Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-11-10
The Great whlo convention Of 1s4O.
[BurIIngton &c Press, sept. sO.l

The Great Whig Convention Of 1910.
burlington Free Press, Sept 9O.l
+ The Vermont State Wing convention
held in Burlington June 25, 1910, alluded
! to in this paper the other day was the
! largest political convention ever held In
this state with the possible exception Of
! the famous Hyde Park convention of the
third congressional district in 1867.
The campaign of 1910 was one of in
| tense political excitment all over the
| land. The democrats had carried the
| three previous national elections (which
! placed Andrew jackson and Martin Van
| Buren, in the presidential chair. Against
! Van Buren,, on his second nomination, the
! Wings nominated General William Henry
| Harrison (the grandfather Of the late
President Benjamin Harrison), and made
! tremendous rally on the issue of protec-
| tive tariff. His opponents having sneered
at General Harrison on the score of his
| humble origin, saying that he was brought
up in a log cabin in which there was
nothing better than hard cider to drink,
the Wings adopted the log cabin as their
emblem, and the campaign is known in
history as THE log cabin campaign"
| In May, 1S40 the Vermont Wing State
committee consisting of Harry Bradley,
John Peck, E. p. Jewett e. p Walton
and F. F. Merrill, invited the Wings Of
Vermont to meet "by their delegates or in
Z
The numbers that assembled here that
day surpassed all previous precedents.
| The Wings poured in from every county
for the most part in their own convey
ances,-it was before there were any rail-
roads in Vermont. A count of the dinner
tickets issued by the Wing town commit
tee and estimates of the numbers fed at
the public and private houses, indicated
that upwards of $4,000 voters were in at
tendance. The fields all around the village
of Burlington were thrown open for the
horses and vehicles which brought the
multitude, and abundance of hay was pro-
vided to feed the animals. Hundreds Of
log cabins and tents in the fields shelter
ed those who were not quartered in the
village. The procession in the forenoon,
of men walking eight abreast, was over
three miles long. In it were several log
cabins on wheels. The largest of these
was the Mortified cabin which brought
Charles Payne (who was elected governor
the following year, and later was the chief
promoter and first president of the Yer
mont Central railroad) and the leading
members of the Wing club OF that town.
Its dimensions were twenty by ten feet.
A table in it was loaded with baked beans
and supplied with hard cider. 1t was
drawn over the turnpike from Montpelier
by five or. six yoke of oxen, as far as Will
liston, where a team of twelve fine and
powerful gray horses replaced the oxen,
I
procession were number of carriages
bearing veterans of the Revolutionary
War. The Oldest of these, Simeon Hooker
of Westford, 101 years old, made short
address from the platform Of the conven-
ton in which he said: II have survived
three wars, and stood on this spot when
it was a wilderness" Another feature
of the procession was a cavalcade of 1856
young men of Shelburne and Charlotte,
who were to cast their first votes for
president in the coming election, hand
somely mounted, and dressed in black
coats and white pantaloons. The con-
vention assembled in and filled the square,
and from the platform in front of the
court house, the Hon. Solomon Foot of
Rutland, later congressman and United
States senator, called the convention to
order, shouting in his stentorian voice,
which reached the outer limits of the
crowd: 1.-THE Freemen Of Vermont will
come to order"
The principal orator Of the day was
the Hon. E. d. Culver of New York, who,
in the course Of his speach, paid his re-
spects to Ex-Governor Cornelius p. Van
Ness, then the leader Of the Vermont
democracy, abiding to him as one who
had been in the vanguard Of Van Buren's
van-dals and would soon be evan escent."
There was an address by the Hon. George
p. Marsh, who was soon to represent
Vermont in Congress and there were
other effective speeches. A committee on
resolutions, consisting of Charles Adams,
Charles Paine, George p. Marsh, e. P.
Walton, A. L. Miner and John H. Prentiss,
reported platform supporting protection
of American industries and protesting
against any extension of slavery A COM
mittee appointed to report the number Of
log cabins and of latch strings out, in
town, reported before the adjournment
that the log cabins, movable and station
airy, were 21S and latch strings uplifted
from 1000 to 1900.
We take these details from the report
of the convention in the issue of the
Weekly Free Press, following the con-
vention. The convention was the chief
feature of one of the most exciting cam
paigns in the political history of the state,
and 1t is needless to say that Vermont
went for General Harrison by a rousing
majority in the November election.