In those days, there were no secret ballot. It came with its own risk and capacity to influence elections, as the father of our country learned with great skill.
>>I’ve taken a liking to print books once again and enjoy scribbling notes in the margins and building a personal library as opposed to stashing books on devices that constantly need to be charged, updated, and inevitably swapped out for new technology.
Two thoughts come to mind:
Shortly after the Amazon (Kindle's?) e-readers first came out, I read that they unloaded from users' devices copies of "1984" due to some copyright issue. So they could drain everything off of you machine, at will. Later, I read that they actually monitor what people read, where they read into books (if they don't complete them) and so on. All that turned me off to the idea of an e-reader, forever.
For a while I did use audiobooks to help pass the time when I was going for exercise walks. I found that my comprehension / retention wasn't anywhere close to what I experience with good old paper and ink. Plus my situational awareness while walking (e.g., hearing cars approaching) was greatly diminished. So I've stopped that.
Washington, a pariah of the Left, should re-emerge as an inspiration to the nation. Unlike Franklin, the Trump before Trump, his persona was love at first sight by everyone who knew him. Beyond his stature, his character radiated for all to see. And his fearlessness on the battlefield on the field of honor and in the stench of of politics was acknowledged by friend and foe. He was American as apple pie. May his memory never die.
How many people would vote today if they had to make a vocal statement like that?
Such transparency probably ensured a level of civility and engagement. You had to know your choice and why rather than guessing who to vote for because you had not done your research/engaged in the process.
Too bad we could not return to that process.....such engagement would change this dynamic and is necessary to maintain our Republic.
"Secret" ballots were and are the invention of the religion of progress - the wonderful ideology that gave us compulsory education and the compulsory military service that would immediately follow. In open balloting people could profit from their citizenship by promising to vote for a candidate, getting paid for it, and allowing the candidates to confirm that they got what they bought. With secret ballots the citizen lost ownership of their right to vote. The franchise became the property of the government in the same way "public education" took ownership of children and draft eligible young men out of the hands of the parents.
Have your Federal electoral system issue individual voter receipts. Then the voter has proof of how he/she voted. Among the many wonderful "radical" ideas of the democratic republicans who created the States and United States of American was the notion that citizenship was one of the things that people owned as their individual property. What Chernow and others want to see as "corruption" - Washington's buying votes - was vindication of that radical idea. Citizenship mattered because it has actual cash value; it was literally worth having. (Slavery was morally wrong because it denied people the ownership of that and other rights.)
"Conservatives" are fools when they argue that the expansion of the franchise to people who did not own land was a concession to mob democracy. It was the opposite. It was a recognition that anyone who earned a living - who was not disqualified by being a criminal or a debtor - should own the property of citizenship. To prevent this from becoming a corrupt system, open balloting was essential. The clever people knew that it would uncorrupt the system by forcing American candidates to know who their individual voters were.
Speaking theoretically and reserving the right to revise and extend my remarks :-) I am nevertheless for a secret ballot. I understand that it is obviated widely with the push for vote by mail which encourages onesy-twosy voting fraud and intimidation and more. A non secret ballot might encourage thug tactics if not at the time of vote , afterwords having been observed or ratted out.
As for GW his smattering of drink buying was no more than quaint as most candidates now buy votes by promising to confiscate and spend other people money or in furtherance of the law of intense gain and diffuse pain. Buying a round of drinks is of no more serious import than hosting a meal and explaining your platform to invitees.
Alas, we are not in a society where government is small and issues are clear so we rely on representatives and limit them (theoretically) through our constitutional republic and federal system (all in theory.
As untrustworthy scalawags as many Republican office holders are I still encourage straight Republican Party voting as the mostly likely way to reduce some government boondoggles and dependencies. The Democrat party is totally irredeemably corrupt, captured by essentially Marxist thinking not just in its leadership, but in its base. The portion of arguably sound mind are in the wrong party.
Great that you mention this aspect of American history regarding secrecy and electioneering. In reading Erik Larson's history of events leading up to the War Between the States, his book -- The Demon of Unrest -- pages 16-17 indicates that at least as late as Abe Lincoln we had similar processes at least in Springfield, Illinois. Voters in lines approached a window designated for Republican voters. Voters identified themselves at the window by name and deposited their vote in a receptacle (jar) at that window. Whatever the oversight or scrutiny there was to counting, recording and transmitting the results is not revealed in those pages. The passage does mention that Lincoln ceremoniously clipped his name from the ballot in I guess a traditional show of humility and then voted straight Republican.
I always found these stories fascinating and enlightening as to what has gone wrong. Also, I appreciate you signing up to support this journal. Don’t hesitate to reach out if I may be of assistance.
I’m reading Chernow’s autobiography as we speak, so thanks for the recommendation.
I take my recommendations seriously. Once I got past the planter part, I was hooked.
>>I’ve taken a liking to print books once again and enjoy scribbling notes in the margins and building a personal library as opposed to stashing books on devices that constantly need to be charged, updated, and inevitably swapped out for new technology.
Two thoughts come to mind:
Shortly after the Amazon (Kindle's?) e-readers first came out, I read that they unloaded from users' devices copies of "1984" due to some copyright issue. So they could drain everything off of you machine, at will. Later, I read that they actually monitor what people read, where they read into books (if they don't complete them) and so on. All that turned me off to the idea of an e-reader, forever.
For a while I did use audiobooks to help pass the time when I was going for exercise walks. I found that my comprehension / retention wasn't anywhere close to what I experience with good old paper and ink. Plus my situational awareness while walking (e.g., hearing cars approaching) was greatly diminished. So I've stopped that.
Washington, a pariah of the Left, should re-emerge as an inspiration to the nation. Unlike Franklin, the Trump before Trump, his persona was love at first sight by everyone who knew him. Beyond his stature, his character radiated for all to see. And his fearlessness on the battlefield on the field of honor and in the stench of of politics was acknowledged by friend and foe. He was American as apple pie. May his memory never die.
Even GW had fierce haters as president. My opinion of Jefferson changed after reading Chernow’s book.
How many people would vote today if they had to make a vocal statement like that?
Such transparency probably ensured a level of civility and engagement. You had to know your choice and why rather than guessing who to vote for because you had not done your research/engaged in the process.
Too bad we could not return to that process.....such engagement would change this dynamic and is necessary to maintain our Republic.
Thanks for sharing the story.
"Secret" ballots were and are the invention of the religion of progress - the wonderful ideology that gave us compulsory education and the compulsory military service that would immediately follow. In open balloting people could profit from their citizenship by promising to vote for a candidate, getting paid for it, and allowing the candidates to confirm that they got what they bought. With secret ballots the citizen lost ownership of their right to vote. The franchise became the property of the government in the same way "public education" took ownership of children and draft eligible young men out of the hands of the parents.
What do you think is the best way to handle the issue?
Have your Federal electoral system issue individual voter receipts. Then the voter has proof of how he/she voted. Among the many wonderful "radical" ideas of the democratic republicans who created the States and United States of American was the notion that citizenship was one of the things that people owned as their individual property. What Chernow and others want to see as "corruption" - Washington's buying votes - was vindication of that radical idea. Citizenship mattered because it has actual cash value; it was literally worth having. (Slavery was morally wrong because it denied people the ownership of that and other rights.)
"Conservatives" are fools when they argue that the expansion of the franchise to people who did not own land was a concession to mob democracy. It was the opposite. It was a recognition that anyone who earned a living - who was not disqualified by being a criminal or a debtor - should own the property of citizenship. To prevent this from becoming a corrupt system, open balloting was essential. The clever people knew that it would uncorrupt the system by forcing American candidates to know who their individual voters were.
Speaking theoretically and reserving the right to revise and extend my remarks :-) I am nevertheless for a secret ballot. I understand that it is obviated widely with the push for vote by mail which encourages onesy-twosy voting fraud and intimidation and more. A non secret ballot might encourage thug tactics if not at the time of vote , afterwords having been observed or ratted out.
As for GW his smattering of drink buying was no more than quaint as most candidates now buy votes by promising to confiscate and spend other people money or in furtherance of the law of intense gain and diffuse pain. Buying a round of drinks is of no more serious import than hosting a meal and explaining your platform to invitees.
Alas, we are not in a society where government is small and issues are clear so we rely on representatives and limit them (theoretically) through our constitutional republic and federal system (all in theory.
As untrustworthy scalawags as many Republican office holders are I still encourage straight Republican Party voting as the mostly likely way to reduce some government boondoggles and dependencies. The Democrat party is totally irredeemably corrupt, captured by essentially Marxist thinking not just in its leadership, but in its base. The portion of arguably sound mind are in the wrong party.
Great that you mention this aspect of American history regarding secrecy and electioneering. In reading Erik Larson's history of events leading up to the War Between the States, his book -- The Demon of Unrest -- pages 16-17 indicates that at least as late as Abe Lincoln we had similar processes at least in Springfield, Illinois. Voters in lines approached a window designated for Republican voters. Voters identified themselves at the window by name and deposited their vote in a receptacle (jar) at that window. Whatever the oversight or scrutiny there was to counting, recording and transmitting the results is not revealed in those pages. The passage does mention that Lincoln ceremoniously clipped his name from the ballot in I guess a traditional show of humility and then voted straight Republican.
I always found these stories fascinating and enlightening as to what has gone wrong. Also, I appreciate you signing up to support this journal. Don’t hesitate to reach out if I may be of assistance.