I was a voter now, and so was Magnus; but he was for Lincoln, and I was
not. It seemed to me that the Republican Party was too new. And yet I
was not satisfied with Douglas. Why? It was merely because I had got it
into my mind that he had been beaten in a debate by Lincoln, and it
seemed that this defeat ought to put him out of the running for
president. I sat down a few rods from the polls and thought over the
matter of choosing between Edward Everett and John C. Breckenridge,
pestered by Governor Wade and H.L. Burns and N.V. and the rest, until
finally they left me and when I had made my decision, I found that the
polls had closed. I was a good deal relieved.
I am giving you a glimpse into the mind of a conscientious and ignorant
voter. If I had read more, my mind would have been made up beforehand,
but by some one else. I was not a fool; I was just slow and bewildered.
The average voter shoots at the flock and gets it over with. He has had
his mind made up for him by some one--and maybe it's just as well: for
when he tries, as I did, to make it up for himself, he is apt to find
that he has no basis for judgment. That is why all governments, free and
the other kind, have always been minority governments, and always will
be. And I reckon that's just as well, too.
Lincoln's first call for volunteers took only a few men out of the
county, and none from Vandemark Township, except George Story. I had not
begun to take much interest in the matter; and when in the summer of
1861 there began to be war meetings to spur up young men to enlistment
the speakers all shouted to us that the war was not to free the slaves,
but to save the Union.
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