The Man Behind the Gerrymander

By Silence Dogood

There is sure an awful lot of talk about gerrymandering these days. States all across the country have begun redrawing their voting districts either to create more favorable scenarios for their own party or to damage the chances of their opponents. Outrage from one side of the political aisle is met with indignation from the other. Because of all this turmoil across the political landscape, one would be forgiven for believing that this is a unique moment in our history — that this type of partisan gerrymandering is an outlier in the grand scheme of things. One would, in fact, be wrong for such a belief.

While it is true that the normal timing for the process of gerrymandering is being flouted, this thoroughly political exercise has been in existence for almost as long as we have been a country. In fact, it even derives its name from one of our Founding Fathers: Elbridge Gerry.

Gerry was born in Massachusetts in 1744 to a wealthy merchant family. Despite his well-to-do background, when tensions with Britain began to rise, he quickly became an ardent supporter of the patriot cause.

As war began to look imminent in Boston, Gerry was elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. There, he served on the Committee of Safety, whose main goal was to ensure that the colony’s militia supplies did not fall into British hands. He helped organize stockpiles in places such as Lexington and Concord.

In 1776, Elbridge Gerry was elected to serve in the Second Continental Congress. He became an outspoken supporter of declaring independence. So much so that even John Adams, the “colossus of independence,” once remarked, “If every Man here was a Gerry, the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell.”

That summer, Gerry became one of the 56 men to affix his name to the United States Declaration of Independence.

He would also go on to sign the Articles of Confederation. Then, in 1787, he was selected to serve at the Constitutional Convention.

At the Convention, Gerry became recognized as an outspoken proponent of limited government, allying himself closely with the other Anti-Federalists. He worried that too strong a federal government would overpower the individual states in the union. He played a major role in debates over whether or not representation in the Senate should be determined by state population. He also distrusted too much direct democracy and believed state governments should play a larger role in selecting federal representatives.

Gerry also sought to abolish the Three-Fifths Compromise from the Constitution. He famously asked why slaves in the South, who were considered property at the time, should be included in the population count “any more than the cattle and horses of the North?”

In the end, Gerry was not satisfied with the finished document. He believed that without certain rights specifically enumerated in the Constitution — what would later become the Bill of Rights — the new government was vulnerable to abuse and demagoguery.

Elbridge Gerry, along with Edmund Randolph and George Mason, became one of just three delegates at the Constitutional Convention who refused to sign the final version.

(I feel it is important to note here that writing back-to-back articles about Founding Fathers who refused to sign important political documents is pure coincidence.)

Two years later, when the Constitution was ratified by the states, Gerry was nonetheless elected to the inaugural Congress as a member of the House of Representatives. There, he worked to fix what he saw as flaws in the new government. He played an important role in shaping the final versions of the First and Fourth Amendments and, although he ultimately came up short, also worked to strengthen the wording of the Tenth Amendment, which would have given even more power to the states over the federal government.

After one full term, he declined to run for reelection and instead returned home to Massachusetts.

After several unsuccessful bids for the governorship, Gerry finally won election to the long sought-after position in 1810.

While serving as governor, Gerry was faced with a dilemma. His party, the Democratic-Republicans, controlled the legislature, but the opposition Federalist Party remained very strong in certain areas of the state.

In order to weaken the Federalist voting bloc, the state legislature redrew some of the voting districts. One district in Essex County ended up particularly disfigured.

A famous political cartoon published in the Boston Gazette turned the district into a monster with claws, wings and a reptilian head.

Upon seeing the cartoon, someone reportedly remarked: “That’s not a salamander — it’s a Gerrymander!”

And the name stuck.

Ironically, historians today are not entirely sure how much of a proponent Gerry himself was of the redistricting scheme. In the end, however, he did sign the bill. Ultimately, though, the whole plan backfired. Federalists used the redistricting controversy as a means to attack Gerry and his party, and he was defeated in the next election.

After losing reelection, Gerry quickly rebounded and was chosen as James Madison’s vice-presidential running mate as Madison sought reelection in 1812. Madison narrowly won, and Elbridge Gerry became Vice President of the United States.

Unfortunately, Gerry did not have long to make much of a lasting impact in office. Just two years into the administration’s term, he suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 70. He is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in Washington, D.C.

Elbridge Gerry is understandably remembered mostly for his namesake: the gerrymander. But this fascinating Founding Father contributed far more to this American experiment than simply lending his name to a partisan political tactic.

Although his political career took many twists and turns, Gerry remained, throughout his life, an ardent believer in classic republican virtues. He believed so strongly in limiting centralized power and protecting the rights of both the states and individuals that he ultimately could not bring himself to sign the Constitution itself.

Just as gerrymandering is nothing new, Americans more than two centuries later are still debating the very same questions about power and government that Gerry wrestled with at the nation’s founding.