That man who moves only within the circumference of self, reflecting no social rays upon the community in which he moves, contributing in no way to the advancement of human happiness, winding himself up in the hermitical cocoon of a miser’s cell or of total seclusion from the world, makes his life a vacuum and his death a burletta. The acutest metaphysician can never demonstrate the problem of his creation, the lemma of his existence has no corollary in philosophy. The following apothegm from ELBRIDGE GERRY should be deeply impressed upon the mind of every reader: “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.” This precept he enforced by the examples of his brilliant career. ELBRIDGE GERRY was a native of Marblehead, Massachusetts, born on the 17th of July, 1744. He was the son of an enterprising and respectable merchant, who bestowed upon him a classical education. He graduated at Harvard University in 1762, with a scholastic and mental reputation creditable to himself and pleasing to his friends. Judging the tree by its fruit, the seed from which it sprang must have been of the purest kind, and its vegetation not retarded by the absorbing and poisonous weeds of vice. Its incipient pruning and growth must have been directed by a master hand, to produce a form of so much symmetry and beauty. After having completed his collegiate studies, Mr. Gerry entered the counting-house of his father and ultimately became one of the most enterprising and wealthy merchants of his native town. From the nature of his business he was among the first to feel the weight of the impolitic and unconstitutional revenue system, and by the nature of his mind, he was impelled to meet oppression at the threshold. A man of deep reflection and investigation, he examined closely the nature and extent of chartered rights and of British wrongs. He made himself acquainted with the structure and principles of government, law, political economy, and national policy. No one understood better than him, the natural, legal and practical relations between the mother country and the colonies. He was therefore prepared to act advisedly and disposed to act firmly. His extensive influence, his decision of character, his sound discretion and his exalted patriotism, pointed him out as one of the master spirits to guide the public mind and aid in the public affairs of the people. He at once became a participant in all the popular movements in favour of liberty. On the 26th of May, 1773, he commenced his official career as a member of the legislative body of Massachusetts Bay, then called “the general court.” That assembly and the royal governor took a bold issue upon rights and wrongs. The unconstitutional acts of parliament were sanctioned by the latter, and fearlessly censured by the former. The general court, moved by Samuel Adams, appointed a standing committee of inquiry for