Perley's reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, v. 1-2

by Benjamin Perley Poore

CHAPTER XXXIV. STRUGGLE FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION.

When General Grant returned from his trip around the world, the Blaine newspapers, while they filled their columns with adulatory notices of the "Old Commander," also discovered in the "Plumed Knight" qualities which inspired them with enthusiasm and admiration. The friends of General Grant were not, however, to be placed in an attitude of antagonism toward Blaine. They remembered, however, that when Grant retired from the political contest in 1876, and his friends turned toward Blaine, they found confronting them, armed with the poisoned arrows of detraction, the same editors who had for years been opposing and vilifying Grant.

An attempt was then made by Mr. Blaine's friends to place General Grant at the head of a scheme for the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus as an American enterprise. They enlisted one of Grant's most devoted friends, Read Admiral Daniel Ammen, and he attempted to organize a company, of which General Grant was to be the president. The charter to be granted by Congress was to recognize the national character of the work, and to pledge the United States to oppose any foreign interference, like that of DeLesseps and his Darien Canal. General Grant became interested in the scheme, and affixed his name a few months later to an elaborate magazine article on inter-oceanic canals, every word of which was written by Dr. George B. Loring, of Massachusetts.

Senator Blaine developed great personal popularity as the campaign progressed, even among those who regarded General Grant as a "military necessity." Henry Clay, in his palmiest days, never had a more devoted and enthusiastic following, and many of the stanchest and most stalwart Republicans in Congress were openly for Blaine, while others secretly advocated his claims.

John Sherman had also a powerful following, and while the respective friends of Grant and Blaine began to indulge in recrimination, the cause of the Ohio Senator was quietly pushed without giving offense. Mr. Sherman's unswerving persistence had, in years past, all the effective energy and the successful result of force. General Garfield was at the head of the Ohio delegation, pledged to the support of Sherman, and he was chosen to make the speech nominating him in the Convention.

General Garfield having been requested to give his views as to what should be the course of the Ohio Republicans in reference to the Presidential nomination, wrote a letter in which he said: "I have no doubt that a decisive majority of our party in Ohio favor the nomination of John Sherman. He has earned his recognition at their hands by twenty-five years of conspicuous public service, a period which embraces nearly the whole life of the Republican party. He deserves the especial recognition of the nation for the great service he has rendered in making the resumption law a success, and placing the national finances on a better basis. I am aware of the fact that some Republicans do not indorse all his opinions, but no man who has opinions can expect the universal concurrence of his party in all his views, and no man without opinions is worthy of the support of a great party. I hope the Republicans of Ohio will make no mistake on other candidates; they should fairly and generously recognize the merits of all; but I think they ought to present the name of Mr. Sherman to the National Convention and give him their united and cordial support."

To Mr. Wharton Baker, of Philadelphia, General Garfield wrote: "It is becoming every day more apparent that the friends of the leading Presidential candidates are becoming embittered against each other to such an extent that, whichever of the three may be nominated, there would be much hostility of feeling in the conduct of the campaign. It will be most unfortunate if we go into the contest handicapped by the animosity of the leading politicians. I shall be glad to see you on your arrival in Washington."

General Garfield's influence was politically omnipotent in his own district, yet when the Convention of that district was held to elect delegates to the Chicago Convention, controlled by Garfield's friends and confidential advisers, it surprised the country by electing Blaine delegates. It was then whispered that General Garfield, while ostensibly working for Sherman, would advocate his own nomination, and also that he would have the support of the friends of Mr. Blaine.

The Convention was a remarkable one. The combined anti-Grant men, with cunning parliamentary strategy, carried their points on the unit rule and the credentials. When the names of the candidates were successively presented by their friends, a tumultuous scene of wild applause followed the nominations of James G. Blaine and Ulysses S. Grant, the rival hosts on the floor and in the galleries being animated by paroxysms of enthusiasm never before witnessed on this continent.

General Garfield rose when the State of Ohio was called, and said that he had witnessed the extraordinary scenes of the Convention with great solicitude. The assemblage had seemed to him like a human ocean in a tempest. He had seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but he remembered that it was not the billows, but the calm level of the sea, from which all heights and depths are measured. When the enthusiasm should have passed away, the calm level of public opinion would be found, from which the thoughts of a mighty people would be measured. Not at Chicago in the heat of June, but at the ballot-boxes in the quiet of November, would the question be settled. "And now, gentlemen of the Convention," said he, "what do we want?" "We want Garfield," said a clear voice; and from that moment it was evident who the "dark horse" was, and his cold, studied eulogium of John Sherman was really little more than a presentation of himself.