Soon it will again be the season of elections. It seems only yesterday that the United States of America elected a new president, followed by an inauguration as splendid, absent the elephants and chariots, as the coronation of a Roman emperor. It is only yesterday that we went again to the ballot box in this country. This is not however a contemplation upon the presidential election, nor indeed of our own. Rather, it is a reflection upon other momentous elections in the United States, the not dissimilar times in which they were conducted, and a contestant in, and chronicler of…