Evening star., 1924-07-13
DEADLOCKS BY DEMOCRATS
MARK HISTORY OF PARTY
Conventions in Early Days and Follow.
ing Civil War Set Precedent
for 1924 Record.


tion was unsurpassed in the party or
out. Senator Douglas polled the high
est number of votes on each of the
f1fty-nine ballots, but it was not un-
til the chairman of the meeting,
Caleb Cushing and a large group of
southern delegates bolted the meet
ing at it's first adjournment that
Douglas was able to garner a suffi-
cient number of votes to win the
nomination. On the final roll call
Douglas had 181 votes. Vice Presi-
dent John c. Breckenridge had seven
and James Guthrie of Kentucky had
five. At the same time trump" con-
vention of cushing's following was
meeting in Baltimore also and were
selecting Breckinridge as their inde-
pendent standard bearer.
Emotional reaction to the civil war
was reflected in the convention OF
1864. The party forgot its differences
of the former campaigns and stood
solidly together in its balloting and
it's platform. Meeting at Chicago
with Gov. Horatio Seymour of New
York as chairman, the delegates on
the first ballot nominated Gen. George
B. Mcclellan with 2o21s votes as
against 2s1a for Seymour, The plat
form, markedly differing from the
Republican,, which stood for crushing
of the Confederacy, characterized the
war as a failure and demanded that
it end mediately. The governments
sending of Federal troops into Ken
nj
land during elections was denounced,
it's care of prisoners of war was de-
clared disgracefu1 and a warning was
issued that if Federal troops, attempt
ed to enter the states mentioned dur
ing the November elections they
would be forcibly resisted
Postwar Battles.
The civil war over and the issues
of the day gradually beginning to be
ironed out, the Democrats met in
1868 in New York and plunged into
another deadlock which lasted for
twenty-five ballots. Horatio Seymour
was chairman and he eventually was
nominated for President.
A peculiar political situation arose
in 1872, when the Democratic con-
vention selected the presidential and
vice presidential nominees Of the Lib
eral Republicans - Horace Greeley
and Gov. Benjamin Gratz Brown of
Missouri. The Liberal platform also
| was indorsed The Straight Out"
Democrats held a separate meeting
and nominated a Labor Reform can
didate, Charles O'Connor. The plat
form denounced the other Democratic
convention.
Great Leaders Rise.
in the several succeeding campaigns
as the reasoning of great leaders be-
gan to make itself felt. The party
had lost out in every election since
the civil war and it was ready to
listen to the counsel of men whose
foresight took them above the range
of petty quarreling. In 1876, 1880
and 1884 but two ballots each time
were dequired to name the Demo
cratic contestants. Gov. Grover Cleve-
land came to the rescue of the party
in 1884, and he was elected by large
majority.
He was renominated in 1883, but
was sadly defeated because. it was
said, of his stand on the tariff and
revenue questions. But in 1892, when
Cleveland was nominated for the
third time without difficulty. he was
swept back into the White House by
a landslide.
William Jennings Bryan stepped
into the 1imelight in 1896. when he
was nominated on the fifth ballot
with 500 of the 76s votes cast The
effect of party leadership showed it.
self in the following campaign, when
Bryan was renominated unanimously.
However, Bryan did not get a single
vote on the first roll call in 1904,
which resulted in the nomination of
Judge Alton B. Parker, but in 1908
he came back strong and on the first
roll call piled up s921s votes as
against As for Gov. John A. Johnson
of Minnesota.
Resumes Old Tactics.
The defeat of Bryan again that year
in the November elections forced him
to lose his grip on the party and the
deficiency in generalship was appar.
ent the next campaign, in 1912. when
the old deadlocking tendency bobbed
up once more. Forty-six roll calls
were monotonously run off before a
selection could be made. and Wood
party's standard bearer. But Wilson
could not poll sufficient number of
votes until Bryan consented to his
candidacy This struggle was one of
the bitterest ever marking a Demo-
cratic convention.
The activities of the party in 1916
and 1920 can scarcely yet be termed
history. Every one knows that bal
loting was unnecessary to renominate
Wilson in 1916. But strife within the
party over the Wilsonian foreign
policies began to create factions and
result in a general reaction. In 1920
the multi balloting aff1iction came
back in aggravated form and we saw
the Democratic convention lock horns
for forty-four ballots over a score of
c..adidates. From July until July
the delegates toiled and perspired
in an effort to reach an agreement
and finally James NJ. Cox rolled up
enough votes to win out. The slate
of dark horses in that convention
markedly resembles that before this
years meeting at Madison Square
Garden. Before both conventions
were Cox, McAdoo, Smith, John w.
Davis, Gerard, Glass, Meredith, Owen,
naniaIS TInderwood and