Gerrymander, as a noun, is traced by the DAE to 1812, and as a verb, to 1813. The origin of the term was thus recorded in “A Memorial History of Boston”:1
In 1812, while Elbridge Gerry was Governor of Massachusetts,2 the Democratic Legislature, in order to secure an increased representation of their party in the State Senate, districted the State in such a way that the shape of the towns forming … a district in Essex county brought out a territory of regular outline. This was indicated on a map which Russell, the editor of the Continent,3 hung in his office. Stuart the painter,4 observing it, added a head, wings and claws, and exclaimed “That will do for a salamander!” “Gerrymander!” said Russell, and the word became a proverb.
Bartlett says that this first gerrymandering occurred in 1811, not 1812. He goes on:
In Massachusetts, for several years previous, the Federal and Democratic parties stood nearly equal. In that year the Democratic party, having a majority in the Legislature, determined to so district the State anew that those sections which gave a large number of Federal votes might be brought into one district. 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 voters were Federalists.
Pickering overlooked gerrymander when he brought out his Vocabulary in 1816, but it was already in wide circulation by that time, and the Boston Gazette said so early as April 5, 1813 that it was being “used throughout the United States as synonymous with deception.”1 The Russell map, headed “The Gerrymander” and described by a contemporary diarist as a caricatura, was printed in large numbers, and the copies propagated the term. The verb to gerrymander appeared in 1813, and has been in use ever since. The English did not adopt it until the 80s, but they now employ it as we do. It is commonly given a soft g, though Gerry has a hard one.
Mugwump is derived from an Algonquin word, mugquomp, signifying a chief, and was used by John Eliot in his famous Indian Bible, 1663, as an equivalent of the duke which appears forty-three times in the Authorized Version of Genesis XXXVI. It seems to have been used only seldom down to 1884. On June 15 of that year the ribald New York Sun applied it derisively to the Republicans who refused to support James G. Blaine for the Presidency — many of them men of means and consequence.2 The epithet became popular instantly, and on June 20 the New York Evening Post reported that all the Blaine organs were speaking of the Republican independents as “Pharisees, hypocrites, dudes, mugwumps, transcendentalists, or something of that sort.” Some of the independents, far from resenting the term, boldly adopted it, and on September 13 William Everett, the son of Edward Everett, made a speech at Quincy, Mass., in which he said:
I am an independent — a mugwump. I beg to state that mugwump is the best of American. It belongs to the language of the Delaware Indians; it occurs many times in Eliot’s Indian Bible; and it means a great man.
Since the campaign of 1884 mugwump has been in general use to indicate a political bolter, but it still carries the special significance of one professing to a certain undemocratic superiority. Soon after it came in General Horace Porter defined it as meaning “a person educated beyond his intellect,” and years later another wit defined it as “one of those boys who always has his mug on one side of the political fence and his wump on the other.”1 The DAE traces mugwumpery and mugwumpian to 1885, mugwumpism to 1886, mugwumpcy to 1887 and to mugwump to 1889. The English adopted mugwump promptly, and Partridge says that it is now fully naturalized. The London Saturday Review used it so early as November 22, 1884, and by 1918 it had produced an adjective in England, mugwumpish, which is not reported in the United States by the DAE. It is still, however, regarded as a somewhat uncouth term by the English. In 1925 Sir Henry Hadow, then vice-chancellor of Sheffield University, delivered an address to the Royal Microscopic Society in which he said:
I am always coming across those occasions of controversy in which some amazing person is either too superior or too unstable minded to join in with either side. I have hitherto thought and wanted to call him a mugwump, and have refrained from doing so because it is not a word of academic dignity; but in the future I shall know exactly how to deal with him. I shall call him a neutrophil polymorphonuclear leucocyte.2
Filibuster is an old word that has undergone a change of meaning in the United States. The NED says that it was derived originally from the Dutch vrijbuiter, a freebooter, and traces its use in that sense to c. 1587. In the 50s of the last century it began to be used in this country to designate the adventurers who were running arms to the revolutionists in Cuba and the Central American republics, and in that sense it is still a living term. But in 1853 a member of Congress termed the tactics of his opponents “filibustering against the United States,” and by 1863 to filibuster had come to have the meaning of a delaying action on the floor. In this latter sense, however, it did not come into wide use until the 80s. The DAE traces filibuster, in the former sense, to 1851, to filibuster and filibustering to 1853, filibusterism to 1854, and filibusterer to 1855. The English know the meaning of the term in its political sense, but seldom use it,1 and the NED marks it “U. S.”
Roorback, signifying a political canard, is traced by Thornton to 1844. In that year the Ithaca (N. Y.) Chronicle printed some alleged extracts from an imaginary book entitled “Roorback’s Tour Through the Western and Southern States,” containing grotesque charges against James K. Polk, then the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, and they were promptly copied by the Albany Journal and other Whig newspapers. This hoax, there is reason to believe, was perpetrated by an Ithaca man named Linn, later described by the Philadelphia Spirit of the Times as “a violent Abolitionist and an intemperate man.”2 The author of the book was supposed to be a visiting German named Baron von Roorback, In part, his adventures were suggested by those of Baron Münchhausen, but there were also borrowings from “An Excursion Through the Slave States,” by an Englishman named George William Featherstonehaugh,3 who had spent many years in the United States but had never quite overcome his dislike of the country. One of the stories was to the effect that Roorback, in traveling through the South in 1836, had encountered an encampment of Negroes on the banks of a mythical Duck river, and had found that every one was branded with the letters J.K.P. The inference was that they were the property of Polk and had been shipped South for sale. Roorback was overlooked by Bartlett when he compiled his Glossary in 1848, and by Schele de Vere in 1872, but it survived in the American political vocabulary for many years and is still occasionally encountered.4 Scalawag belongs to the same period. Bartlett says that it originated in Western New York and at first meant “a mean fellow, a scapegrace.” After the Civil War era it was applied to the Northern carpet-baggers who invaded the South, and to the white Southerners who trained with them, and since then it has been used to designate any low-down politician. In the 50s it had variants, e.g., scallywag, scallaway and scatterway, but they have disappeared. I have encountered suggestions that it was derived from the Greek, but the DAE says that its origin is “obscure” and ventures upon no etymology. Inasmuch as it was also used, at one time, to designate small, runty horses and cattle, Webster’s New International, 1934, surmises that it may come from Scalloway, the name of a district in the Shetland Islands in which such animals are bred, but for this there is no direct evidence.
Of the political terms not already discussed or listed, mileage, signifying a legislator’s allowance for traveling expenses, is probably the oldest, for the DAE traces it to 1754, when it was used by Benjamin Franklin. The DAE does not call it an Americanism, but it apparently did not come into use in England until a century later. Machine, in the political sense, is traced to 1866, machine-politician to 1879, and anti-machine to 1881. Machine-rule and machine-politics followed in 1882, machine-ticket in 1887, and machine-managers in 1896. Ballot-box, of course, is not an Americanism, but ballot-box stuffer is, traced by the DAE to 1856. Band-wago
n, an Americanism first thrown to the world in 1855, does not appear to have been taken into the political vocabulary until after 1900. Banner State, in the sense of the State which, in a Presidential election, gives the winning (or losing) candidate the largest majority (or plurality, or vote), was first used by the Whigs in the Harrison campaign of 1840. Banner county appeared at the same time, and banner-district soon afterward. Barrel, in the sense of a political fund (often bar’l), is traced by the DAE to 1880, but it notes that the term “is said to have originated in a dispatch to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat from Jefferson City [Mo.] about two weeks before the meeting of the Democratic [National] Convention in 1876, in St. Louis.” Thornton traces barrel-campaign to 1884, and the DAE finds barrell-candidate in use in the same year. The DAE does not list bee, as in presidential bee, but it must be relatively old. Presidential itself came in before 1800, and was denounced by the Monthly Anthology (London) as a “barbarism,” but in a little while the other English reviews were using it and it is now in good usage on both sides of the ocean. Presidency appeared at about the same time, and has since elbowed out the earlier English presidentship. The DAE does not list bell-ringer, in the sense of a bill introduced in a legislative body to extort money from those whose interest it threatens, nor is there any listing of the analogous hold-up and shake-down, at least as political terms. Strike, meaning “a form of legislative blackmail,” is traced to 1885, and Thornton, in his supplement,1 traces fat-frying to 1890. The DAE omits ripper, in the sense of a bill designed to legislate members of the opposition party out of office, but Webster’s New International lists it, and it has probably been in use since the 90s.2
In the days of heavy Irish immigration the ward-heelers of the Eastern cities were often called b’hoys, but it has gone out. Heeler is traced by the DAE to c. 1877, ward-heeler to 1888, ward-politics to 1883 and ward-politician to 1860. Wheel-horse goes back to 1867. Boss, from the Dutch baas, has been in common use in the United States since c. 1800, but it did not acquire its special political significance until c. 1875. The DAE traces bossism to 1881 and boss-rule to 1882. Boodle, from the Dutch boedel, meaning property, goods, came into use in the New York region so early as 1699, but it did not acquire the meaning of money until the 1850s, and was apparently not used to signify political bribes and loot until after 1880. The DAE traces to boodleize to 1886, boodler and boodlerism to 1887 and boodleism to 1894. Carpetbagger, in the sense of a politico operating outside his home territory, did not come into general use until the era of Reconstruction, when the South was invaded by thousands of political adventurers from the North, but it was used to indicate a dubious stranger so early as 1846. Carpetbag itself goes back to 1830 and carpet-sack to 1855. The first political use of dark horse, borrowed from racing, was in 1876, when it was applied to Rutherford B. Hayes. Dicker and divvy are old words, but the former did not appear in the political vocabulary until 1888 and the latter not until c. 1900. To engineer became a political term toward the end of the 50s. The black-horse cavalry, which engineers bell-ringers, strikes and shakedowns, was first heard of in 1893. Boom, in the political sense, is traced by the DAE to 1879, and with it came to boom and boomster. Boomlet followed in 1887. Brave, in the sense of a Tammany man, does not appear to have come in until 1871. It was borrowed, of course, from the common designation of an Indian warrior, traced by the DAE to 1819. Some of the other Indian terms used by or of Tammany are older. Sachem goes back to 1622 and has been used by Tammany since 1786. Wigwam came into the general speech in 1628 and was adopted by Tammany in 1787. Another political term of Indian origin that deserves greater popularity than it enjoys is wikinski or wiskinski, signifying a functionary told off to collect campaign assessments from officeholders.
Graft, in the political sense, is said to have been introduced by Joseph W. Folk, at that time circuit attorney in St. Louis. The publication of Josiah Flynt’s “Tramping With Tramps” in 1899 had made Americans familiar with the significance of the term in the argot of criminals, and it was a natural thing to transfer it to the operations of the political scoundrels that Folk was called upon to prosecute. Just when this transfer was made has not been determined. The DAE’s first example is dated 1903, but the word was undoubtedly in use before then. On the strength of his war upon grafters Folk was elected Governor of Missouri in 1904, and eight years later he was spoken of for the Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew in favor of Champ Clark. He died in 1923. Since graft began to denote the thieving of crooked politicians the more elegant of the regular or dirt crooks have abandoned it for grift.1 Partridge says that graft is now naturalized in England and the NED gives English examples from 1905 onward. Various verb phrases based on to go have been long in use in American politics. The DAE traces to go for to 1830, to go with the party to 1829 and to go Democratic to 1877, and Thornton traces to go the whole hog, in the political sense of to swallow the whole party programme, to 1832. To groom is found in the 70s, gumshoe-campaign in 1904, to gumshoe in 1912,2 to hornswoggle (in political use) in 1856, and to honey fogle (now obsolete) in 1855. Rather curiously, the DAE’s first example of job-holder goes back no further than 1904 and it does not list job-seeker at all. Both, I am inclined to believe, must have come into use long before the turn of the century, though I am not too sure. Contested election, though not American in origin, is now virtually an Americanism, for in our sense of an election whose returns are challenged the English do not use it. When they say contested election they mean one in which there is more than one candidate, and hence a contest. Freeze-out and to freeze out, in the political sense, are traced by Thornton to 1882. Has-been, immunity-bath, keynote-speech, keynoter, mudslinger, public-teat, public-trough, rake-off, steamroller, third-house and to view with alarm are all omitted by the DAE, which is sad, indeed, to see. Public-crib, however, is listed, and traced to 1853. Third-party, an Americanism, goes back to 1801, and third-term to 1833. Steam-roller was invented by Oswald F. Schuette, then Washington correspondent of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, to designate the rough devices used to force through the nomination of William H. Taft as the Republican presidential candidate in 1908. It has produced the inevitable verb, to steam-roller, and the adjective, steamrollered. When bloc came in I have been unable to determine, but it was probably not long ago. The farm-bloc was not heard of as such until after World War I, though it had been in existence for a century. To carry an election, an Americanism, is traced by the DAE to 1848, to crowd the mourners to 1859, and crowd, in the sense of a political group, usually nefarious, to 1840. To deliver the vote is not recorded before 1893, but to deliver the goods was used in 1879. A number of terms embodying election are peculiarly American and relatively ancient. Election-district was in use before 1800, and election-time is traced to 1807. The DAE’s first example of election-fraud is dated 1883, and of election-bet, 1925. Both, on further investigation, will no doubt turn out to be much older. In the early days it was customary for the victors in an election to celebrate with a party called an election-ball, but it survived into our own time only in the form of the now obsolete inaugural-ball or inauguration-ball, which the DAE traces to 1817. Inaugural-address goes back to 1805, and to in rugurate to 1789. Grass-roots has not yet got into the dictionaries: it seems to have been brought in by the Farmer-Labor party in 1920 or thereabout,1 along with dirt-farmer.
The trade argot of Congress contains a number of relatively ancient Americanisms. To get the floor has been traced by the DAE to 1816, to yield the floor to 1835, to obtain the floor to 1842, to take the floor to 1846, to have the floor to 1848 and floor-leader to 1899. Gag-rule goes back to 1810, lame-duck to 1863, omnibus bill to 1850, non-committal (an Americanism once denounced by English purists as barbarous) to 1829, junket to 1886, joker (inserted in a bill) to 1904, insurgent to 1904,1 cloakroom gossip (the congressional equivalent of soldiers’ latrine gossip) to 1920 (it must be much older), pork to 1879 and pork-barrel to 1913, salary-grab to 1873,2 senatorial courtesy (whereby a Senator may veto a presidentia
l nomination for office of anyone from his own State) to 1884, slush-fund to 1864, straddler and to straddle to 1884, to stand pat (from the terminology of poker) to 1896 and standpatter standpattism and the adjective standpat to 1904, smelling committee to 1877,3 steering committee to 1887, sectional to 1806 and sectionalism to 1855, and calamity-howler to 1892. Thornton’s first example of on the fence is from the Richmond Whig of August 13, 1828, and the DAE’s first is from Niles’ Register of the same year. The DAE does not list either closure or clôture. The latter was borrowed from the French by the English in 1871 or thereabout, but when the House of Commons adopted rules for the limitation of debate in 1882 clôture was dropped for closure. Both have been used in this country, but clôture the more often.
The business of congressmen, like that of all other politicians, consists largely of the discovery, pursuit and laying of hobgoblins; this, indeed, is the chief phenomenon of the democratic process. Since the earliest days the two Houses have devoted immense amounts of time and wind to pursuing such wicked men and things as Bourbons, slavocrats, embargoroons,4 gold-bugs, plutocrats, nullifiers, war-hawks, embalmed beef, imperialism, isolationists, nigger-lovers, muckrakers, rotten rich, pacifists, the trusts, the Interests, Wall Street, hell-hounds, tories, reactionaries, reds, fascists, money-sharps, European pauper labor, the whiskey-ring, pro-Germans, Japanese spies, the white-slave trade, economic royalists, princes of pelf, land-grabbers, land-sharks, mossbacks,1 the open shop, the closed shop, and labor and other racketeers. Even Washington made a contribution to the menagerie with foreign entanglements; as for Jefferson, he produced two of the best bugaboos of all time in his war-hawks and monocrats. From 1875 onward until the late 80s waving the bloody shirt was the chief industry of Republican congressmen, and from the early 90s onward the crime of ’75 engaged the Democrats. Bourbon, borrowed from the name of the French royal family, the members of which were said to never learn anything and never forget anything, has been traced to 1859, but it did not come into general use until after the Civil War, when it was applied to the unreconstructed Southern Democrats. Tory, of course, has been a term of opprobium since the Revolution, when it was applied to one loyal to England; loyalist was a synonym, but not quite so offensive. Tory served so well that it was revived in 1812 to designate New England opponents of the second war with England, in 1861 for Southerners who favored the Union, in 1896 for advocates of the gold standard, and in 1933 for persons who refused to accept the New Deal.2 Gold-bug, always employed in a contemptuous spirit, is traced by the DAE to 1878. Reactionary was used by J. A. Froude in his “History of England” so long ago as 1858, but it did not begin to appear in the American political vocabulary until the Bryan era, and it had begun to drop out when the New Dealers revived it in 1933. Plutocrats were first heard of in the late 70s3 and the trusts at about the same time.4 Since 1880, at least forty different trusts, real and imaginary, have had the attention of Congress, e.g., the Coal, Whiskey, Oil, Gas,1 Lumber, Railroad, Fertilizer, Gold, Meat, Telephone, Elevator, Money, Shipping, Steel, Beer, Flour, and even Baseball, Civil Service and Vice Trusts. The first trust-buster appeared in 1877. Imperialism became so infamous under Democratic attack after the Spanish-American War that its Republican defenders sought to disguise it under the milder name of expansion. The Interests, not listed by the DAE, were first heard of during the Bryan saturnalia of vituperation at the end of the Nineteenth Century, but Wall Street had been under fire since the Civil War era, and money-sharks were denounced on the floor of the House so early as 1844. The Bryanists invented hell-hounds of plutocracy, but economic royalist, prince of pelf and rotten rich had to wait for the New Deal to born them. The DAE omits vice-crusade, white-slave trade and Vice Trust, which, in a vocabulary of Americanisms, is almost as sad an oversight as omitting buffalo, home-run or Rotary. The legend that white-slave traders infested the primitive movie-parlors of the land, and fetched their recruits by injecting morphine into their arms, was set afloat c. 1910, and soon won millions of believers. For a few years a young woman of any pulchritude, real or imaginary, was afraid to go into a crowd alone. There ensued furious vice crusades in all the larger cities, led by vice-hounds who were partly psychopaths but mainly frauds, and in a little while most of the old-time tolerated brothels were closed and their inmates were turned loose upon the poorer decent neighborhoods. The culmination of the frenzy came with the passage of the Mann Act in 1910.2 In the ensuing test-case of Caminetti vs. the United States3 Mr. Justice McKenna (with Chief Justice White and Justice Clarke agreeing) denounced the law as an incitement to blackmail, but it was upheld by a four to three vote, with one justice not voting, and a reign of blackmail duly followed.
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