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ELBRIDGE GERRY.

ELBRIDGE GERRY, the fifth signer on the Declaration of Independence and also a delegate from the province of Massachusetts Bay, was born in the small town of Marblehead, in that colony, in the month of July, 1744. Of his family and early history, we have been able to obtain but few particulars, and indeed in recording the events of his life, important and interesting as they are, we have greatly to regret the difficulty of obtaining materials, beyond the common and temporary records which are open to the public inspection.

The father of Mr. Gerry is said to have been a respectable merchant of Marblehead, and to have acquired a considerable fortune by his commercial pursuits. His son was placed at Harvard University, where he passed through the usual collegiate studies with much literary reputation and success; he there received the degree of bachelor of arts in the year 1762. After leaving college, he turned his attention to that line of life in which his father's prosperity seemed to hold out the greatest inducements to a young and enterprising mind; and he plunged at once into the most active pursuits of commerce. His fairness, correctness and assiduity, and the extensive knowledge of commercial concerns which he acquired from his father's experience and his own exertions, were crowned with good fortune, and while yet young in

business and in years, he had acquired a considerable estate and a very high standing at Marblehead.

These circumstances of course soon pointed him out for public office, and in fact his own inclinations seem to have been turned at an early period to the political concerns of the province, which were daily becoming more and more serious and important. On the twenty-sixth of May, 1773, he took his seat in the general court of Massachusetts Bay, as the representative of his native town, and he became from that moment one of the most zealous political leaders of our country. The time, indeed, was one of the most extreme interest; and the period had arrived in the controversy between Great Britain and her colonies, when the province was called on to take a leading part which demanded unusual firmness and effort. It had become necessary to oppose more decidedly and resolutely the arbitrary measures of the British ministry; or to yield, in utter hopelessness and despair, to such laws as the parent government, in the wanton exercise of power, might impose. The crisis was momentous; and the patriots of Massachusetts were not insensible of the difficulties and dangers which they had to encounter, in defence of civil liberty. They had to contend with a mighty nation —with its artful agents among themselves, and with the fears and prejudices of some of their fellow citizens. There was, indeed, a very general dissatisfaction and complaint, as to the oppressive measures of the British administration: but many had a hope of more favourable terms; and some were so fearful of the consequences, that they preferred submitting to the pleasure of the king and parliament. A resort to arms in opposing the authority of Great Britain, was not contemplated as an immediate, nor, necessarily, as an ultimate measure. But some more full and explicit expression of the sentiments of the people against the severe policy and arbi

trary principles of ministry, was considered absolutely requisite at this time, to prevent greater acts of oppression, and to preserve from utter annihilation, the rights and privileges of freemen. With this view, in the preceding year, a very large committee had been chosen by the town of Boston, to state the rights of the colonies and to correspond with the other towns of the province on the grievances which they all in common endured. As soon as the general court met, early in the year 1773, they followed up the energetic course which had been thus adopted, and entered at once into a long and able controversy with the governor on the subject of their violated rights. They passed strong resolutions, declaring the assumption of power by the British parliament to be in direct violation of their charter and the constitution of the country; and they adopted the system which afterwards proved of incalculable benefit, of corresponding with the other colonies on the subject of their mutual grievances.

On the twenty-eighth of May, two days after Mr. Gerry had taken his seat in the house, Mr. Samuel Adams brought forward the celebrated resolutions which we have noticed in his life, to appoint a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry, whose business it should be to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence, of all such acts and resolutions of the British parliament, or proceedings of administrations as may relate to, or affect the British colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain, a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies, respecting these important considerations; and the result of such their proceedings, from time to time, to lay before the house.

Of this committee, Mr. Gerry was chosen a member, a proof of the high standing and character he had attained even before he entered the legislature. In all the proceedings of the committee he took an active and prominent part, and as

his capacious mind gradually unfolded its powers, his assiduity and attention to business rendered him a most useful member of the legislature.

In the month of June, we find Mr. Gerry warmly supporting Mr. Adams, in the measures he brought forward and pursued towards governor Hutchinson, on receiving from Dr. Franklin the celebrated letters written to England with the evident intention of increasing the bitter feelings which there existed against the province. He also zealously united himself with that bold and distinguished patriot in most of those resolute measures, which he introduced about this period, and which resulted in the overthrow of the royal government of the province. To trace these various subjects would be to write the history of Massachusetts rather than the life of Mr. Gerry, for although he was a principal mover in them, it was in union with other patriots and with the general co-operation of the whole body of the people. Through the eventful scenes which marked the year 1774, the impeachment of the judges, the opposition to the importation of tea and to the Boston port bill, the establishment of the system of non-intercourse, and the arrangement of a close correspondence with the other colonies, he was active among the foremost. He also took a decided part in promoting the meetings which were held in all the large counties of the province, composed of committees from every town to express their sentiments on the alarming state of the country, and to consult for the liberties and welfare of the people.

In the month of August, general Gage, who had succeeded governor Hutchinson in the administration of the colony, had issued precepts for the choice of representatives to meet at Salem, the first week in October. But afterwards, in consequence of the county conventions, which proposed a provincial congress, and advised that they should not acknow

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