How Infighting Produced the Bill of Rights and a Controversial Map

James Madison, originally a Federalist, worked hard to ensure that Antifederalists' complaints about the Constitution would be addressed. Portrait of James Madison by Gilbert Stuart, circa 1805–1807. Public Domain

The founding of America was instigated by a disagreement concerning the extent to which a monarchy could rule.

As King George III and the British Parliament passed acts restricting the freedoms of colonists and taxing them without representation, a number of colonists refused to submit to what they viewed as tyranny. America had assisted Great Britain during its Seven Years’ War against the French, where in America it was called the French and Indian War. Such sacrifice only confirmed that the American colonists should always enjoy the freedoms of British subjects, no different than those in England. However, the king viewed such an expense as the Seven Years’ War as protecting the colonists and should be paid, in part, by the financially successful American members of the British Empire. These opposing political philosophies would result in rebellion and military conflict.

King George III in coronation robes, 1765, by Allan Ramsay. Public Domain

The Same Argument

During the war, the state assemblies were in conflict with demands from the Continental Congress, which included compensation for the Continental Army. These conflicts were, ironically, about taxation and political power. State obstinance concerning monetary necessities to ensure the continuance of the war caused many of the leaders in Congress and the Army to express outrage. One memorable outburst came from George Washington in December of 1778 to the president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, Joseph Reed.

Washington stated, “I would to God that one of the most attrocious in each state was hung in Gibbets up on a gallows five times as high as the one prepared by Haman” (a biblical reference to the Book of Esther).

The disagreements continued even after the miraculous victory over the British. The new country had been under the dictates of the Articles of Confederation, though those dictates proved weak to the point of ineffective. The peace treaty between America and Great Britain was signed in 1783, but by 1787, many of the states’ leaders believed a new constitution was not just in order, but a necessity to avoid dissolution.

First page of the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, which forced Britain to recognize the United States as a country. Public Domain

Conflict Resolution

On May 29, 1787, the Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with a number of America’s most famous and influential figures, like Washington, Benjamin Franklin, George Mason, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, as delegates. The Convention produced another philosophical conflict, splitting members into factions known as Federalists and Antifederalists. Interestingly, the split was grounded on the familiar argument concerning political power. The Federalists argued that the failure of the Articles proved a strong central government was necessary to maintain national unity. The Antifederalists argued that too much power held by the central government would lead to tyranny over the states (a problem similar to the reasons the Americans had fought the British in the first place).

In the final days of the Convention, a compromise was sought, and one of those delegates, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles, led the charge.

The compromise was that a set of amendments enshrining certain rights would be attached to the new constitution. Mason joined Gerry arguing in favor of the compromise, while Hamilton and Madison argued against. The compromise was unanimously rejected. The Convention ended Sept. 17 with 39 of the 55 delegates signing the Constitution―Mason and Gerry not among them. The delegates returned to their respective states (sans Rhode Island, which did not send delegates) to argue for or against the new constitution.

Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts led the charge to create a compromise between the Federalists and the Antifederalists. Public Domain

Ratification Without Satisfaction

Gerry’s Massachusetts ratified the Constitution on Feb. 6, 1788, in a close vote, 187–167. Mason and Madison faced off in the Virginia Convention, but the Federalists won, ratifying the Constitution 89–79 on June 25, 1788. Both ratifying conventions made notes requesting a bill of rights.

New York became the intellectual battleground between the Federalists and Antifederalist. During the Constitution’s ratification process, Antifederalist essays under the pseudonym bylines “Cato” and, most commonly, “Brutus” began circulating in New York City’s publications―the first published on Sept. 27. (Antifederalist papers were also published in other states.) To debate these arguments, Hamilton recruited fellow New Yorker John Jay, and Madison, a Virginian, to write under the pseudonym “Publius” (Brutus and Publius were fellow statesmen in 509 B.C., considered the first year of the Roman Republic).

Despite Antifederalists outnumbering the Federalists two-to-one in the New York Convention, the Convention narrowly ratified the Constitution 30–27 on July 26, 1788, making New York the 11th state to do so.

George Clinton, governor of New York and an Antifederalist, accepted the convention’s decision, but, according to the Poughkeepsie Country Journal, expressed that “until a convention was called to consider the amendments now recommended by this convention, the probability was, that the body of the people who are opposed to the constitution, would not be satisfied.”

The Unexpected Antifederalist Ally

Months after Virginia had ratified the Constitution, Madison was defeated by a Patrick Henry-led party of Antifederalists in his bid for one of the state’s first national senate seats. Madison, however, was more interested in participating in the House of Representatives. The Antifederalists, in control of Virginia’s General Assembly, made the rules for how representatives were to be elected. Virginia was broken up into 10 districts by a 15-person committee made up of eight Antifederalists and seven Federalists. A requirement for candidates was that they had to live in their district for at least 12 months, a rule that seemed specifically toward keeping Madison out of office.

“It is now much dreaded that the State (which is to be divided into districts for appointment of Representatives to Congress) will be so arranged as to place a large proportion of those who are called Antifederalists in that Station,” complained George Washington, a Virginian and a Federalist.

Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee alerted Madison that the Antifederalist Patrick Henry was working to ensure “the districts will be laid off, to conform to the antifederal interest.”

Madison worked all the harder to assure Antifederalist voters that he was in favor of submitting “the most satisfactory provisions for all essential rights” during the first session of the First Congress. Madison’s philosophical adjustment may have been due to several factors: losing the senate race, the convincing arguments of the Antifederalists, and the threat of Antifederalists to convene a second Constitutional Convention. Despite Henry’s efforts, Madison secured his House seat.

Opposing Sides Unite

In the House, Madison received help from an Antifederalist whom he had philosophically sparred with during the Constitutional Convention. Gerry had also been elected to the House of Representatives. During the first five months of the First Congress, no two representatives spoke more than Madison and Gerry, respectively, and most often concerning those “most satisfactory provisions for all essential rights.”

On June 8, 1789, Madison, much to the chagrin of his fellow Federalists, introduced 12 amendments of which 10 were accepted and later ratified in December.

Madison would serve four terms in the House before resigning, and Gerry would resign after two. During Madison’s second term, he had broken with Hamilton’s Federalist Party and joined Thomas Jefferson and other Antifederalists to form the Democratic-Republican Party. In 1801, Jefferson, now president, selected him as his secretary of state, a position he held until he himself was elected president in 1809.

A Political Salamander

Toward the end of Jefferson’s second term and into Madison’s first, the Federalist Party experienced a resurgence. Much like Jefferson, Madison’s foreign policy decisions helped fuel this resurgence.

During the first year of Madison’s presidency in 1810, Gerry, a Democratic-Republican, was elected governor of Massachusetts. Concerned about the Federalist resurgence, Gerry approved, though reluctantly, a state redistricting plan in Massachusetts on Feb. 11, 1812, which heavily favored his party. When the map of the new redistricting reached the desk of the Boston Gazette editors, they noted the odd shape. One editor said the map looked like a salamander. “Salamander! Call it a Gerrymander!” another editor said.

The redistricted map was then illustrated as a political cartoon with a dragon’s head, wings, and claws. It was during this week in history, on March 26, 1812, that the Boston Gazette published the political cartoon with the title “The Gerry-Mander,” coining the phrase “gerrymandering”―a political ploy to redistrict areas to benefit a specific party.

Printed in March 1812, this political cartoon was a reaction to the newly drawn state senate election district of South Essex created by the Massachusetts legislature to favor the Democratic-Republican Party. The caricature satirizes the bizarre shape of the district as a dragon-like "monster," and Federalist newspaper editors and others at the time likened it to a salamander. Public Domain

The ploy worked for the Massachusetts election, as the Democratic-Republicans won 29 to the Federalists 11 seats. Gerry, however, lost his bid for a third one-year term as governor. He was, however, elected Vice President a few months later, a position he held until his death on Nov. 23, 1814.

Although the term “gerrymander” is directly connected with Gerry, many scholars have pointed to the very first elections under the new Constitution in the state of Virginia. The term very well could have been “Henry-mandering”―of course, the name would have been contingent on the shape of the redistricting map. Nonetheless, “gerrymandering” has been part of the American political system since the beginning of the country under the U.S. Constitution.

The highly partisan political maneuver further proves that American politics thrives on conflict and philosophical differences, reminiscent of the earliest days of the American Revolution.

Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]