HIS FIRST ADMINISTRATION
Immediately after General Grant's inauguration as President, an incident
occurred which revealed his inexperience in statesmanship. Among the
names sent to the Senate as members of the cabinet was that of Alexander
T. Stewart, of New York, the leading merchant of the country, for
Secretary of the Treasury. Grant was unaware of the existence of his
disqualification by a statute passed in 1789, on account of being
engaged in trade and commerce. His ignorance is hardly surprising in
view of the fact that the Senate confirmed the nomination without
discovering its illegality. The point was soon made, however, and the
reasonableness of the law was apparent to all except the President, who
sent a message to the Senate suggesting that Mr. Stewart be exempted
from its application to him by a joint resolution of Congress. This
breaking down of a sound principle of government for the pleasure of the
President was not favored, and George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts was
substituted, Mr. Stewart having declined, in order to relieve the
President of embarrassment.
For the rest, the cabinet was a peculiar one. It appeared to be made up
without consultation or political sagacity, in accordance with the
personal reasons by which a general selects his staff. Elihu B.
Washburn, of Illinois, his firm congressional friend during the war, was
Secretary of State; General Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, Secretary of the
Interior; Adolph E. Boise, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Navy;
General John M. Schofield, of Illinois, Secretary of War; John A. J.
Cresswell, of Maryland, Postmaster-General; and E. Rockwood Hoar, of
Massachusetts, Attorney-General. It did not long endure in this form.
Mr. Washburn was soon appointed Minister to France, and was succeeded by
Hamilton Fish, of New York, in the State Department. General Schofield
was succeeded in the War Department by General John A. Rawlins, who died
in September, and was succeeded by General William W. Belknap, of Iowa.
Mr. Boise gave way in June to George M. Robeson, of New Jersey. In July,
1870, Mr. Hoar was succeeded by A. T. Akerman, of Georgia, and he, in
December, 1871, by George H. Williams, of Oregon. General Cox resigned
in November, 1870, and was succeeded by Columbus Delano. Some of these
changes, like that of Washburn to Fish, were good ones, and many of them
were exceedingly bad ones,--men of high character and ability, like
Judge Hoar and General Cox, conscientious and faithful even to the point
of remonstrance with their headstrong chief, being succeeded by
compliant men of a distinctly lower strain. Fish and Boutwell achieved
high reputation by their conduct of their offices. The death of Rawlins
deprived the President of a wise and staunch personal friend at a time
when he was never more in need of his controlling influence.
Early in 1871 the work of reconstruction was completed, so far as the
establishment of State governments and representation in Congress was
concerned. But later in the year, the outrages upon the colored
population in certain States were so general and cruel that Congress
passed what became known as the "Ku-Klux Act," which was followed by a
presidential proclamation exhorting to obedience of the law. On October
17, the outrages continuing, suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was
proclaimed in certain counties of South Carolina, and many offenders
were convicted in the United States courts. This severe proceeding had a
deterring influence throughout the South, which understood quite well
that General Grant was not a person to be defied with impunity.
In 1870 he sent to the Senate a treaty that the administration had
negotiated with President Baez for the annexation of Santo Domingo as a
territory of the United States, and also one for leasing to the United
States the peninsula and bay of Samana. These treaties, it was said,
had already been ratified by a popular vote early in 1870. The scheme
precipitated a conflict that divided the Republican party into
administration and anti-administration factions, the latter being led by
Charles Sumner and Carl Schurz. Sumner had long been chairman of the
Senate committee on foreign relations, but he was degraded through the
influence of the President's friends in the Senate. Bitter personal
animosities were aroused in this contest which never were healed. It was
alleged that the sentiment of the people of Santo Domingo had not been
fairly taken, and that they were in fact opposed to annexation. A
commission composed of B. F. Wade, of Ohio, Andrew D. White, of New
York, and Samuel G. Howe, of Massachusetts, was sent on a naval vessel
to investigate the actual conditions. This committee reported in favor
of annexation; but the hostile sentiment in Congress and among the
people was so strong that the treaties were never ratified. By many it
was considered a wrong to the colored race to so extinguish the
experiment of negro self-government. Others were opposed to annexing
such a population, thinking this country already had race troubles
enough. Others regarded the whole business as a speculation of jobbers,
and the stain of jobbery then pervading government circles was so
notorious that the presumption was not without warrant. The annexation
scheme brought to a head and gave occasion for an outbreak of indignant
hostile criticism of the President and the administration.
In this term Grant appointed the first board of civil service
commissioners, with George William Curtis at its head. The commissioners
were to inquire into the condition of the civil service and devise a
scheme to increase its efficiency. This they did; but later the
President himself balked at the enforcement of their rules, and, in
1873, Mr. Curtis resigned.
The most conspicuous achievement of General Grant's first term was the
settlement of the controversy with Great Britain growing out of the
destruction of American commerce by Confederate States cruisers during
the war. A joint high commission of five British and five American
members met in Washington, February 17, 1871, and on May 8 a treaty was
completed and signed, providing peaceable means for a settlement of the
several questions arising out of the coast fisheries, the northwestern
boundary line, and the "Alabama Claims." The last and most important
subject was referred to an international court of arbitration, which met
at Geneva, Switzerland, and on September 14, 1872, awarded to the United
States a gross sum of $15,500,000, which was paid by Great Britain. This
was the most important international issue that had ever been settled by
voluntary submission to arbitration. It was long regarded as the
harbinger of peace between nations.
Other important things done were the establishment of the first weather
bureau; the honorable settlement of the outrage of Spain in the case of
the Virginius, an alleged filibustering vessel which Spain seized,
executing a large part of its crew in Cuba; and the settlement of the
northwest boundary question. It should be said also that the President
made a firm stand in behalf of national financial integrity.
But during the four years there was a steady deterioration in the tone
of official life, and a steady growth of corruption and abuses in the
administration of government. The President exhibited a strange lack of
moral perception and stamina in the sphere of politics. Unprincipled
flatterers, adventurers, and speculators gained a surprising influence
with him. His native obstinacy showed itself especially in insistence
upon his personal, ill-instructed will. He became intractable to
counsels of wisdom, and seemed to be a radically different man from the
sincere, modest soldier of the civil war. He affected the society of the
rich, whom he never before had opportunity of knowing. He accepted with
an indiscreet eagerness presents and particular favors from persons of
whose motives he should have been suspicious. Jay Gould and James Fisk
used him in preparing the conditions for the corner of the gold market
that culminated in "Black Friday." He provided fat offices for his
relatives with a liberal hand, and prostituted the civil service to
accomplish his aims and reward his supporters.
In consequence of these things there was great disaffection in the
Republican party, which culminated in open revolt. Yet he was supported
by the majority. The Democratic party, meantime, making a virtue of
necessity, proclaimed a purpose to accept the results of the war,
including the constitutional amendments, as accomplished facts not to be
disturbed or further opposed. This made an opportunity for a union of
all elements opposed to the reëlection of Grant, leading Democrats
having given assurance of support to a candidate to be nominated by what
had come to be called the "Liberal Reform" party. That party held its
convention in Cincinnati early in May, and named Horace Greeley as its
candidate, a nomination which wrecked whatever chance the party had
seemed to have. Grant was renominated by acclamation in the Republican
convention. The Democratic convention nominated Greeley on the
Cincinnati convention platform, but without enthusiasm. General Grant
was elected by a popular majority of more than three quarters of a
million, and a vote in the electoral college of 286 to 63 for all
others, the opposing vote being scattered on account of the death of Mr.
Greeley in November, soon after his mortifying defeat.