Show little band bandwagon wagon 1 journeys by L T MERRILL U Sui suisa Sv ac 1928 bertern newspaper union 1 22 th the e grant seymour campaign laign HE democratic ticket of 1808 as THE aln in 1024 represented a combination of 0 conservative east bast with radical west and tile the leading place on tile the ticket went to one who had not ac chely sou sought lit it but was drafted after a protracted deadlock horatio florall 0 seymour the wartime governor of new york who was perron nent chairman of the democratic nn na dional convention at tammany hall ball CO 60 dears ago strenuously opposed noimi 11 nation of himself tor for president just ns as chairman thomas 3 walsh ol 01 llon blon tana tour four years ago in the same city opposed ills his own nomination tor for the vice presidency seymour could have had the sup port of ills his own state new york irom from the first had he wanted it but lie ho persistently refused to be consid ered a candidate when his friends de sired to put him forward for the honor in the convention when north carolina on the ninth ballot cast her votes fir him the chairman dorily rejected the idea of his own candidacy there were plenty of others eager for the prize though president an drew johnson had been elected by tia 02 republicans and was in the midst ur his impeachment troubles he was waa en cou raged to believe his prospects of being made the democratic standard bearer were good likewise chief justice salmon P chase discovering that he could not by any chance be the republican nominee fished eagerly from the supreme court bench tor for the democratic nomination put cut gentleman george pendleton of ohio father of the ohio idea for or greenback currency inflation was the leading leaden contender having the full support of his own state young greenback was the sobriquet bestowed upon him by his supporters who were at the convention in force two of excited bal doting pendleton held the lead on the first 15 ballots and probably would have got the nomination but jor for the two thirds rule then in a dramatic moment on the third day his staunchest supporters the entire ohio delegation switched their votes on the twenty second bal lot to the chairman of the convention A landslide to the new yorker began and despite his protestations and pleadings against it seymour was wag compelled to accept the unanimous nomination of the convention As a running mate for the conservative elderly new yorker the democrats picked a missouri ore eater gen frank P blair who had pronounced himself la in favor of forcibly undoing the whole congressional pro gram of la in its effects upon democratic prospects his stand proved unfortunate grant as the republican nominee had made his bis keynote let us have bore peace in many war weary minds the issue became grant and peace or blair and revolution before tile the canvass was over some influential democrats demanded that blair withdraw ns as a candidate or at least take a back seat in the campaign up to tills this time he had done most of the stumping abile seymour had remained relatively inactive as was the custom with most presidential candidates of that day then blair was silenced and during the closing weeks seymour took the stump slump with vigor seymour was a strong and able figure and probably the best man his party could have nominated but the fact that lie had opposed some of Lincol ns war policies made ills hla record vulnerable to republican attack the fact that he was somewhat bald with two wisps of hair over ills his ears rendered him also a 4 singularly apt figure for or biting caricature by the most brilliant of contemporary cartoonists ts thomas nast of harpers narp erB weekly nast invariably pictured seymour bilth his wisps of hair standing up straight like horns which gave bilm a satanic appearance upon occasion the caricaturist made this conception more alid by adding hoofs and a tall considerable excitement was caused during the hie campaign in the south by emergence of a mysterious robed and masked mashed order the ku klux kiu klan which it was alleged operated to intimidate the republican vote the countered with activities tivi tivit ties les of another secret order the loyal league which operated lively in instructing and marshaling te die colored voters at the north also marching clubs of buys la in blue uniformed similarly to the wide awakes which had helped elect abraham lincoln belt bell torchlight professions processions process ions alleged irregularities in the southern elections had their echo celia in tumultuous scenes in congress when the electoral vote rote came to be counted and republican Republic au radicals uproariously protested against tho the rp rip turns turna from louisiana and georgia with or without these votes rotes the would have been the same for gram arant imd to seymours 60 80 although the fact that seymours popular vote was 19 compared with granto caused a rise in democratic hopes tor for in future 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