Editing Caucus (section)

===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>