THE TILDEN RÉGIME ROUTED
1877
The result at Rochester, so unsatisfactory to a large body of
influential men to whom the President represented the most patriotic
Republicanism, was followed at Albany by a movement no less
disappointing to a large element of the Democratic party.[1588] In
their zeal to punish crime Secretary of State Bigelow and
Attorney-General Fairchild had made themselves excessively obnoxious
to the predatory statesmen of the canal ring, who now proposed to
destroy the Tilden régime. Back of them stood John Kelly, eager to
become the master, and determined to accomplish what he had failed to
do at St. Louis.
[Footnote 1588: The Democratic State convention met at Albany on
October 3, 1877.]
As if indifferent to the contest Bigelow had remained in Europe with
Tilden, and Fairchild, weary of the nervous strain of office-holding,
refused to make an open canvass for the extension of his official
life. Nevertheless, the friends of reform understood the importance of
renominating the old ticket. It had stood for the interest of the
people. Whatever doubt might have clouded the public mind as to
Tilden's sincerity as an ardent, unselfish reformer, Republicans as
well as Democrats knew that Bigelow and Fairchild represented an
uncompromising hostility to public plunderers, and that their work, if
then discontinued, must be shorn of much of its utility. Their friends
understood, also, the importance of controlling the temporary
organisation of the convention, otherwise all would be lost.
The result of the Presidential struggle had seriously weakened Tilden.
In the larger field of action he had displayed a timid, vacillating
character, and the boldest leaders of his party felt that in the final
test as a candidate he lost because he hesitated. Besides, the
immediate prospect of power had disappeared. Although Democrats talked
of "the great Presidential crime," and seemed to have their eyes and
minds fastened on offices and other evidences of victory, they
realised deep in their hearts that Hayes was President for four years,
and that new conditions and new men might be existent in 1880.
Moreover, many Democratic leaders who could not be classed as selfish,
felt that Tilden, in securing the advantageous position of a reformer,
had misrepresented the real Democratic spirit and purpose in the
State. They deeply resented his course in calling about him, to the
exclusion of recognised and experienced party advisers, men whom he
could influence, who owed their distinction to his favour, and who
were consequently devoted to his fortunes. Upon some of these he
relied to secure Republican sympathy, while he depended upon
Democratic discipline to gain the full support of his party. If events
favoured his designs and the exigencies of an exciting Presidential
election concealed hostility, these conditions did not placate his
opponents, who began plotting his downfall the moment the great
historic contest ended. This opposition could be approximately
measured by the fact that the entire party press of the State, with
three exceptions, disclosed a distinct dislike of his methods.[1589]
[Footnote 1589: New York _Tribune_, September 1, 1877.]
Nevertheless, Tilden's friends held control. Governor Robinson, an
executive of remarkable force, sensitively obedient to principles of
honest government and bold in his utterances, remained at the head of
a devoted band which had hitherto found its career marked by triumph
after triumph, and whose influence was still powerful enough to rally
to its standard new men of strength as well as old leaders flushed
with recent victories. Robinson's courageous words especially engaged
the attention of thoughtful Democrats. He did not need to give reasons
for the opposition to John Bigelow, or the grievance against Charles
S. Fairchild, whose court docket sufficiently exposed the antagonism
between canal contractors and the faithful prosecutor. But in his
fascinating manner he told the story of the Attorney-General's heroic
firmness in refusing to release Tweed.[1590] In Robinson's opinion the
vicious classes, whose purposes discovered themselves in the
depredations of rings and weakness for plunder, were arrayed against
the better element of the party which had temporarily deprived the
wrong-doers of power, and he appealed to his friends to rescue
administrative reform from threatened defeat.
[Footnote 1590: "The man who has been the most effective organiser of
corruption strikes boldly for release. He is arrayed as an element in
the combination which attacks the Governor and Democratic State
officers, and which seeks to reverse their policy."--Albany _Argus_,
October 4, 1877.]
The Governor was not unmindful of his weakness. Besides Tilden's loss
of prestige, the renomination of the old ticket encountered the
objection of a third term, aroused the personal antagonism of hundreds
of men who had suffered because of its zeal, and arrayed against it
all other influences that had become hostile to Tilden through envy or
otherwise during his active management of the party. Moreover, he
understood the cunning of John Kelly and the intrigue of his
lieutenants. Knowing that contesting delegations excluded precincts
from taking part in the temporary organisation, these men had sought
to weaken Tilden by creating fictitious contests in counties loyal to
him, thus offsetting John Morrissey's contest against Tammany. It was
a desperate struggle, and the only gleam of light that opened a way to
Tilden's continued success came from the action of the State
Committee, which gave David B. Hill of Chemung 19 votes for temporary
chairman to 14 for Clarkson N. Potter of New York. The victory,
ordinarily meaning the control of the Committee on Credentials,
restored hope if not confidence.
Hill was the friend of Robinson. Although his name had not then become
a household word, he was by no means unknown throughout the State. He
had come into public life as city attorney in 1864 at the age of
twenty-one, and had shown political instincts for the most part
admirable. Of those to go to the Assembly in 1871 to aid in the work
of judicial purification, Hill was suggested by O'Conor and Tilden as
one of the trustworthy lawyers, and in February, 1872, when the
legislative committee began its investigation into the charges
presented by the Bar Association against Judges Barnard, Cardozo,
Ingraham, and McCunn with a view to their impeachment, Hill sat by the
side of Tilden. It was recognised that he belonged to the coterie of
able men who stood at the front of the reform movement.
His personal habits, too, commended him. He seems to have been
absolved from the love of wine, and if the love of a good woman did
not win him, he created a substantial home among his books, and worked
while others feasted. He talked easily, he learned readily, and with
the earnestness of one who inherited an ambition for public life he
carefully equipped himself for a political as well as a professional
career. He had a robust, straightforward nature. Men liked his
courage, his earnestness, his effectiveness as a debater, and his
declared purposes which were thoroughly in unison with the spirit of
his party. But it was his boldness, tempered with firmness, which
justified Robinson in singling him out for chairman. Still, the
courage exhibited as a presiding officer in one of the stormiest
conventions that ever assembled in the Empire State did not win him
distinction.
The Kelly opposition raised no question of principle. The platform
denounced the defeat of Tilden as due to fraud, applauded Hayes for
his Southern policy, declared for reapportionment of the State, and
bitterly assailed railroad subsidies. But it had no words of
unkindness for Tilden and Robinson. Indeed, with a most sublime
display of hypocrisy, Kelly pointed with pride to the fruits of their
administrations, made illustrious by canal reforms, economy, and the
relentless prosecution of profligate boards and swindling contractors,
and vied with the apostles of administrative reform in calling them
"fearless" and "honest," and in repudiating the suggestion of desiring
other directing spirits. His only issue involved candidates. Should it
be the old ticket or a new one? Should it be Bigelow for a third term,
or Beach, the choice of the ring? In opposing the old ticket several
delegates extended their hostility only to Bigelow; others included
the attorney-general. Only a few demanded an entire change. But
Tammany and the Canal ring tactfully combined these various elements
with a skill never before excelled in a State convention. Their
programme, sugar-coated with an alleged affection for Tilden, was
arranged to satisfy the whim of each delegate, while Robinson's
policy, heavily freighted with well doing, encountered the odium of a
third-term ticket.
Nevertheless, the Governor's control of the chairmanship assured him
victory unless Hill yielded too much. But Kelly was cunning and quick.
After accepting Hill without dissent, he introduced a resolution
providing that the convention select the committee on contested seats.
To appoint this committee was the prerogative of the chairman, and
Hill, following Cornell's bold ruling in 1871, could have refused to
put the motion. When he hesitated delegates sprang to their feet and
enthroned pandemonium.[1591] During the cyclone of epithets and
invective John Morrissey for the last time opposed John Kelly in a
State convention. His shattered health, which had already changed
every lineament of a face that successfully resisted the blows of
Yankee Sullivan and John C. Heenan, poorly equipped him for the
prolonged strain of such an encounter, but he threw his envenomed
adjectives with the skill of a quoit-pitcher.
[Footnote 1591: "How the Kelly faction got control of the Democratic
convention and used it for the supposed benefit of Kelly is hardly
worth trying to tell. A description of the intrigues of a parcel of
vulgar tricksters is neither edifying nor entertaining reading."--The
_Nation_, October 11, 1877.]
Distributed about the hall were William Purcell, DeWitt C. West,
George M. Beebe, John D. Townsend, and other Tammany talkers, who had
a special aptitude for knockdown personalities which the metropolitan
side of a Democratic convention never failed to understand. Their loud
voices, elementary arguments, and simple quotations neither strained
the ears nor puzzled the heads of the audience, while their jibes and
jokes, unmistakable in meaning, sounded familiar and friendly.
Townsend, a lawyer of some prominence and counsel for Kelly, was an
effective and somewhat overbearing speaker, who had the advantage of
being sure of everything, and as he poured out his eloquence in
language of unmeasured condemnation of Morrissey, he held attention if
he did not enlighten with distracting novelty.
Morrissey admitted he was wild in his youth, adding in a tone of
sincere penitence that if he could live his life over he would change
many things for which he was very sorry. "But no one, not even Tweed
who hates me," he exclaimed, pointing his finger across the aisle in
the direction of Kelly, "ever accused me of being a thief."
Morrissey's grammar was a failure. He clipped his words, repeated his
phrases, and lacked the poise of a public speaker, but his opponents
did not fail to understand what he meant. His eloquence was like that
of an Indian, its power being in its sententiousness, which probably
came from a limited vocabulary.
At the opening of the convention Robinson's forces had a clear
majority,[1592] but in the presence of superior generalship, which
forced a roll-call before the settlement of contests, Tammany and the
Canal ring, by a vote of 169 to 114, passed into control. To Tilden's
friends it came as the death knell of hope, while their opponents,
wild with delight, turned the convention into a jubilee. "This is the
first Democratic triumph in the Democratic party since 1873," said
Jarvis Lord of Monroe. "It lets in the old set."[1593]
[Footnote 1592: New York _Tribune_, October 4, 1877.]
[Footnote 1593: New York _Tribune_, October 4.
"The defeat of Bigelow and Fairchild will be the triumph of the
reactionists who think that the golden era of the State was in the
days before thieves were chastised and driven out of the Capital and
State House."--Albany _Argus_, October 4, 1877.]
The adoption of the Credentials Committee's report seated Tammany,
made Clarkson N. Potter permanent chairman, and turned over the party
machine. Pursuing their victory the conquerors likewise nominated a
new ticket.[1594] Quarter was neither asked nor offered. Robinson had
squarely raised the issue that refusal to continue the old officials
would be repudiation of reform, and his friends, as firmly united in
defeat as in victory, voted with a calm indifference to the threats of
the allied power of canal ring and municipal corruptionists. Indeed,
their boast of going down with colours flying supplemented the
vigorous remark of the Governor that there could be no compromise with
Tweed and canal thieves.[1595]
[Footnote 1594: Secretary of State, Allen C. Beach, Jefferson;
Comptroller, Frederick P. Olcott, Albany; Treasurer, James Mackin,
Dutchess; Attorney-General, Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr., Ulster;
Engineer, Horatio Seymour, Jr., Oneida.
On October 6, a convention of Labor Reformers, held at Troy, nominated
a State ticket with John J. Junio for Secretary of State. The
Prohibition and Greenback parties also nominated State officers, Henry
Hagner and Francis E. Spinner being their candidates for secretary of
state. The Social Democrats likewise presented a ticket with James
McIntosh at its head.]
[Footnote 1595: New York _Tribune_, October 4.]
This apparently disastrous result encouraged the hope that
Republicans, in spite of Conkling's indiscretion at Rochester, might
profit by it as they did in 1871. Upon the surface Republican
differences did not indicate bitterness. Except in the newspapers no
organised opposition to the Senator had appeared, and the only mass
meeting called to protest against the action of the Rochester
convention appealed for harmony and endorsed the Republican
candidates.[1596] Even Curtis, the principal speaker, although
indulging in some trenchant criticism, limited his remarks to a
defence of the Administration. Nevertheless, the presence of William
J. Bacon, congressman from the Oneida district, who voiced an intense
admiration for the President and his policies, emphasised the fact
that the Senator's home people had elected a Hayes Republican. Indeed,
the Senator deemed it essential to establish an organ, and in October
(1877) the publication of the Utica _Republican_ began under the
guidance of Lewis Lawrence, an intimate friend. It lived less than two
years, but while it survived it reflected the thoughts and feelings of
its sponsor.[1597]
[Footnote 1596: This meeting was held in New York City on October 10.
See New York papers of the 11th.]
[Footnote 1597: "The Utica _Republican_ is an aggressive sheet. It
calls George William Curtis 'the Apostle of Swash.'"--New York
_Tribune_, October 27.]
The campaign presented several confusing peculiarities. Governor
Robinson in his letter to a Tammany meeting refused to mention the
Democratic candidates, and Tilden, after returning from Europe,
expressed the belief in his serenade speech that "any nominations that
did not promise coöperation in the reform policy which I had the
honour to inaugurate and which Governor Robinson is consummating will
be disowned by the Democratic masses."[1598] This was a body-blow to
the Ring. Its well-directed aim also struck the ticket with telling
effect, for its election involved the discontinuance of Fairchild's
spirited canal prosecutions. On the other hand, the adoption of the
recent amendment, substituting for the canal commission a
superintendent of public works to be appointed by the Governor, made
the election of Olcott and Seymour especially desirable, since it
would give Robinson and his reforms stronger support than Tilden had
in the State board. Yet it could not be denied that the success of the
Albany ticket would be construed as a defeat of Tilden's ascendency.
[Footnote 1598: _Ibid._, November 2.]
Similar confusion possessed the Republican mind. A large body of men,
resenting the Rochester convention's covert condemnation of the
President's policies, hesitated to vote for candidates whose victory
would be attributed to Republican opposition to the Administration.
This singular political situation made a very languid State campaign.
An extra session of Congress called Conkling to Washington, Tilden
retired to Gramercy Park, the German-Independent organisation limited
its canvass to the metropolis, and the candidates of neither ticket
got a patient hearing. Other causes contributed to the Republican
dulness. Old leaders became inactive and government officials refused
to give money because of their interpretation of the President's civil
service order, while rawness and indifference made newer leaders
inefficient. After the October collapse in Ohio conditions became
hopelessly discouraging.[1599] The tide set more heavily in favour of
the Democracy, and each discordant Republican element, increasing its
distrust, practically ceased work lest the other profit by it.
[Footnote 1599: Democrats elected a governor by 22,520 plurality and
carried the Legislature by forty on joint ballot.--Appleton's
_Cyclopædia_, 1877, p. 621.]
Nevertheless, the hunt for State senators, involving the election of a
United States Senator in 1879, provoked animated contests which
centred about the candidacy of John Morrissey, whom Republicans and
the combined anti-Tammany factions backed with spirit. Morrissey had
carried the Tweed district for senator in 1874, and the taunt that no
other neighbourhood would elect a notorious gambler and graduate of
the prize-ring goaded him into opposing Augustus Schell in one of the
fashionable districts of the metropolis. Schell had the advantage of
wealth, influence, long residence in the precinct, and the
enthusiastic support of Kelly, who turned the contest into a battle
for the prestige of victory. For the moment the fierceness of the
fight excited the hopes of Republicans that the State might be
carried, and to spread the influence of the warring Democratic
factions into all sections of the commonwealth, Republican journals
made a combined attack upon Allen C. Beach.
Like Sanford E. Church, Beach was a courteous, good-natured
politician, who tried to keep company with a canal ring and keep his
reputation above reproach. But his character did not refine under the
tests imposed upon it. His policy of seeming to know nothing had
resulted in doubling the cost of canal repairs during his four years
in office. A careful analysis of his record showed that only once did
he vote against the most extravagant demands of the predatory
contractors. This did not prove him guilty of corruption, "but when as
the steady servant of the canal ring," it was asked, "he voted
thousands and thousands of dollars, sometimes at the rate of a hundred
thousand a day, into the pockets of men whom he knew to be thieves,
and on claims which he must have known were full of fraud, was he not
lending himself to corruption?"[1600] This charge his opponents
circulated through many daily and scores of weekly papers, making the
weakness of his character appear more objectionable.
[Footnote 1600: New York _Tribune_, November 3, 1877.]
To these attacks Beach affected an indifference which he did not
really feel, for the pride of a candidate who desires the respect of
his neighbours is not flattered by their distrust of his integrity.
Church had felt the iron enter his soul, and had Tilden and the
reformers rearoused the moral awakening that refused to tolerate the
Chief Justice in 1874, Beach must have fallen the victim of his
partiality to a coterie of political associates willing to benefit at
the expense of his ruin. As it was he received a plurality of 11,000,
while Seymour and Olcott, his associates upon the ticket, obtained
35,000 and 36,000 respectively.[1601]
[Footnote 1601: Total vote of John J. Junio (Labour Reformer), 20,282;
Henry Hagner (Prohibitionist), 7,230; John McIntosh (Social Democrat),
1,799; Francis E. Spinner (Greenback), 997.--Appleton's _Cyclopædia_,
1877, p. 566.]
The election of State senators in which Conkling had so vital an
interest exhibited the work of influential Hayes Republicans, who,
openly desiring his destruction, defeated his candidates in Brooklyn,
Rochester, and Utica.[1602] Nevertheless, by carrying eighteen of the
thirty-two districts he saved fighting ground for himself in the
succeeding year.[1603] Indeed, he was able to point to the popular vote
and declare that he was as strong in New York as the President was in
Ohio. It was known, too, that if Morrissey survived, the Senator would
profit by the prize-fighter's remarkable majority of nearly 4,000 over
Augustus Schell, a victory which ranked as the crowning achievement of
the senatorial campaign.[1604] But Morrissey, prostrated by his
exertions, did not live to reciprocate. He spent the winter in Florida
and the early spring in Saratoga. Finally, after the loss of speech,
his right arm, which had so severely punished Yankee Sullivan, became
paralysed, and on May 1 (1878) Lieutenant-governor Dorsheimer
announced his death to the Senate. "It is doubtful," added a colleague
in eulogy, "if such boldness and daring in political annals were ever
shown as he displayed in his last canvass."[1605]
[Footnote 1602: "We elected our district attorney by 2,336 majority,
but the candidate for State senator, who was known to represent
Senator Conkling, although personally popular and most deserving, was
beaten by 1,133.... It is fair to say that the unpopularity of the
federal office-holders, who are Mr. Conkling's most zealous
supporters, is in part the cause of this remarkable result." Interview
of Ellis H. Roberts.--New York _Tribune_, November 10, 1877.
"The energies of all the opposition to me were concentrated upon that
district. I believe Tammany and the lofty coterie of Republican
gentlemen in this city (New York) threw money into my district to
carry it against me.... Had we been sufficiently aroused and sagacious
we could have defeated this manoeuvre, but we found out too late. We
sent the tickets to the polls, in the ward in which I live, at
daylight, as did the Democrats. Not one of our tickets was found at
the polls. They were all thrown into the canal." Interview with
Conkling.--New York _Herald_, November 9, 1877.]
[Footnote 1603: The Legislature of 1878 had in the Senate: 18
Republicans, 13 Democrats, 1 Independent; in the Assembly: 66
Republicans, 61 Democrats, 1 Independent.]
[Footnote 1604: Tammany elected its entire county ticket. Its majority
for the State ticket was 30,520.]
[Footnote 1605: New York _Times_, May 2, 1878.]