N.J. apologizes for slavery

New Jersey last night joined a list of states that have apologized for slavery, after lawmakers overwhelming passed a resolution expressing the state's regret.

The resolution merely offers the Legislature's opinion and would not require the governor's signature. It would be recorded in the state annals of declarations.

The resolution's sponsor, Assemblyman William D. Payne (D., Newark), noted that New Jersey had 12,000 slaves and was the last Northern state to free them. Last night, New Jersey became the latest state to apologize.

"This is an apology for their descendants . . . and all mankind," he said.

But Assemblyman Richard A. Merkt (R., Morris) said that the resolution was the first step toward reparations - the controversial idea of compensating slavery's descendants.

He said he would have supported a resolution expressing the state's regret, but not an apology.

"Most of the ancestors of today's New Jersey residents did not even arrive in the U.S. prior to the emancipation of the slaves," he said. "None of us can truly apologize because none of us was responsible for it."

The resolution passed the Assembly, 59-8, with eight members abstaining. It passed the Senate, 29-2, without debate.

Several other states have offered apologies or expressed their regrets over slavery.

Virginia lawmakers wrestled with the issue in February before becoming the first state to do so. Their original measure included an apology; the final expressed only "profound regret."

In March, Maryland lawmakers followed suit, expressing "profound regret," but not offering an outright apology. The North Carolina General Assembly apologized in April; Alabama legislators, in May. And in June, the Arkansas Legislative Council, which oversees legislative matters between sessions, expressed regret. Measures have been introduced elsewhere.

New Jersey's also expresses "profound regret" and "apologizes for wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in the United States."

New Jersey adopted the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, on Jan. 23, 1866 - after rejecting it March 16, 1865. Before that, Payne said, New Jersey allowed authorities to capture escaped slaves and return them to the South.

He said that offering an apology after all this time was not an academic exercise.

"Making a stand for human decency, either one generation too late or many generations too late, is never a waste of time," he said.