Chapter XIV: Preface (12)

It was not until September 3d that the Democratic opposition to Greeley took form, when a national convention was held at Louisville, Ky., and nominated Charles O’Conor, of New York, for President and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President without the formality of a ballot. Adams had agreed to accept the nomination if O’Conor stood at the head of the ticket, but O’Conor promptly and peremptorily declined, after which Mr. Lyon, president of the convention, was nominated for President, but he also declined. The nomination for President was then tendered to Mr. Adams, but he refused, and finally the convention renominated O’Conor, and adjourned without inquiring whether the candidates would stand or decline. The following is the platform adopted by the Democratic dissenters:

_Whereas_, A frequent recurrence to first principles, and eternal vigilance against abuses, are the wisest provisions for liberty, which is the source of progress, and fidelity to our constitutional system is the only protection for either; therefore,

_Resolved_, That the original basis of our whole political structure is a consent in every part thereof. The people of each State voluntarily created their State, and the States voluntarily formed the Union; and each State has provided, by its written Constitution, for everything a State should do for the protection of life, liberty, and property within it; and each State, jointly with the others, provided a Federal Union for foreign and inter-State relations.

_Resolved_, That all government powers, whether State or Federal, are trust powers coming from the people of each State; and that they are limited to the written letter of the Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance of it, which powers must be exercised in the utmost good faith, the Constitution itself providing in what manner they may be altered and amended.

_Resolved_, That the interests of labor and capital should not be permitted to conflict, but should be harmonized by judicious legislation. While such a conflict continues, labor, which is the parent of wealth, is entitled to paramount consideration.

_Resolved_, That we proclaim to the world that principle is to be preferred to power; that the Democratic party is held together by the cohesion of time-honored principles which they will never surrender in exchange for all the offices which presidents can confer. The pangs of the minorities are doubtless excruciating; but we welcome an eternal minority under the banner inscribed with our principles rather than an almighty and everlasting majority purchased by their abandonment.

_Resolved_, That, having been betrayed at Baltimore into a false creed and a false leadership by the convention, we repudiate both, and appeal to the people to approve our platform, and to rally to the polls and support the true platform, and the candidates who embody it.

_Resolved_, That we are opposed to giving public lands to corporations, and favor their disposal to actual settlers only.

_Resolved_, That we favor a judicious tariff for revenue purposes only, and that we are unalterably opposed to class legislation which enriches a few at the expense of the many under the plea of protection.

The campaign was a very earnest one, but after the Greeley tide had struck its ebb in the North Carolina election in August, the battle was a hopeless one for Greeley, and he was defeated by a very large majority. The following table gives the popular vote:

═══════════════╤══════════╤══════════╤══════════╤════════
STATES. │ Grant. │ Greeley. │ O’Conor. │ Black.
───────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────
Maine │ 61,422 │ 29,087 │ ―――― │ ――――
New Hampshire │ 37,168 │ 31,424 │ 100 │ 200
Vermont │ 41,481 │ 10,927 │ 593 │ ――――
Massachusetts │ 133,472 │ 59,260 │ ―――― │ ――――
Rhode Island │ 13,665 │ 5,329 │ ―――― │ ――――
Connecticut │ 50,638 │ 45,880 │ 204 │ 206
New York │ 440,736 │ 387,281 │ 1,454 │ 201
New Jersey │ 91,656 │ 76,456 │ 630 │ ――――
Pennsylvania │ 349,589 │ 212,041 │ ―――― │ 1,630
Delaware │ 11,115 │ 10,206 │ 487 │ ――――
Maryland │ 66,760 │ 67,687 │ 19 │ ――――
Virginia │ 93,468 │ 91,654 │ 42 │ ――――
West Virginia │ 32,315 │ 29,451 │ 600 │ ――――
North Carolina │ 94,769 │ 70,094 │ ―――― │ ――――
South Carolina │ 72,290 │ 22,703 │ 187 │ ――――
Georgia │ 62,550 │ 76,356 │ 4,000 │ ――――
Florida │ 17,763 │ 15,427 │ ―――― │ ――――
Alabama │ 90,272 │ 79,444 │ ―――― │ ――――
Mississippi │ 82,175 │ 47,288 │ ―――― │ ――――
Louisiana[22] │ 71,663 │ 57,029 │ ―――― │ ――――
Louisiana[23] │ 59,975 │ 66,467 │ ―――― │ ――――
Texas │ 47,468 │ 66,546 │ 2,580 │ ――――
Arkansas │ 41,373 │ 37,927 │ ―――― │ ――――
Missouri │ 119,196 │ 151,434 │ 2,439 │ ――――
Tennessee │ 85,655 │ 94,391 │ ―――― │ ――――
Kentucky │ 88,766 │ 99,995 │ 2,374 │ ――――
Ohio │ 281,852 │ 244,321 │ 1,163 │ 2,100
Michigan │ 138,455 │ 78,355 │ 2,861 │ 1,271
Indiana │ 186,147 │ 163,632 │ 1,417 │ ――――
Illinois │ 241,944 │ 184,938 │ 3,058 │ ――――
Wisconsin │ 104,997 │ 86,477 │ 834 │ ――――
Minnesota │ 55,117 │ 34,423 │ ―――― │ ――――
Iowa │ 131,566 │ 71,196 │ 2,221 │ ――――
Nebraska │ 18,329 │ 7,812 │ ―――― │ ――――
Kansas │ 67,048 │ 32,970 │ 596 │ ――――
Nevada │ 8,413 │ 6,236 │ ―――― │ ――――
California │ 54,020 │ 40,718 │ 1,068 │ ――――
Oregon │ 11,819 │ 7,730 │ 572 │ ――――
├──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────
Totals │3,597,132 │2,834,125 │ 29,489 │ 5,608
───────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────

[22] “Custom house” count. The total vote of the country, as given above, includes these returns.

[23] Count by the Warmouth returning board. If these returns should be substituted for the others, the total vote of the country would be: for Grant, 3,585,444; Greeley, 2,843,563.

I find that many tables of the popular vote are discordant, and I have accepted the table prepared by Mr. Stanwood as he presented it. The Louisiana dispute arose from two returning boards. Governor Warmouth, who was, by virtue of his office, the head of the returning board, had supported Greeley, and the dispute led to two returning boards, each of which made a different return of the official vote of the State, one giving it to Greeley and the other to Grant. Mr. Greeley died soon after the election and before the electoral colleges met, and the minority electors, who had been chosen for Greeley, were entirely at sea, as will be seen by the following table of the electoral vote as returned to Congress. There were many quibbles raised in the joint convention of the two houses in counting and declaring the vote. Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts, objected to the Georgia votes cast for Greeley because he was dead at the time, and various other technical objections were made, but the table I give shows the vote as it was accepted:

═════════════════════╤════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╦══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
│ PRESIDENT. ║ VICE-PRESIDENT.
├─────────┬──────────┬────────┬────────┬──────────┬──────╫───────┬────────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────┬──────────┬─────────┬──────────┬─────────
STATES. │ Ulysses │ Thomas A.│B. Gratz│ Horace │Charles J.│David ║ Henry │B. Gratz│George W.│Alfred H.│John M.│Thomas E. │Nathaniel│William S.│Willis B.
│S. Grant,│Hendricks,│ Brown, │Greeley,│ Jenkins, │Davis,║Wilson,│ Brown, │ Julian, │Colquitt,│Palmer,│Bramlette,│P. Banks,│Groesbeck,│ Machen,
│ Ill. │ Ind. │ Mo. │ N. Y. │ Ga. │ Ill. ║ Mass. │ Mo. │ Ind. │ Ga. │ Ill. │ Ky. │ Mass. │ O. │ Ky.
─────────────────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼──────╫───────┼────────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┼──────────┼─────────
Maine │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
New Hampshire │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Vermont │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Massachusetts │ 13 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 13 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Rhode Island │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Connecticut │ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
New York │ 35 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 35 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
New Jersey │ 9 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 9 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Pennsylvania │ 29 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 29 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Delaware │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Maryland │ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Virginia │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
West Virginia │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
North Carolina │ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
South Carolina │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Georgia │ ―― │ ―― │ 6 │ 3[24]│ 2 │ ―― ║ ―― │ 5 │ ―― │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ ―― │ ――
Florida │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Alabama │ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Mississippi │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Louisiana │ 8[24]│ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 8[24]│ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Louisiana │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ 8[24]│ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Texas │ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Arkansas │ 6[24]│ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ 6[24]│ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ ――
Missouri │ ―― │ 6 │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 ║ ―― │ 6 │ 5 │ ―― │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Tennessee │ ―― │ 12 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ 12 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Kentucky │ ―― │ 8 │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1
Ohio │ 22 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 22 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Michigan │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Indiana │ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Illinois │ 21 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 21 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Wisconsin │ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Minnesota │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Iowa │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Nebraska │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Kansas │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Nevada │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
California │ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Oregon │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
├─────────┼──────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼──────╫───────┼────────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┼──────────┼─────────
Total (as declared)│ 286 │ 42 │ 18 │ ―― │ 2 │ 1 ║ 286 │ 47 │ 5 │ 5 │ 3 │ 3 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1
═════════════════════╧═════════╧══════════╧════════╧════════╧══════════╧══════╩═══════╧════════╧═════════╧═════════╧═══════╧══════════╧═════════╧══════════╧═════════

[24] Rejected by Congress.

From the time that Greeley was nominated in May, until probably a month after the meeting of the Democratic convention in July, everything pointed to his triumphant election. Leading men of the party were daily announcing themselves as his supporters, and a tidal wave that would sweep Greeley into the Presidency seemed certain. But in August the great business interests of the country, then rocked in the tempest of inflation created by the war, became appalled at the prospect of the election of Greeley, whose financial and business policy would be but an experiment. All knew that the business of the country was dangerously inflated, and that disaster must come sooner or later, but they felt that it would be delayed by the re-election of Grant, and in the brief period of one month the Greeley tide began its ebb, which doomed him to a most humiliating defeat. Had David Davis been the candidate there would have been no such apprehension in business and monetary circles, and I have never doubted that he would have been elected as the logical successor of Abraham Lincoln.

Although I had opposed the nomination of Greeley, he well understood that it was solely because I felt that I was thus a better friend to him than he was to himself, and I devoted my time to tireless effort to give him success. Outside his editorial duties, in which he was a master of masters, he was as guileless and unsophisticated as a child, and even his closest friends trembled when they regarded his election to the Presidency as more than probable. About the 1st of August, before the revulsion had become visible, I was sent for by Waldo Hutchings to meet the friends of Greeley in conference at the Astor House. Among those present were Mr. Hutchings, Whitelaw Reid, ex-Congressman Cochran, and several others, and they informed me that I had been sent for to call upon Greeley and earnestly admonish him against making any pledges or promises whatever, before the election, as to his Cabinet appointments. They said that if elected President his safety would be in having about him an able, faithful and discreet Cabinet, and they feared that in the kindness of his heart he would become complicated with those who sought to importune him for preferment. In order to keep him from visitors he was then hidden away in a private upstairs room in Brooklyn, where I was directed to call on my mission.

I never saw a happier face than that of Greeley when I met him, as he was then entirely confident of success, and in a very kind and facetious way he reminded me that I had underestimated his strength with the people. When opportunity came in the conversation I suggested to him that a man who was elected President by a combination of opposing political interests would have very grave and complicated duties to perform, and that he should especially avoid any Cabinet complications. With the simplicity and confidence of a child his answer was: “Don’t misunderstand me; you ought to know that I would appoint no Cabinet officer from your section without your approval.” He was surprised to find that I was not there to obtain promises, but to warn him against the peril of saying to others just what he had said to me, and after reviewing the conditions he agreed that his only safety was in avoiding all obligations relating to appointments until the duty confronted him.

He asked me to go to North Carolina and give a week to the campaign in that State, and to that I agreed, although I was in charge of the Pennsylvania battle. That was the last time that I saw Horace Greeley. After the disastrous elections of October, which clearly foreshadowed his defeat, he made New England and Western tours, and delivered speeches which well compare with the grandest utterances of our best statesmanship. But the tide against him was resistless, and while nursing a dying wife and worn out by his ceaseless offices of affection, the blow came that clouded one of the noblest, purest, and ablest of the great men of the land.

On the last day that he put pen to paper he wrote me a brief letter saying that he was “a man of many sorrows,” but that he “could not forget the gallant though luckless struggle” I had made in his behalf. Broken in health, bereaved in his affections, and disappointed in his greatest ambition, his reason toppled from its throne and he died an inmate of an asylum. The two chieftains of the political contest of 1872 were brought together soon after the victor and vanquished were declared, as President Grant stood at the tomb of Horace Greeley to pay the last tribute of himself and the nation to the fallen philanthropist.

THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST

1876

The Presidential contest of 1876 brought into the national political arena the strongest personality developed by the Republican party, with the single exception of Abraham Lincoln. James G. Blaine was admittedly the Henry Clay of the Republican party, and both were equally idolized and equally fated. The Republican party had men of profounder intellect than Blaine, but no one who so completed the circle of all the qualities of a popular leader, including masterly ability as a disputant. Like Clay, he was idolized by his friends and most bitterly defamed by his foes, and both were twice defeated by their party for Presidential nominations when the party was successful, and both nominated only to suffer defeat.

With an intimate knowledge of the public men of the last half century, I regard Blaine as the most magnetic man I have ever met. His greeting to friend and stranger was always generous without gush, and at once brought all who had any communication with him into apparently the closest relations. He remembered names of the humblest and most distant of his acquaintances; always knew something of their communities and their interests. It was not the art of a demagogue, but the natural impulse of a big-hearted, big-brained enthusiast, and Blaine was an enthusiast in everything that enlisted his interest. When, in addition to these charming personal qualities, he possessed every attribute of a great popular orator, it is not difficult to understand why Blaine became the favorite of the people. Like all who have reached any measure of distinction in that line, he had bitter and malignant foes, and he could well have said of himself, as Clay once did when overcome by an exhibition of the generosity of his friends, who had paid a note that greatly embarrassed him: “Never had man such friends and such enemies as Henry Clay.” The chief difference between Clay and Blaine was in the fact that the masses did not know Clay from personal contact, while the masses well knew Blaine, and saw him as he was in his every-day life as well as in his great achievements in politics and statesmanship. In another respect Blaine differed widely from Clay. Blaine was a fatalist, and from 1876, when he was first defeated for the Republican nomination for President in Cincinnati, until his name was last presented to the Republican National Convention in 1892, he was oppressed, profoundly oppressed, with the belief that he never could be President; while Clay hoped to realize the great dream of his life, and confidently expected his election to the Presidency until his final defeat in the Philadelphia convention of 1848.

I saw Blaine soon after the Cincinnati convention of 1876, and talked with him for an hour alone at the Continental Hotel, and I well remember the sad expression of his strong face when he said: “I am the Henry Clay of the Republican party; I can never be President.” He was standing by a window looking out upon the street, with his arm over my shoulder, and he spoke of his hopes and fears with a subdued eloquence that was painfully impressive. He was again defeated for nomination in 1880, thus suffering two defeats when the candidates chosen by the convention were elected. He was nominated in 1884 and defeated, thus completing the circle of the sad history of Clay and the Whig party.

Clay was defeated in the Harrisburg convention of December, 1839, by Harrison, who was elected; he was nominated by the Baltimore convention in 1844, and defeated by Polk; and in 1848 he was again defeated for the nomination in the Philadelphia convention by Taylor, who was elected. Thus both Clay and Blaine were twice defeated in their respective party conventions when their successful competitors were elected, and both nominated when their parties suffered defeats. Soon after Blaine’s nomination, in 1884, I sent a brilliant staff correspondent of my paper, who had intimate personal relations with Blaine, to stay with him at Augusta for several weeks. One pleasant afternoon they walked along the banks of the Kennebec River, when Blaine insensibly diverted the conversation into a soliloquy. He said: “Clay was defeated in two conventions when he could have been elected President, and he was nominated for President when his competitor was elected, and that competitor was one who had not been publicly discussed as a Presidential candidate before the meeting of the Baltimore convention of 1844. I was defeated in two conventions when I could have been elected. I am nominated now with a competitor alike obscure with the competitor of Clay.” He then brought the soliloquy to a climax by holding up his hand and repeating what he seemed to regard as talismanic figures, “1844–1884.” Clay was defeated in 1844, and Blaine was impressed with the belief that he would suffer defeat in 1884.

The prospect for Republican success was not flattering at the opening of the campaign of 1876. The Grant administration was severely criticised and the party greatly weakened by the scandals of the Whiskey Ring, the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, and by the general business depression that began in 1873. The Democrats had carried a large majority in the popular branch of Congress in 1874, and the Republicans were so seriously alarmed at the prospect of losing the election of 1876 that Senator Oliver P. Morton, the ablest of the Republican leaders, made an earnest effort to procure an amendment to the Constitution providing for the election of Presidents by popular vote, but the scheme failed. There was also some disturbance in the Republican party, caused by the evident desire of General Grant to secure a third term. He had written a letter to General Harry White, of Pennsylvania, that was very unlike Grant, whose habit was to express his convictions clearly and tersely, but in this letter he elaborately discussed the question of a third term, without distinctly declaring whether he would or would not accept it.

There was but one conclusion that could be drawn from the letter, and that was that Grant was more than willing to have a third nomination tendered to him. The State convention of Pennsylvania, over which General White presided, had declared with emphasis “opposition to the election to the Presidency of any person for a third term.” General White expected a letter from President Grant in accord with that expression, but the nearest that Grant came to a declination was in the single sentence of the letter, speaking of the third term, he said: “I do not want it any more than I did the first,” to which he added the suggestion that the Constitution put no restriction upon the period a President might serve.

Another pointed admonition to Grant not to press his candidacy was given by the adoption of a resolution in the House, declaring that the established precedent of Washington, who retired from the Presidency after the second term, had become “a part of our Republican system of government, and that any departure from this time-honored custom would be unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with peril to our free institutions.” This resolution passed by 234 to 18, and was supported not only by all the Democrats, but of the 88 Republicans voting, 70 voted for it. One of the peculiar features of the contest for the Republican nomination was presented in the candidacy of Benjamin H. Bristow, then Secretary of the Treasury, who was not in harmony with the President, and yet refused to resign. He was the candidate of the most violent anti-Grant element.

The Republican convention met at Cincinnati on the 14th of June, and it was one of the most earnest and stubborn contests I have ever witnessed. Blaine had a clear majority of the delegates in the convention, and certainly would have been nominated with anything like fair play. On the Sunday morning immediately before the meeting of the convention, and when all the delegates and the outside political hustlers were earnestly at work in Cincinnati, a dispatch came from Washington that fell like a thunderbolt from an unclouded sky upon Blaine’s friends. He had fallen at the church door when about to enter for service, and was unconscious for some time, and the opponents of Blaine made the most of the misfortune.

The first reports of his illness were greatly exaggerated, and his friends at the convention were much disconcerted and discouraged, but when on Monday morning he telegraphed them himself that his illness was not serious, all were again thoroughly united to force his nomination. The friends of Blaine had a majority of the convention. There was not an hour during the sessions of that body that a majority of the delegates did not desire to nominate him for President, but many were held by instructions or other complications, as was the entire Pennsylvania delegation, made up almost wholly of Blaine men, but instructed for Governor Hartranft. Strange as it may seem, he received the votes of a majority of all the delegates in the convention, but not on any one ballot, and never was the wish of a nominating body so artfully misled from its intent.

The speech of Ingersoll nominating Blaine was the most powerful and impressive I ever heard before a deliberative body, and had a ballot been reached on that day no combination could have prevented Blaine’s success. The struggle was desperate for delay, and the opponents of Blaine, fearing that the session might be extended into the evening, and thus reach a ballot without adjournment, had the gas clandestinely cut off from the building, and an adjournment was enforced by darkness. The enemies of Blaine were very powerful. President Grant was one of the most aggressive and vindictive, and ex-Senator Cameron, who was then Secretary of War, was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation, and pitiless and tireless in his opposition to Blaine.

At nearly midnight, before the second day of the convention, Cameron had decided that he must give up the battle against Blaine and assent to his nomination, as his delegation had become very refractory, and all knew that Blaine could be nominated whenever all who desired his nomination were free to vote for him. His defeat was planned in and executed from Cameron’s room, who had his trusted lieutenants about him, including the late Robert W. Mackey, who was the most accomplished and practical politician of his day in Pennsylvania, and the late William H. Kemble. It was decided to propose to the Pennsylvania delegation that as they were instructed for Hartranft, and to vote as a unit, they should do so only while Hartranft’s vote increased, and that whenever he dropped in the race the delegation should then vote as a unit as the majority directed. This was enthusiastically accepted by the friends of Blaine, as they believed that Hartranft’s strength would soon be exhausted, and that then they would get a solid vote for Blaine; but Mackey and Kemble, who understood how to manage politicians of every grade, including the carpet-baggers and colored political speculators from the South, arranged with a number of delegations, chiefly in the Southern States, to have Hartranft’s vote increased slightly on every ballot.

Instead of starting Hartranft with an exhibition of his full strength, part of it was held back, and, to the consternation of the Blaine men from this State, Hartranft’s vote was maintained until the climax came in the landslide to Governor Hayes, of Ohio, as a compromise candidate. But for Secretary Cameron and State Treasurer Mackey and ex-State Treasurer Kemble, Blaine’s nomination would have been absolutely certain at the Cincinnati convention in 1876.

The convention had as permanent president Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, who was a devoted friend of Blaine, but whose delegation, under the manipulation of Chairman Cameron, was held from Blaine until it was too late to be of service to him. Conkling, of New York, who had the unanimous support of his State, was the favorite candidate of the administration, but from Blaine’s opponents was heard on every side the slogan “anybody to beat Blaine.” It was not until the third day that a ballot was reached, and on the 7th a stampede was made to Governor Hayes, of Ohio, and he was unanimously declared the nominee of the party. The following table exhibits the ballots in detail:

═══════════╤══════╤═══════╤══════╤═══════╤══════╤══════╤════════
│First.│Second.│Third.│Fourth.│Fifth.│Sixth.│Seventh.
───────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼──────┼────────
Blaine │ 285 │ 296 │ 293 │ 292 │ 286 │ 308 │ 351
Morton │ 125 │ 120 │ 113 │ 108 │ 95 │ 85 │ ――
Bristow │ 113 │ 114 │ 121 │ 126 │ 114 │ 111 │ 21
Conkling │ 99 │ 93 │ 90 │ 84 │ 82 │ 81 │ ――
Hayes │ 61 │ 64 │ 67 │ 68 │ 104 │ 113 │ 384
Hartranft │ 58 │ 63 │ 68 │ 71 │ 69 │ 50 │ ――
Jewell │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Scattering │ 3 │ 4 │ 3 │ 5 │ 5 │ 5 │ ――
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William A. Wheeler, of New York, was nominated for Vice-President without a formal ballot, as soon after the balloting began the several other candidates were withdrawn, and he was nominated by acclamation. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

When, in the economy of Providence, this land was to be purged of human slavery, and when the strength of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, was to be demonstrated, the Republican party came into power. Its deeds have passed into history, and we look back to them with pride. Incited by their memories to high aims for the good of our country and mankind, and looking to the future with unfaltering courage, hope, and purpose, we, the representatives of the party in national convention assembled, make the following declaration of principles:

1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league. By the combined workings of the national and State governments, under their respective Constitutions, the rights of every citizen are secured, at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted.

2. The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth anniversary of the nation’s birth, and they are now embodiments of the great truths spoken at its cradle, “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that for the attainment of these ends governments have been instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Until these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced, the work of the Republican party is unfinished.

3. The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union, and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their rights, is a duty to which the Republican party stands sacredly pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles embodied by the recent constitutional amendments is vested by those amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, and public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief Executive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.

4. In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant, the National Government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and “solemnly pledged its faith to make provision, at the earliest practicable period, for the redemption of the United States notes in coin.” Commercial prosperity, public morals, and national credit demand that this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress to specie payment.

5. Under the Constitution the President and heads of departments are to make nominations for office; the Senate is to advise and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be respected; that Senators and Representatives, who may be judges and accusers, should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity, and capacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be represented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to the country.

6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people concerning political affairs, and will hold all public officers to a rigid responsibility, and engage that the prosecution and punishment of all who betray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, and unsparing.

7. The public-school system of the several States is a bulwark of the American Republic, and, with a view to its security and permanence, we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbidding the application of any public funds or property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sectarian control.

8. The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obligations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon importations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to promote the interests of American labor and advance the prosperity of the whole country.

9. We reaffirm our opposition to further grants of the public land to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain be devoted to free homes for the people.

10. It is the imperative duty of the Government so to modify existing treaties with European governments, that the same protection shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is given to the native-born; and that all necessary laws should be passed to protect emigrants, in the absence of power in the States for that purpose.

11. It is the immediate duty of Congress fully to investigate the effect of immigration and importation of Mongolians upon the moral and material interests of the country.

12. The Republican party recognizes with its approval the substantial advances recently made toward the establishment of equal rights for women by the many important amendments effected by Republican Legislatures in the laws which concern the personal and property relations of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the appointment and election of women to the superintendence of education, charities, and other public trusts. The honest demands of this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges, and immunities should be treated with respectful consideration.

13. The Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and in the exercise of this power it is the right and duty of Congress to prohibit and extirpate, in the Territories, that relic of barbarism—polygamy; and we demand such legislation as shall secure this end and the supremacy of American institutions in all the Territories.

14. The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold those who imperilled their lives for the country’s preservation in the kindest remembrance.

15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feeling and tendencies. We therefore note with deep solicitude that the Democratic party counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the electoral vote of a united South, secured through the efforts of those who were recently arrayed against the nation; and we invoke the earnest attention of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and human rights.

16. We charge the Democratic party with being the same in character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason; with making its control of the House of Representatives the triumph and opportunity of the nation’s recent foes; with reasserting and applauding in the national Capitol the sentiments of unrepentant rebellion; with sending Union soldiers to the rear, and promoting Confederate soldiers to the front; with deliberately proposing to repudiate the plighted faith of the Government; with being equally false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial questions; with thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement and obstruction of investigation; with proving itself, through the period of its ascendancy in the lower house of Congress, utterly incompetent to administer the Government; and we warn the country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant, and incapable.

17. The national administration merits commendation for its honorable work in the management of domestic and foreign affairs, and President Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the American people for his patriotism and his eminent services, in war and in peace.

18. We present as our candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States two distinguished statesmen, of eminent ability and character, and conspicuously fitted for those high offices, and we confidently appeal to the American people to intrust the administration of their public affairs to Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler.

The friends of Blaine were grievously disappointed at the action of the Cincinnati convention, but Blaine promptly came to the front in his heroic way, and made a tireless battle for the success of the ticket.

The Democratic convention met at St. Louis on the 28th of June. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, was temporary chairman, and was succeeded by General John A. McClernand, of Illinois, as permanent presiding officer. This was the first convention to cross the Father of Waters, and it was a thoroughly organized Tilden convention before it met. Tilden was the ablest political manager in the Democratic party of that day. He was tireless, methodical, and sagacious, and he made his nomination over Hancock and Hendricks by early and complete organization of his friends in all the debatable States. He had won national reputation by his courage in bringing Tweed to justice, and he was regarded by the country generally as well equipped for the high duties of Chief Magistrate. The friends of Hendricks made a desperate battle for him, but they were outclassed in leadership, and it was a Tilden convention when the body convened, with very able men to hold it in subjection.

The Tilden forces required little leadership at St. Louis, as his nomination had been thoroughly accomplished before the convention met. Tilden exhausted his wonderful powers of organization in getting control of the delegations of doubtful States, and looked minutely to the men who should be chosen as delegates, and when the convention met there was no boisterous jostling between the opposing forces, as the majority was complete in its organization and moved with directness to the accomplishment of its purpose. William L. Scott, of Erie, Penn., who was twice elected to Congress in an overwhelmingly Republican district, was the accepted leader of the Tilden people. He was personally popular, self-poised, sagacious, and discreet, and all he had to do was to keep his solid lines unbroken.

The minority was dumbfounded at the development of the Tilden strength, but the Hendricks people, led by McDonald, of Indiana—afterward United States Senator—and most zealously and aggressively aided by the helpless Tammany minority in the New York delegation, fought heroically at every step; but with Scott to manage and Harry Watterson to inspire the Tilden people, they maintained their mastery from start to finish, and Tilden was declared the nominee. When the nomination was announced the convention presented a singular spectacle. The Tilden delegates were at once upon their feet cheering lustily and waving their handkerchiefs, and one after another of the minority delegations rose and joined in the huzzas for the declared candidate, but the Indiana delegates sat stubbornly in their seats, presenting the appearance of a small cleared patch in a forest. The convention waited some minutes for the Indiana men to rise, but they kept their seats. The next day Hendricks was made the candidate for Vice-President in spite of the protests of his delegation and his friends, and finally the convention joined in united cheers for the ticket.

Much bitterness was developed during the struggle between the opposing clans, and a duel between General Morgan, a fighting Democratic soldier of Ohio, and Colonel Breckenridge, of Kentucky, was only averted, when the convention adjourned, by Colonel Watterson hurrying Breckenridge off to dinner, and compelling him to make concessions which properly satisfied the Ohio warrior.

It required only two ballots to give Tilden the nomination, as follows:

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│ First. │Second.
───────────────────────────┼────────┼────────
Samuel J. Tilden, N. Y. │ 417 │ 535
Thomas A. Hendricks, Ind. │ 140 │ 60
Winfield S. Hancock, Penn. │ 75 │ 59
William Allen, Ohio │ 56 │ 54
Thomas F. Bayard, Del. │ 33 │ 11
Joel Parker, N. J. │ 18 │ 18
Allen G. Thurman, Ohio │ ―― │ 7
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The platform was prepared under Tilden’s own direction, and it was unanimously adopted as follows:

We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, do hereby declare the administration of the Federal Government to be in urgent need of immediate reform; do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this convention, and of the Democratic party in each State, a zealous effort and co-operation to this end; and do hereby appeal to our fellow-citizens of every former political connection to undertake with us this first and most pressing patriotic duty.

For the Democracy of the whole country, we do here reaffirm our faith in the permanence of the Federal Union, our devotion to the Constitution of the United States, with its amendments universally accepted as a final settlement of the controversies that engendered civil war, and do here record our steadfast confidence in the perpetuity of Republican self-government.

In absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority—the vital principle of republics; in the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; in the total separation of Church and State, for the sake alike of civil and religious freedom; in the equality of all citizens before just laws of their own enactment; in the liberty of individual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary laws; in the faithful education of the rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy, and transmit these best conditions of human happiness and hope—we behold the noblest products of a hundred years of changeful history; but, while upholding the bond of our Union and great charter of these our rights, it behooves a free people to practise also that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.

Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the hearts of the whole people the Union, eleven years ago happily rescued from the danger of a secession of States, but now to be saved from a corrupt centralism which, after inflicting upon ten States the rapacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed the offices of the Federal Government itself with incapacity, waste, and fraud; infected States and municipalities with the contagion of misrule, and locked fast the prosperity of an industrious people in the paralysis of hard times.

Reform is necessary to establish a sound currency, restore the public credit, and maintain the national honor.

We denounce the failure, for all these eleven years of peace, to make good the promise of the legal tender notes, which are a changing standard of value in the hands of the people, and the non-payment of which is a disregard of the plighted faith of the nation.

We denounce the improvidence which, in eleven years of peace, has taken from the people in Federal taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal tender notes, and squandered four times their sum in useless expense without accumulating any reserve for their redemption.

We denounce the financial imbecility and immorality of that party which, during eleven years of peace, has made no advance toward resumption, no preparation for resumption, but instead has obstructed resumption, by wasting our resources and exhausting all our surplus income; and, while annually professing to intend a speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hindrances thereto. As such hindrance, we denounce the resumption clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal.

We demand a judicious system of preparation by public economy, by official retrenchment, and by wise finance, which shall enable the nation soon to assure the whole world of its perfect ability and its perfect readiness to meet any of its promises at the call of the creditor entitled to payment.

We believe such a system, well devised, and, above all, intrusted to competent hands for its execution, creating at no time an artificial scarcity of currency, and at no time alarming the public mind into a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of credit by which ninety-five per cent. of all business transactions are performed—a system open, public, and inspiring general confidence—would, from the day of its adoption, bring healing on its wings to all our harassed industries, set in motion the wheels of commerce, manufactures, and the mechanic arts, restore employment to labor, and renew in all its natural resources the prosperity of the people.

Reform is necessary in the sum and modes of Federal taxation, to the end that capital may be set free from distrust, and labor lightly burdened.

We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four thousand articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and false pretence. It yields a dwindling, not a yearly rising revenue. It has impoverished many industries to subsidize a few. It prohibits imports that might purchase the products of American labor. It has degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior rank on the high seas. It has cut down the sales of American manufactures at home and abroad and depleted the returns of American agriculture—an industry followed by half our people. It costs the people five times more than it produces to the treasury, obstructs the processes of production, and wastes the fruits of labor. It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all custom-house taxation shall be only for revenue.

Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense—Federal, State, and municipal. Our Federal taxation has swollen from sixty millions gold, in 1860, to four hundred and fifty millions currency, in 1870; our aggregate taxation from one hundred and fifty-four millions gold, in 1860, to seven hundred and thirty millions currency, in 1870; or in one decade from less than five dollars per head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace, the people have paid to their tax gatherers more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and more than twice that sum for the Federal Government alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in every department, and from every officer of the Government.

Reform is necessary to put a stop to the profligate waste of the public lands and their diversion from actual settlers by the party in power, which has squandered two hundred million acres upon railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers of the soil.

Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican Congress, and the errors of our treaties and diplomacy, which have stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth and kindred race recrossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and, in fact, now by law denied citizenship through naturalization as being neither accustomed to the traditions of a progressive civilization nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy which thus discards the liberty-loving German and tolerates a revival of the Cooly trade in Mongolian women imported for immoral purposes, and Mongolian men held to perform servile labor-contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese empire or such legislation within constitutional limitations as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race.

Reform is necessary, and can never be effected but by making it the controlling issue of the elections, and lifting it above the two false issues with which the office-holding class and the party in power seek to smother it:

1. The false issue with which they would enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation, and is resolved to maintain without prejudice or preference for any class, sect, or creed, and without largesses from the treasury to any.

2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the dying embers of sectional hate between kindred peoples once estranged, but now reunited in one indivisible republic and a common destiny.

Reform is necessary in the civil service. Experience proves that efficient, economical conduct of the governmental business is not possible if its civil service be subject to change at every election; be a prize fought for at the ballot-box; be a brief reward of party zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned for proved competency, and held for fidelity in the public employ; that the dispensing of patronage should neither be a tax upon the time of all our public men, nor the instrument of their ambition. Here, again, promises falsified in the performance attest that the party in power can work out no practical or salutary reform.

Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the public service. President, Vice-President, judges, Senators, Representatives, Cabinet officers—these and all others in authority are the people’s servants. Their offices are not a private perquisite; they are a public trust.