Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-01-29

CONVENTIONS Of
HAVE BEEN HELD
City Was Scene of Struggles
Between North and South
Before War.

~ ALTIMORE, where the next
K Democratic national convention
IL is to meet, was the city in
which assembled the first ma
tional convention Of the Democratic
party. the city in which a 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 first
Democratic national convention which
met at Baltimore. May 81, 1889. eight
months after the anti-Mason party had
set the fashion Of such conventions BIZ
meeting in the same city. formally
nominated Van Buren, for vice preSi-
dent, but merely ratified the nominn-
ton Of Jackson for president already
made by many state legislatures
Jackson's 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
fractional 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, 1885,
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 it's actual representa-
ton. was in proportion to its strength
in congress. The convention was large
ly made up Of federal oficeholders. as
was that of $50
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.
4 Democratic convention represent
ing twenty-One states met at Halti-
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 u
definite platform of Democratic prin-
ciples. This platform, which served
for many years as the basis for Demo
cratic doctrinal utterances, urged 4
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
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 rigid
economy in public expenditures, for
revenue limited to the needs Of such
expenditures and for the divorce of the
treasury from the banks as indispen-
sable to the safety of public funds and
to the preservation of popular rights.
Upon that platform the Democrats
met their first disastrous defeat,
though it was brought about rather by
conditions than by the party utter
ance.
The southern Democrats, who had
had it in for Van Buren, since 1882,
obtained their revenge upon him at the
convention of 1914. which met at Bal
timore in May. Annexation of Texas
was the question over which Van Blu
rem was defeated for the nomination.
Jackson had been mised into writ
ing letter that was used against his
friend and protege. and Virginia, which
had chosen Il delegation instructed for
Van Buren,, had reconstructed against
him. The two-thrds rule adopted in
1882 was reafiirmed in the early hours
of the convention. and Van Buren,
friends. controlling a majority of votes,
vainly strove until the ninth ballot to
force his nomination.
The name of James X. Polk had APP
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