal year 1908 the school fund of the state was $4,850,602·41; the income for the year was $224,233·56 and the disbursements were $373,095·76. The income from the state school fund is divided among the counties on the basis of the total number of days of attendance of the public school pupils; the legislative appropriation, however, is apportioned among the counties according to their assessed property values. Each county also received 90% of the state school tax it has paid, the remainder forming a reserve fund to be distributed among the counties at the discretion of the state board. The state will duplicate any yearly sum between $250 and $5000 which a school district may raise to maintain a school or courses of manual training. In like manner, any school that raises $20 for a library will receive the same amount from the state, which will also contribute $10 each year thereafter for maintenance, if the school raises a similar sum. The total number of teachers in the public schools in 1908 was 10,279; the total school enrollment was 402,866, with an average daily attendance of 289,167; and the average length of the school term was nine months and two days. For the benefit of veteran and invalid public school teachers there is a “retirement fund,” which owes its origin to voluntary contributions by teachers in active service. The state has taken official recognition of this fund and administers it on behalf of the contributors through a board of trustees appointed by the governor.
In addition to the regular public schools, the state maintains a normal and a model school at Trenton, a normal school at Montclair (opened 1908), the Farnum Preparatory School at Beverly, a Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth at Bordentown, and an agricultural college and experiment station, maintained in connexion with Rutgers College, at New Brunswick. There are industrial schools in Newark, Hoboken and Trenton, for which the state made an appropriation of $20,000 in 1908. Among the prominent institutions not receiving state aid are Princeton University, at Princeton; Rutgers College (excluding its agricultural school), at New Brunswick; and the Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken. Among the denominational institutions are the Theological Seminary (Presbyterian) at Princeton; the Drew Theological Seminary (Methodist Episcopal) at Madison; Seton Hall College (Roman Catholic), at South Orange; St Peter’s College (Roman Catholic) at Jersey City; St Benedict’s College (Roman Catholic) at Newark; the German Theological School of Newark ​ (Presbyterian) at Bloomfield; and the Theological Seminary of the (Dutch) Reformed Church in America, at New Brunswick. There are many private academies and secondary schools, sectarian and non-sectarian.
The state supports the following charitable and correctional institutions all under the inspection of a State Department of Charities and Correction (1905); hospitals for the insane at Trenton and Morris Plains; a training-school for feeble-minded children (partly supported by the state) and a home for feeble-minded women at Vineland; a sanatorium for tuberculous diseases at Glen Gardner; a village for epileptics, with a farm of 700 acres, near Skillman, Somerset county; a state home (reform school) for boys near Jamesburg, Middlesex county, and for girls in Ewing township, near Trenton; a state reformatory for criminals sixteen to thirty years of age, near Rahway; a state prison at Trenton; a home for disabled soldiers at Kearney, Hudson county; a home for disabled soldiers, sailors and their wives at Vineland; and a school for the deaf at Trenton. There is no institution for the blind, but the state pays the expenses of blind children who are sent from New Jersey to the New York State School for the Blind. A State Board of Children’s Guardians, with an office in Jersey City, cares for destitute children. A convict parole law went into operation in 1891.
Finance.—The revenues for state and for local purposes are derived from separate sources. The expenses of the state government are met chiefly by special taxes on railway and canal corporations, a franchise tax on the capital stock of other corporations, a collateral inheritance tax and leases of riparian lands. The counties and municipalities derive their revenues chiefly from taxes on real and personal property. Real and personal property is free from a state tax, except for school purposes. The school tax is apportioned among the counties in proportion to their taxable property.
A large part of the state’s revenue comes from the tax on railways and canals, which is levied on the property actually employed in their operation. Any property of railways other than the “main stem” (i.e. the road-bed with the rails and sleepers not over 100 ft. in width), that is employed in operating the road or canal is taxed by the state for local purposes. Counties and municipalities may tax property within their jurisdiction belonging to railways but not actually used for railway purposes. Domestic telegraph, telephone, express, cable, parlour- and sleeping-car, gas- and electric-lighting, oil and pipe line companies, and several classes of insurance companies, are taxed on the amount of their gross receipts. Other domestic corporations are taxed on the amount of their capital stock. The rate of this tax decreases as the amount of capital stock increases, thus favouring large corporations. On all capital stock up to $3,000,000, the rate is one-tenth of 1%; on all amounts between three and five million dollars, the rate is one-twentieth of 1%; and on all above five million dollars, thirty dollars per million, or 3/1000 of 1%. An inheritance tax is levied on all bequests in excess of $500 to persons other than specially excepted classes; and in 1907 the receipts from the “collateral inheritance tax” were $241,480. County and municipal revenue are derived from the tax on general property. The poll tax is restricted almost entirely to municipalities, which devote the proceeds to roads and schools. The fees received for issuing charters to corporations are another source of revenue to the state. Toward corporations the policy of New Jersey has always been liberal; there is no limit fixed either to capitalization or to bonded indebtedness; the tax rate, as already indicated, is lower for large than for small corporations; and so many large combinations of capital have been incorporated under the laws of the state that it is sometimes called “the home of the trusts.” For the fiscal year 1907 the fees collected from corporations by the secretary of state amounted to $204,454, the receipts from the tax on corporations other than railways amounted to $2,584,363·60, and the receipts from the tax on railway corporations were $807,780. It is the revenue from these sources that has enabled New Jersey to dispense almost entirely with the general property tax for state purposes. The legal requirement that every corporation chartered by the state must maintain its principal office there has given rise to the peculiar institution called the “corporation agency,” a single office which serves as the “principal office” of numbers of corporations. At the close of the fiscal year 1907 the state was free from bonded indebtedness, and had a balance on hand of $1,320,038 (much less than in 1906, because of the non-payment of railway taxes, pending litigation). In the state fund, the total receipts for the year were $4,602,100, and the total disbursements, $5,366,813.
History.—Bones and implements have been found in the Quaternary gravels at Trenton, which have been held by some authorities to prove the presence of Palaeolithic man; but the earliest inhabitants of New Jersey of whom there is any certain record were the Lenni-Lennapé or Delaware Indians, a branch of the Algonquian family. They were most numerous in the southern and central portions of the state, preferring the river valleys; but their total number, perhaps, never exceeded a thousand. Between them and the European settlers there were seldom any manifestations of acute hostility, though each race feared and distrusted the other. Many Indians were enslaved, and intermarriage between them and negro slaves became common. During the 18th century the Indian title to the soil was rapidly extinguished, and at the same time the vices and diseases of the stronger race were gradually reducing their numbers. In 1758 an Indian reservation, said to have been the first established within the present limits of the United States, was established at Edgepelick, or Brotherton (now called Indian Mills) in Burlington county. The surviving aborigines remained there until 1802, when they joined the Mohegans in New York and migrated to Wisconsin and later to Indian Territory, now part of the state of Oklahoma. For the extinction of all Indian titles the legislature of New Jersey in 1832 appropriated $2000, and since that date almost every vestige of Indian occupation has disappeared.
The first authenticated visit of a European to what is now New Jersey was made under French authority by Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, who in the spring of 1524 sailed within Sandy Hook and dropped anchor in the waters of upper New York Bay. In the following year Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese sailor in the service of the emperor Charles V., in his reputed voyage southward from Labrador, is said to have made note of the Hudson and Delaware rivers. It is very probable, also, that French traders soon afterward penetrated the region along the lower Hudson. Voyages to this region for exploration, trade and settlement, however, may be said to have really begun with the year 1609, when Henry Hudson explored the region between Sandy Hook and Raritan Bay and sailed up the river which now bears his name. After this voyage came Dutch traders, who established themselves on Manhattan Island and soon spread across the Hudson river into what are now Hudson and Bergen counties. In 1614 Cornelis Jacobsen Mey explored the lower Delaware, and two years later Cornelis Hendricksen more thoroughly explored this stream. In 1623 the first party of permanent homeseekers arrived at New Amsterdam, and a portion of these formed a settlement on the eastern bank of the Delaware and built Fort Nassau near the site of the present Gloucester City. In 1631 Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert secured a patent from Peter Minuit, the director of New Netherland, authorizing them to plant a settlement near Cape May, but the effort was soon abandoned. A trading hut built at Paulus Hook in 1633 was the beginning of the present Jersey City. On the western bank of the Hudson the trading post of Hobocanhackingh, on the site of the present city of Hoboken, was established at an early date. From these places and from New Amsterdam the Dutch spread into the Raritan Valley. During the rule of Governor William Kieft, the Indians, disturbed by the encroachments of the settlers, assumed a hostile attitude. The actual occasion of the Indian outbreak was the massacre of a number of Tappan Indians in 1643 by soldiers acting under Kieft’s orders. From the Connecticut to the Raritan the savages rose in arms, laid waste the farms, massacred the settlers and compelled those who escaped to take refuge on Manhattan Island. The Dutch engaged the services of about fifty Englishmen under Captain John Underhill, a hero of the Pequot War, and in 1644 the Indians were defeated in several engagements, but a general peace with them was not established until the 30th of August 1645.
In the meantime colonists of another nationality had set foot on the shores of the lower Delaware. To found a colony in ​ the new world was long the desire of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but incessant European wars prevented the establishment of any settlement until after his death. In 1638 fifty colonists landed on the western bank of the Delaware and built Fort Christina on the site of the modern Wilmington. Five years later, on the eastern bank a triangular fort, called Elfsborg, was constructed near the present Salem. But the Swedish rule was short-lived, as in 1655 the settlements surrendered to Peter Stuyvesant and passed under the control of the Dutch. Upon the subsequent history of New Jersey the attempts of Holland and Sweden at colonization had very little influence. The Dutch and Swedes between the Delaware and the Hudson were mostly traders, and therefore did not make many permanent settlements or establish forms of government.
By the English of New England and Virginia the Dutch and Swedes were regarded as intruders, and were repeatedly warned against trespassing on English soil. As early as 1634 a patent had been issued to Sir Edmund Plowden, appointing him governor over New Albion, a tract of land including the present states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In spite of great efforts, however, Sir Edmund failed to plant a colony. In 1634 a party of English from Virginia, having ascended the Delaware and occupied Fort Nassau, which the Dutch had abandoned, were promptly captured by the Dutch, taken to New Amsterdam, and thence sent home, arriving just in time to prevent the departure of a second English expedition up the Delaware. In 1641 English colonists from New Haven migrated southward and planted a settlement on the eastern bank of the Delaware river, declaring it to be a part of the New Haven jurisdiction. In the following year Governor Kieft, with the assistance of the Swedes, arrested the English and sent them back to New Haven.
Many years elapsed before an English sovereign made any effort to oust the Dutch from the dominions he claimed by virtue of the discovery of the Cabots. On the 12th of March 1664 Charles II. bestowed upon his brother James, duke of York, all the lands between the Connecticut river and the eastern side of Delaware Bay, as well as all the islands between Cape Cod and the Hudson river. An expedition was sent from England in May, under the command of Richard Nicolls, and in the following August the English flag floated over New Amsterdam. In October Sir Robert Carr took possession of the settlements on the Delaware, and terminated the rule of the Dutch. The few inhabitants of what is now New Jersey acquiesced in the new order. While the expedition commanded by Nicolls was still at sea, the duke of York, by deeds of lease and release, transferred to Lord John Berkeley, baron of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret (q.v.), all that part of his new possessions extending eastward from the Delaware Bay and river to the Atlantic Ocean and the Hudson river, and northward from Cape May to a line drawn from the northernmost branch of the Delaware, “which is 41° 40′ lat.,” to the Hudson river in 41° N. lat. To this tract the name of Nova Caesarea, or New Jersey, was given, as the same name had been given in a patent to Carteret issued in 1650, to “a certain island and adjacent islets” near Virginia, in America, which were never settled—in honour of Carteret, who governed the isle of Jersey in 1643–1651 and there entertained Prince Charles during his exile from England. The grant conferred upon Berkeley and Carteret all the territorial rights which the royal charter had conferred upon the duke of York; but whether or not the rights of government went with these soon became a vexed question. In order to attract immigrants, the proprietors in February 1665 published their “Concession and Agreement,” by which they made provision for a governor, a governor’s council, and an assembly chosen by the freemen and having the power to levy taxes. Special inducements in the way of land grants were offered to persons embarking with the first governor. In the meantime Governor Nicolls of New York, ignorant of the grant to Berkeley and Carteret, had approved certain Indian sales of land to settlers within New Jersey, and had confirmed their titles to tracts in what later became Elizabethtown, Middletown and Shrewsbury. In this way he unconsciously opened the way for future trouble. Moreover, when he had learned that the duke had parted with New Jersey he convinced him that it was a great loss, and in the effort to save what was possible, Staten Island was taken from the proprietors on the plea that one arm of the Hudson flowed along its western border.
In August 1665 Philip Carteret, a relative of Sir George, arrived in the province as its first governor. In May 1668 he convoked the first assembly at Elizabethtown. At the next session, in the following November, the towns of Shrewsbury and Middletown declared that they held their grants from Governor Nicolls, and that they were consequently exempt from any quit-rents the proprietors might claim. They refused to pay their share of the public expenses; and their deputies, on refusing to take the oath of allegiance and fidelity, were expelled from the assembly. The disaffection soon spread and led to the so-called “disorganizing” assembly in 1672, which went so far as to choose James Carteret, a landgrave of Carolina and presumably a natural son of Sir George, as “President.” Philip Carteret returned to England and laid the case before the proprietors; they ordered President Carteret to continue on his way to Carolina and confirmed as governor John Berry, whom Governor Carteret had left behind as deputy. The duke of York declared that the grants made by Nicolls were null and void; the king enjoined obedience to the proprietors, and quiet was restored. Another change was impending, however, and in August 1673, when a Dutch fleet appeared off Staten Island, New Jersey for a second time became a part of New Netherland. The settled region was called “Achter Koll,” or “Back Bay,” after Newark Bay, whose waters, lying behind the bay of New York, had to be crossed in order to reach Elizabethtown. The period of Dutch rule was short, and by the treaty of Westminster, of the 9th of February 1674, the territory was restored to England. The crown lawyers decided that the rights of the proprietors of New York and New Jersey had been extinguished by the conquest, and that by treaty the lands had been reconveyed, not to the proprietors, but to the king. On the 13th of June 1674 Charles II. accordingly wrote a letter confirming the title and power of Carteret in the eastern half of New Jersey. No similar grant was made to Berkeley, as on the 18th of March he had sold his interest in the province to John Fenwicke, sometime major in the Parliamentary army and later a member of the Society of Friends, and Edward Byllynge (d. 1687), a Quaker merchant. On the 29th of June the duke of York received a new patent similar to that of 1664, and he at once (on the 28th and 29th of July) confirmed Carteret in all his rights in that portion of New Jersey N. of a line drawn from Barnegat Creek to “Rankokus Kill”—a stream a little S. of the site of Burlington—which was considerably more than one-half of the province. The duke of York commissioned Sir Edmund Andros as governor of his dominions, including “all ye land from ye West side of Connecticut River to ye East side of Delaware Bay.” Sir George Carteret again sent over his kinsman Philip Carteret to be governor of the eastern part of New Jersey, and the two governors arrived in October 1674 in the same ship. A disagreement arose as to ​ the respective interests of Fenwicke and Byllynge in the western portion of the province, and they chose William Penn, a new member of the Society of Friends, as arbitrator. To Byllynge Penn awarded nine-tenths of the territory and to Fenwicke one-tenth. Financial embarrassments a short time afterward caused Byllynge to assign his shares in trust for his creditors to three Quakers, William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas. Later they acquired control of Fenwicke’s share also. In 1675 Fenwicke with his family and a company of settlers reached the Delaware in the ship “Griffith” from London, and on the eastern shore they formed a settlement to which they gave the name of Salem. This was the first permanent English settlement in this part of New Jersey. Refusing to recognize Fenwicke’s jurisdiction, Governor Andros of New York attempted to secure his peaceful recognition of the duke’s authority, and, failing in this, he sent a military force into this district in December 1676 and made Fenwicke a prisoner. In January, however, he was released on his promise not to act in a public capacity until he should receive further authority. Meanwhile the trustees of Byllynge were seeking a division of the province more to their advantage and, Sir George Carteret having been persuaded by the duke of York to surrender his grant of July 1674, the so-called “quintipartite deed” was executed on the 1st of July 1676. This instrument defined the interests of Carteret, Penn, Lawrie, Lucas and Byllynge, by fixing a line of partition from Little Egg Harbor to a point on the Delaware river, in 41° 40′ N. lat., and by assigning the province east of this line (East Jersey) to Carteret and the province west of this line (West Jersey), about five-eighths of the whole, to the Quaker associates. The Quakers’ title to West Jersey, however, still bore the cloud resulting from the Dutch conquest, and the duke of York had desired to recover all of his original grant to Berkeley and Carteret ever since Governor Nicolls had protested against it. But at this time his own right to the crown of England was threatened with the Exclusion Bill, and under these conditions instead of pressing his case against the Quakers he not only permitted it to be decided against him but in August 1680 confirmed their title by a new deed.
A very liberal frame of government for West Jersey, drafted presumably by William Penn, and entitled “the Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Freeholders and Inhabitants of West Jersey in America,” was adopted in March 1677. This vested the principal powers of government in an assembly of one hundred members, who were to be chosen annually and to be subject to instructions from their constituents. In the intervals between sessions of the assembly, affairs were to be managed by ten commissioners chosen by that body. Religious toleration was assured. In August 1677 the ship “Kent” arrived in the Delaware, with 230 Quakers from London and Yorkshire. These founded a settlement, which became the modern Burlington, and in the next few months several hundred more colonists arrived. But the new colony was never actually governed under “the Concessions and Agreements”; for from the beginning until the first assembly was called in November 1681 its affairs were managed by commissioners named by the proprietors and when in 1680 the duke of York confirmed the title to the land to Byllynge and his associates he conveyed the right to govern to Byllynge alone. Although he was one of the signers of “the Concessions and Agreements” Byllynge now commissioned Samuel Jennings as governor of the province, and the other proprietors acquiesced, appointing Byllynge governor and permitting Jennings to serve as his deputy. Jennings immediately called the first assembly, and this body passed a number of fundamental laws which provided for a governor and council, but were in other respects much like the clauses relating to government in “the Concessions and Agreements.” When, as if to test his authority, Byllynge, in 1682–1683, removed Jennings who had been a popular governor, the assembly, by the advice of William Penn, passed a series of resolutions in the form of a protest, and in 1684 two agents were sent to England to negotiate with Byllynge. There the dispute was finally submitted for arbitration to George Fox and other Quakers, and they decided that, as the government of the province was legally vested in Byllynge by the duke’s conveyance to him, he had the right to name the deputy governor. Fenwicke, after his release by Andros, endeavoured to re-establish a government at Salem with himself as “Lord and Chief Proprietor” of West Jersey, but the duke’s officers further contested his claims and in 1682 Penn effected a peaceful settlement with him.
In East Jersey, after the return of Governor Carteret, there was a period of quiet, until the death of Sir George Carteret in 1680 gave the zealous Andros another chance to further the supposed interests of his ducal master. Claiming jurisdiction over New Jersey by the terms of his commission, he issued a proclamation in March 1680 ordering Philip Carteret and his “pretended” officers to cease exercising jurisdiction within the duke’s dominions unless he could show warrant. To this Carteret made a spirited reply, and on the 30th of April a detachment of soldiers dragged the governor of East Jersey from his bed and carried him prisoner to New York. Here he was confined for four weeks, and was released only on his promise not to exercise any authority until the matter could be referred to England for adjudication. When the assembly of East Jersey met in June, Andros appeared before it as governor and recommended such measures as he deemed advisable, but the deputies refused to pass them. In England, too, his conduct was disavowed, and he was called home to answer charges that had been preferred against him. Philip Carteret reassumed the duties of his office, but his administration, now that Andros was no longer feared, was again marked by much friction with the assembly. Sir George Carteret had bequeathed his province to eight trustees, who were to administer it for the benefit of his creditors, and for the next two years the government was conducted in the name of his widow and executrix, Lady Elizabeth. Early in 1682, after several unsuccessful attempts to effect a sale by other means, the province was offered for sale at public auction, and was purchased by William Penn and eleven associates for £3400. Later each of these twelve sold one-half of his share to another associate, thus making twenty-four proprietors; and on the 14th of March the duke of York confirmed the sale, and gave them all the powers necessary for governing the province. Robert Barclay, one of the proprietors, was chosen governor for life, with the privilege of performing his duties by deputy, and as his deputy he sent over Thomas Rudyard. In 1683 Rudyard was succeeded by Gawen Lawrie, who brought over with him a curious frame of government entitled “the Fundamental Constitutions.” This instrument, which was designed to replace the Concessions, provided for the government of the province by a governor chosen by the proprietors, a common council consisting of the proprietors or their proxies together with 12 freemen, and a great council consisting of the proprietors or their proxies together with 144 freemen chosen by a mixed system of elections and the casting of lots. But the new system was to apply only to those who, in return for the greater privileges which it was alleged to ensure, would agree to a resurvey of their lands, arrange to pay quit-rents and provide for the permanent support of the government, and as Governor Lawrie found the colonists generally unwilling to make the exchange on the proposed terms, he discreetly refrained from any attempt to put the Fundamental Constitutions in operation and thereby avoided the confusion which must have resulted from two sets of laws. The government of the twenty-four proprietors, however, was liberal. Recognizing the necessity of some one in the province with full power “to do all things that may contribute to the good and advancement of the same,” they directed the appointment of the American Board of Proprietors—a body of men identified with the province, who with the deputy-governor were to look after the proprietary interests in such matters as the approval of legislation and the granting of lands, and thereby prevent the delay caused by the transmission of such matters to England for approval. In 1686 another effort was made to put the Fundamental Constitutions in force, but when the deputies and the council rejected the instrument, the proprietors did not force the matter. In 1686 Perth Amboy, ​ the newly created port of East Jersey, became its seat of government.
After his accession to the throne in 1685, James II. showed an unyielding determination to annul the privileges of the colonies, and to unite New York, New Jersey and the New England colonies under a single government. In order, therefore, to save their rights in the soil, the proprietors of East and West Jersey offered to surrender their claims to jurisdiction, and to this arrangement the king consented. Andros, previously appointed viceroy of New England, thereupon received a new commission extending his authority over New York and the Jerseys, and in August 1688 he formally annexed these provinces to the Dominion of New England. The seizure of Andros by the people of Boston in April 1689, following the news of the revolt in England against James II., gave the Jersey proprietors an opportunity to resume their rights, but the proprietary governments regained their former footing very slowly. The proprietors were widely separated—some being in America, some in England and others in Scotland—and unity of action was impracticable. For three years there was little or no government in the Jerseys, beyond the measures taken by local officers for preserving the peace.
In 1692 an important change occurred in the administrative system through the appointment of Andrew Hamilton (d. 1703) as governor of both East and West Jersey. In 1697 a faction opposed to Hamilton secured his removal and the appointment of their partisan, Jeremiah Basse. The opposition in the two colonies to Basse became so formidable that he was removed in 1699 and Hamilton was reappointed. Certain disaffected elements thereupon refused to recognize his authority, on the ground that his appointment had not received the required approval of the crown, and for a time the condition of the provinces bordered on anarchy. These disorders, and especially complaints against the Jerseys as centres of illegal trade, were brought to the attention of King William and his lawyers contended that as only the king could convey powers of government those exercised by the Jersey proprietors, derived as they were from the duke of York, were without sufficient warrant. Moreover, the inhabitants sent petitions to England, praying that they might be placed under the direct control of the crown. The proprietors of East Jersey had already offered to surrender their jurisdiction, in return for certain concessions by the royal government, but no action had been taken. In 1701 the proprietors of both provinces made another proposal, which was accepted, and in April 1702 all rights of jurisdiction were transferred to the crown, while the rights to the soil remained in the proprietors. The provinces of East and West Jersey were then united under a government similar to that of the other royal provinces. Until 1738 the governor of New York was also governor of New Jersey; after that date each colony had its own governor. The legislature met alternately at Burlington and Perth Amboy, until 1790, when Trenton was selected as the capital of the state.
The next four decades were years of development disturbed, however, by friction between the assembly and the royal governors, and by bitter disputes, accompanied by much rioting, with the proprietors concerning land-titles (1744–1749). Independence of the absentee landlords was again claimed by virtue of the grants made by Nicolls nearly a century before. Agriculture at this time was the main pursuit. The climate was more temperate and the soil more fertile than that of New England; but there were similar small farms and no marked tendencies towards the plantation system of the southern colonies. Slavery had been introduced by the Dutch and Swedes, and from the time of the earliest English occupation had been legally recognized. East Jersey had a fugitive slave law as early as 1675. With the exception of laying an import duty no legislative effort was made—nor is it likely that any would have been allowed by the crown—to restrict the importation of slaves during the colonial period. In addition to African and Indian slaves there was the class known as “redemptioners,” or term slaves, consisting of indented servants, who bound themselves to their masters before leaving the mother country, and “free willers,” who allowed themselves to be sold after reaching America, in order to reimburse the ship captain for the cost of their passage. Between East and West Jersey certain political and religious differences developed. The former, settled largely by people from New England and Long Island, was dominated by Puritans; the latter by Quakers. In East Jersey, as in New England, the township became a vigorous element of local government; in West Jersey the county became the unit. Important events in the period of royal government were the preaching of George Whitefield in 1739 and the following years, and the chartering of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1746, and of Queen’s (now Rutgers) College in 1766. The colony gave many proofs of its loyalty to the mother country: it furnished three companies of troops for Admiral Vernon’s unfortunate expedition against Cartagena in 1741; in King George’s War it raised £2000 for supplies, furnished troops for the capture of Louisburg and sent over six hundred men to Albany; and in the French and Indian (or Seven Years’) War its militia participated in the capture of both Quebec and Havana. Against England the colony had fewer grievances than did some of its more commercial neighbours, but the Stamp Act and the subsequent efforts to tax tea aroused great opposition. In 1774 occurred the “Greenwich Tea Party.”
The last colonial assembly of New Jersey met in November 1775. From the 26th of May to the 2nd of July 1776 the second provincial congress met at Burlington, Trenton and New Brunswick and for a time became the supreme governing power. By its orders the royal governor, William Franklin (the natural son of Benjamin Franklin) was arrested and deported to Connecticut, where he remained a prisoner for two years, until exchanged and taken to New York under British protection. Following the recommendation of the Continental Congress, that the colonies should create independent governments, the provincial congress also drafted a provincial constitution, which, without being submitted to the people, was published on the 3rd of July 1776; it contained the stipulation that “if a reconciliation between Great Britain and these colonies should take place, and the latter be taken again under the protection of the crown of Britain, this charter shall be null and void—otherwise to remain firm and inviolable.” On the 20th of September 1777 it was amended by the New Jersey legislature, the words “state” and “states” being substituted for the words “colony” (or “province”) and “colonies.” The state furnished a full quota for the Continental army, but the divided sentiment of the people is shown by the fact that six battalions of loyalists were also organized. Tories were active in New Jersey throughout the struggle; among them were bands known as “Pine Robbers,” who hid in the pines or along the dunes by day and made their raids at night. In the state were fought some of the most important engagements of the war. When Washington, in the autumn of 1776, was no longer able to hold the lower Hudson he retreated across New Jersey to the Delaware near Trenton and seizing every boat for miles up the river he placed his dispirited troops on the opposite side and left the pursuing army no means of crossing. With about 2500 men he recrossed the Delaware on the night of the 25th of December, surprised three regiments of Hessians at Trenton the next morning, and took 1000 prisoners and 1000 stands of arms. In a series of movements following up this success he outgeneraled the British commander, Lord Cornwallis, and on the 3rd of January 1776, defeated a detachment of his army at Princeton (q.v.). The American army then went into winter quarters at Morristown, while a part of the British army wintered at New Brunswick. To protect the ​ inhabitants of the Raritan Valley from British foraging parties General Benjamin Lincoln with 500 men was by Washington’s orders stationed at Bound Brook, but on the 13th of April 1777 Lincoln was surprised by a force of about 4000 men under Cornwallis, and although he escaped with small loss it was only by remarkably rapid movements. When the British had gained possession of Philadelphia, in September 1777, their communication between that city and the ocean through the Lower Delaware was obstructed on the New Jersey side by Fort Mercer, commanded by Colonel Christopher Greene, at Red Bank; three battalions of Hessians under Colonel Karl Emil Kurt von Donop attacked the fort on the 22nd of October, but they were repulsed with heavy loss. The fort was abandoned later, however. As the British army under General Clinton was retreating, in June 1778, from Philadelphia to New York, the American army engaged it in the battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778); the result was indecisive, but that the British were not badly defeated was ascribed to the conduct of General Charles Lee. Before daylight on the 19th of August 1779 was approaching, Major Henry Lee with a force of about 400 men surprised the British garrison at Paulus Hook, where Jersey City now stands, and, although sustaining a loss of 20 men, killed 50 of the garrison and took about 160 prisoners. In 1779–1780 Morristown was again Washington’s headquarters. The Congress of the Confederation met in Princeton, in Nassau Hall, which still stands, from June to November 1783.
After the war New Jersey found its commercial existence threatened by New York and Philadelphia, and it was a feeling of weakness from this cause rather than any lack of state pride that caused the state to join in the movements for a closer Federal Union. In 1786 New Jersey sent delegates to the Annapolis Convention, which was the forerunner of the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in the following year. In the latter body, on the 15th of June, one of the New Jersey delegates, William Paterson (1745–1806), presented what was called the “New Jersey plan” of union, representing the wishes of the smaller states, which objected to representation in a national Congress being based on wealth or on population. This merely federal plan, reported from a Conference attended by the delegates from Connecticut, New York and Delaware, as well as those from New Jersey (and by Luther Martin of Maryland), consisted of nine resolutions; the first was that “the Articles of Confederation ought to be so revised, corrected and enlarged as to render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union”; and the actual “plan” was for a single legislative body, in which each state should be represented by one member, and which should elect the supreme court and have power to remove the executive (a Council), to lay taxes and import duties, to control commerce, and even, if necessary, to make requisitions for funds from the states. Madison opposed the plan, on the ground that it would not prevent violations by the states of treaties and of laws of nations. On the first resolution only there was a definite vote; on the 19th of June it was voted to postpone the consideration of this resolution and to report the resolutions (the Virginia plan) formerly agreed upon by the committee of the whole. The New Jersey plan left its impress in the provision of the Constitution (approved in the Convention on the 7th of July) for equal representation in the national Senate. The Federal Constitution was ratified by a unanimous vote in the state convention which met at Trenton on the 18th of December 1787.
The state’s own constitution, which had been adopted in 1776 and amended in 1777, retained, like other state constitutions framed during the War of Independence, many features of colonial government ill-adapted to a state increasingly democratic. The basis of representation, each county electing three members to the assembly and one member to the legislative council, soon became antiquated. The property qualifications were, for members of the council, “one thousand pounds proclamation money, of real and personal estate, in the same county,” and, for members of the assembly, “five hundred pounds proclamation money, in real and personal estate, in the same county.” These and the property qualifications for suffrage, which was granted to “all inhabitants of this state, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money, clear estate in the same,” &c., were soon considered undemocratic; and the democratic tendency of certain election officers may be seen from their construing the words “all inhabitants of full age” to include women, and from their permitting women to vote. The governor was chosen by the joint vote of the council and assembly; he was president of the council, with a casting vote; he was chancellor, captain-general and commander-in-chief of the militia; he had three members of the legislature to act as a privy-council; and he, with the council (of which seven formed a quorum), constituted “the Court of Appeals in the last resort in all causes of law, as heretofore,” which, in addition, had “the power of granting pardons to criminals, after condemnation, in all cases of treason, felony or other offences.”
In 1838 the opposition to the governor’s extensive powers under the constitution was greatly increased in the “Broad Seal” or “Great Seal” War. After a closely contested election in which six members of Congress were chosen on a general ticket, although there was an apparent Democratic majority of about one hundred votes (in a total of 57,000), two county clerks rejected as irregular sufficient returns from townships to elect five Whig candidates to whom the state board of canvassers (mostly Whigs and headed by the Whig governor, William Pennington) gave commissions under the broad seal of the state. Excluding these five members from New Jersey the House of Representatives contained 119 Democrats and 118 Whigs, so that the choice of a Whig speaker could be secured only by the seating of the five Whigs from New Jersey rather than their Democratic rivals. It was decided that only members whose seats were not contested should vote for speaker, and Robert M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, a Democrat and a compromise candidate, was elected to the position; and on the 28th of February 1839 the Democratic candidates were admitted to their seats, to which a congressional committee, reporting afterwards, declared them entitled.
Agitation for constitutional reform resulted in a constitutional convention, which met at Trenton from the 14th of May to the 29th of June 1844 and drafted a new frame of government, introducing a number of radical changes. This instrument was ratified at the polls on the 13th of August. The election of the governor was taken from the legislature and given to the people; the powers of government were distributed among legislative, executive and judicial departments; representation in the assembly was based on population; and the property qualification for membership in the legislature and for the suffrage was abolished.
The constitution of 1844 declared that “All men are by nature free and independent, and have certain unalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty . . . and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.” A similar clause in the constitution of Massachusetts had been interpreted by the courts as an abolition of slavery, and an effort was made to have the same ruling applied in New Jersey, where the institution of slavery still existed. The courts, however, declared that the clause in the constitution of New Jersey was a “general proposition,” not applying “to man in his private, industrial or domestic capacity.” An attempt at abolition had previously been made in 1804 by an act declaring that every child born of a slave should be free, but should remain the servant of its mother’s owner until twenty-five years of age if a male or twenty-one years of age if a female. The owner of the mother, however, might abandon the child after a year, and it then became a public charge. This last provision produced such a heavy drain on the treasury for the support of abandoned negro children that in 1811 the statute was repealed. In 1846 an act was passed designating slaves as apprentices bound to service until discharged by their owners, and providing that children of ​such apprentices should be free at birth, but were to be supported by the masters of their parents for six years. There were consequently a few vestiges of the slavery system in New Jersey until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
Toward the political questions that disturbed the American people immediately before the Civil War the attitude of the state was conservative. In 1852 the Free-soil candidate for the presidency received only 350 votes in New Jersey; and in 1856 the Democratic candidate received a plurality of 18,605 votes, even though William L. Dayton, a citizen of the state, was the Republican nominee for the vice-presidency. In 1860 three of the state’s electoral votes were given to Douglas and four to Lincoln. During the Civil War New Jersey furnished 89,305 men for the Union cause and incurred extraordinary expenditures to the amount of $2,894,385. The state readily consented to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution, but in 1868 withdrew its consent to the latter. The Fifteenth Amendment was rejected by one legislature, but was accepted by its successor, in which the Republican party had obtained a majority.
Industrially the early part of the 19th century was marked in New Jersey by the construction of bridges and turnpikes, the utilization of water power for manufactures, and the introduction of steam motive power upon the navigable waters. The second war with England interrupted this material progress, and at its beginning was so unpopular, especially with the Quakers, that the Federalists carried the elections in the autumn of 1812. But the attempt of this party to retain control by a “gerrymandering” process was unsuccessful. The Democrats were triumphant in 1813, and the Federalist as well as the Democratic administration responded with aid for the defence of New York and Philadelphia. The state also contributed several hundred men to the service of the United States. Material progress in New Jersey after the war is indicated by the construction of the Morris (1824–1836) and the Delaware & Raritan (1826–1838) canals, and the completion of its first railway, the Camden & Amboy, in 1834.
The years following the Civil War were marked by great industrial development. The numerous projects, good and bad, that were inaugurated in 1866–1875, and the various kinds of laws and charters conferring special privileges that were secured, led to the constitutional prohibition of special legislation already mentioned. In this same period there was a bitter railway war. The Delaware & Raritan Canal Company and the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company, both chartered in 1830 and both monopolies, had been practically consolidated in 1831; in 1836 these joint companies gained control of the Philadelphia & Trenton railway; in 1867 these “United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Companies” consolidated with the New Jersey Railroad & Transportation Company (which was opened in 1836 and controlled the important railway link between New Brunswick and Jersey City), and profits were to be divided equally between the four companies; and in 1871 these entire properties were leased for 999 years to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. This combination threatened to monopolize traffic, and it was opposed by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and a branch of the North Pennsylvania (from Jenkintown to Yardley; sometimes called the “national” or “air-line”), and by the general public; and in 1873 the state passed a general railway law giving other railways than the United New Jersey holdings of the Pennsylvania the right to connect New York and Philadelphia. In 1876 the “national” line was extended to Bound Brook (as the Delaware & Bound Brook) and this road, the North Pennsylvania & Central Railroad of New Jersey, were operated under a tripartite agreement as a through line between New York and Philadelphia; but in 1879 these three lines were leased for 990 years to the Philadelphia & Reading railway. The state itself then became engaged in a struggle with the railways in order to secure from them their full portion of taxes, as the property of individuals was then taxed many times as heavily as that of railways. In 1884 the state gained the victory by securing the passage of a law taxing the franchises of railway corporations.
A reform movement in politics, called the “New Idea,” and led by Everett Colby (b. 1874), then a Republican member of the Assembly and in 1906–1908 a state senator, began in 1904; it did much to secure the passage of acts limiting public service franchises to 20 years (unless extended to 40 years by the voters of the municipality concerned), the increase of taxes on railways, the increase of franchise tax rates by 11/2% each year up to 5%, the adoption of direct primary elections, and the modification of the existing promoters’ liability law.
Before 1800 the state was dominated by the Federalist party; from that date until 1896 it was generally controlled by the Democrats, and from 1896 to 1911 by the Republicans.
The governors of New Jersey have been as follows:—
Governors: under the Proprietors :
| Philip Carteret | | 1665–1672 |
| John Berry | | 1672–1673 |
| Anthony Colve | | 1673–1674 |
| Governors of East Jersey and their Deputies. |||
| Philip Carteret | | 1674–1682 |
| Robert Barclay | | 1682–1688 |
| Thomas Rudyard | Deputy | 1682–1683 |
| Gawen Lawrie | Deputy | 1683–1686 |
| Lord Neill Campbell | Deputy | 1686 |
| Andrew Hamilton | Deputy | 1686–1688 |
| Edmund Andros | | 1688–1689 |
| Andrew Hamilton | | 1692–1697 |
| Jeremiah Basse | | 1697–1699 |
| Andrew Hamilton | | 1699–1702 |
| Governors of West Jersey and their Deputies. |||
| Edward Byllynge | | 1680–1687 |
| Samuel Jennings | Deputy | 1681–1684 |
| Thomas Olive | Deputy | 1684–1685 |
| John Skene | Deputy | 1685–1687 |
| Daniel Coxe | | 1687–1688 |
| Edward Hunloke | Deputy | 1687 |
| Edmund Andros | | 1688–1689 |
| Andrew Hamilton | | 1692–1697 |
| Jeremiah Basse | | 1697–1699 |
| Andrew Hamilton | | 1699–1702 |
| Under the Royal Government Governors of New York and New Jersey. |||
| Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury | Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury | 1703–1708 |
| John, Lord Lovelace | | 1708–1709 |
| Richard Ingoldsby, Lieut.-Governor | Richard Ingoldsby, Lieut.-Governor | 1709–1710 |
| Robert Hunter | | 1710–1719 |
| William Burnet | | 1720–1728 |
| John Montgomerie | | 1728–1731 |
| Lewis Morris, Pres. Council | Lewis Morris, Pres. Council | 1731–1732 |
| William Cosby | | 1732–1736 |
| John Anderson, Pres. Council | John Anderson, Pres. Council | 1736 |
| John Hamilton, Pres. Council | John Hamilton, Pres. Council | 1736–1738 |
| Governors of New Jersey only. |||
| Lewis Morris | | 1738–1746 |
| John Hamilton, Pres. Council | John Hamilton, Pres. Council | 1746–1747 |
| John Reading, Pres. Council | John Reading, Pres. Council | 1747 |
| Jonathan Belcher | | 1747–1757 |
| Thomas Pownall, Lieut.-Governor | Thomas Pownall, Lieut.-Governor | 1757 |
| John Reading, Pres. Council | John Reading, Pres. Council | 1757–1758 |
| Francis Bernard | | 1758–1760 |
| Thomas Boone | | 1760–1761 |
| Josiah Hardy | | 1761–1762 |
| William Franklin | | 1762–1776 ​ | Governors of the State | Governors of the State | Governors of the State |
| William Livingston | 1776–1790 | Federalist |
| William Paterson | 1790–1793 | ,, |
| Richard Howell | 1793–1801 | ,, |
| Joseph Bloomfield | 1801–1802 | Dem.-Repub. |
| John Lambert (Acting) | 1802–1803 | ,, |
| Joseph Bloomfield | 1803–1812 | ,, |
| Aaron Ogden | 1812–1813 | Federalist |
| William Sandford Pennington | 1813–1815 | Dem.-Repub. |
| Mahlon Dickerson | 1815–1817 | ,, |
| Isaac Halsted Williamson | 1817–1829 | ,, |
| Garret Dorset Wall (Declined) | 1829 | ,, |
| Peter Dumont Vroom | 1829–1832 | Democrat |
| Samuel Lewis Southard | 1832–1833 | Whig |
| Elias P. Seeley | 1833 | ,, |
| Peter Dumont Vroom | 1833–1836 | Democrat |
| Philemon Dickinson | 1836–1837 | ,, |
| William Pennington | 1837–1843 | Whig |
| Daniel Haines | 1843–1844 | Democrat |
| Charles C. Stratton | 1845–1848 | Whig |
| Daniel Haines | 1848–1851 | Democrat |
| George Franklin Fort | 1851–1854 | ,, |
| Rodman McCauley Price | 1854–1857 | ,, |
| William Augustus Newell | 1857–1860 | Republican |
| Charles Smith Olden | 1860–1863 | ,, |
| Joel Parker | 1863–1866 | Democrat |
| Marcus Lawrence Ward | 1866–1869 | Republican |
| Theodore Frelinghuysen Randolph | 1869–1872 | Democrat |
| Joel Parker | 1872–1875 | ,, |
| Joseph Dorsett Bedle | 1875–1878 | ,, |
| George Brinton McClellan | 1878–1881 | ,, |
| George Craig Ludlow | 1881–1884 | ,, |
| Leon Abbett | 1884–1887 | ,, |
| Robert Stockton Green | 1887–1890 | ,, |
| Leon Abbett | 1890–1893 | ,, |
| George Theodore Werts | 1893–1896 | ,, |
| John William Griggs | 1896–1898 | Republican |
| Foster MacGowan Voorhees (Acting) | 1898 | ,, |
| David O. Watkins | 1898–1899 | ,, |
| Foster MacGowan Voorhees | 1899–1902 | ,, |
| Franklin Murphy | 1902–1905 | ,, |
| Edward Casper Stokes | 1905–1908 | ,, |
| John Franklin Fort | 1908–1911 | ,, |
| Woodrow Wilson | 1911– | Democrat |
Bibliography.—For descriptive material see bibliographies in Bulletins No. 177 and 301 of the United States Geological Survey; the Annual Reports and especially the Final Report of the New Jersey Geological Survey; and the Annual Reports of the New Jersey State Museum, the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, and the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture.
History.—The most important sources are: Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey (Archives of the State of New Jersey, 1st series), edited by W. A. Whitehead, F. W. Ricardo and W. Nelson (26 vols., Newark, 1880–1903); Documents Relating to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey (Archives of the State of New Jersey, 2nd series; 2 vols., Trenton, 1901–1903); and Acts of the General Assembly of New Jersey from 1703–1761, reprinted by A. Learning and J. Spicer (Somerville, New Jersey, 1881).
For the period of the Dutch rule, see E. B. O'Callaghan’s History of New Netherland (New York, 1846); and John Romeyn Brodhead’s History of the State of New York (2nd vol., New York, 1853, 1871); E. P. Tanner, The Province of New Jersey (New York, 1908), the most thorough study of the period from 1664 to 1738; Samuel Smith’s History of the Colony of Nova Caesarea, or New Jersey (Burlington, 1765; 2nd ed., Trenton, 1877), still one of the best accounts of the colonial period, and particularly valuable on account of its copious extracts from the sources, many of which are no longer accessible; see, also, William A. Whitehead’s “The English in East and West Jersey, 1664–1689” (in vol. iii. of Justin Winsor’s Narrative and Critical History of America). Among the monographic contributions are Austin Scott’s Influence of the Proprietors in Founding the State of New Jersey (Baltimore, 1885) and H. S. Cooley’s Study of Slavery in New Jersey (Baltimore, 1896). Other useful contributions are A. D. Mellick, Story of an Old Farm; or, Life in New Jersey in the 18th Century (Somerville, New Jersey, 1889), full of interesting details; F. B. Lee and others, New Jersey as a Colony and as a State (4 vols., with an additional biographical volume, New York, 1902, rather unevenly proportioned, and inaccurate as to details; W. J. Mills, Historic Houses of New Jersey (Philadelphia, 1902); William Nelson, The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries (2 vols., New York, 1902); Isaac S. Mulford, Civil and Political History of New Jersey (Philadelphia, 1851); W. A. Whitehead, East Jersey under the Proprietary Governments (New Jersey Historical Society Collections, vol. i., Newark, 1875); W. S. Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton, 1872); W. E. Sackett, Modern Battles of Trenton (Trenton, 1895), a political history of New Jersey from 1868 to 1894, dealing especially with the railway controversies; John E. Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (2 vols., New York, 1903–1906), containing data relating to the settlement and settlers of New York and New Jersey; R. S. Field, The Provincial Courts of New Jersey; L. Q. C. Elmer, The Constitution and Government of New Jersey (vols. iii. and vii. of New Jersey Historical Society Collections, Newark, 1849, 1872); and David Murray, History of Education in New Jersey (No. 23 of Circulars of Information issued by the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, 1899).
* ↑ As the waters of the stream have been diverted into mill races, the river very seldom makes this leap in its natural channel. The power thus generated has been largely instrumental in creating the city of Paterson (q.v.).
* ↑ The total length of the Passaic is about 100 m., but its course is so irregular that the distance in a straight line from its source to its mouth is only about 15 m.
* ↑ See G. B. Hollister and M. O. Leighton, The Passaic Flood of 1902 (Washington, 1903), and M. O. Leighton, The Passaic Flood of 1903 (Washington, 1904), being numbers 88 and 92 of the Water Supply and Irrigation Papers of the U.S. Geological Survey.
* ↑ The amount of timber cut within the state is very small. Before the introduction of coal and coke as fuel in the forges and furnaces the cutting of young trees for the manufacture of charcoal was a profitable industry, and the process of deforestation reached its maximum. Since 1860 the forest area has only slightly diminished, and the condition of the timber has improved, but large trees are still scarce.
* ↑ The following statistics of the products for 1900 and for 1905 are for factory products, those for 1900 differing, therefore, from the statistics which appear in the reports of the census of 1900.
* ↑ This is one of the oldest of the important industries in New Jersey: at Old Boonton, about 1770, was established a rolling and slitting mill, probably the first in the country.
* ↑ The Pennsylvania railway has constructed tunnels under the Hudson river, and has erected a large terminal station on Manhattan Island.
* ↑ In William Winterbotham’s An Historical, Geographical, Commercial and Philosophical View of the American United States, &c. (London, 1795) there was a discussion of the feasibility of a canal between the Delaware and the Raritan. In 1804 a company was chartered to build such a canal; in 1816 a route was surveyed; in 1823 a commission was appointed which recommended a route and suggested that the state take part in building the canal; in December 1826 a canal company was incorporated with a monopoly of canal and railway privileges within 10 m. of any part of the canal authorized, but Pennsylvania refused permission to use the waters of the Delaware, and the charter lapsed; in 1830 the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company was incorporated by an act which forbade the construction of any other canal within 5 m. of the proposed route of the Delaware and Raritan, and which reserved to the state the right to buy the waterway 30 years (changed in 1831 to 50 years) after its completion. Lieutenant (afterwards Commodore) Robert F. Stockton (1795–1866), president of the Company, contributed greatly to its financial success. In 1831 it was combined with the Camden & Amboy railway.
* ↑ The Morris Canal & Banking Company was chartered in 1824 to build the Morris Canal, which never proved a financial success, partly because of the competition of the Delaware Raritan, which soon commanded the coal trade, and partly because of physical and mechanical defects. It was exempted from all taxation by the state, which reserved the right to buy it, at a fair price, in 1923 or, without making any payment, to succeed to the actual ownership in 1973 upon the expiration of the charter. The idea of utilizing the waters of Lake Hopatcong was that of George P. MacCulloch of Morristown. A peculiar feature of the canal was a system of inclined planes or railways on which there were cradles, carrying the canal boat up (or down) the incline; these were devised by Professor James Renwick (1818–1895) of Columbia College; 12 of them in the eastern division raised boats altogether about 720 ft., and 11 of them in the western division lowered the boats about 690 ft.—the remainder of the grade was overcome by locks.
* ↑ The constitution of 1844 limited the suffrage to white males, and although this limitation was annulled by the fifteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, it was not until 1875 that the state by an amendment (adopted on the 7th of September) struck the word “white” from its suffrage clause. At the same time another amendment was adopted providing that sailors and soldiers in the service of the United States in time of war might vote although absent from their election districts.
* ↑ The state’s title to its riparian lands was established, after a long controversy, in 1870 in the case of Stevens v. the Paterson & Newark R.R. Co. (5 Vroom’s Reports 532). Since that date, with the exception of the period of Governor Abbett’s second administration (1890–1893), the proceeds from the sale and rental of these lands have been regularly applied to the school fund.
* ↑ Also receives Federal aid.
* ↑ Idem.
* ↑ Passenger stations and depot buildings were included as part of the “main stem” until 1906, when their exclusion gave considerable added revenue to the municipalities.
* ↑ The tax on railway corporations collected by the state for local purposes and paid over to the local governments in 1907 amounted to $581,794.
* ↑ The only state debt is state certificates for $116,000 issued to the commissioners of the Agricultural College.
* ↑ As early as 1613, Captain Samuel Argall, on his way to Virginia, after breaking up some Jesuit settlements at Port Royal, and Mount Desert, passed through the Narrows near the mouth of the Hudson, and finding a group of Dutch traders, made them haul down their flag and replace it with that of England. In the spring of 1620 Thomas Dermer, an English ship captain, on his way from Monhegan to Virginia, visited Manhattan Island and told the Dutch traders that they would not be allowed to remain. In 1627 Governor William Bradford of Plymouth protested by letter to the Dutch against their occupancy, and this warning from the Pilgrims was repeated at least twice.
* ↑ As late as 1784, Charles Varlo, an Englishman who had purchased one-third of the grant from the heirs of Sir Edmund Plowden, came to New Jersey and sought to substantiate his claim. Failing in a suit in chancery to obtain redress, he returned to England, and nothing further was heard of the claimants to New Albion.
* ↑ It has been supposed that Fenwicke and Byllynge intended to establish in America a retreat for those who desired religious and political freedom.
* ↑ Greenwich then had some importance as a port on Cohansey Creek on the lower Delaware. In the summer of 1774 the captain of the ship “Greyhound,” bound for Philadelphia with a cargo of tea, on account of the state of opinion in that city, put in at Greenwich and stored his tea there in a cellar. It remained undisturbed till the night of the 22nd of November, when a band of about 40 men dressed as Indians, in imitation of the Boston party, broke into the cellar and made a bonfire of the tea. All attempts to punish the offenders were futile.
* ↑ The election to the U.S. Senate in 1865 of John Potter Stockton (1826–1900), a great-grandson of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, created hardly less excitement than the Broad Seal War. The state legislature which elected him senator did so by a plurality vote, having previously passed a resolution changing the vote requisite to choose a senator from a majority to a plurality vote. He took his seat in the Senate and his election was upheld by the Senate committee on the judiciary, whose report was adopted (26 March 1866) by a vote of 22 to 21, his own vote carrying the motion; but, because of the objection of Charles Sumner, he withdrew his vote on the 27th of March, and was thereupon unseated by a vote of 23 to 21.
* ↑ In 1864 a bill was introduced in the Federal House of Representatives making the Camden & Atlantic (now the Atlantic City) railway and the Raritan & Delaware Bay (now a part of the Central of New Jersey) a post route between New York and Philadelphia and authorizing these railways to carry passengers and freight between New York and Philadelphia. Thereupon the governor and legislature of New Jersey protested that such a measure was an infringement of the reserved rights of the state, since the state had contracted with the Camden & Amboy not to construct nor to authorize others to construct within a specified time any other railway across the state to be used for carrying passengers or freight between New York and Philadelphia.
* ↑ Governor-general of New Netherland.
* ↑ Jurisdiction only over New Jersey.