Daily Advertiser and Repertory Newspaper--April 15, 1813 the Death of Gerrymandering

Boston: Daily Advertiser and Repertory Newspaper. 1813. Newspaper. Single page newspaper dated April 15, 1813. Moderate foxing; lightly chipped along edges. Excerpt from the Salem Gazette with an Obituary Notice for Gerrymander including a woodcut tombstone with the inscription, "In Memory of the Gerrymander, hatched Feb. 11, 1812. Died April 5, 1813. How sleep the friends who sink to dust, by all the good and virtuous curst! " The political tool of Gerrymandering (the word combines Elbridge Gerry and salamander as an early political cartoonist thought a newly created district looked like a salamander or "Gerry-monster". Gerry was the Governor of Massachusetts during the period districts were re-mapped although he personally was against the practice) began in Massachusetts in 1812 in order to favor the party in power in future elections. The term may have been coined by Nathan Hale, a Federalist who was a contributor to the Daily Advertiser and Repertory Newspaper and would become its publisher in 1814. Despite the almost full newspaper column devoted to the death of Gerrymandering in this issue, the term and practice began to spread to other states, was defined in a dictionary in 1848, and remains in the political lexicon today. The Daily Advertiser and Repertory Newspaper went so far as to describe the funeral procession to the graveyard to once and for all bury Gerrymandering. In addition to the woodblock headstone we also find the skeletal remains of the "Gerrymander Monster" laid in a coffin. At the gravesite a hymn was sung which began, "Hark! From below a croaking sound, Mine ears attend the cry: Ye Gerrymanders view the ground Where you must shortly lie." Classic early 19th century political propaganda from a Boston newspaper. Several institutions hold runs of the newspaper yet this particular issue is not well known within the early history of the life and history of "Gerrymandering". Additional images available as our scanner bed is too small to fit the entire column. ; 2 pp .