Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-10-19
or AN EDITORS
LIFE.
NO. TX.


Were Cheated by Polk and
Dallas-A Warning and
Lesson for 1888.
BY THOMAS HALE.
To the Editor of the Free Press:
vi must anticipate events perhaps Few
years during my residence in Alabama and
Mississippi, and begin with my residence
| in Louisiana arrived in that State in the
spring OF 1910, and resided there little
more than three years, resldi ng all the
time in highly educated creole family
family of refinement and wealth. BY
creole family, mean that the heads of
the family were born in the State, but
were of French descent, and were liber
ally educated in Paris More of this fam.
| lily in future paper.
At the time of which write the famous
hard cider and log cabin campaign was
| inaugurated
But before proceeding further on
this topic, permit me to make a note by
way of parenthesis on my last communica-
ton. Greensboro, the town where l first
began my labors in Alabama, was, at the
| time of which l wrote in Green county,
one of the most fertile counties in the
State. Eutaw was then, as it is now, the
capital and shire town of the county.
After left the State, a new county was
created from the county of Green and
one or two adjoining cou mites, taking in
Greensboro, and making it the capital.
The name of Hale was given to the new
county, and think in honor of popular
young man by that name from New
| Hampshire, brother of the late John
P. Hale, widely known in our national
politics.
But to return to Louisiana and the cam
paign of 1910.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1910.
Entering the State in the spring, was
too late to become voter in the fall, a
years residence being required to become
a legal voter. I, however, had much leis-
ure and opportunity to observe and note
coming events. The newspapers of the
State and from the North were constantly
before me, and my business and employ
ment occupied but half of my day time
and none of my evenings, and had fire.
quent correspondence from Northern
friends. The family in which | resided
was frequently visited by prominent men
OF the State. Among these were the Hon
Rice Garland, a member of Congress from
Louisiana, and a member of the whig
national committee, if not its chairman,
as think he was. He was on his way to
the city of Washington, to meet the ma
tional committee, and laid before my EN-
ployer and myself the plan of the cam
palgn. be was enthusiastically certain of
a brilliant success. The southern wings
were most sadly disappointed in the defeat
OF Henry Clay, before the national conven-
ton at Harrisburgh, in December, 1889,
and many leading speakers and newspa-
pers gave vent to their disappointment in
words neither polite nor wise. General
William Henry Harrison left Virginia and
went to Ohio to get rid of Virginia mig
gers" was the language of a whig paper
of the old dominion. "He was a respec-
table old gentleman who ought not to
have been thought of when the name of
the brilliant orator and statesman of Ken
lucky was presented to the convention"
Another Southern paper the Baltimore
american, an admiring champion of Mr..
| Clay, vented its spleen in words something
like these Harrison is a res pectable old
gentleman without ambition. Give him
a barrel of hard cider, anu pension of
S4,OO0 a year, and he would sit contented-
ly in his log cabin and smoke his plpe in
peace" The sober second thought. how.
ever, changed the whig feeling of the
South, and with the assurance of North
ern wings that Mr.. Clay would have the
nomination in 1874, they went to work in
| soou Cftt HeoI III Lue nero OF 'IlDDeCanOe
and Tyler too" John Tyler of Virginia
being the nominee for vice president on
the Harrison ticket. Log cabins and
| barrels of hard cider were used in assem-
! blies and professions in nearly all the
States us enlblems of plain modest living.
and with protective tariff as leaiinp
| issue. The whole was demonstration
for the laboring mans interests. All the
States but seven voted for Harrison and
Tyler. The wings of Louisiana sent to
Cincinnati for their cider. New Hamp-
shire alone of the New England States
voted for Van Buren,. Indiana, New Jer-
sey and New York all gave their votes
for the man in the log cabin. Kentucky,
Mr.. Clay's devoted, State; went for the
whig ticket, rs did Georgia, Louisiana,
Tennessee and Mississippi II was most
mortlfying to Van Buren, to lose his own
great State of New York and to meet
with so overwhelming defeat in the gen
eral election. Himself talented and re-
spectacle gentleman, and pet of Gen. |
Jackson, the rebuke to his democratic ad-
ministration was felt all the more keenIy.
There was never more thorough organi-
cation of any party than that of the wings
of 1910.
THE CAMPAIGN IN VERMONT.
The campaign of 1910 was carried on in
Vermont most vigorously. The mass con-
vention held at Burlington June 70 of that
year, with Gen. James Wilson of Keene,
n. H., as principal speaker, is described
In letter written by the late Hon. Rob |
ert 5. Hale, then student in the Univer-
slty OF Vermont. from which | make the |
following extract.