now faced with paying off their balance by direct taxation. They were enraged to be disbursing high taxes to their legislature but became even more infuriated when the Parliament began, for the first time, to tax Americans as well. They presented them with the Stamp Act, a law that taxed newspapers and a wide range of legal documents. Though New Jersey protests were mild, they made it clear that they were opposed to this act. Even lawyers of the colony declared that they would “cease all legal activity in the colony…rather than pay the tax.” The Townsend Acts of 1768, another attempt to tax Americans, was greeted by New Jersey, as well as other colonies, with a boycott against British manufacturers. The fact is, though, that Jerseyans had enjoyed the protection of England without being taxed for many years, and when their assistance was finally requested to pay of the mother country’s debt, they were unwilling to let go of this cushy plan.12Once again, during the Revolutionary War, the residents of New Jersey resisted paying taxes that actually supported the fight for independence, and the group that suffered this time was their own army. In 1775 the Provincial Congress had its second meeting, at which it found necessary to raise thirty thousand pounds in new taxes in order to form sixteen regimes, seven independent battalions, and a company of rangers. Of course, when Congress asked Jerseymen for their support, they were answered with a resounding no. Then, while in Morristown, the army suffered through the worst winters of the century while their supply system collapsed because Congress had stopped printing money in order to decrease inflation. New Jersey soldiers found themselves living in poverty and hunger, and still, the state that they were protecting refused to pay taxes to relieve them. In fact, the legislature hesitated to impose them for fear of alienating their citizens.13Another theme in N...
