Blocks of Five

The Blocks of Five were groups of electors who sold their votes to the United States Republican Party for the United States presidential election of 1888.

Background

In the Gilded Age, prior to the adoption of the secret ballot in Federal elections, political parties printed ballots and distributed them to their voters, who then cast them at their polling stations. Republican campaigner William Wade Dudley sent a circular on October 24, 1888 to Indiana Republican officials, telling them to "divide the floaters [vote sellers] into blocks of five" and appoint a trusted leader who would be given the money to pay them for their fraud.

The plan was exposed when a railroad official turned one up and it was subsequently publicized. The Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison was elected anyway. The publicity of the notoriously brazen fraud is credited with aiding states' adoption of the secret ballot.

References

Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
The Object at Hand: The Vote That Failed — Smithsonian Magazine

History of Indiana

Early history	Clovis Adena Hopewell Mississippian Beaver Wars European contact La Salle Expeditions French Rule

1700–1799	Vincennes Fort Miamis Ouiatenon French and Indian War British Rule Pontiac's Rebellion American Revolution George Rogers Clark Illinois campaign Clark's Grant Northwest Territory Northwest Indian War Petit fort

1800–1816	Indiana Territory Buffalo Trace Treaty of Vincennes Johnny Appleseed Treaty of Grouseland Indiana Rangers Tecumseh's War Battle of Tippecanoe War of 1812 Abolitionist movement Harmony 1st Indiana Canal Company Constitutional Convention

1817–1899	Statehood Polly v. Lasselle Treaty of St. Mary's Indian Removals Bank of Indiana 2nd Indiana Canal Company Whitewater Canal Wabash and Erie Canal Public Works and Bankruptcy Underground Railroad Mexican-American War New Constitution Civil War Golden Age Eli Lilly & Company Reno Gang Gas Boom Black Day of the General Assembly Indiana Pi Bill Golden Age of Literature

1900–1999	White Caps Elwood Haynes Indianapolis Motor Speedway World War I Indianapolis Strike and Riots Samuel Woodfill Indiana Klan Great Depression John Dillinger World War II Freeman Field Mutiny Shipp & Smith lynchings Flood of 1937 Supreme Court Reorganization

Since 2000	Flood of 2008

By topic	Auto Racing Battles Disasters Economy Elections General Assembly Governors Historic Sites People Historical Political Strength Native Americans Slavery

By city and locale	Evansville Fort Wayne Gary Hartford City Indianapolis Lafayette Lake Wawasee South Bend Terre Haute

See also: History of the United States, History of the Midwestern United States and Portal:Indiana WikiProject Indiana's History Department

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.