In 1784, he was chairman of the important committee on foreign relations, and of the one to perform the onerous task of revising the treasury department. He also brought forward a resolution for the compensation of Baron Steuben, who had rendered immense service by introducing a system of military tactics and discipline, by which the armies of the United States were entirely governed, and which were strictly adhered to long after the revolution by the military throughout the union. This resolution was warmly supported by Mr. Jefferson, but owing, as I fondly hope, to the embarrassed situation of the financial department, it was lost. He also took a deep interest in the commerce of the republic, a subject which he understood well.
In 1785, Mr. Gerry closed his services in the Continental Congress. During that year he was arduously employed upon the committee on accounts. He also obtained the passage of his former resolution relative to public officers and elections and the appointment of members of Congress to office. At the close of the session he retired from public life for a season and settled at Cambridge, not far from Boston, with all the honours of a pure patriot and an able statesman resting upon him—crowned with the sincere and lively gratitude of a nation of freemen.
Time soon developed to the sages of the revolution that the articles of confederation which bound the colonies together when one common interest and impending dangers created a natural cement, were not sufficient to secure permanently the liberty they had achieved. Local interests engendered jealousies, these produced dissatisfaction, and this threatened to involve the government in anarchy. To remedy these evils, a motion was made by Mr. Madison, for each state to send delegates to a national convention for the purpose of forming a constitution. The proposition was sanctioned, and in May, 1787, the convention commenced its herculean task at the city of Philadelphia, in the accomplishment of which Mr. Gerry took an active and useful part. He was among those who did not sanction or sign the instrument as adopted, and participated liberally in the political abuse of the partisans who were opposed to him, not by the noble minded statesmen who differed with him in opinion, all honest in their views and patriotic in their motives. They soared above the acrimonious scurrility of venal party spirit.
After the constitution was adopted, no one manifested more zeal in adhering to it than Mr. Gerry; actuated, as on all other occasions, by the great republican principle—that the majority must rule and be obeyed. He was elected a member of the first Congress under it, and did much towards raising the beautiful superstructure that now towers sublimely upon its broad basis. After serving four years he declined a re-election and again sought retirement. But this was of short duration. The relations between America and France had become deranged and threatened a disastrous result.
Mr. Adams, then president of the United States, determined on sending an able embassy to that government, and to make a strong effort to effect an amicable arrangement of difficulties before appealing to arms. General Pinckney was already appointed an ambassador to France. Mr. Gerry and Mr. Marshall, since chief justice of the United States, were appointed to join him in this delicate duty of diplomacy, empowered to act separately or collectively, as a sound discretion should dictate. On their arrival at Paris they were not treated with proper courtesy by the directory, and were not recognised as the official organ of their nation. Prudence and patience were necessary to prevent an immediate rupture between the two countries. They opened a correspondence with the French secretary of foreign affairs, and after many fruitless attempts to be met in a proper manner, Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall were ordered peremptorily to depart from the republic of France, and Mr. Gerry invited to stay. By his prudent, manly and firm course, he succeeded in allaying the angry feelings of the French nation, and prevented a war that for a long time seemed inevitable.
On his return he was placed upon the republican ticket as a candidate for governor of Massachusetts. Party spirit at that time was in its full vigour, and the federal party had for a long time been in the majority. So popular was Mr. Gerry, that his antagonist, Mr. Strong, was elected but by a small majority, and that resulted from the incorrectness of some of the returns, the former having actually received the largest number of votes. In 1805 he was upon the electoral ticket which succeeded. In 1810 he was elected governor of his state by a large majority, and ably discharged the duties of chief magistrate. He had never entered into partisan feelings and views, and in his first message pointed out, in a luminous manner, the dangers arising from high toned party spirit, and did all in his power to allay it. He felt and acted for his whole country and the general good. This deterioration from party caused him to lose his election for the next term; the leaders of each having marshalled their forces in solid phalanx—the federal party, when consolidated, having always had a majority in the state since its distinctive formation.
For many years Mr. Gerry had anxiously desired to be excused from the public duties of high and responsible stations, but no excuse was accepted. In 1813 he was inaugurated vice-president of the United States, and proceeded to discharge the devolving duties with great dignity and propriety. His impartiality, correctness and candour gained for him the esteem of the elevated body over which he presided to the last day of his eventful and useful life—thus teaching by example the principle of his precept, that “It is the duty of every citizen, though he may have but one day to live, to devote that day to the service of his country.”
At the city of Washington a beautiful monument is erected to his memory, with this inscription:
The tomb of
ELBRIDGE GERRY,
Vice-President of the United States,
Who died suddenly in this city, on his way to the
Capitol, as President of the Senate,
November 23d, 1814,
Aged 70.
In the review of the life of Elbridge Gerry the pure patriot finds much to admire and nothing to condemn, unless a man is to be condemned for an honest difference of opinion and for keeping aloof from high toned party spirit, which, for the sake of liberty, God forbid. His examples of devotedness to the good of his country, his untiring industry, his prudence, his discretion, his intelligence, and his moral virtues, are all worthy of imitation and shed a lustre upon his character. In private life he was highly esteemed and fulfilled its duties with the strictest fidelity. He was emphatically a useful man in every sphere in which he moved. No perils retarded him from the faithful performance of what he deemed duty. His purposes were deliberately formed and boldly executed. He was an honour to his country, to the cause of freedom, and to enlightened liberal legislation. He was truly a worthy and an honest man.