Campaigns Targeted Children
In the 1860s, the campaign trail was a popular place for children. Campaigns would bring live animal petting zoos to campaign events to ensure children accompanied their parents. Some would even bring leather balls for children to kick and throw with each other. Election day itself also held fun activities for children, with kids as young as six years old being hired as “runners” for campaigns – delivering messages, turning out voters and sometimes even helping intoxicated voters get to and from the polls.
People Described the Virgin Vote Like Puberty
Records from the 1860s indicate that many writers at the time used phrases commonly associated with puberty and coming-of-age to describe casting one’s first vote. The term “virgin vote” itself came from that time and was used in writings to describe the first vote. The experience of voting for the first time was described as both thrilling and a source of nervousness, with worry about the first vote being “wrong.” Voting for the “wrong” party was compared to losing a lover or getting a sexually transmitted infection – intensifying the comparisons to puberty and sexual maturity.
This odd blending of sexuality and voting was further exploited by campaigns that promised that “all the handsome and intelligent young ladies” supported their political party and would be lined up outside the polls waiting to congratulate the unmarried men on their wise votes. Older men were said to reminisce about their first votes being a source of “pride and pleasure” in older age, again demonstrating the oddly sexual overtone around the first vote.
With all of the cultural focus on the youth vote in the 1860s, it is likely that the youth turnout rate was significantly higher than today, so sadly no demographic record of voters was kept in that era. Also, today’s pool of youth voters is considerably more extensive due to the enfranchisement of youth as young as 18 with the 26th amendment.
The 1860s Wasn’t a Voter Paradise for Anyone But White Men
While the 1860s was a phenomenal time for young white men to be involved in politics, it was mostly terrible for anyone else. Women would not gain the right to vote until 1920. Native Americans weren’t considered legal US Citizens with voting rights until 1924. Black men were technically allowed to vote as early as 1870 due to the 15th Amendment, but those rights were not fully realized until 1965 when the Civil Rights Act was passed to dismantle Jim Crow era disenfranchisement. Politics itself was only considered a suitable pastime for men as well.
Discussing politics was considered too aggressive and masculine for most women, with women being encouraged to discuss more soft, innocent things. Women would not have been welcome at political rallies, as was evident with the violence and arrests of the suffragists in the early 20th century. As with many things in history, progress typically comes first for white men.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The “virgin vote”: a historian discovers why young Americans once actually voted” Jeff Stein, Vox. November 2017.
“Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign” John Grinspan, Journal of American History. September 2009.