What do your students think about politics and voting? How important do they think it is for citizens to vote? To have a significant say in how their communities are run? Examining primary sources from the U.S. Progressive Era can provide insights into how voting rights – and voters’ power – have changed over time, lending perspective on the rights we have today.
Begin by showing showing students this 1897 magazine poster titled “Politics as Business.” Ask:
- What details do you notice?
- What do you think is happening in the picture?
- What do you think the designer was trying to communicate?
- When do you think this poster was created? Why?
Using the item record, reveal to students that “Politics as Business” was created in the United States in the late 19th century, during the Progressive Era. Ask students how this added historical context might influence their analysis. How might this image of two men dividing up the state of New York like a pie have appealed to progressive-era reformers?
To support students in their thinking, show them this 1912 New York State progressive party platform pamphlet. Invite them to scan items 1-7, making note of any unfamiliar phrases or instances of missing historical context that they may need to research later. Each numbered item represents one aspect of the election process that progressive-era reformers wished to address, for instance the direct election of senators, women’s suffrage, or popular referendums. Ask students, working alone or with a partner, to list any common themes or goals among the items.
To further deepen their understanding, challenge students to choose one of the items and summarize the proposed reform in their own words using a “before” and “after” format. This may require them to research the unfamiliar phrases or contexts identified earlier. For instance, students may need to research that before senators were chosen by “a direct vote of the people,” the Constitution mandated that senators be appointed by state legislatures. The Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed to achieve this reform. Ask students why they think that this change was so important to reformers that they sought a Constitutional amendment.
One excellent source for student research is the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers collection. For example, this 1912 newspaper article quotes Williams Jennings Bryan as the U.S. House of Representatives debated the issue of electing Senators: “We know that today great corporations exist in our states and that these great corporations, different from what they used to be one hundred years ago, are able to compass the election of their tools and their agents through the instrumentality of the legislatures, as they could not if senators were elected directly by the people.” What new insights do this quotation and other past calls for election reform offer students? What new questions do they raise? Does learning about the history of election reforms provide them with any insights into or raise questions about American electoral politics today?
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