One thing you cannot call the 2008 presidential campaign is dull. Plenty of accusations and name-calling have been traded between the candidates. Many might believe that these campaigns were much more civil in earlier years.
That wouldn't be true if you followed the 1844 election. That year's contest was between James Polk, a Democrat, and Henry Clay, a Whig, in which Polk took a narrow victory.
That election was very personal with newspaper attacks calling Polk a coward and Clay a drunkard.
In our area, the 1844 campaign was a colorful period of time, certainly nothing like we experience in the early 21st century.
One visible constant between the political parties was a contest to try to build the larger flagpole.
That year the Whig party raised an ash pole on the northerly side of Main Street, near the lower end of the Oneonta House, where 125 Main St. is today, about mid-way between Chestnut and Grove streets. Not to be outdone, the Democrats put up an extremely tall hickory pole on the southern side of Main Street, near the Main and Chestnut street intersection.
In the 1844 Polk and Clay campaigns, both parties stepped up their displays of public enthusiasm. The big issues were the annexation of Texas, Manifest Destiny and slavery.
Aug. 17, 1844, was an eventful day for the Democrats in Oneonta.
A present-day news description might read, "thousands of area Democrats descended upon downtown Oneonta on a sunny and 80-degree day."
Willard Huntington's Old Time Notes described it this way:
"It had been heralded long in advance and talked about throughout a large number of towns in Otsego and Delaware counties. The kind divinity more particularly partial to the welfare and comfort of all loyal supporters of good old fashioned Jeffersonian principles, if such a being there be, had evidently exercised a genial influence upon local weather conditions, for, in that respect, the day opened auspiciously upon a gathering host of five or six thousand people, gradually concentrating, from near and distant village, hamlet and farm, at this point of attraction."
Long processions of vehicles from just about every direction made their way into Oneonta in style, led by brass bands from Oneonta, Cooperstown and Louisville, or today's Morris.
Meals were served at the hotels, or people brought lunch baskets. Then came the speeches. People jammed the downtown business district near the Oneonta House. Speeches by Dewitt C. Bates of Cherry Valley and Washington Glenville of Worcester, among others, were made from the piazza of the Oneonta House.
The Whigs then had their big day of rally in Oneonta, although Huntington never mentioned the date.
"Among the large delegations of participants from outside towns must be mentioned," Huntington wrote, "the Delhi contingent, filling, as it did, about a dozen wagons all told." The lead vehicle had a live raccoon on a platform on top of a pole.
The procession reached a point past the bridge over the Susquehanna, when "Suddenly, the sharp report of a rifle, fired from the second story of a window by some over-zealous partisan of the enemy, was heard, immediately followed by a public exhibition of a petted Whig coon in the throes of an untimely death."
"The general indignation," Huntington continued, "aroused by this outrage, needless to state, was naturally intense among the Delhi people, as well as with many local witnesses of the scene; and, had not the perpetrator of the dastardly act quickly made his escape, there would have been, at least, it was afterwards commonly declared, one less vote deposited for Polk and Dallas in the memorable election of '44."
On Monday: A "go-to" library for historians and genealogists in Cooperstown reaches a big anniversary.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com.
His website is
www.oneontahistorian.com.
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