By Diane Janowski © copyright - all rights reserved
I may be the only person who knows what the “Elmira Compact” was, although there was a time in the early 1900s when the whole country read about it in their local newspapers.
The story starts well before 1905, when “corrupt practices” were discovered at local elections. Votes were bought and sold in the olden times. Men, I say “men” because women were not yet allowed to vote, could make a good day’s work and dinner between visiting ALL the voting stations. Men of this nature were called “floaters.”
In Elmira elections, some candidates paid with food like sandwiches or hamburgers, some paid cash, some settled in beer and whiskey at local saloons. Certain persons of our community voted frequently and often, as the saying goes. No proof of identity was needed; folks used made-up names and made-up addresses.
Jacob Sloat Fassett had had enough in 1905 and, along with John B. Stanchfield while playing golf at the Elmira Country Club, discussed money-spending for elections, and both agreed that it would be a good thing if it could be eliminated. They sat down and penned the “famous” Elmira Compact.
In short, the Elmira Compact promised four things.
Candidates could only spend $40 on their campaigns per election district
No money could change hands before or during the election process to purchase or influence votes
Bribery will result in the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of those committing the offense
Rewards of $100 to any person offering information on election offenses
Signed by J.S. Fassett, chairman of Republican Party, and W.H. Lovell, chairman of Democratic Party October 5, 1905
The Star-Gazette editor was in favor of the Compact, knowing that local politics were not “absolutely pure,” but instead, it would make “make things better and keep things better.”
Fassett and Stanchfield spoke at both Republican and Democratic headquarters in Elmira. Somehow both parties agreed to clean campaigning and would limit their expenditures to $25 for each city district and $40 for each county district. The idea caught on in Ithaca, Norwich, Schoharie, Middletown, Cobleskill, Columbia County, and Ogdensburg.
The 1905 mayoral election in Elmira had one Fusion candidate as both parties shared Zebulon Brockway. Brockway easily won. Attorneys and detectives had been stationed in each voting district “not in the anticipation of crime, but in the interest of legal and clean elections.” The election was not contested or recounted. Brockway was satisfied, but nobody else was. Some enterprising voters wanted cash, drinks, or food to which they had become accustomed.
“Elmira had in 1905, the cleanest, most decent, and most satisfactory city election in two decades.” On November 17, 1906, Fassett wrote to the Elmira Gazette editor and said, “[the last] election was free and clean of bribery, so far as I know. The thing that did happen; that scores and scores of men came to the polls demanded pay, and when payment was refused, they went home without voting. In one election district, there were about 100, in other districts 40 to 50.” He also went on to suggest that Elmira advocate a “head tax on all male citizens over 21 years of age, which tax should be remitted upon proof that a man voted at the next election. He suggested a tax of $10 or $20.
The Elmira Compact idea lasted until 1907, when Fassett could no longer agree with the concept as he believed “the Democrats broke the compact.” On the other hand, John Moore of the Elmira Telegram emphatically declared that “both parties had broken the Compact.” The Compact had given the appearance of “a good business-like government.” Elmirans missed our usual fighting and bickering, and so in the next election Democrat, Daniel Sheehan won and lasted for the next six years.
And here we are.
Sources:
Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) 27 Jun 1939, Tue Page 58
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