SERVICES OF GEN. SULLIVAN.
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��fail to record their verdict against him. We ftnd their testimony uniformly in his favor. The same remark will apply to the officers under him, with the excep- tion of Gen. Folsom, who was his rival, and had been outranked. If, after five years of severe warfare, Sullivan had earned a character as General no better than worthless, then we venture the as- sertion the good people of this State would have found out his true deserts, and would justly have withheld future honors.
Now let us trace his future historj", and observe the honors imposed upon him. In 17S0, he resumed the practice of his legal profession at Durham. In March of that year he was employed by the Legislature of this State to revise the militia laws. In June of the same year he was elected by the Legislature a Del- egate to Congress. Here he served for two sessions. He met his old accuser, Mr. Burke of North Carolina, who grace- fully withdrew the charge alleged against him in 1777. In 17S2, he was appointed Attorney General for this State, and serv- ed with ability some four years. During these years he was an active and influen- tial delegate appointed to revise our State Constitution. Our difficulty in relation to the disputed claims of New York and Vermont over a portion of the territory embraced in this State, occupied his at- tention as a prosecuting officer in 17S2. What he said and did is well described by William Plummer, Jr., in the Life of his father. The exciting scene of his ac- tion was laid in Keene. It is sufficient to say that success attended his efforts. Again, in 1786, '87, and '89, Gen. Sulli- van was elected President of the State, under the revised State Constitution. The duties of this office were similar to those of Governor. The President had the additional labor imposed of presid- ing in the Council Board, which then consisted of twelve men, with the juris- diction nearly alike to that exercised by the Senate under the Constitution of 1792, with the additional prerogative of ap- pointing the military and civil officers of the State. An eminent instance of his energy, courage, and successful resist- ance to lawless power was exhibited by
��him in resisting the paper money mob that surrounded the Legislature assem- bled in the meeting-house in Exeter in June, 1786. The means employed in quelling that insurrection, and his treat- ment of the men engaged in it, display- ed much sound judgment, and a thor- ough knowledge of the deluded men with whom he had to do. In 1788, Sullivan was President of the Convention of Del- egates which assembled in this State for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Its final adoption was much owing to his persevering exertions and strenuous support. In September, 17S9. he was appointed by his old com- mander, President Washington, District Judge for New Hampshire, an office of honor and some protit, the best in Wash- ington's gift for this State. He contin- ued to hold this office until his death, which occurred in 1795, aged fifty-four.
He passed away in the vigor of his years, after more than twenty years of active military and civil service. Our early historical reading taught us to ven- erate the name of Sullivan, in conse- quence of perusing the life and character of John Sullivan. Not one whit of this veneration is withdrawn on account of the undeserved attack of Bancroft. This claim to our regard was still higher ad- vanced by the knowledge we had of the great ability, the brilliant eloquence, and incorruptible integrity of Hon. George Sullivan, the son of Gen. Sullivan, who, with great credit to himself, and satisfac- tion to the people of this State, discharg- ed the duties of Attorney General for the long period of twenty-one years. After his well-spent life had been closed, we next see the official paternal mantle gracefully descending and resting upon the shoulders of his son John, who, with marked ability performed the work of the same office for the term of fifteen years, constituting forty years of faith- ful service, rendered by this illustrious family in the same important office.
The best property a State can possess consists in her great and good men. It is the duty of all impartial historians to present truth, and not fiction, end to pre- sent facts as they exist, and to allow read- ers to draw their own inferences from
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