The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-12

bitlon. Soon there was Chase party which simon Cameron put out of the way. l About that time Chief Justice Fancy ! died. and Lincoln, consummate politician that he was. gave the vacancy on the Su- rreme bench to Chase. It was the life
 ambition of William M. Evarts to at-
 tain that exalted station At Chicago he had been a manager of the Seward forces
 in 1860. and, had Seward been President, Evarts would have been Chief Justice. Then 1t was that Evarts sought to make Chase President, and had he succeeded 1t is very probable that he would have
 been made Chief Justice.
 Chase was a Democrat on every issue
 but that of slavery AS soon as eman- cipation came he was again a Democrat
 and opposed Republican reconstruction
 O. the South. He was c Democrat when
 he presided at the Impeachment of Presi-, dent Johnson. and. perhaps. he was the one man in America who could have defeated General Grant for President in 1868. The Democratic party had divided in 1860. and in 1864 1t had nominated war Democrat on a peace platform. In 1868 1t was destined to nominate a hard
 money Democrat on a rag money plat
 form. Chase would have been plat
 form in himself.
 h 1888 Kate Chase turned to the Dem ocrats. The national convection was held l in Tammany Hall. A few months before, the New York Sun. which had just been acquired by Charles A. Dana, began to advocate the nomination of Chase, and the party was prepared for that event.
 The old abolitionists felt that he was one of them when Grant was a Democrat,
 and had he been nominated there would have been no Democratic bolt as there
 was in 1872 and 1896, O'Connor defeated Greeley, and Palmer beat Bryan. The prolonged ballotings were only part of the plan to nominate Chase, and the fail ure of the plan is one of those unaccount-
 able things, a nod of Jupiter. that can
 not be explained. They laid 1t on Tilden; though his friends denied it: but, be that
 as it may, it probably cost Tilden the Presidency in 1877. Kate Chase had hand in making the electoral commission, and but for her 1t might have been com
 posed of an eight to seven. indeed; but
 eight for Tilden and seven for Hayes.
 The closing years of this brilliant wo-
 man were embittered by disappointment
 and clouded by poverty. Her last days
 serve to prove that chivalry Is a lost vir-
 tue in a generation that is too busy
 making and boarding to indulge imagin-
 ings of Fair Rosamond, or play the part
 of Sir Lancelot du Lac. The convention of 1868 nominated Ho-
 ratio Seymour. splendid Democrat, an
 ideal statesman and a magnificent man.
 Tho October states went Republican,
 end Seymour went to the stump and de-
 livered some of the finest political ora
 tions the American populace ever heard,
 but 1t was of no. avail, as it has never
 
 cc untry as far South as New Orleans. He lost Greeley made the grandest speech es of them all, and he was defeated.
 Blaine had like fate in 1884, brilliant as was his dash into the Middle West. Bryan stumped the country from end to end in 1S96 and 1900, and spoke from dawn to dusk, but he was disastrously beaten. In 1888 Seymour carried New York, and 1t Is the last time New York was on the minority side In a Presiden- tial election. Four years later the Lib cral Republicans nominated the Demo- cratic ticket at Cincinnati, and the Dem- ocratic convention at Baltimore ratified ii. The Cincinnati convention commit ted a blunder like that of the Democrats four years before, when they rejected Chase. Had the Liberal Republicans nomed Adams or Trumbull, he would have been elected.
 In~ 1876 the Democracy was all itself | It had a lucid interval. Its greatest son since Jackson was in command HIS termination was followed by a brilliant campaign of consummate political man. agement and perfect organization. Sue 1 cess came to the party-the first in twen- ty years-but the enemy got the "usu- fruct." Hancock was nominated in 1880 because Tammany did not object and l was defeated for congratulating repudia- | ton in Maine.
 New York again dominated the con vention in 1884, when Cleveland was l chosen to lead and led to victory. Tn | the convention of 1888 there was no con test, but New York threw the election | to the enemy-the devils incomprehen- | slbles, ever. The defeat of Cleveland in | 1888 cost David B. Hill the Presidency. | In 1892 New York was for Cleveland and | instructed for Hill in snap convention | But New York was at Chicago in the | person of w c. Whitney. and Cleveland l was nominated despite the vote of the | delegation and the eloquence of Cochran. | New York went down in the convention | Of 1898. Agrarianism was in the saddle. | Democracy was in the woods Hill and Whitney neglected the opportunity that | came to them. Had they led 300 dele | gates out of the wigwam and nominated Palmer and Buckner, Bryanism would | not have survived the campaign of 1896. Democracy would have come out of the woods and boiled hundreds of thousands of votes for Palmer that Bryan got But Hill went to Wolfert's Roost, and the party went to the devil. In 1900 Bryan was boss and forced a platform upon the party, and himself upon the ticket. There never was one moment of
 doubt or the result There never was an