America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History
"For those wondering why they should bother to vote, these pages effectively dramatize why it matters and the cost we all pay when elections aren't free and fair."
Dana Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent, and David Fisher, bestselling author, team up to tell the dramatic story of the 1876 presidential election. This wasn't a battle between candidates and parties so much as a referendum on Reconstruction and how newly enfranchised Blacks would be empowered—or not—in the post-Civil War era. Although much has been written about the Civil War itself, far less has been written about its aftermath. This book provides an essential service in its vivid description of the social chaos and political manipulation that followed.
The authors are all-too-aware of the parallels with today's political atmosphere, but they refer to such similarities with a light touch, allowing readers to draw their own conclusion, a tact which serves their arguments well.
"Louisiana's 1872 gubernatorial election remains a cautionary tale. The parallels between that election and American politics today are astonishing. Not only are the events similar, but many of exactly the same words were used. There are direct quotes on these pages, statements made more than a hundred and fifty years ago, that easily could have been spoken by today's politicians. But those parallels only tell half the story: it is what happened afterward that is chilling. It is a warning of of what can happen here.
“The events that took place in the four years following the 1872 election not only escalated into a national dispute that resulted in the controversial presidential election of 1876, an election literally decided by one man, but it also led to the Supreme Court decision that essentially ended Reconstruction and legalized the segregated society that would bring John Lewis to the Pettus Bridge almost a century later."
The elements outlined briefly here are thoroughly described in the pages that follow. There is illegal voting, ballot stuffing, violence in the name of patriotic duty, judicial decisions that impose a minority opinion on the majority of the people. Especially effective are the chapters on how messy the engines of democracy turn out to be, how much depends on honesty and trust that isn't always present. It's a complicated story, with a lot of characters and events to keep straight. The authors do an admirable job of sifting through vast quantities of research, relying heavily on primary documents, particularly newspaper accounts of the time. They manage to keep it all straight and provide essential context when needed. One example is their description of voter eligibility:
"Each colony and later each state held the power to determine who was allowed to vote in its elections. Qualifications for voting had not been mentioned in the original Constitution. There were no national voting standards, even when electing federal government official."
They are especially good at describing Reconstruction, the upheaval that followed the sudden freeing of millions of enslaved people, many of whom (the men) could now vote. The achievements by these recently freed people are astonishing, including rising high in the political elite. The book introduces readers to Oscar James Dunn, a freed Black man who was elected lieutenant governor in post-war Louisiana while Baton Rouge elected the country's first Black mayor.
These accomplishments are bright spots in the fierce fighting for political dominance that resulted in two different men each claiming that he was the rightfully elected governor of Louisiana in 1872. There was so much violence and confusion that the federal government was forced to step in to prevent an armed insurgency. The presidential election that followed, though also violent and inconclusive, ushered in Charles Edmund Nash, the first Black congressman to represent Louisiana.
It's all compelling drama, not the usual story of an election. Rather it's the story of communities against communities, the Southern states dealing with the physical and financial ruin the war had brought to them as well as the social revolution imposed by the North. This is history that belongs in basic school textbooks but is sadly missing, the kind of history all Americans should know. This book should be required reading for everyone, but especially for voters and politicians as we head into the election this November. For those wondering why they should bother to vote, these pages effectively dramatize why it matters and the cost we all pay when elections aren't free and fair.