The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-05

thrown into tue senate, Wnlen electeu hlCnuu
The campaign of 1910 was perhaps the most
spirited political canvass ever witnessed IN this
country. There is something so truly Quixodc
in q political canvass that 1t would astonish
Sancho Panza himself, and Mr.. Pick wick, should
he visit us, would open his eyes in benevolent
surprise. With log cabins-cabins out OF which
the la ch.strlng ever huug-and hard cider eyer
free aud flowIns, what could be more exhila-
rating than election times in the days OF Tip
pecaUoe and Tyler tco.r How that song went
ringing through the land men not yet old can
well remember, and after forty years OF rule the
Democratic party was hurled from po wer by the
sweeping impulse of a peoples will. Mr. Clay
hadbloug been the stan lard bearer of the eppo-
sition, and 1t was the expectatioa and desire oil
a large proportion of the Wbig party that he
should be the candidate. Before the
assembling OF the Harrisburg Convention in De-
cember, 1889, 1t was asserted that be had ma
jorlty of the delegates chosen favorable to his
nomination. Yet In the elections OF that year
the Administration retrieved the disasters of
the two years previous, and Democratic sue
cesses cast O shadow over the spirits of Mr..
Clays friends, and the great statesman himself
appeared to coincide with the. doubt9re. Thus
n alters stood when the Convention met, aud,
though Mr.. Clay had decided plurality IN the
Convention, he failed OF nomination because
OF the doubts OF his friends and OF his own ac-
uuiescepce In their doubts. Had he been nomi-
mated he would, without doubt, have been
misrule, though it is scarcely probable that
he could have ins pired the en- nthusiasm that was
manifested for ''Old Tippecanoe." Harrison
carried 10 States receiving 234 votes in the Eec
toral College, to 60 cast for Mr.. Van Buren.
-Four years afterwards Mr.. Clay was nominated
by the Wings against James K. Polk. the nomi
nee OF tine Democracy, but the Democratic
nominations had the effect of uniting that party,
and the most distinguished OF American states
men was defeated by an obscure gentleman Of
respectable talents and attainments in private
llie by vote OF 40 to los. The popular vote
stood :-For Polk |. 1856 1874; for CLAY 207, ,O33;
fpr Rim hn hpI
elusive of South Carolina, which gave its vote
through electors chosen by the Legislature.
In lS48 the Whigs, for a second time, sue
ceeded IN electine their candidate Tor the Presi-
dency, General TAYLOR being chosen by 163 votes
TO l27 for General Cass. The contest, though
spirited one, had little OF either the enthusiasm
or the acrmony of many that had preceded IT.
Four years later Franklin Pierce was elected
over General Scott by a large majority of the
popular vote, and by 296 votes to AZ in the
Electoral College. This was another triumph of
respectable medocrity over ackno Wlede ed
talents and disting uished services.
The nomination of General Fremont by the
Republican party marks a new era i'll the history
OF Presidential elections. 1t was the first
determined struggle against slavery aod the
spirit of caste-the fr5t battle for impartial
suffrage and equal rights, His successful rival,
Mr.. Buchanan, had long sought the Presidency,
and had trimmed his sails TO every favorable
breeze to reach the haven of the White House.
The record OF the "Pathdnderr was sholt but
brilliant, and the new party met the Old foes of
liberty and justice, now bloated with the
enjoyment of po Ter for more than half century,
win lusty vigor deserving of success. But
success came not then. Buchanan received 173
votes TO ia for Fremont and for MIlard
Fillmore, the candidate of the American party.
We now come to the contest of 1860. The
recollection OF that campaign is sill fresh in the
mind OF every one. 1t came AS the prelude to
the great drama of the American civil war wblcn
was TO follow and to which the Charleston Con-
VentiOn was the overture The Democratic party,
bOpelessy split by its twin nomina ions fell an
easy prey to the Republicans, and the very sue
cess which the Rebel Democracy had made cer-
tam by the course they chose to adopt at Charles.
ton and Baltimore. Mr.. Lincoln was elected Dy
$50 votes in the Eec oral College to u for
Breckenridge, 80 for Bell aud IL for Douglas.
-Four years afterwards he was re-elec ed by
plurality of 2l2 votes to 2l cast for General
Mcclellan. He had been tried by fire, and
found steadfast to the end. In opposition to
him was placed an unsuccessful military leader,
to whom he had given The opportunity to achieve
greatness, upon a platform declaring the war TO
be failure. The nomination of such man on
such platform was "a str king commentary
upon party that had become dead to patriot
ism, and a bitter sarcasm upon the inordinate
ambition of those upon whom nature has not
stamped the mark OF greatness. Among the
opponents of General Grant was this same
Mcclellan, who would have taken the executive
authority from the hands of Abraham Lincoln
on the plea that armies which he had himself
commanded had failed to suppress the kebsl-
lion.--N. 7. Tribune.