Whiggery in Rawsonville, 1848

Detroit Free Press, September 15, 1848

I'm not sure why of all the stories that I've come across recently
the one about Rawsonville and a Whig party meeting there in 1848 would
draw me in but such is the case.

Namely because the town is no
more and likewise the political party. Furthermore, a Democrat
derisively wrote the piece and within it he mocked the two young men
from Ypsilanti who made the trek with an old wagon to the meeting on
September 2, 1848. Being that these two young speakers, one a son of Dr. P of Ypsilanti and the other a son of Mr. P., were
approximately 18 years of age--one
had never voted and the other couldn't--the organizer of said meeting
called it off and rescheduled for a few days later. On that day only 8
Whigs, including the aforementioned 3, and 18 Democrats showed up. The
two young men spoke and at the end the Democrat felt sympathy for the
supposed pitiful display of Whiggery.

Two months later Zachary Taylor became the second and final Whig
elected president (William Henry Harrison was the other; both died in
office), as well as the last third party candidate elected to the
highest office, by defeating Michigan Senator Lewis Cass and Free Soil
Party candidate, and former Democrat President, Martin Van Buren.

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