THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST
1876
The Presidential contest of 1876 brought into the national political arena the strongest personality developed by the Republican party, with the single exception of Abraham Lincoln. James G. Blaine was admittedly the Henry Clay of the Republican party, and both were equally idolized and equally fated. The Republican party had men of profounder intellect than Blaine, but no one who so completed the circle of all the qualities of a popular leader, including masterly ability as a disputant. Like Clay, he was idolized by his friends and most bitterly defamed by his foes, and both were twice defeated by their party for Presidential nominations when the party was successful, and both nominated only to suffer defeat.
With an intimate knowledge of the public men of the last half century, I regard Blaine as the most magnetic man I have ever met. His greeting to friend and stranger was always generous without gush, and at once brought all who had any communication with him into apparently the closest relations. He remembered names of the humblest and most distant of his acquaintances; always knew something of their communities and their interests. It was not the art of a demagogue, but the natural impulse of a big-hearted, big-brained enthusiast, and Blaine was an enthusiast in everything that enlisted his interest. When, in addition to these charming personal qualities, he possessed every attribute of a great popular orator, it is not difficult to understand why Blaine became the favorite of the people. Like all who have reached any measure of distinction in that line, he had bitter and malignant foes, and he could well have said of himself, as Clay once did when overcome by an exhibition of the generosity of his friends, who had paid a note that greatly embarrassed him: “Never had man such friends and such enemies as Henry Clay.” The chief difference between Clay and Blaine was in the fact that the masses did not know Clay from personal contact, while the masses well knew Blaine, and saw him as he was in his every-day life as well as in his great achievements in politics and statesmanship. In another respect Blaine differed widely from Clay. Blaine was a fatalist, and from 1876, when he was first defeated for the Republican nomination for President in Cincinnati, until his name was last presented to the Republican National Convention in 1892, he was oppressed, profoundly oppressed, with the belief that he never could be President; while Clay hoped to realize the great dream of his life, and confidently expected his election to the Presidency until his final defeat in the Philadelphia convention of 1848.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
I saw Blaine soon after the Cincinnati convention of 1876, and talked with him for an hour alone at the Continental Hotel, and I well remember the sad expression of his strong face when he said: “I am the Henry Clay of the Republican party; I can never be President.” He was standing by a window looking out upon the street, with his arm over my shoulder, and he spoke of his hopes and fears with a subdued eloquence that was painfully impressive. He was again defeated for nomination in 1880, thus suffering two defeats when the candidates chosen by the convention were elected. He was nominated in 1884 and defeated, thus completing the circle of the sad history of Clay and the Whig party.
Clay was defeated in the Harrisburg convention of December, 1839, by Harrison, who was elected; he was nominated by the Baltimore convention in 1844, and defeated by Polk; and in 1848 he was again defeated for the nomination in the Philadelphia convention by Taylor, who was elected. Thus both Clay and Blaine were twice defeated in their respective party conventions when their successful competitors were elected, and both nominated when their parties suffered defeats. Soon after Blaine’s nomination, in 1884, I sent a brilliant staff correspondent of my paper, who had intimate personal relations with Blaine, to stay with him at Augusta for several weeks. One pleasant afternoon they walked along the banks of the Kennebec River, when Blaine insensibly diverted the conversation into a soliloquy. He said: “Clay was defeated in two conventions when he could have been elected President, and he was nominated for President when his competitor was elected, and that competitor was one who had not been publicly discussed as a Presidential candidate before the meeting of the Baltimore convention of 1844. I was defeated in two conventions when I could have been elected. I am nominated now with a competitor alike obscure with the competitor of Clay.” He then brought the soliloquy to a climax by holding up his hand and repeating what he seemed to regard as talismanic figures, “1844–1884.” Clay was defeated in 1844, and Blaine was impressed with the belief that he would suffer defeat in 1884.
The prospect for Republican success was not flattering at the opening of the campaign of 1876. The Grant administration was severely criticised and the party greatly weakened by the scandals of the Whiskey Ring, the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, and by the general business depression that began in 1873. The Democrats had carried a large majority in the popular branch of Congress in 1874, and the Republicans were so seriously alarmed at the prospect of losing the election of 1876 that Senator Oliver P. Morton, the ablest of the Republican leaders, made an earnest effort to procure an amendment to the Constitution providing for the election of Presidents by popular vote, but the scheme failed. There was also some disturbance in the Republican party, caused by the evident desire of General Grant to secure a third term. He had written a letter to General Harry White, of Pennsylvania, that was very unlike Grant, whose habit was to express his convictions clearly and tersely, but in this letter he elaborately discussed the question of a third term, without distinctly declaring whether he would or would not accept it.
There was but one conclusion that could be drawn from the letter, and that was that Grant was more than willing to have a third nomination tendered to him. The State convention of Pennsylvania, over which General White presided, had declared with emphasis “opposition to the election to the Presidency of any person for a third term.” General White expected a letter from President Grant in accord with that expression, but the nearest that Grant came to a declination was in the single sentence of the letter, speaking of the third term, he said: “I do not want it any more than I did the first,” to which he added the suggestion that the Constitution put no restriction upon the period a President might serve.
Another pointed admonition to Grant not to press his candidacy was given by the adoption of a resolution in the House, declaring that the established precedent of Washington, who retired from the Presidency after the second term, had become “a part of our Republican 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 passed by 234 to 18, and was supported not only by all the Democrats, but of the 88 Republicans voting, 70 voted for it. One of the peculiar features of the contest for the Republican nomination was presented in the candidacy of Benjamin H. Bristow, then Secretary of the Treasury, who was not in harmony with the President, and yet refused to resign. He was the candidate of the most violent anti-Grant element.
The Republican convention met at Cincinnati on the 14th of June, and it was one of the most earnest and stubborn contests I have ever witnessed. Blaine had a clear majority of the delegates in the convention, and certainly would have been nominated with anything like fair play. On the Sunday morning immediately before the meeting of the convention, and when all the delegates and the outside political hustlers were earnestly at work in Cincinnati, a dispatch came from Washington that fell like a thunderbolt from an unclouded sky upon Blaine’s friends. He had fallen at the church door when about to enter for service, and was unconscious for some time, and the opponents of Blaine made the most of the misfortune.
The first reports of his illness were greatly exaggerated, and his friends at the convention were much disconcerted and discouraged, but when on Monday morning he telegraphed them himself that his illness was not serious, all were again thoroughly united to force his nomination. The friends of Blaine had a majority of the convention. There was not an hour during the sessions of that body that a majority of the delegates did not desire to nominate him for President, but many were held by instructions or other complications, as was the entire Pennsylvania delegation, made up almost wholly of Blaine men, but instructed for Governor Hartranft. Strange as it may seem, he received the votes of a majority of all the delegates in the convention, but not on any one ballot, and never was the wish of a nominating body so artfully misled from its intent.
The speech of Ingersoll nominating Blaine was the most powerful and impressive I ever heard before a deliberative body, and had a ballot been reached on that day no combination could have prevented Blaine’s success. The struggle was desperate for delay, and the opponents of Blaine, fearing that the session might be extended into the evening, and thus reach a ballot without adjournment, had the gas clandestinely cut off from the building, and an adjournment was enforced by darkness. The enemies of Blaine were very powerful. President Grant was one of the most aggressive and vindictive, and ex-Senator Cameron, who was then Secretary of War, was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation, and pitiless and tireless in his opposition to Blaine.
At nearly midnight, before the second day of the convention, Cameron had decided that he must give up the battle against Blaine and assent to his nomination, as his delegation had become very refractory, and all knew that Blaine could be nominated whenever all who desired his nomination were free to vote for him. His defeat was planned in and executed from Cameron’s room, who had his trusted lieutenants about him, including the late Robert W. Mackey, who was the most accomplished and practical politician of his day in Pennsylvania, and the late William H. Kemble. It was decided to propose to the Pennsylvania delegation that as they were instructed for Hartranft, and to vote as a unit, they should do so only while Hartranft’s vote increased, and that whenever he dropped in the race the delegation should then vote as a unit as the majority directed. This was enthusiastically accepted by the friends of Blaine, as they believed that Hartranft’s strength would soon be exhausted, and that then they would get a solid vote for Blaine; but Mackey and Kemble, who understood how to manage politicians of every grade, including the carpet-baggers and colored political speculators from the South, arranged with a number of delegations, chiefly in the Southern States, to have Hartranft’s vote increased slightly on every ballot.
Instead of starting Hartranft with an exhibition of his full strength, part of it was held back, and, to the consternation of the Blaine men from this State, Hartranft’s vote was maintained until the climax came in the landslide to Governor Hayes, of Ohio, as a compromise candidate. But for Secretary Cameron and State Treasurer Mackey and ex-State Treasurer Kemble, Blaine’s nomination would have been absolutely certain at the Cincinnati convention in 1876.
The convention had as permanent president Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, who was a devoted friend of Blaine, but whose delegation, under the manipulation of Chairman Cameron, was held from Blaine until it was too late to be of service to him. Conkling, of New York, who had the unanimous support of his State, was the favorite candidate of the administration, but from Blaine’s opponents was heard on every side the slogan “anybody to beat Blaine.” It was not until the third day that a ballot was reached, and on the 7th a stampede was made to Governor Hayes, of Ohio, and he was unanimously declared the nominee of the party. The following table exhibits the ballots in detail:
| First. | Second. | Third. | Fourth. | Fifth. | Sixth. | Seventh. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaine | 285 | 296 | 293 | 292 | 286 | 308 | 351 |
| Morton | 125 | 120 | 113 | 108 | 95 | 85 | — |
| Bristow | 113 | 114 | 121 | 126 | 114 | 111 | 21 |
| Conkling | 99 | 93 | 90 | 84 | 82 | 81 | — |
| Hayes | 61 | 64 | 67 | 68 | 104 | 113 | 384 |
| Hartranft | 58 | 63 | 68 | 71 | 69 | 50 | — |
| Jewell | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Scattering | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | — |
William A. Wheeler, of New York, was nominated for Vice-President without a formal ballot, as soon after the balloting began the several other candidates were withdrawn, and he was nominated by acclamation. The following platform was unanimously adopted:
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 mankind, and looking to the future with unfaltering courage, hope, and purpose, we, the representatives of the party in national convention 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.
2. The Republican party has preserved these governments to the 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 governments 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 enforcement 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 Executive 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 “solemnly pledged its faith to make provision, at the earliest practicable 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 departments 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 selected 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.
6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people concerning political affairs, and will hold all public officers to a rigid responsibility, and engage that the prosecution and punishment of all who betray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, and unsparing.
7. The public-school system of the several States is a bulwark of the American Republic, and, with a view to its security and permanence, we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbidding the application of any public funds or property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sectarian control.
8. The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obligations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon importations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to promote 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 protection 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 substantial 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 education, charities, and other public trusts. The honest demands of this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges, and immunities 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 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 recently arrayed against the nation; and we invoke the earnest attention of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and human rights.
16. 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 ascendancy 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-President 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 intrust the administration of their public affairs to Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler.
The friends of Blaine were grievously disappointed at the action of the Cincinnati convention, but Blaine promptly came to the front in his heroic way, and made a tireless battle for the success of the ticket.
The Democratic convention met at St. Louis on the 28th of June. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, was temporary chairman, and was succeeded by General John A. McClernand, of Illinois, as permanent presiding officer. This was the first convention to cross the Father of Waters, and it was a thoroughly organized Tilden convention before it met. Tilden was the ablest political manager in the Democratic party of that day. He was tireless, methodical, and sagacious, and he made his nomination over Hancock and Hendricks by early and complete organization of his friends in all the debatable States. He had won national reputation by his courage in bringing Tweed to justice, and he was regarded by the country generally as well equipped for the high duties of Chief Magistrate. The friends of Hendricks made a desperate battle for him, but they were outclassed in leadership, and it was a Tilden convention when the body convened, with very able men to hold it in subjection.
The Tilden forces required little leadership at St. Louis, as his nomination had been thoroughly accomplished before the convention met. Tilden exhausted his wonderful powers of organization in getting control of the delegations of doubtful States, and looked minutely to the men who should be chosen as delegates, and when the convention met there was no boisterous jostling between the opposing forces, as the majority was complete in its organization and moved with directness to the accomplishment of its purpose. William L. Scott, of Erie, Penn., who was twice elected to Congress in an overwhelmingly Republican district, was the accepted leader of the Tilden people. He was personally popular, self-poised, sagacious, and discreet, and all he had to do was to keep his solid lines unbroken.
The minority was dumbfounded at the development of the Tilden strength, but the Hendricks people, led by McDonald, of Indiana—afterward United States Senator—and most zealously and aggressively aided by the helpless Tammany minority in the New York delegation, fought heroically at every step; but with Scott to manage and Harry Watterson to inspire the Tilden people, they maintained their mastery from start to finish, and Tilden was declared the nominee. When the nomination was announced the convention presented a singular spectacle. The Tilden delegates were at once upon their feet cheering lustily and waving their handkerchiefs, and one after another of the minority delegations rose and joined in the huzzas for the declared candidate, but the Indiana delegates sat stubbornly in their seats, presenting the appearance of a small cleared patch in a forest. The convention waited some minutes for the Indiana men to rise, but they kept their seats. The next day Hendricks was made the candidate for Vice-President in spite of the protests of his delegation and his friends, and finally the convention joined in united cheers for the ticket.
Much bitterness was developed during the struggle between the opposing clans, and a duel between General Morgan, a fighting Democratic soldier of Ohio, and Colonel Breckenridge, of Kentucky, was only averted, when the convention adjourned, by Colonel Watterson hurrying Breckenridge off to dinner, and compelling him to make concessions which properly satisfied the Ohio warrior.
It required only two ballots to give Tilden the nomination, as follows:
| First. | Second. | |
|---|---|---|
| Samuel J. Tilden, N. Y. | 417 | 535 |
| Thomas A. Hendricks, Ind. | 140 | 60 |
| Winfield S. Hancock, Penn. | 75 | 59 |
| William Allen, Ohio | 56 | 54 |
| Thomas F. Bayard, Del. | 33 | 11 |
| Joel Parker, N. J. | 18 | 18 |
| Allen G. Thurman, Ohio | — | 7 |
The platform was prepared under Tilden’s own direction, and it was unanimously adopted as follows:
We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, do hereby declare the administration of the Federal Government to be in urgent need of immediate reform; do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this convention, and of the Democratic party in each State, a zealous effort and co-operation 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 universally 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 in the will of the majority—the vital principle of republics; in the supremacy of the civil over the military 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 practise 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 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 hindrances 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 economy, 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, intrusted to competent hands for its execution, creating at no time an artificial 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, manufactures, 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 thousand 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 currency, 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 people have paid to their tax gatherers more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and more than twice that sum for the Federal 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 recrossing 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 immoral 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 Mongolian 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 would 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 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 can work out no practical or salutary reform.
Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the public service. President, Vice-President, judges, Senators, Representatives, 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 Representatives 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 public funds; a Secretary of the Navy enriched or enriching friends by percentages levied off the profits of contractors with his department; an ambassador to England censured in a dishonorable speculation; the President’s private secretary barely escaping conviction 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 endorse the action of the present House of Representatives in reducing and curtailing the expenses of the Federal Government, in cutting down salaries, extravagant 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.
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.
Business and trade were very much depressed in 1876, as the country was then approaching the panic and industrial troubles of 1877, which convulsed the country from Eastern to Western sea, and the Greenback or Independent National party, as it was called, exhibited formidable proportions in the contest. It held its national convention at Indianapolis on the 18th of May, with Thomas J. Durant, of Washington, D. C., as permanent president. Peter Cooper, the noted philanthropist of New York, was unanimously nominated for President, and Newton Booth, then a California Senator, was in like manner nominated for Vice-President, but he declined, and General Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio, was substituted. There were 19 States represented by 239 delegates. The following platform was unanimously adopted:
The Independent party is called into existence by the necessities of the people, whose industries are prostrated, whose labor is deprived of its just reward, by a ruinous policy which the Republican and Democratic parties refuse to change, and in view of the failure 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 Congressional district of the country, with a view of electing Representatives 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 obligations, 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 purposes except for the payment of such obligations as are, by existing 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 legislation, to keep in view the full development of all legitimate business, agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and commercial.
4. We most earnestly protest against any further issue of gold bonds, for sale in foreign markets, by which we would be made, for a long period, hewers of wood and drawers of water for foreigners, 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 Prohibitionists held their national convention at Cleveland, O., on the 17th of May, and nominated Greene Clay Smith, of Kentucky, for President, and G. T. Stewart, of Ohio, for Vice-President, by acclamation, 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, submit in this centennial year of the Republic, for the suffrages of all good citizens, the following platform of national reforms and measures:
1. The legal prohibition in the District of Columbia, the Territories, and in every other place subject to the laws of Congress, of the importation, exportation, manufacture, and traffic of all alcoholic beverages as high crimes against society; an amendment of the national Constitution to render these prohibitory measures universal 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 eligibility 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 general 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, charity, 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.
8. The free use of the Bible, not as a ground of religious creeds, but as 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 banking 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 sinecures, 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.
A mass convention held under the name of the American National party met in Pittsburg on the 9th of June, 1875, and nominated James B. Walker, of Illinois, for President, and Donald Kirkpatrick, of New York, for Vice-President. This political organization made no figure in the contest of 1876, and did not again appear in the subsequent national elections. The following platform was adopted:
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 God requires and man needs a Sabbath.
3. That the prohibition of the importation, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating drinks as a beverage is the true policy on the temperance question.
4. The charters of all secret lodges granted by our Federal and State Legislatures should be withdrawn, and their oaths prohibited by law.
5. That the civil equality secured to all American citizens by Article 13th, 14th, and 15th of our amended Constitution should be preserved inviolate.
6. That arbitration of differences with nations is the most direct and sure method of securing and perpetuating a permanent peace.
7. That to cultivate the intellect without improving the morals of men, is to make mere adepts and experts; therefore, the Bible should be associated with books of science and literature in all our educational institutions.
8. That land and other monopolies should be discountenanced.
9. That the Government should furnish the people with an ample and sound currency, and a return to specie payment as soon as practicable.
10. That maintenance of the public credit, protection to all loyal citizens, and justice to Indians are essential to the honor and safety of our nation.
11. And finally, we demand for the American people the abolition of electoral colleges, and a direct vote for President and Vice-President of the United States.
The contest of 1876 was conducted with great earnestness, but it was not distinguished for the defamation of candidates. The popular tide seemed to be with Tilden, as the reformation he had wrought in the Democratic party by the overthrow of Tweed in New York presented him in bold contrast to the administration of Grant, that had brought a tempest of scandals upon the party; but misfortune seemed to multiply upon Tilden from the beginning to the close of the battle. His first disaster, and what in the end proved to be a fatal one, was the result of the admission of Colorado into the Union. Thomas N. Patterson, an active Democrat, had been chosen as a delegate to Congress from Colorado in 1874 by a majority of 2163, and he gave the Democrats, who largely controlled the House, the positive assurance that the admission of Colorado would bring in another Democratic State. They had the power to exclude Colorado, but believing that the large majority of the Democrats had, under Patterson’s lead in 1874, anchored the Territory safely in the Democratic column, the Democrats admitted the new State, and her three electoral votes decided the election against Tilden, as even with South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana taken from Tilden, all of which had voted for him, Hayes was chosen by a single vote.
The first State election in Colorado was held in the summer of 1876, and to the utter consternation of the Democrats the Republicans elected the entire State ticket with 25 majority on joint ballot in the Legislature, and it was settled before the State election that the new State would not be put to the trouble and expense of another election for President in the fall, and that the Legislature would choose the electors, as it did. Tilden thus started in the contest with three electoral votes positively assured against him in the new State, that had been admitted because it was confidently expected to be Democratic.
On the popular vote Tilden had, according to the Republican returns, 252,224 majority over Hayes, and had the electoral colleges cast their votes as the popular vote was cast in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, Tilden would have received 203 to 156 for Hayes. The following table presents the popular vote and gives the Democratic and Republican returns of Florida and Louisiana, with the totals as they would appear with either count accepted:
| STATES. | Samuel J. Tilden. | Rutherford B. Hayes. | Peter Cooper. | Green Clay Smith. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 49,917 | 66,300 | 663 | —— |
| New Hampshire | 38,509 | 41,539 | 76 | —— |
| Vermont | 20,350 | 44,428 | —— | —— |
| Massachusetts | 108,777 | 150,063 | 779 | 84 |
| Rhode Island | 10,712 | 15,787 | 68 | 60 |
| Connecticut | 61,934 | 59,034 | 774 | 378 |
| New York | 521,949 | 489,207 | 1,987 | 2,359 |
| New Jersey | 115,962 | 103,517 | 712 | 43 |
| Pennsylvania | 366,204 | 384,184 | 7,187 | 1,319 |
| Delaware | 13,381 | 10,752 | —— | —— |
| Maryland | 91,780 | 71,981 | 33 | 10 |
| Virginia | 139,670 | 95,558 | —— | —— |
| West Virginia | 56,495 | 42,046 | 1,373 | —— |
| North Carolina | 125,427 | 108,417 | —— | —— |
| South Carolina | 90,896 | 91,870 | —— | —— |
| Georgia | 130,088 | 50,446 | —— | —— |
| Florida[25] | 22,927 | 23,849 | —— | —— |
| Florida[26] | 24,434 | 24,340 | —— | —— |
| Alabama | 102,989 | 68,708 | —— | —— |
| Mississippi | 112,173 | 52,605 | —— | —— |
| Louisiana[25] | 70,508 | 75,315 | —— | —— |
| Louisiana[26] | 83,723 | 77,174 | —— | —— |
| Texas | 104,803 | 44,803 | —— | —— |
| Arkansas | 58,071 | 38,669 | 289 | —— |
| Missouri | 203,077 | 145,029 | 3,498 | 64 |
| Tennessee | 133,166 | 89,566 | —— | —— |
| Kentucky | 159,696 | 97,156 | 1,944 | 818 |
| Ohio | 323,182 | 330,698 | 3,057 | 1,636 |
| Michigan | 141,095 | 166,534 | 9,060 | 766 |
| Indiana | 213,526 | 208,011 | 17,233 | 141 |
| Illinois | 258,601 | 278,232 | 9,533 | —— |
| Wisconsin | 123,926 | 130,070 | 1,509 | 27 |
| Minnesota | 48,799 | 72,962 | 2,311 | 72 |
| Iowa | 112,121 | 171,326 | 9,901 | 36 |
| Nebraska | 17,554 | 31,916 | 2,320 | 1,599 |
| Kansas | 37,902 | 78,322 | 7,776 | 110 |
| Colorado[27] | —— | —— | —— | —— |
| Nevada | 9,308 | 10,383 | —— | —— |
| California | 76,468 | 78,322 | 44 | —— |
| Oregon | 14,149 | 15,206 | 510 | —— |
| Total, Republican count | 4,285,992 | 4,033,768 | 81,737 | 9,522 |
| Total, Democratic count | 4,300,590 | 4,036,298 | 81,737 | 9,522 |
On the morning after the election, newspapers of all parties announced the election of Tilden for President, but a murmur of the coming storm came at the same time from Senator Chandler, of New Hampshire, who was secretary of the national committee, of which Senator Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, was chairman, who announced that Hayes was elected, and declared that the States of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina had honestly voted for Hayes, and that he would finally receive their electoral votes. With the whole machinery of the Government in the hands of the Republicans, it was almost a hopeless battle for Tilden to fight for the disputed Southern States, but the Democratic people became violently aroused, and threats were freely made that the inauguration of Hayes would be prevented by mob violence if attempted.
So grave had the situation become that both branches of Congress finally passed an act, creating what was known as the Electoral Commission, that should be a tribunal of last resort, to determine the disputed election. The bill passed the House by the vote of 158 Democrats and 33 Republicans, with 68 Republicans and 18 Democrats voting in the negative; and in the Senate the bill was passed by the votes of 26 Democrats and 21 Republicans, with 16 Republicans and 1 Democrat voting against it. The measure was approved by the President on the 29th of January. As a majority of the Democrats in both Houses favored the measure, it was assumed that Tilden desired them to support it, but in point of fact Tilden was irresolute, and put it upon his friends to decide what should be done. Had any other man been the Democratic candidate, he would have been a great leader and an aggressive one; but from the beginning to the close of the post-election battle Tilden was apparently dwarfed into utter helplessness, and when it became evident that the Commission would decide against him, he distinctly disclaimed all responsibility for the creation of the tribunal. The Electoral Commission was finally made up under the law, composed of Senators Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Republicans, and Thurman and Bayard, Democrats; of Representatives Payne, Hunton, and Abbott, Democrats, and Garfield and Hoar, Republicans, with Justices Strong and Miller, Republicans, and Clifford and Field, Democrats, and the fifth member of the court to be chosen by the four. Justice David Davis was first chosen as the fifth judicial member of the court, but he declined, as he had just been elected to the Senate by Illinois, and Justice Bradley was then selected to fill his place. Had Davis remained on the Commission, it is reasonably certain that the vote of the Electoral Commission would have been 8 for Tilden and 7 for Hayes. This Commission, whose judgment was to be final, decided in favor of Hayes on every disputed proposition by a vote of 8 to 7, and thus made him President by the following electoral vote:
| STATES. | Hayes. | Tilden. |
|---|---|---|
| Maine | 7 | — |
| New Hampshire | 5 | — |
| Vermont | 5 | — |
| Massachusetts | 13 | — |
| Rhode Island | 4 | — |
| Connecticut | — | 6 |
| New York | — | 35 |
| New Jersey | — | 9 |
| Pennsylvania | 29 | — |
| Delaware | — | 3 |
| Maryland | — | 8 |
| Virginia | — | 11 |
| West Virginia | — | 5 |
| North Carolina | — | 10 |
| South Carolina | 7 | — |
| Georgia | — | 11 |
| Florida | 4 | — |
| Alabama | — | 10 |
| Mississippi | — | 8 |
| Louisiana | 8 | — |
| Texas | — | 8 |
| Arkansas | — | 6 |
| Missouri | — | 15 |
| Tennessee | — | 12 |
| Kentucky | — | 12 |
| Ohio | 22 | — |
| Michigan | 11 | — |
| Indiana | — | 15 |
| Illinois | 21 | — |
| Wisconsin | 10 | — |
| Minnesota | 5 | — |
| Iowa | 11 | — |
| Nebraska | 3 | — |
| Kansas | 5 | — |
| Colorado | 3 | — |
| Nevada | 3 | — |
| California | 6 | — |
| Oregon | 3 | — |
| 185 | 184 |
The true history of the struggle for the control of the electoral votes of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana has never been written and now never can be fully written. The ablest men of both sides attended the contest in those States to battle for or against the action of the returning boards. All three States had voted for Tilden, but the returning boards, which had been created by the carpet-bag rule of the South, set aside the returns on the plea of fraud and certified the electoral vote for Hayes. The strength of the claim of the Democrats was practically admitted after the inauguration of Hayes by the President aiding in the adjustments which gave the Democrats the Governors and the Legislatures of those States, and ousting the Republicans who had given the electoral vote to the President.
The chief factor in the bold and revolutionary action that returned the three States named for the Republican candidate for President was J. Donald Cameron, then Secretary of War under President Grant, and later United States Senator. He is nothing if not heroic when occasion demands it. I remember calling upon him at the Continental Hotel a few days after the election, and inquired of him whether he really meant to force the reversal of the vote in those States and have Hayes returned as elected. He answered with perfect frankness that he had started in to do it, that he meant to do it, and that it was right to do it, as the Republicans had not opportunity to vote in the South, and the only way to meet such frauds was by the strong power of the Government.
But for the assurance that the army and navy would sustain the returning boards of those States in whatever they did under color of law, the reversal of the popular vote never could have been accomplished. The State of Florida was manipulated by Robert W. Mackey, who was the most accomplished politician the Republicans have ever produced in Pennsylvania. He was apparently dying of consumption for ten years, and when it became necessary to send some competent man to handle Florida, he was selected. He started on his mission, and his racking cough and general consumptive features gave plausibility to the statement that he was going South to nurse his health. Two Democratic visiting committeemen were on the same train, and he overheard them mature their plans to hold the State for Tilden. He telegraphed to C. D. Brigham, who had been a prominent editor and Republican politician in Pittsburg, but who then resided in Florida, to meet him at the station, and before the Democrats attempted to carry their plans into execution they were completely blocked by Mackey, who could summon all the Federal officials to his aid.
Governor Curtin and Senator Sherman met face to face at New Orleans in the struggle to win the electoral vote of Louisiana, and at one stage of the battle Tilden could have secured the vote by telegraphing a single word to Curtin; but Tilden seemed to have lost his cunning, and hesitation was exhibited by him at every stage of the conflict when the promptest action was indispensable. I visited him at his home in Gramercy Park when the contest was on at white heat, and was amazed to find his table covered with legal briefs, as though his election depended upon the law that would govern before a competent and impartial judicial tribunal. He permitted himself and his friends to become involved in a compromising way in the Oregon dispute for a single elector, and had the same method been adopted in Louisiana, he would have won. Instead of discussing the situation as it was, he presented to me elaborate arguments to show how it should be, and I could not refrain from reminding him that he was not dealing with judicial tribunals nor with honest men, and that he must either meet them on their own ground and with their own weapons or he must fall in the fight. He seemed to be utterly bewildered, and the man who had organized his nomination and election with consummate skill shrivelled up into pitiable indecision and inaction when he had the power to cast the die for or against himself.
The severe strain upon the popular sentiment of the country that had given Tilden 250,000 majority for President was greatly tempered, especially in the South, by a very shrewd movement planned early in the after-election contest to conciliate the leading people of the South. They received positive assurances from men very close to Hayes, and who gave the assurance of Hayes’s approval of the movement, that if Hayes should be inaugurated President without violence the State governments of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina would be given to the Democrats. That Hayes approved of the plan is evidenced by the fact that after he became President he stood resolutely by the promise made by his friends to give the Democrats control of the governments of those States.
There was not serious friction in Florida; the Democratic candidate for Governor was allowed to be inaugurated on a returned majority of 195 as given by the Supreme Court. In South Carolina the face of the returns gave Wade Hampton 1134 majority for Governor, with about a like majority for the Democratic Presidential electors, but the Returning Board threw out Democratic counties and returned Chamberlain, Republican, as elected Governor by a majority of 3433, and gave the Republican electors majorities ranging from 600 to 900.
Two Legislatures were organized and two claimants for the Governorship were qualified, but after a long siege, in which the friends of Hampton were with difficulty restrained from taking violent possession of the Capitol, the Republicans gave up the contest, as they discovered that President Hayes would not support them, and Hampton and his associate Democratic candidates and a Democratic Legislature were accepted.
The great battle was made in Louisiana, where the Returning Board gave Hayes the State by a majority of 4807, and declared the Republican electors chosen by about the same majority. The face of the returns gave a majority of 7876 for Tilden and 8101 for Nichols, Democratic candidate for Governor. There, as in South Carolina, two Governors were qualified and two Legislatures organized, and Stephen B. Packard, who had been counted in as the Republican Governor, and had been largely instrumental in giving the electoral vote to Hayes, and thereby electing him, demanded that the President should sustain him, logically insisting that if Hayes was elected Packard was elected, and that if Packard must go out Hayes must go out with him.
The faith of the President and his friends were pledged to the people of property in Louisiana that they should have their own State government, but it was a most difficult obligation to discharge. Finally, the President appointed a committee of eminent Republicans, two of whom were the present Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, and ex-Attorney-General Wayne MacVeagh, of Washington, to go to New Orleans and solve the problem. The first necessity to accomplish that result was to withdraw enough Senators and Representatives from the Packard Legislature to the Nichols Legislature to give Nichols a quorum in both houses of undisputed legislators, as that would leave Packard without a Legislature and clothe Nichols’s government with all the ceremony of law.
Many of the Packard legislators were negroes, and most of them commercial. The change could be effected only by purchase, in which the Hawley and MacVeagh committee had no part. There were enough and to spare of Packard legislators who were willing to sell out, but the Democrats were impoverished and could not raise money to buy them. One of the active men in the movement was Duncan F. Kenner, one of the most prominent men in the State for many years, and among the Senators in the market was one of his former slaves, who demanded a high price. The State had been desolated, business paralyzed, and the people of Louisiana had not recovered from the universal waste of war, and while they were more than willing to buy enough of the Packard men to give Nichols the Legislature, they were absolutely without the means to do it.
In this emergency the Louisiana Lottery Company came forward and proposed to furnish the citizens of New Orleans, who were managing the movement, all the money they needed on condition that when the Democrats came into power and amended the Constitution, they should give the Louisiana Lottery a twenty-five-year charter in the Constitution. It was a hard bargain, but as they could do no better they accepted the proffer, and a very large sum of money was thus furnished and paid to the negroes and carpet-bag legislators, who were very glad to get under cover with cash in their pockets, knowing that the end of carpet-bag rule was near at hand. Packard finally found himself abandoned by a majority of the undisputed Senators and Representatives. His administration thus ended, and the promise of the friends of Hayes, which Hayes manfully sustained, was fully performed, and the property people of the South were given their right to govern their own States as the price of assenting to Hayes as President.
The Nichols government kept faith with the Louisiana Lottery Company, and the people of Louisiana have ever since been unjustly criticised as the only State in the Union that gave the highest possible charter to a lottery company, as they could not explain the inexorable conditions which compelled them to do it. This was the last act of the great political drama of 1876–77 that made Rutherford B. Hayes President.
The action of Tilden defeating Chase in the Democratic convention of 1868 had its sequel with mingled romance and reality in the defeat of Tilden for the Presidency in 1877, when the vote of Louisiana was passed upon by the Senate. Kate Chase Sprague was the most brilliant woman in Washington society during the war period, and in every way one of the most attractive. Her home in Washington was the centre of the most accomplished men in public life, and among them was Roscoe Conkling, the ablest of the Republican Senators. The contest for the Presidency before the Electoral Commission in 1876–77 turned on the vote of Louisiana, and it required the approving vote of the Senate to give the electoral vote of that State to Hayes. Had it been given to Tilden, he would have been the President. Many believed that Hayes had not been elected and should not be declared elected, and among those who shared that conviction was Mr. Conkling, although he did not publicly express it.
The Senate was carefully canvassed, and enough Republican votes were marshalled to throw the vote of the Senate in favor of Tilden on the Louisiana issue if Conkling would lead in support of that policy, and it was understood that he had agreed to do so. When the crucial time came Conkling did not appear at all, and the anti-Hayes Republicans, being without a leader, fell back to their party lines and gave the vote of the State and the Presidential certificate to Hayes. It is an open secret that Conkling resolved his doubts as urged by Mrs. Sprague, who thereby avenged the defeat of her father in the Democratic nomination of 1868, that had been accomplished by Tilden; and thus Tilden lost the Presidency, to which he had been elected by a popular majority of over 250,000.