this work the extreme step of breaking up the counties was resorted to. But this last movement alarmed the Governor, and it was with difficulty and some sophistry in his own reasoning that he was finally induced to sign the bill. This artful trick of which the Federalists unjustly accused Mr. Gerry of being the author, was termed "Gerrymandering," and unfortunately for his name, the word Gerrymander, coined in political rascality, still has an occasional exemplification in the conduct of parties.

But the whole business caused intense excitement throughout the State. The Federalists declared that a more fatal hand than that of Jacobinism had now clutched the State; and a war of words began in the newspapers and public assemblies in which Mr. Gerry soon became involved, and in which he now construed republican liberties so differently from what he did at the birth of the Sedition Act of 1798, that he actually issued a proclamation for the discovery of the author of some articles reflecting severely upon his inaugural speech and thanksgiving proclamation. A change of circumstances made the Republican (Democratic) quality of unrestrained speech less agreeable and conformable to the highest demands of peace and public safety. Mr. Gerry also became involved in an epistolary correspondence with Isaac Parker, the Chief Justice, which did not terminate to his credit, and in which he did not exhibit the devotion to exact justice and constitutional liberty and fairness on which the leaders of his party, to a great extent, founded their pretensions.

At the ensuing annual election Mr. Gerry was defeated, and in Massachusetts he again went down in reputation. But what he lost at home he more than

made up in standing with the Republican party throughout the country. He was almost unanimously selected as the party candidate for the Vice-Presidency with Mr. Madison, and was elected.

A judge of the United States District Court administered the oath of office to Mr. Gerry at his own residence at Cambridge, March 4, 1813, and at a special session of Congress, May 24th, he took his seat as president of the Senate of the United States.

His speech to the Senate on this occasion was the longest ever made by a Vice-President, and in it he departed from the common usage, and went into a review of national, political, and war matters, a performance which was unlooked for, if it was not unwise.

He adhered with great watchfulness to the interests of the Administration, and Mr. Madison put unusual stress on his opinions. No public position he had held gave him so much gratification as this. At that day no man would have claimed the virtue of patriotism from pretensions of service or devotion to his State. The test of that great quality was in its application to the whole country, to the Nation.

In this true sense, the Vice-President lost no opportunity to show his patriotism, as well as his devotion to the party to which he owed this last elevation. He knew too well the spirit which had controlled party affairs in his own State to attribute such evil motives to the Federalists even, as most of his party did. He assigned all the machinations of the Federalists of New England to party hate, to party disappointments, not to a lack of patriotism. If they were restored to national power their patriotism and other virtues would soon shine with the former radi

ance.

This was charity, indeed. No party should retain its standing and respectability in a just, wise, and virtuous community, that ignores the obligations of citizenship, stands in the way of the execution of the laws, clogs the movements of government, infests community with sentiments and practices of indecency and debauchery, obstructs the avenues and disposition to peace, righteousness, and good order, or presents itself at every emergency to weaken and disgrace the country because of its own defeat in the great strife for gaining the reins and spoils of administration, or from even less or more selfish and unworthy motives.

Mr. Gerry's life on earth was approaching its end. On the 22d of November, 1814, he went from the Senate Chamber to his lodgings with a vague sense of change. But the night was passed quietly and safely. He had been very communicative, and during the evening conversations he had made the most endearing references to his family. On the following morning his mind was not at ease, yet there seemed no apparent reason for anxiety. At the usual time, he started in a carriage to the Senate. At the office of the register of the treasury he stopped to transact some business; and shortly after continuing his way to the Capitol he was suddenly seized with sickness, and in a few minutes, apparently without pain, died in his seat in the carriage, of "extravasation of blood in the lungs."

His remains were placed in the Capital Cemetery; and in the summer of 1823, by order of Congress, a monument was erected at his grave. On it is inscribed his most notable saying:

66

It is the duty of every man, though he may have but one day to live, to devote that day to the good of his country."

His widow was left poor, but with a large family of three sons and six daughters. Their necessities and the excited condition of the country prevented any of his family being with him, even Mrs. Gerry being unable to visit him at Washington. The night before his death, he exhibited to a few friends a picture of her which he wore by a cord in his bosom, and spoke of her with great tenderness and admiration. With all of his patriotic and party ardor, the true source of Mr. Gerry's happiness was in the friendship and affection of this true woman, and in their domestic associations.

He was stubborn and tenacious in adherence to his opinions, and would not stoop, perhaps, to court public favor. While he was never that far a politician, he never reached the dignity of an undisputed statesman.

He was attached to the Episcopal Church; but while being an upright and honorable man himself, he was, to a great extent, in the habit of suspecting others.

CHAPTER XXIX.

MR. MADISON'S SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE-CHARTER OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.

D

URING 1814 and the following year Mr. Madi

was,

ison's Cabinet was, to a great extent, remodeled. On the 9th of February, 1814, George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, took the place of Mr. Gallatin at the head of the Treasury. But failing health soon compelled him to retire, and on the 6th of October, Alexander J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was appointed in his place. After the resignation of General Armstrong, Mr. Monroe performed the functions of Secretary of War, and subsequently was compelled to give his entire attention to that office, but on the 28th of February, 1815, he was recommissioned Secretary of State, and held the position to the end of Mr. Madison's Administration. On the 1st of August, 1815, William H. Crawford, of Georgia, was appointed to the War Office. Richard Rush became Attorney General in place of William Pinkney on the 10th of February, 1814. Mr. Dallas was also forced to resign, by ill health, in the fall of 1816, and in the following January, died. Mr. Crawford was then transferred to the Treasury. William Lowndes was offered Mr. Crawford's place in the War Department, but did not enter upon its duties. On the 19th of December, 1814, Benjamin W. Crown