Evening journal., 1910-01-10
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Mysterious Disappearance
That Made an American
President
BY "Holland."
BY "Holland."

known throughout the country in the
seventies as that of the Tweed trial
judge, knew the story from personal
connection with it, and gave it to me
as bit Of hitherto unrelated "inside"
national political history.
"You probably have read" began
the judge, that long before their ma
tional convention met in Philadelphia
in 1S4S the leaders of the Whig par
ty had decided upon Gen. Zachary
Taylor as their presidential candidate.
AS Gen. Taylor was from Louisiana,
and as the support of the New York
state delegation was necessary to
nominate him, the Whig politicians of
the latter state correctly assumed
that whomever the New York delega-
ton agreed upon as it's candidate for
the vice presidency would be nominal
ed. Therefore, great was the inter-
est in the secondary nomination
among the New York state politicians.
At that time one of the greatest
lawyers that the state possessed was
Albert II. Tracy Of Buffalo. He was
especially brilliant as an advocate, a
very effective speaker, and particular
ly attractive and convincing upon the
stump. He was a man of impressive
personality, and had in addition that
indescribable quality which for want
of a better name is sometimes called
personal magnetism.
Mr.. Tracy's name was suggested
as that Of a prominent Whig of New
York who would make an admirable
candidate for vice-president. Every
one seemed pleased with the sugges-
tion. But widely known as he was in
the state, his name was much less
familiar to the public elsewhere than
the names Of other New York Wings,
among them being Gov. Seward, Mil
lard Fillmore, who had served in con-
gress, and Thurlow Weed.
1T was seen that it would be nee
essary for Mr.. Tracy personally to ap-
peal to the Whig convention. There
fore, it was decided that he was to be
a delegate TO the convention, and was
to speak for New York state in sup
port of the nomination of Gen. Taylor.
1t was also decided to ask Mr.. Tracy
to prepare a speech, which would be
sure to center the attention of the
convention upon him so that when the
time came for us to say what citizen
of New York the delegation would Of
fer to the convention as candidate for
vice-president, we could tell the dele
gates from other states that we would
offer the name of Albert II. Tracy Of
Buffalo.
MIR. Tracy, of course, was greatly
honored by this proposition, and he
promised to prepare as able and ef-
fective speech as lay in his power to
do. With great care he did write an
address which was submitted to some
of his friends. High as were their ex-
pectations Of what he could do. the
address more than met them. We
were sure that with a speech Of that
kind to the convention, it would be
perfectly easy to gain for Mr.. Tracy
the unanimous nomination for vice.
president.
But when the day came for ma
king the nominating speeches for
candidate for president, Mr.. Tracy was
not to be found. Frantically, his
friends hunted high and low all over
Philadelphia for him. They went to
the hospitals, peering into the face of
every inmate. They searched the ho-
tells and outlying road houses-every
public place. A general alarm was
sent out privately; hundreds were on
the lookout for the missing man, but
all in vain. Not even the slightest
trace Of him was to be found.
Il do not recollect ofhand who sec
onded Gen. Taylor's nomination on be-
half of New York. but / do recollest
very vividly that the delegation held
a hurried conference, and, having OBJ
tanned no clew as to Mr.. Tracy's
whereabouts-no surety that he was
in the land of the living even-decid-
ed to offer the name of Millard Fill
more, then comptroller of the state,
as New Yorks candidate for the vice.
presidential nomination. OF course
you know that he was nominated, and
two years later, on the death of Gen
Taylor, became president.
"As for Mr.. Tracy, not until sever
al days after the convention had ad
/ journed did his friends succeed in
finding him, and then he was in a stu
pefied or dazed condition, a most pit
liable object. There was every indi
cation that he was suffering from the
effects of some powerful drug, but II
never became known to any of us
what actually caused his disappear
ance, whether it was due to acci
dent OF malice. Yet it is clear in my
mind that had not Mr.. Tracy mys
teriously disappeared a few hours be
fore he was to nominate Gen. Taylor
he. and not Millard Fillmore. would
have his name written in the history
books as that of the thirteenth presi
dent Of the United States"