 Gerry
was born in 1744 at Marblehead, MA, the third of 12 children. His
mother was the daughter of a Boston merchant; his father, a wealthy
and politically active merchant-shipper who had once been a sea
captain. Upon graduating from Harvard in 1762, Gerry joined his
father and two brothers in the family business, exporting dried
codfish to Barbados and Spain. He entered the colonial legislature
(1772-74), where he came under the influence of Samuel Adams, and
took part in the Marblehead and Massachusetts committees of
correspondence. When Parliament closed Boston harbor in June 1774,
Marblehead became a major port of entry for supplies donated by
patriots throughout the colonies to relieve Bostonians, and Gerry
helped transport the goods.Between
1774 and 1776 Gerry attended the first and second provincial
congresses. He served with Samuel Adams and John Hancock on the
council of safety and, as chairman of the committee of supply (a job
for which his merchant background ideally suited him) wherein he
raised troops and dealt with military logistics. On the night of
April 18, 1775
Gerry attended a meeting of the council of
safety at an inn in Menotomy (Arlington), between Cambridge and
Lexington, and barely escaped the British troops marching on
Lexington and Concord.
In 1776 Gerry entered the Continental Congress,
where his congressional specialities were military and financial
matters. In Congress and throughout his career his actions often
appeared contradictory. He earned the nickname "soldiers' friend"
for his advocacy of better pay and equipment, yet he vacillated on
the issue of pensions. Despite his disapproval of standing armies,
he recommended long-term enlistments.
Until 1779 Gerry sat on and sometimes presided
over the congressional board that regulated Continental finances.
After a quarrel over the price schedule for suppliers, Gerry,
himself a supplier, walked out of Congress. Although nominally a
member, he did not reappear for 3 years. During the interim, he
engaged in trade and privateering and served in the lower house of
the Massachusetts legislature.
As a representative in Congress in the years
1783-85, Gerry numbered among those who had possessed talent as
Revolutionary agitators and wartime leaders but who could not
effectually cope with the painstaking task of stabilizing the
national government. He was experienced and conscientious but
created many enemies with his lack of humor, suspicion of the
motives of others, and obsessive fear of political and military
tyranny. In 1786, the year after leaving Congress, he retired from
business, married Ann Thompson, and took a seat in the state
legislature.
Gerry was one of the most vocal delegates at
the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He presided as chairman of
the committee that produced the Great Compromise but disliked the
compromise itself. He antagonized nearly everyone by his
inconsistency and, according to a colleague, "objected to everything
he did not propose." At first an advocate of a strong central
government, Gerry ultimately rejected and refused to sign the
Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights and because he
deemed it a threat to republicanism. He led the drive against
ratification in Massachusetts and denounced the document as "full of
vices." Among the vices, he listed inadequate representation of the
people, dangerously ambiguous legislative powers, the blending of
the executive and the legislative, and the danger of an oppressive
judiciary. Gerry did see some merit in the Constitution, though, and
believed that its flaws could be remedied through amendments. In
1789, after he announced his intention to support the Constitution,
he was elected to the First Congress where, to the chagrin of the
Antifederalists, he championed Federalist policies.
Gerry left Congress for the last time in 1793
and retired for 4 years. During this period he came to mistrust the
aims of the Federalists, particularly their attempts to nurture an
alliance with Britain, and sided with the pro-French
Democratic-Republicans. In 1797 President John Adams appointed him
as the only non-Federalist member of a three-man commission charged
with negotiating a reconciliation with France, which was on the
brink of war with the United States. During the ensuing XYZ affair
(1797-98), Gerry tarnished his reputation. Talleyrand, the French
foreign minister, led him to believe that his presence in France
would prevent war, and Gerry lingered on long after the departure of
John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the two other
commissioners. Finally, the embarrassed Adams recalled him, and
Gerry met severe censure from the Federalists upon his return.
In 1800-1803 Gerry, never very popular among
the Massachusetts electorate because of his aristocratic
haughtiness, met defeat in four bids for the Massachusetts
governorship but finally triumphed in 1810. Near the end of his two
terms, scarred by partisan controversy, the Democratic-Republicans
passed a redistricting measure to ensure their domination of the
state senate. In response, the Federalists heaped ridicule on Gerry
and coined the pun "gerrymander" to describe the salamander-like
shape of one of the redistricted areas.
Despite his advanced age, frail health, and the
threat of poverty brought on by neglect of personal affairs, Gerry
served as James Madison's Vice President in 1813. In the fall of
1814, the 70-year old politician collapsed on his way to the Senate
and died. He left his wife, who was to live until 1849, the last
surviving widow of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as
well as three sons and four daughters. Gerry is buried in
Congressional Cemetery at Washington, DC. |
