who attempted to obtain their ends by bribery, threats and duplicity, resulted in the speedy retirement of Marshall and Pinckney. The episode is known in American history as the “X Y Z Affair.” Gerry, although despairing of any good results, remained in Paris for some time in the vain hope that Talleyrand might offer to a known friend of France terms that had been refused to envoys whose anti-French views were more than suspected. This action of Gerry’s brought down upon him from Federalist partisans a storm of abuse and censure, from which he never wholly cleared himself. In 1810–1812 he was governor of Massachusetts. His administration, which was marked by extreme partisanship, was especially notable for the enactment of a law by which the state was divided into new senatorial districts in such a manner as to consolidate the Federalist vote in a few districts, thus giving the Democratic-Republicans an undue advantage. The outline of one of these districts, which was thought to resemble a salamander, gave rise in 1812, through a popular application of the governor’s name, to the term “Gerrymander” (q.v.). In 1812, Gerry, who was an ardent advocate of the war with Great Britain, was elected vice-president of the United States, on the ticket with James Madison. He died in office at Washington on the 23rd of November 1814.
See J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, with Contemporary Letters (2 vols., Boston, 1828–1829).
GERRYMANDER (usually pronounced “jerrymander,” but
the g was originally pronounced hard), an American expression
which has taken root in the English language, meaning to arrange
election districts so as to give an unfair advantage to the party in
power by means of a redistribution act, and so to manipulate
constituencies generally, or arrange any political measure,
with a view to an unfair party advantage. The word is derived
from the name of the American politician Elbridge Gerry (q.v.).
John Fiske, in his Civil Government in the United States (1890),
says that in 1812, when Gerry was governor of Massachusetts,
the Democratic state legislature (in order, according to Winsor,
to secure an increased representation of the Democratic party
in the state senate) “redistributed the districts in such wise
that the shapes of the towns forming a single district in Essex
county gave to the district a somewhat dragon-like contour.
This was indicated upon a map of Massachusetts which Benjamin
Russell, an ardent Federalist and editor of the Centinel, hung
up over the desk in his office. The painter, Gilbert Stuart,
coming into the office one day and observing the uncouth figure,
added with his pencil a head, wings and claws, and exclaimed,
‘That will do for a salamander!’ ‘Better say a Gerrymander,’
growled the editor; and the outlandish name, thus duly coined,
soon came into general currency.” It was, however, only the
name that was new. Fiske (who also refers to Winsor’s Memorial
History of Boston, iii. 212, and Bryce’s American Commonwealth,
i. 121) says that gerrymandering, as a political dodge, “seems
to have been first devised in 1788, by the enemies of the Federal
constitution in Virginia, in order to prevent the election of James
Madison to the first Congress, and fortunately it was unsuccessful.”
But it was really earlier than that, and in the American
colonial period political advantage was often obtained by
changing county lines. In 1709 the Pennsylvania counties of
Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia formed a combination for
preventing the city of Philadelphia from securing its proportionate
representation; and in 1732 George Burrington, royal
governor of North Carolina, divided the voting precincts of the
province for his own advantage. Gerry was not the originator
of the Massachusetts law of 1812, which was probably drafted
by Samuel Dana or by Judge Story. The law resulted in 29
seats being secured in Massachusetts by 50,164 Democratic
votes, while 51,766 Federalist votes only returned 11 members;
and Essex county, which, undivided, sent 5 Federalists to the
Senate, returned 3 Democrats and 2 Federalists after being
“gerrymandered,” Stuart’s drawing (reproduced in Fiske’s
book) was contrived so as to make the back line of the creature’s
body form a caricature of Gerry’s profile. The law of 1812 was
repealed in 1813, when the Federalists had again gained control
of the Massachusetts legislature.
See also Elmer C. Griffith, The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander (Chicago, 1907); John W. Dean, “History of the Gerrymander,” in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xlvi. (Boston, 1892).
GERS, a department of south-western France, composed of
the whole or parts of certain districts of Gascony, viz. Armagnac,
Astarac, Fezensac, Pardiac, Pays de Gaure, Lomagne, Comminges,
Condomois and of a small portion of Agenais. It is
bounded N. by the department of Lot-et-Garonne, N.E. by
Tarn-et-Garonne, E. and S.E. by Haute-Garonne, S. by Hautes-Pyrénées,
S.W. by Basses-Pyrénées and W. by Landes. Pop.
(1906) 231,088. Area, 2428 sq. m. The department consists of
a plateau sloping from south to north and traversed by numerous
rivers, most of them having their source close together in the
Plateau de Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées), from which point
they diverge in the shape of a fan to the north-west, north and
north-east. In the south several summits exceed 1100 ft. in
height. Thence the descent towards the north is gradual till on
the northern limit of the department the lowest point (less than
200 ft.) is reached. The greater part of the department belongs
to the basin of the Garonne, while a small portion in the west
is drained by the Adour. The chief affluents of the former are
the Save, Gimone, Arrats, Gers and Baïse, which derive their
waters in great part from the Canal de la Neste in the department
of Hautes-Pyrénées; and of the latter, the Arros, Midou and
Douze, the last two uniting and taking the name of Midouze
before joining the Adour. The climate is temperate; its
drawbacks are the unwholesome south-east wind and the
destructive hail-storms which sometimes occur in spring. There
is seldom any snow or frost. Over the greater portion of the
department the annual rainfall varies between 28 and 32 in.
Gers is primarily agricultural. The south-western district is
the most productive, but the valleys generally are fertile and the
grain produced is more than sufficient for local consumption.
Wheat, maize and oats are the principal cereals. About one-third of the wine produced is used for home consumption, and the remainder is chiefly manufactured into brandy, known by the name of Armagnac, second only to Cognac in reputation.
The natural pastures are supplemented chiefly by crops of sainfoin and clover; horses, cattle, sheep and swine are reared in considerable numbers; turkeys, geese and other poultry are abundant. There are mineral springs at Aurenson, Barbotan and several other places in the department. The mineral production and manufactures are unimportant. Building stone and clay are obtained. Flour-mills, saw-mills, tanneries, brickworks and cask-works are the chief industrial establishments.
Gers is divided into the arrondissements of Auch, Lectoure, Mirande, Condom and Lombez, with 29 cantons and 466 communes. The chief town is Auch, the seat of an archbishopric. The department falls within the circumscription of the appeal-court of Agen, and the region of the XVII. army corps. It forms part of the académie (educational circumscription) of Toulouse. Auch, Condom, Lectoure and Mirande are the principal towns. The following are also of interest: Lombez, with its church of Sainte-Marie, once a cathedral, dating from the 14th century, when the bishopric was created; Flaran, with an abbey-church of the last half of the 12th century; La Romieu, with a church of the same period and a beautiful cloister; Simorre, with a fortified abbey-church of the 14th century; and Fleurance, with a handsome church, also of the 14th century, containing stained glass of the 16th century.
GERSON, JOHN (1363–1429), otherwise Jean Charlier de Gerson, French scholar and divine, chancellor of the university of Paris, and the ruling spirit in the oecumenical councils of Pisa and Constance, was born at the village of Gerson, in the bishopric of Reims and department of Ardennes, on the 14th of December 1363. His parents, Arnulph Charlier and Elizabeth de la Chardenière, “a second Monica,” were pious peasants, and seven of their twelve children, four daughters and three sons, devoted
themselves to a religious life. Young Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous college of Navarre when fourteen years of age. After a five years’ course he obtained the degree of licentiate of
