priority mail?
150 years ago today a Democratic paper finally received soldiers’ votes for president from its correspondent in the field. The editor blamed the delay on devious Republican postmasters. From a Seneca County, New York in November 1864:
Delayed Soldiers’ Votes.
The following letter was received by the editor of this paper on Saturday morning of last week – four days after the election – with a package of thirty-four Democratic soldiers’ votes. Our correspondent complains that he did not receive blanks, envelopes, &c., from home. They were sent to him and the men of his regiment in great quantities and at an early day, and it was only through the criminality of Lincoln Postmasters that they did not reach their destination. We should have received the package four days before, instead of four days after the election. It was sent from Charleston, Western Virginia, on the 29th ult., a place not over 350 miles distant from Seneca Falls. That it did not come through in time is still further evidence of the plot determined upon by a guilty administration, to deprive Democratic soldiers of their franchise, and to carry the election by fraud:
NY Times 11-12-1864
CAMP PIATT, W.Va., Oct. 29th 1864.
FRIEND STOWELL: – I forward herewith the votes of Co. K., 1st N.Y. Veteran Cavalry, for Seneca Co. They are all right. Send to proper parties: Seneca Falls, J.T. Miller – Waterloo, S.R. Welles – and the others as directed.
There has been a great fraud practiced here. Blanks, envelopes, and tickets were furnished to all that would vote for A. Lincoln, but Democrats were not allowed to have any. I received ten from you and twenty-five from Wayne Co. These are all that the Democratic voters in this regiment have had. But by stealing and buying blanks from the Republicans, I have been able to send off 160 votes for McClellan; and other officers about as many more. We also wrote out a number, but more than half of the Democratic vote of the regiment is lost. There is great excitement in the regiment as you may well imagine. You are at liberty to make this statement and give your authority for doing it. I have no fear of A.L. before my eyes. If this game has been played throughout the army, I fear all is lost. We have done our best. I have worked night and day and have done all that I could for “Little Mac,” but you at home must do the business. Co. K. voted McClellan 41, Lincoln 5, six Democrats absent.
Ever Yours, SENECA.
The election tally was still a work in progress. The front page of the November 11, 1864 issue of The New-York Times gave General McClellan a 400 vote majority in Seneca County; as the column on the left shows, by November 12th that advantage had grown to 595 in the county. The final results indicate that Seneca and Erie were the only counties in central and western New York State that went for “Mac”:
crossing the red sea?
(map courtesy Minnesota Population Center. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota 2011. NHGIS site)
