Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry served in the Continental Congress from the 1770s through the Articles era and, in 1787, became a leading critic of parts of the proposed Constitution.
Born July 17, 1744 / Died November 23, 1814
On July 17, 1744, in Marblehead, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Elbridge Gerry was born into a merchant family engaged in Atlantic trade. He attended Harvard College and then entered the family business, which exposed him to taxation, shipping regulation, and imperial politics. By the early 1770s he was serving in the Massachusetts legislature as resistance to Parliament intensified.
Gerry joined the Second Continental Congress in 1776, signed the Declaration of Independence, and worked through the war on finance and supply questions. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787 he objected to parts of the proposed frame, especially the absence of a bill of rights and the scope of national power. He later supported the Jeffersonian coalition and served as James Madison's vice president after the Twelfth Amendment took effect in 1804.
Gerry's skepticism at Philadelphia fed the broader pressure that helped produce the Bill of Rights in 1791. His governorship of Massachusetts in 1812 also gave American politics the enduring term 'gerrymander,' linking the Founding generation to later disputes over electoral maps.
Key Contributions
- From 1813 until his death in 1814, he served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison.
- Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17, 1744.
- As one of Massachusetts's delegates, Elbridge helped tie Massachusetts to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and to the new republican order that followed.
Related Events
Declaration of Independence adopted
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and ordered the document printed as the public case for separation.
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