NEWS AND NOTES FROM
The Prince George's County Historical Society
Vol. VIII, no. 11 November 1980
The November Meeting: Mary Surratt
The guest speaker at the November meeting of the Prince George's County Historical Society will be Mr. Charles J. Bauer of Silver Spring, noted poet, songwriter, author, and historian‑, whose topic will be "The Odd Couple‑‑Who Hanged Mary Surratt."
A specialist in the history of the Lincoln assassination, Mr. Bauer will talk about the two individuals instrumental in the sequence of events which led to the conviction and execution of Mrs. Surratt as an accomplice in President Lincoln's death. His presentation will be accompanied by slides.
The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. at the Calvert mansion, Riversdale, on Saturday, November 8. Riversdale is located at 4811 Riverdale Road, a block south of East‑West Highway. As always, guests are welcome and refreshments will be served. Join us to learn more about the tragic fate of a noted Prince George's County woman.
New Members of the Society
We welcome the following individuals to membership in the Prince George's County Historical Society:
Sponsor
Ann and Richard Sparrough, Jr. Upper Marlboro Alan Virta
Patricia A. Gonsalves College Park Carl Flynn and
Herb Embrey
Doris S. Brown Laurel Hazel Wyatt
Rossborough Inn Tile
A decorative ceramic tile, with a print of the historic Rossborough Inn on the face, is being offered to members of the Society by the College Park chapter of the American Association of University Women. The price is $3.75. Mabel Wilkinson will have a supply at the November meeting. They make great Christmas presents!
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND
ERECTED ON ST. GEORGE'S DAY, APRIL 23,1696
Voting for President in Prince George's County
The approaching Presidential election provides a convenient pretext for publishing some election statistics for Prince George's County which have been in the files for a good while. This long list should be of some interest, if only because it is time to chose a President again.
What follows is a record of the county's vote for President in every election since 1856, the first year of competition between the Republican and Democratic Parties. Since 1856, the Democrats have carried the county 21 times, the Republicans 10 times. Since the end of World War II, however, the score is even: Democrats 4, Republicans 4. In the 31 Presidential elections since 1856, Prince George's County has voted for the national winner 24 times. In recent years, Prince George's County has been right in step with the national mood. The last election in which the county voted against the national winner was in 1908, although, as you will see, there were many close calls.
The candidates are listed in descending order of vote total for Prince George's County. The candidates who were elected without carrying the county are marked with an asterisk
1856: James Buchanan, Democrat 991
Millard Fillmore, American 873
John C. Fremont, Republican 0
1860: John Breckenridge, Democrat 1047
John Bell, Constitutional Union 885
Stephen Douglas, Democrat 43
*Abraham Lincoln, Republican 1
1864: George B. McClellan, Democrat 1550
*Abraham Lincoln, Republican 197
1868: Horatio Seymour, Democrat 1664
*Ulysses S. Grant, Republican 164
Black men acquired right to vote
1872: Ulysses S. Grant, Republican 2264
Horace Greeley, Democrat 1631
1876: Samuel Tilden, Democrat 2618
*Rutherford Hayes, Republican 2430
1880: Winfield S. Hancock, Democrat 2713
*James A. Garfield, Republican 2672
1884: Grover Cleveland, Democrat 2970
James G. Blaine, Republican 2850
1888: Grover Cleveland, Democrat 3081
*Benjamin Harrison, Republican 3019
1892: Grover Cleveland, Democrat 2655
Benjamin Harrison, Republican 2423
1896 William McKinley, Republican 3350
William J. Bryan, Democrat 2640
1900: William McKinley, Republican 3455
William J. Bryan, Democrat 2787
1904 Theodore Roosevelt, Republican 2845
John Alton Parker, Democrat 2270
1908: William J. Bryan, Democrat 2680
*William Howard Taft, Republican 2639
1912: Woodrow Wilson, Democrat 2424
William Howard Taft, Republican 1456
Theodore Roosevelt, Progressive 1308
1916: Woodrow Wilson, Democrat 3493
Charles E. Hughes, Republican 3050
Women acquired right to vote
1920: Warren G. Harding, Republican 6623
James D. Cox, Democrat 4857
1924: Calvin Coolidge, Republican 5868
John W. Davis, Democrat 5088
Robert LaFollette, Progressive 1483
1928: Herbert Hoover, Republican 9782
Alfred Smith, Democrat 6658
1932: Franklin Roosevelt, Democrat 11,580
Herbert Hoover, Republican 6696
1936: Franklin Roosevelt, Democrat 15,067
Alfred E. Landon, Republican 8107
1940: Franklin Roosevelt, Democrat 16,592
Wendell Willkie, Republican 9523
1944: Franklin Roosevelt, Democrat 14,006
Thomas E. Dewey, Republican 13,750
1948: Harry S. Truman, Democrat 14,874
Thomas E. Dewey, Republican 14,718
1952: Dwight Eisenhower, Republican 38,060
Adlai Stevenson, Democrat 29,119
1956: Dwight Eisenhower, Republican 40,654
Adlai Stevenson, Democrat 39,280
1960: John F. Kennedy, Democrat 62,013
Richard M. Nixon, Republican 44,817
1964: Lyndon Johnson, Democrat 81,806
Barry Goldwater, Republican 46,413
1960: Richard M. Nixon, Republican 73,269
Hubert Humphrey, Democrat 71,524
George Wallace, American 32,867
1972: Richard M. Nixon, Republican 116,166
George McGovern, Democrat 79,914
1976: Jimmy Carter, Democrat 111,743
Gerald R. Ford, Republican 81,027
We should add that if it were not for the Electoral College, Prince George's County's record of voting, for the winner would be 26, rather than 24 times. Twice‑‑in 1876 and 1888‑‑Prince George's County was in agreement with the national popular vote, but both times the winner of the national popular vote failed to win the Electoral College majority.
The voting results from 1892 on came from quite reliable almanacs and compendiums of election statistics. Those before 1892 were derived from various contemporary sources, including almanacs and newspapers. Third‑party candidates whose vote totals were negligible in Prince George's County were not included.
Our Favorite Son
Just once has a Prince Georgean been nominated for the Presidency of the United States‑‑that was in 1832, when William Wirt, a native of Bladensburg, received the nomination of the Antimasonic Party. Wirt finished third in the popular vote in that election, with more than 100,000 votes, but far behind Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, who received 661,000 and 455,000 votes each. Wirt received the electoral votes of just one state‑Vermont‑‑though he ran quite respectably in several others.
Wirt was born in Bladensburg in 1772, but once his education was completed he settled in Virginia. He was admitted to the bar of that state in 1792, and there he began a successful legal career. He gained national recognition in 1807 as prosecutor in the Aaron Burr treason trial, and soon came to be recognized as one of the nation's leading attorneys. President Monroe appointed him Attorney General in 1817 and he served until 1829, through both of Monroe's administrations and the single term of John Quincy Adams. 'His twelve years as Attorney General is the longest tenure of an individual in that office. Following his service in Washington he returned to his native state of Maryland and settled in Baltimore, where he expected to slip into a quiet, private retirement.
To even his surprise, however, he was the nominee of the Antimasonic Party for President in 1832. Indeed, early in life he had been a Mason himself, but as he explained it, dropped out because he did not have the time to devote to Masonic activities.
He had not been previously identified in the public mind as a leading Antimason, but he did fit the bill the leaders of the party were looking for in a Presidential candidate: a nationally respected figure, an opponent of Jackson, and someone who would, at least, pay some respect to the principle of Antimasonism.
Antimasonism and the activities of the Antimasonic Party are one of the more curious episodes in American political history. The movement arose in New York State in the 1820's as a reaction to what some perceived as the inordinate influence of Masons in public affairs. But it was a specific event in 1826‑‑the abduction of one William Morgan of Batavia, N.Y.‑‑that gave the movement the strength to become a full fledged political party.
Morgan was an ex‑Mason who publicly resolved to expose Masonic secrets. Charges and countercharges flew about until September of 1826 when Morgan was mysteriously abducted and never heard from again. His abduction was laid, to Masons, and a sensational trial of his alleged abductors followed. Rumors were spread of Masonic influence in the jury, among judges, and ever in the State Legislature. The Morgan affair became a national sensation. Across New York and other states, principally from Pennsylvania northward, Antimasonic organizations were formed. Antimasons were put up as candidates to oppose Masonic public officials, and in many instances they were elected. In towns and counties and even State legislatures‑‑Antimasons were now present. By 1831, they decided to try to elect a President.
William Wirt's biographer, John Pendleton Kennedy, writing in 1849, made this comment on the Antimasonic Party: "We may wonder, after this lapse of time, that intelligent and acute men could have persuaded themselves that it had a base broad enough upon which to build a party...." We still may wonder today. But politics was in a state of flux in the 1820's. The federalist Party was dead, and several new parties were striving to replace it as the principal opposition party to the Democrats, the party of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren Many prominent politicians, including Thurlow Weed and "William, H. Seward, joined the Antimasonic Party in the 1820's for they saw it as a vehicle to oppose Jackson. These practical men soon gained the actual leadership of the party and tried to steer it toward other issues as well but the rank and file largely remained determinedly antimasonic and resisted any efforts to stray too far from that fundamental principle.
Wirt's nomination, then, in 1832, was a victory for the moderate men of the Antimasonic Party, the ones who hoped to convert the movement into a broadly based party. They courted Wirt, for they saw him as a respected candidate who could reach out to other voters. Historians have debated whether these leaders who tried to lead the party away from tile single issue of Antimason betrayed the rank and file but be that as it may, Wirt was the nominee. His acceptance speech disheartened the more extreme members of his party, for he stated that he regarded the Masons as a social organization, and as such, had no quarrel with them. But if their worked secretly to influence the course of government and if their conspired behind the scenes to exclude others from office, then he would oppose that. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the Party's platform by the Presidential nominee.
At the same time the Antimasonic Party was forming, another was coalescing around Henry Clay. It was this other party‑‑in a few years to be known as the Whigs‑‑that won out in the race to become the second party in America's two‑party system. The Antimasonic Party declined after their defeat in 1832 and within a few years was just a memory.
John Pendleton Kennedy was right; the fundamental principle of the party was just too narrow a base upon which to build a national political party, one which the voters expected to deal with the broad issues of foreign affairs, taxation, national finance, internal improvements, and the like. The Antimasonic Party is long gone, but William Wirt's place in American history is secure. Not because of his brief, hesitant fling with Antimasonism, but rather on grounds he would certainly prefer: his reputation as a great American lawyer, a distinguished Attorney General, and a noted author and essayist.
‑‑Alan Virta
[Among other sources consulted was Charles McCarthy's The Antimasonic Party, 1903]
A Halloween Story by William Wirt
In 1825 William Wirt wrote for his children a collection of autobiographical reminiscences. Many of the stories dealt with his childhood in Bladensburg. One such story, a ghost story, is printed below. It was previously published in Kennedy's biography of Wirt in 1849. A tale of childhood terror: two full centuries ago:
"On our way hone from the schoolhouse to Bladensburg the road passed by an old field, on the outer margin of which a negro man had been buried who, it was reported, had been whipped to death by his master. Besides the boys who went to this school from Bladensburg, there were several from the neighborhood, and, amongst others, one whom I remember only as Zack Calvert. This boy had one evening been detained at school after all the rest of us had gone home, and had to pass the old field after daylight was gone. The next morning full well do I remember how he made my flesh creep and my hair rise, by telling us that, in passing the field, the night before, he heard a whip‑poor‑will, which sate upon the gravestone of the negro, cry out 'whip him well‑whip him well‑‑whip him well,’ ‑‑and that he could hear a voice answering from below, "Oh pray!”‑‑It was the first time that a superstitious emotion entered my mind, and I now recall how dreadfully sublime it was. My heart quaked, and yet there was a sort of terrible pleasure in it which I cannot define. It made my blood creep with horror to believe it: yet I would not have had it false. That terrible field was never afterwards passed at twilight without a race, in which I, as being youngest, was always behind, and consequently most exposed to the danger and proportionally terrified. I do not yet hear a whip-poor‑will, without some of these misgivings of my childhood."
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