He proceeded on that
service in the February following, embarking in the Boston frigate on
the shore of his native town at the foot of Mount Wollaston. The year
following, he was appointed commissioner to treat of peace with England.
Returning to the United States, he was a delegate from Braintree in the
convention for framing the constitution of this commonwealth, in
1780. At the latter end of the same year, he again went abroad in the
diplomatic service of the country, and was employed at various courts,
and occupied with various negotiations, until 1788. The particulars of
these interesting and important services this occasion does not allow
time to relate. In 1782 he concluded our first treaty with Holland.
His negotiations with that republic, his efforts to persuade the
states-general to recognize our independence, his incessant and
indefatigable exertions to represent the American cause favorably on
the continent, and to counteract the designs of its enemies, open and
secret, and his successful undertaking to obtain loans, on the credit of
a nation yet new and unknown, are among his most arduous, most useful,
most honorable services. It was his fortune to bear a part in the
negotiation for peace with England, and in something more than six years
from the declaration which he had so strenuously supported, he had the
satisfaction to see the minister plenipotentiary of the crown
subscribe to the instrument which declared that his "Britannic majesty
acknowledged the United States to be free, sovereign, and independent.
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