Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-20
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL TICKET.
FOR PRESIDENT
GROVER CLEvELAND,o of New YORK.
FOR vICE-PREsIDENT-
ALLEN G. THURMAN. of Ohio.
To enforce frugality IN public erpendi-
tslres and abolish unnecessary taxation.
FOR CONGRESS, SIXTH DISTRICT
REEL B. TERRY, of Fresno.
Falsffytng Political History.


The Tribune in it's editorial columns of
yesterday assumes that Stephen A.
Douglas ran as candidate for President
in 1860 as sort of a stoolpigeon for Lin
coin, and that his principal object was to
detach some Southern State from Breck-
inridge. Our decidedly inaccurate con-
temporary says: ''Mr. Douglas took the
s'stump-he went into the South-to
spersuade, if so he might, the Democrats
ssof some State to deny its vote to Breck-
'inridge. His oratorical efforts were all
''made with view solely to prevent the
"solidifying Of the South and to prevent
''its taking up position Of hostility to
s'the Union of the founders of our con-
"stitution." There is something very
belittling to Mr.. Douglas and very
foreign to the facts in this peculiar out
giving. Stephen A. Douglas en-
tered the campaign of 1860 to win if he
could, and without the remotest
intention of assisting Mr. Lincoln's can
didacy. There was nothing improbable,
in quadrangular campaign, in suppos-
ing that the election might be thrown
into the House of Representatives, with
chances of combinations as surprising as
those of 1928, when John Quincy Adams
was elected President by the vote of that
body, through an alliance with the fol-
lowers of Henry Clay. Douglas might
reasonably suppose, though he would
have been proved to have been wrong,
that he was strong enough with the
masses to make it impossible for Lincoln
to get majority of the electoral colleges.
There were four strong tickets in the
field that year, viz, Lincoln and Hamlin,
Douglas and johnson, Breckenridge and
Lane, and Bell and Everett. Although
Douglas got only the nine electoral
votes of Missouri and three Of
New Jerseys seven, making
twelve altogether, he had every
reason to think that he might capture
more, that Bell and Everett would do a
good business, and that Breckenridge and
Lane would also pull up well. AS il
was, Notwithstanding his small electoral
vote, Douglas received nearly as many
popular votes as Breckinridge and Bell
together, and was not quite five hundred
thousand votes behind Lincoln himself.
The popular vote stood: Lincoln, 1866
913; Douglas, 1,374,664; Breckenridge,
847, ,404, and Bell, 591, 900. 1t is quite
preposterous to suppose that man who
felt himself to be, and who proved to be
30 strong with the people, should not
have had pretty well defined hope oi
his own election.
The Tribune is wrong, again, as tc
where Douglas made his most strenuous
efforts during the campaign. Probably
his most carefully considered and most
brilliant speech was made from the bal
cony of the st. Charles Hotel, in Pitts.
burg, the very center of Republicanism.
The "little giant" was undoubtedly i'm.
pressed with the idea that he could ap-
peal to the sober second thought of the
nation, irrespective Of section, and he made
the effort pluckily and determinedly.
1t is true that Mr.. Douglas afterwards
turned in and warmly supported the wal
for the Union. But SO did Horatio Sey.
mour, and Samuel ]. Tilden, and
the myriads of other Democrats who
made the preservation of the Union
pOseible.