Caucus,
A word in the vocabulary of the politics of the
United States; probably a corruption of the word calkers— men who drive oakum or old ropes untwisted into the seams of vessels.
These men naturally associated much with ropemakers in seaports.
In Boston they had formed an association of which the father of
Samuel Adams, and
Samuel Adams himself afterwards, were members.
After the
Boston Massacre, this society at their meetings, in speeches and resolutions, took strong grounds against the
British government, its acts, and its instruments in
America, and planned schemes for relieving their country of oppression.
The Tories, in derision, called these assemblies “
calkers' meetings,” which became corrupted to “caucus meetings” —gatherings at which politicians of the same creed meet, consult, and lay plans for political action.
See
nominating conventions, National.