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Show 1 W &m ostr A 1 iiim ,. ft7 ' ' I Ttla& your ..i . .- - '. .; s U I eyes - , f i- f -wf v tC.'r r5c Veil , A' ' " -.Vr 1 lM ..J test f 1 trS t - -8 I l li i? tH f L ess 1 ; I- s t ! S i - j s t i i h IX k h i! ' 3 'lirsssr ' I Mir ? yjj'i"- 2 S AGIance Backward fWMJ k ' at Political HistorM JSirfrSf, rra " the 4 lby j By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN the 1 . NITED STATES SENATOR PAT ind 4m&& HAERISON from Mississippi (who In WtiMM was christened Byron Patton), offl- us. SwWV ciul ke'noter of the 1924 s'atlonal nle 1 g 3 W II Democratic Convention in Madison re- Q I tl f Square Garden, Kew York, will pre- y 0 a E l sumably keynote as sweetly to the M$y various factions among the delega- tlons as i tne Fathers of the Republic Repub-lic had made the keynoter the key- Q stone of the political structure. To be sure, they neglected to mention him m arranging we puiiu- , cal machinery for the election of the President of rnJ the nation. But neither did they mention nominat- ing conventions or platforms or national commit- tees In fact, the Democratic party, which had its - beginning away back in 1S00 in the administration of Thomas Jefferson, never held a convention un-Ul un-Ul 1S2 and was guiltless of a platform until 1840. The Democratic Convention of 1863, which nom- inated Horatio Seymour of New York against Gen-ion Gen-ion eral Grant, was notable only for one fact that for the first time the Democrats met in New York city. Why the Democrats have never gone back there in ,D fifty-six years nobody seems to know. The humor- i ists have it that "Jeffersonian simplicity" has been scared to death of "Wicked Wall Street" and the by I Tammany tiger. It was In 1870, it will be remem- I bered, that the Tweed exposures startled the coun- I try; and Wall Street had already demonstrated Its financial power. Anyway, they do say now that j Gotham, before, during and after the 1924 conven- tion, is going to do its darnedest to prove to lnno- i I cent and timid country Democrats, both delegates I and visitors, that these "sinister influences" are I nothing but bugaboos. Doubtless New, York w 11 3o. , nulke n glorious success of this laudable undertak- ,.s ing Anywav, the convention will probably be "as i chaste as Diana" whose 18-foot statue tops Mad- ! lson Square Garden. It would be Interesting if some of the delegates to the 18GS convention could attend the 1924 con-! con-! : , vention. They would find the New York of today I much like another world. The first national nominating convention ever I held dates back to 1S12. The Federalists that i year nominated Lieut. Gov. De Witt Clinton of I New York for President and Attorney General ! Jared Ingersoll of Pennsylvania for vice president These nominations were first made by a caucus of state legislators at Albany, N. Y. For some reason, more formality was desired and the nominations were made over again by a convention assembled in New York. Madison, nominated by the Repub- Means in congressional caucus, beat Clinton easily. o nnvPi,Hnn Idea cot a bad send off. Perhaps that Is the reason why the next twenty years were J without conventions. The campaign of 1S32 saw - the real start of national conventions. There were 1 three parties Anti-Masonic, National Republican 'V or Whig and Democratic and all three conventions I were held In Baltimore. The Democratic Conven-; Conven-; - tion was held May 21. There were then twenty-four twenty-four states and a)1 except Missouri sent de egates. ; The two-thinne was adopted. No p atfonu was issued v..lrew Jackson was unanimously I renomir- P At President, The nominee for vice ! president was former Secretary of State Martin ' Van Buron of New York. The election was l e d November 6 and the people voted in every state except South Carolina, where the legislature chose the electors. Jackson and Van Buren wore dec ted. The campaign of 1S32 also saw the first party platform. After the National Republican Convcn-hlld Convcn-hlld nominal Henry Cay for President and John Servant of Pennsylvania for vice pre don t'.e adoption of a platform was left to the National Assemb v of Young Men, which met at ash.ng-on ash.ng-on and pUt forth ten resolutions, -nst'tunng he first platform ever issued in the United States. The resolutions urged "adequate protection to American industry," favored a system of interna h, prr.vemen,s by the general government, upheld the respective powers of the Supreme court and the senate and condemned the indiscriminate re moval of public officers for political reasons. This last plank was aimed at the Democrats, inasmuch as the slogan, "To the victors belong the spoils," was first raised in the Jackson campaign of 1828. . The Democratic Convention of the campaign of 1S3G was held in Baltimore, May 30, 1S35. Though over 600 delegates attended from twenty-two states and the territories of Arkansas and Michigan, the vote was limited in each state delegation to the number of representatives in congress. There was no platform, though the New York state Democrats Demo-crats issued a declaration of party principles in T,n-i'rv of 1836. Van Buren was nominated by acclunation and defeated Gen. William Henry Harrison Har-rison the National Republican candidate. In he campaign of 1840 the Democratic Convention Conven-tion net at Baltimore and unanimously rencniinat-ed rencniinat-ed Y 'i Buren. No one was named for vice president presi-dent The platform reaffirmed states' rights and denied the power of the general government to carry n internal improvement and the power of con-ress to charter a United States bank or to interfere in-terfere with questions of slavery. Van Buren was beaten by Harrison, who died a month after his inauguration and was succeeded by John Tyler of Virginia, the National Whig vice president. Probably the most significant feature of tills campaign was the first convention of the National Abolition party at Albany, N. Y. It nominated James G Birney, a native of Kentucky, who had emancipated his slaves in 1S34. A resolution was adopted calling for the support of Christian free men of all parties in a campaign against slavery. The Abolitionists were called political cranks, but they laid the foundations of the new Republican party. The Democratic Convention of 1844 met in Baltimore Balti-more and nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee, who won over Henry Clay, nominated by the National Na-tional Whigs. The platform reaffirmed that of 1840. There were no less than seven conventions In 1S48. The winning candidate was Gen. Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican war, who was nominated nom-inated by the Native American Convention and the National Whig Convention, both held in Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. The Democratic Convention In Baltimore nominated United States Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. United States Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was a candidate In this convention for the vice presidency. President Taylor died In office and was succeeded July 9. 1S50, by Vice President Pres-ident Millard Fillmore of New York. In 1352 the Democratic Convention, meeting in Baltimore, nominated Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire over Cass and United States Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Pierce won the Hon Wlnfield Scott the National eii'tjuwii Whig candidate. The conventions of 1S56 were of great interest and Importance as preliminary tt the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1S00 and the coming of the Civil war. There was the American (Know-Nothing) Convention Con-vention in February In Philadelphia, with 227 dele-cates dele-cates from 27 states. Its platform was "America for mericans." It nominated Fillmore. A rump convention nominated Gon. John C. Fremont. t. explorer. A Whig Convention In Baltimore ratified rati-fied the Know-Nothing nominations. There was the Republican Convention, the first of the new party, at Philadelphia, which nominated Fremont and Dayton of New Jersey. Lincoln got 110 votes for vice president. The platform op-nosed op-nosed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of lS'V) in regard to slavery; favored the admission ofKansis as a free state: denied the right of congress con-gress to legalize slavery, and upheld "liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens." nd there was the Democratic Convention nt Cincinnati which nominated United States Minister Min-ister to England James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. The platform warned the country that continued interference hv congress with shivery and armed resistance to law as to fugitive slaves would end In civil war and disunion and declare.! it the right of every state seeking admission admis-sion to (he Union to decide whether it would admit or bar slavery. It Is of present interest, in view of Ku Klux Klan activities, ac-tivities, to note that the Democratic Dem-ocratic platform denounced Know-Nothingism in these words : A po!iticjil crusade in the Nineteenth century and in the United s.iate-3 of America ag-alnst Catholic and foreisrn-born foreisrn-born is neither justified by the past history nor the future prospects of the country nor in unison with the spirit of toleration and enlarged freedom free-dom which peculiarly distinguishes distin-guishes the American system of popular government. Buchanan won the election elec-tion and during his administration adminis-tration history was made rapidly rap-idly along the line of the slavery slav-ery issue. The United States Supreme court rendered the Dred Scott decision that no negro, free or slave, was a citizen, citi-zen, thus implying thst the Missouri Compromise had always al-ways been unconstitutional In its discrimination against slavery. There was a farcical farci-cal vote in Kansas in favor of the Lecompton pro-slavery state constitution, and practically prac-tically a state of civil war in that territory. The famous "Freeport Debates" in Illinois in 1S5S between Lincoln and Douglas attracted the attention atten-tion of the nation; Lincoln forced Douglas to uphold the doctrine of "popular sovereignty," sov-ereignty," thus bringing about the defeat of the "Little "Lit-tle Giant" in the next Presidential Presi-dential campaign and his own election. And finally there was the John Brown raid in 1859 on Harpers Ferry in Virginia, Vir-ginia, which inflamed the South. The result of Lincoln's political po-litical strategy of 1853 was seen when the Democratic Convention of 1860 met in Charleston, S. C, April 23. After taking 57 ballots with Douglas always in the lead with 145 to 151 votes out of 303, the convention adjourned to ' Baltimore, June 18-23. After Chairman Caleb Cush-ing Cush-ing of Massachusetts and many of the southern delegates dele-gates had left, this adjourned convention nominated Doug- glas with 181 votes against ior vi John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky. The rump (Breckenridge) Democratic Convention Conven-tion met In Baltimore June 13-23, after adjournments adjourn-ments from Charleston and Richmond, and nominated nom-inated Breckenridge. Both the regular and rump Democratic Conventions reaffirmed the Democratic platform of 1856. In the meantime the Republican Convention had met at Chicago and nominated Lincoln, with a platform denouncing the Kansas Lecompton pro-slavery pro-slavery state constitution, denying the right of congress to legalize slavery and calling for the admission of Kansas. With the Democrats divided, Lincoln won by the following votes in the electoral college: Lincoln Lin-coln and Hamlin, 180; Breckenridge and Lane, 72 ; Bell and Everett (Constitutional Union nominees), nom-inees), 39; Douglas and Johnson, 12. The slavery issue came to a head with the election elec-tion and inauguration of Lincoln. The Civil war began April 13, 1SS0, with the fall of Fort Sumter. The Democratic Convention of 1S04 was held at Chicago and nominated Gen. George B. McClel-lan McClel-lan of New Jersey; only twenty-three states were represented by delegates. The platform upheld the Union but characterized the Civil war as a failure and called for a cessation of hostilities. The Republican Convention, meeting In Baltimore, renominated Lincoln on a platform urging the fighting of the Civil war to a finish. The seceding seced-ing states did not vote. In the electoral college McClellan got 21 votes from Delaware, Kentucky and New Jersey. President Lincoln was shot April 14, 1865, five days after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, and was succeeded by Vice President Pres-ident Andrew Johnson, who was Impeached in 1868 and escaped conviction by the house by one vote. The campaign of 1876 brought about the famous contest between Hayes and Tilden, nominated respectively re-spectively by the Republicans at Cincinnati and the Democrats at St. Louis. The decision in the electoral college depended upon the twenty-two disputed dis-puted votes in four states South Carolina, Florida, Flor-ida, Louisiana and Oregon. The house was Democratic Demo-cratic ; the senate Republican. Congress appointed an electoral commission to seat the disputed electors. elec-tors. It was composed of five senators, five representatives repre-sentatives and four Supreme court justices. The justices chose Justice Joseph P. Bradley as the fifteenth member. The commission thus had eight Republicans and seven Democrats. By a strict party vote the Republicans were seated, whereupon where-upon congress in joint session March 2, 1877, declared de-clared Hayes and Wheeler elected by an electoral vote of IS5 to 184. During the four months feeling feel-ing ran high and the strain upon the nation was dangerous. There was another dangerous strain In 1SS4. The Democratic Convention at Chicago nominated Cleveland. The Republican Convention at Chicago nominated Blaine. It became apparent that Blaine had 1S2 votes and Cleveland 183 in the electoral college, with the returns from New York (30 electoral elec-toral votes) not complete and the popular vote very close. Tammany was accused of withholding returns' until reports from upstate New York showed how many votes were required to carry the electoral vote of the state and elect Cleveland After Vjvo days of waiting. New York was reported Democratic by 1,149. This gave Cleveland the election. It was at tTie lc06 Democratic Convention nt Chicago that William Jennings Bryan stampeded the delegates with his famous "Cross of Gold" speech and got the nomination. The platform demanded de-manded free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold nt 16 to 1. McKinley's vote In the electoral college was 271 as ngalr.st 170 for Bryan. The Democratic Conventions of succeeding campaigns cam-paigns were held ns follows: i:00, Kansas City, Mo., Bryan nr.d Stevenson; 1904. St. Louis, I'nrk'T and Davis; 19uS. Denver, P.ryan and Kern; 1912. Baltimore, Wilson and Marshall; 1916, Wilson'and Marshall ; 1920, San Francisco, Cox and Roosevelt. |