This volume was compiled and edited by authority of the State of New Jersey; at the request of the New Jersey Historical Society, and under the direction of the following committee: NATHANIEL NILES, Ch'n. MARCUS L. WARD, JOEL PARKER, W. A. WHITEHEAD. L WILLIAM A. WHITEHEAD, Corresponding Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society; Author of to the Early History of Perth Amboy and the Surround- ing Country; Editor of the Papers of Lewis Mor- ris, and of an Analytical Index to the Colonial Documents of New Jersey, &c., &c. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. It is an advantage, which the United States of America enjoy over older countries, that they can trace, with much greater precision, the course of events, which have marked their progress from their first settlement. But this advantage is attended by responsibilities, which are not always properly regarded. It is not enough that their respective histories can be more readily rescued from oblivion, by patient and diligent research; it is of equal, if not of more, importance, that the materials for those histories should be so preserved as to be always readily available, to enlighten their citizens as to the events of the past, and intimate the effect, upon the future, of the lessons those events are cal culated to teach. In the preface to his impartial and eloquent his tory of the United States, Mr. GRAHAME thus alludes to their annals:-"There never has been a people on whose character their own historical recollections were calculated to exercise a more animating or salutary influence. * * * The origin of the nation, and the rise and progress of |