He served again as governor of New York from
1801 to 1804 and as vice president under Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison. Clinton died in Washington on April 20, 1812, and
was buried there; in 1908 he was re-interred at Kingston, New
York.
From Architect
of the Capitol.
Elbridge Gerry, Second Term
 |
Elbridge Gerry.
Library of Congress image.
|
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.
From the National
Archives.
