CONNECTICUT LINCOLN CAMPAIGN BROADSIDE ON ALLOWING SOLDIERS THE VOTE
Rare war-date printed 1864 Republican Presidential campaign election broadside, 1p. 4to., boldly titled: "Address of the UNION STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE upon the Constitutional Amendment Extending the Elective Franchise to Citizen Soldiers in the Field", Hartford, July 27, 1864, addressed to the "Freemen of Connecticut" in which the Union State Central Committee sought voters' support in ratifying an amendment to Connecticut's constitution in which her soldiers could case absentee ballots in the 1864 presidential election while absent in the field. In small part: "…on the 15th day of August…you will be called upon to decide by your votes whether the Constitution of this State shall be so amended that the citizen soldier may be allowed to exercise the elective franchise…we trust that you will now say…that those citizens who protect your firesides from the invader's torch…shall be entitled to vote for those who may govern the country which they have periled their lives…two successive legislatures have passed the amendment which is now submitted for your ratification, thereby endorsing the principle laid down by Jefferson, Jackson, and other Democratic leaders…the same leaders of the same party who…this indeed was sound democratic doctrine when war was waged with Mexico in the interest of slavery…the same leaders of the same party…extended a freeman's privilege to soldiers in the wilds of Mexico…now den[ied] to those who are…fighting for freedom…if you reject the amendment, he understands you to say…that to enter the service…is a positive disqualification to vote…but if you accept the amendment, you tell him that he has thereby acquired a new and more exalted titled to the highest privileges of a freeman and a free government…". Signed in type by the chairman of the committee James G. Batterson (a founder of the Conn. Republican Party) and endorsed by sixteen representatives, apparently all also Republican.