14. The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold those who imperilled their lives for the country's preservation in the kindest rememberance.
15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feeling and tendencies. We therefore note with deep solicitude that the Democratic party counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the electoral vote of a united South, secured through the efforts of those who were recently arrayed against the nation; and we invoke the earnest attention of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and human rights.
16. We charge the Democratic party with being the same in character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason with making its control of the House of Representatives the triumph and opportunity of the nation's recent foes; with reasserting and applauding in the National Capitol the sentiments of unrepentant rebellion; with sending Union soldiers to the rear and promoting Confederate soldiers to the front; with deliberately proposing to repudiate the plighted faith of the government; with being equally false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial question; with thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagements and obstruction; with proving itself, through the period of its ascendancy in the Lower House of Congress utterly incompetent to administer the government; and we warn the country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant and incapable.
17. The national administration merits commendation for its honorable work in the management of domestic and foreign affairs, and President Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the American people for his patriotism and his eminent services, in war and in peace.
18. We present as our candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States two distinguished statesmen, of eminent ability and character, and conspicuously fitted for those high offices, and we confidently appeal to the American people to intrust the administration of their public affairs to Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler.
On the second day the nominations were made of the above-named candidates, with stirring speeches, the most remarkable of which were the three delivered for Mr. Blaine. Robert G. Ingersoll, in presenting Mr. Blaine's name, uttered the eloquent words which caused his celebrated effort to become known as the "Plumed Knight Speech"; near its conclusion he said, "Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his country and the maligners of his honor. For the Republicans to desert this gallant leader now is as though an army should desert their General upon the field of battle." This nomination was seconded by Henry M. Turner, colored, and William P. Frye, of Maine. Gov. Hayes was nominated by Edwin F. Noyes, seconded by Benjamin F. Wade. The various nominating speeches concluded the second day's business and the balloting began on the opening of the third day of the Convention. The number of votes necessary for a choice was 378, and seven ballots were taken, with the following result for the leading candidates:
1st. 2d. 3d. 4th. 5th. 6th. 7th.
Blaine ……… 285 290 293 292 286 308 351
Morton ……… 125 120 113 108 95 85
Bristow …….. 113 114 121 126 114 111 21
Conkling ……. 99 93 90 84 82 81
Hayes ………. 61 64 67 68 104 113 384
Hartranft …… 58 63 68 71 69 50
Scattering votes were also cast for Messrs. Wheeler, Jewell and Washburne. At the close of the seventh ballot, Mr. Hayes' nomination was made unanimous on motion of William P. Frye. During the sixth ballot the unit rule was decided against and each delegate allowed to vote as he pleased, and this became the rule of all subsequent conventions of the party, although in the convention of 1880 the supporters of Gen. Grant made a strong effort to fasten the unit rule on that convention. The candidates for the vice-presidential nomination were Wm. A. Wheeler, Marshall Jewell, Stewart L. Woodford, Jos. R. Hawley and F. T. Frelinghuysen, but after the first ballot had proceeded as far as South Carolina the nomination of Mr. Wheeler was made unanimous.
The nomination of Mr. Hayes was a great surprise to the country and consequently, at first, created little enthusiasm in the party, but it was shortly seen that he was in fact a strong candidate, and the party united solidly behind him and took up the canvass with considerable enthusiasm. Rutherford B. Hayes was born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822, and graduated at Kenyon College in 1842. He studied law, and practiced for a short time at Fremont, Ohio, afterwards moving to Cincinnati, where he became the City Solicitor. He volunteered in the Civil War, distinguished himself in many important engagements, and rose from the rank of Major to brevet Major-General. The War over, he entered Congress (1865), and at the close of his term was twice elected Governor, serving from 1868 to 1872; was defeated for Congress in 1872, but his election in 1875 to the Governorship, over the Democratic Governor, William Allen, in a remarkable honest-money campaign, brought him into greater national prominence, and now resulted in his nomination for the Presidency. His nomination was a bitter disappointment to the many friends of Mr. Blaine, but they promptly ratified it.
The Republican Platform of 1876, already given, was strong in expression and lofty in its sentiments, which were in keeping with those engendered by the Centennial Year.