Editing Silent majority (section)

=== Groups of voters ===
In May 1831, the expression "silent majority" was spoken by [[Churchill C. Cambreleng]], representative of [[New York (state)|New York]] state, before 400 members of the [[Tammany Hall|Tammany Society]].<ref name="Cambreleng-1831" /> Cambreleng complained to his audience about a U.S federal bill that had been rejected without full examination by the [[United States House of Representatives]]. Cambreleng's "silent majority" referred to other representatives who [[Voting bloc|voted as a bloc]]:

{{quote|Whenever majorities trample upon the rights of minorities—when men are denied even the privilege of having their causes of complaint examined into—when measures, which they deem for their relief, are rejected by the despotism of a silent majority at a second reading—when such become the rules of our legislation, the Congress of this Union will no longer justly represent a republican people.<ref name="Cambreleng-1831">{{cite book|title=Niles' weekly register |date=May 1831 |volume=40 |page=231 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S7oRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA231 }} Quoting New York Representative Churchill C. Cambreleng, first appearing in the ''New York Standard'', May 12, 1831.</ref>}}

In 1883, an anonymous author calling himself "A German" wrote a memorial to [[Léon Gambetta]], published in ''[[The Contemporary Review]]'', a British quarterly. Describing French Conservatives of the 1870s, the writer opined that "their mistake was, not in appealing to the country, but in appealing to it in behalf of a Monarchy which had yet to be defined, instead of a Republic which existed; for in the latter case they would have had the whole of that silent majority with them."<ref>{{cite journal|date=February 1883 |title=Gambetta |journal=The Contemporary Review |publisher=Isbister and Company |location=London |volume=43 |page=185|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPQIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA185 |access-date=April 15, 2010 }} Anonymous author signing as "A German".</ref>

In 1919, Madison Avenue advertising executive and Republican Party supporter [[Bruce Fairchild Barton|Bruce Barton]] employed the term to bolster [[Calvin Coolidge]]'s campaign for the 1920 Republican Presidential nomination. In ''[[Collier's]]'' magazine, Barton portrayed Coolidge as the [[everyman]] candidate: "It sometimes seems as if this great ''silent majority'' had no spokesman. But Coolidge belongs with that crowd: he lives like them, he works like them, and understands."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Buckley|first1=Kerry W.|title=A President for the 'Great Silent Majority': Bruce Barton's Construction of Calvin Coolidge|journal=The New England Quarterly|date=December 2003|volume=76|issue=4|pages=593–626|doi=10.2307/1559844|jstor=1559844}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwQBDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |page=15 |title=Democracy for Hire: A History of American Political Consulting |last=Johnson |first=Dennis W. |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-027269-2}}</ref>

Referring to [[Charles I of England]], historian [[Veronica Wedgwood]] wrote this sentence in her 1955 book ''The King's Peace, 1637–1641'': "The King in his natural optimism still believed that a silent majority in Scotland were in his favour."<ref name="Ayto2006">{{cite book|author=John Ayto|title=Movers and Shakers: A Chronology of Words that Shaped Our Age|url=https://archive.org/details/moversshakerschr0000ayto|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-861452-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/moversshakerschr0000ayto/page/151 151]}}</ref>