Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry was a Massachusetts merchant, revolutionary statesman, diplomat, governor, congressman, and the fifth person to serve as Vice President of the United States. He participated in the Revolution from its earliest political stages, signed the Declaration of Independence, helped establish the new federal government, and later became a leading Jeffersonian Republican despite having opposed ratification of the Constitution. His career ended when he died in office as James Madison's vice president in 1814, but his name became permanently associated with the political practice of "gerrymandering."

Gerry was born on July 17, 1744, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, into a prosperous merchant family. His father, Thomas Gerry, operated a successful shipping business, and Elbridge received a Harvard education before entering the family business. His upbringing in Massachusetts exposed him to the political tensions between colonial merchants and British authorities, and he became increasingly involved in resistance politics during the years leading to the Revolution.

Gerry entered public life through the Massachusetts colonial legislature and became an active opponent of British taxation and imperial authority. He served in the Continental Congress and became a committed advocate for independence, signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. During the Revolutionary War he participated in the Massachusetts political and military effort and later returned to the Continental Congress, where he helped address the financial and administrative problems facing the new nation. Gerry was also a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he refused to sign the proposed Constitution because he believed it lacked sufficient protections for individual and state rights.

Gerry nevertheless entered the new federal government after ratification and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1789 to 1793. He later served as a diplomatic envoy to France during the Adams administration as part of the mission associated with the XYZ Affair, and the controversy surrounding the mission contributed to the deterioration of his political position among Federalists. Gerry eventually aligned himself with Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans and became governor of Massachusetts in 1810. His reelection in 1811 was followed by the infamous redistricting controversy in which a state legislative district was drawn in a shape that resembled a salamander, giving rise to the word "gerrymander." In 1812 he ran as James Madison's vice-presidential candidate and became vice president in 1813.

Gerry served as vice president during the difficult final years of the War of 1812 and continued to preside over the Senate while the Madison administration faced military and political challenges. He remained in office until his death. Gerry died in Washington, D.C., on November 23, 1814, after becoming ill while traveling to the Capitol; he was buried in the Congressional Cemetery.

Gerry's legacy encompasses both his contributions to American independence and the Constitution's early political development and the controversy surrounding his opposition to the Constitution. His name has survived most famously through "gerrymandering," although the practice of manipulating electoral districts was not invented by Gerry himself; rather, his administration's Massachusetts redistricting became associated with the term. His life nevertheless demonstrates the complicated political evolution of a revolutionary statesman who moved from opposition to the Constitution toward leadership within the new federal government.