Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 / From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860

by James Gillespie Blaine

The Presidential election of 1864 was approaching, with marked political fluctuations and varying personal prospects. The tide of public feeling ebbed or flowed with the disasters or the victories of the war. The brilliant military triumphs of the summer of 1863 had quelled political opposition, and brought overwhelming success to the Republican party. This period of heroic achievement and popular enthusiasm was followed in the winter of 1863-64 by a dormant campaign, a constant waste, and an occasional reverse which produced a corresponding measure of doubt and despondency. The war had been prolonged beyond the expectation of the country; the loss of blood and of treasure had been prodigious; the rebels still flaunted their flag along the Tennessee and the Rappahannock; the public debt was growing to enormous proportions; new levies of troops were necessary; the end could not yet be seen; and all these trials and sacrifices and uncertainties had their natural effect upon the temper of the public and upon the fortunes of the war.

The preliminary movements connected with the Presidential canvass began in this period of doubt. The prevailing judgment of the Union-Republican party, with full trust in the President's sagacity and clear recognition of the injurious construction that would be put upon a change, pointed unmistakably to the renomination of Mr. Lincoln. But this predominant sentiment encountered some vigorous opposition. A part of the hostility was due to a sincere though mistaken impatience with Mr. Lincoln's slow and conservative methods, and a part was due to political resentments and ambitions. The more radical element of the party was not content with the President's cautious and moderate policy, but insisted that he should proceed to extreme measures or give way to some bolder leader who would meet this demand. Other individuals had been aggrieved by personal disappointments, and the spirit of faction could not be altogether extinguished even amid the agonies of war. There were civil as well as military offices to be filled, and the selection among candidates put forward in various interests could not be made without leaving a sense of discomfiture in many breasts.

These various elements of discontent and opposition clustered about Secretary Chase, and found in him their natural leader. He was the head of the radical forces in the Cabinet, as Mr. Seward was the exponent of the conservative policy. He had been one of the earliest and most zealous chiefs of the Free-soil party, and ranked among the brightest stars in that small galaxy of anti-slavery senators who bore so memorable a part in the Congressional struggles before the war. He was justly distinguished as a political leader and an able and a versatile statesman. For the part he was now desired and expected to play he had a decided inclination and not a few advantages. Keenly ambitious, he was justified by his talents, however mistaken his time and his methods, in aspiring to the highest place. His sympathies were well understood. By his unconcealed views and his direct expressions he had encouraged the movement against Mr. Lincoln. A year in advance of the Presidential election he had announced his conviction that no President should be re-elected, and had added the opinion that a man of different qualities from those of Mr. Lincoln would be needed for the next four years.

MR. CHASE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE.

Apart from the influence of his known attitude and of his recognized leadership, the opponents of Mr. Lincoln were naturally attracted to Mr. Chase by the fact that he was at the head of the department which was most potential in the distribution of patronage. If the purpose was not avowed, the inference was suggested that no man could do more to help himself. There had been sharp contention over the important Treasury offices in New York, in which Mr. Chase appeared on the one side and the rival influences in the Administration on the other, and this contest was interpreted as a part of the political and Presidential struggle. Mr. Chase having consented to the use of his name as a candidate, his friends began active work on his behalf. Early in the winter of 1863-64 what was known as the "Pomeroy circular" was sent out, ostensibly as a confidential paper, but promptly finding its way into print. It derived its name from the Kansas senator who was prominent in the advocacy of Mr. Chase's nomination. The circular represented that Mr. Lincoln's re-election was impossible; that his "manifest tendency toward compromises and temporary expedients of policy" rendered it undesirable; that Mr. Chase united more of the qualities needed in a President for the next four years than were combined in any other available candidate; and that steps should be taken at once to effect a general organization to promote his nomination.

But the effort met with small response. It aroused no popular sympathy. Its chief effect indeed was to call forth the always constant if sometimes latent attachment of the people to Mr. Lincoln, and to develop an irresistible desire for his re-election. A few days after the issue of the "Pomeroy circular" the Republican members of the Ohio Legislature passed a resolution in favor of Mr. Lincoln's renomination, and Mr. Chase availed himself of this unmistakable action in his own State to withdraw his name as a candidate. The signal failure of the movement however did not entirely arrest the effort to prevent Mr. Lincoln's renomination. Restless spirits still persisted in an opposition as destitute of valid reason as it was abortive in result. With the view of promptly settling the disturbing question of candidates and presenting an undivided front to the common foe, the Republican National Convention had been called to meet on the 7th of June. The selection of this early date, though inspired by the most patriotic motives, was made an additional pretext for factious warfare. An address was issued inviting the "radical men of the nation" to meet at Cleveland on the 31st of May, with the undisguised design of menacing and constraining the Republican Convention. This call passionately denounced Mr. Lincoln by implication as prostituting his position to perpetuate his own power; it virulently assailed the Baltimore Convention, though not yet held, as resting wholly on patronage; it challenged the rightful title of that authoritative tribunal of the party, and declared for the principle of one term. There had been no election of delegates to this Cleveland assemblage, and it possessed no representative character. It was simply a mass convention, and numbered about a hundred and fifty persons claiming to come from fifteen different States.

The platform adopted by the Convention was brief, and in some directions extreme. It demanded that the rebellion be suppressed without compromise, and that the right of habeas corpus and the privilege of asylum be held inviolate; declared for the Monroe doctrine and for constitutional amendments prohibiting the re- establishment of Slavery and providing for the election of President for one term only and by direct vote of the people; and finally advocated the confiscation of the lands of rebels and their distribution among the soldiers and actual settlers. General Frémont was selected as the candidate for President, and General John Cochrane of New York for Vice-President. General Frémont hurried forward his letter of acceptance, which was dated only four days after his nomination and three days before the Baltimore Convention. It repudiated the proposed confiscation, but approved the remainder of the platform. It was chiefly devoted to a vehement attack upon Mr. Lincoln's Administration, which was charged with incapacity and with infidelity to the principles it was pledged to maintain. General Frémont further hinted that if the Baltimore Convention would select some candidate other than Mr. Lincoln he would retire from the contest, but plainly declared that if the President were renominated there would be no alternative but to organize every element of opposition against him.

Three days before the Baltimore Convention, a mass meeting was held in New York to give public voice to the gratitude of the country to General Grant and his command, for their patriotic and successful services. While this was the avowed object of the demonstration, there was a suspicion that it had a political design and that its real purpose was to present General Grant as a Presidential candidate. If such were the intent, it was effectually frustrated both by the emphatic refusal of General Grant to countenance the use of his name, and by the admirable and impressive letter of Mr. Lincoln. Paying a warm tribute to the heroic commander of the army, the President said appealingly, "He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support." This patriotic singleness of thought for the country's safety defeated and scattered all more political plans, and the hearts of the people turned more and more to Mr. Lincoln. He had been steadily growing in the esteem of his countrymen. The patience, wisdom, and fidelity with which he had guided the government during its unprecedented trials and dangers had won the profound respect and affection of the people. Besides this deepening sentiment of personal devotion and confidence, there was a wide conviction that, in his own expressive phrase, "it is not wise to swap horses while crossing the stream."

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

Under these circumstances the Union-Republican National Convention met in Baltimore. The feeling with which it convened was one of patriotic and exultant confidence. The doubts prevailing a few months before had been dissipated. The accession of General Grant to the command of all our armies, and the forward movement both in the East and in the West, inspired faith in the speedy and complete triumph of the Union cause. Many eminent men were included in the roll of delegates to the Convention. Not less than five of the leading War Governors were chosen to participate in its councils. Vermont sent Solomon Foot who had stood faithful in the Senate during the struggles before the war. Massachusetts had commissioned her eloquent Governor John A. Andrew; the delegation from New York embraced Henry J. Raymond; Daniel S. Dickinson, who was to be prominently named for Vice-President; and Lyman Tremain who, like Dickinson, was one of the able war Democrats that had joined the Republican party. New Jersey and Ohio each sent two ex-governors —Marcus L. Ward and William A. Newell from the former, and William Dennison and David Tod from the latter. Simon Cameron, Thaddeus Stevens, and Ex-Speaker Grow of Pennsylvania; Governor Blair and Omer D. Conger of Michigan; Angus Cameron of Wisconsin and George W. McCrary of Iowa were among the other delegates who have since been identified with public affairs and have occupied positions of responsibility.