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Show I Presidential Campaigns Remembered By A Prititef -1884 B By LeROY ARMSTRONG H ryiHERE was something Hamlet Hi J promised not to forget whilet ! memory held her sway in his dis- tracted globe. And anyhow that long I will remember the campaign of 1884. h These Democrats are the marvels B of the world. I have heard of men B who didn't know when they were H licked. But Domoorats know when 1 that happens to them, and they come back just as certain they are going to win next time as if they never hart lost anything on earth. That was tho way with them in 1884. They had . been beaten every time since 1856 but B once, and had been jockeyed out of HH that. And in 1880, just four years be- Ei fore, they had been not only beaten, Bl but the steam roller had backed up 1 after grinding them into the dust, and K run over them again. They didn't K seem to have had even favorable H mention. But with Cleveland for Hj their candidate they were as gallus H and frisky and cocksure as a yokel Hl who has nover had any experience. HE And they had a good many of our K people with them, to be plain about H it. After several trials, Mr. Blaine H was the nominee of the Republicans, H and all that line enthusiasm his H friends had been saving for him was H on tap, and at his service. The Re- H publican party seemed never to have H been in quite such good fettle. And B how the Democrats dared to expect H victory was the biggest puzzle on top B of ground. We had the candidate we H had wanted for twelve years. We had 1' the prestige of many victories. We had the record of worthy service. It was near enough the sixties for us still to remind the nation we had put down the rebellion, and had freed the slaves, and had the names of Lincoln and Grant and Logan to conjure with. And yet those Democrats trod on our corns, and shouted with increasing increas-ing vehemence for Cleveland. And t Harper's Weekly was with them H' shouting in colored double pages for W the triumph of the sheriff of Erie H county. H Nothing stopped them. I was a lit- B tie doubtful of the Marie Halpin story, H and for once I was right. My objec- H tion was that it savored a little of the H personal. And I didn't think there H was any profit in that. But when his H campaign manager told Cleveland H what the boys were accusing him or, H and asked what he should tell, the H country, Cleveland replied, "Tell the H truth." And I guess he won the olee- H ' tion right there. H I was setting brevier type on a H Springfield, Illinois, morning paper at H the time, and jolting mutton quads IH with the boys for the fat. Our fore- H man was a limp-legged man nanled H Cassidy, and the wildest Blaine Irish- H man that ever lived. I remember ho H flung his cane through the door the H night Blaine was nominated, as a mild H expression of his entire approval. H Carter Harrison, the Elder, was the H Democratic candidate for governor of H Illinois, and his marching club came H down from Chicago along in Octobor, whon things were so warm I began to wonder if the impossible could hap pen. And that marching club wen', down the one paved street of the Sucker capital yelling staccato, as the left foot fell, the letters of their leader's lead-er's name "H-a-r r-i-s-o-n," and then a swift repetition as either foot touched the ground: "Harrison! Harrison! Harrison!" They had the best campaign songs I ever heard, and the way they showed up the iniquities of the tariff a thing the Republicans had begun to think had boon fostered long enough. was enough to make our knood tremble. And yet it was, of course, impos slble that Blaine could be beaten. 1 wasn't betting much then. I was trying try-ing to save money, for composition at night was a sleep destroying Macbeth for me. I used to go to sleep setting up the word "the;" and waked only when I found some pirate had robbed my spacebox. Which hasn't anything to do with the campaign. Well, election day came, at last, and to the absolute amazement of us Republicans, and the yelling triumph of the Democrats, the result was in "I take the stand that there were 72 delegates in that convention who were not entitled to seats. In voting to unseat un-seat them, I do not believe that I violated the pledge of the Republican convention at Provo. The delegates to the national na-tional convention w ere pledged to use every honorable means to nominate President Taft. If stealing is honorable, then I violated the trust and confidence of the Republican party in voting against these delegates. These delegates were Roosevelt Roose-velt delegates, and the leaders of the Republican party needed them to nominate Taft and they were seated." Statement by Colonel C. E. Loose of Utah. doubt. It all turned on New York, in which great state the revered Bur-chard Bur-chard had managed to turn thousands of good Catholic votes against us. And the Catholics of all nations wero coming to the Republican candidate that year for the first real time in the country's history. That was ono as the magic works of Blaine. Our office fronted east, and ran back more than a hundred foot, and the composing room was at the rear of the second story. The opposing and consequently the Democratic office fronted north, and its engine room wns about the thickness of four straws from the back door of out-composing out-composing room. The Associate-! Press was sending bulletins of the count by precincts in upper New York. I don't know yet why the agony of that recount wns so prolonged. pro-longed. But it went for days, while little towns that no ono over heard of before got on the map. The foreman of our job room was a big man named Davenport. Ho worked all day, went homo to what he called supper, came down and got on a box In front of our office, and read these bulletins from all the Podunks from Schorahie to Schenectady: "Cat taraugus, Blaine, 214; Cleveland, 221. Republican gain of three." And then, our crowd out there in front would shout, and the fish horns would blow, and the overflow of the mob back in the alley under our windows would cheer and screech and beat bad drums and generally raise Cain. Then the bulletin reader over in front of the opposition office would read this one: "Piscataqua, Blaine, 119; Cleveland, 221. Democratic gain of 17." And then lhe engine room whistle of that beastly- opposition paper pa-per would start, and the bally engineer engi-neer would tie it down till the next bulletin with a Blaine gain. I will never get the roar of that condemned whistle out of my ears till all sounds cease. We had two Democraic compositors com-positors in the office, and both of them were sorry every time Cleveland made a gain. But the fat man won, after all. I think he took all the heart out of us when he told the country that he would wait till the end of the counr, and if he had been elected president he would be president. That made an end of all tentative speculation on rt-peating rt-peating the Hayes Tilden program. Somehow, that man from Buffalo didn't lend encouragement to any foolishness. fool-ishness. And on the Saturday night, I think, that followed the election, the Democrats Dem-ocrats made celebration all over tnu nation. You must havehad one hero. I know Illlnois-rwhich didn't elect Harrison, by the way went Cleveland Cleve-land imad. I put on a sub that last night, and took the wife down town just to convince her what a lot of lunatics mon could become over politics. pol-itics. Wo stood on the corner of two streets while a big brass band with fifty pieces wont by. Thoy wore In the middle of the street, and we clung to a lamp post. The streets were not of Utah width, and that band was not over twenty-five feet from us. But so loud and constant was the cheering that not one note of horn or drum could reach our oars. It was tno maddest, mad-dest, happiest multitude of bedlamites bedlam-ites I ever saw. And one will bo enough. Thoy marched around the old cap-itol cap-itol square, and some of the notables -General John M. Palmer, General McClernand and Congressman Springer, Spring-er, with others climbed up in a littlo balcony, and dollvored speeches. Springer had been in congress when Tilden was counted out. He tried to compare the nation to a ship of state from the sides of which the Democrats Demo-crats would now scrape the barnacles. He came up to that word "barnacles three times, his voice split with excitement, ex-citement, his arms tossing, his whole being too small to hold his sense of his party's victory and then he yelled "carbunkles" where he wanted "barnacles." He couldn't think of the word to save his life. And it went. Everything went. They stayed thore around that old state house, which was the capital in Lincoln's day, until un-til 3 o'clook In the morning, and what they did to the business part of town wjis a shame. Never was a Hallowe'en Hal-lowe'en night so mad. Never wero pranks so extreme in their lawlessness. lawless-ness. And nobody seemed to care a whoop. The Democrats were so glad that merchants of that faith rolled cases filled with goods that had never been opened, and let the bonfires have 1 them. And the Republicans didn't 1 have tuck enough left in them to say I a word. 1 But it broke Blaine's heart. I think 4 he could have borne it to be beaten by Bayard, or by John Palmer but this "hangman of Buffalo" that was one of the things we called him was too much; and could not summon his philosophy. He acted in a pettish manner which made us apologize for him. It was his one great chance. He was, perhaps, the best equipped man in America. I believe he was as honest hon-est and as well intentloned as any one else. And he did want to be president But he never won to that goal. And maybe it is just as well. Ho lives adored in the hearts of thousands who might not have quite approved him as a nation's chief executive. So Cleveland was elected. We got up next day fully expecting to see tha sun had forgotten to rise. We really ' were surprised that business went on. We couldn't believe that the government govern-ment would be turned over without disaster. But as the fourth of March came around, everything seemed settled, set-tled, and nobody was as bad hurt 'as he had expected to be. And, for the matter of that, not all the Democrats wero as greatly blest as they had anticipated. an-ticipated. Whereby hangs another tale. For Cleveland was elected chiefly on the issues of the tariff and civil service reform. And he didn't turn the rascals out and put good Democrats in their places. An old Illinois printer I knew, one who han been waiting for the salvation of the Lord for forty years, looked in vain for his appointment as postmaster, and when I reminded him of Cleveland's Cleve-land's promise of offce for merit, and dismissals only for Incompetence or dishonesty, the old man sighed and said: "Yes, but I thought ho meant it in a Pickwickian sense' After Lincoln, that was the mot important preside tial campaign I can remember. |
