Radio Script #766

Little Talks on Common Things

April 28, 1968

As the presidential campaign of 1968 draws near, it is interesting to note the contents of a little book that recently came to my hands. It is a paper-covered volume, only 5 by 3 inches, and contains about a hundred pages. It was circulated by the political party that was conducting its first national campaign.

The heated slavery question had come to a head in 1854 with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which left it for those territories to decide by popular vote whether they would enter the Union as free or slave states. That led to many Whigs and Democrats, who were concerned about the extension of slavery, to join the new Republican Party which in 1856 nominated John C. Fremont as their candidate to oppose the Democrat, James Buchanan.

The little book, published in Boston, but circulated in all of the then 31 states, has on its title page the usual lengthy wording of the time: “Republican Campaign Edition for the Million, with the Republican Platform, the Lives of Fremont and Dayton, their Letters of Acceptance. together with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.”

nside the front cover is information that clearly shows what was the burning issue of the campaign. It says: “We give below in a comparative table the presidential electoral vote of the free and the slave states. It shows that the free states have a majority of 56 votes.With this remedy at hand, how can the free states endure longer to be ruled by the slave power?” Then follows the two lists of states.

In number of states the lists were nearly equal, sixteen free and fifteen slave. But the free states had the larger population. New York alone had exactly the same number of electoral votes as did Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia combined. Pennsylvania had more than the combination of Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.

We now know that, five years later in 1861. when the Southern States seceded and Civil War began. the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri finally chose to stay in the Union. It is interesting therefore to note that this campaign book lists not only those three among the slave states, but also Delaware.

At that time the only organized state west of Iowa was California. All the other states, except Missouri, that now lie west of the Mississippi were then territories. During the following half century 17 of them would be accepted into statehood, to make the 48 that are now in the continental United States. Then in our own time the number would be completed with the addition of Alaska and Hawaii.

Party platforms are likely to be long, tedious, equivocal, and sometimes deliberately misleading. The Republican platform of 1856 was, on the contrary, short, definite, and to the point. Its opening paragraph showed just how the party had been born. It said: “This convention, assembled by the people of the U.S. who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the extension of slavery into free territory, and are in favor of the admission of Kansas as a free state, resolve that the Federal Constitution and the Union of the states must and shall be preserved. We deny the authority of the Congress or any other body to give legal existence to slavery in any territory not yet a state.

“We insist that it is the right and duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery. We vigorously protest the actions of force and fraud by which the rights of the people of Kansas have been denied.”

Besides its attack on the extension of slavery, that first Republican platform had only these short planks: federal aid to construct a railroad through to California, the improvement of rivers and harbors to facilitate trade, and an open invitation to men of all other parties to join the new cause.

We know, of course, with the hindsight of history, that the Republican campaign of 1856 was not successful. Fremont was defeated by James Buchanan, and the policies of the Franklin Pierce administration were virtually continued, making more and more probable the coming of Civil War. Buchanan received 174 electoral votes to 114 for Fremont.

John C. Fremont had gained fame as an explorer of lands beyond the Mississippi. In 1842 he had begun the first of his three expeditions. He discovered the South Pass of the Rockies. The next year he pushed on to the Sierras, giving to the East the first accurate information about the Great Salt Lake and the Sierra Range. On his third expedition in 1845 he became embroiled with Mexicans and as part of the Mexican War obtained complete possession of California. He got into trouble with conflicting authorities and was dismissed from the service by President James K. Polk. Married to Jessie, the liveliest daughter of Senator “Old Bullion” Benton of Missouri, Fremont decided on a political career and became the standard bearer of the new Republican Party.

Nobody remembers defeated candidates for vice president, and few can even remember the successful V.P.’s. This little campaign book reminds us that Fremont’s running mate was William L. Dayton of New Jersey. The book tells us that the Daytons were among the earliest settlers of that state and were conspicuous in the Revolution. The man who wanted to be Fremont’s vice president had been born in 1807 and was admitted to the bar when he was 23 years old in 1830. An ardent Whig, he was elected to the New Jersey Senate from a Democratic county. He became a judge, and from the bench went to the U.S. Senate, where he had great influence, but not enough political support to make his views against the slave power prevail.

The campaign book says: “Had his views won out. our nation would not have been degraded in the eyes of the world by the Fugitive Slave Law and the infamous Kansas-Nebraska Act.”

There never has been a time when campaign literature was not subject to exaggeration. How far the political writers went in 1856 is revealed by the heading to one section of this little book. It says: “The Republican Candidate. The following admirable parallel between Washington, the father of his country, and Fremont, the finder and preserver of the Republic. We copy from the New York Independent.”

More than a century has passed since that headline was written. People still remember and revere the name of Washington, but who today remembers John C. Fremont?

The writer of that extravagant comparison also echoed the slogan of the 1856 campaign: “Free soil. free speech. free men, Fremont”.

On one page of the little book are the population figures for the 31 states, again divided between the free states and the slave, according to the census of 1850. Total population of the 16 free states was 13,434,000, while that of the 15 slave states was 9,612.000; but of that nine million, more than three million were slaves. That is a fact not sufficiently stressed in our American histories. One person in every three, in the South of 1850, was a Negro slave.

Even at that time, nearly 120 years ago, New York was the most populous state with three million people. Pennsylvania was second with 2.300,000; Ohio third with nearly two million; Virginia with a million and a half and Tennessee with just over a million. No other of the 31 states — and there were 26 of those others had so many as a million people. though Massachusetts, Indiana. Georgia and Kentucky came near it, each having more than 900,000. In 1850. next to Massachusetts. Maine with its 583,000 people was the second most populous New England state. Maine then had two hundred thousand more inhabitants than did Connecticut and nearly three hundred thousand more than either New Hampshire or Vermont. Maine’s population status among all the 31 states was such that she had six members in the national House of Representatives. Today we have been reduced to two.

In 1850 the nation had nine territories: Kansas, Nebraska, Indian Territory, Minnesota, Utah, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Mesilla. You probably never heard of that name before. It was the old name for the region now composed of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.

The back cover of this campaign book contains an ad for political items of the time. The ad urges Fremont clubs allover the land to put in a stock of these items. First there was what the ad called Senator Sumner’s Great Kansas Speech, in elegant style with portrait; in cloth binding, 37 cents; in paper cover, 15 cents. For fifty cents could be obtained a book entitled “Six Months in Kansas”, written by a Boston lady of quality. For another half dollar one could get a new map of Kansas. proclaimed to be the best and most reliable ever published.

Soon the 1968 campaign volumes, just as extravagant and quite as likely to be of no more historical significance than Fremont’s of 1856, will appear upon the scene. It is observable how little the art of politics has changed in a hundred years.

I like to pick up occasionally a flier or a program announcing some entertainment of a century ago. Two such items recently came to my attention. One is headed “A Great Antiquarian Supper will be given in the old vestry of the Baptist Meeting House in the town of Waterville on Friday evening, December 31, 1875. There will also be a concert following the supper. Price. 3 shillings or one Continental half-dollar. A family can buy four tickets for nine shillings, and children under 15 years can go in for one and sixpence. If you don’t want supper, you can buy half a ticket at the new vestry door. Supper, however, will be hot, plentiful and toothsome. At intermission the singers will stop to recover breath, and any of the audience who have brought do~ghnuts in their pockets may now eat them.”

That supper and old-time humorous entertainment were one of several features of the rededication of the completely renovated Baptist Church with its new vestry, a major job of reconstruction that was completed in 1875.

The other announcement was of a kind of public exhibition that was going the rounds of all northern towns in the 1870’s — an illustrated lecture on the Battle of Gettysburg. The announcement said: “Town Hall, Waterville, October 11, 1879. Saturday afternoon and evening, 2t and 7t o’clock. Afternoon: Maine troops at Gettysburg. Evening: General Account of the Battle. Under the auspices of W.S. Heath Post No. 14, G.A.R. This is Col. John B. Bachelder’s illustrated lecture on the Battle of Gettysburg, embodying an accurate account of the greatest battle of the late war, giving the position and explaining the movements of any of the 464 regiments engaged. Specially prepared for posts of the Grand Army. In Waterville Col. Bachelder will make special mention of the eleven Maine regiments engaged at Gettysburg.”

The G.A.R. paid for this program by ads from merchants on Waterville’s Main Street. One of the cleverest of those ads was for Gallert’s shoe store. It said: “The presidential campaign is coming. Keep your head cool and your feet warm. Come to Gallert’s for warm feet.”

Year: 1968