El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-21

/ Y" ? ASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. I'll
AAE The years that interviewed be-
w tween 1900 and 1924 witnessed
no election contest whose result was
not a fOregone conclusion. jefferson
| was accorded a second term without
serious dissent and Madison was agreed
! to be his IOglcaI successor. Then came
/ Monroe, who succeeded himself with
but one dissenting vote. This was cast
/ by a New Hampshire electOr who said
ne dlQ IL 10 prevent Monroe from equal
/ ing Washington in respect to a unani-
! nous vote The papers of the time
] show that he was rOundly 1ambasted for
/ having done So after MOnrOe'S sec
/ ond election everything was so unani-
/ nous that there was no party, unless
! all the people were included in the
! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS party.
/ Many Receptive Candidates
/ 1t was evident that MOnroe's sue
| cessor would be chosen more upon the
/ ground Of personal preference than Of
! political principles, so the fight for DO
/ sition IN the next presidential contest
/ assumed the proportions of a presiden-
/ tial free for all Hezekiah Niles de-
| clared that there were no less than 16
| or II receptive candidates as early
as 1921. Monroe had three Of the
leading candidates as members of his
cabinet, and early declared himself
neutral In order to save himself from
continual pulling and hauling and from
charges Of favoritism.
It was not long before the advocates
of third term were on hand with the
usual story. They told Mr.. Monroe that
there were a dozen candidates for the
presidency in 1924 and that not one Of
them had been strong enough to have
even a hope Of securing a majority OF
the electoral votes This they told
him, would throw the contest into the
house, an evil of evils. They also as
sured him that he had been entitled to
1rafr- 49,.
he would get it this time Furthermore,
they asserted, If he retired Europe
would not understand it and would
conclude that the United States had
trine.
Clay. was so carried away with Non
roe's prOnOunciamentO that he offered
a resolution in the house backing it up.
Later, remembering that he had been
called war hawk out in his own
west because of his vigorous champion
ship Of the war of 1912 for free trade
and sailors rights" he sidestepped the
difficulty by asking that the resolution
continue to lie on the table.
Crawford Apologies.
Monroe had a difficult time of il ball
anclng between his candidate advisers
He complained that Crawford had given
him cOns1derable trouble, although some
historians assert that he threw the
weight of his influence quietly to that
gentleman IN undated memorandum
among his papers shows that upon one
occasion he Cogitated uDOn a prOpOsi-
tion to ask Crawford to retire from the
cabinet. That Crawford did not feel
that he had had the support of Monroe
IS shown by the fact related in Adams
diary. that he afterward cursed Non
roe 10 MS lace, and that Monroe
was on the point of ringing for a
servant to aScOrt him from the white
house when Crawford thought better
OF himself and apOlOgized to the presf-
dent for his behavior.
There was a general unrest among
the people in 1924 Theyyfelt that they
had not been consulted in the selection
of their presidents. Some of the states
still chose their electors by their Iegis-
latures, and In others property QuaIi- ,
uca1Ons kept the majority Of the citi-
zens from voting The western states
were democratic IS opposed to the
arlstocratic east and they were tired
Of the high brow Virginia dynasty
and the succession Of the secretaries. /
They wanted a man for president lust
1or once who had not been secretary
OF state In his predecessors cabinet
Jackson Is Proposed.
There were two popular candidates
Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. but
the latter appealed most to the ordi-
nary citizen In the dog days Of 1922
the tennessee legislature adopted a
resolution proposing Jackson for presi-
dent as the soldier, the statesman, and
the honest man
John Quincy Adams sought to hitch
ms presidential wagon to a star by get
ting Andrew Jackson to agree to stand /
on a ticket with him as vice president
ana IN 1873, on the anniversary Of the [
DatJle OF New orleans, he gave a great |
dInner 10 jackson, which 1000 or more !
attended Jackson had been sent to [
washington as senator, in the hope !
IhdI the mountaineering he would /
form would help him in his contest
crawford wanted to be the party con-
dldate, and to that end a congressional /
caucus was called. Printed side by I
side with the announcement Of the call [
OF the caucus was another announce
ment stating that ISL out of the 262 4
members OF congress would not attend 4
It When the caucus met there were
% members and two proxies present It /
nominated Crawford and Gallatin. who /
We're the last presidential nominees !
ever to receive a nomination at the 4
hands Of a caucus. This system had l
sprung Up in 1900 and continued until 4
1924. Virginia and a few other states 4
backed up caucus rule and appealed TO 4
the country to stand by it. But other
states were equally earnest in their .
protests that IL was undemOcratfc and
ought to be discontinued. In Pennsyl-
vanla 1t was suggested that there ought /
TO be national delegate convention to /
choose the candidates, but the expense ]
of travel then was so great that the
suggestion could not be acted upon.
CalhOun's Friends Busy.
Early in the campaign South Caro-
lima nominated William Lowndes. This
John Q. CalhOun-s friends to get
busy and the state switched over to
him. Later Ohio nominated Dewitt
and this caused such ridfcuIe
that another meeting was called to con-
slider motion to rescind the action
This meeting was held in a Cincinnati /
church, and the crush was so great the
participants had to retire to an opeu
field for the house to divide Clinton
withdrew from the running. and John
G. Calhoun switched over to be vice
presidential candidate on both the
Adams and the Jackson tickets. Cal
latin also withdrew, under pressure
Before the fight Crawford was strick-
en- by paralysis and retired to "a man
sion house in the country which stood /
at Fourteenth street and Massachu-
sets avenue, five minutes from the /
white house where he could not see !
even his intimate friends. His sigma
ture to public documents had to be af-
fixed with a facsimile stamp by his |
daughter.
In Massachusetts, an ''unpledged cleo
tOral ticket was chosen In Ohio the
Columbus Gazette announced a Clay
ticket, with the Jacksonites dubbed the
We" ticket. In New York the people l
were clamOring for the right TO choose
the electors, but II members Of the I
state senate prevented the passage Of a
law giving them that ri-hr Their. ]