National Republican., 1884-11-05
AN ANCIENT ROMAN ELECTION
A Striking Picture or tbo Political
Customs OF the First People Who
Elected by Popular Vote.

A Striking Picture OF tbo Political
Customs OF the First People Who
Elected by Popular Vote.
By Eugene Laurence.
From republican Rome our early
teaehor--we borrow most of our political
ideas, and even language. Our elections
vary little from those Of the Roman
forum. To the Latins wo owe our can
didates and our orators, our tribunitian
arts and tribunitian veto, tho ballot and
ballot box, the register and the polling,
the conception Of personal independence,
tho sovereignty of the people. The free
Roman would bow to no man; and Cicero
and Cesar were forced to solicit the votes
of their fellow-citizens with a humility
that was mover feigned.
To obtain an Office at Rome tho candi-
date toiled for months, and even years.
Clad in his white robe he walked the
forum and tho busy streets of the city,
saluting every one, asking votes, and
seeking what We now call popularity. lie
spoke to every citizen he met familiarly,
he grasped his hand, ho begged his sup
port; he spoke of his own merits, decried
his opponent, promised to advocate some
liberal measure, and sometimes a bribe.
Cicero, who was above bribery, has loft us
in his letters o curious picture of tho
tolls, anxieties. and interior life of the
Ropan candidate.
An election day at Rome was o scene of
singular excitement. Every year tho
chief magistrates of Italy were renewed,
and every year the voters crowded tho
capital. Tho city was agitated by in
tense party feeling. The rural popula.
tion from Latium and the distant colonies
over tho Tiber hastened to exercise tho
priced right Of suffrage. Chsriots filled
with citizens camo from the Sabine viii
lagos, footmen crossed the Sublican
bridge, great multitude wandered
through tho streets of Rome, astonished
at the magnificonco of the city.
If 10 was q consular election the people
gathered at sunrise in the Campus Martius,
whore the voting was to take place. The
candidates, in their white robes, before
daybreak woro seen mingling with the
voterS, followed by their partisans, aud
proclaiming their political principles.
Sometimes they stood on high position,
where they could be seen by all some
times the great multitude covered the tops
of the houses aud filed all the extensive
plain from the capitol to tho river.
At length, Mt the sound of horn, the
voters assembled in the Campus Martius
If tho auspices were favorable and no peal
of thunder heard, a standard was raised
on tho Janiculum, and the consul began
the ceremonies with prayers and sacri-
fees; the people, deeply superstitious,
awaited awe-strickon until no closed
The spectacle was one of rare interest; it
was an assemblage of Roman freemen. In
the late comitia. at least, all were equal.
The rich noble, accustomed to luxury and
power; the equities. who had sprung from
poverty to wealth; the prosperous traders
OF the forum and suburra; the farmers,
even sometimes the freedmen, the manu-
mitted saves--were blended by the
Roman law into one harmonious and mo-
mentary equality. Each was gifted with
q vote.
The voting next began. The excite.
ment rose. The people, arranged In CEN
turies or hundreds, passed over bridge
of wood into the polling place. Here, in
the earlier age, they voted orally, and
later with wooden tablets. Each vote
was recorded and counted at once, and
the result announced. The ballot box
and the register were watched over by
citizens of undoubted honor, and fraud
was scarcely possible. As one by ono the
centuries gave in their ballots the excite
ment was redoubled. The candidates and
the people hung breathless upon the cries
of the heralds as they proclaimed the
progress of the election.
Livy has left many q picture of these
fierce political struggles. Now on one
side, now on another, the balance hung.
At last il was fixed forever. A Scipio, o
Cato, a Gracious, q Cesar, had triumphed,
and the victors shouted in a wild strain
Of southern enthusiasm that echoed far
away over the capitol and tho crowded
hills. The beaten party turned silently
homeward. The excitement was over,
and the Roman voters went quietly again
to their usual pursuits.
These were the first general elections,
the models of our own. They were pre-
ceded by period of discussion as ami
mated as that which has recently stirred
fifty millions of freemen from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. Recent excavations in the
Roman forum have laid bare the stone
terrace of the rostra on which these dis
cussions were held. We may tread the
very platform whore the Gracchi, almost
the authors of modern republicanism,
defed the Roman shareholders, and
perished by their daggers; where Cato
demanded reform; where Cicero spoke
to degenerate, hopeless race.
For four hundred years, at least,
every year the Romans gave in their
votes on the field of Mars. AT length an
emperor-a tyrant-swept away the polls
and the polling-places. Despotism reigned
over man for ten centuries; the very con-
ception of a popular election and of pop
ular rule had persisted; the right of suf.
frage-the pledge of independence
1t was revived in the republics of the
| middle ages; it lived in the homes of the
| workingmen; 1t passed to Holland and to
England; 1t crossed the sea to New Eng
land and New York; it sprang up in rare
strength. 1t has spread one more to Italy,
to Germany, to every European state,
never again to sink before the rage of q
despot or perish in the poisonous embrace
Of slavery. The election day is the center
of modern progress.