Friday, November 9, 2007

Civil War Elections

Given that election day was Tuesday here locally, I thought this passage appropriate this week. I hadn't known that soldiers weren't permitted to vote before this time. I suppose it make sense from the standpoint of keeping the military out of the political process, which was probably initially the intention behind the law.

"So time passed and the month of November came, and with it , the election for President of the United States, and I cast my vote for Abraham Lincoln. This was a new feature in army life, as soldiers are otherwise not allowed to vote, but because the voters were nearly all in the army, an act of Congress was passed for that purpose." (Sergeant Larson, 4th Cav., pg 275)

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