Chapter XII: Preface (10)

As the political conditions did not improve, I telegraphed to Lincoln that I would meet him at nine o’clock in the evening to discuss the campaign. I found him nervously anxious about Pennsylvania, although not doubting his re-election. He knew that New York was trembling in the balance and might be lost, and his fears were fully warranted, as he had but little over 6000 majority in a million votes. I told him that I had not confidence in the State being carried by the home vote, but that it could be done without interfering with the military operations of the army, as Grant was then besieging Petersburg and Sheridan had whipped the Confederates clear out of the valley. I suggested that he should in some way have Grant furlough five thousand Pennsylvania soldiers home for twenty days, and that Sheridan should do the same, as that vote cast at home would insure a home majority. He hesitated about making the request of Grant for reasons which I could not understand, and I then suggested that General Meade was a soldier and a gentleman, and that he could safely send an order to him as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, and that Meade would obey it and permit the order to be returned.

A messenger from the War Office went the next morning to Meade, bearing the order from Lincoln, brought it back with him, and fully five thousand Pennsylvania soldiers were furloughed to return home. I said: “How about Sheridan?” Lincoln’s face brightened and with great enthusiasm he said:

“Oh, Phil; he’s all right.”

The same order went to Sheridan, of which no record was ever kept, and Sheridan sent five thousand of his veterans home to vote as they shot, and Lincoln’s majority on the home vote was 5712, to which the army vote added 14,363, making a total majority in the State of 20,075.

It is not generally known how earnestly Lincoln labored for compensated emancipation. He made earnest efforts to save the Border States to the Union by the assurance of compensation for slaves, and even after all the slave States south of the Potomac and the Ohio had joined the Confederacy, he adhered to the policy of compensated emancipation until the day of his death. In August, 1864, when the political situation presented a very gloomy aspect, I had a long conference with Lincoln at the White House, and he then introduced the subject of compensated emancipation.

In that conversation he gave me the first intimation of his purpose to try and end the war by paying the South $400,000,000 as compensation for the freedom of the slaves. He had the proposition written out in his own handwriting, but he well knew that if such a purpose on his part were made public, it would make his re-election impossible. He discussed it freely and very earnestly, however, and said that he regarded compensated emancipation as the only way to restore fellowship between the States. He did not doubt the ability of the North to overthrow the military power of the Confederacy, but what he most feared was that the people of the South, driven to desperation by the severe sacrifices they had suffered, and the general desolation of their country, that gave them no hope of regaining prosperity, would make their armies disband into guerrilla squads and would be implacable in their resentments against the Government.

In all of the many expressions I heard Lincoln make use of, toward the close of the war, he always exhibited an earnest desire to do something that would impressively teach the Southern people that they were not to be held as conquered subjects of a despotic power, but were to come back into the Union and enjoy the blessings of a reunited people.

Lincoln believed that in no way could he so widely and profoundly impress the Southern people with the desire of the Government to deal with them in generous justice as by paying them $400,000,000 as compensation for the loss of their slaves. I can never forget the earnestness with which he spoke of this proposition at a time when he did not dare breathe it to the public. He said the war was costing $4,000,000 a day, and that it would certainly last for more than four months, thus costing the Government more than the whole amount he would have gladly given as compensation for the freedom of the slaves, not to calculate the sacrifice of life and destruction of property. He fretted because he could not convey to the South what he believed should be done to close the war and enable them to re-establish their homes and fruitful fields. He believed in his theory of compensated emancipation until his death, and he abandoned it only a short time before the surrender of Lee. He would have suggested it to Vice-President Stephens, of the Confederacy, at their City Point meeting in the winter of 1865, had not Stephens advised him at the outset that he was instructed by Jefferson Davis to entertain no proposition that did not perpetuate the Confederacy, and after his return he wrote a message to Congress in favor of it, submitted it to his Cabinet, by which it was nearly or quite unanimously disapproved, and he endorsed upon it the disapproval of the Cabinet and laid it away.

Lincoln was the most notable combination of sadness and mirth that I ever met with in any of our public men. His face in repose, under all circumstances, was one of the saddest I ever beheld. It would brighten in conversation, and at times would portray a measure of sorrow that could not be surpassed. He was from his youth much given to melancholy. While he was known as fond of sports and brimful of humor, a very large portion of his life was always given to isolation and solitude, when he gave free latitude to the melancholy tendencies of his mind.

Strange as it may seem, he was always a hopeful man, never pessimistic, and always inclined when discussing any question to take the bright side. He was severely conscientious in his convictions and in his actions. He had faith in the present and greater faith in the future. He had been in early life what is now commonly called an agnostic, with a strong inclination to atheism, but in his mature years he never exhibited a trace of it. I have never known any man who had greater reverence for God than Abraham Lincoln. Throughout his writings, political and otherwise, will be found multiplied expressions of his abiding faith in the Great Ruler of nations and individuals.

In a single sentence to be found in Lincoln’s second inaugural address the country and the world have the most complete portrayal of his character. When he was inaugurated for a second term as President, on the 4th of March, 1865, the military power of the Confederacy was broken, and many in his position would have exhibited the pride of the victor over the vanquished on such an occasion; but after stating in the kindest and most temperate language the duty of himself and of the patriotic people of the country to protect the Union against dismemberment, he does not utter a word of resentment against the South. “With malice toward none; with charity for all,” was the brief and eloquent sentence in which he defined the duty of those who had then substantially destroyed the power of the Rebellion. That beautiful expression came from the heart of Abraham Lincoln, and it profoundly impressed the whole country, then wildly impassioned by the bitterness of fraternal strife. He knew the resentments which must confront him in restoring the shattered fragments of the Union, and his supreme desire was to have the bitterness of the conflict perish when peace came.

No man who has filled the Presidential chair was so vindictively and malignantly defamed as was Lincoln in the South. The opponents of the war in the North were guilty of unpardonable assaults upon his integrity, his ability, and his methods, but the South had no knowledge of him, as he had filled no important part in national affairs before his election to the Presidency; and his humble birth in Kentucky, close by the birthplace of Jefferson Davis, and his exaggerated rudeness of appearance and manner made the people of the South ready to believe anything to his discredit. He was proclaimed throughout the Confederacy as a second Nero; as a bloody and remorseless butcher; as a vulgar clown who met the sorrows of the nation with ribald jest. Not a single virtue was conceded to him.

No one could know Lincoln well without seeing some features of his home life. I have seen him in grave conversation with public men on the most momentous subjects, when “Tad” Lincoln, his favorite boy, would rush into the room, bounce on to his father’s lap, throw his arms around his neck, and play hobby-horse on his foot regardless of all the sacred affairs of State. There never was a frown from the father, and the fretting questions of even a great war seemed to perish until “Tad” had completed his romp. The greatest sorrow of Lincoln’s life shadowed the altar of his own home, and it was one he had to suffer in silence. The calamity that befell Mrs. Lincoln after his death was visible to those who had opportunity to see for themselves at an early period of his administration. Mrs. Lincoln was mentally unbalanced, but not sufficiently so to prevent the performance of her social functions, and her vagaries often led to severe reflections upon the President, at times even to the extent of charging her with sympathy for the South, as her brothers were prominent in the Southern army.

I first saw Mrs. Lincoln at Harrisburg on the night that Lincoln made his midnight journey to Washington, and the greatest difficulty we had on that occasion was to prevent her from creating a scene that would have given publicity to the movement. I thought her a fool, and was so disgusted with her that I never spoke to her afterward, although I had frequently gone with ladies to her receptions. I wronged her, for she was then not wholly responsible, and soon after Lincoln’s death the climax came, leaving her to grope out the remainder of her life in the starless midnight of insanity. With Lincoln’s many other sorrows, considering his love of home and family, it may be understood how keenly he suffered, and how he was clouded by shadows for which the world could give no relief.

No man ever came in contact with Abraham Lincoln who did not learn to love, honor, and even reverence him. His ablest political enemies ever paid the highest tributes, not only to his personal attributes, but to his masterly ability, and none surpassed Stephen A. Douglas, the ablest foeman Lincoln ever met, in his appreciation of Lincoln’s qualities. He had to accept vastly the gravest responsibilities ever put upon any President of the United States, and I am quite sure that no other man could have filled Lincoln’s place during the Civil War with equal safety to the Republic. Had he been vindictive and resentful his fame would not be without blemish to-day.

What was to me the most beautiful tribute I have ever heard paid to him came from the lips of Jefferson Davis, when I visited him at his home in Mississippi some ten years after the war. He never tired of discussing the character and the actions of Lincoln, and asked me many questions about his personal qualities. After he had heard all that could be given in the brief time that I had, he said with a degree of mingled earnestness and pathos that few could have equalled:

“Next to the destruction of the Confederacy, the death of Abraham Lincoln was the darkest day the South has ever known.”

THE GRANT-SEYMOUR CONTEST

1868

To the casual reader of our political history, the election and re-election of Grant to the Presidency immediately after the close of the war would seem to be a result at once logical and inevitable; but there are few of the present day who have any knowledge of the many obstacles which confronted Grant in his transfer from the highest military to the highest civil duties of the nation.

It is noted that Grant, the Great Captain of the Age, was elected and re-elected by large majorities; that General Hayes, another soldier of national fame, succeeded him; that General Garfield, a soldier-statesman, succeeded Hayes, defeating Hancock, the most brilliant Democratic soldier of the war, by only a few thousands on the popular vote; that Blaine, the first civilian candidate of the party, was the first Republican to suffer defeat after the political revolution of 1860; that General Harrison, another honored soldier, was successful as the Republican candidate in 1888, and that Major McKinley, now Chief Magistrate of the Republic, carried his musket as a private in the flame of battle, and came out of the war an officer promoted for gallantry. With such a line of military Presidents, the natural assumption of the student of our political history would be that General Grant’s election came about because none could question its fitness.

There were very serious obstacles to Grant’s nomination for the Presidency by the Republicans in 1868. First, he was not a Republican and never had been. He had never voted a Republican ticket, and he never cast a Republican ballot until after he had been eight years a Republican President. His last vote before he re-entered the army was cast for a radical pro-slavery Democrat, and he did not even sympathize with Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, although he lived in Illinois, the home of the great Democratic leader of that day. Second, he was resolutely averse to being a candidate for the Presidency. He was General of the Army, with freedom to retire without diminution of pay; he had no political training, and felt himself unfitted for a political career. He was honest and apparently fixed in his purpose not to become a candidate. These objections at first appeared to be insuperable obstacles to Grant’s nomination, but he was human, and had he declined the Presidency when it was apparently within his reach, he would have stood as the only man in the history of the Republic who had refused its crown.

The Democrats were in a hopeless condition, and they at once began a systematic movement to make him their candidate. This alarmed the Republicans, and they made equally earnest and methodical efforts to make him their leader. It is doubtful upon which side General Grant would have fallen had it not been for the early estrangement between President Johnson and himself. Johnson made repeated attempts to overslaugh him either directly or indirectly. He ordered Grant to Mexico to get him out of the country, but Grant refused to go, and he afterward made an earnest effort to supersede Grant by calling General Thomas to the command of the army, but Thomas stubbornly refused to consider the call. As the Republicans were then in bitter warfare against Johnson, Grant logically found sympathy in Republican circles, and finally, with visible reluctance, he agreed to become the candidate of the Republicans. Had he been nominated by the Democrats he would have been elected, but his administration would have greatly conserved and liberalized the Democratic teachings of that day. His final assent to become the Republican candidate for President was obtained by the late Colonel Forney.

The assassination of Lincoln and the succession of Vice-President Johnson to the Presidency repeated the political history of Tyler and Fillmore in a radical change of the policy of the Government. Johnson started under a cloud in his career as Vice-President. On the day of his inauguration he appeared in the Senate visibly intoxicated, and delivered a maudlin harangue so disgraceful that a correct report was never permitted to be given to the public. The report of that address as severely modified by the omission of the most offensive expressions was highly discreditable. He was immediately hurried away to the country residence of the elder Francis P. Blair, and there remained most of the time until more than a month later, when Lincoln was assassinated. He never attempted to resume his place in the Senate as presiding officer, although he was frequently in Washington and was there on the night of the assassination.

As President he at first startled the country by the most violent demands for the punishment of all those prominently engaged in the Rebellion. His favorite declaration was that “treason must be made odious.” It was not long, however, until his views were materially changed, and he gradually drifted into entire sympathy with the South and aggressively against the policy of the Republicans in Congress. It was this conflict between the Executive and the legislative powers of the Government that led to the radical policy of reconstruction and the wholesale enfranchisement of the colored voters of the South. All the reconstruction measures were vetoed by the President and passed over his veto by the Senate and House, and the issue grew more and more in bitterness until it culminated in the impeachment of Johnson, in which he escaped conviction by a single vote. Grant and Johnson had an acrimonious dispute when Grant, as Secretary of War _ad interim_, admitted Stanton back to the office after the Senate had refused to approve his removal by the President, and from that time Grant and Johnson never met or exchanged courtesies on any other than official occasions, where the necessity for it was imperative. When the arrangements were about to be made for the inauguration of Grant, he peremptorily refused to permit President Johnson to accompany him in the carriage to the Capitol for the inauguration ceremonies, and Johnson did not make his appearance on that occasion.

I never met President Johnson but once during his term in the White House. I had met him casually before and during the war, but cherished a strong prejudice against him as an arch demagogue because of a debate between him and Senator Bell, his colleague from Tennessee, that I happened to hear in the Senate. Bell was one of the ablest and most dignified of Senators, and I never witnessed a more offensive exhibition of the studied arts of the demagogue than Johnson displayed in that Senatorial controversy. It was on some phase of the sectional issue, and Bell’s exalted patriotism and manly plea for union and fellowship contrasted with Johnson as the soaring eagle contrasts with the mousing owl. I had voted for his nomination for Vice-President in the Republican convention of 1864, because I surrendered my own preferences to considerations of expediency presented by Lincoln.

When he made the disgraceful exhibition of himself on inauguration day as he appeared as Vice-President in the Senate, I published an editorial in my Chambersburg paper denouncing Johnson as having offended against the dignity and decency not only of our own Government, but of civilized governments throughout the world, and demanded his resignation. Little more than a month thereafter he became President, and a troop of new friends flocked about him. It is needless to say that he was soon advised of the severe criticism I had made upon the inauguration address. I did not see or hear from him or communicate with him in any way until the early fall, when Governor Curtin informed me that he had received a request from the President for Curtin and myself to visit him at Washington. My answer to Curtin was that as he was in an official position it was probably his duty to regard a request from the President as a command, but as I was not anybody of consequence, I would not go. Within a fortnight a second and more pressing request was made to Curtin for us to come to Washington to confer with the President on the political situation. Curtin felt that we should go. He thought it possible that Johnson might yet be saved from political apostasy, although I had no confidence whatever in the future of the administration, judging from the surroundings he had invited, but I accompanied the Governor to Washington and called upon the President.

At that time Johnson had attempted and largely carried out a scheme of reconstruction of his own, that had gradually drifted him into very close and sympathetic relations with the ruling class of the South that had been active in rebellion. He had appointed provisional Governors, Legislatures had been chosen, Congressmen and Senators had been elected to some extent, and I was utterly surprised to find the President entirely confident that his scheme of reconstruction would be sanctioned by Congress. I was well informed by conference with the leading Republicans of the North as to the policy they would pursue in Congress, and I knew that there was not the shadow of a chance for any of his reconstructed States to be readmitted into the Union on the basis of his policy.

Curtin’s more responsible official position and general distrust made him quite willing to avoid discussion with the President, who opened the conversation by an earnest appeal to us to give tranquillity to the country and renewed prosperity to business by accepting his method of reconstruction, that he always spoke of as “my policy.” I answered by stating that it would be simply a waste of time and effort to attempt to maintain his policy, as not a single Senator and Representative then elected to the next Congress, or to be elected thereafter by Southern States as then reconstructed, would be admitted into Congress. He seemed to be utterly amazed at the audacity of such a declaration, and informed me in the most imperious and insolent manner that every State would be restored to the Union and to representation in the coming Congress. I told him that he was suffering from the common misfortune of power in seldom hearing the truth. He exhibited much irritation, and several times walked the full length of the Executive Chamber with rapid step, apparently to get cooling time for his passion. He finally tempered the discussion by more courteous expression, and we went over the whole ground with rugged frankness on both sides, ending in the disagreement on which we had started.

I then asked him what he proposed to do with Jefferson Davis, who was still in prison at Fortress Monroe, charged with complicity in the assassination of Lincoln. I saw that he was much embarrassed by the inquiry, and told him that he owed it to the truth of history, to Davis himself and to public justice to give him a fair trial. I reminded him also that Wurz, who had just been tried by a court-martial for wanton and murderous brutality to the Union prisoners, with the judgment in the case then in the hands of the Government, but not announced, would be condemned and executed, as he was poor and friendless. I said that if Wurz was guilty of studied brutality to prisoners he deserved to die, but that if he was simply executing the policy of the government of the Confederacy, as was then publicly charged, of deliberately and systematically murdering Union prisoners by giving them unwholesome or insufficient food, and withholding the necessary and possible attention to the sick and dying, the responsible criminal was Jefferson Davis. In answer, the President asked how that could be done, to which I responded by saying that a court-martial, consisting of Generals Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan and Meade, could well be charged with so grave an inquiry, as their judgment would be accepted by the country and the world. If they condemned Davis, he deserved to be executed. If they acquitted him, as I believed they would, he would stand acquitted of one of the most colossal crimes ever charged against an individual. To my surprise, the President answered that there was strong prejudice growing up against court-martials. He was quite right in that declaration, as up to that time he had used them freely and almost wholly in the administration of justice in all cases having any connection with the war. He had denounced Davis as an assassin, and in his new relations with the South, which changed his conditions materially, he was anxious to protect Davis, and evidently did not wish his accusations to be passed upon by a competent court.

I then said to the President that it was his duty to discharge Davis; that Davis should either be tried or given his liberty at an early day, as he had already been long in prison, and I reminded him also that he could not try a man for treason who was President of a government that had beleaguered our Capitol for four years, and that had been recognized by our own Government and by the leading governments of the world as a belligerent power. The discussion of the Davis question, that was a very unpleasant one to the President, brought the conference to a finish, and every prediction that I made to him about his reconstruction policy was fulfilled to the letter. Curtin took only an incidental part in the conference, and we parted with ceremonial courtesy, never to meet again.

While the Republicans had been seriously divided by Johnson’s defection, chiefly because of the large patronage he had to dispense, their columns became gradually reunited, and in 1868 it was practically a solid Republican party arrayed against Johnson with a very few deserters; and the Democrats, while appreciating Johnson’s betrayal of the Republicans, had no love and little respect for the betrayer. From the time that Grant’s candidacy was announced no other aspirant was seriously discussed in Republican circles, and his name brought not only most of the later stragglers of the party into the fold, but commanded the support of a large Democratic element in addition.

The Republican National Convention met at Chicago on the 20th of May, and easily finished its work in two days. Carl Schurz was temporary president, and General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut, was the permanent president. The usual preliminaries were disposed of without jar during the first day, and the committee on resolutions reported promptly on the morning of the second day. The following is the full text of the platform as adopted by a unanimous vote:

The National Republican party of the United States, assembled in national convention in the city of Chicago, on the 21st day of May, 1868, make the following declaration of principles:

1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the majority of the States lately in rebellion, of constitutions securing equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the Government to sustain those institutions and to prevent the people of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy.

2. The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States.

3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and the national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according to the letter, but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted.

4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be equalized, and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit.

5. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preservation of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair period for redemption; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of interest thereon, whenever it can be honestly done.

6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is so to improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay, so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected.

7. The Government of the United States should be administered with the strictest economy; and the corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform.

8. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws; who has employed his executive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, the liberty and life of the citizen; who has abused the pardoning power; who has denounced the national Legislature as unconstitutional; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by every means in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion; who has perverted the public patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption; and who has been justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pronounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators.

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, that because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at every hazard by the United States as a relic of feudal times, not authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled to protection in all their rights of citizenship, as though they were native born; and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country; and, if so arrested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf.

10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were none entitled to more special honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise and imperilled their lives in the service of the country; the bounties and pensions provided by the laws for these brave defenders of the nation are obligations never to be forgotten; the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people—a sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation’s protecting care.

11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this Republic—the asylum of the oppressed of all nations—should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy.

12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all oppressed peoples struggling for their rights.

13. We highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with which men who have served in the Rebellion, but who now frankly and honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the country and reconstructing the Southern State governments upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the late rebels in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people.

14. We recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of Democratic government; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil.

The convention then proceeded to make nominations, and after an able and impassioned speech by General Logan presenting General Grant’s name, the roll was called and every vote responded in favor of Grant, giving 650 in all. As soon as the vote was announced, a curtain on the rear of the stage was lifted, presenting a heroic picture of Grant, and the convention responded to the nomination and the picture of the Great Captain with deafening cheers.

There was a spirited contest for the Vice-Presidency. Wade, of Ohio, had the lead, and Fenton, of New York, Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Colfax, of Indiana, all started with a very promising vote. I was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation, and in obedience to the unanimous instructions of the State, presented to the convention the name of Andrew G. Curtin for second place on the ticket. It soon became evident that the contest would be between Wade and Colfax, and when the struggle was thus narrowed Colfax won an easy victory. The following table presents the several ballots for Vice-President:

════════════════════════════════╤══════╤═══════╤══════╤═══════╤═══════
│First.│Second.│Third.│Fourth.│Fifth.
────────────────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼───────┼───────
Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio │ 147 │ 170 │ 178 │ 206 │ 38
Reuben E. Fenton, of New York │ 126 │ 144 │ 139 │ 144 │ 69
Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts │ 119 │ 114 │ 101 │ 87 │ ――
Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana │ 115 │ 145 │ 165 │ 186 │ 541
Andrew G. Curtin, of Penn. │ 51 │ 45 │ 40 │ ―― │ ――
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine │ 28 │ 30 │ 25 │ 25 │ ――
James Speed, of Kentucky │ 22 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
James Harlan, of Iowa │ 16 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
John A. J. Creswell, of Maryland│ 14 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas │ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
William D. Kelley, of Penn. │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
════════════════════════════════╧══════╧═══════╧══════╧═══════╧═══════

The swift mutations in American politics were strangely illustrated in the nomination for Vice-President at that convention. Senator Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, who was about closing a term of eighteen years in the service of the Senate, who was then President _pro tem._ of that body, and who was expected to reach the Presidency for a period of eight months by the impeachment and dismissal of President Johnson, was the prominent candidate for Vice-President before the meeting of the convention. It was generally believed that Johnson would be successfully impeached; that Wade would become President for the remainder of the term, with illimitable patronage, and that his nomination for the Vice-Presidency was apparently assured. But when many delegates were on their way to Chicago on Saturday, the 16th, the trained lightning sped the message westward that Johnson had been acquitted by a single vote in the Senate, and that ended Wade’s candidacy. He had many friends independent of the prospective power that had made him formidable, and they made a stubborn battle for him, but though he was highest of all on the 1st ballot, on the 5th and final vote he had but 38 votes to 541 for Schuyler Colfax and 69 for Senator Fenton, of New York. Thus two crushing disasters had befallen Wade in a single week. He had the Presidency apparently within his grasp—and this would have carried the Vice-Presidency for another term—but he was smitten in both efforts, and these crowning disasters closely followed his defeat for re-election to the Senate. He was the sturdy, bluff, uncompromising patriot of the Senate during the war, and after these three disasters came upon him in quick succession, the old man groped his way along for a few years in solitude and then slept the dreamless sleep of the dead.

The Democratic National Convention met in New York on the 4th of July, and there was a strong sentiment among the delegates favorable to the nomination of a liberal Republican for President. The Republicans had nominated a Democrat, and Chief Justice Chase, who was an old-time Democrat, and who had won a very large measure of Democratic confidence by his rulings in the impeachment case of President Johnson, was a favorite with a very powerful circle of friends, who had quietly, but very thoroughly, as they believed, organized to have him nominated by a spontaneous tidal wave after a protracted deadlock between the leading candidates. I have every reason to believe that Chase would have been nominated at the time Seymour was chosen, and in like manner, had it not been for the carefully laid plan of Samuel J. Tilden to prevent the success of Chase. Horatio Seymour, the ablest Democrat of that day, was president of the convention, and he had no more idea of being nominated for President than he had of becoming the Czar of Russia. It was generally supposed that Seymour left the chair of the convention because some votes had been cast for him for President, but he really left the chair because he expected to aid in the nomination of Chase, and when Seymour called another to preside, the Tilden strategy completed its purpose by an able Democrat demanding the nomination of Horatio Seymour, and delivering a most eloquent and impressive eulogy upon the confessed leader of the Democracy. In vain did Seymour give a peremptory declination. The convention had been organized for its work, and men in nearly every delegation who had been assigned to their task rose and swelled the hurrah for Seymour. When he found the tide was likely to be overwhelming, he declared with equal earnestness and pathos, “Your candidate I cannot be;” but the wave sped on and Seymour was made the candidate by a practically unanimous vote.

He was prevailed upon to consider the subject, and that meant, of course, that he could not decline. There had been twenty-one ballots before the nomination of Seymour, in which Pendleton, Hancock, and Hendricks were the leading competitors. It was then that the nomination of Chase was expected to be made just as the nomination of Seymour was made, and Tilden’s was the master hand that shaped the action of the convention.

Tilden was a master leader, as subtle and sagacious as he was able, and he thoroughly organized the plan to nominate Seymour, not so much because he desired Seymour as the candidate, as because he was implacable in his hostility to Chase. It was well known by Chase and his friends that Tilden crucified Chase in the Democratic convention of 1868, and this act of Tilden’s had an impressive sequel eight years later, when the election of Tilden hung in the balance in the Senate, and when the accomplished daughter of Chase decided the battle against Tilden.

The convention met on the 4th of July, which was Saturday, and nothing beyond organization was accomplished until Monday. The supporters of Pendleton were altogether the most aggressive of all the candidates. They represented the “Greenback” issue that had then taken form, and exhibited considerable popular strength, not only in the Democratic party, but to some extent in the Republican party. The two-thirds rule was reaffirmed, and on Tuesday the committee on platform reported the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

The Democratic party, in national convention assembled, reposing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice of the people, standing upon the Constitution as the foundation and limitation of the powers of the Government and the guarantee of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by the war, or the voluntary action of the Southern States in constitutional conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or reagitated, do, with the return of peace, demand:

1. Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the American people.

2. Amnesty for all past political offences, and the regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their citizens.

3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government, economically administered, being honestly applied to such payment, and where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States.

4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real value, including Government bonds and other public securities.

5. One currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and the officeholder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder.

6. Economy in the administration of the Government; the reduction of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy; simplification of the system, and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue, so that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened; the credit of the Government and the currency made good; the repeal of all enactments for enrolling the State militia into national forces in time of peace; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufacturers, and as will, without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country.

7. Reform of abuses in the administration, the expulsion of corrupt men from office, the abrogation of useless offices, the restoration of rightful authority to, and the independence of, the executive and judicial departments of the Government, the subordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease.

8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born citizens, at home and abroad; the assertion of American nationality which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example and encouragement to peoples struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights, and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance, and the claims of foreign powers to punish them for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction.

In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the Radical party for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and tyranny which have marked its career.

After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the Government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in the time of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has nullified there the right of trial by jury; it has abolished the _habeas corpus_, that most sacred writ of liberty; it has overthrown the freedom of speech and the press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures and arrests, and military trials and secret star-chamber inquisitions for the constitutional tribunals; it has disregarded, in time of peace, the right of the people to be free from searches and seizures; it has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even the private rooms of individuals, and seized their private papers and letters without any specific charge or notice or affidavit, as required by the organic law; it has converted the American Capitol into a bastile; it has established a system of spies and official espionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort; it has abolished the right of appeal, on important constitutional questions, to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatened to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the Constitution, while the learned Chief Justice has been subjected to the most atrocious calumnies, merely because he would not prostitute his high office to the support of the false and partisan charges preferred against the President. Its corruption and extravagance have exceeded anything known in history, and, by its frauds and monopolies, it has nearly doubled the burden of the debt created by the war. It has stripped the President of his constitutional power of appointment, even of his own Cabinet. Under its repeated assaults the pillars of the Government are rocking on their base, and should it succeed in November next and inaugurate its President, we will meet, as a subjected and conquered people, amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the Constitution.

And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British crown the privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the political power of each State respectively, and that any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power, which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and, if sanctioned by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can only end in a single centralized and consolidated government, in which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and unqualified despotism be established in place of a Federal union of coequal States. And that we regard the Reconstruction Acts (so-called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.

That our soldiers and sailors, who carried the flag of our country to victory against a most gallant and determined foe, must ever be gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor must be faithfully carried into execution.

That the public lands should be distributed as widely as possible among the people, and should be disposed of either under the pre-emption or homestead lands, or sold in reasonable quantities, and to none but actual occupants, at the minimum price established by the Government. When grants of the public lands may be allowed, necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so applied.

That the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, in exercising the powers of his high office in resisting the aggressions of Congress upon the constitutional rights of the States and the people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, and in behalf of the Democratic party we tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard.

Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal to every patriot, including all the conservative element and all who desire to support the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for the liberties of the people; and that to all such, to whatever party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and hail all such co-operating with us as friends and brethren.

_Resolved_, That this convention sympathize cordially with the workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the rights and interests of the laboring classes of the country.

_Resolved_, That the thanks of the convention are tendered to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase for the justice, dignity, and impartiality with which he presided over the court of impeachment on the trial of President Andrew Johnson.

The ballots for President began on Tuesday and ended Thursday. The following table gives the ballots in detail:

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│ Geo. H. │ Andrew │Winfield S.│ Sanford │ Asa │ Joel │James E.│ James R. │ Thos. A. │Horatio │ Francis │Reverdy │
BALLOTS.│Pendleton,│Johnson,│ Hancock, │E. Church,│Packer,│Parker,│English,│Doolittle,│Hendricks,│Seymour,│P. Blair,│Johnson,│Scattering.
│ Ohio. │ Tenn. │ Penn. │ N. Y. │ Penn. │ N. J. │ Conn. │ Wis. │ Ind. │ N. Y. │ Mo. │ Md. │
────────┼──────────┼────────┼───────────┼──────────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────┼───────────
1 │ 105 │ 65 │ 33-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 13 │ 16 │ 13 │ 2-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 10-1/2
2 │ 104 │ 52 │ 40-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 15-1/2│ 12-1/2│ 12-1/2 │ 2 │ ―― │ 10-1/2 │ 8 │ 1/2
3 │ 119-1/2 │ 34-1/2│ 45-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 13 │ 7-1/2│ 12 │ 9-1/2 │ ―― │ 4-1/2 │ 11 │ 1
4 │ 118-1/2 │ 32 │ 43-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 13 │ 7-1/2│ 8 │ 11-1/2 │ 9 │ 2 │ 16 │ 1
5 │ 122 │ 24 │ 46 │ 33 │ 27 │ 13 │ 7 │ 15 │ 19-1/2 │ ―― │ 9-1/2 │ ―― │ 1
6 │ 122-1/2 │ 21 │ 47 │ 33 │ 27 │ 13 │ 6 │ 12 │ 30 │ ―― │ 5 │ ―― │ ――
7 │ 137-1/2 │ 12-1/2│ 42-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ 6 │ 12 │ 39-1/2 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
8 │ 156-1/2 │ 6 │ 28 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ 6 │ 12 │ 75 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
9 │ 144 │ 5-1/2│ 24-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ 6 │ 12 │ 80-1/2 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
10 │ 147-1/2 │ 6 │ 34 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12 │ 82-1/2 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
11 │ 144-1/2 │ 5-1/2│ 32-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12-1/2 │ 88 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
12 │ 145-1/2 │ 4-1/2│ 30 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12-1/2 │ 89 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ 1-1/2
13 │ 134-1/2 │ 4-1/2│ 48-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 13 │ 81 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ 1-1/2
14 │ 130 │ ―― │ 50 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 13 │ 84-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
15 │ 129-1/2 │ 5-1/2│ 79-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12 │ 82-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
16 │ 107-1/2 │ 5-1/2│ 113-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ ―― │ 12 │ 70-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
17 │ 70-1/2 │ 6 │ 137-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12 │ 80 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3-1/2
18 │ 56-1/2 │ 10 │ 144-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 31-1/2│ ―― │ 12 │ 87 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3-1/2
19 │ ―― │ ―― │ 135-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 22 │ 6 │ 4 │ 107-1/2 │ ―― │ 13-1/2 │ ―― │ 5
20 │ ―― │ ―― │ 142-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 16 │ 12 │ 121 │ 2 │ 13 │ ―― │ 9
21 │ ―― │ ―― │ 135-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 19 │ 12 │ 132 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 5
22 │ ―― │ 4 │ 90-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ 4 │ 140-1/2 │ 21 │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
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Before the 22d ballot was announced delegations began to change their votes to Seymour, and the changes were continued amid great enthusiasm until he received the unanimous nomination. The twenty-one votes given him on the last ballot were all cast by Ohio delegates.

It was charged that the nomination of Seymour had been carefully planned by his friends before the meeting of the convention, in imitation of the nominations of Polk and Pierce, but in point of fact the nomination of Seymour was not planned by his friends nor had they any idea of nominating him when the convention met, as his name was not before the convention at all until the 22d ballot and the third day of balloting. He was most earnestly averse to accepting the nomination. His health was impaired, he had had many and very earnest political conflicts, and he felt himself physically and mentally unequal to the exacting duties of a campaign. His nomination was, as I have stated, conceived and executed for the purpose of defeating Chase.