Rigged elections!

[Cavalry Charger]

"I do not wonder now that men get so excited and troubled over elections. I remember very vividly that when our May Queen was elected by ballot there was a great hubbub made by one of the young ladies declaring in the most solemn manner that she had seen another young lady place three tickets in the ballot box. The ballots were all counted, as were the voters, and they tallied. The informer did, however, see one young lady put three tickets in the box, but the other two extra ones belonged to two young ladies in the infirmary who had asked her to place their votes in the box. The informer, dear girl. was expelled from our school for making this disgraceful accusation, after being cofined to her room for several days. Oh, how I begged her to escape from her prison, as I term it, entreated on my knees that she should fly. I volunteered to arrange everthing for her, but no! She was too wise to do anything so wild and improper. She was restored to her place in school very soon after, as the whole school petitioned earnestly for her restoration, and she really did see three ballots cast."

The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant)

Well, for anyone hoping to read something more controversial - Happy April Fool's Day!

For all and sundry otherwise, Happy Easter to you

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Missed this, too! Little busy around here, for the moment. It's a lovely article, if incomprehensible in other eras. Gee whiz, I remember when it was just an horrendous, unthinkable violation to lie- you didn't even use the word. ' Fib ', maybe, since ' lie ' was so awful. There was great shame attached so you just did not. Well, it's all anyone had, one's honor and character. Kind of like the whole idea. You could count on things, if that makes any sense.

 

[donna]

I missed it too. Thanks for posting.

I remember the strict honor code I had in school. We had to sign statement at beginning of year we would follow the code. It was so impressive to me. Truth and honor were so important back then.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

It appeared to be a very strict punishment for the 'crime', which I assume was accusing falsely the other student in the circumstances. Based on appearances, she saw three ballots cast by the same girl. A misunderstanding for sure. And maybe the fault lay in not first determining the circumstances.

So this definitely, for me, is an honor issue, and another indication that there were strict codes around this at the time.