Bartlett was an active member of the convention, and strenuously supported its adoption. In April, 1789, the old confederation expired, and the new form of government, partly federal and partly national, succeeded in its place, to the universal joy of all who desired the happiness of the United States. Doctor Bartlett was chosen a senator to congress, in the same year, together with colonel Langdon; but the infirmities of age, being now in his sixtieth year, induced him to decline that office. In June, 1790, he was chosen president of New Hampshire, in which office he continued until June, 1793, when he was elected the first governor of the state. He discharged the duties of this high station with his usual promptitude and fidelity he was a ruler in whom the wise placed confidence, and of whom even the captious could find nothing to complain. The advanced age of governor Bartlett now required repose, and he closed, by the resignation of the chief magistracy, his public career, which, in its purity of principle and love of country, was not excelled even in what has been emphatically denominated "the age of men." On the twenty-ninth of January, 1794, he addressed the following letter to the legislature : "GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATURE, After having served the public for a number of years, to the best of my abilities, in the various offi ces to which I have had the honour to be appointed, I think it proper, before your adjournment, to signify to you, and through you to my fellow-citizens at large, that I now find myself so far advanced in age, that it will be expedient for me at the close of the session, to retire from the cares and fatigues of public business, to the repose of a private life, with a grateful sense of the repeated marks of trust and confidence that my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, and with my best wishes for the future peace and prosperity of the state. I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient, And very humble servant, JOSIAH BARTLETT." To the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be communicated." The repose which he anticipated, so inestimable to a man, the better part of whose life had been consumed amid the toils and troubles of the revolution, and the dissensions which preceded it, was destined, in this world, to be of short duration. On the nineteenth of May, 1795, this distinguished patriot was gathered to his fathers, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The wife of governor Bartlett was a lady of Kingston, who possessed the same family name. She was a woman of excellent character, and an ornament to society, and died in 1789, six years previous to the death of her husband. The sons of go vernor Bartlett are distinguished among the most eminent citizens of New Hampshire. The stern patriotism and inflexible republicanism which adorned the character of Doctor Bartlett, have already been developed. His mind was quick and penetrating, his memory tenacious, his judgment sound and perspective. His natural temper was open, humane, and compassionate. In all his dealings he was scrupulously just, and faithful in the performance of all his engagements. These brilliant talents, combined with distinguished probity, recommended him early in life to the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. But few persons, by their own merit, and without the influence of family or party connexions, have, like him, risen from one degree of confidence to another; and fewer still have been the instances, in which a succession of honourable and important offices have been held by any man with less envy, or executed with more general approbation.* * Rev. Dr. Thayer's Funeral Sermon. VOL. III.-U |