Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-07-04
An Election in Virginia Forty Years
Ago.
Hon. Il. Ii. Ii. Stuart IN s'YoMh's Com

L-~0'S' -
panion" of July 3rd
In the month of April, 1871, was
elected member Of the House of Repre-
sentatives Of the twenty-seventhC Congress
of the United States, and took my seat at
the extra session which opened on the 31st
of May, 1871.
1t may be interesting to describe the
way in which elections were conducted in
Virginia at that early day. There have
always been marked differences IN the
modes of managing political canvass in
different portions of the Union. In the
Northern States, the whole matter is in
the hands of Conventions.
In Virginia and other Southern States
for many years Conventions to nominate
members of Congress were entirely un-
known. Candidates announced themselves
as such. through the newspapers, and
sometimes quite number of candidates
were in the field.
Realizing that there was danger of elect
ing man who was not really the choice
Of majority, by this mode of proceeding,
the South afterward adopted the Northern
system of nominating Conventions. But,
with us, nomination was but the Begin
ing of the contest.
The candidates were Xpected-indeed,
may say, were required-to traverse
their whole district, and to discuss the
great questions in issue before the people,
at their court-houses and other public
places.
In 1S41, the contest was between the
Wing and Democratic parties. [ was the
nominee of the Wing party, and my oppo
nent was the late Gov. Mcdowell, who
had been nominated by the Democratic
party.
Tue district embraced eight counties,
and was about one hundred and sixty
miles long, extending into the mountain
Gus region of the State. We visited every
county, travelling together on horseback,
over bad loads, through rain, sleet and
snow, meeting the people at their court
houses and other public places, and dis
cussing at great length all the great ques-
tons Of finance, currency, tariff, dlstribu-
ton of the proceeds Of the public lands,
and internal improvements by the Federal
Government, which then divided the
country. A discussion generally occupied
six Or seven hours, and was conducted
with the courtesy which should always
distinguish intercourse between gentle
men.
During the whole canvass, no word was
uttered by either to which the other could
take exception. We may be said to have
been friends by Inheritance. Our grand
fathers were the Colonel and Major of the
Augusta Regiment which fought 50 gal-
lantly at Guilford in the Revolutionary
War.
Our fathers had been friends for half a
century: and Gov. Mcdowell and | had
been friends before we entered on the
canvass. Our close association and sharp
competition in debate, so far from tending
to impair our kind relations, increased our
mutual respect and esteem, and we con-
tDued to be friends until his death, about
thirty years ago.
The mode of voting practised at that
day in Virginia was widely different from
the present method. The ballot. with all
it's demoralizing Influences, and tempta
ton to fraud and corruption in elections,
had not then been introduced into Vir-
ginia.
The counties and cities were divided
into convenient districts, which were
called ELECTION precincts,' and every
voter was thus afforded an opportunity of
voting in his own neighborhood. These
'precincts' were so limited in extent that
each voter was known by his neighbors.
and could readily be identified. No regis
try law was necessary.
On the day of election, the officers and
clerks who had been appointed to conduct
the elections assembled at sunrise at their
respective precincts; and as voters pre-
sented themselves, an officer announced,
in an audible voice, the name of the person
proposing to vote, which was then written
down by the clerk, in two separate books,
to prevent mistakes or fraud
After this had been done, the officer
asked the question, ''Whom do you vote
for ?' The voter answered, in an audible
tone. and bis vote was registered, for the
candidate of his choice.
This mode of conducting elections left
no door open for fraud. The voter was
known to the officers and by-standers, his
vote was announced orally, and was
promptly recorded. There were no tissue
ballots, no stufiing Of ballot-boxes, or
tampering with them, nc suppression OF
ballots, or slipping them into wrong boxes,
no false counts, or fraudulent returns.
All the proceedings were matter Of
record, made in the presence of the voter,
which was preserved among the archives
OF the county, and was open, at all times,
to the inspection of voters, candidates, and
all others interested.
Independently of the safeguards against
fraud which this system afforded, it
tended to foster a manly and independent
feeling among the voters. Each man felt
that he was one of the sovereign people,"
and at liberty to give public expression to
his sentiments in the choice of public
servants.
I have, on several occasions, been asked
the question, "What did your election
cost you?" My answer was, not one dol
lar beyond my necessary travelling ex-
penses.
In these days of political assessments,
and the expenditure of hundreds OF thou-
sands of dollars in elections, THIS may
seem strange, and almost incredible but
it is literally and exactly true. The use
of money in Virginia, at that day, to in
huence elections, was unknown; and If it
had been shown that a candidate had
attempted to use it for such a purpose. be
would have been overwhelmed by a storm
of popular Indignation.
1t must be a subject of regret to every
thoughtful patriot that there should have
been so wide departure from this con-
dition of things since then. 1t is canker
which is eating into the very vitals of our
political system, and unless it be rebuked
by public opinion, and eXterminated by
heroic treatment, may prove fatal TO the
Government
The people are the source of all political
power. Their will, constitutionalIy ex-
pressed, is the supreme law. They are the
ultimate dIDiCoiS WHO dT0 W ueClu9 every
political question. If they are corrupted,
public opinion is poisoned in its fountains,
and it requires no spirit of prophecy to
foretell the rottenness of the whole body
polite which must follow.
Those who buy the votes of others will
not scruple to sell their own. Bribery and
corruption will become the order of the
day, and permeate every department of
the Government. Public offices, instead
of being regarded as public trusts, to be
conferred on those who are most honest
and capable and faithful to the constitu-
ton, will be mere articles of merchandise,
to be sold or bartered for money or politi-
cal influence.
History tells us Of the corruption which |
preceded and foreshadowed the downfall |
of the Roman Republic; nor can we forget |
that at later day, the imperial crown was