AMES, FISHER, an eminent American statesman and writer, son of Nathaniel Ames, a physician, was born at Dedham, in Massachusetts, on 9th April 1785. After practising the law for some little time, he abandoned that profession for the more congenial pursuit of politics, and in 1788 became a member of the Massachusetts convention for ratifying the constitution. In this assembly he bore a conspicuous part, and in the next year, having passed to the house of representatives in the state legislature, he distinguished himself greatly by his eloquence and forensic talents. During the eight years of Washington's administration he took a prominent part in the national councils; and on the retirement of that eminent man from office, he returned to his residence at Dedham to resume the practice of the law, which the state of his health, after a few years, obliged him to relinquish. But Ames was not idle: he continued his literary labours, and published numerous essays, chiefly in relation to the contest between Great Britain and revolutionary France, as it might affect the liberty and prosperity of America. Four years before his death, he was chosen president of Harvard College, an honour which his broken state of health obliged him to decline. After suffering for two years from extreme debility, he expired on the 4th July 1808, having acquired the admiration and respect of his countrymen by the brilliancy of his talents and his private virtues. His writings were collected and published, with a memoir of the author, in 1809, by the Rev. Dr Kirkland, in one large octavo volume.