TILDEN, KELLY, AND DEFEAT
1880
The defeat of Governor Robinson did not apparently change party
sentiment respecting Tilden's renomination for the Presidency. No
other candidate was seriously discussed. Indeed, the Democratic press
continued to treat it as a matter of course, coupling with it the
alleged subversion of an election, transcending in importance all
questions of administration, and involving the vital principle of
self-government through elections by the people. This new issue,
dwarfing all other policies, had been for three years the cornerstone
of every Democratic platform in state, county, or congressional
convention. No argument seemed to weaken it, no event could destroy
it. The Republican claim that the vote of three Southern States, as
declared at the polls, was the result of terrorism and did not in any
sense represent an honest expression of the popular will, made no
impression upon it. The well-known fact that Congress, because of the
confusion of the situation, had wisely sought a remedy in the
Electoral Commission, which was passed by Democratic rather than
Republican votes, in nowise weakened the force of its appeal. Not even
did the disclosure that Tilden's house had become the headquarter of
confidential agents, who sought to corrupt the electors, produce any
change in it. The one declaration, patiently and persistently kept
before the people, was that Tilden had been elected by the popular
vote and defrauded by a false count of the electoral vote, and that
the supreme issue in 1880 must be whether "this shall be a government
by the sovereign people through elections, or a government by
discarded servants holding over by force and fraud."[1705] The
reiteration of this proposition made Tilden, it was claimed, the
necessary and inevitable candidate of the Cincinnati convention,
called to meet on June 22. The party seemed to believe, what Tilden
himself had announced from his doorstep three years before, that the
country would "never condone fraud," and it did not propose to
sacrifice a winning issue.[1706]
[Footnote 1705: Tilden's letter of June 18, 1880.--_Public Writings and
Speeches_, Vol. 2, pp. 502-506.]
[Footnote 1706: "If the Democrats do not nominate Mr. Tilden, they do
relinquish the fraud issue--the strength of their canvass."--New York
_Sun_, June 22, 1880.]
Nevertheless, many New York Democrats disliked Tilden. Their number,
which the cipher disclosures materially increased, grew into
threatening proportions after Kelly's dissatisfaction had settled into
a relentless feud. This condition made Tilden's chances of carrying
the State uncertain if not absolutely nil, and encouraged his critics
to magnify his weaknesses until the belief generally obtained that
serious, perhaps fatal opposition would array itself at the State
convention on April 20. Statements as to Tilden's ill-health likewise
found currency. When not displaying evidence of unimpaired mental
vigour in the courtroom, he was said to be on the verge of total
paralysis.[1707] To his burdens the government also added another by
pursuing his income tax. This suit, commenced in January, 1877, and
destined to drag through five years until dismissed by the prosecution
without costs to either party, was fixed for the April term in 1880,
although the United States attorney admitted his unpreparedness for
trial.[1708] "Thus was he persecuted with unrelenting virulence by the
Administration," says his biographer, "and by the Republican press,
which neglected no opportunity of refreshing the memory of its readers
in regard to his imputed capacities for wickedness."[1709]
[Footnote 1707: The _Nation_, April 22.]
[Footnote 1708: See district attorney's letter, Bigelow, _Life of
Tilden_, Vol. 2, pp. 254-259, 264.]
[Footnote 1709: _Ibid._]
Meanwhile, to escape interruptions to which Gramercy Park exposed him,
Tilden settled in the summer of 1879 at Greystone on the Hudson, three
miles beyond the northernmost limit of the city, on the highest ground
south of the Highlands. Here he brought a portion of his library; here
he mingled with his flocks and herds; and here in the seclusion of a
noble estate, with the comforts of a palatial stone dwelling, he
discoursed with friends, who came from every part of the country to
assure him that he alone could keep the party together. Ever silent as
to his own intentions Tilden talked of the crime of 1876 until his
visitors, imbued with his own spirit, left him thoroughly impressed
with the importance of his renomination.
But Tilden did not trust the result to sentiment. Throughout New York
Daniel E. Manning and other lieutenants held a tight rein, and when
the Syracuse convention assembled an early roll-call, on a resolution
to determine the character of the Committee on Credentials, showed 295
votes for Tilden to 80 against him. If this overwhelming majority
shocked the dissenters, it was not less a surprise to the regulars. In
the convention of 1876 Tilden mustered, including Tammany, only 201
out of 375; now, after his enemies had exhausted their opposition, he
proved stronger than in the closing months of his famous career as a
reform governor. The result of this vote settled all controversies,
leaving the convention free to appoint electors and to select
delegates to Cincinnati.[1710] It was not to adjourn, however, until it
had shown a serene and polite contempt for John Kelly. During the
morning John B. Haskin, on behalf of the Tammany convention, had
presented a resolution expressing a desire for the union of the party
and asking the appointment of a harmony committee. Ignoring the
assembly from which he came, the convention treated the resolution as
a personal communication from Haskin, whom it assured, after politely
reciprocating his desire for the union of the Democratic party, "that
the deliberative wisdom of the national convention will result in such
action as will secure the triumph of the Democratic party in the
ensuing election."[1711] This bitter rebuff, coupled with the
overwhelming majority for Tilden, indicated a conscious strength which
deeply impressed the party in other States, and greatly aided in
demoralising opposition in New York.
[Footnote 1710: Delegates-at-large: Lucius Robinson, Calvin E. Pratt,
Rufus W. Peckham, and Lester B. Faulkner. The last named was chairman
of the Democratic State committee.]
[Footnote 1711: New York _Tribune_, April 21.]
Nor did the convention adjourn until its Committee on Resolutions
sprung a further surprise. The delegates anticipated and applauded an
elaborate statement of the fraud issue, but the presentation of Tilden
as a candidate for President came with the suddenness of his
unexpected majority. Manning did not intend to go so far. His courage
came with his strength. Proof of this, if any were needed, existed in
the fact that the endorsement was in manuscript, while the rest of the
platform was read from a printed slip. To define the situation more
clearly the committee submitted a unit rule, declaring "that in case
any attempt is made to dismember or divide the delegation by
contesting the seats of a portion of the delegates, or if delegates
countenance such an attempt by assuming to act separately from the
majority, or fail to coöperate with such majority, the seats of such
delegates shall be deemed to be vacated."[1712] Never did convention
adopt a more drastic rule. The reading of these ball and chain
provisions provoked hisses and widened the chasm between Tilden's
convention and John Kelly's side-show.
[Footnote 1712: New York _Sun_, April 21.]
Kelly's bolt in 1879 had proved his power to destroy; yet to his
friends, if not to himself, it must have been deeply humiliating to
see the fierce light of public interest turned entirely on Tilden.
Kelly also realised the more poignant fact that jealousy, distrust,
and accumulated resentment lined the way he had marked out for
himself. Nevertheless, he walked on apparently heedless of the signs
of conflict. Since the regular Democratic convention would not admit
him, he threateningly assembled one of his own in Shakespeare Hall, to
be used, if the party did not yield, in knocking at the door of the
Cincinnati convention. William Dorsheimer acted as its temporary
chairman. Dorsheimer had become a political changeling. Within a
decade he had been a Republican, a Liberal, and a Democrat, and it was
whispered that he was already tired of being a Kellyite. His appeal
for Horatio Seymour indicated his restlessness. The feuds of Tilden
and Church and Kernan and Kelly and Robinson had left Seymour the one
Democrat who received universal homage from his party, and it became
the fashion of Tilden's enemies to refer to the Oneidan as the only
one who could unite the party and carry the State. It did not matter
to Dorsheimer that Seymour, having retired from active politics in
1868, was placidly meditating at Deerfield, devoted to agricultural
and historical interests. Nor did his clamour cease after the bucolic
statesman had declared that if he must choose between a funeral and a
nomination he would take the first,[1713] since the mention of
Seymour's name always waked an audience into cheers. Later in the day
Amasa J. Parker, on taking the chair as president, artfully made use
of the same ruse to arouse interest.
[Footnote 1713: Letter to Dr. George L. Miller, New York _Tribune_,
June 21, 1880.]
It was not an enthusiastic convention. Many delegates had lost heart.
Kelly himself left the train unnoticed, and to some the blue badges,
exploiting the purpose of their presence, indicated a fool's errand.
In the previous September they had refused to support Robinson, and
having defeated him they now returned to the same hall to threaten
Tilden with similar treatment. This was their only mission.
Humiliation did not possess them, however, until John B. Haskin
reported that the regulars refused to recognise their existence. Then
John Kelly threw off his muzzle, and with the Celtic-English of a
Tammany brave exhibited a violent and revolutionary spirit. "Tilden
was elected by the votes of the people," said Kelly, "and he had not
sufficient courage after he was elected to go forward, as a brave man
should have gone forward, and said to the people of the country, 'I
have been elected by the votes of the people, and you see to it that I
am inaugurated.' Nothing of the like did Mr. Tilden."[1714]
[Footnote 1714: New York _Sun_, April 21, 1880.]
In other words, Kelly thought Tilden an unfit candidate because he did
not decide for himself that he had been elected and proceed to take
his seat at the cost of a tremendous civil convulsion. Perhaps it was
this policy more than Kelly's personality which had begun to alienate
Dorsheimer. One who had been brought up in the bosom of culture and
conservatism could have little confidence in such a man. The platform,
though bitter, avoided this revolutionary sentiment. It protested
against the total surrender of the party to one man, who has "cunning"
and "unknown resources of wealth," and who "attempts to forestall
public opinion, to preoccupy the situation, to overrule the majority,
and to force himself upon the party to its ruin." It declared that
"Tildenism is personalism, which is false to Democracy and dangerous
to the Republic," and it pronounced "Tilden unfit for President"
because "his political career has been marked with selfishness,
treachery, and dishonour, and his name irretrievably connected with
the scandals brought to light by the cipher despatches."[1715] Haskin
proposed a more compact statement, declaring that "the Democratic
party does not want any such money-grabber, railroad wrecker, and
paralytic hypocrite at the helm of State."[1716]
[Footnote 1715: New York _Times_, April 21.]
[Footnote 1716: New York _Times_, April 21.
For delegate-at-large to Cincinnati the convention selected the
following: Amasa J. Parker of Albany, William Dorsheimer of New York,
Jeremiah McGuire of Chemung, George C. Green of Niagara.]
After the two conventions adjourned the question of chiefest interest
was, would Tilden seek the nomination at Cincinnati? The action of the
convention demonstrated that the regular party organisation was
unaffected by the Kelly bolt, that Tilden controlled the party in the
State, and that his nomination was a part of the programme. Moreover,
it showed that the New York Democracy did not intend asking support
upon any principle other than the issue of fraud. But intimations of
Tilden's purpose to decline a nomination found expression in the
speech and acts of men presumedly informed. Lester B. Faulkner's
statement, in calling the convention to order, that he did not know
whether the Governor would accept a renomination, coupled with the
convention's reply to Haskin, expressing confidence that the action at
Cincinnati would result in the Democracy's carrying New York, had made
a deep impression. To many these insinuations indicated that because
of his health or for some unknown cause he was not seriously a
candidate. Others found reason for similar belief in the indisposition
of prominent delegates to resent such a suggestion. One veteran
journalist, skilled in reading the words and actions of political
leaders, asserted with confidence that he would not be a candidate. To
him Tilden's name concealed a strategic movement, which, in the end,
would enable his friends to control the nomination for another.[1717]
[Footnote 1717: New York _Tribune_ (correspondence), April 21.]
Such interpretation found hosts of doubters. Without Tilden, it was
said, the fraud issue would lose its influence. Besides, if he
intended to withdraw, why did Kelly assemble his convention? Surely
some one, said they, would have given him an inkling in time to save
him from the contempt and humiliation to which he had subjected
himself. There was much force in this reasoning, and as the date of
the national convention approached the mystery deepened.
Tilden was not a paralytic, as Haskin proclaimed. He could not even be
called an invalid. His attention to vexatious litigation evidenced
unimpaired mental power, and his open life at Greystone proved that
his physical condition did not hide him from men. He undoubtedly
required regular rest and sleep. His nervous system did not resist
excitement as readily as in the days of his battle with Tweed and the
Canal ring. It is possible, too, that early symptoms of a confirmed
disease had then appeared, and that prudence dictated hygienic
precautions. Once, in December, 1879, when contemplating the strain of
the campaign of 1876, he questioned his ability to go through another.
Again, in the early spring of 1880, after prolonged intellectual
effort, he remarked in rather a querulous tone, "If I am no longer fit
to prepare a case for trial, I am not fit to be President of the
United States." Such casual remarks, usually made to a confidential
friend, seemed to limit his references to his health.[1718] He
doubtless felt disinclined, as have many stronger men, to meet the
strain that comes when in pursuit of high public office, but there is
no evidence that ill-health, if it really entered into his
calculations, was the determining factor of his action. Conditions in
the Republican party had changed in the Empire State since the
nomination of Garfield. Besides, the cipher disclosures had lost him
the independent vote which he received in 1876. This left only the
regulation party strength, minus the Kelly vote. In 1876 Tilden's
majority was 26,568, and in 1879 Kelly polled 77,566. If Kelly's bolt
in 1880, therefore, should carry one-half or only one-quarter of the
votes it did in 1879, Tilden must necessarily lose New York which
meant the loss of the election. These were conditions, not theories,
that confronted this hard-headed man of affairs, who, without
sentiment, never failed to understand the inexorable logic of facts.
Nevertheless, Tilden wanted the endorsement of a renomination. This
would open the way for a graceful retreat. Yet, to shield him from
possible defeat, he secretly gave Manning a letter, apparently
declining to run again, which could be used if needed.
[Footnote 1718: John Bigelow, _Life of Tilden_, Vol. 2, pp. 265, 271.]
On reaching Cincinnati Manning found that a multiplicity of candidates
made it difficult to determine Tilden's strength. The ranks of the
opposition, based on cipher disclosures and Kelly's threats, rapidly
strengthened, and although many friends of other candidates thought it
less hazardous to nominate him than to repudiate him, ominous warnings
piled up like thunder clouds on a summer day. Meantime New York's
active canvass for Henry B. Payne of Ohio seemed to conflict with
Tilden's candidacy, while Tilden's remarks, spoken in moments of
physical discouragement, added to the impression that he did not seek
the nomination. But why did he not say so? Manning, supposing he was
the sole possessor of the letter and believing the time not yet ripe
for producing it, kept his own counsels. Tilden, however, had given a
duplicate to his brother Henry, who now announced through the press
that Tilden had forwarded a communication. This reached Cincinnati on
the eve of the convention.
It was long and characteristic. He recalled his services as a private
citizen in overthrowing the Tweed ring and purifying the judiciary,
and as governor of the State in breaking up the Canal ring, reducing
the taxes, and reforming the administration. He told the familiar
story of the "count out"; maintained that he could, if he pleased,
have bought "proof of the fraud" from the Southern returning boards;
and accused Congress of "abdicating its duty" in referring the count
to the Electoral Commission. Since 1876, he said, he had been "denied
the immunities of private life without the powers conferred by public
station," but he had done all in his power to keep before the people
"the supreme issue" raised by the events of that year. Now, however,
he felt unequal to "a new engagement which involves four years of
ceaseless toil. Such a work of renovation after many years of misrule,
such a reform of systems and policies, to which I would cheerfully
have sacrificed all that remained to me of health and life, is now, I
fear, beyond my strength."[1719]
[Footnote 1719: Tilden's _Public Writings and Speeches_, Vol. 2, pp.
502-506.]
Tilden did not intend this to be a letter of withdrawal. With the hope
of stimulating loyalty he sought to impress upon the delegates his
vicarious sacrifice and the need of holding to the fraud issue. This
was the interpretation quickly given it by his enemies. Kelly declared
it a direct bid for the nomination. But a majority of the New York
delegation regretfully accepted it as final. Nevertheless, many ardent
Tilden men, believing the letter had strengthened him, insisted upon
his nomination. The meeting of the delegation proved a stormy one.
Bold charges of infidelity to Tilden reacted against Payne, and to
escape controversy Manning indiscreetly asked if he might yield to the
pressure which his letter had stimulated. To this Tilden could make
but one reply: "My action is irrevocable. No friend must cast a doubt
on my sincerity."[1720]
[Footnote 1720: John Bigelow, _Life of Tilden_, Vol. 2, p. 272.]
There is something pathetic in this passing of Tilden, but there seems
no reason for surprise. Tilden was essentially an opportunist. He
attacked the Tweed ring after its exposure; he made war upon the Canal
ring after its record had become notorious; and he reduced the State
taxes after the war debt had been paid. Upon these reforms he rode
into power, and upon the cry of fraud he hoped to ride again to
success. He was much too acute not to know that the cipher disclosures
had robbed him of the rôle of reformer, but he seems to have been
blind to the obvious fact that every one else was also aware of it.
Besides, he lacked boldness and was at times the victim of indecision.
He was singularly unfortunate, moreover, in failing to attract a
circle of admirers such as usually surround public men of great
prominence. Nevertheless, the opinion then obtained, and a quarter of
a century perhaps has not changed it, that had Manning, when he
reached the convention city, boldly and promptly demanded Tilden's
nomination it could have been secured. Whether, if tendered him, he
would have accepted it, "no one," says Bigelow, "is competent to
affirm or deny. He probably did not know himself."[1721]
[Footnote 1721: _Ibid._]
Meanwhile, New York lost whatever prestige it had inherited through
him. Payne had the support of barely a majority of the delegation,[1722]
Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania, who had relied upon it, was angry,
and the first roll-call showed that Winfield S. Hancock and Thomas F.
Bayard held the leading places.[1723] This contrasted sharply with its
early success. George Hoadley of Ohio, Tilden's devoted friend, had
been made temporary chairman; Kelly, rising to address the convention,
had felt most keenly the absence of a friend in the chair; and a
two-thirds majority excluded the Shakespeare Hall delegation. Such
influence, however, was at an end. The delegation affected control
when Rufus H. Peckham declared from the platform that as Tilden had
renounced all claims New York would support Randall; but the
convention failed to join in the excited cheers of the Philadelphians,
while the roll-call soon disclosed Hancock as the favourite. Before
the result was announced officially Wisconsin asked permission to
change its twenty votes to the soldier, and in the twinkling of an eye
the stampede began. At the conclusion of the changes Hancock had
received all the votes cast save 33.[1724] William H. English of
Indiana, a rich man, who had served four terms in Congress during the
administrations of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, was nominated for
Vice-President. The platform favoured a tariff for revenue only,
exploited the election fraud, demanded honest money of coin or paper
convertible into coin, and stoutly opposed Chinese immigration.
[Footnote 1722: The vote of the delegation stood as follows: Paine, 38;
Tilden, 11; English, 11; Bayard, 6; Hancock, 3; Randall, 1. Under the
unit rule this gave Payne the entire number, 70.]
[Footnote 1723: The first ballot gave Hancock, 171; Bayard, 153-1/2;
Payne, 81-1/2; Thurman, 68-1/2; Field, 65; Morrison, 62; Hendricks,
49-1/2; Tilden, 38; with a few votes to minor candidates. Whole number
of votes, 728. Necessary to a choice, 486.]
[Footnote 1724: Before changes were made the second ballot gave Hancock
319; Randall, 129-1/2; Bayard, 113; Field, 65-1/2; Thurman, 50;
Hendricks, 31; English, 19; Tilden, 6; scattering, 3. After the
changes the result was as follows: Hancock, 705; Hendricks, 30;
Tilden, 1; Bayard, 2.]
After Hancock's nomination Kelly's inning began. The convention had
treated him coldly. On the first day, when New York was called,
desiring to protest against seating a member of the regular
delegation, he sought recognition from a seat among the alternates,
but Hoadley, without the slightest sign of seeing or hearing him,
ordered the roll-call to proceed. The overwhelming rejection of his
delegation was not less crushing. The vote combined a compliment to
Tilden and an official utterance against the action of his great
enemy, and as the States, answering promptly and sharply, dealt death
to bolting and paralysis to Tammany it became evident to the blindest
that Tilden possessed the confidence of his party. In spite of the
friendly relations between Hendricks and Kelly, Indiana voted a solid
No. Nine other States, including Kentucky, Louisiana, and North
Carolina, did likewise. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the Southern
delegates ranged themselves against the Boss. To add to the public
proof of Kelly's weakness New York asked to be excused from
voting.[1725]
[Footnote 1725: The vote stood, without New York, 205 to 457 in favor
of rejecting the Shakespeare Hall delegation. With New York it would
have been thirty-nine more than a two-thirds majority.]
Nevertheless, Kelly had his friends. They were not as strong in
numbers or in voice as those who cheered Conkling at Chicago, but in
the absence of a master-mind the galleries seized upon the Tammany
leader and cheered whenever he appeared. To give greater spectacular
effect to his first greeting, Wade Hampton of South Carolina got upon
his crutches and stumped down the aisle to shake him solemnly by the
hand. Kelly, however, did not reach the culminating point of his
picturesque rôle until Hancock's nomination. After Randall, Hampton,
and others had spoken, cries for Kelly brought to the platform a
delegation of Tammany leaders walking arm in arm, with John Kelly,
Augustus Schell, Amasa J. Parker, and George C. Green in front. The
convention, save the New York delegation, leaped to its feet, and when
Kelly declared that hereafter whoever alluded to the differences which
had heretofore existed in the New York Democracy should be considered
a "traitor to his party," the great enthusiasm forced cheers from
one-half of the New York delegation. To make the love-feast complete,
John R. Fellows, finally responding to impatient calls from all parts
of the hall, also took the platform.
Fellows, still in his forties, had had a varied, perhaps a brilliant
career. Born in Troy he found his way in early boyhood to Arkansas,
joined the Confederate army, fought at Shiloh, escaped from Vicksburg,
surrendered at Port Hudson, and remained a prisoner of war until June,
1865. Returning to Arkansas he served in the State Senate, and in 1868
came to New York, where he secured an appointment in the office of the
District Attorney. Public attention became instantly fixed on the
attractive figure of the intrepid young assistant. He leaped into
renown. He soon became the principal Democratic speaker in the city,
and from the first followed the fortunes of the pale, eager form of
the distinguished reform Governor. At Cincinnati he represented the
conservative Tilden men, and although upon reaching the platform he
faced a man of greater force, he betrayed no docile character, ready
to receive passively whatever the Boss might allot. His speech was
cleverly framed. He expressed no desire that Tilden Democrats be
forgiven for the political sins which their opponents had committed;
neither did he mar the good feeling of the occasion. But when, at the
conclusion of his remarks, John Kelly stepped forward, seized his
hand, and began working it up and down like a handle, Fellows stood
stiffly and passionlessly as a pump, neither rejecting nor accepting
the olive branches thrust upon him. Thus ended the great scene of the
reconciliation of the New York Democracy.
When plucked the fruit of this reunion was found not to be very
toothsome. Returning to New York, Tammany held a ratification meeting
(July 1) in which the regulars would not unite. Subsequently the
regulars held a meeting (July 28) at which Tilden presided, and which
Tammany did not attend. Similar discord manifested itself respecting
the choice of a chief judge for the Court of Appeals. The Republican
State Committee had chosen Charles J. Folger, but when the regulars
advocated the same method of selection Kelly defiantly issued a call
(August 14) for a State convention. Such bossism, the product of a
strange, fitful career, was only less dramatic than that of Tweed. At
a subsequent conference Kelly submitted a letter stating that if a
convention were regularly summoned and Tammany given its full share of
delegates and committeemen, his call would be withdrawn.[1726] To this
the regulars finally yielded, and a State convention, held at Saratoga
on September 28, made Kelly its head and front. His advent evoked the
loudest cheers, his demand for five members of the State committee met
little resistance, and Dorsheimer, besides serving as chairman of the
Committee on Resolutions, presented the name of Charles J. Rapallo,
who became the nominee for chief judge of Appeals. Thus within a few
months Kelly had defeated Robinson for governor, prevented Tilden's
nomination for President, and imposed his will upon the regular
organisation.
[Footnote 1726: For a copy of this letter, see New York _Tribune_,
August 28.]
In the selection of municipal candidates he was not less successful.
Irving Hall insisted upon naming the mayor, and for many weeks the
bickering and bargaining of conference committees resulted in nothing.
Finally, Kelly proposed that the regulars select several satisfactory
persons from whom he would choose. Among those submitted was the name
of William Russell Grace, a respected merchant, a native of Ireland, a
Roman Catholic in religion, and a man of large wealth, but without
official experience of any kind. This was better, it was said, than
official experience of the wrong kind. Irving Hall included his name
with considerable reluctance. It distrusted his loyalty, since a
rumour, too well founded not to cause alarm, revealed Kelly's interest
in him. But Kelly's cunning equalled his audacity. He had secured the
nomination of Rapallo by voting for William C. Ruger of Onondaga, and
he now caused it to be understood that under no circumstances would
Grace be acceptable. The merchant's name once upon the list, however,
the Boss snapped it up with avidity, while the Germans muttered
because three of the five city candidates were Irishmen. Thus the
campaign opened badly for the Democrats.
Nor did it open more auspiciously for the Republicans. Garfield's part
in the Crédit Mobilier scandal was reviewed without regard to the
vindicatory evidence, while Nast's incriminating cartoon of 1873[1727]
emphasised the failure of the great artist to introduce the Republican
candidate into his campaign pictures of 1880. It advertised the fact
that Nast retained his early opinion of the nominee's conduct. Further
to alienate the independent vote it was charged that Garfield, during
the visit of Grant and Conkling at Mentor (September 28), had
surrendered to the Stalwarts. Appearances did not discourage such a
belief. Conkling's hostility disclosed at Chicago was emphasised by
his withdrawal from New York City on the day that Garfield entered it
(August 5). Subsequently, in his initial speech of the campaign
(September 17), Conkling's first important words were a sneer at Hayes
and an implied threat at Garfield.[1728] Yet two weeks later the
Senator, while on a speaking tour through Ohio and Indiana, went out
of his way, riding three-fourths of a mile through a heavy rain, to
call upon Garfield. This looked as if somebody had surrendered. As a
matter of fact Conkling did not meet Garfield in private, nor did they
discuss any political topic,[1729] but the apparent sudden collapse of
Conkling's dislike supplied Garfield's opponents with abundance of
powder. Meantime the loss of the September election in Maine crushed
Republican hope. A victory had been confidently expected, and the
failure to secure it, although the adverse majority was less than two
hundred, sent a chill to every Republican heart.
[Footnote 1727: _Harper's Weekly_, May 15, 1873.]
[Footnote 1728: Conkling's speech is printed in full in the New York
_Tribune_ of September 18, 1880.]
[Footnote 1729: Alfred R. Conkling, _Life of Roscoe Conkling_, pp.
623-625.
"I was informed by Mr. Conkling that he had not been alone one minute
with General Garfield, intending by that care-taking to avoid the
suggestion that his visit was designed to afford an opportunity for
any personal or party arrangement."--Boutwell, _Reminiscences_, Vol.
2, p. 272.]
Spurred to greater effort by this blighting disappointment, the
Republicans regained courage by a spirited presentation of the
industrial question, which was strongly reinforced by returning
activity in trade and commerce. To offset its effect and to win the
industrial masses to Democratic support, lithographic copies of the
so-called "Morey letter," approving Chinese immigration, which
purported to be written by Garfield, were spread broadcast (October
20) over the country. Garfield promptly branded it a forgery. Though
the handwriting and especially the signature resembled his,
accumulating evidence and the failure to produce the man to whom the
letter purported to be addressed, rapidly made clear its fictitious
character. Nevertheless, many Democratic journals and orators, notably
Abraham S. Hewitt, assuming its genuineness, used it with tremendous
force as favouring Chinese competition with home labour.
To add to the slanderous character of the closing days of the campaign
John Kelly, through the New York _Express_, rained fierce personal
assaults upon the distinguished editor of the New York _Herald_, who
opposed Grace. In bitterness the mayoralty fight surpassed the
presidential contest. Hints of a division of public money for
sectarian purposes had deeply stirred the city and given prominence to
William Dowd, the Republican candidate, whose interest in the common
schools characterised his public activities. Dowd had the support of
many members of Irving Hall, who, as they gnashed their teeth in
resentment of Kelly's cunning, became unweariedly active in combining
the strange and various elements of opposition. Not Daniel himself
was more uncomfortably encompassed than Grace.
The October elections in Ohio and Indiana plainly indicated the trend
of public opinion, and on November 3 the Republicans carried New York
and the country.[1730] The significant point in the State returns,
however, was the severe punishment administered to Kelly. Whomsoever
he supported suffered humiliation. Hancock received 21,000 votes less
than Garfield, Rapallo 55,000 less than Folger, and Grace 38,000 less
than Hancock. In the presence of such a showing the Brooklyn _Eagle_,
a Democratic journal friendly to Tilden, thus philosophised: "Bosses
and thorough organisation are incompatible. The success of
organisation depends upon reason. The success of the boss is due to
underhand arts. No young man can hope for the favour of a boss who
does not begin by cultivating the temper of a lick-spittle."[1731]
[Footnote 1730: Garfield, 555,544; Hancock, 534,511; Weaver
(Greenback), 12,373. Judge of Appeals: Folger, 562,821; Rapallo,
517,661; Armstrong (Greenback), 13,183. Mayor of New York: Grace,
101,760; Dowd, 98,715. Legislature: Assembly, Republicans, 81;
Democrats, 47. Senate (hold over): Republicans, 32; Democrats, 18.
Republican majority on joint ballot, 52.]
[Footnote 1731: November 6, 1880.]