n and Salem, on the
Delaware, and the Scotch Covenanters and New England colonists grouped
around Perth Amboy and Newark, near the mouth of the Hudson, made up the
two Jerseys. Neither colony had a numerous population, and the stretch
of country lying between them was during most of the colonial period a
wilderness. It is now crossed by the railway from Trenton to New York.
It has always been a line of travel from the Delaware to the Hudson. At
first there was only an Indian trail across it, but after 1695 there was
a road, and after 1738 a stage route.

In 1702, while still separated by this wilderness, the two Jerseys were
united politically by the proprietors voluntarily surrendering all their
political rights to the Crown. The political distinction between
East Jersey and West Jersey was thus abolished; their excellent free
constitutions were rendered of doubtful authority; and from that time to
the Revolution they constituted one colony under the control of a royal
governor appointed by the Crown.

The change was due to the uncertainty and annoyance caused for their
separate governments when their right to govern was in doubt owing to
interference on the part of New York and the desire of the King to
make them a Crown colony. The original grant of the Duke of York to the
proprietors Berkeley and Carteret had given title to the soil but had
been silent as to the right to govern. The first proprietors and their
successors had always assumed that the right to govern necessarily
accompanied this gift of the land. Such a privilege, however, the
Crown was inclined to doubt. William Penn was careful to avoid this
uncertainty when he received his charter for Pennsylvania. Profiting by
the sad example of the Jerseys, he made sure that he was given both the
title to the soil and the right to govern.

The proprietors, however, now surrendered only their right to govern the
Jerseys and retained their ownership of the land; and the people always
maintained that they, on their part, retained all the political rights
and privileges which had been granted them by the proprietors. And these
rights were important, for the concessions or constitutions granted by
the proprietors under the advanced Quaker influence of the time were
decidedly liberal. The assemblies, as the legislatures were called, had
the right to meet and adjourn as they pleased, instead of having
their meetings and adjournments dictated by the governor. This was a