CHAPTER VII.
POLITICAL HISTORY.
pg. 289-314

     SINCE the organization of Allen County, in 1831, the politics of Whig or Democrat were followed by the people.  In 1832 the venture of the South Carolinians to annul the laws of the Union, and the fate of this venture, cemented, as it were, for a time the two political parties under one leader.  That sentence in Jackson's proclamation of 1832, "The power to annul a law of the United States is incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it is founded, and destructive to the great object for which it was formed," found an echo even along the Western frontier, and won for its writer the admiration of every friend of the Union.
     In 1838 the Abolition question, though faintly discussed, caused a ripple of disunion to make itself apparent.  In 1840 and cry of Abolition and Liberty was raised by zealous friends of human freedom; but the echo died away.
     M. de Babcourt landed in this country in the midst of the most exciting Presidential contest ever known, in 1840, and served as Minister of France at Washington until 1842.  He was, in the space of ten months, presented to three successive Presidents of the United States.  He watched with a lively interest the making of the tariff in 1842, in which, despite his best efforts, French silks and wines were for the first time taken from the free list.  He witnessed the tempest which arose on John Quincy Adams presenting a Northern disunion petition in the House (Feb. 2, 1842).  He went to meet the Prince de Joinville on his second visit to this country.  He greeted as an old friend Lord Ashburton, come to settle the northeastern boundary dispute, and outstayed the conclusion of the treaty, with the Creole case looming up as a fresh cause of difficulty with England.  He saw civil war break out in Rhode Island, the Seminole war dragging its slow length along in Florida, hostilities begun between Mexico and that "vrai nid de bandits de toutes les nations, mais particulierement des Etats-Unis, Texas.
     James G. Birney was called from his home in the Saginaw country in 1844 to carry the banner of the Liberty Party against the contending forces of Clay and Polk.  He fell in this contest; but the same principle for which he fought was sought to be engrafted on the platform of the Republican party ten years later, and may be said to have conquered twenty years after that party was organized.
    The American Party or Know-nothing Party was organized shortly after the fall of the Liberty Party.  Its principles were stigmatized.
    For a number of years the quadrennial battle was fought between Democrat and Whig.  The Mexican war gave a new impetus to political life, which tended to make the Presidential contest more animated, and to draw the times of party closer.
     In 1854 the Whigs, as a party, passed out of existence, and in their place came the Republicans.  The Republican party met its reverses of 1856 with renewed vigor and more earnest effort.
     At this time Buchanan was elected.  About him gathered the Democratic leaders both of the North and South.  In the North the breach between the Republicans and the Administration was widening, and the cloud of war appeared in the distance.
     In 1860 the field of politics was full.  Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, John Bell, John C. Breckenridge and Gerritt Smith were placed at the heads of so many tickets, and in November of that year the struggle, which was in fact to decide the destiny of the country, was fought.  Lincoln was elected President.  The result decided the fate of the slave-holders, and gave to the seventh decade of the Nineteenth Century a nation of free men - such an one as some of the Fathers of the Republic dreamed of.
     Lincoln was renominated in 1864, and elected over George B. McClellan, the nominee of the Democratic party.  Shortly after, the assassin, Booth, snatched from the country a great man.  The successor of Lincoln was Vice-President Johnson.
     In 1868 Horatio Seymour was nominated by the Democrats.  Ulysses S. Grant selected as the standard bearer of the Republican party, was elected, and in 1872 was re-elected over Horace Greeley, the candidate of the opposition.
     In 1876 the Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden, and the Republicans, R. B. Hayes.  Mr. Hayes reached the White House through what is nown as the Electoral Commission.
     In 1880 James A. Garfield, on the Republican ticket, opposed Gen. Hancock on the Democratic ticket.  The Republican majority was slight.  The assassin, Guiteau, robbed the country of one who gave promise of an able administration.  Vice-President Arthur assumed the office of an able administration.  Vice-President Arthur assumed the office of President.
     In June, 1884, the Republicans nominated James G. Blaine at Chicago.  In July the Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland.  In November Mr. Cleveland was elected, his majority being in New York State (the pivotal State) under 1,200.

COUNTY ELECTIONS.

     As early as 1823 the few white settlers then residing in what is now known as Allen County, were called upon for the first time to record a vote.  To accomplish this duty of citizenship those men were compelled to make a long and tedious journey, submit to much vexations questioning, and having polled their votes, returned to their homes in the wilderness.  Capt. James Riley, the first white settler in Van Wert County, was elected in 1823 to the State Legislature as Representative from the territory now comprised in Allen, Preble, Miami, Shelby, Darke, Mercer, Van Wert, Putnam, Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Henry, Lake, Wood, Lucas and Auglaize.
     In the following record of elections, the candidates who were successful only are named, up to 1843.  In 1844 regular returns were filed, and thus, with few exceptions, this political history is carried down to our own times:

     During the first years of the county's political history, party bigotry was not acknowledged; but convention and caucus were held, the same as at present, to select an official, not to serve his own or his party's interest alone, but to labor for the whole people.  The majority of the first settlers were members of the Jacksonian school of politics.  When, in 1832, South Carolina assumed the right to ignore the laws of the General Government by opposing the collection of revenue, President Jackson acted with his usual decision, and told the South Carolinians that the Union must be preserved.  This action, together with the tone of his proclamation, cemented as it were, all political parties under one leader, and so far as Allen County is concerned, was the beginning of its strong Democracy.

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