Mr. Hart was quick to discern the encroachments of the British ministry upon the chartered and constitutional rights of the colonies and prompt to resist them. The passage of the Stamp Act on the 22d of March 1765 was followed by a commotion that indicated a slender tenure of kingly power in America. This odious Act was repealed on the 18th of March 1776. But the ministerial alchemists were madly bent on new experiments. The colonists had borne the yoke of artful and increasing restrictions upon their trade and industry for fifty years. It was presumed their necks were hardened so as to bear a heavier burden. Deluded alchemists--they little understood the kind of metal put in their crucible. Direct taxation without representation was no part of the English constitution. This violation could not be tamely submitted to. The second edition of the revenue plan revised and stereotyped in 1767 by Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, imposing a duty on glass, paper, pasteboard, tea and painters' colors--kindled a flame in the Colonies that no earthly power could quench. Public meetings against the measure--resolutions of the deepest censure, remonstrances of the strongest character, arguments of the most conclusive logic were hurled back upon the ministry. Boston harbor was converted into a teapot and all the tea afloat used at one drawing. Non-importation agreements, committees of safety, preparations for defence, non-intercourse, bloodshed, war and Independence followed. In all these movements Mr. Hart concurred and firmly opposed the encroachments of the crown. In 1774 he was elected to Congress and entered upon the high duties of his station with a deep sense of the responsibilities that rested upon that body at that particular time. Mild, deliberate, cautious, discreet and firm in his purposes--he became an important member in carrying out the measures then contemplated--reconciliation and a restoration of amity. On the 10th of May 1775 he again took his place in Congress. The cry of blood, shed on the 19th of the preceding April at Lexington, had infused a spirit among the members widely different from that which pervaded their minds at the previous meeting. It was then that the cool deliberation of such men as Mr. Hart was indispensable. The ardor and impetuosity of youth had passed away--propositions and arguments were placed in the balance of reason. Causes, effects, objects, ends, plans, means, consequences--all were put in the scales of justice and honestly weighed. In this manner every act was performed with clean hands, the cause of Liberty honored, prospered and crowned with triumphant success. At this time Mr. Hart was a member and Vice President of the Assembly of New Jersey and shortly after had the proud satisfaction of aiding in the funeral obsequies of the old government and joined in the festivities of forming a new one upon the broad platform of republicanism.