Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-29

RAAhN1PAOo anu lIOt IncI, ana the
thought of most of
Seward Declined the delegates turned
n.A: to William II. Sew
ard as the man best
typifying the ideas and ideals Of the
party. But Seward was out Of it. He had
declined the nomination.: yet his declina-
ton was not Of his own wish. Thurlow
Weed had forced him to 1t, and he FREE
quently limited to friends that Weed had
betrayed him for Fremont Weed him.
self tells story which shows how clear
ly Seward realized that II he could have
accepted the nomination In 1856 he would
have been renominated in 1850, and he,
instead of Lincoln, would have been the,
civil war President. The story goes that
Weed and Seward were riding up Broad
way one day, and when they passed the
Lincoln monument, in Union Square,
Seward said: Weed, if you had beer
faithful to me I should have been there
instead Of Lincoln To which Weed re-
piled: "Is it not better to be alive and in
a carriage with me than to be dead and
set up in brOnZe?"
salmon P. Chase also was considered
for the nomination, but 1t was agreed that
he had been too closely identified with
the democrats to carry Ohio, SO he was
eliminated before the balloting began
Justice Mclean. who had been on the Su-
preme Court bench since 1923, also was
talked Of. But Horace Greeley wrote of
O. G.'-the rs. o. G." standing for a DO
.litical slang expression Of the day, Sound
on the Goose" Charles A. Dana wrote to
friend: You ought to rejoice at the in
terment of such a candidate rather than
shed tears by the quart when he is done
for
In the end John c. Fremont was nomi-
mated. His political principles were little
better known than were
Fremont those Of Zachary Taylor
rh.. when the wings nomi-
00'e"' mated him in 1S48. But
a boiling faction Of the know-nothing
party had nominated him some time be-
fore, and the republicans sought to add
that strength to their own. Lincoln was a
candidate before the convention for Vice
President. and received ITO votes on one
ballot but w. L. Dayton of New Jersey
was nominated over him. Lincoln favored
the nomination Of Justice Mclean and
urged f. B. Washburne and other friends
to do all they could in behalf of the emil
nent jurist.
The know-nothings. OF whom Horace
Greeley wrote that they had, as a party.
about as many OF the elements Of perma-
hence as an anti-potato-rot party, held
their national convention On Washing
toms birthday. their national council hav-
ing three days before drawn up the party
platform. A fight was precfptated over
the right OF the council to take away
from the convention the framing of the
national platform, and this probably was
responsible for his subsequent nomina-
ton by the republicans The regulars
nominated ex-President Fillmore and
Samuel J. Donelson. The wings after
ward met and ratified the nominations,
the last convention they ever held. Thus
they, organized into political party of
by anu-Masonry. expired as an adjunct
anti-Catholocism.
The democrats met in Cincinnati. hold
ing there the first national convention
which ever convened
Nomination of west of the Alleghenies.
p1 Although Pres d t
DuSAooA' Pierce was a candidate
for denomination, 1t was early seen that
the party course was to be determined
from the fact that the nominee would
have to carry some northern states to
win, and Pierce was unpopular at the
north. So Buchanan got the nomina-