Everything Old is New Again

"...And, face it, the twenty-ten elections are so last Tuesday."
Candy Crowley, Host of State of the Union

As President Obama admitted, "...I'm not recommending that every future president take a shellacking like I did last night."  Why should I even care about last Tuesday elections?  Today, while watching American History at C-Span 3, I was reminded of the U.S. Presidential Election of 150 years ago, yesterday.

Consider the Tea Party fringe movement within the Republican Party.  Generally speaking, third-party candidates benefit the incumbent party.  And what happens when there are four presidential parties as was the case in 1860?

• Stephen A. Douglas
• Northern Democrats won 29% of the Popular vote
• John C. Breckinridge
• Southern Democrats won 18% of the Popular vote
• John Bell
• Constitution Unionists won 13% of the Popular vote
• Abraham Lincoln
• Republicans won 40% of the Popular vote 

As you see the Democratic ticket (today's Republicans) was divided.  Will history repeat itself in 2012?  Time will tell.  Question? Comment?  Email me!

Election Day 2010

"If we are to go forward, we must first go back..."

M.L. King, Jr.

With Election Day 2010 behind us and in light of the Republicans pending takeover of the House of Representatives, it's only fitting that we look back at another time  and another place.

With the passage of the 15th Amendment (1870), black men were allowed to vote -- albeit briefly.  During Reconstruction (1865-1877), today's Democrats were yesteryear's Republicans, the Party of Lincoln. 

Other than perjorative references found in in F.Z. Browne's Reconstruction in Oktibbeha County (1913) and Thomas Battle Carroll's Historical Sketches of Oktibbeha (1931), not much is known about the following Oktibbeha County Congressmen.

• Anderson Boyd
• Benjamin Chiles
• David Higgins
• Randall Nettles

Question? Comment?  Email me! 
Source: Freedom's Lawmakers (1993) by Eric Foner