Seth Kaller, Inc.

One of the earliest representations of a political plague that survives to this day.

“The horrid Monster...appeared in the County of Essex, during the last session of the Legislature. Various and manifold have been the speculations and conjectures among learned naturalists respecting the genus and origin of this astonishing production.”

The Newburyport Herald was the first newspaper outside of Boston to use the new political term, “gerrymander,” based on the Democratic-Republican governor’s name.

[ELECTIONS]. Broadsheet supplement to the Newburyport Herald, and Country Gazette, March 31, 1812. Newburyport, MA: Ephraim W. Allen. 2 pp., 11 x 18½ in.

Inventory #25742.01       Price: $6,000

Excerpts
“The GERRY-MANDER: or, ESSEX SOUTH DISTRICT formed into a MONSTER!!”

“The horrid Monster of which this drawing is a correct representation, appeared in the County of Essex, during the last session of the Legislature. Various and manifold have been the speculations and conjectures among learned naturalists respecting the genus and origin of this astonishing production.”

In text that was lost but restored in this copy: “the Gerry-Mander is not intended as a personal insult upon the Governor; but represents by exact lines and boundaries, the new District in the County of Essex, made into this monstrous shape, by the democratic leaders of the last legislature to increase their particular influence!!! The monstrous appearance and singular shape which this new district presented, induced an ingenious artist to display its absurdity, in a more striking view than is exhibited upon the map.... As the Governor gave his official sanction to the bill, which has so mutilated the senatorial districts of the state; it was thought proper to call it by his name, as it were, to declare with great propriety, to the people, that he is the political Father of thisMonstrous District; so shaped in order to give him and his party a monstrous political influence!”

“The prospect before us. / The American People have now to choose whether they will have / Strong, Peace & No Embargo, / or, / Gerry, War, Embargo, and Direct Taxes. / Let them take their choice.” (p6/c2)

“The facts and circumstances, respecting Mr. Gerry’s opposition to our excellent Constitution of government, communicated in our paper this day and on Friday last, deserve the attention of every one who has a desire to understand correctly the character of that gentleman.” (p3/c1)

Historical Background
On March 26, 1812, the Boston Gazette first used the word “gerrymander” to criticize the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts in a law signed on February 11 by Democratic-Republican governor Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814). When one of the oddly shaped districts in Essex County (“Essex South District”) resembled a mythological salamander, Federalist critics created the term “gerrymander” as a portmanteau of the governor’s last name and the word “salamander.”

At the gubernatorial election on April 6, 1812, Federalist challenger Caleb Strong won 50.6 percent of the vote to incumbent Gerry’s 49.3 percent, a difference of only 1,370 votes out of more than 104,000 cast. Federalists won both the governorship and control of the Massachusetts House; the redistricted Senate remained firmly in Democratic-Republican hands. Essex County elected three Democratic Republicans—Joseph Fuller III (1772-1815), Thomas Kittredge (1746-1818), Benjamin W. Crowinshield (1772-1851); and two Federalists—Daniel A. White (1776-1861) and Thomas Stephens (1769-1828), to the state senate. Reflecting the county’s true Federalist majority, Strong carried Essex County by a margin of 59.5 percent to Gerry’s 40.5 percent. In November 1812, incumbent Congressman William Reed won reelection in the Essex South district by a margin of 56.1 percent to 43.9 percent over his Democratic-Republican challenger.

Newburyport, where this broadsheet was printed, was part of Essex County, located across the Merrimack River just under the “horrid Monster’s” head. In the spring of 1813, the Federalist party regained control of the Massachusetts Senate and repealed the law creating the gerrymandered districts. By then, however, New Jersey had duplicated the monster, and the term became part of American political vocabulary.

Additional Content
The verso of this broadsheet contains a letter “To the Electors of the Essex Circuit District” in which “Salisbury” urged readers, “If...you wish for better times vote for better men.” (p2/c1); a letter to the editor complaining about the taxes the county pays for representatives (p2/c1); a political statement of “The prospect before us.”: “Strong, Peace & No Embargo, or, Gerry, War, Embargo, and Direct Taxes.” (p2/c2); and a few advertisements, including one for an account of the New Madrid earthquakes, which shook the Mississippi River valley from an epicenter in modern southeastern Missouri (p2/c2).

Newburyport Herald (1797-1915) was a newspaper founded in Newburyport, Massachusetts, by the merger of William Barrett’s Political Gazette and Angier March’s Impartial Herald. From 1797 to 1803 and again from 1811 to 1815, it was published under the title of Newburyport Herald and Country Gazette. Ephraim W. Allen (1779-1846) edited the Newburyport Herald for nearly thirty years to 1834. In March 1812, the Newburyport Herald was the first newspaper outside of the immediate Boston area to use the word “gerrymander” in its political sense.

Condition: Significant restoration of text loss.