OPINION:
It’s Democratic convention time, and while this year’s shindig may not be anything to write home about, the confabs in the old days were knock-down, drag-out affairs. For example, it took nine ballots to nominate James K. Polk in 1844; 49 for Franklin Pierce in 1852, 17 for James Buchanan in 1856, and 22 for Horatio Seymour in 1868. The record for feuding, fussing and fighting was set in 1924, when 103 ballots had to be cast during a 17-day marathon.
By contrast, the Republicans have never gone beyond 36 ballots.
The worst thing the Democrats ever did was to institute the two-thirds rule at their first convention in 1832. That meant that the winning candidate had to get not a simple majority of votes, but two-thirds. That rule didn’t come to an end until 1936. In the interim, the Democrats almost ran out of paper for ballots.
And they balloted at the strangest times. In 1932, for example, they didn’t start voting until 4:28 a.m. on July 1. After three ballots, delegates decided to call it a day. Quite literally. They adjourned at 9 a.m. The balloting started up again at 9 p.m. Oh, I almost forgot: humorist-cowboy Will Rogers got 22 votes on the second ballot, but none on the third. It was the convention that the successful candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, appeared before the delegation to accept the nomination. That was a first, but it set a tradition that’s still around today.
In 1844, the Democrats had another first: Silas Wright of New York was selected as the veep candidate, but he said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
One tradition that wasn’t followed — and probably for good reason — was set by President Andrew Jackson. In 1835, he called the Democratic convention a year before the actual election to make certain he could get his choice, his vice president, Martin Van Buren, as the party nominee.
The Democratic convention of 1904 took the grand prize in terms of an old vice-presidential nominee. It nominated 80-year-old Henry Davis of West Virginia as running mate to Judge Alton Parker of New York. Davis was a wealthy man and the delegates thought he might pour dough into the campaign. About the only thing he contributed was a lot of good jokes for the Republicans. Parker and Davis were called “an enigma from New York and a reminiscence from West Virginia.”
In 1872, the Democrats convened in Baltimore and went crazy. Their meeting lasted six hours — the shortest on record. Delegates accepted the candidates selected earlier by the Liberal Republicans — and without any nominating speeches. The debate on the platform was limited to an hour. Total cost of the convention: maybe a buck-and-a-half.
The first dark horse to get the nod of Democrats was James K. Polk in 1844. The first time an incumbent governor was chosen for the top spot was in 1876, but Samuel Tilden of New York had the election stolen from him by Republicans who controlled the critical House committee that decided several disputed electoral votes.
Best minimization of a wealthy candidate’s lack of rags-to-riches: for FDR in 1932 (“born on the wide banks of the Hudson in the little town of Hyde Park, country born and country loving”), and Adlai Stevenson in 1952 (“grew up in a small Illinois town in the heart of the great agricultural district of America, close to the problems of the farmer.”)
Best platform statement: In 1900, when the Democrats criticized the foreign territory acquired in the wake of the Spanish-American War by the incumbent Republican administration:
“No nation can long endure half-republic and half-empire.”
Worst embarrassment in a Democratic convention: Two seconding speeches in 1884 for Grover Cleveland, the eventual nominee, were critical of his nomination. That’s right. The brouhaha over the speeches was not easy to put down, although one delegate rose to the occasion, trying to appease both sides:
“They love [Cleveland], gentlemen, not only for himself, for his character, for his integrity and judgment and iron will, but they love him most of all for the enemies he has made.”
• Thomas V. DiBacco is professor emeritus at American University.
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