The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-09-11
THIRD PARTIES.
a Brief and lnglorious Existence
Their Inevitable Fate.
Some Facts that the ProhibitIonIsts
Should Ponder.


Should Ponder.
Extract from speech of Hon. John L. Stevens,
of Augusta.1
If there is a fact in the past politics of this
State and of this country fully established by
experience, it is that third parties cannot
succeed in their ayowed objects-that they
have but sickly growth and then die, the
elements of which they are composed being
absorbed by one or the other great parties
into which the people of this country have
been divided. While they are alive and ac-
tive they must necessarily be tender, Sc
two leading political organizations. WhatdOes
this historical truth, these facts of expert
ence prove? They clearly demonstrate that
stern logic prevails against individual
schemes and devices, how cunningly planned
or however sincere their authors may be. If
there are present at this meeting any citizens
inclined to identify themselves with the Third
Party, professedly in the interests of temper
ance, ask their candid attention to the facts
am about to give. l fully share with you
in dearly prizing the cause which aims at the
suppression of the dram shops and the pro-
lection of present and future generations
from the terrible evils of intemperance. The
question for us to consider is how to best
promote this cause. Now as to the facts
about third parties. 1t Is more than half a
century since he who addresses you began to
take lively interest in reading about politi-
cal parties and political events in this State
and in this nation. As freshly as though
of yesterday l can remember the drift OF
politics in this State even ffty-ive
years ago, when the old "Hallowell
Advocate came regularly to my IA
theirs house, and each weekly issue was
read with eager interest. Within this peri
cd over which my memory extends, there
have been made not less than seven carefully
planned attempts to establish third parties
in Maine. Fifty-four years ago there was
the anti-Masonic party with Moses Carleton
as its candidate for governor. Itgrew out of
the great excitement and strong feeling
which then prevailed against secret societies,
especially against Free Masonry. Richard
ID. Rice, afterwards Democratic leader, then
Supreme Judge, and then railroad manager,
was the editor of the third party organ at
Hallowell-the News Letter. and Anson
Herrick, afterwards Democratic Congress
man in New FORK, was publisher. In the
State and the Nation this anti Masonic par
ty became far more formidable than the
present st. John or Third Party is now or is
likely to be. Did it maintain its indepen-
dence, or did it become a tender, an ally, to
one of the two great parties? 1t became an
ally of the Whig party, aided to defeat the
Democrats In several States, and then dlsap-
peared beneath the ocean tide of passing
events, ''unwept, unhonored and unsung."
Then there came on the stage the
Smith party, with Samuel E. Smith its can
didate for Governor, receiving in 1888 about
5000 votes. 1t wanted to reconstruct the
Democratic party in this State, and to ac-
complish this it sought to act as kind OF
balance power between the Democratic par
ty and the Wings, but in effect it only aided
and encouraged the Wings so long as it last
ed, but it soon disappeared from among men.
Six or seven years later, about 1889, there
grew up in Maine another third party, kind
of so-called independent party, under the
lead of Francis o. j. Smith, a man OF great
nerve and ability, and at one time strong
political force in this State. This was a
movement for the reform of the Democratic
party, tough and hopeless job indeed. 1t
cast few hundred votes. 1t was aided and
abetted by the Wing party, and finally in
1910, in the great Harrison campaign, it
blended completely with the Wings, and
George Evans, then Representative in Con-
gress from the Kennebeck District and
Francis o. J. Smith stumped the State to-
gether for the hero of 'Tippecanoe and Ty-
Ter too" Thus disappeared third party num-
Der three. Then appeared the Liberty par
revolt against slavery, and was stimulated
by one of the nOblest sentiments of the hui
man soul-the undying aspiration. for lber-
ty. But it was often unwlsely directed. 1t
ignored the fact that the Wing party of the
North was already in majority in important
States and many Congressional Districts,
and was strongly organized party controll-
ing powerful newspapers and other doml-
nant influences as true to Liberty as the LIB
erty party itself, and able to do vastly more
against the slave power. John Quincy
Adams, Joshua r. Giddings, William III.
Seward, Horace Greeley Thurlow Weed,
Horace Mann, William Pitt Fessenden and a
score of illustriouS compeers, were raised to
their commanding positions by the Wings.
The Liberty party operated to embarrass and
weaken the anti-slavery Wings and practi-
cally aided the pro-slavery Democracy. The
closing act of its mistaken policy was its
course in the great Presidential contest OF
| 1874, when James K. Polk, pledged to the an
| nexatiOn of Texas, and the trusted agent OF
| the Slave Power, was the candidate of the
| Democratic party, and Henry Clay, the illus
| trious champion of American Labor, whose
| tendencies OF thought were against the ex-
tension of slavery, was the candidate of the
Wings. The result depended on New York,
where the Liberty party had some thousands
of voters, more than enough to give the State
to Clay. To induce the Liberty party in that
State not to allow the slave power 10 triumph
by the election of Polk, Cassius M. Clay,
then in the early flush of his fame, who had
Just liberated his own slaves, and had been
| obliged to fortify his house with cannon to
| defend himself from pro-slavery llob, went
| to New York and urged the Liberty party
men to vote for Henry Clay, but he pleaded
| in vain. Polk was slected, and the conse-
quence was war with Mexico, and the tariff
| of '46 was adopted by which American labor
| and American manufacturers received des-
| tructive blow. This third party leached its
| limits and could go no farther. 1t disap-
peared from the political arena when the Free
| Soil party was organized. The Free Soil
| party largely grew out Of the fact thai the
| Wings of Massachusetts were greatly dlsap-
| pointed by the nomination of Gen. Zachary
| TAYLOR for the Presidency, by the Whig par
/ ty, and still more important fact, that Gen.
/ Cass had been nominated by the Democrats
| for the Presidency over Martin Van Buren,
| whose special supports were the barn-burnel
| Democrats OF New York, the stronger or th(
| two wings of the Democratic party OF tha
| great State. To defeat Cass, Van Buren, ant
| his barn-burner friends went into the Free
Soil convention at Buffalo in 1S4S, and tt
| show their resentment at the nomination o.
| Gen. Taylor the Anti-Slavery, Wings ano
| and other States also went into the Buffalo
| convention, thus forming the Free Soil party
| with Martin Van Buren and Charles fran
| els Adams for Presidency and Vice Presi,
dency This movement necessarily must AID
one of the two great parties. 1t did so aid
| The result was the election of Taylor ovel
| Cass, brought about by the barn burners Of
New York marching as body to the support
Of the Buffalo nominations, taking from Cas-
| more than one-half of the Democratic yotE
| of that great State, thus plainly showing thai
| Van Buren and his friends were more cum
ming and far-seeing than the anti-slavery
Wings of Massachusetts. For the Free Sol
movement had only elected Taylor instead
serving to defeat him. And Van Buren, AM
his friends having accomplished their objec
by defeating Cass, returned to the Democrat
ic party and voted for Franklin Pierce i
1852. Thus completely did the Free Soil par
ty act as tender and ally to the Whig par
ty. It disappeared from % the arena when II y
North marched almost in solid phalanx t.
the formation of the Republican party will
whatever numbers came from the antl-slay
cry Democrats and Free Sellers. The wa
and its consequences consolidated the grea
Republican party as the strong fortress @
4 a .,,kcr aiF,fr foro ri