The elections showed that the calculations of the managers of the Republican campaign were accurate, and were also adequate to "snatching victory from the jaws of defeat." The effort to save New York failed, and it and the neighboring States rewarded with their electoral votes the unscrupulous and subtle skill of Governor Tilden's personal canvass. But the Republican victories beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the resolute resistance offered in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, to the seizure of those States by political crimes ranging from shameless fraud to wholesale massacre, still left success with the Republicans after a contest without an American parallel in obstinacy, bitterness and excitement. Mr. Chandler showed throughout the prolonged electoral dispute "the courage which mounteth with the occasion," and his firmness, vigor and activity were among the important factors in the work of saving the fruits of the so narrowly-won victory. As soon as the smoke lifted from the battle-field his dispatch appeared, "Hayes has 185 votes and is elected," and he maintained that position to the end without a shade of faltering. Knowing that the Republicans were rightfully entitled to the electoral votes of, at least, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, he determined that in the three States where the existence of Republican officials afforded some ground for hope nothing should be left undone to deprive fraud and violence of their prey, and he pushed every measure which seemed needed to uphold the Republicans of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina in their lawful rights. In some of the important closing phases of this exciting contest his counsels were not followed. The Electoral Commission act was not a measure that he approved. Firmly believing in the constitutional power of the President of the Senate to count the electoral votes and announce the result, he held the position that that officer should discharge that duty, and that the candidate thus constitutionally declared elected should be duly inaugurated at all hazards; and revolutionary threats were without effect upon his firm purpose. The negotiations between the opposing party leaders which attended the closing hours of the struggle, and which culminated in the abandonment by the new administration of the Republican State governments of the South, received no sanction from him. He regarded such a policy as essentially perfidious, and as clouding the title of Mr. Hayes to his high office, a title which Mr. Chandler believed to be as clear as that possessed by any President chosen since the formation of the constitution. Much else that attended the surrender of the South to the bitter enemies of the republic he deprecated as exceedingly harmful to the party of his faith, as unwise in tendency, and as unjust in principle. He was not demonstrative in his criticisms upon the new "policy," and his retirement to private life enabled him to maintain a general silence upon the subject. But his disapproval of a "conciliation," which he regarded as cowardly in its treatment of friends and as foolish in its manifestation of undeserved confidence in enemies, was profound.[39] Within two years the vindication of his opinions was complete.
The indebtedness of the Republicans to Mr. Chandler's attitude and efforts in the presidential election of 1876 and the subsequent electoral dispute can scarcely be exaggerated. Without his firmness, the spirit with which he held his party up to the thorough assertion of its rights, the liberality with which he advanced the large sums required for legitimate expenditures, and the influence of his indomitable resolution, the final victory would have been at least vastly more difficult of attainment, if not actually impossible. In him the enemy never found the slightest traces of failing will or flagging strength. While the excitement was at its height, a Democratic periodical published a cartoon, in which Mr. Chandler was caricatured as standing colossus-like over a yawning chasm, holding up an elephant, labeled "The Republican Vote," by a double-handed grasp upon its tail. The humor of the rough sketch greatly delighted its subject, and he kept it with him for the entertainment of his friends. He first saw it after one of the Cabinet sessions, when it was produced by President Grant and passed through the hands of the other Secretaries, until it reached Mr. Chandler, who, after looking it over, said, gravely pointing out his position in the cartoon: "Mr. President, one of three things is certain: either the rocks upon which my feet are resting will crumble, or the elephant's tail will break, or I shall land the animal." Into the methods of his work he never feared examination. No cipher dispatch disclosures have cast infamy upon his name, and eager investigation by his political enemies still left his personal honor untainted.
After the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term of Cabinet service, he remained in Washington for several weeks, and then accompanied General Grant to Philadelphia, and was one of the party who escorted the Ex-President down the Delaware when, on May 17, 1877, he commenced his tour around the world. The next two years were spent by Mr. Chandler in Michigan. His only prolonged absence from his Detroit home during this period was caused by a two months' trip to the California coast in June and July of 1877. A special car was placed at his service by the Pacific Railroads (he was one of the earliest and most energetic supporters of the trans-continental railway project), and he was accompanied by Charles T. Gorham of Marshall, H. C. Lewis of Coldwater, and S. S. Cobb of Kalamazoo. Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Yo Semite Valley were visited during the journey, and everywhere Mr. Chandler was welcomed with noteworthy public and private entertainments; his attractive social qualities shone throughout the jaunt. Not a great traveler, yet he saw during his life much of the world. In 1875, in company with Senators Cameron, Anthony and others, he visited the leading cities of the South. During one of the Congressional recesses of his second term, he passed some months in Europe, and while still in active business he spent a winter in the West Indies. His knowledge of the resources and points of interest of the Worth and Northwest was extensive and thorough.
PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM.[40]
The marsh farm, which Mr. Chandler bought near the city of Lansing, and the experiments in extensive and systematic drainage which he made thereon, always received a generous share of his attention when he was in Michigan. This enterprise was one in which he unhesitatingly made large investments with the view of settling definitely questions of manifest public importance. In 1857 the State of Michigan gave to its Agricultural College the public lands in the four townships of Bath, De Witt, Meridian, and Lansing, which were designated on the surveyor's maps as "swamp lands;" in the main the sections covered by the grant were marshy, although their rectilinear boundaries included some solid ground. Mr. Chandler purchased from the college and other owners a farm of 3,160 acres, located four miles (by railroad) from Lansing, in the towns of Bath and De Witt in Clinton county; it included about 1,900 acres of marsh meadow, 500 acres of tamarack swamp, and 800 acres of oak-opening uplands. The marsh was traversed by a slender water-course, deviously connecting some small lakes with a stream known as the Looking-glass river. The upland portion of the farm was thoroughly fertile, but its development and cultivation did not specially interest Mr. Chandler, except as furnishing the needed base for his experiments upon the marsh. He said: "Michigan contains thousands of acres of precisely this kind of land. The drainage of this particular marsh is difficult, as much so as is the case with any land in this peninsula which is not a hopeless swamp. If this tract can be reclaimed, others can be, and I propose to give the experiment of reclamation a thorough trial. I have the money, and I believe I have the pluck. If I succeed, it will be a good thing for the State, for it will show how to add millions of dollars worth of land to its farms. If I fail, it will also be a good thing, for it will settle an open question, and no man need repeat my attempt." He pushed this experiment vigorously from the time of its commencement until his death, and gave to it his frequent personal supervision: His investments in the marsh farm soon came to be counted by many tens of thousands of dollars. Originally, practical farmers were inclined to regard his operations as sheer folly, but as they saw the purpose, methods and thoroughness of his work, a just appreciation of its aim followed. Mr. Chandler never disguised the character of this enterprise. Repeatedly he said to visitors at the farm and to friends, "I have a theory—that is a remarkably expensive thing to have—and I propose to test it here; it will make me poorer, but it may make others richer some time." The public value of his experiment he believed to be great, and that fact he was quick to make prominent whenever it seemed necessary.
THE "BIG DITCH" (WINTER SCENE).