Note sull'episodio
July 17, 1744. He signed the Declaration and refused to sign the Constitution. He lost nearly every fight he picked in the First Congress and kept showing up. Then, twenty-three years later, he signed something that gave his name to the thing we still argue about.
This letter was written for July 17, 2026 and published that day. The recordings are being added to the archive as they are made.
Sourced from the National Archives, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library of Congress, the Bill of Rights Institute, the Annals of Congress, Gerry's own 1787 letter to the Massachusetts legislature, and a 2025 survey by Tufts University's CIRCLE and Protect Democracy.
Cover image: Elkanah Tisdale, "The Gerry-Mander," Boston Gazette, March 26, 1812. Public domain.
Narration is AI-generated using a voice model trained on the author's own voice.