By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
3 ALK about the 1932 Presidential
campaign is already in the alr and
it won't be long now until the two
major parties will be deciding where
they will hold their conventions to
select the standard-bearers in next
Year's race. So it is appropriate
at this time to recall that the first
Presidential convention was held
Just 100 years ago and the story of
that historic gathering is one of
the interesting incidents in our na-
tional history which is but little
known to most Americans,
Most Americans, no doubt, be-
lieve that we have had Presidential nominating
conventions ever since American political par-
ties came into existence and that such a meth
od of selecting candidates was originated by
one of the two major parties which have al-
ways dominated governmental affairs. But the
fact is that neither belief Is correct. The re
public had been in existence more than four de-
cades and had already chosen six Presidents
when this procedure, which was regarded as a
startling innovation at the time, came into ex-
istence. More than that, it was not the inven
tion of ene of the then leading parties but ft
was brought inte being by an obscure orraniza-
tion which played a minor role in one Presi.
dential campaign and then quickly passed out
of existence,
Not even the fact that the two leading par-
ties of that period Immediately adopted the na-
tional convention Idea, as have all later par
ties, until now It is an essential part of the
American political scheme, has been sufficient
to keep alive the memory of the Anti-Masonle
party, a religlous-political phenomenon, which
in September 1831 held in Baltimore, Md. the
first authentic national Presidential nominat-
ing convention. And to round out the paradox
of this historic incident which is filled with
paradoxes, it should be recorded that the nomi
nee of the Anti Masonic party was himself a
Mason !
It Is probable that a national nominating
convention would have come about eventually
in the process of American political evolution.
even If there had never been an Anti-Masonle
party. But it so happened that this organization
came on the scene at a time when the growth of
the Democratic spirit in the American people
was rising to a high tide and the dissatisfac-
tion with the previous method of choosing Presi.
dential candidates had reached its peak. So
whether by design or by chance, this party re
sponded to a popular demand with a new and
acceptable method and thus gets the credit for
inangurating a custom which Is a milestone in
American political history.
During the first two decades of our history
a8 a nation, It became the practice for each
party to hold a congressional caucus and noml-
nate candidates for President and vice presi
dent,
But gradually the eauncus grew into didfavor.
The dictum of the party members of congress
was not always accepted by everybody. In
1808 two powerful competitors for the succes
sion to Jefferson appeared--Madison and Mon-
roe~—dnd both were put forward by state legis-
lative caucuses In Virginia. The congressional
‘caucus decided In favor of Madison. Several
members of congress who did not favor Madi.
son appealed to the country, not only against
the regularity of the procedure, but against the
caucus system itself, But the caucus won out
in that instance, and Madison was elected Presi.
dent.
Though the congressional eaucus continued
to make presidential nominations until 1824
“King Caucus,” as it was now ealled, continued
to be regarded with more and more disfavor.
In 1824, Willlam H. Crawford of Georgian was
the caucus nominee of the Republican party, but
the rank and file of the party refused to ac.
cept him, and he came out third in the list of
candidates in the election. So “King Caucus”
was dethroned and Democratic America was
ready for a new and more representative meth-
od of choosing its candidates for President,
was furnished by the Anti-Masonic party
i was brought into being by the following
a certain Willlam Morgan settled in
N. ¥Y. He bad been a Mason but, be-
dissatisfied with the fraternity, he pub
a book which purported to reveal the se-
of the order. In 1820 Morgan disappeared
the rumor was started that he had been
and murdered by the Masons, There
no proof thiut they had anything to do with
disappearance but the Incident was capital
upon by enemies of the order and through
York, New England aad Pennsylvania
the suspicion that the order, whose mem-
p was mainly from the wenlthler classes,
A secret political goclety as well as a fra.
order whose Influence swayed Juries and
tures. So America had a first class “men.
to get excited over and the politicians were
Quick fo selze upon it to promote their own
ambitions, The result was the formation of the
Anti-Masonic party at a national
held in Philadelphia In September, 1830, at.
tended by 98 delegates from 10 states. There it
was decided to hold a national nom!
vention the ext year.
Of this party Prof. William O. Lynch in his
book “Fifty Years of Party Warfare, 1780.1837."
published recently by the Bobbs Merrill com
pany, writes: “The Anti-Masonic strength was
greatest in the East. The movement made lit.
tle headway in the West, save Ohio, and was
weak In the South. In the New England stotes
New York and Pennsylvania the number of
Anti-Masons was great. The strongest leaders
appeared in these commonwealths, Among the
political leaders who had some prominence in
the Anti-Masoniec party were: Willlam I. Sew.
ard, Thurlow Weed, Millard Fillmore, Albert H
Tracy, Francis Granger. John Crary and Fred
erick Whittlesey of New York: Th eux Stow
ens and Richard Rush of Pennsylvania: Edward
Everett and John Quincy Adams of S150 seh-
setts, Other leaders who looked with favor on
the party were Willlam Wirt, John Marshall
John C. Calhoun, John McLean and Daniel
Webster”
Andrew Jackson, who was then President,
was a Mason and seemed certain of re-election
unless some strong combination could be formed
against him. So an effort was made to induce
Henry Clay to lead the new party, or at least
to unite the Anti-Masons with the wing of the
National Republican party, of which he was
the leader, under his banner. The only trou
ble wiih this effort was that Clay himself was
a Mason and although he was not an enthusi-
astic member of the order the efforts to get
him to renounce it failed
convention
nating con-
In September, 1031, Clay wrote a letter in re-
ply to a committee of Anti-Masons in Indiana
who had asked him for his sentiments on Mason-
ry, which may possibly have vitally affected
his political fortunes and kept him from real
izing his fondest ambition of going to the White
House. In this letter Clay sald that should he
give his views on Masonry It would imply that
Individual sentiments on the subject formed a
proper consideration In regard to voting for
persons to fill federal offices, He declared that
Americans should vote for President without
regard to religious, social, benevolent or lMtor-
ary associations. Further than that, he made a
statement which was a eriticism of Anti-Mason-
ry when he said “If Indeed you, gentlemen,
will point to a provision in the Federal Consti-
tution which ean legitimately be made to op-
erate upon the subject in question, I would not
hesitate to comply with your request.”
This was a definite turn-down for the Anti
Masons and years later Thurlow Weed declared
that, If Clay had not written this letter, the
Anti-Masons would have Joined the National
Republicans and would have defeated Jackson.
Such a combination, he declared, would have
given Clay New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont,
Georgia, North Carolina and Louisiana In ad-
dition to the states that he did carry, enough
to have insured him a safe majority In the
electoral votes.
Turning to their next best bet, the Anti
Masons picked upon William Wirt of Maryland
ax their cholee, Wirt had been one of the at-
torneys who had prosecuted Aaron Burr for
treason, had served as attorney-general in the
enbinets of both Madison and Monroe and was
widely regarded as an able and outstanding
man, So when the first national nominating
convention ever held in the United States as
sembled In the old Athenaeum in Baltimore in
September, 1831, it selected Wirt as its choles
for candidate for President and named Amos
Ellmaker of Pennsylvania as his running mate,
for vice president. And this despite the faet
that Wirt was a Mason of many years standing
orrve Mek rng holo
and bad pever renounced his allegiance to that
order |
His letter of acceptance has often been cited
fs a “practical res nclation” of Masonr)
fit was far from that In it he sald
stance that both In conversation
to friends, he had spoken
over Masonry as a subject n
than {ragedy and “had been
some of my friends involved
to me such a wild and
sgainst so harmless an
masonry.
The candidate of the
itted vy ‘idens upon the sublect
me some modification, ho
Anti-Aas
wever, and
ind some cause for alarm in the actions
overzealous members of the order” Con
cerning the new party he was asked to lead,
Wirt wrote, after describing his own affiliation
with Masonry extending over, a period of 30
years:
“I had supposed that the very principles of
your union was 8 war of indiscriminate pro
scription against all persons throughout the
United States who had ever borne the name
of Mason: that you would put In nomination no
persons who had ever been a8 Mason and who
would not moreover pledge himself to become a
party to such a war of indiscriminate extermina
tion and wield the appointing power of the office
under your dictation: who would not, In short,
become the president of your party instead of be
ing the President of the United States. 1 am
happy to find that this ix an error”
This attitude of their candidate was far from
satisfactory to the more earnest of the Anti
Masons and they became even more dissatisfied
when the campaign got under way, For Wirt
made no attempt to carry on on active cam-
paign. How plainly he felt that an unpleasant
Job had been “wished off on him™ and that there
was no hope of his being elected is shown by
a letter which he wrote to Judge Carr, an inti
mate friend. In it he sald:
“lI had thought I had no right to object to the
Anti-Masons proposing me to the consideration
of the people for the office of President. Every
other chance of uniting the opposition (to
Jackson) had vanished, This alone remained
and, faint as it was, | considered it my duty to
permit the offer to be made. It has been made
«+ «+ « the National Republicans have declared
against the union, which alone 1 had Ih view, I
can perceive neither dignity nor decency in con-
tinuing the nomination,
“It ia true that when I accepted the nomina-
tion I knew that this state of things might arise,
But it is not true that 1 Knew, If it should arise,
the anti-Masons would still persist in the nom-
ination. It never entered inte my imagination
that they could wish to do #0 vain and foolish
a thing. What end can it answer to themselves?
It will only expose their weakness, They cannot
carry a single state, except, perhaps, Vermont.
« « + In such circumstances what a figure will
they and their eandidate make In a Presidential
contest. It wiil annihilate them and me, Yoo, by
the mere foree of ridicule, . . .
He was a true prophet, Not only did Clay
fail fo beat Jackson, as Wirt had hoped, but, as
he had also predicted, Vermont, with its seven
electoral votes, was the only state carried hy the
anti-Masons, Even John Floyd of Georgla, who
ran as an independent, did better than that, He
got 11 electoral votes. After the election of
1832 this party disappeared from the national
scene. Most of its members were absorbed by
the Whigs, although in Pennsylvania it eon.
tinued its identity for several years und elected
a governor In 1835, But even though it played
such n small part on the American political
stage, the antl-Masonle party and its standard.
bearer, Willlam Wirt, are deserving of remem.
brapce ns the party which gave to the country
the national convention system,
(@® by Wentern Newspaper Union j
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in Cuban School Boel
ad
{f
y sudd en
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BOO &
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