The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1892-06-23
THE NOMINATION OF HARRISON.
The Presidents Campaign Managed With
Consummate Ability.

of the DOW famous Market hall caucus
of Thursday is the history Of the liar
riSon organization which resulted in
the denomination Of the President yes
terday evening. Although number
of the Harrison men were in Minneap
oils ten days ago, the real organization
Of the Harrison forces began on Friday
OF last week, when a. M. Jones of hi
nOiS called q meeting of q Legislative
committee. composed of A. M. Jones,
+. e. Rathbone. l.. T.. McCOmas, G. l..
Magee and ID. M. RamSdell. The meet
ing WAS called at the West Hotel. Mr..
Jones was made chairman. lie out
lined the plan of campaign which
was to ascertain the low water mark Of
llarriSon's strength, and then enlarge
the committee Of five to twenty, and
then to forty, and when IIarrison's
strength had been found to be.enough to
nominate, the delegates were to meet
III private caucus and demonstrate, by
"touching elb3ws," that Harrison had
the convention, thus eliminating the
danger of stampede by giving the
Harrison forces knowledge AMI abso.
lutte confidence in their strength.
The first meeting was held that night,
and every night after the committee
met 1T TO o'clock. The first night IIar-
rlSonS strength was found to be 4S6.
The next night it was found 5l1. The
next night it was 52l. The last night
before the Market hall caucus the full
committee brought the canvass down
to "low water mark" which was 5ll.
The caucus was decided upon, secretly
called and fully attended. The story
OF the proceedings and the result Of the
ballot was sent by the United Press
in detail within fifteen minutes after
the adjournment, and need not be re-
pcated here. The result of the caucus
and the work that proceeded it was the
nomination of President Harrison.
Looking back over the HISTORY Of the
convention, tho friends of Blaine and
the enemies Of Mr.. Harrison know to-
day that superior management won the
light. There were accidental condi.
tl0nS which weakened their cause. Mr..
l'lalne'S refusal to authorize publicly
the use OF his name nullitied the effect
Of much of their preliminary work
Ills resignation from the cabinet, com
ing at a critical time and appearing to
be dramatic appeal to the convention
had Il reflex action that hurt his cause
All of the Blaine leaders admit that
Nlr. BlalneS action was in udiciouS
from one point Of view.
There are many openings for grave
mistakes which Mr.. IIarrison's mana
gers skillfully avoided, and one of then
was the proVocatiOn to abuse Mr.. Blaine
after this resignation. But word went
out from the Harrison headquarters
Immediately after the resignation wa
published that no friend of Mr.. llarri
son was to say one word against MI
blaine. The prOYocatiUn was great
the friends Of Mr.. Blaine were abusln,
the PRESIDENT loudly on account of tn
Office holders who were here, and OF
could control tih,21 crowd, the Harrison
leaders would not permit one word t'
be uttered against his chief rival.
The errors of Mr.. Iarrison's friends
| were few. Some .injudicious followers
OF the preSid dent's banner threatened ar
Oificc-holder who was working f0T
Blaine. The Harrison managers heard
OF the incident and went Immediately
to offer an APOLOGY for the threat
And so they continued to conduct their
campaign in dignilied way without
acrlmony or personal abuse, with the
result that they made many friends and
few enemies.
The friends of Mr.. Blaine have
known for a week that he could hardly
DO nominated. They tried in vain to
unite his strength on another man. But
that plan was Llocked continually by
the delegates from the Northwest
They sad that their first choice was
Blaine, but after him they wanted
Harrison. 70 have tried to carry the
Blaine vote to a dark horse would have
resulted only IN strengthening the IIar-
riSon vote; for while it would have
turned some Harrison votes to another
man, it would have given some Blaine
votes 70 Harrison.
The delegates and visitors are leav-
ing town us taSt as the cars can take
them.