New Jersey as a colony and as a state : one of the original thirteen . te in the new land a governmentwhere political righteousness should guide thecourse of the State. In this effort, as in all at-tempts to establish a community upon the teach-ings of a given creed, there was a tendency towardpolitical dogmatism. In nearly all the East Jer-sey towns political preferment was based uponstrict adherence to the teachings of a particularreligious society, while the settlers of Newarkwent so far as to provide that only those who weremembers of a Congregational church should beallowed to hold ofQce
New Jersey as a colony and as a state : one of the original thirteen . te in the new land a governmentwhere political righteousness should guide thecourse of the State. In this effort, as in all at-tempts to establish a community upon the teach-ings of a given creed, there was a tendency towardpolitical dogmatism. In nearly all the East Jer-sey towns political preferment was based uponstrict adherence to the teachings of a particularreligious society, while the settlers of Newarkwent so far as to provide that only those who weremembers of a Congregational church should beallowed to hold ofQce and vote. While this restrictive action may be subjectedto criticism, it was quite in accord with the spiritof the age. Most of the influential men of EastJersey had experienced the wave of religious en-thusiasm which had swept over England andScotland, upon the coming of Cromwell, andwhich flooded New England with high resolveand concomitant austerity. It had Ijjeen fttimeof religious controversy, and of thl$^ establish- -Hiiy THE MAYFLOWER. 176 NEW JERSEY AS A COL. ment of new forms of religious belief. Nor wasthe spirit less noticeable in West Jersey, wherethe Society of Friends did not outwardly declarethe union of church and State, but where the pow-er of the meeting to make the careers of men wasequally potent. The English speaking colonists of EastJersey, in the main, were of yeoman motives underlay the action of thesettlers. The return of the House of Stu-art to power, with the reestablishment of adissolute court and the general popular reactionfrom the social, political, and ecclesiastical se-verities of the Cromwellian movement, gave to themajority of the new comers sufficient excuse forleaving England. Others from New Englandhoped to find in East Jersey a land more hospita-ble, where the power of the church might befurther extended. Some were moved by an evan-gelical spirit, wishing to convert the Indian andstablish their faith in a land beyond the sea;
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Keywords: ., bookauthorleefranc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1902
