Eventually, less rioting (and alcohol) gave way to civilized
debate which yielded more constructive outcomes such as the nation’s first
direct primary system in 1842. As ideologies gradually distilled into the two-party
system we recognize today, critical thinking and political discourse morphed
too, which sometimes meant local election results were not always a byproduct
of one party’s control.
This begins in 1855 with the Republican Party’s formation in
Crawford County and a prediction of its early demise by the Democrat’s local
party boss. The prediction couldn’t have been more wrong. While Democratic
presidential candidate, James Buchanan (whose sister Maria lived in Meadville) did
win the 1856 election, the fledgling opposition party in under a year swayed the
county to vote for Republican John C. Fremont.
By 1860, local political clubs like the Meadville
Wide-Awakes helped propel Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, launching 24 years
of Republican incumbency that Grover Cleveland ended in 1884. After Benjamin
Harrison’s controversial 1888 election reasserted party control, Meadville Republicans
celebrated with a parade of torchbearers that extended from Walnut Street to
Park Avenue. Not to be outdone, over 1,000 Democrats ignored the rain to cheer
on political clubs, floats, and marching bands filing up Chestnut Street to mark
Cleveland’s return as president in 1892.
The 1890s, though, found a nation in transition. As local
historian, Robert Ilisevich, put it, "Industrial expansion, imperialism,
financial panic, increased immigration, and other problems jolted Americans
into sensing that their country was changing and not necessarily for the
better." Crawford County was no exception. For Titusville’s oil workers, Meadville’s
immigrant railroaders, and the county’s frustrated farmers the issue was summed
up best by local populist candidate, Philip Willet. "Party lines are
obliterated!” he bellowed from the courthouse steps. “The contest is of masses against the classes!"
In 1896 the area’s masses joined with Democrats, forming a
hybrid party Republicans mockingly called the "Popocracy" while labeling
members as socialists. Although Republican William McKinley would ultimately win,
668 members of Meadville’s Columbia Republicans Club who, earlier had traveled
to McKinley’s home to personally pledge a party victory in Crawford County,
were later chagrinned, learning that the county’s masses had, instead, chosen Populist,
William Jennings Bryan.
Prior to McKinley’s assassination, though, Crawford County
did help him win reelection in 1900, and later rewarded his successor, Theodore
Roosevelt, with their vote in 1904. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, Meadville,
like the rest of the country, enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, marking the
city’s heyday. Such stability assured Roosevelt’s protégée, William Howard Taft
the presidency in 1908. Taft, however, abandoned his mentor's progressive
reforms, favoring business-centric policies instead which led to an intra-party
rift and subsequent three-way election showdown in 1912 between Taft
Republicans, Democrat Woodrow Wilson, and Roosevelt's Bull Moose Progressives.
Local papers attacked Roosevelt daily, often falsely. Still,
many residents, including leading Republicans jumped to the Bull Moose party. Candidates
were selected at conventions in Cambridge Springs and Meadville, adding to what
The Tribune-Republican claimed was a “political fight unequaled in intensity.”
As election day approached, 25,000 eager onlookers watched as
the official train of the President of the United States slowed to a stop at
the Meadville depot in October 1912. Emerging to great fanfare, President Taft
embarked on a one-hour car tour around town which he concluded with a speech atop
the courthouse steps. "You have a very beautiful little city,” the
President said through his wide smile. Minutes after he was speeding north for
an appearance in Cambridge Springs.
Eleven days later Taft would lose to Wilson. The President’s
appearance seemingly had little effect on county voters. Roosevelt finished
first ahead of Wilson, leaving Taft in third place only 1,400 votes ahead of
Socialist, Eugene Debs.
By keeping us out of the War Wilson would, in 1916 oddly find
favor with Crawford County’s majority even though Republicans carried Pennsylvania.
Not until Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 would the county support another Democrat
for president, and he would be the last. Since then, Crawford County has dutifully
voted Republican regardless of shifts in the party’s platform or national
sentiment.
What then should we interpret from our history? Simply put,
from the start, Crawford County’s citizens have voted according to their view of
the world, reality or not, backing the candidate they believed would either
preserve or change that world according to their individual circumstances.
In the process, heated contests were not unusual, and often the county voted contrary to the Commonwealth and nation. Regardless, it’s worth noting the reaction of Meadville’s, A.G. Richmond. As Democrats celebrated Benjamin Harrison’s defeat in 1892, Richmond, a prominent Republican, placed a sign outside his home. "I'm glad I was licked by an American," it read. According to the paper, the unifying sentiment prompted wild cheers from crowds of both parties as they passed by.
In the process, heated contests were not unusual, and often the county voted contrary to the Commonwealth and nation. Regardless, it’s worth noting the reaction of Meadville’s, A.G. Richmond. As Democrats celebrated Benjamin Harrison’s defeat in 1892, Richmond, a prominent Republican, placed a sign outside his home. "I'm glad I was licked by an American," it read. According to the paper, the unifying sentiment prompted wild cheers from crowds of both parties as they passed by.
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