Our Presidents and how we make themMcClure, Alexander K. (Alexander Kelly)
History
Our Presidents and how we make them
McClure, Alexander K. (Alexander Kelly)
Presidents -- United States -- Election
_Resolved_, That we inscribe on our banner, “Free Soil, Free Speech,
Free Labor and Free Men,” and under it will fight on, and fight ever,
until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions.
The Presidential contest of 1848 for the first time presented the
Native American party in the field with national candidates. It had
its origin chiefly from the Philadelphia riots of 1844, resulting from
a bitter feud between the Catholics and Protestants in the uptown
river districts of Philadelphia. The organization of the Native
American party immediately followed in Philadelphia, with opposition to
Catholics and foreigners as its faith, and for nearly a decade it held
the balance of power between the Whigs and Democrats in that city, and
several times elected members of Congress. A like party was organized
in New York, and attained some local success in that city. The
national convention of the Native Americans was held in Philadelphia
in September, 1847, and while it did not make a formal nomination,
it recommended General Taylor for President and chose Henry A. S.
Dearborn, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. The party was unknown
and unfelt in the contest, although it aided somewhat in giving the
electoral vote of Pennsylvania to Taylor.
In November, 1847, the Liberty party, that had twice nominated and ran
Birney as its candidate for President, met at New York and nominated
John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, for President, and Leicester King,
of Ohio, for Vice-President. When the Free-Soil Democracy developed
huge proportions and nominated Van Buren, the old Abolition party
was entirely absorbed in the Free-Soil organization. The Liberty
League, made up of a small number of the more radical Abolitionists,
held a meeting at Rochester on the 2d of June, 1848, and nominated
Gerrit Smith, of New York, for President, and Rev. Charles E. Foote,
of Michigan, for Vice-President; and what was called the Industrial
Congress, made up of a handful of labor agitators, met at Philadelphia
on the 13th of June, 1848, and nominated Gerrit Smith for President and
William S. Waitt, of Illinois, for Vice-President. Neither the Hale
Abolition party, the Liberty League Abolition party, nor the Industrial
Congress party presented any electoral tickets of which I have been
able to find any record. The canvass was a very earnest one, and the
Whigs steadily grew in confidence as it progressed, while the Democrats
were threatened on every side with disaster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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