Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-07-25
SOME THIRD PARTIES.

and the campaign in progress at any time
is fought with such fury, that most people
soon forget all the minor issues. At the
opening of each presidential campaign one
may hear earnest partisans saying, ''There
is really no need for third party, and
there ought not to be any we ought to
have square fight on the main issues, as
we used to-" And yet, ever since the revo-
lutionary Presidents passed away we have
had third parties, often more than now,
and some of them extremely formidable,
but they are easily forgotten.
How many young Americans know that
an "Anti- Masonic ,party'' once carried
Vermont in a presidential election, and
repeatedly carried various counties and dis
tricts, even the State of New York in q
nent writer and jurst, and Amos Ellma-
ker received the electoral vote of Yer
mont in 1882, and large popular vote in
some other States, on the apparently alb
surd platform that the Masons were Sc
cret society and dangerous to the country.
1t was then ThurloW Weed made his Oft
quoted remark. 1t having been alleged
that the Masons had murdered William
Morgan, of Batavia, n. Y, and body
having been found which was supposed to
be his, Mr.. Weed privately admitted that
it was doubtful, but that this corpse was "a
good enough Morgan till after the elec-
tion." We shall doubtless hear many
things this season which are only good
till after the election.
The various Labor, Temperance, Know
Nothing and Greenbacker parties have ef-
fected much, not by running elections, but
by compelling other parties to accept some
of their views. But, of all the third par
ties, none attained to such dignity, exert
ed such power in its time, or promised
such important consequences as the So
called "Union," or Bell-Everett party of
1860. These candidates received 646,1
popular votes, and the electoral votes Of
Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia. 1t
was no small compliment to the great ora
the candidates were always joined in the
popular speech and hyphenated in the
press. 1t was universally recognized that
the candidate for Vice. President was the
more national and prominent Of the two,
and so the ticket was uniformly printed
and pronounced "Bell-Everett." And it
is an amusing comment, rather a satire,
on the vagueness of party platforms that
while this party took the name of Gun
ion," and professed to be organized espe-
cially to hold North and South in close
friendshipand discountenance "agitation,"
yet in six months after the election Mr..
Everett was supporting the most extreme
measures of the Lincoln administration,
while Mr.. Bell was ardently supporting
Jefferson Davis. But those were days in
which men moved and scenes shifted very
rapidly.
John Bell was already an old man when
the war began, having been born near
Nashville, February IS, 1897, but he had
been for forty years power in Tennessee
politics. He was elected to the State Sen
ate when but twenty years old. In 1877 he
defeated Felix Grundy-neXt to Andrew
Jackson the most popular Democrat in the
State-and entered Congress to stay many
years. In 1884 he was chosen speaker
against James X. Polk. In 1885 he turned
the State against the Democrats for the
first time. He afterwards served in the
United States Senate, where he was de-
nounced as that unusual being, "a Southern
man with Northern principles" Edward
Everett, on the other hand, was OCCASION
ally, but not so fiercely, denounced as
yielding too much to the South. He was
born in Dorchester, Mass, April II, 1874,
and was noted asa scholar at the early age
ef1S. He was rated for years as the great
est orator of his time, and after an active
official life his last political act was, as cleo
tor at large, to cast the vote of NIassachu
setts for Lincoln and Johnson, in 1865, and
his last public appearance was in an ad-
dress asking aid for the people of Savan-
nah, Ga. He died just before the close of
the war.
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