Evening star., 1934-07-08
Fifty Years Ago
InThe Star

The Democratic National Conven-
ton met in Chicago July Q, 1884. to
Cleveland nominate presiden-
tial ticket. Grover
Nominated. Cleveland, governor
the leading candidate, with Tammany
opposing. BY the adoption of the unit
rule Tammany's opposition was mega
tived and the ticket Of Cleveland and
Hendricks was nominated on the lttn.
The Star Of July IL, 1884, said:
The first comment to be made on
the ticket is that it is generally salts
factory to the party for whose beneflt
it was selected. With one local excep-
ton, the Democrats uniformly in
dorsed the ticket and will support 1t,
no doubt, with earnestness. That ex-
ception Is the Tammany Society, which
for many years has been the thorn in
the side OF the regular Democracy.
Tammany fought Cleveland tooth and
nail, from first to last. and its defeat
bitter words or take the risk OF openly
deserting the ranks in the face Of the
enemy.
In reviewing the conventions work
there are few who will deny its success
as a party gathering. The friends Of
the defeated candidates feel dis
appointed, of course, but no ticket
would probably have given more gen.
eral satisfaction to Democrats than
that selected. All the candidates had
their weak as well as strong points,
and all would have been subjected to
fierce criticism, where open to attack,
in the course Of the campaign. The
convention had to weigh the chances
and decide between them. In Cleve-
lands case Tammany's enmity and
the symptoms Of disaffection among
the laboring men lie in one scale and
the independent Republican revolt in
the other. 1t remains to be seen
which will kick the beam.
1T would not be surprising II the
campaign now opened should see some
marked changes in party con-
stituencies. Political allegiance sits
lightly on large masses of voters and
the difference between the parties on
fundamental issues Is so slight that
electors will In very many cases vote
as they choose and not as they are
bid. 1t is too early yet for specula-
tions on the result to have much value
in any case, and in the pending cam
paign new elements are almost certain
to be introduced which will keep the
issue doubtful until the last moment.
The Democrats may reply to the
charge that Cleveland is an expediency
candidate by saying that all candi-
dates are, and to some extent that Is
true; that is, no party deliberately
nominates a man whom it regards as
unable to be elected. Parties nomi-
nate to win and put up the man most
likely to get the necessary votes. At
the same time there Is broad dis
tinction between a nomination based
on the record and acknowledged f1t-
ness of q representative party leader
and of an untried man whose merit
lies in his supposed peculiar strength
in some one essential direction. Then
there is still a third class Of candi-
dates who go by the name of compro-
mise or accidental nominations, men
who are taken up ON the impulse of
the moment, or as the result Of q
deadlock.
But while Cleveland Is an ex-
pediency candidate, his strength as
such lies In his record as q reform
Governor. His victory over so able
and popular a rival as Judge Folger
gave him a national reputation, and
the administration of the ONCE to
which he was elected has satisfied the
bulk Of those who raised him to that
trust. Hence 1t cannot be said that
he is unknown or untried."