In 1869 Wisconsin elected a new senator to represent her in
Congress. It was conceded on every hand that James R. Doolittle, whose
term expired March 4, 1869, had misrepresented the state’s sentiment
in his support of President Johnson during the impeachment trial, and
that he had no chance of reëlection. This situation brought out a
number of candidates, most of whom were “new” men. Among the tried and
true candidates the most prominent were Cadwallader C. Washburn, then
congressman for the southwestern section of the state, and Horace
Rublee, vigorous editor of the chief Republican newspaper at Madison.
Ex-Governor Salomon was also in the field, but his candidacy was not
taken very seriously. The new men who were most prominently talked of
were Otis H. Waldo and Matt H. Carpenter, both of them Milwaukee
lawyers. Waldo was the elder of the two, a man of ability and power,
and a Republican from the foundation of the party. Carpenter was of
Democratic antecedents, a recent adherent of the reigning party. His
strength lay in his brilliant oratory, keen wit, and deep knowledge of
men. Erratic in his methods, but meteoric in his cleverness, he
persuaded and enthralled his hearers when opportunity was afforded him
for speech. Carpenter had made a national reputation by his arguments
in the Supreme Court on the Reconstruction issue. The president-elect,
General Grant, and his advisers were favorable to Carpenter’s
candidacy, which gave the Milwaukee lawyer a strong endorsement with
Wisconsin Republicans.
The senatorial campaign opened in June, and largely governed the
elections for the ensuing Wisconsin legislature. By December the
situation had become acute, and all parties were lined up for the
contest. The preferences of every legislator-elect were canvassed and
recanvassed; and each candidate presented his claims and
qualifications to the prominent members of the coming legislature in
personal letters. The State Historical Society has recently received a
gift of a few letters relating to this campaign addressed to the
Honorable Andrew Jackson Turner, of Portage, then an influential
figure in Wisconsin politics. Three of these letters, written in the
early winter of 1868-69, are from Carpenter, who bespeaks Turner’s
support at the coming legislative session. Turner, however, had given
his pledge to Horace Rublee, and had been by him chosen manager of his
campaign. December 9, 1868, Carpenter wrote to Turner from Washington:
“I recd your favor just as I was leaving home, postponing me in your
affections to Mr. Rublee. But I think this will make no difference. I
am sure the conflict will be between Mr. Washburn and myself & that he
will be elected, if I am not. You say that you shall support me next
to Rublee, and I desire to thank you for this.”
The most interesting letter of the lot is that of Rublee himself,
written November 23, 1868. In it he canvasses the entire legislative
personnel, telling of the predilections of each member and concluding:
“In my judgement Carpenter cannot be elected, & I certainly think he
ought not to be elected.”
As all the world knows, Rublee was wrong. During the legislative
session, Carpenter’s manager arranged a public meeting in which all
the candidates were to set forth their views on the questions of the
day. This meeting was contemptuously dubbed by Rublee “A
Spelling-down”; none the less, neither he nor any other of the
candidates dared refuse the invitation to speak. Carpenter’s great
powers as an orator stood him in good stead, and at the Republican
caucus held soon after the speech-making contest, he was triumphantly
nominated, and elected, in due course, by the Republican majority in
the state legislature.
The intimate picture these old letters afford of the log-rolling days
before the direct election of the senators by the people, gives them
historical value for students of political methods, and lays bare the
reasons that induced the modern revolt against “machine-made”
representatives in the upper house of Congress.