It is now a very appropriate time to discuss political parties since they have been doing their best to disrupt the will of We the People for many years.
In our newly formed nation during the subject period of this series, the Federalists were the first organized political party that apparently formed in 1789, although some sources hold out for as late as 1795. When one considers that Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison produced and published the Federalist papers from 1787-1788 in NY newspapers, this writer chooses to use the earlier date.
That would be the year the Constitution was ratified. That did not take long, did it?
The Federalist movement and party dominated the affairs of America during the 1790’s, then never won an election after 1801 before disappearing not long after the War of 1812. Their lasting legacy will always be the Constitution, for better or worse.
To provide some background and more of a basis for this part, please review this summary of political parties in America.
https://stacker.com/stories/politics/history-political-parties-america
Confession
Before we go further I have a confession to make. I firmly believe as POTUS James Monroe stated, “Surely our government may go on and prosper without the existence of parties. I have always considered their existence as the curse of the country”
You will find that statement in the fourth paragraph of the linked letter below from said James Monroe to James Madison on May 12, 1822.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-02-02-0445
Preach it, James. You understood this subject well in my opinion. It would not be long (1828) before a political party rose up against the freemasons, the Anti-Masonic Party. Seems you were a freemason. Oh well. That party was absorbed into the Whigs a decade later.
However, please do not miss what Monroe said in the sentence previous to the above referenced quote. “Public opinion will react on this body, & keep it right.“
Seems that is still the key over 200 years later; transparently keeping the citizens truthfully informed while they remain engaged with their government officials and related activities. Which is why the current day Uniparty worked successfully to take over the opinion shaping in media. They were successful in keeping the masses in the dark about what the usurpers were really doing while also cultivating a general disinterest or distaste of politics and voting within the general public.
The major problem they now have, thanks to POTUS Donald J. Trump, is a very large group of Americans no longer believe a stinking word they say and are now fulfilling James Monroe’s prediction of keeping the politicians more honest (“right”). The fake media’s effect is being relegated to the sheeple with Bob Uecker’s view. In honor of the recent start to MLB’s season…
Dang, I miss that guy.
British Legacy
We cannot really blame our founders for establishing political parties. The vast majority of them and other patriots who formed our new nation came from the United Kingdom. As a result, let’s take a look at the political party history and landscape there before the nation of America was a thing. Check out #3 in the link below.
https://about-britain.com/institutions/political-parties.htm
Tory and Whig parties formed beginning in the 1680 time frame. Which makes it easier to understand how and why political parties formed in America. Colonists had been conditioned to their existence as subjects of Great Britain. They had seen the Tories remain loyal to the Crown and viewed as traditionalists all of those years. The Whigs were the reformers and liberals. As a result it was a natural reaction when opposing viewpoints developed in America during and after the war to create the Federalists and Antifederalists. The supporters took sides and the first to become organized appears to be the Federalists. They were soon followed by the Democratic-Republicans (Antifederalists), also known as the Jeffersonian Republicans in the 1792-95 time frame. The actual dates are disputed among many historical accounts, but are in the general time frame of late 1780’s to mid 1790’s for both parties.
Conditions On The Ground Then
As we know, political parties generally form to advance common interests. Alliances on issues of importance make it easier to advance those common interests. However, those alliances also tend to create issues to gain power and money while moving public opinion to their points of view.
That is clearly what the Federalists did. Seven of the thirteen states in the new nation of the United States of America were fine with the Articles of Confederation. The Federalists foresaw big trouble on the horizon as stated in the previous part, or, felt they could not gin up enough fear porn to hopefully move public opinion their way. At that point they did not believe they could influence the seven states sufficiently to gain the nine votes needed to produce a new, nationally governing document. The seven states were entrenched in their thinking and operation. The Federalists were obviously opposed to states’ rights exceeding federal authority and believed in a strong central government. So, they used a provision in the Articles to have state conventions to elect special delegates to amend the Articles at the Philadelphia Convention. It worked. The bottom line is they wore down their political opponents and succeeded in flipping three states to their views of terminating the Articles and replacing with the Constitution that resulted.
Who were those founding fathers who could be so formidable in support of their beliefs and persuasive in their arguments? Well, that would be political heavyweights George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, and John Jay primarily; along with many others who were friends and allies. They were a formidable, respected block of patriots.
Washington said, “I do not conceive we can last long as a nation without having lodged somewhere a power whick(h) will pervade the whole union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the state governments extends over the several states.” He wrote letters to the governors of all thirteen states expressing his views. His beliefs in a stronger central government weighed heavily on the leaders and the people.
To be sure there were heavyweight patriots lined up against the loss of the Articles and the provisions it contained. Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Elbridge Gerry, and William Paca among others opposed its discontinuance. Some changed their views during the negotiations or after the Constitution was ratified. Jefferson took the opposite view about the internal rebellions the Federalists feared. He felt they were good for the nation to experience occasionally to improve itself. He felt those involved in such events such as in Shays’s Rebellion should not be harshly punished as an example. As a student of the Enlightenment he believed the good of people would win out in the end. This was directly opposed by many Federalists who did not share his views. They pointed to the perceived selfish responses of state leaders in not paying federal war debts as well as rebels and insurrectionists in the general populace as evidence.
As in most things of importance in government, history indicates that both camps were probably right and wrong in their various assessments.
Conditions On the Ground Now
Fast forward to January 6, 2021. What say you, America? It is the day We the People realized fully that elections have been fake for some time. It is the day many realized the federal government had become fully corrupted and had become agents of criminal leaders.
I guess the Federalists did not foresee a day when America’s federal government and elected officials leading it would authorize its Intelligence and law enforcement agencies to plan and instigate domestic terror operations against fellow citizens to influence the views, activities and votes of the general populace. But yet, here we are still dealing with the same shiz the colonists faced when the Brits did so on behalf of the Crown and Parliament.
With the Constitution’s ratification there have proven to be precious few effective triggers for citizens and even states to pull to counter the corruption as the bad faith is exhibited. That has led to outright rebellion at times in our history, as Thomas Jefferson suggested it probably would and should. As it turned out there is a large segment of We the People who have been good and faithful citizens abiding by the laws while many elected leaders, the supporting federal bureaucracy, and judiciary have not been.
It has been an infuriating experience for many patriotic American citizens through the years who point to the Constitution and tell the tyrants of the day that their actions cannot stand per the rule of law. These have been the same We the People who are viewed as We the Peasants by their greaters. Peasants who have endured corrupted elected officials, bureaucrats, law enforcement agencies, and judiciary who turn blind eyes or even openly support the criminal activities without recourse for the lessers.
Is it any wonder that POTUS Trump frequently promotes the song, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Miserables in his events? He knows how we deplorables have been treated.
There have been clear violations of the intent of existing law in the Constitution over two centuries now. In response to it there is Monroe’s, “Public opinion will react on this body, & keep it right.“ Was the 2020 election, among other disputed elections throughout our history, supposed to be rectified through that statement? How about the related treatment of American citizens on J6 who objected to the obvious election steal and the authorities’ circumvention of keeping it right? Did we keep the federal government right? 🤣
When the interpreters, administrators and enforcers are corrupted; can there even be justice outside of divine intervention or rebellion by the peasants?
Need more evidence of federal government failure to protect in America? Per numerous government sources somewhere between ten and twenty million illegal invaders poured over our borders in four years from 2021 through 2024. Elected officials in both political parties along with federal law enforcement agencies and the judiciary did nothing to enforce the law and Constitution despite the catastrophic on-going effects it had on the nation and We the People. Instead many made the paths of these illegals smooth and easy to navigate with taxpayer money to also help them along while ignoring the needs of citizens. Many of these enemies of the state are still in seated roles of power and authority and are circumventing the laws daily despite the attempts of POTUS Trump and patriots to administer them legally.
If our government actually did operate as a republic and in accordance with the law we would not be $36+ trillion in debt, rife with corruption, and illegally ruled as subjects by evil doers and incompetents. There would be no need for DOGE.
Unlike our independence movement brothers and sisters who were not involved in political parties until after the Revolutionary War; who depended on Committees of Correspondence to make everybody aware pre-war along with newspapers and horseback delivery of letters post war; we have the capacity to know where each candidate and elected official stands or votes on every issue in real time every moment of every day. All that is truly needed is the will to do so with required transparency, improved use of existing technology, and the deemphasis of the propagandist media that provides misleading to false information.
Think about who we are today. One big convoluted mess in politics for over 200 years that led to wars, genocide, carpetbaggers, robber baron rule, corrupted institutions, and so on. Perhaps we need to consider what POTUS Monroe believed, “I have always considered their existence as the curse of the country.”
Back in the founders’ day as well as now in ours; it seems only sunlight, integrity, backbone and accountability are needed to make good things happen. Something they and we have available in state capitals in legislative houses and governors mansions located in the midst of We the People and not in the jackboot protected District of Criminals.
We will not solve this ages old problem here. It may never be. However, our thoughts and beliefs can be seen and heard to help provide sunlight. The more informed We the People are, the more impact we can have on the political process. With this in mind I say; kick azz, DOGE and POTUS Trump! We the Peasants support your efforts fully. Just let us know how we can help.
Signer time. We will only do one as his involvement is extensive, yet, rarely prominently discussed by historians and pundits except for his part in establishing one pain in the azz political procedural exercise.
Elbridge Gerry
Born in 1744 in Marlblehead, MA, Elbridge Gerry was the son of a wealthy, ship operator and merchant, Thomas Gerry and mother, Elizabeth, who was also from a wealthy merchant family. He was educated by private tutors before entering Harvard College at thirteen years of age, where he went on to earn BA and MA degrees by the age of twenty. He then joined the family merchant businesses, which was active with shipping routes into the West Indies, Spain and all along the North American coast. His father was also active in local politics as well as the militia.
Gerry aligned with other notable Massachusetts patriot leaders Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Mercy Otis Warren among others. He won election to the state assembly in 1772 and worked closely with Samuel Adams for colonist causes against Parliament. He established the Marblehead’s Committee of Correspondence, but ran into trouble with the people there when he supported small pox inoculations being done at a local hospital. This was met by violence against the supporters and hospital as the people were not sure about the transmission of the disease at that time.
He rebounded politically a couple of years later when the Boston Port Act closed it and pushed the activities to Marblehead, where Gerry was instrumental in keeping supplies flowing back to the Boston area while caring for his dying father. He was elected to the First Continental Congress, but declined due to the grief from losing his father. When the governor began making moves against the colonists, he helped store weapons and supplies in Concord, which became a target of the British military at the start of formal hostilities in the Revolutionary War. While the Siege of Boston was ongoing, he helped supply the developing Continental Army as he continued to do throughout the war. He used his business contacts in France and Spain to continue to supply weapons and supplies the entire period. Despite all of his merchant activities he chose not to overtly profit from the war and spoke out against price gouging. He desired price controls to help increase the quantity of supplies they could obtain. The Descendants site indicates he was the 11th wealthiest signer of the Declaration.
With his election to the Second Continental Congress he had the honor of approving and signing the Declaration. His support was so strong, John Adams wrote, “”If every Man here was a Gerry, the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell.” 👍 🇺🇸
He was accused of being one of the Conway Cabal against the leadership of George Washington, but quickly brought that to an end with a rebuttal that strongly countered the accusers. In the early years post war he was against a strong central government other than having concerns over Shays’s Rebellion. He remained an opponent of political parties until around 1800. At that point he felt it necessary to align and join the Democratic-Republicans in opposition to the continuing Federalist push for a dominant central government.
In 1780 he resigned from the Congress and refused all other public service appointments and offices until 1783 when the Confederation Congress met to make improvements and reforms to that document, many of which he strongly supported. He served two years before resigning from it. It was one year later that he finally married. He wed Ann Thompson, some twenty years younger, who was the daughter of a wealthy NYC merchant. His good friend, James Monroe, was his best man in the wedding. The couple went on to have ten (some say nine) children together over the next fifteen years, which needless to say strained the health of his wife. With wealth earned pre and during the war, he sold off his merchant business and made land purchases. This included a 100 acre estate of a former royal lieutenant governor that he named Elmwood that was located in Cambridge, MA. It became his home for the remainder of his life.
He returned to public life with the Constitutional Convention, making sure to represent the interests of the states in the negotiations. However, the Shays event had an impact on his beliefs about individual citizens having the right to vote to affect government. He strongly advocated for indirect elections. He was unsuccessful in the House, however, he helped make that happen in the Senate. He was very unhappy the Constitution as proposed did not enumerate specific personal liberties and did not want the central government strengthened in its position. As an Episcopalian he fought specifically for stronger language relating to religious freedom, which did not go far enough in his opinion. As a result of it and other differences he voted against the Constitution along with George Mason and Edmund Randolph – the only three against its ratification. At this point John Adams seemed to change his opinion of Gerry and called him obstinate and focused only on small things, although they remained cordial and continued working together. 😂
When it came time for Massachusetts to take up the issue he was not chosen as a delegate due to his stance, although he was invited to attend. Even with that state’s strong Federalist involvement it still only passed by a 187 – 168 vote. This vote and the beliefs of many he knew soured him against numerous formerly friendly officials.
Per the Descendant’s site, “Overcoming his objections to the Constitution, Gerry served in the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1793. To the dismay of his anti-federalist friends, he supported the Federalist agenda, including Hamilton’s proposals to fund the War debt and establish a national bank.“
This reversal and acceptance led to Gerry being brought back into the good graces of John Adams. The following information from the Descendants site gives an interesting look at America’s position in the world at that time.
“On June 20, 1797, President John Adams sent Gerry along with Charles Pinckney and John Marshall to France, to negotiate a peace treaty with Talleyrand, Napoleon’s new foreign minister. The mission was a disaster, with the French trying to bribe the American commissioners, and came to be known as the XYZ affair with the letters representing the three chief French bribers. Finally, the Treaty of Mortefontaine was completed in 1800 and is considered a great achievement by the Adams administration in keeping the United States neutral in the expanding war between Britain and France.
In 1800, maligned by federalists who believed him partial to France, and concerned about the likelihood of Alexander Hamilton becoming General of the army, Gerry joined the moderate wing of the Republican party. He ran for Governor of Massachusetts, a strong Federalist stronghold, in the early 1800s but was unsuccessful.”
He ran again for governor as a Democratic-Republican in 1810 and was elected and reelected in 1811; only to lose in 1812 for the following that leads to the reason most folks would ever remember his name. From the Descendants site,
“He had become unpopular after supporting a redistricting bill that gained him lasting fame. By rearranging voting districts around Amesbury and Haverhill to favor the Republicans, the resulting district resembled a salamander, thus earning the famous sobriquet of a “gerrymander.”
So he was the trouble maker responsible for what is still happening today! For those who want to know more about it…
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-gerrymandering-4057603
I noted in one source that even as an older man he must have had an eye for female beauty. 😂
“He paid special attention to Betsy Patterson Bonaparte, the American-born sister-in-law of Napoleon, whose revealing attire caused a stir wherever she went.” For those like me who were clueless about Ms. Bonaparte there are the links below. Lady readers may be especially interested in the second one.
https://www.mdhistory.org/elizabeth-patterson-bonaparte-the-woman-i-have-come-to-know
Despite Gerry’s election loss for governor, he was added to the ticket of James Madison as VP. With their election and the War of 1812, his work became very contentious. However, he enjoyed the aristocratic lifestyle and DC parties despite the rancor in the Senate over which he presided. He died on his way to the Senate in 1814. His wife Ann lived until 1849, the longest surviving widow of a Declaration signer.
The following Descendants site description gives us a more personal look at the man.
“Elbridge Gerry was a small, dapper gentleman possessed of pleasant manners, but never very popular because of his aristocratic traits. He had no sense of humor, frequently changed his mind on important issues, and was suspicious of the motives of others. But he was a conscientious businessman who paid attention to detail. His patriotism and integrity could never be questioned.
While Gerry’s actions can be considered those of a maverick, they can also be viewed as those of a man of principle with independence of thought and action independent of party influence. He signed the Declaration and the Articles of Confederation but vigorously opposed the Constitution. He then served in Congress where he supported Alexander Hamilton’s federalist agenda ensuring the future financial security of the young republic. He became a Republican in 1800, lost several contests for Governor of Massachusetts. But he was elected Madison’s Vice President and stayed loyal to him when most of the Republicans split off over Madison’s handling of the war.
Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote that he was “a genuine friend of republican forms of government.” One of Gerry’s own statements was “I hold it to be the duty of every citizen, though he may have but one day to live, to devote the day to the good of his country.”
His home at Elmwood is located a half mile from Harvard’s campus and has remained a place where Harvard people have lived. The school purchased it in 1962 and its President has resided there ever since. Gerry was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in DC.
Elbridge Gerry was a great American Patriot who worked tirelessly for the betterment of our nation. His expectation was for all of us to do likewise.
Please remember Wolf’s rules for our community. In general that means to be respectful to each other and to pull no shenanigans that your mom might find offensive or otherwise cause jail time. That said, free speech is honored here.
Be blessed and go make something good happen!
