Gas-Ger: Gasson through Gerry

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


GASSON, J., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)


GASTINE, Civique, 1793-1822, reformer, wrote anti-slavery literature, called for equality between Blacks and Whites.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 613-614:

GASTINE, Civique, West Indian reformer, born in Fort de France, Martinique, in 1793; died in Port au Prince, Hayti, 12 June, 1822. He was of a wealthy family, and from early childhood was impressed by his mulatto nurse with sympathy for the colored race. In 1803 he was sent to New Orleans to receive his education, and in 1809 came to Philadelphia to study law. A pamphlet, which he published there regarding the emancipation of the negroes, gave rise to some attacks on him, and when in 1813 he spoke at a public meeting in favor of equality between blacks and whites, he was in danger of being lynched, and fled to Paris. He escaped conscription there in 1814 as an American citizen, and in 1815 began the publication of the paper “L’ami du noir.” He was condemned several times to fines and imprisonment for offensive articles, and, when he published his “Lettre au roi sur l’indpéndance de la république de Haiti et l’abolition de l’esclavage dans les colonies françaises” and “De la nécessité de faire un traité de commerce avec Haiti” (Paris, 1821), the government took advantage of Gastine's violent personal attacks to confiscate the work and banish the author. He went to Hayti in 1821, and was enthusiastically received on his arrival at Port au Prince by the public and President Boyer, who appointed him secretary of foreign relations, and granted him a yearly pension of 5,000 francs. By public subscription a magnificent property at Aux Cayes was presented to Gastine, but he only enjoyed it a few months. He published, besides the two works already mentioned, “Histoire de la république de Haiti, l’esclavage et le colon” (Paris, 1819); “L'Esclavage aux États-Unis” (1819); and “Histoire de l'esclavage dans la Louisiane” (1820). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 613-614.


GATCH, Philip

(American National Biography, 2002, Volume 8)


GATES, Cyrus, 1802-1891, Maine, New York, abolitionist, cartographer.  Active in hiding fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad.  His home was used to hide slaves.


GATES, Seth Merrill, 1800-1877, abolitionist leader, lawyer, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, Whig Party, Western New York.  Anti-slavery political leader in House of Representatives.  In 1848 Gates was the Free-Soil candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York, but was not elected. He wrote the protest of the Whig members of Congress in 1843 against the proposed annexation of Texas.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 295; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, p. 128; Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971, p. 104; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 615-616; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GATES, Seth Merrill, lawyer, born in Winfield, Herkimer County, New York, 16 October, 1800; died in Warsaw, New York, 24 August, 1877. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1827, and began practice in Le Roy. He was elected to the state legislature in 1832, but declined a re-election. During this session he was instrumental in procuring a charter for the first Railroad in western New York, being a portion of the present New York Central. In 1838 he purchased the " Le Roy Gazette," which he edited for several years. He was elected to Congress in 1838, and re-elected in 1840. On the expiration of his Congressional service, he moved to Warsaw, and continued his law-practice. On account of his hostility to slavery, a reward of $500 was offered by a southern planter for his "delivery in Savannah, dead or alive." In 1848 he was the Free-Soil candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York, but was defeated. He drew up the protest of the Whig members of Congress in 1843 against the annexation of Texas, erroneously attributed in several histories to Mr. Adams's pen; and the correspondence between Mr. Gates and ex-President John Quincy Adams, who signed the protest, is still in the possession of his son. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888,VolumeII, pp.615-616


GAW, Gilbert, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Nash, Gary B., & Soderlund, Jean R. Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 131)


GAY, Sydney Howard, 1814-1888, New York, NY, author, newspaper editor, abolitionist.  Member of the Garrisonian abolitionists.  Became traveling lecturing agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) in 1842.  Gay was a member of the Executive Committee from 1844-1864 and Corresponding Secretary, 1846-1849.  Appointed editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard in 1844, published in New York.  Served until 1858, when he became an editor with the Tribune.  He was the wartime managing editor of the Tribune.  Ardent supporter of Lincoln and the Union. 

(Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, p. 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 618-619; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 195; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 8, p. 806)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 195:

GAY, SYDNEY HOWARD (May 22, 1814- June 25, 1888), journalist, author, the son of Ebenezer and Mary Alleyne (Otis) Gay, was born in Hingham, Massachusetts. His mother was a niece of James Otis and his father a grandson of Reverend Ebenezer Gay [q.v.]: an ancestry which he said was the best part of himself. He entered Harvard College as a freshman in 1829, but poor health caused him to withdraw two years later. The degree of B.A. was conferred upon him, however, in 1833. After a period of idleness he entered the counting-house of Perkins & Company, in Boston, where he remained two years. He traveled in the West and then began the study of law in the office of his father in Hingham. A study of history and of ethics had turned his attention to slavery. Convinced that slavery was "absolutely and morally wrong," he gave up the law, for he could never take an oath to support a constitution which upheld the institution.

He went to Boston and became a member of that group of Abolitionists led by Garrison. "This handful of people," he said, "to the outside world a set of pestilent fanatics, were among themselves the most charming circle of cultivated men and women that it has ever been my lot to know." In 1842 he lectured for the American Anti-Slavery Society and the following year went to New York as editor of the American Anti-Slavery Standard. He married Elizabeth Neall in 1845. During this period he was an active agent of the "underground railroad." After an editorship of fourteen years, he decided that the anti-slavery cause no longer demanded all his attention and in 1857 he joined the staff of the New York Tribune. Appointed managing editor in 1862, he occupied that position until the summer of 1865 when broken health caused his resignation. During the war his services were of great value to the Union; Henry Wilson said that the man deserved well of his country who kept the Tribune a war paper in spite of Greeley. In 1867 he was asked to become managing editor of the Chicago Tribune; he accepted and remained in Chicago until the great fire of 1871. The following spring he returned to New York and from 1872 to 1874 was a member of the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post under William Cullen Bryant.

In 1874 Bryant, then eighty years old, was asked to undertake a history of the United States; to this he agreed with the understanding that Gay would be its author. Bryant's only contribution was a preface to the fir s t volume; he died before the second appeared, but the publishers, with little justification, retained his name. Though wanting a sense of proportion, the four volumes were based largely on research and were very readable. In 1884 Gay's James Madison, a severe though sympathetic study from the Federalist point of view, was published in the American Statesmen Series. He wrote the chapter on "Amerigo Vespucci" for Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America (Volume II, 1886), contributed occasionally to the Critic, and was engaged on a life of his friend Edmund Quincy, when he died of paralysis in 1888.

[Waldo Higginson, Memorials of the Class of 1833 of Harvard College (1883); "Hingham Genealogies," by Geo. Lincoln in Volume II of History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (1893); F. L. Gay, John Gay of Dedham, Massachusetts, and Some of His Descendants (1879); Critic, June 30, 1888; Boston Post and New York Tribune for June 27, 1888.

F. M-n.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 618-619:

GAY, Sydney Howard, author, born in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1814; died in New Brighton, Staten Island, 25 June, 1888, entered Harvard, but was obliged to give up study on account of his health. The degree of A. B. was afterward conferred upon him. After some years, spent partly in travel, partly in a counting-house in Boston, he began the study of law in his father's office in Hingham. But he soon abandoned it from conscientious scruples concerning the oath to support the constitution of the United States; for he came to the conclusion that, if one believed slavery to be absolutely and morally wrong, he had no right to swear allegiance to a constitution that recognized it as just and legal, and required the return of fugitives from bondage. Of the “Garrisonian abolitionists,” with whom he thereafter cast his lot, he says: “This handful of people, to the outside world a set of pestilent fanatics, were among themselves the most charming circle of cultivated men and women that it has ever been my lot to know.” In 1842 he became a lecturing agent for the American anti-slavery society, and in 1844 editor of the “Anti-Slavery Standard,” published in New York. This place he retained till 1858, when he became editorially connected with the “Tribune,” of which, from 1862 till 1866, he was managing editor. Henry Wilson, afterward vice-president of the United States, said: “The man deserved well of his country who kept the ‘Tribune’ a war paper in spite of Greeley.” Mr. Gay was managing editor of the Chicago “Tribune” from 1868 till the great fire of 1871. During the following winter he acted with the relief committee, and wrote their first public report, in the spring of 1872, of their great work of the past six months. Subsequently, for two years, he was on the editorial staff of the New York “Evening Post.” In 1874, William Cullen Bryant, being invited to join a great publishing-house in the enterprise of preparing an illustrated history of the United States, consented on condition that Mr. Gay should be its author, as he himself could not think of undertaking such a work at his advanced age. Mr. Bryant wrote the preface to the first volume, while the history itself was written by Mr. Gay, with the help of several collaborators in special chapters, to whom he gives credit in his prefaces. This work (4 vols., 8vo, New York, 1876-'81), beginning with the prehistoric races of America and coming down to the close of the civil war, introduced a new treatment of American history, which has been followed by later writers and has become popular. Mr. Gay afterward wrote a “Life of James Madison” (Boston, 1884). He was engaged on a life of Edmund Quincy for the series of the “American Men of Letters,” when he was interrupted by a long and serious illness. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 618-619.


GAYLEY, Samuel M., abolitionist, Wilmington, Delaware, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40.


GAZZAM, J. P., abolitionist, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40.


GEARY, John White, general, statesman, soldier.  Became territorial governor of Kansas on August 18, 1856.  Opposed slavery.  Defended state against pro-slavery “border ruffians” from Missouri.  As Governor, in 1857, he vetoed pro-slavery laws of legislature.  General Geary was the wartime occupation commander of Savannah under General Slocum, December, 1864-January, 1865. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 620-621; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 203; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 8, p. 819; U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 volumes Washington, DC: GPO, 1881-1901. Series 1; Warner, 1964.) 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 203:

GEARY, JOHN WHITE (December 30, 1819- February 8, 1873), soldier, territorial governor of Kansas, governor of Pennsylvania, was born near Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, the son of Richard and Margaret (White) Geary. His father, a descendant of a Shropshire family one of whose members had originally settled in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, had been an ironmaster, but he had failed at this business and had sought to support his family by keeping a school. When John was a student at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, his father died, leaving him an accumulation of debts. He was forced to leave college, temporarily at least, and his career for the next few years was varied; he taught school, was a clerk in a store, studied civil engineering and law, was admitted to the bar, and went to Kentucky on a surveying expedition. While in the Blue-Grass state he was sufficiently successful in land speculation to pay off his father's debts. His engineering experience then brought him a position as assistant superintendent and engineer of the Allegheny Portage Railroad.

Geary had been interested in military affairs for more than ten years and when but sixteen had been appointed a lieutenant in the militia. At the outbreak of the Mexican War he was captain of the "American Highlanders" attached to the "Cambria Legion" and he and his comp any volunteered, joining the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry at Pittsburgh, where he was elected lieutenant-colonel. The regiment arrived at Vera Cruz April 11, 1847, via New Orleans and the Lobos Islands and participated in Scott's advance to the city of Mexico. Since Colonel Roberts, commander of  the regiment, was in bad health much of the time, Geary h ad the responsibility of directing maneuvers. In the attack on Chapultepec he led the assault upon the fortress, and he was placed in charge of this work upon its capture. After the capture of the city he remained there on duty until the end of the war, being elected colonel of his regiment on the death of Roberts.

When President Polk was called upon to organize California he chose Geary to establish the postal service, and on January 22, 1849, appointed him postmaster of San Francisco and mail agent for the Pacific Coast. Geary and his wife, Margaret Ann Logan, whom he had married in 1843, arrived in San Francisco in April, but as President Polk had been succeeded by President Taylor, the new postmaster had hardly begun his service when his Whig successor arrived. He was not at a loss for employment, however, for within eight days he was elected "first alcalde" of San Francisco. Shortly the military governor, Brigadier-General Riley, appointed him "judge of first instance." Occupying these offices, he was the chief civil officer of the city, executive and judicial, and when American forms were adopted, in 1850, he became the first mayor. He was active in making California a free state and was chairman of the Democratic Territorial Committee. Since Mrs. Geary's health was failing, however, he returned with her to his Pennsylvania farm in 1852 and after her death the next year he remained in his old home.

Geary declined President Pierce's offer of the governorship of Utah, but when Kansas fell into anarchy he accepted the governorship of that territory. He was well qualified for the difficult post, for his whole person commanded respect. He was six feet five and a half inches tall, well built, and carried himself with military precision. Furthermore, he had been promised the full military support of the government. When he arrived in Kansas, September 9, 1856, he found a condition of virtual civil war, because the contending forces had been confident that the army bill would fail in Congress and thus make necessary the withdrawal of federal troops from the Territory. The bill had passed, however, and Geary's first act was to disband the pro-slavery militia which his immediate predecessor had called out. He then proceeded to substitute United States troops, organize his own militia, and arrest an irregular band of free-state sympathizers. Within three weeks marked by vigorous activity he could report "Peace now reigns in Kansas," in time to give this message sufficiently wide circulation to aid in Buchanan's election. Geary continued his vigorous activities as impartially as he could, endeavoring to protect Kansas from both factions. Becoming convinced that Lecompte the chief justice, Clarke the Indian agent, and Donalson the marshal, were flagrantly pro-slavery, he asked the President to remove them. Pierce did so and the enmity of the pro-slavery group focused itself upon the Governor. He got along fairly well, however, until the meeting of the legislature, January 12, 1857. This body was overwhelmingly pro-slavery and acted in open hostility to the Governor, automatically disregarding his vetoes. His life was threatened, a seeming attempt to assassinate him failed, and his secretary was beaten and then arrested for murder. Just as these things occurred, General Persifer F. Smith declared himself unable or unwilling to supply Geary with more troops, and a letter arrived from William L. Marcy, secretary of state, asking Geary to explain some discrepancies between his charges and Lecompte's reply; in the meantime as the Senate had not confirmed the appointment of Lecompte's successor, the judge was still serving. This cumulation of difficulties discouraged Geary, and on March 4 he resigned, straightway leaving the Territory and going to Washington to report to Buchanan.

Four years of retirement on his Westmoreland farm, during which he married Mrs. Mary (Church) Henderson in 1858, were broken by the guns of Sumter. When the news of that event reached Geary's locality he set up a recruiting office immediately and in a few days was made colonel of the 28th Pennsylvania. He was ordered to Harper’s Ferry, where on October 16, 1861, he was under fire at Bolivar Heights and was wounded. The next March he captured Leesburg, and shortly thereafter he was made brigadier- general. Badly wounded at Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, he had to return to his home for a while, but he was back in command of a division at Chancellorsville and distinguished himself at Gettysburg. In the fall of 1863 he was sent with the XII Corps under Hooker to join Grant in Tennessee and was active in the operations there culminating at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge; at Wauhatchie, October 28, 1863, he participated in a sharp engagement in which his son was killed. He accompanied Sherman on his famous march to the sea, was military governor of Savannah after its capture, and shortly before the end of the war was made major-general by brevet.

After the Civil War, Pennsylvania politics were marked by a struggle between Curtin and Cameron for control of the National Union or Republican party. Shrewdly realizing the advantages of Geary's military fame and his wide popularity, Cameron's forces made Geary, now a Republican, the party candidate for governor and elected him. He served two terms, from January 15, 1867, to January 21, 1873. Supremely self. confident, he pursued his downright, opinionated way and had many a battle with the legislature; of 9,242 bills passed he vetoed 390. He was active in trying to reduce the debt of the state and in safeguarding the treasury; toward the latter end he sought to promote a plan for lending state funds to private enterprise so that large balances might earn money for the state and not prove tempting to the treasurer. He sought in vain to persuade the legislature to adopt a more careful and orderly procedure, and successfully recommended the calling of a state constitutional convention. He advocated a general railroad law, the regulation of insurance, state control of gas companies, protection against accident in the mines, and safeguards for the public health, but on the other hand urged that taxes be shifted from business to land, especially because th is change would aid Pennsylvania business in its competition with that of other states. His headstrong and erratic course, often marred by violent fits of temper, won him a number of enemies, and he barely escaped defeat at the end of his first term, but the state machine and his own popularity, especially with the veterans, saved him. He acquired presidential ambitions as 1872 approached, and in the Labor Reform convention of that year he led on the first b allot but was defeated by David Davis. Within three weeks after his retirement from the governorship he was suddenly stricken and died.

[The most authoritative sketch of Geary is that in Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania (1872), by Wm. C. Armor, who was closely associated with him. Memorial Addresses on the Death of Governor John W. Geary (1873) and In Memoriam (Philadelphia, 1873) contain some biographical material. His secretary, John H. Gihon, prepared an account, Governor Geary's Administration in Kansas (1857), which is largely a series of quotations from his official records. These are found completely published in Trans. Kansas State History Society, volumes IV and V (1890, 1896). See also A Sketch of the Early Life ... of Major General John W. Geary, Candidate of the National Union Party for Governor of Pennsylvania (1866); Inaugurals and Messages of General John W. Geary, 1867-73 (n.d.); Daily Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), February 10, 1873. His diary kept during the Mexican War, his scrap-books, and a few papers are in the possession of his family.]

R.F.N.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 620-621:

“GEARY, John White, soldier, born near Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 30 December, 1819; died in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 8 February, 1873. His father was of Scotch-Irish descent. The son entered Jefferson college, but, on account of his father's loss of property and sudden death, was compelled to leave and contribute toward the support of the family. After teaching he became a clerk in a commercial house in Pittsburgh, and afterward studied mathematics, civil engineering, and law. He was admitted to the bar, but never practised his profession. After some employment as civil engineer in Kentucky, he was appointed assistant superintendent and engineer of the Alleghany Portage railroad. When war was declared with Mexico, in 1846, he became lieutenant-colonel of the 2d regiment of Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and commanded his regiment at Chapultepec, where he was wounded, but resumed his command the same day at the attack on the Belen gate. For this service he was made first commander of the city of Mexico, and colonel of his regiment. He was appointed in 1849 to be first postmaster of San Francisco, with authority to establish the postal service throughout California. He was the first American alcalde of San Francisco, and a "judge of the first instance." These offices were of Mexican origin, the" alcalde" combining the authority of sheriff and probate judge with that of mayor, and the judge of the first instance presiding over a court with civil and criminal as well as admiralty jurisdiction. Colonel Geary served until the new constitution abolished these offices. In 1850 he became the first mayor of San Francisco. He took a. leading part in the formation of the new constitution of California, and was chairman of the territorial Democratic committee. In 1852 he retired to his farm in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and remained in private life until 1856, when he was appointed territorial governor of Kansas, which office he held one year. He then returned to Pennsylvania, and at the beginning of the civil war raised the 28th Pennsylvania volunteers. He commanded in several engagements, and won distinction at Bolivar Heights, where he was wounded. He occupied Leesburg, Virginia, in March, 1862, and routed General Hill. On 25 April, lS62, he received the commission of brigadier-general of U. S. volunteers. He was severely wounded in the arm at Cedar Mountain, 9 August, 1862, and in consequence could not take part in the battle of Antietam. At the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg he led the 2d division of the 12th corps. The corps to which General Geary's regiment was attached joined the Army of the Cumberland, under General Hooker's command, to aid in repairing the disaster at Chickamauga, and he took part in the battles of Wauhatchie and Lookout Mountain, in both of which he was distinguished. He commanded the 2d division of the 20th corps in Sherman's march to the sea, and was the first to enter Savannah after its evacuation, 22 December, 1864. In consideration of his services at Fort Jackson he was appointed military governor of Savannah, and in 1865 he was promoted to be major-general by brevet. He was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1866, and held this office until two weeks before his death. During his administration the debt of the commonwealth was reduced, an effort to take several millions from the sinking fund of the state bonds was prevented, a disturbance at Williamsport quelled, and a bureau of labor statistics established by the legislature, 12 April, 1872. Governor Geary possessed great powers of application and perception, force of will, and soundness of judgment, and was popular among his troops. The general assembly has erected a monument at his grave in Harrisburg. See “Governor Geary's Administration in Kansas," by John H. Gihon (Philadelphia, 1857).”  Source: Wilson, James Grant, & Fiske, John (Eds.). Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: Appleton, 1888, 1915.


GERARD, JAMES WATSON (1794-February 7, 1874), lawyer, philanthropist. In 1854, having always been a consistent opponent of slavery, he took a leading part in the agitation against the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, pp. 217-248:

GERARD, JAMES WATSON (1794-February 7, 1874), lawyer, philanthropist, was of Scotch and French descent. His father, William Gerard, born in Banff in the Highlands of Scotland, was a member of a French family which had fled thither to escape religious persecution. He emigrated about 1780 to New York City, where he married Christina Glass and became a prosperous merchant. There his son, James Watson Gerard, was born. The younger Gerard obtained his early education from private tutors. Entering Columbia College while yet a boy he graduated in 1811, being third in his class and distinguishing himself in mathematics and the classics. On the outbreak of the War of 1812, he enlisted and served in one of the volunteer companies raised for the purpose of defending New York City. On the conclusion of the war he entered the office of George Griffin, one of the leading New York lawyers, and was admitted to the bar in 1816. He had read widely, and was instrumental in forming a debating society called the Forum, in whose discussions he, with Fessenden, Hoffman, and other brilliant juniors constantly participated. His first retainer was on behalf of a boy fourteen years old who was indicted for the theft of a canary, and the circumstances of the case-it being the accused's first offense-made so strong an impression upon him that he determined to take steps to assist in the reformation of junior offenders. He joined the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, and was a prime mover in the appointment of a special committee which investigated the subject of juvenile delinquency. He strongly advocated the creation of an asylum for youthful criminals where they would be safe from contamination by hardened convicts, and procured the incorporation, on March 29, 1824, of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, whose House of Refuge, built shortly, was the first institution of its kind in the country. As a member of the board of managers, Gerrard contributed powerfully to its successful operation. Though he was now enjoying an extensive practise at the bar, he continued to devote much of his time and means to social reform, identifying himself with all movements having for their object the amelioration of distress, the advancement of the best interests of the city, and efficient administration. Inter alia, he induced great reforms in the police system and was the first to advocate the wearing of uniforms by policemen. In 1854, having always been a consistent opponent of slavery, he took a leading part in the agitation against the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. His greatest services in his later years were rendered in the cause of popular education. For twenty years, first as a school trustee and later as inspector of the fifth school district, he was indefatigable in raising the standard of public educational training. Though on more than one occasion offered the position of commissioner of the Board of Education, he uniformly declined that and all other public office, maintaining that he could do more effective work as inspector than in any other capacity. After his retirement from legal practise in 1869 he devoted all his time to the improvement of educational methods.

As a lawyer, he had an uneventful career, distinguished only by a steady advancement to the headship of the New York bar. Industry and perseverance were his chief characteristics, but he was an advocate by instinct and became the leading jury lawyer of his time. Charles O'Conor said that "his powers of persuasion were marvellous." Indefatigable in the preparation of his cases, gifted with an intuitive knowledge of human nature, and knowing when to stop in addressing a jury, "he tried more causes than any other member of the profession and ... he tried them more successfully than any other. At nisi prius he was unrivalled" (Proceedings of the Bar, p. 8). He married on October 3, 1820, Elizabeth, daughter of Increase Sumner, chief justice of the supreme judicial court and governor of Massachusetts.

["Genealogical and Biographical Sketch of the Late James W. Gerard," by J. W. Gerard, Jr., in New York Genealogy and Biographical Record, July 1874; Proc. of the Bar of New York in Memory of James W. Gerard (1874); Prominent Families of New York (1897), ed. by L. H. Weeks; New York Times, February 8, 1874; New York Herald, February 10, 1874.]

H. W. H. K.


GERRY, Elbridge, 1744-1814, Massachusetts, statesman, founding father.  Member of the Constitutional Convention.  U.S. Congressman.  Supported and encouraged rights of citizens to petition Congress for redress of grievances against slavery. 

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 206; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, p. 140; Annals of Congress, 1 Congress, 2 Session, pp. 1230, 1246; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 630-632; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 222; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 8, p. 866)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 222:

GERRY, ELBRIDGE (July 17, 1744-November 23, 1814), statesman, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, third of the twelve children of Thomas and Elizabeth Gerry. His father was a native of Newton Abbot, Devonshire, who came to New England in 1730 as master of a vessel, married Elizabeth Greenleaf, the daughter of a Boston merchant, and settled at Marblehead, where he built up a mercantile business and became commander of the local fort. Elbridge Gerry entered Harvard College in 1758 and was placed twenty-ninth in a class of fifty-two, with which he graduated in 1762. He then joined his father and two elder brothers in business at Marblehead, shipping dried codfish to Barbados and Spanish ports in their own vessels, which returned with bills of exchange and Spanish goods. In May 1772 he was elected representative to the General Court, where he met Samuel Adams and fell completely under his influence. Their ample correspondence during the next two years shows that Adams regarded Gerry as a young man of parts who was worth encouraging in the cause; and Gerry developed an even keener scent than his master for tyranny. A town meeting was held at Marblehead on December 1, 1772, instigated by the circular letter and resolves of Adams's Boston Committee of Correspondence. Thomas Gerry was moderator of the meeting, Elbridge and Thomas Gerry, Jr., were on the committee that drafted the fiery resolves which were adopted, and all three were members of the local committee of correspondence then and there ap pointed.

Gerry was reelected to the General Court in May 1773, and promptly placed on the standing committee of correspondence. Early in 1774 his political activities were interrupted by a local brawl. A mob burnt to the ground an isolation hospital for smallpox which Gerry and other prominent citizens had built at their own expense; and public opinion protected the guilty parties from punishment. Gerry and the entire committee of correspondence resigned in disgust. When the Boston Port Bill began to be enforced, however, Marblehead became a leading port of entry for patriotic donations, and Gerry with Colonel Azor Orne consented to see to the handling and forwarding of these stores to Boston (Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4 series IV, 1858, pp. 27-226). In August 1774, Gerry was elected to an Essex County convention, and in October to the first Provincial Congress, which appointed him to the executive Committee of Safety. Reelected to the second Provincial Congress and reappointed to the second Committee of Safety early in 1775, he cooperated with Adams and Hancock in conducting measures of preparedness that bore fruit on the day of Lexington and Concord. During the evening of April 18, 1775, the Committee of Safety held a session at Menotomy (Arlington) on the road from Cambridge to Lexington. Gerry warned Hancock, who proceeded to Lexington after the meeting, that the British scouts were about. Gerry himself, however, went to bed in the Menotomy tavern, and just had time to escape into a cornfield in his nightclothes when a file of men from Lieut.-Colonel Smith's detachment began to search the house (Allen French, The Day of Concord and Lexington, 1925, p. 102). In the session of the Provincial Congress after the fight, and continuously as member of the Committee of Safety and chairman of the Committee of Supply, Gerry took an active and important part in drafting a narrative of the "massacre," in raising troops, and in procuring all manner of munitions and supplies for the provincial army and materials for fortification. His mercantile connections and interests made this his natural assignment, and he prosecuted the work with energy, economy, and efficiency. On June 7 he was appointed to a committee "to consider the expediency of establishing a number of small armed vessels, to cruise on our sea coasts " (Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, LXXVII, 1927, p. 20), but on July II James Warren complained of Gerry's " want of faith and ardor" in not "setting up for a naval power" (Ibid., LXXII, 1917, p. Sr). Gerry later claimed the joint paternity with James Sullivan of an act of November 1, 1775, to issue letters of marque and establish prize courts; but he was not a member of the committee upon whose report the bill was based (Ibid., LXXVII, pp. 23- 25). He refused an appointment as admiralty judge of the province, and continued his important work in the supply department until January 25, 1776, when he left with John Adams for Philadelphia, as delegate to the second Continental Congress. The association thus formed developed into a firm friendship, although Gerry's character more resembled that of Jefferson, whom he first met on a visit to New York about 1764, and who also became his lifelong friend. Gerry, at thirty-one, was a spare, dapper little gentleman with pleasant manners, "rempli de petties finesses" according to a French observer (Farrand, post, III, 233), and a great favorite with the ladies. He had a broad forehead which was soon furrowed with care, a long nose and a habit of contracting his eyes which gave him an unnaturally stern expression. He took his seat in Congress on February 9, 1776, and on the 17th was appointed to the standing committee of five commonly called the Treasury Board, which had oversight of Continental finance until superseded by a new Board in 1779, to which Gerry refused election. He was frequently president of the old Board, and always one of its most industrious members, especially in the detailed examination of accounts. He was an early advocate of separation from "the prostituted Government of G. Britain" (Burnett, post, I, 468) and was present on July 4, 1776, but left Philadelphia, worn out by his labors, before the engrossed copy of the Declaration had been signed. On July 21 he wrote to the Adamses to subscribe his name to the document, but actually signed it himself after his return to Congress on September 3 (H. Friedenwald, The Declaration of Independence, 1904, pp. 141, 147). He also signed the Articles of Confederation.

Gerry continued to interest himself, both as a member of the committee on the commissary and as private merchant, in the important business of army supplies. He directed his brothers how to route their ships, informed them what commodities were needed, sent instructions about the manufacture of tents and gunpowder, shipped fish to Spain on Continental account, received army supplies in return, and stimulated his friends in Massachusetts to greater exertion (New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, July 1876, pp. 312-13). As the war continued, and many members of Congress retired, the value of Gerry's experience increased; and his faithful attendance when colleagues took vacations often gave him double duty. He was constitutionally jealous of standing armies and militarism, but was an early advocate of longest enlistments for a new model army. On the subject of pensions he vacillated. He was frequently appointed on committees to visit the army, and his correspondence with Washington was friendly, but he was also a supporter of Conway (Journals of Congress, October 3, 1777; April 10, 28, and June 11, 1778). In foreign policy he saw eye to eye with John Adams, opposed the French alliance and the consular convention of 1782, supported Arthur Lee, and desired the recall of Franklin whom he believed to be corrupted by France. Nevertheless, Gerry was an implacable enemy to England. As a Marblehead man, he naturally showed a keener interest in the fisheries than any of his colleagues. In the spring of 1779 he proposed, as a condition of peace, the retention of fishing rights on the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; but was forced to concede that fisheries should not be sine qua non.

Although a merchant himself and a furnisher of supplies, he frowned on profiteering. A delegate to the New Haven price-fixing convention of 1778, he endeavored to enforce on others and personally observed himself their schedule of fair prices. This subject led up to a quarrel between Gerry and Congress on a point of privilege. On February 19, 1780, Congress was debating an estimate of supplies to be furnished by the several states. Gerry moved to recommit that part of the report in order to reduce the Massachusetts quota and restore the price schedule to the 1778 level. Congress voted his motion out of order and refused to record the ayes and noes on the point of order. At this last denial, Gerry took great offense and declared that personal privilege and the rights of his state had been infringed. When satisfaction was not given, he returned to Boston arid laid his complaint before the state legislature. While endeavoring to obtain vindication or redress he absented himself from Congress, of which he was still nominally a member, for oven three years, during which he engaged successfully in trade and privateering (S. R. Gerry Manuscripts; Tucker Manuscripts, Harvard College Library, II, 214). In state politics he belonged to the anti-Hancock faction, and declined the Governor's appointment as justice of the peace lest he seem to condone the prevalent "idolatry." He also declined two appointments by the General Court to a vacancy in the state Senate, but served in the lower house. He was ever faithful to the Spartan ideals of 1776, extolled republican simplicity, and deplored, "Vanity, Vice and Folly" (S. Adams Manuscripts, January 8, 1781). He was liberal enough to declare the drama not inconsistent with republican virtue, but when the practical issue arose in Boston, Gerry yielded to the firm prohibition of stage plays by Samuel Adams.

Upon his return to Congress, Gerry was one of the oldest and most experienced members. After peace was concluded he exerted himself successfully to reduce the standing army, and unsuccessfully to abolish the Order of the Cincinnati, which he feared would usurp the powers of Congress. He paid considerable attention to the Northwest Territory, in which he was financially interested. On two occasions he took issue with his state. When Massachusetts refused to ratify the impost amendment on the ground that the grant of half-pay to officers violated ancestral principles, Gerry drafted a reply, pointing out that the country had pledged its faith to the officers three years before. On the second occasion he took the opposite line. In April 1784, he presented a report to Congress in which he declared that "unless the United States in Congress assembled, shall be vested with powers competent to the protection of commerce, they can never command reciprocal advantages in trade" (Journals of the American Congress, IV, 1823, p. 393). Yet when a year later Massachusetts formally made that suggestion, Gerry and his colleagues refused to lay it before Congress, on the ground that a convention on commerce would allow "the friends of an Aristocracy" to promote a change of government "which would require a Standing Army, and a numerous train of pensioners and placemen to prop and support its exalted administration" (C. R. King, The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, I, 1894, pp. 64-65). Gerry's last appearance in Congress was on November 2, 1785; in February or March 1786 he took his seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to which he had been elected the previous spring.

Gerry's work in Congress was that of an industrious and conscientious business man. His colleagues appreciated his gentlemanliness, profited by his attention to detail, and never questioned his integrity: qualities which were conspicuous throughout his life. On the other hand, he frequently changed his mind, sometimes for personal reasons, and showed an "obstinacy that will risk great things to secure small ones" (The Works of John Adams, VIII, 1853, p. 549). He proved lacking in a sense of humor and showed an habitual suspicion of the motives of others. As an orator he was hesitating and laborious. It would have been better for his fame as for his fortune had he retired from public life and devoted himself to business at the end of the war, for he was of the considerable number of patriots who, though useful as agitators and organizers of victory, carried the "stern republicanism" of the 1770's into a period of different problems that required other qualities.

On January 12, 1786, Gerry married Ann Thompson, the daughter of a New York merchant. At the same time he retired from business with a comfortable fortune invested in government securities and real estate; and in May 1787 he purchased a confiscated Loyalist estate in Cambridge, later the "Elmwood" of James Russell Lowell. Shays's Rebellion drew him closely to other members of the merchant class. Completely reversing his attitude of the year before, he refused to attend the Annapolis Convention in 1786 on the ground that its competence was too restricted; and he accepted an appointment to the Federal Convention of 1787. There he was one of the most experienced and active members but not among the most useful. He began as an advocate of a strong centralized national government, hut ended by opposing the Constitution because it did not square with theoretical republicanism. He combined aversion to democracy with jealousy of power, and solicitude for "the commercial and monied interest" with fear of tyranny. He made several freak proposals, such as limiting the army to two or three thousand men, and having the state governors elect the president; and there was much truth in a colleague's statement that he "objected to everything he did not propose" (Farrand, post, III, 104). The inconsistency of Gerry made a bad impression on his colleagues. He continually preached compromise in the Convention, but opposed the Constitution as "full of vices" (Ibid., II, 478). He was chairman of the committee that prepared the "great compromise" but disliked the compromise itself. He came out early in favor of the Virginia plan. Oliver Ellsworth accused him publicly of opposing ratification because his motion for redeeming the Continental currency failed. Gerry denied having made any such motion, and the journals bear him out; but he did propose that the federal government be required to discharge both federal and state debts at par (Ibid., II, 356). He publicly declared himself "not possessed of more of the securities than would, by the interest, pay his taxes" (Ibid., II, 413); but the treasury archives record sufficient government securities in Gerry's name to have yielded him about $3,500 a year (C. A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the U1iited States, 1913, p. 97), and he was writing his brother in 1786 about buying and selling government paper (S. R. Gerry Manuscripts). There seems no reason to doubt the sincerity of Gerry's fear that the Constitution would fail to secure liberty, but it is likely that he expected ratification to fail, when Anti-Federalists would naturally be -rewarded for their prescience. The list of objections which Gerry communicated to the state legislature on October 18, 1787, and which were published with augmentations as Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions. By a Columbian Patriot (1788), were wholly from the popular angle. The "Columbian Patriot," although not elected to the Massachusetts ratifying convention, was invited to take a seat there in order to answer questions. Abusing his guest privilege by proffering information unasked, he was declared out of order, took offense, and refused again to sit. Rufus King then robbed Gerry's published objections of much of their force, by showing that some of them applied equally well to the government of Massachusetts.

Gerry's policy regarding the Constitution cost him several friends and left him in a gloomy frame of mind, expecting a civil war and feeling ill-used by the public. On the other hand, his "stern republican" attitude appealed to the yeomanry. A meeting of Anti-Federalists brought forward his name for governor, but he polled only a slight vote, and Hancock was reelected. The next year came a new opportunity. Gerry was elected to Congress early in February 1739, at the second polling in his district, after declaring his intention to support the Constitution. He early distinguished himself by a long speech in favor of putting the treasury in commission, believing it unsafe in a republic for "a single officer to have the command of three or four millions of money." He observed that heads of departments were given "such amazing powers as would eventually end in the ruin of the Government" (Annals of Congress, 1 Congress, I Session, pp. 387, 389). The absence of a bill of rights had been one of Gerry's leading objections to the Constitution, and Samuel Adams wrote him that Congress ought not to adjourn before proposing one. Yet Gerry surprised his friends by declaring "the salvation of America depends upon the establishment of this Government, whether amended or not. ... It is necessary to establish an energetic Government" (Ibid., I Congress, 1 Session, p. 445). Gerry thereupon so vigorously supported Hamilton's reports on public credit, including the assumption of state debts, that he was considered a leading champion by the Federalists (W. P. and J. P. Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Reverend Manasseh Cutler, D.D., 1888, I, 458--61) and gave his friend Jefferson some distress. Although one of his insuperable objections to the Constitution had been the implied power of Congress to create corporations, he spoke warmly in favor of the Bank charter, and subscribed for thirty shares of the United States Bank. In the Second Congress, to which Gerry was elected in opposition to Nathaniel Gorham, he was singularly silent. In 1793, having refused to stand for reelection, he retired to cultivate his farm and educate his "young and numerous family."

During his four years' retirement, Gerry began to suspect that the Federalists were aiming at tyranny and a British alliance. He voted for John Adams as presidential elector in 1797, but Wrote to James Monroe that his recall from Paris proved the existence of a "deep system ... to disgrace republicanism" (New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, October 1895, p. 436). President Adams appointed him a member of the famous "X. Y. Z. mission" on June 20, 1797, against the advice of his cabinet, because he trusted Gerry and wished a non-party man joined with Marshall and Pinckney. It was an unsuitable choice, because Gerry was so obsessed with the idea that war with France would lead to a British alliance and aristocracy that he was willing to go to almost any lengths in order to prevent a formal breach. Landing in Holland on September 18, 1797, Gerry joined his colleagues in Paris on October 4. Talleyrand, well acquainted with the new-comer's "known attachment to France and conciliatory disposition," decided to negotiate with him alone, and shelve his colleagues (Memoire of February 15, 1798, Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, Correspondence Politique, Etats: Unis, XLIX, 174). Gerry, when this was broached to him by Talleyrand, made the grave error of promising to keep this proposition and subsequent communications from the French minister a secret from his colleagues. By March 18, when Talleyrand made his propositions openly, he had practically detached Gerry from Pinckney and Marshall, so that when they decided to leave, Gerry determined to stay; and there was a painful scene between him and his colleagues before their departure. Gerry remained because Talleyrand persuaded him that France would declare war if he left, but he refused to negotiate without further powers. Yet his mere presence in Paris was everywhere misunderstood, and played Talleyrand's avowed game of preventing an inconvenient rupture while the privateering continued (Correspondance Diplomatique de Talleyrand: Le Ministere de Talleyrand sous le Directoire, 1891, edited by G. Pallain, p. 309). Gerry misjudged the situation both in France and at home. The Directory had no intention of declaring war, but made no better offers to Gerry than to his colleagues. The President, instead of sending Gerry full powers, published the "X. Y. Z. dispatches" and recalled him. On receiving this order, on May 12, 1798, Gerry at once asked for his passports, which he did not obtain until July 15, when Talleyrand had given up trying to inveigle him into a negotiation. Gerry later claimed that his presence in Paris prevented war, since he brought home the text of two conciliatory decrees on neutral trade which afforded the President a new basis of negotiation; but the Directory had other channels of communication, and the new decrees were occasioned by the news of the war fever in America, and a report of Victor du Pont (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, XLIX, 1916, pp. 63- 65).

Gerry sailed from Havre on August 8, and arrived at Boston on October 1, 1798. The Federalists by agreement snubbed him; but in conversation he advised every one to rally around the administration, and a wily unsigned letter from Jefferson, begging him to come out with a public vindication like Monroe’s (January 26, 1799, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition, X, 1903, pp. 74-86), remained unanswered for two years. Annoyed by Secretary Pickering's severe criticisms of his conduct, Gerry attempted to vindicate himself in two statements which he sent to the President, and which, by Adams's advice, he did not publish. His whole conduct on the "X. Y. Z. mission" was entirely honorable, but egregiously mistaken.

Henceforth Gerry was generally regarded in Federalist circles as a "Jacobin" and suffered the social ostracism that was the price of political heterodoxy in Massachusetts. The Republicans, on the contrary, regarded him as the man who showed up a Federalist hoax, and prevented war with France. They nominated him in 1800 for governor of Massachusetts. He gave the Federalists a close race, being the only Jeffersonian ever to carry Boston, but was defeated. Thrice more defeated and by increasing margins in 1801-03, he refused to run again, but as presidential elector on the winning ticket in 1804 had the pleasure of casting his vote for Jefferson. In 1810 the Republicans turned somewhat reluctantly to Gerry as a candidate for governor. He was then sixty-five years old, and not popular; he never made any pretense of loving the common people, and refused to attend caucuses as below his dignity. His opponent, Christopher Gore, had even stronger aristocratic traits, however, and Gerry was elected governor in April 1810. His first administration was uneventful. A bare Federalist majority in the Senate prevented the passage of reform legislation, and Gerry himself declined to remove Federalists from office, although a Republican council made a clean sweep possible. This moderation fairly earned him a reelection in April 1811, with a Republican majority in both houses. His second administration opened to the taste of his party, with an address castigating the Federalists as secessionists, rebels, and traitors. Apparently he had taken alarm at some Boston Federalists' resolutions threatening nullification of the Non-Intercourse Act. These "treasonable" resolves furnished a pretext if not a reason for purging the public service of Federalists. According to his biographer, Gerry's "reluctant share" in that proscription "caused him many of the most painful moments of his life" (Austin, post, II, 307), and several intended victims were spared by him; but on the other hand, additional places were created by reorganizing the judicial system. In his Thanksgiving Day proclamation of 1811, Gerry unwisely criticized Federalist clergymen, some of whom refused to read it. By the end of the year he was receiving a torrent of bitter criticism and invective, including an anonymous letter threatening to burn his house and tar-and-feather the owner, which he made the subject of a special message to the legislature. He also communicated a list of 253 newspaper libels on the government, and attempted to get the law of libel altered, so that contempt of the governor would be equivalent to contempt of court.

The measure that made his second administration immortal was the famous Gerrymander Bill of February II, 1812 (Acts of Massachusetts, V, 517, repealed June 16, 1813). This was a redistricting of the state in such a way as to give to the Republicans state senators in excess of their voting strength. The method was by no means new (E. C. Griffith, The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander, 1907, pp. 31-55), but had never been carried to such an extreme. Essex was divided into one compact two-member district including the stalwart Federalist towns, and an absurdly shaped three-member district running around the edge of the county, in which the heavy Republican vote of Marblehead was calculated to quench Federalist majorities in the eleven other towns. A map of Essex County was produced at a Federalist gathering, where Gilbert Stuart or Elkanan Tisdale sketched in head, wings, and claws on the grotesque district, remarking "That will do for a salamander," at which some wit exclaimed, "Gerrymander!" A popular caricature representing the district as a winged monster, with Gerry's profile against its back, gave wide currency to the name (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, October 1892, pp. 374-83). The act worked so well that in the spring election of 1812, although 51,766 votes were cast for Federalist candidates for state senators as against 50,164 Republican votes, only eleven of the former party were elected, as against twenty-nine of the latter. But at the same election of April 1812 Ex-Governor Strong defeated Gerry by a majority of twelve hundred in a total vote of over one hundred thousand. A continuance of the moderate policy of Gerry's first administration would probably have kept Massachusetts in the nationalist and Republican column during the War of 1812, and saved the state from a policy that disgraced it in the eyes of the country.

Gerry's defeat, however, took him to Washington. On June 8, 1812, within two weeks of his leaving the governor's chair, the Republican congressional caucus nominated him for the vice-presidency, on the ticket with Madison. The notification reached Gerry on June 15, followed shortly by news of the declaration of war. He at once declared that the country had been too long at peace, and was "degenerating into a mere nation of traders" (Austin, post, p. 375). He became unduly alarmed over the truculent attitude of the Federalist press, urged the authorities to arrest the editors, and warned President Madison that the Federalists would seize the castle in Boston Harbor, welcome a British landing force, raise the standard of rebellion, and declare secession. The Madison-Gerry ticket was chosen in November though it failed by a large majority to carry Massachusetts. Vice-President Gerry took the oath of office at his Cambridge residence on March 4, 1813, and presided over the opening session of the Senate on May 24, when he made a warlike oration, predicting the speedy conquest of Canada. Although in his seventieth year and frail in health, he entered into the social life of Washington with great zest. Contrary to the usual practise, he did not relinquish his chair in the Senate at the encl of the session of 1813, lest the factious Senator William B. Giles [q.v.] become president pro tempore and consequently succeed to the presidency in the event of the death both of President Madison, who was severely ill at the time, and of Gerry himself (American Historical Review, October 1916, pp. 95-97). Some sixteen months later Gerry's death occurred. On the morning of November 23, 1814, proceeding to the Senate chamber in his carriage, he was seized with a hemorrhage of the lungs and died within twenty minutes.

Gerry had been well-to-do in 1800, but had since suffered severe losses, and left heavy debts 2 which consumed all his estate except the mansion house (Gerry-Townsend Manuscripts). Congress paid for his burial in the Congressional Cemetery, but the House rejected a bill introduced by Senator Christopher Gore and passed by the Senate, for paying the Vice-President's salary to his widow during the remainder of his term of office. Three sons and four daughters survived him. One son was provided for in the army, another in the navy, and a third, Elbridge Gerry, Jr., in the Boston custom-house. Mrs. Gerry lived until 1849, the last surviving widow of a "Signer."

[The Life of Elbridge Gerry (2 volumes, 1828-29) by his son-in-law, Jas. T. Austin, is a useful work, but unduly reticent about portions of Gerry 's career. In S. E. Morison, "Elbridge Gerry, Gentleman-Democrat," New England Quarterly, January 1929, pp. 6-33, will be found references for many statements made in this article; see also "Two Signers on Salaries and the Stage, 1789," Proc. Massachusetts History Society, October 1928-June 1929. Manuscript letters of Gerry are in many autograph collections, especially that of the Pennsylvania History Society A remnant of the family papers (Austin collection) is in the writer's possession; another is in the hands of Ex.-Sen. Peter G. Gerry; a third, the Gerry-Townsend MSS., in the New York Public Library; a manuscript Letter-Book of 1797 to 1803 is owned by Mrs. Townsend Phillips of New York. The Samuel Adams MSS. in the Bancroft Collection contain important 1.1npublished correspondence with Adams., Worthington C. Ford printed a number of Gerry’s letters to Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe in the New-England History and Genealogy Register, October 1895, January 1896; and a number of letters to his wife, mostly of 1813-14, in Proc. Massachusetts Historical Society, XLVII, 1914. The Samuel Russell Gerry MSS. in the Massachusetts Historical Society and the letter-books of S. R. and Thomas Gerry in the Marblehead Historical Society afford much information on Gerry 's commercial activities. The Chamberlain MSS. and general manuscript collections of the Boston Public Library contain records of the Provincial Congress Committee of Supplies and Gerry 's contract book of 1775-76. The Pickering MSS. in the Massachusetts Historical Society contain many letters by and about Gerry, and John Marshall's journal of the X. Y. Z. negotiation. See also Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 (26 volumes, 1906-28); E. C. Burnett, Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, volumes I-IV (1921-28); Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (3 volumes, 1927); American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Volume II (1832); The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775 (1838); and published writings of contemporary statesmen, especially John Adams and Rufus King.]

S. E. M.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 630-632:

GERRY, Elbridge, statesman, born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, 17 July, 1744; died in Washington, D. C., 23 November, 1814. His father, Thomas Gerry, came from Newton, England, to this country in 1730, and established himself as a merchant in Marblehead. Elbridge was graduated at Harvard in 1765, and the subject for master's degree assigned to his class at the annual commencement afforded him an opportunity, under the guise of discussing the right of a people to evade ruinous innovations in trade and revenue laws, to give his views on the principles of the stamp-act and the other oppressive revenue measures that had been lately enacted by the British government. Gerry, on leaving college, entered commercial life, and in a short time had amassed a considerable fortune. His public career began in 1773, when he sat in the general court of Massachusetts bay, as the representative of Marblehead, and from this time until his death in 1814 he was, with short interruptions, in continuous public life. In 1773 the assembly appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of Hancock, Orne, and Gerry, whose duty it should be to keep informed on all governmental acts relative to the British colonies, and communicate with the sister colonies thereupon. Gerry was an active member of this committee, and warmly supported Samuel Adams in his dealings with Governor Hutchinson. In 1774, despite the prohibitory order of Governor Gage, an assembly election took place, and the delegates convened at Salem, but adjourned first to Concord and then to Cambridge. The members organized as a provincial congress, and held sessions thereafter annually at Cambridge and Watertown. Gerry was a conspicuous member of this revolutionary body, and as a committee of safety and supplies attended to the collection of ammunition and provisions for the militia. He drafted a bill, which was adopted in 1775, providing for the fitting out of privateers and the establishment of an admiralty court for the adjudication of prizes. The putting into effect of this measure was the initiatory step toward a national navy. In January, 1776, Mr. Gerry was chosen a delegate to the Continental congress. Associated with him on the Massachusetts delegation were Hancock, the Adamses, and Paine. He acted on the standing committee on the treasury, on that for providing the means of furnishing supplies to the army, on the issue of bills of credit, on the best methods of conducting the business of legislation in congress, and others. The committee on supplies, consisting of Sherman, Gerry, and Lewis, attended Washington at his headquarters near New York, to inquire into the necessities of the troops and the best means of supplying their wants, and as a result of their mission some measures of reform in regard to furnishing clothing, in the system of appointments and promotions, in the enlistment of the militia, in the administration of the quartermaster-general's department, and in the plan of hospital establishments, were approved by congress. Mr. Gerry early advocated the scheme for declaring the independence of the colonies, and, when the proposition was before congress, promoted the passage of the measure with all his powers of argument, seconding at the final stages the motion for adoption, and affixing his signature on its enactment. Congress convened at Philadelphia, 4 March, 1777, and Gerry attended the entire session, during which he reported a resolution authorizing the seizure of private property on the presentation of certificates of value, as a substitute for the wretched system of supply, which had thrown on the country a flood of depreciating currency. The congress, having little appreciation of the embarrassments of the army, sent out a committee, composed of Morris, Gerry, and Jones, to examine Washington at his post on the Schuykill with regard to the prosecution of a winter campaign to make up for the losses of the summer and autumn of 1777. Their report expressed some dissatisfaction, conveying the idea that a more vigorous exertion of the military power might be made. The plottings of the “Conway cabal” had, without doubt, an effect upon the congressional committee, but it is improbable that they contemplated lending themselves to the schemes for Washington's overthrow. The Massachusetts members did not escape from the charge of complicity, but Gerry's correspondence shows that the imputation was unfounded in his case, although he cherished resentment at the opposition of the army to congressional promotions. Mr. Gerry is credited with having, during this session, devised the plan of operations for Gates's campaign against Burgoyne. Negotiations for a treaty of peace were opened in the spring of 1779, and, at the instigation of Mr. Gerry, the protection of the fishery rights was made a stipulated article for a settlement. It was while he was chairman of the treasury committee in the congress of 1780, to which body he had been elected for the fifth time in November, 1779, that Mr. Gerry came into the conflict with Benedict Arnold, whose accounts he overhauled in a manner highly displeasing to that officer.
Mr. Gerry's sensitiveness as to the rights of a delegate from a sovereign state involved him in a difficulty with congress in February, 1780, which led him to vacate his seat in that body, holding that the rights of his state had been infringed in a refusal of congress to order the yeas and nays on a question of order raised by him. He laid his complaint before the legislature, which passed resolutions of protest. This incident suspended Mr. Gerry's congressional service for about three years. In 1783, on a joint ballot in the general court, he was recalled to the position of a representative in congress. Meanwhile his constituents had given him their suffrages for state senator and simultaneously for representative, there being at that time no provision against plurality of office. He undertook only the duty of representing his town in the lower house, declining senatorial service. The congress to which Gerry was now elected concluded the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and he was on the committee to arrange the matter. The states at that time regarded their delegates in the light of ministers from independent sovereignties, and the Massachusetts legislature required from Mr. Gerry a fortnightly report of his proceedings. The proposition to organize the Society of the Cincinnati met with the determined opposition of Gerry, who lost no opportunity in public and private of pointing out the dangerous character of such an unrepublican institution. A riot in Philadelphia in 1783 caused a removal of congress to Princeton in June of that year. This event brought up the plan of a federal city, and two committees, with Gerry as chairman of each, were appointed to examine sites. In April, 1785, Mr. Gerry's constituents repeated their performance of designating him for two elective offices, while he still held his place in congress. His term there expired in September, 1785, and he accepted a seat in the popular branch of the legislature of his state. The sentiment of Massachusetts as to a constitutional convention as expressed by the legislature in 1785 was in favor of establishing “the Federal government on a firm basis, and to perfect the Union,” declaring that “the present powers of congress of the United States, as contained in the articles of confederation, are not fully adequate to the great purposes they were originally designed to effect.” These resolutions were given to Gerry, Holten, and King, in the form of instructions, but they construed them as merely advisory, and opposed every move in the congress of 1785 toward giving enlarged powers to the National government. They wrote a letter to Governor Bowdoin in justification of their action, saying that “any alteration of the confederation is premature; the grant of commercial power should be temporary; . . . the cry for more power in congress comes especially from those whose views are extended to an aristocracy.” Governor Bowdoin replied to the effect that if it was hazardous to intrust congress with powers necessary to its well-being, the Union could not long subsist. The letters of Gerry and King being concurred in by Samuel Adams, then president of the senate, stayed any demonstration of disapproval by the general court. Despite this antagonistic attitude, Mr. Gerry was elected delegate to the convention. He took part in all its deliberations, and succeeded in introducing into the constitution some of his propositions, and his energies were directed throughout to the prevention of the incorporation in the system of any features which he regarded as monarchical or tending to aristocracy. At the final moment, regardless of the pleadings of Washington and Franklin, Gerry, Randolph, and Mason withheld their assent to the constitution as adopted by the convention. Gerry returned to Massachusetts to seek an election to the State federal convention, but was defeated by Francis Dana. The convention extended to him an invitation to attend its sessions, for the purpose of answering questions of fact in regard to the constitution, but at the outset he created a commotion in the assembly by offering in writing a reply to a query, some members thinking that he sought to interject an argument under the guise of answering a question. The letter which caused the trouble, together with an account of the scene in the convention, taken from the “Massachusetts Sentinel,” is printed in the edition of the debates and proceedings of the convention, published by the legislature in 1856. Mr. Gerry stated eight objections to the constitution, all of which he could waive, were it not that the National legislature had general power to make “necessary and proper” laws, to raise “armies and money” without limit, and to establish “a star chamber as to civil cases.” Weary of sitting in a body to which he had not been chosen, he soon withdrew.
After the adoption of the constitution, Gerry was in accord with the Republican party, which elected him to the 1st National congress in 1789, and re-elected him in 1791. In 1797 President Adams nominated him as a colleague with Marshall and Pinckney to go on a mission to France to obtain amends for French depredations on our commerce. In France they suffered many indignities at the hands of Talleyrand, who sent mysterious agents with disgraceful propositions, involving bribery and humiliation. Marshall and Pinckney soon became disgusted, and sailed for home, but Gerry thought it his duty to hold on, in the hope of preventing a rupture with France. (See ADAMS, JOHN.) The affair aroused great indignation in the United States, and his recall was soon ordered.

In 1800 the Republican party nominated Mr. Gerry for governor, and in a close election he was defeated by Caleb Strong. In 1810 his efforts for the same office were rewarded with success, and he served for two terms. His administration was at a period of high party spirit, and he put into full effect the Jeffersonian principles of civil service. The incumbents of the civil offices were speedily removed from office, and their places filled by sympathizers with the Republican party, causing a great outcry in the opposition papers. The Federal press became so vituperative in its denunciations that Governor Gerry resorted to the extraordinary step of making the matter the subject of a special message to the legislature, transmitting at the same time a report of the attorney- and solicitor-general regarding the libellous articles. The message caused great excitement and the opposition responded by charging the governor with usurping his powers. The disaffection created by these proceedings, and the unpopularity occasioned by the partisan redistricting of the state, which was called by the Federalists the “Gerrymander,” effected an overturn at the next election, the Federalists gaining control of the house, and electing Caleb Strong governor. The ex-governor's devotion and services to the Republican party were rewarded in 1812 with the office of vice-president, and he held this office at the time of his death, which occurred while he was on his way to the capitol. He married Ann, daughter of Charles Thomson, secretary of congress, who, with three sons and six daughters, survived him. Mr. Gerry's career, though characterized by devotion to party, and such episodes as the refusal to assent to a vote of thanks to Hancock on his retirement from the presidency of congress, the opposition to the Society of the Cincinnati, and the unhappy French mission, was honorable and useful; and his patriotic services in the Revolutionary struggle entitle him to a high place among the statesmen of the early days of the republic. A monument was erected to his memory in the congressional burial-ground at Washington by the government. (See accompanying illustration.) His messages to the legislature have been published as follows: “Speech of His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to both Houses of the Legislature, at the Session commencing on the Second Wednesday in January, 1812” (Boston, 1811); “Legislature of Massachusetts. Speech, June 7, 1811. At twelve o'clock, His Excellency the Governor, attended by His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor and the Honorable Council (completely attired in cloth of American manufacture), met the two Branches of the Legislature” (Boston, 1811); “Message from His Excellency the Governor, February 27, 1812, regarding Libellous Articles” (Boston, 1812). See his life by James T. Austin (2 vols., Boston, 1828-'9); and a sketch, by Henry D. Gilpin, in Sanderson's “Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 630-632.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.