Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ALE about the 1932 presidential campaign IS already in the air and it wont be long now until the two major parties will be deciding where they will hold their conventions to select the standard bearers in next years race so it Is appropriate a this time to recall that the first presidential convention was held just years ago and the story of that historic gathering Is one of the interesting incidents in our national history which Is but little known to most americans most americans no doubt believe that we have had presidential nominating conventions ever since american political parties came into existence and that such a method of selecting candidates was originated by one of the two major parties which have always dominated governmental affairs but the fact Is that neither belief Is correct the republic bad been in existence more than four de cades and bad already chosen six presidents hen this procedure which was regarded as a innovation at the time came into existence more than that it was not the anven non of one of the then leading parties but it vas brought into being by an obscure non which played a minor role in one presidential campaign and then quickly passed out of existence hot even the fact that the two leading par ties of that period immediately adopted the na convention idea as have all later parties until now it Is an essential part of the american political scheme has been sufficient to keep alive the memory of the antl masonic party a religious political phenomenon which in september 1831 held in baltimore md the first authentic national presidential ing convention and to round out the paradox ct this historic incident which Is filled with paradoxes it should be recorded that the nominee of the antl masonic party was himself a it Is probable that a national nominating convention would have come about eventually in the process of american political even it there had never been an antl masonic party but it so happened that this organization came on the scene at a time when the growth of the democratic spirit in the american people was rising to a high tide and the dissatisfaction with the previous method of choosing dentral candidates had reached its peak so whether by design or by chance this party re bonded to a popular demand with a new and acceptable method and thus gets the for inaugurating a custom which Is a milestone in american history during the first two decades of our history M a nation it became the practice for each party to hold a congressional caucus and nominate candidates for president and vice president but gradually the caucus grew into disfavor dictum of the party members of congress was not always accepted by everybody in W two powerful competitors tor the on to jefferson appeared madison and mon both were put forward by state legis latke caucuses in virginia the congressional baucus decided in favor of madison several members of congress who did not favor madl 0 o appealed to the country not only against of the procedure but against the caucus system itself but the caucus won out la that instance and madison was elected flent though the congressional caucus continued make nominations until 1824 ng caucus as it was now called continued to be regarded with more and more disfavor 1824 william U crawford of georgia was e caucus nominee of the republican party but rank and file of the party refused to ac pt him and he came out third in the list of candidates in the election so king caucus wa dethroner dethroned and democratic america was dy for a new and more representative meth 00 of choosing its candidates for president s was furnished by the antl masonic party which was brought into being by the following in 1824 a certain william morgan settled in atavia N Y he had been a mason but becoming dissatisfied with the fraternity he pub hed a book which purported to reveal the ces of the order in 1820 morgan disappeared the rumor was started that be had been and murdered by the masons there as no proof that they had anything to do with s disappearance but the incident was capital aed upon by enemies of the order and through york england and pennsylvania read the suspicion that the order whose mem was mainly from the wealthier classes a secret political society as well as a fra troal order whose influence swayed juries and so america had a first class menace to get excited over and the were tawfiq horn quick to seize upon it to promote their own ambitions the result was the formation of the antl masonic party at a national convention held in philadelphia in september 1830 attended by 06 delegates from 10 states there it was decided to hold a national nominating convention the next year of this party prof william 0 inch in his book years of party warfare 1789 1837 published recently by the bobbs merrall company writes the antl masonic strength waa greatest in the east the movement made little headway in the west save ohio and was weak in the south in the new england states new york and pennsylvania the number of antl masons was great the strongest leaders appeared in these commonwealths among the political leaders who had some prominence in the antl masonic party were william n seward thurion weed mallard albert IL tracy francis granger john crary and frederick whittlesey of new york thaddeus stevens and richard rush of pennsylvania edward everett and john quincy adams of massachi Mass achu betts other leaders who looked with favor on the party were william wart john marshall john C calhoun john mclean and daniel webster andrew jackson who was then president was a mason and seemed certain of election reelection re unless some strong combination could be formed against him so an effort was made to induce henry clay to lead the new party or at least to unite the antl masons with the wing of the national republican party of which he was the leader under his banner the only brou trou ble with ahli effort was that clay himself was a mason and although he was not an enthuse astle member of the order the efforts to get him to renounce it failed in september 1931 clay wrote a letter in reply to a committee of antl masons in indiana who had asked him for his sentiments on mason ry which may possibly have vitally affected bis political fortunes and kept him from real izing his fondest ambition of going to the white house in this letter clay said that should he give his views on masonry tt would imply that individual sentiments on the subject formed a proper consideration in regard to voting for persons to fill federal offices he declared that americans should vote for president without regard to religious social benevolent or literary associations further than that he made a statement which was a criticism of antl mason ry when he said it indeed you gentlemen will point to a provision in the federal constitution which can legitimately be made to operate upon the subject in question I 1 would not hesitate to comply with your request down for the anti this was a definite turn masons and years later thurion weed declared that if clay had not written this letter the antl masons would have joined the national republicans and would have defeated jackson such a combination he declared would have given clay new york pennsylvania vermont georgia north carolina and louisiana in ad to the states that he did carry enough to have insured him a safe majority in the electoral votes turning to their next best bet the antl masons picked upon william wirt of maryland as their choice wirt had been one of the attorneys who had prosecuted aaron burr for treason had served as attorney general in the cabinets of both madison and monroe and was widely regarded as an able and outstanding man so when the first national nominating convention ever held in the united states assembled in the old athenaeum in baltimore in september 1831 it sheeted wart as its choice tor candidate for president and named amos of pennsylvania as his running mate tor vice president and this despite the tact that wart was a mason of many yeara standing and had never renounced bis allegiance to that order 1 his letter of acceptance has often been cited as a practical renunciation of masonry but it was far from that in it he said in substance that both in conversation and in letters to friends 1 he had spoken of the contentions over masonry as a subject more fit tor farce than tragedy and had been grieved at seeing some of my friends involved in what appeared to me such a wild and unjust persecution against so harmless an institution as freemasonry the candidate of the antl masons then ad matted his ideas upon the subject had under gone some modification however and that h did find some cause for alarm in the actions of overzealous members of the order con corning the new party he was asked to lead wart wrote after describing his own affiliation with masonry extending over a period of SO years 1 I had supposed that the very principles of your union was a war of indiscriminate proscription against all persons throughout the united states who had ever borne the name of mason that you would put in nomination no persons who had ever been a mason and who would not moreover pledge himself to become a party to such a war of indiscriminate alon and wield the appointing power of the office under your dictation who would not in short become the president of your party instead of be ing the president of the united states I 1 am happy to find that this Is an error this attitude of their candidate was far from satisfactory to the more earnest of the anti masons and they became even more dissatisfied when the campaign got under way for wart made no attempt to carry on on active campaign how plainly he felt that an unpleasant job had been wished oft on him and that there was no hope of his being elected Is shown by a letter which he wrote to judge carr an antl mate friend in it be said I 1 had thought I 1 had no right to object to the antl masons proposing me to the consideration of the people for the office of president ayery other chance of uniting the opposition to jaclson bad vanished this alone remained and faint as it was I 1 considered it my duty to permit the offer to be made it has been made the national republicans have declared against the union which alone I 1 had in view I 1 can perceive neither dignity nor decency in con the nomination it Is true that when I 1 accepted the nomination I 1 knew that this state of things might arise but it Is not true that I 1 knew it it should arise the antl masons would still persist in the nomination it never entered into my imagination that they could wish to do so vain and foolish a thing what end can it answer to themselves it will only expose their weakness they cannot carry a single state except perhaps vermont in such circumstances what a figure will they and their candidate make in a presidential contest it will annihilate thorn and me too by the mere force of ridicule he was a true prophet not only did clay fah to beat jaclson as wart had hoped but as he had also predicted vermont with its seven electoral votes was the only state carried by the antl masons even john ployd of georgia who ran as an independent did better than that he got 11 electoral votes after the election of 1832 this party disappeared from the national scene most of its members were absorbed by the whigs although in pennsylvania it con its identity for several years and elected a governor in 1835 but even though it played such a small part on the american political stage the antl masonic party and its standard bearer william wart are deserving of kemem brance as the party which gave to the country the national convention system by petern union |