Evening journal., 1910-08-10
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The RuSe That Made Gen.
MCClellen a Governor
BY "HOlland."


Il must tell you," said the late
Judge Ashbel Green to me. "of the
way in which ! once stampeded con-
vention And when tell Won that
this was done in New Jersey, and
that the stampede. as politicians call
1t. had never been successfully al
tempted in that state before. YOU may
believe with me that the incident was
OF unusual political interest"
Ashbel Green was one of the great
leading intellects Of New Jersey. His
father was president of Princeton
when the War of 1912 was being
fought and he was near of kin TO
Commodore Stockton and United
States Senator John p. Stockton. He
was esteemed in his day one OF the
profoundest legal minds both of New
Jersey and New York, and i'm the lat
ter years of his life was one OF the
leading counsel for the Vanderbilt
railroad interest. He died i'm 1905.
We Democrats of New Jersey In
the year 1877, were somewhat at sea,
continued Judge Green There had
been some talk about nominating me
for governor, and | was told that If
! we're willing to be candidate, ms
friends could compass my nomination.
But had no ambition to serve as
governor of New Jersey; in fact. my
professional duties would have made
II impracticable for me at that time
to enter public life.
"A little later / learned that a GER
tain faction of the party had made
up its mind to nominate as candidate
for governor a man who, i'm my opin-
ion, was not mentally fitted for the
post Of governor and on whom
feared that personal attacks, whether
we'll grounded or not. might be madc,
to the party's serious embarrass-
ment at the polls. The organization
controlled the convention; what were
those of us who did not like its candi-
date to do? After thinking the matter
over, II seemed to me that the only
way 10 beat the organization was 10
| stampede the convention. But what
name would be potent enough to take
the convention off its feet?
"As ] was seriously thinking the
matter over I happened to remember
that General George b. Mcclellan was
then living in Orange. True, he was
engaged in an important piece of en-
gineering work for the city Of New
York, but his le:al residences was in
the state of New Jersey. | knew that
among the Democrats of the state Nc
Clellan had retained the great popu-
larity he had gained in the days of the
war, and I decided then and there
that his name, II any could STAN
pede the convention into nominating
a flt candidate for governor.
NV friends pqrapfnq with mo a
handful of us decided to make the
attempt to stampede the convention
away from the organization to Nc
Clellan. Now, l won't tell you what
was done I'm a preliminary way to
effect this, but | will describe to you
what was done in the convention. At
the proper moment, and at a time
when everything was very quiet,
Somebody In the gallery jumper to his
feet and called for three cheers for
Little Mac It seemed to be a spon-
taneous call, and In a twinkling Of an
eye, almost, somebody on the floor OF
the convention echoed the call
Three cheers for Little Macl' Still
another moment. and two or three
men sitting in the gallery opposite
the one where the first call had come
jumped up. Little Macl Little Mac.
they screamed at the top of their
voices.
Here and there on the floor dele
gate after delegate was rising to his
feet and shouting Little Mac!' The
galleries speedily we're upon theiI
feet. en- masse, so to speak, and In
less than a minute after the first CRY
for Little Mac had been made mos
of the delegates were shouting fol
IrMrC1a11op fhpnQh fhafr life do.
pended upon It.
IF you have ever heard a politica
convention giving a demonstration fOl
popular candidate, then you car
imagine what happened at this con
vention. The organization manager
tried TO suppress the demonstration
The chairman broke his gavel pound
ing with IT. But nobody paid th'
slightest attention TO him. Little
Mac and nobody but little Mac
was thought OF and shouted 10
by the convention. II was as perfec
stampede as ever took place. an'
almost before the convention knew /
George b. Mcclellan had been nomi
mated by It for governor of New Jerse.
by acclamation. And I have Away
thought that the most surprised maj
in the state over the result was Nc
Clellan himself, who, on the mornini
OF convention day, had no more idei
OF being nominated for governor o
New Jersey than he had Of beins
elected President three years hence
But the best result of the STAN
pede was that. thirteen years after b,
had unsuccessfully led the Democrati
hosts of the nation as their Presi
dental standard bearer. we triumph