The task of gathering a delegation from each colony was a hard one, with many of the thirteen saddled with  Royal Governors who stood firmly opposed to any such thing as an American Congress. So strong was the sway of the Governors and of other Crown officials in the colonial Assemblies that, attractive as the idea of a Congress might sound in a resolution, any such resolution would stand little chance of passage.

     In  New Jersey  the situation was little different than  in  the other colonies.  The strategy of the Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry was simply to find a way to elect delegates to a Congress by some means other than Assembly action, and without review by Tory Governor William Franklin. 

     The calendar of events leading to New Jersey representation in the first Continental Congress may be stated briefly as follows:

     11 June, 1774: At a meeting of committeemen in Newark, letters were written for delivery to a principal patriot in each County in New Jersey, urging the individuals to advertise meetings of "freeholders and inhabitants" to be held at each County seat. From these local "grass roots" meetings County Committees were to be named, to attend a colony wide
Convention at New Brunswick on July 21.

     The Convention at New Brunswick, it was stated, would name New Jersey delegates to a "Congress of Deputies" for all the colonies, scheduled hopefully to meet at Philadelphia in September, 1774.

     13 July, 1774: Advertisements of County meetings in lower Jersey appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, including notice of such a meeting scheduled for Burlington County for July 20. The advertisements did not mention the projected Congress, but did cite "enormous grievances and an alarming crisis  growing from "acts of Parliament."

     20 July, 1774: At the Burlington County meeting, in the Court House at Burlington, the idea of a Congress was presented and was cited in the minutes. Nine men were elected by the inhabitants  gathered  at  this  meeting,  to represent the County in "effecting salutary public purposes" as a County Committee. At least three of the nine were to attend the colony wide meeting at New Brunswick.

     The  nine  Burlington  County  committeemen were Robert Field, James Kinsey, Thomas Hewlings, Henry Parson, Anthony Sykes, Joseph Borden, Isaac Pearson, Richard Smith, and John Pope.

     21  July,  1774: Riding overnight, the Burlington  County men appeared in New Brunswick. There they were joined by similar representatives  from  the other New Jersey counties,  and the  joint Convention elected delegates to the "Congress of Deputies" and passed other resolutions relating to objectionable acts of Parliament such as the Boston Port Bill. The five delegates elected to the Congress included James Kinsey and Richard Smith of Burlington County.

     In other colonies, similar events were occurring. Enthusiasm was gathering for the coming sessions in Philadelphia, to be known by common consent as a Continental Congress rather  than  the  originally projected  name "Congress of Deputies." Only in one colony, Georgia, was the Royal Governor powerful enough to prevent election of delegates.

     5 September, 1774: The First Continental Congess convened in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia and captured something of the unity of which the patriots had dreamed. Differing in degree were the opinions of New England firebrands, Virginia burgesses, New Jersey men of letters, and South Carolina planters -- but men from north, south and middle sat under
one roof and the blend of opinion was a unifying force.

     If  widespread  correspondence  and  revolutionary measures, quite extra-legal, had been necessary to bring them together, there was also counter correspondence -- from Joseph Galloway of the Pennsylvania delegation, for instance, who was not slow in sending reports of the proceedings to his Tory friend, Governor William Franklin of New Jersey, who passed the
reports  promptly  along  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth. Through this and other channels, the British Parliament was made well aware of the new-found American spirit of unity; and on either side of the Atlantic preparations were made for possible armed conflict.

     The mood of the First Continental Congress was in general one of compromise with the policies  of  Great  Britain;  but  the  sensation became evident as time went on that there was to be no compromise. As the year 1774 gave way to 1775 there came a new dream, nebulous at first, of something more than merely united discussion and protest.

     On May 23, 1775, a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from Virginia, George Washington,  accepted  the  invitation  of Governor Franklin of New Jersey to a dinner party at the Governor's  mansion on the Burlington river front. Present also, according to most accounts, was the brilliant cleric and physician of Burlington, Dr. Jonathan Odell.
Undoubtedly the Governor was interested in sounding the sentiment of the tall ex-soldier; and Washington was interested in bringing the Governor of New Jersey over to the patriot viewpoint -- which was also the viewpoint of the Governor's father, Benjamin Franklin. The difference of opinion between father and son was becoming a sore subject, and Washington
would have liked to patch up this family quarrel.

     The breach continued. Had William Franklin swayed, he and the American colonies could have been spared much grief later on - but Royal Governor Franklin was not to be swayed. This was one of his last appearances along the Delaware; however, a few weeks later Washington was back again, riding as the newly named Commander in Chief of American forces, on his way to the siege of Boston.

     Aided by the Continental Congress and stirred by the pressure of British arms in New England, a new patriot dream, seeing beyond the  years,  was  unfolding:  the  dream  of Independence and of a new nation, conceived in liberty, to be named the United States of America.