Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Upcoming national political conventions are sure to be entertaining

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Upcoming national political conventions are sure to be entertaining

By Kevin Dayhoff, August 12, 2012

Labels: 2012 election Rep Natl Conv, Carroll Co Schools, Dayhoff Media Explore Carroll, Elections 2012 presidential, US st Florida Tampa

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 8^th 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 23^rd. 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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http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/carroll/news/community/ph-ce-eagle-archive-0812-20120808,0,1262168.story

Eagle Archive: If the past is a guide, political conventions are sure to be entertaining

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