America 1881: Legend of the West

In the American continent in the 19th century, especially in the West, voting was not a very easy thing.

Bidding stations are set up in places with convenient transportation, such as cities and large towns.

The most difficult part of the journey requires voters to ride horses, sit in carriages, or even walk on two legs.

Mail-in voting, which would make someone more than a hundred years later frustrated, was not yet popular at that time.

People are more interested in going to the venue to cast their sacred vote.

Of course, this kind of voting takes courage.

Because until the United States introduced the Australian voting system in the late 19s, voting was an extremely dangerous thing.

Each political party prints its own party ballot papers in newspapers it controls.

Voters then cut their ballots out of the newspaper and write their names on them.

They arrived at the polling station and, after proving to staff that they were eligible to vote, made their way through the crowd.

In full view of the public, he climbed onto a platform placed against the wall and handed his ballot through a window to the election judge inside.

Just like it is now.

At the Albuquerque polling station, under a large umbrella, Scott and the fat congressman were watching the voting.

Not far from them, Harlem and several Democrats looked at him eagerly.

There is a posture of "taking a pessimistic view of life and death, if you don't accept it, do it, and if you have the guts, do it again."

Scott felt his nose hurt again.

Both men have actually been going back and forth to various polling stations in New Mexico.

But what a coincidence, they met here by chance today.

There was a large crowd at the scene, with supporters of both parties holding signs high.

The names of the two candidates, Gardner and Davis, were written on the signs.

The two sides were at war with each other. If it weren't for the police who were maintaining order, they would have ended up fighting long ago.

"How is the situation at other polling stations?" Scott took out a handkerchief and gently wiped away the liquid flowing from under his nose.

Ever since his nose was broken by Harlem in Parliament last time, his nose would always runny from time to time.

"Based on visual inspection, our fundamentals are quite stable." The fat congressman said while wiping the sweat from his head.

If it were before, Scott would be very relieved.

But it's different now.

"Where is Chen Jianqiu? Where have you seen him recently?" Scott asked.

"Huh? I haven't seen him. I haven't received any news about him for more than a week." The fat congressman hurriedly replied.

Scott said "Oh."

He looked calm on the outside, but there was something stuck inside.

The old man always felt that Chen Jianqiu would appear from somewhere and make big news.

Scott continued to stare at the voting site.

Suddenly, he discovered something serious.

"Why are there so many Chinese here?" Scott frowned and asked the fat congressman.

"I have told you a long time ago that Chen Jianqiu took advantage of the loopholes in the constitution to bring in a bunch of Chinese people and obtained legal citizenship. What do you mean?"

The fat congressman muttered that he had meant to say that Scott had "shot himself in the foot."

But he looked at the old man's face and still didn't dare to say a word.

"I mean how could they come to vote!" Scott became really angry, "Have you ever seen so many Chinese people vote in China?!"

The fat congressman knew what Scott meant.

Chinese in the United States have never been interested in politics, let alone voting.

It is unheard of for so many Chinese to show up at a polling station.

Needless to say, it is most likely Chen Jianqiu's fault.

"I have citizenship, what should you do?" the fat congressman spread his hands and said helplessly.

Scott took a deep breath and turned to look at the fat congressman, his face was livid, and his anger was obviously suppressed.

"Use a literacy test! Do you still want me to teach you how to do it?"

The fat congressman was stunned.

The so-called literacy test means that the administrator at the bidding station asks voters some cultural questions to prove that he is a voter who has the ability to make voting judgments.

This was originally a bill used by southern states to target those black people.

Because the illiteracy rate among blacks at that time was 40% to 60%, this bill basically eliminated a large part of blacks from the electorate.

How can you vote if you can't even write your own name? !

New Mexico passed exactly this law.

This is what Scott uses in case of emergencies.

He didn't originally plan to use it because of the state's large Hispanic electorate.

But now, he decided to use this thing to kick those Chinese out.

A few days later, an additional person and table were added to the identity verification points at each polling station.

Administrators began asking those constituents, one by one, cultural questions.

"Please read this line out loud!"

A staff member with brown curly hair handed a piece of paper with a line of English letters written on it to a young Chinese man standing in front of the table.

This Chinese young man has short hair and looks a bit dull.

He carefully took the note from the staff member's hand and frowned.

There were several white men in black suits on the side, arms folded, ready to watch his joke.

"Should we find him a translator?" They winked at each other. "I'm afraid he doesn't understand what Hughes wants him to do."

The young man took a deep breath and read word by word:

"There are two cows in my pasture, one is black, and the other is also black."

Not very standard, but very clear English came out from the young man's mouth.

The white people looked at each other.

This person actually knows English? !

The staff was dumbfounded.

Before being sent here, Scott had asked someone to deliver a message to them privately.

Those Chinese must be made embarrassed and kicked out of the ranks of voters.

But what to do now?

He turned his head and looked helplessly at the white man behind him as if asking for help.

This man was a lawyer, a friend of Scott's, and came over to watch the fun.

The lawyer knew it was time to take matters into his own hands.

He thought for a moment, took out the pen from his arms, and then took a piece of paper on the table.

He quickly wrote a paragraph on it and handed it to the Chinese young man.

You can't do this, can you?

The young man took the note.

He actually changed his scowl from just now and grinned:

"This is easy! Boss Chen taught us in night school!"

“In the course of the development of human affairs, when one nation must dissolve its ties with another nation and establish itself as an independent and equal nation among the nations of the world in accordance with the laws of nature and the will of God, out of respect for human public opinion , the reasons that drive them to independence must be declared."

All the white people present were stunned and could not say a word.

Another Chinese behind him asked him in a low voice:

"How do you know?"

"Boss Chen said this is called the Declaration of Independence. I passed it in the exam last month. This is the first paragraph. I guess you will learn it next week."

The Chinese young man returned the note to the staff and smiled honestly:

"I can still memorize the following, do you want to listen?"

After that, he continued to recite like fried beans.

The white lawyer almost couldn't find a place to bury himself.

He brought the news back to Scott, who was having his nose checked by his personal doctor.

"What? Do they know English? Hey, please be gentle!"

The old man was sitting on a chair, and the doctor next to him was cleaning his nasal cavity.

"Then just make it more difficult!" the fat congressman on the side said nonchalantly.

"They have Chinese workers who can recite the Declaration of Independence." The lawyer lowered his head and said, "Chen Jianqiu taught them."

Bang!

The plate next to the doctor was knocked to the floor.

Scott's nose felt another sharp pain.

"It seems that there is no way to increase the difficulty. If we increase the difficulty, our voters will not vote." The fat congressman subconsciously touched his nose.

After all, about 10% of white people are illiterate.

What's more, he couldn't recite the Declaration of Independence.

The old man held his hand on the table and waited for a while before speaking.

He gritted his teeth and said:

"Then use the old method!"