He was also chairman of the committee appointed in 1779 to consider the dispatches from the American commissioners in Europe, which were the basis of the subsequent treaty of peace. In the discussion of the question as to the jurisdiction of the State of New York over the New Hampshire grants, now the State of Vermont, Morris was supposed to be in favor of the independence of that region and consequently lost his election by the Legislature to Congress. He continued to reside in Philadelphia and engaged in the practice of his profession. In the early part of 1780 he commenced the publica-

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

tion of a series of essays on the state of the national finances, which were then in a desperate condition. He attacked with great ability the laws making the receipt of paper money at a fixed value compulsory, and also those regulating the prices of commodities. In May, 1780, Morris was seriously hurt by being thrown from his carriage and it was necessary to amputate one of his legs. In 1781 he was appointed by Robert Morris, who had been placed at the head of the national finances, his assistant. He performed the duties of this position for three years and a half. In 1786 his mother died. Her life interest in the estate at Morrisania thus terminated, and the property passed into the possession of the second son, Staats Long Morris, a general in the British army, the eldest son, Lewis, having received his portion during his father's life-time. Gouverneur purchased the estate from his brother. In 1787 he took his seat as delegate from Pennsylvania in the convention