Charles Horatio Matchett, May 15, 1843 (Brighton, Mass.) – October 23, 1919 (Allston, Mass.)
VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1892)
Running mate with nominee: Simon Wing (1826-1910)
Popular vote: 21,173 (0.18%)
Electoral vote: 0/444
The campaign:
Under the influence of Marxist intellectual Daniel De Leon who had joined them in 1890, the Socialist Labor Party made their first foray into national elective politics. The Party's nominating and platform-writing convention for 1892 had just eight delegates.
The platform included government ownership of utilities, compulsory education up to 14 years of age, progressive income tax, anti-child labor, equal wages for equal work for both genders, direct vote, suffrage for all races and genders, abolition of capital punishment, and most interesting of all:
"Abolition of the Presidency, Vice-Presidency and Senate of the United States. An executive board to be established, whose members are to be elected; and may at any time be recalled by the House of Representatives, as the only legislative body."
They were on the ballot in five states (NY, NJ, Conn., Mass., Penn.) cracking more than 1% only in NY (1.34%). But this was a third party that would live on for decades.
Election history:
1894 - Governor of New York (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1895 - Mayor of Brooklyn, NY (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1896 - US President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1897 - New York City Council (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1900 - Presidential Elector (NY) (Social Democratic Party of America) - defeated
1903 - New York Court of Appeals (Social Democratic Party of America) - defeated
1903 - New York Court of Appeals (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1910 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1913 - Alderman, New York City (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1914 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
Other occupations: US Navy sailor during the Civil War, beer bottler, clerk, carpenter, electrician, telephone company foreman, Esperanto teacher, shoe factory worker
Buried: cremated, ashes in Mount Auburn Cemetery (Cambridge, Mass.)
Notes:
Left the Socialist Labor Party to join the Socialist Party of America.
Was divorced according to 1910 Census
Ashes are in the same cemetery as fellow 3rd party VP candidates Henry Lee (1782-1867 Nullifier Party 1832) and Edward Everett (1794-1865 Constitutional Union Party 1860)
