Governor of Massachusetts
Elbridge Gerry took which position in Dec 1811?
Elbridge Gerry Elbridge Thomas Gerry ( ; July 17 , 1744 ( OS July 6 , 1744 ) – November 23 , 1814 ) was an American politician and diplomat . As a Democratic-Republican he served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from March 1813 until his death in November 1814 . The political practice of gerrymandering is named after him . He was the second American Vice President to die in office . 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 the Articles of Confederation . He was one of three men who attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 who refused to sign the United States Constitution because it did not then include a Bill of Rights . After its ratification he was elected to the inaugural United States Congress , where he was actively involved in 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 . Chosen by the party as its vice presidential candidate in the 1812 election , Gerry served for only a year and a half of his term before dying . He is the only signatory of the Declaration of Independence buried in Washington , D.C . Early life and education . Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17 , 1744 , in Marblehead , Massachusetts . His father , Thomas Gerry , was a merchant operating ships out of Marblehead , and his mother , Elizabeth ( Greenleaf ) Gerry , was the daughter of a successful Boston merchant . Gerrys first name came from John Elbridge , one of his mothers ancestors . Gerrys parents had 11 children in all , although only five survived to adulthood . Of these , Elbridge was the third . He was first educated by private tutors and entered Harvard College shortly before turning 14 . After receiving an AB in 1762 and an AM in 1765 , he entered his fathers 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 . Gerrys father , who had emigrated from England in 1730 , was active in local politics and had a leading role in the local militia . Early political career . 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 . In 1770 he sat on a Marblehead committee that sought to enforce importation bans on taxed British goods . He frequently communicated with other Massachusetts opponents of British policy , including Samuel Adams , John Adams , Mercy Otis Warren , and others . In May 1772 he won election to the Great and General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay ( its legislative assembly ) . There he worked closely with Samuel Adams to advance colonial opposition to Parliamentary colonial policies . He was responsible for establishing Marbleheads committee of correspondence , one of the first to be set up after that of Boston . However , an incident of mob action prompted him to resign from the committee the next year . Gerry and other prominent Marbleheaders had established a hospital for performing smallpox inoculations on Cat Island ; because the means of transmission of the disease were not known at the time , fears amongst the local population led to protests which escalated into violence that wrecked the facilities and threatened the proprietors other properties . Gerry reentered politics after the Boston Port Act closed that citys port in 1774 , and Marblehead became an alternative port to which relief supplies from other colonies could be delivered . As one of the towns leading merchants and Patriots , Gerry played a major role in ensuring the storage and delivery of supplies from Marblehead to Boston , interrupting those activities only to care for his dying father . He was elected as a representative to the First Continental Congress in September 1774 , but declined , still grieving the loss of his father . Congress and Revolution . Gerry was elected to the provincial assembly , which reconstituted itself as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress after British Governor Thomas Gage dissolved the body in October 1774 . He was assigned to its committee of safety , responsible for assuring that the provinces limited supplies of weapons and gunpowder remained out of British Army hands . His actions were partly responsible for the storage of weapons and ammunition in Concord ; these stores were the target of the British raiding expedition that sparked the start of the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 . ( Gerry was staying at an inn at Menotomy , now Arlington , when the British marched through on the night of April 18. ) During the Siege of Boston that followed , Gerry continued to take a leading role in supplying the nascent Continental Army , something he would continue to do as the war progressed . He leveraged business contacts in France and Spain to acquire not just munitions , but supplies of all types , and was involved in the transfer of financial subsidies from Spain to Congress . He 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 Gerry profiteered directly from the hostilities ( he spoke out against price gouging , and in favor of price controls ) , although his war-related merchant activities notably increased the familys wealth . His 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 . Gerry served in the Second Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780 , when matters of the ongoing war occupied the bodys attention . He was influential in convincing a number of delegates to support passage of the United States Declaration of Independence in the debates held during the summer of 1776 ; John Adams wrote of him , If every Man here was a Gerry , the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell . He was implicated as a member of the so-called Conway Cabal , a group of Congressmen and military officers who were dissatisfied with the performance of General George Washington during the 1777 military campaign . However , Gerry took Pennsylvania leader Thomas Mifflin , one of Washingtons critics , to task early in the episode , and specifically denied knowledge of any sort of conspiracy against Washington in February 1778 . Gerrys political philosophy was one of limited central government , and he regularly advocated for the maintenance of civilian control of the military . He held these positions fairly consistently throughout his political career ( wavering principally on the need for stronger central government in the wake of the 1786–87 Shayss Rebellion ) and was well known for his personal integrity . In later years he opposed the idea of political parties , remaining somewhat distant from both the developing Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties until later in his career . It was not until 1800 that he would formally associate with the Democratic-Republicans in opposition to what he saw as attempts by the Federalists to centralize too much power in the national government . In 1780 he resigned from the Continental Congress over the issue , and refused offers from the state legislature to return to the Congress . He also refused appointment to the state senate , claiming he would be more effective in the states lower chamber , and also 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 . He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781 . Gerry was convinced to rejoin the Confederation Congress in 1783 , when the state legislature agreed to support his call for needed reforms . He served in that body until September 1785 , during which time it met in New York City . The following year he married Ann Thompson , the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant who was twenty years his junior ; his best man was his good friend James Monroe . The couple had ten children between 1787 and 1801 , straining Anns health . The war made Gerry sufficiently wealthy that when it ended he sold off his merchant interests , and began investing in land . In 1787 he purchased the Cambridge , Massachusetts estate of the last royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts , Thomas Oliver , which had been confiscated by the state . This property , known as Elmwood , became the family home for the rest of Gerrys life . He continued to own property in Marblehead , and bought a number of properties in other Massachusetts communities . He also owned shares in the Ohio Company , prompting some political opponents to characterize him as an owner of vast tracts of western lands . Constitutional Convention . Gerry played a major role in the Constitutional Convention , held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 . In its deliberations , he consistently advocated for a strong delineation between state and federal government powers , with state legislatures shaping the membership of federal government positions . Gerrys opposition to popular election of representatives was rooted in part by the events of Shays Rebellion , a populist uprising in western Massachusetts in the year preceding the convention . Despite that position , he also sought to maintain individual liberties by providing checks on government power that might abuse or limit those freedoms . He 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 . The compromise was adopted on a narrow vote in which the Massachusetts delegation was divided , Gerry and Caleb Strong voting in favor . Gerry further proposed that senators of a state , rather than casting a single vote on behalf of the state , vote instead as individuals . Gerry was also 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 , which gave southern states a decided advantage . Advocating indirect elections . Because of his fear of demagoguery and belief the people of the United States could be easily misled , Gerry also advocated indirect elections . Although he was unsuccessful in obtaining them for the lower house of Congress , Gerry did obtain such indirect elections for the Senate , whose members were to be selected by the state legislatures . Gerry also advanced numerous proposals for indirect elections of the President of the United States , most of them involving limiting the right to vote to the state governors and electors . Opposing proposed constitution . Gerry was also unhappy about the lack of enumeration of any specific individual liberties in the proposed constitution , and generally opposed proposals that strengthened the central government . He was one of only three delegates who voted against the proposed constitution in the convention ( the others were George Mason and Edmund Randolph ) , citing a concern about the conventions lack of authority to enact such major changes to the nations system of government , and to the constitutions lack of federal features . State ratification and Bill of Rights . During the ratification debates that took place in the states following the convention , Gerry continued his opposition , publishing a widely circulated letter documenting his objections to the proposed constitution . In the document , he cited the lack of a Bill of Rights as his primary objection , but also expressed qualified approval of the constitution , indicating that he would accept it with some amendment . Strong pro-Constitution forces attacked him in the press , comparing him unfavorably to the Shaysites . Henry Jackson was particularly vicious : [ 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 . One consequence of the furor over his letter was that he was not selected as a delegate to the Massachusetts ratifying convention although he was later invited to attend by the conventions leadership . The convention leadership was dominated by Federalists , and Gerry was not given any formal opportunity to speak . He left the convention after a shouting match with convention chair Francis Dana . Massachusetts ratified the constitution by a vote of 187 to 168 . The debate had the result of estranging Gerry from a number of previously-friendly politicians , including chairman Dana and Rufus King . United States House of Representatives . Anti-Federalist forces nominated Gerry for governor in 1788 , but he was predictably defeated by the popular incumbent John Hancock . Following its ratification , Gerry recanted his opposition to the Constitution , noting that a number of other state ratifying conventions had called for amendments that he supported . He was nominated by friends ( over his own opposition to the idea ) for a seat in the inaugural House of Representatives , where he then served two terms . In June 1789 Gerry proposed that Congress consider all of the proposed constitutional amendments that various state ratifying conventions had called for ( notably those of Rhode Island and North Carolina , which had at the time still not ratified the constitution ) . In the debate that followed , he led opposition to some of the proposals , arguing that they did not go far enough in ensuring individual liberties . He 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 . He sought unsuccessfully to insert the word expressly into the Tenth Amendment , which might have more significantly limited the federal governments power . He was successful in efforts to severely limit the federal governments ability to control state militias . In tandem with this protection , he had once argued against the idea of the federal government controlling a large standing army , saying , A standing army is like a standing member . Its an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility , but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure . Gerry vigorously supported Alexander Hamiltons reports on public credit , including the assumption at full value of state debts , and supported Hamiltons new Bank of the United States , positions consistent with earlier calls he had made for economic centralization . Although he had speculated in depreciated Continental bills of credit ( the IOUs at issue ) , there is no evidence he participated in large-scale speculation that attended the debate when it took place in 1790 , and he became a major investor in the new bank . He 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 . He 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 . He opposed measures that strengthened the Presidency ( such as the ability to fire cabinet officers ) , seeking instead to give the legislature more power over appointments . Gerry did not stand for re-election in 1792 , returning home to raise his children and care for his sickly wife . He agreed to serve as a presidential elector for John Adams in the 1796 election . During Adams term in office , Gerry maintained good relations with both Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson , hoping that the divided executive might lead to less friction . His hopes were not realized : the split between Federalists ( Adams ) and Democratic-Republicans ( Jefferson ) widened . XYZ Affair . President Adams appointed Gerry to be a member of a special diplomatic commission sent to Republican France in 1797 . Tensions had risen between the two nations after the 1796 ratification of the Jay Treaty , made between the United States and Great Britain . It was seen by French leaders as signs of an Anglo-American alliance , and France had consequently stepped up seizures of American ships . Adams chose Gerry , over his cabinets opposition ( on political grounds that Gerry was insufficiently Federalist ) , because of their long-standing relationship ; Adams described Gerry as one of the two most impartial men in America ( Adams himself being the other ) . Gerry joined co-commissioners Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Marshall in France in October 1797 , and met briefly with Foreign Minister Talleyrand . Some days after that meeting , the delegation was approached by three French agents ( at first identified as X , Y , and Z in published papers , leading the controversy to be called the XYZ Affair ) who demanded substantial bribes from the commissioners before negotiations could continue . The commissioners refused , and sought unsuccessfully to engage Talleyrand in formal negotiations . Believing Gerry to be the most approachable of the commissioners , Talleyrand successively froze first Pinckney and then Marshall out of the informal negotiations , and they left France in April 1798 . Gerry , who sought to leave with them , stayed behind because Talleyrand threatened war if he left . Gerry refused to make any significant negotiations afterward and left Paris in August . By then , dispatches describing the commissions reception had been published in the United States , raising calls for war . The undeclared naval Quasi-War ( 1798–1800 ) followed . Federalists , notably Secretary of State Timothy Pickering , accused Gerry of supporting the French and abetting the breakdown of the talks , while Adams and Republicans such as Thomas Jefferson supported him . The negative press damaged Gerrys reputation , and he was burned in effigy by protestors in front of his home . He was only later vindicated , when his correspondence with Talleyrand was published . In response to the Federalist attacks on him , and because of his perception that the Federalist-led military buildup threatened republican values , Gerry formally joined the Democratic-Republican Party in early 1800 , standing for election as Governor of Massachusetts . Governor of Massachusetts . For years , Gerry unsuccessfully sought the governorship of Massachusetts . His opponent in these races , Caleb Strong , was a popular moderate Federalist , whose party dominated the states politics despite a national shift toward the Republicans . In 1803 Republicans in the state were divided , and Gerry only had regional support of the party . He decided not to run in 1804 , returning to semi-retirement and to deal with a personal financial crisis . His brother Samuel Russell had mismanaged his own business affairs , and Gerry had propped him up by guaranteeing a loan that was due . The matter ultimately ruined Gerrys finances for his remaining years . Republican James Sullivan won the governors seat from Strong in 1807 , but his successor was unable to hold the seat in the 1809 election , which went to Federalist Christopher Gore . Gerry stood for election again in 1810 against Gore , and won a narrow victory . Republicans cast Gore as an ostentatious British-loving Tory who wanted to restore the monarchy ( his parents had remained loyal during the Revolution ) , and Gerry as a patriotic American , while Federalists described Gerry as a French partizan and Gore as an honest man devoted to ridding the government of foreign influence . A temporary lessening in the threat of war with Britain aided Gerry . The two battled again in 1811 , with Gerry once again victorious in a highly acrimonious campaign . Gerrys first year as governor was less controversial than his second , because the Federalists controlled the state senate . He preached moderation in the political discourse , noting that it was important that the nation present a unified front in its dealings with foreign powers . In his second term , with full Republican control of the legislature , he became notably more partisan , purging much of the state government of Federalist appointees . The legislature also enacted reforms of the court system that resulted in an increase in the number of judicial appointments , which Gerry filled with Republican partisans . However , infighting within the party and a shortage of qualified candidates played against Gerry , and the Federalists scored points by complaining vocally about the partisan nature of the reforms . Other legislation passed during Gerrys second year included a bill broadening the membership of Harvards Board of Overseers to diversify its religious membership , and another that liberalized religious taxes . The Harvard bill had significant political slant because the recent split between orthodox Congregationalists and Unitarians also divided the state to some extent along party lines , and Federalist Unitarians had recently gained control over the Harvard board . In 1812 the state adopted new constitutionally mandated electoral district boundaries . The Republican-controlled legislature had created district boundaries designed to enhance their partys control over state and national offices , leading to some oddly shaped legislative districts . Although Gerry was unhappy about the highly partisan districting ( according to his son-in-law , he thought it highly disagreeable ) , he signed the legislation . The shape of one of the state senate districts in Essex County was compared to a salamander by a local Federalist newspaper in a political cartoon , calling it a Gerry-mander . Ever since , the creation of such districts has been called gerrymandering . Gerry also engaged in partisan investigations of potential libel against him by elements of the Federalist press , further damaging his popularity with moderates . The redistricting controversy , along with the libel investigation and the impending War of 1812 , contributed to Gerrys defeat in 1812 ( once again at the hands of Caleb Strong , whom the Federalists had brought out of retirement ) . The gerrymandering of the state senate was a notable success in the 1812 election : the body was thoroughly dominated by Republicans , even though the house and the governors seat went to Federalists by substantial margins . Vice Presidency and death . Gerrys financial difficulties prompted him to ask President James Madison for a federal position after his loss in the 1812 election ( which was held early in the year ) . He was chosen by the party Congressional nominating caucus to be Madisons vice presidential running mate in the 1812 presidential election , although the nomination was first offered to John Langdon . He 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 reelection , and Gerry took the oath of office at Elmwood in March 1813 . At that time the office of vice president was largely a sinecure ; Gerrys duties included advancing the administrations agenda in Congress and dispensing patronage positions in New England . Gerrys actions in support of the War of 1812 had a partisan edge : he expressed concerns over a possible Federalist seizure of Fort Adams ( as Bostons Fort Independence was then known ) as a prelude to Anglo-Federalist cooperation , and sought the arrest of printers of Federalist newspapers . On November 23 , 1814 , Gerry fell seriously ill while visiting Joseph Nourse of the Treasury Department , and died not long after returning to his home in the Seven Buildings . He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington , D.C. , with a memorial by John Frazee . He is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who was buried in the nations capital city . The estate he left his wife and children was rich in land and poor in cash , but he had managed to repay his brothers debts with his pay as vice president . Aged 68 at the start of his Vice Presidency , he was the oldest person to become Vice President until Charles Curtis in 1929 . Legacy . 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 . His path through the politics of the age has been difficult to characterize . Early biographers , including his son-in-law James T . Austin and Samuel Eliot Morison , struggled to explain his apparent changes in position . Biographer George Athan Billias posits that 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 . Gerry had ten children , of whom nine survived into adulthood : 1 . Catharine Gerry ( 1787–1850 ) 2 . Eliza Gerry ( 1791–1882 ) 3 . Ann Gerry ( 1791–1883 ) 4 . Elbridge Gerry , Jr . ( 1793–1867 ) 5 . Thomas Russell Gerry ( 1794–1848 ) , who married Hannah Green Goelet ( 1804–1845 ) 6 . Helen Maria Gerry ( 1796–1864 ) 7 . James Thompson Gerry ( 1797–1854 ) , who left West Point upon his fathers death and was Commander of the war-sloop USS Albany ( 1846 ) ; the sloop disappeared with all hands September 28 or 29 , 1854 near the West Indies . 8 . Eleanor Stanford Gerry ( 1800-1871 ) 9 . Emily Louisa Gerry ( 1802-1894 ) Gerrys grandson Elbridge Thomas Gerry became a distinguished lawyer and philanthropist in New York . His great-grandson , Peter G . Gerry ( 1879–1957 ) , was a member of the US House of Representatives and later a US Senator from Rhode Island . Gerry is depicted in two of John Trumbulls paintings , the Declaration of Independence and General George Washington Resigning His Commission . Both are on view in the rotunda of the United States Capitol . 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 , 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 after the town submitted a petition in 1812 , citing Democratic-Republican support for the War of 1812 . Gerrys Landing Road in Cambridge , Massachusetts is located near the Eliot Bridge not far from Elmwood . During the 19th century , the area was known as Gerrys Landing ( formerly known as Sir Richards Landing ) , and was used by a Gerry relative for a short time as a landing and storehouse . The supposed house of his birth , the Elbridge Gerry House ( it is uncertain whether he was born in the house currently standing on the site or an earlier structure ) stands in Marblehead , and that towns Elbridge Gerry School is named in his honor .