The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-11-15
TJF, PRESS.
lBostcn Advertiser.l
The Story of q Dead Party


In the talk aboat the possible dissolution of
the Republican party as result of recent dis
sensions aad popular vo.es, the rise and fail Of
the Wing party are made to serve as possible
parallel. To multitudes of this generation the
Wing party is vague matter OF history
They cannot tell when it was Instituted ana
how long it figured in national poiiucs. a
dead party is as dead thing as can be I'M
agined, but even this inanimate element may
be used TO illustrate the uncertainties OF poll
tics, and the way parties decay ana perlsh'
One phase of Wing history IS here examined.
The Wings first assumed that name il gen.
eral contest in 1886. The last presidential
election in which the ir candidate was voted
for was in 1852. The practical end of the par
ty came with the Know Nothing, or American
movement of 1S54-55 La 1856 Willard Fill
more, who had been Vice-President through
Wbig votes was tho American candidate for
the presidency Thus the Wings were vital
force less than twenty years. The Republi-
caus first had caadidate for the chief mags-
tr cy in 1856, and had the nstionsl canvass of
1s72 seen The substantial conclusion of Rspub-
l,capism, the Wings and Republicans would
havo been potent factors in national atfaits for
the same length of time.
In their first campaign, in 1886, the Wings
cliefy voted for William Henry Harrison, and
Van Buren,, the Democratic candidate, had
,ly $4,000 majority in the popular vote. The
Wing vote was divided between Harrison, who
received seventy-thrse electoral votes; Web
ser who had the fourteen electoral votes of
Massachusetts, Hugh l. White, of Tennessee,
for VI HON Georgia and his own State voted in
the electoral college, and w. P. Mangum of
North Carolina, who had the electoral vote of
South Carolina. In the previous year Harri-
son was nominated by Wing State CONVEX
ton of Pennsylvania, and several other States
also put him in nomination. The Wing ma
tionai convention of 1889, representing twenty
one States, renomiDated Harrison, and Van
Buren, was again his Democratic antagonist in
the election of 1910. Harrison's popular ma
'jority was 140 600, and he had 234 electoral
votes, to Van Buren's sixty. Then came Har-
rison's death, and Ty ler's administration. The
subsequent election of Polk in 1874, when the
total vote OF 2,698,6i1 was almost evenly divid-
ed between Clay and Polk, gave the Wings a
severe blow. The votes OF the liberty party
men in New York, who supported James G.
Birney, turned the scale; for the slight plural
ity for Folk, only 5000 in an aggregate of near
" half million, carried the el, ctoral vote,
OF New York, aud defeated Clay. General
Taylors election over Lewis Cass in 1S4S
was the last national triumph of the Wings,
who, in fact, were victorious in but two
of the five presidential campaigns in
which they engaged. Nevertheless, in 1852,
General Scott, the Wing nominee received
26, 600 more votes in the country than General
Taylor four years before, and though the Wing
electoral voters were only AZ against the 254
Democratic vote, Pierce's popular majority
over all was but 50 000 In this final national
canvass of the Wings, misfortune followed
them, the loss of several States occurring by
narrow margin. Pierce carried Delaware by
Is votes, Iowa by 303. Michigan by 746, North
Carolina by 627, Rhode Island by 1885, New
York by 1879, Maine by 1896, Louisiana ly
1892, and Florida by 1l43. That is to say, 70
electoral votes were turned to Pierce by the
distribution through the nine States of only
1859 votes. Thus the Republican party, with
its record of six successive Presidential election
successes, Can hardly be compared 10 the Wing
party winch carried the country but twice.
In the five national elections in which the
Wing standard was raised, the popular vote
between the two principal parties was as fol
lows