THE CENTENNIAL GLORY.
The Centennial year of the Republic was ushered in at Washington
with unusual rejoicings, although the weather was damp and foggy.
There were nocturnal services in several of the Episcopal churches
and watch meetings at the Methodist churches. Several of the
temperance organizations continued in session until after midnight,
and there was much social visiting. Just before twelve o'clock,
the chime of bells of the Metropolitan Methodist church played
"Pleyel's Hymn." The fire-alarm bells then stuck 1-7-7-6 a few
moments later, and as the Observatory clock sounded the hour of
twelve, the fire-alarm bells struck 1-8-7-6; at the same moment
the brilliant light in the tholus which surmounts the dome of the
Capitol was lighted by electricity, casting its beams over the
entire metropolis. A battery of light artillery, stationed on the
Armory lot, thundered forth a national salute of thirty-seven guns.
The Metropolitan bells chimed a national centennial march, introducing
the favorite tunes of this and other nations, and there was general
ringing of bells, large and small, with firing of pistols and
blowing of horns. There were similar demonstrations at Alexandria
and at Georgetown, and the ceremonies at the White House were in
accordance with time-honored usage.
The first entertainment ever given in Washington to an Emperor and
Empress was at the British Legation, early in June, 1876, when Sir
Edward and Lady Thornton entertained Dom Pedro and Donna Teresa,
of Brazil. The spacious hall, the grand staircase, and the drawing-
rooms of the Legation were profusely ornamented with flowers, a
life-sized portrait of Victoria I, Empress of India and Queen of
England, which faced the staircase, apparently welcoming the guests.
Many of those invited had been on an excursion to Mount Vernon and
did not arrive until eleven o'clock.
The ladies' dresses were very elaborate. The Empress wore a vert
d'eau silk trained skirt and basque high at the back and cut V-
shape in front, the sleeves long; the rarest point lace nearly
covered both skirt and basque, set on in successive rows, headed
with plaits of the material; a broad black velvet ribbon, from
which depended a pendant thickly studded with large diamonds,
encircled her throat. She wore large diamond ear-rings, and her
light-brown hair was combed down on her face, parted through the
middle, and covering her ears, a Grecian knot confining her hair
at the back of her head.
Lady Thornton wore a white satin trained skirt and basque, trimmed
with puffings of tulle, held in place by bands and bows of the
darkest shade of ruby velvet, interspersed with fine white flowers.
The Misses Thornton wore charming gowns of Paris muslin and
Valenciennes lace, relieved with bows of pink gros grain ribbons.
Mme. Borges, the wife of the Brazilian Minister, wore a mauve silk
gown, trimmed with lace, and very large diamonds. Countess Hayas,
the wife of the Austrian Minister, wore Paris muslin and Valenciennes
lace over pale blue silk, which was very becoming to her blonde
complexion and youthful face and form, and a profusion of diamonds.
The lately arrived Minister from Sweden, Count Lewenhaupt, was
present with his wife, whose dress of the thickest, most lustrous
satin of a peach-blossom tint, covered with deep falls of point
lace, was very elegant. Mrs. Franklin Kinney wore a rich mauve
satin beneath point applique lace. Mme. Berghmann wore black silk,
embroidered in wreaths of invisible purple, and trimmed with Brussels
lace. Mrs. Field wore a very becoming vert d'eau silk, handsomely
made and trimmed. Mrs. Willis, the wife of the New York Representative,
wore white muslin and Valenciennes lace. Her sister, Mrs. Godfrey,
wore a similar toilet, and the two ladies attracted universal
attention by their beauty and grace. Mrs. Sharpe was very becomingly
dressed in white muslin, trimmed with Valenciennes lace and worn
over a colored silk. Miss Dodge (Gail Hamilton), over ivory-tinted
silk wore the same tint of damasquine.
Supper was served at midnight, and afterward many of the guests
were presented to Dom Pedro and Donna Teresa in an informal manner,
for the Emperor was, according to his usual custom, wandering about
talking to whom he pleased, and the Empress, not being very strong,
sat upon a sofa and talked pleasantly with all who were introduced
to her.
The Imperial party had rooms at the Arlington Hotel, and the Emperor
proved himself to be an indefatigable sight-seer, keeping on the
move from morning until night. He would not permit his dinner to
be served in courses, but had everything put on the table at the
same time, as he could devote only thirty minutes to his repast.
The proceedings of the National Republican Convention, at Cincinnati,
had naturally been regarded with deep interest at Washington, and
the excitement was intense when, on the Sunday prior to the meeting,
it was announced that Mr. Blaine had been stricken by illness on
his way to church. He became unconscious, and on being carried
home was for some hours in an apparently critical condition, at
times hardly able to breathe and unable to take the restoratives
administered by his physicians. His condition was pronounced one
of simple cerebral depression, produced primarily by great mental
strain, and, secondarily, by the action of excessive heat. There
was no apoplectic congestion or effusion, nor any symptoms of
paralysis.
The news of Mr. Blaine's illness was telegraphed to Cincinnati,
and undoubtedly had an unfavorable effect upon the Convention.
Mr. Blaine, nevertheless, had gradually gained votes, until on the
second day of the Convention he was within a few votes of the
coveted prize. The shadows were settling down on the excited crowd,
the tellers found it getting too dark to do their work, and gas
was demanded. The Blaine men, in an ungovernable frenzy, were
determined to resist every effort at adjournment, while the combined
opposition were equally bent on postponement in order to kill off
Blaine. Then it was that a well-known citizen of Cincinnati sprang
to the platform, waved his hat at the Chairman, and during a moment's
lull in the fearful suspense made the crushing statement that the
building was not supplied with gas. Candles were asked for, but
the anti-Blainites had received their cue, and before the Blaine
lines could be reformed they carried an adjournment by stampede.
Political lies in this country are presumably white lies, but they
are seldom followed with such tremendous results. Delay enabled
the opposition to mass its forces against the favorite, and Hayes,
instead of Blaine, passed the next four years in the White House.
Nothing could have been more certain in this world than the nomination
of Blaine on that eventful evening, if the same gas which burned
brightly enough twenty-four hours later for a Hayes' jubilee meeting
had not been choked off at a more critical time.
Washington was wild with excitement immediately after the Presidential
election. The returns received late on Tuesday night indicated
the election of Mr. Tilden, and even the Republican newspapers
announced on the following morning the result as doubtful. Senator
Chandler, who was at New York, was the only confident Republican,
and he telegraphed to the Capitol, "Hayes has one hundred and eighty-
five votes and is elected." He also telegraphed to General Grant
recommending the concentration of United States troops at the
Southern capitals to insure a fair count. General Grant at once
ordered General Sherman to instruct the commanding generals in
Louisiana and Florida to be vigilant with the forces at their
command to preserve peace and good order, and to see that the proper
and legal boards of canvassers were unmolested in the performance
of their duties. "Should there be," said he, "any grounds of
suspicion of fraudulent count on either side, it should be reported
and denounced at once. No man worthy of the office of President
should be willing to hold it if counted in or placed there by fraud.
Either party can afford to be disappointed by the result. The
country cannot afford to have the result tainted by the suspicion
of illegal or false returns."
Some were disposed to wait, with as much patience and good-humor
as they could command, the news from the pivotal States, while
others shouted frantically about fraud. A number of leading
politicians were sent by each party to the State capitals, where
the National interest was concentrated, and the telegraph wires
vibrated with political despatches, many of them in cipher. Senator
Morrill was requested by the Rothschilds to telegraph them who was
elected President at as early a time as was convenient. He replied
on Wednesday that the canvass was close, with the chances in favor
of Tilden; but on Friday he telegraphed again that Hayes was probably
elected.
The political telegrams sent over the Western Union wires during
the Tilden-Hayes campaign were subsequently surrendered by President
Orton, of that company, to the Senate Committee on Privileges and
Elections. It was asserted that those likely to prove prejudicial
to Republicans were destroyed, and those damaging to Democrats were
clandestinely conveyed to a New York paper for publication. These
political telegrams showed that the intimate friends of Mr. Tilden
were guilty of an attempt to secure the Presidential elections in
several States by the use of money. The translation of these
cryptogramic messages by a working journalist, and their publication
in the New York _Tribune_, was a great success, as it made clear
what had previously been unintelligible. When a Committee of the
House of Representatives undertook to investigate these cipher
telegrams, the principal witness was Colonel Pelton, the nephew
and private secretary of Mr. Tilden. His testimony was given in
an apparently frank and straightforward manner, though he occasionally
seemed perplexed, pondered, and hesitated. He had a loud, hard,
and rather grating voice, and delivered his answers with a quick,
jerky, nervous utterance, which often jumbled his words so as to
render them partially inaudible. Colonel Pelton's tone in reply
to the questions propounded to him during the examination-in-chief
was loud and emphatic, as though he wanted all the world to understand
that he was perfectly ready to answer every question put by the
Committee. He sat easily, either throwing one leg over the other,
facing the Chairman, or picking his teeth, or blinking his eyes
hard, which was one of his peculiar habits, as he kept examining
the photo-lithographed copies of the cipher telegrams and the
_Tribune_ compilation before him. Sometimes Colonel Pelton's blunt
confessions were of such astounding frankness as to elicit an
audible whisper and commotion, what the French call a "sensation,"
among the listeners.
Colonel Pelton's loud voice sank very low, and his easy, nonchalant
attitude changed very perceptibly, when Messrs. Reed and Hiscock,
the Republican members, took him in hand and subjected him to one
of the most merciless cross-examinations ever heard in a committee
room. The two keen cross-questioners evidently started out with
the determined purpose to tear Colonel Pelton's testimony to pieces,
and to literally not leave a shred behind worthy of credibility.
The respective "points" scored by the Republicans and the Democratic
members of the Committee elicited such loud applause on the part
of the auditors as to turn for the time the cross-examination into
a regular theatrical exhibition. The cipher despatches confirmed
the opinion at Washington that Mr. Tilden spent a great deal of
money to secure his nomination, and much more during and after the
campaign.
Disappointed politicians and place-hunters among the Democrats
talked wildly about inaugurating Mr. Tilden by force, while some
Republicans declared that General Grant would assume to hold over
until a new election could be ordered. General Grant made no secret
of his conviction that Mr. Hayes had been lawfully elected, and he
would undoubtedly have put down any revolutionary movement against
his assuming the Chief Magistracy on the 4th of March, but there
is no evidence that he intended to hold over. Neither did the
Republican leaders in the Senate and House intend that he should
hold over, in any contingency. There were Republican Congressmen,
however, who intended to elect Senator Morton President _pro tempore_
of the Senate, and, in the event of a failure to have a formal
declaration of Mr. Hayes' election in the joint Convention, to have
had Senator Morton declared President of the United States.
Meanwhile, it was positively asserted, and never authoritatively
denied, that a compact had been entered into between representatives
of Southern Congressmen and the authorized friends of Mr. Hayes at
Wormley's Hotel, in Washington, by which it was agreed that the
Union troops were to be withdrawn from the South in consideration
of the neutrality of the Southern vote in Congress on all questions
involving the inauguration of Mr. Hayes as President of the United
States.
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JamesGBlaine
JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
January 31st, 1830; adopted the editorial profession; was a member
of the Maine Legislature, 1859-1862; was a Representative from
Maine, 1863-1876; was United States Senator from Maine, 1876-1880;
was Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield and Arthur, March
5th, 1881 - December 12th, 1881; was nominated for President by
the Republican Convention, at Chicago, June 3d-6th, 1884, and was
defeated.