Here is an irregulars' question:
In 1864, what percentage of those in or near insurgent areas
voted in the US Union elections?
The background is this:
There is an old adage that `those who do not study history are bound
to repeat it.'
My thought is that perhaps the adage is misleading. Rather than focus
on those who do not study history, consider those who do study, but
who look at the wrong history.
Thus, on 2 Feb 2005, Deborah Harrell wrote
... there _was_ a good turnout for the Iraqi elections ...
which is true, I think, if you look at the country as a whole.
But according to what I have read, the turnout in Sunni areas was
about 2%.
Does it make more sense to compare the turn out of the US election of
1964 or of the US Union election of 1864?
My initial question was what percentage of those in or near insurgent
areas voted in the US Union elections of 1864?
I do not know. But I do think that is a more relevant comparison than
that of 1964.
More precisely, of the voters who might have been eligible to vote in
the states of the Confederacy and in the Border states, what
percentage actually voted in the Union election?
As for details: what counts as a `border state'? The choice has a
big effect on the numbers.
As far as I know, Maryland was considered a `border state'. I do not
know whether voters in the western part of Virginia, which became the
state of West Virginia, voted for electors in 1864. Did Missouri
count as a `border state'? One of the pre-war issues was whether
slavery should or should not be legal in it. Did people in Kansas
vote?
The question has to do with the efficacy of a government in the middle
of an insurgency.
--
Robert J. Chassell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
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