Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/664

630 on the original status. The terms were accepted, and the party set out for Fort Bowie. On 29 March the Indians escaped to the mountains. Gen. Sheridan became dissatisfied, and, as Gen. Crook asked to be relieved, Gen. Nelson A. Miles took his place. The instructions given to the latter called for the ceaseless pursuit of the hostile Indians, and suggested &ldquo;the active and prominent use&rdquo; of the &ldquo;regular troops&rdquo; of the command. Then began one of the most exhausting and prolonged Indian campaigns on record. The Chiricahuas were followed with such sleuth-like pertinacity that even the endurance of the red men found its limit. The hardy old chief was given no time to rest or recruit; his followers were forced to keep moving until they yielded. But, even when reduced to such straits, Geronimo succeeded in making terms with his captors. When the news was received in Washington, it was supposed that the surrender was unconditional, and the president consequently ordered that the band should be kept as prisoners until they could be tried for their crimes or otherwise disposed of. It was subsequently ascertained that the &ldquo;hostiles&rdquo; had stipulated that they should be sent out of Arizona, and Gen. Miles had ordered them taken to Fort Marion, at St. Augustine. This order was countermanded by the president, and Geronimo and his fourteen adult companions were sent to Fort Pickens, Fla., where they now are (1887).

GERRY, Elbridge, statesman, b. in Marblehead, Mass., 17 July, 1744 ; d. in Washington, D. C., 23 Nov., 1814. His father, Thomas Gerry, came from Newton, England, to this country in 1730, and established himself as a merchant in Marblehead. Elbridge was graduated at Harvard in 1765, and the subject for master's degree assigned to his class at the annual commencement afforded him an opportunity, under the guise of discussing the right of a people to evade ruinous innovations in trade and revenue laws, to give his views on the principles of the stamp-act and the other oppressive revenue measures that had been lately enacted by the British government. Gerry, on leaving college, entered commercial life, and in a short time had amassed a considerable fortune. His public career began in 1773, when he sat in the general court of Massachusetts bay, as the representative of Marblehead, and from this time until his death in 1814 he was, with short interruptions, in continuous piiblic life. In 1773 the assembly appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of Hancock, Orne, and Gerry, whose duty it should be to keep informed on all governmental acts relative to the British colonies, and communi- cate with the sister colonies thereupon. Gerry was an active member of this committee, and warmly supported Samuel Adams in his dealings with Gov. Hutchinson. In 1774, despite the pro- hibitory order of Gov. Gage, an assembly election took place, and the delegates convened at Salem, but adjourned first to Concord and then to Cam- bridge. The members organized as a provincial congress, and held sessions thereafter annually at Cambridge and Watertown. Gerry was a conspicuous member of this revolutionary body, and as a committee of safety and supplies attended to the collection of ammunition and provisions for the militia. He drafted a bill, which was adopted in 1775, providing for the fitting out of privateei's and the establishment of an admiralty court for the adjudication of prizes. The putting into effect of this measure was the initiatory step to- ward a national navy. In Janiiary, 1776, Mi-. Gerry was chosen a delegate to the Continental congress. Associated with him on the Massachu- setts delegation were Hancock, the Adajnses, and Paine. He acted on the standing committee on the treasury, on that for providing the means of furnishing supplies to the army, on the issue of bills of credit, on the best methods of conducting the business of legislation in congress, and others. The committee on supplies, consisting of Sherman, Gerry, and Lewis, attended Washington at his headquarters near New York, to inquire into the necessities of the troops and the best means of sup- plying their wants, and as a result of their mission some measures of reform in regard to furnishing clothing, in the system of appointments and pro- motions, in the enlistment of the militia, in tlie administration of the quartermaster-general's de- partment, and in the plan of hospital establish- ments, were approved by congress. Mr. Gerry early advocated the scheme for declaring the inde- pendence of the colonies, and, when the proposi- tion was before congress, promoted the passage of the measure with all his powers of argument, seconding at the final stages the motion for adop- tion, and affixing his signature on its enactment. Congress convened at Philadelphia, 4 March, 1777, and Gerry attended the entire session, during which he reported a resolution authorizing the seizure of private property on the presentation of certificates of value, as a substitute for the wretch- ed system of supply, which had thrown on the country a flood of depreciating currency. The congress, having little appreciation of the embar- rassments of the army, sent out a committee, com- posed of Morris, Gerry, and Jones, to examine Washington at his post on the Schuykill with re- gard to the prosecution of a winter campaign to make up for the losses of the sum- mer and autumn of 1777. Their - report expressed some dissatisfac- tion, conveying the idea that a more vigorous exei'tion of the military power might be made. The plottings of the "Conway ca- bal" had, without doubt, an effect upon the congres- sional committee, but it is improbable that they contemplated lending themselves to the schemes for Washington's overthrow. The Massachusetts members did not escape from the charge of complicity, but Gerry's correspondence shows that the imputation was unfounded in his case, although he cherished resentment at the opposition of the army to congressional promotions. Mr. Gerry is credited with having, during this session, devised the plan of operations for Gates's campaign against Burgoyne.