The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-07-10

= HIRD party movements nave our
ing the past seventy years, played
curious and sometimes fateful
part in our political history The firs5
OF these was the Masonic party
which participated in the presidential
canvass Of 1882, and for several years
after made its influence felt in STATE
and national elections. In 1876 William
Morgan of Batavia. y. Y, who had
published "a book revealing some of the
secrets of the Masonic fraternity, was
spirited off to Niagara. Members OF
the order were accused of making away
with him. and when in the following
year the body of a man, lin an advanced
state of decomposition, was found on
the shores Of Lake Ontario. Morgan 3
wife and other persons who had known
him declared that it was that of the
missing man. though others who exam
incd the body declared il to be that OF
another man who had disappeared a
few months before. BE this As il may.
a strong prejudice was thus created
against the Masonic order. and d party
hostile To the election Of MasOnS to
office was founded I'm New York and
soon spread over half a dozen of the
mort hern states In 1882 William Writ
who had been the attorney general Of
the United States FOR twelve years, was
the anti Masonic candidate for presi-
dent and received the electoral votes
OF Vermont A few years later the
paTty's existence came 90 an end. but
81 1870 the Wings. because he was a
Mason. put aside Clay and made Harri-
son their candidate. Had Clay been
the Whig nominee in that year. nothing
is more certain than that he would
have triumphed at the polls.
The second Of the third parties to
appear on the stage was the Liberty
party. which had for its creed the abO-
lition of slavery, and which, in 1910,
and again I'm 1874 chose James e Biz
ney as its candidate for president. Biz
Iley was one of the remarkable figures
OF the troubled era that preceded the
4svi1 war. He was born in Kentucky IN
1792. read law in Philadelphia. began
practice at DanViIe in his native state
and. a [ the age Of p was elected Il
member Of the Kentucky legislature.
Two years later. seeing that the paths
10 high political station were crowded
in Kentucky he removed to Alabama.
where he had d brief and stormy ca
reer as lawyer. planter and politician
Chosen q member OF the first IegisIa-
tuTe of Alabama. he destroyed all
chance of political preferment by re-
fusing TO pledge himself 10 the support
of Andrew Jackson. then at the height
OF his popularity. While bad manage
ment of his plantation soon reduced
him to financial straits and compelled
him to resume the active practice of
the law. which had been interrupted by
his political labOrs. He never again
held public Office except two years.
when he was mayor of Huntsville. but
refused TO accept a salary for his serv-
fees.
Birney's career as an anui-slavery
organizer and agitator began soon after
MS retirement from that post He
seems 10 have been early persuaded Of
the horrors Of the slavery system. and
81 1888 returning to Kentucky. he be
gan the crusade against it which ended
only with his death He freed his own
slaves IN 1894, organized the Kentucky
Anu-Slavery society in the same year.
IRnd in 1880. finding it Impossible TO OBJ
tain IN Kentucky a publisher for the
and-slaVery paper he proposed to issue.
he removed 10 Cincinnati and there
started the PhilanthrOpist But even
n Cincinnati his existence was a
stormy one. his press being repeatedly
destroyed by mObs. Nevertheless. he
made his paper a, power among think
ing people. and soon his services to the
cause became so valuable that in 1887
ne was chosen secretary Of tile Ameri,
can Anti-Slavery society. He then re-
moved 10 New York. and became 50
conspicuous in that organization that
In 1910 and again in 1884 he obtained
the unanimous nomination of the Lib
srty party for president.
Though Birney received only 900
Fotes in 1910 and s.. GOO in 1874. his cam
iidscy in the latter year decided the re-
the election. In 1914 CLAY then