Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-06
Action Of the Springfield Conven..
ton Explained.
OHIOAN REPRESENTING 4 PRINCIPLE
"reminiscences of Former Political
Gatherings.
NOT AN ORDINARY CRISIS

Springfield onWednesday and Thursday last
was unlike any ever before held in Illinois.
The convention held in the same city in
1850 for the choice of delegates to the ma
tonal republican convention was a re-
markable gathering. John A. Logan,
| then Senator in Congress, left his
| place in the Senate to come home
and lead the fight in behalf of his
| old military commander, u. s. Grant.
Logan had as his first and second neuten-
ants in that contest A. NJ. Jones and Dan
Shepard, chairman and secretary of the re-
publican state central committee, and there
were then no better political leaders in
either party in the state than those three
men. But the hall of the house of repre-
seEtatiVes in the state capitol was large
| enough to hold that assemblage, intense as
the excitement in all the counties had pre-
vfously been. But 1T was pigmy compared
| with the convention of 1896. There We're
thousands in attendance upon this com
pared with hundreds who were witnesses
Of that.
Judged by ordinary Standards the adj
vantages in the convention of last week
were with the anti-McKinley men. Their
candidate for governor, John r. Tanner
| of Clay county, had a large majority of
| instructed delegates In favor of his nom
fnation. His successor as chairman of the
state central committee was his CTanner's)
intimate friend. A large majority of the
| state central committee were his active sup
| porters. He had the county Of Cook din
which is the city of Chicago apparently
soiidly at his back, instructed to support
him, and inferentialiy to be guided by him
| after his nomination should have been Sc
| cured.
Next to his own nomination for governor,
iahner, IN good faith, sought a defeat of
instructions for Major Mckinley in the
nope that his Old co-laborer and devoted
friend, Mr.. Shelby NJ. Culom, might have
the support of Illinois as a candidate for
Jf NIL
springfield to supplement the efforts of
tanner and other enthusiastic friends. Tn
der ordinary circumstances their labors
would nave been successful. Cullom himself
| Is no infant Ia politics. His occupancy of
responsible elective offices for the period
| OF generation is proof of this. He comes
OF bralny stock Ask any of the old resi-
dents of Tennessee If they knew old Bill
Culiom of that state, and they will tell YOU
ne had an intellect emitting him to front
rank, although no Chesterfield nor How
ara in department. Shelby NJ was born
with the better qualities of his Tennessee
relative, with none of the other soil He
| Is popular at his own home in Springfield,
where he has lived for nearly half a cen
fury, and throughout tie state The nu,n-
Der Of people whom he has assisted by his
ofhcial and personal influence has helped
| 10 accumulate for him a capital of popu-
larlty upon which he could in ordinary
emergencies draw almost without limit No
| one knows better that every cabinet and
bureau officer during republican presiden-
energy and entreaty he has pleaded for
| the appointment of needy constituents TO
federal positions, and for the granting of
pensions to Illinois soldiers No aan;ng
| swords guard the doors Of his home in
Washington against the entrance of sup
plants from Illinois for his personal and
official influence. but they have always been
granted hearing and his promise Of help
| If 1t could be appropriately given. Withai
| 1t Is known that with all his patronage and
power. he Is poor man, and that when he
a frnyr, he =
will be es clean and his pockets as empty
as were those of H. L. Dawes of Massa-
chusetts when the latter retired to private
life.
This was the man in whose behalf the
election of delegates at the late state con-
vention was sought. Except in extraordi-
nary crises. the question of patronage, ad-
ded to the other considerations already
| mentioned. would have been an important
| make-weght. No matter who shall be the
next President, If a republican, Senator
Cullom will have voice in the selection of
federal appointeeS for Illinois. John R.
Tanner as governor will also have official
patronage to distribute. These considera-
tons probably were not forgotten in the
arguments presented to delegates why they
should prefer a citizen of Illinois to one in
Ohio for President.
But this is not an ordinary crisis in poll
tics. Whether enormously or not. the
masses of republicans in Illinois, in city
and country, trace the commencement Of
the present hard times to the election of
Cleveland and Stevenson in 1892 and to
the election of a majority in each branch
of Congress pledged to the repeal of the
Mckinley tariff law of 1880. With this
thought in their minds, what was more
natural than that they should seek for
their leader in the next presidential cam
paign the man whose name was most in
timately connected with the tariff law I'M
der which they knew the country had
prospered as it had never prospered
before? To them it was an easy transit
no NcL iplo
bill to Bill Mckinley This is the simple
solution of the great victory of the Ohio
man last Thursday in Illinois. 1t was not
money, it was not personal leadership, it
was not fractional strategy which did the
business. 1t was the spontaneous uprising
Of the masses of the people of all classes
point of sorrowful deprivation in their
homes and bankruptcy IN their business
Men attended primary, county and district
conventions this year who never took part
actively in politics before. They were at
Springfield, not as delegates, but as that
reserve power behind delegations greater
than delegations themselves, determined to
see their will fairly executed or to know
the reason why.
1 have reasons for saying that Major
Mckinley is not led to the assumption that
his almost unparalleled successes thus far
have been caused by any oyershadowinp
personal superiority over such competitors
as Reed, Allison. Henderson. Cullom and
others. In this he shows that element of
good sense which has been such a marked
characteristic Of his public career He ap-
preciates that it is the great principle of
national policy with which his name is
identified and the earnest devotion of the
people in it's support which have thus early
in the canvass for a nomination practically
assured his ultimate triumph.
With all this In his favor there is a re-
membrance of the manly manner in which
he bore himself in the national republican
convention in this city in 1888 He was
there as delegate in behalf Of the nomi-
| nation of John Sherman. During one of
the ballotings Maj. Mckinley himself re-
ceived few votes. AS socn as the result
was announced he mounted a chair, and IN
clear, ringing voice declared that he came
there as the friend and supporter of Sena-
tor Sherman; that he should labor earnest
ly for the nomination Of that gentleman;
that therefore he requested, nay, demand
ed, that no vote should be cast for himself
in that convention. This prompt declina-
ton of p1 offered compliment of high dis
tfnction was in such contrast with what
ambitious aspirants for high place are apt
to do in like circumstances that it caused
him to be a marked man in public favor
from that hour. I remember of only one
other instance of like self-abnegation. 1t
was in the convention of $780, in this city
when Gen. Grants name was presented for
q nomination for q third term Soma dela-