and the heaven blesseth it; ill works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing." "The Election in November" by James Russell Lowell, The Atlantic Monthly; October, 1860.

Ward on 1932, and Reagan biographer Lou Cannon on 1980. In some, such as the election of 1860, the choices were especially stark: between freedom and slavery, unity and division, war and peace.