The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-05-28
THE SECOND PLACE.
Republicans May Make Their Choice wit
 Deliberateness

Republicans May Make Their Choice with Delibersteness.
 In 1896 the republican party can give more time to the consideration of the claims of different aspirants to the vice presidency than it had an opportunity to do in recent canvasses. There is not much uncertainty as to who will be nominated for president. It is. clear now that Mckinley is the choice of the republican masses for that office, and the party should soon begin to turn its attention to the selection of the man for the second place on the ticket. In few conventions of the past the only contest was that on the vice presidency. The democratic gatherings of .ls52, 1856, 1S40 and 1888, in which Jackson, Van Buren and Cleveland, respectively, were the unanimous choice for presi- dent, were of this order. So was the whig convention of 1s44, which nom mated Clay by exclamation. The re- publican conventions of 1864. 1868 and 1872 were of the same kind, for the Mis- souri delegation's vote for Grant in 1864 was an empty formality to obey the instructions given by the state when there appeared to be some chance of op- position to Lincoln, and the vote was immediately changed and Lincoln's nomination made unanimous r
 The trouble which has come to parties from mistakes made in the choice of vice presidential candidates would make a long story. Of the four vice presidents Tyler, Fillmore, Johnson and Arthur who went to the presidency on the death of its incumbent only one Arthur-gave satisfaction to his party. Fillmore, it is true, pleased a faction of his party, and, in the trying circum- stances in which he was placed, he did fairly well. Tyler, however, immediate ly after going to the higher office, got into wrangle with the whig leaders on vital question of policy, and from the effects of that feud the party did not fully recover until three or four years before his death. The reason why the republicans did not suffer from the Johnson disturbance was that the
 
 had not yet been completed. Tyler, of course, was really a democrat on the chief issue of the day a,d not whig, and the whigs who nominated him to attract the democratic vote framed no platform, while Johnson's nomination The convention in neither case thought of the possibility of the death of the president.
 It is 2 well-known fact of course, that conventions seldom give any intel ligent consideration to the question of the choice of a vice-presidential candi- date at all. The selection of the man for the first place on the ticket is the only thing that these gatherings or dinarily concern themselves with. Even in the instances in which this man is: determined upon beforehand, geograph- ical or factional considerations gener- ally dictate the nomination of the sec- ond officer. Some other locality and some other element of the party than the one which gets the president is al- lowed to "name" the vice-president. Thus the second office becomes a sort of consolation prize for the side which was beaten in the contest for the first office. But even under these limitations the conventions seldom take intelli- gent advantage of their opportunities. In the conventions in which there are contests for president the delegates are ,,,., xoI home when these are ended, and they rush the nomination of the vice-presi- dent through without any thought of the fitness of the candidates for the higher office to which he is heir contin- gent. There will be no excuse for any such precipitancy in 1s06.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.