THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT--THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.
In the presidential election of 1868 Mr. Chandler was even more than
usually active, both as an organizer and speaker. He delivered nearly
forty addresses in his own State, which gave to the Grant and Colfax
ticket 31,492 majority, and elected a Republican Congressman in each
of its six districts. The Legislature chosen at the same time had 66
Republican majority upon joint ballot, and re-elected Mr. Chandler
for his third Senatorial term, the Democratic vote being cast for the
Hon. Sanford M. Green of Bay City. In the Republican caucus there
was practically no opposition to Mr. Chandler's renomination, and
he received on the first and only ballot 78 votes, 13 other ballots
being cast for seven gentlemen by way of personal compliment. The
inauguration of President Grant, on March 4, 1869, renewed Mr.
Chandler's influence with the executive branch of the government, and
the political and personal friendship between him and the modest,
resolute, and illustrious soldier who succeeded Andrew Johnson grew
mutually stronger and more appreciative from that day.
Very much of the legislation of President Grant's first term, which
received Mr. Chandler's vigilant attention and absorbed no small share
of his energy, related to the details of the public business, and
furnishes no biographical material of permanent interest. He supported
the Fifteenth Amendment in all its stages, and also the Civil Rights
bills, which he regarded as incomplete, but still as the taking of
steps in the direction of justice.[34] It was his firm purpose to
contribute his share toward making American citizenship mean something,
for both black and white, and, if life was spared, to cease not his
labors until the humblest freeman in the United States should be in
firm possession of every natural and constitutional right, should have
free access to an honest ballot-box, should suffer no proscription for
his political opinions, and should be amply protected in his liberty to
think, say, go, and do as he pleased within the limitations laid down
by law for the regulation of the conduct of all. The battle, in which
he was so eager and stalwart a leader, will not be finished until that
result is forever secured.
Early in General Grant's term the friends of Edwin M. Stanton
determined to secure for him such an official appointment as should be
congenial to his tastes and guarantee him an adequate support in old
age. His iron constitution resisted the enormous labors of the civil
war successfully. For many months he worked from fifteen to twenty
hours in each day; his assistant secretaries were energetic and trained
men of affairs, but their strength successively gave way in attempting
to keep up with their chief. When the strain was finally withdrawn, it
was perceived that his own powers were greatly exhausted. Rest restored
their tone somewhat, and he made one or two legal arguments and public
addresses, which showed that his intellectual vigor was undiminished,
but these efforts were followed by extreme nervous prostration. Under
these circumstances, Mr. Stanton's friends determined to secure for
him a judicial appointment. For such a position he was qualified by
eminent professional attainments, and this fact and the permanency
of tenure made the tender of a place upon the bench grateful to him.
Accordingly, when Judge Grier resigned his position as a member of
the Supreme Court, Mr. Stanton's appointment to the vacant Associate
Justiceship was at once urged upon President Grant. Mr. Chandler was
very active in this matter and pressed it with all his energy. The
effort was successful, and on Dec. 20, 1869, this nomination was sent
to the Senate and promptly confirmed. Four days afterward, and before
his commission was made out, Mr. Stanton's overtaxed constitution
broke down, and he died after a brief illness, in the fifty-fifth
year of his age, as thorough a sacrifice to the nobility of his own
patriotic devotion during the war as the bravest soldier who fell on
any of its battle-fields. During his fatal illness, Mr. Chandler was a
frequent watcher at his bedside, and was one of the last persons with
whom the dying statesman conversed. After his death it was found that
the man who had controlled the disbursement of hundreds of millions
had died poor, and had not left an estate adequate to the support of
his children. Congress directed a year's salary of a Justice of the
Supreme Court to be paid to his heirs. Mr. Chandler and others of his
friends also set on foot a movement to raise a national memorial fund.
A meeting of Republicans was called at the residence of Congressman
Samuel Hooper of Massachusetts, and a committee was there appointed
who collected over $140,000 (Mr. Chandler contributing $10,000 and
President Grant $1,000), which was invested in United States bonds and
placed in the hands of a few trustees, of whom Surgeon-General Barnes
of the army was chairman, for the benefit of the Stanton family.
During General Grant's term the subject of "war claims" commenced to
attract national attention. Originally the Republican Congresses dealt
liberally with the South in the matter of compensation for damages
inflicted upon its loyal citizens during the rebellion. By a series of
carefully-guarded laws (and by a few private relief measures passed to
meet exceptional cases) a large sum was paid to residents of the rebel
States who suffered war losses, and were able to produce satisfactory
proof of their fidelity to the Union. In this matter the national
government certainly went to the extreme verge of generosity. The
experience attending the disbursement of the money thus appropriated
established conclusively the fraudulent and outrageous character of a
large percentage of these claims. In thousands of cases investigation
showed conclusively that arrant rebels were willing to swear that they
had been "Union men," and that small losses had, by false affidavits,
been magnified into great sums. As reconstruction broke down, and
the survivors of the rebellion gained in strength at the Capitol, a
new danger arose. No statute of limitations barred the indefinite
presentation of claims to Congress, and it soon became evident that,
not merely Southern loyalists, but avowed rebels who suffered losses
in the war were looking to the general government for compensation
for the damages which their own treason had invited. The movement on
the Treasury in their interest did not take on the form of an attack
in front, but by the flank. It commenced with plausible applications
for the "relief" of Southern institutions and corporations, and not
of individuals. It further manifested itself in propositions for such
a relaxation of the terms of the laws and regulations governing this
class of claims as would abolish all distinctions of "loyalty" and put
the "Confederate" upon an equal footing with the Union applicant for
this kind of "relief." The precise dimensions of this scheme, which
has been well characterized as "an attempt to make the United States
pay to the South what it cost it to be conquered in addition to what
it cost to conquer it," have not yet fully appeared, but the cloven
hoof has been sufficiently revealed to justly arouse and alarm the
loyal sentiment of the North. Mr. Chandler's record upon this question
affords a striking illustration of the soundness of his judgment as to
the scope and tendency of any particular line of public policy. When
this subject first demanded attention, he took the position which his
party substantially assumed ten years later. His clear and practical
mind saw what the consequences would be of any general reimbursement of
war losses, and he strenuously resisted the taking of any false steps
at the outset. Thus, on March 2, 1865, upon the bill to pay Josiah O.
Armes for the destruction of property within the rebel lines, he said
in the Senate:
I hope this bill will not pass the Senate.... If you pass it, if
you set this precedent, if you say to every rebel and every loyal
man, and every man throughout the South, by the passage of this
bill, that you intend to pay for every dollar of property that has
been destroyed by order of our generals, you will give a more fatal
blow to the credit of the government than by any other act that you
can perform in this body. I should look upon the passage of this
bill as a national calamity, and one that we cannot afford at this
time to bring on our heads. It will do more to shake the faith of
our own citizens and of the moneyed centers of the world in the
credit of your securities than any other act you could perform.
In his address before the Republican caucus which renominated him for
the Senate in January, 1869, he also said:
The moment this government begins to allow claims for damages
accruing to individuals during the war in the South, it is placed
in a position of great peril. Every rebel in the South who lost a
haystack or barn by fire during the war will prove his loyalty and
secure damages. It requires the greatest vigilance to prevent some
of these claims from being allowed, as they are continually being
pressed upon Congress, and probably will be for many years. The
laws of war do not require nor justify the allowance of this class
of claims even to loyal men. If they are loyal, then they have
served the government, and that is compensation enough. If they are
disloyal, they have no claim.
These quotations indicate his original position on this issue, taken in
the days when it had received but the slightest public attention. They
are exactly in the line of the vigorous utterances upon the same topic
which formed one of the important features of his public addresses in
1879, when the subject had aroused marked popular interest, and other
leaders had stepped up to the platform he had so long occupied.
But Mr. Chandler did more than strenuously oppose the payment of the
"war claims" of Southern disloyalists; his farsightedness placed in
their path a serious practical obstacle. In 1873, a Colonel Pickett,
who had been confidentially connected with the War Department of
the "Confederacy," came to Washington and offered to sell to the
authorities a vast quantity of the archives of the rebel government,
which he had secreted before the capture of Richmond. Congress was
not in session, and the Secretary of War, having no authority in law,
refused to buy the documents. Mr. Chandler was in that city at the
time, and Pickett was referred to him as a man of means and as one who
would be apt to appreciate the importance of such a purchase. After
one or two calls, Mr. Chandler determined that the matter deserved
investigation at least. He asked for a schedule of the documents and
for a statement of their prices. Pickett promptly furnished the former
and offered to sell them for $250,000. Mr. Chandler, after a careful
examination of the schedule, replied with a proposition that, if the
papers corresponded with the list furnished, he would pay $75,000 for
them. This offer was at last accepted, and Mr. Chandler deposited that
sum in a Washington bank, subject to Pickett's order after a thorough
examination of the documents had been made. Confidential clerks
were at once set at work upon them, and it was found that they even
surpassed their owner's representations as to value. The purchase was
therefore completed, and the documents became the private property
of Mr. Chandler, who had them locked up in a vault. When Congress
met, a bill was passed authorizing the Secretary of War in general
terms to purchase the archives of the Confederate government if it
was ever possible, and appropriating $75,000 for this purpose. As
soon as the bill became a law Mr. Chandler transferred the documents
to the Secretary of War, and they are now in the possession of that
department and constitute one of the most valuable and useful features
of its record of the rebellion. The amount that has been saved to the
government by this purchase, in furnishing evidence to defeat rebel
claims, already exceeds many-fold the original price. Case after case
in the Quartermaster-General's office, before the Southern Claims
Commission, and before the Court of Claims has been defeated by
evidence found among these papers.[35] One single conspicuous instance
in which they saved to the Treasury more than four times their entire
cost attracted much deserved attention at the time. On Nov. 16, 1877,
an effort was made by leading Southern Democrats in the House of
Representatives to pass under a suspension of the rules, and without
debate, a joint resolution, ordering the immediate payment of several
hundred thousand dollars to mail contractors in the rebel States who
forfeited their contracts at the commencement of the rebellion. An
objection from the Hon. Omar D. Conger prevented action on that day,
but the resolution came up again on Feb. 15, 1878. Representative John
H. Reagan of Texas, who had been the Postmaster-General of the rebel
Cabinet, then took charge of the measure, and assured the House that
the resolution was a purely formal matter, that it only provided for
the payment of liabilities incurred before the war commenced, and that
the rebel government had never paid these men for the same services.
The Hon. Edwin Willits of Michigan, by a timely examination of the
phraseology of the resolution, discovered that it provided for the
payment of these contractors, not down to the actual beginning of
the rebellion, but until May 31st, 1861, many weeks after the rebel
government had been formed and after the firing upon Fort Sumter.
Calling attention to this fact, he obtained the further postponement of
the consideration of the resolution. When it came up again (on March
8, 1878) Mr. Willits came to the House armed with a volume of the
rebel statutes and with important extracts from documents contained
in the rebel archives. With this evidence he demonstrated in ten
minutes' time, beyond question, that the rebel government had assumed
the payment of this class of claims, that it confiscated United States
money and applied it to that purpose, that the men so paid agreed
to refund to the rebel treasury any money subsequently given them
on this account by the United States, and that the joint resolution
was but an attempt to pay a second time contracts already paid and
also properly declared forfeited through treason. The scene attendant
upon this _expose_ was a dramatic one, and it resulted in the virtual
abandonment then of the measure by those who were responsible for it.
This result would not have been possible, had not the rebel archives
thus opportunely yielded up their secrets. Their possession by the
government is undoubtedly worth millions to the Treasury.
In 1871, the second term of Jacob M. Howard, as Senator from
Michigan, expired, and Thomas W. Ferry, then a member of the House of
Representatives, was chosen as his successor. With his new colleague
Mr. Chandler's relations were always close and cordial, and upon the
questions of reconstruction, equal rights, and the national supremacy
their accord was complete. Mr. Ferry rapidly attained distinction in
the upper branch of Congress, and was for several successive years the
President _pro tempore_ of the Senate. The death of Vice-President
Wilson in 1875 made him Acting Vice-President of the United States,
and he held that responsible position throughout the trying weeks of
the electoral dispute of 1876-'7, when his good sense, the perfect
discretion of his course, and the dignity and impartiality with which
he discharged duties of the gravest character amid vast and dangerous
excitement, both deserved and received universal praise. Mr. Ferry was
re-elected during this critical period, and, as Mr. Chandler's term as
Secretary of the Interior was then about to close, it was suggested
in some quarters that Michigan should send him back to the Senate in
Mr. Ferry's stead. The quality of Mr. Chandler's fidelity as a friend
and of his estimate of Mr. Ferry's public usefulness were shown in the
fact that, anxious as he avowedly was to become again a Senator, these
suggestions obtained from him only peremptory negatives, and his advice
and influence contributed to Mr. Ferry's unopposed re-election. Mr.
Howard died suddenly at Detroit from apoplexy shortly after the close
of his Senatorial service. As further illustrating the nature of the
friendship existing between him and his colleague from Michigan, and
the estimation in which he was held by the eminent men with whom he
came in contact, this private letter from Mr. Chandler to President
Grant, with an endorsement made thereon by the latter, is here given:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 1870.
MY DEAR SIR: Secretary Cox has done my colleague an unintentional
but a serious injury.
In 1869 the whole Michigan delegation united in recommending the
Rev. W. H. Brockway, one of the most popular Methodist clergymen in
the State, for Indian Agent.
He was nominated and confirmed, but acquiesced in the transfer
of Indian affairs to the military. Since the adjournment of
Congress, my colleague made a personal request to the Secretary
of the Interior, that the Rev. Mr. Brockway be commissioned as
Indian Agent for Michigan. Instead of sending the commission, he
has sent a man from New Jersey to attend to our Indian affairs.
This has given offense to the most numerous and powerful religious
denomination in the State and seriously injured my colleague. I ask
for my colleague that the New Jersey commission may be immediately
revoked, and Mr. Brockway may be at once commissioned....
It is really important that this be done at once. Very
respectfully, your obedient servant,
Z. CHANDLER.
_To President U. S. Grant._
AUTOGRAPHIC ENDORSEMENT BY PRESIDENT GRANT.
Referred to the Secretary of the Interior.
I think Mr. Brockway might with great propriety be assigned to the
Indian agency in his own State, to which he has once been appointed
and confirmed.
He is a minister, and therefore the new rule adopted will not be
violated by his appointment.
I want, besides, to accommodate Senator Howard, whom I regard as an
able supporter of the Republican party and of the Administration.
Sept. 22, 1870. U. S. GRANT.
Mr. Chandler was a member of one or two of the special Congressional
committees appointed to investigate those atrocious political murders
which made infamous the return of the disloyal classes to power in the
South. This general subject received no small share of his attention;
the facts which investigation disclosed deepened his conviction
of the essential barbarity of much that passes for civilization in
that section, and added to the inflexibility of his opposition to a
political system, which was responsible for the atrocious crimes of the
Ku-Klux-Klan, "the Mississippi plan," the White League, and the "rifle
clubs," and for the horrible massacres of Colfax and Coushatta, of
Hamburg and Ellenton.
Two of his speeches in the Senate in 1871 and 1872 attracted general
attention and were widely republished. One of them was delivered on
January 18, 1871, in reply to Mr. Casserly of California, who had
challenged a comparison between the records of the Republican and
Democratic parties. In the course of twenty minutes Mr. Chandler
rapidly sketched the services of the Republican party in defeating the
Democratic plot to surrender the territories to slavery, in crushing a
Democratic rebellion, in emancipating four million slaves, in building
a trans-continental railway to the Pacific coast, in inviting the
settlement of the Great West by a homestead law, in establishing the
national banking system, in maintaining the public credit against
Democratic attack, and in reconstructing the South on the basis of
freedom and loyalty. He closed as follows:
These measures were carried, not with the Democratic party, but
in spite of the Democratic party. Sir, we are not to be arraigned
here and put on the defensive, certainly not by that old Democratic
party.
And now, Mr. President, they ask us to do what? To forgive the past
and let by-gones be by-gones. You hear on the right hand and on the
left, from every quarter, "Let by-gones be by-gones; let us forget
the past and rub it out." Sir, we have no disposition to forget
the past. We have a record of which we are proud. We have a record
that has gone into history. There we propose to let it stand. We
never propose to blot out that record. There are no thousand years
in the world's history in which so much has been accomplished for
human liberty and human progress as has been accomplished by this
great Republican party in the short space of ten years. Blot out
that record? Never, sir, never! It is a record that will go down
in history through all times as the proudest ever made by any
political party that ever existed on earth. But, sir, do gentlemen
of the Democratic party want to blot out their record? I do not
blame them for wanting to, for that record is a record of treason.
It, too, has gone into history, and there it must stand through all
ages. Sir, the young men of this country are looking at these two
records, and they are making up their minds as to which they desire
their names to go down to history upon; and I am happy to say that
of the young men now coming upon the stage of action, nine out of
every ten are joining this great Republican party. They desire that
their record shall be associated with those who saved this great
nation, and not with those who attempted its overthrow. The day
is far distant when that old Democratic party that attempted to
overthrow this government will again be entrusted with power by the
people of this nation.... Mr. President, if this record of the two
parties does not please my Democratic friends, I have only to say
to them that they made it deliberately and they have got to stand
by it.
On June 6, 1872, Mr. Chandler replied in the Senate to that part of
Mr. Sumner's elaborate attack upon General Grant in which he declared
that Edwin M. Stanton had said, in his last days, "General Grant cannot
govern this country." The excessive egotism, which marred Mr. Sumner's
character and which inspired that unfortunate speech, was always a
cause of impatience with Mr. Chandler, and this display of it aroused
his anger. In his reply, he challenged squarely the credibility of Mr.
Sumner's statement. He first read from Mr. Stanton's reported speeches,
to show that their enthusiastic and repeated commendation of General
Grant by name proved that Mr. Sumner's assertion that Mr. Stanton had
also said, "In my speeches I never introduced the name of General
Grant; I spoke for the Republican cause and the Republican party," was
exactly contrary to the fact. He then proceeded:
Mr. President, I had occasion with Mr. Wade, formerly Senator from
Ohio, as member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, to see
Mr. Stanton, I think once a day on an average, during the whole
war, and I was in the habit of visiting him up to the time of his
death, and never, under any circumstances, did he express in my
presence any but the highest opinion of General Grant, both as to
his military capacity and as to his civil capacity.
Mr. President, on the Friday before the death of E. M. Stanton, I
had occasion to visit him in company with two friends, members of
the other House, one Hon. Judge Beaman, then a member for Michigan,
the other Judge Conger, now a member from Michigan. We had that
day a long interview of not less than an hour and a half, wherein
Mr. Stanton expressed the highest opinion of President Grant, both
as to his military and civil capacity. I awaited an interview with
these parties before making this statement, and their recollection
is the same as my own. I have likewise held two or three interviews
with Senator Wade since then, and his recollection of the
expressions of the late E. M. Stanton is equally strong as my own
to-day. Mr. Stanton said, in the presence of two witnesses, "The
country knows General Grant to be a great warrior; I know he will
prove a great civilian." ...
Mr. President, the relations between the President of the
United States and the late Secretary Stanton were of remarkable
kindliness. Never did I hear either express any but the highest
esteem and regard for the other.... I think the last interview
he ever had was the interview with me in the presence of these
two living witnesses.... Surgeon-General Barnes was his attending
physician at the hour of his death. According to his testimony,
from the hour I last saw him up to the time of his death, there was
no change, so far as can be known.
In another part of this speech the President is arraigned as a
great gift-taker. Sir, General Grant was a great taker. Few men
have ever been as eminent as takers. He took Fort Donelson with
some twenty or thirty thousand soldiers; and he took Shiloh, and
took Vicksburg, and took the Wilderness, and took Murfreesboro'
and Appomattox and all the rebel material of war. He, with his
army, took the shackles from 4,000,000 slaves. And, sir, after he
had taken the vitals out of the rebellion, he was urged by his
friends to accept a small donation to take himself out of the
hands of poverty, a thing that has been done by all nations and by
all grateful peoples in all ages of the world. Sir, he is to be
arraigned as a great gift-taker because he accepted the voluntary
contributions of a grateful people!
Why, sir, there were few men of capacity, few men of fitness to
occupy positions under this government who did not subscribe,
gratefully, anxiously subscribe, to that fund to relieve U. S.
Grant from his poverty. And yet, he is to be arraigned here as a
gift-taker, as though that was a crime!
Mr. President, there are two classes of people in this world,
and we see specimens of them both. We have great _o-ra-tors_ and
great men of business. On this floor our _o-ra-tors_ have occupied
the time of this session to the exclusion of business, and while
these _o-ra-tors_ have been wasting the time of this body to the
detriment of the business of the nation, willing to indulge in
windy orations at the expense of the government, U. S. Grant,
President of the United States, has been managing the affairs of
this nation better than they were ever managed before. While your
_o-ra-tors_ were here delivering windy words, he was paying the
national debt faster than these _o-ra-tors_ could count it. While
they were _o-ra-ting_, he was negotiating treaties and attending
to the civil service of the nation. While they were _o-ra-ting_
on this floor during the war, he was winning victories in the
bloodiest part of the fight. And now, while they are _o-ra-ting_
on this floor, he is endearing himself to the hearts of the
whole people of this land as no other man ever did. Stanton was
prophetic; he is not only great in war, but he is greater as a
civilian.
The act of March 3, 1873, which raised the annual salaries of
Congressmen from $5,000 to $7,500, gave also to this increase a
retroactive effect and made it apply to the members of Congress who
passed the measure and whose official terms ended on that very day.
Public opinion did not approve of any aspect of this change, but it
condemned vehemently the voting by Congressmen to themselves of $5,000
each for services already rendered and in addition to liberal salaries
fixed at the time of their acceptance of office. So emphatic were the
manifestations of popular wrath at both this act and its methods,
that the next Congress promptly repealed "the salary grab," as it was
commonly called. Mr. Chandler's integrity and good sense kept him
from any participation in this obnoxious performance. He opposed the
increase of compensation earnestly in the Senate, voted against it
at all stages of the contest, and refused to accept his "back pay."
When the bill had been passed and the increased salary had been placed
to his credit on the Senate books, he went to the Treasury with his
colleague and they deposited the difference between the old and the new
rate to the credit of the government, writing the following letter to
the Secretary of the Treasury:
WASHINGTON, March 28, 1873.
SIR: Herewith find drafts on the Treasury, one of $3,906.80 payable
to Z. Chandler, the other of $3,920, to T. W. Ferry, being avails
of retroactive increase of salary passed during the expiring days
of and for the Forty-second Congress, and this day placed in our
hands by the Secretary of the Senate.
Not willing to gain what we voted against, we request that the same
be applied toward the cancellation of any of the six per cent.
interest-bearing obligations of the nation. Lest such return be
distorted into possible reflection upon the propriety of dissimilar
disposition by others, you will oblige us much by giving no
publicity to the matter. Very respectfully, yours,
Z. CHANDLER,
T. W. FERRY.
The amount refunded was the exact difference between the sums allowed
under the old and the increased rate. The new law gave an increase of
salary for the term, without mileage. The old law allowed $5,000 less
salary, but gave mileage in addition. Mr. Chandler and Mr. Ferry took
the amount due them under the old system, and returned the additional
sum which was allowed them under the new. The spirit of scrupulous
honesty which dictated this proceeding is shown in the last sentence
of the joint letter, asking that publicity might not be given to their
action. They took this step voluntarily and not under any constraint
from public opinion.
In the general elections of 1870 and 1872 Mr. Chandler was exceedingly
active, making the usual number of public addresses, and also
devoting much time to organization and to the general distribution of
political literature. The latter branch of party effort had become
the special province of the Republican Congressional Committee.
For more than twenty years there have been two distinct executive
organizations within the Republican party, independent of each other,
but always working in harmony, namely: The National Committee, and the
Congressional Committee. The latter is composed of a Representative
in Congress from each State, chosen by the Republican members of the
respective delegations. No man can serve upon this committee unless
he holds a seat in Congress, and States which have no Republican
Congressmen are unrepresented in its membership. Mr. Chandler and
James M. Edmunds were the founders of the Congressional Committee as
a practical and influential working body; their plans and efforts
first made it a power in American politics, and it remained under
their joint control until Mr. Chandler became chairman of the National
Committee. The special objects which it aimed to accomplish were the
securing of a uniform treatment of political topics by newspapers
and speakers throughout the country, and the circulation (under the
franking privilege, or otherwise) of instructive and timely documents.
During the reconstruction era it also devoted much attention to the
work of Republican organization in the South, where special efforts
were necessary to form into effective voting masses the emancipated
slaves, not yet freed from the blindness of bondage or familiar
with the responsibilities of citizenship. But the great aim of the
committee--all else that it did was subsidiary to that--was the
circulation of political literature. This end it sought to reach by
two methods: First, by the publication and mailing to individuals and
to local committees in all parts of the country of such Congressional
speeches as treated thoroughly and effectively any phase of the
current political situation; second, by furnishing the Republican
press, through the medium of weekly sheets of carefully prepared
matter, with accurate information as to the facts underlying existing
issues and with suggestions as to their best treatment before the
people. Obviously this work could be done to much better advantage
at Washington than elsewhere, for the capital city is the focus of
the thousand currents of political opinion and the depository of
the official statistics of the nation. Hence it was deemed wise
to establish a system of guidance from that point of the public
discussions of each national campaign, so that increased intelligence,
cohesion, and efficiency could be given to the general attack on
the enemy; this idea--which is, in brief, that the systematizing of
the political education of the people is an important element of
well-planned party warfare--James M. Edmunds always held tenaciously;
aided by Mr. Chandler's friendship, influence, means, and co-operation,
he proved its soundness most conclusively.
Early in his Senatorial service Mr. Chandler was made the chairman
of this committee, and Mr. Edmunds its secretary. The two men were
admirably matched. Mr. Edmunds was a natural planner, keen in his
intuitions, shrewd in observation, and a skillful judge of the bearing
and tendency of party and public policies. In determining what was the
most promising line of attack, where the weakest points of the enemy's
lines were to be found, wherein the strength of any position lay, or
what strategy would make victory the most certain and complete, he had
no superior. When his acute and experienced judgment was reinforced by
Mr. Chandler's vigor in execution, influence with public men, and large
wealth great results never failed to follow. These two men quickly made
the Congressional Committee one of the most powerful agencies of party
warfare known in American politics. In many campaigns its influence was
almost literally felt in every Northern township, and its labors were
not without some effect, more frequently greater than less, in unifying
and invigorating the contest in every Congressional district from
Maine to Texas and Florida to Oregon. Its work was done quietly, but
most thoroughly; its managers rather shunned than courted publicity;
and the people at large, who were informed and inspired by its labors,
knew nothing of its methods and activity, hardly the fact of its
existence. From 1866 to 1874 Mr. Chandler was very active in connection
with this committee, and never failed to provide the agencies and the
resources for the adequate carrying on of its work. When its treasury
grew empty his private check made good any deficiency, and repeatedly
his advances upon its account reached tens of thousands of dollars.
His confidence in Secretary Edmunds was implicit, and the latter's
mature recommendations never failed because of any lack of means. In
1870 the work of this committee was especially productive; its value
became much more clearly apparent then than had ever been the case
before, and Mr. Chandler repeatedly said to the President and other
Republican leaders, "Judge Edmunds is the Bismark of this campaign." In
1872 Mr. Edmunds first suggested the necessity of meeting the Greeley
movement by the thorough searching of the files of the New York
_Tribune_ and of Mr. Greeley's record, for the ample material therein
contained which would make impossible his support by the Democratic
masses. Mr. Chandler approved of this plan, and promised that the
money needed should be forthcoming. Before all the work was completed,
his advances had reached nearly $30,000. At times, in the course of
efforts of this character, Mr. Edmunds guided the pens of upward of
three hundred writers gathered under his general supervision, while
the results of their labors informed the editorial pages of thousands
of Republican newspapers, and thus reached millions of voting readers.
For some time, also, a monthly periodical named _The Republic_ was
issued, which preserved in durable form the most careful and elaborate
articles prepared under the committee's supervision. This work of the
political enlightenment of the people, clearly the most rational agency
of party warfare, has never been executed on this continent with the
thoroughness, intelligence and efficiency which marked the labors of
the Congressional Committee when Mr. Chandler was at its head and Mr.
Edmunds was its executive officer.
[Illustration: JAMES M. EDMUNDS.]
The man whose name is so closely coupled in these pages with that
of Mr. Chandler deserves the grateful and lasting remembrance of the
Republican party. James M. Edmunds was a natural politician of the
best type. Patriotic instincts and sincere convictions were interwoven
with his nature. The party whose tendencies satisfied those instincts,
and whose policies most nearly accorded with those convictions, he
served loyally and with rare capacity; more than this, he served it
unselfishly. He cared nothing for prominence, and never sought after
reputation. He made no speeches, he rarely shared in any public
demonstration, he held no conspicuous positions, he manifested no
personal ambition, but for twenty years he was the trusted counselor
of famous men at the capital, his influence was felt in national
legislation and party movements, and important events with which his
name never was and never will be connected received the impress of his
acute observation and sagacious judgment. Especially in Republican
political management was he a wise and strong "power behind the
throne." Mr. Edmunds was a native of Western New York, but emigrated
to Michigan in 1831. He was for many years a prominent business man
at Ypsilanti, Vassar and Detroit, in that State, and was always
politically active. The Whigs sent him repeatedly to the Legislature,
and made him their (unsuccessful) candidate for Governor in 1847. He
was chairman of the Republican State Central Committee from 1855 to
1861, and Controller of the city of Detroit for two of those years.
At the commencement of Mr. Lincoln's administration he removed to
Washington, and was there successively Commissioner of the General
Land Office, Postmaster of the Senate, and Postmaster of the city of
Washington. Personally he was a tall and spare man, exceedingly plain
in his manners and simple in his tastes, utterly without either the
liking for or faculty of display, retiring in disposition, firm of
purpose, of strict integrity, and exact in his dealings and habits.
Mr. Edmunds's remarkable strength as a politician consisted in his
experience, in his lack of any personal aspirations, in his skill
in controlling men and the accuracy of his judgment as to their
motives, and in an almost prophetic ability to reason out the probable
direction and effect of any given plan of action. He became a man
whom those charged with great responsibilities could profitably and
safely consult, and his well-considered and shrewd advice often had
decisive weight at the White House, on the floors of Congress, and
in the private councils of eminent men. Outside of the Congressional
Committee, he did much campaign work in directing organization and
suggesting plans. He was one of the founders of the Union League,
and directed its operations during the years of its great political
usefulness in the South. It may be said without exaggeration that no
single member of the Republican party ever rendered it services as
great and as slightly requited as were those of James M. Edmunds.
Mr. Chandler's close friendship with Mr. Edmunds covered a period of
nearly half a century, and included an implicit confidence in the man
himself and in his prudence and the sagacity of his judgment. The
comment made upon their intimacy by one who knew them both well was,
"Sometimes it seemed to me that no man could be as wise as Mr. Chandler
believed that Judge Edmunds was." They were in almost constant
consultation upon public questions, their co-operation was ever hearty,
and this friendship the Senator valued as a priceless possession. "In
death they were not divided;" the dispatch, which announced that Mr.
Chandler's busy life had ended so suddenly in Chicago, came to Mr.
Edmunds while infirm in health; it affected him powerfully, and his
spirit did not pass from under the shadow of this blow; within a few
weeks his own death followed.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] To a letter of confidence and congratulation, written to him
at the time of his last Senatorial election, by a committee of the
colored citizens of East Saginaw, Mich., Mr. Chandler replied (under
date of Feb. 20, 1879): "I hope to be able to assist in the grand but
unfinished work of securing equal political rights for every citizen of
this country, black as well as white, South as well as North."
[35] The value of this class of documents will further appear from two
quotations from the official "Digest of the Report of the Southern
Claims Commission upon the Disallowed Claims," only two being taken
where many might be. "Claim No. 193" was preferred before this
Commission by W. R. Alexander of Dickson, Ala., for $13,443, for cotton
and horses furnished to the Union army. Mr. Alexander produced evidence
to show, and swore himself, that he had been a consistent Union man.
The Digest (1 vol., p. 55) says: "Among the papers of the rebel
government found at Richmond is a letter, now in the War Department, a
copy of which Adjutant-General Townsend has furnished to us. It reads
as follows:
"'DICKSON, Ala., August 1, 1861.
"SIR: I have heard that the War Department was scarce of arms, and I
have taken it upon myself to look up all the old muskets I can find and
I now send them to you, and I hope they will kill many a Yankee. I have
had one musket fixed to my notion, which I send with the others for a
model. All here are delighted with our victory, both white and black.
Yours, respectfully,
WM. R. ALEXANDER.
"P. S. I send these guns, ten in number, to the Ordnance Department,
Richmond, Virginia.
W. R. A.
_"The Hon. L. P. Walker."_
"On October 11, 1872, the counsel for the claimant, John J. Key,
Esq., appeared before the Commissioners and requested that the claim
be withdrawn, admitting the disloyalty of the claimant. The claim is
rejected."
* * * * *
"Claim 135" was preferred by J. P. Levy of Wilmington, N. C., for
$10,000. After he had sworn to his own loyalty, he was called upon
to face some letters found in the rebel archives. The Commission say
(p. 33, 1 vol., Digest): "The original letters were furnished the
Commission by the War Department from the captured rebel archives, and
copies of several of them were filed with this report.... We have in
them the claimant at the outbreak of the war calling upon the rebel
government to punish the superintendent of his brother's plantation
for insulting the rebel flag; and, again, asking the rebel Congress
to pass a law granting him his brother's plantation on account of his
signal service to the rebel cause; and, again, offering a ship, to be
commanded by himself, for the rebel service; also, tendering for the
benefit of the rebel army, patent fuse train and soda baking-powders,
and boasting and complaining of the large amount due him from the rebel
government for supplies for the rebel army. And now this shameless
traitor, perjurer and swindler comes before us and swears, with brazen
effrontery, that the government of the United States owes him, as a
loyal adherent to the cause of the Union and the government throughout
the war of the rebellion, for supplies furnished the army, the sum of
$10,000. We reject this claim."