The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-09
Presidential Campaigns
x--7he Lineoln- -DousIas- campaisn
By Frsdric !. Haskin.

bitter, and when iG was seen that Douglas controlled the convention and the Douglas platform would be adopt ed, the majority of the Southern state delegations withdrew from the con- vention. The regular convention then adjourned to meet In Baltimore. The bolters adjourned to meet in Richmond. The Richmond convention met on time. but immediately adjourned to another day to await the action of the Baiti- more meeting.
 The regular convention assembled in Baltimore and the old fight broke out afresh, Caleb Cushing of Mases- chusetts. who was President of the convention. finally became so disgust ed with the Douglas followers that he
 resigned his ehair. and led another bolt from fhe convention. The rem nant ef the regular" convention then ] proceeded to nominate stephen A.
 Douglas for President and Benjamin , Fitzpatrick of Alabama for vioe-P Pres
 ident. Fitzpatrick declined. and the second place was given to HerscheI ".
 Johhson of Georgia. The Caleb cush- tnG bolters in Baltimore nominated John C. Breckinridge. then vice-Pres- | ident of the United States, for Presi- I dent and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vfce-President. The waiting "seced-
 CTS. at Richmond imm ediately ratifed the nominations, of Breckinridge and Lincoln was nominated at Chicago by . group of shrewd politicians. who deliberately overthrow the will of the l majority of the party as a sacrifice to expediency William Ii. Seward was | the great leader of Republicanism, and
 when the delegates met at Chicago. But steward as Governor of New York has been too closely asspoiated with the Roman Catholics In politics. The know-Nothing vote was still large and had to be reckoned with. especially in Pennsyivania and Indiana. Andrew G. Curtin and Henry s. Lane. Republican
 nominees for Governor in Pennsylva- | mia and Indiana. respectively, put up | the scheme to defeat Seward,
 They knew his Catholic affiliations would defeat him in their states and
 would probably defeat them also. But with all the strenuous opposI-
 ton and scheming. Seward probably
 would have won if his managers had
 not fooiishly organized a great street
 parade in his behalf. That took all
 the Seward boomers on the streets.
 While they were marching. the Lin- coin managers packed the wiKwam galleries with Illinois folks. who were
 instructed to yell for Abe" They yelled all right and by this cheap
 political method of organizing a
 clique. Abraham Lincoln was nomi-
 mated for President.
 The Constitutional Union party was
 the iast attempt made to gather the
 old line Whigs" into q political or ganization. As its candidates. John
 Bell of Tennessee ana Edward Everett of Massachusetts received more than
 three times as many electoral votes than the Douglas ticket and mora aa s ticket, 1t was of considerable import ance In the campaign. s.-
 It is remarkable fact that the man who organized thaA political partv
 Is still living. He Is General James ID. Porter. chancellor of the Uniyersitv oi Nashville. He has been governor of
 Tennessee. minister to Chile and first
 assistants secretary of state since inc
 war. In 1853 he was one of the i've members of the Tennessee IeefslaturA Ewho had been elected as "Whies". al- though the nationai organization had long since perishAd.I He was very
 young. but he believed he saw a great opportunity for q revivai of Whixgery. He wrote letter to his four Whig colieasies and called a meeting to consider ways and means for meeting
 the question of the next national cam
 paign.
 The result of that caucus was the hUFSAseue HcduSu Dy hell m tennessee
 Everett in New England and Houston
 in Texas for the formation of a new
 party upon the principle proclaimed in it's slogan: s,rhe Union, the Constitu- ton and the Enforcement of the Laws" Sam Houston had left the Democratic
 party and was leading a most formid- able bolt in Texas. He and Bell were voted upon as candidates for president but Bell won on the second ballot In
 the election the Bell ticket carried vlr-
 ginia. Kentucky and Tennessee--the
 three border states and. in the case of Kentucky and Tennessee. the old whig
 strongholds
 Lincoln received a great majority of electoral votes over all his opponents, but he was greatly in the minority in
 the popular vote. The possibilities of the electoral system of choosing President were keenly illus trated in the result. Lincoln received i30 electoral votes and 1,SeS.3B3 popu- lar votes. Douglas was next in the | popular vote with 1.375.157. but he got only 12 electoral votes, while Douglas
 had more than 100000 popular votes for each electoral vote. Brechlnridge