XXII. GREELEY NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT…

XXII. GREELEY NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT

1872

Although the Tammany exposure had absorbed public attention, the Republican party did not escape serious criticism. Reconstruction had disappointed many of its friends. By controlling the negro vote Republican administrations in several Southern States had wrought incalculable harm to the cause of free-government and equal suffrage. The State debt of Alabama had increased from six millions in 1860 to forty millions, that of Florida from two hundred thousand to fifteen millions, and that of Georgia from three millions to forty-four millions. "I say to-day, in the face of heaven and before all mankind," declared Tilden, "that the carpet-bag governments are infinitely worse than Tweed's government of the city of New York."[1342]

[Footnote 1342: New York Tribune, September 5, 1872.]

Following such gross misgovernment the reactionary outbreaks influenced Congress to pass the so-called Ku-Klux Act of April 20, 1871, designed to suppress these outrages. This measure, although not dissimilar to others which protected the negro in his right of suffrage, met with stout Republican opposition, the spirited debate suddenly heralding a serious party division. Trumbull held it unconstitutional, while Schurz, reviewing the wretched State governments of the South, the venal officials who misled the negro, and the riotous corruption of men in possession of great authority, attacked the policy of the law as unwise and unsound.

Not less disturbing was the failure of Congress to grant universal amnesty. To this more than to all other causes did the critics of the Republican party ascribe the continuance of the animosities of the war, since it deprived the South of the assistance of its former leading men, and turned it over to inexperienced, and, in some instances, to corrupt men who used political disabilities as so much capital upon which to trade. The shocking brazenness of these methods had been disclosed in Georgia under the administration of Governor Bullock, who secured from Congress amnesty for his legislative friends while others were excluded. Schurz declared "When universal suffrage was granted to secure the equal rights of all, universal amnesty ought to have been granted to make all the resources of political intelligence and experience available for the promotion of the welfare of all."[1343]

[Footnote 1343: Congressional Globe, January 30, 1872, p. 699.]

The South had expected the President to develop a liberal policy. The spirit displayed at Appomattox, his "Let us have peace" letter of acceptance, and his intervention in Virginia and Mississippi soon after his inauguration, encouraged the belief that he would conciliate rather than harass it. His approval of the Ku-Klux law, therefore, intensified a feeling already strained to bitterness, and although he administered the law with prudence, a physical contest occurred in the South and a political rupture in the North. The hostility of the American people to the use of troops at elections had once before proved a source of angry contention, and the criticism which now rained upon the Republican party afforded new evidence of the public's animosity.

These strictures would have awakened no unusual solicitude in the minds of Republicans had their inspiration been confined to political opponents, but suddenly there came to the aid of the Democrats a formidable array of Republicans. Although the entering wedge was a difference of policy growing out of conditions in the Southern States, other reasons contributed to the rupture. The removal of Motley as minister to England, coming so soon after Sumner's successful resistance to the San Domingo scheme, was treated as an attempt to punish a senator for the just exercise of his right and the honest performance of his duty. Nine months later Sumner was discontinued as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. If doubt existed as to the ground of Motley's removal, not a shadow clouded the reason for Sumner's deposition. The cause assigned was that he no longer maintained personal and social relations with the President and Secretary of State, but when Schurz stigmatised it as "a flimsy pretext" he voiced the opinion of a part of the press which accepted it as a display of pure vindictiveness. "The indignation over your removal," telegraphed John W. Forney, "extends to men of all parties. I have not heard one Republican approve it."[1344] Among Sumner's correspondents Ira Harris noted the popular disapproval and indignation in New York. "Another term of such arrogant assumption of power and wanton acquiescence," said Schurz, "may furnish the flunkies with a store of precedents until people cease to look for ordinary means of relief."[1345]

[Footnote 1344: Pierce, Life of Sumner, Vol. 4, p. 477.]

[Footnote 1345: New York Tribune, April 13, 1872.]

More disturbing because more irritating in its effects was the Administration's disposition to permit the control of its patronage by a coterie of senators, who preferred to strengthen faction regardless of its influence. Under this policy something had occurred in nearly every Northern State to make leading men and newspapers bitter, and as the years of the Administration multiplied censure became more drastic. Perhaps the influence of Conkling presented a normal phase of this practice. The Senator stood for much that had brought criticism upon the party. He approved the Southern policy and the acquisition of San Domingo. He indulged in a personal attack on Sumner, advised his deposition from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, commended the removal of Motley, and voted against the confirmation of E. Rockwood Hoar for associate justice of the Supreme Court.[1346] He also opposed civil service reform.

[Footnote 1346: George F. Hoar, Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 306; Vol. 2, p. 77.]

A statesman so pronounced in his views and in control of abundant patronage was not likely to change a contest for personal advantage into a choice of public policies. Such an one appointed men because of their influence in controlling political caucuses and conventions. "The last two State conventions were mockeries," declared Greeley, "some of the delegates having been bought out of our hands and others driven out of the convention.... I saw numbers, under threats of losing federal office, dragooned into doing the bidding of one man."[1347] The removal of officials whose names stood high in the roll of those who had greatly honoured their State deeply wounded many ardent Republicans, but not until the appointment and retention of Thomas Murphy did criticism scorn the veil of hint and innuendo. This act created a corps of journalistic critics whose unflagging satire and unswerving severity entertained the President's opponents and amazed his friends. They spoke for the popular side at the moment of a great crisis. Almost daily during the eighteen months of Murphy's administration the press of the whole country, under the lead of the Tribune, pictured the collector as a crafty army contractor and the partner of Tweed. "I think the warmest friends of Grant," wrote Curtis, "feel that he has failed terribly as President, not from want of honesty but from want of tact and great ignorance. It is a political position and he knew nothing of politics."[1348] The sacrifice of the best men among his cabinet advisers added greatly to this unrest. In one of his letters, Lowell, unintentionally overlooking Hamilton Fish, declared that E. Rockwood Hoar and Jacob D. Cox were "the only really strong men in the Cabinet."[1349] After the latter's forced resignation and the former's sudden exit to make room for a Southern Republican in order to placate carpet-bag senators for the removal of Sumner, the great critics of the Administration again cut loose. "How long," asked Bowles, "does the President suppose the people will patiently endure this dealing with high office as if it were a presidential perquisite, to be given away upon his mere whim, without regard to the claims of the office? It was bad enough when he only dealt so with consulates and small post-offices; but now that he has come to foreign ministers and cabinet officers it is intolerable."[1350]

[Footnote 1347: New York Tribune, April 13, 1872.]

[Footnote 1348: Cary, Life of Curtis, p. 213.]

[Footnote 1349: Letters of, Vol. 2, p. 57.

"There was undoubtedly great corruption and maladministration in the country in the time of President Grant. Selfish men and ambitious men got the ear of that simple man and confiding President. They studied Grant, some of them, as the shoemaker measures the foot of his customer."--Hoar, Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 197.]

[Footnote 1350: Springfield (Mass.) Republican, November 12, 1870.]

Under these conditions Republicans had been losing strength. In the election of 1870 their numbers, for the first time since 1864, had fallen below a two-thirds majority in the national House, while the Democrats gained four United States senators. In the same year Carl Schurz, with the assistance of the Democrats, had carried Missouri on the issue of universal amnesty. As the disaffection with the Administration became more pronounced, this faction, assuming the name of Liberal Republicans, met in convention at Jefferson City on January 24, 1872, and invited all Republicans who favoured reform to meet in national mass convention at Cincinnati on May 1. This call acted like a lighted match in a pile of shavings, prominent Republicans in every State, including many leading newspapers, giving it instant and hearty response. Among other journals in New York the Nation and the Evening Post guardedly approved the movement, and the World, although a Democratic organ, offered conditional support. The Tribune also encouraged the hope that it would eventually swing into line.

Horace Greeley's principles were in substantial accord with those of his party. He had little liking for civil service reform; the integrity of the national debt invoked his unflagging support; and the suppression of the Ku-Klux, although favouring a liberal Southern policy, had received his encouragement.[1351] Nor had he said anything in speech or writing disrespectful of the President. He did not favour his renomination, but he had faith in the essential honesty and soundness of Republican voters. Moreover, the demand for "a genuine reform of the tariff" made it impossible to reconcile his policy with that of the Liberal Republicans of Missouri.

[Footnote 1351: New York Tribune, May 31, 1870; February 27, 1871; May 1, 1872.]

Nevertheless, Greeley's position in the Republican party had become intolerable. Conkling controlled the city and State machines, Fenton belonged in a hopeless minority, and Grant resented the Tribune's opposition to his succession. Besides, the editor's friends had been deeply humiliated. The appointment of Murphy was accepted as "a plain declaration of war."[1352] The treatment of the Greeley committee, overthrown by the power of patronage, also festered in his heart. "For more than a year," he said, "to be an avowed friend of Governor Fenton was to be marked for proscription at the White House."[1353] Thus, with the past unforgiven and the future without hope, the great journalist declared that "We propose to endure this for one term only."[1354]

[Footnote 1352: Ibid., April 25, 1872.]

[Footnote 1353: Ibid.]

[Footnote 1354: Ibid.]

From the first it was apparent that the Republican schism, to be successful, needed the support of the Tribune. Although its influence had materially suffered during and since the war, it still controlled a great constituency throughout the North, and the longer its chief hesitated to join the new party the more earnest and eloquent did the appeals of the Liberals become. At last, relying upon a compromise of their economic differences, Greeley accepted the invitation to meet the Missouri reformers in convention.[1355] His action was the occasion for much rejoicing, and on April 13 the Liberals of New York City began their campaign amidst the cheers of an enthusiastic multitude assembled at Cooper Institute.[1356] The Fenton leaders, conspicuously posted on the platform, indicated neither a real love of reform nor an absence of office-seekers, but the presence among the vice-presidents of E.L. Godkin of the Nation and Parke Godwin of the Post removed all doubt as to the sincere desire of some of those present to replace Grant with a President who would discourage the use of patronage by enforcing civil service reform, and encourage good government in the South by enacting universal amnesty. To Schurz's charge that the national Republican convention would be made up of office-holders, Oliver P. Morton declared, three days later in the same hall, that there would be more office-seekers at Cincinnati than office-holders at Philadelphia.[1357]

[Footnote 1355: Ibid., March 30, 1872.]

[Footnote 1356: New York Tribune, April 14, 1872.]

[Footnote 1357: Dudley Foulke, Life of Morton, Vol. 2, p. 255.]

The managers of the Liberal Republican movement preferred Charles Francis Adams for President. Adams' public life encouraged the belief that he would practise his professed principles, and although isolated from all political associations it was thought his brilliant championship of the North during the temporising of the English government would make his nomination welcome. David Davis and Lyman Trumbull of Illinois were likewise acceptable, and Salmon P. Chase had his admirers. Greeley's availability was also talked of. His signature to the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis, releasing the ex-president of the Confederacy from prison, attracted attention to his presidential ambition, while his loud declaration for universal amnesty opened the way for a tour of the South. At a brilliant reception in Union Square, given after his return, he described the carpet-bagger as "a worthless adventurer whom the Southern States hate and ought to hate," likening him to the New York legislator "who goes to Albany nominally to legislate, but really to plunder and steal."[1358] His excessive zeal for Democratic support led to the intimation that he had economised his epithets in criticising the Tweed ring.[1359] As early as February, Nast, with his usual foresight, pictured "H.G., the editor" offering the nomination to "H.G., the farmer," who, rejoicing in the name of Cincinnatus, had turned from the plough toward the dome of the Capitol in the distance.[1360] To the charge that he was a candidate for President, Greeley frankly admitted that while he was not an aspirant for office, he should never decline any duty which his political friends saw fit to devolve upon him.[1361]

[Footnote 1358: New York Tribune, June 13, 1871.]

[Footnote 1359: Paine, Life of Nast, p. 162.]

[Footnote 1360: Ibid., p. 223.]

[Footnote 1361: New York Tribune, May 30, 1871.]

Nevertheless, the men whose earnest efforts had prepared the way for the Liberal movement did not encourage Greeley's ambition. Especially were his great newspaper associates dumb. A week before the convention Bowles of the Springfield Republican mentioned him with Sumner and Trumbull as a proper person for the nomination, but Godkin of the Nation, Halstead of the Cincinnati Commercial, and Horace White of the Chicago Tribune remained silent. The Evening Post spoke of him as "the simple-minded philanthropist, with his various scraps of so-called principles."[1362] Jacob D. Cox, Stanley Matthews, and George Hoadley, the conspicuous Liberal triumvirate of Ohio, repudiated his candidacy, and Schurz, in his opening speech as president of the convention, without mentioning names, plainly designated Adams as the most suitable candidate and Greeley as the weakest.[1363]

[Footnote 1362: New York Post, May 2, 1872.]

[Footnote 1363: New York Times, May 3.]

The first New Yorker to appear at Cincinnati was Reuben E. Fenton, followed by John Cochrane, Waldo M. Hutchins, Sinclair Tousey, and other seceders from the Syracuse convention of 1871. These political veterans, with the cunning practised at ward caucuses, quickly organised the New York delegation in the interest of Greeley. On motion of Cochrane, Hutchins became chairman of a committee to name sixty-eight delegates, the people present being allowed to report two delegates from their respective congressional districts. These tactics became more offensive when the committee, instead of accepting the delegates reported, arbitrarily assumed the right to substitute several well-known friends of Greeley. Not content with this advantage, the majority, on motion of Cochrane, adopted the unit rule, thus silencing one-third of the delegation.[1364] Henry R. Selden, whose reputation for fair dealing had preceded him, characterised this performance as "a most infamous outrage," and upon hearing a protest of the minority, presented by Theodore Bacon of Rochester, Schurz denounced the proceeding "as extraordinary" and "as indicating that the reform movement, so far as it concerned New York, was virtually in the hands of a set of political tricksters, who came here not for reform, but for plunder."[1365]

[Footnote 1364: New York Evening Post, May 2, 1872.]

[Footnote 1365: Ibid.]

Next to the "tricksters" the platform-makers embarrassed the convention. It was easy to recognise the equality of all men before the law, to pledge fidelity to the Union, to oppose the re-election of the President, to denounce repudiation, to demand local self-government for the Southern States, to ask "the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed on account of the rebellion," and to favour "a thorough reform of the civil service;" but for a tariff reform assemblage to frame a resolution which the apostle of protection could accept required great patience and persistence. The vexatious delay became so intolerable that delegates insisted upon making a ticket before adopting a platform. Cochrane bitterly opposed such a resolution since Greeley's candidacy, if not his support of the movement, depended upon the convention's attitude on the tariff. Indeed, not until the committee on resolutions had accepted what the editor himself dictated was the knotty point finally settled. "Recognising," said the platform, "that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free-trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and to the decision of Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation."

Although the resolution was out of keeping with the spirit of the movement, it seemed proper to pay this extortionate price for Greeley's support, since his conspicuous championship of protection made it impossible for him to acquiesce in any impairment of that doctrine; but the advantage that such a concession gave his candidacy appears not to have occurred to the leaders who embodied whatever of principle and conviction the convention possessed. Indeed, no scheme of the managers contemplated his nomination. To many persons Greeley's aspiration took the form of "a joke."[1366] Nor was his name seriously discussed until the delegates assembled at Cincinnati. Even then the belief obtained that after a complimentary vote to him and other favourite sons, Adams would become their beneficiary. But the work of Fenton quickly betrayed itself. In obedience to a bargain, Gratz Brown of Missouri, at the end of the first ballot, withdrew in favour of Greeley, and although Adams held the lead on the next four ballots, the strength of Davis and Trumbull shrivelled while Greeley's kept increasing. Yet the managers did not suspect a stampede. Eighty per cent. of the New Yorker's votes came from the Middle and Southern States.[1367] Moreover, the Trumbull men held the balance of power. After several notable changes Adams still led by half a hundred. On the sixth ballot, however, to the surprise and chagrin of the Adams managers, Trumbull's delegates began breaking to Greeley, and in the confusion which quickly developed into a storm of blended cheers and hisses, Illinois and the Middle West carried the Tribune's chief beyond the required number of votes.[1368] Gratz Brown was then nominated for Vice-President.

[Footnote 1366: New York Evening Post, May 4, 1872.]

[Footnote 1367: Southern States, 104; Middle, 96; New England, 15; Western, 19; Pacific, 24.]

[Footnote 1368:

Whole number of votes 714 Necessary to a choice 358

First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Adams 203 243 264 279 309 187 Greeley 147 245 258 251 258 482 Trumbull 110 148 156 141 91 10 Davis 92-1/2 75 44 51 30 6 Brown 95 2 2 2 Curtin 62 Chase 2-1/2 1 2 29]

Greeley's nomination astounded the general public as much as it disappointed the Liberal leaders. Bowles called the result "a fate above logic and superior to reason,"[1369] but the Evening Post thought it due to "commonplace chicanery, intrigue, bargaining, and compromise."[1370] Stanley Matthews, who was temporary chairman of the convention, declared himself greatly chagrined at the whole matter. "I have concluded," he said, "that as a politician and a President maker, I am not a success."[1371] Hoadly published a card calling the result "the alliance of Tammany and Blair," and William Cullen Bryant, Oswald Ottendorfer of the Staats-Zeitung, and other anti-protectionists of New York, made a fruitless effort to put another candidate before the country.[1372] In the end the Nation and the Evening Post supported President Grant.

[Footnote 1369: Merriam, Life of Bowles, Vol. 2, p. 210.]

[Footnote 1370: New York Evening Post, May 4, 1872.]

[Footnote 1371: Warden, Life of Chase, p. 732.]

[Footnote 1372: Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1872, p. 779.]

The nomination deeply mortified the Democrats. They had encouraged the revolt, expecting the selection of Adams, or Trumbull, or David Davis, whom they could readily adopt, but Greeley, a lifelong antagonist, plunged them into trouble. No other Republican had so continuously vilified them. From his introduction to political life in 1840 he had waged a constant and personal warfare, often using his strong, idiomatic English with the ferocity of a Wilkes. A caricature by Greeley was as much feared as a cartoon by Nast. He spared no one. He had assailed Seymour with a violence that might well seem to have made any form of political reconciliation impossible. With equal skill he had aimed his epithets at every Democratic statesman and politician from Van Buren to Fernando Wood, the sting of his relentless and merciless criticism goading each one into frenzy. For them now to assume to overlook such treatment and accept its author as a political associate and exemplar seemed a mockery. Several Democratic journals, following the lead of the World, refused to do so, while others, shrouding their disinclination in a non-committal tone, awaited the assembling of the State convention which met at Rochester on May 15. Seymour did not attend this meeting, and although Tilden carefully avoided an expression of opinion, the delegates, after approving the Cincinnati platform, insisted upon referring the choice of candidates to the national convention, sending John T. Hoffman as a delegate-at-large to represent them.

One month later the Democratic national convention met at Baltimore.[1373] Although the delegates, especially those from the South, indicated a growing sentiment in favour of Greeley, the absence of veteran leaders from the North created much comment. Hendricks of Indiana sent his regrets; Seymour also remained at home; and Tilden, Kernan, and Sanford E. Church found it convenient to be otherwise engaged. But August Belmont appeared, and for the last time, after twelve years of service and defeat as chairman of the national committee, called the convention to order. John T. Hoffman also appeared. He was the best known if not the wisest delegate in the convention, and as he actively joined the Southern leaders in encouraging the new order of things, it was easy to understand how his star might still have been in the ascendant had his political associates been content with power without plunder. Samuel S. Cox, recently characterised by Greeley as "our carpet-bag representative in Congress" who had "cast in his lot with thieves,"[1374] also smoothed the way for his critic's nomination. He could forgive if he did not forget.

[Footnote 1373: July 9, 1872.]

[Footnote 1374: New York Tribune, November 1, 1871. Cox's election to Congress from New York occurred in 1870, three years after he became a resident of the State.]

Next to Cox sat John Kelly, the new boss of Tammany. The combativeness indicated by the form of the head was accentuated by the conspicuous jaw, the firm, thin-lipped mouth, and the closely cropped hair and beard, already fading into white; but there was nothing rough or rowdyish in his manner or appearance. He dressed neatly, listened respectfully, and spoke in low, gentle tones, an Irish sense of humour frequently illuminating a square, kindly face. It was noticeable, too, that although he began life as a mason and had handled his fists like a professional, his hands were small and shapely. Kelly had served two years as alderman, four years in Congress, and six years as sheriff. He had also represented his county in the national conventions of 1864 and 1868. His character for honesty had not been above suspicion. Men charged that he was "counted in" as congressman, and that while sheriff he had obtained a large sum of money by illegal methods.[1375] In 1868 he suddenly sailed for Europe because of alleged ill-health, where he remained until late in 1871. He was a rich man then.[1376] Now, at the age of fifty-one, he was destined to make himself not less powerful or widely known than the great criminal whom he succeeded.[1377] With the aid of Tilden, O'Conor, and other men conspicuous in the reform movement, he had reorganised Tammany in the preceding April, increasing a new general committee to five hundred members, and with great shrewdness causing the appointment of committees to coöperate with the Bar Association, with the Committee of Seventy, and with the Municipal Taxpayers' Association. These represented regenerated Tammany. Kelly affected extreme modesty, but as he moved about the hall of the national convention, urging the nomination of Greeley, the delegates recognised a master in the art of controlling men.

[Footnote 1375: Myers, History of Tammany, pp. 301, 305.]

[Footnote 1376: Ibid., pp. 261 and note, 300 and 301.]

[Footnote 1377: "About the same time, and in adjoining city districts, two bosses entered upon public life. While Tweed was learning to make chairs, Kelly was being taught grate-setting. While Tweed was amusing himself as a runner with a fire engine, Kelly was captain of the Carroll Target Guard. Tweed led fire laddies and Kelly dragged about target-shooters upon the eve of elections. Both entered the Board of Aldermen about the same time. About the same time, too, they went to Congress. Within a few years of each other's candidacy they ran for sheriff. Tweed was defeated. Kelly was elected. While Kelly was making bills as sheriff, Tweed was auditing them in the Board of Supervisors. Tweed became the Tammany boss, and Kelly succeeded him. Tweed fell a victim to his greed, Kelly escaped by the Statute of Limitations."--New York Times, October 30, 1875.]

If any doubt had existed as to Greeley's treatment at Baltimore, it quickly disappeared on the assembling of the convention, for the question of nomination or indorsement alone disturbed it. If it adopted him as its own candidate fear was entertained that Republicans would forsake him. On the other hand, it was claimed that many Democrats who could only be held by party claims would not respect a mere indorsement. Southern delegates argued that if Democrats hoped to defeat their opponents they must encourage the revolt by giving it prestige and power rather than smother it by compelling Liberals to choose between Grant and a Democrat. The wisdom of this view could not be avoided, and after adopting the Cincinnati platform without change, the convention, by a vote of 686 to 46, stamped the Cincinnati ticket with the highest Democratic authority.[1378] Little heartiness, however, characterised the proceedings. Hoffman, in casting New York's vote, aroused much enthusiasm, but the response to the announcement of Greeley's nomination was disappointing. The Tribune attributed it to the intense heat and the exhaustion of the delegates,[1379] but the Nation probably came nearer the truth in ascribing it to "boiled crow."[1380] This gave rise to the expression "to eat crow," meaning "to do what one vehemently dislikes and has before defiantly declared he would not do."[1381]

[Footnote 1378: Of the 46 opposition votes, James A. Bayard received 6 from Delaware and 9 from New Jersey; Jeremiah S. Black 21 from Pennsylvania; William S. Groesbeck 2 from Ohio. There were 8 blanks.]

[Footnote 1379: New York Tribune, July 11, 1872.]

[Footnote 1380: July 11.]

[Footnote 1381: Century Dictionary.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXIII. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF GREELEY

1872

The Republicans of New York welcomed the outcome of the Democratic national convention. There was a time in its preliminary stages when the Liberal movement, blending principle and resentment, had assumed alarming proportions. Discontent with the Administration, stimulated by powerful journals, seemed to permeate the whole Republican party, and the haste of prominent men to declare themselves Liberals, recalling the unhappy division in the last State convention and the consequent falling off in the Republican vote, added to the solicitude. Moreover, the readiness of the Democrats to approve the principles of the Missouri reformers suggested a coalition far more formidable than the Philadelphia schism of 1866. That movement was to resist untried Reconstruction, while the Missouri division was an organised protest against practices in the North as well as in the South which had become intolerable to men in all parties. Gradually, however, the Republican revolt in New York disclosed limitations which the slim attendance at Cincinnati accentuated. Several congressional districts had been wholly unrepresented, and few prominent men had appeared at Cincinnati other than free-traders and Fenton leaders. Such an exhibition of weakness had an exhilarating effect upon Republicans, who received the nomination of Greeley with derision.

In this frame of mind the friends of the Administration, meeting in State convention at Elmira on May 15, sent a delegation to Philadelphia, headed by the venerable Gerrit Smith, which boasted that it was without an office-holder. Three weeks later the Republican national convention, amidst great enthusiasm, unanimously renominated Grant for President. A single ballot sufficed also for the selection of Henry Wilson of Massachusetts for Vice-President.[1382] The platform, to offset the Liberals' arraignment, favoured civil service reform, the abolition of the franking privilege, the prohibition of further land grants to corporations, an increase in pensions, and "the suppression of violent and treasonable organisations" in the South.

[Footnote 1382: Wilson received 364-1/2 votes to 321-1/2 for Colfax of Indiana, who had declared his intention to retire from public life. When, later, he changed his mind, Wilson possessed the advantage.]

At their State convention, held in Utica on August 21, Republicans felt no fear of factional feuds since the aggressive Fenton leaders had passed into the Liberal camp. But reasons for alarm existed. The election in 1871, carried by the inspiration of a great popular uprising in the interest of reform, had given them control of the Legislature, and when it assembled honest men rejoiced, rogues trembled, and Tweed failed to take his seat. The people expected the shameless Erie ring and its legislation to be wiped out, corrupt judges to be impeached, a new charter for New York City created, the purity of the ballot-box better protected, canal management reformed, and a variety of changes in criminal practice. But it proved timid and dilatory. At the end of the session the Tweed charter still governed, the machinery of the courts remained unchanged, and reforms in canal management, in elections, and in the city government had been sparingly granted. In cases of proven dishonesty its action was no less disappointing. It allowed a faithless clerk of the Senate to resign without punishment;[1383] it permitted the leaders of the Tammany ring to continue in office; it decided that a man did not disqualify himself for a seat in the Senate by taking bribes;[1384] and it failed to attack the Erie ring until the reign of Jay Gould was destroyed by the bold action of Daniel E. Sickles.[1385] Never did a party more shamelessly fail in its duty. Even credit for the impeachment of the Tweed judges belonged to Samuel J. Tilden. "That was all Tilden's work, and no one's else," said Charles O'Conor. "He went to the Legislature and forced the impeachment against every imaginable obstacle, open and covert, political and personal."[1386]

[Footnote 1383: New York Tribune, February 15, 1872.]

[Footnote 1384: Ibid., April 11.]

[Footnote 1385: For narration of this coup de main, see Morgan Dix, Life of John A. Dix, Vol. 2, pp. 163-167.]

[Footnote 1386: The Century, March, 1885, p. 734.]

Such a record did not inspire the party with confidence, and its representatives looked for a head to its State ticket who could overcome its shortcomings. Of the names canvassed a majority seemed inclined to William H. Robertson of Westchester. He had been an assemblyman, a representative in Congress, a judge of his county for twelve years, and a State senator of distinguished service. Although prudent in utterance and somewhat cautious in entering upon a course of action, his indefatigable pursuit of an object, coupled with conspicuous ability and long experience, marked him as one of the strong men of New York, destined for many years to direct the politics of his locality.

Nevertheless, a feeling existed that his course in the Senate had lacked force. The New York Times severely criticised it, regarding him too much of a tenderfoot in pushing the reform movement, and on the eve of the convention it opposed his candidacy.[1387] The Times, then the only paper in New York City upon which the party relied with confidence to fight its battles, exerted an influence which could scarcely be overrated. However, it is doubtful if its opposition could have avoided Robertson's nomination had not the name of John A. Dix been sprung upon the convention. It came with great suddenness. No open canvass preceded it. Thurlow Weed, who had proposed it to nearly every convention since 1861, was in Utica, but to Henry Clews, the well-known banker, belonged the credit of presenting it "on behalf of the business men of New York." The captivating suggestion quickly caught the delegates, who felt the alarming need of such a candidate, and the audience, rising to its feet, broke into cheers, while county after county seconded the nomination. One excited delegate, with stentorian voice, moved that it be made by acclamation, and although the Chair ruled the motion out of order, the withdrawal of Robertson's name quickly opened a way for its passage.

[Footnote 1387: August 21, 1872; New York Tribune, August 22.

"Senator Robertson failed to be governor only from lack of boldness."--Ibid., May 8, 1880.]

This incident produced a crop of trouble. Because Clews happened to be the guest of Conkling, Robertson, grievously disappointed, assumed that the Senator had inspired the coup d'état, and from that moment began the dislike which subsequently ripened into open enmity. "As a matter of fact," wrote Clews, "Conkling knew nothing of my intention, but he was either too proud or too indifferent to public sentiment to explain."[1388]

[Footnote 1388: Henry Clews, Fifty Years in Wall Street, pp. 307-309; New York Herald, August 22.]

Dix's political course had been a tortuous one. He followed the Van Burens in 1848, becoming the Barnburners' candidate for governor, and immediately preceding the reduction of Fort Sumter advocated the restoration of the Missouri compromise, perpetuating slavery in all territory south of 36° 30´. After the war he joined President Johnson, presided at the famous Philadelphia convention in 1866, and in return received appointments as minister to The Hague and later to France. For several years, under the changing conditions of Weed's leadership, he figured as a possible candidate for governor, first of one party and then of the other, but the Republicans declined to accept him in 1862 and 1864, and the Democrats refused to take him in 1866. After President Grant had relieved him of the French mission by the appointment of Elihu B. Washburne, he inclined like Weed himself to the Liberal movement until the nomination of Greeley, whom they both despised.

Seymour charged Dix with being "a mercenary man," who "rented out his influence gained from political positions to companies of doubtful character for large pay."[1389] At a later day he sketched his readiness "to change his politics" for "a large consideration and pay down." It was a drastic arraignment. "Starting out with a view of being an Anti-Mason," wrote Seymour, "he shifted to the Democratic party for the office of adjutant-general. He hesitated between Cass and Van Buren until he was nominated for governor by the Free-Soilers. He went back to the Democratic party for the New York post-office under Pierce. He went over to Buchanan for a place in the cabinet; and from his Free-Soil views he became so violent for the South that he would not vote for Douglas, but supported Breckinridge. After presiding at an anti-war meeting he went over to Lincoln, when he was made a major-general. To get a nomination for the French mission he took part with President Johnson. To get confirmed he left him for Grant. In 1868 he intrigued for a presidential nomination from the Democratic party; as in 1866 he had tried to be nominated by the same party for the office of governor. I think this history shows that he valued his political principles at a high rate, and never sold them unless he got a round price and pay down."[1390]

[Footnote 1389: Bigelow's Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 228.]

[Footnote 1390: Ibid., p. 232.]

Of the same age as Dix, Weed knew his history perfectly, which during and after the war resembled his own. But he had faith that Dix's war record would more than offset his political vagaries. "When there was danger that Washington would fall into the hands of the rebels," he said, "Dix severed his relations with the Democratic administration, and in concert with Secretary Holt, Mr. Stanton, and Mr. Seward, rendered services which saved the nation's capital. A few weeks afterward, when in command of Fort McHenry, by a prompt movement against a treasonable design of members of the Legislature, he prevented Maryland from joining the Secessionists."[1391] Moreover, Weed insisted that conservative Democrats and business men, having confidence in his integrity, would vote for him regardless of party.

[Footnote 1391: Barnes' Life of Weed, Vol. 2, p. 485.]

The platform, endorsing the National Administration, failed to mention the record of the Legislature. Praise for members of Congress accentuated this omission. To enlarge the canal for steam navigation it favoured an appropriation by the general government.[1392]

[Footnote 1392: The ticket was as follows: Governor, John A. Dix of New York; Lieutenant-Governor, John C. Robinson of Broome; Canal Commissioner, Reuben W. Stroud of Onondaga; Prison Inspector, Ezra Graves of Herkimer; Congressman-at-large, Lyman Tremaine of Albany; Thurlow Weed declined to head the electoral ticket, but suggested the name of Frederick Douglass, who was nominated by acclamation.--Barnes, Life of Weed, Vol. 2, p. 486.]

The Democrats and Liberals met in separate State conventions at Syracuse on September 4. In numbers and enthusiasm the Liberals made a creditable showing. Many Republicans who had assisted at the birth of their party and aided in achieving its victories, adorned the platform and filled the seats of delegates. John Cochrane called the convention to order, Truman G. Younglove, speaker of the Assembly in 1869, acted as temporary chairman, Chauncey M. Depew became its president, and Reuben E. Fenton, with Waldo M. Hutchins, Archibald M. Bliss, Edwin A. Merritt, D.D.S. Brown, and Frank Hiscock, served upon the committee of conference. Among others present were Sinclair Tousey, William Dorsheimer, George P. Bradford, and Horatio N. Twombly. In his speech on taking the chair, Depew, who had attended every Republican State convention since 1858, declared that he saw before him the men whom he had learned to recognise as the trusted exponents of party policy in their several localities.[1393]

[Footnote 1393: New York Tribune, September 6.]

In apportioning the State offices the Democrats, after much wrangling, conceded to the Liberals the lieutenant-governor, prison inspector, and fifteen of the thirty-four electors. This settlement resulted, amidst much enthusiasm, in the nomination of Depew for lieutenant-governor.

The Democrats experienced more difficulty in selecting a candidate for governor. The withdrawal of Hoffman, who "usually made his appointments to office," said John Kelly, "on the recommendation of the Tammany ring and at the solicitation of the Canal ring," was inevitable,[1394] and long before he declined several aspirants had betrayed their ambition.[1395] But a decided majority of the delegates, "fully four-fifths" declared the New York Times,[1396] preferred Sanford E. Church, then chief judge of the Court of Appeals, who became known as the "ring candidate."[1397] On the other hand, Kernan had the support of Tilden, against whom the same combination arrayed itself that controlled at Rochester in 1871. Although the Tweed ring had practically ceased to exist, its friendships, rooted in the rural press and in the active young men whom it had assisted to positions in Albany and New York, blocked the way. Besides, Kernan himself had invited open hostility by vigorously supporting Tilden in his crusade against Tammany. Thus the contest became complicated and bitter.

[Footnote 1394: New York Tribune, August 23, 1872; New York World, September 10, 1874; Times, September 11.]

[Footnote 1395: Among them were Augustus Schell of New York, Francis Kernan of Oneida, Allen C. Beach of Jefferson, then lieutenant-governor, Homer A. Nelson of Dutchess, formerly secretary of state, and Lucius Robinson of Chemung, the distinguished comptroller.]

[Footnote 1396: September 6, 1872.]

[Footnote 1397: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 226.]

It was an anxious moment for Tilden. Kelly stood for Schell, Kings County presented Church, and Robinson and Beach held their friends firmly in hand. With the skill of an astute leader, however, Tilden weakened the support of Church by publishing his letters declining to be a candidate, and by invoking the influences which emphasised the division between Beach and Schell, gained Robinson for Kernan. The audacity of such tactics staggered the opposition, and when Beach surrendered, Tammany and Kings hastened into line. This led to Kernan's nomination by acclamation.[1398] As further evidence of harmony Kelly moved the appointment of Tilden as a State committeeman-at-large, and subsequently, on the organisation of the committee, continued him as its chairman.

[Footnote 1398: The first ballot resulted as follows: Kernan, 42-1/2; Beach, 32; Schell, 24-1/2; Nelson, 10; Church, 11; Robinson, 6; necessary to a choice, 64.

The ticket nominated by the two conventions was as follows: Governor, Francis Kernan of Oneida, Democrat; Lieutenant-Governor, Chauncey M. Depew of Westchester, Liberal; Canal Commissioner, John Hubbard of Chenango, Democrat; Prison Inspector, Enos C. Brooks of Cattaraugus, Liberal; 1 Congressman-at-large, Samuel S. Cox of New York, Democrat.]

Both conventions endorsed the Cincinnati platform, denounced the Legislature for its failure to expel dishonest members, and charged the National Administration with corruption and favoritism. As a farewell to the Governor, the Democrats resolved that "the general administration of John T. Hoffman meets the approbation of this convention."[1399]

[Footnote 1399: New York Tribune, September 6, 1872.]

Hoffman's political career closed under circumstances that a more heroic soul might have avoided. In his last message he had repudiated the Ring. He had also made some atonement by authorising such suits against it as Charles O'Conor might advise,[1400] and by vetoing the Code Amendment Bill, devised by Cardozo and designed to confer authority upon the judges to punish the press for attacking the Ring; but the facts inspiring Nast's cartoon, which pictured him as the Tammany wooden Indian on wheels, pushed and pulled by the Erie and Tweed combination, had fixed the Governor in the popular mind as the blind tool of rings. "I saw him in 1885," says Rhodes, "at the Schweizerhof in Lucerne. Accompanied by his wife he was driving through Switzerland; and in this hotel, full of his own countrymen, he sat neglected, probably shunned by many. The light was gone from his eyes, the vigour from his body, the confidence from his manner; consciousness of failure brooded in their stead. He had not become dissipated. Great opportunities missed; this was the memory that racked him, body and spirit, and left him nerveless and decrepit, inviting death."[1401] He died in Germany in 1888.

[Footnote 1400: Attorney-General Champlain had publicly announced his purpose to authorise O'Conor to bring such suits before the Committee of Seventy had had its interview with the Governor.--Tilden's Public Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1, p. 590.]

[Footnote 1401: James F. Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. 6, p. 401, note.]

For mayor of New York, John Kelly nominated Abram R. Lawrence, a lawyer of ability and integrity, whom the Liberals endorsed. The anti-Tammany forces, not yet willing to surrender to the new Boss, divided their strength, the Apollo Hall Democracy nominating James O'Brien, its founder, while the associations centring about the Committee of Seventy supported William F. Havermeyer, whom the Republicans endorsed. Havermeyer had twice been mayor.[1402] He belonged among the enemies of jobbery, and although sixty-seven years of age his mental and physical powers remained unimpaired. The contest, thus narrowed to Lawrence and Havermeyer, assured a good mayor.

[Footnote 1402: Elected in 1844 and 1847. Declined a renomination in 1849.]

The campaign opened encouragingly for Democrats and Liberals. "The antagonisms which civil war has created between the kindred populations of our country," declared Tilden, in his speech at the Syracuse convention, "must be closed up now and forever."[1403] This was the keynote of his party, and, apart from the personal question of candidates, was the only serious issue of the campaign. In his letter of acceptance Greeley added a new phrase to the vocabulary of the common people: "I accept your nomination," he said, "in the confident trust that the masses of our countrymen North and South are eager to clasp hands across the bloody chasm."[1404]

[Footnote 1403: New York Tribune, September 5, 1872.]

[Footnote 1404: Ibid., May 22, 1872.]

This was a taking cry, and as the great editor moved across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, the general demonstration of interest created considerable uneasiness at Republican headquarters. "His name had been honoured for so many years in every Republican household," says Blaine, "that the desire to see and hear him was universal, and secured to him the majesty of numbers at every meeting."[1405] Greeley's friends interpreted these vast audiences as indications of a great tidal wave which would sweep Grant and his party from power. In the latter part of September they confidently counted upon carrying the October States. The South's endorsement of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, its declaration that the public credit must be sacredly maintained, and its denunciation of repudiation in every form and guise, created the belief that the North and South would, indeed, "clasp hands across the bloody chasm."

[Footnote 1405: Twenty Years in Congress, Vol. 2, p. 534.]

In New York, however, although the Democratic leaders stood loyally by their candidate, pushing Kernan boldly to the front wherever Greeley seemed weak, the inequality of the fight was apparent. Tammany and old-time Democrats could not forget that the Tribune's editor had classed them with blacklegs, thieves, burglars, gamblers, and keepers of dens of prostitution.[1406] Moreover, only three Republican newspapers had declared for Greeley,[1407] while many leaders like Lyman Tremaine and James W. Husted, whose criticism of the President had encouraged the belief that they would favour the Cincinnati nominee, preferred Grant.[1408] Besides, the business men of the country thought the Republican party without Greeley safer than the Democratic party with Greeley.

[Footnote 1406: "We asked our contemporary [World] to state frankly whether the pugilists, blacklegs, thieves, burglars, keepers of dens of prostitution, etc., etc., who make up so large a share of our city's inhabitants, were not almost unanimously Democrats."--Tribune, January 4, 1868.

"So every one who chooses to live by pugilism, or gambling, or harlotry, with nearly every keeper of a tippling house, is politically a Democrat.... A purely selfish interest attaches the lewd, ruffianly, criminal and dangerous class to the Democratic party by the instinct of self-preservation."--Ibid., January 7. Conkling quoted these extracts in his Cooper Institute speech of July 23.--New York Times, July 24, 1872.]

[Footnote 1407: New York Tribune, Syracuse Herald, and Watertown Times.]

[Footnote 1408: New York Tribune, August 22.]

After the Cincinnati convention a Republican Congress passed a General Amnesty Act, approved May 22, and in the interest of "a free breakfast table" placed tea and coffee on the free list. The reduction of the public debt at the rate of one hundred millions a year, as well as large annual reductions in the rate of taxation, also inspired confidence, while to the President and his Secretary of State belonged great credit for the Geneva arbitration. This amicable and dignified adjustment of differences between England and the United States, leading to new rules for the future government of Anglo-American relations, and making impossible other than a friendly rivalry between the two nations, sent a thrill of satisfaction through the American people. Until then the settlement of such irritating questions had not come by the peaceful process of law.

As the campaign progressed both sides indulged in bitter personalities. In his Cooper Institute speech, an address of great power, Conkling's invective and sarcasm cut as deeply as Nast's cartoons.[1409] Greeley's face, dress, and manners readily lent themselves to caricature. "I have been assailed so bitterly," wrote Greeley, "that I hardly knew whether I was running for President or the Penitentiary."[1410] The Tribune told of a negro woman who was heard cursing him in the streets of an Ohio river town because he had "sold her baby down South before the war."[1411] Grant did not escape. Indeed, he was lampooned until he declared that "I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equalled in political history."[1412]

[Footnote 1409: New York Times, July 24. "The longest and greatest campaign speech of his life."--Alfred R. Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 436.]

[Footnote 1410: Hollister's Life of Colfax, p. 387, note.]

[Footnote 1411: The same article enumerates some of the charges published against him: "In Washington he was a briber. In Albany he was the head of the lobby. In New York he was a partner in the Ring frauds. He defended the rascalities of Tweed. He sold the influence of his paper to Tammany Hall. He intrigued to restore the thieves to power. He was involved in schemes for robbing the national treasury. He was plotting the payment of the Confederate debt. He had promised pensions to Rebel soldiers. He was an original Secessionist. He was once a slave-trader in Memphis. He was the friend of the Ku-Klux and ballot-box stuffers.... Dix blamed him for expressing ten or twelve years ago sentiments identical with those of Dix himself."--New York Tribune, November 22, 1872.]

[Footnote 1412: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Richardson, Vol. 7, p. 223.]

Early elections increased Republican confidence. North Carolina, then a doubtful State, gave a Republican majority in August.[1413] Vermont and Maine followed in September, and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana practically settled the question in October. Finally, the election on November 5 gave Greeley, by small majorities, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas, or sixty-six electoral votes to two hundred and seventy-two for Grant, whose popular majority exceeded three-quarters of a million. Dix carried New York by 55,451 majority.[1414] Of thirty-two congressmen the Republicans elected twenty-three, with a legislative majority of seventy on joint ballot. To the surprise of Tammany, Havermeyer was elected mayor by over 8,000 plurality, although Greeley carried the city by 23,000 majority.[1415] A comparison of the vote with that cast for Seymour in 1868 showed that a marked percentage of Democrats refused to support Greeley, and that a larger percentage did not vote at all.[1416] Other slights added to his disappointment. "I was an Abolitionist for years," he said, "when to be one was as much as one's life was worth even here in New York, and the negroes have all voted against me. Whatever of talents and energy I have possessed, I have freely contributed all my life long to Protection; to the cause of our manufactures. And the manufacturers have expended millions to defeat me. I even made myself ridiculous in the opinion of many whose good wishes I desired, by showing fair play and giving a fair field in the Tribune to Woman's Rights; and the women have all gone against me."[1417]

[Footnote 1413: After the North Carolina election would-be Liberals rejoined the Republican party in great numbers.]

[Footnote 1414: Grant, 440,759; Greeley, 387,279; majority, 53,480. Dix, 447,801; Kernan, 392,350; majority, 55,451. Robinson, 442,297; Depew, 397,754; majority, 44,543. Tremaine, 438,456; Cox, 400,697; majority, 37,759.]

[Footnote 1415: Havermeyer, 53,806; Lawrence, 45,398; O'Brien, 31,121.]

[Footnote 1416: Seymour (1868), 429,883. Greeley (1872), 387,279. Kernan (1872), 392,350. Cox (1872), 400,697.]

[Footnote 1417: George W. Julian, Political Recollections, p. 348.]

Before the vote of the State was officially canvassed Greeley had gone to his rest.[1418] The campaign had overtaxed his strength, and upon his return from the western speaking tour he watched at the bedside of his wife until her decease on October 30. After the election he resumed editorial charge of the Tribune, which he formally relinquished on the 15th of the preceding May, but it was plain that the robust animal spirits which characterised his former days were gone.[1419] The loss of his wife, the mortification of defeat, the financial embarrassment of his paper, and the exhaustion of his physical powers had broken him. The announcement of his death, however, although the public got an early intimation of the cruel work which his troubles were making upon a frame that once seemed to be of iron, came with the shock of sudden calamity. The whole country recognised that in the field of his real conquests the most remarkable man in American history had fallen, and it buried him with the appreciation that attends a conqueror. At the funeral President Grant, Vice-President Colfax, and the Vice-President-elect, Henry Wilson, rode in the same carriage.[1420]

[Footnote 1418: He died November 29, 1872.]

[Footnote 1419: "In the darkest hour my suffering wife left me, none too soon for she had suffered too deeply and too long. I laid her in the ground with hard dry eyes. Well, I am used up. I cannot see before me. I have slept little for weeks and my eyes are still hard to close, while they soon open again." Letter to his friend, Mason W. Tappan of New Hampshire.--Hollister's Life of Colfax, p. 387, note.]

[Footnote 1420: New York Tribune, December 5, 1872.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXIV. TILDEN DESTROYS HIS OPPONENTS

1873-4

The Legislature which convened January 6, 1873, re-elected Roscoe Conkling to the United States Senate. There was no delay and no opposition. Cornell was in the watch-tower as speaker of the Assembly and other lieutenants kept guard in the lobbies.[1421] The Republican caucus nominated on the 8th and the election occurred on the 21st.[1422] A few months later (November 8) the President, in complimentary and generous terms, offered Conkling the place made vacant by the death of Chief Justice Chase (May 7). His industry and legal training admirably fitted him for the position, but for reasons not specified he declined the distinguished preferment just as he had refused in December, 1870, the offer of a law partnership with an annual compensation of fifty thousand dollars. Probably the suggestion that he become a presidential candidate influenced his decision, especially as the President favoured his succession.[1423]

[Footnote 1421: Cornell resigned as surveyor of the port and was elected to the Assembly.]

[Footnote 1422: The Democrats voted for Charles Wheaton of Dutchess, distinguished locally as a county judge.]

[Footnote 1423: Alfred R. Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 451.]

At this time Conkling, then forty-four years old, may be said to have reached the height of his power, if not of his fame. His opponents were under his feet. Greeley was dead, Fenton's long and successful career had closed in the gloom of defeat and the permanent eclipse of his influence in public affairs, and others were weakened if not destroyed by their party desertion. Moreover, the re-election of a President whom he had supported and defended with an opulent vocabulary that made his studied addresses models of speech, continued his political control. About half a dozen able lieutenants, holding fat offices in the great patronage centres, revolved with the fidelity of planets, while in every custom-house and federal office in the State trained politicians performed the function of satellites. To harness the party more securely hundreds of young men, selected from the various counties because of their partisan zeal, filled the great departments at Washington. "In obedience to this system," said George William Curtis, "the whole machinery of the government is pulled to pieces every four years. Political caucuses, primary meetings, and conventions are controlled by the promise and expectation of patronage. Political candidates for the lowest or highest positions are directly or indirectly pledged. The pledge is the price of the nomination, and when the election is determined, the pledges must be redeemed. The business of the nation, the legislation of Congress, the duties of the departments, are all subordinated to the distribution of what is well called spoils."[1424]

[Footnote 1424: Report of Civil Service Commission, 1871, p. 18.]

President Grant is quoted as declaring that the Senator never sought an appointment from him.[1425] This statement is probably true, but not on the theory of the Latin maxim, Qui facit per alium, facit per se.[1426] No occasion existed for him to make requests since his agents, well known to the President, cabinet, and collectors, could obtain the necessary appointments without the Senator's participation or even knowledge. Nevertheless, he relied upon public patronage as an instrument of party and factional success, and uniformly employed it throughout his career. The principal objection of the independent press to his appointment as chief justice implied his devotion to practical politics and an absence of the quality of true statesmanship.[1427] Indeed, in spite of his transcendent gifts, his hold upon party and people was never stronger than the machine's, since the influence of his control tended to transform political action into such subserviency that men of spirit, though loving their party, frequently held aloof from its service.

[Footnote 1425: Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 656.]

[Footnote 1426: "He who does a thing by the agency of another, does it himself."]

[Footnote 1427: The Nation, December 4, 1873.]

But Conkling used only the methods inherited with his leadership, and to all appearances the grasp of the Republican party in New York in January, 1873, was as firm as the most ardent partisan could desire. This feeling controlled the State convention at Utica on September 24 to such a degree that its action resembled the partisan narrowness of a ward caucus. Conkling did not attend, but his lieutenants, evidently considering the party vote as a force which only needed exhortation or intimidation to bring out, dropped Barlow, the attorney-general, without the slightest regard to public sentiment, and visited the penalty of party treason upon Thomas Raines, the State treasurer, for his support of Greeley. From a party viewpoint perhaps Raines deserved such treatment, but Francis C. Barlow's conduct of his office had been characterised by the superb daring with which he met the dangers and difficulties of many battlefields, making him the connecting link between his party and the Reform movement. He had prosecuted the Erie spoilers, and was then engaged in securing the punishment of the Tammany ring. O'Conor spoke of his "austere integrity" in refusing to accept millions as a compromise.[1428] Moreover it was conceded that Barlow, with the possible exception of Tilden and O'Conor, knew more of the canal frauds than any one in the State. The list of suits brought by him showed the rottenness of the whole system of canal management, while a recent letter, denouncing a leader of the Ring, did not veil his hostility to its individual members.[1429] This attack, boldly directed against a prominent Republican, aroused the fierce opposition of the contract manipulators, whose influence sufficed not only to defeat him, but to nominate the very man he had accused.

[Footnote 1428: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 245.]

[Footnote 1429: This letter, dated September 14, 1874, is published in nearly all the State papers of September 18. It is given in full in the New York Herald and Times.

Sanford E. Church, in a published interview, charged that the story of his connection with the ring originated with Barlow.--New York Tribune, April 2, 1875.]

To add to its shame the party in New York City made a bargain with Apollo Hall, an organisation gotten up by James O'Brien, the ex-sheriff, for the purpose of selling to the highest bidder. In 1871 by skilful manoeuvres the party freed itself from any suspicion of an alliance with this faction, and had thus to a very great extent obtained the direction of the Reform movement; but now, by dropping Barlow, ignoring his disclosures, and accepting O'Brien's offer, already rejected by Tammany with contempt, it sacrificed its hold upon the solid part of the community which had been taught that a vote for the Republican ticket was the only way to obtain the fruits of reform.[1430]

[Footnote 1430: The ticket presented was as follows: Secretary of State, Francis S. Thayer, Rensselaer; Comptroller, Nelson K. Hopkins, Erie; Treasurer, Daniel G. Fort, Oswego; Attorney-General, Benj. D. Silliman, Kings; Canal Commissioner, Sidney Mead, Cayuga; State Engineer, William B. Taylor, Oneida; Prison Inspector, Moss K. Platt, Essex.]

At the Democratic convention which met in Utica on October 1, Thomas Raines, whose adhesion to Greeley had made him a martyr, was nominated by acclamation. Here, however, the enthusiasm ended. The overwhelming defeat of the previous year had sapped the party of confidence, and candidates whom the convention desired refused to accept, while those it nominated brought neither prominence nor strength.[1431] The platform denounced the "salary grab," passed in the closing hours of the last Congress, and condemned the Crédit Mobilier disclosures which had recently startled the country and disgraced Congress.[1432] Through its executive committee the Liberal party indorsed the Democratic nominees except for comptroller and prison inspector. For these offices it preferred the Republicans' choice of Hopkins and Platt.

[Footnote 1431: The following ticket was nominated: Secretary of State, Diedrich Willers, Seneca; Comptroller, Asher P. Nichols, Erie; Treasurer, Thomas Raines, Monroe; Attorney-General, Daniel Pratt, Onondaga; Canal Commissioner, James Jackson, Niagara; State Engineer, Sylvanus H. Sweet, Albany; Prison Inspector, George W. Mellspaugh, Orange.]

[Footnote 1432: James Brooks was the only New York congressman implicated. The committee, finding him guilty of corruption as a member of the House and as a government director of the Union Pacific Railroad, recommended his expulsion, but on February 27, 1873, the House, by a vote of 174 to 32 (34 not voting) changed the sentence to one of censure. Brooks died on April 30 following.]

Meanwhile the financial crash which began on September 18 by the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., spread an intense gloom over the State as well as the country, and although by the middle of October the panic, properly defined, had ended, a commercial crisis continued. By November 1 several railroads had defaulted in the payment of interest on their bonds, cotton and iron mills had closed, and many labourers were thrown out of employment. Criticism of the Administration's financial policy naturally followed, and men whose purchasing power had ceased turned against the Republicans, giving the State to the Democrats by 10,000 majority. With the aid of the Liberals, Hopkins and Platt received about 4,000 majority. On the question of electing or appointing judges, the people by an overwhelming vote pronounced in favour of election.

As in other "off years" the result of this contest indicated a general drift of political opinion. Ever since the Republican party came into power ebbs and flows had occurred at alternating biennial periods. A Democratic revival in 1862 followed Lincoln's election in 1860; his re-election in 1864 saw a similar revival in 1865; and Grant's decisive vote in 1868 brought a conservative reaction in 1870. It was perhaps natural to expect that after the President's re-election in 1872 something of the kind would happen in 1873. Nevertheless, Samuel J. Tilden saw in the result something more than the usual reaction. He believed the failure of the Republicans to associate themselves intimately with reformers and to manifest a loathing for all corrupt alliances, had added greatly to their burden, and early in the summer of 1874 he determined to run for governor.

On his return from Europe in the early fall of 1873 Tilden had found thoughtful men of both parties talking of him as a successor to Dix. To them the trials of Tweed and his confederates made it plain that substantial reform must begin at Albany, and they wanted a man whose experience and success in dealing with one Ring rendered it certain that he would assault and carry the works of the other. But Tilden was cunning. He betrayed no evidence of his desire until others confessed their unwillingness to take the nomination. To the average office-seeker running against Dix and his plurality of 55,000 was not an attractive race. Meanwhile John Kelly, realising the value of appearing honest, indicated a preference for Tilden.

There was something magnetic about the suggestion. Tilden was able, rich, and known to everybody as the foe of the Tweed ring. Besides he was capable, notwithstanding his infirmity, of making a forceful speech, full of fire, logic and facts, his quick, retentive memory enabling him to enter easily into political controversy. As a powerful reasoner it was admitted that he had few equals at the bar. Indeed, the press, crediting him with courage, perseverance, and indomitable industry, had pictured him as a successful leader and an ideal reformer. Tilden himself believed in his destiny, and when, at last, the time seemed ripe to avow his candidacy he carried on a canvass which for skill, knowledge of human nature, and of the ins and outs of politics, had rarely been approached by any preceding master. The press of the State soon reflected the growing sentiment in his favour. "In selecting him," said George William Curtis, "the party will designate one of its most reputable members."[1433] The New York Times spoke of him as a "man of unsullied honour,"[1434] and the Tribune declared that "his career in office, should he be elected, would be distinguished alike by integrity, decorum, administrative ability, and shrewd political management."[1435]

[Footnote 1433: Harper's Weekly, September 10, 1874.]

[Footnote 1434: July 24.]

[Footnote 1435: September 18.]

As one county after another instructed its delegates for Tilden, professional politicians exhibited much astonishment. To the Canal ring the trend of public sentiment toward a man of his record and independence was especially ominous. Suddenly, such violent opposition appeared that the New York Herald, studying the Democratic papers in the State, declared that outside of New York City only the Utica Observer, which was influenced by Kernan, favoured his nomination.[1436] It was openly charged that selfish ambition prompted his prosecution of the Tweed frauds, and that he was a cunning schemer, cold, reticent, and severe. Then men began to dissuade him. Friends counselled him not to take the risk of a nominating convention. Even Seymour, moved perhaps by ambitions of his own, discouraged him. If nominated, he wrote, you must expect the martyr's crown. "There has been a widespread plan to carry the convention against you. It was started last winter, and it shaped laws and appointments. The State officers are against you.... You will find the same combination at Syracuse that controlled at Rochester in 1871.... Our people want men in office who will not steal, but who will not interfere with those who do."[1437] Coupled with this opposition was the suggestion that Sanford E. Church, being in no wise identified with the Ring prosecutions, would make a more available candidate.

[Footnote 1436: New York Herald, September 7, 1874. See also Buffalo Courier, September 14.]

[Footnote 1437: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, pp. 221-222.]

Earlier in the year Church, in an interview with Tilden, had declined to become a candidate, but afterward, as in 1872, he grew anxious for the honour, and finally gave Joseph Warren of the Buffalo Courier a written consent to accept if nominated with the concurrence of other candidates.[1438] Armed with this statement and with letters of withdrawal from others associated with the gubernatorial nomination, Warren sought Tilden with confidence. By prearrangement their meeting occurred on September 8 at the Delavan House in Albany. Several were present--Jarvis Lord, a senator from Rochester and an extensive canal contractor, DeWolf of Oswego, and other canal men. In the room adjoining Reuben E. Fenton waited.

[Footnote 1438: For copy of this statement see New York World, September 10, 1874.]

Tilden was not surprised at the latter's presence. He knew that in the event of his withdrawal, Fenton intended that the Liberals should nominate Church at their convention which assembled in Albany two days later.[1439] But Tilden, long familiar with the Ring's methods, refused to withdraw. On no theory could they make it appear to be his duty, and the longer they talked the more determined he became. Then John Kelly, in a published interview, gave Church's aspiration its death blow. "DeWolf of Oswego, Warren of Erie, and Senator Lord of Monroe," he said, "belong to what is called the Canal ring.... It has been their policy to control a majority of the canal board to enable them to control the canal contracts.... They have always been very friendly to Judge Church and of great assistance to him personally.... There was friendship existing between the old Tammany ring and this Canal ring."[1440] John Bigelow, the friend of Tilden, subsequently used stronger phrases. "Tilden knew the Canal ring had no more servile instrument in the State than the candidate they were urging. Church was poor; he was ambitious; he was not content with his place on the bench, and was only too ready at all times to combine with anybody on any terms to secure wealth and power."[1441] To Kelly's charges the Buffalo Courier retorted that "Tammany Hall under honest John Kelly is exactly the same as Tammany Hall under dishonest William M. Tweed."[1442]

[Footnote 1439: Buffalo Courier, September 11; New York Herald, September 9.]

[Footnote 1440: New York World, September 10, 1874.]

[Footnote 1441: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 226. See also the Nation, September 10, 1874.]

[Footnote 1442: September 11. Reprinted from the Rochester Union of September 4.]

When the Democratic State convention met a week later war existed between Kelly and the Canal ring.[1443] Warren intensified it by giving the Syracuse Standard a despatch declaring that Kelly's robberies while sheriff were as criminal as those of Garvey's and Ingersoll's of the Tweed ring.[1444] In the furious assault upon Tilden no reasons appeared other than the fear of the Canal ring that his administration would lead to its discomfiture. Indeed, the flankers of the reform movement found it difficult to agree upon a candidate, and when Amasa J. Parker finally consented to stand he did so to gratify Church's friends in the middle and western portions of the State, who resented the Kelly interview. That the bad blood between the Warren and Kelly factions did not break out in the convention was probably due to Seymour's conciliatory, tactful remarks. A single ballot, however, banished the thought of setting Tilden aside for some man less obnoxious to the Ring.[1445]

[Footnote 1443: September 16 and 17, at Syracuse.]

[Footnote 1444: New York World, September 17.]

[Footnote 1445: Tilden, 252; Parker, 126; Robinson, 6.]

The convention was not less fortunate in its selection of William Dorsheimer of Buffalo for lieutenant-governor. Many delegates, desiring a Democrat who would inspire enthusiasm among the younger men, preferred Smith M. Weed of Clinton, resourceful and brilliant, if unembarrassed by methods; but he succumbed to the earnest appeals of DeWitt C. Littlejohn in behalf of Liberal recognition.[1446] Dorsheimer possessed almost all the qualities that go to make up success in politics. He had courage and tact, fascination and audacity, rare skill on the platform, creditable associations, and marked literary attainments. Moreover, he had given up a United States attorneyship to follow Greeley.[1447] Not less helpful was the platform, drafted by Seymour, which abounded in short, clear, compact statements, without buncombe or the least equivocation. It demanded the payment of the public debt in coin, the resumption of specie payment, taxation for revenue only, local self-government, and State supervision of corporations. It also denounced sumptuary laws and the third term.

[Footnote 1446: William Dorsheimer, 193; Weed, 155; Stephen T. Hoyt of Allegany (Liberal), 34; Edward F. Jones of Broome (Liberal), 15.]

[Footnote 1447: He was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York on March 28, 1867. His successor's commission was dated March 23, 1871.--State Department Records.

The ticket nominated was as follows: Governor, Samuel J. Tilden, New York; Lieutenant-Governor, William Dorsheimer, Erie; Court of Appeals, Theodore Miller, Columbia; Canal Commissioner, Adin Thayer, Rensselaer; Prison Inspector, George Wagner, Yates.]

Although John Kelly aided in nominating Tilden, his desire for anti-ring candidates did not extend to the metropolis. William F. Havermeyer's sudden death in November made necessary the election of a mayor, and Kelly, to keep up appearances, selected William H. Wickham, his neighbour, an easy-going diamond merchant, whose membership on the Committee of Seventy constituted his only claim to such preferment.[1448] But here all semblance of reform disappeared. James Hayes, charged with making half a million dollars during the Tweed régime, became the candidate for register, and of fifteen persons selected for aldermen nine belonged to the old Ring, two of whom were under indictment for fraud.[1449] Evidently Warren did not betray ignorance when he pronounced the new Tammany no better than the old. The Republicans presented Salem H. Wales for mayor, while the Germans, declining to act with Kelly, selected Oswald Ottendorfer, the editor, a most able and upright citizen who had proven his fidelity to the reform movement.

[Footnote 1448: "Wickham has no conception beyond making a pleasant thing for himself and our friends out of the seat which he occupies." Letter of Charles O'Conor.--Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 245.]

[Footnote 1449: Myers, History of Tammany Hall, p. 307.]

The Republicans renominated John A. Dix with other State officials elected in 1872,[1450] and had the Custom-house sincerely desired the Governor's re-election, the expediency of a coalition with Ottendorfer's supporters must have appealed to it as highly important. Dix had made an admirable executive. His decisions of questions regardless of men and of the next election excited popular confidence, and the power of public opinion had forced his renomination by acclamation. But his independence could not be forgiven. Moreover, the platform gave him little assistance. It neither denounced corruption, demanded relief from predatory rings, nor disapproved a third term. Except as to resumption and the payment of the public debt in coin, it followed the beaten track of its predecessors, spending itself over Southern outrages. Although several delegates had prepared resolutions in opposition to a third term, no one dared present them after Conkling had finished his eulogy of the President.

[Footnote 1450: The convention met at Utica on September 23. The ticket was as follows: Governor, John A. Dix, New York; Lieutenant-Governor, John C. Robinson, Broome; Court of Appeals, Alexander S. Johnson, Oneida; Canal Commissioner, Reuben W. Stroud, Onondaga; Prison Inspector, Ezra Graves, Herkimer.]

The Liberals who assembled at Albany on September 10 had about finished their course as a separate party. Their creed, so far as it represented practical, well-meditated reform, was a respectable, healthy faith, but the magnet which attracted the coterie of Republicans whose leadership gave it whatever influence it exerted in the Empire State was Horace Greeley. When he died their activity ceased. Besides, the renomination of Dix, who had little liking for the organisation and no sympathy with a third term, now afforded them good opportunity to return to the fold. The Albany convention, therefore, represented only a small fraction of the original dissenters, and these adjourned without action until the 29th. On reconvening a long, acrimonious discussion indicated a strong disposition to run to cover. Some favoured Tilden, others Dix, but finally, under the lead of George W. Palmer, the convention, deciding to endorse no one, resolved to support men of approved honesty, who represented the principles of the Cincinnati convention and opposed a third term.[1451]

[Footnote 1451: On June 23 the friends of total abstinence, resenting Dix's veto of a local option measure passed by the Legislature of 1873, assembled at Auburn, approved the organisation of a Prohibition party, and nominated a State ticket with Myron H. Clark for governor. About 350 delegates from twenty-five counties were present.]

As the days shortened the campaign became more spirited. Tilden, putting himself in close relation with every school district in the State, introduced the clever device of mailing a fac-simile of one of his communications, thus flattering the receiver with the belief that he possessed an autograph letter. His genius for detail kept a corps of assistants busy, and the effort to inspire his desponding partisans with hope of success made each correspondent the centre of an earnest band of endeavourers. Meanwhile the Democratic press kept up a galling fire of criticism. Dix had escaped in 1872, but now the newspapers charged him with nepotism and extravagance. "Governor Morgan had two aides in time of war," wrote Seymour, "while Dix has six in time of peace. Morgan had one messenger, Dix has two. Morgan had a secretary at $2,000; Dix had the pay put up to $3,500--and then appointed his son.... The people think the Governor gets $4,000; in fact, under different pretexts it is made $14,000."[1452] An attempt was also made to connect him with the Crédit Mobilier scandal because of his presidency of the Union Pacific road at the time of the consideration of the Oakes Ames contract.[1453] That the Governor had no interest in or connection with the construction company availed him little. Other men of approved honesty had become involved in the back-salary grab, the Sanborn claims, and the Crédit Mobilier, and the people, quickly distrusting any one accused, classed him with the wrong-doers.

[Footnote 1452: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 233.]

[Footnote 1453: Morgan A. Dix, Life of Dix, Vol. 2, pp. 128, 149.]

Moreover, Dix laboured under the disadvantage of having apathetic party managers. "They deliberately refused to support him," said his son, "preferring defeat to the re-election of one whom they desired to be rid of."[1454] Conkling, in his speech at Brooklyn,[1455] rebuked the spirit of calumny that assails the character of public men, but he neglected to extol the record of a patriotic Governor, or to speak the word against a third term which would have materially lightened the party burden.

[Footnote 1454: Morgan A. Dix, Life of Dix, Vol. 2, pp. 195-196.]

[Footnote 1455: October 30, 1874.]

When the opposition press began its agitation of a third term, charging that the country was "drifting upon the rock of Cæsarism,"[1456] few men believed such an idea sincerely entertained. Nevertheless, as the election approached it aroused popular solicitude. Congressmen who hurried to Washington in the hope of being authorised to contradict the accusation, returned without an utterance to disarm their opponents, while the Democrats not only maintained that Grant himself was not averse to using his official position to secure the nomination, but that eighty thousand office-holders were plotting for this end.[1457] As the idea had its inception largely in the talk of a coterie of Grant's political and personal friends, Conkling's eulogies of the President seemed to corroborate the claim. So plainly did the Times stagger under the load that rumours of the Tribune's becoming a Conkling organ reached the Nation.[1458] It could not be denied that next to the commercial depression and the insolence of the Canal ring, the deep-seated dissatisfaction with Grant's administration influenced public sentiment. Excluding the inflation veto the record of his second term had not improved upon the first, while to many his refusal to disclaim the third-term accusation became intolerable.

[Footnote 1456: New York Herald, July 7, 1873.]

[Footnote 1457: The Nation, October 29, 1874.]

[Footnote 1458: April 16, 1874.]

The municipal contest in New York City also developed embarrassments. Barring a few appointments Havermeyer had made a fair record, having improved the public school system, kept clean streets, and paid much attention to sanitary conditions. Moreover, he distributed the revenue with care, and by the practice of economy in the public works reduced expenses nearly eight millions. The winter of 1873-4 proved a severe one for the unemployed, however, and to catch their votes Kelly, with great adroitness, favoured giving them public employment. This was a powerful appeal. Fifteen thousand idle mechanics in the city wanted work more than public economy, while thousands in the poorer districts, seeking and receiving food from Tammany, cheered the turbulent orator as he pictured the suffering due to Havermeyer's policy and the hope inspired by Kelly's promises.

Havermeyer's accusations against Kelly also recoiled upon his party. In the course of a bitter quarrel growing out of Kelly's appointment of Richard Croker as marshal,[1459] the Mayor publicly charged "Honest John" with obtaining while sheriff $84,482 by other than legal methods.[1460] "I think," said Havermeyer, "you were worse than Tweed who made no pretensions to purity, while you avow your honesty and wrap yourself in the mantle of purity."[1461] Kelly's prompt denial, followed by a suit for criminal libel, showed a willingness to try the issue, but Havermeyer's sudden death from apoplexy on the morning of the trial (November 30), leaving his proofs unpublished, strengthened Kelly's claim that "Tammany is the only reform party in existence here to-day."[1462]

[Footnote 1459: Until then Croker had been an attaché of Connolly's office.]

[Footnote 1460: "No law authorised Kelly to include convictions in the Police Courts, yet he did include them, thereby robbing the city of over thirty thousand dollars. He charged, at one time, double the rates for conveying prisoners to and from the Island; at another, 133 per cent. more. He charged for 11,000 vagrants committed to the work-house, a clear fraud upon the treasury."--New York Times, October 20, 1875.]

[Footnote 1461: New York papers of September 18, 1874.]

[Footnote 1462: New York World, September 10, 1874.]

The Republican press, apparently with effect, enlarged upon the general excellence of Dix's administration, but early in the campaign the people showed greater liking for reform at home than abhorrence of outrages in the South, and the result proved a political revolution, Tilden receiving a plurality of 50,317 and Dorsheimer 51,488.[1463] Besides the State ticket the Democrats carried the Assembly and eighteen of the thirty-three congressional districts. With the exception of James Hayes, who was defeated for register by over 10,000 majority, Tammany likewise elected its entire ticket.[1464]

[Footnote 1463: In 1872 Dix had 55,451.]

[Footnote 1464: Tilden, 416,391; Dix, 366,074; Clark, 11,768; Dorsheimer, 416,714; Robinson, 365,226; Bagg, 11,310.

New York City: Tilden, 87,623; Dix, 44,871; Clark, 160; Wickham, 70,071; Wales, 36,953; Ottendorfer, 24,226. Legislature: Assembly, Democrats, 75; Republicans, 53. Senate, Democrats, 12; Republicans, 18; Independents, 2. The Senators were elected in 1873.]

Democratic success was not confined to New York. Small majorities were obtained in Ohio and Indiana as well as in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and for the first time since 1861 the House of Representatives passed into the control of that party. The financial depression plainly operated to the great advantage of the Democrats, but in allowing Tilden to pre-empt the reform issue when men were intent upon smashing rings, the Republicans opened the door for their destruction. "They [the Republican leaders] have apparently believed the people would submit to anything and everything," said the Times, "and that the party was indestructible. If a newspaper warned them in a friendly but firm spirit against the policy of blundering, it was treated with a mixture of the insolence and arrogance which they exhibited toward all opposition."[1465]

[Footnote 1465: New York Times, November 4, 1874.

Eleven amendments to the Constitution were ratified at this election. Those relating to political matters required thirty days' residence in an election district; abolished property qualification, thus removing all distinction between white and coloured voters; fixed the pay of legislators at $1500 per year, without limiting the length of a session; changed the terms of governor and lieutenant-governor from two to three years, with salaries of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively; required two-thirds of all the members elected to each house to override the governor's veto; authorised the veto of individual items in an appropriation act; and prohibited extra compensation being paid to a canal contractor.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXV. RIVALRY OF TILDEN AND CONKLING

1875

If further evidence of Tilden's supremacy in his party were needed, the election of Francis Kernan to the United States Senate furnished it. It had been nearly thirty years since the Democrats of New York were represented in the Senate, and Tilden sent his staunchest supporter to take the place of Fenton.[1466] This fidelity disturbed the members of the Canal ring, who now anxiously awaited the development of the Governor's policy. The overthrow of the Tammany ring and the memory of Tweed's fate hung about them like the shadow of a great fear.

[Footnote 1466: The Republicans voted for ex-Governor Edwin D. Morgan, the vote standing: Kernan, 87; Morgan, 68; Hoffman, 1.]

Tilden did not strike at once. Treating the matter as he did the Tweed disclosures, he secretly studied the methods of the Ring, examined more than one hundred contracts, and employed a civil engineer to verify work paid for with that actually done. So severe was the strain of this labour that in February he suffered a cerebral attack nearly akin to paralysis.[1467] Of the character or purpose of his work no one had any intimation, and guilty men who obsequiously complimented him thought him weak and without the nerve to harm them. But on the 18th of March (1875) he thrilled the State and chilled the Ring with a special message to the Legislature, showing that for the five years ending September 30, 1874, millions had been wasted because of unnecessary repairs and corrupt contracts. Upon ten of these fraudulent contracts the State, it appeared, had paid more than a million and a half, while the proposals at contract prices called for less than half a million. This result, he said in substance, was brought about by a unique contrivance. The engineer designated the quantity and kinds of work to be done, and when these estimates were published by the commissioners, the favoured contractor, learning through collusion what materials would actually be required, bid absurdly low prices for some and unreasonably high rates for others. After the contract was let, changes made in accordance with the previous secret understanding required only the higher priced materials. Thus the contractor secured the work without competition or real public letting.[1468]

[Footnote 1467: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 285.]

[Footnote 1468: The Governor plainly illustrated this device. The engineer having estimated the amount of work and materials, the bidders added their prices.

A bid as follows:

100 cubic yards of vertical wall, at $3 $ 300.00 3,855 cubic yards of slope wall, at $1.50 5,782.50 2,400 feet B.M. white oak, at $50 120.00 60,000 feet B.M. hemlock, at $15 900.00 ------------ Total estimate of A $ 7,102.50

B bid as follows:

100 cubic yards of vertical wall, at $6 $ 600.00 3,855 cubic yards of slope wall, at 30 cents 1,156.50 2,400 feet B.M. white oak, at $70 168.00 60,000 feet B.M. hemlock, at $3 180.00 ------------ Total estimate of B $ 2,104.50

B was given the contract as the lowest bidder, after which the work was changed as follows:

3,955 cubic yards of vertical wall, at $6 $ 23,730.00 62,400 feet B.M. white oak, at $70 4,368.00 ------------ Actually paid B by the State $ 28,098.00

On ten of these contracts, originally amounting to $424,735.90 the State paid $1,560,769.84.--Tilden's Public Writings and Speeches, Vol. 2, pp. 106-108.]

The Governor recommended various measures of reform, notably a new letting after any change in the proposals for bids. He also suggested an investigation of the frauds already perpetrated, and for this purpose the Senate confirmed a non-partisan commission,[1469] who quickly reported that the work of one contractor showed fraudulent estimates, false measurements, and a charge of $150,337.02 for excavations and embankments that were never made. Neither surveys nor estimates preceded the letting of the contract, while in every instance he appeared as the lowest bidder. Eleven additional reports made during the year showed that similar frauds were repeatedly practised by him and other contractors. In each case arrests, indictments, and suits for restitution promptly followed.[1470] It also appeared that the auditor of the canal department, a former Republican candidate for secretary of state, had made use of his office to speculate in canal drafts and certificates.

[Footnote 1469: This commission was composed of John Bigelow, Daniel Magone of Ogdensburg, Alexander E. Orr of Brooklyn, and John D. Van Buren of New York.]

[Footnote 1470: Indictments were found against the son of a State senator, a member of the board of canal appraisers, an ex-canal commissioner, two ex-superintendents of canals and one division engineer, besides numerous subordinates and contractors.--See Bigelow's Life of Tilden, pp. 262-263; for names of the parties, see Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1875, p. 558.]

The excitement over these revelations recalled the indignation following the Tweed disclosures. Every voter in every corner of the State knew of them. Furthermore, the arrests of contractors and officials along the line of the canal multiplied evidence of the Governor's courage. He spared no one. Of the principal officials and ex-officials indicted all save two were Democrats,[1471] but his administration knew no party and expressed no concern. Such creditable public service made a profound impression, and during a visit to the western part of the State in August, the people accorded him the attention given to a conqueror. From Albany to Buffalo crowds everywhere saluted him with bands of music and salvos of artillery, while his addresses, characterised by plainness of speech, deprecated a reactionary policy.

[Footnote 1471: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 263.]

These demonstrations alarmed Republican leaders. They appreciated that his adroitness and energy in accumulating proof of Tweed's guilt had fixed the attention of the country upon him as a presidential candidate, and that the assault on the canal spoilers made his pretensions more formidable. Moreover, they realised that their own failure to lead in canal reform in 1873, evidenced by ignoring Barlow and his incriminating disclosures, yielded Tilden a decided advantage of which he must be dispossessed. To accomplish this two ways opened to them. Regarding the canal scandal as not a party question they could heartily join him in the crusade, thus dividing whatever political capital might be made out of it; or they could disparage his effort and belittle his character as a reformer. The latter being the easier because the more tolerable, many Republican papers began charging him with insincerity, with trickery, and with being wholly influenced by political aspirations. His methods, too, were criticised as undiplomatic, hasty, and often harsh. Of this policy Harper's Weekly said: "Those who say that the Governor's action is a mere political trick, and that he means nothing, evidently forget that they are speaking of the man who, when he once took hold of the Tweed prosecution, joined in pushing it relentlessly to the end."[1472]

[Footnote 1472: Harper's Weekly, August 28, 1875.]

This was the sentiment of George William Curtis, who presided at the Republican State convention.[1473] It also became the policy of the managers whom defeat had chastened. They discerned the signs of the times, and instead of repressing hostility to a third term and dissatisfaction with certain tendencies of the National administration, as had been done in 1874, they deemed it wiser to swim with the current, meeting new influences and conditions by discarding old policies that had brought their party into peril. The delegates, therefore, by a great majority, favoured "a just, generous, and forbearing national policy in the South," and "a firm refusal to use military power, except for purposes clearly defined in the Constitution." They also commended "honest efforts for the correction of public abuses," pledged coöperation "in every honourable way to secure pure government and to bring offenders to justice," and declared "unalterable opposition to the election of any President for a third term."[1474] Furthermore, the convention sought candidates of prominence and approved integrity. In the presence of threatened defeat such men were shy. William H. Robertson of Westchester thrice declined the comptrollership, and insistence upon his acceptance did not cease until James W. Husted, springing to his feet, declared that such demands were evidently intended as an insult. Then Edwin D. Morgan proposed George R. Babcock, a distinguished lawyer of Buffalo, who likewise declined. In a short, crisp letter, John Bigelow, chairman of the canal investigating committee, rejected the proffered honour. Finally, the choice fell upon Francis E. Spinner, formerly United States treasurer, and although he sent two unconsenting telegrams, the convention refused to revoke its action. Despite such embarrassments, however, it secured an array of strong, clean men.[1475]

[Footnote 1473: Held at Saratoga on September 8, 1875.]

[Footnote 1474: Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1875, p. 560.]

[Footnote 1475: The ticket was as follows: Secretary of State, Frederick W. Seward, New York; Comptroller, Francis E. Spinner, Herkimer; Treasurer, Edwin A. Merritt, St. Lawrence; Attorney-General, George F. Danforth, Monroe; Engineer, Oliver H.P. Cornell, Tompkins; Canal Commissioner, William F. Tinsley, Wayne; Prison Inspector, Benoni J. Ives, Cayuga.]

A week later the Democrats assembled at Syracuse. They quickly retired an anti-Tammany delegation led by John Morrissey,[1476] reaffirmed the platforms of 1872 and 1874, and nominated John Bigelow for secretary of state. Bigelow, well known as a former editor of the Evening Post and more recently minister to France, had always been a Republican. Indeed, Tilden named and a Republican Senate confirmed him as one of two Republicans on a non-partisan board; but for reasons best known to himself Bigelow changed his party in the twinkling of an eye. Associated with him were John D. Van Buren, also upon the canal commission; Lucius Robinson, who won, when comptroller in 1862, great honour in the teeth of much obloquy by paying the State interest in coin; and Charles S. Fairchild, then a young lawyer earning substantial credit, like Bigelow and Van Buren, in the prosecution of the Canal ring.[1477] In naming this ticket Tilden had exhibited his characteristic shrewdness. He exaggerated the partisan aspect of administrative reform, and strengthened his candidacy for President by appropriating the glory.

[Footnote 1476: After James Hayes' defeat for register in 1874, Kelly deprived Morrissey of his district leadership because he stirred up disaffection among the working men and sowed seeds of disloyalty. In their contest the Morrissey and Kelly factions were known as "Swallow-tails" and "Short-hairs," Morrissey, to rebuke Wickham's custom of requiring cards of callers in advance of admission to his office, having called upon the Mayor during business hours in evening dress, with white kids and patent-leather pumps.]

[Footnote 1477: The ticket was as follows: Secretary of State, John Bigelow, Ulster; Comptroller, Lucius Robinson, Chemung; Attorney-General, Charles S. Fairchild, New York; Treasurer, Charles N. Ross, Cayuga; Engineer, John D. Van Buren, New York; Canal Commissioner, Christopher A. Walruth, Oneida; Prison Inspector, Rodney R. Crowley, Cattaraugus.

On September 22 the Liberals met at Albany. They eulogised Tilden by name, favored the Greeley doctrine of a single term for President, arraigned the Federal administration, and recommended the support of candidates who would coöperate with the Executive in his work of reform.

For governor the Prohibitionists nominated George H. Dusenberre.]

The Republican press, quickly interpreting his purpose, now changed from praise to censure, scrutinising and criticising every act in his long public career. It reviewed his war record, disclosed his part in the convention of 1864, and hinted at uncanny financial transactions. His service as the figurehead of Tweed's conventions, and his passiveness after possessing knowledge of the infamous circular of 1868 to which his name had been forged, also became the subject of severe censure. Though he neither shared Tweed's corrupt counsels nor sanctioned his audacious schemes, Tilden's abhorrence of wrong, it was argued, seemed insufficient to break his silence. But the accusation that cut the deepest, because without palliation, illuminated his declination to attend the great indignation meeting that appointed the Committee of Seventy. This fact, established by abundant proof as well as by his conspicuous absence, created the belief that had the Times' exposure failed fatally to wound the Ring, he would have shrunk from defying Tweed.

In the presence of such a record it was ludicrous to deny that Tilden, although resembling a reformer, was simply an adroit politician, who had cultivated some queer political associates and had countenanced some very shady transactions. Nevertheless, Tilden would not be diverted from the singleness of his purpose. To make the issue a personal one he took the stump and traversed the State from one end to the other, always addressing immense crowds. At Utica the contemporary press estimated the throng at twenty-five thousand persons. With directness and business brevity he sought to arouse the people to the importance and gravity of the issues at stake. "To-day about one-half of the tax contributed by the farmer," he said, "goes to the State to carry on public affairs.... It is in the power of the Legislature and the Executive at Albany to reduce this State tax one-half if you send the right men.... We began this work last winter. It made great conflict and turmoil, the attempt to remove the fungus-growths which had sprung up all over our State institutions, and which were smothering their vitality.... It is not alone the saving of dollars and cents, for you cannot preserve your present system of government unless you purify administration and purify legislation."[1478]

[Footnote 1478: Address at Utica Fair, September 30, 1875.--Tilden's Public Writings and Speeches, Vol. 2, pp. 229-233.]

During the anti-slavery struggle Tilden's incapacity to measure the moral force of public sentiment had undoubtedly kept him in error. He failed entirely to appreciate the close connection between rebellion and slavery, and in finally yielding to the war-failure resolution at Chicago in 1864 he did not realise how completely abolition and a restoration of the Union were associated in the hearts of the people. But with the advent of the business period, although his bodily presence was weak and the external elements of popularity were wanting, his subtle, strong mind and great administrative capacity brought him irresistibly to the front, and his shrewd, homely appeals, without mixed metaphors or partisan allusions, reduced the issue of the campaign to the attractive one of saving dollars and cents by protecting the treasury against the raid of canal spoilers.

Conkling did not attend the Saratoga convention.[1479] But he did not remain silent during the campaign. The Democratic and independent press, illuminating the story of Louisiana under carpet-bag-negro rule which culminated in the ejection of members of the Legislature by a file of soldiers under command of General Sheridan, had greatly increased the disfavour of the Administration's policy toward the South.[1480] So intense had been the excitement following the publication of Sheridan's despatches that a great indignation meeting called out William Cullen Bryant, then past eighty, who addressed it "with the vehemence and fire of a man of thirty."[1481] Moreover, the exposure of the Whiskey ring which began under Bristow, then secretary of the treasury, added to the advantage of the Democrats. The chief conspirator figured as Grant's most generous gift-giver, who claimed collusion with the President's private secretary. The Executive's evident displeasure with Bristow also increased the unrest. Indeed, it seemed a period of exposure. Public opinion had become aroused and inflamed. "Great as are the frauds of Tammany," said Charles A. Dana, "they sink into insignificance not only beside those of the carpet-bag governments of the South, but still more beside those committed by the Republican Administration at Washington."[1482]

[Footnote 1479: In the summer of 1875 he made a brief visit to Europe.--Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 490.]

[Footnote 1480: See Rhodes' History of the United States, Vol. 7, pp. 104-127. Also, Tilden's message to the Legislature, January 12, 1875, Public Writings and Speeches, Vol. 2, pp. 75-84.]

[Footnote 1481: Godwin, Life of Bryant, p. 357. This meeting was held January 11.]

[Footnote 1482: New York Sun, February 17.]

These revelations, however, did not call more loudly for Conkling's defence of his party than did the popular applause which everywhere greeted the reform Governor. The work and rising fame of Tilden alarmed the Senator if it did not irritate him. He saw the tremendous throng at Utica; he had read the plain, brief, unadorned statement about dividing the State-tax by two; and he recognised a rival who had leaped into the political arena full-armed and eager. Moreover, Conkling was himself a candidate for President. Grant's letter of May 29,[1483] interpreted as a declination to be a candidate for a third term, set him free to enter the lists, and the argument of his availability, based upon his power to carry the pivotal State, made a Republican victory in 1875 of the highest importance. For him to take part in the campaign, therefore, was imperative, and he selected Albany as the place and October 13 as the day to begin. Other engagements followed at Buffalo, Utica, New York, and elsewhere.[1484]

[Footnote 1483: Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1875, p. 743.]

[Footnote 1484: See remarks of Forster of Westchester, a delegate to the Republican State convention of March 22, 1876.--New York Tribune, March 23, 1876.]

Attracted by the critical situation and an intense curiosity great audiences greeted him, and hundreds of friends cheered an address, which, as usual, contained from his point of view the whole Republican case. He recited the Democratic party's history during the war; described reformers as selfish, hypocritical, and pure, placing Republicans in the last category; claimed that the canal frauds originated under Democratic rule and were connived at by Democratic State officials; and proved that Republicans had administered the canals and the State's finances more economically than the Democrats. He also admitted reform to be the principal issue, thanked Tilden for the little he had accomplished, severely castigated Bigelow for accepting place on the canal commission as a Republican and on the State ticket as a Democrat, and drew attention to Kelly as a bad man and to the extravagance of Democratic rule in New York City. Throughout it all his treatment was characteristically bold, brilliant, and aggressive. "The bright blade of his eloquence with its keen satiric edge flashed defiantly before the eyes of the applauding audience,"[1485] and every period exhibited his profound sense of the duty of maintaining the ascendency of a party which to him promised best for the public.

[Footnote 1485: The Nation, October 28.]

With wisdom and sound argument Conkling had opposed inflation, and after the passage of the bill on April 14, 1874, he had encouraged the President's veto. He had likewise advocated with no less fervour and sagacity the resumption of specie payment, which became a law on January 14, 1875. This service justly entitled him to the highest praise. Nevertheless, in his speech at Albany he failed to show that Republican success in 1875 would not mean a continuation of those things which helped a Republican defeat in 1874. Hostility to a third term and sympathy with a generous Southern policy were the conspicuous features of the Saratoga platform, and upon these issues he maintained a notable silence. His address was rather an appeal to the past--not an inspiring assurance for the future, seeking pure administration. Of his personal honesty no one entertained a doubt, but for party ends he had failed to use his opportunities in exposing and correcting abuses. To him the country under Republican rule, whatever its shortcomings, was in the safest hands, and he exhibited no sympathy with those whose great love for their party made them long to have it stand for civic righteousness, regardless of whom it might destroy.

As the campaign grew older Republicans cherished the hope of victory. The break between Kelly and Morrissey had led to the formation of the Irving Hall Democracy. In this organisation all anti-Tammany elements found a home, and to test its strength Morrissey declared himself a candidate for the Senate in the fourth or old Tweed district, which usually recorded eleven thousand majority for Tammany. The Republicans promptly endorsed the nomination. This challenge had turned the whole city into turmoil. Morrissey's audacity in selecting the invincible stronghold of Tammany for his field of battle, throwing the glamour of a gloveless ring-contest over the struggle, brought into life all the concomitants of such a bout. Kelly, leaving his uptown home, personally led the Tammany forces, and on election day the paralytic, the maimed, and men feeble from sickness were brought to the polls.

Nevertheless, when the votes were counted Morrissey proved the winner. Indeed, to the chagrin of Kelly and the alarm of the Democrats, Tammany candidates had fallen in every part of the city, their overthrow encouraging the belief that the State had been carried by the Republicans. Subsequently, when Bigelow's plurality of nearly fifteen thousand was established, it made defeat doubly disheartening.[1486] It put Tilden on a pinnacle. It left Conkling on the ground.

[Footnote 1486: Bigelow, 390,211; Seward, 375,401. Robinson, 389,699; Spinner, 376,150. Legislature: Senate: 20 Republicans, 12 Democrats. Assembly: 71 Republicans, 57 Democrats. Morrissey's majority, 3,377. Dusenberre, Prohibitionist, total vote, 11,103.--Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1875, p. 564.

Bigelow's majority in New York City was 17,013.--New York World, November 7, 1875.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXVI. DEFEAT OF THE REPUBLICAN MACHINE

1876

Much discussion of Conkling's candidacy for President followed the defeat of his party in 1875. The Union League Club, a body of earnest Republicans and generous campaign givers, declared for pure government and a reforming Executive. Several county conventions voiced a protest against pledged delegations, and Harper's Weekly, in order to divide Republicans more sharply into Conkling and anti-Conkling advocates, suggested, in a series of aggressive editorials, that a reform Democrat might be preferable to a Republican who represented the low tone of political honour and morality which exposed itself in official life. On the assembling of the State convention (March 22) to select delegates to Cincinnati, Curtis opened the way wider for a determined struggle. "The unceasing disposition of the officers and agents of the Administration to prostitute the party organisations relentlessly and at all costs to personal ends," he said, "has everywhere aroused the apprehension of the friends of free government, and has startled and alarmed the honest masses of the Republican party."[1487] This shot fired across the bow of the organisation brought its head into the wind.

[Footnote 1487: New York Tribune, March 23, 1876.]

The Conkling managers had secured a majority of the delegates, whose desire to advertise an undivided sentiment for the Senator in New York manifested itself by a willingness to yield in the interest of harmony. Finally, their resolution to instruct the delegation to vote as a unit took the more modest form of simply presenting "Roscoe Conkling as our choice for the nomination of President." Curtis, refusing his assent, moved a substitute that left the selection of a candidate to the patriotic wisdom of the National convention "in full confidence that it will present the name of some tried and true Republican whose character and career are the pledge of a pure, economical, and vigorous administration of the government." This was an issue--not a compromise. It practically put Conkling out of the race, and after its presentation nothing remained to be done except to call the roll. At its completion the startling discovery was made that of the 432 delegates present only 363 had answered, and that of these 113 had boldly stood with Curtis. Equally impressive, too, was the silence of the 69 who refrained from voting. Thus it appeared that, after the whole office-holding power had worked for weeks to secure delegates, only 33 more than a majority favoured even the presentation of Conkling's name. It was recalled by way of contrast that in 1860, Seward, without an office at his command, had led the united Republican enthusiasm of the State.

Following the example of Seward's supporters at Chicago, the friends of Conkling at Cincinnati occupied an entire hotel, distributed with lavishness the handsome State badge of blue, entertained their visitors with a great orchestra, paraded in light silk hats, and swung across the street an immense banner predicting that "Roscoe Conkling's nomination assures the thirty-five electoral votes of New York." These headquarters were in marked contrast to the modest rooms of other States having favourite sons. No Blaine flag appeared, and only an oil portrait of Hayes adorned the Ohio parlours. A Philadelphia delegate, after surveying the Grand Hotel and the marchers, ironically remarked that "it was a mystery to him where the Custom-house got bail for all those fellows."[1488]

[Footnote 1488: New York Tribune, June 15, 1876.]

The appearance of Edwin D. Morgan, who called the convention to order, evoked long-continued applause. It recalled two decades of stirring national life since he had performed a like duty in 1856. Theodore M. Pomeroy's selection as temporary chairman likewise honoured New York, and his address, although read from manuscript, added to his fame as an orator. In seconding the nomination of Bristow, George William Curtis, speaking "for that vast body of Republicans in New York who have seen that reform is possible within the Republican party," won his way to the convention's heart as quickly as he did in 1860, although each person present avowed, after Robert G. Ingersoll had spoken, that for the first time he understood the possible compass of human eloquence.[1489]

[Footnote 1489: Official Proceedings of National Republican Conventions, p. 292.]

Until the deciding ballot New York's part in the convention proved perfunctory. Beyond the sound of its music and the tread of its marchers neither applause nor good will encouraged its candidate. Reformers regarded Conkling as the antithesis of Bristow, supporters of Morton jealously scowled at his rivalry, and the friends of Blaine resented his attitude toward their favourite. Only Hayes's little band of expectant backers, hoping eventually to capture the New York delegation, gracefully accorded him generous recognition.[1490] Conkling's support, beginning with ninety-nine votes, gradually fell off to eighty-one, when the delegation, without formally withdrawing his name, dropped him with not a word and divided between Blaine and Hayes, giving the former nine votes and the latter sixty-one.[1491] In fact, Morton and Conkling, the two political legatees of Grant, fared about alike, their strength in the North outside their respective States aggregating only six votes. The President, believing a "dark horse" inevitable, wrote a letter favouring Hamilton Fish.[1492]

[Footnote 1490: New York Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1877.]

[Footnote 1491: Conkling's votes came from the following States: California, 1; Florida, 3; Georgia, 8; Michigan, 1; Mississippi, 1; Missouri, 1; Nevada, 2; New York, 69; North Carolina, 7; Texas, 3; Virginia, 3. Total, 99. George William Curtis refused to vote for Conkling.

Seven ballots were taken, as follows:

Blaine 285 296 293 286 308 351 Bristow 113 114 121 126 111 21 Morton 124 120 113 108 85 Conkling 99 93 90 84 81 Hayes 61 64 67 68 113 384 Hartranft 58 63 68 71 50 Jewell 11 Wheeler 3 3 2 2 2 2

On the final ballot the following New York delegates voted for Blaine: William H. Robertson, Westchester; James W. Husted, Westchester; Jacob Worth, Kings; John H. Ketcham, Dutchess; Jacob W. Haysradt, Columbia; James M. Marvin, Saratoga; Stephen Sanford, Montgomery; Amos V. Smiley, Lewis, and James C. Feeter, Herkimer.]

[Footnote 1492: John Russell Young, Around the World with General Grant, Vol. 2, p. 275.]

For Vice-President the convention turned to New York. Stewart L. Woodford was the choice of the delegation. In presenting Conkling's name his oratorical power had won admiration, while delegates from Ohio, Indiana, and other Western States, where his voice had been heard in opposition to Greenbackism, did not forget his unselfish devotion, nor the brilliant rhetoric that clothed his unanswerable arguments. But the Blaine States manifested genuine enthusiasm for William A. Wheeler, a man of pure life, simple habits, ripe culture, and sincere and practical principles, who had won the esteem of all his associates in Congress. To add to his charm he had a good presence and warm family affections. He possessed, too, a well-earned reputation for ability, having served with credit in the Legislature, in Congress, and as president of the constitutional convention of 1866-7. Conkling thought him "not very well known."[1493] Nevertheless, he had been mentioned for President, and throughout the long and exciting contest two delegates from Massachusetts kept his name before the convention. George F. Hoar, afterward the distinguished Massachusetts senator, became especially active in his behalf, and James Russell Lowell called him "a very sensible man."[1494] Outside delegations, therefore, without waiting for New York to act, quickly exhibited their partiality by putting him in nomination.[1495] Later, when the Empire State named Stewart L. Woodford, the situation became embarrassing. Finally, as the Wheeler vote rapidly approached a majority, the Empire delegation, to escape being run over again, reluctantly withdrew its candidate.[1496] The roll call, thus abruptly discontinued, showed Wheeler far ahead of the aggregate vote of all competitors, and on motion his nomination was made unanimous.[1497]

[Footnote 1493: New York Herald, June 17, 1876.]

[Footnote 1494: Hoar, Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 244.]

[Footnote 1495: Wheeler's name was presented by Luke P. Poland of Vermont, and seconded by S.H. Russell of Texas, and Henry R. James of New York (Ogdensburg). Thomas C. Platt presented Woodford.

"Wheeler very much disliked Roscoe Conkling and all his ways. Conkling once said to him: 'If you will join us and act with us, there is nothing in the gift of the State of New York to which you may not reasonably aspire.' To which Wheeler replied: 'Mr. Conkling, there is nothing in the gift of the State which will compensate me for the forfeiture of my own self-respect.'"--Hoar, Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 243.]

[Footnote 1496: "It was not to the credit of the New York delegation that Wheeler was obliged to look to other States for his presentation and support."--Utica Herald, June 17.]

[Footnote 1497: With fifteen States and Territories to be called, the vote stood as follows: Wheeler, 366; all others, 245.]

The rank and file of the party, exhibiting no discouragement because of the outcome at Cincinnati, sought a strong candidate to head their State ticket.[1498] To those possessing the reform spirit William M. Evarts appealed as a representative leader. He had indicated no desire to hold public office. Indeed, it may be said that he always seemed disinterested in political conditions so far as they affected him personally. Although his friends thought the old supporters of Seward, if not Seward himself, had failed to sustain him for the United States Senate in 1861 as faithfully as he would have supported the Secretary of State under like conditions, there is no evidence that he ever found fault. When in Hayes' Cabinet and afterwards in the Senate (1885-91), he did not take or attempt to take, either in the counsels of his party or of his colleagues, the leadership for which he was admirably fitted. It is doubtful, in fact, if he ever realised the strong hold he had upon the respect and admiration of the country. But the people knew that his high personal character, his delightful oratory, his unfailing wit and good-nature, and his great prestige as a famous lawyer of almost unexampled success commended him as an ideal candidate. Conspicuously among those urging his candidacy for governor in 1876 appeared a body of influential leaders from the Union League and Reform clubs of the metropolis, calling themselves Independents. The Liberals, too, added voice to this sentiment.[1499]

[Footnote 1498: The Republican State convention met at Saratoga on August 23.]

[Footnote 1499: Although many prominent Republicans who voted for Greeley in 1872 had previously renewed their allegiance, the Liberals as an organisation did not formally coalesce with the Republican party until August 23, 1876. On that day about 200 delegates, headed by John Cochrane and Benjamin F. Manierre, met in convention at Saratoga, and after accepting Hayes and Wheeler as the exponents of their reform principles, were invited amidst loud applause to seats in the Republican State convention.]

If the candidate could not be Evarts, the same elements evidenced a disposition to support Edwin D. Morgan, who had shown of late a disturbing independence of the machine. Of the other aspirants William H. Robertson presented his usual strength in the Hudson River counties.

Alonzo B. Cornell was the candidate of the organisation. Evarts had illustrated his independence in accepting office under President Johnson, in criticising the Grant administration, and in protesting against the Louisiana incident. Robertson, in voting for Blaine, had likewise gone to the outer edge of disloyalty. Nor did Morgan's attitude at Cincinnati commend him. His ambition, which centred in the vice-presidency, left the impression that he had cared more for himself than for Conkling. Under these circumstances the Senator naturally turned to Cornell, an efficient lieutenant, who, having encountered heavy seas and a head wind, hoisted the signal of distress and waited for Conkling's coming. The Senator, however, did not appear. His rooms were engaged, his name was added to the hotel register, and Cornell's expectant friends declared that he would again capture the convention with his oratory; but Conkling, knowing that in political conventions the power of oratory depended largely upon pledged delegations, prudently stayed away. Besides, he was not a delegate, his partisans in Oneida having been put to rout. This forced the withdrawal of Cornell, whose delegates, drifting to Morgan as the lesser of two evils, nominated him on the first ballot.[1500] Evarts was too great a man to be lifted into national prominence.

[Footnote 1500: Whole number of votes cast, 410. Necessary to a choice, 206. Morgan received 242; Evarts, 126; Robertson, 24; Martin, 1; Townsend, 18.]

For lieutenant-governor, Sherman S. Rogers of Erie and Theodore M. Pomeroy of Cayuga entered the lists. Encouraged by the folly of a few rash friends, Cornell also allowed his name to be presented, "since he had been grievously wronged," said his eulogist, "in the dishonest count of 1868."[1501] Cornell had adroitly extricated himself from humiliating defeat in the morning by a timely withdrawal, but not until George William Curtis declared his nomination "the most dangerous that could be made," and William B. Woodin of Cayuga had stigmatised him, did he fully appreciate his unpopularity as the representative of machine methods. Woodin's attack upon Cornell undoubtedly weakened Pomeroy. It possessed the delectable acidity, so reckless in spirit, but so delightful in form, that always made the distinguished State senator's remarks attractive and diverting. Although whatever weakened Pomeroy naturally strengthened Rogers, it added greatly to the latter's influence that he represented the home of William Dorsheimer, whom the Democrats would renominate, and in the end the Buffalonian won by a handsome majority.[1502]

[Footnote 1501: New York Tribune, August 24.]

[Footnote 1502: The ballot resulted: Rogers, 240; Pomeroy, 178. Necessary to a choice, 210.

The ticket was as follows: Governor, Edwin D. Morgan, New York; Lieutenant-Governor, Sherman S. Rogers, Erie; Court of Appeals, George F. Danforth, Monroe; Canal Commissioner, Daniel C. Spencer, Livingston; Prison Inspector, Charles W. Trowbridge, Kings.]

The day's work, however, left bitter thoughts. Conkling's absence exaggerated Arthur's poor generalship and George H. Sharpe's failure to support Cornell. Sharpe was one of the organisation's cleverest leaders, and his indifference to Cornell's interests left a jagged wound that was not soon to heal. Moreover, it could not be concealed that Morgan's nomination was a Pyrrhic victory. In fact, the conventions at Cincinnati and Saratoga had thrown the Conkling machine out of gear, and while the repair shop kept it running several years longer, it was destined never again to make the speed it had formerly attained.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXVII. TILDEN ONE VOTE SHORT

1876

After the election in 1875 the eyes of the national Democracy turned toward Tilden as its inevitable candidate for President. He had not only beaten a Canal ring, strengthened by remnants of the old Tweed ring, but he had carried the State against the energies of a fairly united Republican party. Moreover, he had become, in the opinion of his friends, the embodiment of administrative reform, although he suffered the embarrassment of a statesman who is suspected, rightly or wrongly, of a willingness to purchase reform at any price.[1503] To prove his right to be transferred from Albany to Washington he now made his message to the Legislature a treatise upon national affairs.

[Footnote 1503: Tilden's policy of pardoning members of the Tweed ring had become intolerable. "On an average about nine out of ten men who were confessedly guilty of stealing were accepted as witnesses against the other one man, until the time came when there was but one man against whom any testimony could be used, and it was not considered wise to try him. It was a shameful condition of affairs."--John D. Townsend, New York in Bondage, p. 141.]

Dwelling at length upon the financiering of the Federal Government, Tilden sought to account for the financial depression, and in pointing to a remedy he advocated the prompt resumption of specie payment, criticised the dread of imaginary evils, encouraged economy in legislation, and analysed the federal system of taxation and expenditure. Furthermore, he sought to cut loose from the discredited past of his party, and in paying high tribute to the patriotism of the South, he expressed the hope that its acceptance of the results of the war might end forever the retribution visited upon it by the standing menace of military force.[1504]

[Footnote 1504: Tilden's Public Writings and Speeches, Vol. 2, pp. 237-295.]

The result at Cincinnati increased the necessity for nominating Tilden at St. Louis, since Wheeler's popularity would materially assist in replacing New York among reliable Republican States. Nevertheless, the predatory class who had felt the weight of Tilden's heavy hand fomented a most formidable opposition at the State convention.[1505] John Kelly deeply sympathised with the movement. He resented the rivalry and independence of the Sage of Gramercy Park, and he did not disguise his hostility. But Kelly's immediate need centred in the exclusion of the Morrissey delegation, and when the Tilden lieutenants proscribed it, the way was smoothed for the Governor's unanimous endorsement with the gag of unit rule.

[Footnote 1505: The Democratic State convention was held at Utica, April 26, 1876.]

The admission of Kelly's delegates, however, did not close the mouths of Tilden's opponents.[1506]. Organs of the Canal ring continued to urge Seymour or Church for President, maintaining that the convention's action did not bind the delegation. Church supported this interpretation of the declaration.[1507] But it remained for the Express, the authorised organ of Tammany, to stigmatise Tilden. With cruel particularity it referred to his many-sided conduct as counsel and director in connection with the foreclosure and reorganisation of certain railroads in Illinois, reciting details of the affair in a manner highly prejudicial to his integrity as a lawyer and his reputation as a man of wealth. "Of the weak points in Mr. Tilden's railroad record," the editor suggestively added, "we know more than we care to publish."[1508] It doubled the severity of the blow because suit had been instituted to compel Tilden to account for the proceeds of large amounts of bonds and stock, and instead of meeting the allegations promptly he had sought and obtained delay. This seemed to give colour to the indictment.

[Footnote 1506: "It is natural enough that the canal ring and its followers, Tammany and its adherents, and that sort of Democrats who are commonly called Bourbons, should labour to defeat the nomination for high office of the man who represents everything that they oppose, and opposes everything that they represent; but it will be a most discouraging thing to every person who hopes for good at the hands of the Democratic party if such opposition is permitted to prevail in its councils. He has put his principles in practice in the most fearless and resolute manner, and has made himself especially obnoxious to his opponents as their hostility to him clearly shows."--New York Evening Post (editorial by William Cullen Bryant), May 26, 1876.]

[Footnote 1507: New York Tribune, June 17.]

[Footnote 1508: New York Evening Express, June 23, 1876.]

At St. Louis Tilden's opponents, headed by John Kelly, Augustus Schell, and Erastus Corning, soon wore these insinuations threadbare.[1509] To their further declaration that in order to succeed in November the Democracy must have one October State and that Tilden could not carry Indiana, Dorsheimer and Bigelow, the Governor's spokesmen, replied that New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut could elect Tilden without Indiana. The colossal assurance of this answer characterised the convention's confidence in Tilden's strength. It possessed the South, the East, and the West. Hancock might be the favourite in Pennsylvania, Parker in New Jersey, Bayard in Delaware, Allen in Ohio, and Hendricks in Indiana, but as delegates entered the convention city the dense Tilden sentiment smothered them. Even scandal did not appreciably weaken it.

[Footnote 1509: The National Democratic convention assembled on June 27 and 28.]

There was nothing mysterious about this strength. Tilden represented success. Without him disaster threatened--with him victory seemed certain. His achievement in administrative reform exaggerated Republican failure; his grasp upon New York, the most vital State of the North, magnified Democratic strength; his leadership, based upon ideas and organisation, dwarfed political rivals; his acute legal mind, leading to the largest rewards in the realm of law, captivated business men; and his wealth, amassed in the field of railroad organisation and litigation, could fill Democracy's exchequer. Thus Tilden, standing less on the Democratic platform than on his own record, held the commanding position in his party, and the talk of his unpopularity or how he obtained wealth seemed to make as little impression as his professed devotion to the Wilmot Proviso in 1847, or his departure for a season from a lifelong pro-slavery record to bear a prominent part in the Barnburners' revolt of 1848. Indeed, so certain was Tilden of success that he did not ask for advices until after the nomination. James C. Carter of the New York bar, who happened at the time to be with him respecting legal matters, wondered at his unconcern. On their return from an evening drive Carter ventured to suggest that he would find telegrams announcing his nomination. "Not until half-past nine," Tilden replied.[1510]

[Footnote 1510: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 1, p. 308.]

Nevertheless, the first call of States made the Tilden managers shiver.[1511] Alabama divided its vote, Colorado caused a murmur of disappointment, and the slump of Georgia and Illinois, with Missouri's division, threatened them with heart-failure. The South wabbled, and promised votes in the North found their way elsewhere. At the close of the first roll-call Missouri asked if its vote could be changed, and on receiving an affirmative answer, the Tilden men, pale with worried excitement, awaited the result. A change to Hancock at that moment would have been a serious calamity, for nearly one hundred votes separated Tilden from the necessary two-thirds. When Missouri declared for the New Yorker, however, the opportunity to turn the tide against him was lost forever. The second ballot undoubtedly represented his real strength.[1512] For second place Thomas A. Hendricks had no opposition.

[Footnote 1511: Francis Kernan presented Tilden's name very effectively.]

[Footnote 1512: First ballot. Necessary two-thirds, 492. Samuel J. Tilden of New York, 404-1/2; Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, 133-1/2; Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania, 75; William Allen of Ohio, 56; Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, 27; Joel Parker of New Jersey, 18.

Second ballot: Tilden, 535; Hendricks, 60; Hancock, 59; Allen, 54; Bayard, 11; Parker, 18; Thurman of Ohio, 2.]

The platform, prepared under the eye of Tilden by Manton Marble, the accomplished editor of the World, advocated reform as its keynote and made historic its vituperative arraignment of the party in power. On the vital question of the currency it demanded the repeal of the resumption clause of the Act of 1875, denouncing it as an hindrance to the resumption of specie payment. The Republicans, wishing to avoid too sharp a conflict with the soft money sentiment of the West, had pledged the fulfilment of the Public Credit Act,[1513] approved March 18, 1869, "by a continuous and steady progress to specie payments." Both declarations savoured of indefiniteness, but Hayes, in his letter of acceptance (July 8), added greatly to his reputation for firmness and decision of character in supplying the needed directness by demanding the resumption of specie payment. On the other hand, Tilden's letter (July 31) weakened the country's respect for him.[1514] He had no sympathy for soft money, but in supporting the demand for a repeal of the resumption clause he urged, in a long, indefinite communication, the importance of preparation for resumption, ignoring the fact that the Act of 1875 anticipated such precaution. Although less prolix in his treatment of civil service reform, he was no less indefinite. After describing recognised evils he failed to indicate any practical remedy beyond the "conviction that no reform will be complete and permanent until the Chief Executive is constitutionally disqualified for re-election."[1515] Speaking of the character of the men holding office his use of the word "usufruct" led to the derisive appellation of "Old Usufruct Tilden."[1516] On civil service reform Hayes was more specific. He declared against the use of official patronage in elections and pledged himself not to be a candidate for a second term.[1517]

[Footnote 1513: This act terminates as follows: "And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin."]

[Footnote 1514: "Tilden's letter was a disappointment to those who had studied his words and acts as Governor."--Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. 7, p. 216.]

[Footnote 1515: Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1876, p. 790.]

[Footnote 1516: "The public interest in an honest, skilful performance of official trust must not be sacrificed to the usufruct of the incumbents."--Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1876, p. 790.]

[Footnote 1517: Ibid., p. 783.]

If Conkling had been balked in his desire to nominate Cornell, Tilden was not less baffled a week later in his effort to promote William Dorsheimer, his special friend. His genius for organisation had smoothed the way for harmony at Saratoga.[1518] Kelly and Morrissey settled their differences in advance, the platform created no discussion, and the appointment of electors-at-large provoked little criticism; but when Tilden's lieutenants proposed Dorsheimer for governor the convention revolted. It noisily demanded a Democrat, and in the stampede that followed Clarkson N. Potter, backed by Tammany and the Canal ring, rapidly accumulated strength despite Tilden's personal opposition. To all of Tilden's friends vital objections seemed to be raised. Dorsheimer could not command a solid Democratic vote; Robinson favoured high canal tolls and cultivated Republican affiliations; Manton Marble remained unpopular because the World changed front in 1868; and Starbuck of Jefferson did not attract Independents. For once Tilden had plainly been deceived as to his strength. Furthermore, the convention, divided in its attention between speeches for Potter and demands for Seymour, was beyond his control. Nevertheless, as the delegates in their stentorian insistence upon a "Democrat" became more and more furious for Seymour, the Tilden managers, to head off the alarming sentiment for Potter, adroitly increased the volume of the demand for the Oneidan. It was known that Seymour had refused the use of his name. Telegrams to Kernan and letters to the president of the convention alleged indisposition and "obstacles which I cannot overcome."[1519] But the convention, conscious that the former governor had before changed his mind under similar circumstances, closed its ears to his entreaties, and amidst the most vociferous cheering nominated him by acclamation. The next morning, with equal unanimity, it renominated Dorsheimer for lieutenant-governor.

[Footnote 1518: The Democratic State convention convened on August 30.]

[Footnote 1519: Utica Herald, August 31, 1876.]

A few days later Seymour, pleading mental inability to perform the duties of the office, put himself out of the race.[1520] This gave Tilden opportunity to re-form his lines, and upon the convention's reassembling (September 13) Robinson easily won.[1521]

[Footnote 1520: For Seymour's letter, see New York papers of September 5.]

[Footnote 1521: The ballot stood: Potter, 106-1/2; Robinson, 192-1/2; scattering, 59. Necessary to a choice, 191. Before its announcement changes gave Robinson 243-1/2.

The ticket was as follows: Governor, Lucius Robinson, Chemung; Lieutenant-Governor, William Dorsheimer, Erie; Court of Appeals, Robert Earl, Herkimer; Canal Commissioner, Darius A. Ogden, Yates; Prison Inspector, Robert H. Anderson, Kings.]

Democratic factions likewise buried their differences in New York City, Kelly and Morrissey uniting upon Smith Ely for mayor. The Republicans nominated John A. Dix. Thus was the municipal struggle in the metropolis, for the first time in many years, confined within strict party lines.[1522]

[Footnote 1522: On March 15, several disaffected Democrats met at Syracuse and organised a Greenback party, which opposed the resumption of specie payment and favoured legal tender notes as the standard of value. A second convention, held in New York City on June 1, selected four delegates-at-large to the Democratic national convention, and a third, meeting at Albany on September 26, nominated Richard M. Griffin for governor. Other State nominations were made by the Prohibitionists, Albert J. Groo being selected for governor.]

The campaign, although a prolonged and intensely exciting one, developed no striking incidents. Democratic orators repeated Marble's rhetorical arraignment of the Republican party, and the Democratic press iterated and reiterated its symmetrical, burning sentences. Marble's platform, besides being the most vitriolic, had the distinction of being the longest in the history of national conventions. Copies of it printed in half a dozen languages seemed to spring up as plentifully as weeds in a wheatfield. Every cross-roads in the State became a centre for its distribution. It pilloried Grant's administration, giving in chronological order a list of his unwise acts, the names and sins of his unfaithful appointees, and a series of reasons why Tilden, the Reformer, could alone restore the Republic to its pristine purity. It was a dangerous document because history substantially affirmed its statement of facts, while the rhythm of its periods and the attractiveness of its typography invited the reader.[1523]

[Footnote 1523: Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1876, pp. 785, 786.]

Conkling, because of ill-health, limited his activity in the canvass to one address.[1524] It was calmer than usual, but it shone with sparkles of sarcasm and bristled with covert allusions readily understood. It was noticeable, too, that he made no reference to Hayes or to Wheeler. Nevertheless, party associates from whom he had radically differed pronounced it a model of partisan oratory and the most conclusive review of the political situation. He admitted the corruption indicated by Marble, attributing it chiefly to the war which incited speculative passion in all the activities of life, its ill consequences not being confined exclusively to public affairs. In contrasting the management of the two parties, he disclosed under Buchanan a loss on each thousand dollars collected and disbursed of six dollars and ninety-eight cents against forty cents during Grant's first term and twenty-six cents during the three years of his second, while current expenses under Buchanan amounted to one dollar and ninety cents per capita to one dollar and seventy cents under Grant. In ten years, he added, $800,000,000 of the debt had been paid, nearly $50,000,000 of interest saved yearly, and the taxes reduced $262,000,000 per annum.

[Footnote 1524: Delivered at Utica, October 3. See New York papers, October 4.]

Of civil service reform Conkling said nothing. He made a clear, sharp issue on the resumption of specie payment, however, showing that the demand for a repeal of the Act's most important feature was a bid for the votes of soft-money advocates. The Southern question assumed even greater importance. Tilden depended for success upon the Southern States plus New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. This was Dorsheimer's argument, put with characteristic grace and force at St. Louis. The North had cause to fear, it was argued, if a solid South, strengthened by States controlled by the great majorities in and about New York City, could elect a President. The charge that Tilden intended indemnifying the South and assuming the Confederate debt increased the anxiety. Conkling's reference to the repayment of direct taxes, the refund of the cotton tax, and the liquidation of Southern claims mounted so high into the hundreds of millions that Tilden deemed it prudent to issue a letter pledging an enforcement of the Constitutional Amendments and resistance to such monetary demands.

Personal criticism of Tilden exploited his war record, his reputation as a railroad wrecker, and his evasion of the income tax.[1525] The accusation of "railroad wrecking" was scarcely sustained, but his income tax was destined to bring him trouble. Nast kept his pencil busy. One cartoon, displaying Tilden emptying a large barrel of greenbacks into the ballot box, summed up the issues as follows: "The shot-gun policy South, the barrel policy North;" "The solid South and the solid Tammany;" "Tilden's war record--defeating the tax collector." George William Curtis asserted that the Democrats of South Carolina meant to carry the State for Tilden by means of "the shot gun," declaring that "Jefferson Davis and the secessionists merely endeavoured to enforce with bayonets the doctrines of Mr. Tilden."[1526]

[Footnote 1525: It was claimed that in 1862 Tilden had a net income of $89,000. He made oath to $7,118, and afterward acknowledged receiving $20,000 in the Terre Haute Railroad case. He alleged that this covered the work of several years. Moreover, that his income-producing property was largely in railroad stocks, bonds, and other securities on which the tax was deducted by the companies before the interest and dividends were paid.--Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 232; see also, Nation, September 22, 1876.]

[Footnote 1526: Harper's Weekly, 1876, pp. 828, 885, 906, 907.]

Tilden displayed a stoical indifference to these personal attacks. He made no speeches, he rarely exhibited himself to the public, and he kept his own counsels. His adroit, mysterious movements recalled the methods but not the conceit of Aaron Burr. Although Abram S. Hewitt, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, managed the campaign with skill, Tilden relied largely upon his own shrewdness, displacing old leaders for new ones, and making it clear to the country that he ranked with Martin Van Buren as a great political manager. As he swept onward like a conquering Marlborough, inspiring his party with confidence and his opponents with fear, events favoured his designs. The Belknap exposures, the Whiskey ring suits, the Babcock trial, alarming and disgusting the country, inclined public opinion toward a change which was expressed in the word "reform." A combination of propitious circumstances within the State, in nowise indebted to his sagacity or assistance, also increased his strength. The collapse of the Tweed and Canal rings justly gave him great prestige, but no reason existed why the extinguishment of the State war debt and the limitations of canal expenditures to canal revenues should add to his laurels, for the canal amendment to the Constitution was passed and the payment of the war debt practically accomplished before he took office. Nevertheless, the resulting decrease of the State budget by nearly one-half, being coincident with his term of office, added prodigiously to his fame.[1527] Indeed, he seemed to be the darling of Fortune, and on November 7, exactly according to his calculation, he carried New York,[1528] New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana. But Republicans claimed South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

[Footnote 1527: "The amount of the State tax for 1876 was $8,529,174.32, against $14,206,680.61 in 1875, and $15,727,482.08 in 1874." Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1876, p. 598.]

[Footnote 1528: Tilden, plurality, 32,742; Robinson, 30,460. Groo, total vote, 3,412 (Prohibitionist); Griffin, 1,436 (Greenback). Congress, 17 Republicans, 16 Democrats. Assembly, 71 Republicans, 57 Democrats. Ely's majority for mayor of New York City, 53,517. Tilden's majority in New York City, 53,682.

Republican losses occurred chiefly in the Hudson River and western counties. Elbridge G. Spaulding of Buffalo, and Levi P. Morton of New York, were defeated for Congress.]

In the historic dispute which led to a division of the solid South, partisan papers revelled in threats, and rumours indicated danger of mob violence. To prevent fraud prominent citizens in the North, appointed to represent each political party, watched the canvassing boards in the three disputed States, and although it subsequently developed that distinguished New Yorkers resorted to bribery,[1529] the legal canvassing boards finally certified the electoral votes to Hayes and Wheeler. On December 6 the official count in all the States gave Hayes 185 votes and Tilden 184. The Democrats, deeply disturbed by the action of the Returning Boards, now displayed a temper that resembled the spirit preceding the civil war. Threats were openly made that Hayes should never be inaugurated. The Louisville Courier Journal announced that "if they (our people) will rise in their might, and will send 100,000 petitioners to Washington to present their memorial in person, there will be no usurpation and no civil war."[1530] A prominent ex-Confederate in Congress talked of 145,000 well disciplined Southern troops who were ready to fight.[1531] Because the President prudently strengthened the military forces about Washington he was charged with the design of installing Hayes with the aid of the army.

[Footnote 1529: Manton Marble visited Florida. On November 22, under the sobriquet "Moses," he telegraphed in cipher to William T. Pelton, Tilden's nephew, then domiciled in Tilden's home at 15 Gramercy Park: "Have just received proposition to hand over a Tilden decision of Board and certificate of Governor for $200,000." Pelton thought it too much, and Marble again telegraphed that one Elector could be secured for $50,000. Pelton replied that he "could not draw until the vote of the Elector was received." On December 5, Marble wired: "Proposition failed.... Tell Tilden to saddle Blackstone."

Smith M. Weed visited South Carolina. On November 16, without the use of cipher or sobriquet, he telegraphed Henry Havermeyer: "Board demand $75,000 for two or three electors." Later in the day he added: "Looks now as though $75,000 would secure all seven votes." The next day he wired: "Press everywhere. No certainty here. Simply a hope." On November 18, he announced: "Majority of Board secured. Cost $80,000. Send one parcel of $65,000; one of $10,000; one of $5,000. All to be in $1000 or $500 bills. Have cash ready to reach Baltimore Sunday night." Pelton met Weed at Baltimore without the money and both went to New York to secure it. Meantime, the canvassing board reported in favour of Hayes.

Pelton also corresponded with one J.N.H. Patrick, who telegraphed from Oregon: "Must purchase Republican elector to recognise and act with the Democrat, and secure vote to prevent trouble. Deposit $10,000 to my credit." Pelton replied: "If you will make obligation contingent on result in March it will be done." Patrick said fee could not be made contingent, whereupon $8,000 was deposited on January 1, 1877, to his credit, but too late to complete the transaction.

When these telegrams, translated by the New York Tribune, were investigated by the Potter Congressional committee in January, 1879, Marble testified that he transmitted them simply "as danger signals"; Weed admitted and attempted to justify; Pelton accepted the full responsibility, intending, he said, to get the money of Edward Cooper; Cooper testified that the telegram requesting $80,000 sent to Baltimore was his first knowledge of Pelton's activity; that he immediately informed Tilden, who recalled his nephew and put a stop to negotiations. Tilden swore that "no offer, no negotiation in behalf of any member of any Returning Board was ever entertained by me, or by my authority, or with my sanction.... There never was a moment in which I ever entertained any idea of seeking to obtain those certificates by any venal inducement, any promise of money or office, to the men who had them to grant or dispose of. My purpose on that subject was perfectly distinct, invariable, and it was generally assumed by all my friends without discussion. It may have sometimes been expressed and whenever the slightest occasion arose for it to be discussed, it was expressed. It was never deviated from in word or act."--Testimony in relation to Cipher Telegraphic Dispatches, pp. 200-274; see also, Bigelow's Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, pp. 180-223.]

[Footnote 1530: From an editorial signed by Henry Watterson, January 8, 1877.]

[Footnote 1531: Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. 7, p. 243.]

On the other hand, Republicans believed Tilden endeavoured to buy the presidency. Although nothing was then known of Marble's and Weed's efforts to tamper with the canvassing boards of South Carolina and Florida, the disposition to "steal" a vote in Oregon, which clearly belonged to Hayes, deprived Tilden's cause of its moral weight. Indeed, so strongly did sentiment run against him that the Nation "lost nearly three thousand subscribers for refusing to believe that Mr. Hayes could honourably accept the presidency."[1532]

[Footnote 1532: The Nation, June 25, 1885.]

When Congress opened the Democrats, being in control of the House, desired to continue the joint rule of February, 1865, directing that "no electoral vote objected to shall be counted except by the concurrent votes of the two Houses." This would elect Tilden. On the other hand, the Republicans, holding that the joint rule expired with the Congress adopting it, insisted that, inasmuch as the canvass by Congress at all previous elections had been confined exclusively to opening the certificates of each State, sent to Washington under the official seal of the respective governors, the Vice-President should open and count the electoral votes and declare the result, the members of the two Houses acting simply as witnesses. This would elect Hayes. To many and especially to President Grant this controversy seemed full of danger, to avert which if possible Congress adopted a resolution providing for a committee of fourteen, equally divided between the Senate and House, "to report without delay such a measure as may in their judgment be best calculated to accomplish the desired end."[1533] On January 18 (1877) this committee reported a bill providing that where two or more returns had been received from a State such returns should be referred to an Electoral Commission composed of five senators, five members of the House, and five justices of the Supreme Court, who should decide any question submitted to it touching the return from any State, and that such decision should stand unless rejected by the concurrent votes of the two Houses. By tacit agreement the Senate was to name three Republicans and two Democrats, and the House three Democrats and two Republicans, while the Bill itself appointed Justices Clifford, Miller, Field, and Strong, a majority of whom were authorised to select a fifth justice.[1534]

[Footnote 1533: Upon this committee Conkling was substituted in place of Logan, detained at home. Abram S. Hewitt was one of the House appointees.]

[Footnote 1534: Clifford and Field were accounted Democrats, and Miller and Strong, Republicans.]

When doubt as to the three Southern States precipitated itself into the result of the election, Tilden exhibited characteristic diligence and secrecy. He avoided public statements, but he scrutinised the returns with the acumen exhibited in securing the Tweed evidence, and left no flaw unchallenged in the title of his opponent. After the action of the canvassing boards he contended that the joint rule of 1865 must govern, and in the study of the subject he devoted more than a month to the preparation of a complete history of electoral counts, showing it to have been the unbroken usage for Congress and not the President of the Senate to count the vote.[1535] Moreover, early in the session of Congress he prepared two resolutions which raised the issue, and urged his friends in the leadership of the House to take no further step until the great constitutional battle had been fought along that line, assuring them of his readiness to accept all the responsibility of the outcome. To appraise the country of the strength of this position he also prepared an extended brief which Governor Robinson incorporated as a part of his inaugural message on January 1, 1877.[1536]

[Footnote 1535: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 60.]

[Footnote 1536: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, pp. 67-74.]

Tilden first learned of the proposed Electoral Commission Bill on January 14. Abram S. Hewitt brought the information, saying that Bayard and Thurman of the Senate, being absolutely committed to it, would concur in reporting it whatever Tilden's action.[1537] Tilden, resenting the secrecy of its preparation as unwise and essentially undemocratic, declined to give it his approval.[1538] In his later telegrams to Hewitt he expressed the belief that "We should stand on the Constitution and the settled practice;" that "the other side, having no way but by usurpation, will have greater troubles than we, unless relieved by some agreement;" that "the only way of getting accessions in the Senate is by the House standing firm;" that "we are over-pressed by exaggerated fears;" and that "no information is here which could justify an abandonment of the Constitution and practice of the government, and of the rights of the two Houses and of the people." To his friends who urged that time pressed, he exclaimed: "There is time enough. It is a month before the count." Representations of the danger of a collision with the Executive met his scorn. "It is a panic of pacificators," he said. "Why surrender before the battle for fear of having to surrender after the battle?"[1539]

[Footnote 1537: Manton Marble to the New York Sun, August 5, 1878.]

[Footnote 1538: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 76.]

[Footnote 1539: Ibid., pp. 76, 79, 80.]

In view of his resentment of the secrecy which characterised the preparation of the Electoral Commission Bill, one wonders that Tilden made no appeal directly to the people, demanding that his party stand firm to "the settled practice" and allow Republicans peaceably to inaugurate Hayes "by usurpation" rather than "relieve them by some agreement." His telegrams to congressmen could not be published, and few if any one knew him as the author of the discussion in Robinson's inaugural. The Times thought "the old Governor's hand is to be seen in the new Governor's message,"[1540] but the Nation expressed doubt about it.[1541] A ringing proclamation over his own signature, however, would have been known before sunset to every Democratic voter in the land. Blaine told Bigelow a year or two later that if the Democrats had been firm, the Republicans would have backed down.[1542] Tilden's silence certainly dampened his party's enthusiasm. It recalled, too, his failure to assail the Tweed ring until the Times' disclosure made its destruction inevitable.

[Footnote 1540: New York Times, January 2, 1877.]

[Footnote 1541: January 4.]

[Footnote 1542: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 74, note.]

Bigelow, reflecting Tilden's thought, charged that in accepting the plan of an Electoral Commission Thurman and Bayard were influenced by presidential ambition, and that prominent congressmen could not regard with satisfaction the triumph of a candidate who had been in nowise indebted to them for his nomination or success at the polls.[1543] On the other hand, Blaine says the Democrats favoured the Commission because Davis, who affiliated with the Democratic party and had preferred Tilden to Hayes, was to be chosen for the fifth justice. The Maine statesman adds, without giving his authority, that Hewitt advanced this as one of the arguments to induce Tilden to approve the bill.[1544] In his history of the Hewitt-Tilden interview Marble makes no mention of Davis' selection, nor does Bigelow refer to Tilden's knowledge of it. Nevertheless, the strength disclosed for the bill sustains Blaine's suggestion, since every Democrat of national reputation in both Houses supported it. The measure passed the Senate on January 24 and the House on the 26th,[1545] but an unlooked-for event quickly destroyed Democratic calculations and expectations, for on January 25, too late for the party to recede with dignity or with honour, the Democrats of the Illinois Legislature elected Davis by two majority to the United States Senate in place of John A. Logan. Probably a greater surprise never occurred in American political history. It gave Davis an opportunity, on the ground of obvious impropriety, to avoid what he neither sought nor desired, and narrowed the choice of a fifth justice to out-and-out Republicans, thus settling the election of Hayes. "The drop in the countenance of Abram S. Hewitt," said a writer who informed Tilden's representative of Davis' transfer from the Supreme Court to the Senate, "made it plain that he appreciated its full significance."[1546] Bigelow could not understand why Davis did not serve on the Commission unless his "declination was one of the conditions of his election," adding that "it was supposed by many that Morton and others engineered the agreement of Davis' appointment with full knowledge that he would not serve."[1547] This cynical comment betrayed Tilden's knowledge of "things hoped for," and accounts for his final acquiescence in the Commission, since Davis and a certainty were far better than a fight and possible failure.

[Footnote 1543: Ibid., p. 63.]

[Footnote 1544: Blaine, Twenty Tears of Congress, Vol. 2, p. 584. Morrison of Illinois declared that Davis' "most intimate friends, among whom I may count myself, don't know to-day whether he favored Tilden or Hayes. He didn't vote at all."--Century Magazine, October, 1901, p. 928.]

[Footnote 1545: Senate: For, 26 Democrats, 21 Republicans; against, 16 Republicans, 1 Democrat. House: For, 160 Democrats, 31 Republicans; against, 69 Republicans, 17 Democrats.]

[Footnote 1546: Century Magazine, October, 1901, p. 933.]

[Footnote 1547: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 64, note.]

Another dagger-thrust that penetrated the home in Gramercy Park was Conkling's exclusion from the Electoral Commission. Of all the members of the famous committee the Senator had borne the most useful part in framing the measure, and his appointment to the Commission was naturally expected to follow.[1548] His biographer states that he declined to serve.[1549] "If this be correct," says Rhodes, "he shirked a grave duty."[1550] Bigelow charges the omission to the Senator's belief "that the vote of Louisiana rightfully belonged to Mr. Tilden," and volunteers the information "that Conkling had agreed to address the Commission in opposition to its counting Louisiana for Hayes."[1551] Conkling's absence from the Senate when the Louisiana vote was taken corroborates Bigelow,[1552] and supports the general opinion which obtained at the time, that the Republicans, suspecting Conkling of believing Tilden entitled to the presidency, intentionally ignored him in the make-up of the Commission.[1553] The reason for Conkling's failure subsequently to address the Commission in opposition to counting Louisiana for Hayes nowhere explicitly appears. "Various explanations are in circulation," writes Bigelow, "but I have not been able to determine which of them all had the demerit of securing his silence."[1554]

[Footnote 1548: "General Grant sent for Senator Conkling, and said with deep earnestness: 'This matter is a serious one, and the people feel it very deeply. I think this Electoral Commission ought to be appointed.' Conkling answered: 'Mr. President, Senator Morton' (who was then the acknowledged leader of the Senate), 'is opposed to it and opposed to your efforts; but if you wish the Commission carried, I can help do it.' Grant said: 'I wish it done.'"--George W. Childs, Recollections, pp. 79, 80.]

[Footnote 1549: Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 521.]

[Footnote 1550: Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. 7, p. 263.]

[Footnote 1551: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 84.]

[Footnote 1552: "In all his political official life the most important vote which he [Conkling] has been or can be called upon to give--that upon the Louisiana electoral question--he evaded."--Harper's Weekly, February 8, 1879.]

[Footnote 1553: "He [Conkling] was at the time most suspected by the Republicans, who feared that his admitted dislike to Hayes would cause him to favour a bill which would secure the return of Tilden."--Thomas V. Cooper and Hector T. Fenton, American Politics, p. 230; see also, Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. 7, p. 263.]

[Footnote 1554: Bigelow, Life of Tilden, Vol. 2, p. 84.

"Mr. Conkling felt that neither Mr. Tilden nor Mr. Hayes should be inaugurated."--Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 528.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXVIII. CONKLING AND CURTIS AT ROCHESTER

1877

Two State governments in Louisiana, one under Packard, a Republican, the other under Nicholls, a Democrat, confronted Hayes upon the day of his inauguration. The canvassing boards which returned the Hayes electors also declared the election of Packard as governor, and it would impeach his own title, it was said, if the President refused recognition to Packard, who had received the larger popular majority.

It was not unknown that the President contemplated adopting a new Southern policy. His letter of acceptance presupposed it, and before the completion of the Electoral Commission's work political and personal friends had given assurance in a published letter that Hayes would not continue military intervention in the South.[1555] Moreover, the President's inaugural address plainly indicated such a purpose. To inform himself of the extent to which the troops intervened, therefore, and to harmonise if possible the opposing governments, he sent a commission to New Orleans,[1556] who reported (April 21) a returning board quorum in both branches of the Nicholls Legislature and recommended the withdrawal of the army from the immediate vicinity of the State House. This was done on April 24 and thenceforward the Nicholls government controlled in State affairs.[1557]

[Footnote 1555: Letter of Stanley Matthews and Charles Foster, dated February 17, 1877.--Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1877, p. 459.]

[Footnote 1556: This commission consisted of Charles B. Lawrence, Joseph B. Hawley, John M. Harlan, John C. Brown, and Wayne McVeigh.--Ibid., p. 465.]

[Footnote 1557: Ibid., pp. 456-465. Packard became consul to Liverpool.]

The President's policy quickly created discontent within the ranks of the Republican party. Many violently resented his action, declaring his refusal to sustain a governor whose election rested substantially upon the same foundation as his own as a cowardly surrender to the South in fulfillment of a bargain between his friends and some Southern leaders.[1558] Others disclaimed the President's obligation to continue the military, declaring that it fostered hate, drew the colour line more deeply, promoted monstrous local misgovernment, and protected venal adventurers whose system practically amounted to highway robbery. Furthermore, it did not keep the States under Republican control, while it identified the Republican name with vindictive as well as venal power, as illustrated by the Louisiana Durrell affair in 1872,[1559] in the elections of 1874, and at the organisation of the Louisiana Legislature early in 1875.[1560] Notwithstanding these potent reasons for the President's action the judgment of a majority of his party deemed it an unwise and unwarranted act, although Grant spoke approvingly of it.[1561]

[Footnote 1558: The commission reported the Packard government's insistence that the Legislature of 1870 had the power to create a Returning Board with all the authority with which the Act clothed it, and that the Supreme Court of the State had affirmed its constitutionality. On the other hand, the Nichols government admitted the Legislature's right to confide to a Returning Board the appointment of electors for President and Vice-President, but denied its power to modify the constitutional provision for counting the vote for governor without first amending the State Constitution, declaring the Supreme Court's decision to the contrary not to be authoritative.--Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1877, pp. 403-404.]

[Footnote 1559: Durrell, a United States Circuit judge, sustained Kellogg in his contest with McEnery.]

[Footnote 1560: "The President directs me to say that he does not believe public opinion will longer support the maintenance of the State government in Louisiana by the use of the military, and he must concur in this manifest feeling." Grant's telegram to Packard, dated Mar. 1, 1877.]

[Footnote 1561: New York Tribune, July 10, 1877.]

Similar judgment was pronounced upon the President's attempt to reform the civil service by directing competitive examinations for certain positions and by forbidding office-holders actively to participate in political campaigns.[1562] "No officer should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organisations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns," he wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury. "Their right to vote and to express their views on public questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their official duties. No assessments for political purposes should be allowed." In a public order dated June 22 he made this rule applicable to all departments of the civil service. "It should be understood by every officer of the government that he is expected to conform his conduct to its requirements."[1563] To show his sincerity the President also appointed a new Civil Service Commission, with Dorman B. Eaton at its head, who adopted the rules formulated under Curtis during the Grant administration, and which were applied with a measure of thoroughness, especially in the Interior Department under Carl Schurz, and in the New York post-office, then in charge of Thomas L. James.

[Footnote 1562: The first step towards a change in the manner of appointments and removals was a bill introduced in Congress on December 20, 1865, by Thomas A. Jenckes of Rhode Island "to regulate the civil service of the United States." A few months later Senator B. Gratz Brown of Missouri submitted a resolution for "such change in the civil service as shall secure appointments to the same after previous examinations by proper Boards, and as shall provide for promotions on the score of merit or seniority." On March 3, 1871, Congress appended a section to an appropriation bill, authorising the President to "prescribe such regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service as may best promote efficiency therein and ascertain the fitness of each candidate in respect to age, health, character, knowledge and ability for the branch of service in which he seeks to enter; and for this purpose he may employ suitable persons to conduct such inquiries, prescribe their duties, and establish regulations for the conduct of persons who may receive appointments." Under this authority President Grant organised a commission composed of George William Curtis, Joseph Medill, Alexander C. Cattell, Davidson A. Walker, E.B. Ellicott, Joseph H. Blackfan, and David C. Cox. This commission soon found that Congress was indisposed to clothe them with the requisite power, and although in the three years from 1872 to 1875, they had established the entire soundness of the reform, an appropriation to continue the work was refused and the labours of the commission came to an end.]

[Footnote 1563: New York Tribune, June 25, 1877.]

This firm and aggressive stand against the so-called spoils system very naturally aroused the fears of many veteran Republicans of sincere and unselfish motives, who had used offices to build up and maintain party organisation, while the order restricting freedom of political action provoked bitter antagonism, especially among members of the New York Republican State Committee, several of whom held important Federal positions. To add to the resentment an official investigation of the New York custom-house was ordered, which disclosed "irregularities," said the report, "that indicate the peril to which government and merchants are exposed by a system of appointments in which political influence dispenses with fitness for the work."[1564] The President concurred. "Party leaders should have no more influence in appointments than other equally respectable citizens," he said. "It is my wish that the collection of the revenue should be organised on a strictly business basis, with the same guarantees for efficiency and fidelity in the selection of the chief and subordinate officers that would be required by a prudent merchant."[1565]

[Footnote 1564: New York Tribune, July 28, 1877.]

[Footnote 1565: Ibid.]

The Republican press, in large part, deplored the President's action, and while managing politicians smothered their real grievance under attacks upon the Southern policy, they generally assumed an attitude of armed neutrality and observation.[1566] No doubt the President was much to blame for this discontent. He tolerated the abuses disclosed by the investigation in New York, continued a disreputable régime in Boston, and installed a faction in Baltimore no better than the one turned out. Besides, the appointment to lucrative offices of the Republican politicians who took active part in the Louisiana Returning Board had closely associated him with the spoils system.[1567] Moreover, his failure to remove offending officials discredited his own rule and created an unfavourable sentiment, because after provoking the animosity of office-holders and arousing the public he left the order to execute itself. Yet the people plainly believed in the President's policy of conciliation, sympathised with his desire to reform abuses in the civil service, and honoured him for his frankness, his patriotism, and his integrity. During the months of August and September several Republican State conventions, notably those in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New Jersey commended him, while Maine, under the leadership of Blaine, although refusing to indorse unqualifiedly the policy and acts of the Administration, refrained from giving any expression of disapproval.[1568]

[Footnote 1566: In his speech at Woodstock, Conn., on July 4, Blaine disapproved the President's action; a gathering of Republicans in New Jersey, celebrating the return of Robeson from a foreign tour, indicated an unfriendly disposition; the Camerons of Pennsylvania, father and son, exhibited dissent; one branch of the New Hampshire Legislature tabled a resolution approving the President's course; and an early Republican State convention in Iowa indirectly condemned it.]

[Footnote 1567: In H.R. 45th Cong., 3d Sess., No. 140, p. 48 (Potter report) is a list of those connected with the Louisiana count "subsequently appointed to or retained in office."]

[Footnote 1568: These conventions occurred as follows: Ohio, August 2; Maine, August 9; Pennsylvania, September 6; Wisconsin, September 12; Massachusetts, September 20; New Jersey, September 25. See New York papers on the day following each.]

New York's Republican convention assembled at Rochester on September 26. The notable absence of Federal office-holders who had resigned committeeships and declined political preferment attracted attention, otherwise the membership of the assembly, composed largely of the usual array of politicians, provoked no comment. Conkling and Cornell arrived early and took possession. In 1874 and in 1875 the Senator's friends fought vigorously for control, but in 1877 the divided sentiment as to the President's policies and the usual indifference that follows a Presidential struggle inured to their benefit, giving them a sufficient majority to do as they pleased.

Thus far Conkling had not betrayed his attitude toward the Administration. At the time of his departure for Europe in search of health, when surrounded by the chief Federal officials of the city, he significantly omitted words of approbation or criticism, and with equal dexterity avoided the expression of an opinion in the many welcoming and serenade speeches amidst which his vacation ended in August. No doubt existed, however, as to his personal feeling. The selection of Evarts for secretary of state in place of Thomas C. Platt for postmaster general did not make him happy.[1569] George William Curtis's ardent support of the President likewise aided in separating him from the White House. Nevertheless, Conkling's attitude remained a profound secret until Thomas C. Platt, as temporary chairman, began the delivery of a carefully prepared speech.

[Footnote 1569: New York Tribune, February 28, 1877.]

Platt was then forty-four years old. He was born in Owego, educated at Yale, and as a man of affairs had already laid the foundation for the success and deserved prominence that crowned his subsequent business career. Ambition also took him early into the activities of public political life, his party having elected him county clerk at the age of twenty-six and a member of Congress while yet in his thirties. His friends, attracted by his promise-keeping and truth-telling, included most of the people of the vicinage. He was not an orator, but he possessed the resources of tact, simplicity, and bonhomie, which are serviceable in the management of men.[1570] Moreover, as an organiser he developed in politics the same capacity for control that he exhibited in business. He had quickness of decision and flexibility of mind. There was no vacillation of will, no suspension of judgment, no procrastination that led to harassing controversy over minor details. He seemed also as systematic in his political purposes as he was orderly in his business methods. These characteristic traits, well marked in 1877, were destined to be magnified in the next two decades when local leaders recognised that his judgment, his capacity, and his skill largely contributed to extricate the party from the chaotic conditions into which continued defeat had plunged it.

[Footnote 1570: "Platt and I imbibed politics with our earliest nutriment. I was on the stump the year I became a voter, and so was he. I was doing the part of a campaign orator and he was chief of the campaign glee club. The speech amounted to little in those days unless it was assisted by the glee club. In fact the glee club largely drew the audience and held it. The favorite song of that day was 'John Brown's Body,' and the very heights of ecstatic applause were reached when Brother Platt's fine tenor voice rang through the arches of the building or the trees of the woodland, carrying the refrain, 'We'll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree, while John Brown's soul goes marching on.'"--Chauncey M. Depew, Speeches, 1896 to 1902, p. 237.]

Conkling early recognised Platt's executive ability, and their friendship, cemented by likeness of views and an absence of rivalry, kept them sympathetically together in clearly defined fields of activity. In a way each supplemented the other. Platt was neither self-opinionated nor overbearing. He dealt with matters political with the light touch of a man of affairs, and although without sentiment or ideals, he worked incessantly, listened attentively, and was anxious to be useful, without taking the centre of the stage, or repelling support by affectations of manner. But like Conkling he relied upon the use of patronage and the iron rule of organisation, and too little upon the betterment of existing political conditions.

This became apparent when, as temporary chairman, he began to address the convention. He startled the delegates by calling the distinguished Secretary of State a "demagogue," and other Republicans who differed with him "Pecksniffs and tricksters." As he proceeded dissent blended with applause, and at the conclusion of his speech prudent friends regretted its questionable taste. In declining to become permanent president Conkling moved that "the gentleman who has occupied the chair thus far with the acceptance of us all" be continued. This aroused the Administration's backers, of whom a roll-call disclosed 110 present.[1571]

[Footnote 1571: The vote stood 311 to 110 in favour of the motion.]

The platform neither approved nor criticised the President's Southern policy, but expressed the hope that the exercise of his constitutional discretion to protect a State government against domestic violence would result in peace, tranquillity, and justice. Civil service reform was more artfully presented. It favoured fit men, fixed tenure, fair compensation, faithful performance of duty, frugality in the number of employés, freedom of political action, and no political assessments. Moreover, it commended Hayes's declaration in his letter of acceptance that "the officer should be secure in his tenure so long as his personal character remained untarnished and the performance of his duty satisfactory," and recommended "as worthy of consideration, legislation making officers secure in a limited fixed tenure and subject to removal only as officers under State laws are removed in this State on charges to be openly preferred and adjudged."[1572] This paralleled the President's reform except as to freedom of political action, and in support of that provision it arrayed a profoundly impressive statement, showing by statistics that Hayes's order, if applied to all State, county, and town officials in New York, would exclude from political action one voter out of every eight and one-half. If this practical illustration exhibited the weakness of the President's order it also anticipated what the country afterwards recognised, that true reform must rest upon competitive examination for which the Act of March 3, 1871 opened the way, and which President Hayes had directed for certain positions.

[Footnote 1572: Appleton's Cyclopædia, 1877, pp. 562-563.]

But despite the platform's good points, George William Curtis, construing its failure to endorse the Administration into censure of the President, quickly offered a resolution declaring Hayes's title to the presidency as clear and perfect as that of George Washington, and commending his efforts in the permanent pacification of the South and for the correction of abuses in the civil service.[1573] Curtis had never sought political advantage for personal purposes. The day he drifted away from a clerkship in a business firm and landed among the philosophers of Brook Farm he became an idealist, whom a German university and years of leisure travel easily strengthened. So fixed was his belief of moral responsibility that he preferred, after his unfortunate connection with Putnam's Magazine, to lose his whole fortune and drudge patiently for sixteen years to pay a debt of $60,000 rather than invoke the law and escape legal liability. He was an Abolitionist when abolitionism meant martyrdom; he became a Republican when others continued Whigs; and he stood for Lincoln and emancipation in the months of dreadful discouragement preceding Sheridan's victories in the Shenandoah. He was likewise a civil service reformer long in advance of a public belief, or any belief at all, that the custom of changing non-political officers on merely political grounds impaired the efficiency of the public service, lowered the standard of political contests, and brought reproach upon the government and the people. It is not surprising, therefore, that he stood for a President who sought to re-establish a reform that had broken down under Grant, and although the effort rested upon an Executive order, without the permanency of law, he believed that any attempt to inaugurate a new system should have the undivided support of the party which had demanded it in convention and had elected a President pledged to establish it. Moreover, the President had offered Curtis his choice of the chief missions, expecting him to choose the English. Remembering Irving in Spain, Bancroft in Germany, Motley in England, and Marsh in Italy, it was a great temptation. But Curtis, appreciating his "civic duty," remained at home, and now took this occasion to voice his support of the Executive who had honoured him.[1574]

[Footnote 1573: New York Tribune, September 27.]

[Footnote 1574: Curtis declined chiefly from the motive ascribed in Lowell's lines:

"At courts, in senates, who so fit to serve? And both invited, but you would not swerve, All meaner prizes waiving that you might In civic duty spend your heat and light, Unpaid, untrammelled, with a sweet disdain. Refusing posts men grovel to attain." --Lowell's Poems, Vol. 4, pp. 138-139.]

His speech, pitched in an exalted key, sparkled with patriotic utterances and eloquent periods, with an occasional keen allusion to Conkling. He skilfully contrasted the majority's demand for harmony with Platt's reference to Evarts as a "demagogue" and to civil service reform as a "nauseating shibboleth." He declared it would shake the confidence of the country in the party if, after announcing its principles, it failed to commend the agent who was carrying them out. Approval of details was unnecessary. Republicans did not endorse Lincoln's methods, but they upheld him until the great work of the martyr was done. In the same spirit they ought to support President Hayes, who, in obedience to many State and two or three National conventions, had taken up the war against abuses of the civil service. If the convention did not concur in all his acts, it should show the Democratic party that Republicans know what they want and the man by whom to secure such results.

In speaking of abuses in the civil service he told the story of Lincoln looking under the bed before retiring to see if a distinguished senator was waiting to get an office,[1575] referred to the efforts of Federal officials to defeat his own election to the convention, and declared that the President, by his order, intended that a delegate like himself, having only one vote, should not meet another with one hundred votes in his pocket obtained by means of political patronage. Instead of the order invading one's rights it was intended to restore them to the great body of the Republicans of New York, who now "refuse to enter a convention to be met--not by brains, not always by mere intelligence, not always by convictions, or by representative men, but by the forms of power which federal patriots assume." He did "not believe any eminent Republican, however high his ambition, however sore his discontent, hoped to carry the Republican party of the United States against Rutherford B. Hayes. Aye, sir, no such Republican, unless intoxicated with the flattery of parasites, or blinded by his own ambition." He spoke of Conkling's interest in public affairs as beginning contemporaneously with his own, of their work side by side in 1867, and of their sustaining a Republican President without agreement in the details of his policy, and he closed with the prayer that they might yet see the Republican party fulfilling the hope of true men everywhere, who look to it for honesty, for reform, and for pacification.[1576]

[Footnote 1575: See Chapter XII., p. 166.]

[Footnote 1576: New York Tribune, September 27, 1877.]

Conkling had been waiting for Curtis as the American fleet waited for the Spanish at Santiago. Curtis had adorned the centre of opposition until he seemed most to desire what would most disappoint Conkling. For months prior to the Cincinnati convention Harper's Weekly bristled with reasons that in its opinion unfitted the Senator for President, and advertised to the country the desire at least of a large minority of the party in New York to be rid of him. With consummate skill he unfolded Conkling's record, and emphasised his defence of the questionable acts that led to a deep distrust of Republican tendencies. To him the question was not whether a National convention could be persuaded to adopt the Senator as its candidate, but whether, "being one of the leaders that had imperilled the party, it was the true policy for those who patriotically desired Republican success." Furthermore, Curtis had a habit of asking questions. "With what great measure of statesmanship is his name conspicuously identified?"[1577] and, as if this admitted of no reply, he followed it with more specific inquiries demanding to know "why the Senator had led a successful opposition to Judge Hoar for the Supreme Bench," and become "the ardent supporter of Caleb Cushing for chief justice, and of Alexander Shepherd for commissioner of the District of Columbia?" These interrogatories seemed to separate him from statesmen of high degree and to place him among associates for whom upright citizens should have little respect.

[Footnote 1577: "He [Conkling] never linked his name with any important principle or policy."--Political Recollections, George W. Julian, p. 359.

"Strictly speaking Senator Conkling was not an originator of legislative measures. He introduced few bills which became laws. He was not an originator, but a moulder of legislation.... It may be said that during his last seven years in the Senate, no other member of that body has, since the time of Webster and Clay, exercised so much influence on legislation."--Alfred R. Conkling, Life of Conkling, pp. 645-649.]

Nor was this all. The part Greeley took at Chicago to defeat Seward, Curtis played at Cincinnati to defeat Conkling. He declared him the especial representative of methods which the best sentiment of the party repudiated, and asserted that his nomination would chill enthusiasm, convince men of the hopelessness of reform within the party, and lose the vote indispensable for the election of the Republican candidate. If his words were parliamentary, they were not less offensive. Once only did he strike below the belt. In the event of the Senator's nomination he said "a searching light would be turned upon Mr. Conkling's professional relations to causes in which he was opposed to attorneys virtually named by himself, before judges whose selection was due to his favour."[1578]

[Footnote 1578: Harper's Weekly, March 11, 1876. For other editorials referred to, see February 5; April 8, 15, 29; May 20; June 3, 17, 1876; March 24; April 21; July 21; August 11; September 22, 1877.]

This thrust penetrated the realm of personal integrity, a characteristic in which Conkling took great pride. Perhaps the hostile insinuation attracted more attention because it prompted the public, already familiar with the occult influences that persuaded Tweed's judges, to ask why men who become United States judges upon the request of a political boss should not be tempted into favourable decisions for the benefactor who practises in their courts? Curtis implied that something of the kind had happened in Conkling's professional career. Disappointment at Cincinnati may have made the presidential candidate sore, but this innuendo rankled, and when he rose to oppose Curtis's resolution his powerful frame seemed in a thrill of delight as he began the speech which had been laboriously wrought out in the stillness of his study.

The contrast in the appearance of the two speakers was most striking. Curtis, short, compact, punctilious in attire, and exquisitely cultured, with a soft, musical voice, was capable of the noblest tenderness. Conkling, tall, erect, muscular, was the very embodiment of physical vigour, while his large, well-poised head, his strong nose, handsome eyes, well-cut mouth, and prominent chin, were expressive of the utmost resolution. The two men also differed as much in mind as in appearance. Curtis stood for all the force and feeling that make for liberal progressive principles; Conkling, the product of a war age, of masterly audacity and inflexible determination, represented the conservative impulse, with a cynical indifference to criticism and opposition.

The preface to his attack was brief. This was a State convention to nominate candidates, he said in substance, and the National Administration was not a candidate or in question. He repelled the idea that it suggested or sanctioned such a proceeding, and although broad hints had been heard that retribution would follow silence, any one volunteering for such a purpose lacked discretion if not sincerity. "Who are these men who, in newspapers or elsewhere, are cracking their whips over me and playing schoolmaster to the party? They are of various sorts and conditions. Some of them are the man-milliners, the dilettante and carpet knights of politics, whose efforts have been expended in denouncing and ridiculing and accusing honest men.... Some of them are men who, when they could work themselves into conventions, have attempted to belittle and befoul Republican administrations and to parade their own thin veneering of superior purity. Some of them are men who, by insisting that it is corrupt and bad for men in office to take part in politics, are striving now to prove that the Republican party has been unclean and vicious all its life.... Some of these worthies masquerade as reformers. Their vocation and ministry is to lament the sins of other people. Their stock in trade is rancid, canting self-righteousness. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. Their real object is office and plunder. When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, he was unconscious of the then undeveloped capabilities and uses of the word reform.... Some of these new-found party overseers who are at this moment laying down new and strange tenets for Republicans, have deemed it their duty heretofore, upon no provocation, to make conventions and all else the vehicle of disparaging Republican administrations. Some of them sat but yesterday in Democratic conventions, some have sought nominations at the hands of Democrats in recent years, and some, with the zeal of neophytes and bitterness of apostates, have done more than self-respecting Democrats would do to vilify and slander their government and their countrymen.... They forget that parties are not built up by deportment, or by ladies' magazines, or gush.... The grasshoppers in the corner of a fence, even without a newspaper to be heard in, sometimes make more noise than the flocks and herds that graze upon a thousand hills.... For extreme license in criticism of administrations and of everybody connected with them, broad arguments can no doubt be found in the files of the journal made famous by the pencil of Nast. But a convention may not deem itself a chartered libertine of oracular and pedantic conceits."

Conkling could not comprehend why Republicans of New York should be thought predisposed to find fault with Hayes. Without their votes he could not have become the candidate. "Even the member from Richmond was, I believe, in the end prevailed upon, after much difficulty, to confer his unique and delicate vote also." New York congressmen, with few exceptions, heartily supported the measure without which Hayes would never have been effectually inaugurated. No opposition had come from New York. What, then, is the meaning and purpose of constantly accusing Republicans of this State of unfriendly bias? Wanton assaults had been made upon Republicans, supposed to be inspired by the champions and advisers of the President. For not doing more in the campaign of 1876, he, an office-holder, had been denounced by the same men who now insist that an office-holder may not sign even a notice for a convention. No utterance hostile to men or measures had proceeded from him. Not a straw had been laid in the way of any man. Still he had been persistently assaulted and misrepresented by those claiming to speak specially for the Administration. A word of greeting to his neighbours had drawn down bitter and scornful denunciations because it did not endorse the Administration.

"These anxious and super-serviceable charioteers seem determined to know nothing but the President and his policy and them crucified.... The meaning of all this is not obscured by the fact that the new President has been surrounded and courted by men who have long purred about every new Administration.... Some of these disinterested patriots and reformers have been since the days of Pierce the friends and suitors of all Administrations and betrayers of all. The assaults they incite are somewhat annoying. It would have been a luxury to unfrock some of them, but it has seemed to me the duty of every sincere Republican to endure a great deal rather than say anything to introduce division or controversy into party ranks.... I am for peace.... I am for everything tending to that end.... I am for one thing more--the success of the Administration in everything that is just and wise and real."

The Senator thought Hayes deserved the same support other Republican administrations had received. Whenever he is right he should be sustained; whenever misled by unwise or sinister advice, dissent should be expressed. This right of judgment is the right of every citizen. He exercised it in Congress under Lincoln and Grant, who never deemed an honest difference of opinion cause for war or quarrel, "nor were they afflicted by having men long around them engaged in setting on newspapers to hound every man who was not officious or abject in fulsomely bepraising them. The matters suggested by the pending amendment," he continued, "are not pertinent to this day's duties, and obviously they are matters of difference. They may promote personal and selfish aims, but they are hostile to concord and good understanding between Republicans at a time when they should all be united everywhere, in purpose and action. Let us agree to put contentions aside and complete our task. Let us declare the purposes and methods which should guide the government of our great State."

After this plea for harmony, the Senator commented briefly upon the remarks of other delegates, complimented Platt, and then turned again upon Curtis. Being assured that the latter did not refer to him as the Senator for whom Lincoln looked under the bed, he concluded: "Then I withhold a statement I intended to make, and I substitute for it a remark which I hope will not transgress the proprieties or liberties of this occasion. It is this: If a doubt arose in my mind whether the member from Richmond intended a covert shot at me, that doubt sprang from the fact that that member has published, in a newspaper, touching me, not matters political--political assaults fairly conducted no man ever heard me complain of--but imputations upon my personal integrity so injurious and groundless, that as I think of them now, nothing but the proprieties of the occasion restrain me from denouncing them and their author as I feel at liberty to do in the walks of private life. Mr. President, according to that Christian code which I have been taught, there is no atonement in the thin lacquer of public courtesy, or of private ceremonial observance, for the offence one man does another when he violates that provision of the Decalogue, which, speaking to him, says, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour,' and which means thou shalt not do it, whatever thy personal or political pique or animosity may be. The member from Richmond did me honour overmuch in an individual if not personal exhortation wherein he was pleased to run some parallel between himself and me.... Let me supplement the parallel by recalling a remark of a great Crusader when Richard of England and Leopold of Austria had held dispute over the preliminaries of battle: 'Let the future decide between you, and let it declare for him who carries furthest into the ranks of the enemy the sword of the cross.'"[1579]

[Footnote 1579: Conkling, Life of Conkling, pp. 538-549; New York Tribune, October 1, 1877.]

From a mere reading of this speech it is difficult, if not impossible, to realise its effect upon those who heard it.[1580] As an oratorical exhibition the testimony of friends and of foes is alike offered in its unqualified praise. He spoke distinctly and with characteristic deliberation, his stateliness of manner and captivating audacity investing each sentence with an importance that only attaches to the utterances of a great orator. The withering sneer and the look of contempt gave character to the sarcasms and bitter invectives which he scattered with the prodigality of a seed-sower. When he declared Curtis a "man-milliner," his long, flexible index finger and eyes ablaze with resentment pointed out the editor as distinctly as if he had transfixed him with an arrow, while the slowly pronounced syllables, voiced in a sliding, descending key, gave the title a cartoon effect. Referring to the parallel in Curtis's peroration, he laid his hand on his heart, bowed toward his antagonist with mock reverence, and distorted his face with an expression of ludicrous scorn. In repelling the innuendo as to his "personal integrity," the suppressed anger and slowly spoken words seemed to preface a challenge to mortal combat, and men held their breath until his purpose cleared. The striking delivery of several keen thrusts fixed them in the memory. Given in his deep, sonorous tones, one of these ran much as follows: "When Doc-tor-r-r Ja-a-awnson said that patr-r-riotism-m was the l-a-w-s-t r-r-refuge of a scoundr-r-rel he ignor-r-red the enor-r-rmous possibilities of the word r-refa-awr-rm."[1581] Other sentences, now historic, pleased opponents not less than friends. That parties are not upheld by "deportment, ladies' magazines, or gush" instantly caught the audience, as did "the journal made famous by the pencil of Nast," and the comparison suggested by Edmund Burke of the noise of "grasshoppers in the corner of a fence even without a newspaper to be heard in."[1582]

[Footnote 1580: After the death of Thomas B. Reed of Maine, this speech was found in his scrap-book among the masterpieces of sarcasm and invective.]

[Footnote 1581: White, Autobiography, Vol. 1, p. 171.]

[Footnote 1582: "Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, while thousands of great cattle beneath the shadow of the British oak chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field, that of course they are many in number, or that, after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."--Edmund Burke. George H. Jennings, Anecdotal History of the British Parliament, p. 159.]

Nevertheless, these moments of accord between speaker and hearers deepened by contrast the depth of bitterness existing between him and the friends of the President. His denunciation of Curtis had included Evarts if not other members of the Administration, and during the recital of the rhythmical sentences of arraignment dissent mingled with applause. "He was hissed," said a reporter of long experience, "as I have never heard any speaker hissed at a convention before."[1583] A friend to whom Conkling read the speech on the preceding Sunday pronounced it "too severe," and the nephew excluded the epithet "man-milliner" from the address as published in his uncle's biography.[1584] The contemporary press, reflecting the injury which Conkling's exuberance of denunciation did his cause, told how its effect withered as soon as oratory and acting had ceased. Within an hour after its delivery Charles E. Fitch of the Rochester Democrat-Chronicle, voicing the sentiment of the Senator's best friends, deprecated the attack. Reading the article at the breakfast table on the following morning, Conkling exclaimed, "the man who wrote it is a traitor!" It was "the man" not less than the criticism that staggered him. Fitch was a sincere friend and a writer with a purpose. His clear, incisive English, often forcible and at times eloquent, had won him a distinct place in New York journalism, not more by his editorials than by his work in various fields of literature, and his thought usually reflected the opinion of the better element of the party. To Conkling it conveyed the first intimation that many Republican papers were to pronounce his address unfortunate, since it exhorted to peace and fomented bitter strife.

[Footnote 1583: New York Tribune (correspondence), September 28.]

[Footnote 1584: Alfred R. Conkling, Life of Conkling, p. 540.]

Curtis refused to make public comment, but to Charles Eliot Norton, his intimate friend, he wrote: "It was the saddest sight I ever knew, that man glaring at me in a fury of hate, and storming out his foolish blackguardism. I was all pity. I had not thought him great, but I had not suspected how small he was. His friends, the best, were confounded. One of them said to me the next day, 'It was not amazement that I felt, but consternation.' I spoke offhand and the report is horrible. Conkling's speech was carefully written out, and therefore you do not get all the venom, and no one can imagine the Mephistophelean leer and spite."[1585]

[Footnote 1585: Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, p. 258.]

Conkling closed his speech too late at night for other business,[1586] and in the morning one-half of the delegates had disappeared. Those remaining occupied less than an hour in the nomination of candidates.[1587]

[Footnote 1586: Curtis's amendment was defeated by 311 to 110.]

[Footnote 1587: The candidates were: Secretary of State, John C. Churchill, Oswego; Comptroller, Francis Sylvester, Columbia; Treasurer, William L. Bostwick, Ithaca; Attorney-General, Grenville Tremaine, Albany; Engineer, Howard Soule, Onondaga.]

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us