Straight-Out Democrat

DESCRIPTION: "We never took stock in H. Greeley, Though Baltimore took him in tow... The ticket that's honest we'll honor... We would like to have Charlie O'Conor, For O'Conor and Adams we'll go." The song encourages others to vote for the "true" democrats
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1872 - Grant/Greeley election
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 43, "Straight-Out Democrat" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
NOTES [113 words]: Ulysses S. Grant was first elected President in 1868, and by the time of the 1872 election it was clear that he could not control corruption in his administration. The Democrats nominated Horace Greeley, but a splinter of the party broke off and nominated Charles O'Conor and the younger John Quincy Adams.
The weakness of the O'Conor bid is shown by the fact that all the minor parties combined picked up only 35,097 votes (less than 1% of the total), and that O'Conor didn't gain a single electoral vote -- even though Greeley died before the electoral tally was taken, and the 68 electoral votes he would have earned were split five ways.
Grant, of course, won the election. - RBW
File: SRW043

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