Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/425

Rh election approaches the stronger becomes the agitation, the more violent the cry, the personal abuse, and the threats. One might imagine that the torch of discord was about to be lighted in every city, that the Union was at the point of being torn to shreds, and that every citizen was in danger of being attacked by his neighbour. During all this I could not but think of two men whom I had seen on the banks of the Hudson, each enlisting passengers for his steam-boat, and abusing that of his rival, hurling angry words and threatening glances at each other, whilst their lips often seemed to curl into a smile when they had said anything magnificently bad of the other. I remember my asking Mr. Downing as I witnessed this scene, what was the meaning of it? and he replied with a smile, “It means nothing. Here is an opposition between two steamers, and these men act this part every day.”

Much of the great political agitation here during the time of the elections has about the same degree of meaning; the candidates and their soldiers fix bayonets in their glances and their words; the ballot-box is put in motion; everything becomes silent; the votes are thrown in amid the utmost order; a pause ensues; the ballot-box is emptied, the votes are read aloud and counted; the election is declared. The men of office are elected for one year or for two; the Governor of some States is elected for four years, as is the case with the President of the United States; in others merely for two, in others again for one, and all is at an end; nobody makes any objection, and all go quietly to their own homes, ready to obey the new magistracy, and to console themselves as Jacob Faithful did, with “better luck another time!” Rockets ascend in the quiet evening in honour of the successful candidate, and the whole city goes to bed and sleeps soundly.

It has occurred to me that this electioneering agitation in which people exercise their minds and their oratorical powers—or at all events their ability to talk, and to write,