St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-06-12

said delegation shall forthwith reassemble
and ballot again for candidates for the above
Offices, aid again commit the report to the
above COMMITTEES, and if it shall appear that
a majority of the ballots are for any one man
for candidate for president, said committee
shall report the result to the convention for
its consideration; but if there be no such ma
jority, then the delegations shall repeat the
balloting until such majority shall be OBJ
tained and then report the same to the con-
vention for its consideration. That the vote
of a majority of each delegation shall be re-
ported as the vote of that state; and each
state represented here shall vote its full
electoral vote by such delegation i'll the com
mittee."
A Notable Device.
AS this view of the thirty years is intend
ed to show the workings of our political
system. and how things were done still
more than what was done; and as the
election of chief magistrate is the high
est part of that work; and as the party
nomination of a presidential candidate
is the election of that candidate, so far
as the party is concerned; III all these
points of view, the device of this resolu-
tion becomes historical. and commendS
itself to the commentators upon our con-
StitutiOn.
The people are to elect the president.
Here is process through multiplied
filtrationS by which the popular sentl-
ment is to be deduced from the masses,
collected in little streams: then united
in one swelling current and power into
the hall of the convention-no one see
ing the source, or any one of the streams.
Algebra and alchemy must have been
laid under contribution to work out a
quOtient from such combination OF
signs and symbols. But it was done.
Those who set the sum could work it;
and the quotient was
Political Death
to Mr.. Clay. The result produced was:
For Gen. Scott, 16 votes; for Mr.. Clay,
80 votes: for Gen. Harrison, 14S votes.
And as the law of these conventions
swallows up all minoritles in an ascer-
tanned majority, SO the majority for
Gen. Harrison swallowed up the 106
votes given to Mr.. Clay and Gen. Scott,
made them count for the victor. pre-
Senting him as the unanlmity candidate
OF the convention, and the defeated
candidates and all their friends bound
to join In his support.
And in this way the election of 1910
was effected! A process certainly not
within the purview Of those trainers Of
the constitution, who supposed they
own chief magistrate.
In 1874, when the Whig party had no
possible show of eiecting its ticket, MIR.
Clay was given the nomination. and
four years later he was refused it, as
stated above, Gen. Taylor, the Louisiana
Shareholder, being selected. How closely
does the career of James q. Blaine re-
semble this story of Clay and the fail
ure of
His Pet Ambition!
To be sure, Mr.. Blaine was only once
the nominee of his party in convention,
but there has not been time in twenty
years that the vast majority of the rank
and file have not been overwhelmingly
for him.
Look at the convention of 1876 when
he led at the start on the balloting and
was only defeated by the combinations
of his enemies. Again was this same
scheme worked in $780, and finally in
1892. In 1884 he was nominated and de-
feated, and four years ago he permitted
Harrison to have the honor.
Already the rumblingS of the discon-
tented voters are heard at the action of
the late convention, and the dissatiSfac-
tiOn will mount higher and higher until
in November the great Republican
party, outside the officehOlderS, will see
that the man who was given the honor
that belonged to Blaine is buried ont of
sight