The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-12-30
MONDAY, DEoEMBER 80. 1895
STAR OF POLITICAL EMPIRE.

The selection of the meeting places for
the national convention of he reat par
ties in the asst score of years shows,
SAYS the Globe Democrat, the extent to
which the political center of gravity has
been shifted to the westward since the
first half of the century. In the earlier
days the choice If party candidates was,
of course, made at points in the Atlantic
seaboard states. That was the region
where the mass of the population re-
sided. The men and the influences
which dictated the choice of parties all
lived on the sunrise side of the ALLIE
ghenies. The first national delegate
conventions ever held by any of the
parties, those which nominated candi-
dates for the canvass of 1882, net in Bal
timore. In that city for that campaign,
Clay was nominated by the national Re-
publicans (the predecessors of the Whigs)
and jackson by the Democrats. The
Democrats met there in every campaign
along to 1856. The only places in which
the Wings ever held their national
gatherings were Baltimore, Harrisburg
and Philadelphia.
When, in 1856, the Democrats held
their national convention in Cincinnati
I'll e first formal recognition was made by
leading party OF the great and growing
weight of the West in the political SC t,e.
The power of the Democracy was in the
agricultural regions, and there was a
close partisan tie between the wheat and
corn raising West and the cotton and
tobacco raising South, which was quickly
cut, however, when the slavery extern
sion madness seized the Democratic
leaders. The selection of Western
town for the meeting-place OF the con-
vention of 1856 was good politics for the
Democrats in that crisis, for the Kansas
Nebraska folly of 1854 put most of the
western states in revolt against the De-
mocracy. Unquestionably the loss of
the West meant ruin to the Democracy,
and one of the ways to hang on to it, at
least tor the time, was to hold national
convention in Its principal city. Since
1856 the Democrats several times met in
tho West. In 1864, 1884 and 1892 their
conventions were held in Chicago, in
1880 in Cincinnati, and in 1876 and 1888
In st. Louis.
Naturally most of the Republican con-
ventions have been held in the western
states. In the West earlier than in the
East the Republican party first began to
take shape. In the little town of Ripon,
Wis, the earliest movement leading to
the formation of the Republican party
was made. This was two or three
months before Kansas was thrown open
to slavery and the Missouri CON promise
repealed by the act of May 81, 1854, but
when that measure was before congress
and its passage inevitable. Michigan,
on July of that year, held the first
state convention which ever formally,
adopted the Republican party name.
Of course an exception is made in the
case of Jefferson's Democratic Republi-
can party of 1793-1829, which was to-
tally different sort of an organization.
OF the ten Republican national conven2
tions already held all but three-those
of 1856 and 1872 (Philadelphia) and of
1854 (Baltimore)-met in the western
states. Chicago had those of 1860, 1868,
1880, 1884 and 1888, Cincinnati had that
of 1876, Minneapolis that of 1892, and ST.
Louis will hold that of 1896. With both
of the great parties westward the course
of empire takes its way.