Elbridge Gerry

I am Elbridge Garry. I was a merchant revolutionary and eventually vice president. By 1776, it was clear to me the British crown had no intention of treating us as equals. So I voted for liberty. I was a Harvard man and politically sharpened by Samuel Adams. When British troops marched on Lexington, I was nearly seized at monotony tavern, escaping into a cornfield in my night clothes. A less than dignified moment, I confess. I joined the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and made a full time job of asking tough questions and annoying British sympathisers. Years later, during the Constitutional Convention, I helped broker the great compromise, the one that gave us the House and the Senate split. Later, I served as governor of Massachusetts. But history, alas, is not always fair. In 1812, a redistricting bill passed under my governorship, fashioned to favor my party, though I found it highly disagreeable. I signed it and one district, a contorted serpent of a map, was likened to a mythological salamander. The. The cartoonist dubbed it a gerrymander. So now the term gerrymandering lives on, named after me, mispronounced ever since. Let my legacy instead be tied to a quote. I still believe it is the duty of every man, though he may have but one day to live, to devote that day to the good of his country. Sam.