Volume 3, Chapter 12, Reaction in New Jersey
New Jersey sent no official protest, whatever, to England. Robert Ogden, Speaker of the New
Jersey Assembly, was, during August, inspired by the June 1764 circular letter of the Massachusetts
Assembly urging all the colonies to unite and exert themselves to the utmost to keep
Augustine pressed for a special session of the legislature, but none was called, perhaps because of the recalcitrance of New Jersey Governor William Franklin, son of Benjamin.
However, in September, two members of the New Jersey Council, Samuel Smith and Charles Reed,
from Franklin, son of Benjamin. However, in September, two members of the New Jersey Council,
Samuel Smith and Charles Reed, and a member of the Assembly, Jacob Spicer, formed themselves
into a Committee of Correspondence for West Jersey and sent off a protest to the colony's
London agent. The Committee asserted that we look upon all taxes laid upon us without
In a letter to the Governor of South Carolina, Attorney General Cortland Skinner of New Jersey riddled the defense argument used by Great Britain, the British troops in the Indian country, far from protecting, are the very cause of our Indian wars and the monstrous expenses attached to them.
All we want with the Indians is their trade, which we can never enjoy until we remove their suspicion.
When that is done, Skinner pointed out, the colonies will enjoy the security of the days they knew before the war,
when there were virtually no English troops stationed in America.
of America. Skinner also noted that the French and Indian threats were now removed and therefore
even fewer troops were needed for defense.