Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-19
PERTH AMBOY IN HISTORY
FRANKLIN
BY IL. e. -PICKERSGILL

stration by the people and their
representatives. So 1t was that
Governor Franklin and his bride of
a few months were escorted from
New Brunswick by what the New
York Gazette listed as the gentry"
in slefghs and by the Middlesex
troop OF horse. Governor Josiah
Hardy, who was quitting the office.
was at the head OF the reception
committee, accompanied by his
council.
1t was intensely cold in thai
February, more than 100 years ago.,
but the oath of office was admins
tered and the new governors COM
mission publicly proclaimed, accord
Ing to the Gazette, with as much
decency and good decorum as the
severity Of the season could possibly
admit Of"
The next day, as was the custom,
the governor went back to Burling-
ton, the capital of West Jersey, and
there, with similar pomp and cere-
mony, it was officially made known
to the people of that province that
they had a new governor. Probably
because of it's proximity to Phila-
delphia, Burlington was chosen as
lItG bONGlilOI > lOiiiC dilQt ne
lodgings there, he made his resi-
dence in West Jersey until October
of the next year, when he came to
Perth Amboy and took possession of
the governors home, until that time
occupied by Chief Justice Smyth. AS
he was the first, SO he was destined
to be the only governor of New
Jersey to make the old mansion his
official home.
The pre-Revolutionary develop
ments almost Immediately engaged
the attention of the new governor
and he was very particular to en-
force all the rules and orders laid
down by the British ministry. His
torians credit Governor Franklin
with being very ~favorably disposed
toward the colonies, SO long as no
direct opposition to the mother
country was contemplated. His
position was a difficult one. To have
served we'll his royal masters and at
the same time satisfy the people
over whom he sat as governor was
practically an impossibility.
The story has it that Benjamin
Franklin visited his son in the gov
ernor's mansion in Perth Amboy and
endeavored to persuade him to ad-
here to the colonists and their cause.
This. William Temple Franklin. son
of the governor and biographer of
his grandfather, disputes, attempt
ing TO show from DR.. Franklin's
course upon more than n occasion,
that such an interview as that con-
templated by the story never took
, place. Writing at a time when he
could talk to men and women who
had lived through the Revolutionary
period, William A. Whitehead, the
historian of Perth Amboy, affirmed
his belief in the story as told. He
records the fact that n informant
told him of times when the CONVEX
sations between the governor and
his father were attended with such
warmth and feeling that continued
harmonious intercourse was serious
ly threatened. When, however, they
ended their argument, neither had
succeeded in convincing the other of
the error of his course. Subsequent
~, u~tterances OF Or. Franklin con
irmed this view of what actually
happened in the old mansion.
The friction between the governor
and the colonists continued and grew
worse. Lord Stirling, one of the
council, accepted a commission un-
der the provincial congress and that
was too much. The governor sus-
pended him and thus came what
might be termed the beginning of
the end. In January. 1875, Lord
Stirling intercepted messages be-
tween the governor and the Earl of
Dartmouth and found one containing
the following sentence: "My sltua-
ton is indeed somewhat particular
and not a little difficult, having no
more than one or two among the
principal officers of government to
whom /, ever now, speak confifen-
TALLY on public affairs"
Although Franklin had declared
that, unless compelled by Violence,
he would not leave the province,
Stirling formed the belief that he
planned to go away from Jersey. A
guard was placed al the entrance to
the governors home and that he
deeply resented. He was persuaded
however, to give his parole, and fol
Isome months he remained in Perth
Amboy and was nominally governor
of New Jersey, although little or ne
attention was paid to anything he
said or did. In June his salar,
ceased and on the seventeenth o.