CHAPTER XVII.

Articles of Confederation..........Re-elected a member of Congress.......... Duties of the Committee of the Treasury........ Other Committees of Congress.......Letlers of General Warren........Mr. Otis.......Mr. Phillips........ General Lincoln........Letters of the Tories.

THE year 1777 was distinguished in congress by the adoption of articles of confederation and perpetual union between the thirteen states.

From the first assembling of a congress the importance and necessity not only of a strict union and confederacy between the states, but certain fixed and permanent rules for government and intercourse had been apparent, and Dr. Franklin in July 1775, reported a sketch of articles of confederation which were discussed, and formed the leading features of those afterwards adopted. In June 1776, a committee of one member from each state was appointed to digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between the colonies. In August following a new draught was submitted to the consideration of congress, and on the 15th November after various amendments the confederation was adopted by congress and referred for ratification to the legislatures of the states.

During the discussion of these articles which

form the ground-work of our present constitution, Mr. Gerry was present and contributed very much to their final adoption. Many of the same great questions, which at a subsequent period gave rise to such variety and earnestness of opinion, were introduced and debated through the whole period that the confederation was before congress. The great doctrine of state rights-the equality of the states-their representation, obligation and duties -the power and ratio of taxation or of contribution to the expenses of war and government, with other topics of minori nterest, were the subjects of constant argument and debate.

The course of deliberation was conducted with profound secrecy, and no record now remains of that wisdom and intelligence, of that capacious and accurate view of political science and ethical philosophy, which a discussion of the principles of government must have drawn forth from the accomplished civilians who were members of the congress of 1777.

We have the authority of a venerable member of that august assembly for declaring that Mr. Gerry mingled in these debates and devoted to the important subject a thorough and close application. His vote is recorded in the printed journals on every question that was taken in form, and there can be traced in this incipient effort to establish a national constitution, somewhat of that course of thought and those views of government, which on

a greater occasion in a subsequent period of his life he had the manliness to defend.

The commission to the Massachusetts delegates was renewed on 12th December 1777, for the ensuing year, and John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana and James Lovell or any three of them were authorized and instructed with other delegates from the American states to prosecute with vigour "the present just and necessary war, concluding peace, contracting alliances, regulating commerce and guarding against the encroachment and machinations of the enemies of the United States."

Congress had at the period now under consideration immense duties to perform. The entire control of affairs executive and legislative, foreign and domestic, civil and military, devolved on an assembly which often counted less than thirty individuals in their seats; frequently important questions were decided by the ayes and noes of twothirds that number.

Most fatiguing labour devolved on all the regular committees, with very little assistance from clerks, by whose aid in modern times the detail of duty is pleasantly diminished.

The committee of the treasury, of which from his first entrance into congress until the organization of a treasury board in 1780 Mr. Gerry was a member, and for most of that period chairman,

had an herculean task. More than one-half the time of congress was devoted to their department.

It appears by the journals that in eighteen months ending in July 1778, in addition to the standing duties of this committee, one hundred and sixty-eight different subjects were specially referred to them, and that they made during the same time two hundred and sixteen reports. But the number and variety of private applications to the chairman of that committee were almost innumerable. It would seem from the files of Mr. Gerry's papers, that every person in every part of the continent, who had any business with congress, felt at liberty to address him, and that nobody wrote him without the civility of a reply.

In addition to the constant assiduity which such a state of things required, almost every day brought with it some particular subject for a special committee, of which, by the journals of the house, it appears that more than a proportional share devolved on Mr. Gerry.

It was this useful, patient, untired attention, this devotion to the practical detail of affairs, which entitled the members of that session to the applause of their country. A splendid speech draws upon the orator the admiration, which rewards the labour that produced it. Pride has its satisfaction, ambition is gratified, and the glory of the effort generates a new attempt for similar success; but the business of the committee room, by far the

most useful toil of a legislator, has all its honour in the self-satisfaction it produces. It has no audience to excite its activity, no applause to cheer the solitude of its labours, and no fame as a compensation for fatigue. The congress of 1777 was a field for no personal display, but it demanded the exertion of the highest intellectual powers and the most fatiguing employment of physical strength. The members of that congress devoted themselves to its multifarious duties, feeling that they held in their control the destinies of a great people, with a consciousness that they were conducting them in the eye of Heaven, but scarcely with the expectation that posterity would appreciate the sincerity of their zeal.

From the mass of correspondence which by the habits of that period was carried on with the members of congress, the following letters enable us to catch a view of some of their affairs, and give the private opinions of distinguished men on some interesting concerns.

GENERAL WARREN TO MR. GERRY.

MY DEAR SIR,

BOSTON, JAN. 15, 1777.

When I last wrote to you I had no expectation that my next must be directed to you at Baltimore. I shall not enquire how or for what rea