A COMPLETE CHANGE OF POLICY
1865
For the moment the surrender of Lee and the collapse of the
Confederacy left the Democrats without an issue. The war had not been
a failure, peace had come without the intervention of a convention of
the States, the South was "subjugated," the abolition of slavery
accomplished, arbitrary arrests were forgotten, the professed fear of
national bankruptcy had disappeared, and Seymour's prophetic gift was
in eclipse. Nothing had happened which he predicted--everything had
transpired which he opposed. Meanwhile, under the administration of
Andrew Johnson, the country was gradually recovering from the awful
shock of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
Substantially following Lincoln's policy, the President had issued, on
May 29, 1865, a proclamation of amnesty pardoning such as had
participated in rebellion,[1028] with restoration of all rights of
property except as to slaves, on condition that each take an oath to
support the Constitution and to obey the laws respecting emancipation.
He also prescribed a mode for the reconstruction of States lately in
rebellion. This included the appointment of provisional governors
authorised to devise the proper machinery for choosing legislatures,
which should determine the qualification of electors and
office-holders. In this preliminary scheme Johnson limited the voters
to white men. Personally he declared himself in favour of a qualified
suffrage for negroes, but he thought this a matter to be determined by
the States themselves.
[Footnote 1028: Except certain specified classes, the most important of
which were civil or diplomatic officers of the Confederacy, military
officers above the rank of colonel, governors of States, former
members of Congress who had left their seats to aid the rebellion, and
all who owned property to exceed $20,000 in value. But these excepted
persons might make special application to the President for pardon and
to them clemency would be "liberally extended."]
A policy that excluded the negro from all participation in public
affairs did not commend itself to the leaders of the Radicals. It was
believed that Mississippi's denial of even a limited suffrage to the
negro, such as obtained in New York, indicated the feeling of the
Southern people, and the Union conventions of Pennsylvania, dominated
by Thaddeus Stevens, and of Massachusetts, controlled by Charles
Sumner, refused to endorse the President's scheme. During the summer
Horace Greeley, in several earnest and able editorials, advocated
negro suffrage as a just and politic measure, but he carefully avoided
any reflection upon the President, and disclaimed the purpose of
making such suffrage an inexorable condition in reconstruction.[1029]
Nevertheless, the Radicals of the State hesitated to leave the civil
status of coloured men to their former masters.
[Footnote 1029: New York _Tribune_, June 14, 15, 20, 26, 28, July 8,
10, 31, August 26, September 20, October 7, 19, 1864.]
Johnson's policy especially appealed to the Democrats, and at their
State convention, held at Albany on September 9 (1865), they promised
the President their cordial support, commended his reconstruction
policy, pledged the payment of the war debt, thanked the army and
navy, and denounced the denial "of representation to States in order
to compel them to adopt negro equality or negro suffrage as an element
of their Constitutions."[1030] Indeed, with one stroke of the pen the
convention erased all issues of the war, and with one stroke of the
axe rid itself of the men whom it held responsible for defeat. It
avoided Seymour for president of the convention; it nominated for
secretary of state Henry W. Slocum of Onondaga, formerly a Republican
office-holder, whose superb leadership as a corps commander placed
him among New York's most famous soldiers; it preferred John Van
Buren to Samuel J. Tilden for attorney-general; and it refused Manton
Marble's platform, although the able editor of the _World_ enjoyed the
hospitality of the committee room. Further to popularise its action,
it welcomed back to its fold Lucius Robinson, whom it nominated for
comptroller, an office he was then holding by Republican suffrage.
[Footnote 1030: New York _Herald_, September 9.]
Robinson's political somersault caused no surprise. His dislike of the
Lincoln administration, expressed in his letter to the Cleveland
convention, influenced him to support McClellan, while the Radicals'
tendency to accept negro suffrage weakened his liking for the
Republican party. However, no unkind words followed his action.
"Robinson is to-day," said the _Tribune_, "what he has always been, a
genuine Democrat, a true Republican, a hearty Unionist, and an
inflexibly honest and faithful guardian of the treasury. He has proved
a most valuable officer, whom every would-be plunderer of the State
regards with unfeigned detestation, and, if his old associates like
him well enough to support his re-election, it is a proof that some of
the false gods they have for years been following have fallen from
their pedestals and been crumbled into dust."[1031]
[Footnote 1031: New York _Tribune_, September 9, 1864.
"The ticket nominated was as follows: Secretary of State, Henry W.
Slocum, Onondaga; Comptroller, Lucius Robinson, Chemung;
Attorney-General, John Van Buren, New York; Treasurer, Marsena R.
Patrick, Ontario; State Engineer, Sylvanus H. Sweet, Oneida; Canal
Commissioner, Cornelius W. Armstrong, Albany; Prison Inspector, Andrew
J. McNutt, Allegany; Judges of Appeals, John W. Brown, Orange; Martin
Grover, Allegany; Clerk of Appeals, Edward O. Perkins, Kings."--New
York _Herald_, September 9, 1864.]
The Union Republican convention, held at Syracuse on September 20,
followed the policy of the Democrats in the nomination of Slocum.
Officers of distinguished service abounded. Daniel E. Sickles, a hero
of Gettysburg; Francis G. Barlow, the intrepid general of Hancock's
famous corps; Henry W. Barnum, a soldier of decided valour and
energy; Charles H. Van Wyck, who left Congress to lead a regiment to
the field; John H. Martindale, a West Point graduate of conspicuous
service in the Peninsular campaign, and Joseph Howland, whose large
means had benefited the soldiers, were especially mentioned. Of this
galaxy all received recognition save Sickles and Van Wyck, Chauncey M.
Depew being dropped for Barlow, Cochrane for Martindale, Bates for
Barnum, and Schuyler for Howland. In other words, the officials
elected in 1863, entitled by custom to a second term, yielded to the
sentiment that soldiers deserved recognition in preference to
civilians.[1032]
[Footnote 1032: The ticket nominated was as follows: Secretary of
State, Francis G. Barlow of New York; Comptroller, Thomas Hillhouse of
Ontario; Attorney-General, John H. Martindale of Monroe; Treasurer,
Joseph Howland of Dutchess; State Engineer, J. Platt Goodsell of
Oneida; Canal Commissioner, Robert C. Dorn of Schenectady; Inspector
of Prisons, Henry W. Barnum of Onondaga; Judges of Court of Appeals,
Ward Hunt of Oneida; John K. Porter of Albany; Clerk of Appeals, Henry
Jones of Cattaraugus.]
The question of negro suffrage troubled the convention. The Radicals
had a decided majority--"not less than fifty," Greeley said; but Weed
and Raymond, now the acknowledged friends of the President, had the
power. Shortly after Johnson took the oath of office, Preston King
presented Weed to the new Executive and the three breakfasted
together. King's relations with the President bore the stamp of
intimacy. They had served together in Congress, and on March 4, 1865,
that ill-fated inauguration day when Johnson's intoxication humiliated
the Republic, King concealed him in the home of Francis P. Blair at
Silver Springs, near Washington.[1033] After Lincoln's death King
became for a time the President's constant adviser, and through his
influence, it was believed, Johnson foreshadowed in one of his early
speeches a purpose to pursue a more unfriendly policy towards the
South than his predecessor had intended. For a time it was thought
King would displace Seward in the Cabinet if for no other reason than
because of the latter's part in defeating the former's re-election to
the Senate in 1863. However, differences between them were finally
adjusted by King's acceptance of the collectorship of the port of New
York in place of Draper. This, it was understood, meant a complete
reconciliation of all the factions in the State. Within sixty days
thereafter, King, in a moment of mental aberration, took his life by
jumping from a Jersey City ferry-boat.
[Footnote 1033: Edward L. Pierce, _Life of Sumner_, Vol. 4, pp. 230,
250.]
There was something peculiarly pathetic in the passing of King. In
accepting the collectorship he yielded to the solicitation of friends
who urged him to retain it after his health, due to worry and
overwork, was seriously impaired. "He thought it incumbent upon him,"
says Weed, "to sign nothing he did not personally examine, becoming
nervously apprehensive that his bondsmen might suffer."[1034] It was
surmised, also, that the President's change of policy occasioned him
extreme solicitude as well as much embarrassment, since the threatened
breach between President and Radicals made him sensitive as to his
future course. He was a Radical, and, deeply as he regarded the
President, he hesitated to hold an office, which, by associating him
with the Administration, would discredit his sincerity and deprive him
of the right to aid in overthrowing an obnoxious policy. Premeditated
suicide was shown by the purchase, while on his way to the ferry, of a
bag of shot which sank the body quickly and beyond immediate recovery.
[Footnote 1034: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 475.]
Every delegate in the Syracuse convention knew that Weed's cordial
relations with Johnson, established through Preston King, made him the
undisputed dispenser of patronage. Nevertheless, the failure of
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to endorse the President's policy,
supplemented by Mississippi's action, made a deep impression upon
radical delegates. Besides, it had already been noised abroad that
Johnson could not be influenced. Senator Wade of Ohio discovered it
early in July, and in August, after two attempts, Stevens gave him up
as inexorable.[1035] "If something is not done," wrote the
Pennsylvanian, "the President will be crowned King before Congress
meets."[1036] Under these circumstances the leading Radicals desired to
vote for a resolution affirming the right of all loyal people of the
South to a voice in reorganising and controlling their respective
State governments, and Greeley believed it would have secured a large
majority on a yea and nay vote.[1037] But Raymond resisted. His
friendship for Johnson exhibited at the Baltimore convention had
suddenly made him an acknowledged power with the new Administration
which he was soon to represent in Congress, and he did not propose
allowing the _Tribune's_ editor to force New York into the list of
States that refused to endorse the President.
[Footnote 1035: _Sumner's Works_, Vol. 9, p. 480.]
[Footnote 1036: Edward L. Pierce, _Life of Sumner_, Vol. 4, p. 480.]
[Footnote 1037: New York _Tribune_, September 21, 1865.]
Such a course, he believed, would give the State to the Democrats,
whose prompt and intrepid confidence in the President had plainly
disconcerted the Republicans. Besides, Raymond disbelieved in the
views of the extreme Radicals, who held that States lately in
rebellion must be treated as conquered provinces and brought back into
the Union as new States, subject to conditions prescribed by their
conquerors. As chairman of the committee on resolutions, therefore,
the editor of the _Times_ bore down heavily on the Radical dissenters,
and in the absence of a decided leader they allowed their devotion to
men to overbear attachment to principles. As finally adopted the
platform recognised Johnson's ability, patriotism, and integrity,
declared the war debt sacred, thanked the soldiers and sailors,
commended the President's policy of reconstruction, and expressed the
hope that when the States lately in rebellion are restored to the
exercise of their constitutional rights, "it will be done in the faith
and on the basis that they will be exercised in the spirit of equal
and impartial justice, and with a view to the elevation and
perpetuation of the full rights of citizenship of all their people,
inasmuch as these are principles which constitute the basis of our
republican institutions."[1038] Greeley pronounced this language "timid
and windy."[1039]
[Footnote 1038: New York _Herald_, September 21, 1865.]
[Footnote 1039: New York _Tribune_, September 21, 1865.]
In the campaign that followed the Democrats flattered the President,
very cleverly insisting that the Radicals' devotion to negro suffrage
made them his only real opponents. On the other hand, conservative
Republicans, maintaining that the convention did not commit itself to
an enfranchisement of the negro, insisted that it was a unit in its
support of the President's policy, and that the Democrats, acting
insincerely, sought to destroy the Union party and secure exclusive
control of the Executive. "They propose," said the _Times_, "to repeat
upon him precisely the trick which they practised with such brilliant
success upon John Tyler and Millard Fillmore, both of whom were taken
up by the Democracy, their policy endorsed, and their supporters
denounced. Both were flattered with the promise of a Democratic
nomination and both were weak enough to listen and yield to the
temptation. Both were used unscrupulously to betray their principles
and their friends, and when the time came both were remorselessly
thrown, like squeezed oranges, into the gutter. The game they are
playing upon President Johnson is precisely the same. They want the
offices he has in his gift, and when his friends are scattered and
overthrown they will have him at their mercy. Then, the power he gives
them will be used for his destruction."[1040]
[Footnote 1040: New York _Times_, October 17, 1865.]
Horatio Seymour made two speeches. With charming candor he admitted
that "signal victories have been won by generals who have made the
history of our country glorious." But to him the great debt, the
untaxed bonds, the inflation of the currency, the increased prices,
and the absence of congressmen from the States lately in rebellion,
seemed as full of peril as war itself. In his address at Seneca Falls
his field of view, confined to war-burdens and rights withheld from
"subjugated" States, did not include the vision that thrilled others,
who saw the flag floating over every inch of American territory, now
forever freed from slavery. "When we were free from debt," he said, "a
man could support himself with six hours of daily toil. To-day he must
work two hours longer to pay his share of the national debt.... This
question of debt means less to give your families.... It reaches every
boy and girl, every wife and mother.... It affects the character of
our people." Prosperity also troubled him. "We see upon every hand its
embarrassing effect. The merchant does not know whether he will be a
loser or gainer. We see men who have been ruined without fault, and
men who have made great fortunes without industry. Inquire of the
person engaged in mechanical operations and he will say that labour
has lost its former certain reward." He disapproved the national
banking act because the new banks "have converted the debt of the
country into currency and inflated prices;" he disputed the
correctness of the Treasury debt statement because "it is the
experience of all wars that long after their close new claims spring
up, which render the expense at least fifty per cent. more than
appeared by the figures;" and he condemned the national system of
taxation because it "disables us to produce as cheaply at home as we
can buy in the markets of the world."[1041]
[Footnote 1041: New York _World_, November 2, 1865.]
The brief campaign promised to be spiritless and without incident
until John Van Buren, in his extended canvass for attorney-general,
freely expressed his opinion of Horatio Seymour. Van Buren was not an
admirer of that statesman. He had supported him with warmth in 1862,
but after the development of the Governor's "passion for peace" he had
little sympathy with and less respect for his administration. In the
campaign of 1864 he practically ignored him, and the subsequent
announcement of his defeat liberated Van Buren's tongue. "Seymour is a
damned fool," he said. "He spoiled everything at Chicago, and has
been the cause of most of the disasters of the Democratic party."[1042]
At Troy he declared that "the Democracy were suffering now from the
infernal blunder at Chicago last year," and that "if Seymour and
Vallandigham had been kicked out of the national convention it would
have been a good thing for the party."[1043]
[Footnote 1042: From letter of Chauncey M. Depew.--Albany _Evening
Journal_, October 23, 1864.]
[Footnote 1043: New York _Tribune_, November 3, 1865.]
This opinion scarcely expressed the sentiment of a majority of
Democrats, but those who had preferred John A. Dix as the man of
destiny held Seymour and his school of statesmen responsible for the
party's deplorable condition. It had emerged from the war defeated in
every distinctive principle it had promulgated, and in the absence of
an available issue it now sought to atone for the past and to gain the
confidence of the people by nominating candidates who were either
active in the field or recognised as sincerely devoted to a vigorous
prosecution of the war. To aid in this new departure Van Buren threw
his old-time fire into the campaign, speaking daily and to the delight
of his audiences; but he soon discovered that things were looking
serious, and when the Union Republican ticket was elected by
majorities ranging from 28,000 to 31,000, with two-thirds of the
Assembly and all the senators save one, he recognised that the glory
of Lee's surrender and the collapse of the Confederacy did not
strengthen the Democratic party, although one of its candidates had
led an army corps, and another, with eloquence and irresistible
argument, had stirred the hearts of patriotic Americans in the darkest
hours of the rebellion.[1044]
[Footnote 1044: For more than a year Van Buren's health had been
impaired, and in the spring of 1866 he went to Europe. But a change of
climate brought no relief, and he died, on the return voyage, at the
age of fifty-six. That the people deeply mourned his loss is the
evidence of those, still living, to whom there was something dashing
and captivating even in his errors.]