“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.”

Letter to José Guadalupe Gallegos, Speaker of the House, declining his elected position (Dec, 1858) "Journal of the Hose of Representatives of the Territory of New Mexico Session 1858-59". House Journal: Proceedings, Volume 33. https://books.google.com/books?id=87kUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA41&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false New Mexico Legislative Assembly. De Marle, A. (Public Printer) p. 41. Perea was excused from attending the House during the 1858 session.
Context: To the Hon. José Guadalupe Gallegos Speaker of the House of Representatives: SIR: To the resolution of the House, asking me to give my reasons for declining to take a seat in that Hon. House, as a member from the county of Bernalillo, I have the honor to respond: In the first place, I never consented to my name being placed before the people as a candidate for the office to which l was elected and secondly, I would inform the House, that the health of my family, makes my presence absolutely indispensable. I was not aware that it was my duty to resign after I had been elected, or I would have done so, in order to give the people of my county an opportunity to elect another in my place. With assurances to the Hon. House, that I would be very happy to accompany them in providing for the good of our common country, if the matters above mentioned would permit me. I am, Mr. Speaker with much respect, Your Obd. Servant, FRANCISCO PEREA

Interim report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred Maurice de Zayas http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/IntOrder/A.67.277_en.pdf.
2012

Rafsanjani: the U.S. Sold Biological and Chemical Weapons to Saddam Hussein. Elections in Iraq Were Held against America's Will http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/560.htm February 2005
2005

1860s, A Short Autobiography (1860)
Context: A man offered to sell, and did sell, to Abraham and another as poor as himself, an old stock of goods, upon credit. They opened as merchants; and he says that was the store. Of course they did nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt. He was appointed postmaster at New Salem — the office being too insignificant to make his politics an objection. The store winked out. The surveyor of Sangamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of his work which was within his part of the County. He accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint https://books.google.com/books?id=iakIAAAAIAAJ and Gibson https://books.google.com/books?id=SIERLtc5aAYC a little, and went at it. This procured bread, and kept soul and body together. The election of 1834 came, and he was then elected to the legislature by the highest vote cast for any candidate. Major, then in full practice of the law, was also elected. During the canvass, in a private conversation, he encouraged Abraham to study law.<!--pp.18-19

Quoted in Thomas Vinciguerra, "At 90, an Environmentalist From the ’70s Still Has Hope," http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/science/earth/19conv.html?ei=5124&en=37f1d07ebf1f8512&ex=1339992000&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=print The New York Times (2007-06-19}

Letter to The Times with Henry Usborne (22 January 1954), p. 7
1950s

Source: The Crisis of the Modern World (1927), pp. 97-98

The Brass Check (1919)