Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-03-30
SUMMER. SEWARD.
FESsENDEN. HAMLIN.

Ae llNeu ne WAS 10 uua1 party du lnaG the
great hero jackson had been to the old
Democratic party, except that he never
dictated the party policy. The day for
that sort of thing was gone forever. The
convention met at Crosby's opera house in
Chicago, May 20, at noon, was in session
less than two days, bad no exciting de-
bates, and. raised but one question OF I'M
usual interest--the calling of all the states
regardless OF, their progress in reconstruc-
ton. Every state and territory in the
Union was represented, for the first time
in any Republican convention; and men
of all shades Of color, from full black to
Scandinavian white, participated on a
common level, for the first time, ii is be-
heyed, in the political history of any ma
ton. The German, Gen. Carl Schurz,
was temporary chairman, and Governor
Joseph r. Hawley, permanent president;
there were four candidates for vice presi-
dent, and on the fifth ballot Schuyler Col
fax was nominated. The convention, in
its union of white and black, native
Americans and natives of several
European nations, was a significant
index of the new era to which the great
party had brought the nation. The sue
cess of the ticket seemed at first view
overwhelming. Grant and Colfax re-
ceived 214 electoral votes to so for
Seymour and Blair. And yet the popu-
lar majority was but 800, 5S4, in a total
vote of nearly 6,000, 900, though many
Thousand southerners were disfranchised;
while in several states the majority was
SO small that, the merest accident might
have changed it. Republicans were dis
tinctly warned that they could only main-
tain their supremacy by continued well
doing. 1t was plain hat the country was
rapidly returning to that normal condi-
ton in which the two parties are nearly
balanced.
The amazing f6lly of the Democrats in
1872 gave that tendency to equalization
of parties a tremendous check. The
Republicans met in convention at Phila-
delphia On the 9Th of June, simply to
ratify the popular denomination of Presi-
4 dent Grant. Senator Henry Wilson, of
Massachusetts, was nominated for vice
president; and q campaign of almost un-
exampled personalities resulted in giving
this ticket the unprecedented popular
majority OF $1,000, Another result, as
painful to the victors as the vanQuished,
was the complete prostration and death
of Horace Greeley, probably the greatest
editor, unquestionably the most perfect
master of popular, racy and idiomatic
English, the western continent has yet
produced.
The Republican convention of 1876, met
June IA, at Cincinnati. under rather
gloomy auspices. The Democrats had
carried the congressional elections of 1874
by majorities a~ggregating 400, 000--a po-
litical change in two years of over | 100,
600 votes-a change without precedentin
political history. One important point
was vigorously debated and settled; that
Republican conventions were composed
OF district delegates, not of state delega-
lions, and the so-called "unit rulen was
abrogated for all subsequent conventions.
The question was again raised at Chicago
in 1880; the decision was reaffirmed, and
thus the party advanced another step In
iberality. Eight candidates were pre-.
scented at Cincinnati, and on the sew.
enth ballot Rutherford Burchard Hayes,
then governor of Ohio, was nominated.
The facts Of the ever memorable Chicago
convention Of 1880 are still fresh In. the
public mind. The convention was in ses-
sion six entire days, besides as many days
of heated preparatory discussion; the intel
lectual giants of parliamentary strength
and experience contested every point to
the last, and on the thirty-sixth ballot
Gen. James A. Garfield was nom
mated. His election and Inauguration was
followed in q few months by his assassi-
nation; and 1t may be said that the
twenty-five years of Republican rule in
the United States ended soon after, as the
Democrats had a popular majority OF
nearly COG, 900 in 1882, and elected Grover
Cleveland in 1884. The Republican, con-
vention Of that year was again held in
Chicago and was without special incident,
as the exciting questions of party pro
cedure had been finally settled in 1880.
The present year opens with the Republic
can convention again set for Chicago, and
the party prospects bright
aM-l.L.-- n.l1n~-s--