Letter from Elbridge Gerry to Ann Gerry (1787)

by Elbridge Gerry
  • August 21, 1787
Image: Portrait of Ann Thompson Gerry. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ann_Thompson_Gerry.jpg
What does Gerry’s letter reveal about the Convention atmosphere and tension among delegates at this stage of the proceedings?
Despite his active involvement in the Convention, including chairing the committee that proposed the Connecticut Compromise, what reasons might explain Gerry’s remark, "I do not expect to give my voice to the measures"?
Constitutional Convention

“Elbridge Gerry to Ann Gerry,” August 21, 1787. In Supplement to Max Farrand's The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, edited by James H. Hutson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.  https://consource.org/document/elbridge-gerry-to-ann-gerry-1787-8-21/20130122082051/

I am as sick of being here as You can conceive. Most of the Time I am at Home or in convention. I do think in a Week I am ten hours any where else. We meet now at ten and sit till four: but entre nous1, I do not expect to give my voice to the measures. 

E. Gerry

Footnotes
  1. 1. Meaning between us or in confidence.
Prior Document
No prior document in this Era
Next Document
No next document in this Era
Teacher Programs

See Our List of Programs

Conversation-based seminars for collegial PD, one-day and multi-day seminars, graduate credit seminars (MA degree), online and in-person.

Programs

Check out our collection of primary source readers

Coming soon! World War I & the 1920s!

Bookstore