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
The third national convention that presented candidates for the
campaign of 1844 was that of the Abolitionists. They had grown since
1840, when they first nominated Mr. Birney as their candidate, and
their platform, elaborate as it is, is well worthy of careful study. It
met at Buffalo, in August, 1843, and nominated James G. Birney, of New
York, for President, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, for Vice-President,
and it increased its vote up to 62,300, all of which were cast in the
Northern States, including 15,812 for Birney in New York. As nearly all
of them were of Whig antecedents, they would have preferred Clay to
Polk if they had not presented a ticket of their own to divert their
votes, and it was their support of Birney that gave Polk the majority
over Clay in the Empire State, whose electoral vote decided the
contest. The following is the full text of the first platform presented
by an Abolition national convention:
_Resolved_, That human brotherhood is a cardinal principle of
true democracy, as well as of pure Christianity, which spurns all
inconsistent limitations; and neither the political party which
repudiates it nor the political system which is not based upon it can
be truly democratic or permanent.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party, placing itself upon this broad
principle, will demand the absolute and unqualified divorce of the
General Government from slavery, and also the restoration of equality
of rights among men, in every State where the party exists or may
exist.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party has not been organized for any
temporary purpose by interested politicians, but has arisen from among
the people in consequence of a conviction, hourly gaining ground,
that no other party in the country represents the true principles of
American liberty or the true spirit of the Constitution of the United
States.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party has not been organized merely
for the overthrow of slavery. Its first decided effort must indeed
be directed against slaveholding as the grossest and most revolting
manifestation of despotism, but it will also carry out the principle
of equal rights into all its practical consequences and applications,
and support every just measure conducive to individual and social
freedom.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party is not a sectional party, but a
national party; was not originated in a desire to accomplish a single
object, but in a comprehensive regard to the great interests of the
whole country; is not a new party nor a third party, but is the party
of 1776, reviving the principles of that memorable era, and striving
to carry them into practical application.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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