Why do I need to vote, anyway? The vote was given to Americans as a gift from our Founding Fathers. Secured in the Constitution, a Right, that can never be taken from us. It is guaranteed. But it is a privilege, as well. With the arrival of new inhabitants to the Colonies, one of the things “the people” wanted to secure was their ability to govern themselves and to get away from an oppressive ruling society. When they arrived in the “New World”, they decided who would lead them. It was imperative they have a government that would allow them to express their pursuit of liberty and happiness.
The vote was given to land owners or those that owned a certain amount in livestock, as a means of determining their “investment” in the governing body. Typically, if you had a stake in something you would be more apt to be interested and involved. The vote was typically a white male, freed slave land-owner and on occasion women who had a vested interested. The votes cast in an election were typically small as landowners had to travel to cast the vote which was not always possible.
As civilization and generations spread to adjoining lands the desire to have a say in government also intensified. The people wanted to determine for themselves how they would be governed. The vote began to change from those with a vested interest, to individuals. Many people today do not realize that in the beginning, the vote was to secure their holdings in a new society. The vote moved from the land holder to the “person’.
The responsibility of voting was coveted. As more people lived in what were now cities and towns, the vote was given to the male of the house to determine best for his family. It was the new American’s job to cast the vote, a Right not taken lightly. Choosing a man of Honor, Integrity, one who was Fair and Equitable was not taken lightly.
Leaders, like the presidency, were to be men of great skill, military might, they were to be ethical, men of principal, of virtue, with great fortitude having an understanding of Biblical principles, and be of great moral character.
The first great battle on the American continent was fought for the vote. The American Revolution gave the people the ability to create a society which would allow a people to govern themselves. Our forefathers died for this, in great multitudes, fighting off the oppressive European nations who wanted to rule over and control them.
It is a necessity that we continue this fight to quell oppressive governments and those who are put in place to govern. The vote is the most important tool we have against tyranny. We are called as a nation to choose how we will be governed and when those we place in high regard abuse it, it is our job to correct it.
The vote is a gift from our Founding Fathers, secured by the blood of those who fight and die for our freedom.
It cannot be but by Divine Intervention that we have been given such a “God-Inspired” document as the Constitution. The instructions are very clear. We must not take the vote for granted, for it is by which we shall live, freely.
The Declaration of Independence creates this very thing… ” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Cast your vote. Exercise your Right. Honor those who have died for your Freedom and for the privilege, right and gift of the vote, Do not take it lightly.
Wooleeacre 