The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-06-11
mo. 81.

LIE hepuDiicaH cOHScutiou VI
1880 was a remarkable struggle,
Here Conkling and Blaine were
again the great complaints. Conk-
ling was there in person leading
the Grant forces. Sherman made
his first appearance as presiden-
tial candidate. E1munds, WASH
burne and Window were the others.
Gallant was the struggle between
the Blaine and Grant forces. For
the latter 306 men stood from first
to last like the Old Guard; 275 men
rallied about the Blaine standard.
For two days the battle continued.
Through 35 ballots there was little
change, Grants highest vote being
313, and Blaine's 2S4.
In the convention, conspicuous
in all debates, leader of the strug-
gle against the unit rule, which on
ly the Grant men favored, and all
the others opposed, was James A.
Garfield. How the convention, all
weary of the bitter conflict, sought
solution of its great problem by
bringing Garfield to the front in
an incompatible whirlwind, is his
tory. The anti-Grant forces SIM
ply united to defeat third term.
In the last four conventions of
Democracy there have been but
six ballots. Tilden won on second
ballot at st. Louis, Hancock ON
second at Cincinnati, Cleveland on
the second at Chicago, and was re-
nominated by reclamation at st.
Louis. In the last four conven-
tious of the Republican party there
have been no fewer than fifty-fve
ballots, Hayes being nominated on
the seventh, Garfield on the thirty
sixth, Blaine on the fourth, and
Harrison ON the eighth. Without
exception the candidate who en-
tered the Democratic conventions
with the largest number of votes
has won the prize. Only one of
the leading candidates in the Re-
publican conventions of the last
sixteen years has achieved success,
and that was Blaine, in 1884
This year, unless all signs fail,
history will be reversed. At Min
neapolis the Republicans are likely
to make short work of it, naming
Blaine or Harrison in the first two
or three ballots. At Chicago, all
the politicians, for the first time
in many years, are expecting a bit
ter, protracted struggle in a Demo-
cratic convention. If choice be
made in less than eight or ten bal
lots there will be great surprise.
A ballot in a national conven-
ton! What memories the phrase
calls up, what scenes of excitement,
tension, expectancy, hearts beating
faster, hearts almost ceasing to
beat at all ! "The secretary will
call the roll of States" commands
the presiding officer. A hush fol-
lows. There is something strange
in the air. The States are assem-
bled below, each marked by its
banner. Never before has the sis
terhood of States appeared SO inn
pressive; never before have you
watched with such eager eyes, lis
tened with such straining ears as
now. A President is to he made.
There is nothing else in a nation
al convention to compare with this
roll call of the States. 1t is quiet,
orderly, unaccompanied as rule
by applause on other demonstra-
tions; but majestic, awful in its
tension, its potentiality. Next to
the balloting in interest is the ap-
plause. When a wave of applause,
of human feeling manifestlng itself
in cries, in waving of hands, hats,
handkerchiefs; flags, banners, rolls
through one of these vast audiences
the most impressive spectator is
lifted from his feet, is made to
suffer with the sensation of physi-
cal and mental expansion, of mex
plicable initiation, as if all the
particles of his being were endeav-
oring to separate themselves one
from another and mingle with the
electric currents in the air.
These waves of applause are we'll
recognized weapons in national con-
ventions. The nomination of Lin
coin in the Wigwam, with all the
mighty consequences that followed
in its wake, was perfected with
persistent, planned and irresistible
whirlwind of demonstration. The
great politicians of the east, the
trained leaders, were for Seward,
and never dreamed of defeat. But