which had been carried on in the counsels. Washington offered him the partnership during the whole period post of Secretary of the Treasury, of the war. which he declined in favor of his friend Hamilton. Victory, however, did not fill the treasury, or lighten the duties of the Secretary of Finance. Eloquent and incessant were his appeals to the States, by every motive of duty and policy, to furnish their quotas of the national obligations, and pay the duties levied on imports. Again and again he appealed. All appeared ineffectual. Finally, having long borne these profitless burdens, annoyed by State jealousies and State deficiencies, he determined, early in 1783, upon resignation. Congress would not, however, surrender his services; fresh resolves of aid were passed, and he continued to toil on, till he was at length released in November, 1784. His parting address to the inhabitants of the United States concluded with a plea for Union. "The inhabitants of a little hamlet," he says, "may feel pride in the sense of separate independence. But if there be not one government, which can draw forth and direct the efforts, the combined efforts, of United America, our independence is but a name, our freedom a shadow, and our dignity a dream.” Three years later, he sat in the Convention which put these doubts to rest by the formation of the Constitution. Upon the adoption of that instrument, he was chosen senator to the first Congress, at New York, where he again distinguished himself by his financial The commercial operations of Morris were carried on after the war with renewed activity. He engaged extensively in the East India trade; sending, in 1784, the Empress of China from New York to Canton, the first American vessel seen at that port. He also first marked out a course to China by which the periodical winds of those eastern seas might be avoided, and sent a vessel which proved the correctness of the theory. It is sad to state, after this recital of laborious, disinterested services rendered to the country, that the last years of Robert Morris were passed in deep pecuniary embarrassment, and even as a prisoner for debt. A gigantic specu lation which he entered into in the purchase of lands in western New York, stripped him of all his property. An annuity of fifteen hundred dollars paid by Gouverneur Morris to Mrs. Robert Morris, a sister of Bishop White, the wife of his youth, in consideration of her relinquishing a right of dower in certain lands, was all that was left to the support of his family. Neither his country nor his State, to whom his own liberality had been so freely extended, ever came forward to discharge their debt of gratitude. The aged financier lingered to his seventy-third year, the survivor of his friend Hamilton, dying May 8, 1806. HENRY LAURENS. indebted to him.1 There are other anecdotes of his mercantile career, indicative of his kindness and generosity. He was an exemplary head of a family, obedient in his Bible instructions to Tis eminent South Carolinian, who | pared with the speculative mania of ingrafted the loftiest graces of patriot- the present day, that on the dissolution ism upon the integrity of the mer- of a partnership of twenty-three years, cantile character, came of that old involving large transactions, he was Huguenot stock, which sent more than willing to take all outstanding debts one distinguished representative to the as cash, at a discount of only five camp and Senate Chamber in the na- per cent. Where is the merchant of tional struggle. His family, driven twenty-three years' standing who would from France by the self-devoted policy now do the same? He carried exact of the state, came to New York, where dealing to a punctilio, refusing, it is they tarried for a time before making said, to draw bills of exchange, till he Charleston their residence. Henry had first received an acknowledgment Laurens was born in the latter city in writing from those on whom he in 1724. His education appears to designed to draw, that they were have been well provided for, probably directed mainly to mercantile pursuits, to which he was regularly trained in the house of Thomas Smith, of Charleston, and afterwards of a Mr. Crockatt, of London. Returning from the English the lessons of his forefathers. Such metropolis, he formed a partnership was Henry Laurens, when, a widower, with Mr. Austin, of Charleston. His retired from business with a large mercantile character was of the highest estate, in 1771, he took his sons to honor and simplest integrity. Industry England, according to the fashion of was one of his sterling virtues, and the wealthy families of his State, to with it was united punctuality. He provide for their education in the Old rose early and prepared his corres- World. pondence, while others were asleep. It is mentioned as proof of his know ledge of human nature, and we may add that the fact bears witness also to the honesty of the times and sober methods of conducting affairs, com His residence in Great Britain at that time must have brought him into contact with Franklin, while his mercantile experience rendered him a sen 'Life of Laurens. Delaplaine's Repository. sitive observer of the measures in progress by the British ministry for the subjugation of the colonies by the oppression of their trade and commerce. Clearly foreseeing the current of events, he hastened home to bear his part with his countrymen in the fortunes of the struggle. He arrived in Charleston in December, 1774, and was immediately among the foremost counselling for the public safety. When the delegates to the first Continental Congress of that year in Phila delphia returned to report the resolves of that body, and the hostilities at Lexington confirmed the necessity of resistance, Laurens, as President of the South Carolina Provincial Congress, at its meeting in June, 1775, drew up and signed the simple but eloquent Articles of Association. missioners, the Earl of Carlisle, Sir Henry Clinton, and William Eden, made their overtures of negotiation to Congress. No member of that body was more decided and explicit in his terms of rejection than its President. The courtesies which passed between him and Washington are worthy of note. When one of the factious papers of the Conway cabal was sent anony mously to Congress, to his care, he simply transmitted it to Washington. He also embraced the opportunity of the victory of Monmouth, in the interval of the sitting of Congress, when no quorum could be assembled, to send to the commander-in-chief his hearty congratulations "as the address of an indi vidual on the success of the American arms." On the retirement of Laurens from Laurens was placed by the Congress the Presidency, in December, 1778, at the head of its Council of Safety, Washington, in a letter, returned the a body armed with full military control compliment; and again, in the following for the public service. In 1776, he year, when Laurens was appointed comwas one of the committee charged with missioner to Holland, was foremost in preparing a plan of a more permanent congratulation. Like courtesies also State organization. The report of a passed between Laurens and Lafayette. Constitution was presented by John After the latter was wounded at the Rutledge, who was chosen President battle of the Brandywine, and was of the State under this new instrument, waiting the slow process of recovery, which created South Carolina an inde- he was carried by Laurens in his carpendent State. Heary Laurens was at riage to Bethlehem, a service which the same time chosen Vice-President, was held by the family of the marquis and the Hon. William Henry Drayton, in grateful recollection. The corres Chief Justice. The succeeding year, pondence of Laurens with Lafayette, Laurens was sent to Philadelphia as a also, on occasion of the French general's delegate to the General Congress, over departure for Europe, in 1778, is writ which, on the first of November, he ten with great propriety. The epistowas appointed President, as the suc- lary habits of the former merchant cessor of John Hancock. It was during were admirably fitted to the diplomatic his Presidency that the British Com-service. |