November 7, ON THIS DAY in 1928, Herbert Hoover wins in landslide
ON THIS DAY IN 1928, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Alfred E. Smith is today, according to all indications, the worst defeated Democratic candidate since the Civil War. Herbert Hoover appears to have carried 40 states, with 444 electoral votes. He is certain of 406 electoral votes. The historic Democratic allegiance of the ten States of the Solid South has crumbled. Hoover has won Virginia and, at 1 p.m., was leading in Florida, Texas and North Carolina … [Gubernatorial nominee] Franklin D. Roosevelt and the rest of the Democratic state ticket this afternoon appeared to have withstood the Hoover landslide that swamped Gov. Smith in New York state.” It was also reported, “New York state’s first woman member of Congress will be Mrs. Ruth Pratt, at present a member of the New York City Board of Aldermen. With one district missing at 3 a.m. today, Mrs. Pratt, a Republican, had 36,140 votes in the 17th District, while [her opponent had] 32,697.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1844, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “It has been frequently stated that New York was destined to prove the great battleground; and at this present writing, the truth of the assertion is abundantly manifest. The vote will be closer than anyone imagined, and the majority for [James K.] Polk a great deal less than we had a right to suppose. In fact, last night, and up to seven o’clock or eight o’clock this morning, the result was considered doubtful; but the returns furnished by the six o’clock boat from Albany are calculated, as we think, to remove all cause of alarm. If the Whigs do not cross Cayuga Bridge with more than 9,000, the State is safe for Democracy, beyond the shadow of a doubt. But if, by intrigue, forgery, or other Whig appliances, it should be carried up to eleven or twelve thousand, we shall begin to ‘fear and tremble.’”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1860, the Eagle reported, “All good citizens should bow to the majestic decision of the people, rendered in accordance with the forms of the Constitution. That decision places the Republican party in possession of the national government and the state governments of all the free states. This power is committed to them temporarily as a trust, for whose faithful administration they will be held to a rigid account. Their rule will endure just so long as the people feel satisfied with it and no longer. The course of [Abraham] Lincoln’s administration will be a difficult and delicate one, and if he can succeed in so conducting it as not to give just cause of offense to the South, and at the same time fail to alienate the large portion of his present supporters, who are imbued with strong anti-slavery sentiments, he will accomplish a task more difficult than fell to the lot of any of his predecessors.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Eagle reported, “No man with unclouded faculties disputes this morning the election of Grover Cleveland. The Times, aiming to be moderate and accurate, puts the Democratic plurality in the State of New York at 1,276. The more enthusiastic World will not accept less than 2,500. Our contemporary the Sun, which whatever its partisan inclination during the canvass remembers that it is a newspaper, continues to admit, as it has done since Wednesday morning, that Cleveland has a majority of the electoral votes, and reports a plurality of 1,200 in this state. The tardy and reluctant Associated Press concedes ‘nearly 1,000’ and Mr. Jay Gould gives it up … If we cannot trust each other honestly to record and cheerfully to accept the decision of an election, we may as well give up popular institutions altogether. The Eagle, at least, is disposed to trust the people of the United States by whatever party names they call themselves.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1894, the Eagle reported, “Consolidation, so far as Brooklyn is concerned, is defeated and by a majority sufficiently large to overcome whatever difference the missing districts may make in the totals. During the early part of election night the returns showed small margins in favor of the question, but as the districts got down to the work of canvassing, a gradual but sure strength was shown in favor of maintaining the birthright that Brooklyn has so gradually won and which she has so gallantly redeemed from the clutch of those who sell her out for a mess of pottage. The figures are worthy of special study, showing as they do that several of the wards that were regarded as the strongest in favor of consolidation were the ones that gave the largest majorities against it. Of the lower wards, the First was the only one that sought to get its valuable property into the metropolis under the guise of Greater New York.”
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