The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-04
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Buredu
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, d. @.
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS.
Pierce-scott Race of 1889

| Washington, D. c., Sept. 2s.-The
campaign of 1882 marked the end of
| the Wig party as a factor in national
affairs. For the third time that or
ganization placed expediency before
| principle to nominate a war hero for
president Winfield Scott was the
hero of(the War of 1912 and of the
War with Mexico. He had been de-
| feated in the convention by a narrow
margin by William Henry Harrison
when it was necessary to choose a
hero candidate to oppose Van Buren,
in 1910. That was Tippecanoe against
Lundy's Lane, and Tippecanoe won.
AS will be rem ambered, Scott<was de-
feated in 1910 by a. letter written to
secure abolition support in New York.
, Writing letters was the one great bust
ness of General Scott's life. He wrote
letters to everybody, about everything,
and at all times. His letters ruined
him and his party, and when the votes
were counted it was found that he had
been Overwhelmingly defeated by the
Democratic dark horse" Franklin
Pierce. Scott carried only four states
in the Union, receiving but AZ cleo
toral votes to Pierce's asa
When President Taylor died he was
succeeded in the White House by Mil
lard Fillmore. As has been the case
in every instancein which a vice presi-
dent has become chief magistrate
with a single exception) the policy of
the administration was reversed. Tay-
Tor had permitted his policy to be die
tated by the conservative Wings.
Fillmore was a liberal. As a result of
the right-about-face attitude taken by
Daniel Webster, who went over to the
non-interference-%ith slavery side in
his speech of March Z, and of the sue
cession OF Fillmore, all parties were
enabled to get together once more on
compromise basis.
One More Compromise.
1t was Henry Clay, the Great Paci-
Ilcator, whose compromises had kept
him out of the White House, who was
once more called to the front in his
old age to bring about peace, The
Compromise of 1850 was arranged. 1t
included several measures. The most
important was the admission of Calf
fornia as free state, as that broke
the balance of power between free and
save states in the United States SEN
ate. 1t was the one concession to the
north, but it was of far greater i'm
portance than the south realized. To
the other side the concessions were a.
stringent fugitive slave law, the main
tenance of slavery in the District of
Columbia, the payment to Texas of
$1O,O0O.0OG for yielding its claims to
New Mexico. and the organization of
Utah and New Mexico as territories
without restrictions as to slavery. By
this compromise, Henry Clay united
the warning elements of the Demo-
cratic party/And destroyed for all time
the party which he organized and had
captained for so many years.
President Fillmore was a candidate
for the nomination. General Scott
and Mr.. Webster were the other aspir-
ants, Mr.. Fillmore had urged the
compromise thru congress and had
approved it. He wished the whole
country to accept it as the final dis
position of the whole slavery question.
The country, for the most part, wished
TO accept it as such. The Democratic
convention approved. The Wings had
to do so. To swallow the Fillmore
Clay compromise the northern, Wings
We're forced, but they would not 'swal-
low Fillmore. So they took Scott,
whose sympathies were believed to be
with the anti-slavery wing of the
party. ~
General Scott was nominated on the
fifty-third ballot in the convention,
after heated sessions in which dele
gate would now and then arise to
spring letter from Scott. When the
nomination was made, Senator Jones
of Tennessee, the Lean Jimmy" J ones
who had twice defeated James K
Polk for governor. leaped to the plat
u.
It was letter of acceptance couched
in less than hundred words, but
pledging loyal and exclusive support
to the platform. That all too sudden
letter helped to do his business in Nor
vember.
Another Note-Writer.
General Scott had in years gone by
affiliated with the Nativist party in
Pennsylvania to the extent of writing
letters attacking the Catholics and OPP
posing the foreign element in politics.
These old letters the Democrats used
against him with great effect. Horace
Greeley shouted himself black in the
from SSott's letters, but it was of no
avail.
General Scott himself took the
stump in an effort to win over the
voters of foreign blood. He was a
great flatterer, and his references to
the rich Irish brogue" and the sweet
German accent" of some of his hear
ers were nothing less than ludicrous.
The Wings soon realized that Scott
would be defeated, but the candidate
hoped on. When it was all over he
gave out an interview in which he de-
New York Herald, the Webster defec-
ton and the luke warmness of the
Fillmore administration.
Daniel Webster consented to be-
come the mead or a bolt1ng Union
ticket. bdt-he died few days before
the election and his little party died
with him. A few days before his
death Webster sent for his bosom
friend, Peter Harvey, and asked: us
Rufus Choate going to vote for
Scott?' IT don't know" was Harvey's
reply, "but think not Then Web
ster said: Tell him not to ruin his
future by voting for Scott. and tell
him. as my dying message to him. that
after the second day of November
party will exist only in history" The
publication of this interview in the
Democratic papers a few days before
the election did not aid the Wings
dying cause. altho Choate announced
his fealty to Scott. Webster's predic-
ton was correct. In 1852 the Wing
party died and in the same year Henry
Clay and Daniel Webster. its greatest
I, leaders and its worst enemies. were