. Contemporary American biography . ucester County, recorder, and afterward burgess of thetown of Burlington. In 1793 he resigned the latter office, when, as one of the representativesof his county in the first General Assembly of the United Provinces of East and West NewJersey, he was elected Speaker of that body. He was the steadfast friend of the people, therebyincurring the displeasure of the Royal Governor, who deprived him of the speakership andmade an unsuccessful effort to have him ejected from his seat in the Assembly. As an inter-esting event in the history of New Jersey, not general
. Contemporary American biography . ucester County, recorder, and afterward burgess of thetown of Burlington. In 1793 he resigned the latter office, when, as one of the representativesof his county in the first General Assembly of the United Provinces of East and West NewJersey, he was elected Speaker of that body. He was the steadfast friend of the people, therebyincurring the displeasure of the Royal Governor, who deprived him of the speakership andmade an unsuccessful effort to have him ejected from his seat in the Assembly. As an inter-esting event in the history of New Jersey, not generally known, it may not be out of place togive a brief account of Mr. Gardiners subsequent contentions with the Governor and his party,as described in the words of one of his descendants, the late John Stockton Littell, Esquire, ofElton House, Germantown, Pa.: Matters in the Council progressed smoothly for a while, and the conduct of the Governorjustified the compliments contained in the Speakers address. But his disposition could not. CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 101 long be concealed from those with whom he was immediately connected in the character of Lord Cornbury, a near relative of the Queen, is well known to the readers ofour early history to have been vicious in the extreme. There was, moreover, no bounds to hisextravagance. Soon after he took possession of the Government, he became unsupportablytyrannical and arbitrary. Parties existed even at that early period, and the Governor had hisadherents. It is, however, a source of satisfaction to the writer that the Speaker was not ofthe number; but that he was possessed of courage, energy, and ability sufficient to oppose andcheck the encroachment of Lord Cornbury upon the privileges of the Assembly and country;and, as an inevitable consequence, we find him obnoxious to his high displeasure. Thwartedin some of his lawless measures by the position and influence of the Speaker, and as the onlyway of gaining the
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