Democracy

The Dorr War

Country Election Painting

• America's founders initially imposed a property requirement for voting rights because they wanted to be sure voters had "a stake in the community".\
• Dorr makes peace with the American forefathers while pushing for reform by saying that he by no means wants to offend or disrespect them, but just wants to make the country they built even better.
• Dorr's grievance when it comes to representation is that the system for representation does no provide enough room for change and that representation is not equal.
• Discriminatory language used to describe non-landowners included being untrustworthy, unsafe due to their lack of ties to the community, and vicious.
• Dorr eventually had to commit high treason in order to get reform.
• No other states had to go through similar events to get their voting laws changed because they had peaceful and gradual change.

• Democratic elections are being held.
• Each person is only allowed to vote once and officials have to be sure no one has voted in another town
• Election day is treated as a social gathering/celebration
• Everyone could vote at this point, besides African Americans and women
• With no singular focus in the picture, it represents the democratic ideal that all men should be treated equally.
• A man by the name Sapppington shows the flaws of the system by showing the opportunity for bribing
• A bandaged man shows that violence is still a factor in this system

Voting Chart #1

• The Number of states with property requirements continuously decreased.
• The number of states in union continuously increased.
• number of states with tax paying requirements increased form 1790-1830, but then decreased.

Democracy

Voting Quotes

How should we define democracy? How democratic was the United States in the early 1800s?

Democracy- a political system in which the people vote for their rulers, and sometimes the laws, that will make their community and nation a better place

• This shows that people wanted more equal voting rights, and people believed that everyone should be able to vote no matter how rich or poor they may be.

Analysis

Townshend is favoring democracy because it is more fair. It is more fair because of the fact that EVERYONE has equal opportunity to vote, no matter their class.

Voting Chart #2

• As the years went on more and more states had the votes made by the people, and less by the legislature.
• In 1819 every state's votes were made by the legislature.
• By 1836 only one state still had their votes done by the legislature.

Voting Quotes

• It was realized that everyone should be able to vote for their leader, and have a say in their government, not just the legislature which is a small group of people.

Analysis

• People are given the right to vote depending on the land they own and the taxes they pay.
• This tells us that the right to vote was mainly given to the upper class and not everyone.

Rise of Democracy