Nathaniel Scudder's Service in the Continental Congress

While David Forman was Monmouth County’s leading military figure in 1777, Dr. Nathaniel Scudder was its leading political figure. Prior to the Declaration of Independence, he served as a delegate in the New Jersey Provincial Congress and Chair of the Monmouth County Committee. He became the Colonel of Monmouth County’s First Militia Regiment after Colonel George Taylor defected to the British in November 1776, but he was generally inactive in the militia after commanding at the disastrous Battle of the Navesink. (He briefly re-joined the militia for the campaign to shadow the British withdrawal from New Jersey, June 1777.) In March, he joined the New Jersey Council of Safety.

Nathaniel Scudder Selected to the Continental Congress

Scudder’s time on the Council of Safety deepened his friendships in the New Jersey Assembly. On November 20, the Assembly selected him (along with John Witherspoon, John Elmer, Elias Boudinot and Abraham Clark) to represent New Jersey in the Continental Congress from December 1, 1777 – December 1, 1778. New Jersey’s new delegates arrived in York, Pennsylvania (meeting there because Philadelphia was held by the British) on December 11. They presented credentials, and were admitted to the Continental Congress. It was a short session; Scudder and other delegates were home by Christmas.

Congress next convened on January 28, 1778, but lacked a quorum on that day. Scudder’s colleague in Congress, John Witherspoon, wrote, "pray let Dr. Scudder come here without delay."  Scudder arrived on February 9. By New Jersey law, an officeholder forced to spend time out of state could not be a militia officer. Scudder was in violation; he officially resigned his militia commission on March 28, 1778.

In Congress, the first issue in which Scudder was prominent was a resolution to the states recommending a military draft. The resolve passed Congress on February 16, with Congress urging states to "fill up" their Army quotas "by a draft of the militia or any other way that shall be effectual." The New Jersey Legislature passed a law on April 3 to implement a draft but also petitioned the Continental Congress to lower the quota of Army regiments from four regiments to two.

Even in Congress, Scudder remained focused on events at home. On April 9, he wrote Governor William Livingston about the need to confiscate Loyalist estates to prevent people from turning Loyalist:

I enclose you a copy of a petition from several of the principal inhabitants of the Counties below [Monmouth and Burlington], by which you will see the deplorable situation of that part of the State… The Tory race, who have increased under our nurture, that is to say our lenient measures, are now triumphant & much more dangerous than the British troops. Alas, my dear sir, instead of rearing our heads as heretofore like the stout oak, we flag like the parcel of bull rushes.  We want spirit & activity -- four sessions to complete an Act for Confiscating Tory property!

Scudder attended Congress from February into May. During a stretch of April, he was the only New Jersey delegate to Congress in York, prompting Governor Livingston to request that the Assembly reprimand the other delegates. However, as the British prepared to quit Philadelphia and retreat across New Jersey, Scudder was given permission to leave Congress and tend to his family at Freehold. Leave was granted on May 23, but he left on May 27.

Scudder left York with papers to be distributed along the expected British line of march. The papers, printed in English and German, encouraged British and Loyalist desertions by granting land and militia exemptions to anyone who switched sides. Scudder’s papers may have had an impact on British desertions which were prodigious during the march across New Jersey. Major von Wilmowsky wrote on June 26 that his regiment had lost 236 men to desertions because the enemy "printed slips of paper that were secretly distributed among the men by the rebels."

Scudder made it back to Freehold just ahead of the British Army. He was briefly with the militia, but remained a physician. Scudder was called away to deliver a baby. According to an antiquarian source, he watched the Battle of Monmouth from the window of a house outside of Freehold. Shortly after the battle, he wrote his friend, Assembly Speaker John Hart, about the "great plunder and devastation has been committed among my friends this quarter, but through the distinguishing goodness of providence, my family & property escaped."

By late summer, Scudder was back in Congress (now meeting in Philadelphia). He supported a stronger national government. For example, Scudder was a strong proponent of the Articles of Confederation. Though the Articles are today regarded as the weak predecessor of the United States Constitution, they created the first framework for a federal United States government. Their adoption was a big step toward nationalizing the otherwise independent states.

In 1779, Scudder became one of the first delegates in Congress to speak of the need to put western lands under the stewardship of the federal government in order to head off interstate clashes. Scudder also sponsored a resolution in August 1779 to encourage free trade between the states: “it was resolved, that it be earnestly recommended to the several states to take off every restriction on the inland trade between the said states.”

Nathaniel Scudder’s Second Year in Congress

On November 6, Hart informed Scudder that the Assembly had selected him to serve another year in the Continental Congress. The Assembly also selected Scudder’s protégé, Dr. Thomas Henderson of Freehold, for Congress, but Henderson declined to serve. Nonetheless, the decision to select someone so closely associated with Scudder is a strong indication of Scudder’s high regard in the Assembly.

In November, Scudder joined a select committee, with Gouverneur Morris and William Whipple, to investigate and reorganize the Quartermaster Department of the Continental Army. The Committee sent letters to the governors of several states inquiring about where stores could be collected for the Army. The Committee sought to create a pre-collected set of stores for the Army but it also drifted into side issues. For example, it drafted a Congressional resolution to encourage states to "prohibit, for the time being, the distilling of whiskey and other spirits”—which Congress read but ignored. He also served on Congress’s mustering and medical committees.

As was common with political leaders of this era, Scudder engaged in personal feuds. One of his opponents was John Cooper, a senior New Jersey legislator from Gloucester County who Scudder accused of being a closet Tory. In December 1778, Scudder attacked him in a letter to Livingston:

Cooper, according to custom, has used his little arts to retard every necessary measure, & enjoys satisfaction (if his crooked soul can delight in anything) of having his nays on record as monumental to the cause of Toryism in America, but by the very broadest hints from many of this Council has by one of them been called a Tory to his face.

Scudder also led the effort in Congress to censure Thomas Paine. The famous author of Common Sense was given a patronage position in the Continental government. Despite this, Paine was a vocal critic of the Continental Congress and Scudder, among other delegates, was not amused. He introduced the following resolution:

Resolved, that Mr. Thomas Paine for his imprudence ought immediately to be dismissed from his office of secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, and the said Committee are directed to dismiss him accordingly, and to take such further steps relative to his misapplication of public papers as they shall deem necessary.

Scudder also was a critic of General Charles Lee, George Washington’s second-in-command, who was court martialed after the Battle of Monmouth for leading an ineffectual attack on the British Army. In 1779, Lee came to Congress to clear his name and received rough questioning from Scudder. Lee later identified the "two of the most notorious idiots" in Congress, John Penn of North Carolina and Scudder. He described Scudder as “a gossiping pragmatical Presbyterian doctor or apothecary.” Of the two, Lee wrote with sarcasm, “both of which worthies I have given a downing slap on the face in a letter."

Nathaniel Scudder Leaves Congress

By fall 1779, Scudder was signaling that his time in Congress was nearing an end. On October 4, he wrote Henry Laurens, President of the Congress, from Freehold: "I intended when I left town to have returned by tomorrow's Stage, but the ill State of Mrs. Scudder's [Isabel Scudder] health, and the circumstances of my family forbid; nor can I determine precisely when I shall be down.”

On October 26, he wrote John Stevens, also a delegate, that serving in Congress “has added so much to the reduction of the small remains of my estate, to the distress and uneasiness of my family, to the injury of my children's education, that another year of attendance would be ruinous." He hoped that "our places might not be filled by ambitious, designing men, or by others with like fortune with myself."

Governor Livingston wrote Scudder on October 19 about his decision to leave Congress: “The delegates chose [for Congress] are Mr. Fell and Dr. Henderson. I am told the only reason why you was not re-elected was that you had declined to serve another year.” Livingston also encouraged Scudder to be vocal in the coming Monmouth County election:

You have done your share, but there is still much to do... I hope you will exert yourself in Monmouth against the next election, that we may have all Whigs. The Legislative body suffers more detriment from three or four Tories than it can reap advantages from twenty Whigs.

On November 8, Scudder replied that he had expressed a desire to spend more time at home, but never explicitly said he would not serve another year in Congress. A week later, Scudder wrote Laurens:

I am now, my dear friend, returning to private life, this being my last week in Congress, but believe me I have no idea of shrinking from any further share in this important contest - no sir - I will continue to exert myself on all occasions... if necessary by again taking up the sword, and even enlist in the ranks of over those whom I lately held high command... I know you pity me for the unequal sacrifices I have made - I thank you for it, but I know that I have done nothing more than any honest man ought to have done.

Scudder returned to Freehold amid rumors that he might return to Congress. In 1780, he reminded Laurens that his medical practice suffered during his absence and his wife was "altogether deranged by my absence." On October 10, 1781, Abraham Clark, a New Jersey delegate in Congress, listed the qualified men who said they would not serve in Congress: “If I am rightly informed… Dr. Scudder, Mr. Boudinot, Dr. Henderson and Colo. Frelinghuysen will decline if chosen." Five days later, Scudder joined David Forman in arms in a clash with a Loyalist raiding party. Scudder was shot in the face and died hours later. He was the only delegate of the Continental Congress to die in combat.

Caption: Dr. Nathaniel of Scudder was the only Monmouth Countian to serve in the Continental Congress. He advocated for a strong national government and feuded with Thomas Paine and others.

Related Historic Site: Independence Hall (Philadelphia)

Sources: National Archives, Collection 332, reel 6, #429-39; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 9, p 1017; Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 8, pp. 671-2 note 6; John Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970) v3, p339; Lender, Mark, “The Conscripted Line: The Draft in Revolutionary New Jersey,” New Jersey History, vol. 103 (1985), pp. 28-37; Nathaniel Scudder to William Livingston, Massachusetts Historical Society, William Livingston Papers; William Livingston to Nathaniel Scudder, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 2, pp. 284-5; The Library Company, New Jersey Votes of the Assembly, April 14, 1778, p 110; Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 11, p 529 and vol 14, p 814; Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 9, pp. 21. 49; Willhelm Wilmostky to William Knyhausen, Copy: David Library, Battle of Monmouth Collection, #106; Hamilton Cochran, Scudders of the American Revolution (Peterborough, N.H.: Scudder Association, 1976), pp. 97-8; Nathaniel Scudder to John Hart, Selections from the Correspondence of the Executive of New Jersey, From 1776 to 1786 (Newark, NJ: Newark Daily Advertiser, 1848) pp. 119-23; Scudder’s appointment noted in Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1976) vol. 3, p 40; John Hart to Nathaniel Scudder, Library of Congress, Peter Force Collection, Series 7C, box 31, folder 2, 68:223; Journals of the Continental Congress, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hlawquery.html; Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, v13, p272, http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr13-0324; Minutes of the Council of Delaware State, 1776-1792 (Dover: James Kirk: 1896) p 339-40; Nathaniel Scudder to William Livingston in Hamilton Cochran, Scudders of the American Revolution,. (Peterborough, N.H.: Scudder Association, 1976), pp. 98-9; Journals of the Continental Congress, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hlawquery.html; Journals of the Continental Congress, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hlawquery.html; Thomas Bradford to Nathaniel Scudder, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Bradford MSS: British Army Prisoners, vol. 2, p 11; Donald W. Whisenhunt, ed., Delegate from New Jersey: The Journal of John Fell (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1973) pp. 16, 29, 79, 130, 141; Lee, Charles, The Lee Papers. 4 vols. (New York: New York Historical Society, 1871-1874) vol. 3, pp. 317-21; Charles Lee, Memoirs of the Life of Gen. Charles Lee (London: JS Jordan, 1792) p 54; Journals of the Continental Congress, American Memory, Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hlawquery.html; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Letters to Delegates of Congress, vol. 14, p22-3 (www.ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html); Nathaniel Scudder to John Stevens in Hamilton Cochran, Scudders of the American Revolution,. (Peterborough, N.H.: Scudder Association, 1976), pp. 98-9; Nathaniel Scudder to John Stevens, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 14, pp. 127-9; William Livingston to Nathaniel Scudder, Carl Prince, Papers of William Livingston (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987) vol. 3, pp. 225, 281 note; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Charles Jenkins Collection, ALS: Nathaniel Scudder; John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1932) vol. 17, pp. 134, 217; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, New York State Library, Special Collections, MS 953; Nathaniel Scudder to Henry Laurens, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Gratz Collection, case 1, box 21, Nathaniel Scudder; Abraham Clark to John Caldwell, Paul Smith, et al, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1970) vol. 18, p 110.