Scene from the 2008 Iowa presidential caucus
19 April 2023
Caucus is an originally American political term. In current use it usually refers to one of two things: either an organized faction within a legislature to plan legislation or strategy or a meeting to choose nominees for election to public office. It can also be a verb meaning to engage in such activities. The origin of the word, however, is unknown, but it seems to have arisen in Massachusetts political circles.
There are a few scattered uses of the word in the 1760s. It first appears with the spelling corcas in a 5 May 1760 piece in the Boston Gazette:
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 been heretofore 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; and to form a Committee to transact the whole Affairs of the Town for the future.
A 1762 letter by Massachusetts lawyer Oxenbridge Thacher to Benjamin Prat, the chief justice of New York, uses the compound corkusmen:
I very often think of [the] saying of Nepos, prudentiam quondam esse divinationem [foresight is a sort of divination]; & with respect to you we daily see many of your predictions accomplished respecting the connections & discords of our politicians, corkusmen, plebeian tribunes, &ca., &ca.
(Thacher misquotes Cornelius Nepos here. The line actually reads: “facile existimari possit, prudentiam quodam modo esse divinationem” (it may easily be thought that [Cicero’s] foresight was a sort of divination).)
And John Adams’s diary of February 1763 refers to a Caucas Clubb and uses the imagery of smoke-filled backroom where political deals are made:
This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of 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 Phlip I suppose, and there they choose a Moderator, who puts Questions to the Vote regularly, and select Men, Assessors, Collectors, Wardens, Fire Wards, and Representatives are Regularly chosen before they are chosen in the Town. Uncle Fairfield, Story, Ruddock Adams, Cooper, and a rudis indigestique Moles of others are Members. They send Committees to wait on the Merchants Clubb and to propose, and join, in the Choice of Men and Measures. Captn. Cunningham says they have often solicited him to go to these Caucas, they have assured him Benefit in his Business, &c.
(The Adams mentioned in the quotation is Samuel Adams, John Adams’s cousin. Uncle Fairfield is presumably a relative of Samuel Adams, whose mother was a Fairfield, with uncle being a generic term for an older, vaguely related man.)
Adams would again use caucass, this time as a verb, in a 12 May 1776 letter to James Warren, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress:
Who will be your Governor, or President, Bowdoin or Winthrop, or Warren. Dont divide. Let the Choice be unanimous, I beg. If you divide you will Split the Province into Factions. For Gods Sake Caucass it, before Hand, and agree unanimously to push for the Same Man. Bowdoins splendid fortune, would be a great Advantage, at the Beginning. How are his Nerves and his Heart? If they will do, his Head and Fortune ought to decide in his favour.
But caucus starts appearing with frequency, and with the current spelling, in the 1780s. Presumably the post-revolutionary United States with its many newly created elected offices saw a rise in the number of caucuses. For example, there is this satirical piece in the 25 May 1785 Boston Centinel describing a “funeral procession” in which supporters of James Bowdoin “buried” his opponent, the incumbent governor John Hancock. Caucus here seems to mean an organized body promoting Bowdoin’s candidacy:
BRUTUS tarred and feathered in effigy,
A curious figure of GRATITUDE upon Pegasus, with
other Hancockonians in effigy, all to be burnt on
Bacon-Hill this evening.The CHARACTER of Mr. H——, pinioned, dragged
violently by Malice and Envy: It will be sat up
as a mark, for the Bowdoinites to fire squibs at,
The Genius of Faction in weepers,
President of the caucus, carried on a hand-barrow,
of state,
The Secretary of the caucus, and news-writers, with
the following petition, to Mr. H——k,
which closes the procession.
(Hancock would go on to defeat Bowdoin in the next election, two years later.)
The next year we see the word again used to in the sense of advocating for a candidate to election, or rather advocating against in this case. And here the word has a negative valence. From the Essex Journal of Newburyport, Massachusetts of 5 April 1786:
But whatever his views are, he has no regard to any interest but his own, and thus acts from motives, different from those of his fellow-citizens, and directly against the Interests of his constituents. This being self-evident, my position follows of course, that it is dangerous to elect lawyers to the general Court. I will therefore join you, Honestus, in any scheme to keep them out, whether by caucus, junto, or scribbling.
Other early uses of the word include this from the Massachusetts Centinel of 19 April 1786:
The circumstances that attended the last year’s election of Representatives you will remember. Some of you at least were at the caucus of the north or south end of the town. Having failed in his attempt to croud his father into the Sentate, Ben thought it for the interest of the craft that he or his father should be in the House. Measures were accordingly taken to effect it. Ben attached himself to the body of mechanicks; his brother enrolled himself among the merchants and traders: But it was at that time doubted by most men, whether Ben could, for want of any professional knowledge, as well as on other accounts, be admitted into either body without injuring their reputation. By this arrangement however they had an opportunity of ploughing with both caucusses. They no doubt made the most of it. A conference was held by a committee from each caucus, for the purpose of effecting a union of sentiment and exertion as to the persons to be elected—the result of which was to drop all thoughts of electing Mr. H——k, and to substitute the father of Ben in his stead.
And this from Boston’s American Herald of 12 March 1787:
There is a certain sect of persons among us to whom the character of republicans alway [sic] was, and ever will be odious—In times past they had not confidence enough to shew their inveteracy, but in slanders and base insinuations—in that way they endeavoured to shake the confidence of the people in their old servants of the town—but NOW they boldly and openly avow their anti-republican sentiments and cabal and caucus to turn them out of office.
And finally, this from the Connecticut Gazette of 6 April 1787:
We learn from Worcester, That a grand CAUCUS was held there last Week, by Delegates from Fifty-five towns, who unanimously agreed to recommend it to their towns to vote for the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq. for Governor.
As to where caucus comes from, we have no clue, although that hasn’t stopped people from asserting various origins.
The one common assertion that might possibly be true is that it is a borrowing from an Algonquian language. Early American colonists were fond of appropriating the trappings of Indigenous cultures to distinguish themselves from their European forebears. The Chickahominy cawcawwassough, referring to tribal elders, has been put forward as a source. While that is unlikely—an Indigenous word from Virginia is unlikely to have gained a foothold in Massachusetts—it is possible that some northern Algonquian cognate is the source. But if so, no one has come forth with a likely candidate.
Another common story that has some relation to evidence is that caucus comes from a Boston neighborhood named West Corcus. The evidence for this claim is a 19 August 1745 piece published in the Boston Evening Post. The article purports to be from a group styling itself as Association of Lay-Brethren and objects to itinerant preachers, and specifically to the Rev. George Whitefield, holding that only clerics of the established Congregationalist Church should be allowed to preach:
It is accordingly proposed, that there be such a general Meeting, and that it be held on the last Wednesday of September next, at WEST-CORCUS in Boston aforesaid.
But when one reads the entire piece, it is clear that it is satire, not intended to be taken literally. Furthermore, the neighborhood of West Corcus did not and does not exist.
Others claim it is from the post-classical Latin caucus, a drinking vessel. But not only is that Latin word rare, the early pronunciations with / ɹ / do not accord with the non-rhotic Massachusetts dialect. It is unlikely a Massachusetts speaker would insert an / ɹ / into a Latin word that does not have one.
So, we have to chalk this one up to origin unknown.
Sources:
Adams, John. Diary, February 1763. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 1. The Adams Papers, Series 1, Diaries. L.H. Butterfield, ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1961, 238. Archive.org.
Adams, John. Letter to James Warren, 12 May 1776. The Adams Papers: Digital Edition. Sara Martin, ed. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008–2023.
Bell, J.L. “The Mystery of the Meeting ‘at West-Corcus in Boston.’” Boston 1775 (blog), 17 November 2013.
“Bostonians.” Connecticut Gazette and the Universal Intelligencer (New London, Connecticut), 6 April 1787, 2/2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“For the Centinel.” Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), 19 April 1786, 1. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2019, s.v. caucus, n., caucus, v.
Nepos, Cornelius.”Excerpt from the Book on Latin Historians: XXV. Atticus.” Cornelius Nepos. John C. Rolfe, trans. Loeb Classical Library 467. 316.
Sherwood, Jeff. “Caucus: A Cant Word of the Americans in the March 2019 Update.” Oxford English Dictionary Blog, 18 March 2019.
Supplement to the Boston Evening Post, 19 August 1745. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Supplement to the Boston-Gazette, 5 May 1760. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Thacher, Oxenbridge. Letter to Benjamin Prat (1762). Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 20, 1882–83, 48. JSTOR.
“This Day, the Funeral Procession of the Bowdoinitish Coalition.” Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), 25 May 1785, 2/3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“To Honestus.” Essex Journal and the Massachusetts and New-Hampshire General Advertiser (Newburyport, Massachusetts), 5 April 1786, 2/4. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“To the Free Electors of the Town of Boston.” American Herald (Boston), 12 March 1787, 3/3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Photo credit: Unknown photographer, 2008. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.