The record-union., 1892-08-29
EARLY-DAY ELECTIONS.
One That Was Held at Brighton Forty
Years Ago.
How Inspector Lawless Got in His
Work on the Democrats-An
Original Oath.

stAs we are on the eve of an exciting
Presidential election" remarked the
well-known pioneer, Charles Petit, to a
RECORD UNION reporter yesterday, ''it
might interest or amuse some of your
readers to know how an election was
conducted in Brighton in 1882, just forty
years ago, when Franklin Pierce and
General Winfield Scott were the opposing
candidates for Presidential honors. 1t
was in those good old days of Democracy
and Whigery that we read of, and before
the Great Register or the Australian ballot
law were thought of. Nor did we have
to rack our brains over the Mckinley
bill or tin plate. In those days elections
were generally conducted in the most
simple and direct manner.
Colonel Byrd Lawless was sort of
old-style Southern gentleman of slavery
days, who stood full six feet in hight. He
also had large bump of self-esteem. He
had crossed the plains from Missouri
the year before, with his family, and was
at the time of which l speak keeping a
hotel at Brighton; he also kept bar well
stocked with remedies for chills and
bites, of both of which the Colonel
stood in mortal dread.
DclDk a ClllZ6I1 Ol
he was duly and legally appointed In
spector of election tor that precinct
When the morning of election day ar
rived the polls were opened in the spa
cious diningroom of the hotel in due
form and voting commenced.
Colonel Lawless was an enthusiastic
and jealous member of the old Whig
party from away back, and was of the
opinion that Democrat had no political
rights which an old-line Wing was bound
to respect, and when a man whom the
Inspector did not know would present
his ticket for the purpose of voting the
Inspector suspicious that the man might
be Democrat, after asking few pre-
hmlnary questions, would say to the
voter, Let me see your ticket, sirp He
would take and open it, and after a brief
1nspectlon-if it proved to be a Wing
ticket-it was deposited in the ballot box
with little ceremony. But ii il turned
out to be a Democratic ticket, the In
spector would hand it back to the elector
with this remark and in decided tone of
voice:
Y ou are not a voter, sir! You are
not voter, sirp And when the man
insisted that he was voter, and intended
to vote, the Colonel would say, very
brusquely, i shall have to swear you =.
and rising from his chair he would draw
himself up to his full hight and assume
as dignified an air as possible. After
directing the voter to place one hand
upon the Bible, and with the other raised
toward Heaven, the Colonel would ad-
minister to him the following unique
oath:
You do solemnly swear that you are
q years of age; that you have resided i'll
this State six months, and in Brighton
Township thirty days, and that you have
not voted before, and will a.eUer cote
again, so help you, Godi y
After the Colonel had sworn one or
two in this manner, one of the Judges,
who was Democrat, most decidedly OBJ
jected to the form of oath which the In
spector was using, and ventured to sug-
gest that if he would swear the men that
they had not voted before at this election.
1t would be entirely sufficient on that
point.
''To this suggestion the Colonel replied
emphatically: 'D-n this election, now and
forever, by -r
'tAnd thus the Inspector continued till
the sun set in the west-swearing Demo-
Gratis that they had not voted before
and would never vote again. It's great
pity, isn't it, that the practice had not
been continued? ?"