=THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF GRANT, 1869–1877.=
GRANT’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION, 1869–1873.
=581. Pacific Railroads.=—The policy of helping railroad building by
Federal land grants began as early as 1850, when an important grant was
given to aid the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad. In the
course of the next six years several other grants were made for similar
purposes. The construction of a railroad to the Pacific was recommended
by the Republican platform of 1856; but the project was delayed by
differences between the North and the South in regard to the location of
the road. In 1862 the Union Pacific was projected to extend from Omaha
to Ogden, where it was to connect with the Central Pacific for San
Francisco. Though these roads were built by private corporations, the
latter were largely aided by Congress.[268] Besides granting every other
section of land along the routes for a space twenty miles in width, the
government guaranteed the bonds of the corporations to the extent of
over thirty thousand dollars a mile. The roads were completed in 1869,
the first year of Grant’s administration.[269] Though the
transcontinental lines have not generally proved profitable to
stockholders, they have been of immense advantage to the country as a
whole. Formerly from three to six weeks were required for the senators
and representatives to reach Washington from California and Oregon; but
the railroads reduced the time to a single week. Another advantage of
far greater importance was the encouragement offered by the roads to the
rapid settlement of the regions through which they passed. The new
Western states increased in population with amazing rapidity, partly
from foreign immigration, and partly from the migration of people from
the Eastern states. By the census of 1870 it was found that more than a
million inhabitants had already settled along the transcontinental
lines. The Pacific states now for the first time seemed to be an
integral part of the Union.
=582. San Domingo Question.=—In 1869 the people of the Republic of San
Domingo expressed a desire to be annexed to the United States. Grant
favored annexation, and a treaty was drawn up, but the project met with
much popular opposition. A commission, consisting of Senator B. F. Wade
of Ohio, Dr. Samuel G. Howe of Massachusetts, and President Andrew D.
White of Cornell University, was sent to inspect the island and report
upon its condition. The opposition to the treaty was based principally
upon the fact that the people of San Domingo were chiefly ignorant
negroes. Public opinion seemed not to favor an addition to the number of
negroes giving trouble to the government, and the Senate rejected the
treaty.
=583. Fifteenth Amendment.=—In order to improve the status of the
negroes in the South the congressional plan of reconstruction was
supplemented by the adoption, in 1870, of the Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. This provided that no person should thereafter be deprived
of the privilege of voting “because of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.” During the same year, Mississippi, Texas, and
Virginia were admitted to representation in Congress; and in 1871, for
the first time in ten years, every state in the Union was duly
represented.
=584. Negro Legislation.=—The negroes, although the most ignorant part
of the population, were in control of the Southern legislatures, and
their legislation was, as a rule, very crude and unwise. The white
people of the South owned most of the property, but the blacks, through
their control of the legislatures, to which they often elected
unscrupulous white men, had the power to levy taxes. This fact kept up
the violent opposition on the part of the white population which had
begun under President Johnson. The negroes were sometimes bribed to keep
away from the polls; sometimes threatened with discharge from employment
if they voted; and sometimes were kept from voting by force. Congress
retaliated by penal legislation against such interference with the
negro’s right to suffrage. So-called “Force Bills” were passed in 1870
and 1871, which increased the bitter feeling in the South. To preserve
order, the provisional governors were obliged to call on the President
for Federal troops. This augmented the strife, and the Ku-Klux-Klan (§
576) was increasingly active. Within a year, however, affairs quieted
down, a general Amnesty Act and other milder legislation helped to
placate the whites, and soon the Supreme Court, by important decisions,
made it plain that the individual states, in spite of the new
Constitutional Amendments, could control their own citizens in many
important ways. Thus the fears of the whites that the blacks would
secure permanent control of affairs were allayed.
=585. The Treaty of Washington.=—In 1871 a treaty between the United
States and Great Britain was signed at Washington, by which both nations
agreed to submit to arbitration what were known as the “Alabama Claims,”
made by the United States against Great Britain on account of losses to
American shipping, caused by Confederate privateers fitted out in
British ports (§ 502). By the terms of the treaty, the questions
involved were to be settled by a court of five arbitrators, one to be
appointed by each of the governments of the United States, Great
Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil. The Court sat at Geneva in
1872. Elaborate testimony was offered on both sides. The United States
government was able to show that the British government had been
repeatedly warned of the fitting out of the _Alabama_ and other
Confederate cruisers. The Court, after hearing the evidence and
arguments, held that Great Britain had not been duly watchful, as
required by international law, to prevent the use of her ports by the
agents of the Confederacy, and accordingly decided that the British
government should pay to the United States damages to the amount of
fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars in gold.
=586. Northwest Boundary: Canadian Fisheries.=—The Treaty of Washington
also provided for the settlement by arbitration of two other important
questions that had been in dispute for a considerable time. These were
the boundary between the Oregon region and Canada, not clearly defined
by the Treaty of 1846, and the fishery claims on the northeastern
Canadian coast. By the terms of the Treaty of Washington the boundary
question was submitted to the German Emperor, who gave his decision, in
1872, in favor of the American claim. The arbitrators to whom the
fisheries question was referred decided against the United States and
that the government should pay five million five hundred thousand
dollars for the use of the Canadian shores for drying and curing fish.
=587. Chicago and Boston Fires.=—The autumn of 1871 will long be
memorable for one of the most disastrous conflagrations ever known. In
the evening of October 8, a fire broke out in a stable in West Chicago,
and soon spread so that it was beyond control. Every structure within a
space of more than three square miles in the heart of the city was
reduced to ruins. More than a hundred thousand people were deprived of
their homes, and the loss of property was estimated at more than two
hundred million dollars. In November of the following year, about
seventy-five acres in the richest part of Boston were burned over, at a
loss of about seventy-five million dollars.
[Illustration: HORACE GREELEY.]
=588. Presidential Nominations.=—As the end of Grant’s first term
approached it became evident that he would be renominated, although
there were many disaffected Republicans. The prevalence of political
scandals and the continued unsatisfactory condition of the South were
the most serious causes of complaint. The discontented Republicans
clustered about Horace Greeley[270] of New York, and at a convention
held at Cincinnati, in May, 1872, he was nominated for President, with
B. Gratz Brown of Missouri for Vice President. The platform adopted
charged the administration with unscrupulous and selfish use of power in
the South, and demanded the immediate substitution of civil for military
power in the Southern states. As the views promulgated by this platform
were substantially those of the Democratic party, the Greeley platform
and candidates were accepted as their own by the Democratic Convention.
The union, however, was not an auspicious one. Greeley had been active
and influential as a Whig and Republican and a lifelong opponent of the
Democrats, and was therefore distrusted. Many Democrats regarded the
nomination as a cowardly surrender. The opposition found expression in a
call for a strictly Democratic convention to be held, September 3, at
Louisville, Kentucky. The result was the nomination of Charles O’Connor
of New York for President, and John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts for
Vice President. As Greeley died a few days after the electors were
chosen and before their vote was cast, the Democratic vote was
scattering, and Grant received two hundred and eighty-six of the three
hundred and forty-nine electoral votes.
GRANT’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1873–1877.
=589. Commercial Activity and the Crisis of 1873.=—During Grant’s first
administration there was remarkable commercial activity throughout the
country. Money was very abundant, and prices were high; and, now that
the war was over, capital was everywhere seeking investment in new
enterprises. The war between France and Germany in 1870 and 1871, and
the bad harvests of Europe generally, made a great market for all
American products. An era of railroad construction and speculation
naturally ensued. Everybody seemed to wish to invest in the new roads,
many of which could not pay the expenses of operation. In the four years
of Grant’s first administration, the mileage of railroads in the country
was increased about fifty per cent; but it soon became apparent that the
work had been enormously overdone. All at once, when nearly everybody
wished to sell, nobody wished to buy. On September 19, 1873, Jay Cooke &
Company, leading bankers in Philadelphia, failed, and Wall Street in New
York was thrown into such a panic that the day has ever since been known
as “Black Friday.” A financial stringency ensued which resulted in a
universal fall of prices, many failures, and much distress. It was not
until 1879 that prosperity was restored.
=590. Political Scandals.=—Grant’s second term was marked by still
greater political scandals than his first. These were largely due to the
spirit of speculation just described. Several of the new railroad
projects were founded on land grants from Congress, and railroad
projectors seemed everywhere desirous of securing aid from the
government. A company, known as the “Crédit Mobilier,” had been formed
to finance the Union Pacific, and this company distributed stock among
men of influence in a scandalous manner. A Congressional Committee of
Investigation, appointed in December, 1872, reported in February, 1873,
and showed that some of the stock was given to congressmen, apparently
for the purpose of securing their votes. Two members of the House of
Representatives were formally censured. The spirit of corruption was
thought to have entered the Cabinet, and one Cabinet officer, W. W.
Belknap, Secretary of War, was impeached for receiving bribes, but
escaped dismissal by resignation a few hours before the House passed the
impeaching resolution. Enough senators held that he was not then
impeachable to prevent conviction. A Whisky Ring was discovered in 1875,
that had been organized by Federal officials and distillers for the
purpose of defrauding the government of the taxes due on the manufacture
of whisky. Numerous Indian uprisings were found to be largely the result
of dishonest methods practiced by Indian commissioners and contractors
in cheating Indians out of their just dues. While no scandal of any kind
ever attached to Grant himself, it was widely felt that he was
overindulgent to officials of questionable honesty. Mainly in
consequence of these scandals, there was a general outcry from the
public, and a demand for a different system of appointment to all the
minor civil offices.
=591. Extravagance of Congress.=—The spirit of dissatisfaction that
prevailed among the people at large was much intensified in 1873 by the
action of Congress in raising the salaries of a large number of Federal
officers. The salary of the President was advanced from twenty-five
thousand to fifty thousand dollars a year; and the salary of congressmen
was increased from five thousand dollars to seven thousand. In the case
of congressmen, the increase was made to apply to the Congress then in
session. The act raised a storm of indignation throughout the country.
It was the back-pay clause, known as the “salary grab,” that was
particularly obnoxious. Nearly all those members who voted for the
increase were defeated at the next election; and so much of the measure
as related to congressmen was repealed at the next session.
=592. Civil Service Reform.=—To give voice to the demands for
improvement in the public service, a National Civil Service Reform
Association was organized, which devoted itself to agitation favoring
new methods of appointment. From the time of Jackson, the custom had
been growing for a new President to turn out of office those who had
actively opposed him, and to appoint those who had actively supported
him. The numerous scandals in Grant’s administration were thought to
result largely from this system, and a demand for reform became general.
The first Civil Service Reform Law was passed March 3, 1871. This law
authorized the President to frame and administer such rules as he deemed
best for the regulation of appointments in the Civil Service. The
measure received Grant’s approval, and he appointed the distinguished
author and orator George William Curtis, an earnest advocate of reform,
as the head of a Board of Commissioners, who were to examine candidates
for the minor positions and report the results to the President. From
those who passed the examinations most successfully, the President was
to make the appointments. For three years this system of competitive
examinations was followed; but, as congressmen were thus deprived of the
privilege of recommending constituents for appointment, Congress in 1874
refused to vote money to maintain the commission, and the work was thus
temporarily frustrated. This was also a period of local political
corruption. The Tammany Society, under its “Boss,” William Marcy Tweed,
governed New York City in a most scandalous and extravagant fashion.
Finally, owing to exposures made in 1871, chiefly through the agency of
the New York _Times_, Tweed was brought to trial and convicted.[271]
[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.]
=593. Indian Troubles.=—During both of Grant’s administrations Indian
troubles were serious, partly in consequence of the political corruption
of the period (§ 590). In the course of the Civil War, the Sioux in
Minnesota, taking advantage of the absence of the United States troops,
had risen in rebellion and massacred a considerable number of the
inhabitants. With some difficulty the agitators were captured, and
thirty-four of them were simultaneously hanged on a single gallows at
Mankato. This striking exhibition of energy on the part of the
government put an end to revolts for a time, but relief was only
temporary. The Modocs, in southern Oregon, when ordered to another
reservation in 1873, refused to go, and even put to death the peace
commissioner sent to deal with them. They were finally subdued, after
nearly a year of fighting. In 1875 the Sioux again arose, under the
leadership of Sitting Bull; but they were gradually driven west as far
as the Little Big Horn River in southern Montana. Here they were
imprudently attacked by General George A. Custer,[272] who, with his
regiment, was surrounded and every member of the force with one
exception was killed (June 25, 1876). Fresh troops finally repulsed the
Indians and they withdrew into British America.
=594. The Virginius Affair.=—Good sense on both sides averted
hostilities in another quarter. In October, 1873, an American merchant
vessel, the _Virginius_, was captured on the high seas, near Jamaica, by
a Spanish man-of-war, on the ground that it intended to land men to
assist in the Cuban insurrection then in progress. Several Cubans, with
Captain Fry and a number of other persons found among the passengers,
were seized and executed. The event caused not a little excitement in
the United States. Spain made immediate and ample reparation; but the
incident served to increase the filibustering spirit toward Cuba that
had long been prevalent, especially in the South.
=595. The Centennial. Exposition.=—In the last year of Grant’s second
administration,[273] the fact that “peace hath her victories no less
renowned than war” was strikingly proved. The centennial of the adoption
of the Declaration of Independence was celebrated by a great
International Industrial Exposition at Philadelphia. It was also, as an
undertaking of all the states, a sign of real national unity after years
of strife. The exposition was opened in May, 1876, and was visited by
millions of people, drawn from all parts of the country and from Europe.
The superiority of the United States in various kinds of labor-saving
machines and inventions, among them telephones and appliances for
electric lighting, was a source of national pride; and the cause of
popular education was served by the exhibition of the mechanical and
artistic achievements of foreign nations.
PARTY POLITICS.
=596. The Greenback Party.=—As early as 1863 the principal and interest
of the national bonds had been made payable in coin. But as the price of
gold rose,—or, more properly speaking, the price of paper notes
fell,—it was possible to sell bonds and with the gold and silver thus
received to purchase greenbacks, and thus apparently to double the rate
of interest. As the bonds were largely held by rich men, an outcry rose
that the law should be changed, and that all bonds should be made
payable, principal and interest, in greenbacks. Public feeling
culminated in a political convention at Indianapolis, November 25, 1874,
in which a demand was made for a general substitution of a paper
currency in place of coin. The Greenback Party, as it was called,
nominated Peter Cooper of New York for President in 1876, and he
received eighty-one thousand seven hundred and forty votes, mostly in
the Central and Western states. During the same period organizations of
farmers, known as Granges, demanded, and in some states secured, the
moderation of railroad rates.
[Illustration: RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.]
=597. The Campaign of 1876.=—As the election of 1876 approached, it
became evident that the people were growing more and more to distrust
the policy of keeping the reconstructed governments in place by military
force, and that the question of interfering in local affairs in the
South would play a large part in the campaign. The Democrats were
growing in strength, while the Republicans were weakening. At their
party convention, the Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden of New York
for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana for V%ice President;
while the Republicans placed in the field Rutherford B. Hayes[274] of
Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of New York. It was evident from the first
that the contest would be a very close one. The election revealed that
the decision of the Electoral College, as the Presidential electors in
their collective capacity are called, would turn upon the manner in
which certain disputed returns in Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South
Carolina were decided. If these states should all be represented in the
College by Republican electors, Hayes would have a majority of one. If
from a single one of those states a Democratic elector should obtain a
vote, the election would go to Tilden.
=598. The Question in Dispute.=—From each of the states in dispute, two
sets of returns were presented to Congress, one certifying that
Republican, the other that Democratic, electors had been chosen. In each
of the Southern states there was a returning board that was recognized
by the government at Washington, to which the results of the elections
from various precincts were to be reported, and whose duty it was to
declare the result, which was to be certified, by the governor, to
Congress. These boards, therefore, had almost unlimited authority. In
making up the returns in Florida and Louisiana, they cast out the vote
of certain precincts, declaring that the election had been tainted with
fraud and violence. This the Democrats denied, and made out returns of
their own, certifying that the Democratic electors had been chosen. In
South Carolina there were two sets of returns emanating from two
contending state governments. The Democrats claimed that Federal troops
had interfered with the results of the election. In Oregon the question
as to whether there should be three Republican electors or two
Republican and one Democratic, hinged on the validity of a protest that
a postmaster could not under the Constitution be an elector. As the
Republicans had a majority in the Senate and the Democrats in the House,
it was evident there could be no agreement on a count of the votes.
[Illustration: SAMUEL J. TILDEN.[275]]
=599. Electoral Commission.=—The importance of the question caused
great anxiety from November until March. The result involved not only an
entire change of national policy with regard to the South, but also the
tenure of nearly one hundred thousand officials. There was talk of
another civil war. For weeks the matter was debated in Congress, with no
result. As the time for inauguration approached, the most temperate men
on both sides agreed upon an Electoral Commission, to whom the whole
matter should be submitted for decision. Such decision was to be final,
unless both Senate and House agreed in rejecting it. The commission was
to consist of five members of the House (three of them Democrats), five
Senators (three of them Republicans), and five members of the Supreme
Court (two Democrats, two Republicans, and one Independent). It turned
out that the only Independent member of the Supreme Court, David Davis,
resigned in order to accept a seat in the Senate. He therefore could not
serve, and after some delay a Republican was put in his place. All the
points in dispute were ably presented and argued. A bare majority of the
Commission decided that they could not accept returns that were not
regularly certified to and that they must accept those of the duly
authorized returning boards. Accordingly, the questions in regard to
each of the states involved were decided in favor of the Republicans, by
a vote of eight to seven, all the Republicans voting one way and all the
Democrats the other. As the Republican Senate would not vote to reject
this result, it was conclusive, and Hayes was declared elected. The
question was not settled, however, till March 2, two days before the
inauguration. The feeling on the part of the Democrats throughout the
country was naturally intense; but the decision was legal, and no formal
objection to it could be made. Thus Hayes and Wheeler were chosen by an
electoral vote of one hundred and eighty-five, while Tilden and
Hendricks received one hundred and eighty-four. Nothing has ever
occurred in the history of our government to subject the Constitution to
so violent a strain; and nothing could be more creditable to the sense
of loyalty on the part of the aggrieved portion of the people than their
peaceful submission to the results of the legal decision. Recent opinion
seems to be favorable to the technical merits of Tilden’s claims, yet it
is generally conceded that the country, on the whole, profited from the
actual course of events.
* * * * *
REFERENCES.—Grant, _Memoirs_, Vol. II.; Stanwood, _Elections_,
273-344; Johnston, _Orations_, Vol. IV., 296-366, 367-420;
Fiske, _Civil Government_, 261; G. W. Curtis, _Orations_ (for
reports in regard to the progress of Civil Service Reform, these
addresses are unequaled); Andrews, _The South since the War_;
Kelley, _The Old South and the New_; J. W. Burgess,
_Reconstruction and the Constitution_ (1902). Allen’s _Governor
Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina_ is valuable as a
picture of methods during the reconstruction period. See also
bibliographical note to Chapter XXXII.
-----
[268] The Union Pacific was to receive $16,000 for each mile across the
plains, $48,000 for each mile across the mountains, and $32,000 per mile
for the remainder of the way. The Central Pacific was to receive an
average of a little more than $31,000 a mile. The total amount received
was $55,076,000.
[269] The Northern Pacific, which extends from St. Paul to Puget Sound,
was built with the help of forty-seven million acres of land, but was
not completed until 1883. The Southern Pacific, which extends from New
Orleans to San Francisco, was also assisted by the government and was
completed some years later. The Santa Fé and the Great Northern, at a
still later period, also connected the Mississippi Valley with the
Pacific Coast.
[270] Born in New Hampshire, 1811; died, 1872. Edited various newspapers
in New York City until he founded the _Tribune_, 1841, which he edited
with great power till the year of his death; was first a Whig, then a
Republican; always an advocate of protection, and during the later years
of his life an advocate of universal suffrage and general amnesty;
became one of the bondsmen of Jefferson Davis in 1867; was nominated for
President by discontented Republicans and Democrats in 1872.
[271] Tweed (1823–1878) was a son of a chair-maker which trade he first
followed. He became a power in local politics through the influence he
acquired as a popular member of a fire company. He served as alderman
and congressman, but did his chief plundering as commissioner of public
works of New York City. He was finally convicted in 1873 and imprisoned
and fined, but in 1875 his imprisonment was declared illegal. Civil
suits were still pending against him and the enormous bail of $3,000,000
was required, in default of which he was put in jail. He escaped to Cuba
and Spain, but was brought back and died in jail.
[272] Born in Ohio, 1839; died, 1876. Graduated from West Point, 1861.
Served with distinction in Civil War, especially in Shenandoah Valley;
brigadier general of volunteers, 1863; brevetted brigadier general
United States Army, 1865; served later in the West against the Indians;
killed in the massacre of his command, 1876.
[273] Though President Grant’s public career ended with his second
administration, which had been greatly discredited, the last years of
his life made a deep impression on the people at large. Soon after the
close of his second term he made a journey around the world, and,
wherever he went, honors were showered upon him. In China, in Germany,
and in Great Britain it was especially evident that the greatness of his
military career had made a profound impression. After his return, two
events deeply moved the public sympathy. In the first place, he had
intrusted nearly all of his moderate fortune to a banking house in New
York, in whose managers he had shown an unjustifiable confidence. The
bank failed so disastrously that Grant felt compelled to offer for sale
the various swords that had been presented to him, as well as other
important memorials of the war. These were purchased by William H.
Vanderbilt for one hundred thousand dollars, and given to the nation for
preservation in the Smithsonian Institution. In the second place, it
became evident, in 1884 that his life was in immediate peril from an
incurable disease. Fully realizing that his death was approaching, he
set about the preparation of his _Memoirs_, in the hope that the sale of
the work would aid in furnishing support for the dependent members of
his family. Though tortured by excruciating pain, he pushed on the work
in the most heroic manner and was able to complete it just before his
death, in July, 1885. The great merits of these two volumes secured for
them an instant public reception, and the heroism and the pathos of the
great soldier’s last days very deeply touched the popular heart.
[274] Born in Ohio, 1822; died, 1893. Graduated at Kenyon College, 1842;
practiced law at Fremont, Ohio; volunteered at the outbreak of the war,
and rose to be brigadier general; was wounded at South Mountain, and
distinguished himself in the Shenandoah campaign of 1864; congressman,
1865–1866; governor of Ohio, 1868–1872; was elected governor on “honest
money” issue, after a campaign of remarkable spirit,—a fact which
brought him forward as candidate for President in 1876; was nominated
over Blaine and Bristow on the seventh ballot, by the Republican
Convention, and was declared elected after decision of the Electoral
Commission, March 2, 1876.
[275] Born in New York, 1814; died, 1886. Graduated at University of New
York; became a prominent politician and corporation lawyer in New York
City; leader of New York Democrats, 1868; successfully opposed the Tweed
“ring”; elected governor, 1874; unsuccessful candidate for Presidency,
1876; left large sum to endow public library of New York City.