CHAPTER XI GRANT
My acquaintance with General Grant began when he visited Springfield the first time immediately after the beginning of the Civil War. He came to Springfield with a company of soldiers raised at Galena. General John A. Rawlins, afterwards Secretary of War under President Grant, one of the best men whom I ever knew, and especially my friend, was with this company. General Grant offered his services to Governor Yates in any capacity, and the Governor requested him to aid General Mather, then our Adjutant-General. General Grant, having been a West Point graduate, and having served as a captain in the regular army, rendered the Adjutant-General very material service. On the morning I saw him in the Adjutant-General's office at Springfield, nobody ever dreamed that this quiet, unassuming subordinate would, in less than four years, become one of the greatest generals in all the world's history. At the outbreak of the war he resided at Galena, where he was in business.
He was sent by Governor Yates to muster in the various regiments, and continued in that work until made Colonel of the Twenty-fist Illinois Regiment. This regiment had been raised and organized by another man, whose habits were not regular, and under whose command the regiment had become demoralized. General Grant took the Twenty- first Illinois on foot from Springfield into Missouri, and before he had travelled very far with it, the men quickly learned that he was a real commanding officer, a strict disciplinarian, and that orders were issued to be obeyed. The regiment became one of the best in the service.
General Grant was soon made a Brigadier-General, the first to be commissioned from Illinois, and was sent to command at Cairo.
I became pretty well acquainted with him at Springfield, and subsequently I visited Cairo, and found there General Grant, Governor Oglesby, and other Illinoisans in command of regiments.
General Grant's career as a soldier is too well known to the world to be repeated by me here. The history of his career is the history of the Civil War. He was formally received by the people of Springfield on two occasions: once while he was still in command in the army; and again in 1880, after his trip around the world, he was my guest at the Executive Mansion in Springfield. He was then accompanied by Mrs. Grant, and by E. B. Washburne, who had been one of his closest personal friends during his administration.
The time was approaching for the National Convention at Chicago, and General Grant's friends had prevailed upon him to permit the use of his name as a candidate for a third term. Washburne had become considerably flattered by the demonstration that was made over him on the road from Galena to Springfield, and I believe he had an idea that he might be the nominee instead of General Grant, and hence for some reason or other he did not want to identify himself with General Grant at all. When the time came to go to the reception at the State House, Washburne could not be found. It seemed that he had hid in his bedroom until the party left the Executive Mansion for the State House, and then went by himself to the State House, and secreted himself in the office of the Secretary of State, where he surreptitiously watched proceedings from behind the sheltering folds of a curtain.
His conduct in the evening was still more remarkable. I had arranged a reception to General and Mrs. Grant and Mr. Washburne at the Executive Mansion that same evening, but Mr. Washburne gave some excuse which he claimed necessitated his presence in the East, and departed—apparently with the conviction that he might secure the Presidential nomination himself, and feeling that his presence in company with General Grant—an avowed candidate—created an embarrassing situation that he could not endure. I know that General Grant was deeply grieved at his conduct. The General's friends were so outraged that they determined Washburne should have no place upon the ticket at all.
General Grant was not a candidate for re-election at the end of his second term; I am not at all sure whether he would not have been glad to be re-elected for a third term—at least, he would have accepted the nomination had it been tendered to him. But the third-term proposition, at that time, received a severe blow when, in December, 1875, the House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of 234 to 18, declaring that in its opinion, the precedent established by Washington and other Presidents of the United States, in retiring from the Presidential office after their second terms, had become, by universal concurrence, 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.
The passage of this resolution, the scandals in the administration, the hard times, and the bitter and determined opposition to General Grant at this time, put an end temporarily to all third-term talk.
But during his absence, when he was making his tour of the world, after he had retired from the Presidency, Senator Conkling, General Logan, Don Cameron, and other leading politicians concluded that they would nominate him to succeed Rutherford B. Hayes, who was not a candidate. After his return to the United States, they secured his consent to use his name as a candidate for the nomination in 1880; but after a bitter fight in the Chicago Convention they failed, and General Garfield obtained the nomination.
Mr. Blaine, before the Convention met, was the leading candidate against General Grant. I had been a warm friend of Mr. Blaine's in Congress; but as General Grant was a candidate from my own State, and as I was at that time Governor of Illinois and a candidate for renomination, I did not feel that I could take any part in the contest between Grant and Blaine.
When the State Convention met to select a candidate to succeed me as Governor, the contest between Grant and Blaine was very bitter. Mr. Blaine and I had been very friendly in the House; indeed, I was one of the few personal friends who brought him out as a candidate for Speaker of the House. From our past relations, he felt perfectly free to write me, and about the time of the Convention, I received a letter from him, in which he said, among other things, "Why cannot you put yourself at the head of my forces, and lead them? If you are not careful you will fall between."
The tone of the letter annoyed me, and I did not answer it until the contest was over, which resulted in my own nomination, and until after the National Convention met, in which Blaine was defeated. I then wrote him a letter, informing him that I had been nominated; but, of course, I did not refer to his defeat.
During the session of the convention in Springfield, about the time it was to convene, General Logan came down from Chicago, proceeding at once to my house. He told me that he desired I should help him to secure the delegation for General Grant.
I replied: "General Logan, if you are my friend, and I suppose you are, you will not ask me to take any part in this contest, as I am a candidate for renomination myself."
He was a little huffy about it, and seemed to be disappointed that I would not do as he asked. And I may remark that this was characteristic of Logan. He went away considerably out of humor, but saying nothing especially to the point.
A short time afterwards the Hon. Charles B. Farwell, who was later an honored colleague of mine in the Senate, drove up to my house and said: "Cullom, I want you to help me carry this State for Blaine."
"Charley," I replied, "you know very well that I am a candidate for re-election; and you know very well, also, that if I were to take a hand in this contest, I would probably be beaten." He agreed with me, and went away satisfied, assuring me that in his opinion I was doing the right thing.
The contest in our State Convention between Blaine and Grant lasted for at least three days, and resulted in the division of the delegation to the National Convention, part for Grant and part for Blaine. I had quite a contest for the nomination, but was finally named on the fourth ballot. I had expected to be nominated on the third ballot. Farwell was about my office a good deal during the convention. When the third ballot was taken, and I had not been nominated, I said: "Farwell, there is something wrong upstairs; I wish you would go up and straighten it out."
He went; but what he did, if anything, I do not know. However, I was nominated on the next ballot.
General Grant was nominated both the first and second times without opposition. He was first nominated in Chicago, with great enthusiasm. The second time he was nominated in Philadelphia. I was chairman of the Illinois delegation at Philadelphia, and as such placed him in nomination.
I believe I made about the shortest nominating speech for a Republican candidate for President ever made in a National Republican Convention. I said:
"Gentlemen of the Convention: On behalf of the great Republican party of Illinois, and that of the Union—in the name of liberty, of loyalty, of justice, and of law—in the interest of economy, of good government, of peace, and of the equal rights of all—remembering with profound gratitude his glorious achievements in the field, and his noble statesmanship as Chief Magistrate of this great Nation —I nominate as President of the United States, for a second term, Ulysses S. Grant."
There was a considerable contest over the platform, and as usual, it was determined to adopt the platform before making the nominations of President and Vice-President. But the Convention became very restless after the day of speechmaking; evening was approaching, and the Committee on Platform being still out, it was determined to make the nomination for President that day. I mounted the platform, and in the brief speech I have quoted, placed General Grant in nomination. I never saw such a fervid audience. The floors and galleries were crowded, and the people seemed wild with enthusiasm for Grant. As I uttered the word "Grant," at the conclusion of my speech, and his picture was lowered from the ceiling of the hall, the demonstration was indescribable.
While we were waiting for the Committee on Platform to report, there were quite a number of speeches by favorite sons of the different States, Senator Logan and Governor Oglesby, from Illinois, being among them.
Senator Logan's speech is not very clear in my memory; but I do remember very well the speech by Governor Oglesby. He made a wonderful impression. I do not recall that I ever saw a man electrify an audience as did Governor Oglesby on that occasion. It was the first convention where there were colored men admitted as delegates. Some of the colored delegates occupied the main floor. Old Garret Smith, the great abolitionist, was in the gallery, at the head of the New York delegation. Oglesby took for his theme first the colored man, represented there on the floor of that convention, and then Garret Smith. He set the crowd wild. They cheered him to the echo. We adjourned for luncheon immediately after he concluded his speech, and many of the delegates asked me who that man was. I was proud to be able to tell them that it was Governor Oglesby of Illinois; and the remark was frequently made that it was no wonder that Illinois gave sixty thousand Republican majority with such a man as its Governor.
The platform was finally adopted, and Wilson of Massachusetts was nominated for Vice-President, in place of Schulyer Colfax. Colfax was much mortified at his defeat, but it turned out for the best, because Colfax became involved in the Crédit Mobilier before the campaign was over, and his name on the ticket would have injured the chances for success. Wilson, who was nominated to succeed Colfax for Vice-President, was a very good man. He was a Senator, and it was said of him that he came from the shoemaker's bench to the Senate of the United States.
General Grant got along very well during his first term as President. He was wonderfully popular, and no one could have beaten him; but during his second term, so many scandals came to light, and the finances were in such bad shape, that generally his second term as President cannot be said to have been a success. One trouble with him as President was that he placed too much implicit reliance on those about him, and he never could be convinced that any friend of his could do a wrong. Some of his friends were clearly guilty of the grossest kind of misconduct, and yet he would not be convinced of it, and stuck to them until they nearly dragged him down into disgrace with them. He was not a politician. Before entering the White House he had had no previous experience in public office. For a considerable time he attempted to act as Chief Executive with the same arbitrary power that he used as commander of an army; hence he was constantly getting into trouble with Senators and Representatives.
I remember one little experience along this line which I had with him. It is an unwritten rule that Representatives in Congress, if in harmony with the Administration, control the post-office appointments in their respective districts. On my recommendation Isaac Keyes was appointed postmaster of my own city of Springfield. Much to my astonishment and mortification, in a month, without any warning, without any request for Keyes' resignation, General Grant sent in the appointment of Elder Crane. When I came to inquire the cause, he said he had just happened to remember that he had promised the office to Elder Crane, and he immediately sent in the appointment without considering for a minute the position in which he left Keyes and the embarrassment it would cause me.
Sometime afterward, as Colonel Bluford Wilson tells me, General Grant asked Colonel Wilson, then Solicitor of the Treasury, who would make a good Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Colonel Wilson replied that Cullom was just the man for the place, and General Grant said at once, "I will appoint him." When Colonel Wilson went to the White House with the commission prepared for my appointment, General Grant said: "I have changed my mind about making that appointment. I offended Cullom in reference to the appointment of a postmaster of his town; and if I should appoint him Commissioner of Internal Revenue now, I know he would decline it, so I will not appoint him."
And in this he was quite right. I would have declined the office, not because I was offended at him, but because I would not accept that or any other appointive office.
Not being quite certain that my memory served me correctly in reference to this incident, I took occasion to ask Colonel Bluford Wilson, who had called on me at Washington, to give me the facts, which he later did in a long letter that sets forth the facts somewhat more elaborately than I have given them, but presenting the incident in an identical light.
While I would not say that General Grant was a failure as President, certain it is that he added nothing to his great fame as a soldier. Indeed, in the opinion of very many people, who were his friends and well-wishers, when he retired from the White House he had detracted rather than added to his name. It would probably have been better if General Grant had been content with his military success, and had entered neither politics nor business.
General Grant was one of the greatest soldiers of modern times; indeed, if not of all time. Standing as he does the peer of Frederick, Napoleon, Wellington, the time will come when the very fact that he was President of the United States will be forgotten, while he will be remembered only as one of the world's great captains.
The last time I saw the General was about a month before he died. I was in New York, with the select Committee on Interstate Commerce, and on Sunday morning we learned that General Grant, General Arthur, and ex-President Hayes were all in town, and that Grant and Arthur were ill. We determined to call on each of them.
We first called on General Grant at his home, and found that his son, General Frederick D. Grant, was with him. To him we sent our cards and asked to see his father. He said he would ascertain, and he came back directly and said that his father would be glad to see us, but cautioned us not to permit him to talk too much, as the trouble was in his throat. We went in and took seats for a moment. He greeted us all very cordially, and seemed to be specially interested in meeting Secretary Gorman. He wanted to talk, and did talk so rapidly and so incessantly that, fearing it was injuring him, we arose from our seats and told him that we had called simply to pay our respects, and expressed our gratification that he was so well.
I can see him yet, as I saw him then. He was sitting up, surrounded by the manuscript of his memoirs. He knew that his end was approaching, and he talked about it quietly and unconcernedly; said he was about through with his book, that if he could live a month or two longer he could improve it, but did not seem to feel very much concern whether he had any more time or not. Mrs. Grant and Nellie, and Mrs. Frederick D. Grant were in an adjoining room, with the door open, and knowing them all very well, I went in to pay my respects. Mrs. Grant at once inquired about my daughters. I told her that one of them was married, and she expressed surprise. General Grant, hearing us, came into the room and said, "Julia, don't you remember that we received cards to the wedding?" He again began to talk, so I took my leave.
From there we called on General Arthur, and then on General Hayes.
Both passed away within a short time.
I returned to my home in Springfield, and in about a month the news came that General Grant was dead. On the day of his funeral in New York, in cities of any importance in the country, services were held. Services were conducted in Springfield, on which occasion I delivered the principal address.