EPISODE III Patriotism of City and College The Reading of the Declaration of Independence CAST COL. JOHN NEILSON: Mr. Robert Hude Neilson (d) CITIZENS OF NEW BRUNSWICK (Descendants of Colonial citizens are marked "d") Mrs. Charles H. Bonney (d) Mrs. Oliver Davidson (d) Mrs. George W. C. McCarter (d) Miss Marie Cowenhoven (d) Miss Helen Williamson (d) Children: Annie Chamberlain, Mary Chamberlain, Ethel Schlosser [Cli]neable to Resine & so very bakward in ate [nding] are those Restrictions Complaind o[f] in our former petion wee thare four in behalf of that loydable & most promising instetewtion. do a most Ernestly desyre & pray that your Ex & honers will be pleeset to take this very salm afayr in to your most searis Consetheration & to grant such Releve & asisten thearin as to you in your gread wisdom shall seeme meet-and wee as in dewty bound shall Ever pray singd by order of the trusteas While the exact date on which the Declaration of Independence was read in New Brunswick is not known, the manner of its reading and its reception by the citizens is recorded. It was read by Colonel John Neilson from the top of a table brought out of a house on Albany Street. It is on this information that the action of the episode is based.12 Citizens of New Brunswick pass to and fro. The sound of fife and drum13 is heard from a direction corresponding to Burnet Street. A company of Colonial militia approach, Colonel John Neilson at their head.14 As they reach the center of the stage, they disband and mingle with the townspeople. A rider is heard approaching from the Princeton road. He rides to the center of the 12 Force's Archives tell us that the Declaration of Independence was read in the State House in Philadelphia on the 8th of July, at Trenton, N. J., the same day, and in Nassau Hall at Princeton on the evening of July the 9th. From other sources we learn that it was read by Col. John Neilson in New Brunswick, from the top of a table or barrel brought out of the house of his brother officer, Moses Scott, M.D., surgeon of the same regiment which Col. Neilson commanded. Lieut. Col. Azariah Dunham, Major John Duychinck, and Major John Taylor were also officers in this regiment. So too was John Van Emburgh. As the militia were engaged watching the British along Newark Bay and the Kills from Amboy to Elizabethtown and Powles Hook until the 20th of July, when they were allowed to go home to gather the harvest, the reading was probably at or about that date. This may account for the absence of a note in Force's Archives as to its reading. Some opposition was expected, but none developed. On the contrary, it was well received. The pageant deviates to some degree from historical accuracy in the interest of the action. 18 The music played by the fife and drum corps as the militia appear is called "The Federal March.'' This was probably first published in Boston in 1780 or 1790, but was played considerably before this time. men. 14 The first company raised in New Brunswick was a company of minute Their standing, equipment, organization, and employment were not satisfactory, and Colonel Neilson asked that they might be put on a better footing. Col. Neilson was first the Colonel of the Minute Men and afterward Colonel of the 2d Regiment, Middlesex Foot Militia. The officers who were associated with Col. Neilson-whether under the first or second organization it is difficult to say-were Lieut. Col. Azariah Dunham, Major John Duychinck, Lieut. Col. Richard Lott, Major John Taylor, Major John Van Emburgh, Surgeon Moses Scott, and Lieut. Jas. Schureman. In later days, 1824, when LaFayette passed through New Brunswick his escort consisted of the first squadron of Horse Artillery, Major Van Dyke commanding, the New Brunswick Artillery Company, in which Jas. Neilson was an officer, and the City Guards. stage, dismounts and asks for the Colonel. He is directed to him and hands him a paper. A table is brought and, mounting upon it, Colonel Neilson reads the Declaration of Independence to the citizens and soldiers. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty, it is their right, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. The reading is followed by applause. The militia fall in and to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" the company disperses.15 EPISODE IV The Laying of the Cornerstone of Queen's Building, April 27, 1809 The accounts of the laying of the cornerstone of the new building for Queen's College are extremely meager. 15 The tune of "Yankee Doodle" is played as it probably sounded in 1776. This version is taken from a selection of Scottish, English, Irish, and foreign airs published in Glasgow about 1775 or 1776. |