1583

Cleveland Morning Leader, 1 June 1864 (ed; 128 inches) ~ See original
p.2, col.2,3,4 ~ View at ChronAm

1583 - L June 1; ed:2/2-4; 4/3-5 - "Yesterday... was a great day for
politicians. It was the day in which (vide the New York WORLD and -
HERALD, the Chicago TiMES and the Cincinnati ENQUIRER), the greatest
political movement of modern times was to be set on foot, a new party
be formed, and the next President nominated - a day more fatal to
Abraham Lincoln than the Ides of March to Caesar. -- -
"The day certainly passed off with most remarkable quiet. Besides
the arrivals chronicled yesterday, but few made their appearance, and
the convention, for one so widely heralded and anxiously prepared for,
was singularly small in numbers and weak in talent."
The convention inet at eleven o'clock at Chapin's hall. "The two
thousand delegates from Missouri have not been heard from. It is sup-
posed that they stopped at Cincinnati for consultation with the proprietor -
of the ENQUIRER as to the best mode of defeating Lincoln. The two
thousand from New York were similarly missing, and the convention was
in numbers a very slim affair....
"There was also a 'most pleasant lack' of leaders in the convention.
Horace Greeley... was absent, and his absence was regretted by delegates
even more than that of the masses. B. Gratz Brown was also unaccountably
missing, and the convention felt the loss of his active and commanding
intellect. -
"From the first it was evident that there was a secret, but
irrepressible conflict between the friends of General Grant, including
most of the New York delegation and many from the Eastern States, who
were mainly of Democratic antecedents, and those of General Fremont,
composed mainly of the old abolitionists and the radical Germans,
and led by Coionel Moss, of Missouri."
E. Gilbert, president of the New York "Fremont" club, called the
convention to order and immediately nominated ex-Governor Johnston of
Pennsylvania as temporary chairman. Johnston was elected by acclama-
tion. B. H. Brooks of California and S. Wolf of Washington were
chosen secretaries. A committee on permanent organization, of ten
members, was appointed.
The number of delegates attending the convention was so small that
the committee appointed to enroll their names never made its report.
"We believe, however, that there were about one hundred and fifty dele-
gates present, of whom nearly half were from Missouri and wild for
Fremont, and ihe others mainly from New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois."
In addressing the convention, General Cochrane said, in part: "You
assemble here intending to support the army in the field, and at the
same time to organize a great civil army to fight for principles, and
to save for all generations the precious legacy obtained for us by the
sacrifices of the soldiers of the Union. The rebellion, it must be
suppressed; the Union, it must be preserved."
The nomination of Grant "was very faintly cheerei, and it was evident
that the name of the hero of Spottsylvania would pale before that of
the swordless general of New York.
"Nothing would do however, for the St. Louis Germans, who voted not
to recognize God's hand in war, but to nominate Fremont.
"General Fremont was nominated by acclamation.
"The 3,000 delegates, with whom the city was said to swarm yesterday
by the imaginative PLAIN DEALER, cheered heartily over the good work."
General Cochrane was nominated by acclamation for vice president. The
naming of the party was deferred until night when a committee, appointed
in the afternoon, reported the name of the new party to be the Radical
Democracy. Bird B. Chapman represented Ohio on the executive committee,
consisting of 15 members. (128)

Political Parties / Fremontites

Index terms:

Brooks, B. H. (California); California; Chapin's hall; Chapman, Bird B.; Chicago, Ill.; Chicago TIMES; Cincinnati, O.; Cincinnati ENQUIRER; Cleveland PLAIN DEALER; Cochrane, General George; Fremont club; Gilbert, E.; Grant, Gen. U. S.; Greeley, Horace; Illinois; Johnston; Lincoln, Abraham; Mass, Colonel (Mo.); Missouri; New York city; New York HERALD; New York WORLD; Ohio; Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Mo.; Spottsylvania, Va.; Union; Washington, D. C.; Wolf, S. (Washington, D. C.)