The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-11-11
American Election Days.
New York Evening Post

of South Carolina, while staying in
London, witnessed in that city two
elections for the members of Paria-
ment, attended with the familiar scenes
of violence, of bribery, and Of coercion
of voters which English writer's have
described so picturesquely. In bis
journal Of travel, part of which has
been published, along with severe criti-
cisms of this British mob law at cleo
tions, Mr.. Brisbane naively says: How
much more preferable is our method OF
electing members of the Legislature in
South Carolina, where the electors give
their votes by balloting, in doing
which bribery is cut up root and
branch" Atthat far-away time, when
the whole population of the United
States was but few millions, we have
no doubt that Mr.. Brisbane's views
were shared by Intelligent Americans,
North as we'll as South. The ballot
was to them as an emblem OF sanctity
as well as secrecy. In the soil tilling
Joyrmunities of the simple time, with
every voter. independent, a property
qualification, and wealth and social
rank very nearly equaliZed, bribery
fell to its very lowest terms, and about
the only election "trick" we find as
passing plot of land by deed SO as to
qualify men for the suffrage; while
election violence was all but impossible
in nation of stolid and law-loving
farmers.
At the end Of almost century since
Mr.. Brisbane's words were written, the
changes in American temper and meth
ods at elections, and in the "cam-
paigns' which precede them, are a
most suggestive study. In that study
nothing is more impressive and cheer
ing than the persistency Of the princi-
pie Of "order" at our elections, in con-
trast with our mother land. For
number of decades after the opening
of the present century, British MOB
rule and head-cracking at elections
continued almost undiminished. Even
now, at aay general British election,
reports of rioting are not uncommon,
and on one OF the Bradlaugh voting
days in Northampton few years ago,
large body of troops had to be trans
ferred to the city to aid the local police
against an anticipated outbreak. Con-
trast with this those quietudes Of an
American voting day which have
never ceased to amaze the De Tocque-
villes and Bryces. 1t is true that for
while during the. middle of our cen
tury, and in our large cities where they
bod but few voting places, the inevita-
BILE crowds at the polls led to serious
disorders. But the simple mechanical
invention Of small election districts has
made our election days in cities as
quietas Sunday. So that, essentially,
the long record Of election-day peace
has been unbroken throughout the
country's whole history. Exactly
why, with much the same Anglo
Saxon tempers as our kin beyond sea,
and besides with so many rough voting
elements of other races to be restrained,
we have 80 long and so successfully
maintained peaceful elections, is per-
haps hard to say, but the creditable
national fact remains. Even our Irish
voters poll their ballots decently in the
United States, while they break each
others heads aud fill the hospitals in
Cork.
The American election day, however,
when we leave its quietudes and COM
pard it with the same occasion in the
ancestral time, becomes much more
sombre. Looking back to the early
decades Of the the century, we find un-
doubtedly defects enough. The Fed
eralists and Democrats were obstinate
in their partisanship, and often utterly
blind. Politics cut deeply into their
social life, and the Yankee Federalist
inn-keeper who put out the sign "No
Democrats entertained here" an ex-
ception to the rule of partisan bitterness.
The political literature of the time, and
especially the party EewpapeF, was
savage and trucuent enough to make
the organ of to-day seem gentle. But
more than offsetting all these, there
were none of the sinister forces which
now converge so powerfully on one OF
our election days. There is, in truth, a
sort Of evil grandeur when we view the
magnitude to which these forces have
grown, as our national constitution
has, during half century become big
and diversified. There are the party
machines in nation, State, town, city
and wards; hundreds Of assistant or
Plantations, not formerly within the
81 ties, but co-workers with one or the
p.hor H;ef them; literary bureaus often
sowing liass. and political clubs number
ICES. all focusing their energies and
trickeries upon>the polls. What used
to be q very simple and essentially
honest voting act Of our communities
has now become an enormously COM
nle, thing, against whose elements OF
bribery rnd terrorism and faisehood
The contest for pure ballot has gone
IN like the battle OF the Dig guns
against plate armor. Strangely enough
too. with all quick American aptltudes'
we have followed our mother country
hnt slowly in purifying our elections
bv secret ballot laws and corrups-piao-
tice acts. The great wave OF oailo' ie
form which, in three years, has s"epl
over thirty of our common"ealtns u.a
o+ oo,oe until an Australian DalloI Aa'