Gerrymander

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

ger-ry-man'der, an arrangement of legislative or congressional districts designed to give the party in power an unfair advantage. If, for instance, a naturally compact district that would return a representative of the opposing party be split up and attached to various districts in such a way that its political influence is overcome and the dominant party carries more districts than it is fairly entitled to carry, the process is called gerrymandering. The term originated in Massachusetts in 1812, while Elbridge Gerry was governor. In that year the Republicans, having a legislative majority and the governorship as well, proceeded to redistrict the state in an outrageous fashion. Districts of the most unnatural and ridiculous shape were formed for the sole purpose of enabling the Republican party to carry them. One district on Massachusetts Bay had an especially grotesque appearance. The Boston Sentinel, a Federal organ, published a map of this district as an illustration of Republican unfairness. Some one suggested that, in shape at least, the district resembled a salamander. A Federalist wit spoke up, "Better call it a Gerry-mander," and thus the word was coined. Gilbert Stuart, the painter, produced a cartoon by adding a pair of dragon's wings to the monstrosity, and it was circulated widely as a campaign document. Although the original gerrymander came to an end at the next session of the Massachusetts legislature, the expression "to gerrymander" has found a place in the political phrase of the day. Sometimes the same method is employed to bunch an undesirable vote. After the Civil War the river counties of Mississippi were thrown into what is known from its shape as the "shoe string district," in order to prevent a large negro vote from electing more than one congressman.