"THE MAD DESPERATION OF REACTION"
1862
Notwithstanding its confidence in General McClellan, whose success in
West Virginia had made him the successor of General Scott, giving him
command of all the United States forces, the North, by midsummer,
became profoundly discouraged. Many events contributed to it. The
defeat at Ball's Bluff on the Potomac, which Roscoe Conkling likened
to the battle of Cannæ, because "the very pride and flower of our
young men were among its victims,"[812] had been followed by
conspicuous incompetence at Manassas and humiliating failure on the
Peninsula. Moreover, financial difficulties increased the despondency.
At the outbreak of hostilities practical repudiation of Southern debts
had brought widespread disaster. "The fabric of New York's mercantile
prosperity," said the _Tribune_, "lies in ruins, beneath which ten
thousand fortunes are buried. Last fall the merchant was a capitalist;
to-day he is a bankrupt."[813] In September, 1861, these losses
aggregated $200,000,000.[814] Besides, the strain of raising sufficient
funds to meet government expenses had forced a suspension of specie
payment and driven people to refuse United States notes payable on
demand without interest. Meantime, the nation's expenses aggregated
$2,000,000 a day and the Treasury was empty. "I have been obliged,"
wrote the Secretary of the Treasury, "to draw for the last installment
of the November loan."[815]
[Footnote 812: _Congressional Globe_, January 6, 1862.]
[Footnote 813: New York _Tribune_, May 27, 1861.]
[Footnote 814: _Ibid._, September 18.]
[Footnote 815: Letter of Secretary Chase, dated February 3, 1862.--E.G.
Spaulding, _History of the Legal Tender_, p. 59.]
To meet this serious financial condition, Elbridge G. Spaulding of
Buffalo, then a member of Congress, had been designated to prepare an
emergency measure to avoid national bankruptcy. "We must have at least
$100,000,000 during the next three months," he wrote, on January 8,
1862, "or the government must stop payment."[816] Spaulding, then
fifty-two years of age, was president of a bank, a trained financier,
and already the possessor of a large fortune. Having served in the
Thirty-first Congress, he had returned in 1859, after an absence of
eight years, to remain four years longer. Strong, alert, and
sufficiently positive to be stubborn, he possessed the confidence of
Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, who
approved his plan of issuing $100,000,000 legal-tender, non-interest
bearing treasury notes, exchangeable at par for six-twenty bonds.
Spaulding fully appreciated the objections to his policy, but the only
other course, he argued, was to sell bonds as in the war of 1812,
which, if placed at six percent interest, would not, in his opinion,
bring more than sixty cents--a ruinous method of conducting
hostilities. However, his plea of necessity found a divided committee
and in Roscoe Conkling a most formidable opponent, who attacked the
measure as unnecessary, extravagant, unsound, without precedent, of
doubtful constitutionality, and morally imperfect.[817]
[Footnote 816: Spaulding, _History of the Legal Tender_, p. 18.]
[Footnote 817: The bill escaped from the committee by one majority.]
It was in this debate that Conkling, adroitly choosing the right time
and the proper subject, impressed the country with his power as an
orator and his ability as a brilliant, resourceful debater, although,
perhaps, a destructive rather than constructive legislator. Nature had
lavished upon him superb gifts of mind and person. He was of
commanding, even magnificent presence, six feet three inches tall,
with regular features, lofty forehead, and piercing eyes,--blond and
gigantic as a viking. It was difficult, indeed, for a man so
superlatively handsome not to be vain, and the endeavour upon his part
to conceal the defect was not in evidence. Although an unpopular and
unruly schoolboy, who refused to go to college, he had received a good
education, learning much from a scholarly father, a college-bred man,
and an ornament to the United States District Court for more than a
quarter of a century. Moreover, from early youth Conkling had studied
elocution, training a strong, slightly musical voice, and learning the
use of secondary accents, the choice of words, the value of deliberate
speech, and the assumption of an impressive earnestness. In this
debate, too, he discovered the talent for ridicule and sarcasm that
distinguished him in later life, when he had grown less considerate of
the feelings of opponents, and indicated something of the
imperiousness and vanity which clouded an otherwise attractive manner.
As he stubbornly and eloquently contested the progress of the
legal-tender measure with forceful argument and a wealth of
information, Conkling seemed likely to deprive Spaulding of the title
of "father of the greenback" until the Secretary of the Treasury,
driven to desperation for want of money, reluctantly came to the
Congressman's rescue and forced the bill through Congress.[818] By
midsummer, however, gold had jumped to seventeen per cent., while the
cost of the war, augmented by a call for 300,000 three years' men and
by a draft of 300,000 nine months' militia, rested more heavily than
ever upon the country. Moreover, by September 1 McClellan had been
deprived of his command, the Army of the Potomac had suffered defeat
at the second battle of Bull Run, and Lee and Longstreet, with a
victorious army, were on their way to Maryland. The North stood
aghast!
[Footnote 818: On Spaulding's motion to close debate, Conkling demanded
tellers, and the motion was lost,--yeas, 52; nays, 62.--_Congressional
Globe_, February 5, 1862; _Ibid._, p. 618.]
Much more ominous than military disaster and financial embarrassment,
however, was the divisive sentiment over emancipation. Northern
armies, moving about in slave communities, necessarily acted as a
constant disintegrating force. Slaves gave soldiers aid and
information, and soldiers, stimulated by their natural hostility to
slave-owners, gave slaves protection and sympathy. Thus, very early in
the war, many men believed that rebellion and slavery were so
intertwined that both must be simultaneously overthrown. This
sentiment found expression in the Fremont proclamation, issued on
August 30, 1861, setting free all slaves owned by persons who aided
secession in the military department of Missouri. On the other hand,
the Government, seeking to avoid the slavery question, encouraged
military commanders to refuse refuge to the negroes within their
lines, and in modifying Fremont's order to conform to the Confiscation
Act of August 6, the President aroused a discussion characterised by
increasing acerbity, which divided the Republican party into Radicals
and Conservatives. The former, led by the _Tribune_, resented the
attitude of army officers, who, it charged, being notoriously in more
or less thorough sympathy with the inciting cause of rebellion, failed
to seize opportunities to strike at slavery. Among Radicals the belief
obtained that one half of the commanding generals desired to prosecute
the war so delicately that slavery should receive the least possible
harm, and in their comments in Congress and in the press they made no
concealment of their opinion, that such officers were much more
anxious to restore fugitive slaves to rebel owners than to make their
owners prisoners of war.[819] They were correspondingly flattering to
those generals who proclaimed abolition as an adjunct of the war.
Greeley's taunts had barbed points. "He is no extemporised soldier,
looking for a presidential nomination or seat in Congress," he said of
General Hunter, whose order had freed the slaves in South Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida. "He is neither a political or civil engineer,
but simply a patriot whose profession is war, and who does not
understand making war so as not to hurt your enemy."[820]
[Footnote 819: New York _Tribune_, July 30, 1862.]
[Footnote 820: _Ibid._, August 4.]
When the _Times_, an exponent of the Conservatives, defended the
Administration's policy with the declaration that slaves were used as
fast as obtained,[821] the _Tribune_ minimized the intelligence of its
editor. "Consider," it said, "the still unmodified order of McDowell,
issued a full year ago, forbidding the harbouring of negroes within
our lines. Consider Halleck's order, now nine months old and still
operative, forbidding negroes to come within our lines at all.
McClellan has issued a goodly number of orders and proclamations, but
not one of them offers protection and freedom to such slaves of rebels
as might see fit to claim them at his hands. His only order bearing
upon their condition and prospects is that which expelled the
Hutchinsons from his camp for the crime of singing anti-slavery
songs."[822]
[Footnote 821: New York _Times_, July 17, 1862.]
[Footnote 822: New York _Tribune_, July 19, 1862.]
The dominant sentiment in Congress reflected the feeling of the
Radicals, and under the pressure of McClellan's reverses before
Richmond, the House, on July 11, and the Senate on the following day,
passed the Confiscation Act, freeing forever the slaves of rebel
owners whenever within control of the Government. The Administration's
failure to enforce this act in the spirit and to the extent that
Congress intended, finally brought out the now historic "Prayer of
Twenty Millions"--an editorial signed by Horace Greeley and addressed
to Abraham Lincoln. It charged the President with being disastrously
remiss in the discharge of his official duty and unduly influenced by
the menaces of border slave State politicians. It declared that the
Union was suffering from timid counsels and mistaken deference to
rebel slavery; that all attempts to put down rebellion and save
slavery are preposterous and futile; and that every hour of obeisance
to slavery is an added hour of deepened peril to the Union. In
conclusion, he entreated the Chief Executive to render hearty and
unequivocal obedience to the law of the land.[823]
[Footnote 823: _Ibid._, August 20.
Lincoln's reply appeared in the _National Intelligencer_ of
Washington. He said in part: "I would save the Union. If there be
those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time
save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would
not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery,
I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to
save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I
could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if
I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do
that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I
believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear
because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do
less whenever I believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall
do more when I shall believe doing more will help the cause."--_Lincoln's
Works_, Vol. 2, p. 227.]
Thus did Greeley devote his great powers to force Lincoln into
emancipation. It is impossible, even at this distance of time, to turn
the pages of his ponderous volumes without feeling the matchless force
of his energy, the strength of his masterly array of facts, his biting
sarcasm, his bold assumptions, and his clear, unadorned style. There
is about it all an impassioned conviction, as if he spoke because he
could not keep silent, making it impossible to avoid the belief that
the whole soul and conscience of the writer were in his work. Day
after day, with kaleidoscopic change, he marshalled arguments, facts,
and historical parallels, bearing down the reader's judgment as he
swept away like a great torrent the criticisms of himself and the
arguments of his opponents. Nothing apparently could withstand his
onslaught on slavery. With one dash of his pen he forged sentences
that, lance-like, found their way into every joint of the monster's
armour.
Greeley's criticism of the President and the army, however, gave his
enemies vantage ground for renewed attacks. Ever since he suggested,
at the beginning of hostilities, that the _Herald_ did not care which
flag floated over its office, James Gordon Bennett, possessing the
genuine newspaper genius, had daily evinced a deep, personal dislike
of the _Tribune's_ editor, and throughout the discussion of
emancipation, the _Herald_, in bitter editorials, kept its columns in
a glow, tantalising the _Tribune_ with a persistency that recalls
Cheetham's attacks upon Aaron Burr. The strategical advantage lay with
the _Herald_, since the initiative belonged to the _Tribune_, but the
latter had with it the preponderating sentiment of its party and the
growing influence of a war necessity. Greeley fought with a
broad-sword, swinging it with a vigorous and well-aimed effect, while
Bennett, with lighter weapon, pricked, stabbed, and cut. Never
inactive, the latter sought to aggravate and embitter. Greeley, on the
contrary, intent upon forcing the Administration to change its policy,
ignored his tormentor, until exasperation, like the gathering steam in
a geyser, drove him into further action. In this prolonged controversy
the _Tribune_ invariably referred to its adversary as "the _Herald_,"
but in the _Herald_, "Greeley," "old Greeley," "poor Greeley," "Mars
Greeley," "poor crazy Greeley," became synonyms for the editor of the
_Tribune_.
The fight of these able and conspicuous journals represented the
fierceness with which emancipation was pushed and opposed throughout
the State. Conservative men, therefore, realising the danger to which
a bitter campaign along strict party lines would subject the Union
cause, demanded that all parties rally to the support of the
Government with a candidate for governor devoted to conservative
principles and a vigorous prosecution of the war. Sentiment seemed to
point to John A. Dix as such a man. Though not distinguished as a
strategist or effective field officer, he possessed courage, caution,
and a desire to crush the rebellion. The policy of this movement,
embracing conservative Republicans and war Democrats, was urged by
Thurlow Weed, sanctioned by Seward, and heartily approved by John Van
Buren, who, since the beginning of hostilities, had avoided party
councils. The Constitutional Union party, composed of old line Whigs
who opposed emancipation,[824] proposed to lead this movement at its
convention, to be held at Troy on September 9, but at the appointed
time James Brooks, by prearrangement, appeared with a file of
instructed followers, captured the meeting, and gave Horatio Seymour
32 votes to 20 for Dix and 6 for Millard Fillmore. This unexpected
result made Seymour the candidate of the Democratic State convention
which met at Albany on the following day.
[Footnote 824: New York _Herald_, October 15, 1862.]
Seymour sincerely preferred another. Early in August he travelled from
Utica to Buffalo to resist the friendship and the arguments of Dean
Richmond. It cannot be said that he had outlived ambition. He
possessed wealth, he was advancing in his political career, and he
aspired to higher honours, but he did not desire to become governor
again, even though the party indicated a willingness to follow his
leadership and give him free rein to inaugurate such a policy as his
wisdom and conservatism might dictate. He clearly recognised the
difficulties in the way. He had taken ultra ground against the Federal
Administration, opposing emancipation, denouncing arbitrary arrests,
and expressing the belief that the North could not subjugate the
South; yet he would be powerless to give life to his own views, or to
modify Lincoln's proposed conduct of the war. The President, having
been elected to serve until March, 1865, would not tolerate
interference with his plans and purposes, so that an opposition
Governor, regardless of grievances or their cause, would be compelled
to furnish troops and to keep the peace. Hatred of conscription would
be no excuse for non-action in case of a draft riot, and indignation
over summary arrests could in nowise limit the exercise of such
arbitrary methods. To be governor under such conditions, therefore,
meant constant embarrassment, if not unceasing humiliation. These
reasons were carefully presented to Richmond. Moreover, Seymour was
conscious of inherent defects of temperament. He did not belong to the
class of politicians, described by Victor Hugo, who mistake a
weather-cock for a flag. He was a gentleman of culture, of public
experience, and of moral purpose, representing the best quality of his
party; but possessed of a sensitive and eager temper, he was too often
influenced by the men immediately about him, and too often inclined
to have about him men whose influence did not strengthen his own
better judgment.
Richmond knew of this weakness and regretted it, but the man of iron,
grasping the political situation with the shrewdness of a phenomenally
successful business man, wanted a candidate who could win. It was
plain to him that the Republican party, divided on the question of
emancipation and weakened by arbitrary arrests, a policy that many
people bitterly resented, could be beaten by a candidate who added
exceptional popularity to a promised support of the war and a vigorous
protest against government methods. Dix, he knew, would stand with the
President; Seymour would criticise, and with sureness of aim arouse
opposition. While Richmond, therefore, listened respectfully to
Seymour's reasons for declining the nomination, he was deaf to all
entreaty, insisting that as the party had honoured him when he wanted
office, he must now honour the party when it needed him. Besides, he
declared that Sanford E. Church, whom Seymour favoured, could not be
elected.[825] Having gained the Oneidan's consent, Richmond exercised
his adroit methods of packing conventions, and thus opened the way for
Seymour's unanimous nomination by making the Constitutional Union
convention the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
[Footnote 825: The author is indebted to Henry A. Richmond, son of Dean
Richmond, for this outline of Seymour's interview.]
To a majority of the Democratic party Seymour's selection appealed
with something of historic pride. It recalled other days in the
beginning of his career, and inspired the hope that the peace which
reigned in the fifties, and the power that the Democracy then wielded,
might, under his leadership, again return to bless their party by
checking a policy that was rapidly introducing a new order of things.
After his nomination, therefore, voices became hoarse with long
continued cheering. For a few minutes the assembly surrendered to the
noise and confusion which characterise a more modern convention, and
only the presence of the nominee and the announcement that he would
speak brought men to order.
Seymour, as was his custom, came carefully prepared. In his party he
now had no rival. Not since DeWitt Clinton crushed the Livingstons in
1807, and Martin Van Buren swept the State in 1828, did one man so
completely dominate a political organisation, and in his arraignment
of the Radicals he emulated the partisan rather than the patriot. He
spoke respectfully of the President, insisting that he should "be
treated with the respect due to his position as the representative of
the dignity and honor of the American people," and declaring that
"with all our powers of mind and person, we mean to support the
Constitution and uphold the Union;" but in his bitter denunciation of
the Administration he confused the general policy of conducting a war
with mistakes in awarding government contracts. To him an honest
difference of opinion upon constitutional questions was as corrupt and
reprehensible as dishonest practices in the departments at Washington.
He condemned emancipation as "a proposal for the butchery of women and
children, for scenes of lust and rapine, and of arson and murder,
which would invoke the interference of civilised Europe."[826]
[Footnote 826: Cook and Knox, _Public Record of Horatio Seymour_, pp.
45-58.]
The convention thought seriously of making this speech the party
platform. But A.P. Laning, declining to surrender the prerogative of
the resolutions committee, presented a brief statement of principles,
"pledging the Democracy to continue united in its support of the
Government, and to use all legitimate means to suppress rebellion,
restore the Union as it was, and maintain the Constitution as it is."
It also denounced "the illegal, unconstitutional, and arbitrary
arrests of citizens of the State as unjustifiable," declaring such
arrests a usurpation and a crime, and insisting upon the liberty of
speech and the freedom of the press.[827]
[Footnote 827: The ticket nominated was as follows: Governor, Horatio
Seymour of Oneida; Lieutenant-Governor, David E. Floyd Jones of
Queens; Canal Commissioner, William I. Skinner of Herkimer; Prison
Inspector, Gaylord J. Clark of Niagara; Clerk of Appeals, Fred A.
Tallmadge of New York.]
The speech of Seymour, as displeasing to many War Democrats as it was
satisfactory to the Peace faction, at once aroused conservative
Republicans, and Weed and Raymond, backed by Seward, favored the
policy of nominating John A. Dix. Seward had distinguished himself as
one of the more conservative members of the Cabinet. After settling
into the belief that Lincoln "is the best of us"[828] his ambition
centered in the support of the President, and whatever aid he could
render in helping the country to a better understanding of the
Administration's aims and wishes was generously if not always adroitly
performed. He did not oppose the abolition of slavery. On the
contrary, his clear discernment exhibited its certain destruction if
the rebellion continued; but he opposed blending emancipation with a
prosecution of the war, preferring to meet the former as the necessity
for it arose rather than precipitate an academic discussion which
would divide Republicans and give the Democrats an issue.
[Footnote 828: Seward to his wife.--F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_,
Vol. 2, p. 590.]
When Lincoln, on July 22, 1862, announced to his Cabinet a
determination to issue an emancipation proclamation, the Secretary
questioned its expediency only as to the time of its publication. "The
depression of the public mind consequent upon our repeated reverses,"
he said, "is so great that I fear the effect of so important a
step.... I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue until you can
give it to the country supported by military success, instead of
issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of
the war."[829] Seward's view was adopted, and in place of the
proclamation appeared the Executive Order of July 22, the
unenforcement of which Greeley had so fiercely criticised in his
"Prayer of Twenty Millions." Thurlow Weed, who, in June, had returned
from London heavily freighted with good results for the Union
accomplished by his influence with leading Englishmen, held the
opinion of Seward. Raymond had also made the _Times_ an able defender
of the President's policy, and although not violent in its opposition
to the attitude of the Radicals, it never ceased its efforts to
suppress agitation of the slavery question.
[Footnote 829: Frank B. Carpenter, _Six Months at the White House_, pp.
22, 23.]
In its purpose to nominate Dix the New York _Herald_ likewise bore a
conspicuous part. It had urged his selection upon the Democrats,
declaring him stronger than Seymour. It now urged him upon the
Republicans, insisting that he was stronger than Wadsworth.[830] This
was also the belief of Weed, whose sagacity as to the strength of
political leaders was rarely at fault.[831] On the contrary, Governor
Morgan expressed the opinion that "Wadsworth will be far more
available than any one yet mentioned as my successor."[832] Wadsworth's
service at the battle of Bull Run had been distinguished. "Gen.
McDowell told us on Monday," wrote Thurlow Weed, "that Major Wadsworth
rendered him the most important service before, during, and after
battle. From others we have learned that after resisting the stampede,
earnestly but ineffectually, he remained to the last moment aiding the
wounded and encouraging surgeons to remain on the field as many of
them did."[833] Wadsworth's subsequent insistence that the Army of the
Potomac, then commanded by McClellan, could easily crush the
Confederates, who, in his opinion, did not number over 50,000[834], had
again brought his name conspicuously before the country. Moreover,
since the 8th of March he had commanded the forces in and about
Washington, and had acted as Stanton's adviser in the conduct of the
war.
[Footnote 830: New York _Herald_, September 19 and October 15, 1862.]
[Footnote 831: Albany _Evening Journal_, November 6, 1862.]
[Footnote 832: T.W. Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p. 413.]
[Footnote 833: Albany _Evening Journal_, July 31, 1861.]
[Footnote 834: "This estimate was afterward verified as correct."--New
York _Tribune_, September 22, 1862.]
For twenty years Wadsworth had not been a stranger to the people of
New York. His vigorous defence of Silas Wright gave him a warm place
in the hearts of Barnburners, and his name, after the formation of the
Republican party, became a household word among members of that young
organisation. Besides, his neighbours had exploited his character for
generosity. The story of the tenant who got a receipt for rent and one
hundred dollars in money because the accidental killing of his oxen in
the midst of harvest had diminished his earning capacity, seemed to be
only one of many similar acts. In 1847 his farm had furnished a
thousand bushels of corn to starving Ireland. Moreover, he had endowed
institutions of learning, founded school libraries, and turned the
houses of tenants into homes of college students. But the Radicals'
real reason for making him their candidate was his "recognition of the
truth that slavery is the implacable enemy of our National life, and
that the Union can only be saved by grappling directly and boldly with
its deadly foe."[835]
[Footnote 835: New York _Tribune_, September 22, 1862.]
Prompted by this motive his supporters used all the methods known to
managing politicians to secure a majority of the delegates. Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation, published on September 23, five days after
the battle of Antietam, greatly strengthened them. They hailed the
event as their victory. It gave substance, too, to the Wadsworth
platform that "the Union must crush out slavery, or slavery will
destroy the Union." Reinforced by such an unexpected ally, it was well
understood before the day of the convention that in spite of the
appeals of Weed and Raymond, and of the wishes of Seward and the
President, the choice of the Radicals would be nominated. Wadsworth
was not averse. He had an itching for public life. In 1856 his
stubborn play for governor and his later contest for a seat in the
United States Senate had characterised him as an office-seeker. But
whether running for office himself, or helping some one else, he was
a fighter whom an opponent had reason to fear.
The Republican Union convention, as it was called, assembled at
Syracuse on September 25. Henry J. Raymond became its president, and
with characteristic directness made a vigorous reply to Seymour,
declaring that "Jefferson Davis himself could not have planned a
speech better calculated, under all the circumstances of the case, to
promote his end to embarrass the Government of the United States and
strengthen the hands of those who are striving for its overthrow."[836]
Then William Curtis Noyes read a letter from Governor Morgan declining
renomination.[837] The Governor had made a creditable executive,
winning the respect of conservatives in both parties, and although the
rule against a third term had become firmly established in a State
that had tolerated it but once since the days of Tompkins and DeWitt
Clinton, the propriety of making a further exception appealed to the
public with manifest approval. "But this," Weed said, "did not suit
the _Tribune_ and a class of politicians with whom it sympathised.
They demanded a candidate with whom abolition is the paramount
consideration."[838] Morgan's letter created a ripple of applause,
after which the presentation of Wadsworth's name aroused an enthusiasm
of longer duration than had existed at Albany. Nevertheless, Charles
G. Myers of St. Lawrence did not hesitate to speak for "a more
available candidate at the present time." Then, raising his voice
above the whisperings of dissent, he named John A. Dix, "who, while
Seymour was howling for peace and compromise," said the speaker,
"ordered the first man shot that hauled down the American flag."
Raymond, in his speech earlier in the afternoon, had quoted the
historic despatch in a well-balanced sentence, with the accent and
inflection of a trained orator; but in giving it an idiomatic,
thrilling ring in contrast with Seymour's record, Myers suddenly threw
the convention into wild, continued cheering, until it seemed as if
the noise of a moment before would be exceeded by the genuine and
involuntary outburst of patriotic emotion. A single ballot, however,
giving Wadsworth an overwhelming majority, showed that the Radicals
owned the convention.[839]
[Footnote 836: New York _Times_, September 25, 1862.]
[Footnote 837: "Though we met Governor Morgan repeatedly during the
summer, he never hinted that he expected or desired to be again a
candidate."--New York _Tribune_, December 12, 1862.]
[Footnote 838: Albany _Evening Journal_, December 10, 1862.]
[Footnote 839: The vote resulted as follows: Wadsworth, 234; Dix, 110;
Lyman Tremaine, 33; Dickinson, 2.
The ticket was as follows: Governor, James S. Wadsworth of Genesee;
Lieutenant-Governor, Lyman Tremaine of Albany; Canal Commissioner,
Oliver Ladue of Herkimer; Prison Inspector, Andreas Willman of New
York; Clerk of Appeals, Charles Hughes of Washington.]
Parke Godwin of Queens, from the committee on resolutions, presented
the platform. Among other issues it urged the most vigorous
prosecution of the war; hailed, with the profoundest satisfaction, the
emancipation proclamation; and expressed pride in the knowledge that
the Republic's only enemies "are the savages of the West, the rebels
of the South, their sympathisers and supporters of the North, and the
despots of Europe."
The campaign opened with unexampled bitterness. Seymour's convention
speech inflamed the Republican party, and its press, recalling his
address at the Peace convention in January, 1861, seemed to uncork its
pent-up indignation. The _Tribune_ pronounced him a "consummate
demagogue," "radically dishonest," and the author of sentiments that
"will be read throughout the rebel States with unalloyed delight,"
since "their whole drift tends to encourage treason and paralyse the
arm of those who strike for the Union."[840] It disclosed Seymour's
intimate relations with "Vallandigham and the school of Democrats who
do not disguise their sympathy with traitors nor their hostility to
war," and predicted "that, if elected, Jeff Davis will regard his
success as a triumph."[841] Odious comparisons also became frequent.
Wadsworth at Bull Run was contrasted with Seymour's prediction that
the Union's foes could not be subdued.[842] Seymour's supporters, it
was said, believed in recognising the independence of the South, or in
a restored Union with slavery conserved, while Wadsworth's champions
thought rebellion a wicked and wanton conspiracy against human
liberty, to be crushed by the most effective measures.[843] Raymond
declared that "every vote given for Wadsworth is a vote for loyalty,
and every vote given for Seymour is a vote for treason."[844]
[Footnote 840: New York _Tribune_, September 17, 1862.]
[Footnote 841: New York _Tribune_, Oct. 8, 1862.]
[Footnote 842: _Ibid._, Oct. 9.]
[Footnote 843: _Ibid._, Oct. 24.]
[Footnote 844: New York _Herald_, Oct. 9, 1862.]
To these thrusts the Democratic press replied with no less acrimony,
speaking of Wadsworth as "a malignant, abolition disorganiser," whose
service in the field was "very brief," whose command in Washington was
"behind fortifications," and whose capacity was "limited to attacks
upon his superior officers."[845] The _Herald_ declared him "as arrant
an aristocrat as any Southern rebel. The slave-holder," it said, "lives
upon his plantation, which his ancestors begged, cheated, or stole
from the Indians. Wadsworth lives upon his immense Genesee farms,
which his ancestors obtained from the Indians in precisely the same
way. The slave-holder has a number of negroes who raise crops for him,
and whom he clothes, feeds, and lodges. Wadsworth has a number of
labourers on his farms, who support him by raising his crops or paying
him rent. The slave-holder, having an independent fortune and nothing
to do, joins the army, or runs for office. Wadsworth, in exactly the
same circumstances, does exactly the same thing. Wadsworth, therefore,
is quite as much an aristocrat as the slave-holder, and cares quite as
much for himself and quite as little for the people."[846] Democrats
everywhere endeavoured to limit the issue to the two opposing
candidates, claiming that Seymour, in conjunction with all
conservative men, stood for a vigorous prosecution of the war to save
the Union, while Wadsworth, desiring its prosecution for the
destruction of slavery, believed the Union of secondary consideration.
[Footnote 845: _Ibid._, Sept. 26.]
[Footnote 846: _Ibid._, Oct. 1.]
Campaign oratory, no longer softened by the absence of strict party
lines, throbbed feverishly with passion and ugly epithet. The
strategical advantage lay with Seymour, who made two speeches. Dean
Richmond, alarmed at the growing strength of the war spirit, urged him
to put more "powder" into his Brooklyn address than he used at the
ratification meeting, held in New York City on October 13; but he
declined to cater "to war Democrats," contenting himself with an
amplification of his convention speech. "God knows I love my country,"
he said; "I would count my life as nothing, if I could but save the
nation's life." He resented with much feeling Raymond's electioneering
statement that a vote for him was one for treason.[847] "Recognising at
this moment as we do," he continued, "that the destinies, the honour,
and the glory of our country hang poised upon the conflict in the
battlefield, we tender to the Government no conditional support" to
put down "this wicked and mighty rebellion." Once, briefly, and
without bitterness, he referred to the emancipation proclamation, but
he again bitterly arraigned the Administration for its infractions of
the Constitution, its deception as to the strength of the South, and
the corruption in its departments.
[Footnote 847: New York _Herald_, October 8 and 9, 1862.]
Seymour's admirers manifested his tendencies more emphatically than he
did himself, until denunciation of treason and insistence upon a
vigorous prosecution of the war yielded to an indictment of the
Radicals. The shibboleth of these declaimers was arbitrary arrests.
Two days after the edict of emancipation (September 24) the President
issued a proclamation ordering the arrest, without benefit of _habeas
corpus_, of all who "discouraged enlistments," or were guilty of "any
disloyal practice" which afforded "aid and comfort to the rebels."[848]
This gave rise to an opinion that he intended to "suppress free
discussion of political subjects,"[849] and every orator warned the
people that Wadsworth's election meant the arrest and imprisonment of
his political opponents. "If chosen governor," said the _Herald_, "he
will have his adversaries consigned to dungeons and their property
seized and confiscated under the act of Congress."[850] In accepting an
invitation to speak at Rome, John Van Buren, quick to see the humour
of the situation as well as the vulnerable point of the Radicals,
telegraphed that he would "arrive at two o'clock--if not in Fort
Lafayette."[851]
[Footnote 848: _Lincoln's Works_, Vol. 2, p. 239.]
[Footnote 849: Benjamin E. Curtis, _Pamphlet on Executive Power_.]
[Footnote 850: New York _Herald_, October 4, 1862.]
[Footnote 851: _Ibid._, October 24.]
To the delight of audiences John Van Buren, after two years of
political inactivity, broke his silence. He had earnestly and perhaps
sincerely advocated the nomination of John A. Dix, but after Seymour's
selection he again joined the ranks of the Softs and took the stump.
Among other appointments he spoke with Seymour at the New York
ratification meeting, and again at the Brooklyn rally on October 22.
Something remained of the old-time vigour of the professional
gladiator, but compared with his Barnburner work he seemed what Byron
called "an extinct volcano." He ran too heedlessly into a bitter
criticism of Wadsworth, based upon an alleged conversation he could
not substantiate, and into an acrimonious attack upon Lincoln's
conduct of the war, predicated upon a private letter of General Scott,
the possession of which he did not satisfactorily account for. The
_Tribune_, referring to his campaign as "a rhetorical spree," called
him a "buffoon," a "political harlequin," a "repeater of mouldy
jokes,"[852] and in bitter terms denounced his "low comedy performance
at Tammany," his "double-shuffle dancing at Mozart Hall," his
possession of a letter "by dishonourable means for a dishonourable
purpose," and his wide-sweeping statements "which gentlemen over their
own signatures pronounced lies."[853] It was not a performance to be
proud of, and although Van Buren succeeded in stirring up the
advertising sensations which he craved, he did not escape without
wounds that left deep scars. "Prince John makes a statement," says the
_Herald_, "accusing Charles King of slandering the wife of Andrew
Jackson; King retorts by calling the Prince a liar; the poets of the
_Post_ take up the case and broadly hint that the Prince's private
history shows that he has not lived the life of a saint; the Prince
replies that he has half a mind to walk into the private antecedents
of Wadsworth, which, it is said, would disclose some scenes
exceedingly rich; while certain other Democrats, indignant at
Raymond's accusations of treason against Seymour, threaten to reveal
his individual history, hinting, by the way, that it would show him to
have been heretofore a follower of that fussy philosopher of the
twelfth century, Abelard--not in philosophy, however, but in
sentiment, romance, and some other things."[854]
[Footnote 852: New York _Tribune_, October 28, 1862.]
[Footnote 853: _Ibid._, October 30.]
[Footnote 854: New York _Herald_, October 29, 1862.]
Wherever Van Buren spoke Daniel S. Dickinson followed. His admirers,
the most extreme Radicals, cheered his speeches wildly, their fun
relieving the prosaic rigour of an issue that to one side seemed
forced by Northern treachery, to the other to threaten the gravest
peril to the country. It is difficult to exaggerate the tension. Party
violence ran high and the result seemed in doubt. Finally,
conservatives appealed to both candidates to retire in favour of John
A. Dix,[855] and on October 20 an organisation, styling itself the
Federal Union, notified the General that its central committee had
nominated him for governor, and that a State Convention, called to
meet at Cooper Institute on the 28th, would ratify the nomination. To
this summons, Dix, without declining a nomination, replied from
Maryland that he could not leave his duties "to be drawn into any
party strife."[856] This settled the question of a compromise
candidate.
[Footnote 855: _Ibid._, October 15 and 17.]
[Footnote 856: Morgan Dix, _Memoirs of John A. Dix_, Vol. 2, pp.
51-52.]
Elections in the October States did not encourage the Radicals.
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana voiced the sentiments of the
opposition, defeating Galusha A. Grow, speaker of the House, and
seriously threatening the Radical majority in Congress. This
retrogression, accounted for by the absence of soldiers who could not
vote,[857] suggested trouble in New York, and to offset the influence
of the Seymour rally in Brooklyn a great audience at Cooper Institute
listened to a brief letter from the Secretary of State, and to a
speech from Wadsworth. Seward did not encourage the soldier candidate.
The rankling recollection of Wadsworth's opposition at Chicago in 1860
stifled party pride as well as patriotism, and although the _Herald_
thought it "brilliant and sarcastic," it emphasised Wadsworth's
subsequent statement that "Seward was dead against me throughout the
campaign."[858]
[Footnote 857: New York _Tribune_, October 17, 1862. See other views:
New York _Herald_, October 17, 18, 19.]
[Footnote 858: Henry B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 216.]
Wadsworth's canvass was confined to a single speech. He had been
absent from the State fifteen months, and although not continuously at
the front there was something inexcusably ungenerous in the taunts of
his opponents that he had served "behind fortifications." His superb
conduct at Bull Run entitled him to better treatment. But his party
was wholly devoted to him, and "amid a hurricane of approbation"[859]
he mingled censure of Seymour with praise of Lincoln, and the
experience of a brave soldier with bitter criticism of an unpatriotic
press. It was not the work of a trained public speaker. It lacked
poise, phrase, and deliberation. But what it wanted in manner it made
up in fire and directness, giving an emotional and loyal audience
abundant opportunity to explode into long-continued cheering.
Thoughtful men who were not in any sense political partisans gave
careful heed to his words. He stood for achievement. He brought the
great struggle nearer home, and men listened as to one with a message
from the field of patriotic sacrifices. The radical newspapers broke
into a chorus of applause. The Radicals themselves were delighted. The
air rung with praises of the courage and spirit of their candidate,
and if here and there the faint voice of a Conservative suggested that
emancipation was premature and arbitrary arrests were unnecessary, a
shout of offended patriotism drowned the ignoble utterance.
[Footnote 859: New York _Tribune_, October 31, 1862.]
Wadsworth and his party were too much absorbed in the zeal of their
cause not to run counter to the prejudices of men less earnest and
less self-forgetting. In a contest of such bitterness they were
certain to make enemies, whose hostilities would be subtle and
enduring, and the October elections showed that the inevitable
reaction was setting in. Military failure and increasing debt made the
avowed policy of emancipation more offensive. People were getting
tired of bold action without achievement in the field, and every
opponent of the Administration became a threnodist. However,
independent papers which strongly favoured Seymour believed in
Wadsworth's success. "Seymour's antecedents are against him," said the
_Herald_. "Wadsworth, radical as he is, will be preferred by the
people to a Democrat who is believed to be in favour of stopping the
war; because, whatever Wadsworth's ideas about the negro may be, they
are only as dust in the balance compared with his hearty and earnest
support of the war and the Administration."[860] This was the belief
of the Radicals,[861] and upon them the news of Seymour's election by
over 10,000 majority fell with a sickening thud.[862] Raymond declared
it "a vote of want of confidence in the President;"[863] Wadsworth
thought Seward did it;[864] Weed suggested that Wadsworth held "too
extreme party views;"[865] and Greeley insisted that it was "a gang of
corrupt Republican politicians, who, failing to rule the nominating
convention, took revenge on its patriotic candidate by secretly
supporting the Democratic nominee."[866] But the dominant reason was
what George William Curtis called "the mad desperation of
reaction,"[867] which showed its influence in other States as well as
in New York. That Wadsworth's personality had little, if anything, to
do with his overthrow was further evidenced by results in
congressional districts, the Democrats carrying seventeen out of
thirty-one. Even Francis Kernan carried the Oneida district against
Conkling. The latter was undoubtedly embarrassed by personal enemies
who controlled the Welsh vote, but the real cause of his defeat was
military disasters, financial embarrassments, and the emancipation
proclamation. "All our reverses, our despondence, our despairs," said
Curtis, "bring us to the inevitable issue, shall not the blacks strike
for their freedom?"[868]
[Footnote 860: New York _Herald_, October 17, 1862.]
[Footnote 861: New York _Tribune_, Nov. 6.]
[Footnote 862: "Seymour, 307,063; Wadsworth, 296,492."--_Ibid._,
November 24.]
[Footnote 863: New York _Times_, November 7.]
[Footnote 864: Henry B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 216.]
[Footnote 865: Albany _Evening Journal_, Nov. 6.]
[Footnote 866: New York _Tribune_, Nov. 5.]
[Footnote 867: Cary, _Life of Curtis_, p. 161.]
[Footnote 868: _Ibid._, p. 161.]