THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878--MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE
SENATE--"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."
The township elections in Michigan in April, 1878, revealed an
astonishing growth in the number of the advocates of an irredeemable
paper currency. "Hard times," Democratic disgust over the result of
the electoral dispute, and Republican disappointment at "the Southern
policy" of the new administration greatly relaxed existing party ties,
and made the way ready for the expounders of the seductive theory
that prosperity depends upon a great volume of the currency, and
that large issues of paper bearing the government stamp must greatly
add to individual wealth. Throughout the West and South, Republican
and Democratic leaders had fostered these fallacious ideas, and thus
prepared the field of public sentiment for this "Greenback" sowing. In
Michigan the result was that the National party (which in 1876 gave
only 9,060 votes to Peter Cooper for President) in April, 1878, cast
over 70,000 votes for its township candidates, elected a large number
of supervisors in the most populous counties of the State, and showed
greater strength than either of the old parties in four Congressional
districts. This was the gravest situation the Republicans of Michigan
had ever been called upon to face. A conference of their representative
men was at once held, at the call of the State Central Committee, and
the situation was thoroughly discussed. Among those participating
was Gov. Charles M. Croswell, who said that he believed that the
party should boldly declare for a sound currency, and resist with all
its power the further spread of financial heresy; for himself, he
preferred defeat on that platform to a victory won by any surrender
to false theories. The endorsement of his views was substantially
unanimous, and an aggressive campaign was determined upon. The State
Convention was promptly called, and met in Detroit on June 13. It was
the ablest political gathering ever held in Michigan, and its delegates
included the foremost men of the party from every county. Mr. Chandler
presided; Governor Croswell was renominated at the head of a strong
State ticket; a platform, admirable for its soundness of doctrine and
clearness of statement[41] (its author was Frederick Morley, formerly
editor of the Detroit _Post_), was adopted; and Mr. Chandler was, amid
the prolonged cheering of the convention, placed at the head of the
State Committee. He had at that time about completed his plans for
a European journey, and it was suggested to him by friends that his
chairmanship of the National Committee afforded a valid excuse for
declining this new appointment, which would make him responsible for
the result of a doubtful fight, with the certainty that defeat would
greatly impair his political prestige. To this advice Mr. Chandler
simply replied, "If Michigan Republicanism goes down, I will go
with it." He promptly canceled all other engagements, appointed his
confidential secretary, G. W. Partridge, secretary of the committee
(with the consent of its members), and threw his energy and vigor into
that State campaign. The contest that followed under his leadership
preserved the spirit of the convention and upheld the doctrines of the
platform. The financial question was discussed in every phase "upon
the stump" and by the press. Mr. Chandler himself spoke in all the
leading cities of the State, and was seconded by many other orators,
including James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield, and Stewart L. Woodford,
whose addresses were masterly examples of the candid, luminous and
popular treatment of a topic usually regarded as too abstruse and dry
for profitable public discussion. The courage and honesty of this fight
were justly rewarded. The Republicans carried the State by over 47,000
plurality, and elected every Congressional candidate and a Legislature
with a large Republican majority upon joint ballot. The victory was
a signal one. In no Western State had financial heresy ever been as
resolutely grappled with and as thoroughly beaten, and his prominent
share in this battle must rank among Mr. Chandler's most unselfish and
honorable public services.
An unforeseen but almost poetically just result of this triumph was
his own return to Congress. Senator Christiancy's failing health
compelled him in the winter of 1879 to seek (under physician's
advice) rest and a change of climate. The President offered him the
embassadorship at Berlin, or at Mexico, or at Lima, and he finally
decided to accept the latter. His nomination was sent to the Senate
on Jan. 29, 1879, and confirmed without reference to a committee. On
February 10, his resignation as Senator was laid before the Michigan
Legislature, and on the 18th that body filled the vacancy by election.
With the earliest hints of the possibility of Senator Christiancy's
retirement, Republican opinion and the popular expectation had agreed
that Mr. Chandler would be chosen for the remaining years of what the
Republicans of Michigan had unsuccessfully sought to make his fourth
term. This was regarded as due to him, as still more due to the party
which had in 1875 been deprived of its choice, and as securing the
restoration to public activity of a man of national influence and
prominence, at an hour when the sagacity of his political judgment
had been vindicated by the alarming attitude of the South, and when
the sturdiest qualities of leadership were needed in Washington. The
legislative action reflected this strong current of public sentiment.
In the Republican caucus (held in the new Capitol of that State),
Mr. Chandler was nominated for Senator on the first formal ballot,
receiving sixty-nine of the eighty-nine votes cast. In the Legislature
he was elected by the vote of every Republican in his seat in either
branch.
[Illustration: THE MICHIGAN CAPITOL AT LANSING.]
On Feb. 22, 1879, Mr. Chandler's credentials were presented and
read in the Senate, and he was escorted by Senator Ferry to the
Vice-President's desk, where the official oath was administered to
him by William A. Wheeler. He took the seat upon the outer row of
the Republican side, which he had occupied in other Congresses.
The circumstances of his return to public life attracted national
attention, and his re-appearance in the Senate was everywhere accepted
as significant of the growth of Republican courage and resolution.
But what followed outstripped all expectation and was dramatic in its
accessories. Upon February 28, he first addressed the Forty-fifth
Senate, speaking briefly upon a bill providing for pension arrears,
and in advocacy of an amendment to make more efficient the methods of
detecting pension frauds by taking expert examiners from one part of
the country and sending them to another. In this connection he referred
to his own experience as Secretary of the Interior, saying that he
had declared that with $100,000 to so use he could save $1,000,000 to
the Treasury yearly. Upon the same day, he also spoke briefly upon
the Sundry Civil Appropriation bill, opposing a proposition in it to
re-open a settled claim of the war of 1812, based on expenditures
made by some of the older States for military purposes. He spoke from
recollection of a discussion in 1857, when this matter came up, and
showed that the principal of the claims had been already paid, and
that this was an attempt to collect compound interest. This measure,
which Mr. Chandler repeatedly opposed during his Senatorial career, was
again defeated at this time. On March 1, a proposition to pay Georgia
over $72,000 compound interest upon advances alleged to have been made
in 1835-'38 in the Creek, Seminole and Cherokee wars was strenuously
and successfully opposed by him. On the 28th of February, a bill had
been passed by the Senate making appropriations for the arrearages
of pensions. To this an amendment was offered and adopted extending
to those who served in the war with Mexico the provisions of the law
passed in 1878, giving pensions to the surviving soldiers of 1812. This
amendment was adopted without full consideration, and on the evening of
Sunday, March 2, a motion was made and carried for a reconsideration.
Then an amendment was offered excluding persons who served in the
Confederate army or held any office under the "Confederacy" from the
benefits of this bill. This amendment was defeated by the votes of the
Democrats and two Southern Republicans. Another amendment was offered
by Senator Hoar excluding Jefferson Davis from the benefits of any
pension bill. An astonishing debate followed. For some hours the Senate
Chamber rang with fervent eulogies upon the arch-rebel of the South.
Senator Garland declared that Davis's record would "equal in history
all Grecian fame and all Roman glory." Senator Maxey pronounced him
"a battle-scarred, knightly gentleman." Senator Lamar characterized
the proposition as a "wanton insult," springing from "hate, bitter,
malignant sectional feeling, and a sense of personal impunity;" he
added, "The only difference between myself and Jefferson Davis is that
his exalted character, his pre-eminent talents, his well-established
reputation as a statesman, as a patriot, and as a soldier enabled
him to take the lead in a cause to which I consecrated myself;" he
further declared that Davis's motives were as "sacred and noble as
ever inspired the breast of a Hampden or a Washington." Senator Harris
pronounced him "the peer of any Senator on this floor." "I will not,"
said Senator Coke, "vote to discriminate against Mr. Davis, for I was
just as much a rebel as he." Senator Ransom said, "I shall not dwell
upon Mr. Davis's public services as an American soldier and statesman.
He belongs to history, as does that cause to which he gave all the
ability of his great nature." There was no lack of Republican protest
against this apotheosis of unrepentant treason, but it was not wholly
free from a certain deprecatory tone. The Senators who spoke in support
of Mr. Hoar's proposition rather remonstrated against than denounced
the assumption that it was their duty to quietly assent to legislation
which would place the unamnestied and still defiant representative
of the Great Rebellion on the pension-rolls of the nation. After
the debate had lasted for over two hours, Mr. W. E. Chandler of New
Hampshire, who was watching its progress from the reporters' gallery,
said to Senator E. H. Rollins of his State, "Tell Zach. Chandler that
he is the man to call Jeff. Davis a traitor." Mr. Rollins delivered the
message, which was received with a nod of acquiescence in the direction
of the gallery. Senator Morgan of Alabama was speaking at the time,
with Senator Mitchell of Oregon in the chair. As Mr. Morgan closed,
Senator Chandler rose and said:
Mr. President, twenty-two years ago to-morrow, in the old Hall of
the Senate, now occupied by the Supreme Court of the United States,
I, in company with Mr. Jefferson Davis, stood up and swore before
Almighty God that I would support the Constitution of the United
States. Mr. Jefferson Davis came from the Cabinet of Franklin
Pierce into the Senate of the United States and took the oath with
me to be faithful to this government. During four years I sat in
this body with Mr. Jefferson Davis and saw the preparations going
on from day to-day for the overthrow of this government. With
treason in his heart and perjury upon his lips he took the oath to
sustain the government that he meant to overthrow.
Sir, there was method in that madness. He, in co-operation with
other men from his section and in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, made
careful preparation for the event that was to follow. Your armies
were scattered all over this broad land where they could not be
used in an emergency; your fleets were scattered wherever the winds
blew and water was found to float them, where they could not be
used to put down rebellion; your Treasury was depleted until your
bonds bearing six per cent., principal and interest payable in
coin, were sold for 88 cents on the dollar for current expenses,
and no buyers. Preparations were carefully made. Your arms were
sold under an apparently innocent clause in an army bill providing
that the Secretary of War might, at his discretion, sell such arms
as he deemed it for the interest of the government to sell.
Sir, eighteen years ago last month I sat in these halls and
listened to Jefferson Davis delivering his farewell address,
informing us what our constitutional duties to this government
were, and then he left and entered into the rebellion to overthrow
the government that he had sworn to support! I remained here,
sir, during the whole of that terrible rebellion. I saw our brave
soldiers by thousands and hundreds of thousands, aye, I might say
millions, pass through to the theater of war, and I saw their
shattered ranks return; I saw steamboat after steamboat and
railroad train after railroad train arrive with the maimed and the
wounded; I was with my friend from Rhode Island (Mr. Burnside) when
he commanded the Army of the Potomac, and saw piles of legs and
arms that made humanity shudder; I saw the widow and the orphan in
their homes, and heard the weeping and wailing of those who had
lost their dearest and their best. Mr. President, I little thought
at that time that I should live to hear in the Senate of the United
States eulogies upon Jefferson Davis, living--a living rebel
eulogized on the floor of the Senate of the United States! Sir, I
am amazed to hear it; and I can tell the gentlemen on the other
side that they little know the spirit of the North when they come
here at this day, and, with bravado on their lips, utter eulogies
upon a man whom every man, woman, and child in the North believes
to have been a double-dyed traitor to his government.
[Illustration: SENATOR CHANDLER DENOUNCING THE EULOGIES UPON "JEFF."
DAVIS.
[In the Senate Chamber, at 3 A. M., Monday, March 3, 1879.]]
This speech was made at about the hour of half-past three in the
morning of Monday, March 3, 1879. But few people were in the galleries
at that time, and the Senate had lapsed into a listless state. Mr.
Chandler's bearing as he arose to speak, and the first sentence that
resounded through the Senate Chamber in his strong voice, aroused
instant attention. The spectators above listened with new and eager
interest, Senators came in from the lobbies and cloakrooms, sleep was
shaken off by drowsy _attaches_, and his closing words "a double-dyed
traitor to his government" fell in ringing tones upon an intent
audience and were answered by an applause from the galleries which
the gavel of the presiding officer could not check. His excited
hearers listened eagerly for a reply, but none came. After some
silent waiting the presiding officer stated the pending question,
and was about to put it to vote. Senator Thurman then rose and began
the discussion of another branch of the subject, and no answer was
attempted to Mr. Chandler's just denunciation of the eulogizing of
the man, whose past history and present attitude unite to make him at
once the representative of treason's crimes and the embodiment of its
unrepentant spirit. When the vote was taken, one majority was given
for Mr. Hoar's amendment, and after that result the original amendment
itself was defeated.
This speech was a masterpiece in its way--in its brevity, in its
skillful use of the speaker's early official association with Jefferson
Davis, in its vivid epitome of the history of American treason, and in
the rugged power of its simple language. It most profoundly stirred
the people. It may be said without exaggeration that years had passed
since any Congressional utterance had received such public attention.
Democratic and Southern denunciation of Mr. Chandler followed
abundantly, but this was wholly overshadowed by the enthusiasm of the
response of the patriotic sentiment of the Union to his indignant
refusal to let treason raise its head in insolence without branding it
as it deserved. The Northern press reprinted the speech with unstinted
praise. Public men hastened in person, by telegraph, and through the
mails to tender their congratulations. Letters of fervent thanks poured
in by the hundreds; from utter strangers, from the rich and the humble,
from veteran soldiers, from mothers whose sons were buried on Southern
battle-fields, from the colored men, from the Republicans of the South,
from every State and Territory came the expressions of gratitude for
the utterance given at so opportune a moment and with such force to the
loyal feeling of the republic. It was this spontaneous approval of the
masses of the people that Mr. Chandler especially prized.
On March 18, 1879, the extra session of the Forty-sixth Congress
commenced, and the Democrats made their abortive attempt to force the
repeal of the laws relating to the supervision of national elections by
withholding appropriations. Their reactionary programme (the striking
of the last vestige of the war measures from the statute books was even
threatened) and revolutionary menaces aroused the North, and in the end
they quailed before the rising popular wrath. Mr. Chandler denounced
their schemes vigorously on the floor of the Senate, even charging
explicitly that twelve of the Southern Senators "held their seats by
fraud and violence." He also earnestly opposed all propositions to
compel the unlimited coinage of the silver dollar of 412½ grains, a
measure which would have given to the country a superabundance of
silver currency of depreciated value to the exclusion of gold. His
last Congressional speech was this carefully prepared and forcible
"arraignment of the Democratic party," of which tens of thousands of
copies were circulated throughout the Union in the following campaign:
We have now spent three months and a half in this Capitol, not
without certain results. We have shown to the people of this nation
just what the Democratic party means. The people have been informed
as to your objects, ends, and aims. By fraud and violence, by
shot-guns and tissue ballots, you hold a present majority in both
Houses of Congress, and you have taken an early opportunity to show
what you intend to do with that majority thus obtained. You are
within sight of the promised land, but like Moses of old we propose
to send you up into the mountain to die politically.
Mr. President, we are approaching the end of this extra session,
and its record will soon become history. The acts of the Democratic
party, as manifested in this Congress, justify me in arraigning
it before the loyal people of the United States on the political
issues which it has presented, _as the enemy of the nation_ and as
the author and abettor of rebellion.
1. I arraign the Democratic party for having resorted to
revolutionary measures to carry out its partisan projects, by
attempting to coerce the Executive by withholding supplies, and
thus accomplishing by starvation the destruction of the government
which they had failed to overthrow by arms.
2. I arraign them for having injured the business interests of
the country by forcing the present extra session, after liberal
compromises were tendered to them prior to the close of the last
session.
3. I arraign them for having attempted to throw away the results of
the recent war by again elevating State over National Sovereignty.
We expended $5,000,000,000 and sacrificed more than 300,000
precious lives to put down this heresy and to perpetuate the
_national life_. They surrendered this heresy at Appomattox, but
now they attempt to renew this pretension.
4. I arraign them for having attempted to damage the business
interests of the country by forcing silver coin into circulation,
of less value than it represents, thus swindling the laboring-man
and the producer, by compelling them to accept 85 cents for a
dollar, and thus enriching the bullion-owners at the expense of the
laborer. Four million dollars a day is paid for labor alone, and
by thus attempting to force an 85 cent dollar on the laboring-man
you swindle him daily out of $600,000. Twelve hundred million
dollars are paid yearly for labor alone, and by thus attempting to
force an 85-cent dollar on the laboring-man you swindle him out of
$180,000,000 a year. The amount which the producing class would
lose is absolutely incalculable.
5. I arraign them for having removed without cause experienced
officers and employes of this body, some of whom served and were
wounded in the Union army, and for appointing men who had in the
rebel army attempted to destroy this government.
6. I arraign them for having instituted a secret and illegitimate
tribunal, the edicts of which have been made the supreme governing
power of Congress in defiance of the fundamental principles of the
constitution. The decrees of this junta are known although its
motives are hidden.
7. I arraign them for having held up for public admiration that
arch-rebel, Jefferson Davis, declaring that he was inspired by
motives as sacred and as noble as animated Washington; and as
having rendered services in attempting to destroy the Union which
will equal in history Grecian fame and Roman glory. [Laughter on
the Democratic side and in portions of the galleries.] You can
laugh. The people of the North will make you laugh on the other
side of your faces!
8. I arraign them for having undertaken to blot from the
statute-book of the nation wise laws, rendered necessary by the war
and its results, and insuring "life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" to the emancipated freedmen, who are now so bulldozed
and ku-kluxed that they are seeking peace in exile, although urged
to remain by shot-guns.
9. I arraign them for having attempted to repeal the wise
legislation which excludes those who served under the rebel flag
from holding commissions in the army and navy of the United States.
10. I arraign them for having introduced a large amount of
legislation for the exclusive benefit of the States recently in
rebellion, which, if enacted, would bankrupt the national Treasury.
11. I arraign them for having conspired to destroy all that the
Republican party has accomplished. Many of them breaking their
oaths of allegiance to the United States and pledging their
lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors to overthrow this
government, they failed, and thus lost all they pledged.
_Call a halt._ The days of vaporing are over. The loyal North is
aroused and their doom is sealed.
I accept the issue on these arraignments distinctly and
specifically before the citizens of this great republic. As a
Senator of the United States and as a citizen of the United States,
I appeal to the people. It is for those citizens to say who is
right and who is wrong. I go before that tribunal confident that
the Republican party is right and that the Democratic party is
wrong.
They have made these issues; not we; and by them they must stand or
fall. This is the platform which they have constructed, not only
for 1879 but for 1880. They cannot change it, for we will hold them
to it. They have made their bed, and we will see to it that they
lie thereon.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] The Michigan Republicans have done well. Their platform has about
it the clear ring of honest conviction, undulled by any half-hearted
and halting compromise. So lucid and courageous an enunciation of
the financial creed of the Republican party has certainly not been
made this year, nor has the irreconcilable hostility of the party to
all forms of tampering with public credit and national honor been so
resolutely and judiciously stated as by the Detroit Convention.--_New
York Times, June 14, 1878._