Statesman
At the close of the Revolution, Gilman was elected one of the 31 original members of the Society of the Cincinnati. Gilman's career as merchant proved short-lived. His career as statesman continued for decades. Gilman's service as a Continental Army officer had exposed him to many of the ideas of such prominent nationalists as Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Their influence, his family's own tradition of service, and his special skill at organization all combined to divert the young veteran into a political career. In 1786, the New Hampshire legislature appointed Gilman to the Continental Congress. He was also selected in 1786 to represent the state at the Annapolis Convention. Although he was unable to attend, his selection recognized Gilman's emergence as a nationalist spokesman since the convention had been called specifically to address the country's serious economic problems and the inability of the separate states or Congress to solve them. He was one of two people representing New Hampshire.
The outbreak of unrest and latent insurrection in western Massachusetts in late 1786 further strengthened Gilman's commitment to changing the Articles of Confederation. That same year, he helped to suppress the Paper Money Riot. He was pleased to serve his state as a representative at the Constitutional Convention that met in July 1787. Although he and fellow New Hampshire delegate John Langdon, his father's former commanding officer, reached Philadelphia after the proceedings were well under way, they both immediately joined in the debates and helped hammer out the compromises needed to produce a document that might win approval in every state and region.
During the subsequent struggle to secure New Hampshire's ratification of the Constitution, Gilman remained in New York as a member of the Continental Congress, but he kept in close touch with his brother, John, who was one of the leaders of the states ratification forces. Working in tandem, the brothers used all of their considerable political influence to engineer a 57–47 victory in the final vote.
When the First Congress of the new United States of America convened in New York in 1789, Gilman was in attendance as a member of the House of Representatives, a seat he filled for four terms. During this period the Gilman brothers came to prominence in New Hampshire politics. John became governor, a post he held for fourteen terms, while Nicholas embarked on a career in the state legislature. After returning to Exeter, Nicholas resumed his own political career in 1800, serving a term as state senator.
During this time, Gilman's political loyalties began to change. Ever a staunch nationalist, he had supported the Federalists while that party led the fight for a more binding union of the states. However, once that concept was firmly established, Gilman became increasingly concerned with the need to protect the common man from abuses of power by government. As a consequence, he gave his support to the Democratic-Republican Party that was beginning to form around Thomas Jefferson. In 1801, he accepted the appointment from Jefferson as a federal bankruptcy commissioner. Following one unsuccessful attempt for the Senate in 1802, he was then elected to the United States Senate in 1804 as a Jeffersonian. On June 17, 1812, he voted against the war against Britain, but the Senate voted 19 to 13 for the war. Although Gillman rarely spoke at length in legislative debate, his peers recognized his political prowess. He remained an influential member of the Senate until his death in 1814 while he was returning home from Washington during a recess.
Gilman summarized his belief in the importance of a strong national government on the day after he signed the Constitution. He called the new supreme law of the land "the best that could meet the unanimous concurrence of the States in Convention; it was done by bargain and Compromise, yet, notwithstanding its imperfections, on the adoption of it depends (in my feeble judgment) whether we shall become a respectable nation, or a people torn to pieces ... and rendered contemptible for ages." Those words typified Gillman, but his modesty failed to mask the justifiable pride he obviously felt in the accomplishment of the Founding Fathers in which Gilman had played no small part.
