Elbridge Gerry

American statesman and politician

• Born: July 17, 1744
• Birthplace: Marblehead, Massachusetts
• Died: November 23, 1814
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

Gerry was an ardent and early supporter of American independence, first in Massachusetts and then in the Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence and, at the Constitutional Convention, he helped forge compromises that would lead to the establishment of a stronger federal government. His life was devoted to public service as a vice president, a representative, and a governor of Massachusetts.

Early Life

Elbridge Gerry was the son of Elizabeth Greenleaf and Thomas Gerry, a British immigrant and Marblehead merchant respectively. He entered Harvard College at the age of fourteen, graduated in 1762, and received a master’s degree from there in 1765. In his thesis, Gerry argued for opposition to British restrictions on commerce in the colonies. He joined his father and brothers in the family business, shipping dried fish to Spanish and Portuguese ports and trading for other goods. He accumulated a modest fortune but spent much of it as his interests shifted to politics and public service.

Elected to the General Court in 1772, Gerry met Samuel Adams and through his influence became an early leader in the Committee of Correspondence system, first in Marblehead and then in the Massachusetts state committee. His faith in democratic governance, however, was shattered during months of mob violence in Marblehead. In response to a local smallpox epidemic, Gerry and other businessmen built a private hospital. Townspeople feared the spread of disease and attributed it to the hospital. Mobs threatened the lives of Gerry and his partners and burned down the hospital. Gerry’s reaction to the smallpox war and to the fatal illness of his father was to withdraw temporarily from politics.

Patriot sympathies were renewed after the British parliament’s Coercive Acts closed the port of Boston. Gerry led relief efforts and organized local merchants to assist their colleagues in Boston. In October, 1774, he was elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, an extralegal body set up after Governor Thomas Gage dissolved the Massachusetts legislature. Appointed to several committees regarding governance and military preparedness, Gerry worked to acquire and store military supplies. On April 18, 1775, Gerry met with Adams, John Hancock, and other members of the Committee of Safety in Menotomy (now Arlington). Gerry slept at the tavern that night but awoke with the arrival of a raiding party on its way to Lexington and Concord. Half-clothed, Gerry escaped out the back and hid in a cornfield as British soldiers searched the buildings.

Life’s Work

Elected to the Continental Congress (1776-1781, 1783-1785), Elbridge Gerry aligned with Samuel Adams and John Adams. He was critical of the Massachusetts delegation’s shift away from lagging support for independence. Gerry signed the Declaration of Independence, and he later viewed this as the most important act of his life. In addition, Gerry signed the first American constitution, the Articles of Confederation, which formed a weak national government. In Congress, he asserted a leadership role and guided the new nation with his experience as a merchant, particularly in the areas of finance and military supply.

Gerry married Ann Thompson, a New York merchant’s daughter, on January 12, 1786. They moved to Cambridge and had six daughters and three sons. Gerry left Congress and retired from business, but he was elected to the Massachusetts house of representatives. In 1786-1787, Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led a rebellion of farmers in western Massachusetts to stop mortgage foreclosures. Like most members of the economic and social elite, Gerry was disturbed by the violence and the inability of the nation to respond under the Confederation, but he also feared the unchecked power of a strong central government.

Initially opposed to reforms for a stronger national government, Gerry accepted an appointment as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. During the constitutional debates, he favored more balanced power between national and state governments. He distrusted reform efforts proposing greater democracy (such as popular election of the Senate or the president), yet argued for a bill of rights to protect citizens from governmental encroachment. Gerry preached the virtue of compromise and chaired the committee that resolved the issue of representation of large and small states. He also cast the deciding vote in the Massachusetts delegation in favor of the Connecticut Compromise, which in turn was decided by a 5-4 vote among the states.

In the end, however, Gerry was one of only three delegates who refused to sign the new federal Constitution. His primary complaint was that the document lacked a bill of rights, a demand that anti-Federalists pressed during ratification. Gerry, however, was elected to the new government’s House of Representatives (1789-1793) and helped frame the provisions of what would be the Bill of Rights.

In 1797, President John Adams nominated Gerry, John Marshall, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney as ministers to Paris to negotiate growing disputes between France and the United States. During this controversial mission, known as the XYZ affair, Gerry was conciliatory with the French, who were angered by Jay’s Treaty with Britain in 1795. Gerry conducted secret negotiations with French minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, even as Marshall and Pinckney abandoned their posts and returned home. Gerry believed that his negotiations prevented war with France, but his political opponents argued that he was duped by Talleyrand and the French agents.

After Adams recalled Gerry and his dispatches were published, Gerry become more suspicious of an aristocratic and a pro-British bias of the Federalists. His political ideology moved closer to the Jeffersonian Republicans, but as a candidate he still appealed to moderate Federalists. Gerry was elected as governor of Massachusetts for two terms (1810-1812). His first term was characterized by moderation and conciliatory politics, but his second term became synonymous with partisan politics. Gerry signed into law a bill that redrew electoral districts. It effectively concentrated Federalist voters within a few constituencies and thus gave Gerry’s Democratic-Republicans an electoral advantage. After observers likened the district that included Marblehead and the northeastern coast to a salamander, redistricting for partisan advantage became known as a “gerrymander.”

Although he lost the gubernatorial election of 1812, the Republican Congressional Caucus nominated Gerry as vice president on the ticket with incumbent President James Madison. He was elected with Madison just as the War of 1812 with Britain raged. Gerry was in poor health during his term as vice president, but he continued to fulfill his duties as president of the Senate. After entering the Senate chamber on the morning of November 23, 1814, Gerry suffered chest pains. He had a hemorrhage of the lungs and died shortly thereafter. During his last few months, he had been a strong supporter of Madison, the Republicans, and the war with Great Britain.

Significance

Elbridge Gerry was a central figure before and during the American Revolution and the founding of the republic. His political philosophy, however, epitomized the inherent contradictions of the new government. Gerry opposed the monarchy and strong central authority, but he also feared popular democracy and its tendency toward mob rule. Gerry argued against establishing a federal standing army and a naval power, yet he advocated military conflict with Britain during the revolution and the War of 1812.

His leadership in the Philadelphia Convention forged key compromises and the ultimate approval of the federal Constitution, but, insisting on the inclusion of a bill of rights and other provisions, he refused to sign the document. Remembered primarily as an early practitioner of partisan redistricting, Gerry disliked political parties and factional divisions. His life in public service stemmed from his belief in a superior moral character produced by the American experience, yet his career could also be viewed as an exercise in political expediency.

Bibliography

Austin, James T. Life of Elbridge Gerry. Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1828-1829. An extended treatment of Gerry’s early life, through the end of the American Revolution, written by his son-in-law. This two-volume set also includes copies of some of Gerry’s correspondence to friends and associates.

Billias, George Athan. Elbridge Gerry: Founding Father and Republican Statesman. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976. This standard biography is based on Gerry’s correspondence and other manuscripts from numerous archives and collections. It argues that his republicanism was an organizing principle in his life and sheds lights on how republicanism influenced nonintellectuals.

McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. This biography of one of Gerry’s closet contemporaries sheds light on events of the times as well as Gerry’s own life.

Madison, James. Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1993. There are many editions of Madison’s description of what occurred behind the closed doors of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The understanding of Gerry’s political thought and the thoughts of other framers comes chiefly through Madison’s description of them.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. “Elbridge Gerry, Gentleman-Democrat.” New England Quarterly 2 (1929): 3-33. A discussion of Gerry’s place in the early Republic and the development of political parties. The article characterizes Gerry as inconsistent and irresolute.

Rush, Mark E. Does Redistricting Make a Difference? Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Reprint. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2000. Gerry entered the lexicon as a symbol of partisan and unfair redistricting. The argument in this work is that the presumed consequences of a gerrymander are unsubstantiated.

Stinchcombe, William. The XYZ Affair. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980. The undeclared naval war with France threatened the future of the American Republic after independence. This book discusses the negotiations of Gerry and others with Talleyrand and his agents.