CHANGES AND DISSENSIONS.
The Senate, which met in executive session when General Garfield
was inaugurated, showed many changes. Vice-President Wheeler, who
had served in Congress long and well, was replaced by General
Arthur, whose war record in the State of New York had won him many
friends. Senators Allen Thurman and Matt. Carpenter were missed
by their legal friends, but among the new Senators was the ponderous
David Davis, "learned in the law." General Hawley replaced Mr.
Eaton, and with him there came from the House Messrs. Conger,
Mitchell, and Hale. One of the silver kings of the Pacific slope,
Mr. Fair, of Nevada, was naturally an object of attention.
As chosen, the Republicans had a majority in the Senate, but the
transfer of Messrs. Blaine, Windom, and Kirkwood to the Cabinet
gave the Democrats a temporary ascendency. The arrival of Mr.
Frye, elected as the successor of Mr. Blaine, and of Mr. McDill,
appointed as the successor of Mr. Kirkwood, secured a tie, and the
casting vote of Vice-President Arthur enabled the Republicans to
secure the control of the committees. The caucus of Republican
Senators nominated Senator Anthony for President _pro tempore_ when
the Vice-President should vacate the chair; George C. Gorham for
Secretary, and Harrison H. Riddleberger, Sergeant-at-Arms. The
Democratic Senators refused to permit the election of Messrs. Gorham
and Riddleberger, and as seven Senators could at any time prevent
action by motions to adjourn, a dead-lock ensued, which lasted from
March 23d until May 10th, when the Republicans gracefully surrendered,
permitting the Democratic officers of the Senate to retain their
places.
Meanwhile there was trouble among the Republican Senators, caused
by the rival factions in the State of New York. Early in March
several nominations of men who were ostensibly supporters of Mr.
Conkling were made unexpectedly to him, and a day or two later the
Senate was treated to a genuine surprise in the nomination of W. H.
Robertson to be Collector of the Port of New York. The astonishment
could not have been greater if the name of Samuel J. Tilden had
been sent in. No intimation of such an intention had leaked out.
Neither Arthur, Conkling, nor Platt dreamed of such a thing. It
was a square blow at Conkling, at the very time when he and his
friends were congratulating themselves as being on top. When Vice-
President Arthur opened the list of nominations in the Senate, his
eye lit first upon the name of Robertson for Collector. He turned
the paper down so as to leave that name uppermost, and sent it to
Senator Conkling. The latter, upon glancing at it, walked rapidly
over to Senator Platt, showed it to him, and they held a whispered
conference. After the Senate adjourned, it was learned that the
nomination was especially objectionable to them.
It was subsequently stated that in New York city the preceding
summer, at Mentor the previous February, and at the White House on
the Sunday night before the Wednesday on which Judge Robertson's
nomination was sent to the Senate, General Garfield had agreed not
to make any appointments for New York unless they were satisfactory
to the Republican organization of that State, and that they were
to be submitted to the Vice-President and the two Senators from
that State. At the interview held on the Sunday night previous to
the nomination of Judge Robertson, Senator Conkling had especially
objected to having him in the New York Custom House, yet if the
President should nominate him to a foreign mission, he would go
out in the lobby and hold his nose while the Senate confirmed him.
The objectionable nomination was, however, made, and it was
immediately evident that it meant war between the Garfield
Administration and Senator Conkling. The next day, while the Senate
was in executive session, the President's secretary appeared at
the door with a communication, which was handed to the Vice-President,
and by him to the Executive Clerk, and read. When it arrived
Conkling was sitting at his own desk, buried in a voluminous letter.
He never raised his eyes from his letter, nor moved a muscle of
his face or body while the Clerk monotonously read the momentous
message, withdrawing, not Robertson, but all the nominations of
men for the leading New York offices who were acceptable to the
Senator. The arrow went home, of course, but the wounded one
betrayed no sign of pain.
The nomination was referred to the Committee on Commerce, of which
Mr. Conkling was chairman, and was there pigeon-holed until issue
on it was squarely made in the Senate and in the Republican party.
Republican Senators, who visited the White House or the Departments
in search of offices for their henchmen, were plainly told that
their votes in favor of the confirmation of Judge Robertson's
nomination would be expected. The Democratic Senators were also
looked after, and among other means resorted to in order to disarm
their opposition was a letter signed by every Democratic member of
the New York Legislature, addressed to Senator Pendleton, chairman
of the Senatorial caucus, urging the confirmation of Judge Robertson.
It would make an Administration and an anti-Administration faction
in New York Republicanism, and would secure the State to the
Democrats.
Senator Conkling was not idle, and he appealed to the "Senatorial
courtesy" of those around him to defeat the obnoxious nomination,
but in vain. Senator Jones, of Nevada, and a half-dozen Democrats
were all the strength that he could command, and the nomination of
Judge Robertson was confirmed. Senator Conkling immediately left
the Senate, taking his colleague, Senator Platt, with him, and they
appealed to the Legislature of the State of New York, expecting
that they would be triumphantly re-elected, and, thus indorsed,
would return to the Senate with flying colors, conquering and to
conquer.
The exodus of Senators Conkling and Platt left the Republican
Senators again in a minority, and as it was evident that Senator
Davis would not aid in electing Senator Anthony President _pro
tem._, Vice-President Arthur did not vacate the chair prior to the
close of the session, and thus render it necessary to elect a
temporary presiding officer.
The most noticeable event of the executive session was a three
hours' speech by Senator Mahone, of Virginia, in reply to bitter
personal attacks that had been made on him by the Democrats since
he had acted with the Republicans. No speech for years had attracted
a greater audience, even the diplomatic gallery being crowded.
Prominent among the many ladies present were Mrs. Secretary Blaine
and Mrs. Kate Chase Sprague, accompanied by her three young daughters.
The Supreme Court was present in a body, having adjourned on account
of the funeral in the family of Justice Field. Representatives,
still hunting for office, abandoned the White House for once, while
each Senator seemed to have a score of secretaries, so many persons
being admitted upon secretaries' cards. The Speaker was surrounded
by Anthony, Morrill, Allison, Conger, and other leading Republicans.
On the opposite side was Davis, of West Virginia, with a snowy
white spot on his dark chin beard. Wade Hampton's military waxed
moustache and haughty countenance was beside the genial face of
Senator Pendleton, and next came the sagacious round head of Senator
Beck, with close-cut, curling hair. Ingalls, of Kansas, a tall,
slim collegian--"the bluejay of the plains"--clad in blue from head
to foot, and with a bright blue ribbon encircling his slender
throat, stood somewhat back of the seats. Senator Voorhees' form
towered in the shadow of the cloak-room. Senator Conkling, who
had not yet left the Senate, "_Fier d'etre moi_," sat in the middle
aisle, dressed in a mixed brown business suit, with a bit of red
handkerchief showing above the breast pocket.
Senator Mahone was just recovering from a temporary indisposition,
and his voice was faint and thin, but his bearing was defiant as
he rose, with his pointed beard streaming over his breast, and
adjusted his gold-rimmed eye-glasses. A mass of public documents
and newspapers were piled on his desk, with an ominous display of
cut lemons, showing that he expected to be compelled to strengthen
his voice. His weight at that time was but ninety pounds, and
those ninety pounds must have been composed of brain and voice and
sinew, for, notwithstanding his evident feebleness, he spoke calmly
and earnestly for three hours. As for the speech, those who came
expecting to witness a renewal of the outburst of passion and
invective which characterized his first appearance in the Senate,
when he made his impromptu, eloquent reply to the savage assaults
of Senator Ben. Hill, of Georgia, went away disappointed. There
was very little that was personal in his speech, but there was
enough to show that the Virginia Senator intended on all occasions
to take care of himself, and that it would be wise for the Bourbons
to forego personalities in their future debates with him. Those
who came to hear a careful explanation of the debt question in
Virginia, as it was understood by the Refunders, and to listen to
an exposition of the opposition to Bourbonism, of which General
Mahone was a leader, went away enlightened, if not fully satisfied.
The speech was not intended as a philippic; it was designed as a
careful exposition of the Virginia debt question, as an argument
in support of the Readjuster party, and an arraignment of the
Bourbons. It was one of the old style, solid political speeches,
customary with Southern orators, which were much sought and generally
read in the cross-roads counties of the Old Dominion, where the
telegraph and the newspapers had usurped the ancient functions of
the _Congressional Record_.
Senator Mahone indicated, possibly, a line for future aggressive
debate in the Senate when he called upon the leaders of the different
schools of finance and tariff in the Democratic party to stand up
and tell him who was the leader of the party. He was unable to
say whether it was the stalwart Greenbacker, Mr. Voorhees, the
stalwart hard-money man, Mr. Bayard, or the author of the Ohio
idea, Mr. Pendleton, and he called upon Mr. Voorhees, whose silver
eloquence, he said, he had heard could make the water of the Wabash
run backward, to answer the inquiry at his leisure. The general
assaults upon him personally Senator Mahone repelled by a disclaimer
and the Scotch quotation ending,
"If thou sayest I am not peer,
To any lord of Scotland here,
Highland or Lowland, far or near,
Lord Angus, thou hast lied."
In conclusion, Senator Mahone declared to him and to those who
supported him the Solid South had become a mere geographical
expression, that he and they stood for the right of freemen, and
that he, in the name of the brave men who stood behind him, would
guarantee to the North that thereafter in Virginia there should be
a full and free ballot and an honest count.
President Garfield's first appearance in public after his inauguration
was at the unveiling of the statue of Farragut, which was the work
of his protege, Mrs. Vinnie Ream Hoxie. A procession was formed
at the Capitol, and was headed by Commodore Baldwin, as Grand
Marshal, with the Naval School Cadets as an escort. The naval
division, commanded by Captain Meade, included the battalion of
marines and band, two infantry battalions of sailors and bands,
and a battalion of naval light artillery, dragging their howitzers.
The army division, commanded by Colonel Pennington, included the
Second Artillery band, four batteries of artillery armed and equipped
as infantry, and a light battery. The militia division, commanded
by Colonel Webster, included the volunteer infantry companies of
Washington, white and colored, with a battery of artillery.
The procession marched to the statue, where seats had been provided
for invited guests. When the troops had been massed near by, Rev.
Arthur Brooks offered prayer, and the canvas covering was then
removed from the statue by Quartermaster Knowles, of the navy, who
was ordered by the executive officer of the Hartford to follow
Farragut up the shrouds during the engagement in Mobile Bay, and
to lash him to the rigging, which he did. Bartholomew Diggins,
who was captain of Farragut's barge, then hoisted the Admiral's
flag on a mast planted near the pedestal, the drums beat four
ruffles, the trumpets sounded four flourishes, the Marine Band
played a march, and an Admiral's salute of seventeen guns was fired
from a naval battery, the troops presenting arms at the first gun
and coming to a "carry" at the last.
Brief addresses were then delivered in turn by President Garfield,
Horace Maynard, and Senator Voorhees. The Marine Band played "Hail
to the Chief," and was followed by an Admiral's salute of seventeen
guns, during which the troops presented arms, drums beat, trumpets
sounded, and bands played, and at last gun the Admiral's flag was
hauled down. The column then re-formed and marched in review before
the President at the Executive Mansion.
President Garfield, later in the spring, conferred the degrees at
the College for Deaf Mutes at Kendall Green, just north of Washington.
The graduates delivered addresses in sign language, while one of
the College professors read their remarks from manuscript, very
few of the audience understanding the gestured speech. The President
concluded a neat little address by saying: "During many years of
political life in one way or another, I always looked upon this
place as a neutral ground, where we all, no matter what the political
differences were, could meet, all trying to make this institution
worthy the capital, and I hope to see this unchanged by any political
vicissitudes that can happen."
President Garfield showed deep practical interest in all educational
measures. He had learned by his own experiences how rough the road
to literary eminence may be. He had received for himself when a
boy the slender aid of a winter school in a country district; he
had fed his early mental cravings with the narrow store of borrowed
books in a rural section; but he had studied diligently and worked
hard to enter college and to graduate, and his subsequent life for
many years was one of unintermitted mental toil. No wonder,
therefore, that institutions of learning received his constant
attention.
[Facsimile]
DavidDavis
DAVID DAVIS was born in Cecil County, Maryland, March 9th, 1815;
was graduated from Kenyon College in 1832; studied law at the New
Haven Law School; was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice
at Bloomington, Illinois, in 1836; was Judge of an Illinois Circuit
Court, 1848-1862; was appointed by President Lincoln a Judge of
the Supreme Court of the United States in October, 1862, and served
until March 5th, 1877, when he resigned to take his seat as United
States Senator from Illinois; when Vice-President Arthur became
President he was chosen President _pro tempore_ of the Senate, and
served until March 3d, 1883, and died at Bloomington, Illinois,
June 26th, 1886.