the author of the political satire called the Gerrymander, and made designs for it."

Messrs. Batchelder, Loring and Dunlap agree in assigning to Elkanah Tisdale the drawing of the monster. Messrs. Buckingham and Streeter assign it to Gilbert Stuart; but Major Benjamin Russell, who, according to Buckingham's statement, gave it its name, told Dr. Palmer that Tisdale was the designer. As regards the person who gave the name the evidence is conflicting, but as Mr. Batchelder made his memorandum at the time, I think his evidence should be received in preference to that of persons who made up their accounts at a later date.

Elkanah Tisdale was the second son of Elkanah and Abigail Tisdale of Lebanon, Ct., and was born in that town, Sept. 26, 1768. Col. John Trumbull, the painter, was born in Lebanon twelve years before that date. Tisdale was a miniature painter in New York in 1805. He designed in 1807, and perhaps engraved the plates for

"The Echo." Among his early designs were some for "McFingal." In 1812, when this picture was drawn, he was a miniature painter in Boston. He afterwards removed to Hartford and became a partner in the Graphic Company. He died at Norwich, Ct., May 1, 1835, aged 66. He wrote poetry and is said to have been a

man of wit.

The history of the Gerrymander law is this. The Massachusetts state election, on the first Monday of April, 1811, resulted in a complete triumph of the democratic, or as they styled themselves the republican, party. The governor, Elbridge Gerry, was of that party, as well as a majority of both the senate and house of representatives. Hon. Samuel Dana of Middlesex county was chosen president of the senate, and Hon. Joseph Story of Salem was chosen speaker of the house. The winter session of the legislature began on Wednesday, January 8, 1812. Mr. Story, the speaker of the house, having been appointed a justice of the United States Supreme Court, resigned his office as speaker January 18, and Eleazer W. Ripley of Waterville was chosen in his place.

An order passed the senate Wednesday, January 22, and the house on the 23d, appointing a committee "to consider the subject of a new law to alter the districts now established for the choice of counsellors and senators and to determine what alterations may be necessary therein." The committee consisted of Messrs. Seth Sprague, Jonas Kendall and Francis Carr of the senate, and Benjamin W. Crowninshield of Salem, Matthew Cobb of Portland, Jonathan Smith of West Springfield, and Eliakim Phelps of Belchertown, of the house. Mr. Kendall of the senate and Mr. Phelps of the house were federalists. The rest were democrats.

The committee reported a bill, which was considered by the senate Tuesday, February 4, 1812. Various amendments were offered by the federalists, but were all voted down. One was that the county of Essex shall form one district and choose five senators, and another was to strike out the two sections forming the districts in Essex county, and insert "the towns forming the present south district for the choice of a representative in Congress, with the towns of Hamilton, Topsfield and Middleton, form one district and choose three senators, and the remaining towns in Essex county form one district and choose two senators.' The bill passed that day without amendment-yeas 19, nays 18.

The bill came before the house on Thursday, Feb. 6. Mr. William H. Sumner of Boston moved that the further consideration of this question be postponed till the first session of the next General Court, but it was defeated by a yea and nay vote-yeas 229, nays 270. The next day, Friday, Feb. 7, the bill was passed by the house-yeas 278, nays 231.

On Thursday, February 20, in the house, a protest signed by 224 members was read by William Sullivan, and is entered in full with

the names in an appendix to the journal, making in all over eight pages.

A map of Essex county, with Chelsea, showing the division of the two districts in that county, was published, March 6, 1812, in the Boston Weekly Messenger, of which newspaper Nathan Hale was the editor. Mr. Hale is said by Mr. Batchelder to have drawn the geographical figure" which was the basis of the Gerrymander. An engraving of the Gerrymander appeared about three weeks later in the Boston Gazette, March 26, 1812. The late Mr. George G. Smith (REGISTER, vol. 33, p. 256) informed me that the cut, which was on metal, was executed in the shop where he was an apprentice to the trade of an engraver. He showed me a scar on his wrist, which he said was made by his graver slipping when he was doing some rough work on the cut. The picture was reproduced later in other newspapers, the same cut apparently being used. It did not, however, appear in the Columbian Centinel, at least not at that time; and this leads me to think that the story is not true that the monster was drawn in the Centinel office, and received its name there. I do not find that Major Russell, when it appeared in the papers, referred to it in the Centinel even as a matter of news. Perhaps the picture was got up by a rival clique in the Federal party.

Photo-engravings of the original picture and the original map are given in this article, but reduced in size. The original gerrymander in the Boston Gazette measures 6 inches high and 6 inches wide. The original map is 73 inches high and 6 inches wide.

The picture is thus noticed April 2, 1812, by the "Independent Chronicle," a democratic newspaper :

The federalists of Boston lately drew an accurate likeness of themselves and sent it out to their country brethren in the Gazette and Repertory; hoping that it would inspire sentiments of respect and admiration. They misnamed it the "Gerrymander"; it should have been the Federal Gander, for none but geese would ever have resorted to such a paltry and foolish expedient. The mathematicians who planned and the limners who executed the sublime specimen of federal ingenuity drew their own portrait without intending it. They exposed at one view, all their malignant, venomous and lizard-like qualities.

It will be noticed in the picture that the lines forming the western boundaries of Andover, Middleton and Lynnfield form the profile of a man's face. It is said to be that of Gov. Gerry. The New-England Historic Genealogical Society has a copy of the original Gerrymander picture, in which some one has painted the profile in flesh color with eye, nose and mouth.

We are indebted to Mr. C. B. Tillinghast, of the Massachusetts State Library, for extracts from the journals of the senate and house, which are now preserved with other matter relating to the Gerrymander in the library of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society.-D.

A large broadside (18 in. by 21 in.) was published in 1823, entitled "Natural and Political History of the Gerry-Mander. In two chapters. With Cuts." The first chapter gives the Natural History, and the second the Political History. The cuts were the Gerrymander picture and the map of Essex county. From the Political History, we quote the following:

In the year 1811, both the branches of the Legislature, and the Governor, were, with the exception of a single year, for the first time, democratic; but the experience of past years, taught the prevailing party, that the tenure

of their power was extremely precarious, and that the smallness of their majority in the Senate was sometimes, from the superiority of talents on the other side, quite embarrassing.

The senatorial districts had been formed, according to the natural and most obvious construction of the constitution, without any division of counties. To effect the desired object of securing a decided majority in the Senate in all future years, the Legislature divided the State into new senatorial districts in such a manner as to procure the election of the greatest number of democratic Senators. They not only divided counties to effect their object in opposition to the powerful arguments of the federal members, who urged the unconstitutionality of such a measure, but they divided the counties of Essex and Worcester in a manner which showed that all considerations of convenience or propriety were disregarded, and that the only object was to form a democratic district from each of those federal counties. This will appear from the following plan of the two Essex Districts, in which the double dotted lines show the boundaries of the districts as they were formed by the districting law of 1811, commonly called the GerryMander law.

[For the plan, see the opposite page.]

In the plan given above of the Essex outer district, authorized by law to choose three Senators, while the federal towns enclosed within it formed another district to choose two, the reader will perceive all the features of the Gerry-Mander. It was the creature of the Legislature of 1811, and the design of its creation was to increase and secure the power of the democratic party in the Senate of the State.

The Gerry-Mander did not disappoint the expectations of its fond parents. The election of Senators in 1812 took place under the Gerry-Mander law, and the result was, that TWENTY NINE democratic, and only ELEVEN federal Senators were chosen. On the same day the federal candidate for Governor was chosen by a handsome majority; and what is more remarkable, such was the malignant influence of the animal of which we are giving the history, that it required fewer democratic votes to choose the twenty nine democratic Senators, than were actually given to the federal candidates, of whom only eleven were chosen.

The whole number of votes given for Senators was 101,930, of which 51,766 were given to the federal candidates, and 50,164 for the democratic candidates, making a federal majority of 1602 votes. Yet the democratic minority, with the help of the Gerry-Mander, outvoted the federal majority, almost three to one-that is, so as to constitute a Senate of 29 democratic and 11 federal members.

In the Massachusetts State Election, Monday, April 5, 1813, the Federal party was triumphant. The Gerrymander district itself cast 2909 federal votes to 2739 democratic, being a majority of 170 against the party which formed the district. In the Salem Gazette, April 6, the following article and cut appeared:

The Great Magician's Dead!

But

We announce in our paper of to-day, we confess with no great regret, the Death of that far famed and ill begotten Monster the Gerry-Mander. This "delicate monster" has been pining ever since last November, when he terribly strained himself in attempting to swallow one of his parents. regardless of the consequences of that wicked and injudicious attempt, he yesterday made another most desperate effort to swallow Three of his nearest relations, and immediately expired in the most "agonizing struggles "—a loud warning to all his relations in this and the neighboring States.