CHAPTER XXIV.
The Battle still Undecided.--Sunday among the Delegates.--Garfield's Remark.--Monday another Day of Doubt.--The Dark Horse.--The Balloting on Tuesday.--Garfield's Remonstrance.--He is Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth Ballot.--Enthusiastic Demonstrations, Congratulatory Speeches and Telegrams.--His Speech of Acceptance.
Garfield's eloquent speech was followed by one from Mr. Billings, of Vermont, who proposed Senator Edmunds as a nominee. Mr. Cassidy, of Wisconsin, presented the name of Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, and was seconded by Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut.
The battle was waged in this manner until a late hour on Saturday evening. Many of the delegates wanted to continue the balloting after midnight, and some urged the chairman, Judge Hoar, to ignore the Sabbath and let the convention go on.
"Never!" he replied; "this is a Sabbath-keeping nation, and I cannot preside over this convention one minute after twelve."
Garfield attended church in the morning, and dined with Marshall Field. The conversation at table turned upon the dead-lock in the convention and the quietus at Washington, where every one was waiting for further developments.
Addressing the friend who sat beside him, Garfield said,--
"Yes, this is a day of suspense, but it is also a day of prayer; and I have more faith in the prayers that will go up from Christian hearts to-day, than I have in all the political tactics which will prevail at this convention."
When President Hoar called the convention to order on Monday morning, an anxious crowd hastily took their seats and prepared for the coming battle. Eighteen ballots were cast during the day and ten more in the evening, with no decisive result. The weather was extremely hot, but the hall was filled to its utmost capacity, and at each roll-call the whole twelve thousand would simultaneously rise to their feet with a noise like the roar of thunder. It was late at night before the convention broke up, and some of the delegates did not retire at all.
On Tuesday morning, a pencilled note, it is said, passed from Conkling to Garfield, which read as follows:--
"MY DEAR GARFIELD,--If there is to be a dark horse in this convention there is no man I would prefer before yourself.
CONKLING."
The reply was,--
"MY DEAR CONKLING,--There will be no dark horse in this convention. I am for Sherman.
J. A. GARFIELD."
By the time the thirty-fourth ballot was cast, however, it began to be very evident that a "break" was imminent. Wisconsin gave thirty-six votes for Garfield, Connecticut followed with eleven more, Illinois gave seven, and Indiana twenty-nine.
Garfield immediately rose to his feet and said he had refused to have his name announced and voted for in the convention.
"I have not given my consent"--he began; but amidst much laughter the chairman interrupted, and said the gentleman was not stating a question of order.
The enthusiasm for the new candidate now rose to its highest pitch. When the thirty-sixth ballot was called, Sherman and the Ohio delegation, with the New York anti-Grant men, led off in a grand burst of applause for Garfield. One after another the States transferred their votes to him, till at last Wisconsin completed the majority.
Before the roll was called a salute of guns was fired in the park outside, the galleries sprang to their feet, and the wildest scene of excitement followed.
Each delegation had its State banner, and, with Massachusetts at the head, an impromptu procession was formed that marched over to the Ohio delegation and placed all the standards by the side of Garfield. The military band in the hall then struck up, "Rally round the Flag," and the whole immense audience enthusiastically joined in the stirring song.
"I shall never forget," writes an eye-witness, "the expression of Garfield's face at the time that delegation after delegation was breaking from its moorings and going over to him. I scanned him with intense curiosity as he listened to the call of States, and the certain coming of his nomination. His cheeks had a flush upon them, and there was a far-away expression in his eyes as he listened to the responses of the chairman, as if he was communing with the future. I can see his face at this moment as plainly as I saw it then, and I ask myself now whether as he swept the horizon of the future with his mind's eye, could he possibly have had a glimpse of the dark apparition that was even then being invoked into life. He looked anxious, almost troubled."
When the President of the convention announced that James A. Garfield of Ohio had received three hundred and ninety-nine ballots, the majority of the whole votes cast, Senator Conkling arose and said,--
"I move that he be unanimously presented as the nominee of the convention. The Chair, under the rules, anticipated me, but being on my feet, I avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate the Republican party of the nation on the good-natured and well-tempered disposition that has distinguished this animated convention.
"I trust that the fervor and unanimity of the scenes of the convention will be transplanted to the field of the country, and all of us who have borne a part against each other here will be found with equal zeal, bearing the banners and carrying the lances of the Republican party into the ranks of the enemy."
Senator Logan followed Conkling in a similar congratulatory speech; and Eugene Hale, the defeated leader of the Blaine forces, said:--
"Standing here to return our heartfelt thanks to the many men in this convention who have aided us in the fight that we made for the senator from Maine, and speaking for them here, as I know that I do, I say this most heartily: We have not got the man whom we hoped to nominate when we came here, but we have got a man in whom we have the greatest and most marked confidence. The nominee of this convention is no new and untried man, and in that respect he is no 'dark horse.' When he came here, representing his State in the front of his delegation and was seen here, every man knew him because of his record; and because of that and because of our faith in him, and because we were in the emergency, glad to help make him the candidate of the Republican party for President of the United States,--because, I say, of these things, I stand here to pledge the Maine forces in this convention to earnest effort until the ides of November, to help to carry him to the presidential chair."
Short speeches followed from members of the other delegations and the nomination of James A. Garfield was declared unanimous.
While shaking hands with the crowd that gathered around him, Garfield turned to a correspondent of the Cleveland _Herald_ and said gravely:--
"I wish you would say that this is no act of mine. I wish you would say that I have done everything and omitted nothing to secure Secretary Sherman's nomination. I want it plainly understood that I have not sought this nomination, and have protested against the use of my name. If Senator Hoar had permitted, I would have forbidden anybody to vote for me. But he took me off my feet before I had said what I intended. I am very sorry it has occurred, but if my position is fully explained, a nomination, coming unsought and unexpected like this, will be the crowning gratification of my life."
Before nominating the Vice-President, the convention took a short recess, and Garfield attempted to leave the hall. He was immediately surrounded, however, by an enthusiastic crowd, who followed him to the door and tried to take the horses off his carriage that they might draw it themselves.
A serenade followed at the Grand Pacific Hotel, but Garfield declined to respond to the ovation further than to give his thanks. More than six hundred congratulatory telegrams were received during the evening, among the most notable of which were the following:--
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, June 8th, 1880.
_To General James A. Garfield:_
You will receive no heartier congratulations to-day than mine. This both for your own and your country's sake.
(Signed) R. B. HAYES.
WASHINGTON, June 8th, 1880.
_Hon. James A. Garfield, Chicago:_
I congratulate you with all my heart upon your nomination as President of the United States. You have saved the Republican party and the country from a great peril, and assured the continued success of Republican principles.
(Signed) JOHN SHERMAN.
"The vote of Maine just cast for you is given you with my hearty concurrence. I assure you of my belief that you will have a glorious victory in November."
JAMES G. BLAINE.
MILWAUKEE, June 8th, 1880.
"Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised." LAWRENCE BARRETT.
WASHINGTON, June 8th 1880.
"Accept my hearty congratulations. The country is to be congratulated as well as yourself." C. SCHURZ.
Similar dispatches were received from other members of the cabinet, and from various senators and representatives at Washington. When General Grant heard the news he said, "It is all right--I am satisfied."
At the earnest request of the delegates, an informal reception was held at the Grand Pacific, and near midnight Garfield responded to the committee appointed to notify him officially of his nomination, as follows:--
"MR. CHAIRMEN AND GENTLEMEN,--I assure you that the information you have officially given me brings a sense of very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the fact that I was a member of your body, a fact that could not have existed with propriety had I had the slightest expectation that my name would be connected with the nomination for the office. I have felt with you great solicitude concerning the situation of our party during the struggle, but believing that you are correct in assuring me that substantial unity has been reached in the conclusion, it gives me gratification far greater than any personal pleasure your announcement can bring.
"I accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the work of our party and the character of the campaign to be entered upon, I will take an early occasion to reply more fully than I can properly do to-night. I thank you for the assurances of confidence and esteem you have presented to me, and hope we shall see our future as promising as are the indications to-night."
In a similar manner Senator Hoar and the committee officially apprized General Arthur of his nomination to the Vice-Presidency; his acceptance was given in a brief informal speech, but it was not till the "small hours" that the excited crowds began to disperse.