His aged mother had two daughters married to Royalists, and a third had just died. Gouverneur, while serving in the State Congress at Fishkill, received news of his sister's death. His letter to his mother, given at length by Mr. Sparks, is one of the most touching expositions of a struggle between patriotism and filial and fraternal love. He could not leave his post of duty, though he acknowledges it to be his mother's wish that he should. His affection for his mother and sister were unbounded, but his duty was paramount because he found himself in a position where it was the obligation of every good citizen to remain, where, by a superior order he was placed. He adds : " What may be the event of the present war is not in man to

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determine. Great revolutions of Empire are seldom achieved without much human calamity ; but the worst which can happen is to fall on the last bleak mountain of America; and he who dies there in defence of the injured rights of mankind is happier than his conqueror, more beloved of mankind."

To him, as chairman of a committee of finance was referred the question as to how the sinews of war should be provided by the colony for the support of the troops in their Continental struggle. Later on we find him as one of the Committee of Safety in the north wood.*, advising with Schuyler as to the means of checking the advance of Burgoyue from Canada. In 1777, with Jay and the others of our State's forefathers, he joined in formulating the first Constitution of the State at Kingston.