JOHN KELLY ELECTS CORNELL
1879
If threatened danger had bred an artificial harmony among the
Republican factions of the State in 1878, the presence of a real
peril, growing out of the control of both branches of Congress by the
Democrats, tended to bring them closer together in 1879. During a
special session of the Forty-sixth Congress the Democratic majority
had sought, by a political rider attached to the army appropriation
bill, to repeal objectionable election laws, which provided among
other things for the appointment of supervisors and deputy marshals at
congressional elections. This law had materially lessened cheating in
New York City, and no one doubted that its repeal would be followed in
1880 by scenes similar to those which had disgraced the metropolis
prior to its enactment in 1870.
But the attempt to get rid of the objectionable Act by a rider on a
supply bill meant more than repeal. It implied a threat. In effect the
Democrats declared that if the Executive did not yield his veto power
to a bare majority, the needed appropriations for carrying on the
government would be stopped. This practically amounted to revolution,
and the debate that followed reawakened bitter partisan and sectional
animosities. "Suppose in a separate bill," said Conkling, "the
majority had, in advance of appropriations, repealed the national bank
act and the resumption act, and had declared that unless the Executive
surrendered his convictions and yielded up his approval of the
repealing act, no appropriations should be made; would the separation
of the bills have palliated or condoned the revolutionary purpose?
When it is intended that, unless another species of legislation is
agreed to, the money of the people, paid for that purpose, shall not
be used to maintain their government, the threat is revolution and its
execution is treasonable." Then he gave the mortal stab. Of the
ninety-three senators and representatives from the eleven disloyal
States, he said, eighty-five were soldiers in the armies of the
rebellion, and their support of these "revolutionary measures is a
fight for empire. It is a contrivance to clutch the national
government. That we believe; that I believe."[1639] The President, by
advising the country through his spirited veto messages of the
desperate tactics invoked by the majority, added to Northern
indignation.
[Footnote 1639: Cooper, _American Politics_, Book 3, pp. 176-186.]
It was a losing battle to the Democrats. The longer they insisted the
more the Southern brigadiers were held up to public scorn as if they
had again betrayed their country, and when, finally, the appropriation
bills were passed without riders, it left Republicans more firmly
united than at the beginning of the Hayes administration.[1640]
[Footnote 1640: The extra session of Congress adjourned July 1, 1879.]
Two months later the Republican State convention, held at Saratoga
(September 3), evidenced this union.[1641] Every distinguished
Republican of the State was present save Thurlow Weed, whose
feebleness kept him at home. Conkling presided. With fine humour,
George William Curtis, the sound of whose flute-like voice brought a
burst of applause, asked that the crowded aisles be cleared that he
might see the chairman. Conkling's speech excited close attention. It
was freer and more vivid because of more human interest than his
address of the year before, and his appeal for harmony, his
denunciation of revolutionary methods in Congress, and his demand that
freedmen be protected in their rights, brought strenuous, purposeful
applause from determined men. The principles thus felicitously and
rhetorically stated formed the basis of the platform, which pledged
the party anew to national supremacy, equal rights, free elections,
and honest money. It also thanked the President for his recent
attitude.
[Footnote 1641: On August 29, the State convention of Nationals
assembled at Utica, and nominated Harris Lewis of Herkimer, for
governor. The platform opposed National banks and demanded an issue of
greenbacks at the rate of $50 per capita, at least. Lewis, who had
been a member of the Assembly twenty years before, was president of
the Farmers' Alliance.
The State Prohibition convention met at Syracuse, September 3, and
nominated a full State ticket, with John W. Mears of Oneida, for
governor. The platform declared the license system the cornerstone of
the liquor traffic and favoured woman suffrage.]
Nevertheless, a disposition to contest the strength of the
organisation and its methods boldly asserted itself. For months
Cornell had been Conkling's candidate for governor. A searching
canvass, extended into all sections of the State and penetrating the
secrets of men, had been noiselessly and ceaselessly carried on.
Indeed, a more inquisitorial pursuit had never before been attempted,
since the slightest chance, the merest accident, might result, as it
did in 1876, in defeating Cornell.
So much depended upon the control of the temporary organisation that
the anti-Conkling forces begged the Vice-President to stand for
temporary chairman. They could easily unite upon him, and the belief
obtained that he could defeat the Senator. But Wheeler, a mild and
amiable gentleman, whose honours had come without personal contests,
was timid and unyielding.[1642] What the opposition needed was a real
State leader. It had within its ranks brilliant editors,[1643]
excellent lawyers, and with few exceptions the best speakers in the
party, but since Fenton lost control of the organisation no man had
arisen capable of crossing swords with its great chieftain.
[Footnote 1642: "The only complaint that his friends have ever made of
Mr. Wheeler is that his generous nature forbids him, politically, to
fight. Had he been willing to lead in the State convention in 1879, it
would have had a different result."--_Harper's Weekly_, March 26,
1881.]
[Footnote 1643: Among the more influential Republican editors, who
wrote with rare intelligence, representing both factions of the party,
may be mentioned Charles E. Smith, Albany _Journal_; Carroll E. Smith,
Syracuse _Journal_; Ellis H. Roberts, Utica _Herald_; James N.
Matthews, Buffalo _Express_; S. Newton Dexter North, Albany _Express_;
Whitelaw Reid, New York _Tribune_; John H. Selkreg, Ithaca _Journal_;
John M. Francis, Troy _Times_; Beman Brockway, Watertown _Times_;
Charles E. Fitch, Rochester _Democrat-Chronicle_; George William
Curtis, _Harper's Weekly_; Charles G. Fairman, Elmira _Advertiser_;
William Edward Foster, Buffalo _Commercial_; George Dawson, Albany
_Journal_; Lewis J. Jennings, New York _Times_.]
Of the four pronounced candidates for governor Frank Hiscock of
Syracuse divided the support of the central counties with Theodore M.
Pomeroy of Cayuga, while William H. Robertson of Westchester and John
H. Starin of New York claimed whatever delegates Cornell did not
control in the metropolis and its vicinity. Among them and their
lieutenants, however, none could dispute leadership with Conkling and
his corps of able managers. Starin had pluck and energy, but two terms
in Congress and popularity with the labouring classes, to whom he paid
large wages and generously contributed fresh-air enjoyments, summed up
his strength.[1644] Pomeroy was better known. His public record, dating
from the famous speech made in the Whig convention of 1855, had kept
him prominently before the people, and had he continued in Congress he
must have made an exalted national reputation. But the day of younger
men had come. Besides, his recent vote for John F. Smyth, the head of
the Insurance Department, injured him.[1645] Robertson, as usual, had
strong support. His long public career left a clear imprint of his
high character, and his attractive personality, with its restrained
force, made him a central figure in the politics of the State.
[Footnote 1644: The sale of a condition powder for cattle started
Starin on the road to wealth, which soon discovered itself in the
ownership of canal, river, and harbour boats, until he became known as
High Admiral of the Commerce of New York. Like success attended his
railroad operations.]
[Footnote 1645: Pomeroy was district-attorney of his County, 1851-56;
in the Assembly, 1857; in Congress, 1861-69, being elected speaker in
place of Colfax on the day the latter retired to be sworn in as
Vice-President; mayor of Auburn, 1875-76; State Senate, 1878-79.]
Hiscock was then on the threshold of his public career. He began life
as the law partner and political lieutenant of his brother, Harris, an
adroit politician, whose violent death in 1867, while a member of the
constitutional convention, left to the former the Republican
leadership of Onondaga County. If his diversion as a Liberal
temporarily crippled him, it did not prevent his going to Congress in
1876, where he was destined to remain for sixteen years and to achieve
high rank as a debater on financial questions. He was without a sense
of humour and possessed rather an austere manner, but as a highly
successful lawyer he exhibited traits of character that strengthened
him with the people. He was also an eminently wary and cautious man,
alive to the necessity of watching the changeful phases of public
opinion, and slow to propound a plan until he had satisfied himself
that it could be carried out in practice. It increased his influence,
too, that he was content with a stroke of practical business here and
there in the interest of party peace without claiming credit for any
brilliant or deep diplomacy.
It is doubtful, however, if the genius of a Weed could have induced
the disorganised forces, representing the four candidates, to put up a
single opponent to Cornell. Such a course, in the opinion of the
leaders, would release delegates to the latter without compensating
advantage. It was decided, therefore, to hold the field intact with
the hope of preventing a nomination on the first ballot, and to let
the result determine the next step. In their endeavour to accomplish
this they stoutly maintained that Cornell, inheriting the unpopularity
of the machine, could not carry the State. To win New York and thus
have its position defined for 1880 was the one great desire of
Republicans, and the visible effect of the fusionists' attack,
concededly made with great tact and cleverness, if without much effort
at organisation, turned Conkling's confidence into doubt. Then he put
on more pressure. In the preceding winter Pomeroy's vote and speech
in the State Senate had saved John F. Smyth from deserved impeachment,
and he now counted confidently upon the Commissioner's promised
support of his candidacy. But Conkling demanded it for Cornell, and
Smyth left Pomeroy to care for himself.
It is seldom that a roll-call ever proceeded under such tension.
Nominating speeches were abandoned, cheers for the platform faded into
an ominous silence, and every response sounded like the night-step of
a watchful sentinel. Only when some conspicuous leader voted was the
stillness broken. A score of men were keeping count, and halfway down
the roll the fusionists tied their opponents. When, at last, the call
closed with nine majority for Cornell, the result, save a spasm of
throat-splitting yells, was received with little enthusiasm.[1646] On
the motion to make the nomination unanimous George William Curtis
voted "No" distinctly.[1647]
[Footnote 1646: Whole number of votes cast, 450. Necessary to a choice,
226. Cornell received 234; Robertson, 106; Starin, 40; Pomeroy, 35;
Hiscock, 34; Sloan, 1.]
[Footnote 1647: _Harper's Weekly_, October 25, 1879.]
It was a Conkling victory. For three days delegates had crowded the
Senator's headquarters, while in an inner room he strengthened the
weak, won the doubtful, and directed his forces with remarkable skill.
He asked no quarter, and after his triumph every candidate selected
for a State office was an avowed friend of Cornell. "It would have
been poor policy," said one of the Senator's lieutenants, "to
apologise for what he had done by seeming to strengthen the ticket
with open enemies of the chief candidate."[1648]
[Footnote 1648: New York _Sun_, September 8.
The following candidates were nominated: Governor, Alonzo B. Cornell,
New York; Lieutenant-Governor, George G. Hoskins, Wyoming; Secretary
of State, Joseph B. Carr, Rensselaer; Comptroller, James W. Wadsworth,
Livingston; Attorney-General, Hamilton Ward, Allegany; Treasurer,
Nathan D. Wendell, Albany; Engineer, Howard Soule, Onondaga.]
The aftermath multiplied reasons for the coalition's downfall. Some
thought the defeat of Cornell in 1876 deceived the opposition as to
his strength; others, that a single candidate should have opposed him;
others, again, that the work of securing delegates did not begin early
enough. But all agreed that the action of George B. Sloan of Oswego
seriously weakened them. Since 1874 Sloan had been prominently
identified with the unfettered wing of the party. Indeed, his activity
along lines of reform had placed him at the head and front of
everything that made for civic betterment. In character he resembled
Robertson. His high qualities and flexibility of mind gave him
unrivalled distinction. He possessed a charm which suffused his
personality as a smile softens and irradiates a face, and although it
was a winsome rather than a commanding personality, it lacked neither
firmness nor power. Moreover, he was a resourceful business man, keen,
active, and honest--characteristics which he carried with him into
public life. His great popularity made him speaker of the Assembly in
the third year of his service (1877), and his ability to work
tactfully and effectively had suggested his name to the coalition as a
compromise candidate for governor. He had never leaned to the side of
the machine. In fact, his failure to win the speakership in the
preceding January was due to the opposition of Cornell backed by John
F. Smyth, and his hopes of future State preferment centred in the
defeat of these aggressive men. Yet at the critical moment, when
success seemed within the grasp of his old-time friends, he voted for
Cornell. For this his former associates never wholly forgave him. Nor
was his motive ever fully understood. Various reasons found
currency--admiration of Conkling, a desire to harmonise his party at
home by the nomination of John C. Churchill for State comptroller, and
weariness of opposing an apparently invincible organisation. But
whatever the motive the coalition hissed when he declared his choice,
and then turned upon Churchill like a pack of sleuth-hounds, defeating
him upon the first ballot in spite of Conkling's assistance.
Tammany's threat to bolt Robinson's renomination may have encouraged
Cornell's nomination, since such truancy would aid his election. John
Kelly was _in extremis_. Tammany desertions and the election of Mayor
Cooper had shattered his control of the city. To add to his
discomfiture the Governor had removed Henry A. Gumbleton, charged with
taking monstrous fees as clerk of New York County, and appointed
Hubert O. Thompson in his place. Gumbleton was Kelly's pet; Thompson
was Cooper's lieutenant. Although the Governor sufficiently justified
his action, the exercise of this high executive function was generally
supposed to be only a move in the great Presidential game of 1880. His
failure to remove the Register, charged with similar misdoings,
strengthened the supposition that the Tilden camp fires were burning
brightly. But whatever the Governor's motive, Kelly accepted
Gumbleton's removal as an open declaration of war, and on September 6
(1879), five days before the Democratic State convention, Tammany's
committee on organisation secretly declared "that in case the
convention insists upon the renomination of Lucius Robinson for
governor, the Tammany delegation will leave in a body."[1649] In
preparation for this event an agent of Tammany hired Shakespeare Hall,
the only room left in Syracuse of sufficient size to accommodate a
bolting convention.[1650]
[Footnote 1649: New York _Star_, Sept. 17, 1879.]
[Footnote 1650: New York _Sun_, Sept. 12.]
The changes visible in the alignment of factions since the Democrats
had selected a candidate for governor in Syracuse reflected the fierce
struggle waged in the intervening five years. In 1874 Tweed was in
jail; Kelly, standing for Tilden, assailed Sanford E. Church as a
friend of the canal ring; Dorsheimer, thrust into the Democratic party
through the Greeley revolt, was harvesting honour in high office;
Bigelow, dominated by his admiration of a public servant who concealed
an unbridled ambition, gave character to the so-called reform; and
Charles S. Fairchild, soon to appreciate the ingratitude of party, was
building a reputation as the undismayed prosecutor of a predatory
ring. Now, Tweed was in his grave; Kelly had joined the canal ring in
sounding the praises of Church; Dorsheimer, having drifted into
Tammany and the editorship of the _Star_, disparaged the man whom he
adored as governor and sought to make President; and Bigelow and
Fairchild, their eyes opened, perhaps, by cipher telegrams, found
satisfaction in the practice of their professions.
But Tilden was not without friends. If some had left him, others had
grown more potent. For several years Daniel E. Manning, known to his
Albany neighbours as a youth of promise and a young man of ripening
wisdom, had attracted attention by his genius for political
leadership.[1651] He seems never to have been rash or misled. Even an
exuberance of animal vitality that eagerly sought new outlets for its
energy did not waste itself in aimless experiments. Although
possessing the generosity of a rich nature, he preferred to work
within lines of purpose without heady enthusiasms or reckless
extremes, and his remarkable gifts as an executive, coupled with the
study of politics as a fine art, soon made him a manager of men. This
was demonstrated in his aggressive fight against Tweedism. Manning was
now (1879) forty-eight years old. It cannot be said that he had then
reached the place filled by Dean Richmond, or that the _Argus_ wielded
the power exerted in the days of Edwin Croswell; but the anti-ring
forces in the interior of the State cheerfully mustered under his
leadership, while the _Argus_, made forceful and attractive by the
singularly brilliant and facile pen of St. Clair McKelway, swayed the
minds of its readers to a degree almost unequalled among its party
contemporaries.[1652]
[Footnote 1651: In the early forties Manning began as an office-boy on
the Albany _Atlas_, and in 1865, as associate editor of the _Argus_,
he dominated its policy. Upon the death of James Cassidy, in 1873, he
succeeded to the presidency of the company with which he continued
throughout his life.]
[Footnote 1652: After service on the New York _World_, and the Brooklyn
_Eagle_, McKelway became chief editor of the _Argus_ in 1878. He
rejoined the _Eagle_ in 1885. Among other accomplished editors who
made their journals conspicuous in party (Democratic) and State from
1865 to 1880, may be mentioned William Cassidy, Albany _Argus_; Thomas
Kinsella, Brooklyn _Eagle_; Joseph Warren and David Gray, Buffalo
_Courier_; Samuel M. Shaw, Cooperstown _Freeman's Journal_; James and
Erastus Brooks, New York _Express_; Benjamin Wood, New York _News_;
Manton Marble and Joseph Pulitzer, New York _World_; William Purcell,
Rochester _Union-Advertiser_; Henry A. Reeves, Greenport _Republican
Watchman_; E. Prentiss Bailey, Utica _Observer_. Although previously
of Democratic tendencies, the New York _Herald_, by 1865, had become
wholly independent.]
Manning took charge of the interests of Robinson, who did not attend
the convention, receiving Kelly's tactful and spirited assault with
fine courage. The Governor's enemies were more specific than
Cornell's. They predicted that Robinson's renomination would lose
twenty thousand votes in New York City alone, and an ingenious and
extensively circulated table showed that the counties represented by
his delegates had recently exhibited a Democratic loss of thirty
thousand and an increased Republican vote of forty thousand, while
localities opposed to him revealed encouraging gains. Mindful of the
havoc wrought in 1874 by connecting Church with the canal ring, Kelly
also sought to crush Robinson by charging that corporate rings,
notably the New York Mutual Life Insurance Company, had controlled his
administration, and that although he had resigned from the Erie
directorate at the time of his election, he still received large fees
through his son who acted as attorney for the road. Moreover, Kelly
intimated, with a dark frown, that he had another stone in his sling.
This onslaught, made upon every country delegate in town, seemed to
confuse if not to shake the Tilden men, whose interest centred in
success as well as in Robinson. The hesitation of the Kings County
delegation, under the leadership of Hugh McLaughlin, to declare
promptly for the Governor, and the toying of Senator Kernan with the
name of Church while talking in the interest of harmony, indicated
irresolution. Even David B. Hill and Edward K. Apgar, who desired to
shape affairs for a pledged delegation to the next national
convention, evidenced weariness.
Manning steadied the line. In proclaiming Robinson's nomination on the
first ballot he anticipated every movement of the enemy. He knew that
Henry W. Slocum's candidacy did not appeal to McLaughlin; that Chief
Justice Church's consent rested upon an impossible condition; and that
Kelly's threatened bolt, however disastrously it might end in
November, would strengthen Robinson in the convention. Nevertheless,
unusual concessions showed a desire to proceed on lines of harmony.
Tammany's delegation was seated with the consent of Irving Hall; John
C. Jacobs, a senator from Brooklyn, was made chairman; the fairness of
committee appointments allayed suspicion; a platform accepted by if
not inoffensive to all Democrats set forth the principles of the
party,[1653] and an avoidance of irritating statements characterised
the speeches placing Robinson's name in nomination.
[Footnote 1653: The platform, which dealt mainly with State issues,
repeated the fraud-cry of 1876, advocated hard money, and upheld the
Democratic programme in Congress.--See Appleton's _Cyclopædia_, 1879,
p. 680.]
Tammany's part was less cleverly played. Its effort centred in
breaking the solid Brooklyn delegation, and although with much tact it
presented Slocum as its candidate for governor, and cunningly
expressed confidence in Jacobs by proposing that he select the
Committee on Credentials, two Bowery orators, with a fierceness born
of hate, abused Robinson and pronounced Tilden "the biggest fraud of
the age."[1654] Then Dorsheimer took the floor. His purpose was to
capture the Kings and Albany delegations, and walking down the aisles
with stage strides he begged them, in a most impassioned manner, to
put themselves in Tammany's place, and to say whether, under like
circumstances, they would not adopt the same course. He did it very
adroitly. His eyes blazed, his choice words blended entreaty with
reasoning, and his manner indicated an earnestness that captivated if
it did not convert. His declaration, however, that Tammany would bolt
Robinson's renomination withered the effect of his rhetoric. Kelly had
insinuated as much, and Tammany had flouted it for two days; but
Dorsheimer's announcement was the first authoritative declaration, and
it hardened the hearts of men who repudiated such methods.
[Footnote 1654: See New York papers of September 12, 1879.]
Then the tricksters had their inning. Pending a motion that a
committee of one from each county be appointed to secure harmony, a
Saratoga delegate moved that John C. Jacobs be nominated for governor
by acclamation. This turned the convention into a pandemonium. In the
midst of the whirlwind of noise a Tammany reading clerk, putting the
motion, declared it carried. Similar tactics had won Horatio Seymour
the nomination for President in 1868, and for a time it looked as if
the Chair might profit by their repetition. Jacobs was a young man.
Ambition possessed and high office attracted him. But if a vision of
the governorship momentarily unsettled his mind, one glance at
McLaughlin and the Brooklyn delegation, sitting like icebergs in the
midst of the heated uproar, restored his reason. When a motion to
recess increased the tumult, Rufus H. Peckham, a cool Tilden man,
called for the ayes and noes. This brought the convention to earth
again, and as the noise subsided Jacobs reproved the clerk for his
unauthorised assumption of the Chair's duties, adding, with a slight
show of resentment, that had he been consulted respecting the
nomination he should have respectfully declined.
At the conclusion of the roll-call the Tammany tellers, adding the
aggregate vote to suit the needs of the occasion, pronounced the
motion carried, while others declared it lost. A second call defeated
a recess by 166 to 217. On a motion to table the appointment of a
harmony committee the vote stood 226 to 155. A motion to adjourn also
failed by 166 to 210. These results indicated that neither tricks nor
disorder could shake the Robinson phalanx, and after the call to
select a nominee for governor had begun, Augustus Schell, John Kelly,
William Dorsheimer, and other Tammany leaders rose in their places.
"Under no circumstances will the Democracy of New York support the
nomination of Lucius Robinson," said Schell; "but the rest of the
ticket will receive its warm and hearty support." Then he paused.
Kelly, standing in the background of the little group, seemed to
shrink from the next step. Regularity was the touchstone of Tammany's
creed. Indifference to ways and means gave no offence, but
disobedience to the will of a caucus or convention admitted of no
forgiveness. Would Kelly himself be the first to commit this
unpardonable sin? He could invoke no precedent to shield him. In 1847
the Wilmot Proviso struck the keynote of popular sentiment, and the
Barnburners, leaving the convention the instant the friends of the
South repudiated the principle, sought to stay the aggressiveness of
slavery. Nor could he appeal to party action in 1853, for the Hunkers
refused to enter the convention after the Barnburners had organised
it. Moreover, he was wholly without excuse. He had accepted the
platform, participated in all proceedings, and exhausted argument,
diplomacy, trickery, and deception. Not until certain defeat faced him
did he rise to go, and even then he tarried with the hope that
Schell's words would bring the olive-branch. It was a moment of
intense suspense. The convention, sitting in silence, realised that
the loss meant probable defeat, and anxious men, unwilling to take
chances, looked longingly from one leader to another. But the symbol
of peace did not appear, and Schell announced, as he led the way to
the door: "The delegation from New York will now retire from the
hall." Then cheers and hisses deadened the tramp of retreating
footsteps.
After the bolters' departure Irving Hall took the seats of Tammany,
and the convention quickly closed its work. The roll-call showed 301
votes cast, of which Robinson received 243 and Slocum 56. Little
conflict occurred in the selection of other names on the ticket, all
the candidates save the lieutenant-governor being renominated.[1655]
[Footnote 1655: The ticket presented was as follows: Governor, Lucius
Robinson, Chemung; Lieutenant-Governor, Clarkson N. Potter, New York;
Secretary of State, Allen C. Beach, Jefferson; Comptroller, Frederick
P. Olcott, New York; Treasurer, James Mackin, Dutchess;
Attorney-General, Augustus Schoonmaker, Ulster; State Engineer,
Horatio Seymour, Jr., Oneida.]
In the evening Tammany occupied Shakespeare Hall. David Dudley Field,
formerly a zealous anti-slavery Republican, and more recently Tilden's
counsel before the Electoral Commission, presided; Dorsheimer, whose
grotesque position must have appealed to his own keen sense of the
humorous, moved the nomination of John Kelly for governor; and Kelly,
in his speech of acceptance, prophesied the defeat of Governor
Robinson. This done they went out into darkness.
Throughout the campaign the staple of Republican exhortations was the
Southern question and the need of a "strong man." Even Conkling in his
one speech made no reference to State politics or State affairs. When
Cornell's election, midway in the canvass, seemed assured, Curtis
argued that his success would defeat the party in 1880, and to avoid
such a calamity he advocated "scratching the ticket."[1656] Several
well-known Republicans, adopting the suggestion, published an address,
giving reasons for their refusal to support the head and the tail of
the ticket. They cited the cause of Cornell's dismissal from the
custom-house; compared the cost of custom-house administration before
and after his separation from the service; and made unpleasant
reference to the complicity of Soule in the canal frauds, as revealed
in the eleventh report of the Canal Investigating Committee.[1657]
Immediately the signers were dubbed "Scratchers." The party press
stigmatised them as traitors, and several journals refused to publish
their address even as an advertisement. So bitterly was Curtis
assailed that he thought it necessary to resign the chairmanship of
the Richmond County convention. Party wits also ridiculed him. Henry
Ward Beecher said, with irresistible humour, that scratching is good
for cutaneous affections. Martin I. Townsend declared that no
Republican lived in Troy who had any disease that required scratching.
Evarts called it "voting in the air." To all this Curtis replied that
the incessant fusillade proved his suggestion not so utterly
contemptible as it was alleged to be. "If the thing be a mosquito,
there is too much powder and ball wasted upon it."[1658]
[Footnote 1656: _Harper's Weekly_, October 4, 1879.]
[Footnote 1657: New York papers, October 10, 1879.]
[Footnote 1658: _Harper's Weekly_, November 8, 1879.]
Nevertheless, the speech of the Secretary of State cut deeply. Evarts
represented an Administration which had removed Cornell that "the
office may be properly and efficiently administered." Now, he endorsed
him for governor, ridiculed Republicans that opposed him, and pointed
unmistakably to Grant as the "strong man" who could best maintain the
power of the people.[1659] The _Nation_ spoke of Evarts' appearance as
"indecent."[1660] Curtis was not less severe. "Both his appearance and
his speech are excellent illustrations of the reason why the political
influence of so able and excellent a man is so slight. Mr. Evarts,
musing on the folly of voting in the air, may remember the arrow of
which the poet sings, which was shot into the air and found in the
heart of an oak. It is hearts of oak, not of bending reeds, that make
and save parties."[1661]
[Footnote 1659: Cooper Union speech, October 21.]
[Footnote 1660: October 23.]
[Footnote 1661: _Harper's Weekly_, November 8.]
Talk of a secret alliance between Tammany and the Cornell managers
began very early in the campaign. Perhaps the fulsome praise of John
Kelly in Republican journals, the constant support of John F. Smyth by
Tammany senators, and Kelly's avowed intention to defeat Robinson,
were sufficient to arouse suspicion. Conkling's sudden silence as to
the danger threatening free elections, of which he declaimed so warmly
in April, seemed to indicate undue satisfaction with existing
conditions. To several newspapers the action of two Republican police
commissioners, who championed Tammany's right to its share of poll
inspectors, pointed unmistakably to a bargain, since it gave Tammany
and the Republicans power to select a chairman at each poll.[1662]
Evidence of a real alliance, however, was nebulous. The defeat of
Robinson meant the election of Cornell, and Republicans naturally
welcomed any effort to accomplish it. They greeted Kelly, during his
tour of the State, with noise and music, crowded his meetings, and
otherwise sought to dishearten Robinson's friends. Although Kelly's
speeches did not compare in piquancy with his printed words, his
references to Tilden as the "old humbug of Cipher Alley" and to
Robinson as having "sore eyes" when signing bills, kept his hearers
expectant and his enemies disturbed. The _World_ followed him,
reporting his speeches as "failures" and his audiences as "rushing
pell-mell from the building."[1663]
[Footnote 1662: The _Nation_, September 25 and October 23, 1879; New
York _Times_, September 19, 20, 24, 25.]
[Footnote 1663: New York _World_, October 11, 14, 16, 17.
"John Kelly. Oh! John Kelly!
We read you like a book;
We've got plain country common-sense,
Though homely we may look;
And we know each vote you beg, John,
Is only begged to sell;
You are but the tool of Conkling,
And bargained to Cornell."
--New York _World_, October 17.]
Kelly did not mean to dish the whole Democratic ticket. He expected to
elect the minor State officers. But he learned on the morning after
election that he had entirely miscalculated the effect of his scheme,
since every Democrat except the nephew of Horatio Seymour rested in
the party morgue by the side of Lucius Robinson.[1664] In the city
Kelly also disappointed his followers. His own vote ran behind
Robinson's, and all his friends were slaughtered. Indeed, when Tammany
surrendered its regularity at Syracuse it lost its voting strength.
Even Cornell whom it saved ran 20,000 behind his ticket. The election
was, in fact, a triumph for nobody except Conkling. He had put into
the highest State office a personal adherent, whom the Administration
had stigmatised by dismissal; he had brought to New York his principal
opponents in the Cabinet (Evarts and Sherman) to speak for his nominee
and their dismissed servant; and he had induced the Administration to
call for a "strong man" for the Presidency.[1665]
[Footnote 1664: The election held on November 4, resulted as follows:
Governor, Cornell, 418,567; Robinson, 375,790; Kelly, 77,566; Lewis
(National), 20,286; Mears (Prohibition), 4,437. Lieutenant-Governor,
Hoskins, 435,304; Potter, 435,014. Secretary of State, Carr
(Republican), 436,013; Beach (Democrat), 434,138. Comptroller,
Wadsworth, 438,253; Olcott, 432,325. Treasurer, Wendell, 436,300;
Mackin, 433,485. Attorney-General, Ward, 437,382; Schoonmaker,
433,238. Engineer and Surveyor, Soule, 427,240; Seymour, 439,681.
Legislature: Assembly, Republicans, 92; Democrats, 35; National, 1;
Senate (elected the previous year), Republicans, 25; Democrats, 8.]
[Footnote 1665: To criticisms of his course in taking part in the
campaign, Sherman replied; "We must carry New York next year or see
all the result of the war overthrown and the constitutional amendments
absolutely nullified. We cannot do this if our friends defeat a
Republican candidate for governor, fairly nominated, and against whom
there are no substantial charges affecting his integrity."--Burton,
_Life of Sherman_, p. 296.]