Portal to 1839 Discovered at the State Library

Published on June 13, 2025

The Research Library has digitized documents from 1839 that show in politics, some things never change.

New Jersey Digital Collections Librarian Caitlyn Cook recently found an uncatalogued copy of the 1839 governor’s message and reports to the legislature by agencies, departments, and appointed officials. This slim but weighty volume is now digitized in our State Publications Digital Library, making it available online and free to download for the first time. This book is an early volume in what is now known as the Legislative Documents series, publications authorized by the Legislature for its use, and distributed to New Jersey lawmakers, municipalities, and other states. By the 1880s, about a thousand copies were published annually, but now there are only scattered copies, mostly in government depository libraries.

These compilations were published from about 1839-1921 under different names, although individual reports were often also published separately (sometimes in multiple editions by different publishers). Each volume in the series begins with the governor’s annual message, followed by annual reports to the Legislature.

The constitution of 1776, which remained in force until 1844, did not provide for an annual message by the Governor. Messages, usually on a specific subject, were occasionally submitted to the Legislature at the beginning of the session, but the first to have the appearance of an “annual message” was that of Gov. Vroom in Jan., 1830. In Feb., 1830, a joint resolution was passed making it the duty of the Governor to address a message to the Legislature at its annual Meeting in October. This custom was adhered to, with the exception of 1836, until the adoption of the constitution of 1844, which required the Governor at the opening of each session of the Legislature to submit a message on the condition of the state. (Hasse, page 360)

Early reports were brief, with some submitted as a personal letter to the governor and some even recommended needed legislation. As the work of state government rapidly expanded during the Industrial Revolution, annual reports ballooned into multi-volume works of thousands of pages, and later editions often contained maps and rarely seen photographs. We have compiled online access points to the Legislative Documents on our website, and a complete bibliography of the collection is a work in process. Among many others, one of our department’s goals is to provide better public access to historic documents, expanding the Adelaide Hasse’s legendary index to NJ documents (cited above) with links to digital reports, while also continuing our ongoing work preserving recent and current publications.

Governor Pennington’s Message to the Legislature

Legislation passed in 1838 required widespread publication of annual reports, which leave us a trove of public history for this era. You sometimes find a surprising or funny passage that reminds you human nature is pretty consistent and people are exactly the same as they’ve always been: boring, funny, concerned, interesting, creative, wrong. The governor’s message of 1839 is no exception. Before the constitution of 1844, the governor was elected annually by the Assembly from its membership. Governor Pennington, a Whig then entering his final year in the State House before seeking election to Congress, begins by telling the legislature he hopes they focus more on their personal lives than legislation because “there is a common feeling pervading the State that few changes in our system of laws should be made, and those which should be made should be of the most pressing necessity.”

Perhaps Pennington was also speaking from his own feelings after fifteen years in the Assembly and governor’s office. He also notes the founding of what sounds like the first New Jersey Agricultural Society and new Agriculture committees in the Legislature, as well as his role and opinions on the contested election of NJ’s five representatives to the 26th Congress, in which it was eventually decided that although there were irregularities, Millville and South 9’s votes were supposedly not certified by election officers because those towns voted Democrat. He also notes that New Jersey was funding schooling for 18 deaf children and 10 blind children at schools in New York and Philadelphia; sending students out of state was funded by the Legislature made for another forty years before they legislated opening our own school).

The governor’s message was followed by reports from various agencies. A few reports were numbered but others were also published separately and have their own title pages. There’s no table of contents or index in early compilations, and pagination was inconsistent. In citations below, I have included the page in the scanned PDF where you can find the following details.

Letter from geologist Henry D. Rogers

Henry Darwin Rogers was hired in 1835 on a contract to complete the first geological survey of New Jersey. Rogers provided a brief letter published in this volume (begins on PDF page 43) saying his survey will soon be ready for publication and is only waiting on the artist doing the coloring. The survey was published in 1840 as Description of the Geology of the State of New Jersey, being a final report.

A second geological survey was authorized in 1854, and since 1864 the Geological Survey has been a continual product of state government first under the State Geologist, and today the Department of Environmental Protection.

Quartermaster’s Report

Quartermaster Samuel R. Hamilton provided an inventory of all weapons and equipment in the state arsenal at Trenton, including about 10,000 muskets and 200 sabres (begins on PDF page 21). Perhaps some of this equipment was used in the rebellion twenty years later.

State Prison Keeper’s Report

Prison keeper Joseph A. Yard briefly reports there were 161 prisoners in the New Jersey State Prison (a decrease of 2 from the previous year), which cost $8,901.74 to run, plus officer salaries. (PDF page 24)

State Treasurer’s Report

A treasurer’s report, consisting of a balance sheet and an account of the school fund was mandated by an 1838 law, so this volume contains the first of its kind. Among other observations, Treasurer Isaac Southard noted that it was getting very expensive to convict criminals and was seeing a lot of variance on what county clerks were submitting for costs when compared to each other, often without supplying him minutes required by law. Also he dryly notes that the new railroads weren’t happy paying “transit duties” and that he was sure that the Legislature, who was showing “faithfulness… in protecting these companies in their rights and privileges should… be met with a readiness to fulfill… what the law requires” hinting at the dealings of the Legislature during the railroad boom in New Jersey. The state’s “school budget” was then $10,000. (begins on PDF page 27)

Annual reports of the Treasurer (1838-1948) can be downloaded from the State Publications Digital Library.

State Prison Reports

State Prison reports continue after the Treasurer’s report, including the Board of Inspectors, the Physician, and the joint legislative Committee on State Prison Accounts. These include a detailed demographic and offense breakdown of those in the prison. Among their recommendations, they ask the Legislature to reconsider and discontinue the legislative requirement to publish the names of everyone who was pardoned or released from prison; “records of infamy of those whose names are mentioned will be… widely disseminated to the great mortification and discouragement of those… who may desire to lead hereafter a virtuous life.” While they write that the list was supplied with their report, it was not published in this volume; perhaps it was never published.

The State Prison ran a profit from prison labor, which included weaving, shoe making, and chair making. Prison physician James B. Coleman’s report includes medical data, the observation that many were mentally unwell, and his moral philosophy of prisons. Images from the Prison Physician’s report are below.

Assembly Committee Report on New Jersey Banks

This report includes the annual statements of all banks in New Jersey in 1839. (begins PDF page 63)

Special Message of the Governor and Accompanying Documents

A Special Message of the Governor dated 14 Jan 1840 (begins on PDF page 86) is a letter by Governor Pennington to the Legislature regarding the contested election for the US House of Representatives (later known as the Broad Seal War). followed by related documents including a letter from the Representatives to the governor, and a list of “Names of Illegal voters at the Congressional Election in 1838, in New Jersey”, (PDF page 106) including where they voted in Middlesex and Cumberland County, and the reasons they were disqualified, such as having unpaid taxes, voting twice, being a minor, being “aliens”, not meeting residency requirements, etc.

Perhaps your ancestor is on this list? The names of ordinary New Jerseyans from the 1800s frequently appear in legislative documents and they are an untapped primary source for local history and genealogy.

Annual Report of the Trustees of the School Fund

Long before there was a Department of Education, there were Trustees of the School Fund, comprised of the Governor, the Attorney General, the Vice President of the Legislative Council, the Assembly Speaker, and the Secretary of State (report begins on PDF page 114). Many townships and counties provided them with no annual report from which to compile data, and the State did not even have a comprehensive list of school districts; like others, their annual reports were mandated by 1838 legislation).

They write that this lack of data explains why there are supposedly 64,411 children aged 5-16 in New Jersey, but only 33,954 are in school. They also wrote that “the number of children attending school… appears to be greater in Burlington than in any other portion of the state. This may be in a great measure ascribed to the fact, that the society of Friends, who have always been the liberal patrons of education, here compose so large and respectable a part of the population; while… the comparatively small number of children” in Mercer and Essex counties might be ascribed to the large number of private schools.

The length of the school year also varied widely from 11 months in Bergen to as low as five months in the agrarian southwest counties, and only two months average in Cape May. Cost per student was an average of $2.24, but $1.33 in Cape May. (PDF page 119) The trustees was encouraging districts to provide a well stocked library for students, and provided a sample recommended school district library of fifty volumes (compiled by New York state) is below (PDF page 134).

Report of the Number of Lunatics and Idiots

The Report of the Commissioners Appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to Ascertain the Number of Lunatics and Idiots in the State (begins on PDF page 146) was authorized by legislation with the anticipation a state asylum may be necessary. This was a preliminary study and the methodology was brand new and dependent on record keeping by local clerks of court, prisons, and other sources. As a result, the data was a massive understatement when compared with data collected in subsequent years.

A modern reader will find the language and details in this report both banal (when describing reporting methods) and deeply disturbing to our present ethics and awareness of human rights. We’ve described in an older blog our digitization of all extant New Jersey State Asylum Reports, which began in 1848.

Report on the D&R Canal and the Camden & Amboy Rail Road

Both the D&R Canal and the C&A Railroad were built in the 1830s on public land leased to shareholders in a “Joint Company”. The annual Report of the Joint Board of Directors to the Stockholders of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and the Camden & Amboy Rail Road (begins on PDF page 175) is an interesting mix of politics, marketing and money. The five directors of the Board, Along with profit statements, the board notes that this investment has connected the entire country, claiming the railroad had cut the 11-20 hour journey between Philadelphia and Manhattan “performed with great personal discomfort, and no small hazard of limb and life” down to “six to seven hours and with nearly the same comfort as they enjoy at their own firesides.” (PDF pages 181-182) As for the canal, the board writes

You have constructed for sixty-five miles, through the heart of New Jersey, the most spacious canal, which adds year after years, thousands to the value of her agricultural interests, while it carries with it wealth and happiness to her citizens generally, and which may be referred to as a lasting monument of the sagacity of New Jersey statesmen, and of your patriotism and munificence.

The report is a great example of 1840s political speech which sounds not unlike an annual report of the 2020s. Speaking to the shareholders, they write

It is with high emotions of State pride that we thus publicly bear witness, that amidst all the taunts and reproaches heaped indiscriminately upon corporations; amidst the most earnest and plausible supplications of intriguing and designing men, amidst the most extravagant offers of remuneration, New Jersey, her people, and her Legislators have stood firm, to their own laws, and have invariably treated with contempt all efforts made to seduce her from her honor or her obligations towards you; and you may rely upon it that she never will allow you to be disturbed in the enjoyment of your corporate rights; especially as it has been your pride and constant endeavor to observe, on your part, the obligations you are under to the State.

After the rallying narrative, they follow with their expense report as well as descriptions of the infrastructure, lands acquired, machinery and other operational details. It includes detailed descriptions of the entire length of the canal and train line. D&R cost $2.8 million (PDF page 212 and 215) and the Camden & Amboy cost $3.2 million (PDF page 215). Net profits were $1.9 million (PDF page 220). Learn more about the “Joint Companies” in Rutgers’ digital exhibit and the DEP’s Brief History of the D&R Canal.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed your visit to 1840 New Jersey and welcome back to 2025. Please exit the portal and join us next time for future episodes into the past, via our State Publications library.

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Written by H. Husted, Electronic Resources Librarian. Explore more New Jersey history in our Digital Collections blog archive. Sign up for NJSL Presents, the Research Library’s monthly newsletter for our latest blogs and webinars.