Gerry, Elbridge, Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Massachusetts

Autograph letter signed ("EGerry"), 4 pages (8 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.; 216 x 184 mm), no place or date [New York, 12 January 1792], to his wife Ann; formerly folded. Tan half-morocco clamshell box.

On Senate encroachments upon the House of Representatives, an intimate view of Gouverneur Morris.

Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816) was commissioned Minister Plenipotentiary to Paris and Thomas Pinckney to London on 12 January 1792 which acts, mentioned herein, provide a date for this letter. Gerry was serving in the House of Representatives in New York City. Writing to his wife, he mentions having dinner with Thomas Jefferson and other politicians, and goes on to recount his differences with Morris: "Mr. Jefferson was very attentive indeed ... for I happen to be with them in several political matters, such as supporting the residence act, the multiplying the respresentatives etc. but Morris is as surly as a bull. I have offended him I suppose in two instances; one I mentioned when we dined together at the city tavern, relative to the federal city, to which I proposed going with good grace. The other relates to the Senate or something I said in debate respecting them." The House had apparently struck out a provision giving the president the power to "mark out the post roads" but " ... the Senate put it in and forced it on the house, & now it is produced as a precedent for giving up other constitutional powers. This shews how careful we ought to be of the Senate when they make propositions to wrest from us constitutional powers, in which they have too often been successful."

He goes on to generalize about the Senate as an aristocracy: "If there is a a principle of aristocracy as has been contended in the constitution, I had no objection to it, whilst it was preserved within proper bounds, but it was a principle disposed naturally to encroach, & required vigilance. Indeed the Senate was so constructed as to cherish this principle for lend to it a plain republican & in a short time he would partake of this principle. The powers & duration of the office naturally produced the effect & so far as We had an aristocratical principle in the federal constitution, the Senate maybe considered as the hot bed [his emphasis] of aristocracy — this I was informed was mentioned afterwards by Morris at his table & he had got it that I said the Senate, meaning the present members, was the hot bed of Aristocracy & if a simple republican was sent to it he would soon be turned into an arrant aristocrat. I could not help laughing at the difference between what I said & he represented me as having said, but as I neither cared for him or the real aristocrats there, I took no pains to set the matter right for I supposed pains might have been taken to misrepresent it. I find however no one else of the Senate offended ..."