It’s election time and once again sparks are flying. There are some public gatherings where the candidates speak but media ads and sound bites along with social media post have all but replaced the stump speech. The term stump speech originated by the early 1800s. At that time most political speeches in rural areas were given outside and stages or raised platforms were basically nonexistent. In order that politicians could stand above the crowd and be both heard and seen, a large tree would be cut and the speaker would stand on the stump to make his address. Thus a stump speech.
It was also common for candidates to travel all around the county speaking at rallies at each voting precinct.
In West Point I practiced law with Albert Pippen. He had been Clay County Attorney back in the 1950s. I recall him telling me about the “Grand Round.” All of the candidates for county office would travel to each voting precinct where there would be a rally. Speeches would be given in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon. Once each voting precinct in the county had been visited there would be a final large rally in West Point. That rally would take place about a month before the election.
There is the old adage that no matter how much things change they stay the same. In politics that could not be more truthful. One hundred and seventy-five years ago national elections were fast approaching with state elections to follow in a year.
Perusing through July and August, 1840, copies of the Columbus Democrat newspaper, there is much election news and opinion. There were a series of public forums and campaign speeches to be given at each Lowndes County voting precinct. It was a form of the “Grand Round.” The schedule was:
Friday, July 24th at Caledonia
Colbert on Saturday, July 25th
Speed’s on July 27th
Brooks’ on July 28th
Lowndesville on July 29th
Branyan’s on July 30th
Nashville on Saturday, August 1st
Columbus on Saturday, August 8th
The final rally at Columbus was billed as, “A general rally of the democracy in this town from the whole county, on the second Saturday in August (8th) is earnestly invoked”
The rallies primarily addressed the upcoming presidential election and the opposing Whig and Democratic parties and their candidates Van Buren and Harrison. The hot button issues were the national bank, the economy and slavery.
The importance of the voters being informed was the subject of a newspaper column titled simply, “Democrats Rally!” Yes, the paper as its name suggested did support Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party. The column stated, “The people are respectfully, but earnestly requested to attend. We are in the midst of a crisis of more than ordinary importance and it behooves every man before he casts his vote to get correct information as to the merits of the controversy and the principles involved…The fate of our free republican institutions is involved in the result.”
The first rally was held at Caledonia and attracted “about one hundred and ten stern old Jeffersonian Republicans…who listened silently and patiently to the discussion of the great principals of both parties which now agitate the country.” One of the great issues debated was “Countless millions of dollars would now be annually thrown away on local improvements of less value than those which have embarrassed and almost beggared so many of the states. To keep up these expenditures and pay the salaries of public officers to superintend them, the tariff must have been kept up at its rates or a direct tax resorted to.” Even in 1840 the need for internal improvements was weighed against resulting higher taxes.
In the midst of the political columns were ads. One was an announcement by D.N. Baldwin that he had opened a bath house and that for only 50 cents one could have “a single warm bath.” The other ad was a “Notice to Travelers” that, “Owing to the scarcity of money, the Proprietors of the Stage line from Columbus to Jackson, Mi, have reduced the rates of fare from $25 to $15.”
Among those at the rally was J.T. Harrison who spoke on behalf of the Whig Party. The newspaper described his address as, “Mr H. made no attempt to controvert the ground taken by Mr B, (a Democrat), but as usual mounted his hobby horse, the expenditures of the General Government, and let loose vituperation and invective against the office holders, office seekers and newspaper editors.” E.F. Calhoun responded to Harrison “in one of the most appropriate speeches that we ever heard. Mr C. … (used) an illustration that the most ignorant man could understand…Mr Harrison endeavored to explain, and to offer lawyers quibble and quidites but entirely without effect.”
At the Monday rally “Mr Tucker made a few pertinent remarks in his peculiar and happy vein of sarcasm and humor.” Then on Tuesday night “Mr Leech took the stump and spoke for nearly three hours and a half.” The Columbus Democrat followed with comment on the Whigs who were said to have “evinced already too great a disposition to pander to the false apetite of a people that are intoxicated – intoxicated with that syren word ‘speculation.'”
Some of today’s political barbs may seem mild compared to the newspaper’s August 8th attack on the Whig party. The paper commented that the Whigs were “not to have honor done to their virtues, but to cover them with cold malignant calumny, and associate them with every thing that falsehood can make odious. Even our glorious constitution itself …is treated as a rotten mock, fit only to be displaced at any moment to suit party purposes. It is against such a party that we have to contend.” Politics really haven’t changed.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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