Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-08-22
CAMPAIGN BIOGRAPHIES.
one Intiiction which the Fathers of the
Republic were spared.
fl,oston Travcllcr.l

In the good old days When Nlrglna llhu
Il monopoly of furnishing presidents for
the country, the campaign blographer was
unknown, the nearest approach To any
thing like Il campaign life being II little
tract issued in $500 entitled, SERIOUS Con
sidprntions ON the Election of II Prcsi- .
dent" in which the fitness of Thomas JET /
tcrson for the office was the theme of dis
cussion. Washington died without being .
made the subject of II campa On biography, .
and Adams the elder, Madison, Monroe .
and John Quincy Adams eNpeIlthceu
like good fortune but those were the days
when president making was carried ON ny
congressional CauCuSCS, when 'klckrrs ,
and cunt rules, mass meetings ana IN
dignation meetings, ratlicallons ana
torchlight professions were unkhoWh ana
''mud-slinging" ON the one hand and
embarrassing ON the other were so
brutal and outrageous that il seems To us
impossible that they should have any IN
tlucnce The pioneer in the nclu "i cam
paign biography was John Henry Eaton
t.ultcd States senator from Tennessee,
who in 1s34 published Il small octave vol
umc entitled The Life of Andrew Jack
SON, major general in the service OF the
United States, comprising history ui thr
war in the south from the commencement
of the Creek campaign to the termination
OF hootillic, before Sew Orleans. IT was
.
about the year ISIS. but was enlarged and
rcpubliShcd early in 1921. about the time
the Tennessee ring conceived the daring
project OF making Jackson preSiuvil'
Ih' work was the OASIS Oh an !nc popular
lives of Jackson since published, ana,
while it was not dcsignedly false and un-
trustWOrhy it was necessarily So, since,
like most of the works i'll TINS particular
field which have since been ISSUED, it care
fully suppressed every trait of It's subject
not calculated to win general approval
This led naturally in the nest campaign 10
other lives, among which one of the most
famous was entitled "reminiscences or,
an extract from the Catalogue OF Geh.
.Jackson's Youthful lndlsclctlon. l}etWeen
the age of TWentN-thrce and sixty, winch
contained an account Of jackson : tights,
braWls. ARRAYS and ducls, numbered from
one to fourteen. National conventions
came into being nearly 1t"nporlr"uN
with campaign biography and, win the
exception of Adams. the prominent prcSi-
DENTAL nominees nave since been pretty
thoroughly written up. Nud poor trash
tine most of this Kind of literature has
been The authors dISdaiu In most OF
these works to give the rrdd"r d preface
but in eases where this is done there are
now and then found bits of information
, more interesting from literary point ct
view than anything in the body OF the
works themselves. One =. !. Burr, Who
: used the ilatteling brush Tor William Hen
ry Harrison. makes this PREDATORY an
: uouncemcnt NV ere Mr.. Harrison NOT
: at this time before the people Tor their SUI
lragcS as Il candidate tor 4 treat and I'm
l pOrtant station, we might nave INDUCED
Z in compliment and praise but we have
t no disposition, and diSclan all intention
1 of making our history political. Mr.
e Burr then proceeded to make IL volume
: Astounding in the most fusOme llattcrN
e Harrison : death rendered it impossible fo
l. the great qualities OF craftsmanship as
: cribcd to him to he di~pruycd. llaW
* tholnc, in the preface 10 his monograph
:. ON Franklin Pierce, makes the following
1 confession "l'he author OF this work be
ing 50 little of politician that lac scared,
: feels entitled 10 call himself Of any part
e would not have voluntarily un,lcrtallc1
z the work here offered Uni
:; species Of writing j., too remote from hi
Il customary occupations. and he may add
e from his tastes. to he very satSfactoli
! performed. without more time and praC
IL lice than he would he willing to cNprut