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Indiana Law Review
Volume 52 2019 Number 1
SYMPOSIUM
HOOSIER BRIDESMAIDS
MARGO M. LAMBERT*
A. CHRISTOPHER BRYANT**
Indiana proudly proclaims itself the Crossroads of America.' While some
northeast-corridor cynics might deride the boast as a paraphrase for flyover
country, there is no denying the political significance of the Hoosier State's
geographical and cultural centrality. As one of Indiana's most celebrated
historians has observed, [b]y the beginning of the twentieth century Indiana was
often cited as the most typical of American states, perhaps because Hoosiers in
this age of transition generally resisted radical change and were able usually to
balance moderate change with due attention to the continuities of life and
culture.'
Throughout the Gilded Age, elections in the state were so closely fought that
the winning party rarely claimed more than slimmest majority.3 At the time,
Indiana tended to favor Republicans over Democrats, but the races were close
with Democrats claiming their share of victories.4 During these years, voter
turnout remained high in presidential elections, with Indiana ranging from the
eightieth to the ninetieth percentiles, no doubt a product of the closeness of the
contests. Such voter turnout substantially exceeded that typical of surrounding
states. Hoosiers liked to politick.
The state's high voter participation may also have been, in some part,
attributable to its relaxed voting laws for adult males during the nineteenth
* Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College.
** Rufus King Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law.
The authors, proud Hoosiers by birth and Buckeyes by professional opportunity, thank first and
foremost Brad Boswell for entrusting us with the opportunity to open the March 29, 2018
Symposium. We also thank all Symposium participants for their comments and suggestions, as well
as the University of Cincinnati and the Harold C. Schott Foundation for financial support. Of
course, remaining errors are ours alone.
1. H.R. Con. Res. 6, 80th Gen. Assemb. (Ind. 1937).
2. JAMES H. MADISON, THE INDIANA WAY: A STATE HISTORY 146 (1986).
3. Tim Reuter, Make Partisanship Great Again, FORBES (Sep. 20, 2017), https://www.
forbes.com/sites/timreuter/2017/09 /20 /make-partisanship-great-again/#2e7abf5 d 1559
[https://perma.cc/KK3C-7BUD].
4. MADISON, supra note 2, at 209.
5. Id. at211.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/indilr52&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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