Elbridge Gerry

Elbridge Gerry was born in 1744 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the son of a merchant, and graduated from Harvard. He entered the provincial congress, was sent to the Continental Congress, and signed the Declaration of Independence. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 he took part in the debates but refused to sign the finished Constitution, arguing that it lacked a bill of rights and gave too much power to the central government. He later accepted the new system once amendments were begun, served in Congress, and was elected governor of Massachusetts. In 1812, as governor, he signed a redistricting bill that helped his party; a oddly shaped district was mocked as a 'salamander,' and the word gerrymander has been used ever since for drawing election maps to favor one side. Gerry became vice president under James Madison in 1813 and died in office in Washington in 1814.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · John Hancock · Samuel Adams · John Adams · Robert Treat Paine · James Madison