FOOTNOTES:
[41] The Michigan Republicans have done well. Their platform has about it the clear ring of honest conviction, undulled by any half-hearted and halting compromise. So lucid and courageous an enunciation of the financial creed of the Republican party has certainly not been made this year, nor has the irreconcilable hostility of the party to all forms of tampering with public credit and national honor been so resolutely and judiciously stated as by the Detroit Convention.—New York Times, June 14, 1878.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1879—MR. CHANDLER'S LAST DAYS—DEATH AND FUNERAL.
The closing hours of the Forty-fifth Congress and the extra session of the Forty-sixth may be said to have revealed Mr. Chandler to the country. While he had been well known he had not been truly known. He then became a central figure in the public attention. His utterances were universally discussed, and with discussion came a juster appreciation of the man. The people at last saw him as he was, the possessor of strong common-sense, a cool and indefatigable worker, a sagacious and fearless leader, a man who had never sacrificed principle to policy, who had never compromised with crimes against liberty or the nation's honor, whose most malignant enemies had not accused him of being influenced by corrupt motives, and one gifted with the rare capacity of saying the right thing at the right time in terse, impromptu sentences, in epigrams which became political mottoes.
The campaign of 1879 followed closely upon the mid-summer adjournment of Congress, and invitations to address the people came to Mr. Chandler from a score of States. No public speaker was in more urgent demand, or aroused a keener interest. The popular gatherings, which, during the summer and fall, greeted his every appearance from the shores of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard, amounted to a genuine ovation. His first address was delivered before the Republican State Convention of Wisconsin, at Madison, on July 23. In August he made six speeches in Maine to immense mass meetings. In September he visited Ohio, and spoke at Sandusky, Toledo, Warren, Cleveland, and other important points. His audiences in that State were uniformly large, and his Warren speech was delivered in the afternoon to an enormous crowd, one of the greatest ever called together upon such an occasion in the Western Reserve. He was greatly pleased by an invitation, which came to him at about this time, from Senator G. F. Hoar, to visit Massachusetts in October. It was unexpected, and he had believed that the Republican leaders in the Bay State were inclined to look upon him with distrust. He accepted it promptly, and spoke to enthusiastic audiences in Boston, Worcester, Lynn and Lowell. Some brief remarks made at a dinner of the Middlesex Club, in which he urged the national importance of the pending contest, were especially useful in stimulating Republican activity and directing it into proper channels. He next addressed meetings in New York at Flushing, Albany, Troy, Potsdam, Lowville and Buffalo, amid increasing public interest. On returning home from that State in the last days of October, he revisited Wisconsin, and spoke to great crowds at Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Janesville, returning to Chicago, where, on the evening of October 31st, he made the last address of his life.
The striking evidences of his hold upon the popular confidence, which manifested themselves during the summer and fall of 1879, led to the frequent mention of Mr. Chandler as a possible presidential candidate in 1880. His friends in his own State were eager to formally present his name to the National Convention, and the Republican press of Michigan united in earnestly advocating such a course. This movement also manifested strength in other States, and steadily increased in importance up to the hour of his death. Although Mr. Chandler was not insensible to this growing sentiment, little or nothing was done by him to promote it; he favored the renomination of General Grant, and the presidential ambition he rated as the most fatal malady to which public men are subject.[42] To one friend, who spoke of the popular feeling and his own desire in this matter, Mr. Chandler replied: "You may vaccinate me with the presidency and scratch it deep, but it won't take." To another he said: "No! no! Men recover from the small-pox, cholera and yellow fever, but never from the presidential fever. I hope I will never get it." The movement in that direction, which his death so abruptly checked, was spontaneous and sincere, and that it was growing in strength was undoubted. What limit that growth might have reached and with what result can only be conjectured.
THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL AT CHICAGO.
[Where Mr. Chandler died on the night of October 31, 1879.]
Repeatedly, during the arduous labors of the year, did Mr. Chandler's physical powers manifest signs of rebellion against excessive effort. In one of his Ohio speeches his voice suddenly failed, compelling him to cease speaking. He suffered several times from what seemed to be violent attacks of indigestion, and was on one or two occasions dangerously distressed by them. At Janesville he caught a severe cold, but when he reached Chicago, on the last day of his life, he seemed to be in his usual robust health, and showed but slight signs of fatigue. Those who called upon him on that day at the Grand Pacific Hotel noted his fine spirits. His address in that city was delivered before the Young Men's Auxiliary Republican Club in McCormick Hall, and he never spoke with more animation, nor more effectively. The audience applauded almost every sentence, and under that stimulus he rose to even more than his usual fervor of speech. His ringing sentence, "The mission of the Republican party will not end until you and I, Mr. Chairman, can start from the Canada border, travel to the Gulf of Mexico, make Black Republican speeches wherever we please, vote the Black Republican ticket wherever we gain a residence, and do it with exactly the same safety that a rebel can travel throughout the North, stop wherever he has a mind to, and run for judge in any city he chooses," was followed by cheer after cheer, until the entire audience was standing and shouting. After closing his speech, Mr. Chandler returned to the Grand Pacific Hotel; a few friends chatted with him in his rooms for a short time, and at about midnight Representative Edwin Willits of Michigan, who had been one of his hearers, made a short call, and congratulated him upon the power of his closing appeal. After that, no man saw Mr. Chandler alive. At seven o'clock on the following morning, in accordance with orders, one of the employes of the hotel knocked at his door. There was no answer, and a look over the transom showed a figure lying in an unnatural attitude on the edge of the bed with the feet almost touching the floor. In alarm the room was entered with a pass-key, and Mr. Chandler was found in a half reclining posture, with his coat about his shoulders, unconsciousness having apparently seized him while he was attempting to rise and summon help. Medical aid was promptly at hand, but life was extinct. "A Power had passed from earth." Zachariah Chandler was dead!
BUST PROFILE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
[A sketch from Leonard W. Volk's plaster cast.]
The news spread at once throughout the great city in which he had so suddenly fallen; friends were soon by his bedside, while a large crowd gathered about the hotel. A coroner's jury was at once impaneled, listened to the testimony of the physicians, and returned a verdict that death had resulted from cerebral hemorrhage. Impressions of the features were taken by Leonard W. Volk, the eminent sculptor, and the lifeless body was then arranged by kind, if strange, hands for the funeral casket. Before its removal to Detroit, thousands who cherished the memory of the man looked mournfully upon the dead face.
The telegraph bore the intelligence of this sudden death promptly throughout the country, and the announcement was answered by unusual demonstrations of national grief. Throughout the cities and towns of Michigan, at Washington, and in many other places where his name was well known, the insignia of mourning were at once displayed. Public men sent prompt dispatches of sympathy to his family, upon whom the blow had fallen with prostrating force. Especially significant were the newspaper tributes to the memory of the bold, resolute, and successful leader of men, whose star had not set, but had gone out at the zenith. The President of the United States issued this official order:
Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 1, 1879.
The sad intelligence of the death of Zachariah Chandler, late Secretary of the Interior, and during so many years Senator from the State of Michigan, has been communicated to the government and to the country, and, in proper respect to his memory, I hereby order that the several executive departments be closed to public business, and their flags, and those of their dependencies throughout the country, be displayed at half-mast on the day of his funeral.
R. B. HAYES.
From the Executive Mansion also came this dispatch of personal condolence:
Washington, D. C., Nov. 1, 1879.
Mrs. Z. Chandler.Mrs. Hayes joins me in the expression of the most heartfelt sympathy with you in your great bereavement.
R. B. HAYES.
GEN. U. S. GRANT'S TRIBUTE.
[His endorsement on W. A. Gavett's official notification, as a member of the Detroit Commandery K. T. to attend Mr. Chandler's funeral.]
The following proclamation was published by the Governor of Michigan:
Executive Office, Lansing, Nov. 1, 1879.
To the People of Michigan:An eminent citizen has suddenly been taken from us. Zachariah Chandler was found dead in his room at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago early this morning. For nineteen years he has represented this State in the National Senate. He held this exalted position at the most perilous period in the history of the nation, and unfalteringly supported every measure for the maintenance of the Union. A member of the Cabinet under the recent administration of President Grant, he proved himself a public officer of keen sagacity, of incorruptible integrity and of admirable ability. A resident of Michigan during the whole period of his manhood, he has been active in advancing the interests of the State and promoting its growth. By his energy he secured a competence, and by his integrity the confidence of all. A statesman and a leader among men, he combined in an unusual degree qualities which commanded respect and admiration. Taken from us so unexpectedly, we cannot but deeply feel and deplore his loss. I, therefore, as a tribute to his memory and to his public services, hereby direct the several State offices to be closed to public business, the flags to be displayed at half-mast, and the other demonstrations of public grief usual to be made, on the day of his funeral.
CHARLES M. CROSWELL.
An unofficial tribute, highly prized by Mr. Chandler's friends, was that of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who wrote upon the reverse of a funeral order issued by the Detroit Commandery of Knights Templar (shown him by W. A. Gavett) these lines:
A nation, as well as the state of Michigan, mourns the loss of one of her most brave, patriotic and truest citizens. Senator Chandler was beloved by his associates and respected by those who disagreed with his political views. The more closely I became connected with him the more I appreciated his great merits.
U. S. GRANT.
Galena, Ill., Nov. 9, 1879.
On the morning of Sunday, November 2, an escort of the militia and of the people of Chicago accompanied the body of the dead Senator from the Grand Pacific Hotel to the depot, and delivered it to a committee of prominent citizens of Michigan, who had arrived to receive it. The burial-case was wrapped in the national flag, and, when it had been placed in the car, its lid was opened and the face exposed. The train stopped at Niles, Kalamazoo, Marshall, Jackson, and Ann Arbor, and at each place crowds came on board to look at the remains. When Detroit was reached, thousands of grief-stricken people were at the depot, and in solemn procession they joined the military escort in the march to the Chandler mansion. There a few loving friends received and looked upon the silent and lifeless form. To gratify the earnest desire of the many who wished to behold again the strong, earnest face of Zachariah Chandler before it was forever covered from mortal sight, the body was removed on the morning of November 5 to the City Hall, where it lay until one o'clock; a guard of honor kept watch at the head and foot of the casket, and on either hand, for five hours, a double file of men and women passed in steady march. Thousands of mournful glances were given at the placid face of the dead, and many affecting incidents made touching this parting tribute of the people. Then, from the City Hall, the body was borne to the Fort street residence for the last time. The day was cold and blustering; a blinding snow-storm set in. Yet the streets were thronged by the sad multitude, while every train brought from Michigan and from other States hundreds to increase the sorrowing concourse; among them were men of great reputations founded on useful and honorable public careers. After impressive funeral services at the house, the remains of Michigan's great Senator, escorted by the militia of Detroit and of the neighboring cities, by the United States troops, by civic societies, by Governors, Senators, Congressmen, Legislators of Michigan and of other States, and by hundreds of friends, passed slowly through the streets draped in mourning, and lined with dense crowds of people who braved the storm to pay this last honor to Zachariah Chandler. At the gates of Elmwood Cemetery the militia and civic societies halted, presenting arms as the hearse rolled slowly on under its trees. Upon a high knoll, fronting on Prospect Avenue, it halted; the coffin was drawn slowly out, poised a moment over an open grave, lowered to its resting-place, and "I am the resurrection and the life" rose up in solemn tones above the sobbings of family and friends. Living green branches and flowers fell softly down upon the casket, and a new mound grew up beside where Senator Chandler's brother already lay.
Thus was Zachariah Chandler buried. Living, he was honored. Dead, he was mourned. Though dead, his labors and his example remain, and they form his fittest monument.