Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-09-25

beaten harrison once, they reasoned that
it was utterly impossible for them to
be beaten by Harrison. The sneers at the
Wing candidate appeared in every Dem
oeratic paper, but 1t remained for the
Baltimore. Republican to say:
Give him a barrel of hard cider and
| sottle pension of $1,000 a year on him,
and, my word for 1t, he will sit the re-
mainder Of his days In his log cabin, BY
the side OF a sea-coal fire, and study
moral philosophy" That paragraph was
not so cruel, perhaps. as the New York
Evening Posts appeal to the ladies' to
send in second hand shoes and hats so
| that the poverty stricken Harrison might
appear in decent clothing before the peo-
pie, but it struck the Wings as utterly
contemplate. Therefore, they turned the
tables, took up the 'thard CIDER and
''log cabin" sneers at their candidate
and proclaimed to the world that, as true
Democrats, they were supporting man
who lived in log cabin and drank hard
| cider-a third Cincinnatus.
! The Wings and their predecessors, I'M
| opposition to the Democrats, had had
excellent opportunity to Judge Of the
! efficacy Of the hero in politics. For four
presidential campaigns Andrew Jackson
had been unconquerable with the peo-
pie. In 1896 Harrison had been a can
didate, but there was little reference to
his war record. But in 1S4e he was put
forth by his ardent followers as real,
true and genuine war hero He was the
4 hero of the Battle of the Thames. of the
Battle of Ft. Meigs, and he had over
come the mighty chieftain, Tecumseb, at
the Battle Of Tippecanoe. The Demo
cratic candidate for vice president Rich
4 ard NJ Johnson of Kentucky, had slain
Tecumseh with his own hand, and a few
Of the younger Democrats tried to re-
taliate with johnson as a hero. But It
didn't go. johnson was not popular to
I begin with. and 1910 was distinctly not
a Democratic year.
HARD TIMES
4 THAT HELPED.
/ The panic Of 1887, brought on by over
/ speculation and too much confidence in
/ the great governmental prosperity as
prop for individual prosperity, had re-
duced the nation 70 poverty. Men were
out Of work, bank. deposits had been
lost in bank wrecks, and the country
was in a terrible condition. Whether
rightly or wrongly. the party in power
was held TO be responsible and the Whig
I landslide was inevitable.
/ When the Wings met at Harrisburg
there were three candidates-Henry Clay,
the real soul Of the party; William
Henry Harrison, and Winfield Scott
/ Thaddeus Stevens made his first entry
into the realm Of practical-and dirty
politics in this convention. He was an
antiMas0n and he soon convinced the
convention that it would be impossible to
get the anti-Mason vote for clay, who
was Il Royal Arch Mason. With Clay
/ eliminated the race was between Scott ,
and Harrison, both heroes Of the War
3 n 1910 ho- En &
as was Clay. and curiously enough, 1T
required the vote of the Virginia deIega-
t ton TO settle the issue. Ihaddeuss
Stevens was for Harrison because he had
letter from Harrison promising him a i
cabinet position if he (1arrison) was
nominated and elected
Stevens also had a letter from General
4 Scott written to Francis Granger in
which Scott was flirting with the aboli-
zionist sentiment in New York with a
view to getting votes in the convention
Stevens with careful careIessness, let
this letter drop On the floor OF the VirN
ginia headquarters room. 1t was found
and read. Instantly the Virginia dele
cation solicited in support of Harrison
I and he won the nomination. It was the
first real fight for nomination by al
/ national convention.
THE FIRST
AB0LITI0NIST TICKET.
|. Another remarkable feature Of the
campaign Of 1910 was the establishment
Of the Abolition party. Its candidate for 4
President. James G. Birney, received
1859 votes, mostly in New York and
Massachusetts, but it was the beginning
of a movement which brought about thef
political conditions which resulted In
the Civil War, the abolition OF slavery
and the reunion Of the States upon al
basis Of acknowledged inseparable pei
manency.
Another innovation OF the campaign OF
1910 was that William Henry Harrison
I took the stump It was contrary to all
+ precedent and the Democrats affected TO
be shocked beyond words By the &nde-
cent spectacle of candidate for Presi-
dent actually pleading for votes on the
hastings. But the tour Of Ohio and In
diana enabled Harrison to Offset the
charge that he was a mere purpet III
/ the hands Of political schemers, and II
turned the tide in his favor.
One Of the greatest political gather
ings this country has ever seen was the
Wing gathering at the battle-ground of
/ Tippecsnoe, near Lafayette, Ind, on
May 20, 1910. A log cabin sehad been
built on the fef and in it General Har-
rison received the veterans who had
fought there under him against Tecum-
made a great speech. He then began his
famous hand-shaking tournament, which.
according to the popular belief at that
time, caused his death one month after
I he was iuaugurated President. People
came in wagons for more than 800 miles
to. the Tippecanoe meeting and there
were 10000 people there.
4 The campaign lie"s reached It's height
In this Ncontest Thurlow Weed, editor
/ of the Albany Journal, was accused by
! the Albany Argus of having shaved the
whiskers off a corpse to make 1t pass
/ for tho body of William Morgan, said to
have been slain by the Masons. General
/ Harrison was accused of cowardice In
battle and Democrats refused to be-
4 Iieve that he was even present at the
Battle of Tippecanoe. Horace Greeley
/ Numbered denunciationS OF the Demo-
4 Gratis, who were assiduously spreading
| the lie that General Harrison had voted
/ to sell white men into slavery for debt
/ The great popular interest and excite
ment brought out the greatest vote ever
cast up to that time. the Seta1 being
nearly two> and half millions. HART
| sons majority of the popular vote wasN
4 something less than 100, 900. but he car
pried nineteen of the twenty six States
land received 234 electoral votes to sixty
/ for Van Buren,. The result of the cleo
/ ton brought joy to the hearts Of the
Wings, but it was doomed to be short
lived.