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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
To weld the expanding sections of the State as well as' to modernize the
New York-Philadelphia highway, the industrial barons of the day hurried
across-State transportation lines. Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken had
proved in 1824 that his "steam waggon" could run 12 miles an hour. Six
years later his son Robert got a charter for the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and by 1834 the line was finished. The railroad soon absorbed the
new Delaware and Raritan Canal, which it paralleled. In 1831 the Morris
Canal between Newark and Phillipsburg opened a water route to a rich
mining district. Newark, because of its key position on the canal and rail
routes and on Passaic River, strengthened its grip as the leading city of the
State. With the stage set for even greater economic progress, the speculative bubble of industrial prosperity burst in the panic of 1837.
During the 1830's New Jersey was affected by the spirit of reform that
was sweeping the country, partly as a result of the industrial revolution.
The legislature began to allot money for public schools; hospitals were
built; and a start was made toward guarding the public health. In 1844
Dorothea Dix presented to the legislature a memorial describing the disgraceful conditions in jails and poorhouses and the medieval treatment of
the feebleminded, epileptics, and the insane. Public indignation resulted
in prison reform and the establishment of an insane asylum. Reform was
a leading topic in public meetings and in newspaper columns. With an increase of almost 200,000 in population since 1790, the citizens of the
State were demanding democratization of their political structure.
It came in 1844. A constitutional convention swept away property qualifications for voters, provided for separation of powers among the three
governmental departments, and included a formal bill of rights and a
clause permitting amendment (the latter had been omitted from the 1776
document). The 1844 constitution has been amended only three times.
When the business cycle swung toward good times in 1845, the Camden and Amboy Railroad emerged as a monopoly, since the charter, after
merger with two terminal roads, prohibited any other line between New
York and Philadelphia. So complete was the railroad's grasp of the State's
economic and political life that New Jersey was for a generation bitterly
referred to as "the State of Camden and Amboy."
Rising anti-slavery feeling together with pro-tariff and anti-immigrant
sentiment turned the State Republican in 1857, at its first opportunity to
elect a Republican Governor. But, in the crucial election of 1860, the conflict between industrial and agricultural interests and anti-slavery men and
unionists-at-any-cost split New Jersey's electoral vote for the only time.
Lincoln received four votes and Douglas three.
In 1863 copperhead opposition to the Civil War, partly created by the
New York bankers' mistrust of Lincoln, caused New Jersey to revert to
political type and elect Joel Parker, a Democrat, as Governor. Yet New
Jersey provided 88,000 troops and $23,000,000 for the war.
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