[36] This massive edifice is popularly known as "The Patent Office," because its main halls are occupied by the magnificent model rooms of the Bureau of Patents.
[37] Much of Secretary Chandler's confidence arises from the well-known integrity and personal reliability of the several gentlemen sustaining the nearest official relation to him, all of whom were selected by his own free choice, and from his own personal knowledge of these essential characteristics. General Gorham did not seek the office of Assistant Secretary; the office sought him, and Mr. Chandler himself would take no denial. So, also, of Mr. Gaylord, his able and untiring Assistant Attorney-General for the department. And the same is true of Mr. Partridge, his discreet and trusted private secretary. Surrounded by such aids he well knows that no material interest can suffer by any temporary contingency, such as the one which now occurs.—Washington dispatch to the Philadelphia "City Item" of Oct. 20, 1875 (referring to Mr. Chandler's temporary absence).
[38] No appointment was ever more thoroughly justified by the result than Mr. Chandler's. It gave him a new field for his energy and his masterly executive ability, and it is conceded that he made the best Secretary of the Interior that the nation has had in our day. He made no boasts of what he intended to accomplish, but instituted reforms and uprooted abuses. He hated dishonest men, and they feared him.—Gen. J. R. Hawley, in the "Hartford Courant."
On no occasion was Mr. Chandler known to use his official position for his own pecuniary gain—directly or indirectly. His death has ended a long career of public service in executive and legislative capacities, and throughout his hands were ever clean of unjust or illegitimate gain—nor did his bitterest political foe (and no man evoked stronger personal criticism) ever charge, or ever suspect him, with making personal profit out of his political station and opportunities.—T. F. Bayard in the Senate, Jan. 28, 1880.
CHAPTER XX.
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876—AT HOME—THE MARSH FARM NEAR LANSING.
The Michigan delegation to the Cincinnati Convention of 1876 selected Mr. Chandler as the member of the National Republican Committee for their State, and at the first formal meeting of that body (at Philadelphia, early in July) he was chosen its chairman after a close triangular contest between his friends and those of the Hon. A. B. Cornell and Gen. E. F. Noyes. The committee at once opened rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, with its Secretary, the Hon. R. C. McCormick of Arizona, in immediate charge. Mr. Chandler made frequent visits to the headquarters throughout the campaign, superintending the general plan of operations and meeting with the executive committee; as election-day approached his attendance became more constant.
Originally he felt confident of Republican victory, not believing that in the centennial year the American people would render a political verdict whose result would be the restoration of the disloyal classes of the South to national supremacy. But, in September, evidences of Republican apathy in the important States of Ohio and Indiana—more especially in the former, which was the home of the Presidential candidate—greatly disturbed him, and made it plain that the situation was critical. It had become evident that organized brutality would give all the close Southern States to the Democrats and even make doubtful those which were strongly Republican, and that the merchantable and criminal classes of New York city would be so used as to also cast the electoral vote of that great State for the Opposition. The gravity of the prospect then brought out Mr. Chandler's best qualities of party leadership. Prompt aid was rendered in Ohio, and the National Committee did more than its full share (Mr. Chandler making large personal advances) to carry that State in the important October election. After the serious loss of Indiana, measures were at once instituted to organize the party for decisive work on the Pacific Slope, to see that in those Southern States where there was any hope all lawful measures were taken to defeat the plans of "the rifle clubs" and "the white leagues," and to carry New York if that was possible. Nothing was spared that would arouse the spirit of the party, and Mr. Chandler saw that the means were forthcoming for every effort that promised to make success more certain.