But with all the brilliancy of the picture of the patriotism of Elizabeth-Town, that picture has its shades. What was then called "London trading"-the supplying of the British with provisions, for which they paid high prices—was carried on to a great extent, both by whigs and tories. The most ardent friends of their country, were frequently caught at midnight on their way with provisions to Staten Island. Of this fact Washington often seriously complains. Of this evil, Gov. Livingston thus writes to Washington: "This evil, instead of being checked, has grown to so enormous a height, that the enemy, as I am informed, is plentifully supplied with fresh provisions; and such a quantity of British manufactures is brought back in exchange, as to enable the persons concerned to set up shops to retail them. The people are outrageous, and many of our officers threaten to resign their commissions."

And subsequently, in a letter to a member of Congress, Livingston thus describes the corrupting and demoralizing influence "London trading" produced on Elizabeth-Town: "Solitary, indeed, is Queen Elizabeth's namesake to me, at present; when, instead of my quondam agreeable companions, the village now consists of unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty looking tories, and very knavish whigs."*

Amongst the most notorious and malignant loyalists of this part of the country was CORNELIUS HET

*Sedgwick's Livingston, 245-6.

FIELD. His name and fame will be long remembered in East Jersey. His father was a man of excellent character, a Ruling Elder in the Church, the ardent friend of Caldwell and of his country. He manifested in early life an ambitious and reckless spirit. At the commencement of hostilities with Great Britain, he was an ardent patriot. A candidate for the captaincy of a company of militia raised in this town, he failed of his election, and an individual to whom he bore a bitter enmity was raised to the command. From that day he declared hostility until death to his country, and the friends of its freedom. He joined the British on Staten Island, and was placed at the head of the refugees, whose duty it was to carry on the work of pillaging and plundering at night, and of annoying the whigs in all possible ways, except that of honorable and open resistance. He was at the head of nearly all the midnight marauding parties that plundered and captured our fellow citizens. It was he that applied the torch to the Church and the CourtHouse, and was heard to lament that the "Black Rebel," as he called Caldwell, was not burned in his pulpit. About the time when Huddy, of Tom's River, was executed in New-York, he was one of a company, who, in a drunken frolic, hung a whig, by the name of Ball, at Bergen Point. Inheriting from his father a large plantation in this town, he returned here after the peace; when he was taken and tried for the murder of Ball. Colonel Ogden and Major Chetwood

were his counsel; and nothing saved him from the gallows, but the clause in the Treaty of Peace which secured the pardon of all offenders for all offences committed during the war. Finding that there was no safety for him here, as he was liable to be shot at any moment, he retired to England, where he died not many years ago, at an advanced period of life.

We here insert the following document, because of its connexion with the events now brought under review. It was submitted to Congress with the affidavits of very respectable individuals, to the accuracy of all its statements, but the claim was denied:

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

We, the Pastor, Session, and Trustees, of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth-Town, in the county of Essex, and State of New-Jersey, respectfully present to your honorable bodies the following memorial:

The church of which we are now the ecclesiastical and corporate officers, is the oldest formed by the English in our state. It dates its origin from the year 1666, and was organized by our fathers soon after the settlement of our town. They, in the infancy of our community, erected a building for the worship of God, and dedicated it to that holy purpose; and for nearly fifty years it was here the only temple consecrated to the service of Jehovah. Considering the time and circumstances of its erection, it was large and com

modious. As the population increased, it was enlarged by an addition of twenty feet in 1760; when it was a substantial building, with galleries, a high steeple, a bell, and a town-clock. And as this was the chief town for many years in the province, it was always kept with great neatness, and in a fine state of repair.

On the first settlement of our town, a large townlot was set apart for the use of the pastor, on which our fathers early erected a parsonage-house as a residence for their successive ministers. It was a long building, a story and a half high, and ample for the accommodation of a large family. It was, like the church, the public property of the congregation.

Feeling a deep solicitude for the education of their children, our fathers, at a very early day in our history, here erected an Academy. It was substantially built of wood, two stories high, and amply commodious for all the purposes of its erection. For many years it was the most celebrated institution of the kind west of the Hudson. In it a Burr, who once filled the chair of President in your Senate chamber, and a Jonathan Dayton who presided in the House of Representatives, an Aaron Ogden, a Stephen Van Rensselaer, and others not unknown to your council chambers, nor to their country, received the first rudiments of their education. In that academy were laid the foundations of the College of New-Jersey now located in Princeton; and within its walls President Jonathan Dickinson taught the first classes ever con

nected with that institution. This also was the property, and was under the supervision of the Trustees of our church.

When the glorious war of our Revolution commenced, which resulted in our independence, these buildings were all standing and in good repair, and each devoted to the purposes of its erection. The Rev. James Caldwell was then the pastor of this church. His name and his fame are interwoven with the history of his country, and are as dear to the state as to the church of God. Influenced not less by his sense of our wrongs than by the impulses of his vigorous mind and glowing enthusiasm, he became early and deeply interested in the conflict, and devoted all his powers no less to the freedom of his country than to the service of his God. Such was his influence over his people, that with few exceptions, they became one with him in sentiment and feeling; and thenceforward he and they were branded as the rebel parson and parish. To the enemies of his country he was an object of the deepest hatred; and such was their known thirst for his life, that while preaching the gospel of peace to his people, he was compelled to lay his loaded pistols by his side in the pulpit. To avoid their vigilance and violence, he was compelled to desert his own home, with his large family of nine children, and to seek a temporary residence in the interior. The parsonage thus vacated by him became the resting-place of our soldiers. And to deprive them of its shelter, and to vent a rankling enmity toward its