Gerrymandering
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Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve "cracking" (diluting the voting power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts) or "packing" (concentrating the opposing party's voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts). Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins, a professor at Morgan State University, describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians. The term ''gerrymandering'' is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan distri ...
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Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry ( ; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 1814. The political practice of gerrymandering is named after him. Born into a wealthy merchant family, Gerry vocally opposed British colonial policy in the 1760s and was active in the early stages of organizing the resistance in the American Revolutionary War. Elected to the Second Continental Congress, Gerry signed both the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but refused to sign the Constitution because originally it did not include a Bill of Rights. After its ratification, he was elected to the inaugural United States Congress, where he was actively involved in the drafting and passage of the Bill of Rights as an advocate of individ ...
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Boundary Delimitation
Electoral boundary delimitation (or simply boundary delimitation or delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries of electoral precincts and related divisions involved in elections, such as Federated state, states, counties or other municipalities.Overview of Boundary Delimitation
ACE: The Electoral Knowledge Center. Accessed July 09, 2008.
It can also be called "Redistribution (election), redistribution" and is used to prevent unbalance of population across districts. In the United States, it is called redistricting. Unbalanced or discriminatory delimitation is called "gerrymandering". Though there are no internationally agreed processes that guarantee fair delimitation, several organizations, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union and the International Foun ...
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Elkanah Tisdale
Elkanah Tisdale (1768 – May 1, 1835) was an American engraver, miniature painter and cartoonist. He was known for the famous cartoon "The Gerry-Mander", published in the ''Boston Gazette'' on March 26, 1812, which led to the coining of the term gerrymandering. Biography Elkanah Tisdale was born in 1768 in Lebanon, Connecticut. His father ran a wagon shop in Lebanon before moving to New York City in 1794, and Elkanah probably worked for him as a carriage painter. Tisdale was based in New York from 1794 to 1798, where he described himself as "Engraver and miniature painter". After 1798 he called himself a miniature painter. Some sources say that he met Benjamin Trott in 1798, and the two friends left New York and stayed in Albany for a few months to avoid an epidemic of yellow fever. From that time he alternated between Connecticut and New York City. In 1798 he founded the Hartford Engraving Company in Hartford, Connecticut. He joined the Graphic Co. in Hartford, an ass ...
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Portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.Garner's Modern American Usage
p. 644.
English examples include '' smog'', coined by blending ''smoke'' and ''fog'', and '''', from ''motor'' ('' motorist'') and ''hotel''. A blend is similar to a
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Democratic-Republican Party
The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed liberalism, republicanism, individual liberty, equal rights, separation of church and state, freedom of religion, anti-clericalism, emancipation of religious minorities, decentralization, free markets, free trade, and agrarianism. In foreign policy, it was hostile to Great Britain and in sympathy with the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The party became increasingly dominant after the 1800 elections as the opposing Federalist Party collapsed. Increasing dominance over American politics led to increasing factional splits within the party. Old Republicans, led by John Taylor of Caroline and John Randolph of Roanoke, believed that the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe—and the Congresses led by Henry Clay—had in so ...
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Political Cartoon
A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to either question authority or draw attention to corruption, political violence and other social ills. Developed in England in the latter part of the 18th century, the political cartoon was pioneered by James Gillray, although his and others in the flourishing English industry were sold as individual prints in print shops. Founded in 1841, the British periodical '' Punch'' appropriated the term ''cartoon'' to refer to its political cartoons, which led to the term's widespread use. History Origins The pictorial satire has been credited as the precursor to the political cartoons in England: John J. Richetti, in ''The Cambridge history of English literature, 1660–1780'', states ...
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Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter born in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washington, begun in 1796, which is usually referred to as the ''Athenaeum Portrait''. Stuart retained the original and used it to paint scores of copies that were commissioned by patrons in America and abroad. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century and on various Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps, postage stamps of the 19th century and early 20th century. Stuart produced portraits of about 1,000 people, including the List of Presidents of the United States, first six Presidents., ''The Story of Gilbert Stuart''. Woonsocket Connection. Retrieved July 25, 2007. His work can be found to ...
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Library Of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law of the United States, copyright law through the United States Copyright Office, and it houses the Congressional Research Service. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest Cultural policy of the United States, federal cultural institution in the United States. It is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill, adjacent to the United States Capitol, along with the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and additional storage facilities at Fort Meade, Fort George G. Meade and Cabin Branch in Hyattsville, Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by the librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol. The LOC is one of the List of largest libraries, largest libra ...
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Nathan Hale (journalist)
Nathan Hale (16 August 1784 – 9 February 1863) was an American journalist and newspaper publisher who introduced regular editorial comment as a newspaper feature.Colby, Frank Moore; Talcott Williams; Herbert Treadwell Wade (1922). ''The New International Encyclopedia''. Dodd, Mead and company Life and career Born in Westhampton, Massachusetts, Hale graduated from Williams College in 1804, and then was a tutor for two years at Phillips Exeter Academy. He moved to Boston, where he was admitted to the bar in 1810, and practiced law for four years. He began to co-edit '' The Weekly Messenger'' in 1813 and founded the '' Boston Daily Advertiser'' that same year, serving as editor and publisher until his death in 1863. Hale was one of the founders of the ''North American Review'' in 1815 and the '' Christian Examiner'' in 1823. In 1842, he was asked by the firm of Bradbury, Soden and Company to suggest an editor for a new monthly magazine they were planning to publish, '' The Boston ...
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Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was a conservativeMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * and nationalist American political party and the first political party in the United States. It dominated the national government under Alexander Hamilton from 1789 to 1801. The party was defeated by the Democratic-Republican Party in 1800, and it became a minority party while keeping its stronghold in New England. It made a brief resurgence by opposing the War of 1812, then collapsed with its last presidential candidate in 1816 United States presidential election, 1816. Remnants lasted for a few years afterwards. The party appealed to businesses who favored banks, national over state government, and manufacturing an army and navy. In world affairs, the party preferred Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and strongly opposed involvement in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The party favored centralization, Early federalism in the United States, federalism, modernization, industriali ...
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Massachusetts Senate
The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the state. All but one of the districts are named for the counties in which they are located (the "Cape and Islands" district covers Dukes, Nantucket, and parts of Barnstable counties). Senators serve two-year terms, without term limits. The Senate convenes in the Massachusetts State House in Boston, the state capital. Qualifications The following are the qualifications to be elected to the Massachusetts Senate: * Be 18 years of age * Be a registered voter in Massachusetts * Be an inhabitant of Massachusetts for five years * Be a resident of the district when elected * Receive at least 300 signatures on nomination papers Recent party control Democrats hold a supermajority in the Senate. Current leadership Current members and distri ...
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