Gerrymander term is introduced.

The Boston Gazette publishes an embellished map of the new Essex County state senate district that had redrawn to favor the Republican Party and was recently approved by Gov. Elbridge Gerry. It appears above a caption that reads, “The Gerry-Mander: A new species of Monster.” The map is an unadorned version of one that had been published by Nathan Hale in his Boston Weekly Messenger on March 6, 1812, then passed around at a party in the home of Israel Thorndike at today’s 52 Summer Street (then 6 Summer Street). A guest said it looked like a dragon, prompting another guest, painter Elkanah Tisdale, to add a head, wings, and claws to the map. A third guest said it now looked like a salamander, prompting a fourth, Richard Alsop, to remark, “more like a ‘Gerrymander.'” It is the first use of the term to describe drawing oddly-shaped electoral districts to promote political advantage, a practice upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004.*