Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), fifth vice president of the United States (1813-1814), born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard College (now Harvard University). His long political career began in 1772, when he became a member of the Massachusetts General Court, the representative body of the colony. He soon joined the revolutionary patriot Samuel Adams in opposition to the British. In 1775 Gerry introduced and secured passage of a bill to arm and equip ships to carry out aggressive acts against British maritime commerce. He was a member (1776-1781) of the Continental Congress and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He resumed his seat in Congress in 1782, and in 1787 he represented Massachusetts at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He refused to sign the Constitution on the ground that it failed to provide sufficient protection for the liberties of the people. As an Anti-Federalist (see Federalist Party), he represented his Massachusetts district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 to 1793. In 1797, when the U.S. was involved in serious disputes with France, he was sent with the American statesmen John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to France to secure a treaty of settlement (see XYZ Affair). In 1810 and 1811 Gerry was elected governor of Massachusetts as a Democratic-Republican; during his second term, and under his direction, the Democratic-Republican legislature passed a bill redistributing Massachusetts in such a manner as to ensure their continued control (see Gerrymander). From 1813 until his death, Gerry served as vice president in the second administration of President James Madison.