Portsmouth Herald
10/13/95 Pg. A6

CANDIDATES ATTEND AMOS TUCK DAY FESTIVITIES
EACH ONE ALLOWED TO GIVE 3-MINUTE NON-PARTISAN SPEECH     
By Liane Evans, Herald Staff

   EXETER - Several Republican candidates for president took full
advantage of the publicity opportunity provided by the Amos Tuck Day
celebration yesterday, riding in horse-drawn carriages in the parade and
waving and grinning for cameras that would broadcast their pictures around
the country. 
   New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill, who also rode in a horse-drawn
carriage, hosted the portion of the event in which each candidate was
allowed a three-minute non-partisan speech at the bandstand. 
   ``The men and women of New Hampshire pick presidents better than people
of any other state,'' said Merrill, who introduced the candidates one by
one. 
   Candidates, for the most part, respected the Amos Tuck Society's
request to stay away from partisan remarks. They focused instead on the
issues for which Tuck stood. Tuck rallied anti-slavery sentiment in 1853
and purportedly founded the Republican Party. 
   Sen. Bob Dole, who was second to speak, began with a joke. ``I did not
know Amos Tuck, but Strom Thurmond did.''
   Dole said Tuck's actions ``teach us that congressmen, senators and
presidents come and go, but great ideas and principles live forever. Tuck
risked his career on the principle that slavery was wrong.''
   Alan Keyes, the only black candidate, was the only one to elicit
applause from the crowd in a short but fiery speech about the freedom for
which Tuck fought. ``The Republican Party was born out of a dedication in
principle to make sure no such evils fall upon this nation again,'' he
said. 
   Not everyone in the crowd, however, agreed with the praise bestowed
upon the Republican Party by several of the candidates who spoke. Barbara
Dennett, a member of NOW (the National Organization of Women) carried a
picket sign that read, ``Today Amos Tuck Would be a Democrat.''
   ``When the Republican Party began, it truly was the party of the
people,'' Dennett said. ``Now it's a party of the elite - white men - who
forget our poor and our hungry.''
   A group of about 20 Phillips Exeter Academy students calling themselves
the Exeter Gay/Straight Alliance also picketed. Alliance president Alex
Myers, an academy senior, said many Republicans have verbally attacked
homosexuals. ``We will not stand for that,'' he said. ``We believe in
freedom for all people.''
   The presidential hopefuls who bounced along Front Street in horse-drawn
buggies yesterday and then gave brief remarks at the bandstand included
Arlen Specter, Lamar Alexander, Steve Forbes, Dick Lugar, Bob Dornan,
Morry Taylor, and Alan Keyes. Patrick Buchanan was the only candidate who
wore a vintage costume. Bob Dole's buggy was empty but the senator,
looking tired but tanned, showed up at the last minute, escorted by New
Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg. Dole was immediately surrounded by a tight pack
of reporters, but he made few remarks.