THE ELECTION OF GROVER CLEVELAND
The Republicans of my district insisted that I make the race for
Congress again in 1884, and I decided to do so, although I knew it would
be useless for me to do so with any hope of being elected, for I knew
the prospect of success was not as favorable as two years previous.
Judge Van Eaton, the Democratic candidate for Congressman in 1882, was a
representative of the better element, and would, therefore, rather be
defeated than be declared elected through the enforcement and
application of questionable methods. He publicly declared on several
occasions that, as anxious as he was to be a member of Congress, he
would rather be defeated than have a certificate of election tainted
with fraud. In other words, if he could not be fairly and honestly
elected he preferred to be defeated. He insisted upon a fair election
and an honest count. This was not agreeable to many of his party
associates. They believed and privately asserted that his open
declarations on that point not only carried an implied reflection upon
his party in connection with previous elections, but that he was taking
an unnecessary risk in his own case. Chiefly for these reasons, the
Judge, though a strong and able man, was denied the courtesy of a
nomination for a second term. It had always been the custom to allow a
member to serve at least two terms; but this honor was denied Judge Van
Eaton, the nomination being given to Honorable T.R. Stockdale, of Pike
county.
Stockdale was a different type of a man from Van Eaton. He was in
perfect accord with the dominant sentiment of his party. He felt that he
had been nominated to go to Congress,--"peaceably and fairly," if
possible, but to go in any event. Then, again, that was the year of the
Presidential election, and the Democrats were as confident of success
that year as they had been in 1876 and in 1880.
For President and Vice-President the candidates were Blaine and Logan,
Republicans, and Cleveland and Hendricks, Democrats.
Mr. Cleveland had the prestige of having been elected Governor of New
York by a majority of about one hundred thousand. New York was believed
to be the pivotal and the decisive State, and that its votes would
determine the election for President. That the Republicans, even with
such a popular man as Mr. Blaine as their candidate, would be able to
overcome the immense majority by which Mr. Cleveland had carried the
State for Governor was not believed by any Democrat to be possible. The
Democrats did not take into account any of the local circumstances that
contributed to such a remarkable result; but they were well known to
Republicans in and out of that State. One of the principal contributory
causes was a determination on the part of thousands of Republican voters
in that State to resent at the polls National interference in local
State affairs.
Judge Folger, President Arthur's Secretary of the Treasury, was the
Republican candidate against Mr. Cleveland for the Governorship when the
latter was elected by such an immense majority. It was a well-known fact
that Judge Folger could not have been nominated but for the active and
aggressive efforts of the National Administration, and of its agents and
representatives. The fight for the Republican nomination for Governor
that year was the beginning of the bitter fight between the Blaine and
the Arthur forces in the State for the delegation in 1884. In the
nomination of Judge Folger the Blaine men were defeated. To neutralize
the prestige which the Arthur men had thus secured, thousands of the
Blaine men, and some who were not Blaine men, but who were against the
National Administration for other reasons, refused to vote for Judge
Folger, and thus allowed the State to go Democratic by default. In 1884,
when Mr. Blaine was the candidate of the Republicans for the
Presidency, a sufficient number of anti-Blaine men in New York,--in a
spirit of retaliation, no doubt,--pursued the same course and thus
allowed the State again to go Democratic by default. The loss which Mr.
Blaine sustained in the latter case, therefore, was much greater than
that gained by him in the former.
But, let the causes, circumstances, and conditions be what they may,
there was not a Democrat in Mississippi in 1884 who did not believe that
Mr. Cleveland's election to the Presidency was a foregone conclusion.
That he would have the support of the Solid South there was no doubt.
Those States, they believed, were as certain to be returned Democratic
as the sun would rise on the morning of the day of the election.
Although I accepted the nomination for Congress, I as chairman of the
Republican State Committee, devoted the greater part of my time to the
campaign throughout the State. Mr. Blaine had many warm friends and
admirers among the white men and Democrats in the State, some of them
being outspoken in their advocacy of his election. In making up the
electoral ticket I made every effort possible to get some of those men
to consent to the use of their names. One of them, Joseph N. Carpenter,
of my own home town, Natchez, gave his consent to the use of his name.
He was one of the solid business men of the town. He was not only a
large property owner but the principal owner of a local steamboat that
was engaged in the trade on the Mississippi River between Natchez and
Vicksburg. He was also the principal proprietor of one of the
cotton-seed-oil mills of the town. In fact his name was associated with
nearly every important enterprise in that community. Socially no family
stood higher than his in any part of the South. His accomplished wife
was a Miss Mellen, whose brother, William F. Mellen, was one of the most
brilliant members of the bar that the State had ever produced. She had
another brother who acquired quite a distinction as a minister of the
gospel.
When the announcement was made public that Joseph N. Carpenter was to be
an elector on the Republican ticket, intense excitement was immediately
created. The Democratic press of the State immediately turned their
batteries upon him. Personal friends called upon him in large numbers
and urged him to decline. But he had consented to serve, and he felt
that it was his duty, and ought to be his privilege to do so. Besides,
he was a sincere Blaine man. He honestly believed that the election of
Mr. Blaine would be conducive to the best interests of the country, the
South especially. To these appeals, therefore, he turned a deaf ear. But
it was not long before he was obliged to yield to the pressure. The fact
was soon made plain to him that, if he allowed his name to remain on
that ticket, the probabilities were that he would be financially
ruined. He would soon find that his boat would be without either
passengers or freight; his oil mill would probably be obliged to close
because there would be no owners of the raw material of whom he could
make purchases at any price, and even his children at school would, no
doubt, be subjected to taunts and insults, to say nothing of the social
cuts to which his family might be subjected. He was, therefore, brought
to a painful realization of the fact that he was confronted with
conditions which he had not fully anticipated. He could then see, as he
had never seen before, that he had been brought face to face with a
condition and not a theory. He was thus obliged to make his choice
between accepting those conditions upon the one hand, and on the other
the empty and temporary honor of serving as an elector on the Blaine
Republican ticket. His convictions, his manhood and his self-respect
were on one side; his material interests and family obligations were on
the other. His mental condition during that period can better be
imagined than described. After giving thoughtful consideration and
sleepless nights to the matter, he at length decided to yield to the
pressure and decline the use of his name. He informed me of his decision
through the medium of a private letter which he said he had written with
great reluctance and sincere regret. The committee thereupon named Dr.
Jackson, of Amite County, an old line Republican, to fill the vacancy.
It will thus be seen that in pursuing a course that Mr. Blaine thought
would place southern Democrats under obligations to him he placed a
weapon in the hands of his own personal and political enemies by which
they were enabled to crush and silence his friends and supporters; for
after all it is not so much the love of fair play, as it is the fear of
punishment, that actuates the average man in obeying the laws and
respecting the rights and privileges of others. Mr. Blaine's friends and
supporters at the South were the very people who stood most in need of
that security and protection which can come only through a thorough and
impartial enforcement of laws for the protection of citizens in the
exercise and enjoyment of their civil and political rights, as well as
the enforcement of laws for the protection of life, liberty and
property.
Judge H.F. Simrall, one of the most brilliant lawyers in the State,--who
came into the Republican party under the leadership of General Alcorn in
1869, and who had served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the
State,--made an effort to canvass the State for Mr. Blaine, but his
former associates, with whom he tried to reason, treated him with such
scanty courtesy that he soon became discouraged and abandoned the
effort.
There were two factions in the Democratic party, Mr. Lamar being the
recognized head of one of them. His political enemies suspected and some
of them accused him of being partial to Mr. Blaine. To save himself and
his friends from humiliation and defeat in his own party it was
necessary for him to dispel that suspicion, and disprove those
accusations. With that end in view he made a thorough canvass of the
State in the interest of Mr. Cleveland and the Democratic party. The
State was returned for Mr. Cleveland by a large majority, for which Mr.
Lamar was in a great measure credited. Mr. Blaine finally saw his
mistake, which he virtually admitted in the speech delivered by him at
his home immediately after the election; but it was then too late to
undo the mischief that had been done. It was like locking the stable
door after the horse had been stolen. That Mr. Blaine died without
having attained the goal of his ambition was due chiefly to his lack of
foresight, poor judgment, political blunders, and a lack of that
sagacity and acumen which are so essential in a successful party leader.