page_title: John Hart (New Jersey politician)
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: John Hart (New Jersey politician) / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: 12s Colonial currency from the Province of New Jersey. Signed by Robert Smith, John Hart, and John Stevens, Jr.. (Friedberg Colonial ref# NJ-179).
context_page_description: John Hart was a public official and politician in colonial New Jersey who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and also signed the Declaration of Independence.
context_section_description: Hart was elected to the Hunterdon County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1750. He was first elected to the New Jersey Colonial Assembly in 1761 and served there until 1771. He was appointed to the local Committee of Safety and the Committee of Correspondence, and became a judge on the Court of Common Pleas.  He was often called "Honest John."
  When New Jersey formed a revolutionary assembly (or provincial congress) in 1776, he was elected to it and served as its Vice President.  Prior to June 1776, the New Jersey delegation in the First Continental Congress was opposed to independence.  As a result, the entire delegation was replaced, and Hart was one of those selected for the Second Continental Congress.  He joined in time to vote for and sign the Declaration of Independence.
  He served until August of that year, then was elected Speaker of the newly formed New Jersey General Assembly. He would later take on additional duties as Treasurer of the Council of Safety (which was given "extraordinary and summary powers" to carry out affairs of the state during emergencies), President of the Joint Meetings of the New Jersey Congress, and Commissioner of the State Loan Office.
caption: New Jersey Colonial currency (1776) signed by John Hart.
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