Veeps: Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry shares a couple of unique distinctions that probably no other Vice-President would ever want to lay claim to. Firstly, he gave his name to the disreputable practice of Gerrymandering, the a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of shaping them most favorably to the party in power. Secondly, he was Vice-President under James Madison, and Madison served two terms as President in with a different Vice-President in each of them because both of his Vice Presidents died in office. Gerry had the unlucky distinction of being one of them.
Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17, 1744, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Gerry, was a merchant and his mother Elizabeth (Greenleaf) Gerry, was the daughter of a successful Boston merchant. Gerry was named for John Elbridge, one of his mother's ancestors. Gerry's parents had eleven children in all, although only five survived to adulthood. He attended Harvard College shortly before turning fourteen where he received a B.A. in 1762 and an M.A. in 1765. He then went work work for his father's merchant business. By the 1770s the Gerrys were one of the wealthiest Massachusetts families.
Gerry was a strong opponent of taxation of the colonies. In this cause he developed connections with Samuel Adams, John Adams, and others. In May 1772 he was elected to the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (its legislative assembly). There he worked closely with Samuel Adams to oppose Great Britain's colonial policies. He was elected as a representative to the First Continental Congress in September 1774, but chose not to attend because of the recent death of his father.
Gerry was elected to the provincial assembly, which reconstituted itself as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress after Governor Thomas Gage dissolved the body in October 1774. He was a member of the committee of safety which was responsible for assuring that the province's limited supplies of weapons and gunpowder remained out of British Army hands. Ammunition stored in Concord was the target of the British raiding expedition that sparked the start of the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. During the Siege of Boston that followed, Gerry supplied the Continental Army with arms and munitions which he acquired from contacts in France and Spain. Unlike some merchants, Gerry did not profit from this activity and spoke out against the practice.
Gerry served in the Second Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780. He helped to convince a number of delegates to support the United States Declaration of Independence. John Adams wrote "If every Man here was a Gerry, the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell."
Some believed that Gerry was a member of the so-called "Conway Cabal", a group of Congressmen and military officers who were dissatisfied with the performance of Major General George Washington during the 1777 military campaign. But Gerry specifically denied knowledge of any sort of conspiracy against Washington.
Gerry's believed in limited central government, and he advocated for the maintenance of civilian control of the military. He was against the idea of political parties until 1800 when he formally joined the Democratic-Republicans in opposition to what he saw as attempts by the Federalists to centralize too much power in the national government. In 1780 he resigned from the Continental Congress over the issue. He refused offers to return to the Congress, or to become a member of the state senate, and also refused appointment as a county judge. He did return to the Confederation Congress in 1783, when the state legislature agreed to support his call for needed reforms. He served in that body until September 1785. The following year he married Ann Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant who was twenty years his junior. His best man was his friend James Monroe. Gerry and his wife had ten children between 1787 and 1801. In 1787 Gerry purchased the Cambridge, Massachusetts estate of the last royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, which had been confiscated by the state.
Gerry played a major role in the U.S. Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. He argued in favor of a strong delineation between state and federal government powers. He was opposed to popular election of representatives and believed that the senate should be composed of equal numbers of members for each state. Gerry further proposed that senators of a state, should vote as individuals rather than casting a single vote on behalf of the state. Gerry was strongly opposed to the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of apportionment in the House of Representatives. In the end he was one of only three delegates who voted against the proposed constitution in the convention (the others were George Mason and Edmund Randolph). During the ratification debates that took place in the states following the convention, Gerry continued his opposition.
Anti-Constitution forces nominated Gerry for governor in 1788, but he was defeated by incumbent John Hancock. He was nominated for a seat in inaugural House of Representatives, where he then served two terms. He successfully lobbied for inclusion of freedom of assembly in the First Amendment, and was a leading architect of the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. He argued for strong limits on the federal government's ability to control state militias. He also argued against the idea of the federal government controlling a large standing army. In one memorable debate (for its humor), Gerry compared a standing army to a standing penis, calling both "an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."
Gerry supported Alexander Hamilton on the issues of assumption at full value of state debts, and of a new Bank of the United States. He opposed measures that strengthened the Presidency, seeking instead to give the legislature more power.
Gerry did not stand for re-election in 1792. He returned home to raise his children and care for his sickly wife. During John Adams' term in office, Gerry maintained good relations with both Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, hoping that the two would make peace. Adams appointed Gerry to be a member of a special diplomatic commission sent to Republican France in 1797. When the French viewewd the 1796 ratification of the Jay Treaty as a sign of an Anglo-American alliance, France stepped up seizures of American ships. Gerry joined co-commissioners Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Marshall in France in October 1797 and met briefly with Foreign Minister Talleyrand. Some days after that meeting, the delegation was approached by three French agents (at first identified as "X", "Y", and "Z", leading the controversy to be called the "XYZ Affair") who demanded substantial bribes from the commissioners before negotiations could continue. The commissioners refused, and tried unsuccessfully to engage Talleyrand in formal negotiations. Talleyrand preferred only to deal with Gerry and Pinckney and Marshall left France in April 1798. Gerry wanted to leave with them, but he stayed behind because Talleyrand threatened war if he left. Gerry was unable to have any significant negotiations and he too left Paris in August, 1798. When dispatches describing the commission's reception had been published in the United States, calls for war arose. The undeclared naval Quasi-War (1798–1800) followed, with more French seizures of American ships. Federalists accused Gerry of supporting the French and abetting the breakdown of the talks, while Adams and Republicans such as Thomas Jefferson supported him. The negative press damaged Gerry's reputation, and he was burned in effigy by protestors in front of his home. He was later vindicated, when his correspondence with Talleyrand was published. In response to the Federalist attacks on him, Gerry formally joined the Democratic-Republican Party in early 1800, standing for election as Governor of Massachusetts.
For four years Gerry unsuccessfully sought the governorship of Massachusetts. He decided not to run in 1804, returning to semi-retirement. His brother Samuel Russell had mismanaged his own business affairs, and Gerry had propped him up by guaranteeing a loan that was due. The matter ultimately ruined Gerry's finances.
Gerry ran for Governor of Massachusetts again in 1810 and won a narrow victory. He won again in 1811. The term gerrymander (originally written Gerry-mander) was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette newspaper on March 26, 1812. As governor he remove Federalists from many state government positions, and he created an increase in the number of judicial appointments, which he filled with Republican partisans. In 1812 the state adopted new constitutionally mandated electoral district boundaries. The Republican-controlled legislature had created district boundaries designed to enhance their party's control over state and national offices, leading to some oddly shaped legislative districts. The shape of one of the state senate districts in Essex County resembled a salamander, leading a local Federalist newspaper to print a political cartoon calling it a "Gerry-mander" (see below). Ever since, the practice of creating odd-shaped electoral districts for political purposes has been called gerrymandering. He was defeated for re-election in 1812, but the gerrymandering of the state senate kept it in Republican hands, even though the house and the governor's seat went to Federalists by substantial margins.
Gerry's financial difficulties prompted him to ask President James Madison for a federal position after his loss in the 1812 election. He was chosen by the Democratic-Republican party congress to be Madison's vice presidential running mate in the 1812 presidential election. Gerry was viewed as a relatively safe choice who would attract Northern votes but not pose a threat to James Monroe, who was thought likely to succeed Madison. Madison easily won reelection.
As Vice-President, Gerry's duties included advancing the administration's agenda in Congress and dispensing patronage positions in New England. Gerry supported of the War of 1812 because he was concerned about a possible Federalist seizure of Fort Adams in Boston as part of an Anglo-Federalist cooperation. He sought the arrest of printers of Federalist newspapers.
On November 23, 1814, he fell seriously ill while at the Capitol building, and died not long after returning to his boarding house. Gerry is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D. C. He is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to be buried in the nation's capital.
Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17, 1744, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Gerry, was a merchant and his mother Elizabeth (Greenleaf) Gerry, was the daughter of a successful Boston merchant. Gerry was named for John Elbridge, one of his mother's ancestors. Gerry's parents had eleven children in all, although only five survived to adulthood. He attended Harvard College shortly before turning fourteen where he received a B.A. in 1762 and an M.A. in 1765. He then went work work for his father's merchant business. By the 1770s the Gerrys were one of the wealthiest Massachusetts families.
Gerry was a strong opponent of taxation of the colonies. In this cause he developed connections with Samuel Adams, John Adams, and others. In May 1772 he was elected to the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (its legislative assembly). There he worked closely with Samuel Adams to oppose Great Britain's colonial policies. He was elected as a representative to the First Continental Congress in September 1774, but chose not to attend because of the recent death of his father.
Gerry was elected to the provincial assembly, which reconstituted itself as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress after Governor Thomas Gage dissolved the body in October 1774. He was a member of the committee of safety which was responsible for assuring that the province's limited supplies of weapons and gunpowder remained out of British Army hands. Ammunition stored in Concord was the target of the British raiding expedition that sparked the start of the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. During the Siege of Boston that followed, Gerry supplied the Continental Army with arms and munitions which he acquired from contacts in France and Spain. Unlike some merchants, Gerry did not profit from this activity and spoke out against the practice.
Gerry served in the Second Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780. He helped to convince a number of delegates to support the United States Declaration of Independence. John Adams wrote "If every Man here was a Gerry, the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell."
Some believed that Gerry was a member of the so-called "Conway Cabal", a group of Congressmen and military officers who were dissatisfied with the performance of Major General George Washington during the 1777 military campaign. But Gerry specifically denied knowledge of any sort of conspiracy against Washington.
Gerry's believed in limited central government, and he advocated for the maintenance of civilian control of the military. He was against the idea of political parties until 1800 when he formally joined the Democratic-Republicans in opposition to what he saw as attempts by the Federalists to centralize too much power in the national government. In 1780 he resigned from the Continental Congress over the issue. He refused offers to return to the Congress, or to become a member of the state senate, and also refused appointment as a county judge. He did return to the Confederation Congress in 1783, when the state legislature agreed to support his call for needed reforms. He served in that body until September 1785. The following year he married Ann Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant who was twenty years his junior. His best man was his friend James Monroe. Gerry and his wife had ten children between 1787 and 1801. In 1787 Gerry purchased the Cambridge, Massachusetts estate of the last royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, which had been confiscated by the state.
Gerry played a major role in the U.S. Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. He argued in favor of a strong delineation between state and federal government powers. He was opposed to popular election of representatives and believed that the senate should be composed of equal numbers of members for each state. Gerry further proposed that senators of a state, should vote as individuals rather than casting a single vote on behalf of the state. Gerry was strongly opposed to the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of apportionment in the House of Representatives. In the end he was one of only three delegates who voted against the proposed constitution in the convention (the others were George Mason and Edmund Randolph). During the ratification debates that took place in the states following the convention, Gerry continued his opposition.
Anti-Constitution forces nominated Gerry for governor in 1788, but he was defeated by incumbent John Hancock. He was nominated for a seat in inaugural House of Representatives, where he then served two terms. He successfully lobbied for inclusion of freedom of assembly in the First Amendment, and was a leading architect of the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. He argued for strong limits on the federal government's ability to control state militias. He also argued against the idea of the federal government controlling a large standing army. In one memorable debate (for its humor), Gerry compared a standing army to a standing penis, calling both "an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."
Gerry supported Alexander Hamilton on the issues of assumption at full value of state debts, and of a new Bank of the United States. He opposed measures that strengthened the Presidency, seeking instead to give the legislature more power.
Gerry did not stand for re-election in 1792. He returned home to raise his children and care for his sickly wife. During John Adams' term in office, Gerry maintained good relations with both Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, hoping that the two would make peace. Adams appointed Gerry to be a member of a special diplomatic commission sent to Republican France in 1797. When the French viewewd the 1796 ratification of the Jay Treaty as a sign of an Anglo-American alliance, France stepped up seizures of American ships. Gerry joined co-commissioners Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Marshall in France in October 1797 and met briefly with Foreign Minister Talleyrand. Some days after that meeting, the delegation was approached by three French agents (at first identified as "X", "Y", and "Z", leading the controversy to be called the "XYZ Affair") who demanded substantial bribes from the commissioners before negotiations could continue. The commissioners refused, and tried unsuccessfully to engage Talleyrand in formal negotiations. Talleyrand preferred only to deal with Gerry and Pinckney and Marshall left France in April 1798. Gerry wanted to leave with them, but he stayed behind because Talleyrand threatened war if he left. Gerry was unable to have any significant negotiations and he too left Paris in August, 1798. When dispatches describing the commission's reception had been published in the United States, calls for war arose. The undeclared naval Quasi-War (1798–1800) followed, with more French seizures of American ships. Federalists accused Gerry of supporting the French and abetting the breakdown of the talks, while Adams and Republicans such as Thomas Jefferson supported him. The negative press damaged Gerry's reputation, and he was burned in effigy by protestors in front of his home. He was later vindicated, when his correspondence with Talleyrand was published. In response to the Federalist attacks on him, Gerry formally joined the Democratic-Republican Party in early 1800, standing for election as Governor of Massachusetts.
For four years Gerry unsuccessfully sought the governorship of Massachusetts. He decided not to run in 1804, returning to semi-retirement. His brother Samuel Russell had mismanaged his own business affairs, and Gerry had propped him up by guaranteeing a loan that was due. The matter ultimately ruined Gerry's finances.
Gerry ran for Governor of Massachusetts again in 1810 and won a narrow victory. He won again in 1811. The term gerrymander (originally written Gerry-mander) was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette newspaper on March 26, 1812. As governor he remove Federalists from many state government positions, and he created an increase in the number of judicial appointments, which he filled with Republican partisans. In 1812 the state adopted new constitutionally mandated electoral district boundaries. The Republican-controlled legislature had created district boundaries designed to enhance their party's control over state and national offices, leading to some oddly shaped legislative districts. The shape of one of the state senate districts in Essex County resembled a salamander, leading a local Federalist newspaper to print a political cartoon calling it a "Gerry-mander" (see below). Ever since, the practice of creating odd-shaped electoral districts for political purposes has been called gerrymandering. He was defeated for re-election in 1812, but the gerrymandering of the state senate kept it in Republican hands, even though the house and the governor's seat went to Federalists by substantial margins.
Gerry's financial difficulties prompted him to ask President James Madison for a federal position after his loss in the 1812 election. He was chosen by the Democratic-Republican party congress to be Madison's vice presidential running mate in the 1812 presidential election. Gerry was viewed as a relatively safe choice who would attract Northern votes but not pose a threat to James Monroe, who was thought likely to succeed Madison. Madison easily won reelection.
As Vice-President, Gerry's duties included advancing the administration's agenda in Congress and dispensing patronage positions in New England. Gerry supported of the War of 1812 because he was concerned about a possible Federalist seizure of Fort Adams in Boston as part of an Anglo-Federalist cooperation. He sought the arrest of printers of Federalist newspapers.
On November 23, 1814, he fell seriously ill while at the Capitol building, and died not long after returning to his boarding house. Gerry is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D. C. He is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to be buried in the nation's capital.