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Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross
In the early days of this country, after the Revolution and before the Civil War, it was considered subversive of democracy to exhibit personal ambition for the office of the Presidency. In a democracy, men and women are supposed to be called to serve out of the obscurity of ordinary citizenship because of their reputation for honesty, administrative ability, and love of consensual government. Candidates did not travel around the country crying out for the votes of the people with speeches, promises, benefits, and disbursements of money like they do today.
James Madison served two terms of office from 1809 to 1817, but he never made a campaign speech. It was also considered unseemly to even consider extending the presidential term of office beyond one and certainly beyond two. When James Polk was asked by his party in the late 1840s to run a second time, he turned them down with a stark reminder that lengthier terms of office provide temptations to autocracy that even the best men and women could not resist.
In the 1820s parties held rallies and parades while candidates remained invisible. In the 1840s parties and candidates moved to promotional trinkets and novelties of the type Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison had first pioneered in the 1830s. In the 1880s "stumping" by speechifying from one's own front porch became ever more common.
For Andrew Johnson, "desire for power was his passion." He was said to be "a bidder for the admiration of the crowd." In 1866 he was the first president to make a "whistle-stop" tour of the country during the mid-term elections.
Ulysses Grant and his people "shamelessly trafficked in his image as a war hero after the Civil War." While some presidential candidates made outlandish promises, others hid their real beliefs on issues so as not to offend contrary voters. Rutherford B. Hayes did not participate directly in his campaign in the 1870s, but he told his staff "mum" was the word on divisive issues like slavery.
James Garfield's campaign is associated with the movement to personal campaigning that took deep root in the 1880s. He brought people in from far and wide to hear him speak from his front porch.
Then, in 1896 came the mobile/out-bound political campaign, corporations dumping huge amounts on candidates, and political policy tours just before elections, typified by William Jennings Bryan, William McKinley, and later Woodrow Wilson.
William McKinley's chief of staff said that Vice President Theodore Roosevelt had "boundless ambition." TR took over the three years left in McKinley's remaining term of office and "almost immediately" began running for election in his own right. TR traveled 14,000 miles around the country visiting 150 towns and giving 200 speeches getting people ready for his race in 1904. Old Guard party members decried the "undignified spectacle of a President campaigning for his own office. He was supposed to put himself in the hands of party professionals."
On the other hand, Teddy worked hard to preserve the appearance of being "a disinterested public servant," so he announced he would not seek a third term. Later, of course, he flew his true colors and ran for a third term but lost.
Franklin Roosevelt was so ambitious for power that he shamelessly violated America's long-running tradition against extending his term of office to more than two. He ran for and won four terms of office, eventually dying in office. He grew the federal government to five times its previous size just by dealing with the Depression and World War II.
Candidates after World War II have been uniformly dazzled and seduced by the size, power, glitter, fame, and worldwide influence of the American presidency. They typically began to prepare for and run for the office long in advance of the usual campaign kick-off season. For example, Jimmy Carter began participating in national election campaigns while serving as governor of Georgia. In December of 1974, he was the first in his party to announce for the democratic nomination, virtually two full years before the November 1976 election. He campaigned almost full-time until the election. Others have done the same.
Candidates of both parties have turned American elections into a beauty contest voted on by a citizenry who know little other than surface features about the candidates and even less about the government the candidates aspire to rule.