Henry Brewer Metcalf

Henry Brewer Metcalf, April 2, 1829 (Boston, Mass.) – October 5, 1904 (Pawtucket, RI)

VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1900)

Running mate with nominee: John G. Woolley (1850-1922)
Popular vote: 210,864 (1.51%)             
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

The 1896 split between the "Narrow-gaugers" and the "Broad-gaugers" was healed by 1900 and the Prohibition Party was one again-- with the "Narrow-gaugers" in control. They nominated recovering alcoholic John Woolley (who used his own rehabilitation as an example during his lectures) and Henry B. Metcalf, a long-time prohibition advocate now in his early 70s who was probably one of the last candidates in any party who had formerly been a Whig. They campaigned together on a train called "The Prohibition Special" clocking in the miles and making hundreds of speeches.

The B. in Henry B. Metcalf stood for "Brewer," which could be a rather unfortunate name for a Prohibitionist.

Their platform was basically a single-issue document. If they veered into other political topics the Party was able to tie it to their main issue. For example, here is a statement from the platform about American imperialism, which was becoming an accepted and open concept by the McKinley administration at the time:

"Fourth—We deplore the fact that an Administration of this Republic claiming the right and power to carry our flag across seas, and to conquer and annex new territory, should admit its lack of power to prohibit the American saloon on subjugated soil, or should openly confess itself subject to liquor sovereignty under that flag. We are humiliated, exasperated and grieved, by the evidence painfully abundant, that this Administration's policy of expansion is bearing so rapidly its first fruits of drunkenness, insanity, and crime under the hot-house sun of the tropics; and when the president of the first Philippine commission said:`It was unfortunate that we introduced and established the saloon there, to corrupt the natives and to exhibit the vices of our race,' we charge the inhumanity and unchristianity of this act upon the Administration of William McKinley and upon the party which elected and would perpetuate the same."

The Prohibition Party placed third on Election Day. It was their 5th best national result in their long history. On the ballot in all but five states, they had their strongest percentage in Florida with 5.66%.

Election history:
1874-1875 - Pawtucket, Rhode Island City Council
1885 - Rhode Island Senate (Republican)
1886 - Rhode Island Senate (Republican) - defeated
1893 - Governor of Rhode Island (Prohibition) - defeated
1894 - Governor of Rhode Island (Prohibition) - defeated
1896 - US House of Representatives (RI) (Prohibition) - defeated
1900 - Governor of Rhode Island (Prohibition) - defeated
1904 - Governor of Rhode Island (Prohibition) - died before the election

Other occupations: businessman, trustee of Tufts College, banker, officer in the American Anti-Imperialist League

Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery (Cambridge, Mass.)

Notes:
If elected he would have died in office about six months before his term was over.
Graduate of Tufts College 1856
Was a Whig up to 1860, then a Republican, then a Liberal Republican in 1872, then a Republican
  again until 1888 when he helped create the Law Enforcement Party, then the Union Party in 1889,
  then the Prohibition Party the same year.
Universalist.
In the same cemetery as fellow 3rd party VP candidates Henry Lee (1782-1867 Nullifier Party 1832),
  Edward Everett (1794-1865 Constitutional Union Party 1860), and Charles Horatio Matchett
  (1843-1919 Socialist Labor Party 1892)
Moved to Rhode Island as a result of being a victim of the Great Boston Fire of 1872

Job Harriman

Job Harriman, January 15, 1861 (Frankfort, Ind.) – October 26, 1925 (Sierra Madre, Calif.)

VP candidate for Social Democratic Party (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Eugene Debs (1855-1926)
Popular vote: 87,945 (0.63%)            
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

A group of dissidents within the Socialist Labor Party insultingly called the "Kangaroos" split away and nominated Job Harriman for President. But as the 1900 election season heated up, the SLP refugees negotiated with the Social Democrat Party and the result was a Debs-Harriman ticket, which was something of an uneasy alliance. In 1901 the groups experienced a difficult merger to form the Socialist Party of America.

Harriman's energy level for a national campaign was greatly compromised by his long-term tuberculosis.

The SDP was on the ballot in 33 states and in a result that greatly disappointed Debs they placed 4th after the Prohibition Party. Their two best states were Massachusetts (2.32%) and Washington (1.87%). Still, they outpolled their SLP rivals in every state where they were competing for votes and would become the dominant socialist political group in elective politics for several decades.

Election history:
1896 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1898 - Governor of California (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1911 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1913 - Primary for Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated

Other occupations: Disciples of Christ minister, attorney, utopian community organizer

Buried: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale, Calif.)

Notes:
Left the ministry and became an agnostic.
Died as a result of tuberculosis. Cremated.
Graduate of Butler University 1884.
Moved to San Francisco in 1886 and then to Los Angeles in the late 1890s.
Participated in the Llano Cooperative Colony experiment first in California then in Louisiana.
Was a Democrat prior to joining the Socialist Labor Party.
Performed as an actor in the motion picture From Dusk to Dawn (1913) directed by Frank E. Wolfe.

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly

 Donnelly's map of Atlantis

 

Donnelly's vision of 1988

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly, November 3, 1831 (Philadelphia, Penn.) – January 1, 1901 (Minneapolis, Minn.)

VP candidate for People's Party (aka Populist Party aka Middle of the Road Populists) (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Wharton Barker (1846-1921)
Popular vote: 50,989 (0.36%)           
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

1900 was a McKinley-Bryan replay and once again the People's Party had to make a decision whether or not to endorse Bryan. The Great Commoner would indeed snag the endorsement of the Anti-Imperialist Party, but the Populists were not so unanimous.

The pro-fusion forces of the People's Party initially endorsed Bryan and as they did in 1896 nominated their own Vice-Presidential candidate Charles Towne. However, Towne withdrew once Bryan selected Adlai Stevenson as his Democratic running mate.

The anti-fusion faction (also known as the "Middle of the Road Populists"), which was representing an increasingly dwindling portion of the People's Party, struck out on their own nominating Barker and Donnelly.

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly is easily one of the most unusual and interesting characters profiled in this blog so far. This brief format does not really give his colorful career any justice.

The Populist platform for 1900 included support for a graduated income tax, government ownership of railroads, opposition to American imperialism in the Philippines and Puerto Rico, support limiting immigration of Japanese, Mongolian and Malayan workers, support public ownership of utilities, support direct voting, and in favor of home rule for the District of Columbia and the territories.

They were on the ballot in 27 states with their best showing in Texas at 4.95%. Their strongest region was in the Deep South. They didn't appear to be spoilers or cost Bryan any states although he lost on his own anyway. Nationally the People's Party placed a very distant 5th place and would continue to fade away as many of their issues would eventually be co-opted.

Election history:
1857 - Minnesota Territorial Senate (Republican) - defeated
1858 - Minnesota Territorial Senate (Republican) - defeated
1858 - Dakota County Commissioner (Minn.)
1860-1863 - Lt. Governor of Minnesota (Republican)
1862-1869 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Republican/Union/Republican)
1868 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Independent Republican) - defeated
1869 - Republican nomination for US Senate (Minn.) (Republican) - defeated
1870 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Democratic) - defeated
1874-1879 - Minnesota State Senate (Anti-Monopolist Party/Greenback Party/Democratic)
1876 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Greenback Party) - defeated
1878 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Democratic/Greenback Party) - defeated
1884 - US House of Representatives (Minn.) (Democratic) - defeated
1887-1889 - Minnesota House of Representatives (Independent)
1890-1895 - Minnesota State Senate (Alliance/People's Party)
1892 - Governor of Minnesota (People's Party) - defeated
1894 - Minnesota State Senate (People's Party) - defeated
1897-1898 - Minnesota House of Representatives (People's Party)
1900 - Populist Party nomination for US President - defeated
1900 - Union Reform Party nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, author, novelist, poet, real estate developer, newspaper editor, Liaison officer (Dakota War of 1862)

Buried: Calvary Cemetery (Saint Paul, Minn.)

Notes:
His father was an Irish immigrant.
Left the Catholic Church in the 1850s.
Was a partner in developing the utopian community of Nininger City but it failed.
Buried in the same cemetery as Kaaren Verne, Peter Lorre's second wife.
He wrote Atlantis: The Antediluvian World in 1882, which influenced Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and

  in turn the Nazis own mythology and Donnelly also helped spark the revival that led the modern

  New Age belief that Atlantis once existed as a sophisticated civilization.
He wrote Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel in 1883, which is said to have influenced Immanuel

  Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision (1950)
He wrote The Great Cryptogram in 1888, where he revealed himself as part of the Baconian school

  of thought regarding the authorship of works attributed to William Shakespeare.
Under the name "Edmund Boisgilbert, M.D." he wrote Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth

  Century in 1890 which is a dystopian novel set in the year 1988.
In 1857 left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party due to his aversion to slavery.
Campaigned for the Liberal Republican ticket in 1872.
If elected he would not have lived long enough to be sworn as he died of a heart attack New Year's

  Day 1901.
When accused by Rep. Elihu Washburne (Ill.) of taking bribes from railroad corporations, Donnelly

  gave a foul-nouthed reply on the floor of the House that essentially ended his career in Congress and

  included "If there be one character which, while blotched and spotted all over, yet raves and rants

  and blackguards like a prostitute; if there be one bold, bad, empty bellowing demagogue, it is the

  gentleman from Illinois.”
Was known by his contemporaries as the "Sage of Nininger" and also "The Prince of Cranks."
 

Samuel Thorne Nicholson

Samuel Thorne Nicholson, February 2, 1852 (Halifax County, NC) - May? 1933 (Washington, DC?)

VP candidate for Union Reform Party (aka Union Reform for Direct Legislation Party) (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Seth H. Ellis (1830-1904)
Popular vote: 5696 (0.04%)            
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

Originating as a regional party in Ohio, the Union Reform Party had the lofty goal of being an umbrella organization for all the reform movements in the USA. It didn't work out that way. It should not be confused with the earlier Union Reform Party of South Carolina.

With the campaign slogan of "The People Shall Rule," their single-issue platform supported the initiative and referendum process. The Party also ran candidates for several other offices in Ohio and Illinois. In this election former Prohibition Party VP Henry Adams Thompson (1880) ran under the Union Reform Party banner for US Congress in Ohio.

They were on the ballot in Ark., Ill., Ind., Md., and Ohio-- the Buckeye State giving them the vast majority of their total which is no surprise since it was also the home state of Ellis. Since Nicholson was a resident of Pennsylvania in 1900 he apparently had to write-in the vote for his own ticket.

The single-issue where the Union Reform Party was centered was quickly co-opted by the mainstream political process and with that the party with the unfortunate acronym of URP quickly evaporated.

Election history:
1900 - Union Reform Party nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: farming, insurance, publisher of the Ec-lec-tic, Secretary of the Good Government League, Secretary of the National Good Citizenship League, manager of American Law and Credit Service.

Buried: ?

Notes:
A Democrat prior to joining the Union Reform Party in 1899.
If elected, Nicholson would have become President upon the death of Ellis on June 23, 1904.
 However, Ellis died from an accident involving a cherry tree, and the probability of that event
 actually happening to a US President is fairly slim.
Studied law but never practiced.

David Herron Martin

David Herron Martin, Mar. 28, 1849 (Pittsburgh, Penn.) - 1933 (Pennsylvania?)

VP candidate for United Christian Party (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Jonah Fitz Randolph Leonard (1832-1905)
Popular vote: 518 (0.00%)            
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

The United Christian Party platform called for the US to be officially declared a "Christian nation," they opposed the legalization of divorce and alcohol, supported the initiative and referendum system, supported equal rights and wages for women, advocated the required daily reading of the Bible in public school, and supported the abolition of the Electoral College among other things. 

At their convention with 25 delegates, prohibitionists Silas Swallow and John Woolley were nominated, but both declined. After a few others declined, Leonard and Martin were tapped as the final replacements.

The Leonard/Martin ticket was apparently on the ballot in two states, where they had 352 votes in Illinois and 166 votes in Iowa, and no doubt probably scored a scattering of write-ins in other states.

Election history:
<1900> - Bellevue, Penn. City Council
19-- - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Prohibition) - defeated
1908 - Pennsylvania State Legislature (Prohibition) - defeated

Other occupations: publisher of temperance material

Buried: English Lutheran Church Cemetery (Zelienople, Penn.)

Notes:
Attended school in Allegheny, Penn.
Was a Republican prior to his third party activism.
Since Leonard died on Jan. 15, 1905, Martin would have become President in the last couple months of the term.
Both parents were Irish immigrants.

Valentine Remmel

Valentine Remmel, March 9, 1853 (Pittsburgh, Penn.) - May 9, 1929 (Pittsburgh, Penn.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Joseph F. Malloney (ca. 1865- ?)
Popular vote: 40,943 (0.29%)             
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

The 1900 Socialist Labor platform was more of a general essay than a traditional bullet-point list of statements. The document concluded with this lengthy sentence:

"We, therefore, call upon the wage workers of the United States, and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under the banner of the Socialist Labor Party into a class-conscious body, aware of its rights and determined to conquer them by taking possession of the public powers; so that, held together by an indomitable spirit of solidarity under the most trying conditions of the present class struggle, we may put a summary end to that barbarous struggle by the abolition of classes,  the restoration of the land and of all the means of production, transportation and distribution to the people as a  collective body, and the substitution of the Co-operative Commonwealth for the present state of planless production,  industrial war and social disorder; a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of  his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization."

In this election cycle the SLP experienced a huge split, with at least half of their membership joining the more moderate and less ideologically pure Social Democratic Party. Defectors included past SLP candidates Wing, Matchett, and Maguire.

Remmel had been arrested in the campaign for conducting a meeting in the street without a permit.

The SLP was on the ballot in 23 states. Their best results were in Rhode Island (2.52%) and California (2.50%, where they placed third) but in both cases they were not up against any other third party except the Prohibitionists. In states where they competed for votes against the Social Democrats they trailed every time. Yet, their 0.29% share of the national poll was the highest percentage of the popular vote the SLP would ever get in a Presidential election.

Election history:
189-? - Mayor of Pittsburgh, Penn. (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1898 - US House of Representatives (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1899 - Supreme Court Judge (Penn.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1900 - Socialist Labor Party nomination for US President - defeated
1910 - US House of Representatives (Socialist Party) - defeated

Other occupations: glass blower

Buried: South Side Cemetery (Pittsburgh, Penn.)

Notes:
Son of German immigrants who arrived in America in 1845.
Started working in a glass factory in 1864 as a child laborer after his father was injured working in a coal mine.
Joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1895.