A History of the United States

by Charles Kendall Adams; William P. Trent

Horace Greeley.

588. Presidential Nominations.—As the end of Grant’s first term approached it became evident that he would be renominated, although there were many disaffected Republicans. The prevalence of political scandals and the continued unsatisfactory condition of the South were the most serious causes of complaint. The discontented Republicans clustered about Horace Greeley[^[270]] of New York, and at a convention held at Cincinnati, in May, 1872, he was nominated for President, with B. Gratz Brown of Missouri for Vice President. The platform adopted charged the administration with unscrupulous and selfish use of power in the South, and demanded the immediate substitution of civil for military power in the Southern states. As the views promulgated by this platform were substantially those of the Democratic party, the Greeley platform and candidates were accepted as their own by the Democratic Convention. The union, however, was not an auspicious one. Greeley had been active and influential as a Whig and Republican and a lifelong opponent of the Democrats, and was therefore distrusted. Many Democrats regarded the nomination as a cowardly surrender. The opposition found expression in a call for a strictly Democratic convention to be held, September 3, at Louisville, Kentucky. The result was the nomination of Charles O’Connor of New York for President, and John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts for Vice President. As Greeley died a few days after the electors were chosen and before their vote was cast, the Democratic vote was scattering, and Grant received two hundred and eighty-six of the three hundred and forty-nine electoral votes.

GRANT’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1873–1877.

589. Commercial Activity and the Crisis of 1873.—During Grant’s first administration there was remarkable commercial activity throughout the country. Money was very abundant, and prices were high; and, now that the war was over, capital was everywhere seeking investment in new enterprises. The war between France and Germany in 1870 and 1871, and the bad harvests of Europe generally, made a great market for all American products. An era of railroad construction and speculation naturally ensued. Everybody seemed to wish to invest in the new roads, many of which could not pay the expenses of operation. In the four years of Grant’s first administration, the mileage of railroads in the country was increased about fifty per cent; but it soon became apparent that the work had been enormously overdone. All at once, when nearly everybody wished to sell, nobody wished to buy. On September 19, 1873, Jay Cooke & Company, leading bankers in Philadelphia, failed, and Wall Street in New York was thrown into such a panic that the day has ever since been known as “Black Friday.” A financial stringency ensued which resulted in a universal fall of prices, many failures, and much distress. It was not until 1879 that prosperity was restored.

590. Political Scandals.—Grant’s second term was marked by still greater political scandals than his first. These were largely due to the spirit of speculation just described. Several of the new railroad projects were founded on land grants from Congress, and railroad projectors seemed everywhere desirous of securing aid from the government. A company, known as the “Crédit Mobilier,” had been formed to finance the Union Pacific, and this company distributed stock among men of influence in a scandalous manner. A Congressional Committee of Investigation, appointed in December, 1872, reported in February, 1873, and showed that some of the stock was given to congressmen, apparently for the purpose of securing their votes. Two members of the House of Representatives were formally censured. The spirit of corruption was thought to have entered the Cabinet, and one Cabinet officer, W. W. Belknap, Secretary of War, was impeached for receiving bribes, but escaped dismissal by resignation a few hours before the House passed the impeaching resolution. Enough senators held that he was not then impeachable to prevent conviction. A Whisky Ring was discovered in 1875, that had been organized by Federal officials and distillers for the purpose of defrauding the government of the taxes due on the manufacture of whisky. Numerous Indian uprisings were found to be largely the result of dishonest methods practiced by Indian commissioners and contractors in cheating Indians out of their just dues. While no scandal of any kind ever attached to Grant himself, it was widely felt that he was overindulgent to officials of questionable honesty. Mainly in consequence of these scandals, there was a general outcry from the public, and a demand for a different system of appointment to all the minor civil offices.

591. Extravagance of Congress.—The spirit of dissatisfaction that prevailed among the people at large was much intensified in 1873 by the action of Congress in raising the salaries of a large number of Federal officers. The salary of the President was advanced from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand dollars a year; and the salary of congressmen was increased from five thousand dollars to seven thousand. In the case of congressmen, the increase was made to apply to the Congress then in session. The act raised a storm of indignation throughout the country. It was the back-pay clause, known as the “salary grab,” that was particularly obnoxious. Nearly all those members who voted for the increase were defeated at the next election; and so much of the measure as related to congressmen was repealed at the next session.

592. Civil Service Reform.—To give voice to the demands for improvement in the public service, a National Civil Service Reform Association was organized, which devoted itself to agitation favoring new methods of appointment. From the time of Jackson, the custom had been growing for a new President to turn out of office those who had actively opposed him, and to appoint those who had actively supported him. The numerous scandals in Grant’s administration were thought to result largely from this system, and a demand for reform became general. The first Civil Service Reform Law was passed March 3, 1871. This law authorized the President to frame and administer such rules as he deemed best for the regulation of appointments in the Civil Service. The measure received Grant’s approval, and he appointed the distinguished author and orator George William Curtis, an earnest advocate of reform, as the head of a Board of Commissioners, who were to examine candidates for the minor positions and report the results to the President. From those who passed the examinations most successfully, the President was to make the appointments. For three years this system of competitive examinations was followed; but, as congressmen were thus deprived of the privilege of recommending constituents for appointment, Congress in 1874 refused to vote money to maintain the commission, and the work was thus temporarily frustrated. This was also a period of local political corruption. The Tammany Society, under its “Boss,” William Marcy Tweed, governed New York City in a most scandalous and extravagant fashion. Finally, owing to exposures made in 1871, chiefly through the agency of the New York Times, Tweed was brought to trial and convicted.[^[271]]

General George A. Custer.