Wednesday During The 19th Century

Voting right in America around the early 1800s was a very complex process, because many of the politicians and government leaders had supported slavery, which led to limited voting rights to those who were legally free. Women, however weren’t treated as equals to men, therefore they didn’t get much attention to their voting rights (which at the time there was none). There were two other major factors in voting as well, which were socioeconomics and land owners, making the poor worker class have very little political freedoms as well. Most of the voting privileges went to rich white men.

The first election in British America was in 1607 by the commanders of the 105 colonist using a ballot system. There was suspicion of concealing a mutiny and since that time more individuals were asked asked to vote who they thought had a stake in the government. Individuals who were asked to participate in the voting were property owners.

vote in 1869. In the 1870’s Anthony campaigned vigorously for women’s right to vote, and

History informs us about the first method the parties developed in order to pick their presidential candidates. This method was the congressional caucus. The framer’s method in 1787 was that each elector would cast two electoral votes, each for a different person for president. The person who received the majority of the electoral votes would win the presidential election and the person who received the second most amount of electoral votes won the vice presidential election. However, the rise of political parties and the election of 1800 made a great change to the system. During this time the electors cast their two votes for two different

During this time elections were at a high with numbers of voters and the margins for winning were extremely close. Farmers who were upset with the hard work they were doing for so little money formed a political party called the Populist. But the corruption that plagued American politics was only a small part of the problem during this time. It was the slowness of the major parties to meet the needs of America's rapidly changing society. As America's industries expanded the national government proved unable to do much more than argue with each other.

This allowed for more people to vote and have a say in the government, and because the other states didn’t want to lose population to the western states they also lowered their voting requirements, such as land owning and a poll tax. Despite the expansion of who could vote, it was still limited to only white men. This meant that Native Americans, slaves, free black people and women still couldn’t vote. The way presidential candidates were selected also went through changes until in 1828 when in every state except for South Carolina electors were chosen by a popular vote. In 1838 the group that disagreed with Andrew Jackson and his politics officially became the Whigs while Jackson’s supporters called themselves the Democrats thus creating the party system. This would benefit the voters by causing the parties to compete for votes, which would lead to the parties being more inclined to follow the will of the people. Proponents argued that this would benefit the voters by giving them power over how the country would be

America also saw lots of political restriction during this time. There were still restrictions on who could and could not vote, including women, gender inequality, and restrictions on voting rights of the poor due to laws that taxed voting. Immigrants who came here to find a better life

Presidential elections began taking a different route in the early 19th century. As the term "universal suffrage" was brought up in debates and official meetings, more people got the ability to vote as time went on. As new political parties were introduced into the government, divisions in opinions emerged. Between 1815 and 1840, participation in political campaigns and elections changed as new campaign ideas were created (Doc.C, Doc.D, Doc.H), the media advanced (Doc. F, Doc.

In this time period, only white men were allowed to vote, which left women and colored people without a voice. Another widespread issue was with the process of indirect voting to elect people. Throughout the Progressive Era many reforms were enacted to try to remedy these problems. Document D addresses the issue of indirect voting and how the citizens of America wanted more direct involvement in politics. Indirect voting is a process in which voters in an election do not choose between candidates for an office but rather elect persons who will then make the choice.Though the Electoral College still exists today, there were some efforts taken to allow direct representation. The 17th Amendment was passed in the early 1900’s. This amendment called for the direct election of senators and allowed voters to take an active role in deciding elected officials. Document H contains a picture of a woman who is protesting for her right to vote. This lead to one of the greatest successes of the Progressive Movement, the passing on the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote and allowed them to have a voice in political matters. Thought this movement was very successful in some areas, some aspects did not improve. Document J shows a graph of voter turnout from 1900 to 1920. This graph decreases majorly in 1920 which shows that even though

As a citizens, voting play a huge role back then till now. That is why all the amendments created by law to give rights to everyone.

Since 1800 the population had been growing and times were changing. More people were looking for jobs and many had to pay taxes but were unable to vote. This angered many citizens and they demanded to have voting rights. Thus, as stated in the paragraph before, many more were allowed to vote. Another reason was that of the candidates in the election. They were Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. “…Jackson had risen from the log cabin poverty of a Scots-Irish family to frontier congressman, to senator, to state militia general, and to territorial governor, all the while building a reputation for his fiery temper, stubbornness, and penchant for violence.” (Keller, p. 288). Adams was “…tutored in Latin, Greek, and law by his father, and learned much about literature, science, and the arts…” (Keller, p. 284), and Adams was an ambassador for many foreign meetings. Since these two had different backgrounds, many people were split between them. They are different from earlier presidents because of their practices. They said awful things about each

Women didn’t have the right to vote yet as well as African American men of women. Voting privileges were mainly limited to white male property owners; in some rare cases, you could be either/or one of those requirements. Changes occurred when states – mainly the Western states – “adopted constitutions that guaranteed all white males – not just property owners or taxpayers – the right to vote.” (Brinkley, 198-199) This also permitted all voters the right to hold office. A lawyer and activist, Thomas L. Dorr and some of his friends created a “People’s party” (Brinkley, 199) This party drafted a new constitution that was approved and eventually used as a foundation of new government started by the Dorrites. One of the most important political trends during the 1800s was the change in the method of choosing presidential electors. In 1800, the legislatures had chosen the presidential electors in ten states. Only six of those states participated in the choosing of the electors. However, in 1828 the electors were chosen by popular vote in every state except South Carolina. With all the changes in the election process, came the rapid growth of the electorate and the emergence of political

Economics and social issues were a major factor in the election of 1828, that made it so different from others before it. Between the time of 1790-1830 a vast majority of the population density shifted out west. This caused the west states to obtain most of the voters for the election, who happened to be most of Jackson’s power in the 1828 election. Also, a major economic factor was that due to the north’s high demand clothing mills, there was a great need for more cotton. Cotton production rates increased by nearly one thousand times.

The reasoning for the appointment of a special presidential electoral commission in 1877 is that Humdrum Hayes was running against Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden got 184 electoral votes when he needed 185. He had also polled 247,448 more popular votes than Hayes. Both parties set off to send “visiting statesmen” to the three still-contested states known as Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. As weeks drifted by the constitution specifies that the electoral returns from the states would be sent to congress, and in the House and Senate they will be opened. If it were to be counted by the president of the Senate, the Republicans would be selected. If it were to be counted by the Speaker if the House, the democratic side would be chosen. The agreement

The Constitution generally leaves it up to the states to organize congressional elections, but gives Congress the power to set new rules for federal elections as it sees fit. In 1842, Congress passed an important law requiring single-member district elections in every state, standardizing congressional election practices nationwide. The same law set one standard Election Day—the Tuesday after the first Monday in November—throughout the country. We still use the same Election Day