Have you ever said, “I am just one person; what can one person do?” Believe it or not, one person can change the course of human history. It has happened many times.
Thomas Jefferson was elected president by just one vote in the Electoral College. So was John Quincy Adams. Rutherford B. Hayes was also elected president by just one vote. When his election was contested, he again won by a single vote, cast by a lawyer from Indiana who was elected to Congress by the margin of just one vote. That one vote was cast by a client of his, who, though seriously ill, insisted on being taken to the polls to cast his vote.
In DeKalb County, Ind., in the 1840’s, a miller on his way to grind grain on Election Day ran into some friends who were on their way to vote. They persuaded him to go to the polls first and cast his ballot. He may have thought it was not all that important, but they insisted that it was. Reluctantly agreeing, he grumbled, “Much good all my trouble will do!”
Yet it happened that just one vote – his vote – was the majority by which his candidate was elected to the state legislature. And by a single vote of that DeKalb County lawmaker the Indiana legislature elected Edward Allen Hannagan to the United States Senate.
In Washington, Senator Hannagan was chosen “president pro tem” of Congress when the question of offering statehood to Texas came up for decision. Congress balloted but the vote was a deadlock. As the president pro tem, Hannagan stepped forward to cast the ballot that would break the tie. He cast his one vote in the affirmative. By that one vote Texas was annexed into the union! This action led to the Mexican War and helped shape America’s future.
One vote kept Aaron Burr from becoming president of the United States. One vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment. One vote elected Oliver Cromwell to the famous Long Parliament and sent Charles I to the gallows. Can you imagine how different the history of the United States would be if Texas had never been admitted to the union?
No person, in any given situation, should ever say, “I’m only one person, so what good can I do?” On countless occasions throughout history one person has changed the course of history. It could happen again in the election before us. You could be a part of history. Be thankful that American elections are by ballots – not bullets. We count the returns – not the remains.
There are countries in the world whose citizens do not have the right to vote. They are, in reality, “people of the government, by the government and for the government.” The United States government was designed to be “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Whatever a voter’s race, color, creed, or gender happens to be, we are all one family. We can keep it that way on Election Day by going to the polls and voting for those we believe to be the best qualified and should be chosen to serve.
Remember this: the most dangerous vote in any election is the vote not cast. Therefore, say to yourself as you go to the polls: “I am one person – but I am one! I cannot do everything – but I can do something! What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God I will do. I will vote!”
The Paper Pulpit 
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