THE AMERICAN
POLITICAL NATION IN THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD
An English reporter observes an election rally
To eat, drink and be merry was the great business of the political meeting. Here and there, indeed, in a corner under a canopy of some huge tree, Mr Somebody from Indiana, or Mr Nobody from Illinois, stumped away for very life, with a cluster of listless loafers around his extempore platform, pretending to listen, cheering occasionally, jeering more frequently; all this in a din of discordant music, the racking fire of great and small guns, and the shrill cries of apple women and vendors of fire-water. For the rest there were children squalling, young people flirting, angry men swearing, drunken men reeling—all the varieties of a swarming, bustling crowd.
The Times [of London], Oct 23, 1863, quoted in George Winston Smith and Charles Judah, Life in the North During the Civil War: A Source History (Albuquerque NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1966), pp. 112-113.
Early in the morning the
voting places…are thronged by crowds of well-dressed, quiet and respectable
citizens, who are anxious to deposit their votes and proceed to their business
at their banks, stores, offices, or wherever else they may do their respective
endeavours to achieve their individual bread and butter… This class of voters
is made up of businessmen, who do not mix deeply in politics, but who, for the
most part, leave the whole preliminary portion of the campaign—the nomination
of candidates, &c.—to those professed politicians who make a living by that
dirty trade, and then, on the morning of election day, these said business men
march up and vote the ticket nominated by the particular party to which they
may happen to be attached, and then think no more of politics till election day
comes round again.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York) Nov 13, 1858.
I read my tickets over after I got them. I saw what they were. I would have been a fool to have voted without. I think I read them; I am pretty well assured I did…I was informed enough to know what the tickets were. I did read those tickets before I voted. I think Joe Davis’ name was on the state ticket. I did not take particular notice of other names on the state ticket. I guess I did not vote for any judge. I think I did not; I cannot positively say. I don’t know as I took any notice of who were candidates for judge…I cannot tell whether I had been drinking or not before I voted. It’s likely I had.
Testimony of Ananais Carter to an appeal into a contested election in Albany, New York, 1850 New York State Assembly Documents 1850 vol. 4, no 67 (Albany, 1850) p. 50.
Then I brought in from
the kitchen a clean washtub, purred half the whiskey into it, supplied the
outfit with a tin dipper, and appointed a stout Belgian farmer to take charge
of it and treat men as they came in—with Judge Larabee’s compliments…It was not
long before the tavern was full of voters, as election day they all come out to
meet each other and to vote. I asked the landlord if he could supply dinners
fro all, if I would pay for it…Then I went into the bar room and through the
man in charge of the washtub invited all who came to have dinner with me—with
the compliments of Judge Larabee…We had a had a jolly time, and all agreed that
the young man was a good one, and if all Democrats were like him they were a
good lot.
Reminiscences of an 1858 election in Wisconsin in Marcus Mills Pomeroy, Journey of Life (New York, 1890), p. 141.
Judge
Pratt “a good lawyer and a learned judge” appeals for votes during a
congressional election in Oregon in the 1850s
He stood before the bar,
a thing he was never known to do before in Oregon. He was arrayed in a
faultless suit, including a silk hat and a high shirt collar…His boon
companions were miners in their rough garb, ranged along the bar on both sides
of him. The judge was a good talker, and he was giving the best he had for the
occasion, and they were listening with apparent intensity. As soon as they
caught his drift however, they looked at each other knowingly, as they were
ardent admirers of general Lane [Pratt’s opponent], having met him during the
Indian war of the year previous. One tall miner reached down to his boot, drew
out a long knife and took the silk hat off the judge’s head, saying, “this
stovepipe is too high by a j’int.” Suiting the action to the word, he slashed
it into two parts, and slapping the parts together, put it back on the judge’s
head. Pratt took this all in good part, and set up the drinks, which at this
juncture was the only thing in order.
George E. Cole, Early
Oregon: 1850 to 1860 (n.p., 1905), pp. 67-68.