Presidential Election Leads to Fallen Candidate’s Death in “Insanity” November 29, 2009

Tragic Rapid Demise of Presidential Candidate

 

Greeley portrayed reaching across graves of Andersonville

On This Date in History:  In the presidential election of 1872,  New York Tribune founder and editor Horace Greeley faced off against incumbent, Ulysses S. Grant.  Greeley never saw a social reform that he didn’t like and he actually was nominated by a group known as the Liberal Republicans who split from the main party that nominated President Grant.  In somewhat of a surprise, the Democrats nominated Greeley, who once said that “All Democrats may not be rascals, but all rascals are Democrats.”  But Greeley was in favor of amnesty for all ex-Confederates and for withdrawl of all federal troops from the southern states.  And at that point, the Democrats were in a favor of anyone who held such views. 

Greeley Kneeling to the Democrat Devil

But, Greeley was hammered as a candidate.  Editors and cartoonists lampooned his rumpled clothes, chin whiskers and baby face.  They piled on him for his support of prohibition, vegetarianism and visions of communes.  Greeley openly wondered if he was running for the penitentiary or the presidency.  On top of his sensitivity to savage public criticism and ridicule, he was dealing with an ailing wife.  In September 1872 he remained in New York at his wife bedside and slept little until her death on October 30, 1872 which was the week before the election.

Greeley and his running mate depicted as Doomed

Grant won 30 out of 36 states.  Grant received 286 electoral votes and Greeley just 66.  Officially though, Greeley only received 3 electoral votes.  That is because on this date in 1872, Horace Greeley died which was prior to the official voting by the electoral college.  Following Greeley’s death, 63 of the electors scattered their votes among four other candidates.  Perhaps this is symbolic of the tragic end to Horace Greeley. Following the devastating loss of his wife, the public flogging by his detractors during the campaign and his overwhelming defeat at the polls, Greeley was a broken man; and things got worse.  He tried to resume control of the Tribune but was pushed aside by acting editor Whitelaw Reid.  Instead of welcoming Greeley back, Reid put a box on the front page of the paper that mocked Republican office seekers who had sought Greeley’s assistance.  When Greeley offered a response, Reid refused to publish it in the paper.  And get this…Whitelaw Reid not only had been invited to join the Tribune by Greeley, but he also had been Greeley’s campaign manager!   Just three weeks after the election that may have elevated him to the top office in the land, Horace Greeley died; his mind so broken that his condition was described as “insane.”

Today, we say that politics is “rough and tumble” but I don’t think we’ve seen anything like the 1872 election which one might say, cost Horace Greeley his life.

Sunday Evening

Weather Bottom Line:   Well, phooey on me.  Not only did we warm up after a chilly start on Saturday, we got to the low 60′s which I had said would be tough to do.  Oh well, better to miss when its a few degrees warmer than the opposite. Otherwise, everything else is on track and its not all that good.  I was correct in saying that Saturday would be the warmest we would see for many days.  Sunday with clouds increasing and thickening, we will not be as warm as Saturday but I do think we stay dry during the day.  Sunday night, a cold front comes through and we get rain and showers will carry over into Monday.   Look for sharply colder condition on Monday with highs only in the low 40′s…maybe mid 40′s for southern parts of the viewing area. 

Freezing line at all levels at Gulf Coast by Friday morning

Tuesday we get a reprieve though temperatures will be seasonally cool.  A cut off low has been lurking in the Southwest US and a strong front with a deep trof will pick that up and on Wednesday, it moves across Texas, picks up Gulf moisture and moves quickly into the Southeast US.  Our rain chances will consequently go up with cloudy conditions and the front that picks up that cut off low will be making its way through the area.  Look for your local forecast to once again mention snow.  While this time around it may be a bit more possible than last week, it is still largely irrelevant.  Temperatures will be cold but above freezing. Ground temperatures certainly won’t be cold enough for any accumulation.  In my mind, its simply a conversation piece at best.  But, the latter part of the week probably won’t see temperatures much above 40 with some maybe not getting above 40 until Saturday and even then it won’t be much above 40.

Free Love and A Jules Verne Model For President! May 10, 2008

The map above is the late Friday afternoon SPC Severe Weather Outlook for Saturday morning through Sunday morning and you will find not much different from the previous outlook for the day.  Everything running on line with Saturday looking pretty good around here with some sunshine and highs in the low 70′s.  The next system moves into the area Saturday night.  Indications are that it would be late Saturday night into Sunday morning…like after midnight toward sunrise.  Rain and a thunderstorms are likely but nothing overly exciting should pop up.  There is one set of indices from the GFS that are a bit interesting but I would discount that as it doesn’t make much sense and the much more pedestrian indices based on the NAM are much more likely.  The SPC seems to agree as we aren’t even in the slight risk.  We’ll watch it but I doubt if anything will change much for us.  Poor Arkansas.  Mothers Day will probably be dry for the middle part of the day but it will be cloudy and cool and windy and a wrap around vort lobe may even trigger a few showers late in the day or the evening.  Afternoon temps may be in the 50′s.  Celebrate with Mom indoors.

On This Date In History:  On this date in 1872 Victoria Woodhull began her campaign for President.  At that time, women weren’t even allowed to vote.  Her platform was as a “free-thinking reformer” and supported free love, abortion, divorce, legalized prostitution and, of course, the women’s right to vote. One of the photos above is a portrait while the other is a cartoon showing her as the Devil.   As part of her campaign, she sent out an article congratulating preacher Henry Ward Beecher for having an affair with a married woman in his congregation.  But, she chastised him for not advocating the free love that she said he obviously practiced.  On election day, she was in jail.  The charge was for sending obscene material through the mail.   The offensive material was the Beecher article.  Reports of her personal practices of free love did not help her at the polls.  An opponent of hers didn’t learn from her mistake.

Also on the ballot was George Francis Train.  He was a millionaire with nothing else to do except to try and break speed records and advocate what he saw as struggles for freedom.  Jules Verne is said to have based his novel Around the World In 80 Days on a trip that Train once took.  But, Train didn’t count the days he spent in prison in France against his 80 days.  He got involved in an attempted revolution and barely escaped a firing squad before he continued his global journey.  He later beat his own record by going around the world in 67 1/2 days.  No word on if he cheated on that one too.  Neither he nor Woodhull were elected President. In fact, I bet you won’t find them on any 1872 election tally boards. 

But, Train had a penchant for making money because his campaign proved to be a money making venture for him.  He charged money for people to hear his speeches and he spoke over 1000 times to more than 2,000,000 people.  In an attempt to show support for Woodhull, he published a collection of biblical quotations that he said were much more obscene than anything Woodhull had written.  They slapped the old bracelets on him too and he was whisked off to jail.

Here’s a funny thing about this story.  If you look at the platform of Ms. Woodhull that was so scandalous in 1872, you will find almost every single one of them are accepted today.  If you live in Nevada, they are all legal and part of the landscape.  And to carry that point further, if you look at the Socialist Party platform of the early twentieth century that helped to feed a “red scare” following the Russian Revolution of 1917, you will be amazed at how many of the items in the platform were eventually adopted by Congress.  I bet that if  you told someone in 1900 the things would be legal and acceptable in 2000, they’d probably fall over.   Then again, they’d probably also collapse if you told them that man had walked on the moon, cured any number of diseases and that baseball players were making millions of dollars a year.

By the way….US Grant won re-election in the 1872 presidential race.