St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-04
RIVER AT s A. \
SOME CONVENTION CITIES.

Senator Quay, after quelling the
revolt in his state-the word his
is used, advisedly-announce that
he wished to be chairman of the ma
tional committee of his party, again
using the pronoun in the possessive
sense. When the convention meets
the senator's wish will be duly re-
spected. Further proceeding in his
career Of conquest and domination,
he now says that he wishes the next
national convention of his party to
meet in Pittsburg. San Francisco
and other cities are wasting their
time and energy in trying to secure
it. Quay has expressed his wish,
and that is law. The next Repub-
lican national convention will sit in
Pittsburg. 1t was there on Feb. p,
1855, that the first national conven-
tion of that party was held, and it is
fitting that, in its old age and in the
condition of dotage indicated by the
supremacy of the Pennsylvania SEN
ator. 1T go back to the place of it's
birth for it's latest, fifty it's last, con-
vtmtion.
A list of the cities in which the
conventions of the various national
organizations have been held traces
the development of the country and
the westward movement of the CEN
ter of political power. 1t was forty
four years after the requisite num-
ber of states had adopted the con-
stftution before there was national
convention of any political party.
Like all progressive movements, this
originated with the Democrats, and
was called by the legislature of New
Hampshire, in 1881, at the instigation
of Lewis and Kendall, members of
Jackson's Kitchen cabinet" in the
interests of Van Buren. This con-
vention was called for May q, 1882,
at Baltimore. Baltimore in those
days, and for long after, held the
fortunate middle ground of territory
readily accessible that Chicago now
opened the interior and peopled it, it
was the favorite convention city,
having had thirteen of them before
its supremacy passed to the West.
While the Democrats were the first
to call national convention, the
anti-Masons were the first to hold
one, and they We're followed by the
national Republicans, as the later
Wings called themselves, and both
the conventions met in 1881 in Bal
timore. That city remained the IA
Yorite with the Democrats, and in it
their successive conventions were
held until 1856, when they inaugu-
rated the Western movement, and
met in Cincinnati. The Wings met
in Harrisburg in 1886 and 194O, but
went to Baltimore in 1874, and Phila-
delphia in 1S4S, and back to Balti-
more in 1852 for their last, expiring
effort. The Democrats swung back to
the coast in 1860, met and broke in two
at Charleston, both factions recon-
vening in Baltimore, and naming
Douglas and Breckenridge respec-
lively. The Republicans, successors
of the Free Soiler, Whig and Lib
eral parties, passed the Democrats
in the interior movement and went to
Chicago and chose Lincoln, having,
In 1856, looked westward no farther
than Pittsburg. The Knownothing
party stuck to the coast line in its
first and only convention, and met in
Philadelphia in 1856, a place with a
name singularly in contrast with the
spirit of that party. The two lead
ing parties swapped places in 1864.
the Republicans meeting in, Balti-
more and the Democrats in Chicago.
while in 1868 another reversal took
place, the Republicans going to Chi