of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedmen’s
Bureau, and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro
supremacy; simplification of the system, and discontinuance of
inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue,
so that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened; the
credit of the Government and the currency made good; the repeal of
all enactments for enrolling the State militia into national forces
in time of peace; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and
such equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will afford
incidental protection to domestic manufacturers, and as will, without
impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote
and encourage the great industrial interests of the country.
7. Reform of abuses in the administration, the expulsion of corrupt
men from office, the abrogation of useless offices, the restoration
of rightful authority to, and the independence of, the executive
and judicial departments of the Government, the subordination of
the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of
Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease.
8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born
citizens, at home and abroad; the assertion of American nationality
which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish
an example and encouragement to peoples struggling for national
integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights, and the
maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute
doctrine of immutable allegiance, and the claims of foreign powers to
punish them for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction.
In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the Radical party
for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and
tyranny which have marked its career.
After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress
to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the
Government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution,
it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which alone
was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to
victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its
power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in the time of profound
peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has nullified
there the right of trial by jury; it has abolished the _habeas
corpus_, that most sacred writ of liberty; it has overthrown the
freedom of speech and the press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures
and arrests, and military trials and secret star-chamber inquisitions
for the constitutional tribunals; it has disregarded, in time of
peace, the right of the people to be free from searches and seizures;
it has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even the private
rooms of individuals, and seized their private papers and letters
without any specific charge or notice or affidavit, as required by the
organic law; it has converted the American Capitol into a bastile; it
has established a system of spies and official espionage to which no
constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort; it has
abolished the right of appeal, on important constitutional questions,
to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatened to curtail or
destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the
Constitution, while the learned Chief Justice has been subjected to
the most atrocious calumnies, merely because he would not prostitute
his high office to the support of the false and partisan charges
preferred against the President. Its corruption and extravagance have
exceeded anything known in history, and, by its frauds and monopolies,
it has nearly doubled the burden of the debt created by the war. It
has stripped the President of his constitutional power of appointment,
even of his own Cabinet. Under its repeated assaults the pillars
of the Government are rocking on their base, and should it succeed
in November next and inaugurate its President, we will meet, as a
subjected and conquered people, amid the ruins of liberty and the
scattered fragments of the Constitution.
And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United
States threw off all subjection to the British crown the privilege
and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, and have
been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the political
power of each State respectively, and that any attempt by Congress,
on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or
interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power,
which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and, if sanctioned
by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can only
end in a single centralized and consolidated government, in which
the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and
unqualified despotism be established in place of a Federal union of
coequal States. And that we regard the Reconstruction Acts (so-called)
of Congress, as such, as usurpations, and unconstitutional,
revolutionary, and void.
That our soldiers and sailors, who carried the flag of our country
to victory against a most gallant and determined foe, must ever be
gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor
must be faithfully carried into execution.
That the public lands should be distributed as widely as possible
among the people, and should be disposed of either under the
pre-emption or homestead lands, or sold in reasonable quantities, and
to none but actual occupants, at the minimum price established by the
Government. When grants of the public lands may be allowed, necessary
for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds
of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so
applied.
That the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, in exercising
the powers of his high office in resisting the aggressions of Congress
upon the constitutional rights of the States and the people, is
entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, and in behalf
of the Democratic party we tender him our thanks for his patriotic
efforts in that regard.
Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal to every patriot,
including all the conservative element and all who desire to
support the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past
differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle
for the liberties of the people; and that to all such, to whatever
party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right hand of
fellowship, and hail all such co-operating with us as friends and
brethren.
_Resolved_, That this convention sympathize cordially with the
workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the rights
and interests of the laboring classes of the country.
_Resolved_, That the thanks of the convention are tendered to Chief
Justice Salmon P. Chase for the justice, dignity, and impartiality
with which he presided over the court of impeachment on the trial of
President Andrew Johnson.
The ballots for President began on Tuesday and ended Thursday. The
following table gives the ballots in detail:
════════╤══════════╤════════╤═══════════╤══════════╤═══════╤═══════╤════════╤══════════╤══════════╤════════╤═════════╤════════╤═══════════
│ Geo. H. │ Andrew │Winfield S.│ Sanford │ Asa │ Joel │James E.│ James R. │ Thos. A. │Horatio │ Francis │Reverdy │
BALLOTS.│Pendleton,│Johnson,│ Hancock, │E. Church,│Packer,│Parker,│English,│Doolittle,│Hendricks,│Seymour,│P. Blair,│Johnson,│Scattering.
│ Ohio. │ Tenn. │ Penn. │ N. Y. │ Penn. │ N. J. │ Conn. │ Wis. │ Ind. │ N. Y. │ Mo. │ Md. │
────────┼──────────┼────────┼───────────┼──────────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────┼───────────
1 │ 105 │ 65 │ 33-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 13 │ 16 │ 13 │ 2-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 10-1/2
2 │ 104 │ 52 │ 40-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 15-1/2│ 12-1/2│ 12-1/2 │ 2 │ ―― │ 10-1/2 │ 8 │ 1/2
3 │ 119-1/2 │ 34-1/2│ 45-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 13 │ 7-1/2│ 12 │ 9-1/2 │ ―― │ 4-1/2 │ 11 │ 1
4 │ 118-1/2 │ 32 │ 43-1/2 │ 33 │ 26 │ 13 │ 7-1/2│ 8 │ 11-1/2 │ 9 │ 2 │ 16 │ 1
5 │ 122 │ 24 │ 46 │ 33 │ 27 │ 13 │ 7 │ 15 │ 19-1/2 │ ―― │ 9-1/2 │ ―― │ 1
6 │ 122-1/2 │ 21 │ 47 │ 33 │ 27 │ 13 │ 6 │ 12 │ 30 │ ―― │ 5 │ ―― │ ――
7 │ 137-1/2 │ 12-1/2│ 42-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ 6 │ 12 │ 39-1/2 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
8 │ 156-1/2 │ 6 │ 28 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ 6 │ 12 │ 75 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
9 │ 144 │ 5-1/2│ 24-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ 6 │ 12 │ 80-1/2 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
10 │ 147-1/2 │ 6 │ 34 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12 │ 82-1/2 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
11 │ 144-1/2 │ 5-1/2│ 32-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12-1/2 │ 88 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ ――
12 │ 145-1/2 │ 4-1/2│ 30 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12-1/2 │ 89 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ 1-1/2
13 │ 134-1/2 │ 4-1/2│ 48-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 13 │ 81 │ ―― │ 1/2 │ ―― │ 1-1/2
14 │ 130 │ ―― │ 50 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 13 │ 84-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
15 │ 129-1/2 │ 5-1/2│ 79-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12 │ 82-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
16 │ 107-1/2 │ 5-1/2│ 113-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ ―― │ 12 │ 70-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
17 │ 70-1/2 │ 6 │ 137-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ 12 │ 80 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3-1/2
18 │ 56-1/2 │ 10 │ 144-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 31-1/2│ ―― │ 12 │ 87 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3-1/2
19 │ ―― │ ―― │ 135-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ 22 │ 6 │ 4 │ 107-1/2 │ ―― │ 13-1/2 │ ―― │ 5
20 │ ―― │ ―― │ 142-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 16 │ 12 │ 121 │ 2 │ 13 │ ―― │ 9
21 │ ―― │ ―― │ 135-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 19 │ 12 │ 132 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 5
22 │ ―― │ 4 │ 90-1/2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ 4 │ 140-1/2 │ 21 │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
════════╧══════════╧════════╧═══════════╧══════════╧═══════╧═══════╧════════╧══════════╧══════════╧════════╧═════════╧════════╧═══════════
Before the 22d ballot was announced delegations began to change their
votes to Seymour, and the changes were continued amid great enthusiasm
until he received the unanimous nomination. The twenty-one votes given
him on the last ballot were all cast by Ohio delegates.
It was charged that the nomination of Seymour had been carefully
planned by his friends before the meeting of the convention, in
imitation of the nominations of Polk and Pierce, but in point of fact
the nomination of Seymour was not planned by his friends nor had they
any idea of nominating him when the convention met, as his name was not
before the convention at all until the 22d ballot and the third day of
balloting. He was most earnestly averse to accepting the nomination.
His health was impaired, he had had many and very earnest political
conflicts, and he felt himself physically and mentally unequal to the
exacting duties of a campaign. His nomination was, as I have stated,
conceived and executed for the purpose of defeating Chase.
Having failed to nominate a Republican for President, the convention
unanimously nominated General Frank P. Blair, of Missouri, for
Vice-President without the formality of a ballot. He was one of the
most radical and aggressive of Republicans when the Republican party
was organized in 1856, and brought the first important victory to that
party when, in the early fall of 1856, he was elected to Congress from
St. Louis, being the first Republican who ever represented a Southern
State in the national Legislature. I remember meeting him in Washington
just before the clash of arms began, after the bombardment of Sumter.
He was impatient with Lincoln for not precipitating the war, and
told me that he would go back to Missouri the next day, and that the
country would soon hear of battles fought in that State. He executed
his purpose, for it was through him chiefly or wholly that the early
and bloody battles of Missouri were fought. He was one of the most
brilliant of the corps commanders of the army, but had evidently fallen
into disfavor with Grant, and Blair was as tireless a fighter as Grant
himself. In a public letter, directed to J. C. Broadhead a short time
before the convention met, General Blair denounced Grant as aiming at
imperialism, and declared that his election to the Presidency would
date the downfall of our Republican institutions.
General Blair spoke frequently during the contest, but his speeches
were so violent that they gave offence to many conservative Democrats;
and after the October elections, which were disastrous to the
Democrats, the New York _World_, the leading Democratic organ, came out
in a leader demanding that he be retired from the ticket; but Blair was
not the man to retreat under fire. Seymour took the stump, to present
the party in a more conservative attitude, and delivered a number of
speeches, which rank among the ablest popular addresses of American
politics; but he could not halt the tidal wave that swept Grant into
the Presidency. The following table gives the electoral and popular
vote:
═══════════════╤═══════════════════╦═════════════════
│ POPULAR VOTE. ║ ELECTORAL VOTE.
STATES. ├─────────┬─────────╫────────┬────────
│ Grant. │ Seymour.║ Grant. │Seymour.
───────────────┼─────────┼─────────╫────────┼────────
Maine │ 70,426 │ 42,396 ║ 7 │ ――
New Hampshire │ 38,191 │ 31,224 ║ 5 │ ――
Vermont │ 44,167 │ 12,045 ║ 5 │ ――
Massachusetts │ 136,477 │ 59,408 ║ 12 │ ――
Rhode Island │ 12,993 │ 6,548 ║ 4 │ ――
Connecticut │ 50,641 │ 47,600 ║ 6 │ ――
New York │ 419,883 │ 429,883 ║ ―― │ 33
New Jersey │ 80,121 │ 83,001 ║ ―― │ 7
Pennsylvania │ 342,280 │ 313,382 ║ 26 │ ――
Delaware │ 7,623 │ 10,980 ║ ―― │ 3
Maryland │ 30,438 │ 62,357 ║ ―― │ 7
Virginia[20] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― ║ ―― │ ――
West Virginia │ 29,025 │ 20,306 ║ 5 │ ――
North Carolina │ 96,226 │ 84,090 ║ 9 │ ――
South Carolina │ 62,301 │ 45,237 ║ 6 │ ――
Georgia │ 57,134 │ 102,822 ║ ―― │ 9
Florida[21] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― ║ 3 │ ――
Alabama │ 76,366 │ 72,086 ║ 8 │ ――
Mississippi[20]│ ―――――― │ ―――――― ║ ―― │ ――
Louisiana │ 33,263 │ 80,225 ║ ―― │ 7
Texas[20] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― ║ ―― │ ――
Arkansas │ 22,152 │ 19,078 ║ 5 │ ――
Missouri │ 85,671 │ 59,788 ║ 11 │ ――
Tennessee │ 56,757 │ 26,311 ║ 10 │ ――
Kentucky │ 39,566 │ 115,889 ║ ―― │ 11
Ohio │ 280,128 │ 238,700 ║ 21 │ ――
Michigan │ 128,550 │ 97,069 ║ 8 │ ――
Indiana │ 176,552 │ 166,980 ║ 13 │ ――
Illinois │ 250,293 │ 199,143 ║ 16 │ ――
Wisconsin │ 108,857 │ 84,710 ║ 8 │ ――
Minnesota │ 43,542 │ 28,072 ║ 4 │ ――
Iowa │ 120,399 │ 74,040 ║ 8 │ ――
Nebraska │ 9,729 │ 5,439 ║ 3 │ ――
Kansas │ 31,049 │ 14,019 ║ 3 │ ――
Nevada │ 6,480 │ 5,218 ║ 3 │ ――
California │ 54,592 │ 54,078 ║ 5 │ ――
Oregon │ 10,961 │ 11,125 ║ ―― │ 3
├─────────┼─────────╫────────┼───────
Totals │3,012,833│2,703,249║ 214 │ 80
═══════════════╧═════════╧═════════╩════════╧═══════
[20] Did not vote.
[21] Chosen by Legislature.
There was dispute as to the right of some of the Southern States to
participate in the election. It will be seen that West Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky had all participated in the election.
Fortunately, the disputed States did not in any way affect the result,
and Congress passed a joint resolution declaring that none of the
rebellious States should be entitled to electoral votes, unless at the
time of the election they had adopted Constitutions since the 4th of
March, 1867, and had an organized State Government, and unless such
States had representation in Congress under the Reconstruction laws.
Of course, President Johnson vetoed the measure, but it was promptly
passed over the veto by both branches of Congress, and became a law.
By that resolution, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were absolutely
excluded from the election.
The other Southern States had representation in Congress, with the
exception of Georgia. The question whether Georgia should be permitted
to have her vote counted resulted in a very serious dispute, on
which the Senate and the House divided, but Mr. Wade, President of
the Senate, in declaring the result, counted the vote of Georgia and
precipitated a very disgraceful scene, in which General Butler most
offensively assailed the presiding officer. There was no question
whatever as to the election of Grant and Colfax, and Congress duly
declared them President and Vice-President of the United States.
The contest of 1868 crystallized the “Greenback” sentiment of the
country under the leadership of George H. Pendleton, who was the
nominee for Vice-President with McClellan in 1864, and who expected to
capture the Democratic National Convention of 1868, to nominate himself
for President on the Greenback platform. The Pendleton followers were
the hustlers of that convention, and they were all decorated with a
badge that was an imitation of the greenback. Gold had been at a high
premium during the war, and was at a considerable premium in 1868,
with resumption apparently very far off. The cheap-money idea had been
industriously impressed upon the people by the demagogues of that day,
and as many of the obligations of the United States were payable only
in lawful money, while the bonds issued during the war were payable
in coin, it was easy to make plausible appeal to the prejudices of
the industrial classes, who were paying very high prices for all the
necessaries of life.
This theory had been very widely discussed by the various shades of
opposition to the Republicans, but the Pendleton movement for the
Democratic nomination for the Presidency dignified it as a national
issue, and it succeeded in making the New York Democratic platform
go more than half way in favor of repudiation of our obligations by
payment in greenbacks. The greenback issue thus vitalized became a
very important one in many of the States and caused strange political
revolutions, such as the election of Democratic Governors and
Democratic Legislatures in Maine and Ohio.
It is doubtful whether the Republicans could have been lined up
squarely in the support of the national credit with any other candidate
than Grant, and one of the first acts that he signed as President
distinctly provided for the payment in coin of all bonds of the
Government bearing interest, and declared also that specie payments
should be resumed as speedily as practicable. The Greenback party not
only figured largely in State politics, but became formidable as a
third party in national contests, and the free-silver theory of to-day
is simply the old greenback issue of cheap money in another form.
THE GRANT-GREELEY CONTEST
1872
General Grant was a thorough soldier, with little qualification for
civil duties and a natural distaste for politics. I doubt whether he
had any defined political policy when he entered the Presidency. He
believed in maintaining the credit of the Government, and accepted in
a conservative way the general policy of the Republican party, but he
knew little or nothing of the political leadership of the nation, and
his friends generally felt that the success of his administration would
depend very largely upon surrounding him with a Cabinet composed of
the ablest and most sagacious men of the party, but Grant cherished no
such ideas himself. He evidently assumed that politics could be run by
general orders, as an army could be commanded, and it was that mistake
that alienated a very large portion of the Republicans from him in
the early period of his administration, and culminated in the Liberal
Republican Convention at Cincinnati in 1872.
I had frequently met General Grant before his nomination and election
to the Presidency, but only in the most casual way on social occasions,
and never had any conversation with him, either on politics generally
or on his candidacy for the Presidency. I was earnestly in favor of
his nomination and election, because I believed that calling him to
the Presidency would do more to reconcile the South and give better
assurance of sectional tranquillity than the election of any of the
leading Republican statesmen of that day. I had just changed my
residence to Philadelphia, having suffered serious financial disaster
in the burning of Chambersburg by McCausland, and it was my settled
purpose after Grant’s election to cease active participation in
politics and devote my efforts wholly to my profession.
My first and only meeting with Grant before his retirement from the
Presidency, at which we had any protracted conversation, was a short
time before his inauguration. Chief Justice Read, of Pennsylvania,
handed me a letter, addressed to the President-elect, and asked me
to deliver it in person when I next visited Washington. I did not
know its contents, but inferred that it related to the appointment of
Curtin to a Cabinet office. A few days thereafter when in Washington
I called upon General Grant at his headquarters and delivered the
letter, and after a very brief conversation, rose to take my leave.
He had opened the letter in the meantime, and as I reached the door
he called me back, saying that Judge Read’s letter strongly urged the
appointment of Curtin to the Cabinet, and that he desired to tell me
frankly as a close friend of Curtin why he could not meet the wishes
of the many friends of Curtin by giving him a Cabinet portfolio. He
spoke very highly of Curtin, and showed his appreciation of Curtin’s
position by nominating him as Minister to Russia at an early day after
his inauguration, and against the protest of Senator Cameron. In the
course of the conversation I saw Grant’s crude theory of conducting a
national administration. He said that his Cabinet officers would be his
official confidential family, and he desired to appoint them entirely
in accordance with his personal preferences. I said to him that it was
certainly his right to have only men in his Cabinet who were entirely
agreeable to himself, but that it was very important for him to have
the ablest politicians of the country largely represented in it, to
save his administration from the many political complications which
would otherwise confront him.
I saw that Grant was not a willing listener to any suggestions,
although given in the most courteous manner, and he answered with a
somewhat liberal display of what some called “obstinacy” and others
called “determination,” as one of the leading attributes of his
character. I then spoke more freely and frankly, and finally said to
him that if I were suddenly called to the command of the army, with
little or no military experience, I would feel that my greatest need
was generals; and I added that it was in no measure disrespectful
to him to say that, having been called from the command of the army
to the Presidency of the Republic, without experience in high civil
duties, his greatest need was statesmen. The advice was not grateful
to Grant; on the contrary, he was obviously fretted, as none of the
many who sought favors at his hands had ventured to tell him the
truth so plainly. When the conversation ended he gave me a moderately
cordial good-by, and I never again met him, excepting once at the
large banquet given by Mr. Childs on the evening after the opening of
the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, until soon after he had retired
from his eight years’ service in the Presidency, and never had any
communication with him.
I opposed his renomination, participated in the Liberal Republican
Convention that nominated Greeley, had charge of the Greeley campaign
in Pennsylvania, and labored very earnestly for Grant’s defeat in 1872.
On the day that he retired from the Presidency I had an editorial in
the Philadelphia _Times_, speaking of General Grant as history would
record his achievements, and of necessity highly complimentary to him.
A few days thereafter I met him with Mr. Childs at the Continental
Hotel, and he came forward in a manner that was unusually demonstrative
for Grant, and was profuse in his thanks for the editorial referred
to. He said that he specially valued it because it came from one who
had been among his severest critics during his Presidential term, and
he ended by inviting me to lunch with him at Mr. Drexel’s office that
afternoon.
I willingly accepted the invitation and spent two hours with
Grant, most of the time alone after Mr. Drexel and Mr. Childs had
left us. I was surprised to find him one of the most agreeable of
conversationalists, and he discussed politics generally and the
Hayes-Tilden contest with a degree of frankness and intelligence that
surprised me. He said that he confidently expected the Electoral
Commission to give the vote of Louisiana to Mr. Tilden, but that as
Chief Magistrate it was his duty only to maintain the law, and that
when the law of the nation made the Electoral Commission a final
tribunal for the settlement of the dispute, he would have maintained
that judgment with all the power of the Government.