Elbridge Gerry

This article is about the fifth vice president of the US. For other uses, see Elbridge Gerry (disambiguation).

Elbridge Thomas Gerry
5th Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1813 – November 23, 1814
President	James Madison
Preceded by	George Clinton
Succeeded by	Daniel D. Tompkins
9th Governor of Massachusetts
In office June 10, 1810 – March 4, 1812
Lieutenant	William Gray
Preceded by	Christopher Gore
Succeeded by	Caleb Strong
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd district
In office March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1793
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Shearjashub Bourne, Peleg Coffin, Jr. and David Cobb (General ticket)
Personal details
Born	July 17, 1744(1744-07-17) Marblehead, Massachusetts
Died	November 23, 1814(1814-11-23) (aged 70) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	Ann Thompson Gerry
Alma mater	Wisconsin College
Religion	Episcopalian
Signature

Elbridge Thomas Gerry (/ˈɛlbrɪdʒ ˈɡɛri/; 1744–1814) was an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice President of the United States (1813–1814), serving under James Madison, until his death a year and a half into his term.

Gerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who refused to sign the United States Constitution because it did not then include a Bill of Rights. Gerry later became the ninth Governor of Massachusetts. He is known best for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power, although its initial ⟨g⟩ has softened to /dʒ/ from the hard /ɡ/ of his name.

Early life

Gerry's home in Marblehead

Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the third of twelve children, he was a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied to be a doctor, attending there from age fourteen. He worked in his father's shipping business and came to prominence over his opposition to commerce taxes. He was elected to the General Court of the province of Massachusetts in May 1772 on an anti-British platform.

Career

Gerry was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780. He also served from 1783 to September 1785 and was married in 1786 to Ann Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant, 21 years his junior. In 1787 he attended the United States Constitutional Convention and was one of the delegates voting against the new constitution (joining George Mason and Edmund Randolph in not signing it). He was elected to the U.S. House under the new national government, and served in Congress from 1789 to 1793.

He surprised his friends by becoming a strong supporter of the new government. He so vigorously supported Alexander Hamilton's reports on public credit, including the assumption of state debts, and supported Hamilton's new Bank of the United States, that he was considered a leading champion by the Federalists. He did not stand for re-election in 1792. He was a presidential elector for John Adams in the 1796 election and was appointed by Adams to the critical delegation to France that was humiliated by the French in the XYZ Affair. He stayed in France after his two colleagues returned, and Federalists accused him of supporting the French. He returned in October 1798 and switched his affiliation to the Democratic-Republican Party in 1800.

He was the unsuccessful Democratic-Republican nominee for governor of Massachusetts in 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1803. In 1810 he was finally elected Governor of Massachusetts as a Democratic-Republican. He was re-elected in 1811 but defeated in 1812 over his support for the redistricting bill that created the word gerrymander. He was chosen as vice president to James Madison. He died in office of heart failure in Washington, D.C. and is buried there in the Congressional Cemetery.

Legacy

The word gerrymander (originally written Gerry-mander) was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette newspaper on March 26, 1812. Appearing with the term, and helping spread and sustain its popularity, was a political cartoon depicting a strange animal with claws, wings and a dragon-type head satirizing the map of the odd shaped district.

Gerry's grandson, Elbridge Gerry (1813–1886), was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine; his great-grandson, Peter G. Gerry (1879–1957), was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a United States Senator from Rhode Island.

In 1812 the word "gerrymander" was coined when the Massachusetts legislature redrew the boundaries of state legislative districts to favor Governor Gerry's party. The governor's strategy was to encompass most of the state's Federalists, allowing them to win in that district while his party, the Democratic-Republicans, took control of all the other districts in the state. The term eventually became part of world political vocabulary, and the practice is still in use today.

Gerry was also depicted in John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence. In 1976 the painting appeared on the reverse of the two dollar bill and printed again in series 1995 and 2003.

The upstate New York town of Elbridge is named in his honor, as is the western New York town of Gerry, in Chautauqua County. The town of Phillipston, Massachusetts was originally incorporated in 1786 under the name Gerry in his honor, but was changed to its present name by a town vote in 1812.

In the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams, Gerry is depicted in the first two episodes, portrayed by Tom Beckett.

Quotes

• "The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are dupes of pretended patriots"

• "What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."

References

• Austin, James, Life of Elbridge Gerry, 1970; Da Capo Press (ISBN 0-306-71841-3). (This is a reprint of the first Gerry Biography Vol 1 Vol 2)
• Billias, George, Elbridge Gerry, Founding Father and Republican Statesman 1976, McGraw-Hill Publishers (ISBN 0-07-005269-7).
• Kramer, Eugene F. "Some New Light on the XYZ Affair: Elbridge Gerry's Reasons for Opposing War with France." New England Quarterly 1956 29(4): 509-513. ISSN 0028-4866
• Smith, Joshua M. ""The Yankee Soldiers Might": The District of Maine and the Reputation of the Massachusetts Militia, 1800–1812," New England Quarterly LXXXIV no. 2 (June, 2011), 234-264.
• Trees, Andy. "Private Correspondence for the Public Good: Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 26 January 1799" Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 2000 108(3): 217-254. ISSN 0042-6636 shows Gerry ignored Jefferson's 1799 letter inviting him to switch parties.

External links

• Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography
• Elbridge Gerry at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Elbridge Gerry Page at Facebook
• Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
• Delegates to the Constitutional Convention: Massachusetts (Brief Biography of Gerry)
• Gerry family archive at Hartwick College

Political offices
Vacant Title last held by George Clinton	Vice President of the United States March 4, 1813 – November 23, 1814	Vacant Title next held by Daniel D. Tompkins
Preceded by Christopher Gore	Governor of Massachusetts June 10, 1810 – June 1812	Succeeded by Caleb Strong
United States House of Representatives
New district	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district March 4, 1789 — March 4, 1793	Succeeded by 3rd district, plural: Shearjashub Bourne, Peleg Coffin, Jr. and At-large district: David Cobb
Party political offices
Preceded by George Clinton	Democratic-Republican vice presidential candidate 1812	Succeeded by Daniel D. Tompkins