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The Public Career Op Elbridge Gerry Dissertation THE PUBLIC CAREER OP ELBRIDGE GERRY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By EUGENE FRANCIS KRAMER, B. S., A. M. The Ohio State University 1952 Approved by; Department of History TABLE OP CONTENTS Chapter Page . I Origins of- the Revolution, 1772-1776 1 II The Continental Congress, 1776-1785 31 III The Federal Constitution ■ 71 IV The Federal Congress, 1789-1793 95 V XYZ Affair 120 VI Final Services l60 VII Summary and Conclusions 179 Bibliography l88 Autobiography 203 - 11 - CHAPTER I Origins of the Revolution, 1772-1776 Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17, 17^4 in Marble­ head, Massachusetts, the third of twelve children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Gerry. Thomas Gerry was born in Devonshire, England, in 1713, and came to New England in 1740 as master of a merchant vessel. Here he met and married Elizabeth Greenleaf, the daughter of a prominent merchant. Marblehead at that time was an important com­ mercial town and Thomas Gerry built up a prosperous busi­ ness as a cod fisherman and general merchant. Elbridge, as a member of a well-to-do middle-class family, entered Harvard where he had an unspectacular career and was graduated in the upper half of the class of 1762. After leaving college, he worked in the offices of Gerry & Company learning the trade of merchant. Poli­ tics were not neglected, however, in favor of business, and Elbridge was prominent enough in the colonial dispute with England to be elected to the General Court (Massa­ chusetts’ colonial assembly) in 1772. 1. The biographical details are in S.E. Morlson, "Elbridge Gerry" in Dictionary of American Bio­ graphy edited by Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, (Scribners, New York, 1931-37, 21 vols.), VII, 222-227; S.E. Morison, "Elbridge Gerry, Gentle- man-Democrat", New England Historical Review, II, (1929), 2-8 . - 1 - - 2 - Elbridge Gerry was short in stature and slight in build. His fashionable dress was neat and dapper without being foppish or ornate, A rather high pitched nasal twang marred his speaking voice, making it unpleasing in private con­ versation and public address. This handicap combined with a long, laboring and repetitious writing and speaking style, did not help his public career. Such a lack of facility in communicating ideas may have been caused by an interest in dry economic affairs or by his training in the Continental Congress where policy decisions were rarely reached in open debate. Gerry’s personal life was on a high social level. He drank moderately and rarely indulged in amusements except the theater. His manners were formal and polite with both men and women. Elmwood, an estate purchased after the Revo­ lution from the state, which had confiscated it from a Tory, was the scene of soirées and dinner parties. He liked having young people around and catered particularly to Harvard students, one of whom, James Austin, became his son-in-law and biographer. Not until 1786 did Gerry marry, and then he wed seventeen-year-old Ann Thompson, the daughter of a New York merchant. Seven children were born by 1796, and the responsibilities of a large family and a chronically ill wife bore heavily on him. - 3 - Elbridge Gerry earned his living as a merchant until his death in l8li|.. Most of the time he dealt in general merchandise: West Indies produce (sugar and coffee), salt for New England's fishing industry, lumber, flour and meat. Cod fishing was the basis for the family's fortune. Pros­ perity was not permanent, however, and heavy financial losses, caused in part by brother Samuel Gerry's reverses after I6OO, forced Elbridge to remain active in business when probably he would have welcomed retirement. Jefferson's embargo nearly wiped him out, and the family was not left in good financial shape when he died. In religion, Gerry was Episcopalian. While devout and believing firmly in God and the need for religion, he did not permit it to dominate his life. He felt that the Church had a function to perform in society but that did not in­ clude politics or public affairs. Much had happened in the decade preceding Gerry's entry into public life. Fundamentally the great problem for America and Britain in the period following 1763 was one of reconciling centralized imperial control with colo­ nial home rule. The British position was based on the theory of mercantilism, a philosophy which considered a colony as a subordinate entity existing primarily for the benefit of the mother country. In keeping with this belief. - 4 - George Grenville, Chief Minister and "’Chancellor of the Ex­ chequer, caused Parliament to pass the Stamp Act; reorgan­ ized the customs system for the purpose of stopping wide­ spread smuggling; and overhauled the civil and military administrations to make them more efficient so that the tax 2 moneys provided for under the Stamp Act would not be wasted. The colonists naturally resisted these encroadbments on their commercial activities and their sense of independ­ ence which had developed during the wars with the French and Indians. A boycott of British goods, a solemn assertion of the right to be free from Parliamentary taxation and mass protests against British "oppression" convinced the 3 Crown that Grenville's system was unworkable. The resulting relaxation of British pressure was only temporary. Charles Townshend succeeded Grenville as 2, K.S. Commager (ed.). Documents of American History (P.S. Crofts, New York, 1943), ^3, 5^-60 prints the main parts' of Grenville's system: Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, and the Declaratory Act which was passed to confirm Parliament's right to tax the colonies after Grenville's system was abandoned. 3. Among the many good studies of the causes of the American Revolution are Arthur M. Schlesinger, New Viewpoints in American History (MacMillan Co., New York, 1926), Chap, VII; Claude Van Tyne, The Causes of the American Revolution (Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1922)”; Schlesinger, The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution (Columbia Press, New York, 191Ü). - 5 “ Chancellor of the Exchequer and tried his own system of imperial organization. Townshendreinstated the principles of Grenville's system with the significant exception that he collected the taxes at the port of entry thereby avoiding the American charge that Parliament was unduly meddling in internal colonial affairs. Enforcement of the new system was provided for by special search warrants, called writs of assistance, and by special vice-admiralty courts whose judges were paid by the Crown, thereby obviating the colo­ nial assemblies' favorite device of controlling intractable officials by holding up their salaries.^ The dispute over whether the Crown or the colony should pay judges' salaries brought Elbridge Gerry into contact with Samuel Adams, the chief instigator of the American Revolution. The problem was debated in the Marblehead committee of correspondence and Gerry drafted the remon­ strance which went to Adams and the Boston committee. Gerry's warm support of Adams's radical views at this time was welcome to the older man, for the relaxation of Towns­ hend 's system had robbed him of much of his political thunder, and most people had little interest in who paid i|,. The key Townshend measure is printed in Commager (ed.). Documents of American History, 6l. - 6 - judges* salaries, Gerry was pleased with Adams’s encour­ aging reply to his remonstrance and began a correspondence with him that ended only with the latter's death. On the question of an independent judiciary, the young political tyro had definite views which he soon made known to Adams. He deplored the English attempts to tamper with the courts "... as it is no longer a matter of doubt", he wrote, "that the ^ r o w n * ^ ministers are determined to deprive us-of our constitutional rights and by that ulterior object get at our property."^ Gerry also had a sound method of solving the problem. He noted that judges in the Marble­ head area were not accepting British pay because the town committee had persuaded them not to do so. This happy sit­ uation had been brought about by calling all of the judges together and "laying down the law". Why, Gerry asked Adams, could not public opinion, the threat of social ostracism and the prospect of economic ruin be used to compel all judges, but particularly those in the commercial towns, to refuse payment from the Crown?' The only way that pressure could 5. Schlesinger, The Colonial Merchants, 2^^-2^8; Adams to Gerry, Oct. 25, 1772, Gerry-Adams Papers, New York Public Library. (Hereafter abbreviated as ]\TYPL.) 6. Gerry to S. Adams, Oct. 27, 1772, quoted in James Austin, The Life of Elbridge Gerry (White & Lilly, Boston, 1Ü29, 2 vols.), I, 6. (Hereafter cited as Austin, Gerry.) 7. Nov. 2, 1772, Gerry-Adams Papers, DFYPL. - 7 - be exerted on the judges was to organize closely-knit and politically reliable committees of correspondence and to abandon any hope of accomplishing anything through written petitions for redress,® Adams agreed with Gerry's views on the committees, but the colonial non-importation agree­ ment, formed to counter the Townshend Acts, had been sus­ pended after the repeal of the British measures and most Americans were showing little interest in political or- 9 ganizations. Gerry's enthusiastic support of Adams's radical views caused him in one instance to get ahead of his mentor. When, late in 1772, two additional British regiments were brought into Boston, the implied threat caused Gerry to draft a fiery proclamation in which he demanded withdrawal of the troops, local self government, free trade and colonial control of Crown officials.
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