I have been in this office almost twenty years. My hands were never soiled with a bribe ; nor am T conscious to myself, that power or poverty hath been able to induce me to be partial in the favor of either of ihem ; and as I have no reason to expect any favor from you, so I am neither afraid nor ashamed to stand the test of the strictest inquiry you can make concerning my conduct. I have served the public faithfully and honestly, according to the best of my knowledge, and I dare, and doj appeal to it for my justification. . . .

I am, sir, ■ - ,

Your Excellency's

Most humble servant,

Lewis Morris.

A. D. 1733, the Hon. Lewis Morris was elected a representative for (he county of Westchester, in opposition to the aristocratic candidate.^ In 1738 he was appointed the first governor of New Jersey, as a separate province from New York. He appears also to have been an active member of the venerable Propagation Society; format a meeting of that body, held in London, 14th of Sept., 1701, a memorial was received from Colonel Morris, in which he speaks of the several townships of East Jersey as distracted by almost every variety of dissent, but with little appearance of real religion among them. Middletown was settled from New York and New England. " It is," says Colonel Morris, " a

» See vol. 1. 136.

310 HISTORY OF THE

large township : there is no such thing as a church or reHgion amongst them. They are, perhaps, the most ignorant people in the world." The colonel describes the settlers of West Jersey as "a hotch potch of all religions," and the youth as being '• very debauched and very ignorant, &c."a