It seems we have been pronouncing Gerrymandering incorrectly. More often than not, we pronounce it with a soft “g” (as in sounding like Jerry); we should be pronouncing it with a hard “g” (as in Gary).
The word was a concoction from 1812, and the namesake for the word – Declaration of Independence signer Elbridge Gerry – pronounced his name with a hard “g” – his name sounds like ‘Gary’.
“Acting on the request of a former Marblehead schoolteacher, the town’s board of selectmen sent a letter to [US Supreme Court] Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr [in 2018] asking the justices to use the hard “g” pronunciation”. (ABA Journal)
Elbridge Thomas Gerry [1837-1927], grandson of Founder Elbridge Gerry, was a prominent and influential Gilded Age New York trial lawyer, philanthropist and bibliophile whose library became the foundation of the United States Supreme Court Library. (Shelley Dowling)
US Supreme Court staff, “assured the selectmen that ‘not only do we tend carefully to our Gerry collection, but we pronounce it with a hard “g”.
In a follow-up statement to the Boston Globe, a public information officer said there is ‘a solid consensus’ on the pronunciation of Gerry, but the pronunciation of gerrymandering “remains ‘sub judice.’”
Here is Elbridge Gerry explaining a little about himself: https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Gerry-Elbridge-MA-White-House-Founders-Museum.mp4
The legend of the gerrymander came into being in 1812 at a meeting of Federalist political leaders and newspapermen in Boston.
Gerrymandering was coined from a political cartoon published in 1812. The cartoon bashed Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry for signing a bill that redrew state senate districts to disadvantage Federalists. (ABA Journal)
“The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure — and from a mythological salamander. The term, originally written as “Gerry-mander,” first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette.”
“Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was [Massachusetts’s Governor] Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations. Gerry, in fact, found the proposal “highly disagreeable.’”
“He lost the next election, but the redistricting was a success: His party retained control of the legislature. One of the remapped, contorted districts in the Boston area was said to resemble the shape of a mythological salamander.” (LOC)
Complaints about the efforts of their Jeffersonian Republican opponents to rig state elections by altering voting districts led artist Elkanah Tisdale to add a head and wings to an outlined map of a new senatorial district in Essex County and name it the “gerrymander” after the leader of the Jeffersonians, Governor Elbridge Gerry.
The cartoon shocked the public and proved very effective. (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Elbridge Gerry was a merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States. Born on July 17, 1744, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Gerry came from a family of successful merchants. He graduated from Harvard College and worked closely with Samuel Adams.
After a brief time in commerce, he entered public service as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and General Court. In 1775, Gerry was elected to the Second Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence, and continued to serve until 1780.
In response to Shays’ Rebellion, Gerry was selected to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He chaired the committee that helped forge the Great Compromise, which created a bicameral legislature with popular representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and equal representation for each state in the Senate.
Concerned about centralized power, Gerry – along with Edmund Randolph and George Mason – refused to sign the Constitution without a Bill of Rights. After ratification, he served two terms in Congress, retiring in 1793.
He later served as Governor of Massachusetts beginning in 1810, where the state legislature’s redistricting decisions led to the term “gerrymandering.” In 1813, he became vice president under James Madison, serving until his death in 1814 at age 70. (Founders Museum)
Elbridge Gerry left us a message … “It is the duty of every man, though he may have but one day to live, to devote that day to the good of his country.”
With respect to the legality of politically-based gerrymandering, the US Supreme Court concluded, “Excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust.”
“But the fact that such gerrymandering is ‘incompatible with democratic principles,’ … does not mean that the solution lies with the federal judiciary. We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
“Federal judges have no license to reallocate political power between the two major political parties, with no plausible grant of authority in the Constitution, and no legal standards to limit and direct their decisions.”
“‘[J]udicial action must be governed by standard, by rule,’ and must be ‘principled, rational, and based upon reasoned distinctions’ found in the Constitution or laws. … Judicial review of partisan gerrymandering does not meet those basic requirements. …”
“No one can accuse this Court of having a crabbed view of the reach of its competence. But we have no commission to allocate political power and influence in the absence of a constitutional directive or legal standards to guide us in the exercise of such authority.”
“‘It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’ … In this rare circumstance, that means our duty is to say ‘this is not law.’”
“The judgments of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and the United States District Court for the District of Maryland are vacated, and the cases are remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.” (Decision of the US Supreme Court, Rucho et al. v. Common Cause et al.)
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