Part 26
They have kept alive the passions and resentments of the late civil war, to use them for their own advantage; they have resorted to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the organic law, instead of appealing to the better instincts and latent patriotism of the Southern people by restoring to them those rights the enjoyment of which is indispensable to a successful administration of their local affairs, and would tend to revive a patriotic and hopeful national feeling.
They have degraded themselves and the name of their party, once justly entitled to the confidence of the nation, by a base sycophancy to the dispenser of executive power and patronage, unworthy of republican freemen; they have sought to silence the voice of just criticism, and stifle the moral sense of the people, and to subjugate public opinion by tyrannical party discipline.
They are striving to maintain themselves in authority for selfish ends by an unscrupulous use of the power which rightfully belongs to the people, and should be employed only in the service of the country.
Believing that an organization thus led and controlled can no longer be of service to the best interests of the Republic, we have resolved to make an independent appeal to the sober judgment, conscience, and patriotism of the American people.
We, the Liberal Republicans of the United States, in national convention assembled at Cincinnati; proclaim the following principles as essential to just government:
1. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government, in its dealings with the people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political.
2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States, emancipation and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution.
3. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed on account of the Rebellion, which was finally subdued seven years ago, believing that universal amnesty will result in complete pacification in all sections of the country.
4. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power. The public welfare requires the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and the freedom of the person under the protection of the _habeas corpus_. We demand for the individual the largest liberty consistent with public order, for the State self-government, and for the nation a return to the methods of peace and the constitutional limitations of power.
5. The civil service of the Government has become a mere instrument of partisan tyranny and personal ambition, and an object of selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions, and breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity of republican government. We therefore regard a thorough reform of the civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour; that honesty, capacity and fidelity constitute the only valid claims to public employment; that the offices of the Government cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, and that public station shall become again a post of honor. To this end it is imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for re-election.
6. We demand a system of Federal taxation which shall not unnecessarily interfere with the industry of the people, and which shall provide the means necessary to pay the expenses of the Government, economically administered, the pensions, the interest on the public debt, and a moderate reduction annually of the principal thereof; and recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and the decision of Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation.
7. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we denounce repudiation in every form and guise.
8. A speedy return to specie payments is demanded alike by the highest considerations of commercial morality and honest government.
9. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and no act of ours shall ever detract from their justly earned fame or the full rewards of their patriotism.
10. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers.
11. We hold that it is the duty of the Government in its intercourse with foreign nations to cultivate the friendships of peace by treating with all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dishonorable to demand what is not right or submit to what is wrong.
12. For the promotion and success of these vital principles, and the support of the candidates nominated by this convention, we invite and cordially welcome the co-operation of all patriotic citizens, without regard to previous political affiliations.
When the convention adjourned I regarded the opportunity to make a successful contest against Grant as wholly lost. Greeley had been hammering the Democrats in his pungent paragraphs for thirty years, and they could have little sympathy with him, and the business interests of the country could not accept a President whose financial policy was expressed in the single sentence, “The way to resume is to resume,” referring, of course, to the resumption of specie payments, then the most vital issue. There were a number of prominent Democrats at the convention as spectators, and I was surprised to learn before midnight that many of them had decided to favor the nomination of the Cincinnati ticket by the Democratic convention.
The Democrats of Tennessee led off for the endorsement of Greeley by the Democratic National Convention, as did a number of other States, but it was not until the Democratic State Convention of Indiana met and nominated Hendricks for Governor, with a positive declaration in favor of supporting the Liberal Republican national ticket, that the position of the Democratic party was finally determined. After the bold attitude assumed by Hendricks, the Democratic dispute as to the policy of the party practically ended. It was very generally accepted that the only chance the Democrats had was to fall in as part of the Liberal Republican procession.
The Republican National Convention met in Philadelphia on the 5th of June, and as all the disturbing anti-administration elements had been eliminated by the organization of the Liberal Republicans, there was entire harmony in the renomination of General Grant. Morton McMichael, of Pennsylvania, was temporary chairman, and Judge Settle, of North Carolina, permanent presiding officer. The nomination of Grant was made by acclamation and with great enthusiasm, but there was a spirited and, indeed, a desperate contest for the Vice-Presidency. Colfax had been in ill-health some months before the meeting of the convention, and publicly announced his purpose not to be a candidate for re-election. Until then he had been an almost universal favorite with the newspaper correspondents of Washington, who had then become a very formidable political power, but after the announcement of his retirement his fellowship with them gradually diminished, and when later he announced that, notwithstanding his public declination, he would be a candidate for renomination, the Washington newspaper men organized and made an aggressive battle against him. It is not disputed that they accomplished his defeat, as Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, was nominated on the 1st ballot, receiving 364-1/2 votes to 321-1/2 for Colfax.
The campaign literature of this contest presented the singular fact that neither of the Republican candidates for the two highest offices of the Government bore his own proper name. Grant’s name was Hiram Ulysses, but when he was appointed a cadet to West Point he was erroneously entered as Ulysses S. Grant, and he accepted that name until his death. Another campaign story told how Henry Wilson’s true name was Jeremiah Colbath, and that when known as the “Natick Cobbler” he studied night and day to advance himself. He was very much charmed with the eloquence of Representative Wilson, of New Hampshire, and he finally adopted the name of Henry Wilson, by which he was known throughout his entire public career. The following platform was unanimously adopted:
The Republican party of the United States, assembled in national convention in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th and 6th days of June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its history, and announces its position upon the questions before the country.
During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted with grand courage the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic rebellion, emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, and established universal suffrage. Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for political offences, and warmly welcomed all who proved loyalty by obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neighbors. It has steadily decreased with firm hand the resultant disorders of a great war, and initiated a wise and humane policy toward the Indians. The Pacific Railroad and similar vast enterprises have been generously aided and successfully conducted, the public lands freely given to actual settlers, immigration protected and encouraged, and a full acknowledgment of the naturalized citizens’ rights secured from European powers. A uniform national currency has been provided, repudiation frowned down, the national credit sustained under the most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds negotiated at lower rates. The revenues have been carefully collected and honestly applied. Despite annual large reductions of the rates of taxation, the public debt has been reduced during General Grant’s Presidency at the rate of a hundred millions a year. Great financial crises have been avoided, and peace and plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficulties have been peacefully and honorably composed, and the honor and power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world. This glorious record of the past is the party’s best pledge for the future. We believe the people will not intrust the Government to any party or combination of men composed chiefly of those who have resisted every step of this beneficent progress.
2. The recent amendments to the national Constitution should be cordially sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be intrusted only to the party that secured these amendments.
3. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil, political, and public rights should be established and effectually maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude.
4. The National Government should seek to maintain honorable peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sympathizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty.
5. Any system of the civil service under which the subordinate positions of the Government are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing, and we therefore favor a reform of the system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage and make honesty, efficiency, and fidelity the essential qualifications for public positions, without practically creating a life-tenure of office.
6. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain be set apart for free homes for the people.
7. The annual revenue, after paying current expenditures, pensions, and the interest on the public debt, should furnish a moderate balance for the reduction of the principal, and that revenue, except so much as may be derived from a tax upon tobacco and liquors, should be raised by duties upon importations, the details of which should be so adjusted as to aid in securing remunerative wages to labor, and promote the industries, prosperity, and growth of the whole country.
8. We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose valor saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for their country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of the Government to all soldiers and sailors who were honorably discharged, and who, in the line of duty, became disabled, without regard to the length of service or cause of such discharge.
9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers concerning allegiance—“Once a subject always a subject”—having at last, through the efforts of the Republican party, been abandoned, and the American idea of the individual right to transfer allegiance having been accepted by European nations, it is the duty of our Government to guard with jealous care the rights of adopted citizens against the assumption of unauthorized claims by their former governments, and we urge continued careful encouragement and protection of voluntary immigration.
10. The franking privilege ought to be abolished, and the way prepared for a speedy reduction in the rates of postage.
11. Among the questions which press for attention is that which concerns the relations of capital and labor, and the Republican party recognizes the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator of capital, the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual profits of these two great servants of civilization.
12. We hold that Congress and the President have only fulfilled an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions, and for the protection of the ballot-box; and therefore they are entitled to the thanks of the nation.
13. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of interest upon the balance, and confidently expect that our excellent national currency will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment.
14. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom. Their admission to wider spheres of usefulness is viewed with satisfaction; and the honest demand of any class of citizens for additional rights should be treated with respectful consideration.
15. We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending amnesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of peace and fraternal feeling throughout the land.
16. The Republican party proposes to respect the rights reserved by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by them to the States and to the Federal Government. It disapproves of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils by interference with the rights not surrendered by the people to either the State or the National Government.
17. It is the duty of the General Government to adopt such measures as may tend to encourage and restore American commerce and shipbuilding.
18. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest purpose, the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integrity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him to the heart of the American people, and with him at our head we start to-day upon a new march to victory.
19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the Vice-Presidency, known to the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for liberty as an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incorruptible legislator, and representative man of American institutions, is worthy to associate with our great leader and share the honors which we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon them.
The Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore on the 9th of July. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of Virginia, was the temporary president and ex-Senator James R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, was permanent president. The Cincinnati Liberal Republican platform was reported by the committee without the change of a word. Senator Bayard, of Delaware, vigorously opposed it, but it was adopted by 670 to 62. A ballot was had for President, resulting as follows:
Horace Greeley, New York 686 Jeremiah S. Black, Pennsylvania 21 Thos. F. Bayard, Delaware 16 Wm. S. Groesback, Ohio 2 Blank 7
On the 1st ballot for Vice-President, B. Gratz Brown received 713 votes to 6 for John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, and 13 blank. The nominations were then made unanimous. It was one of the most harmonious conventions that I ever witnessed, and there was very general and absolute confidence felt that the Democrats and Liberals united could sweep the country and elect Greeley to the Presidency.
There were few among the Democratic leaders who openly and determinedly dissented. In point of fact the Democratic leaders were quite sufficiently united on Greeley to have given him the victory, but the rank and file refused to follow, as was proved by the State elections, all of which showed that the Democrats lost more of their following than the Republicans gave them from the Liberal ranks.
It was not until September 3d that the Democratic opposition to Greeley took form, when a national convention was held at Louisville, Ky., and nominated Charles O’Conor, of New York, for President and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President without the formality of a ballot. Adams had agreed to accept the nomination if O’Conor stood at the head of the ticket, but O’Conor promptly and peremptorily declined, after which Mr. Lyon, president of the convention, was nominated for President, but he also declined. The nomination for President was then tendered to Mr. Adams, but he refused, and finally the convention renominated O’Conor, and adjourned without inquiring whether the candidates would stand or decline. The following is the platform adopted by the Democratic dissenters:
_Whereas_, A frequent recurrence to first principles, and eternal vigilance against abuses, are the wisest provisions for liberty, which is the source of progress, and fidelity to our constitutional system is the only protection for either; therefore,
_Resolved_, That the original basis of our whole political structure is a consent in every part thereof. The people of each State voluntarily created their State, and the States voluntarily formed the Union; and each State has provided, by its written Constitution, for everything a State should do for the protection of life, liberty, and property within it; and each State, jointly with the others, provided a Federal Union for foreign and inter-State relations.
_Resolved_, That all government powers, whether State or Federal, are trust powers coming from the people of each State; and that they are limited to the written letter of the Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance of it, which powers must be exercised in the utmost good faith, the Constitution itself providing in what manner they may be altered and amended.
_Resolved_, That the interests of labor and capital should not be permitted to conflict, but should be harmonized by judicious legislation. While such a conflict continues, labor, which is the parent of wealth, is entitled to paramount consideration.
_Resolved_, That we proclaim to the world that principle is to be preferred to power; that the Democratic party is held together by the cohesion of time-honored principles which they will never surrender in exchange for all the offices which presidents can confer. The pangs of the minorities are doubtless excruciating; but we welcome an eternal minority under the banner inscribed with our principles rather than an almighty and everlasting majority purchased by their abandonment.
_Resolved_, That, having been betrayed at Baltimore into a false creed and a false leadership by the convention, we repudiate both, and appeal to the people to approve our platform, and to rally to the polls and support the true platform, and the candidates who embody it.
_Resolved_, That we are opposed to giving public lands to corporations, and favor their disposal to actual settlers only.
_Resolved_, That we favor a judicious tariff for revenue purposes only, and that we are unalterably opposed to class legislation which enriches a few at the expense of the many under the plea of protection.
The campaign was a very earnest one, but after the Greeley tide had struck its ebb in the North Carolina election in August, the battle was a hopeless one for Greeley, and he was defeated by a very large majority. The following table gives the popular vote:
═══════════════╤══════════╤══════════╤══════════╤════════ STATES. │ Grant. │ Greeley. │ O’Conor. │ Black. ───────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────── Maine │ 61,422 │ 29,087 │ ―――― │ ―――― New Hampshire │ 37,168 │ 31,424 │ 100 │ 200 Vermont │ 41,481 │ 10,927 │ 593 │ ―――― Massachusetts │ 133,472 │ 59,260 │ ―――― │ ―――― Rhode Island │ 13,665 │ 5,329 │ ―――― │ ―――― Connecticut │ 50,638 │ 45,880 │ 204 │ 206 New York │ 440,736 │ 387,281 │ 1,454 │ 201 New Jersey │ 91,656 │ 76,456 │ 630 │ ―――― Pennsylvania │ 349,589 │ 212,041 │ ―――― │ 1,630 Delaware │ 11,115 │ 10,206 │ 487 │ ―――― Maryland │ 66,760 │ 67,687 │ 19 │ ―――― Virginia │ 93,468 │ 91,654 │ 42 │ ―――― West Virginia │ 32,315 │ 29,451 │ 600 │ ―――― North Carolina │ 94,769 │ 70,094 │ ―――― │ ―――― South Carolina │ 72,290 │ 22,703 │ 187 │ ―――― Georgia │ 62,550 │ 76,356 │ 4,000 │ ―――― Florida │ 17,763 │ 15,427 │ ―――― │ ―――― Alabama │ 90,272 │ 79,444 │ ―――― │ ―――― Mississippi │ 82,175 │ 47,288 │ ―――― │ ―――― Louisiana[22] │ 71,663 │ 57,029 │ ―――― │ ―――― Louisiana[23] │ 59,975 │ 66,467 │ ―――― │ ―――― Texas │ 47,468 │ 66,546 │ 2,580 │ ―――― Arkansas │ 41,373 │ 37,927 │ ―――― │ ―――― Missouri │ 119,196 │ 151,434 │ 2,439 │ ―――― Tennessee │ 85,655 │ 94,391 │ ―――― │ ―――― Kentucky │ 88,766 │ 99,995 │ 2,374 │ ―――― Ohio │ 281,852 │ 244,321 │ 1,163 │ 2,100 Michigan │ 138,455 │ 78,355 │ 2,861 │ 1,271 Indiana │ 186,147 │ 163,632 │ 1,417 │ ―――― Illinois │ 241,944 │ 184,938 │ 3,058 │ ―――― Wisconsin │ 104,997 │ 86,477 │ 834 │ ―――― Minnesota │ 55,117 │ 34,423 │ ―――― │ ―――― Iowa │ 131,566 │ 71,196 │ 2,221 │ ―――― Nebraska │ 18,329 │ 7,812 │ ―――― │ ―――― Kansas │ 67,048 │ 32,970 │ 596 │ ―――― Nevada │ 8,413 │ 6,236 │ ―――― │ ―――― California │ 54,020 │ 40,718 │ 1,068 │ ―――― Oregon │ 11,819 │ 7,730 │ 572 │ ―――― ├──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────── Totals │3,597,132 │2,834,125 │ 29,489 │ 5,608 ───────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────
[22] “Custom house” count. The total vote of the country, as given above, includes these returns.
[23] Count by the Warmouth returning board. If these returns should be substituted for the others, the total vote of the country would be: for Grant, 3,585,444; Greeley, 2,843,563.