In 1776 he again took his seat in Congress and was pleased to find the general pulse beating in unison with his own--a determination to sever the Gordian knot and proclaim an eternal separation from a nation that held power only to abuse it. He was on many important committees--was all activity in and out of the House. In his native neighborhood he had a herculean task in rousing the people to a sense of their true position. Gov. Tryon mingled the poison with the wisdom of the serpent--affected to be harmless as a dove and exercised a powerful influence over the people of the city of New York in favor of the crown. He pointed them to the certain destruction of the commercial interests by a war--the inequality of the two powers--the impossibility of Whig success and construed self interest into self preservation. To paralyze his influence required great exertion. Mr. Morris and his friends put forth their noblest energies in the mighty work. What they could not effect, British oppression and the powder and ball of Gen. Howe soon accomplished. When the Declaration of Independence was proposed Mr. Morris became one of its ardent supporters. At that very time his large estate was within the power of the enemy. He well knew that his signature to the proposed instrument would be destructive to all his property within the reach of British hirelings. Most faithfully was the work executed. Even his extensive woodlands of a thousand acres were subjected to axe and fire--his family driven from home and every species of devastation resorted to that malice could invent, hatred design, revenge execute. But LIBERTY was dearer to this devoted patriot than earth and all its riches. He boldly sanctioned and fearlessly affixed his name to the great certificate of our national birth and rejoiced in freedom illumined by the conflagration of his own Elysian Morrisania. His family and himself suffered many privations during the remainder of the war. They endured every hardship with heroic fortitude without regret for the past and with buoyant hope for the bright future.