Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-06-08

| perhaps. the most famously unfortunate
| letter writer III our political history. This
| letter was written to Francis Granger,
| and in ii Scott 1irted with the abolition
| ist sentiment in the north Stevens. by "a
| carefully planned accident. let this letter
| drop Oh the floor of the room occupied
| by the Virginia delegation. Ii was found.
instantly the Virginia delegates sol idfied
| in support of Harrison. and he won Vir-
ginia was then rewarded by Stevens
throwing the nomination of Vice Presi-
dent to John Tyler, "A. Virginian who had
left the democratcsp arty because he was
school,
At this first wing convention the march
ing clubs and boosters organizations made
their first appearance. "A notable one ne
ing the Tippecanoe Club from Phladel-
phia. a Stevens organization. Tbs con-
vention was being held at the very time
that John Quincy Adams was bringing
| order out of chaos in the House of Rep
resentativeS. where the balance between
wings and democrats was so close that
the House for weeks was not able to or
game Following the example of the old
national republicans, this convention call
ed a national convention of young men
to meet in Baltimore May 4, which by
coincidence. of course. the date
named for the meeting of the national
democratic convention.
The democratic convention met i'm Bal
timore as usual. and is notable as being
the last ma
Fails to Nominate tional con
Man for Vice President. ma, fa'lsn
to make nominations for both President
and Vice President. Th.. denomination of
Van Buren, was a foregone conclusion,
and was made by reclamation. But the
opposition to r. NJ Johnson for Vice
President that had almost disrupted the
convention four years before was so
marked that it was deemed expedient not
to nominate any candidate for Vice Pres
dent, but to leave the matter to the cleo
tors. 1t was. perhaps. the most unevent-
full of all democratic conventions before
the war far the convention Itself
was concerned.
The young mems whg convention meet
ing in Baltimore at the SANE time was
nothing more than immense rally"
Already the enthusiasm for tTippeca-
noe and Tyler, too. had spread over
the country, and the speakers in the
democratic convention .neered contemp-
tuously at the antics OF their rivals. Ii
was too early for them to be afraid The
democrats had been in power for forty
years. the Jackson men had triumphed
in the popular vote for four elections,
and there hardly "A democrat that
believed that the motley combination
called wings could possibly win an cleo
ton. But the wings Were confident. In
Baltimore that day there was a huge
procession. On floats there were log cal
ms: there were barrels of hard cider:
there was a great ball to represent the
ball rolling on for Tippecanoe and Ty-
Ter. too and there were coonsllins by
the thousand In Monument Square a
great mass meeting was addressed by
Henry Clay. Daniel Webster, John J.
Crittenden. William c. Preston Henry A
Wise and other wha leaders.
While the procession was moving
through one of the streets SOM. demo-
Gratis waved
Waving of Petticoat red petit
Starts General Fight ' rpI., IN ,, "s
sion to a charge of alleged cowardce on
the part of Gen. Harrison in The war OF
1872. The procession resented the insult
and there was a general fight in which
one of the WING marshals was killed
and several score men were injured CLAY
and Webster delivered the funeral ora
tons over the dead man thenext day.
In Baltimore. at the same time tnere
was a general conference of the Methodist
Church and a meeting Of Roman Catho-
Tic clergy, so that the city was fuil to
overlooking. The crowd in Baltimore at
that time was the largest that ever had
gathered in the United States. To Judge
from the newspapers at the time il was a
high carnival for pickpockets and sneak
thieves and the democratic politicians
accused the wings of being the pick
pockets. and vice versa The whole city
expected momentarily a pitched battle
between the adherents of the two parties.
And this was in early May before the
campaign had got warmed up. One OF the
papers records the fact that the first out
door daguerreotype ever made in Balti-
more was picture of the huge whig
meeting in Monument Square.
One of the most interesting things in
connection with the national conventions
of 1Si0I
Harvey Watterson took place
Assails Patronage Plan. IL
April Harvey Watterson, representa- +,
tive from Tennessee, whose son, Henry |
Watterson. now the veteran editor of the |
Louisville Courier-Journal, was then only |
position 10 bill introduced by John