ELBRIDGE GERRY. ELBRIDGE GERRY was born in the small town of Marblehead, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, 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 history of his life, important and interesting as it is, 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 con ELBRIDGE GERRY. ELBRIDGE GERRY was born in the small town of Marblehead, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, 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 history of his life, important and interesting as it is, 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 con cerns 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 indeed his own inclinations seemed 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 twentysixth 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 oppres |