Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1915 — An International Pig. [ARTICLE]

An International Pig.

The Anglo-American war of 1812-14, from the conclusion of which we date our centenary of peace, was due remotely to one of the most trivial incidents that could be imagined. At the Rhode Island elections in 1811 —so the story goes—one constituency was lost to the Federalist party because a certain farmer arrived at the polling place too late to cast his vote. He had been delayed by the difficulty of releasing one of his pigs that had been caught in a fence. The result was that this constituency elected a pro-war candidate to the state legislature by a majority of one. The representative sent to the United States senate by this legislature was elected by a similar majority, and ultimately it was by a majority of one that congress declared war against Great Britain. —Manchester Guardian.