Assembly to hold ceremonial session at Princeton’s Nassau Hall

The New Jersey Assembly will hold a commemorative session on the campus of Princeton University next month, honoring Nassau Hall 250 years after the ivy-draped building hosted the first meeting of the state Legislature. 

The commemorative session will be part of the state’s 250th-anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin first announced the session during the reorganization of the Assembly earlier this month, and the Legislature’s calendar shows the session will be held Feb. 5.

“The New Jersey legislature met for the first time on August 27th, 1776, at Nassau Hall on the campus of what is now Princeton University,” Coughlin said. “To commemorate that first session, this February, this Assembly will return to Nassau Hall for a special session to begin a yearlong celebration of our wonderfully historic state.”

A spokesperson for Princeton did not immediately return a request for comment.

The New Jersey Legislature first met at Princeton in 1776 during the initial heat of the American Revolution.

The New Jersey Legislature elected William Livingston the state’s first governor. On Sept. 13, 1776, about two weeks into his tenure, Livingston delivered the first speech to a joint meeting of the Legislature. In it, he called on the legislators to “turn our first attention to the operations of war,” including addressing payment to the militia and the need for horses.

“While we are applauded by the whole impartial world for demolishing the old fabric, rotten and ruinous as it was; let us unitedly strive to [prove] ourselves master-builders, by giving Beauty, Strength and Stability to the new,” Livingston said as he finished his address.

British forces captured Nassau Hall later in 1776. Days after George Washington crossed the Delaware with the Continental Army on Christmas in 1776, Nassau Hall played a central role in the Battle of Princeton; Washington’s troops pushed the British from the hall, which was struck by cannonfire.

Nassau Hall, completed in 1756, was at one point the largest stone building in the American colonies.

Nassau Hall also once served as the seat of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation. After about 400 Continental Army soldiers mutinied in Philadelphia in 1783, demanding payment for their service, the Congress of the Confederation fled to Princeton. Nassau Hall served as the provisional capital for four months until the Congress moved on to Annapolis, Maryland.