CHAPTER IX.

Returns to Massachusetts.......Proposed for Governour of the Commonwealth......Private life......Pecuniary and domestic misfortune. ......Character......Member of the electoral college of Massachusetts. .....Presides at a meeting in relation to the Chesapeake.

MR. GERRY returned to the United States at a period of increased exasperation and violence.*

* The state of things at this period was so offensive and oppressive, that the patience of the party which submitted to them is a subject of wonder. The temples of devotion and justice became altars of desecration. In Massachusetts the chief justice of the supreme judicial court, addressed the grand jury in terms which are thus characterized by one of the leading journals of the day.

"The learned judge, in a forcible manner, proved the existence of a French faction in the bosom of our country, and exposed the French system-mongers from the quintumvirate of Paris, to the vice-president and minority in congress, as apostles of atheism and anarchy, bloodshed and plunder."-Centinel, Nov. 24, 1798. A meeting of free citizens preparatory to the election of national representatives is thus described. "A convention of Parisian cut throats assembled in solemn divan for the purpose of selecting some devotee of republicanized France as a candidate for the democratic suffrages in this district, for federal representative at the approaching election.”Ibid. October 17, 1798.

The system of denunciation was placed in full contrast with the system of exaggerated praise. The birth days of the first public characters were celebrated quite as extensively and expensively, as the birth day of the nation, and toasts of extravagant adulation reciprocated. At one of these festivals in Massachusetts, where was present the dignified officers of the state, the following singular sentiment was proclaimed.

The

He came back under a suspicion that he was inclined to pacification; that he thought this object attainable under proper direction; that letters addressed to him by the department of state and the expected tenor of its future movements would place him in hostility to the administration, and that he was to assume the rank of a leader in the northern section of the United States of that political party, which it suited the views of the dominant power to crush and annihilate. On the other side the most dissatisfied members of the opposition were aware of his confidence in the executive chief, and the difficulty there would be in his pursuing all those measures of aggression, which a partizan directs, not because they are all right, but because they are expedient movements in the tactics of faction. A cautious demeanour was observed with regard to him by both parties, each fearful of committing itself by attentions,

The Honourable Francis Dana, chief justice, and the learned associate judges of our supreme judicial court. While the political opinions delivered from the bench, are dictated by intelligence, integrity and patriotism, may they be as highly respected as have ever been its judicial decisions.

Political opinions from the bench of justice, and party politics too!

The plan of personal exaltation was carried so far, that on one of these birth days "a parade of artillery did themselves and the day, the honour to attend at the renaming of the fortress of the United States, formerly called Fort Williams, which now bears that of Fort Pickering."

which it might not be easy to retract.* The first public announcement of his course, was by his declining a proposition made on the part of his personal friends to place him again in the house of representatives of the United States. It was contained in the following card.

Mr. Gerry being informed from various quarters of the wishes of a number of his fellow citizens of this district, that he would stand as a candidate for a representative in congress at the approaching élection, has a grateful sense of the honour they are disposed to confer on him, and regrets the indispensable necessity he is under of declining it. He nevertheless assures them of the continuance of his exertions in private life to support the federal government, as the only effectual measure of union, on which under providence rest the liberty, independence and welfare of ourselves and posterity.

His recent colleagues took other ground. Mr. Pinckney in answer to an address made to him at Trenton declared, "For my own part I believe the French directory are not sincere in the pacific declarations made by the minister of foreign affairs to Mr. Gerry. If we would secure the inde

A few days after Mr. Gerry's arrival, á gentleman of influence in the federal party waited upon him and said, that as soon as he had announced his opinion of the necessity of war with France, he would be complimented with a public dinner, of which this individual was authorized to inform him. The compliment was of course declined.

pendence of America free from the intrigues and ambition of France, I am convinced we must fight for its preservation." And again to another complimentary speech, "They [the French] are a people artful and insidious in policy, bold and powerful in arms; but having endeavoured to study their character with attention, I am convinced their intrigues are more to be dreaded than their force."

Something of a more discreet course, but sufficiently distinct to settle its identity, was maintained by his other late colleague.

In Mr. Gerry's view of affairs war might be averted. He would not proclaim an opinion that the French rulers were insincere because he did not entertain it; he was as little disposed to urge those measures of resistance by arms, which the majority were preparing, because he did not believe such policy best adapted to the objects it professed, but he was more unwilling to create dissension and controversy at home, or retard the movements of the government in its constitutional power.

If war was to be declared, it was his opinion that the duty of a good citizen was to make it successful. If the government in its wisdom saw fit to appeal to this last arbitrator of nations, it was his doctrine that no measure could be justified, that might weaken its chances of success. It was not as he believed then proper to quarrel about

the manner of navigation, which had brought the ship among the rocks or exposed her to the storm, but to engage with one heart and one common exertion to carry her with safety through the battle and the breeze.

These sentiments, which patriotism cannot disapprove, were too sensible and too moderate to meet the excited feelings of the community. They left him for the moment without the honours, which party and faction bestow on their leaders, but they were remembered to his credit when passions, which then confounded the reason of the community, had become tranquillized and still.

The progress of affairs and the happy termination of the difficulties with France justify the correctness of those views, which Mr. Gerry had entertained of the interests of his country. In the midst of all the pride, pomp and circumstance of war, of brilliant preparation on land and triumph on the ocean, the executive chief saw fit to put his own hand to the helm, and suddenly to change the direction of his ship.

Against the advice of all his ministers, Mr. Adams on 18th February 1799, instituted 'a new mission to France.

On the 12th May 1800, Mr. Pickering was dismissed from the office of secretary of state. On the 14th the provisional army was disbanded. Mr. Dexter superseded Mr. M'Henry as secretary of

war.

The apparently sudden decision of Mr. Adams'