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Show New News & j OF IffeSTERBMY". He Made McClellan Governor How Judge Ashbel Green Succeeded In Stampeding a Democratic Convention Con-vention In New Jersey and Nominating "Little Mac." "I must tell you," said the late Judge Ashbel Green to me, "of the way in which I once stampeded a convention. con-vention. And when I tell you that this was done in New Jersey, and that the stampede, as politicians call it, had never been successfully attempted attempt-ed In that state before, you may believe be-lieve with me that the Incident waa of unusual political interest." Ashbel Green was one of the great leading intellects of New Jersey. His father was president of Princeton when the War of 1S12 was being fought, and he was near of kin to Commodore Stockton and United States Senator John P. Stockton. He was esteemed In his day one of the profoundest legal minds both of New Jersey and New York, and in the latter lat-ter years of his life was one of the leading counsel for the Vanderbilt railroad interest. He died in 1905. "We Democrats of New Jersey, in the year 1S77, were somewhat at sea," continued Judge Green. "There had been some talk about nominating me, for governor, and I was told that if I were willing to be a candidate, my friends could compass my nomination. But I had no ambition to serve as b""-'v vji .cw jtibev; in tact, my professional duties would have made It Impracticable for me at that time to enter public life. "A little later I learned that a certain cer-tain faction of the party had made up its mind to nominate as candidate for governor a man who, in my opinion, opin-ion, was not mentally fitted for the post of governor and on whom I feared that personal attacks, whether well grounded or hot, might be made, to the party's serious embarrassment at the polls. The organization con- j trolled the convention; what were those of us who did not like its candidate can-didate to do? After thinking the i matter over. It seemed to me that the only way to beat the organization was ; to stampede the convention. But what name would be potent enough to take the convention off its feet? "As I was seriously thinking th ' matter over I happened to remember that General George B. McClellan was then living in Orange. True, he was engaged in an Important piece of engineering en-gineering work for the City of New York, but his legal residence was In the State of New Jersey. I knew that among the Democrats of the state McClellan had retained the great popularity he had gained in the days of the war, and I decided then and there that his name, if any could stampede the convention Into nominating nomi-nating a fit candidate for governor. "My friends agreeing with me, a handful of us decided to make the attempt at-tempt to stampede the convention away from the organization to McClellan. McClel-lan. Now, I won't tell you what was done In a preliminary way to effect this, but I will describe to you what was done in the convention. At the proper moment, and at a time when everything was very quiet, somebody in the gallery jumped to his feet and called for three cheers for 'Little Mac.' It seemed to be a spontaneous call, and in a twinkling of an eye, almost, somebody on the floor of the conven-lion conven-lion echoed the call: 'Three cheers for Little Mac!' Still another moment, mo-ment, and two or three men sitting in the gallery opposite the one where the first call had come jumped up. 'Little Mac! Little Mac!' they screamed scream-ed at the top of their voices. "Here and there on the floor delegate dele-gate after delegate was rising to his reet and shouting 'Little Mac!' The galleries speedily were upon their feet, en masse, so to speak, and in less than a minute after the first cry for 'Little Mac' had been made most of the delegates were shouting for McClellan as though their life depended de-pended upon it. "If you have ever heard a political convention giving a demonstration for a popular candidate, then you can imagine what happened at this convention. con-vention. The organization managers tried to suppress the demonstration. The chairman broke his gavel pounding pound-ing with it. But nobody paid the slightest attention to him. 'Little Mac' and nobody1 but 'Little Mac' was thought of and shouted" for, by the convention. con-vention. It was as perfect a stampede stam-pede as ever took place, and almost before the convention knew it George B. McClellan had been nominated by it for governor of New Jersey by acclamation. ac-clamation. And I have always thought, that the most surprised man in the state over the result was McClellan himself, who, on the morning of convention con-vention day, had no more idea of being be-ing nominated for governor of New Jersey than he had of being elected president three years hence. "But the best resvlt of the stampede stam-pede was that, thirteen years after he had unsuccessfully led the Democratic hosts of the nation as their presidential presiden-tial standard bearer, we triumphantly placed McClellan in the gubernatorial chair." (Copyright. 1S10. by E. J. Edwards.. All Rights Reserved.) |