Editing Caucus (section)

==Etymology==
[[Image:Alice par John Tenniel 09.png|thumb|[[Lewis Carroll]] mocked the futility of caucuses in "A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale", Chapter 3 of ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1865): when the "Caucus-race" of running in a circle stops, everyone is declared a winner by the [[Dodo (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Dodo]] and Alice is told to hand out [[prize]]s to all others, receiving her own thimble as her prize.]]

The word ''caucus'' came into use in the British colonies of North America to describe clubs or private meetings at which political matters were discussed. It is first found in reference to the [[Boston Caucus|Caucus Club]] of [[Boston]], which was established in {{c.}}1719, although the name is not documented until {{c.}}1760. There are three main theories for the word's origins:<ref name="bell">[http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2008/01/colonial-boston-vocabulary-caucus-part.html J. L. Bell, ""Boston 1775: Colonial Boston Vocabulary: 'caucus,' part 2"]</ref>

;Native American
:[[James Hammond Trumbull]] suggested to the [[American Philological Association]] that the word comes from an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] word for "counsel", ''cau´-cau-as´u''. It might also derive from the Algonquian ''cawaassough'', meaning an advisor, talker, or orator.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=James |title=The Earth Shall Weep |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=1999 |location=New York City, NY |pages=[https://archive.org/details/earthshallweephi00wils/page/104 104–105] |isbn=0-87113-730-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/earthshallweephi00wils/page/104 }}</ref> This explanation was favored by [[Charles Dudley Warner]].<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3129/pg3129.txt ''The Story of Pocahontas"], Project Gutenberg</ref> 

;Drinking associations
:The ''[[American Heritage Dictionary]]'' suggests that the word possibly derives from medieval [[Latin]] ''caucus'', meaning "drinking vessel",<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=caucus|encyclopedia=American Heritage Dictionary |edition=4th |year=2000|location=Boston, MA|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company}}</ref> such as might have been used for the [[Flip (cocktail)|flip]] drunk at the Caucus Club (see [[John Adams]] quotation below). The appearance of the term coincides with the spreading in England – and therefore also in America – of the inns called ''cocues'' because they were places to drink the new cheap liquor called "[[gin]]" or "cuckoo liquor", since it was obtained from the [[distillation]] of so-called "cuckoo barley"; namely, [[barley]] sown very late in the spring and therefore unsuitable for the brewing of beer.<ref>See [[Pub#Advent of the modern pub]] and [[Gin#History]].</ref> That caucuses were places where people drank abundantly is attested by Obadiah Benjamin Franklin Bloomfield in his autobiography: "Richard had set out hospitably [...] A caucus had been accordingly held by these worthies, and it was resolved nem. con. that they should first make a [[drunkard]] of him, and then pluck him, aye, even of the last feather."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Life and Adventures of Obadiah Benjamin Franklin Bloomfield M.D. […] written by himself |location=Philadelphia |year=1818 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandadventur00frangoog/page/n156 138] |publisher=Published for the proprietor |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandadventur00frangoog }}</ref>

;Shipbuilding
:A third theory is that the word is a corruption of "caulkers" (i.e., persons who apply [[caulk]]), in the sense of [[shipbuilder]]s. This derivation was suggested by [[John Pickering (linguist)|John Pickering]] in 1816 in ''A Vocabulary; or, Collection of Words and Phrases Which Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the U.S. of America''. It was later adopted by [[Noah Webster]] and also appears in an article of 1896 on the origins of the caucus – in all cases citing the 1788 passage by William Gordon quoted below (although Gordon only mentions shipbuilding incidentally, and does not imply any direct connection with the caucus).<ref name="bell"/><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U80xAQAAMAAJ |title=Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896: Containing the Lives of the Republican and Democratic Candidates for President and Vice-president, Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of All Parties |chapter=Famous Presidential Campaigns of the Past: the origins of the 'Caucus' |last1=Ellis |first1=Edward Sylvester |last2=Reed |first2=Thomas Brackett |last3=Wilson |first3=William Lyne |last4=Sherman |first4=John |last5=Upton |first5=J. K. |date=1896 |publisher=International Publishing Company |location=Philadelphia |page=17 |language=en }}</ref> It likewise appears in ''[[Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography]]'' (1888), where it is suggested that the term's roots lay in what is here called the "caulkers' club" of Boston, formed by [[Samuel Adams Sr.]] and a group of "sea-captains, shipwrights, and persons otherwise connected with the shipping interest".<ref name="Appletons">{{cite book |editor-last=Wilson |editor-first=James Grant |editor-last2=Fiske |editor-first2=John |title=[[Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography]] |volume=1 Aaron–Crandall |chapter=[[Samuel Adams|Adams, Samuel]] |location=New York |year=1888 |page=[https://archive.org/details/appletonscyclop01wils/page/28/mode/2up?view=theater 29] |publisher=D. Appleton and Company }}</ref> This entry also discusses [[Samuel Adams|Samuel Adams Jr.]]'s fondness for quoting Greek and Latin "after the [[pedant]]ic fashion of the time",<ref name="Appletons"/> which might provide a context for a coinage with a Latin suffix.

===Early usage===
The ''[[Boston Gazette]]'' of May 5, 1760, includes an essay commenting:

{{blockquote|Whereas it is reported, that certain Persons, of the Modern ''Air and Complexion'', to the Number of Twelve at least, have divers Times of late been known to combine together, and are called by the Name of the ''New and Grand Corcas'', tho' of declared Principles directly opposite to all that have heretofore been known: And whereas it is vehemently suspected, by some, that their Design is nothing less, than totally to overthrow the ancient Constitution of our Town-Meetings, as being popular and mobbish …}}

The writer goes on to argue that this body's underhand attempts to influence voters are in opposition to the more laudable activities of "the old and true Corcas".<ref>{{cite news |title=Supplement |newspaper=[[Boston Gazette]] |date=May 5, 1760 |issue=266 |page=[1] }}</ref><ref name="birth">{{cite web |first=J. L. |last=Bell |title=Birth of the Caucus |website=Journal of the American Revolution |date=November 15, 2013 |url=https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/11/birth-caucus/ |accessdate=26 February 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{OED|caucus}}</ref>

A February 1763 entry in the diary of [[John Adams]] demonstrates that the word already held its modern connotations of a "[[smoke-filled room]]" where candidates for public election were pre-selected in private:
{{blockquote|This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of [[Thomas Dawes|Tom Daws]], the [[Adjutant]] of the Boston Regiment. He has a large House, and he has a moveable Partition in his Garrett, which he takes down and the whole Clubb meets in one Room. There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one End of the Garrett to the other. There they drink [[Flip (cocktail)|Phlip]] I suppose, and there they choose a Moderator, who puts Questions to the Vote regularly, and [[Selectman]], [[tax assessor |Assessor]]s, [[tax collector| Collector]]s, Wardens, [[fire warden|Fire Ward]]s, and Representatives are Regularly chosen before they are chosen in the Town&nbsp; …<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-01-02-0008-0001-0005 |title=Founders Online: Boston Feby. 1763. |website=founders.archives.gov |access-date=2016-02-26 }}</ref>}}

The following month, a writer signing himself "E. J." and claiming to be "a late Member" of the Boston "Corkass", explained in greater detail how the inner circle of the "Petty Corkass" manipulated the business of the broader "Grand Corkass":

{{blockquote|At present the heads of this venerable Company meet some weeks before a Town-Meeting, and consult among themselves, appoint town officers, and settle all other affairs that are to be transacted at town meeting; after these few have settled the affairs, they communicate them to the next better sort of their brethren; when they have been properly sounded and instructed, they meet with the heads; these are called the Petty Corkass: Here each recommends his friends, opposes others, juggle and trim, and often have pretty warm disputes; but by compounding and compromising, settle every thing before the Grand Corkass meets; tho' for form sake … a number of warm disputes are prepared, to entertain the lower sort …<ref>{{cite news |author=E. J. |title=An Impartial Account of the Conduct of the Corkass By a late Member of that Society |newspaper=[[Boston Evening-Post]] |date=21 March 1763 }}</ref><ref name="birth"/>}}

William Gordon commented in 1788:
{{blockquote|The word ''caucus'', and its derivative caucusing, are often used in Boston […] It seems to mean, a number of persons, whether more or less, met together to consult upon adopting or presenting some scheme of policy, for carrying a favorite point. The word is not of novel invention. More than fifty years ago, Mr. [[Samuel Adams]]'s father, and twenty others, one or two from the north end of the town, where all the ship business is carried on, used to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plan for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power.<ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Gordon |title=The History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period |volume=1 |location=London |year=1788 |page=365 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035539777&view=1up&seq=403&skin=2021 }}</ref>}}

An [[Plural form of words ending in -us|analogical Latin-type plural]] "cauci" is occasionally used.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncsl.org/blog/2013/10/17/cauci.aspx |title=Cauci? > National Conference of State Legislatures |website=www.ncsl.org |access-date=2016-02-26 |archive-date=6 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006020819/https://www.ncsl.org/blog/2013/10/17/cauci.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>