El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-25


( which all could unite. Therefore, the
/ Wings passed up the making Of a
/ platform, nominated Gen Harrison, a
! war hero, and sung and shouted them
! selves to victory.
The Democrats had their troubles
/ in this campaign when they got into
/ their convention, which, by the way
J like several others, had convened upon
/ the call, not of any national Demo
| cratic organization, but upon that
/ of the Democratic members Of the
| New Hampshire legislature. When
/ the convention tried to nom1-
/ nate vice president to run
with Van Buren,, there was a
| hopeless split Vice president Johnson
| had been elected to that position by
/ the senate, no one having received a
/ majority Of the electoral vote for vice
president in 1891
The opposition to Johnson had not
| forgotten its grudge against him, and
his friends were the more firm for
him because Of that fact The result
was that the convention adjourned
without choosing a vicepresidential
candidate This led the Wings to re-
mind the country that the Democrats
could not agree on a candidate, which
brought the retOrt that it was better
to agree on issues and disagree on
men, that 1t was to agree on men and
be split hOpelessly over principles.
Hard Cider Campaign.
There have been two occasions IN
unfortunate remark by the opposition
gave a party its cue and swept it into
the white house One of these was
when the editor OF q Baltimore paper
wrote of William Henry Harrison, that
if he were given a barrel Of hard cider
and a pension of $4,000 a year he would
sit content by his sea cOal' fire IN
his log cabin in Ohio the rest of his
days and study moral philosophy.
That settled it. What finer OppOr-
tunity could there be for an appeal
to class prejudice2 The Wings took
it up and straightway it BECAME the
log cabin ana hard cider campaign,
campaign in which war hero was
! simply sung and shouted into the
presidency There was absolutely
nothing to il after that. With such
a rallying cr- as a Democratic editor
had given the Wing forces, arguments
were wholly lost, and supply of
songs and shouts and campaign lies,
the like of which has never been
equalled in American politics, was
soon on tap.
Harrison and Tyler.
The Whigs got busy early in the
campaign of 1910. They held their
national convention the first week in
December, 1888 Before that time the
party leaders were busy appealing to
the rank and file to send uninstructed
delegations to the convention. What
was wanted was a man upon whom all
ant1-Na Burean sentiment could
unite. Victory was the thing the
Wings were seeking, and they sin
cerely wanted to pick the strongest
candidate Henry Clay was again in
the race, but his FreemasOnry weak
ened him in the east and his tariff
views hampered him in the south
Tt was admitted that Gen Harrison
had carried the Wing banner nObly
four years before. and many leaders
thought him the strongest entry in the
lists. Clay wanted TO be president, but
/ he early announced himself as for the
man who had the best show to win
He wrote that if his name should
create any obstacle to union and har-
mOny, then away with it" Clay led
on the first ballot, but Harrison was
nominated on the third John Tyler
was nominated, for Ticepresident, II
was claimed. as a result Of deal be-
tween Henry Clay and Tyler over .
Virginia senatOrShip.
Tyler, rather than obey instructions
from the Virginia. legislature, resigned
his seat in the senate, and he and
William c. Rives were candidates for
the senatOrship in 1889 Clay agreed
with Tyler that if he would leave the
senatorship to Rives, he would use his
best efforts to put Tyler into the wee
presidency If this well attested story
be true, Tyler got to be president sim
ply by giving up what seemed a losing
fight for a senatOrship-
Log Cabins on Wheels.
The Wings worked themselves into
a fine frenzy over their candidate.
They built log cabins on wheels with
hunks in them for travelling cam
paigners; cities and towns had Wing
cabin raiSingS and house warnings.
Miniature cabins with a barrel Of hard
cider, and a cOOnskin nailed on a, piece
Of plank by the door were everywhere
in evidence In big parades there
would be log cabins on wheels with
live cOOns disporting themselves on the
roof and loyal Wings sitting inside
eating johnny cakes and chewing home
grown tobacco. The latchstring in the
Harrison establishment, they were
given to understand, was always on
the outside.
Contrast with the simple life Of this
man Of the people" exclaimed the
Wings, that Of the court of Van
Buren,, with its ruffled shirts. its
dainty clothes, satin chairs, and da-
mask sofas. Listen to the faWning
miniOns Of power casting sneers at
the venerable hero of TippecanOe on
urging against him that he is only a
clerk in a county court. He who has
fought more and harder battles than
any other warrior now living in the
United states (this Notwithstanding
jackson was alive, who gained more
splendid victories than any other liv-
ing American, who was governor Of
the northwest territory, a representa-
tive in congress, United States SEN
ator, and a minister to a foreign
court, has come out of all these Of
fices poor Had he been as unscrupu-
lOus as they he might have been as
rich as Jackson and as wealthy as Van
Buren,"
Attacks on Van Buren,.
In attacking Van Buren, they eX-
claimed from every busting. What
do you think of the democracy of
president who sleeps on French bed
steads. walks on royal Wilton car
pets. eats his pate de fOie gras from
silver plates with forks of gold, dips
his soup a la Refine with a gold ladle
from silver tureen, and rides in a
Eilded maroon coach of British maker"
The Democrats complained that they
could not get the people to listen to
argument or reason. At last they
jumped into assailing Harrison. Keep
it before the people" they said, that
Harrison supported the OdiOus alien
and seditiOn laws. that he wore the
black cOckade. that he voted for sell
the white men into slavery, a law that
would make it possible for a free
negro to buy a revolutionary hero, and
to administer 80 lashes if the latter
attempted to escape Keep it before
the people that as governor of In
diana he cut out all citizens from the
right of suffrage who did not own so
acres of land, and that he resigned his
commission in the army in the hottest
Of the fight in the last war"
Whf.-u Started Custom of Stunning.