Written by Neil Horsky, this column was originally published in the February 2015 issue of the Boston Compass

Art by Andrew Leonard, “(En)titled no.1”

On February 12, 1812 Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill redrawing Essex County’s voting districts to aid his Jeffersonian-Republican Party over the rival Federalist Party in the upcoming election. The new boundaries concentrated Federalist voters into one district while giving Republican voters a slight majority in several others, ensuring more seats in the State legislature for the Republicans.

Once word of the rigged bill began to spread from Beacon Hill, a political cartoonist caught wind and drew his own map of the new oddly shaped districts. He illustratively embellished district borders to resemble a profile of the mythical winged fire-lizard “salamander,” and comically named it the “Gerry-Mander.”

The Boston Gazette published the cartoon map a month later, further fueling a public critique of Gerry’s corruption. As yet another example of art’s power to capture and expand public consciousness, the practice of corrupt redistricting has henceforth carried the name: gerrymandering.