demands for the punishment of all those prominently engaged in the
Rebellion. His favorite declaration was that “treason must be made
odious.” It was not long, however, until his views were materially
changed, and he gradually drifted into entire sympathy with the South
and aggressively against the policy of the Republicans in Congress.
It was this conflict between the Executive and the legislative powers
of the Government that led to the radical policy of reconstruction
and the wholesale enfranchisement of the colored voters of the South.
All the reconstruction measures were vetoed by the President and
passed over his veto by the Senate and House, and the issue grew more
and more in bitterness until it culminated in the impeachment of
Johnson, in which he escaped conviction by a single vote. Grant and
Johnson had an acrimonious dispute when Grant, as Secretary of War _ad
interim_, admitted Stanton back to the office after the Senate had
refused to approve his removal by the President, and from that time
Grant and Johnson never met or exchanged courtesies on any other than
official occasions, where the necessity for it was imperative. When
the arrangements were about to be made for the inauguration of Grant,
he peremptorily refused to permit President Johnson to accompany him
in the carriage to the Capitol for the inauguration ceremonies, and
Johnson did not make his appearance on that occasion.
I never met President Johnson but once during his term in the White
House. I had met him casually before and during the war, but cherished
a strong prejudice against him as an arch demagogue because of a
debate between him and Senator Bell, his colleague from Tennessee,
that I happened to hear in the Senate. Bell was one of the ablest and
most dignified of Senators, and I never witnessed a more offensive
exhibition of the studied arts of the demagogue than Johnson displayed
in that Senatorial controversy. It was on some phase of the sectional
issue, and Bell’s exalted patriotism and manly plea for union and
fellowship contrasted with Johnson as the soaring eagle contrasts with
the mousing owl. I had voted for his nomination for Vice-President
in the Republican convention of 1864, because I surrendered my own
preferences to considerations of expediency presented by Lincoln.
When he made the disgraceful exhibition of himself on inauguration
day as he appeared as Vice-President in the Senate, I published an
editorial in my Chambersburg paper denouncing Johnson as having
offended against the dignity and decency not only of our own
Government, but of civilized governments throughout the world, and
demanded his resignation. Little more than a month thereafter he
became President, and a troop of new friends flocked about him. It is
needless to say that he was soon advised of the severe criticism I had
made upon the inauguration address. I did not see or hear from him or
communicate with him in any way until the early fall, when Governor
Curtin informed me that he had received a request from the President
for Curtin and myself to visit him at Washington. My answer to Curtin
was that as he was in an official position it was probably his duty
to regard a request from the President as a command, but as I was not
anybody of consequence, I would not go. Within a fortnight a second and
more pressing request was made to Curtin for us to come to Washington
to confer with the President on the political situation. Curtin felt
that we should go. He thought it possible that Johnson might yet be
saved from political apostasy, although I had no confidence whatever in
the future of the administration, judging from the surroundings he had
invited, but I accompanied the Governor to Washington and called upon
the President.
At that time Johnson had attempted and largely carried out a scheme
of reconstruction of his own, that had gradually drifted him into
very close and sympathetic relations with the ruling class of the
South that had been active in rebellion. He had appointed provisional
Governors, Legislatures had been chosen, Congressmen and Senators had
been elected to some extent, and I was utterly surprised to find the
President entirely confident that his scheme of reconstruction would
be sanctioned by Congress. I was well informed by conference with the
leading Republicans of the North as to the policy they would pursue
in Congress, and I knew that there was not the shadow of a chance for
any of his reconstructed States to be readmitted into the Union on the
basis of his policy.
Curtin’s more responsible official position and general distrust made
him quite willing to avoid discussion with the President, who opened
the conversation by an earnest appeal to us to give tranquillity to the
country and renewed prosperity to business by accepting his method of
reconstruction, that he always spoke of as “my policy.” I answered by
stating that it would be simply a waste of time and effort to attempt
to maintain his policy, as not a single Senator and Representative then
elected to the next Congress, or to be elected thereafter by Southern
States as then reconstructed, would be admitted into Congress. He
seemed to be utterly amazed at the audacity of such a declaration, and
informed me in the most imperious and insolent manner that every State
would be restored to the Union and to representation in the coming
Congress. I told him that he was suffering from the common misfortune
of power in seldom hearing the truth. He exhibited much irritation,
and several times walked the full length of the Executive Chamber with
rapid step, apparently to get cooling time for his passion. He finally
tempered the discussion by more courteous expression, and we went over
the whole ground with rugged frankness on both sides, ending in the
disagreement on which we had started.
I then asked him what he proposed to do with Jefferson Davis, who was
still in prison at Fortress Monroe, charged with complicity in the
assassination of Lincoln. I saw that he was much embarrassed by the
inquiry, and told him that he owed it to the truth of history, to Davis
himself and to public justice to give him a fair trial. I reminded him
also that Wurz, who had just been tried by a court-martial for wanton
and murderous brutality to the Union prisoners, with the judgment
in the case then in the hands of the Government, but not announced,
would be condemned and executed, as he was poor and friendless. I
said that if Wurz was guilty of studied brutality to prisoners he
deserved to die, but that if he was simply executing the policy of
the government of the Confederacy, as was then publicly charged, of
deliberately and systematically murdering Union prisoners by giving
them unwholesome or insufficient food, and withholding the necessary
and possible attention to the sick and dying, the responsible criminal
was Jefferson Davis. In answer, the President asked how that could be
done, to which I responded by saying that a court-martial, consisting
of Generals Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan and Meade, could well be
charged with so grave an inquiry, as their judgment would be accepted
by the country and the world. If they condemned Davis, he deserved to
be executed. If they acquitted him, as I believed they would, he would
stand acquitted of one of the most colossal crimes ever charged against
an individual. To my surprise, the President answered that there was
strong prejudice growing up against court-martials. He was quite right
in that declaration, as up to that time he had used them freely and
almost wholly in the administration of justice in all cases having
any connection with the war. He had denounced Davis as an assassin,
and in his new relations with the South, which changed his conditions
materially, he was anxious to protect Davis, and evidently did not wish
his accusations to be passed upon by a competent court.
I then said to the President that it was his duty to discharge Davis;
that Davis should either be tried or given his liberty at an early day,
as he had already been long in prison, and I reminded him also that
he could not try a man for treason who was President of a government
that had beleaguered our Capitol for four years, and that had been
recognized by our own Government and by the leading governments of the
world as a belligerent power. The discussion of the Davis question,
that was a very unpleasant one to the President, brought the conference
to a finish, and every prediction that I made to him about his
reconstruction policy was fulfilled to the letter. Curtin took only
an incidental part in the conference, and we parted with ceremonial
courtesy, never to meet again.
While the Republicans had been seriously divided by Johnson’s
defection, chiefly because of the large patronage he had to dispense,
their columns became gradually reunited, and in 1868 it was practically
a solid Republican party arrayed against Johnson with a very few
deserters; and the Democrats, while appreciating Johnson’s betrayal
of the Republicans, had no love and little respect for the betrayer.
From the time that Grant’s candidacy was announced no other aspirant
was seriously discussed in Republican circles, and his name brought
not only most of the later stragglers of the party into the fold, but
commanded the support of a large Democratic element in addition.
The Republican National Convention met at Chicago on the 20th of May,
and easily finished its work in two days. Carl Schurz was temporary
president, and General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut, was the
permanent president. The usual preliminaries were disposed of without
jar during the first day, and the committee on resolutions reported
promptly on the morning of the second day. The following is the full
text of the platform as adopted by a unanimous vote:
The National Republican party of the United States, assembled in
national convention in the city of Chicago, on the 21st day of May,
1868, make the following declaration of principles:
1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the
reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the
majority of the States lately in rebellion, of constitutions securing
equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the
Government to sustain those institutions and to prevent the people of
such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy.
2. The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at
the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of
gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question
of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of
those States.
3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and the
national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the
uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only
according to the letter, but the spirit of the laws under which it was
contracted.
4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be
equalized, and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit.
5. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preservation
of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair
period for redemption; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the
rate of interest thereon, whenever it can be honestly done.
6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is so to
improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at
lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay, so
long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened
or suspected.
7. The Government of the United States should be administered with the
strictest economy; and the corruptions which have been so shamefully
nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform.
8. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham
Lincoln, and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew Johnson,
who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the
cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and
judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has used
his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the
laws; who has employed his executive powers to render insecure the
property, the peace, the liberty and life of the citizen; who has
abused the pardoning power; who has denounced the national Legislature
as unconstitutional; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by
every means in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction
of the States lately in rebellion; who has perverted the public
patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption; and who has been
justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly
pronounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators.
9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, that
because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at
every hazard by the United States as a relic of feudal times, not
authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our national honor
and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled to protection in
all their rights of citizenship, as though they were native born; and
no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be liable
to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words
spoken in this country; and, if so arrested and imprisoned, it is the
duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf.
10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there
were none entitled to more special honor than the brave soldiers and
seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise and imperilled
their lives in the service of the country; the bounties and pensions
provided by the laws for these brave defenders of the nation are
obligations never to be forgotten; the widows and orphans of the
gallant dead are the wards of the people—a sacred legacy bequeathed to
the nation’s protecting care.
11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the
wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this
Republic—the asylum of the oppressed of all nations—should be fostered
and encouraged by a liberal and just policy.
12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all oppressed
peoples struggling for their rights.
13. We highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with
which men who have served in the Rebellion, but who now frankly and
honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the country
and reconstructing the Southern State governments upon the basis
of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into the
communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the
disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the late rebels in the
same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die out, and as may be
consistent with the safety of the loyal people.
14. We recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal
Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of Democratic
government; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these
principles a living reality on every inch of American soil.
The convention then proceeded to make nominations, and after an able
and impassioned speech by General Logan presenting General Grant’s
name, the roll was called and every vote responded in favor of Grant,
giving 650 in all. As soon as the vote was announced, a curtain on the
rear of the stage was lifted, presenting a heroic picture of Grant,
and the convention responded to the nomination and the picture of the
Great Captain with deafening cheers.
There was a spirited contest for the Vice-Presidency. Wade, of Ohio,
had the lead, and Fenton, of New York, Wilson, of Massachusetts, and
Colfax, of Indiana, all started with a very promising vote. I was
chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation, and in obedience to the
unanimous instructions of the State, presented to the convention the
name of Andrew G. Curtin for second place on the ticket. It soon became
evident that the contest would be between Wade and Colfax, and when the
struggle was thus narrowed Colfax won an easy victory. The following
table presents the several ballots for Vice-President:
════════════════════════════════╤══════╤═══════╤══════╤═══════╤═══════
│First.│Second.│Third.│Fourth.│Fifth.
────────────────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼───────┼───────
Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio │ 147 │ 170 │ 178 │ 206 │ 38
Reuben E. Fenton, of New York │ 126 │ 144 │ 139 │ 144 │ 69
Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts │ 119 │ 114 │ 101 │ 87 │ ――
Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana │ 115 │ 145 │ 165 │ 186 │ 541
Andrew G. Curtin, of Penn. │ 51 │ 45 │ 40 │ ―― │ ――
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine │ 28 │ 30 │ 25 │ 25 │ ――
James Speed, of Kentucky │ 22 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
James Harlan, of Iowa │ 16 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
John A. J. Creswell, of Maryland│ 14 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas │ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
William D. Kelley, of Penn. │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
════════════════════════════════╧══════╧═══════╧══════╧═══════╧═══════
The swift mutations in American politics were strangely illustrated
in the nomination for Vice-President at that convention. Senator
Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, who was about closing a term of eighteen
years in the service of the Senate, who was then President _pro tem._
of that body, and who was expected to reach the Presidency for a
period of eight months by the impeachment and dismissal of President
Johnson, was the prominent candidate for Vice-President before the
meeting of the convention. It was generally believed that Johnson
would be successfully impeached; that Wade would become President for
the remainder of the term, with illimitable patronage, and that his
nomination for the Vice-Presidency was apparently assured. But when
many delegates were on their way to Chicago on Saturday, the 16th,
the trained lightning sped the message westward that Johnson had
been acquitted by a single vote in the Senate, and that ended Wade’s
candidacy. He had many friends independent of the prospective power
that had made him formidable, and they made a stubborn battle for him,
but though he was highest of all on the 1st ballot, on the 5th and
final vote he had but 38 votes to 541 for Schuyler Colfax and 69 for
Senator Fenton, of New York. Thus two crushing disasters had befallen
Wade in a single week. He had the Presidency apparently within his
grasp—and this would have carried the Vice-Presidency for another
term—but he was smitten in both efforts, and these crowning disasters
closely followed his defeat for re-election to the Senate. He was the
sturdy, bluff, uncompromising patriot of the Senate during the war, and
after these three disasters came upon him in quick succession, the old
man groped his way along for a few years in solitude and then slept the
dreamless sleep of the dead.
The Democratic National Convention met in New York on the 4th of July,
and there was a strong sentiment among the delegates favorable to the
nomination of a liberal Republican for President. The Republicans had
nominated a Democrat, and Chief Justice Chase, who was an old-time
Democrat, and who had won a very large measure of Democratic confidence
by his rulings in the impeachment case of President Johnson, was a
favorite with a very powerful circle of friends, who had quietly, but
very thoroughly, as they believed, organized to have him nominated by a
spontaneous tidal wave after a protracted deadlock between the leading
candidates. I have every reason to believe that Chase would have been
nominated at the time Seymour was chosen, and in like manner, had it
not been for the carefully laid plan of Samuel J. Tilden to prevent
the success of Chase. Horatio Seymour, the ablest Democrat of that
day, was president of the convention, and he had no more idea of being
nominated for President than he had of becoming the Czar of Russia. It
was generally supposed that Seymour left the chair of the convention
because some votes had been cast for him for President, but he really
left the chair because he expected to aid in the nomination of Chase,
and when Seymour called another to preside, the Tilden strategy
completed its purpose by an able Democrat demanding the nomination of
Horatio Seymour, and delivering a most eloquent and impressive eulogy
upon the confessed leader of the Democracy. In vain did Seymour give
a peremptory declination. The convention had been organized for its
work, and men in nearly every delegation who had been assigned to their
task rose and swelled the hurrah for Seymour. When he found the tide
was likely to be overwhelming, he declared with equal earnestness and
pathos, “Your candidate I cannot be;” but the wave sped on and Seymour
was made the candidate by a practically unanimous vote.
He was prevailed upon to consider the subject, and that meant, of
course, that he could not decline. There had been twenty-one ballots
before the nomination of Seymour, in which Pendleton, Hancock, and
Hendricks were the leading competitors. It was then that the nomination
of Chase was expected to be made just as the nomination of Seymour was
made, and Tilden’s was the master hand that shaped the action of the
convention.
Tilden was a master leader, as subtle and sagacious as he was able,
and he thoroughly organized the plan to nominate Seymour, not so
much because he desired Seymour as the candidate, as because he was
implacable in his hostility to Chase. It was well known by Chase and
his friends that Tilden crucified Chase in the Democratic convention
of 1868, and this act of Tilden’s had an impressive sequel eight years
later, when the election of Tilden hung in the balance in the Senate,
and when the accomplished daughter of Chase decided the battle against
Tilden.
The convention met on the 4th of July, which was Saturday, and nothing
beyond organization was accomplished until Monday. The supporters of
Pendleton were altogether the most aggressive of all the candidates.
They represented the “Greenback” issue that had then taken form, and
exhibited considerable popular strength, not only in the Democratic
party, but to some extent in the Republican party. The two-thirds rule
was reaffirmed, and on Tuesday the committee on platform reported the
following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:
The Democratic party, in national convention assembled, reposing its
trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice
of the people, standing upon the Constitution as the foundation and
limitation of the powers of the Government and the guarantee of the
liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of slavery
and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by the
war, or the voluntary action of the Southern States in constitutional
conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or reagitated, do, with
the return of peace, demand:
1. Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the
Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the American
people.
2. Amnesty for all past political offences, and the regulation of the
elective franchise in the States by their citizens.
3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as
practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except
so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government,
economically administered, being honestly applied to such payment, and
where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon
their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide
that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice,
to be paid in the lawful money of the United States.
4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real
value, including Government bonds and other public securities.
5. One currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and
the officeholder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the
bondholder.