Elbridge Gerry
BIRTH
Jul 17, 1714
Marblehead, Massachusetts
DEATH
November 23, 1814
Washington, D.C.
Vice-President of the United States
1813-1814
Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1810-1812
Delegate to the Constitutional Convention (MA)
1787
FAMILY
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Gerry, Elbridge
(1714-1814)
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. The political practice of gerrymandering is named after him.
GRAVE:
GRAVE
Congressional Cemetery
1801, Washington, DC, 20003, USA
2
WIFE
Ann Gerry
(1763-1849)
Eliza Gerry Townsend
Thomas Russell Gerry
(1794-1848)
James Thompson Gerry
(1797-1854)
Places | Image | Address | GPS | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Independence National Historical Park | 520 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 | MUSEUM | ||
Boston Common | 139 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02111 | PARK |
DIED:
Washington, D.C.
Nov 23, 1814
Gerry was born on July 17, 1744, in the North Shore town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Gerry (1702–1774), was a merchant who operated ships out of Marblehead, and his mother, Elizabeth (Greenleaf) Gerry (1716–1771), was the daughter of a successful Boston merchant. He was first educated by private tutors and entered Harvard College shortly before turning 14. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1762 and a Master of Arts in 1765, he entered his father's merchant business. By the 1770s, the Gerrys numbered among the wealthiest Massachusetts merchants, with trading connections in Spain, the West Indies, and along the North American coast. Gerry's father, who had emigrated from England in 1730, was active in local politics and had a leading role in the local militia.
Born into a wealthy merchant family, Gerry vocally opposed British colonial policy in the 1760s and was active in the early stages of organizing the resistance in the American Revolutionary War. Elected to the Second Continental Congress, Gerry signed both the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation.
He 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. After its ratification, he was elected to the inaugural United States Congress, where he was actively involved in the drafting and passage of the Bill of Rights as an advocate of individual and state liberties.
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. He 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. Gerry thereafter became a Democratic-Republican, running unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts several times before winning the office in 1810. During his second term, the legislature approved new state senate districts that led to the coining of the word "gerrymander"; he lost the next election, although the state senate remained Democratic-Republican.