of the convention, but while he was advised of what transpired from
day to day, he gave no directions and made no suggestions to his
friends. He had the ablest galaxy of leaders that ever appeared in a
national convention in support of any one candidate, and he trusted
them implicitly. On the morning after the convention adjourned he
came to Chicago, and I met him at the Palmer House, where he had
come to confer with his discomfited friends. His face gave no sign
of the disappointment he had suffered. He met his friends in even a
more genial way than was his custom. He expressed himself as entirely
content with the decision of the convention, and greatly appreciated
the support that had been given him. He never looked better in his
life, and while I could not congratulate him, I could truthfully
express my gratification at seeing him the picture of health and
comfort.
He was then in entire accord with his leading friends in their purpose
to prevent the election of Garfield, and for two months after the
campaign opened Garfield would have been overwhelmingly beaten, but
after Conkling’s conference with Garfield in Ohio, Grant’s friends gave
a most zealous support to Garfield’s election, and barely saved him by
the aid of Tammany’s betrayal of Hancock.
The Democratic National Convention met at Cincinnati on the 22d of
June, with John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, as permanent president.
The dispute over contested seats lasted until the second day.
Massachusetts, that had never voted for a Democratic candidate for
President, put up the fiercest fight between disputing delegations,
and New York had a bitter factional quarrel between delegations chosen
by the regular Democrats and another chosen by the Tammany people. The
Tammany followers, under the lead of John Kelly, were very vindictive
in their opposition to Tilden, openly declaring that they would not
support Tilden if nominated, and the Tammany delegation was rejected.
The position of Tilden was regarded as doubtful until well on in the
second day of the contest, when an elaborate letter from him was read
to the convention withdrawing his name. The letter had been prepared
by Tilden and given to a trusted friend to use it only if it became
evident that Tilden could not be again nominated, or that he could not
be elected if nominated. The judgment of his most dispassionate friends
was that he might be nominated, but that he could not be elected, with
the fierce opposition of Tammany and his failure to assert his right to
the Presidency in 1877.
After Tilden’s withdrawal the contest was really between Hancock
and Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. If the Tilden strength had
been concentrated on Randall at the opening of the convention, his
nomination would have been within the range of probability, but even
after Tilden withdrew he hesitated until the 2d ballot before he gave
Randall any support. Bayard was a close second to Hancock on the 1st
ballot, but he was at no time within sight of a nomination.
It was on this occasion that the late Daniel Dougherty made the most
eloquent speech of his life, presenting the name of Hancock to the
convention. He was not a member of the delegation, but was called into
it for the purpose on the morning of the day that the nomination was
to be made. He hurried around to my room at the St. Nicholas, as he
hesitated about accepting the duty assigned him. He always prepared his
important speeches and memorized them. I earnestly urged him to go at
once to his room and write a short speech and be prepared to deliver
it. He finally decided to do so, and in a speech of not over twenty
minutes he delivered the greatest oration of his life.
Only two ballots were had for President, and on the second Hancock was
so largely in the lead, having 320 to 128-1/2 for Randall, that the
delegations began to change their votes until Hancock had 705 to 33 for
all others. The following table gives the ballots in detail:
══════════════════════════════════╤═════════╤═════════╤═════════
CANDIDATES. │ First. │ Second. │ After
│ │ │ changes.
──────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────
Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania │ 171 │ 320 │ 705
Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware │ 153-1/2│ 113 │ 2
Henry B. Payne, Ohio │ 81 │ ―― │ ――
Allen G. Thurman, Ohio │ 68-1/2│ 50 │ ――
Stephen J. Field, California │ 65 │ 65-1/2│ ――
William R. Morrison, Illinois │ 62 │ ―― │ ――
Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana │ 50-1/2│ 31 │ 30
Samuel J. Tilden, New York │ 38 │ 6 │ 1
Horatio Seymour, New York │ 8 │ ―― │ ――
Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania │ ―― │ 128-1/2│ ――
Scattering │ 31 │ 22 │ ――
══════════════════════════════════╧═════════╧═════════╧═════════
As Indiana was one of the debatable States, William H. English, of that
State, was nominated for Vice-President, with only Richard M. Bishop,
of Ohio, named against him. Before the ballot had proceeded to any
considerable extent, Bishop’s name was withdrawn, and English given a
unanimous nomination. The following platform was unanimously adopted:
The Democrats of the United States, in convention assembled, declare—
1. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and
traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teachings
and example of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and
embodied in the platform of the last national convention of the party.
2. Opposition to centralizationism and to that dangerous spirit
of encroachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the
departments in one, and thus to create, whatever be the form of
government, a real despotism. No sumptuary laws; separation of Church
and State for the good of each; common schools fostered and protected.
3. Home rule; honest money, consisting of gold and silver, and paper
convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the public
faith, State and national; and a tariff for revenue only.
4. The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a general
and thorough reform of the civil service.
5. The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all rights,
and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States.
6. The existing administration is the representative of conspiracy
only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops
and deputy marshals, to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the
unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic
power, insult the people and imperil their institutions.
7. The grand fraud of 1876–77, by which, upon a false count of the
electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was
declared to be President, and, for the first time in American history,
the will of the people was set aside under a threat of military
violence, struck a deadly blow at our system of representative
government; the Democratic party, to preserve the country from a civil
war, submitted for a time in firm and patriotic faith that the people
would punish this crime in 1880; this issue precedes and dwarfs every
other; it imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than
ever addressed the conscience of a nation of freemen.
8. We execrate the course of this administration in making places in
the civil service a reward for political crime, and demand a reform
by statute which shall make it forever impossible for the defeated
candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting
villains upon the people.
9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candidate
for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his
countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the
Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States
with sensibility, and they declare their confidence in his wisdom,
patriotism, and integrity, unshaken by the assaults of a common enemy,
and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement
he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his
fellow-citizens, who regard him as one who, by elevating the standards
of public morality, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and
his party.
10. Free ships and a living chance for American commerce on the seas
and on the land. No discrimination in favor of transportation lines,
corporations, or monopolies.
11. Amendment of the Burlingame treaty. No more Chinese immigration,
except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein
carefully guarded.
12. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and
public land for actual settlers.
13. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man,
and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorant and the
commune.
14. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a
Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditure forty
million dollars a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home
and the national honor abroad; and, above all, upon the promise of
such a change in the administration of the Government as shall insure
us genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public
service.
The National Greenback party held its national convention at Chicago
on the 9th of June, with Richard Trevellick, of Michigan, as permanent
president. A single ballot was had for President, resulting as follows:
James B. Weaver, Iowa. 224-1/2
Henry B. Wright, Penn. 126-1/2
Stephen D. Dillaye, N. Y. 119
Benj. F. Butler, Mass. 95
Solon Chase, Maine. 89
Edward P. Allis, Wis. 41
Alexander Campbell, Ill. 21
Before the vote was finally announced delegations speedily changed
their votes to Weaver, and he was declared unanimously chosen as the
candidate. B. B. Chambers, of Texas, was nominated for Vice-President
by 403 votes to 311 for Allanson M. West, of Mississippi. The following
platform was adopted:
1. That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power to be
maintained by the people for the common benefit. The delegation of
this right to corporations is a surrender of the central attribute
of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring upon a
subordinate irresponsible power absolute dominion over industry and
commerce. All money, whether metallic or paper, should be issued and
its volume controlled by the Government, and not by or through banking
corporations, and, when so issued, should be a full legal tender for
all debts, public and private.
2. That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, but
paid as rapidly as practicable, according to contract. To enable the
Government to meet these obligations, legal tender currency should be
substituted for the notes of the national banks, the national banking
system abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver, as well as
gold, established by law.
3. That labor should be so protected by national and State authority
as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution of its
results; the eight-hour law of Congress should be enforced; the
sanitary condition of industrial establishments placed under rigid
control; the competition of contract labor abolished; a bureau
of labor statistics established; factories, mines, and workshops
inspected; the employment of children under fourteen years of age
forbidden; and wages paid in cash.
4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being simply
slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs necessarily
tends to brutalize and degrade American labor; therefore immediate
steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame treaty.
5. Railroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfilment of
contract should be immediately reclaimed by Government; and henceforth
the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for actual settlers.
6. It is the duty of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. All
lines of communication and transportation should be brought under such
legislative control as shall secure moderate, fair, and uniform rates
for passenger and freight traffic.
7. We denounce, as destructive to prosperity and dangerous to liberty,
the action of the old parties in fostering and sustaining gigantic
land, railroad, and money corporations, invested with, and exercising,
powers belonging to the Government, and yet not responsible to it for
the manner of their exercise.
8. That the Constitution, in giving Congress the power to borrow
money, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and
maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their money
for an interest consideration should be preferred to the soldier
and sailor who perilled their lives and shed their blood on land
and sea in defence of their country; and we condemn the cruel class
legislation of the Republican party, which, while professing great
gratitude to the soldier, has most unjustly discriminated against him
and in favor of the bondholder.
9. All property should bear its just proportion of taxation; and we
demand a graduated income tax.
10. We denounce as most dangerous the efforts everywhere manifest to
restrict the right of suffrage.
11. We are opposed to an increase of the standing army in time of
peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous military
power under the guise of militia laws.
12. We demand absolute democratic rules for the government of
Congress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal
footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater than
that of the President.
13. We demand a government of the people, by the people, and for
the people, instead of a government of the bondholders, by the
bondholders, and for the bondholders; and we denounce every attempt
to stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous crimes
against the people.
14. In the furtherance of these ends, we ask the co-operation of all
fair-minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, wage no
war upon classes, but only against vicious institutions. We are not
content to endure further discipline from our present actual rulers,
who, having dominion over money, over transportation, over land and
labor, and largely over the press and the machinery of government,
wield unwarrantable power over our institutions, and over our life and
property.
15. That every citizen of due age, sound mind, and not a felon, be
fully enfranchised, and that this resolution be referred to the
States, with recommendation for their favorable consideration.
The Prohibition convention met at Cleveland on the 17th of June. The
platform was substantially a repetition of the platform of 1876, and
General Neal Dow, of Maine, was presented for President, and A. M.
Thompson, of Ohio, for Vice-President.
The few scattered fragments of the American party held a convention
on the 27th of June, and nominated John W. Phelps, of Vermont, for
President, and Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, for Vice-President. Their
platform declared against secret societies, Freemasonry in particular,
and all other anti-Christian movements. The party was not heard of in
the contest.
The Presidential contest of 1880 was remarkable for the absence of
bitterness or vituperation. Garfield and Hancock were both highly
respected, and I cannot recall a struggle for the Presidency that
exhibited less of the asperities which are usually displayed in the
struggle for the political control of the nation. Hancock was beaten on
the popular vote by a majority of but little over 7000, and he lost his
election by Tammany failing to give him a cordial support in New York.
The following table presents the popular and electoral vote of 1880:
═══════════════╤═══════════════════════════════════════════╦═══════════════════
│ POPULAR VOTE. ║ ELECTORAL
│ ║ VOTE.
STATES. ├────────────┬───────────┬─────────┬────────╫──────────┬────────
│ James A. │Winfield S.│ James B.│ Neal ║ │
│ Garfield, │ Hancock, │ Weaver, │ Dow, ║Garfield. │Hancock.
│ Ohio. │ Penn. │ Iowa. │ Maine. ║ │
───────────────┼────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼────────╫──────────┼────────
Maine │ 74,039 │ 65,171[28]│ 4,408 │ 93 ║ 7 │ ――
New Hampshire │ 44,852 │ 40,794 │ 528 │ 180 ║ 5 │ ――
Vermont │ 45,567 │ 18,316 │ 1,215 │ ―――― ║ 5 │ ――
Massachusetts │ 165,205 │ 111,960 │ 4,548 │ 682 ║ 13 │ ――
Rhode Island │ 18,195 │ 10,779 │ 236 │ 20 ║ 4 │ ――
Connecticut │ 67,071 │ 64,415 │ 868 │ 409 ║ 6 │ ――
New York │ 555,544 │ 534,511 │ 12,373 │ 1,517 ║ 35 │ ――
New Jersey │ 120,555 │ 122,565 │ 2,617 │ 191 ║ ―― │ 9
Pennsylvania │ 444,704 │ 407,428 │ 20,668 │ 1,939 ║ 29 │ ――
Delaware │ 14,133 │ 15,275 │ 120 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 3
Maryland │ 78,515 │ 93,706 │ 818 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 8
Virginia │ 84,020 │128,586[29]│ ―――― │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 11
West Virginia │ 46,243 │ 57,391 │ 9,079 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 5
North Carolina │ 115,874 │ 124,268 │ 1,126 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 10
South Carolina │ 58,071 │ 112,312 │ 566 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 7
Georgia │ 54,086 │ 102,470 │ 969 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 11
Florida │ 23,654 │ 27,964 │ ―――― │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 4
Alabama │ 56,221 │ 91,185 │ 4,642 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 10
Mississippi │ 34,854 │ 75,750 │ 5,797 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 8
Louisiana │ 38,637[30]│ 65,067 │ 439 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 8
Texas │ 57,893 │ 156,428 │ 27,405 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 8
Arkansas │ 42,436 │ 60,775 │ 4,079 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 6
Missouri │ 153,567 │ 208,609 │ 35,135 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 15
Tennessee │ 107,677 │ 128,191 │ 5,917 │ 43 ║ ―― │ 12
Kentucky │ 106,306 │ 149,068 │ 11,499 │ 258 ║ ―― │ 12
Ohio │ 375,048 │ 340,821 │ 6,456 │ 2,616 ║ 22 │ ――
Michigan │ 185,341 │ 131,597 │ 34,895 │ 942 ║ 11 │ ――
Indiana │ 232,164 │ 225,522 │ 12,986 │ ―――― ║ 15 │ ――
Illinois │ 318,037 │ 277,321 │ 26,358 │ 443 ║ 21 │ ――
Wisconsin │ 144,400 │ 114,649 │ 7,986 │ 69 ║ 10 │ ――
Minnesota │ 93,903 │ 53,315 │ 3,267 │ 286 ║ 5 │ ――
Iowa │ 183,927 │ 105,845 │ 32,701 │ 592 ║ 11 │ ――
Nebraska │ 54,979 │ 28,523 │ 3,950 │ ―――― ║ 3 │ ――
Kansas │ 121,549 │ 59,801 │ 10,851 │ 25 ║ 5 │ ――
Colorado │ 27,450 │ 24,647 │ 1,435 │ ―――― ║ 3 │ ――
Nevada │ 8,732 │ 9,613 │ ―――― │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 3
California │ 80,348 │ 80,426 │ 3,892 │ ―――― ║ 1 │ 5
Oregon │ 20,619 │ 19,948 │ 249 │ ―――― ║ 3 │ ――
├────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼────────╫──────────┼────────
Totals │4,454,416 │ 4,444,952 │ 308,578 │ 10,305 ║ 214 │ 155
═══════════════╧════════════╧═══════════╧═════════╧════════╩══════════╧════════
[28] Votes for a fusion electoral ticket, made up of three Democrats
and four Greenbackers. A “straight” Greenback ticket was also voted for.
[29] Two Democratic tickets were voted for in Virginia. The regular
ticket received 96,912, and was successful; the “Readjusters” polled
31,674 votes.
[30] Two Republican tickets were voted for.
Garfield possessed more political honors at one time than any other
public man in the history of the country. After the November election
of 1880, he was the Congressman from his district; he was United States
Senator-elect, having been chosen by the Ohio Legislature in January
of the same year, and he was President-elect. He had many elements of
popularity, but was not a courageous leader like Blaine. He was not a
strong, aggressive man, although able in debate and one of the most
scholarly of our public men. He had a most difficult rôle to fill
when he came into the Presidency. Conkling wholly distrusted him when
Garfield was first nominated for President, as was clearly evidenced
by Conkling failing to call upon Garfield when Garfield made his first
visit to New York after the Chicago convention, although he stopped
at the same hotel where Conkling was a guest. Later in the campaign
Conkling was earnestly urged to visit Garfield, and he made the
visit, resulting in the Conkling and Grant forces earnestly supporting
Garfield’s election.
General Grant, for the first time in his life, took the stump to aid
the Garfield cause; but even after having turned the tide in favor of
Garfield’s election, Conkling knew that Garfield was not a self-reliant
leader, and after the appointment of Blaine to the Cabinet, with whom
Conkling had no relations whatever, private or official, Conkling
had little confidence in Garfield fulfilling his pledges made to
the friends of Grant. The open breach came when Garfield nominated
Robertson for Collector of New York. Robertson was one of the New York
delegates to Chicago who voted against Grant, and was one of the most
aggressive anti-Conkling men in the State. This appointment was at once
charged upon Blaine, but the evidence is conclusive that it was made by
Garfield alone, without even a suggestion from Blaine, who certainly
did not desire to precipitate a war between the administration of
which he was Premier and so formidable a political factor as Conkling.
It was simply Garfield’s blunder, made in haste, and it proved very
clearly that he was not equipped to meet the political exigencies
which confronted him. Conkling blundered even worse than Garfield. He
petulantly resigned his seat in the Senate, in which his colleague,
Senator Platt (now Senator from New York), joined him, although he had
served but a fraction of a year of his full term.
Conkling confidently hoped to be re-elected by the New York
Legislature, and he doubtless would have succeeded had not the
presiding officer of the Senate, by a very shrewd and simple
parliamentary act, postponed the election a week longer than Conkling
expected. That delay was fatal, and a protracted and humiliating
contest was made by Conkling and Platt, each week both losing prestige
and support, until finally the Republicans of the New York Legislature
were compelled to cast them both aside and elect new Senators.
Vice-President Arthur stood manfully abreast with Conkling, his friend,
in his battle at Albany for re-election, but after the failure on the
1st ballot there never was a time when the re-election of Conkling and
Platt was possible. Conkling retired from politics utterly disgusted,
located in New York, where he very rapidly acquired a lucrative
practice, and his tragic death from exposure in the great blizzard of
1888 ended the career of one of the ablest of the statesmen of his day.
Arthur was the fourth Vice-President who succeeded to the Presidency
by the death of the President, and he was the second whose honors had
come to him by the assassination of his chief. The accession of Arthur
created very general distrust in both business and political circles.
He was little known beyond his factional conflicts in New York, having
been removed from a leading Custom House office by Secretary Sherman.
That removal was sustained by the Republican Senate in defiance of the
power of Conkling. It was generally assumed that the administration
of Arthur, under the lead of Conkling, would be one of political
vengeance, and of necessity convulse the party and end Republican power
in the nation.
Business interests were disturbed because they feared that Arthur would
be a political President with little exhibition of statesmanship, but
Arthur rose to the full measure of his responsible duties. While he
moved with great caution, to avoid a breach with his own friends, he
soon offended Conkling, and gradually won the confidence and respect
of the nation to an extent that few Presidents have enjoyed. The
Garfield administration had been started on lines that Arthur could not
follow, and the retirement of the Garfield Cabinet, with the exception
of Robert T. Lincoln, then Secretary of War, was soon accomplished.
The prosecution of the Star-Route Postal frauds was the one thing on
which Blaine and MacVeagh, the Attorney-General, had decided to make a
creditable record for the administration, and while Arthur was quite as
honest as Garfield, political necessities compelled him to discourage
those prosecutions. Beyond that there was not a blemish on his
administration of some three years and a half. He appreciated the fact
that the President should be above the rule of faction, and in that he
early offended Conkling. He nominated Conkling as Supreme Judge of the
United States, but Conkling peremptorily rejected it, and thenceforth
the relations between Arthur and Conkling were severely strained.