Approximately 380 years ago in the 1630’s the town meeting form of government emerged in America. This form of government was brought here from England by the Puritans and other religious sects. As such the English, and some Germanic, religious and family commune systems served as the basis for settlers when they created the town meeting form of government. It was necessary to establish methods to address basic survival as well as promote the general welfare of the community. The town meeting was essentially the congregation of likeminded people and centered on their church.

The tract of land that became the first part of Wareham was purchased in 1682 from the town of Plymouth by a group of ten people including John Fearing, Samuel Bates, and John Chubbuck. About 55 years later, in July 1739, the town of Wareham was incorporated. The town meeting form of government established over a hundred years earlier in New England has changed very little since 1630. Since Wareham was established many years after the emergence of the town meeting it is very likely this town has always been governed by the town meeting form of government.

Adjusting the number of selectman and other minor changes has obviously been tried. This experimentation suggests the town meeting form of government is not fulfilling the needs of the community or they wouldn’t have been attempted. Since the town meeting form of government is based on a homogeneous community united by a strict common religion, it is not surprising that it is failing to meet modern needs. Today, the town of Wareham is made up of a diverse population with people holding seriously different views. We are not a single congregation with a common faith in God nor do we share an agreed upon set of authority figures or leaders. The only way this form of government can work is by purging the town of people who do not get in line and follow.

This problem was understood in the mid 1700’s and a solution was proposed. The solution was representative democracy. The founding fathers of this country sought ways to establish a democracy. They understood it was not possible for all the people to debate and vote on each and every thing. They understood that it was not practical for people to divide their time between caring for their families and performing public duties. People needed to devote most of their time to work for their food and shelter so public projects would need to be done by people hired for that purpose. To this end they established the system of representative democracy as a compromise. That way the people tending to our public needs would be directly connected to the people through regular elections.

They realized a pure democracy was not possible or practical because it would require all people to vote on all things. They realized all people could not participate in the functions of government or they would not be able to tend to their own private needs. They also realized that those people performing government functions must be held accountable by all the people. Fair elections and well established laws were also key characteristics of the democracy they designed.

To this day the democracy established by the founding fathers is considered to be the best form of government known to man. Democracy has spread dramatically throughout the world over the last 50 years. One of the central features of a democracy is the use of secret ballots during elections and the provision of security during those elections to protect people from all types of intimidation. Freedom only exists if people can express their own opinions and that is not possible unless a secret ballot is used.

In 1948 this was established as a world-wide creed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights where it states “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”

If a secret ballot is not used then the way someone votes will be used to purge them from the community. So the lack of a secret ballot at town meeting has been important because it is the way the community purges people who do not fall in line with the prevailing views of the community. This worked fine for the Puritans but it is not appropriate for a modern government.