Our Presidents and how we make them

by Alexander K. McClure

Davis and Parker were unanimously declared the candidates of the party for President and Vice-President.

Although Judge Davis had responded by telegraph to the notification of his nomination from the convention, expressing his gratitude for the honor conferred, he did not definitely accept. Had Judge Davis been nominated by the Liberal Republicans at Cincinnati in May, he would doubtless have remained as the candidate of the Labor Reformers, but in June, when there was no possibility of him being a candidate of any other organization, Davis and Parker both declined and retired from the contest. A small portion of the delegates were reconvened, and Charles O’Conor, of New York, was nominated for President, without naming any candidate for Vice-President. Thus, the Labor Reform organization was practically out of the battle of 1872.

A Prohibition National Convention was also held at Columbus on the 22d of February, with representatives from nine States, and Samuel Chase, of Ohio, was made permanent president. An elaborate platform was adopted, but the party does not seem to have been of sufficient importance to command the publication of its platform in full in the newspapers, and it is lost to history, as I have not been able to find it. James Black, of Pennsylvania, was nominated for President, and John Russell, of Michigan, for Vice-President by a unanimous vote, after having been presented by a committee on nominations.

The Liberal Republican National Convention met at Cincinnati on the 1st of May. The organized Republican opposition to Grant had its origin in the State contest in Missouri, where the Democrats and the Liberals united to efface a most proscriptive Constitution and laws, denying all rights of citizenship to those who had been engaged in rebellion. A number of meetings were held in the Western cities to organize the Liberal Republican party, and it was a mass-meeting of the Liberals of Missouri in Jefferson City, in January, 1872, that first decided to call a national convention of Liberal Republicans, and fixed Cincinnati and the 1st of May as the place and time for it to assemble.

It seemed evident to all who had intelligently and dispassionately observed the political situation that the majority of the people of the country would vote against the re-election of Grant if they could be heartily united, but the elements were strangely incongruous, as Greeley, Sumner, Trumbull, and many others of the Liberal leaders had been among the most earnest champions of radical Republicanism, and had antagonized the Democratic party so fiercely and persistently as to make unity between them apparently impossible. It was only the utterly helpless condition of the Democrats that made them entertain the question of fusing with the Liberals by taking their ticket and platform.

Strange as it may seem, Mr. Vallandigham, one of the most aggressive of all the Northern “Copperheads” during the war, and who had been arrested by Burnside and banished into the Southern lines, was one of the first of the leading Democrats to propose a union of all the elements opposed to Grant and unite in fully accepting the results of the war, the reconstruction policy, and the amendments to the Constitution. I attended this convention as a delegate and acted as chairman of the delegation. Of the prominent men named for the nomination, I greatly preferred David Davis, the executor of Abraham Lincoln, and a man so conservative and liberal in his political views and so thoroughly identified with the substantial interests of the country that he would have provoked no antagonism whatever from the financial and business interests of the nation, but Horace Greeley was his competitor for the place, and there was no man in the country for whom I cherished stronger affection. I had known Greeley for many years.

When the Liberal agitation began, the prominent candidates discussed were Horace Greeley, Charles Francis Adams, David Davis, and B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri. Greeley became intensely interested in his own nomination. He felt that he had devoted his life to the best efforts for his country, and especially for the lowly. He was the foremost of all in the great battle for the overthrow of slavery, and he craved the recognition of his work by an election to the Presidency. Before the convention met he made an appointment to meet me at the Colonnade Hotel in Philadelphia. He felt that he could speak with entire freedom to me, and he opened his heart to the full extent of saying how much he desired the nomination and what it meant to him.

Could I have made him President, I would gladly have done so, but I knew that he could not be elected, and told him so with frankness that he appreciated. He yielded to my judgment as to his availability, and accepted the suggestion that had then been made generally by the more conservative of the Liberal Republicans that David Davis would be the only candidate who could certainly defeat Grant. He was conservative, able, and clear-headed, and the business interests of the country would have had entire confidence in him. In answer to my statement that the Democrats certainly could not be united in Greeley’s favor, and without which an election could not be accomplished, he said: “Well, if they won’t take me head foremost, they might take me boots foremost,” meaning for Vice-President. I said I did not doubt that his nomination for the second place could be accomplished with every prospect of success at the election. We parted with the distinct understanding that his friends should move unitedly to nominate David Davis for President and Greeley for Vice-President.

When we reached Cincinnati a conference of the leading friends of Davis and Greeley was held the night before the convention met, Senator Fenton being present as the leader of the Greeley forces. Leonard Swett, the immediate representative of Davis, was present, along with John D. Defrees, of Indiana, and a number of others. The plan of operation was agreed upon, and when we adjourned to enjoy a late supper we regarded it as settled that Davis and Greeley would be nominated on the next day.

About midnight it was whispered that General Frank P. Blair, as the representative of B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, and others had held a secret conference to unite the Greeley and Brown forces to make Greeley the candidate for President and Brown second on the ticket. We soon discovered that the movement had been thoroughly organized, and many Greeley men who were much more zealous than discreet at once accepted the new situation, and forced even Fenton to fall back to the support of Greeley. Fenton was one of Greeley’s most sincere and devoted friends, and it was with great reluctance that he joined in the effort to nominate Greeley when he felt that it could result only in crucifying him. The withdrawal of the Greeley men from the Davis-Greeley combination left Davis a hopeless candidate, as the convention was largely radical and little inclined to consider questions of expediency.