Charles H. Matchett

Charles Horatio Matchett (May 15, 1843 – October 23, 1919) was an American socialist politician. He is best remembered as the first candidate of the Socialist Labor Party of America for Vice President of the United States in the election of 1892 and as the party's candidate for President in the election of 1896.

Machett was born May 15, 1843, hailing originally from the Brighton-Allston area of Massachusetts. He was the descendant of New Englanders dating their presence in America to the 1630s.

At the age of 16, Matchett went to sea and circumnavigated Cape Horn aboard a windjammer. He worked at various times in his earlier years as a United States Navy sailor, a clerk, carpenter, and beer bottler.

In the middle 1880s, Matchett moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he worked as an electrician.

Matchett served as a charter member of the Brooklyn Nationalist Club and was active in the campaign to elect Henry George as Mayor of New York.

In 1890, Matchett was the organizer of American Branch No. 1 of Section New York of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP). Matchett was influential in bringing many of the New York Nationalists into the ranks of the party.

In 1892, Machett ran on a ticket headed by Massachusetts camera manufacturer Simon Wing as the Vice Presidential nominee of the SLP. It was the first time that the party ran a national ticket. Wing and Machett appeared on the ballot in six states and received a total of 21,512 votes. Of this total, New York City alone provided 6,100 votes. The platform of the party in 1892 committed to abolishing the offices of President and Vice President as soon as they came to power. According to one historian of the election, most of the SLP ticket's support in 1892 came not from labor, but from the "Bellamyites", middle-class intellectuals and reformers.

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