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X> OF

A HISTORY OF THE

PRESIDENCY

FROM 1788 TO 1897

EDWARD STANWOOD, Litt.D. (Bowdoin)

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

PREFACE

The basis of this book is the " History of Presidential Elec-
tions," originally published in 1884. In the preparation of
that work the meagreness and comparative inaccessibility of
material concerning the early elections made the chapters that
deal with that period somewhat barren. Increasing abundance
of material and greater familiarity with the political history of
more recent times caused a broadening of the plan, and led to
the result that the later chapters of the original work, and still
more the chapters added in subsequent editions, in 1888, 1892,
and 1896, were much more than a history of the elections.

I have thought that the usefulness of the book might be
greatly enhanced by rewriting a large part of it, supplying
deficiencies by a more diligent search for and study of the
facts relating to the presidency in the early days of the gov-
ernment, and enriching it throughout with new personal,
explanatory, and other enlightening matter, thus making the
whole work uniform in method. This has enabled me to
introduce a fuller discussion of some of the political problems
to^which the constitutional provisions_regarding the presiden-
tial-office have given riseT Mofeniiportant still, the revision
and expansion ~oT the work have given me a much-desired
opportunity to modify some opinions expressed in the original
book which a more careful and thorough examination of origi'
nal sources of information has led me to regard as not well
founded. The last consideration has the more weight in view
of the use that has been made of the book in the history depart-
ments of our colleges. /

The changes and additions here noted have given the book

3R7.17fi

vi PREFACE

so much greater scope than it had in its first form, that a
broader title seems necessary. If it be urged that a history of
the presidency should include an account of the development
of the presidential office, and of the successive expansions or
limitations of the President's powers and duties, the reply may
be made that there has been no such development to record,
since the office is now what it was in the time of Washington,
. — neither of greater nor of less weight in the government than
it was then.
/ I have endeavored to collect and present all important mat-^
ters relating to the presidency, beginning with the constituj
tional history of the office, covering every public event ana
discussion which had a perceptible influence in determining\
who should hold the office, and in connection therewith to |
note the origin and sketch the history of all political parties,
however ephemeral, that rose above the rank of a local faction.
And, since one President is different from another, I have
tried to show wherein and in what manner the personal quali-
ties of the Presidents have affected the course of public events
and of the national history.

E. S.
Brookline, Massachusetts, July, 1898.

CONTENTS

I. The Electoral System
II. The First Election

III. Washington re-elected unanimously

IV. John Adams

V. The Jefferson-Burr Contest .

VI. The Democratic Regime

VII. James Madison

VIII. An Election in Time of War
IX. The Last of the Virginia "Dynasty
X. The "Era of Good Feelings" .
XI. The Defeat of "King Caucus"
XII. Jackson's Triumph ....

XIII. The "Old Hero" re-elected .

XIV. The Convention System

XV. Van Buren

XVI. Tippecanoe and Tyler too .
XVII. The First "Dark Horse"
XVIII. The "Free Soil" Campaign of 1848
XIX. The Democrats reunited
XX. The New Republican Party
XXI. The Last Struggle of Slavery
XXII. Lincoln re-elected

XXIII. General Grant . . .

XXIV. The Greeley Campaign

XXV. The Disputed Election . . .
XXVI. A Republican Revival .
XXVII. The Mugwump Campaign .
XXVIII. Two Important Questions decided
XXIX. The Second Harrison
XXX. Cleveland's Second Election
XXXI. The Free Silver Campaign

Index

PAQl

20
32
42
54

86
97
106
115
125
142
151
166
178
190
206
226
244
258
279
298
313
333
356
394
419
450
457
486
519
571

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM

The evolution of the Constitution of 1787 forms one of the
most interesting chapters in the history of human government.
For the first time, the representatives of an inchoate nation,
meeting to ordain and establish a fundamental law for them-
selves and their posterity, could write that law upon tabula
rasa. They had to expunge nothing, — to abolish no old
institutions, to violate no traditions, to reform no long-stand-
ing abuses. Their task was not made easier by their unex-
ampled freedom from the trammels of an established order ; on
the contrary, it was thereby rendered more difficult. To know
what is not liked goes far toward teaching one what will be
liked. The members of the Philadelphia Convention had no
indication of what would be agreeable to those for whom they
acted. Yet they proceeded, first to draw in the rough, and
afterward to fill in and refine the detail, of a constitution that
has converted the unorganized communities of a congeries of
mutually repellant States into a united nation, under a govern-
ment more conservative and less subject to change than that
of any other self-governing people in the world.

Particularly worthy of study is the process by which the
executive department of the government to be created was
moulded, as the perfect statue is developed from the rough
block of marble. By successive resolutions the convention
determined that there should be an executive ; consisting of
one person ; holding office for a limited period ; reeligible ;
elected ; endowed with certain powers. The Convention hesitated
upon many points ; the decisions first reached were not always,
not even usually, final. Indeed, almost every feature of the plan

2 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

ultimately adopted was at least once rejected, after full debate.
Yet it cannot be said, after a full study of the debates, that
the Convention was unduly vacillating. The truth is that it
was a series of independent propositions which was rejected in
all these cases, but that when they were combined in a whole,
the scheme became that toward which the Convention was all
the time working. This will explain why Hamilton, whose
plan of a government was widely different from that which
formed the basis of the Convention's deliberations, who, in-
deed, had but little part in the formation of the Constitution,
could without great inconsistency become a defender of the
instrument as a whole, and could write : l " The mode of the
appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is
almost the only part of the system of any consequence which
has escaped without some censure, or which has received the
slightest mark of approbation from its opponents." Notwith-
standing this statement, which was strictly true, it is now to
be said that the only part of the machinery of government,
ordained by the people when they adopted the Constitution,
that has suffered the least change since the government came
into being, is the article which then gave universal satisfaction ;
and that no part of the Constitution has been so earnestly and
so continuously criticised as this same article, already once
amended to remove a supposed defect.

The plan of a national government submitted to the Con-
vention on the 29th of May, 1787, by Mr. Edmund Randolph,
provided for " a national executive to be chosen by the national

legislature for the term of years," " and to be ineligible

the second time." Charles Pinckney proposed, at the same
time, " that the executive power be vested in a ' President of
the United States of America/ which shall be his style ; and
his title shall be ' His Excellency.' He shall be elected for

years, and shall be reeligible." In some of the propositions

made during the early days of the Convention the proposed
executive was styled the " governor ; " but it was a mere sug-
gestion, resulting from the fact that as there was not, and
never had been, a model from which to copy the executive
which the Convention intended to create, no precedent existed
to guide them in giving him a title. The first question was,
In how many persons should the executive power be vested ?
One voice was raised in favor of three, — one to be chosen
l Federalist, No. 67.

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 3

from the North, one from the Middle States, and one from the
South. It was speedily determined that there should be a sin-
gle chief magistrate, and the decision was not reopened or crit-
icised afterward.

The questions concerning the executive department of the
government divided themselves into two classes : What should
be the powers and duties of the President ? and, How and by
whom should he be chosen? With the first class we have
nothing to do, save incidentally. To understand why the Con-
vention was puzzled, and why it changed its mind, apparently,
so often, it is necessary to inquire briefly what it was the pur-
pose of the Convention to accomplish, and against what appre-
hended evils it endeavored to guard. It was one of the guid-
ing principles, early adopted and rigidly adhered to, that the
legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the govern-
ment should be separate and mutually independent. There
were two, and only two, natural ways of selecting the Presi-
dent : by popular vote, and by the national legislature. At
no time was the proposition of a popular election received
with favor, although it had the support of powerful advocates,
particularly of Mr. Gouverneur Morris. The chief objections
urged against it were three : the great advantage this method \
would give to the large States ; the probable ignorance of the
people at large as to the comparative merits of candidates, and
the consequent likelihood that they would in all cases give a
preference to a candidate each from his own State ; and the /
general incompetence of the populace to decide a question of
such moment. Superficial writers are responsible for a popu-
lar impression that the third of these reasons was the control-
ling one, — that the Convention by its action registered its
distrust of the people, that if the members had felt a greater
confidence in the people, the decision would have been differ-
ent. Prom this it is plausible to draw an argument that the
present generation, which knows that the people may be
trusted, should introduce the popular election. In truth, a
distrust of the good judgment of the people was expressed by
one member only, Colonel Mason, of Virginia, who happens to
have been one of the three members of the Convention who
did not sign the Constitution,1 in the often quoted remark
that it would be " as unnatural to refer the proper character
for chief magistrate to the people as it would be to refer a trial
1 The others were Randolph and Gerry.

4 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

of colors to a blind man." On the other hand, the fear of
aggrandizement by the large States was ever present as a con-
trolling principle ; for unless the frame of government were
such as the smaller States would adopt, the Convention must
be a failure. The consideration that the public characters of
the country were not generally known, save in the neighbor-
hood of their homes, was also potent, and was founded upon
a real condition.

Yet the alternative, an election by the legislature, was equally
objectionable on other grounds. To require that the Executive
should be independent of the law-making power, and at the
same time to give the election to the legislature, was an incon-
sistency so glaring as to shock the Convention whenever the
clause relating to the choice of a President came under consid-
eration. The only escape from it, and that but a partial one,
was to forbid the reelection of a chief magistrate, — a provision
which, as was pointed out, might and would sometimes exclude
from the office the person best fitted to exercise it. The pro-
position to avoid these difficulties by creating a body of elec-
tors for the sole purpose of choosing a President was made
early in the session. On the 2d of June, James Wilson pro-
posed that there should be " certain districts in each State
which should appoint electors to elect outside of their own
body." The objection was made that, inasmuch as the most
eminent citizens would be already serving as senators, repre-
sentatives, and State governors, the choice of a President
would, by this plan, be committed to a body of inferior men,
ignorant of the merits of citizens in all parts of the country,
and therefore apt to vote for candidates living in their own
State. Dealing with the conditions that prevailed in their
time, — a dearth of men capable of filling so many new posi-
tions as it was necessary to create, and an absence of the
means by which information regarding public men and public
affairs is now disseminated, — they were right.

The statement of the perplexities by which the Convention
was confronted prepares us to understand the frequent reversal
of its decisions. The first resolution, adopted before the objec-
tions to it had occurred to the members, was that the Execu-
tive should be chosen by the legislature. Then Elbridge
Gerry brought forward a suggestion that the President should
be elected by the governors of the States ; this was negatived.
Hamilton's plan of a government, offered on the 18th of June,

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 5

which was never considered by the Convention, committed the
election to a body of electors to be chosen by the people, by
districts. These electors were to meet, those for each State
within that State, and vote not only for a President of the
United States, but also for two " second electors." A majority
of all the " first electors " was to be necessary to make choice
of a President. Should such a majority not be obtained, the
"second electors" were to meet in one place, be presided over
by the Chief Justice, and effect a choice.

The convention returned to the subject of the Executive on
the 17th of July, and after a debate rejected a motion that he
should be chosen " by electors appointed by the legislatures of
the several States." On the 19th it adopted a motion in almost
the identical words of the rejected proposition : " to be chosen
by electors appointed for that purpose by the legislatures of the
States." The question as to the length of the President's term,
as well as that of his reeligibility, was closely involved with
the consideration of the body to which he was to owe his election.
A long term and ineligibility for a second term were both mea-
sures to insure the President's independence of the legislature.
The bugbear of legislative tyranny was held up before the Con-
vention almost as frequently as was that of a control of the
government by the larger States. Seven years, therefore, was
the term first agreed upon ; and the question of reeligibility
was left open. After the second vote, above noted, commit-
ting the choice to independent electors, the term was reduced
to six years ; and an amendment that a President should not
hold office more than six years of any twelve years was re-
jected. This was on the 19th of July. The next day the
Convention adopted Mr. Gerry's proposition regarding the
number of electors : Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
were to have three each ; Connecticut, New York, New Jer-
sey, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina, two each ;
Rhode Island, Delaware, and Georgia, one each. On the 26th
the Convention reverted to the seven years' term, with the
provision, of ineligibility for reelection. Then, on the same
day, the whole subject was referred to a committee of five.
The committee reported a draft of a Constitution on the 6th of
August. The article relating to the election of President was y
in these words : —

Art. X., Sect. 1. The executive power of the United States shall
be vested in a single person. His style shall be " The President of

6 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the United States of America ; " and his title shall be " His Excel-
lency." He shall be elected by ballot by the legislature. He shall
hold his office during seven years, but shall not be elected a sec-
ond time.

This section, which combined Mr. Randolph's and Mr. Pinck-
ney's plans, but which contained no trace of the electoral plan
adopted by the Convention, was the basis of future discussions.
But the scheme of a choice by the legislature was still as
objectionable as ever. It was at this point that Mr. Hugh
"Williamson of North Carolina made a suggestion in which was
the germ of the plan ultimately adopted. He proposed to
refer the election to popular vote, each elector to vote for
three persons, and the choice to fall on him who obtained a
majority of all the persons voting. He thought this would be
a cure for the evil that the large States would govern. Gou-
verneur Morris at once caught up the idea, but suggested that
two votes only be allowed to electors, and that it be provided
that one at least of the two should not be given to a citizen of
the voter's own State. Mr. Madison also thought that some-
thing valuable might be made of Mr. Williamson's suggestion,
with Mr. Morris's amendment. He advanced the idea that
the second best man would probably be the first, that is, a
voter would place a citizen of his own State first, but would
give his second vote to a man selected on account of his fitness
for the place, and not on account of his residence. The voter
might give the preference to a local candidate in the hope that
he would get a majority ; but he would not throw away his
second vote also. The first judgment of the Convention was
against the proposition, yet it was defeated by one majority
only, — five States supporting and six opposing it.

On the 24th of August the question of the Executive was
again considered. I The Convention rejected a proposition by
Mr. Morris to refer the election to electors chosen by the
people of the several States, and also a motion that the Presi-
dent be chosen " by electors. 'J It rejected moreover a plain
election by the people, a motion to give to each State one vote
for President (in the election by " the legislature," which in
all this discussion meant the House of Representatives and
not both branches of Congress), and another motion that when
the legislature should be equally divided the President of the
Senate should have the casting vote. It adopted two amend-
ments to the section quoted above, which made the third

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 7

sentence read as follows : " He shall be elected by joint ballot u '
by the legislature, to which election a majority of the votes of
the members present shall be required." In the clause as
amended, it will be seen, the phrase " the legislature " signifies
both branches.

Up to this point no proposition had been made to appoint v^
a Vice-President. On August 31 "the questions not yet
settled " were referred to a committee of eleven, which reported,
on the 4th of September, a scheme for the election of the
Executive radically different from anything that had been
sanctioned by the Convention, — as different as the report of
a Congressional committee of conference, in our day, some-
times is from any version of a bill passed in non-concurrence
submitted to it. The committee proposed to strike all out of
the section printed above after the word "Excellency," and
to insert the following provisions : —

Each State shall appoint, in such manner as its legislature may
direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators
and members of the House of Representatives to which the State
may be entitled in the legislature. (A)

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by
ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab-
itant of the same State with themselves ; and they shall make a
list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for
each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed,
to the seat of general government, directed to the President of the
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in that house, open all
the certificates : and the votes shall then and there be counted. (B)
The person having the greatest number of votes shall be President,
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ;
and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have
an equal number of votes, then the Senate shall choose by ballot
one of them for President ; but if no such person have such ma-
jority, then, from the five highest on the list, the Senate shall
choose by ballot the President. And in every case, after the
choice of a President, the person having the greatest number of
votes shall be the Vice-President ; but if there should remain two
or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them
the Vice-President.

The legislature may determine the time of choosing and assem-
bling the electors, and the manner of certifying and transmitting
their votes.

When the article was taken up for consideration on the

8 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

following day, September 5, many amendments were offered.
Those which were adopted show again most clearly that the
Convention now discerned definitely what it desired to ac-
complish, and that it could move directly to that end. At
""the place marked (A) a provision was inserted that " no per-
son shall be appointed an elector who is a member of the leg-
islature of the United States, or who holds any office of profit
or trust under the United States." At the place marked (B)
was added the phrase, " in the presence of the Senate and
House of Representatives," — an important clause, in that it
implies that the President of the Senate was to count the elec-
toral vote, and that the members of the two houses were to
Kbe present as witnesses only. The word " immediately" was
inserted in the direction to the Senate to choose the President
in case of a failure of the electors to give a majority to one
person. A motion to commit the election to the " legisla-
ture" instead of to the Senate was rejected by seven States
against three. The reason for this vote was evidently a de-
termination that when the electors did not effect a choice, the
result should be determined by a poll of States, each having
an equal voice ; for when Roger Sherman moved that the
election be made by the House of Representatives, each State
to have one vote, the motion was carried by ten States to one.
Then it was suggested that inasmuch as a majority of the
House of Representatives constituted a quorum, the election
might be carried, when the members of three large States
only were present, by a vote of two States to one. Madison
met this by offering an amendment, wrhich was accepted, pro-
viding that when the House was assembled for the purpose of
electing a President, a quorum should consist of a member or
members from two thirds of the States, and that a majority
of all the States should be necessary to effect a choice.

Thus all the points of objection were met, and the scheme as
a whole was regarded with almost universal satisfaction. The
whole Constitution was referred to a committee " to revise the
style and arrange the articles agreed to by the House." The
committee, appointed on the 8th of September, reported on
the 12th. The articles were "read, debated by paragraphs,
amended, and agreed to," and the Convention adjourned on the
17th of September. The article, as finally adopted and rati-
fied, under which the first four elections were held, is, in full,
as follows : —

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 9

Art. IL, Sect. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a
President of the United States of America. He shall hold his
office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice-
President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : —

Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole num-
ber of senators and representatives to which the State may be enti- V
tied in the Congress ; but no senator or representative, or person
holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall
be appointed an elector.

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by
ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab-
itant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a
list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for
each ; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed,
to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the
President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in
the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all
the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person
having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap-
pointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority,
and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Represen-
tatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for Presi-
dent; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest
on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the Presi-
dent. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by
States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members
from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States
shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of
the President, the person having the greatest number of votes
of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should
remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose
from them by ballot the Vice-President.

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors
and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall
be the same throughout the United States.

vcjUjuocC

What the electoral system has accomplished, and wherein
it has proved more or less defective, may be learned in detail
from the historical events narrated in subsequent chapters. It
is desirable, nevertheless, to consider in this place the general
working of the system, and its development in practice. In
the first place, let us see how far it has fulfilled the purposes

10 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

and expectations of the framers of the Constitution. No
doubt it is unsafe to declare in precise terms what they
intended to accomplish by every clause and word of the
remarkable instrument they left for the use of their country-
men: nor is it just or expedient to regard their work as
imperfect in those parts of the Constitution wherein later
generations have departed from what seems to have been
their original intention, provided the modification, not in-
consistent with the letter of the Constitution, result in a
workable and equitable system. Bearing in mind these pre-
liminary cautions, we may say that the Convention sought to
accomplish, (1) the independence of the Executive ; (2) the
choice of the President by an electorate which (a) should be
intelligent, and free to choose the best, and (b) should not
be controlled by the large States ; (3) that in the event of
a failure of the electors to make a choice, each State should
have an equal voice.

" «- The first of the above-enumerated objects has been realized,
although at one time it seemed to be defeated. In the Chap-
ter on the Convention System (XIV) it will be seen how the
Congressional Caucus became so obvious a necessity that it
would have been contrary to the plainest dictate of political
wisdom not to make use of it ; and yet it was directly in vio-
lation of the principle that the President must not owe nis
election to the legislative department of the government. The
national convention has restored to the President as large a
measure of independence of Congress as is possible under any
svstem. So long as the strongest, wisest, and best-informed
public men have the greatest influence upon the choice, as
they ought to have, and so long as the people send such men
to Congress, as they ought to do, so long will the absolute
independence of the President be impossible ; but not his in-
dependence of Congress as a whole, or of his own party mem-
bers in Congress.

'The most difficult requirement was that the electors should
be free agents, and qualified to make a wise choice by acquaint-
ance with the public men of the country. In the strictest
sense, the first part of this condition was not realized even at
the earliest elections. There was no second where Washington
was first; but when he retired, the intelligence of the electors
needed to be instructed. It was many years before acquaint-
ance with public men was sufficiently general to enable all the

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 11

States to appoint electors who were competent to judge for
themselves. It is notorious that almost from the beginning,
the electors have been subject, in giving their votes, to a moral
stress so powerful that not one of them could separate himself
from his fellows and vote for any other than the candidate of
his party, without being held guilty of unpardonable political
treachery. The intrigues to detach Federal electors from
Adams, eight years only after the Constitution went into
effect, and the absolute unanimity of the anti-Federal electors
in support of both Jefferson and Burr, in 1800, show how
quickly the scheme of independent, free-acting electors came
to naught. Shall we say that it is surprising that the sagacious
statesmen of the Convention did not foresee that the govern-
ment they were instituting would be a government by party,
and that the success of parties would depend as much on their
discipline as on their principles ? They did foresee it. Or
rather, they feared, as some of them expressed it in debate,
that the electors would be influenced and controlled in their
action by designing men ; and they hoped only that the votes
would be free.

No argument is needed to prove that the scheme of the
fathers is not only impracticable, but that in its operation it
would now be intolerable. Were electors to be chosen merely
as party men, uncommitted to any candidates, one of two
things must happen. Either the choice of these candidates,
after the appointment of electors, would be made in the utmost
confusion, and would be attended with scandalous intrigues,
perhaps with corruption ; or, the election of a President would
be thrown into the House of Representatives, not occasionally,
but always. The most casual consideration of the subject will
convince every thinking man that the system we have is far
better than that which the fathers planned. We have, in the
convention system, a device which substitutes the judgment
of a whole party for that of the individual elector, and which
enables the wishes of the largest party to be carried into effect,
instead of being scattered and wasted. The new system may
not, does not, carry out the exact intention of the Fathers, but
it conforms to the letter of the Constitution.

Four elections only were held under the provisions of the
Constitution as ratified by the States. Then a change was
made, in order to meet in a different way a state of affairs
which the Convention had foreseen. The circumstances in

12 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

which the will of the victorious party was nearly frustrated at
the election of 1800-1801 are fully narrated in a subsequent
chapter. It was to prevent a recurrence of the scandal, for it
was a scandal, in spite of the fact that it was constitutional,
that the change was made. Nevertheless the amendment cast
away the very feature which induced the Convention to
entrust the choice of President to a created body of electors,
and which was to make it certain that the large States should
not control. Consequently, it seems at first sight illogical to
amend the Constitution by ordaining a different course of pro-
cedure, for the sole reason that something had happened which
was distinctly foreseen and provided for.

It seemed both illogical and unwise to Gouverneur Morris,
who was at that time a member of the United States Senate
from New York.1 I The twelfth amendment was proposed by
New York. Mr. Morris voted against it, and the resolution
of the House of Representatives was first defeated by his vote.
In a letter to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the
Assembly of New York, dated December 25, 1802,2 he gives
his reasons for his vote, three in number, of which one only is
pertinent. The evils complained of were foreseen in the
Convention. " The Convention not only foresaw that a scene
might take place similar to that of the last presidential election,
but even supposed it not impossible that at some time or other,
a person admirably fitted for the office of President might
have an equal vote with one totally unqualified, and that, by
the predominance of faction in the House of Representatives,
the latter might be preferred. This, which is the greatest
supposable evil of the present mode, was calmly examined,
and it appeared that however prejudicial it might be at the
present moment, a useful lesson would result from it for the
future, to teach contending parties the importance of giving
both votes to men fit for the first office." Mr. Morris was a
Federalist, but his judgment in the crisis of 1801 had been
decidedly against the course pursued by the members of his
party in the House of Representatives. Thus he had seen an
example of that which he characterizes as " the greatest sup-
posable evil of the present mode." He must also have been
aware of the strenuous efforts put forth by men of his own
party to secure for Mr. Pinckney a larger electoral vote than

1 He represented Pennsylvania in the Convention of 1787.

2 Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. iii., p. 174.

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 13

that for Mr. Adams, in the year preceding that crisis. That
which he calls a " useful lesson " was then, and has at almost
every subsequent election been greatly needed, and usually
unheeded. No doubt, if a party victorious in the choice of
electors were always liable to the accident of having to submit
to an assembly politically hostile the choice between its two
candidates for the presidency, the nominations would be more
carefully made. But it is clearly evident that, with the aban-
donment of the theory of independent voting by electors, and
the consequent certainty that there would always be a tie be-
tween two candidates, and an election ultimately by the House
of Representatives, the change made after the Jefferson-Burr
contest was a wise one.

It has been said that to this change is to be attributed the
semi-degradation of the office of Vice-President. In support
of the assertion it may be stated with truth that not more than
two or three candidates for Vice-President of all parties, dur-
ing the last three quarters of a century, have been men who,
at the time of their nomination, had even been suggested as
candidates for President. Mr. Tyler, Mr. Wheeler, and Mr.
Hendricks may be named ; is there a fourth ? It may never-
theless be urged that under the original system there* surely
would have been an evil greater than the choice of second-rate
men for the vice-presidency. Consider what would have hap-
pened had two such men as Clay and Webster been the candi-
dates, and the successful candidates, of the Whig party, in
1840. Receiving an equal vote from the electors, the House
of Representatives must have made choice between them. One
of the two would have gone to the White House ; the other
would have been condemned to the obscurity of the vice-presi-
dency. One can hardly conceive of a situation more conducive
to intrigue on the part of both, — to an effort of the successful
man to retain power by putting down his rival, of the unsuc-
cessful to supplant him. This consideration alone, — and others
might be mentioned, — should be sufficient to reconcile the
country to the change that resulted from the tie vote between
Jefferson and Burr.

No strong movement has ever been made to substitute a
direct popular vote for the existing system. The suggestion
is so clearly impracticable that a discussion of its merits
is useless. A three fourths vote of the States is needed
for an amendment of the Constitution. Under the present

14 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

apportionment there are fifteen States which have no more
than two members each in the House of Representatives. One
third of the States, then, have a vastly greater power in de-
termining who shall be President than they would exercise
under the system of popular election. Not one of them would
give its consent to the change. Nor has there ever been a
time in our history when the number of small States which
would lose political power by the adoption of a system of pop-
ular election was not large enough to foredoom the proposi-
tion.

Numerous have been the suggestions of amendment of the
Constitution with a view to dispensing with the machinery of
electors, at the same time preserving to the States their rela-
tive weight in the election. The leading idea in the most of
them is : a direct vote by the people for President and Vice-
President; the result in each State to be determined by a
plurality ; the candidates who receive such plurality to be
credited with as many votes from that State as the electoral
votes they would have under the present system. The sole
practical advantage to be anticipated from any of these propo-
sitions is relief from the possibility of treachery on the part of
men designated as electors. Never but once has this danger
threatened. A complete remedy, much more easily applied
than an amendment of the Constitution, is the election of men
of high character as electors.

The language of the Constitution relative to the counting of
the votes is extremely precise up to the point of designating
by whom they shall be counted. It does not seem to have
suggested itself to any member of the Convention that there
might be a controverted election in any State, and conse-
quently that authority to make a decision should be lodged
somewhere. The vagueness of the direction led to a variation
in practice at the early elections, as will be observed in the
account of each election. Gradually Congress asserted its
right to make the count and to determine all questions arising.
If this is not clearly the intention of the framers of the Con-
stitution — who provided merely that the certificates of votes
should be opened in the presence of Congress — it is certainly
safer to entrust the decision to the two Houses than to the
discretion of one man. The process by which Congress as-
sumed the power will be most conveniently set forth in the
history of the successive elections.

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 15

The theory of the Constitution undoubtedly is that the elec-
tors are officers of their respective States. As such the method
of their appointment is left entirely to the legislatures. From
the beginning there was a marked difference in the States in
this regard, for while in most of them the legislature itself
made the choice, some entrusted the election to the people. It
will be seen from what follows that the tendency to the sys-
tem of popular election was not strong at first ; but in Mon-
roe's time it became general. When the election of 1824 took
place three fourths of the State legislatures had renounced the
privilege of appointment. During the whole period prior to
1824 there were numerous cases of the resumption of the'right
of choice directly, by the legislatures of States in which a
political advantage was to be gained by so doing. At the
election of 1828, in Delaware and South Carolina alone were
the electors chosen by legislature. South Carolina clung to
that method of appointment until the civil war. Another
change in the mode of appointment accompanied or followed
that just mentioned. Originally, in most of the States where
the popular system prevailed, each voter cast his ballot for
three electors — two for the State at large, and one for the con-
gressional district in which he resided. But politicians soon
discovered that the weight of the State's influence was in-
creased by a general election of the whole number, by the plan
known in France as the scrutin de liste. As soon as a few of
the States had adopted this method it was necessary for the
rest to do the same, for self-protection. Maryland was the
last State to give up the district system, which she did after
the election of 1832. Since then no State has reverted to it,
with one exception, namely, Michigan in 1892. The party
accidentally in power adopted this device with the express pur-
pose of dividing the electoral vote of the State, which it had
no hope of obtaining upon a general popular vote. It is in
this feature that the electoral plan of 1787 fails most conspic-
uously. The general ticket greatly increases the power of the
large States. Since the first election of Jackson, when it
became the usual rule of election, no President has been chosen
in opposition to the vote of both New York and Pennsylvania,
and but four in opposition to the vote of either of them.
Nevertheless, it cannot be asserted that the general result
would have been different in many cases, if the district method
of election had prevailed universally. Gerrymandering might

16 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

effect almost as much as the general ticket. Inasmuch as the
power to choose between the district and the general ticket
system rests exclusively with the legislatures, and since the
evil — whatever it may be — can be reached by amendment of
the Constitution only, the plan adopted will undoubtedly con-
tinue in use.

Since the electors of President and Vice-President are state
officers, whose appointment is certified by the governor ; who
meet, discharge their one duty, and adjourn, within the State
and under state authority, it follows that a fraud perpetrated
with the connivance of the chief officers of a State is subject
to no effective revision. Unfortunately there have been too
many instances of subversion of the will of the people by
fraudulent elections, falsified returns, and disfranchisement of
citizens by rejection of their legal votes, to admit of this be-
ing regarded as a fanciful danger. Indeed, it may be asserted
that from the time of the Plaquemines affair in 1844 to the
present time there have been few presidential elections which
are not believed by members of one party or another to be
tainted with electoral frauds. So long as the elections are
under state control this evil is beyond remedy. To introduce
the system of popular election of the President would not be a
cure, even in appearance. Moreover, the jealousy and alarm
that are always excited by every proposition to put elections
under national supervision, render the only possible remedy
wholly impracticable. Yet it needs no argument to prove that
fraud which gives the electoral vote of New York or Nevada,
the largest or the smallest State, to electors who have not a
plurality of votes, and by so doing changes the result of the
presidential election, entails a political injury not merely upon
the people of the State whose will has been nullified, but
upon the whole country. The wrong must go unpunished
and unredressed, because there is no appeal from the acts of
state authority. There was no apprehension of such wrong
when the Constitution was framed; but it has been suffered,
repeatedly, if not frequently. In 1876 a complication of elec-
toral disorders and controversies, in which neither party was
innocent, brought the country to the verge of a terrible crisis.
It would be sheer optimism to believe that evils equally peril-
ous to peace will not occur hereafter.

In the early days of the Republic most of the States re-
quired election to all offices by a majority of votes ; and when

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 17

no candidate had more than a plurality, a fresh election was
held, and repeated until a majority appeared. At that time
it would have been thought a peril to the Republic, had any
candidate for President, elected under a popular system, ob-
tained the office supported by less than a majority of the
people. It is needless to repeat that the framers of the
Constitution required a majority of electoral votes, represent-
ing the States as units in the Federal Union ; or failing that,
a majority of States represented in the lower House of Con-
gress. In practice almost every President since Polk — the
first on the list — has had less than a majority of all the
votes. The exceptions are Pierce, Lincoln (in 1864), Grant
at both his elections, and McKinley. Two Presidents entered
office backed by less than a plurality of popular votes : Hayes,
and Benjamin Harrison. Even this cannot be deemed an
argument for a change from the present electoral system,
unless we are to abandon altogether the principle of elec-
tion by States and adopt that of election by a plurality of
individuals.

One phase of the practical working of the electoral system
should, in conclusion, be mentioned and examined. It is
customary for the newspapers, after each election, to draw
attention, in the tone of an alarmist, to the fact that the
change of a certain small number of votes from one candidate
to another in a few States, would have given the election to
that second candidate. The successful party in the contest
of 1896 affected, to an unusual degree, to regard the result
as a narrow escape, and the defeated party mourned that it
missed a victory by so small a margin. Yet, as a matter of
fact, Mr. McKinley was the first President since 1872 to
receive a clear majority of votes ; and he also had a larger
electoral majority than any President during the same period,
except Mr. Cleveland at his second election. The answer to
the ever-repeated arithmetical speculation is that the votes
never do have a tendency to redistribute themselves' in the
way suggested. One election does not resemble another ; but
the tendency in one State at any given election is substan-
tially the same as in other States. It increases the ma-
jority of the winning party in its own States ; it carries some
States over to the opposition ; it reduces majorities in the
States held by the losing party, — these changes all being,
at any election, in the same direction. It appears that some-

18 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

thing less than nineteen thousand votes transferred from
McKinley to Bryan in the States of California, Delaware,
Indiana, Kentucky, Oregon, and West Virginia, would have
given Bryan the election. It is overlooked that five of the
six States named were gained by the Republicans from the
Democrats, since they were carried by Mr. Cleveland in 1892 ;
and that the change was a part of the movement which gave
McKinley his election. It would have required a change of
8772 votes in Indiana to transfer that State from the Re-
publican to the Democratic column. Since similar causes
produce similar effects, we must suppose that in other States
as well as in Indiana, the Republicans would have lost 2.7
per cent, of their vote, and the Democrats gained 2.9 per cent.
That change throughout the country would have reduced
McKinley's plurality by about 360,000 votes. Applying to
the whole country the proportional change needed to give the
vote of Delaware to Bryan, the position of the two candidates
would be almost exactly reversed ; Bryan would have a plu-
rality of more than 600,000. This statement suggests strongly
that the result in a single State cannot be dissociated from the
result in other States. It is interesting as an arithmetical fact
that twenty thousand voters, carefully located, might have re-
versed the verdict of 1896 ; but as a political fact it is value-
less, and has no bearing upon the question of the practical
working of the electoral system.

Almost identical conditions, it may also be observed, are
found to exist at every election. In 1892, Mr. Cleveland had
277 electoral votes to 145 for Mr. Harrison — a larger excess
than that of McKinley over Bryan in 1896. A change of
26,000 votes in California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas,
North Dakota, and Wisconsin, would have given Harrison 226
votes, and an election. In 1888 a change of 7200 votes in
New York alone would have elected Cleveland over Harrison.
A change of 600 votes in New York, in 1884, would have
elected Blaine over Cleveland. Garfield might have been
defeated in 1880 by the loss to Hancock of 10,517 votes in
New York, or by the loss of 11,452 votes in Maine, New
Hampshire, Connecticut, Indiana, and Oregon. Hayes, but
for circumstances favoring him, might have been replaced by
Tilden without the loss of one popular vote. A study of the
tables of popular votes in the following pages will reveal many
similar facts, even back to 1836, when a slight change in

THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 19

Pennsylvania would have compelled Van Buren to seek his
election from the House of Representatives. It appears, then,
that the situation in 1896- was nothing unusual, nor one to
give the victors a lugubrious thrill, and the defeated a regretful
sigh for what might have been. It is ordinarily the case at
every election that some precincts, districts, counties, or States
are carried by the victorious party by narrow margins ; and it
is those which make the difference between victory and defeat.
That the same thing is true of our Presidential elections is not
a good ground for criticism of the electoral system.

Summing up the merits and faults of the system as modified
by experience, we may at least say this : that it has almost always
resulted in giving effect to the popular will, as well as to the
will of the States — which was what it was designed to do.
The restlessness which advocates radical change in any institu-
tion that has turned out not to be perfect, without due consid-
eration of fresh evils that may be introduced by the reform,
has devised many substitutes for the system which exists. Yet
every substantial evil that has been experienced under the
electoral clauses of the Constitution was introduced by politi-
cians for party purposes, and might be cured — granting the
desire to cure it — without altering these clauses. If any
scheme can be presented which politicians might not pervert,
it may be well to consider it.

THE FIRST ELECTION

It was provided by the Constitution' of the United States
that u the ratification of the conventions of nine States shall
be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between
the States so ratifying the same." The Constitution was
adopted September 17, 1787. Before the close of the year it
had been ratified by the conventions of three States. Two
other States came to its support in January, 1788, one in
February, one in April, and one in May, bringing the number
up to eight. New Hampshire had the honor of giving the
ninth vote, which made the Constitution effective, on June
21 ; Virginia followed closely on the 26th of the same month ;
and New York yielded, after a memorable and bitter struggle,
on July 26. The States of North Carolina and Rhode Island
refused their assent to the Constitution, and adhered to the re-
fusal until Congress had proposed a series of twelve amend-
ments, ten of which were adopted. Neither of the two States
participated in the first election.

The Constitution having become operative, it was the duty
of the Congress of the Confederation, in obedience both to the
advice of the Convention of 1787 and to its own resolution, to
fix the time when the new government should come into
being. A long and dreary discussion as to the place where
the seat of government should be, caused a needless delay in
starting the machinery, and, as will be seen presently, has
resulted in a sudden stoppage of the legislative department on
a fixed day, every alternate year, for more than a century. It
was not until September 13, 1788, — New York City having
at last been chosen as the temporary seat of government, —
that a resolution was passed, reciting in a preamble that a
sufficient number of States had ratified the Constitution, and
directing that electors of President and Vice-President should
be appointed on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that
they should meet in their respective States and give in their

THE FIRST ELECTION 21

votes on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new
Congress should meet in New York on the first Wednesday in
March. The people everywhere had become impatient at the
tardy action of Congress, and hailed this resolution with great
satisfaction.

Nevertheless, the time allowed them was exceedingly short.
During the year that elapsed between the promulgation of the
Constitution by the Convention, and the summons to the first
political action under it, no preparations whatever had been
made for an election. If it cannot be asserted positively that
no state legislature had passed a law providing foT the election
of Representatives and the appointment of electors, prior to
the adoption of the resolution of Congress just referred to, it
is nevertheless believed that this is the fact. Indeed, it must
have seemed to most people futile to pass laws providing for
elections under a Constitution that was bitterly opposed, and
that might never go into effect. It may well be doubted if
Congress would have directed the establishment of a govern-
ment in the nine States which first ratified the Constitution, if
Virginia and New York had not been included in the number.

Even in these days of railroads and telegraphs a period of
four months would be a short time in which to do all that was
to be done between September 13 and January 7. The legis-
latures were to be summoned, laws were to be passed to
provide for elections, and candidates for the new positions
were to be canvassed and chosen. At that time communi-
cation was slow. Intelligence of the resolution of Congress
would hardly reach some of the distant state capitals in two
weeks. The governor must then issue his proclamation sum-
moning the legislature, and here again allowance had to be
made both for the slowness of mails in notifying members in
the remote regions of the State, and for the time they must
necessarily consume in travelling to the capital. All this be-
fore a discussion, perhaps prolonged, as to the manner in which
electors should be appointed ; and, if it should be determined
to give the people the privilege of choosing them, all the pre-
parations for a popular election. It seems to have been gener-
ally inferred from the shortness of the time allowed, that
Congress intended that the legislatures themselves should
make the choice. " It is evident," wrote a newspaper corre-
spondent at Philadelphia, on October 1, 1788, " that Congress
construe the Constitution that the legislatures of the several

22 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

States, not the people, are to choose the electors, as that body
has ordered the choice of said electors to be on the first
Wednesday of January, and their meeting for the choice of
President four weeks later. Por if the people, as hath been
asserted, are to choose the electors, is it possible that in the
large States of Massachusetts, Virginia, etc., the returns can be
made for the choice, notice given ^o the persons chosen, and
the persons thus chosen have time to meet together in the
short space of one month ? No, it is impossible, and can
only be remedied by the legislature, who, in fact, are ' the
States ' making the choice."

In five of the eleven States entitled to participate in the
election the governors did not summon the legislature in time
to provide for an election by the people, and thus they virtu-
ally required the legislature to make the appointment. These
States were Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, South Caro-
lina, and Georgia. The proceedings in some of the other
States were interesting. The legislature of New Hampshire
assembled on the 5th of November and passed an act for the
election of representatives and electors on the third Monday in
December (the 15th). The people were to bring in their votes
for five electors, the full number to which the State was en-
titled. The votes were to be returned to the legislature, which
was to be in session at the beginning of January ; " and the
persons having a majority of votes shall, on the first Wednes-
day of January next, be duly appointed and declared elected."
In case the whole or any of the electors should not be chosen
by a majority, then the General Court was to choose as many
as might be wanting, from double that number of the candi-
dates, having the highest number of votes. No elector re-
ceived a majority, and it became the duty of the General Court
to appoint a full list. The law had not prescribed the method
of choice, and the two branches had great difficulty in coming
to terms. The Senate claimed equal power with the House
of Representatives in the appointment ; the House insisted
upon a joint ballot. The contest was prolonged far into the
night, the House stubbornly refusing to admit the pretension
of the Senate to a full negative upon its action. " The obser-
vations made by the members of the Senate, relative to their
prerogative," writes one reporter, quoted by the Hartford
" Courant," " were pertinent, manly, and firm — those of the
House, ingenious, deep, and well-digested." It is not easy to

THE FIRST ELECTION 23

decide between two sets of adjectives so well balanced, which
branch of the General Court had the better of the argument.
Shortly before midnight, in order that the vote of the State
might not be lost to Washington, "the Great American Fa-
bius," the House yielded, with a protest against its action
being regarded as a precedent, and concurred in the list of
electors chosen by the Senate. They were all Federalists.

The plan adopted by the Massachusetts General Court was
not unlike that of New Hampshire. The people in each repre-
sentative district were to vote for two persons, inhabitants of
the district. From the'two persons in each district having
the highest number of votes the General Court chose one ; and
it also chose, independently, two electors at large. The law
prescribed that the choice should be by joint ballot.

The vote of New York was lost. The two branches of the
legislature fell into a contest almost precisely like that in New
Hampshire. The Assembly was willing to divide the electors
with the Senate, when objection was made to its original pro-
position of a joint ballot. The Senate refused to agree to any
plan which did not give it a full negative upon the action of
the Assembly. The time for action was wasted in bitter con-
tention. New York was not enthusiastic over the new Con-
stitution, and many members of the legislature were rather
glad than sorry that the deadlock was not broken until the
time for an election had passed.

Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia passed laws providing
for popular elections, which took place without great excite-
ment. Not only in these States, but in Massachusetts and
New Hampshire, the vote was light. The two parties were
made up of those who favored the Constitution on the one
hand, and those who opposed it on the other. Political senti-
ment seems to have been largely one way or the other in each
community. Here, the Federalists comprised nearly the whole
population ; there, scarcely a Federalist was to be found.
There were. thus present none of the elements necessary for a
great political contest. The majority cast perhaps a half of
their possible vote, the minority hardly appeared at the polls ;
in fact, they often had no candidates in the field.

The electors were, as the Constitution contemplated that
they should be, free agents in the choice of President and Vice-
President. Yet public opinion governed their action to a
far greater degree than might have been anticipated «*i the

21 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

discharge of a perfectly new function. One name, indeed,
came spontaneously to the thoughts of all. The newspapers of
the time and the private letters of statesmen show that it was
universally regarded as fitting that George Washington should
be President. As will be seen presently a suggestion of an-
other result was made, but it came not from those who desired
the defeat of General Washington, but from those who had or
affected a fear that others might desire it. So far as can be
ascertained, neither any elector nor any considerable number
of the people countenanced opposition to Washington. It was
from the first accepted as the obvious and proper course to give
him a unanimous vote. But the electors were to vote for two
persons, — he who received the highest number, being a major-
ity, to be President ; the candidate who received the next
highest number, whether a majority or not, to be Vice-Presi-
dent. Public opinion gradually concentrated upon John
Adams.

Most of the electors were, to use one of the phrases current
at the time, men of " strong federal opinions," and it was but
natural that they should desire to support a candidate who,
like themselves, favored the new Constitution. Since the
President was a citizen of a Southern State, it was deemed
just to take the Vice-President from the North. These con-
siderations, restricting the choice, were recognized early in the
discussion. Hamilton was a most conspicuous leader of Feder-
alist opinion ; but he had not attained the age of thirty-five
years, and therefore was not eligible to the office. A candidate
from New England was indicated as desirable. The names of
Governor Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and General
Henry Knox, were canvassed. Knox was a soldier, like Wash-
ington, and was speedily rejected as a candidate. It was
deemed necessary that Hancock should remain in the position
of Governor of Massachusetts. Samuel Adams had been an
opponent of the Constitution at the outset, and although he
had subsequently advocated it, his early attitude on the ques-
tion rendered him an unsuitable candidate. John Adams re-
mained,— at least as conspicuous a figure in public life as
any man in New England, qualified both by his talents and
by his experience for the highest place, and open to none of
the objections cited against the other Massachusetts candidates.
He was a civilian ; he would vacate no office where his ser-
vices were needed, by becoming Vice-President j and he had

THE FIRST ELECTION 25

written a book in defence of the Constitution. Moreover, his
public services for many years, not the least of which had just
been, rendered as minister to England, and had ended not
many months before in a dignified retirement, made him seem
to most Federalists a peculiarly acceptable candidate. The sen-
timents of the friends of the Constitution are well set forth in
an article in a Philadelphia paper under date of October 8,
1788, three months prior to the choice of electors : —

The electors of President of the United States on the part of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are to meet in the borough of
Reading, where it is universally hoped and expected that one more
tribute of merited approbation will be given to George Washing-
ton, Esq., by their unanimous suffrages. Of the several respected
candidates in nomination for Vice-President, circumstances seem
most in favor of John Adams, Esq. While the conciliating talents
of Governor Hancock, and the attachment to him that prevails in
Massachusetts, render him necessary to the peace of New England,
Mr. Adams is perfectly at leisure to fill a seat for which nature,
education, and the experience of several years and various courts
in Europe have eminently and peculiarly qualified him.

Nevertheless there was another side of the question. Adams's
relations to Washington during the Revolutionary war had
been such that doubt was entertained if he would be accept-
able to Washington. To an inquiry on this point there had
come from Mount Vernon a cautious reply that —

Having taken it for granted that the person elected for that
important place would be a true Federalist, in that case he was
altogether disposed to acquiesce in the prevailing sentiments of
the electors, without giving any unbecoming preference, or incur-
ring any unnecessary ill-will.

Hamilton was consulted. He had generalized upon what
he had seen of Mr. Adams ; and while admitting the merits
of that gentleman, had an almost prophetic foresight of the
political woes that would be caused by the infirmities of his
temper. " On the whole," he wrote, " I have concluded to
support him." It is impossible to say how much of American
history would have been changed had Hamilton followed this
resolution without modification. His distrust and misgivings
led him to take a step which aroused the resentment of Adams
and wounded his vanity. When we reflect how many of
the acts of Adams which led to his defeat and the rout of the

26 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Federalist party are to be ascribed directly to his rancor toward
Hamilton, we seem almost to make the political history of the
country for more than a generation turn on a trivial circum-
stance.

Although in all the newspaper references to the coming
election, — one of which is quoted above, — Mr. Adams was
spoken of as a candidate for Vice-President, that gentleman
did not so regard himself, but rather as a candidate for the
presidency. If he received more votes than Washington, he
would be President ; if the votes were equal, the House of
Representatives would choose one of the two. He showed
plainly that he regarded his own merits as equal to those of
Washington. Hamilton's offence was that he also foresaw
the possibility that Adams's vote would be equal to Wash-
ington's, and took measures to prevent it. After the event
it was clear that there had never been any danger; but it
does not, by any means, follow that Hamilton was over-
anxious and officious. There was an understanding that the
New York opponents of the Constitution would vote for
George Clinton, and for Adams, or some other than Washing-
ton. Ultimately, as we have seen, New York chose no electors.
It is said in the Life of Hamilton, by his son, that " for a time
the pretensions of Franklin " to the presidency " were dis-
cussed in private circles. But the incomparably superior
claims of Washington silenced this purpose, which there is
no evidence was encouraged by Franklin, whose extreme age
would alone have presented an insuperable objection." There
is no evidence that Franklin was aware of the suggestion. Yet
when such rumors were in the air, it was no more than com-
mon prudence on the part of Hamilton to do what he could
to make Washington's election sure by cutting down the vote
for Adams. This, moreover, was not only his right, but what
almost every man in the country except Adams would thank
him for accomplishing.

What Hamilton did was to send word into several States,
advising that a unanimous vote be given to Washington, and
that some of the votes which would naturally go to Adams
be scattered. No doubt his advice was followed more exten-
sively than was needful, and more than Hamilton himself
intended. If we may take his own word for it, he did not
at the time suppose that Mr. Adams would resent his action.
In his famous letter on the character of John Adams, written

THE FIRST ELECTION

in 1800, with reference to the election of 1796 and the then
pending election which resulted in the overthrow of Adams,
he said, alluding to his interference in the first contest : —

Great was my astonishment and equally great my regret, when,
afterwards, I learned from persons of unquestionable veracity that
Mr. Adams had complained of unfair treatment in not having
been permitted to take an equal chance with General Washington,
by leaving the votes to an uninfluenced current.

No statement was ever made, so far as is known, how much
of the scattering vote was due to Hamilton's advice. It is
not difficult to attribute the seven votes given to other candi-
dates by Connecticut and New Jersey electors to his influence.
Those of Virginia seem rather anti-Federal than Hamiltonian
vagaries. At all events, the long list of scattering votes shows
how little reason there was for Hamilton's fears.

Under the Constitution the thirteen States were entitled to
sixty-five representatives and twenty-six senators ; and conse-
quently to ninety-one electoral votes. Rhode Island and
North Carolina, with three and seven votes, respectively, had
not adopted the Constitution ; the eight votes of New York
were lost ; and two electors of Maryland and two of Virginia
failed to appear on the day of voting — the 4th of February.
It was explained that the ice in the rivers and bay prevented
one of the absent Maryland electors from attending, and gout
held the other at home. The electoral votes were sixty-nine
in number, and were cast 'as follows: —

States.

►

«
6

s
H

d
|

W
W

6
6

3
3

6
6

a
3

►"9

2
2

B
I

1
1

New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Connecticut .
New Jersey
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
South Carolina
Georgia . . .

Total . . .

5
10

7
6

10
3
6

10
7
5

5
10
5
1

5
34

2
2

5
3

1
1

28 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

It may be well to note that, excepting John Jay and George
Clinton, of New York, and John Hancock of Massachusetts,
all the U scattering " candidates for Vice-President were
" favorite sons " of the States which gave them votes.
Georgia, in particular, distinguished itself by discovering four
of its own citizens worthy to be placed second to Washing-
ton.

The consummation of the election of General Washington
was an occasion of solemn joy throughout the country. The
accounts of the voting are meagre. One description only of
the scene has been found. In Massachusetts the electors had
their ballots, for Washington and Adams, prepared before
they came together. Having organized, they voted quickly
and adjourned. " There was not a word spoken," reports
the Worcester " Spy," " except in the choice of a chairman."
Many of the newspapers expressed their feelings in the ex-
uberant rhetoric of the day, when the election had taken place.
Here is one example from Baltimore : —

The important day in the annals of America is past, which
conferred on a single citizen those sovereign powers that require
to be placed in one person, in order to render a nation happy in
peace, and prosperous in war. Perhaps that day has exhibited
what has never happened before in any part of the globe ; above
three millions of people, scattered over a country of vast extent,
of opposite habits and different manners, all fixing their hopes
on the same man, and unanimously voting for him only, without
the intervention of force, artifice, plan, or concert. With what
delight will the lover of mankind dwell on this period of history
and cherish the memory of a people, who could thus feel and thus
reward a life of great and virtuous actions ?

The first Wednesday in March was the day fixed by the
Congress of the Confederation for the meeting of the new
Congress of the United States. It was more than a month
after that date, on the 6th of April, 1789, that a quorum of
senators appeared in their seats. It was nearly as difficult to
secure the acceptance of the senatorial position by suitable
persons, as it had been to persuade them to discharge the far
less important duties devolved on members of the Continental
Congress ; and the old vices of non-attendance and tardy at-
tendance were still persistent. Nevertheless, since the fourth
of March was the day appointed for the meeting, and since

THE FIRST ELECTION 29

some of the senators appeared in their seats on that day, it
was assumed that the whole government then came into being.
Although Washington was not inaugurated until the 30th day
of April, his first term was held to have ended on the 3d of
March, 1793. The first Congress came to an end on the 3d
of March, 1791 ; and every Congress since then has come to
its constitutional term on the same day of that month. A
more unfortunate period could not have been chosen, for the
result has been that every alternate session is virtually limited
to three months' duration. An earlier ratification of the Con-
stitution by New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York, and
greater promptness on the part of Congress, might have carried
the day of the birth of the government back to December ;
and there might have been two sessions of full length. Or
if the first Congress had taken the view that its term began
when it completed its organization, that would have given a
month more of time for the short session. Some half-hearted
attempts have been made during the century to change the
system which so greatly hampers and hurries Congress ; but
no action in that direction has ever been taken.

As soon as a quorum of senators was in attendance, imme-
diate steps were taken for inducting the President and Vice-
President into office. John Langdon, a senator from New
Hampshire, was elected " president for the sole purpose of
opening and counting the votes for President of the United
States." A message was sent to the House of Representatives
apprising that body of the presence of a quorum and of the
temporary organization, " and that the Senate is now ready in
the Senate Chamber to proceed, in the presence of the House,
to discharge that duty ; and that the Senate have appointed
one of their members to sit at the clerk's table to make a list
of the votes as they shall be declared, submitting it to the
wisdom of the House to appoint one or more of their members
for the like purpose."

The House appointed two tellers, and, having given notice
to the Senate of its readiness to join that body, proceeded to
the Senate Chamber. The President of the Senate opened
and counted the vote. The Journal of the Senate reads
that —

The Speaker and the House of Representatives attended in the
Senate Chamber, and the president elected for the purpose of
counting the votes declared the Senate and House of Represents

30 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

tives had met, and that he, in their presence, had opened and
counted the votes of the electors for President and Vice-President
of the United States, which were as follows : [The table given
above is here inserted.]
Whereby it appeared that

George Washington, Esq., was elected President, and
John Adams, Esq., Vice-President, of the United States of
America.

Notification to the President and Vice-President of their
election was sent by the Senate by special messengers, and
great preparations were made for the first inauguration. The
journeys of Mr. Adams and General Washington — for Adams's
was first in point of time — were like a triumphal progress.
The Vice-President elect " sat out from Braintree," his home,
escorted by the Roxbury troop of horse to Boston, where the
cavalcade was received by a throng of applauding citizens,
amid the ringing of the bells of the town. After a collation
in his honor given by Governor John Hancock, another
military company became his escort to Charlestown, and
through Cambridge to Marlborough, where still another troop
was waiting to receive him and accompany him on his way.
The details of his journey through Connecticut are not pre-
served ; but he was met at the New York State line by the
Light Horse of Westchester County, and escorted to the city.
On April 21 he was introduced to the Senate. President
Langdon left the chair and addressed Mr. Adams in a speech
of congratulation ; and then the Vice-President took the chair
and made a speech in reply. It is interesting to note that
although he presided over the Senate thereafter, he did not
take the oath of office until June 2. The Constitution pre-
scribes a form of oath for the President, but not for other offi-
cers of the government. The act prescribing an oath of office
was passed by Congress, and signed by the President on the
first of June.

The journey of General Washington was much longer than
Mr. Adams's, and was far more noteworthy for the popular
demonstrations of love and devotion. Along the whole route
he was greeted as only the sovereign of the people's hearts
could be greeted. His progress from the New Jersey shore
and his arrival in New York formed a fitting culmination of a
journey, the like of which has never been seen on this con-
tinent. The ceremonies of inauguration soon followed, on the

THE FIRST ELECTION 31

30th of April. In the morning at nine o'clock, the people
assembled in their respective churches for services of prayer
for the success of the new government and the prosperity of
the President. At noon, Washington was escorted from his
house to the federal statehouse in Broad Street, where, upon
a balcony and in the presence of a vast throng, the oath of
office was administered by Chancellor Livingston. " I swear
it. So help me, God ! " ejaculated the first President. Then
while the people shouted " Long live George Washington,
President of the United States," he retired within the build-
ing to the Senate Chamber, where he delivered his inaugural
address.

Ill

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY

The first administration was occupied chiefly in the organi-
zation of the new government, with the creation of departments,
the formation of a revenue system, an adjustment of the public
debt, and similar matters. Jefferson, at the head of the State
Department, and Hamilton, at the Treasury, were the Presi-
dent's chief advisers. Circumstances gave to the younger
man much greater prominence as the constructive statesman,
at this momentous period, than to the author of the Declara-
tion of Independence. The fact that to his department be-
longed naturally the duty of devising the financial measures
which were of first importance ; the personal intimacy between
the President and Hamilton ; and Washington's strong leaning
to the Federalist view of public questions ; these all combined
to render the Secretary of the Treasury conspicuous and success-
ful, and to leave the Secretary of State in comparative obscurity.
The line between parties was more clearly defined than one
would have expected it to be in a country which had just been
consolidated into a nation, and which had previously known
no political divisions save those indicated by the terms " large
States," "small States," "North," and "South." Not a
few anti-Federalists were elected to Congress, and formed the
nucleus of an active opposition. There is no doubt that
Jefferson did what he could to thwart Hamilton and to defeat
or modify the measures he devised, although those measures
had the support of the President, the chief of both Secretaries.
As governments are now organized, such a course of action
would be regarded as base political treachery. It was not so
at the time. The Secretaries did not form a cabinet, in the
modern sense of the word ; Washington was not chosen Presi-
dent as the candidate of a party ; and being fully aware of
Jefferson's dissent from the measures which he himself wished
to be passed, he did not intimate a desire for the resignation of
the Secretary of State.

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 33

Jefferson therefore felt free to organize and direct the party
in opposition. It happened, unfortunately for Mr. Adams,
that the Senate was closely divided, and that he was required,
as Vice-President, to give the casting vote in favor of many of
the most important measures of legislation devised by Hamil-
ton. To no Vice-President since his time, it is believed, has
fallen so large a share in active legislation. Mr. Adams was
by nature and conviction a Federalist. He approved the mea-
sures brought forward, and, in spite of the grievance he had
against Hamilton, loyally supported them. Hamilton him-
self, writing in the year 1800, expressed his entire satisfaction
with Mr. Adams's course, and declared that it had the effect
of modifying the unfavorable opinion of that gentleman which
he had previously entertained. Indeed, while the canvass of
1796 was in progress he wrote to Mr. Adams, expressing a
strong interest in his election ; he referred to the Vice-Presi-
dent at this time as " a firm, honest, and independent politi-
cian ; " and used all his influence to promote his success. But
Adams's course had the opposite effect with the anti-Federal-
ists. They could not or would not attack Washington ; they
trained all their guns on Adams.

The French Revolution was approaching one of its acute
crises when the presidential canvass took place, for the king
had already been deposed when the election took place, and
was guillotined before the second inauguration. The great
events in France were to have an important influence upon
American politics. Mr. Adams was the first to suffer. His
political enemies alighted upon some phrases in the published
writings of the Vice-President which, they declared, proved
him to be in favor of a monarchy, to have a liking for aristo-
cracy, and to regard the Constitution as but a makeshift soon
to be discarded for the system which they believed, or affected
to believe, he preferred. They rang the changes on a passage
in which he had extolled the working of government by " king,
lords, and commons ; " they jeered at his reference to the
" well born ; " and professed alarm lest he should be found
conspiring against the Constitution which he had characterized
as a " promising essay." Had such attacks been made before
the outbreak of the French Revolution, it is doubtful if they
would have caused anything but amusement. But now the
warm approval of the uprising carried with it sympathy with
the sentimental republicanism of the French people. The

34 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

formality of the republican court at Philadelphia, the relations
between the President and Congress which were a distinct im-
itation of those between king and parliament, — none of these
things had offended the popular taste until sans-culottism
began to triumph at Paris. Now the Republicans — the new
name adopted by the anti-Federalist party — set up the spectre
of monarchy for the express purpose of terrifying themselves
into the eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.

The opposition selected George Clinton of New York as
their candidate in opposition to Mr. Adams. The preliminary
electioneering was carried on in private letters between public
men, and in communications in the newspapers. Rufus King
wrote to Gouverneur Morris: "The opposition that now exists
arises from other principles than those which produced an
opposition to the Constitution, and proceeds from that rivalry
which always has and will prevail in a free country. Wash-
ington and Adams will be re-chosen this winter : the first with-
out opposition. Whether the opponents of Mr. Adams will
combine their opposition I consider as uncertain. Should this
be the case, Clinton will be their man.'' " A Citizen " wrote
to the " Baltimore Advertiser " that all were in favor of Wash-
ington, but that " men who have a sense of equality and a dis-
gust of supercilious superiority are, *I am in hopes, linked as a
strong chain against the Vice-President."

The leader among the newspapers opposing Adams was the
"National Gazette," of Philadelphia, conducted by Philip
Freneau. Freneau had gone to Philadelphia from New York,
on an appointment by Jefferson as translator to the State
Department, and had established his newspaper, which became
the organ and mouthpiece of those who abused and vilified the
Federalists and their measures, and particularly of those who
hated Mr. Adams. Although the salary drawn by Freneau from
the Government was a pitiful sum, his course as a protege of the
Secretary of State and as the editor of the most violent politi-
cal newspaper in opposition to the administration was a public
scandal. Both Freneau and Jefferson refused to see it in that
light. The editor protested that his political course was unin-
fluenced by the secretary, and that his receipt of a salary from
the government should not hamper him or deter him from ex-
pressing his opinions. Jefferson said nothing, and left Fre-
neau's defence to stand for his own. It is not necessary to
know whether Freneau's sworn denial that Jefferson had

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 35

directly or indirectly dictated his course, was absolutely true
or a disingenuous but skillfully worded evasion. Surely the
situation, which either of the persons might have brought to a
termination in a day, was not defensible. It is equally cer-
tain that Freneau was all the time faithfully serving Jeffer-
son's purposes.

The other newspapers of the time had strong political lean-
ings one way or the other, which can be detected by the pre-
vailing tone of the communications printed by them. Yet
they admitted to their columns letters on both sides of the
question at issue. Classical signatures were much in vogue.
A long series of articles signed " Catullus " was widely copied.
That Hamilton was the author was suspected at the time.
The letters are included in Hamilton's "Works." The dis-
cussion was carried on by " Lucius," " Marcus," " Mutius,"
" Antonius," " Philanthropos," and other Greeks and Romans.
As the close of the canvass drew near, the virulence of party
hatred became more intense. The enemies of Mr. Adams
brought out one "local issue" to draw away a few votes.
Congress had passed a bill apportioning members of the House
of Representatives after the ascertainment of population at the
first census. There was much bad feeling on this question.
The bill passed by Congress encountered the first executive
veto in the history of the government. Mr. Adams had, in
the progress of the measure through the Senate, given a cast-
ing vote against a ratio of one representative to thirty thousand
inhabitants. The defeat of that ratio reduced the representa-
tion of Virginia, and enraged the people of the State against
Adams. Every electoral vote of Virginia was given to Clin-
ton.

In most of the other States it was a strictly party contest.
New England was solid for Federalism. New York had been
carried, as before, by the Republicans. That is to say, it was
counted for that party. At the spring election of 1792, the
opposing candidates for governor were Clinton and Jay.
There was a plurality of votes for Jay, but the canvassers
threw out the returns from three counties and declared Clinton
elected. Hamilton, writing to assure Adams of a wish for
his success, intimated that the method of Clinton's election
would not help his canvass for the vice-presidency. There is
no evidence that it hurt his chances. The Middle States went
for Washington and Adams. North Carolina and Georgia
were carried for Clinton. This result was to have been antici'

36 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

pated in North Carolina, which had come into the Federal
Union after the Constitution went into effect, and with un-
feigned reluctance.

It was not until the last session of Congress before the elec-
tion, that the following act regulating the election of President
was passed. This law, modified and amended from time to
time, as will be noted hereafter, remained in force until it was
superseded by the act of 1887 : —

An Act Relative to the Election of a President and Vice-President
of the United States, and declaring the Officer who shall be Presi-
dent in case of Vacancies in the Offices both of President and
Vice-President.

Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that, except in cases of the elec-
tion of a President and Vice-President of the United States prior
to the ordinary period, as hereinafter specified, electors shall be
appointed in each State for the election of a President and Vice-
President of the United States, within thirty-four days preceding
the first Wednesday in December, 1792, and within thirty-four
days preceding the first Wednesday in December in every fourth
year succeeding the last election, which electors shall be equal to
the number of senators and representatives to which the several
States may by law be entitled at the time when the President and
Vice-President thus to be chosen should come into office: Provided
always, that when no apportionment of representatives shall have
been made, after any enumeration, at the time of choosing electors,
then the number of electors shall be according to the existing
apportionment of senators and representatives.

Sec. 2. That the electors shall meet and give their votes on the
said first Wednesday in December, at such place in each State as
shall be directed by the legislature thereof ; and the electors in each
State shall make and sign three certificates of all the votes by them
given, and shall seal up the same, certifying on each that a list of
the votes of such State for President and Vice-President is con-
tained therein, and shall, by writing under their hands, or under
the hands of a majority of them, appoint a person to take charge
of and deliver to the President of the Senate, at the seat of govern-
ment, before the first Wednesday in January then next ensuing,
one of the said certificates ; and the said electors shall forthwith
forward, by the post office, to the President of the Senate at the
seat of government, one other of the said certificates ; and shall
forthwith cause the other of the said certificates to be delivered
to the judge of that district in which the said electors shall
assemble.

Sec. 3. That the executive authority of each State shall cause
three lists of the names of the electors of such State to be made

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 37

and certified, and to be delivered to the electors on or before the
said first Wednesday in December; and the said electors shall
annex one of the said lists to each of the lists of their votes.

Sec. 4. That if a list of votes from any State shall not have
been received at the seat of government on the said first Wednes-
day in January, then the Secretary of State shall send a special
messenger to the district judge in whose charge such list shall have
been lodged, who shall forthwith transmit the same to the seat of
government.

Sec. 5. That Congress shall be in session on the second
Wednesday in February, 1793, and on the second Wednesday in
February succeeding every meeting of the electors, and the said
certificates, or so many of them as shall have been received, shall
then be opened, the votes counted, and the persons who shall fill
the offices of President and Vice-President ascertained and de-
clared agreeably to the Constitution.

Sec. 6. That in case there shall be no President of the Senate
at the seat of government on the arrival of the persons entrusted
with the lists of the votes of the electors, then such persons shall
deliver the lists of the votes in their custody into the office of the
Secretary of State, to be safely kept and delivered over as soon as
may be to the President of the Senate.

Sec. 7. That the persons appointed by the electors to deliver
the lists of votes to the President of the Senate shall be allowed,
on the delivery of the said lists, twenty-five cents for every mile of
estimated distance by the most usual road from the place of meet-
ing of the electors to the seat of government of the United States.

Sec. 8. That if any person appointed to deliver the votes of
electors to the President of the Senate shall, after accepting his
appointment, neglect to perform the services required of him by
this Act, he shall forfeit the sum of one thousand dollars.

Sec. 9. That in case of the removal, death, resignation, or
disability both of the President and Vice-President of the United
States, the President of the Senate, pro tempore, and, in case there
shall be no President of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House
of Representatives, for the time being, shall act as President ot
the United States until such disability be removed, or until a Presi-
dent be elected.

Sec. 10. That whenever the office of President and Vice-Presi-
dent shall both become vacant, the Secretary of State shall forth-
with cause a notification thereof to be made to the Executive of
every State, and shall also cause the same to be published in at
least one of the newspapers printed in each State, specifying that
electors of the President of the United States shall be appointed
or chosen in the several States within thirty-four days preceding
the first Wednesday in December then next ensuing ; provided, that
there shall be a space of two months between the date of such

88 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

notification and the said first Wednesday in December ; but if there
shall not be the space of two months between the date of such
notification and the first Wednesday in December, and if the term
for which the President and Vice-President last in office were
elected shall not expire on the third day of March next ensuing,
then the Secretary of State shall specify in the notification that
the electors shall be appointed or chosen within thirty-four days
preceding the first Wednesday in December in the year next en-
suing, within which time the said electors shall accordingly be
appointed or chosen ; and the electors shall meet and give their
votes on the said first Wednesday in December, and the proceed-
ings and duties of the said electors and others shall be pursuant
to the directions prescribed in this act.

Sec. 11. That the only evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a
resignation of, the offices of President and Vice-President, shall be
an instrument in writing declaring the same, and subscribed by
the person refusing to accept or resigning, as the case may be, and
delivered into the office of the Secretary of State.

Sec. 12. That the term of four years, for which the President
and Vice-President shall be elected, shall in all cases commence on
the fourth day of March next succeeding the day oh which the
votes of the electors shall have been given.

Fifteen States took part in the election of 1792. Rhode
Island and North Carolina had ratified the Constitution ; and
Vermont had been admitted to the Union March 4, 1791, and
Kentucky, June 1, 1792. Electors were appointed by the
legislatures in Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and
Kentucky ; by the people and the legislature in New Hamp-
shire and Massachusetts ; by the people alone in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. In Massachusetts
the people chose electors in five districts ; in the other nine dis-
tricts no one had a majority, and the General Court appointed
electors for these districts and also two at large. In North
Carolina a peculiar system was adopted which was never prac-
ticed anywhere else, nor at any other time. The apportionment,
in accordance with the census of 1790, under which North
Carolina was entitled to ten members of the House of Repre-
sentatives, did not become law until April 13, 1792. The
legislature was not then in session, nor did it meet again until
the 15th of November. The electors were to meet, under the
law of 1792, on the oth of December. There was not time in
the interval to provide for a popular election. Accordingly
the legislature passed a law dividing the State into four dis-

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 39

tricts, and directing the members of the legislature residing in
each district to meet on the 25th of November and choose
three electors. This was a mere hasty makeshift, and the
legislature made permanent provision at the same session for
the choice of electors by the people by districts.

In the States where there was a popular election the vote
seems to have been very light. The largest number of votes
given for any person as elector in Massachusetts was cast for
Azor Orne, 693. In Pennsylvania, where, two or three
months before, forty thousand votes were cast for members
of Congress, less than four thousand voted for electors.

It may be mentioned, as illustrating the extreme jealousy
of state rights that prevailed at this time, that 'Governor
Hancock sent a special message to the Massachusetts legis-
lature, in the nature of a protest against the right of Con-
gress to require the Executives of the several States to certify
the lists required by section 3 of the act of 1792. He was
willing to perform the duty, but he would not concede the
right of Congress to direct him to do it.

The election passed off without excitement or serious con-
test anywhere. The result, by States, is indicated by the
following table : —

States.

§
2
j

New Hampshire

Vermont

6
3

16
4
9

12
7

15
3
8

12
8
4
4-

6
3
16
4
9

12
1

21
12

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Maryland

Virginia

North Carolina

South Carolina .......

Georgia

Kentucky

Total

132

40 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The counting of the electoral vote was for the first time
a matter of previous agreement between the two Houses of
Congress, and the system pursued in 1793 was, with occa-
sional slight but sometimes significant modifications, that
which was followed for a great many years. The House of
Representatives proposed, February 5, 1793, the appointment
of a joint committee " to ascertain and report the mode of
examining the votes for President and Vice-President, and
of notifying the persons who shall be elected of their elec-
tion, and to regulate the time, place, and manner of admin-
istering the oath of office to the President." The Senate
agreed, and the committee reported to the two Houses, Feb-
ruary 11 : —

That the two Houses shall assemble in the Senate Chamber on
Wednesday next at twelve o'clock ; that one person shall be ap-
pointed a teller on the part of the Senate (two on the part of the
House), to make a list of the votes as they shall be declared ; that
the result shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who
shall announce the state of the vote, and the persons elected, to
both Houses, assembled as aforesaid, which shall be deemed a de-
claration of the persons elected President and Vice-President, and,
together with a list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the
two Houses.

This mode was observed.

The two Houses having accordingly assembled, the certificates
of the electors of the fifteen States of the Union, which came by
express, were, by the Vice-President, opened, read, and delivered
to the tellers appointed for the purpose, who, having examined and
ascertained the votes, presented a list of them to the Vice-Presi-
dent, which list was read to the two Houses, and is as follows :
[Here follows the above table.]

Whereupon

The Vice-President declared George Washington unanimously
elected President of the United States for the period of four year?
to commence with the 4th of March next ; and

John Adams elected, by a plurality of votes, Vice-President of
the United States for the same period, to commence with the 4th
of March next.

It will be observed that in this case the Vice-President both
opened and read the certificates, and that the tellers did no more
than verify and tabulate the returns. The exclusive power
of the Vice-President to count the votes was thus asserted
and exercised in a marked manner. On the next occasion,

WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 41

as we shall see, the use of this power might have been a matter
of some importance.

The inauguration of Washington at the beginning of his"
second term was almost scandalously unceremonious, yet not
so informal as it came near to being. The mad passion
against outward show, an importation from France, led to
frequent criticisms in the Republican newspapers of the
semi-regal state in which the President was supposed to
live. Adams, of course, was not spared. He too was de-
nounced for the luxury of his mode of life, and the shafts
aimed at him took effect. He gave up his house in Phila-
delphia, sent his wife home to Massachusetts to manage the
farm, and himself went to reside in lodgings. When the day
upon which the oath of office was to be taken a second time by
the President elect drew near, the time and place of the cere-
mony became the subject of discussion in the cabinet. Jeffer-
son proposed that General Washington take the oath privately
in his own house and send a certificate thereof to Congress.
Hamilton fell in with this proposition ; but the other mem-
bers of the cabinet objected, and the plan was not adopted.
At noon, precisely, on the 4th of March, Washington unat-
tended entered the Senate Chamber, where were gathered
many of the senators, some of the representatives who lingered
after the adjournment of Congress, certain public officers, and
" a number of private citizens." He took the oath of office,
delivered his inaugural address, and then retired as quietly as
he had come.

JOHN ADAMS

During "Washington's first administration, domestic ques-
tions occupied the government chiefly and gave rise to party
conflicts : the funding system and the excise law before all
others. The first, which reduced the chaos of national
finance to order, and restored the credit of the United States,
nevertheless had necessarily some features which seemed a
justification of the accusation that it was devised for the re-
lief of the well-to-do. Accordingly it aroused the antagonism
of the same class which, in modern times, denounces measures
for the payment of national obligations in good faith, in order
to maintain the credit of the country, as designed for the sole
benefit of the bondholders. The excise law was passed in
1791, after violent opposition in Congress. Its execution
was resisted more or less from the beginning ; but it was not
until 1794 that the situation became so acute that a large
armed force became necessary to quell what has passed into
history as the " Whiskey Insurrection." At that time oc-
curred the first serious collision between federal and state
authority. Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, a Republican
partisan, refused to take the initiative, and Washington called
out the militia on the certificate of a federal judge that an
insurrection existed. Little more than a display of force was
required to put down the insurrection. The whole affair re-
sulted, not a little to the surprise of both parties, in strength-
ening the government and making it popular. The people
realized for the first time that they had created a power which
was capable of making itself respected at home.

Meantime two most serious questions of foreign policy had
been raised, and both of them had an important influence
upon the elections which determined who should be the
second President. The arrival, reception, and conduct of
"Citizen''' Genet, the French minister sent over by the Gi-
rondist government, excited the most bitter party controversy

JOHN ADAMS 43

the country had known. Although Jeffer*son himself, as
Secretary of State, wrote and signed the account of Genet's
diplomatic impertinences, and demanded his recall, yet his
political attitude toward the agitation and his strong sym-
pathy for the French rendered it impossible that he should
remain in the cabinet as a loyal supporter of the administra-
tion. The appointment of Jay, the Chief Justice, to negotiate
a treaty with England, aroused but little public feeling. The
treaty which he negotiated was ratified by the Senate, by ex-
actly the constitutional two-thirds majority, before its terms
were made public. But when it was published there arose
such a storm of opposition to its promulgation by the Presi-
dent as no Executive since Washington has had to encounter.
Public meetings at which the most violent language was usedj
riots, burning the treaty and the effigy of Jay, — these were
every-day incidents in all parts of the country. This is not
the place to do more than refer to the events of the time and
indicate their bearing upon the ensuing election. The details
must be left to the general historian. It is sufficient to say
that the firmness of Washington was proof against the popular
clamor, against the personal abuse to which he was subjected,
even against the determination of a great majority of the
House of Representatives, as expressed in a resolution call-
ing upon him for a copy of the instructions to Jay, with a
view to the impeachment of the ambassador. He promul-
gated the treaty, he remained calm and silent under vituper-
ation, he returned a respectful but unflinching refusal to the
demand for Jay's instructions. In the end, too, the House
itself, by the narrowest of majorities, agreed to pass the mea-
sures necessary for carrying the treaty into effect. It is not
to be supposed that the sentiments of the American people
were expressed in the noisy outcries of the opposition. Events
proved that it was a minority only that displayed such vio-
lence of hostility toward measures which were greatly to the
benefit of the United States during the next ten years. But
the apparent strength of the democratic societies not only in-
spired the opposition party with a hope of capturing the gov-
ernment, but caused apprehension and anxiety throughout the
ranks of the Federalists.

It was made known by Washington to his closest intimates,
early in the year 1796, that he intended to decline a reelection.
His purpose was rumored, but not definitely made public, early

44 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

in September. Those who had been aware of his intention
had already canvassed the subject and were agreed upon their
candidates. Several names were considered for the presidency.
Hamilton was eligible, and he was the undoubted leader of his
party. But he had made many enemies, and his candidacy
would surely have aroused intense antagonism. There was a
stain upon his private character ; and a threat had been made
that should he come forward as a candidate, certain papers
alleged to be damaging to his integrity would be published.
There is no evidence worthy to be regarded either that a truth-
ful accusation against his financial honor could have been
brought, or that a fear of exposure deterred him from becom-
ing a candidate. He was rather a king-maker than a candidate
for the throne.

If Hamilton were not to seek the office, the two most promi-
nent candidates were Adams and Jay. It seems to have been
universally felt that although Jay's talents fitted him for the
office, his negotiation of the treaty with England would cost
him enough votes to endanger his election. Adams was di-
rectly in the line of promotion ; his services to the country
during a long public life had given him as good title as any
statesman had to the gratitude of his country ; and his con-
duct in the Vice-President's chair had been fully acceptable to
the Federal party. Accordingly it was agreed at a conference
of Federalist members of Congress that Mr. Adams should be
the candidate for President ; and Thomas Pinckney of South
Carolina was chosen as the candidate for Vice-President. The
date of the nominations is not known. The time is fixed
vaguely in a letter from Oliver Wolcott to Henry W. Edwards,
quoted by Gibbs (vol. ii. p. 488), as the summer of 1796.

At about the same time, as we learn from the same author-
ity, Jefferson and Burr were agreed upon by a conference of
Republican members of Congress, as the candidates of their
party. The Republicans seem to have arrived at a tacit under-
standing that Mr. Jefferson was to be their candidate, before
the conference was held. Jefferson had been the leader and
organizer of the party while still in Washington's cabinet.
From his retirement at Monticello he had conducted a copious
correspondence with the chief men of the party, full of com
ment on passing events and of advice as to their course oT
action. He was now the natural, and, indeed, the inevitable
candidate. Republican opinion, in the North at all events,

JOHN ADAMS 45

accepted Aaron Burr as the candidate for Vice-President. Burr
had, by his political adroitness and activity, displaced George
Clinton as the leader in New York of the Republican party.
The second position was already regarded as one of importance
vastly inferior to that of the first. Neither Mr. Pinckney nor
Mr. Burr would have been generally regarded as possessing
strong claims to the presidency. The names of the candidates
for the vice-presidency were not usually coupled with those of
the leaders. " It requires no talent at divination," said a
writer in the " Boston Gazette," a Republican paper, in Sep-
tember, 1796, " to decide who will be candidates for the chair.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams will be the men, and
whether we shall have at the head of our executive a steadfast
friend to the rights of the people, or an advocate for hereditary
power and distinction, the people of the United States are
soon to decide." An unsigned letter from Virginia, dated
September 24, published in all the papers, stated: "I have
been informed that Mr. Edmund Randolph, who has lately vis-
ited Mr. Jefferson, says that Mr. Jefferson will serve in the
office of President of the United States, if elected."

The canvass began tamely enough. For two or three weeks
after the appearance of Washington's Farewell Address, which
was dated September 17, 1796, the subject of the coming elec-
tion was rarely even mentioned in the newspapers. But the
contest soon became earnest and bitter. For the most part it
took the form of an intensely partisan comparison of the re-
cords and views of the two candidates. The leading disputant
on the Federal side wrote, over the signature " Phocion," a
series of nearly thirty articles.1 Although the papers consisted
largely of attacks upon Jefferson, two or three of them were
devoted to a strong defence of Adams. The stoutest opponent
of the Vice-President adopted the signature " A Federalist."
His position and arguments were anything but Federalist.
Adams's record was assailed most virulently, and Jefferson was
warmly praised. It must be said that the debate on both
sides was disingenuous. Jefferson was not only berated for
acts which in the minds of his opponents constituted real
offences, but was accused of many things which it was easy to

1 The authorship of the letters is not known. They are attributed by some
historians to Hamilton ; but they are not included by J. C. Hamilton in a
Hst of his father's works, and Lodge, when preparing the memoir of Hamilton,
sould tind no evidence that the}' were written by him.

46 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

show he had not done. But if he had reason to complain of a
certain degree of unfairness on the part of his enemies, the
misrepresentation of Adams's political opinions and public
writings was shameful and scandalous. His expressions were
garbled and deliberately misquoted. Perhaps no American
public man has ever been treated more foully in this respect
than was he. Bache's " Aurora " was a prototype of many a
party newspaper edited with a conscienceless purpose to win
political battles at any expense to the truth ; but none of its
successors have gone beyond it in malignity and unveracity.

There were some unconscious humors of the canvass, —
among which may be classed the appeal to the voters of the
country to support a " Christian President," — an attempt to
rally the religious sentiment of the country against Jefferson.
On the other hand nothing could have been more audacious,
and nothing less convincing to men who knew anything of pol-
itics, than this warning, published in the Philadelphia papers
shortly before the election : —

Freemen of Pennsylvania ! Take caution ! The aristocrats of
our country are endeavoring to deceive you with the name of
Washington. They presume to call theirs [the] " Washington
ticket." Beware, fellow citizens, of the Washington ticket. It is
intended to support the electors of the monarchist Adams, and
begins with the name of Israel Whelen.

Our Republican ticket begins with the name of Thomas McKean,
and is intended to support the election of the Republican Jeffer-
son. Believe us, fellow citizens, that your President Washington
loves a Republican and hates a monarchist. He therefore wishes
that the Republican Jefferson may be his successor.

Shortly before the election a " bombshell " was thrown by
the minister of France, "Citizen" Adet. He addressed a
note to the Secretary of State, and also caused it to be pub-
lished in all the newspapers which wTould print it, reproaching
the administration with having violated its treaties with France,
and with conducting itself in a most ungrateful manner toward
a country which had rendered important assistance in the Re-
volutionary struggle. He also announced that he was directed
by his government to suspend his diplomatic duties. The
interruption of relations was, however, not to be interpreted
" as a rupture between France and the United States, but as •<%
mark of just discontent, which was to last until the govern-
ment of the United States returned to sentiments and to mea-

JOHN ADAMS 47

sures more conformable to the interests of the alliance, and to
the sworn friendship between the two nations."

What effect this manifesto had upon voters cannot be stated.
Certainly it did not change the result, so far as Mr. Adams
was concerned ; but, considering the closeness of the vote in
Pennsylvania, it is more than possible, indeed it is quite prob-
able, that it contributed the electoral votes which made Jeffer-
son Vice-President.

Some light is thrown upon the political machinery of the
time by certain notices which appear in the newspapers. In
Pennsylvania, on the day before the adjournment of the legis-
lature, a conference of Republican members, together with cit-
izens from different counties of the State, met and agreed upon
a list of electors. This is the "ticket" just mentioned
" which begins with the name of Thomas McKean." On the
following day a similar meeting of Federalists made up a list
of electors supposed to be favorable to Adams. Meetings of
members of the two parties were afterward held at the county
seats, and the tickets were ratified. In Virginia the practice
of self-nomination, then and for a long time afterward followed
with respect to seats in Congress, was in operation. Charles
Sims offered himself as a candidate for elector in the Alexan-
dria district, and announced that, if chosen, he should vote for
Patrick Henry and John Adams. Ralph Wormeley, in another
district, offered himself ; and said that he preferred Washing-
ton for President, but that if he refused to stand, "it would be
my part most diligently to search out for his successor a char-
acter the most resembling his in political principles, in sound
judgment, in unexampled prudence, and in unshaken firm-
ness." As this statement of his purpose seemed to be too
vague, and he was asked for whom he would vote, he sent
another communication to a Richmond newspaper, in which
he discussed, and answered in the negative, the question
whether an elector should disclose his intention. It did not
become necessary for him to disclose it. He was not elected.

The appointment of electors was made, on various days,
during the month of November, 1796. Sixteen States took
part in the election, Tennessee having been admitted to the
Union on June 1, 1796. The electors for that State were
chosen by the legislature. Those for North Carolina were
elected by the people. No other State changed its system,
and there were, therefore, six States where there was a pop-

48 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

ular election, while in the other ten the choice was made by
the legislature. The Federalists carried all the States north
of Pennsylvania ; the Republicans all the States from Virginia
southward. Pennsylvania was unexpectedly lost by the Fed-
eralists, who were nevertheless successful in Delaware, and in
six of the ten districts of Maryland — one of which they car-
ried by a majority of only four votes.

It is impossible to make a reasonably complete statement
of the popular vote, even in the States where the people made
the choice. But it is interesting to note how easily the result
might have been different from what it was. In Pennsylvania
the vote was extremely close. There were, as we have seen,
two tickets, each bearing fifteen names. The highest number
polled by any candidate for elector was 12,306 ; the lowest
of the thirty had 12,071. Thus 235 votes only represented
the greatest difference ; and two of the Federalist electors
were chosen. The fact that, nevertheless, Adams received but
one electoral vote in the 'State will be explained presently.
It is necessary now merely to observe that a change of less
than a hundred votes in Pennsylvania would have resulted in
the election of Thomas Pinckney, instead of Thomas Jefferson,
as Vice-President. It is even open to the student of history
to maintain, basing an argument upon the events which in-
tervened between the appointment of electors and the dis-
charge of their duty, that the change might possibly have
made Pinckney President and Adams Vice-President. Had
Governor Mifflin complied strictly with the law requiring re-
turns of the election to be made within fourteen days, when
the governor was to proclaim the result, Jefferson would cer-
tainly have been defeated.

The contest in Massachusetts was fierce, and the Republi-
cans showed unexpected strength. Governor Samuel Adams
was a candidate for elector in the Boston district,. but was de-
feated. The legislature chose electors for . the districts in
which no choice had been made by the people, in accordance
with the system that had been in operation at the two previous
elections. Among those thus appointed was Elbridge Gerry,
who was inclined to support the Republicans. He voted,
nevertheless, for Adams and Pinckney. The General Court
passed a resolution authorizing the electoral college to fill any
vacancies that might occur. Governor Adams signed the
resolution ; but the next day, having, no doubt, perceived that

JOHN ADAMS 49

every vacancy would subtract a vote from John Adams, he
went to the office of the Secretary of State, erased his name
from the resolution, and sent a message to the General Court
communicating his reasons for so doing. Second thoughts are
best, no doubt ; but the right of the governor to act upon them
was not, in this case, admitted.

The canvass did not end with the appointment of the elect-
ors. " Phocion " still continued to give reasons why Jeffer-
son should not be chosen ; but the articles made no impression
upon the electors. The Republican candidate was sure of every
opposition vote. The situation was far from clear on the Fed-
eralist side. Hamilton had, from the beginning, urged an
equal support by the electors of Adams and Pinckney. He
gave frankly his reason for the advice, "All personal and
partial considerations must be discarded, and everything must
give way to the great object of excluding Jefferson." New
York wculd be unanimous for both the Federal candidates.
" T hope New England will be so too. Yet I have some ap-
prehensions on this point, lest the fear that he may outrun
Mr. Adams should withhold votes from Pinckney. Should
this happen, it will be in my opinion a most unfortunate policy.
It will be to take one only instead of two chances against Mr.
Jefferson ; and well weighed, there can be no doubt that the
exclusion of Mr. Jefferson is far more important than any dif-
ference between Mr. Adams and Mr. Pinckney."

This is not the place to review in detail the points raised
by the grandson of Mr. Adams and the son of Mr. Hamilton
in the endeavor of each to cast upon the ancestor of the
other the blame of a controversy which was fraught with dis-
aster to the Federalist party. Mr. Adams himself did not
think, after the election was over, that Hamilton had plotted
his overthrow. In February, 1797, he wrote, " I believe they,"
including Hamilton, " honestly meant to bring in me, but
they were frightened with a belief that I should fail, and they
in their agony thought it better to bring in Pinckney than
Jefferson." Mr. Adams changed his opinion on this point
afterward ; and it should be remembered, lest the change should
be counted against him", that when he wrote what has just
been quoted he had no evidence on either side of the question.
Hamilton himself supplied that evidence when his famous letter
on John Adams tras published four years later. " It is true,"
ho wrote, " that a faithful execution of this plan " — an equal

50 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

vote for the two candidates in the Northern States — " woti'ia
have given Mr. Pinckney a somewhat better chance than Mr.
Adams ; nor shall it be concealed that an issue favorable to
the former would not have been disagreeable to me ; as indeed
I declared at the time in the circle of my confidential friends.
My position was that if chance should decide in favor of Mr.
Pinckney, it probably would not be a misfortune ; since he to
every essential qualification for the office added a temper far
more discreet and conciliatory than that of Mr. Adams."

It is only natural that Hamilton's cool disregard of Adams's
sensibilities ; his studied though veiled denial of Adams's
superior merits ; and his evident attempt to use Adams's own
friends to carry out a policy which would have humiliated the
Vice-President ; — that all these things were resented at the
time, and that they have been made the basis of serious accu-
sations against Hamilton's good faith. But while, on the one
hand, he cannot be exonerated from the charge that he was not
straightforward and that he concealed one of the chief reasons
of his action, on the other hand, it is not just to suppose that
his motives were unworthy. They were not selfish. He
sought no preferment for himself. In the circumstances of the
selection of the two candidates his motives were not disloyal
to the party. Moreover there is no reason to suppose that he
had recurred, at this time, to his former unfavorable opinion
of Adams, toward whom he cherished no personal animosity.
Nevertheless, his course brought present disaster to the party ;
and it laid the foundation of the estrangement, the mutual dis-
trust, and the bitter hatred between two men capable of large
and long continued service to the country, which led to the
ultimate ruin of the party.

Hamilton's plan failed. No less than eighteen electors in
New England resolved that Pinckney's vote should not exceed
Adams's, withheld their votes from the candidate for Vice-
President, and scattered them upon others. Three Maryland
electors did the same thing. Pinckney received, with Jeffer-
son, the eight votes of South Carolina, and one vote more than
Adams in Pennsylvania. He had therefore twelve votes less
than Adams. Having also nine vote*s less than Jefferson, he
failed of an election. One vote for Jefferson in Pennsylvania
deserves notice, since it is believed to have been given by the
only elector in the history of the country who has ever be-
trayed the trust reposed in him by those who supported him

JOHN ADAMS

The closeness of the vote in Pennsylvania already has been
recorded, and the fact that two Federalist electors slipped in.
One of the two voted for Jefferson and Pinckney. The treach-
ery of this elector was the subject of an exceedingly plain-
spoken communication in the " United States Gazette " from
an exasperated Federalist. " What ! " he exclaimed. " Do I
chuse Samuel Miles to determine for me whether John Adams
or Thomas Jefferson shall be President ? No ! I chuse him to
act, not to think."

Not until a week or two after the electors had voted was
the result definitely known, namely, that John Adams had one
vote more than the number necessary to elect him ; and that
Jefferson, having the next highest number, only two less
than a majority, was chosen Vice-President. The electoral
votes were, by States, as follows : —

States,

«"
I

■8

<
a
A
o
*■»

SB
<o

<-»

§
9
-<

W
h

5
>

§
-&

a
12

a"
8

W
a
■§

»"9

a
a

M
V

New Hampshire
Vermont . .
Massachusetts
Rhode Island .
Connecticut .
New York . .
New Jersey .
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee . .

Total. . .

• •

6
4

16
4
9

12
7
1
3
7
1
1

4
20
11
8
4
4
3

4
13

4
12
7
2
3
4
1

8
59

1
6

4
3

15
15

5
5

3
3

2
2

1
1

The proceedings in preparation for the count of the elect-
oral votes were in all respects similar to those of four years
previous, except that the proposition for a joint committee
originated this time in the Senate. The count itself is in-

52 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

teresting on account of the fact that Mr. Adams himself pre-
sided, opened, and read the certificates, and declared himself
elected, when the rejection of four votes which had been
called in question would have defeated him and elected his
opponent. The legislature of Vermont had appointed elect-
ors, but had not previously passed a law directing how they
should be appointed. It was contended privately, by some
persons, that the appointment was invalid. But the ques-
tion was not raised in Congress, or at the joint meeting for
the count of the votes. Mr. Adams's opponents did not feel
sure of their ground, and probably did not know how to pro-
ceed to make their objections effective. Mr. Madison wrote
to Jefferson, January 8, 1797, " If the Vermont votes be valid,
as is now generally supposed, Mr. Adams will have seventy-
one and you sixty-eight, Pinckney being in the rear of both."
Mr. Adams himself could certainly not raise the question
of the validity of the Vermont votes ; but he seems to have
given an opportunity for objections if anyone should see fit
to raise them. The record shows this. When the tellers
had reported the result, Mr. Adams thus addressed the as-
sembled senators and representatives : —

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, — By the
report which has been made to me by the tellers appointed by
the two Houses to examine the votes, there are 71 votes for John
Adams, 68 for Thomas Jefferson [and so on to the end of the
list]. The whole number of votes are 138 ; 70 therefore make a
majority ; so that the person who has 71 votes, which is the highest
number, is elected President, and the person who has 68 votes,
which is the next highest number, is elected Vice-President.

At this point Mr. Adams sat down for a moment. After
an interval of silence, he arose again and said : —

In obedience to the Constitution and laws of the United States,
and to the commands of both Houses of Congress, expressed In
their resolution passed in the present session, I declare that John
Adams is elected President of the United States for four years, to
commence with the fourth day of March next ; and that Thomas
Jefferson is elected Vice-President of the United States for four
years, to commence on the fourth day of March next.

And may the Sovereign of the Universe, the Ordainer of civil
government on earth, for the preservation of liberty, justice and
peace among men, enable both to discharge the duties of these
offices conformably to the Constitution of the United States, with
conscientious diligence, punctuality, and perseverance.

JOHN ADAMS 53

The inauguration took place in the chamber of the House
of Representatives, which was crowded to its utmost capacity.
The oath was administered by Chief Justice Ellsworth.
General Washington was present, with a " countenance as
serene and unclouded as the day," so Adams reports in a let-
ter to his wife, descriptive of the ceremony, which he closes
by saying, " All agree that, taken altogether, it was the sub-
limest thing ever exhibited in America."

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST

The administration of John Adams witnessed the total
wreck of the Federalist party, a result of divided leadership.
Although Mr. Adams had become President by an extremely
narrow majority of votes, yet his party was stronger in both
branches of Congress than it had been during Washington's
second administration. Of the sixth Congress, during the
latter half of Adams's term, the Republicans formed but a
small minority. The strength which the dominant party
might wisely have used in consolidating its own power,
through the adoption of a policy in harmony with its prin-
ciples, was wasted in internal conflict. The blame, in a
political sense, rested upon both the Federalist factions.
Hamilton had become accustomed to exert a great, almost a
controlling influence over Washington. . He was consulted
by the general quite as freely after his retirement from the
cabinet as before. He was the leader of his own party in
the same sense that Jefferson was the leader of the Republi-
cans. That is to say, the chief men of the party sought his
advice ; he frequently volunteered counsel to them, upon the
public questions that arose ; and his opinion was usually fol-
lowed. Mr. Adams was not one of Hamilton's coterie, nor
was he a man either to seek advice as to his course of action,
or to accept it with equanimity. From this situation arose
all the bad feeling and secret intrigue that make this admin-
istration a period of political scandal.

Adams continued in office all the members of Washington's
cabinet ; Pickering, Secretary of State ; Wolcott, Secretary of
the Treasury ; McHenry, Secretary of War ; and Lee, At-
torney-General. These men were in frequent correspondence
with Hamilton. Before the first month of Adams's admin-
istration had closed, Hamilton wrote to Wolcott advocating
strongly the sending of three ministers to France. Wolcott
replied the next day ; and in his letter revealed to Hamilton,

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 55

" in the most perfect confidence, " the fact that the President
had already proposed to him the formation of such a com-
mission to negotiate with France. In this incident is to be
found the key of the whole situation within the administra-
tion during the ensuing four years. Hamilton could not, or
would not, — at any rate, did not, — throw off the habit of
advising the government and endeavoring to control its ac-
tion. Since he had not . the same influence over Adams as
he had exercised over Washington, he operated through the
secretaries who were already accustomed to receive and act
upon his counsel. The secretaries, habituated to this influ-
ence, which had been so potent over the first President, whom
they revered more than they did the second, dropped insen-
sibly into the way of listening to Hamilton rather than to
their chief, and — what wrought all the mischief — of mea-
suring the intelligence and political sagacity of the President
by the degree of deference he paid to Hamilton's judgment.
It is not necessary to hold them base or even treacherous on
this account, as does John Adams's grandson and biographer,
and as all the anti-Federalist historians do. But the situation
created was intolerable ; and a much more even-tempered man
than Mr. Adams might well be excused for losing control over
himself when he discovered that his own subordinates were
executing not his will, but that of another. In the very case
under consideration, Mr. Wolcott had been approached by
the President on the subject of a mission to France, and had
shown a decided opposition to the measure. But in replying
to Hamilton he wrote : " You know that I am accustomed to
respect your opinions ; and at any rate I am not so ignorant
of the extent of your influence with the friends of government
as not to be sensible that if you are known to favor the send-
ing a commission, either nothing will be done or your opinion
will prevail." Mr. Wolcott did not quite give up his opposi-
tion to the mission, but he was less strenuous after learning
what Hamilton thought.

As time went on, the secretaries, particularly Pickering and
Wolcott, besprinkled their correspondence with phrases indi-
cating their contempt for their chief. That he was vain, in-
discreet, opinionated, jealous, distrustful of many prominent
men in his own party, yet guilelessly trustful toward some of
the most artful of his political opponents, — all this must be
admitted. Yet it might have been prevented from causing the

56 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

confusion and disaster that followed, had the members of the
cabinet themselves been discreet and wise politicians. When
they found that they were unable to bend the President to
Hamilton's will, because he was headstrong and they were his
intellectual inferiors, they should have become the agents of
the President's will, or retired from office.

The foregoing review of the situation is necessary, because
in the relations between the President and the prominent men
of the Federalist party is to be found the sole immediate cause
of the political overturn in the year 1800. Adams's inaugural
address was well received, even by those who had opposed his
election. The popularity which he thus achieved increased
and continued during the greater part of his term ; although
the dissatisfaction of the politicians of his own party grew more
intense as the prejudice against him on the part of the people
at large vanished. There was, all the time, an alert opposi-
tion, presided over by its ablest leader, whom circumstances
had placed in the most favorable position for observation and
for taking advantage of every mistake of the administration,
and yet relieved of all responsibility for the course of public
affairs.

The question which overshadowed all others during the
administration was the relations with France. The insulting
rejection of Gen. C. C. Pinckney as minister, and his expul-
sion from French territory, became known officially to the
government on the 21st of March, 1797, before the administra-
tion had been three weeks in office. The appointment of
Elbridge Gerry, John Marshall, and General Pinckney as a
special embassy ; the contemptuous treatment they received
from the French directory ; the corrupt proposals made to
, them by Talleyrand, acting through an agent ; the X. Y. Z.
J letters ; Adams's manly refusal to send another minister until
' assurance should be given that he would be received; his
nomination of Murray as minister on the receipt of a vague in-
timation indirectly conveyed, that a minister would be received,
without consultation with any member of the cabinet ; the
substitution of a commission for a single minister ; the opposi-
tion of the secretaries to the step, and Pickering's studied
delay in making ready for the departure of the envoys ; and
Adams's petulant order that they should sail before a specified
day ; this is a mere catalogue of the chief events in the history
of the French negotiation. There were many echoes of the

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 57

affair in home politics : the resolution to organize an army, and
the ensuing difficulty relating to Hamilton's rank as a general
officer, ending with a victory for Hamilton, through the help
of Washington ; the establishment of a navy, a measure most
strenuously opposed by the whole Republican party, but heart-
ily supported by Federalists of both factions ; the Alien laws
and the Sedition act ; and the Virginia and Kentucky resolu-
tions of 1798 and 1799.

Of all these matters, as political issues between parties, the
last mentioned only survived the administration. An exami-
nation of other pages in this book will show that the Demo-
cratic national platforms of 1848, 1852, and 1856 declared that
" every attempt . . . ought to be resisted with the same spirit
which swept the Alien and Sedition laws from our statute-
book." The resolutions of 1798 and 1799 also appear in the
Democratic platforms of 1848 and 1852 as embodying princi-
ples to which the party still adhered. There were two " Alien "
laws. One of them authorized the President to " order such
aliens as he should judge dangerous to the peace and safety of
the United States, or should have reasonable grounds to sus-
pect were concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations
against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory
of the United States." The other act empowered the Presi-
dent, upon a declaration of war, to cause the subjects of the
hostile government " to be apprehended, restrained, secured,
and removed, as alien enemies. " The Sedition act declared it
an offence, and prescribed the punishment and its mode, to
combine or conspire, with intent to oppose the government,
when directed by the proper authority, to intimidate an officer
from the performance of his duty, to incite riots or insurrec-
tions against the laws of Congress, or to publish false, scandal-
ous, and malicious writings against the government, either
House of Congress, or the President, with intent to bring them
into contempt, to stir up sedition, or to aid or abet a foreign
nation in hostile designs against the United States. Inasmuch
as the Sedition act and the first of the Alien laws expired by
self-limitation before Jefferson took the oath of office, and since
the second Alien law was never repealed, but stands to-day
substantially unchanged, a commendation of the " spirit which
swept " them from the statute-book involves a historical blun-
der. The resolutions of 1798 and 1799 were the first expres-
sions of the doctrine which subsequently became known as
nullification.

58 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The canvass of 1800 opened early. The first step, perhaps,
was an attempt to draw General Washington from his retire-
ment and induce him to stand again for the presidency. A
suggestion to that effect was made, probably after a consulta-
tion among the Hamiltonians ; but Washington refused to com-
ply. Later, Gouverneur Morris wrote to him, December 9,
1799 : " During a late visit to New York I learnt that the
leading characters, even in Massachusetts, consider Mr. Adams
as unfit for the office he now holds ; " and he proceeded to
urge him to become a candidate. It is probable that Wash-
ington never read the letter. He was taken ill on the 13th of
December and died on the 14th. The scheme failed, and the
leaders, seeing that it would be impossible to supplant Mr.
Adams with any candidate of less authority than Washington,
resigned themselves to the inevitable.

Early in March articles began to appear in the Republican
papers, giving " dispassionate " reasons why Mr. Adams should
not be elected. The articles were answered at length by cor-
respondents of the Federalist newspapers. The discussion was
extremely bitter, and unfounded charges were made on both
sides. Probably the Federal ticket had been agreed upon at
that time, although it was not authoritatively announced until
June. General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a brother of
Thomas Pinckney, who had been the candidate most voted for
with Mr. Adams in 1796, was associated with Adams on the
Federal ticket. The manner in which the ticket was formed
is involved in much obscurity. Mr. Hezekiah Niles, whose
" Weekly Register" is a treasury of facts for students of our
early political history, tried to clear it up, but acknowledged
his failure. Early in the year 1800 a meeting of a few Feder-
alist members of Congress, for the purpose, as was said at the
time, of influencing the Presidential election, was held in the
Senate Chamber. So far as is known, no account of its pro-
ceedings was ever printed, but it was probably called for the
purpose of strengthening Mr. Adams's cause ; for Mr. Niles
says in another place (" Register," Vol. 24, p. 277) that " it
was well understood that many of the Federalists were opposed
to the taking up of Mr. Adams for the presidency, — that
they had nearly fixed on another person." Perhaps the nam-
ing a candidate for Vice-President may also have been one
of the objects of the meeting. But it is all a matter of conjec-
ture and uncertainty. Whatever may have been the purposes

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 59

in view, the meeting excited the wrath of the Republicans,
and was denounced in the Philadelphia "Aurora" as a "Jaco-
binical conclave," — for which and other insulting remarks
the editor of the paper was arraigned at the bar of the Senate.

The Republican members themselves held a caucus some-
what later, — probably in February or March, 1800. It also
was a secret meeting. It was attended by a small number of
members only. It was called not so much for the purpose of
nominating Mr. Jefferson, who was designated by the unani-
mous voice of his party as the natural candidate, as with the
idea of causing a union upon Burr, as well as upon Jefferson.
The situation and the course of events are explained in a let-
ter, already cited in the preceding chapter, from Oliver Wolcott
to Henry W. Edwards, printed in Gibbs's History, based on
Wolcott's correspondence (Vol. ii., p. 488). Wolcott wrote
that the division of the votes of Virginia in 1796 " gave great
offence to Mr. Burr, who complained of bad faith. At the
next conference, or caucus, of the Republican members of
Congress, Mr. Burr required as a condition of his consent to
be their candidate, that highly respectable members of the
Republican party should write letters, stating that their honor
was pledged to endeavor to procure for him an equal vote with
Mr. Jefferson. I have no doubt, from information which I
received (though I have never seen a letter to that effect), that
this condition was complied with ; at any rate, an equal vote
for Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr was in fact obtained."

Both parties entered upon the canvass with full confidence ;
but the Federalists soon suffered a severe rebuff, when the
New York election took place in May. Later their hopes
revived and the Republicans became anxious. So well as-
sured were the Federalists of success that the " Columbian Cen-
tinel," of Boston, on December 13, after the electors had
actually voted, asserted that " there cannot be a doubt " of the
election of Adams and Pinckney. One week later the " Cen-
tinel " was forced to " concede " the " bad news " that Jefferson
and Burr were chosen. The result had finally been determined
by the vote of South Carolina, on which the Federalists had
counted as safe for their candidates.

In New York, the Republican assemblymen were successful
in New York city. In a fit of faintheartedness the Phila-
delphia " Gazette " declared that the result " ascertains the
election of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency," using the verb in

60 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

a sense now obsolete. The suggestion filled other Federalists
with indignant horror. " I trust," wrote one of them, " this
country is not yet so abandoned of God." The disaster led
Hamilton to write to Governor Jay, requesting him to call
together the old legislature, which was Federalist, to pass a
law giving the choice of electors to the people, by districts.
Another letter, evidently inspired by Hamilton, was also sent
to Jay urging the same step. The Governor replied to nei-
ther letter. He endorsed one of them, " proposing a measure
for party purposes which I think it would not become me to
adopt."

The politicians in other States were not so rigid in their
morality as he. Virginia, where the district system of popular
election had previously prevailed, and where the Federalists
had made some inroads since 1796, amended its law and
instituted the practice of election on a general ticket, thus
ensuring its twenty-one votes for Jefferson. In Massachusetts
a situation the reverse of that in Virginia existed. Several of
its members of Congress were Republicans ; a bye-election of
a congressman in the spring of 1800 resulted in a Jeffersonian
success ; and when the State election took place, two or three
weeks afterward, Governor Strong had a clear majority of
only two hundred, and a plurality over Gerry of but 2611.
In order to save the whole vote of the Commonwealth for
Adams and Pinckney, it was necessary for the General Court
to assume to itself the appointment of the electors. A special
session was summoned, and a resolution changing the system
was passed.

The situation in Pennsylvania was peculiar. It had been
the practice in that State to pass a law regulating the mode of
appointing electors just before each election, to be operative
for that election only. At each prior election the people had
enjoyed the privilege of choosing the electors by popular vote.
In the year 1796, fourteen Jefferson electors had been chosen,
and one Adams man. But in the time of Mr. Adams's popular-
ity the Federalists had carried the State once or twice ; and, as
the senators were elected by classes, for four years, it happened
that, in the year 1800, although the Governor and the House of
Representatives were strongly Republican, the Senate was still
^federalist by 13 to 11. As no law had been passed providing
j'or a popular election in time to enable the people to make a
choice, it became the duty of the legislature itself to choose

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 61

the electors. The House passed a law providing for an elec-
tion by joint ballot, the only way in which the legislature of
that State ever elected officers. The Senate rejected the bill
and proposed, instead, an election by concurrent vote. The
House refused to adopt that method. At last the Senate pro-
posed that each House should name eight electors, and that
the two Houses should vote together for the combined list, or
for fifteen of the sixteen. The House was forced to yield, and
I the result was that eight Jefferson and seven Adams electors
were chosen. The Federal senators — " the Federal thirteen,"
as they were proudly termed by their admirers — were loudly
praised for this act by the party organs. The editor of the
" United States Gazette," of Philadelphia, wrote on Decem-
ber 3, 1800, to his paper : —

The Federal thirteen deserve the praises and the blessings of all
America. They have checked the mad enthusiasm of a deluded
populace and the wicked speculation of designing demagogues.
On reviewing the recent aspect of our political affairs, it may be
figuratively said, They have saved a falling world I

It will be seen, from a consideration of what has been pre-
sented, that the Federalists had good reason to anticipate suc-
cess. There were to be 139 electoral votes, of which 70 were
necessary for a choice. The solid vote of New England,
together with that of New Jersey and Delaware, gave them
49 votes ; Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina con-
tributed 16 more ; and the eight votes of South Carolina,
which the people of that State promised to them, again and
again, would make up the majority. Reserving until a little
later the story of the loss of those votes, let us say that it was
only political chicanery, — or if that is too strong a word,
exceedingly good play of the game of politics, that brought
them so near to victory. New York told the story of the
popular sentiment. Votes were saved to Adams in Pennsyl-
vania and Massachusetts by taking advantage of earlier elec-
tions. On the other hand, not more than two or three votes
were gained by the Republicans in Virginia by the adoption
of the district system. On the surface it appears as if the
Federalists were almost as strong as ever. In reality they
were saved from a much more crushing defeat than they expe-
rienced by measures which the political morality of our time
would condemn.

The progress of the canvass developed the usual number of

62 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

" campaign lies " and misrepresentations. When the overturn
in Adams's cabinet occurred, the Trenton " Federalist " asserted
its knowledge that the step was the outcome of an agreement
between Adams and Jefferson. Adams was to be re-elected,
and so was Jefferson ; the President was to arrange the offices
to the satisfaction of the Vice-President, who was to give his
firm support to the measures of the administration. The
statement was absurd, and might have been taken as a joke,
had not the New Jersey paper been a serious organ of the
party. Of the same category was the report circulated by the
Federalist papers that Jefferson had discarded the Sabbath,
together with the Christian division of time into weeks, and
adopted in his household the French decade.

In May the Federalists expected to win by seventy-two
votes against sixty -six. They counted on five votes in North
Carolina, six in Pennsylvania, and four in Maryland, beside
the eight of South Carolina. In June they claimed seventy-
nine to fifty-nine. At about this time began to appear argu-
ments to show that it was most necessary for all Federalist
electors to give an equal vote to both candidates. For the
most part the internal discussions of the Federalists were kept
out of the newspapers. But occasionally something of the dis-
trust between Adams's friends and the adherents of Hamilton
appeared on the surface. It was not denied, because it was
evident to the dullest apprehension that only by the most loyal
adherence to the party programme could Jefferson be defeated.
Yet when Hamilton made a tour of New England, extended
as far as Maine, urging the equal support of both candidates,
there was some criticism of his action in the Boston newspaper
most devoted to Adams's fortunes. The Federalists of South
Carolina, the State which had given its votes for Jefferson and
Thomas Pinckney in 1796, now promised loyal support of
Adams and C. C. Pinckney. Toward the close of the canvass
a distinct offer was made to them to repeat the division of votes
they had made at the former election, that is, to give an equal
vote to Pinckney and Jefferson. General Pinckney refused to
sanction the coalition, and gave it to be understood that he
wished for no votes that were not given also to Adams. The
expectation was that Adams and Pinckney, under the bonds of
the agreement, would receive the same number of votes ; where-
upon the House of Representatives would elect Adams. It
was in the warmest period of the canvass that Aaron Burr, in

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST

some way unknown, obtained possession of a part of Hamilton's
letter on the character of John Adams, and gave it to the press.
Hamilton then published the letter in full. An extract from
it has been given already, in the account of the election of
1796. Two sentences only will be quoted here. They fol-
low Hamilton's severe arraignment of the President : " Yet,
with this opinion of Mr. Adams, I have finally resolved not to
advise the withholding from him a single vote. The body of
Federalists, for want of a sufficient knowledge of facts, are not
convinced of the expediency of relinquishing him."

As had been the case in 1796, sixteen States took part in
the election. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Pennsyl-
vania took away from the people the appointment of electors..
Rhode Island conferred the right upon them. There were,
therefore, four States only in which electors were chosen by
popular vote : Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina. The electors of both parties, with a single excep-
tion, voted equally for both candidates. One Rhode Island
elector withheld his vote from Pinckney, and gave it to Jay.
The result, by States, was as follows : —

States.

New Hampshire
Vermont . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut
New York . .
New Jersey
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland * . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia . . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee . .

Total . . .

O
»-9

—

* One Maryland elector did not attend.

64 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Before entering upon a narrative of the exciting events that
arose out of the equal vote for Jefferson and Burr, we must
record a most promising attempt to remedy by law the defi-
ciencies of the Constitution in the matter of the electoral count.
Inasmuch as the legislation then proposed subsequently formed
the basis of the " twenty-second joint rule," so famous in the
counts of 1869 and 1873, and of the electoral commission law
of 1877, it will be well to notice the proceedings at some
:. length. A resolution introduced in the Senate January 23,
1800, by Mr. Ross of Pennsylvania, directed the appointment
of a committee " to consider whether any, and what, provisions
. ought to be made by law for deciding disputed elections of
President and Vice-President of the United States, and for
determining the legality or the illegality of the votes given
for those officers in the different States." The committee
reported a bill, February 14, of which the provisions were, in
brief, as follows : —

On the day before the second Wednesday in February of
any year when there was to be a count of electoral votes, each
House of Congress was to choose by ballot six of its own
members, who, with the Chief Justice of the United States,
or, in case of his disability from any cause, the next senior
justice, would form a " grand committee," with " power to
examine, and finally to decide, all disputes relating to the
election."

Each House was next to elect two tellers, to whom the cer-
tificates of the electors, after they had been opened and read,
were to be delivered ; and the tellers were to note the dates of
the certificates, the names of the electors, the time and place
of their meeting, and the governors' certificates accompanying,
— these minutes to be read to the two Houses and entered on
the two Journals.

After the certificates had been opened, read, and minuted,
the President of the Senate was to administer to the members
of the grand committee an oath to examine the certificates im-
partially, " together with the exceptions and petitions against
them, and a true judgment give thereon, according to the evi-
dence." All the certificates, papers, petitions, and testimony
were then to be delivered to the chairman of the grand com-
mittee, which was to meet every day, sit with closed doors,
have ample power to send for persons and papers, compel at-
tendance of witnesses, and punish contempts. The powers of
the grand committee were stated in the following section : —

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 65

Sec. 8. That the grand committee shall have power to inquire,
examine, decide, and report upon the constitutional qualifications
of the persons voted for as President and Vice-President of the
United States ; upon the constitutional qualifications of the electors
appointed by the different States, and whether their appointment
was authorized by the state legislature or not ; upon all petitions
and exceptions against corrupt, illegal conduct of the electors, or
force, menaces, or improper means used to influence their votes ;
or against the truth of their returns, or the time, place, or manner
of giving their votes : Provided always, that no petition or ex-
ception shall be granted, allowed, or considered by the sitting grand
committee, which has for its object to dispute, draw into question
the number of votes given for an elector, or the fact whether an I
elector was chosen by a majority of the votes in his State or dis-
trict.

The committee was to make a final report on the 1st of
March, stating the number of legal votes for each person, the
number rejected, and the reason for rejection ; such reasons
to be signed by those who agreed to them. A majority of
the committee was to decide finally all questions submitted,
and on the day after the report was made the two Houses
were to meet again in joint convention, when the result was to
be declared, and, if no person had been chosen President, the
House was to proceed immediately to make a choice according
to the Constitution.

When the bill came under discussion, a motion was made to
strike from it the first ten sections, — being all which contained
any reference to a grand committee, — and to insert instead of
them a single section, providing that when the two Houses
should be assembled for the purpose of having the certificates
of electors opened and counted, the names of the States should
be drawn in order by lot ; that all petitions and exceptions
should be read as well as the certificates themselves ; that, if
no objection should be made, the votes should be counted ; but
that " if the votes, or any of them, shall be objected to, the
members present shall on the question propounded by the
President of the Senate decide, without debate, by yea or nay,
whether such votes are constitutional or not ; " and so on, each
question being decided before the name of another State was
drawn. This proposition was rejected. Various other amend-
ments were offered, some of which were adopted, and the bill
was passed substantially as it was reported, except that the
constitution of the grand committee was changed so as to relieve

66 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the Supreme Court from duty in connection with the electoral
count. Each House of Congress was to choose six of its mem-
bers for this service, and the Senate was also to select three
others of its members, of whom the House was to choose one bv
ballot as the thirteenth member of the grand committee.

The whole subject was considered with extreme care by the
House of Representatives. After much debate upon it in Com-
mittee of the Whole, the bill was referred to a select committee,
of which John Marshall, afterwards Chief Justice, was chair-
man. The committee reported back the bill, in a wholly new
draft, on the 25th of April. It provided for a joint committee
of four members from each House, with " power to examine
into all disputes relative to the election of President and Vice-
President of the United States, other than such as might relate
to the number of votes by which the electors may have been
appointed.'' To this committee all petitions, exceptions, and
memorials against either the electors or the persons for whom
they had voted, were to be delivered. The committee was to
meet daily from the time of its appointment until it should make
its report ; it was to have the powers for reaching witnesses
and compelling the production of papers which the Senate had
given to the grand committee. The report of the committee
was to contain all the facts ascertained in the investigation,
but no opinion. The count was to be made in presence of the
two Houses immediately after this report was made — tellers
having been previously appointed in the manner already estab-
lished by precedent — in the following method : —

The names of the several States shall then be written under the
inspection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on
separate and similar pieces of paper, and folded up as nearly alike
as may be, and put into a ballot-box, and taken by a member of the
House of Representatives, to be named by the Speaker thereof ; out
of which box shall be drawn the paper on which the names of the
States are written, one at a time, by a member of the Senate, to be
named by the President thereof, and so soon as one is drawn the
packet containing the certificates from the electors of that State
shall be opened by the President of the Senate, and then shall be
read also the petitions, depositions, and other papers concerning
the same, and if no exceptions are taken thereto, all the votes con-
tained in such certificates shall be counted ; but if any exception be
taken, the person taking the same shall state it directly and not
argumentatively, and sign his name thereto ; and, if it be founded
on any circumstance appearing in the report of the joint commit-

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 67

tee, and the exception be seconded by one member from the Senate
and one from the House of Representatives, each of whom shall
sign the said exception as having seconded the same, then each
House shall immediately retire, without question or debate, to
its own apartment, and shall take the question of the excep-
tion, without debate, by ayes and noes. So soon as the question
shall be taken in either House, a message shall be sent to the
other, informing them that the House sending the message is
prepared to resume the count, and when such message shall have
been received by both Houses, they shall again assemble in the same
apartment as before, and the count shall be resumed. And if the
two Houses have concurred in rejecting the vote or votes objected
to, such vote or votes shall not be counted ; but, unless both Houses
concur, such vote or votes shall be counted. If the objection
taken as aforementioned shall arise on the face of the papers opened
by the President of the Senate in presence of both Houses, and shall
not have been noticed in the report of the joint committee, such
objections may be referred to the joint committee to be examined
and reported on by them in the same manner and on the same
principles as their first report was made ; but if both Houses do
not concur in referring the same to the committee, then such ob-
jections shall be decided on in like manner as if it had been
founded on any circumstance appearing in the report of the com-
mittee. The vote of one State being thus counted, another ticket
shall be drawn from the ballot-box, "and the certificate and the
votes of the State thus drawn shall be proceeded on as is herein-
before directed, and so on, one after another, until the whole of
the votes shall be counted.

The bill was carefully considered, and various amendments
were proposed and negatived. It was passed on the 2d of
May by a vote of 52 to 37. On being returned to the Senate,
the bill was referred to a committee which reported several
amendments, of which only one was adopted, but that was
one of the greatest importance. The word " admitting " was
substituted for " rejecting," in the passage quoted above, and
the phraseology of the rest of the clause was changed to con-
form to the amendment ; thus providing that, unless the two
Houses concurred in admitting any disputed vote, it should
not be counted. This was precisely the principle of the twenty-
second joint rule of 1865, and the Senate adopted it in 1800
by a vote of 16 to 11. The House non-concurred, and a vote
in each branch to adheje to the disagreement defeated the bill.

The proceedings preliminary to the count, and the count
itself, were in all respects similar to those in former years

68 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

up to the declaration of the result, which was in these
words : —

That the whole number of electors who had voted was one
hundred and thirty-eight, of which number Thomas Jefferson and
Aaron Burr had a majority ; but, the number of those voting for
them being equal, no choice was made by the people ; and that,
consequently, the remaining duties devolve upon the House of
Representatives.

Already a committee had been appointed to prepare a set of
rules for the House, in case the count should show that it was
the duty of the House to elect a President ; and the rules,
having been discussed in committee of the whole, were adopted
as follows : —

First. In the event of its appearing, upon the counting and
ascertaining of the votes given for President and Vice-President,
according to the mode prescribed by the Constitution, that no per-
son has a constitutional majority, and the same shall have been
duly declared and entered on the Journals of this House, the
Speaker, accompanied by the members of the House, shall return
to their Chamber.

Second. Seats shall be provided in this House for the President
and members of the Senate, and notification of the same shall be
made to the Senate.

Third. The House, on their return from the Senate Chamber,
it being ascertained that the constitutional number of States are
present, shall immediately proceed to choose one of the persons
from whom the choice is to be made for President ; and in case
upon the first ballot there shall not appear to be a majority of the
States in favor of one of them, in such case the House shall con-
tinue to ballot for a President, without interruption by other busi-
ness, until it shall appear that a President is duly chosen.

Fourth. After commencing the balloting for President, the
House shall not adjourn until a choice is made.

Fifth. The doors of the House shall be closed during the bal-
loting, except against the officers of the House.

Sixth. In balloting the following mode shall be observed, to wit :
The representatives of the respective States shall be so seated that
the delegation of each State shall be together. The representatives
of each State shall, in the first instance, ballot among themselves,
in order to ascertain the vote of that State ; and it shall be allowed,
where deemed necessary by the delegation, to name one or more
persons of the representation to be tellers of the ballots. After
the vote of each State is ascertained, duplicates thereof shall be
made ; and in case the vote of the State be for one person, then

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 69

the name of that person shall be written on each of the dupli-
cates; and in case the ballots of the State be equally divided,
then the word " divided " shall be written on each duplicate, and
the said duplicates shall be deposited, in manner hereafter pre-
scribed, in boxes to be provided. That for the conveniently tak-
ing the ballots of the several representatives of the respective
States, there be sixteen ballot-boxes provided ; and that there be,
additionally, two boxes provided for receiving the votes of the
States ; that after the delegation of each State shall have ascer-
tained the vote of the State, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall carry to
the respective delegations the two ballot-boxes, and the delegation
of each State, in the presence and subject to the examination of
all the members of the delegation, shall deposit a duplicate of the
vote of the State in each ballot-box ; and where there is more than
one representative of a State, the duplicates shall not both be de-
posited by the same person. When the votes of the States are all
thus taken in, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall carry one of the general
ballot-boxes to one table, and the other to a second and separate
table. Sixteen members shall then be appointed as tellers of the
ballots, one of whom shall be taken from each State, and be
nominated by the delegation of the State from which he was
taken. The said tellers shall be divided into two equal sets ac-
cording to such agreements as shall be made among themselves,
and one of the said sets of tellers shall proceed to count the votes
in one of the said boxes, and the other set the votes in the other
box ; and in the event of no appointment of teller by any dele-
gation, the Speaker shall in such case appoint. When the votes
of the States are counted by the respective sets of tellers, the re-
sult shall be reported to the House ; and if the reports agree, the
same shall be accepted as the true votes of the States ; but if the
reports disagree, the States shall immediately proceed to a new
ballot, in manner aforesaid.

Seventh. If either of the persons voted for shall have a major-
ity of the votes of all the States, the Speaker shall declare the
same; and official notice thereof shall be immediately given to
the President of the United States, and to the Senate.

Eighth. All questions which shall arise after the balloting com-
mences, and which shall be decided by the House voting per capita
to be incidental to the power of choosing the President, and which
shall require the decision of the House, shall be decided by States,
and without debate ; and in case of an equal division of the votes
of States, the question shall be lost.

An active intrigue had been in progress among the Fed-
eralists, dating back almost to the day when they learned of
their defeat, which had for its purpose the prevention of the

JO A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

election of Mr. Jefferson. The first plan which occurred to
them was that the House of Representatives should ballot
fruitlessly for a President until the fourth of March had
passed, when both the offices of President and Vice-President
would become vacant. Then the law already passed by Con-
gress in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution 1 would
become operative, and a new election would be held. This
scheme was outlined in the " Columbian Centinel " in December,
1800. Some of the Federalist writers have denied that such
a purpose as this was ever entertained ; but the proof is too
strong for denial that it was the first move made in the most
indefensible and scandalous act in the history of the Federalist
party. It was, nevertheless, soon abandoned ; and another
plan was adopted by preference. The plan was the support
of Burr, and his election over Jefferson. The Federalists seem
to have come slowly and reluctantly to the resolution to give
Burr their votes. They did so in opposition to the most
earnest remonstrances of Hamilton, who carried on an active
correspondence with many public men. He argued directly
with influential members of Congress, and endeavored to enlist
the help of other prominent Federalists in dissuading the
party from disgracing itself. No act of Hamilton's public
life shows more conspicuously his high-mindedness and his
political sagacity. His position is epitomized in a brief pas-
sage from a letter to Gouverneur Morris : " I trust the Fed-
eralists will not finally be so mad as to vote for Burr. I
speak with an intimate and accurate knowledge of character.
His elevation can only promote the purposes of the desperate
and profligate. If there be a man in the world I ought to
hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I have always been person-
ally well. But the public good must be paramount to every
private consideration." The repugnance of the Federalists
who persuaded themselves to support Burr is well expressed
in a letter from Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, the
Speaker of the House : " By a mode of election which was
intended to secure to preeminent talent and virtues the first
honors of our country, and forever to disgrace the barbarous
institutions by which executive power is to be transmitted
through the organs of generation, we have, at one election,
placed at the head of our government a semi-maniac, and who
in his soberest senses is the greatest marplot in nature ; and
i Sec. 10. See p. 37.

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 71

at the next a feeble and false, enthusiastic theorist, and a
profligate without character and without property, bankrupt
in both."

Hamilton's most powerful efforts to detach the Federalists
from Burr were exerted upon the one member of the House of
Representatives from Delaware, Mr. James A. Bayard. Mr.
Bayard agreed with Hamilton in opinion ; but as he wrote to
that gentleman, two or three weeks after the election : " I was
obliged to yield to a torrent which I perceived might be
diverted, but could not be opposed." He " contrived to lay
hold of all the doubtful votes in the House, which enabled
me, according to views which presented themselves, to protract
or terminate* the controversy." The fact was that the Federal-
ists made strenuous efforts to obtain assurances from Burr that
he would, if elected, administer the government as a Federal-
ist. Burr could have been elected if he had committed him-
self to them. His character was such that his unwillingness
to<do so must be attributed to doubts of success rather than to
principle. Letters written by him after his equality with
Jefferson in the race was ascertained, showed that he under-
stood and acquiesced in the agreement that Jefferson was to be
President. Yet he carried on an intrigue with the Federalists,
without ever going so far as to leave open no way back into
the confidence of the Republican party. His adroitness over-
reached itself. When Mr. Bayard had satisfied himself that
Burr would not commit himself, he took a decided step which
resulted in the election of Jefferson.

When the House of Representatives retired to its own hall,
balloting for a President began immediately. Every member,
with two exceptions, was present, and one of the two, too ill to
attend, was in a committee-room adjoining the hall, where a
bed had been prepared for him. From the first several Feder-
alists voted for Jefferson, but the most of them supported
Burr. A New Jersey member, whose defection Jefferson had
predicted two months before, gave the vote of the State to
Jefferson. Georgia was entitled to two representatives. One
of its members, a Republican, had died not long before. The
other, a Federalist, voted for Jefferson, and thus gave him the
vote of the State. Jefferson had, in all, the votes of eight
States. Burr had the votes of six States. Maryland and
Vermont were divided, — Maryland because of the defection
of another Federalist ; the party division of the delegation was

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

three Federalists and three Republicans. As the Constitution
required a majority of all the States to elect, the vote was not
effective. The House balloted nineteen times on the 11th of
February, nine times on the 12th, and once each on the 13th,
14th, 16th, and 17th, — thirty-five times in all. At every
trial the result was the same. It is exhibited in the following
table : —

States.

Jefferson.

Burr.

State voted for—

New Hampshire
Vermont . .
Massachusetts
Rhode Island .
Connecticut .
New York . .
New Jersey . .
Pennsylvania . .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia . . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee . .

1
3

6
3
9

16
9

2
1

4
1
11
2
7
4
2
4
1
4
3
1
5

Burr.

Divided — Blank.

Burr.

Jefferson.

Burr.

Divided — Blank.

Jefferson.

Burr.

Jefferson.

Total . . .

The thirty-sixth ballot, taken on the 17th of February,
resulted in the choice of Mr. Jefferson. The Federalists,
excepting those from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, and Connecticut, declined to vote. This action gave
the votes of Vermont and Maryland to Jefferson, raising his
number to ten ; it rendered blank the votes of Delaware and
South Carolina; and left to Burr the four New England
States above named. Mr. Bayard, in the account of the elec-
tion which he gave to Hamilton, already quoted, says that
when he became satisfied that Burr would not commit himself,
he " came out with the most explicit and determined declara-
tion of voting for Jefferson. You cannot well imagine," he
continues, " the clamor and vehement invective to which I was
subjected for some days. We had several caucuses. AIL
acknowledged that nothing but desperate measures remained.

THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 73

which several were disposed to adopt, and but few were will-
ing openly to disapprove. We broke up each time in confu-
sion and discord, and the manner of the last ballot was arranged
but a few minutes before the vote was given." He reports
that but for one Connecticut member, all the Federalists would
have voted blank. When that member refused, the rest of his
delegation refused also, and thereupon the other New England
members, except the one from Vermont, joined them in their
action, and voted for Burr to the last. " The means existed,"
he further declared, " of electing Burr, but this required his
cooperation. By deceiving one man (a great blockhead) and
tempting two (not incorruptible) he might have secured a ma-
jority of the States."

The inauguration was even more informal than that which
took place in 1793, when Washington took the oath the sec-
ond time. There is no evidence that either Washington on that
occasion, or Mr. Adams in 1797, made use of a carriage to
reach the Capitol. Nevertheless, an untrue story that Jeffer-
son rode on horseback, unattended, to the building where Con-
gress met, and that he hitched his horse to a fence post, has
been the basis of an idea that the new President brought the
style of government back to republican simplicity. The truth
is, that at ten o'clock on the morning of the 4th of March,
Burr appeared in the Senate Chamber, took the oath of office,
and began to preside over the Senate. At noon Jefferson, clad
in his usual dress, walked from the boarding-house, where, as
Vice-President, he resided, accompanied by a company of artil-
lery from Virginia. He went to the north wing of the Capitol
where the House was in session, and was received by Vice-
President Burr. Having taken a seat between Burr and Chief
Justice Marshall, he soon rose and delivered his inaugural
address. The oath was then administered by the Chief Jus-
tice. President Adams was not present to witness the cere-
mony. Early on the morning of the inauguration he left
Washington on his journey to his home in Massachusetts.

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME

A political era began with the inauguration of Jefferson.
Forty years of uninterrupted ascendency of his party were
followed by twenty years more, during which, although it was
twice defeated in the electoral colleges, its adversaries enjoyed
the sweets of power for four years only — one presidential
term. The Republican party was in its origin merely a party
of opposition. Its chosen designation had but a negative
signification, for it was adopted rather to bring an accusation
of monarchical tendencies against the party in power, than to
embody a political programme of its own. It came into the
possession of the government without a plan or a promise.
Its adversaries applied to the members of the party the terms
" Jacobins " and " Democrats ; " perhaps not inappropriately,
since much of their early political activity had been exerted
through the medium of democratic societies formed on the
model of the Jacobin clubs of Paris* Jefferson himself never
adopted the democratic name ; but gradually that which had
been used as a term of reproach became the ordinary designa-
tion of the party, and ultimately a name proudly held. The
Democratic party survived two great rivals, the Federalist and
the Whig parties ; and has come down to our own time in
unbroken succession, although not without more than one
radical change in its principles. For no one to-day holds the
Jeffersonian creed. No one believes in strict construction of the
Constitution, as he understood it ; no one places the State above
the nation, or accepts the doctrine of nullification, or denies the
right of the Supreme Court to act as an arbiter and interpreter
of the Constitution, or, in short, takes the view of Federalist
legislation which Jefferson took. The strictest construction of
our time concedes greater authority to the national government
than Hamilton ever claimed for it.

One must carefully avoid judging the statesmen and politi-
cians of the first quarter century under the Constitution by the

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 75

standards which later generations have set up. If Jefferson
and those who acted with him deemed the States safer reposi-
tories of ultimate authority than the general government, we
must remember that the " more perfect union " was still an
experiment. If the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions as-
serted a doctrine which was to imperil the existence of the
government ; and if some Federalists of the highest authority
considered most seriously, although most secretly, a project
having for its purpose the dissolution of the Union, and the
establishment of a Northern confederacy ; it must be borne in
mind that the people had not had time to accustom themselves
to an authority paramount to that set up in their state capitals,
nor had the Union itself become an object of national love and
devotion.^ Descending to the less important matter, what was
the true interpretation of the Constitution, as it concerned the
respective functions and jurisdiction of State and nation, it is
not to be wondered at either that a most conservative view was
taken at first ; or that, as experience demonstrated both the
safety of intrusting larger powers to the general government,
and the necessity of conceding such powers to it, if the United
States were to make itself respected at home and abroad, the
more liberal construction prevailed.

Jefferson's inaugural address had in it a note of conciliation.
" We have called by different names brothers of the same
principle. We are all Republicans ; we are all Federalists.''
But there was no conciliation in his administration. Con-
gress proceeded, under his leadership, to undo all it could of
the work of the Federalists. The judiciary system, established
at the close of the last session of Congress, was an object of
special detestation. The act was repealed and the judges de-
prived of their offices ; and the attack upon the judiciary was
followed up by impeaching judges obnoxious to the Republi-
cans who could not be disposed of by the repeal. The taxing
system was changed so as to get rid of a corps of Federal
officeholders. Jefferson exercised the power of removal and
appointment in order to reward party friends. The navy was
treated with neglect. The President was always ostentatious
in his efforts to restrain within most narrow bounds the
authority of the general government, and to expand the func-
tion of the individual States ; yet the most conspicuous act of
his first administration, indeed, of his whole term, was the
acquisition of Louisiana — a measure involving a construction

76 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

of the Constitution far more latitudinarian than that which
Hamilton put upon it. Many prominent Northern Federalists,
in their anger, their helplessness, their apprehension that the
rule of the Southern States was to he fastened upon the
country permanently, entertained the idea of a separation from
the rest of the Union, and the establishment of a new confed-
eracy, to consist of New England and New York.

The course of the Federalists at this juncture was such as
amply to justify the people in excluding them from the govern-
ment. Their excesses in opposition were not the same as those
which had been a reproach to the Republicans during the
administration of Washington and Adams. They did not fill
the public journals with false charges against the national
officers ; nor garble and misrepresent their words, their acts,
and their motives ; nor did they load their political enemies
with vituperative epithets. But they were childishly petulant
in defeat ; they tried to regain power by detestable intrigues
and unnatural coalitions ; and, as has just been said, some of
them consulted together as to a separation from those whom
they could not control, by breaking up the Union. Most of
this was carried on in secret at the time ; much of it has since
been brought to light. Hamilton was aware of it. Not
improbably it was his opposition to the scheme, in which
Burr and leading Federalists were engaged, that prompted the
Vice-President to challenge him to the fatal duel. Less than
a week before his death he said to Colonel Trumbull, " You
are going to Boston. You will see the principal men there.
Tell them from me, as my request, for God's sake, to cease
these conversations and threatenings about a separation of the
Union."

With whatever bias or impartiality one may look upon the
contentions and the actors of that era, one thing is evident.
The people were with the President, and the administration
grew stronger as time passed. This is shown abundantly by the
progress which the Republican party made in the States where
previously it had been weak. It is not to be supposed that
the Federalist party was dead in Pennsylvania and the South ;
but the hopelessness of a struggle against the party in power
was so fully recognized as to deter the opposition from nomi-
nating candidates, in many cases. In New England one
Federalist stronghold after another was stormed ; some of them
were captured ; from more than one other the enemy was

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 77

repulsed with such effort as to exhaust the holders and encour-
age the assailants to hope that it would surrender at the -next
attack.,

Jefferson's bearing in the presidential office pleased the
people. He was informal and approachable. He discontinued
the levees which had been a social feature of the preceding
administrations — which, indeed, was a rather obvious thing
to do, now that the seat of government had been removed to a
small, ill-built little village in a vast swamp, which had no
society worthy of the name. He also abolished the custom of
a speech to Congress, to which each House was expected to
reply, and' substituted a written message. This change seemed,
to the popular mind, a departure from a system borrowed
from the English government, and the adoption of a more
purely republican form. Jefferson learned a lesson from the
failure of his predecessor, to which the attitude toward him of
his cabinet ministers contributed. The Republican President
sought from his secretaries advice, not their consent to his mea-
sures. He realized that he alone was responsible for results,
and let it be known that the final decision rested with him.
The Federalists had supposed him a shifty time-server. They
found him a master in his own administration. They fancied
that he was of a nature to shrink from responsibility. They
saw him take boldly the great risk of purchasing Louisiana,
which they, — and even he, at a period not many months
earlier, — deemed a great violation of the Constitution. This
measure, extremely popular in the South, and hardly less so in
the North, beyond the somewhat narrow circle of Federalist
leaders, determined the result of the election of 1804 beyond
all doubt. Jefferson would probably have been elected easily ;
the acquisition of Louisiana reduced the opposition to him
almost to nothing.

The danger that the will of the people might be frustrated
by the selection of an inferior man as President, was fully re-
vealed by the election in 1800. It will be remembered that
it was to prevent this very occurrence that the Convention of
1787 had adopted the device of a vote for two persons without
designating who was to be President. The device had failed
signally. It is an interesting fact that the first formal propo-
sition of a change of system was made prior to that election,
and proceeded from Vermont. The legislature of that State, in
November, 1799, adopted a resolution urging an amendment

78 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

of the Constitution to provide that the electors should desig-
nate for whom they voted as President, and for whom as Vice-
President. On February 28 of the. following year, 1800, the
Massachusetts General Court passed a resolution approving
the amendment. Nothing came of the movement at that
time.

In 1801 Hamilton drafted two amendments, one of which
closely resembled the Vermont resolution ; the other was in-
tended to prohibit the choice of electors by legislatures or by
general ticket. It provided that Congress — not the State
legislatures — should divide each State into as many districts
as the number of electors to which it should be entitled, and
that one elector should be chosen by those qualified to vote
for the more numerous branch of the state legislature. These
two amendments were introduced in the New York legislature
by De Witt Clinton, a Republican, and were adopted January
30, 1802. A resolution similar to the first was adopted De-
cember 15, 1801. Both sets of resolutions were presented in
Congress in February, 1802, but the matter was not brought
forward for consideration until just before the close of the
session. On May 1, with little debate, the Committee of
the Whole, in the House of Representatives, rejected a reso-
lution of amendment briefly providing that in all future elec-
tions the votes given should designate for which person the
elector voted as President and for which as Vice-President.
The vote was : ayes 42, noes 22. It was held by the speaker
— it is not now so held — that two thirds were necessary even
on preliminary motions. Reported adversely to the House by
the Committee of the Whole, the amendment was neverthe-
less passed the same day by 47 to 14. The resolution reached
the Senate the next day, and was taken up and acted upon on
the 3d, the last day of the session. It was rejected by 15 votes
to 8, not two thirds. Gouverneur Morris, one of the New York
senators, voted against the amendment ; and felt bound, since
the measure had come to Congress as a proposition of the New
York legislature, to explain an act which defeated it. His
letter to the Governor of the State has been quoted already
(p. 12).

At the first session of the eighth Congress, which met in
October, 1803, the question was considered at great length
in both branches of Congress. An amendment of the Consti-
tution, in substantially the form in which it was ultimately

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 79

adopted, was introduced early in the session by DeWitt Clin-
ton, who was now a senator from New York. Senator Pierce
Butler, of South Carolina, a Federalist, proposed an amend-
ment to the resolution, forbidding the election of any person
as President who had held the office eight years, until a full
term of four years had intervened ; and allowing him thereafter
to be elected for only four years in eight. Senator Dayton of
New Jersey moved to strike out of the amendment all that re-
ferred to a Vice-President, his object being to abolish the office.
Neither of these propositions found favor, and the resolution,
after slight verbal amendment, was passed by the Senate on
December 2, by a vote of 22 to 10, — nearly a party division.
The House of Representatives meanwhile had passed and sent
to the Senate an amendment having the same purpose, but in
a form much shorter, and more nearly resembling Hamilton's
draft. Complaint was made in the House that the Senate had
not acted upon this other resolution ; but the Senate version
was taken up and was made the subject of a prolonged and
acrimonious debate. It met with substantially unanimous op-
position from the Federalist side of the House. The chief
objection urged against it was based upon the clause provid-
ing that when, the choice of President devolving upon the
House of Representatives, that body does not effect an elec-
tion before the 4th of March, the Vice-President shall act as
President. It was held that the proposed amendment would
degrade the vice-presidency by inviting the nomination to the
office of men who would never be thought of for President ;
and the obnoxious clause would result in putting a second-rate
man into the first office whenever the House failed to elect. ,
Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, opposing the defeated amend-
ment of 1802, had uttered prophetic words regarding the pro-
posed change. " What," he exclaimed, " will be the effect
of this principle ? The office of Vice-President will be car-
ried to market to purchase the votes of particular States." It
would be invidious to specify the numerous cases in which this
prophecy has been verified ; but we need not go back many
elections to find modern instances. Nevertheless, it was open
to the advocates of the change, if it would have been in good
taste to refer to the matter in Mr. Burr's presence, to say that
the system under which they were then living had nearly
brought to the presidential chair one whom no party would
have selected deliberately for that position. Hamilton's com-

80 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

ment on Morris's excuse for voting against the amendment in
1802 is to the point : " One such fact as the late election is
worth a thousand beautiful theories."

In the course of the debate great stress was laid by Federal-
ist speakers on the supposed tendency of the impending
change to diminish the influence of the small States — an ap-
prehension which was ever before them, since they were ever
reminded of the dominance which Virginia, the greatest of the
States, had already assumed. So far as the selection of presi-
dential candidates is concerned, their expectation has been real-
ized. Since the system of nominating conventions was intro-
duced, three candidates only who were residents of small States
have been made the " standard bearers " of either of the lead-
ing parties, — Pierce, of New Hampshire ; Fremont, nominally
of California, which was a small State in 1856 ; and Blaine,
of Maine. But the constitutional system, in giving equal
representation to the States in the Senate, has more than com-
pensated the small States for any loss they may have suffered
in other directions.

The amendment came to a vote in the House at last, and
was carried by the exact constitutional majority — 84 to 42 ;
but the vote of Mr. Speaker Macon was required to make up
the number in the affirmative. As had been the case in the
Senate, it was in general, a party division. Twenty-four of
the negative votes were given by New England members, and
only three members from that section supported the measure.
Yet it will be observed that the noes exceeded the whole
number of Federalist members in the House. Even among
the Republicans of the North there was a fear of Southern rule,
Virginia domination, and the control of the government by
the large States. The amendment, as adopted, was in these
words : —

The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by
ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least,
shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves;
they shall name in their ballots the persons voted for as Pre-
sident, and, in distinct ballots, the persons voted for as Vice-Pre-
sident, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for
as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and
of the number Of votes for each ; which lists they shall sign
and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of
the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 81

President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and
House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes
shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest number of
votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a
majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no
person have such majority, then from the persons having the
highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted
for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose im-
mediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the Pre-
sident the vote shall be taken by States, the representation from
each State having one vote. A quorum for this purpose shall
consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States,
and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice.
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President,
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the
fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall
act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitu-
tional disability of the President.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-Presi-
dent shall be Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the
whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a ma-
jority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate
shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall
consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a
majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But
no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall
be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

The resolution was not passed until December 8, 1803.
It was extremely doubtful if the ratification of " three fourths
>f the legislatures of the several States" could be obtained
o as to make the amendment operative at the next election.
An effort was made, it may be remarked, in explanation of
the quotation marks, to amend the resolution submitting the
amendment, so as to read " the legislatures of three fourths
of the several States." To correct the ambiguity and dispel
the idea that a three-fourths vote was required of a State
legislature, would have sent the resolution back to the Senate,
and the objectionable phrase was allowed to stand. In order
to provide for any contingency a law was passed, the following
provisions of which remained in force until the passage of the
act of 1887. It was enacted that the electors —

shall vote for President and Vice-President of the United States,
respectively, in the manner directed by the above-mentioned

82 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

amendment ; and having made and signed three certificates of all
the votes given by them, each of which certificates shall contain
two distinct lists, one of the votes given for President and the
other for Vice-President, they shall seal up the said certificates,
certifying on each that lists of all the votes of such State given
for President and of all votes given for Vice-President are con-
tained therein, and shall cause the said certificates to be trans-
mitted and disposed of, and in every other respect act in conformity
with the provisions of the act to which this is a supplement. And
every other provision of the act to which this is a supplement, and
which is not virtually repealed by this act, shall extend ahd apply
to every election of a President and Vice-President of the United
States made in conformity to the above-mentioned amendment to
the Constitution of the United States.

It was further provided by the same act that until electors
should receive a notice that the amendment had been duly
ratified by a sufficient number of States, they should vote in
both ways, the old and the new, make out six certificates, and
send two sets of each kind to the President of the Senate ;
but only those which should be in conformity to the Consti-
tution at the time of the election were to be opened. This
provision became inoperative by reason of the promptness of
the States in ratifying the amendment, — which was de-
clared adopted by the Secretary of State in a notification ad-
dressed to the several governors on the 25th of September,
1804. Thirteen of the sixteen States ratified the amendment.
The dissenting States were Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
Delaware.

The custom of selecting candidates for President and Vice-
President by a caucus of congressmen was now well estab-
lished. That which had previously been done secretly and
informally was by the Republicans done openly for the first
time. There was no need of a caucus for the choice of a
candidate for President. All were in favor of Mr. Jefferson.
But no one was in favor of Burr. The chief offences for the
commission of which his memory is execrated, had not yet
been committed ; but he had, long before, lost the confidence
of his early party friends. One hundred and eight members
of the two Houses of Congress attended the caucus on the
25th of February, 1804. Mr. Jefferson was nominated unani-
mously. George Clinton of New York was nominated for
Vice-President. The vote stood : —

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 83

For George Clinton, of New York 67

" John Breckenridge, of Kentucky 20

" Levi Lincoln, of Massachusetts 9

" John Langdon, of New Hampshire 7

" Giedon Granger, of Connecticut 4

" Samuel Maclay, of Pennsylvania ...... 1

The Federalists agreed to support Charles Cotesworth Pinck-
ney, of South Carolina, for President, and Rufus King, of
New York, for Vice-President,, Where and by whom these
nominations were made is not known. The information is
not given in the newspapers of the time, nor is any meeting
for the purpose of nominating candidates referred to in the
published correspondence of public men.

There was no canvass. The Federalists deliberately with-
drew from serious opposition to the election of Jefferson, save
that in the States where they were still strong they fought
desperately to retain their ascendency. The purpose not to
make a general canvass was foreshadowed a year earlier by
Gouverneur Morris, who wrote to Roger Griswold in Novem-
ber, 1803, that it was the wise course "to leave the arena free
for the Democrats to squabble in, at the next election," pre-
dicting that they either would " divide with mortal hatred n
and honest men would come by their own, or would " unite
in their present chief." He added that " the confidence in-
spired by such appearance of universal approbation might take
from his vanity the snaffle which it now prances under, and
give you more mammoth expectations," — an excellent ex-
ample of the rhetoric of the time, but, still better, an illus-
tration of the delusion as to the sentiment of the people
under which most of the Federalists labored.

Seventeen States took part in the election, Ohio having
been admitted to the Union on November 29, 1802. A new
apportionment had been made, based upon the census of 1800,
increasing the number of Representatives from 106 to 142,
and the number of electors from 138 to 176. In seven of the
States electors were appointed by the legislature, — Vermont,
Connecticut, New York, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia,
and Tennessee. They were chosen by the people on general
ticket in the other States, except in Maryland, North Carolina
and Kentucky, where they were chosen by districts. Ken-
tucky was divided into two districts, eastern and western, and
four electors were chosen on general ticket in each. The

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

number of candidates was very large ; but there was not a
Federalist among them. Disaster overtook the Federalists of
New Hampshire and Massachusetts,, It was proposed to re-
turn to the system of popular election, abandoned in 1800 for
the purpose of making Adams's election sure. The Repub-
licans urged that the electors be chosen by districts, but this
was refused„ The Federalists had the mortification of seeing
both States carried by the Jeffersonians A few election re-
turns have been culled from, the newspapers. They illus-
trate the onesidedness of the contest outside of New England,
Massachusetts gave 29,254 to Jefferson ; 25,139 to Pinckney,
Pennsylvania, 22,081 to Jefferson ; 1,239 to Pinckney. New
Jersey, 13,119 to Jefferson ; 19 to Pinckney. Ohio, 2,093 to
Jefferson ; 360 to Pinckney.

The electoral votes are shown in the following table : —

States.

Total. . .

President.

Vice-Peb

1
I

<-»

162

The proceedings in connection with the electoral count were

THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 85

noticeable for one incident only. The Vice-President said,
addressing the two Houses assembled in joint meeting : " You
will now proceed, gentlemen, to count the votes, as the Con-
stitution and laws direct." This was different from the prac-
ce of Mr. Adams, who himself counted the votes.

There were some irregularities in the certificates of the elec-
tors, and attention was called to them ; but no objection was
made to any votes, and the result was declared in accordance
with the above list.

VII

JAMES MADISON

The years of Jefferson's second administration were years of
increasing trouble. At the end of it the Republican party
escaped as by a miracle the fate which had overtaken the Fed-
eralists eight years before. During the whole term the Presi-
dent was nominally supported by an immense majority in
Congress. The Senate in the ninth Congress numbered twenty-
seven Republicans and seven Federalists ; the House of Repre-
sentatives, one hundred and nineteen Republicans and twenty-
five Federalists. The division was nearly the same in the
tenth Congress. Nevertheless, both in Congress and in the
community at large the opposition to administration measures
was large and powerful. In each of the three largest States of
the Union the Republican party was rent by feuds. In New
York, the Livingstons and Clintons having unitedly put down
the Burr faction fell into a quarrel that lasted many years,
and affected profoundly the politics of that State. In Penn-
sylvania the followers of Governor McKean, assisted by the
Federalists, defeated the " regular " nomination of Snyder,
who represented the more radical element, that styled itself
" Friends of the People." This dissension was brought to an
end by a shrewd piece of politics just in time to save the State
to the party in 1808. Virginia, under the lead of John Ran-
dolph, was for a short time an opponent of the administration,
and to the end of the canvass was divided between Madison
and Monroe. It is not untrue to say that the impossibility of
uniting the opposition rather thai\ the strength of Mr. Madison
saved that gentleman from defeat.}

The chief events of the administration were occurrences in
our foreign relations. Even before Mr. Jefferson had taken
the oath of office a second time Mr. Monroe, with Mr. Charles
Pinckney, began the negotiation with Spain for a recognition
of American claims for spoliation and for a cession of Florida.
Monroe was thwarted in his mission by France, and retired

JAMES MADISON 87

from Madrid in humiliation. At Paris he had no better for-
tune, and when he returned to his post at London he was con-
fronted with judicial decisions, confirming the seizure of Amer-
ican vessels, which almost destroyed the rights of trade enjoyed
by the shipping of neutral nations. Our ministers in France
and Spain received hints which were duly transmitted to the
President, that although both governments denied that West
Florida was properly included in the Louisiana purchase, a few
million dollars paid to Spain would effectuate a cession of the
territory to the United States. Jefferson sent to Congress in
December, 1805, a message which breathed a spirit of defiance
toward Spain ; but in a private conference with Randolph, the
chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he suggested
that Congress offer to put two million dollars at his disposal for
the purposes of the negotiation. Eandolph from that moment
turned against the administration. He saw in the President's
two attitudes — one public and the other private — a purpose
to gain credit with the people by a show of firmness and na-
tional self-assertion, meanwhile shifting upon Congress the
responsibility of what popularly might be deemed a more craven
policy, which he really desired to see adopted. Randolph also
recognized in Mr. Jefferson's course a movement in behalf of
Mr. Madison as the presidential candidate at the ensuing elec-
tion. In spite of Randolph's vehement opposition the " two
million act " — an appropriation of that sum for the foreign
relations — was carried through both branches of Congress, sit-
ting with closed doors. But although the nominal strength of
the Republican party was nearly five to one in the House and
nearly four to one in the Senate, the bill received a majority
of fourteen only in the lower, and of six in the upper House.

The relations with England grew steadily worse. The doc-
trine that a neutral flag should protect the goods and the crew
sailing under it, strenuously argued by American diplomatists,
was contemptuously rejected and constantly disregarded by
Great Britain. Vessels and their cargoes were seized and con-
demned ; the crews of American ships were mustered on their
decks by British naval officers, and all men who seemed worth
taking were impressed into the service of the king and carried
away. Congress thereupon passed a joint resolution forbidding
the importation into the country, from Great Britain or else-
where, of any of an enumerated list of articles of British manu-
facture. Shortly afterward Mr. Jefferson, hoping to come to

88 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

terms with England, appointed William Pinkney, of Maryland,
a joint commissioner with Mr. Monroe, to make a treaty with
Great Britain. A stipulation that the visitation of American
vessels by " press gangs " and the impressment of American
sailors should cease was a sine qua non insisted upon in the
instructions of the commissioners. This condition was rejected
without qualification by Lords Auckland and Howick, the
British commissioners, who nevertheless undertook that special
instructions should be given and enforced, enjoining great cau-
tion in the exercise of the right of visitation ; and promised
prompt redress in case the rights of native-born Americans
should be violated.1 The case before the American commis-
sioners was similar to that which had confronted Jay when he
was deputed by Washington to negotiate a treaty. If the
instructions were strictly complied with, no treaty could be
made. Monroe and Pinkney determined to accept what was
offered, and conclude the treaty. The situation of American
vessels at sea was steadily growing worse. Already a British
Order in Council had been issued, blockading the coast from
Brest to the Elbe, and prohibiting trade by neutrals from
port to port along that coast. While the Monroe and Pinkney
negotiation was in progress Bonaparte issued his Berlin de-
cree, declaring the British islands in a state of blockade.
Under this decree Americans, and all other neutrals, were for-
bidden to trade with the British islands ; and all vessels hav-
ing British merchandise on board were liable to seizure. Other
orders and other decrees followed, under which every American
vessel found at sea became the lawful prize of any English or
French naval vessel.

When the treaty negotiated by Monroe and Pinkney reached
Jefferson, he refused to submit it to the Senate. He had
decided to withhold it as soon as he learned from the letters
of the envoys what its purport was to be. This action of the
President greatly embittered the friends of Mr. Monroe, and
left a rankling wound in the breast of the envoy himself.

Next came the outrage upon the Chesapeake by the British
war vessel Leopard, an act of insolence almost unsurpassed in
the relations of two nations nominally at peace with each other ;

1 Great Britain never admitted, until many years after the War of 1812,
that a native-born Briton could divest himself of his obligation to his sover-
eign. The right of expatriation and of naturalization in a foreign country
was denied.

JAMES MADISON 89

some weak and niggardly attempts at measures of defence ; and
the Embargo. This last act, which was in its earliest form
limited in its operation, though not by its terms limited in
duration, was at first popular. As it was evaded, more strin-
gent provisions were added ; and an act to enforce it was
passed. It caused widespread distress and ruinous loss in all
the commercial States. The first embargo act was passed in
December, 1807 ; two supplementary acts were passed, one in
January, and one in March, 1808. The evils caused by it
began to be felt just as the presidential canvass was opening ;
they were intolerable before the election took place.

Jefferson announced, after his second inauguration, that he
should not again be a candidate. At no time thereafter did he
make a secret of his wish that Madison should be his successor.
There can be no doubt that many of his official acts were influ-
enced by his desire to accomplish this object ; as little can it
be questioned that a part of the opposition which he encoun-
tered in his own party was dictated by a wish of many Repub-
licans to thwart this purpose. A large number of the Northern
Democrats were becoming exceedingly weary of the Virginia
dynasty. In the ninth Congress they broke away from South-
ern control and nearly defeated Macon for Speaker. He was
elected on the third trial only, and then by a bare majority.
In the tenth Congress they succeeded in defeating him and
electing Varnum, of Massachusetts. George Clinton, who had
been voted for at every election, and was now Vice-President,
was evidently not averse to profiting by the growing dislike of
Southern dictation. Moreover, by all the precedents he was
the natural successor, as Adams had been to Washington, and
Jefferson to Adams. Yet he could not count even on the sup-
port of New York, in pressing his claims, so fierce was the
contention with the Livingstons.

There was still another candidate, Monroe, who, as has been
already stated, had a grievance against the administration, and
who was warmly supported by John Randolph and all other
Southern Democrats who would not follow Jefferson and Madi-
son implicitly. The situation did not promise harmony in the
canvass of the ruling party. The Federalists adopted a wait-
ing attitude. They had, until the Embargo began to be
severely felt, no hope whatever of carrying through a candidate
of their own ; but they did all that lay in their power to fos-
ter Democratic division, and evinced a purpose to use their

90 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

force in defeating Jefferson's candidate, if the dissentient
Republicans should organize an opposition. Later in the can-
vass, not only did they have hope for themselves, but they
alarmed the supporters of the administration. At the end of
June, 1808, Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury,
thought that " the Federalists will turn us out by 4th of
March next," and in August he reckoned no States safe for
Madison, save " the Western States, Virginia, South Carolina,
and perhaps Georgia."

The canvass opened in January. On the 21st of that month
the members of the Virginia legislature took the lead in nom-
inating candidates for President. Two caucuses were held on
that day. The first, attended by 119 members, unanimously
recommended Mr. Madison ; the other, attended by 60, gave
all but ten votes to Monroe. Two days before these caucuses
were held, Senator Bradley of Vermont issued a notice to the
Republican members of both Houses of Congress, requesting
them to meet in the Senate Chamber on the 23d of the month
at six o'clock. This call was issued " in pursuance of the
powers vested in me." The purpose of the caucus, the antici-
pated result, and the assumption of " powers " by the Vermont
senator, aroused instant opposition ; and then were heard the
first vehement protests against the nomination of Presidents by
congressional caucus, which were destined to grow in vigor and
in the number of their supporters until the system was over-
thrown. Mr. Gray, a member from Virginia, published an
answer to Mr. Bradley's summons, couched in the blustering
style of the political literature of that day : " I take the
earliest moment to declare my abhorrence of the usurpation of
power declared to be vested in you — of your mandatory style,
and the object contemplated. ... I cannot consent, either in
an individual or representative capacity, to countenance, by my
presence, the midnight intrigues of any set of men who may
arrogate to themselves the right, which belongs only to the
people, of selecting proper persons to fill the important offices
of President and Vice-President. Nor do I suppose that the
honest people of the United States can much longer suffer, in
silence, so direct and palpable an invasion upon the most
important and sacred right belonging exclusively to them."

A member from New York published a burlesque upon Mr.
Bradley's notification, in which, "in pursuance of a similar
power vested in me," he deemed it expedient for the purpose

JAMES MADISON 91

of not nominating a President, not to call a Convention at the
same time and place, and reqnested members not to attend it,
" to aid and sanction an infringement of one of the most im-
portant features and principles of the Constitution of the
United States." Nevertheless the caucus was held. It is said
to have been attended by 94 senators and representatives,
although only 89 votes were cast. Yet the attendance comprised
not only a large majority of the Republican strength in both
Houses of Congress, but more than one half of the whole
membership of both bodies. On a ballot Mr. Madison had *83
votes, Mr. George Clinton 3, and Mr. Monroe 3. The first
ballot for a candidate for Vice-President resulted in 79 votes
for Mr. Clinton, 5 for John Langdon of New Hampshire, 3
for Henry Dearborn of Massachusetts, the Secretary of War,
and 1 for John Quincy Adams. Messrs. Madison and Clinton
were then formally declared nominated. An announcement of
the action of the caucus was made in a resolution ; and a
statement was appended, which, in substantially the same form,
was employed by every subsequent caucus of the kind as long
as the system was in vogue. It declared " that, in making the
foregoing recommendation, the members of this meeting have
acted only in their individual characters as citizens; that they
have been induced to adopt this measure from the necessity of
the case ; from a deep conviction of the importance of union
to the Republicans throughout all parts of the United States
in the present crisis of both our external and internal affairs ;
and as being the most practicable mode of consulting and re-
specting the interests and wishes of all upon a subject so truly
interesting to the whole people of the United States."

Harmony was not restored by the nomination. Seventeen
"Republican members of Congress published a protest against
the selection of Mr. Madison. They denied both the regularity
and the expediency of the caucus. They asserted that the
times demanded a man able " to conduct the nation with firm-
ness and wisdom through the perils which surround it. . . .
Is James Madison such a man ? We ask for energy, and we
are told of his moderation ; we ask for talent, and the reply is,
his unassuming merit ; we ask what were his services in the
cause of public liberty, and we are directed to the pages of the
* Federalist,' written in conjunction with Alexander Hamilton
and John Jay, and in which the most extravagant of their
doctrines are maintained and propagated ! " The extent to

92 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

which the revolt extended at this time is indicated by the
fact that Clinton himself came out in a letter in which he dis-
avowed consent to the proceedings of the congressional caucus.
The candidate for the second place repudiated the proceedings
by which he had been put in nomination.

Of calm consideration of the merits of the candidates, and
of argument why one party rather than the other should he
intrusted with power, there was none. The canvass was a
game of politics from beginning to end. In Pennsylvania, for
example, the " Constitutionalists," — that wing of the Demo-
cratic party which, allied with the Federalists, had put and
kept Governor McKean in office, when they found that there
was no other member of their faction who could command
Federalist votes for governor, — suddenly changed their
attitude and anticipated the other faction by coming out zeal-
ously for Madison. The " Conventionalists," as the anti-
McKean faction was called, followed their example, but
nominated a different set of electors. Then a harmonizing
committee made up a list which favored McKean, while the Mc-
Kean men gave their votes for Governor to Snyder, whom they
had been fighting for years. In our day this would be called
a " deal." It ensured to Madison the vote of Pennsylvania.

The friends of Mr. Monroe, in Virginia, were for a time
encouraged by the refusal of their candidate to withdraw.
"When the nomination of Mr. Madison had been effected, Jef-
ferson maintained at least the outward appearance of neutrality
as between him and Monroe. Later in the canvass he exerted
his influence to persuade Mr. Monroe to withdraw ; and when
the election took place, Madison had an overwhelming majority
in Virginia. So far as the candidacy of Mr. Clinton was con-
cerned, the only hope was in securing Federalist support. The
Livingstons were ardent Madisonians. Mr. Clinton's political
fortunes at this time were in the keeping of his nephew,
BeWitt Clinton, who did not — perhaps he would not, perhaps
he could not — come to terms with the Federalists. It is to
be hoped that it was the political virtue of the Federalists that
prevented the arrangement. Yet a party that had espoused
the cause of Aaron Burr could have had few qualms of con-
science in promoting the candidacy of the man with whom
their political opponents had once threatened to defeat George
Washington.

The ultimate course of the Federalists was not decided until

JAMES MADISON 93

October. It seems first to have been announced at the begin-
ning of that month, less than five weeks before the appoint-
ment of electors, in the columns of the Charleston, South Car-
olina, " Courier " : " We are authorized to say that certain
accounts have been received in this city stating that Gen.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of this State will be supported
by the Federal Republicans throughout the several States at
the ensuing election, as President of the United States."

Even while the efforts to patch up u peace in the Demo-
cratic party were proceeding with a fair degree of success there
was much nervousness and anxiety among the leaders as to
the result. State elections in New Hampshire and Rhode
Island disappointed them greatly and caused them to fear the
loss of all New England with forty-five electoral votes. Dela-
ware was surely Federalist. It was feared that Maryland and
North Carolina might give a majority of their votes against
the administration. Then the loss of Pennsylvania and the
giving of a few New York votes to Clinton would defeat Mad-
ison. But the Pennsylvania state election in October relieved
them of their fears ; and Vermont, although it chose a Feder-
alist governor, had a Democratic legislature, owing to the sys-
tem then prevalent of an equal representation of towns, large
and small.

The number of States in 1808 was the same, seventeen, as
in 1804. Electors were chosen by the legislature in Vermont,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, South Caro-
lina, and Georgia ; by the people on general ticket in New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio ;
by popular vote by districts in Maryland, North Carolina, Ken-
tucky, and Tennessee. Kentucky, as before, was divided into
two districts. In Massachusetts, as has been stated, there was
no permanent law for the appointment of electors. Governor
Sullivan was a Republican : the General Court, strongly Fed-
eralist. At its first session, in June, 1808, long before the
usual time, it elected Mr. James Lloyd as senator to succeed
John Quincy Adams. Mr. Adams had gone publicly over to
the Republicans, and had even attended the congressional
caucus, and voted for Madison. The legislature ignored the
governor altogether in making arrangements itself to appoint
the electors j and adjourned to meet in November for that pur-
pose. When it re-assembled, Governor Sullivan sent in a
message, advising that the appointment of electors be submitted

94 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

to the people. The General Court not only disregarded the
advice, but framed its order for the choice of the electors so as
to dispense with the certification of the Governor. Nineteen
Federalist electors were duly appointed. Governor Sullivan
did not certify the appointment, but he sent to Congress a
statement as to the method of appointment which was designed
to serve as the basis of an objection to the votes in case of
necessity. The alleged informality, which was no informality
at all, as a reading of the Constitution will show, was brought
to the attention of Congress by memorial, in December. A
resolution was introduced for raising a joint committee "to
examine the matter of said memorials and report their opinion
thereon to both Houses,'' but it was not acted on. A few
days later another resolution was introduced, directing the
memorials to be sent to the Senate. After some debate, in
which only one member expressed the opinion that Congress
could take action in the premises, the resolution was passed
and sent to the Senate with the memorials, where it was
ordered that all the papers be laid on the table ; and no action
whatever was taken upon them.

In New York the Democrats had a majority of the legisla-
ture ; but in the divided state of the party a compromise be-
tween the two factions was needful to save the vote of the
State. There is no evidence that the Clintonians demanded a
part of the electors as the price of abstaining from an alliance
with the Federalists. The fact that a division was made indi-
cates, nevertheless, that it was extorted. The "mixture list,"
to use the phrase employed by the Federalists, received sixty-
five votes, the Pinckney ticket forty-six. There was a smaller
admixture of Clinton men in the list of electors chosen than
the Federalists supposed.

The case of New Jersey was peculiar. The law required
electors to be appointed within thirty-four days before the first
Monday in December. The legislature passed a law inadvert-
ently fixing the election — by the people — thirty-six anc*
thirty-five days \ before the time for the electors to meet ^— oi-
the 1st and 2d of November. Attention was called to th«»
illegality of such action in ample season to remedy the over-
sight; out the legislature, — this was a year when political
manoeuvring was almost universal, — chose to leave things-

1 All elections in New Jersey, and in some other States, at that time, lasted
two days.

JAMES MADISON

as they were. If the Federalists were successful, the election
would be null, and the vote of the State would be lost. If the
Democrats should carry the State, the legislature could meet
and appoint the same persons. The Democrats did have a
majority ; but the electoral vote depended for its validity on
the choice of the electors by the legislature.

The count of electoral votes took place in the Hall of the
Representatives, but by some oversight there was no provision
in the joint resolution directing how the count should proceed,
that the President of the Senate should take the chair. John
Randolph, who could always be depended upon to create diffi-
culties when there was opportunity, called attention to the fact,
and objected to the chair being vacated by the Speaker with-
out a vote of the House. " He did not wish the privileges of
this House any way diminished." The case was provided for

States.

New Hampshire
Vermont . . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut . .
New York . .
New Jersey ■ .
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia . . .
Kentucky* . .
Tennessee . .
Ohio ....

Total . . .

Pbesidknt.

Vice-Pbesident.

►5

4
>

c
o

(

o
9

8
1

•-s

i-»

' -

—

122

113

* One Kentucky elector did not attend. The State was entitled to eight votes.

96 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by a formal vote, and the Senate was admitted. When the
votes had all been opened and the returns tabulated, the Pres-
ident of the Senate was about to read the result, when one of
the tellers remarked that one return was defective, not having
a governor's certificate attached, referring, of course, to Massa-
chusetts. Nothing further was said, and the President of the
Senate, Mr. Milledge, senator from Georgia, proceeded to de-
clare the result, as shown by the table on page 95.

Mr. Madison's inauguration was almost as informal as Mr.
Jefferson's had been eight years before. He was conveyed in
a carriage to the Capitol, escorted by two companies of militia,
and went to the Representatives' Hall attended by two or
three members of the cabinet. The Vice-President had already
taken the oath of office, but Mr. Milledge still presided over
the Senate. Mr. Madison delivered his inaugural address in
the presence of a distinguished company, having Mr. Jefferson
as his chief auditor ; and the oath was then administered by
Chief Justice Marshall.

VIII
AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR

It has been remarked by more than one historian that the
government of the United States was never weaker in all its
departments than during the first part of Madison's adminis-
tration. The times required that it should be strong. The
policy in the closing months of Jefferson's term had been
feeble and vacillating. The embargo not only had failed to
accomplish' the object for which it was laid, but it had made a
large contingent of the Democratic party semi-allies of the
Federalists in opposing the administration measures. The last
session of the tenth Congress — December, 1808, to March 4,
1809 — < witnessed the passage of an act to enforce the em-
bargo, and, just before the Congress expired, a complete change
of policy in the substitution of non-intercourse for the em-
bargo. A few only of the members knew the secret reason of
this volte-face. It was designed to facilitate the negotiations
about to begin with Mr. Erskine, the newly appointed British
envoy. Mr. Madison made Robert Smith, of Maryland, his
Secretary of State, — the weakest incumbent of that office in
the history of the country. The agreement made with Mr.
Erskine was one which the instructions the envoy had received
did not authorize him to make ; and it was impatiently thrown
out by Mr. Canning. From that time on, until war was de-
clared in 1812, there was a diplomatic wrangle between the
two governments. The relations of the United States with
both England and France were hopelessly and equally bad.
It would have puzzled much abler men than those who had
the fortunes of America in charge to decide what was the
wisest course, — to declare war against both the powers, to con-
tinue negotiations with a purpose to accept the best that could
be obtained, or to submit to conditions against which we were
too weak to struggle.

Madison chose none of these courses. He was sincerely de-

93 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

sirous of peace, but he would not be satisfied to take what
England would offer. Demanding more, he got nothing.
Congress contained few strong men, almost none who supported
the administration. Yet the party majority was large enough
to give a subservient acquiescence in the measures proposed to
Congress, even though it lacked leaders. The interminable
controversy went On. Mr. Madison became weary of the war
in his cabinet between Mr. Smith and Mr. Gallatin, and re-
quired the resignation of the Secretary of State. He had
previously become reconciled with Mr. Monroe, and now ap-
pointed that gentleman to the State Department. Monroe en-
tered office with the laudable purpose of bringing the long
quarrel with England to a close, and with great confidence in
his own power to hold the administration back from the war
into which it was drifting. But a force greater than his own
entered into public affairs just three weeks before his return to
office, and soon swept him away. His appointment was dated
November 25, 1811. On the 4th of the same month the
twelfth Congress met. It contained in the House of Repre-
sentatives a group of young Republicans, or Democrats, who
assumed control of affairs in a masterful fashion : John C.
Calhoun, William Lowndes, and Langdon Cheves, of South Car-
olina, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Cheves, the oldest of the
four, was but thirty-five. Clay, who was thirty-four, was
elected Speaker by a great majority. Felix Grundy, of Ten-
nessee, a new member and also a young man, acted with this
quartet of young men. William H. Crawford, a Senator from
Georgia, — afterward the victim of "King Caucus," — who
had been acting on somewhat independent lines, now became
a stanch party man. All the efforts of this coterie of youthful
leaders, of whom those just named were the most conspicuous,
tended directly to war with England. They overbore the op-
position of Mr. Madison, and carried Monroe along with the
current. It was reported at the time on the authority of Mr.
James Fisk, then a Republican member of the House from
Vermont, that a committee waited upon Mr. Madison, and in-
formed him that war was resolved upon ; that, unless siich a
step was taken, the Federalists might possibly carry the presi-
dential election ; and that if he was not ready to adopt that
policy he would be abandoned, and another candidate chosen
for the pending election. It is not possible either to verify
or to disprove this assertion. Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts,

AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 99

repeated the statement, in a form as distinct as the rules of the
House would allow, during the following year ; and its truth
was not questioned. On the other hand, Mr. Clay is reported
to have denied the story ; but the form of his denial is not
given. Carl Schurz, in his Life of Clay, says that there is " no
evidence " that coercion was applied to Madison ; which is
true, but not conclusive. It is certain that the President
abandoned his settled policy at a time when nothing had been
changed except the attitude of the Democratic leaders in Con-
gress ; that he recommended an embargo, which was voted ;
and that he followed the recommendation with a war message,
to which Congress responded promptly, though not by so large
a majority as he could have wished, with a declaration of war,
in June, 1812.

The Republican caucus for the nomination of candidates for
President and Vice-President was held on the 12th of May.
No opposition to the caucus manifested itself. The members
who did not intend to be bound by the action which they could
foresee, absented themselves. There were at least one hun-
dred and thirty-three Republican senators and members, only
eighty-three of whom attended the caucus. New York was
represented by a single member, for New York had a plan of
its own. New England and New York combined did not
furnish as many members of the caucus as did Virginia alone.
Thus composed, the caucus was harmonious and unanimous.
Mr. Madison received eighty-two votes for President. Vice-
President George Clinton had died in office less than a month
before. In any event he would not have been nominated
again. On a ballot for Vice-President the venerable John
Langdon, of New Hampshire, the first President pro tempore
of the Senate, received 64 votes ; Elbridge Gerry, of Massa-
chusetts, 16 votes ; and two were scattering. The caucus
adopted a resolution recommending its candidates, and repeated
the declaration made four years before that the members acted
as private citizens. Mr. Langdon declined the nomination on
the ground of his age. A second caucus was held on the 8th
of June, when Mr. Gerry was nominated by 74 votes to 3
scattering. After the nomination was made, those who were
present who had not attended the first caucus were allowed an
opportunity to vote for a candidate for President. Ten mem-
bers voted for Mr. Madison. He thus had the support of
ninety-two members, at least, out of one hundred and thirty-

100 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

three. It is an interesting fact, showing the ascendency of the
Southern States in the Democratic party, that the original nom-
ination of Mr. Langdon was attributed, by the " New Hamp-
shire Patriot," which may have derived the information from
Mr. Langdon himself, to the wish and influence of the South-
ern members. The Northern men preferred Mr. Gerry from the
first ; but the South, helped by subservient Pennsylvania, not
only dictated the nomination for the first place, but overruled
the New England Democrats in their choice of a candidate for
the second place.

The history of the canvass in opposition to Mr. Madison
forms one of the most unpleasant chapters in American politi-
cal history. The Democratic party in New York, for purely
personal and local reasons, resolved not to train with the rest
of the party. There was no question of principle involved.
DeWitt Clinton had become, in the strictly modern sense, the
" boss " of his party in New York ; and he willed to become its
candidate for President. He was avowedly in favor of war when
Madison was still for peace, and was quite willing to be nom-
inated by the congressional eaucus on a war platform. When
Madison joined the war party Clinton shifted his ground, and
based his candidacy on the impropriety of congressional cau-
cuses and of Southern dictation. A caucus of Democratic
members of the New York legislature was held at Albany on
the 29th of May. Of ninety-five members of the party eighty-
seven were present, and the absence of four others was ac-
counted for satisfactorily. Mr. Clinton was nominated unani-
mously. A committee waited upon him after the caucus and
informed him of the action taken. His reply was diplomatic
in the extreme. He " sensibly felt and duly appreciated so
distinguished a proof of their confidence." The canvass in
behalf of Clinton was taken in charge by Martin Van Buren,
then a young man of thirty, who thus made his entrance into
national politics as the manager of a conspiracy to defeat the
candidate of the party which afterward elevated him to the
highest place in the nation.

It is not easy to reconcile Clinton's action with the most
ordinary political prudence. His public life, even his course
during that canvass, forbids us to attribute his conduct to any
higher motive than personal ambition. Yet he refused over-
tures which were undoubtedly made to him to withdraw, with
a promise of the succession on the retirement of Madison.

AN ELECTION IN TIME OF- WAR 101

From being an advocate of war before war was declared, he
proceeded to the point of becoming a critic of the administra-
tion because it did not prosecute the war with sufficient vigor,
and sought the votes of dissatisfied Democrats on that ground.
Then, since he would be in a hopeless minority without Fed-
eralist support, he stood willingly as the candidate of all who
were in favor of peace. Gouverneur Morris records in his
diary a conversation with De Witt Clinton just after the death
of his uncle, the Vice-President, in the spring of 1812, in
which an alliance between the Clintonians and the Federalists
was discussed vaguely. It seems not improbable that Morris
— who had come very near to the point of hating the Union
and of desiring a separation from the South — had much to
do in smoothing the way for a disgraceful coalition. The
echo of Clinton's words denouncing the whole Federalist party
as " fiends " had hardly died away when he was courting their
support. On their part they made up their minds to give
their votes to one who had no principles, — or, if that be too
harsh a judgment, no principles not opposed to their own.

The coalition was brought about by a convention held at
New York city in September, — a highly interesting meeting,
as being the first convention of the same sort as those which
now present presidential candidates. The meeting was strictly
private, and no report of its proceedings was published in any
newspaper. The fullest account of it is given in William
Sullivan's "Public Men of the Eevolution." In the summer
of 1812 Mr. Sullivan and Jonathan Knight, both of Massa-
chusetts, and Governor Roger Griswold and another gentle-
man of Connecticut, being at Saratoga Springs, talked over
the state of the nation, and a convention of Federalists was
proposed. The result was the assembling at New York in
September of seventy persons representing eleven States of
the Union, as follows : from New Hampshire, 2 ; from Mas-
sachusetts, 8 ; Rhode Island, 3 ; Connecticut, 6 ; New York,
18 ; New Jersey, 12 ; Pennsylvania, 12 ; Delaware, 2 ; Mary-
land, 3 ; South Carolina, 4. The convention held a session
of three days. There was evidently great hesitation and op-
position to the plan which was in the minds of the projectors
of the meeting, since nothing whatever was done during the
first two days. Rufus King, who had twice been the party
candidate for Vice-President, denounced Clinton with such
vehejnence. find passion that — so Mr. Sullivan reports — his

102' A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

knees trembled under him. King was supported by other
members of the convention. As the meeting was on the point
of breaking up, having come to no decision, Harrison Gray Otis
arose, with his hat in his hand, as if about to depart, and be-
gan speaking in favor of Clinton. As he proceeded he became
more earnest, and soon had the convention enchained by his
eloquence. When he finished, the members decided by an
almost unanimous vote to support Clinton. A Pennsylvania
Federalist of somewhat mild type, Jared Ingersoll, was named
as the candidate for Vice-President. The administration organ,
the "National Intelligencer," got an inkling of what had
been done, and published in connection with the affair a state-
ment that Mr. Clinton had declared to a committee of the
convention that " all political connection between him and
the Democratic party in the United States had ceased and
would not be renewed." Mr. Otis denied this statement as
wholly false, and asserted that no communication had been
had with Mr. Clinton, and that no statement had been made
by him. We have had, in the most recent times, another
example of the withholding from candidates of a notice of
their nomination, expressly to relieve those candidates from
the necessity of accepting the nominations in terms which
might throw the party into confusion. All the facts that can
be gathered from contemporaneous writers concerning the Fed-
eralist convention of 1812 are contained in an article by J. S.
Murdock in the " American Historical Review " for 1896.

The opposition within the Federalist party to the candi-
dacy of Clinton was not quenched by Otis's eloquence. Rufus
King, in his correspondence, showed that his opinion was un-
changed. When the electors were chosen by the New York
legislature, forty-five votes were given for a " straight " Fed-
eralist ticket. Twenty-three blank votes were cast, most or
all of them by Madisonians. The Clinton electoral ticket
had seventy-four votes. A convention was held at Staunton,
Virginia, on September 26, in which eighteen counties were
represented. A Federalist electoral ticket was nominated ; no
formal nomination of presidential candidates was made, but
the names of Rufus King, of New York, and General William
R. Davie, of North Carolina, were " commended to the electors
when appointed." Nevertheless, substantially the whole Fed-
eralist strength was bestowed upon Clinton. It may be re-
marked here that the coalition put an end forever to Clinton's

AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 103

prospects in national politics. The canvass was a mere inci-
dent of the war, and of the efforts of its opponents to bring
about peace. No doubt men were then too strongly com-
mitted on one side or the other to be converted or perverted
by argument or persuasion of any sort. Nevertheless it is
singular that the editors of political journals issued their
papers week after week, in the autumn of 1812, devoid of all
reference to the pendency of an important election.

Eighteen States took part in the election, Louisiana having
been admitted to the Union on the 8th of April, 1812. The
mode of appointment of the electors was in general the same
as in 1808, but there were some interesting exceptions. In
New Jersey the law of 1807 giving the election to the people,
but fixing the date more than the designated thirty-four days
before the meeting of the electors, (see p. 94) remained in force.
At the State election in 1812 the Democrats had a popular
majority, but the peculiarities of the apportionment gave the
Federalists control of both branches of the legislature. The
annual meeting of the legislature was held in October ; and
on the 29th of that month, less than a week before the people
were expecting to choose the electors, the legislature repealed
the law of 1807, passed an act providing that electors should
thereafter be chosen by the Council and General Assembly,
and a few days afterward appointed eight federal electors.

North Carolina had always adhered to the system of a
popular vote by districts. But it was anticipated in 1811
that there would be an increase of electoral votes in conse-
quence of a new apportionment, which would be made so late
that the State could not be districted. Accordingly it was
then enacted that the electors in 1812 should be chosen by
the legislature. Such was the excuse given for the act, but
it caused great excitement at the time ; and when the legis-
lature met in 1812 to appoint the electors there was much
fear of a popular outbreak.

Massachusetts offered by far the most interesting case.
Elbridge Gerry, the candidate for Vice-President with Madi-
son, had been Governor of the State two years, and had been
defeated for reelection the month before the congressional
caucus was held. His administration had been made note-
worthy, and his name historical, by the division of the Com-
monwealth into Senate districts, one of which was of so pecu-
liar a construction that a certain member of the legislature

104

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

likened its shape to that of a salamander. Another member
exclaimed that it was a " gerrymander," and thus a new word
was added to the language. The apportionment gave the
Senate to the Democrats, although the House of Represent-
atives was strongly Fedesal. Accordingly, when the question
of establishing a method of appointing electors came up, the
two Houses were unable to agree. The House made several
propositions, all of which were rejected by the Senate, and the
General Court adjourned to meet in October to settle the
question. At the adjourned meeting the Senate was still in
opposition. It was willing to let the vote of the State be lost
by making no provision for an election, or to adopt any plan
that promised to neutralize the vote by setting one part off
against another. At last a proposition was made and accepted
to make use of the districts into which the State was divided

President.

Vice-Pbesident.

States.

New Hampshire

Vermont

Massachusetts

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Delaware

Maryland

—

15
11

Georgia

Kentucky

Tennessee

Louisiana

• -

Ohio

Total

128

131

AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 106

for the purposes of the Courts of Common Pleas. Massachil*
setts proper was divided into three districts, — the western,
middle, and southern, which chose six, five, and four electors
respectively. The District of Maine had also three districts,
which chose three, three, and one, respectively. The Demo-
crats hoped to get half the electors under this system, but
they were grievously disappointed. Every district chose Fed-
eral electors. The total popular vote was 50,333 for Clinton
electors, and 26,110 for Madison.

The electoral vote throughout the Union was much closer
than was anticipated. The " solid South" was arrayed in
favor of Madison ; most of the North voted for Clinton. Ver-
mont and Pennsylvania alone separated from their neighbors,
and the vote of Pennsylvania decided the election. The elec-
toral votes were as shown in the table on the opposite page.

The count of electoral votes, which took place on the 10th
of February, 1813, in the Representatives' Hall, was marked
by no incident worthy of notice. It was a proceeding in all
respects similar to previous counts.

THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY"

The fate of the Federalist party is one of the most singular
casualties in the history of politics. The party was destroyed
by the success of its own principles in the. hands of its oppo-
nents. The anti-Federalists began their existence by opposing
the Constitution as destructive of the rights of the individual,
and particularly of the smaller States ; when in power, they
drove the Federalists near to the point of advocating a disso-
lution of the Union by perpetuating the domination of Vir-
ginia over the " confederacy." During the administrations
of Washington and Adams the Federalists were champions of
national supremacy, as opposed to the " State Rights " doctrines
expressed in the resolutions of 1798 and 1799 ; Jefferson's
policy in acquiring Louisiana, and the attitude of the Demo-
crats toward New England particularism during the war of
1812, went far beyond the Federalism of Hamilton. Finally,
the demand for peace on any terms, and a cessation of the
war, denounced by the Democrats as " moral treason," and
held up for the execration of all patriots, was precisely the
policy which Mr. Madison finally adopted ; and the Treaty of
Ghent did not even mention either of the objects for which
war had been declared. Yet the party that had, as it were,
led the way, was trampled in the dust by those who followed
after. No doubt the gradual and unconscious adoption by the
Democrats of the national principle which had been the origi-
nal bond of union of the Federal party made it easy for Feder-
alists to go over to the other side. But the disintegration
of the organization did not take place until the conclusion of
peace brought to an end the only issue that divided parties by
a broad line.

The Hartford convention was, beyond a doubt, the event of
Madison's second administration which had the most important
influence upon the ensuing presidential election. Whether it
should have been a death-blow to the Federal party is a ques-

THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 107

tion that requires a much fuller and more dispassionate discus,
sion than it has ever had at the hands of a historian of high
standing. Writers have been prone to take the superficial view
that, since there were New England Federalists of the greatest
prominence in the party who expected and desired a dissolu-
tion of the Union, — which is undoubtedly true, — and since,
those men were among the projectors and promoters of the
Hartford convention ; and since certain phrases in the report
of the convention refer to a dissolution as among the possibili-
ties of the future, — therefore the convention was a treason-
able assembly, whose members favored the formation of a
confederation of Northern States. The other view deserves
careful consideration, namely, that conservatives obtained con-
trol of a movement which radicals designed to be directed to
the destruction of the Union. George Cabot, the head of the
Massachusetts delegation and the president of the convention,
expressed his own opinion of the duty set before him when
he replied to a young friend who asked him what was to be
done at Hartford, " We are going to keep you young hotheads
from getting into mischief." Pickering, who was a disunion-
ist, was displeased with the choice of delegates ; and John
Lowell, who shared Pickering's dislike of the turn the move-
ment took, opposed the convention because he did not believe
it would recommend the " effectual measures " which he de-
sired. A study of the proceedings and of the report of the
convention, with a prejudice born of these facts, leads one to
quite a different conclusion from that of the historians who
express themselves on the subject in terms of unqualified
abhorrence of the convention and of all who took part in it.

Whatever be the view one holds of this unique assemblage,
one thing is certain. It was the most unpopular convention
ever held in the country, both during its session and ever since.
The commissioners of Massachusetts and Connecticut, appointed
to urge at the national capital the measures it recommended,
arrived at Washington just as intelligence was received of the
battle of New Orleans. Less than a fortnight afterward came
the joyful news that a peace treaty had been signed. Nothing
remained for Mr. Otis and his associates to do ; and they re-
turned home quietly, but pursued by shouts of derision from
the Democratic press. The possibility of a return of the Fed-
eralists to power ceased from that moment.

The new questions which arose, as soon as Congress was able

108 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

to turn from the perilous and perplexing foreign problems
which had engaged its attention for many years, led ultimately
to a new party division. At the outset they merely broke
down the old lines. The incorporation of the second Bank of
the United States was carried by a great majority in a Con-
gress nearly two to one Democratic, and the act was approved
by Madison. The position taken by the anti-Federalists in
Washington's time, that such an act was unconstitutional, was
completely abandoned. The war, with its necessary accompa-
niment of non-intercourse, cutting off the supply of foreign
manufactured goods, had greatly stimulated domestic manufac-
tures. The resumption of commerce after the Treaty of Ghent
left the new industries exposed to violent foreign competition.
The urgent calls for protection by means of higher tariff duties
were responded to by the party in power, which thus adopted
another of Hamilton's principles. The protection sentiment
of that day had no more ardent supporter than John C. Cal-
houn. The question of internal improvements also began, at
this time, to acquire prominence ; but it was not until long
afterward that it became a party issue, and ranged the Demo-
cratic party, following its original doctrine of " strict construc-
tion," in opposition to the policy.

The only extensive stronghold of the Federal party, New
England, was endangered from within. A revolt against the
ecclesiastical supremacy of the Congregational Church gave
New Hampshire to the Democratic party ; it left the Federal-
ists but a meagre majority in Massachusetts ; even in ever-
faithful Connecticut it unsettled the hold of the Federalists.
Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinets of
Washington and Adams, became the candidate of the " tole-
ration n party for Governor, nominated by the influence of the
Episcopalians against his old Federal associates.

The presidential election drew near amid the general break-
ing-up of the Federal party. It had been understood between
Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe that the Secretary of State was
to be brought forward for the succession with all the power of
the administration. Yet it was not so easy as it might seem
from a consideration merely of Mr. Monroe's apparent strength
in the electoral colleges, second only to that of Washington,
to bring about his nomination. He had two dangerous com-
petitors. The Northern wing of the party, particularly the
New York contingent, was earnestly in favor of Governor

THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY*' 109

Tompkins, of New York. Mr. Monroe was not a favorite
even with the Southern members ; and there was a great
intrigue to bring forward William H. Crawford, of Georgia.
The first step toward a nomination was the posting of an
anonymous notice, dated March 10, 1816, inviting Republican
senators and members of Congress to meet in the Representa-
tives' Hall, on the 12th, " to take into consideration the pro-
priety of nominating persons as candidates for President and
Vice-President of the United States." Fifty-eight members
attended this meeting, at which it was resolved to call a caucus
for the 16th of the month, in the hope of a larger attendance.
Of 141 Republican members, 119 attended the second caucus.
The number was doubtless increased by the anxiety felt by the
friends of the several candidates lest one or another should be
nominated by a chance minority. The supporters of Mr. Mon-
roe were out in force. The " National Intelligencer " manifested
some trepidation lest the administration candidate should be
defeated. " If ever doubted," it remarked, " the public opin-
ion has been recently so decidedly expressed as to leave little
doubt that the prominent candidate will, in the end, unite the
suffrage of the whole Republican party." The " public opin-
ion " in favor of the existing regime was as easily manufactured
then as it is now, through the agency of the office-holders.
The candidacy of Governor Tompkins was seen, even before
the caucus was held, to be hopeless. He was known by but
few of the persons who were to make the nomination. It is
asserted in Hammond's " New York " that four fifths of the
New York members preferred Crawford to Monroe. One of
these members said that Martin Van Buren and Peter B.
Porter, for reasons of their own, — but what their motives
were is not known, — prevented the delegation from going to
Crawford ; and thus they secured the nomination of Monroe.

Notwithstanding the inducements to attend the caucus,
twenty-two Republicans were absent, of whom fifteen were
known to be opposed to the caucus system of nomination.
Immediately after an organization of the meeting was effected,
Mr. Clay, and also Mr. John W. Taylor, of New York, moved
resolutions that it is inexpedient to present candidates. The
motions were rejected, — it is not recorded by what majority.
The vote for a candidate for President was then taken. It
resulted in the nomination of Mr. Monroe by the narrow ma-
jority of eleven votes. Monroe had sixty-five votes, Crawford

110 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

fifty-four. Mr. Crawford's support came chiefly from five States,
which gave him forty of his votes : New York, New Jersey,
North Carolina, Kentucky, and his own State of Georgia.
Had all the New York members voted freely, the nomination
might have gone to him. Crawford himself professed after-
ward to have withdrawn from the contest before the caucus ;
but his friends seem not to have been aware of the fact when
they voted. No intimation is given in any of the political lit-
erature of the day that it was proposed to him to keep out of
the way of Monroe on a promise of future support. In view
of the attempted employment of similar tactics on former occa-
sions, in order to dispose of the pretensions of Monroe himself
and of De Witt Clinton, and in view also of the events of 1824,
it does not seem altogether improbable that his hesitation at
the last moment was due to suggestions of this sort. Gover-
nor Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, received eighty-five
votes as candidate for Vice-President and was nominated.
Governor Simon Snyder, of Pennsylvania, had thirty votes.

These proceedings startled the country, not so much because
of what had been done, for that the people were ready to
approve, but because the members who had assumed the right
to make nominations had come near making recommendations
which would not have been accepted. Numerous meetings
were held in various parts of the country to protest against the
caucus system, the most noteworthy of which, perhaps, was
held in Baltimore, in which meeting Roger B. Taney, after-
ward Chief Justice, took a most prominent part. That, pre-
cisely, was happening, against which the Convention of 1787
had endeavored most scrupulously to guard, — the dependence
of presidential candidates, and of Presidents desiring reelec-
tion, upon the favor of Congress. Moreover, the latest nomi-
nations signified the perpetuation of a dynasty ; the rule of a
single State of the Union ; the exclusion of every State except
Virginia — which had now ceased being the State most numer-
ously represented in Congress, although three fifths of her
slaves were counted — from the privilege of furnishing a chief
magistrate.

The nomination having been made, the election was decided.
The elements of an effective opposition did not exist. Monroe
would doubtless have won a victory had all who preferred an-
other candidate formed a complete coalition. There was not a
symptom of a wish to bring about such a union. The position

THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 111

of the " old guard " of Federalists was indicated in a letter
from Gouverneur Morris to Rufus King, March 15, 1816.
This was Morris's latest utterance upon public affairs. His
death in November of the same year, just as the election was
to take place, closed a career which had begun at the Provin-
cial Congress in 1775. Mr. Morris wrote : —

That Mr. Madison's influence should decline is to be expected :
who is to be the successor ? It seems to be acknowledged that no
Federal character can run with success. Nevertheless I believe
that if Howard of Maryland were started against Monroe he would
stand a tolerable chance. The Democrats can, I believe, be heart-
ily united by nothing but the fear that a Federalist of superior
talents should be chosen. I have, at the same time, doubts
whether our friends in the Southern States would warmly support
a candidate from the North.

Nothing whatever was done to nominate candidates in oppo-
sition to Monroe and Tompkins. On December 3, the day
before the electors were to vote, the " Boston Daily Adver-
tiser," published in one of the three States which' had chosen
Federal electors, remarked : ."We do not know, nor is it very
material, for whom the Federal electors will vote." They all
did vote for Rufus King, who had twice been their candidate
for Vice-President. For the second place the Massachusetts
electors supported Mr. Howard, of Maryland, suggested as a
candidate for President by Morris. Five Connecticut electors
voted for James Ross, of Pennsylvania, whom Morris men-
tioned in the letter above quoted as an available candidate for
the place.

In no State was there a real contest. The election of Mon-
roe was entirely unopposed in the States from Virginia south-
ward, and in Ohio. The legislatures of Massachusetts, Connect-
icut, and Delaware chose Federal electors; those of Vermont
and New York, Democratic electors. In Rhode Island, which
the Federalists had just carried after a contest, no electors
were nominated in opposition to the Monroe ticket, which was
consequently chosen unanimously, not because the Federalists
doubted their ability to win, but because it was not worth
while, since the election of Monroe was assured. There was
an opposition ticket in Pennsylvania. The adage that politics
makes strange bedfellows was never more remarkably illus-
trated than by the fact that the ticket — which the Federalists
supported — was "under the patronage of Duane," as the

112

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

" Boston Advertiser " put it. Who was Duane ? The famous
editor of the " Philadelphia Aurora," the thick-and-thin advo-
cate of Jefferson, the persistent slanderer of Adams and of all
men and things " Federal," the Democrat to whose thinking
Madison and Monroe were too mild and timid ! The last ap-
pearance of the Federalist party in national politics was in
alliance with its most virulent foe.

The number of States whose votes were counted at this elec-
4 tion was nineteen. Indiana, which had adopted a constitution
in June, 1816, was admitted to the Union December 11 of
that year. The question whether or not its electoral votes
should be counted gave interest to the joint meeting of the
two Houses of Congress in February, 1817. The table of
electoral votes was as follows : —

States.

New Hampshire
Vermont . . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut . .
New York . .
New Jersey . .
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia . . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee . .
Louisiana . .
Ohio ....
Indiana . . .

Total

President.

183

Vice-President.

183

THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 112

The total number of electoral votes, it will be seen, was
217. A full vote would have been 221 ; but the three Federal-
ist electors chosen in Maryland, and one of the Delaware elec-
tors, did not see tit to attend.

The preliminary arrangements in regard to the electoral
count were made according to precedent. The two Houses
met in the Representatives' Hall, and the certificates were duly
opened. "When all the returns except those from Indiana had
been opened, Mr. Taylor, of New York, — a member of the
House of Representatives, and afterward Speaker, — arose, and,
addressing the Speaker, expressed his regret at being compelled
to interrupt the proceedings, and to object to the vote from In-
diana. He was proceeding to state his objections, when the
Speaker (Mr. Clay) stopped him, and said that the two Houses
had met for the single specified purpose of performing the con-
stitutional duty which they were then discharging ; and that,
while so acting in joint meeting, they could consider no pro-
position nor perform any business not prescribed by the Con-
stitution.

At this point Mr. Varnum, of Massachusetts, concurring
in what the Speaker had said, suggested the propriety of the
Senate retiring, in order that the House of Representatives
might deliberate upon the question raised by one of its mem-
bers. The President of the Senate put the question to the
senators, and in accordance with their vote the Senate with-
drew. When the House was by itself, Mr. Taylor immediately
took the floor, and urged that, since Indiana was not a State in
the Union at the time the election took place, its votes were
no more entitled to be counted than if they had come from
Missouri or any other Territory. He maintained that the
question should be considered and decided now, when the re-
sult would not be affected by it, and suggested that a joint
resolution be passed declaring that the votes were illegal and
ought not to be counted. A resolution was moved declaring
the votes legal. On this a long debate took place. The sug-
gestion was made that the resolution should not be a joint one,
inasmuch as, by establishing a precedent, it might, at some
time thereafter, when the House and Senate should be op-
posed to each other, " deprive this House of one of its powers
by permitting the Senate to participate in this question." The
discussion turned wholly upon the point whether or not In<
diana was a State in the Union after it adopted its Constitu'

114 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

tion, and before it was admitted by a formal act of Congress.
The power of Congress to reject the votes, if Indiana were not
a State for purposes of the election, was questioned by no one.
Finally, by an almost unanimous vote, the whole matter was
indefinitely postponed, and the House sent a message to the
Senate that it was prepared to resume the count.

Meanwhile a somewhat similar debate was taking place
in the Senate ; but, before a decision was reached, the message
of the House was received. Thereupon the resolution which
had been under discussion, declaring the votes of Indiana
legal, was withdrawn by its mover, Mr. Barbour, of Virginia,
and the Senate returned to the Representatives' Hall. After
the two Houses had assembled, the Speaker informed them that
the House of Representatives " had not seen it necessary to
come to any resolution or to take any order on the subject
which had produced the separation of the two Houses."
Thereupon the count was completed, the result declared, and
the proceedings were terminated.

The first full account of the inauguration of any President
after Washington, to be found in the newspapers of the time,
describes the ceremonial observed when Mr. Monroe took office.
The order of proceedings on March 4, 1817, was almost ex-
actly that which has now become the usual order. At half
past eleven o'clock in the forenoon the President-elect left his
residence and proceeded to the Capitol, escorted by "a large
cavalcade of citizens on horseback," according to the tautologi-
cal reporter for the " National Intelligencer." When Mr. Mon-
roe arrived in the Senate Chamber the oath of office was first
administered to the Vice-President, who delivered a short ad-
dress on taking the chair. Then the Senate adjourned, and the
whole assembled party proceeded without the building " to an
elevated portico temporarily erected for the occasion, where in
the presence of an immense concourse of officers of the gov-
ernment, foreign officers, strangers (ladies as well as gentle-
men), and citizens, the President rose and delivered his ad-
dress." After he had finished reading it, the oath was admin-
istered to him by the Chief Justice. "Such a concourse,''
declares the " National Intelligencer," " was never before seen
in Washington, the number of persons present being estimated
at from five to eight thousand." In the evening a great ball
was given, and thus ended the events of the day.

THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS"

During the last year of Mr. Madison's administration Con-
gress passed an act changing the method of paying the mem-
bers, and, as is usual in such cases, increasing the amount of
their compensation. The change was from six dollars per diem
to fifteen hundred dollars a year. The " compensation act "
was exceedingly unpopular, and was repealed at the next ses-
sion. Many members who voted for it were defeated. There
was a large number of new members in the fifteenth Congress,
but the balance of parties was nominally little changed. The
new questions began to obliterate all party lines. The tariff
united most of the Southern Democrats, the representatives of
Pennsylvania and of the manufacturing districts, in favor of
the protective policy. Commercial Massachusetts opposed it.
The right to make " internal improvements" was rising into
importance as a political issue ; and here, too, the divisions
cut across the old party lines. Many Federalists took an atti-
tude of opposition, although logically, as broad constructionists,
they should have been the supporters, and the Democrats
should have been the opposers, of the policy. It is to be
feared that the views of these Federalists were too greatly in-
fluenced by the prospect that the Middle and Southern States
would profit most, and their own States least, by any appro-
priation Congress might make for the purpose. Congress de-
clared itself in favor of internal improvements by a resolution
that money constitutionally might be appropriated " for the
construction " of post and military roads and of canals. But
it rejected resolutions that the government constitutionally
might " construct " these specified works. The distinction,
rather fine-drawn and long ago abandoned by all parties, was
that, while Congress might aid in such works, it could not un-
dertake them.

Slavery loomed up for the first time, during Monroe's first
term, as a great political issue. The clause of the Constitution
which made the basis of representation in Congress the whole

116 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

number of free persons, and three fifths of u all other persons,"
had been a constant source of complaint on the part of the
Northern Federalists and those who chafed under the Virginia
rule. Up to this time, nearly all the Southern ex-members,
whenever they had had occasion to speak of the institution of
slavery, had spoken of it as an evil, but one which could not be
abolished without causing still greater evils than itself. Now
the question of the admission of Missouri to the Union thrust
itself upon Congress. Most of the representatives from the
North, including those of both of the old parties, united to
deny admission to Missouri except as a free State : the South
was still more united in demanding that Missouri be admitted
without restrictions. No previous debate upon a purely do-
mestic question had been so exciting and passionate as that
which took place on the Missouri bill. The whole country was
aroused. Meetings were held and resolutions were adopted in
cities and country towns ; state legislatures expressed their
opinions in strong language. In Congress the contest was
waged now with violence, now with strategy. The Southern
members with their Northern allies, to whom John Randolph
applied the term " doughfaces," — an appellation which stuck,
— succeeded in linking together the bill for the admission of
Maine as a separate State, to which there was no opposition,
and that for the admission of Missouri. The outcome of the
struggle was a compromise. An amendment was adopted which
virtually permitted the existence of slavery in the proposed new
State, but prohibited it forever in any of the remaining terri-
tory, ceded by France under the name of Louisiana, north of
the line thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, — the
northern line of Arkansas Territory. The amendment was
carried against the opposition of the Southern extremists ; and
the bill was then passed by the votes of all the Southern and a
few Northern members. This was the famous Missouri Com-
promise, which became the line of defence of the anti-slavery
sentiment of the country thirty years later, but which the
South then stormed and captured. It was not the end of the
contest over Missouri, for a clause in the Constitution framed
for the State contained a provision forbidding admission into
the State of free persons of color. The opposition aroused by
this clause, which was held by the anti-slavery people to be
inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, was
far more bitter than that manifested against the toleration of

THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 117

Blavery in the new State. The legislature of Missouri was re-
quired to make a solemn pledge that no act should be passed
that would exclude the citizens of any State from the privileges
and immunities to which they were entitled under the Consti-
tution. When this pledge had been given, and announced by
a proclamation by the President, Missouri was to become a
member of the Union.

All these exciting events took place in the year preceding
the presidential election. It is not likely that, if Mr. Monroe
had taken an active part in the great controversy on either
side, he could have been defeated. The time was too short
to organize a party of opposition with a prospect of success
at the polls. As a matter of fact, the President held aloof
altogether. When the " Enabling Act " for Missouri was laid
before him he submitted two questions to his cabinet, — first,
as to the constitutionality of an act to prohibit slavery in a
Territory, which all the members, Calhoun as well as John
Quincy Adams, answered in the affirmative ; and, secondly,
did the word " forever " in the compromising amendment ex-
tend to the time, when the Territory should be erected into a
State ? Upon the second question there was a division, but
the form of it was changed, at Calhoun's suggestion, to an
inquiry if the proviso was constitutional. To this, again, all
the cabinet agreed ; and on March 2, 1820, Mr. Monroe signed
the act. The popular excitement died out quickly, when it
was supposed that the incident was closed. Had the subse-
quent action of the Missouri convention been foreseen, the
public feeling might have found expression in the ensuing
election. As it was, in one State only, Pennsylvania, was an
electoral ticket nominated in opposition to Mr. Monroe ; but
there the ground of opposition was, expressly, that the Presi
dent was the candidate of the slavery party.

The administration of Mr. Monroe was called at the time
and has since been known, as "the era of good feelings.
The Federalists of New England were satisfied with his prin-
ciples and with his conduct ; and as the time drew near for
an election they made no movement in opposition to him.
In the spring of 1820 a caucus was called, to which were in-
vited not only the Democrats, but such other members of
Congress as might see fit to attend. Less than fifty members
assembled. They adopted a resolution that it was not expedi-
ent to make any nomination, and adjourned.

118 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

It has been said already that there was an opposition ticket
in Pennsylvania only. Where the electors were chosen by
popular vote, the number of votes was exceedingly small. The
largest number received by any elector in Connecticut was
3870, — about one vote to every seventy persons of the popu-
lation. Only seventeen persons went to the polls in Rich-
mond, Virginia. The fusion of parties was nowhere more
pleasantly illustrated than in Massachusetts. A change was
made once more in the method of appointment. Electors
were chosen, one by each congressional district and two at
large. The venerable President John Adams was elected
unanimously as one of the two electors at large. Daniel
Webster was one of the district electors. The college con-
sisted, after vacancies had been filled, of eight Federalists
and seven Democrats. They all voted for Mr. Monroe, but
divided on the vice-presidency, the Federalists casting their
votes for Richard Stockton, of New Jersey. One elector of
New Hampshire gave his vote for John Quincy Adams for
President, and thus deprived Monroe of the honor of a unani-
mous election. It has been reported — and the statement was
repeated in the early editions of this history — that the dis-
senting elector withheld his vote from Mr. Monroe expressly
to prevent that statesman from sharing an honor previously
accorded to Washington alone. The statement is not correct.
The " scattering " vote was given by William Plumer, formerly
a senator in Congress and governor of the State, not so much
out of jealousy of Washington's record of unanimous election
as on account of his positive distrust of Monroe.

Five new States participated in this election, namely, Mis-
sissippi, admitted December 10, 1817 ; Illinois, admitted De-
cember 3, 1818 ; Alabama, admitted December 14, 1819 ;
Maine, separated from Massachusetts and admitted as a State
March 15, 1820 ; and Missouri, which adopted a Constitution
in July, 1820, but was not proclaimed a State until August
10, 1821, when it had fulfilled the condition exacted of it by
Congress as a prerequisite to admission. The situation in
which Missouri stood at the time of the presidential election
raised again, and in an exceedingly perplexing form, the ques-
tion which had arisen in 1817 as to the right of Indiana to
participate in the election. For whereas Indiana, although not
fully admitted to the Union at the time the electors of 1816
voted, was a State in full standing when the votes were

THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 119

counted, Missouri had not performed the duty imposed as
a condition of admission, and it was not certain that its
legislature would ever give the pledge required. The in-
convenience of a discussion of this question in the joint con-
vention, and the doubts of members as to the result of an
attempt to decide it either in joint meeting or by the two
Houses separately, led to the invention of a method of avoid-
ing the point altogether. The joint committee of Congress
which was, in accordance with custom, appointed to ascertain
and report a mode of examining the votes, reported, in addi-
tion to the usual resolution, the following : —

Resolved, That if any objection be made to the votes of Mis-
souri, and the counting, or omitting to count, which shall not
essentially change the result of the election, in that case they shall
be reported by the President of the Senate in the following man-
ner : Were the votes of Missouri to be counted, the result would

be, for A. B. for President of the United States, votes; if not

counted, for A. B. for President of the United States, votes.

But in either event A. B. is elected President of the United States.
And in the same manner for Vice-President.

A long debate took place on this proposition in the Senate.
The views advanced were various. But the Senate was per-
suaded to adopt the resolution upon the assurance of Mr.
Barbour, who reported it, that it was his intention thereafter
to bring up the matter of electoral votes objected to, to repair
what he considered as a casus omissus in the Constitution,
either by an act of Congress, if that should appear sufficient,
or by an amendment to the Constitution.

The discussion in the House was of a different character.
Mr. John Randolph attacked the resolution, providing for an
alternative statement of the vote of Missouri, on constitutional
grounds. He could not recognize in either House, or in both
conjoined, the power to decide on the votes of any State. The
electoral colleges were as independent of Congress as Congress
was of them ; and he would rather see an interregnum, or that
no votes should be counted, than that a principle should be
adopted which went to the very foundation on which the
presidential office rested. Several other gentlemen took simi-
lar views. The opposing argument was presented by Mr. Clay,
then a private member, who said that Congress had been in-
trusted with the duty of enumerating the votes for President,
and it was necessary for the two Houses to determine what
were votes.

120 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The resolution was adopted by a vote of 90 to 67, but the
concurrence of the two Houses did not end the matter. When
the votes of Missouri were announced by the President of the
Senate and handed to the tellers, Mr. Livermore, of New
Hampshire, a member of the House, addressing the President
and the Speaker, objected to them on the ground that Missouri
was not a State in the Union. The Senate thereupon retired,
a motion to that effect having been put by the President.
The Senate does not appear to have taken any action upon
the objection, but in the House a long debate took place
on a resolution that the votes ought to be counted. Mr.
Randolph made himself the most conspicuous person in this
discussion, and spoke upon the question with characteristic
violence of. language. Mr. Clay came to the rescue with an
argument intended to show that the President of the Senate
had acted erroneously in putting the question on the retire-
ment of the Senate, the objection having been already pro-
vided for by the joint resolution. On his motion the subject
was laid on the table, and the Senate was invited to return.
The count then proceeded, and the result was declared in ac-
cordance with the prescribed form. The votes given are shown
in the table on the opposite page.

As soon as the announcement had been made, Mr. Floyd, of
Virginia, and after him Mr. Randolph, demanded to know what
had become of the votes of Missouri. Their voices were
drowned by cries of u. Order ! n and they were required to re-
sume their seats. The Senate then retired, and Mr. Randolph
made another violent speech, which he closed by proposing a
series of resolutions reciting that the votes of Missouri have
been counted, but that the announcement of the whole num-
ber of electors appointed, and of the votes given by them, has
not been declared " agreeably to the provisions of the Consti-
tution of the United States, and that therefore the proceeding
has been irregular and illegal." While Mr. Randolph was
reducing these resolutions to writing, a motion was made and
carried to adjourn, and nothing more was heard of them.

The second inauguration of Mr. Monroe took place on the
5th of March, 1821, — the 4th was Sunday, — in the hall of
the House of Representatives. The ceremony was a simple
one, but the company was as large as could be crowded into a
room which was by no means spacious. The President occupied
a platform in front of the Speaker's chair, and the Chief Justice

THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS

121

States.

Maine ....
New Hampshire
Vermont . . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut . .
New York . .
New Jersey . .
Pennsylvania * .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia . . .
Alabama . . .
Mississippi *
Louisiana . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee * . .
Ohio ....
Indiana . . .
Illinois . . .
Missouri . . .

Total . . .

231

Vice-President.

10
25
15
11

8
8

218

* One elector in each of the States of Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Tennessee died
after appointment, and before the meetings of the electors.

stood by his side while he delivered his inaugural address.
So dense was the throng that fears were entertained as to the
safety of the crowd.

Questions concerning the presidential electoral system and
the electoral count were much discussed during Mr. Monroe's
administration, and at one time the prospect of submitting to
the States for ratification an amendment of the Constitution, so
that all elections might be uniform, seemed to be extremely

122 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

good. The proposition had originated when the mishap at the
election of 1800-01 was fresh in the minds of our public men,
and when the necessity of guarding against a recurrence of it
seemed imperative. It was then urged, as a part of the new
system of choosing one person as President and another as
Vice-President, that all the electors should be chosen by popu-
lar vote, the States to be divided for that purpose into dis-
tricts. Although the matter was somewhat discussed in the
newspapers from time to time, it does not appear to have been
heard of again in Congress until the close of 1813. On Decem-
ber 20 of that year, Mr. Pickens, of North Carolina, introduced
in the House a proposition to amend the Constitution in this
respect, and made a long speech in support of the measure.
He referred to the popular excitement which had prevailed in
his State in consequence of the act of the legislature of North
Carolina depriving the people of the right to choose electors,
in 1812, as the reason for bringing the matter to the attention
of Congress. The resolution for submitting the amendment to
the States was negatived after some debate, 57 voting in favor
of, and 70 against it.

Mr. Pickens introduced the subject again on one or two
occasions after this defeat, but he did not press the amend-
ment further until 1816. In December of that year he once
more presented his resolution, in a new form, embracing two
propositions. It provided that the States should be divided
into districts for the choice of representatives in Congress, and
also into single districts for the choice of electors. After some
debate in Committee of the Whole, the House adopted the
principle of the district system for representatives by a vote
of 86 to 38. That part of the system which related to electors
was approved by 87 votes against 51 ; but, as this was not a
two-thirds majority, the House never took the subject up.

At the next session two amendments, in almost identical
words, were introduced in the Senate by Mr. Dickerson, of
New Jersey, and by Mr. Macon, of North Carolina. Subse-
quently the proposition relating to electors was changed so that
one elector should be chosen from each representative district,
and that the two additional electors for each State should be
appointed " in such manner as the legislature thereof may
direct,'' following the words of the Constitution. This amend-
ment was negatived by 20 in favor to 13 opposed, — not two
thirds. Again in 1818 Mr. Sanford,of New York, introduced

THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 123

the amendment in the Senate, by instruction of the New York
legislature, as on previous occasions it had been introduced
by others according to instructions from the legislatures of New
Jersey and North Carolina. This time a great deal of atten-
tion was paid to the matter. It was debated at much length,
three times referred to committees, and at last passed by a vote
of 28 to 10. In the House it was laid on the table by 79 to
73. Introduced in the Senate again in 1819 by Mr. Dicker-
son, it was again passed, this time without debate, by 29 to
13. Having been debated in the House, it was agreed to by
the Committee of the Whole ; but when it wa*s reported to the
House it was laid on the table, and never taken up. Yet at
the same session Mr. Smith. of North Carolina, introduced this
identical amendment, and, after debate, it was passed to a third
reading by a vote of 103 to 59 ; but on the question of its
passage it was lost, 92 voting in favor of and 54 against it, —
not two thirds. The proposition never again came so near to
success ; but it was not abandoned, and as late as March, 1822,
the Senate again passed the amendment by 29 to 11. The
House did not take the matter up for consideration.

Another effort was made during Mr. Monroe's administration
to deal with the matter of the electoral count. The Commit-
tee on the Judiciary, of the Senate, was instructed to consider
the subject, and Mr. Van Buren reported a bill which, after
amendment, was passed on April 19, 1824. It covered the
whole ground of the election and the count. The electors
were to make five lists of their votes instead of three. One of
these was to be sent to the seat of government by a messenger,
two were to be deposited in the post-office and forwarded by
two successive mails to the President of the Senate, and the
other two were to be delivered to the judge of the district in
which the electoral meeting was held. This was the only
change proposed in the method of electing the President. The
important section was the fifth, as follows : —

Section 5. That at twelve o'clock of the day appointed for
counting the votes that may be given at the next election for Pre-
sident and Vice-President, the Senate and House of Representatives
shall meet in the hall of the House of Representatives, and on all
future occasions in the centre room of the Capitol, at which meet-
ing the President of the Senate shall be the presiding officer, but
no debate shall be had nor question taken. The packet containing
the certificates from the electors of each State shall then be opened

124 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by the President of the Seriate, beginning with the State of New
Hampshire and going through to Georgia, in the order in which
the thirteen original States are enumerated in the Constitution,
and afterwards through the other States in the order in which they
were respectively admitted into the Union ; and, if no exceptions
are taken thereto, all the votes contained in such certificates shall
be counted ; but if any exceptions be taken, the person taking the
same shall state it in writing directly, and not argumentatively,
and sign his name thereto ; and if the exception be seconded by
one member from the Senate and one member from the House of
Representatives, and each of whom shall sign the said exception as
having seconded the same, the exception shall be read by the Pre-
sident of the Senate, and then each House shall immediately retire,
without question or debate, to its own apartment, and shall take
the question on the exception, without debate, by ayes and noes.
So soon as the question shall be taken in either House, a message
shall be sent to the other informing them of the decision of the
question, and that the House sending the message is prepared to
resume the count ; and when such message shall have been received
by both Houses, they shall meet again in the same room as before,
and the count shall be resumed. And if the two Houses have con-
curred in rejecting the vote or votes objected to, such vote or votes
shall not be counted. The vote of one State being thus counted,
another shall, in like manner, be called, and the certificate of the
votes of the State thus called shall be proceeded on as is hereinbe-
fore directed; and so on, one after another, in the order above
mentioned, until the count shall be completed.

The bill was sent to the House for concurrence, where it was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and was reported
back by Mr. Webster on the 10th of May without amendment.
It was then referred to the Committee of the Whole, and was
never taken up for consideration.

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS"

The existence of a free government without a division into
parties is an impossibility. The " era of good feelings " was
a result, not of a radical change in human nature which per-
mitted all Americans to think alike upon questions of national
politics, but of a complete settlement of all the matters which
had been the basis of party division. We have already seen
that new issues began to loom into prominence even before
Mr. Monroe's second election. In the latter part of his term
they were causing differences, discussions, and divisions which
were destined to become more definite and habitual, and
eventually to range men on either side of a new party line.
All these new issues — internal improvements, the tariff, slavery,
and the rest — were to be decided one way or the other, accord-
ing to the view one took of the scope and power of the Con-
stitution. The two views were "strict construction " and
" loose construction." Thus, when the Democratic party had
substantially adopted the Federalist position in all the mat-
ters which pertained to the war of 1812, and the Federal-
ists had crossed over to the position formerly occupied by
their political opponents, the old question of interpretation
arose in a new form, and ultimately reestablished parties,
greatly changed in personnel, in methods, in motives, and in
aims. It will be seen, too, that issues not developed until
years afterward were equally to be decided by an applica-
tion of one or the other principle of interpreting the Con-
stitution, — the Bank, nullification, the surplus revenue, the
disposition of the public lands, in short, all the questions on
which parties differed between 1830 and 1860.

No development of parties took place during Mr. Monroe's
administration. In a few States the Federalist organization
was maintained ; but in no State was it in control of the
government, nor did it ever regain control anywhere. It might
and did exercise a certain influence by favoring one of two or

126 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

more candidates, where the Democrats were divided. Except
locally, it had no candidates of its own.

The election of 1824 was pending nearly three years. As
early as April, 1822, Niles's Register remarked that there were
already sixteen or seventeen candidates for the succession to
Mr. Monroe. Soon after that the question how the candidates
were to be nominated began to be discussed earnestly. The
growth of an opposition to the system of nomination by con-
gressional caucus has already been noted. The opposition was
strong in 1816 ; but, inasmuch as the caucus had a result
which a large majority of the people approved, little objec-
tion was heard after the nominations were made. No caucus
was necessary in 1820. Now a determined resistance to the
system was the only possible policy for the friends of all the
candidates save one. It was understood universally that Mr.
"William H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, was
the candidate preferred by the President ; and, although Mr.
Monroe did not obtrude his wishes upon the public in an
unseemly manner, the very fact that his official support gave
Crawford a larger body of partisans than any one of his rivals
had, emphasized the objection to this mode of making nomina-
tions. It was foreseen that a caucus, should one be held,
would be in Mr. Crawford's interest. Consequently the ad-
herents of all the other candidates were opposed to the caucus.

Before the close of the year 1822, the minor candidates for
the presidency had dropped out of the contest, and six only
were left, for four of whom electoral votes were cast two
years later. They were, in alphabetical order, John Quincy
Adams, Secretary of State; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of
War ; Henry Clay, who had been Speaker of the House of
Representatives most of the time during the previous ten
years, but was just then in private life ; De Witt Clinton,
also in private life at that time ; William H. Crawford, Secre-
tary of the Treasury ; and Andrew Jackson, who had been a
representative and senator during Adams's administration, but
who derived his fame and his prominence from his military
achievements.

The first candidate who was put in formal nomination was
Mr. Clay. The members of the Kentucky legislature, on the
18th of November, 1822, recommended him as "a suitable
person to succeed James Monroe as President." In support
of their resolution they issued an address to the people of the

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 123

country in which they placed their preference upon "a warm
affection for and a strong confidence in their distinguished
fellow-citizen ; " and their feeling that the time had come
" when the people of the West may, with some confidence,
appeal to the magnanimity of the whole Union for a favor-
able consideration of their equal and just claim to a fair
participation in the executive government of these States."
They nevertheless made the first consideration much the
more prominent and important. The members of the Mis-
souri legislature held a meeting about the same time, and
adopted a resolution recommending Mr. Clay. Similar action
was taken in Illinois and Ohio in January, 1823, and in
Louisiana in March of the same year.

General Jackson seems first to have been nominated for-
mally — although it was well understood long before that he
was a candidate — by a mass convention of the people of
Blount County, Tennessee, in May or June, 1823, and after-
ward by numerous conventions in all parts of the country.
Mr. Adams was nominated by the legislatures of most of the
New England States early in 1824 ; Mr. Clinton, by several
counties in Ohio ; Mr. Calhoun, by the legislature' of South
Carolina ; Mr. Crawford, by the legislature of Virginia.

It will be seen that the situation closely resembled that,
within each party, with which we of the present time are
familiar at the beginning of every recurring presidential can-
vass. All the candidates professed the same political prin-
ciples, at least to such an extent that any one of them might
be heartily supported by the whole party, the only party in
the country which had more than a local existence. A pre-
ference of one before the others might rest upon a conviction
that he possessed superior qualifications ; upon a personal lik-
ing for him ; upon local pride ; upon a disposition to be on
good terms with the administration, — a consideration which
helped Crawford only. Similar differences within a party
are met nowadays, and they do not prevent a full and enthu-
siastic union of the whole organization in support of him whom
the general voice of the party designates as the candidate.
There then existed no body of men, and there was no way of
forming a body of men, who could take the case in hand and
determine which of the six candidates should be the candidate
of all. The advocates of Mr. Crawford urged that the con-
gressional caucus was the tried and approved mode, — not a

128 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

perfect mode, but one which had previously harmonized differ-
ences and united the party. The adherents of all the others
knew that a caucus would inevitably result in the choice of
Crawford, and they were too wary to be drawn into that trap.
It thus became evident, a long while before the canvass
should properly have begun, that the great question to be
settled was whether or not a caucus should be held. It was
discussed in every newspaper and in every political gathering.
The state legislatures were a common means of expressing
local sentiment. The first declaration in favor of a caucus
was, it is believed, made by the legislature of New York, on
May 23, 1823, when the following resolutions were unani-
mously adopted : —

That although a nomination by the Republican members of
Congress is not entirely free from objections, yet that, assembled
as they are from the different quarters of the Union, — coming
from the various classes of community, — elected during the pend-
ency and discussion of the question and in a great degree with
reference to it, they bring into one body as perfect a representation
as can be expected of the interests and wishes of all and of each :
and that a nomination made by them in a manner which has here-
tofore been usual is the best attainable method of effecting the
object in view which has yet been suggested.

That we fully believe that a convention thus constituted will be
less liable to be influenced by those sectional jealousies against
which the Father of his Country has so solemnly and justly cau-
tioned us ; more likely to cherish those purely national feelings
which it is the interest and should be the pride of every State to
protect ; and better calculated to preserve unbroken those political
ties which bind together the Republicans of the North and the
South, the East and the West, and are consecrated by the recollec-
tion of times and events dear to the Democracy of the nation
which triumphed in the election and prospered under the adminis-
tration of the illustrious Jefferson.

A few months later the legislature of Tennessee adopted a
set of resolutions against the caucus, and instructing its mem-
bers in Congress to use their influence to prevent the hold-
ing of such a meeting. The resolutions were sent to all the
States for their approval. They were considered at the sessions
of many legislatures in the earliest months of 1824. Mary-
land alone gave a cordial assent to them. Mr. Tyler, after-
ward President, offered resolutions in the Virginia House of

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 129

Delegates approving the caucus. Although the resolutions
were not adopted, — owing to a delicate sense of propriety
which told the members that they ought not to take such action
in their legislative capacity, — a meeting was held — perhaps
it might be called a caucus — attended by three fourths of
the members, who resolved almost unanimously in favor of the
congressional caucus. Governor Troup, of Georgia, may be
pardoned for manifesting some annoyance at being called upon
to send to the legislature resolutions the sole purpose of which
was to prevent the elevation of Georgia's favorite son to the
presidency ; but the terms in which he communicated the reso-
lutions were childishly petulant. He remarked in the course
of this unique message that the word " caucus " was not in the
dictionary, was not an English word, and he hoped would
never be one. One branch of the South Carolina legislature
approved the Tennessee resolutions ; the other threw them out
with scorn. There was a like difference of opinion in the
North. The Ohio and Indiana legislatures postponed the reso-
lutions indefinitely. In Pennsylvania a report by a commit-
tee was rejected, by a vote of more than two to one, because
it contained a clause which by implication sanctioned a caucus.
The New York legislature expressed its dissent from the Ten-
nessee resolutions and its approval of a caucus. In Massa-
chusetts, and also in Maine, caucuses were held and John
Quincy Adams was nominated ; subsequently in each State the
Democratic members met again, and, while repeating their nom-
ination of Mr. Adams, declared their wish that a congressional
caucus should be held, and agreed to abide by the result.

Deep political excitement accompanied all these proceedings.
The intensity of feeling is seen in the arguments on one side
and the other with which for many months the newspapers
were filled. There was no point in favor of the caucus or
against it that was overlooked, and all of them were discussed
and worked over until they were threadbare. The advocates
of the caucus were entirely right when they said that the old
method of nomination " tends to produce union, which the
other mode has a tendency to destroy ; " and doubtless, if the
Democratic party had been facing a strong and resolute enemy,
the refusal to submit the claims of all the candidates to the
arbitrament of the caucus would have been " bad politics."
Since it was free from that danger, the violent struggle within
the party was harmless, and it was useful in bringing to an

130 A HISTORY Of THE PRESIDENCY

end a dynasty which was making the government stale. The
difficulty in the way of a better system of nomination, together
with a hint as to the better way which was afterward adopted,
is set forth in resolutions adopted by the Democrats of Lancas-
ter County, Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1824 : " We be-
lieve the best and most unexceptionable method " to be " a
convention of delegates from all the States of the Union ; "
but as it would be " entirely impracticable, from the immense
extent of our country, and from the great expense necessarily
incident to an attendance from the extreme parts of the United
States," they deemed " the old and tried mode," the caucus,
the best that was attainable. When we reflect that at this
time there was not a mile of railway in the country, and that
weeks of travel were necessary to compass the distance from
Louisiana and Missouri to the seat of government, the objection
to a national convention does not seem overdrawn.

The call for a caucus, dated February 6, 1824, appeared in
the " National Intelligencer " on the following morning. It
was signed by six senators and five representatives, members
from eleven States. It was addressed to the Democratic mem-
bers of Congress, and invited them to meet in the Representa-
tives' chamber on the evening of the 14th, H to recommend
candidates to the people of the United States for the offices of
President and Vice-President of the United States." Side by
side with this notice appeared another, to which were appended
the signatures of twenty-four senators and members, represent-
ing fifteen States, who asserted that they had satisfactory
information that, of the two hundred and sixty-one senators and
representatives, there were a hundred and eighty-one " who
deem it inexpedient, under existing circumstances, to meet in a
caucus " for the purpose named.

Although the accuracy of this canvass was impugned, the
event showed that it was nearly correct. Sixty-six members
only assembled in caucus. They represented sixteen States of
the Union, but a large majority of them were from four States.
New York supplied sixteen, from its delegation numbering
thirty-six ; Virginia, fourteen out of a possible twenty-four ;
North Carolina, ten of a delegation of fifteen ; eight of the
nine Georgia members were present. These four States sup-
plied forty-eight members, and the other twenty States only
eighteen members of the caucus. Eight States were not repre-
sented at all ; five States furnished one member each. A

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 131

motion was made to adjourn for six weeks, nominally in order
to wait for the action of the Pennsylvania State Convention,
really in order to drum up more members. Mr. Van Euren
spoke against the motion, and it was defeated. The caucus
then proceeded to ballot for a candidate for President. The
result was as follows : William H. Crawford had 64 ; John
Quincy Adams, 2 ; Andrew Jackson, 1 ; Nathaniel Macon, 1.
Two absent members, one each from Virginia and Georgia,
voted by proxy.

A ballot was next taken for a candidate for Vice-President.
Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania had 57 votes ; Erastus Root
of New York, 2 ; and the following named, one each : John
Q. Adams, William Eustis of Massachusetts, Samuel Smith of
Maryland, William King of Maine, Richard Rush of Penn-
sylvania, John Tod of Pennsylvania, and Walter Lowrie of
Pennsylvania. The caucus then adopted a resolution formally
recommending Messrs. Crawford and Gallatin, and declaring
that : —

In making the foregoing recommendation, the members of this
meeting have acted in their individual characters as citizens ; that
they have been induced to this measure from a deep and settled
conviction of the importance of union among Republicans through-
out the United States, and as the best means of collecting and
concentrating the feelings and wishes of the people of the Union
upon this important subject.

A committee was appointed to prepare an address to the
people of the United States. The tone of the address was far
from reassuring. " We will not conceal our anxiety," the
committee declared. " To our minds, the course of reoent
events points to the entire dismemberment of the party to
which it is our pride to be attached." They were right. The
caucus seems not to have added a vote anywhere to Mr. Craw-
ford's strength. It seemed, indeed, to reveal his weakness,
even in Congress. The " National Intelligencer," the steadfast
advocate of Crawford, published a statement of the preferences
of the members of both Houses. It set down 40 of the 260
members — there was one vacancy — as Federalists, and di-
vided the other 220 as follows : Crawford, 93 ; Adams, 38 ;
Clay, 32 ; Calhoun, 25 ; Jackson, 23. The canvass was
warmly disputed by the friends of the other candidates, one of
whom drew attention to the fact that the " Intelligencer " had
"lost" nine Democrats in its count, since the total number
accounted for was but 211.

132 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Local and personal considerations predominated in the can-
vass that ensued. The caucus issue had served its purpose
and was not made prominent. The " regularity " of the nom-
ination was urged by Crawford's friends, but other men cared
little about it. The " Boston Daily Advertiser " doubtless
expressed the feelings of many of Mr. Adams's supporters in
New England when it said they were going to vote for him
" because he is a citizen of this Commonwealth," and " not so
much because it is supposed that a majority of the electors
have felt any strong attachment for him." It is fair to say
that the " Advertiser " was a Federalist paper still, and spoke
for its party friends, who still, perhaps, might have defeated
the Adams electoral ticket in Massachusetts if they had been
so disposed, and if it had been worth the effort.

The caucus ticket had been framed, in the selection of Mr.
Gallatin for Vice-President, to capture the vote of Pennsylva-
nia. But it did not strengthen the cause. Mr. Gallatin's
eligibility was assailed, and he was forced to defend himself
against the charge of being a " foreigner." Although he had
been a resident of the United States since 1780, there was cer-
tainly a cloud upon his title as " a citizen of the United States
at the time of the adoption of this Constitution." Neverthe-
less, he persisted in his candidacy until October, when he re-
tired from the canvass, " understanding that the withdrawal of
my name may have a favorable effect on the result " of the
approaching election. Mr. Calhoun had withdrawn as a can-
didate for the presidency, and there was a general concentra-
tion upon him as the candidate for the second place on the part
of all the anti-caucus forces, who had omitted, in their nomi-
nations, to name a Vice-President. It seems to have been in
the minds of the Crawford party that they might effect a coali-
tion with the supporters of Clay by giving the vice-presidency
to the Kentucky statesman. A suggestion of such a union
was rejected with scorn by the Clay men, and Mr. Gallatin's
retirement had no perceptible effect on the canvass.

Long before the voting began, it was evident to all that
there was to be no choice of President by the electors, and
that the election would go, for the second time, to the House
of Representatives ; furthermore, that each of the four candi-
dates — for Clinton had developed no strength in the can-
vass — would receive many electoral votes. Three only could
go before the House. It therefore was the aim of every group

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 133

to secure enough votes for its candidate to make him one of
the three.

As in 1820, twenty-four States took part in the election.
Electors were appointed by the legislatures in Vermont, New
York, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. In
the other eighteen States they were chosen by the people ; by
districts in Maine, Maryland, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri ;
elsewhere, by general ticket.

The legislature of New York (entitled to 36 electors) con-
tained supporters of three of the candidates. The law governing
elections by the legislature required that each house should
ballot separately until it made a choice by a majority of votes.
If the two branches agreed in the election, they met in joint con-
vention and declared the result. If different persons had been
elected, the election was made by ballot in joint convention ;
and here also a majority was required. The election began
on the 10th of November. On that day the Senate made
choice of the Crawford electors. The senators were divided in
their preferences thus : for Crawford, 17 ; for Adams, 7 ; for
Clay, 7. In the Assembly there was no choice : the Crawford
ticket had 43 votes, the Adams 50, the Clay 32. Combined,
therefore, the strength of the three candidates was : Crawford,
60 ; Adams, 57 ; Clay, 39. The balloting in the Assembly
continued on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of November with the
change of only a single vote. On the 12th, some of the Craw-
ford men announced their purpose of voting for the Adams
ticket in order to transfer the contest to a joint convention and
to defeat Mr. Clay. This threat produced an effect upon the
Clay men, who, on the following day, themselves supported
the Adams ticket and gave it the required majority. The fact
that an election had been effected by the Assembly was hur-
riedly communicated to some of the Crawford senators before
the official notice could be sent, and the Senate hastily ad-
journed. On Monday, the 15th, the joint convention was
held, and a ballot was taken. The whole number of ballots
was 157, but three of them were blank votes. Seven friends
of Mr. Clay, who had been placed upon the Crawford ticket
in hope of inducing the Clay men to support the whole ticket,
had 95 votes. The rest of the Crawford ticket had 76 votes.
Twenty-five of the names on the Adams ticket had 78 votes
each, which was exactly a majority of 154, the number of effec-
tive ballots, but one less than a majority of the whole number,

134 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

including the blanks. A resolution was offered declaring the
thirty-two electors who had 78 or more votes to be chosen.
The Speaker of the Senate refused to put the question. A
long debate and a scene of tumult and confusion such as has
rarely taken place in a legislative body ensued ; and in the end
the presiding officer, followed by the sixteen Crawford sen-
ators, left the Assembly Chamber. But at last the resolution
was separately adopted by each House. The two branches met
again, and completed the election by the choice of four Craw-
ford men by a Dare majority.

At the meeting of the electors, three of those who had been
expected to vote for Clay deserted him and went, one each, to
Adams, Crawford, and Jackson. It will be seen by reference
to the table of electoral votes (page 140) that, if they had all
voted for Mr. Clay, his vote and Crawford's would have been
equal, and the names of Adams and Jackson only would have
gone before the House of Representatives.

In Delaware there was a parliamentary problem of a charac-
ter somewhat similar to that in New York. The number of
members present at the joint meeting of the two houses of the
legislature was 30. One elector (for Adams) received 21 votes,
and was no doubt elected. Two Crawford men had 15 votes
each, and seven other candidates had from 1 to 10 each. The
law of Delaware provided that, " if an equal division of ballots
shall appear for two or more persons, not being elected by a
majority of the votes, the Speaker of the Senate shall have an
additional casting vote." This was clearly not a case of the kind
contemplated by the statute, which intended that the Speaker
should decide between two or more equal and opposing candi-
dates. If only one of the two Crawford men had received 15
votes, he could not have given a casting vote. As there were
two equal candidates he gave an additional vote for each, and
declared them elected. He followed the letter of the statute
beyond a doubt.

The election of 1824 is the first with reference to which an
attempt has been made to test the result by a comparison of
the popular vote for the several candidates. The statement
which is to be found in most of the political almanacs and com-
pendiums of political information, even to the present day, is
one which, it is believed, originated in an early number of Mr.
Greeley's Whig Almanac, as follows : —

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 135

For Jackson 152,899

Adams 105,321

Crawford . . 47,265

Clay 47,087

The statement is inaccurate; and, when it has been cor-
rected, it is misleading. No exact table of popular votes can
be presented. In five States only were all four candidates re-
presented at the polls. In six others there were three tickets ;
in seven there were but two tickets ; in six States the electors
were chosen by the legislature. Throughout New England
the ticket in opposition to Adams was that supported by the
caucus committee, and the votes should doubtless all be given
to Crawford. In North Carolina there was a fusion of the
friends of Jackson and Adams, The " old North State "
had contained from the earliest times a strong body of Federal-
ists, who were all opposed to Crawford, and were disposed to
support Mr. Adams. It was estimated that at least five thou-
sand of them voted for the fusion electoral ticket ; but, inas-
much as the electors voted for Jackson, all their votes are cred-
ited to him. A careful study of the returns from all the
States, in most cases official, and in every case a full return,
results in the table given on page 136.

The difference in the totals of the two statements is not
important. But neither statement is valuable as indicating the
will of the people on the question of the presidency. Vir-
ginia, with a white population of 625,000, cast an aggregate
of less than 15,000 votes; Pennsylvania, with a population
of something more than a million, cast a few more than 47,000
votes, which was but a little larger number than that of
Massachusetts, 37,000, with a population of less than 600,000 ;
and Massachusetts, at the election of the previous year, had
given more than 66,000 votes for governor. If to such in-
equalities as these we add those produced by the total omis-
sion from the list of all votes from six States which contained
more than one fourth of the whole population of the country,
the lack of significance of the statement of popular votes may
be understood.

Mr. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by more than two
thirds of the electoral votes. There was no choice of a Presi-
dent. Mr. Crawford, the caucus candidate, barely succeeded
in securing a place among the first three candidates. Con-
gress assembled on the 6th of December, five days after the

136

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

States.

Maine . . . ,
New Hampshire .
Vermont $ . . ,
Massachusetts
Rhode Island . ,
Connecticut . ,
New York J . ,
New Jersey . ,
Pennsylvania . .
Delaware J . .
Maryland . . .
Virginia . . ,
North Carolina .
South Carolina J
Georgia J . . .
Alabama . . .

Louisiana J
Kentucky .
Tennessee .
Missouri
Ohio . . .
Indiana. .
Illinois . .

Total

Jackson.

10,985
36,100

14,523

2,861
20,4151

9,443
3,234

6,455

20,197

987

18,457

7,343

1,901

152,901

Adams.

10,289
9,389

30,687
2,145

7,587

9,110
5,441

14,632
3,189

2,416
1,694

216

311

12,280

3,095

1,542

114,023

Crawford.

2,336*
643t

6,616*

200*

1,978*

1,196§
4,206

3,364

8,489
15,621

1,680
119

312

219

46,979

Clay.

416

17,331

1,401

19,255

5,315

1,047

47,217

* Opposition ticket, t Opposition ticket, wrongly credited in former editions to Jack-
eon, t Electors appointed by legislature. §'• Convention" ticket. || "People's"
ticket.

meeting of the electors. Although it was known that there
had been no choice of a President, no notice was taken of the
fact until the 13th of January. 1825, when Mr. Wright, of Ohio,
offered a resolution for the appointment of a committee —

To prepare and report such rules as, in their opinion, may be
proper to be observed by this House in the choice of a President
of the United States, for the period of four years from the 4th
day of March next, if, on counting the votes given in the several
States in the manner prescribed in the Constitution of the United
States, it shall appear that no person has received a majority of
all the electors of President and Vice-President appointed in the
several States.

This resolution was adopted on the 18th of January, and
the committee was appointed, which reported, on the 26th, a
plan that was in some respects different from that adopted in
1801, but the changes were not important.

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 137

The Senate proposed, on the 1st of February, to raise a
joint committee " to ascertain and report a mode of examining
the votes " in the usual form. The committee was appointed,
and reported a resolution similar to those adopted in former
years, but containing a clause made necessary by the fact that
there was no choice of a President. When this resolution
came up in the Senate, Mr. Eaton, of Tennessee, moved to add
a new paragraph to the effect that, if objection should be made
to any vote, it should be filed in writing and entered on the
journals of the two Houses ; that the two Houses should not
separate until all the votes had been counted and reported ;
but that the report of the result should be " liable to be con-
trolled and altered by the decision to be made by the two
Houses, after their separation, relative to any objections that
may be made," provided that no objection should be considered
valid unless so voted by both Houses.

Mr. Van Buren opposed this clause, and after debate it was
rejected. No objections were made, it may be said here, to
any votes at the time of the count ; but in May, after the
election, Mr. Wilde, of Georgia, introduced in the House of
Representatives a resolution that a message be sent to the
Senate requesting copies of all the certificates of electoral
votes. In a long speech he gave his reason for making this
motion, which was that few of the certificates were strictly cor-
rect and in due form. They either did not assert that the
electors voted in distinct ballots for President and Vice-Presi-
dent, or they did not report a vote by ballot, — distinct bal-
lots being required by the Constitution. The resolution was
opposed on the ground that it was too late, and that "the
elections in the States were not subject to revision by Con-
gress," and, on motion, was laid on the table.

Before the day for counting the votes, February 9, there
was a great scandal in the House of Representatives. The
situation was one which invited intrigue, and no doubt there
was much bargaining and attempted trading of votes. The
excitement ran high. The votes of thirteen States were
necessary for a choice. Mr. Adams was sure of the unani-
mous votes of the six New England States, and of a majority
in New York, Maryland, and Ohio. Mr. Crawford would
have Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The
universal expectation was that Mr. Adams would be chosen ;
and a desire to avoid such a long and perilous contest as had

138 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

taken place in 1801, as well as a desire to be on the winning
side, helped his cause. In the midst of the excitement a letter
was published in the " Columbian Observer " of Philadelphia,
on January 28, dated at Washington, from which the follow-
ing is extracted : —

For some time past, the friends of Clay have hinted that they,
like the Swiss, would fight for those who would pay best. Over-
tures were said to have been made by the friends of Adams to the
friends of Clay, offering him the appointment of Secretary of
State for his aid to elect Adams. And the friends of Clay gave
this information to the friends of Jackson, and hinted that, if
the friends of Jackson would offer the same price, they would
close with them.

There was much more of the same sort, but this contains
the substance of the charge. Mr. Clay at once published a
card in which he asserted that he believed the letter was a
forgery, "but, if it be genuine, I pronounce the member, who-
ever he may be, a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard,
and a liar." Mr. George Kremer, of Pennsylvania, avowed
himself the author of the letter, and asserted his ability to
prove his assertions. The matter was brought to the attention
of the House by Mr. Clay, who was Speaker of the House at
the time, and a committee was raised to inquire into the mat-
ter. Mr. Kremer, in a long and labored but weak letter,
declined to appear before the committee. In spite of the
most positive denials of the truth of the story, and of an
absolute lack of any evidence to support the accusation, the
charge was persisted in and believed by all who had an in-
terest in believing it. Three years afterward, in the midst
of the ensuing canvass, General Jackson himself wrote a letter,
which was made public, in which he gave an account of an
interview in January, 1825, with a member of Congress
whom he understood to intimate that Mr. Clay's influence
might be detached from Mr. Adams and given to him on
certain terms. Jackson thus not only revived the old scandal,
but virtually affirmed his belief in the truth of the charge.
He afterward asserted that the member of Congress was James
Buchanan. Mr. Clay thereupon published a most emphatic
dnd sweeping denial, one sentence of which will suffice to
show its character : " I neither made, nor authorized, nor knew
of any proposition whatever to either of the three candidates
who were returned to the House of Representatives, at the

THE DEFEAT OF " KING CAUCUS " 139

last presidential election, or to the friends of either of them,
for the purpose of influencing the result of the election, or for
any other purpose." Mr. Buchanan himself then made a
statement that it had " never once entered my head that he
_General Jackson] believed me to be the agent of Mr. Clay
or of his friends, or that I had intended to propose to him
terms of any kind from them." One might suppose that this
should have been conclusive. Even so thorough-going an
admirer of Jackson as James Parton admits that " no charge
was ever more plausible or more groundless . . . none was
ever more completely refuted." Yet Jackson persisted in
it to the end, and took pains, in 1844, only a year before his
death, to deny that he had " recanted " it, and to affirm that
his opinion " had undergone no change."

There is no need to rely on negative testimony to prove
Mr. Clay's innocence ; for almost immediately after the meet-
ings of the electors he had announced to Senator Thomas H.
Benton his intention to support Mr. Adams. Mr. Benton
records, in his "Thirty Years' View," the fact that Mr. Clay
made to him a communication of this intention before the 15th
of December, 1824, which, Mr. Benton believes, was " proba-
bly before Mr. Adams knew it himself." It is a pity that
Mr. Benton did not make public the evidence in his possession
until November, 1827, when all possible harm to Mr. Clay's
reputation which the false accusation could do had long been
done. Of course the purpose of keeping the scandal alive was
the defeat of Mr. Adams, who could not be innocent if Mr.
Clay had been guilty of the corrupt bargain. It is only be-
cause of its bearing on the ensuing election, and because the
accusation, if true, would have been an indelible stain upon
the character of one of our Presidents, that so much attention
has been given to it in these pages.

The electoral votes were counted on the 9th of February,
1825. The result as announced is given on page 140.

The President of the Senate, Mr. Gaillard, then declared
that no person had received a majority of the votes given for
President of the United States ; that Andrew Jackson, John
Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford were the three
persons who had received the highest number of votes, and
that the remaining duties in the choice of a President now
devolved upon the House of Representatives; and that John
C. Calhoun was duly elected Vice-President.

140

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

President.

Vice-President.

►i

OB*

fcq

States.

i
i

o
2

*
2

•"9

►

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont . . .

«.

Massachusetts

...

Rhode Island

«.

Connecticut .

New York .

•

New Jersey .

Pennsylvania

Delaware . .

—

Maryland . .

Virginia . .

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia . .

Alabama . .

Mississippi .

Louisiana . .

—

Kentucky

Tennessee

—

Missouri . .

Ohio . . -

Indiana . .

Illinois . .

Total ....

182

The Senate having retired, the House immediately pro-
ceeded to elect a President. A roll-call showed that every
member of the House except Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, who
was sick at his lodgings in Washington, was present. Mr.
Webster, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Randolph, of Virginia,
were appointed tellers. The House conducted the election
according to the rules already adopted, and on the first bal-
lot John Quincy Adams was chosen. The votes of thirteen
States were given to him, those of seven to Jackson, and of
four to Crawford. The Speaker declared Mr. Adams elected,
and notice of the result was sent to the Senate. The votes of

THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS"

141

the States are shown by the following table, which indicates
both the divisions within the delegations and the person for
whom the vote of each State was given.

States.

Adams.

Jackson.

Crawford.

Vote for —

Maine

New Hampshire ....

Vermont ......

Massachusetts ....

Rhode Island . . . . .

Connecticut

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Delaware

Maryland

Virginia

North Carolina ....
South Carolina ....

Georgia

Alabama ......

Mississippi

Louisiana

Kentucky

Tennessee ......

Missouri

Ohio

Indiana .......

Illinois

7
6
5

12
2
6

18
1
1

5
1
1

1
10

1
2
9

3
1
1

4
9

2
3

1
1

19
10

7
2

Adams.

Adams,

Adams.

Jackson.

Crawford.

Adams.

Crawford.

Jackson.

Crawford.

Jackson.

Adams.

Jackson.

Adams.

Jackson.

Adams.

Total

The inauguration of Mr. Adams took place in the Kepre-
sentatives' Hall. A military escort accompanied the retiring
President and the President-elect to the Capitol, where all the
departments of the government and representatives of foreign
powers had assembled. Mr. Adams, as all of his predecessors
had been on a similar occasion, was arrayed in a full suit of
plain cloth of American manufacture. Mr. Adams rose and
read his inaugural address in a firm voice, after which the oath
was administered to him by the venerable Chief Justice Mar-
shall. Among the first to take the hand of Mr. Adams, after
the ceremony, was Senator Andrew Jackson.

XII

JACKSON'S TKIUMPH

Mr. Adams was foredoomed to defeat in 1828, — from the
day of his inauguration. His political enemies were the most
astute managers the country had produced. They had the
chagrin of a failure to wipe out and avenge. They had a can-
didate ready for the canvass for whom it was easy to arouse
popular enthusiasm. On the other hand, Mr. Adams, while sup-
ported by faithful and trusty statesmen, was surrounded also
by officers whom he retained in the places to which they had
been appointed by his predecessor, although he was fully aware
of their treachery toward himself. Senators came to him
to assure him that they were friendly to his administration,
and then went to the Capitol and voted with the opposition,
and assisted in passing some of the most malignantly insulting
resolutions ever spread upon the records of the Senate. One
member of the President's official family, the Postmaster-
General, not then admitted to the cabinet, used the patronage
of his office, during the whole of the four years' term, to the
injury of the administration. More than once the members
of the cabinet united in an earnest request to Mr. Adams to
remove him ; but he refused. The President would not, even
when another man would have been goaded by desperation to
turn upon his perfidious office-holders, remove any man because
that man was not his personal supporter. There are numerous
entries in his diary showing his steady adherence to a policy
which is most completely set forth in this passage : " I see yet
no reason sufficient to justify a departure from the principle
with which I entered upon the administration, of removing no
public officer for merely preferring another candidate for the
presidency."

Another fact which would alone have been fatal to Mr.
Adams's hopes of reelection, if he had entertained such hopes,
was his lack of the personal qualities that attract popular sup-
port. At best he had been, in 1824, but the candidate of a

JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 143

minority. To ensure success at the next election it would
have been necessary to find new friends among those who had
been rather the adherents of other candidates than direct oppo-
nents of himself. He was not the man to conciliate. He was
made of too stern and uncompromising stuff. He would stoop
to none of the arts of the politician, not even to measures
which in these days of undoubtedly greater political virtue are
deemed innocent and harmless. He was too good for this
wicked world, — not too wise, not too tactful, not too tolerant.
He was nevertheless wise enough to be aware that he had little
or no chance of reelection. His diary during 1828 abounds
in comments upon the hopeful assurances of his visitors, stat-
ing in plain language that he was not deceived by them. He
remarks upon Mr. Rush's preference for the mission to Eng-
land to the chance of being elected Vice-President on the ticket
with himself : " I can easily conjecture what it is — the pre-
ference of the harbor to the tempest." Again, when he is
communing with himself upon the appointment of Governor
Barbour to the same place he says, May 1, 1828, " In my own
political downfall I am bound to involve unnecessarily none of
my friends." He thinks the effect of the appointment upon
the administration will be bad, — "violent, and probably deci-
sive. But why should I require men to sacrifice themselves for
me?"

The political questions that arose during Mr. Adams's ad-
ministration were by no means of such importance as to justify
the formation of parties where none existed before. It is
impossible to comprehend how men who, at the outset, had no
complaint against Mr. Adams save that he had been successful
over their own candidate, could have worked themselves into
opposition so rancorous as they manifested to the proposi-
tion of the Panama mission, — a conference of American repub-
lics. It was a harmless scheme that promised good results ;
but these men jumped upon it and trampled it under their
feet with fury, for no better reason than that it was a project
which the President and Mr. Clay desired most earnestly to
see carried through. It was upon this measure that, as Mr.
Adams himself records, in January, 1826, the first attempt was
made " to unite the Jackson, Crawford, and Calhoun forces."
The tariff became an issue in politics in 1828 ; but that was
long, after the opposition was fully organized and felt itself on
the eve of victory. Mr. Adams's position on the question of

144 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

internal improvements was not that of a majority of those who
had supported other candidates ; but the question was not one
of sufficient importance to alienate any of them. It was an
excuse rather than a reason for opposition. Moreover, General
Jackson, as a senator, had voted for internal improvements,
and had acted throughout with the protectionists in passing the
tariff act of 1824. The opposition press teemed with falsehoods,
absurd on their face or easily disproved, yet repeated in spite
of ample proof of their untruth. The popular outcry against
Freemasonry that arose after the affair of Morgan is a good
example of the misrepresentation to which the President was
subjected. He was not a Freemason ; indeed he was actively
opposed to the order. Yet in regions where the anti-masonic
feeling was strong, he was published as being a member of the
order, and a pretended transcript from the records of a lodge
was issued, in which his admission was recorded. The old
and oft disproved story of a " corrupt bargain " between him-
self and Clay was revived. No tale was too preposterous to
be invented if it would make votes against this honorable, high-
minded man, whose intentions were as good and whose patriot-
ism was as pure as that of any man who ever sat in the Presi-
dent's chair.

The canvass of 1828 opened in October, 1825, before Mr.
Adams had met Congress at all, and before he had indicated,
except in his inaugural address, what was to be his policy.
The Tennessee legislature nominated General Jackson for the
succession. He accepted the nomination in an address which
he delivered before the two Houses of the legislature, and
resigned his seat in the Senate. Other legislatures, conven-
tions, caucuses, and public meetings in all parts of the country
also nominated the general. But in order to make his election
certain it was deemed necessary to bring to his support the
friends of Crawford. This is supposed to have been effected
by a mission through the South undertaken after the close of
the session of Congress in March, 1827, by Martin Van Buren
and Churchill C. Cambreling, — the two most prominent New
York politicians of the time. Mr. Van Buren, on his way
through Washington in May, called on the President. Mr.
Adams was not ignorant of the object of the tour. "They
are generally understood to have been electioneering, and Van
Buren is now the great electioneering manager for General
Jackson, as he. was before the last election for Mr. Crawford."

JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 145

The basis of the campaign was the alleged " wrong " done to
General Jackson in 1825 when, having the largest number of
electoral votes and of popular votes, he was set aside in favor
of Mr. Adams. Those who made this complaint paid but a
poor compliment to the intelligence of those to whom it was
addressed. If the frame rs of the Constitution had intended
that a plurality of popular or of electoral votes should decide
the election of President they would not have devised the
elaborate system of election by the House of Representatives.
Those who desire to see worked out the flimsy argument that
the people were defrauded in 1825 by the defeat of a candi-
date who had but a plurality of votes, given under a system
that did not contemplate popular elections, will find it in Ben-
ton's " Thirty Years' View." His exposition of what he calls
" the Demos Krateo principle " is a brilliant specimen of rea-
soning from false premises.

The candidacy of Mr. Adams for reelection was taken for
granted. If there were any meetings, legislative or other, at
which his name was formally presented, the nomination was of
no value in the canvass. The question of the vice-presidency
was much discussed. Calhoun, of course, was out of the ques-
tion. From the beginning he had been an enemy of the
administration ; and it was plain to see that he was to be the
candidate of the Jacksonians for reelection. As early as
February, 1826, Mr. Clay mentioned to Mr. Adams that he
had been approached by many persons on the subject of the
vice-presidency, and inquired what were the President's wishes.
For his own part he preferred to retain his office of Secretary
of State, but he was willing to do whatever would be best for
the administration. Mr. Adams, without making a final deci-
sion, was inclined to think Mr. Clay more useful in the State
Department. Mr. Clay reported also that Governor Barbour,
the Secretary of War, was much considered for the vice-presi-
dency. Two months later another caller upon the President
referred to the question of who should have the second place
on the ticket, " which, he says, W. H. Harrison looks to very
earnestly." Still later the strange suggestion was made that
Mr. W. H. Crawford should be nominated, and, more remark-
able still, it was pressed rather urgently. Mr. Adams gave no
countenance to this proposition, which he felt sure would re-
sult in nothing but treachery.1 The matter was finally settled
1 Mr. Adams, at the beginning of the administration, asked Mr. Crawford

146 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by the nomination of Mr. Richard Rush, the Secretary of the
Treasury, by the " administration " convention of Pennsyl-
vania, which met at Harrisburg, January 4, 1828.

The friends of the administration believed, or professed to
believe, to the last moment, that Mr. Adams would be re-
elected. They classed Pennsylvania among the doubtful
States, counted confidently upon the new States of the north-
west, — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, — and were encouraged, by
the success of the administration party at the state election in
Kentucky, as late as August, 1828, to believe that Mr. Clay's
State would support them. The administration party was
grossly deceived. Mr. Adams received fewer electoral votes
than he had in 1824 ; and not one of the votes given for Clay
four years before was transferred to him.

The last days of the canvass were made noteworthy by a
political incident highly characteristic of Mr. Adams, — an inci-
dent which, in these times of rapid dissemination of intelli-
gence, would have destroyed instantly any chances which a
candidate in Mr. Adams's situation might have had. Probably
it actually had but the slightest effect on the vote, and of
course none whatever upon the result. In October, 1828, the
month preceding the election, Mr. William B. Giles, of Vir-
ginia, a man intensely hostile to Mr. Adams, caused to be
published a statement regarding the circumstances of that
gentleman's secession from the Federalist party in 1808, and a
part of certain correspondence between Mr. Jefferson and him-
self (Giles) in 1825. A lack of candor on Mr. Giles's part
and a failure of memory on Mr. Jefferson's placed the conduct
of Mr. Adams in a highly unfavorable light. The President
authorized a reply which was printed in the " National Intelli-
gencer," in the course of which he made against certain lead-
ers of the Federal party in Massachusetts the grave charge of
a purpose to dissolve the Union. Thirteen gentlemen, eleven
of whom were certainly entitled to represent themselves as

to remain as Secretary of the Treasury. Some time afterward he learned,
greatly to his surprise, that just before the close of Mr. Monroe's term Craw-
ford had had a wordy altercation with the President, and had applied to him a
term which one gentleman never addresses to another. After that affair the
President and his Secretary of the Treasury were not on speaking terms, and
transacted the public business through an intermediary. Mr. Adams, record-
ing these facts in his diary, expresses regret that he had proposed to take Mr.
Crawford into the cabinet. His knowledge of the affair explains his objec-
tion to the idea of the candidacy of Mr. Crawford for the vice-presidency.

JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 147

among the chief Federalists of the State in 1808, while the
others were sons of two such leaders, demanded that he should
substantiate his charge, or retract it. An acrimonious corre-
spondence ensued. Mr. Adams never gave to the world his
final word on the subject, which he wrote at enormous length
just at the close of his administration. It was first published
in his grandson's "New England Federalism." A candid
view of the case seems to be that disunion was discussed by
some of the members of what was long known as the " Essex
Junto ; " but that the discussion was in an extremely narrow
circle, and that even among them the idea found but the most
limited acceptance. At all events Mr. Adams named but two
or three men who had ever heard of the scheme, although he
hinted at a larger number. Of course the assault by Mr.
Adams upon the Federalists generally, when those who had
been members of that party had but lately and reluctantly
come to his support, was calculated to make them anything
but zealous in his cause. Nevertheless it could operate upon
the minds of voters in that community only where the name
of Jackson symbolized all that was evil in politics ; and for
that reason it cost Adams few popular votes, and no electoral
votes.

The number of States that participated in the election of
1828 was unchanged, — twenty-four. Since the preceding
election, however, there had been a general change on the part
of those States which had previously chosen electors through
the medium of the legislature, to the popular system. Of the
six States wherein the legislature had exercised this privilege
in 1824, four changed to a popular election before 1828, —
Vermont, New York, Georgia, and Louisiana. The change in
New York was not effected without a great agitation of the
people. The legislature held to the powers it exercised as
long as it dared. Governor De Witt Clinton recommended
the change to the legislature at a special session called in
1820, on which occasion the Senate of New York refused to
perform any legislative duty whatever, and treated the Gov-
ernor with such open disrespect as has hardly ever been shown
toward a state executive by any de'partment of government.
A bill was passed once, perhaps twice, by one branch of the
legislature, some years later, to confer the right on the people,
but the other branch rejected it. At last, the legislature,
affecting a doubt whether the people really cared for the privi*

146

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

lege, passed an act formally submitting the question to them.
If there had been any real doubt the result of the popular
vote speedily dispelled it, and the legislature reluctantly yielded
to the urgent demand.

But there still existed differences in the systems of election,
even among those where there was an appointment of electors
by popular vote. In the following States the election of 1828
was by general ticket, — the system which is now universal :
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con-
necticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, — eighteen. Some of these,
like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina, having
tried for many years to secure the district system by amend-
ment of the Constitution, had despaired of success, and adopted
the general ticket. Of the six States not named above, two,
Delaware and South Carolina, clung to the old method of legis-
lative appointment. In Maine and New York, an elector

States.

Jackson.

Adams.

Mode of Election.

Maine

New Hampshire ....

Vermont

Massachusetts ....

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Delaware

Maryland

Virginia

North Carolina ....
South Carolina ....
Georgia ......

Alabama

Mississippi

Louisiana

Kentucky

Tennessee ......

Missouri

Ohio

Indiana

Illinois

13,927

20,922

8,350

6,016

821

4,448

140,763

21,951

101,652

24,565
26,752
37,857

19,363
17,138

6,772

4,603
39,397
44,293

8,272
67,597
22,257

9,560

20,733
24,134
25,363
29,876
2,754
13,838
135,413
23,764
50,848

25,527
12,101
13,918

No opposition.

1,938

1,581

4,076

31,460

2,240

3,400

63,396

17,052

4,662

Districts.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
Districts.
General ticket.
General ticket.
Legislature.
Districts.
General ticket.
General ticket.
Legislature.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
Districts.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.
General ticket.

Total

647,276

508,064

JACKSON'S TRIUMPH

149

was chosen for each representative district, and the members
so appointed chose the two additional electors. In Maryland
and Tennessee, the States were specially divided into districts
for the choice of all their electors. There was, however, a
divided vote of the electors in three only of the States.

The table on page 148 shows the popular vote of the States,
and the manner of choosing electors in each State.

The electoral count was quite devoid of incident. The re-
sult, which was ascertained and declared in the usual manner,
was as follows : —

States.

Maine . . .
New Hampshire
Vermont . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut
New York . .
New Jersey
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . ,
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina
JSouth Carolina
Georgia . . .
Alabama . .
Mississippi . .
Louisiana . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee . .
Ohio ....
Indiana . . .
Illinois . . .
Missouri . . .

Total . . .

President.

178

Vice-President.

24
15
11

2
5

171

150 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

" Hurrah for Jackson ! " had been the rallying cry of the
campaign, and the answer to every campaign argument against
him, — some of them true, many of them false. Those who
had worked to bring him in felt sure that they were to be
rewarded, and they flocked to Washington for the inauguration
in such throngs as the capital had never before seen. General
Jackson's own progress from Tennessee to the seat of govern-
ment was one prolonged triumph. Shouting crowds of de-
lighted partisans were at every steamboat landing. On the
day of the inauguration the streets were so blocked that the
procession which accompanied the President-elect could hardly
make its way to the Capitol. The ceremonies took place on
the eastern portico of the building, in the presence of a vast
multitude of men from every part of the country, who could
not repress their joy at the prospect that " the rights of the
people " were at last restored to them.

XIII

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED

There will always be two opinions concerning the character
of Andrew Jackson and of his administration, — as to the fit-
ness of the man for the position of President, as to the worthi-
ness of the motives which actuated his official conduct, as to
his influence upon the political morals of his country. His
administration was a period of turmoil, and, whether he was
right or wrong, he caused it. Another man than he would
have taken the view that the good name of the government
was of greater concern to him as its chief than that of any
man — or woman ; and would not have deemed it in accord-
ance with a dignified and high-minded conduct of public affairs
that the smallest — to say nothing of the greatest — govern-
mental questions should be involved with the question whether
or not a certain woman, however unjustly accused, should be
received in the society of the capital. Another man than he
would not have sought a quarrel with the officer with whom
he had been associated on the national ticket, on account of an
opinion by that officer ten years before, in the privacy of a
cabinet council, upon one of his — Jackson's — acts. These two
incidents, the attempt to force the unwilling wives of his cab-
inet officers to associate with Mrs. Eaton, and the breach with
Mr. Calhoun which was apparently planned deliberately by
the President and Mr. Van Buren, are striking examples of
the change that came over the government when Mr. Adams
went out and General Jackson came in. They were both
characteristic of the new regime ; neither would have been pos-
sible under the old.

The change was broad as well as deep. It began with the
reign of terror among the office-holders. Yet the upheaval
of the civil service effected by Jackson was the most logical
and consistent change that was introduced at this time. There
had been no reason for the rejection of Mr. Adams and the
election of General Jackson, save a personal preference for

152 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Jackson. If that was a good reason for substituting one Pre-
sident for another, it was surely sufficient to justify " rotation "
in the minor offices, rotating out those who did not, and rotat-
ing in those who did, approve and assist in making the greater
substitution. No President before Jackson had so good reason
as he to regard his elevation as a personal triumph, or to as-
sume that the whole responsibility of government was intrusted
to him. That fact may explain why he felt justified in dis-
playing anger when the Senate exercised its constitutional
right to reject his nominations ; why he adopted a dictatorial
tone toward Congress ; why he discarded the old custom of
consulting the members of his cabinet on momentous public
questions, and sought the advice of a coterie of politicians, his
devoted slaves, who were derisively styled the " kitchen cab-
inet."

He was conscious of no scruples in violating rules which he
himself had laid down for the conduct of others. In the letter
in which he resigned his seat in the Senate, in 1825, he put
more stress upon the importance of rendering the executive
independent of Congress than upon anything else. This les-
son came to him from the appointment of Mr. Clay, a member
of the House of Representatives, to a cabinet office, by Mr.
Adams. He urged, and argued at length in favor of, an
amendment to the Constitution, "rendering any member of
Congress ineligible to office under the general government dur-
ing the term for which he was elected, and for two years there-
after." Yet when he made up his own cabinet he took four
of its six members from Congress. A morbid suspicion of
others ; a combativeness of disposition that led him to see
causes of quarrel where none existed, and to take up the quar-
rels of others in the intervals of his own ; and a total lack of
that sense of proportion which might have informed him
what was and what was not worth fighting about ; — this com-
bination of personal qualities in the President had the effect of
making his administration as turbulent a period as has been
known in our history, and one on which those who enjoy a
quiet life can never dwell with pleasure.

It would be uncandid not to add that most of those who
have not studied the history of the time, and many of those
who have studied it, take a radically different view of the
matter from that which is here presented. To them Jackson
is a man who rescued the country from great constitutional

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 153

errors — the doctrines of his immediate predecessor ; who at-
tacked and destroyed the " Monster," — the Bank of the
United States ; who instituted a great reform when he made
a clean sweep of the office-holders, and filled their places with
" true Republicans ; " whose policy was, to use the words of one
of his stanchest admirers, Mr. Benton, " to simplify and purify
the workings of the government, and to carry it back to the
times of Mr. Jefferson — to promote its economy and efficiency,
and to maintain the rights of the people and of the States in
its administration." That he was the sturdiest and most faith-
ful of friends to those whom he liked and who were true to
him, is attested by his zeal in doing favors for them at the
sacrifice of his own dignity. Moreover, his masterful, over-
bearing character did not prevent — it might perhaps have
been the cause of — a personal popularity that outlasted his
administration and his life, and is perpetuated in a Jackson
cult to this day. To his conduct in one emergency, nullifica-
tion in South Carolina, none will give more unqualified and
unstinted praise than those who regard the period of his ad-
ministration as one of national demoralization.

Undoubtedly he was the man for his time. He had not the
support of those who regarded government as a serious busi-
ness, to be conducted from high motives and with calmness
and decorum. But those people were a minority. His adop-
tion of the principle first formulated by Marcy, that " to the
victors belong the spoils of the enemy," was applauded and
approved. He degraded national politics to the level of a
game wherein the shrewdest and the strongest, rather than the
best and the wisest, were to come off the victors ; yet he
merely extended the operation of a principle that had long
been dominant in the affairs of the great States of New York
and Pennsylvania, and gave to a great majority of the people
of the country a government of a sort which they preferred to
that which had preceded it. Thus he attracted more than he
repelled ; he pleased more of the men of his generation than
he offended ; and when the appeal was made to the voters of
the country to pass judgment upon his doings, a compact, en-
thusiastic body of his supporters confronted a disorganized and
discordant opposition.

General Jackson, in his first message to Congress, December
8, 1829, expressed the opinion that " it would seem advisable
to limit the service of the chief- magistrate to a single term of

154 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

either four or six years." * Three months afterward, in March,
1830, Major W. B. Lewis, one of the "kitchen cabinet,"
wrote to a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, urging the
importance of the reelection of General Jackson in 1832. He
enclosed a draft of a letter, addressed to the President, begging
him to stand for reelection, to be signed by the members of the
legislature. It was signed by sixty-eight members, and sent
to the general. Although he thought the liberties of the peo-
ple would be safer if a President did not seek reelection, he
evidently did not fear that those liberties would be endangered
by his own reelection ; for he acceded tacitly to the above-
mentioned spontaneous demand.

Few of the measures of the period between 1829 and 1832
had a direct bearing upon the question of the presidential suc-
cession ; for that was already settled. But they did have a
great part in bringing about a division of the people into
parties, and in determining which of these parties should be
successful. General Jackson made the question of internal
improvements one of leading importance by his veto of the
Maysville-road bill, in May, 1830. He thus attached to the
party of which he was the chief, all those who, in this par-
ticular, favored a "strict construction" of the Constitution.
He took the part of Georgia and Alabama in their effort to
possess themselves of the lands owned by the Creek and
Cherokee Indians, and thereby gave encouragement to the
Georgia nullifiers, which he afterward more than neutralized
by his courageous and patriotic action against South Carolina
nullification. Jackson's attitude on the question of the dis-
position of the public lands made him popular in the western
States; although a disagreement between the two Houses of
Congress prevented definite action.

The tariff of 1828, styled by its opponents a " tariff of
abominations," had been passed amid great excitement during
the last year of Adams's administration, but was by no means
an administration measure. It was most bitterly denounced
at the South, and caused the first steps toward nullification in
South Carolina. The defiance of the national authority by
that State became most serious when the tariff act of 1832 was

1 He repeated this recommendation, in conjunction with one for an amend-
ment of the Constitution providing for an election of President by the people,
in the five succeeding annual messages.

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 155

passed, leaving untouched the protective duties that had caused
the greatest offence.

Jackson's most popular act was his assault upon the Bank
of the United States. It is not to the purpose to urge either
that he was right or that he was wrong ; that he undertook
the "war" because he thought Mr. Biddle, the president,
wished to thwart him, or because he believed the Bank en-
dangered the liberties of the people. The act was popular,
as assaults upon capitalists, " bloated bondholders," " trusts,"
and "the money power" have always been, in this country.

The candidacy of General Jackson for reelection being
predetermined, the only matter which remained for the
Democrats to consider was the choice of a candidate for Vice-
President. The President was in favor of Martin Van Buren,
the Secretary of State. It is clear that he allowed Mr. Van
Buren to have a free hand, and to make all his arrangements
with a view to the succession. His letter resigning his seat
in the cabinet, April, 1831, was a skilfully worded announce-
ment that he was a candidate for the place when General
Jackson should retire. The President nominated him as
minister to England, and he departed for his post during the
recess of the Senate ; the Senate rejected the nomination, and
Jackson was more than ever determined that he should be
tl Vice-President now, and President afterward." Parton says
that there was a ■"■ programme " laid down before Jackson had
been a year in office, — - " a programme of succession so long
that it would have required twenty-four years to play it out.
It was divided into three parts of eight years each : Andrew
Jackson, eight years ; Martin Van Buren, eight years ; Thomas
H. Benton, eight years," He does not give his authority for
this statement, which can be neither proved nor disproved.

The chronological order of events requires that we should
mention first the formal nomination of opposition candidates.
The alleged abduction, in 1826, of William Morgan, who was
supposed to have revealed the secrets of Freemasonry, caused
the origin of an Anti-Masonic party. From western New
York, the place of its birth, it spread over a large part of the
North and played an important part in some state elections.
In September, 1830, a national convention of Anti-Masons
was held in Philadelphia. Four New England States, New
York, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Mary-
land, — ten States in all, — together with the Territory of

156 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Michigan, were represented by 96 delegates. It was voted to
hold a second national convention in Baltimore on the 26th of
September, 1831, to be composed of delegates equal in num-
ber to the representatives in both Houses of Congress from
each State, and to be chosen by the people opposed to secret
societies, for the purpose of making nominations for the offices
of President and Vice-President.

The convention was held at the time and place designated.
Delegates to the number of 113 were present, representing all
the New England and Middle States, Ohio and Indiana. It had
been intended to nominate Judge McLean, of Ohio. McLean
was Postmaster-General under Mr. Adams, but had neverthe-
less been a supporter of Jackson all through the administration.
When he displayed an unwillingness to administer the Post-
office Department as a part of the "spoils" with which
the Democratic workers were to be rewarded, the President
appointed him a justice of the Supreme Court. He seems to
have passed at once to the opposition. At all events, after
the convention of Anti-Masons in 1830, he had consented
provisionally to become the candidate of the party, if nomi-
nated. It appears that certain influential " National Repub-
licans," as the opposition now termed itself, gave notice that
they could not support Judge McLean, and he accordingly
wrote a letter to the Baltimore convention withdrawing his
name. It was the avowed purpose of the Anti-Masons to
present the name of one upon whom all the opponents of
Jackson could unite. Their course was somewhat disingenu-
ous, since by far the largest section of the opposition desired
to vote for Mr. Clay.

The convention invited Chief Justice Marshall, who was in
the city, to sit with the convention, and he accepted the in-
vitation. A ballot was taken for a candidate for President.
William Wirt, of Maryland, received 108 of 111 votes cast.
Having more than the three fourths which it had been pre-
viously voted should be necessary for a choice, he was de-
clared nominated. A committee was sent to inform him of
his nomination. He went into the convention and delivered
one of the most remarkable speeches ever heard, in response
to such a notification. He avowed that he had been made a
Mason; confessed that he never saw any harm in the order
until this political party was founded on the principle of
opposition to secret societies; declared that Masonry as they

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 157

conceived it "was not and could not be Masonry as under-
stood by Washington ; " and concluded by telling the dele-
gates that if they had nominated him under a misapprehension
he would permit them to substitute another name for his own.
After his address the delegates unanimously voted to stand by
the nomination. They completed the ticket by nominating
Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The
convention adopted no platform, but issued a long and verbose
address to the American people.

The next convention, that of the National Kepublicans, was
held at Baltimore on December 12, 1831. Seventeen States
were represented by 167 delegates. South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois were unrepresented.
How many delegates attended from each State, and how they
were chosen, cannot be ascertained. That it was not a gather-
ing of volunteers is evident from the facts that a committee on
credentials was appointed and that the convention adjourned
to give the committee time to do its work. General Abner
Lacock, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman of the
convention, and Governor James Barbour, of Virginia, the
permanent president. The members voted for a candidate for
President by rising in their seats as their names were called
and announcing their vote. The nomination of Henry Clay
was unanimous. In the same manner John Sergeant, of
Pennsylvania, was unanimously nominated for Vice-President.
A committee was raised, consisting of one member from each
State, to inform Mr. Clay of the nomination ; and the commit-
tee was constituted by the delegation from each State naming
its own member. Thus, in the earliest days of the convention
system, one of the most striking features of the nomination
was introduced in precisely the present form. In 1831, how-
ever, the notification was by mail instead of by a pilgrimage to
the residence of the candidate. The convention adopted no
resolutions, but it issued an address severely criticising the
administration for its corruption, partisanship, and abuse of
power ; for the hostility it had manifested to internal improve-
ment, for treachery on the tariff question, for the war on the
Bank, and for the humiliating surrender to Georgia in the
matter of the Cherokee Indians.

By recommendation of this convention a national assembly
af young men met in Washington in May, 1832, which accepted
the nominations made by the National Republicans and adopted

158 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the following series of resolutions, — the first platform evei
adopted by a national convention : —

1. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, although
the fundamental principles adopted by our fathers, as a basis upon
which to raise a superstructure of American independence, can
never be annihilated, yet the time has come when nothing short
of the united energies of all the friends of the American republic
can be relied on to sustain and perpetuate that hallowed work.

2. Resolved, That an adequate protection to American industry
is indispensable to the prosperity of the country ; and that an aban-
donment of the policy at this period would be attended with conse-
quences ruinous to the best interests of the nation.

3. Resolved, That a uniform system of internal improvements,
sustained and supported by the general government, is calculated
to secure, in the highest degree, harmony, the strength, and the
permanency of the republic.

4. Resolved, That the Supreme Court of the United States is
the only tribunal recognized by the Constitution for deciding in
the last resort all questions arising under the Constitution and
laws of the United States, and that upon the preservation of the
authority and jurisdiction of that court inviolate depends the
existence of the nation.

5. Resolved, That the Senate of the United States is preemi-
nently a conservative branch of the federal government; that upon
a fearless and independent exercise of its constitutional functions
depends the existence of the nicely balanced powers of that govern-
ment ; and that all attempts to overawe its deliberations by the
public press or by the national executive deserve the indignant
reprobation of every American citizen.

6. Resolved, That the political course of the present Executive
has given us no pledge that he will defend and support these great
principles of American policy and the Constitution ; but, on the
contrary, has convinced us that he will abandon them whenever
the purposes of party require it.

7. Resolved, That the indiscriminate removal of public officers,
for the mere difference of political opinion, is a gross abuse of
power; and that the doctrine lately "boldly preached" in the
Senate of the United States, that " to the victor belong the spoils
of the enemy," is detrimental to the interests, corrupting to the
morals, and dangerous to the liberties of this country.

8. Resolved, That we hold the disposition shown by the pre-
sent national administration to accept the advice of the King of
Holland, touching the northeastern boundary of the United States,
and thus to transfer a portion of the territory and citizens of a
State of this Union to a foreign power, to manifest a total destitu

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 159

tion of patriotic American feeling, inasmuch as we consider the
life, liberty, property, and citizenship of every inhabitant of every
State as entitled to the national protection.

9. Resolved, That the arrangement between the United States
and Great Britain relative to the colonial trade, made in pursuance
of the instructions of the late Secretary of State, was procured in
a manner derogatory to the national character, and is injurious to
this country in its practical results.

10. Resolved, That it is the duty of every citizen of this repub
lie, who regards the honor, the prosperity, and the preservation of
our Union, to oppose by every honorable measure the reelection
of Andrew Jackson, and to promote the election of Henry Clay, of
Kentucky, and John Sergeant ol Pennsylvania, as President and
Vice-President of the United States.

The Democratic convention, which was held at Baltimore
on May 21, 1832, was a striking example of the hold which
Jackson had on his party, perhaps still more of the authority
which the general's agents were allowed to exercise in his
name. Mr. Van Buren was not the free choice of the Demo-
crats for the office of Vice-President. Every contemporary
authority, except Benton, assures us of that fact. Yet Jack-
son desired his nomination, and the machinery was set in
motion to effect it. In May, 1831, Major Lewis, second audi-
tor of the Treasury, wrote from Washington to Amos Kendall,
fourth auditor of the Treasury, who was then in New Hamp-
shire, urging the propriety of having a convention to nominate
a candidate for Vice-President, in May of the following year ;
hinting that it would be well if the New Hampshire legislature
were to propose such a convention, and advising him to " make
the suggestion to our friend [Isaac] Hill." This scheme of
the " kitchen cabinet " — for it was at this time composed
itf the three men named in the last sentence — was carried out.
The result was communicated to the public in " a letter of a
gentleman " in New Hampshire, printed in the " Globe," the
President's organ, in June, 1831. The " gentleman " was
Mr. Kendall, and the extract printed was as follows : —

The Republican members of the New Hampshire Legislature,
to the number of about 169, met last evening. An address and
resolutions approving of the principles and measures of the present
administration, the veto of the President on the Maysville Road bill,
disavowing the doctrine of nullification, disapproving Clay's Amer-
ican system, but recommending a judicious reduction of the duties,
disapproving of the United States Bank, passed the convention

160 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

unanimously. The convention also recommended a general conven-
tion of Republicans friendly to the election of General Jackson, to
consist of delegates equal to the number of electors of President in
each State, to be holden at Baltimore on the third Monday of May,
1832, to nominate a candidate for Vice-President, and take such
other measures in support of the reelection of Andrew Jackson as
may be deemed expedient.

The suggestion of a convention, thus put forth with ap-
proval in the newspaper which had been established for the
express purpose of being the mouthpiece of the administration,
was seconded by all the party organs ; and the delegates were
chosen. Most of them were ready to register the will of the
President, and measures were taken to secure the acquiescence
of such as were inclined to oppose it. Major Eaton, lately the
Secretary of War, and the husband of the famous Mrs. Eaton,
already referred to, was a delegate from Tennessee. He went
to Baltimore determined to oppose Van Buren ; but he found
there a letter from Major Lewis, advising him to support that
gentleman " unless he wished to quarrel with the general."
He yielded, and voted for Van Buren. At the " Jackson
state convention " of Pennsylvania, held in March, 1832,
Mr. Van Buren had no supporters. The Democrats of the
State were in favor of the Bank, and were angry at Van Buren
because the New York legislature had adopted resolutions
against the institution. There was a long contest in the con-
vention between the friends of Mr. Dallas, Mr. Buchanan, and
Mr. Wilkins, which resulted in favor of Mr. Wilkins. So
strong was the determination not to accept Mr. Van Buren
that the electors nominated were pledged to vote for Mr. Wil-
kins, and, if he should be induced to withdraw, or if, for any
other reason he should not be a candidate, to vote for Mr.
Dallas. Yet when the convention was held, every vote of
Pennsylvania was in favor of Van Buren. The electors never-
theless obeyed their instructions and gave Mr. Wilkins their
votes.

The convention met on the day named in the saloon of the
Athenaeum. Every State except Missouri was represented;
and the number of delegates is reported to have been 326.
But according to the rules the States represented were entitled
to but 282 delegates. The number of votes cast for a candi-
date for Vice-President exceeded this number by one. Gen-
eral Robert Lucas, of Ohio, was the temporary and also the

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 161

permanent president. On the second day of the convention
the Committee on Rules reported the following : —

Resolved, That each State be entitled, in the nomination to be
made of a candidate for the vice-presidency, to a number of votes
equal to the number to which they will be entitled in the electoral
colleges, under the new apportionment, in voting for President and
Vice-President ; and that two thirds of the whole number of the
votes in the convention shall be necessary to constitute a choice.

This was the origin of the famous two-thirds rule, by which
all subsequent Democratic conventions have governed them-
selves in making nominations. On the first ballot for a can-
didate for Vice-President, Martin Van Buren had 208 votes,
Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, 49, and Richard M. Johnson,
of Kentucky, 26 votes. Virginia and South Carolina voted
solidly for Mr. Barbour, who had also fifteen votes of dele-
gates from Maryland, North Carolina, and Alabama. Colonel
Johnson had the full vote of Kentucky and Indiana, and two
votes from Illinois. Mr. Van Buren, having received more
than two thirds of all the votes, was declared the nominee.
General Jackson was recommended in the following resolu-
tion : —

Resolved, That the convention repose the highest confidence in.
tk e purity, patriotism, and talents of Andrew Jackson, and that we
most cordially concur in the repeated nominations which he has
received in various parts of the Union as a candidate for reelection
to the office which he now fills with so much honor to himself and
usefulness to his country.

No other resolution was adopted. A committee was ap-
pointed to prepare an address to the people in support of the
action of the convention ; but on the last day of the session
a report was made that the time had been too short to fulfil
that duty ; and this was accepted as satisfactory. Possibly the
difficulty of saying anything upon the Bank question without
sacrificing the electoral vote of Pennsylvania, and the absurdity
of issuing an address in which no mention should be made of
the Bank, had more to do than had the lack of time with the
failure of the committee to put the principles of the party in a
fitting form of words.

The convention accomplished the object for which it was
held, although it did not wholly overcome the repugnance of
Democrats in all the States to Mr. Van Buren, or suppress the
movement in favor of rival candidates. A Jackson-Barbour

162 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

convention was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, in June,"
by which Mr. P. P. Barbour was formally nominated as the
candidate for the vice-presidency in conjunction with General
Jackson for President. Later in the same month a similar con-
vention was held in North Carolina, in which delegates from
eighteen counties participated. The candidacy of Mr. Wilkins
was purely local in Pennsylvania, and that of Mr. Barbour
came to nothing.

The tone of political discussion during the canvass which
preceded and followed these nominations was unexampled for
its violence and rancor. The veto by the President of the
bill rechartering the Bank of the United States, which had
been passed by both Houses of Congress in spite of executive
opposition, although there was a Democratic majority in each'
House, intensified the bitterness of the conflict. It also
showed the strength of General Jackson's hold upon thu
people, that he could still retain, not only the support of
the people, who were probably with him in his war on the
Bank, but that of the politicians as well, — including that of
men who had even voted to pass the Bank bill over the veto.
Mr. Dallas was one of this class. He had introduced the bill
for a new charter in the Senate, had supported it at every
stage, and voted for it after the veto ; and yet, within a month
after the failure of the bill, he was found addressing a meet-
ing in Philadelphia which adopted a series of resolutions refer-
ring to the Bank veto and expressing thanks to the President
for his fearless discharge of duty. Nothing was too severe for
the opponents of Jackson to say of him ; and the violence of
their denunciations was equalled by the angry vituperation
which the Democrats poured out upon the National Republi-
cans and all other advocates of the Bank.

The early elections were not clearly indicative of the re-
sult in November. In the Kentucky election, which took
place in August, a " Jackson " governor and a " Clay " lieu-
tenant-governor were chosen, each by a small majority. Maine
was carried for the Jackson ticket in September, but by a
greatly "reduced majority. The October elections also gave
the opposition hope, which the result in the ensuing month
was not to justify ; for Ohio, though giving a plurality to the
Jackson ticket, seemed capable of being captured by the op-
position if it could be united ; and Pennsylvania gave to Gov-
ernor Wolf, the Democratic candidate, but a few thousand

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED

163

majority, — less, in fact, than a third of that two years before;
New Jersey and Maryland gave anti-Jackson majorities. The
chance of success in defeating the President led to fresh com-
binations' and coalitions where there was not already union
among the several elements of the opposition. The National
Republicans adopted the Anti-Masonic electoral ticket in New
York, and there was a combination of the same kind in Ohio
and elsewhere. But the Democrats professed a serene confi-
dence in the result, and they were not mistaken. The doubt-
ful States, with the exception of Kentucky, gave majorities, —
some of them small but all-sufficient, — to the Jackson and
Van Buren ticket. The Jackson party had, however, wisely
determined not to put up a ticket in opposition to the Wilkins
electors in Pennsylvania, and in South Carolina the contest
for the legislature had been wholly between the Union men
and the Nullifiers ; the Nullifiers carried the legislature which

States.

Maine . . .
New Hampshire
Vermont . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut
New York . .
New Jersey
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina
South Carolina t
Georgia . . .
Alabama J . .
Mississippi . .
Louisiana . .
Kentucky . .
Tennessee . .
Missouri . . .
Ohio ....
Indiana . . .
Illinois . . .

Total . . .

Jackson.

33,291
25,486

7,870
14,545

2,126

11,269

168,497

23,856

90,983

4,110
19,156
33,609
24,862

20,750

5,919
4,049
36,247
28,740
5,192
81,246
31,552
14,147

687,502

Clay.*

27,204
19,010
11,152
33,003

2,810

17,755

154,896

23,393

56,716

4,276
19,160
11,451

4,563

No opposition.
2,528
43,396
1,436

76,539

15,472

5,429

530,189

The vote for Wirt is included in Clay's vote.

X No opposition to Jackson.

t By legislature.

164

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

was to appoint the electors. On the whole it was a great vie*
tory for the Democrats.

As before, twenty-four States took part in this election, but
the number of electors was enlarged by the new apportion-
ment which had been made after the result of the census of
1830 was ascertained. Delaware joined the States which
permitted the people to choose the electors. South Carolina
alone followed the old system of appointment by the legis-
lature ; and she retained it until and including the election
of 1860. Maine, New York, and Tennessee also abandoned
at this time the district system of election. Maryland only

President.

Vice-Pbesident.

PL4

States.

1
If

a
1

i
1
i

a
m

>»

a
■
W

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont . . .

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut .

New York .

New Jersey .

Pennsylvania

Delaware . .

Maryland . .

Virginia . .

—

-■

North Carolina

—

South Carolina

Georgia . .

Alabama .

Mississippi

Louisiana .

—

Kentucky

Tennessee

—

Ohio . .

Indiana .

Illinois

Missouri .

Total

219

189

THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 165

adhered to it. With the exception of South Carolina and
Maryland, therefore, the method of choosing electors had now
become uniform throughout the country, without the inter-
position of an amendment to the Constitution.

The count of electoral votes was conducted in strict accord-
ance with precedent, without dispute or incident. The result
of the popular and the electoral votes is exhibited on preceding
pages.

XIV

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM

Since 1836 the system of nominating candidates for Pre-
sident and Vice-President by general party conventions has
been universal. During the intervening sixty years no can-
didate, in whose favor an electoral ticket has been presented
to the voters of any State, has been otherwise placed in nomi-
nation. It therefore becomes timely, at this point, to consider
how the national convention came to supersede the earlier
modes of nomination, and how it developed into the important
adjunct of the government which it has become. Even so late
as the time when the revolt against the congressional caucus
began, a national convention, supposing it to have been pos-
sible to constitute such a body for such a purpose, would have
been quite unsuitable. But just as the growth of our modern
civilization has rendered necessary the invention and the im-
mediate utilization of the improved instruments of rapid trans-
portation, and of instantaneous communication between people
at a distance from each other, so the evolution of political
parties as compact and disciplined organizations enforced the
adoption of the convention system. Neither could those
parties exist in their present efficiency without a central au-
thority; nor can we conceive of a body better adapted to
the purpose than is the national convention. It is capable
of improvement in details, but the general structure is a case
of perfect adaptation to the end sought. Moreover, the pro-
position may be maintained that this extra-constitutional and
extra-legal institution supplements the electoral system in such
a way as to realize and make effectual the plans and purposes
of the framers of the Constitution.

Let us note anew the successive steps in the process by
which the necessity for this system arose. When the Con-
stitution was adopted, the divergent interests of the people
of the thirteen States were almost as many and as important
as their common interests. The first division into parties

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 167

was really upon the question whether the common welfare
or the individual welfare of the States should be deemed
paramount, — that is, whether the Constitution, establishing
a more perfect Union, should be adopted. When that had
been decided, the public men of the country fell apart over
the discussion whether the Constitution should bind the States
together closely or loosely. The conditions under which par-
ties existed were widely different from those which prevail
now; and these conditions affected every election in which
national issues were involved. Party lines did not cut across
families and neighborhoods to such an extent as they do now,
Nor would it be true to say that they followed state lines.
Yet party association was to a degree a matter more of state
or of community public opinion than of individual opinion.
A few leaders determined the political course to be pursued,
the ground to be taken on public questions, and the candi-
dates for office to be supported. The majority accepted the
programme set forth by the leaders ; and since the minority,
recognizing the fact that it was outnumbered, rarely made
a stubborn contest, and consequently did not force the domi-
nant party to exhibit its full strength, the number of votes
polled was usually small. One example will suffice to illus-
trate this fact. So late as 1824, when the most fiercely
contested election of President known up to that time took
place, eighteen States appointed electors by popular vote. In
eight of those States the candidate locally successful had more
than three times as many votes as the other three candi-
dates combined. The population of the eighteen States was
about 7,800,000, and their total vote was in round numbers
355,000, — less than one twentieth of the population. New
York and New Jersey, having in 1896 about as many inhab-
itants as the eighteen States in 1824, gave a total of 1,783,000
votes. New Jersey alone, in 1896, cast more votes than were
polled in the whole country in the great contest of 1824.

The framers of the Constitution expected that the electors
of President and Vice-President would exercise an individual
judgment in making a choice. But when the government was
first formed, the only people who possessed a sufficient acquaint-
ance with the public men of the land, save those of their own
State or part of the country, were the officers at the seat of
government and the members of Congress. Both of these classes
were excluded from service as electors. Consequently, if the

168 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

electors were left to themselves, it was inevitable that they
would, in their lack of acquaintance with others, vote for can-
didates from their own or near-by States, and so fail to make a
choice ; and the election would always be thrown into the House
of Representatives. The selection of Washington was obvious
and easy. When he retired it seemed so natural that the
electors should choose Mr. Adams for the succession that mem-
bers of his own party, exerting themselves against him, failed
to effect his defeat. Thus the administration party was united
in spite of itself. The opposition took the course of a nomi-
nation by caucus of its party members in both Houses of
Congress, who were not merely the best but the only compe-
tent directors of the policy to be pursued, the only force that
could prevent the strength of the party from being scattered
and wasted, and the only means of enlightening the provin-
cialism of the electors. Consequently the congressional caucus
was in these times something more than a pardonable device
for concentrating public opinion ; it was an instrument with-
out which the party success of a great majority of the people
would have been impossible.

Nevertheless the congressional caucus outlived its useful-
ness. It ceased to be a necessity when national concerns at
last outweighed local interests, and when the people became
acquainted with the character and ability of public men in all
parts of the country. Always — in spite of its usefulness —
contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, which enjoined a
strict separation and the full independence of the three depart-
ments of government, it became a menace to popular liberty
when it was used as a means of muffling the people, — depriv-
ing them of a voice in the selection of those who should fill
the first places in the state, and usurping that power in behalf
of men chosen for a different purpose altogether, and wholly
irresponsible with reference to the choice of a President. The
revolt came immediately upon a disregard of the will of the
people, and upon the selection of second-rate men as candidates,
to be accepted at the peril of a party defeat.

Nomination by state legislatures was the temporary make-
shift of those who rebelled against the caucus. Save that it
was not obnoxious to the spirit of the Constitution, it was
inferior to the caucus in every respect. Those who made the
.nominations had, like the members of Congress, no commission
to undertake the duty ; and they had not the qualification for

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 169

the duty conferred upon congressmen by their opportunity to
take a general survey of the field, and to compare the merits
of candidates. Nomination by state legislature was either a
movement to bring forward a conspicuous citizen of the State
presenting his name, or, originating in that State, was a cun-
ningly devised scheme to create an appearance of the candi-
date's popularity and importance by procuring his nomination
by the legislature of another State.

John Quincy Adams and Jackson were the only Presidents
whose nomination came exclusively from state legislatures.
Adams was one of four candidates, three of whom were named
for the office by the legislatures of their respective States ; and
he owed his election to the House of Representatives. Jack-
son's nomination in 1825 by the legislature of Tennessee merely
gave his canvass an early start. He would have been elected
in any event. Of the Vice-Presidents chosen at the same time
as these two Presidents, Calhoun, having been nominated for
the first place by the South Carolina legislature, was indebted
for his first election to a concentration upon him, arranged by
correspondence between the political leaders of the anti-caucus
forces, after he had withdrawn as a candidate for the presi-
dency. His second election came from an alliance with Jack-
son, without any nomination. Van Buren came in under the
convention system. By no other means could he have been
made the candidate of his party. The caucus was discredited
and extinct. Nominations by friendly legislatures could be
had easily ; but there were unfriendly legislatures to be en-
countered, including that of the President's own State of Ten-
nessee, which, despite Jackson's great political influence and
strong preference for Van Buren, was never favorable to him.
The first Democratic national convention was called to impose
the President's will upon the whole party. From that time
until, but not including, the year 1896, every national conven-
tion of the party in power for the time being has been more
or less under the influence, in some cases under the control, of
the administration ; but the tendency has been and is toward
freedom from dictation by President or Congress.

The idea of the nominating convention, commonplace as it
is to us, was neither a part of our political inheritance from
England, nor yet an early fruit of the new institutions that
came with the Constitution. In Great Britain, until within
a few years, candidates for Parliament offered themselves for

170 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

election, or were presented to the constituency by the owner of
the M pocket borough " or by the general leader of his party.
The system of self -nomination, borrowed from Great Britain,
was the usual mode of making candidates in many of the
Southern States down to the time of the Civil War, and is even
yet not altogether extinct. In the North a caucus presented
candidates, but it was quite a different thing from the caucus
as we understand the term. The principle was not recognized
that all voters should be permitted to participate in the selec-
tion of candidates as well as in a choice between the candidates
offered for their suffrages. The caucus was therefore a select
gathering, to which those only were admitted who were in-
vited. Its chief function was the selection of candidates for
the legislature. In many of the States the governor and all
other state officers were chosen by the legislature. Where
they were elected by popular vote, the nominations were made
either by a legislative caucus or — rarely — by a convention,
which was not composed of elected delegates, but was virtually
an enlarged and general state caucus, consisting, like the small
local caucus, of persons bidden by the leaders and managers.

It is not easy, from the meagre materials at hand, to recon-
struct the political machinery in use during the first thirty
years under the Constitution. Nor must it be supposed that,
where many communities were developing political institutions
without much help from one another, because not in close
intercourse, any general statement regarding their practice is
true of all. We may trace back nearly to their origin institu-
tions that have since been universally adopted. It may be
stated — with some caution — that the earliest prototype of
the delegate state convention, from which no doubt the na-
tional convention was derived, forms a part of the political
history of Pennsylvania. Like many inventions in the arts,
it was originally the result of accidental necessity and crude in
form, but was afterward developed into a useful and efficient
instrument. The Republican party of Pennsylvania was
divided into two factions, one of which, by* the help of the
Federalists, who were few in numbers, kept Governor McKean
in office from 1799 until 1808. His term was about to expire,
and the war between the two factions was to be renewed.
The partisans of Governor McKean determined to resort to the
usual device of a caucus of members of the legislature, where
they were strong, both in actual numbers and in the fact that

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 171

most of the counties of the State were represented by one or
more members of their faction. Their opponents also called a
caucus ; and, in order to make up the deficiency in their repre-
sentation, invited their supporters in every county which would
not be represented by a member of the legislature, to send del-
egates to the "convention." Although it is not essentially
a part of the history of the development of the convention, it
may be mentioned as an interesting series of facts that, in
that year, 1808, the " constitutionalists " and " convention-
alists " had a lively scramble for priority in adopting Mr.
Madison as a candidate ; that they composed their differences,
put up a joint electoral ticket, united on Simon Snyder, the
convention's candidate for governor, left the Federalists out of
the government altogether, and ruled the State for more than
thirty years thereafter.

The idea of the state convention was adopted, extended, and
improved in New York and other States, and had already be-
come an ordinary means of concentrating and organizing party
action, when the necessity of adapting it to national politics
arose, to be soon followed by the opportunity to introduce it.
So far as can be ascertained, the first suggestion to this effect
came also from Pennsylvania, in a resolution, already cited
(p. 130), adopted by the Democrats of Lancaster County in
1824. The difficulties therein mentioned were already disap-
pearing in 1832 with the construction of railway lines,* and,
before 1840, were unworthy a moment's consideration in com-
parison with the great advantages of the new system.

The national convention of to-day is in its essentials what
it was at the beginning, seventy years ago ; but it has been
modified and reformed as the increasing refinement of party
machinery rendered changes necessary. This remark is more
accurate as applied to conventions of the older parties than to
those of the newer. The aim is always to constitute conventions
consisting wholly of duly elected delegates from every State
in the Union, and in numbers proportioned to the representa-
tion of the States in Congress. The national and universal
character of the assembly has from the first been the prime
requisite ; and, in order to render it national, it has been the
custom of parties in the process of formation to relax the rigor
of rules which would exclude delegates irregularly chosen, and
volunteer members, from States that would otherwise be un-
represented. Indeed, most of the parties which have been

172 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

formed during the last half -century — most of them to con-
tinue in existence but a few years — have been forced at first
to resort to many devices to create an impression that they
-were national in character. In the extreme youth of more
than one party, the national convention has consisted mostly
or wholly of volunteers, who came together rather as represent-
atives of their own opinions than as regularly chosen dele-
gates. In such cases it has been usual to allow all the persons
from any State, few or many, to cast a number of votes propor-
tioned to the electoral vote of the State. The first Democratic
convention, that of 1832, consisted of one delegate for each elect-
oral vote. But the practice came gradually into vogue of enlar-
ging the number of actual delegates, although their voting power
could not so be increased. It was a device for exerting "pres-
sure " upon a convention in favor of a particular candidate or
a " plank " for the platform. In 1848, Virginia sent seventy
delegates to the Democratic convention, to cast seventeen
votes. Inasmuch as the system resulted in giving undue in-
fluence to the States which thus enlarged their delegations, since
it made conventions unwieldy, and led to competition between
the States by this means to increase their power, a reform was
introduced. The present practice of all the national parties
except the Populists is to constitute conventions of double the
number of electors, and not to allow a larger membership than
the number of votes to be cast.1

It is not easy, perhaps it is not possible, to ascertain how
the delegates to early conventions were chosen. There was no
uniform practice, and conventions were not over-particular in
scrutinizing credentials. If there was a case of contesting dele-
gations, which occasionally happened, the decision was not made
according to an established rule, — for in the variety of methods
of choice no rule could have been made, — but in favor of that
faction whose votes were most needed by the majority of the
convention. Or, if it were desirable to placate both factions,
the two delegations were admitted to the convention, each
member to have half a vote. In the early days, delegates
were frequently chosen by the party members of the state
legislatures. So late as 1864, some of the delegates to the
Republican national convention were thus appointed. Dele-
gate state conventions were called, from the beginning, in

1 Save in cases where both rival delegations are admitted, with the priv*
lege to each member of giving a fraction of a vote.

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 173

some parts of the country, to select delegates to national con-
ventions. In such cases the whole delegation for the State
would be chosen by the state convention, either acting as a
whole, or dividing itself into groups representing the several
congressional districts.

These and other irregularities, which it is needless to spe-
cify, have disappeared. Delegates are now almost universally
chosen by conventions consisting of members elected in pri-
mary meetings to which the whole body of the party is admitted.
Four delegates at large are appointed by a state convention, and
two by a convention within each congressional district. The
Republican party not only prescribes this system, but requires
that the conventions shall be held between two specified dates.
The Democratic party has not adopted all these rules formally.
Yet public opinion within the organization requires a general
conformity to them. In one noteworthy recent case, the
Democratic convention for New York, prior to the national
convention of 1892, was held long before the natural and
usual time, in order to exercise a powerful influence upon the
result. It caused great indignation, and failed of its purpose
after all.

In another important respect the practice of the two parties
is different. The principle of the " general ticket " in choos-
ing electors was long ago introduced into national conventions,
where it is known as the " unit rule." The state convention
instructs all the delegates for the State to vote " as a unit "
on all questions that may arise. Such an instruction was
necessary to prevent confusion and collision when large dele-
gations, which might not be numerically a multiple of the
votes allowed to the State, were sent to national conventions.
It may be suggested, although it is not asserted, that this was
the origin of the rule. Be that as it may, the unit rule is
held to bind the district electors as well as those who repre-
sent the State " at large." Its effect is, obviously, not only
to nullify the will of any district which dissents from the
general policy of the party in the State, but to employ its
votes in carrying measures which it wishes to oppose. The
unit rule is still recognized in Democratic conventions as of
binding force ; and the presiding officers decline to permit the
instructions of state conventions to be disregarded. By no
means all the States bind their delegates by an injunction to
cast all their votes as a majority may decide ; but more than

174 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

once in the history of the party important results have been
achieved or prevented in national conventions by the enforce-
ment of this rule. The Republican party, which had already,
on more than one occasion, permitted individual delegates to
cast their votes in disregard of " unit " instructions, at last, in
1880, repudiated the rule altogether.

In the order of procedure all conventions are nearly alike.
There is a temporary organization, under which committees
are appointed — all committees consist of one member from
each State, named by the delegation thereof — (a) to examine
and report upon the credentials of members ; (b) to nominate
permanent officers ; and (c) to prepare and present the plat-
form. The business is transacted in the above order : first,
contested elections are decided ; next the permanent president
of the convention is presented and installed ; and then the
platform of principles is reported, discussed, and adopted.
Afterward the nominatiori of candidates is in order. The
congressional caucus and the earliest conventions announced
their principles in an address to the people of the country,
which was not reported until after the nominations had been
made. In modern times the issues of the pending campaign
invariably are set forth before the candidates are named. It
has become a custom to present the several candidates to the
convention in nominating speeches, which are studiously con-
trived to have a dramatic effect upon the audience, and to
evoke enthusiasm. In cases where there is a contest for the
nomination, the partisans of each candidate endeavor to outdo
their rivals in the loudness, the fervor, and the duration of
their applause. When the time comes to vote, the roll of the
States is called in alphabetical order, and the vote of each state
delegation is announced by one of its members. The Repub-
lican p°rty alone forbids the changing of votes once given.
The pi nibition is designed to allow some time for reflection
when a sudden impulse seizes the members to " stampede "
in favor of a certain candidate. It has always been believed
that the nomination of Mr. Polk, in 1844, was carefully
planned before the Democratic convention met. Few per-
sons were in the secret, if the common belief as to the origin
of the movement is to be accepted. The defeat of Van Buren
was the one thing to be accomplished; how.it was effected is
told in the history of the election of 1844. There was a
similar occurrence in 1852; and Seymour was nominated in

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 175

1868 by a stampede which was probably not planned long be-
fore it was set in motion. The purpose of bringing Pierce
forward in 1852 was formed before the delegates came to-
gether, but he was held in reserve, and his name was not pre-
sented until the thirty-fifth vote. On the vote preceding that
which gave him the nomination, he had the support of less
than one fifth of the convention.
1 It will be observed, from the summary just made, that the
I Republican party has adopted several reforms in the consti-
tution, the election, and the proceedings of national conven-
tions, which have not commended themselves to the Democrats.
Moreover, the Democrats cling still to one rule which has never
been a part of the code of any other party ; that, namely, which
requires that a nomination shall be made by two thirds of the
convention. The origin and the history of this rule may be
found in the proper places in this book. It is appropriate to
say here, that it is a singular inconsistency, in a party which
permits the majority of a state delegation to take full posses-
sion of all the votes allotted to that State, to refuse to a ma-
jority of the whole convention the right to name a candidate,
and thus to enable a determined minority to enforce its own-
will or — as happened in 1860 — break up the convention.

It is easy to see in what features there is still room for
useful reform in the convention system. The time favorable
for making the necessary changes is not when a nomination is
pending ; for then there will assuredly be a faction that stands
to gain and another that stands to lose by the reform. It would
be well for a carefully prepared scheme to be presented to a
national convention, to be submitted to the conventions of
the several States for adoption or rejection, somewhat as
amendments to the Constitution are submitted. For example,
the Democratic convention of the yeav 1900 might ask the
state conventions of its party next to be held to vote whether
the two-thirds rule should be retained or dropped, and direct
that in case a majority, three fifths, two thirds, or any other
specified fraction of the state conventions adopted the change,
it should go into effect in the convention of 1904.

As for general reforms, it is clear that the undue influence
of the local opinion of the city and State in which the con-
vention is held should be neutralized ; that the " pressure "
exerted by the too numerous outsiders, who constitute some-
times a body of participators in the proceedings, rather than an

176 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

audience, should be done away with altogether ; and that the
ordinary basis of representation is not defensible. The first-
mentioned evil, that of undue local influence, would be dimin-
ished by calling all national conventions to meet in Wash-
ington. A rule that, representatives of newspapers excepted,
the number of non-members admitted to witness the conven-
tion should not be greater than that of the members, would
put a stop to the practice of overawing conventions by an
organized claque. With reference to the basis of representa-
tion, it requires no argument to show that a system that
gives to Texas (203,000 plurality for Bryan in 1896), which
never cast a single electoral vote for a Republican, and Massa-
chusetts (173,000 plurality for McKinley), which never con-
tributed a Democratic electoral vote save at Monroe's second
election, an equal vote in both the Democratic and the Repub-
lican conventions, is not a scientific system. It may not be
well to base representation wholly upon the number of party
votes cast ; but a combination of the representation of States
and districts, and of supporters of the party, would give an
improved basis.

" Although defective in minor points, the national conven-
tion echoes accurately the voice of the party. It does not
result either always or usually in the selection of the foremost
men in the party ; but that is the fault of the party and not
of the convention. Whenever the party is united in its pre-
ference for one man it succeeds in nominating him. When
it is divided the result is commonly the selection of an obscure
candidate; and that would be the result under any system,
even the most perfect.

The peculiar excellence of the convention system is that it
renders possible the election of a President and Vice-President
in the mode prescribed by the Constitution, and is in a real
sense a means of taking an informal ballot. No doubt the
idea of the framers of the Constitution, that the electors should
express their individual preferences and judgment, is impracti-
cable. It was rendered so by the provision that the votes of
the electors are to be taken within the State for which they
are respectively appointed, and on the same day. In such
circumstances there would never be a choice by a majority
of electors, unless there were a previous agreement, or at least
a consultation, between those who think alike on public ques-
tions. As we have seen, the earliest consultation took place

THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 177

"between self-constituted leaders who were not electors ; next
between the representatives of parties in Congress ; after that,
until the convention was devised, there was no agreement,
and the electoral system bade fair to go to wreck. But the
convention, taking its commission directly from the people,
and giving an expression through one party or another to
the will of all the people, furnishes a guide to the judgment
of the electors which they do not and should not disregard.
It is based really although unintentionally upon the theory
of an indirect choice of the President by electors free to
choose, which was the theory of the fathers of the Consti-
tution. So long as the preliminary electors perform their
duty well, it is not to be deplored that the official and final
electors have merely the duty of giving formal effect to a
choice already made for them. " The King reigns but does
not govern " in a constitutional monarchy. It is not to be
regretted that a committee of the two Houses of the British
Parliament carry on the government subject to the will of the
people, and that the nominal sovereign is merely an agent
who gives formal assent to their plans, and may not overrule
them. As in that case of the British government, so in this of
our electoral system, safety lies in purifying and keeping pure
the source of actual power, — not *** overturning the electoral
system because the intentions of the Fathers are not carried
out in all their exactness. Parties have acquired great power
in our government. That power would not be diminished by
an abolition of the indirect election. And yet the goodness
or badness of ifie choice of a President, and of the govern-
ment as a who'le, is to depend upon the question whether
parties are honorable or corrupt. They are self-governing
fractions of the State. They make the President, and will
continue to make him under any system. Consequently it
should be the concern of all good citizens to make the na-
tional convention, through which parties act directly upon
the government, a free and independent body, expressive of
the best thought, the highest motives, and the truest patriot-
ism of the party.

VAN BUREN

General Jackson's first term ended in the midst of a
brief period during which he enjoyed almost universal popu-
larity. His vigorous, patriotic, and effective proclamation
against South Carolina nullification won for him unstinted
praise from men who were wont to find in his acts nothing but
evil. Parton quotes William Wirt (see p. 156) as saying at
this time : " My opinion is, he may be President for life if he
chooses." Yet in a few months he took another step which
caused a recurrence of the opposition in more than its former
violence. In a paper read to the cabinet in September, 1833,
he said : u Whatever may be the opinions of others, the Presi-
dent considers his reelection as a decision of the people against
the Bank." No doubt he had a right so to consider it. But
he had no right to fight eve^ the " monster," which the people
had condemned, with the unfair and illegal weapons which he
employed. He had resolved to remove the deposits of the
United States from the Bank, in the face of the law which
made the Bank the custodian of the public funds, and of a
resolution of Congress, passed after an investigation, that the
Bank was solvent and the funds safe. He was forced to re-
move Mr. McLane, the Secretary of the Treasury, to the State
Department, because he was opposed to the removal of the
deposits. Mr. Duane, whom he chose for the Treasury De-
partment with the express purpose of ordering the removal,
flatly refused to be the President's agent in the transaction,
and was curtly dismissed from office. Roger B. Taney, after-
ward Chief Justice, was transferred from the Attorney-Gen-
eral's office to the Treasury, and gave the order. This step
caused the greatest excitement, and stirred the opponents of
the President to a pitch of anger almost unexampled in our
history. The Senate refused to confirm Mr. Taney as Sec-
retary of the Treasury, and it passed a resolution that the
President, by his removal of the deposits, " has assumed upon

VAN BUREN 179

himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution
and laws, but in derogation of both." This was the resolution
which Thomas H. Benton soon afterward moved to " expunge "
from the journal of the Senate, and which, three years later,
was publicly expunged.

Another act, which marked the close of Jackson's first ad-
ministration, should be mentioned here. Congress passed an
act directing the distribution of the revenue derived from the
sale of public lands among the several States. The policy of
this act had been discussed long and earnestly. The opposition
of the President was well known ; yet the House of Represent-
atives passed the bill by a vote of 96 to 40 ; and the vote of
the Senate in its favor was 23 to 5. The bill was laid before
the President so near the expiration of the twenty-second Con-
gress that less time remained than the ten days which the
Constitution allows the President to retain a bill. General
Jackson neither signed nor returned the bill, and thus thwarted
the will of more than two thirds of both Houses of Congress.
This was the first case of a " pocket veto."

Almost all the measures adopted or even discussed during
Jackson's second term arose directly or indirectly from the
war on the Bank. The state bank question ; the " Specie
Circular," or order requiring all the land offices to receive gold
and silver only in payment for public land ; the widespread
commercial distress following an era of wild speculation ; the
distribution of the surplus revenue, — these were the subjects
that engaged the attention of Congress. The personal influ-
ence of the President was constantly felt in Congress, where he
was supported by a strong and trustworthy body of adherents
composing a majority of the House of Representatives, but,
owing to the hostility of State-Rights senators, constituting a
minority only of the upper branch. Among the people, too,
he was regarded as a demigod. Not only were his acts ap-
proved, but his sturdy obstinacy and fearless pugnacity gave
him favor with the masses of the people such as no other
President before him or since his time has enjoyed.

But the opposition was earnest and active. The largest
section of it was organized in 1834 as the Whig party. The
name is not found in the public prints of the time before April
of that year, when it is mentioned in Niles's Register, with a
remark to the effect that the opposition party was so styled in
Connecticut and New York. Horace Greeley's Whig Almanac

180 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

for 1838 describes the party as then constituted, consisting of
" (1) Most of those who, under the name of National Republi-
cans, had previously been known as supporters of Adams and
Clay, and advocates of the American system ; (2) Most of
those who, acting in defence of what they deemed the assailed
or threatened rights of the States, had been stigmatized as
Nullifiers, or the less virulent State-Rights men, who were
thrown into a position of armed neutrality towards the admin-
istration by the doctrines of the proclamation of 1832 against
South Carolina; (3) A majority of those before known as
Anti-Masons ; (4) Many who had up to that time been known
as Jackson men, but who united in condemning the high-
handed conduct of the Executive, the immolation of Duane,
and the subserviency of Taney ; (5) Numbers who had not
before taken any part in politics, but who were now awakened
from their apathy by the palpable usurpations of the Executive,
and the imminent peril of our whole fabric of constitutional
liberty and national prosperity."

The party, at the beginning of the presidential canvass,
was purely and simply an opposition party. Some of the
elements of its composition, enumerated above, were never
fully fused with the rest, and, under the stress of Tyler's ad-
ministration, drifted back into the Democratic party. It was
not to be expected that the agreement of all the factions, in
hearty disapproval of General Jackson's policy, would hold
them together sufficiently to enable them to support one can-
didate heartily. Indeed, the sole motive to opposition, so far
as a large body of the so-called party was concerned, was an
objection to the President's quite unconcealed manoeuvring to
designate his own successor. Leaving the plans of the oppo-
sition for a time, let us observe the course of events in the
Democratic party.

It was no secret that the President desired that Mr. Van
Buren should be his successor. It was rumored at one time,
and quite generally believed, that he contemplated resigning
and leaving the presidential office to the Vice-President, but
that he abandoned this project in order the better to secure
the succession to Van Buren. However this may have been,
it is certain that an opposition to Van Buren, not unlike that
which had existed in 1831 and 1832, threatened to make itself
felt and to thwart the President's plans. It manifested itself
in the President's own State of Tennessee, where, in January,

VAN BUREN 181

1835, the legislature formally presented Judge Hugh L. White,
then a senator from Tennessee, as a candidate to succeed Jack-
son. On the day when this action was expected to be taken,
there was placed on the desk of every member of the Tennessee
legislature a package containing three copies of the Washington
" Globe/' in which was a series of gross attacks upon Judge
White. The peculiarity of this circumstance lay in the fact
that these precious documents bore the frank of the President,
and some of them were addressed in his own hand. The
supporters of Judge White maintained with much plausibility
that he had stood by the administration, that he was as good a
Democrat as the President himself ; that there was no estab-
lished mode of nominating candidates ; and that General Jack-
son himself owed his nomination to the Tennessee legislature.
Eight years had wrought a vast change in the general's attitude
as to the respective rights of President and people ; and he
could see in his old colleague and supporter only a " traitor."
With characteristic determination he set about carrying into
execution his purpose to seat Mr. Van Buren in the presiden-
tial chair. Prompt action was necessary. All but two of
the Tennessee delegation favored Judge White, and the legisla-
ture of Alabama had followed Tennessee in giving him a nomi-
nation.

In February, 1835, the President wrote to a friend suggest-
ing the holding of a national convention, to be composed of
delegates "fresh from the people," — a phrase upon which
the opposition played much during the ensuing canvass, — for
the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-
President. The convention was called, and met in Baltimore
on the 20th of May, 1835. Mr. Andrew Stevenson, of Vir-
ginia, late the Speaker of the House of Representatives, was
called to the chair, and presided throughout all the sessions of
the convention. Twenty-two States and two Territories —
Michigan and Arkansas — were represented. No delegates
were present from Illinois, South Carolina, or Alabama. The
representation of the States would amuse those who are accus-
tomed to the exact methods of the present day. A list of
those who took part contains 626 names. Of these, 422 came
from the States of Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Penn-
sylvania. Maryland is mentioned first because it contributed
181 members. The state convention, called to select dele-
gates, was apparently unwilling to deny any of its own members

182 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

an opportunity to take part, and accordingly resolved that all
of them should be delegates. Virginia sent 108, New Jer-
sey 73, and Pennsylvania 60, being two contesting delega-
tions of 30 each. On the other hand, Tennessee sent no del-
egates ; but a citizen of the State who would vote for Van
Buren, chancing to be in Baltimore, presented himself, was
admitted, and cast the fifteen votes allotted to Tennessee.
His name was Rucker ; and he achieved fame through the
verb " to ruckerize," which was coined at the time, a piece of
political slang long since forgotten. Both sets of delega-
tions from Pennsylvania were admitted. The vote of the
State was allowed when they were on the same side, as in the
choice of candidates, and excluded when they were on opposite
sides.

The rules reported by the committee appointed for that
purpose included one that each State should' be allowed to cast
as many votes as its number of electors ; and " that a majority
of two thirds shall be required to elect the candidates for Pre-
sident and Vice-President." The two-thirds rule was vigor-
ously attacked as unrepublican. Mr. Saunders, of North
Carolina, who reported it, defended it. He explained that it
was designed to create " a more imposing effect." Continuing,
he said that " it was to be presumed that no one had the
most remote desire to frustrate the proceedings of the conven-
tion ; and provided a majority should, on the first or second
ballot, fix upon an individual, it was reasonably to be expected
that the minority would be disposed to yield and unite with
the majority, so as to produce the effect contemplated." In
this view it seemed harmless ; but Mr. Saunders did not fore-
see that nine years later he would himself employ the device,
contrived to increase the " effect " of the nomination of Mr.
Van Buren, to defeat that same gentleman. After debate, the
two-thirds rule was rejected by a vote of 231 to 210 ; but the
next morning the vote was reconsidered, and the rule reported
by the committee was adopted. Nominations were then in
order. Martin Van Buren received a unanimous vote as a
candidate for President. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of
Kentucky, had 178 votes for Vice-President, and William C.
Rives, of Virginia, 87. Before the voting began, Virginia gave
notice that she would support no candidate who did not up-
hold the principles of the party ; and after Colonel Johnson
had received the necessary two thirds and been declared the

VAN BUREN 183

nominee, her delegates further announced that she would not
accept him as a candidate.

The opposition derided and denounced "the Van Buren con-
vention." The office-holders who took part in it were counted
and their names were published. The convention was declared
to be a revival of the caucus in an equally objectionable form.
The truth was that no convention could have brought the op-
posing factions into even a semblance of union, and that they
did not wish to unite. Their idea was to take advantage of
all the local elements of hostility to the reigning dynasty, to
throw the election into the House of Representatives, and —
to trust to luck for the rest. A Pennsylvania state conven-
tion of Anti-Masons held at Harrisburg, December 16, 1835,
nominated General William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, for
President, and Francis Granger, of New York, for Vice-Presi-
dent. The legislature of Ohio nominated, for President,
Judge John McLean, of that State, who was " mentioned "
for the presidency, off and on, from 1832 until 1860. The
Whigs of Massachusetts nominated Daniel Webster. It was
a cunning scheme. Tennessee, and perhaps one or two other
Southern States, would vote for White. South Carolina was
against Jackson, and was expected to throw its vote away on
some one who had no other supporters.1 Harrison or McLean
would carry several States in the West, and perhaps Pennsyl-
vania. Webster would hold New England. For Vice-Presi-
dent, Granger was accepted as the candidate in all the States
where Harrison was supported, and in Massachusetts ; while
John Tyler, of Virginia, went on the ticket with Judge White.
Although the scheme was a promising one and came near suc-
cess, the margin of safety was on the side of the Democratic
party once more, largely owing to the strictness of party dis-
cipline, and the determined use of the national patronage to
perpetuate the Jackson dynasty under a new head. The
battle between the contesting forces was a bitter one. Mr.
Van Buren was the embodiment of all that was objected to
on the part of the Whigs against General Jackson ; and, on
the other hand, the Democrats, honestly believing that the

i The expectation was realized, for on December 7, 1836, the South Carolina
House of Representatives instructed the electors of the State not to vote for
Van Buren, White, or Harrison ; and then both branches instructed them to
vote for Willie P. Mangum, of North Carolina, for President, and for John
Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice-President.

184 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

administration in power had acted for the best interests of
the country, could find no words too severe to denounce those
who would undo its work. They made it a special accusation
against the Whigs that they were for the Bank. While it
was true of the most of them, — and, considering what the Bank
had done for the currency, and the great disasters which fol-
lowed its overthrow, it was greatly to their credit that it was
true, — they had not quite enough courage to avow their prin-
ciples in the face of the manifest but strange hostility of the
people to " Biddle's Bank."

As had happened in 1832, the early autumn elections did not
promise a sweeping victory for the Democrats ; they even gave
hope to the opposition that the election would be thrown into
the House of Representatives. Ohio and New Jersey, which
had given their votes to Jackson four years before, were car-
ried by the Whigs. The Democratic majority in Pennsylvania
was uncomfortably small, and in Maine there was no choice of
a congressman at the September election in any one of the
eight districts. But the Democrats worked with extraordinary
energy after these preliminary reverses and saved the day, al-
though they came out of the contest with a largely reduced
majority.

Twenty-six States took part in the election. Arkansas had
been admitted on the 15th of June, 1836. Michigan, which
had applied for admission as early as 1833, chose electors, and
their votes were counted, as we shall see, in the same manner
as were those of Missouri in 1821. The State was formally
admitted on the 26th of January, 1837, so that she was a
State at the time the electoral count took place. All the
States except South Carolina, whose electors were appointed
by the legislature, chose them by a popular vote and by gen-
eral ticket. The popular vote is given on page 185.

The usual resolution for the appointment of a committee to
report upon the manner of conducting the count of votes was
introduced in the Senate on the 26th of January, 1837. An
amendment offered by Mr. Clay, and adopted by the Senate,
directed the committee also " to inquire into the expediency
of ascertaining whether any votes were given at the recent
election contrary to the prohibition contained in the second sec-
tion of the second article of the Constitution ; and, if such votes
were given, what ought to be done with them ; and whether
any, and what, provision ought to be made for securing the

VAN BUREX

185

States.

Van Buren.

Whig.

Whig Candidate.

Maine

22,990

15,239

Harrison.

New Hampshire

18,722

6,228

Harrison.

Vermont

14,039

20,996

Harrison.

Massachusetts

33,542

41,287

Webster.

Rhode Island

2,964

2,710

Harrison.

Connecticut

19,291

18,749

Harrison.

New York

166,815

138,543

Harrison.

New Jersey

25,592

26,137

Harrison.

Pennsylvania

91,475

87,111

Harrison.

Delaware

4,153

4,733

Harrison.

22,168

25,852

Harrison.

Virginia

30,261

23,468

White.

North Carolina

26,910

23,626

White.

South Carolina*

—

22,104

24,876

White.

Alabama

20,506

15,612

White.

Mississippi

9,979

9,688

White.

Louisiana

3,653

3,383

White.

Arkansas

2,400

1,238

White.

Kentucky

33,435

36,955

Harrison.

Tennessee

26,129

36,168

White.

Missouri .

10,995

7,337

White.

Ohio

96,948

32,478

105,404
41,281

Indiana

Harrison.

18,097
7,332

14,983
4,045

Michigan

Harrison.

Total

762,978

736,250

* Electora chosen by the legislature.

faithful observance, in future, of that section of the Constitu-
tion." The House having agreed to the resolution in this
form, the committee reported to the Senate on the 4th of
February. After remarking that the shortness of the time
allowed had prevented a proper investigation of the matters
referred to the committee, the report proceeds : —

The correspondence which has taken place between the chair-
man of the committee and the heads of the different departments
of the executive branch of the government accompanies this report,
from which it appears that Isaac Waldron, who was an elector in
New Hampshire, was, at the time of his appointment as elector,
president of a deposit bank at Portsmouth, and was appointed and
acting as pension agent, without compensation, under the authority
of the United States ; that in two cases persons of the same names
with the individuals who were appointed and voted as electors in

186 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the State of North Carolina held the offices of deputy postmasters
under the general government. It also appears that in New
Hampshire there is one case, in Connecticut there is one case, in
North Carolina there is one case, in which, from the report of the
Postmaster-General, it is probable that, at the time of the appoint-
ment of electors in these States respectively, the electors, or per-
sons of the same name, were deputy postmasters. The committee
have not ascertained whether the electors are the same individuals
who held, or are presumed to have held, the offices of deputy
postmasters at the time when the appointment of electors was
made ; and this is the less to be regretted as it is confidently be-
lieved that no change in the result of the election of either the
President or Vice-President would be affected by the ascertainment
of the fact in either way, as five or six votes only would in any
event be abstracted from the whole number ; for the committee
cannot adopt the opinion entertained by some that a single illegal
vote would vitiate the whole electoral vote of the college of electors
in which it was given, particularly in cases where the vote of the
whole college has been given to the same persons.

The committee are of opinion that the second section of the
second article of the Constitution, which declares that no senator
or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit
under the United States, shall be appointed an elector, ought to be
carried in its whole spirit into rigid execution in order to prevent
officers of the general government from bringing their official power
to influence the elections of President and Vice-President of the
United States. This provision of the Constitution, it is believed,
excludes and disqualifies deputy postmasters from the appointment
of electors ; and the disqualification relates to the time of the ap*
pointment, and that a resignation of the office of deputy post-
master after his appointment as elector would not entitle him to
vote as elector under the Constitution.

Should a case occur in which it became necessary to ascertain
and determine upon the qualification of electors of President and
Vice-President of the United States, the important question would
be presented, What tribunal would, under the Constitution, be
competent to decide ? Whether the respective colleges of electors
in the different States should decide upon the qualifications of
their own members, or Congress should exercise the power, is a
question which the committee are of opinion ought to be settled
by a permanent provision upon the subject.

It may be remarked here that only in 1877 has a vote ever
been challenged, at the time of the electoral count, on the
ground that the person giving it was disqualified under the

VAN BUREN 187

terms of the Constitution. In recent years parties have been
careful not to place upon their electoral tickets any one who
was even constructively " holding an office of trust or profit
under the United States," — as, for example, a director in a
national bank, or other corporation chartered by Congress. In
the case before us the committee reported no bill or resolution
on the subject. It merely reported the usual resolution for
counting the vote, together with a second resolution, exactly
like that which had been adopted in 1821 in regard to the
votes of Missouri, to cover the case of Michigan. In the Sen-
ate this resolution provoked some discussion. Senators were
divided over the question whether Michigan was or was not a
State of the Union for the purposes of the election. The
resolution was finally adopted by a vote of 34 to 9. In the
course of the debate a senator asked Mr. Grundy, of Tennessee,
who reported the resolutions, what course would have been
pursued if the vote of Michigan would have varied the result ?
Mr. Grundy replied that the gentleman could not expect him
" to answer a question which the wisest of their predecessors
had purposely left undetermined. What might be done under
the circumstances adverted to, should they ever occur, the
wisdom of the day must decide."

The official count of the electoral vote may be found on
page 188.

The result was announced in the alternative form prescribed
by the joint resolution, concluding with the declaration that,
whether the votes of Michigan were counted or not counted,
Martin Van Buren was elected President, and that no person
had a majority of votes for Vice-President ; that an election
to that office had not been effected ; that Richard M. John-
son, of Kentucky, and Francis Granger, of New York, were
the two highest on the lists of electoral votes, and that it de-
volved on the Senate to choose a Vice-President from these
persons.

On returning to its own chamber, the Senate adopted a re-
solution prescribing the manner in which an election should
be made. The names of the senators were called in alphabeti-
cal order, and they voted viva voce. On the first trial, Rich-
ard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was chosen by a vote of 33 to 16
for Francis Granger. This is the only occasion in our politi-
cal history that the choice of the Vice-President has devolved
upon the Senate.

188

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

President.

Vice-President.

States.

■

■2

■

i
i

>-s

Maine .

New Hampshire .

Vermont . . ♦

—

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

—

Connecticut .

New York .

—

New Jersey .

Pennsylvania

—

Delaware . .

—

Maryland . .

Virginia . .

North Carolina

South Carolina

—

Georgia . .

Alabama .

Mississippi

Louisiana .

—

Arkansas .

Kentucky

Tennessee

Missouri .

Ohio . .

Indiana .

Illinois

Michigan .

Total

170

147

The occasion of the inauguration of Mr. Van Buren was a
great triumph for the " old hero." It was what Jackson's
not too impartial and judicial biographer, James Parton, terms
the election of Van Buren, — " the consummation of his most
cherished hopes." There was no Jeffersonian simplicity in
the ceremony. The general and the President-elect rode
together, with a military escort, in the " Constitution phaeton,"
drawn by four grays. There was a great throng to witness
the taking of the oath and to listen to the inaugural address.

VAN BUREN 189

General Jackson, infirm and ill and racked with pain, but
still indomitable, sat uncovered during the delivery of the ad-
dress. He had had the satisfaction to witness, what he had
anticipated in a letter written to a friend two days before,
" the glorious scene of Mr. Van Buren, once rejected by the
Senate, sworn into office by Chief Justice Taney, also being
rejected by the factious Senate."

XVI

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO

The canvass of 1840, the " log cabin " and " hard cider "
campaign, stands unique in the political history of the country.
It was marked by intense and extraordinary enthusiasm on the
part of young men for a candidate who was close upon seventy
years of age. The party which won the victory was a party
in name only, for it had no other bond of union than opposi-
tion to the administration of the day. It announced no posi-
tive principles, it had no definite policy. Yet it triumphed
over the closely organized party which had governed the coun-
try since the beginning of the century, — unless the four
years' term of the second Adams is to be excepted, — which
was strongly intrenched in the offices, and was using the public
patronage without scruple to perpetuate its own power.

Many writers have put on record their estimate of Mr. Van
Buren's character, and of his rank in the list of those who
have occupied the presidential chair ; but neither his warm
partisans nor those who have placed the lowest estimate upon
him as a statesman attribute the disastrous defeat of the
Democracy in 1840 to causes personal to him. That he drew
the first breath of his public life in the atmosphere of political
intrigue, bargain, •treachery, and confusion, which has hung
over the State of New York from the days of Washington to
the days of McKinley, explains much in the story of his career.
In his y<5ung manhood he was a distinguished party manager,
and owed his advancement to the arts which he then cultivated.
His adroitness in maintaining a non-committal attitude until it
was practically certain which side was to win, and then coming
out strongly on that side, was proverbial. Age, responsibility,
and experience made him almost a statesman. He intended
to make his administration a continuation of Jackson's.1 In

1 William Allen Butler, in his brief but beautiful tribute to his lifelong
friend, remarks: "Mr. Van Buren 'followed in the footsteps of his illustrious
predecessor.' The predecessor had been too illustrious, and his footsteps had
so shaken the whole social system that a great shock was inevitable."

. TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 191

adherence to the political principles of his predecessor, the
purpose was carried out. But Van Buren was a gentleman, in
the sense of possessing culture and polished manners, and in
preferring peace and order to quarrel and turmoil ; and in this
he differed so greatly from General Jackson that his adminis-
tration could not be the same. He surrounded himself with
gentlemen, bore himself with dignity, and evinced a most
laudable desire to efface the memory of his achievements in the
political field as " the Little Magician," and the subserviency
to Jackson which insured him the succession. It was not
unlikeness to his predecessor that caused his defeat. It had
required all of Jackson's authority to carry him through ik
1836, and his margin was small. To make use of an arith-
metical calculation much in vogue at the present day, which
is of little significance (see p. 17), a change of 2183 votes in
Pennsylvania would have lost him the electors of that State
and thrown the election into the House of Representatives.
More than the small change necessary to defeat him was forth-
coming in 1840, and the opposition had learned to unite for
that one purpose. It was Van Buren's misfortune that the
storm which Jackson had called from the sky, by his reckless
use of high explosives, burst just as Jackson reached shelter
and as the " Magician " stepped forth to take the great rain-
maker's place. The terrible panic of 1837 began when the
administration was but two months old, — a direct consequence
of the financial disorder produced by Jackson's war on the
Bank. The enforced liquidation of the greatest monetary in-
stitution in the country ; the transfer of the public funds to
banks much weaker and far more loosely managed than the
Bank of the United States; a wild speculation induced by the
excessive note-issues of state banks which had a fictitious
capital only ; and the inability of the banks to respond when
called upon to refund the sums intrusted to them, under the
law for " depositing " the surplus revenue with the States, —
such were the events which brought about the suspension of
specie payments on the 10th of May, 1837.

It is true, as the defenders of Mr. Van Buren say, that he
met the crisis with courage. No man in his position was ever
known to admit that the catastrophe which he had to face —
and which in this case dealt his administration a deadly
blow — was caused by the measures which he had supported.
Rather, it confirmed him in his former opinions, and led him to

192 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

recommend more radical steps in the direction of his previous
policy. That the members of his party did not all agree with
him is shown by the political history of his administration.
Although, during his whole term, there was a Democratic
majority in both Houses of Congress, he suffered repeated
defeats in carrying through his one favorite scheme and great
measure, the establishment of the Independent Treasury, — a
device contrary then and ever since to all sound views of
public and private finance. Nevertheless, it would be a mis-
take to represent either that Mr. Van Buren was abandoned
by his party, or that his administration was an unpopular one
among Democrats. On the contrary, a large majority of them
believed in him, approved his measures, and desired his re-
election. They were in favor of completing the work which
Jackson had begun, by divorcing the state altogether from
private banking corporations. Mr. Van Buren was then, and
to the end of his life, as his " Political History " shows, an
enemy of banks as well as of The Bank. It is probable
that if the issue in the canvass of 1840 had been made wholly
upon the bank question, the result would have shown that
the people were with Van Buren. The Whigs were too
shrewd to avow friendliness to the Bank, or to any bank.
They took advantage of the opposition to, and the bad re-
sults of, the Jackson- Van Buren fiscal plans, without declar-
ing themselves in favor of restoring what had been destroyed ;
and they also profited by the Southern hostility to the admin-
istration, without promising to reverse or even to modify
the policy of the general government on the subject of State
Rights. In short, the Democrats had principles and a policy,
right or wrong, as people may think ; the Whigs were united
only in condemning, and, whatever they may have intended,
whatever they may have done or attempted to do when they
were in power, did not venture to declare principles or policy
beforehand.

The state elections in 1837 and 1838 resulted unfavorably
to the Democrats. The most of the elections of members of
the twenty-sixth Congress took place in 1838 ; and they were
so decidedly adverse to the Democrats that extraordinary ex-
ertions were required in the spring elections of 1839 to rescue
their majority from extinction. So close was the contest that,
when the House assembled in December, 1839, there were 119
Democrats, 118 opposition, and 5 members from New Jersey

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 193

whose seats were contested. The certificates were held by
Whigs, who were not allowed to participate in the organization.
On that occasion Mr. Adams, the ex-President, who had re-
turned to the House of Representatives, prevented anarchy
by calling the members to order and persuading them to choose
a temporary chairman, — a position which was assigned to Mr.
Adams himself.

Long before this time, the plans of the Whigs had been
forming ; and, two days after the assembling of Congress, the
National Whig Convention met at Harrisburg, — on Decem-
ber 4, 1839. The leaders were resolved on union, and the
only question was as to the candidate who would command
the largest support. Mr. Clay had the advantage of a long
public service, and of having been a leader in national affairs
for almost thirty years ; but he also labored under the double
disadvantage of being a Freemason, and as such not acceptable
to the faction which still mustered many followers in the
Eastern States, and of having been a conspicuous advocate
of the " American system," or protective tariff, which was
highly unpopular in the South Atlantic States. General
William Henry Harrison was not a great leader ; but he had
been more or less in the public service, military and civil, for
nearly half a century, and was well known throughout the
country. Moreover, he had made a gallant run for the presi-
dency in the Northern States in 1836, and was open to neither
of the objections urged against Mr. Clay. It was evident that
one of these two would be selected to lead the Whig opposi-
tion. Each had his strong partisans. Not only they, but
the candidates as well, were anxious chiefly that the Whig
party should carry the election. Mr. Clay's earnest and
laudable ambition to be President was not so great that he
would put it before the cause. Moreover, he was aware of
the objections to his candidacy which some Whigs entertained.
When the autumn elections of 1839 indicated a reaction in
favor of the Democrats, and the necessity of a complete union
of the opposition, he wrote, in a letter which was read at the
Harrisburg Convention, that, " if the deliberations of the Con-
vention shall lead them to the choice of another as the candi-
date of the opposition, far from feeling any discontent, the
nomination will have my best wishes and receive my cordial-
support." He further begged his friends to " discard all
attachment or partiality to me, and be guided solely by the

194 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

motive of rescuing our country from the dangers which now
encompass it." Already, during the preceding summer, he
had said in an address at Butfalo : "If my name creates any
obstacle to union and harmony, away with it, and concentrate
upon some individual more acceptable to all branches of the
opposition." The action of the great "union and harmony"
convention of Pennsylvania, held at Harrisburg on the 4th of
September, probably did much to concentrate the Whig forces
on Harrison ; for, while that convention extolled Clay in ex-
travagant phrases, it expressed the opinion that General Harri-
son was the only man who could unite the anti-Van Buren party.
Two hundred and fifty-four delegates attended the Whig
convention, from twenty-two States. South Carolina, Georgia,
Tennessee, and Arkansas were not represented. The Whig
committee of Arkansas sent a letter authorizing Judge Porter,
of Louisiana, to cast the vote of Arkansas ; but the remembrance
of the Whig derision of " ruckerizing," at the Democratic con-
vention of 1835, forbade that the credentials should be accepted.
Isaac C. Bates, of Massachusetts, was the temporary chairman,
and Governor James Barbour, of Virginia, the permanent presi-
dent, of the convention. After a long debate, a plan of nomi-
nation was agreed upon. As this scheme was peculiar, and is
now quite obsolete, the order of the convention is given en-
tire : —

That the delegates from each State be requested to assemble as a
delegation, and appoint a committee, not exceeding three in num-
ber, to receive the views and opinions of such delegation, and
communicate the same to the assembled committees of all the
delegations, to be by them respectively reported to their principals.
And that thereupon the delegates from each State be requested to
assemble as a delegation, and ballot for candidates for the offices
of President and Vice-President, and, having done so, to commit
the ballot designating the votes of each candidate, and by whom
given, to its committee. And thereupon all the committees shall
assemble and compare the several ballots, and report the result of
the same to their several delegations, together with such facts as
may bear upon the nomination. And said delegations shall forth-
with reassemble and ballot again for candidates for the above
offices, and again commit the result to the above committees ; and
if it shall appear that a majority of the ballots are for any one
man for candidate for President, said committee shall report the
result to the convention for its consideration. If there shall be
no such majority, then the delegations shall repeat the balloting

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 195

until such a majority shall be obtained, and then report the same
to the convention for its consideration. That the vote of a major-
ity of each delegation shall be reported as the vote of that State.
And each State represented here shall vote its full electoral vote
by such delegation in the committee.

It will be observed that this rule bears a resemblance to,
although it is not precisely like, the " unit rule," which has
caused so much trouble in Republican and Democratic con-
ventions since that time. The action of the committees and of
the delegations was not to be binding upon the convention
until accepted by it. The scheme was adopted as a method of
learning what candidate would be most acceptable to the
States. An effort was made the next day, by Mr. Cassius M.
Clay of Kentucky, to secure a reversal of the decision ; but
the convention by a strong vote adhered to its former resolu-
tion. The action of the committees and delegations is not a
part of the official record ; but it is known that on the first
informal ballot, in which the wish of each delegate was ex-
pressed, without unifying the votes of the States, Mr. Clay
had a small plurality. On the first ballot by States, Mr.
Clay had 103, General Harrison 94, and General Winfield
Scott 57. After repeated ballotings, late on Friday evening,
the third day of the convention, a report was made by the
committees that they had agreed upon a candidate. General
Harrison had 148, Mr. Clay 90, and General Scott 16. On
the next day a resolution was introduced declaring General
Harrison the nominee of the convention, and it was supported
in enthusiastic speeches by many of the friends of Clay.
While the jubilee was still going on, the committees, which
had been considering the question of Vice-President, made
a report that John Tyler had received the unanimous vote
of the convention.1 His name was thereupon joined to that

1 Henry A. Wise, in his " Seven Decades of the Union," asserts that the
nomination of Mr. Tyler was prearranged, — that it had been agreed upon a
year before. Mr. Tyler had resigned as senator from Virginia rather than
obey the instructions of the legislature, and William C. Rives was elected to
succeed him. The senatorial term was to end in 1839, and Mr. Rives and Mr.
Tyler were candidates. Mr. Tyler discovered that the Whigs in Congress
were favoring the election of Mr. Rives, in the hope that in consideration of
their support he would act with them. According to Governor Wise a confer-
ence took place ; and Mr. Tyler withdrew from the contest and allowed Mr.
Rives to be chosen, under an agreement — Mr. Clay is named as the other
contracting party — that Mr. Tyler should be the candidate for Vice-Presi-
dent in 1840. Mr. Rives was elected, and acted with the Whigs.

196 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

of General Harrison in the pending resolution, and the vote was
carried in a whirlwind of enthusiasm. The convention then
adjourned, without having given expression in any form to
the principles of the party which it represented. Even in the
many speeches made during the four days' session, there was
hardly a positive assertion of a principle made by any delegate.
It was all hatred and opposition to Van Buren and the " Loco-
Focos."

The nomination was received with great enthusiasm by the
opposition. Meeting after meeting was held in many States,
and the candidacy of the " Old Hero of Tippecanoe " was
noisily ratified. The Whigs prepared to shout and sing their
candidate into office. In February, 1840, the Whig Conven-
tion of Ohio, at Columbus, was made the occasion of a great
"demonstration," a procession with banners, representations
of log-cabins, coon-skins, pictures of the U old hero " drinking
a mug of hard cider, and other equally logical appeals to the
political sound sense of the voters of Ohio. A still more im-
posing affair was the great procession in Baltimore, on the 4th
of May, in connection with the national convention of young
men, which was nicely timed to occur simultaneously with the
Democratic Convention in the same city. An excellent illus-
tration of the political eloquence of the time is afforded by the
ostentatious failure of the " Baltimore Patriot " to express the
emotions which this great procession excited ; but the editor
certainly tried to do his subject justice : —

Monday was a proud day for Baltimore, for Maryland, for the
Union. It was a day on which the Young Whigs of all the States
were to meet in grand convention. Never before was seen such an
assemblage of the people, in whose persons are concentrated the
sovereignty of the government. In the language of the president
of the day, " Every mountain sent its rill, — every valley its
stream, and, lo ! THE AVALANCHE OF THE PEOPLE IS
HERE ! "

It is impossible to convey the slightest idea of the sublime spec-
tacle presented by the procession as it moved through the city.
All that pen could write, all that the mouth of man could speak,
all that the imagination can conceive of beauty, grandeur, and sub-
limity, would fall short, far short, of the reality., The excitement,
the joy, the enthusiasm which everywhere prevailed, lighting up
the countenance of every man in the procession ; the shouts, the
applause, the cheers, of those who filled the sidewalks and crowded
the windows; the waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies; the

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 197

responsive cries of the people ; the flaunting banners ; the martial
music ; the loud roar, at intervals, of the deep-mouthed cannon, —
all these and more, much more, must be described, seen in the
mind's eye, vibrate through the frame, fill the heart, before the
reader can approach to any conception of the reality ; and when
all these are done, if they were possible, he has still but a faint and
meagre impression of the scene that was presented, In no country,
in no time, never before in the history of man, was there a spec-
tacle so full of " natural glory." The aged veteran, whose declining
years forbade his joining the procession, looked on ; his feeble voice
went to swell the general shout that penetrated even to the blue
vault of heaven ; his hand waved above his head, whilst down his
furrowed cheek ran tears, the overflowing of a heart full even to
bursting with joy and happiness and gladness, of all that goes
to make up life's best pleasures, and these crowded, as it were,
into one moment. The father who brought his children to see
the patriots of the land ; the mother to look upon her son, one of
the patriot crew ; the sister to behold the brother give vent to his
youthful and extravagant joy, — were all there, and all went to make
up the spectacle. Standing on an eminence commanding a view of
the line of the procession in the whole extent of Baltimore Street,
you beheld a moving mass of human beings. A thousand banners
burnished by the sun, floating in the breeze, ten thousand hand-
kerchiefs waved by the fair daughters of the city, gave seeming life
and motion to the very air. A hundred thousand faces were before
you, — age, manhood, youth, and beauty filled every place where
a foothold could be got, or any portion of the procession be seen ;
and you gazed on the pageant with renewed and increasing delight,
and words failed to express what your heart felt or your eyes be-
held. Nothing was wanting, nothing left to be desired, — the cup of
human joy was full. The free men of the land were there, — the
fiery son of the South, the substantial citizen of the East, the hardy
pioneer of the West, were all there. It was the epitome of a great
nation, in itself realizing, filling up the imaginings, and may have
been the very picture which the poet drew when he described our
country, our institutions, and our people as a " land beyond the
oceans of the West," where " freedom and truth are worshipped "
by a " people mighty in their youth."

That land is like an eagle, whose young gaze

Feeds on the noontide beam; whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze

Of sunshine gleams when earth is wrapped in gloom.

An epitaph of glory for the tomb
Of murdered Europe, may thy fame be made,

Great people ! as the sand shalt thou become !
Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade ;
The multitudinous earth shall sleep beneath thy shade

198 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Thus much we may say in reference to what words can describe
the procession to be, not what it was ; for the reality we musi) give
the dry details of the programme by which it was arranged. We
can give nothing of the living spectacle, we can give nothing of
the joy and gladness which —

Spread through the multitudinous streets fast flying
Upon the wings of hope —

from house to house replying
With loud acclaim; the living shook heaven's cope,
And filled the earth with echoes!

We can give nothing of these, and here all fail ; but we must
essay to present the scene, as far as feeble words can do it.

The procession does really seem to have been a grand affair,
and there were numerous emblems of the Whigs, — log-cabins,
barrels of hard cider, brooms to sweep the Augean stables, and
others which it would be tedious to enumerate. The poet was
with the Whigs that year. Among the mottoes on the ban-
ners was this : —

Farewell, dear Van,
You 're not our man ;
To guide the ship,
We 'II try old Tip.

The Democrats, meanwhile, were in a situation which em-
barrassed them, but gave them no fear that they were about to
suffer defeat. They had had the people with them at every
election in forty years, excepting only in 1824 ; and they
maintained that even then the popular judgment was for Jack-
son. They despised the opposition, and regarded the method
of the canvass the Harrison party was carrying on as almost
unworthy of the notice of serious-minded men. They had
troubles of their own ; but Providence had always come to
their aid at the critical moment, and it would do so again.
So far as Van Buren was concerned, there was this time abso-
lutely no opposition to him within the party. Tennessee,
before unfriendly, would now give him its support ; and even
South Carolina, which had sulked for eight years, was ready
to vote for him. But there was a bitter opposition to the
Vice-President, Colonel Johnson. Party discipline was not
then what it is now. So hostile were many of the party to
Johnson that it was certain that he, at least, would fail to be
chosen by a majority of electors, whatever might be Van
Buren's fate. The situation was such that it seemed wise to
many of the leaders not to hold a convention at all, since to do

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 193

so would merely advertise the party division. The Demo-
crats were all in favor of Van Buren ; the people had nomi-
nated him spontaneously. The Senate, which had once elected
Colonel Johnson, could be trusted to choose that Democratic
candidate who received the most electoral votes. It was as-
serted that there were ten States which had declined or would
decline to send delegates to a convention. By some of them
Mr. Van Buren had been named for reelection in conjunction
with William K. King, of Alabama, or James K. Polk, of
Tennessee, or Littleton W. Tazewell, of Virginia, or Colonel
Johnson himself.

There was then no such body as a national committee of the
party, and in fact no constituted authority to decide whether a
convention should be held or not. The conventions of 1831
and 1835 had both been called by the Democratic members of
the New Hampshire legislature ; and once again they issued a
call for a convention to meet at Baltimore on the 4th of May,
1840. Delegates were present from twenty-one States. Con-
necticut, Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, and Illinois were
unrepresented. The membership corresponded to the number
of votes allowed more closely than had ever before been the
case. New Jersey alone was over-represented by fifty-nine
delegates. There wras but one member to cast the vote of
Massachusetts, and several of the Western States were thinly
represented. Governor Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, was
the temporary chairman, and Governor William Carroll, of
Tennessee, the permanent president. Pending the preparation
of business, there was an abundance of speech-making. All
who addressed the convention were sure that a great victory
for the Democratic party was impending, and each tried to
outdo the rest in jeering at the Whigs. The great procession
of the day before was referred to as an " animal show ; " the
Whigs were laughed at for shutting up their candidate and not
allowing him the use of pen and ink ; and one speaker said
that he had tried to get an introduction to some of the log-
cabin men in the procession " for the purpose of feeling their
soft, delicate hands," but " as soon as he had done so he was
pretty careful to put his hand on his purse."

On the second day of the convention the committee on reso-
lutions reported the following platform of principles : —

1. Resolved, That the federal government is one of limited
powers derived solely from the Constitution, and the grants of

200 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

power shown therein ought to be strictly construed by all the
departments and agents of the government, and that it is inexpe-
dient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers.

2. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer upon the
general government the power to commence aud carry on a general
system of internal improvement.

3. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer authority
upon the federal government, directly or indirectly, to assume the
debts of the several States, contracted for local internal improve-
ments, or other State purposes ; nor would such assumption be just
or expedient.

4. Resolved, That justice and sound policy forbid the federal
government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of
another, or to cherish the interest of one portion to the injury of
another portion of our common country ; that every citizen and
every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon
an equality of rights and privileges, and to complete and ample
protection of person and property from domestic violence or for-
eign aggression.

5. Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch of the govern-
ment to enforce and practise the most rigid economy in conducting
our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised
than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the govern-
ment. *

6. Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a United
States Bank ; that we believe such an institution one of deadly
hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our
republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calcu-
lated to place the business of the country within the control of a
concentrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the
people.

7. Resolved, That Congress has no power, under the Constitu'
tion, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the
several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges
of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by
the Constitution ; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others,
made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery,
or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead
to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all
such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness
of the people, and endanger the stability and permanency of the
Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our
political institutions.

8. Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the govern-
ment from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of
the funds of the government and the rights of the people.

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 201

9. Resolved, That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson
in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Consti-
tution, which make ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the
oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in
the Democratic faith ; and every attempt to abridge the present
privilege of becoming citizens and the owners of soil among us
ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the Alien
and Sedition laws from our statute-book,

The vote was put on each of these resolutions separately,
and every one of them was adopted by a unanimous vote. An-
other committee appointed to prepare an address to the people
next presented its report, — an address which nearly fills a
page of the Washington " Globe," in fine type, — and the pages
of the newspapers of that day were of generous size. The
address was listened to impatiently, for the convention was
anxious to get at the question of nominations. Senator Cle-
ment C. Clay, of Alabama, chairman of a committee to which
this subject had been referred on the previous day, reported
two resolutions, to each of which a preamble was affixed. The
first, having set forth that Mr. Van Buren had received many
nominations for the position which he already filled to the
satisfaction of the party and the country, and that he was the
unanimous choice of the Democrats, formally presented him
for reelection. The preamble of the second resolution recited
that several gentlemen had been put in nomination for the vice-
presidency ; that the States presenting some of these gentle-
men had no representatives in the convention ; and that all
the candidates, by their discharge of public trusts, had shown
themselves worthy to be elected to the office. The resolution
itself was as follows : —

Resolved, That the convention deem it expedient at the present
time not to choose between the individuals in nomination, but to
leave the decision to their Republican fellow-citizens in the several
States, trusting that, before the election shall take place, their
opinions shall become so concentrated as to secure the choice of a
Vice-President by the electoral colleges.

The first resolution was adopted unanimously without de-
bate. The second was opposed and was warmly discussed.
The friends of Colonel Johnson were not satisfied that he
should not be commended to the electors, if a two-thirds vote-
in his favor could be had. But it presently appeared that the
opposition to him was so determined that it would not be

202 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

yielded even after such a nomination ; whereupon opposition
ceased and the resolution was unanimously adopted. The
Whigs jeered at the Democrats as not being sufficiently united
to name a candidate for Vice-President. They hurled back
the rather neat reply that if they were not agreed upon men,
they were united upon principles. That was more than the
Whigs could say for themselves.

There was another convention, small in numbers and local
in character, which made a third nomination for the office of
President. Although the party cast but few votes in 1840,
it is mentioned here as the beginning of great things. The
Abolition party held a convention at Warsaw, Genesee County,
New York, at the beginning of December, 1839, and nominated
James G. Birney of New York for President, and Thomas Earl
of Pennsylvania for Vice-President. The question of slavery
had been much discussed in Congress and by the press for
many years, but the issue was not yet a really important one
in presidential elections. As will be seen from the platform
of the Democrats, that party was ready to take its stand against
any federal interference with slavery ; but the Whigs were
not, so long as they constituted a party, willing to make an
issue with the Democrats on that subject.

What the canvass had been from the beginning it continued
to be to the end. On the part of the Whigs it was a season
of great and enthusiastic meetings and stump-speeches. Gen-
eral Harrison himself appeared on the stump, and spoke at
length in September and October, 1840, at Urbana, Dayton,
Chillicothe, Columbus, and other places. In an address at
Carthage, on August 20, he explicitly asserted the right of
the people to discuss any subject, and to petition Congress for
the redress of any grievance, including that of slavery ; and
for this he was roundly denounced as an Abolitionist. The
Democrats were unable to understand, and still more unable
to look with patience upon, the shouting campaign of the Har-
rison men. They affected to treat the party and its candidate
with contempt, but they were really angry and alarmed. As
State after State upon whose electoral vote they had counted
gave the Whigs a majority, they became more desperate. They
could not and would not believe that they were to be beaten,
and predicted that " the bubble would burst " before November.
That was a time when political slang was more current than
it was ever before or has been since. The phrases, " Crow,

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO

203

Chapman, crow," "The ball is rolling on," " Clear the kitchen,"
with numerous variations, and similar expressions, are still re-
membered by the men, now old, who took part in that famous
canvass. The Whig song to the tune of " The Little Pig's
Tail " has become historical, with its chorus : —

" For Tippecanoe and Tyler too — Tippecanoe and Tyler too;
And with them we '11 beat little Van, Van,

Van is a used up man ;
And with them we '11 beat little Van."

The shouts of the Whigs over their success in Vermont,
Kentucky, Maine, Ohio, and other States had hardly ceased
ringing when the presidential election began. The choice of
all the electors was still made on any day within thirty-four
days preceding the meeting of the electors that might be fixed
upon by the state legislature. The election began in Penn-

States.

Maine . . .
New Hampshire
Vermont . . .
Massachusetts .
Rhode Island .
Connecticut . .
New York . .
New Jersey . .
Pennsylvania .
Delaware . .
Maryland . .
Virginia . . .
North Carolina .
South Carolina*
Georgia . . .
Alabama . . .
Mississippi . .
Louisiana . . .
Kentucky . .

Missouri ,
Arkansas ,
Ohio . ,
Indiana
Illinois
Michigan ,

Total 1,275,016 1,129,102

Harrison.

Van Buren.

Birney.

46,612

46,201

194

26,163

32,761

126

32,440

18,018

319

72,874

51,944

1,621

5,278

3,301

31,601

25,296

174

225,817

212,527

2,808

33,351

31,034

144,021

143,672

343

5,967

4,874

33,528

28,752

42,501

43,893

46,376

33,782

40,261

31,921

28,471

33,991

19,518

16,995

—

11,296

7,616

58,489

32,616

60,391

48,289

22,972

29,760

5,160

6,766

148,157

124,782

903

65,302

51,604

45,537

47,476

149

22,933

21,131

321

7,069

* Electors appointed by the legislature.

204

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

sylvania and Ohio on the 30th of October, and ended in North
Carolina on the 12th of November, so far as popular elections
were concerned. South Carolina, whose legislature made the
choice of the electors for that State, appointed them a fort-
night later. But it was evident as soon as the returns of Penn-
sylvania were in, showing a large gain for the Whigs, even
since the state election, four weeks before, that Harrison was
to be President. The popular vote is given on page 203.

The electoral count was conducted in the usual manner, and
there was no incident to mark the proceedings. The result was
declared as follows : —

States.

Maine

New Hampshire .
Vermont ....
Massachusetts . .
Rhode Island . .
Connecticut . . .
New York . . .
New Jersey . . .
Pennsylvania . .
Delaware . . .
Maryland . . .
Virginia ....
North Carolina
South Carolina . .
Georgia . . . .
Alabama ....
Mississippi . . .
Louisiana . . .
Kentucky . . .
Tennessee . . .
Missouri . . . •
Arkansas ....

Ohio

Indiana . . . .
Illinois . . . .
Michigan . . . .

Total . . . .

President.

Vice-Pbesident.

ft
a

B
H

■

»-9

, 14

—

■ -

. -

234

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 205

The inauguration on the Fourth of March, 1841, was a great
occasion for the Whigs. They flocked to Washington in large
numbers, many of them, alas ! attracted thither by the hope
of offices to be distributed by the new President to his party
friends. There was an imposing procession of volunteer mili-
tia to escort General Harrison to the Capitol. The President-
elect had himself arrived at the seat of government on the last
day of February, apparently in the enjoyment of perfect ihealth.
He rode upon a white charger, flanked on either side by a body-
guard of personal friends. The ceremony, which was witnessed
by a vast concourse of people, was preceded by the inauguration
of Mr. Tyler as Vice-President, in the Senate Chamber. After
the long line of official and non-official witnesses had come
from the building to the eastern portico, General Harrison
rose and delivered his inaugural address, save the last para-
graph. Then the oath of office was administered by Chief
Justice Taney, and the President pronounced the closing sen-
tences of his address. While the cheers of the victorious
Whigs were still rising, he retired, entered his private car-
riage, and drove to the White House.

XVII
THE FIRST "DARK HORSE"

No election ever caused more disappointment, both to vic-
tors and to vanquished, than that of 1840. It would be
difficult to describe the feelings of the Democrats. They were
puzzled, they were grieved, they were angry. They honestly
did not believe the Whigs capable of governing the country.
It was almost too great a strain upon their trust in the fitness of
the people for self-government that confidence had been with-
drawn from them. As for the conduct of the campaign in
which they were defeated, with its claptrap of processions,
songs, emblems, and slang, words failed to express their dis-
gust. They declared that the victory had been won by fraud,
by the momentary madness of the people, by the power of
money, — the first but not the last complaint of the sort, —
by anything and everything except the excellent influences
that had always carried elections for the Democrats. However
much they might differ among themselves, and even with
themselves, as to the cause of the defeat, upon one thing they
were resolved, — that they would bring Van Buren forward
again and elect him. The canvass of 1844 began, therefore,
before Harrison was inaugurated. A St. Louis paper, almost
as soon as the result of the election was known, placed Van
Buren's name at the head of its columns as candidate for 1844,
and " nailed its colors to the mast." Senator Benton there-
upon wrote a letter to the editor commending his course, say-
ing that twice before the Democratic party had won a victory,
after its only two national defeats, by adopting at once the
candidate in whose person it had suffered a reverse. This
. was the general sentiment of the party. In the three years
K ensuing, as the Washington "Globe" asserted just before the
convention of 1844, twenty-four of the twenty-six States, in
their state Democratic conventions, pronounced in favor of
Van Buren, and more than three fourths of the conventions
instructed their delegates to Baltimore to support him.

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 207

The disappointment of the Whigs was of a different charac-
ter. It lay in the " Tyler too " part of their election pro-
gramme. One month after General Harrison took the oath of
office he died, and John Tyler became President. Congress
was summoned in extraordinary session on the 31st of May,
1841. Among the first subjects to which the attention of
Congress was called by the President was the question what
should be substituted for the sub-treasury system, — a finan-
cial device which had certainly been condemned by the popular
voice in the recent elections. The Whigs took this to mean
also the creation of a bank. Mr. Tyler held a different view.
His course in Congress had never been favorable to the Bank
of the United States. The Whig leaders supposed that Mr.
Tyler had given them an assurance that he was in favor of a
bank erected on a proper basis. Mr. Tyler did not admit that
he had done so. The truth of the matter will never be known.
When a bill creating a bank, which the Whigs supposed to
have been drawn in accordance with his views, was presented
to him for approval he vetoed it, and the Whig majority was
not strong enough to pass it over the veto. A second bill was
prepared, after a conference with the President, submitted to
him after it was drafted and approved, and then passed with-
out the alteration of a word. The President vetoed that bill
also, possibly in a fit of natural anger at a letter written by
John M. Botts, a leading Whig member from Virginia, — its
publication was a breach of confidence, — in which Mr. Botts
spoke with contempt of Mr. Tyler's " turns and twists."

It is needless to say that this act was received with uncon-
trollable indignation by the Whigs throughout the country.
All the members of the cabinet resigned, except Mr. Webster,
the Secretary of State, who retained office for reasons which
were approved by many of the Whigs. A caucus of mem-
bers of the Senate and House of Representatives adopted an
address in which they announced that all political alliance be-
tween them and John Tyler was at an end, and that hence-
forth " those who brought the President into power can no
longer, in any manner or degree, be justly held responsible or
blamed for the administration of the executive branch of the
government." It is matter of history that Mr. Tyler con-
tinued to the end of his term to be what his early acts as
President had indicated that he would be. In fact his course
was what his whole political life had indicated that it would

208 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

be. Ho relied throughout upon those who had opposed him,
and thwarted the measures of those who had elected him. The
only inconsistency of which he was guilty was in supposing,
honestly no doubt, that he was " a firm and decided Whig,'*
when he was opposed to a bank, opposed to a protective tariff,
opposed to the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands,
opposed to internal improvements, and devoted to the princi-
ple of " strict construction " of the Constitution. The Whigs
had not, to be sure, formally professed different principles
from his in resolutions adopted by a national convention ; but
they were really unanimous, or substantially so, in holding
all the views from which he dissented.

Whatever part an ambition to be reelected, not by the
Whigs, but by the Democrats, had in determining Mr. Tyler's
course, he did not gain new political friends when he lost
old ones. The Democrats were glad enough that the fruits
of victory were snatched away from the Whigs ; but, though
they took advantage of the opportunity which chance threw
in their way, they made no pretence of taking the President
up as their own man. They loved the sin, but hated the
sinner. There were some Democrats and Democratic papers
slightly tinctured with " Tylerism," but they were few and
uninfluential. By far the largest number of the Democrats
were zealous and unwavering in their adherence to the fortunes
of Mr. Van Buren. Yet it was not their unanimous senti-
ment. South Carolina was in favor of Mr. Calhoun, and so
was Georgia ; and that gentleman carried his sense of pro-
priety so far that, in the autumn of 1843, he declined an in-
vitation to visit Ohio in a semi-public way, on the ground that
he ought not to do so while his name was before the country
as a candidate for its highest office. Colonel R. M. Johnson,
then lately Vice-President, was also advocated by the anti-
Benton men of Missouri, as well as by partisans in his own
State of Kentucky. He had no such scruples as those which
restrained Mr. Calhoun, for he made a tour through the
North, as far as Boston, in the course of which, if he was not
belied, he assured the people that nothing could prevent the
election of Mr. Clay in 1844 but his own candidacy. His
belief in himself is shown by a letter written early in January,
184^, wherein he said that he had worn a certain " red vest "
-c_ " when called upon to respond to my third unanimous nomi-
nation for the presidency by the annual convention of my

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 209

native State." His friends always spoke of him as "the old
hero " and " old Tecumseh." His willingness to be before
the people was further exemplified in a letter, written in an-
swer to an inquiry, in which he said plainly that he would
accept the second place on the ticket if he did not get the
first. The claims of General Lewis Cass were urged by some
of those who did not think the nomination of Mr. Van Buren
advisable. Finally, in Pennsylvania, Mr. James Buchanan
was brought forward as a " favorite son."

In point of fact, while a most decided preference was shown
for Mr. Van Buren before any and all others, those who
opposed him were bitter and determined. They declared that
he could not be elected, and that it would be suicide for the
party to nominate him. When the question of a convention
was under discussion, South Carolina refused to send dele-
gates ; and hot discussions arose in the Democratic newspapers
whether delegates should be chosen by districts or by general
ticket, and whether Virginia, which was for Van Buren, should
be allowed to enter the convention with her delegation num-
bering five times the votes she would be allowed to cast.

Such was the situation late in 1843. The Democrats
seemed to be, and were, in hopeless discord. The Whigs
counted upon an easy victory, for they were absolutely united
in supporting Mr. Clay, while the alleged treachery of Mr.
Tyler had given them what was better than unanimity in re-
spect of a candidate, — political union. The next succeeding
events seemed to work in their favor, for they were as con-
fident of their ability to defeat Mr. Van Buren as were that
gentleman's enemies in his own party that he could not be
elected. Mr. Buchanan formally withdrew his name in De-
cember, 1843; and in the following month Mr. Calhoun pub-
lished a letter which was at first taken as a withdrawal,
but was afterwards seen to be only a refusal to allow his name
to go before the convention. His friends were thus left free to
give him their independent support if they would. Mean-
while many state conventions were instructing their delegates
to vote for Mr. Van Buren, and his nomination seemed to be
inevitable. A clear majority of all the delegates could be
counted for him beyond a question, and it was not doubted
that he would receive the necessary two thirds.

But the situation was changed as if by magic. The ques- «■,.
tion <of the annexation of Texas loomed up suddenly. An

210 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

overture by Texas for absorption had been once rejected, years
before ; a suggestion from the government of the United
States that annexation might be acceptable, some time later,
had come to nothing ; and now Mr. Tyler thrust the matter
again before the people by submitting to the Senate a treaty
with Texas providing for its annexation to the United States.
" jfte-annexation " was the cry. Texas had been exchanged
for Florida in a negotiation with Spain ; it had in common with
Mexico, of which it formed a part, been separated from Spain ;
it had been colonized by filibusters from the United States, had
declared and achieved its independence in a war with Mexico,
and was now a republic by itself. But Mexico had only sus-
pended, not ceased, its efforts to reconquer Texas, and had not
acknowledged the independence of the republic. To annex it,
therefore, was to assume the obligation of a war with Mexico,
or to overawe her weakness by our own strength.

The sentiment of the South was very strong in favor of
"immediate re-annexation," for obvious reasons, chief among
them being the additional strength which would thereby be
acquired for the slavery interest. The question suddenly
became a political issue of the. first magnitude. Mr. Tyler
sent the treaty to the Senate on the 22d of April, 1844, but
the fact that such a treaty was under consideration was made
public some weeks earlier. At the beginning of May, letters
were published from Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, in
which these two gentlemen, almost universally regarded as the
two prospective rivals for the presidency, answered inquiries as
to their views on the Texas question at length. Singularly
enough, their views were similar in this, — that they both fore-
saw that annexation meant war with Mexico ; that they re-
garded annexation without the consent of Mexico as dishonor-
able ; and that, consequently, both were opposed to the pending
measure. Mr. Clay went further, and expressed grave doubts
as to the wisdom of annexation at all, for reasons partly finan-
cial (Texas having a debt which must be assumed) and partly
political (the strong opposition that existed throughout New
England, and the North generally). Mr. Van Buren's letter,
perhaps the most courageous act of a public life which was not
characterized by great courage, and therefore one of the most
creditable, cost him the nomination. It was dated April 20,
1844, and made public a week later ; and the convention met
at Baltimore on May 27. The time was short, but it was long

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 211

enough to defeat him. The editor of the Richmond "En-
quirer," who had been as firm and steadfast a Van Buren man
as Senator Benton himself, presided at a meeting intended to
bring about a change in the instructions to the Virginia dele-
gates, who had been directed to support Van Buren, and to
instruct them to vote for a candidate in favor of immediate
annexation. Some delegates from Southern States resigned
rather than obey the instructions already given them to vote
for Van Buren. Others declared Jthat, although so instructed,
they knew that the wishes of their constituents would be mod-
ified by the disclosure of Mr. Van Buren's opinions, and that
they should support another candidate.

The convention was one of the most interesting ever held in
the country. The excitement among the arriving delegates
was intense. A great majority of them came with instructions
to support Van Buren ; but it was known that many of them
would disobey, and how far the treachery — for so the real
advocates of Mr. Van Buren regarded it — extended made men
suspicious and anxious. Mr. Clay had already been nominated,
and the Whigs were earnest, enthusiastic, and confident. The
party organ of the Democrats at the capital, the Washington
" Globe," said truly, just before the convention met, that the
assertion that Mr. Van Buren had lost his standing with the
people by reason of his Texas letter was not supported by
evidence. Many politicians had turned against him, but the
rank and file of the party would be for him still, unless their
leaders advised them to desert him. The " Globe " attributed
the whole anti-Van Buren movement to Calhoun. " It is the
last card of his desperate competitor, who has been playing for
twenty-five years for the presidency with the frenzy of a game-
ster. It cannot win."

Three hundred and twenty-five delegates appeared at the
convention at Baltimore on May 27, 1844. Virginia and Ken-
tucky only were greatly over-represented. For the most part,
the States sent exactly as many delegates as the electoral votes
to which they were entitled. South Carolina being unrepre-
sented, there were 266 votes in the convention. Hendrick
B. Wright, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman, and
was also appointed as the permanent president. As soon as
the temporary organization had been effected, General Saun-
ders, of North Carolina, who had championed the two-thirds
rule in Van Buren's interest in the convention of 1835, moved

212

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

that the rules of the convention of 1832 be adopted for the
government of this convention. The significance of the mo-
tion was recognized at once. It was a motion for the two-
thirds rule. If it were not adopted, Van Buren was sure to
be nominated ; if it were adopted, he might be defeated. Con-
sideration of the motion was postponed as premature ; but
General Saunders persisted in bringing it forward, and at last it
was taken up. A warm debate ensued. The vote was taken
at about noon of the second day of the convention. The rule
was adopted by 148 votes against 118. Nearly two thirds of
the Northern votes were in the negative ; six sevenths of the
Southern votes were in favor of the rule. The Northern dele-
gates had it in their power to defeat the rule, and yet, being
perfectly well aware that the adoption of the two-thirds require-
ment handicapped the candidate they professed to support, they
lent themselves to the scheme of his opponents. The conclu-
sion is inevitable that they were willing that he should be sac-
rificed, but that they did not quite venture to appear with
daggers in their own hands.

"Balloting" for a candidate, as it was called, — although
the voting was viva voce, — began in the afternoon. It will
be seen from the table below that Mr. Van Buren received a
majority of 26 on the first trial. He would have lacked but
ten votes of a nomination had all those who came to the con-
vention, instructed for him, given him their votes. He received
but 12 votes of the 105 from Southern States ; from the North,
134 votes out of 151. Seven trials took place before adjourn-
ment for the day, resulting as follows : —

Whole number of votes . . .
Necessary for a choice . . .
Martin Van Buren, New York
Lewis Cass, Michigan . . .
Richard M. Johnson, Kentucky
James Buchanan, Pennsylvania
Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire
Commodore Stewart, Pennsylvania
John C. Calhoun, South Carolina

1st.

266

178

146

2d.

266

178

127

3d.

266

178

121

265
177
111
105
32
17

265
177
103
107
29
26

6th.

265
177
101
116
23
25

7th.

265

177-

123

Early in the session on the following day an Ohio delegate
moved a resolution that Martin Van Buren, having received a
majority of votes on the first ballot, be declared the candidate.

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 213

It was ruled that this would require a two-thirds vote, as
rescinding an order of the convention. An angry and confused
debate took place over the point of parliamentary law, but an
appeal from the decision of the chair was withdrawn, and the
convention began once more to vote for a candidate.

The time had come to spring the sensation carefully prepared
in advance of the convention. The States were called in
geographical order, beginning with Maine. When New Hamp-
shire was called, the delegates from that State gave all their
votes to James K. Polk, of Tennessee. A member of the
Maine delegation had remarked, just before the voting began,
that "it was time to draw the fire of Tennessee." Seven
Massachusetts delegates, all those of Alabama and Tennessee,
and a few others, followed the lead of New Hampshire. The
result was announced : Van Buren, 104 ; Cass, 114 ; Polk, 44.
The ninth trial began without great evidence of excitement,
until, upon the call of New York, the chairman of that delega-
tion asked permission to retire for consultation. Meanwhile
the roll-call proceeded. When the New York delegation
returned, Mr. B. F. Butler made a speech, in the course of
which he produced a letter from Mr. Van Buren which he had
received before the convention met, authorizing the withdrawal
of his name, if it would conduce to harmony. Accordingly
Mr. Butler withdrew Mr. Van Buren, and cast the entire vote
of New York for Mr. Polk. Then ensued a "stampede," — a
scene repeated many times since that day in national conven-
tions. Delegation after delegation changed its vote, and when
the result was announced James K. Polk, of Tennessee, had
every vote, and was nominated. A scene of wild confusion
ensued. A despatch was sent by telegraph to Washington, —
the first line built in the country had not long before been
opened between the two cities, — and a congratulatory reply
was received from the Democratic members of Congress twenty
minutes after the nomination.

In the afternoon the convention voted for a candidate for
Vice-President, and nominated Silas Wright, then a Senator
from New York, almost unanimously, by 256 votes. Nine
members of the Georgia delegation refused to vote for him,
and supported Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire. Mr.
Wright was notified by telegraph, and declined the nomination
peremptorily. Although he was requested to reconsider, and
was waited upon that night by a committee of the convention,

214 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

he persisted in his refusal to be a candidate. This is the only
case in the history of the country where a nomination for either
the first or the second place on a presidential ticket, by one of
the great parties, has been declined after it was made. Mr.
Wright felt that he could not, in honor, accept the candidacy.
V He had been a sincere advocate of Mr. Van Buren's nomina-
tion. Moreover, a few days before the convention, he had
been approached by some of his own personal friends, who
suggested that the two-thirds rule might be adopted, that it
might result in the defeat of Van Buren, and that it might be
possible to turn the convention in his own favor. He rejected
the overture, and wrote a letter to be used in case the contin-
gency suggested were to arise. It did arise when New York
was about to withdraw Van Buren, and the letter was read at
the private meeting of the delegation. His determination was
conveyed explicitly in these words : "I am not and cannot
under any circumstances be a candidate before your convention
for that office." The whole letter is published in Hammond's
" Life of Silas Wright," which forms a part of the third vol-
ume of his " Political History of New York," and is highly
creditable to Mr. Wright's sense of honor. He explained
afterward that he felt that he could not accept the second
place and so gain a profit from the defeat of his friend, Mr.
Van Buren.

On the third day of the convention the members proceeded
to vote again for a candidate for Vice-President. On the first
trial, Governor John Fairfield, of Maine, had 107 votes ; Levi
Woodbury, of New Hampshire, 44 ; Lewis Cass, of Michigan,
39 ; R. M. Johnson, of Kentucky, 26 ; Commodore Stewart, of
Pennsylvania, 23; George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, 13;
William L. Marcy, of New York, 5. An inquiry was made
whether Governor Fairfield was in favor of annexation, but
the question could not be answered authoritatively, and he
was dropped. The convention was evidently in a less con-
ciliatory frame of mind than when it nominated Mr. Wright,
who shared the views of Mr. Van Buren. On the second vote
George M. Dallas had 220 votes ; Governor Fairfield, 30 ; Mr.
Woodbury, 6 ; and Mr. Dallas was nominated.

At the beginning of the morning session, before the nomi-
nation of Mr. Dallas, the following platform was reported
and adopted. In most of our political text-books the plat-
form appears in a mutilated form, and does not contain the

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 215

first resolution, with its sarcastic allusion to the canvass of
1840 : —

Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust, not
in factitious symbols, not in displays and appeals insulting to the
judgment and subversive of the intellect of the people, but in a
clear reliance upon the intelligence, patriotism, and the discrimi-
nating justice of the American people.

Resolved, That we regard this as a distinctive feature of our
political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world,
as the great moral element in a form of government springing
from and upheld by the popular will ; and we contrast it with the
creed and practice of Federalism, under whatever name or form,
which seeks to palsy the will of the constituent, and which con-
ceives no imposture too monstrous for the popular credulity.

Resolved, therefore, That, entertaining these views, the Demo-
cratic party of this Union, through the delegates assembled in
general convention of the States, coming together in a spirit of
concord, of devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free represent-
ative government, and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the
rectitude of their intentions, renew and reassert before the Ameri-
can people the declaration of principles avowed by them on a for-
mer occasion, when, in general convention, they presented their
candidates for the popular suffrage.

[Here follow all the resolutions adopted by the convention
of 1840; see p. 199.]

Resolved, That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be
sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the Constitu-
tion ; and that we are opposed to the laws lately adopted, and to
any law, for the distribution of such proceeds among the States, as
alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the Constitution.

Resolved, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the
President the qualified veto power by which he is enabled, under
restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the pub-
lic interest, to suspend the passage of a bill, whose merits cannot
secure the approval of two thirds of the Senate and House of Re-
presentatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained
thereon, and which has thrice saved the American people from
the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the Bank of the United
States.

Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon
is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought
to be ceded to England or any other power; and that the r€>-
occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the ear»
liest practicable period are great American measum*, which this

216 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy
of the Union.

After a formal resolution naming Polk and Dallas as the
party candidates, the platform concludes with the following
resolution : —

Resolved, That this convention hold in the highest estimation
and regard their illustrious fellow-citizen, Martin Van Buren, of
New York ; that we cherish the most grateful and abiding sense
of the ability, integrity, and firmness with which he discharged
the duties of the high office of President of the United States, and
especially of the inflexible fidelity with which he maintained the
true doctrines of the Constitution and the measures of the Demo-
cratic party during his trying and nobly arduous administration ;
that in the memorable struggle of 1840 he fell a martyr to the great
principles of which he was the worthy representative, and we revere
him as such ; and that we hereby tender to him, in honorable re-
tirement, the assurance of the deeply seated confidence, affection,
and respect of the American Democracy.

In order to present the events of the opening of the Demo-
cratic canvass without a break, chronological order has been
somewhat disregarded. Two conventions had already been
held when that of the Democrats met. The Abolitionists
had assembled at Buffalo at the end of August, 1843, and had
nominated James G. Birney, of New York, for President, and
Thomas Morris, of Ohio, for Vice-President. This action was
to have a most important effect upon the ensuing canvass, un-
worthy of notice as the convention seemed. Only one hun-
dred and forty-eight delegates were present, from twelve States.
It adopted the following platform : —

Resolved, That human brotherhood is a cardinal principle of
true democracy, as well as of pure Christianity, which spurns all
inconsistent limitations; and neither the political party which
repudiates it, nor the political system which is not based upon it,
can be truly democratic or permanent.

Resolved, That the Liberty Party, placing itself upon this broad
principle, will demand the absolute and unqualified divorce of the
general government from slavery, and also the restoration of equal-
ity of rights among men, in every State where the party exists or
may exist.

Resolved, That the Liberty Party has not been organized for any
temporary purpose by interested politicians, but has arisen from
among the people in consequence of a conviction, hourly gaining
ground, that no other party in the country represents the true

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 217

principles of American liberty, or the true spirit of the Constitu-
tion of the United States.

Resolved, .That the Liberty Party has not been organized merely
for the overthrow of slavery. Its first decided effort must indeed
be directed against slaveholding as the grossest and most revolting
manifestation of despotism, but it will also carry out the principle
of equal rights into all its practical consequences and applications,
and support every just measure conducive to individual and social
freedom.

Resolved, That the Liberty Party is not a sectional party, but a
national party ; was not originated in a desire to accomplish a single
object, but in a comprehensive regard to the great interest of the
whole Country ; is not a new party nor a third party, but is th<
party of 1776, reviving the principles of that memorable era, and
striving to carry them into practical application.

Resolved, That it was understood in the times of the Declara-
tion and the Constitution that the existence of slavery in some of
the States was in derogation of the principles of American liberty,
and a deep stain upon the character of the country and the implied
faith of the States ; and the nation was pledged that slavery should
never be extended beyond its then existing limits, but should be
gradually, and yet at no distant day wholly, abolished by state
authority.

Resolved, That the faith of the States and the nation thus
pledged was most nobly redeemed by the voluntary abolition of
slavery in several of the States, and by the adoption of the Ordi-
nance of 1787 for the government of the territory northwest of
the River Ohio, then the only territory in the United States, and
consequently the only territory subject in this respect to the con-
trol of Congress, by which ordinance slavery was forever excluded
from the vast regions which now compose the States of Ohio, Indi-
ana, Illinois, Michigan, and the Territory of Wisconsin, and an
incapacity to bear up any other than free men was impressed on the
soil itself.

Resolved, That the faith of the States and nation thus pledged
has been shamefully violated by the omission on the part of many
of the States to take any measures whatever for the abolition of
slavery within their respective limits ; by the continuance of slavery
in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories of Louisiana
and Florida; by the legislation of Congress; by the protection
afforded by national legislation and negotiation to slaveholding in
American vessels, on the high seas, employed in the coastwise slave
traffic ; and by the extension of slavery far beyond its original
limits by acts of Congress admitting new slave States into the
Union.

213 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Resolved, That the fundamental truth of the Declaration of
Independence, that all men are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, was made the fundamental law of our national
government by that amendment of the Constitution which declares
that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property with-
out due process of law.

Resolved, That we recognize as sound the doctrine maintained
by slaveliolding jurists, that slavery is against natural rights and
strictly local, and that its existence and continuance rest on no
other support than state legislation, and not on any authority of
Congress.

Resolved, That the general government has, under the Consti-
tution, no power to establish or continue slavery anywhere, and
therefore that all treaties and acts of Congress establishing, con-
tinuing, or favoring slavery in the District of Columbia, in the
Territory of Florida, or on the high seas, are unconstitutional, and
all attempts to hold men as property within the limits of exclusive
national jurisdiction ought to be prohibited by law.

Resolved, That the provision of the Constitution of the United
States, which confers extraordinary political powers on the owners
of slaves, and thereby constituting the two hundred and fifty thou-
sand slaveholders in the slave States a privileged aristocracy ; and
the provision for the reclamation of fugitive slaves from service,
are anti-republican in their character, dangerous to the liberties of
the people, and ought to be abrogated.

Resolved, That the practical operation of the second of these
provisions is seen in the enactment of the act of Congress respect-
ing persons escaping from their masters, which act, if the construc-
tion given to it by the Supreme Court of the United States in the
case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania be correct, nullifies the habeas corpus
acts of all the States, takes away the whole legal security of per-
sonal freedom, and ought therefore to be immediately repealed.

Resolved, That the peculiar patronage and support hitherto ex-
tended to slavery and slaveholding by the general government
ought to be immediately withdrawn, and the example and influence
of national authority ought to be arrayed on the side of liberty and
free labor.

Resolved, That the practice of the general government, which
prevails in the slave States, of employing slaves upon the public
works, instead of free laborers, and paying aristocratic masters,
with a view to secure or reward political services, is utterly inde-
fensible and ought to be abandoned.

Resolved, That the freedom of speech and of the press, and the
right of petition and the right of trial by jury, are sacred and

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 219

inviolable ; and that all rules, regulations, and laws in derogation
of either are oppressive, unconstitutional, and not to be endured
by free people.

Resolved, That we regard voting, in an eminent degree, as a
moral and religious duty, which, when exercised, should be by
voting for those who will do all in their power for immediate
emancipation.

Resolved, That this convention recommend to the friends of lib-
erty in all those free States where any inequality of rights and
privileges exists on account of color, to employ their utmost ener-
gies to remove all such remnants and effects of the slave system.

Whereas, The Constitution of these United States is a series of
agreements, convenants, or contracts between the people of the
United States, each with all and all with each ; and

Whereas, It is a principle of universal morality that the moral
laws of the Creator are paramount to all human laws ; or, in the
language of an Apostle, that " we ought to obey God rather than
men ; " and *— ^

Whereas, The principle of common law, that any contract,
covenant, or agreement to do an act derogatory to natural rights is
vitiated and annulled by its inherent immorality, has been recog-
nized by one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United
States, who in a recent case expressly holds that any " contract that
rests upon such a basis is void ; " and

Whereas, The third clause of the second section of the fourth
article of the Constitution of the United States, when construed as
providing for the surrender of a fugitive slave, does " rest upon such
a basis " in that it is a contract to rob a man of a natural right,
namely, his natural right to his own liberty, and is, therefore,
absolutely void ; therefore

Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood by

this nation and the world that, as Abolitionists, considering that ^

the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope for /
it in our conformity to the laws of God and our respect for the
rights of man, we owe it to the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, as
a proof of our allegiance to him in all our civil relations and offices,
whether as private citizens or as public functionaries sworn to sup-
port the Constitution of the United States, to regard and to treat
the third clause of the fourth article of that instrument, whenever
applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and
consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the United
States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to' support it.

Resolved, That the power given to Congress by the Constitution,
to provide for calling out the militia to suppress insurrection, does
not make it the duty of the government to maintain slavery by

220 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

military force, much less does it make it the duty of the citizens to
form a part of such military force. When freemen unsheathe the
sword it should be to strike for liberty, not for despotism.

Resolved, That, to preserve the peace of the citizens and secure
the blessings of freedom, the legislature of each of the free States
ought to keep in force suitable statutes rendering it penal for any
of its inhabitants to transport, or aid in transporting, from such
State, any person sought to be thus transported merely because
subject to the slave laws of any other State ; this remnant of in-
dependence being accorded to the free States by the decision
of the Supreme Court in the case of Prigg v. The State of Penn-
sylvania.

The Whigs, as has been said already, were enthusiastic and
completely united in the support of Mr. Clay. No other
candidate was mentioned or thought of in connection with the
nomination. The convention was held in Baltimore on the
1st of May, 1844. Every State in the Union was represented
by a full delegation. The whole business of the convention
was completed in a single sitting. Andrew F. Hopkins, of
Alabama, was the temporary chairman, and Ambrose Spencer,
of New York, the permanent president. Henry Clay was nom-
inated unanimously by resolution, with the utmost enthusiasm.
Four ballots were taken for a candidate for Vice-President.
On the first, Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey had 101 ;
John Davis of Massachusetts, 83 ; Millard Fillmore of New
York, 53 ; and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania, 38. Mr. Fre-
linghuysen gained on every ballot, and on the fourth received
155, against 116 for Fillmore and Davis combined. After
numerous speeches had been made, in which the candidates
were most highly commended and the triumph of the party
was confidently predicted, Mr. Reverdy Johnson of Mary-
land moved the following series of resolutions, which were
adopted : —

Resolved, That, in presenting to the country the names of Henry
Clay for President, and of Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States, this convention is actuated by the con-
viction that all the great principles of the Whig party — principles
inseparable from the public honor and prosperity — will be main-
tained and advanced by these candidates.

Resolved, That these principles may be summed as comprising :
A well-regulated currency ; a tariff for revenue to defray the neces-
sary expenses of the government, and discriminating with special

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 221

reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the country ;
the distribution of the proceeds from the sales of the public
lands ; a single term for the presidency ; a reform of executive usur-
pations ; and generally such an administration of the affairs of
the country as shall impart to every branch of the public service
the greatest practical efficiency, controlled by a well-regulated and
wise economy.

Resolved, That the name of Henry Clay needs no eulogy. The
history of the country since his first appearance in public life is his
history. Its brightest pages of prosperity and success are identified
with the principles which he has upheld, as its darkest and more
disastrous pages are with every material departure in our public
policy from those principles.

Resolved, That in Theodore Frelinghuysen we present a man
pledged alike by his Revolutionary ancestry and his own public
course to every measure calculated to sustain the honor and inter-
est of the country. Inheriting the principles as well as the name
of a father who, with Washington on the fields of Trenton and of
Monmouth, perilled life in the contest for liberty, and afterwards,
as a senator of the United States, acted with Washington in estab-
lishing and perpetuating that liberty, Theodore Frelinghuysen, by
his course as attorney-general of the State of New Jersey for twelve
years, and subsequently as a senator of the United States for sev-
eral years, was always strenuous on the side of law, order, and the
Constitution ; while, as a private man, his head, his hand, and his
heart have been given without stint to the cause of morals, educa-
tion, philanthropy, and religion.

The second only of these resolutions is printed in the politi-
cal text-books, and always with a faulty punctuation, — the
omission of a colon after the first phrase, — which makes non-
sense of the whole resolution. The first resolution of the
series is essential even to an understanding of the second,
which stated the principles of the Whig party.

Although Mr. Tyler had not been mentioned as a candidate
in the Democratic Convention, he had friends, — chiefly office-
holders, it was said, by both Whigs and Democrats, — who
held a convention, also in Baltimore, on the same day that the
Democrats met there. It was a mass convention, rather than
one of elected delegates. Mr. Tyler was unanimously nomi-
nated for the presidency, and accepted the nomination ; but
the movement fell dead, and Mr. Tyler withdrew his candi-
dacy in a long, argumentative, and somewhat bitter letter, dated
on the 20th of August.

222 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The Democrats recovered themselves quickly from the sur-
prise to which their convention had treated them. Van
Buren's wrongs were soon forgotten. Immediately after his
overthrow, Horace Greeley wrote in the New York " Tribune : "
" We can with difficulty realize that this active, skilful, in-
domitable man, accustomed to organize victories out of the
ruins of defeats which to another would seem annihilating,
is to be henceforth a reminiscence. Verily, what shadows we
are, what shadows we pursue ! " The Democrats wasted no
time even in reminiscence. The canvass began immediately,
and it was to some extent a repetition of the campaign of
1840, with the difference that this time there were shouting
and enthusiasm on both sides. Mr. Clay was undoubtedly
the most popular man in the United States ; but personal popu-
larity did not decide the issue. The Democrats were much
in earnest, both about the election and about Texas. Mr.
Polk was a comparatively unknown man, although he had
served as Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives. He
therefore excited no antagonisms. He was particularly accept-
able to the South ; and the Northern Democrats had nothing
against him. It was believed and asserted that the movement
in his favor in the convention had not been so spontaneous as
its managers wished people to suppose, but that the matter
had been carefully canvassed beforehand, and that the plan, as
carried out, was laid some time before at Nashville. While,
therefore, the Whigs made an enthusiastic canvass, there were
not wanting signs that a majority of the people were still
Democratic, and that the reverse of 1840 was merely a
brief and half-thoughtless revulsion against certain abuses
which had crept in, which the people did not like at the time,
but to which they have since reconciled themselves most
bravely. The early elections gave indications here and there
of a slight Whig gain from the result in 1842, when the Demo-
crats had been again successful in carrying a majority of Con-
gress ; but these gains were partially offset by Democratic suc-
cesses, and were nowhere great enough to give the Whigs good
ground for hope of a victory in November. Yet they contin-
ued to hope and to fight to the last.

The number of States voting was twenty-six, as before ;
but owing to the new apportionment, by which the number
of representatives was cut down from 242 to 223, the number of
electors was reduced to 275. The popular and the electoral

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE

228

votes are included in the same table, inasmuch as all the elec-
tors voted for both candidates of their respective parties : —

Popular Vote.

Electors.

States.

■

^■3

Maine

45,719

34,378

4,836

New Hampshire

27,160

17,866

4,161

Vermont . . .

18,041

26,770

3,954

Massachusetts

52,846

. 67,418

10,860

Rhode Island

4,867

7,322

107

Connecticut .

29,841

32,832

1,943

New York .

237,588

232,482

15,812

New Jersey

37,495

38,318

131

Pennsylvania

167,535

161,203

3,138

—

Delaware .

5,996

6,278

- •

Maryland .

32,676

35,984

Virginia .

49,570

43,677

—

North Carolina

- 39,287

43,232

South/Carolina *

Georgia . .

44,177

42,100

Alabama .

37,740

26,084

—

Mississippi

25,126

19,206

Louisiana .

13,782

13,083

Kentucky .

51,988

61,255

Tennessee .

59,917

60,030

Missouri .

41,369

31,251

Arkansas .

9,546

5,504

Ohio. . .

149,117

155,057

8,050

Michigan .

27,759

24,337

3,632

Indiana

70,181

67,867

2,106

—

Illinois . .

57,920

45,528

3,570

Totals .

1,337,243

1,299,062

62,300

170

105

* Electors appointed by the legislature.

It was not the closest election ever known in the country,
but it was extremely close. There were but four States in
which the plurality of Polk reached ten thousand; one State
only gave Clay so large a plurality as that. Three States gave
less than a thousand plurality each. Although Mr. Polk had
65 majority of the electoral votes, a change of 7918 votes,
carefully distributed in the States of New York, Pennsylvania,

224

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Georgia, and Indiana, would have given Clay a majority of
103 electoral votes. These were not the only peculiar features
of the election. The Abolitionists defeated Clay. The Whigs
were wroth against the new political faction before the elec-
tion. The New York " Tribune " brought forward evidence
satisfactory to itself that Birney sought a Democratic nomina-
tion in New York, and tried to catch Democratic votes. In all
probability there was no truth in the charge, but it was be-
lieved at the time. Had the Abolitionists voted for Clay he
would have had a popular majority of 24,119; he would have
received the electoral votes of New York, 36, and Michigan, 5 ;
and he would have been elected by 146 electoral votes against
129 for Mr. Polk. No doubt the Abolitionists acted with
entire consistency in refusing to vote for Henry Clay, and no
doubt it is as impossible to tell what might have happened if
Clay had been elected as it would be to guess what would have
been the course of history if Van Buren had not written his
Texas letter ; but at all events the election of Clay would have
, postponed the annexation of Texas, and possibly it would
<-X"""have averted the Mexican war.

Another noteworthy incident of the election was what was
known as the Plaquemines fraud. It will be noticed in the
above table that the Polk majority in Louisiana is 699. The
parish of Plaquemines, below New Orleans on the Mississippi,
had voted in previous years, and was returned as voting in
1844, as follows : —

Democrat.

Whig.

Election of 1840

250

179

310

1,007

Election of 1842

Election of 1843

Election of 1844

The Democratic vote was larger by 697 than ever before, —
almost exactly the whole Democratic majority in the State.
The vote was also suspicious in this, that the Democratic vote
returned was greater in number than the entire white male
population, of all ages, in the parish in 1840. The explana-
tion that was given by the Whigs was that the steamboat
Agnes went down from New Orleans with a load of passengers

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 225

under the charge of a political magnate of Plaquemines, and
that these passengers stopped at three different places and cast
each time a unanimous vote for Polk and Dallas. The steam-
boat Planter took down one hundred and forty others, who
also voted early and often for the same ticket. These asser-
tions were not only made, but sworn to, by many witnesses,
including some persons, one of them a minor, who voted several
times each, under the direction of the learned judge who man-
aged the affair. The story bears all the marks of truth. If it
is not true, it is at least singular that it was ten years after
1844 before Plaquemines parish could muster half as many
Democratic votes as it gave that year to Polk.

Though the Whig newspapers rang with the charges of
fraud, and though the accusation was supported by strong tes-
timony, nothing was done about it. The election was lost,
and a rectification of the fraud would not have changed the
result. The Whigs submitted quietly ; and when the electoral
count took place in 1845, in the usual manner, no objection
whatever was made, and Polk and Dallas were in due form
declared elected.

The inauguration took place in the form which had now
become usual. The President and the President-elect rode
together, this time, in an open carriage ; and a feature of
the procession was a small band of Revolutionary veterans on
foot. Inasmuch as this ceremony took place sixty-two years
after the treaty of peace, the political enthusiasm of these
aged men was as remarkable as was the inhumanity of the
managers who suffered them to take such a part in the dis-
play of the day.

xvm

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848
i

The slavery question, which had been growing in impor-
tance fitfully, as a political issue, since the contest and com-
promise on the admission of Missouri in 1820, dominated the
politics of the country in the election of 1844, and thereafter
until it was decided by secession, war, and emancipation. Not
that parties, statesmen, and politicians ranged themselves as
advocates or opponents either of slavery as an existing institu-
tion or of the extension of slavery, until the critical moment
of the struggle was near at hand. But every great measure,
beginning with the annexation of Texas, was considered and
decided with chief reference to the extension, the maintenance,
the restriction, or the overthrow of the " peculiar institution"
of the South. The opponents of slavery became bolder and
more aggressive ; its defenders more vigilant, more resentful of
attacks upon it, more rigid in their ostracism of public men at
the North who did not accept their principles, more resolute,
in the event of a denial of their " rights," in their purpose to
seek those rights by a separation from the Union. As the
feeling grew more intense, and the language of extreme parti-
sans increased in violence, well-meaning men tried to prolong
the peace by compromises and by endeavors to turn the current
of political thought to other subjects. How vain it was to
attempt to reconcile irreconcilable things, to repress the " irre-
pressible conflict," the history of the next few years shows
most plainly.

The South was better prepared for the conflict when it be-
came acute than was the North. It was more united. It had
control of one of the parties ; it terrorized the other. It knew
what it desired, and was ready to make demands and to in-
sist upon them, no matter what might be the consequences.
Thus it won the first victory of the great campaign, in the
annexation of Texas, and followed it up during the next
administration by the war with Mexico and the acquisition of

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 227

more territory available, as was supposed, for the spread of
the slavery system. Soon after the shocking accident on the
" Princeton," on February 28, 1844, in which the Secretary of
State, Mr. Upshur, and the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Gil-
mer, lost their lives, Mr. Calhoun was made Secretary of State.
Henry A. Wise asserts, in his " Seven Decades of the Union,"
that he offered the position to Mr. Calhoun without authority
from the President, who nevertheless acquiesced in the selec-
tion so irregularly made of the most important member of his
cabinet. Mr. Calhoun negotiated a treaty for the annexation
of Texas, and was believed to be the active agent in defeating
the nomination of Van Buren, who opposed the measure. The
Senate rejected the treaty, 16 senators only favoring and 35
opposing it. Subsequently joint resolutions were offered, and
passed by the House of Representatives, providing for the
annexation. The resolutions would surely have failed in the
Senate but for the addition of an amendment giving the Pre-
sident discretionary power to bring in Texas under a new
treaty to be submitted to the Senate. Even this could not
secure the bare majority required until Mr. Polk, the Presi-
dent-elect, was known to have pledged himself to act, not
under the House resolutions, but under the Senate amendment.
Mr. Tyler affixed his signature to the resolutions on March 1,
1845. The same night he dispatched a special messenger to
Texas to consummate the annexation. Mr. Polk, inaugurated
three days afterward, refused to recall the messenger. The
opponents of annexation regarded the proceeding as a case of
remarkably sharp practice.

Mr. Polk was not a great man. His Democratic supporters,
and particularly the Southern men who controlled the party,
had no cause of complaint either of unwillingness on his part
to take the radical views they entertained on questions between
the South and the North, or of lack of courage in acting upon
those views. The Mexican war, which every one knew to be
an inevitable consequence of the intrigue to annex Texas, was
entered upon without hesitation. The Independent Treasury,
— Van Buren's pet measure, — which had been overthrown by
the Whigs, was reestablished. The Secretary of the Treasury,
Mr. Eobert J. Walker, was given a free hand in drafting a
tariff bill, and Congress passed it, — the famous tariff of 1846,
framed in the most strict conformity to the wishes of the
Southern Democrats. In the platform of the party the title of

228 A HISTOKY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the United States to " the whole of the territory of Oregon " was
asserted to be " clear and unquestionable ; " and the " reoccu-
pation " of Oregon was linked with the " reannexation " of
Texas, as " great American measures." The whole of Oregon,
as spoken of in those times, meant the territory lying north
of Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, to the line of
54° 40' north latitude. " Fifty -four forty, or fight," was a
Democratic rallying cry in the North, as the acquisition of
Texas was in the South. After the election there was no en-
thusiasm on the Oregon question ; an agreement was made,
without a murmur of Democratic dissatisfaction, upon the line
of 49°.

On every one of the three questions the Whigs were de-
cidedly against the administration. They deprecated the
Mexican war ; they opposed the sub-treasury and the ad va-
lorem low tariff of 1846 ; they jeered at the government for
the meekness shown in accepting the northern boundary line
offered by Great Britain. Yet slavery was to decide the can-
vass of 1848, not as a direct issue between the two great par-
ties, but by dividing one of them and so giving the victory to
the other. The opportunity of the anti-slavery men came to
them from a peculiar situation developed in the politics of the
State of New York. It would be almost true to say that
there has never been a time when the Democrats of New
York have not been divided into at least two factions. They
have exhibited a remarkable power of getting together on elec-
tion day, but at all other times they have been at war with
each other. Some of their dissensions have already been
mentioned. In the early days of the republic the contests were
largely personal struggles between rival leaders, — Burr, the
Clintons, and the Livingstons. During the second administra-
tion of Jackson a large faction was formed, professing ex-
tremely radical views, which called itself the Equal Rights
party, but was termed by its adversaries the Loco-foco party.
The name originated in an incident that occurred in New
York city just before the election in 1835. l It was the
custom to submit nominations to a general meeting of Demo-
cratic citizens. The Equal Eights men, determined to oppose
the Tammany nominations, appeared in large numbers at the
meeting called in Tammany Hall. A scene of great confusion

1 Some authorities give the date erroneously as 1834. See History of the
Loco-foco Party, by F. Byrdsall, chap. i.

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 229

between tfce two factions ensued. At last the Tammany men
withdrew, and as they left the hall extinguished the gaslights.
The radicals, anticipating this, had provided themselves with
candles and the then new " loco-foco " matches, by means of
which the hall was relighted and the meeting proceeded. Some
years later the Whigs called all Democrats " Loco-focos."

The division of the party continued, with some changes in
the causes of dissension, as well as changes in their designa-
tions. During Polk's administration they were known as
" Hunkers " and " Barnburners," — Hunkers, because they
" hunkered " for office ; Barnburners, because they were so
much in earnest for the reforms they advocated that, as one
of their orators put it, they were willing to imitate the Dutch-
man who burned his barn in order to destroy the rats which
infested it.

It was narrated in the last chapter that Silas Wright re-
fused to profit by the intrigue that defeated his friend Van
Buren's nomination for the presidency. Nevertheless, as a
good party man, he did all in his power to help the Polk
and Dallas ticket, and at the solicitation of the Democrats
accepted reluctantly a nomination as governor of New York.
He was elected by about twice the majority given to Mr. Polk.
Whether intentionally or not, every step of the administration
was hostile to the faction represented by Governor Wright
and Mr. Van Buren, and in favor of the Hunkers. Governor
Marcy, a leader of the Hunkers, was Secretary of War; all
the federal office-holders appointed were of the same faction.
Silas Wright was regarded as one of the most promising can-
didates for the nomination in 1848 ; and if it had been the
intention of the administration to prevent his success, it could
not have employed more effectual measures than it did. When
he was again a candidate for governor in 1846, he was de-
feated. His friends all believed that his defeat was the act
of the President and his friends, although at the last moment
a great show was made of anxiety for his election. Indeed,
a circular was sent to all office-holders in New York forbid-
ding them, under penalty of dismissal, to vote against Gov-
ernor Wright.

This long explanation of the situation in New York has
been necessary because the Democratic division in that State
lost the election of 1848. It not only deprived the Democrats
of electoral votes which would have changed the result, but

230 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

it gave to the anti-slavery wing of the party in other States
an opportunity to rally for their cause. Mr. Wright died
suddenly in August, 1847 ; but his death, instead of bringing
the serious party dissension to a close, aggravated it. As the
war with Mexico drew to a close, the contest, minus its per-
sonal elements, extended into other States. David Wilmot,
a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from
Pennsylvania, proposed, as an amendment to a bill placing
three million dollars at the disposal of the President for the
negotiation of a treaty extending the territory of the United
States, a proviso that slavery should not exist in any territory
so acquired. The " Wilmot Proviso " played a great part in
the debates of Congress, in the general struggle over the slavery
question, and especially in the ensuing election of 1848.

Meanwhile all was not union and harmony in the Whig
ranks. Henry Clay was still the most popular man in the
party; but there was gradually springing up a feeling that,
after his repeated defeats, and in the face of the uncompro-
mising objections to him in anti-slavery quarters in the North,
he could not be elected. Moreover there were those who
thought that he should not have a permanent mortgage on
the Whig party. Mr. Webster had strong friends and sup-
porters to urge his pretensions. Judge McLean, General
Scott, Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, and Thomas Corwin, of Ohio,
were also put forward. But the movement in favor of General
Taylor was of a character to disarrange all the calculations of
the politicians. The campaign in his favor opened on Feb-
ruary 22, 1848, when a state convention of Louisiana, con-
sisting of delegates from thirty-six parishes (counties), elected
in primary meetings " without regard to party distinction,"
brought forward General Taylor, and " decreed " in the name
of their constituents that they nominated him as a candidate
for President. Shortly afterward a mass meeting in Alabama,
and the Whig members of the legislature of that State, nomi-
nated General Taylor, and recommended that the Whigs of
Alabama should not send delegates to the national conven-
tion. A non-partisan mass meeting in Taylor's interest was.
also held in Baltimore. These movements created a serious
situation. Apparently the nomination was to be taken out
of the hands of the party. Taylor's supporters threatened to
run him as a candidate whatever the Whig convention might
do. It became important to know how far General Taylor

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 231

lent himself to this feature of the canvass in his favor. Let-
ters were addressed to him to ascertain his purpose. Two of
his replies were made public. In the first (April 20) he
said that if nominated by the Whigs he " should not refuse
acceptance," provided he were left free of all pledges, and per-
mitted to maintain his independence of parties ; that he did
not design to withdraw his name if Mr. Clay should be nomi-
nated, nor in fact, " whoever may be the Whig or the Demo-
cratic candidate ; " and — denying certain charges made against
him — that he never said he was in favor of the tariff of 1846,
or of the sub-treasury ; nor had he asserted that he originated
the war with Mexico, or that, if elected, he should select his
cabinet from both parties. In the second letter (April 22)
he said that he was M a Whig, but not an ultra Whig; " and
" on the subjects of the tariff, the currency, and the improve-
ment of our great highways, the will of the people as expressed
by their representatives in Congress ought to be respected and
carried out by the executive."

All this was highly unsatisfactory to many of the Whigs.
They had principles, — they had not all the same principles,
to be sure, — and General Taylor apparently had none. His
election would mean nothing. They could not be sure that
their President would favor one of their measures. But, on
the other hand, the election of Mr. Clay would not mean
much. He was identified with contests over questions that
had been decided. Where would he stand when the new
questions came to the front ? Texas had been annexed ; the
sub-treasury was reestablished ; the tariff of 1846, though
soon to develop defects, was working well ; the Oregon ques- /
tion was settled ; and on the new issue then becoming promi- /
nent, Mr. Clay could not be acceptable to the " conscience
Whigs." All these considerations, and others which have not v
been mentioned, each in its own way, worked in favor of the
Taylor movement ; and his nomination was assured, although
not conceded, before the Whig convention met.

The first convention preliminary to the canvass of 1848
was that of the Native Americans, — a party which had
some strength in the Middle States, and which for some
years past had even elected a few representatives in Congress
from New York and Pennsylvania. The convention met in
Philadelphia in September, 1847, and nominated General
Henry A. S. Dearborn, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President.

232 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

It recommended, but did not formally nominate, General
Zachary Taylor for President.

In November of the same year the Liberty, or Abolition,
party met at New York, and nominated for President John P.
Hale, of New Hampshire, and for Vice-President Leicester
King, of Ohio. After the Barnburners' convention, hereafter
to be noticed, Mr. Hale withdrew from the canvass. It was
given out at the time that Mr. Van Buren was a good enough
Abolitionist for this party, though he " could not be regarded
as a perfect embodiment of their principles." The " Liberty
League," another Abolition body, held a convention at Roches-
ter, N. Y., on the 2d of June, 1848, and nominated Gerritt
Smith, of New York, for President, and the Rev. Charles E.
Foote, of Michigan, for Vice-President. An " Industrial Con-
gress " met at Philadelphia, June 13, 1848, and nominated
Gerritt Smith for the first place, and William S. Waitt, of
Illinois, for the second place on the ticket. So far as is
known, no votes were cast for any of these minor candidates in
any State.

The Democratic convention met at Baltimore on May 22,
1848. Judge J. S. Bryce, of Louisiana, was the temporary
chairman, and Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, the permanent
president. All the States were represented, most of them
fully, some by double or triple delegations. South Carolina
had but one delegate, who was chosen at a little local gather-
ing, numbering only eight or ten persons. There was not a
little discussion whether or not he should be permitted to cast
the nine votes of South Carolina ; he was finally allowed to do
so, by a formal vote of the convention. Before the session
closed, a resolution was adopted, 208 to 41, that in future con-
ventions each State should be entitled to as many delegates
only as the number of its electoral votes. This convention
also directed the appointment of a central committee of one
member from each State to take general charge of the canvass
and of the party's interests. This was the first national com-
mittee ever organized.

The great question, which dominated all others, which
raised before the convention the spectre of defeat, was that of
the New York delegation. There had been two state conven-
tions, and two full sets of delegates ; thirty-six " Hunkers V
and thirty-six " Barnburners " presented themselves, and each
delegation demanded not only recognition as representing the

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848

233

New York Democrats, but the absolute exclusion of the other
faction.

The wrangling began as soon as the opening prayer had
been offered, — over the constitution of the committee on cre-
dentials. Nothing was done on the first day beyond settling the
membership of the convention, save as to the New York dele-
gations and effecting a permanent organization. On the morn-
ing of the second day the two-thirds rule was adopted, after
long debate, by 175 votes against 78. From that time until
the evening of the 24th of May the convention devoted itself
wholly to New York. On a resolution to admit the " Hun-
ker " delegation, an amendment was offered to admit both
delegations, the two combined to have only the vote to which
New York was entitled. This was carried by two majority,
— 126 to 124. Of the affirmative votes, 99 came from North-
ern States, and the other 27 from Maryland, Delaware, Ken-
tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas. The North gave only
33 negative votes. Although this was, so far as it was a victory
for either side, a triumph for the " Barnburners," they refused
to take part in the proceedings, as did also the " Hunkers.''
The " Barnburners " openly withdrew from the convention.

As soon as the New York question was decided, balloting
for a candidate for President began. Four trials were neces-
sary, the result of which was as follows : —

1st.

2d.

3d.

4th.

Whole number of votes
Necessary for a choice .
Lewis Cass, Mich. . . .
James Buchanan, Penn.

251

168

125

252

168

133

254

169

156

253

169

179

George M. Dallas, Penn.
W. J. Worth, Tenn. . .
John C. Calhoun, S. C. .
W. 0. Butler, Ky. . .

1
3

It will be noticed that Mr. Polk received no votes. Like
other Presidents, he had declared before his election his pur*
pose not to be a candidate for a second term ; but, unlike som«
others, he had found, after a little manoeuvring for a nomina-
tion, that the case was hopeless, and had therefore reiterated
his original intention.

234 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The vote for General Cass was at first almost exclusively
from Western and Southern States, but there was little
significance in this fact. All the candidates were against the
Wilmot Proviso, — they were all classed as " Northern men
with Southern principles," — and the preferences of delegates
were personal rather than political. The nomination was
made unanimous with enthusiasm. In the evening the con-
vention proceeded to vote for a candidate for Vice-President.
On the first trial, General William 0. Butler of Kentucky had
114 ; General John A. Quitman of Mississippi had 74 ; John
Y. Mason of Virginia, 24 ; William R. King of Alabama, 25 ;
James J. McKay of North Carolina, 13 ; Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi, 1. As 169 were necessary for a choice, the con-
vention proceeded to vote a second time. General William 0.
Butler was nominated, receiving 169 votes to 62 for Quitman
and 22 for all others. This nomination was also made unani-
mous.

On the fifth and last day of the convention, the platform
was reported. The resolutions were, for the most part, a re-
petition of those of 1844. The first was modified to read as
follows : —

Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust in the
intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of
the American people.

Then followed the resolutions adopted in 1840 and 1844, as
arranged in the platform of 1844, except that to the fifth
resolution (see p. 200) are appended the words : " And for
the gradual but certain extinction of the debt created by the
prosecution of a just and necessary war, after peaceful rela-
tions shall have been restored." The convention added to an
already ample platform the following new resolutions : —

Resolved, That the war with Mexico, provoked on her part by
years of insult and injury, was commenced by her army crossing
the Rio Grande, attacking the American troops, and invading our
sister State of Texas ; and that, upon all the principles of patriotism
and the laws of nations, it is a just and necessary war upon our
part, in which every American citizen should have shown himself
on the side of his country, and neither morally nor physically, by
word ot deed, have given aid and comfort to the enemy.

Resolved, That we should be rejoiced at the assurance of a peace
with Mexico founded on the just principles of indemnity for the
past and security for the future ; but that, while the ratification of

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 235

the liberal treaty offered to Mexico remains in doubt, it is the duty
of the country to sustain the administration in every measure
necessary to provide for the vigorous prosecution of the war should
that treaty be rejected.

Resolved, That the officers and soldiers who have carried the
arms of their country into Mexico have crowned it with imper-
ishable glory. Their unconquerable courage, their daring enter-
prise, their unfaltering perseverance and fortitude when assailed on
all sides by innumerable foes, — and that more formidable enemy,
the diseases of the climate, — exalt their devoted patriotism into
the highest heroism, and give them a right to the profound grati-
tude of their country and the admiration of the world.

Resolved, That the Democratic National Convention of thirty
States, composing the American Republic, tender their fraternal
congratulations to the National Convention of the Republic of
France, now assembled as the free suffrage representatives of the
sovereignty of thirty-five millions of republicans, to establish gov-
ernments on those eternal principles of equal rights for which
their Lafayette and our Washington fought side by side in their
struggle for our national independence ; and we would especially
convey to them and to the whole people of France our earnest
wishes for the consolidation of their liberties, through the wisdom
that shall guide their counsels, on the basis of a democratic con-
stitution, not derived from the grants or concessions of kings or
dynasties, but originating froin the only true source of political
power recognized in the States of this Union, — the inherent and
inalienable rights of the people, in their sovereign capacity, to
make and to amend their forms of government in such a manner
as the welfare of the community may require.

Resolved, That with the recent development of this grand politi-
cal truth, — of the sovereignty of the people and their capacity and
power for self-government, which is prostrating thrones and erect-
ing republics on the ruins of despotism in the Old World, — we
feel that a high and sacred duty is devolved, with increased respon-
sibility, upon the Democratic party of this country, as the party of
the people, to sustain and advance among us constitutional liberty,
equality, and fraternity, by continuing to resist all monopolies
and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense
of the many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to those
principles and compromises of the Constitution which are broad
enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it
was, the Union as it is, and the Union as it shall be, in the full
expansion of the energies and capacity of this great and progres-
sive people.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded, through

236 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the American minister at Paris, to the National Convention of the
Republic of France.

Resolved, That the fruits of the great political triumph of 1844,
which elected James K. Polk and George M. Dallas President and
Vice-President of the United States, have fulfilled the hopes of the
Democracy of the Union in defeating the declared purposes of their
opponents to create a national bank; in preventing the corrupt
and unconstitutional distribution of the land proceeds, from the
common treasury of the Union, for local purposes ; in protecting
the currency and labor of the country from ruinous fluctuations,
and guarding the money of the people for the use of the people ;
by the establishment of the constitutional treasury ; in the noble
impulse given to the cause of free trade by the repeal of the tariff
of 1842, and the creation of the more equal, honest, and productive
tariff of 1846 ; and that, in our opinion, it would be a fatal error
to weaken the hands of a political organization by which these
great reforms have been achieved, and risk them in the hands of
their known adversaries, with whatever delusive appeals they may
solicit our surrender of that vigilance which is the only safeguard
of liberty.

Resolved, That the confidence of the Democracy of the Union in
the principles, capacity, firmness, and integrity of James K. Polk,
manifested by his nomination and election in 1844, has been sig-
nally justified by the strictness of his adherence to sound Demo-
cratic doctrines, by the purity of purpose, the energy and ability,
which have characterized his administration in all our affairs at
home and abroad ; that we tender to him our cordial congratula-
tions upon the brilliant success which has hitherto crowned his
patriotic efforts, and assure him in advance that, at the expiration
of his presidential term, he will carry with him to his retirement
the esteem, respect, and admiration of a grateful country.

Resolved, That this convention hereby present to the people of
the United States Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the candidate of the
Democratic party for the office of President, and William O. Butler,
of Kentucky, as the candidate of the Democratic party for Vice-
President of the United States.

Mr. Yancey, of Alabama, offered the following resolution as
an addition to the platform : —

Resolved, That the doctrine of non-interference with the rights
of property of any portion of the people of this confederacy, be
it in the States or Territories thereof, by any other than the par-
ties interested in them, is the true republican doctrine recognized
by this body.

The resolution was rejected by a vote of yeas, 36 ; nays,

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN- OF 1848

237

216. All the affirmative votes were given by delegates from
the slave States. It is an illustration of the temporizing char-
acter of the politics of the time that some of the Southern
Democrats explained their vote against the resolution by say-
ing that they deemed it unnecessary, because the same doctrine
was otherwise expressed in the platform. This explanation
would do for Southern consumption ; meanwhile it was hoped
that the Northern members of the party could be held to their
allegiance by having it pointed out to them that the extremists
were defeated in their purpose to commit the party to the
Southern view of " the rights of property.'*

The Whig national convention met at Philadelphia on the
7th of June. John A. Collier, of New York, was the tempo-
rary chairman, and ex-Governor John M. Morehead, of North
Carolina, was the permanent president. All the States were
represented fully, save two. South Carolina had a partial
delegation ; Texas sent no delegates, but its state convention
authorized the delegates from Louisiana to cast the vote of
Texas. Inasmuch as the Louisiana delegation was strongly in
favor of Taylor, the question whether the proxy-voting should
be permitted was made a test of the strength of the general ;
but when it came to the vote, the request of Texas was granted
without a division. The convention reached the point of voting
for candidates on the evening of the second day. Four ballots
were taken on that and the following day, when General Tay-
lor was nominated. Before the voting began, a letter was read
from Taylor, in which he said that his friends would withdraw
his name if the choice of the convention should fall upon some
one else. The result of the four votes was as follows : —

Whole number of votes . .
Necessary for a choice . . .
Zachary Taylor, Louisiana . .
Henry Clay, Kentucky . . .
Winfield Scott, New Jersey
Daniel Webster, Massachusetts
John McLean, Ohio ....
John M. Clayton, Delaware

1st.

2d.

3d.

279

278

279

140

111

118

133

4th.

280

141

171

The vote for General Taylor on the first ballot came from
all parts of the country. There were only eight of the thirty

238 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

States then in the Union from which he received no votes.
The New England States, except Maine, supported either Mr.
Webster or Mr. Clay, and gave Taylor but six votes. Maine
had a grievance against Mr. Webster in that he had nego-
tiated the Ashburton Treaty, by which the northeastern bound-
ary question was settled, involving the loss of a large slice
of territory to which Maine had asserted a claim, and had
defended it in what is still known as the " Aroostook War."
The speech nominating General Taylor was made by ex-Gov-
ernor Edward Kent, of Maine. On the final vote Taylor had
at least one vote from every State. The convention, after
giving itself up for a time to enthusiasm, proceeded to vote for
a candidate for Vice-President. A large number of nomina-
tions was made. On the first ballot, Millard Fillmore, of New
York, had 115 ; Abbott Lawrence, of Massachusetts, 109 ; and
51 votes were divided among ten other candidates. On the
second vote Fillmore had 173 ; Lawrence, 87 ; and all others,
6. Mr. Fillmore's nomination was then declared, and, after a
season of speech-making, the convention adjourned. No com-
mittee on resolutions was appointed, and the convention made
no declaration of principles whatever. Its attitude of non-
committalism was by no means approved by a large section of
the party ; and it was late in the canvass, when some addi-
tional letters from General Taylor had been published, giving
assurance that he really sympathized — mildly, at least — with
the purposes of the party, before some of the prominent Whig
leaders came cordially to his support. Daniel Webster, indeed,
had promptly pronounced the nomination one " not fit to be
made."

The " Barnburners," who had withdrawn from the Balti-
more convention with a frank avowal of their purpose not to
accept the nomination of General Cass, took active measures to
oppose his candidacy. They held a state convention at Utica
on June 22 and 23, in which delegates from Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Ohio, and Wisconsin participated, and nominated
Martin Van Buren for President, and Henry Dodge, of Wis-
consin, for Vice-President. Mr. Van Buren accepted the nom-
ination, although with evident reluctance. Senator Dodge
declined, and supported General Cass. Also on June 22 an
Ohio state convention of persons dissatisfied with both the
nominations recommended and called a national convention,
which was held at Buffalo, August 9. Charles Francis Adams,

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 239

of Massachusetts, was made permanent president of the conven-
tion, which contained representatives of seventeen States, and
seems to have had a membership of about 300. On a ballot
for a candidate for President, Martin Van Buren had 159 votes,
and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, 129. Charles Francis
Adams, of Massachusetts, was nominated by acclamation for
Vice-President. The convention adopted the following resolu-
tions : —

Whereas, We have assembled in convention, as a union of free-
men for the sake of freedom, forgetting all past political differ-
ences, in common resolve to maintain the rights of free labor against
the aggressions of the slave power, and to secure free soil for a free
people; and

Whereas, The political conventions recently assembled at Balti-
more and Philadelphia, the one stifling the voice of a great con-
stituency entitled to be heard in its deliberations, and the other
abandoning its distinctive principles for mere availability, have
dissolved the national party organizations heretofore existing, by
nominating for the chief magistracy of the United States, under
the slaveholding dictation, candidates neither of whom can be
supported by the opponents of slavery extension, without a sacri-
fice of consistency, duty, and self-respect ; and

Whereas, These nominations so made furnish the occasion and
demonstrate the necessity of the union of the people under the
banner of free democracy, in a solemn and formal declaration of
their independence of the slave power, and of their fixed determi-
nation to rescue the federal government from its control, —

Resolved, therefore, that we, the people here assembled, remem-
bering the example of our fathers in the days of the first Declara-
tion of Independence, putting our trust in God for the triumph of
our cause, and invoking his guidance in our endeavors to advance
it, do now plant ourselves upon the national platform of freedom,
in opposition to the sectional platform of slavery.

Resolved, That slavery in the several States of this Union which
recognize its existence depends upon state laws alone, which cannot
be repealed or modified by the federal government, and for which
laws that government is not responsible. We therefore propose
no interference by Congress with slavery within the limits of any
State.

Resolved, That the proviso of Jefferson, to prohibit the existence
of slavery after 1800 in all the Territories of the United States,
southern and northern ; the votes of six States and sixteen dele-
gates, in the Congress of 1784 for the proviso, to three States and
seven delegates against it ; the actual exclusion of slavery from the

240 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Northwestern Territory by the Ordinance of 1787, unanimously
adopted by the States in Congress ; and the entire history of that
period, — clearly show that it was the settled policy of the nation
not to extend, nationalize, or encourage, but to limit, localize, and
discourage slavery ; and to this policy, which should never have
been departed from, the government ought to return.

Resolved, That our fathers ordained the Constitution of the
United States in order, among other great national objects, to
establish justice, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless-
ings of liberty, but expressly denied to the federal government,
which they created, all constitutional power to deprive any person
of life, liberty, or property without due legal process.

Resolved, That, in the judgment of this convention, Congress
has no more power to make a slave than to make a king ; no more
power to institute or establish slavery than to institute or establish
a monarchy. No such power can be found among those specifically
conferred by the Constitution, or derived by any just implication
from them.

Resolved, That it is the duty of the federal government to relieve
itself from all responsibility for the existence or continuance of
slavery wherever the government possesses constitutional authority
to legislate on that subject, and is thus responsible for its exist-
ence.

Resolved* That the true and in the judgment of this conven-
tion the only safe means of preventing the extension of slavery
into territory now free is to prohibit its existence in all such terri-
tory by an act of Congress.

Resolved, That we accept the issue which the slave power has
forced upon us ; and to their demand for more slave States and
more slave territory our calm but final answer is, no more slave
States and no more slave territory. Let the soil of our extensive
domains be ever kept free for the hardy pioneers of our own land,
and the oppressed and banished of other lands seeking homes of
comfort and fields of enterprise in the New World.

Resolved, That the bill lately reported by the committee of eight
in the Senate of the United States was no compromise, but an
absolute surrender of the rights of the non-slaveholders of all the
States ; and while we rejoice to know that a measure which, while
opening the door for the introduction of slavery into territories now
free, would also have opened the door to litigation and strife among
the future inhabitants thereof, to the ruin of their peace and pro-
sperity, was defeated in the House of Representatives, its passage
in hot haste, by a majority embracing several senators who voted
in open violation of the known will of their constituents, should
warn the people to see to it that their representatives be not

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 241

suffered to betray them. There must be no more compromises
with slavery ; if made, they must be repealed.

Resolved, That we demand freedom and established institutions
for our brethren in Oregon, now exposed to hardships, peril, and
massacre by the reckless hostility of the slave power to the estab-
lishment of free government for free territory, and not only for
them, but for our new brethren in New Mexico and California.

And whereas, It is due not only to this occasion, but to the whole
people of the United States, that we should declare ourselves on
certain other questions of national policy ; therefore

Resolved, That we demand cheap postage for the people ; a re-
trenchment of the expenses and patronage of the federal govern-
ment ; the abolition of all unnecessary offices and salaries ; and the
election by the people of all civil officers in the service of the gov-
ernment, so far as the same may be practicable.

Resolved, That river and harbor improvements, whenever de-
manded by the safety and convenience of commerce with foreign
nations or among the several States, are objects of national con-
cern ; and that it is the duty of Congress, in the exercise of its
constitutional powers, to provide therefor.

Resolved, That the free grant to actual settlers, in consideration
of the expenses they incur in making settlements in the wilder-
ness, which are usually fully equal to their actual cost, and of the
public benefits resulting therefrom, of reasonable portions of
the public lands, under suitable limitations, is a wise and just
measure of public policy which will promote, in various ways, the
interests of all the States of this Union ; and we therefore recom-
mend it to the favorable consideration of the American people.

Resolved, That the obligations of honor and patriotism require
the earliest practicable payment of the national debt ; and we are,
therefore, in favor of such a tariff of duties as will raise revenue
adequate to defray the necessary expenses of the federal govern-
ment, and to pay annual instalments of our debt, and the interest
thereon.

Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner, "Free Soil, Free
Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men," and under it will fight on,
and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our ex-
ertions.

There was much in this platform which must have made
Martin Van Buren wince when he read it. No doubt his
candidacy of a party professing such principles was grotesque.
Speaking of the Free Soil campaign of 1848, William Allen
Butler says : " Mr. Van Buren's name was in it, but not his
head nor his heart. Great words were inscribed on its banners :

242 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

1 Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.' But
they were words of advance and not of strategy, and Mr, Van
Buren was too deeply intrenched in his old political notions
to utter them in earnest."

Nevertheless his vote in New York exceeded that for Cass,
and the division which his candidacy caused defeated the
Democratic candidate, as it was intended to do. The can-
vass was short. On the part of the Whigs it was spirited
and confident, while on the Democratic side it was conducted
with little hope of success. The early elections showed that
the Whigs must carry the country. The number of States
which took part in this election was thirty. Florida had
been admitted as a State on March 3, 1845; Texas on De-
cember 29, 1845 ; Iowa on December 28, 1846 ; and Wis-
consin on May 29, 1848. For the first time all the electors,
except those from Massachusetts, were appointed on one day.
This was in accordance with an act passed in 1845, which, by
the way, was a party measure, and debated in Congress in an
intensely partisan spirit. The act was as follows : —

Be it enacted, etc., That the electors of President and Vice-Presi-
dent shall be appointed in each State on the Tuesday next after the
first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they
are to be appointed :

Provided, That each State may by law provide for the filling of
any vacancy or vacancies which may occur in its college of elec-
tors when such college meets to give its electoral vote :

And provided also, When any State shall have held an elec-
tion for the purpose of choosing electors, and shall fail to make
a choice on the day aforesaid, then the electors may be appointed
on a subsequent day in such manner as the State may by law pro-
vide.

In all the States except New Hampshire and Massachu-
setts, a plurality was sufficient to effect a choice. New Hamp-
shire gave a majority to Cass over both the others. In
Massachusetts there was no choice, and the legislature met
and chose the Taylor electors. The aggregate vote at this
election was 2,871,906 against 2,698,605, — an increase of
173,301 over that of 1844. But of these additional votes
83,609 were cast in the four new States, so that the increase
in the old States was but 89,692, or barely three per cent, in
four years. This fact proves, not that slight interest was
taken in the election, but that the result was foreseen, and

THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848

243

that in many States less effort than usual to poll a full vote
was put forth. The count of electoral votes proceeded in the
usual manner, and was devoid of incident.

The popular and electoral votes in 1848 were as follows : —

Poi-ci-AR Vote.

Electokal
Vote.

States.

£'3

_ o

a 2

f!§

*>>

Alabama

30,482

31,363

Arkansas . .

7,588

9,300

Connecticut .

30,314

27,046

5,005

Delaware . .

6,421

5,898

Florida . . .

3,116

1,847

Georgia . .

47,544

44,802

Illinois . . .

53,047

56,300

15,774

Indiana . .

69,907

74,745

8,100

Iowa . . .

11,084

12,093

1,126

Kentucky . .

67,141

49,720

Louisiana . .

18,217

15,370

Maine . . .

35,125

39,880

12,096

Maryland . .

37,702

34,528

125

Massachusetts

61,070

35,281

38,058

Michigan . .

23,940

30,687

10,389

Mississippi

25,922

26,537

Missouri

32,671

40,077

New Hampshire

14,781

27,763

7,560

New Jersey .

40,015

36,901

829

—

New York

218,603

114,318

120,510

North Carolina

43,550

34,869

Ohio. . - .

138,360

154,775

35,354

Pennsylvania .

185,513

171,176

11,263

Rhode Island

6,779

3,646

730

South Carolina*

Tennessee . .

64,705

58,419

Texas . . .

4,509

10,668

Vermont . .

23,122

10,948

13,837

Virginia . .

45,124

46,586

Wisconsin . .

13,747

15,001

10,418

Total . .

1,360,099

1,220,544

291,263

163

127

Electors appointed by the legislature.

XIX

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED

To a large number of Whigs, the result of their second
victory was almost as disappointing as was the administra-
tion of Mr. Tyler. Throughout the North the Whig party
was anti-slavery, — not abolitionist, not even unanimously
against slavery extension, but almost everywhere controlled
by the anti-slavery sentiment. General Taylor was a Vir-
ginian by birth, and a slaveholder. The Southern Whigs
supported him willingly ; the Northern contingent of the party
gave him its vote with misgivings, and with the expectation
that he would do nothing to resist " the aggressions of
slavery." Fillmore, on the other hand, had a consistent
record as an Anti-Slavery man, and was expected to be firm
and unyielding, should the circumstances which did occur
place him in the position of responsibility. Taylor lived
long enough to make it evident that slavery as a political
force could not rely upon him to assist it in its struggle with
Northern sentiment ; Fillmore, on his accession, became an ac-
tive agent in promoting the " compromise " measures which
the Anti- Slavery men abhorred.

To say that the slavery question dominated the politics of
the country, from the inauguration of Taylor until the out-
break of the Civil War, is to put the case mildly. It sub-
stantially excluded all other topics from consideration. The
sketch of the leading events of the time which can be given in
this place is necessarily of the most meagre and barren char-
acter. Much that excited a powerful influence upon the gen-
eral history of the country must be omitted altogether, and
those events only can be selected which had a certain direct
bearing upon our main topic, the presidency. By far the
best account hitherto written of the political events from the
election of Harrison until secession is to be found in E-hodes's
History.

The first session of the Thirty -first Congress was a memora-

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 245

ble one. It witnessed the last appearance in the senatorial
arena of the three intellectual giants, — Clay, Calhoun, and
Webster. They had entered Congress almost together, two in
1811, and the other in 1813 ; each had been Secretary of State,
one had been Vice-President ; all had had most promising as-
pirations to the presidency ; none had reached the goal. Clay
introduced the compromise resolutions ; Webster supported
them ; Calhoun opposed them. Calhoun died before the ses-
sion closed, and Clay and Webster retired from the Senate for-
ever, the one to engage in a combat which admitted of no com-
promise, — with incurable disease, — the other to take the chief
place in Mr. Fillmore's cabinet. It was not their disappear-
ance from the great stage of national public life that gave the
signal for the stern and strenuous contest which compromise
had long postponed ; but it was well for Clay and Webster
that they did not see the failure of the plans which their love
for the Union persuaded them would restore peace to the
country.

At the beginning of the administration, a problem confronted
Congress and the President which compelled a consideration
of the slavery question. A vast territory had been acquired
from Mexico, and it was necessary to organize a government
over it. Mexican law excluded slavery, but the territory had
been obtained for the express purpose of extending the area of
slavery. Mr. Clay, in January, 1850, introduced in the Sen-
ate a series of eight resolutions, embracing the following pro-
positions : the admission of California as a free State ; the
new Territories to be organized without restriction as to slavery ;
the boundary to be established between Texas and New
Mexico ; the United States to pay the public debt of Texas ;
slavery not to be abolished in the District of Columbia ; the
slave trade to be abolished in the District ; a fugitive slave
law to be passed ; Congress to declare that it had no power to
interfere with the slave trade between the States. All the
great senators debated these resolutions. Webster supported
them in his famous Seventh of March speech, which cost him
the favor of the anti-slavery Whigs of the North, and gave
him no perceptible additional strength in the South. No act
of any American public man is worthy of more careful histori-
cal study than the stand Webster took on this occasion. That
it destroyed the last chance for the nomination and election of
the great man is all that can be said of it here.

248 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The resolutions were discussed until the 18th of April, when
they were referred to a committee of thirteen senators, of
which Mr. Clay was chairman. The committee reported bills
covering all the points mentioned in the resolution. Three
of the recommendations were combined in a single measure,
which the President called an " omnibus bill." By successive
amendments it was pared down to a measure for organizing
the Territory of Utah ; its opponents, in derision, declared
that the omnibus was upset. Nevertheless, the Senate event-
ually passed all the measures in separate bills. A most in-
teresting analysis of the votes in the Senate is given by Rhodes.1
Some of the bills had the support of the slave States with a
sprinkling of Northern senators ; others were supported chiefly
by Northern men. Four senators only voted for all the bills ;
yet the closest division was a vote of two to one on the ad-
mission of California. During the debate, which dragged on
for nearly four months, President Taylor died and Mr. Fill-
more succeeded him. The policy of the administration was
reversed. General Taylor had been opposed to the compro-
mise ; the new President favored it strongly. The House of
Representatives devoted little time to discussion. In less than
a month the whole series of bills had been passed ; and they
were signed promptly by President Fillmore.

Those who are curious in searching for the small and
seemingly insignificant causes of great events, ascribe Mr. Fill-
more's attitude on this important series of measures to the
personal relations between him and Governor Seward. Offices
have always played a great part in New York politics, what-
ever party was in power. Seward became a senator when
Fillmore became Vice-President. Who was to have the distri-
bution of the patronage in New York ? A division seemed
the natural solution of the problem. But Seward early ob-
tained a great hold upon President Taylor, and was regarded
as the most influential of his advisers. He suggested the posi-
tion which the President should take upon public questions,
and, incidentally, he took all the New York offices. Mr.
Fillmore was driven into an attitude of almost open hostility to
the administration, and, when he became President, took the
course, both on the great public questions and incidentally
with reference to the offices, most distasteful to Mr. Seward.

The compromise measures became law. Those who carried

1 History, vol. i. p. 181.

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 247

them through Congress, and those who supported them on the
stump and in the press, deluded themselves with the idea that
they were a finality ; that they took away all matters of differ-
ence, or at least established the principles upon which all
future questions arising out of them were to be decided ; and
that the people would regard a reopening of the agitation as
meddlesome and unpatriotic.

Acquiescence in the settlement was really quite general in
the Democratic party. The two wings of the party reunited,
and carried most of the elections, as against the Whigs, who
lost the unswerving Abolition and Anti-Slavery vote. It was
evident that the Democrats would go into the election of 1852
a united party, provided a candidate unobjectionable to both
wings could be found. It was equally evident that anything
like a hearty union of Whigs was out of the question.

There wTas much preparation, and there was a great deal of
discussion and intrigue, in each party, months before the time
of nomination. The leading candidate on the Democratic side
was General Cass, who had been defeated four years before.
Mr. James Buchanan also was strongly supported ; and
Stephen A. Douglas and William L. Marcy each had many
friends. But it does not seem to have been confidently antici-
pated that either of these gentlemen would succeed in securing
the necessary two thirds, and the experience of 1844 was fre-
quently in men's minds.

The Whigs were in a worse case. Mr. Webster was the
greatest of their statesmen, but after his Seventh of March
speech he was impossible as a candidate to that wing of the
party which regarded the compromise measures of 1850 with
abhorrence. On the other hand, the Southern members of the
party were firmly resolved not to accept any candidate who
was not in favor of those measures. Mr. Fillmore, although
an accidental President, had stood by them, and they were
in favor of nominating him for reelection. But as General
Taylor had loomed up four years before as a colorless and
non-committal candidate, so now there was a strong move-
ment in favor of General Winfield Scott. No one knew what
was his position on the subject of the " compromises," and
there was a careful and successful effort to keep the Whig
public in the dark. But, as has happened before and since
that time, the most energetic movements in favor of the can-
didate who was eventually to be nominated came from States
which could not be expected to give him an electoral vote.

248 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Yet it is not easy to see what course could have been taken
to avert the fate which awaited the Whigs in 1852. Had a
candidate been chosen who was identified with the compro-
mise of 1850, l^ke Mr. Webster or Mr. Fillmore, he would
have been slaughtered remorselessly in the North ; had an
opponent of these measures been selected, he would have
failed to secure an electoral vote in the South ; and no other
non-committal candidate would have succeeded better than
General Scott did.

The Democratic national convention, the first to be held,
met at Baltimore on June 1, 1852. Although its session was
protracted until the 6th, it was not an interesting convention.
John W. Davis, of Indiana, was the permanent president.
Two days were occupied in organizing, and in adopting the
two-thirds rule, which was agreed to by an overwhelming
majority, after a short debate. Inasmuch as there was nc
contest over principles, it was agreed to make the nomina-
tions before considering the platform ; and on the third day
voting for candidates began. On the first ballot General
Cass had 116; James Buchanan, 93; William L. Marcy, 27;,
Stephen A. Douglas, 20 ; Joseph Lane, 13 ; Samuel Houston,
8 ; and there were 4 scattering. The number necessary for a
choice was 188. In the succeeding ballots the vote for Mr.
Cass fell off, while the number of delegates who voted for Mr.
Douglas steadily increased, until, on the twenty-ninth trial, the
votes were: for Cass, 27 ; for Buchanan, 93 ; for Douglas, 91 ; and
no other candidate had more than 26. At this point Cass began
to recover his strength, and reached his largest number on the
thirty-fifth trial, namely, 131. On that same ballot, Virginia
gave 15 votes to Franklin Pierce. Mr. Pierce gained 15 more
votes on the thirty-sixth trial ; but at that point his increase
ceased, and was then slowly resumed, as the weary repetition
of balloting without effect went on. The forty-eighth trial
resulted as follows : for Cass, 73 ; for Buchanan, 28 ; for
Douglas, 33 ; for Marcy, 90 ; for Pierce, 55 ; for all others,
8. The forty -ninth trial was the last. There was a " stam-
pede " for Pierce, and he received 282 votes to 6 for all others.
There is no doubt that the nomination of General Pierce was
carefully planned before the convention met. The originator
of the scheme was James W. Bradbury, then a senator from
Maine,1 a college mate and lifelong friend of Pierce.

1 In 1898 he still survives, the only senatorial contemporary of Clay and
Webster.

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 249

Ten persons received votes in the nomination of a candidate
for Vice-President, — William R. King of Alabama had 126 ;
S. U. Downs of Louisiana, 30; John B. Weller of California,
28; William 0. Butler of Kentucky, 27; Gideon J. Pillow
of Tennessee, . 25 ; David R. Atchison of Missouri, 25 ; Robert
Strange of North Carolina, 23; T. J. Rusk of Texas, 12;
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 2; Howell Cobb of Georgia,
2. On the second ballot, William R. King of Alabama was
unanimously nominated.

The platform adopted was made up of the previous plat-
forms of the party, with some additions. It was identical
with that of 1848, up to and including the resolution re-
specting slavery, numbered seven in the platform of 1840
(p. 200), following which are these two resolutions : —

Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and is intended
to embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitated in Congress ; and
therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this na-
tional platform, will abide by, and adhere to, a faithful execution
of the acts known as the " compromise " measures settled by the
last Congress, — the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or
labor included ; which act, being designed to carry out an express
provision of the Constitution, cannot with fidelity thereto be re-
pealed, nor so changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency.

Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at
renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery
question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.

Then follow the resolutions in former platforms respecting the
distribution of the proceeds of land sales, that respecting the veto
power, and these additions : —

Resolved, That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and
uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia reso-
lutions of 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia
legislature in 1799 ; that it adopts those principles as constituting
one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved
to carry them out in their obvious meaning and import.

Resolved, That the war with Mexico, upon all the principles of
patriotism and the law of nations, was a just and necessary war on
our part, in which no American citizen should have shown himself
opposed to his country, and neither morally nor physically, by word
or deed, given aid and comfort to the enemy.

Resolved, That we rejoice at the restoration of friendly relations
with our sister republic of Mexico, and earnestly desire for her
all the blessings and prosperity which we enjoy under republican

250 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

institutions ; and we congratulate the American people on the re-
sults cf that war, which have so manifestly justified the policy and
conduct of the Democratic party, and insured to the United States
indemnity for the past and security for the future.

Resolved, That, in view of the condition of popular institutions
in the Old World, a high and sacred duty is devolved, with in-
creased responsibility, upon the Democracy of this country, as the
party of the people, to uphold and maintain the rights of every
State, and thereby the union of States, and to sustain and advance
among them constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all mo-
nopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the
expense of the many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to
those principles and compromises of the Constitution which are
broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union
as it is, and the Union as it should be, in the full expansion of the
energies and capacity of this great and progressive people.

The platform was adopted with but a few dissenting voices.
The resolution relating to the compromise measures set the con-
vention wild with delight. A re-reading of it was demanded,
and the applause with which it was received was vociferous
and prolonged.

The Whig convention met at Baltimore on the 16th of June.
All the States were represented. John G. Chapman, of Mary-
land, was the permanent president. The convention was, from
the beginning, a theatre of intrigue. On the first day of the
session the Southern delegates held a caucus and adopted a
platform, thus forestalling the action of the convention. It
is said that the platform was subsequently submitted to the
friends of Mr. Webster, and accepted by them. Mr. Fillmore
was the candidate preferred by the Southerners ; General Scott
was the favorite in the North ; Mr. Webster had the greater
part of New England, but no votes from Maine, where hii
negotiation of the Ashburton Treaty was still treasured up
against him. There is said to have been a secret understand-
ing that, if the platform drawn up by the Southern caucus
should be accepted by the convention, a sufficient number of
Southern delegates would go over to Scott and nominate him.
But there was still another scheme. A careful canvass was
made by the Southern friends of Mr. Webster, and it was be-
lieved that when Fillmore — for whom many of the South-
erners were instructed — should be abandoned, twenty-two of
them would probably go for Scott, but that one hundred and.
six could be counted for Webster. If then the Northern men

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 251

sould secure forty-one delegates, there would be enough to
nominate him. The necessary number could not be found.
Two Massachusetts men held out against Webster: not one
vote would Maine give him.1

To return to the record of the convention. On the first
ballot for a candidate for President, Mr. Fillmore had 133 ;
General Scott, 131 ; and Mr. Webster, 29. The convention
voted fifty times before any material change took place. At
no time, in the first forty-nine votes, did General Scott fall
below his original 131, or receive more than 139. Mr. Fill-
more did not once receive more than 133 or fewer than 122. Mr.
Webster's highest vote was 32, his lowest 28. But from the
fiftieth vote on to the fifty-third, General Scott drew ahead
with 142, 142, 146, and 159, which last number was 12 more
than was necessary to a choice. William A. Graham of North
Carolina was nominated for Vice-President on the second ballot.

The platform, although reported by the committee on reso-
lutions almost unanimously, was not adopted without a struggle.
It was as follows : —

The Whigs of the United States, in convention assembled, ad-
hering to the great conservative principles by which they are con-
trolled and governed, and now, as ever, relying upon the intelli-
gence of the American people, with an abiding confidence in their
capacity for self-government, and their devotion to the Constitu-
tion and the Union, do proclaim the following as the political
sentiments and determination for the establishment and main-
tenance of which their national organization as a party was
effected : —

First. The government of the United States is of a limited char-
acter, and it is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted
by the Constitution, and such as may be necessary and proper for
carrying the granted powers into full execution, and that powers
not granted or necessarily implied are reserved to the States re-
spectively and to the people.

Second. The state governments should be held secure to their
leserved rights, and the general government sustained on its con-
stitutional powers, and that the Union should be revered and
watched over as the palladium of our liberties.

Third. That while struggling freedom everywhere enlists the
warmest sympathy of the Whig party, we still adhere to the doc-
trines of the Father of his Country, as announced in his Farewell
Address, of keeping ourselves free from all entangling alliances

l Sec Rhodee's Kktory, vol. i. p. 259

252 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

with foreign countries, and of never quitting our own to stand
upon foreign ground ; that our mission as a republic is not to pro-
pagate our opinions, or impose on other countries our forms of gov-
ernment by artifice or force ; but to teach by example, and show
by our success, moderation and justice, the blessings of self-govern-
ment, and the advantage of free institutions.

Fourth. That, as the people make and control the government,
they should obey its Constitution, laws, and treaties, as they would
retain their self-respect and the respect which they claim and will
enforce from foreign powers.

Fifth. That the government should be conducted on principles
of the strictest economy ; and revenue sufficient for the expenses
thereof, in time of peace, ought to be mainly derived from a duty
on imports, and not from direct taxes ; and in laying such duties
sound policy requires a just discrimination, and protection from
fraud by specific duties, when practicable, whereby suitable encour-
agement may be afforded to American industry, equally to all
classes and to all portions of the country.

Sixth. The Constitution vests in Congress the power to open and
repair harbors, and remove obstructions from navigable rivers,
whenever such improvements are necessary for the common de-
fence and for the protection and facility of commerce with foreign
nations or among the States, — said improvements being in every
instance national and general in their character.

Seventh. The federal and state governments are parts of one
system, alike necessary for the common prosperity, peace, and
security, and ought to be regarded alike with a cordial, habitual,
and immovable attachment. Respect for the authority of each,
and acquiescence in the just constitutional measures of each, are
duties required by the plainest considerations of national, state,
and individual welfare.

Eighth. That the series of acts of the Thirty-second Congress,
the act known as the Fugitive Slave Law included, are received and
acquiesced in by the Whig party of the United States as a settle-
ment in principle and substance of the dangerous and exciting
questions which they embrace ; and, so far as they are concerned,
we will maintain them, and insist upon their strict enforcement,
until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of fur-
ther legislation to guard against the evasion of the laws on the
one hand and the abuse of their powers on the other, not impairing
their present efficiency ; and we deprecate all further agitation of
the question thus settled, as dangerous to our peace, and will dis-
countenance all efforts to continue or renew such agitation, when-
ever, wherever, or however the attempt may be made ; and we will
maintain this system as essential to the nationality of the Whig
party and the integrity of the Union.

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 253

The objection was, of course, to the last resolution of the
series. It was strongly opposed, but was adopted by a vote of
212 to 70. The negative vote was given exclusively by
Northern delegates, and by supporters of Scott as against Fill-
more and Webster.

The nomination of Pierce was well received by the Demo-
crats ; that of Scott had a cold reception in many parts of the
North, and was nowhere welcomed in a spirit which gave
promise of victory. The action of the Whig convention was
criticised by many of the party papers. The platform was
distasteful to the Northern wing of the party, and the can-
didate excited no enthusiasm anywhere. He was esteemed
as a gallant soldier, but he was not recognized as a statesman,
and his views were too little known to inspire either section
with confidence. On the other hand, Mr. Pierce, if not a very
prominent man, was known to have opinions in accordance with
the Democratic platform, upon which the party was substan-
tially united.

The Anti-Slavery organization, the Free Soil Democrats,
though a much less important political factor than they had
been four years earlier, held their convention in Pittsburg on
August 11. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts presided. John
P. Hale of New Hampshire was nominated for President, and
George W. Julian of Indiana for Vice-President, and the fol-
lowing platform was adopted : —

Having assembled in national convention as the Democracy ot
the United States ; united by a common resolve to maintain right
against wrong and freedom against slavery ; confiding in the intel-
ligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice of the American
people ; putting our trust in God for the triumph of our cause,
and invoking his guidance in our endeavors to advance it, — we
now submit to the candid judgment of all men the following
declaration of principles and measures : —

1. That governments deriving their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed are instituted among men to secure to all
those unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness with which they are endowed by their Creator, and of which
none can be deprived by valid legislation, except for crime.

2. That the true mission of American Democracy is to maintain
the liberties of the people, the sovereignty of the States, and the
perpetuity of the Union, by the impartial application to public
affairs, without sectional discriminations, of the fundamental prin-
ciples of human rights, strict justice, and an economical adminis-
tration.

256 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

governments should protest, and endeavor by all proper means to
prevent ; and especially is it the duty of the American government,
representing the chief republic of the world, to protest against, and
by all proper means to prevent, the intervention of kings and
emperors against nations seeking to establish for themselves repub-
lican or constitutional governments.

17. That the independence of Hayti ought to be recognized by
our government, and our commercial relations with it placed on a
footing of the most favored nation.

18. That as, by the Constitution, the "citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in
the several States," the practice of imprisoning colored seamen of
other States, while the vessels to which they belong lie in port,
and refusing the exercise of the right to bring such cases before the
Supreme Court of the United States, to test the legality of such
proceedings, is a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and an
invasion of the rights of the citizens of other States, utterly incon-
sistent with the professions made by the slaveholders, that they
wish the provisions of the Constitution faithfully observed by
every State in the Union.

19. That we recommend the introduction into all treaties here-
after to be negotiated between the United States and foreign
nations, of some provision for the amicable settlement of diffi-
culties by a resort to decisive arbitration.

20. That the Free Democratic party is not organized to aid
either the Whig or the Democratic wing of the great slave-com-
promise party of the nation, but to defeat them both ; and that,
repudiating and renouncing both as hopelessly corrupt and
utterly unworthy of confidence, the purpose of the Free Demo-
cracy is to take possession of the federal government, and ad-
minister it for the better protection of the rights and interests of
the whole people.

21. That we inscribe on our banner, " Free soil, free speech, free
labor, and free men ! " and under it will fight on and fight ever
until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions.

22. That upon this platform the convention presents to the
American people as a candidate for the office of President of the
United States, John P. Hale of New Hampshire, and as a candi-
date for the office of Vice-President of the United States, George
W. Julian of Indiana, and earnestly commends them to the sup-
port of all free men and all parties.

The canvass was not a spirited one. All the early autumn
elections were favorable to the Democrats, and the result in
November was a crushing defeat of the Whigs in the popular
vote and one still more decisive in the electoral vote. Thirty*

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED

257

one States took part in the election, California having been
admitted to the Union September 9, 1850. A new apportion-
ment, based on the census of 1850, changed the number of
electoral votes of many of the States. The popular and elec-
toral votes -were as follows : —

Popular Vote.

Electoral
Vote.

States.

.si

aw
!l

M
1

Alabama

Arkansas

California

Connecticut ....

Delaware

Florida

Georgia*

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kentucky

Louisiana .....

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts t . . .

Michigan

Mississippi ....

Missouri

New Hampshire . .
New Jersey ....
New York ....
North Carolina . . .

Ohio

Pennsylvania ....
Rhode Island . . .
South Carolina t . .
Tennessee s . . . .

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Wisconsin

26,881

12,173

40,626

33,249

6,318

4,318

34,705

80,597

95,340

17,763

53,806

18,647

41,609

40,020

44,569

41,842

26,876

38,353

29,997

44,305

262,083

39,744

169,220

198,568

8,735

57,018
13,552
13,044
73,858
33,658

15,038

7,404

35,407

30,359

6,293

2,875

16,660

64,934

80,901

15,856

57,068

17,255

32,543

35,066

52,683

33,859

17,548

29,984

16,147

38,556

234,882

39,058

152,526

179,174

7,626

58,898
4,995
22,173
58,572
22,240

100

3,160

9,966

6,929

1,604

265

8,030

281
28,023

7,237

6,695

350

25,329

31,682

8,525

644

8,621

291

8,814

1 10

( 11

8
8

15
5

12
13

12
5

Total

1,601,474

1,386,580

156,667

254

* A Webster ticket received 5324 votes in Georgia ; an independent Pierce ticket, 5811
t MassachmaettB gave Webster 1670 votes. % Electors appointed by the legislature.

256 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

17. That the independence of Hayti ought to be recognized by
our government, and our commercial relations with it placed on a
footing of the most favored nation.

21. That we inscribe on our banner, " Free soil, free speech, free
labor, and free men ! " and under it will fight on and fight ever
until a triumphaut victory shall reward our exertions.

THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED

257

Popular Votk.

Electoral
Vote.

States.

a
n

3*
ft

1
1

Alabama

Arkansas .....

California

Connecticut ....

Delaware

Florida

Georgia*

Illinois

Indiana .....

Iowa

Kentucky

Louisiana .....

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts t . . .

Michigan

Mississippi ....

Missouri

New Hampshire . .
New Jersey ....
New York ....
North Carolina . . .

Ohio

Pennsylvania ....
Rhode Island . . .
South Carolina $ . .
Tennessee s . . . .

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Wisconsin

26,881

12,173

40,626

33,249

6,318

4,318

34,705

80,597

95,340

17,763

53,806

18,647

41,609

40,020

44,569

41,842

26,876

38,353

29,997

44,305

262,083

39,744

169,220

198,568

8,735

57,018
13,552
13,044
73,858
33,658

15,038

7,404

35,407

30,359

6,293

2,875

16,660

64,934

80,901

15,856

57,068

17,255

32,543

35,066

52,683

33,859

17,548

29,984

16,147

38,556

234,882

39,058

152,526

179,174

7,626

58,898
4,995
22,173
58,572
22,240

100

3,160

9,966

6,929

1,604

265

8,030

281

28,023

7,237

6,695

350

25,329

31,682

8,525

644

8,621

291

8,814

9
4
4
6
3
3
I 10

( H

8
8

12
IS

12
5

Total

1,601,474

1,386,580

156,667

254

* A Webster ticket received 5324 votes in Georgia ; an independent Pierce ticket, 5811
i Massachusetts gave Webster 1G70 votes. X Electors appointed by the legislature.

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY

The election of 1852 gave a death-blow to the Whig party.
That organization had outlived its usefulness. It was unable
to cope with the one vital issue of the day, that of slavery
in the Territories. The Democratic party was controlled by
its Southern contingent ; the Whig by its Northern mem-
bers. Both parties declared that the question was decided by
the compromises of 1850, and was eliminated from politics.
Although the extremists of the South had opposed the mea-
sures, they speedily began to assume that the settlement was
a concession of their own contention, and to bring forward
propositions which would make the introduction of slavery into
the Territories easy and its exclusion therefrom impossible.
In this view of the matter they were, in a certain sense, sus-
tained by the anti-slavery men of the North, who, while they
resisted the new measures and declared them to be a violation
of the agreement, continued to denounce the acts of 1850 as a
surrender to the slaveholders. The Southern leaders put forth
the proposition that the natural right of every American citi-
zen permitted him to settle in any Territory, with his property
of every kind, including slaves, and entitled him to protection
of that property ; that no power was or could be given to a
territorial government to exclude slavery ; and that only when
the people came together to form a state constitution could the
power originate to decide whether slavery should or should
not be allowed to exist. Events in Kansas and elsewhere led
xiltimately to a division of the Democratic party. Senator
Douglas held that the people of a Territory had the power to
exclude slavery* This was his doctrine of " popular sover-
eignty," or u squatter sovereignty," as its opponents called it.
In one or the other form the principle was adopted by the
Democratic party, although it was rejected in both forms by
a great body of its Northern members. The Northern Whig
party was overwhelmingly against the extension of slavery,

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 259

but it could not so declare itself without self-destruction. To
do so would at once drive out of the party almost all its South-
ern supporters ; it would alienate a great many Northern men
whom an apprehension of the terrible consequences of a sec-
tional issue rendered timid ; and at the same time it would
draw into the party neither the anti-slavery Democrats, who
differed from the Whigs on every question save this, nor the
Abolitionists, who went much further in opposition to slavery
than either Whigs or Democrats could go.

The only course left open for the Whig party was to delude
itself and to attempt to delude the country by asserting that
the slavery issue was decided. This was merely to live in
the past, to abandon the true function of an opposition. The
government was controlled by a party which, in spite of its
protestations to the contrary, supported the aggression of the
slave interest. The Whig party failed in the South because it
made the contest on an issue in which the people were not in-
terested ; in the North because it had not the courage to avow
opinions which a large majority of the party held. But the
Whig pretence, that the slavery question was settled by the
compromise measures of 1850, was kept up for some years
longer, until it became no longer possible to practise self-
deception.

The delusion soon after the election of 1852 took a new
phase. Native Americanism had been a favorite doctrine in
certain parts of the North for many years, and of late it had
been a growing sentiment. It was confined to no party ; and
the political method of those who believed in the principle
that " Americans must rule America," and who were animated
by hostility to the Roman Catholic Church, was to choose
between candidates already nominated. Occasionally, in the
cities, of New York and Philadelphia, they nominated candi-
dates of their own, and succeeded in electing them to local
offices. The membership was carefully guarded ; for the so-
cieties were secret, and the initiated were bound by oaths.
The order which existed before 1850 was superseded, early in
Pierce's administration, by a new one, the Order of United
Americans, which became popularly known as the Know-
Nothing Order, from the ignorance, even of the existence of
such an association, which was professed by all its members.
A large number of the Whigs, hoping to transfer the political
issue from slavery to Native Americanism, joined the order,

260 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

^*hich for some years had extraordinary success in state elec-
tions ; but, as Horace Greeley predicted at the time when it
was at the height of its power, it was destined " to run its
career rapidly, and vanish as suddenly as it appeared. It may
last through the next presidential canvass ; but hardly longer
than that. ... It would seem as devoid of the elements of
persistence as an anti-cholera or an anti-potato-rot party would
be." It was chiefly confined to the East at first ; later it ex-
tended to the South, even as far as Texas, where it became
strong enough to carry one election ; but it never had much
success, nor an organization, in the Northwest.

It was impossible to keep the slavery question out of sight.
Mr. Pierce congratulated the country, at the beginning of his
administration, that the agitation had ceased, and both parties
were pledged to treat a revival of the controversy as an un-
patriotic act ; but it was revived at once by the proposition to
organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which was
a declaration that the compromises of 1850 superseded the
Missouri Compromise, which was accordingly no longer opera*
tive. The bill was referred to by anti-slavery orators and
journals as a "repeal" of the Missouri Compromise, and it
stirred popular sentiment at the North most profoundly. It
virtually created three factions in the Democratic party ; for
beside the Southern extremists there was now a new element,
the members of which became known as " Anti-Nebraska
Democrats," and another which tried to stand between the
two, headed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Mr. Douglas
was chairman of the Senate committee on Territories, and
assumed a position of extraordinary prominence in the politics
of the country. The struggle between the pro-slavery and the
anti-slavery factions over Kansas, both within and without
the Territory, was one of unexampled bitterness and violence ;
but during the early part of Mr. Pierce's term the opponents
of the administration were without effective organization.

The Republican party originated in the West. A mass
meeting at Ripon, Wisconsin, early in 1854, followed soon after-
ward by a mass state convention at Jackson, Michigan ; and
state conventions in July in Vermont, Wisconsin, Ohio and
Indiana, brought the new party into being, with its present
name, and with opposition to the extension of slavery as the
one issue that united its members. Past differences were for-
gotten ; the jealousies that might be expected to arise in the

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 261

selection of candidates on account of those differences, wei
strikingly absent. A Republican organization was not effected
in many States of the North in 1854, but the Anti-Nebraska
party, if we may so term it, under many names and with vari-
ous forms of fusion, had many successes at the polls.1

A fresh example of the determination of the Southern lead-
ers to force the fighting and to obtain additional territory for
the extension of slavery was given in the " Ostend Manifesto."
At the instance of the Secretary of State, Mr. Marcy, of New
York, a meeting of the United States ministers to Great Bri-
tain, France, and Spain, Mr. James Buchanan, Mr. John Y.
Mason, and Mr. Pierre Soule, was held to consider the rela-
tion of the island of Cuba to the United States. They came
together at Ostend, Belgium, and drew up a report to the effect
that Cuba was territorially a part of the United States, that its
possession by a foreign power was detrimental to our interest,
that an offer should be made to Spain to purchase it, and that
in case Spain were to refuse to sell, " by every law, human
and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if
we possess the power." The "Ostend Manifesto" is referred
to repeatedly in the state and national platforms of the Re-
publican party. ^r

At the close of 1855 the situation was extremely compli-
cated. In the Eastern States there were four parties, — the
Democrats, the Whigs, the Know-Nothings, and the Republi-
cans. The Democrats and Whigs were inclined to coalesce in
order to withstand the common enemy, the Republicans, whose
party was acquiring gigantic Strength. The days of the Know-
Nothing, or American, party were numbered, and most of the
members had fallen away to the Republican party. In the
West, — except in Ohio, where a remnant of the Whig party
survived, — the parties were two only, the Democratic and
the Republican. In the South the American party was at the
time of its greatest success, having absorbed most of the Whig
strength. Although the Whig party had not formally ac-
knowledged that it had ceased to exist, it was really only a
memory, and the members merely accepted and voted for the
candidates of the Know-Nothings.

The first convention preliminary to the election of 1856
was that of the Americans. It was held at Philadelphia> on

1 For a full and admirable analysis of the elections of 1854, see Rhodes' s His-
tory, vol. ii. pp. 58 et sey.

262 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Washington's birthday, February 22, 1856. But already the
" National Council " of the order had been in session three
days, beginning on the 19th of the month, and had adopted
the platform of the party. This platform was as follows : —

1. An humble acknowledgment of the Supreme Being, for His
protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their successful revolu-
tionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their descendants,
in the preservation of their liberties, the independence and the
union of these States.

2. The perpetuation of the Federal Union and Constitution, as
the palladium of our civil and religious liberties and the only sure
bulwark of American independence.

3. Americans must rule America ; and to this end native-born
citizens should be selected for all state, federal, and municipal
offices of government employment, in preference to all others.
Nevertheless,

4. Persons born of American parents residing temporarily abroad
should be entitled to all the rights of native-born citizens.

5. No person should be selected for political station (whether of
native or foreign birth) who recognizes any allegiance or obligation
of any description to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, or
who refuses to recognize the federal and state Constitutions (each
within its sphere) as paramount to all other laws as rules of politi-
cal action.

6. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved
rights of the several States, and the cultivation of harmony and
fraternal good will between the citizens of the several States, and,
to this end, non-interference by Congress with questions apper-
taining solely to the individual States, and non-intervention by
each State with the affairs of any other State.

7. The recognition of the right of native-born and naturalized
citizens of the United States, permanently residing in any Terri-
tory thereof, to frame their constitution and laws, and to regulate
their domestic and social affairs in their own mode, subject only to
the provisions of the Federal Constitution, with the privilege of
admission into the Union whenever they have the requisite popu-
lation for one representative in Congress ; provided, always, that
none but those who are citizens of the United States, under the
Constitution and laws thereof, and who have a fixed residence
in any such Territory, ought to participate in the formation of
a constitution or in the enactment of laws for said Territory or
State.

8. An enforcement of the principle that no State or Territory
ought to admit others than citizens to the right of suffrage, or of
holding political offices of the United States.

THE NEW KEPUBLICAN PARTY 263

9. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued
residence of twenty-one years, of all not heretofore provided for,
an indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding
all paupers and persons convicted of crime from landing upon our
shores ; but no interference with the vested rights of foreigners.

10. Opposition to any union between Church and State; no
interference with religious faith or worship, and no test oaths for
office.

11. Free and thorough investigation into any and all alleged
abuses of public functionaries, and a strict economy in public
expenditures.

12. The maintenance and enforcement of all laws constitutionally
enacted, until said laws shall be repealed or shall be declared null
and void by competent judicial authority.

13. Opposition to the reckless and unwise policy of the present
Administration in the general management of our national affairs,
and more especially as shown in removing " Americans " (by
designation) and conservatives in principle from office, and placing
foreigners and ultraists in their places ; as shown in a truckling
subserviency to the stronger, and an insolent and cowardly bravado
toward the weaker powers; as shown in reopening sectional
agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise ; as shown
in granting to unnaturalized foreigners the right of suffrage in
Kansas and Nebraska ; as shown in its vacillating course on the
Kansas and Nebraska question ; as shown in the corruptions which
pervade some of the departments of the government ; as shown in
disgracing meritorious naval officers through prejudice or caprice ;
and as shown in the blundering mismanagement of our foreign
relations.

14. Therefore, to remedy existing evils, and to prevent the
disastrous consequences otherwise resulting therefrom, we would
build up the " American Party " upon the principles hereinbefore
stated.

15. That each State Council shall have authority to amend
their several constitutions, so as to abolish the several degrees, and
substitute a pledge of honor, instead of other obligations, for
fellowship and admission into the party.

16. A free and open discussion of all political principles em-
braced in our platform.

The convention, which met on the 22d, consisted of 227
delegates from 27 States of the Union, — all except Maine,
Vermont, South Carolina, and Georgia. Having organized by
the choice of Ephraim Marsh, of New Jersey, as President, and
having decided cases of contested seats, the convention became
involved in a long and angry discussion of the right of the

264 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

National Council to make the platform of the party. A reso*
lution was presented : —

That the National Council has no authority to prescribe a plat-
form of principles for this nominating convention, and that no
candidates for President and Vice-President who are not in favor
of interdicting slavery in territory north of 36° 30', by congres-
sional action, shall be nominated by this Convention.

A motion to lay this resolution on the table was accepted
as a test of the strength of the two wings of the party. The
motion was carried by a vote of 141 to 59. A motion to pro-
ceed to nominate a candidate for President was successful, 151
to 51. Thereupon nearly all the delegates from New England
and Ohio, and a part of those from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and
Iowa, withdrew from the convention. An informal ballot
gave Millard Fillmore 71 votes ; George Law, of New York, 27 ;
Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, 13; and 32 votes were given to
seven other candidates, from one to eight each. On the formal
vote Mr. Fillmore had 179 ; Mr. Law 24 ; Kenneth Ray nor, of
North Carolina, 14 ; Judge John McLean, of Ohio, 13 ; Garrett
Davis 10 ; and Samuel Houston, of Texas, 3. Mr. Fillmore
had a majority and was nominated. On the first ballot for a
candidate for Vice-President, Andrew J. Donelson, of Tennes-
see, had 181 ; Henry J. Gardner, of Massachusetts, 12 ; Kenneth
Raynor 8 ; and Percey Walker, of Alabama, 8. Mr. Donelson
was declared nominated ; and the convention adjourned. OSoon
after this the seceding delegates met and nominated for Presi-
dent Colonel John C. Fremont, of California, and for Vice-
-r~President ex-Governor William F. Johnston, of Pennsylvania.
Ai T> The meeting of the Democratic national convention was
looked forward to with much interest. A great many mem-
bers still adhered to the party, who were not disposed to yield
to what the general drift of sentiment in the Northern States
regarded as the arrogant and unreasonable demands of the slave
interest. -The division of the party was most serious in New
York, where the two factions were now known as the " hards'""
and the " softs." Mr. Pierce was in high favor with the South-
ern delegates and with the Southern people ; the Northern and
more moderate wing of the party preferred Mr. Buchanan ;
while Mr. Douglas had a strong hold upon the popular heart,
and was regarded as the most natural successor to Mr. Pierce's
strength, should that gentleman's nomination become impos-
sible. The excitement at Cincinnati, where the convention was

/J os

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 265

to meet, ran high on the days before the session began, and
it was freely said that the Northern delegates would bolt if
Mr. Buchanan should be defeated. The preliminary intriguing
has probably never been greater in any national nominating
convention than it was at that time.

The convention met on the 2d of June. All the States
were fully represented, and two sets of delegates appeared
from each of the States of New York and Missouri. The
opponents of Senator Benton were the " regulars " from Mis-
souri. The contestants signalized their advent by knocking
down the door-keeper, who endeavored to prevent them from
entering the hall. The scene was an incipient riot. When
order had been restored, the presiding officer administered to
the intruders such a stinging rebuke for their lawless conduct
that they retired, and, as the committee on credentials reported
against their claim, they were seen no more. The " hards " and
" softs " of New York were quite as bitter in their quarrel as
the more turbulent Missourians ; but they waited peaceably,
and finally both delegations were admitted, each delegate to have
half a vote. The permanent chairman was John E. Ward, of
Georgia. There was no opposition to the two-thirds rule. On
the first vote for a candidate for President, James Buchanan
had 135 ; Franklin Pierce 122 ; Stephen A. Douglas 33 ; and
Lewis Cass 5. The Southern States gave on this vote 72
to Mr. Pierce ; 29 to Mr. Buchanan ; and 14 to Mr. Douglas.
The North gave 106 to Buchanan ; 50 to Pierce ; 19 to
Douglas; and 5 to Cass. On the second and succeeding
votes Mr. Buchanan's strength increased very slowly but stead-
ily ; Mr. Pierce's fell off rapidly, and the most of his loss
was Mr. Douglas's gain ; on the sixteenth trial the result was,
for Mr. Buchanan 168 ; for Mr. Pierce none ; for Mr. Douglas
121 ; and for General Cass 6. Mr. Buchanan had had a ma-
jority on the tenth vote, and he now lacked but eighteen of
two thirds. On the seventeenth vote the delegations began
changing in his favor, he received all the votes, 296, and was
declared nominated. Ten candidates were voted for as can-
didates for Vice-President on the first trial. The leader was
John A. Quitman, of Mississippi, with 59 votes, closely fol-
lowed by John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, with 55. Linn
Boyd, of Kentucky, had 33 ; Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia,
31 ; James A. Bayard, of Delaware, 31 ; Aaron V. Brown,
of Tennessee, 29; James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina, 13;

266 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, 11 ; Trusten Polk, of Mis
souri, 5 ; and Thomas J. Rusk, of Texas, 2. On the second
vote the names of General Quitman and of most of the other
leading candidates were withdrawn, and Mr. Breckinridge was
unanimously nominated.

The platform, which was adopted without opposition, be-
gins with the preamble first adopted in 1844, and repeated
in subsequent platforms. Then follow ten of the resolutions
which form a part of previous platforms, namely, the first five
of 1840, in order, and those relating to the proceeds of the
public lands ; against a national bank ; in favor of a separate
treasury ; regarding the veto power ; and against abridgment
of the privileges of aliens to become citizens. To these the
following were added : —

And whereas, Since the foregoing declaration was uniformly
adopted by our predecessors in national convention, an adverse
political and religious test has been secretly organized by a party
claiming to be exclusively American, and it is proper that the
American Democracy should clearly define its relations thereto,
and declare its determined opposition to all secret political socie-
ties, by whatever name they may be called,

Resolved, That the foundation of this Union of States having
been laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and preeminent exam-
ple of free government built upon, entire freedom in matters of
religious concernment, and no respect of persons in regard to rank
or place, or birth, no party can be justly deemed national, consti-
tutional, or in accordance with American principles which bases
its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental
birthplace. And hence a political crusade in the nineteenth cen-
tury, and in the United States of America, against Catholics
and foreign-born, is neither justified by the past history or future
prospects of the country, nor in unison with the spirit of tolera-
tion and enlightened freedom which peculiarly distinguishes the
American system of popular government.

Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed energy of purpose the
well-considered declarations of former conventions upon the sec-
tional issue of domestic slavery and concerning the reserved rights
of the States, —

1. That Congress has no power under the Constitution to in-
terfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several
States, and that all such States are the sole and proper judges of
everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the
Constitution ; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others made to
jnduce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 267

incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most
alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have
an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and
endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought
not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions.

2. That the foregoing covers, and was intended to embrace, the
whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress; and therefore
the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national plat-
form, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts
known as the " compromise " measures, settled by the Congress
of 1850, the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor
included ; which act, being designed to carry out an express provi-
sion of the Constitution, cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed,
or so changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency,,

3. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renew-
ing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question,
under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.

4. The Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the
principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of
1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia legislature in
1799 ; that it adopts these principles as constituting one of the main
foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out
in their obvious meaning and import.

And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a
sectional party, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation, now
relies to test the fidelity of the people, North and South, to the
Constitution and the Union, —

1. Resolved, That, claiming fellowship with and desiring the co-
operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under
the Constitution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sec-
tional issues and platforms concerning domestic slavery which seek
to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to
law in the Territories, and whose avowed purpose, if consummated,
must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy
recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws
establishing the. Territories of Nebraska and Kansas as embodying
the only sound and safe solution of the slavery question, upon
which the great national idea of the people of this whole country
can repose in its determined conservation of the Union, and non-
interference of Congress with slavery in the Territories or in the
District of Columbia.

2. That this was the basis of the compromise of 1850, confirmed
by both the Democratic and Whig parties in national conventions,
ratified by the people in the election of 1852, and rightly applied
to the organization of the Territories in 1854.

268 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

3. That by the uniform application of the Democratic principle
to the organization of Territories, and the admission of new States
with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect, the equal rights
of all the States will be preserved intact, the original compacts of
the Constitution maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and ex-
pansion of the Union insured to its utmost capacity of embracing,
in peace and harmony, every future American State that may be
constituted or annexed with a republican form of government.

Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the
Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the
legally and fairly expressed will of the majority of the actual resi-
dents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it,
to form a constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be
admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the
other States.

Resolved, Finally, that in view of the condition of popular in-
stitutions in the Old World (and the dangerous tendencies of sec-
tional agitation, combined with the attempt to enforce civil and
religious disabilities against the rights of acquiring and enjoying
citizenship in our own land), a high and sacred duty is devolved,
with increased responsibility, upon the Democratic party of this
country, as the party of the Union, to uphold and maintain the
rights of every State, and thereby the Union of the States ; and to
sustain and advance among us constitutional liberty, by continu-
ing to resist all monopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit
of the few at the expense of the many ; and by a vigilant and con-
stant adherence to those principles and compromises of the Consti-
tution which are broad enough and strong enough to embrace and
uphold the Union as it was, the Union as it is, and the Union as it
shall be, in the full expansion of the energies and capacity of this
great and progressive people.

1. Resolved, That there are questions connected with the for-
eign policy of this country which are inferior to no domestic ques-
tion whatever. The time has come for the people of the United
States to declare themselves in favor of free seas, and progressive
free trade throughout the world, and by solemn manifestations to
place their moral influence at the side of their successful example.

2. Resolved, That our geographical and political position with
refereuce to the other states of this continent, no less than the in-
terest of our commerce and the development of our growing power,
requires that we should hold sacred the principles involved in the
Monroe doctrine. Their bearing and import admit of no miscon-
struction, and should be applied with unbending rigidity.

3. Resolved, That the great highway, which nature as well as
the assent of states most immediately interested in its maintenance

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 269

has marked out for free communication between the Atlantic and
the Pacific oceans, constitutes one of the most important achieve-
ments realized by the spirit of modern times, in the unconquerable
energy of our people ; and that result would be secured by a timely
and efficient exertion of the control which we have the right to
claim over it ; and no power on earth should be suffered to impede
or clog its progress by any interference with relations that it may
suit our policy to establish between our government and the gov-
ernments of the states within whose dominions it lies. We can,
under no circumstances, surrender our preponderance in the ad-
justment of all questions arising out of it.

4. Resolved, That, in view of so commanding an interest, the
people of the United States cannot but sympathize with the efforts
which are being made by the people of Central America to regen-
erate that portion of the continent which covers the passage across
the inter-oceanic isthmus.

5. Resolved, That the Democratic party will expect of the next
administration that every proper effort be made to insure our
ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico, and to maintain permanent
protection to the great outlets through which are emptied into its
waters the products raised out of the soil and the commodities
created by the industry of the people of our Western valleys and of
the Union at large.

Resolved, That the administration of Franklin Pierce has been
true to Democratic principles, and therefore true to the great inter-
ests of the country. In the face of violent opposition he has main-
tained the laws at home, and vindicated the rights of American
citizens abroad ; and therefore we proclaim our unqualified admi-
ration of his measures and policy.

The first Republican national convention was the outcome
of a preliminary convention held at Pittsburg on Washington's
Birthday, February 22, 1856. The Pittsburg meeting was
called by the chairmen of the Republican state committees
of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. There were repre-
sentatives of twenty-three States in attendance. A long ad-
dress " to the people of the United States " was adopted ; and
it was voted to call a convention for the nomination of candi-
dates for President and Vice-President, to meet at Philadelphia
on the 17th of June, the anniversary of Bunker Hill.

The convention met on the day named. The delegates
were too enthusiastic and united in their purpose to be care-
ful about the proportionate representation of the States, or to
scrutinize closely the credentials of their fellow-members. All

270 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the Northern States were represented, as were also Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, the Territories of Minne-
sota, Nebraska, and Kansas, and the District of Columbia. It
was reported that more than one thousand delegates were in
attendance, but the vote for candidates disclosed less than six
hundred. New York cast 96 votes, Pennsylvania 81, and
Ohio 69 ; but many of the more remote States were under-
represented. Robert Emmet, of New York, formerly a Demo-
crat, was the temporary chairman, and Colonel Henry S.
Lane, of Indiana, the permanent president. The enthusiasm
and the hopefulness of the delegates were unbounded. For
the first time they found themselves in a party united by
what they deemed a great moral purpose, and not by considera-
tions of temporary expediency. The convention gave itself up
to a season of speech-making of the most earnest and enthusi-
astic character. The extraordinary success of the new party,
barely two years old, seemed to justify them in their expecta-
tion of an immediate national victory.

Much depended, for such a party even more than for an old
and established party, upon the quality of the candidate.
William H. Seward, of New York, no doubt represented the
attitude of the Republican party on public questions better
and more prominently than any other public man ; but he had
seen the formation of the party with reluctance, and, not being
so optimistic as to expect an election, declined to be a candi-
date. The next choice might have been Senator Salmon P.
Chase, of Ohio ; but he had been so fully identified with the
Democratic party that his ability to carry Ohio was doubtful,
and he withdrew. John McLean, also of Ohio, Postmaster-
General under Monroe and Adams, and a Justice of the Su-
preme Court since 1829, was regarded as a strong candidate,
but his name was also withdrawn. The only remaining can-
didate who had been prominently mentioned was Colonel John
C. Fremont, whose political experience was limited to a brief
service as senator from California, and whose political opin-
ions were almost unknown. Upon an urgent representation'
that Fremont would be unable to carry Pennsylvania, Judge
McLean was again brought forward as a candidate. On an
informal ballot Fremont received 359 votes, Judge McLean
196, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, 2, and William H.
Seward, of New York, 1. Colonel Fremont was thereupon
unanimously nominated. An informal ballot was likewise

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 271

taken for a candidate for Vice-President. William L. Dayton,
of New Jersey, had 259 ; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, 110 ;
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, 46 ; and twelve other
candidates received some votes each. Mr. Dayton was then
unanimously nominated. The selection of Fremont was due
in no small degree to the fact that he had already been nomi-
nated by the seceding Know-Nothings, and -a communication
from the officers of the convention which placed him in nomi-
nation was frequently referred to, but was not read. Gov-
ernor Johnston, who was nominated by the seceding Americans
for Vice-President, received two votes only in the Republican
convention.

The following platform was adopted : —

This convention of delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call
addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to
past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present admin-
istration, to the extension of slavery into free territory ; in favor of
admitting Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action of the
federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson ;
and who purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of
President and Vice-President, do resolve as follows : —

Resolved, That the maintenance of the principles promulgated
in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the federal
Constitution is essential to the preservation of our Republican
institutions, and that the federal Constitution, the rights of the
States, and the union of the States, shall be preserved.

Resolved, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a
self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the unalienable
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the
primary object and ulterior designs of our federal government
were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive juris-
diction ; that, as oar republican fathers, when they had abolished
slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should
be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of
law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Consti-
tution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of estab-
lishing slavery in any Territory of the United States, by positive
legislation prohibiting its existence or extension therein ; that we
deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any
individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to
slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the present
Constitution shall be maintained.

Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sover-

272 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

eign power over the Territories of the United States, for their
government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the
right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those
twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.

Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was
ordained and established by the people in order to form a more
perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, pro-
vide for the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty,
and contains ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty,
and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of
the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken
from them ; their territory has been invaded by an armed force ;
spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers
have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by
the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitu-
tional laws have been enacted and enforced; the rights of the
people to keep and bear arms have been infringed ; test oaths of
an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a
condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office ;
the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an
impartial jury has been denied ; the right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unrea-
sonable searches and seizures has been violated; they have been
deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law ;
the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged ; the
right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect ;
murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encour-
aged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished ; —
that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction,
and procurement of the present administration ; and that for this
high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity,
we arraign the administration, the President, his advisers, agents,
supporters, apologists, and accessories, either before or after the
fact, before the country and before the world, and that it is our
fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious
outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment
hereafter.

Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a
State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once
the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment
of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of
ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.

Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that " might makes
right," embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect
unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 273

dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanc-
tion.

Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most
central and. practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the
interests of the whole country, and that the Federal government
ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction ;
and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an
emigrant route on the line of the railroad.

Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement
of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the
accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are author-
ized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of govern-
ment to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

Resolved, That we invite the affiliation and cooperation of the men
of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in sup-
port of the principles herein declared ; and believing that the spirit
of our institutions as well as the Constitution of our country guaran-
tees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we
oppose all legislation impairing their security.

One other convention was held, that of the Whigs, at Balti-
more, on the 17th of September, in which there was a more or
less full representation of twenty-six States. No delegates
were present from Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, or Cali-
fornia. Edward Bates, of Missouri, was the president. The
proceedings were brief and uninteresting. The nominations of
Fillmore and Donelson were accepted by resolution, and the
following platform was adopted : —

Resolved, That the Whigs of the United States, now here as-'X
sembled, hereby declare their reverence for the Constitution of the
United States, their unalterable attachment to the national Union,
and a fixed determination to do all in their power to preserve them
for themselves and their posterity. They have no new principles to
announce, no new platform to establish, but are content to broadly J
rest — where their fathers rested — upon the Constitution of the
United States, wishing no safer guide, no higher law. -""

Resolved, That we regard with the deepest interest and anxiety
the present disordered condition of our national affairs, — a portion
of the country ravaged by civil war, large sections of our popula-
tion embittered by mutual recriminations ; and we distinctly trace
these calamities to the culpable neglect of duty by the present
national administration.

Resolved, That the government of the United States was formed
by the conjunction in political unity of widespread geographical
sections, materially differing not only in climate and products, but

274 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

in social and domestic institutions ; and that any cause that shall
permanently array the different sections of the Union in political
hostility and organized parties, founded only on geographical dis-
tinctions, must inevitably prove fatal to a continuance of the
national Union.

Resolved, That the Whigs of the United States declare, as a
fundamental rule of political faith, an absolute necessity for avoid-
ing geographical parties. The danger so clearly discerned by the
Father of his Country has now become fearfully apparent in
the agitation now convulsing the nation, and must be arrested at
once if we would preserve our Constitution and our Union from
dismemberment, and the name of America from being blotted
out from the family of civilized nations.

Resolved, That all who revere the Constitution and the Union
must look with alarm at the parties in the field in the present
presidential campaign, — one claiming only to represent sixteen
Northern States, and the other appealing mainly to the passions
and prejudices of the Southern States ; that the success of either
faction must add fuel to the flame which now threatens to wrap
our dearest interests in a common ruin.

Resolved, That the only remedy for an evil so appalling is to
support a candidate pledged to neither of the geographical sections
now arrayed in political antagonism, but holding both in a just and
equal regard. We congratulate the friends of the Union that such
a candidate exists in Millard Fillmore.

Resolved, That, without adopting or referring to the peculiar
doctrines of the party which has already selected Mr. Fillmore as a
candidate, we look to him as a well-tried and faithful friend of the
Constitution and the Union, eminent alike for his wisdom and
firmness ; for his justice and moderation in our foreign relations ;
for his calm and pacific temperament, so well becoming the head
of a great nation ; for his devotion to the Constitution in its true
spirit; his inflexibility in executing the laws; but, beyond all
these attributes, in possessing the one transcendent merit of being
a representative of neither of the two sectional parties now strug-
gling for political supremacy.

Resolved, That, in the present exigency of political affairs, we
are not called upon to discuss the subordinate questions of admin-
istration in the exercising of the constitutional powers of the gov-
ernment. It is enough to know that civil war is raging; and that
the Union is imperilled ; and we proclaim the conviction that the
restoration of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency will furnish the best
if not the only means of restoring peace.

The canvass which followed was an extraordinary one. It
was sluggish enough in the South, where the only candidates

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 275

were Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Fillmore ; for Mr. Buchanan had
the support of the entire slaveholding interest, and of all Avho
were concerned for the maintenance of the political power of
the slavery system. But in the North the Republicans con-
ducted a canvass rivalling that of 1840 in enthusiasm, and
having behind it what the " hard cider " campaign lacked, — a
definite moral purpose and a clearly understood policy. Great
political clubs were organized, which marched from place to
place visiting each other, uniformed and bearing torches. Im-
mense public meetings were held, and the Northern heart was
fired as it had never been before. Nevertheless the Republi-
can canvass was destined to end in defeat, although the earlier
elections of the autumn indicated a Republican victory. In
Vermont more than three fourths of the votes were Republican ;
and Maine, which had been carried in 1855 by a fusion party
of Democrats and "straight" Whigs, was now carried by the
Republicans by almost 18,000 majority. But the October
elections were unfavorable ; for, while Ohio gave a Republican
majority, Indiana was lost, and Pennsylvania gave the Demo-
cratic candidates on the state ticket a majority over the Re-
publican and Whig vote combined. " The Quakers did not
come out," it was said ; but all who could read the signs of the
time knew that the election was lost for the Republicans.

Thirty-one States participated in the election. The popular
and electoral votes are given on the next page.

The count of the electoral vote was enlivened by a scene
unlike any which had ever occurred. The usual resolution
for counting the votes was adopted. If it was known in
advance that there was anything unusual in the certificate
of any State, it does not so appear from the record; but, in
point of fact, the electors for Wisconsin had not met on the
day fixed by law, which day, says the Constitution itself,
" shall be the same throughout the United States," but on
the next day after. A severe snowstorm had prevented the
electors from reaching the capital of the State in season to give
their votes on the 3d of December, and they had met and
voted on the 4th.

When the votes of Wisconsin were presented at the joint
meeting of the two Houses, an objection was made to count-
ing them. The president -pro tempore of the Senate, the
Hon. James M. Mason, of Virginia, ruled that debate was
not in order while the tellers were counting the votes. The

276

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Popular Vote.

Electoral Vote.

States.

o .

to a

S.5

"2 *

Alabama ....

46,739

28,552

Arkansas .

21,910

—

10,787

California .

53,365

20,691

36,165

Connecticut

34,995

42,715

2,615

Delaware .

8,004

308

6,175

Florida

6,358

4,8*3

• -

Georgia

56,578

42,228

Illinois . .

105,348

96,189

37,444

Indiana

118,670

94,375

22,386

Iowa . .

36,170

43,954

9,180

Kentucky .

74,642

314

67,416

Louisiana .

22,164

20,709

Maine . .

39,080

67,379

3,325

Maryland .

39,115

281

47,460

Massachusetts

39,240

108,190

19,626

Michigan .

52,136

71,762

1,660

Mississippi

35,446

24,195

Missouri .

58,164

48,524

New Hampsh

ire

32,789

38,345

422

New Jersey

46,943

28,338

24,115

New York

195,878

276,007

124,604

North Carolina

48,246

36,886

Ohio . . .

170,874

187,497

28,126

Pennsylvania

230,710

147,510

82,175

Rhode Island

6,680

11,467

1,675

South Carolina *

Tennessee

73,638

66,178

Texas . .

31,169

15,639

Vermont .

10,569

39,561

545

Virginia .

89,706

291

60,310

Wisconsin .

52,843

66,090

579

Total .

1,838,169

1,341,264

874,534

174

114

* Electors appointed by the legislature.

count having been concluded, Mr. Letcher, of Virginia, of the
House of Representatives, inquired if it would then be in
order to move that the votes of Wisconsin be excluded. The
president ruled that it was not in order. Senator Crittenden,
of Kentucky, asked if the chair decided " that Congress, in

THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 277

no form, has power to decide upon the validity or invalidity
of a vote." The president, having disclaimed the intention
to make any such decision, proceeded to recapitulate the votes,
giving Buchanan and Breckinridge 174 each, and Fremont and
Dayton 114 each (which included the votes of Wisconsin),
and to declare the election of the Democratic candidates. Pro-
tests were raised on all sides, from both parties and by mem-
bers of both Houses. In spite of the declaration of the
presiding officer that no debate was in order, a long and
rambling debate ensued, in which the most diverse views
were advanced. The discussion was at last cut short by the
withdrawal of the Senate. The matter was immediately re-
sumed in each House, and discussion was continued for two
days. The debates on that occasion are the most valuable
for the student of political history, as to this casus omissus
of the Constitution, that have ever taken place, because the
question was considered without a spirit of partisanship. The
vote of Wisconsin would not. affect the result, whether counted,
or rejected. There was much ignorance of the Constitution
displayed by many of the speakers ; but, on the other hand,
some of them discussed the question with profound learning
and with great ability.

It is impossible here to give a sketch of this most interest-
ing debate. Nothing more can be done than to summarize
some of the views advanced. On the main question, Repub-
licans generally thought the votes of Wisconsin ought to be
counted ; Democrats, for the most part, took the contrary view.
Upon the question who, under the Constitution, should count,
that is, who decide what were votes, the divergence of opinion
was amazing. Some contented themselves with asserting that
the power was in Congress to decide upon the validity of votes,
leaving the method of exercising the power to be determined
by law. But it was maintained in the Senate, by Mr. Thomp-
son, of Kentucky, that the " votes are to be returned to us,
and counted by us, and the House of Representatives are ad-
mitted to be present at the count to prevent a combination, a
clandestine operation, a secret session, a coup d'etat. . . . The
votes are to be returned to the Senate, and counted by the
Senate." On the other hand, Mr. Humphrey Marshall, of
Kentucky, maintained in the House that that body was the
sole judge, and Mr. Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, took
the same view, The ground of this opinion was, that it was

278 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

for the House to decide whether or not to go into an election
of President.

There was still another point on which the difference of
opinion was decided. 'The president of the Senate stoutly
affirmed that he had neither counted nor rejected the votes,
although he had said : " The state of the votes as delivered
by the tellers is . . . for John C. Fremont, of California, 114
votes." Many senators sustained the assertion of Mr. Mason
that he had not counted the votes, while others declared that
he had counted them. Numerous resolutions were offered in
each branch, but the debate produced nothing more than a
resolution of formal notification to Messrs. Buchanan and
Breckinridge that they had been elected. The opinion that
the whole subject ought to be taken up and considered, and
the doubtful points determined by law, was generally ex-
pressed ; but, as soon as the matter in hand was disposed of,
the subject was dropped. The Congress was then in the last
month of its term, and it was too busy to take further notice
of a danger past which might never return. Consequently the
disputed point was left for a Republican Congress to decide,
according to the political exigency of the hour, in the midst
of a civil war.

XXI

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY

During the whole of Mr. Buchanan's administration the
country was drifting steadily toward civil war. The issue
between slavery and anti-slavery was joined at all points.
The Dred Scott decision, promulgated by the .Supreme Court
soon after the new President was inaugurated, sustained the
Southerners' contention as to their rights of property so fully
as to justify the bitter comment upon it that it made " Slavery
national, Freedom sectional." The Republicans would not
accept the dictum as final. If the Constitution must be taken
to support the view taken by the court, they would refuse to
obey the Constitution and follow the " higher law " proclaimed
by Seward.

The struggle over Kansas, which had begun in the first year
of Pierce's administration, continued under his successor until
early in 1861, after secession had begun, when the State was
admitted without slavery. The story of the contest fills one
of the darkest pages of American political history. It is a
record of perfidy and violence. The attempt to force the
Lecompton constitution upon the people, under the patron-
age of the executive department of the government, was
matched in baseness by the offer by Congress of a bribe to
the people if they would accept it. The South, struggling
as it was to maintain the political power of the section and
of its social system, and backed by the highest judicial author-
ity in the land, had a technical justification for every claim
which it put forth to the possession of Kansas as a field for
the extension of slavery. But, on the other hand, the moral
sense of the Northern people was outraged by the effort to
force slavery upon an unwilling people, and by the repeated
violations of good faith which were resorted to in order to
make the attempt successful. Kansas had seven governors
in five years. One of them was removed because he would
not be made the tool of the pro-slavery party. Another, a

280 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Mississippian, an ex-senator, and Secretary of the Treasury
during the whole of Polk's administration, resigned because
the President would not keep officially the pledge which he
had made verbally to the governor, that the people of Kansas
should be allowed to vote on the whole Lecompton consti-
tution.

The line which separated the Republican and the Demo-
cratic parties was broad ; but there was a great variety of
opinion within the ranks of each party. Even the Aboli-
tionists were beginning to think that an organization had
been formed which they could join with consistency, one
from which they might hope great things. There was a
wide difference, nevertheless, between them and the most
conservative Republicans, who would not go beyond a firm
and decided conviction that slavery could not exist in any
Territory in opposition either to the will of Congress or to
that of the people of the Territory. But while the Repub-
licans, being a party in opposition, could and did act together,
the Democrats were split into two factions. Senator Douglas,
who had been a leader for the South in the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise, revolted against the attempt to force
the Lecompton constitution upon the people of Kansas. Pub-
lic opinion in the North was so strong as to carry almost the
whole of the Democratic party of that section with him. In
the South he had some followers, and in the North many
Democrats opposed his " popular sovereignty " doctrine and
accepted the Southern view. The office-holders stood by the
administration, which opposed Douglas, with a reasonable ap-
prehension of the consequences of taking another course. No
doubt there were many men at the North who were intellec-
tually convinced that the constitutional position assumed in
defence of slavery extension was correct ; while others were
with the administration because it was the administration, and
favored the Southern view because the ascendency of slavery
as a political power, if secured by their assistance, would give
them office and standing in the party.

Since the time of Andrew Jackson the personal qualities of
the President had had little influence upon the course of pub-
lic events. But now the weakness of Mr. Buchanan encour-
aged the Southern extremists to press their advantage ; it made
possible the formation of a strong Northern faction in open
revolt against administration measures, and it rendered the

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 281

Republicans more resolute in their opposition to all the aggres-
sions of slavery. Before the President was inaugurated, many
of his moderate Northern supporters had hoped that he would
incline toward a conservative policy, and resist the extremists
of both sections. They saw him resign himself into the hands
of the slavery propagandists and work their will. It is easy to
see, after the event, that the conflict, which assumed the form of
open war soon after his term closed, was really irrepressible,
and that sooner or later it would have come to that, no matter
who had been President. Yet there can be no doubt that
Buchanan's lack of force hastened the war by sustaining one
party in its greatest pretensions, and by goading the other party
to more desperate resistance.

Douglas won the applause of the Republicans by his opposi-
tion to the administration's programme in Kansas, but he
soon showed that his course was not prompted by hostility
to slavery. He adhered to his " popular sovereignty " theories,
and admitted that he did not care whether slavery " was voted
up or voted down." The great series of debates between him
and Abraham Lincoln, in the canvass of 1858, each of the dis-
putants being the candidate of his party for the Illinois sena-
torship, brought out in the clearest possible light the wide
difference between even Douglas's Democracy and the conserv-
ative Republicanism of Lincoln. Incidentally, while it strength-
ened Douglas as the favorite of the Northern Democrats for
the presidency, it disclosed to the astonished eyes of the Repub-
licans a leader worthy to take rank with the foremost.

The four years' term of Mr. Buchanan was filled with most
important events, which tended to embitter politics and to pre-
pare men for the great civil conflict that was impending. Be-
side those already mentioned, the John Brown raid at Har-
per's Ferry was the most startling. The tragic death of
Senator Broderick, of California, a supporter of Douglas, in a
duel with an adherent of the administration, stirred the people
of the North profoundly. These occurrences and many others
which cannot even be mentioned kept the popular pulse beat-
ing fast, and indicated to those who could read the signs of the
times the profound crisis in the health of the body politic
which was soon to come. There were large numbers of men,
North and South, who observed the growing strife between the
two sections of the country with almost agonized sorrow. Be-
side the old Whigs, whom time in its rapid flight had left

282 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

behind the age, and the Native Americans of the South, who
hated the Democrats, and yet could not join the Republican
party, there were hosts of well-meaning men, all over the coun-
try, who feared that the bitter conflict would end in war. They
deemed it a duty to the Union to endeavor to restore harmony.
In the North they feared disunion more than they feared
slavery ; in the South they hated disunion almost as much as
they hated abolition. The several elements mentioned above
became temporarily united in the Constitutional Union party,
as patriotic a party as was ever organized, but one which could
not succeed in its mission because the time had come when the
self-preservation of the South, as a political power, and the
moral sense of the North, demanded that the pending question
be settled finally and forever.

A series of momentous conventions began when the dele-
gates of the Democratic party assembled at Charleston, South
Carolina, on the 23d of April, 1860. There was a full delega-
tion from every State of the Union, and contesting delegations
appeared from New York and Illinois. In New York the
" hards," led by Fernando Wood, had been elected by districts;
while the "softs," who were favorable to Senator Douglas,
were chosen by a state convention, which met at Syracuse in
the autumn of 1859. The two Illinois delegations were
respectively for and against Mr. Douglas. As soon as Mr.
Francis B. Flournoy, of Arkansas, had taken the chair as tem-
porary presiding officer of the convention, an angry debate
began urJon the contested seats, for the national committee had
given tickets— of admission, in _each case, to the Douglas dele-
gates, and had shut out their opponents. ~

On the first day of the convention nothing was done except
to appoint committees. On the second day Mr. Caleb Cushing,
of Massachusetts, was made the permanent presiding officer ; a
committee on resolutions was appointed ; and it was voted not
to vote for candidates of the party until a platform had been
adopted. The third day was occupied in deciding the contests
for seats, — in favor of the New York " softs," and the Doug-
las men from Illinois. It was only on the 27th of April, the
fifth day of the convention, that the committee on resolutions
reported to the assembly a majority and two or three minority
sets of resolutions. Two days of fierce debate, and of numer-
ous propositions to amend, followed ; and, on the 28th, a motion
was carried to recommit the whole subject to the committee.

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 283

Later on the same day the committee reported back a series
of resolutions, asserting, as the previous majority report had
done, the extreme Southern view of the question of slavery in
the Territories. These resolutions were subsequently adopted
by the convention of seceders some months later, and will be
found on page 287. A minority report was presented, which,
although signed by less than one half of the members of the
platform committee, represented more than one half the elec-
toral votes of the whole country. Gen. Benjamin F. But-
ler, of Massachusetts, who throughout the convention occupied
an attitude peculiar to himself, presented a second minority
report, which consisted of the Cincinnati platform of 1856,
without any change whatever. Much debate, and a determined
effort to postpone the vote on the substitution of the minority
reports, followed ; but on Monday, the 30th, a vote was reached.
General Butler's platform was rejected, by yeas 105, nays 198.
The minority resolutions presented by Mr. Samuels, of Iowa,
were then substituted for those of the majority, by 165 to 138.
These resolutions were in the following terms : —

1. Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in convention
assembled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unani-
mously adopted and declared as a platform of principles by the
Democratic convention at Cincinnati in the year 1856, believing
that Democratic principles are unchangeable in their nature when
applied to the same subject-matters; and we recommend as the
only further resolutions the following : —

Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party
as to the nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legisla-
ture, and as to the powers and duties of Congress, under the Con-
stitution of the United States, over the institution of slavery within
the Territories, — ^^-C

2. Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the deci- A'
sions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the questions of ]
constitutional law. /

3. Resolved, That it is the duty of the United States to afford
ample and complete protection to all its citizens, whether at home
or abroad, and whether native or foreign.

4. Resolved, That one of the necessities of the age, in a military,
commercial, and postal point of view, is speedy communication be- i
tween the Atlantic and Pacific States ; and the Democratic party
pledge such constitutional government aid as will insure the con-
struction of a railroad to the Pacific coast at the earliest practi-
cable period.

284 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

5. Resolved, That the Democratic party are in favor of the acqui-
sition of the island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable
to ourselves and just to Spain.

6. Resolved, That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat
the faithful execution of the fugitive slave law are hostile in char-
acter, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their
effects.

This series having been substituted for the majority set, the
several resolutions were then considered singly, and, with the
exception of that numbered two, which was rejected, they
were adopted by an almost unanimous vote. This action was
the signal for the withdrawal of a large number of the Southern
delegates. Alabama led off with a formal protest. The dele-
gation had been instructed not to waive the issue, and, as the
convention had decided against the Southern view, they had
no alternative but to withdraw. Mississippi, Florida, and
Texas followed, with their entire delegations ; and all but two
of those from Louisiana, all but three from South Carolina,
three from Arkansas, and two from Delaware joined the seced-
ers. On the next day, May 1st, 28 of the 36 delegates who
cast the 10 votes of Georgia also withdrew. This made a loss
of about 45 votes out of 303.

The convention, after listening to some remarkable speeches
by Southern men who did not secede, voted that two thirds
of a full convention, that is, 202 votes, should be necessary to
effect a nomination. The first vote for President resulted : —

Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois 145£

R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia 42

James Guthrie, of Kentucky 35 ,

Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee ....... 12 '

Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York 7

Joseph Lane, of Oregon 6

Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut 2\

Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi 1^

James A. Pearce, of Maryland 1

The convention took, on that and the following day, 57
votes. Mr. Douglas's strength rose slowly to 152^ on the
32d trial, then dropped to 151^, and remained at the same
point from the 3Gth to the 57th vote. Mr. Hunter dropped
slowly to 16 votes, which was his almost uniform number dur-
ing the last twenty trials. Mr. Guthrie, who gained most of
the votes lost by Mr. Hunter, reached 661 on tne 39th trial,

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 285

and had 65^ on the 57th. The strength of no other candidate
reached 21 votes on any one of the 57 contests. The last
vote of this series was : for Douglas, 151J ; Guthrie, 65£ ;
Hunter, 16 ; Lane, 14 ; Dickinson, 4 ; Davis, 1.

On the 3d of May, the tenth day of the convention, a reso-
lution was adopted to adjourn to meet in Baltimore on the
18th of June, and that it be recommended to Democrats to fill
the vacancies made by the withdrawal of delegates. This re-
solution was carried by 195 votes to 55. The only Southern
votes given, on both sides of this question, were : Maryland,
8 ; Virginia, 15 ; North Carolina, 14 ; Kentucky, 2 ; Tennes-
see, 12 ; Missouri, 9 ; Arkansas, 1 ; total 61, of the 120 to
which the South was entitled.

Meantime the seceders from the regular convention had met
in another hall in Charleston, organized by the choice of Sena-
tor James A. Bayard, of Delaware, as president, and adopted as
a platform the resolutions reported by the majority of the
committee on resolutions of the national convention (see page
287). After a session of four days they adjourned to meet
in Richmond, Va., on the 11th of June. On reassembling
at that time and place, Mr. John Erwin, of Alabama, was
made president, and a resolution was adopted to adjourn again
until the 21st of the month. At the adjourned session nothing
was done until the 23d, when what was left of the body
adopted the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane, made by
the seceders at Baltimore, and adjourned without day.

The regular convention reassembled at Baltimore on the
18th of June. The president, Caleb Cushing, on taking the
chair, made a long address, in which he stated the condition of
business, the significant part of which was an intimation that
the adoption of the platform was subject to reconsideration.
The first business in order was the admission of delegates from
those States whose representatives had withdrawn at Charles-
ton. Three whole days were occupied in the settlement of
these questions ; for in some cases the original delegates had
presented themselves for readmission, and in other cases there
were contesting delegations. The action of the convention was
in most instances in favor of the delegates pledged to Mr.
Douglas, and accordingly, as soon as the membership of the con-
vention was fully decided, a portion of the Virginia delegation
set the example of a second secession. They were followed by
most of the remaining members from the Southern States, and

286 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by a few from the North ; and Mr. Gushing, the president, also
withdrew and resigned the chair, which was taken by Governor
Tod, of Ohio. The convention then proceeded to vote again
for a candidate for President. On the first vote Douglas re-
ceived 173|- votes ; Guthrie 10 ; and John C. Breckinridge 5,
and three votes were divided among four other candidates.
All the Southern States combined cast but 35 votes, and 15
of these were given by the contesting delegates just admitted
to the convention. On the announcement of the result, Mr.
Sanford E. Church, of New York, moved a resolution that, as
Mr. Douglas had received two thirds of the vote given in this
convention, he be declared the regular nominee of the party.
The objection was raised that the resolution indirectly rescinded
the rule requiring two thirds of a full convention to effect a
nomination ; but the resolution was declared in order, and a
long debate took place upon it. Finally it was withdrawn to
allow another vote to be taken, which resulted in Mr. Douglas
receiving 181-J ; Mr. Breckinridge 7-J ; and Mr. Guthrie 5 J
votes. The resolution of Mr. Church was then taken up and
passed. Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was nominated for
Vice-President on the first vote, with almost complete unanim-
ity. The following resolution, proposed from the floor, was
adopted with only two dissenting votes, as an addition to the
platform : —

Resolved, That it is in accordance with the interpretation of the
Cincinnati platform, that, during the existence of the Territorial
governments, the measure of restriction, whatever it may be, im-
posed by the Federal Constitution on the power of the Territorial
legislature over the subject of the domestic relations, as the same
has been, or shall hereafter be, finally determined by the Supreme
Court of the United States, should be respected by all good citi-
zens, and enforced with promptness and fidelity by every branch
of the general government.

This finished the proceedings of the convention. Mr. Fitz-
patrick declined the nomination for Vice-President, and Her-
schel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was nominated by the National
Committee.

Upon leaving the convention hall the seceders proceeded to
organize a rival convention. They were joined by some dele-
gates who had withdrawn from the convention at Charleston,
and by the excluded contesting delegates. Mr. Cushing pre-
sided over the convention. Twenty-one States were wholly or

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 287

partially represented, but no delegates were present from the
States of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New Jersey, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, and Wisconsin. The convention made short work. It
adopted the platform reported by the majority of the commit-
tee on resolutions of the Charleston convention, nominated
John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph
Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President, both by a unanimous vote,
and adjourned. The platform adopted was as follows : —

Resolved, That the platform adopted by the Democratic party
at ' Cincinnati be affirmed, with the following explanatory resolu-
tions : —

1. That the government of a Territory organized by an act of
Congress is provisional and temporary ; and, during its existence,
all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with
their property in the Territory, without their rights, either of per-
son or of property, being destroyed or impaired by congressional
legislation.

2. That it is the duty of the federal government, in all its de-
partments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and
property in the Territories, and wherever else its constitutional
authority extends.

3. That when the settlers in a Territory, having an adequate
population, form a state constitution, the right of sovereignty com-
mences, and, being consummated by admission into the Union,
they stand on an equal footing with the people of other States; and
the State thus organized ought to be admitted into the federal
Union, whether its Constitution prohibits or recognizes the institu-
tion of slavery.

4. That the Democratic party are in favor of the acquisition of
the island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable to our-
selves and just to Spain, at the earliest practicable moment.

5. That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat the faith-
ful execution of the fugitive slave law are hostile in character, sub-
versive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.

6. That the Democracy of the United States recognize it as the
imperative duty of this government to protect the naturalized
citizen in all his rights, whether at home or in foreign lands, to
the same extent as its native-born citizens.

Whereas, One of the greatest necessities of the age, in a politi-
cal, commercial, postal, and military point of view, is a speedy
communication between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, —

Therefore be it resolved, That the Democratic party do hereby
pledge themselves to use every means in their power to secure the

288 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

passage of some bill, to the extent of the constitutional authority
of Congress, for the construction of a Pacific railroad from the
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable
moment.

This brief and meagre summary of the proceedings of the
Democrats gives no idea of the intense excitement that attended,
the sessions of the convention, nor of the breathless interest
with which the country watched its proceedings^ The " irre-
pressible conflict " existed even in the party which had upheld
the Southern cause, although that party had been already more
than decimated in the North by secession to the Republican
ranks. The two-thirds rule had wrecked the convention. The
party had two sets of candidates, neither of which could claim
regularity of nomination according to ordinary Democratic
usage ; and two platforms, the one supported by a majority
as represented in the original convention, the other expressing
the views of a great majority of those who could give electoral
votes to Democratic candidates. It was evident to every one
that, unless the two factions could get together on election day,
probably even if they were able to patch up their differences,
the cause was lost and a Republican triumph was assured.
The Republicans themselves were delighted at a situation
which gave them such an opportunity. The southern Demo-
crats sent forth emphatic warning of the course they would
pursue should a Republican President be chosen, and began to
prepare for the grim struggle. Douglas's followers maintained
their ground. They had gone as far as they would go in con-
cession to the South.

Soon after the Charleston convention adjourned, to reassem-
ble in Baltimore, the Constitutional Union party held its first
and only general convention, at Baltimore, on the 9th of May.
Most of the States were represented, though not in all cases
by delegates duly elected in primary meetings and conventions.
Young as it was, the party was divided into two wings. The
Southerners, mostly representatives of the still surviving Na-
tive American sentiment, desired to nominate General Sam
Houston, of Texas. The old Whigs of the North did not
relish such a candidacy. They were adjured not to pay too
much attention to gentility, but to take a candidate who,
rough as he might be, would carry many of the southern
States. Although the party was, by its very name, one of
union, it had no sooner organized, by the choice of Washington

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 28S

Hunt, of New York, as president, than it fell into a bitter
debate as to the manner of voting, and as to the number
of votes which delegations might cast. The Houston party
was present in great force, and it was feared that, unless a
strict rule were adopted, that candidate might be thrust
upon the convention. When this difficulty had been sur-
mounted, the committee on resolutions made a report, which
was unanimously adopted, and the following platform was ac-
cepted : —

Whereas, Experience has demonstrated that platforms adopted
by the partisan conventions of the country have had the effect to
mislead and deceive the people, and at the same time to widen the
political divisions of the country by the creation and encourage-
ment of geographical and sectional parties, therefore, —

Resolved, That it is both the part of patriotism and of duty to
recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the
country, the uniou of the States, and the enforcement of the laws,
and that, as representatives of the Constitutional Union men of the
country in national convention assembled, we hereby pledge our-
selves to maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly,
these great principles of public liberty and national safety, against
all enemies at home and abroad, believing that thereby peace may
once more be restored to the country, the rights of the people and
of the States reestablished, and the government again placed in
that condition of justice, fraternity, and equality which, under the
example and Constitution of our fathers, has solemnly bound every
citizen of the United States to maintain a more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com-
mon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Two votes only were necessary to effect a nomination of a
candidate for President. They resulted as follows : —

First. Second.

John Bell, of Tennessee 68£ 138£

Samuel Houston, of Texas ....... 57 68

John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky .... 28 8j(r

Edward Everett, of Massachusetts ... 25 9.(

John McLean, of Ohio 22 —

William A. Graham, of North Carolina . 22 18£

William C. Rives, of Virginia 13 —

John M. Botts, of Virginia 9£ 5£

William L. Sharkey, of Mississippi ... 6 5

William L. Goggin, of Virginia .... 3 —

290 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The number necessary for a choice on the second vote
was 127, and Mr. Bell was accordingly nominated. Edward
Everett, of Massachusetts, was the only person proposed as a
candidate for Vice-President, and he was unanimously nomi-
nated. Not a little enthusiasm was manifested over the two
nominations, which, if they did not insure a vigorous treat-
ment of the questions of the day, did certainly represent the
desire of the convention that the country should have union
and peace.

All the political interest of the country was now concen-
trated upon the Republican convention called to meet at
Chicago on the 16th of May. While the Democrats were
divided and discordant, and were evidently unable to unite
upon a platform or a candidate, the Republicans were con-
fident. They had been successful in every Northern State
in which an election was held, in 1859, save four : California ;
Oregon, where the adverse majority was only 59 ; New York,
where the combined vote of the Democrats and third party
men was less than 2000 more than that of the Republicans ; and
Rhode Island, where they were defeated by a fusion of all
the opposition. Mr. Seward was the leading candidate. A
large, influential, and well-organized body of delegates went
to Chicago with a determination to effect his nomination.
But the party was far from being united in his support. He
had the bitter hostility of Horace Greeley, whose " Tribune "
was the most powerful newspaper organ of Republican opin-
ion ; but that opposition did not count for so much as did
the calmer and less virulent objection of a large section of
the party which, though not unfriendly to Mr. Seward, and
though grateful for his services, questioned the wisdom of
putting in the field a candidate whose views were so pro-
nounced, and whose attitude might alienate some elements
which needed to be conciliated.

The political conditions were so favorable that the list of
willing candidates was a long one. Senator Chase was hardly
less prominent in politics than Mr. Seward, although his sup-
port was neither so large nor so general as that of the New
York candidate. Mr. Greeley supported Edward Bates, of Mis-
souri. Pennsylvania presented the name of Simon Cameron,
for trading purposes. But it was seen early in the preliminary
canvass that the only man who could be pitted against Seward
with hope of success was the rugged " rail-splitter " of Illinois,

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 291

the champion who had not hesitated to match himself against
the foremost debater of the Democratic party, and had emerged
from the logical conflict with a reputation not inferior to that
of his antagonist, — Abraham Lincoln.

When the convention assembled there were delegates present
from all the free States, also from Delaware, Maryland, Vir-
ginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Texas, and from the Terri-
tories of Kansas, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia.
David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman,
and George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, the permanent presi-
dent. There was a contest over the standing of the delegates
from some of the Southern States, owing to a strong suspicion
that they represented nobody but themselves, and were Re-
publicans of the States which they claimed as their own, for
convention purposes only. The convention took a liberal view,
and allowed the delegates to retain their seats with a somewhat
diminished voting strength in some cases.

On the second day there was a debate over the question
whether a majority of the whole number of delegates, were
all the States of the Union fully represented, or only a ma-
jority of the delegates voting, should be necessary to nominate.
The first proposition, which would have been almost equivalent
to the two-thirds rule of the Democrats, was rejected by 331
votes to 130.

The platform was reported, amended, and adopted as fol-
lows : —

Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Repub-
lican electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in
discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country,
unite in the following declarations : —

1. That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has
fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization
and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes
which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and
now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitu-
tional triumph.

2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the
Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Consti-
tution, — " that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that, to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just

292 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

powers from the consent of the governed " — is essential to the
preservation of our republican institutions ; and that the federal
Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States
must and shall be preserved.

3. That to the union of the States this nation owes its unpre-
cedented increase in population, its surprising development of
material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness
at home, and its honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all
schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may ; and
we congratulate the country that no Republican member of Con-
gress has uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often
made by Democratic members, without rebuke and with applause
from their political associates ; and we denounce those threats
of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency,
as denying the vital principles of a free government, and as an
avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the imperative duty
of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and forever silence.-*

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own
domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is
essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depends ; and we denounce the
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Terri-
tory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of
crimes.

5. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded
our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the
exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its d&-
sperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton constitution
upon the protesting people of Kansas ; in construing the personal

] relation between master and servant to involve an unqualified
property in person ; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on
land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of the
Federal courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local inter-
est ; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted
to it by a confiding people.

6. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extrava-
gance which pervades every department of the federal government ;
that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable
to arrest the systematic plunder of the public treasury by favored
partisans ; while the recent startling developments of frauds and
corruptions at the Federal metropolis show that an entire change
of administration is imperatively demanded.

7. That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force,
carries slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States,

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 293

is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit pro-
visions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition,
and with legislative and judicial precedent ; is revolutionary in its
tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country.

8. That the normal condition of all the territory of the United
States is that of freedom ; that as our republican fathers, when
they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained
that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property with-
out due process of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, when-
ever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of
the Constitution against all attempts to violate it ; and we deny
the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any
individual, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of
the United States.

9. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave-
trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of
judicial power, as a crime against humanity, and a burning shame
to our country and age ; and we call upon Congress to take prompt
and efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that
execrable traffic.

10. That in the recent vetoes, by their federal governors, of the
acts of the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery
in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted
Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sovereignty,
embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and a demonstration of the
deception and fraud involved therein.

11. That Kansas should of right be immediately admitted as a
State under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by her
people and accepted by the House of Representatives.

12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the general
government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an
adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the
industrial interests of the whole country; and we commend that
policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen
liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and
manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enter-
prise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence.

13. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others of
the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the
free-homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or sup-
pliants for public bounty; and we demand the passage by Con-
gress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which
has already passed the House.

14. That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our
naturalization laws, or any state legislation by which the rights of

294

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands
shall be abridged or impaired ; and in favor of giving a full and
efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether
native or naturalized, both at home and abroad.

15. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor im-
provements of a national character, required for the accommoda-
tion and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the
Constitution, and justified by the obligations of government to
protect the lives and property of its citizens.

16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded
by the interests of the whole country; that the federal govern-
ment ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construc-
tion ; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail
should be promptly established.

17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and
views, we invite the cooperation of all citizens, however differing
on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirm-
ance and support.

The second resolution as originally reported did not contain
the passage from the Declaration of Independence therein
quoted. It was proposed by Mr. Joshua R. Giddings, of
Ohio, to insert it in the form of a separate resolution, " that
we solemnly reassert the self-evident truth that all men," etc. ;
but the motion was defeated. Mr. George William Curtis, of
New York, afterward moved to insert the passage in its present
place, and the motion prevailed. On the third day of the con-
vention the names of candidates for President were formally
presented, but no speeches were allowed to be made by those
who nominated the candidates. Three votes were taken amid
increasing excitement, with the following result : —

Whole number of votes ....
Necessary for a choice .....*
William H. Seward, of New York
Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois . .
Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania .
Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio . . .
Edward Bates, of Missouri . . .
William L. Dayton, of New Jersey

John McLean, of Ohio

Jacob Collamer, of Vermont . .
Scattering-

1st,

2d.

465

233

178*

1S4£

102

181

50£

42£

3d.

465
233
180

£31*

24£
22

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 295

Mr. Lincoln was within one and a half votes of a nomina-
tion when the roll-call was completed. Ohio quickly trans-
ferred four votes to him, and then delegation after delegation
changed in his favor until he had 354 in all. On motion of
Mr. W. M. Evarts, of New York, seconded by Mr. John A.
Andrew, of Massachusetts, the nomination was made unani-
mous with the greatest enthusiasm.

At a later session on the same day the convention voted
twice for a candidate for Vice-President, with this result : —

First. Second.

Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine 194 367

Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky 101 £ 86

John Hickman, of Pennsylvania 58 13

Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania 51 —

Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts 38-J —

Scattering 15 -

The nomination of Mr. Hamlin having been made unani-
mous, the convention closed its proceedings by the adoption of
the following resolution, ottered by Mr. Giddings, of Ohio : —

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with those men who have
been driven, some from their native States and others from the
States of their adoption, and are now exiled from their homes on
account of their opinions ; and we hold the Democratic party
responsible for the gross violation of that clause of the Constitu-
tion which declares that citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States.

The canvass which ensued after these several nominations
had been made was fierce and exciting. On the part of the
Republicans there was a well-grounded confidence that they
were to be victorious. The nomination of Mr. Lincoln, like
that of General Harrison twenty years before, was exceedingly
popular with young men ; although, of course, the remark is
true in the later case of the young men in the Northern half
of the country only. The tactics which had been so efficacious
in the successful Whig campaigns were again resorted to, and
the Northern States were alive with processions, torch-light
parades, and mass-meetings. In the South there was a grim
determination to win the victory if possible, but in no event
to submit to defeat. The mutterings of secession and war,
should Mr. Lincoln be elected, were frequently heard ; the
supporters of the Republican party refused to believe that the
South would be guilty of such madness. In the Northern sec-
tion of the Democratic party there was an earnest effort to fuse

296 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

all the elements in support of a union ticket of electors, with
the implied, and in some cases the expressed, agreement that
in case the ticket should command a majority the electoral
votes should be given to that candidate who should come the
nearest to an election. This course was pursued in the close
States only. Where there was no hope that fusion would give
the Democrats a majority, the two wings of the party had each
its own electoral ticket. All the planning was without avail.
Had there been complete fusion in every State, the Republic
cans would have lost no electoral votes save those of Califor-
nia and Oregon. The early elections in Maine, Ohio, Indiana,
and Pennsylvania, to say nothing of other States where the
contest was not so close, foreshadowed the certain election of
Mr. Lincoln, and the result in November more than justified
the deductions from the September and October elections.
Every Northern State except New Jersey was carried by the
Republicans, and even that State gave a divided electoral vote.
The decision was hardly made by the people of the country
before the South began to carry out the threats which had
been only muttered before the election ; and the new Presi-
dent succeeded to the administration of a government which
was to fight for its very existence.

Thirty-three States took part in this election. Minnesota
had been admitted to the Union on the 11th of May, 1858,
and Oregon on the 12th of February, 1859. The popular and
electoral vote, together with the details of fusion, are given on
the next page.

The official record of the electoral count contains nothing of
interest. The proceedings were in strict accordance with pre-
cedent. Nevertheless a single remark made by a member of
the House of Representatives after the count was over indi-
cates the condition of affairs at the time. Some trouble had
been feared on the occasion of the count of votes, and no doubt
precautions were taken against violence at any time, and par-
ticularly at that time. At all events, the Southerners scented
hostile preparations ; and Mr. Hindman, of Arkansas, suggested
that the committee to wait on the President-elect " be directed
to inform General Scott that there is no further need for hii
janizaries about the Capitol, the votes being counted and the
result proclaimed." The only attention paid to the sneer was
in a retort from Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, that " gentlemen
seem to trouble themselves a good deal about General Scoti
on all occasions." The proceedings then terminated.

THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY

297

Popular Vote.

Electoral Vote.

•0

States.

1
h

<5 4

a .

■

§
&

a
o

§
I

•c
n

1
n

Alabama ....

13,651

48,831

27,875

Arkansas . .

5,227

28,732

20,094

California . .

39,173

38,516

34,334

6,817

Connecticut

43,792

15,522

14,641

3,291

Delaware . .

3,815

1,023

7,337

3,864

Florida . .

367

8,543

5,437

Georgia . .
Illinois .

11,590

51,889

42,886

172,161

160,215

2,404

4,913

Indiana

139,033

115,509

12,295

5,306

Iowa . .

70,409

55,111

1,048

1,763

Kentucky .

1,364

25,651

53,143

66,058

Louisiana .

7,625

22,861

20,204

Maine . .

62,811

26,693

6,368

2,046

Maryland .

2,294

5,966

42,482

41,760

Massachusetts

106,533

34,372

5,939

22,331

—

Michigan .

88,480

65,057

805

405

Minnesota

22,069

11,920

748

—

Mississippi

3,283

40,797

25,040

Missouri .

17,028

58,801

31,317

58,372

New Hampsh

37,519

25,881

2,112

441

New Jersey

58,324

62,801*

New York .

362,646

312,510*

—

North Carolin

2,701

48,539

44,990

Ohio. . .

231,610

187,232

11,405

12,194

—

Oregon . .

5,270

3,951

5,006

183

—

Pennsylvania

268,030

16,765

178,871*

12,776

—

Rhode Island

12,244

7,707*

—

South Carolina?

Tennessee . .

11,350

64,709

69,274

Texas . .

47,548

15,438

Vermont .

33,808

8,649

1,866

217

—

Virginia .

1,929

16,290

74,323

74,681

Wisconsin . . .

86,110

65,021

888

161

5
180

Total . .

1,866,452

1,376,957

849,781

588,879

* Vote for fusion tickets, t Although the Fusion ticket in New Jersey received i
popular majority, four of the candidates were defeated by "scratching," and fou*
Lincoln electors had a plurality. % Electors appointed by the legislature.

XXII

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED

Seven of the Southern States had taken the step of seces-
sion before the inauguration of President Lincoln. A futile
attempt to save the Union was made by the Peace Convention
which met in Washington on February 4, 1861, at the call of
Virginia. Within six weeks after the attack upon Fort Sum-
ter, Virginia and three other " Border " States had joined
their more Southern sisters. The outbreak of the war almost
obliterated parties. The South was eliminated from the poli-
tics of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Democrats
eagerly adopted the view expressed by Douglas, " There can be
no neutrals in this war, — only patriots and traitors." Many
of the War Democrats became merged in the Republican party ;
others retained their political independence, but cordially sup-
ported all the war measures of the administration, and furnished
to the army their due share of officers and men. There were,
it is true, many Democrats who offered a persistent and un-
relenting opposition to the war, and were querulous critics of
the method of its prosecution. Not all who were denounced
as " Southern sympathizers " were really desirous of the suc-
cess of disunion ; but the Northern temper was naturally in-
tolerant, and, exaggerating the offence of those who opposed
the administration, classed them all as "traitors." The fa-
vorite term of opprobrium was " Copperhead," the name of a
venomous reptile. As the war proceeded, the spirit of acqui-
escence in the conduct of affairs diminished greatly, and a strong
political opposition developed. The effective prosecution of a
civil war necessarily involved the use of harsh and summary
measures against men who were suspected of giving aid to the
enemy. Nevertheless the suspension of the writ of habeas
corpus, and the arbitrary arrests of citizens, drove into opposi-
tion many men whose loyalty could not be suspected. It was
their misfortune that they were forced to make a political alli-
ance with the more virulent enemies of the administration, not

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 299

a few of whom rendered themselves obnoxious to the patriotic
by rejoicing openly over defeats' of the Union armies. The
opposition was also ever ready to espouse the cause of generals
who for any cause fell into disfavor at Washington. This
was especially the case with respect to General McClellan, who
became more and more a favorite with Democrats as the real
or fancied wrongs which he suffered at the hands of the Presi-
dent increased. In 1862 the Republican party met with many
reverses, the most important of which gave the great State of
New York to the Democrats.

The President's trials did not come from those alone who
regarded his acts, and those of his officers and agents, as arbi-
trary and tyrannical. He was beset also by an active minority
of his own party, who chafed at his conservatism and his un-
willingness to adopt the radical measures which they were per-
suaded would hasten the success of the Union arms. They
urged the enrollment of colored troops and the complete eman-
cipation of the slaves. Mr. Lincoln moved slowly, because
public sentiment was slower still. The people at large learned
to trust his calmness and good sense. If they did not approve
all his acts, theywere sure of his high purpose, and they par-
doned much to the terrible exigency that forced him to sanc-
tion doubtful or objectionable measures. The firmness with
which he withstood the demand for emancipation, when it was
clamorously urged upon him, made them all the more ready to
accept his judgment as to the wisdom of the step when at last
and with deliberation he proclaimed that all the slaves within
the territory held by the Confederacy were thenceforth free.
His wisdom and strength commended him to thoughtful men,
and his quaint shrewdness in word and act brought him near
to the common people.

Mr. Lincoln neither obtrusively urged himself as a candidate
f&r reelection nor made any coy professions of unwillingness to
be chosen again. He was simply and frankly a candidate.
He believed that it was best for the country, in the circum-
stances, that he should be continued in office. It was not good
policy, he said, — and the phrase made the one argument which
in any case would have turned the scale in his favor, — " to
swap horses while crossing a stream."

The certainty that the Republican convention — which was
called on February 22, 1864, to meet in Baltimore on the 7th
of June — would nominate Mr. Lincoln led certain radical

800 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

opponents of his administration in various parts of the country
to attempt to forestall its action by calling a convention to
meet on an earlier day at Cleveland. Several calls were pub-
lished, all of them inviting the people to meet in mass conven-
tion in that city on the 31st of May. Among the signers
of these calls were the Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever, of New
York, B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, Lucius Robinson, of New
York, and other gentlemen then or since prominent in public
affairs. Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, and others
sent letters approving the objects of the convention.

In answer to these calls, about three hundred and fifty per-
sons met in Cleveland on the appointed day. General John
Cochrane, of New York, was made president. A platform was
adopted as follows : —

First. That the Federal Union shall be preserved.

Second. That the Constitution and laws of the United States
must be observed and obeyed.

Third. That the rebellion must be suppressed by force of arms,
and without compromise.

Fourth. That the rights of free speech, free press, and the habeas
corpus be held inviolate, save in districts where martial law has
been proclaimed.

Fifth. That the rebellion has destroyed slavery, and the Federal
Constitution should be amended to prohibit its reestablishment,
and to secure to all men absolute equality before the law.

Sixth. That integrity and economy are demanded at all times in
the administration of the government, and that in time of war the
want of them is criminal.

Seventh. That the right of asylum, except for crime and subject
to law, is a recognized principle of American liberty ; that any
violation of it cannot be overlooked, and must not go unrebuked.

Eighth. That the national policy known as the " Monroe Doc-
trine " has become a recognized principle, and that the establish-
ment of an anti-republican government on this continent by any
foreign power cannot be tolerated.

Ninth. That the gratitude and support of the nation are due to
the faithful soldiers and the earnest leaders of the Union army and
navy for their heroic achievements of deathless valor in defence of
our imperilled country and civil liberty.

Tenth. That the one-term policy for the presidency adopted by
the people is strengthened by the force of the existing crisis, and
should be maintained by constitutional amendments.

Eleventh. That the Constitution should be so amended that the
President and Vice-President shall be elected by a direct vote of
the people.

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 301

Twelfth. That the question of the reconstruction of the rebel-
lious States belongs to the people, through their representatives in
Congress, and not to the executive*

Thirteenth. That the confiscation of the lands of the rebels, and
their distribution among the soldiers and actual settlers, is a mea-
sure of justice.

General John C. Fremont was nominated by acclamation for
President, and General John Cochrane, a few dissenting, for
Vice-President. In letters dated at New York, June 4, both gen-
tlemen accepted these nominations. As a manifestation of one
phase of the opposition to Mr. Lincoln, these proceedings and
those which followed are interesting ; but the candidacy of Gen-
eral Fremont came to nothing. On August 20 a letter was
addressed to him by citizens of Boston, asking him if, " in case
Mr. Lincoln will withdraw, you will do so," and " unite the
thorough and earnest friends of a vigorous prosecution of the
war in a new convention." The ultimate result of this move-
ment, although Mr. Lincoln did nothing to promote it, was the
withdrawal of both General Fremont and General Cochrane
on the 21st of September, and the union of the Republican
party in support of its regular candidates.

The call for the Republican national convention was worded,
as the calls for many of the state conventions had been, so as
to include in the invitation to participate in it all, of whatever
former party relations, who would stand by the administration
and its measures. It was addressed to those " who desire the
unconditional maintenance of the Union, the supremacy of
the Constitution, and the complete suppression of the existing
rebellion, with the cause thereof, by vigorous war, and all apt
and efficient means." The convention met at Baltimore, June
7, 1864, and was presided over temporarily by the Rev. Dr.
Robert J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and, as permanent pre-
sident, by ex-Governor William Dennison, of Ohio. The plat-
form was reported by Mr. Henry J. Raymond, of New York,
and was adopted unanimously, as follows : —

1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citi-
zen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union,
and the permanent authority of the Constitution and laws of the
United States ; and that, laying aside all differences of political
opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a com-
mon sentiment and aiming at a common object, to do everything
in our power to aid the government in quelling by force of arms

302 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to
the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed
against it.

2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the govern-
ment of the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to
offer them any terms of peace except such as may be based upon
an unconditional surrender of their hostility and a return to their
just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States ;
and that we call upon the government to maintain this position,
and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor to the
complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the
self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor, and the undying devo-
tion of the American people to their country and its free institu-
tions.

3. Resolved, That, as slavery was the cause and now constitutes
the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and every-
where, hostile to the principles of republican government, justice
and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation
from the soil of the republic ; and that, while we uphold and
maintain the acts and proclamations by which the government, in
its own defence, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we
are in favor, furthermore, of such amendment to the Constitution,
to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall
terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the
limits or the jurisdiction of the United States.

4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to
the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy who have perilled
their lives in defence of their country and in vindication of the
honor of its flag ; that the nation owes to them some permanent
recognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and per-
manent provision for those of their survivors who have received
disabling and honorable wounds in the service of the country ; and
that the memories of those who have fallen in its defence shall be
held in grateful and everlasting remembrance.

5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom,
the unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity with which
Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of unparal-
leled difficulty, the great duties and responsibilities of the presiden-
tial office ; that we approve and indorse, as demanded by the emer-
gency and essential to the preservation of the nation and as within
the provisions of the Constitution, the measures and acts which he
has adopted to defend the nation against its open and secret foes ;
that we approve, especially, the proclamation of emancipation and
the employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held in
slavery ; and that we have full confidence in his determination to

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 303

carry these and all other constitutional measures essential to the
salvation of the country into full and complete effect.

6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the general welfare
that harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we re-
gard as worthy of public confidence and official trust those only
who cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolu-
tions, and which should characterize the administration of the
government.

7. Resolved, That the government owes to all men employed in
its armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protec-
tion of the laws of war ; and that any violation of these laws, or of
the usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now
in arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress.

8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has
added so much to the wealth, development of resources, and in-
crease of power to this nation, — the asylum of the oppressed of
all nations, — should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and
just policy.

9. Resolved, That we are in favor of a speedy construction of the
railroad to the Pacific coast.

10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemp-
tion of the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this
purpose we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the
public expenditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation ;
and that it is the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit
and promote the use of the national currency.

11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the govern-
ment, that the people of the United States can never regard with
indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by
force, or to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any republican
government on the Western Continent; and that they will view
with extreme jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence
of their own country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new
footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by foreign mili-
tary force, in near proximity to the United States.

On a formal vote for a candidate for President, Mr. Lincoln
received all the votes of every State, except those of Missouri,
which were cast, in accordance with instructions, for General
XJ. S. Grant. The nomination was then made unanimous.
On the first ballot for a candidate for Vice-President, Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, received 200; Hannibal Hamlin, of
Maine, 150 ; Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York, 108 ; and
seven other candidates an aggregate of 61. Before the vote
was declared, a great many changes took place, and the final

304 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

result was : for Johnson, 494 votes ; for Dickinson, 17 ; for
Hamlin, 9. Mr. Johnson was declared the candidate.

The Democratic convention met on August 29, at Chicago.
Ex-Governor William Bigler, of Pennsylvania, was the tempo-
rary president, and Governor Horatio Seymour, of New York,
the permanent president. The platform was reported by Mr.
James Guthrie, of Kentucky, as follows : —

Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will adhere with
unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution as the only
solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people,
and as a framework of government equally conducive to the wel-
fare and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern.

Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the
sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to
restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under
the pretence of a military necessity, or war power higher than the
Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every
part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and
the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, —
justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that
immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a
view to an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable
means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace
may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States.

Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authori-
ties of the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky,
Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware was a shameful violation of the
Constitution ; and a repetition of such acts in the approaching elec-
tion will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means
and power under our control.

Resolved, That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to
preserve the federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired ;
and they hereby declare that they consider that the administrative
usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by
the Constitution ; the subversion of the civil by military law in
States not in insurrection ; the arbitrary military arrest, imprison-
ment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where
civil law exists in full force ; the suppression of freedom of speech
and of the press ; the denial of the right of asylum ; the open and
avowed disregard of state rights ; the employment of unusual test
oaths ; and the interference with and denial of the right of the
people to bear arms in their defence, — are calculated to prevent a
restoration of the Union and the perpetuation of a government
deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 305

Resolved, That the shameful disregard of the administration of
its duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who are now, and long have
been, prisoners of war and in a suffering condition, deserves the
severest reprobation, on the score alike of public policy and com-
mon humanity.

Resolved, That the sympathy of the Democratic party is heart-
ily and earnestly extended to the soldiery of our army and the sail-
ors of our navy, who are and have been, in the field and on the sea,
under the flag of our country ; and, in the event of its attaining
power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard that
the brave soldiers and sailors of the republic have so nobly
earned.

On the first ballot for a candidate for President, General
George B. McClellan was nominated. He had been repeatedly
mentioned in connection with the nomination for many months,
and the sentiments of the Democratic party were concen-
trated in his favor long before the convention met. The vote
as first taken resulted in 174 votes for McClellan ; 38 for
Thomas H. Seymour, of Connecticut ; 12 for Horatio Seymour,
of New York ; J- vote for Charles O'Conor, of New York ; and
l£ votes blank. But belore the result was announced several
changes were made, and the announcement was : for McClel-
lan, 202J votes ; for Thomas H. Seymour, 28-J. All the votes
for Mr. Seymour were given by delegates from Ohio, Indiana,
and the " border States." The nomination of General Mc-
Clellan was made unanimous, on motion of Mr. Vallandigham
of Ohio.

The first vote for a candidate for Vice-President resulted
as follows : James Guthrie, of Kentucky, 65^ ; George H.
Pendleton, of Ohio, 55^- ; Lazarus W. Powell, of Kentucky,
32^ ; George W. Cass, of Pennsylvania, 26 ; Daniel W,
Voorhees, of Indiana, 13 ; John D. Caton, of Illinois, 16 ;
Augustus C. Dodge, of Iowa, 9 ; John S. Phelps, of Missouri,
8 ; blank, ^ vote. On the second trial, Mr. Guthrie's name
having been withdrawn, the friends of all the other candidates,
except those of Mr. Pendleton, withdrew their names also, and
Mr. Pendleton was unanimously nominated.

The canvass that followed was one of great spirit. The
attention of the country was, it is true, earnestly fixed upon
the progress of the war, and it could not be greatly or for a
long time diverted to a political contest ; but the reelection of
Mr. Lincoln was regarded and treated by the Republicans as

306 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

one of the important campaigns of the war ; and they held that
those who were not with them in the accomplishment of that
ohject were against the Union. They denounced the Democratic
platform as a base and cowardly surrender to the enemy, and
as an encouragement to those in arms against the old flag to
persevere in their hostilities until the peace party should be in
a position to make terms with them on the basis of a peaceable
secession. The Republicans had called their convention as
one of Union men. War Democrats took a prominent part in
the proceedings of that assembly, and one of them was the
candidate for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with Mr. Lin-
coln. They called upon all Union men to support the armies
in the field by voting down the party which would make a
disgraceful peace.

The Democratic platform, unpopular from its first promulga-
tion, became more so as the canvass proceeded. General Mc-
Clellan repudiated its obvious meaning in his letter of accept-
ance. Where the convention had demanded " a cessation of
hostilities with a view to an ultimate convention of the States,"
the candidate expressed the belief that so " soon as it is clear,
or even probable, that our present adversaries are ready for
peace on the basis of the Union, we should exhaust all the
resources of statesmanship ... to secure such peace." The
convention had proclaimed " four years of failure to restore the
Union by the experiment of war ; " General McClellan wrote :
" I could not look in the face of my gallant comrades of the
army and navy, who have survived so many bloody battles,
and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice of so many of
our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain ; that we
had abandoned that Union for which we have so often perilled
our lives." The convention said : Peace first, and Union
afterward, if it can be had. General McClellan said : The
Union first, and then peace ; "no peace can be permanent
without union." The convention said that the war had been
a failure ; General McClellan could not look his old comrades
in the face and say that.

His open repudiation of the expressed sentiments of the
party saved to General McClellan many of the votes which
would otherwise have been given to Mr. Lincoln. But
although the party held its forces together much more gener-
ally than might have been expected, the plain common sense of
the people taught them that Mr. Lincoln was the candidate

LINCOLN KE-ELECTED

307

whose election meant earnest and uncompromising war until the
power of the rebellion was destroyed and the Union was re-
stored, and they supported him. The general result was at no
time in doubt.

In some of the States, provision had been made, before the
war broke out, for taking the votes of soldiers absent from
their respective States with the army. Other States adopted

Popular Vote.

Soldier

i' Vote.

Electoral Vote.

States.

•2

«!

S
a

o
8

California . .

62,134

43,841

2,600

237

Connecticut . .

44,693

42,288

—

Delaware . .

8,155

8,767 -

Illinois . . T

189,487

158,349

Indiana . . T"

150,422

130,233

Iowa . . . *r

87,331

49,260

15,178

1,364

Kansas . . .

14,228

3,871

Kentucky . .

27,786

64,301 -

1,194

2,823

Maine ....

72,278

47,736

4,174

741

—

Maryland . .

40,153

32,739

2,800

321

Massachusetts

126,742

48,745

—

Michigan . .

85,352

67,370

9,402

2,959

Minnesota . .

25,060

17,375

Missouri . . .

72,991

31,026

Nevada . . .

9,826

6,594

New Hampshire

36,595

33,034

2,066

690

New Jersey . .

60,723

68,014^

New York . .

368,726

361,986

Ohio . . .-.

265,154

205,568

41,146

9,757

—

Oregon . . .

9,888

8,457

Pennsylvania .

296,389

276,308

26,712

12,349

Rhode Island .

14,343

8,718

Vermont . .

42,422

13,325

243

West Virginia

23,223

10,457

Wisconsin . .

79,564

63,875

11,372

2,458

Totals : . .

2,213,665

1,802,237

116,887

33,748

212

* Nevada chose three electors, one of whom died before the election.

308 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

similar provisions before the election took place. The army-
votes for President in 1864, which were counted in canvassing
the returns for electors, are, in the table on the preceding page,
separated from the home vote. It will be seen that in no case
does the addition of the two change the result.

The total vote counted, including both the home and the
army votes, was 4,166,537, and Mr. Lincoln's plurality was
494,567. The army votes of Kansas and Minnesota, which
arrived too late to be counted, and certain votes rejected for
informality in Wisconsin, would have brought up the total to
about 4,175,000, and Mr. Lincoln's majority to a number in
excess of half a million.

This was the first election since the adoption of the Consti-
tution at which any State had deliberately neglected to appoint
electors. In 1864 the authority of the United States was de-
nied in, and complete sovereignty was claimed by the regular
governments of, eleven States. But in some of them there
had been set up rival governments, asserting their own loyalty
to the Union, and claiming the recognition of Congress as the
true government of those States. In one case, at least, the ques-
tion presented was a puzzling one. The consent of the State
of Virginia to the erection of the State of West Virginia within
its territory — consent which was required by the terms of
the Constitution — was given by one of these mushroom gov-
ernments. After the creation of that new State, however,
the territory and the population which admitted the authority
of this government of Virginia were so small that Congress re-
fused to recognize the claims of those who presented themselves
as senators and representatives.

Nevertheless, pretended elections had been held in Louis-
iana and Tennessee, and the question was evidently to be
pressed upon Congress whether or not the electoral votes cast
in those States by a handful of men, many of them mere ad-
venturers, were to be received. No such question had ever
arisen before. Never had there been offered, at the joint
meeting of the two Houses of Congress, a certificate of elec-
toral votes which it was clearly the duty of Congress to reject,
if Congress had any power to reject. In most such cases a
decision of the question whether or not the disputed votes
should be counted had been evaded ; but in all these instances
a determination either way could not affect the result. Nor
would the admission or the rejection of the Southern votes in

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 309

1864 change the result. But if the votes were allowed, the
act would be equivalent to a declaration that the governments
by whose authority they were given were valid and regular,
and such a declaration might make trouble when the time for
reconstruction should come.

In these circumstances, and in order to fix the status of the
seceded States until their governments had been duly recon-
structed by Congress, a joint resolution was passed by both
Houses in January, 1865. It was in the following words : —

Whereas, The inhabitants and local authorities of the States of
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala-
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee re-
belled against the government of the United States, and were in
such condition on the 8th day of November, 1864, that no valid
election of electors for President and Vice-President of the United
States, according to the Constitution and laws thereof, was held
therein on said day ; therefore —

Be it resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the
States mentioned in the preamble to this joint resolution are not
entitled to representation in the Electoral College for the choice of
President and Vice-President of the United States for the term
commencing on the 4th day of March, 1865, and no electoral votes
shall be received or counted from said States concerning the choice
of President and Vice-President for said term of office.

The President was committed to the validity and regularity
of the governments of Louisiana and Tennessee. A state
government was in full operation in Louisiana, with Governor
Hahn at its head, and the election in Tennessee had been
ordered by Governor Andrew Johnson, Mr. Lincoln's asso-
ciate on the ticket. Accordingly, the President was earnestly
opposed to the resolution just recited, which virtually declared
the invalidity of governments which he recognized, although
Congress did not. But the Republicans in Congress were
resolved that the votes should not be counted, and they de-
termined that if they could not exclude Louisiana and Ten-
nessee by law, they would do so by joint action of the two
Houses in counting the vote. Owing to a fear that the Presi-
dent would not sign the joint resolution, the " twenty-second
joint rule," which played an important part during the six-
teen years it was in force, was nastily drawn and as hastily
adopted by both branches. At the same time great pressure

310 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

was brought to bear upon the President to approve the joint
resolution. He finally yielded on the day the count was to take
place, February 8, but not in time formally to notify Congress
that he had done so. The joint rule, which would have been
unnecessary if he had signed the resolution promptly, and
which was to make much mischief in after years, served the
same purpose. It was as follows : —

The two Houses shall assemble in the hall of the House of
Representatives at the hour of one o'clock p. m., on the second
Wednesday in February next succeeding the meeting of the electors
of President and Vice-President of the United States, and the
President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer. One teller
shall be appointed on the part of the Senate, and two on the part
of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they
are opened by the President of the Senate, the certificates of the
electoral votes ; and said tellers, having read the same in the pre-
sence and hearing of the two Houses then assembled, shall make
a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates ;
and the votes having been counted, the result of the same shall be
delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon an-
nounce the state of the vote and the names of the persons, if any,
elected ; which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declara-
tion of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the
United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on
the journals of the two Houses.

If, upon the reading of any such certificate by the tellers, any
question shall arise in regard to counting the votes therein certi-
fied, the same having been stated by the presiding officer, the Sen-
ate shall thereupon withdraw, and said question shall be submitted
to that body for its decision ; and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives shall, in like manner, submit said question to the
House of Representatives for its decision; and no question shall be
decided affirmatively, and no vote objected to shall be counted, ex-
cept by the concurrent votes of the two Houses, which being
obtained, the two Houses shall immediately reassemble, and the
presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question
submitted, and upon any such question there shall be no debate in
either House ; and any other question pertinent to the object for
which the two houses are assembled may be submitted and deter-
mined in like manner.

At such joint meeting of the two Houses, seats shall be provided
as follows : for the President of the Senate, the Speaker's chair ; for
the Speaker, a chair immediately upon his left; for the senators, in
the body of the hall, upon the right of the presiding officer ; for the

LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 311

representatives, In the body of the hall not occupied by the sena-
tors ; for the tellers, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House
A Representatives, at the Clerk's desk ; for the other officers of the
two Houses, in front of the Clerk's desk, and upon either side of
the Speaker's platform.

Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the electoral
votes are all counted and the result declared ; and no recess shall
be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting
any of such votes, in which case it shall be competent for either
House, acting separately, in the manner hereinbefore provided,
to direct a recess, not beyond the next day at the hour of one
o'clock p. M.

The power assumed by Congress in the adoption of this
joint resolution has frequently been assailed as an invention
of the Republican party, and as a power never before asserted.
But by reference to the proceedings in Congress in the year
1800 (p. 64 et seq.), it will be seen that a bill making per-
manent provision for counting the electoral vote failed only
because the Senate then insisted that either branch of Congress
might reject a vote, while the House of Representatives main-
tained that it should be rejected only by a concurrent vote.
The act of 1887, which is now in force, permits the rejection
of the vote of a State by concurrent action of both branches.

On the 8th of February the joint meeting was held. The
Vice-President, Mr. Hamlin, presided. The votes were opened
by him and read by the tellers. When all the returns had
been read, and the result was about to be declared, Senator
Cowan of Pennsylvania inquired if there were any more re-
turns to be counted, and if so, " why they are not submitted
to this body in joint convention, which alone is capable of
determining whether they should be counted or not." The
Vice-President replied : —

The chair has in his possession returns from the States of Louis-
iana and Tennessee, but, in obedience to the law of the land, the
chair holds it to be his duty not to present them to the conven-
tion.

Senator Cowan thereupon asked if the joint resolution had
become a law by the signature of the President, to which the
Vice-President responded that it had been signed, but there
had been no official notification of the act. A debate ensued
upon the question whether the proceedings should have been
had under the joint resolution or under the joint rule. The

312 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Vice-President ultimately acted under the resolution, and did
not present the doubtful votes. The election of Abraham
Lincoln, of Illinois, as President, and of Andrew Johnson, of
Tennessee, as Vice-President, for the term commencing March
4, 1865, was then proclaimed, and the joint convention was
dissolved.

XXIII

GENERAL GRANT

Events moved rapidly between the time of Mr. Lincoln's
election and that of his entering upon his second term. The
South was exhausted by the struggle, and its army was hemmed
in on all sides. Although, in his second inaugural address, " no
prediction is ventured " as to the issue of the war, it was be-
lieved that the civil war was virtually at an end, and already
plans of u reconstruction " were much discussed. No one was
in favor of restoring to power, or of leaving in power, those
who had governed the States while they were in insurrection.
Nevertheless there was room for a wide diversity of opinion
as to the extent to which the disfranchisement of the former
voters in those States should be carried. Mr. Lincoln's own
views were much more liberal than those of most of the
Northern statesmen. There was even some apprehension of
a political conflict between him and Congress. Six weeks
after the inauguration the President was assassinated, and
Andrew Johnson became President. A man could not have
been found less fitted than he to enter into the plans of those
who, having determined the policy of the country during the
war, were resolved that the fruits of the war should be se-
cured. Compliance was not in his nature. He lacked that
characteristic of greatness which enables strong popular leaders
to persuade their followers to support measures which their
judgment does not approve. Jackson dragged his party after
him in his attack on the Bank, and ultimately inspired them
with such zeal for the war that his conduct in that affair has
been held up for popular applause for more than half a cen-
tury after the conflict ended. Yet it was not praiseworthy
in its motive, in its conduct, or in its results. Lincoln would
probably have carried his liberal policy, in spite of Thaddeus
Stevens, Senator Ben Wade, and all the radicals, because the
people believed in Lincoln, in his motives, and in his wis-
dom. They saw, and history sees, in President Johnson much

314 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

obstinacy, little wisdom, and no tact. But a combination of
circumstances alienated him, almost at the beginning of his
administration, from those to whom he owed his election, and
made him a more strenuous opponent of the conditions de-
vised by their leaders for the readmission of the southern
States than Mr. Lincoln could ever have been.

The four years of Mr. Johnson's administration were a
peiiod scarcely less agitated than the four years which pre-
ceded secession. Civil war between the two sections, North
and South, was succeeded by war, bloodless but severe, be-
tween the executive and legislative departments of the govern-
ment. Mr. Johnson's training had been that of a southern
state-rights Democrat ; and although his patriotism was strong
enough to keep him loyal when Tennessee voted herself out of
the Union, no sooner was the military conquest of the Southern
Confederacy accomplished than his former principles reasserted
themselves. The more radical Republicans of the North,
remembering the experience of the Whigs with Mr. Tyler,
were only too ready to see evidence that he was to betray the
party in all that Mr. Johnson did. They began to suspect
him and to criticise him unpleasantly upon the appearance of
his first proclamations. They feared the worst when he made
known his selection of provisional governors of the seceded
States. Little by little his adherence to his lifelong political
principles, and the unnecessarily persistent and violent oppo-
sition of the radical Republicans, widened the breach ; and at
last he found himself in full sympathy with the Democratic
party.

The chief cause of the difference between President and
Congress was the extra-constitutional position in which the
seceded States were left when armed hostility to the Union
was extinguished. War had been waged against them, or
rather against their inhabitants, upon the theory that a State
had no right to secede. The logical sequence of this proposi-
tion was that, since no State had seceded, the " States lately
in rebellion," as the phrase ran, were still members of the
Union ; and that their laws and acts, so far as they were not
contrary to the Constitution of the United States, were in full
force. Under this view of the case the white men of the
South, and they alone, would be entitled to reestablish rela-
tions with the other States, to send senators and members to
Congress, and, in short, to resume the position which they had

GENERAL GRANT 315

abandoned in 1861, suffering no political penalty whatever for
their attempt to dissolve the Union.

It need not be said that not even the most moderate Repub-
licans allowed the theory of the indissoluble nature of the
Union to overcome the practical necessity of imposing condi-
tions to the reinstatement of the South in that Union. The
President's views, to which he referred as " my policy/' were
that the States were already restored to their old position
when they chose to exercise their right by the election of
senators and members. Congress rejected this policy abso-
lutely, and, by a series of measures known as the reconstruc-
tion acts, required the southern States to abjure all the princi-
ples for which they had contended on the field of battle. The
States were placed under military governors until they should
have complied with the conditions of readmission. Thorough
revision of the state constitutions was required ; the assent of
the States to the amendments to the Constitution of the United
States was also a necessary preliminary to restoration. The
enfranchisement of the negroes, and the disfranchisement of
those who had been in arms against the Union, deprived the
former ruling class of its privileges. These measures and
others, some of which were subsequently declared unconstitu-
tional by the Supreme Court, made almost every southern
State Republican by the simple expedient of excluding the
Democrats who had participated in the war against the Union
from the exercise of the elective franchise.

Congress carried through its measures of reconstruction only
by overcoming a succession of vetoes. The President expressed
his constitutional views, which were shared by no Republicans,
in returning the bills : " to provide for the more efficient govern-
ment of the rebel States," to establish the Freedmen's Bureau,
to secure civil rights, to admit Colorado and Nebraska to the
Union, and many others. He tried to remove Republicans
from office, and to fill their places with Democrats ; and Con-
gress retorted upon him with the tenure-of -office bill, which
Mr. Johnson returned without his signature, and which Con-
gress promptly passed over the veto. By this act the power
of removal, always previously conceded to the President, was
denied, and the consent of the Senate to the removal was
required. The savage contest with Secretary Stanton, whom
the President was resolved to remove from the war office and
from the cabinet, his correspondence with General Grant, the

316 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

disrespectful manner in which he spoke of Congress in
" swinging round the circle," — all these events aggravated a
contest which culminated in the impeachment of the President
by the House of Representatives and his trial by the Senate.
During all this time the Republicans in Congress were strongly
supported in the North, which then, constitutionally or not,
governed the country without assistance from the South. The
resolution that the long struggle againstrrebellion should not be
fruitless was firm and unchangeable, and the Republicans -had
the satisfaction of seeing all their measures adopted, ineffectual
as some of them have since proved to be.

During this period another set of questions began to be dis-
cussed, and some of them were to be the basis of a new party
and of a new school of politicians, and to form the issue on
which future elections were to be decided. In the prosecution
of the war a great debt had been created, and a part of this
debt consisted of treasury notes, made a legal tender for all
public and private debts, except duties on imports and the
interest of the public debt. An attempt in the early part of.
Mr. Johnson's term to reduce the amount of legal-tender notes,
or greenbacks, outstanding, had resulted in a temporary strin-
gency in the money market, and had led to action by Congress
which forbade a further reduction of the volume of the cur-
rency. The heavy taxation caused by the war, the high pre-
mium on gold, and the rapidly increasing value of government
bonds which were drawing gold interest, induced some politicians
to propose a variety of schemes which would lighten the burden
of the taxpayer at the cost of a virtual breach of faith on the
part of the government. One of the propositions was the taxa-
tion of bonds, which were by their terms expressly exempted
from state and municipal taxation. Taxation of them by
national authority would have been the same thing as reducing
the rate of interest which had been promised upon them. The
most popular form of attack upon the bondholders was a
proposition to pay the principal of the bonds in greenbacks.
The letter of the law did not forbid this, but the Republicans
maintained that the spirit of the law was against it, and that
it would be virtual repudiation. A large number of Demo-
crats, particularly in the West, took up this proposition with
great enthusiasm. One of the most prominent among them
was Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, who had been General McClel-
lan's associate on the national ticket in 1864, and was- now

GENERAL GRANT 317

regarded as the leading candidate for the first place in 1868.
While this view of public policy was most prevalent among
Democrats, there were many Republicans also, who shared
it. Thaddeus Stevens was the most conspicuous example of
dissent from the general opinion of the party, yet even he
finally voted in favor of a bill to strengthen the public credit,
which President Johnson defeated by a " pocket veto." If
was in the canvass preliminary to the election of 1868 that
the Democrats first manifested that preference for the green-
back currency which continued to be a principle of the con-
trolling wing of the party until it transferred its affections to_
silver.

A great many circumstances united to make General Ulysses
S. Grant the natural and inevitable choice of the Republicans
for a candidate for President. The chief of these reasons were
his military success, and the conspicuous position into which he
was thrust by the controversy with Mr. Johnson. But added
to these recommendations was the confidence reposed in his
judgment in the choice of men ; and the fact that he was no
politician increased not a little his popularity with the people,
who were tired of the wrangles of the past few years. Gen-
eral Grant, it was well known, had never voted for Republi-
can candidates in his life. There were many persons who
feared that the risk was too great in taking for the leader of
the party, at such a time, a man whose political principles were
thought not to be well defined, and that the Republicans might
be about to repeat their own mistake of 1864. But nothing
could stay the tide of public sentiment in General Grant's
favor, and the warnings of the dissentients were drowned
in the nearly universal demand that he should be selected.
The wisest and most cautious men of the party convinced
themselves by General Grant's letters and»private conversation
that he was fully to be trusted, and their confidence was not
misplaced.

The question of the candidacy for the first place being fully
decided by the action of the state and district conventions, as
well as by popular sentiment, all the interest in the Republi-
can convention was concentrated upon the vice-presidency and
the platform. The vote of the Senate upon the impeachment
of the President had been taken the week before the conven-
tion met. Inasmuch as several Republican senators had voted
for acquittal on the eleventh article, which had been taken for

318 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

a test, some of the more radical and impulsive delegates were
in favor of expressing decided condemnation of the act which
had rendered the removal of the President impossible. In
spite of the vehemence of the more hot-headed members of
the party, the proposed action was defeated, and the conven-
tion contented itself with expressing the opinion that those
who voted for conviction were in the right.

There was a long list of candidates for the nomination for
Vice-President, including Mr. Hamlin, who had been left off
the ticket four years before in order to give a representation to
the loyalty of the South ; Mr. Benjamin F. Wade, senator
from Ohio, who was President of the Senate during a part of
the time that the war between the President and Congress was
waging ; Mr. Colfax, the Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives ; Senators Fenton, of New York, and Wilson, of Massa-
chusetts, Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, and other candi-
dates of less prominence.

Prior to the meeting of the national convention of the
Republicans, a convention of soldiers and sailors was held at
Chicago. It was presided over by General John A. Logan, and
was full of enthusiasm for General Grant. The Republican
convention met on May 20 at Chicago, and completed its work
in two days. General Carl Schurz was the temporary pre-
siding officer, and General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut,
was made permanent president. The first day was occupied
with preliminaries. On the morning of the second day the
committee on resolutions reported a platform, which was
adopted. Two additional resolutions were afterwards appended
to the platform, having been moved from the floor by Mr.
Schurz, and unanimously approved. The platform in full was
as follows : —

The National Republican party of the United States, assembled
in national convention in the city of Chicago, on the twenty-first
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,

GENERAL GRANT 319

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 indebt-
edness 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 preserva-
tion 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 threat-
ened 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 ex-
ecutive 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 unconstitu-
tional ; 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 pro-
nounced 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

320 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

to protection in all their rights of citizenship, as though they were
native born ; and no citizen of the United States, native or natural-
ized, 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 inter-
fere 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 boun-
ties 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 forbear-
ance with which men who have served in the rebellion, but who
now frankly and honestly cooperate 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 mak-
ing these principles a living reality on every inch of American
soil.

When the convention was ready to proceed with its nomina-
tions, General Logan presented the name of General Grant in
a brief but stirring speech, and, the roll of the States being
called, every vote — 650 in all — was given to him. While
the enthusiasm of the convention was at its height, a large
portrait of General Grant was uncovered behind the president's
fhair, and the delegates again went wild with cheering. Five
votes were necessary to effect a nomination for the second place
on the ticket. The result of the several votes is shown in the
following table : —

GENERAL GRANT

321

1st.

2d.

3d.

4th.

5th.

Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio

Reuben E. Fenton, New York ....

Henry Wilson, Massachusetts

Schuyler Colfax, Indiana

Andrew G. Curtin, Pennsylvania ....

Hannibal Hamlin, Maine

James Speed, Kentucky

James Harlan, Iowa

John A. J. Creswell, Maryland ....

Samuel C. Pomeroy, Kansas

William D. Kelley, Pennsylvania . . .

147

126

119

115

170
144
114
145
45
30

178
139
101
165
40
25

206
144
87
186

38
69

541

The nomination of Mr. Colfax, the youngest candidate of
all, was made unanimous, and the convention adjourned.

The Democratic convention was called to meet at Tammany
Hall, New York, on the fourth of July. Democratic soldiers
and sailors were invited to meet on the same day, also in New
York. The interest centred wholly in the nomination of a can-
didate for the presidency, and it was from the first a contest of
" the field " against Mr. Pendleton. Other candidates had strong
supporters. The sentiment in the soldiers* convention was
all in favor of General Winfield S. Hancock, who commended
himself to those who had favored the war by his own gallant
services, and to Democrats by his action as military commander
at New Orleans during Mr. Johnson's administration. The
Southern delegations were at least outwardly for Mr. Johnson
himself. There was an undercurrent in favor of Chief Justice
Chase. Most of the delegates from the Eastern States were
not bound by instructions, and were prepared to support any
candidate — except perhaps Mr. Pendleton — who seemed to
have a chance of success.

Meantime, the Northwest was strong for Mr. Pendleton,
though, as the event proved, the feeling was not deep. A
day or two before the convention a body of three hundred
men — the " Pendleton Escort " — arrived from Ohio, and
marched through New York, each man wearing, pinned to
his breast, a flag on which was a representation of a five-dollar
greenback, and an inscription demanding the payment of the
five-twenty bonds in that currency.

The fourth of July fell on Saturday. The convention
organized by the choice of Henry S. Palmer, of Wisconsin, as
temporary chairman. Governor Horatio Seymour, of New
York, was permanent president. The convention was from the

322 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

first extremely suspicious of the Pendleton men. A motion
that the rules of the national House of Representatives be the
rules of the convention was offered, and voted down because
it was proposed by an Ohio man, and because of a fear that it
might mean an abrogation of the two-thirds rule. The two-
thirds rule was adopted without opposition. On the first day
the supporters of Mr. Pendleton were in favor of prompt work,
that a ballot might be taken before their opponents could
have an opportunity to concentrate ; but they were defeated,
and the convention adjourned until Monday. Afterward the
Pendleton men were in favor of all possible delay, and on
Monday they " filibustered " to retard the progress of business.
It was not until Tuesday that the committee on resolutions
was ready to report. The platform was unanimously reported
and unanimously adopted, as follows : —

The Democratic party, in national convention assembled, repos-
ing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating jus-
tice 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 sla-
very and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by
the war, or the voluntary action of the Southern States in consti-
tutional conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or re-
agitated, 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 govern-
ment, 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 injustice, 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 office-holder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and
the bondholder.

6. Economy in the administration of the government; the re«

GENERAL GRANT 323

auction of the standing army and navy ; the abolition of the freed-
men'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 cor-
rupt men from office, the abrogation of useless offices, the resto-
ration of rightful authority to, and the independence of, the execu-
tive 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 national-
ity which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and fur-
nish 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 be-
yond 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 Con-
stitution, 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 free-
dom of speech and the press ; it has substituted arbitrary seizure?
and arrests, and military trials and secret star-chamber inquisi-
tions, for the constitutional tribunals ; it has disregarded, in time
of peace, the right of the people to be free from searches and seiz-

824 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

tires ; 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
bastille ; 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 consti-
tutional questions, to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threat-
ened to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irre-
vocably 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 corrup-
tion 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 rock-
ing on their base, and should it succeed in November next, and
inaugurate its President, we will meet, as a subjected and con-
quered people, amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered frag-
ments 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 sanc-
tioned 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 laws, or sold in reasonable quantities, and
to none but actual occupants, at the minimum price established by

GENERAL GRANT

325

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 sup-
port the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past dif-
ferences 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 cooperating with us as
friends and brethren.

To this platform two additional resolutions were subsequently
appended, on motion, as follows : —

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 im-
partiality with which he presided over the court of impeachment
on the trial of President Andrew Johnson.

Voting for a candidate then began, and continued until
Thursday. The whole number of votes — each delegate hav-
ing one half a vote — was 317 ; and 212, two thirds of the
whole, were necessary for a choice. A few only of the twenty-
two separate trials are necessary to show the increase and de-
crease of strength of the respective candidates : —

1st.

8th.

16th.

18th.

19th.

21st.

George H. Pendleton, Ohio

Andrew Johnson, Tennessee

Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania . . .

Sanford E. Church, New York

Asa Packer, Pennsylvania

Joel Parker, New Jersey

James E. English, Connecticut ....

James R. Doolittle, Wisconsin

Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana ....

Salmon P. Chase, Ohio

.Ill others

105
65
331
33
26
13
16
13
2i

1561
6

6
12
75

1071
113£

70£

56J
10
1441

12
87

1351

6
12

1071

5
1351

132

326 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Great excitement had prevailed during the voting. On
several occasions, delegates from States which had instructed
their members to vote "as a unit," insisted upon their right
to a record of their individual votes, but it was uniformly de-
cided that the delegations as a whole were empowered to decide
how the votes should be cast, and that only one spokesman from
a State could be heard. There was much intriguing during
the three days of voting. The New York and Pennsylvania
delegations, with a combined vote of 59, assisted by the dele-
gations from other Eastern States, prevented a nomination
more than once by abandoning candidates, whose strength was
increasing, when they were becoming too dangerous. On the
twenty-first vote the contest was apparently narrowed down to
Hancock and Hendricks, neither of whom was acceptable to
New York. At this point a sensation was created. When
the votes of a few States had been recorded at the twenty-
second trial, some votes were given to Horatio Seymour, the
president of the convention. Mr. Seymour promptly refused
to be a candidate, but there was a hurried consultation, and
the vote was persisted in. More votes were given to Seymour,
and a "stampede" began. Mr. Seymour withdrew from the
chair, and the changes of votes went on, amid the greatest
excitement and enthusiasm, until he was made the nominee of
the convention by 317 votes, — a full convention. It was
asserted then, as it has been on every other occasion of a nomi-
nation suddenly made after a long contest, from that of Mr.
Polk in 1844 to that of General Garfield in 1880, that the
whole affair was carefully planned and rehearsed beforehand.
In some cases the assertion was true. But if it was so in
1868, and not a line of evidence was ever adduced to prove it,
a few persons only could have been in the secret, and the en-
thusiasm of the delegates was genuine and sincere. Indeed,
the convention had selected one of the strongest men in the
party.

General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, was nominated
unanimously for Vice-President at the first trial. Mr. Blair
had just brought himself into prominence by a violent, not to
say a revolutionary letter, addressed to Colonel J. O. Brodhead,
dated a few days before the convention met. The nomination
seemed to be, and probably was, a result of that letter.

The canvass was shorter than usual, and, although one-sided,
was decidedly interesting. The fame of General Grant, and

GENERAL GRANT 327

the high regard in which he was held, did not allow the result
to be doubtful ; but there were already some noteworthy de-
fections from the Republican party at the North on account
of the radical character of its Southern legislation ; and a
new element of discord in politics appeared in the shape of
the movement, already mentioned, to pay the five-twenty bonds
in greenbacks. It was never seriously believed that Governor
Seymour was in favor of that measure, yet he " stood upon
the platform," and declared, in accepting the nomination, that
the resolutions " are in accord with my views." The Repub-
licans made much of the virtual repudiation which such a
financial policy as the resolutions demanded would effect, and,
while they lost some votes of a certain class, they gained many
others which were better worth having, even if they did not
count any more. Toward the end of the canvass there was a
strong movement by business men to defeat the Democrats,
which contributed not a little to the overwhelming success of
General Grant.

The South was secure for the Republicans. Reconstruc-
tion with negro suffrage, protected by the general government,
and with extensive disfranchisement of those who had joined
in the rebellion, made the triumph of the Republican electoral
ticket a certainty. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Louis-
iana only, of all the Southern States, gave Governor Seymour
a majority ; but some of the States were not, under the act of
Congress, entitled to representation in Congress, and conse-
quently not to electoral votes. The votes of thirty-three
States were counted ; that of Georgia was treated as the vote
of Missouri had been in 1820. Nebraska having been ad-
mitted to the Union, — the proclamation declaring its admission
was dated March 1, 1867, — the number of States became
thirty-seven. All the Southern States, except Virginia, Mis-
sissippi, and Texas, had been readmitted to representation in
Congress, and to the right to choose electors. The position of
Georgia was in doubt. In the reorganization of South Caro-
lina the practice of a choice of electors by the legislature was
abandoned ; but Florida adopted the discarded system, and
accordingly there was not as yet complete uniformity. The
electoral and popular votes of the States, including Georgia,
were as follows : —

328

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Populab Von*.

Electoral Vote.

States.

co"§

•r

o
H

Alabama

76,366
22,152
54,592
50,641
7,623

57,134

250,293

176,552

120,399

31,049

39,566

33,263

70,426

30,438

136,477

128,550

43,542

85,671

9,729

6,480

38,191

80,121

419,883
96,226

280,128
10,961

342,280
12,993
62,301
56,757

44,167

29,025

108,857

72,086
19,078
54,078
47,600
10,980

102,822

199,143

166,980

74,040

14,019

115,889

80,225

42,396

62,357

59,408

97,069

28,072

59,788

5,439

5,218

31,224

83,001

429,883

84,090

238,700

11,125

313,382

6,548

45,237

26,311

12,045

20,306
84,710

8
5
5
6

16
13

8
3

8
4

11
3
3
5

9
21

26
4
6

California

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida* .........

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan .

Minnesota

Mississippi t .

Missouri

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

7
33

North Carolina

Ohio

Oregon . .

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas t

Virginia t

Total

3,012,833

2,703,249

214

Electors appointed by the legislature.

t No vote in the State.

GENERAL GRANT 329

There were many charges of gross fraud in the election.
Aside from the irregularities alleged in the Southern States,
the most famous case was that of New York. At the time
the election took place, the " Tweed Ring " was in full power ;
and some telegrams which the Republicans regarded as highly
suspicious passed between members of the Democratic State
Central Committee and certain prominent politicians. It will
be observed that the vote as canvassed gave a majority of ex-
actly ten thousand to Mr. Seymour. This result, it was be-
lieved by many persons, was brought about intentionally, with
a view to saving certain large wagers upon the Democratic
majority in New York.

Reference has already been made to the fact that some of
the southern States were, while others according to the legis-
lation of Congress were not, entitled to vote for electors of
President and Vice-President. Congress had passed a joint
resolution declaring that no State of those lately in rebel-
lion should be entitled to electoral votes unless, at the time
prescribed for the election, such State had adopted a constitu-
tion since the 4th of March, 1867, under which a state govern-
ment had been organized ; unless the election was held under
the authority of that government ; and unless the State had
become entitled to representation in Congress under the recon-
struction laws. President Johnson vetoed the resolution on
July 20, 1868. Both Houses of Congress passed it over his
veto, the Senate by 45 to 8, and the House of Representatives
by 134 to 36, and it was proclaimed a law. Under the resolu-
tion, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were excluded absolutely
from the election. All the other seceded States, except
Georgia, had been admitted to representation in Congress and
were entitled to vote for President. The question whether or
not Georgia had complied with the terms of the act authoriz-
ing a representation of that State in Congress was in dispute.
Accordingly, on the 6th of February, 1869, two days before the
count of electoral votes was to take place, Mr. Edmunds, of
Vermont, introduced in the Senate a concurrent resolution,
which does not require the approval of the President, in the
following terms : —

Whereas, The question whether the State of Georgia has become
and is entitled to representation in the two Houses of Congress is
now pending and undetermined ; and whereas by the joint resolu-
tion of Congress, passed July 20, 1868, entitled " resolution exclud-

330 A HISTORY OP THE PRESIDENCY

ing from the electoral college votes of States lately in rebellion
which shall not have been reorganized," it was provided that no
electoral votes from any of the States lately in rebellion should
be received or counted for President or Vice-President of the
United States until, among other things, such State should have
become entitled, to representation in Congress pursuant to acts of
Congress in that behalf ; therefore

Resolved, That, on the assembling of the two Houses on the
second Wednesday of February, 1869, for the counting of the
electoral votes for President and Vice-President, as provided by
law and the joint rules, if the counting or omitting to count the
electoral votes, if any, which may be presented as of the State of
Georgia, shall not essentially change the result, in that case they
shall be reported by the President of the Senate in the following
manner : Were the votes presented as of the State of Georgia to

be counted, the result would be, for for President of the

United States votes ; if not counted, for for President of

the United States votes ; but, in either case, is elected

President of the United States ; and in the same manner for Vice-
President.

Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, was the only senator who took
an active part in the debate against this resolution ; although
Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, expressed the opinion that it would
be best to count the vote of Georgia and say nothing about it,
and finally voted — alone among the Republicans — against
the resolution. It was passed by the House of Representa-
tives on the same day under a suspension of the rules. It is
worth noting that three of the candidates on presidential
tickets in 1884 — Messrs. Blaine, Logan, and Butler — voted
in the affirmative in the House on the passage of this resolu-
tion, while a fourth — Mr. Hendricks — voted against it in
the Senate.

The count of the electoral votes took place on the 10th of
February. It proceeded regularly until the votes of Louisiana
were presented, when a member from Tennessee objected to
them, under the twenty-second joint rule (see page 310), and
the two Houses separated to consider the matter. Although
no debate was in order, much time was consumed by the Sen-
ate in agreeing upon a form in which the decision of the ques-
tion should be put. In the end the Senate voted to admit
the votes by 51 to 7. The House promptly decided the ques-
tion the same way by 137 to 63. The count was then re-
sumed, and all the votes were opened and recorded, except

GENERAL GRANT 331

those of Georgia. On the presentation of the votes of that
State, General Butler, of Massachusetts, arose and objected
in writing to them on four distinct grounds : first, that the
votes were not given on the day fixed by law, — the electoral
college of Georgia had met on the 9th instead of the 2d of
December, 1868 ; secondly, because at the date of the election
Georgia had not been admitted to representation in Congress ;
thirdly, because Georgia had not complied with the reconstruc-
tion acts ; and, fourthly, because the election had not been
fair and free. The question arose at once whether the con-
current resolution of the Senate and House, directing how the
vote of Georgia should be treated, or the joint rule, was to
govern. The presiding officer, Senator Wade, of Ohio, was at
first inclined to hold the two Houses to the concurrent reso-
lution ; but, as the situation became complicated, he led the
Senate back to its chamber.

The House of Representatives quickly decided, without
debate, — 150 to 41, — that the vote of Georgia should not
be counted. In the Senate there was a long and somewhat
ungoverned discussion. Mr. Wade explained that the reason
why he had yielded his first position in the joint meeting was
that two of Mr. Butler's objections were not of the kind con-
templated by the concurrent resolution directing how the votes
of Georgia should be declared. Many propositions were made ;
and at last the Senate voted, by 28 votes against 25, " that,
under the special order of the two Houses respecting the elec-
toral vote from the State of Georgia, the objections made to
the counting of the vote of the electors for the State of Georgia
are not in order." The action of each House having been
communicated to the other, the Senate returned to the Repre-
sentatives' Hall. Then ensued one of the most remarkable
and disgraceful scenes ever enacted in Congress. Mr. Wade,
on taking the chair, remarked that the objections of the gentle-
man from Massachusetts had been overruled by the Senate,
and that the vote would be announced according to the terms
of the concurrent resolution. General Butler said that the
House had sustained the objections, and proposed to offer a
resolution, remarking, " I do not understand that we are to be
overruled by the Senate in that way." The President of the
Senate refused to entertain the resolution, and General Butler
appealed from the decision of the chair. The President
declined to entertain the appeal. A scene of indescribable
disorder and confusion followed, several members speaking at

332 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

once, Mr. Butler distinguishing himself by the violence of his
language, and, as General Garfield said in the debate which
followed the joint meeting, by " a manner and bearing of un-
paralleled insolence." Some of his remarks were omitted in the
revised version, which appears in the " Congressional Globe ; "
but they were referred to in the debate just mentioned. His
last remark, as revised, is thus reported : —

Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts : I move that this convention now
be dissolved, and that the Senate have leave to retire. [Continued
cries of " Order ! " " Order ! "] And on that motion I demand a
vote. [Cries of " Order ! " " Order ! " from various parts of the
hall.] We certainly have the right to clear the hall of interlopers.

The presiding officer, not noticing these interruptions, pro-
ceeded to sum up the result, as directed by the concurrent
resolution, and declared Grant and Colfax elected. The
Senate then retired.

As soon as the House was by itself, Mr. Butler rose to a
question of privilege, and offered a resolution that " the House
protest that the counting of the vote of Georgia by the order
of the Vice-President pro tempore was a gross act of oppression
and an invasion of the rights and privileges of the House."
Upon this resolution a long and most acrimonious debate took
place, which lasted three days. It contributed little or nothing
to the settlement of the constitutional questions that have
arisen in regard to the count of votes. The position of affairs
was quite novel, and the gentlemen who took part in the
debate seemed, without exception, to give hasty impressions
rather than the result of careful study. The only point which
was made clear was that the Constitution and the action of
Congress left room for a variety of views, and that no member
need be at a loss for precedents to sustain his own opinion.
General Butler changed his resolution several times before a
vote was taken. In one of its forms it proposed to abrogate
the twrenty-second joint rule, — a proposition which was re-
ceived with derision by many Republican members, who
declared that it was not possible for one House to rescind a
joint rule. Nevertheless, eight years later the Senate rescinded
the same rule, and refused to be bound by it, although the
House was then in favor of acting under it. General Butler's
resolution, greatly toned down, and providing for the reference
of the subject to a select committee, was at last brought to a
vote, on a motion to lay it on the table, which was carried by
130 to 55, and the matter was dropped.

XXIV

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN

The reconstruction of the southern States had been sub-
stantially completed before the term of General Grant as Pre-
sident began. It remained for three States only to comply
with the conditions already established. This they did soon
afterward, and the legislation of the Forty-first Congress was
accomplished, with every State in the Union fully represented.
But the Southern question was not yet settled. The constitu-
tions of the re-admitted States contained guaranties of the
right of the people to vote without distinction on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude ; but, in effect,
both the political and social rights of the colored people were
much restricted. A state of terrorism existed in some parts of
the South, where a secret organization known as the Ku-Klux-
Klan committed outrages upon the colored people, intended to
intimidate them and to prevent them from voting. To defeat
the schemes of those who endeavored by lawless acts to render
the legislation of Congress nugatory, the act for the enforce-
ment of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, com-
monly known as the Ku-Klux Act, was passed. This measure,
although it seemed necessary at the time, gave the Democrats
an opportunity, which they were not slow to improve, to sneer
at the inefficiency of a party which, with unlimited power,
had not been able in five years since the war closed to finish
its work with the South. Military force was constantly neces-
sary to uphold the southern state governments, and the internal
condition of some districts was sadly disturbed.
. Beside the Southern question, there were others which now
began to assume political importance. The first act signed by
President Grant pledged the faith of the government to the
payment of the interest-bearing bonds of the United States in
coin, and to an early resumption of specie payments. For the
time being, the opposition confined their attacks upon the finan-
cial system to the national banks. The annexation of Santo

334 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Domingo to the United States was a favorite scheme with the
President, and he did all that was in his power, both publicly
and privately, to accomplish it. In the course of his negotia-
tions to that end, and by other measures, he alienated the
support of Mr. Sumner and of Horace Greeley, whose standing
as Republicans and as public men was almost unique, and
whose adhesion to the opposition in the ensuing canvass was
deemed at the time to be most disastrous to the Republicans.

There was another issue, which had its origin at this time,
which has since played an important part in congressional and
presidential elections. The principle tersely expressed by Mr.
Marcy to justify the wholesale removals from office practised
by General Jackson, that " to the victors belong the spoils of
the enemy," had been adopted by every Democratic and oppo-
sition administration which followed that of Jackson. On the
accession of Mr. Lincoln, the Democratic officers were driven
out and Republicans took their places, in every department of
the government, from the foreign minister to the country post-
master. Mr. Johnson had been restrained from substituting
Democrats for them all by the tenure-of-office act. General
Grant found few Democrats to expel from public positions ; but
an evil which had grown up with that of a partisan civil
service now took on alarming proportions. Certain gentle-
men, usually one for each State, became practically recognized
as dispensers of patronage within those States, and, by the
exercise of the power which the virtual right to dismiss and
appoint to office gave them, made themselves " bosses " and
dictators of Republican politics in their respective States.
The heads of the custom-houses, the post-offices, and other
government offices were in many cases the servants of these
bosses, and were forced to work in the interest of the personal
fortunes of their protectors, and to employ the subordinates
under them to promote the same object, — all under the pen-
alty of removal. Manipulation of the offices for private pur-
poses developed a demand for a reform of the civil service, and
emphasized the objections of many who had been sturdy Re-
publicans to the administration of General Grant.

The supporters of the administration were, however, neither
few nor inactive. In addition to those who cordially approved
the public acts of Grant, there were many others who were
not prepared to abandon it on account of its mistakes. They
set down some of the President's errors to his inexperience in

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 335

civil life ; and while other errors could not be so explained,
the Republicans generally held that for certain tasks which
they thought remained to be done before the South could be
safely left to itself General Grant was the best executive the
country could have. While, therefore, the elements existed
for an unusually powerful opposition to the Eepublican party,
the leaders of that party had no doubt of their ability to carry
the election of 1872.

The beginning of a united opposition was made in Missouri
in 1870, when a part of the Republicans united with the
Democrats in a " liberal " movement, and carried the state
election. It was further developed the next year. Meetings
were held in St. Louis and Cincinnati in the spring, in which
opposition to the reelection of General Grant was freely ex-
pressed ; for even then it was assumed that he would expect
to be nominated for reelection. About the same time Mr.
Vallandigham, of Ohio, who had been identified with the most
extreme form of Democratic opposition to the war for the
Union, and had been equally radical in his condemnation of
Republican reconstruction and treatment of the South, pre-
sented and supported in a local caucus in Ohio a series of re-
solutions looking to a union of all elements of opposition on
the basis of a full acceptance of the results of the war, the
legislation already enacted, and the three amendments made to
the Constitution. Finally, at a mass meeting of Liberal
Republicans of Missouri, held at Jefferson City in January,
1872, in which nearly all the counties of the State were repre-
sented, it was voted to call a national convention of Liberal
Republicans, to be held at Cincinnati on the 1st of May.

The first conventions for making nominations for the pre-
sidency were held at Columbus, Ohio, in February. The
Labor Reformers met on the 21st of that month, with repre-
sentatives present from seventeen States. The party had its
origin in Massachusetts, where a trade union of shoemakers,
who took the name of Knights of St. Crispin, formed the
nucleus of a Labor Reform party. The reference in the sixth
resolution of the platform which follows, indicates this origin.
A Massachusetts manufacturer who had trouble with his
" Crispin " hands brought a car-load of Chinese from Califor-
nia to operate his machinery. Mr. E. M. Chamberlin, of
Massachusetts, who was the permanent president of the con-
vention, had been the candidate of the party for governor.

336 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The convention was in session two days, and adopted the fol-
lowing platform : —

We hold that all political power is inherent in the people, and
free government is founded on their authority and established for
their benefit ; that all citizens are equal in political rights, entitled
to the largest religious and political liberty compatible with the
good order of society, as also to the use and enjoyment of the fruits
of their labor and talents ; and no man or set of men is entitled to
exclusive separable endowments and privileges, or immunities from
the government, but in consideration of public services ; and any
laws destructive of these fundamental principles are without moral
binding force, and should be repealed. And believing that all the
evils resulting from unjust legislation now affecting the industrial
classes can be removed by the adoption of the principles contained
in the following declaration, therefore,

Resolved, That it is the duty of the government to establish a just
standard of distribution of capital and labor by providing a purely
national circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of
the nation, issued directly to the people without the intervention
of any system of banking corporations; which money shall be
legal tender in the payment of all debts, public and private, and
interchangeable at the option of the holder for government bonds
bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 per cent., subject to
future legislation by Congress.

2. That the national debt should be paid in good faith, accord-
ing to the original contract, at the earliest option of the govern-
ment, without mortgaging the property of the people or the future
earnings of labor, to enrich a few capitalists at home and abroad.

3. That justice demands that the burdens of government should
be so adjusted as to bear equally on all classes, and that the exemp-
tion from taxation of government bonds bearing extortionate rates
of interest is a violation of all just principles of revenue laws.

4. That the public lands of the United States belong to the
people, and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to cor-
porations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of
the people, and should be granted to landless settlers only, in
amounts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres of land.

5. That Congress should modify the tariff so as to admit free
such articles of common use as we can neither produce nor grow,
and lay duties for revenue mainly upon articles of luxury and upon
such articles of manufacture as will, we having the raw materials
in abundance, assist in further developing the resources of the
country.

6. That the presence in our country of Chinese laborers, im-
ported by capitalists in large numbers for servile use, is an evil,

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 337

entailing want and its attendant train of misery and crime on all
classes of the American people, and should be prohibited by legis-
lation.

7. That we ask for the enactment of a law by which all mechan-
ics and day-laborers employed by or on behalf of the government,
whether directly or indirectly, through persons, firms, or corpora-
tions, contracting with the State, -shall conform to the reduced
standard of eight hours a day, recently adopted by Congress for
national employees, and also for an amendment to the acts of
incorporation for cities and towns, by which all laborers and
mechanics employed at their expense shall conform to the same
number of hours.

8. That the enlightened spirit of the age demands the abolition
of the system of contract labor in our prisons and other reforma-
tory institutions.

9. That the protection of life, liberty, and property are the three
cardinal principles of government, and the first two are more
sacred than the latter; therefore money needed for prosecuting
wars should, as it is required, be assessed and collected from the
wealth of the country, and not entailed as a burden upon poster-
ity.

10. That it is the duty of the government to exercise its power
over railroads and telegraph corporations, that they shall not in any
case be privileged to exact such rates of freight, transportation, or
charges, by whatever name, as may bear unduly or unequally upon
the producer or consumer.

11. That there should be such a reform in the civil service of the
national government as will remove it beyond all partisan influ-
ence, and place it in the charge and under the direction of intelli-
gent and competent business men.

12. That as both history and experience teach us that power
ever seeks to perpetuate itself by every and all means, and that its
prolonged possession in the hands of one person is always danger-
ous to the interests of a free people, and believing that the spirit
of our organic laws and the stability and safety of our free institu-
tions are best obeyed on the one hand, and secured on the other,
by a regular constitutional change in the chief of the country at
each election ; therefore, we are in favor of limiting the occupancy
of the presidential chair to one term.

13. That we are in favor of granting general amnesty and restor-
ing the Union at once on the basis of equality of rights and privi-
leges to all, the impartial administration of justice being the only
true bond of union to bind the States together and restore the
government of the people.

14. That we demand the subjection of the military to the civil

338

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

authorities, and the confinement of its operations to national pur-
poses alone.

15. That we deem it expedient for Congress to supervise the
patent laws, so as to give labor more fully the benefit of its own
ideas and inventions.

16. That fitness, and not political or personal considerations,
should be the only recommendation to public office, either appoint-
ive or elective, and any and all laws looking to the establishment
of this principle are heartily approved.

One informal and three formal ballots were required to effect
the nomination of a candidate for President. These several
votes were as follows : —

Informal.

1st.

2d.

3d.

John W. Geary, Pennsylvania . .
Horace H. Day, New York . .

David Davis, Illinois

Wendell Phillips, Massachusetts .
J. M. Palmer, Illinois ....
Joel Parker, New Jersey . . .
George W. Jnlian, Indiana . . .
B. Gratz Brown, Missouri . . .
Horace Greeley, New York . .

60
59
47
13

8
7
6

88
76

59
93
12

201

On the first vote for a candidate for Vice-President, E. M.
Chamberlin, of Massachusetts, had 72; Joel Parker, of New
Jersey, 70 ; Alanson M. West, of Mississippi, 18 ; Thomas
Ewing, of Ohio, 31 ; and W. G. Bryan, of Tennessee, 10. On
the second trial, Parker had 112, Chamberlin 57, and Ewing
22.

The candidates were men of eminent ability and of high
standing, and would have dignified almost any convention
that might put them in nomination. But the Labor Reform
convention, although some of its members were able men,
was for the most part made up of trade union bosses and
political adventurers. Its platform seemed at the time the
utterance of madmen ; yet it is far less radical than other
platforms since adopted by much more important political
bodies. But no other convention would have failed to per-
ceive that when it resolved that the money needed for war
purposes should not be " entailed as a burden upon poster-
ity," posterity might be more than willing to bear the burden j

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 339

or would have spoken of a " bond of union to bind the States
together ; " or would have asked Congress to " supervise " the
patent laws, instead of asking it to revise them. But if the
convention went mad in its platform, it was evidently directed
by skilful tacticians in making its nominations. Judge Davis
was popularly credited with having political aspirations, and
was known to be no longer in full sympathy with the Eepub-
lican party. It seems to have been hoped that the united
opposition would adopt this ticket. Judge Davis sent a
non-committal dispatch to the convention, thanking it for the
honor without accepting the nomination. In June both he
and Judge Parker formally declined. The convention was
called together again, but only a small number of delegates
attended. Charles O'Conor, of New York, was nominated for
President, and no nomination was made for the second place
on the ticket.

Another party, destined to have a long life, although the
part it has played in national politics has not been an impor-
tant one, made its first appearance in this canvass. The advo-
cates of the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquor had
formed a more or less distinct group in the politics of many
States since the " Maine law " agitation in the early fifties.
During the civil war, all other issues save that of the Union
were thrust aside. But now the agitation was renewed, and
the Prohibition party met in national convention at Columbus,
Ohio, on February 22. One hundred and ninety-four delegates
were present, from nine States. Samuel Chase, of Ohio, was
the president. A very long platform was reported and adopted
by the convention, of which the newspapers of the day give but
a brief abstract. In addition to a declaration in favor of the
main principle of the party, — the legislative prohibition of
the sale of intoxicating liquor, — the resolutions declare that
sobriety is one of the main qualifications for a public officer ;
that officers should not be removed for political reasons ; that
public servants should be paid fixed salaries, and not by fees ;
that all possible measures should be adopted to prevent cor-
ruption in the government; that Congress should pass laws
which will secure a sound national currency convertible at the
will of the holder into gold and silver coin; that the rates of
inland and ocean postage, and the charges for transportation
by railway and water conveyances, and for communication by
telegraph, should be as low as possible ; that there should be

340 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

no discrimination in favor of capital against labor ; that mo-
nopoly and class legislation are evils; that the right of suffrage
should be conferred without regard to sex; that the common-
school system should be fostered ; and that all judicious means
should be employed to promote immigration.

The names of James Black, of Pennsylvania, as a candidate
for President, and of John Russell, of Michigan, for Vice-Presi-
dent, were presented by a committee on nominations, and ac-
cepted by acclamation by the convention.

The Liberal Republican convention attracted much atten-
tion, and caused not a little uneasiness in advance among the
friends of the administration. It was evident that the Demo-
crats were ready to take up with any good candidates whom
the dissatisfied Republicans might nominate. Suggestions were
numerous, but unity of purpose there was not. Some of the
most influential politicians and newspapers which supported
the movement were strongly in favor of a free-trade policy ;
Mr. Greeley and his " Tribune " being almost the only con-
spicuous exceptions. Of candidates there was a full supply.
Illinois furnished no less than three, — Judge David Davis,
Governor John M. Palmer, and Senator Lyman Trumbull.
Missouri brought forward her favorite son, B. Gratz Brown.
Ohio suggested ex-Secretary Jacob D. Cox, and Chief Justice
Chase was not forgotten. The candidate most spoken of at
the East was Mr. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts.
The aspirations of Mr. Greeley were well known, but, even
when the convention met, the idea of nominating him was
treated almost as a joke.

Just before sailing for Europe, as arbitrator at Geneva on
the Alabama Claims, Mr. Adams addressed a letter to Mr.
David A. Wells, which was made public a day or two before
the convention. The writer expressed his indifference in re-
gard to the nomination, and declared his unwillingness to
authorize any one to speak for him, except that, if he was
expected to give any pledges or assurances of his own honesty,
" you will please to draw me out of that crowd." In spite of
the cautious way in which Mr. Adams refused to commit him-
self to the movement, which alienated many who might have
supported him, his nomination was urgently pressed by his
friends upon the members of the convention as they arrived.
On the other hand some of the most influential Democrats in
Congress and elsewhere sent word that, should Mr. Adams be

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 341

nominated, they would oppose the acceptance of the Cincin-
nati ticket by the Democratic convention. As the Liberal
Republicans felt confident that, with the assistance of the
Democrats, victory was assured, the several cliques made
great exertions to secure the nominations for their respective
favorites.

The convention was a mass meeting. Except in a few
places the Liberal Republicans had no organization, and the
members were all volunteers. Mr. Stanley Matthews, of Ohio,
was made temporary chairman. The question of membership
was a puzzling one, certain States having but a small, and
others a large, number of representatives, while in the case
of New York there were two distinct and opposing factions.
It was finally determined that the membership should be on
the basis of two delegates for each senator and representative
to which a State was entitled ; that if a smaller number of
members were present from any State, they should be allowed
to cast the full vote of the State ; and that delegations too
numerous should meet and designate the delegates. The
New York quarrel was composed. The organization was com-
pleted by the choice of Gen. Carl Schurz, of Missouri, as per-
manent president. Although the free-traders were a majority
of the convention, the importance of uniting all who were
opposed to General Grant was recognized, and, greatly to the
chagrin of the most earnest advocates of free trade, a resolu-
tion on the subject of the tariff, which had been prepared by
Mr. Greeley, was adopted. The convention issued an address
to the people of the country and a platform of principles,
which are given in full : —

The administration now in power has rendered itself guilty of
wanton disregard of the laws of the land, and of usurping powers
not granted by the Constitution ; it has acted as if the laws had
binding force only for those who were governed, and not for those
who govern. It has thus struck a blow at the fundamental prin-
ciples of constitutional government and the liberties of the citizen.

The President of the United States has openly used the powers
and opportunities of his high office for the promotion of personal
ends.

He has kept notoriously corrupt and unworthy men in places of
power and responsibility, to the detriment of the public interest.

He has used the public service of the government as a machinery
of corruption and personal influence, and has interfered with tyran-

342 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

nical arrogance in the political affairs of States and municipal-
ities.

He has rewarded with influential and lucrative offices men who
had acquired his favor by valuable presents, thus stimulating the
demoralization of our political life by his conspicuous example.

He has shown himself deplorably unequal to the task imposed
upon him by the necessities of the country, and culpably careless
of the responsibilities of his high office.

The partisans of the administration, assuming to be the Repub-
lican party and controlling its organization, have attempted to
justify such wrongs and palliate such abuses to the end of main-
taining partisan ascendency.

They have stood in the way of necessary investigations and indis-
pensable reforms, pretending that no serious fault could be found
with the present administration of public affairs, thus seeking to
blind the eyes of the people.

They have kept alive the passions and resentments of the late
civil war, to use them for their own advantage ; they have resorted
to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the organic law, in-
stead of appealing to the better instincts and latent patriotism of
the Southern people by restoring to them those rights the enjoy-
ment of which is indispensable to a successful administration of
their local affairs, and would tend to revive a patriotic and hope-
ful national feeling.

They have degraded themselves and the name of their party,
once justly entitled to the confidence of the nation, by a base syco-
phancy to the dispenser of executive power and patronage, un-
worthy of republican freemen; they have sought to silence the
voice of just criticism, and stifle the moral sense of the people, and
to subjugate public opinion by tyrannical party discipline.

They are striving to maintain themselves in authority for selfish
ends by an unscrupulous use of the power which rightfully belongs
to the people, and should be employed only in the service of the
country.

Believing that an organization thus led and controlled can no
longer be of service to the best interests of the republic, we have
resolved to make an independent appeal to the sober judgment,
conscience, and patriotism of the American people.

We, the Liberal Republicans of the United States, in national
convention assembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the following prin-
ciples as essential to just government : —

1. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold
that it is the duty of government, in its dealings with the people,
to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity,
race, color, or persuasion, religious or political.

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 343

2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States,
emancipation, and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening
of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fif-
teenth Amendments of the Constitution.

3. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all dis-
abilities imposed on account of the rebellion, which was finally
subdued seven years ago, believing that universal amnesty will
result in complete pacification in all sections of the country.

4. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard
the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power.
The public welfare requires the supremacy of the civil over the
military authority, and the freedom of the person under the pro-
tection of the habeas corpus. We demand for the individual the
largest liberty consistent with public order, for the State self-gov-
ernment, and for the nation a return to the methods of peace and
the constitutional limitations of power.

5. The civil service of the government has become a mere instru-
ment of partisan tyranny and personal ambition, and an object of
selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions,
and breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity of repub-
lican government. We therefore regard a thorough reform of the
civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour ;
that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claims
to public employment ; that the offices of the government cease to
be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage and that public
station shall become again a post of honor. To this end it is
imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for
reelection.

6. We demand a system of federal taxation which shall not un-
necessarily interfere with the industry of the people, and which
shall provide the means necessary to pay the expenses of the gov-
ernment, economically administered, the pensions, the interest on
the public debt, and a moderate reduction annually of the princi-
pal thereof ; and, recognizing that there are in our midst honest
but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respect-
ive systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion
of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and the
decision of Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interfer-
ence or dictation.

7. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we de-
nounce repudiation in every form and guise.

8. A speedy return to specie payments is demanded alike by the
highest considerations of commercial morality and honest govern-
ment.

9. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the

344

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

soldiers and sailors of the republic, and no act of ours shall ever
detract from their justly earned fame or the full rewards of their
patriotism.

10. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or
other corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to
actual settlers.

11. We hold that it is the duty of the government in its inter,
course with foreign nations to cultivate the friendships of peace by
treating with all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dis-
honorable to demand what is not right or submit to what is
wrong.

12. For the promotion and success of these vital principles, and
the support of the candidates nominated by this convention, we
invite and cordially welcome the cooperation of all patriotic citi-
zens, without regard to previous political affiliations.

Mr. Greeley was nominated for President on the sixth vote.
The several votes were as follows : — i

Charles Francis Adams, Massachusetts .

Horace Greeley, New York

Lyman Trumbull, Illinois

B. Gratz Brown, Missouri

David Davis, Illinois

Andrew G. Curtin, Pennsylvania . . .
Salmon P. Chase, Ohio

1st.

2d.

3d.

4th.

5th.

6th.

203

243

264

279

258

324

147

245

258

251

309

332

110

148

156

141

92£

? -

Before the result of the sixth trial was announced, mem-
bers began to change their votes. When the changes had been
made the result stood, for Greeley 482, for Adams 187. On
a motion that the nomination of Mr. Greeley be made unani-
mous, the negative votes were numerous. Two votes only
were required to effect a nomination of a candidate for Vice-
President. They were as follows : —

B. Gratz Brown, Missouri . .
Lyman Trumbull, Illinois . .
George W. Julian, Indiana
Gilbert C. Walker, Virginia .
Cassius M. Clay, Kentucky .
Jacob D. Cox, Ohio ....
John M. Scoville, New Jersey
Thomas W. Tipton, Nebraska
John M. Palmer, Illinois . .

237

435

158

175

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 345

The nomination of Mr. Brown was then made unanimous,
and the convention adjourned. Its work was received by
Republicans throughout the country with a shout of derision.
Greatly as Mr. Greeley was esteemed for his sincerity and
respected for his ability, he had always been regarded as an
erratic man, and there were few persons who credited him with
the cool judgment and tact needed in a President. But the
cry of " anybody to beat Grant " had been raised ; and al-
though many members of the Cincinnati convention were cha-
grined at the failure to present acceptable candidates, and
although many Democrats did not conceal their disappoint-
ment, it soon became evident that the Democratic convention
would adopt both the platform and the candidates of that con-
vention. The Tennessee Democratic convention, held the
week after Greeley and Brown had been nominated, instructed
its delegates to the Baltimore convention to support that ticket.
The New York Democrats did the same thing a week or two
later, and sixteen other Democratic state conventions held in
June followed the example. Accordingly it was not doubtful,
when the Democratic convention met, what its action would be.

The interest in the Republican convention was confined to
t&e question of the vice-presidency. The renomination of
General Grant by a unanimous vote was a foregone conclusion.
There was no dissatisfaction with Mr. Colfax as Vice-President.
He had been most assiduous in his attention to the few duties
of his office, and had given general satisfaction as presiding
ofticer of the Senate. The scandal which involved him and
others at a later date had not then been whispered. But Mr.
Colfax had given offence to certain of the fraternity of Wash-
ington correspondents, and they determined to use all their
power to prevent his nomination. They were assisted in their
work by the presentation of the name of Mr. Henry Wilson as
a candidate by the Republicans of Massachusetts. Consider-
ing the closeness of the vote in the convention, it is not too
much to say that Mr. Wilson owed his nomination to these
correspondents.

The convention met at Philadelphia on June 5, and did its
work with promptness and harmony. Mr. Morton McMichael,
of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman, and Judge
Tkomas Settle, of North Carolina, the permanent president of
the convention. The committee on resolutions reported the
following platform, which was unanimously adopted : —

346 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The Republican party of the United States, assembled in na-
tional convention in the city of Philadelphia on the fifth and sixth
days of June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its history,
and announces its position upon the questions before the country.

1. During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted with grand
courage the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic
rebellion, emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal
citizenship of all, and established universal suffrage. Exhibiting
unparalleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for
political offences, and warmly welcomed all who proved loyalty by
obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neighbors. It has
steadily decreased with firm hand the resultant disorders of a great
war, and initiated a wise and humane policy toward the Indians.
The Pacific Railroad and similar vast enterprises have been gener-
ously aided and successfully conducted, the public lands freely
given to actual settlers, immigration protected and encouraged,
and a full acknowledgment of the naturalized citizens' rights
secured from European powers. A uniform national currency has
been provided, repudiation frowned down, the national credit sus-
tained under the most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds
negotiated at lower rates. The revenues have been carefully col-
lected and honestly applied. Despite annual large reductions of
the rates of taxation, the public debt has been reduced during
General Grant's presidency at- the rate of a hundred millions a
year. Great financial crises have been avoided, and peace and
plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficulties
have been peacefully and honorably composed, and the honor and
power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world.
This glorious record of the past is the party's best pledge for the
future. We believe the people will not entrust the government to
any party or combination of men composed chiefly of those who
have resisted every step of this beneficent progress.

2. The recent amendments to the national Constitution should
be cordially sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated
because they are law, and should be carried out according to their
spirit by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can
safely be entrusted only to the party that secured these amend-
ments.

3. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all
civil, political, and public rights should be established and effectu-
ally maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate
state and federal legislation. Neither the law nor its adminis-
tration shoulq* admit any discrimination in respect of citizens by
reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude.

4. The national government should seek to maintain honorable

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 347

peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sym-
pathizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty.

5. Any system of the civil service under which the subordinate
positions of the government are considered rewards for mere party
zeal is fatally demoralizing, and we therefore favor a reform of the
system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage and
make honesty, efficiency, and fidelity the essential qualifications
for public positions, without practically creating a life-tenure of
office.

6. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to cor-
porations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain
be set apart for free homes for the people.

7. The annual revenue, after paying current expenditures, pen-
sions, and the interest on the public debt, should furnish a moder-
ate balance for the reduction of the principal, and that revenue,
except so much as may be derived from a tax upon tobacco and
liquors, should be raised by duties upon importations, the details
of which should be so adjusted as to aid in securing remunerative
wages to labor, and promote the industries, prosperity, and growth
of the whole country.

8. We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose
valor saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the
nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for their
country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people.
We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of
the government to all soldiers and sailors who were honorably dis-
charged, and who, in the line of duty, became disabled, without
regard to the length of service or cause of such discharge.

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers
concerning allegiance — " Once a subject always a subject " —
having at last, through the efforts of the Republican party, been
abandoned, and the American idea of the individual right to transfer
allegiance having been accepted by European nations, it is the duty
of our government to guard with jealous care the rights of adopted
citizens against the assumption of unauthorized claims by their
former governments, and we urge continued careful encourage-
ment and protection of voluntary immigration.

10. The franking privilege ought to be abolished, and the way
prepared for a speedy reduction in the rates of postage.

11. Among the questions which press for attention is that which
concerns the relations of capital and labor, and the Republican
party recognizes the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full
protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator
of capital, the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual
profits of these two great servants of civilization.

348 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

12. We hold that Congress and the President have only fulfilled
an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent
and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions,
and for the protection of the ballot-box ; and therefore they are
entitled to the thanks of the nation.

13. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or
disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction
of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of interest upon the
balance, and confidently expect that our excellent national currency
will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment.

14. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the
loyal women of America for their noble devotion to the cause
of freedom. Their admission to wider spheres of usefulness is
viewed with satisfaction ; and the honest demand of any class of
citizens for additional rights should be treated with respectful
consideration.

15. We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending
amnesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of
peace and fraternal feeling throughout the land.

16. The Republican party proposes to respect the rights reserved
by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by
them to the States and to the federal government. It disapproves
of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing
evils by interference with the rights not surrendered by the people
to either the state or the national government.

17. It is the duty of the general government to adopt such
measures as may tend to encourage and restore American commerce
and ship-building.

18. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest purpose,
the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integ-
rity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have com-
mended him to the heart of the American people, and with him at
our head we start to-day upon a new march to victory.

19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the vice-presidency, known
to the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for
liberty as an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incorrup-
tible legislator, and representative man of American institutions, is
worthy to associate with our great leader and share the honors
which we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon them.

General Grant was nominated by the unanimous vote of all
the delegates, amid great enthusiasm. A single trial was suffi-
cient to give the nomination as Vice-President to Mr. Wilson,
who received 364^ votes, to 321J for Mr. Colfax.

In spite of their apparent unanimity, the Democrats were

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 349

not really united in the movement for Greeley and Brown.
Nevertheless most of the leaders believed that nothing better
remained to be done than to adopt the principles and the can-
didates of the Liberal Republicans, and they had gone too far
to recede. The convention met at Baltimore on July 9. Mr.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of Virginia, was the temporary
chairman, and ex-Senator James R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin,
the permanent president. The committee on resolutions re-
ported the Cincinnati platform without change. Its accept-
ance was strongly opposed by Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of
Delaware, but the platform was adopted by a vote of 670
to 62. It was decided not to nominate candidates by accla-
mation, but to take the vote as usual. Mr. Greeley received
686 votes ; Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, 21 ; Thomas F.
Bayard, of Delaware, 16 ; William S. Groesbeck, of Ohio, 2 ; and
7 votes were cast blank. Mr. Greeley was thus nominated by
much more than the necessary two thirds. On a vote for a
candidate for Vice-President, Mr. Brown received 713 ; John
W. Stephenson, of Kentucky, 6 ; and 13 votes were blank.

Although this result of the convention had been universally
expected, there was great dissatisfaction with it in many Demo-
cratic circles. Some members of the party were outspoken in
their objection to what they regarded as a cowardly surrender
of principle for the sake of a possible victory. Others said
little, but it was easy to see that they had not much heart
in the " new departure," and would not cordially support Mr.
Greeley, even if they should so far overcome their repugnance
as to vote the ticket. The open opposition to the Greeley
movement found expression in a call for a straight Democratic
convention, which was held at Louisville, Kentucky, on Sep-
tember 3, and was well attended. Mr. James Lyon, of Vir-
ginia, was the president. The following resolutions were
adopted : —

Whereas, A frequent recurrence to first principles, and eternal
vigilance against abuses, are the wisest provisions for liberty,
which is the source of progress, and fidelity to our constitutional
system is the only protection for either ; therefore,

Resolved, That the original basis of our whole political struc-
ture is a consent in every part thereof. The people of each State
voluntarily created their State, and the States voluntarily formed
the Union ; and each State has provided, by its written Constitu-
tion, for everything a State should do for the protection of life,

350 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

liberty, and property within it ; and each State, jointly -with the
others, provided a Federal Union for foreign and inter-state re-
lations.

Resolved, That all government powers, whether state or federal,
are trust powers coming from the people of each State ; and that
they are limited to the written letter of the Constitution and the
laws passed in pursuance of it, which powers must be exercised
in the utmost good faith, the Constitution itself providing in what
manner they may be altered and amended.

Resolved, That the interests of labor and capital should not be
permitted to conflict, but should be harmonized by judicious legis-
lation. While such a conflict continues, labor, which is the parent
of wealth, is entitled to paramount consideration.

Resolved, That we proclaim to the world that principle is to be
preferred to power ; that the Democratic party is held together by
the cohesion of time-honored principles which they will never sur-
render in exchange for all the offices which presidents can confer.
The pangs of the minorities are doubtless excruciating; but we
welcome an eternal minority under the banner inscribed with our
principles, rather than an almighty and everlasting majority pur-
chased by their abandonment.

Resolved, That, having been betrayed at Baltimore into a false
creed and a false leadership by the convention, we repudiate both,
and appeal to the people to approve our platform and to rally to
the polls and support the true platform, and the candidates who
embody it.

Resolved, That we are opposed to giving public lands to corpora-
tions, and favor their disposal to actual settlers only.

Resolved, That we favor a judicious tariff for revenue purposes
only, and that we are unalterably opposed to class legislation
which enriches a few at the expense of the many under the plea
of protection.

The convention nominated Mr. Charles O'Conor for Presi-
dent, and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-
President. Mr. Adams had written a letter, in which he
said that, while he did not wish for the nomination, he would
not refuse it if Mr. O'Conor should head the ticket. Mr.
O'Conor, on being notified by telegraph of his nomination,
declined peremptorily. The convention then hastily passed
a vote nominating Mr. Lyon, the president of the convention,
in his place ; but Mr. Lyon wisely declined. Mr. Adams also
refused to take any but the second place, and not even that,
unless Mr. O'Conor were to stand at the head of the ticket.
Under these circumstances, the convention returned to Mr.

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 351

O'Conor, and left the ticket as it had been originally arranged,
whether its candidates would accept or decline.

The result of the canvass was at no time in doubt. Some
of the Democrats deluded themselves with the idea that there
was a chance for Mr. Greeley, and that gentleman departed
from the usual custom of candidates by going "on the stump."
The early elections showed clearly the drift of public opinion ;
and General Grant was elected by a larger' majority than he
had received at his first election. As in 1868, thirty-seven
States formed the Union ; and on this occasion, for the first
time in the history of the government, all the States chose
electors by a popular vote. The apportionment which fol-
lowed the census of 1870 enlarged the number of electors.
Mr. Greeley died a few days after the choice of electors had
been made, and the Democratic electors cast their votes with-
out serious attempt at concentration. The popular vote is
given on the next page.

It will be observed that the popular vote of Louisiana is
given in two forms. Political affairs in the State were in a
chaotic condition, both then and subsequently. The gov-
ernor, Henry C. Warmoth, had been elected as a Republican,
but had joined the Greeley movement, and was disposed to do
all that lay in his power to give the vote of the State to the
Democratic candidates. The votes of the State were at that
time canvassed by a " returning board," consisting of the gov-
ernor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, and two others.
The lieutenant-governor and one of the unofficial members
became disqualified by being candidates for office. The gov-
ernor then removed the secretary of state and appointed an-
other man in his place ; and he, with this new secretary, pro-
ceeded to fill up the vacancies in the returning board. But
the old secretary of state, before his removal, and the re-
maining unofficial member of the board, had previously filled
the vacancies. Accordingly there were two returning boards.
The official returns were canvassed by that board only of which
the governor was the head ; the other board made up returns
from the best sources of information it could command. Each
board seems to have manipulated the figures so as to bring
about a desired result. This is a very brief account of a long
and complicated controversy, full particulars of which may
be found in the newspapers and in official documents of the
time. Two sets of electors met, voted, and forwarded their

352

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

States.

Alabama . .
Arkansas . .
California . .
Connecticut .
Delaware . .
Florida . . .
Georgia i .
Illinois . . .
Indiana . . .
Iowa ...»
Kansas . . .
Kentucky . .
Louisiana *
Louisiana t
Maine . . .
Maryland . .
Massachusetts
Michigan . .
Minnesota . .
Mississippi . .
Missouri . .
Nebraska . .
Nevada . . .
New Hampshire
New Jersey .
New York . .
North Carolina
Ohio ....
Oregon . . .
Pennsylvania .
Rhode Island .
South Carolina
Tennessee . .
Texas . . .
Vermont . .
Virginia . .
West Virginia
Wisconsin . .

Total . . .

oa 3

J J

CO HH

Set

00 S»

90,272

79,444

41,373

37,927

54,020

40,718

1,068

50,638

45,880

204

206

11,115

10,206

487

17,763

15,427

62,550

76,356

4,000

241,944

184,938

3,058

186,147

163,632

1,417

131,566

71,196

2,221

—

67,048

32,970

596

88,766

99,995

2,374

71,663

57,029

—

59,975

66,467

61,422

29,087

—

66,760

67,687

133,472

59,260

138,455

78,355

2,861

1,271

55,117

34,423

82,175

47,288

119,196

151,434

2,439

18,329

7,812

8,413

6,236

37,168

31,424

100

200

91,656

76,456

630

440,736

387,281

1,454

201

94,769

70,094

281,852

244,321

1,163

2,100

11,819

7,730

572

349,589

212,041

1,630

13,665

5,329

72,290

22,703

187

85,655

94,391

47,468

66,546

2,580

41,481

10,927

593

93,468

91,654

• 42

32,315

29,451

600

104,997

86,477

834

3,597,132

2,834,125

29,489

5,608

* " Custom-house " count. The total vote of the country, as given above, includes
these returns,
t Count by the Warmoth returning board. If these returns should be substituted

o°L.ihr^o0ther8' the tofcal vote oi the country woul<* be I 'or Grant, 3,585,444 ; Greeley,

2,84.3,563.

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN

353

returns to Washington ; but the vote of the State was excluded,
as will be noticed in the report of the electoral count. The
votes of the electoral colleges as actually cast, including both
the votes of Louisiana, are given below. These and all
others which were rejected by Congress are marked with an
asterisk : —

President.

Vice-President.

States.

<—

I
1

ni
>>

4
i

M
to

ft
I

■

1
1

it
9

J
o
V

1
1

Alabama

Arkansas

California

Connectic

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa .

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine .

Maryland

Massachuf

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississipp

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

New Ham

New Jerse

New York

North Car

Ohio .

Oregon

Pennsylva

Rhode Ish

South Car

Tennessee

Texas .

Vermont

Virginia

West Virg

Wisconsin

Total as dt

ut.' '.

t ! !
t . .

setts !
L ! .'

rahire
y • •

olina

nia .

md .
>lina .

inia .
clared

10
6*
6
6
3
4

21
15
11
5

13
11
5

9
35
10
22

3
29

11
5
10

286

12
8

8
18

2
2

1
1

10
6*
6
6
3
4

21
15
11
5

13
11
5

3
3
5
9

22
3

29
4
7

5
11

5
10

286

12
8

5
6

5
5

3
3

l
1

1
1

* Rejected by Congress, t k CuBtom-houae " electors, * Warmoth electors.

354 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Many questions arose during the count of electoral votes,
which took place on February 12, 1873, was conducted in accord-
ance with the twenty-second joint rule, and occupied seven
hours. The first objection was made by Mr. Hoar, of Massa-
chusetts, to counting the three votes cast in Georgia for Horace
Greeley, on the ground that Mr. Greeley was dead at the time
the votes were given. This raised the question whether Con-
gress might take cognizance of the ineligibility of a candidate
for the presidential office. The next objection was raised by
Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, to the vote of Mississippi, on the
ground that the certificates did not state that the electors voted
by ballot. Mr. Potter, of New York, also objected especially
to one vote of Mississippi, cast by an elector chosen to fill a
vacancy, the choice of whom was certified only by the secre-
tary of state of Mississippi, and by him only upon information
and not of his own knowledge. Upon these three objections
the two Houses separated. The House of Representatives
voted to reject the Greeley votes in Georgia ; the Senate voted
to accept them ; under the joint rule they were cast out and
not counted. Each House overruled both objections to the
vote of Mississippi, and it was counted. Upon the resumption
of the count, when the State of Missouri was reached, attention
was called to the fact that votes were cast for Mr. Brown both
as President and as Vice-President, but the objection that this
was contrary to the provision of the Constitution that electors
shall vote for two persons, " one of whom, at least, shall not
be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves," was
obviated by reading the concluding part of the certificate, that
no person who voted for Mr. Brown as President also voted
for him as Vice-President. The vote of Texas was next
objected to, on the ground that the choice of the electors was
certified to only by the acting secretary of state, and not, as
the law required, by the governor. A second objection was
made on the ground that four of the eight electors (not a ma-
jority) had met and filled vacancies. Both objections were
overruled by each House, and the vote of Texas was counted.

The count then proceeded until the only votes remaining to
be counted were those of Arkansas and Louisiana. The votes
of both States were objected to. The returns for Arkansas
were certified to by the secretary of state only, and his office
seal was the only one which the papers bore. Both sets of
electors for Louisiana were objected to. The two Houses

THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 355

having separated, the Senate passed a resolution that the votes
of Arkansas should not be counted ; the House of Representa-
tives agreed to admit them. The vote in the Senate was a
consequence of the bad rule that no debate should be allowed.
In fact the only seal in use in the State was that of the secre-
tary of state ; and the rejection of the vote was a hasty act
upon the most frivolous of pretexts. Both Houses voted not to
count any votes from Louisiana. The result of this action,
under the twenty-second joint rule, was that the votes of
Arkansas and Louisiana were excluded. The joint session of
Congress was then resumed, and the result of the election was
declared.

XXV

THE DISPUTED ELECTION

When slavery had been overthrown by the convulsion of
war, and when the fruits of victory had been secured, so far
as legislation could secure them, the original mission of the
Republican party was accomplished. The more or less success-
ful solution of the great moral and political problems which
caused the party to come into being was followed by several
changes that must be noticed briefly, since they explain the
political reverses that began during General Grant's second
term.

" It was not yet time for the revival of old issues, the tariff,
for example, to send back into the Democratic party men who
had seceded from it when slavery became the predominant
question before the people. That change was to come later.
Many "war Democrats" who had acted with the Republi-
cans now felt that the reconstruction measures were too radi-
cal, and many of them returned to their old party allegiance.
But in the main the personnel of the Republican party re-
mained unchanged. There was, nevertheless, an internal modi-
fication that was to work mischief in the future. The long
possession of power increased the appetite for power, and led
some of the politicians to employ objectionable means for re-
taining it, — means that were possibly justified when the life
of the nation and its future well-being seemed to depend upon
the continuance of the Republican policy, but which were
reprehensible when no such necessity existed. All this implied
an alteration which is perhaps too harshly described as moral
degeneration. The demoralization did not affect the body of
the party, save that the change was regarded with too much
toleration ; but the leaders became overbearing and reckless.
The party suffered greatly, also, by reason of the character of
its membership in the South. The great body of the party in
that section consisted of the newly enfranchised blacks, — not
too well qualified to exercise the right of suffrage, — who were

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 357

permitted by the white men to vote when and where only
their votes would not change the result of an election. The
white contingent of the party, a handful only, was made up
of " carpet-baggers " and " scallawags." Carpet-baggers were
Northern men who had removed — with hand-luggage only, it
was sarcastically asserted by the Democrats — to the South in
order to get elected to office by negro votes. Scallawags were
Southern-born men who had braved the social ostracism that
followed their non-conformity to the formula that " this is a
white man's government," for the same purpose of obtaining
office.

The overturn which resulted in the election of a Democratic
House of Representatives in 1874 was by no means caused
wholly by the changes just noted. A much more direct cause
was the great financial panic of 1873. There had been no
serious effort to reform the disordered currency, the excessive
volume of which produced an era of speculation and extension
of credit. When the crash came, there was widespread disaster
and insolvency. A season of hard times set in ; and, as is usu-
ally the case, the party in power was held responsible for the
evil. It was then that a party sprang up in many parts of the
country, particularly in the West, which held that the cause
of the disaster was not too much but too little paper money ;
and it urged not merely the retention of the greenbacks as the
permanent money of the country, but a large — even an un-
limited — increase of the amount.

As if the Republican party had even then not enough to
bear, the startling revelation of the condition of the public
service which was popularly supposed to be given by the dis-
covery of the complicity of high officers in the " whiskey
ring" frauds upon the revenue, and the acts of General Bel-
knap, the Secretary of War, — more sinned against than sinning,
as the true history of the affair shows, — were scandals of a most
serious character. The people began, too, to be somewhat
weary of the Southern question, — of " waving the bloody
shirt," as it was called, — and no longer responded eagerly to
demands upon their loyalty to support further legislation, in
order that the blood spilled in the war might not be wasted.
Inasmuch as the Southern States themselves had become almost
" solid " already in the support of the Democratic party, it
required but a slight change in the North to give a majority
to the opposition.

3"58 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Before entering upon a chronicle of the events of 1876, it it
advisable to record the efforts made in Congress to modify thi>
electoral system and to regulate the count of votes.

At the beginning of the session of 1874-5, Senator Oliver
P. Morton called up, and endeavored to secure action upon,
several propositions which had for their object to remedy the
constitutional defects which ninety years of experience had de-
veloped. The first of these was a proposition to amend the
Constitution, the origin of which was this : Under a resolu-
tion offered by Mr. Morton in March, 1873, the committee
on privileges and elections, of which he was chairman, was
directed to examine and report at the next session upon the
best and most practicable mode of electing the President and
Vice-President, and providing a tribunal to adjust and decide
all contested questions connected therewith. The committee
reported, May 28, 1874, a proposition to amend the Constitu-
tion by the adoption of the following new article : —

1. The President and Vice-President shall be elected by the
direct vote of the people in the manner following : Each State shall
be divided into districts, equal in number to the number of Repre-
sentatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress, to
be composed of contiguous territory, and to be as nearly equal in
population as may be ; and the person having the highest number
of votes in each district for President shall receive the vote of that
district, which shall count one presidential vote.

2. The person having the highest number of votes for President
in a State shall receive two presidential votes from the State at
large.

3. The person having the highest number of presidential votes
in the United States shall be President.

4. If two persons have the same number of votes in any State, it
being the highest number, they shall receive each one presiden-
tial vote from the State at large ; and if more than two persons
shall have each the same number of votes in any State, it being
the highest number, no presidential vote shall be counted from the
State at large. If more persons than one shall have the same
number of votes, it being the highest number in any district, no
presidential vote shall be counted from that district.

5. The foregoing provisions shall apply to the election of Vice-
President.

6. The Congress shall have the power to provide for holding and
conducting the elections of President and Vice-President, and to
establish tribunals for the decision of such elections as may be
contested.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 359

7. The State shall be divided into districts by the legislatures
thereof, but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter
the same.

The report which accompanied this proposition was one of.
great ability and thoroughness. It was the work of Senator
Morton himself, who probably devoted more time and though'1,
to this part of the Constitution than have been given to it by
any other statesman of any period in our history. The reso*
iution of amendment was called up in the Senate on the 20th
of January, 1875, and Mr. Morton made a long speech in favor
of it, pointing out once more in forcible language what he re-
garded as the evils and dangers of the existing system. He
maintained that the twenty-second joint rule was grossly un-
constitutional. Senators Thurman, Conkling, and Anthony
followed. They all agreed that some change was absolutely
necessary, but the general judgment was that the greatest
danger lay in the matter of the electoral count. Mr. Anthony
went so far as to say that " all the machinery of the existing
system is absurd." But notwithstanding the concurrence of
the leaders of the Senate in the opinion that some measure
should be passed, the resolution was laid aside and debate
upon it was never resumed.

A few days later, however, the Senate began a discussion of
a resolution, also submitted by Mr. Morton, that the twenty-
second joint rule be repealed. Subsequently he modified this
resolution. He proposed to amend, not to repeal the rule,
and to make an affirmative vote of both Houses necessary for
the rejection of an electoral vote. A long debate took place
upon this proposition ; and the resolution was finally referred
to the committee on privileges and elections. The committee
reported speedily a bill, which, if enacted, would take the
place of the joint rule. For the most part it followed the
language of that rule, but with these exceptions : no vote could
be rejected except by the concurrent vote of the two Houses ;
if more than one return should be presented from a State, that
one was to be accepted which the two Houses acting separately
should determine to be the true return ; and when the Houses
separated to decide upon any objection, debate was to be allowed,
each member being permitted to speak for ten minutes, once
only. When the debate had lasted two hours the House was to
have the right, by a majority vote, to order the main question
to be put. This bill was fully debated. Numerous amendments

360 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

were offered, but none were adopted, except for the purpose of
perfecting the language. The only important suggestion of
amendment was made by Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, who pro-
posed to substitute for the whole bill a plan for a joint com-
mittee, resembling the grand committee provided for in the
bill of the year 1800 (see p. 64 et seq.). The bill was passed
by a vote of 28 to 20. All the affirmative votes were given
by Republicans, but six members of that party, including Sen-
ators Carpenter, Conkling, Edmunds, and Windom, voted
against the bill. It was never taken up in the House of Re-
presentatives.

Mr. Morton was greatly in earnest in regard to this matter.
Immediately on the reassembling of Congress — it was a new
Congress, and the House of Representatives was Democratic —
he again introduced the bill. It was referred and reported
back, and on the 13th of March, 1876, a debate began which
occupied a large part of nearly every daily session until the
24th of the month, when it was passed, 32 to 26. Although
this was nearly a party vote, Mr. Thurman supported the bill.
But he had an objection to one feature of it, and therefore
moved that the vote passing it be reconsidered for the purpose
of amendment. The motion was agreed to late in April, and
the bill was then laid aside. It was again taken up, just at
the close of the session, in August, but no action was had upon
the bill, and of course it failed.

It began to be rumored in 1875 that General Grant would
be a candidate for a third term. Since the time of Washington
it had been an unwritten law that eight years should be the
limit of any man's service at the head of the government. The
idea that the rule established by the Father of his Country
was to be broken was highly displeasing to a large body of
Republicans, and still more so to all Democrats. There was
much public and private discussion on the subject. The
President himself allowed it to be understood that he was not
disposed to refuse a third term if it should be offered him. In
a letter addressed to General Harry White, of Pennsylvania, he
expressed himself in terms that could not be misunderstood.
The Republican state convention, over which General White
presided, had passed a resolution of unalterable " opposition to
the election to the presidency of any person for a third term."
This drew from General Grant the letter referred to, in which
he said : " Now for the third term. I do not want it any

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 361

more than I did the first ; " but he also remarked that the
people were not restricted to two terms by the Constitution ;
that the time might come when it would be unfortunate to
make a change at the end of eight years ; and that he " would
not accept a nomination if it were tendered, unless it should
come under such circumstances as to make it an imperative
duty, — circumstances not likely to arise." The universal in-
terpretation of these phrases was that General Grant's friends
were at liberty to make it appear the imperative duty of the
Republicans to nominate him again, and of the President to
accept . the nomination. But the idea made little headway
except among the officials of the government and the most de-
voted adherents of the President. There was, nevertheless,
much apprehension that the close organization of the official
class would make it possible to manipulate the primary meet-
ings and secure his nomination. A death-blow to the movement
was dealt soon after the opening of Congress, in December,
1875. A Democratic member from Illinois offered a reso-
lution, "that, in the opinion of this House, the precedent
established by Washington and other Presidents of the United
States, in retiring from the presidential office after their second
term, has become, by universal concurrence, a part of our re-
publican system of government, and that any departure from
this time-honored custom would be unwise, unpatriotic, and
fraught with peril to our free institutions." This resolution was
passed by the immense majority of 234 to 18. Not only did all
the Democrats present support it, but 70 out of the 88 Repub-
licans voting were also found in the affirmative.

Nothing more was heard that year of the third term, and
the Republicans who had been willing to entertain the idea
turned their attention to other candidates, while the Republi-
can leaders who had been special friends of the administration
felt themselves at liberty to become candidates for the Republi-
can nomination. There were many candidates. The favor of
the administration was believed to have gone chiefly to Senator
Conkling, of New York, when General Grant himself was put out
of the running ; but there was no hostility to Senator Morton,
of Indiana, who ultimately secured most of the southern dele-
gations. Both of these gentlemen had been ardent defenders
of the President whenever he had been attacked, and trust-
worthy supporters of all administration measures.

The strongest movement, outside of the official circles, was

£62 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

in favor of Mr. James Gr. Blaine, of Maine. Mr. Blaine had
been six years Speaker of the House of Representatives, and
had gained extraordinary popularity among members of Con-
gress. At the beginning of the Forty-fourth Congress, in
1875, the control of the House having passed into the hands
of the Democrats, he had become the natural leader of the
minority on the floor, and had drawn the attention of the
country by some brilliant parliamentary victories. Many Re-
publicans, however, regretted that in so doing he had revived
memories of the war which they were entirely willing should
be forgotten. When the movement to make him the Republi-
can candidate became formidable some of them felt constrained
to oppose him. Soon afterward whispers were heard that his
public career was not free from acts which, if not corrupt,
involved corrupt motives and desires ; and these insinuations
took a form which led to an investigation into Mr. Blaine's
connection with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Com-
pany and the Union Pacific Railroad Company. In brief, Mr.
Blaine had, as Speaker, given a decision which facilitated the
passage of a bill authorizing the State of Arkansas to aid in the
construction of the Fort Smith road. Afterward he had become
interested in the securities of the company ; and it was asserted
that he had traded upon the service he had rendered to the
company to obtain specially favorable terms from those wTho
had the disposal of the securities. Mr. Blaine's prominence
in public affairs, and the strong position he occupied as a candi-
date for the Republican nomination, caused the scandal to attract
general attention. The letters he had written upon the sub-
ject were in hostile hands. Mr. Blaine obtained possession of
them, and in a memorably dramatic scene read them, with his
own explanation, to the House of Representatives. The effect
was precisely what might have been expected : those who were
previously convinced of his guilt saw in them proof of the
charges against him ; his ardent admirers, of whom there was
a host in all parts of the country, accepted them as a com-
plete exoneration. The present writer, who enjoyed a lifelong
personal friendship, and for many years was on terms of inti-
macy, with Mr. Blaine, always believed in his innocence not
only of the charges here referred to, but of others which his
political opponents made against him. The unpleasant chapter
in his history is recorded here because it had an important
bearing upon his aspirations to the presidency, but with keen
regret that a perpetuation of it is necessary.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 303

A strong movement was organized in the party in favor of
Mr. Benjamin H. Bristow, the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr.
Bristow had won the high opinion of the country hy his
vigorous proceedings against the western "whiskey rings."
The heavy tax upon distilled spirit was a great temptation to
fraud in its manufacture. Evidence was obtained that many
western distilleries were enabled by collusion with government
officers to manufacture vast amounts of whiskey upon which
no tax was paid. They secured a great profit, which profit
was divided between those who committed the frauds and
those who permitted them. Certain persons near the adminis-
tration were implicated, or at least open to serious suspicion.
The President directed that the prosecutions should be pressed
with all vigor ; but Mr. Bristow received most of the credit
for the unrelenting vigor with which the prosecutions were
carried to a successful issue. Accordingly he became the
favorite candidate of those who were most opposed to what it
was the fashion to call " Caesarism " and " Grantism."

Ohio presented her governor, Rutherford B. Hayes, a gen-
eral in the Union army during the war, formerly a member of
Congress, and in 187G, for the third time, governor of Ohio.
Governor John F. Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Mar-
shall Jewell, who had been governor of Connecticut, minister
to Russia, and Postmaster-general, were also candidates.

The leading candidate on the Democratic side was Governor
Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, but his supremacy was not
undisputed. Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, who had received
most of the votes of Democratic electors in 1872, after the
death of Mr. Greeley, had strong western support. General
Hancock was a favorite of the soldiers, as he had been in 1868.
Ohio was in the field with ex-Governor William Allen, who
had carried the State in 1873. But as the state and district
conventions made Mr. Blaine the leading candidate on the
Republican nide, so those of the Democrats placed Mr. Tilden
far in advance of all competitors. Mr. Tilden had gained a
high reputation by his warfare against the "Tweed ring" in
New York city some years before, and had added to it by his
career as governor of the State of New York. But he was
opposed most warmly by the Tammany organization in his own
city, an^ this was deemed by many a sufficient reason why he
should not be nominated. Such was the situation when the
6eason of national conventions began, in May, 1876.

364 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The first convention of the series was that of the Prohibi-
tionists, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio, on the 17th of
May. This convention nominated, for President, Green Clay
Smith, of Kentucky, and, for Vice-President, G. T. Stewart, of
Ohio ; and adopted the following platform : —

The Prohibition Reform party of the United States, organized
in the name of the people to revive, enforce, and perpetuate in the
government the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, sub-
mit in this centennial year of the republic, for the suff rages of all
good citizens, the following platform of national reforms and mea-
sures : —

1. The legal prohibition in the District of Columbia, the Terri-
tories, and in every other place subject to the laws of Congress, of
the importation, exportation, manufacture, and traffic of all alco-
holic beverages as high crimes against society ; an amendment of
the national Constitution to render these prohibitory measures uni-
versal and permanent ; and the adoption of treaty stipulations with
foreign powers to prevent the importation and exportation of all
alcoholic beverages.

2. The abolition of class legislation and of special privileges in
the government, and of the adoption of equal suffrage and eligibil-
ity to office without distinction of race, religious creed, property,
or sex.

3. The appropriation of the public lands in limited quantities to
actual settlers only ; the reduction of the rates of inland and ocean
postage; of telegraphic communication; of railroad and water
transportation and travel to the lowest practicable point by force
of law, wisely and justly framed, with reference not only to the
interests of capital employed, but to the higher claims of the gen-
eral good.

4. The suppression by law of lottery and gambling in gold,
stocks, produce, and every form of money and property, and the
penal inhibition of the use of the public mails for advertising
schemes of gambling and lotteries.

5. The abolition of those foul enormities, polygamy and the
social evil, and the protection of purity, peace, and happiness of
homes by ample and efficient legislation.

6. The national observance of the Christian Sabbath, established
by laws prohibiting ordinary labor and business in all departments
of public service and private employment (works of necessity, char-
ity, and religion excepted) on that day.

7. The establishment by mandatory provisions in national and
state constitutions, and by all necessary legislation, of a system of
free public schools for the universal and forced education of all
the youth of the land.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 365

8. The free use of the Bible, not as a ground of religious creeds,
but as a text-book of the purest morality, the best liberty, and the
noblest literature, in our public schools, that our children may
grow up in its light, and that its spirit and principles may pervade
the nation.

9. The separation of the government in all departments and
institutions, including the public schools and all funds for their
maintenance, from the control of every religious sect or other
association, and the protection alike of all sects by equal laws,
with entire freedom, of religious faith and worship.

10. The introduction into all treaties hereafter negotiated with
foreign governments of a provision for the amicable settlement of
international difficulties by arbitration.

11. The abolition of all barbarous modes and instruments of
punishment ; the recognition of the laws of God and the claims of
humanity in the discipline of jails and prisons, and of that higher
and wiser civilization worthy of our age and nation, which regards
the reform of criminals as a means for the prevention of crime.

12. The abolition of executive and legislative patronage, and
the election of President, Vice-President, United States senators,
and of all civil officers, so far as practicable, by the direct vote of
the people.

13. The practice of a friendly and liberal policy to immigrants
from all nations, the guarantee to them of ample protection, and
of equal rights and privileges.

14. The separation of the money of government from all bank-
ing institutions. The national government only should exercise
the high prerogative of issuing paper money, and that should be
subject to prompt redemption on demand in gold and silver, the
only equal standards of value recognized by the civilized world.

15. The reduction of the salaries of public officers in a just ratio
with the decline of wages and market prices, the abolition of sine-
cures, unnecessary offices, and official fees and perquisites; the
practice of strict economy in government expenses, and a free and
thorough investigation into any and all alleged abuses of public
trusts.

Reference has been made already, in this chapter, to the
rise and growth of a party favorable to a paper money regime.
It had its origin as early as 1868, when the retirement of
greenbacks was prohibited by Congress on the ground that a
contraction of the currency was injurious to business. It
found expression in the canvass of that year, in the demand
that the bonds of the United States should be made payable
In greenbacks. After the panic of 1873 the secretary of the

36(3 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

treasury issued a part of the notes retired six years before,
taking the position that the forty-four million dollars so
retired were a " reserve." It was urged on the one hand that
the volume of the currency ought to be still further, and
largely, increased; and on the other that "inflation" was but
feeding the financial disease, and that steps should be taken to
resume specie payments, suspended since 1862. The contro-
versy was severe. The sharp commercial and industrial dis-
tress disposed Congress to accede to the call for more paper
money, and in 1874 a bill was passed by both branches which
authorized an increase. The bill was vetoed by the President,
and failed. The advocates of resumption of specie payments
took courage from the veto, and an act was passed, as a Repub-
lican measure, in 1875, which not only fixed January 1, 1879,
as the date on which the government would redeem in coin all
its notes on demand, but clothed the secretary of the treasury
with practically unlimited authority to borrow money in pre-
paration for redemption, and to maintain specie payments
afterward. The resumption act was most vigorously opposed ;
but it was passed, approved by the President, and ultimately
carried into effect. During the period of the agitation over the
question a " greenback " convention was held in Indianapolis,
which adopted what was then known as " the Ohio idea," —
in brief that paper money was less fluctuating in value than
coin, and that the volume of the currency should be "equal to
the demands of business." Many of the " greenbackers," as
they were called, favored "fiat" money, that is, "coined
paper," — which was not to be redeemed in coin, but was to
be stamped as full legal tender and kept in circulation by the
fiat of the government. It may be remarked here that the
party which was organized to oppose resumption and to per-
petuate the paper money regime is the Populist party of later
times, under a new name, with kindred purposes, although it
now espouses the cause of silver instead of greenbacks. It
will be noticed that in the first platform adopted by the party,
three years after " the crime of 1873," — as the act discontin-
uing the coinage of the silver dollar has been called, — but
before the "crime" had aroused the indignation of the mem-
bers of the party, the bonds then being issued for resumption
purposes were spoken of as " gold bonds." Indeed, this plat-
form is worthy of notice in many points, by those who would
study the silver question historically.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 367

The first national convention of the Independent National,
01 Greenback, party, was held at Indianapolis, on May 18,
1876. Ignatius Donnelly, of Minnesota, was the temporary
chairman, and Thomas J. Durant, of Washington, D. C, the
permanent president. Peter Cooper, of New York, was nomi-
nated on the first ballot for President, and Senator Newton
Booth, of California, for Vice-President. Mr. Booth declined
the nomination, and General Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio, was
substituted. This convention, in which nineteen States were
represented by 239 delegates, adopted the following plat-
form : —

The Independent party is called into existence by the necessities
of the people, whose industries are prostrated, whose labor is de-
prived of its just reward, by a ruinous policy which the Republican
and Democratic parties refuse to change, and in view of the fail-
ure of these parties to furnish relief to the depressed industries of
the country, thereby disappointing the just hopes and expectations
of the suffering people, we declare our principles, and invite all
independent and patriotic men to join our ranks in this movement
for financial reform and industrial emancipation.

1. We demand the immediate and unconditional repeal of the
specie-resumption act of January 14, 1875, and the rescue of our
industries from ruin and disaster resulting from its enforcement ;
and we call upon all patriotic men to organize, in every congres-
sional district of the country, with a view of electing representa-
tives to Congress who will carry out the wishes of the people in
this regard, and stop the present suicidal and destructive policy of
contraction.

2. We believe that a United States note, issued directly by the
government, and convertible on demand into United States obli-
gations, bearing a rate of interest not exceeding one cent a day on
each one hundred dollars, and exchangeable for United States
notes at par, will afford the best circulating medium ever devised.
Such United States notes should be full legal tender for all pur-
poses except for the payment of such obligations as are, by exist-
ing contracts, especially made payable in coin, and we hold that it
is the duty of the government to provide such circulating medium,
and insist, in the language of Thomas Jefferson, that bank paper
must be suppressed, and the circulation restored to the nation, to
whom it belongs.

3. It is the paramount duty of the government, in all its legisla-
tion, to keep in view the full development of all legitimate busi-
ness, agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and commercial.

4. We most earnestly protest against any further issue of gold

368 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

bonds, for sale in foreign markets, by which we would be made,
for a long period, hewers of wood and drawers of water for for-
eigners, especially as the American people would gladly and
promptly take, at par, all bonds the government may need to sell,
provided they are made payable at the option of the holder, and
bearing interest at 3.65 per cent, per annum, or even a lower rate.
5. We further protest against the sale of government bonds for
the purpose of purchasing silver, to be used as a substitute for our
more convenient and less fluctuating fractional currency, which,
although well calculated to enrich owners of silver mines, yet in
operation it will still further, oppress, in taxation, an already over-
burdened people.

The Republican convention met at Cincinnati on June 14.
As the day approached, the public interest in the meeting
became very great. The delegates elected in most of the
States were pledged to one or another of the candidates. Each
of the three largest States had a candidate of its own. New
York, with 70 delegates, was substantially unanimous for Mr.
Conkling ; Pennsylvania, with 58 delegates, was instructed to
vote for General Hartranft ; Ohio, whose delegates numbered
44, was united in support of Governor Hayes. These three
candidates thus held 172 votes out of the 756 to which all the
States and Territories were entitled. Mr. Morton had, in addi-
tion to the 30 votes of his own Indiana delegation, nearly 100
more pledged to him, every one of which was from the South-
ern States. The Bristow strength was unknown, but was
believed to be about 100 votes. It was evident from the
beginning that, if the forces of these five candidates could be
united, the defeat of Mr. Blaine, whose delegates were more
than twice as numerous as those of any other candidate, was
assured. The party was roughly divided into two wings, one
of which was warmly in favor of the Grant administration,
while the other desired "reform within the party." The pre-
vailing sentiment was decidedly hostile to a perpetuation of
the Grant administration under a new head. The administra-
tion strength was represented, accurately enough, by the Conk-
ling and Morton contingents. The rest of the delegates were,
for the most part, opposed to any one who might seem to be
the political heir of the President. Many of the adherents of
Mr. Bristow were as strongly opposed to Mr. Blaine as they
were to what they called " the Grant dynasty." The charges
brought against Mr. Blaine were in process of investigation

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 369

almost up to the very day that the convention met. Many
delegates believed the charges to be true ; and although a large
majority of the delegates probably disbelieved them, some of
them deemed it bad policy to nominate a man who was so seri-
ously assailed. On the Sunday morning before the convention,
Mr. Blaine suffered a sunstroke, and was, for a day or two,
believed to be dangerously ill. This also was unfortunate for
him, and probably cost him some votes.

Theodore M. Pomeroy, of New York, was temporary chair-
man of the convention, and Edward McPherson, of Pennsyl-
vania, was the permanent president. On the second day the
adoption of the rules drafted by the committee on rules intro-
duced some important reforms in national convention work.
It was decided that the report of the committee on credentials
should be disposed of first, the platform next, and only then
should the nomination of candidates be in order. Another
rule put an end to the practice of " stampeding," by providing
that the roll-call should in no case be dispensed with ; and
that after the vote of a State for candidates was announced it
should not be changed on that ballot.

There were several contested elections, but the only impor-
tant case was that of Alabama, where one delegation, headed by
Senator Spencer, was in favor of Mr. Morton, the other, headed
by Mr. Haralson, a colored member of Congress, was divided
between Mr. Blaine and Mr. Bristow. The Spencer delegation
was refused admittance by a vote of 375 to 354, and the Har-
alson delegation was admitted. The following platform was
then reported by Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut : —

When, in the economy of Providence, this land was to be purged
of human slavery, and when the strength of government of the
people, by the people, and for the people, was to be demonstrated,
the Republican party came into power. Its deeds have passed
into history, and we look back to them with pride. Incited by
their memories to high aims for the good of our country and man-
kind, and looking to the future with unfaltering courage, hope,
and purpose, we, the representatives of the party in national con-
vention assembled, make the following declaration of principles : —

1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league. By
the combined workings of the national and state governments,
under their respective constitutions, the rights of every citizen are
Secured, at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted.

d. The Republican party has preserved these governments to the

370 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

hundredth anniversary of the nation's birth, and they are now
embodiments of the great truths spoken at its cradle, " That all
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness ; that for the attainment of these ends gov-
ernments have been instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed." Until these truths are
cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced, the work of
the Republican party is unfinished.

3. The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the
Union, and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free
enjoyment of all their rights, is a duty to which the Republican
party stands sacredly pledged. The power to provide for the en-
forcement of the principles embodied by the recent constitutional
amendments is vested by those amendments in the Congress of the
United States, and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of
the legislative and executive departments of the government to put
into immediate and vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers
for removing any just causes of discontent on the part of any class,
and for securing to every American citizen complete liberty and
exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, and public rights.
To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief Ex-
ecutive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter
until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall.

4. In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant, the
national government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose
to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and " sol-
emnly pledged its faith to make provision, at the earliest practi-
cable period, for the redemption of the United States notes in coin."
Commercial prosperity, public morals, and national credit demand
that this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress
to specie payment.

5. Under the Constitution the President and heads of depart-
ments are to make nominations for office ; the Senate is to advise
and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is
to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the
public service demands that these distinctions be respected ; that
senators and representatives, who may be judges and accusers,
should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in
appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity, and
capacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places
where harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be
represented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons se-
lected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and
the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful
service to the country.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 371

6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people concern-
ing political affairs, and will hold all public officers to a rigid re-
sponsibility, and engage that the prosecution and punishment of
all who betray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, and un-
sparing.

7. The public-school system of the several States is a bulwark
of the American Republic, and, with a view to its security and per-
manence, we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of the
tf nited States forbidding the application of any public funds or
property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sec-
tarian control.

8. The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obli-
gations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon
importations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to pro-
mote the interests of American labor and advance the prosperity
of the whole country.

9. We reaffirm our opposition to further grants of the public
land to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national
domain be devoted to free homes for the people.

10. It is the imperative duty of the government so to modify
existing treaties with European governments that the same pro-
tection shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is
given to the native-born ; and that all necessary laws should be
passed to protect emigrants, in the absence of power in the States
for that purpose.

11. It is the immediate duty of Congress fully to investigate the
effect of immigration and importation of Mongolians upon the
moral and material interests of the country.

12. The Republican party recognizes with its approval the sub-
stantial advances recently made toward the establishment of equal
rights for women by the many important amendments effected by
Republican legislatures in the laws which concern the personal
and property relations of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the
appointment and election of women to the superintendence of edu-
cation, charities, and other public trusts. The honest demands of
this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges, and immuni-
ties should be treated with respectful consideration.

13. The Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power
over the Territories of the United States for their government, and
in the exercise of this power it is the right and duty of Congress to
prohibit and extirpate, in the Territories, that relic of barbarism,
polygamy ; and we demand such legislation as shall secure this end
and the supremacy of American institutions in all the Territories.

14. The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and
sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold

372 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

those who imperilled their lives for the country's preservation in
the kindest remembrance.

15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feeling and tendencies.
We therefore note with deep solicitude that the Democratic party
counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the electoral vote of a
united South, secured through the efforts of those who were re-
cently arrayed against the nation ; and we invoke the earnest atten-
tion of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved
would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and
human rights.

1G. We charge the Democratic party with being the same in
character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason ; with
making its control of the House of Representatives the triumph
and opportunity of the nation's recent foes ; with reasserting and
applauding in the national Capitol the sentiments of unrepentant
rebellion ; with sending Union soldiers to the rear, and promoting
Confederate soldiers to the front ; with deliberately proposing to
repudiate the plighted faith of the government ; with being equally
false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial questions;
with thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement
and obstruction of investigation ; with proving itself, through the
period of its ascendency in the lower House of Congress, utterly
incompetent to administer the government; and we warn the
country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant,
and incapable.

17. The national administration merits commendation for its
honorable work in the management of domestic and foreign affairs,
and President Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the
American people for his patriotism and his eminent services, in war
and in peace.

18. We present as our candidates for President and Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States two distinguished statesmen, of eminent
ability and character, and conspicuously fitted for those high
offices, and we confidently appeal to the American people to en-
trust the administration of their public affairs to Rutherford B.
Hayes and William A. Wheeler.

The last resolution, of course, was added to the series after
the nominations had been made. When the resolutions had
been read, Mr. Edward L. Pierce, of Massachusetts, moved to
strike out the eleventh resolution, relating to the Chinese.
After a brief debate the motion was rejected, yeas 215, nays
532. Mr. E. J. Davis, of Texas, moved to strike out the fourth
resolution, and to substitute the following : —

That it is the duty of Congress to provide for carrying out the

THE DISPUTED ELECTION

373

act known as the Resumption Act of Congress, to the end that the
resumption of specie payments may not be longer delayed.

A debate took place upon this proposition also, but the
motion was rejected without a count, and the platform was
then adopted. The proceedings of the second day closed with
the formal nomination of candidates. Some of the speeches
were remarkable efforts, and excited the partisans of the several
candidates to the highest pitch of enthusiasm.

On the third day the nominations were made. On the first
vote Mr. Blaine received 285 ; Mr. Morton 125 ; Mr. Bristow
113 ; Mr. Conkling 99 ; Mr. Hayes 61 ; Mr. Hartranft 58 ; Mr.
Jewell 11 ; and Mr. William A. Wheeler, of New York, 3. Mr.
Blaine's strength was made up of 77 votes from the South,
and of 208 from Northern States, including some votes from
almost every State except those which presented candidates
of their own. Mr. Morton had 30 votes from Indiana, and
95 from Southern States. Mr. Bristow's votes were given by
seventeen States and one Territory, and were strictly scatter-
ing, except the votes of Kentucky, his own State, 17 from
Massachusetts, and 10 from Tennessee. Mr. Conkling's 99
were made up of 69 from New York and a few scattering
votes from nine other States; the South contributing 25 of
the 30. Mr. Hayes had 17 votes from other States than
Ohio. The other candidates received no votes except from
their respective States. Seven trials were necessary to effect
a choice. They resulted as follows : —

1st.

2d.

3d.

4th.

5th.

286
95

114
82

104
69

755

378

6th.

7th.

285

125

113

754

378

296

120

114

754

378

293

113

121

755

378

292

108

126

754

378

308
85

111
81

113
50

755

878

351

Bristow
Conkling"

. . .

384i

Hartranft
Jewell .
Scattering

Whole nun
Necessary

iber . .

756
379

The nomination of Mr. Hayes was made unanimous. It
seemed to be inevitable when the fifth ballot was announced.

374 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Mr. Haves was the only candidate who had made a gain on
even' vote ; and as he was entirely unobjectionable to the friends
of all other candidates, it was less difficult to concentrate votes
upon him than upon any other person in the list. Mr. Blaine,
who was informed by telegraph at his house in Washington
of the progress of the voting, wrote a dispatch congratulating
Mr. Hayes immediately on receiving the result of the fifth
vote.

During the progress of the voting a stormy scene took place
upon the demand of four Pennsylvania delegates to have their
votes separately recorded. The delegation had been instructed
to vote " as a unit," and these delegates claimed the right to
vote for themselves. Mr. McPherson, the president of the
convention, sustained their demand, and, on an appeal, his
decision was affirmed, 395 to 354. Thus was broken the
famous " unit rule," which, after one more contest at Chicago,
four years later, was abandoned by the Republicans, no doubt
forever.

Several candidates were presented for the nomination for
Vice-President, but, as the voting proceeded, nearly all the
votes were for William A. Wheeler, of New York. The other
candidates were thereupon withdrawn, and Mr. Wheeler was
unanimously nominated. The convention soon afterward ad-
journed, with cheers for the ticket.

The Democrats met at St. Louis two weeks later. The
convention was deprived of much of its interest by the fact
that Mr. Tilden's lead for the nomination was so great. He
was known to have more than four hundred delegates out of
the whole convention of 744, and, while his candidacy was
opposed, the opposition came from States which nevertheless
sent delegations unanimously in his favor. The delegates
who were not for him were not against him. His nomina-
tion was therefore universally expected, except by the more
sanguine friends of other candidates.

Mr. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, was the temporary chair-
man, and General John A. McClernand, of Illinois, the perma-
nent president. On the second day the platform was reported
by Mr. Dorsheimer, of New York, as follows : —

We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States,
in national convention assembled, do hereby declare the adminis-
tration of the federal government to be in urgent need of im-
mediate reform; do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 375

convention, and of the Democratic party in each State, a zealous
effort and cooperation to this end ; and do hereby appeal to our
fellow-citizens of every former political connection to undertake
with us this first and most pressing patriotic duty.

For the Democracy of the whole country, we do here reaffirm
our faith in the permanence of the federal Union, our devotion to
the Constitution of the United States, with its amendments uni-
versally accepted as a final settlement of the controversies that
engendered civil war, and do here record our steadfast confidence
in the perpetuity of republican self-government.

In absolute acquiescence ill the will of the majority, — the vital
principle of republics ; in the supremacy of the civil over the mili-
tary authority; in the total separation of Church and State, for the
sake alike of civil and religious freedom ; in the equality of all
citizens before just laws of their own enactment ; in the liberty of
individual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary laws ; in the faithful
education of the rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy,
and transmit these best conditions of human happiness and hope,
— we behold the noblest products of a hundred years of changeful
history ; but, while upholding the bond of our Union and great
charter of these our rights, it behooves a free people to practice
also that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.

Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the hearts of the
whole people the Union, eleven years ago happily rescued from the
danger of a secession of States, but now to be saved from a corrupt
centralism which, after inflicting upon ten States the rapacity of
carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed the offices of the federal
government itself with incapacity, waste, and fraud; infected
States and municipalities with the contagion of misrule, and locked
fast the prosperity of an industrious people in the paralysis of hard
times.

Reform is necessary to establish a sound currency, restore the
public credit, and maintain the national honor.

We denounce the failure, for all these eleven years of peace, to
make good the promise of the legal tender notes, which are a
changing standard of value in the hands of the people, and the
non-payment of which is a disregard of the plighted faith of
the nation.

We denounce the improvidence which, in eleven years of peace,
has taken from the people in federal taxes thirteen times the
whole amount of the legal tender notes, and squandered four times
their sum in useless expense without accumulating any reserve for
their redemption.

We denounce the financial imbecility and immorality of that
party which, during eleven years of peace, has made no advance

376 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

toward resumption, no preparation for resumption, but instead has
obstructed resumption, by wasting our resources and exhausting
all our surplus income ; and, while annually professing to intend a
speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hin-
drances thereto. As such hindrance, we denounce the resumption
clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal.

We demand a judicious system of preparation by public eco-
nomy, by official retrenchment, and by wise finance, which shall
enable the nation soon to assure the whole world of its perfect
ability and its perfect readiness to meet any of its promises at
the call of the creditor entitled to payment.

We believe such a system, well devised, and, above all, entrusted
to competent hands for its execution, creating at no time an arti-
ficial scarcity of currency, and at no time alarming the public
mind into a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of credit by which
ninety-five per cent, of all business transactions are performed, — a
system open, public, and inspiring general confidence, — would,
from the day of its adoption, bring healing on its wings to all our
harassed industries, set in motion the wheels of commerce, manu-
factures, and the mechanic arts, restore employment to labor, and
renew in all its natural resources the prosperity of the people.

Reform is necessary in the sum and modes of federal taxation,
to the end that capital may be set free from distrust, and labor
lightly burdened.

We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four thou,
sand articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and false
pretence. It yields a dwindling, not a yearly rising revenue. It
has impoverished many industries to subsidize a few. It prohibits
imports that might purchase the products of American labor. It
has degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior
rank on the high seas. It has cut down the sales of American
manufactures at home and abroad and depleted the returns of
American agriculture, — an industry followed by half our people.
It costs the people five times more than it produces to the treasury,
obstructs the processes of production, and wastes the fruits of
labor. It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest
officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all
custom-house taxation shall be only for revenue.

Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense, — federal,
state, and municipal. Our federal taxation has swollen from sixty
millions gold, in 1860, to four hundred and fifty millions cur-
rency, in 1870 ; our aggregate taxation from one hundred and fifty-
four millions gold, in 1860, to seven hundred and thirty millions
currency, in 1870 ; or in one decade from less than five dollars per
head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace, the

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 377

people have paid to their tax-gatherers more than thrice the sum
of the national debt, and more than twice that sum for the fed-
eral government alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in every
department, and from every officer of the government.

Reform is necessary to put a stop to the profligate waste of the
public lands, and their diversion from actual settlers by the party
in power, which has squandered two hundred million acres upon
railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has
disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers of the soil.

Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican
Congress, and the errors of our treaties and diplomacy, which have
stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth and kindred race, re-
crossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and
have exposed our brethren of the Pacific Coast to the incursions of
a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and, in fact, ■
now by law denied citizenship through naturalization as being
neither accustomed to the traditions of a progressive civilization
nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy
which thus discards the liberty-loving German and tolerates a
revival of the cooly trade in Mongolian women imported for im-
moral purposes, and Mongolian men held to perform servile labor-
contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the
Chinese empire or such legislation within constitutional limitations
as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mon-
golian race.

Reform is necessary, and can never be effected but by making it
the controlling issue of the elections, and lifting it above the two
false issues with which the office-holding class and the party in
power seek to smother it : —

1. The false issue with which they wrould enkindle sectarian
strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment
and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which
the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation, and is
resolved to maintain without prejudice or preference for any class,
sect, or creed, and without largesses from the treasury to any.

2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the dying
embers of sectional hate between kindred peoples once estranged,
but now reunited in one indivisible republic and a common
destiny.

Reform is necessary in the civil service. Experience proves that
efficient, economical conduct of the governmental business is not
possible if its civil service be subject to change at every election ;
be a prize fought for at the ballot-box ; be a brief reward of party
zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned for proved competency,
and held for fidelity in the public employ ; that the dispensing of

378 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

patronage should neither be a tax upon the time of all our public
men, nor the instrument of their ambition. Here, again, promises
falsified in the performance attest that the party in power e«&
work out no practical or salutary reform.

Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the pub-
lic service. President, Vice-President, judges, senators, represent-
atives, cabinet officers, — these and all others in authority are the
people's servants. Their offices are not a private perquisite ; they
are a public trust.

When the annals of this republic show the disgrace and censure
of a Vice-President ; a late Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives marketing his rulings as a presiding officer ; three senators
profiting secretly by their votes as law-makers ; five chairmen of
the leading committees of the House of Representatives exposed
in jobbery; a late secretary of the treasury forcing balances in
the public accounts ; a late attorney-general misappropriating pub-
lic funds ; a secretary of the navy enriched or enriching friends
by percentages levied off the profits of contractors with his depart-
ment; an ambassador to England censured in a dishonorable
speculation ; the President's private secretary barely escaping con-
viction upon trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the revenue ;
a secretary of war impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors,
— the demonstration is complete that the first step in reform must
be the people's choice of honest men from another party, lest the
disease of one political organization infect the body politic, and
lest, by making no change of men or parties, we get no change of
measures and no real reform.

All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes, the product of sixteen
years' ascendency of the Republican party, create a necessity for
reform confessed by Republicans themselves ; but their reformers
are voted down in convention and displaced from the cabinet.
The party's mass of honest voters is powerless to resist the eighty
thousand office-holders, its leaders and guides.

Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. We
demand a change of system, a change of administration, a change
of parties, that we may have change of measures and of men.

Resolved, That this convention, representing the Democratic
party of the United States, do cordially indorse the action of the
present House of Representatives in reducing and curtailing the
expenses of the federal government, in cutting down salaries, ex-
travagant appropriations, and in abolishing useless offices and
places not required by the public necessities : and we shall trust
to the firmness of the Democratic members of the House that no
committee of conference, and no misinterpretation of the rules,
shall be allowed to defeat these wholesome measures of economy
demanded by the country.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 379

Resolved, That the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and the
•widows and orphans of those who have fallen in battle, have a
just claim upon the care, protection, and gratitude of their fellow-
citizens.

When the report was read, General Thomas Ewing, of Ohio,
moved to strike from the platform, in the eighth paragraph,
the words, " As such hindrance, we denounce the resumption
clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal," in
order to insert the words : " The law for the resumption of
specie payments on the 1st of January, 1879, having been en-
acted by the Republican party without deliberation in Congress
or discussion before the people, and being both ineffective to
secure its objects and highly injurious to the business of the
country, ought to be forthwith repealed. " This was in accord-
ance with a minority report signed by eight members of the
committee on resolutions, representing the " Ohio idea." The
amendment was rejected, ayes 219, noes 550 ; and the plat-
form as reported was adopted, ayes 651, noes 83.

The convention then proceeded to the work of nominating
a candidate for President. After the formal presentation of
names, two votes were taken amid great excitement, with the
following result : —

First. Second.

Samuel J. Tilden, New York 417 535

Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana . ... 140 60

Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania ... 75 59

William Allen, Ohio 56 54

Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware 33 11

Joel Parker, New Jersey 18 18

Allen G. Thurrnan, Ohio — 7

The whole number of votes on the second ballot being 744,
the number necessary to a choice was 496, — the two-thirds
rule having been adopted. Mr. Tilden was accordingly nomi-
nated, and the choice was enthusiastically made unanimous.
On the next day Thomas A. Hendricks was nominated for
Vice-President by a unanimous vote, though the Indiana dele-
gation protested that they did not know if he would accept
the second place on the ticket, and the convention shortly
afterward adjourned.

The canvass which followed was comparatively spiritless.
Mr. Hayes was not sufficiently well known to arouse enthusi-
asm, and Mr. Tilden, though commanding respect for his

380 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

ability, was not a candidate to draw to himself strong personal
supporters. The Republicans were on the defensive ; but
this fact served to make the political discussion of the time
more strictly a debate about measures and policies than it had
been for many years. The Democrats denounced the record
of the Republicans ; the Republicans derided the reform pro-
fessions of their opponents as insincere. Great efforts were
made by the Republicans to cast discredit upon Mr. Tilden for
his connection with certain railroad enterprises ; and a suit was
brought against him for income tax alleged to be due by him to
the government. The Democrats sneered at Mr. Hayes as an
unknown man, and roundly denounced the political assessments
which were levied mercilessly upon the office-holders for funds
to carry the elections. The Republicans made much of the
opposition of the Democrats to the resumption policy, though
it was well known that Mr. Tilden was a " hard-money man."
But on the whole there was less than the usual amount of ex-
citement during the canvass, and less of the usual fireworks of
presidential campaigns. Not many Republicans were confi-
dent of success, and the result of the early elections, particu-
larly that of Indiana in October, indicated that the Democrats
would have enough Northern votes, together with the " solid
South," to give them a victory.

Thirty-eight States participated in the election. Colorado
had been admitted to the Union in August, 1876, and, in
order to save an additional election, the choice of electors for
that occasion was conferred upon the legislature. All the other
States appointed them by popular vote. The polls had hardly
closed on the day of election, the 7th of November, when the
Democrats began to claim the presidency. The returns came
in so unfavorably for the Republicans that there was hardly
a newspaper organ of the party which did not, on the following
morning, concede the election of Mr. Tilden. He was be-
lieved to have carried every Southern State, as well as New
York, Indiana, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The whole
number of electoral votes was 369. If the above estimate
were correct, the Democratic candidates would have 203 votes,
and the Republican candidates 166 votes. But word was
sent out on the same day from Republican headquarters at
Washington that Hayes and Wheeler were elected by one ma-
jority ; that the States of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisi-
ana had chosen Republican electors.

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 381

Then began the most extraordinary contest that ever took
place in the country. The only hope of the Republicans was
in the perfect defence of their position. The loss of a single
vote would be fatal. An adequate history of the four months
between the popular election and the inauguration of Mr.
Hayes would fill volumes. Space can be given here for a
bare reference only to some of the most important events.
Neither party was over-scrupulous, and no doubt the acts of
some members of each party were grossly illegal and corrupt.
Attempts were even made to find a Republican elector who
would vote for Mr. Tilden in consideration of a large sum of
money as a bribe. The funds were provided, and mysterious
correspondence by telegraph was held between men who were
connected with Democratic political committees and those in
the several States who were seeking for a venal elector. The
■whole scandal came to light afterward when the key to the
famous " cipher dispatches " was discovered.

In four States, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and
Oregon, there were double returns. In South Carolina there
were loud complaints that detachments of the army, stationed
near the polls, had prevented a fair and free election.
Although the board of state canvassers certified to the choice
of the Hayes electors, who were chosen on the face of the
returns, the Democratic candidates for electors met on the day
fixed for the meeting of electors and cast ballots for Tilden
and Hendricks. In Florida there were allegations of fraud on
both sides. The canvassing board and the governor certified
to the election of the Hayes electors, but, fortified by a court
decision in their favor, the Democratic electors also met and
voted. In Louisiana there was anarchy. There were two gov-
ernors, two returning boards, two sets of returns showing dif-
ferent results, and two electoral colleges. ' In Oregon the
Democratic governor adjudged one of the Republican electors
ineligible, and gave a certificate to the highest candidate on
the Democratic list. The Republican electors, having no cer-
tificate from the governor, met and voted for Hayes and
Wheeler. The Democratic elector, whose appointment was
certified to by the governor, appointed two others to fill the
vacancies, since the two Republican electors would not meet
with him, and the three voted for Tilden and Hendricks. All
of these cases were extremely complicated in their incidents,
and a brief account which should convey an intelligible idea of

882 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

what occurred is impossible. For the first and only time in
the history of the country, the election ended in such a way
as to leave the result in doubt ; and in two States the number
of legal votes given for the electors was in dispute. In these
States the returns were also open to the suspicion of having
been manipulated by each party to bring about a desired result.
The table of the popular vote on the next page shows both
returns in the disputed States.

As soon as the electoral votes had been cast it became a ques-
tion of the greatest importance how they were to be counted.
Congress was divided, politically. The Senate and its Presi-
dent pro tempore, Mr. Ferry, of Michigan, were Republican ;
the House of Representatives was Democratic. It was evi-
dent that the Senate would refuse to be governed by the
twenty-second joint rule, — in fact the Senate voted to rescind
the rule, — and it was further evident that if the count were
to take place in accordance with that rule it would result in
throwing out electoral votes on both sides on the most frivolous
pretexts. It was asserted by the Republicans that, under the
Constitution, the President of the Senate alone had the right
to count, in spite of the fact that the joint rule, the work of
their party, had assumed the power for the two Houses of
Congress. On the other hand, the Democrats, who had always
denounced that rule as unconstitutional, now maintained that
the right to count was conferred upon Congress. A compro-
mise became necessary, and the moderate men on both sides
determined to effect the establishment of a tribunal, as evenly
divided politically as might be, which should decide all dis-
puted questions so far as the Constitution gave authority to
Congress to decide them. The outcome of their efforts was the
Electoral Commission law of 1877, which was passed as origi-
nally reported, as follows : —

An act to provide for and regulate the counting of votes for Presi-
dent and Vice-President, and the decision of questions arising
thereon, for the term commencing March 4, a. d. 1877.
Be it enacted, etc., That the Senate and House of Representa-
tives shall meet in the hall of the House of Representatives at the
hour of one o'clock, post meridian, on the first Thursday in Feb-
ruary, a. d. 1877, and the President of the Senate shall be their
presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on
the part of the Senate, and two on the part of the House of Repre-
sentatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the

THE DISPUTED ELECTION

383

States.

Alabama

Arkansas ,

California . . . . ,
Colorado* ....
Connecticut . . . .

Delaware ,

Florida! ,

FloridaJ

Georgia ,

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana! . . . . ,

Louisiana}:

Maine

Maryland ,

Massachusetts . . . .
Michigan ......

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada . . < . . . .
New Hampshire . . .

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina . . . .

Ohio

Oregon

Pennsylvania . . . .
Rhode Island . . . .
South Carolina . . . .

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia . . . .
Wisconsin . . . . .

Total Republican count
Total Democratic count

102,989
58,071
76,468

61,934

13,381

22,927

24,434

130,088

258,601

213,526

112,121

37,902

159,696

70,508

83,723

49,917

91,780

108,777

141,095

48,799

112,173

203,077

17,554

9,308

38,509

115,962

521,949

125,427

323,182

14,149

366,204

10,712

90,896

133,166

104,803

20,350

139,670

56,495

123,926

4,285,992
4,300,590

68,708
38,669
78,322

59,034

10,752

23,849

24,340

50,446

278,232

208,011

171,326

78,322

97,156

75,315

7-7,174

66,300

71,981

150,063

166,534

72,962

52,605

145,029

31,916

10,383

41,539

103,517

489,207

108,417

330,698

15,206

384,184

15,787

91,870

89,566

44,803

44,428

95,558

42,046

130,070

4,033,768
4,036,298

289
44

774

9,533
17,233
9,901
7,776
1,944

663
33

779
9,060
2,311

3,498
2,320

712

1,987

3,057
510

7,187

1,373
1,509

81,737
81,737

PIS

378

141

36
110
818

84
766

64
1,599

43
2,359

1,636

1,319
60

9,522
9,522

* Electors appointed by the legislature, t Republican count. % Democratic count.

384 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to
be certificates of electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall
be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of
the States, beginning with the letter A ; and said tellers having
then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses,
shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said
certificates ; and the votes having been ascertained and counted as
in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered
to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the
state of the vote and the names of the persons, if any, elected,
which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of
the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United
States, and, together with a list of the votes, shall be entered upon
the journals of the two Houses. Upon such reading of any such
certificate or paper, when there shall be only one return from a
State, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any.
Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly
and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and
shall be signed by at least one senator and one member of the
House of Representatives, before the same shall be received.
When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State
shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon with-
draw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its
decision, and the speaker of the House of Representatives shall in
like manner submit such objections to the House of Representa-
tives for its decision, and no electoral vote or votes from any State
from which but one return has been received shall be rejected
except by the affirmative vote of the two Houses. When the two
Houses have voted they shall immediately again meet, and the
presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question
submitted.

Sec. 2. That if more than one return or paper, purporting to be
a return from a State, shall have been received by the President
of the Senate, purporting to be the certificates of the electoral
votes given at the last preceding election for President and Vice-
President in such State, unless they shall be duplicates of the
same return, all such returns and papers shall be opened by him in
the presence of the two Houses, when met as aforesaid, and read
by the tellers ; and all such returns and papers shall thereupon be
submitted to the judgment and decision, as to which is the true
and lawful electoral vote of such State, of a commission constituted
as follows, namely : —

During the session of each House on the Tuesday next preceding
the first Thursday in February, a. d. 1877, each House shall by
viva voce vote appoint five of its members, who, with the five

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 385

associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, to
be ascertained as hereinafter provided, shall constitute a commis-
sion for the decision of all questions upon or in respect of such
double returns named in this section. On the Tuesday next pre-
ceding the first Thursday in February, a. d. 1877, or as soon there-
after as may be, the associate justices of the Supreme Court of the
United States, now assigned to the first, third, eighth, and ninth
circuits, shall select, in such manner as a majority of them shall
deem fit, another of the associate justices of said court, which five
persons shall be members of the said commission ; and the person
longest in commission of said five justices shall be the president of
said commission. Members of said commission shall respectively
take and subscribe the following oath : —

"I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be)

that I will impartially examine and consider all questions sub-
mitted to the commission of which I am a member, and a true
judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the laws,
so help me God."

Which oath shall be filed with the secretary of the Senate.
When the commission shall have been thus organized it shall not
be in the power of either House to dissolve the same, or to with-
draw any of its members ; but if any such senator or member shall
die, or become physically unable to perform the duties required
by this act, the fact of such death or physical inability shall be by
said commission, before it shall proceed further, communicated to
the Senate or House of Representatives, as the case may be, which
body shall immediately and without debate proceed by viva voce
vote to fill the place so vacated, and *}he person so appointed shall
take and subscribe the oath hereinbefore prescribed, and become a
member of said commission ; and, in like manner, if any of said
justices of the Supreme Court shall die or become physically inca-
pable of performing the duties required by this act, the other of
said justices, members of the said commission, shall immediately
appoint another justice of said court a member of said commission
(and in such appointments regard shall be had to the impartiality
and freedom from bias sought by the original appointments to said
commission), who shall thereupon immediately take and subscribe
to the oath hereinbefore prescribed, and become a member of said
commission to fill the vacancy so occasioned.

All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the
electoral votes of each State shall be opened in the alphabetical
order of the States as provided in section 1 of this act ; and when
there shall be more than one such certificate or paper, as the cer-
tificates or papers from such State shall so be opened (excepting
duplicates of the same return), they shall be read by the tellers,

386 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

and thereupon the president of the Senate shall call for objections
if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state
clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof,
and shall be signed by at least one senator and one member of the
House of Representatives before the same shall be received. When
all such objections so made to any certificates, vote, or paper from
a State shall have been received and read, all such certificates,
votes, and papers so objected to, and all papers accompanying the
same, together with such objections, shall be forthwith submitted
to said commission, which shall proceed to consider the same, with
the same powers, if any, now possessed for that purpose by the two
Houses, acting separately or together, and, by a majority of votes,
decide whether any and what votes from such State are the votes
provided for by the Constitution of the United States, and how
many and what persons were duly appointed electors in such State ;
and may therein take into view such petitions, depositions, and
other papers, if any, as shall, by the Constitution and now existing
law, be competent and pertinent in such consideration, which deci-
sion shall be made in writing, stating briefly the ground thereof,
and signed by the members of said commission agreeing therein ;
whereupon the two Houses shall again meet, and such decision
shall be read and entered in the journal of each House, and the
counting of the votes shall proceed in conformity therewith, unless,
upon objection made thereto in writing by at least five senators
and five members of the House of Representatives, the two Houses
shall separately concur in ordering otherwise, in which case such
concurrent order shall govern. No votes or papers from any other
State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to
the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally dis-
posed of.

Sec. 3. That while the two Houses shall be in meeting, as
provided in this act, no debate shall be allowed, and no question
shall be put by the presiding officer, except to either House on a
motion to withdraw, and he shall have power to preserve order.

Sec. 4. That when the two Houses separate to decide upon an
objection that may have been made to the counting of any elec-
toral vote or votes from any State, or upon objection to a report of
said commission, or other question arising under this act, each
senator or representative may speak to such objection or question
ten minutes, and not oftener than once; but, after such debate
shall have lasted two hours, it shall be the duty of each House to
put the main question without further debate.

Sec. 5. That at such joint meeting of the two Houses, seats
shall be provided as follows : for the President of the Senate, the
Speaker's chair ; for the Speaker, immediately upon his left ; for the

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 387

senators in the body of the hall, upon the right of the presiding
officer ; for the representatives, in the body of the hall not provided
for the senators ; for the tellers, secretary of the Senate, and clerk
of the House of Representatives, at the clerk's desk ; for the other
officers of the two Houses, in front of the clerk's desk, and upon
each side of the speaker's platform. Such joint meeting shall not
be dissolved until the count of the electoral votes shall be com-
pleted and the result declared ; and no recess shall be taken unless
a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes
or otherwise under this act, in which case it shall be competent
for either House, acting separately in the manner hereinbefore
provided, to direct a recess of such House, not beyond the next day,
Sunday excepted, at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon ; and
while any question is being considered by said commission, either
House may proceed with its legislative or other business.

Sec. 6. That nothing in this act shall be held to impair or affect
any right now existing under the Constitution and laws to question
by proceeding in the judicial courts of the United States the right
or title of the person who shall be declared elected, or who shall
claim to be President or Vice-President of the United States, if
any such right exists.

Sec. 7. That said commission shall make its own rules, keep a
record of its proceedings, and shall have power to employ such
persons as may be necessary for the transaction of its business and
the ex3cution of its powers.

In neither House was the bill treated as a partisan measure.
In the House of Representatives 191 members voted in favor
of it, of whom there were 158 Democrats and 33 Republicans ;
86 members — 68 Republicans and 18 Democrats — voted in
the negative. In the Senate an attempt was made to forbid
the commission to " go behind the returns," but the amend-
ment was rejected, yeas 18, all Republicans ; nays 47, of whom
.27 were Democrats and 20 Republicans. The bill was passed
by the Senate, yeas 47, — 26 Democrats and 21 Republicans ;
nays 17, — 16 Republicans and 1 Democrat. The bill became
a law, by the approval of the President, on the 29th of Janu-
ary. On the next day each House proceeded to choose five
members of the commission. The Senate macle choice of Sena-
tors George F. Edmunds, Oliver P. Morton, and Frederick T.
Frelinghuysen, Republicans, and Allen G. Thurman and
Thomas F. Bayard, Democrats. The House of Representatives
chose Messrs. Henry B. Payne, Eppa Hunton, and Josiah G.
Abbott, Democrats, and James A. Garfield and George F.

388 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Hoar, Republicans. The four justices of the Supreme Court
designated by the act were Justices NatKan Clifford, William
Strong, Samuel F. Miller, and Stephen J. Field, of whom
Messrs. Clifford and Field were Democrats in national politics ;
and they selected Justice Joseph P. Bradley as the fifth mem-
ber of the commission on the part of the Supreme Court. Mr.
Bradley was a Republican. The natural choice of the justices
would have been their associate, David Davis ; but he had
been elected five days before as a senator from Illinois, and it
was regarded by him and by others as improper that he should
serve. Thus the commission consisted of eight Republicans
and seven Democrats. If Judge Davis had been selected, the
majority would have been reversed, and the ultimate result
might have been different.

When the count began, on the 1st of February, 1877, each
party was confident of victory. The Democrats relied upon a
great variety of objections which had been prepared, the sus-
taining of any one of which would be sufficient to give the
election to Mr. Tilden. The Republican hope was in a refusal
of the commission to "go behind the returns." Senator
Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan, President pro tempore of the
Senate, was the presiding officer, Vice-President Wilson having
died in 1875. The count proceeded, under the law, in the
alphabetical order of the States. When the vote of Florida was
reached, the certificates of the Hayes and also those of the Til-
den electors were read. Objections were made to each. The
Democrats asserted that the Hayes electors were not duly
chosen ; that the certificate of the governor to their election
was the result of a conspiracy ; that its validity, if any, had
been annulled by a subsequent certificate by the governor, to
the effect that the Tilden electors were chosen ; that a court
decision made certain the election of the Democratic electors ;
and that one of the Republican electors was a shipping com-
missioner under appointment from the government of the
United States at the time of his election, and was therefore
disqualified. \The Republican objection to the Tilden votes
was that the returns were not duly authenticated by any per-
son holding at the time an office under the State of Florida.
It was only on the 7th of February that the commission, after
long arguments by eminent counsel selected to appear for the
two parties, decided the case of Florida. The decision was
that it was not competent for the commission "to go into evi-

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 389

dence aliunde the papers opened by the President of the Sen-
ate, to prove that other persons than those regularly certified
to by the governor " were appointed. With reference to the
case of the elector alleged to have been disqualified, it was de-
cided that the evidence did not show that he held an office on
the day of his appointment. The several votes were passed
by eight to seven, — all the Republicans being on one side,
and all the Democrats on the other. The formal decision,
which wa3 submitted to the two Houses, was that the four
Hayes electors, naming them, were duly appointed electors,
and that their votes were the constitutional votes. The
Houses met on February 10, and received this decision.
Formal objection was then made to the decision of the Elec-
toral Commission, and the Houses separated to consider it.
The Senate, by a strict party vote, decided that the votes
should be counted. The House of Representatives, by a vote
which was on party lines, except that one Democrat voted
with the Republicans, voted that the electoral votes given by
the Tilden electors should be counted. The two Houses not
having agreed in rejecting the decision of the commission, it
stood, and the joint session was resumed.

The votes of Florida having been recorded, the count pro-
ceeded until Louisiana was reached. The Republican objec-
tions to the Tilden votes from Louisiana were, like those to
the votes of Florida, brief and formal. The government, of
which W. P. Kellogg was the head, had been recognized by
every department of the government of the United States as
the true government of Louisiana, and the certificates of the
Hayes electors certified by him were in due form. The Demo-
crats made a great variety of objections to the Hayes votes.
They asserted that John McEnery was the lawful governor
of the State ; that the certificates asserting the appointment of
the Hayes electors were false ; and that the canvass of votes
by the returning board was without jurisdiction and void.
Special objection was made to three of the electors : to two of
them as being disqualified, under the Constitution ; and to the
third, Governor Kellogg, because he certified to his own elec-
tion. Several days were consumed in argument before the
commission. On the 16th of February the commission voted,
once more by eight to seven, that the evidence offered to prove
that the Tilden electors were chosen be not received, and that
the certificates of the Hayes electors were the true votes of

390 " A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Louisiana. The decision having been communicated to the
two Houses, the count was resumed on the 19th. Objection
was made to the decision of the commission, and the two
Houses separated again to act upon them. The Senate voted,
by 41 to 28, that the decision of the commission should stand.
The House voted that the electoral votes cast by the Hayes
electors for Louisiana ought not to be counted, — 173 to 99.
In each case this was a party vote except that two Republicans
in the House voted with the Democrats.

The Houses then met again on the 20th, and resumed the
count, which proceeded without dispute as far as the State of
Michigan, when objection was made from the Democratic side
to one vote from that State, on the ground that one of the
persons chosen by the people held a Federal office at the time of
his appointment, and that the act of the other electors in filling
the alleged vacancy caused by his failure to act was not justi-
fied. This not being a case of double returns, the two Houses
separated to decide it for themselves. The objection was
overruled by each House. A somewhat similar case of an
elector for Nevada was the next stumbling-block in the count,
and it too was decided in favor of the elector objected to.
Oregon was reached in the count on the 21st. An outline
sketch of the extremely complicated situation of affairs in
Oregon has been given already. There were objections from
both sides to the votes, and the papers were referred to the
Electoral Commission, by whom further argument was heard.
The commission unanimously rejected the made-up vote of
the Tilden board of electors, but decided, eight to seven, that
the full board of Hayes electors were the legal electors for the
State. The decision was objected to, when communicated to
the two Houses. Once more they separated, and each decided,
substantially by a party vote, as before, — the Senate for ac-
cepting the decision, and the House of Representatives for
rejecting it. They then met again, and resumed the count.
In the vote of Pennsylvania another case was encountered of an
elector alleged to have been ineligible by reason of his having
been a centennial commissioner. The other electors treated
the place as vacant, and chose another person to act in it. The
Senate agreed, without a division, to a resolution that the vote
be counted. The House rejected it, 135 to 119, the affirmative
consisting entirely of Democrats, and the negative containing
only 15 of that party. The full vote of Pennsylvania was

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 391

accordingly counted under the law, the two Houses not having
agreed to reject. Rhode Island furnished a case not very dif-
ferent, but the two Houses this time concurred unanimously
in deciding that the disputed vote should be counted.

To the Hayes votes in South Carolina the Democrats next
objected that there was no legal election in the State, that
there was not, in South Carolina, during the year 1876, a
republican form of government, and that the army and the
United States deputy marshals stationed at and near the polls
prevented the free exercise of the right of suffrage. The
Republicans asserted that the Tilden board was not duly ap-
pointed, and that the certificates were wholly defective in form
and lacking the necessary official certification. The papers
having been referred to the Electoral Commission, that body
met again on the 26th. Senator Thurman was obliged to
retire from service upon the commission, on account of illness,
and Senator Francis Kernan took his place. After a day de-
voted to arguments, the commission voted unanimously that/
the Tilden electors were not the true electors of South Caro-
lina, and, by the old majority of eight to seven, that the
Hayes electors were the constitutional electors duly appointed.
The two Houses separated upon renewed objections to the
decision of the commission, and as before the Senate sustained
the finding ; the House voted to reject it.

There were two further objections, the first to a vote cast
by an elector for Vermont, substituted for an ineligible person
who had been chosen by the people, on which the result was
vhe same as in the other similar cases ; the other was a case
of the same kind in Wisconsin, which was decided in like
manner. The Vermont case was complicated by the presenta-
tion, by Mr. Hewitt, of New York, of a packet purporting to
contain a return of electoral votes given in Vermont. The
President of the Senate having received no such vote, nor any
vote different from that of the regularly chosen Hayes electors,
refused to receive it.

The count had begun on the first day of February, and the
final vote upon Wisconsin was not reached until the early
morning of March 2. As question after question was decided
uniformly in favor of the Republicans, it became evident to
the Democrats that their case was lost. They charged gross
partisanship upon the Republican members of the Electoral
Commission, in determining every point involved in the dual

392

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

returns for their own party, though as a matter of fact there
does not seem to have been much room for choice between the
two parties on the score of partisanship. Each member of the
commission favored by his vote that view which would result
in adding to the electoral vote of his own party. But as the

(result of the count became more and more certainly a Republi-
can triumph, the anger of the Democrats rose. Some of them
were for discontinuing the count ; and the symptoms of a dis-
position to filibuster so that there should be no declaration of
the result gave reason for public disquietude. But the con-
servative members of the party were too patriotic to allow the
failure of a law which they had been instrumental in passing
to lead to anarchy or revolution, and they sternly discounte-
nanced all attempts to defeat the conclusion of the count.
xThe summing up of the votes was read by Mr. Allison, of
Iowa, one of the tellers on the part of the Senate, at a little
after four o'clock, on the morning of the 2d of March, amid
great excitement. That result, as declared, was as follows : —

States.

Alabama .

Arkansas .

California .

Colorado .
Connecticut

Delaware .

Florida . .

Georgia . .

Illinois . .

Indiana . .

Iowa . . .

Kansas . .

Kentucky .

Louisiana .

Maine . .

Maryland .
Massachusetts

Michigan .

Minnesota .
Mississippi .

6
3

States.

Missouri . .
Nebraska . .
Nevada . . .
New Hampshire
New Jersey .
New York
North Carolina
Ohio. . . .
Oregon . . .
Pennsylvania .
Rhode Island .
South Carolina
Tennessee . .
Texas . . .
Vermont . .
Virginia . .
West Virginia
Wisconsin . .

Total,

22
8

29
4

185

9
35
10

11
5

184

THE DISPUTED ELECTION 393

Mr. Ferry thereupon declared Rutherford B. Hayes elected
President, and William A. Wheeler Vice-President, of the
United States. The decision was acquiesced in peaceably by
the whole country, and by men of every party. But the
Democrats have never ceased to denounce the whole affair as a
fraud, and some newspapers have steadily refused to speak of
Mr. Hayes as having ever been rightfully in possession of the
presidential office. Their anger at the time was very great,
and it was excusable, since they honestly believed that Mr.
Tilden was fairly elected. It is to be hoped that the patriot-
ism of the American people and their love of peace may never
again be put to so severe a test as was that to which they were
subjected in 1876 and 1877.

XXVI

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL

The circumstances that attended the election of 1876 led to
the introduction in Congress of many propositions intended
to render impossible a recurrence of the danger which was
then met and overcome, and to forestall other evils which
have often been apprehended, but have never happened. Certain
difficulties that arose in consequence of the silence of the Con-
stitution might be obviated by law ; others must be cured by
amendment of the Constitution itself. Although the warning
was a serious one, and although many members brought for-
ward measures to meet the case, not one of the bills and reso-
lutions introduced was acted upon finally. Nevertheless, it
may be well to notice the suggestions which were made during
Mr. Hayes's administration, — during the special session of
Congress, October 15, 1877, and the regular session, which
followed without an interval.

Mr. Cravens, of Arkansas, offered a resolution of amendment
to the Constitution, providing that the people should vote
directly for President and Vice-President. Each State was to
have a number of presidential votes equal to its electoral votes
under the present system, which votes were to be apportioned
in each State among the several candidates, in the proportion
of the votes given to each ; the legislature of each State was
to direct the manner in which the presidential vote of that
State was to be ascertained ; on a day to be fixed by Congress,
or, in case of disagreement between the two Houses, on a day
to be named by the President, not less than fifteen nor more
than thirty days before the 4th of March, a joint meeting of
the two Houses was to be held, the President of the Senate
was to open the presidential votes certified to by the governor
of the State, and one list from each State was then to be
counted under the direction of the two Houses ; a majority of
all the presidential votes was requisite to a choice. In case

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 395

no choice had been made by such a majority, then the two
Houses, in joint convention, were to elect a President by viva
voce vote, each senator and member having one vote, the
choice being limited to the two highest on the list, unless two
persons should have an equal number of votes next to the
highest ; one senator and a majority of the representatives
from two thirds of the States were to constitute a quorum for
the purposes of this election. In case no person should re-
ceive a majority of the Congress so voting, the President in
office was to continue to be President until a choice was
effected. The election of Vice-President was to be made in
the same manner and at the same time as that of President.
Whenever the office of Vice-President became vacant, there
was to be an election by joint convention of Congress, within
ten days after the next meeting of Congress, or within twenty
days if Congress should be in session at the time the vacancy
occurred.

Mr. Springer, of Illinois, made a proposition, of which the
leading features were : a presidential term of six years, the
President not to be immediately reeligible ; each State to have a
number of presidential votes equal to its electoral votes accord-
ing to the present system, except that States having but one
tepresentative in Congress were to have but one presidential
vote, and States having but two representatives were to have
but three votes ; a direct vote for President and Vice-Presi-
dent; a canvassing board in each State, with ministerial
powers only, — consisting of the governor, secretary of state,
and chief justice of the highest court, — to aggregate the votes,
apportion to each candidate his proportional part of the presi-
dential votes of the State, and to make return thereof to the
president of the Senate ; the two Houses to be in session on
the third Monday in January after a presidential election ; a
joint meeting to be held, to be presided over by the president
of the Senate, unless he should be a candidate for the office
of President, and in that case by the speaker of the House of
Representatives, and, if he were similarly disqualified, then by
a presiding officer chosen by the joint convention ; a plurality
of votes to elect both the President and the Vice-President ;
the joint convention to be the judge of the returns and quali-
fications of the persons who shall be President and Vice-Presi-
dent. If no conclusion upon the returns should be reached
by the second Monday in February, the convention was to

396 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

vote viva voce upon the question who was constitutionally
elected President and who Vice-President, — a majority of
those present to determine all questions.

Mr. Maish, of Pennsylvania, proposed a popular election of
President, without the intervention of electors. The votes
were to be returned to the secretary of state of each State and
to be by him opened in the presence of the governor and the
chief justice of the highest court, and these three officers were
to apportion electoral votes to each candidate in accordance with
the returns. The proposition did not deal with the matter of
a count of the votes.

Mr. Finley, of Ohio, proposed a direct vote of all the people
for President and Vice-President, disregarding state lines
altogether ; a plurality of votes was to elect in each case ; but if
two persons had an equal and the highest number of votes,
then the House of Representatives was to choose the President
from those two ; or, if the failure was in relation to the vice-
presidency, then the Senate was to make the choice. The
voting was to be viva voce, and each member was to have one
vote ; the canvass of returns for President and Vice-President
was to be made by Congress in a manner to be determined by
joint rules or by law, and, if the two Houses could not agree,
the matter in dispute was to be referred to the Supreme Court
for final decision.

Mr. Eaton, of Connecticut, proposed in the Senate an amend-
ment constituting a tribunal for the decision of controverted
questions arising out of the presidential election. Not less
than twelve months before the occurrence of such an election,
the governor of each State was to appoint, with the consent
of the Senate of the State, five qualified persons, who were
to hear and determine all questions of contests in relation to
the choice of electors, and to transmit their report, sealed, to the
president of the Senate.

A resolution offered by Mr. Riddle, of Tennessee, proposed
a direct election by the people, a clear majority being required
for a choice. In case such majority should not be obtained,
then a second election was to be held within two months of
the time of the first vote, when the choice should be limited
to the two highest on the list. In case of no choice, by reason
of a tie, on the second trial, the two Houses of Congress, in
joint convention, each member having one vote, were to elect.

Mr. Sampson, of Iowa, proposed that the relative electoral

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 397

power of the States should be as it now is ; that the people
should vote directly for the executive ; that the persons hav-
ing a plurality for the offices of President and Vice-President
in any State should receive the full presidential vote of that
State, or, in case of a tie, that the votes should be equally
divided among those having the highest number ; and if no
person received a majority of presidential votes, the choice of
either President or Vice-President was to be made in the same
manner as the Constitution now provides for cases where the
electors have not made a choice.

In May, 1878, Mr. Southard, of Ohio, from a committee of
the House of Representatives, appointed for the purpose,
reported a plan. It dispensed with secondary electors. Each
State was to be entitled to as many presidential votes as it
would have electors under the present system. The people hav-
ing voted directly for President and Vice-President, the vote
for each candidate in any State was to be ascertained by multi-
plying the number of votes given for any person by the num-
ber of presidential votes assigned to the State, and dividing the
product by the whole number of votes cast ; and the fractions
were to be ascertained to the third place of decimals. The
returns were to be made to the secretary of state of each State,
who was to open them in the presence of the governor and the
state auditor or controller ; and the apportionment of presi-
dential votes was to be made by them as a canvassing board.
Disputed questions might be passed upon by the highest judi-
cial tribunal in each State, and the decision was to be sent to
the president of the Senate at Washington. The votes were
to be counted by the two Houses of Congress, assembled under
the presidency of the president of the Senate, and all votes
were to be counted unless the two Houses concurred in reject-
ing them ; or, if there was a decision by the highest court of
the State upon a contest, that decision was to stand unless the
two Houses concurred in overruling it. If there were dual
returns, or two decisions purporting to be by the highest court,
that was to be accepted which the two Houses should decide
to be the true return or the true decision. A plurality of votes
was to elect the President, and in case of a tie the election was
to be made in the manner now provided for the case of a fail-
ure to elect by the electors. This proposition was never even
debated in the House.

A determined effort was made by the Senate, during the

398 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

session of 1878-79, to amend the law relative to the count of
votes, by a statute covering the whole subject. The bill was
managed by Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont. A brief account of
its provisions only can be given. It changed the time for the
appointment of electors in the several States to the first Tues-
day of October in every fourth year. If a vacancy should
occur in both the offices of President and Vice-President more
than two months before the first Tuesday of October in any
year other than that in which electors would be regularly
appointed, a new election was to be held. The time for the
meeting and voting of the electors was to be the second Mon-
day in January following their appointment. The fourth sec-
tion was as follows : —

Each State may provide by law enacted prior to the day in this
act named for the appointment of the electors, for the trial and
determination of any controversy concerning the appointment of
electors, before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors, in
any manner it may deem expedient. Every such determination
made pursuant to such law so enacted before said day, and made
prior to the said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive
evidence of the lawful title of the electors who shall have been so
determined to have been appointed, and shall govern in the count-
ing of the electoral votes, as provided in the Constitution and as
hereinafter regulated.

The provisions of the bill in relation to the count followed
in general the custom of Congress under the twenty-second
joint rule, with these exceptions : No vote from a State from
which there was but one return could be rejected without a
concurrent vote of the two Houses. If there were two or more
returns, that only should be counted which was decided to be
the true return in the manner provided in the section just
quoted. If there were no such determination, or if there were
two or more decisions purporting to have been made in accord-
ance with a law passed in conformity with that section, that
return, or that decision only, could be accepted which the two
Houses acting separately should decide by affirmative vote to
be in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. When
the two Houses separated to consider objections to electoral
votes, each member of either House might speak once only,
for five minutes, and at the expiration of two hours it would
become the duty of the presiding officer to put the main ques-
tion. After several days of debate this bill was passed by the

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 399

Senate, 35 to 26. The negative vote consisted entirely of
Democrats; the majority was made up of Republicans, with
the exception of Messrs. Bayard, Merrimon, and Morgan, Dem-
ocrats, and Judge Davis, of Illinois, Independent. It was
referred in the House of Representatives to the select commit-
tee having the subject in charge, but no report was made upon
it. We shall see that the principles of this bill, little changed
in detail, were all adopted and enacted in the law of 1887,
which is given in a subsequent chapter, and which is now in
force.

In May, 1880, the Democrats having a majority in the Sen-
ate, Mr. Morgan, of Alabama, reported from a select committee
a joint rule for the government of the two Houses in counting
the electoral votes. It differed from the rescinded twenty-
second rule in several particulars. No vote from a State which
sent but one return was to be rejected except by the affirma-
tive action of both branches of Congress. If two or more
returns should be offered, neither was to be counted unless the
two Houses agreed in deciding that one of them was the true
and correct return. Provision was made for one hour's debate
in each House upon objections, no member to speak more than
once, or longer than ten minutes ; and also for debate by unan-
imous consent in the joint meeting. It was further provided
that an appeal might be taken from a decision by the presiding
officer, which was to be overruled only by concurrent action of
both Houses. This proposed rule was considered at length.
Mr. Edmunds moved his bill, already summarized, with some
changes, as a substitute for the rule. The motion was defeated,
all other amendments were rejected, and the rule was adopted
by the Senate, by a vote of 25 to 14, — a party vote, except
that Mr. Davis, of Illinois, voted with the Democrats. In the
House, the Republicans endeavored to have the rule referred
to a committee, but their motions having that object in view
were rejected. Finally the matter was postponed until the
first Monday in" December, 1880. It was under consideration
several times during the session, but the Republicans persist-
ently opposed it, and on the last day that it was considered,
January 26, 1881, they filibustered successfully against its
passage.

Early in February of the same year a resolution was adopted,
which carried the conduct of the count back to the method so
long in use before the twenty -second joint rule was adopted.

400 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Tt provided, however, for two tellers on the part of the Senate,
which was an innovation introduced by the Electoral Commis-
sion Law of 1877. The second resolution directed that in
case it should appear that the electoral vote of any State had
been given on any other day than that fixed by law, the decla-
ration of the result should be in the alternative form first intro-
duced in 1821, with respect to the vote of Missouri. This
rule was adopted by both Houses. In the Senate there was
no division. In the House the second resolution was opposed
by 77 members, of whom six were Democrats and three Green-
backers. The count of 1881 took place under that rule.

Mr. Hayes, upon taking office, at once reversed the policy
of his predecessor in respect of the Republican governments
of South Carolina and Louisiana. He withdrew the military
assistance which had protected them from overthrow by the
white minority. The Democratic governments took instant
advantage of the opportunity ; and the last state governments
representative of negro and " carpet-bag " control were driven
from the capitals. The President's act practically eliminated
the Southern question from politics by the simple expedient of
non-resistance to the demands of those who proclaimed their
determination to restore white men's government at all hazards,
and by violence if necessary. It was not at all to the liking
of many Republican statesmen who, however disposed they
might be to concede the failure of the negro rule introduced
by universal suffrage, believed that the faith of their party was
pledged to the maintenance of the rights of the colored people.
Mr. Hayes did not strengthen his own political position by the
move. The Democrats were willing to profit by it ; but they
had as yet hardly become willing to acknowledge Mr. Hayes
as a legal President. A large faction of the Republican party
became estranged from him. The South was made " solid "
for the Democrats. In the Forty-sixth Congress, elected in
1878, four Republicans only were elected to the House of
Representatives in all the South ; there were 102 Democrats.

No other President — save Mr. Johnson, who was not
elected to the position, but succeeded to it on the death of Mr.
Lincoln — has been so unfortunate as was Mr. Hayes in the
political complexion of Congress during his term. The House
of Representatives was against him the first two years, and
both branches were Democratic during the last two years.
Although he was not possessed of great tact and exhibited

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 401

little skill in his management of men, yet his intentions were
so honorable and his standards so high that his administration
bears well a comparison with that of some men much more
able than he was. His cabinet was a strong one. There were
no scandals. Mr. Hayes was the first President to discourage
and to forbid the political activity of the civil servants of the
government. If he did not win applause for himself by his
administration, he did raise the tone of his party. He intro-
duced, without fuss, the reforms for which the Democrats
clamored obstreperously in their platform. And when the
time came for him to retire from office the people had recov-
ered the confidence in the Republican party which they had
well-nigh lost when he was elected.

Nevertheless the administration was not a quiet but a tur-
bulent one. There was a struggle during his whole term over
the question of attaching political legislation to appropriation
bills. The Democrats in Congress were determined to root
out the last remnants of Republican law which gave the gen-
eral government any supervision of elections in the South.
In the Forty-fifth Congress the contest was between the Senate
and the House. The Democrats endeavored to withhold the
necessary funds for the purposes of government unless the
Republicans would consent to the " riders " upon appropriation
bills, to prohibit the presence of United States troops near the
polls, to regulate the impaneling of juries, and to prevent
the appointment of deputy marshals for elections at which re-
presentatives were to be chosen. In the Forty-sixth Congress
the bills went to the President with the riders attached, and
the veto power was necessary to prevent their enactment.
The laws which it was then sought in vain to repeal afterward
fell into disuse, and the last vestige of them was removed from
the statute book under President Cleveland.

Financial questions were much discussed during this ad-
ministration. A great effort was made to repeal the act for
the resumption of specie payments. The House of Repre-
sentatives passed a repealing bill, but the Senate rejected it ;
and resumption took place successfully, and with great advan-
tage to business, on January 1, 1879. The silver question
was first agitated at the beginning of Mr. Hayes's term ; and
on February 28, 1878, the act for the coinage of silver dollars
was passed over the President's veto. Another question
which became prominent in politics at this time was that of

402 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Chinese immigration. A bill forbidding such immigration was
passed, but was vetoed, and failed to obtain the necessary two-
thirds majority.

Mr. Hayes was not a candidate for reelection. But there
was no lack of candidates on the Republican side. Two of
them were extremely strong. Many persons who had been
strongly opposed to a third consecutive term for General Grant
saw no objection to electing him after an interval of four
years, and a numerous body of his adherents in all parts of
the country brought him forward with great enthusiasm. Mr.
Blaine was again prominent as a candidate in the West, and
indeed throughout the land. Those who were opposed to
both Grant and Blaine favored, some Mr. John Sherman,
Secretary of the Treasury, and others Senator George F.
Edmunds. On the Democratic side there was no concentration
of opinion. In the early stages of the preliminary canvass it
was universally conceded that Mr. Tilden would be nominated
if he would accept the candidacy ; but his health was known
to be infirm, and, as he gave no indication of his intentions,
his opponents worked secretly and successfully to secure dele-
gates who were opposed to him.

The Republican convention met at Chicago on the 2d of
June. Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, was the
temporary and also the permanent president. Three days
were occupied in preliminaries and in deciding cases of con-
testing delegates, of whom there were many. The opposition
which the candidacy of General Grant encountered was signi-
ficantly indicated by the following resolution introduced by
Senator Conkling, who managed the Grant canvass : —

Resolved, As the sense of this convention, that every member of
it is bound in honor to support its nominee, whoever that nominee
may be, and that no man should hold his seat here who is not
ready so to agree.

After a brief debate, this resolution was passed by a vote of
716 to 3 ; the negative votes were given by delegates from
West Virginia. Mr. Conkling offered a resolution that those
who had voted in the negative " do not deserve and have for-
feited their votes in this convention." To this summary way
of disfranchising delegates there were numerous objections,
and, in view of the possible rejection of the resolution, Mr.
Conkling withdrew it.

On the fourth day General James A. Garfield reported from

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 403

the committee on rules a code consisting for the most part
of the rules of the convention of 1876. One important
amendment was made, to the effect that when the vote of any
State should be announced by the chairman, if any excep-
tion should be taken to the announcement, " the president
of the convention shall direct the roll of members of such
delegation to be called, and the result recorded in accordance
with the votes individually given." This was a direct and
fatal blow at the " unit rule." A minority report was pre-
sented by General George H. Sharpe, of New York, on behalf
of himself and eight other members of the committee, recom-
mending the retention of the rule as it had been adopted by
the convention of 1876. The delegation from New York had
been instructed to vote as a unit for General Grant, and the
adoption of the new rule would allow several members of that
delegation, who were not in favor of the ex-President, to vote
individually for the person whom they might prefer. The
minority report was rejected without a division. An amend-
ment having been adopted directing the national committee to
prescribe a method for the election of delegates to the con-
vention of 1884, the rules were adopted. The platform was
then reported, as follows, by Mr. Edwards Pierrepont, of New
York : —

The Republican party in national convention assembled, at the
end of twenty years since the federal government was first com-
mitted to its charge, submits to the people of the United States
this brief report of its administration. It suppressed the rebellion,
which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the national
authority. It reconstructed the Union of the States with freedom
instead of slavery as its corner-stone. It transformed four mil-
lions of human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of
citizens. It relieved Congress from the infamous work of hunting
fugitive slaves, and charged it to see that slavery does not exist.
It has raised the value of our paper currency from thirty-eight per
cent, to the par of gold. It has restored upon a solid basis payment
in coin for all the national obligations, and has given us a currency
absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country.
It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where six per
cent, bonds sold at eighty-six per cent, to that where four per cent,
bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. Under its administration
railways have increased from thirty-one thousand miles in 1860 to
more than eighty-two thousand miles in 1879. Our foreign trade
has increased from seven hundred million dollars to one billion

404 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

one hundred and fifty million dollars in the same time, and our
exports, which were twenty million dollars less than our imports
in 1860, were two hundred and sixty-four million more than our
imports in 1879. Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war
closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of government beside the
accruing interest on the public debt, and has annually disbursed
more than thirty million dollars for soldiers' pensions. It has paid
eight hundred and eighty-eight million dollars of the public debt,
and, by refunding the balance at lower rates, has reduced the annual
interest charged from nearly one hundred and fifty-one million dol-
lars to less than eighty-nine million dollars. All the industries of
the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages have increased,
and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming
prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed.

Upon this record the Republican party asks for the continued
confidence and support of the people, and this convention submits
for their approval the following statement of the principles and
purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts : —

1. We affirm that the work of the last twenty-one years has been
such as to commend itself to the favor of the nation, and that the
fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved through im-
mense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace regained
should be cherished ; that the dissevered Union, now happily re-
stored, should be perpetuated, and that the liberties secured to this
generation should be transmitted undiminished to future genera-
tions ; that the order established and the credit acquired should
never be impaired ; that the pensions promised should be extin-
guished by the full payment of every dollar thereof ; that the reviv-
ing industries should be further promoted, and that the commerce,
already so great, should be steadily encouraged.

2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and
not a mere contract : out of confederated States it made a sovereign
nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are
denied to the States ; but the boundary between the powers dele-
gated and those reserved is to be determined by the national, and
not by the State tribunals.

3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the
several States, but it is the duty of the national government to aid
that work to the extent of its constitutional duty. The intelligence
of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several
States, and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the
genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all.

4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law
respecting an establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that
the nation can be protected against the influences of sectarianism

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 405

while each State is exposed to its domination. We therefore re-
commend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same
prohibition npon the legislature of each State, and to forbid the
appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools.

5. We affirm the belief avowed in 1876, that the duties levied
for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor
American labor ; that no further grant of the public domain should
be made to any railway or other corporation ; that, slavery having
perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy, must die in
the Territories ; that everywhere the protection accorded to citizens
of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adop-
tion ; and that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and
improve our watercourses and harbors, but insist that further sub-
sidies to private persons or corporations must cease ; that the obli-
gations of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in
the hour of battle are undiminished by the lapse of the fifteen years
since their final victory, — to do them perpetual honor is, and shall
forever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American
people.

6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse
between the United States and foreign nations rests with Congress,
or with the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Re-
publican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the
Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of
those powers to restrain and limit that immigration by the enact-
ment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will pro-
duce that result.

7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the earlier
career of Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided
the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to him for a presiden-
tial candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief
Executive, and that history will accord to his administration the
honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge
of the public business, and will honor his interposition between the
people and proposed partisan laws.

We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of
patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust of office
and patronage ; that to obtain possession of the national and State
governments and the control of place and position they have ob-
structed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the free-
dom of suffrage, and have devised fraudulent certifications and
returns ; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Con-
gress, to secure at all hazards the vote of a majority of the States
in the House of Representatives ; have endeavored to occupy by
force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people of

40G A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine's patriotic
sons ; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in prac-
tice, attached partisan legislation to appropriation bills, upon whose
passage the very movements of the government depend, and have
crushed the rights of individuals ; have advocated the principles
and sought the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have en-
deavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to
overcome its inestimably valuable results of nationality, personal
freedom, and individual equality.

The equal, steady, and complete enforcement of laws, and the
protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and
immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties of
the nation. The dangers of a solid South can only be averted by a
faithful performance of every promise which the nation has made
to the citizen. The execution of the laws and the punishment of
all those who violate them are the only safe methods by which an
enduring peace can be secured and genuine prosperity established
throughout the South. Whatever promises the nation makes, the
nation must perform, and the nation cannot with safety delegate
this duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by the
peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find
free expression, and to this end the honest voter must be pro-
tected against terrorism, violence, or fraud.

And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republi-
can party to use every legitimate means to restore all the States of
this Union to the most perfect harmony that may be practicable ;
and we submit it to the practical, sensible people of the United
States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest in-
terests of our country at this time to surrender the administration
of the national government to the party which seeks to overthrow
the existing policy under which we are so prosperous, and thus
bring distrust and confusion where there are now order, confidence,
and hope.

The platform was adopted unanimously, as was also the
following resolution offered by Mr. J. M. Barker, of Massa-
chusetts : —

The Republican party, adhering to principles affirmed by its last
national convention of respect for the constitutional rule covering
appointments to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes,
that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical,
and complete. To this end it demands the cooperation of the
legislative with the executive department of the government, and
that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper
practical tests, shall admit to the public service.

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 40T

The day's and the week's session was concluded with the
formal presentation of the names of candidates. On Monday
the voting began, and twenty-eight trials to nominate a can-
didate were made on that day. General Grant was the lead-
ing candidate, with 304 votes, and during that day his number
fluctuated only between 302 and 309. Mr. Blaine came next,
with 284 votes on the first ballot ; his number varied on the
first day from 285, the highest, to 275, the lowest. Mr. Sher-
man began with 93 and ended with 91, having meanwhile
dropped to 88 and risen to 97. Mr. Elihu B. Washburne, of
Illinois, had 31 votes at the beginning, rose to 36, and had 35
on the twenty-eighth ballot. Senator Edmunds had 33 votes
at the start, dropped to 32 on the second ballot, to 31 on the
eighth, and held that number unchanged through twenty more
ballots. Senator William Windom, of Minnesota, had ten votes,
those of his own State, on every ballot. The number of votes
necessary to a choice was in every case 378. The convention
ended the day's voting without having made any progress to-
ward a nomination.

On the morning of Tuesday there was a slight change.
About twenty of the supporters of Mr. Edmunds, joined by
a few others, transferred their votes to Mr. Sherman, giving
him 116. His number rose to 120 on the thirtieth ballot ;
but, inasmuch as not the slightest impression was made upon
the Grant and Blaine forees, the movement came to nothing,
and on the next trial his strength began to decline again. On
the jhirty-fourth ballot 17 votes were given to James A. Gar-
field. General Garfield had received one vote on the second
ballot, the day before, and thereafter had received sometimes
one vote, sometimes two votes, and sometimes none. He was
present in the convention as a delegate and as the manager of
Mr. Sherman's canvass, and had been a conspicuous figure in
the proceedings of the convention. When he suddenly sprang
into prominence on the thirty -fourth ballot, the idea of making
him the candidate met with great favor. On the thirty-fifth
ballot a number of Mr. Blaine's delegates transferred their
votes to him, and gave him 50 votes. On the next trial, -—
the thirty-sixth, — he received 399, and was nominated. The
history of the voting will be sufficiently exhibited by showing
in a table the result of the 1st, the 28th, the 30th, the 34th,
the 35th, and the 36th trials: —

408

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

1st.

28th.

30th.

34th.

35th.

30th.

Ulysses S. Grant, Illinois . . .

304

307

306

312

313

306

James G. Blaine, Maine . .

284

279

275

257

John Sherman, Ohio . . .

120

107

George F. Edmunds, Vermont

Elihu B. Washburne, Illinois

William Windom, Minnesota

James A. Garfield, Ohio . .

399

The nomination was received with great enthusiasm by the
most of the members of the convention, and with general satis-
faction throughout the country. Garfield had been a gallant
general during the civil war, and after the close of that con-
flict he had served continuously 'as a member of Congress,
where he had risen to a position of honorable leadership.
More than once he had exhibited, in addition to talents of
a high order, great political courage. When the greenback
movement made such inroads into the Republican party of
Ohio that he was threatened with defeat unless he yielded
to it, he openly declared that he would suffer defeat rather
than give up his convictions. At the time of his nomination
he had been elected a senator from Ohio for the term begin-
ning in 1881. It was thought by many persons at the time
that he was in honor bound not to allow himself to be nomi-
nated, since he was the accredited and recognized champion of
Mr. Sherman. It is true he protested against being made
the candidate, but he did not hesitate to accept the nomina-
tion when it was tendered. One must nevertheless not for-
get that Mr. Sherman's candidacy was hopeless ; and the prize
was a great one.

While the Republicans everywhere hailed the nomination
as a good and strong one, some of the prominent leaders of the
Grant movement were sullen and discontented. A consulta-
tion took place between politicians of the two wings, and the
nomination of a candidate for the vice-presidency was conceded
to those who had been upholding the cause of General Grant.
Senator Conkling, who was recognized as the chief spokesman
for the ex-President, named Mr. Chester A. Arthur, of New
York. Mr. Arthur's only service in the national govern-
ment had been rendered as collector of the port of New York,
from which position he had been removed by Mr. Hayes.

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 409

The first ballot for a candidate resulted as follows : For
Chester A. Arthur, 468 ; Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois,
199 ; Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, 43 ; Horace Maynard,
of Tennessee, 30 ; Edmund J. Davis, of Texas, 20 ; Blanche
K. Bruce, of Mississippi, 8 ; James L. Alcorn, of Mississippi,
4 ; Thomas Settle, of Florida, 2 ; Stewart L. Woodford, of
New York, 1. The nomination of Mr. Arthur was made
unanimous, and the convention adjourned.

The nomination of Mr. Arthur was most coldly received.
Indeed it was regarded in some quarters with dismay. The
events of the succeeding four years greatly modified public
opinion, and enabled Mr. Arthur to deserve and to win uni-
versal respect. Nevertheless at that time he was deemed by a
large section of the party unfitted, by his political instincts
and training, for the office of Vice-President. But those who
were dissatisfied with that part of the ticket were so well
pleased with General Garfield that, after once giving vent to
their feelings, they prepared to support both Garfield and
Arthur with zeal. Some of those who had set their hearts
upon the nomination of General Grant were not so easily re-
conciled to the situation. •

The next convention in the order of time was that of the
Greenbackers. It met at Chicago on the 9th of June. The
Rev. Gilbert De La Matyr, of Indiana, was the temporary
chairman, and Richard Trevellick, of Michigan, was the per-
manent president. On the second day the following platform
was reported and 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 dele-
gation 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 en-
able the government to meet these obligations, legal tender cur-
rency 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

410 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

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 ; there-
fore 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 re-
sponsible 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 pro-
fessing great gratitude to the soldier, has most unjustly discrimi-
nated 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 man-
ifest, 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 mili-
tary 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.

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 411

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 cooperation 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 transporta-
tion, over land and labor, and largely over the press and the ma-
chinery of government, wield unwarrantable power over our insti-
tutions, 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.

An informal vote was taken for a candidate for President,
with the following result: James B. Weaver, of Iowa, had
224£ ; Hendrick B. Wright, of Pennsylvania, 126J ; Stephen
D. Dillaye, of New York, 119 ; Benjamin F. Butler, of Massa-
chusetts, 95; Solon Chase, of Maine, 89 ; Edward P. Allis, of
Wisconsin, 41 ; Alexander Campbell, of Illinois, 21. The dele-
gations began changing as soon as the strong lead of Mr.
Weaver was known, and that gentleman was unanimously
nominated. On a vote for a candidate for Vice-President,
B. J. Chambers, of Texas, had 403, and Alanson M. West, of
Mississippi, had 311. Mr. Chambers was thereupon unani-
mously nominated.

The Prohibitionists held a convention at Cleveland, Ohio,
on the 17th of June. It attracted so little attention that no
report of its proceedings was published in the leading news-
papers of the country. Twelve States were represented by
142 delegates. A platform presenting the principles of the
party, in much the same form as they were announced in 1876,
was adopted. General Neal Dow, of Maine, was nominated for
President, and A. M. Thompson, of Ohio, for Vice-President.

The series of national conventions was closed by that of the
Democrats at Cincinnati on the 22d of June. What that con-
vention would do was a matter of great uncertainty. Mr.
Tilden had still not indicated what was his wish in respect of
the nomination. It is probable that, if he had frankly
allowed it to be understood that he would be a candidate, he
could have secured enough delegates to make him the nominee

412 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

on the first ballot. Since he neither encouraged nor discour-
aged his friends, and left them in the dark as to his purposes,
hardly a third of the delegates went to Cincinnati for Tilden
as their first choice. A great many Southern members of the con-
vention were in favor of Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of Dela-
ware. General Hancock was brought forward by Pennsyl-
vania, and had strong support in other States. Ohio presented
Senator Thurman ; and Mr. Hendricks, as well as other leaders
of the party, Mr. Henry B. Payne, of Ohio, Speaker Samuel
J. Randall, and Judge Stephen J. Field, had their friends.
A movement was begun in favor of Mr. Horatio Seymour, and
it made not a little progress in a quiet way. Mr. Seymour
was captured by an " interviewer," and expressed himself in
such terms that it was believed that he really would not accept
the nomination if it should be tendered ; and although he re-
ceived a few votes there was no opportunity to test his actual
strength in the convention.

Simultaneously with the assembling of the convention came
a letter from Mr. Tilden, in which he " renounced " the nom-
ination. The phraseology of the letter was such that it left
room for both the friends and the opponents of Mr. Tilden to
say that he would not refuse the nomination if it should be
tendered to him ; but the prevailing tendency of opinion was
to take him at his word.

Mr. George Hoadly, of Ohio, was the temporary chairman
of the convention, which did not effect its permanent organiza-
tion until the second day, after the contested seats had been
passed upon. There were several cases of contest. Two sets
of delegates made their appearance from Massachusetts, and
the case was decided by admitting both sets, with a half vote
for each delegate. A more difficult case was that of New York.
Here, too, there were two full delegations, one chosen by the
" regular " Democrats ; the other, the " Tammany " delegation.
The attitude of the Tammany organization towards Mr. Tilden
in 1876, and the open declaration of Mr. John Kelly and
other members of the contesting delegation, that if that candi-
date should be nominated again they would not support him,
did not give the delegation favor in the eyes of the conven-
tion ; and the committee on credentials reported against giving
them any recognition whatever. A minority of the committee
reported in favor of granting their request to be allowed twenty
of the seventy votes of New York. After a debate the

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 413

minority report was rejected by a vote of yeas 205-J, nays 457.
The New York delegation was excused from voting at its own
request. Thus Tammany was excluded from the convention
altogether.

Ex-Governor John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, having been
chosen permanent president of the convention, the platform was
reported by Mr. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, and unani-
mously adopted. It was as follows : —

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 great 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 Ameri-
can history, the will of the people was set aside under a threat of
military violence, struck a deadly blow at our system of represent-
ative 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 pre-
cedes 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.

414 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

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 candi-
date 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 ele-
vating the standards of public morality, merits the lasting grati-
tude 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 transpor-
tation 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 business of the convention was transacted so expedi-
tiously that the formal presentation of the candidates took
place on the second day, and one ballot for a candidate for
President was taken. It showed a slight lead for General
Hancock over Mr. Bayard; yet the combined vote for both
these candidates did not constitute a majority of the conven-
tion. A second ballot was taken the next morning, when
General Hancock gained nearly one hundred and fifty totes,
and the delegations then began changing in his favor, and he
was nominated. The hand of Mr. Tilden was detected, or

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL

415

rather suspected, in the voting, but if he had any part in the
affair he suffered a defeat. The vote of New York was at first
cast for Mr. Payne, of Ohio, who was believed to be Mr. Til-
den's heir ; but, on the second ballot, New York and nearly
all the recognized friends of Tilden voted for Mr. Randall,
who was also supposed to be a favorite of Mr. Tilden. It
was mentioned as a queer feature of the convention that none
of the delegates seemed to be enthusiastically in favor of their
respective candidates, and it was said that those who voted
at the beginning for General Hancock were ready to abandon
him if any other person should have a lead over him. Ac-
cordingly, although he had been presented as a candidate and
had received votes in the conventions of 1868 and 1876, and
although he was so prominent prior to the convention of 1880,
his nomination had all the effect of a surprise. The two bal-
lots, the second as it stood originally and also as it was when
the changes had been made, were as follows : —

Candidates.

Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania
Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware . .

Henry B. Payne, Ohio

Allen G. Thnrman, Ohio ....
Stephen J. Field, California . . .
William R. Morrison, Illinois . .
Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana . .
Samuel J. Tilden, New York . .
Horatio Seymour, New York . .
Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania .
Scattering1

1st.

2d.

320

153i

113

68£

65*

50*

128*

After
changes.

705
2

The names of two gentlemen as candidates for the vice-presi-
dency were presented : that of William H. English, of Indiana,
and that of Richard M. Bishop, of Ohio, " your uncle Dick,"
as he was termed by the delegate who nominated him, in an
unsuccessful attempt to arouse enthusiasm. The preference
for Mr. English was so strongly expressed as the voting pro-
ceeded, that Mr. Bishop's name was withdrawn, and Mr. Eng-
lish was nominated by acclamation.

The canvass of 1880 was a remarkable one in several ways.
First, for the savage assaults that were made upon General
Garfield by the opposition. He was accused of numerous
improprieties in his conduct as a member of the House of

416 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Representatives, of complicity in corrupt contracts, and of hav-
ing been concerned in the Credit Mobilier, which had made a
great sensation in Congress in the years 1872 and 1873. At
one time the number " 329 " was painted, chalked, and printed
everywhere, on sidewalks, doors and dead-walls, and in the
opposition newspapers ; that being the number of dollars he
was alleged to have received as a Credit Mobilier dividend.
It probably had little effect. Neither Democrats nor Republi-
cans believed that General Garfield was corrupt. In the last
days of the canvass the famous " Morey Letter " was forged
and scattered broadcast, particularly in the Pacific States.
That letter, in which General Garfield's handwriting was
counterfeited with some success, addressed to a mythical person
named Morey, asserted principles on the Chinese question
which, if they had been held by General Garfield, would have
made him unpopular in California and the other States where
" Chinese cheap labor " was regarded as a crying evil. It was
lithographed and printed in vast numbers, and scattered among
the voters in the Pacific States at a time when an effective
denial of its authenticity was impossible ; and it had a great
effect.

Another feature of the canvass was the sudden importation
of the tariff question into the political discussion a few weeks
before the election. The Democratic platform had declared in
favor of " a tariff for revenue only." Republican speakers
seized upon this as an assertion of the baldest free-trade doc-
trine, and they denounced it with surprising vigor as assailing
the interests of American industry. The Democrats could
not make an effective reply, at least they did not ; and they
would not defend the phrase in its obvious meaning. No
one really supposed that General Hancock was a free-trader,
but some unfortunate sentences which were written and spoken
by him gave an opportunity to the Republicans to jeer at his
supposed ignorance upon all tariff questions.

The canvass was remarkable also for the conspicuous absence
of agitation upon Southern questions ; and indeed those ques-
tions had less influence upon the result than upon that of any
other election since the Abolitionists defeated Henry Clay in
1844. Another fact was the failure of the Democrats to ex-
cite the interest of the people in the " fraud issue," meaning
the result of the Electoral Commission law of 1877, which
issue, the Democratic platform had said, " precedes and dwarfs

A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL

417

Popular Vote.

Electoral
Vote.

States.

o.J

od&

<o
s

9 3
■g a

2
»

»-»

Alabama

56,221

91,185

4,642

Arkansas .

42,436

60,775

4,079

California .

80,348

80,426

3,392

Colorado .

27,450

24,647

1,435

Connecticut

67,071

64,415

868

409

—

Delaware .

14,133

15,275

120

Florida . .

23,654

27,964

Georgia . .

54,086

102,470

969

Illinois . .

318,037

277,321

26,358

443

Indiana . .

232,164

225,522

12,986

Iowa . . .

183,927

105,845

32,701

592

Kansas . .

121,549

59,801

19,851

Kentucky .

106,306

149,068

11,499

258

Louisiana .

*38,637

65,067

439

Maine . .

74,039

t 65,171

4,408

Maryland .

78,515

93,706

818

—

Massachusetts

165,205

111,960

4,548

682

Michigan .

185,341

131,597

34,895

942

Minnesota .

93,903

53,315

3,267

286

—

Mississippi .

34,854

75,750

5,797

Missouri

153,567

208,609

35,135

Nebraska .

54,979

28,523

3,950

Nevada . .

8,732

9,613

New Hampshi

44,852

40,794

528

180

New Jersey

120,555

122,565

2,617

191

New York .

555,544

534,511

12,373

1,517

North Carolin

115,874

124,208

1,126

Ohio . . .

375,048

340,821

6,456

2,616

Oregon . .

20,619

19,948

249

Pennsylvania

444,704

407,428

20,668

1,939

Rhode Island

18,195

10,779

236

South Carolin

58,071

112,312

566

Tennessee .

107,677

128,191

5,917

Texas . .

57,893

156,428

27,405

Vermont .

45,567

18,316

1,215

Virginia

84,020

\ 128,586

West Virginia

46,243

57,391

9,079

Wisconsin

144,400

114,649

7,986

Total

4,454,416

4,444,952

308,578

10,305

214

155

* Two Republican tickets were voted for.

t Votes for a fusion electoral ticket, made up of three Democrats and four Green-
backers. A " straight " Greenback ticket was also voted for.

t Two Democratic tickets were voted for in Virginia. The regular ticket received
90,912, and was successful ; the "Readjustee " polled 31,674 votes.

418 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

every other." The canvass was, finally, singular for the dis-
cord and sullenness among the Grant men in the Republican
party at the outset, followed, after a reverse in Maine in Sep-
tember, by a restoration of harmony and an increase of vigor
which immediately thereafter gave energy to the canvass, car-
ried Ohio and Indiana in October, and made General Garfield
President. Reference must also be made to the scandals con-
nected with the contributions of funds to the Republican
treasury, which brought into unpleasant prominence the con-
tributions of certain officials who were afterwards shown to
have obtained their money by corrupt or otherwise improper
acts.

General Garfield had but an insignificant plurality of the
popular vote over Hancock, and much less than a majority of
all ; but this was largely the result of abstention, voluntary
or enforced, on the part of Republican voters in the South.
Thirty-eight States took part in the election ; in each the ap-
pointment of electors was by popular vote. The popular and
electoral votes are given on the preceding page.

The count of votes took place under the resolution already
cited. The electoral votes of Georgia were counted in the
alternative manner first devised in 1821, as they had been cast
on the second Wednesday of December. The vote was so
close in California that one of the Republican electors was
chosen by " split tickets." The electoral count was entirely
devoid of incident, and General Garfield was duly proclaimed
elected.

XXVII

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN

There has never been a time in the history of the country
when party lines were so indistinct, and so easily and fre-
quently crossed, as during the four years that preceded the
election of 1884. During all that time there was hardly a
^vote passed by either House of Congress in which the division
was strictly on party lines. There were no sharply defined
party issues ; and political matters were in such a condition
that if any fresh question of absorbing interest had arisen,
there must have been extensive changes of party association,
if not a complete reconstruction of both the great historical
organizations. In the absence of such questions, men con-
tinued to act, each with his own party, merely as a matter of
habit, and, up to the spring of 1884, there was nothing to
portend the violence and fury with which the canvass of that
year was to be conducted.

A brief survey of the leading events of the years from 1881
to 1884 will indicate how little occurred that had an influence
upon the result in the presidential year. There was, first
of all, the dissension in the Republican party caused by some
of Mr. Garfield's appointments, chiefly in New York, which
deeply offended Mr. Conkling, and led to the formation of two
factions, one of which called itself " Stalwart " and stigma-
tized the other as " Half-breed." The assassination, the linger-
ing sickness, and the death of President Garfield ; the acces-
sion of Mr. Arthur, the scandal of the " Star route " mail
contracts, and the offensive incidents of the trial of the assas-
sin of the President, — these are chapters in our history which
every patriotic student would gladly forget.

The only important legislation during Mr. Arthur's adminis-
tration consisted of laws aimed at polygamy in Utah, and at
Chinese immigration ; the creation of the Tariff Commission in
1882, and the passage of a new tariff law in 1883 ; and the
Civil Service Reform Act. While this was all, in one sense,

420 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

political legislation, it was not, in the strict sense, party legis-
lation. The Tariff Act was an exception, for it divided Con-
gress nearly on party lines. In the Senate, one Democrat
only voted for the bill, and two Republicans against it ; while,
in the House of Representatives, fifteen Democrats and nine
Republicans separated themselves from their respective parties
The Civil Service Reform Act was passed in each branch by
large majorities ; but in the Senate all the five negative votes
were given by Democrats, and in the House of Representa-
tives seven only of the forty-seven negative votes were given
by Republicans. Neither of these important acts was regarded
as a party measure to such an extent that any member lost
political standing by placing himself in opposition to the gen-
eral opinion of his associates ; and neither had a perceptible
effect upon the election of 1884.

• Events, nevertheless, were occurring which weakened the
Republicans and prepared the way for the impending defeat
of the party. There was a feeling which found expression in
various ways that " the machine " was becoming too prominent
in the management of affairs, and that the " bosses " were de-
fiant of the better sentiment of the party in the selection of
candidates. In many States, the election of 1882 resulted in
Democratic victories which were largely due to a revolt against
what was, rightly or wrongly, deemed the arrogant dictation of
self-constituted leaders. Pennsylvania defeated the Republi-
can candidate for governor, to whom no one objected on per-
sonal grounds ; and New York gave to Grover Cleveland, the
Democratic candidate for governor, the unprecedented majority
of one hundred and ninety thousand. Yet the opposing can-
didate was Mr. Folger, the Secretary of the Treasury, formerly
the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and a
gentleman of the highest character, against whom nothing could
be said, except that he was a candidate chosen for the Repub-
licans, and not by them. These defeats were regarded as
warnings to the Republicans that they could win the coming
contest only by nominating good candidates, without the inter-
vention of the " machine " and the "bosses."

A step in the direction of greater freedom within the party,
and in curtailment of the powers sometimes exercised by
leaders in disregard of the popular will, was taken at a meet-
ing of the Republican national committee held in 1883. An
attempt was made so to change the basis of the national

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 421

convention as to enlarge the influence of the States and com-
munities giving Republican majorities, and to diminish cor-
respondingly the relative strength of those parts of the country
where the party was in a hopeless minority. Two proposi-
tions were submitted. According to the first, the national
convention would consist of delegates from each State as fol-
lows : (1) Four delegates at large ; (2) One delegate for each
Congress-district ; (3) One delegate for each twelve thousand
votes given in the State in 1880 for the Republican electoral
ticket. The other plan proposed for each State : (1) Four
delegates at large ; (2) One delegate at large for each Republi-
can senator representing the State ; (3) One delegate for each
Congress-district; (4) One additional delegate for each dis-
trict represented in Congress by a Republican. Each of these
propositions was rejected, and the old basis of a national con-
vention was readopted.

But a radical change was made in the method of choosing
delegates. A time was prescribed for electing them, and the
right of districts to choose their own delegates was recognized
and secured. It was voted that the state conventions should
be held not less than thirty nor more than sixty days before
the time of meeting of the national convention, and after not
less than twenty days' public, advertised notice. District
delegates were to be elected either by separate district conven-
tions or by subdivision of the state convention. If separate
conventions were to be held, they were to meet within fifteen
days prior to the state convention ; and in any case their cre-
dentials were to be given and certified by district officers. By
the first of these provisions, security was given against fore-
stalling the action of the national convention by early conven-
tions in some of the States ; by the other, an opportunity was
given to minorities to make their influence felt, and power
was taken from a majority in the State to stifle opposition.

The first national convention held in 1884 was that of the
Anti-Monopoly party, which met in Chicago, May 14. The
party had no prior nor subsequent history. The attendance
was not large. Only seventeen States and the District of
Columbia were represented on the Committee on Resolutions.
Mr. Alson J. Streeter was the temporary chairman, and John
F. Henry the permanent president of the convention. The
following platform was reported, and adopted by a vote of
eighty-five to twenty -nine : —

422 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The Anti-Monopoly organization of the United States, in con-
vention assembled, declares : —

1. That labor and capital should be allies ; and we demand jus-
tice for both, by protecting the rights of all against privileges for
the few.

2. That corporations, the creatures of law, should be controlled
by law.

3. That we propose the greatest reduction practicable in public
expenses.

4. That in the enactment and vigorous execution of just laws,
equality of rights, equality oj burdens, equality of privileges, and
equality of powers in all citizens will be secured. To this end, we
declare : —

5. That it is the duty of the government to immediately exercise
its constitutional prerogative to regulate commerce among the
States. The great instruments by which this commerce is carried
on are transportation, money, and the transmission of intelligence.
They are now mercilessly controlled by giant monopolies, to the
impoverishment of labor, the crushing out of healthful competi-
tion, and the destruction of business security. We hold it, there-
fore, to be the imperative and immediate duty of Congress to pass
all needful. laws for the control and regulation of those great
agents of commerce, in accordance with the oft-repeated decisions
of the Supreme Court of the United States.

6. That these monopolies, which have exacted from enterprise
such heavy tribute, have also inflicted countless wrongs upon the
toiling millions of the United States ; and no system of reform
should commend itself to the support of the people which does not
protect the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his face.
Bureaus of labor-statistics must be established, both state and
national ; arbitration take the place of brute force in the settle-
ment of disputes between employer and employed ; the national
eight-hour law be honestly enforced ; the importation of foreign
labor under contract be made illegal; and whatever practical re-
forms may be necessary for the protection of united labor must
be granted, to the end that unto the toiler shall be given that pro-
portion of the profits of the thing or value created which his labor
bears to the cost of production.

7. That we approve and favor the passage of an Interstate Com-
merce bill. Navigable waters should be improved by the govern-
ment, and be free.

8. We demand the payment of the bonded debt as it falls due ;
the election of United States senators by the direct vote of the
people of their respective States ; a graduated income tax ; and a
tariff, which is a tax upon the people, that shall be so levied as to

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 423

bear as lightly as possible upon necessaries. We denounce the
present tariff as being largely in the interest of monopoly, and de-
mand that it be speedily and radically reformed in the interest of
labor, instead of capital.

9. That no further grants of public lands shall be made to cor-
porations. All enactments granting lands to corporations should
be strictly construed, and all land grants should be forfeited where
the terms upon which the grants were made have not been strictly
complied with. The lands must be held for homes for actual set-
tlers, and must not be subject to purchase or control by non-resi-
dent foreigners or other speculators.

10. That we deprecate the discrimination of American legisla-
tion against the greatest of American industries, — agriculture, —
by which it has been deprived of nearly all beneficial legislation,
while forced to bear the brunt of taxation ; and we demand for it
the fostering care of government, and the just recognition of its
importance in the development and advancement of our land ; and
we appeal to the American farmer to cooperate with us in our
endeavors to advance the national interests of the country and the
overthrow of monopoly in every shape, whenever and wherever
found.

General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, was nomi-
nated as candidate for President on the first vote. He re-
ceived 122 votes, to 7 for Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, and
1 for Solon Chase, of Maine. The nomination of' a candidate
for Vice-President was left with the national committee, who
adopted the candidate of the National or Greenback party,
General Alanson M. West, of Mississippi.

The National party — Greenbackers — held its convention
in Indianapolis, on the 28th of May. John Tyler, of Florida,
was the temporary chairman, and General James B. Weaver,
of Iowa, permanent president. The following platform was
adopted : —

Eight years ago, our young party met in this city for the first
time, and proclaimed to the world its immortal principles, and
placed before the American people as a presidential candidate that
great philanthropist and spotless statesman, Peter Cooper. Since
that convention, our party has organized all over the Union, and
through discussion and agitation has been educating the people to
a sense of their rights and duties to themselves and their country.
These labors have accomplished wonders. We now have a great,
harmonious party, and thousands who believe in our principles in
the ranks of other parties.

" We point with pride to our history." We forced the remone-

424 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

tization of the silver dollar ; prevented the refunding of the public
debt into long-time bonds ; secured the payment of the bonds, until
" the best banking system the world ever saw," for robbing the pro-
ducer, now totters because of its contracting foundation ; we have
stopped the wholesale destruction of the greenback currency, and
secured a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States es-
tablishing forever the right of the people to issue their own money.

Notwithstanding all this, never in our history have the banks,
land-grant railroads, and other monopolies been more insolent in
their demands for further privileges — still more class legislation.
In this emergency, the dominant parties are arrayed against the
people, and are the abject tools of the corporate monopolies.

In the last Congress, they repealed over twelve million dollars of
annual taxes for the banks, throwing the burden upon the people
to pay, or pay interest thereon.

Both old parties in the present Congress vie with each other in
their efforts to further repeal taxes in order to stop the payment
of the public debt and save the banks whose charters they have
renewed for twenty years. Notwithstanding the distress of busi-
ness, the shrinkage of wages, and panic, they persist in locking up,
on various pretexts, four hundred million dollars of money, every
dollar of which the people pay interest upon, and need, and most
of which should be promptly applied to pay bonds now payable.

The old parties are united — as they cannot agree what taxes to
repeal — in efforts to squander the income of the government upon
every pretext rather than pay the debt.

A bill has already passed the United States Senate making the
banks a present of over fifty million dollars more of the people's
money, in order to enable them to levy a still greater burden of
interest taxes.

A joint effort is being made by the old party leaders to over-
throw the sovereign constitutional power of the people to control
their own financial affairs and issue their own money, in order to
forever enslave the masses to bankers and other business. The
House of Representatives has passed bills reclaiming nearly one
hundred million acres of lands granted to and forfeited by railroad
companies. These bills have gone to the Senate, a body composed
largely of aristocratic millionaires, who, according to their own
party papers, generally purchased their elections in order to protect
great monopolies which they represent. This body has thus far
defied the people and the House, and refused to act upon these
bills in the interest of the people.

Therefore we, the National party of the United States, in na-
tional convention assembled, this twenty-ninth day of May, a. ix
1884, declare: —

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 425

1. That we hold the late decision of the Supreme Court on the
legal tender question to be a full vindication of the theory which
our party has always advocated on the right and authority of Con-
gress over the issue of legal tender notes, and we hereby pledge
ourselves to uphold said decision, and to defend the Constitution
against alterations or amendments intended to deprive the people
of any rights or privileges conferred by that instrument. We de-
mand the issue of such money in sufficient quantities to supply the
actual demand of trade and commerce, in accordance with the in-
crease of population and the development of our industries. We
demand the substitution of greenbacks for national bank notes,
and the prompt payment of the public debt. We want that money
which saved our country in time of war, and which has given it
prosperity and happiness in peace. We condemn the retirement of
the fractional currency and the small denomination of greenbacks,
and demand their restoration. We demand the issue of the hoards
of money now locked up in the United States treasury, by apply-
ing them to the payment of the public debt now due.

2. We denounce, as dangerous to our republican institutions,
those methods and policies of the Democratic and Republican par-
ties which have sanctioned or permitted the establishment of land,
railroad, money, and other gigantic corporate monopolies ; and we
demand such governmental action as may be necessary to take from
such monopolies the powers they have so corruptly and unjustly
usurped, and restore them to the people, to whom they belong.

3. The public lands being the natural inheritance of the people,
we denounce that policy which has granted to corporations vast
tracts of land, and we demand that immediate and vigorous mea-
sures be taken to reclaim from such corporations, for the people's
use and benefit, all such land grants as have been forfeited by rea-
son of non-fulfilment of contract, or that may have been wrong-
fully acquired by corrupt legislation, and that such reclaimed lands
and other public domain be henceforth held as a sacred trust, to be
granted only to actual settlers in limited quantities; and we also
demand that the alien ownership of land, individual or corporate,
be prohibited.

4. We demand congressional regulation of interstate commerce.
We denounce " pooling," stock watering, and discrimination in
rates and charges, and demand that Congress shall correct these
abuses, even, if necessary, by the construction of national railroads.
We also demand the establishment of a government postal tele-
graph system.

5. All private property, all forms of money and obligations to
pay money, should bear their just proportion of the public taxes.
We demand a graduated income tax.

426 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

6. We demand the amelioration of the condition of labor, by en-
forcing the sanitary laws in industrial establishments, by the aboli-
tion of the convict labor system, by a rigid inspection of mines and
factories, by a reduction of the hours of labor in industrial estab-
lishments, by fostering educational institutions, and by abolishing
child labor.

7. We condemn all importations of contracted labor, made with
a view of reducing to starvation wages the workingmen of this
country, and demand laws for its prevention.

8. We insist upon a constitutional amendment reducing the
terms of United States senators.

9. We demand such rules for the government of Congress as
shall place all representatives of the people upon an equal footing,
and take away from committees a veto power greater than that of
the President.

10. The question as to the amount of duties to be levied upon
various articles of import has been agitated and quarrelled over,
and has divided communities, for nearly a hundred years. It is not
now, and never will be, settled, unless by the abolition of indirect
taxation. It is a convenient issue, always raised when the people
are excited over abuses in their midst. While we favor a wise re-
vision of the tariff laws, with a view to raising a revenue from lux-
uries rather than necessities, we insist that, as an economic ques-
tion, its importance is insignificant as compared with financial
issues ; for whereas we have suffered our worst panics under low
and also under high tariffs, we have never suffered from a panic,
nor seen our factories and workshops closed, while the volume of
money in circulation was adequate to the needs of commerce. Give
our farmers and manufacturers money as cheap as you now give it
to our bankers, and they can pay high wages to labor, and compete
with all the world.

11. For the purpose of testing the sense of the people upon the
subject, we are in favor of submitting to a vote of the people an
amendment to the Constitution in favor of suffrage regardless of
sex, and also on the subject of the liquor traffic.

12. All disabled soldiers of the late war should be equitably
pensioned, and we denounce the policy of keeping a small army
of office-holders, whose only business is to prevent, on technical
grounds, deserving soldiers from obtaining justice from the gov-
ernment they helped to save.

13. As our name indicates, we are a national party, knowing no
East, no West, no North, no South. Having no sectional preju-
dices, we can properly place in nomination for the high offices of
state, as candidates, men from any section of the Union.

14. We appeal to all people who believe in our principles, to aid
us by voice, pen, and votes.

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 427

The first vote for a candidate for President resulted as fol-
lows : — General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, 322 ;
Jesse Harper, of Illinois, 99 ; Solon Chase, of Maine, 2 ;
Edward P. Allis, of Wisconsin, 1 ; David Davis, of Illinois, 1.
General Butler was declared nominated. A motion to make
the nomination unanimous was declared adopted, though it was
received with hisses and shouts of " no." General Alanson
M. West, of Mississippi, was nominated for Vice-President by
acclamation.

As the time set for the meeting of the Republican conven-
tion approached, there was the usual activity among the parti-
sans of the several candidates. General Arthur had succeeded
to the presidency in trying circumstances, and had acquitted
himself in his high office with great credit. His moderation
had won for him the praise of many men who had heard of
his nomination for the vice-presidency, in 1880, with dismay.
The President was frankly a candidate for reelection. He
had hosts of friends and few enemies in the party. General
John A. Logan had not only the support of the Republicans
of his own State of Illinois, but many strong partisans among
the volunteer soldiers of the civil war. Senator John Sher-
man was supported by a compact body of Ohio Republicans.
Senator George F. Edmunds, of Vermont, was a favorite can-
didate with many of those members of the party who regarded
civil service reform as the great issue. But the candidate
who had the strongest, the most enthusiastic, and, as the event
proved, the prevailing body of followers, was Mr. James G.
Blaine, of Maine. This gentleman had been secretary of
state under General Garfield, the President's most intimate
friend, and his chief political adviser. He had narrowly
missed the nomination in 1876 and again in 1880, on his own
merits ; and he was now regarded as the natural heir of the
assassinated President. His own State supported him, but he
had no great strength in the other New England States. But
elsewhere, — everywhere else, — his partisans were numerous,
enthusiastic, and devoted. From the northwest, the southwest,
the Pacific coast States, from New York and Pennsylvania,
they gathered, and they had even successfully disputed the
claim of Ohio's and Illinois's " favorite sons " to united dele-
gations. It was evident, before the convention met, that the
supporters of Mr. Blaine and of General Arthur constituted a
large majority of the delegates. It was also evident that Mr.

423 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Blaine was the leading candidate. His success was sure, un-
less all the opposing elements, those which were simply more
friendly to other candidates, as well as that element which was
unalterably opposed to his candidacy, could be held together
and concentrated upon one man.

The convention met at Chicago on June 3. The national
committee had named ex-Senator Powell Clayton, of Arkansas,
as the temporary chairman of the convention. This selection
was supposed to be in the interest of Mr. Blaine. A nomina-
tion of the Hon. John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, a distinguished
colored man, was made from the floor, and the convention, on
a vote by delegates, elected him to the position, by 431 votes
to 387 given for Mr. Clayton. On the next day, no other
business was transacted beyond the choice of the Hon. John
B. Henderson, of Missouri, as permanent president.

On the third day, the rules of the convention were reported
and adopted. One important rule was adopted, concerning
the constitution of the national committee, and the election of
future conventions. It provided that " no person shall be a
member of the committee who is not eligible as a member
of the electoral college." This provision excludes from the
committee all persons who hold offices of trust or profit under
the United States, as well as all senators and representatives,
and removes every opportunity to influence the action of the
party directly through the elected or appointed official class.
The same rule provides that all delegates at large^shall be
chosen by state conventions, and that in each Congress-dis-
trict the delegates shall be elected " in the same way as the
nomination of a member of Congress is made in said district."
This provision abolishes altogether the practice of subdividing
a state convention to choose district delegates, and makes each
district absolutely free. An attempt was made to change the
basis of representation in the convention, but it met with small
encouragement, and the matter was not brought to a vote.

The following platform was reported and adopted : —

1. The Republicans of the United States, in national convention
assembled, renew their allegiance to the principles upon which
they have triumphed in six successive presidential elections, and
congratulate the American people on the attainment of so many
results in legislation and administration by which the Republican
party has, after saving the Union, done so much to render its insti-
tutions just, equal, and beneficent ; the safeguard of liberty, and

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 429

the embodiment of the best thought and highest purposes of our
citizens. The Republican party has gained its strength by quick
and faithful response to the demands of the people for the freedom
and equality of all men ; for a united nation, assuring the rights
of all citizens ; for the elevation of labor ; for an honest currency ;
for purity in legislation ; and for integrity and accountability in
all departments of the government. And it accepts anew the duty
of leading in the work of progress and reform.

2. We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound
statesmanship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of a
strong and successful administration, a promise fully realized dur-
ing the short period of his office as President of the United States.
His distinguished services in war and in peace have endeared him
to the hearts of the American people.

3. In the administration of President Arthur we recognize a
wise, conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the country
has been blessed with remarkable prosperity ; and we believe his
eminent services are entitled to, and will receive, the hearty ap-
proval of every good citizen.

4. It is the first duty of a good government to protect the rights
and promote the interests of its own people. The largest diversity
of industry is most productive of general prosperity and of the
comfort and independence of the people. We therefore demand
that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made, not
for revenue only, but that, in raising the requisite revenues for the
government, such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to
our diversified industries, and protection to the rights and wages
of the laborers, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well
as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man his
full share in the national prosperity.

5. Against the so-called economical system of the Democratic
party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we
enter our most earnest protest. The Democratic party has failed
completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary tax-
ation by a wise reduction of the surplus.

6. The Republican party pledges itself to correct the irregulari-
ties of the tariff and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and
indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by such meth-
ods as will relieve the taxpayer without injuring the laborer or
the great productive interests of the country.

7. We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the
United States, the serious depression which it is now experien-
cing, and the danger threatening its future prosperity ; and we
therefore respect the demands of the representatives of this im-
portant agricultural interest for a readjustment of duties upon

430 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

foreign wool, in order that snch industry shall have full and ade*
quate protection.

8. We have always recommended the best money known to the
civilized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite air
commercial nations in the establishment of an international stand-
ard which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and silver
coinage.

9. The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and between
the States is one of the most important prerogatives of the general
government, and the Republican party distinctly announces its
purpose to support such legislation as will fully and efficiently
carry out the constitutional power of Congress over interstate
commerce.

10. The principle of the public regulation of railway corpora-
tions is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all classes
of the people, and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust
discrimination and excessive charges for transportation, and that
shall secure to the people and to the railways alike the fair and
equal protection of the laws.

11. We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor;
the enforcement of the eight-hour law ; a wise and judicious sys-
tem of general education, by adequate appropriation from the
national revenues wherever the same is needed. We believe that
everywhere the protection of a citizen of American birth must be
secured to citizens by American adoption, and we favor the settle-
ment of national differences by international arbitration.

12. The Republican party, having its birth in a hatred of slave
labor, and in a desire that all men may be truly free and equal, is
unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competition
with any form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In
this spirit we denounce the importation of contract labor, whether
from Europe or Asia, as an offence against the spirit of American
institutions, and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law
restricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legis-
lation as is necessary to carry out its purposes.

13. Reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Repub-
lican administration, should be completed by the further exten-
sion of the reformed system already established by law to all the
grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and
purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appoint-
ments, and all laws at variance with the objects of existing re-
formed legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers
to free institutions which lurk in the power of official patronage
may be wisely and effectively avoided.

14. The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 431

States, and should be reserved, as far as possible, for small hold-
ings by actual settlers. We are opposed to the acquisition of large
tracts of these lands by corporations or individuals, especially
where such holdings are in the hands of non-resident aliens, and
we will endeavor to obtain such legislation as will tend to correct
this evil. We demand of Congress the speedy forfeiture of all
land-grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance with
acts of incorporation, in all cases where there has been no attempt
in good faith to perform the conditions of such grants,
i 15. The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the
Union soldiers and sailors of the late war ; and the Republican
party stands pledged to suitable pensions for all who were disabled,
and for the widows and orphans of those who died in the war.
The Republican party also pledges itself to the repeal of the lim-
itation contained in the arrears act of 1879, so that all invalid sol-
diers shall share alike, and their pensions begin with the date of
disability, and not with the date of the application.

16. The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us
from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and which gives
us the right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain from
meddling in American affairs, — the policy which seeks peace and
trade with all powers, but especially with those of the western
hemisphere.

17. We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time
strength and efficiency, that it may in any sea protect the rights of
American citizens and the interests of American commerce. We
call upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American
shipping has been depressed, so that it may again be true that we
have a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored, and a navy
which takes no law from superior force.

18. That appointments by the President to offices in the Terri-
tories should be made from the bona-fi.de citizens and residents of
the Territories wherein they are to serve.

19. That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws as shall
promptly and effectually suppress the system of polygamy within
our Territories, and divorce the political from the ecclesiastical
power of the so-called Mormon Church, and that the law so enacted
should be rigidly enforced by the civil authorities, if possible, and
by the military, if need be.

20. The people of the United States, in their organized capacity,
constitute a nation, and not a mere confederacy of States. The
national government is supreme within the sphere of its national
duties, but the States have reserved rights which should be faith-
fully maintained, and which should be guarded with jealous care,
fo that the harmony of our system of government may be pre-
served and the Union kept inviolate.

432

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

21. The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the mainte-
nance of a free ballot, an honest count, and correct return. We
denounce the fraud and violence practised by the Democracy in
southern States, by which the will of the voter is defeated, as dan-
gerous to the preservation of free institutions; and we solemnly
arraign the Democratic party as being the guilty recipient of the
fruits of such fraud and violence.

22. We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of
their former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to
them our most earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legis-
lation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color,
the full and complete recognition, possession, and exercise of all
civil and political rights.

An evening session was held, at which the speeches were
made, putting the several candidates in nomination, but no vote
was taken until the next morning, Friday, June 6. Four votes
only were required to effect the nomination of Mr. Blaine,
which was then made unanimous. The votes were as fol-
lows : —

James G. Blaine, Maine . . .
Chester A. Arthur, New York
George F. Edmunds, Vermont .
John A. Logan, Illinois . . .
John Sherman, Ohio ....
Joseph R. Hawley, Connecticut
Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois . .
William T. Sherman, Missouri

1st.

2d.

3d.

3341

349

375

278

276

274

63|

4th.

541

207

15
2

At an evening session, John A. Logan, of Illinois, was nom-
inated for Vice-President by 779 votes to 7 for Lucius Fair-
child, of Wisconsin, and 6 for Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana,
and the convention adjourned.

Although there had been certain vague warnings in a part
of the Republican press that the party might forfeit the support
of many of its members in case the convention should adopt a
course contrary to that which the " reform element " of the
party desired, yet no one seems to have been prepared for
the extensive bolt which followed immediately upon the ad-
journment of the convention. Several important party organs,
and a large number of prominent Republicans, chiefly in the

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 433

Eastern States, announced, formally, that they would not sup-
port the candidates nominated. Independent committees were
at once organized in New York and Boston, for the purpose of
concentrating the Republican opposition to Mr. Blaine ; and
these committees, which had the cooperation of committees and
of independent voters in other cities, turned to the Democrats
with assurances that if they would make nominations accept-
able to the reformers, they could have the support of those
who were opposed to Mr. Blaine, and to what they deemed
the reckless disregard of good political morals by the Republi-
can convention.

The Republican revolt had a strong effect upon the action
of the Democrats. While most of the candidates who had
received votes for the nomination in 1880 were again in the
field with supporters in considerable numbers, — Bayard, Thur-
man, Randall, and others, — Democratic public opinion had
already fixed upon Grover Cleveland, governor of New York,
as the strongest candidate. He was the candidate who had
obtained the enormous majority of 190,000 in 1882, and he
had a large majority of the New York delegation, which was
instructed by the state convention to act as a unit on all ques-
tions. He was, moreover, the favorite candidate of the Repub-
lican dissidents, who looked upon him as a sincere reformer,
who would carry into practice the principles which he and
they professed. There was, in New York, nevertheless, not
a little opposition, chiefly of a personal nature, to Governor
Cleveland, for the powerful organization of Tammany Hall was
against him.

The convention met at Chicago, on July 8, and effected a
temporary organization, with Richard D. Hubbard, of Texas,
as chairman. The rules of the last Democratic convention
were adopted with one modification, namely, a provision that
after a State had given its vote for a candidate for President or
Vice-President, it should not change its vote until the roll-call
should be completed. The "two-thirds rule" was, of course,
adopted with the rest. The leader of the Tammany opposition
to Grover Cleveland endeavored to secure the adoption of a
rule that when any member of a state delegation disputed the
correctness of the vote of that State, as announced by the
chairman, the secretary should call the roll, and that " their
individual preferences as expressed shall be recorded as the vote
of the State." The object, of course, was to break down the

434 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

unit rule, and particularly to allow the minority of the New
York delegation to be heard. The proposition was defeated by
about one hundred majority, and, although attempts were after-
ward made to cause the actual vote of the New York delegates
to be recorded, the presiding officer declared himself bound to
accept the vote of that delegation as a unit, in accordance with
the instructions of the state convention.

On the second day of the convention, William F. Vilas, of
Wisconsin, was elected permanent president ; and the several
candidates were presented to the convention, in nominating
speeches. An evening session was held, and the following
platform was reported and adopted : —

The Democratic party of the Union, through its representatives
in national convention assembled, recognizes that, as the nation
grows older, new issues are born of time and progress, and old
issues perish ; but the fundamental principles of the Democracy,
approved by the united voice of the people, remain, and will ever
remain, as the best and only security for the continuance of free
government. The preservation of personal rights ; the equality
of all citizens before the law ; the reserved rights of the States ;
and the supremacy of the federal government within the limits of
the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and
can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of rights
and powers which enables a continent to be developed in peace,
and social order to be maintained by means of local self-govern-
ment. But it is indispensable for the practical application and
enforcement of these fundamental principles that the government
should not always be controlled by one political party. Frequent
change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to
the popular will. Otherwise, abuses grow, and the government,
instead of being carried on for the general welfare, becomes an
instrumentality for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are
governed, for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants
thus become arbitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the
country ; hence, a change is demanded.

The Republican party, so far as principle is concerned, is a
reminiscence. In practice it is an organization for enriching those
who control its machinery. The frauds and jobbery which have
been brought to light in every department of the government are
sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican party ;
yet those in authority, made reckless by the long possession of
power, have succumbed to its corrupting influence, and have
placed in nomination a ticket against which the independent
portion of the party are in open revolt. Therefore a change is

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 435

demanded. Such a change was alike necessary in 1876, but the
will of the people was then defeated by a fraud which can never be
forgotten nor condoned. Again, in 1880, the change demanded by
the people was defeated by the lavish use of money contributed
by unscrupulous contractors and shameless jobbers, who had bar-
gained for unlawful profits or high office. The Republican party,
during its legal, its stolen, and its bought tenures of power, has
steadily decayed in moral character and political capacity. Its
platform promises are now a list of its past failures. It demands
the restoration of our navy; it has squandered hundreds of mil-
lions to create a navy that does not exist. It calls upon Congress
to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been
depressed; it imposed and has continued these burdens. It pro-
fesses the policy of reserving the public lands for small hold-
ings by actual settlers ; it has given away the people's heritage,
till now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, individual and
corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between
the two seas. It professes a preference for free institutions; it
organized and tried to legalize a control of state elections by fed-
eral troops. It professes a desire to elevate labor; it subjected
American workingmen to the competition of convict and imported
contract labor. It professes gratitude to all who were disabled or
died in the war, leaving widows and orphans ; it left to a Demo-
cratic House of Representatives the first effort to equalize both
bounties and pensions. It professes a pledge to correct the
irregularities of our tariff; it created and has continued them.
Its own tariff commission confessed the need of more than twenty
per cent, reduction ; its Congress gave a reduction of less than
four per cent. It professes the protection of American manu-
factures ; it has subjected them to an increasing flood of manufac-
tured goods and a hopeless competition with manufacturing
nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It professes to
protect all American industries; it has impoverished many, to
subsidize a few. It professes the protection of American labor ; it
has depleted the returns of American agriculture, an industry fol-
lowed by half our people. It professes the equality of all men
before the law, attempting to fix the status of colored citizens ;
the acts of its Congress were overset by the decisions of its courts.
It " accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and
reform ; " its caught criminals are permitted to escape through
contrived delays or actual connivance in the prosecution. Honey-
combed with corruption, out-breaking exposures no longer shock
its moral sense. Its honest members, its independent journals, no
longer maintain a successful contest for authority in its canvasses or
a veto upon bad nominations. That change is necessary is proved

436 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by an existing surplus of more than $100,000,000, which has
yearly been collected from a suffering people. Unnecessary taxa-
tion is unjust taxation. We denounce the Republican party for
having failed to relieve the people from crushing war taxes, which
have paralyzed business, crippled industry, and deprived labor of
employment and of just reward.

The Democracy pledges itself to purify the administration from
corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for law, and to
reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due regard to
the preservation of the faith of the nation to its creditors and pen-
sioners. Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting
the occupations of the people should be cautious and conservative
in method, not in advance of public opinion, but responsive to its
demands, the Democratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a
spirit of fairness to all interests. But, in making reduction in
taxes, it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but
rather to promote their healthy growth. From the foundation of
this government, taxes collected at the custom-house have been the
chief source of federal revenue. Such they must continue to be.
Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for
successful continuance, so that any change of law must be at every
step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process
of reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of
justice : all taxation shall be limited to the requirements of eco-
nomical government. The necessary reduction in taxation can and
must be effected without depriving American labor of the ability
to compete successfully with foreign labor, and without imposing
lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any increased
cost of production which may exist in consequence of the higher
rate of wages prevailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to
pay all the expenses of the federal government, economically ad-
ministered, including pensions, interest and principal of the public
debt, can be got under our present system of taxation from custom-
house taxes on fewer imported articles, bearing neaviest on articles
of luxury, and bearing lightest on articles of necessity. We there-
fore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff ; and, subject to the
preceding limitations, we demand that federal taxation shall be
exclusively for public purposes, and shall not exceed the needs of
the government economically administered.

The system of direct taxation, known as the " internal revenue,"
is a war tax, and, so long as the law continues, the money derived
therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the relief of the people
from the remaining burdens of the war, and be made a fund to
defray the expenses of the care and comfort of worthy soldiers dis-
abled in the line of duty in the wars of the Republic, and for the

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 437

payment of such pensions as Congress may from time to time grant
to such soldiers, a like fund for the sailors having been already
provided ; and any surplus should be paid into the Treasury.

We favor an American continental policy, based upon more
intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen sister
republics of North, Central, and South America, but entangling
alliances with none.

We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of the
Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such
money without loss.

Asserting the equality of all men before the law, we hold that
it is the duty of the government, in its dealings with the people,
to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens, of whatever
nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political.

We believe in a free ballot and a fair count ; and we recall to the
memory of our people the noble struggle of the Democrats in the
Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which a reluctant Re-
publican opposition was compelled to assent to legislation making
everywhere illegal the presence of troops at the polls, as the con-
clusive proof that a Democratic administration will preserve lib-
erty with order.

The selection of federal officers for the Territories should be
restricted to citizens previously resident therein.

We oppose sumptuary laws, which vex the citizens and interfere
with individual liberty.

We favor honest civil service reform and the compensation of
all United States officers by fixed salaries, the separation of Church
and State, and the diffusion of free education by common schools,
so that every child in the land may be taught the rights and duties
of citizenship.

While we favor all legislation which will tend to the equitable
distribution of property, to the prevention of monopoly, and to the
strict enforcement of individual rights against corporate abuses,
we hold that the welfare of society depends upon a scrupulous re-
gard for the rights of property as defined by law.

We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and
most enlightened. It should, therefore, be fostered and cherished.
We favor the repeal of all laws restricting the free action of labor,
and the enactment of laws by which labor organizations may be
incorporated, and of such legislation as will tend to enlighten the
people as to the true relation of capital and labor.

We believe that the public land ought, as far as possible, to be
kept as homesteads for actual settlers ; that all unearned lands
heretofore improvidently granted to railroad corporations by the
action of the Republican party should be restored to the public

438 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

domain, and that no more grants of land shall be made to corpo-
rations or be allowed to fall into the ownership of alien absentees.

We are opposed to all propositions which, upon any pretext,
would convert the general government into a machine for collect-
ing taxes to be distributed among the States or the citizens thereof.

In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic platform of
1856, that "the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the
Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution,
which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the op-
pressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the
Democratic faith," we nevertheless do not sanction the importa-
tion of foreign labor or the admission of servile races, unfitted by
habits, training, religion, or kindred, for absorption into the great
body of our people, or for the citizenship which our laws confer.
American civilization demands that against the immigration or
importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed.

The Democratic party insists that it is the duty of this govern-
ment to protect with equal fidelity and vigilance the rights of its
citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; and, to the
end that this protection may be assured, United States papers of
naturalization, issued by courts of competent jurisdiction, must be
respected by the executive and legislative departments of our own
government and by all foreign powers. It is an imperative duty
of this government to efficiently protect all the rights of persons
and property of every American citizen in foreign lands, and
demand and enforce full reparation for any invasion thereof. An
American citizen is only responsible to his own government for
any act done in his own country or under her flag, and can only
be tried therefor on her own soil and according to her laws;
and no power exists in this government to expatriate an American
citizen to be tried in any foreign land for any such act.

This country has never had a well-defined and executed foreign
policy, save under Democratic administration. That policy has
ever been in regard to foreign nations, so long as they do no act
detrimental to the interests of the country or hurtful to our citi-
zens, to let them alone. As the result of this policy, we recall the
acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, California, and the adjacent
Mexican territory by purchase alone, and contrast these grand
acquisitions of Democratic statesmanship with the purchase of
Alaska, the sole fruit of a Republican administration of nearly a
quarter of a century.

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 439

Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy, our mer-
chant marine was fast overtaking and on the point of outstripping
that of Great Britain. Under twenty years of Republican rule and
policy, our commerce has been left to British bottoms, and the
American flag has almost been swept off the high seas. Instead
of the Republican party's British policy, we demand for the people
of the United States an American policy. Under Democratic rule
and policy, our merchants and sailors, flying the Stars and Stripes
in every port, successfully searched out a market for the various
products of American industry ; under a quarter of a century of
Republican rule and policy, despite our manifest advantages over
all other nations, in high-paid labor, favorable climates, and teem-
ing soils ; despite freedom of trade among all these United States ;
despite their population by the foremost races of men, and an
annual immigration of the young, thrifty, and adventurous of all
nations ; despite our freedom here from the inherited burdens of
life and industry in Old World monarchies, their costly war navies,
their vast tax-consuming, non-producing standing armies ; despite
twenty years of peace — that Republican rule and policy have
managed to surrender to Great Britain, along with our commerce,
the control of the markets of the world. Instead of the Republi-
can party's British policy, we demand, in behalf of the American
Democracy, an American policy. Instead of the Republican
party's discredited scheme and false pretence of friendship for
American labor, expressed by imposing taxes, we demand, in
behalf of the Democracy, freedom for American labor by reducing
taxes, to the end that these United States may compete with un-
hindered powers for the primacy among nations in all the arts of
peace and fruits of liberty.

With profound regret we have been apprised by the venerable
statesman, through whose person was struck that blow at the vital
principle of republics, acquiescence in the will of the majority,
that he cannot permit us again to place in his hands the leadership
of the Democratic hosts, for the reason that the achievement of
reform in the administration of the Federal government is an
undertaking now too heavy for his age and failing strength. Re-
joicing that his life has been prolonged until the general judgment
of our fellow-countrymen is united in the wish that that wrong
were righted in his person, for the Democracy of the United States
we offer to him, in his withdrawal from public cares, not only our
respectful sympathy and esteem, but also that best of homage of
freemen, — the pledge of our devotion to the principles and the
cause now inseparable in the history of this Republic from the
labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden.

With this statement of the hopes, principles, and purposes of

440

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the Democratic party, the great issue of reform and change in
administration is submitted to the people in calm confidence that
the popular voice will announce in favor of new men, and new
and more favorable conditions for the growth of industry, ,the
extension of trade, the employment and due reward of labor and
of capital, and the general welfare of the whole country.

When the foregoing platform was reported, General Benja-
min F. Butler, of Massachusetts, proposed to substitute a se-
ries of resolutions embodying certain ideas of his own, which
he had previously offered to the committee on resolutions.
The position which General Butler occupied was peculiar. He
had, a few years before, abandoned the Republican party, with
which he had acted since the civil war, and, after several fail-
ures, had been elected governor of Massachusetts, in 1882, as
a Democrat. He now appeared as a delegate to the Demo-
cratic national convention, supported by a majority of his
fellow-delegates from Massachusetts, urging his own nomina-
tion as a candidate for the presidency, to which position he
had already received two nominations, as has been recorded in
this chapter. To a notification of one of the nominations, he
had written a reply, in which he had adroitly omitted to say
whether or not he accepted the candidacy. His resolutions
were rejected, — yeas, 97 J, nays, 714|-, — and the platform as
reported was adopted without a division. General Butler's
name was not presented to the convention as a candidate, and
he received no votes.

Two ballots only were necessary to effect the nomination of
a candidate for President. They resulted as follows : —

Grover Cleveland, New York
Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware .
Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana .
Allen G. Thurman, Ohio . . .
Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania
Joseph E. McDonald, Indiana .
John G. Carlisle, Kentucky . .
Roswell P. Flower, New York .
George Hoadly, Ohio ....
Samuel J. Tilden, New York .

1st.

392

683

170

81*

145*

—

Governor Cleveland, it will be seen, had less than a majority

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 441

on the first vote, although he led all the other candidates.
When the second roll-call was completed he still lacked 72
votes of the necessary two thirds, but numerous changes
were made, and his nomination was effected.

Several persons were named to the convention as candidates
for the nomination for Vice-President, — John C. Black, of
Illinois, William S. Rosecrans, of California, and George W.
Glick, of Kansas. The names were all withdrawn, and
Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, was nominated by a unani-
mous vote. This completed the work of the convention.

Two conventions were held by Prohibitionists. The first,
which seems to have been, not a representative body, but
rather a mass convention of the whole party, was held at
Chicago, June 19, under the name of the American Prohibition
National Convention, It was presided over by J. L. Barlow,
of Connecticut, and adopted the following platform : —

We hold : 1. That ours is a Christian and not a heathen nation,
and that the God of the Christian Scriptures is the author of civil
government.

2. That the Bible should be associated with books of science
and literature in all our educational institutions.

3. That God requires and man needs a Sabbath.

4. That we demand the prohibition of the importation, manu-
facture, and sale of intoxicating drinks.

5. That the charters of all secret lodges granted by our federal
and state legislatures should be withdrawn and their oaths pro-
hibited by law.

6. We are opposed to putting prison labor or depreciated con-
tract labor from foreign countries in competition with free labor
to benefit manufacturers, corporations, and speculators.

7. We are in favor of a thorough revision and enforcement of
the law concerning patents and inventions, for the prevention and
punishment of frauds either upon inventors or the general public.

8. We hold to and will vote for woman suffrage.

9. We hold that civil equality secured to all American citizens
by articles thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen pf our amended national
Constitution should be preserved inviolate, and the same equality
should be extended to Indians and Chinamen.

10. That international differences should be settled by arbitra-
tion.

11. That land and other monopolies should be discouraged.

12. That the general government should furnish the people with
an ample and sound currency.

442 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

13. That it should be the settled policy of the government to
reduce the tariffs and taxes as rapidly as the necessities of revenue
and vested business interests will allow.

14. That polygamy should be immediately suppressed by law,
and that the Republican party is censurable for its long neglect of
its duty in respect to this evil.

15. And, finally, we demand for the American people the aboli-
tion of electoral colleges, and a direct vote for President and Vice-
President of the United States.

The convention nominated Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas,
for President, by 72 votes, to 12 for all others, and nominated
John A. Conant, of Connecticut, for Vice-President. It does
not appear that an electoral ticket was presented at the polls
in any State in support of the nominees of this convention.

The convention of the regular National Prohibition party
was held at Pittsburg, July 23. William Daniel, of Mary-
land, was the temporary chairman, and Samuel Dickie, of
Michigan, the permanent president of the convention, which
adopted the following platform : —

The Prohibition-Home-Protection party, in national convention
assembled, acknowledge Almighty God as the rightful sovereign
of all men, from whom the just powers of government are derived,
and to whose laws human enactments should conform. Peace,
prosperity, and happiness only can come to the people when the
laws of their national and state governments are in accord with
the divine will.

That the importation, manufacture, supply, and sale of alcoholic
beverages, created and maintained by the laws of the national and
state governments, during the entire history of such laws, is every-
where shown to be the promoting cause of intemperance, with re-,
suiting crime and pauperism ; making large demands upon public
and private charity ; imposing large and unjust taxation and pub-
lic burdens for penal and sheltering institutions upon thrift, in-
dustry, manufactures, and commerce; endangering the public
peace ; causing desecration of the sabbath ; corrupting our poli-
tics, legislation, and administration of the laws ; shortening lives ;
impairing health ; and diminishing productive industry; causing
education to be neglected and despised ; nullifying the teachings
of the Bible, the church, and the school, the standards and guides
of our fathers and their children in the founding and growth under
God of our widely extended country ; and, while imperilling the
perpetuity of our civil and religious liberties, are baleful fruits by
which we know that these laws are alike contrary to God's laws,
and contravene our happiness ; and we call upon our fellow-citizens

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 443

to aid in the repeal of these laws and in the legal suppression of
this baneful liquor traffic.

The fact that, during the twenty-four years in which the Repub-
lican party has controlled the general government and that of
many of the States, no effort has been made to change this policy;
that Territories have been created from the national domain, and
governments from them established, and States admitted into the
Union, in no instance in either of which has this traffic been for-
bidden, or the people of these Territories or States been permitted
to prohibit it ; that there are now over two hundred thousand dis-
tilleries, breweries, wholesale and retail dealers in these drinks,
holding certificates and claiming the authority of government for
the continuation of a business which is so destructive to the moral
and material welfare of the people, together with the fact that
they have turned a deaf ear to remonstrance and petition for the
correction of this abuse of civil government, is conclusive that the
Republican party is insensible to or impotent for the redress of
those wrongs, and should no longer be intrusted with the powers
and responsibilities of government ; that although this party, in
its late national convention, was silent on the liquor question, not
so were its candidates, Messrs. Blaine and Logan. Within the
year past, Mr. Blaine has publicly recommended that the revenues
derived from the liquor traffic shall be distributed among the
States, and Senator Logan has by bill proposed to devote these
revenues to the support of schools. Thus, both virtually recom-
mend the perpetuation of the traffic, and that the State and its
citizens shall become partners in the liquor crime.

The fact that the Democratic party has, in its national deliver-
ances of party policy, arrayed itself on the side of the drink mak-
ers and sellers, by declaring against the policy of prohibition of
such traffic under the false name of " sumptuary laws," and, when
in power in some of the States, in refusing remedial legislation,
and, in Congress, of refusing to permit the creation of a board of
inquiry to investigate and report upon the effects of this traffic,
proves that the Democratic party should not be intrusted with
power or place.

There can be no greater peril to the nation than the existing
competition of the Republican and Democratic parties for the
liquor vote. Experience shows that any party not firmly opposed
to the traffic will engage in this competition, will court the favor
of the criminal classes, will barter away the public morals, purity
of the ballot, and every trust and object of good government, for
party success ; and patriots and good citizens should find in this
practice sufficient cause for immediate withdrawal from all connec-
tion with their party.

444 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

That we favor reforms in the administration of the government,
in the abolition of all sinecures, useless offices and officers, in the
election by the people of officers of the government instead of
appointment by the President. That competency, honesty, and
sobriety are essential qualifications for holding civil office, and we
oppose the removal of such persons from mere administrative
offices, except so far as it may be absolutely necessary to secure
effectiveness to the vital issues on which the general administra-
tion of the government has been intrusted to a party.

That the collection of revenue from alcohol, liquors, and tobacco
should be abolished, as the vices of men are not a proper subject
for taxation ; that revenues for custom duties should be levied for
the support of the government, economically administered; and
when so levied, the fostering of American labor, manufactures,
and industries should constantly be held in view.

That the public lands should be held for homes for the people
and not for gifts to corporations, or to be held in large bodies for
speculators upon the needs of actual settlers.

That all money, coin and paper, should be made, issued, and
regulated by the general government, and should be a legal tender
for all debts, public and private.

That grateful care and support should be given to our soldiers
and sailors, their dependent widows and orphans, disabled in the
service of the country.

That we repudiate as un-American, contrary to and subversive
of the principle of the Declaration of Independence, from which
our government has grown to be the government of fifty-five mil-
lions of people, and a recognized power among nations, that any
person or people shall or may be excluded from residence or citi-
zenship with all others who may desire the benefits which our in-
stitutions confer upon the oppressed of all nations.

That while there are important reforms that are demanded for
purity of administration and the welfare of the people, their im-
portance sinks into insignificance when compared with the reform
of the drink traffic, which annually wastes eight hundred million
dollars of the wealth created by toil and thrift, and drags down
thousands of families from comfort to poverty ; which fills jails,
penitentiaries, insane asylums, hospitals, and institutions for
dependency ; which destroys the health, saps industry, and causes
loss of life and property to thousands in the land, lowers intellec-
tual and physical vigor, dulls the cunning hand of the artisan, is
the chief cause of bankruptcy, insolvency, and loss in trade, and,
by its corrupting power, endangers the perpetuity of free institu-
tions.

That Congress should exercise its undoubted power, and prohibit

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 445

the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages in the District;
of Columbia, in the Territories of the United States, and in all
places over which the government has exclusive jurisdiction ; that
hereafter no State shall be admitted into the Union until its con-
stitution shall expressly prohibit polygamy and the manufacture
and sale of intoxicating beverages.

We earnestly call the attention of the laborer and mechanic,
the miner and manufacturer, and ask investigation of the baneful
effects upon labor and industry caused by the needless liquor busi-
ness, which will be found the robber who lessens wages and profits,
the destroyer of happiness and the family welfare of the laboring
man, and that labor and all legitimate industry demand deliver-
ance from the taxation and loss which this traffic imposes, and
that no tariff or other legislation can so healthily stimulate pro-
duction or increase a demand for capital and labor, or produce so
much of comfort and content, as the suppressing of this traffic
would bring to the laboring man, mechanic, or employer of labor
throughout the land.

That the activity and cooperation of the women of America for
the promotion of temperance has, in all the history of the past, been
a strength and encouragement which we gratefully acknowledge
and record. In the later and present phase of the movement
for the prohibition of the licensed traffic by the abolition of the
drinking-saloon, the purity of purpose and method, the earnest-
ness, zeal, intelligence, and devotion of the mothers and daughters
of the Women's Christian Temperance Union has been eminently
blessed by God. Kansas and Iowa have been given her as " sheaves
of rejoicing ; " and the education and arousing of the public
mind, and the demand for constitutional amendment now pre-
vailing, are largely the fruit of her prayers and labors, and we
rejoice to have our Christian women unite with us in sharing the
labor that shall bring the abolition of this traffic to the polls ; she
shall join in the grand " Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow," when by law our boys and friends shall be free from legal
drink temptation.

That we believe in the civil and political equality of the sexes,
and that the ballot in the hand of woman is a right for her pro-
tection, and would prove a powerful ally for the abolition of the
drinking-saloon, the execution of law, the promotion of reform in
civil affairs, and the removal of corruption in public life ; and thus
believing, we relegate the practical outworking of this reform to
the discretion of the Prohibition party in the several States,
according to the condition of public sentiment in those States ;
that gratefully we acknowledge and praise God for the presence
of his Spirit, guiding our counsels and granting the success which

446 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

has been vouchsafed in the progress of temperance reform, and,
looking to Him from whom all wisdom and help come, we ask the
voters of the United States to make the principles of the above
declaration a ruling principle in the government of the nation and
of the States.

Resolved, That henceforth the Prohibition-Home-Protection
party shall be called by the name of the Prohibition party.

John P. St. John, of Kansas, was unanimously nominated
as the candidate of the party for President, and William Dan-
iel, of Maryland, was chosen with like unanimity for Vice-
President.

It became evident, as soon as all the nominations had been
made, that the canvass was to differ in important respects from
all that had preceded it. The defection of the independent
Republicans, who soon became known as " Mugwumps," took
much of the spirit out of the party in the early days of the
contest. These men would not be wooed back into the ranks
of their former associates. They repeated the old charges
against Mr. Blaine, and added to them objections based upon
his course as secretary of state, which, they insisted, had a
tendency to involve the country in war. On the other hand,
serious personal accusations were brought against Mr. Cleve-
land. The Mugwumps openly supported Mr. Cleveland, but
for the most part asserted that they were still Republicans,
that they opposed Mr. Blaine only, and that Mr. Cleveland
was " better than his party." As a matter of history it may
be mentioned here that large numbers of them followed Mr.
Cleveland to the end, and became members of the Democratic
party. The canvass was, from first to last, conducted on per-
sonal grounds. The candidates were mercilessly lampooned,
and false accusations of the most preposterous character were
made against them. The earnest efforts of many Republicans
to introduce questions of principle, to direct the attention of the
people to the records and the tendencies of the two parties, and
thus to change the character of the canvass, were unavailing.

This was not the only peculiarity of the election contest.
The candidacy of General Butler was at times a source of
uneasiness to the Democrats, who feared that the support of
him by Tammany leaders and other malcontents in New York
might result in the loss of that State. But before the day of
election, Tammany yielded, and gave its support to Mr. Cleve-
land. On the other hand, the Republicans were greatly weak-

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 447

ened by the Prohibition party ; for that organization success-
fully invited many Republicans who would not support Mr.
Blaine, and who could not bring themselves to the point of
voting for a Democrat, to give their votes to Mr. St. John.

It would not be true, despite all these disturbing conditions,
to say that the canvass was not an enthusiastic one on both sides.
The Republican defection certainly chilled and well-nigh para-
lyzed the party in Massachusetts, and caused a serious loss in
other New England States and in New York. But in the
rest of the country the defection was not great. In the West,
the enthusiasm for Mr. Blaine was almost unprecedented.
During the canvass he made a tour from his home in Maine
through many of the States of the "West, and was met and
cheered everywhere by enormous crowds of people. The Dem-
ocrats, jubilant over the accession of a fresh contingent of
voters, and hopeful of returning to power after many years of
exclusion therefrom, made a bold and confident fight.

Yet all observers could see that the result of the contest
was to be extremely close. The whole number of electoral
votes was 401. The Democrats, as usual, were sure of the
" solid South" with 153 votes, and they accordingly needed
to gain only 48 votes in the North. The October election in
Ohio showed that in the States usually Republican there was
likely to be no change ; in short, the Republicans could de-
pend upon all the Northern States except Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, and Indiana, — that is, upon 182 votes.
The 66 votes of four States would decide the result. No one
could tell how these States would go. Each party hoped and
feared. For although in three of them the Republicans had
lost many strong supporters, Mr. Blaine was popular among
the Irish voters, and no one could guess whether from that
quarter enough recruits might not be found to offset the Mug-
wump defection.

Just on the eve of the election, an incident occurred which
dashed this hope of the Republicans. A delegation of clergy-
men met Mr. Blaine in New York, as he was returning from
the tour already mentioned,' and one of their number made an
address to the candidate, in the course of which he said in
effect that the Republican canvass was directed against " Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion." The phrase was immediately
used with great effect to drive back the Irish supporters of
Mr. Blaine into the Democratic ranks. He had not used the

448

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Popular Vote.

Electorai.

VOTB.

■
3j

Statu.

« e
* is

e£'cl

-a

1
1*

<->

> u

JOT)

o
10

Alabama ....

93,951

59,591

873

612

Arkansas . .

72,927

50,895

1,847

California . .

89,288

102,416

2,017

2,920

Colorado . .

27,723

36,290

1,953

761

Connecticut .

67,199

65,923

1,688

2,305

Delaware . .

16,964

12,951

Florida . .

31,766

28,031

Georgia . .

94,667

48,603

145

195

Illinois . . .

312,355

337,474

10,910

12,074

Indiana . .

244,990

238,463

8,293

3,028

Iowa ....

177,316

197,089

1,472

Kansas . . .

90,132

154,406

16,341

4,495

Kentucky . .

152,961

118,122

1,691

3,139

Louisiana . .

62,540

46,347

Maine . . .

52,140

72,209

3,953

2,160

Maryland . .

96,932

85,699

531

2,794

Massachusetts

122,481

146,724

24,433

10,026

Michigan . .

149,835

192,669

42,243

18,403

Minnesota . .

70,144

111,923

3,583

4,684

Mississippi

76,510

43,509

Missouri . .

235,988

202,929

2,153

Nebraska . .

54,391

79,912

2,899

Nevada . .

5,578

7,193

New Hampshire

39,183

43,249

552

1,571

New Jersey .

127,798

123,440

3,496

6,159

New York

563,154

562,005

16,994

25,016

—

North Carolina

142,952

125,068

454

Ohio . . .

368,280

400,082

5,179

11,069

Oregon . . .

24,604

26,860

726

492

Pennsylvania

392,785

473,804

16,992

15,283

Rhode Island

12,391

19,030

422

928

South Carolina

69,890

21,733

Tennessee

133,258

124,078

957

1,131

Texas . . .

225,309

93,141

■ 3,321

3,534

Vermont . .

17,331

39,514

785

1,752

Virginia . . ,

185,497

139,356

138

West Virginia .

67,317

63,096

810

939

Wisconsin ....

146,459

161,157

4,598

7,656

—

Total ....

4,874,986

4,851,981

175,370

150,369

219

182

THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 449

phrase, — indeed, it is doubtful if, in the confusion, he even
heard it as it was uttered ; but it was employed as though it
had been an expression of his own, and there is scarcely a
doubt that it affected enough votes in New York, which was
most closely divided, to change the whole result, and to elect
Mr. Cleveland instead of Mr. Blaine, — for the vote of New
York was decisive.

The excitement of the canvass did not die out with the elec-
tion, for the result was in great doubt. The early returns
showed that Mr. Cleveland had carried all the Southern States,
together with Connecticut, New Jersey, and Indiana. In all
the other Northern States, except New York, the Republicans
had been successful. The vote in New York was so close that
both parties claimed its electoral vote for several days, and the
corrected returns as they came in, showing differences from
the first hasty returns of a score or two, first in favor of one
party, then in favor of the other, were studied with intense
anxiety. But the final result, a plurality of 1149 in a total
vote of nearly 1,200,000, ended all doubt, and gave a Presi-
dent to the Democratic party for the first time since the close
of Mr. Buchanan's administration.

No State had been admitted since 1876, but a new appor-
tionment on the basis of the census of 1880 had increased the
number of electors. The result of the popular vote, and of
the vote by electors, has been given.

The count of electoral votes took place on February 11,
1885, in accordance with a joint resolution adopted by both
Houses of Congress without opposition. The resolution was
in the identical words of the first part of the resolution of
1881, and simply provided for the opening of the certificates
by two tellers on the part of each House, and a declaration of
the result by the president of the Senate. The count was
undisturbed by any event calling for notice.

XXVIII

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED

The quadrennial period which completed the first century
of government under the Constitution was distinguished by
the passage of two acts of constitutional importance. By one
of them, the method of counting the electoral votes was settled
on principles so reasonable and equitable that there seems no
reason to apprehend that it will ever be changed, so long as
the system of electing the President indirectly is pursued.
Thus the famous casus omissus of the Constitution has been
supplied so far as that can be done without a formal amend-
ment. The amendment is unnecessary so long as parties are
willing to abide by a fair settlement of a much disputed point,
and it could not be adopted were either party opposed to it.
By the other act, the presidential succession has been com-
pletely changed.

The history of the adoption of these measures contains little
that is interesting. Neither was carried as a party measure,
and when brought to a vote the opposition to either was little
more than a symptom of that conservatism which usually re-
sists all change.

The Presidential Succession Act was the first in order of
time. The law of 1791 made the President pro tempore of
the Senate the successor to the office of President in the event
of the removal, death, resignation, or disability of both the
President and the Vice-President ; 1 and, after the President
of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Constitution conferred upon Congress the duty of desig-
nating what officer shall act as President in such cases. There
was, from the beginning, a doubt if the President pro tempore
of the Senate, or the Speaker, was an " officer," within the
meaning of the Constitution. But certain considerations of
personal politics at the time the act was passed caused Con-

1 See page 36.

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 451

gress not to take the members of the Cabinet, the natural suc-
cessors of the President and Vice-President in case of vacancy,
but to vest the succession in the President pro tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Fortunately, the case has never occurred which called for an
application of the law of 1791. Nevertheless, on more than
one occasion the country was perilously near a crisis, owing to
the fact that the death of one person would cause the presi-
dency to lapse, since no one then held the position either of
President pro tempore or of Speaker.

It was this consideration, rather than the doubt if the law of
1791 was in conformity with the Constitution, that led to the
enactment of the law of 1886. Another reason was that
neither of the presiding officers of Congress designated for the
succession is necessarily or invariably a member of the party
which has been successful in electing the President ; and it is
universally admitted that political fair dealing demands that
the party which has carried the election shall not be deprived
of its victory by the death of the President and Vice-President.

The Presidential Succession bill was reported from the
Committee on the Judiciary, of the Senate, as early as June
19, 1882. It was considered and passed January 19, 1883 ;
but was not taken up for consideration in the House of Repre-
sentatives before the expiration of the Forty-seventh Congress,
March 4, 1883. A bill with identical provisions was passed
by the Senate on December 17, 1885, without a division. It
was taken up January 12, 1886, by the House of Representa-
tives, and, after several proposed amendments had been re-
jected, the bill was passed as it came from the Senate by a
vote of 185 to 77. The affirmative vote was given by 146
Democrats and 39 Republicans ; the negative, by 75 Republi-
cans and 2 Democrats. The act was approved January 18,
1886, and is in the following words : —

Be it enacted, etc., that in case of the removal, death, resigna-
tion, or inability of both the President and Vice-President of the
United States, the Secretary of State, or if there be none, or in
case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, or if there be none, or in case of his removal,
death, resignation, or inability, then the Secretary of War, or if
there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or
inability, then the Attorney-General, or if there be none, or in
case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Post-

452 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

master-General, or if there be none, or in case of his removal,
death, resignation, or inability, then the Secretary of the Navy,
or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation,
or inability, then the Secretary of the Interior shall act as Presi-
dent until the disability of the President or Vice-President is
removed, or a President shall be elected : provided, that whenever
the powers and duties of the office of President of the United
States shall devolve upon any of the persons named herein, if
Congress be not then in session, or if it would not meet in accord-
ance with law within twenty days thereafter, it shall be the duty
of the person upon whom said powers and duties shall devolve to
issue a proclamation convening Congress in extraordinary session,
giving twenty days' notice of the time of meeting.

Section 2. That the preceding section shall only be held to
describe and apply to such officers as shall have been appointed by
the advice and consent of the Senate to the offices therein named,
and such as are eligible to the office of President under the Consti-
tution, and not under impeachment by the House of Representa-
tives of the United States at the time the powers and duties of the
office shall devolve upon them respectively.

Section 3. That sections 146, 147, 148, 149, and 150 of the Re-
vised Statutes are hereby repealed.

The final settlement of the mode of counting the electoral
votes stands as Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Forty-ninth Con-
gress, approved February 3, 1887. Its history is even less
eventful than that of the Presidential Succession Act, though
agreement upon the terms of the bill was only reached after
much consideration, many amendments, and the work of a con-
ference committee. Into this act, as will be seen from an exam-
ination of its provisions, has been introduced the principle that
a State may finally determine every contest arising out of a
presidential election. Such determination must be made in
accordance with a law passed before the electors are chosen,
and the decision must have been made at least six days before
the meeting of the electors ; but under these conditions the
two Houses of Congress cannot reverse the decision so reached.
The only case in which such a determination can be subverted
is when there is a conflict of tribunals, and the two Houses
cannot agree in deciding which of them is the lawful tribunal.
As to votes not made secure by a judicial determination, the
general principle is that none can be rejected except by con-
current vote of the two Houses. This is different from the
principle of the old " twenty-second joint rule," which allowed
either House to reject votes. The act in full is as follows : —

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 453

Be it enacted, etc., that the electors of each State shall meet and
give their votes on the second Monday in January next following
their appointment, at such place in each State as the Legislature
of such State shall direct.

Section 2. That if any State shall have provided, by laws en-
acted prior to the day fixed for the appointment of the electors,
for its final determination of any controversy or contest concern-
ing the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, by
judicial or other methods of procedure, and such determination
shall have been made at least six days before the time fixed for
the meeting of the electors, such determination made pursuant to
such law so existing on said day, and made at least six days prior
to the said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive, and
shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in
the Constitution, as hereinafter regulated, so far as the ascertain-
ment of the electors appointed by such State is concerned.

Section 3. That it shall be the duty of the executive of each
State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appoint-
ment of electors in such State, by the final ascertainment under
and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such
ascertainment, to communicate under the seal of the State, to the
secretary of state of the United States, a certificate of such ascer-
tainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such
electors and the canvass or other ascertainment, under the laws of
such State, of the number of votes given or cast for each person
for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast ;
and it shall also thereupon be the duty of the executive of each
State to deliver to the electors of such State, on or before the day
on which they are required, by the preceding section, to meet, the
same certificate, in triplicate, under the seal of the State ; and such
certificate shall be inclosed and transmitted by the electors at the
same time and in the same manner as is provided by law for
transmitting by such electors to the seat of government the lists
of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for
as Vice-President: and Section 136 of the Revised Statutes is
hereby repealed ; and if there shall have been any final determina-
tion in the State of a controversy or contest, as provided for in
Section 2 of this act, it shall be the duty of the executive of such
State, as soon as practicable after such determination, to commu-
nicate, under the seal of the State, to the secretary of state of the
United States, a certificate of such determination, in form and
manner as the same shall have been made ; and the secretary of
state of the United States, as soon as practicable after the receipt
at the State Department of each of the certificates hereinbefore
directed to be transmitted to the secretary of state, shall publish,

454 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

in such public newspaper as he shall designate, such certificates
in full ; and at the first meeting of Congress, thereafter, he shall
transmit to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and
every such certificate so received theretofore at the State Depart-
ment.

Section 4. That Congress shall be in session on the second
Wednesday in February succeeding every meeting of the electors.
The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the hall
of the House of Representatives at the hour of one o'clock in the
afternoon, on that day, and the President of the Senate shall be
their presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed
on the part of the Senate, and two on the part of the House of
Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by
the President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers pur-
porting to be the certificates of the electoral vote, which certifi-
cates and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in
the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter A ;
and said tellers, having then read the same in the presence and
hearing of the two Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they
shall appear from the said certificates, and, the votes having been
ascertained and counted in the manner and according to the rules
in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to
the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the
state of the vote, which announcement shall be deemed a suffi-
cient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice-
President of the United States, and, together with a list of the
votes, be entered on the journals of the two Houses. Upon such
reading of any such certificate or paper, the President of the Sen-
ate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made
in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argu-
ment, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one sena-
tor and one member of the House of Represenatives before the
same shall be received. When all objections so made to any
vote or paper from a State shall have been received and read,
the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be
submitted to the Senate for its decision ; and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such
objections to the House of Representatives for its decision ; and
no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been
regularly given by electors, whose appointment has been lawfully
certified to according to Section 3 of this act, from which but
one return has been received, shall be rejected ; but the two Houses
concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that
such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors
whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one return

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 455

or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have been
received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and those
only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given by
the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in
Section 2 of this act to have been appointed, if the determination
in said section provided for shall- have been made, or by such suc-
cessors, or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the board of elec-
tors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in
the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in case there
shall arise a question which of two or more of such State authori-
ties determining what electors have been appointed, as mentioned
in Section 2 of this act, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the
votes regularly given of those electors, and those only, of such
State shall be counted whose title as electors the two Houses, act-
ing separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the deci-
sion of such State so authorized by its laws ; and in such case of
more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a
State, if there shall have been no such determination of the ques-
tion in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and those only, shall
be counted which the two Houses shall concurrently decide were
cast by lawful electors appointed in accordance with the laws of
the State, unless the two Houses, acting separately, shall concur-
rently decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of the legally
appointed electors of such State. But if the two Houses shall
disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then and in that
case the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been
certified by the Executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall
be counted. When the two Houses have voted, they shall imme-
diately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce
the decision of the questions submitted. No votes or papers from
any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously
made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been
finally die-posed of.

Section 5. That while the two Houses shall be in meeting as
provided in this act, the President of the Senate shall have power
to preserve order : and no debate shall be allowed and no question
shall be put by the presiding officer, except to either House on a
motion to withdraw.

Section 6. That when the two Houses separate to decide upon
an objection that may have been made to the counting of any elec-
toral vote or votes from any State, or other question arising in the
matter, each Senator and Representative may speak to such objec-
tion or question five minutes, and not more than once ; but after
such debate shall have lasted two hours, it shall be the duty of the
presiding officer of each House to put the main question without
further debate.

456 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Section 7. Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the
count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared ;
and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in
regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this act, in
which case it shall be competent for either House, acting sepa-
rately, in the manner hereinbefore provided, to direct a recess of
such House not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday excepted,
at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon. But if the counting of
the electoral votes and the declaration of the result shall not have
been completed before the fifth calendar day next after such first
meeting of the two Houses, no further or other recess shall be
taken by either House.

During the same period of four years which witnessed the
passage of these two important acts, propositions to amend the
Constitution relative to the office of President were intro-
duced in unusual number and variety. Some of the old sug-
gestions were received, such as the lengthening of the term,
forbidding reelection, and changing the mode of election so
that voters should cast their votes directly and without the
intervention of electors. Other schemes, some of them highly
fanciful, were added to the list. But not one of them all, old
or new, had even the success implied in a favorable report by
a committee ; and no proposition of amendment excited the
smallest interest on the part of the general public.

XXIX

THE SECOND HARRISON

When" a political party acquires control of the executive
department of the government after passing twenty-four years
in the cold shade of the opposition, a redistribution of offices
is naturally the matter that first engages its attention. Mr.
Cleveland, entering upon the duties of President, found him-
self in a peculiar position. He owed his election as much to
a body of dissident Republicans as to the Democratic party.
His " Mugwump " supporters were for the most part thorough
believers in the principles of civil service reform, and had
supported him in the belief that he agreed with them on that
issue. They were totally opposed to a "clean sweep" of the
appointive officers of the government. On the other hand, the
main body of his adherents regarded the offices as the fruits
of victory, and would not be satisfied so long as Republicans
were drawing salaries from the Treasury. Mr. Cleveland so
shaped his course as not wholly to disappoint either wing of
his supporters. That he did not wholly satisfy either wing is
involved in this statement. Removals from office for political
reasons were numerous ; and at the end of the four years' term
a large proportion of the incumbents were Democrats. But in
one case Mr. Cleveland reappointed a Republican to an impor-
tant office ; the removals were not made with too unseemly
haste ; and in many instances Republicans were suffered to
serve out the full term of four years for which they had been
appointed. There was not much friction between the Presi-
dent and the Senate, although the Republicans controlled that
branch of Congress during Mr. Cleveland's term of office. The
Senate usually acquiesced in the removals, and confirmed the
President's appointments ; and before his term had half ex-
pired, it concurred with the Democratic House of Representa-
tives in repealing the Tenure of Office Act, which had been
devised to limit President Johnson's power of removal from

458 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

office, and which, in a modified form, had been retained on the
statute book ever since.

Although the Senate interposed no great obstacles to the
President's distribution of the offices according to his pleasure,
it set up an effectual barrier to the enactment of legislation of
a political character. There was no serious attempt to draw
up the two great parties in line of battle during the con-
tinuance of the Forty-ninth Congress. The party wrangling
took place for the most part over the executive acts of the
President, the Democrats upholding and the Republicans
denouncing the disposition he made of the offices, and his use
of the veto power, which he exercised with unexampled free-
dom. Inasmuch as a large number of the bills returned to
Congress without the approval of the President were private
pension bills, the effort was made, not without a measure of
success, to represent Mr. Cleveland as but a half-hearted sym-
pathizer with the soldiers ; and the accusation that the interests
of the former defenders of the flag were regarded by him in a
too calculating spirit was used against him in the ensuing can-

But all other political questions were thrust completely out
of sight by the unusual and startling act of the President at
the beginning of the Fiftieth Congress. The question of the
tariff had been brought forward during the Forty-ninth Con-
gress in the so-called " Morrison bill," — Mr. Morrison, of
Illinois, was the chairman of the Committee on Ways and
Means, — but the division in the ranks of the Democratic
party on this issue had been deep enough to prevent the pas-
sage of the bill even by the House of Representatives, in which
the Democrats had a clear majority of forty members. At the
beginning of the first session of the Fiftieth . Congress, in
December, 1887, the President, in disregard of unbroken prece-
dent, omitted altogether from his annual message a review of
government operations and a statement of international rela-
tions during the year past, and devoted the whole document
to a plea for a revision of the tariff. The party lines were
formed at once. The Republicans detected in Mr. Cleveland's
message an attack upon the principle of a protective tariff, and
closed up their ranks to defend the system of which they had
been the champions for a quarter of a century. Mr. Blaine,
who was making a long sojourn in Europe, in an " interview "
with an American newspaper correspondent examined Mr.

THE SECOND HARRISON 459

Cleveland's argument in detail, and set forth the Republican
side of the discussion in a way which made his " Paris
message," as it was called, the " keynote " of the Republican
defence of the protective tariff. The Democrats recognized in
the President's message a summons to move forward to the
attack. They responded to the call. The leaders resolved to
be no longer tolerant of differences. Those who would not
fight the battle of the Democracy must be coerced, or treated
as enemies and driven out of the camp. The measure which
the Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee
prepared under the leadership of Mr. Mills, the chairman, after
long deliberation and consultation, was made a quasi test of
party loyalty. Support of its main features, and support of
the bill itself after the work of amendment was completed, was
required of all Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Those who refused to give it their votes forfeited the favors
which it was in the power of the administration and the party
to bestow. The party became so well united in the support of
the Mills bill that when that measure came up on its passage
in the House of Representatives, four Democrats only voted
against it. When that vote was given, on July 21, 1888, the
great conventions had already been held, and the candidates
were before the people.

Six months before the meeting of the nominating conven-
tions it seemed to be certain that the presidential contest of
1888 would be between the same candidates who had been
pitted against each other in 1884, — Cleveland and Blaine.
The President made no public manifestation of his wish to be
nominated for reelection, but it was not necessary that he
should do so. It appeared to be the well-nigh universal wish
of his party that he should be again the leader of their forces,
and he was understood to be entirely willing to accept the
position.

On the other hand, the desire of the Republicans that Mr.
Blaine should head the ticket once more found overwhelming
expression among them. The unanimity of sentiment was
surprising. It is probably safe to say that had the delegates
to the convention been elected in December, 1887, there would
not have been chosen a dozen in all the country who would
have preferred any other candidate to Mr. Blaine. Great,
therefore, was the confusion into which the party was thrown
by the withdrawal of Mr. Blaine from the contest. On Jan^

460 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

uary 25, 1888, he addressed, from Florence, Italy, a letter to
the chairman of the Republican national committee, in which,
on account of " considerations entirely personal to myself," he
announced that his name would not be presented to the
national convention. At the same time he congratulated the
party upon its cheering prospects, foretold that the tariff was
to be the great issue of the canvass, and expressed confidence
that the result could not be in doubt. Republicans were sur-
prised and disappointed by this letter. They saw that it was
a genuine and sincere refusal to accept the nomination, yet
many of his friends, in the earnestness of their wish that he
should be again the candidate, persuaded themselves that
he would accept the mandate of the party if it were expressed
with great unanimity. But while these excessively zealous
champions persisted in their purpose to choose and send to the
convention delegates who were for Mr. Blaine, "first, last,
and all the time," the acceptance of his withdrawal as a
finality by the party at large resulted in the coming forward
of many candidates. The unwillingness of Mr. Blaine's most
ardent friends to give up the hope of nominating him placed
that gentleman in a position of embarrassment from which he
extricated himself by a second letter, dated at Paris, May 17.
He had learned that some of his former supporters had not
taken his Florence letter as " absolutely conclusive in ultimate
and possible contingencies," as he had intended it to be ; and on
the strength of it canvasses had been begun for other candidates.
Therefore, if the nomination could by any chance be offered to
him, "I could not accept it without leaving in the minds
of thousands of these men [friends of other candidates] the
impression that I had not been free from indirection ; and
therefore I could not accept it at all." Even after this there
were some men who did not abandon hope that Mr. Blaine
might be nominated ; but the canvass within the Republican
party proceeded on the theory that the leading favorite was
entirely out of the contest.

Two conventions were held simultaneously in Cincinnati,
beginning on the 15th of May. These conventions were held
by two factions of the Labor party, known respectively as the
" Union Labor " and the " United Labor " party.

The Union Labor convention was made up of about two
hundred and twenty delegates, representing twenty States.
S. F. Norton was the temporary chairman, and John Seitz the

THE SECOND HARRISON 461

permanent president. The following platform was reported
by the committee on resolutions, and adopted after a long dis-
cussion : —

General discontent prevails on the part of the wealth-producer.
Farmers are suffering from a poverty which has forced most of
them to mortgage their estates, and the prices of products are so
low as to offer no relief, except through bankruptcy, and laborers
are sinking into greater dependence. Strikes are resorted to
without bringing relief, because of the inability of employers in
many cases to pay living wages, while more and more are driven
into the street. Business men find collections almost impossible,
and, meantime, hundreds of millions of idle public money, which
is needed for relief, is locked up in the United States Treasury, or
placed without interest in favored banks in grim mockery of dis-
tress. Land monopoly flourishes as never before, and more owners
of the soil are daily becoming tenants. Great transportation cor-
porations still succeed in extorting their profits on watered stock
through unjust charges. The United States Senate has become an
open scandal, its membership being purchased by the rich in open
defiance of the popular will. Various efforts are made to squander
the public money, which are designed to empty the Treasury with-
out paying the public debt. Under these and other alarming con-
ditions we appeal to the people of our country to come out of old
party organizations, whose indifference to the public welfare is
responsible for this distress, and aid the Union Labor party to
repeal existing class legislation, and relieve the distress of our
industries by establishing the following principles : —

Land. — While we believe that the proper solution of the finan-
cial question will greatly relieve those now in danger of losing their
homes by mortgages and foreclosures, and enable all industrious
persons to secure a home as the highest result of civilization, we
oppose land monopoly in every form, demand the forfeiture of
unearned grants, the limitation of land ownership, and such other
legislation as will stop speculations in land, and holding it unused
trom those whose necessities require it.

We believe the earth was made for the people, and not to enable
an idle aristocracy to subsist, through rents, upon the toil of the
industrious, and that corners in land are as bad as corners in food,
and that those who are not residents or citizens should not be
allowed to own lands in the United States. A homestead should
be exempt, to a limited extent, from execution or taxation.

Transportation. — The means of communication and transporta-
tion should be owned by the people, as is the United States postal
Bervice.

Money. — The establishment of a national monetary system in

4G2 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

the interest of the producer, instead of the speculator and usurer,
by which the circulating medium, in necessary quantity and full
legal tender, shall be issued directly to the people, without the in-
tervention of banks, or loaned to citizens upon land security at a
low rate of interest, to relieve them from extortions of usury, and
enable them to control the money supply. Postal savings banks
should be established. While we have free coinage of gold, we
should have free coinage of silver. We demand the immediate
application of all the money in the United States Treasury to the
payment of the bonded debt, and condemn the further issue of
interest-bearing bonds, either by the national government or by
States, Territories, or municipalities.

Labor. — Arbitration should take the place, of strikes and other
injurious methods of settling labor disputes. The letting of con-
vict labor to contractors should be prohibited, the contract system
be abolished in public works, the hours of labor in industrial estab-
lishments be reduced commensurate with the increased produc-
tion by labor-saving machinery, employees protected from bodily
injury, equal pay for equal work for both sexes, and labor, agri-
cultural, and cooperative associations be fostered and encouraged
by law. The foundation of a republic is in the intelligence of its
citizens, and children who are driven into workshops, mines, and
factories are deprived of the education which should be secured to
all by proper legislation.

Pensions. — We demand the passage of a service pension bill to
every honorably discharged soldier and sailor of the United States.

Income Tax. — A graduated income tax is the most equitable
system of taxation, placing the burden of government on those
who can best afford to pay, instead of laying it on the farmers
and producers, and exempting millionaire bondholders and cor-
porations.

United States Senate. — We demand a constitutional amendment
making United States senators elective by a direct vote of the
people.

Contract Labor. — We demand the strict enforcement of laws
prohibiting the importation of subjects of foreign countries under
contract.

Chinese. — We demand the passage and enforcement of such
legislation as will absolutely exclude the Chinese from the United
States.

Woman Suffrage. — The right to vote is inherent in citizenship,
irrespective of sex, and is properly within the province of state
legislation.

Paramount Issues. — The paramount issues to be solved in the
interests of humanity are the abolition of usury, monopoly, and

THE SECOND HARRISON 463

trusts, and we denounce the Democratic and Republican parties
for creating and perpetuating these monstrous evils.

Alson J. Streeter, of Illinois, was nominated for President,
by acclamation. Samuel Evans, of Texas, was nominated for
Vice-President on the first trial. He received 124 votes to 44
for T. P. Rynders, of Pennsylvania, and 32 for Charles R.
Cunningham, of Arkansas.

The United Labor party held what the chairman of the
'national committee said was rather a conference than a con-
vention. The number in attendance was small. The chair-
man, both temporary and permanent, was William B. Ogden,
of Kentucky, and the Rev. Edward McGlynn, of New York,
was the chairman of the committee on resolutions.

The following platform was reported and adopted : —

"We, the delegates of the United Labor party of the United
States, in national convention assembled, hold that the corrup-
tions of government and the impoverishment of the masses result
from neglect of the self-evident truths proclaimed by the founders
of this Republic, that all men are created equal, and are endowed
with inalienable rights. We aim at the abolition of the system
which compels men to pay their fellow-creatures for the use of the
common bounties of nature, and permits monopolizers to deprive
labor of natural opportunities for employment.

We see access to farming land denied to labor, except on pay-
ment of exorbitant rent or the acceptance of mortgage burdens,
and labor, thus forbidden to employ itself, driven into the cities.
We see the wage-workers of the cities subjected to this unnatural
competition, and forced to pay an exorbitant share of their scanty
earnings for cramped and unhealthful lodgings. We see the same
intense competition condemning the great majority of business and
professional men to a bitter and often unavailing struggle to avoid
bankruptcy ; and that, while the price of all that labor produces
ever falls, the price of land ever rises.

We trace these evils to a fundamental wrong, — the making of
the land on which all must live the exclusive property of but a por-
tion of the community. To this denial of natural rights are due
want of employment, low wages, business depressions, that intense
competition which makes it so difficult for the majority of men to
get a comfortable living, and that wrongful distribution of wealth
which is producing the millionaire on one side and the tramp on
the other.

To give all men an interest in the land of their country ; to ena-
ble all to share in the benefits of social growth and improvement;

464 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

to prevent the shutting out of labor from employment by the
monopolization of natural opportunities ; to do away with the one-
sided competition which cuts down wages to starvation rates ; to
restore life to business, and prevent periodical depressions ; to do
away with that monstrous injustice which deprives producers of
the fruits of their toil while idlers grow rich ; to prevent the con-
flicts which are arraying class against class, and which are fraught
with menacing dangers to society, — we propose so to change the
existing system of taxation that no one shall be taxed on the
wealth he produces, nor any one suffered to appropriate wealth he
does not produce by taking to himself the increasing values which
the growth of society adds to land.

What we propose is not the disturbing of any man in his holding
or title ; but, by taxation of land according to its value and not
according to its area, to devote to common use and benefit those
values which arise, not from the exertion of the individual, but
from the growth of society, and to abolish all taxes on industry
and its products. This increased taxation of land values must,
while relieving the working farmer and small homestead owner of
the undue burdens now imposed upon them, make it unprofitable
to hold land for speculation, and thus throw open abundant oppor-
tunities for the employment of labor and the building up of homes.
We would do away with the present unjust and wasteful system
of finance which piles up hundreds of millions of dollars in trea-
sury vaults while we are paying interest on an enormous debt;
and we would establish in its stead a monetary system in which a
legal tender circulating medium should be issued by the govern-
ment, without the intervention of banks.

We wish to abolish the present unjust and wasteful system of
ownership of railroads and telegraphs by private corporations, —
a system which, while failing to supply adequately public needs,
impoverishes the farmer, oppresses the manufacturer, hampers the
merchant, impedes travel and communication, and builds up enor-
mous fortunes and corrupting monopolies that are becoming more
powerful than the government itself. For this system we would
substitute government ownership and control for the benefit of
the whole people instead of private profit.

While declaring the foregoing to be the fundamental principles
and aims of the United Labor party, and while conscious that no
reform can give effectual anal permanent relief to labor that does
not involve the legal recognition of equal lights to natural oppor-
tunities, we, nevertheless, as measures of relief from some of the
evil effects of ignoring those rights, favor such legislation as may
tend to reduce the hours of labor, to prevent the employment of
children of tender years, to avoid the competition of convict labor

THE SECOND HARRISON 465

with honest industry, to secure the sanitary inspection of tene-
ments, factories, and mines, and to put an end to the abuse of con-
spiracy laws.

We desire also to simplify the procedure of our courts and dimin-
ish the expense of legal proceedings, that the poor may therein be
placed on an equality with the rich, and the long delays which
now result in scandalous miscarriages of justice may be prevented.
Since the ballot is the only means by which, in our Republic, the
redress of political and social grievances is to be sought, we espe-
cially and emphatically declare for the adoption of what is known
as the Australian system of voting, in order that the effectual
secrecy of the ballot, and the relief of candidates for public office
from the heavy expenses now imposed upon them, may prevent
bribery and intimidation, do away with practical discriminations
in favor of the rich and unscrupulous, and lessen the pernicious
influence of money in politics.

We denounce the Democratic and Republican parties as hope-
lessly and shamelessly corrupt, and, by reason of their affiliation
with monopolies, equally unworthy of the suffrages of those who
do not live upon public plunder ; we therefore require of those
who would act with us that they sever all connection with both.

In support of these aims, we solicit the cooperation of all patri-
otic citizens, who, sick of the degradation of politics, desire by
constitutional methods to establish justice, to preserve liberty, to
extend the spirit of fraternity, and to elevate humanity.

Robert H. Cowdrey, of Illinois, was nominated for Presi-
dent, and W. H. T. Wakefield, of Kansas, for Vice-President.

The National Prohibition party began its convention at
Indianapolis on May 20. The gathering was a large one. It
was estimated that there were at least four thousand members
of the party in attendance on the convention, beside the dele-
gates. Nearly all the States were represented, and the com-
mittee on credentials reported that there were one thousand and
twenty-nine delegates present. A feature of the meeting was
the presence of James Black, candidate of the party for Presi-
dent in 1872; Neal Dow, the candidate in 1880; and John P.
St. John, the candidate in 1884; as well as two of the party's
former candidates for Vice-President. The Rev. H. A. Delano,
of Connecticut, was the temporary chairman, and John P. St.
John, of Kansas, was the permanent president, of the conven-
tion. The following platform was adopted. As at first reported,
the tariff plank did not contain the implied declaration in favor
of protection ; but it was amended on motion from the floor,
as noted hereafter : —

466 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, ac
knowledging Almighty God as the source of all power in govern-
ment, do hereby declare : —

1. That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transporta-
tion, and sale of alcoholic beverages should be made public crimes,
and punished as such.

2. That such prohibition must be secured through amendments
of our national and state constitutions, enforced by adequate laws
adequately supported by administrative authority ; and to this end
the organization of the Prohibition party is imperatively demanded
in State and Nation.

3. That any form of license, taxation, or regulation of the liquor
traffic is contrary to good government ; that any party which sup-
ports regulation, license, or tax enters into alliance with such
traffic, and becomes the actual foe of the state's welfare ; and that
we arraign the Republican and Democratic parties for their per-
sistent attitude in favor of the licensed iniquity, whereby they
oppose the demand of the people for prohibition, and, through
open complicity with the liquor cause, defeat the enforcement of
law.

4. For the immediate abolition of the internal revenue system,
whereby our national government is deriving support from our
greatest national vice.

5. That, an adequate public revenue being necessary, it may
properly be raised by impost duties and by an equitable assessment
upon the property and the legitimate business of the country, but
import duties should be so reduced that no surplus shall be accu-
mulated in the treasury ; and that the burdens of taxation shall be
removed from foods, clothing, and other comforts and necessaries
of life, and imposed on such other articles of import as will give
protection both to the manufacturing employee and the producing
laborer against the competition of the world.

6. That civil service appointments for all civil offices, chiefly
clerical in their duties, should be based upon moral, intellectual,
and physical qualifications, and not upon party service or party
necessity.

7. That the right of suffrage rests on no mere circumstance of
race, color, sex, or nationality, and that where, from any cause, it
has been held from citizens who are of suitable age and mentally
and morally qualified for the exercise of an intelligent ballot, it
should be restored by the people through the legislatures of the
several States on such educational basis as they may deem wise.

8. For the abolition of polygamy and the establishment of uni
form laws governing marriage and divorce.

9. For prohibiting all combinations of capital to control and to
increase the cost of products for popular consumption.

THE SECOND HARRISON 467

10. For the preservation and defence of the Sabbath as a civil
institution without oppressing any who religiously observe the
same on any other day than the first day of the week.

11. That arbitration is the Christian, wise, and economic method
of settling national differences, and the same method should, by
judicious legislation, be applied to the settlement of disputes be-
tween large bodies of employees and employers; that the aboli-
tion of the saloons would remove the burdens, moral, physical,
pecuniary, and social, which now oppress labor and rob it of its
earnings, and Would prove to be the wise and successful way of
promoting labor reform ; and we invite labor and capital to unite
with us for the accomplishment thereof ; that monopoly in land is
a wrong to the people, and the public land should be reserved to
actual settlers, and that men and women should receive equal
wages for equal work.

12. That our immigration laws should be so enforced as to pre-
vent the introduction into our country of all convicts, inmates of
other dependent institutions, and of others physically incapacitated
for self-support, and that no person should have the ballot in any
State who is not a citizen of the United States.

Recognizing and declaring that prohibition of the liquor traffic
has become the dominant issue in national politics, we invite to
full party fellowship all those who, on this one dominant issue, are
with us agreed, in the full belief that this party can and will re-
move sectional differences, promote national unity, and insure the
best welfare of our entire land.

The only contest in the convention took place upon the
woman suffrage plank of the platform, — the paragraph num-
bered seven. There was a long debate upon the subject in the
session of the committee on resolutions, and the matter was
brought before the full convention by a minority report, in
which was recommended the substitution of a declaration in
favor of leaving the question to the action of States, promising
that " as rapidly as we come into power we will submit this
question to a vote of the people in the several States, to be
settled by them at the ballot-box." This resolution was de-
feated by an overwhelming vote.

An addition was made to the platform on a motion from the
floor, which was not opposed. To the tariff plank, the para-
graph numbered five, these words were appended : —

. . . "and imposed on such other articles of import as will
give protection both to the manufacturing employee and the
producing laborer against the competition of the world.''

468 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The platform, with this amendment, was adopted without a
division.

Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, was made the candidate
for President, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, for Vice-
President. Both nominations were made unanimously and by
acclamation.

The Democrats assembled in national convention at St.
Louis on the 5th of June. Notwithstanding the certainty of
Mr. Cleveland's nomination, there was an enormous gathering
of prominent members of the party from North and South.
S. M. White, of California, acted as temporary chairman, and
Patrick A. Collins, of Massachusetts, was made permanent
president. The rules of the convention of 1884 were adopted,
with a slight change in the phraseology of the rule intended
to discourage a stampede. In its new form the rule provided
"that, in voting for candidates for President and Vice-Presi-
dent, no State shall be allowed to change its vote until the
roll of the States has been called, and every State has cast its
vote."

There was a contest within the committee on resolutions
as to the extent to which the convention should "indorse "
the Mills bill. While not only all the members of the com-
mittee, but all the delegates who composed the convention,
were in favor of a strong declaration for " tariff reform," there
were some who deemed it inexpedient in explicit terms to
express approval of the bill at that moment pending before
the House of Representatives. But the general sentiment of
the committee was that the Mills bill, as it stood, should be
made a party question. The minority yielded, and the com-
mittee made a unanimous report. Nevertheless there was a
half compromise ; for the indorsement of the Mills bill was
not made a part of the platform proper. The committee on
resolutions expressed its approval of three resolutions to be
offered from the floor, and one of the three was an unqualified
expression in favor of the Mills bill. The platform, as reported
and adopted, is as follows : —

The Democratic party of the United States, in national conven-
tion assembled, renews the pledge of its fidelity to Democratic
faith, and reaffirms the platform adopted by its representatives in
the convention of 1884, and indorses the views expressed by Pre-
sident Cleveland in his last earnest message to Congress as the
correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff

THE SECOND HARRISON 469

reduction ; and also indorses the efforts of our Democratic repre-
sentatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation.
Chief among its principles of party faith are the maintenance of an
indissoluble union of free and indestructible States, now about to
enter upon its second century of unexampled progress and renown ;
devotion to a plan of government regulated by a written constitu-
tion strictly specifying every granted power, and expressly reserv-
ing to the States or people the entire ungranted residue of power;
the encouragement of a jealous popular vigilance, directed to all
who have been chosen for brief terms to enact and execute the
laws, and are charged with the duty of preserving peace, insuring
equality, and establishing justice.

The Democratic party welcomes an exacting scrutiny of the
administration of the executive power which, four years ago, was
committed to its trust in the election of Grover Cleveland as Presi-
dent of the United States ; but it challenges the most searching
inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the pledges which
then invited the suffrages of the people. During a most critical
period of our financial affairs, resulting from over-taxation, the
anomalous condition of our currency, and a public debt unma-
tured, it has, by the adoption of a wise and conservative policy,
not only averted a disaster, but greatly promoted the prosperity of
the people. It has reversed the improvident and unwise policy
of the Republican party touching the public domain, and has
reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic,
and restored to the people, nearly one hundred millions of acres of
valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens.

While carefully guarding the interests of the taxpayers and con-
forming strictly to the principles of justice and equity, it has paid
out more for pensions and bounties to the soldiers and sailors of
the Republic than was ever paid before during an equal period.

It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm and prudent
foreign policy, preserving peace with all nations, while scrupu-
lously maintaining all the rights and interests of our own govern-
ment and people at home and abroad. The exclusion from our
shores of Chinese laborers has been effectually secured under the
provisions of a treaty the operation of which has been postponed
by the action of a Republican majority in the Senate.

Honest reform in the civil service has been inaugurated and
maintained by President Cleveland, and he has brought the public
service to the highest standard of efficiency, not only by rule and
precept, but by the example of his own untiring and unselfish
administration of public affairs.

In every branch and department of the government under
Democratic control the rights and welfare of all the people have

470 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

been guarded and defended ; every public interest has been pro-
tected, and the equality of all our citizens before the law, without
regard to race or color, has been steadfastly maintained.

Upon its record thus exhibited, and upon a pledge of a con-
tinuance to the people of these benefits, the Democracy invokes a
renewal of popular trust by the reelection of a Chief Magistrate
who has been faithful, able, and prudent. We invoke, in addition
to that trust, the transfer also to the Democracy of the entire
legislative power.

The Republican party, controlling the Senate and resisting in
both Houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and unequal tax
laws which have outlasted the necessities of war, and are now
undermining the abundance of a long peace, denies to the people
equality before the law, and the fairness and the justice which are
their right. Thus the cry of American labor for a better share in
the rewards of industry is stifled with false pretences, enterprise
is fettered and bound down to home markets, capital is dis-
couraged with doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be
properly amended nor repealed. The Democratic party will con-
tinue with all the power confided to it the struggle to reform
these laws, in accordance with the pledges of its last platform,
indorsed at the ballot-box by the suffrages of the people.

Of all the industrious freemen of our land, the immense major-
ity, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from
excessive tax laws, but the price of nearly everything they buy is
increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legisla-
tion. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. It is repug-
nant to the creed of Democracy that by such taxation the cost of
the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably increased to all our
people. Judged by Democratic principles, the interests of the
people are betrayed when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and
combinations are permitted to exist which, while unduly enrich-
ing the few that combine, rob the body of our citizens by depriving
them of the benefits of natural competition. Every Democratic
rule of governmental action is violated when, through unneces-
sary taxation, a vast sum of money, far beyond the needs of an
economical administration, is drawn from the people and the
channels of trade, and accumulated as a demoralizing surplus in
the national treasury. The money now lying idle in the federal
treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more
than one hundred and twenty-five million dollars, and the surplus
collected is reaching the sum of more than sixty millions annually.
Debauched by this immense temptation, the remedy of the Repub-
lican party is to meet and exhaust by extravagant appropriations
and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the accumulation of

THE SECOND HARRISON 471

extravagant taxation. The Democratic policy is to enforce fru-
gality in public expense, and to abolish unnecessary taxation.
Our established domestic industries and enterprises should not,
and need not, be endangered by the reduction and correction of
the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair and careful
revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the difference
between the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote
and encourage every branch of such industries and enterprises, by
giving them assurance of extended markets and steady and con-
tinuous operations in the interests of American labor, which
should in no event be neglected. The revision of our tax laws
contemplated by the Democratic party should promote the advan-
tage of such labor, by cheapening the cost of the necessaries of
life in the home of every workman, and at the same time securing
to him steady and remunerative employment. Upon this question
of tariff reform, so closely concerning every phase of our national
life, and upon every question involved in the problem of good
government, the Democratic party submits its principles and pro-
fessions to the intelligent suffrages of the American people.

The following are the three resolutions mentioned above,
: offered with the sanction of the committee on resolutions, and
adopted unanimously by the convention : —

Resolved, That this convention hereby indorses and recommends
the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue now
pending in the House of Representatives.

Resolved, That a just and liberal policy should be pursued in
reference to the Territories ; that right of self-government is
inherent in the people, and guaranteed under the Constitution ;
that the Territories of Washington, Dakota, Montana, and New
Mexico are, by virtue of population and development, entitled to
admission into the Union as States, and we unqualifiedly condemn
the course of the Republican party in refusing statehood and self-
government to their people.

Resolved, That we express our cordial sympathy with the strug-
gling people of all nations in their efforts to secure for themselves
the inestimable blessings of self-government, and civil and reli-
gious liberty, and we especially declare our sympathy with the
efforts of those noble patriots, who, led by Gladstone and Parnell,
have conducted their grand and peaceful contest for home rule
in Ireland.

For the first time since 1840, when Martin Van Buren was
nominated for reelection by resolution, and not by the individ-
ual votes of delegates, there was no formal vote for a candi-
date for President. A motion was made and carried with

472 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

great enthusiasm to place Grover Cleveland in nomination foi
a second term. The death of Vice-President Hendricks in
the first year of his term had left the second place on the
ticket open to a contest. Several candidates had appeared, but,
before the convention met, the sentiment of the delegates
was setting strongly in favor of Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio.
The brief contest over the nomination of a candidate for Vice-
President gave rise to the most picturesque incidents that
characterized the St. Louis convention. During Judge Thur-
man's long service in the Senate the country had become ac-
customed to hear much about the " red bandanna " of which
he was in the habit of making use after indulging in a pinch
of snuff. The friends of Governor Gray, of Indiana, were
present in strong force, all wearing high white hats as badges.
But the advocates of Judge Thurman had provided themselves
with a great quantity of red pocket-handkerchiefs, and these
articles proved to be far more popular badges than the white
hats. When the voting for a candidate was about to begin,
the California delegation displayed the bandanna at the top of
a long pole, and the appearance of the emblem was received
with the wildest cheering. The Indiana delegation strove in
vain to offset the demonstration by elevating a white hat on
another pole. The red bandannas fluttered in all parts of the
immense hall, and delegates and spectators cheered until they
were hoarse for the flag of the " noble old Roman," as the
Democrats affectionately designated Mr. Thurman. The vic-
tory had, in reality, been won by Judge Thurman already.
The vote for a candidate showed an immense majority in his
favor. It resulted : for Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, 690 ;
for Isaac P. Gray, of Indiana, 105; for John C. Black, of
Illinois, 25.

The Republican convention was held at Chicago, June 19.
John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, was the temporary chairman,
and M. M. Estee, of California, was the permanent president.
The following platform was reported and adopted : —

The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their dele-
gates in national convention, pause on the threshold of theL-
proceedings to honor the memory of their first great leader, the
immortal champion of liberty and the rights of the people, Abra-
ham Lincoln, and to cover also with wreaths of imperishable re-
membrance and gratitude the heroic names of our later leaders,
who have more recently been called away from our councils, —

THE SECOND HARRISON 473

Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Logan, Conkling. May their memories
be faithfully cherished ! We also recall, with our greetings and
with prayer for his recovery, the name of one of our living heroes,
whose memory will be treasured in the history both of Republi-
cans and of the Republic, the name of that noble soldier and
favorite child of victory, Philip H. Sheridan.

In the spirit of these great leaders, and of our own devotion to
human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of despotism
and oppression which is the fundamental idea of the Republican
party, we send fraternal congratulations to our fellow-Americans
of Brazil upon their great act of emancipation, which completed
the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents.
We earnestly hope that we may soon congratulate our fellow-
citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of home rule for
Ireland.

We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitu-
tion, and to the indissoluble union of the States ; to the autonomy
reserved to the States under the Constitution ; to the personal
rights and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories in
the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of
every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or
black, to cast one free ballot in public elections, and to have that
ballot duly counted. We hold the free and honest popular ballot,
and the just and equal representation of all the people, to be the
foundation of our republican government, and demand effective
legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which
are the fountains of public authority. We charge that the pre-
sent administration and the Democratic majority in Congress owe
their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nul-
lification of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of
protection. We protest against its destruction, as proposed by
the President and his party. They serve the interests of Europe ;
we will support the interests of America. We accept the issue,
and confidently appeal to the people for their judgment. The pro-
tective system must be maintained. Its abandonment has always
been followed by disaster to all interests, except those of the
usurer and the sheriff. We denounce the Mills bill as destructive
to the general business, the labor, and the farming interests of the
country, and we heartily indorse the consistent and patriotic action
of the Republican representatives in Congress opposing its pas-
sage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to
place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon
shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and ade-
quate protection to that industry. The Republican party would

474 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

effect all needed reduction of the national revenue by repealing the
taxes upon tobacco, which are an annoyance and burden to agri-
culture, and the tax upon spirits used in the arts and for mechani-
cal purposes, and by such revision of the tariff laws as will tend
to check imports of such articles as are produced by our people,
the production of which gives employment to our labor, and re-
lease from import duties those articles of foreign production, except
luxuries, the like of which cannot be produced at home. If there
shall still remain a larger revenue than is requisite for the wants
of the government, we favor the entire repeal of internal taxes,
rather than the surrender of any part of our protective system, at
the joint behest of the whiskey trusts and the agents of foreign
manufacturers.

We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of
foreign contract labor, and of Chinese labor, alien to our civiliza-
tion and our Constitution, and we demand the rigid enforcement
of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legisla-
tion as will exclude such labor from our shores.

We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital, organ-
ized in trusts or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of
trade among our citizens, and we recommend to Congress and the
state legislatures, in their respective jurisdictions, such legislation
as will prevent the execution of all schemes to oppress the people
by undue charges on their supplies, or by unjust rates for the
transportation of their products to market. We approve the leg-
islation by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair
discriminations between the States,

We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the
United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers,
not aliens, which the Republican party established in 1862, against
the persistent opposition of the Democrats in Congress, and which
has brought our great Western domain into such magnificent de-
velopment. The restoration of unearned railroad land grants to
the public domain for the use of actual settlers, which was begun
under the administration of President Arthur, should be con-
tinued. We deny that the Democratic party has ever restored
one acre to the people, but declare that by the joint action of the
Republicans and Democrats about fifty millions of acres of un-
earned lands, originally granted for the construction of railroads,
have been restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the con-
ditions inserted by the Republican party in the original grants.
We charge the Democratic administration with failure to execute
the laws securing to settlers title to their homesteads, and with
using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent
settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretence of
exposing frauds and vindicating the law.

THE SECOND HARRISON 475

The government by Congress of the Territories is based upon
necessity only, to the end that they may become States in the
Union ; therefore, whenever the conditions of population, material
resources, public intelligence, and morality are such as to insure a
stable local government therein, the people of such Territories
should be permitted, as a right inherent in them, the right to form
for themselves constitutions and state governments, and be ad-
mitted into the Union. Pending the preparation for statehood,
all officers thereof should be selected from the bona fide residents
and citizens of the Territory wherein they are to serve. South
Dakota should, of right, be immediately admitted as a State un-
der the constitution framed and adopted by her people, and we
heartily indorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice
passing bills for her admission. The refusal of the Democratic
House of Representatives, for partisan purposes, favorably to con-
sider these bills is a wilful violation of the sacred American prin-
ciple of local self-government, and merits the condemnation of all
just men. The pending bills in the Senate for acts to enable the
people of Washington, North Dakota, and Montana Territories to
form Constitutions and establish state governments should be
passed without unnecessary delay. The Republican party pledges
itself to do all in its power to facilitate the admission of the Ter-
ritories of New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Arizona to the
enjoyment of self-government as States, such of them as are now
qualified as soon as possible, and the others as soon as they be-
come so.

The political power of the Mormon Church in the Territories a»
exercised in the past is a menace to free institutions, a danger no
•longer to be suffered ; therefore we pledge the Republican party
to appropriate legislation asserting the sovereignty of the nation
in all Territories where the same is questioned, and in furtherance
of that end to place upon the statute books legislation stringent
enough to divorce the political from the ecclesiastical power, and
thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy.

The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and
silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic ad-
ministration in its efforts to demonetize silver.

We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per
uunce.

In a republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and
the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the
will of the peopk, it is important that the sovereign and the peo-
ple should possess intelligence. The free school is the promoter
of that intelligence which is to preserve us a free nation : there-
fore the State or nation, or both combined, should support free

476 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

institutions of learning, sufficient to afford to every child growing
up in the land the opportunity of a good common-school educa-
tion.

"We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by Con-
gress in the enactment of such legislation as will best secure the
rehabilitation of our American merchant marine ; and we protest
against the passage by Congress of a free-ship bill, as calculated to
work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged
in preparing materials as well as those directly employed in our
shipyards.

We demand appropriations for the early rebuilding of our navy ;
for the construction of coast fortifications and modern ordnance,
and other approved modern means of defence for the protection of
our defenceless harbors and cities ; for the payment of just pen-
sions to our soldiers ; for necessary works of national importance
in the improvement of harbors and the channels of internal, coast-
wise, and foreign commerce ; for the encouragement of the ship-
ping interests of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific States, as well as
for the payment of the maturing public debt. This policy will
give employment to our labor ; activity to our various industries ;
increase the security of our country; promote trade; open new
and direct markets for our produce, and cheapen the cost of trans-
portation. We affirm this to be far better for our country than
the Democratic policy of loaning the government's money, with-
out interest, to " pet banks."

The conduct of foreign affairs by the present administration
has been distinguished by its inefficiency and its cowardice. Hav-
ing withdrawn from the Senate all pending treaties effected by
Republican administration for the removal of foreign burdens and
restrictions upon our commerce, and for its extension into better
markets, it has neither effected nor proposed any others in their
stead. Professing adherence to the Monroe doctrine, it has seen,
with idle complacency, the extension of foreign influence in Cen-
tral America and of foreign trade everywhere among our neigh-
bors. It has refused to charter, sanction, or encourage any Amer-
ican organization for constructing the Nicaragua Canal, — a work
of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine,
and of our national influence in Central and South America, and
necessary for the development of trade with our Pacific territory,
with South America, and with the islands and farther coasts of
the Pacific Ocean.

We arraign the present Democratic administration for its weak
and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question, and its pusil-
lanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which our fishing
Vessels are entitled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the

THE SECOND HARRISON 477

reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations,
and which Canadian fishing vessels receive in the ports of the
United States. We condemn the policy of the present administra-
tion and the Democratic majority in Congress towards our fisher-
ies as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to
destroy a valuable national industry and an indispensable resource
of defence against a foreign enemy.

The name of American applies alike to all citizens of the repub-
lic, and imposes upon all alike the same obligation of obedience to
the laws. At the same time that citizenship is and must be the
panoply and safeguard of him who wears it, and protects him,
whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights, it should
and must afford him protection at home, and follow and protect
him abroad, in whatever land he may be, on a lawful errand.

The men who abandoned the Republican party in 1884, and con-
tinue to adhere to the Democratic party, have deserted not only
the cause of honest government, of sound finance, of freedom, of
purity of the ballot, but especially have deserted the cause of re-
form in the civil service. We will not fail to keep our pledges
because they have broken theirs, nor because their candidate has
broken his. We therefore repeat our declaration of 1884, to wit :
" The reform of the civil service auspiciously begun under the
Republican administration should be completed by the further
extension of the reform system, already established by law, to all
the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and
purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appoint-
ments, and all laws at variance with the object of existing reform
legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to free
institutions, which lurk in the power of official patronage, may be
wisely and effectively avoided."

The gratitude of the nation to the defenders of the Union can-
not be measured by lawrs. The legislation of Congress should
conform to the pledge made by a loyal people, and be so enlarged
and extended as to provide against the possibility that any man
who honorably wore the Federal uniform shall become an inmate
of an almshouse or dependent upon private charity. In the pre-
sence of an overflowing treasury, it would be a public scandal to
do less for those whose valorous services preserved the government.
We denounce the hostile spirit shown by President Cleveland, in
his numerous vetoes of measures for pension relief, and the action
of the Democratic House of Representatives in refusing even a
consideration of general pension legislation.

In support of the principles herewith enunciated, we invite the
cooperat^pn of patriotic men of all parties, and especially of all
workingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threatened by the free'
trade policy of the present administration-

178 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The withdrawal of Mr. Blaine, as has been explained, had
left the field open for all contestants. Not only was there
an unusually large number of " favorite sons," but several pro-
minent public men, who were not brought forward as candi-
dates by the delegates representing the respective States of their
residence, were mentioned as possible candidates in case the con-
test should be long and the difficulty of agreeing upon a nomi-
nee great. Pervading the convention at all times, up to the
moment that a nomination was effected, was a feeling that the
name of Mr. Blaine might be presented in such a way, at a
critical period, that the convention would be carried away by
an outburst of irrepressible enthusiasm, and that he would be
summoned to lead the party again by a call so vociferous that
he could not decline. Mr. Blaine gave no countenance nor help
to this movement. At the opening of the convention, having
learned that some of his indiscreet friends were making unau-
thorized use of his name, and were assuming to declare what
he would do in certain contingencies, Mr. Blaine requested the
London correspondent of the " New York Tribune " to say
that all rumors " pretending to give letters or dispatches from
him or any of his party touching political topics of any kind
may be promptly discredited unless signed by Mr. Blaine him-
self ; " and, further, that he had written nothing concerning
the presidential nominations except the two published letters
from Florence and Paris, and that he had held no correspond-
ence of any kind with any one on political subjects. Even
this did not prevent many men from thinking that the nomi-
nation of Mr. Blaine was the most probable outcome of the
contest. Some of the delegates persisted in voting for him
from first to last ; and a Blaine stampede was the event which
the whole country expected. But the fitting moment for it
never came, and the judgment of the cooler members of the
convention was against it at all times, chiefly because they saw,
what Mr. Blaine had said so clearly, that he could not honor-
ably accept the nomination, even if it were thrust upon him.

The first vote for a candidate showed an extraordinary lack
of concentration. Senator John Sherman, who led all other
candidates, had but little more than one half of the number
necessary to nominate. Judge Gresham, the next on the list,
had less than half as many as Mr. Sherman, and not one of the
delegates from his own State of Indiana was among his sup-
porters. The votes were divided among thirteen candidates,

THE SECOND HARRISON

479

and even on the fourth trial the number had been reduced
only to ten. How greatly the votes were scattered may be
seen from the statement that, on the first vote for a candidate,
Senator Sherman received more or less support from twenty-
three States and Territories, Judge Gresham from twenty-three,
Mr. Harrison from twenty-three, Mr. Alger from twenty, Mr.
Allison from nineteen, Mr. Depew from sixteen, and Mr.
Blaine from thirteen. Only nine States of the Union gave a
solid vote to any candidate, and five of the nine presented
" favorite sons n as candidates.

The session of the convention was one of the longest in the
history of the country. It began on June 19. The platform
was adopted on the 21st. Two votes for a presidential can-
didate were taken on the 22d, three on the 23d, and three on
the 25th (the 24th was Sunday). The history of former con-
ventions was repeated ; the leading candidate did not greatly
increase his vote, and a concentration took place gradually
upon one who had at the beginning a small but a compact and
aggressive body of followers. General Benjamin Harrison, of
Indiana, was nominated upon the eighth vote. The result on
each of the votes is shown in the following table : —

1st.

229
111
99
84
80
72
35
28
25
25
24
13
3
2

830
416

2d.

249
108
99
116
91
75
33
16
20
18

2
3

830
416

3d.

244
123
91
122
94
88
35

16
5

8
2

830
416

4th.

235
98

135
217
88
42

1
11

829
415

5th.

224
87

142
213
99
48

827
414

6th.

244
91

137

231

830
416

7th.

231
91

120

278

2
16

831
416

8th.

John Sherman, Ohio ....
Walter Q. Gresham, Indiana .
Chaunoey M. Depew, New York
Rii8sel A. Alger, Michigan . .
Benjamin Harrison, Indiana .
William B. Allison, Iowa . .

118
59

100
544

Jeremiah M. Rusk, Wisconsin .
William W. Phelps, New Jersey
E. H. Fitter, Pennsylvania . .
Joseph R. Hawley, Connecticut
Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois . .
William McKinley, Jr., Ohio .
Samuel F. Miller, Iowa . . .
Frederick Douglass ....
Joseph B. Foraker, Ohio . .
Frederick D. Grant, New York
Creed Haymond, California

4
830

416

Levi P. Morton, of New York, was nominated for Vice-Pre-
sident on the first vote. He received 591 votes to 119 for
William Walter Phelps, of New Jersey ; 103 for William O.

480 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Bradley, of Kentucky ; 11 for Blanche K. Bruce, of Missis.
sippi ; "and 1 for Walter F. Thomas, of Texas.

The following resolution, which was offered from the floor,
at the close of the proceedings of the convention, was adopted
with but one dissenting vote : —

The first concern of all good government is the virtue and
sobriety of the people, and the purity of their homes. The Repub-
lican party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed
efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.

A convention of a party which adopted the name of Ameri-
can was held at Washington on the 14th of August. It was
attended by 126 delegates, of whom 65 represented New York,
and 15 were from California. On the second day of the con-
vention a contest which had divided the meeting from the first
led to a split, and all the members except those from New
York and California seceded and held a convention of their
own. The issue which broke up the convention was the appor-
tionment of votes. The two States most strongly represented
desired that each delegate should have one vote, while the
minority insisted upon the usual rule of other conventions,
that the State or the Congressional district should be the unit
for voting power, rather than the individual delegate. The
seceders from the convention made no nominations. The New
York and California members who were left completed their
work, not without some friction. They nominated for President
James Langdon Curtis, of New York, and for Vice-President
James R. Greer, of Tennessee. Mr. Greer subsequently declined
the nomination.

The following platform was adopted : —

Resolved, That all law-abiding citizens of the United States of
America, whether native or foreign born, are politically equals
(except as provided by the Constitution), and all are entitled to,
and should receive, the full protection of the laws.

Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States should be
so amended as to prohibit the federal and state governments from
conferring upon any person the right to vote unless such person be
a citizen of the United States.

Resolved, That we are in favor of fostering and encouraging
American industries of every class and kind, and declare that the
assumed issue " Protection " vs. " Free Trade " is a fraud and a
snare. The best " protection " is that which protects the labor
ftnd life blood of the republic from the degrading competition with

THE SECOND HARRISON 481

and contamination by imported foreigners ; and the most danger-
ous " free trade " is that in paupers, criminals, communists, and an-
archists, in which the balance has always been against the United
States.

Whereas, One of the greatest evils of unrestricted foreign im-
migration is the reduction of the wages of the American working-
man and working-woman to the level of the underfed and under-
paid labor of foreign countries ; therefore

Resolved, That we demand that no immigrant shall be admitted
into the United States without a passport obtained from the Amer-
ican consul at the port from which he sails ; that no passport
shall be issued to any pauper, criminal, or insane person, or to any
person who, in the judgment of the consul, is not likely to become
a desirable citizen of the United States ; and that for each immi-
grant passport there shall be collected by the consul issuing the
same the sum of one hundred dollars to be by him paid into the
Treasury of the United States.

Resolved, That the present naturalization laws of the United
States should be unconditionally repealed.

Resolved, That the soil of America should belong to Americans ;
that no alien non-resident should be permitted to own real estate
in the United States ; and that the realty possessions of the resi-
dent alien should be limited in value and area.

Resolved, That no flag shall float on any public buildings, muni-
cipal, state, or national, in the United States, except the munici-
pal, state, or national flag of the United States, — the flag of the
stars and stripes.

Resolved, That we reassert the American principles of abso-
lute freedom of religious worship and belief, the permanent sepa-
ration of church and state ; and we oppose the appropriation of
public money or property to any church, or institution adminis-
tered by a church. We maintain that all church property should
be subject to taxation.

The canvass which followed the nomination of candidates
presented no remarkable features until a short time before the
election. Political clubs took somewhat unusual prominence
in the contest. They were enabled to make their work more
effective by forming state and national leagues, and thus gain-
ing the advantage which is derived from organized and con-
certed effort.

The tariff was the great issue. It was the chief topic upon
which the Republican and Democratic candidates dwelt in their
respective letters of acceptance. It was the subject discussed
from the stump and in the party journals. The Democrats

482 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

distinctly pledged themselves that, if they should gain full con-
trol of the government, they would reduce the tariff, taking for
general principles in the method of reduction the system
sketched by the " Mills bill." The Republicans, on the other
hand, committed themselves unreservedly by a declaration that
they would sweep away the whole internal revenue system be-
fore they would abandon any part of the protective duties on
imports. The public discussion was earnest. There were,
however, prior to the election itself, no decided indications
how the battle was going to result. Although each side pro-
fessed confidence that it would win from the enemy electoral
votes of States not counted as doubtful, there was little real
expectation on either side of such a result. The Democrats
were evidently sure of the entire Southern vote ; and the Re-
publicans had no fear of losing any Northern State, except Con-
necticut, New York, New Jersey, and Indiana. Upon these
States, therefore, most of the energy of both parties was con-
centrated.

Two weeks before the election a strange incident occurred,
and the importance attached to it — for no doubt it had a cer-
tain influence in the election — shows how highly wrought was
political feeling at that time. A correspondence was published
between a person, who adopted the fictitious name of Charles
E. Murchison, and Lord Sackville, the British Minister at Wash-
ington. The false Murchison represented himself to be a former
British subject, now naturalized as an American, but cherishing
a love for the mother country, and asking Lord Sackville's ad-
vice as to how he should vote at the coming election. The
incautious reply of Lord Sackville, who fell into a trap set
for him, implied, though it gave no direct advice, that a vote
for the Democratic candidate would be rather more friendly to
England than one for Mr. Harrison. The correspondence was
published on October 24. The Republicans seized upon it as
confirming what they had insisted upon, when discussing the
Mills bill, that the Democratic tariff policy was good for Eng-
land's interest, but bad for America. The President quickly
perceived the use that was to be made of the incident, and took
his measures accordingly. The view was taken that the advice
given by Lord Sackville was an interference by a foreign min-
ister with the internal politics of this country, — a repetition
on a small scale of the impertinence of Citizen Genet during
the administration of Washington. The attention of Lord

THE SECOND HARRISON

483

Popular Vote.

Electoral
Vote.

States.

fit

j
II

I
1

M
H

•a

si
Eta

ffc

I s

■

Alabama . . .

56,197

117,320

583

Arkansas . . .

58,752

85,962

641

10,613

California* . .

124,816

117,729

5,761

Colorado . . .

50,774

37,567

2,191

1,266

Connecticut . .

74,584

74,920

4,234

240

Delaware . .

12,973

16,414

400

-1

Florida . . .

26,657

39,561

423

Georgia . . .

40,496

100,499

1,808

130

Illinoist . . .

370,473

348,278

21,695

7,090

Indiana • . .

263,361

261,013

9,881

2,694

Iowa ....

211,598

179,887

3,550

9,105

—

Kansas . . .

182,934

103,744

6,768

37,726

Kentucky . .

155,134

183,800

5,225

622

Louisiana . .

30,484

85,032

160

Maine ....

73,734

50,481

2,691

1,344

Maryland . .

99,986

106,168

4,767

Massachusetts .

183,892

151,856

8,701

Michigan . . .

236,370

213,459

20,942

4,541

Minnesota . .

142,492

104,385

15,311

1,094

Mississippi . .

30,096

85,471

218

Missouri . . .

236,257

261,974

4,539

18,632

Nebraska . .

108,425

80,552

9,429

4,226

Nevada . . .

7,22»

5,362

New Hampshire

45,728

43,458

1,593

New Jersey . .

144,344

151,493

7,904

New York* . .

648,759

635,757

30,231

626

North Carolina .

134,784

147,902

2,787

Ohio ....

416,054

396,455

24,356

3,496

Oregon . . .

33,291

26,522

1,677

363

Pennsylvania .

526,091

446,633

20,947

3,873

Rhode Island .

21,968

17,530

1,250

South Carolina ■

13,736

65,825

—

Tennessee . .

138,988

158,779

5,969

Texas ....

88,422

234,883

4,749

29,459

Vermont . . .

45,192

16,785

1,460

Virginia . . .

150,438

151,977

1,678

West Virginia .

77,791

79,664

669

1,064

Wisconsin . .

176,553

155,232

14,277

8,552

11
233

■■

Total ....

5,439,853

5,540,329

249,506

146,935

168

* 1591 for CurtiB, American, t 150 for Cowdrey, United Labor. \ 2668 for Cowdrey

484 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Salisbury was called to the matter ; and when the British pre-
mier failed to regard Lord Sackville's indiscretion as a serious
offence, if indeed he regarded it as an offence at all, the Presi-
dent directed that the British minister be informed that he was
no longer persona grata, and that his passports should be given
to him. The incident was variously regarded at the time.
Some deemed the whole affair an amusing illustration of the
tendency to magnify what is really insignificant when an elec-
tion is pending. Those who took, or affected to take, a serious
view of the matter, vented their indignation, according to the
party to which they respectively belonged, upon the sharp pol-
itician who prepared a pitfall for the diplomatist, or upon the
minister, who, they said, had revealed the partiality of the gov-
ernment he represented for one of the two parties. Great Brit-
ain took the expulsion of Lord Sackville so seriously that it
refused to appoint another minister until after the close of Mr.
Cleveland's administration.

The number of States participating in the election was, as
in 1884, thirty-eight. The Democrats carried the entire South,
together with the States of Connecticut and New Jersey. The
other States of the North, including the doubtful States of
New York and Indiana, chose Republican electors. The pop-
ular and electoral votes are given on the preceding page.

The statement of the popular vote is that printed in Apple-
tons' " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1888. It differs slightly in
the vote of several States from that given in McPherson's
"Handbook of Politics," and in the New York "Tribune
Almanac," edited by Mr. McPherson. A comparison of the
totals is printed on the next page. The returns were " offi-
cial " in each case; the reason why they do not agree does
not appear. It may be suggested that the return in the one
case is that of the vote for the leading elector on each ticket,
and in the other case the average vote for all the electors on
each ticket respectively. This is apparently not the true
explanation. The aggregate difference between the two state-
ments is not large.

There are other returns which differ from both of those
given. Possibly they also may have been obtained from " offi-
cial " sources. The discrepancies are not important, but they
illustrate the difficulty of obtaining exact statistics when the
ultimate authority varies its reply to the same question.

The count of electoral votes following this election was the

THE SECOND HARRISON

485

Cleveland ....

Harrison

Fisk

Streator

Curtis

Cowdrey

Socialist and scattering

Total vote . . .

Appletons :
Cyclopaedia.

5,540,329

5,439,853

249,506

146,935

1,591

2,818

7,006

11,388,038

McPherson :

Handbook and

Almanac.

5,536,242

5,440,708

246,876

146,836

1,591

3,073

9,845

11,385,171

first to take place under the act of February 3, 1887, and the
first in the history of the government under the Constitution
which was regulated by a general law, and did not require pre-
vious concurrent action by the two Houses of Congress for the
time being. The joint convention for counting the votes was
held in the hall of the House of Representatives on February
13, 1889. The proceedings were devoid of striking incident.
Mr. Cox, of New York, called attention to a slight deviation
from the precise requirements of the law. It appears that Mr.
Ingalls, the President jyro tempore of the Senate, who presided,
did not " call for objections, if any," after the reading of each
certificate, as directed by section four of the law (see p. 454).
The official report of the proceedings does not state whether or
not the presiding officer changed his method after attention was
called to the matter. When the vote of Indiana was reported,
the vote of the President-elect's own State, there was applause,
which was quickly suppressed. Mr. Manderson, the first of
the Senate tellers, reported the state of the vote in detail, and
in a summary ; the presiding officer repeated the summary, and
added a formula, drawn from the law, that this announcement
of the state of the vote " is, by law, a sufficient declaration "
that Benjamin Harrison, of the State of Indiana, had been
elected President, and Levi P. Morton, of the State of New
York, Vice-President, for the ensuing term.

XXX

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION

The victory of the Republicans, although narrow, was com-
plete. A safe majority of the electoral vote was supplemented
by a meagre majority in both Houses of Congress. A factional
quarrel among the Democrats of Delaware threw the legisla-
ture of that State into the hands of the Republicans, who thus
regained the one Senator, lost in Virginia, needed to give them
ascendency in the upper house. The House of Representa-
tives was so closely divided between the two parties as to give
some ground for the apprehension that certain Democratic gov-
ernors in southern States would revise and amend the returns
for Congressmen, and withhold certificates from candidates who
apparently had received a plurality of votes. In one case only
• did a governor assume authority to pass judicially upon the
county returns, and his act was not sufficient to overcome the
Republican majority. The victorious party felt itself returned
permanently to power in the country ; and the exultant re-
mark was commonly made that, " if we behave ourselves well,"
the Republicans could not be shaken from their hold upon the
government for twenty years to come.

The four years' term of Benjamin Harrison which followed
was a period of as bitter party strife as the country has ever
seen. It was crowded with events that had a direct bearing
upon the ensuing election. The Republicans proceeded to
carry through their measures with perfect confidence that they
had the people behind them ; the Democrats waged an aggres-
sive and unrelenting war upon them. In the end it was evi-
dent that the dominant party had exposed itself to attack at
too many points. The favor of the people was withdrawn
when the administration was at its mid-point, and given to the
opposition by an overwhelming majority. At the close of the
four years the control of every department of the government,
except the judicial, passed into the hands of the Democrats,

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 487

where it had not been placed since the election of James
Buchanan in 1856.

When the Fifty-first Congress met, in December, 1889, the
extremely small Republican majority in the House of Repre-
sentatives, as elected in 1888, was reinforced by the addition
of five members from newly admitted States. The two parties
had been engaged in a competition for the favor of the people
of the Territories clamoring for admission to the Union. For
several years Republicans had urged the passage of an ena-
bling act for Dakota. The Democrats, knowing that the pro-
posed new State would be against them, had prevented its
admission until the Territory became populous enough, as it
was territorially large enough, to claim division, and admission
as two States. Then the Democrats proposed to offset the
two Dakotas by admitting at the same time Washington and
Montana, both of which they expected to control. The Re-
publicans feared that opposition to the admission of Washing-
ton and Montana — which they knew would be futile in any
event — would insure their becoming Democratic States. Ac-
cordingly they gave their support to the " omnibus " bill,
which became a law in February, 1889. All four of the
States were carried by the Republicans at the first election,
and added eight votes to the strength of the party in the
Senate, and five — South Dakota elected two members — to
the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
But after these five votes were added, the majority in the
House was still too small to be effective. The chance absence
of a few members might easily convert it into a minority.
Moreover, the rules of the House and the — to that time —
uniform interpretation of the quorum clause of the Constitu-
tion rendered a narrow majority powerless for affirmative
action in the face of determined " filibustering."

Mr. Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, who was chosen Speaker,
had long held two views directly opposed to accepted parlia-
mentary law. He maintained that the vote of a member was
not the only method of revealing his presence in the House as
a part of a constitutional quorum ; that the House itself, or
the Speaker as the organ of the House, might take cognizance
of his physical presence and count him as a present member.
Under the previously accepted theory, the ruling party could
pass no motion if, not mustering a full quorum, of its own
members, the opposition unanimously refused to vote. Mr..

188 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Speaker Reed acted upon his own theory, prior to the adop.
tion of any rules, by counting as present non-voting members
who were otherwise taking part in the proceedings. The other
point whereon he differed from earlier parliamentary authori-
ties was that of dilatory motions. Congress had long before
limited the " freedom of debate " by a rule which restricted a
member's right to occupy the floor on any motion to the space
of one hour. It had limited his right to make motions by the
"previous question." But it had left open for his use certain
privileged motions which, made alternately and decided in
each case by a roll-call, would put a complete and indefinite
stop to public business. The Speaker proposed a new code of
rules of parliamentary procedure, which included a recognition
of the right to " count a quorum, " an absolute prohibition of
dilatory motions, and some minor amendments of the current
parliamentary law. The code was debated with great asperity,
but was finally adopted by a party vote. It made the majority
masters of the House, and enabled them to pass measures which
never would have been brought to a vote under the old sys-
tem. It added greatly to the power of the Speaker in the
conduct of business, and to his control over legislation. Mr.
Speaker Reed's strong will and undaunted courage, in enfor-
cing his new rules against violent opposition, earned for him
with the Democratic members the title of " Czar." Not a few
of them admitted that his position was sound and logical,
while they condemned his forceful maintenance of it. The
Republicans applauded ; and the whole country saw afterward
that it was upon him, far more than upon any other person,
that the responsibility rested for things done and left undone
by the Fifty-first Congress.

The Republicans proceeded, promptly and mercilessly, to
decide contested elections by ejecting Democrats and giving
the places to members of their own party, thus increasing their
effective majority. The fact that the number, both of con-
tested seats and of members displaced, was unusually large
they explained by asserting that fraud had been unusually rife
in the elections and returns. The opposition accused the ma-
jority of using its power to override and reverse the will of
the people expressed at the polls. In many cases the Demo-
crats refused to answer to their names when the resolutions
unseating their members were put to vote ; some of them were
counted, though not voting, to make up the quorum.

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 489

Both parties were committed, by platform and by the pro-
mises of their candidates and leaders, to a revision of customs
duties. A large part of the session was occupied in the elabo-
ration of a tariff bill. It was reported by Mr. McKinley, of
Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, in
April ; was passed by the House of Representatives in May ;
was passed by the Senate in September ; and, after an adjust-
ment of the differences between the two Houses by a confer-
ence committee, was sent to the President, by whom it was
signed on the 1st of October. The act was popularly styled
the " McKinley Bill," and as such played a great part in the
political events of the next three years. The principle of the
bill was to lighten the burden borne by the people by remov-
ing altogether the duty on sugar, the article most productive
of revenue of all commodities entered at the custom-houses,
and at the same time to make the system of " protection "
more thorough by raising the rates of duty on all foreign arti-
cles which, under the previous tariff, could compete success-
fully with similar articles of domestic production. The Amer-
ican sugar-planters were compensated for the withdrawal of
tariff protection by means of a bounty on their production.
The Tariff Act of 1890 went beyond any previous measure of
the kind in its levy of duty on agricultural productions im-
ported from abroad. The avowed intention of its partisans
was to give the farmer protection equal to that enjoyed by the
manufacturer. The McKinley Act aroused the unmeasured
opposition of the Democrats, who could find no words ade-
quate to express their detestation of it, and of what they
denounced as the bad faith of the Republicans. In their view
the people had demanded a substantial reduction of the tariff,
and had given the Republican party a commission to carry out
their will. That party had solicited and obtained the privi-
lege of making the reduction in a spirit friendly to the protec-
tive system and to the manufacturers. Now, so the Democrats
declared, the party in power had violated its pledge by bring-
ing forward a proposition in which increases of the rates of
duty were far more numerous than reductions. But the Re-
publicans were unmoved by the criticism, and persisted in
their course. Some of their leaders made no secret of an opin-
ion that the measure was too radical. In particular, Mr.
Blaine, the Secretary of State, expressed the opinion openly,
and directed attention to the fact that while the bill was

490 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

professedly drawn in the interest of agriculture, it would not
open any foreign market to American flour and pork. His
influence was sufficient to secure the adoption by the Senate
of an amendment, afterward concurred in by the House, au-
thorizing the negotiation of reciprocity treaties providing foi
the admission of American products, at favorable rates of duty,
into the countries with which the treaties might be concluded.
It may be remarked here that many such treaties were negoti-
ated under the terms of the McKinley Act, but, as will be
seen presently, they were denounced by the Democrats in
their national platform ; and during the ensuing administra-
tion the authorization of such treaties was withdrawn, and the
treaties themselves were abrogated.

Another most important measure of this session was the
act which subsequently became known as the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act. The history of this legislation, and indeed of
the whole agitation for the free coinage of silver during the
administration of President Harrison, is most interesting.
But, save that the act above mentioned served for the time
being to keep the Republican party together, it had no dis-
tinct bearing upon the election of the next President, and
therefore the record of what was done, and prevented, in
reference to silver, is reserved for the next chapter.

A third measure, which never became a law, did play a
certain part in the election, namely, the bill to regulate na-
tional elections, styled by the Democrats the " Force Bill."
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives at the
first session of the Fifty-first Congress ; it failed in the Senate
at the second session through the defection of a certain num-
ber of Republican senators who favored the free coinage of
silver. It was well understood, and indeed not concealed,
that there was a temporary alliance between these senators
and the Democrats. Some of the Democratic senators showed
at the time a toleration toward the silver movement which
they did not manifest before nor afterward.

The McKinley tariff act went into effect just before the
general congressional elections of November, 1890. The
Democrats had succeeded in making it exceedingly unpopular
even before it was finally passed ; and they followed up its
enactment with vigorous assaults upon its promoters, and en-
ergetic efforts to convince the people that it was detrimental
to their interests. Success was comparatively easy, for the

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 491

increase of duty on certain articles of common consumption
was distinctly perceptible in the retail price. While it is im-
possible to estimate the exact influence of this event and that
in bringing about a political revulsion, and while there can be
no doubt that other acts of the Republican party contributed
their share toward its overthrow, certainly the quick popular
condemnation* of the tariff act was the most potent agent in
determining the result of the congressional election in 1890.
The Republicans were overwhelmed at the polls. They lost
more than one half of their strength in the House of Repre-
sentatives; and the Democrats lacked but a few votes of a
three-fourths majority. The sixteen Southern States, return-
ing 121 members, elected but three Republicans. Even New
England returned a majority of Democratic members. A
highly significant feature of this election was the great stride
made by the party which had begun its existence as the
" Farmers' Alliance,'' but which now became known as the
" People's Party," or " Populists." In several of the West-
ern States this party made a brave showing as an independent
organization, maintaining a separate existence and voting for
its own candidates. In others it allied itself with the Demo-
crats. It succeeded in electing nine members of the House of
Representatives, and held such a strong position in the legis-
latures of Kansas and South Dakota as to be able to send two
members to the Senate of the United States.

The political situation established by the elections of 1890
changed but slightly during the ensuing two years. The
conditions were of course not favorable to legislation, and the
Democrats wisely attempted nothing beyond proposing amend-
ments of the tariff. The few elections which took place in
1891 did not indicate that the Republicans had regained the
ground lost the year before ; but they did show some recovery,
and gave the party reason to hope that it might succeed in the
coming contest. Ohio and Pennsylvania, in particular, gave
evidence of a reaction in favor of the Republican party. The
local elections in New York State, and the annual election in
Rhode Island, in the spring of 1892, were still more encour-
aging to them. Indeed, a peculiar situation developed itself:
about a year before the presidential election. The active
politicians of both the great parties were opposed to the lead-
ing candidates. On the Democratic side they attributed the
loss of the election in 1888 to Mr. Cleveland's forcing the

492 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

tariff issue ; and, although the popular judgment had seemed
to be reversed in 1890, they were still afraid to appeal to the
people for a fresh verdict on the question of protection or free
trade. Moreover, Mr. Cleveland himself was not and had
never been personally popular with the men who managed
caucuses and conventions. Most important of all, as it then
seemed, there was a factional division of the party in New
York. Governor David B. Hill was in control of the party
machinery. He was himself an avowed candidate for the
presidency. Rightly or wrongly, he was accused of having
defeated the Democratic electors in New York in 1888, while
securing his own election as governor. The electoral vote of
New York was deemed absolutely essential to success, and
great stress was laid upon the inexpediency of nominating for
President a man who was represented to be foredoomed to
defeat in that State.

Mr. Harrison, on the other hand, had not gained popularity
in his own party, either with the politicians or with the com-
mon people. It was understood that there was friction be-
tween him and Mr. Blaine, his Secretary of State ; and Mr.
Blaine's devoted partisans were, for that reason, against the
nomination of the President for a second term, without know-
ing the cause of unpleasantness nor the merits of the case.
The President had won the esteem of his party by his admin-
istration, but to himself he had attached no large body of
personal admirers and adherents. Nevertheless there was a
general expectation that he would be again a candidate. The
general sentiment of the party may be best described as one of
indifference. The rank and file of the party were not opposed
to Mr. Harrison, as were many of the leaders, nor were they
eager for his nomination for a second term. The opponents of
the President endeavored to take advantage of this condition of
the public mind, and organized to defeat him. They turned,
of course, to Mr. Blaine as the natural candidate in such cir-
cumstances. But that gentleman disconcerted them by writ-
ing a letter in February, 1892, announcing that he was not a
candidate. Had there been no other reason for the decision,
Mr. Blaine's health was seriously and permanently impaired.
His withdrawal from the field left the opponents of Mr. Har-
rison no man of sufficient strength and prominence to make
headway against him, and, although they continued to protest
against his nomination to the last, their defeat was inevitable.

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 493

The campaign opened with a startling event. On January
25, almost as soon as the call for the Democratic national
convention had been issued, the New York Democratic state
committee called the state convention to choose the delegates,
to meet on the 22d of February, — four full months before the
national convention. The hand of Governor Hill was seen
clearly in this action. The plan was, and it was subsequently
carried out, to choose a full delegation to Chicago pledged to
vote for Mr. Hill and to oppose Mr. Cleveland. A chorus of
indignant protest against the " snap convention " was raised at
once by Mr. Cleveland's friends, who organized, not to control
that convention, which would be hopeless while all the party
machinery was in the hands of the enemy, but to send another
delegation to Chicago representing, as they asserted, a majority
of the Democratic voters of the State. Those who joined in
this anti-Hill movement were known popularly as " anti-
snappers. "

During the spring months the delegates to the several con-
ventions were chosen. On the Republican side the party
elections were largely in favor of General Harrison. Never-
theless, the number of uninstructed delegates was so large that
his success was by no means assured. The Democratic state
and district conventions were overwhelmingly in favor of Mr.
Cleveland. It was evident that, unless the Hill delegation
from New York could rule the national convention by fear,
Mr. Cleveland would receive far more than the necessary two
thirds on the first vote.

The convention period was a time of great excitement,
despite the fact which all could see, save those who would
not see, that the nominations were predetermined. In the
case of General Harrison, and equally so in the case of Mr.
Cleveland, determined and bitter antagonism was manifested
to the evident choice of a majority of delegates until the very
end. The opponents of the President endeavored to rally
around Mr. Blaine, but his letter declining to be a candidate
stood in the way of their success. Although he added nothing
to that letter and took nothing away from it, yet some of his
adherents declared that he would not refuse a nomination if
tendered to him. But others of his oldest and stanchest
friends, who had become partisans of Mr. Harrison, after Mr.
Blaine's withdrawal, insisted that the Secretary of State would
not and could not be a candidate. Three days before the

494 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

meeting of the Republican convention Mr. Blaine suddenly
resigned from the Cabinet. His act threw the whole country
into a condition of amazed and wondering bewilderment.
What did it mean ? Had the relations between the Presi-
dent and the Secretary become intolerable ? Had the Secre-
tary changed his intention not to be a candidate ? Had his
health at last broken down ? An authoritative answer to the
series of questions has never been given. Every one who
discussed it believed that the act of resignation and the time
chosen for it had a direct connection with the approach of the
time for the meeting of the national convention. But since
it was as easy to give the interpretation that Mr. Blaine pur-
posed retiring from public life, as to deem his purposed resig-
nation a mark of willingness again to enter the field, the
startling change in the situation gave no help to the opponents
of Mr. Harrison, nor did it concentrate their efforts upon an
attempt to nominate Mr. Blaine. It simply added to the pre-
vailing confusion.

The Republican convention met at Minneapolis, June 7,
1892. Mr. J.< Sloat Fassett, of New York, was the temporary
chairman, and Governor William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio, the
permanent president. The drafting of the platform was a
difficult task, owing to the demands of the partisans of silver
money that the party should make a declaration in favor of
free coinage. This demand was resisted, and the " plank "
relating to the money question was a compromise. The plat-
form, reported and adopted on June 9, was as follows : —

The representatives of the Republicans of the United States,
assembled in general convention on the shores of the Mississippi
River, the everlasting bond of an indestructible republic, whose
most glorious chapter of history is the record of the Republican
party, congratulate their countrymen on the majestic march of
the nation under the banners inscribed with the principles of our
platform of 1888, vindicated by victory at the polls and prosperity
in our fields, workshops, and mines, and make the following decla-
ration of principles : —

kWe reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call at-
tention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous
condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legisla-
tion of the Republican Congress.

We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the
United States, except luxuries, should be admitted free of duty,
and that on all imports coming into competition with the products

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 495

of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the dif-
ference between wages abroad and at home.

We assert that the prices of manufactured articles of general
consumption have been reduced under the operations of the Tariff
Act of 1890.
I We denounce the efforts of the Democratic majority of the
House of Representatives to destroy our tariff laws piecemeal, as
is manifested by their attacks upon wool, lead and lead ores, the
chief products of a number of States, and we ask the people for
their judgment thereon.

We point to the success of the Republican policy of reciprocity,
under which our export trade has vastly increased, and new and
enlarged markets have been opened for the products of our farms
and workshops.

We remind the people of the bitter opposition of the Demo-
cratic party to this practical business measure, and claim that,
executed by a Republican administration, our present laws will
eventually give us control of the trade of the world.

The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimet-
allism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold
and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under
such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the
maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the
purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver,
gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the
producers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen, demand
that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the government, shall
be as good as any other.

We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our
government to secure an international conference to adopt such
measures as will insure a parity of value between gold and silver
for use as money throughout the world.

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be
allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elec-
tions, and that sucli ballot shall be counted and returned as cast ;
that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to
every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or
black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the Constitution. The
free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation
of all the people, as well as their just and equal protection under
the laws, are the foundation of our republican institutions, and
the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the
ballot and the purity of elections shall be fully guaranteed and
protected in every State.

We denounce the continued inhuman outrages perpetrated upon

496 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

American citizens for political reasons in certain Southern State*
of the Union.

We favor the extension of our foreign commerce, the restora-
tion of our mercantile marine by home-built ships, and the creation
of a navy for the protection of our national interests and the
honor of our flag ; the maintenance of the most friendly relations
with all foreign powers, entangling alliances with none, and the
protection of the rights of our fishermen.

We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe doctrine, and believe
in the achievement of the manifest destiny of the republic in its
broadest sense.

We favor the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations
for the restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration.

We favor efficient legislation by Congress to protect the life
and limbs of employees of transportation companies engaged in
carrying on interstate commerce, and recommend legislation by
the respective States that will protect employees engaged in state
commerce, in mining and manufacturing.

The Republican party has always been the champion of the
oppressed, and recognizes the dignity of manhood, irrespective of
faith, color, or nationality ; it sympathizes with the cause of home
rule in Ireland, and protests against the persecution of the Jews
in Russia.

The ultimate reliance of free popular government is the intelli-
gence of the people and the maintenance of freedom among men.
We therefore declare anew our devotion to liberty of thought and
conscience, of speech and press, and approve all agencies and in-
strumentalities which contribute to the education of the children
of the land ; but, while insisting upon the fullest measure of reli-
gious liberty, we are opposed to any union of church and state.

We reaffirm our opposition, declared in the Republican platform
of 1888, to all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or other-
wise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citi-
zens. We heartily indorse the action already taken upon this
subject, and ask for such further legislation as may be required to
remedy any defects in existing laws, and to render their enforce-
ment more complete and effective.

We approve the policy of extending to towns, villages, and rural
communities the advantages of the free delivery service, now en-
joyed by the larger cities of the country, and reaffirm the declara-
tion contained in the Republican platform of 1888, pledging the
reduction of letter postage to one cent, at the earliest possible
moment consistent with the maintenance of the Post-office Depart-
ment, and the highest class of postal service.

We commend the spirit and evidence of reform in the civil sei>

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 497

vice, and the wise and consistent enforcement by the Republican
party of the laws regulating the same.

The construction of the Nicaragua Canal is of the highest im-
portance to the American people, both as a measure of national
defence and to build up and maintain American commerce, and it
should be controlled by the United States government.

We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the
earliest practical date, having due regard to the interests of the
people of the Territories and of the United States. All the fed-
eral officers appointed for the Territories should be selected from
honaf.de residents thereof, and the right of self-government should
be accorded as far as practicable.

We favor cession, subject to the homestead laws, of the arid
public lands to the States and Territories in which they lie, under
such congressional restrictions as to disposition, reclamation, and
occupancy by settlers as will secure the maximum benefits to the
people.

The World's Columbian Exposition is a great national under-
taking, and Congress should promptly enact such reasonable legis-
lation in aid thereof as will ensure a discharge of the expenses and
obligations incident thereto, and the attainment of results com-
mensurate with the dignity and progress of the nation.

In temperance we sympathize with all wise and legitimate
efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and pro-
mote morality.

Ever mindful of the services and sacrifices of the men who
saved the life of the nation, we pledge anew to the veteran sol-
diers of the republic a watchful care and recognition of their just
claims upon a grateful people.

We commend the able, patriotic, and thoroughly American
administration of President Harrison. Under it the country has
enjoyed remarkable prosperity, and the dignity and honor of the
nation, at borne and abroad, have been faithfully maintained, and
we offer the record of pledges kept as a guarantee of faithful per-
formance in the future.

President Harrison was nominated for reelection on the first
vote, June 10. The result of the polling was as follows : —

Whole number of votes 905

Necessary for a choice 453

Benjamin Harrison, Indiana , . 535^

James G. Blaine, Maine 182£

William McKinley, Jr., Ohio 182

Thomas B. Reed, Maine 4

Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois 1

498 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The fractional votes here reported resulted firm the division
of the voting power between contesting deleguies in North
Carolina and Mississippi. In the one case the division was
into thirds, and in the other into halves of votes. The com-
bination of fractions caused an erroneous appearance of a more
minute division than really existed.

Whitelaw Reid, of New York, was nominated for Vice-
President by acclamation.

The Democratic convention met at Chicago on June 21.
William C. Owens, of Kentucky, was the temporary chairman,
and William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, the permanent presi-
dent. The platform was reported on the evening of June 22.
As adopted it was as follows : —

Section 1. The representatives of the Democratic party of the
United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm their
allegiance to the principles of the party as formulated by Jeffer-
son, and exemplified by the long and illustrious line of his suc-
cessors in Democratic leadership, from Madison to Cleveland ; we
believe the public welfare demands that these principles be applied
to the conduct of the federal government through the accession
to power of the party that advocates them ; and we solemnly de-
clare that the need of a return to these fundamental principles £>f
a free popular government, based on home rule and individual
liberty, was never more urgent than now, when the tendency to
centralize all power at the federal capital has become a menace
to the reserved rights of the States that strikes at the very roots of
bur government under the Constitution as framed by the fathers
of the republic.

Sec. 2. We warn the people of our common country, jealous
for the preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of
federal control of elections to which the Republican party has
pommitted itself is fraught with the greatest dangers, scarcely
less momentous than would result from a revolution practically
establishing monarchy on the ruins of the republic. It strikes at
the North as well as the South, and injures the colored citizei\
even more than the white. It means a horde of deputy marshals
at every polling-place armed with federal power, returning boards
appointed and controlled by federal authority, the outrage of the
electoral rights of the people in the several States, the subjugation
of the colored people to the control of the party in power, and
the reviving of race antagonisms now happily abated, of the ut-
most peril to the safety and happiness of all ; a measure deliber-
ately and justly described by a leading Republican senator as
"the most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 499

Senate." Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the
dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarch}1- of office-holders, and
the party first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged
from power only by an appeal to the reserved right of the people
to resist oppression, which is inherent in all self-governing com-
munities. Two years ago, this revolutionary policy was emphati-
cally condemned by the people at the polls : but in contempt of
that verdict, the Republican party has defiantly declared in its
latest authoritative utterance that its success in the coming elec-
tions will mean the enactment of the Force bill, and the usurpation
of despotic control over 'elections in all the States. Believing that
the preservation of republican government in the United States
is dependent upon the defeat of this policy of legalized force and
fraud, we invite the support of all citizens who desire to see the
Constitution maintained in its integrity, with the laws pursuant
thereto, which have given our country a hundred years of unex-
ampled prosperity ; and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be
intrusted with power, not only to the defeat of the Force bill, but
also to relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate
expenditure, which in the short space of two years has squandered
an enormous surplus, and emptied an overflowing treasury, after
piling new burdens of taxation upon the already overtaxed labor
of the country.

Sec. 3. We denounce the Republican protection as a fraud, a
robbery of the great majority of the American people for the
benefit of the few. We declare it to be a fundamental principle
of the Democratic party that the federal government has no con-
stitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the
purposes of revenue only, and we demand that the collection of
such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the government
when honestly and economically administered.

We denounce the McKinley tariff law enacted by the Fifty-first
Congress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation^ we in-
dorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the presents ongress
to modify its most oppressive features in the direction of free raw
materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter into general
consumption, and we promise its repeal as one of the beneficent
results that will follow the action of the people in intrusting power
to the Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into oper-
ation, there have been ten reductions of the wages of laboring men
to one increase. We deny that there has been any increase of
prosperity to the country since that tariff went into operation,
and we point to the dullness and distress, the wage reductions and
strikes in the iron trade, as the best possible evidence that no such
prosperity has resulted from the McKinley Act.

500 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact that,
after thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of
foreign wealth in exchange for our agricultural surplus, the homes
and farms of the country have become burdened with a real estate
mortgage debt of over $2,500,000,000, exclusive of all other forms
of indebtedness ; that in one of the chief agricultural States of the
West, there appears a real estate mortgage debt averaging $165
per capita of the total population, and that similar conditions and
tendencies are shown to exist in the other agricultural exporting
States. We denounce a policy which fosters no industry so much
as it does that of the sheriff.

Sec. 4. Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal advantage
to the countries participating is a time-honored doctrine of the
Democratic faith; but we denounce the sham reciprocity which
juggles with the people's desire for enlarged foreign markets and
freer exchanges by pretending to establish closer trade relations
for a country whose articles of export are almost exclusively agri-
cultural products with other countries that are also agricultural,
while erecting a custom-house barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes
against the richest countries of the world, that stand ready to take
our entire surplus of products, and to exchange therefor commo-
dities which are necessaries and comforts of life among our own
people.

Sec. 5. We recognize, in the trusts and combinations which are
designed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of
the joint product of capital and labor, a natural consequence of the
prohibitive taxes which prevent the free competition which is
the life of honest trade, but we believe their worst evils can be
abated by law ; and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws
made to prevent and control them, together with such further
legislation in restraint of their abuses as experience may show to
be necessaiy.

Sec. 6. The Republican party, while professing a policy of re-
serving the public land for small holdings by actual settlers, has
given away the people's heritage, till now a few railroad and non-
resident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than
that of all our farms between the two seas. The last Democratic
administration reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the
Republican party touching the public domain, and reclaimed from
corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored to
the people, nearly 100,000,000 acres of valuable land, to be sacredly
held as homesteads for our citizens, and we pledge ourselves to
continue this policy until every acre of land so unlawfully held
shall be reclaimed and restored to the people.

Sec. 7. We denounce the Republican legislation known as the

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 501

Sherman Act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift, fraught with possi-
bilities of danger in the future which should make all of its sup-
porters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal. We
hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of
the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver without
discrimination against either metal or charge for mintage; but
the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic
and exchangeable value, or be adjusted through international
agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure
the maintenance of the parity of the two metals, and the equal
power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the pay-
ment of debts ; and we demand that all paper currency shall be
kept at par with and redeemable in such coin. We insist upon
this policy as especially necessary for the protection of the farmers
and laboring classes, the first and most defenceless victims of un-
stable money and a fluctuating currency.

Sec. 8. We recommend that the prohibitory ten per cent, tax on
state bank issues be repealed.

Sec. 9. Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the declara-
tion of the Democratic national convention of 1876 for the reform
of the civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all
laws regulating the same. The nomination of a President, as in
the recent Republican convention, by delegations composed largely
of his appointees, holding office at his pleasure, is a scandalous
satire upon free popular institutions, and a startling illustration
of the methods by which a President may gratify his ambition.
We denounce a policy under which federal office-holders usurp
control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the
Democratic party to the reform of these and all other abuses which
threaten individual liberty and local self-government.

Sec. 10. The Democratic party is the only party that has ever
given the country a foreign policy consistent and vigorous, com-
pelling respect abroad and inspiring confidence at home. While
avoiding entangling alliances, it has aimed to cultivate friendly
relations with other nations, and especially with our American
neighbors on the American continent whose destiny is closely
linked with our own, and we view with alarm the tendency to a
policy of irritation and bluster which is liable at any time to con-
front us with the alternative of humiliation or war. We favor the
maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national
defence, and to properly* maintain the honor and dignity of the
country abroad. * «

Sec. 11. This country has always been the refuge of the op-
pressed from every land, — exiles for conscience' sake; and in the
spirit of the founders of our government, we condemn the oppres-

502 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

gion practised by the Russian government upon its Lutheran an<J
Jewish subjects, and we call upon our national government, in the
interest of justice and humanity, by all just and proper means, to
use its prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these
cruel persecutions in the dominions of the Czar, and to secure to
the oppressed equal rights. We tender our profound and earnest
sympathy to those lovers of freedom who are struggling for home
rule and the great cause of local self-government in Ireland.

Sec. 12. We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to prevent
the United States from being used as the dumping-ground for the
known criminals and professional paupers of Europe; and we
demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immi-
gration, or the importation of foreign workmen under contract, to
degrade American labor and lessen its wages; but we condemn
and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of
the industrious and worthy of foreign lands.

Sec. 13. This convention hereby renews the expression of appre-
ciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the Union
in the war for its preservation, and we favor just and liberal pen-
sions for all disabled Union soldiers, their widows and dependents ;
but we demand that the work of the Pension office shall be done
industriously, impartially, and honestly. We denounce the present
administration of that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful,
and dishonest.

Sec. 14. The federal government should care for and improve
the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the republic,
so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transporta-
tion to the tidewater. When any waterway of the republic is of
sufficient importance to demand the aid of the government, such
aid should be extended for a definite plan of continuous work
until permanent improvement is secured.

Sec. 15. For purposes of national defence and the promotion of
commerce between the States, we recognize the early construction
of the Nicaragua Canal, and its protection against foreign control,
as of great importance to the United States.

Sec. 16. Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a
national undertaking of vast importance, in which the general
government has invited the cooperation of all the powers of the
world, and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers
of the invitation extended, and the broadest liberal efforts being
made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking,
we are of the opinion that Congress should make such necessary
financial provision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the
national honor and public faith.

Sec. 17. Popular education being the only safe basis of popular

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 503

suffrage, we recommend to the several States most liberal appro-
priations for the public schools. Free common schools are the
nursery of good government, and they have always received the
fostering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means
of increasing intelligence. Freedom of education, being an essen-
tial of civil and religious liberty as well as a necessity for the
development of intelligence, must not be interfered with under
any pretext whatever. We are opposed to state interference with
parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of chil-
dren, as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine
that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of
others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the
best government.

Sec. 18. We approve the action of the present House of Repre-
sentatives in passing bills for the admission into the Union as
States of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we
favor the early admission of all the Territories having necessary
population and resources to admit them to Statehood ; and, while
they remain Territories, we hold that the officials appointed to
administer the government of any Territory, together with the
Districts of Columbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of
the Territory or District in which their duties are to be performed.
The Democratic party believes in home rule, and the control of
their own affairs by the people of the vicinage.

Sec. 19. We favor legislation by Congress and state legislatures
to protect the lives and limbs of railway employees, and those of
other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inac-
tivity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican
Senate, for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protec-
tive to this class of wage-workers.

Sec. 20. We are in favor of the enactment by the States of laws
for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing con-
tract convict labor, and for prohibiting the employment in facto-
ries of children under fifteen years of age.

Sec. 21. We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an interfer-
ence with the individual rights of the citizen.

Sec. 22. Upon this statement of principles and policies, the
Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the American
people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party
in order that there may be a change of system and a change of
methods, thus assuring the maintenance unimpaired of institu-
tions under which the republic has grown great and powerful. •

The platform as originally reported contained, instead of
the first paragraph of Section 3 above, the following : —

504 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

We reiterate the oft-repeated doctrines of the Democratic party
that the necessity of the government is the only justification for
taxation, and whenever a tax is unnecessary it is unjustifiable;
that when custom-house taxation is levied upon articles of any
kind produced in this country, the difference between the cost of
labor here and labor abroad, when such a difference exists, fully
measures any possible benefits to labor; and the enormous addi-
tional impositions of the existing tariff fall with crushing force
upon our farmers and workingmen, and, for the mere advantage
of the few whom it enriches, exact from labor a grossly unjust
share of the expenses of the government ; and we demand such a
revision of the tariff laws as will remove their iniquitous inequali-
ties, lighten their oppressions, and put them on a constitutional
and equitable basis. But in making reduction in taxes, it is not
oroposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote
their healthy growth. From the foundation of this government,
taxes collected at the custom-house have been the chief source
of federal revenue. Such they must continue to be. Moreover,
many industries have come to rely upon legislation for successful
continuance, so that any change of law must be at every step re-
gardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process of
reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of
justice.

There had been a prolonged struggle, at a meeting of the
committee on resolutions, over the tariff " plank." The para-
graph just recited was, it will be perceived, an echo of the
tariff plank of 1884, with an implied promise to the " pro-
tected industries " that there should be no sweeping reduction
of duties to destroy their business. It was so far less aggres-
sive than the attitude of the party during the preceding six
years warranted as to seem like a complete change of front on
the tariff question. The radical tariff reformers, defeated in
committee, carried the contest into the convention, and on a
motion from the floor the paragraph was struck out, and the
paragraph printed in the platform was substituted, by a vote
of yeas 564, nays 342. An excited debate preceded the vote.
An impassioned appeal to the members to avow openly their
real opinions was received with applause, and carried the day.

After the adoption of the platform, at a late hour in the
evening, the convention proceeded at once to the work of
nominating a candidate for President. Grover Cleveland was
nominated on the first vote. The result of the polling was as
follows : —

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 505

Whole number of votes ^ 909^

Necessary for a choice (two thirds) 607

Grover Cleveland, New York 617£

David B. Hill, New York 114

Horace Boies, Iowa 103

Arthur P. Gorman, Maryland 36£

Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois * . 16|

John G. Carlisle, Kentucky 14

William R. Morrison, Illinois 3

James E. Campbell, Ohio 2

William C. Whitney, New York 1

William E. Russell, Massachusetts 1

Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania 1

The nomination of a candidate for Vice-President was post-
poned until the following day, when the polling resulted as
follows : —

Whole number of votes ...» 909

Necessary for a choice (two thirds) 606

Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois 402

Isaac P. Gray, Indiana 343

Allen B. Morse, Michigan 86

John L. Mitchell, Wisconsin 45

Henry Watterson, Kentucky 26

Bourke Cockran, New York 5

Lambert Tree, Illinois 1

Horace Boies, Iowa 1

A motion was then made and adopted that Adlai E. Steven-
son, of Illinois, be the candidate for Vice-President.

The National Prohibition party held its convention at Cin-
cinnati, beginning on June 29. John P. St. John, of Kansas,
was the temporary chairman, and Eli Ritter, of Indiana, the
permanent president. The convention was in session only two
days. The platform as originally reported by the committee
on resolutions was as follows: —

The Prohibition party, in National Convention assembled, ac-
knowledging Almighty God as the source of all true government,
and his law as the standard to which all human enactments must
conform to secure the blessings of peace and prosperity, presents
the following declaration of principles : —

1. The liquor traffic is a foe to civilization, the arch enemy of
popular government, and a public nuisance. It is the citadel of
the forces that corrupt politics, promote poverty and crime, de-
grade the nation's home life, thwart the will of the people, and

506 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

deliver our country into the hands of rapacious class interests.
All laws that, under the guise of regulation, legalize and protect
this traffic, or make the government share in its ill-gotten gains,
are " vicious in principle and powerless as a remedy."

We declare anew for the entire suppression of the manufac-
ture, sale, importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic
liquors as a beverage, by federal and state legislation; and the
full powers of the government should be exerted to secure this
result. Any party that fails to recognize the dominant nature of
this issue in American politics is undeserving of the support of
the people.

2. No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of
sex, and equal labor should receive equal wages, without regard to
sex.

3. The money of the country should be gold, silver, and paper,
and be issued by the general government only, and in sufficient
quantities to meet the demands of business and give full opportu-
nity for the employment of labor. To this end an increase in the
volume of money is demanded, and no individual or corporation
should be allowed to make any profit through its issue. It should
be made a legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and
private. Its volume should be fixed at a definite sum per capita,
and made to increase with our increase in population.

4. We favor the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold.

5. Tariffs should be levied only as a defence against foreign
governments which put tariffs upon or bar our products from their
markets, revenue being incidental. The residue of means neces-
sary to an economical administration of the government should
be raised by levying a burden on what the people possess instead
of upon what we consume.

6. Railroad, telegraph, and other public corporations should be
controlled by the government in the interest of the people, and no
higher charges allowed than necessary to give fair interest on the
capital actually invested.

7. Foreign immigration has become a burden upon industry,
one of the factors in depressing wages and causing discontent ;
therefore our immigration laws should be revised and strictly
enforced. The time of residence for naturalization should be
extended, and no naturalized person should be allowed to vote
until one year after he becomes a citizen.

8. Non-resident aliens should not be allowed to acquire land in
this country, and we favor the limitation of individual and corpo-
rate ownership of land. All unearned grants of lands to railroad
companies or other corporations should be reclaimed.

9. Years of inaction and treachery on the part of the Republican

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 507

and Democratic parties have resulted in the present reign of mob
law, and we demand that every citizen be protected in the right of
trial by constitutional tribunals.

10. All men should be protected by law in their right to one
day's rest in seven.

11. Arbitration is the wisest and most economical and humane
method of settling national differences.

12. Speculations in margins, the cornering of grain, money, and
products, and the formation of pools, trusts, and combinations for
the arbitrary advancement of prices, should be suppressed.

13. We pledge that the Prohibition party if elected to power
will ever grant just pensions to disabled veterans of the Union
army and navy, their widows and orphans.

14. We stand unequivocally for the American public school,
and opposed to any appropriation of public moneys for sectarian
schools. We declare that only by united support of such common
schools, taught in the English language, can we hope to become
and remain an homogeneous and harmonious people.

15. We arraign the Republican and Democratic parties as
false to the standards reared by their founders ; as faithless to the
principles of the illustrious leaders of the past to whom they do
homage with the lips ; as recreant to the " higher law," which is
as inflexible in political affairs as in personal life ; and as no longer
embodying the aspirations of the American people, or inviting the
confidence of enlightened, progressive patriotism. Their protests
against the admission of " moral issues " into politics is a confes-
sion of their own moral degeneracy. The declaration of an emi-
nent authority, that municipal misrule is "the one conspicuous
failure of American politics," follows as a natural consequence of
such degeneracy, and is true alike of cities under Republican and
Democratic control. Each accuses the other of extravagance in
Congressional appropriations, and both are alike guilty ; each pro-
tests when out of power against the infraction of the civil service
laws, and each when in power violates those laws in letter and
spirit ; each professes fealty to the interests of the toiling masses,
but both covertly truckle to the money power in their administra-
tion of public affairs. Even the tariff issue, as represented in the
Democratic Mills bill and the Republican McKinley bill, is no
longer treated by them as an issue upon great and divergent prin-
ciples of government, but is a mere catering to different sectional
and class interests. The attempt in many States to wrest the
Australian ballot system from its true purpose, and to so de-
form it as to render it extremely difficult for new parties to exer-
cise the rights of suffrage, is an outrage upon popular government.
The competition of both the parties for the vote of the slums, and

508 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

their assiduous courting of the liquor power and subserviency to
the money power, have resulted in placing those powers in the
position of practical arbiters of the destinies of the nation. We
renew our protest against these perilous tendencies, and invite all
citizens to join us in the upbuilding of a party that, as shown in
five national campaigns, prefers temporary defeat to an abandon-
ment of the claims of justice, sobriety, personal rights, and the
protection of American homes.

A minority of the committee presented substitutes for the
financial and the tariff planks of the platform, and also offered
an additional resolution, which was ultimately adopted. The
platform as printed above was adopted, except the fourth reso-
lution, relating to the free coinage of silver, which was de-
feated by a vote of 596 to 335. The additional resolution
referred to was as follows : —

Recognizing and declaring that prohibition of the liquor traffic
has become the dominant issue in national politics, we invite to full
party fellowship all those who on this one dominant issue are with
us agreed, in the full belief that this party can and will remove
sectional differences, promote nationality, and insure the best wel-
fare of our entire land.

John Bidwell, of California, was nominated for President.
The first and only vote was as follows : —

Whole number of votes 911

Necessary for a choice 456

John Bidwell, California 590

Gideon T. Stewart, Ohio 179

W. Jennings Demorest, New York 139

John Bascom 3

J. B. Cranfill, of Texas, was nominated for Vice-President
by the following vote : —

Whole number of votes 811

Necessary for a choice ........... 406

J. B. Cranfill, Texas 417

Joshua Levering, Maryland 351

W. W. Satterly, Minnesota 26

Thomas R. Carskodon, West Virginia 19

The first national convention of the " People's party " was
held at Omaha, on July 2. C. H. Ellington, of Georgia, was
the temporary chairman, and H. L. Loucks, of South Dakota,
the permanent president. The platform, reported and adopted
on July 4, was as follows : —

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 509

Assembled upon the 116th anniversary of' the Declaration of
Ir dependence, the People's party of America, in their first na-
tional convention, invoking upon their action the blessing of Al-
mighty God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf of the people
of this country, the following preamble and declaration of prin-
ciples : —

The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation :
we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral,
political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box,
the legislature, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the
bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have
been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling-places to pre-
vent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are
largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business
prostrated; our homes covered with mortgages; labor impover-
ished; and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists.
The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-
protection ; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages ; a
hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established
to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into Euro-
pean conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly
stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in
the history of mankind ; and the possessors of these, in turn, de-
spise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific
womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes of
tramps and millionaires.

The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich
bondholders ; a vast public debt, payable in legal tender currency,
has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions
to the burdens of the people. Silver, which has been accepted as
coin since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to
the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms
of property as well as human labor ; and the supply of currency is
purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise, and
enslave industry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been
organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of
the world. If not met and overthrown at once, it forebodes terri-
ble social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the estab-
lishment of an absolute despotism.

We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the
struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder,
while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering
people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating
both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful condition
to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them.

610 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They
have agreed together to ignore in the campaign every issue but
one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people
with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists,
corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the de-
monetization of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers may all
be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and
children on the altar of mammon; to destroy the multitude in
order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires.

Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation,
and filled with the spirit of the grand general chief who established
our independence, we seek to restore the government of the Re-
public to the hands of "the plain people," with whose class it
originated. We assert our purposes to be identical with the pur-
poses of the National Constitution, " to form a more perfect union
and establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity." We declare
that this republic can only endure as a free government while
built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the
nation ; that it cannot be pinned together by bayonets ; that the
civil war is over, and that every passion and resentment which
grew out of it must die with it ; and that we must be in fact, as we
are in name, one united brotherhood of freemen.

Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which
there is no precedent in the history of the world : our annual agri-
cultural productions amount to billions of dollars in value, which
must, within a few weeks or months, be exchanged for billions of
dollars of commodities consumed in their production ; the existing
currency supply is wholly inadequate to make this exchange ; the
results are falling prices, the formation of combines and rings,
the impoverishment of the producing class. We pledge ourselves,
if given power, we will labor to correct these evils by wise and
reasonable legislation, in accordance with the terms of our plat-
form. We believe that the powers of government — in other
words, of the people — should be expanded (as in the case of the
postal service) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intel-
ligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the
end that oppression, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease
in the land.

While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon
the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelli-
gent, virtuous, and temperate, we nevertheless regard these ques-
tions — important as they are — as secondary to the great issues
now pressing for solution, and upon which not only our individual

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 511

prosperity but the very existence of free institutions depends ; and
we ask all men to first help us to determine whether we are to
have a republic to administer before we differ as to the conditions
upon which it is to be administered ; believing that the forces of
reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until
every wrong is remedied, and equal rights and equal privileges
securely established for all the men and women of this country.

We declare, therefore, —

First. That the union of the labor forces of the United States
• this day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual; may its
spirit enter all hearts for the salvation of the republic and the
uplifting of mankind !

Second. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar
taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery. " If any
will not work, neither shall he eat." The interests of rural and
civic labor are the same ; their enemies are identical.

Third. We believe that the time has come when the railroad
corporations will either own the people or the people must own
the railroads ; and, should the government enter upon the work of
owning and managing all railroads, we should favor an amend-
ment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in the gov-
ernment service shall be placed under a civil service regulation of
the most rigid character, so as to prevent the increase of the power
of the national administration by the use of such additional gov-
ernment employees.

We demand, —

First, A national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by
the general government only, a full legal tender for all debts,
public and private, and that, without the use of banking corpora-
tions, a just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to
the people, at a tax not to exceed two per cent, per annum, to be
provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers'
Alliance, or a better system ; also, by payments in discharge of its
obligations for public improvements.

(a) We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold
at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one.

(b) We demand that the amount of circulating medium be
speedily increased to not less than fifty dollars per capita.

(d) We believe that the money of the country should be kept
as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we de-
mand that all state and national revenues shall be limited to the
necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly
administered.

(e) We demand that postal savings banks be established by the

512 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and
to facilitate exchange.

Second, Transportation. Transportation being a means of ex-
change and a public necessity, the government should own and
operate the railroads in the interest of the people.

(a) The telegraph and telephone, like the post-office system,
being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned
and operated by the government in the interest of the people.

Third, Land. The land, including all the natural sources of
wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopo-
lized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should
be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other corpora-
tions in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by
aliens, should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual
settlers only.

Subsequently the committee on resolutions made a supple-
mentary report, submitting a series of resolutions which it was
explained are not to be regarded as a part of the party platform,
but as expressive of the opinion of the party, as follows : —

Whereas, Other questions have been presented for our considera-
tion, we hereby submit the following, not as a part of the platform
of the People's party, but as resolutions expressive of the senti-
ment of this convention.

1. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in
all elections, and pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter
without federal intervention, through the adoption by the States
of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system.

2. Resolved, That the revenue derived from a graduated income
tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation
now resting upon the domestic industries of this country.

3. Resolved, That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pen-
sions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors.

4. Resolved, That we condemn the fallacy of protecting Ameri-
can labor under the present system, which opens our ports to the
pauper and criminal classes of the world, and crowds out our wage-
earners; and we denounce the present ineffective laws against con-
tract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable
immigration.

5. Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of
organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor, and demand
a rigid enforcement of the existing eight-hour law on government
work, and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law.

6. Resolved, That we regard the maintenance of a large stand-
ing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 513

menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition; and we
condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the
hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by federal officials.

7. Resolved, That we commend to the favorable consideration
of the people and the reform press the legislative system known
as the initiative and referendum.

8. Resolved) That we favor a constitutional provision limiting
the office of President and Vice-President to one term, and pro-
viding for the election of senators of the United States by a direct
vote of the people.

9. Resolved, That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any
private corporation for any purpose.

General James B. Weaver, of Iowa, was nominated for Pre-
sident. The vote stood : —

Whole number of votes 1263

Necessary for a choice 632

James B. Weaver, Iowa .......... 995

James H. Kyle, South Dakota 265

Mann Page, Virginia 1

Leland Stanford, California 1

Norton 1

For Vice-President, James G. Field, of Virginia, was nomi-
nated. The vote was as follows : —

Whole number of votes 1287

Necessary for a choice 644

James G. Field, Virginia 733

Ben. S. Terrell, Texas 554

The representation in this convention was irregular, as may
be seen from the fact that Texas cast 60 votes, New York 59,
Pennsylvania 21, Massachusetts 28, Illinois 83, and North
Dakota 25.

A Socialist Labor convention was held at New York on
August 28, by which Simon Wing, of Massachusetts, was
nominated for President, and Charles H. Matchett, of New
York, for Vice-President. The following platform was
adopted : —

Social Demands: 1. Reduction of the hours of labor in propor-
tion to the progress of production.

2. The United States shall obtain possession of the railroads,
canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means of public trans-
portation and communication.

3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads,

514 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

ferries, water-works, gas-works, electric plants, and all industries
requiring municipal franchises.

4. The public lands to be declared inalienable. Revocation of
all land grants to corporations or individuals, the conditions of
which have not been complied with.

5. Legal incorporation by the States of local trade unions which
have no national organization.

6. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money.

7. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific manage-
ment of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste of the
natural resources of the country.

8. Inventions to be free to all ; the inventors to be remunerated
by the nation.

9. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances ; the smaller
incomes to be exempt.

10. School education of all children under fourteen years of age
to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by public assist-
ance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where necessary.

11. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary laws.
Unabridged right of combination.

12. Official statistics concerning the condition of labor. Prohi-
bition of the employment of children of school age, and of the em-
ployment of female labor in occupations detrimental to health or
morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract system.

13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States.
Equalization of women's wages with those of men where equal
service is performed.

14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations,
and an efficient employers' liability law.

Political Demands : 1. The people to have the right to propose
laws and to vote upon all measures of importance, according to
the referendum principle.

2. Abolition of the Presidency, Vice-Presidency, and Senate of
the United States. An Executive Board to be established, whose
members are to be elected, and may at any time be recalled, by
the House of Representatives, as the only legislative body. The
States and municipalities to adopt corresponding amendments to
their constitutions and statutes.

3. Municipal self-government.

4. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections. Universal and
equal right of suffrage, without regard to color, creed, or sex.
Election days to be legal holidays. The principle of minority
representation to be introduced.

5. All public officers to be subject to recall by their respective
constituencies.

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 515

6. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United States.
Administration of justice to be free of charge. Abolition of capital
punishment.

The canvass developed few features of special interest. The
result seemed to be in doubt, and both parties were hopeful.
The opposition which had existed, prior to the conventions, to
the President and the ex-President, the candidates of their re-
spective parties, disappeared for the most part. The Republi-
cans had been placed in a minority by the disaster of 1890 ;
but their leaders, their orators, their journalists, and the rank
and file of the party made no doubt that the defection was
temporary. The ticket did not arouse great enthusiasm ; but
the Republicans built great hopes upon the situation of the
Democrats in New York. There seemed to be an irreparable
breach in that State. An eloquent advocate of the nomination
of Governor Hill had said, in a speech before the Democratic
convention at Chicago, that Mr. Cleveland could not carry
New York. Tammany Hall protested its loyalty to the ticket ;
but the " anti-snapper " wing of the party feared, and the Re-
publicans hoped, that the protestations were insincere. An
element of humor was imparted to the canvass in New York
by an ostentatiously disingenuous attempt on the part of those
Democrats who did not subscribe to the free-trade plank in
the platform to make it appear that " negro domination V would
ensue upon the success of the Republicans. The New York
" Sun," which disliked Mr. Cleveland almost beyond its by no
means deficient power of expression, made " No Force Bill ! "
its campaign cry, to excuse its support of the Democratic can-
didate.

The growth of the Populist party in the West and in some
parts of the South led to coalitions which render an exact divi-
sion of the votes among the several parties quite impossible.
In five States — Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, and
Wyoming — the Democrats nominated no electors, but voted
for the Populist candidates. It was deemed possible that
neither party might secure a majority of electors. In that
case the election of President would devolve upon the House
of Representatives already chosen, in which the Democrats con-
trolled a large majority of the state delegations. Consequently,
for their purposes, a defeat of the Republicans, by the suc-
cess of the Populists in a few of the States, was as serviceable
as the election of a full majority of Democratic electors. In

5ie A HISTORY OF THE ^RESIDENCY

Nevada the Democrats nominated an electoral ticket, but almost
the whole voting strength of the party was given to the Popu-
lists. In Oregon one of the four Populist electors was placed
on the Democratic ticket. In Minnesota there was a fusion of
Democrats and Populists on four candidates for electors. The
members of each party voted for their own candidates for the
other rive electors. In the South the alliances of the Populists
were with Republicans. The fusion in Alabama was incom-
plete, but in Louisiana the electoral ticket was divided between
the two parties, — four electors for each party. This fusion
explains why the popular vote in Louisiana for Harrison and
for Weaver, in the following table, is substantially the same.
The vote for the fusion electors was 26,563. An independent
electoral ticket, by the so-called " Lily White " faction of the
Republican party of Texas, received 3,969 votes.

Still another complication was introduced at this election
by the action of the Democratic legislature of Michigan chosen
in the " landslide " year, 1890. An act was passed by that
legislature reestablishing the system of choosing electors by
districts. Maryland, the last State to cling to this method,
had abandoned it in 1836. It was a device, in the case of
Michigan, to enable a party which was conscious of being in
a minority to secure a few electors. The constitutionality of
the measure was attacked ; but it was clearly within the power
of the legislature to pass the act, and the Supreme Court of
Michigan so decided.

The result of the election was a great surprise to men of all
parties. Not only was the South " solid " once more for the
Democratic candidates, not only did all the usually doubtful
States support Mr. Cleveland by large majorities, but Illinois,
Wisconsin, and California were drawn into the Democratic
ranks. Even Ohio, which had not given an electoral vote tc
a Democrat since there had been a Republican party, was so
closely divided that one Cleveland elector slipped in. The
fusion against the Republicans was successful in Colorado,
Idaho, Kansas, and Nevada. It was partially successful in
North Dakota and Oregon. The popular vote for the several
candidates is given in the following table, as nearly as it can be
stated, but the " official returns " vary so greatly as to render
absolute accuracy impossible. The appended figures are made
up by a careful comparison of several set's of " official " returns,
and a choice of those that seem most trustworthy* It should

CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION

517

Popular Vote.

Electoral
Vote.

States.

1"
s .

w *

s i

■

lit

"CIS

s 2

■

2
'3

d
1
1

o
-*

Alabama ....

138,138

9,197

85,181

239

Arkansas . .

87,834

46,884

11,831

113

California

117,908

117,618

25,226

8,056

Colorado . .

38,620

53,584

1,638

Connecticut .

82,395

77,025

806

4,025

329

—

Delaware

18,581

18,083

5(>5

Florida . .

30,143

4,843

475

•*

Georgia . .

129,361

48,305

42,937

988

Idaho . . .

8,599

10,520

288

Illinois . .

426,281

399,288

22.207

25,870

—

Indiana . .

262,740

255,615

22,208

13,050

—

Iowa . . .

196,367

219,795

20,595

6,402

Kansas . .

157,237

163,111

4,539

Kentucky .

175,461

135,441

23,500

6,442

Louisiana

87,922

13,281

13,282

Maine . . .

48,044

62,931

2,381

3,062

336

—

Maryland

113,866

92,736

796

5,877

—

Massachusetts

176,813

202,814

3,210

1,539

649

—

Michigan . .

202,296

222,708

19,892

14,069

Minnesota .

100,920

122,823

29,313

12,182

Mississippi .

40,237

1,406

10,256

910

Missouri . .

268,398

226,918

41,213

4,331

Montana . .

17,581

18,851

7,334

549

—

Nebraska

24,943

87,227

83,134

4,902

Nevada . .

714

2,811

7,264

New Hampshire

42,081

45,658

292

1,297

New Jersey .

171,042

156,068

969

8,131

1,337

New York .

654,868

609,350

16,429

38,190

17,956

—

North Carolina

132,951

100,342

44,736

2,636

North Dakota

17,519

17,700

899

Ohio . . .

404,115

405,187

14,850

26,012

—

Oregon . .

14,243

35,002

26,965

2,281

Pennsylvania

452,264

516,011

.8,714

25,123

898

—

Rhode Island

24,335

26,972

228

1,654

—

South Carolina

54,692

13,345

2,407

—

South Dakota

9,081

34,888

26,544

Tennessee .

138,874

100,331

23,447

4,851

Texas . . .

239,148

81,444

99 688

2.165

Vermont . .

16,325

37,992

M15

—

Virginia . .

163,977

113,262

12,275

2,738

Washington .

29,802

36,460

19,165

2,542

West Virginia

84,467

80,293

4,166

2,145

Wisconsin .

177,335

170,791

9,909

13,132

Wyoming . . .

8,454

7,722

530

3
145

Total

5,656,543

5,175,582

1,040,886

255,841

21,532

277

be borne in mind that the Populist vote is overstated, and the
Democratic vote understated, by reason of the alliances just
mentioned.

518 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Forty-four States participated in the election, six new States
having been admitted since the previous election, — North and
South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming.
In all the States, electors were chosen by popular vote ; in all,
6ave Michigan, on a general ticket. The popular and electoral
votes are included in the same table.

The count of the electoral vote took place on February 8,
1893. The proceedings of 1889 were followed exactly. No
incident occurred to enliven the occasion more important than
a round of Democratic applause when the vote of Illinois was
announced.

XXXI

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN

The four years which cover the second term of Grover
Cleveland may be characterized as the most momentous period,
in a time of peace, in the history of the country, and as the
most interesting, from a political point of view, in either war
or peace. The prominence assumed by our foreign relations
would alone have distinguished it from preceding adminis-
trations ; and yet the diplomatic questions that confronted
us, although important, far-reaching, and exciting, became
almost insignificant in comparison with the domestic problems
and conditions with which public men had to deal. An
attempt which, since it was but partially successful, was not
successful at all, to introduce a new principle in the levy of
import duties ; a steady and large deficit in the revenue, not
corrected by additional taxation ; a currency hopelessly dis-
ordered, while no party was strong enough either to restore it
to soundness or to introduce a new element of confusion ; com-
mercial disaster and private distress, manifesting itself in
demonstrations that always excited apprehension, and in some
cases lapsed into lawlessness which the local authorities could
not or would not suppress, — such, in brief, were the evil con-
ditions that prevailed during that eventful period. It was a
time full of surprises, the last and greatest of which was the
sudden rise, to an issue of overwhelming importance and in-
terest, of a question that had troubled the peace of American
politicians for twenty years, but had previously been dallied
with and avoided, never met squarely and with courage.

At the very beginning of the administration the President
signified his disagreement with his predecessor on a question
of foreign policy by withdrawing from consideration by the
Senate the treaty for the annexation of Hawaii. The position
ultimately taken by the new administration was that the revo-
lution in the island kingdom had been accomplished by an
improper use of the armed forces of the United States, and

520 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

that the wrong should be righted by a restoration of the queen
to her throne. Upon the question of fact on which the policy-
was based there was an exceedingly warm controversy; yet
there can be little doubt that, whatever opinion men held as
to the conduct of our minister at Honolulu, the restoration of
a monarchy by the armed intervention, or under the protecting
authority, of the United States was repugnant to the general
sentiment of the people.

The vigorous interference of the government in the difficulty
between Great Britain and Venezula was the most dramatic
passage in our recent diplomatic history. When it seemed
certain that England would put an end to the dispute, that had
l>een running more than half a century, as to the true bound-
ary between Venezuela and her possession of British Guiana,
by seizing the territory in question, the President brought the
subject to the attention of Congress in a message that contained
the broadest assertion of the Monroe doctrine ever made in a
state paper. The United States had been endeavoring for
years to bring about a settlement of the quarrel by arbitration.
The suggestion of the President was, in effect, that if the
contending parties could not come to terms, this government
should undertake a judicial investigation of the matter, and sus-
tain whatever rights it might find Venezuela to possess. The
message was received in some quarters as presaging war with
Great Britain ; and its first effect was to inflict almost absolute
paralysis upon business. In the end, after much negotiation,
just before the close of Mr. Cleveland's administration, Great
Britain and the United States agreed upon an arbitration of
the boundary question on nearly the terms originally proposed
by this country, — the most signal victory of American diplo-
macy in modern times. Had not domestic questions quite
overshadowed all matters of foreign policy, and left the ad-
ministration without a party to support it, this grand success,
giving the Monroe doctrine both a wider scope and a stronger
legal standing than ever before, must have played a great part
in the election of 1896.

On the other hand, the outbreak of a fresh insurrection in
Cuba increased greatly the perplexities of the administration.
The outspoken sympathy with the insurgents, more or less sin-
cere, of journals and politicians, expressed itself, among other
ways, in heated denunciation of the President for his strict
observance of a friendly attitude toward Spain, and for the

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 521

steps which he took to prevent filibustering and other viola-
tions of the neutrality laws. In a position of extreme difficulty
he succeeded in avoiding complications that might lead to war,
but he did not and could not succeed in pleasing Spain, or the
Cubans, or their sympathizers in this country.

Another incident of the diplomatic history of this adminis-
tration must be alluded to, although it ultimately came to no-
thing, and had no marked bearing upon party politics or upon
the presidential election. Mr. Olney, the Secretary of State,
negotiated a treaty of general arbitration with Sir Julian
Pauncefote, the British minister at Washington, under which
all questions arising between the two governments were to be
submitted to international tribunals. The treaty was most
warmly attacked by many persons as placing the interests of
the country in jeopardy ; and on the other hand it was urged,
both wisely and unwisely, by men who thought they saw in it
the germ of a principle that was to put an end to war. The
treaty was not acted upon by the Senate before the close of
Mr. Cleveland's administration ; and, although his successor in
office recommended it most earnestly, it was rejected.

The most cursory review of this remarkable administration
would be incomplete without a reference to these stirring
events in our foreign relations. Nevertheless not one of them
had the least influence in shaping the canvass of 1896, or in
determining its result. Two acts of Congress, passed in the
year 1890, were the special object of attack by the Democratic
party in the election of 1892. The result of that election was
to give full power to the Democrats in the legislative as well
as the executive department of the government, and the Presi-
dent soon began the promised campaign for the repeal of those
obnoxious acts. The so-called " Sherman Silver-Purchase
Act " was a measure of concession by Republicans to the sen-
timent that " something ought to be done for silver." Both
parties, Republican and Democratic alike, were paralyzed by
the advocates of silver free-coinage. A majority of Democrats
favored, and a majority of Republicans opposed, the policy.
But it was difficult, and, as the event proved, impossible, to
persuade the opponents of the measure to act in harmony.
Some of them were even alarmed lest, should they agree upon
nothing to increase the use of silver money, the advocates of
free coinage would carry their point. Out of this situation
arose the compromise contained in the act of 1890. The

522 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Silver Republicans accepted it as the least that would satisfy
them ; the anti-Silver members persuaded themselves that it
was safe ; and it was carried through as a party measure. As
for the Democrats, not one of them supported it, — the Free
Silver wing treating it with scorn, as a delusion ; the " Sound
Money " wing, as it came afterward to be known, regarding it
as a long step toward free coinage, if not a surrender to the
Silver Republicans.

The working of the act satisfied neither the Silver party nor
their opponents. The Democrats denounced it in terms, in
their national platform, as a " cowardly makeshift," and were
pledged to its repeal. When, however, in the spring and early
summer of 1893, the consequences of the execution of the act
began to make themselves felt, a line of division different from
the party line was established. All those who were opposed
to free coinage, Republicans as well as Democrats, were anx-
iously and earnestly in favor of repeal. The advocates of free
coinage, on the other hand, while maintaining consistently that
it was far short of the measure which they desired, protested
against repeal unless something quite as favorable to silver were
simultaneously enacted in its stead. Something like a panic
seized the banking and mercantile communities of the money
centres, and the alarm lest the country should fall to a silver
standard was widespread. In these circumstances the Presi-
dent, who was well known to be opposed to further legislation
in favor of silver, and strongly against free coinage, called
Congress together in extraordinary session for the purpose of
repealing the silver-purchase clauses of the act of 1890. The
situation was a peculiar one. It may perhaps be most briefly
explained by a statement of what occurred. The act of repeal
was passed by the House of Representatives on August 28,
1893, three weeks after the session began. It did not pass
the Senate until October 30. It was successful in the lower
House because the Speaker, Mr. Crisp, a silver advocate both
before and afterward, gave it his support and the weight of all
the influence a Speaker could exert. In the Senate the bill
was managed by Mr. Voorhees, also a free-coinage man.

The fact that, in spite of the passage of this bill, there was
a majority in each House of Congress in favor of free coin-
age, was proved abundantly at the subsequent regular sessions ;
but owing to the difficulty of carrying any measure through
both Houses in the face of a determined minority, nothing

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 523

was accomplished. A bill was, nevertheless, passed to " coin
the seigniorage." This act encountered a veto by the President,
May 27, 1894, and tl>e two-thirds majority, necessary to pass
the bill notwithstanding his objections, could not be obtained.
The bill proposed to coin so much of the silver purchased under
the act of 1890 as represented the difference between the price
paid for the silver and its coining value, and to use the coin
for the current expenses of the government ; and afterward to
coin the rest of the silver owned by the Treasury for the pur-
pose of redeeming the treasury notes issued against the silver
purchased. This measure, to which Mr. Abram S. Hewitt
applied the catching phrase " coining a vacuum," was the only
one touching the silver question which reached the President
after the repealing act already mentioned. But the temper of
Congress was well shown by its absolute refusal to sanction an
issue of bonds payable, principal and interest, in gold. The
matter was brought to the attention of Congress by the Presi-
dent at a time when a large issue of bonds was pending ; and a
proposition by a bankers' syndicate to take the bonds on much
more favorable terms, provided the promise were made to pay
in gold what was to be lent in gold, was submitted at the same
time ; but Congress refused to allow the promise to be made.
A resolution authorizing an issue of gold bonds was rejected
by a large majority.

The significance of all these events, in their bearing upon
the election of a President in 1896, lies in the fact of a con-
stantly increasing difference between Mr. Cleveland and the
majority of his party as represented in Congress. At the be-
ginning of the administration, there were enough Silver Demo-
crats, who joined with the Gold Democrats, to give a majority
of the party in the House of Representatives in favor of the
repeal act of 1893. In the Senate the Democrats who opposed
the President were exactly as many as those who supported
him. Included among his supporters were seven senators who
were far more disposed to vote for free coinage than for the
repealing act. The President's influence was sufficient to se-
cure their vote for the bill. But this was the last occasion
on which they conceded anything to him or yielded their
opinion in the slightest degree.

As soon as the Silver-Purchase Repeal Act had been passed,
the President bent all his energies to the fulfilment of the
second pledge of his party, — the repeal of the McKinley Tariff

524 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Act, and the passage of a customs revenue law " to reduce tax-
ation." The protective system had been denounced in 1892
from every Democratic stump, and Mr. Cleveland had been
elected with a distinct understanding that his victory would
signify a purpose to go as far as prudence would warrant in
the direction of free trade, or a " tariff for revenue only."
Accordingly, at the beginning of the regular session of Con-
gress in December, 1893, the President summoned his party
to the performance of this duty. The apparent unanimity of
the Democrats on this question, moreover, seemed to promise
an opportunity to heal the breach caused by the contest over
silver. The result made manifest a party division no less de-
plorable from a political point of view than that which had
been revealed at the extraordinary session, and one which
filled with humiliation those who wished honestly and faith-
fully to redeem the party pledge. A tariff bill framed as
nearly in conformity to the principle which the voters of the
country were supposed to have approved, as could be expected
of any party, was brought into the House by Mr. Wilson,
Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and was
promptly passed by that branch of Congress. When it
reached the Senate a singular state of affairs appeared. A
coterie of Democratic senators made an informal alliance with
the Republicans for the purpose of saving the protective du-
ties upon certain classes of goods in which the people of their
respective States were interested. Neither threats nor per-
suasion, and no consideration of party loyalty, availed to break
this alliance. The Democratic leaders were forced to accept
the amendments dictated by the wayward members of their
own party, including some that were insisted upon by the
Republicans as the price of their assistance. In these circum-
stances, the bill as it was passed by the Senate was one which
consistent upholders of the Democratic principle declared they
could. never accept. Nevertheless, it was soon made evident
to them that no changes would be permitted, — that the choice
lay between taking the bill as the Senate had passed it, or
taking nothing, and thus leaving the McKinley act in force.
With unconcealed reluctance they took the Senate bill. The
only consolation they permitted themselves was the fact that
the bill made wool free of duty ; and the wool duty was re-
garded as the keystone of the protection arch. The President
would neither approve the bill nor become responsible for the

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 525

failure of tariff legislation by vetoing it. He allowed the bill
to become law by lapse of time, without his signature.

During the ensuing two years the financial and business
situation became steadily worse. Each reacted upon the
other. The lower duties imposed by the new tariff act were
not followed by such an increase of importations as to make
good the loss of revenue. Foreign distrust in the stability of
our affairs led to a withdrawal of foreign investments, and
this caused a heavy exportation of gold, which was drawn
from the Treasury. The gold borrowed on government loans
to make good the reserve maintained to insure the redeema-
bility of the paper money was quickly lost ; for the greenbacks
paid out in excess of revenue were again presented for re-
demption, to procure more gold for export. The President,
in calling the attention of Congress to the subject, likened the
process to the operation of an " endless chain." The constant
imperilling of the gold reserve caused frequent panics and
a paralysis of business. The labor situation became serious.
Great strikes took place, attended with extreme violence.
One in particular on certain great lines of railway centring in
Chicago led to a direct intervention of the national authority
and the employment of the army to protect the running of
trains, on the theory that it was necessary to continue the
operation of the postal service. The use of the government
troops was not solicited by the governor of Illinois, who pub-
licly protested that the intervention of the national author-
ity, by command of the President, prior to a request therefor
by the governor, was an unconstitutional invasion of State
rights.

The generally deplorable condition of affairs, which, as is
usually the case, was popularly attributed to the inefficiency
and failure of the party in power, caused a violent reaction
from the great Democratic victory of 1892. The Congress
elections of 1894 gave the Republicans a majority of more
than two to one in the House. Hardly a dozen Democratic
members were returned from all the Northern States. The
situation of the Democratic party did not improve, and at the
beginning of 1896 was as hopeless as it had been at any time
during the second administration of Mr. Cleveland. It was
at this time a common remark by Republicans, which their
opponents ventured only mildly to contradict, that they " could
nominate a rag baby and elect it President " that year.

526 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Yet events so shaped themselves as to render the contest
one of the sharpest, most memorable, and for a brief season
the most doubtful, of all that have taken place since the elec-
tion of Mr. Lincoln in 1860. That which brought about the
change was the intrusion of the silver question into the canvass
as the dominant issue, in opposition to the wishes and efforts
of those who, in each of the old historic parties, had previously
exercised a controlling influence in its councils. It is easy to
understand why they took this attitude of opposition. As
apostles of the gospel of success, they dreaded the division which
a plain and unmistakable pronouncement on the subject of silver
would cause. The Populist party alone was united on that
issue. The growing strength of that organization had filled
all the old politicians with alarm. In some of the Western
States it had even become formidable to the extent of outnum-
bering both the old parties combined. It was evident that, if
the silver question were to become the foremost issue in the
canvass, the old policy of a " straddling " platform would not
do ; since in that case all those who were resolved to have free
coinage at all hazards would flock to the Populist standard.
Out of this situation developed a sensational contest for the
control of the Democratic organization. The Eastern section
of the party was dominated by the advocates of the gold stand-
ard ; the Free Coinage wing was overwhelmingly strong in the
West and South ; and the great battle-ground was the central
Western States. The national administration employed all its
influence to secure the election to the national convention of
delegates who would oppose the demands of the Silver men.
Kentucky was the scene of the fiercest conflict ; and when the
primary elections resulted in a brilliant victory for free silver,
it was evident that the contest was ended, and that the only
hope of the opponents of free coinage was that the victors
might be persuaded not to carry their advantage to extremes,
— a hope which was destined to be disappointed. The ear-
nestness with which the struggle was carried on may be judged
from the fact that the Democratic conventions of no less than
thirty States resolved in distinct and emphatic language in
favor of the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one.
Fourteen state conventions opposed free coinage, and ten of
them declared in set terms for the gold standard. One conven-
tion only, that of Florida, expressed no opinion on the silver
question. The sectional division on this issue is indicated by

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 527

the fact that the fourteen anti-Silver States were the New Eng-
land States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and Maryland, with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Meantime another contest had been attracting deep interest
throughout the country, — a contest, not of principle, but be-
tween rival candidates for the Republican nomination. Major
William McKinley, of Ohio, and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, had long been
avowed candidates for the nomination. Months before the
convention was to be held, the agents and partisans of each
were at work laying plans, conducting correspondence, and
dispatching emissaries to all parts of the country — particu-
larly into the Southern States — in order to secure the elec-
tion of delegates. By far the better organized, more aggres-
sive and systematic campaign was carried on in behalf of Major
McKinley, under the direction of his friend Marcus A.
Hanna, whose name became familiar as household words in the
mouths of all the stump speakers before the presidential canvass
ended. Mr. McKinley was proclaimed " the advance agent
of prosperity ; " and, in the renewed popularity of the protec-
tive system, no cry was more effective than the demand for
"Bill McKinley and the McKinley Bill." Mr. Reed's im-
mense and universally admitted services to his party, his tal-
ents, his iron will, and his almost undisputed leadership, gave
him a host of supporters. New York brought forward her
governor, the former Vice-President, Levi P. Morton. Iowa
presented as a worthy candidate her senator, William B. Alli-
son; and Pennsylvania named Senator Matthew S. Quay.
The efforts in behalf of the minor candidates availed little save
in their respective States ; the hopes of their supporters hardly
went further than this : that they might make such a display
of strength as to suggest that, if neither Mr. McKinley nor
Mr. Reed could carry the convention, one of them would be
available as a "dark horse." But it became evident long
before the convention, although the partisans of the other can-
didates would not admit it, that a strong majority of the dele-
gates favored the nomination of Mr. McKinley. During the
whole of this preliminary skirmishing in the Republican party,
the silver question was thrust into the background as much as
possible. Twenty-two state conventions, it is true, declared
against free coinage ; but many even of these gave greater
prominence and vigor to their expressions on the tariff than to

528 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

their views on the money standard. Here also the gospel oi
success prevailed. The States of the extreme West, the " min-
ing States," were practically unanimous in favor of silver. If
the Democrats could count as usual on a " solid South," if they
could hold the doubtful States of the Northwest, and if they
could win over the new States of the far Northwest by taking
ground in favor of free coinage while the Republicans opposed
it, the canvass was already decided against the Republicans.
It was announced by the Republican leaders in Colorado,
Idaho, and other States that their electoral votes were irretriev-
ably lost to the party if the national convention did not show
itself more " friendly to silver " than the Minneapolis conven-
tion of 1892. This consideration caused many of the managers
to do their utmost to retain the tariff as the leading issue, and
to contemplate a " straddle " on the silver question. Their
plans and purposes were overturned by influences too strong
for them to resist.

Affairs were in this interesting situation when the time
arrived for holding the national conventions. The results of
these great assemblies were surprising to those even who had
gauged accurately the intensity of the public feeling on the
silver question. Never before were conventions so inharmoni-
ous, and never were there so many " splits " and " bolts " in
parties. The first convention to be held was that of the Pro-
hibition party, which met at Pittsburg on May 27, 1896. Mr.
A. A. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman,
and Mr. Oliver W. Stewart, of Illinois, the permanent presi-
dent of the convention.

The assembly was divided from the first into two factions, —
the " narrow gaugers " and the " broad gaugers." The real
contest was over the silver question. The " broad gaugers "
favored a platform made up of resolutions on many topics,
upon which they held views closely approaching .those of the
Populists. The " narrow gaugers," opposing particularly the
adoption of a free coinage " plank," contended for a platform
which should make the prohibition of the manufacture and
sale of intoxicating liquors the only issue upon which the
party should appeal to the people. So sharp was the contest
between the two factions that a disruption was foreseen before
the convention was called to order. Leading men on each side
had announced that if their faction were defeated, they would
not support either platform or candidates. There was war

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 529

between them in the choice of presiding officers ; and the two
presidential candidates ultimately named had been agreed upon
in rival caucuses before the first session of the convention.

The platform was reported on the second day of the session.
A majority of the committee consisted of " narrow gaugers,"
and all the resolutions, six in number, were aimed at the
liquor traffic. A minority of the committee presented fifteen
additional resolutions, the first of which demanded the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one.
The convention, in order that it might consider the question as
a whole, first voted, yeas 492, nays 310, to append the minority
resolutions to those reported by the majority, and then pro-
ceeded to consider the resolutions seriatim. The first six
were adopted with unanimity. The next,1 opposing all bank
currency, and advocating the free coinage of silver, was warmly
debated, and was rejected by a vote of yeas 387, nays 427.
A motion was then made, and carried almost unanimously, to
substitute for the resolutions already adopted the following,
which became the platform of the convention : —

We, the members of the Prohibition party, in National Conven-
tion assembled, renewing our declaration of allegiance to Almighty
God as the rightful Ruler of the universe, lay down the following
as our declaration of political purpose : —

The Prohibition party, in National Convention assembled, de-
clares its firm conviction that the manufacture, exportation, im-
portation, and sale of alcoholic beverages has produced such social,
commercial, industrial, and political wrongs, and is now so threafc-
ening the perpetuity of all our social and political institutions, that
the suppression of the same, by a national party organized therefor,
is the greatest object to be accomplished by the voters of our coun-
try, and is of such importance that it of right ought to control the
political actions of all our patriotic citizens until such suppression
is accomplished.

The urgency of this course demands the union, without further
delay, of all citizens who desire the prohibition of the liquor traffic ,
therefore be it

Resolved, That we favor the legal prohibition by state and na-
tional legislation of the manufacture, importation, and sale of
alcoholic beverages. That we declare our purpose to organize and
unite all the friends of prohibition into one party, and in order to
accomplish this end we deem it of right to leave every Prohibition-
ist the freedom of his own convictions upon all other political
1 See the third resolution of the National party, p. 531.

530 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

questions, and trust our representatives to take such action upon
other political questions as the changes occasioned by prohibition
and the welfare of the whole people shall demand.

The following additional resolution was moved from the
floor and unanimously adopted ; but in order to save the con-
sistency of the " narrow gaugers," it was voted that the resolu-
tion should not be a part of the platform : —

Resolved, That the right of suffrage ought not to be abridged on
account of sex.

Immediately after the adoption of the substitute platform
and the defeat of the " broad gaugers," a delegate requested all
members of the convention who " wanted to work for human-
ity " to withdraw. Thereupon the " broad gaugers " retired
from the hall. Those who remained proceeded to make nomi-
nations. Joshua Levering, of Maryland, was chosen as the
candidate for President of the United States by acclamation.
A vote was taken for a candidate for Vice-President, and Hale
Johnson, of Illinois, was chosen. He received 309 votes, to
132 for T. C. Hughes, of Arizona.

The seceders from the Prohibition convention met in Pitts-
burg on the evening of May 28, chose Mr. A. L. Moore, of
Michigan, chairman, and proceeded to organize the " National "
party. The following platform was adopted. The six resolu-
tions of the Prohibition platform were condensed into one ; the
declaration in favor of woman suffrage was appended ; and the
other eleven " planks " were taken from the report of the
minority of the platform committee of the Prohibition con-
vention : —

The National party, recognizing God as the author of all just
power in government, presents the following declaration of prin-
ciples, which it pledges itself to enact into effective legislation
when given the power to do so : —

1. The suppression of the manufacture and sale, importation,
exportation, and transportation of intoxicating liquors for bever-
age purposes. We utterly reject all plans for regulating or com-
promising with this traffic, whether such plans be called local
option, taxation, license, or public control. The sale of liquors
for medicinal and other legitimate uses should be conducted by
the State, without profit, and with such regulations as will pre-
vent fraud or evasion.

2. No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of
sex.

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 531

3. All money should be issued by the general government only,
and without the intervention of any private citizen, corporation,
or banking institution. It should be based upon the wealth, sta-
bility, and integrity of the nation. It should be a full legal ten-
der for all debts, public and private, and should be of sufficient
volume to meet the demands of the legitimate business interests
of the country. For the purpose of honestly liquidating our out-
standing coin obligations, we favor the free and unlimited coinage
of both silver and gold, at the ratio of 16 to 1, without consulting
any other nation.

4. Land is the common heritage of the people and should be
preserved from monopoly and speculation. All unearned grants
of land subject to forfeiture should be reclaimed by the govern-
ment, and no portion of the public domain should hereafter be
granted except to actual settlers, continuous use being essential
to tenure.

5. Railroads, telegraphs, and other natural monopolies should
be owned and operated by the government, giving to the people
the benefit of service at actual cost.

6. The national Constitution should be so amended as to allow
the national revenues to be raised by equitable adjustment of
taxation on the properties and incomes of the people, and import
duties should be levied as a means of securing equitable commer-
cial relations with other nations.

7. The contract convict labor system, through which speculators
are enriched at the expense of the State, should be abolished.

8. All citizens should be protected by law in their right to one
day of rest in seven, without oppressing any who conscientiously
observe any other than the first day of the week.

9. The American public schools, taught in the English lan-
guage, should be maintained, and no public funds should be ap-
propriated for sectarian institutions.

10. The President, Vice-President, and United States senators
should be elected by direct vote of the people.

11. Ex-soldiers and sailors of the United States army and navy,
their widows and minor children, should receive liberal pensions,
graded on disability and term of service, not merely as a debt of
gratitude, but for service rendered in the preservation of the
Union.

12. Our immigration laws should be so revised as to exclude
paupers and criminals. None but citizens of the United States
should be allowed to vote in any State, and naturalized citizens
should not vote until one year after naturalization papers have
been issued.

13. The initiative and referendum, and proportional represen-
tation, should be adopted.

532 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

The Rev. Charles E. Bentley, of Nebraska, was nominated
by acclamation for President of the United States ; and James
H. Southgate, of North Carolina, for Vice-President. Repre-
sentatives of twenty -seven States took part in the convention.
A roll-call showed the presence of 299 seceding delegates
accredited to the Prohibition convention. All the proceed-
ings of this assembly were completed at a single sitting, which
lasted until the dawn of May 29.

The Republican convention met at St. Louis on June 16.
The nomination of Major McKinley was a foregone conclu-
sion ; but the formation of the platform excited the most in-
tense interest among the delegates and throughout the country.
The complete victory of the Free Silver wing of the Demo-
cratic party in the choice of delegates to the convention soon
to assemble, and the determination expressed by its leaders to
declare for free coinage in the most radical terms, placed be-
fore the Republican politicians for solution a puzzling problem.
Should they try to evade the issue about to be set forth by
their enemies, and endeavor to make the canvass on the tariff
issue ? Or should they boldly anticipate the new issue and
declare against free coinage and in favor of the gold standard ?
A small but compact and persistent group of delegates from
the extreme West urged a third course, namely, a declaration
in favor of free coinage ; but that was manifestly out of the
question, since a vast majority of the leaders and of those
whom they represented was unalterably opposed to that policy.

The advocates of a timorous policy were defeated in the first
preliminary skirmish. Two facts which were set forth most
clearly convinced a great majority of the convention that there
was nothing to be gained and much to be lost by a " straddle,"
— the first, that such a course would not pacify the Free Silver
delegates or keep them in the convention ; and the second, that
the advocates of the policy of saying plainly what almost all
the delegates except those from the " Silver States " thought,
would carry the contest into the convention if they were de-
feated in the committee. In these circumstances most of the
opposition to the insertion of the word " gold " in the platform
ceased. Even the phraseology of the resolution, which was
afterward changed but slightly, was agreed upon and published.

Nevertheless, after the convention met and organized, by
the choice of Mr. Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, as tem-
porary chairman, and Mr. John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, as

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 533

permanent president, the contest was renewed in the committee
on resolutions. It was not until the third day of the session,
June 18, that the platform was reported, as follows ': —

The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their repre-
sentatives in national convention, appealing for the popular and
historical justification of their claims to the matchless achieve-
ments of the thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and confi-
dently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience,
and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration
of facts and principles : —

For the first time since the Civil War the American people have
witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted
Democratic control of the government. It has been a record of
unparalleled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster. In administrative
management it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue,
entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses
with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in
time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual
menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American
credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results
of successful Republican rule.

In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, blighted
industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed factories, re-
duced work and wages, halted enterprise, and crippled American
production while stimulating foreign production for the American
market. Every consideration of public safety and individual
interest demands that the government shall be rescued from the
hands of those who have shown themselves incapable of conduct-
ing it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and shall
be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it
with unequalled success and prosperity, and in this connection we
heartily indorse the wisdom, the patriotism, and the success of the
administration of President Harrison.

We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of pro-
tection as the bulwark of American industrial independence and
the foundation of American development and prosperity. This
true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home
industry ; it puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods ; it se-
cures the American market for the American producer ; it upholds
the American standard of wages for the American workingman ;
it puts the factory by the side of the farm, and makes the Ameri-
can farmer less dependent on foreign demand and price ; it diffuses
general thrift, and founds the strength of all on the strength of
each. In its reasonable application it is just, fair, and impartial,

534 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

equally opposed to foreign control and domestic monopoly, to sec*
tional discrimination and individual favoritism.

We denounce the present Democratic tariff as sectional, inju-
rious to the public credit, and destructive to business enterprise.
We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign imports which
come into competition with American products as will not only
furnish adequate revenue for the necessary expenses of the govern-
ment, but will protect American labor from degradation to the
wage level of other lands. We are not pledged to any particular
schedules. The question of rates is a practical question, to ba
governed by the conditions of the time and of production ; the
ruling and uncompromising principle is the protection and devel-
opment of American labor and industry. The country demands
a right settlement, and then it wants rest.

We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangements negotiated
by the last Republican administration was a national calamity,
and we demand their renewal and extension on such terms as
will equalize our trade with other nations, remove the restrictions
which now obstruct the sale of American products in the ports of
other countries, and secure enlarged markets for the products of
our farms, forests, and factories.

Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of Republican
policy and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly
struck down both, and both must be reestablished. Protection
for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of life
which we do not produce ; reciprocity agreements of mutual in-
terests which gain open markets for us in return for our open
market to others. Protection builds up domestic industry and
trade, and secures our own market for ourselves; reciprocity
builds up foreign trade and finds an outlet for our surplus.

We condemn the present administration for not keeping faith
with the sugar-producers of this country. The Republican party
favors such protection as will lead to the production on American
soil of all the sugar which the American people use, and for which
they pay other countries more than $100,000,000 annually.

To all our products — to those of the mine and the fields, as
well as those of the shop and factory ; to hemp, to wool, the pro-
duct of the great industry of sheep husbandry, as wTell as to the
finished woollens of the mills — we promise the most ample pro-
tection.

We favor restoring the early American policy of discriminating
duties for the upbuilding of our merchant marine and the pro-
tection of our shipping in the foreign carrying trade, so that
American ships — the product of American labor, employed in
American shipyards, sailing under the stars and stripes, and

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN - 535

manned, officered, and owned by Americans — may regain the
carrying of our foreign commerce.

The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It
caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of
specie payments in 1879 ; since then every dollar has been as good
as gold.

We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to de-
base our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are,
therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by inter-
national agreement with the leading commercial nations of the
world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such
agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be
preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained
at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to main-
tain inviolably the obligations of the United States and all our
money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the stand-
ard of the most enlightened nations of the earth.

The veterans of the Union armies deserve and should receive
fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable
they should be given the preference in the matter of employment,
and they are entitled to the enactment of such laws as are best
calculated to secure the fulfilment of the pledges made to them
in the dark days of the country's peril. We denounce the practice
in the Pension Bureau, so recklessly and unjustly carried on by
the present administration, of reducing pensions and arbitrarily
dropping names from the rolls, as deserving the severest condem-
nation of the American people.

Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, vigorous, and
dignified, and all our interests in the Western hemisphere care-
fully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian islands should be
controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should be
permitted to interfere with them ; the Nicaragua Canal should
be built, owned and operated by the United States ; and by the
purchase of the Danish islands we should secure a proper and
much-needed naval station in the West Indies.

The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy
and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that
the United States should exercise all the influence it can properly
exert to bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey, American
residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers and American
property destroyed. There and everywhere American citizens and
American property must be absolutely protected at all hazards
and at any cost.

We reassert the Monroe doctrine in its full extent, and we re-
affirm the right of the United States to give the doctrine effect

536 - A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by responding to the appeal of any American State for friendly
intervention in case of European encroachment. We have not
interfered and shall not interefere with the existing possessions
of any European power in this hemisphere, but those possessions
must not on any pretext be extended. We hopefully look forward
to the eventual withdrawal of the European powers from this
hemisphere, and to the ultimate' union of all English-speaking
parts of the continent by the free consent of its inhabitants.

From the hour of achieving their own independence, the people
of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles
of other American people to free themselves from European domi-
nation. We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic bat-
tle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and oppression, and our
best hopes go out for the full success of their determined contest
for liberty.

The government of Spain, having lost control of Cuba, and
being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American
citizens, or to comply with its treaty obligations, we believe that
the government of the United States should actively use its influ-
ence and good offices to restore peace and give independence to
the island.

The peace and security of the republic and the maintenance of
its rightful influence among the nations of the earth demand a
naval power commensurate with its position and responsibility.
We therefore favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a
complete system of harbor and seacoast defences.

For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship
and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition
of low-priced labor, we demand that the immigration laws be
thoroughly enforced, and so extended as to exclude from entrance
to the United States those who can neither read nor write.

The civil-service law was placed on the statute book by the
Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew
our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly
enforced and extended wherever practicable.

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be
allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such
ballot shall be counted and returned as cast.

We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized
and barbarous practice, well known as lynching, or killing of
human beings suspected or charged with crime, without process
of law.

We favor the creation of a national Board of Arbitration to
settle and adjust differences which may arise between employers
and employees engaged in interstate commerce.

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 537

We believe in an immediate return to the free-homestead policy
of the Republican party, and urge the passage by Congress of a
satisfactory free-homestead measure such as has already passed
the House, and is now pending in the Senate.

We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the
earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests of
the people of the Territories and of the United States. All the
Federal officers appointed for the Territories should be selected
from bond fide residents thereof, and the right of self-government
should be accorded as far as practicable.

We believe the citizens of Alaska should have representation in
the Congress of the United States, to the end that needful legisla-
tion may be intelligently enacted.

We sympathize with all wrise and legitimate efforts to lessen
and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality.

The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of
women. Protection of American industries includes equal oppor-
tunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home.
We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness,
and welcome their cooperation in rescuing the country from Dem-
ocratic and Populist mismanagement and misrule.

Such are the principles and policies of the Republican party.
By these principles we will abide and these policies we will put
into execution. We ask for them the considerate judgment of the
American people. Confident alike in the history of our great
party and in the justice of our cause, we present our platform and
our candidates in the full assurance that the election will bring
victory to the Republican party and prosperity to the people of the
United States.

Immediately after the reading of the platform Senator
Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, the leader of the Silver forces,
took the floor, and in behalf of a minority of the Committee
on Resolutions offered the following as a substitute for the
declaration in the platform on the subject of currency and
coinage : —

The Republican party favors the use of both gold and silver as
equal standard money, and pledges its power to secure the free,
unrestricted, and independent coinage of gold and silver at our
mints at the ratio of sixteen parts of silver to one of gold.

Mr. Teller pleaded for his substitute in an earnest speech,
which virtually recognized the impending defeat of the motion,
au.d left no doubt that an adverse vote would be followed by the
withdrawal of himself and his associates from the convention.

538 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

At the close of his speech a motion to lay the substitute on
the table, which was equivalent to rejecting it, was carried by
818£ ayes to 105|- noes. Sixty-seven of the negative votes
were given by delegates from States west of the Missouri
River; 33.} by delegates from Southern States; and five by dele-
gates from the Middle West. A separate vote was then taken
on the adoption of the financial plank reported by the majority.
The result was : ayes 812^, noes 110^. The rest of the plat-
form was adopted by acclamation and with unanimity. Mr.
Frank Cannon, United States Senator from Utah, then read a
carefully prepared protest signed by many members of the Sil-
ver wing of the party, after which thirty-four members of the
convention, including four United States senators and two
representatives in Congress, with Mr. Teller at their head, sol-
emnly withdrew from the convention.

William McKinley, of Ohio, was nominated as the candidate
for President on the first vote, which resulted as follows : —

Whole number of votes 906

Necessary for a choice 453£

William McKinley, Ohio 661£

Thomas B. Reed, Maine 84£

Matthew S. Quay, Pennsylvania 61£

Levi P. Morton, New York 58

William B. Allison, Iowa 35£

J. Donald Cameron, Pennsylvania 1

Blank 4

Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey, was nominated as the
candidate for Vice-President by the following vote: —

Whole number of votes 895

Necessary for a choice 448

Garret A. Hobart, New Jersey 535^

Henry Clay Evans, Tennessee 277£

Morgan G. Bulkeley, Connecticut 39

James A. Walker, Virginia 24

Charles W. Lippitt, Rhode Island 8

Thomas B. Reed, Maine 3

Chauncey M. Depew, New York 3

John M. Thurston, Nebraska 2

Frederick D. Grant, New York 2

Levi P. Morton, New York 1

The Socialist Labor party held a convention in New Yoric
city, beginning on the 4th of July and continuing for six days.

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 539

Inasmuch as the Democratic convention was close at hand, the
newspapers paid but slight attention to its proceedings. No
exact statement can be made as to the number of members, or
the States from which they came. The following platform
was adopted : —

The Socialist Labor party of the United States, in convention
assembled, reasserts the inalienable right of all men to life, lib-
erty, and the pursuit of happiness.

With the founders of the American republic, we hold that the
purpose of government is to secure every citizen in the enjoyment
of this right ; but in the light of our social conditions, we hold,
furthermore, that no such right can be exercised under a system
of economic inequality, essentially destructive of life, of liberty,
and of happiness.

With the founders of this republic, we hold that the true theory
of politics is that the machinery of government must be owned
and controlled by the whole people ; but in the light of our indus-
trial development we hold, furthermore, that the true theory of
economics is that the machinery of production must likewise
belong to the people in common.

To the obvious fact, that our despotic system of economics is the
direct opposite of our democratic system of politics, can plainly be
traced the existence of a privileged class, the corruption of gov-
ernment by that class, the alienation of public property, public
franchises, and public functions to that class, and the abject de-
pendence of the mightiest nations upon that class.

Again, through the perversion of democracy to the ends of plu-
tocracy, labor is robbed of the wealth which it alone produces, is
denied the means of self -employment, and, by compulsory idleness
in wage slavery, is even deprived of the necessaries of life. Human
power and natural forces are thus wasted that the plutocracy may
rule. Ignorance and misery, with all their concomitant evils, are
perpetuated, that the people may be kept in bondage. Science
and invention are diverted from their humane purpose to the
enslavement of women and children.

Against such a system the Socialist Labor party once more
enters its protest. Once more it reiterates its fundamental decla-
ration, that private property in the natural sources of production
and in the instruments of labor is the obvious cause of all eco-
nomic servitude and political dependence.

The time is fast coming when, in the natural course of social
evolution, this system, through the destructive action of its fail-
ures and crises on the one hand, and the constructive tendencies
of its trusts and other capitalistic combinations on the other hand,
shall nave worked out its own downfall.

540 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

We therefore call upon the wage-workers of the United States,
and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under the banner
of the Socialist Labor party into a class-conscious body, aware of
its rights and determined to conquer them by taking possession
of the public powers; so that, held together by an indomitable
spirit of solidarity under the most trying conditions of the present
class struggle, we may put a summary end to that barbarous
struggle by the abolition of classes, the restoration of the land,
and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribu-
tion to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of
the cooperative commonwealth for the present state of planless
production, industrial war, and social disorder ; a commonwealth
in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit
of his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization.

With a view to immediate improvement in the condition of
labor we present the following demands : —

1. Reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to the progress
of production.

2. The United States to obtain possession of the mines, rail-
roads, canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means of public
transportation and communication ; the employees to operate the
same cooperatively under control of the federal government and
to elect their own superior officers, but no employee shall be dis-
charged for political reasons.

3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads,
ferries, water-works, gas-works, electric plants, and all industries
requiring municipal franchises ; the employees to operate the same
cooperatively under control of the municipal administration and
to elect their own superior officers, but no employee shall be dis-
charged for political reasons.

4. The public lands to be declared inalienable. Revocation of
all land grants to corporations or individuals, the conditions of
which have not been complied with.

5. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money.

6. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific manage-
ment of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste of the
natural resources of the country.

7. Inventions to be free to all ; the inventors to be remunerated
by the nation.

8. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances ; the smaller
incomes to be exempt.

9. School education of all children under fourteen years of age
to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by public assist-
ance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where necessary.

10. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary
laws. Unabridged right of combination.

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 541

11. Prohibition of the employment of children of school age,
and the employment of female labor in occupations detrimental
to health or morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract
system.

12. Employment of the unemployed by the public authorities
(county, city, state, and nation).

13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States.
Equalization of women's wages with those of men where equal
service is performed.

J 14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations,
and an efficient employers' liability law.

15. The people to have the right to propose laws and to vote
upon all measures of importance, according to the referendum
principle.

16. Abolition of the veto power of the executive (national,
state, and municipal) wherever it exists.

17. Abolition of the United States Senate and all upper legisla-
tive chambers.

18. Municipal self-government.

19. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections. Universal
and equal right of suffrage without regard to color, creed, or sex.
Election days to be legal holidays. The principle of proportional
representation to be introduced.

20. All public officers to be subject to recall by their respective
constituencies.

21. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United States.
Administration of justice to be free of charge. Abolition of capi-
tal punishment.

On the sixth day of the session, July 9, the convention
made its nominations. It is reported that there was a serious
— in the sense of sober, it is to be presumed, as well as in
the sense of active — contest for the nomination for Pre-
sident ; not that either of the candidates expected to be
elected, but because the victory of the party not later than
the year 1925 was confidently expected, and it was to be an
honor to be the standard-bearer of the party in 1896. Mr.
Charles H. Matchett, of New York, was nominated, receiving
43 votes to 23 for Matthew Maguire, of New Jersey, and 4 for
William Watkins, of Ohio. Matthew Maguire, of New Jersey,
was nominated by acclamation for Vice-President.

The result of the Republican convention intensified public
interest in the Democratic national convention, which met at
Chicago on July 7. The explicit declaration at St. Louis in
favor of the gold standard strengthened the position of the

542 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

Silver wing of the Democratic party, which, having a sufficient
majority of the delegates, intended in any event to use its
power to the utmost. Meanwhile the control of the national
committee was in the hands of the anti-Silver wing, and most
of the " old-liners " of the North and West were on the same-
side. A strenuous effort was determined on to prevent, if
possible, the adoption of a free-coinage resolution. All the
arts known to politicians weie resorted to ; as the event proved,
without avail. The national committee proposed as temporary
chairman Senator David Bf Hill, of New York. His election
was challenged on the f/oor of the convention, and after a
heated debate Senator John W. Daniel, of Virginia, the can-
didate of the Free Silver men, was chosen in his stead by a
vote of 556 to 349. JL)n this, as on most other votes in the
convention, the unit rale was observed ; that is, the majority
of a state delegation/cast the whole vote of the State for or
against a motion, or /or a particular candidate. On the second
day of the session /he Silver forces were augmented by three
changes in the membership proposed in the report of the Com-
mittee on Credentials : (1) the representation of each Terri-
tory was increas/d from two members to six ; (2) the Gold
Standard delegation from Nebraska was unseated and a dele-
gation favorable to Silver, headed by Mr. William J. Bryan,
was admitted ; and (3) four Silver delegates were substituted
for four Gold delegates from Michigan, which gave the Silver
party the qontrol of the twenty-eight votes of that State.
After these changes' had been made, Senator Stephen M.
White, of /California, was made permanent president of the.
convention.

On the third day of the session the platform was reported
as folloyfe : —

We, |he Democrats of the United States in national convention
assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential
principles of justice and liberty, upon which our institutions are
founded, and which the Democratic party has advocated from
Jefferson's time to our own, — freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, freedom of conscience, the preservation of personal rights,
the equality of all citizens before the law, and the faithful obser-
vance of constitutional limitations.

I During all these years the Democratic party has resisted the
tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental
puwer, and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 543

scheme of government established by the founders of this repub-
lic of republics. Under its guidance and teachings, the great
principle of local self-government has found its best expression
in the maintenance of the rights of the States, and in its assertion
of the necessity of confining the general government to the exer-
cise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United
States.

The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every cit-
izen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic
party has always been the exponent of political liberty and re-
ligious freedom, and it renews its obligations and reaffirms its
devotion to these fundamental principles of the Constitution.

Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others
at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the federal Con-
stitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of
the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress
under the Constitution made the silver dollar the money unit, and
admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver dol-
lar unit.

We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without
the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted in
the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of
commodities produced by the people ; a heavy increase in the bur-
den of taxation and of all debts, public and private ; the enrich-
ment of the money-lending class at home and abroad ; the prostra-
tion of industry and impoverishment of the people.

We are unalterably opposed to monometallism, which has locked
fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard
times. Gold monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption
has brought other nations into financial servitude to London. It
is not only un-American, but an ti- American, and it can be fas-
tened on the United States only by the stifling of that spirit and
love of liberty which proclaimed our political independence in
."776 and won it in the war of the Revolution.

We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and
gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one without waiting
for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the
standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally with
gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legisla-
tion as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind
of legal tender money by private contract.

We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to
the holders of the obligations of the United States the option
reserved by law to the government of redeeming such obligations
in either silver coin or gold coin.

644 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the
United States in time of peace, and condemn the trafficking with
banking syndicates, which, in exchange for bonds and at enor-
mous profit to themselves, supply the federal treasury with gold
to maintain the policy of gold monometallism.

Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and
President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated
to corporations or individuals. We therefore denounce the issu-
ance of notes intended to circulate as money by national banks as
in derogation of the Constitution, and we demand that all paper
which is made a legal tender for public and private debts, or which
is receivable for duties to the United States, shall be issued by the
government of the United States and shall be redeemable in coin.

We hold that tariff duties should be levied for purposes of reve-
nue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally through-
out the country, and not discriminate between class or section, and
that taxation should be limited by the needs of the government
honestly and economically administered.

We denounce as disturbing to business the Republican threat
to restore the McKinley law, which has twice been condemned by
the people in national elections, and which, enacted under the
false plea of protection to home industry, proved a prolific breeder
of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the expense of the
many, restricted trade, and deprived the producers of the great
American staples of access to their natural markets.

Until the money question is settled we are opposed to any agi-
tation for further changes in our tariff laws, except such as are
necessary to meet the deficit in revenue caused by the adverse
decision of the Supreme Court on the income tax. But for this
decision by the Supreme Court, there would be no deficit in the
revenue under the law passed by a Democratic Congress in strict
pursuance of the uniform decisions of that court for nearly one
hundred years, that court having in that decision sustained con-
stitutional objections to its enactment which had previously been
overruled by the ablest judges who have ever sat on that bench.
We declare that it is the duty of Congress to use all the constitu-
tional power which remains after that decision, or which may
come from its reversal by the court as it may hereafter be con-
stituted, so that the burdens of taxation may be equally and im-
partially laid, to the end that wealth may bear its due proportion
of the expenses of the government.

We hold that the most efficient way of protecting American
labor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to
compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the
home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 545

reduced by a vicious monetary system which depresses the prices
of their products below the cost of production, and thus deprives
them of the means of purchasing the products of our home manu-
factories ; and, as labor creates the wealth of the country, we
demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary to protect
it in all its rights.

We are in favor of the arbitration of differences between em-
ployers engaged in interstate commerce and their employees, and
recommend such legislation as is necessary to carry out this prin-
ciple.

The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our
leading railroad systems, and the formation of trusts and pools
require a stricter control by the federal government of those arter-
ies of commerce. We demand the enlargement of the powers
of the interstate commerce commission, and such restrictions and
guarantees in the control of railroads as will protect the people
from robbery and oppression.

We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from
the people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations
of recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high,
while the labor that pays them is unemployed and the products
of the people's toil are depressed in price till they no longer re-
pay the cost of production. We demand a return to that simplicity
and economy which befits a democratic government and a reduc-
tion in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain
the substance of the people.

We denounce arbitrary interference by federal authorities in
local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States
and a crime against free institutions, and we especially object to
government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of
oppression by which federal judges, in contempt of the laws of
the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges,
and executioners ; and we approve the bill passed at the last ses-
sion of the United States Senate, and now pending in the House
of Representatives, relative to contempts in federal courts and
providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt.

No discrimination should be indulged in by the government of
the United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of
the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific Railroad
funding bill, and denounce the effort of the present Republican
Congress to enact a similar measure.

Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we
heartily indorse the rule of the present Commissioner of Pensions,
that no name shall be arbitrarily dropped from the pension roll;
and the fact of enlistment and service should be deemed conclusive
evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.

546 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico,
Arizona, and Oklahoma into the Union as States, and we favor
the early admission of all the Territories having the necessary
population and resources to entitle them to statehood, and, while
they remain Territories, we hold that the officials appointed to
administer the government of any Territory, together with the
District of Columbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of
the Territory or District in which the duties are to be performed.
The Democratic party believes in home rule, and that all public
lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establish-
ment of free homes for American citizens.

We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a dele-
gate in Congress, and that the general land and timber laws of
the United States be extended to said Territory.

The Monroe doctrine, as originally declared and as interpreted
by succeeding Presidents, is a permanent part of the foreign pol-
icy of the United States, and must at all times be maintained.

We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic
struggle for liberty and independence.

We are opposed to life tenure in the public service, except as
provided in the Constitution. We favor appointments based upon
merit, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the
civil service laws as will afford equal opportunities to all citizens
of ascertained fitness.

We declare it to be the unwritten law of this republic, estab-
lished by custom and usage of a hundred years, and sanctioned
by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded
and have maintained our government, that no man should be
eligible for a third term of the presidential office.

The federal government should care for and improve the Mis-
sissippi River and other great waterways of the republic, so as to
secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide-
water. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient impor-
tance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be ex-
tended upon a definite plan of continuous work until permanent
improvement is secured.

Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of its
success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of prin-
ciples and purposes to the considerate judgment of the American
people. We invite the support of all citizens who approve them,
and who desire to have them made effective, through legislation,
for the relief of the people and the restoration of the country's
prosperity.

A minority of the Committee on Resolutions, consisting of
the members from sixteen States, submitted a dissenting report,

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 547

expressing their inability to give their assent to " many declara-
tions " of the platform. " Some are ill-considered and ambig-
uously phrased, while others are extreme and revolutionary of
the well-recognized principles of the party." They offered two
amendments, the first a substitute for the financial plank, as
follows : —

We declare our belief that the experiment on the part of the
United States alone of free silver coinage and a change in the
existing standard of value, independently of the action of other
great nations, would not only imperil our finances, but would
retard, or entirely prevent, the establishment of international
bimetallism, to which the efforts of the government should be
steadily directed.

It would place this country at once upon a silver basis, impair
contracts, disturb business, diminish the purchasing power of the
wages of labor, and inflict irreparable evils upon our nation's com-
merce and industry.

Until international cooperation among leading nations for the
coinage of silver can be secured, we favor the rigid maintenance
of the existing gold standard as essential to the preservation of
our national credit, the redemption Of our public pledges, and the
keeping inviolate of our country's honor.

We insist that all our paper currency shall be kept at a parity
with gold. The Democratic party is the party of hard money,
and is opposed to legal tender paper money as a part of our per-
manent financial system, and we therefore favor the gradual re-
tirement and cancellation of all United States notes and treasury
notes, under such legislative provisions as will prevent undue con-
traction.

We demand that the national credit shall be resolutely main-
tained at all times and under all circumstances.

The other resolution was offered as an addition to the plat-
form : —

We commend the honesty, economy, courage, and fidelity of the
present Democratic administration.

A most earnest debate ensued upon the Free Silver policy,
the most dramatic and interesting event of which was an im-
passioned speech by Mr. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska.
This gentleman excited the Silver men to the highest pitch
of enthusiasm by his oratory, and at once leaped into promi-
nence as a presidential candidate. Indeed, it was believed
that, if a vote had been taken on that day, he would have been
nominated almost by acclamation. The financial plank offered

548 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

by the minority was rejected by ayes 303, noes 626 ; and the
resolution commendatory of President Cleveland's administra-
tion was defeated by ayes 357, noes 564. In all the votes
thus far reported, the minority consisted of the members from
New England, — except a few from Maine and Massachusetts,
— the coast States as far south as Maryland, and the delegates
from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Senator Hill
had offered, in addition to the amendments proposed by the
minority of the committee, two other amendments. The first
proposed to insert at the end of the clause opposing " the
demonetization of any kind of legal tender money by private
contract " the following proviso : —

But it should be carefully provided by law at the same time
that any change in the monetary standard should not apply to
existing contracts.

The other amendment was to add at the end of the finan-
cial plank the following pledge : —

Our advocacy of the independent free coinage of silver being
based on the belief that such coinage will effect and maintain
a parity between gold and silver at the ratio of sixteen to one, we
declare as a pledge of our sincerity that, if such free coinage shall
fail to effect such parity within one year from its enactment by
law, such coinage shall thereupon be suspended.

Both of these amendments were rejected without a division,
and the platform as a whole, unamended, was then adopted by
yeas 628, nays 301.

The overwhelming victory of the Silver wing of the party
made it certain that the defeated minority would be unable to
prevent a nomination under the two-thirds rule always gov-
erning Democratic conventions. The delegates who had con-
tended so earnestly against the adoption of the free coinage
plank were for the most part not men to yield their convic-
tions because they had been outvoted. They did not with-
draw from the convention, but on every convenient occasion
they reiterated their determination not to accept the platform
adopted, and not to take part in the nomination of candidates.
On the first vote for a candidate for President, 178 delegates
refused to be recorded, including the entire delegations of three
States. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for
President on the fifth vote. The successive trials resulted as
follows : —

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN

549

Whole number of votes

Necessary for a choice (two thirds) . .
William J. Bryan, Nebraska ....

Richard P. Bland, Missouri

Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania . .

Horace Boies, Iowa

Joseph S. C. Blackburn, Kentucky . .

John R. McLean, Ohio

Claude Matthews, Indiana

Benjamin R. Tillman, South Carolina .
Sylvester Pennoyer, Oregon ....

Henry M. Teller, Colorado

Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois ....
William E. Russell, Massachusetts . .

James E. Campbell, Ohio

David B. Hill, New York

David Turpie, Indiana

Not voting

1st.

2d.

3d.

4th.

752

768

769

502

512

513

119

190

219

280

235

283

291

241

100

1
1

' -

178

162

5th.

512

500

106

The fifth vote, it will be seen, left Mr. Bryan twelve votes
short of a nomination. After the roll-call was completed and
before the result was announced, 78 delegates who had sup-
ported other candidates transferred their votes to Mr. Bryan
and gave him the nomination. Arthur Sewall, of Maine, was
nominated for Vice-President. Five trials were necessary to
effect this nomination. They resulted as follows : —

Whole number of votes ....
Necessary for a choice (two thirds)

Arthur Sewall, Maine

Joseph C. Sibley, Pennsylvania .
John R. McLean, Ohio ....
Oeorge F. Williams, Massachusetts
Richard P. Bland, Missouri . . .
Walter A. Clark, North Carolina .
John R. Williams, Illinois . . .
William F. Harrity, Pennsylvania

Horace Boies, Iowa

Joseph S. C. Blackburn, Kentucky
John W. Daniel, Virginia . . .
James H. Lewis, Washington . .
Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania
Henry M. Teller, Colorado . . .
Stephen M. White, California . .
George W. Fithian, Illinois . . .
Not voting

1st.

670
447
100
163
111
76

675
450

37
113
158

255

675
450
97
50
210
15

255

677
452
261

253

5th.

453
568

32
9

251

It long had been evident that this canvass was to witness
an unexampled shifting of the line between parties. In those
parts of the country where the silver idea was almost univer-
sally dominant, there had been an instant bolt of Republicans

550 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

from the platform of the St. Louis convention. And now a
revolt of Democrats set in, not only greater in extent than any
other in the history of American politics, but distinctly unlike
all others. Many of the oldest and most consistent Democra-
tic journals proclaimed in emphatic terms their determination
not to continue their support of the party, and not a few of
them boldly advocated the election of Mr. McKinley. The
dissension extended to all parts of the country ; and, although
it was most pronounced in the Eastern section, it was so wide-
spread that even in Kentucky, where the victory of the Silver
wing had virtually enabled that faction to carry its point in
the national convention, there was at the beginning of the can-
vass not one daily newspaper that advocated the election of
Mr. Bryan. At first, — so strong and aggressive were the
opponents of platform and candidates within the party, — it
was said openly by the leaders that in certain of the Eastern
States no electors would even be nominated by the Democrats.
The modification of this situation belongs to a later stage of
the canvass.

The next conventions in point of time were those of the
People's party, commonly called the Populists, and of the
Silver party, both of which met at St. Louis on July 22. If
the Chicago convention had driven out of the Democratic party
thousands of its oldest members and leaders, it had made easy
the cobperation of other thousands of Populists; indeed, in
the view of many of the leaders of the party, the principles of
the Populists were most effectively to be promoted by accept-
ing the candidates nominated at Chicago. Yet there was an
earnest faction of the party which deprecated alliance or asso-
ciation with any other organization. The picturesque term
" Middle-of-the-road men " was applied to and adopted by
them, as indicating the independent course between the two
old historic parties which they thought it judicious to take.
The acceptance of the Democratic ticket involved the support
of Mr. Sewall as the candidate for Vice-President, — a nomina-
tion which was especially obnoxious to them. The conven-
tion organized by the choice of Senator Marion C. Butler, of
North Carolina, as temporary chairman. Senator William V.
Allen, of Nebraska, was the permanent president. A test of
strength between the " Middle-of-the-road " Populists and
those who were favorable to an alliance with the Democrats
was made upon an amendment offered to the report of the

THE FREE SILYER CAMPAIGN 551

Committee on Rules. The Middle-of-the-road wing proposed
that the usual order of proceeding should be reversed, and that
a candidate for Vice-President be nominated before the can-
didate for President. The motion was carried by ayes 785,
noes 615. The platform was reported on July 24, as fol-
lows : —

The People's party, assembled in national convention, reaffirms
its allegiance to the principles declared by the founders of the re-
public, and also to the fundamental principles of just government
as enunciated in the platform of the party in 1892.

We recognize that through the connivance of the present and
preceding administrations the country has reached a crisis in its
national life as predicted in our declaration four years ago, and
that prompt and patriotic action is the supreme duty of the hour.
We realize that while we have political independence our financial
and industrial independence is yet to be attained by restoring to
our country the constitutional control and exercise of the func-
tions necessary to a people's government, which functions have
been basely surrendered by our public servants to corporate mo-
nopolies. The influence of European money-changers has been
more potent in shaping legislation than the voice of the American
people. Executive power and patronage have been used to cor-
rupt our legislatures and defeat the will of the people, and plu-
tocracy has been enthroned upon the ruins of democracy. To
restore the government intended by the fathers and for the wel-
fare and prosperity of this and future generations, we demand the
establishment of an economic and financial system which shall
make us masters of our own affairs, and independent of European
control, by the adoption of the following declaration of princi-
ples : —

FINANCE.

1. We demand a national money, safe and sound, issued by the
general government only, without the intervention of banks of
issue, to be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private ; a
just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to the
people and through the lawful disbursements of the government.

2. We demand the free and unrestricted coinage of silver and
gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without waiting
for the consent of foreign nations.

' 3. We demand that the volume of circulating medium be
speedily increased to an amount sufficient to meet the demands
of business and population and to restore the just level of prices
of labor and production.

552 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

4. We denounce the sale of bonds and the increase of the
interest-bearing debt made by the present administration as un-
necessary and without authority of law, and demand that no more
bonds be issued except by specific act of Congress.

5. We demand such legislation as will prevent the demonetiza-
tion of the lawful money of the United States by private contract.

6. We demand that the government, in payment of its obliga-
tions, shall use its option as to the kind of lawful money in which
they are to be paid, and we denounce the present and preceding
administrations for surrendering this option to the holders of
government obligations.

7. We demand a graduated income tax, to the end that aggre-
gated wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation ; and we
regard the recent decision of the Supreme Court relative to the
income tax law as a misinterpretation of the Constitution, and an
invasion of the rightful powers of Congress over the subject of
taxation.

8. We demand that postal savings banks be established by the
government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people and
to facilitate exchange.

TK ANSPORT ATION.

1. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public ne-
cessity, government should own and operate the railroads in the
interests of the people and on a non-partisan basis, to the end that
all may be accorded the same treatment in transportation, and
that the tyranny and political power now exercised by the great
railroad corporations, which result in the impairment, if not the
destruction, of the political rights and personal liberties of the
citizen, may be destroyed. Such ownership is to be accomplished
gradually, in a manner consistent with sound public policy.

2. The interest of the United States in the public highways,
built with public moneys, and the proceeds of extensive grants of
land to the Pacific railroads should never be alienated, mortgaged,
or sold, but guarded and protected for the general welfare as pro-
vided by the laws organizing such railroads. The foreclosure of
existing liens of the United States on these roads should at once
follow default in the payment thereof by the debtor-companies ;
and at the foreclosure sales of said roads the government shall
purchase the same if it become necessary to protect its interests
therein, or if they can be purchased at a reasonable price ; and the
government shall operate said railroads as public highways for
the benefit of the whole people, and not in the interest of the few,
under suitable provisions for protection of life and property, giv-
ing to all transportation interests equal privileges and equal rates
for fares and freight.

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 553

3. We denounce the present infamous schemes for refunding
these debts, and demand that the laws now applicable thereto be
executed and administered according to their true intent and
spirit.

4. The telegraph, like the post-office system, being a necessity
for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by
the government in the interest of the people.

1. The true policy demands that national and state legislation
shall be such as will ultimately enable every prudent and industri-
ous citizen to secure a home, and therefore the lands should not
be monopolized for speculative purposes. All lands now held by
railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs
should by lawful means be reclaimed by the government and held
for actual settlers only, and subject to the right of every human
being to acquire a home upon the soil, and private land monopoly,
as well as alien ownership, should be prohibited.

2. We condemn the frauds by which the land grants to the
Pacific railroad companies have, through the connivance of the
interior department, robbed multitudes of actual bond Jide settlers
of their homes and miners of their claims, and we demand legisla-
tion by Congress which will enforce the exemption of mineral
land from such grants after as well as before the patent.

3. We demand that bond Jide settlers on all public lands be
granted free homes as provided in the national homestead law,
and that no exception be made in the case of Indian reservations
when opened for settlement, and that all lands not now patented
come under this demand.

DIRECT LEGISLATION.

We favor a system of direct legislation through the initiative
and referendum under proper constitutional safeguards.

GENERAL PROPOSITIONS.

1. We demand the election of President, Vice-President, and
United States senators by a direct vote of the people.

2. We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest sym-
pathy in their heroic struggle for political freedom and independ-
ence, and we believe the time has come when the United States,
the great republic of the world, should recognize that Cuba is and
of right ought to be, a free and independent state.

3. We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of
Columbia, and the early admission of Territories as States.

4. All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price
of labor and its products. _ JL

554 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

5. In times of great industrial depression, idle labor should be
employed on public works as far as practicable.

6. The arbitrary course of the courts in assuming to imprison
citizens for indirect contempt, and ruling by injunction, should be
prevented by proper legislation.

7. We favor just pensions for our disabled Union soldiers.

8. Believing that the elective franchise and an untrammeled
ballot are essential to a government of, for, and by the people, the
People's party condemn the wholesale system of disfranchisement
adopted in some of the States, as unrepublican and undemocratic,
and we declare it to be the duty of the several state legislatures to
take such action as will secure a full, free, and fair ballot and an
honest count.

9. While the foregoing propositions constitute the platform
upon which our party stands, and for the vindication of which its
organization will be maintained, we recognize that the great and
pressing issue of the present campaign upon which the present
presidential election will turn is the financial question, and upon
this great and specific issue between the parties we cordially invite
the aid and cooperation of all organizations and citizens agreeing
with us upon this vital question.

There were three distinct minority reports from the Com-
mittee on Resolutions, each proposing amendments to the
platform. All of them, together with several independent
motions to amend, were rejected, and the platform as printed
above was adopted.

Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, was nominated for Vice-
President on the first vote, which resulted, on the roll-call, as
follows : —

Whole number of votes 1337

Necessary for a choice 669

Thomas E. Watson, Georgia 539f

Arthur Sewall, Maine 257$-

Frank Burkett, Mississippi ......... 190f

Harry Skinner, North Carolina 142|

A. L. Mimms, Tennessee . ll8i*V

Mann Page, Virginia 89T^

After the votes of all the States were announced, numerous
changes took place, and Mr. Watson was declared nominated.
No final declaration of the actual numbers seems to have been
made.

William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for Presi-
dent. The first vote resulted as follows : —

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 555

Whole number of votes • . 1375

Necessary for a choice 698

William J. Bryan, Nebraska 1042

S. F. Norton, Illinois 321

Eugene V. Debs, Indiana 8

Ignatius Donnelly, Minnesota 3

J. S. Coxey, Ohio 1

It should be said with reference to the membership of this
convention that the representation was on a different basis
from that of the conventions of the older parties. Texas,
entitled in those conventions to 30 votes, had 103 votes in the
Populist assembly, while New York had but 36. Kansas had
92 votes, Connecticut but 6. The number of delegates was
determined by the strength of the party in state elections.

The convention of the National Silver party was held at St.
Louis on July 22, simultaneously with that of the Populists.
Frank G. Newlands, of Nevada, was the temporary chairman,
and William P. St. John, of New York, the permanent presi-
dent. No vote was taken during the session of the conven-
tion which disclosed the number of persons taking part in it,
or the States of which they were citizens. The members,
indeed, did not appear as duly accredited delegates, but rather
as individual members of the party. The platform, which
was reported on July 23, was as follows : —

The National Silver party of America, in convention assembled,
hereby adopts the following declaration of principles : —

First, the paramount issue at this time in the United States is
indisputably the money question. It is between the British gold
standard, gold bonds, and bank currency on the one side, and the
bimetallic standard, no bonds, government currency, and an Amer-
ican policy on the other.

On this issue we declare ourselves to be in favor of a distinctive
American financial system. We are unalterably opposed to the
single gold standard, and demand the immediate return to the
constitutional standard of gold and silver, by the restoration by
this government, independently of any foreign power, of the unre-
stricted coinage of both gold and silver into standard money, at
the ratio of sixteen to one, and upon terms of exact equality, as
they existed prior to 1873 ; the silver coin to be of full legal ten-
der, equally with gold, for all debts and dues, public and private ;
and we demand such legislation as will prevent for the future the
destruction of the legal tender quality of any kind of money by
private contract.

556 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

We hold that the power to control and regulate a paper currency
is inseparable from the power to coin money, and hence that all
currency intended to circulate as money should be issued, and its
volume controlled, by the general government only, and should be
a legal tender.

We are unalterably opposed to the issue by the United States of
interest-bearing bonds in time of peace, and we denounce as a
blunder worse than a crime the present treasury policy, concurred
in by a Republican House of Representatives, of plunging the
country into debt by hundreds of millions in the vain attempt to
maintain the gold standard by borrowing gold ; and we demand
the payment of all coin obligations of the United States as pro-
vided by existing laws, in either gold or silver coin, at the option
of the government, and not at the option of the creditor.

The demonetization of silver in 1873 enormously increased the
demand for gold, enhancing its purchasing power and lowering
all prices measured by that standard ; and, since that unjust and
indefensible act, the prices of American products have fallen, upon
an average, nearly fifty per cent., carrying down with them pro-
portionately the money value of all other forms of property.

Such fall of prices has destroyed the profits of legitimate indus-
try, injuring the producer for the benefit of the non-producer;
increasing the burden of the debtor, swelling the gains of the
creditor, paralyzing the productive energies of the American peo-
ple, relegating to idleness vast numbers of willing workers, send-
ing the shadows of despair into the home of the honest toiler,
filling the land with tramps and paupers, and building up colossal
fortunes at the money centres.

In the effort to maintain the gold standard the country has,
within the last two years, in a time of profound peace and plenty,
been loaded down with $262,000,000 of additional interest-bearing
debt under such circumstances as to allow a syndicate of native
and foreign bankers to realize a net profit of millions on a single
deal.

It stands confessed that the gold standard can be only upheld
by so depleting our paper currency as to force the prices of our
products below the European, and even below the Asiatic, level to
enable us to sell in foreign markets, thus aggravating the very
evils of which our people so bitterly complain, degrading Ameri-
can labor and striking at the foundations of our civilization itself.

The advocates of the gold standard persistently claim that the
yeal cause of our distress is overproduction, — that we have pro-
duced so much that it made us poor, — which implies that the
true remedy is to close the factory, abandon the farm, and throw
a multitude of people out of employment, — a doctrine that leaves

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 557

ns unnerved and disheartened, and absolutely without hope for
the future.

We affirm it to be unquestioned that there can be no such
economic paradox as overproduction, and at the same time tens
of thousands of our fellow-citizens remaining half-clothed and
half-fed, and piteously clamoring for the common necessities of
life.

Over and above all other questions of policy, we are in favor of
restoring to the people of the United States the time-honored
money of the Constitution, — gold and silver, not one but both, —
the money of Washington, and Hamilton, and Jefferson, and
Monroe, and Jackson, and Lincoln, to the end that the American
people may receive honest pay for an honest product; that the
American debtor may pay his just obligations in an honest stand-
ard, and not in a dishonest and unsound standard, appreciated
one hundred per cent, in purchasing power, and no appreciation
in debt-paying power ; and to the end, further, that silver standard
countries may be deprived of the unjust advantage they now
enjoy, in the difference in exchange between gold and silver, an
advantage which tariff legislation cannot overcome.

We therefore confidently appeal to the people of the United
States to hold in abeyance all other questions, however important
and even momentous they may appear, to sunder, if need be, all
former party ties and affiliations, and unite in one supreme effort
to free themselves and their children from the domination of the
money power, — a power more destructive than any which has
ever been fastened upon the civilized men of any race or in any
age. And upon the consummation of our desires and efforts we
invoke the aid of all patriotic American citizens, and the gracious
favor of Divine Providence.

William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for Pre-
sident, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for Vice-President. Both
nominations were made by acclamation.

Immediately after the adjournment of the Democratic con-
vention a movement was set on foot to organize into a party
those whom that convention had turned, politically, out of
doors. There were thousands of such men, who would not accept
a platform which their spokesmen at Chicago had pronounced
" extreme " and " revolutionary, " and who nevertheless felt
that it would be impossible to vote for the Republican can-
didates. The result of repeated conferences among the leaders
of this group was a delegate convention which was held at
Indianapolis on September 2. Forty-one States and three
Territories were represented. There were no delegates pre*

55S A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

sent from Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The name
of National Democratic party was adopted as a designation.
Governor Rosvvell P. Flower, of New York, was the tempo-
rary chairman, and Senator Donelson Caffery, of Louisiana,
the permanent president, of the convention. The platform,
reported September 3 and unanimously adopted, was as fol-
lows : —

This convention has assembled to uphold the principles on
which depend the honor and welfare of the American people, in
order that Democrats throughout the Union may unite their pa-
triotic efforts to avert disaster from their country and ruin from
their party.

The Democratic party is pledged to equal and exact justice to
all men, of every creed and condition ; to the largest freedom of
the individual consistent with good government; to the preser-
vation of the federal government in its constitutional vigor, and
to the support of the States in all their just rights ; to economy in
the public expenditures ; to the maintenance of the public faith
and sound money ; and it is opposed to paternalism and all class
legislation.

The declarations of the Chicago convention attack individual
freedom, the right of private contract, the independence of the
judiciary, and the authority of the President to enforce Federal
laws. They advocate a reckless attempt to increase the price of
silver by legislation, to the debasement of our monetary standard,
and threaten unlimited issues of paper money by the government.
They abandon for Republican allies the Democratic cause of tariff
reform, to court the favor of protectionists to their fiscal heresy.

In view of these and other grave departures from Democratic
principles, we cannot support the candidates of that convention
nor be bound by its acts.

The Democratic party has survived defeats, but could not sur-
vive a victory won in behalf of the doctrine and policy proclaimed
in its name at Chicago.

The conditions, however, which make possible such utterances
from a national convention are the direct result of class legisla-
tion by the Republican party. It still proclaims, as it has for
years, the power and duty of government to raise and maintain
prices by law, and it proposes no remedy for existing evils, except
oppressive and unjust taxation.

The national Democracy here convened therefore renews its
declaration of faith in Democratic principles, especially as appli-
cable to the conditions of the times. Taxation — tariff, excise, or
direct — is rightfully imposed only for public purposes, and not

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 559

for private gain. Its amount is justly measured by public expends
tures, which should be limited by scrupulous economy. The sum
derived by the Treasury from tariff and excise levies is affected by
the state of trade and volume of consumption. The amount re-
quired by the Treasury is determined by the appropriations made
by Congress. The demand of the Republican party for an increase
in tariff taxation has its pretext in the deficiency of revenue,
which has its causes in the stagnation of trade and reduced con-
sumption, due entirely to the loss of confidence that has followed
ithe Populist threat of free coinage and depreciation of our money,
and the Republican practice of extravagant appropriations beyond
the needs of good government.

We arraign and condemn the Populist conventions of Chicago
and St. Louis for their cooperation with the Republican party in
creating these conditions, which are pleaded in justification of a
heavy increase of the burdens of the people by a further resort to
protection. We therefore denounce protection and its ally, free
coinage of silver, as schemes for the personal profit of a few at
the expense of the masses, and oppose the two parties which stand
for these schemes as hostile to the people of the republic, whose
food and shelter, comfort and prosperity, are attacked by higher
taxes and depreciated money. In fine, we reaffirm the historic
Democratic doctrine of tariff for revenue only.

We demand that henceforth modern and liberal policies toward
American shipping shall take the place of our imitation of the
restricted statutes of the eighteenth century, which were long ago
abandoned by every maritime power but the United States, and
which, to the nation's humiliation, have driven American capital
and enterprise to the use of alien flags and alien crews, have made
the Stars and Stripes almost an unknown emblem in foreign
ports, and have virtually extinguished the race of American sea-
men. We oppose the pretence that discriminating duties will
promote shipping; that scheme is an invitation to commercial
warfare upon the United States, un-American in the light of our
great commercial treaties, offering no gain whatever to American
shipping, while greatly increasing oceaij freights on our agricul-
tural and manufactured products.

The experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of their
natural qualities, gold is the necessary money of the large affairs
of commerce and business, while silver is conveniently adapted to
minor transactions, and the most beneficial use of both together
can be insured only by the adoption of the former as a stand-
ard of monetary measure, and the maintenance of silver at a
parity with gold by its limited coinage under suitable safeguards
of law. Thus the largest possible enjoyment of both metals is

560 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

gained with a value universally accepted throughout the world,
which constitutes the only practical bimetallic currency, assuring
the most stable standard, and especially the best and safest money
for all who earn their livelihood by labor or the produce of hus-
bandry. They cannot suffer when paid in the best money known
to man, but are the peculiar and most defenceless victims of a
debased and fluctuating currency, which offers continual profits
to the money changer at their cost.

Realizing these truths, demonstrated by long and public incon-
venience and loss, the Democratic party, in the interests of the
masses and of equal justice to all, practically established by the
legislation of 1834 and 1853 the gold standard of monetary mea-
surement, and likewise entirely divorced the government from
banking and currency issues. To this long -established Democratic
policy we adhere, and insist upon the maintenance of the gold
standard, and of the parity therewith of every dollar issued by
the government, and are firmly opposed to the free and unlimited
coinage of silver and to the compulsory purchase of silver bullion.
But we denounce also the further maintenance of the present costly
patchwork system of national paper currency as a constant source
of injury and peril. We assert the necessity of such intelligent
currency reform as will confine the government to its legitimate
functions, completely separated from the banking business, and
afford to all sections of our country uniform, safe, and elastic bank
currency under governmental supervision, measured in volume by
the needs of business.

The fidelity, patriotism, and courage with which President
Cleveland has fulfilled his great public trust, the high character
of his administration, its wisdom and energy in the maintenance
of civil order and the enforcement of the laws, its equal regard
for the rights of every class and every section, its firm and dig-
nified conduct of foreign affairs, and its sturdy persistence in up-
holding the credit and honor of the nation, are fully recognized
by the Democratic party, and will secure to him a place in history
beside the fathers of the republic.

We also commend the administration for the great progress
made in the reform of the public service, and we indorse its effort
to extend the merit system still further. We demand that no
backward step be taken, but that the reform be supported and
advanced until the un-Democratic spoils system of appointments
shall be eradicated.

We demand strict economy in the appropriations and in the
administration of the government.

We favor arbitration for the settlement of international dis-
putes.

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 561

We favor a liberal policy of pensions to deserving soldiers and
sailors of the United States.

The Supreme Court of the United States was wisely established
by the framers of our Constitution as one of the three coordinate
branches of the government. Its independence and authority to
interpret the law of the land without fear or favor must be main-
tained. We condemn all efforts to degrade that tribunal or im-
pair the confidence and respect which it has deservedly held.

The Democratic party ever has maintained, and ever will
maintain, the supremacy of law, the independence of its judicial
administration, the inviolability of contracts, and the obligations
of all good citizens to resist every illegal trust, combination, or
attempt against the just rights of property and the good order
of society, in which are bound up the peace and happiness of our
people.

Believing these principles to be essential to the well-being of
the republic, we submit them to the consideration of the Amer-
ican people.

John M. Palmer, of Illinois, was nominated for President
on the first vote. He received 769|- votes ; General Edward
S. Bragg, of Wisconsin, 118J votes. General Simon B.
Buckner, of Kentucky, was nominated by acclamation for
Vice-President.

The canvass so remarkably begun continued to be unique
and sensational to the end. The Republicans who seceded
from the convention at St. Louis, and most of those who
agreed with them on the silver question, made common cause
with the Democrats. The dissident Democrats were divided
in their course of action, but were animated by one and the
same purpose, namely, to defeat the regular candidates of their
own party in the only possible way, by helping the election of
Mr. McKinley. Where a separate organization seemed to pro-
mise to draw away more votes from Mr. Bryan, they rallied
around the " National Democratic " standard. Where direct
support of the Republican candidates seemed necessary, they
were ready to give that support. Many of them participated
in the nomination of National Democratic candidates for office,
and even addressed audiences on the stump in favor of them,
in order to draw away votes from Mr. Bryan ; but they them-
selves voted for McKinley. The Prohibition party, never
large, was divided ; the faction which had insisted at the
national convention, that the question of the sale of intoxicat-
ing liquor was the great issue before the people, could not

562 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

hold its own members to that position ; the other faction was
strongly attracted, in a body, toward the coalesced forces of
Free Silver. Even the Populists were in a state of hopeless
dissension. It was apparent to the merest tyro in politics
that a separate electoral ticket in any State for Bryan and
Watson was as little in favor of Bryan as the ticket for
Palmer and Buckner. In short, the " Middle-of-the-road "
programme was one of practical though undeclared hostility
to the head of the ticket it professed to support. This fact
was recognized by many of the leaders of the party, especially
by those who had been intrusted with authority to speak in
the name of the party. Mr. Watson, the candidate for Vice-
President, reproached them for taking a course which he re-
garded as resulting in a sacrifice of himself, of the principles
of the Populist party, and of its separate organization. It
does not seem unjust to them to surmise that they were, in
fact, chiefly desirous of the election of Mr. Bryan, and that
at any cost to Mr. Watson they would do that which they
thought would contribute most to the success of the head of
the ticket.

At first sight the action of the Democratic convention, in
taking a position where a great number of the members of the
party could not support platform and candidates without a
tremendous sacrifice of principle, might seem the height of
political folly. Examined more carefully and critically, the
reason of their action and the justification of it are obvious.
The leaders in the Silver movement had no hope of success
in a canvass based on the tariff issue. There was therefore
nothing to lose by shifting the field of contest. In taking a
firm stand in favor of free coinage, these men doubtless had
two things in view, as to both of which the event showed their
judgment to have been sound: first, that, whether it were self-
consistent or not, the great body of the party would continue
to support the ticket; and, secondly, that an addition of the
Populist vote to the Democratic vote would in many of the
States convert a minority into a majority. They were sure,
moreover, that all the so-called " Silver States " would give
their electoral votes to the Silver candidate; and were con-
fident that in all the States there were many Silver Repub-
licans who would leave their party rather than vote for the
gold standard. In the early days of the canvass these facts
impressed themselves so strongly upon the Republicans that

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 563

many of them believed Mr. Bryan's chances of election to be
alarmingly good. The voters had never stood up to be counted
on the silver question. Democrats who had declared most
solemnly that they could never be drawn into the support of
Free Silver went back into the party ; some who would not
give their assent to the platform nevertheless announced their
purpose to vote for the candidates. The whole of the extreme
AVest and the Pacific coast seemed so devoted to the cause of
Free Silver that Republicans were inclined to concede all those
States to Mr. Bryan.

The first notable event of the canvass was the appearance
of Mr. Bryan in New York city, where he made a speech.
The time was midsummer, the most unpropitious season that
could have been chosen, and the extreme heat that prevailed
made against the candidate. Before the speech the Repub-
licans were in a state of alarm as to the result in November;
after it they hardly regarded Mr. Bryan as a dangerous ant-
agonist. A week or two later, indications of the impending
result began to appear. Alabama and Arkansas elected state
officers in August. In each of the States the Democratic ma-
jority showed an increase over that of preceding elections ; but
no special significance was attached to the fact in any quarter,
save in so far as it gave reason for thinking that the new
departure of the Democratic party would not cause it a loss of
electoral votes in the Southern States. In September Ver-
mont gave a Republican majority of more than 29,000 over all
other parties combined — by far the largest majority ever given
in a Vermont state election. Next came the election in Maine,
where the Republican candidate for governor received more
than two thirds of the whole vote, and had a majority of
42,000 over the combined opposition. In these States the
result alarmed the Democrats as little as the Southern elec-
tions had disturbed the Republicans. Nevertheless, after the
event we can see that it foreshadowed the election of Mr.
McKinley. It indicated the drift of public sentiment through-
out the North. The causes which produced the great major-
ities in the two New England States were operating with
equal force in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and In-
diana, — the four doubtful States of the North in former
elections, — as well as in the large States of the central
Northwest. Yet the supporters of Mr. Bryan looked for-
ward with confidence to the verdict of the people. They

564 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

were assured that thousands of the voters in every State were
concealing their intentions, and while professing to be in favor
of Mr. McKinley, and even wearing his badges, would never-
theless cast a quiet vote for Mr. Bryan on election day. Their
confidence was fostered by the extraordinary thronging of the
people to hear Mr. Bryan, who was travelling almost inces-
santly for several months in all parts of the country, and
addressing many audiences every day. Mr. Bryan's physical
endurance under the tremendous strain of his protracted and
busy campaign, and the eager desire of the people to see and
hear him, were two of the most remarkable incidents of the
canvass.

The days and weeks passed in the most intense popular ex-
citement. Almost nothing was discussed but the silver ques-
tion ; almost nothing excited interest save the prospects of the
two candidates. Mr. McKinley's part in the canvass was as
active as Mr. Bryan's, although quite different in method. He
remained at his home in Canton, Ohio, where he received and
addressed hundreds of visiting parties. Excursions to Canton
were organized not only all over Ohio, but in other and in
some far-distant States. Parties consisting of a large number
of persons went in many cases hundreds of miles to call upon
Mr. McKinley, to assure him of their support, and to be ad-
dressed by him. The Republican candidate was inclined at
first to lay more stress upon the tariff policy of his party than
upon the importance of maintaining the gold standard. But
the paramount interest in the financial question did not allow
him to continue on that line, and when he spoke upon the
money issue he spoke boldly and courageously.

The Silver forces effected an almost complete fusion. The
Populist managers disregarded to a great extent the policy
which their national convention had favored, — the " Middle-
of-the-road " policy. They were deaf to the somewhat frantic
expostulations of Mr. Watson, and effected a close alliance
with the Democrats. In twenty-six of the States they made
a division of the electors, but in eighteen of these States they
allowed the Democrats to have a majority of the candidates
on the ticket ; in four there was an equal division, and in the
other four the Populists had one majority in each. In all the
twenty-six States there were 197 Democratic electors and 79
Populist electors on the fusion tickets. Mr. Watson was not so
blind as not xo see that, even if Mr. Bryan were elected, there

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN

565

would be no choice of a Vice-President by the electors ; that
Mr. Hobart and Mr. Sewall would be the two candidates eli-
gible, under the Constitution, to be voted for by the Senate ;
and that Mr. . Sewall would probably be elected. The Pop-
ulist managers also were fully aware of this fact, but they did
not intend to imperil any chance Mr. Bryan might have by
presenting separate electoral tickets in order to please Mr.
Watson. In a few States, nevertheless, the " Middle-of-the-
road " men refused to be " sold out " to the Democrats and set
up independent tickets. For the most part, however, the two
parties worked in harmony. Indeed, the word " Popocrat "
was invented to describe the combined forces of the two
parties who, on other issues beside that of silver, — notably
the " government by injunction/' and the income tax, — were
in full agreement. The following table shows how, had the
coalition been successful, the electoral votes for Vice-President
would have been distributed in the twenty-six States where
there was a fusion : —

States.

ij
If

States.

Arkansas . .
California . .
Colorado * . .
Connecticut .

5
5
2
5

2
20
10
10
11

4
13

3
4
2
1
1
4
5
3
2
4
2
4
5
4

Montana . .
Nebraska . .
New Jersey .
North Carolina
Ohio . . .
Oregon . . .
Pennsylvania .
Utah . . .

•5

2
4
1
6
5

Kentucky . .
Louisiana . .
Massachusetts
Michigan . .
Minnesota . .
Missouri . .

Washington .
West Virginia
Wisconsin . .
Wyoming . .

2
2
3

Total. . .

198

* The Populist electors in Colorado and Idaho, and some others in other States voted
for Mr. Sewall for Vice-President.

At the close of the canvass the people were wrought up to
the highest pitch of excitement. Never before was the dis-
play of political emblems so profuse. The city streets were
decorated from end to end with huge flags and banners bearing
the names of the candidates. Lithograph portraits of McKinley

566 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

or of Bryan were exhibited in the front windows of dwellings
and shops. Buttons showing the familiar features were worn
in the lappels of their coats by hundreds of thousands, if not
by millions, of men and boys.

Almost fourteen million citizens went to the polls. The num-
ber of votes given in the table on the next page is 13,936,957,
— by far the largest number ever cast at a popular election in
any country. Throughout the country the polling was orderly.
Although the indications of a great Republican victory had
been apparent for weeks, even months, to the most casual
observer, many of the supporters of Mr. Bryan entertained
hopes, some of them were even confident, of success to the
last. The earliest returns gave assurance of an overwhelming
majority for Mr. McKinley, and the prognostication was con-
firmed as one State after another was heard from. The East-
ern, Middle, and Central Northwestern States were carried by
the Republicans, without an exception, by unprecedented
majorities. The South even was not " solid " for Bryan.
Only during the reconstruction period had the Republicans
ever obtained any electoral votes in the States from Delaware
to Texas. Now Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia gave
McKinley substantial majorities ; and even Kentucky, the
"dark and bloody ground'' of the Democratic conflict between
the Gold and the Silver forces, yielded him a narrow margin.
No northern State east of the Missouri River gave Bryan a
single electoral vote, and even on the Pacific slope the Repub-
licans won California and Oregon.

On the other hand the Democrats wrested from the Repub-
licans Kansas and Nebraska, together with the whole group of
mining States, except California ; and their majority in such
States as Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri, and Texas, was im-
mense.

In presenting the accompanying table of the popular vote,
it is proper to say that it differs from any other table pub-
lished. Errors more or less numerous are discoverable in all
the tables published by the political almanacs and by Apple-
ton's Annual Cyclopaedia. Where the figures given in these
tables differ, an attempt has been made to obtain from state
authorities the final official figures. In a few cases no re-
sponse has been made to requests for the true returns. It
cannot be claimed for the returns which follow that they are
absolutely correct, but they are believed to be more nearly so

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN

567

POPULAR VOTE.

States.

a 6

"3 05

f
Si

m§

<V3

Wj3

w*i

1°

rij

M
o

Alabama ....

54,737

131,226

24,089

6,462

2,147

'Arkansas . .

37,512

110,103

839

893

California .

146,688

144,766

21,730

2,006

2,573

1,047

1,611

Colorado . .

26,271

161,269

2,389

1,717

386

160

Connecticut .

110,285

56,740

4,336

1,806

1,223

Delaware . .

20,452

16,615

966

602

Florida . .

11,257

31,958

1,977

1,772

644

Georgia . .

60,091

94,672

440

2,708

5,716

Idaho . . .

6,324

23,192

181

Illinois . .

607,130

464,523

1,090

6,390

9,796

793

1,147

Indiana . .

323,754

305,573

2,145

3,056

2,267

324

Iowa . . .

289,293

223,741

4,516

3,192

352

453

Kansas . .

159,541

171,810

46,194

1,209

1,921

630

Kentucky .

218,171

217,890

5,114

4,781

Louisiana

22,037

77,175

1,915

Maine . . .

80,461

34,587

2,387

1,866

1,589

Maryland

136,978

104,746

2,507

5,922

136

588

Massachusetts

278,976

105,711

15,181

11,749

2,998

2,114

Michigan . .

293,582

237,268

6,968

5,025

1,995

297

Minnesota .

193,503

139,735

3,222

4,363

954

Mississippi .

5,123

63,793

7,517

1,071

485

Missouri . .

304,940

363,652

2,355

2,169

293

599

Montana . .

10,494

42,537

186

Nebraska . .

103,064

115,999

2,797

1,243

797

186

Nevada . .

1,938

8,377

575

New Hampshire

57,444

21,650

379

3,520

779

228

New Jersey .

221,367

133,675

6,373

5,614

3,985

New York .

819,838

551,369

18,950

16,052

17,667

North Carolina

155,222

174,488

578

676

245

North Dakota

26,335

20,686

358

Ohio . . .

525,991

477,497

2,615

1,858

5,068

2,716

1,167

Oregon . .

48,779

46,662

977

919

Pennsylvania

728,300

433,230

11,176

10,921

19,274

870

1,683

Rhode Island

37,437

14,459

1,166

1,160

558

South Carolina

9,313

58,801

824

South Dakota

41,042

41,225

683

. -

Tennessee .

148,773

166,268

4,525

1,951

3,098

Texas . . .

167,520

370,434

79,572

5,046

1,786

Utah . . .

13,491

64,607

Vermont . .

50,991

10,607

461

1,329

728

Virginia . .

135,388

154,985

• - .

2,127

2,350

115

Washington .

39,153

51,646

1,668

968

148

West Virginia

104,414

92,927

677

1,203

Wisconsin .

268,135

165,523

4,584

7,509

346

1,314

Wyoming . . .

10,072

10,655

286

136

Total . . .

7,111,607

6,509,052

222,583

134,645

131,312

13,968

36,373

* Bryan and Watson's vote is included in the vote for W. J. Bryan.

than any previous table. They are made up upon the princi-
ple of giving the highest vote for any name on the electoral

568

A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY

ELECTORAL VOTE.

Statu.

Alabama . .
Arkansas . .
California . .
Colorado • .
Connecticut .
Delaware . .
Florida ...
Georgia . . •
Idaho. . . .
Illinois . . .
Indiana . . .
Iowa ....
Kansas . . .
Kentucky . .
Louisiana . .
Maine . . .
Maryland . .
Massachusetts .
Michigan . .
Minnesota . .
Mississippi . .
Missouri . . .
Montana . .
Nebraska . .
Nevada . . .
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York . .
North Carolina
North Dakota .
Ohio ....
Oregon . . .
Pennsylvania .
Rhode Island .
South Carolina
South Dakota .
Tennessee . .
Texas ....
Utah ....
Vermont . .
Virginia . . .
Washington .
West Virginia .
Wisconsin . .
Wyoming . .

Total . .

President.

271

176

Vice-President.

ticket, and not for the first name on the ticket. The vote for
Bryan is the combined vote for Bryan and Sewall, and ior
Bryan and Watson. The Bryan and Watson vote is given
separately, but is to be disregarded in making up the total vote,

THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 569

According to the figures here presented the plurality for
Mr. McKinley was 602,555, and his majority over all the can-
didates combined was 286,257.

The electoral vote, which is given in a separate table, re-
flects the closeness of the vote in California and Kentucky, in
each of which States one elector voted for Bryan* and Sewall.

The electoral count took place on the 10th of February,
1897. It was conducted in accordance with the law, and was
strictly without incident. The inauguration of Mr. McKinley
on the 4th of March was made the occasion of a great popular
demonstration by the Republicans, who flocked to Washington
in large numbers to witness the ceremony.

The immediate subsidence of excitement after the result of
the election was ascertained, and the good-humored acceptance
of that result by all save a few grievously disappointed lead-
ers of the defeated party, is not a new experience in American
political life. We have seen it after other historic struggles.
The Federalists thought that all was lost when Jefferson was
elected. Jackson's triumph seemed to his opponents a victory
of evil over good. The Democrats lost faith in popular gov-
ernment when Harrison was chosen. To the supporters of
Mr. Tilden the declaration that Mr. Hayes was elected was
nothing short of a great political crime. Yet after a momen-
tary loss of temper all these good people recovered themselves
and devoted their energies to the public service with zeal and
with undiminished hope and confidence. So it was in 1896.
In some respects the result was the greatest trial of the tem-
per of the defeated party the country has ever known. The
aims of the Democratic party were, — not to use the phrase
offensively, — in a certain sense revolutionary. They were
intended to array the weak, the poor, the debtors, the em-
ployed, against the men who were designated as plutocrats.
The failure of such an attack is sometimes almost as dangerous
to society as its success. The fact that, when the American
people had spoken at the polls upon questions that involved
the highest interests of society, the decision was quietly
accepted as conclusive until a new occasion should arise for
passing upon them in the orderly American way, is most cred-
itable to them, and a happy augury for the future.

INDEX

Abolitionists, condemned by the
Democrats, 200, 266 ; convention of
1839, 202; of 1843, 216; defeat Clay,
224 ; convention Of 1847, 232 ; Of 1852,
253.

Adams, Charles Francis, nominated
for Vice-President, 239; in canvass
Of 1872, 340, 344.

Adams, John, suggested for Vice-
President, 24 ; elected, 27 ; his jour-
ney to New York and inauguration,
30; reelected Vice-President, 39;
named for President, 44; virulent
attacks upon him, 45 ; elected Pres-
ident, 51; his inauguration, 53;
counts the votes and declares his
own election, 52; relations to the
Federalist party, 56; defeated in
1800, 63 ; elector for Monroe, 1820, 118.

Adams, John Quincy, goes over to
the Republican party, 93; on the
Missouri Enabling Act, 117 ; receives
one vote for President in 1820, 118,
121 ; candidate in 1824, 126, 129, 131 ;
popular votes for, 136; electoral
votes, 140 ; chosen by the House of
Represei tatives, 140; his inaugura-
tion, 141 ; his character and admin-
istration, 142; attacks Massachu-
setts Federalists, 146 ; popular votes
for, in 1828, 148; defeated, 149; in
the House of Representatives, 193.

Adams, John Quincy (the younger),

350.

Adams, Samuel, suggested for Vice-
President, 24 ; his course in the can-
vass of 1796, 48 ; votes for, in 1796, 51.

Adet, M., French ambassador, endea-
vors to defeat John Adams, 46.

Alabama, admitted to the Union, 118.

Alien and sedition laws, 57, 201.

Alien ownership of land. See Land,
public.

Allison, William B., 392, 538.

American party. See Native Amen
ican.

American party of 1888, conven-
tion, 480.

Annexation of Texas. See Texas.

Anti-Federalist party, 32; see Re-
publican party.

Anti-Masonic party, its origin, 155;
national convention in 1830, 155;
merged with Whig party, 180.

Anti-Monopoly party, convention of.

in 1884, 421.

Anti-Nebraska Democrats, 260.
" Anti-Snappers" of 1892, 493.
Arbitrary arrests during the Civil

War, 298, 304.
Arbitration, settlement of interna-
tional disputes by, 256, 365, 441, 462,

466, 507, 520, 521, 560.
Arkansas, admitted to the Union,

184 ; vote of 1872 objected to, 354.
Armstrong:, James, votes for in 1789,

27.
Army vote in 1864, 307.
Arthur, Chester A., nominated for

Vice-President, 408; elected, 417;

becomes President, 419 ; in canvass

Of 1884, 427, 432.

Ashburton Treaty, 238, 250.

Baltimore, the Harrison procession
in, in 1840, 196.

Bank of the United States, second
bank incorporated, 108 ; war upon, by
Jackson, 155, 157, 178 ; veto of char-
ter renewal, 162; the panic of 1837,
191 ; Van Buren continues war upon,
192 ; condemned by Democrats, 200 ;
Tyler's opposition to, 207; in plat-
forms, 200.

Banks, national, in politics and plat

forms, 333, 365, 367, 409, 544, 551.

572

INDEX

Banks, Nathaniel P., 271 ; electoral
vote for, 353.

Barbour, James, 114, 119, 145, 194.

'"Barnburners," factiou of the Dem-
ocratic party, 229 ; convention of,
1848, 238.

Bayard, James A., reasons for aban-
doning Burr, 71.
Bayard, Thomas F., 349, 379, 387, 412,

414, 415, 440.

Bell, John, nominated for President,
289 •, popular and electoral votes for,
297.

Bentley, Charles E., nominated for
President, 532; popular votes for
567.

Bidwell, John, nominated for Presi-
dent, 508.

Bimetallism. See Silver.

Birney, James G., nominated for,
President, 202; popular votes for,
203 ; nominated, 1843, 216 ; popular
votes for, 223; accused of seeking
alliance with Democrats, 224.

Black, James, nominated for Presi-
dent, 340 ; popular votes for, 352.

Blaine, James G., 330, 362, 368, 373,
402, 407, 408, 427 ; nominated for Pres-
ident, 432; popular and electoral
votes for, 448; Paris interview on
the tariff, 458; withdraws from the
canvass for 1888, 459; attempt to
stampede convention for, 478; Sec-
retary of State, 489, 492; resigns,
493 ; votes for, in convention of 1892,
497.

Blair, Francis P., Jr., nominated for
Vice-President, 326; popular and
electoral votes for, 328.

" Bloody shirt," waving the, 357.

Bonds, taxation of United States,
316, 322,536 ; payment of, with green-
backs, 316, 322, 333, 336 ; issue of, in
time of peace, 544, 552, 556.

Booth, Newton, nominated for Vice-
President, and declined, 367.

Botts, John M., letter from, on Tyler,
207 ; in canvass of 1860, 289.

Bradley, Stephen B., call for a con-
gressional caucus in 1808, 90.

Bramlette, Thomas £., votes for, as
Vice-President in«1872, 353.

Breckinridge, John C, nominated
for Vice-President, 265 ; elected, 276 ;
nominated for President, 285, 287;

popular and electoral votes for,

297.

Bristow, Benjamin H., 363, 368, 373.

" Broad gauge " Prohibitionists,
528.

Brooks, John A., nominated for Vice-
President, 468.

Brown, B. Gratz, nominated for
Vice-President, 344, 349; electoral
votes for, 353.

Brown, John, raid by, 281.

Bryan, William J., 542, 547; nomi.
nated for President by the Demo-
crats, 548; by the People's party,
554; by the National Silver party,
557: his personal canvass, 563,564;
popular votes for, 567; electoral
votes for, 568.

Buchanan, James, 138, 209 ; votes for,
in convention of 1844, 212; of 1848,
233; in canvass of 1852,247; the Os-
tend Manifesto, 261; in canvass of
1856, 264; nominated, 265; elected,
276; his administration, 280.

Buckner, Simon B., nominated for
Vice-President, 561.

Burr, Aaron, votes for, in 1792, 39 ;
candidate with Jefferson in 1796,
44 ; votes for, 51 ; nominated by cau-
cus in 1800, 59; votes for, 63; be-
comes Vice-President, 73.

Butler, Benjamin F., 283, 330; in
electoral count of 1869, 331 ; in can-
vass of 1880, 411 ; nominated for
President, 423, 427; popular votes
for, 448.

Butler, William 0., nominated for
Vice-President, 234; electoral votes
for, 243 ; in canvass of 1852, 249.

Calhoun, John C, 98, 117 ; proposed
for President, 126; candidate for
Vice-President, 132 ; elected, 135 ; re-
elected, 149 ; suggested for President
in 1844, 208; votes for, in conven-
tion, 212; negotiates treaty for an-
nexation of Texas, 227 ; votes for, in
convention of 1848, 233; the com-
promises of 1850, 245.

California, admitted to the Union,
246, 257; its vote divided in 1880,
418 ; in 1892, 517 ; in 1896, 566.

Cambreleng, Churchill C, political
mission in the South, 144.

Carlisle, John G., 440.

INDEX

573

" Carpet-baggers," 357.

Cary, Samuel F, nominated for Vice-
President, 367.

Cass, Lewis, votes for, in convention
of 1844, 209; nominated for Presi-
dent, 233; popular and electoral
votes for, 243; in canvass of 1852,
247.

Casus omissus, 119, 271, 450.

Caucus, Congressional, nominations,
Federalist and Republican, in 1800,
58, 59; Jefferson and.George Clinton
nominated in 1804, 82 ; opposition to,
in 1808, 90 ; Madison nominated, 91 ;
nominations in 1812, 99; opposition
to, in 1816, 109, 110 ; abortive caucus
in 1820, 117 ; discussion of, and war
against, 1822 to 1824, 126, 130 ; result
of, 131 ; faults of the caucus system,
168.

Chambers, B. J., nominated for Vice-
President, 411.

Chase, Salmon P., 270, 290, 294, 321,

325, 340, 344.

Cherokee and Creek Indians, their

removal, 154, 157.
Chinese labor and immigration, in

politics and platforms, 335, 336, 371,

377, 401, 405, 410, 414, 416, 419, 430,

438, 444, 462, 469, 474, 502.

Cipher despatches, 381.
Civil rights bill vetoed by Mr. John-
son, 315.
Civil service reform, in politics and

platforms, 153, 158, 334, 337, 343, 347,
370, 406, 419, 430, 437, 457, 466, 469, 477,
496,501,536,546,560.

Clay, Henry, 98, 99 ; opposes the cau-
cus in 1816, 109 ; on electoral vote of
Indiana, 113; on electoral vote of
Missouri, 119; candidate for Presi-
dent in 1824, 126 ; suggestion of a
coalition with Crawford, 132 ; popu-
lar votes for, 136 ; charged with a
corrupt bargain, 138 ; electoral votes
for, in 1824, 140 ; suggested for Vice-
President, 1828, 145; nominated by
National Republicans, 157 ; popular
votes for, 163 ; electoral votes, 164 ;
inquiry by, into qualifications of
electors, 184; his attitude in 1839,
193, 194 ; his letter on Texas, 210 ;
nominated by Whigs in 1844, 220;
popular and electoral votes for, 223 ;
defeated by Abolitionists, 224; in

canvass of 1848,230 ; defeated in con-
vention, 237; the compromises of
1850, 245.

Cleveland, Grover, elected Governor
of New York, 420, 433; nominated
for President, 440.; elected, 448 ; and
civil service reform, 457; events of
his first administration, 458; noni'
nated for reelection, 471; popular
and electoral votes for, in 1888, 483;
in canvass of 1892,493 ; nominated in
1892, 504 ; elected, 517 ; foreign rela-
tions during his second administra-
tion, 519 ; alienated from his party,
523 ; Democratic convention refuses
to approve his administration, 547,
548; commended by National Dem-
ocrats, 560.

Clinton, DeWitt, 78, 79, 92 ; candidate
for President, 100 ; votes for, in 1812,
104 ; a candidate in 1824, 126 ; favors
popular vote for appointing elec-
tors, 147.

Clinton, George, candidate of the
Anti-Federalists, 26; votes for, in
1789, 27; opposed to John Adams,
in 1792, 34 ; votes for, as Vice-Presi-
dent in 1792, 39 ; votes for, in 1796,
51 ; nominated by caucus for Vice-
President, 82 ; elected, 84 ; nomi-
nated in 1808, 91 ; repudiates the
caucus, 92; reelected, 95; died in
office, 99.

Cochrane, John, nominated for Vice-
President, 300 ; withdraws, 301.

Colfax, Schuyler, 318 ; nominated for
Vice-President, 321; elected, 328;

defeated in 1872, 348.

Colorado, act to admit as a State,
vetoed, 315 ; admitted to the Union,
380.

Colquitt, Alfred H., votes for, as
Vice-President in 1872, 353.

Commission, Electoral. See Elec-
toral Commission.

Compromises of 1850, 245; in plat-
forms, 249, 252, 254, 258, 267.

Conant, John A., nominated for Vice-
President, 442.

Conkling, Koscoe, 361, 368, 373, 402,
408, 419.

Constitution of the United States,
provisions respecting election of
President, see Electoral System and
President.

574

INDEX

Constitutional Union party, its for-
mation, 282 ; convention in 1860, 288.
Convention system : the first na-
tional convention, 101; convention
suggested in Pennsylvania, 1824, 130 ;
the system discussed, 166; origin of
the system, 170 ; development of the
idea, 171 ; reforms made and sug-
gested, 174, 175, 420, 428.
Conventions, party, Abolition or
Liberty party, in 1839, 202 ; in 1843,
216 ; in 1847, 232 ; in 1852, 253.
American, in 1888,480.
Anti-Masonic, in 1830, 155.
Anti-Monopoly, in 1884, 421.
Barnburners, in 1848, 238.
Constitutional Union, in i860, 288.
Democratic, in 1832, 160; in 1835,
181; in 1840, 199; in 1844, 211; in
1848, 232 ; in 1852, 248 ; in 1856, 264 ;
in 1860, 282; of seceders, 285, 286;
convention in 1864, 304; in 1868,
321 ; in 1872, 349 ; of " Straight "
Democrats, 349; convention in 1876,
374 ; in 1880, 411 ; in 1884, 433 ; in
1888, 468; in 1892, 498 ; in 1896, 541.
Free-soil, in 1848, 238; in 1852, 253.
Greenback party, in 1876, 367; in

1880, 409 ; in 1884, 423.
Know-Nothing, in 1856, 261.
Labor Reformers, in 1872, 335.
Liberal Republican, in 1872, 340.
Liberty League, in 1848, 232.
National Democratic, in 1896, 557.
National Republican, in 1831, 157;

of young men, in 1832, 157.
National party, in 1896, 530.
National Silver party, in 1896, 555.
Native American, in 1847, 231; in

1856, 261.
People's Party, in 1892, 508 ; in 1896,

550.
Prohibitionists, in 1872, 339 ; in 1876,
364 ; in 1880, 411 ; in 1884, 441, 442 ;
in 1888, 465 ; in 1892, 505 ; in 1896,
528.
Radical Republican, in 1864, 299.
Republican, in 1856, 269 ; in 1860, 290 ;
in 1864, 301 ; in 1868, 318 ; in 1872,
345 ; in 1876, 308 ; in 1880, 402 ; in
1884, 427 ; in 1888, 472 ; in 1892, 494 ;
in 1896, 532.
Socialist Labor, in 1892, 513 ; in 1896,

538.
Union and Harmony, in 1839, 194.

Union Labor, in 1888, 460.
United Labor, in 1888, 463.
"Whig, in 1839, 193 ; in 1844, 220 ; in
1848, 237 ; in 1852, 250 ; in 1856, 273.

Cooper, Peter, nominated for Presi-
dent, 367 ; popular votes for, 383.

Copperheads, 298.

Corrupt bargain, alleged, of Henry
Clay, 138.

Count of electoral votes. See Elec-
toral votes.

Cowdrey, B,ob.ert H., nominated for
President, 465; popular votes for,
483.

Cranfill, J. B., nominated for Vice-
President, 508.

Cravens, Jordan E., proposes amend-
ment to Constitution, 394.

Crawford, William H., 98 ; intrigue
in favor of, 109 ; favorite of the ad-
ministration, 126; candidate of the
caucus, 131; popular votes for, in
1824, 136 ; electoral votes, 140 ; votes
in the House of Representatives,
141 ; suggested for Vice-President,
in 1828, 145; his quarrel with Mon-
roe, 145 [note].

Credit Mobilier, 416.

Creeks. See Cherokees.

Crittenden, John J., 275, 289.

Cuba, acquisition of, 261, 272, 284, 287 ;
the rebellion in, 520, 536, 546, 553.

Currency, the, in politics and plat-
forms. See Greenbacks, and Silver.

Curtis, James L., nominated for Pres-
ident, 480.

Cushingr, Caleb, 282, 285, 286.

" Czar," Mr. Speaker Reed as, 488.

Dallas, George M., 162; nominated
for Vice-President, 214 ; elected, 223 ;
votes for. in 1848, 233.

Daniel, William, nominated for Vice-
President, 446.

Davis, David, nominated for Presi-
dent, 338; declines, 339; in Liberal
Republican convention, 344; elec-
toral votes for, 353 ; retires from Su-
preme Court, 388.

Davis, Henry Winter, on power to
count electoral votes, 277.

Davis, Jefferson, 284.

Dayton, William L., nominated for
Vice-President, 271 ; electoral votes
for, 276 ; in canvass of i860, 294.

INDEX

575

Dearborn, Henry A. S., nominated

for Vice-President, 231.
Debt, the public. See Public Debt.
Delaware, appointment of electors

by, in 1824, 134 ; adopts popular vote,

164.

Democratic party (successor of Re-
publican), convention of 1832, 160;
of 1836, 181 ; of 1840, 199 ; condition
of, in 1843, 209; convention of 1844,
211 ; 'of 1848, 232 ; divisions in the
party, 233; convention of 1852, 248;
Of 1856, 264 ; Of 1860, 282 ; seceders'
convention, 285, 286; convention of
1864, 304 ; of 1868, 321 ; of 1872, 349 ;
" Straight " Democrats, 349 ; conven-
tion Of 1876, 374 ; Of 1880, 411 ; Of 1884,
433 ; Of 1888, 468 ; of 1892, 498 ; divided
by the silver question, 526; conven-
tion Of 1896, 541.

Dickerson, Mahlon, proposes an
amendment to the Constitution,
122.

Direct vote for President. See Pres-
ident.

Disqualified electors. See Electors.

District system of choosing- elec-
tors, 23, 38, 83, 93, 103, 148, 516.

Disunion, considered or threatened,
76, 146, 295, 298.

Donelson, Andrew J., nominated for
Vice-President by American party,
264; by Whigs, 273.

"Doughfaces," origin of the word,
116.

Doufrlas, Stephen A., 247, 258 ; in can-
vass of 1856, 264 ; leader of a Demo-
cratic faction, 280 ; debate with Lin-
coln, 281 ; in convention of I860, 284 ;
nominated for President, 286 ; popu-
lar and electoral votes for, 247 ; sup-
ports the Union cause, 298.

Dow, Neal, nominated for President,
411 ; popular votes for, 417,

Dred Scott decision, 279.

Earl, Thomas, Abolitionist candidate

for Vice-President, 202.
Eaton, Mrs. General, 151, 160.
Eaton, William W., proposes an

amendment to the Constitution, 396.
Edmunds, George F., 329, 387, 398,

402, 407, 408, 427, 432.

Eight-hour day for labor. See Hours
of Labor.

Elections, federal interference in,

304, 401, 413, 498.

Electoral commission, text of the
law creating it, 382 ; its membership,
387, 391 ; action of, 388.

Electoral system, first proposed, 4-
adopted, 9 ; its working in practice,
9; law of 1792, 36; the system
changed, II, 12, 80; propositions to
amend or abolish, 122, 358, 394, 395,
396, 397.

Electoral votes, time of casting, 36,
453 ; manner of voting, 9, 80 ; returns
of, 9, 36, 80, 453 ; determination of
contests, 64, 398, 453.

count of, in 1789, 29 ; in 1793, 40 ; in
1797, 51; in 1801, 67; in 1805, 84; in
1809, 95; in 1817, 112, 113; in 1821, 120;
in 1825, 139 ; in 1837, 184 ; in 1857, 275 ;
ill 1861, 296 ; ill 1865, 309 ; in 1869, 329 ;
in 1873, 354; in 1877, 382, 399 ; ill 1881,
418 ; in 1889, 484.

rejection of, discussed and exer-
cised, 64-67, 114, 123, 275, 309, 329, 354,
388; twenty-second joint rule, 309;
text of, 310 ; pronounced unconstitu-
tional,359; rescinded by the Senate,
382 ; law Of 1887, 453.

Electors, methods of appointing: in
1789, 21 ; in 1792, 38 ; in 1796, 47 ; in
1800, 59 ; in 1804, 83 ; in 1808, 93 ; ill
1812, 103 ; in 1824, 133 ; ill 1832, 164 ; in
1868, 327 ; in 1872, 351 ; in 1876, 380 ; in
1880, 418 ; in 1892, 516, 518.

time of appointment, first election,
20; law Of 1792, 36; law of 1845, 242;
Wisconsin's electors, in 1856, 275;
Georgia's electors in 1880, 418; law
Of 1887, 453.

official returns of appointment, 9,
36, 80, 453.

determination of contests, by
grand committee, proposed, 64 ; la n
Of 1887, 453.

ineligible persons appointed, 185 ,•
see also Electoral votes, rejection of.
attempted bribery of, 388.

Ellmaker, Amos, nominated for Vice-
President, 157; electoral votes for.
164.

Ellsworth, Oliver, votes for, in 1796,

51.

Emancipation, 299, 302.
Embargo, the, 89, 97.
England. See Great Britain.

576

INDEX

English, William H.f nominated for
Vice-President, 415.

Equal Eights party, New York fac-
tion, 228.

Era of good feelings, 115, 117.

Evans, Samuel, nominated for Vice-
President, 463.

Everett, Edward, nominated for
Vice-President, 290; popular and
electoral votes for, 297.

Expunging resolution, 179.

Farmers' Alliance, 491.

" Federal thirteen," the, 61.

Federalist party, the, at first elec-
tion, 24 ; supports Burr against Jef-
ferson, 69; its attitude during Jef-
ferson's administration, 76 ; coquets
with the Clinton faction, 92; sup-
ports Pinckney and King, in 1808,
93 ; its course in the election of 1812,
101 ; destroyed hy the success of its
own principles, 106 ; last appearance
in national politics, 112; attacked
by J, Q. Adams, 146.

Field, James G., nominated for Vice-
President, 513.

Fillmore, Millard, nominated for
Vice-President, 238; elected, 243;
becomes President, 246 ; in canvass
of 1852, 247; nominated in 1856 by
Americans, 264 ; by Whigs, 273 ; pop-
ular and electoral votes for, 276.

Finley, Ebenezer B., proposes an
amendment to the Constitution, 396.

First election ordered by Congress,

20.

First national convention, in 1812,

101.

Fisk, Clinton B., nominated for Pres-
ident, 468 ; popular votes for, 483.

Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, 266; nomi-
nated for Vice-President and de-
clined, 28(5.

Five-twenty bonds. See Bonds.

Florida, admitted to the Union, 242;
electors of, appointed by legislature,
in 1868, 327; vote of 1876 disputed,
381, 388.

Floyd, John, on vote of Missouri, in
1821, 120 ; votes for, as President, in
1832, 164.

Foote, Charles E., nominated for

Vice-President, 232.
" Force Bill," 490, 495, 498.

Fourth of March, beginning of Pres.

idential term, 29, 38.
France, relations with, as affecting

politics, 33, 41, 46.
Franklin, Benjamin, suggested for

President, 26.
"Fraud of 1876," in politics and

platforms, 413, 416, 435.
"Free ballot and fair count," in

politics and platforms, 413, 432, 437,

473, 495, 498, 512, 536, 554.
Free homesteads. See Land, pub-
lic.
Free-masonry, a political issue, 144,

155.

Free ships and navigation laws.

See Navigation laws.
Free silver, in politics and platforms.

See Silver.
Free-soil party, convention of 1848,

238 ; Of 1852, 253.

Free trade, in politics and platforms.
See Tariff.

Freedmen's Bureau, 315, 323.

Frelinghuysen, Theodore, nomina-
ted for Vice-President, 220 ; electoral
votes for, 223.

Fremont, John C, nominated for
President, 264, 270; popular and
electoral votes for, 276; nominated
in 1864, 301 ; withdraws, 301.

French Bevolution, its influence on
American politics, 33, 41, 46.

Freneau, Philip, 34.

Fugitive-slave law, 245, 249, 252, 251,
284, 287.

Funding System, Hamilton's, 42.
Fusion, in 1860, 296; in 1880,417 ; in

1892, 515, in 1896, 564.

Gallatin, Albert, nominated for Vice-
President by caucus, 131; with-
draws, 132.

Garfield, James A., 387, 402, 407;
nominated for President, 408; as-
saults upon, 415; elected, 417; as-
sassination of, 419.

Genet, " Citizen," French ambassa-
dor, interferes in American politics,
42.

Georgia, vote of, in 1868, 327, 329, 331 ;
votes for Greeley, in 1872, rejected,
354 ; its vote in 1880, 418.

Gerry, Elbridge, proposes choice of
electors by State Governors, 4 ; plan

INDEX

577

of apportioning electors, 5; votes
for John Adams, 48 ; nominated for
Vice-President, 99 ; adds a word to
the language, 104 ; elected, 104.

Gold standard, in politics and plat-
forms. See Silver.

Graham, William A., nominated for
Vice-President, 251; defeated, 257;
in canvass of I860, 289.

Granger, Francis, nominated1 for
Vice-President, 183 ; votes for, 188.

Grant, Ulysses S., 303, 315, 316; nom-
inated for President, 320; elected,
328 ; condemned by Liberal Repub-
licans, 341; nominated for reelec-
tion, 348; reelected, 352; on third
term, 360; vetoes the "inflation"
bill, 366 ; proposed in 1880, 402, 407,
408.

Great Britain, relations with, as af-
fecting politics, 43, 87, 97, 482.

Greeley, Horace, on Know-Nothing
party, 260; opposes Mr. Seward,
290 ; opposes Grant, 334 ; in canvass
of 1872, 340 ; nominated for Presi-
dent, 344, 349; dies, 351; popular
votes for, 352; electoral votes for,
353; votes for, objected to and re-
jected, 354.

Greenback party, convention of 1876,
367 ; Of 1880, 409 ; of 1884, 423.

Greenbacks, payment of bonds with,
316, 322 ; volume of issue of, 365, 409,
429.

Greer, James R., nominated for Vice-
President, 480.

Groesbeck, William S., 349 ; electoral
vote for, in 1872, 353.

Habeas corpus, suspension of the

Writ, 298, 300, 323.
Hale, John P., nominated for Pre-
sident, 232; withdraws, 232; nomi-
nated in 1852, 253 ; popular votes for,
257.

" Half-breed," a faction of the Re-
publican party, 419.

Hamilton, Alexander, on the elec-
toral system, 2 ; proposes choice of
electors by the people, 4, 5 ; decides
to support John Adams, in 1789, 25 ;
supposed intrigue against Adams,
26; antagonism with Jefferson, 32;
his funding system, 42 ; not a candi-
date for President, 44 ; bis course in

the canvass of 1796, 49 ; his influence
over the members of Adams's cabi-
net, 54 ; opposes the Federalist sup-
port of Burr, 70; opposes Federal-
ist disunion intrigue, 76 ; proposes
amendment of the Constitution, 78.

Hamlin, Hannibal, nominated for
Vice-President, 295 ; elected, 297 ; in
canvass of 1864, 303; presides over
the count of 1865, 311 ; in canvass of
1868, 318, 321.

Hancock, John, suggested for Vice-
President, 24 ; votes for, in 1789,27;
protests against law of 1792, 39.

Hancock, Winfield S., 321, 325, 363,
379, 412, 414 ; nominated for Presi-
dent, 415; popular and electoral
votes for, 417.

Hard Cider campaign, 190.

"Hards," Democratic faction, in New
York, 264, 282.

Harper, Robert G., votes for, as Vice-
President, in 1816. 112 ; in 1820, 121.

Harrison, Benjamin, nominated for
President, 479; popular and elec-
toral votes for, 483 ; declare J elected,
485; his administration, 486, 492;
nominated for reelection, 1892, 497 ;
popular and electoral votes for, 517.

Harrison, Robert H., votes for, in

1789, 27.

Harrison, William H., suggested for
Vice-President, 1828, 145 ; nominated
for President in 1836, 183; popular
votes for, 185; electoral votes for,
188 ,• Whig candidate, 195 ; takes the
stump, 202; popular votes for, 203;
elected, 204 ; his inauguration, 205 ;
dies, 207.

Hartford convention, 106.

Hawaii, proposed annexation of, 519,
535, 546, 553.

Hayes, Rutherford B., 363, 368 ; nom-
inated for President, 373; popular
votes for, 383 ; declared elected, 393 ;
his administration, 400.

Hendricks, Thomas A., 325, 330;
votes for, as President, in 1872, 353 ;
nominated for Vice-President, 379;
in canvass of 1880, 412, 415 ; again
nominated, 441 ; elected, 448 ; death
of, 472.

Henry, John, votes for, in 1796, 51.

Hill, David B., 492, 493, 505, 542, 548,
549.

578

INDEX

Hobart, Garret A., nominated for

Vice-President, 538 ; elected, 567,568.
Homesteads, free, in platforms. See

Land, public.
Hours of Labor, in politics and plat-

forms, 370, 410, 422, 425, 462, 464, 512,

513, 540.

House of Representatives, election
of President by, 71, 140.

Houston, Samuel, 248, 288.

Howard, Jobn E., suggested for Pres-
ident, ill ; votes for, as Vice-Presi-
dent, in 1816, 112.

" Hunkers," Democratic faction, 229.

Huntington, Samuel, votes for, In
1789, 27.

Idabo, admitted to the Union, 518.

Illinois, admitted to the Union, 118.

Immigration, restriction of, in poli-
tics and platforms, 303, 320, 371, 401,
405, 410, 414, 419, 430, 438, 444, 462,
467, 474, 481, 496, 502, 506, 512, 531, 536,
544.

Impressment of American seamen,

87, 88.
Income tax, in politics and platforms,

410, 422, 425, 431, 462, 511, 514, 540,
544, 552.

Independent Treasury, 192, 207, 227.

Indiana, admitted to the Union, 112;
disputed votes of, in 1817, 113.

Informalities in certificates of elec-
tors, 85 ; of Massachusetts electors,
1808, 94 ; suspected in 1824. 137.

Ingersoll, Jared, Federalist candi-
date for Vice-President, 102; votes
for, in 1812, 104.

"Injunction, government by," 545,
554.

Internal improvements; in politics
and platforms, 115, 143, 154, 158, 200,
241, 252, 255, 273, 294.

Inter-state commerce; in platforms.

See Railroads, regulation of.
Intoxicating liquor; in politics and

platforms, 339, 364, 426, 441, 443, 466,

505, 529, 530.
Iowa admitted to the Union, 242.
Iredell, James, votes for, in 1796, 51.
Irregularities; See Informalities.

Jackson, Andrew, candidate for
President, in 1824, 126; popular
votes for, 136 ; electoral votes for,

140 ; votes in the House of Repm
sentatives, 141; becomes a candi-
date for 1828, 144 ; popular votes for,
148; elected, 149; inaugurated, 150;
his conduct in office, 151; his influ.
ence upon politics, 153 ; his war on
the Bank, 153, 162 ; forces the nom-
ination of Van Buren, 160 ; nomi-
nated for reelection, 161 ; popular
votes for, 163; reelected, 164; his
popularity, 179; opposes Judge
Hugh L. White, 181 ; at Van Buren's
inauguration, 189.

Jacobins, opprobrious name of De-
mocrats, 74.

Jay, John, votes for, in 1789, 27 ; Brit
ish treaty, 43 ; votes for, in 1796, 51 ;
in 1800, 63.

Jefferson, Thomas, antagonism with
Hamilton, 32 ; votes for, in 1792, 39 ;
leader of the Republican party, 44 ;
named for President, 44 ; attacked by
"Phocion," 45, 49; elected Vice-
President, 51 ; votes for, in 1800, 63 ;
elected by the House of Representa-
tives, 72; his inauguration, 73; his
course, in office, 74, 77 ; nominated
by caucus, 82 ; reelected, 84 ; rejects
Monroe's treaty, 88 ; induces Monroe
to withdraw, 92.

Jenkins, Charles J., votes for, as
President, 1872, 353.

Johnson, Andrew, 284; nominated
for Vice-President, 303 ; elected, 307 ;
becomes President, 313; his char-
acter and administration, 313 ; his
contest with Congress and impeach-
ment, 315; denounced by Republican
convention, 319; in the canvass of
1868, 321; praised by Democrats,
325.

Johnson, Hale, nominated for Vice-
President, 530.

Johnson, Herscbel V., nominated for
Vice-President, 286; popular and
electoral votes for, 297.

Johnson, Richard M., nominated for
Vice-President, 182 ; electoral votes
for, 188 ; elected by the Senate, 187 ;
opposition to, in 1840, 198 ; not re-
nominated, 201 ; electoral votes for,
in 1840, 204 ; candidate for the Presi-
dency, 1844, 208; votes for, in con-
vention, 212.

Johnston, William F., nominated for

INDEX

579

Vice-President, 264 ; not adopted by
Republicans, 271.

Joint rule, twenty-second. See Elec-
toral System.

Julian, George W., nominated for
Vice-President, 253; in canvass of
1872, 338, 344; electoral votes for,
352.

Kansas, the contest over, 258, 260,

268, 272, 279, 292.

Kentucky, admitted to the Union, 38 ;
legislature nominates Clay, 126;
contest in 1896 between Gold and
Silver forces, 526 ; electoral vote di-
vided, 567.

Kins', Leicester, nominated for Vice-
President, 232.

King-, Rufus, 34; Federalist candi-
date for Vice-President, 83 ; votes
for, in 1804, 84 ; in 1808, 95 ; opposes
coalition with Clintonians, in 1812,
101, 102 ; votes for, for President, in
1816, 112.

King-, William R., named for Vice-
President, 1840, 199; votes for, as
candidate, 1848, 234 ; nominated for
Vice-President, 249 j elected, 257.

"Kitchen Cabinet," the, 152, 154,
159.

Know-Nothing1 order and party, 259 ;
convention of 1856, 261.

Knox, General Henry, suggested for
Vice-President, 24.

Kremer, George, charge by, against
Henry Clay, 138.

Ku-klux-klan, the, 333.

Labor questions, in politics and plat-
forms, 325, 337, 347, 350, 409, 414, 422,
426, 430, 437, 441, 462, 503, 512, 531,
540.

Labor Reformers, party of, conven-
tion Of 1872, 335.

Land, public, questions relating to
in politics and platforms, 154, 179,
215, 221, 236, 255, 293, 324, 336, 344, 347,
350, 371, 377, 410, 423, 425, 430, 437,
438, 444, 461, 463, 469, 474, 500, 506,
512, 514, 531, 536, 540, 553.

Lane, Joseph, 248, 284 ; nominated
for Vice-President, 285, 287 ; popular
and electoral votes for, 297.

Langdon, John, presides over the
first count, 29 ; votes for, as Vice-

President, in 1808, 95 ; nominated for
Vice-President, 99 ; declines, 99.

Lecompton constitution, for Kan-
sas, 279, 292.

Lee, Henry, votes for, as Vice-Presi-
dent, in 1832, 164.

Legal-tender notes. See Green-
backs.

Legislatures, State, as nominating
bodies, 168.

Levering, Joshua, 508 ; nominated for
President, 530; popular votes for,
567.

Liberal Republicans, origin of the
party, 335 ; convention in 1872, 340.

Liberty League, the, convention of

1848, 232.

Liberty party. See Abolitionists.

" Lily White " Republicans, 516.

Lincoln, Abraham, Mi ; the debate
with Douglas, 281 ; in the canvass of
I860, 290 ; nominated for President,
294; elected, 297 ; his administration,
299 ; nominated in 1864, 303 ; elected,
307; his reconstruction plan, 309,
313; assassinated, 313.

Lincoln, Benjamin, vote for, in 1789,

27.

"Little Magician," the [Van Bu-
ren], 191.

" Loco-focos," New York party fac-
tion, 228.

Logan, John A., 427 ; nominated for
Vice-President, 432; popular and
electoral votes for, 448.

Log cabin and Hard Cider cam-
paign, 190.

Louisiana, purchase of, 75 ; admitted
to the Union, 103 ; frauds in Plaque-
mines Parish, 16, 224; vote of the
State, in 1864, rejected, 311 ; vote in
1868 objected to, 330; returning
boards, 351, 381 ; vote in 1872 dis-
puted and not counted, 354 ; vote of
1876 disputed, 381, 389.

Lyon, James, nominated for Presi-
dent and declined, 350.

Machen, Willis B., votes for, as Vice-
President, in 1872, 353.

McClellan, George B., 299; nomi-
nated for President, 305 ; his view
of the Democratic platform, 306 ;
popular and electoral votes for;
307.

580

INDEX

McKinley, William, "the McKinley
bill," 489, 499, 524 ; votes for, as can-
didate for President, 1892, 497; in
the canvass of 1896, 527, 532 ; nom-
inated for President, 538 ; his course
during the canvass, 564; elected,
666; popular votes for, 567; elec-
toral votes for, 568.

McLean, John, considered as a can-
didate for President, 1830, 156 ; nomi-
nated, 1836, 183; in canvass of 1848,
230 ; votes for, in Whig convention,
237 ; in conventions of 1856, 264, 270 ;
in canvass of 1860, 289, 294.

Macon, Nathaniel, proposes amend-
ment to the Constitution, 122 ; votes
for, as Vice-President, in 1824, 140.

Madison, James, 6; nominated for
President, in 1808, 91 ; elected, 95 ;
his inauguration, 96; his first ad-
ministration, 97 ; yields to war party,
98; renominated, 99; elected a se-
cond time, 104.

"Magician, the little" [Van Bu-
ren], 191.

Maguire, Matthew, nominated for
Vice-President, 541.

Maine, admitted to the Union, 118;
liquor law, 339.

Maish, Levi, proposes an amend-
ment to the Constitution, 396.

Mangum, Willie P., votes for, as
President, 188.

March 4th, beginning of Presiden-
tial term, 29, 38.

Marcy, William L., 153, 247, 261.

Marshall, Humphrey, on power to
count electoral votes, 277.

Marshall, John, on the proposed law
of 1800, 66 ; votes for, as Vice-Presi-
dent, in 1816, 112; attends anti-
Masonic convention, 156.

Maryland, last State to abandon the
district system, 164.

Mason, James M., on electoral votes
of Wisconsin, 275.

Mason, John Y., 261.

Massachusetts, choice of electors in
1789, 23 ; in 1792, 38 ; by the Legisla-
ture, in 1800, 60 ; defeat of Federal-
ists in 1804, 84 ; choice of electors, in
1808, 93; in 1812, 103; in the Hart-
ford Convention, 107.

Matchett, Charles H., nominated for
Vice-President, 1892, 513 ; nominated

for President, 1896, 541; popular
votes for, 567.

Mexico, and Texas, 226 ; war with, in
platforms and politics, 227, 230, 234,
249.

Michigan, admitted to the Union,
184; votes of, how counted in elec-
tion of 1837, 187 ; an elector of, ob-
jected to, in 1877, 390 ; chose electors
by districts, in 1892, 516.

"Middle of the Road" populists,

550.

Military interference with elec-
tions. See Elections.

Mills hill, tariff, 459, 468, 471, 473,
482.

Milton, John, votes for, in 1789,27.
Minnesota, admitted to the Union,
296.

Minority Presidents, 17.
Mississippi, admitted to the Union,

118; votes of, in 1872, objected to,

354.
Missouri, question of admission to

the Union, 116, 118 ; controversy over

its vote in 1820, 118 ; its vote in 1872,

354.

Missouri Compromise, repeal of, 260,

271.

Monroe doctrine, 268, 300, 303, 476,

496, 520, 535, 546.

Monroe, James, diplomatic services
abroad, 86, 88 ; candidate for Presi-
dent, in 1808, 89, 90; persuaded to
withdraw, 92; votes for, as Vice-
President, in 1808, 95 ; opposition to,
in 1816, 108 ; nominated, 109 ; elected,
112; inauguration, 114; reelected,
118 ; second inauguration, 120.

Montana, admitted to the Union, 487.

Morey letter, 416.

Morris, Gouverneur, 3, 6, 12, 34, 58,

78, 83, 101, 111.

Morris, Thomas, nominated for Vice-
President, 216.

Morrison, William E., tariff bill,
458 ; votes for, as candidate for Pre-
sident, 505.

Morton, Levi P., nominated for Vice-
President, 479; elected, 483; in the
canvass of 1896, 527 ; votes for, as
candidate for President, 538.

Morton, Oliver P., proposes amend-
ment to the Constitution, 358 ; caiv?
didateior Presidential nomination,

INDEX

581

361, 368, 373 ; member of the electoral
commission, 387.

"Mugwumps," or independent Re-
publicans, 419, 432, 446, 457; de-
nounced by Republican convention,
477.

Murchison, Charles F. (fictitious
name), letter to Lord Sackville,
482.

"Narrow gauge" Prohibitionists,

528.

National Banks. See Banks.

National Democratic party (of
1896), origin of, 550, 557 ; convention,
558.

National party. See Greenback
party.

National party (of 1896), 530.

National Republican party, conven-
tion of, in 1831, 157 ; fusion with Anti-
Masons, 163; merged with Whig
party, 180.

National Silver party, convention of

1896, 555.

Native Americans, the party of, 231 ;
revival of, 259; convention of 1856,
261 ; condemned by Democratic con-
vention, 266.

Navigation laws and free ships, in
politics and platforms, 414, 431, 439,
476, 496, 534, 559.

Nebraska, act to admit as a State,
vetoed, 315: admitted to the Union,
327 ; an elector objected to, in 1877,
390.

Nevada, an elector for, objected to,

in 1877, 390.

New Hampshire, choice of electors
in, in 1789, 22 ; in 1804, 84 ; calls Dem-
ocratic conventions, 159, 199 ; choice
of electors in, in 1848, 242.

New Jersey, a Democratic manoeuvre
in, in 1804, 94; extraordinary pro-
ceedings in, in 1812, 103 ; vote divided
in I860, 297.

New York, loses its vote in 1789, 23 ;
decided the election of 1800, 59; in
the contest of 1824, 128, 129, 135 ; in
Democratic convention of 1848, 228,
232; its great influence in politics,
15, 59, 229, 447, 449 ; party warfare
and factions in, 23, 86, 100, 228; its
popular vote In 1868, 329.

Nicaragua canalr 476, 497, 502, 535.

North Carolina, peculiar appoint-
ment of electors in, in 1792, 38 ; ap-
points electors by the Legislature,
in 1812, 103, 122.

North Dakota, admitted to the Un-
ion, 487.

Nullification, 154.

Objections to electoral votes. See
Electoral votes, rejection of.

0' Conor, Charles, 305, 339 ; nominated
for President, 350; popular votes
for, 352.

Official returns of elections, discrep-
ancies in, 484, 516, 568.

Ohio, admitted to the Union, 83.

Orders in council, British, 88.

Oregon question, the, 215, 228; the
State of, admitted to the Union, 296;
electoral vote of, in 1876, 381, 390.

Ostend Manifesto, the, 261, 272.

Pacific Railroad, 273, 283, 287, 294.
303.

Palmer, John M., 321, 338, 340 ; elec-
toral votes for, as Vice-President,
in 1872, 353; nominated for Presi
dent, 561 ; popular votes for, 567.

Panama mission, opposed by Ad
ams's political enemies, 143.

Panic, financial, of 1837, 191 ; of 1873,

357.

Parker, Joel, 325; nominated for
Vice-President, 338 ; declines, 339 ; in
canvass of 1876, 379.

Pendleton, George H., nominated for
Vice-President, 305; popular and
electoral votes for, 307 ; in canvass
Of 1868, 316. 321, 325.

Pennsylvania, appointment of elect-
ors in 1800, 60 ; its vote in 1876, 390 ;
its influence in politics, 15, 60, 86, 92,
93, 100, 275.

Pensions, in politics and platforms,

302, 320, 324, 347, 371, 405, 426, 430, 436,
462, 476, 502, 507, 512, 531, 535, 545, 554,
561.

People's party, origin of, 491; con-
vention of 1892, 508; of 1896, 550;
fusion on electors with Democrats,
564.

Pickens, Israel, proposes an amend-
ment to the Constitution, 122.

Pickering, Timothy, 54.

Pierce, Franklin, nominated for
President, 248 ; elected, 257 ; his at>

582

INDEX

titude on the slavery question,
2R0; in the Democratic convention
of 1*80, 264, 265.

Pinckney, Charles, plan of, for an

Executive, 2.
Pinckney, Charles C, votes for, in

1796, 51 ; minister to France, 56 ; re-
fuses to be a party to a treacherous

coalition, 62; votes for, in 1800, 63;

candidate of Federalists for Presi-
dent, in 1804, 83; votes for, in 1804,

84 ; in 1808, 95.
Pinckney, Thomas, candidate for

Vice-President, 44; votes for, in

1796, 51.
Plaquemines, frauds in, 16, 224.
Platforms, party.

Abolition or Liberty party, in 1843,
216.

American, of 1888, 480.

Anti-Monopoly, in 1884, 422.

Barnburners, in 1848, 239.

Constitutional Union, in 1860, 289.

Democratic, in 1840, 199 ; in 1844, 215 ;
in 1848, 234; in 1852, 249; in 1856,
266 ; Of Douglas Wing, in 1860, 283 ;
of Breckinridge Wing, 287 ; in 1864,
304; in 1868, 322; in 1872, 349; of
"Straight" Democrats, 349; in
1876, 374 ; in 1880, 413 ; in 1884, 434 ;
in 1888, 468 ; in 1892, 498 ; in 1896,
542.

Free-soil, in 1848, 239 ; in 1852, 253.

Greenback party, in 1876, 367; in
1880,409; in 1884, 42a

Know-Nothing, in 1856, 261.

Labor-Reformers, in 1872, 336.

Liberal Republicans, in 1872, 341.
: National, in 1896, 530.

National Democratic, in 1896, 558.

National Silver, in 1896, 555.

Native American, in 1856, 261.

People's, in 1892, 509 ; in 1896, 551.

Prohibitionist, in 1872, 339; in 1876,
364; in 1880, 411; in 1884, 441,442;
in 1888, 466 ; in 1892, 505 ; in 1896,
529.

Radical Republican, in 1864, 300.

Republican, in 1856, 271 ; in i860, 291 ;
in 1864, 301 ; in 1868, 318 ; in 1872,
346 ; in 1876, 369 ; in 1880, 403 ; in
1884, 428 ; in 1888, 472 ; in 1892, 494 ;
in 1896, 533.

Socialist Labor, in 1892, 513 » in 1896,
639.

Union Labor, in 1888, 461.
United Labor, in 1888, 463.
Whig, in 1844, 220; in 1852, 251; in

1856, 273.
Young Men's National Republican,
in 1832, 158.

Pocket veto, 179, 317.

Polk, James K., vote for, as Vice-
President, in 1840, 204; nominated
for President, in 1844, 213 ; elected,
223; his inauguration, 225; his ad-
ministration, 227; jealousy of, to-
ward Silas Wright, 229.

Polygamy, in politics and platforms,

364, 371, 405, 419, 430, 442, 466, 475.

Pomeroy, Samuel C, nominated for
President, 442.

Popular Sovereignty, 258, 280.

Popular votes for President, in 1824,
135; in 1828, 148; in 1832, 163; in
1836, 185 ; in 1840, 203 ; in 1844, 223 ;
in 1848, 243 ; in 1852, 257 ; in 1856, 276 ;
in 1860, 297; in 1864, 307; in 1868,
328; in 1872, 352; in 1876, 383; in
1880, 417 ; in 1884, 448 ; in 1888, 483 ;
in 1892, 517 ; in 1896, 567.

Populists. See People's party.

President of the United States,
method of election of, 2-9, 68, 71, 77-
82, 121, 140, 358, 394 ; proposed elec-
tion of, by direct popular vote, 3, 13,
154, 300, 358, 365, 394, 396, 397, 431,
442, 553 ; length of term of office of,
9, 153, 395; reeligibility of, l, 2, 5,
153, 221, 300, 337, 343, 395, 513 ; third
term, 360, 402, 546; resignation of,
38; special elections in case of va-
cancy, 37, 395 ; succession to the of-
fice, 37, 450.

Prohibitionist party, convention of
1872, 339 ; of 1876, 364 ; of 1880, 411 ; of
1884, 441, 442 ; of 1888, 465 ; Of 1892,
505 ; Of 1896, 529.

Protection of American industry,

in politics and platforms. See Tariff.
Public debt, the, in politics and plat-

forms, 303, 316, 319, 322, 370, 409, 422,

462.
Public lands. See Land, public.

Radical Republicans, convention of
1864, 299.

Railroads, land grants to, see iawcf,
public ; regulation or public owner-
ship of, in politics and platforms,

INDEX

583

337, 364, 410, *22, 425, 430, 461, 474, 506,
512, 513, 531, 540, 552.

Handolph, Edmund, plan for an Ex-
ecutive, 2.

Bandolph, John, opposition to Jeffer-
son, 87 ; makes an objection, 95 ; on
the count of Missouri vote, in 1821,
119, 120.

Readjusters of Virginia, 417.

Reannexation. See Texas.

Reciprocity treaties, in politics and

platforms, 490, 495, 500, 534.

Reconstruction of rebellious States,
in politics and platforms, 301, 308,
313, 318, 333.

Red bandanna, 472.

Reed, Thomas B., Speaker, and the
rules of the House, 487; votes for,
as candidate for President, 1892, 497 ;
in the canvass of 1896, 527 ; votes for,
as candidate for President, 538.

Reeligibility of a President. See
President.

Reid, Whitelaw, nominated for Vice-
President, 498 ; popular and electoral
votes for, 517.

Rejection of electoral votes. See
Electoral votes.

Removal of deposits from the Bank
of the United States, 178.

Removals from office, in politics
and platforms. See Civil Service Re-
form.

Republican party, creation of the,
260 ; convention of 1856, 269 ; Of I860,
290 ; Of 1864, 301 ; of 1868, 318 ; of 1872,
345 ; Of 1876, 368 ; of 1880, 402 ; of 1884,
427 ; Of 1888, 472 ; of 1892, 494 ; of 1896,
532.

Republican party (Jeffersonian),
ilrst known as Anti-Federalist, nom-
inates Jefferson and Burr, in 1796,
44 ; its triumph in 1800, 63 ; see De-
mocratic party.

Resignation of President. See Pre-
sident.

Resumption of specie payments, in
politics and platforms, 333, 343, 366,
367, 370, 372, 375, 376, 379, 401.

Returns of electors. See Electoral
System.

Rhode Island, an elector for, objected
to, in 1877, 391.

Riddle, Haywood T., proposes an
amendment to the Constitution, 396.

Rives, William C, 182, 195 [note],

289.

Rodney, Daniel, votes for, as Vice-
President, in 1820, 121.

Ross, James, votes for, as Vice-Presi-
dent, in 1816, 112.

" Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,"

447.

Rush, Richard, vote for, as Vice-
President, in 1820, 118, 121; nomi-
nated in 1828, 146 ; votes for, 149.

Russell, John, nominated for Vice-
President, 340.

Rutledgre, John, votes for, in 1789, 27.

Sackville, Lord, British minister, 482.

St. John, John P., nominated for
President, 446; popular votes for,
448.

Sampson, Ezekiel S., proposes
amendment to the Constitution, 396.

Sanford, Nathan, proposes amend-
ment to the Constitution, 122 ; votes
for, as Vice-President, in 1824, 140.

Santo Domingo, annexation of, 333.

" Scallawasrs," 357.

Schools, public, in politics and plat-
forms, 364, 371, 475, 502, 507, 514, 531,
540.

Scott, Winfield, votes for, in Whig
convention, 1848, 237 ; in canvass of
1852, 247; nominated for President,
251 ; popular and electoral votes for,
257.

Seceded States, electoral votes of, re-
jected, 309, 329.

Secession, 298.

Sergeant, John, nominated for Vice-
President, 157 ; electoral votes for,
164.

Sewall, Arthur, nominated for Vice-
President by the Democrats, 549;
votes for, in Populist convention,
554; nominated by National Silver
party, 557 ; popular votes for, 667 ;
electoral votes for, 568.

Seward, William H., his relations
with Taylor and Fillmore, 247 ; in
the canvass of 1856, 270 ; in the can-
vass of I860, 290, 294.

Seymour, Horatio, 304, 305. 321 ; nom-
inated for President, 32fi ; his politi-
cal position, 327 ; popular and elec-
toral votes for, 328 ; in canvass of
1880, 412.

584

INDEX

Sherman, John, 402, 407, 408, 427, 432,

47*, 47'.).

Sherman silver purchase act, 490,

501, 521 ; repealed, 522.
Silver question, the, in politics and

platforms, 306, 308, 401, 409, 413, 430,
437, 462, 475, 490, 494, 495, 501, 506, 508,
611, 521, 526, 529, 531, 532, 535, 537, 541,
^43, 547, 551, 555, 559.

Slavery, in politics and platforms,
115, 200, 202, 216, 226, 236, 239, 249, 252-
264, 258, 262, 206, 271, 273, 279, 283, 287,
292, 299, 300, 302.

Smith, Gerrit, nominated for Presi-
dent, 232.

Smith, Green Clay, nominated for
President, 364.

Smith, William, votes for, as Vice-
President, in 1828, 149 ; in 1836, 188.

Socialist Lahor party, 513, 538.

"Softs," Democratic faction, in New
York, 264, 282.

Soldiers' vote, in 1864, 307.

" Solid South," 105, 406, 447.

South Carolina, appointment of elec-
tors by the Legislature, 148, 164;
abandons the system, 327 ; vote of
1876 disputed, 381, 391.

South Dakota admitted to the Union,
487.

Souther ate. James H., nominated for
Vice-President, 532.

Spain, relations with, 520, 536.

Special elections of president. See
President

Specie circular, Jackson's, 179.

Specie payments, resumption of. See
Resumption.

Spoils System, and civil service, in
politics and platforms. See Civil
Service Reform.

Springer, William M., proposes an
amendment to the Constitution, 395.

" Squatter Sovereignty." See Pop-
ular Sovereignty.

" Stalwarts," a faction of the [Repub-
lican party, 419.

Stampede, rules for prevention of,

174, 369, 468.

Stanton, Edwin M., contest with
President Johnson, 315, 405, 430.

8tar-route frauds, 419.

State rights, in politics and plat-
forms, 75, 106, 180.

Stevenson, Adlai E., nominated for

Vice-President, 505; elected, 511 1
votes for, as candidate for Presi-
dent, 1896, 549.

Stewart, G. T., nominated for Vice.
President, 364.

Stockton, Richard, votes for, as Vice
President, in 1820, 121.

Streeter, A. J., nominated for Presi-
dent, 463 ; popular votes for, 483.

Succession to the presidency. See
President.

Sumner, Charles, 270; opposes Grant,
334.

Tammany Haa, 228, 363, 412, 433, 446,

515.
Tariff, the, in politics and platforms,
108, 115, 143, 154, 158, 200, 220, 227, 252,
268, 293, 336, 343, 347, 350, 371, 376, 405,
416, 419, 423, 426, 429, 436, 442, 444, 458,
466, 467, 473, 480, 489, 494, 499, 504, 506,
508, 523, 531, 533, 544, 558.

Tariff commission of 1882, 419.

Taylor, Zachary, movement in his
favor, 230 ; recommended by Native
Americans, 231 ; nominated for Pres-
ident, by Whig party, 237; elected,
243 ; his conduct in office, 244 ; dies,
246.

Tazewell, L. W., named for Vice-
President, in 1840, 199; electoral
votes for, 204.

Telfair, Edward, votes for, in 1789,

27.

Teller, Henry M., 537, 538; votes for,

as candidate for President, 549.
Tennessee, admitted to the Union, 47 ;

legislature nominates Jackson, 144 j

its vote not counted in 1864, 311.
Tenure of office act, 315, 457.
Term of the president! al office. See

President.
Texas, annexation of, 209, 215, 226,

227 ; State of, admitted to the Union.

242; vote of, in 1872, objected to

354.

Third term for a President. See

President.
Thompson, A. M., nominated foe

Vice-President, 411.
Thurman, Allen G., 379, 387, 423, i40;

his red bandanna, 472; nominated

for Vice-President, 472 ; popular and

electoral votes for, 483.
Tilden. Samuel J., 363, 37*: nocd.

INDEX

585

nated for President, 379; popular
votes for, 383; electoral votes for,
392 ; in canvass of 1880, 411 ; in can-
vass Of 1884, 439.

Time of appointing electors. See
Electors.

Tippecanoe, the hero of, 196.

Tompkins, Daniel D., proposed for
President, 1816, 109; nominated for
Vice-President, 110; elected, 112; re-
elected, 121.

Treasury circular, Jackson's, 179.

Trusts, in politics and platforms, 463,
466, 474, 496, 500, 507, 545.

Tweed ringr, 329, 363.

Twenty - second joint rule. See

Electoral votes.

Two-thirds rule, in Democratic con-
ventions, 161, 175, 182, 212, 233, 284,
286,288,433.

Tyler, John, favors a caucus nomina-
tion, 1824, 128; nominated for Vice-
President, 1836, 183 ; electoral votes
for, 188; nominated by Whigs, 195;
elected, 204 ; becomes President, 207 ;
his breach with the Whigs, 207;
nominated for reelection and with-
draws, 221.

Union Labor party, convention of

1888, 460.

United Americans, order of, 259.

United Labor party, convention of
1888, 463.

Unit rule, in conventions, 173, 374,
403, 433.

Utah, Territory of, 246 ; State of, fu-
sion in, 565 ; its first vote for Presi-
dent, 567, 568.

Van Buren, Martin, his first appear-
ance in politics, 100; in caucus of
1824, 131; votes for, as Vice-Presi-
dent, in 1824, 140; political mission
in the south, 144 ; rejected as Minis-
ter to England, 155 ; candidate for
Vice-President, 155; nominated by
the Democrats, 161 ; elected, 164 ;
nominated for President, 182 ; popu-
lar votes for, 185 ; elected, 188 ; his
inauguration, 188; estimate of his
character, 190; his opposition to
banks, 192 ; renominated, 201 ; popu-
lar votes for, 203 ; defeated, 204 ; the
Democratic favorite for 1844, 206;

his letter on Texas, 210; defeated
by the two -thirds rule, 212, 213;
praised by Democratic convention,
216 ; nominated by " Barnburners,"
238; by Free-soilers, 239; popular
votes for, 243.

Venezuela, President Cleveland's ac-
tion, 520.

Vermont, admitted to the Union, 38 ;
disputed validity of its votes, 52 ; its
electoral vote of 1876, 391.

Veto, " pocket," 179 ; power, in plat-
forms, 215 ; Mr. Johnson's numerous
vetoes, 315; Mr. Cleveland's use of
the, 458.

Vice-President, the office of, sug-
gested, 7; abolition of the office
proposed, 79; method of electing,
changed, 80 ; elected by the Senate,
187.

Virginia, and Kentucky resolutions,
Of 1788 and 1789, 57. 249, 267 ; adopts
general ticket system in 1800, 60;
the "Virginia dynasty," 89, 106.

Voorhees, Daniel W., 305, 522.

Wakefield, W. H. T., nominated for
Vice-President, 465.

War Democrats, 298, 306, 356.

War of 1812, 98, 106.

Washington, George, universal
choice for first President, 24; ac-
quiesces in the choice of Adams for
Vice-President, 25; election pro-
claimed, 30 ; first inauguration, 31 :
reelected in 1792, 39 ; second inaugu-
ration, 41 ; opposes " Citizen " Genet,
42 ; supports the Jay treaty, 43 ; de-
clines a third term, 44; Farewell
Address of, 45 ; votes for, in 1796, 51 ;
attempt to elect him in 1800, 58.

Washington, State of, admitted to
the Union, 487.

Watson. Thomas E., nominated for
Vice-President, 554; his position in
the canvass of 1896, 562, 564 ; popu-
lar votes for, 567; electoral votes
for, 568.

Weaver, James B., nominated for
President, 1880, 411; popular votes
for, 417; nominated for President,
1892,513 ; popular and electoral votes
for, 517.

Webster, Daniel, elector for Monroe,
in 1820, 118; nominated for Presi-

586

INDEX

dent, in 1836, 183; popular votes for,
185; electoral votes for, 188; in can-
vass of 1848, 230; votes for, in Whig
convention, 237 ; the compromises of
1860, 245 ; in canvass of 1852, 247 ; un-
successful manoeuvre to nominate
him, 250; popular votes for, 25,.

West, A. M., 423 ; nominated for Vice-
President, 427.

West Virginia, the State of, formed,

308.

Wheeler, William A., nominated for
Vice-President, 373; elected, 393.

Whig* party, origin of, 179: attitude
of, on the Bank, 184, 192 ; convention
of 1839, 193; disclaims responsibil-
ity for Tyler's acts, 207 ; convention
Of 1844, 220 ; of 1848, 237 ; Of 1852, 250 ;
moribund after the election of 1852,
258 ; convention of 1856, 273.

Whiskey insurrection, 42.

Whiskey ring", 357, 363.

White, Hugh L., nominated for Pres-
ident, 183; popular votes for, 185;
electoral votes for, 188.

Wilkins, William, nominated for
Vice-President, 160; electoral votes
for, 164.

Wilmot proviso, 23a

Wilson, Henry, 318, 321, 345; nom.
inated for Vice - President, 348 ;
elected, 352.

Wilson, James, proposes electors, 4.

Wilson tariff bill, 524.

Wing, Simon, nominated for Presi-
dent, 513 ; popular votes for, 517.

Wirt, William, nominated for Presi-
dent, by anti- Masonic party, 166;
electoral votes for, 164.

Wisconsin, admitted to the Union,
242 ; disputed electoral votes, in
1857, 275 ; in 1877, 391.

Woman suffrage, in politics and

platforms, 340, 348, 371, 426, 441, 445,
462, 466, 467,' 506, 514, 530, 536.

Wood, Fernando, 282.

Wool, tariff on, 429, 473, 524, 534.

Wright, Silas, nominated, and de-
clines, as Vice-President, 213; war
upon him in New York, 229 ; dies,
230.

Wyoming, State of, admitted to the
Union, 518.

Yancey. William L., resolution of
fered by, 236.

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