71 Facts About Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 1814.

Elbridge Gerry was one of three men who attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but refused to sign the Constitution because originally it did not include a Bill of Rights.

Elbridge Gerry was at first opposed to the idea of political parties and cultivated enduring friendships on both sides of the political divide between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.

Elbridge Gerry was a member of a diplomatic delegation to France that was treated poorly in the XYZ Affair, in which Federalists held him responsible for a breakdown in negotiations.

Elbridge Gerry thereafter became a Democratic-Republican, running unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts several times before winning the office in 1810.

Elbridge Gerry was nominated by the Democratic-Republican party and elected as vice president in the 1812 election.

Advanced in age and in poor health, Elbridge Gerry served 21 months of his term before dying in office.

Elbridge Gerry is the only signatory of the Declaration of Independence to be buried in Washington, DC.

Elbridge Gerry's father, Thomas Gerry, was a merchant who operated ships out of Marblehead, and his mother, Elizabeth Gerry, was the daughter of a successful Boston merchant.

Elbridge Gerry's parents had 11 children in all, although only five survived to adulthood.

Elbridge Gerry was first educated by private tutors and entered Harvard College shortly before turning 14.

Elbridge Gerry was from an early time a vocal opponent of Parliamentary efforts to tax the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in 1763.

Elbridge Gerry frequently communicated with other Massachusetts opponents of British policy, including Samuel Adams, John Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and others.

Elbridge Gerry worked closely with Samuel Adams to advance colonial opposition to Parliamentary colonial policies.

Elbridge Gerry was responsible for establishing Marblehead's committee of correspondence, one of the first to be set up after that of Boston.

Elbridge Gerry reentered politics after the Boston Port Act closed that city's port in 1774, and Marblehead became an alternative port to which relief supplies from other colonies could be delivered.

Elbridge Gerry was assigned to its committee of safety, responsible for ensuring that the province's limited supplies of weapons and gunpowder remained out of British Army hands.

Elbridge Gerry sent ships to ports all along the American coast and dabbled in financing privateering operations against British shipping.

Unlike some other merchants, there is no evidence that Elbridge Gerry profiteered directly from the hostilities.

Elbridge Gerry spoke out against price gouging and in favor of price controls, although his war-related merchant activities notably increased the family's wealth.

Elbridge Gerry's gains were tempered to some extent by the precipitous decline in the value of paper currencies, which he held in large quantities and speculated in.

Elbridge Gerry held these positions fairly consistently throughout his political career and was well known for his personal integrity.

Elbridge Gerry refused appointment to the state senate, claiming he would be more effective in the state's lower chamber, and refused appointment as a county judge, comparing the offer by Governor John Hancock to those made by royally-appointed governors to benefit their political allies.

Elbridge Gerry was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781.

Elbridge Gerry was convinced to rejoin the Confederation Congress in 1783, when the state legislature agreed to support his call for needed reforms.

Elbridge Gerry continued to own property in Marblehead and bought several properties in other Massachusetts communities.

Elbridge Gerry owned shares in the Ohio Company, prompting some political opponents to characterize him as an owner of vast tracts of western lands.

Elbridge Gerry played a major role in the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787.

Elbridge Gerry supported the idea that the Senate composition should not be determined by population; the view that it should instead be composed of equal numbers of members for each state prevailed in the Connecticut Compromise.

Elbridge Gerry further proposed that senators of a state, rather than casting a single vote on behalf of the state, vote instead as individuals.

Elbridge Gerry was vocal in opposing the Three-fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a free person for the purposes of apportionment in the House of Representatives, whereas counting each slave individually would have given southern slave states a decided advantage.

Elbridge Gerry was unhappy about the lack of enumeration of any specific individual liberties in the proposed constitution and generally opposed proposals that strengthened the central government.

Henry Jackson was particularly vicious: "[Elbridge Gerry has] done more injury to this country by that infamous Letter than he will be able to make atonement in his whole life", and Oliver Ellsworth, a convention delegate from Connecticut, charged him with deliberately courting the Shays faction.

The convention leadership was dominated by Federalists, and Elbridge Gerry was not given any formal opportunity to speak.

Elbridge Gerry left the convention after a shouting match with convention chair Francis Dana.

Elbridge Gerry was nominated by friends for a seat in the inaugural House of Representatives, where he served two terms.

Elbridge Gerry 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.

Elbridge Gerry sought unsuccessfully to insert the word "expressly" into the Tenth Amendment, which might have more significantly limited the federal government's power.

Elbridge Gerry was successful in efforts to severely limit the federal government's ability to control state militias.

Elbridge Gerry vigorously supported Alexander Hamilton's reports on public credit, including the assumption at full value of state debts, and supported Hamilton's Bank of the United States, positions consistent with earlier calls he had made for economic centralization.

Elbridge Gerry used the floor of the House to speak out against aristocratic and monarchical tendencies he saw as threats to republican ideals, and generally opposed laws and their provisions that he perceived as limiting individual and state liberties.

Elbridge Gerry opposed any attempt to give officers of the executive significant powers, specifically opposing establishment of the Treasury Department because its head might gain more power than the president.

Elbridge Gerry opposed measures that strengthened the presidency, such as the ability to fire Cabinet officers, seeking instead to give the legislature more power over appointments.

Elbridge Gerry did not stand for re-election in 1792, returning home to raise his children and care for his sickly wife.

Elbridge Gerry agreed to serve as a presidential elector for John Adams in the 1796 election.

Elbridge Gerry's hopes were not realized: the split between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans widened.

President Adams appointed Elbridge Gerry to be a member of a special diplomatic commission sent to Republican France in 1797.

Elbridge Gerry, who sought to leave with them, stayed behind because Talleyrand threatened war if he left.

Federalists, notably Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, accused Elbridge Gerry of supporting the French and abetting the breakdown of the talks, while Adams and Republicans such as Thomas Jefferson supported him.

Elbridge Gerry was only later vindicated, when his correspondence with Talleyrand was published in 1799.

Elbridge Gerry's opponent in these races, Caleb Strong, was a popular moderate Federalist, whose party dominated the state's politics despite a national shift toward the Republicans.

In 1803, Republicans in the state were divided, and Elbridge Gerry only had regional support of the party.

Elbridge Gerry decided not to run in 1804, returning to semi-retirement and to deal with a personal financial crisis.

Elbridge Gerry stood for election again in 1810 against Gore and won a narrow victory.

Elbridge Gerry preached moderation in the political discourse, noting that it was important that the nation present a unified front in its dealings with foreign powers.

The legislature enacted "reforms" of the court system that resulted in an increase in the number of judicial appointments, which Elbridge Gerry filled with Republican partisans.

Elbridge Gerry engaged in partisan investigations of potential libel against him by elements of the Federalist press, further damaging his popularity with moderates.

Elbridge Gerry was chosen by the party Congressional nominating caucus to be Madison's vice presidential running mate in the 1812 presidential election, although the nomination was first offered to John Langdon.

Elbridge 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 narrowly won re-election, and Elbridge Gerry took the oath of office at Elmwood in March 1813.

At that time the office of vice president was largely a sinecure; Elbridge Gerry's duties included advancing the administration's agenda in Congress and dispensing patronage positions in New England.

On November 23,1814, Elbridge Gerry fell seriously ill while visiting Joseph Nourse of the Treasury Department, and he died soon after returning to his home in the Seven Buildings.

Elbridge Gerry is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, with a memorial by John Frazee.

Elbridge Gerry is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who was buried in the nation's capital city.

Elbridge Gerry is generally remembered for the use of his name in the word gerrymander, for his refusal to sign the United States Constitution, and for his role in the XYZ Affair.

Biographer George Athan Billias posits that Elbridge Gerry was a consistent advocate and practitioner of republicanism as it was originally envisioned, and that his role in the Constitutional Convention had a significant impact on the document it eventually produced.

Elbridge Gerry had ten children, nine of whom survived into adulthood:.

Elbridge Gerry's great-grandson, Peter G Gerry, was a member of the US House of Representatives and later a US Senator from Rhode Island.

Elbridge Gerry is depicted in two of John Trumbull's paintings, the Declaration of Independence and General George Washington Resigning His Commission.

The upstate New York town of Elbridge is believed to have been named in his honor, as is the western New York town of Gerry.

The supposed house of his birth, the Elbridge Gerry House stands in Marblehead, and Marblehead's Elbridge Gerry School is named in his honor.