Charles R. Buckalew
Charles R. Buckalew | |
---|---|
Pennsylvania Senate | |
In office 1851–1854 | |
Preceded by | Robert Chambers Sterrett |
Succeeded by | Bartram A. Schaffer |
Constituency | 16th district |
In office 1857–1858 | |
Preceded by | Samuel Wherry |
Succeeded by | Henry Fetter |
Constituency | 13th district |
In office 1869–1870 | |
Preceded by | David Mumma |
Succeeded by | Butler B. Strang |
Constituency | 16th district |
Personal details | |
Born | Charles Rollin Buckalew December 28, 1821 Fishing Creek Township, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | May 19, 1899 Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. | (aged 77)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Permelia Wadsworth Buckalew |
Profession | Politician, Lawyer |
Charles Rollin Buckalew (December 28, 1821 – May 19, 1899) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and Democratic Party politician from Pennsylvania. He represented the state for one term in the United States Senate, where he was an advocate for proportional representation and cumulative voting, from 1863 to 1869.
Buckalew also served three nonconsecutive terms in the
Early life and education
Buckalew was born in
Career
Buckalew was the most influential early advocate of proportional representation in the United States. His proposals for a type of voting system known as cumulative voting gained significant support in Congress, and he played a central role in the adoption of cumulative voting in several places, including Illinois for state legislative elections in 1870, a system that lasted in that state until 1980.
Buckalew was
Buckalew's bill in the Senate would have allowed all the electors of a state to have the number of votes equal to the number of house of representatives members to be elected from that state. The voter could give all his votes to one candidate, or distribute them in any fashion, equally or unequally, among candidates. The candidates with the highest number of votes would be elected.[3]
In addition to serving in Congress and the Pennsylvania state legislature, Buckalew was commissioner to exchange ratifications of a treaty with Paraguay in 1854; chairman of the Democratic State committee in 1857; appointed one of the commissioners to revise the penal code of Pennsylvania in 1857; Minister Resident to the Republic of Ecuador 1858-1861;[4] unsuccessful candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in 1872; and a delegate to the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1873.
He resumed the practice of law when he left Congress in 1891, age 69, in Bloomsburg, Columbia County, where he died on May 19, 1899. He is interred in Rosemont Cemetery in Bloomsburg.[1]
Buckalew's writings and speeches on cumulative voting were collected in an 1872 book titled Proportional Representation. 1872, Philadelphia, J. Campbell & Son.
References and notes
- ^ a b "Pennsylvania State Senate - Charles Rollins Buckalew Biography". www.legis.state.pa.us. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
- ^ Hoag, Clarence Gilbert and George Hervey Hallett, Proportional Representation. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1926. CHAPTER IX, THE HISTORY OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE UNITED STATES Archived 2008-05-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Senate Bill 772, 40th Cong., 3d Sess., January 13, 1869
- ISBN 978-0-8262-1988-6. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
External links
- United States Congress. "Charles R. Buckalew (id: B001019)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-04-01
- "Charles R. Buckalew". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2009-04-01.
- Proportional Representation, by Charles R. Buckalew at the University of Michigan Making of America online library