[39] In the fall of 1877 Mr. Chandler delivered the annual address before the Branch County Agricultural Society, and while in Coldwater was the guest of the Hon. Henry C. Lewis of that city, who invited a few friends to meet him socially. In the course of the conversation Mr. Chandler said that he was going to his Lansing farm to spend a few days. His reticence in regard to the Hayes administration was then a matter of remark, and the Hon. C. D. Randall said to him: "Well, Mr. Chandler, when you get out in the center of your great farm and alone, you will have a fine opportunity to express your opinion about the Hayes 'policy.'" Mr. Chandler's reply was: "No, sir; that Lansing farm will never answer my purpose. To do that I shall have to be on the top of a high hill behind the meeting-house and with the wind blowing the other way!" The audience responded with a hearty laugh.
[40] The heavy black lines in this map are the boundaries of the farm; the waving lines indicate the border of the uplands surrounding the marsh. The drainage is from Mud Lake via "the big ditch" to the Looking-glass river. The lateral ditching (of which there are over fifty miles) is shown on the plat by the fine lines.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878—MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE SENATE—"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."
The township elections in Michigan in April, 1878, revealed an astonishing growth in the number of the advocates of an irredeemable paper currency. "Hard times," Democratic disgust over the result of the electoral dispute, and Republican disappointment at "the Southern policy" of the new administration greatly relaxed existing party ties, and made the way ready for the expounders of the seductive theory that prosperity depends upon a great volume of the currency, and that large issues of paper bearing the government stamp must greatly add to individual wealth. Throughout the West and South, Republican and Democratic leaders had fostered these fallacious ideas, and thus prepared the field of public sentiment for this "Greenback" sowing. In Michigan the result was that the National party (which in 1876 gave only 9,060 votes to Peter Cooper for President) in April, 1878, cast over 70,000 votes for its township candidates, elected a large number of supervisors in the most populous counties of the State, and showed greater strength than either of the old parties in four Congressional districts. This was the gravest situation the Republicans of Michigan had ever been called upon to face. A conference of their representative men was at once held, at the call of the State Central Committee, and the situation was thoroughly discussed. Among those participating was Gov. Charles M. Croswell, who said that he believed that the party should boldly declare for a sound currency, and resist with all its power the further spread of financial heresy; for himself, he preferred defeat on that platform to a victory won by any surrender to false theories. The endorsement of his views was substantially unanimous, and an aggressive campaign was determined upon. The State Convention was promptly called, and met in Detroit on June 13. It was the ablest political gathering ever held in Michigan, and its delegates included the foremost men of the party from every county. Mr. Chandler presided; Governor Croswell was renominated at the head of a strong State ticket; a platform, admirable for its soundness of doctrine and clearness of statement[41] (its author was Frederick Morley, formerly editor of the Detroit Post), was adopted; and Mr. Chandler was, amid the prolonged cheering of the convention, placed at the head of the State Committee. He had at that time about completed his plans for a European journey, and it was suggested to him by friends that his chairmanship of the National Committee afforded a valid excuse for declining this new appointment, which would make him responsible for the result of a doubtful fight, with the certainty that defeat would greatly impair his political prestige. To this advice Mr. Chandler simply replied, "If Michigan Republicanism goes down, I will go with it." He promptly canceled all other engagements, appointed his confidential secretary, G. W. Partridge, secretary of the committee (with the consent of its members), and threw his energy and vigor into that State campaign. The contest that followed under his leadership preserved the spirit of the convention and upheld the doctrines of the platform. The financial question was discussed in every phase "upon the stump" and by the press. Mr. Chandler himself spoke in all the leading cities of the State, and was seconded by many other orators, including James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield, and Stewart L. Woodford, whose addresses were masterly examples of the candid, luminous and popular treatment of a topic usually regarded as too abstruse and dry for profitable public discussion. The courage and honesty of this fight were justly rewarded. The Republicans carried the State by over 47,000 plurality, and elected every Congressional candidate and a Legislature with a large Republican majority upon joint ballot. The victory was a signal one. In no Western State had financial heresy ever been as resolutely grappled with and as thoroughly beaten, and his prominent share in this battle must rank among Mr. Chandler's most unselfish and honorable public services.
An unforeseen but almost poetically just result of this triumph was his own return to Congress. Senator Christiancy's failing health compelled him in the winter of 1879 to seek (under physician's advice) rest and a change of climate. The President offered him the embassadorship at Berlin, or at Mexico, or at Lima, and he finally decided to accept the latter. His nomination was sent to the Senate on Jan. 29, 1879, and confirmed without reference to a committee. On February 10, his resignation as Senator was laid before the Michigan Legislature, and on the 18th that body filled the vacancy by election. With the earliest hints of the possibility of Senator Christiancy's retirement, Republican opinion and the popular expectation had agreed that Mr. Chandler would be chosen for the remaining years of what the Republicans of Michigan had unsuccessfully sought to make his fourth term. This was regarded as due to him, as still more due to the party which had in 1875 been deprived of its choice, and as securing the restoration to public activity of a man of national influence and prominence, at an hour when the sagacity of his political judgment had been vindicated by the alarming attitude of the South, and when the sturdiest qualities of leadership were needed in Washington. The legislative action reflected this strong current of public sentiment. In the Republican caucus (held in the new Capitol of that State), Mr. Chandler was nominated for Senator on the first formal ballot, receiving sixty-nine of the eighty-nine votes cast. In the Legislature he was elected by the vote of every Republican in his seat in either branch.
THE MICHIGAN CAPITOL AT LANSING.