THE GARFIELD-HANCOCK CONTEST

1880

The greatest battle ever fought in a national convention was witnessed at Chicago where the Republican National Convention met on June 2, 1880. Grant had made his journey around the world, received the homage of the highest rulers of every clime, and returned to be greeted with a degree of popular enthusiasm that had never before been given to any citizen of the Republic. During Grant’s absence his friends had made tireless efforts to organize his forces in all the States, and the friends of Blaine, who fought this battle royal with the friends of Grant, had been equally earnest and ceaseless to give Blaine the victory. It was indeed a battle of giants, and the auditorium in which the convention was held was the most impressive picture I have ever witnessed. There were not less than ten thousand spectators in addition to the full delegations and alternates from the States. Neither of the opposing chieftains ever had a majority in the body, but for a week they stood up face to face with unbroken lines and belligerent leaders in hand-to-hand conflict.

Among the delegates were Conkling, Garfield, Harrison, Logan, and many other conspicuous and able leaders of the opposing factions. Blaine’s people, with the aid of the field, weakened Grant’s lines by preventing the unit rule in any delegation, whereby Grant lost a considerable number of votes in New York, Pennsylvania, and other States. That was a test of the distinctive Grant strength in the body. Conkling opened the nominations by presenting the name of Grant, and he did it in imperial grandeur and with a degree of eloquence that was most impressive. Next to the speech of Ingersoll, who nominated Blaine in 1876, Conkling’s appeal for the nomination of Grant will stand as the ablest of all the many able deliverances in the history of American politics. I sat quite close to him on the platform when he delivered it, and he was a most interesting study. Had he been as discreet as he was eloquent, it would have been a perfect exhibition of impressive oratory; but Conkling was inspired not only by his love of Grant, but more influenced than he confessed to himself by an intense hatred of Blaine, that he cherished until his death.

JAMES A. GARFIELD

He mortally offended every friend of Blaine, and thereby made it impossible even to win the hesitating men in the Blaine ranks by his keen and pungent fling at the delegates who disregarded their instructions to vote as a unit for Grant, and by his aggressive assault upon Blaine when he referred to Grant as a candidate “without patronage, without emissaries, without committees, without bureaus, without telegraph wires running from his house to this convention or running from his house anywhere.” Unlike the Ingersoll speech nominating Blaine in 1876, the speech of Conkling, able, eloquent, and grand as it was, left Grant weaker, instead of stronger.

Very general interest centred in General Garfield, who was at the head of the Ohio delegation, that was instructed for Senator Sherman for President. Garfield knew the situation; he knew that a third candidate must eventually be accepted, and he illy concealed his efforts to advance himself, while ostensibly struggling for Sherman. His speech nominating Sherman was a plea for peace rather than an aggressive presentation of Sherman’s claims, and it was well understood that his plea for peace was, in fact, a plea for himself. At various stages of the balloting tidal waves of enthusiasm would start for Garfield, and he narrowly escaped a spontaneous nomination. He was personally very popular, of imposing presence, a most accomplished speaker, and he was finally accepted by the friends of Blaine because he was not the partisan of either Blaine or Grant, and also because they could certainly win with him, and thus defeat Grant.

The convention became weary of what was evidently an equal contest between the Grant and Blaine forces, and all who were not intensely enlisted in the factional fight were glad to end the bitter struggle by accepting Garfield. Grant’s memorable 306 stood by him and never lowered their flag until they were defeated and fell with their faces to the foe.

Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, was the permanent president of the convention, and it was a battle of giants, lasting well in to the second week. Mr. Joy, who presented the name of Blaine to the convention, grievously disappointed the friends of the Plumed Knight. His advocacy of his chief was tame compared with the masterly orations of Conkling and Garfield, but his friends were in admirable fighting trim, and no such heroic struggle as that between Blaine and Grant has ever been recorded in the history of American politics. Conkling was chairman of his delegation, and was offensively imperious in every announcement that he made to the convention. His delegation had been instructed to vote a unit for Grant, but the convention had unshackled the delegates by allowing each one to cast his vote according to his choice, and Conkling in announcing the vote for Blaine in New York always did it with a sneer, and often with offensive expression. A ballot was not reached until Monday of the second week in the convention, and for two days the extraordinary spectacle was presented of Grant and Blaine holding their forces with but little variation, until the Blaine column finally broke for Garfield. The following table presents the ballots in detail:

BALLOTS.James A. Garfield.Ulysses S. Grant.James G. Blaine.John Sherman.Elihu B. Washburne.George F. Edmunds.William Windom.Rutherford B. Hayes.George W. McCrary.Roscoe Conkling.John F. Hartranft.Edmund J. Davis.Philip H. Sheridan.Benjamin Harrison.Total.Necessary to a choice.
1st—30428493313410———————755378
2d130528294313210———————755378
3d130528293313210——————1755378
4th130528195313210——————1755378
5th130528195313210——————1755378
6th230528095313210———————755378
7th230528194313210———————755378
8th130628491323110———————755378
9th230828290323110———————755378
10th2305282923231101——————755378
11th2305281933231101——————755378
12th1304283923331101——————755378
13th130528589333110—1—————755378
14th—30528589353110———————755378
15th—30928188363110———————755378
16th—30628388363110———————754378
17th—30328490363110————1——755378
18th—30528391353110———————755378
19th130527996323110———1———755378
20th130827693353110———1———755378
21st130527696353110———1———755378
22d130527597353110———1———755378
23d230427597363110———————755378
24th230527993353110———————755378
25th230228194353110———————755378
26th230328093363110———————755378
27th230627793363110———————755378
28th230727991353110———————755378
29th230527811635127———————755378
30th230627912033114—————1—755378
31st130827611837113——1————755378
32d130927011744113———————755378
33d130927611044114———————755378
34th1731227510730114———————756379
35th503132579923113———————756379
36th3993064235—————————755378

While it was generally expected that the convention would eventually stampede to Garfield, the movement was given vitality and form by the Wisconsin delegation. The only name prominently discussed as a compromise candidate in addition to that of Garfield was the name of Senator Windom, of Minnesota, who had received the vote of his State from the start. In a caucus of the delegation a small majority of the Wisconsin delegation voted to prefer Garfield to Windom, and that movement started the tide that gave the victory to Garfield. It is quite possible that if Wisconsin had declared for Windom, instead of Garfield, as it failed to do by only a very few votes, Windom might have been made the candidate, as he occupied a very strong position in the party, was free from factional alliances, and probably would have been quite as strong a candidate with the people as Garfield. When the Wisconsin delegation decided to break the deadlock by accepting Garfield, it opened the door for the wearied anti-Grant gladiators to find speedy and gratifying refuge. Grant’s column stood to him with marvellous fidelity. He started with 304 votes, never fell below 302, never rose above 313, and ended on the final ballot with 306. The nomination of Garfield was made unanimous amidst the wildest enthusiasm.

Senator Conkling was in violent temper over the defeat of Grant, and when he was asked to name a candidate for Vice-President he at first petulantly refused to do so, but some of his more deliberate friends suggested the name of Chester A. Arthur, who was in the delegation. Arthur had acted as chairman during part of the balloting when Conkling was absent, and his dignified and manly manner of announcing the vote of his State contrasted very favorably with the offensive manner of Conkling. Conkling assented to rather than dictated the nomination of Arthur, and the 1st ballot for Vice-President was as follows:

Chester A. Arthur, N. Y.468
Elihu B. Washburne, Ill.199
Marshall Jewell, Conn.43
Horace Maynard, Tenn.30
Edmund J. Davis, Texas20
Blanche K. Bruce (Col.), Miss.8
James L. Alcorn, Miss.4
Thomas Settle, Fla.2
Stewart L. Woodford, N. Y.1

CHESTER A. ARTHUR

The nomination was promptly made unanimous. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

The Republican party in national convention assembled, at the end of twenty years since the Federal Government was first committed 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 millions 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, 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 besides 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 charge from nearly one hundred and fifty-one million dollars 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 immense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace regained should be cherished; that the dissevered Union, now happily restored, should be perpetuated, and that the liberties secured to this generation should be transmitted undiminished to future generations; that the order established and the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof; that the reviving 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 delegated 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 while each State is exposed to its domination. We therefore recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon 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 adoption; and that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our watercourses and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private persons or corporations must cease; that the obligations 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 Republican 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 enactment of such just, humane and reasonable provisions as will produce 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 Presidential 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 obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage, and have devised fraudulent certifications and returns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Congress, 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 Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine’s patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, 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 endeavored 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 protected against terrorism, violence, or fraud.

And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican 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 interests 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 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 co-operation 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.

General Grant had become intensely interested in the contest for a third term, and he had every reason to believe that it would be accorded to him. Foreign travel and intelligent observation had greatly enlarged his narrow political ideas and tempered his political asperities, and he would undoubtedly have made a much better President than ever he did before. But the unwritten law of the nation confronted him, declaring that no man could fill the Presidential chair for a longer period than did George Washington. It was that sentiment that decided the contest against him.

He was at his home in Galena, not far from Chicago, during the sessions of the convention, but while he was advised of what transpired from day to day, he gave no directions and made no suggestions to his friends. He had the ablest galaxy of leaders that ever appeared in a national convention in support of any one candidate, and he trusted them implicitly. On the morning after the convention adjourned he came to Chicago, and I met him at the Palmer House, where he had come to confer with his discomfited friends. His face gave no sign of the disappointment he had suffered. He met his friends in even a more genial way than was his custom. He expressed himself as entirely content with the decision of the convention, and greatly appreciated the support that had been given him. He never looked better in his life, and while I could not congratulate him, I could truthfully express my gratification at seeing him the picture of health and comfort.

He was then in entire accord with his leading friends in their purpose to prevent the election of Garfield, and for two months after the campaign opened Garfield would have been overwhelmingly beaten, but after Conkling’s conference with Garfield in Ohio, Grant’s friends gave a most zealous support to Garfield’s election, and barely saved him by the aid of Tammany’s betrayal of Hancock.

The Democratic National Convention met at Cincinnati on the 22d of June, with John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, as permanent president. The dispute over contested seats lasted until the second day. Massachusetts, that had never voted for a Democratic candidate for President, put up the fiercest fight between disputing delegations, and New York had a bitter factional quarrel between delegations chosen by the regular Democrats and another chosen by the Tammany people. The Tammany followers, under the lead of John Kelly, were very vindictive in their opposition to Tilden, openly declaring that they would not support Tilden if nominated, and the Tammany delegation was rejected. The position of Tilden was regarded as doubtful until well on in the second day of the contest, when an elaborate letter from him was read to the convention withdrawing his name. The letter had been prepared by Tilden and given to a trusted friend to use it only if it became evident that Tilden could not be again nominated, or that he could not be elected if nominated. The judgment of his most dispassionate friends was that he might be nominated, but that he could not be elected, with the fierce opposition of Tammany and his failure to assert his right to the Presidency in 1877.

After Tilden’s withdrawal the contest was really between Hancock and Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. If the Tilden strength had been concentrated on Randall at the opening of the convention, his nomination would have been within the range of probability, but even after Tilden withdrew he hesitated until the 2d ballot before he gave Randall any support. Bayard was a close second to Hancock on the 1st ballot, but he was at no time within sight of a nomination.

It was on this occasion that the late Daniel Dougherty made the most eloquent speech of his life, presenting the name of Hancock to the convention. He was not a member of the delegation, but was called into it for the purpose on the morning of the day that the nomination was to be made. He hurried around to my room at the St. Nicholas, as he hesitated about accepting the duty assigned him. He always prepared his important speeches and memorized them. I earnestly urged him to go at once to his room and write a short speech and be prepared to deliver it. He finally decided to do so, and in a speech of not over twenty minutes he delivered the greatest oration of his life.

Only two ballots were had for President, and on the second Hancock was so largely in the lead, having 320 to 128¹⁄₂ for Randall, that the delegations began to change their votes until Hancock had 705 to 33 for all others. The following table gives the ballots in detail:

CANDIDATES.First.Second.After changes.
Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania171320705
Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware153¹⁄₂1132
Henry B. Payne, Ohio81——
Allen G. Thurman, Ohio68¹⁄₂50—
Stephen J. Field, California6565¹⁄₂—
William R. Morrison, Illinois62——
Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana50¹⁄₂3130
Samuel J. Tilden, New York3861
Horatio Seymour, New York8——
Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania—128¹⁄₂—
Scattering3122—

As Indiana was one of the debatable States, William H. English, of that State, was nominated for Vice-President, with only Richard M. Bishop, of Ohio, named against him. Before the ballot had proceeded to any considerable extent, Bishop’s name was withdrawn, and English given a unanimous nomination. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

The Democrats of the United States, in convention assembled, declare—

1. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teachings and example of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the platform of the last national convention of the party.

2. Opposition to centralizationism and to that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever be the form of government, a real despotism. No sumptuary laws; separation of Church and State for the good of each; common schools fostered and protected.

3. Home rule; honest money, consisting of gold and silver, and paper convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the public faith, State and national; and a tariff for revenue only.

4. The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a general and thorough reform of the civil service.

5. The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all rights, and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States.

6. The existing administration is the representative of conspiracy only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops and deputy marshals, to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insult the people and imperil their institutions.

7. The grand fraud of 1876–77, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be President, and, for the first time in American history, the will of the people was set aside under a threat of military violence, struck a deadly blow at our system of representative government; the Democratic party, to preserve the country from a civil war, submitted for a time in firm and patriotic faith that the people would punish this crime in 1880; this issue precedes and dwarfs every other; it imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever addressed the conscience of a nation of freemen.

8. We execrate the course of this administration in making places in the civil service a reward for political crime, and demand a reform by statute which shall make it forever impossible for the defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people.

9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candidate for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States with sensibility, and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriotism, and integrity, unshaken by the assaults of a common enemy, and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who regard him as one who, by elevating the standards of public morality, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and his party.

10. Free ships and a living chance for American commerce on the seas and on the land. No discrimination in favor of transportation lines, corporations, or monopolies.

11. Amendment of the Burlingame treaty. No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded.

12. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and public land for actual settlers.

13. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorant and the commune.

14. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditure forty million dollars a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and the national honor abroad; and, above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the Government as shall insure us genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service.

The National Greenback party held its national convention at Chicago on the 9th of June, with Richard Trevellick, of Michigan, as permanent president. A single ballot was had for President, resulting as follows:

James B. Weaver, Iowa.224¹⁄₂
Henry B. Wright, Penn.126¹⁄₂
Stephen D. Dillaye, N. Y.119
Benj. F. Butler, Mass.95
Solon Chase, Maine.89
Edward P. Allis, Wis.41
Alexander Campbell, Ill.21

Before the vote was finally announced delegations speedily changed their votes to Weaver, and he was declared unanimously chosen as the candidate. B. B. Chambers, of Texas, was nominated for Vice-President by 403 votes to 311 for Allanson M. West, of Mississippi. The following platform was adopted:

1. That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power to be maintained by the people for the common benefit. The delegation of this right to corporations is a surrender of the central attribute of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring upon a subordinate irresponsible power absolute dominion over industry and commerce. All money, whether metallic or paper, should be issued and its volume controlled by the Government, and not by or through banking corporations, and, when so issued, should be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private.

2. That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, but paid as rapidly as practicable, according to contract. To enable the Government to meet these obligations, legal tender currency should be substituted for the notes of the national banks, the national banking system abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver, as well as gold, established by law.

3. That labor should be so protected by national and State authority as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution of its results; the eight-hour law of Congress should be enforced; the sanitary condition of industrial establishments placed under rigid control; the competition of contract labor abolished; a bureau of labor statistics established; factories, mines, and workshops inspected; the employment of children under fourteen years of age forbidden; and wages paid in cash.

4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being simply slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs necessarily tends to brutalize and degrade American labor; therefore immediate steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame treaty.

5. Railroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfilment of contract should be immediately reclaimed by Government; and henceforth the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for actual settlers.

6. It is the duty of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. All lines of communication and transportation should be brought under such legislative control as shall secure moderate, fair, and uniform rates for passenger and freight traffic.

7. We denounce, as destructive to prosperity and dangerous to liberty, the action of the old parties in fostering and sustaining gigantic land, railroad, and money corporations, invested with, and exercising, powers belonging to the Government, and yet not responsible to it for the manner of their exercise.

8. That the Constitution, in giving Congress the power to borrow money, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their money for an interest consideration should be preferred to the soldier and sailor who perilled their lives and shed their blood on land and sea in defence of their country; and we condemn the cruel class legislation of the Republican party, which, while professing great gratitude to the soldier, has most unjustly discriminated against him and in favor of the bondholder.

9. All property should bear its just proportion of taxation; and we demand a graduated income tax.

10. We denounce as most dangerous the efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the right of suffrage.

11. We are opposed to an increase of the standing army in time of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous military power under the guise of militia laws.

12. We demand absolute democratic rules for the government of Congress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater than that of the President.

13. We demand a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, instead of a government of the bondholders, by the bondholders, and for the bondholders; and we denounce every attempt to stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous crimes against the people.

14. In the furtherance of these ends, we ask the co-operation of all fair-minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, wage no war upon classes, but only against vicious institutions. We are not content to endure further discipline from our present actual rulers, who, having dominion over money, over transportation, over land and labor, and largely over the press and the machinery of government, wield unwarrantable power over our institutions, and over our life and property.

15. That every citizen of due age, sound mind, and not a felon, be fully enfranchised, and that this resolution be referred to the States, with recommendation for their favorable consideration.

The Prohibition convention met at Cleveland on the 17th of June. The platform was substantially a repetition of the platform of 1876, and General Neal Dow, of Maine, was presented for President, and A. M. Thompson, of Ohio, for Vice-President.

The few scattered fragments of the American party held a convention on the 27th of June, and nominated John W. Phelps, of Vermont, for President, and Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, for Vice-President. Their platform declared against secret societies, Freemasonry in particular, and all other anti-Christian movements. The party was not heard of in the contest.

The Presidential contest of 1880 was remarkable for the absence of bitterness or vituperation. Garfield and Hancock were both highly respected, and I cannot recall a struggle for the Presidency that exhibited less of the asperities which are usually displayed in the struggle for the political control of the nation. Hancock was beaten on the popular vote by a majority of but little over 7000, and he lost his election by Tammany failing to give him a cordial support in New York.

The following table presents the popular and electoral vote of 1880:

STATES.Popular Vote.Electoral Vote.
James A. Garfield, Ohio.Winfield S. Hancock, Penn.James B. Weaver, Iowa.Neal Dow, Maine.Garfield.Hancock.
Maine74,03965,171[28]4,408937—
New Hampshire44,85240,7945281805—
Vermont45,56718,3161,215——5—
Massachusetts165,205111,9604,54868213—
Rhode Island18,19510,779236204—
Connecticut67,07164,4158684096—
New York555,544534,51112,3731,51735—
New Jersey120,555122,5652,617191—9
Pennsylvania444,704407,42820,6681,93929—
Delaware14,13315,275120———3
Maryland78,51593,706818———8
Virginia84,020128,586[29]—————11
West Virginia46,24357,3919,079———5
North Carolina115,874124,2681,126———10
South Carolina58,071112,312566———7
Georgia54,086102,470969———11
Florida23,65427,964—————4
Alabama56,22191,1854,642———10
Mississippi34,85475,7505,797———8
Louisiana38,637[30]65,067439———8
Texas57,893156,42827,405———8
Arkansas42,43660,7754,079———6
Missouri153,567208,60935,135———15
Tennessee107,677128,1915,91743—12
Kentucky106,306149,06811,499258—12
Ohio375,048340,8216,4562,61622—
Michigan185,341131,59734,89594211—
Indiana232,164225,52212,986——15—
Illinois318,037277,32126,35844321—
Wisconsin144,400114,6497,9866910—
Minnesota93,90353,3153,2672865—
Iowa183,927105,84532,70159211—
Nebraska54,97928,5233,950——3—
Kansas121,54959,80110,851255—
Colorado27,45024,6471,435——3—
Nevada8,7329,613—————3
California80,34880,4263,892——15
Oregon20,61919,948249——3—
Totals4,454,4164,444,952308,57810,305214155

Garfield possessed more political honors at one time than any other public man in the history of the country. After the November election of 1880, he was the Congressman from his district; he was United States Senator-elect, having been chosen by the Ohio Legislature in January of the same year, and he was President-elect. He had many elements of popularity, but was not a courageous leader like Blaine. He was not a strong, aggressive man, although able in debate and one of the most scholarly of our public men. He had a most difficult rôle to fill when he came into the Presidency. Conkling wholly distrusted him when Garfield was first nominated for President, as was clearly evidenced by Conkling failing to call upon Garfield when Garfield made his first visit to New York after the Chicago convention, although he stopped at the same hotel where Conkling was a guest. Later in the campaign Conkling was earnestly urged to visit Garfield, and he made the visit, resulting in the Conkling and Grant forces earnestly supporting Garfield’s election.

General Grant, for the first time in his life, took the stump to aid the Garfield cause; but even after having turned the tide in favor of Garfield’s election, Conkling knew that Garfield was not a self-reliant leader, and after the appointment of Blaine to the Cabinet, with whom Conkling had no relations whatever, private or official, Conkling had little confidence in Garfield fulfilling his pledges made to the friends of Grant. The open breach came when Garfield nominated Robertson for Collector of New York. Robertson was one of the New York delegates to Chicago who voted against Grant, and was one of the most aggressive anti-Conkling men in the State. This appointment was at once charged upon Blaine, but the evidence is conclusive that it was made by Garfield alone, without even a suggestion from Blaine, who certainly did not desire to precipitate a war between the administration of which he was Premier and so formidable a political factor as Conkling. It was simply Garfield’s blunder, made in haste, and it proved very clearly that he was not equipped to meet the political exigencies which confronted him. Conkling blundered even worse than Garfield. He petulantly resigned his seat in the Senate, in which his colleague, Senator Platt (now Senator from New York), joined him, although he had served but a fraction of a year of his full term.

Conkling confidently hoped to be re-elected by the New York Legislature, and he doubtless would have succeeded had not the presiding officer of the Senate, by a very shrewd and simple parliamentary act, postponed the election a week longer than Conkling expected. That delay was fatal, and a protracted and humiliating contest was made by Conkling and Platt, each week both losing prestige and support, until finally the Republicans of the New York Legislature were compelled to cast them both aside and elect new Senators. Vice-President Arthur stood manfully abreast with Conkling, his friend, in his battle at Albany for re-election, but after the failure on the 1st ballot there never was a time when the re-election of Conkling and Platt was possible. Conkling retired from politics utterly disgusted, located in New York, where he very rapidly acquired a lucrative practice, and his tragic death from exposure in the great blizzard of 1888 ended the career of one of the ablest of the statesmen of his day.

Arthur was the fourth Vice-President who succeeded to the Presidency by the death of the President, and he was the second whose honors had come to him by the assassination of his chief. The accession of Arthur created very general distrust in both business and political circles. He was little known beyond his factional conflicts in New York, having been removed from a leading Custom House office by Secretary Sherman. That removal was sustained by the Republican Senate in defiance of the power of Conkling. It was generally assumed that the administration of Arthur, under the lead of Conkling, would be one of political vengeance, and of necessity convulse the party and end Republican power in the nation.

Business interests were disturbed because they feared that Arthur would be a political President with little exhibition of statesmanship, but Arthur rose to the full measure of his responsible duties. While he moved with great caution, to avoid a breach with his own friends, he soon offended Conkling, and gradually won the confidence and respect of the nation to an extent that few Presidents have enjoyed. The Garfield administration had been started on lines that Arthur could not follow, and the retirement of the Garfield Cabinet, with the exception of Robert T. Lincoln, then Secretary of War, was soon accomplished. The prosecution of the Star-Route Postal frauds was the one thing on which Blaine and MacVeagh, the Attorney-General, had decided to make a creditable record for the administration, and while Arthur was quite as honest as Garfield, political necessities compelled him to discourage those prosecutions. Beyond that there was not a blemish on his administration of some three years and a half. He appreciated the fact that the President should be above the rule of faction, and in that he early offended Conkling. He nominated Conkling as Supreme Judge of the United States, but Conkling peremptorily rejected it, and thenceforth the relations between Arthur and Conkling were severely strained.

Arthur was the one of the four Vice-Presidents succeeding to the Presidency who did not change the policy of the administration. He gradually won the esteem of all parties in the land by his dignity, courtesy, and manliness in every emergency that confronted him. He was one of the most genial and delightful of all the Presidents who occupied the White House, and he would doubtless have been nominated for President in 1884 but for the fact that Blaine had that honor safely mortgaged. Arthur was desirous of a nomination, but Blaine was so strong with the leaders and also with the rank and file of the party that he won an easy victory over the President.

The opposition to Arthur in the Republican convention of 1884 was not inspired by hostility to him or to his administration. It was simply the overwhelming Republican sentiment of the country that demanded Blaine as the party candidate for President. I had met President Arthur frequently during his Presidential term, although I never had any political or personal interests to serve. It was always a pleasure to call upon him and enjoy the dignified and cordial welcome he ever gave to visitors. I last saw him on the night of the Cleveland inauguration day, that closed his Presidential term. He was the guest of honor at a dinner given by Senator Cameron, and I was painfully impressed with what I then assumed to be the keen disappointment of Arthur at his retirement from the Presidency. He seemed greatly depressed in spirit and to lack his usual genial and fascinating qualities. It was not long after, however, when it became known that he had retired from the Presidential office the victim of a fatal disease, that exhausted his vitality. He lived a very quiet life, beloved by all who knew him and respected by the whole nation during the brief period between his retirement and his death.