| OCR Text |
Show I If Wendell Willkie Wins in November He'll Be Sixth Political 'Dark Horse' 1 To Be 'Stabled in the White House By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) IF, AS the Republican party hopes and believes, Wendell Wen-dell Willkie is the winner in the Presidential race next November, he will become the sixth "dark horse" to be "stabled" in the White House. For only five times in our nation's na-tion's history of 151 years have the people elected to the highest office in the land a man who was either unknown before his nomination or was ' not seriously considered as a potential candidate. James Knox Polk was the first of the "dark horse" breed of candidates. can-didates. He was a Tennessee country coun-try lawyer who went to congress for seven terms and became a strong partisan of "Old Hickory" Jackson. Due mainly to Jackson's Jack-son's influence, he became speaker of the house of representatives represen-tatives and later governor of Tennessee. He was defeated for re-election to that office and his political career seemed ended. As the time for Democratic convention con-vention of 1844 approached, the strongest contender for the nomination nomi-nation was Martin Van Buren who had served one term as President but had lost to the Whig candidate, candi-date, Gen., William Henry Harrison, Harri-son, in 1840. Van Buren had the backing of General Jackson but the Southern Democracy was sus- JAMES K. POLK picious of him and his attitude toward slavery. During the first seven ballots at the convention in Baltimore Van Buren had a majority of the delegates' votes. But, due to the strength of Lewis Cass of Michigan, Michi-gan, he could not get the two-thirds two-thirds vote required by party rules. After the seventh ballot the southern delegates secured a recess and held a caucus. They decided to rally behind the defeated de-feated Tennessee governor who was "right" on the slavery question ques-tion and who enjoyed the friendship friend-ship of Jackson. Beyond Polk's Hopes. Polk had no hope of being the Presidential nominee but he had made it known that he would accept ac-cept the vice presidency. On the eighth ballot the southerners sprang their surprise candidate and the New York delegates withdrew Van Buren's name. On the next roll call they swung to Polk, other states followed and when the ninth ballot ended the 2 V'aWM ...... A v i 1 1 V-F-vywBi-, J A -TV f 'J JAMES A. GARFIELD first "dark horse" in convention history, a man who hadn't been mentioned for the honor 24 hours previously, had been unanimously nominated. Of course, the Whigs were delighted de-lighted to have a "no-body" as an opponent for their candidate, Henry Clay. But their jubilation jubila-tion was premature. For Clay, the Kentuckian, angered the South by pussyfooting on the question of annexing Texas, thereby adding slave territory, and the new Liberty party of Abolitionists, headed by James G. Birney, diverted enough votes from Clay to give Polk an easy victory. Eight years later the Democrats Demo-crats again nominated and elect- i : 1 I fa v I A fti,.i J&' 4 R. B. HATES ed a "dark horse" candidate, Franklin Pierce, our only President Presi-dent from New Hampshire. Educated Edu-cated at Bowdoin college, he was a successful young lawyer when he was elected to congress at the age of 29 and to the senate when he was only 33. But because Mrs. Pierce was a shy woman who hated public life, Pierce resigned re-signed from the senate and went back to his law practice in Concord. Con-cord. At the outbreak of the War with Mexico he entered the service, serv-ice, came out as 'a brigadier-general brigadier-general and announced that he was through with public life forever. for-ever. But the political situation during dur-ing the next five years changed all that. When the Democratic convention opened in Baltimore on June 1, 1852, the leading candidates can-didates were Lewis Cass of Michigan, Mich-igan, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. For 28 ballots none of these men was able to secure the necessary two-thirds majority. major-ity. Then the convention decided decid-ed it had better turn to a new candidate who had taken no part in the slavery dispute and had therefore incurred no bitter enmities, en-mities, in other words, a "nobody." "no-body." Some of the Maine delegates suggested the ex-senator from their neighboring state. So Franklin Pierce was trotted out as a "dark horse," received 15 votes on the 29th ballot and gained steadily until the 48th, when he received 55. By that time it was apparent that the band wagon was on its way and the delegates hastily climbed on. On the 49th ballot Pierce received 282 of the 288 votes. The Whigs nominated Gen. Winfield Scott, hoping that "Old Fuss and Feathers" could repeat the victory of that other hero of the Mexican war, "Old Rough and Ready" Taylor. But the Democrats' young Mexican war general swept the election field with 254 electoral votes to Scott's 42. Pierce tried for renomination in 1856 but was defeated and vanished van-ished from the political scene. First Republican 'Dark Horse.' Thus far the Democratic party had been the one which supplied "dark horse" candidates. But beginning in 1876 the Republicans took their turn. In that year James G. Blaine was their logical logi-cal candidate and in the early balloting at the convention in Cincinnati Cin-cinnati he was within 30 votes of victory. However, the "Man From Maine" had his enemies who were determined to block his nomination. Among the "favorite sons" who were trailing along on complimentary com-plimentary votes was Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a lawyer who became a major-general in the Union army, then returned home to serve two terms in congress and three terms as governor of his native state. He was scarcely scarce-ly known outside the borders of Ohio and during the spirited contest con-test between Blaine's partisans and his enemies no one paid much attention to Hayes' 61 votes. Roscoe Conkling of New York had the support of the New York and Pennsylvania delegates but when it became apparent that Conkling had no chance to beat Blaine the Pennsylvanians began to throw their support to Ohio's favorite son. This started a swing which carried the Buckeye Buck-eye "dark horse" to victory by 384 votes to Blaine's 351. The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of New York and in the election it seemed that Tilden had won. Then occurred the famous incident of the contested con-tested electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, the appointment by congress of an electoral commission and its 8 to 7 vote in favor of Hayes. So another "dark horse" went to the White House but there are those who still believe that he had lost the election before the electoral commission's vote sent him there. Although Hayes was not a great President, he was probably the best of any of the "dark horses." Declaring that "he serves his party best who serves his country coun-try best," Hayes gave the country coun-try an administration which set a high mark for future "dark horse" Presidents to try to equal. The first of these was another Buckeye, James A. Garfield. Securing Se-curing an education by his own efforts, he became a teacher and was elected to the Ohio senate which he left in 1861 to become the youngest brigadier-general in the Union army. He came out of the war a major-general and was sent to congress where his principal prin-cipal distinction was his loyalty to Blaine. Grant'Tries for a Third Term. The 1880 Republican convention was again a battle between Conkling and Blaine but this time the New York leader was trying to secure a third term for Ulysses S. Grant. Although Grant led Blaine in the voting from the first ballot, Conkling could not muster up quite enough votes to secure the nomination for the ex-President. Garfield was present at the convention con-vention as the leader of the Ohio j FRANKLIN PIERCE delegation pledged to John Sher man. He made the speech placing plac-ing Sherman's name in nomination nomina-tion and, as it turned out, succeeded suc-ceeded in nominating himself by doing it. For when it became apparent ap-parent that neither Grant nor Blaine could win, the convention turned to a compromise candidate. candi-date. On the 34th ballot Garfield received re-ceived 17 votes. He immediately protested that he was there in the interests of Sherman but the chairman ruled him out of order and the balloting proceeded. On the 36th ballot the break came. The Blaine and Sherman forces swung behind Garfield and he was nominated with 399 votes to Grant's 306. Garfield easily defeated de-feated the Democratic nominee, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock but his career as President was cut short by the bullet of a disap- WARREN G. HARDING pointed office-seeker, Charles J. Guiteau, September 19, 1881, a little more than six months after he had entered the White House. The story of the fifth "dark horse" President is so recent and so familiar to most Americans as to need only brief mention here. The 1920 Republican convention con-vention was in Chicago a fight between Gen. Leonard Wood and Gov. Frank O. Lowden of Illinois for the nomination. It soon became be-came apparent that a hopeless deadlock would prevent the nomination nom-ination of either candidate. Then followed the now-famous night conference in a "smoke-filled "smoke-filled hotel room" and the next day Senator Warren G. Harding, an Ohio "favorite son," was selected se-lected as the nominee. Harding defeated his fellow-Buckeye, Gov. James M. Cox, 404 electoral votes to 127 and entered the White House, pledged to bring the country "back to normalcy." His administration, marred by scandals reminiscent of the Grant regime, ended August 2,- 1923, when death summoned this Ill-fated Ill-fated Ohioan . . . the second "dark horse" President to die I "in the harness." |
