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Updated: May 4, 2025
He proceeded to enlarge upon his plan for gerrymandering the state to the advantage of the Democratic party, of course. In the talk which followed, Bradley was brought face to face with the fact that these men were more earnest in maintaining the hold of their parties upon the offices than principles of legislation. They were not legislators in any instances; they were gamesters.
This trick is called "gerrymandering," from Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, who was vice-president of the United States from 1813 to 1817. It seems to have been first devised in 1788 by the enemies of the Federal Constitution in Virginia, in order to prevent the election of James Madison to the first Congress, and fortunately it was unsuccessful.
For contemporary allusions to this first example of gerrymandering, see Writings of Washington, ix. 446-447; Writings of Jefferson, ii. 574; Rives, Life of Madison, ii. 653-655; Bancroft, Hist. Const. ii. 485. Bancroft, Hist. Const. ii. 488-489. Gales, Debates, i. 258-261. Marshall, Life of Washington, v. 209-210; Story, Const. i. 211. Howison, Hist. Va. ii. 333.
Whatever Sydenham's intentions may have been, the actual result of his action was to secure for his party four seats in the very heart of the enemy's country; and the French Canadians, naturally embittered, resented the governor's action as a piece of gerrymandering, which had practically disfranchised many French voters.
Yet in some sections the odds were too great, or else the whites lacked the resolution to carry out such extensive informal disfranchisement. For years North and South Carolina each sent at least one negro member to the House of Representatives and, but for flagrant gerrymandering, might have sent more.
The result was, that the democratic party carried everything before them at the following election, and filled every office in the State, although it appeared by the votes returned, that nearly two-thirds of the votes were Federalists. Elridge Gerry, a distinguished politician at that period, was the inventor of that plan, which was called Gerrymandering, after him. Glossary of Americanisms.
The once famous phrase, Gerrymandering, some of our readers may remember. Governor Elbridge Gerry contrived, by a curious arrangement of districts in Massachusetts, to transfer the balance of power to his own party.
A comparison with the House in respect to nearness to the people. g. Qualifications for membership. Elections for senators and representatives: a. Times, places, and manner of holding elections. b. The power of Congress over state regulations. c. Electoral districts. d. The temptation to unfairness in laying out electoral districts. e. "Gerrymandering." g. Representatives at large. h.
Cannot we have that sense and tradition of equal opportunity for all who are born into this world, that generous and complete acknowledgment of the principle of promotion from the ranks that is the precious birthright of the American, without the political gerrymandering, the practical falsification, that restricts that general freedom at last only to the energetic, and that subordinates quality to quantity in every affair of life?
McMaster declares: "A very little study of long-forgotten politics will suffice to show that in filibustering and gerrymandering, in stealing governorships and legislatures, in using force at the polls, in colonizing and in distributing patronage to whom patronage is due, in all the frauds and tricks that go to make up the worst form of practical politics, the men who founded our state and national governments were always our equals, and often our masters."
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