in the future, that there might be no doubt about the election of
a United States Senator, the Republicans remapped the sena-
torial districts and divided the power of their political oppo-
nents by paying no attention to county boundaries. In Essex
County the arrangement of the district in relation to the town
was most singular and absurd. Russell had opposed such a polit-
ical move, and after it had become a law he had taken a map of
Essex County and colored the towns according to senatorial dis-
tricts. The strange map hung on the walls of his editorial sanc-
tum. One day as Stuart gazed at the map he remarked to Rus-
sell that the towns as they had been colored resembled some
monstrous animal. A few touches of his pencil added a head,
wings, and claws. "There," said Stuart, according to the re-
port, "that will do for a salamander." Editor Russell looked at
the revised map only a minute and then exclaimed, "Salaman-
der? Better call it Gerrymander." In describing this incident in
his "Reminiscences," Joseph T. Buckingham said: "The word
became a proverb, and, for many years, was in popular use
among the Federalists as a term of reproach to the Democratic
Legislature, which had distinguished itself by this act of polit-
ical turpitude. An engraving of the Gerrymander was made,
and hawked about the State, which had some effect in annoy-
ing the Democratic Party." Republicans had by this time come
to be known as Democrats a term first used by the Federal-
ists in ridicule.
NECESSITY OF CHANGE IN NAME
When Washington retired to Mount Vernon, The Centinel became a faithful supporter of John Adams and his policies. The term Republican Journal in the second part of the title of the paper was in a certain sense a misnomer. It was later changed to The Massachusetts Federalist. While a great Fed- eral organ, The Centinel reported European news much better than its contemporaries. Russell subscribed to the leading for- eign journals and reprinted in condensed form the more impor- tant items. This practice made the paper a wholesale distribu- tor of news for the country printers of New England. Russell did not hesitate to rebuke the sensational press because it had
