The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-07
SHOWS Scene
IN NEWARK
IN l774
Great Painting Of Colonial
Times to Be Placed in
Court House.

Early mex week there will be placed
in the Grand Jury room of the new
Court House one of the most interest
ing Of the already famous paintings
now on the walls of the various cham
bers in that building. The new work
is a masterpiece from the atetier of f.
d. Millet, and is now on exhibition in
the gallery of the Century Association,
Fifth avenue, New York city. The
painting is Of great local historic in
terest, and depicts a scene which took
place in this city in 1874, when the
colonists were preparing to declare
their independence of the rule of Great
Britain. !.
The canvas is a large one, and shows
twenty-five figures, of which Provin-
cial Chief Justice Frederick Smyth and
Daniel Elmer, the foreman Of the
Grand Jury. are the most conspicuous.
The court room scene, as depicted by
Mr.. Millet, is typical of the period.
Foreman Elmer is the central figure of
the composition. With right arm ex-
tended, in a gesture of protest, he is
facing the judges and speaking ear
nestly. The Judges regard him with in
terest, and the other jurymen look at
him with various expressions on their
faces. The two clerks and the court
attendant are so much interested in
the speech of the foreman that they
have ceased their respective occupa-
lions and are paying close attention to
the speech.
The interior of the room is severe
and, following the customs of the
timeA the bench at which the judges
are seated, the table used by the clerks,
and the chairs in the room, are almost
primitive in their simplicity. The
Judges wear crimson robes trimmed
with ermine, and full-bottomed wigs.
The figures in the composition of
which there are about twenty-five, are
about t~hree-quarters life size.
Foreman Elmer, of the now historic
Grand Jury, was a brother of Ebenezer
Elmer, who was one of a party con-
cerned in the burning of a cargo of tea
in the colony of New Jersey when the
c~olonists here, as in other provinces, re-
fused to use it and pay taxes on it to
the British Government.
The historical rebuke to the Chief
I Ju6liC0 was duilliAAiSl0AS o Ia % 1OaA I
room in a brick building over the jail,
which was erected in 100, and which
stood near where the First Presbyte-
rian Church now stands on Broad street
In Newark.
The court was composed of Frederick
Smyth, the last Provincial Chief JUS
tice of New Jersey, who received his
commission October II, 1884, n re-
manned in Office until h adoption of
the constitution of 1776. and Associate
Justices David ogden and Richard
Stockton.
In his charge d the Grand Jury,
Chief Justice Smyth had ordered that
body to find true bills against certain
persons, and alluded to the troubled
state of the times, and, among other
things, observed that "the imaginary
tyranny, three thousand miles distant
was less to be feared and guarded
against than the real tyranny at our
own DOORS"
This was bold language TO be ut
tered at such a time and in such a
place, and it drew from the Grand
Jury a reply, so spirited and patriotic,
that 1t deserves a conspicuous place
among the memorials of our Revolu-
tionary history.
The foreman, after expressing the OBJ
legations of the Grand Jury to the Chief
Justice for his friendly admonitions'
and the ''paternal tenderness he had
evinced for their welfare, in an i'm
FASHIONED address said:
But, respecting the tyranny at the dis
lance Of three thousand miles, which your
Honor is pleased to represent as mag
mary we have the unhappiness widely TO
differ from you in opinion. The erect,
sir, of that tyranny Is 90 severely felt 10
have it thought altogether visionary. we
cannot think, sir, that taxes imposed upon
us by our fellow subjects, in a legislature
in which we were not represented, Is an
imaginary, but that it is a real and actual
tyranny, and of which no nation whatso-
ever can furnish a single instance.
1--WE cannot think, sir, that depriving us
of the inestlmable right of trial oy jury.
Selling our persons and carrying us for
trial to Great Britain, is a tyranny mercy
Nor can we think with you Honor that
destroying charters and, changing our
forms of government is a tyranny alto
gether ideal: that an act passed to protect,
indemnify and screen from punishment
such as may be guilty, ven of murder, is
a bare idea, that the establishment of
French laws and Popish religion in Canada.
the better to facilitate the schemes of the
British Ministry, by making the Canadians
Instruments In the hands of power to re-
duce us to slavery has no other than a
mental existence.
I'm a word, sir. we cannot persuade
ourselves that the fleet now blocking up
the port of Boston. consisting Of ships
built of real English oak and solid iron.
and armed with cannon of ponderous
metal. nor tho army lodged In the town of
Boston and the Qualifications thrown
about it. substantial and formidable reali-
ties. are all creatures of the imagination.
"These, sir, are but a few Of the numer-
ous grievances under which America now
groans. These are some of the effects
Of the deliberate plans of tyranny, con
cefted at 5000 miles distance, and which,
to your honor, appears only like the base
less fabric of a vision.
aTo procure redress of these grievances,
which to Others assume the form of odious
and horrid realities. the continent, as we
learn. has very naturally been thrown
into great connections, and as far as this
county in particular has taken part in
| the alarm. we have the happiness to rep
resent To your honor that In the prosecu-
ton of measures for preserving American
liberties aud obtaining the removal of
expressions, the people have acted, in all
heir popular assemblies (which it is the
right of Englisbmen TO convene whenever
they pleased, with the spirit. temper and
prudence becoming freemen and loyal sub
~jects.'
The Millet painting will be on exhi-
bition to the public late next week.
after 1t is put in its place in the Grand
Jury room.
HIGH MARKS SCORED
At cnVEPM0P'c MATru