The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-02-02
!. CONVENTIONS Of
HAVE BEEN HELD
City Was Scene of Struggles
Between North and South
Before War.

N Democratic national convention
is to meet, was the city In
which assembled the first ma
tional convention of the Democratic
party, the city in which q national con
vention FIRST gave forth the party's for
NAL platform and that In which the
first Democratic dark horse was nomi-
mated for the presidency.
At the wish OF Jackson, the nrst
Democratic national convention, which
met at Baltimore, May 81, 1892, eight
months after the anti-Mason party had
set the fashion Of such conventions by
meeting in the same city, formally
nominated Van Buren, for vice presi.
dent, but merely ratified the nomina-
ton of Jackson for president already
made by many state legislatures.
Jacksons candidacy and the nomina-
ton Of Van Buren marked the well de
fined quarrel between Jackson and Cal
houn and prepared the way for the
facdonal struggle between the north.
| ern and the southern Democrats.
The convention adopted no platform.
| but expressed confidence in Jackson
and his policies. The man and his
policies really constituted the party
| platform.
The national Democratic convention
| that nominated Van Buren, for presi-
dent met At Baltimore in May, 1889,
having been called thus early to offset
| the candidacy Of Senator Hugh l..
White, already nominated as an anti
Jackson Democrat by the Legislature
Of Tennessee
In this convention the vote Of each
state, though not its actual representa-
tion, was in proportion to its strength
| in congress. The convention was large
ly made up Of federal offceholders. az
was that OF 1892.
Party platforms were embodied in
letters written by the several candi-
dates in answer to inquiries addressed
TO them by means of an understanding
among the leaders, an awkward con
trivance that subsequently brought
disaster to Clay
A Democratic convention represent
ing twenty-one states met at Balti
more in May, 1910. and nominated Van
Buren, though it forebore to make
any nomination for vice president.
The interest of the convention came
from its being the first to adopt a
definite platform Of Democratic prin
ciples. This platform. which served
for many years as the basis for Demo
cratic doctrinal utterances, urged a
strict construction of the constitution
denied in the name Of such construc
ton the power Of the federal govern
ment to make internal improvements
to assume state debts, to charter O
national bank or to legislate as to slav
cry in the states, condemned by i'm
plication the policy of protection, de
nounced the propaganda of the aboli
tionists as dangerous to the Union, dis
approved any abridgement of the nat
uralization privilege, called for rigiC
economy in public expenditures, for {
revenue limited to the needs of sucf
expenditures and for the divorce of thu
treasury from the banks as indlspen
sable 70 the safety of public funds anC
to the preservation of popular rights.
| bDOil tudt ihc
met their first disastrous defeat
though it was brought about rather b!
conditions than by the party utter
ance.
The southern Democrats, who haC
had 1t in for Van Buren since 1882
obtained their revenge upon him at tn
convention Of 1914, which met at Bal
timore in May. Annexation of Texa
was the question over which Van Bu
rem was defeated for the nomination.
Jackson had been misled into writ
ing a letter that was used against hi
friend and protege, and Virginia, whicl
had chosen delegation instructed 70
Van Buren, had reinstructed agains
him. The two-thirds rule adopted II
1882 was reaf1irmed in the early hour
Of the convention, and Van Buren,
friends, controlling a majority Of votes
vainly strove until the ninth ballot t
force his nomination.
The name OF James X. Polk had al
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