The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1882-04-29

Something About Old Elbridgs Gerry,
Whose Name 10 Thus Perpetuatsd.
.... fBoston Trayeler1

Something About Old Elbridgs Gerry
Whose Name is Thus Perpesuatsd.
fBoston Traveier.l
Gerrymandering has become a sort OF
| rage, and one party is about as bad as anoth-
er in having resort to il. There is no ex.
cuse for it, and it should be condemned by
men of all parties. The word gerrymandcr
is of Massachusetts, origin, but the prevalent
belief that it originated in an unfair dis
tricting of this State in order to control
the election of members of Congress
was Mgner of the Declare
ton of Independence, for Massachu-
setts-was man of much note here for
about forty years, he dying in 1S41. while
holding the Office of Vice President of the
United States. He WIS Governor of Massa-
chusetts from May. 1910, to Nav, 1872. The
late Mr.. William Sullivan. in his lively
Familiar Letters says: "As there is moth
ing to be said of his administration, which
one could take pleasure In saying, so the
pain of speaking of it as it may have de-
served may be avoided. When the time
comes for writing the sober history OF Mas
sachusetts the historian win find abundant
material for bis work in these two years;
and the exercise of party power in district
ing the Commonwealth for the choice of
Senators is particularly commended to his
guage enriched by a new term (gerryman.
dering) which may often find q suitable ap-
plication when the origin of it may have
been forgotten. He may find it in the pat.
riotic labors of the two years in which M
Gerry wa Governor of Massachusetts,. At
the election which followed the introduc-
ton of the Gerrymander to our politics,
Governor Gerry was defeated, and the
House of Representatives was carried by
the Federalista; but the Republicans (Dem-
ocrats) carried the Senate, showing that the
Gerrymander's back WIS equal to its burden
1t was question: did the Gerrymander
save the Senate, or did it cause the loss of
the Governorship and the House
of Representatives. Probably it did
both, as the popular majority of the
Federalists. was not large. A picture
of the Gerrymander was published, and
q most comicallooking beast it proved to be
Copies of this production are occasionally to
be seen, even now, they having survived the
wear and tear of seventy years 1t was re-
produced years later, in at least one news
paper, where we saw it about half century
since. We remember having heard old
Democrats say, in our youthful days, that
whatever the dement's of the Gerrymander
it was unfairly christened, for they asserted
Governor Gerry had as little to do with the
offensive districting as a man In his position
well could have. But he was Governor of
the State, and the highest member of the
offending party, and so he was made to bear
his party's burden OF sin. as being
that party's representative man.
Then his name came DO pat that
there was no such thing ss missing its use
fulness in what seemed to be a natural carl
cature-that is, caricature that is not
forced. but proceeds easily from the occa.
sion. Had the Governors name been Hicks
or Howard, Simpkins or Sydney, it would
have been impossible to employ it in the
way that Gerry was employed. Mander
was, We suppose, from the Latin mando, or
from mandatory, aud the Governor was re-
garded as mandator, or director. German
der is scientific word, and relates to GER
tain plants. Gerrymander is one of the
very few of our political slang terms that
have survived, and apparently it is des-
tined TO last as long as the base practice it
satirizes-that is to say, for many ages.