The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-07-06
THERE WERE OTHER
LONG CONVENTIONS
Deadlocks That Have Been Famous
in Former Conventions
Now Recalled.
The Previous Democratic Record
Was that of 1868, With
twenty-five Ballots.
Republican High Mark Reached
Thirty-Six Ballots When Gar
field was Nominated.

Few Of the people who wait in tie
street for convention bulletins, in hun
dreds of cities throughout the country,
realize that in many cases they az
tually get the news of a nomination
before most of the people in the con-
vention hall itself are aware of it. Yet
this is true.
AS the roll of the States is called
for a ballot, and this or that delega-
ton shifts it's vote. the tally she.ts
are marked by the convention clerks.
, and by hundreds of newspaper COR
respondents. And it has often hap
pened that long before the roll Of
States was finished, somebody had re-
, ceived the necessary number OF votas
for a nomination.
But though the result has been
reached. the vote of all the States
must be recorded, and the ro!lcnll
goes on without interruption-unless
tho meeting makes the discovery and
gets out of control.
In any event, the newspaper corra-
spondents are all watching closely,
and the instant that the necessary
total is reached by a candidate the
correspondents flash" the bulletins to
/ their papers, who instantly put the
| news on the boards.
! The waiting crowds turn loose and
are cheering at the same instar. IN
Boston and in San Francisco, while in
the convention hall the galleries are
still watching the monotonous roll
call, not realizing that as a matter
OF fact the fight is all over.
Indeed, 1t happened in one conven-
tion that the man who was nomnat-
ed was almost buried i kilograms of
c'ngratulation before the roll of the
{, States was finished. This was when
Garfield was nominated.
| He was present in the convention,
and when votes began to fall to him
| he stepped forward and announced that
he was not candidate and that the
votes for him were not authorized.
Democratic Record Was %.
Senator Hoar was presiding, and he
ruled that the point Mr. Garfield made
was not we'll taken.
| Garfield sat down again, and pres
emily his vote passed the ajoritv
mark. Only those who were keeping
tally sheets knew it, but in few mn-
utes the kilograms began to arrive.
They came SO fast that Garfield made
no attempt to open them; they filled
his lap and over1owed into an Inn
prcssive heap on the floor.
The first time in the history OF the
country when all the Presidential can
didates were nominated by conven-
tions was before the election Of 1892,
when both Republicans and Demo-
Gratis held their meetings in Balti-
more; the Democrats nominated And
rev Jackson and Martin Van Buren,
and the Republicans Henry Clay and
John Sergeant of Pennsylvania. The
Democratic convention that year
adopted the two-thirds rule. which
has governed all subsequent Demo-
tions.
The present convention at Baltimore
has broken Democratic records since
1868 as to deadlocks. In 1863 it requir-
ed 62 ballots before nomination was
reached; Seymour was nominated. AS
early as 1S41, however, the process
had begun; it required nine ballots
also at Baltimore, by the way, to nom
| mate Polk.
That 1868 Democratic convention
was in session from Saturday to
Thursday. and so became one of the
long conventions of history. But II
lasted two days less than the Balti-
more convention has already lasted
In 1876 the Republicans balloted
seven times before the delegates broke
from Blaine to Hayes and settled the
nomination.
| Then came the historic convention
j of conventions in the Republican par
J ty, in 1880. when Garfield was nom.
mated on the ssth ballot, Grants