CHAPTER X.

THE CLIMAX OF 1880.

The Clans are met in the prairied West,

And the battle is on, is on again,

The struggle of great and little men,

To make one victor above the rest.

The fathers of the Republic had no suspicion of the form which American

politics has assumed. The thing which we know as a political party is

new under the sun. No other country or age ever had any thing like what

America understands by the word party. When we speak of a party, we do

not have in mind a mere sect, or class, distinguished by peculiar

opinions, and composed of individuals whose only bond of union is their

harmony of opinion, passion, or prejudice. We do not mean a caste, nor a

peculiar section of American society, nor a portion of the masses, whose

birth, condition, and surroundings predestine them to take a traditional

sort of a view of political affairs, which they hold in common with

their parents and their fellows. This was what Rome, in the days of her

Republic, understood by the name of party. Patrician and plebeian stood

not merely for opinion, but for more—for birth, heritage, and station.

When there was an election, it was a rout, a rabble, without

organization, work, or object. Rich and poor were arrayed against each

other; the public offices were the glittering prize. But they were

captured more by seditions, revolts, _coups d’état_, than by the

insinuating arts of the wire-puller. The same thing is largely true of

England and France, although less so lately than formerly.

But in America by a political party, we mean an organism, of which the

life is, in the beginning at least, an opinion or set of opinions. We

mean an institution as perfectly organized as the government itself; and

taking hold of the people much more intimately. We mean an organization

so powerful that the government is in its hands but a toy; so despotic

that it has but one penalty for treason—political death; so much

beloved, that while a few men in a few widely separated generations make

glorious and awful sacrifices for their country, nearly all the men of

every generation lend themselves, heart and soul, to the cause of party.

A political party raises, once in four years, drilled armies, more

numerous than any war ever called forth. If the battalions wear no

uniform but red shirt and cap, and carry no more deadly weapon than the

flaming torch, they are, nevertheless, as numerous, as well drilled, and

as powerful as the glistening ranks of Gettysburg or Chickamauga. They,

too, fight for the government—or against it. A political party has its

official chief, its national legislature or “committee,” its state,

county, township, ward, and precinct organizations. It is stupendous.

The local organization has in its secret rooms lists containing the name

of every voter, with an analysis of his political views; if they are

wavering, a few significant remarks on how he can be “reached.” The

county and state organizations have their treasuries, their system of

taxation and revenue, their fields of expenditure, and their cries of

robbery, reform, and retrenchment. In the secret committee rooms are

laid deep and sagacious plans for carrying the election. In some States,

the old, crude ways of sedition, driving away of voters, and stuffing

the poll are still followed; but in most of the States prevail arts and

methods so mysterious, so secret, that none but the expert politician

knows what they are.

A political party has other than financial resources. It owns

newspapers—manufacturers of public sentiment. It makes the men that make

it. It controls offices, and places of trust and profit. It has all the

powers of centralization. One man in a State is at the head of the

organism. He is an autocrat, a czar, a sultan. At the crack of his

finger the political head of his grand vizier falls under the headsman’s

ax. The party has in its service the most plausible writers, the most

eloquent orators, the most ingenious statisticians, and the most graphic

artists. In its service are all the brilliant and historic names and

reputations. Military glory, statesmanship, diplomacy, are alike

appropriated to itself. Wealth, genius, love, and beauty, alike lay

their treasures at its feet.

A party as well as the nation has its laws. Its delegates and

committeemen are as certain to be elected, and those elections are

required to occur at times and places as definitely settled by party

rule as those for Congressmen or President.

The thing which we have been describing did not begin with the Republic.

It is substantially a growth of the last fifty years. Its beginning was

marked by the rise of the _convention_, its most public and prominent

feature. Formerly, congressional and legislative caucuses nominated the

candidates for office. But about 1831 a change began to come about. When

the first severe cold of winter begins, every floating straw or particle

of dust on the surface of a pond becomes the center of a crystallization

around itself. The distances between the nearer and smaller, then the

more isolated and larger, centers, are gradually bridged until the icy

floor is built. So in the rise of party organism in the Republic. The

local organizations, the town clubs, the township conventions for the

nomination of trustee and road master, became the initial centers of a

process of crystallization which was to go on until the icy floor of

party organization and platforms covered the thousand little waves and

ripples of individual opinions from shore to shore.

The delegate and the convention, the permanent committee and the caucus,

became the methods by which the organization grew. Stronger and stronger

have they grown, twining themselves like monster vines around the

central trunk of the Republic. Every Presidential election has doubled

the power, unity, centralization and resources of the monsters. The

surplus genius and energy of the American people for organizing, being

unexhausted and unsatisfied by the simple forms of the Republic, has

spent itself in the political party.

With the rise of the party as an independent, self-sustaining organism,

which, like the government, derives its powers from the consent of the

people, two facts have become more and more prominent: first, the

struggle for the delegateships to the conventions; second, the struggle

to control delegates by instructions after they were elected. While

these are both called struggles, the word has a widely different meaning

in the two places. In the first it stands for the contest between

candidates. Not only did the party become a nationalized organism for a

campaign against the enemy, but the candidacies within the party for its

nomination for a national office also became nationalized. But, in the

second place, the word struggle stands for a contest, not between men,

but between principles. In every phase of this long conflict the

underlying struggle was between two opposite tendencies. The one was

toward stronger and stronger party organization, greater centralization,

increased powers of the caucus, the absolute tyranny of the majority, in

short, the subordination of the _individual_ to the _machine_, in the

name of party discipline. The other tendency was toward less

organization, less centralization, less binding powers for the caucus on

its members, the representation of minorities, the subordination of the

_machine_ to the _individual_.

The struggle between these tendencies, of which the unit rule or the

control of the vote of solid delegations, by instructions or by the

voice of the majority of the delegation, was but a single aspect,

reached its highest point so far, in the Republican National Convention

which assembled in Chicago, June 2d, 1880. As will be seen, the contests

of that convention must make it absolutely unique. The tremendous tide

toward organization received a strong check. The events of that

convention are far more significant of the political life-tendencies of

the American people than the election of the following November.

All other ages and countries have distrusted the people, have

concentrated power in the hands of the few, and perpetuated it by the

rigid forms of despotic government. In America that tendency was

defeated. But the same instincts are still present in the hearts of men.

It is not impossible that in the struggles toward organization,

discipline, party centralization and the machine aspect of politics, we

see the same devilish forces of the past at work in a new field. It is

not impossible that in party “bosses,” and the tyranny of the machine,

we are really looking in the face of the ancient foe of mankind, whose

sole aim was to concentrate and perpetuate power in the hands of the

few.

When, after General Grant returned from his trip around the world, he

consented to become a candidate for the Presidency, he had a perfect

right to do so. It was the privilege of his countrymen to bring forward

and support for that position the great Captain of the nineteenth

century. The three men who were instrumental in bringing about his

candidacy, and who managed the campaign for him, were Roscoe Conkling,

of New York; Don Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Republican

National Committee; and John A. Logan, of Illinois. The history of the

canvass for the nomination of General Grant shows an ability so

remarkable that his defeat must still be a matter of wonder. The New

York member of the triumvirate caused a resolution to be passed in his

State convention instructing the delegates to vote solidly for Grant.

Cameron achieved the same thing in Pennsylvania. In Illinois, Logan,

fearing or foreseeing that instructions were a feeble reliance,

attempted the more heroic method of electing a solid Grant delegation by

a majority of votes in the State convention. The minority, to protect

itself, held meetings by congressional districts and selected contesting

delegates. Over the right to instruct and the right to elect solid

delegations the battle was fought. It was unquestioned that with three

solid delegations from the three most populous States in the Union, and

his other strong support, Grant’s nomination was overwhelmingly assured.

The country, in the few days preceding the convention was wrought up to

a pitch of feverish excitement.

The three principal candidates for the Presidency, whose names were

openly before the convention, were: Ulysses S. Grant, of Illinois; James

G. Blaine, of Maine; and John Sherman, of Ohio.

General Grant is the best known living American. His wonderful career is

familiar throughout the civilized world. Rising from the trade of a

tanner in an Illinois village, he became the commander of the armies of

the Republic, the greatest soldier of the age, President of the United

States for two terms, and the most distinguished citizen of the Union.

The foundation of his fame is his military achievements. Taciturn,

self-poised, alike unmoved by victory or defeat, grim, immovable, bent

only on achieving the thing which lay before him, of deadly earnestness,

equal to every emergency, Grant must be admitted to be a man of solitary

and sublime genius. For practical resources, the age has not produced

his equal.

Grant’s candidacy at Chicago, which seemed so singular to many, was

really the result of underlying forces, greater than any of the men who

were borne onward by the tide. First, was the fact of his personal

candidacy.

On one side was the Republican party closing its quarter of a century—a

Long Parliament of counsels, deeds, and changes; and, on the other, the

tried Cromwell of the Commonwealth, backed by his victories, and asking

the party to recognize him again. The party seemed almost destined to

make the choice. In asking again for the Presidency, it was natural that

he should look toward organization, discipline, and studied strategy as

the instrumentalities of his canvass. His career as a soldier, his

mental constitution, and his political training and experience during

the arbitrary and tempestuous times of the civil war and the epoch of

reconstruction, his military habit of relying on his subordinate

generals, all were antecedents of the memorable struggle at Chicago, and

helped to give it its character.

But if Grant, in his personal canvass, naturally reached for the party

organization to make up his line of battle, the underlying tendency

toward organization in politics, of which we have spoken heretofore,

seeking for its strongest personal representative, inevitably selected

Grant. On the one side was his individual will turning toward the

Machine. On the other was the far more powerful but impersonal force, in

its struggle to grasp and subordinate American politics, embodying

itself in its chosen representative. It will be remembered that in

popular opinion Grant became a candidate as much at the request of his

friends as from any personal wish. The distinguished gentlemen who thus

urged him were animated not merely by personal affection and preference,

but by the invincible tendency toward organization, structure, and

machinery in politics. In the organism the man found his support; in the

man, the organic force found its strongest representative.

But what of the opposite tendency, the counter-current, which set

against organization, party discipline, unit rules, the tyranny of

majorities, and toward the freedom of individual action? Who was its

representative? Was it ready to do battle with its gigantic foe? The

Chicago Convention must be viewed not as a personal struggle between

rival candidates, but as the meeting of two mighty waves in the ocean of

American politics, the shock of whose collision was to be felt on the

farthest shores. Amid the foam which rose along the line of breaking

crests, mere men were for the moment almost lost from view.

In the nature of the case the counter tendency could not embody itself

beforehand in a representative. To be sure there was Blaine, the dashing

parliamentary leader, the magnetic politician, the brilliant debater.

Generous and brave of heart, superb in his attitude before the maligners

of his spotless fame, personally beloved by his supporters beyond any

man of his political generation, he was too independent to represent the

organism, and too much of a candidate, and had too much machinery, too

many of the politician’s arts, to fully meet the requirements of the

counter tendency in the great crisis. Although Blaine was beyond

question running on his personal merits, yet the fact that he was a

leading candidate, but without a majority, destined him to fall a prey

to his competitors. In the great political arena, when one gladiator is

about to triumph over his divided rivals, the latter unite against him,

that all may die together, and by giving to an unknown the palm of

victory save themselves from the humiliation of a rival’s triumph.

John Sherman, the very opposite of Blaine, cold, cautious, solid,

hostile to display, was also a candidate upon personal merits, and was

also to fail from the same cause.

It can not be said that there was any other candidate before the

convention. Windom, Edmunds, and Washburne, had each a small personal

following, but neither sought the nomination, and all were only possible

“dark horses.”

On the floor of the convention, Grant was to be represented by the

triumvirate of United States Senators, Conkling, Cameron, and Logan. Of

these, Cameron, though a superb manipulator, a splendid manager, and a

man full of adroitness and resources, was a silent man. His voice was

not lifted in debate. His work was in the secret room, planning, and not

amid the clash of arms in the open field. Logan, tall and powerful, of

coppery complexion, and long, straight, black hair, which told plainly

of the Indian blood, was a somewhat miscellaneous but rather powerful

debater. His tremendous voice was well fitted for large audiences. That

he was a man of great force is shown by his career. While his two

colleagues were descended from high-born ancestry,—Cameron’s father

having been the son’s predecessor in the United States Senate,—Logan

sprang from below.

The leader of the trio, and with one exception the most distinguished

person in the convention, was Roscoe Conkling. Tall, perfectly formed,

graceful in every movement, with the figure of an athlete, and the head

of a statesman, surmounted with a crown of snow-white hair, he was a

conspicuous figure in the most brilliant assemblage of the great which

could convene on any continent. In speaking, his flute-like tones,

modulated by the highest elocutionary art, his intensely dramatic

manner, his graceful but studied gesticulation, united to call attention

to the speaker as much as to the speech. He was dressed in faultless

style, from the tightly-buttoned blue frock coat—the very _ne plus

ultra_ of the tailor’s art,—to the exquisite fancy necktie. If it were

not for his intellect he would have been called a dandy. In his walk

there was a perceptible strut. But the matter of Conkling’s speeches is

the best revelation of his character. Every sentence was barbed with

irony; every expression touched with scorn. He was the very incarnation

of pride. Haughty, reserved, imperious in manner, at every thrust he cut

to the quick. His mastery of the subject in hand was always apparently

perfect, and not less perfectly apparent. He was called “Lord Roscoe,”

“The Superb,” “The Duke,” and other names indicative of his aristocratic

bearing. Never for a moment did he cease to carry himself as if he were

on the stage. It is said that great actors become so identified with the

characters they impersonate, that even in private life they retain the

character which they have assumed on the stage. Thus Booth is said to

order his fried eggs with the air of a Hamlet. So Conkling never for a

moment laid aside the air of high tragedy.

Nevertheless the commanding genius of the man was unquestioned. He was

the chief representative in the Chicago Convention of the tendency to

more organism, stronger party discipline, a more perfect machine. The

problem to which he applied all his abilities, was to strengthen the

party structure; and to that end, practically place the power of both

his party and his country in the hands of a few. A national party, with

the consciences of its individual members in the hands of a few astute

politicians, could control the Government forever. But the end is

vicious, and the means an abomination to governments of the people, for

the people, and by the people.

The companion figure to that of Roscoe Conkling, of New York, was James

A. Garfield, of Ohio. He was there as the chief supporter of John

Sherman. The contrast between Conkling and Garfield was of the strongest

possible kind. In person, Garfield was a taller man than Conkling, but

his size and solidity of build made him look shorter. His figure, though

less trim, had an air of comfortable friendliness and cheer about it.

He, too, had a massive head, but it rested more easily above the broad

shoulders. His face lacked the lines of scorn traced on the other, and

made a true picture of a benevolent good nature, a generous, kindly

heart, and a great and wise intellect. He wore a plain sack coat, and

his attire generally though neat, was of an unstudied sort. He had a

habit of sitting with his leg swinging over the arm of the chair, and

his manners were those of a big, jolly, overgrown boy. In speaking he

had a deep, rich voice, with a kindly accent, in marked contrast with

the biting tones of the great New York Senator. He was never sarcastic,

though often grave. His speeches were conservative but earnest.

Socially, his manners were utterly devoid of restraint; he was

accessible to every body, and appeared to be on good terms with himself.

The dramatic element was completely absent. He believed in Sherman

heartily, though he was evidently a stranger to the mysterious arts of

the wire-puller and politician. For himself, he was well satisfied

looking forward to the seat in the United States Senate, which he was to

enter the next December, with joy and gratification.

These were the two chief figures of the Chicago Convention. Each was

there as the chief supporter of another. The one was the conscious

personification and representative of a tendency which, for fifty years,

had been setting more and more strongly toward party organism and

permanent structure, having for its aim a perfect power-getting and

power-keeping machine. The other was the unconscious personification and

representative of the opposite tendency, the current which set toward a

flexible rather than rigid party organization, toward new political

ideas, and the independence of individual thought. The one was a

patrician, the other the child of the people.

When the Chicago Convention met, it was the nature of the organic

tendency to have its candidate selected. On the other hand, it was

equally the nature of the opposite tendency to have no candidate. But

each force was present in the convention working in the hearts and minds

of its members. Day after day, the angry white caps rose along the line

where the two waves met. As the crisis approached the movement of

resistance to the strengthening and increase of party organism, with

that instinct which belongs to every subtle underlying tendency in human

society, began to look and to feel its way toward a personal

representative. Having found the man, the spirit would enter into him

and possess him.

Thus it was that when the supreme moment came, personal candidates and

preferences, pledges and plans, leaders and followers were suddenly lost

from view. The force, which was greater than individuals, rose up,

embodied itself in the person of a protesting and awe-stricken man

within whose heart may have been some presentiment of the tragic future,

and, subordinating all to itself, relentlessly demanding and receiving

the sacrifice alike of candidates and of the supporter, defeating for

the time being, not so much the silent soldier from Galena, as the

political tendency which made him its representative.

Notwithstanding the nomination of Garfield, as the remaining chapters of

this story will show, the spirit of party organism was not killed but

stunned. Cast out from the most famous citizen of the Republic, it was

to enter into a swine. History will say of Guiteau, that he embodied and

represented a force stronger than himself.

Let us turn now from the internal philosophy to the external facts of

the Chicago Convention.

Chicago is a roomy place and well-suited for the meeting of a large

assembly, but its resources were taxed by the Convention of 1880. By

Monday preceding the Convention, its hotels were crowded, and thousands

upon thousands were pouring in every hour. It was a great gathering of

rival clans, which did not wait the order of their generals to advance,

but charged upon each other the moment they came upon the field.

There were two battles in progress—the one of the masses, the other of

the leaders.

On Monday evening two public meetings of the “Grant” and “anti-Grant”

elements, respectively, were held in Dearborn Park and in the Base Ball

Park.

The speakers announced for the Grant meeting were Senators Conkling,

Logan, Carpenter, Stewart L. Woodford of New York, Leonard Swett, Emory

Storrs, Robert T. Lincoln, and Stephen A. Douglas. But the advertised

speakers did not all appear; neither Conkling nor Carpenter spoke. They

were too busy plotting elsewhere. In fact, this Grant meeting was, so

far as any demonstration in favor of the third term was concerned, an

acknowledged failure. The speakers, however, managed to throw some

spirit into the affair, and aroused some enthusiasm.

But the anti-Grant meeting, as was quite evident, felt and fared better.

Though it had been but meagerly advertised, and but few speakers of

prominence had been announced, the grounds were densely crowded. At

least ten thousand persons were in attendance.

The tone of the meeting was unmistakable. The most radical utterances

were the most loudly cheered. The people declared that “they would not

submit to boss rule; that they would not have a third term; that they

would defeat the villainous attempt to deprive them of their liberties.”

People came there determined to be pleased—with every thing or any thing

but Grant. But they hissed the third term. They shouted themselves

hoarse for Blaine, Washburne, and Edmunds.

Speakers from New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New Hampshire,

declared that those States would be lost to the Republican party by a

third-term campaign. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the vast crowds

attending the two meetings, the corridors of the hotels and streets were

thronged. The utmost interest was manifested, and every report of the

work of the managers of the candidates, whether reasonable or

unreasonable, was seized and discussed in its bearing upon the

candidates. The greatest interest centered about the Palmer House, where

a secret meeting of the National Committee was being held.

And what of this secret meeting? The National Committee contained a

majority of anti-Grant men. At its very beginning, William E. Chandler,

of New Hampshire, took the floor and offered the following resolutions:

“_Resolved_, That the committee approves and ratifies the call for

the approaching Republican National Convention, which was issued by

its chairman and secretary, and which invites ‘two delegates from

each Congressional district, four delegates at large from each

State, two from each Territory, and two from the District of

Columbia,’ to compose the convention.

“_Resolved_, That this committee recognizes the right of each

delegate in a Republican National Convention freely to cast and have

counted his individual vote therein, according to his own

sentiments, if he so decides, against any ‘unit rule’ or other

instructions passed by a State convention, which right was conceded

without dissent, and was exercised in the conventions of 1860 and

1868, and was, after a full debate, affirmed by the convention of

1876, and has thus become a part of the law of Republican

conventions; and until reversed by a convention itself must remain a

governing principle.”

The first of these passed unanimously. But not so the second. The “unit

rule” was not to die without a struggle. Chairman Cameron promptly

declared this resolution out of order.

Then Mr. Chaffee, of Colorado, offered a resolution approving of the

decision of the Cincinnati Convention, declaring that each delegate

should be allowed to vote on all subjects before the convention. Mr.

Gorham, of California, inquired of Mr. Cameron if he intended to

entertain these resolutions. Mr. Cameron announced that he would not.

This caused great excitement, and Mr. Chaffee appealed from this

decision. The next decision of Mr. Cameron caused still greater

commotion, this being to the effect that there could be no appeal, as

there was no question before the committee. At this Mr. Chaffee renewed

his appeal, saying that if the committee submitted to such tyranny it

might as well have a king. This was roundly applauded. Mr. Cameron again

repeated that there could be no appeal, and he would put none.

Mr. Chandler thereupon, in a vigorous speech, demurred to such ruling,

and wound up by also appealing from the decision of the chair. To

further aggravate matters, Cameron again refused to entertain the

appeal. This brought Frye, of Maine, to his feet, and in a caustic

speech he told the chairman that the committee had rights which he (the

chairman) was bound to respect.

Mr. Chandler significantly remarked that if the chairman would not pay

any respect to the committee, the same power that made him chairman

would remove him.

Mr. Forbes, of Massachusetts, then offered a resolution appointing a

committee of six to select and present to the committee a candidate to

preside at the temporary organization. This was adopted. A recess was

then taken till half-past ten o’clock.

It now became certain that the anti-Grant men were ready to depose

Cameron at once if they could not control him in any other way.

The committee to select the name of a temporary chairman returned after

a recess of fifteen minutes, and reported in favor of Senator George F.

Hoar, of Massachusetts. Senator Jones announced that the minority

reserved the right to name a candidate in the convention. After some

minor matters, Mr. Frye offered one of the resolutions of the caucus,

providing, in the case of the absence of the chairman of the committee

from sickness or from any cause, that the chairman of the committee of

six (Mr. Chandler) should be authorized to call the convention to order,

and perform all the duties pertaining to the temporary organization.

Mr. McCormick followed with a second resolution of the caucus, directing

that in all questions pertaining to the temporary organization the

chairman shall rule that every delegate was at liberty to vote as he

chooses, regardless of instructions. Messrs. Gorham, Filley, and others,

made great opposition, and Mr. Cameron ruled that this resolution would

not be entertained, since it was not in the power of the committee to

instruct the chairman as to his rulings.

A warm debate followed as to the rights and powers of the committee.

Finally, the meeting attended to some routine business, and adjourned

till next day noon.

The battle now grew hotter every hour. Mr. Conkling’s delegation broke

in two, and issued the following protest:

“CHICAGO, May 31, 1880.

“The undersigned, delegates to the Republican National Convention,

representing our several Congressional districts in the State of New

York, desiring _above all_ the success of the Republican party at

the approaching election, and realizing the hazard attending an

injudicious nomination, _declare our purpose to resist the

nomination of General U. S. Grant by all honorable means_. We are

sincere in the conviction that in New York, at least, his nomination

would _insure defeat_. We have a great battle to fight, and victory

is within our reach, but we earnestly protest against entering the

contest with a nomination which we regard as unwise and perilous.

“William H. Robertson, 12th Dist.; William B. Woodin, 26th Dist.;

Norman M. Allen and Loren B. Sessions, 33d Dist.; Moses D. Stivers

and Blake G. Wales, 14th Dist.; Webster Wagner and George West, 20th

Dist.; Albert Daggett, 3d Dist.; Simeon S. Hawkins and John

Birdsall, 1st Dist.; John P. Douglass and Sidney Sylvester, 22d

Dist.; John B. Dutcher, 13th Dist.; Henry R. James and Wells S.

Dickinson, 19th Dist.; James W. Husted, 12th Dist.; Ferris Jacobs,

Jr., 21st Dist.; Oliver Abell, Jr., 18th Dist.”

A similar protest was published by twenty-two Pennsylvania delegates,

headed by Mr. James McManes.

At nine o’clock on the morning of June 1st, an anti-Grant caucus was

held, which determined to defeat the “unit rule” at all hazards, even if

Mr. Cameron must first be deposed from the chairmanship.

The news of the firm attitude of the caucus had reached Cameron, Gorham,

Filley, Arthur, and their associates, and before any movement could be

made, the Grant men announced that they had a proposition to make,

looking to harmonizing all differences. A recess was taken to allow a

committee on the part of Cameron, Conkling, Arthur, and Logan, to state

the agreement which they were willing to make. It proved to be as

follows:

“That Senator Hoar should be accepted as temporary chairman of the

convention, and that no attempt should be made to enforce the unit

rule, or have a test vote in the convention, until the committee on

credentials had reported, when the unit-rule question should be

decided by the convention in its own way.”

This proposition was finally, in the interest of harmony, agreed to by

all parties.

On Wednesday, June 2d, after days and nights of caucusing, serenading,

speech-making, and cheering by every body, and for nearly every body,

the great convention held its first session. As a clever correspondent

wrote at the time:

“A more beautiful day in June probably never rose upon a

Presidential Convention. The sun, the shade, the trees, the lake,

the high façades of business buildings and palace hotels; the air

cool, yet temperate; the well-dressed, energetic people, and the

signs of prosperous business, uninfluenced even by such a

convention, sent a hopeful, cheery feeling to the heart. The rageful

features of the past day or two went into their tents at such

sunshine and calm godliness of sky.”

The place of meeting was in the Exposition Building, in the south half

of which vast structure there is a hall 400 feet long by 150 feet wide,

with galleries all round, and so arranged that room for about ten

thousand people could be provided.

[Illustration: THE EXPOSITION BUILDING, WHERE GARFIELD WAS NOMINATED.]

At eleven o’clock the band stationed on the north gallery began playing

national airs, but nearly an hour passed before the delegates took their

seats. The Chairman called on the Secretary to read the call, and

Secretary Keogh proceeded, in a clear voice, to read the document.

Mr. Cameron then arose, and, in a short address, nominated, as temporary

chairman, the Hon. George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, who was elected by

a unanimous vote. Mr. Hoar was then conducted to the chair; and the

preliminary organization was thus peacefully resigned by the

disappointed Grant faction, which had expected to control all.

On motion of Eugene Hale, of Maine, the roll of States and Territories

was called, and the committees made up. There were four: (1) Permanent

Organization; (2) Rules; (3) Credentials; and (4) Resolutions.

After a slight stir over Utah, and a sharp encounter between Conkling

and Frye, the opening business was completed, and the convention

adjourned for that day.

A newspaper dispatch sent out of the room during this session said:

“There is a good deal of talk about Garfield. Some significance is

attached to the fact that when the name was mentioned in the

convention to-day as a member of the Committee on Rules it was

loudly applauded.”

And another added:

“A prolonged contest is now certain on the floor of the convention

to-day over the reports from the committees on Credentials, Rules,

and Resolutions. Senator Conkling is recognized as the leader of

debate on the Grant side. Frye and Hale will be the principal

speakers, with Garfield and Conger on the part of the majority. The

debates preceding the balloting promise to be the most heated and

the ablest ever heard in a Republican Convention.”

That night the popular battle in the streets and lobbies continued,

attended with ever-growing excitement. Grant men and Blaine men loudly

proclaimed their confidence in a victory for their respective favorites,

on the first or second ballot. Each of these two leaders claimed about

three hundred reliable votes; but, in fact, they had not six hundred

between them.

Sherman, Edmunds, Washburne, and Windom men felt sure that neither

Blaine nor Grant could be nominated on account of the violent opposition

of their factions. This gave hope to each of these smaller sections, and

made “dark-horse” talk plausible.

At eleven o’clock of June 3d, the second day’s fight of the convention

began. As the delegations took their places, the great crowd of

spectators occupied themselves in getting acquainted with the men who

were to give and receive the hard blows to be dealt by both sides when

the contest opened. All these men—Conkling, Garfield, Frye, Hale, and

Logan—were cordially received, though there were degrees in the favor.

The most spontaneous of the greetings given any one of the leaders was

to Garfield. One of the ovations to him gave rise to a ludicrous affair

for Conkling. The latter had made his usual late and pompous entrance,

had been received with much noise, and walked slowly up to his seat near

the front. Just as he rose to show himself further and address the

chair, General Garfield came in at the rear. A tremendous and rapidly

spreading cheer broke out, which the New York “Duke” mistook for his own

property.

The second day was now passing, and the preliminaries were not yet

complete. It was the policy of the Grant men to make delay, and wear out

the strength of all opponents. They had come, as Cameron said, “to stick

until we win.” The Blaine leaders, on the other hand, had no such

reliable, lasting force. They must dash in boldly and carry off their

prize at once, or be forever defeated.

To-day the Blaine men came in jubilant, for they had beaten the Grant

faction in the committees. Conkling opened the proceedings from the

floor at the earliest moment. He moved to adjourn until evening to await

the report of the Committee on Credentials. Hale opposed this. Conkling,

in his haste, forgetting his parliamentary knowledge, claimed that his

motion to take a recess was not debatable. The Chairman overruled this,

much to the annoyance of Conkling. He soon poured out a little vial of

wrath on Hale, and sneered at him as his “amiable friend.” To this Hale

retorted that he had not spent his time in cultivating sarcastic and

sneering methods in argument; and if the Senator from New York was less

amiable than others this morning the convention understood the reason

well. At this reference to the general defeat of the Grant forces in the

committees during the last evening the people laughed loudly at

Conkling, and that august gentleman himself deigned to smile.

Soon the Committee on Permanent Organization reported, the temporary

chairman and other officers were continued, and Mr. Hoar took permanent

possession of his Chairmanship. Thereupon Mr. Frye moved that the

Committee on Rules and Order of Business report at once. Mr. Sharpe, of

New York, now arose and said that he had been instructed by the

delegates of nine States to prepare a minority report of the Committee

on Rules; that he had not had time to do so, and this ought not to be

taken advantage of, because, by agreement in the committee, he should

have had a longer time to prepare.

Mr. Frye then said that if the chairman of that committee—Mr.

Garfield—was present, he would request that gentleman to state what

agreement had been made.

As General Garfield arose in his seat he was greeted with loud and

prolonged cheers and applause, and cries of “Platform,” “Step up on the

seat.” He said:

“Mr. President, the Committee on Rules finished its business at

about eleven o’clock by adopting a body of rules and an order of

business. A resolution was then offered by one member of the

committee that it was the judgment of the committee that the report

ought to be made after the report of the Committee on Credentials,

and that was adopted, whether unanimously or not I am unable to say,

for the committee was about breaking up. General Sharpe requested

that a minority of that committee might have leave to offer their

views as a minority, and no objection was made. No vote was taken on

that latter topic. I did not, therefore, and shall not tender a

report of the Committee on Rules. I am, however, like every other

delegate, subject to the orders of this convention, and when they

desire the report and order it, I suppose the committee are ready to

make it, but good faith requires this certainly, that if the

minority is not ready with its report it ought to have the time.”

Mr. Frye then withdrew his motion, and the convention adjourned until

evening.

At half-past five they had reassembled and the battle proceeded at the

point where it had been dropped before adjournment.

The Committee on Credentials were not ready to report, and it was so

announced. The Blaine men forced the fighting, entering a motion by Mr.

Henderson, of Iowa, that the convention proceed to consider the report

of the Committee on Rules and Organization. This the Grant men resisted,

and for this reason: The rules which had been agreed to by the committee

only allowed five minutes debate on the matter of each individual

contested seat. The Grant men did not want the report adopted before the

Committee on Credentials reported, because they wanted to ascertain just

what the latter report would be. Logan led the fight for Grant,

supported by Boutwell and others. Henderson held his own very well.

Finally, after an hour of this running fire of debate, Mr. Sharpe moved

to amend the pending motion by substituting an order that the Committee

on Credentials report at once.

On this amendment a vote was soon reached which proved to be the most

significant event of the day; for it was the first vote taken by States;

it was a test vote between the Grant men on the one side and the allied

anti-Grant factions on the other, and it settled the fate of the “unit

rule.”

Upon Alabama being called, the Chairman of the delegation, Mr. Dunn,

announced 20 ayes.

Mr. Allen Alexander, of Alabama, a colored delegate—I desire to vote

“No.”

The Chairman—Does the gentleman from Alabama desire that his vote should

be received in the negative?

Mr. Alexander—Yes, sir.

The Chairman—It will be so recorded.

Several other States offered divided votes.

The result was against Sharpe’s substitute, by a vote of 318 to 406.

About forty delegates were absent or did not vote. There was great

rejoicing among the anti-Grant factions when it became certain that Hoar

would allow no “unit rule” until forced to do so by an order of the

convention.

On motion of Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut, Henderson’s motion was laid

on the table, and adjournment till the next day followed immediately.

Friday of convention week dawned less delightfully than did the first

two days. There was a cloudy sky, an east wind, a rheumatic, chilly

atmosphere penetrating every nook and corner of the great Convention

Hall, and a crowd of shivering mortals pushed and elbowed each other up

and down the passages, delegates looking angular, stiff, and cold, and

angry,—every body denouncing the weather. The dull light made the

pictures on the walls look sour and stern and cross. The frown on the

wretched oil-painted face of old Ben Wade was deepened; Zach Chandler’s

hard mouth appeared more firmly set, and Sumner’s jaw was more rigid and

uncompromising than ever in life. The flags drooped under the depressing

atmospheric influences, blue turned black, the red was dull, and the

white looked dirty, and the stars were dim. The opening scenes of each

day had now assumed a stereotyped form. Conkling made his arrival in

state as usual, and the usual cheer went up. General Phil Sheridan was

greeted with hearty applause, and Garfield’s entrance was the signal for

a great ovation.

Hardly had the opening prayer of the good man of God come to its amen

when Mr. Conkling offered the following:

_Resolved_, As the sense of this Convention, that every member of it

is bound in honor to support its nominee, whoever that nominee may

be; and that no man should hold a seat here who is not ready to so

agree.

Mr. Hale said he thought that a Republican Convention did not need to be

instructed, that its first and underlying duty, after nominating its

candidate, was to elect him over the Democratic candidate.

A call of the States being requested, the convention voted unanimously

in favor of Mr. Conkling’s resolution, with the exception of three

hostile votes from West Virginia.

Mr. Conkling then offered the following:

“_Resolved_, That the delegates who have voted that they will not

abide the action of the convention do not deserve and have forfeited

their vote in this convention.”

Mr. Campbell, of West Virginia—“Mr. Chairman: There are three

gentlemen from West Virginia, good and true Republicans, who have

voted in the negative in the last vote. Gentlemen, as a delegate in

a Republican Convention, I am willing to withdraw. If it has come to

this that in the city of Chicago, where I came as a young man from

the State of Virginia, after having submitted twenty years to

contumely and to violence in the State of Virginia for my Republican

principles—if it has come to this, that in the city of Chicago a

delegate from that State can not have a free expression of opinion,

I for one am willing to withdraw from this convention. Mr. Chairman,

I have been a Republican in the State of Virginia from my youth. For

twenty-five years I have published a Republican newspaper in that

State. I have supported every Republican Presidential nominee in

that time. I expect to support the nominee of this convention. But,

sir, I shall do so as a Republican, having imbibed my principles

from the great statesman from New York, William H. Seward, with whom

I had an early acquaintance by virtue of my having gone to school

with him nine years from the city of Utica, from which the Senator

from New York now hails. I was a Republican then, and I made the

acquaintance of that distinguished gentleman. I came home, and in my

youth I became a newspaper editor. From that day to this—from the

John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry all through the troubles of the

last twenty-five years—I have consistently and always supported our

State and National Republican nominee. But, Mr. Chairman, I feel as

a Republican that there is a principle in this question, and I will

never go into any convention and agree beforehand that whatever may

be done by that convention shall have my indorsement. Sir, as a free

man, whom God made free, I always intend to carry my sovereignty

under my own hat. I never intend that any body of men shall take it

from me. I do not, Mr. Chairman, make my living by politics; I make

it by my labor as a newspaper editor; and I am not afraid to go home

and say that I stood up here in this convention, as I was not afraid

to stand up in the State of West Virginia, when but 2,900 men were

found to vote for Abraham Lincoln, and where that party has risen

to-day to 45,000 votes under the training that we received from our

early inspiration of principle. I am not afraid to go home and face

these men as I have faced them always.”

The two other dissenters also stated their position as defiantly if not

as ably. After some further debate, Mr. Garfield spoke, taking ground

against Conkling’s pending resolution. While speaking to this, he said:

“There never can be a convention, of which I am one delegate, equal

in rights to every other delegate, that shall bind my vote against

my will on any question whatever on which my vote is to be given.

“I regret that these gentlemen thought it best to break the harmony

of this convention by their dissent; but, when they tell the

convention that their dissent was not, and did not mean, that they

would not vote for the nominee of this convention, but only that

they did not think the resolution at this time wise, they acted in

their right, and not by my vote. I do not know the gentlemen, nor

their affiliations, nor their relations to candidates, except one of

them. One of them I knew in the dark days of slavery, and for twenty

long years, in the midst of slave-pens and slave-drivers, has stood

up for liberty with a clear-sighted courage and a brave heart equal

to the best Republicans that live on this globe. And if this

convention expel him, then we must purge ourselves at the end of

every vote by requiring that so many as shall vote against us shall

go out.”

A few minutes later Mr. Conkling withdrew the obnoxious resolution.

The first important business of the day was now transacted. Mr.

Garfield, as Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business,

read the report of that committee. Its most important provision was:

“Rule VIII. In the record of the votes by States, the vote of each

State, Territory, and the District of Columbia, shall be announced

by the chairman; and in case the votes of any State, Territory, or

the District of Columbia shall be divided, the chairman shall

announce the number of votes cast for any candidate or for or

against any proposition; but, if exception is taken by any delegate

to the correctness of such announcement by the chairman of his

delegation, the president of the convention shall direct the roll of

members of such delegation to be called and the result recorded in

accordance with the votes individually given.”

From this resolution a minority of the committee dissented, and, through

General Sharpe, presented, as Rule VIII, the following:

“In the record of the votes by States, the vote of each State,

Territory, and the District of Columbia shall be announced by the

chairman; and in case the votes of any State, Territory, or the

District of Columbia shall be divided, the chairman shall announce

the number of votes cast for any candidate or for or against any

proposition.”

When the final action was taken, the majority report prevailed.

At last there came the long-delayed report of the Committee on

Credentials, the one great matter preliminary to the real work of this

great gathering of the people’s representatives. This committee’s

principal duty was to decide upon the conflicting claims of “regular”

and “bolting” delegations from several States.

The reading of this report was painfully tedious, taking over three

hours; and the debates which followed as the separate State contests

were being settled, kept any other business from being done that day.

From the State of Louisiana, the committee recommended the admission of

the delegation with their alternates headed by Henry C. Warmouth, and

the exclusion of the delegation with their alternates headed by Taylor

Beattie. This contest arose out of two rival conventions.

The committee recommended James T. Rapier for admission as a delegate

from the Fourth Congressional District of Alabama. The facts found were

that Rapier had been requested to pledge support for Grant, and upon his

refusal to do so the president of the convention had been requested to

withhold the credentials unless he would, within twenty-four hours, give

such pledge. This, Rapier had refused to do.

The committee recommended that William H. Smith and Willett Warner be

admitted in the place of Arthur Bingham and R. A. Mosely from the

Seventh Congressional District of Alabama. The facts in the case of

Messrs. Smith and Warner were substantially the same as those in the

case of James T. Rapier.

The committee recommended the admission of eight delegations from the

State of Illinois, in the place of sitting members. The Committee found

that a State Convention had been held at Springfield, on the 19th day of

May, to elect delegates to the National Convention. During the

convention, the delegates from eight Congressional Districts had

assembled and organized District Conventions, each of which had elected

two delegates and two alternates to the Chicago Convention by clear

majorities of all the delegates elected to the State Convention in each

of said districts, as was shown by the credentials accompanying the

report. The State Convention, by means of a committee of one from each

Congressional District, selected, and afterward assumed to elect, two

delegates to the National Convention, including the sitting members from

the foregoing districts, the delegates from each of which filed in the

State Convention protests against said election by the State Convention.

The committee reported against the validity of the contests in the

Second District of Illinois of the seats of sitting members, A. M.

Wright and R. S. Tuthill.

Contests were also settled by this report in cases coming from several

other States.

In each case of favorable consideration, the committee ascertained that

those delegates who were recommended were actually chosen by a proper

convention, representing the Congressional District from which they were

accredited.

The committee then proceeded to the justice and equity of recognizing,

securing, and protecting Congressional District representation, as is

also demonstrated by the actual precedents of the Republican party since

its organization.

With the exception of a couple of hours for supper, this extraordinary

session kept to the subjects of this report steadily from one o’clock in

the afternoon till after two in the morning. This chapter can not find

room for these debates, though surpassing in interest, as they do, many

a volume of the _Congressional Record_. The Illinois questions caused

the most intense feeling of all. At ten o’clock they were taken up;

after a short time, on motion, the further debate was limited to one

hour on each side.

The whole subject of this report was not fully disposed of until early

in the Saturday session. The result was that the majority report was

adopted, and the “machine” thus received another solid shot, which

penetrated its iron sides below waterline; but the leaders fired no guns

to signal their distress.

Saturday, June 5th, was, like Friday, dark and gloomy. The vast crowd,

after the preceding night of excitement, was, of course, dull and

sleepy. It was noted, however, that when Garfield came into the hall the

audience waked up and gave a hearty cheer.

The roll was called at about twelve o’clock. After finishing the matters

connected with the credentials, the Convention, on motion of General

Garfield, adopted the report of the Committee on Rules. The Committee on

Resolutions next reported, and the Platform was adopted; after which the

Convention adjourned till evening.

Skirmishing ended, now would come serious work. The triumvirate and its

legions had exhausted every parliamentary resource for delay, and at

last had to face “the inevitable hour” which must lead, for them, to

glory, or the common grave of all their plans.

It was a magnificent audience which poured into the great hall that

evening to witness the beginning of the end of this tremendous political

conflict.

After some preliminaries, Mr. Hale, of Maine, moved that the roll of

States be called alphabetically and that nominations for candidates for

President be made.

General Logan inquired whether the rules permitted the seconding of

nominations for candidates for President. The Chairman said no, that the

rules did not provide for it. Garfield thought there would be no

objection to the seconding of nominations. Unanimous consent was

accorded for five-minute speeches in seconding nominations. Hale’s

motion was then adopted without opposition.

The roll was then called down to Michigan, with no responses. When that

State was named, James F. Joy arose and nominated, for President of the

United States, James G. Blaine. Mr. Joy was not the kind of a man to

arouse the enthusiasm of an audience, and when he had closed, Mr.

Pixley, of California, seconded the nomination. These speeches were a

great disappointment to the Blaine men. They still remembered

Ingersoll’s famous “plumed knight” speech for Blaine at Cincinnati, in

1876. To remedy matters, Mr. William P. Frye, of Maine, obtained the

floor by consent, and delivered the following brief, but brilliant

little speech, which, in a measure, retrieved the mistake already made.

He said:

“I saw once a storm at sea in the night-time, and our staunch old

ship battling for its life with the fury of the tempest; darkness

every-where; the wind shrieking and howling through the rigging; the

huge waves beating upon the sides of that ship and making her shiver

from stem to stern. The lightnings were flashing, the thunders were

rolling. There was danger every-where. I saw at the helm a calm,

bold, courageous, immovable, commanding man. In the tempest, calm;

in the commotion, quiet; in the dismay, hopeful. I saw him take that

old ship and bring her into the harbor, into still waters, into

safety. That man was a hero. I saw the good old ship, the State of

Maine, within the last year, fighting her way through the same

darkness, through the same perils, against the same waves, against

the same dangers. She was freighted with all that is precious in the

principles of our Republic—with the rights of American citizenship,

with all that is guaranteed to the American citizen by our

Constitution. The eyes of the whole Nation were upon her; an intense

anxiety filled every American heart, lest the grand old ship, the

State of Maine, might go down beneath the waves forever, carrying

her precious freight with her. But, sir, there was a man at the

helm. Calm, deliberate, commanding, sagacious, he made even the

foolish men wise. Courageous, he inspired the timid with courage;

hopeful, he gave heart to the dismayed, and he brought that good old

ship proudly into the harbor, into safety, and there she floats

to-day, brighter, purer, stronger from her baptism of danger. That

man, too, was a hero, and his name was James G. Blaine. Maine sends

greetings to this magnificent Convention. With the memory of her own

salvation from impending peril fresh upon her, she says to you,

representatives of 50,000,000 of American people, who have met here

to counsel how the Republic shall be saved, she says to you,

representatives of the people, take a man, a true man, a staunch man

for your leader, who has just saved her, and who will bear you to

safety and certain victory.”

Minnesota was next called; whereupon E. F. Drake placed in nomination

William Windom, of Winona, a very able and distinguished Senator from

that State.

Now was heard the call for New York; a call which meant Roscoe Conkling

and the nomination of the great General and ex-President, Ulysses S.

Grant.

As Mr. Conkling advanced to the front, he was greeted with tremendous

cheers. Taking a commanding position on one of the reporter’s tables, he

stood a few moments and regarded the audience while they grew silent at

an imperious wave of his hand. Then he said:

“When asked whence comes our candidate, our sole reply shall be, he

hails from Appomattox with its famous apple-tree. In obedience to

instructions I should never dare to disregard, expressing also my

own firm conviction, I rise to propose a nomination with which the

country and the Republican party can grandly win. The election

before us is to be the Austerlitz of American politics. It will

decide for many years whether the country shall be Republican or

Cossack. The supreme need of the hour is not a candidate who can

carry Michigan. All Republican candidates can do that. The need is

not of a candidate popular in the territories, because they have no

vote. The need is of a candidate who can carry doubtful States. Not

the doubtful States of the North, but doubtful States of the South,

which we have heard, if I understand it aright, ought to take little

or no part here, because the South has nothing to give, but every

thing to receive. No, gentlemen, the need that presses upon the

conscience of this convention is of a candidate who can carry

doubtful States both North and South. And believing that he, more

surely than any other man, can carry New York against any opponent,

and can carry not only the North but several States of the South,

New York is for Ulysses S. Grant. Never defeated in peace or in war,

his name is the most illustrious borne by living man.

“His services attest his greatness, and the country—nay, the

world—knows them by heart. His fame was earned not alone in things

written and said, but by the arduous greatness of things done. And

perils and emergencies will search in vain in the future, as they

have searched in vain in the past, for any other on whom the nation

leans with such confidence and trust. Never having had a policy to

enforce against the will of the people, he never betrayed a cause or

a friend, and the people will never desert nor betray him. Standing

on the highest eminence of human distinction, modest, firm, simple,

and self-poised, having filled all lands with his renown, he has

seen not only the high-born and the titled, but the poor and the

lowly in the uttermost ends of the earth, rise and uncover before

him. He has studied the needs and the defects of many systems of

government; and he has returned a better American than ever, with a

wealth of knowledge and experience added to the hard common sense

which shone so conspicuously in all the fierce light that beat upon

him during sixteen years, the most trying, the most portentous, the

most perilous.

“Vilified and reviled, truthlessly aspersed by unnumbered presses,

not in other lands, but in his own, assaults upon him have seasoned

and strengthened his hold on the public heart. Calumny’s ammunition

has all been exploded; the powder has all been burned once; its

force is spent: and the name of Grant will glitter a bright and

imperishable star in the diadem of the Republic when those who have

tried to tarnish that name have moldered in forgotten graves, and

when their memories and their epitaphs have vanished utterly.

“Never elated by success, never depressed by adversity, he has ever,

in peace as in war, shown the very genius of common sense. The terms

he prescribed for Lee’s surrender foreshadowed the wisest prophecies

and principles of true reconstruction. Victor in the greatest war of

modern times, he quickly signalized his aversion to war, and his

love of peace by an arbitration of international disputes, which

stands the wisest, the most majestic example of its kind in the

world’s diplomacy. When inflation, at the height of its popularity

and frenzy, had swept both Houses of Congress, it was the veto of

Grant which, single and alone, overthrew expansion, and cleared the

way for specie resumption. To him, _to him_ immeasurably more than

to any other man, is due the fact that every paper dollar is as good

as gold.

“With him as our leader we shall have no defensive campaign. No! We

shall have nothing to explain away. We shall have no apologies to

make. The shafts and the arrows have all been aimed at him, and they

lie broken and harmless at his feet.

“Life, liberty, and property will find a safeguard in him. When he

said of the colored men in Florida, ‘Wherever I am they may come

also;’ when he so said, he meant that had he the power, the poor

dwellers in the cabins of the South should no longer be driven in

terror from the homes of their childhood and the graves of their

murdered dead. When he refused to receive Denis Kearney in

California, he meant that Communism, lawlessness, and disorder,

although it might stalk high-headed and dictate law to a whole city,

would find a foe in him. He meant that popular or unpopular, he

would hew to the line of right, let the chips fly where they may.

“His integrity, his common sense, his courage, his unequaled

experience, are the qualities offered to his country. The only

argument, the only one that the wit of man or the stress of politics

has devised is one which would dumbfounder Solomon, because he

thought there was nothing new under the sun. Having tried Grant

twice and found him faithful, we are told that we must not, even

after an interval of years, trust him again. My countrymen! my

countrymen what stultification does not such a fallacy involve. The

American people exclude Jefferson Davis from public trust. Why? Why?

Because he was the arch-traitor and would-be destroyer; and now the

same people is asked to ostracise Grant, and not to trust him. Why?

Why, I repeat? Because he was the arch-preserver of his country, and

because not only in war, but twice as Civil Magistrate, he gave his

highest, noblest efforts to the Republic. Is this an electioneering

juggle, or is it hypocrisy’s masquerade? There is no field of human

activity, responsibility, or reason, in which rational beings object

to an agent because he has been weighed in the balance and not found

wanting; no department of human reason in which sane men reject an

agent because he has had experience, making him exceptionally

competent and fit. From the man who shoes your horse to the lawyer

who tries your cause, the officer who manages your railway or your

mill, the doctor into whose hands you give your life, or the

minister who seeks to save your soul, what man do you reject

because, by his works, you have known him, and found him faithful

and fit? What makes the Presidential office an exception to all

things else in the common sense to be applied to selecting its

incumbent? Who dares—who dares to put fetters on that free choice

and judgment which is the birthright of the American people? Can it

be said that Grant has used official power and place to perpetuate

his term? He has no place, and official power has not been used for

him. Without patronage and without emissaries, without committees,

without bureaus, without telegraph wires running from his house to

this Convention, or running from his house anywhere else, this man

is the candidate whose friends have never threatened to bolt unless

this Convention did as they said. He is a Republican who never

wavers. He and his friends stand by the creed and the candidates of

the Republican party. They hold the rightful rule of the majority as

the very essence of their faith, and they mean to uphold that faith

against not only the common enemy, but against the charlatans,

jayhawkers, tramps, and guerrillas—the men who deploy between the

lines, and forage now on one side and then on the other. This

Convention is master of a supreme opportunity. It can name the next

President. It can make sure of his election. It can make sure not

only of his election, but of his certain and peaceful inauguration.

It can break that power which dominates and mildews the South. It

can overthrow an organization whose very existence is a standing

protest against progress.

“The purpose of the Democratic party is spoils. Its very hope of

existence is a solid South. Its success is a menace to order and

progress. I say this Convention can overthrow that power. It can

dissolve and emancipate a solid South. It can speed the Nation in a

career of grandeur eclipsing all past achievements. Gentlemen, we

have only to listen above the din and look beyond the dust of an

hour to behold the Republican party advancing with its ensigns

resplendent with illustrious achievements, marching to certain

victory with its greatest Marshal at its head.”

After Mr. Bradley, of Kentucky, had seconded Grant’s nomination, the

call proceeded, and Ohio being reached, General Garfield arose. Amid

great applause he advanced to Mr. Conkling’s late high station on a

table, and, as soon as order was restored, said:

“Mr. President: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this

Convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my heart more

quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and noble character.

But as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it

seemed to me you were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen the

sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves

the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that it is not the

billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and

depths are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm

settles on the ocean, when sunshine bathes its smooth surface, then

the astronomer and surveyor takes the level from which he measures

all terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen of the convention,

your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of the people.

“When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have

subsided, we shall find the calm level of public opinion, below the

storm, from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be

measured, and by which their final action will be determined. Not

here, in this brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are

assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed; not here,

where I see the enthusiastic faces of 756 delegates waiting to cast

their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their party;

but by 5,000,000 Republican firesides, where the thoughtful fathers,

with wives and children about them, with calm thoughts inspired by

love of home and love of country, with the history of the past, the

hopes of the future, and the knowledge of the great men who have

adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by,—there God prepares

the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work to-night.

Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but in the sober quiet that

comes between now and November, in the silence of deliberate

judgment, will this great question be settled. Let us aid them

to-night.

“But now, gentlemen of the Convention, what do we want? Bear with me

a moment. Hear me for this cause, and for a moment, be silent that

you may hear. Twenty-five years ago this Republic was wearing a

triple chain of bondage. Long familiarity with the traffic in the

body and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority of

our people. The baleful doctrine of State sovereignty had shocked

and weakened the noblest and most beneficent powers of the National

Government, and the grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin

Territories of the West and dragging them into the den of eternal

bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was born. It drew its

first inspiration from the fire of liberty which God has lighted in

every man’s heart, and which all the powers of ignorance and tyranny

can never wholly extinguish. The Republican party came to deliver

and save the Republic. It entered the arena when beleaguered and

assailed Territories were struggling for freedom, and drew around

them the sacred circle of liberty, which the demon of slavery has

never dared to cross. It made them free forever.

“Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young party, under

the leadership of that great man, who on this spot, twenty years

ago, was made its leader, entered the national capital and assumed

the high duties of the Government. The light which shone from its

banner dispelled the darkness in which slavery had enshrouded the

Capitol and melted the shackles of every slave, and consumed, in the

fire of liberty, every slave-pen within the shadow of the Capitol.

Our national industries, by an impoverishing policy, were themselves

prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in such feeble

currents that the treasury itself was well nigh empty. The money of

the people was the wretched notes of 2,000 uncontrolled and

irresponsible state bank corporations, which were filling the

country with a circulation that poisoned rather than sustained the

life of business.

“The Republican party changed all this. It abolished the babel of

confusion and gave the country a currency as national as its flag,

based upon the sacred faith of the people. It threw its protecting

arm around our great industries, and they stood erect as with new

life. It filled with the spirit of true nationality all the great

functions of the Government. It confronted a rebellion of unexampled

magnitude, with a slavery behind it, and, under God, fought the

final battle of liberty until victory was won. Then, after the

storms of battle, were heard the sweet, calm words of peace uttered

by the conquering nation, and saying to the conquered foe that lay

prostrate at its feet, ‘This is our only revenge, that you join us

in lifting to the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine

like stars forever and forever, the immortal principles of truth and

justice, that all men, white or black, shall be free and stand equal

before the law.’ Then came the questions of reconstruction, the

public debt, and the public faith.

“In the settlement of these questions the Republican party has

completed its twenty-five years of glorious existence, and it has

sent us here to prepare it for another lustrum of duty and of

victory. How shall we do this great work? We can not do it, my

friends, by assailing our Republican brethren. God forbid that I

should say one word to cast a shadow upon any name on the roll of

our heroes. This coming fight is our Thermopylæ. We are standing

upon a narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts are united we can

withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can bring

against us.

“Let us hold our ground this one year, for the stars in their

courses fight for us in the future. The census to be taken this year

will bring reinforcements and continued power. But, in order to win

this victory now, we want the vote of every Republican, of every

Grant Republican in America, of every Blaine man and every

anti-Blaine man. The vote of every follower of every candidate is

needed to make our success certain; therefore I say, gentlemen and

brethren, we are here to calmly counsel together, and inquire what

we shall do. [A voice: ‘Nominate Garfield.’—Great applause.]

“We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the achievements

of which I have spoken. We want a man who, standing on a mountain

height, sees all the achievements of our past history, and carries

in his heart the memory of all its glorious deeds, and who, looking

forward, prepares to meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want

one who will act in no spirit of unkindness toward those we lately

met in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of the

South the olive branch of peace, and wishes them to return to

brotherhood, on this supreme condition, that it shall be admitted,

forever and for evermore, that, in the war for the Union, we were

right and they were wrong. On that supreme condition we meet them as

brethren, and no other. We ask them to share with us the blessings

and honors of this great Republic.

“Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a name for

your consideration—the name of a man who was the comrade, and

associate, and friend of nearly all those noble dead whose faces

look down upon us from these walls to-night; a man who began his

career of public service twenty-five years ago, whose first duty was

courageously done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when

the first red drops of that bloody shower began to fall which

finally swelled into the deluge of war. He bravely stood by young

Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in the national legislature,

through all subsequent time his pathway has been marked by labors

performed in every department of legislation.

“You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty-five years of the

national statutes. Not one great beneficent statute has been placed

on our statute books without his intelligent and powerful aid. He

aided these men to formulate the laws that raised our great armies

and carried us through the war. His hand was seen in the workmanship

of those statutes that restored and brought back the unity and

married calm of the States. His hand was in all that great

legislation that created the war currency, and in a greater work

that redeemed the promises of the Government, and made the currency

equal to gold. And when, at last, called from the halls of

legislation into a high executive office, he displayed that

experience, intelligence, firmness, and poise of character which has

carried us through a stormy period of three years. With one-half the

public press crying ‘Crucify him!’ and a hostile Congress seeking to

prevent success—in all this he remained unmoved until victory

crowned him.

“The great fiscal affairs of the nation and the great business

interests of the country he has guarded and preserved, while

executing the law of resumption and effecting its object without a

jar, and against the false prophecies of one-half of the press and

all the Democracy of this continent. He has shown himself able to

meet with calmness the great emergencies of the Government for

twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous heights of public

duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne his breast

unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of ‘that fierce light that beats

against the throne,’ but its fiercest ray has found no flaw in his

armor, no stain on his shield.

“I do not present him as a better Republican, or as a better man

than thousands of others we honor, but I present him for your

deliberate consideration. I nominate John Sherman, of Ohio.”

The addresses of Conkling and Garfield are given here, that the reader

may contrast these two great leaders at their best. Garfield’s speech

made a profound impression, not only on the Convention, but on the

country,—and strengthened the already powerful sentiment in favor of

making himself the nominee.

Edmunds and Washburne were the only other nominations proposed. They,

with Sherman, were minor candidates, whose only hope lay in the enmity

of the Grant and Blaine factions, whose evenly-balanced powers would

prevent the success of either.

At twelve o’clock the Convention adjourned over till Monday,—but not for

a Sabbath of repose! On Sunday very few of the delegates found time for

church, but devoted the day to mustering forces, polishing arms, and a

general preparation for the battle of the ballots on Monday. Of the

group of great men who led these hosts of enthusiasts, Garfield was one

of the very, very few, who attended religious worship. Bound by the good

habit of Sabbath observance, he went his solitary way to a little

congregation of Disciples, where the tumult and turmoil of the time was

smoothed away in peaceful contemplation of the eternal.

A bright, cool, and delightful morning made the Convention open

pleasantly on Monday, and at half-past ten the Hall was filled with an

immense crowd, made up largely of ladies, come to see the climax of this

great battle, and to be in at the finish. The Blaine men were confident.

Grant’s followers were not so confident, but still determined. All were

hopeful, as the uncertain always may possibly favor us, and most men

believe in the luck of their own stars.

On motion, when called to order, the roll of States was called for the

first ballot, which appears in full on the opposite page.

After this vote it became evident that there would be no immediate

choice, and with a long breath of resignation to its fate, the multitude

settled down to a prospectively long siege. There were twenty-eight

successive ballots taken, when the day’s work ended, and still no

choice.

On Tuesday, June 8, the sixth and last day of the Convention, the great

work of nomination was completed. “It was done, and well done.” We give

the work of the day somewhat in detail:

On the twenty-ninth ballot Sherman’s vote suddenly went up from 91 on

the previous ballot to 116. This resulted from a change in

Massachusetts, which broke for him to the extent of twenty-one votes. On

the thirtieth he reached his best vote, 120, and then steadily sank to

99 on the thirty-fifth ballot.

Finally that wonderful Grant column of three hundred and five, which had

stood so nobly by their great candidate for many hours, began to gain.

Pennsylvania gave him an increase, and on the thirty-fourth ballot he

had 312 votes. It then became evident that the anti-Grant factions must

combine at once, or be beaten.

FIRST VOTE.

─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────

STATES. │ Grant │ Blaine │ Sherman │Washburne│ Edmunds │ Windom

─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────

Alabama │ 16│ 1│ 3│ │ │

Arkansas │ 12│ │ │ │ │

California │ │ 12│ │ │ │

Colorado │ 6│ │ │ │ │

Connecticut │ │ 3│ │ 7│ 2│

Delaware │ │ 6│ │ │ │

Florida │ 8│ │ │ │ │

Georgia │ 6│ 8│ 8│ │ │

Illinois │ 24│ 10│ │ 8│ │

Indiana │ 1│ 26│ 2│ 1│ │

Iowa │ │ 22│ │ │ │

Kansas │ 4│ 6│ │ │ │

Kentucky │ 20│ 1│ 3│ │ │

Louisiana │ 8│ 2│ 6│ │ │

Maine │ │ 14│ │ │ │

Maryland │ 7│ 7│ 2│ │ │

Massachusetts│ 3│ │ 2│ 1│ 20│

Michigan │ 1│ 21│ │ │ │

Minnesota │ │ │ │ │ │ 10

Mississippi │ 6│ 4│ 6│ │ │

Missouri │ 29│ │ │ 1│ │

Nebraska │ │ 6│ │ │ │

Nevada │ │ 6│ │ │ │

New Hampshire│ │ 10│ │ │ │

New Jersey │ │ 16│ │ 2│ │

New York │ 51│ 17│ 2│ │ │

North │ 6│ │ 14│ │ │

Carolina │ │ │ │ │ │

Ohio │ │ 9│ 34│ │ 1│

Oregon │ │ 6│ │ │ │

Pennsylvania │ 32│ 23│ 3│ │ │

Rhode Island │ │ 8│ │ │ │

South │ 13│ │ 1│ │ │

Carolina │ │ │ │ │ │

Tennessee │ 16│ 6│ 1│ │ 1│

Texas │ 11│ 2│ 2│ 1│ │

Vermont │ │ │ │ │ 10│

Virginia │ 18│ 3│ 1│ │ │

West Virginia│ 1│ 8│ │ │ │

Wisconsin │ 1│ 7│ 3│ 9│ │

Arizona │ │ 2│ │ │ │

District of │ 1│ 1│ │ │ │

Columbia │ │ │ │ │ │

Montana │ │ 2│ │ │ │

New Mexico │ │ 2│ │ │ │

Utah │ 1│ 1│ │ │ │

Washington │ │ 2│ │ │ │

Dakota │ 1│ 1│ │ │ │

Idaho │ │ 2│ │ │ │

Wyoming │ 1│ 1│ │ │ │

─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────

TOTAL │ 304│ 284│ 93│ 30│ 34│ 10

It was at this point that Wisconsin pointed them the way to victory.

Garfield’s manly course in the Convention had created a favorable

impression on all sides, the result of which in the Wisconsin delegation

was that he was freely talked of for second choice. They held no caucus,

and during the night of Monday were anxiously waiting to see some other

State make the break for Garfield. After the adjournment on Monday night

the matter was talked up in the delegation, and it was agreed that, if

no other solution offered itself within three or four ballots, the

delegation would throw its solid strength to Garfield. No consultation

was had on the subject with the other leaders, as it was intended to

operate as a feeler, Wisconsin being among the last States called on the

roll. The result of this feeler is now a matter of history. The

thirty-fifth ballot developed a Garfield strength of 50 votes.

Amid the most intense excitement another call was ordered. It was GRANT

or GARFIELD—which?

Here General Garfield rose to a question of order. He challenged the

vote on the ground that votes had been given for him without his

consent, which consent he absolutely refused to give. The point was

overruled. The roll call proceeded. When Connecticut was reached, eleven

of the twelve votes were given for Garfield. This was the beginning of

the excitement. Then Illinois gave seven votes for Garfield, followed by

Indiana with twenty-nine votes. Next came Iowa, which had voted for

Blaine on every ballot, with its full twenty-two votes for Garfield.

When Maine was reached it voted for Garfield. This settled the question.

Blaine was out of the field, and Garfield was speedily nominated.

Vermont, Edmunds’ State, gave a solid vote for Garfield.

At this point the people could no longer be controlled. The breeze had

grown into a storm of enthusiasm. Delegates crowded around Garfield; the

people in the galleries, ignoring the lines that had divided them,

cheered and waved their hats and handkerchiefs. In this 10,000 people

were engaged. It was taken up by almost as many people on the outside,

where cannon were also discharged. The scene was one that will not soon

be forgotten by those who were present. Republicans, without regard to

previous differences, felt and acted as if a great and crushing weight

had been removed, and as if they had safely emerged from an impending

danger—a danger that threatened the very existence of the party.

The result was read out as follows: Whole number of votes, 755;

necessary to a choice, 378; Grant, 306; Blaine, 42; Sherman, 3;

Washburne, 5; Garfield, 399.

There was immense cheering, and the Chairman found it difficult to

restore order. But order being secured, he said: “_James A. Garfield is

nominated for President of the United States_.”

In the midst of all this, Garfield sat deeply moved. He was overwhelmed.

Loud calls of “Platform” and “Speech” were unheard by him, and he sat

silently in the heart of the hurricane which had caught him up.

As soon as a hearing could be obtained, Mr. Conkling arose, and, after a

few remarks on the subject of unity and harmony, and in praise of the

nominee, moved that the nomination be made unanimous. This motion was

seconded, with warm pledges of support, by several distinguished

gentlemen, previous leaders of factions, now leaders of a united and

satisfied political party.

At half-past two o’clock the Convention adjourned to meet again at seven

in the evening. In view of the fact that the man nominated for the

second place on the National ticket was, in fact, a future president, it

may be well to give this closing session a passing notice.

When the time of reassembling came, business was begun at once. The

principal names presented for Vice-President were: Elihu B. Washburne,

of Illinois; Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut; and Chester A. Arthur, of

New York. On the first and only ballot the New York gentleman received

468 votes to 288 for all others. A vote to make the nomination unanimous

carried with a good will, and Garfield and Arthur were at last before

the country on their records and their characters, both to be approved

and both to be elected.

The following table gives the results of each ballot in the

well-contested struggle, of which this brief chronicle has been trying

to tell the story:

KEY:

A—Grant

B—Blaine

C—Sherman

D—Washburne

E—Edmunds

F—Windom

G—Garfield

H—Hayes

I—Harrison

J—McCrary

K—Davis, of Texas

L—Hartranft, of Pa.

───────────────────────┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───

BALLOTS. │ A │ B │ C │ D │ E │ F │ G │ H │ I │ J │ K │ L

───────────────────────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───

First │304│284│ 93│ 30│ 34│ 10│ │ │ │ │ │

Second │305│282│ 94│ 31│ 32│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Third │305│282│ 93│ 31│ 32│ 10│ 1│ │ 1│ │ │

Fourth │305│281│ 95│ 31│ 32│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Fifth │305│281│ 95│ 31│ 32│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Sixth │305│280│ 95│ 31│ 32│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Seventh │305│281│ 94│ 31│ 32│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Eighth │306│284│ 91│ 32│ 31│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Ninth │308│282│ 90│ 32│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Tenth │305│282│ 92│ 32│ 31│ 10│ 2│ 1│ │ │ │

Eleventh │305│281│ 93│ 32│ 31│ 10│ 2│ 1│ │ │ │

Twelfth │304│283│ 92│ 33│ 31│ 10│ 1│ 1│ │ │ │

Thirteenth │305│285│ 89│ 33│ 31│ 10│ 1│ │ │ 1│ │

Fourteenth │305│285│ 89│ 35│ 31│ 10│ │ │ │ │ │

Fifteenth │309│281│ 88│ 36│ 31│ 10│ │ │ │ │ │

Sixteenth │306│283│ 88│ 36│ 31│ 10│ │ │ │ │ │

Seventeenth │303│284│ 90│ 36│ 31│ 10│ │ │ │ │ 1│

Eighteenth │305│283│ 91│ 35│ 31│ 10│ │ │ │ │ │

Nineteenth │305│279│ 96│ 32│ 31│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │ 1

Twentieth │308│276│ 93│ 35│ 31│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │ 1

Twenty-first │305│276│ 96│ 35│ 31│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │ 1

Twenty-second │305│275│ 97│ 35│ 31│ 10│ 1│ │ │ │ │ 1

Twenty-third │304│275│ 97│ 36│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Twenty-fourth │305│279│ 93│ 35│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Twenty-fifth │302│281│ 91│ 35│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Twenty-sixth │303│280│ 93│ 36│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Twenty-seventh │306│277│ 93│ 36│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Twenty-eighth │307│279│ 91│ 35│ 31│ 10│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Twenty-ninth │305│278│116│ 35│ 12│ 7│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Thirtieth │306│279│120│ 33│ 11│ 4│ 2│ │ │ │ │

Thirty-first │308│276│118│ 37│ 11│ 3│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Thirty-second │309│270│117│ 44│ 11│ 3│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Thirty-third │309│276│110│ 44│ 11│ 4│ 1│ │ │ │ │

Thirty-fourth │312│275│107│ 30│ 11│ 4│ 17│ │ │ │ │

Thirty-fifth │313│257│ 99│ 23│ 11│ 3│ 50│ │ │ │ │

Thirty-sixth │306│ 42│ 3│ 5│ │ │399│ │ │ │ │

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