Horace Greeley (1811–1872)

215. Proceedings of the First Three Republican Conventions of 1856, 1860 and 1864 (read between Oct 27, 1945 and Nov 4, 1945) I read this when I was eager to read about political conventions, which I became enthralled by when in 1940, at age 11, I heard the exciting 1940 Republican Convention on the radio. In 1940 when I first heard the radio broadcast of the 1940 Republican Convention I literally did not know what a convention was or how such worked. Hey, I was only 7 when the 1936 conventions took place and I was totally unaware of them. I did, though, have awareness of the 1936 presidential election . My Dad was supporting William Lemke! An older brother was so impressed by the crowds he heard about at Landon speeches that he became convinced Landon would win, and of course the Literary Digest poll which had never been wrong before predicted a Landon win. My father knew Landon would lose so he and my brother, then 17, made a bet. If Landon did not win, my brother agreed he would not go to any dance for a month. After the election my brother abided by the result of the bet for awhile but he was so desolate that before the entire month had elapsed Dad relented and said he need not abide by the bet result for the entire month. So I knew about the 1936 election but not about the conventions that year. But when I learned about conventions in 1940 I was hooked and avidly listened to national conventions as much as I could, and when I learned there were books which had all the words spoken at conventions I obtained them from the Iowa Traveling Library and read them cover to cover. This book was one I obtained and read, in 1945.… (más)