William Livingston's American Revolution by James J. Gigantino II

Author:James J. Gigantino II [Gigantino, James J. II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, History, United States, Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
ISBN: 9780812295504
Google: zA5uDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2018-09-11T01:07:42+00:00

Livingston’s strong advocacy for more executive authority in resolving the state’s currency crisis was driven in part by an exponential increase in the London Trade. Border cities like Elizabethtown and Woodbridge mimicked what revolutionary leaders in Connecticut had seen—a majority of their residents engaged in some type of illegal trade because of desperation from lack of economic opportunity. Livingston called for the resurrection of the Council of Safety to quell this increased loyalist threat, but his opponents in the legislature, still cautious over his increased executive power, declined to renew the Council’s charter. Livingston therefore relied on the Privy Council to expand his control of the militia and limit the trade, again taking a more forceful position within the state’s prosecution of the war.52

The appeal of the London Trade forced Livingston into action because a significant portion of Jersey foodstuffs went to New York instead of to the Continental Army. The state’s central role in military affairs forced the military and the state government in early 1779 to support impressment of foodstuffs and forage as Livingston and Washington reported scarcity of both, especially potent as winter forced the military to rely on New Jersey for most of its subsistence. In January 1779, Livingston warned of the great “possibility that the inhabitants and their livestock will suffer for want” as grain supplies remained limited even as the state instructed quartermasters to leave enough supplies for locals. Livingston identified two reasons for this scarcity: a downturn in supply due to men being called to military service too often, exacerbated by the already high amount of food sent to the military, and food being hoarded and traded into the London Trade. The first issue had some relevance as, during the debates over militia service, those who actually served complained frequently of the burden during harvest season. The more critical issue came from the “great quantities” of food and supplies “carried into the enemies lines” through the London Trade that Livingston had been attempting to stop. By spring 1779, the scarcity of food became endemic and Livingston argued that “our inhabitants instead of cheerfully supplying the army out of their superfluity, hoard it up for a higher market,” while the current laws could do little “to wrest it out of their miserly clutches.” Washington reiterated the complaint of his officers in New Jersey that “there is too general a disposition, to refuse Forage, prevailing among the Inhabitants”; they “obstinately refus[e] to part with what they can spare unless regularly compelled.” In both instances, Livingston and Washington relayed an allied argument that both had used in the past—the commitment of New Jerseyans to the revolutionary cause waned in the face of depreciation.53

The supply situation became more dire in late 1779 as Washington faced an even more limited supply of flour and lack of cooperation from residents. Whereas Washington hoped that “a few virtuous individuals in each district” could work to increase the supply of grain coming from farmers, by November Livingston again reported that “without more coercive measures than the legislature seem willing to adopt .

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