A History of the Republican Party

by George Washington Platt

19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the Vice-Presidency, known to the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for liberty as an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incorruptible legislator, and representative man of American institutions, is worthy to associate with our great leader and share the honors which we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon them.

It is important also to note that Grant and Wilson had already been nominated by the Workingmen's National Convention in New York on May 23d.

The Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore on July 9th and endorsed the Liberal Republican nominees, Greeley and Brown, and the Liberal Republican platform. A convention of "straight-out" Democrats met at Louisville, Kentucky, September 3d to 5th, and repudiated the Baltimore convention, nominating Charles O'Conor, of New York, for President, and John Q. Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President, who both declined, but the convention, unable to secure other candidates, left the ticket as named. A Colored Liberal Republican Convention at Louisville on September 25th also nominated Greeley and Brown. In addition to these various conventions, the Liberal Republican Revenue Reformers' Convention met in New York June 25th, and nominated William S. Groesbeck, of Ohio, for President, and F. L. Olmstead, of New York, for Vice-President.

The contest between Grant and Greeley was a remarkable one, and at its opening there was considerable doubt as to the outcome; but as the summer months went by it was seen that the coalition between the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats was working out unsatisfactorily. The October States went Republican, and indicated clearly what could be expected in November. The election on November 5th was an overwhelming victory for the Republicans; Grant and Wilson carried 29 States with their 286 electoral votes out of a total electoral vote of 366, Arkansas and Louisiana not being counted for either side. The popular vote gave Grant 3,597,132, Greeley 2,834,125, O'Conor 29,489, Black 5,608. The election was followed in a few weeks by the death of Mr. Greeley; broken-hearted by the death of his wife a few days before the election, and exhausted by the tremendous strains of the campaign, and disappointed by the result, the great editor closed one of the most remarkable careers in American history.

The hostility of England to the North during the Civil War led to the filing of the Alabama Claims, which were adjusted by the Geneva Tribunal, and the United States, on September 14, 1872, was awarded $15,500,000 in gold in full payment of these claims.

The third session of the Forty-second Congress began December 2, 1872, and immediately, on motion of Mr. Blaine, a committee was appointed to investigate the Democratic charges made during the preceding presidential campaign, that the Vice-President, the Secretary of the Treasury, Speaker of the House, and other prominent Republicans, had accepted, in return for political influence, stock in the Credit Mobilier, a company originally engaged in the construction of the Union Pacific. The result of this committee's investigation was the clearing of the prominent men charged, but a vote of censure was passed on Representatives Oakes Ames and James Brooks for connection with the scandal.

An Act went into effect on February 12, 1873, the provisions of which, it was afterwards argued, caused the "demonetization" of silver. This demonetization had already occurred in 1853, when nothing was said in the Act of that year as to the silver dollar piece which had for some years entirely disappeared from circulation. The Act of 1873 simply recognized a condition which had been present for more than twenty years when it provided for the coinage of ten, twenty-five and fifty-cent silver pieces and omitted the dollar. The Act of 1873 was passed because all coin had been driven out of circulation by the United States notes and fractional currency issued during the War, and the Treasury Department, deeming the time appropriate for the issuance of subsidiary silver coins and revision of the coinage laws, suggested, after consultation with experts, the Act of 1873. The Act was, in fact, an important step toward specie resumption. This law also provided for a trade dollar for use in trade with China and Japan. This dollar was to weigh 420 grains, so as to give it the advantage over the Mexican dollar of 416 grains. It was made legal tender for a limited amount only, and several years afterwards was withdrawn from circulation.

President Grant was reinaugurated on March 4, 1873, and the Republican Party seemingly had a prospect of a long lease of power, for the strength of all opposition seemed to have been dissipated by the campaign of 1872; but before the year of the reinauguration had passed, circumstances occurred absolutely beyond the control of the party, the result of which caused a complete change of the political aspect of the country. In September, 1873, while business affairs were in a good condition and labor well employed, a sudden financial panic engulfed the country and brought demoralization to almost all industries. The direct cause of this panic was the abuse of credit in the enormous building of railroads which had been going on for several years prior to 1873. The market had been flooded with railroad bonds, and as the old portions of the Western railroads did not earn enough to pay for new construction, the railroads gradually began to default in the payment of interest on their bonds, and the New York bankers became overburdened with them; the natural result was that they were compelled to call in their loans, money became tight, and the storm broke in September, 1873, when the great financial house of Jay Cooke & Co. closed its doors. By the end of October the panic was over, but the effects were felt long afterwards in thousands of ruined enterprises. It gave new arguments to the champions of fiat currency, and the whole situation told against the success of the Republican Party. When the first session of the Forty-third Congress opened on December 1, 1873 (James G. Blaine elected Speaker), arguments for currency inflation were advanced on all sides, and resulted in the passage of a bill on April 14, 1874, to inflate the currency $44,000,000. President Grant wisely vetoed the measure and it failed of passage over his veto. The Congressional elections in the fall of 1874 showed the influence of the disastrous industrial conditions upon politics, for the Democrats obtained control of the House for the first time in fifteen years. That a great political revulsion was in progress was apparent when Ohio in 1873 and New York in 1874 elected Democratic Governors. When the Forty-fourth Congress convened on December 6, 1875, Michael C. Kerr, Democrat, of Indiana, was chosen Speaker by 173 votes over James G. Blaine, who received 106. This practically showed the party strength in the House.

The most important Act of President Grant's second term was the Resumption of specie payment, which was provided for in the bill reported to the Senate December 21, 1874, by John Sherman. By this Act there was to be a coinage of ten, twenty-five and fifty-cent silver pieces, which were to be exchanged for fractional currency until it was all redeemed. There was to be an issue of bonds, and the surplus revenue was to be used to buy coin. So much of the Act of 1870 which limited the amount of national bank notes to $350,000,000 was repealed, and these banks were now authorized to issue more bills; but for every $100.00 issued the Secretary of the Treasury must call in $80.00 of the greenbacks until but $300,000,000 of them remained. The total amount of paper currency in the United States at this time was $780,000,000, divided into $382,000,000 U. S. notes, $44,000,000 fractional currency and $354,000,000 national bank notes, and each dollar of this paper currency was worth about eighty-nine cents in coin. The Act further provided that after January 1, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury was to redeem in coin all United States legal tender notes then outstanding, on presentation. President Grant approved this bill January 14, 1875, with a special message to Congress.

The spring of 1876 witnessed the opening of the Centennial Exposition at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, by President Grant and Emperor Dom Pedro II, of Brazil. In this year a successor was to be chosen to President Grant, and for the first time in the history of the party since 1860 there was to be a contest over the presidential nomination. The long continuance in power of the party had its natural effect of creating factions, and this, together with the recent Democratic successes, made necessary a most careful selection of a candidate and of a platform for this campaign.