Upcoming national political conventions are sure to be
entertaining
By Kevin Dayhoff, August 12, 2012
One may look upon the Republican National Convention, in Tampa
Florida on August 27-30 and the upcoming Democrat National Convention which
will take place in Charlotte North Carolina September 3-6, as the Olympics of
political contests for Americans - - or the full employment act for pundits and
political journalists.
Today’s presidential nomination process is very different
from the early days of the Republic when the two major parties, the
“Federalists” and the “Democrat-Republicans” – the forerunner of the today’s
Democrat Party; determined their respective presidential nominees by a “caucus”
made-up of members of Congress or state legislatures. This process prevailed
through 1828.
The first national political convention of what we now know
as the two major political parties; was held by the Democrat Party in Baltimore
May 21 and 23, 1832.
According to a brief history of the Maryland Democratic
Party written by Carroll County historian, and former Maryland Secretary of
State, John T. Willis., it “was held at the Atheneum (and Warfield’s Church) …
located on the southwest corner of St. Paul and Lexington Streets. Twelve
delegates from each county and six delegates from Baltimore City
were invited to attend.”
“In the 19th century, difficulties of travel led to the
selection of centrally located cities as convention sites. Baltimore, located
midway along the Atlantic seaboard, was a favorite choice in early years,” says
the Washington Congressional Research Service.
From 1832 to 1872, eight of the twelve Democrat Party
national conventions were held in Baltimore. Considering that two of the main
routes to Baltimore from all points west travel through Carroll County, an
historian’s imagination can run wild as to what national political figures may
have passed through Carroll County in those days.
What we now know as the Republican Party essentially began
in 1854 and replaced the Whig Party, which had replaced the much earlier
Federalist Party.
It would be an understatement to suggest that the events that
will take place in Tampa later in the month are quite different from the first
Republican National Convention, June 17 to 19, 1856.
That convention was attended by 600 delegates and 100 news
reporters, who had ample room to move in the 1200 seat Musical Fund Hall, near
8th and Locust Street in Philadelphia.
The Musical Fund Hall still stands. In 1980 developers saved
the long neglected building from demolition and turned it into an apartment
house.
The Republican Party was in its infancy, having been
organized only two years earlier in at a meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin from a
mishmash of anti-slavery Democrats, the remnants of the Whig Party,
abolitionists, and “Free-Soilers.”
The original driving force of the party was to fight the
“Kansas-Nebraska Act,” which had opened new United States territories to
slavery in spite of the “Missouri Compromise of 1820.”
Originally the party was a single-issue consortium of
citizens who were adamantly opposed to slavery. Although, many of the tenets of
the party, that remain in place today; economic development, education, limited
government with an emphasis on individual freedoms and a personal
responsibility for one’s future fate, were ancillary issues gluing together a
volatile mix of groups and individuals dedicated to abolishing slavery at any
cost.
According to the “Independence Hall Association” in
Philadelphia; the key plank was firm opposition to the extension of slavery.
"It is the duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin
relics of barbarism, polygamy, and slavery.”
Many historians consider the very first national Republic
get together to be an informal “convention” in Pittsburg, earlier that year on
February 22 and 23rd. The purpose of that meeting was to organize
the June 1856 convention, which went to nominate John C. Fremont, from
California, to be Republican presidential candidate and William Dayton from New
Jersey to be the vice presidential candidate.
As the Olympics draw to a close and the end of the summer
looms on the horizon, you can be sure that the upcoming Republican and Democrat
National Conventions are sure to provide some great end of summer
entertainment.
Sort of like the upcoming season 12 of American Idol of Fox
TV meets the Oracle of Delphi from Greek mythology with a twist of Survivor
thrown-in for some reality.
Only the convention reality shows are carefully scripted;
minutely choreographed and in the end, after certain folks have been voted off
the island, everyone comes together to sing about a great and wonderful future
under either the Republican or the Democrat nominee for president… Or something
like that - anyway… Whatever.
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