' 85 HON. GUOVER CLEVELAND. DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOK 1'HKSIOKNT. THE LIVES OF GROVER CLEVELAND 'AND THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, 1884. AN AUTHOKIZED, AUTHENTIC, AND COMPLETE HISTORY OF THEIR PUBLIC CAREER AND PRIVATE LIFE FROM BOYHOOD TO THE PRESENT DATE, BEPLETE WITH INCIDENTS, ANECDOTES, GRAPHIC PEN-PICTURES, AND THRILLING HISTORY. CONTAINING ALSO THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM ITS RISE) TO THE PRESENT TIME; THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS FORMATION ; A COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE LIVES AND DEEDS OF ALL THE PRESIDENTS, FROM "WASHINGTON TO ARTHUR; TOGETHER WITH OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION. THE MOST VALUABLE COMPENDIUM OF POLITICAL HISTORY EVER PUBLISHED BT AUGUSTINE BAKNUM. SUPERBLY ILLUSTRATED WITH MAGNIFICENT PORTRAITS AND FULL-PAGE IN/GRATINGS BY T. W. WILLIAMS. PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD PUBLISHING CO., HARTFORD, CONN. 1884. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the yonr 1884, BY THE HARTFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE UNION WHO BELIEVE THAT THE ELECTION OP GROVEK CLEVELAND AS PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC WILL PROMOTE REFORM, PURIFY THE GOVERNMENT, AND ELEVATE PARTIES OF WHATEVER POLITICAL NAME, THIS VOLUME is RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 141244'! PREFACE. THE best materials for political prophecy are the unforced opinions of young men, according to Lord Bacon ; and the evident belief of a vast multitude of the intelligent young men of the Republic that the elevation of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency would promote the welfare of the people has encouraged the production of this book. It contains, besides the lives of Cleveland and Hendricks, the candidates nominated by the Democratic National Convention at Chicago on July llth, 1884, for the Presidency and the Yice-Presi- dency, a history of the Democratic Party, the Constitu- tion of the United States, and a sketch of each of the Presidents. It has been frequently said that the public career of Grover Cleveland is too brief for an abundance of material to make his biography interesting, but the reader of this book, like its writer, will find that the story of his elevation, through his own exertions, from poverty in boyhood to a position of eminence in the prime of manhood, possesses a power of i'ascination yi PREFACE. which increases to the end. His career is typically American, and to trace its development is a task which affords instruction and encouragement, to youth, as well as entertainment to age. As a reformer Grover Cleve- land represents the best hopes of the nation, and a contemplation of the future which will open hefore him when he receives from the people on the 4th of Novem- ber, 1884, a commission to undertake in the Federal Government a work of reform similar to that which he has accomplished as Governor of New York and as Mayor of Buffalo must excite enthusiasm, even in the sluggish. The preparation of this volume has involved so much more labor than it was possible for one person to per- form within the time allotted for the achievement that he who assumes responsibility for the book may perhaps present his name to the public as editor more properly than as author. In the history of the Democratic Party, the life of Hendricks, and the sketches of the Presidents the traces of other pens than his will be readily discerned. To the many gleaners whose industry has furnished material for his use an acknowledgment is here tendered, and to the assistants who have shared his toil from its beginning to its end the most cordial thanks are expressed. A. B. NEW YORK, July, 1884. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 1. PORTRAIT OF GROVER CLEVELAND, DEMOCRATIC CANDI- DATE FOR PRESIDENT, .... Frontispiece 2. GROVER CLEVELAND'S STUDENT-LIFE. (1) Studying Blackstone. (2) A Two-mile Tramp Home. ) ... 39 3. Gov. CLEVELAND'S UNOSTENTATIOUS ARRIVAL AT THE STATE CAPITOL, ALBANY, PREVIOUS TO HIS INAUGU- RATION, 69 4. THE EXPOSITION BUILDING, CHICAGO, WHERE THE DEMO- CRATIC CONVENTION OF 1884 WAS HELD, . . 109 5. STREET-SCENE AT NIGHT IN BUFFALO, GROVER CLEVE- LAND'S HOME, ON RECEIPT OF THE NEWS OF HIS NOMINATION 96 6. PORTRAIT OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR VICE PRESIDENT 211 7. SCENE AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION ON ANNOUNC- ING THE NOMINATION OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, 225 yiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 8. THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON. HOME OP THE PRESI- DENTS, 395 (From a photograph made by the U. S. Government.) 9. THE CABINET ROOM, INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE, WASH- INGTON, 431 10. THE SENATE CHAMBER, INSIDE THE CAPITOL, WASH- INGTON 449 11. THE HALL OP REPRESENTATIVES, INSIDE THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, 465 12. THE MARBLE ROOM LNBEDE THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, 481 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. Grover Cleveland's Career a Surprisiugly Interesting Story. The Cleveland Genealogy. The Stock Transplanted to Connecticut from Massachusetts. "A Good Race." Grover Cleveland's Father and Mother. Their Courtship and Marriage in Baltimore. Grover's Birthplace in New Jersey. His Father Seeks a Wider Field as a Minister, and Better Support for his Family, in New York. The Youth Outgrows the Village School and Clamors for an Educa- tion, but Enters a Country Store. The Removal to Clinton and to Holland Patent. He hears of his Father's Sudden Death while walking on the Street with his Sister. His Widowed Mother's Cares. His Parents' Graves. In New York as a Teacher of the Blind. His Start in Buffalo. Poverty and Hard Work. Was there a Romance? Why he did not Enter the Army. 25 CHAPTER II. CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR OF BUF- FALO. Cleveland's Beginning in Official Life. Assistant District-Attor- ney of Erie County at Twenty-five Years of Age. Hard Work Wins a Nomination for District-Attorney. His Term as Sheriff. An x CONTENTS. Answer to a Fling that he was a Hangman. His Character as a Lawyer. Buffalo under Ring Rule. Cleveland's Reputation Makes him a Candidate for Mayor. His Speech accepting the Nomination. Supported by Voters of all Parties. A Great Majority. His Inaugural Declaration. He Saves a Million in Six Months. His Beginning as a Vetoer. His Address on the Duties of the Government to Americans Abroad. His Course as Mayor gives him National Fame. 46 CHAPTER III. CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. Charles A. Dana, of the New York Sun, on the Qualities exhibited by Grover Cleveland as Mayor of Buffalo. "A Man Worthy of the Highest Public Confidence." Cleveland's Nomination for Governor and his Letter of Acceptance. His Majority the Greatest in the History of the "Empire State." His Views set forth at length. Mr. Dana on Governor Cleveland's Inaugural. Extracts from that Important Document. Taxation. Canals. Education. Banks. State-Prisons. The Insane. Port Abuses. Civil Service. Munici- pal Government. Primary Elections. Special Legislation. Con- clusion. 61 CHAPTER IV. CLEVELAND'S VETOES. "His Veto of the Street-Cleaning Job is regarded as the Real Beginning of his Public Career." A Prominent Resident of Buffalo gives the Opinion. Cleveland's Use of the Veto Power as Governor. A Famous Veto two months after he entered the Executive Man- sion at Albany. The Five-Cent-Fare Bill. Its History and its De- fects. The Governor's Words in Vetoing it. The Courage of the CONTENTS. XI Veto wins the Admiration of President White of Cornell. The Conductors and Drivers' Bill. " Not in the Interest of Workiug- men." A Legislator's Trick makes a Veto Necessary. The Me- chanics' Lien Bill. Cleveland's Vetoes and the Veterans. A Veto which Saved the Savings Banks. 81 CHAPTER Y. CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. Cleveland as a Workingman. His Words on the Protection of Labor. The New York Times on his Record. The Veto Power not used against Workingmen. President Thayer, of the New York Labor Union, on Cleveland's Vetoes. Comments of the Springfield Republican, New York Herald, and Thomas B. Connery, the New York Journalist. The Boston Post on Cleveland's Services to Work- ingmen. Senator Daly, the Representative of Metropolitan Work- ingmen, on Governor Cleveland and the Labor Bills. A Circular issued by New York Workiugmen. Twenty-four Reasons why Workingineu should Vote and Work to make Grover Cleveland President of the United States. 96 CHAPTER VI. CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. Like Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland Receives a Nomination for the Presidency Without Working for it. General Pryor's Quick Discernment of the Mood of Democrats in National Convention at Chicago. Mr. Lockwood, the Buffalo Lawyer, who has Nominated Cleveland for Many Offices. His Eloquent Speech in Presenting his Name for the Presidency. Mayor Carter Harrison, of Chicago, the First to Second the Nomination. The Grady Incident, and Mr. Apgur's Reply. Mr. Jones, of Minnesota. General Bragg, of Wis- x ji CONTENTS. consin, who "Loves Cleveland most for the Enemies he has Made." Nominated on the Second Ballot. CHAPTER VII. THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. The Platform adopted by the Chicago Convention for the Cam paign of 1884. Lengthy but Vigorous. Its Criticism of Republican Administration. Pledges to Purify the Government. No War- Taxes. Honest Money. Restore the Merchant-Marine The Com- mittee appointed at Chicago to notify Governor Cleveland Visit Albany. The Official Notification at the Executive Mansion. The Address presented by the Committee. Governor Cleveland's Reply. The Reception at the Fort Orange Club-House. Greeting from Mr. Tilden. 128 CHAPTER VIII. CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. No better Evidence that he is a Reformer than the Declaration in his Favor of the New York Timts, the Great Independent Republi- can Newspaper. George William Curtis brings the Power of Har- per's Weekly to his Support. The Roosevelt Bills. Administrative Reform. Governor Cleveland's Appointments. His Opinions as to Civil-Service Reform. "I do not believe in turning out good men because their views differ from mine." He Approves the Pemlleton Bill. Cleveland and Tariff Reform. He Satisfies Men on Medium Ground. Anti-Monopoly and Cleveland as a Reformer. The Letter of Charles Francis Adams, Jr. 147 CHAPTER IX. CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. The Fight of Reformers in the Chicago Republican Convention. Their Defeat and their Revolt. Heroic Treatment for the "Grand CONTENTS. Xlll Old Party." Salvation by Defeat. The Democratic Party in Con- trol of the Independent Vote. The Call for an Independent Con- ference. A Great Assembly in the University Club Theatre, New York. Chairman Codman's Eloquent Address. The Committees. The Independent Platform. .The Principles it Enunciates and the Invitation it Extends. A National Committee of Forty. Where the Independents will Work Hardest for Cleveland. 155 CHAPTER X. CLEVELAND'S PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. Grover Cleveland's Personal Appearance. His Pictures seldom do him Justice. A Man of " the Old School." Cleveland in Society. His Bachelor Apartments. His Simple Tastes and Habits in Buffalo. Not Penurious and not Rich. His Free Work for Poor Clients. Prosperity has not Changed him. His Old Friends in Buffalo and Holland Patent. His Strong Traits predominate. His Brothers and Sisters. The Family Characteristics in a Disaster at Sea. At the Executive Mansion. The Governor's Democratic Simplicity. His Immease Mail, his Numerous Callers, and his Seat in Church. 178 CHAPTER XI. CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. Grover Cleveland Judged from the Character of His Friends. His Serenade Speech to Albany Friends at the Executive Mansion. His Buffalo Friends Proud of him and his Honors. The Best Men of his Party. Congratulations from "a Democratic War- horse." Cleveland and his Irish Friends. Ex Senator Kernan, Father McGlynn, Daniel Dougherty, and the Boston Pilot. Cleve- land and his German Friends. The Power of the German Vote. XJV CONTENTS. Cleveland and his Soldier-Friends. Cleveland and his Managers. Friends of the Press. Cleveland's Friends the " Bolters." Their High Character and Great Influence. Timid Friends Reas- sured. Scandal in the Campaign. Cleveland "a Man of Des- tiny." 188 CHAPTER XII. HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. The Part of Thomas Andrews Hendricks in the Chicago Demo- cratic Convention as an Introduction to a Sketch of his Career His Prominence and his Popularity His Friends Determined to Present his Name for the Presidency, but lie Seeks the First Place for Mc- Donald His Speech in the Convention McDonald Declares that he could not have Served him more Faithfully at Chicago John Kelly, the Tammany Grand Sachem and Ilendricks's Ardent Friend, attempts to Stampede the Convention A Correspondent's Graphic Description of the Scene Hendricks for Vice-President Nominated by Acclamation He Goes Home Happy, but Undecided whether to Accept. 209 CHAPTER XIII. MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. Mr. Hendricks's Birth and Ancestry. His College Life and Ad- mission to the Bar. His Rapid Progress as a Lawyer. Elected to the Indiana Legislature at the Age of Twenty-eight. Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. His Interest in the Public Schools. He Speaks in Favor of the State Banking System. Elected to Congress for the First Time by an Immense Majority. Mr. Heudricks's Opposition to the Know-Nothing Movement. President Pierce Appoints him Land Commissioner. His Disas- trous Candidacy for the Governorship in 1860. Resuming the Prac- tice of Law at Indianapolis. 228 CONTENTS. IV CHAPTER XIY. MR. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS His Service in the House of Representatives. Favoring Bounty Lands for Soldiers. His Support of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Elected United States Senator in 1860. His Opposition to the Freed- men's Bureau Bill. Hendricks's Answer to Fessenden. "I would not violate the Constitution in order to pass any law." Hendricks's Support of the Union Cause. The Warm Friendship between Hen- dricks and Lincoln. Hendricks Repels an Attack by Oliver P. Morton. How Hendricks Secured an Appointment for David Mc- Donald. 239 CHAPTER XY. MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. A Bitter Canvass. His Personal Popularity Carries him Through. The Only Candidate on the State Ticket Elected. Tom Browne his Opponent. The Temperance Crusade. "Eating Meat." Waiting for the Returns. " I wonder if I am always to just miss being Governor of Indiana." His Course on the Liquor Question. A Conscientious and Clear Administration. Features of the Baxter Bill. Constitutionality of the Measure. Why he Signed the Bill. How he Brought the Legislature to Terms. Effect on the School Revenues. The Financial Question. Speech in Philadelphia. Unfair Criticism of his Course as Governor. 251 CHAPTER XYI. MR. HENDRICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. The Tammany Hall Convention in New York. Mr. Hendricks's Prominence as a Presidential Candidate. Samuel J. Tilden Present- ing Hendricks's Name as the Nominee. A Division in the Ranks of the Indiana Delegation. The Friends of George H. Pendleton XVi CONTENTS. Stand Firm and Oppose Hendricks. Horatio Seymour Receives the Vote of the Ohio Delegation and Causes a Stampede. Heu- dricks's Name Withdrawn, and Seymour Nominated on the Twenty- second Ballot. Hemirieks's Graceful Acquiescence in the Action of the Convention. He Eulogizes Seymour in a Speech in the Senate. Heudricks's Enthusiastic Reception at Indianapolis. 271 CHAPTER XVII. MR. HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH MR. TILDEN. The Democratic National Convention of 1876. Mr. Heudricks Unanimously Nominated for Vice-President on the First Ballot. His Disinclination to Accept the Honor. His Letter of Acceptance. Approval of the Platform. " The Public Service Debauched by Dishonesty, Rapacity, and Venality." The Questions of Finance, Civil Service, and Foreign Policy. Uncertainty as to the Result of the Election. Excitement throughout the Country. The Electoral Commission. Hayes Declared Elected. Hendricks's Attitude pend- ing the Decision. His Speech at the Manhattan Club in New York. "A Great and a Sincere People will Base their Final Action upon the Truth." 281 CHAPTER XVIII. MR. HENDRICKS CONTROVERSY WITH SECRETARY CHANDLER. Hendricks's Speech at Indianapolis charging Fraud in a Bureau of the Navy Department. He suggests that the President Institute an Inquiry and Order an Examination of the Books. Secretary Chand- ler's Lame Reply. A Vain Attempt to Shift the Responsibility. Hendricks's Characteristic Rejoinder. His Charges Substantiated by Chandler's own Admissions. Comments of the Press approving Hendricks's Onslaught upon the Secretary of the Navy." Little Billy" and his Naval Equipment Lifted out of the Water. 298 CONTENTS. XV11 CHAPTEE XIX. MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS OF PUBLIC MEASURES. Speech at New Orleans on the Southern Question. The Fifteenth Amendment and the Rights of the Colored Race. The Equality of the Whites and the Blacks not one to be Regulated by Law. A Demand for Equal Laws and Just Taxation. "The Judgment of Mankind Mightier than the Earthquake." Mr. Hendricks in the Indiana Campaign of 1874. His Reply to the Address of the Con- gressional Committee. He Repels the Charge that the Republicans are Better than the Democrats. The Case of Martin Koszta. Mr. Hendricks Denounces the Proposition to Vote National Aid for Building Transportation Lines. Reform in our Revenue System and Civil Service. 309 CHAPTER XX. MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. Pen-Portrait of Mr. Hendricks. Description of his Residence at Indianapolis. His Social Relations. Mrs. Hendricks. A Woman of Rare Talent and a Brilliant Conversationalist. Her Husband's Confidential Adviser and Constant Companion. "Thomas will be Too Old to be placed at the Head of the Ticket in 1888." Mr. Hendricks's Law-Practice. Important Suits in -which he has been Engaged. Mr. Hendricks's Speech at Indianapolis after his Nomina tion. " There ought to be a Change." His Confidence in the Suc- cess of the Ticket. "Dave" Gooding's Little Joke. 328 CHAPTER XXI. ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Party Divisions in Colonial Times. "Whigs" and "Tories." The Conflict of Colonial Legislatures and Colonial Governors. Franklin Suggests a Continental Congress. The Whig the Only Party of Patriots at the Beginning of the Revolution. Jefferson's xviii CONTENTS. Absence during the Establishment of the Constitution. His Sym- pathy with French Revolutionists. His Distrust of a Monarchical Tendency in America. He enters Washington's Cabinet, but fears that Federal Power is too great. He Founds a New Party, which was at first called " Republican " because " Democrat " was a Term of Reproach. The French Revolution Widens the Breach between Federals and Republicans. The Famous Alien and Sedition Law. Republican Resolutions against it which Destroy the Federal Party. 343 CHAPTER XXII. THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. Jefferson's Election to the Presidency. His Letter to Nathaniel Macon outlining his Policy. A Uniform System of Naturalization established. The Embargo Act passed by Congress. Madison's Administration. His Views on State Supremacy. "The Era of Good Feeling." The Monroe Doctrine and the "American System." Jackson's Differences with Calhoun. Van Bnren and Harrison's Uneventful Terms. The Compromise Act of 183:}. The Coniot tion to its Adoption. Tin; Bulwark of the Republic. Text of the Constitution. Views of the Statesmen Concerning it. Amendments and Their History. How the Amendments were Ratified. 370 CONTENTS. XIX CHAPTER XXIY. GEORGE WASHINGTON, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND ADMIN- ISTRATION. His Remarkable Modesty. Opposed to Slavery Although a Slave- holder. The Country Bordering on Anarchy. Quarrels Between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Not a Partisan Himself. His Virtues Derived from His Mother. Mount Vernon an Inheritance from His Brother. His Sense of Justice. Love of Truth and Per- sonal Honor. Farewell Address to His Army. His Admirably Bal- anced Character. Washington's Cabinet. His Retirement to Private Life at Most Welcome. 394 CHAPTER XXV. JOHN ADAMS, SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Not by any Means so Popular as His Predecessor. Elected by Three Votes Only. The Country Beginning to be an Independant Nation. Commencing Life as a School Teacher. His Wife a Re- markable Woman. Adams a Vigorous Speaker and Pointed Writer of Choleric Temper. Bitter Hostility Between Parties. Employed on Delicate Missions. Extremely Active in Political Life. One of the First to See a Final Rupture with the Mother Country Inevitable. 404 CHAPTER XXVI. THOMAS JEFFERSON, THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. His Pride in the Authorship of the Declaration of Independence. The First Genuine Democrat. His Radical Revision of the Laws of Virginia. The Final Treaty of Peace. His Views Opposed to Hamilton's. Genest's Extraordinary Conduct as French Minister. XX CONTENTS. Love of France and French Institutions. Jefferson and Aaron Burr Keceive the Same Number of Votes for President. Simplification of Customs and Manners. His Dislike of Titles. His Personal Appear- ance and Delightful Companionship. 411 CHAPTER XXVII. JAMES MADISON, JAMES MONROE, AND JOHN QTJINCY ADAMS, FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Conciliatory Character of Madison's Administration. His Opin- ions on the Federal Government. His Charming Wife. Decline and Death of Federalism. Monroe's Election Almost Unanimous. His Gallant Service in the Field. Wounded at Trenton. The Era of Good Feeling. Monroe's Views of Coercion. Bitter Disputes with Great Britain Leading to the War of 1812. The Fifth Presi- dent's Successful Efforts to Restore the Public Credit. He Dies In- volved in Debt. Adams' Early Advantages and Experiences. His Honorable and Distinguished Career in the House. 420 CHAPTER XXVIII. ANDREW JACKSON, MARTIN VAN BUREN, AND WM. HENRY HARRISON, SEVENTH, EIGHTH, AND NINTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Jackson, the First Unmixed Democrat. His Election Regarded in Virginia and Massachusetts with Surprise and Disgust. His Un- couth and Untaught Youth. His Chivalrous Delicacy Toward Women. His Morbid Sensibility about his Wife's Reputation. His Combats with Indians. Various Recounters and Duels. The Her- mitage. The Seminole War. Battle of New Orleans. His Deter- mination to Hang the Nulliners. Honest, Single-minded, and Pat- riotic. Van Buren as Democrat and Free-soiler. His Contented Old Age. Harrison as an Indian Fighter. The Log Cabin Campaign. 434 CONTENTS. XXI CHAPTER XXIX. JOHN TYLER AND JAMES K. POLK, TENTH AND ELEVENTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Tyler the First Vice-President to Succeed the Chief Executive by Death. A Representative of the Same Social Class as Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. Education and Wealth Really Disadvan- tageous to Him. A Career of Continuous Vetoes. Making Himself Extremely Unpopular. Forcing His Cabinet to Resign. The Annexation of Texas a Favorite Scheme. A Member of the Peace Convention in 1861. A Former Chief Magistrate in Open Rebellion Against the Government. Polk and the Mexican War. A Common- place President. 448 CHAPTER XXX. ZACHARY TAYLOR, MILLARD FILLMORE, AND FRANK- LIN PIERCE, TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, AND FOUR- TEENTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Taylor purely a Military Man. His Reputation made in the Mexican War. His Death in Four Months. His Disqualifications for Politi- cal Life. Fillmore's Early Success. His Foreshadowing of the National Banking System. Approval of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Irreparable Injury it did Him. A Candidate of the American Party. Pierce a Northern Man with Extreme Southern Principles. His constant Sympathy with and Sustainment of Slavery. His Gallantry in the Field. Retirement to Private Life Equivalent to Extinction. 453 CHAPTER XXXI. JAMES BUCHANAN, FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. An Unpopular Administration. James Buchanan's Early History. -Sent to Congress at Twenty-nine. The Weakest of Presidents. X xii CONTENTS. His Total Inadequacy for the Great Emergency in which He was Placed. Shrewd for His Own Interest. An Admirer and Fol- lower of Jackson "Without His Will or Courage. The Anti-Slav- ery Excitement in Kansas. The Cause of the Civil War Inherent in the Constitution. The Nation on the Eve of a Conflict. Admission by Buchanan of the Right of the Southern States to Secede. A Pitiful Spectacle of Imbecility. General Relief at the End of His Administration. 404 CHAPTER XXXII. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, SIXTKF.XTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Contrast Between Lincoln and Buchanan. His Lonely Boyhood and Severe Youth. The Cause of his Detestation of Slavery. The Campaign with Douglas in Illinois Introduces him to the Nation. The Irresistible Magnetism of the Rail-Splitter. His Nomination at Chicago. Deplorable Condition of the Country at the Time of his Inauguration. His Resolve to Preserve the Union at all Hazards. Distressing Effect of his Assassination. His Personal Appearance and Power of Persuasion. How the Future will Regard the Great President. 472 CHAPTER XXXIII. ANDREW JOHNSON AND ULYSSES S. GRANT, SEVEN- TEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Johnson's Early Life and Hard Struggles. A Tailor who was more than the Ninth Part of a Man. His Views of Slavery and Seces- sion. His Personal Courage and its Good Effects Politically. His Disagreement with Congress about Reconstruction. The Impeach- ment Trial. Grant in the Mexican War. His Incompetency in Business. Finding his Place in the Civil War. His Extraordinary Success in the Field. Called to Command the Army of the Poto- mac. His Political Mistakes and Greed of Power. 480 CONTENTS. XX111 CHAPTER XXXIV. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, JAMES A. GARFIELD, AND CHESTER A. ARTHUR, NINETEENTH, TWENTIETH^ AND TWENTY-FIRST PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Hayes as Lawyer, Politician, and Soldier. Nominated because an Ohioan. The Electoral Commission. Great Outcry Against him, but Still a Creditable President. Garfield's Hard Fight with Fortune at the Outset. Ambition to be a Canal-Boat Captain. His Career in the Army. Leader of the House of Representatives. His Admir- able Equipment for Political Life. His Nomination at Chicago Wholly Unexpected. The National Sorrow at his Assassination. Arthur Born in a Log Cabin, and Ruling in the White House. 491 CHAPTER I. CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. Grover Cleveland's Career a Surprisingly Interesting Story. The Cleveland Genealogy. The Stock Transplanted to Connecticut from Massachusetts. "A Good Race." Grover Cleveland's Father and Mother. Their Courtship and Marriage in Baltimore. Grover's Birthplace in New Jersey. His Father Seeks a Wider Field as a Minister, and Better Support for his Family, in New York. The Youth Outgrows the Village School and Clamors for an Educa- tion, but Enters a Country Store. The Removal to Clinton and to Holland Patent. He hears of his Father's Sudden Death while walking on the Street with his Sister. His Widowed Mother's Cares. His Parents' Graves. In New York as a Teacher of the Blind. His Start in Buffalo. Poverty and Hard Work. Was there a Romance? Why he did not Enter the Army. GROVER CLEVELAND has been only a few years conspicuous in public life, but whoever thinks that the material for his biography must be meagre will be grati- fied, as he reads, to find how much of interest there is in the story of his career. He belongs to the eighth genera- tion of his family in this country, unless the statement of an excellent Massachusetts newspaper, the Salem Gazette, 2 26 CLEVELAND IN" BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. can be disproved, for on July 18, 1884, it gave the fol- lowing account of Cleveland's ancestry since the arrival of Moses Cleveland in the New "World, almost two hun- dred and fifty years ago: CLEVELAND GENEALOGY. " The nomination of Grover Cleveland as the Demo- cratic candidate for President, and his remote connect ion with the Clevelands of our own neighborhood,, have led U8 to make some investigation of his genealogy, with the following results : " Moses Cleveland came to this country an apprentice to a ' joyner' in 1635, and established himself in Wohurn in 1648. He married Ann, daughter of Edward Winn, on September 26, 1648. " lie had a son Aaron (second generation), who was born on January 10, 1654-5. This son married Dorcas Wilson on September 26, 1675. She died on November 29, 1714. He died on September 14, 1716. "He in turn had a son Aaron (third generation), who was born July 9, 1689. lie was a carpenter, and lived in Woburn, Cambridge, and Charlestown. In 1738 he removed to Haddam, Conn. lie married Abigail -. 7 C "He had a son, Rev. Aaron (fourth generation), who was born October 29, 1715, graduated at Harvard 1735, settled at Haddam, Conn., in July, 1739, and married, August 4, 1739, Susanna, daughter of Rev. Aaron Porter, CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 27 born March 1, 1716. He died August 11, 1757. His widovy died at Salem, 1788. " He had a son, Rev. Aaron (fifth generation), who was born at Haddam, Conn., February 3, 1744, and died at New Haven, September 21, 1815. He was married, April 12, 1768, to Abiah Hyde, only daughter of James and Sarah (Marshall) Hyde, of Norwich, Conn. His wife died August 23, 1788. " He had a son Charles (sixth generation), who was born at Norwich on June 11, 1772. He married, December 17, 1797, Mehitable Tread well, of Salem, a sis- ter of the late Dr. John D. Treadwell. Charles was for several years a commission merchant in Salern, and after- ward the well-known city missionary of Boston. He died on June 5, 1872, within sixteen days of one hundred years of age. " His brother, William (sixth generation), was born at Norwich on December 20, 1770 ; married, December 19, 1793, Margaret Falley. They lived at "Worthington and Salem, Mass., and at Norwich, Conn. He died on August 18, 1837. She died on August 13, 1850. " His son, Richard F. (seventh generation), was born on June 19, 1805, at Norwich, Conn. He married Anna Neale, of Baltimore, Md. They removed to Hol- land Patent, N. Y., where he died on October 1, 1853. " His son, Grover (the candidate), was born on March 18, 1837. 28 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. " This family of Clevelands spell the name without the a in the first syllable. The descendants of Kev. John, of Essex, generally insert the a in the first syllable. He was a grandson of Samuel, of Chelmsford and Canter- bury, Conn., who was the third son of Moses, the immi- grant ancestor first above mentioned." THE CLEVELANDS IN CONNECTICUT. The great great-grandfather of Grorer Cleveland, Aaron Cleveland, repiesenting the third generation of the family in America, was a carpenter, and moved from Woburn, Mansachusetts, to Haddam, Connecticut, and the stock thus transplanted took such root in the latter Stata that to this day the Clevelands of Connecticut are well known. Cleveland's great-grandfather, whose first name was also Aaron, was born February 9, 1744, in East Haddam, the chief of the many Haddams that skirt the Connecti- cut River below Middletown. He lived and carried on business in Xonvich for the greater part of an active life. The local records are quite full of him, less as a success- ful hatter than as a versatile speaker, writer, and actor in the politics of his time. He took the lead in the opposi- tion to slavery, and, being dissatisfied with the gradual emancipation measure adopted in 1790, he introduced a bill in the Connecticut Legislature, where he repre- sented Norwich, for slavery's abolishment. Afterwards CLEVELAND 1ST BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 29 lie was a Congregational minister in Vermont. He finally died in New Haven in 1815, regarded by every one as a stanch antislavery Republican. He left a family of thirteen children, and of these, his son Charles, born in 1772 in Norwich, became a city mis- sionary in Boston and was widely known as " Father Cleveland." A daughter, the youngest of the thirteen children, married the well-known Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Coxe, whose son, Arthur Cleveland Coxe, is Episcopal Bishop of Western New York. The Hartford Times of July 14, 1884, made the following interesting reference to the Cleveland family in that State : " The Clevelands are a good race ; we in Connecticut know them here at home. There is ex- Governor Chauncey F. Cleveland, of Windham County one of the best Governors Connecticut ever had ; a noble man and much-esteemed citizen ; still living in his hale and hearty old age, respected by everybody ; one of the remaining men of a day when men of high and marked character were oftener found in proportion to population than now. There, too, was his brother, Mason Cleveland once the State Comptroller ; a man of sterling character, strong good sense, and excellent practical judgment. He was a man of marked and strong character, honorably and very widely known at home, notwithstanding his modesty, but greater yet than his reputation. There are such men, not loud 30 CLEVELAND Itf BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. or self-vaunting, but of sterling character, though of few words : and Mason Cleveland's younger cousin, the New York Governor, who now stands so prominently before the country, seems to be one of the number.'' "Father Cleveland's" younger brother, William, the second son of Rev. Aaron Cleveland, the grandfather of Grover Cleveland, was a silversmith by trade, and lived for the greater part of his life at Bean Hill, on the out- skirts of Norwich. The ancestors of Millard Fillmore and Rutherford B. Hayes were residents of historic Bean Hill. The house in which William Cleveland spent his life is still stand- ing, its lichened roof shadowed by elms, not far from the Bean Hill green. Its straight, old-fashioned, drab- colored front rises two stories and a half, almost flush with the street, and its antique porch, whose peak is set thickly with odd little diamond glass panes, stands almost over the sidewalk. A polished brass door-latcli glistens in the random sunbeams that are shot through the loft}' tree-branches. Country -dooryard plants nod against the windows. The house and its surroundings wear the air of stiff and prim respectability in dignified old age. To the south are fresh, open meadows. The next building on the north is the Bean Hill meeting- house, fronting on the green. From 1812 to his dearh, twenty-five years later, William Cleveland was a deacon of the First Congregational Church ; that is just around CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 31 a bend in the road, at the Norwichtown green, an old- fashioned, belfry-crowned edifice, whose western gable barely rises level with the vertical cliffs behind the building. GKOVER CLEVELAND'S FATHER AND MOTHER. Richard F. Cleveland, the second son of TVilliam, the silversmith, was Grover Cleveland's father. lie was born in Norwich, June 19, 1804. He is described as a thin, pale, intellectual boy, who entered Yale College in 1820 and graduated in 1824, with sixty-seven others, nearly all of whom have since died. He went almost immediately after graduation to Baltimore to teach, and it was in that city that he made the acquaintance of Miss Anna Neal, the young lady who a few years later became his wife. She was the daughter of Abner Neal, and her Southern blood is believed to be easily discernible in the temperament of her children. She lived until the sum- mer of 1882, almost long enough to see her distinguished son inaugurated as Governor of his State, and the affec- tion existing between them was more than the ordinary love of mother and son, as his tender care for her com- fort and happiness to the end of her life showed. How- ever great the pressure of business and official cares, he never failed to pay her a visit at the old homestead at least twice each year. The marriage of Cleveland's parents did not occur 32 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. until 1829, a year after his father had left Baltimore, been ordained a Presbyterian minister, and taken charge of a church at Windham, near Norwich, in his native State. After their marriage Mr. Cleveland preached in the South for a time, and then they removed to New Jersey. Down in the obscure town of Caldwell, Essex County, in that State, there stands yet a little two-and-a- half-story white house with wooden shutters, where, on March 18, 1837, was born Stephen Grover Cleveland, five months to a day before his grandfather William died. He was named for his father's predecessor in the pastor- ate, but dropped the first name, always a nuisance when one is called by the second. THE REMOVAL TO NEW YORK. In 1841, when Eev. Eichard F. Cleveland moved from New Jersey to Fayetteville, New York, his family had become large, and he felt the need of a larger in- come as well as the desire for a wider field of ministerial endeavor. Grover was only three years of age at the time, and his recollection of the journey is very in- distinct, but it was made chiefly by way of the Hudson Eiver and the Erie Canal. Fayetteville was then a straggling country village, about five miles from Porn pey Hill, where Governor Seymour was born. Young Cleve- land attended the village school for several years, but he outgrew its advantages, and a desire for the privileges of CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 33 an academy brought a test of the quality of firmness for which his family is remarkable, and while the youth, then about fourteen years of age, clamored for an educa- tion, the father insisted, probably because of the pinch of poverty, that his son should begin a business life ; and age was victorious in the controversy. IN A COUNTRY STOKE. A pastor with a large family had not a little influence with the merchant of whom his supplies were purchased, and Grover was soon at work in the country store. Fifty dollars was to be paid the boy the first year, and if he proved trustworthy he was to receive one hundred dollars the second year. There is a tradition in Fayetteville that young Cleve- land proved himself so trustworthy that his employers were delighted with him, and one who has searched his record in that town has found it to be a record of sim- ple, unswerving integrity and untiring loyalty to the interests of the boy's employers. In 1847 Grover's father was appointed Secretary of the Home Missionary Society, and when the minister and his large family moved to Clinton. Oneida County, the boy attended the high-school; but in 1853 the Cleve- lands again moved, going up the Black River to what was then known as the Holland Patent a village of five or six hundred people fifteen miles north of Utica. 2* 34 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. The elder Cleveland preached in the place some months, and was installed on October 1st of that year, but after preaching three Sundays more he suddenly died at the age of forty-nine years. Grover first heard of his father's death while walking with his sister in the streets of Utica. A Utica newspaper said, in July, 1884: "On the first corner as one passes through the village of Holland Patent, on the road from this city to Trenton Falls, stands an old brown house. The structure show? at a glance that it was built years ago, when carpenters put beams in wooden houses, and when balloon-frames were unknown. The upright part is two stories, and its pro- portions offer commodious accommodations for a large family. A generous wing affords a sitting-room and other apartments. It was to this house that, more than thirty years ago, the Rev. Richard F. Cleveland brought his family. He came to occupy the pulpit of the Presbyte- rian church at Holland Patent as the regular pastor. A man of more than ordinary ability, possessed of a fine voice, a bright mind, and a clear head, he found favor with his parishioners. He was a Presbyterian in all that the term implies, and believed the teachings of that church. He was withal a man of broad and liberal cul- ture, and liberal in ideas as well. As lie went in and out among his people they came to admire his personal and social qualities in a degree second only to their admlra- CLEVELAND IX BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 35 tion for his talents as displayed in the desk. His home- life was a model of consistency and uprightness, and he brought up his children in the way they should go. Well educated himself, he desired for them the same advantages. By precept and example he sought to make of them men and women who in after-life would be a credit to the name he had given them. One has to talk but a moment to the older residents of Holland Patent to learn the esteem in which they hold the mem- ory of the Rev. Mr. Cleveland. Unfortunately for the church which prospered under his guidance, and for the members who reverenced and loved him, in less than six months from the commencement of his labors the pastor ended his work on earth, and a village of mourners fol- lowed his mortal remains to the cemetery and laid them to rest. "Mrs. Anna Cleveland was left with a family of nine children to watch over and prepare for the duties of active life. The children were of no ordinary cast. As a white-haired man who had lived a neighbor to them for thirty years said yesterday : ' Such a woman could not have had bad children.' Mrs. Cleveland was in all respects a superior woman. In appearance she was dig- nified and with a kindly face, and at any gathering she would be noticed. Her children loved and respected her, and to the day of her death bestowed upon her the tokens of their affection. Home to them was always 36 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. the most attractive place on earth, a very haven of rest. And so she lived till April 19, 1882, when, at the age of seventy-eight years, her life-work was ended, and she, too, was laid to rest in the village burial-plot." THE GRAVES OF CLEVELAND'S PARENTS. The graves of the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland are side by side in a well-kept lot of the Holland Patent Cemetery. The children have erected a beautiful monu- ment to mark the spot. The stone bears this inscrip- tion: Rev. R F. CLEVELAND, Pastor at Holland Patent, f Died Oct. 1, 1853, Aged 49 years. ANNA NEAL, Wife of R. F. Cleveland, Died July 10, 1882, Aged 78 years. Her children arise up And call her blessed. The same stone also bears an inscription to the mem- ory of the brothers, Richard C. and Lewis F., aged thirty-seven and thirty-one years respectively, who were drowned at sea when the steamship Missouri burned off CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 37 the island of Abaco, October 22, 1872. Below are the words : " Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided." A TEACHER OF THE BLIND IN NEW YOKE. The death of the father broke up the Cleveland house- hold, and G rover, then sixteen years of age, started for New York, where he spent a year as a teacher in the New York Blind Asylum, Thirty-fourth Street and Ninth Avenue. His experiences in teaching the blind were by no means pleasant, and he appears to have been engaged i n this sort of work in New York about the & S same time, and for the same length of time, that Mr. Blaine occupied a similar position in Philadelphia. Discovering that teaching was not his calling, he started for the West, with the purpose of finding his fortune in Cleveland, attracted to that city, it is said, by its bearing the same name as himself. But he stopped in Buffalo to visit an uncle, Lewis F. Allen, a noted stock-breeder and a man valued and distinguished in local public service. " His uncle," says one who knew him, " was a severe Presbyterian ; not exactly a miser, but a strict and un- yielding business man, who believed that every boy should make his own place in life by his own energies and applications. Mr. Allen persuaded his nephew that 38 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. Buffalo was as favorable a place as Cleveland to grow in, but without any compunctious of conscience he made him work hard to keep himself in food and common raiment while he was studying his profession of the law." HIS STAKT IN BUFFALO. The young man had no money on which to begin studying law, and he took his uncle's offer to help him get out his herd-book for fifty dollars a year. At the same time he obtained a place as office-boy with RO^TS, Bowen & Rogers, with the privilege of using the law library, and worked his passage assiduously, walking two miles back and forth between the law-office and his un- cle's at Black Rock, and without overshoes or overcoat in the severe winter. He helped edit Mr. Allen's "breed- book" a second year, but still kept at work at the law- office. His uncle's favor was won by his manliness and hard work, as the following incident may indicate : "See here," said Mr. Allen to him one bitter Decem- ber night when the lad had walked out to Black Rock through the sleet and snow, "this is pretty cold weather for you to be travelling without an overcoat." " Oh," said the young man, " I'm going to buy one when I earn the money." " Why, look at your feet ; they must be sopping, eh f GROVER CLEVELAND'S STUDENT LIFE. 1. Studying Blackstone. 2. A Two Mile Tramp Home. CLEVELAND IN" BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 41 "Oh, that's nothing. I'm getting some copying to do now, and I'll have a pair of boots by and by." " You just go right over there to the tailor's and get the stoutest overcoat he's got. D'ye hear ?" A DEBT WHICH REVEALS HIS EARLY STRUGGLES. < It was not until he became sheriff that he could save much money, but an extract from the New York Sun of March 31, 1883, shows that two years before he reached that office he contrived to pay a debt to an old friend. The following appeared in that journal : " UTICA, March 30. Ingham Townsend, of Floyd, Oneida County, died on Tuesday, aged eighty-four years. He had lived in Floyd all his life, and was well known as a warm-hearted, upright, benevolent man. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1857. At one time he was wealthy. He assisted many young men with means to start in life. Among the number whom he aided was the present Governor of New York State. The follow- ing letter, written to his benefactor by Grover Cleveland, will serve to illustrate one of the acts of charity for which Mr. Townsend was distinguished : " 'BUFFALO, Jan. 23, 1867. " ' The Hon. Ingham Townsend. \ "'DEAR SIR: I am now in condition to pay my note which you hold, given for money borrowed some years 42 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. ago. I suppose I might have paid it long before, but I have never thought you were in need of it, and I hud other purposes for my money. I have forgotten the date of the note. If you will send me it, I will mail you the principal and interest. The loan you made me was my start in life, and I shall always preserve the note as an interesting reminder of your kindness. Let me hear from you soon. With many kind wishes to Mrs. Townseud and your family, I am yours very respect- fully, " ' GROVER CLEVELAND.' "Mr. Townsend told Mr. Cleveland when he gave him the money that he need never return it, but if he ever met with a young man in a similar condition to give it to him if he had it to spare. Mr. Cleveland insisted on returning it, however." "THAT'S WHERE THEY ALL BEGIN." Young Cleveland received only three or four dollars a week for his services as a boy in the law-office, and on the first day of his experience there his senior employer had taken a copy of Blackstone, and planting it before him with a bang that made the dust fly, said, " That's where they all begin." There was a titter ran round the little circle of clerks, but he was undaunted, and it was CLEVELAND IN" BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. 43 soon noticed that he was the most punctual and regular of the lads in the office. Indeed, so absorbed was he in the book one night that they locked him in and all went off. Four years in the office of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers as a student gave him sufficient knowledge and experi- ence to become managing clerk, and in his twenty-second year he was admitted to practice at the bar. WAS THERE AN EARLY ROMANCE? A resident of Buffalo who professes to know whereof he affirms says : " The city is full of reminiscences of his fight for a place here, but probably not three people in Buffalo know why he never married ; perhaps none do. The mis- hap that left him to tread the wine-press of life alone was a painful one ; but it left the sting before he came here. Ever since his residence in Buffalo he has lived with his law-books and in his profession. Although he is reputed to be a good, genial companion, fond of life and the world, he has shunned society and lived for his mother and sisters, who needed his help. Probably more preach- ers were reared out of his family than any other in the country. They all taught the doctrines of the Presby- terian Church for a small price, and died poor. Mr. Cleveland's father left nine children, about his only avail- able assets when he died. Hence it went out that he 44 CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. was too poor to marry until so well grounded in his bachelor ways that he could not be tempted from them by the comeliest girl in the land. There are no tradi- tions that he ever courted a lass. Yet it is true that he did, and that the picture of that one still remains by his side." WHY CLEVELAND DID NOT ENTER THE ARMY. Younjr Cleveland was known as a war-Democrat, and O 7 the following statement, by one qualified to speak upon a subject which has frequently excited speculation, pos- sesses interest and value : "At the opening of the war it was a question whether he should enter the army or not. He was entirely ready and willing to do so, but his father had died some time before and left a widowed mother, poor and with a large family, several of whom were daughters. Provision had to be made for their support, and yet the family felt obliged to contribute in some way to the cause of the Union. A sort of family council was held. Grover had just been admitted to the bar at Buffalo, and was lu-gin. ning to have some practice. Two younger brothers vol- unteered to go to the army and leave Grover at home to support their mother and sisters. This was agreed to all around, and the two brothers went to the front and served with honor till the war closed. When peace was CLEVELAND IN BOYHOOD AND EAELY LIFE. 45 declared they returned home, but were soon afterwards lost at sea. Grover Cleveland was the first man drafted in Buffalo. He promptly supplied a substitute, who made a faithful soldier." Like Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Elaine was drafted ; and like Mr. Cleveland, he paid for a substitute. CHAPTER II. CLEVELAND AS . A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR OF BUFFALO. Cleveland's Beginning in Official Life. Assistant District-Attor- ney of Erie County at Twenty-five Years of Age. Hard Work Wins a Nomination for District-Attorney. His Term as Sheriff. An Answer to a Fling that he was a Hangman. His Character as a Lawyer. Buffalo under Ring Rule. Cleveland's Reputation Makes him a Candidate for Mayor. His Speech accepting the Nomination. Supported by Voters of all Parties. A Great Majority. His Inaugural Declaration. He Saves a Million in Six Months. His Beginning as a Vetoer. His Address on the Duties of the Government to Americans Abroad. His Course as Mayor gives him National Fame. GROYER CLEVELAND won a reputation through- out the "Empire State" by his admirable administration of the office of Mayor of Buffalo, and peculiar interest attaches to that part of his history which relates to his work as a reformer in his own city. As a preface to the story of his achievement as "Buffalo's reform Mavur," an account of his service in subordinate offices and of his practice as a lawyer should be given. CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. 47 HIS FIRST PUBLIC OFFICE. It was when Cleveland was nearly twenty-five years of age that the question who should be appointed assistant district-attorney for the county of Erie was warmly discussed by the young law- yers in Messrs. Rogers & Bowen's offices in Buf- falo. There were several both eligible and anxious, but young Cleveland did not advance his own claims, it is said. Indeed, all agreed that he was the per- son who ought to have the position, and they urged him to accept it. lie was appointed, and from that moment his public record began. The burden of the district-attorney's work fell upon him, but it was just the discipline young Cleveland needed, and he bore it so well that at the end of three years' service the Demo- crats nominated him for the district-attorneyship. It is an indisputable fact that he did not solicit the nomination, hesitated to accept it, and did not turn his hand over to secure his election. The story is told in Buffalo that on the day of election he was trying a case in court while his friends were electioneering for him on the street, and the judge on the bench, who was an ad- mirer of his, peremptorily adjourned the case and told Cleveland to go and attend to his interests. He was beaten by the Republican candidate. Lyman K. Bass. This was in 1865. In 1866 Mr. Cleveland 48 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. formed a law-partnership with the late I. K. Yonder- pool, which lasted till 1869. In 1867 he admitted to the firm the late A. P. Lansing and the late Oscar Folsora. The latter association, however, ended at the expiration of two years, owing to Mr. Cleveland having been nominated and elected in 1869 to be sheriff. HIS WORK AS SHERIFF. As sheriff of Erie County he had his first opportunity to show the executive qualities which have since been exercised so successfully on wider fields. lie won public respect by his strict administration of the office without regard to partisan interest. It became his duty to hang two murderers, one a man who shot his partner over a game of cards in a liquor-saloon, the other a wretch who stubbed his mother. The fling of the Boston Traveller that "if Grover Cleveland is elected President he will be the first man to hold that office who has ever performed the duties of a public executioner" drew from a prominent Boston journalist the following excellent statement as to Sheriff Cleveland's unflinching performance of a disagreeable duty : "This unworthy attempt to excite prejudice against a man who, in a high official capacity, performed even the most disagreeable duties incident to the position without shrinking, is probably based upon a misconception of our CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. 49 American institutions. A public executioner in this country is not a man like Marwood or Colcraft, ap- pointed with special reference to that service. He is usually the high sheriff of the county in which the crime to be punished with death has been committed. The office of sheriff is considered one of the most honorable as well as one of the most responsible that can be held by a citizen of the United States, and a man who per- forms its duties and meets its exactions in a manner satis- factory to the highest sentiment of that immediate portion of the public which he serves is a man to be trusted. This Governor Cleveland did. The courts sentenced two men to be hanged and Sheriff Cleveland hanged them, with the strictest observance of the pro- prieties of the occasion. We do not remember whether any of our former Presidents were ever similarly circum- stanced or not ; but the best of them, from Washington down, would not have recoiled from their plain duty had this disagreeable necessity confronted them. President Jackson said considerable about hanging, and he would have united the office of executioner with that of chief magistrate had it been necessary to carry out his ideas of justice. We haven't much respect for innuendo of this kind, yet we are not particularly sorry to see it made use of. It cannot hurt our candidate, and it shows how des- perate is the strait of his opponents when they attempt to turn admitted acts of duty to his prejudice." 50 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. AS A LAWYER. On the completion of his term as sheriff Mr. Cleve- land entered into a law -partnership with his former antagonist, L. K. Bass, and Wilson S. Bisscll ; but Mr. Bass's health not long afterwards failed, so that he went to Colorado, and since then the firm has become Cleveland, Bissell & Sicardj and ranks among the foremost in west- ern New York. Says one who knows him thoroughly: "Asa lawyer Mr. Cleveland's reputation has not been gained by any showy qualities either of exceptional eloquence or bril- liant management, but by a certain assurance of solid and trustworthy judgment. He was clear, simple, and convincing in his arguments, and avoided the technical dodges so prevalent with the profession, and his mastery of whatever case he undertook was thorough. G rover Cleveland achieved his distinction as a lawyer for legal acumen and intellectual honesty. His jury and bench trials were distinguished by clear views, direct, simple logic, and a thorough mastery of all the intricacies of the cases, and he secured the respect of his own profession and the admiration of the public." A Philadelphia newspaper-correspondent who visited Buffalo soon after Governor Cleveland was nominated for the Presidency relates the following: "I went into the spacious offices this morning, but not one of the old firm CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. 51 was there. Only one is alive, nnd he is in Europe. Mr. Cleveland has had four or five law-partnerships with the strong men of this city, and all say he was a valuable business companion. His career as a lawyer is well de- fined in this region, and his reputation well established. Mr. Milburn, a bright young man, now a partner iii the law-firm where the Governor studied, said to me this morning: 'It amuses me to hear this talk about Mr. Cleveland's lack of ability. He is the strongest char- acter I ever knew without a national reputation. He is a fine lawyer. He is incapable of wilful wrong, and nothing on earth could sweep him from his conviction of duty. That he is thoroughly honest cannot be ques- tioned, and without being what might be called a bril- liant man he has always been regarded as an able and safe one in every relation of life.' " BUFFALO UNDER RING RULE. The following is an account by a well-informed writer as to the situation in Buffalo when Grover Cleveland was called to be Mayor of that city : " The mayoralty had been held for several terms by unworthy and incompetent men, elected by a combina- tion of rogues who owned the city council, and plun- dered the city in the same way New York was plundered under Tweed and his mayors and boards of aldermen. The government was nominally Republican, but the 52 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. party was rent by dissensions, and its better elements were ready to help the Democrats in any honest move- ment for reform." Mr. Cleveland's impartial and satisfactory service as law officer and as sheriff of the comity made him the one person for the Democrats to choose, and it was his reputation that turned the attention of the people of Buffalo to him when they were seeking for a man strong enough to redeem the city from the ring under which it was suffering. So vitally important was the struggle, that other things were for the moment forgotten, and the country turned aside to watch the contest in Buffalo. The people de- clared for the reform candidate, regardless of party re- lations ; and it is strictly true that Cleveland was swept into office on one of those tidal-waves of popular pro- test against ring rule which are as resistless as they are sudden. CLEVELAND'S SPEECH AS A CANDIDATE FOE MAYOR. Perhaps no better revelation of the man was ever made than in the speecli in which he accepted the nomination for Mayor of Buffalo. To the assembled representatives of his party he said : " GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : I am informed that you have bestowed upon me the nomination for the office of Mayor. It certainly is a great honor to be CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. 53 thought fit to be chief officer of a great and prosperous city like ours, having such important and varied inter- ests. I hoped that your choice might fall upon some other and more worthy member of the city Democracy, for personal and private considerations have made the question of acceptance on my part a difficult one. But because I am a Democrat, and because I think no one has a right, at this time of all others, to consult his own inclinations as against the call of his party and fellow- citizens, and hoping that I may be of use to you in your efforts to inaugurate a better rule in municipal affairs, I accept the nomination tendered me. I believe much can be done to relieve our citizens from their present load of taxation, and that a more rigid scrutiny of all public ex- penditures will result in a great saving to the commu- nity. I also believe that some extravagances in our city government may be corrected without injury to the pub- lic service. There is, or there should be, no reason why the affairs of our city should not be managed with the same care, the same economy, as private interests. And when we consider that public officials are the trustees of the people, and hold their places and exercise their powers for the benefit of the people, there should be no higher inducement to a faithful and honest discharge of public duty. " These are very old truths; but I cannot forbear to speak in this strain to-day, because I believe the time has 54 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR, come when the people loudly demand that these prin- ciples shall be sincerely, :md without mental reservation, adopted as a rule of conduct, and I am assured that the result of the campaign upon which we enter to-day will demonstrate that the citizens of Buffalo will not tolerate the man or the party who has been unfaithful to public trusts. I say these things to a convention of Democrats, because I know that grand old party is honest, and such a dictation is not unwelcome to you. Let us then in all sincerity promise the people an improvement in our municipal affairs; and if the opportunity is offered to us, as it surely will be, let us faithfully keep that promise. By this means, and by this means alone, can our success rest upon a firm foundation, and our party ascendency be permanently assured. Our opponents will wage a bitter and determined warfare ; but with united and hearty effort we shall achieve a victory for our entire ticket. And at this day, and with my record before you, I trust it is unnecessary for me to pledge to you my most earnest endeavors to bring about this result; and if elected to the position for which you have nominated me, I shall do my whole duty to the party ; but none the less, I hope, to the citizens of Buffalo." HE SAVES A MILLION DOLLARS IN SIX MONTHS. He was elected by a large majority ; and he entered office on January 1, 1882, supported by people of all CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MATOE. 55 parties, and untrammelled by any engagements. In his inaugural address he set forth the following principles : " We hold the money of the people in our hands, to be used for their purposes and to further their interests as members of the municipality, and it is quite apparent that, when any part of the funds which the tax-payers have thus intrusted us are diverted to other purposes, or when, by design or neglect, we allow a greater sum to be applied to any municipal purpose than is necessary, we have, to that extent, violated our duty. There surely is no difference in his duties and obligations, whether a person is entrusted with the money of one man or many. And yet it sometimes appears as though the office- holder assumes that a different rule of fidelity prevails between him and the tax-payers than that which should regulate his conduct when, as an individual, he holds the money of his neighbor." ^ He restored order in all branches of the municipal service, which were in dire confusion, and in two mat- ters that came up during the first six months of his ad- ministration he saved the city a million dollars. HIS BEGINNING AS A VETOEE. He used the veto power unsparingly, and the follow- ing rebuke of public plunderers, taken from his veto of a street-cleaning contract, indicates his resolute purpose to effect a thorough municipal reform : 56 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. "This is a time for plain speech, and my objection to your action shall be plainly stated. I regard it as the culmination of a most barefaced, impudent, and shame- less scheme to betray the interests of the people and to worse than squander the public money. We are fast gaining positions in the grades of public stewardship. There is no middle ground. Those who are not for the people, either in or out of your honorable body, are against them and should be treated accordingly." A REMARKABLE DECLARATION AS TO ClTI/.r.NSIlir. Irish-American voters have been much affected by a speech made by Mayor Cleveland on April 9, 1882, in St. James's Hall, Buffalo. Much dissatisfaction had bci-n excited by James Russell Lowell's course concerning Americans imprisoned in Ireland, and a public meeting had been called to express indignation. On taking the chair to preside, Mayor Cleveland delivered the follow- ing as to the duties of the United States Government to its citizens abroad : "FELLOW-CITIZENS: This is the formal mode of ad- dress on occasions of this kind, but I think we seldom realize fully its meaning or how valuable a thing it is to be a citizen. From the earliest civilization, to be a citizen has been to be a free man, endowed with certain privileges and advantages, and entitled to the full protection of the state. The defence and protection of personal rights of CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. 57 its citizens has always been the paramount and most im- portant duty of a free, enlightened government. And perhaps no government has this sacred trust more in its keeping than this, the best and freest of them all ; for here the people who are to be protected are the source of those powers which they delegate upon the express com- pact that the citizen shall be protected. For this pur- pose we choose those who for the time being shall man- age the machinery which we have set up for our defence and safety. " And this protection adheres to us in all lands and places as an incident of citizenship. Let but the weight of a sacrilegious hand be put upon this sacred thing and a great, strong government springs to its feet to avenge the wrong. Tims it is that the native-born American citizen enjoys his birthrights. But when, in the west- ward inarch of empire, this nation was founded and took root, we beckoned to the Old World and invited hither its immigration, and provided a mode by which those who sought a home among us might become our fellow- citizens. They came .by thousands and hundreds of thousands ; they came and " 'Hewed the dark old woods away, And gave the virgin fields to day;' they came with strong sinews and brawny arms to aid in the growth and progress of a new country ; they came 3* 58 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. and upon our altars laid their fealty and submission ; they came to our temples of justice, and under the so- lemnity of an oath renounced all allegiance to every other state, potentate, and sovereignty, and surrendered to us all the duty pertaining to such allegiance. "We have ac- cepted their fealty and invited them to surrender the protection of their native land. " And what should be given them in return ? Mani- festly, good faith and every dictate of honor demand that we give them the same liberty and protection here and elsewhere which we vouchsafe to our native-born citizens. And that this has been accorded to them is the crowning glory of American institutions. It needed not the statute which is now the law of the land, declaring that ' all naturalized citizens while in foreign lands are entitled to and shall receive from this government the same protection of person and property which is accorded to native-born citizens,' to voice the policy of our na- tion. "In all lands where the semblance of liberty is pre- served, the right of a person arrested to a speedy accusa- tion and trial is, or ought to be, a fundamental law, as it is a rule of civilization. At any rate, we hold it to be so, and this is one of the rights which we undertake to guarantee to any native-born or naturalized citizen of ours, whether he be imprisoned by order of the Czar of Russia or under the pretext of a law administered for the CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. 59 benefit of the landed aristocracy of England. We do not claim to make laws for other countries, but we do insist that whatsoever those laws may be, they shall, in the interests of human freedom and the rights of man- kind so far as they involve the liberty of our citizens, be speedily administered. We have a right to say and do say that mere suspicion without examination on trial is not sufficient to justify the long imprisonment of a citi- zen of America. Other nations may permit their citi- zens to be thus imprisoned. Ours will not. And this in effect has been solemnly declared by statute. "We have met here to-night to consider this subject and inquire into the cause and the reasons and the justice of the imprisonment of certain of our fellow-citizens now held in British prisons without the semblance of a trial or legal examination. Our law declares that the govern- ment shall act in such cases. But the people are the creators of the government. The undaunted apostle of the Christian religion, imprisoned and persecuted, appeal- ing centuries ago to the Roman law and the rights of Roman citizenship, boldly demanded, ' Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondernned ? ' So, too, might we ask, appealing to the law of our land and the laws of civilization, ' Is it lawful that these, our fellows, be imprisoned, who are American citizens and uncondemned I ' I deem it an honor to be called upon 60 CLEVELAND AS A LAWYER AND AS MAYOR. to preside at such a meeting, and I thank you for it. What is your further pleasure ? " HIS COURSE AS MAYOR GIVES HEM A NATIONAL FAME. Grover Cleveland's action as mayor of Buffalo com- manded attention outside of New York State, and in the State it marked him as almost an ideal executive officer, the very man needed in the governor's chair at Albany, where a firm hand at the helm was demanded. Says an observer of discernment : " His work was no less intelli- gent and sagacious than it was honest and courageous." CHAPTER III. CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. Charles A. Dana, of the New York Sun, on the Qualities exhibited by Grover Cleveland as Mayor of Buffalo. "A Man Worthy of the Highest Public Confidence." Cleveland's Nomination for Governor and his Letter of Acceptance. His Majority the Greatest in the History of the "Empire State." His Views set forth at length. Mr. Dana on Governor Cleveland's Inaugural. Extracts from that Important Document. Taxation. Canals. Education. Banks. State-Prisons. The Insane. Port Abuses. Civil Service. Munici- pal Government. Primary Elections. Special Legislation. Con- clusion. Charles A. Dana, the distinguished editor of the New York Sun, said, soon after the nomination of the State Democratic ticket of New York in 1882 : " Grover Cleveland, now Mayor of Buffalo and the Democratic can- didate for Governor of New York, is a man worthy of the highest public confidence. No one can study the record of his career since he has held ofiice in Buffalo without being convinced that he possesses those highest qualities of a public man, sound principles of administrative duty, 62 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. luminous intelligence, and courage to do what is right no matter who may be pleased or displeased thereby." This emphatic declaration sufficiently explains the ap- pearance of the name of Cleveland in connection with the highest office of the greatest State of the Union be- fore he had % finished his first year in the highest office of his own city. That the declaration expressed the senti- ment of the people is evinced by the famous majority which placed Grover Cleveland in the Executive Mansion at Albany. Although Judge Folger, President Arthur's Secretary of the Treasury and a man of high moral worth and great intellectual power, was the Republican candidate, Cleveland's majority was 192,854, and has no parallel in all the history of the " Empire State." A DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES. Cleveland's letter accepting the nomination for Gov- ernor set forth his public views so distinctly that its pe- rusal is invaluable to those who would study the develop- ment of his public career. It is as follows : " BUFFALO, October 7th, 1882. " Hon. TJwmas C. E. Ecdesine, Chairman, etc. "DEAR SIR: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter informing me of my nomination for Governor by the Democratic State Convention lately held at the city of Syracuse. I accept the nomination thus tendered to CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 63 me, and trust that, while I am gratefully sensible of the honor conferred, I am also properly impressed with the responsibilities which it invites. " The platform of principles adopted by the Conven- tion meets with my hearty approval. The doctrines therein enunciated are so distinctly and explicitly stated that their amplification seems scarcely necessary. If elected to the office for which I have been nominated, I shall endeavor to impiess them upon my Administration, and make them the policy of the State. "Our citizens, for the most part, attach themselves to one or the other of the great political parties ; and, under ordinary circumstances, they support the nominees of the party to which they profess fealty. It is quite apparent that under such circumstances the primary election or caucus should be surrounded by such safeguards as will secure absolutely free and uncontrolled action. Here the people themselves are supposed to speak ; here they put their own hands to the machinery of government, and in this place should be found the manifestation of the popu- lar will. When by fraud, intimidation, or any other questionable practice the voice of the people is here smothered, a direct blow is aimed at a most precious right, and one which the law should be swift to protect. If the primary election is uncontaminated and fairly con- ducted, those there chosen to represent the people will go forth with the impress of the people's will upon them, 64 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OP NEW YORK. and the benefits and purposes of a truly representative government will be attained. "Public officers are the servants and agents of the people to execute laws which the people have made, and within the limits of a constitution which they have es- tablished. Hence the interference of officials of any degree, and whether State or Federal, for the purpose of thwarting or controlling the popular wish, should not be tolerated. "Subordinates in public places should be selected and retained for their efficiency, and not*because they may be used to accomplish partisan ends. The people have a right to demand here, as in cases of private employment, that their money be paid to those who will render the best service in return, and that the appointment to and tenure of such places should depend upon ability and merit. If the clerks and assistants in public departments were paid the same compensation and required to do the same amount of work as those employed in prudently conducted private establishments, the anxiety to hold these public places would be much diminished, and, it seems to me, the cause of civil-service reform materially aided. " The system of levying assessments for partisan pur- poses on those holding office or place cannot be too strongly condemned. Through the thin disguise of vol- untary contributions this is seen to be naked extortion, CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. DO reducing the compensation winch should be honestly earned, and swelling a fund used to debauch the people and defeat the popular will. " I am unalterably opposed to the interference by the Legislature with the government of municipalities. I believe in the intelligence of the people when left to an honest freedom in their choice, and that when the citi- zens of any section of the State have determined upon the details of a local government they should be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of the same. The doctrine of home rule, as I understand it, lies at the foundation of republican institutions and cannot be too strongly insisted upon. "Corporations are created by the law for certain defined purposes, and are restricted in their operations by specific limitations. Acting within their legitimate sphere they should be protected ; but when by combination or by the exercise of unwarranted power they oppress the people, the same authority which created should restrain them and protect the rights of the citizens. The law lately passed for the purpose of adjusting the relations between the people and corporations should be executed in good faith, with a7i honest design to effect its objects and with a due regard for the interests involved. i " The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by ag- 66 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. gregated capital, and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil and be framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman. " We have so lately had a demonstration of the value of our citizen soldiery in time of peril, that it seems to me no argument is necessary to prove that it should be maintained in a state of efficiency, so that its usefulness shall not be impaired. " Certain amendments to the Constitution of our State, involving the management of our canals, are to be passed upon at the coming election. This subject affects di- verse interests, and of course gives rise to opposite opin- ions. It is in the hands of the sovereign people for final settlement ; and as the question is thus removed from State legislation, any statement of my opinion in regard to it at this time would, I think, be out of place. I am confident that the people will intelligently examine the merits of the subject and determine where the prepon- derance of interest lies. " The expenditure of money to influence the action of the people at the polls, or to secure legislation, is calcu- lated to excite the gravest concern. When this pernicious agency is successfully employed a representative form of government becomes a sham, and laws passed under its baleful influences cease to protect, but are made the means by which the rights of the people are sacrificed CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 67 and the public treasury despoiled. It is useless and fool- ish to shut our eyes to the fact that this evil exists among us; and the party which leads in an honest effort to return to better and purer methods will receive the con- fidence of our citizens and secure their support. It is wilful blindness not to see that the people care but little for party obligations when they are invoked to counte- nance and sustain fraudulent and corrupt practices. And it is well for our country and for the purification of poli- tics that the people, at times fully roused to danger, re- mind their leaders that party methods should be some- thing more than a means used to answer the purposes of those who profit by political occupation. " The importance of wise statesmanship in the man- agement of public affairs cannot, I think, be overesti- mated. I am convinced, however, that the perplexities and the mystery often surrounding the administration of State concerns grow, in a great measure, out of an at- tempt to serve partisan ends rather than the welfare of the citizen. " We may, I think, reduce to quite simple elements the duty which the public servants owe, by constantly bearing in mind that they are pat in place to protect the rights of the people, to answer their needs as they arise, and to expend for their benefit the money drawn from them by taxation. " I am profoundly conscious that the management of 68 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. the diverse interests of a great State is not an easy matter ; but I believe, if undertaken in the proper spirit, all its real difficulties will yield to watchfulness and care. " Yours respectfully, "GROVEB CLEVELAND." MR. DANA AND CLEVELAND'S INAUGURAL. Mr. Dana's admiration for Governor Cleveland's in- augural was unbounded, and after emphasizing extracts from it he said editorially, in the Sun: " We wish that the utterances we have now quoted might be read and pondered by every citizen of the State. No matter what political faith a man may have been educated in, no matter by what party name he may now prefer to be called, no one can consider snch princi- ples and sentiments as these declared by Mr. Cleveland without feeling that such a public officer is worthy of the confidence and support of the whole people, and that the interests of the Empire State will be entirely safe in his hands." The foregoing expression of vigorous approbation will whet the appetite of the reader for Governor Cleveland's inaugural message, the presentation of parts of which in this place will afford an opportunity to study its author's first great state-paper. GOV. CLEVELAND'S UNOSTENTATIOUS ARRIVAL AT THE STATE CAPITAL, ALBANY, PREVIOUS TO HIS INAUGURATION. CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 71 Governor Cleveland was unrecognized when he reached the Executive Mansion. The moment the in- augural ceremony was over he ordered the doors thrown open and went immediately to work. GOVERNOR CLEVELAND'S INAUGUBAL. "STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ALBANY, January 2d, 1883. " To the Legislature: "In obedience to the provision of the constitution which directs that the Governor shall communicate to the Legislature, at every session, the condition of the State, and recommend such matters to them as lie shall judge expedient, I transmit this my first annual message, with the intimation that a newly elected Executive can hardly be prepared to present a complete exhibit of State affairs or to submit in detail a great variety of recom- mendations for the action of the Legislature. TAXATION. " The imperfection of our laws touching the matter of taxation, or the faulty execution of existing statutes on the subject, is glaringly apparent. " The power of the State to exact from the citizen a part of his earnings and income for the support of the Government it is obvious should be exercised with abso- 72 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. lute fairness and justice. "When it is not so exercised the people are oppressed. This furnishes the highest and the hest reason why laws should be enacted and executed which will subject all property, as all alike need the pro- tection of the State, to an equal share in the burdens of taxation, by means of which the Government is main- tained. And yet it is notoriously true that personal property, not less remunerative than land and real estate, escapes to a very great extent the payment of its fair pro- portion of the expense incident to its protection and pre- servation under the law. The people should always be able to recognize, with the pride and satisfaction which are the strength of our institutions, in the conduct of the State the source of undiscriminating justice which can give no pretext for discontent. CANALS. "Since, by the adoption of the constitutional amend- ment, the cost of maintaining the canals is to be met by a tax upon all property of the State, it is our plain duty to deal with this subject with strict economy. The safe- guards heretofore existing in the constitution, which protected the tax-payers from unlimited expense in the management and repair of the canals, having been relin- quished by the people, this act is by no means to be re- 'garded as an indication that they have forgotten the time when the extravagance and fraud connected with the CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 73 canals were a scandal and reproach to the State. They have, in their devotion to their great waterways, and in the fear that the limitations of the constitution might im- pair their usefulness, surrendered the protection thus af- forded, together with the revenue derived from tolls, and have entrusted the whole matter to their chosen represen- tatives. In the execution of the trust committed to us under such circumstances, all propositions and schemes for the enlargement of the canals or the expenditure of large sums of money in their alteration should, in my opinion, be stubbornly opposed, at least until the effect pf the aboli- tion of tolls is fully apparent. At the present time what the people want, and what they will demand, is the management of the canals as they *now exist in such manner that their utmost capacity shall be made available at the lowest possible cost. . . . PUBLIC EDUCATION. " The success of our common-school system is so closely connected with the welfare of the State that its satisfac- tory condition should be a subject of congratulation to every citizen. The number of children attending public schools during the last fiscal year was 19,807 in excess of the number reported the year previous, while my pre- decessor in his last annual message called attention wirh regret to a decrease in attendance for the year then closed. 74 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. BANKS. " State supervision of banks is more than useless un- less it is thorough and effective. Under the law as it now stands, the Superintendent of the Banking Depart- ment must cause an examination to be made of these in- stitutions only when, in his opinion, there is good reason to suspect an unsound condition or false reports. It would seem that the solvency of the banks and the pro- tection of depositors would be better assured if one or more examinations in each year were made compulsory on the department. *- INSTJRANCE. " I am informed that the expenses of maintaining this department for the year ending September 30, 1882, were at least a hundred thousand dollars; while remit investigations tend to convince the ordinary mind that this department, and the laws in relation to the subject of insurance, do not furnish the protection to the people which they ought. I suggest that steps be taken to make this department more useful and less expensive, and that the law touching the entire question of insurance be re- duced to a plain and simple enactment which shall be a safeguard against the abuses to which this important interest is now exposed. CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 75 NATIONAL GUARD. "On the first day of July last a camp of instruc- tion was established near Peekskill, which was maintained until the fourth day of August. Six regiments were consecutively ordered to this camp, remaining there from five to eight days each. If, as the result of this inaugural encampment seems to indicate, the usefulness of the National Guard can he thereby promoted with a reason- able expenditure of money, I am of the opinion that a sufficient amount should be appropriated annually to per- mit at least a part of the force to receive the advantages of this new feature of military instruction. " With the reduction of the number of men enrolled the elficiency and discipline of the force becomes a matter of the first importance ; and I trust that all legis- lation on the subject, as well as the administration of the military affairs of the State, will be in that direction. STATE-PRISONS. "If these penal institutions are self-sustaining, without injury or embarrassment to honest labor, it is a matter for congratulation ; but it is, at least, very questionable whether the State should go further and seek to realize a profit from its convict labor. In my judgment it should not, especially if the danger of competition between 76 convicts and those who honestly toil is thereby increased, and the overcrowding of any of the prisons, with its attendant evils, is the result. CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, "The usefulness of such institutions depends very much on the confidence which the public have in their proper conduct, and it is abundantly demonstrated that the people are ready to believe, sometimes on very slight grounds, the gravest charges of mismanagement and inhuman treatment with reference to their superin- tendence. It is equally certain that if abuses in the care of the insane exist, tliere should be the least possible opportunity for their continuance without exposure. Frequent visitations and the most thorough examination should be made, either by local boards or by properly constituted State authorities, which the people would be sure were in nowise committed, except to the faithful discharge of their duties. By this means these institu- tions would be protected from unjust charges and suspi- cion, and the confidence of our citizens in their manage- ment secured. " A dispute has arisen between the Board of Charities and the managers of some of the insane asylums in regard to their respective rights and duties, which should be settled by plain statutory provisions. CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 77 I QUARANTINE AND HEALTH OFFICER. " From a report of a special committee appointed by the Senate in 1881 it appears that while the emoluments of the Health Officer of the port of New York were very difficult of exact ascertainment, the committee came to the conclusion that the net income of that officer did not average less than forty thousand dollars per annum, and might, in favorable years, reach a sum upwards of sixty thousand dollars. No one can read this report without being convinced that this estimate is a very moderate one, and represents a sum of money derived from the commerce of our principal port in startling dis- proportion to services rendered, and greater than any man ought to receive for official service. " The great State of New York should no longer rest under the accusation that it knowingly permits officials of its own creation to burden the commerce entering its port by the exaction of charges which the highest tri- bunal in the land has determined to be illegal. " It is worthy of the consideration of the Legislature whether the duties attached to these offices could not properly be performed under the auspices of the Depart- ment of Docks in the city of New York. If, however, it is determined that the office of harbor-master is neces- sary, some way should be devised by which he can be legally compensated for his services. 78 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. "The subject of port- wardens and the system of pilotage connected with the port of New York are also coin mended to the consideration of the Legislature, as matters which need further regulation by well-digested laws. " A reference is hardly necessary to the fact that if we are to maintain the supremacy of our port against a con- stantly increasing competition there should be no un- favorable contrast in regard to fees and charges "which are indirectly a tax on its commerce. REFORM IN CIVIL SERVICE. " It is submitted that the appointment of subordinates in the several State departments, and their tenure of office or employment, should be based upon fitness and efficienc}', and that this principle should be embodied in legislative enactment, to the end that the policy of the State may conform to the reasonable public demand on that subject. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. "The formation and administration of the govern- ment of cities are subjects of much public interest, and of great importance to many of the inhabitants of the State. The formation of such governments is properly matter for most careful legislation. ' They should be so organized as to be simple in their CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 79 details and to cast upon the people affected thereby the full responsibility of their administration. The different departments should be in such accord as in their opera- tion to lead toward the same results. Divided counsels and divided responsibility to the people on the part of municipal officers, it is believed, give rise to much that is objectionable in the government of cities. If, to remedy this evil, the chief executive should be made answerable to the people for the proper conduct of the city's affairs, it is quite clear that his power in the selec- tion of those who manage its different departments should be greatly enlarged. PRIMARY ELECTIONS. " The protection of the people in their primaries will, it is hoped, be secured by the early passage of a law for that purpose, which will rid the present system of the evils which surround it, tending to defraud the people of rights closely connected with their privileges as citizens. SPECIAL LEGISLATION. " It is confidently expected that those who represent the people in the present Legislature will address them- selves to the enactment of such laws as are for the bene- fit of all the citizens of the State, to the exclusion of special legislation and interference with affairs which should be managed by the localities to which they pertain. 80 CLEVELAND AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. "It is not only the right of the people to administer their local government, but it should be made their duty to do so. Any departure from this doctrine is an aban- donment of the principles upon which our institutions are founded, and a concession of the iniirmity and partial failure of the theory of a representative form of govern- ment. "If the aid of the Legislature is invoked to further projects which should be subject to local control and management, suspicion should be at once aroused and the interference sought should be promptly and sternly refused. " Let us enter upon the discharge of our duties fully appreciating our relations to the people, and determined to serve them faithfully and well. This involves a jeal- ous watch of the public funds and a refusal to sanction their appropriation except for public needs. To this end all unnecessary offices should be abolished and all em- ployment of doubtful benefit discontinued. If to this we add the enactment of such wise and well-considered laws as will meet the varied wants of our fellow-citi/.ens and increase their prosperity, we shall merit and receive the approval of those whose representatives we are, and with the consciousness of duty well performed shall leave our impress for good on the legislation of the State. " GKOVEE CLEVELAND." CHAPTER IV. CLEVELAND'S VETOES. "His Veto of the Street-Cleaning Job is regarded as the Real Beginning of his Public Career." A Prominent Resident of Buffalo gives the Opinion. Cleveland's Use of the Veto Power as Governor. A Famous Veto two months after he entered the Executive Man- sion at Albany. The Five-Cent-Fare Bill. Its History and its De- fects. The Governor's Words in Vetoing it. The Courage of the Veto wins the Admiration of President White of Cornell. The Conductors and Drivers' Bill. "Not in the Interest of Working- men." A Legislator's Trick makes a Veto Necessary. The Me- chanics' Lien Bill. Cleveland's Vetoes and the Veterans. A Veto which Saved the Savings Banks. Reference has elsewhere been made to Grover Cleve- land's beginning of the use of the veto power while Major of Buffalo, and a prominent inhabitant of that city said, soon after the nomination at Chicago : " Here his veto of the street-cleaning job is regarded as the real beginning of his public career. Soon after he came into office the Council voted to award the street- cleaning contract for five years to George Talbot, a local politician of power, at $422,500 a year. There were 4* 82 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. several lower bids by thoroughly responsible men. Mayor Cleveland vetoed the award and severely condemned the attempted waste of the people's money. The contract was subsequently awarded to the lowest bidder at $109,- 000. The amount saved on this and an item for a sewer during the first six months of his administration was about a million dollars. These acts brought him into prominence, and it was on account of his fearless tight against public plunderers that he was elected Governor. It is because they know him to be perfectly honest and incorruptible that all men, regardless of differing po- litical affiliations, are rejoicing over his successes." A FAMOUS VETO. Governor Cleveland has made an unsparing use of the veto power, and his unflinching performance of what he believed to be his duty has exposed him to fierce attacks. The most famous of the vetoes which have excited hos- tile criticism, perhaps, was that of the Five-cent-fare Bill, on March 2, 1883, only a few weeks after his work at Albany began. The fares for passengers on the elevated railways of New York were fixed at five cents, for any distance, from 5.30 to 8.30 in the morning, and from 4.30 to 7.30 in the evening, and at ten cents for all other hours. As the great mass of time-employees begin work at seven o'clock in the morning and stop at six o'clock in the evening, CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 83 they ride to and from their work on the elevated trains for five cents a trip, the same as on the horse-cars. A young lawyer representing an uptown metropolitan dis- trict in the Assembly conceived the idea, soon after the success of the rapid-transit system was demonstrated, of securing the enactment of a law reducing the rate of fare to five cents for all hours. The reduction bill fared poorly the first year it was presented. The sentiment in the Assembly was against it. Probably the cross pur- poses of the Democrats in the Assembly that year had somewhat to do with the failure of the bill. The mem- ber who had it in charge was a Republican. The Tam- many men were posing as anti-monopolists, and the anti- Tammany members from New York would not join the Tammany members on any measure which might seem to strengthen the latter with the " workingmen" of New York. In 1883 the bill was brought forward by a Tammany man ; both branches of the Legislature were in Demo- cratic hands. The anti-monopoly and the labor agitation centred round the prison-contract-labor system and the call for a railroad commission, and its momentum carried the elevated-railroad-fare bill along, almost as a matter of course. Both parties were bidding for popularity with laboring men and anti-monopolists. The fare bill was in- troduced in both branches immediately after their organ- ization, and the committees reported favorably. In the 84 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. Assembly, when the point of final ciction was reached, a motion to recommit for the purpose of giving the elevated roads a further hearing was negatived, 70 to 48, only four New York City members voting in the affirmative. A motion to change the bill from an arbitrary reduction of fare to giving the local authorities power over the subject was negatived, 114 to 1. It then passed by a vote of 109 to 6, and of the six only one was a New York City man. In the Senate the Assembly bill was substituted for the Senate bill, and it passed that House by a vote of 24 to 5, not one of the five being a New York City senator. THE GOVERNOR'S WORDS. In vetoing the bill, Governor Cleveland said : " I am of the opinion that in the legislation and proceedings which I have detailed, and in the fact that pursuant thereto the road of the company was constructed and finished, there exists a contract in favor of this company which is pro- tected by that clause of the Constitution of the United States which prohibits the passage of a law impairing the obligation of contracts." He also said : " It seems to me that to arbitrarily re- duce these fares at this time and under existing circum- O stances involves a breach of faith on the part of the State and a betrayal of confidence which the State has in- vited." It should be noted that part of the elevated svstem had CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 85 been constructed under the General Railroad Act of 1850, wherein it was provided that, notwithstanding the constitutional right of the Legislature to alter the char- ters of its corporations, the rate of fare on any railway shall not be reduced till it has been shown by examina- tion of the State Engineer and Surveyor to be earning more than ten per cent on the capital actually expended. Here was a contract between the people of the State and the elevated-railway companies. The force of the objections presented was such that in the Assembly on the question of passing the bill over the veto the vote stood 66 to 58 in favor of the Governor. PRESIDENT WHITE, OF CORNELL, WON BY THE COUKAGE OF THE VETO. It would have been easy for Governor Cleveland to sign the bill which had passed the Assembly with only four dissenting votes and so win cheap popularity at the expense of distrusted corporations, but he chose to defy public opinion and was rewarded by the admiration of many whose appreciation has high value, as the following letter written by President "White, of Cornell University, indicates : " ITHACA, K Y., April 20th, 1883.' "Returning to Ithaca after an absence of ten days, I find your kind letter and enclosure. I will say to you frankly that I am coming to have a very great respect 86 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. and admiration for our new Governor. His course on the elevated-railroad bill first commended him to me. Personally, I should have been glad to see that com- pany receive a slap. But the method of administer- ing it seemed to me very insidious and even dangerous, and glad was I to see that the Governor rose above all the noise and claptrap which was raised about the ques- tion, went to the fundamental point of the matter, and vetoed the bill. I think his course at that time gained the respect of every thinking man in the State. As to his veto of the Buffalo Fire Department bill, that, I think, begins to lift him into national prominence ; and when you add such a significant sign as his reported dealing with the Palmyra statesman, he really begins to 'loom up.' It is refreshing to find that a spark of the old Jef- fersonian statesmanship is really alive among us. Party allegiance in this State and elsewhere among thinking men is, I think, growing decidedly loose. Great num- bers of men are quietly on the lookout for men who can grapple, not with the old abolition question or the civil- war question, but with the question of a real reform in our civil service the question of the present and future. No man and no party can be built up or kept up on clap- trap, but on real determination and power to move in this new line parties and men can alone be brought to supremacy. " Thus far every party which has arrived at power and CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 87 kept it for any length of time has represented some real principle, something which commended itself if not to a majority at least to an aggressive body of voters, even though that body be small. The present time is no exception to this rule. " Congratulating you on the record of the Governor thus far, and, in common with vast numbers of our fellow-citizens, longing that he may be the man we have all been looking for, I remain " Very truly yours, "AND. D. WHITE. " Henry A. Richmond, Esq., Buffalo, N. Y. " P.S. I ought to have included in the Governor's titles to respect his recent appointment to the Capitol Commission, which, from all accounts, is exceedingly honorable to him, not only as regards the man he did appoint but the man he did not appoint, and also, since writing the above, his appointment to the Insurance Department. A. D. W." THE CONDUCTORS AND DRIVERS' BILL. Governor Cleveland has been unjustly condemned be- cause he refused to sign the following bill, which was presented in the last Legislature by Mr. Earl : "AN ACT to regulate the hours of labor of conductors and drivers of cars drawn by horses in cities. " SEC. 1. On and after the passage of this act it shall 88 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. be unlawful for any officer or agent of any railroad corpo- ration in any of the cities of this State, whose cars are drawn by horses, to exact from conductors and drivers employed by them more than twelve hours' labor for a day's work, and such corporations shall out of said twelve hours' labor allow conductors and drivers a reasonable time to obtain meals. " SEC. 2. Any officer or agent of any such corporation who shall openly violate or otherwise evade the provi- sions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punish- able by a fine of not to exceed six months, or both fine and imprisonment for such offence." Mr. John Foord, long the influential editor of the New York Times* whose editorial chair he left in 1883 to take charge of the Brooklyn Union as an independent newspaper, has given the following sketch of the pecu- liar history of the passage of this ' bill through both branches of the Legislature : " When it was introduced, it was referred to the Com- mittee on the Affairs of Cities, when it ought to have gone to the Committee on Judiciary. "When it was dis- cussed in the Cities Committee, two thirds of its mem- bers laughed at it, and said that if it were enacted it would be 'a dead law.' All the members of the Assem- bly Judiciary Committee laughed at the bill when they saw it on the printed files of the Assembly. They said that the Legislature could not interfere with private con- CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 89 tracts. In this they were sustained by a recent decision of the Court of Appeals declaring the act prohibiting the making of cigars in tenement houses unconstitutional, on the ground that the Legislature could not pass a law to prevent individuals from contracting to labor where they pleased, and to labor as long as they pleased, if that labor was not detrimental to public health. As a piece of buncombe, however, the Conductors and Drivers' Twelve Hours Bill was passed in the Assembly with a laugh. "When it reached the Senate it was referred to the Senate Committee on Cities, where it was allowed to sleep until near the close of the season. A majority of the members of that committee were opposed to it at first, on the ground that it was not worth the paper it was printed on. Assemblyman Earl went to Senator Daggett, who was a member of the Senate Cities Com- mittee, and asked him to prevail upon the committee to report the bill favorably. Mr. Daggett replied: 'I cannot see how I can ask the committee to report a bill so clearly unconstitutional. If it is enacted, it will do the conductors and drivers no good it will not have the effect of shortening the hours of their daily labor.' When the session was nearing its close, Governor Cleve- land's name was more prominently and more generally named for the Democratic nomination for President than at any previous time, and it struck Senator Daggett and Senator Gibbs, chairman of the Cities Committee, that 90 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. it would be a good Republican Party move to report the bill favorably, procure its passage, and subject the Gov- ernor, who would be compelled to veto it, to ignorant popular clamor. At an informal talk between leading Republican assemblymen and senators at the Kenmore Hotel, Albany, during the latter part of April or begin- ning of May, it was conceded, first, that the bill was a humbug, but ought to be pushed to passage ; second, that as a claptrap measure it would take well with the people; third, that the Governor would be compelled to veto it because it interfered with the rights of both employers and employees, or, in other words, because it was a humbug ; fourth, that if he did veto it, the laboring men would stigmatize him as a creature of corporations, and a good handle could be made of it in opposing his election as President if he was nominated by the Democrats. So the bill was passed by Republican senators, they knowing that there was not a provision in it which was constitutional, and that if the Governor performed his duty he would veto it." " NOT IN THE INTEREST OF WORKINGMEN." In vetoing the bill Governor Cleveland said : " I fail to see any good purpose to be gained by this bill. It is distinctly and palpably class legislation, in that it only applies to conductors and drivers on horse-railroads. It does not prohibit the making of a contract for any num- CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 91 ber of hours' work, and if it does it is an interference with the employer's as well as employee's rights. If the car drivers and conductors work fewer hours, they must receive less pay ; and this bill does not prevent that. I cannot think this bill is in the interest of the working- man.'' A LEGISLATOR'S TRICK MAKES A VETO NECESSARY. The principal reform measure which Governor Cleve- land vetoed was the Tenure of Office Bill, by which the next Mayor of New York was given power to make his own selections for Corporation Counsel and Commis- sioner of Public Works. This was not a Roosevelt but a Senate bill, although it had the hearty co-operation of Mr. Roosevelt, and would have become a law but for the treachery of one of Johnny O'Brien's men in the Assem- bly Isaac Dayton, of New York. It had passed the Senate and was on its finakpassage in the Assembly, when Mr. Dayton, as a Republican and a professed friend of the bill, offered an amendment which was adopted. This, in the words of the author of the bill, converted it into a "shabby piece of legislation, quite unfit to find a place on the statute-book," and as such the Governor vetoed it. It was not examined by him till after -the Legislature had adjourned, and he could not, therefore, return it for amendment. , As soon as the veto appeared, Mr. Scott, the draughts- 92 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. man of tlie hill, declared in a letter puhlished in the Times of June ISth. 1884, that he entirely agreed with the Gov- ernor as to the necessity of vetoing it. That snch a bill would have led to protracted litigation over the offices instead of reform seems to be beyond dispute, and the terms used by the Governor in vetoing it " defective and shabby legislation" were very mild. THE MECHANICS' LIEN BILL. An attempt to excite the clamor of workingmen be- cause the Mechanics' Lien Bill was vetoed has been made by the enemies of Governor Cleveland, but the Brooklyn Eagle, a powerful journal which certainly pos- sesses the confidence of the class it addressed, said of that measure: ' The Eagle was decidedly in favor of the sub- stance of the amendment to the law relating to mechanics' liens, but the bill intended to effect it was drawn so bunglingly that it is not easy to blame the Governor for refusing to sign it. At all events, his integrity of pur- pose in this matter, as in the others, is beyond question." CLEVELAND'S VETOES AND SOLDIERS. The Boston Journal attempted to excite the ill-feeling of the veterans toward Cleveland at the beginning of his campaign for the Presidency by saying : " The veterans are not shouting for Governor Cleveland, because, as Mayor of Buffalo, he vetoed an appropriation of three CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 93 hundred dollars for Memorial-day ; because, as Governor, he vetoed a bill which permitted posts of the Grand Army to use State muskets after giving bonds for their safe-keep- ing and return ; because he vetoed a bill making it a mis- demeanor for any person to wear a Grand Army badge who is not an honorably discharged soldier and sailor a bill which was petitioned for by every Grand Army post in New York." This unjust attack prompted Mr. Daniel Manning, of the Albany Argus, to speak effectively for his distinguished friend, as follows : " As the resolution appropriating three hundred dollars for Memorial-day was a direct viola- tion of the constitution of the State and of the charter of the city of Buffalo, of course Mayor Cleveland, who is a law-abiding officer, vetoed it. The constitution and the charter are small things to the Boston Journal, no doubt; but while the Journal man would show his patriotism by violating these instruments of law, it is quite certain he would not show his patriotism as Mayor Cleveland did, by heading a subscription-list and raising more money than the resolution called for. This is the reason why the veterans of Buffalo are shouting for Cleveland, the Boston o ' Journal to the contrary notwithstanding. 2. Governor Cleveland did sign the bill giving to Grand Army posts the use of the State armories, the Boston Journal to the contrary notwithstanding. 3. Governor 'Cleveland did veto the bill relative to Grand Array badges, not because 94 CLEVELAND'S VETOES. it was made a misdemeanor for any bnt an honorably dis- charged soldier or sailor to wear them, but because the bill did not say what it intended to do, but made it a misdemeanor to wear a badge in violation of the rules and by-laws of any post, a point the wearer of which might be wholly unacquainted with. Had the bill been drawn so as to accomplish what it set out to do, it would have been a law to-day. If the Journal has any more fibs to tell, bring them out, and the Argus will nail them as fast as they come." A VETO WHICH SAVED THE SAVINGS BANKS. The New York Mail and Express of July 28th, 1884, after noting the fact that "since 1880 the increase of de- posits in the State and savings banks of the country has been nearly $500,000,000, and in this State the increase has been especially rapid, the New York savings-bank deposits being equal to $81.68 per capita of population at the end of 1883," said : "The fact that an attempt was made to weaken the credit of the savings banks by widening the scope of their investments ought to be con- spicuous in accounting for their present prosperity. Had not that attempt been defeated, the Bank Superintendent might not have been able to make as encouraging a re- port as the one he now presents." Governor Cleveland's veto of May 19th, 1883, contained the following : " The bill before me provides that savings CLEVELAND'S VETOES. 95 banks may invest the money of depositors in bonds and securities which are excluded by the present carefully pre- pared statutes regulating this subject. Among other things, it permits the investment of such funds 'in other good securities (excepting bills of exchange, promissory notes, deposits of personal property, and stocks to which by law the personal liability of stockholders attaches) which may be approved by the Superintendent of the Banking Department, the Governor, Comptroller, and State Treasurer, or a majority of them.' " It must be conceded, I think, that no absolute cer- tainty attends the judgment of men in relation to the matter of good securities. The State officers mentioned in the bill should not be burdened or entrusted with this important duty. " I see no provision in the bill by which any security can be withdrawn from the list if once approved by these officers, even though it may become unsafe or worthless as an investment." CHAPTER V. CLEVELAND AND THE WOPJvINGMEX. Cleveland as a Workingman. His Words on the Protection of Labor. The New York Times on his Record. The Veto Power not used against Workingmeu. President Thayer, of the New York Labor Union, on Cleveland's Vetoes. Comments of the Springfield Republican, New York Herald, and Thomas B. Couuery, the New York Journalist. The Boston Post on Cleveland's Services to Work- ingmen. Senator Daly, the Representative of Metropolitan Work- ingmen, on Governor Cleveland and the Labor Bills. A Circular issued by New York Workingmen. Twenty-four Reasons why Workingmen should Vote and Work to make Grover Cleveland President of the United Slates. GKOVER CLEVELAND is a man who is not afraid of hard work, and it is strange that he should be regarded by any as lacking sympathy for workingmen. Starting with a common-school education, by industry and application lie has done much to repair the defects of early training, and his career is typically American, the boy of fourteen working his way from a position as clerk in a village store up to that of a candidate for the highest office in the greatest nation on earth. CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. 97 And lie lias explicitly declared his sentiments concern- ing workingraen in the following words : "The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their effort peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by ag- gregated capital, and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil, and be O * framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman." The New York Times of July 18th said : " The friends of Governor Cleveland -welcome a thorough examination of his record by workingmen. The workingmen of the United States are intelligent, and they like fair play. They will not be deceived. Careful examination and free discussion will prove to them that this candidate of honest men is not, and has not been, their enemy, and that, as the advocate of hon- est government and a sound national policy, he is, and will be, their best friend." THE VETO POWER NOT USED AGAINST WORKINGMEN. President Thayer, of the New York State Labor Un- ion, has given a valuable statement of Governor Cleve- land's relation to legislation in the interest of working- men in a letter expressing his intention to vote for Cleve- land for President, but denying the right of any man to 98 CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. promise the votes of workingmen as a class to any candi- date. He said, in a letter to the Albany Argus : " The workingmen's assembly of this State lias, since I have been at the head of that organization, succeeded in passing through the legislature the following bills: Abolishing the manufacture of hats in State-prisons, cre- ating a bureau of labor statistics, the tenement-house cigar bill (twice), the abolition of convict contract labor, the lien law, and the conductors and drivers' bill seven in all. Of these measures Governor Cleveland signed five and vetoed two, viz., the lien law and the conductors and drivers' bill. As to the lien law, it is generally acknowl- edged now that he did us a kindness in vetoing that bill, because, through errors of our own in drafting the meas- ure, the bill as passed would have been a positive injury to us. The conductors and drivers' bill, I think, he should have signed. So the record shows that we have sent to Governor Cleveland six perfect bills, and he has signed five and vetoed one. In addition to the- labor measures prepared by our organization, Governor Cleveland has signed a bill introduced by Senator Fassett which makes workingmen preferred creditors in case of assignment or failure of the firm or corporation by which they are .em- ployed. So, to sum the matter up, he has approved of six bills favorable to our interests and disapproved of one. By his record on legitimate labor measures I judge him, and on the strength of that record I shall support him. CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN". 99 I do not wish it understood that I am voicing the senti- ments of any one but myself. I have no authority to speak for the workingmen on political subjects." WOKKINGMEN COMMENTS ON THE VETOES. The Springfield Republican of July 12th, 1884, de- clared, concerning the Five-cent-fare Bill, "it should strengthen Cleveland, if properly presented." Even the New York Tribune asserted that the veto was necessary at the time it was announced. The New York Herald of July 20th, 1884, said of the Conductors and Drivers' veto : " Were the men paid by the day the bill would have been a benefit to them. As they are paid by the trip it could only have operated, if at all, to reduce their present scanty earnings. It was not a 'car drivers' bill;' it was a 'car company's' bill, and the Governor, being an anti-corporation man, re- fused to sign it." Thomas B. Connery, so long the managing editor of the New York Herald, remarked concerning the admis- sion of Mr. Blair, chairman of the executive committee of the New York State Workingmen's Assembly, as to the vetoes : " One of the objections urged against Gov- ernor Cleveland is his veto of the Mechanics' Lien Bill. It is acknowledged by Mr. George Blair and the other leaders among the workingmen that it was a bad bill in 100 CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. the shape in which it was passed, and that the Governor was right in disapproving it. If the other cases in which he is charged with using the veto power to the disadvan- tage of workingmen are examined it will be found that, like the Mechanics' Lien Bill, they were bad and that he was rio-ht in vetoing them. A Governor who dares to O O do right will make a good President." The Boston Post of Jnly 17th, 1884, said : "Had Gov- ernor Cleveland been a friend to monopolists and a foe to labor, he would have signed this bill [savings banks] without question, for it was one that speculators and capi- talists would be more benefited by than any other class." The Post then quotes the following from the veto of the bill : " But I am firmly of the opinion that these in- stitutions are, as their name implies, a place of deposit of the savings of those among the poor and laboring people who see the propriety of putting aside a part of their earn- ings for future need or as the beginning of an accumula- tion. Such depositors are not and should not be in- vestors, seeking as a paramount purpose an income by way of interest on their deposits." Senator James Daly, peculiarly the representative of the workingmen of New York, his district embracing city wards known as the home of that class, said, about the same time: "Even if it is conceded that the Gov- ernor vetoed two or three of what are claimed to be labor bills, he has approved at least three fourths of all those CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEtf. 101 that reached him more than had ever fallen to the lot of any of his predecessors to approve and he has vetoed such as were delusive, unjust, or impracticable. Individ- ual self-reliance is the basis of our prosperity in this country; its best hope lies in maintaining the dignity of labor. I cannot believe that the independent workmen of this State after cool reflection will reject one who has done so much in their behalf and accept one who has done nothing but vaguely promise." TWENTY-FOUR REASONS OF WORKINGMEN. At a meeting of workingmen held in New York on July 24th, 1884, it was decided to circulate one hundred thousand copies of the following : " Twenty-four reasons why we, as workingmen, will vote and work for Cleveland : " 1. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed, on June 4th, 1884, the bill which abolishes contract child- labor in all the institutions in this State. " 2. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which reduced the exorbitant fees of one of the greatest monopolies in the country, namely, the Associa- tion of New York Pilots, who are paid by a direct tax on commerce. They are rich men, and their fees were from four to five thousand dollars for each man every 102 CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINQMEN year. Cleveland reduced them to twenty-five hundred dollars a year. " 3. "We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which secures a pension to the widows and orphans of policemen. One section of this bill provides for test- ing boilers and thus adds to the safety of every working engineer. *' 4. We will vote for Cleveland because by vetoing the elevated-rail road-fare bill he set an example to all em- ployees of honest dealing wifli laboring men, and showed the Deed of keeping a bargain fair and square with every man. " 5. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which authorizes the spending of two millions of dollars ($2,000,000) for additional common schools in New York City. " 6. "We will vote for Cleveland because he ap- pointed, on the very day the bill passed, a head of the bureau of labor. This bureau of labor did much to awaken the interest that resulted in the abolition of con- vict contract-labor. " 7. We will vote for Cleveland because he would not sign a bill which would have reduced the wages of car drivers and conductors one third. " 8. "We will vote for Cleveland because he did not sign a bill which took away the rights of workingmen. This was called a mechanics' lien law, but actually bene- CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. 103 fited contractors and not the men who worked with their hands on a job. It made it cost ten times as much for a poor man to get the money due him as it does now, and the lawyers would have got big fees and been chiefly benefited. " 9. We will vote for Cleveland because he made the Republican Legislature take back a bill that only went half way and compelled them to pass a bill, which he at once signed, abolishing convict contract labor in every institution State, county, and city. " 10. We will vote for Cleveland because he ap- pointed a railroad commission, which, by what it has made railroad corporations do, has made travelling on the cars safer and more comfortable for every man, woman, and child. " 11. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed two bills abolishing tenement-house cigar-making and so gave health and enjoyment of home to thousands. " 12. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed a bill making workingmen first creditors for wages where an employer fails. " 13. We will vote for Cleveland because he sio-ned o the bill appointing a tenement-house commission which is to report how tenement-houses can be made more healthful and comfortable. This will benefit hundreds of thousands of men who work all day, and especially add to the happiness of. their wives and children. 104 CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. " 14. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which did away with the manufacture of hats in State-prisons. This bill ended a convict contract compe- tition which had thrown hundreds of honest workingmeii out of employment. " ] 5. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the emigration commission bill ; the provisions of which protected emigrants from robbery, injustice, and extor- tion. " 16. "We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill limiting the charges of pawnbrokers and pre- venting the sale.of a poor man's furniture. " 17. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which gave the people a chance to speak their opinion of convict contract labor. The people having spoken, he signed at once the bill which carried out their wishes. " 18. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed O the bill that savings banks should be more carefully examined, and so the savings of laboring men and women should be kept safe. " 19. We will vote for Cleveland because he sio-ned O the law to give pure butter and cheese, and also to pre- vent the sale of watered milk. " 20. We will vote for Cleveland because he recom- mended again and again a large appropriation for the employment of men on the new Capitol, which 'appropri- CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. 105 ation was refused by the Republican Legislature. This action of the Republican Legislature in refusing to ap- propriate money has made it necessary to discharge hun- dreds of men. There is plenty of work, but no money to pay for it. " 21. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed two bills, one in 1883 and one in 1884, to prevent cruel and unjust treatment of children. " 22. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which largely reduced the fees of receivers of corporations and saved the money for the people to whom it belonged. " 23. We will vote for Cleveland because he signed the bill which compelled insurance companies to keep their promises, and so protected the widows and orphans of men who had paid their money to be insured. " 24. We will vote and work for Cleveland because he has done more for the workingmen of the State of New York than any governor we have ever had, and be- cause every act shows he has at heart the true interest of the workingmen." THE WORKINGMAN'S FRIEND. Our Society Journal, an organ of co-operative societies, thus addressed New York workingmen in an issue soon after Cleveland's nomination for the Presidency: " There 5* 106 CLEVELAND AND THE WORKINGMEN. are over 200,000 voters in this State and a great many of them, too, are in the ranks of the hard workers who have great reason to know that Governor Cleveland has been and is their friend. These 200,000 voters are to be found in the ranks of the American Order of United Working- men, the American Legion, of Honor, the Knights of Honor, the Royal Arcanum, and various other fraternal societies, and in the membership of our assessment asso- ciations in this State. These associations had no rights which the Insurance Department was bound to respect when G rover Cleveland came into office. Now they have equal rights before the law side by side with the largest insurance companies. . . . Had Grover Cleveland been a monopolist or an enemy to the workingman, none of these beneficent and valuable legislative enactments would have received his signature. They all received it, and this is our answer to the demagogue cry that ' Cleveland is not the workingman's friend.' " CHAPTER VI. CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONTEN- TION. Like Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland Receives a Nomination for the Presidency Without Working for it. General Pryor's Quick Discernment of the Mood of Democrats in National Convention at Chicago. Mr. Lock wood, the Buffalo Lawyer, who has Nominated Cleveland for Many Offices. His Eloquent Speech in Presenting his Name for the Presidency. Mayor Carter Harrison, of Chicago, the First to Second the Nomination. The Grady Incident, and Mr. Apgar's Reply. Mr. Jones, of Minnesota. General Bragg, of Wis- consin, who "Loves Cleveland most for the Enemies he has Made." Nominated on the Second Ballot. Like Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland has ob- tained the nomination for the Presidency almost without an effort to influence the action of the Convention which nominated him, and in his case it may be truly said that the office has sought the man, and not the man the of- fice. When the Democratic National Convention met in Chicago on Tuesday, July 8, 1884, there were many- delegates who hoped to effect the nomination of some other candidate, in whose personal fortune and political future they were more directly interested. 108 CLEVELAND IK THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. General Roger A. Pryor was among the number, and his comment after returning to New York with General Benjamin F. Butler, with whom he is very intimate, gives a vivid representation of the situation as it ap- peared to sagacious observers immediately after the Con- vention was opened. General Pryor says : " I labored for the nomination of Mr. Bayard. In one sense I was not disappointed. I saw at once upon arriv- ing at Chicago, and so telegraphed to New York, that Cleveland would be the nominee. I saw the efficient organization in his support. In the second place I ob- served the prevalent conviction among the delegates outside of this State that he was the strongest man in the State and would most probably carry New York." It was not through any strategy of managers that Governor Cleveland's name started a cheer whenever it was mentioned, but it was evident from the first that he was the choice of the great majority within the con- vention-hall. His name was presented to the Conven- tion by Mr. Lockwood, of New York. Mr. Lockwood is a lawyer of Buffalo. Ever since Cleveland started upon his political race Mr. Lockwood has been asso- ciated with him. He nominated him for Sheriff of Erie County, and four years later nominated him for Mayor of Buffalo. At the State Convention of 1882 he nomi- nated Cleveland for Governor of New York. Mr. Lock- wood made one of the best speeches of the session. He CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. Ill has black hair, with a round bald spot on top ; heavy black mustache ; broad, high forehead ; dark eyes, and no beard. He is of powerful frame ; gestures strong ; voice very powerful, easily filling the vast hall. A great cheer filled the hall when the State of New York was reached in the call of the roll, and Mr. Man- ning, of New York, arose and said, "Mr. Chairman, New York presents the name of Grover Cleveland, and desires to be heard through Daniel Lockwood, of Buf- falo." MR. LOCKWOOD' s SPEECH. Mr. Lockwood was escorted to the platform, and, being introduced by the Chair, spoke as follows : " MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVEN- TION: It is with no ordinary feeling, and with no ordi- nary feeling of responsibility, that I appear before this Convention as representative of the Democracy of -the State of New York for the purpose of placing in nomination before this Convention a gentleman from the State of New York as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. This responsibility is made greater when I remember that the richest pages of American history have been made up from the records of Demo- cratic administration. This responsibility is made still greater when I remember that the only blot in the po- litical history done at "Washington, an outrage upon the rights of the American people, was in 1876, and that 112 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. that outrage and that injury to justice is still unavenged ; and this responsibility is not lessened when I recall the fact that the gentleman whose name I shall present to you has been my political associate from my youth to the present hour. Side by side have we marched to the tune of Democratic music ; side by side have we studied the principles of Jefferson, of Jackson, and love the faith in which we believe : and during all this time he has occupied positions comparatively as a private citizen, yet always true and always faithful to Democratic prin- ciple; and, gentlemen of the Convention, the only ob- ject of our meeting here is to deal with the question so that, when we have gone to our homes, the people, who are the voters of the country, will ratify the nomination which we shall make. No man has greater respect or admiration for the honored names which have been pre- sented to this Convention than myself; but, gentlemen, the world is moving, and moving rapidly. From the North to the South, new men, men who have acted but little in politics, are coming to the front, and to-day there are hundreds and thousands of young men in this coun- try, men who are to cast their first vote, men who are in- dependent in politics, and they are looking to this Con- vention, praying silently that there shall be no mistake made here. They want to drive the Republican Party from power. They want to cast their vote for a Demo- crat in whom they believe. Those people know from CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION". 113 the record of the gentleman whose name I shall present that Democracy with him means honest government, pure government, and protection of the rights of the people of every class and every condition. " A little more than three years ago I had the honor at the city of Buffalo to present the name of this same gentleman for the office of Mayor of that city. It was presented then for the same reason, for the causes that we present it now. It was because the government of that city had become corrupt and had become debauched, and political integrity sat not in high places. The people looked for a man who would represent the con- trary, and without any hesitation they named Grover Cleveland as the man. "The result of that election, and his holding that office, was that in less than nine months the State of New York found herself in a position to want just such a candidate and for such a purpose ; and when at the Convention in 1882 his name was placed in nomination for the office of Governor of the State of New York, the same people, the same class of people, knew that that meant an honest government; it meant pure government; it meant democratic government: and it was ratified by the people. And, gentlemen, now, after eighteen months' service there, the Democracy of the State of New York come to you and ask you to give to the country, to give to the independent and Democratic 114 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. voters of the country, to give to the young men of the country, the new blood of the country, the name of Grover Cleveland as its standard-bearer for the next four years. " I shall indulge in no eulogy of Mr. Cleveland. I shall not attempt any further description of his political career. It is known. His Democracy is known. His statesmanship is known through the length and breadth of this land. All I ask of this Convention is, let no passion, no prejudice, influence their duty which they owe to the people of this country. Be not deceived. Grover Cleveland can give the Democratic Party the thirty-six electoral votes of the State of New York on election-day. He can, by his purity of character, by his purity of administration, by his fearless and undaunted courage to do right, bring to you more votes than anybody else. Gentlemen of the Convention, but one word more. Mr. Cleveland's candidacy before this Con- vention is offered upon the ground of his honor, his integrity, his wisdom, and his Democracy. Upon that ground we ask it, believing that, if ratified by this Con- vention, he can be elected and take his seat at "Washing- ton as a Democratic President of the United States." THE NOMINATION SECONDED. Mr. Frederick Winston arose, when Mr. Lockwood had finished his speech, and said : " The State of Illinois CLEVELAND IN" THE CHICAGO CONVENTION". 115 a^ain asks the indulgence of the Convention that the o ~ nomination of Grover Cleveland may be seconded by Carter Harrison, of Chicago." The State of Illinois had been called and passed, but, no objection being made, Mayor Harrison was escorted to the platform ; and as he went an enthusiastic delegate arose and proposed three cheers for the next Governor of Illinois, Carter H. Harrison, which were given with a will. Chairman Yilas then said : " I need hardly name to this Convention the next Governor of Illinois." Mr. Harrison spoke as follows : "Me. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVEN- TION: I was asked a little while ago to second this nomination, because the distinguished gentleman who was to have done so is absent by reason of indisposition. I will detain you but a few moments to give you the reasons why I think Illinois wants Grover Cleveland for its candidate. " Gentlemen, in 1876 was that terrible crime so graphically described by your temporary chairman com- mitted. He told you, in language with which I cannot compare, that that crime is yet to be avenged, and that until the Democracy had won a Presidency it would not be wiped from the page of American history. He told you that that crime was next to judicial murder murder committed by the Republican Party. Remem- ber Holy Writ says, ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by 116 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. man's hand shall his blood be shed.' The Democracy must destroy the Republican Party this fall or the crime goes four years longer unavenged. Eight weeks ago we had coining from all over this land a name that we know would wipe out the crime. From the North and from the South, from the East and "West, came one name, and that name was Samuel J. Tilden. "Samuel J. Tilden we expected to be presented at this Convention, and we had expected no nomination and no ballot. It would have been done by acchmui- tion. And it would have been followed by another name one who, even yet, if we cannot agree, may be mentioned here. But, with true chivalry, true to his friend whom he has nominated to-day, Tom Ilendricks refuses to have his name mentioned here. "Now, gentlemen, how is the crime committed in 1876 to be avenged? The cry came eight years ago for Tilden and reform. That cry is echoed here : ' Cleveland and reform.' No man asked the nomina- tion of Mr. Cleveland because of his magnetism ; he neither attracts the people, nor do corporations attract him. "The magnetic man is on the other side. "We want the man whose name will be the synonym of honesty and reform. We believe in Illinois that the mantle of Governor Tilden has fallen, and rightly falls and rests gracefully, upon the shoulders of Grover Cleveland. CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 117 "We believe in the closing words of that great letter from our grand leader, whose brain is yet as clear as a bell, though Almighty God has permitted his hand to be palsied and his voice to be almost still. We believe in that utterance of his, that the cry of the Democratic party this fall must and shall be 'Reform.' And we have no doubt that Mr. Cleveland will give us reform. Gentlemen, we are here to deliberate. I do not want to nominate Mr. Cleveland if we cannot elect him. They tell us we cannot. Factional fight comes- and says he has enemies. Where does the fight come from ? They say that a great Church will oppose him on relig- ious grounds. I know that Church never lets its minis- O ters' voices be heard in the pulpit preaching politics. And the cry that that Church will not permit Mr. Cleve- land to be elected is a slander upon a Church that has in his employ some of its most noble standard-bearers. They say that the Irish will cut his throat they will knife him. Did you ever know the Irish to knife the Democratic Party except for good reasons ? The Irish believe in the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party is true to every oppressed people and to every Irishman. "They say Mr. Cleveland did not pardon somebody, and therefore the Irish will knife Mr. Cleveland. Who Will they knife him for ? For Elaine ? Aye ! Do you think that the Irishmen will forget McSweenie, lying 118 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. in a foreign dungeon ? McS\veenie, whose wife had almost shed tears of blood before James Gr. Elaine, and he turned a deaf ear to her supplications? The Irish will not desert Cleveland, because the Irish believe in the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party is right. If we nominate Mr. Cleveland we will be right, and the Irish will stand by us. They tell us that the workingmen will desert Mr. Cleveland. My friends, who are the friends of the workingmen ? It is the Democratic Party the party of the people, true to the workingmen, founded on the workingmen a party founded and built upon the workingmen as upon a rock which will endure forever. " They tell us that Cleveland vetoed some bills hostile to the workingmen. Has there been a whisper that those vetoes or that veto was brought about for corrupt pur- poses? Not one. It is an insult to the workingman to say he is going to be caught by a catch-word or carried away by idle denunciation. My friends, there is another great party in this country. There is a nationality, and those who sprung from it believe in honesty. I speak now of the Germanic people of the United States. All they demand in an officer in this government is honesty of purpose and honesty in practice. Give us Governor Cleveland and I believe that ninety per cent of the Ger- man-speaking Republicans of the past will be found side by side with the Democrats this fall in electing him. On CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 119 this account, Mr. Chairman, I ask that this Convention will nominate Grover Cleveland, because I believe he will help us to win Illinois next November." ME. JONES, OF MINNESOTA, SPEAKS. Richard A. Jones, of Minnesota, having obtained the floor in a competition with several other delegates, said : " GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : Minnesota, coming here from the far North and what was but recently the far West, desires to add her modest voice in seconding the nomination of the Governor of New York for Presi- dent of the United States. We came here elected to support a more distinguished name from that great State, together with the eloquent gentleman who presented a candidate from Indiana ; but being denied that privilege, we wish to urge upon you deliberation and care in select- ing the candidate who may be elected in November, and we believe that that man is Grover Cleveland, of New York. "We have nothing to say against, but everything in favor of, that distinguished Senator coming from the State of Delaware, whose own great name enlarges the boundaries of his State. We look with pride to that still great name, once o eloquent in the councils of the Uni- ted States Senate, coming from Ohio, who stands like some tall cliff with his noble form, undismayed, though 120 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONTENTION. defeated in his own State. Dear to all of us is the bright and great son of Ohio ; but, gentlemen, we want to suc- ceed this next November. We want you to give us such a name that even in Minnesota, where we cannot give you an electoral vote, we may advance the banner of De- mocracy until it shall be a beacon like the motto on our State escutcheon, * The North Star, unmoved, always Democratic,' and march with you in future to victory. Then, if you will place on the banner of the Democracy this fall the great name of New York, and cry ' Excelsior,' we too will take up the shout that shall echo from the Atlantic to the Pacific, until we have achieved the vic- tory that is already thundering in the air. Gentlemen of the Convention, I have no other words to say to you than this : In the Republican States like the State of Min- nesota we wish to add new names to the Democratic poll. "We wish to increase our numbers. Then we call upon you to give us the name of Grover Cleveland, for whom every Democrat shouts. You have been detained too long already, and I, therefore, simply leave the stand, thanking you for your attention." MR. GRADY'S HARANGUE. Mr. Grady, of New York, was known to entertain very bitter personal feelings toward Governor Cleveland, anc as soon as he could obtain the floor he delivered a lengthj CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 121 harangue, which was received with close attention be- cause of its forcible delivery, but it evidently failed to carry conviction. Mr. Cochran, another New York dele- gate, seconded the nomination of another candidate in a speech in which he also attempted to injure Cleveland. When Colonel Cochran had finished, the boyish figure of Mr. E. K. Apgar, of New York, appeared upon the platform, and he was heard making the closing speech for Cleveland. He recalled the fact that the New York delegation stood 61 to 11 in favor of presenting Cleve- land's name, and, after a terse and comprehensive enu- meration of the reasons for Cleveland's candidacy, he answered the Cochran story of the New York votes in 1876 by saying that although Kelly had declared in the National Convention that Tilden could not carry the State, he had been powerless to prevent the Democrats of New York City from giving him a majority of 55,000. As Tilden was the man for the occasion in 18Y6, so Cleveland was the man now; and with him as the candi- date, the Democrats could surely win. GENERAL BRAGG'S FAMOUS SPEECH. Soon after Mr. Apgar ceased to speak, the Convention adjourned until Thursday, and on that day General Bragg, of Wisconsin, delivered the famous speech in which he said the friends of Cleveland " love him most for the enemies he has made." 122 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION When Wisconsin was called, Mr. Delaney, of "that State, said : " MB. CHAIRMAN : In accordance with the vote taken in the Wisconsin delegation, the majority of that delega- tion desire to second the nomination of Governor Cleve- land, and, sir, it is their desire to be heard by the distin- guished chairman of the delegation, General Bragg." While General Bragg was on his way to the platform he was greeted with cheers, in the midst of which a voice was heard shouting, "A little more grape, Captain Bragg." He spoke as follows : "GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: It is with feelings of no ordinary pride that I fill the post that has been as- signed to me to-day. Grim and gray, personally, fight- ing the battles of the Democratic Party, I stand to-day to voice the sentiment of the young men of my State when I speak for Grover Cleveland, of New York. His name is upon their lips, his name is in their hearts, and he is the choice not only of that band of young men, but he is the choice of all those who desire for the first time, as young men, to cast their votes in November for the candidate nominated by this Convention. They love him, gentlemen, and respect him, not only for himself, for his character, for his integrity and judgment and iron will, but they love him most for the enemies he has made. " I thank the emissary that represents a respectable CLEVELAND, IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 123 name at least for calling himself again to my attention. This broad Nation witnessed the disgraceful spectacle of a Senator of the United States trading his proud posses- sion for gain. Mahone and Riddleberger would scarcely be allowed to stand upon this platform to teach you gen- tlemen Democracy and whom you ought to nominate. Go to the Senate of the State of New York since Gov- ernor Cleveland has been governor, and there you find two worthy confreres playing in a small theatre Mahone and Riddleberger over again. And why ? Because the Governor of the State of New York had more nerve than the machine. They may speak of him, aye, the worst of the species may defile a splendid statue, but they only disgrace themselves. Wherever the thin disguise can be reached, you will find it covering nothing but personal grievance, disappointed ambition, or a cutting off of the access to the flesh pots to those who desire to fatten on them. I do not assume here to speak for la- bor. The child of a man who always earned his daily bread by his steady labor, brought up for more than a quarter of a century from boyhood to manhood among laborers that have made the great Northwest what it is, I do not assume to speak for labor. Labor is not repre- sented in political conventions by the political trickster. No matter where you find him, the men who follow con- ventions and talk about the right of labor are the Swiss contingent, who place their tent wherever the prospect 124 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. of profit is greatest, while honest, intelligent, horny. handed labor will be found following the old Democratic flag, thanking God that its self-styled leaders have gone where they belong. They come here to talk of labor; yes, their labor has been upon the crank of the ma- chine, and their study has been political chicane in the midnight conclave. "We are told the Democratic Parry is suffering from fearful political disorders by these men. If we are to judge from past experience, those disorders, in the quarters where they are alleged to exist, can only be cured by a reapplication of Federal soap. I have heard it said that the States of the Northwest ought to have no voice in this nomination. I have heard it paid, ' What boots it what their opinion may be ? ' What was it that placed the great States of the Xorthvrest in the Republican column? It was because they followed blindly, implicitly, the old leaders, and they led the party of union to defeat, and they placed our States down under thousands and thousands of Republican majorities. We have fought our way steadily upward. We see through the water which has been so deep above our heads the glimmering again of sunlight, and we ask to breathe once more the air of victory. Onr young men ask it; the religious sentiment of our conntrv asks it ; the intelligence of our people asks it. Onr German for- eign-born citizens say to us, 'We come to 3-011 with Cleveland; the Old Guard will fight steadily and go CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 125 down to death, shouting gloriously as they fall, under the lead of the chivalric Bayard.' They will follow steadily and unflinchingly that sturdy old Democrat from Indi- ana, but with the same result, they fear. They will rally around that glorious old Senator from Ohio, and they will accept that judicial-minded gentleman from Kentucky. But pardon me for saying there was a time when the 2.40 steeds stood first upon the list, but in these days something that has made 2.40 ought to be re- tired as stale, for it is of no account against 2.10J. Let our old \var-horses be retired with honor. Let the rec- ords of their achievements be established and pointed at with pride and pleasure. But our people say, Give us new life, give us new blood, give us something that has come to manhood and position since the war, that we may hear no more about what took place at, before, and during the war. Every breeze brings to us what would seem to be indications of victory, but we cannot accom- plish victory without recruits. Those recruits are at our bidding: young, middle-aged, and old, you see them, in platoons and regiments, brigades and divisions. Every one of them bears upon its banner first, ' Cleveland, of New York.' Let the countersign of the great Demo- cratic camp in November be ' Cleveland,' and then men can make their way to it, and, recruited as we shall be, our ides of November will not be a Waterloo, but will be a glorious sun of Austerlitz and "Wisconsin. My own 126 CLEVELAND IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. adopted State, I say to you, gives us every reason to be- lieve that she will find herself once more in the Demo- cratic column, and her eleven electoral votes will be ca.-t for the nominee of this Convention. For that reason, on behalf of the majority representing my State, I sec- ond that nomination." Governor "Waller, of Connecticut, made one of the best speeches of the session, and produced a profound impression by his appeals to "the noble Kelly" and his opponents to drop the tomahawk and combine on the best candidate, Grover Cleveland. NOMINATED ON THE SECOND BALLOT. The balloting did not begin until the evening of Thursday, the third day of the Convention, but when reached the work was soon finished. The whole number of votes was 820, the same as in the Republican Con- vention ; but while a majority vote was sufficient to give Elaine the nomination, the Democrats demand that their candidates for the Presidency shall carry their conven- tion by a two-third vote, so that the support of 547 dele- gates was necessary to nominate Cleveland. The first ballot gave him 392 votes, and soon after the Conven- tion adjourned until the next day. At 11.20 o'clock on Friday morning the second ballot began ; and when Chairman Yilas announced that Gro- CLEVELAND IN" THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 127 ver Cleveland had been chosen as the standard-bearer of the Democrats by 683 votes, a scene which beggars de- scription was witnessed in the Convention, and the thun- ders of applause soon reverberated throughout the whole country. As soon as it was possible to resume regular proceedings in the convention-hall, the nomination was made unanimous. CHAPTER VII. THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFI- CATION. The Platform adopted by the Chicago Convention for the Cam- paign of 1884. Lengthy but Vigorous. Its Criticism of Republican Administration. Pledges to Purify the Government. No War- Taxes. Honest Money. Restore the Merchant-Marine The Com- mittee appointed at Chicago to notify Governor Cleveland Visit Albany. The Official Notification at the Executive Mansion. The Address presented by the Committee. Governor Cleveland's Reply. The Reception at the Fort Orange Club-IIouse. Greeting from Mr. Tilden. The platform adopted by the Democrats at Chicago on July lOst, 1884, was presented for the Committee on Reso- lutions by Colonel R. W. Morrison, the grizzled leader of the House of Representatives and the head of the tariff- reform party in Congress. It was as follows : " The Democratic Party of the Union, through its rep- resentatives in national convention assembled, recognizes that, as the Nation grows older, new issues are born of time and progress, and old issues perish. But the f unda- THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION", 129 mental principles of the Democracy, approved by the united voice of the people, remain and will ever remain as the best and only security for the continuance of free government. The preservation of personal rights ; the equality of all citizens before the law; the reserved rights of the States, and the supremacy of the Federal Government within the limits of the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of righta and powers which enables a continent to be developed in. peace, and social order to be maintained by means of lo- cal self-government. But it is indispensable for the prac- tical application and enforcement of these fundamental principles that the Government should not always be controlled by one political party. Frequent change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to the popular will. Otherwise, abuses grow, and the Gov- ernment, instead of being carried on for the general wel- fare, becomes an instrumentality for imposing heavy bur- dens on the many who are governed, for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants thus become ar- bitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the coun- try ; hence a change is demanded. "The Republican Party, so far as principle is con- cerned, is a reminiscence. In practice it is an organiza- tion for enriching those who control its machinery. The frauds and jobbery which have been brought to light in 6* 130 THE PLATFOKM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. every department of the Government are sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican Parry, yet those in authority, made reckless by the long possession of power, have succumbed to its corrupting influence and have placed in nomination a ticket against which the independent portion of the party are in open revolt. Therefore change is demanded. Such a change was alike necessary in 1876, but the will of the people was then defeated bv a fraud which can never be forgotten v O nor condoned. Again, in 1880 the change demanded by the people was defeated by the lavish use of money con- tributed by unscrupulous contractors and shameless job- bers, who had bargained for unlawful profits or high office. The Republican Party, during its legal, its stolen, and its bought tenures of power, has steadily decayed in moral character and political capacity. Its plat- form promises are now a list of its past failures. It de- mands the restoration of our navy : it has squandered hundreds of millions to create a navy that does not exist. It calls upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed : it im- posed and has continued those burdens. It professes the policy of reserving the public lands for small holdings by actual settlers : it has given away the people's heri- tage until now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between the two seas. It professes a THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. 131 preference for free institutions : it organized and tried to legalize a control of State elections by Federal troops. It professes a desire to elevate labor : it has subjected American workman to the competition of convict and imported contract labor. It professes gratitude to all who were disabled or died in the war, leaving widows and orphans : it Tef t to a Democratic House of Represen- tatives the first effort to equalize both bounties and pen- sions. It proffers a pledge to correct the irregularities of our tariff : it created and has continued them. Its own tariff commission confessed the need of more than twenty per cent reduction : its Congress gave a reduc- tion of less than four per cent. It professes the protec- tion of American manufactures : it has subjected them to an increasing flood of manufactured goods and a hope- less competition with manufacturing nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It professes to protect all American industries : it has impoverished many to sub- sidize a few. It professes the protection of American labor : it has depleted the returns of American agricul- ture, an industry followed by half our people. It pro- fesses the equality of all men before the law, attempting to fix the status of colored citizens : the acts of its Con- gress were overset by the decisions of its courts. It ' accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of pro- gress and reform ' : its caught criminals are permitted to escape through contrived delays or actual connivance in 132 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION'. the prosecution. Honeycombed with corruption, outbreak- ing exposures no longer shock its moral sense. Its honest members, its independent journals, no longer maintain a successful contest for authority in its councils or a veto upon bad nominations. That change is necessary is proved by an existing surplus of more than $100,000,000, which has yearly been collected from a suffering people. Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. We denounce the Republican Party for having failed to relieve the people from crushing -war-taxes, which have paralyzed business, crippled industry, and deprived labor of em- ployment and of just reward. "The Democracy pledges itself to purify the Admin- istration from corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for law, and to reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due regard to the preservation of the faith of the Nation to its creditors and pensioners. Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting the operations of the people should be cautious and conser- vative in method, not in advance of public opinion, but responsive to its demands, the Democratic Party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness to all interests. But, in making reduction in taxes, it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy growth. From the foundation of this Government taxes collected at the custom-house have been the chief source of Federal revenue. Such THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION". 133 they must continue to be. Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for successful continu- ance, so that any change of law must be at every step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process of the reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of justice. All taxation shall be limited to the requirements of economical government. The necessary reduction in taxation can and must be effected without depriving American labor of the ability to compete successfully with foreign labor, and without imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any increased cost of production which may exist in consequence of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses of the Federal Government economically administered, including pensions, interest, and principal of the public debt, can be got under our present system of taxation from custom-house taxes on fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury and bearing light- est on articles of necessity. We therefore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff ; and, subject to the preceding limitations, we demand that Federal taxation shall be ex- clusively for public purposes, and shall not exceed the needs of the Government economically administered. " The system of direct taxation known as the ' internal revenue ' is a war-tax, and so long as the law continues the money derived therefrom should be sacredly devoted 134 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION". to the relief of the people from the remaining burdens of the war, and be made a fund to defray the expense of the care and comfort of worthy soldiers disabled in line of duty in the wars of the Republic, and for the payment of such pensions as Congress may from time to time grant to such soldiers, a like fund for the sailors having been already provided, and any surplus should be paid into the Treasury. "We favor an American continental policy based upon more intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen sister-republics of North, Central, and South America, but entangling alliances with none. "We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such money without loss. "Asserting the equality of ali men before the law, we hold that it is the duty of the Government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political. "We believe in a free ballot and a fair count, and we recall to the memory of the people the noble strug- gle of the Democrats in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which a reluctant Republican opposition was compelled to assent to legislation making every- where illegal the presence of troops at the polls as the THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION". 135 conclusive proof that a Democratic Administration will preserve liberty with order. " The selection of Federal officers for the Territories should be restricted to citizens previously resident therein. "We oppose sumptuary laws which vex the citizen and interfere with individual liberty. " We favor honest civil-service reform and- the com- pensation of all United States officers by fixed salaries ; the separation of Church and State and the diffusion of free education by common schools, so that every child in the land may be taught the rights and duties of citizenship. "While we favor all legislation which will tend to o the equitable distribution of property, to the prevention of monopoly, and to the strict enforcement of individual rights against corporate abuses, we hold that the welfare of society depends upon a scrupulous regard for the rights of property as defined by law. We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and most en- lightened. It should therefore be fostered and cher- ished. We favor the repeal of all laws restricting the free action of labor and the enactment of laws by which labor organizations may be incorporated, and of all such legislation as will tend to enlighten the people as to the true relations of capital and labor. "We believe that the public land ought, as far as 136 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. possible, to be kept as homesteads for actual settlers; that all unearned lands heretofore improvidently granted to railroad corporations by the action of the Republican Party should be restored to the public domain, and that no more grants of land shall be made to corporations or be allowed to fall into the ownership of alien absentees. "We are opposed to all propositions which, upon any pretext, would convert the General Government into a machine for collecting taxes to be distributed among the States or the citizens thereof. " In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic o platform of 1856 that the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution, which make ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Demo- cratic faith, we nevertheless 'do not sanction the impor- tation of foreign labor or the admission of servile races, unfitted by habits, training, religion, or kindred, for absorption into the great body of our people, or for the citizenship which our laws confer. American civiliza- tion demands that against the immigration or importa- tion of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed. "The Democratic Party insists that it is the duty of this Government to protect with equal fidelity and vigi- lance the rights of its citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; and to the end that this protection THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION". 137 may be assured, United States papers of naturalization issued by courts of competent jurisdiction must be re- spected by the Executive and Legislative Departments of our own Government and by all foreign powers. It is an imperative duty of this Government to efficiently protect all the rights of persons and property of every American citizen in foreign lands, and demand and en, force full reparation for any invasion thereof. An American citizen is only responsible to his own Gov- ernment for any act done in his own country or undef her flag, and can only be tried therefor on her own soil and according to her Jaws ; and no power exists in this Government to expatriate an American citizen to be tried in any foreign land for any such act. " This country has never had a well defined and exe- cuted foreign policy save under Democratic adminis- tration. That policy has ever been in regard to foreign nations, so long as they do no act detrimental to the in- terests of the country or hurtful to our citizens, to let them alone ; that as a result of this policy we recall the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, California, and of the adjacent Mexican territory by purchase alone, and con- trast these grand acquisitions of Democratic statesman- ship with the purchase of Alaska, the sole fruit of a Republican administration of nearly a quarter of a cen- tury. " The Federal Government should care for and im- 138 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. prove the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide-water. "Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy our merchant-marine was fast overtaking and on the point of outstripping that of Great Britain ; under twenty years of Republican rule and policy our commerce has been left to British bottoms and the American flag lias almost been swept off the high seas. Instead of the Re- publican Party's British policy, we demand for the peo- ple of the United States an American policy. Under Democratic rule and policy our merchants and sailors, flying the stars and stripes in every port, successfully searched out a market for the varied products of Ameri- can industry: under a quarter-century of Republican rule and policy, despite our manifest advantage over all other nations in high-paid labor, favorable climates, and teeming soils; despite freedom of trade among all these United States; despite their population by the foremost races of men and an annual immigration of the young, thrifty, and adventurous of all nations ; despite our free- dom here from the inherited burdens of life and indus- try in Old World monarchies, their costly war-navies, their vast tax-consuming, non-producing standing armies ; despite twenty years of peace, that Republican rule and policy have managed to surrender to Great Britain, along with our commerce, the control of the markets THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION". 139 of the world. Instead of the Republican Party's Brit- ish policy, we demand, in behalf of the American Demo- cracy, an American policy. Instead of the Republican Party's discredited scheme and false pretence of friend- ship for American labor, expressed by imposing taxes, we demand, in behalf of the Democracy, freedom for American labor by reducing taxes, to the end that these United States may compete with unhindered powers for the primacy among nations in all the arts of peace and fruits of liberty. " With profound regret we have been apprised by the venerable statesman through whose person was struck that blow at the vital principle of republics, acquiescence in the will of the majority, that he cannot permit us again to place in his hands the leadership of the Demo- cratic hosts, for the reason that the achievement of re- form in the administration of the Federal Government is an undertaking now too heavy for his age and failing strength. Rejoicing that his life has been prolonged until the general judgment of our fellow-countrymen is united in the wish that that wrong were righted in his person, for the Democracy of the United States we offer to him, in his withdrawal from public cares, not only our re- spectful sympathy and esteem, but also that best hom- age of freemen, the pledge of our devotion to the prin- ciples and the cause now inseparable in the history of this Republic from the labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden. 140 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. "With this statement of the hopes, principles, and purposes of the Democratic Party, the great issue of reform and change in administration is submitted to O the people in calm confidence that the popular voice will pronounce in favor of new men and new and more favorable conditions for the growth of industry, the ex- tension of trade, the employment and due reward of labor and of capital, and the general welfare of the whole country." THE OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. The Committee appointed to visit Grover Cleveland and give him an official notification of his nomination met in Albany on Tuesday, July 29th, 1884, and were received at the Executive Mansion in the afternoon. Hon. Samuel J. Randall and Judge Amasa Parker were among those present, and seven ladies also witnessed the ceremony Miss Cleveland and Mrs. Hoyt, sisters of the Governor ; Mrs. Folsom and her daughter ; his two nieces, the Misses Hastings ; and Mrs. Lament, the wife of the private secretary. The address presented by the Committee was as fol- lows: " NEW YORK CITY, July 28, 1884. " To ike Hon. Grover Cleveland, of New York : " SIR : In accordance with a custom befitting the nature of the communication, the undersigned, representing THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION". 141 the several States and Territories of the Union, were ap- pointed a Committee by the National Democratic Con- vention which assembled at Chicago on the eighth day of the current month, to perform the pleasing office which by this means we have the honor to execute, of informing you of your nomination as the candidate of the Democratic Party in the ensuing election for the office of President of the United States. A declara- tion of the principles upon which the Democracy go before the people with the hope of establishing and maintaining them in the Government was made by the Convention, and an engrossed copy thereof is submitted in connection with this communication for your consid- eration. We trust the approval of your judgment will follow an examination of this expression of opinion and policy, and upon the political controversy now made up we invite your acceptance of the exalted leadership to which you have been chosen. " The election of a President is an event of the ut- most importance to the people of America. Prosperity, growth, happiness, peace, and liberty even, may depend upon its wise ordering. Your unanimous nomination is proof that the Democracy believe your election will most contribute to secure these great objects. We assure you that in the anxious responsibilities you must assume as a candidate you will have the steadfast cordial support of the friends of the cause you well represent, and in the 142 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. execution of the duties of the high office which we confi- dently expect from the wisdom of the nation to be con- ferred upon you you may securely rely for approving aid upon the patriotism, honor, and intelligence of this free people. We have the honor to he, with great respect, "W. F. VILAS ("Wisconsin), President. "NICHOLAS M. BELL (Missouri), Secretary. D. P. Bestor, Ala., Fred. W. Fordyce, Ark., Niles Searles, Cal., M. M. S. Waller, Col., Theo. M. Waller, Conn., George H. Bates, Del., Atilla Cox, Ky., James Jeffries, La., C. H. Osgood, Me., George Wells, Md., J. E. Abbott, Mass., D. J. Campan, Mich., Tbos. E. Heenan, Minn., Charles E. Hooker, Miss., David R. Francis, Mo., Patrick Faby, Neb., Wilson G. Lamb, N. C., Joseph H. Earle, S. C., Wm. A. Quarles, Tenn., George L. Spear, Vt., Frank Hereford, W. Va., J. T. Hauser, Montana, M. S. McCormick, D. T., D. E. McCarthy, Nev., J. F. Cloutman, N. H., John P. Stockton, N. J., John C. Jacobs, N. Y., G. H. Oury, Arizona, Ransford Smith, Utah, John M. Selcott, Idaho, W. D. Chipley, Fla., M. P. Reese, Ga., A. E Stevenson, 111., E. D. Bannister, Ind., L. G. Kinue, Iowa, C. C. Burnes, Kan., Wm. E. Haynes, Ohio, S. L. McArthur, Oregon, James P. Barr, Pa., David S. Baker, "Jr., R L, E. D. Wright, Dist. of Col., Joseph E. Dwyer, Texas, Robert Beverly, Va., W. A. Anderson, Wis., W. B. Childers, N. Mex., D. B. Dutro, W. T." THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. 143 GOVERNOR CLEVELAND 8 REPLY. The Governor replied as follows : " MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE : Your formal announcement does not, of course, convey to me the first information of the result of the Conven- tion lately held by the Democracy of the nation, and ygt when, as I listen to your message, I see about me repre- sentatives from all parts of the land of the great party which, claiming to be the party of the people, asks them to entrust to it the administration of their government ; and when I consider, under the influence of the stern reality which the present surroundings create, that I have been chosen to represent the plans, purposes, and the policy of the Democratic Party, I am profoundly im- pressed by the solemnity of the occasion and by the re- sponsibility of my position. " Though I gratefully appreciate it, I do not at this moment congratulate myself upon the distinguished honor which has been conferred upon me, because my mind is full of an anxious desire to perform well the part which has been assigned to me. Nor do I at this mo- ment forget that the rights and interests of more than fifty millions of my fellow-citizens are involved in our efforts to gain Democratic supremacy. This reflection presents to my mind the consideration which more 144 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. than all others gives to the action of my party in con- vention assembled its most sober and serious aspect. The party and its representatives which ask to be en- trusted at the hands of the people with the keeping of all that concerns their welfare and their safety should only ask it with the full appreciation of the sacredness of the trust and with a firm resolve to administer it faith- fully and well. I am a Democrat because I believe that this truth lies at the foundation of true Democracy. I have kept the faith because I believe, if rightly and fairly administered and applied, Democratic doctrines and measures will insure the happiness, contentment, and prosperity of the people. "If, in the contest upon which we now enter, we steadfastly hold to the underlying principles of our party creed, and at all times keep in view the people's good, we shall be strong, because we are true to ourselves and because the plain and independent voters of the land will seek by their suffrages to compass their release from party tyranny where there should be submission to the popular will, and their protection from party corruption where there should be devotion to the people's interests. These thoughts lend a consecration to our cause, and we go forth not merely to gain a partisan advantage, but pledged to give to those who trust us the utmost benefits of a pure and honest administration of national affairs. No higher purpose or motive can stimulate us THE PLATFOKM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. 145 to supreme effort or urge us to continuous and earnest labor and effective party organization. Let us not fail in this, and we may confidently hope to reap the full reward of patriotic services well performed. " I have thus called to mind some simple truths, and, trite though they are, it seems to me we do well to dwell upon them at this time. I shall soon, I hope, signify in the usual formal manner my acceptance of the nomina- tion which has been tendered to me. In the mean time I gladly greet you all as co-workers in a noble cause." GREETING FROM ME. TILDEN. A reception was given directly after the notification at the Fort Orange Club-house. This is an entirely non- partisan club, but it joined in honoring the distinguished guests. After a liberal collation speeches were- made by General Hooker, Governor Waller, and Judge Parker, and the following important telegram was read by Senator Thacher : "GREYSTOKE, July 29th, 1884. " To Democratic Phalanx, Albany : " I received last evening your invitation to attend the meeting this evening under the auspices of the Albany Democratic Phalanx for the purpose of ratifying the nomination of Cleveland and Hendricks. Although I 146 THE PLATFORM AND OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION. cannot be present in person with my old friends in Albany on that interesting occasion, I cordially co-oper- ate with them in support of the excellent nominations by the Democratic National Convention, and feel assured that in its success at the election, of which there is every promise, the country will achieve a substantial victory for the cause of good government. " S. J. TlLDEN." CHAPTER VIII. CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER No better Evidence that be is a Reformer tban the Declaration in his Favor of the New Tork Times, the Great Independent Republi- can Newspaper. George William Curtis brings the Power of Har- per's Weekly to his Support. The Roosevelt Bills. Administrative Reform. Governor Cleveland's Appointments. His Opinions as to Civil-Service Reform. "I do not believe in turning out good men because their views differ from mine." He Approves thePendleton Bill. Cleveland and Tariff Reform. He Satisfies Men on Medium Ground. Anti-Monopoly and Cleveland as a Reformer. The Letter of Charles Francis Adams, Jr. No better evidence that Grover Cleveland is a reformer is needed than the declaration of the New York Times, the great and independent Republican newspaper of the metropolis, on the morning following his nomination for the Presidency at Chicago. Said the Times : " With Grover Cleveland as its candidate the Demo- cratic Party appeals with unmistakable directness to the moral sense of the people of the United States. It is not only in what he clearly represents but in what he dis- 148 CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. tinctly opposes that Grover Cleveland is strong before the American people. His career has made him the ex- ponent of clean and honest politics. The Times will heartily support Governor Cleveland. It has closely watched the career of the candidate nominated at Chi- cago yesterday, and it has entire confidence in his pro- bity, in his intelligence, and in his administrative ability. He ought to be the next President of the United States, and we believe he will be." GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS AND CLEVELAND. The exalted position of George William Curtis as edi- tor of Harper's Weekly and as a man of ability and moral worth gives especial interest to his declaration in favor of Grover Cleveland, published during the week following the nomination at Chicago. He said : ' The nomination of Governor Cleveland defines sharply the actual issue of the Presidential election of this year. He is a man whose absolute official integrity has never been questioned, who has no laborious and doubtful explanations to undertake, and who is univer- sally known as the Governor of New York elected by an unprecedented majority which was not partisan and rep- resented both the votes and the consent of an enormous body of Republicans, and who as the chief executive of the State has steadly withstood the blandishments and the threats of the worst elements of his party and has CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. 149 justly earned the reputation of a courageous, independent, and efficient friend and promoter of administrative re- form. His name has become that of the especial repre- sentative among our public men of the integrity, purity, and economy of administration which are the objects ot the most intelligent and patriotic citizens. " The nomination of Governor Cleveland is due not so much to the preference of his party as to the general demand of the country for a candidacy which stands for precisely the qualities and services which are associated with his name." ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. Legislation for the reform of the municipal govern- ment of New York City was the chief feature of the legislative session of 1884 at Albany, and Governor Cleveland did not refuse to sign any of the Roosevelt reform bills. Two of them reached him in defective shape, but he promptly suggested to their friends that they be recalled and amended in order that he might give them his approval. Throughout the session he co-operated earnestly for the reform of city affairs, and took the trouble to write special messages to the Legis- lature declaring in emphatic language his readiness to help the work in all ways within his power. The first of the reform measures which reached him was that depriving the Aldermen of their confirming 150 CLEVELAND AS A BEFORMER. powers. This was a direct and deadly blow at Tam- many's power and at the corrupt practice of controlling the Mayor by means of "deals" between John Kelly and Johnny O'Brien. One after another the Roosevelt bills came before him and were approved. The Presi- dent of the Board of Aldermen was made an elective officer ; the Comptroller the same ; and the abuses of the fee system in the Register's, County Clerk's, Sur- rogate's, and Sheriff's offices were abolished, saving for the city in the four fee-offices not less than two hun- dred thousand dollars annually. The Christian Union said: "It is no derogation to Mr. Roosevelt to say that he, the reformer in the Re- publican camp, could not have accomplished these re- forms without the effective, thorough, quiet aid of Gov- ernor Cleveland in the Democratic camp." During his second winter at Albany, Governor Cleve- land had reason to believe that public money had been wasted or misappropriated in the repair of the arsenals and armories of the State, and ordered an examination which confirmed his suspicions. A special committee to investigate the matter reported that a systematic course of swindling had been going on for years. Governor Cleveland believes that the affairs of gov- ernment should be administered as honestly and as eco- nomically as the private affairs of a shrewd business- man. CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. 151 GOVERNOR CLEVELAND'S APPOINTMENTS. In the selection of men for important appointments Governor Cleveland appears as a reformer. When he came into office he had a full line of officers to appoint in both the military and the civil departments. The Democratic Party had been out of power for three years, and the clamor for office was great. Three especially important appointments were to be made Superintend- ent of Public Works, Superintendent of Insurance, and Commissioner for building the new Capitol. He refused to reward partisan service with public trusts, and incurred the hostility of the spoilsmen of his party, but he se- lected men who were acceptable to the mass of the peo- ple of all parties. Said one of the ablest Albany correspondents : " Be- sides recommending and signing the civil-service laws that have been enacted since he came into the governor- ship, he has by his appointments shown that he needs no party planks or platforms to suggest, or to back him up in doing, the right thing for the public service." CLEVELAND ON CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM. But Cleveland has efficiently declared himself in favor of civil-service reform, and his letter of acceptance of the nomination for Governor does not contain the strong- est expression of his views on that subject. To a cor- 152 CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. respondent of the Chicago News who asked, in October, 1883, what he thought " would be the great issue be- tween the parties next year," lie replied : " The question of an honest administration of public affairs; the reduction of public business transactions to the simple common-sense of every-day life. I believe the same principles that prevail in private business should be made to apply to the public business. This involves the cutting off of all needless extravagance, and the em- ployment of the best men possible. I have tried the experiment in the administration of the office of Gover- nor, and, although I have at times come in pretty active conflict with some of the leading politicians, I yet believe I am generally sustained by the people throughout the State." The correspondent, probing still further, asked : "Would you, then, retain Republicans in office where they have performed faithful service?" The Governor's reply was : " Certainly ; I do not be- lieve in turning out good men because their views may differ from mine. Why, the best proof of my belief in this is to have you look at the records in the State offices here. There are Republicans immediately about me who were appointed by Cornell, my predecessor. The Adjutant-General's office is full of Republicans, but they are all good clerks, trained and efficient. Why should I turn them out?" CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. 153 To the inquiry made by the Civil-Service-Reform Association in October, 1882, he replied that he had "no hesitation in saying" that he " fully approved of the principles embodied in the Pendleton bill and should be glad to aid in any" practical legislation which would give them a place in the management of the affairs of the State and of municipalities." CLEVELAND AND TARIFF REFORM. Mr. J. S. Moore, whose advocacy of tariff reform is well known to most persons of intelligence, said : " I am perfectly satisfied with the expression of the tariff plank in the Democratic platform. I only hope and trust that when the time for action comes the party, I mean the whole Democratic Party, will live up to it. In the first place, I have been working for tariff reform for the last sixteen years, and not for free trade." Governor Cleveland has plainly declared himself in favor of tariff reform rather than free trade, and even Henry Watterson, of the Louisville Courier-Journal, the foremost free-trader of his party, perceived that the elec- tion of Cleveland would not involve the adoption of free- trade theories, for on July 17th he wrote: "It is not plainly and simply an issue between free trade and pro- tection ; it is an issue between a radical reduction of the present protective duties, as urged by the. Democrats, and a perpetuation of the so-called protective policy, which accumulates annually a surplus of $100,000,000 154 CLEVELAND AS A REFORMER. and crushes our industries and paralyzes commerce by excessive and extortionate taxation." ANTI-MONOPOLY AND CLEVELAND A8 A REFORMER. Mr. Simon Sterne, whose services in exposing and com bating corporate rapacity and injustice in New York have been important, wrote a letter, early in the cam- paign, in which he grouped the evidence of monopolistic leanings on the part of Messrs. Blaine and Butler, and said : " The issue remains between Messrs. Cleveland and Blaine. There is no hope of electing a third candidate'. And every vote against Cleveland would be for Blaine. From the latter Anti-Monopolists have nothing to hope. He dares not, if he now would, offend the monopoly powers, who hold his secrets .and controlled his actions in the past." Mr. Sterne reviewed the gubernatorial career of Cleve- land, and expressed much when he said of the bill to regulate the hours of labor of a very small class in New York: "If such legislation is desirable and expedient, there should be a general law making it a misdemeanor to employ people in any trade or occupation longer than twelve hours a day, and not confine the immunity or pen- alty to a single employment and one class only of corpo- rations." THE LETTER OF CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. JR. That Grover Cleveland was the man desired by those CLEVELAND AS A REFORMEK. 155 persons who love country most and party least to reform the Federal Government is indicated by the following extract from a letter written by Charles Francis Adams, Jr., on the day after the Republican nominations were made at Chicago : " MY DEAE SIR : . . . I presume there is no question as to the attitude of the members of the Reform Club to- ward the Republican nominations. We will at once or- ganize to defeat them. On this point, it seems to me, our response cannot be too explicit or our action too quick. . . . "Could the Democratic Party be galvanized into that degree of momentary good sense which would lead it for once to astonish the country and itself by putting forward such a ticket as Cleveland and Carlisle, the result in November would not be in doubt for a moment. Ex- perience tells us that the task is desperate ; but so is the situation. Blaine is the other horn of our dilemma. If we wiil, we can do more than we think to galvanize even the Democratic Party. But to do it we must act. " I hope, therefore, that immediate steps will be taken, under the auspices of the Reform Club, toward calling a conference of those who think as we think. We must be represented at Chicago in July. If we fail there also, then, as the Italian forestieri, or ' dwellers in the woods,' so far as I now can see, we must meet together in the sylvan shades and name our own men for whom we will cast a self-respecting vote. I am, etc., " CHARLES F. ADAMS, Jr." CHAPTER IX. CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. The Fight of Reformers in the Chicago Republican Convention. Their Defeat and their Revolt. Heroic Treatment f<>r the "Grand Old Party." Salvation by Defeat. The Democratic Party in Con- trol of the Independent Vote. The Call for an Independent Con- ference. A Great Assembly in the University Club Theatre, New York. Chairman Codman's Eloquent Address. The Committees. The Independent Platform. The Principles it Enunciates and the Invitation it Extends. A National Committee of Forty. Where the Independents will Work Hardest for Cleveland. The independent voters undoubtedly desired tlie nom- ination of Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, as the Repub- lican candidate for the Presidency, and a strong delrga- tion of them went to Chicago in June to work for that result. Mr. Theodore Eoosevelt, the leader of the Young Republicans, representing independent sentiment as a reformer in the last New York Legislature, and Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, conducted the independent canvass in behalf of Senator Edmunds in the National Republican Convention, and among the older leaders who participated in their counsels George William Curtis was conspicuous. CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 157 "DEFEAT WILL BE THE SALVATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PAKTY." The nomination of President Arthur would have been a concession to the independent element of the Republi- can Party, but the reformers were beaten at every point, and their feelings after the adjournment of the Repub- lican Convention found expression in the following editorial utterance of the New York Times on June 7, in connection with its declaration that it would not sup- port Elaine for the Presidency : "Defeat will be the salvation of the Republican Party. It will arouse its torpid conscience, it will stir it to self-purification, it will depose the false leaders who have fastened themselves upon it, it will send the rogues to the background and will make the party once more worthy of honor and of power in the Republic it has so nobly served. When the party has passed through the fires of defeat and is well rid of its peccant humors it will come back to the impregnable ground of right it stood on when it beat down treason and disunion, to a position in which it shall embody the highest and best impulses of American life, to a state of heart and mind which shall fit it to be again the custodian of that match- less trust, 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people.' " Vigorous protests were made by independents 158 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. throughout the country as soon as it was known that the 15 * reformers had been ignored in the Republican Conven- tion, and " bolters" were numerous from the very first, but decisive action was deferred until the Democratic candidates were nominated, and the anxiety with which the thoughts of the independents turned toward the Convention to open in Chicago on July 8 is indicated by the following from the Springfield Republican of June 9 : " The independent vote is the great break from the Republican column. What will become of that vote depends wholly upon the Democrats. If they put up a candidate who is incorruptible and able to govern intelli- gently, and who has proved his capacity by a successful career in national or State affairs, the independents will vote for him. The action of the Massachusetts Reform Club in favor of such action Saturday was prompt and decisive. Leading party journals, like the New York Times, the Boston Advertiser, and Harpers Weekly de- cline to support the Republican ticket." THE CALL FOR AN INDEPENDENT CONFERENCE. The general committee of the Independent Republi- cans of New York met on Monday, July 14, and, the nominations of the Democrats being acceptable to the members of the committee, there was general acquies- cence in the suggestion that steps be promptly taken to CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 159 express approval of the Democratic ticket. Officers of the organizations at Boston, New Haven, and Buffalo telegraphed authority for the use of their signatures to the following call : " The undersigned committees invite all Republicans and independent voters who disapprove of the nomina- tions made by the Republican National Convention at Chicago as unworthy of support, who think that the interests of good government and of public morals de- mand the defeat of the Republican candidates for Presi- dent and Vice-President, and who are therefore resolved not to vote for Blaine and Logan, to meet for confer- ence, either in person or by delegation, for the purpose of determining upon a common course of action in the pending canvass. The conference will be held on July 22 in the city of New York, at 11 A.M., in the Univer- sity Club Theatre, corner of Twenty-sixth Street and Madison Avenue. Gentlemen desiring to take part are respectfully requested to report their names to S. W. Grierson, 35 Nassau Street, as early as possible, in order to facilitate the arrangements for the conference. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, President, and S. "W. GRIERSON, Secretary, Independent Republican Com- mittee of New York. CHARLES R. CODMAN, President, and DARWIN E. WARE, Chairman Executive Committee, Commit- tee of One Hundred, Boston. 160 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. SIMEON E. BALDWIN, President, and TALCOTT IT. RUSSELL, Secretary, Committee of Twenty-live, New Haven, Connecticut. J. N. LAENED, Chairman, and RALPH STONE, Secre- tary, Independent Republican Committee, Buffalo, N. Y." THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION IN NEW YORK. Long before the hour fixed for the opening of the conference on July 22, the entrance to the University Club Theatre was besieged by applicants for admis- sion ; and to prevent the entrance of disturbers each person was requested to sign the following : "Disapproving of the nominations made by the Re- publican National Convention at Chicago as unworthy of support, and believing that the interests of good govern- ment and of public morals demand the defeat of the Re- publican candidates for President and Vice-President, and being therefore resolved not to vote for Blaine and Logan, I desire to take part with other Republican in- dependent voters in the conference to be held at the University Club Theatre, Madison Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street, New York, Tuesday, July 22, at 11 A.M. (Signature) (Address) (State) CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 161 So great were the numbers that standing room was exhausted, and even the stairways became impassable. Men like John Foord, editor of the Brooklyn Union- Argus, Professor Rice, of Columbia College, George H. Putnam, and Benjamin II. Bristow were seen on all sides. They were all enthusiastic, and the slight- est allusion to the object their cause had in view called forth thunders of applause. When Carl Schurz entered the hall he was greeted with a prolonged cheer, which was renewed when Colonel Theodore Lyman, of Massachusetts, appeared. " Gentlemen," said Mr. Curtis, " it is my pleasant duty as chairman of the Independent Republican Committee of New York, and on its behalf, to wel- come you to this conference and to call it to order. This conference is assembled in obedience to this invi- tation," and Mr. Curtis read the call. Then he read the following list of officers, which was unanimously adopted, many of the names being received with ring- ing applause : President C. R. Codman, of Massachusetts. Yice-Presidents H. A. Babbitt, C. P. Armstrong, and H. "W. Farnam, of Connecticut; "William Endi- cott, Samuel Hoar, and Robert Blaikie, of Massachu- setts; Carl Schurz, Francis C. Barlow, and Theodore Bacon, of New York ; William Hayes Ward, H. P. Gerbert, and P. W. Burdge, of New Jersey ; Henry C. 162 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. Lea, Francis P. Keeves, and Walter Wood, of Penn- sylvania ; Joseph Batell, of Vermont ; James F. Claf- lin, of Illinois ; C. J. Bonaparte, of Maryland ; Benja- min F. Tlmrston, of Eliode Island ; and S. Walter Merrihew and William G. Thompson, of Michigan. Secretaries George H. Earle, of Pennsylvania ; George W. Green, of New York; and George D. Miller, of Connecticut. Enrolment Committee George W. Folsom, of New York ; Talcott H. Russell, of Connecticut ; Moses Williams, of Massachusetts; and Joseph Parrish, of Pennsylvania. CHAIRMAN CODMAN'S ADDRESS. Chairman Codman's address was most impress've, and the words were punctuated with hearty applause. When he said that the representative of the principles of reform was now Governor of New York, the audi- ence rose to its feet and cheered enthusiastically. After a brief introduction Colonel Codman said : "Acting as all of us have done at times with the Republican Party, and most of us never failing to support its noninations, and some of us its supporters when it was neither successful nor popular, it is net without pain that we find ourselves compelled to op- pose the Presidential nomination of this historical or- ganization, bnt we say that parties are but means to CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 163 accomplish political ends ; that they must stand for principles if they are to have any more vitality than that of mere organization, and that they cannot live alone upon the memory of great results achieved, if they do not meet the demands of the time; and we do not see that at the present time the great parties that divide the country are clearly and unmistakably at issue upon any important question, so that we are confined in this Presidential canvass almost exclusively to the question of the fitness of candidates. " It is in some respects fortunate that it is so ; for if the Democrats had declared themselves in opposition to any political ideas which we have been accustomed to consider the cardinal principles of the Republican Party, and if then the Republicans had nominated Mr. Bhaine, our position would have been far more trying than it is to-day. We should have been com- pelled to face the painful and discouraging alternative of not sustaining cherished political opinions, or of voting for a candidate we believe to be unworthy. But happily all the principles to maintain which the Republican Part} 7 was founded have long since been firmly established in the legislation of the country. " It is true that Mr. Blaine in his skilful letter of acceptance has at last expressed very positive opinions upon one subject. He has come out as an ardent civil- service reformer, now that the country has pronounced 164 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. for tlie reform, although on the day when the cause was striiffflinfir and weak it had no assistance from this OO O always influential political leader. There have been one or t\vo reactions, however, since then, and the peo- ple have in no uncertain tones proclaimed their will. It is certainly a fact to-day that political managers will not openly oppose the popular demand, and no back- ward steps will be taken in extending and maintaining the reform. We have not taken the decided acrion that brings us here to-day without some remonstrances from our party associates. They have urged upon us the claim of the old organization, and have rung the changes upon its achievements. They have told us that the great results of the war would be jeop- ardized if the Democratic Party should come into power. They have warned us that capital would be destroyed and labor would be paralyzed if there should be a discontinuance of Republican administration. They have said that Mr. Elaine should be chosen President because he would do what other Presidents have not done and what he alone can do, and that is to make this country respected by foreign nations. To all such suggestions we have been impervious. "We have replied that the constitutional interpreta- tions settled by the war are not disputed ; that the Demo- crats, who are at least nearly half the people in the coun- try, have no desire, and can have no interest, to check the CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS 165 national prosperity; and that this country is respected throughout the world for its power, its freedom, its en- ergy and its resources, and that it will continue to be so respected unless some ' aggressive' and 'magnetic' Presi- dent shall succeed in making it ridiculous. There has not been much in such considerations as these to induce us to give our support to a discredited and obnoxious can- didate. But an appeal has also been made to our sympa- thies and to our highest sense of justice. "Are we ready, it has been asked, ^to justify or con- done such incidents as the Copiah massacre ? Will we ally ourselves with a political party that carries elections by murder and intimidation ? " I answer that I believe we yield to none in our ab- horrence of the affair at Copiah. It was an outrage ut- terly without justification, and it is an infinite disgrace to the community that tolerated it. Nor will we ally ourselves to a party that carries elections by murder and intimidation ; but before all things we will be just, and we will not charge the whole South or the whole Demo- cratic Party with the responsibility of an act that belongs to one small community alone, but our Republican critics know perfectly well there are no men in the country that know it better that these occurrences could not have been prevented by any action of the Federal Gov- ernment. If they could, how does it happen that during two Republican administrations there has been no at- 166 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. tempt at Federal interference? And why is it that IK> Republican politician ventures to recommend such inter- ference? No, gentlemen, the truth is that time and edu- cation and enlightened self-interest and the influence of civilization and Christianity are the agencies that must be relied upon to prevent these crimes; and if we may judge the future by the past, we may expect that at no distant period the barbarous ideas and practices which slavery has left as a legacy to the South will yield to these benign influences. No one can deny, and no one ought to fail to rejoice, that such incidents as that at Copiah, which were once common, are now exceptional ; and that the two races which an overruling Providence has placed side by side in the Southern States are ap- proaching, under the influence of universal freedom, of equal political rights and a wider diffusion of knowledge, a better understanding of and a more generous considera- tion for each other. " But however that may be, we are not to be turned from what seems to us a plain and obvious duty by an at- tempt to appeal to any sectional feeling, or even to our sense of the wickedness of men or communities for whom we are not responsible. "We shall not give up our right to condemn and denounce lawlessness and oppression in the South any more than our right to condemn political dishonesty in the North. We shall exercise both of these rights. We shall not support Mr. Elaine, nor shall we CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 167 support any man who justifies the Copiah murder, if in- deed such a man can be found for whom any one would ask the suffrages of the people. We respect the convic- tions of others, but, for ourselves, we say that it is just as impossible for us to support Mr. Blaine as it is to lie or to steal. We are assembled here to-day to confer to- gether and to consider what practical action we shall take. We have one purpose in view, and as reasonable men we desire to act together. But we shall not, I think, make any attempt to demand pledges or to bind consciences. Whatever is done here, every man is free to follow his own course. No pledges will be asked, and certainly none will be given. " For myself, I do not hesitate to say that the defeat of Mr. Blaine should be compassed by all honorable means. It seems to me that the cause of good government, of ir pure politics, of American character, requires it to be done. There is but one way to do it, and that way must be obvious to us all. We desire first of all a President that is incorruptible, and if, besides that, he is able and independent, so much the better. "We have not far to go to find a man who is all this. It has been said recently by some of the supporters of Mr. Blaine that no Democratic President was ever able to resist the pressure of party managers. It may perhaps be true, and possibly some Republican Presidents have been open to the same criticism ; but there is certainly 168 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. one Democratic official who has shown the ability to suc- cessfully resist all pressure that would interfere with the faithful performance of official duty, and he is now Gov- ernor of New York and the Democratic candidate for President of the United States a man whose utterances and whose acts, whether as mayor or governor, have proved that he holds office not for personal end, but as a trust for the people, whose servant he is. As a lifelong opponent of the Democratic Party, and with no intention now of becoming identified with it, I will yet rejoice, and I will say that it is fortunate for the Republic that at a crisis when the party which has been the party of pro- gress halts and is unfaithful, the party which we have been accustomed to distrust shows wise intelligence and civic courage. It has risen to its great opportunity, and those Republicans who would make effectual opposition to a candidate they believe to be unfit can with no loss of self-respect, without surrendering a conviction, and in the exercise of the highest political expediency, give their votes to the reform Governor of New York. " Let us, then, in a vigorous and businesslike way, pro- ceed to the work before us. Let us take steps to lay be- fore the country the evidence that has convinced us that the Republican nomination for President was unfit to be made. Let us declare that we stand together and that we ask our fellow-citizens to join us to make our protest effectual against corruption in office. Let us try to im- CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 169 press upon the voters by our words and acts that political straightforwardness is better than political success, and when we have done our work here let us go to our homes and use such influence as we have to further the cause which we conceive to be the cause of our country." COMMITTEES ON RESOLUTIONS AND ORGANIZATION. The Chairman appointed the following Committee on Resolutions to which should be referred all resolutions that were introduced : Carl Schurz, George William Cur- tis; Moorn'eld Storey and George F. "Williams, of Massa- chusetts ; F. B. Reeves and William Hunt, Jr., of Penn- sylvania; Maurice F. Tyler and C. P. Armstrong, of Connecticut ; W. Hayes Ward, of New Jersey ; W. G. Thompson, of Michigan ; Benjamin F. Thurston, of Rhode Island ; Jatnes T. Claflin, of Illinois ; and H. B. Goddard, of Maryland. " I take it that when the conference adjoins it means to leave behind it some evidence of the work we mean to do," said Mr. Horace E. Deming, the Brooklyn lawyer ; " I therefore move the appointment of a committee of six to report back to this conference a plan of permanent organization and suggestions of the work to be done after the conference adjourns." Mr. Deming was made chairman of such a committee, the other members being Talcott H. Russell, of New Haven ; C. Richardson, of Pennsylvania ; Moses Wil- 170 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. liams, of Brookline, Mass.; W. F. Kiff, of Buffalo, K Y.; and A. F. Eaton, of Rhode Island. THE INDEPENDENT PLATFORM. Cheers greeted Mr. George "William Curtis as he came forward to read the address which enunciates the position of the independent Eepublicans and invites others who think as they do to join them. Mr. Curtis read slowly, clearly, and impressively, and many times was compelled to stop because of the enthusiasm evoked. Following is the address : " To OUR FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES : The paramount issue of the Presidential election of this year is moral rather than political. It concerns the na- tional honor and character and honesty of administration rather than general policies of government, upon which the platforms of the two parties do not essentially differ. No position taken by one platform is seriously traversed by the other. Both evidently contemplate a general agreement of public opinion upon subjects which have been long in controversy and indicate an unwillingness to declare upon other and cardinal questions views which in the present condition of opinion might seriously disturb the parties within themselves. Parties indeed now cohere mainly by habit and tradition, and since the great, ie?u<-s which have divided them have been largely settled, the most vital political activity has been the endeavor of CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 171 good citizens in both parties to adjnst them to living issues and to make them effective agencies of political progress and reform. The indispensable necessity of this course has been long apparent, for in a time of profound peace at home and abroad the most threatening national peril is an insidious political corrup.tfon, a mercenary and demoralizing spirit and tendency, the result of what is well described by Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, as ' the shameless doctrine that the true way by which power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their service, and the true end for which it should be used when gained is the promo- tion of selfish ambition and the gratification of personal revenge.' But this doctrine naturally has produced re- sults which are still more alarming. The corrupt spirit and tendency have so rapidly developed that they seek political power not only to gratify ambition and revenge, but to promote private gain. They decide appeals to the public conscience, defend the soiled reputations of public men by the bold assertion that all public men are equally guilty, declare that success in obtaining eminent position disposes of every imputation and suspicion of wrongdoing, and, despising all practical measures to re- form the system of official patronage which fosters dis- honest polities, make a great party nominally responsi- ble for prolonged and monstrous fraud, and proclaim that it is the duty of every citizen who for great and 172 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. beneficial ends has habitually supported a party to regard the success of the party at an election, without regard to the character of those whom it selects as its executive agents, to be a supreme national necessity. A tendency more fatal to the public welfare cannot be conceived, and when by public indifference or misunderstanding this corrupt spirit is able to demand that the country shall approve it by according to it the highest honor in its gift, every patriotic citizen must perceive that no duty could be more pressing, vital, and imperative than that of baffling and defeating the demand. "If the Republican Convention had presented a can- didate whose character and career were the pledge of a resolute contest with the tendencies that we have de- scribed ; if they had foretold a stern dealing with politi- cal corruption and a vigorous correction of the vast abuses which the long and undisturbed tenure of power by any party is sure to breed ; if the success of the can- didate had promised inflexible honesty of administration, purification of the government, and elevation of the party standard, every Eepublican voter would have gladly supported the nomination. But these are pre- cisely the anticipations which the nomination forbids. It offers a candidate who is an unfit leader, shown by his own words and his acknowledged acts, which are of official record, to be unworthy of respect and confidence ; who has traded upon his official trust for his pecuniary CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 173 gain ; a representative of men, methods, and conduct which the public conscience condemns, and which illus- trate the very evils which honest men would reform. Such a nomination does not promise in the Executive chair inflexible official integrity, color, and wise judg- ment; a sole regard for the public welfare, and an un- shrinking determination to promote reform in the civil service, and ceaselessly to pursue and punish public robbers of every kind and degree. Independent voters have gen- erally supported Republican nominations as more surely promising reform than those of the Democratic Party. Independents, however, cannot support a nomination which is the culmination of the tendency that they would correct. Republicans cannot hope that under such lead- ership as we have mentioned the abuses of the past can be corrected or the party reformed. "We are very proud of the great record and services of the Republican Party, but not with our consent or connivance shall that record be disgraced. " Every party must be constantly renewed by the in- telligent independence of its own members, or it will sink from an agency to secure good government into a remorseless despotism. The Republican Party sprang from a moral sentiment. It was the party of political morality and of personal liberty. It appealed directly to the conscience of the citizen. But, like all parties, it was a political agency, not to be worshipped, but to be '174 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. carefully held to the spirit and purposes on which and for which it was organized. 'I do not know,' said Mr. Seward, thirty years ago, when he left the Whig Party to join the Republicans, ' I do not know that it will al- ways or even long preserve its courage, its moderation, and its consistency. If it shall do so, it will secure and save the country. If it shall become unfaithful, as all preceding parties have done, it will without sorrow or re- gret on my part perish as they are perishing, and will give place to another truer and better one.' This rea- soning must not be forgotten. It is with profound con- viction of its wisdom that Republicans faithful to their party, but holding with the great Republican fathers that political morality and purity of administration are more precious than party, are now constrained to oppose the Republican Presidential nomination in the interest of what they believe to be pure Republicanism, the public welfare, and the honor of the American name. " Upon the practical questions of tariff and finance, and other questions upon which both parties are divided within themselves, we also are divided in opinion. We shall vote, therefore, in the choice of representatives and other officers according to our individual opinions of their political views and their personal character. Divided on other questions, we are united in conviction that the fountain of office and honor should be pure, and that the highest office in the country should be filled by a man of CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 175 absolutely unsuspected integrity. As there is no dis- tinctive issue upon public policy presented for the con- sideration of the country, the character of the candidates becomes of the highest importance with all citizens who do not hold that party victory should be secured at any cost. While the Republican' nomination presents a can. didate whom we cannot support, the Democratic Party presents one whose name is the synonym of political courage and honesty and administrative reform. He has discharged every official trust with sole regard to the public welfare, and with just disregard of mere partisan and personal advantage, which, with the applause and confidence of both parties, have raised him from the chief executive administration of a great city to that of a great State. " He is a Democrat who is happily free from all as- sociation with the fierce party differences of the slavery contest, and whose financial views are in harmorfy with those of the best men in both parties ; and coming into public prominence at a time when official purity, courage, and character are of chief importance, he presents the qualities and the promise which independent voters de- sire, and which a great body of Republicans, believing those qualities to be absolutely indispensable in the ad- ministration of the government at this time, do not find in the candidate of their own party. " Such independent voters do not propose to ally them- 176 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. selves inextricably with any party. Such Republicans do not propose to abandon the Republican Party nor to merge themselves in any other party, but they do pro- pose to aid in defeating a Republican nomination which, not for reasons of expediency only, but for high moral and patriotic considerations, with a due regard for the Republican name and for the American character, was unfit to be made. They desire not to evade the proper responsibility of American citizens by declining to vote, and they desire also to make their vote.- as elfective as possible for honest and pure and wise administration. How can such voters who at this election cannot consci- entiously support the Republican candidate promote the objects which they desire to accomplish more surely than by supporting the candidate who represents the quali- ties, the spirit, and the purpose which they all agree in believing to be of controlling importance in this election ? No citizen can rightfully avoid the issue or refuse to cast his vote. The ballot is a trust. Every voter is a trustee for good government, bound to answer to his private conscience for his public acts. This conference, there- fore, assuming that Republicans and independent voters who for any reason cannot sustain the Republican nomi- nation, desire to take the course which, under the neces- sary conditions and constitutional methods of a Presiden- tial election, will most readily and surely secure the result at which they aim, respectfully recommends to all such CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. 177 citizens to support the electors who will vote for Grover Cleveland, in order most effectually to enforce their con- viction that nothing could more deeply stain the Ameri- can name and prove more disastrous to the public welfare than the deliberate indifference of the people of the Uni- ted States to increasing public corruption and to the want of official integrity in the highest trusts of the gov- ernment." A NATIONAL COMMITTEE. Mr. Horace E. Deming, of Brooklyn, from the com- mittee to map out the work to be done after the adjourn- ment of the Convention, reported the following : "JResofoed, That a committee be appointed by the chair- man of this conference to conduct the present campaign and to represent the organization thereafter. "JKesolved, That this committee be known as the Na- tional Committee, and have power to add to their num- ber by selecting associates from the various States taking part in this movement." The Chairman appointed the following as the National Committee : New York Carl Schurz, Theodore Bacon, John H. Cowing, Charles P. Miller, R. R. Bowker, George W. Folsom, Ethan Allan Doty, George Walton Green, and Horace E. Deming. Massachusetts William H. Forbes, Joseph Tucker, 178 CLEVELAND AND THE INDEPENDENTS. Joseph H. Walker, Samuel Hoar, Phineas Pierce, George Y. Leverett, and Winslow Warren. Connecticut Simeon E. Baldwin^ C. P. Armstrong, and H. W. Farnam. New Jersey Daniel Drake Smith, Simeon Hunting- ton, and W. G. Peckham. Pennsylvania Francis B. Reeves, Stuart Wood, and Joseph Parrish. Illinois T. J. Claflin. The National Committee of Forty met immediately at the close of the conference, with Horace E. Demiug, of New York, in the chair. Reports were received from the members for the States of Massachusetts, Pennsyl- vania, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois as to the position of affairs in those States. It was re- solved to organize at once in all these States, and to make an aggressive campaign, especially in the States of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, where very hopeful prospects were reported. CHAPTER X. CLEVELAND'S PERSONAL CHARACTERIS- TICS AND HOME LIFE. Grover Cleveland's Personal Appearance. His Pictures seldom do him Justice. A Man of " the Old School." Cleveland in Society. His Bachelor Apartments. His Simple Tastes and Habits in Buffalo. Not Penurious and not Rich. His Free Work for Poor Clients. Prosperity has not Changed him. His Old Friends in Buffalo and Holland Patent. His Strong Traits predominate. His Brothers and Sisters. The Family Characteristics in a Disaster at Sea. At the Executive Mansion. The Governor's Democratic Simplicity. His Immense Mail, his Numerous Callers, and his Seat in Church. In personal appearance Governor Cleveland is not usually well represented in his published portraits, and his face is free from the stern, bull-dog look which the wood-cuts give him. He has a pleasant cast of counte- nance and is a winning talker. He is tall, stoutly built, weighing more than two hundred pounds, has dark brown hair, clear, keen eyes, and a firm and dignified expression. His manner is so curt and brusque that he often offends those who speak with him for the first time ; but the 180 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. longer he is known the more he is respected and admired. He does not wear his heart upon his sleeve, but under his stern demeanor he conceals a kindly and charitable nature. One of his most intimate friends characteristically de- fines him as " an up-and-up man.'' Everybody who has ever had any dealings with him is aware that he means precisely what he says and says exactly what he means. In appearance no less than in character he is one of the old Continental school of politicians, and in him we have a reminder of what strong, brave, honest, resolute men our forefathers were who founded this Republic. CLEVELAND IN SOCIETY. He loves congenial companionship and is a pleasant conversationalist, thoroughly capable of entertaining a company of any character, and it is said in Buffalo that he was always much courted in society, but could rarely be induced to enter the charmed circle. He is a bachelor, and all his love-affairs but one have been of the platonic kind, it is said, and some of his friends think he has been incapable of falling deeply in love since he became a lawyer in 1859. It is intimated that he became enamored of a beautiful young woman who was a relative of the late Judge Yerplanck. Six- was quite a flirt and delighted to tantalize him by per- mitting other young men to escort her home from the PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. 181 old Eao-le Street Theatre, which was then almost the O * only place of amusement in Buffalo. The girl was com- paratively wealthy and at first looked down on Grover, but afterward they were engaged to be married. When she was taken ill with a fever and died, Cleveland did not recover from the shock for several months, and, although he likes the society of women, his friends say that he will never marry. HIS BACHELOR APARTMENTS. A newspaper correspondent who visited Buffalo to ob- tain information of Cleveland's life in that city wrote : " I looked into his law-offices on Main Street. They were curiously solid and unpretentious, and upstairs were the bachelor rooms where for years Grover Cleveland had slept and worked. I examined them minutely, for one often obtains a glimpse of character by such entourage. And they were instantly indicative of the simple tastes, methodical habits, and studious life of the occupant. Two or three pictures, evidently selected not for decoration, but because the owner prized the subject and admired the treatment, hung on the walls. But there was else- where not a superfluous article in the room. Elegance had been forgotten in the successful attempt to secure comfort and convenience and seclusion." The gossip is that he never had any other place of 182 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. residence after he began to practise. He spent his even- ings in his law library or in the company of his bachelor friends at the City Club or the Buffalo Club, on Dela- ware Avenue. He took his meals at Mrs. (i;u boarding-house, with the added luxury of a Sunday morn- ing breakfast at the Terrapin Lunch, a plain restaurant where a good meal can be had at a modest price. But although his style of life was very simple he is not penurious. His reputation is not that of a money- getter and money-saver. Had he been ambitious in this direction he could and would have been a rich man, his friends say, he is not a rich man, in spite of his frugal bachelor habits. He did much free legal work for poor clients, and had a way of assisting them which, although creditable to him, did not put money in his purse. He was a liberal benefactor of the charities of Buffalo. Judge-Advocate-General King says of his visit to Buffalo, shortly before the Chicago Convention : " While there I saw the Governor. "What do you think he said when he learned that I was bound for Chicago ? He told me that I had better go back to New York and quietly attend to my own business. He was so sensitive that lie could not bear to have friends working for him. I never saw such a man. While I was there we dined together at Gerot's, which is about four blocks from his office. It took us half an hour to get there. I never saw a man stopped so many times on the street by people who PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. 183 wanted to shake his hand and say ' How d'ye do ? ' This was before the nomination, mind you. What must it be now?" Governor Cleveland has the confidence and respect of everybody in Buffalo, it is said, except a few ward-poli- ticians whom he disappointed. His prosperity has not changed him. He is essentially a man of the people, and looks on all men as equal. As Mayor of Buffalo or Gov- ernor of New York he was the same among his friends. .While a law-student he spent a brief vacation at Holland Patent and the people of that village know him as a man and for him they all have a kindly word. The news of his nomination was joyfully received there, and many an old-time Republican participated in the demonstra- tions of satisfaction. HIS STRONG TRAITS. Warm as the friendships of Cleveland undoubtedly are, the strong traits of character, which appeal to respect more than to affection, undoubtedly predominate in him. Says one who has known him from boyhood : " Grover won our admiration by his three traits of indomitable industry, unpretentious courage, and unswerving honesty. I never saw a more thorough man at anything he under- took. Whatever the subject was, he was reticent until he had mastered all its bearings and made up his own 184 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. mind, and then nothing could swerve him from his con- viction. It was this quality of intellectual integrity more than anything else, perhaps, that made him afterwards listened to and respected when more brilliant men who were opposed to him were applauded and forgotten." HIS FAMILY FKIENDS. The nine children of the Cleveland family in the order of their ages are : Mrs. Hastings, who married a mission- ary to the Island of Ceylon ; Eev. "William Cleveland, who is now preaching with great acceptance in the village of Forestport ; Grover Cleveland, Governor of New York and a candidate for the Presidency of the United States ; Kichard Cecil Cleveland, who was lost at the burning of the ship Missouri, off the Island of Abaco, October 22d, 1872 ; Mrs. Hoyt, whose husband was for- merly of Theresa, but is now a business-man in Fayette- ville ; Mrs. Louisa Bacon, a most amiable and attractive lady, whose husband is an architect in Toledo, O.; Lewis Frederick Cleveland, who had marked ability as a busi- ness-man. He was, moreover, a jovial and wonderfullv agreeable gentleman, who made friends wherever he went. He leased a large boarding-house at Nassau and made it very popular. Frederick was drowned with his brother at the burning of the Missouri. Mrs. Snsan You- mans lives at "Walrntli, Wayne County. Her husband PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. 185 has represented his district in the State Legislature. He is now a heavy owner of Holstein stock. Miss Elizabeth Cleveland remains at the old homestead, but she is often the guest of her brother in Albany. ^Miss Cleveland is a talented lady and has ability as a writer. Grover seems to have assumed more than any other member of the family the care of his mother and sisters after the death of his father, and his relations to the sur- vivors of the family are peculiar. All the children were educated in a strict school, and are well grounded in a sense of right and justice, the mother having been as severe a disciplinarian as the father. She evidently never withheld good advice, for after Grover was elected Mayor of Buffalo she wrote him saying what her am- bitions were for him, and concluding as follows : " But now that you have taken upon yourself the burdens of public office do right, act honestly, impartially, and fear- lessly." One who knew the family well says of the two brothers who "were lost at sea: " Their action at the burn- ing of the ship was characteristic of the whole family. When the ship caught fire there was a panic among the passengers. The officers of the vessel were incompetent and as frightened as the rest. Amid the confusion Cecil found his brother Fred, and together they stood by wljen the boats were lowered and helped the terror-stricken passengers into them, doing the work the recreant cap- 186 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. tain should have done. "When the boats were filled there was no room for them, and together they went down." AT THE EXECUTIVE MANSION. On the day before his inauguration as Governor, Cleveland came from Buffalo with his law-partner, Mr. Bissell, went to the Executive Mansion and spent the nio-ht. On the morrow the Governor-elect walked from ^* the Executive Mansion in company with his friend to the Capitol, which is a mile distant. He entered the build- ing unrecognized, sauntered to the Executive Chamber and was there met by Governor Cornell. The moment the inaugural ceremony was over he passed into the spacious Executive Chamber, ordered the doors opened to admit anybody, and went to work. Says a newspaper correspondent : " His habits are methodical and industrious. He walks from the Ex- ecutive Mansion every morning at nine o'clock to the Capitol and goes to work. At 1.30 he walks back to his lunch, which takes an hour. He then returns on foot to work again, and remains until six, when he goes to dinner. He is back at eight, and generally stays until eleven or twelve. He keeps no horses or extra servants, and has not been known to ride since he has been at Al- bany, except for an occasional pleasure-jaunt. The amount of work thus accomplished as his private secretary, Mr. Daniel S. Lamont, testifies is something enormous." PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HOME LIFE. 187 THE GOVERNOR AFTER THE NOMINATION. Governor Cleveland is fond enough of sport to pro- voke an old friend to say : " He was a good shot, just as he was good at whatever he undertook." But since his nomination for the Presidency his cares have increased, and he has seldom been absent from his post. His mail has become immense, and his callers are so numerous that he is kept standing near his desk most of the time. The humblest man or woman is admitted to his presence as readily as the highest, and he greets all comers with the cheery good-nature and pleasant smile which are charac- teristic of him. ISTo ceremony of introduction is observed. The Governor spends more time in the Executive Cham- ber than ever before, but he is able to attend to business only at intervals. On Sundays he attends the Fourth Presbyterian Church, where he has a pew and has been a regular attendant since his arrival at Albany. CHAPTER XL CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. Grover Cleveland Judged from the Character of His Friends. His Serenade Speech to Albany Friends at the Executive Mansion. His Buffalo Friends Proud of him and his Honors. The Best Men of his Party. Congratulations from "a Democratic War- horse." Cleveland and his Irish Friends. Ex-Senator Kernan, Father McGlynn, Daniel Dougherty, and the Boston Pilot. Cleve- land and his German Friends. The Power of the German Vote. Cleveland and his Soldier-Friends. Cleveland and his Managers. Friends of the Press. Cleveland's Friends the "Bolters." Their High Character and Great Influence. Timid Friends Reas- sured. Scandal in the Campaign. Cleveland " a Man of Destiny." A man may be judged from the character of his friends ; and in the study of the career of Grover Cleve- land a glance at the followers attracted by him in his campaign for the Presidency will have value. "When first informed of his nomination at Chicago he immediately said : " Go over and tell sister. She will be glad to hear it." The friends of his own family were more delighted CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. 189 than himself by the honor bestowed upon him, and their assistance relieved him of many of the social cares of his position from the beginning of the campaign. HIS SERENADE SPEECH. His own feelings and the friendly regard of the peo- ple of Albany were expressed at a serenade on the eve- ning of his nomination. In response to an address he said : " FELLOW-CITIZENS : I cannot but be gratified with this kindly greeting. I find that I am fast reaching the point where I shall count the people of Albany not merely as fellow-citizens, but as townsmen and neigh- bors. On this occasion I am, of course, aware that you pay no compliment to a citizen, and present no personal tribute, but that you have come to demonstrate your loyalty and devotion to a cause in which you are heartily enlisted. The American people are about to exercise, in its highest sense, their power and right of sovereignty. They are to call in review before them their public servants and the representatives of political parties, and demand of them an account of their stewardship. Par- ties may be so long in power and may become so arro- gant and careless of the interests of the people as to grow heedless of their responsibility to their masters; but the time comes as certainly as death when the peo- ple weigh them in the balance. The issues to be adju- 190 CLEVELAND AND HIS FEIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. dicated by the nation's great assize are made up, and are about to be submitted. We believe that the people are not receiving, at the hands of the party which for nearly twenty years has directed the affairs of the nation, the full benefits to which they are entitled, of a pure, just, and economical rule, and we believe that the as- cendency of genuine Democratic principles will insure a better government and greater happiness and pros- perity to all the people. To reach the sober thought of the Nation, and to dislodge an enemy entrenched behind spoils and patronage, involves a struggle which, if we underestimate, we invite defeat. I am profoundly im- pressed with the responsibility of the part assigned to me in this contest. My heart, I know, is in the cause, and I pledge you that no effort of mine shall be want- ing to secure the victory which I believe to be within the achievement of the Democratic hosts. Let us enter on the campaign, now fairly opened, each one appreciat- ing well the part he has to perform, ready, with solid front, to do battle for better government confidently, courageously, always honorably, and with a firm reliance upon the intelligence and patriotism of the American people." CLEVELAND AND HIS BUFFALO FEIENDS. Reference has already been made to Cleveland's cor- dial relations in Buffalo. The Boston Herald of July STREET SCENE AT NIGHT IN BUFFALO, GROVER CLEVELAND'S HOME, ON RECEIPT OF THE NEWS OF HIS NOMINATION. CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. 191 16th said : " The city of Buffalo, which knows Grover Cleveland the best, respects and trusts him the most. No Presidential candidate was ever held in higher esteem in the place of his residence than the Democratic nominee enjoys in the city where all of his mature years have been spent. "Without distinction of party, nationality, profes- sion, occupation^ or rank, the citizens of Buffalo regard Grover Cleveland as an honest and upright man, clear in his convictions and strong in the courage of them, of great executive ability, and capable and honorable in every relation of life." Said an old resident : " Never in the history of Buffalo has there in a Presidential campaign been so much enthu- siasm. Governor Cleveland seems to have captured his adopted city by storm. On the day of his nomination Buffalo had a spontaneous uprising." In the evening of that day the city was red with the glare of fireworks, an almost endless procession, with banners and music, paraded the principal thoroughfares, and men of both parties engaged in the demonstration.. About all Buffalo turned out for an ovation to the Chicago delegates on their return, and two Republican addresses of that occasion indicate the enthusiasm of Cleveland's friends of his own city in his support. Maurice Courtney said: "I have known the choice of the Democratic Convention for more than twenty-five years, and I cannot refrain from saying a word or two 192 CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. in his behalf. I knew Grover Cleveland when he was studying law in this city, and in all his relations found him the same modest, retiring, unassuming man." Dr. Storck, known as a Republican for more than a quarter of a century, said: "It may be considered inap- propriate to many that I should join in this demonstra- tion over the nomination of a candidate for the Presi- dency of the United States by the Democratic Conven- tion at Chicago, but, my fellow-citizens, if it was only on the score of local pride I should appear here to-night. Every citizen of Buffalo, no matter what his antecedents politically, should feel proud of the honor conferred upon the city. Why has this distinguished honor been con- ferred ? It was for reason of Cleveland's fearless course in the path of reform, his honesty of purpose, and his high conduct as Governor of the Sate of New York." The scenes and the speeches following the announce- ment of the ticket for the Democratic canvass of 1884: will never be forgotten by many in Buffalo. THE BEST MEN OF HIS PARTY. The best men of Cleveland's party were especially delighted with his nomination at Chicago. " Favored by the right-thinking elements of both the Democratic and Republican parties," was the expression used by a celebrated metropolitan journalist to describe the posi- CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. 193 tion of the candidate. Hon. Erastus Brooks, who, in an open letter to his Staten Island constituents, com- mended Governor Cleveland as possessing honesty, capa- city, and fidelity, was the representative of the most high-minded Democrats in that action. Judge Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, a Democratic war-horse whose opinions have great weight, in the fol- lowing communication expressed the feelings of the best element of his party as to the prospect of reform through the elevation of Cleveland to the Presidency : " SUBF HOTEL, FIRE ISLAND, July 12th, 1884. " To His Excellency Governor Cleveland. " MY DEAR SIB : From this quiet nook, where I am seeking rest, I send my sincere congratulations, not simply because you are nominated, but because you owe that nomination to the conviction pervading the minds of the people that you can be relied on to bring to the discharge of high duties the honesty and unyielding purpose which are indispensable to secure much-needed reforms and to correct long-existing abuses. I am glad the occasion has come for this great struggle while I still have strength of body and mind to share in the labors of the conflict, and, with sincere regard, " I am very truly yours, "AMASA J. PAKKEB." 194 CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. CLEVELAND AND HIS IRISH FRIENDS. At the beginning of the campaign, predictions were made that many Irish voters would " bolt," but conspic- uous Irish leaders immediately declared their adherence to Cleveland. Ex-Senator Kernan, of New York, for- merly Roscoe Conkling's law-partner in Utica, was one of the first, and he said : " We had to nominate a man who could carry New York State, and Mr. Cleveland, in my rnind, is the only man who can do it. His record, though a brief one, is one that we of New York State are proud of. He has been the Governor of the Empire State, not of any sec- tion or body of men, but of all and for all. The charge has been presented against him by certain parties that as Governor he has opposed the Catholics and their Church. Does the record support this ? No, sir ; in no way. In fact, they might have charged just the opposite, for, as is well known, he appointed three Catholics to the three highest-salaried offices in the gift of the Governor, one of which was the Superintendent of Public "Works, a most important office, the others the Superintendent of the State Insurance Department and President of the Rail- road Commission. Does this look like holding the Catholics back? Have not the papers published long interviews with the most prominent members of the Catholic clergy and laity, who stated in plainest terms CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. 195 that they never knew of Governor Cleveland doing an unfair act toward the Catholic Church or its members ? Again, we have the confidence of the business commu- nity. They believe in Cleveland, and they will vote for him. Of my own knowledge, there are men who have not taken any interest in politics for years who are so well pleased with the course pursued by Mr. Cleveland that they will support him earnestly at the polls. Cleve- land may lose the Tammany vote, but where he loses one vote there he will, in my opinion, gain two, if not three, from other sources. I have looked at this matter fairly, and am assured of the success of the Democratic Party at the polls next November." Father McGlynu, of St. Stephen's Church, one of the oiost influential of metropolitan priests, said : " Person- ally and as a citizen I rejoice in his nomination because I believe it in the interest of good, pure, simple, and honest government, and therefore for the good of the whole people. As a clergyman I recognize the duty of carefully avoiding even the appearance of abusing the in- fluence of my sacred calling in the interest of partisan politics. But just because I am a Catholic clergyman I feel it to be my right and duty to denounce the crime and folly of those who abuse the sacred name of religion by saying that the Catholics, as such, will oppose the Gov- ernor." Daniel Dougherty, the "silver-tongued orator" of 196 CLEVELAND AND HIS FKIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. Pennsylvania, who nominated General Hancock for Presi- dent at Cincinnati in 1880, said : " I have the personal as- surance of eminent men that Governor Cleveland is free from all prejudice against the Catholics of this country. We Roman Catholics do not expect a President to violate any constitutional claims to oblige us, and we would be unworthy of our faith if we asked for any favors not consistent with constitutional obligations." The Boston Pilot, John Boyle O'Reilly's well-known Roman Catholic organ, which opposed Cleveland's nomi- nation, said : " We opposed the nomination of Cleveland the candidate ; we shall faithfully and earnestly work for the election of Cleveland the Democratic standard-bearer. We say to Mr. Blaine now that had he been a defender of the rights of naturalized citizens when those citizens were flung into foreign prisons, untried and uncharged, the Pilot would support him to-day, and a million Americans of the Irish race would vote for him in November. But he did not do it, and his pretensions of fair play and friendship now are sheer humbug." Several Tammany sachems promptly declared their support, and Mr. Hendricks, the candidate for Vice- President, confidently expressed the opinion that his friend John Kelly would not oppose his election for the sake of defeating Cleveland, were there no other con- sideration to induce the Tammany chieftain to lead Irish voters for the Democratic ticket. CLEVELAND AND HIS FKIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. 197 CLEVELAND AND HIS GERMAN FRIENDS. The Germans heartily rejoiced when they heard that Cleveland was a candidate, and many German Republi- cans declared that they would not vote for Elaine. Dr. Edward Storck, one of the most influential German He- publicans in Buffalo, a physician of fine reputation and one of the best political speakers in his city, expressed the opinion that "the mass of German Republicans of Buf- falo will swing into line and support Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency." He also expressed the satisfaction of his people because the Dem- ocratic party recognized the German element in its na- tional councils. The honor of temporary chairman was tendered to a distinguished German, ex-Governor Muller of Cleveland, Ohio, and the New York convention chose as elector-at-large a representative of the German element. A very influential German Republican of Brooklyn said : "I have the best of reasons for believing that my views are the same as those of a large majority of the in- telligent German voters of the United States, irrespective of parties. The opposition of German voters to Blaine will be strongest in New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Indi- ana, and I believe will prove fatal to his candidacy." , The German vote is so much greater than the Irish that Cleveland's gain of German support was believed ]9S CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. by his friends to more than offset any defection of Irish voters, even if the exaggerated estimates of the Elaine men were accepted. CLEVELAND AND HIS SOLDIER-FRIENDS. The story of Cleveland's agreement with his two brothers to care for their mother and sisters while they served in the war for the Union produced a deep im- pression, and his interest in the military service, evinced as Governor in his inaugural message, elicited a response of friendly feeling on the part of the National Guard. The Governor's unexpected visits to the New York en- campment at Peekskill soon after his nomination in- creased the friendship, as it was known that he must have had much difficulty in leaving his personal inter- ests at Albany. Accompanied by his sisters, Mrs. Iloyt, Mrs. Folsom and Miss Folsom, of Buffalo, and Adjutant- General Farnsworth and Mrs. Farnsworth, he devoted a whole day to the review and reception at each visit. While Mayor of Buffalo he vetoed a bill appropriat- ing public money for a soldiers' monument, and he did it on the ground that the City Council had no right to appropriate public funds for a purpose of that kind, but he suggested a public subscription, and the first and largest subscriber was Mayor Cleveland. As Governor of New York he approved a bill providing that the CLEVELAND AND HIS FRIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. 199 heads of the various State departments shall, when making appointments, give preference to honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the United States, and his acts have demonstrated his interest in both the veterans of the war and in the National Guard. CLEVELAND AND HIS MANAGERS. When the Democratic National Committee met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, on July 24th, to organize for the campaign, Texas and Nevada were the only States, and Dakota, New Mexico, Utah, and "Wyoming the only Territories failing to answer to roll- call. The Committee was composed as follows : Alabama, Henry C. Semple ; Arkansas, S. "W. Fordyce ; Califor- nia, JVI. F. Tarpey ; Colorado, M. S. Waller ; Connecti- cut, W. II. Barn um ; Delaware, Ignatius C. Grubb ; Florida, Samuel Pasco ; Georgia, Patrick Walsh ; Illi- nois, S. Corning Jndd ; Indiana, Austin H. Brown ; Iowa, M. M. Ham ; Kansas, C. W. Blair ; Kentucky, Henry Y. McIIenry ; Louisiana,^. F. Jonas; Maine, Edmund Wilson ; Maryland, A. P. Gorman ; Massa- chusetts, Frederick O. Prince ; Michigan, Don M. Dick- inson ; Minnesota, H. H. Kelly ; Missouri, John G. Pratlier ; Mississippi, C. A. Johnson ; Nebraska, James E. Boyd; Nevada, Dennis E. McCarthy; New Ramp- 200 CLEVELAND AXD HIS FKIENDS IN THE CAMPAIGN. *////v- ernment at the rate of over $50,000,000 a year, and that, too, under a revenue system that had been adjusted within one year by the Tit-publican Party. When accumulated gold overflows the vaults of the Treasury and tempts ex- travagant, wasteful, and sometimes corrupt legislation, who can question that revenue reform is the first duty of a sucessful party? And if the Democratic House had been received by a President in harmony with it. recom- mending a well-considered system of revenue reform, eliminating the vices that nestle in existing laws, and re- ducing very largely the amount of the revenue, does any man doubt that now there would have been a great re- lief from the burthen of excessive taxation, and that we would have had a system of revenue resting upon justice and fair play? " Foremost among the duties and obligations which this great Convention should admonish its nominee to represent is, that the laws be executed and that the pub- lic expenditures be greatly reduced. Shall the vast standing army of 120 regiments continue under Demo- HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 215 cratic rule? At the close of the war, I believe, 60,000 men were found sufficient to execute the civil service. The official register, as a matter of course, was somewhat increased, and it should not excite our special wonder ; but when from 60,000 in the course of twenty years it shall advance to 1,120,000, it bids the Democracy pause. The supernumeraries must be dismissed, unnecessary em- ployments discontinue ; and, in this connection, may I not Bay that the people whom you represent will stand like a stone wall beside the President in his endeavors to pro- mote economy and general reform ? "Eight years ago our party declared at St. Louis that reform is necessary in the civil service, and it demanded a change of system, a change of administration, and a change of party, that we might have a change of meas- ures and of men. The experience of every year has since confirmed that declaration and strengthened the demand. It is but two weeks ago that a Secretary, stand- ing upon the witness-stand, in the presence of a Senate Committee, to bear testimony to the reproach of one of the bureaus in his own department it was in the De- partment of Medicine and Surgery said that the false vouchers he supposed did not exceed $62,000. In former times when the sensibilities of the people became offended by official corruption, they themselves undertook the work of reform. I dare say many of you bear it in memory that an entire administration went down, and 216 HEXDK1CKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. for the trine being the parry went down with it. Localise of a defalcation or embezzlement of 02,000. That was but forty years ago. And that was the only ease that oc- curred attracting attention during that administration. Yet so fearful was the punishment by the people, that the party went from power for the time being. "Who expects that a party long in power, with all the emolu- ments of public position received and enjoyed by its fol- lowers and retainers, can reform itself? The recent case to which I have referred is very instructive. In that testimony the Secretary said that a year ago he had re- ceived a letter informing him of the misconduct of one of his employees, and that but very recently he had been told of two others engaged in nefarious transactions; but he said to the committee that so earnest was the pressure, especially by members of Congress, for the reappoint- ment of the head of the bureau, that he could not believe it possible that his bureau was in the condition in which he found it at last. The offences against the public service are numerous, many of them flagrant. They must be pursued to their hiding-place. They must be brought forth and exposed and punished, and the agents that the President shall employ I mean the new Presi- dent that you are to nominate here the agents that he shall employ must have no one to shield and nothing to conceal. Let fidelity and competency once more on the part of the employees and justice and fair play, so far as HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 217 the people are concerned, be observed and reforms will follow. " I hope never again to see the cruel and remorseless proscription for political opinions which has disgraced re- cent administrations. But bad as the civil service is, I know that there are men of tried fidelity in it. I know that there are men of ability in the present service, and I would not ask that they should be driven from office, but none but such ought to be continued. In the language of a writer, when we come to define the rights of the outs and those that are in, let it be understood that none but the fittest shali survive. "Now, Mr. President, I hope the new administration will hold itself instructed by the sentiment of 1876, in opposition to centralization, to that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends to consolidation in one, and thus creates, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. I have but one other sentiment to refer to before 1 shall call your attention to the claims which I propose to suggest for the man that I will nominate, and in respect to this sentiment no one is responsible but myself. Will nations never devise a more rational um- pire of differences than force? Must blood and treasure always flow before international controversies can be set- tled ? Controversies will arise ; they are inevitable ; but the civilization of this age demands that they be referred to the disinterested states for settlement by friendly arbi- 218 HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. trations. The intervening ocean protects our young re- public from the menace of European arms. It will be a beautiful spectacle if this republic, so strong and so secure, shall lead the nations in a movement for permanent peace and the relief of the people everywhere from the main- tenance of standing armies and ships of war. The best act of General Grant's administration was the settle- ment by arbitration of the controversies touching the Alabama. That settlement stands in bright glorious contrast in all history to the use that he himself made of our own army when he beleaguered the capital that men might have offices to which they were not elected. "Mr. President and gentlemen, I have to suggest for your consideration a citizen of the State of Indiana the Hon. Joseph E. McDonald. I thank you all for this re- ception which you have given to his name. Born in an adjoining State, Indiana became his home when but a boy. He learned a trade, and thus made himself independent and very respectable. And after that he pursued his studies with such opportunities as he had, and finally pre- pared himself for the great profession of the law. And from the time that he took his stand in the court-house of his county until the present time, when he may stand, it maybe, in the Supreme Court of the United States, he has been the peer of the best of that profession in the "West. First selected by the district, in which he was left HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION". 219 to prosecute the pleas of the State, afterward chosen by the State to represent her as the Attorney-General ; next not next to that ; but before that he went from his own district, in which he was raised from boyhood up, to the Congress of the United States, and afterward the people of the whole State sent him as a Senator to Washington. Faithfully, diligently, ably for six years he represented Indiana in the Senate, and he was welcomed by the ablest of the Senators as their peer. Mr. McDonald has been a student of the learning that has made the Democracy of the United States what it is to-day. He is familiar with the writings of the fathers, and his opinions are based upon the sentiments that came to him from their pages. He is of clear perception, of strong judgment, of earnest conviction. Fair-minded and just, no man who will have occasion to go to the White House when he shall be President, if you shall honor him with your nomination no man shall have occasion to find fault with the candid and frank manner of his reception. " Gentlemen of the Convention, I do not speak for Mr. McDonald alone. I do not speak for myself alone. I do not speak for those thirty gentlemen that have directed me to stand here and speak for them. I speak for a mighty State. But ten days ago a Democracy that never steps backward, a Democracy that meets the contest when and where it may come, instructed these thirty gentle- men and myself to say to you that Joseph E. McDonald 220 HENDRICKS IN" THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. is worthy your consideration as the candidate for the Presidency of the United States. "And what is Indiana, and what is the Democracy of Indiana? This mighty State, that is neither of the Ka.-t nor the West, but sitting midway between the East and the West, resting upon the Ohio, associating in com- merce, in trade, in good neighborship with the adjoining States this great State has said to us, Present the name of Mr. McDonald to the greatest convention the world has ever seen. And for Indiana I make my appeal to- day. What heed will you give Indiana? For twenty- five years during which I have had some responsible con- nection with this great party, she has been without strife or discord in her ranks. She acted always as one man, and when the election-days have come the tread of her Democracy lias been as the tread of one regiment M he.n the hour of battle is at hand. You know very well, gentlemen, that Indiana makes no question whether ^our candidate shall live in New York, Delaware, or Ken- tucky ; you know very well that when the crisis comes Indiana will give him her vote. But I want to know, are you going to make it against Indiana, because she is so faithful, because she will not hesitate? Are you to say from election to election, from convention to convention, ' We need not trouble about that solid State, she is all right ; her vote will go well at the election ; we must take care oh, just by way of illustration we must take care HENDKICKS IN" THE CHICAGO CONVENTION". 221 of New York ' ? Is that where, as representatives of the Democracy of Indiana, these thirty gentlemen and my- self have to stand in your presence ? We ask not a favor, because Indiana is true always, but we ask that that shall not come in judgment against her. When many of your States did hesitate, when the war had passed, the smoke of the battles had blown away and the sound of the guns upon the plains and among the mountains had ceased, and you struggled and we strug- gled, Indiana was the first State to carry the banner of Democracy to the front. And now, gentlemen, a man of good attainments, of high character, endorsed by my State, I present his name to you, and all that I ask is justice. The humblest of us all may ask that much; and when it shall come to be that in a Democratic convention justice may not be asked, then perhaps I had better re- view the practices of the past. and not come to conven- tions at all. I thank you, my brother-Democrats, I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the attention that you have given me while I have spoken for a friend." TAMMANY ATTEMPTS A STAMPEDE. McDonald declared, after the Convention, that Hen- dricks could not have served him more faithfully at Chicago ; but, notwithstanding his devotion to another, it was with difficulty that he could restrain his friends from placing his name before the Convention. 222 HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. John Kelly, the Grand Sachem of Tammany, is known as an ardent friend of Hendricks, and it is to him that the attempt of Tammany, on Friday, to stampede the Convention to the distinguished Indian ian is attributed. A correspondent of the Springfield Republican graphi- cally describes the scene as follows : " At length a little commotion was visible in the New York delegation, and the grim visage of the Grand Sachem of Tamilian v Hall was seen slowly rising out of the confusion. Mr. Kelly's mouth was wide open, but whatever individual noise was being emitted by the gentleman was drowned in the frightful uproar which had taken possession of the hall. Mr. Kelly's rising appeared to be the signal for a gen- eral demonstration on the part of the anti-Cleveland men in the Convention. Delegates in all parts of the space within the railing sprang upon their chairs ami raised a shout. Prominent among the members of the body who assisted in creating this section of bedlam were the delegations from Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and the Tammany end of the New York delegation. In the midst of the turmoil the band struck up 'Hail to the Chief,' and the noise of the demonstration smothered the strains of music. One enthusiastic delegate from Indiana, Mr. Gibson, seized the Indiana marker and bore it to the chairman's desk, where he shouted something at the chairman's ear. The Chair, however, refused to listen, but continued HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION". 223 to thump the desk with his gavel, and Mr. Gibson retired. In the mean time the audience and delegates vied with each other in producing a din which drowned out the voices of two or three dozen Cleveland men who were attempting 'to get the ear of the Chair. With all this turmoil about him, Governor Hendricks preserved a perfect calmness. He sat in his chair and resisted the determined efforts of a horde of shouting delegates who tried to drag him to his feet. A number of the Tam- manyites resumed their seats, but Senator Grady danced about on his chair violently waving a newspaper. Flags, handkerchiefs, fans, hats, and even coats and shawls were brought into use by the Hendricks sympathizers in the audience. All at once out of the uproar came a voice like the blast of a fog-horn, and Mr. Beck of Indiana called for three cheers for Thomas A. Hen- dricks, and these were given. " General Mansur forced his way through the crowds in the aisle, and climbed up to Chairman Vilas's position with a statement that Missouri wished to cast its vote solid for Thomas A. Hendricks, but the Chair with a few vigorous thumps of his gavel, which now began to look worn and frayed at the edges, informed the Missourian that he was out of order. James M. Quarles, of Tennessee, informed the Chair, in a sten- torian voice, that his State desired to put in nomina- tion Thomas A. Hendricks. Mr. Quarles also tried 224 HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. his hand on the chairman, but with no better suc- cess." HENDRICKS FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. Mr. Hendrieks was much gratified by the enthusi- astic reception he received, and he remarked laugh- ingly, during the afternoon: "If the nomination had been left to the crowd and not the> Convention, I ex- pect I would have been nominated ; but no new man could have defeated Mr. Cleveland at that stage of the proceedings." About six o'clock on Friday evening, when the roll was called for the nomination of a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, Senator "Wallace, of Pennsylvania, said that he nominated as a candidate for Vice-President "a man conversant with public affairs throughout his whole life, an honored statesman, a pure and upright citizen, a victim of the grossest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people Thomas A. Hendrieks." The nomination was seconded by Governor Waller, of Connecticut. The cheering was almost deafening for several minutes, and it was with great difficulty that sufficient order could be restored to hear Major Men- zies, who declared, with much earnestness, that Mr. Hendrieks was not and would not be a candidate. Mr. "Wallace, of Pennsylvania, said that Mr. lit n- dricks had been once chosen Vice-President, and had SCENE AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION ON ANNOUNCING THE NOMINATION OF HON. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION". 227 eon despoiled of his office. The Democrats of the epnblic demanded of him again his name as a candi- iate, and they would not take No for an answer. He noved to suspend the rules and nominate Thomas A. 3endricks as a candidate for Yice-President by accla- nation. Mr. Searles, of California, withdrew the name of :losecrans, a Kansas delegate that of Governor Glick, tnd Governor Grant withdrew the name of McDonald. The nomination of Mr. Hendricks was seconded by Governor Hubbard, of Texas, and hosts of others, and was finally made unanimous amid much enthusiasm, Indiana voting for Hendricks after it was announced that he was the only candidate in the field. To a correspondent who called at his room immedi- ately after the nomination, Mr. Hendricks said he was not prepared to say whether he would accept. He did not want the nomination, and felt embarrassed at re- ceiving it under the circumstances. " I am going home (right away," he said laughingly ; " I don't think this city I is safe for me any longer. I feel very grateful for the cordial greeting I have received to-day." Mr. Hen- dricks left for home at eight o'clock that evening. CHAPTER XIII. MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. Mr. Hendricks's Birth and Ancestry. His College Life and Ad- mission to the Bar. His Rapid Progress as a Lawyer. Elected to the Indiana Legislature at the Age of Twenty eight. Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. His Interest in the Public Schools. He Speaks in Favor of the State Banking System. Elected to Congress for the First Time by an Immense Majority. Mr. Hendricks's Opposition to the Know-Nothing Movement. President Pierce Appoints him Land Commissioner. His Disas- trous Candidacy for the Governorship in 1860. Resuming the Prac- tice of Law at Indianapolis. THOMAS ANDREWS HENDRICKS, the distin- guished Indiana statesman and candidate of 1884 for the Vice-Presidency, is a native of Moskingtmi County, Ohio, where he was born on September 7th, 1819. His paternal grandfather was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. William Hendricks, an uncle, was the sec- ond governor of Indiana, and he was also a representa- tive in Congress and a United States senator. John TIendricks, the father of Thomas A. Hendricks, was a MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. 229 farmer. On his mother's side Mr. Hendricks is of Scotch blood. His mother, a Miss Thomson, settled in the Cumberland Yalley, Pennsylvania, in 1772. Judge Thomson, a well-known jurist, who was professor of law in Gettysburg College, was his mother's brother. Mr. Hendricks's parents were married in Pennsylva- nia, and one year after his birth they removed to Madi- son, Indiana. Subsequently they settled in Shelby County, where the father of the candidate for the Vice- Presidency built himself a log-cabin, which is still stand- ing. HENDRICKS'S PARENTS. The father and mother of Mr. Hendricks possessed many of the virtues which most adorn private life. In religion a stanch Presbyterian and in politics a life-long Democrat, John Hendricks added to the simplicity and purity of his life a plain and solid intelligence united to a firm independence and great force of will. His mother possessed in a noteworthy degree the sterling qualities of good sense and straightforward probity, united to a mild and gentle disposition becoming her deep religious character. HENDRICKS'S CHARACTERISTICS AS A BOY. Mr. Hendricks as a boy evinced many of those at- tributes which in after-life made him famous. He was intelligent, kind-hearted, and sympathetic. 230 MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. Mrs. En anna Thompson, of Shelby County, who is now seventy-seven years old, remembers well when young Hendricks was a student in Decatur County, and tells the following story of an occurrence which im- pressed itself upon her memory : " A little orphan boy seemed to be the object of petty persecution by quite all the young men in attendance at the school. They hectored him to his great grief and annoyance, and he was a spectacle of forlorn friend- lessness, deserving of pity. Young Thomas Ilendricks's heart warmed to the little fellow with sincerest tenderness, and the attachment soon became mutual. This cham- pionship lifted a mountainous burden from the little fel- low's shoulders, and his cheerful countenance promptly betokened the growth of his courage and happiness under his protector. This incident was frequently the subject of complimentary comment upon young Hen- dricks, as suggestive of his generous nature and love of fair play." When eighteen years old Hendricks entered Hanover College, from which institution he was graduated in 1841. His college life was very much like the school- boy life which had preceded it. He was a good student and equally popular with his classmates and instructors. Leaving college, Hendricks, who was then twenty-two years old, went to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he began the study of law. MK. HENDRICKS IN EAELY LIFE. 231 ADMITTED TO THE BAK. Three years later he was admitted to the bar and be- gan the practice of his profession in Indiana. His suc- cess was at once rapid and substantial ; his pure life and genial manners won him a large circle of friends, and in a few years he became a lawyer of excellent standing. He often came in competition with Oliver P. Morton, subsequently known as the " War-Governor of Indiana," with whom his chances of success were about as those of Caleb Gushing with Rnfus Choate apt to be beaten before a jury and to succeed before a judge. As a lawyer Mr. Hendricks entered with an honest zeal into every case which engaged his attention, and never slighted any detail, however seemingly unimpor- tant, which might strengthen the cause of a client. His industry reaped its own reward. He became distin- guished at the bar both for his wide knowledge of the law and for the subtlety and soundness of his arguments. Men trusted him because they knew that his opinions were correct and his convictions honest. There were times when he became strongly aggressive. But his aggression was always against what he believed to be wrong. Under all circumstances he was a dangerous opponent. 232 MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. MR. HENDRICKS'S ABILITY AND POPULARITY AS A LAWYER. Young Hendricks was an impressive speaker, having early given himself much to the arts of oratory, and this fact at once directed toward him the choice of the peo- ple for public life. There was always a charm about him that won him hosts of friends. He was pure in morals, and not merely upright in character, but solici- tous to preserve himself from even the appearance of evil. He was careful in money matters ami slowly ac- cumulated a moderate fortune, although his practice was often interrupted by political service, and his expenses increased to meet the social requirements of official sta- tion. His condition enabled him to render material assistance to many of his poorer companions, and the opportunity to do a generous act was never slighted. MR. HEXDRICKS'S ENTRANCE INTO POLITICAL LIFE. At an early age Mr. Hendricks's inclinations turned to a political life. His youthful ambition to win success, and the opportunities which then presented themselves, com- bined to urge him in this direction of effort. After live years' practice at the bar, Mr. Hendricks was in 1848 elected to the Indiana Legislature. He was then but O twenty-eight years of age. One term of service satisfied his ambition, and although tendered a renomination in 1S50 he declined to accept it. MR. HENDRICKS IK EARLY LIFE. 233 In 1850 the people of Indiana decided to call a con- vention to revise the State constitution which had been in operation since 1816. The adoption of a new consti- tution - in accord with the spirit of the time was ap- proached with much caution. The people were im- pressed with the necessity of confiding the trust to the wisest and best men in the State. It is seldom that a finer body of men has assembled for a like purpose than that which met at Indianapolis in October, 1850, to prepare a constitution for the State of Indiana. Mr. Hendricks was elected as a member of this convention, although he was at the time but thirty- one years old. In the same body were Schuyler Colfax, afterwards Vice-President of the United States, William E. English, who was the Vice-Presidential candidate on the ticket with General Hancock in 1880, and William S. Holman, for many years member of Congress from Indiana. As a member of the convention, Mr. Ilen- dricks was distinguished for his zeal and activity, and was especially conspicuous in securing ample provision for popular education and placing its support beyond the vicissitudes of politics. AN ADVOCATE OF THE STATE BANKING SYSTEM. The question of State banks as opposed to the free banking system came into prominence about this time, 234: MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. and Mr. Hendricks appeared as an advocate of the for- mer, making an elaborate speech in its favor. His views prevailed, and the system became so popular that his name was frequently mentioned in connection with a nomination for Congressman. Up to this time Mr. Hen- dricks had displayed in an eminent degree that force and energy of character which lead to successful action, and had left their impress upon every deliberative body to which he had belonged. In a word, he had shown all the elements of a bold, aggressive, and successful leader- ship. If lost with a multitude in a pathless wilderness, he would not lag behind waiting for some one else to plan or open the pathway of escape. He would be more .apt to promptly advise which was the best way out, or make the road himself and call upon his comrades to follow. MR. HENDBICKS'S FIRST ELECTION TO CONGRESS. It was, therefore, not surprising that the Democrats of his district with great unanimity solicited him to become their standard-bearer in the race for Congress. Mr. Hendricks accepted the nomination, and in the election of 1851 he was elected to a seat in Congress from the central district of the State, whose limits at that time extended from Brown County on the south to Tipton on the north, and from Marion on the east to Hendricks on the west. The popularity of Mr. Hendricks was attested ME. HENDRICKS IX EARLY LIFE. 235 by the heavy majority he secured over Colonel Rush, of Hancock, whom he defeated by four thousand votes. MR. HENDRICKS'S OPPOSITION TO KNOW-NOTHTNGISM. In 1854: the country, in addition to other causes of agitation, was visited by a cyclone known as Know-Xoth- ingism, which for a time threatened to overwhelm and obliterate the traditions and laws of the country, and to create the most odious distinctions of citizenship based upon religion and nationality. Never did the war of prejudice and ignorance beat with a greater force upon the most sacred guarantees of the Constitution ; never was a public mind more thoroughly permeated with hos- tility toward men of foreign birth. Foreign-born per- sons were to be ostracized, and Know-Nothing lodges sprang up everywhere. Mr. Hendricks refused to give his sympathy to this movement. Kot only so, but he was loud in his denunciations of the agitation, and declared himself in favor of equal rights ; and so persistent was he in his course that for refusing to join the organization he was defeated in a contest for an office for which he had been chosen as a candidate. APPOINTED LAND COMMISSIONER BY PRESIDENT PIERCE. In the month of August, 1855, Mr. Hendricks, while engaged in the practice of his profession in Shelby ville, 236 MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. was surprised by the appearance of a messenger announc- ing himself as the bearer of an important communication. Mr. Hendricks, who was seated on the veranda of his dwelling-house at the time, hastily opened the missive, which proved to be an autograph letter from President Pierce tendering him the appointment of Land Commis- sioner. This was the first intimation that the President had even considered Mr. Hendricks's name in connection with the office. Mr. Hendricks was gratified with tin's unexpected proffer by the chief magistrate; but while appreciating the honor, was not inclined to accept the post without due consideration. He was for some time dis- posed to decline, and had frequent consultations with his father upon the practicability of accepting. Although Mr. Hendricks was at this time in the thirty-seventh year of his age, his early training and inclinations de- terred him from taking any important step without first obtaining the advice of his father. At the suggestion of the senior Hendricks he concluded to accept, and in the month of September he repaired to Washington and entered at once upon his duties, which he continued to perform for four years. During his incumbency about four hundred thousand land patents were issued, and twenty-two thousand contested land cases were settled. The clerical conduct of that branch of the Government was the pride of the Interior Department ; and it is compli- mentary to Mr. Hendricks's administration that of his MR. HENDRICKS IN EARLY LIFE. 237 multitude of decisions in contested cases few Lave been reversed by the courts. MR. HENDRICKS 8 DEFEAT IN THE INDIANA GUBERNATORIAL CONTEST OF 1860. The great contest of 1860 found Mr. Hendricks again at Shelby ville. The movement of the Southern States in favor of secession was daily making headway. Once more Mr. Hendricks was compelled to enter the political arena despite his personal disinclinations. The Demo- cratic State Convention tendered him the nomination for Governor, and he consented to run. His opponent was Colonel Henry S. Lane, subsequently United States senator. Oliver P. Morton, afterward known as " the great War-Governor," was nominated as Lieutenant-Gov- ernor on the ticket with Colonel Lane. Four years before Morton had been engaged in a brilliant but unsuc- cessful campaign against AshbelP. Willard. The Demo- crats had a hard struggle in their attempt to elect their candidate. Their party was split into the Douglas and Breckinridge factions, Jesse D. Bright being the leader of the latter. The disaffection of the Democrats inspired the Republicans with unbounded enthusiasm. The Democrats lost cohesion ; Lane and Morton were elected by an overwhelming majority, and Mr. Hendricks, with characteristic submission to the will of the electors of the 238 MR. HENDRICKS IK EARLY LIFE. State, once more resumed the practice of law, removing to Indianapolis. Here he entered into partnership with Oscar B. Hard, afterward the Attorney-General of Indi- ana, and soon succeeded in establishing a large and remunerative practice. CHAPTER XIV. ME. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. His Service in the House of Representatives. Favoring Bounty Lands for Soldiers. His Support of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Elected United States Senator in 1860. His Opposition to the Freed- men's Bureau Bill. Hendricks's Answer to Fessenden. " I would not violate the Constitution in order to pass any law." Hendricks's Support of the Union Cause. The Warm Friendship between Hen- dricks and Lincoln. Hendricks Repels an Attack by Oliver P. Morton. How Hendricks Secured an Appointment for David Mc- Donald. MR. HENDRICKS served two terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. His first election, in 1851, was followed by re-election in the year following, in accordance with the terms of the new State Constitution in the formation of which he had taken so prominent a part. During his first term William H. English was one of his colleagues from Indiana. Among the other members of the House at that time were Elihu B. "Washburne and John C. Breckinridge. During his subsequent term Nathaniel C. Banks, of Massachusetts ; William M. Tweed, afterwards known as the " Tammany 240 MR. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. I Boss ;" Russell Sage, the New York millionaire; Rufus W. Peckluun, who subsequently achieved prominence as a member of the bar of New York ; Ueuben E. Fenton, who became Governor and United States Senator from New York ; Asa Packer, the Pennsylvania railway king ; Joshua R. Giddings, the abolitionist, and Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, were also members. MR. HENDRICKS FAVORING BOUNTY LANDS TO Sol. Hi In the course of his duties as Congressman, Mr. lien dricks was called upon, as a member of the Committee on Invalid Pensions, to consider many bills in the interest of the survivors of the Mexican War. "When the ques- tion of granting bounty lands to the soldiers was proposed, he heartily supported the proposition. According to the laws of 1850, the children of soldiers who died in the war of 1812 could not receive bounty land for the service of their deceased parent, and Mr. Ilendricks claimed that this was an inequality and an injustice, which he sought to remove. In an eloquent address to the House he con- tended that the man who enlisted, who left his home and abandoned his business, ought to receive bounty land, even though the service might not have been to the extent of one month. While a member of the House Mr. Ilendricks declared himself in favor of giving lands upon easy terms to actual settlers. ME. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. 241 "When the subject of establishing railway and tele- graphic communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific came np, Mr. Hendricks was active in the fre- quent discussions, and delivered it as his opinion that the Government should not give its aid to the construction of only one road instead of three as had been proposed. HIS SUPPORT OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. During Mr. Hendricks's second term in Congress Stephen A. Douglas introduced his famous Kansas- Nebraska bill, which called for a repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and virtually abrogated the Clay compromise of 1850. In company with forty-three of the eighty-eight Northern Democrats then in the House, n v o Mr. Hendricks voted for the bill. In the following Congressional Contention he was again nominated by his party, but the slavery agitation and his attitude toward that question had reduced his popularity. His vote in Congress was considered by his constituents as contrary to their sentiments upon the question, and the result was that Mr. Hendricks was defeated for a third term in Congress by Lucien Barbour, the first Republican Con- gressman from the Capital district of Indiana. ELECTED TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE. The Legislature of Indiana in 1862-63 was Demo- cratic, and Mr. Hendricks was unanimously chosen by 242 MR. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. that body as United States Senator for the term of six years, ending March 4th, 1869. He was then in the forty-fourth year of his age. Step by step he had climbed his way from the humble position of a village lawyer to membership in the most powerful and influ- ential parliamentary body in the world. On taking his seat in the Senate, Hendricks was made a member of the committees on Claims, Public Build- ings and Grounds, the Judiciary, Public Lands, and Na- val Affairs. He at once took part in all discussions of an important nature. The same interest he had manifested in the welfare of the country's defenders while a member of the lower House he displayed in the Senate, and he had hardly taken his seat before he was chosen by the officers of the Indiana Veteran Reserve Corps to loofc after their inter- ests in all questions affecting them. HIS SPEECH ON THE FREEDMEN's BUREAU BILL. No man in the Senate took a deeper interest in the questions bearing on the Reconstruction measures than Mr. Hendricks. When the proposition of enlarging the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau came up in the Senate, Mr. Hendricks delivered his first lengthy speech. As his reputation as United States Senator dates from the delivery of this effort, a few of its more striking pas- sages are here presented. Said he : ME. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. 243 "I regard the provisions of this bill as very dangerous legislation. It proposes to establish a government with- in a government not a republic within a republic, but a cruel despotism within a republic. In times of peace, in communities that are quiet and orderly and obedient to law, it is proposed to establish a government not re- sponsible to the people, the officers of which are not selected by the people, the officers of which need not be of the people governed ; a government more cruel, more despotic, more dangerous to the liberties of the people than that against which our forefathers fought in the Revolution. There is nothing that these men may not do, under this bill, to oppress the people. " Sir, if we establish courts in the Southern States, we ought to establish courts that will be on both sides or on neither side ; but the doctrine now is that if a man is appointed either to an executive or a judicial office in any locality where there are colored people, he must be on the side of the negro. I have not heard since Congress met that any colored man has done a wrong in this country for very many years; and I have scarcely heard that any white man coming in contact with col- ored people has done right for a number of years. Everybody is expected to take sides with the colored man against the white man. Toward the colored peo- ple I hope that the legislation of Congress, within the constitutional powers of Congress, will be just and fair 244 MR. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. just to them and jnst to the white people among whom they live ; that it will promote harmony among the peo- ple, and not discord ; that it will restore labor to its channels, and bring about again in those States a con- dition of prosperity and happiness. Do we not all de- sire it ? If we do, is it well for us to inflame our own passions and the passions of the people of the North BO that their judgments shall not be equal upon the questions between the races? It is all very well for us to have sympathy for the poor and the unfortunate, but both sides call for our sympathy in the South. The master, who by his wickedness and folly has in- volved himself in the troubles that now beset him, has returned abandoning his rebellion, and has 'bent do\vn upon his humbled knees and asked the forgiveness of the Government, and to be restored again as a citizen. Can a man go further than that ?" The subject of the Freedmen's Bureau engrossed the attention of the Senate for many weeks, all of the lead- ing members taking part in the discussions. Numerous sharp passages-at-arms occurred between Mr. Hendricki and his fellow-members, and Hendricks soon came to be regarded as the spokesman of the Democratic Party in the Senate. A running debate between Mr. Hendricks and Sena- tors Fessenden and Trumbull and other advocates of the measure was of almost daily occurrence. MR. HENDRICKS IN" CONGRESS. 245 HENDKICKS AND FESSENDEN IN DEBATE. On one of these occasions Mr. Fessenden inquired whether the Democrats in the Senate would dare to pass such a bill if the responsibility were upon the minority of that body, to which Mr. Hendricks replied : " I would dare to do whatever ray duty required. But there is one thing I would not dare do. Whatever seemed to be the responsibility upon me or my party, I would not dare to violate the Constitution in order to pass any law. I cannot dare do that. That is not courage ; it is crime. The question is simply, Where do we derive the power to appropriate money out of the public treasury for the support of indigent persons in the States ? If we can carry that proposition, then this Government can assume to do anything that it may choose to do." -,'r HENDKICXS 8 LOYALTY TO THE UNION. The records of Congress show that Mr. Hendricks while a member of the Senate was the most conspicuous member among the Democrats. To all measures regarded by him as having in view the preservation of the Union lie gave his support. When the question of raising troops by means of the drafting system was proposed, he opposed it on the ground that it was bad policy and would likely lead to disturbances and bloodshed in the North. In lieu, he suggested the payment of large bounties. 246 ME. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. Oliver P. Morton was for two years a Senator from Indiana at the time Hendricks sat in the Senate. One of the most exciting episodes ever witnessed in Congress was a discussion between the two Indiana Senators on the question of Reconstruction, in which Ilendricks reviewed in a masterly manner the course of his colleague on that question. A well-known journalist of Indianapolis says of Ilen- dricks's career as Senator : "As a party leader of conceded ability ; as a faithful, conscientious national legislator; as a public debater of the vital questions pressing during that eventful period upon the Senate for consideration, and as an integer in the social, legislative, and governmental life of Washing- ton, Senator Hendricks conferred honor upon both Con- gress and his constituency. He was not a mere figure- head, an official nonentity, nor a blatherskite demagogue, but a practical, earnest, often eloquent, most industrious and useful Senator, proving by a consistent record that his views which guided his course as a member of that august body were sincere and well-grounded convictions. He was a brave man among men, and had the respect and confidence of his compeers." The first two years of Mr. Hendricks's term in the Sen- ate covered the last two years of the war. MB. HENDKICKS IN CONGRESS. 247 HENDRICKS'S ACQUAINTANCE WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN. Mr. Hen d ricks while in Washington formed the ac- quaintance of President Lincoln, and between the two a warm friendship grew up, which was terminated only by the President's assassination in the spring of 1865. It is said that Hendricks had much influence with President Lincoln. The late David McDonald, of Indiana, tells the following story of Hendricks's assistance in securing him the appointment of United States district-judge after he was well-nigh exhausted by his efforts through other channels : " After I had related to Mr. Hendricks my sad tale of disappointment, he said cheerfully : ' Come along with me. I will try and have you see Mr. Lincoln. I will present you and you can make your own application.' "We went to the White House, and in response to Mr. Hendricks's card word came for us to go to the President's room. Never will I forget the scene. He was seated, and, after extending his hand to Senator Hendricks cor- dially, bade us be seated, looking at me kindly as I was presented. We did not sit down. Mr. Hendricks be- gan business at once by telling the President who I was, and then said: 'In respect to the position of United States District Judge, for which my friend Mr. McDon- ald is an applicant, as for his fitness he can speak better for himself.' How long I stood there speechless, striv- 248 MR. HENDRICKS IN CONGRESS. ing in vain to remember the speech I had so carefully prepared, I cannot recall, but when I nm.-teivd courage to look up and was met by the kind, earne.-t I'yi-s of the great man I broke completely down and stammered, 'Mr. President, if you can give me this place you will make an old man very happy.' Xext I iVlr my hand tightly clasped in the hand of Mr. Lincoln, and some- how I could not see very plainly. You know I have the place, and that is the way I came to get it." HENDRICKS'S REPLY TO MORTON'S FALSE ASs! .KTIo.V. When Ilend ricks was serving his last year as Senator, his colleague Morton charged, in an address delivered at Tipton, Indiana, that Ilendricks, in a speech at the Chi- cago Convention in 18G4, had referred to Mr. Lincoln as the ''smutty old tyrant at Washington.'' Ilendricks, when his attention was called to this statement of Mor- ton, said : When I read that passage I was astonished and an- noyed. I could not believe that I had thus, in coarse language, spoken disrespectfully of Mr. Lincoln. I had then served one session in the Senate, and I had come to know him, and my, respect for him would not allow any one to speak unkindly of him, much less with disrespect. I was unwilling the people should believe I had so spoken of him. Though I was confident I had not e\i>; such a sentiment, I delayed an answer until J might have MR. HENDRICKS IN/ CONGRESS. 249 the matter carefully examined. I have now had it as thoroughly examined as seems possible, and find that I may say most positively that in the speech made on that occa- sion I did not litter the sentiment or use the language attributed to me. The report in the Tribune does not purport to give the language of the speech, but only the reporter's statement of its substance. The Chicago Times of the same date has an account of the meeting and gives the speeches in the very words of the speakers, taken in short-hand, I suppose. A copy of my speech has been made and sent to me, which I now hold in my hand, and I say to you that there is not in it one unkind or disrespectful word or sentiment toward Mr. Lincoln. The passage read by Governor Morton is not found either in its sentiment or language." Morton was satisfied with Hendricks's statement, and never again referred to the matter. HENDRICKS'S LAST INTERVIEW WITH LINCOLN. Before his departure from "Washington at the close of his term as Senator in March, 1865, Hendricks called at the White House to pay his respects to President Lincoln. This interview is thus described by Mr. Hendricks : "As our conversation was agreeable, I remained some time, and when I arose to leave he said, as he cordially pressed and held my hand : 'Hendricks, you are a Dem- ocrat and have stood by your party, but my administra- 11* 250 MR. HENDRICKS IN" CONGRESS. tion has no reason to complain of von, and it is perhaps proper before you leave that I should say to you that in a short time things will assume a shape across the river [pointing out of the window and across the Potomac] when I can have a general jubilee.' These were the last words I ever heard him utter. When I returned home I informed my party friends that we should soon be in sup- port of Mr. Lincoln's administration in its policy towards the Southern States." CHAPTER XV. MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. A Bitter Canvass. His Personal Popularity Carries him Through. The Only Candidate on the State Ticket Elected. Tom Browne his Opponent. The Temperance Crusade. " Eating Meat." Waiting for the Returns. " I wonder if I am always to just miss being Governor of Indiana." His Course on the Liquor Question. A Conscientious and Clear Administration. Features of the Baxter Bill. Constitutionality of the Measure. Why he Signed the Bill. How he Brought the Legislature to Terms. Effect on the School Revenues. The Financial Question. Speech in Philadelphia. Unfair Criticism of his Course as Governor. In 1872 the nomination of Greeley and the fusion of the Democrats with the so-called Liberal Republicans postponed the day of his ambition, and Mr. Hendricks, acquiescing in what appeared to be the popular will, gave his hearty approval to the new departure. He was not allowed to remain idle during the canvass. Against his earnest wish he was again nominated for the Governorship. The campaign was a bitter one, and almost disastrous to the Democrats throughout the coun- 252 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. try. The result in Indiana was bad, but far better than in most other States. .The Republicans carried the Legislature, and elected all of their State ticket except the Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction. The majorities were very small, but they were enough. The personal popularity of Governor Hendricks carried him through. As a man, courteous in social intercourse, an influential member of an influential Church, clean and respectable in all his walks and ways, he was fortunate in having for an opponent General Tom Browne, a man who had served creditably in the war, but who had brought into civil life the recklessness and dissipation which are forgiven to the soldier, but make the states- man distrusted. THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION. It was to Browne's further disadvantage that the tem- perance question was at that time, as it has since been, very prominent in Indiana, and the first stirring of that spirit which afterwards broke out in the temperance crusade was then felt. As the radicals on this subject were mostly Republicans, it was a severe trial to their allegiance to be compelled to vote for a man whom, had he been a Democrat, they would have described as a drunkard. Browne hardly mended the matter by saying, in hi.s speech before the Convention which nominated him, MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 253 that if by eating meat he had hitherto offended his brother, he would eat meat no more. " Eating meat" became a cruel piece of campaign slang. With these circumstances in his favor, Governor Hendricks won by a majority of 1148. The result was not known for three or four days, as the election- precincts in the State are very large. At the Democratic headquarters the poli- ticians sat counting up majorities and making estimates hour after hour, and even the most experienced arith- meticians were puzzled. During the long suspense Mr. Hendricks listened to an anxious friend's estimate based on the very latest returns, and throwing him out by half a dozen votes, and said, with a laugh, " I wonder if I am always to just miss being Governor of Indiana." The fact that a Republican Lieutenant-Governor would suc- ceed him in case of a vacancy kept Mr. Hendricks from any thought of the Senatorship, two years afterwards, and chained him to the post until the end of the term. His administration was conscientious and high-minded, and he aimed to do his duty. His course on the liquor question was most frequently assailed, and the matter may be worthy of explanation, as his action, it was claimed, alienated the German vote. THE BAXTER BILL. The Republican Legislature chosen in the fall of 1872 passed, the following winter, what was called the 254 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. " Baxter bill," from the author of it, a Quaker and an earnest temperance agitator. The principle of the meas- ure was what was known elsewhere as local option, and the effect of it seems to have been to give drinking com- munities an opportunity to get all the liquor they want, and to prevent temperance communities from getting anything to drink. This bill Governor Hendricks signed. He did so professedly in obedience to the will of the majority in the Legislature 1 and the will of the people. His approval was merely a matter of form, as his veto could be overridden by a simple majority vote. Moreover, in order to interpose the executive veto, it was necessary to discover some constitutional objection to the bill. His own judgment as a lawyer was to the effect that the law was not in conflict with the constitu- tion. On so important a question as this, however, which had been thrust suddenly upon him, Governor Hendricks was not willing to abide his own conclusion. Accordingly, he invited a conference of able lawyers, who, after a careful review of the proposed law, con- firmed the Governor in his judgment that the Baxter bill was, in its main features, a constitutional enactment. He therefore signed the bill. CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE BILL. An effort was made to create the impression that the Supreme Court of Indiana decided the Baxter law to be MR. HENDEICKS AS GOVEENOE OF INDIANA. 255 unconstitutional. Such was not the case. Except as to one unimportant section, the Supreme Court held that the law was constitutional in every respect. It was saddled upon the people of Indiana by a Republican Legislature, and against the wishes of the people. Governor Hendricks was anxious for its repeal, and desirous of substituting a judicious license law. His own convictions were in favor of a rigid license system, and in the State Convention of 1874, at which he presided, he set forth the Democratic doctrine on that subject in a clear argument. Public opinion had so far veered around in the mean while that the Legislature chosen that year repealed the Baxter bill during the fol- lowing winter, the Senate, which was Republican, voting with the Democratic House. Thus Mr. Hendricks's course on the liquor question may be summed up by saying that he concurred in popular temperance legislation, which he could not prevent, and after a fair test urged the substitution of what he thought a better system for the Baxter bill. ME. HENDEICKS'S COUP D'ETAT. The whole legislative session of 1875 was a struggle between the House and the Senate for partisan advantage, and the decisive stroke by which the Governor, who had watched the contest impartially, stepped in and put an end to the strife was very adroit. The session was lim- 256 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. ited by law, and the Republican Senate, adopting the tactics which the Senate at Washington followed, refused concurrence in the measures urged by the House, and, although conference committees had agreed upon all vital questions, delayed action until after midnight on the last day, hoping in this way to block the business of the State or force the Democrats into a long and expensive extra session, which would condemn the party in a granger community. The session closed on Saturday night, and the Governor issued his proclamation on Monday, reas- sembling the Legislature on Tuesday, without giving the members a chance to scatter, and politely sugire.-ting that, although they had a right to stay forty days, it would be much healthier for them to do their work and go home before the close of the week. The Governor's suggestion was heeded. The members of the Legislature gathered together like little lambs. The whole scheme of making party capital one way or the other was abandoned. They took up their work where they had laid it down, finished it, and were gone by Saturday, much to the gratification of all good citizens. In his annual message to the Legislature in January, 1875, Mr. Hendricks suggested that sales of liquor should not be made to boys; and drunkenness should be pun- ished, as well as selling to the intoxicated ; and the minor who misrepresented or concealed his age to obtain liquor should be punished as well as the person who knowingly MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 257 sold to him. Sales should be forbidden when the public peace or safety required it. Like other pursuits it should be suspended after a reasonable hour in the night, so as to avoid the disturbances incident to the traffic at that time. It should be made unlawful to buy whenever it was made unlawful to sell, and punishment should be inflicted upon the purchaser as well as the seller. He recom- mended that a reasonable tax, or license-fee, be imposed, and subject to forfeiture of the license for disregard of the law. That policy, he suggested, would bring a large revenue into the school-fund, if so directed, and at the same time identify the interest of the party selling with that of society in preserving order and good conduct at his place of business. He also expressed an opinion on the practicability of making a difference of regulation in respect to the sale of vinous and malt liquors and the stronger and more intoxicating drinks, for the reason that there is a great difference in the evils that result from their use. It is perhaps proper to add that the license law which has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school revenues of Indiana was to a great extent the result of Mr. Hendricks's personal and official efforts. THE FINANCIAL QUESTION. At the beginning of the clamor for more money, in the fall of 1873, Governor Hendricks was not in any 258 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. way called upon to express his opinions on financial ques-. tions; and although his convictions on those topics were based on well-known Democratic principle*, it was his nature to sympathize with the distress which he saw about him in every direction, rather than set out to lead the people in "the narrow and difficult path uf sal- vation through self-denial and suffering." The strength of the popular conviction that relief was possible through inflation could hardly be overestimated. Some believed firmly that unlimited quantities of paper money i^ucd on the faith of the Government was the true American theory of finance. Others knew that such an issue of irredeemable paper would only afford temporary relief, to be followed by greater disaster, but they hoped to be safe before the next storm if they should weather that which was on them. All advocated the inflation of the currency, with a fierceness which brooked no resist- ance, and old-fashioned leaders who might have thrown themselves across the track of popular opinion, had they imagined what way it was tending, found the tide grown too strong and furious to withstand, and most of them went with it. Whoever was regarded as a hard-money man w r as considered in some sort as a traitor to the "West and a public enemy. Under the circumstances, the course of Governor Hendricks, when it became his duty to take an actual part in the discussion of the issues of the day in the ME. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 259 canvass of 1874, was wise and manly. To be sure he did not advocate the sound theories of finance with the vigor of Kerr or the good-tempered firmness of Mc- Donald, both of his own State, but he maintained his opinions none the less effectively because he adopted a conciliatory tone. THE TRUE BASIS OF OUR CURRENCY. He argued that gold and silver were the true basis of our currency, and that the proper method of return- ing to specie payments was through the growing-up process the development of the resources of the South, the increase of production and the retrenchment of pub- lic and private expenditures. The platform adopted by the Convention was an essentially unsound one so far as the financial planks are concerned, and in the subsequent canvass Governor Hendricks took occasion to define dis- tinctly the points of difference between its doctrines and his own opinions. How many of the politicians who have been so glib in censuring him would have done as much ? It is common in the East to pretend that in this canvass the currency issue was drawn between the two parties, but among both Democrats and Republi- cans there was a strong sentiment for inflation, and the victory of the Democrats was won on the general record of the Administration, of which the panic of 1873 had broken the prestige. 260 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. In illustration of Mr. Hendricks's teachings at this time, an extract from his address to the Democratic State Convention at Indianapolis in 1874 may be given. ""We desire," he said, " a return to specie payment. It is a serious evil when there are commercial mediums of different values ; when one description of money is for one class and purpose, and another for a different class and purpose. We cannot too strongly express the impor- tance of the policy that shall restore uniformity of value to all the money of the country, so that it shall be always and readily convertible. That gold and silver are the real standard of value is a cherished Democratic sentiment not now or hereafter to be abandoned. But I do not look to any arbitrary enactment of Congress for a restoration of specie payments. A Congressional declaration cannot make the paper currency equal to gold in value. It cannot make a bank-note equal to your dollar. The business of the country alone can do that. "The important question is, how can we increase and make permanent our supply of gold ? The reliable solution is by increasing our productions, and thereby reducing our purchases and increasing our sales abroad. He can readily obtain money who produces more than MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 261 he consumes of articles tliat are wanted in the market, and I suppose that is also true of communities and nations. How can the Republican Party atone to the people for its evil policies which have driven gold from the country and rendered a return to specie payment difficult and made its postponement inevitable 3" GOVERNOR HENDRICKS'S SPEECH IN PHILADELPHIA ON FINANCE. During the fall of 1875, Mr. He nd ricks was invited by the Americus Club of Philadelphia to speak in that city. The annual political campaign was then in prog- ress in Pennsylvania, and the country at that time was engaged in preparations for the great centennial celebration of American independence eight months later. Mr. Hendricks had gone to Philadelphia at the invitation of the merchants of that city to see what progress had been made in the preparations for the celebration, and to assist them if possible. In the course of a lengthy address before the Americus Club, he said : " In respect to the finances of the country, I have a little to say to you to-night, not with reference to any policy of the Democratic Party when that party comes into power it will be its mission to promote business and enterprise by a good currency, sufficient for the country's business, ly a good currency but the ques- 262 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. tion to-night is, What is the policy of the Republican Party in respect to the finances of the country? and that policy, in my judgment, is found in two acts of Congress. The first of these, passed on the 14th day of June, 186T, provided for free banking ; but at the same time it provided that the greenback currency should remain at three hundred and eighty-two millions of dollars ($382,000,000). When the debate upon that bill was progressing, a distinguished Senator announced to the Senate that the fair construction of the measure would be, that there was to be no reduction of the greenback currency below $382,000,000 ; and that state- ment was made by a Senator from my own State a Republican Senator. They passed the bill, and the country acquiesced in it, in the belief that that law, es- pecially for the time, did fix the greenback currency at $382,000,000. But before eight months rolled around a new measure was introduced into the Congress of the United States a measure contrary to the policy of the act of 1874. I speak now of the act of the 14th day of January, 1875, commonly known as the resumption law a law providing for a return to specie payments. I have a little to say to you in respect to that law. It received the vote of every Republican Senator ex- cept one. Every Democrat in the Senate voted against it, and I believe every Democrat in the House also voted against it. It was a square party issue. And MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OP INDIANA. 263 why, I ask you, was it adopted ? We find the answer in a speech that was made in the State of Ohio, very recently, by Mr. Senator Sherman, Chairman of the Fi- nance Committee of the Senate. He stated in his speech, in opening the canvass in Ohio, that the act of January last was passed because the fortunes of the Re- publican Party required it. He stated in that speech that a year ago the Republican Party went into the contest in all the elections in the country without any policy upon the finances, and that they were beaten all along the line, and that, when they met in Congress the following session, they had been taught by those defeats the necessity of having a policy, and so they decided upon this bill as the policy of the Republican Party ; and Mr. Sherman, in the speech to which I refer, stated to the people of Ohio that that bill made a fixed policy, and that there was no step backward. My opinion is, that from that bill there will be ' a step backward.' It is rather extraordinary that a leading member of a great political party should say to the people that a bill has been passed to establish a party policy ; and yet the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the United States Senate says to the people of the country, ' The Re- publican Party needed a policy, and therefore we passed the finance bill of January, 1875.' Now, what is that bill ? The first section of the bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the fractional currency of 264 MR. HENDRICKS A3 GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. the country and supply its place with silver coin. The last section of the bill directs that he shall redeem on the first day of January, 1879, all the outstanding legal- tender notes with gold. Now, the fractional currency last month, according to the report of the Treasury Department, was about $1, 000,000, and the legal ten- ders amounted to $373,000,000. So this resumption law of last winter requires that with coin the currency of the country shall be taken up and redeemed to a sum amounting to more than $4-00,000,000. The question re- curs to each one of you, How is the Secretary of the Treas- ury to redeem the currency of the country with coin ? There is no gold in the Treasury for that purpose ; there is no silver in the Treasury for the purpose of redeem- ing the fractional currency. That veiy question presented itself to Congress as it presents itself to your minds to- night; and therefore, in the last section of the bill, Con- gress provides that the Secretary of the Treasury, in order to redeem with coin, shall sell United States bonds in such quantity as shall be sufficient to enable him to do this. In order to raise the gold and the silver with which to take up the fractional currency and the legal-tender notes, the Secretary of the Treasury will probably be re- quired to sell United States tive-per-cent bonds amount- ing to $400,000,000; and the direct effect of this bill is to increase the national debt in gold-bearing bonds, at the interest of five per cent, to the extent of $400,000,000, MB. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 265 and to increase the annual interest in gold at the rate of $20,000,000. In my statement on a former occasion I estimated it at about $17,000,000, but the Treasury re- port made in September authorizes the conclusion that it will require a sale of bonds exceeding $400,000,000, and the increase of our annual interest about $20.000,000. Are you prepared for that, my countrymen ? Are the men of Pennsylvania prepared to add to the gold debt of the country the enormous sum of $400,000,000 for the purpose of taking up the legal-tender and fractional cur- rency of the country? It is an important question ; but a very material inquiry in connection with it is this : Where are these bonds sold ? Of the bonds already sold I suppose that up to this time not one single bond has been sold in the United States. It has been the policy of this Administration to negotiate the sale of our bonds abroad. That negotiation takes place through a combination of banks called the syndicate ; and the bonds are not sent to Philadelphia, they are not sent to New York, they are not sent to Indianapolis, inviting the peo- ple of this country to purchase them, but they are sent directly to England and sold to foreigners ; and the effect is to add to our foreign debt $400,000,000, and to our annual interest abroad $20,000,000. Are you prepared for this? Some men talk about the Democracy not being true to the public credit. I say that the man who un- necessarily proposes to increase the national debt the 266 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. interest-bearing, the gold-bearing debt of the country abroad is, of all men, the man who endangers the pub- lic credit. " Who, I ask, -wants the legal tenders all to be re- deemed, when by so doing you bring about such an in- crease of our national debt and such an increase of our annual interest abroad? Have the people asked this? You have, perhaps, in your pocket a legal tender. Have you asked Congress to make provision for borrowing gold for the redemption of that legal tender? Are you not satisfied with the legal tender as a currency ? I would rejoice if all the paper currency were equal to gold, and I look forward to the time when all the money of the country shall be of equal value with gold. But I do not look for the attainment of that desirable result through the borrowing of gold. I do not believe that a perma- nent, sure, and reliable return to specie payment can be accomplished upon borrowed gold. I think that before we return to specie payment we must have gold that will remain in the country. Four hundred millions of in- crease to our debt for the purpose of taking up the legal tenders ! The legal tenders will be made par with gold when we shall have restored the industries of this coun- try, and returned to economy in all expenditures, public and private, so that the tendency of gold shall be toward our own shores and not from us. For the present, what objection have you to the legal tenders ? The only ol> ME. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 267 jection is that they are not on a par with gold. Have not the legal tenders been the active and faithful servants of the people ? Have you stopped to consider the cir- cumstances under which they were issued? It was in 1862 that the first legal tenders were provided for. At that time there was not sufficient gold in the country to meet the requirements of the public service. The sol- diers upon the line of battle could not be paid in gold, because the Government could not obtain gold in suffi- cient quantity; and to meet that exigency of the public service the act of February, 1862, was passed, authoriz- ing the issue of the legal tenders, and they were issued. Upon their face there is the promise of the Government to pay ; upon the back of them is stamped the quality of money, that they shall be a legal tender; and the act of Congress declares them to be lawful money. Why was that done? Because the soldier receiving his money down upon the line of battle needed to send it home to his wife that she might pay off his debts, that it might meet the necessities of the family ; and so it became nec- essary, in order to promote the public service, that upon these bills should be stamped the quality of money, that it should pass as money ; and it paid the soldier, paid the soldier's debts, and from that time to this it has been the active servant of the people. From pocket to pocket it has gone, and oh ! how many stories this bill could tell if it only had ears to hear and a mouth to speak ! How 268 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. many debts it has paid off ; how much property it has purchased ; but it has never been stopped 7ior questioned until now. Right now, when the country is in the midst of a panic when all industry is stagnant now it is pro- posed to declare this to be bad money, questionable money ; and even, it is said, the Government must in- crease our national debt in order to redeem it. I would be glad if that bill were equal in value with gold, but, with great respect to Congress, I do not believe that it is within the power of the Congress of the United States to make my dollar bill equal to your gold dollar, unless the laws of trade and commerce give it that value. "And when any political party tell you that that can be accomplished by an arbitrary edict of Congress, they mislead the people. There is a higher power than Con- gress it is the power of the trade and commerce of the country. But let us look at some of the other conse- quences of this bill. In the first place, in my judgment, it is to produce a contraction of the currency of the country, which the business of the country cannot en- dure. As the first day of January, 1879, the time for the redemption of greenbacks, shall approach, what will be the natural effect of the law ? Every man who has money that he wishes to lay aside and keep out of active employment and industry will put that money into greenbacks, so that he may have the benefit of the ad- vancing value, and thus the banks, that have to redeem MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. 269 tlieir currency in gold or in legal tenders, will put away the greenbacks to meet the exigency when gold alone re- mains available for redemption. The effect of the bill is to retire the legal-tender currency of the country, and to reduce the currency, upon which the business and en- terprise of the country are carried on, from one third to one half at least. What is the advantage of it ? What has been the effect of it up to this time ? I believe that when this bill was passed, gold was about ten or eleven cents. It is to-day, as I understand, fifteen cents. This policy of the Republican Party in Congress, which was intended to bring gold and paper nearer together, has had the effect to increase the distance between the two, and the present premium on gold is one evidence of the results of the Republican policy that proposes to give stability to our currency and firmness to our business. Without contraction and without inflation, I believe the business and enterprise of the country should be allowed to recover their impaired strength." UNFAIR CRITICISM OF HIS COURSE AS GOVERNOR. After his nomination for the Yice-Presidency this year a few editors came out with the statement that Mr. Hendricks refused as Governor to take cognizance of certain charges made against Colonel R. J. Bright, who was the Democratic State Printer from 1870 to 1872. The facts are that the charges were made in 1871, while 270 MR. HENDRICKS AS GOVERNOR OF INDIANA. Governor Baker was in office, and upon investigation it was found that Mr. Bright, following a custom which had prevailed for years, had made his voucher for the money to pay for the paper necessary to do the State printing, and when his office was examined the paper WMS found there, and was accepted by Hon. John H. Farquhar, Republican Secretary of State, as a full de- fence against the charges made against Colonel Bright. Party friends and party influence had no weight with him when dealing with a public officer who was accused of any crooked or even doubtful transaction. CHAPTER XVI ME. HENDPJCKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. The Tammany Hall Convention in New York. Mr. Hendricks's Prominence as a Presidential Candidate. Samuel J. Tilden Present- ing Hendricks's Name as the Nominee. A Division in the Ranks of the Indiana Delegation. The Friends of George H. Pendleton Stand Firm and Oppose Hendricks. Horatio Seymour Receives the Vote of the Ohio Delegation and Causes a Stampede. Hen- dricks's Name Withdrawn, and Seymour Nominated on the Twenty-second Ballot. Hendricks's Graceful Acquiescence in the Action of the Convention. He Eulogizes Seymour in a Speech in the Senate. Hendricks's Enthusiastic Reception at Indianapolis. The Democratic National Convention of 1868, which assembled in Tain man} 7 Hall in New York, was one of the most exciting ever held. Mr. Hendricks was at that time serving the last year of his term in the United' States Senate. Long before the Convention assembled, his name w r as frequently mentioned as the probable nominee for the Presidency. The names of eighteen candidates were presented to the Convention for the Presidential nomination. On the first ballot Mr. 272 HENDRICKS IX THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. Hendricks received the insignificant sura of 2 votes. On the second ballot he received 2, and on the third 9 votes. When the fourth ballot was taken Mr. Hendricks was still low down in the scale, but he managed to secure 11 votes. George H. Pendleton led on every ballot. The fact that Mr. Hendricks secured 19 votes on the fifth ballot was regarded by his friends as a hopeful indi- cation. When the Convention adjourned on the night of July 8 the idea prevailed that Mr. Hendricks would eventually receive the nomination. MR. HENDRICKs's NAME PRESENTED TO THE CONVENTION. At the next day's session expectation was on tiptoe when the chairman of the Indiana delegation rose to make an announcement. Every one listened with intense eagerness. Delegates bent forward not to lose a word. The galleries were hushed to a complete silence. The announcement from the Hoosier State tallied in a sense with what had been expected, and in another sense did not accord with it. Mr. Graham Y. Fitch on behalf of the Indiana delegation, addressing the Convention, said: " Before proceeding with the call of the States, Indiana claims the right heretofore conceded to other States, to present the name of one of her most talented citizens as a candidate for nomination by this Convention. The name is known to the Convention, for he has already received a respectable vote here. That vote, however, came from HENDRICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. 273 other than his own State a tribute to the worth of one of the best and purest men in the nation. Circumstances which occurred before the connection of his name with the nomination rendered it in the estimation of the delega- tion from his State highly proper and right that they should give their vote a reasonable length of time for the distinguished candidate from Ohio, Mr. Pendleton. In the opinion of a majority of the delegation from Indiana that time has passed, and they are left to vote their own preference and what they believe to be the preference of the people. From this opinion a minority of the dele- gation dissent, and deem that their obligation to sustain Mr. Pendleton is not yet discharged. The majority have no desire to control, and make no attempt to control, even if there was the slightest probability of the attempt being successful, the action of that minority. We con- cede to them the best of motives, a desire mainly to con- scientiously discharge a delegated trust. The citizen whose name we are about to present is a man of unim- peached private character and unimpeachable public record. He is a gentlemen, sir, in all the relations of life. He is not, he never was, an office-seeker himself ; but whatever position has been bestowed upon him by the partiality of the citizens of his own State has been bestowed unsought ,and by acclamation. He is second to no man in our borders in ability, and in devotion to the Union, in attachment to the principles of Democracy, 2U HENDRICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OP 1868. in integrity of purpose, and in firmness in the discharge of duty. That citizen is Thomas A. Hendricks." THE INDIANA DELEGATION DIVIDED. Mr. R. J. Reeves on behalf of the minority of the delegation from Indiana then addressed the Convention. He said that the Indiana State Democratic Convention which had assembled in Indianapolis six months before had adopted a resolution expressing a preference for Mr. Pendleton over the most determined and persistent oppo- sition. Mr. Reeves further said that the Indiana dele- gation at a meeting the day before had decided to cast its vote for Mr. Pendleton as long as there was a reasonable hope of his nomination. When the seventh ballot was taken Mr. Hendricks received 39 votes. Samuel J. Tilden, who was chair- man of the New York delegation, then arose and an- nounced that his delegation would retire for consultation. SAMUEL J. TILDEN PRESENTING THE NAME OF IIENDRICK8. This movement was regarded by Mr. Hendricks's friends as favorable to his nomination. "When the dele- gation returned, Mr. Tilden announced that the Empire State unanimously agreed to withdraw the name of Sanford E. Church whom they had heretofore supported, and would vote for Mr. Hendricks. The way in which this announcement was made was as singularly interest- HEXDRTCKS IN" THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. 275 ing as the effect which it produced was exciting. Mr. Tilden conceived the happy thought of prefacing the vote of New York for Hendricks with a "few remarks," and began in a shrill, piercing voice to make them. Gen- eral McCook of Ohio just about the same time concluded, and perhaps with parliamentary propriety, that Mr. Tilden was not in order, and he labored to impress the chairman with that opinion. Accordingly, when Gene- ral McCook had made his point and had concluded, the chairman proceeded to re-declare and enforce it. But between the pauses of the Ohioan on the one hand and of the President on the other, Mr. Tilden managed to inject just what he wished to say, and before he had been called to order had finished his speech and taken his seat. On the support given by New York to Mr. Hen- dricks the audience became very enthusiastic. They cheered long and loudly. It was not less a tribute to the acceptability of Mr. Hendricks than it was an expression of satisfaction at the new departure taken by New York State. When the Convention adjourned for the day the chances of Mr. Hendricks's nomination were considered excellent. It was understood, however, that the friends of Mr. Pendleton were determined that Mr. Hendricks should not be nominated, and that the} 7 had concluded to give the nomination to an Eastern man. 276 HENDRICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. MB. PENDLETON'S NAME WITHDRAWN. On the morning of July 9 the fifth day's session of the Convention opened, and a letter was read from Mr. Pen- dleton withdrawing his name as a candidate for the Presidency. When the twenty-seventh ballot was ordered Mr. Hen- dricks received the vote of New York State as before. When Ohio was called, the twenty -seven votes thereto- fore welded to Pendleton were given to Horatio Sey- mour. The effect of this unexpected move disheartened the men who had so far stood nobly by Hendricks. On the previous ballot General Hancock led with 135 votes, and Mr. Hendricks's figures had gradually swollen up to 107. The effect produced by the presentation of the name of Mr. Seymour was without precedent, and dele- gates and audience became frantic. The delegation from Vermont, which was the first in the Convention to vote for Mr. Hendricks, announced through their chairman that they should yield to the ardent wish of the Conven- tion and change their vote from Hendricks to Seymour. A stampede for Seymour followed, and he received the nomination. HOW MB. IIENDRICKS TOOK HIS DEFEAT. The nomination of Mr. Seymour caused much surprise throughout the country. Mr. Hendricks continued in HENDEICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. 277 his seat in the Senate during the entire session of the Convention. "When the nomination of Mr. Seymour was announced, he alluded to that gentleman as a man of very weighty character and personal influence whose charms would be likely to grow upon the people as the campaign progressed. In an address to the Senate a few days after the Con- vention Mr. Hendricks seized the first opportunity of defining his position. He said : " The two parties into which the people of this country are now divided have declared their platform of princi- ples ; they have put their tickets in nomination ; and it is for the people now to decide which set of principles they will adopt and which set of candidates they will elect. In my opposition to the ticket headed by General Grant I never expect to place it upon personal grounds. I recognize the gentleman at the head of that ticket as an eminent military man, and his associate as a distin- guished civilian. Against them personally I expect never to express a sentiment. I oppose their election because they have become, by acquiescing in their nomination, the representatives of the sentiments that have controlled Congress for the last three years ; because they stand upon a platform which is objectionable in part and equivocal in part. The Convention at New York has expressed its views in a platform which in no section can be misunderstood. It declares our views and our pur- 278 HENDRICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. poses so distinctly and emphatically that the people are not and cannot be misled. I need not, in addressing either the Senate or the country, occupy much time in speaking of Mr. Seymour. He has long been known to the country as one of the first of her statesmen. A ripe scholar and profound thinker, in times and in posi- tions of great difficulty he has done the State much service. He has filled positions, the highest in the country, except that to which he has been nominated, and to which, in my judgment, he will be elected. A statesman in thought and efficient in action, he will com- mand the confidence of the country. I know that criti- cisms have been made upon his conduct during the war. I am glad that it requires but a sentence to answer all criticisms. So efficient was he as the executive of the great State of New York, in the raising of troops, and especially in the aid he gave to the Government about the time of the battle of Gettysburg, that Mr. Lincoln returned to him, in the most earnest and emphatic man- ner, his thanks. He is a man who, at the head of this Government, will recognize all sections, and respect and labor to promote the interests of each. I believe that the highest interests of this country demand the election of Mr. Seymour, and that he will be elected, and that the country will again be restored to permanent peace peace that rests not upon subjection to despotic power, but upon restored supremacy of the Constitution and the rightful HESTDRICKS IN" THE CAMPAIGN- OF 1868. 279 authority of all the departments of the Government, and to a prosperity enduring as that peace." ME. HENDRICKS'S GRAND WELCOME IN INDIANAPOLIS. On the adjournment of Congress Mr. Hendricks re- paired at once to his home, arriving there on July 28. The welcome accorded him was unprecedented in enthu- siasm and unsurpassed in the number of those partici- pating. The attendance was simply immense, and all the accessories of the occasion were on a grand scale. Mr. Hendricks's reception was one of the most important po- litical demonstrations that had occurred in years, and formally opened the campaign of 1868 on the part of the Democrats of Indiana. Mr. Hendricks was received with a national salute on his arrival in the city, and was escorted by a large torchlight procession to the court- house square. In a lengthy speech he criticised the proposition before Congress to arm the blacks, referred to the Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the tariff, and spoke on the subject of finance. Mr. Hendricks thoroughly canvassed the State of Indi- ana during the campaign, and was everywhere received with unparalleled enthusiasm. He entered into a joint de- bate with Governor Baker, and the two together visited most of the principal points in the State. A Republican who listened to these discussions is authority for the statement that Governor Baker made a great mistake in 280 HENDRICKS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. undertaking these joint debates. " He is a true, honest man," said he, "but he cannot begin to speak with IK-n- dricks. Hendricks is altogether the better orator, and lias a splendid voice and presence." For years the friends of Mr. Ilendricks cherished a feeling of bitter animosity toward their Ohio neighbors. They have always held that the nomination of their own favorite in 1868 would have turned the political tide, although Mr. Hendricks was defeated for the governor- ship by Conrad Baker in the same year. CHAPTER XVII. MR. HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH MU. TILDEN. The Democratic National Convention of 1876. Mr. Hendricks Unanimously Nominated for Vice-President on the First Ballot. His Disinclination to Accept the Honor. His Letter of Acceptance. Approval of the Platform. " The Public Service Debauched by Dishonesty, Rapacity, and Venality." The Questions of Finance, Civil Service, and Foreign Policy. Uncertainty as to the Result of the Election. Excitement throughout the Country. The Electoral Commission. Hayes Declared Elected. Hendricks's Attitude pend- ing the Decision. His Speech at the Manhattan Club in New York. "A Great and a Sincere People will Base their Final Action upon the Truth." The year 1876 was one of the most eventful in the history of the United States. The centennial anni- versary of the nation's birth was celebrated with much enthusiasm throughout the country, and the opening of the magnificent Exhibition at Philadelphia was soon fol- lowed by the assembling of the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis. Again Mr. Hendricks's name came prominently before the people. The sentiment 282 HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. of a large number of delegates was favorable to his O O nomination to the Presidency ; but although his friends urged his claims for the place with enthusiasm, Mr. Tilden was nominated after a short struggle, the Indi- ana delegation seconding the nomination with alacrity. Various names had been suggested as candidates for the office of Vice-President. The admirers of Henry B. Payne, of Ohio, and William R. Morrison, of Illinois, chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, made strong efforts to secure the nomination for their favorite. When it was suggested that the nomination be given to Mr. Hendricks, the Indiana delegation disavowed responsibility in that con- nection, partly because of disappointment at Mr. Hen- dricks's failure to receive the nomination for the first place on the ticket, and partly because it was feared Mr. Hendricks would not accept the nomination for second place. But one ballot was taken, Mr. Hendricks receiv- ing 730 out of 738 votes. The nomination was made unanimous during a scene of enthusiasm and excitement rarely witnessed in a national convention. Mr. Hendricks did not desire the nomination, but he could not disregard the unanimous wish of the party so enthusiastically expressed. After receiving official noti- fication of his nomination, he paid a visit of consultation to Mr. Tilden, who was sojourning at Saratoga, and shortly after addressed a letter to the committee of the HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. 283 Convention, accepting the nomination in the following words : HENDRICKS'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE IN 1876. "INDIANAPOLIS, July 24, 1876. " GENTLEMEN : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, in which you have for- mally notified me of my nomination by the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis as their candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United States. It is a nomination which I had neither expected nor desired ; and yet I recognize and appreciate the high honor done me by the Convention. The choice of such a body, pro- nounced with such unusual unanimity, and accompanied with so generous an expression of esteem and confidence, ought to outweigh all merely personal desires and pref- erences of my own. It is with this feeling, and I trust also from a deep sense of public duty, that I now accept the nomination, and shall abide the judgment of my countrymen. "It would have been impossible for me to accept the nomination if I could not heartily endorse the platform of the Convention. I am gratified, therefore, to be able unequivocally to declare that I agree in the principles, approve the policies, and sympathize with the purposes enunciated in that platform. "The institutions of our country have been sorely HENDRICKS OX THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. tried by the exigencies of civil war, and, since the peace, by a selfish and corrupt management of public affairs, which has shamed us before civilized mankind. By unwise and partial legislation every industry and in- terest of the people have been made to suffer; and in the executive departments of the Government dishonesty, rapacity, and venality have debauched the public ser- vice. Men known to be unworthy have been promoted, while others have been degraded for fidelity to official duty. Public office has been made the means of private profit, and the country has been offended to see a class of men who boast the friendship of the sworn protectors of the State amassing fortunes by defrauding the public Treasury and by corrupting the servants of the people. In such a crisis of the history of the country I rejoice that the Convention at St. Louis has so nobly raised the standard of reform. Nothing can be well with us or with our affairs until the public conscience, shocked by the enormous evils and abuses which prevail, shall have demanded and compelled an unsparing reformation of our national Administration, ' in its head and in its members.' In such a reformation the removal of a single officer, even the President, is comparatively a trifling matter, if the system which he represents, and which has fostered him as he has fostered it, is suffered to remain. The President alone must not be made the scapegoat for the enormities of the system which infects HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. 285 the public service and threatens the destruction of our institutions. In some respects I hold that the present Executive has been the victim rather than the author of that vicious system. Congressional and party leaders have been stronger than the President. No one man could have created it, and the removal of no one man can amend it. It is thoroughly corrupt, and must be swept remorselessly away by the selection of a Govern- ment composed of elements entirely new and pledged to radical reform. " The first work of reform must evidently be the res- toration of the normal operation of the Constitution of the United States, with all its amendments. The neces- sities of war cannot be pleaded in a time of peace ; the right of local self-government as guaranteed by the Con- stitution of the Union must be everywhere restored, and the centralized (almost personal) imperialism which has been practised must be done away, or the first principles of the republic will be lost. " Our financial system of expedients must be reformed. Gold and silver are the real standard of values, and our national currency will not be a perfect medium of ex- change until it shall be convertible at the pleasure of the holder. As I have heretofore said, no one desires a re- turn to specie payments more earnestly than I do ; but I do not believe that it will or can be reached in harmony with the interests of the people by artificial measures for 286 HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. the contraction of the currency, any more than I believe that wealth or permanent prosperity can be created by an inflation of the currency. The laws of finance cannot be disregarded with impunity. The financial policy of the Government, if indeed it deserves the name of policy at all, has been in disregard of those laws, and therefore has disturbed commercial and business confidence, as well as hindered a return to specie payments. One fea- ture of that policy was the resumption clause of the act of 1875, which has embarrassed the country by the anticipation of a compulsory resumption, for which no preparation was made, and without any assurance that it would be practicable. The repeal of that clause is necessary, that the natural operation of financial laws may be restored, that the business of the country may be relieved from its disturbing and depressing influence, and that a return to specie payments may be facilitated by the substitution of wiser and more prudent legislation, which shall mainly rely on a judicious system of public economies and official retrenchments, and, above all, on the promotion of prosperity in all the industries of the people. " I do not understand the repeal of the resumption clause of the act of 1875 to be a backward step in our return to specie payments, but the recovery of a false step; and, although the repeal may for a time be pre- vented, yet the determination of the Democratic Party HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. 287 on this subject has now been distinctly declared. There should be no hindrances put in the way of a return to specie payments. 'As such a hindrance,' says the plat- form of the St. Louis Convention, ' we denounce the re- sumption clause of the act of 1S75, and demand its re- peal.' " I thoroughly believe that by public economy, by official retrenchments, and by wise finance, enabling us to accumulate the precious metals, resumption, at an early period, is possible without producing an ' artificial scarcity of currency,' or disturbing public or commer- cial credit: and that these reforms, together with the restoration of pure government, will restore general con- fidence, encourage the useful investment of capital, fur- nish employment to labor, and relieve the country from the ' paralysis of hard times.' "With the industries of the people there have been frequent interferences. Our platform truly says that many industries have been impoverished to subsidize a few. Our commerce has been degraded to an inferior position on the high seas ; manufactures have been diminished ; agriculture has been embarrassed ; and the distress of the industrial classes demands that these things shall be reformed. " The burdens of the people must also be lightened by a great change in our system of public expenses. The profligate expenditure which increased taxation from five 288 HENDRICKS OX THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. dollars per capita in 1860 to eighteen dollars in 1870 tells its own story of our need of fiscal reform. ' Our treaties with foreign powers should also be re- vised and amended, in so far as they leave citizens of foreign birth in any particular less secure in any country on earth than they would be if they had been born upon our own soil ; and the iniquitous coolie system, which, through the agency of wealthy companies, imports Chinese bondmen, and establishes a species of slavery, and interferes with the just rewards of labor on our Pacific coast, should be utterly abolished. "In the reform of our civil service, I most heartily in- dorse that section of the platform which declares that the civil service ought not to be 'subject to change at every election,' and that it ought not to be made ' the brief re- ward of party zeal,' but ought to be awarded for proved competency, and held for fidelity in the public employ. I hope never again to see the cruel and remorseless pro- scription for political opinions which has disgraced the Administration of the last eight years. Bad as the civil service now is, as all know, it has some men of tried in- tegrity and proved ability. Such men, and such men only, should be retained in office; but no man should be retained, on any consideration, who has prostituted his office to the purposes of partisan intimidation of com- pulsion, or who has furnished money to corrupt the elections. This is done, and has been done, in almost HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. 289 every connty of the land. It is a blight upon the morals of the country, and ought to be reformed. " Of sectional contentions and in respect to our com- mon schools I have only this to say : That, in my judg- ment, the man or party that would involve our schools in political or sectarian controversy is an enemy to the schools. The common schools are safer under the pro- tecting care of all the people than under the control of any party or sect. They must be neither sectarian nor partisan, and there must be neither division nor misap- propriation of the funds for their support. Likewise I regard the man who would arouse or foster sectional ani- mosities and antagonisms among his countrymen as a dangerous enemy to his country. All the people must be made to feel and know that once more there is established a purpose and policy under which all citizens of every condition, race, and color will be secure in the enjoyment of whatever rights the Constitution and laws declare or recognize ; and that in controversies that may arise the Government is not a partisan, but within its constitutional authority the just and powerful guardian of the rights and safety of all. The strife between the sections and between races will cease as soon as the power for evil is taken away from a party that makes political gain out of scenes of violence and bloodshed, and the constitutional authority is placed in the hands of men whose political 290 HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEtf. welfare requires that peace and good order shall be pre- served everywhere. "It will be seen, gentlemen, that I am in entire accord with the platform of the Convention by which I have been nominated as a candidate for the office of Yice- President of the United States. Permit me, in conclu- sion, to express my satisfaction at being associated with a candidate for the Presidency who is first among his equals as a representative of the spirit and of the achieve- ments of reform. In his official career as the Executive of the great State of New York, he has, in a compara- tively short period, reformed the public service and re- duced the public burdens, so as to have earned at once the gratitude of his State and the admiration of the country. The people know him to be thoroughly in earnest; he has shown himself to be possessed of powers and qualities which fit him in an eminent degree for the great work of reformation which this country now needs ; and if he shall be chosen by the people to the high office of President of the United States, I believe that the day of his inauguration will be the beginning of a new era of peace, purity, and prosperity, in all departments of our Government. " I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, " THOMAS A. HENDKICKS." HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEST. 291 THE RESULT OF THE ELECTION IN DOUBT. The result of the election remained long in doubt. The popular vote was reported as giving Messrs. Tilden and Hendricks a majority of 250,935 over Messrs. Hayes and Wheeler, but charges of fraud at the polls in various Southern States left the result undecided with reference to the electoral vote, and a painful suspense extended throughout the country, which was by no means allayed when Congress assembled in December. At the beginning of the year 1877 the country was still in a state of great excitement concerning the result of the Presidential election. The votes of Florida, Loui- siana, and South Carolina were counted by the can- vassing boards with a result in favor of the Republican Presidential election. This, in the canvass by Congress of all the State returns of the Presidential election, would give the Republican candidate, Mr. Hayes, one majority and secure his election. The Democrats, how- ever, asserted that the canvassing boards in each of the above mentioned States had made an unjust return ; that the popular vote in each had been in favor of the Demo- cratic electors by a large majority ; that legal votes in large numbers had been rejected ; and that the Democra- tic candidate had been elected by the people. The certi- ficates of the results in each State, sent to Washington under the official seal of the respective governors, gave 292 HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. the election to Mr. Hayes by one vote. At tins time the lower House was largely Democratic, the Senate Republican, and the Chief Executive (Grant) a Repub- lican. Under these circumstances an act was passed to refer all contested cases to a Commission consisting of Senators, Representatives, and judges of the Supreme Court. If the Commission decided according to the face of the certificates, the Republican candidate would be elected ; if it decided to investigate the local proceedings in the contested States prior to the issue of certificates, the re- sult might be reversed and the Democratic candidate obtain the prize. The Democrats urged an investigation, but the Commission refused to go behind the face of the certificates, and Mr. Hayes was declared elected. MB. HENDRICKS'S ATTITUDE PENDING A DECISION. Mr. Hendricks, pending the decision of the question which involved his succession to the Vice-Presidency, maintained a calm and dignified attitude throughout, notwithstanding the fact that over-zealous friends urged Mr. Tilden and himself to take their seats by force if necessary. Mr. Hendricks made no attempt to change the result declared by the Electoral Commission, having promised on the creation of that body to abide by its decision. In a speech delivered by him in the summer of 1877, HENDKICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDES. 293 at a reception tendered by the Manhattan Club in New York, he spoke fully and freely on the result of the election in which he had been such a conspicuous figure. The historical value attaching to his remarks upon one of the most interesting episodes in our history requires the presentation of his words in this place. He said : " Very recently the Democrats of this great city and of the State of Indiana, as of all the other States, contended for and demanded the restoration of local self-government in all the States where it had been denied. They contended for economy in all the expenditures of the Government. They contended for the reduction of the vast army of office-holders, and for the substitution of honest for dis- honest administration. "With such a cause to fight for a grand one the victory was a glorious one. I will not disturb the pleasure of this occasion by undertaking to recount the means adopted whereby the will and the judg- ment of the people were defeated. The result as declared in Louisiana, in Florida, and at "Washington is not acquiesced in, and it cannot be acquiesced in, for the palpable reason that it was not true. A great and a sin- cere people can found their ultimate decision only upon the truth, and never upon fraud successful through technicality. " Even should the President and his Cabinet adopt a part or all of the political policies and purposes for which the Democratic Party has been contending for so 294 HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDEtf. years, even that will not bring about an acquiescence, will not quiet the public discontent. The Democrats will not consent that their most cherished principles shall be under the protecting care of a power which was acquired by fraudulent and corrupt means. The Demo- crats will make no factious opposition to the de facto opposition at Washington. They will acquiesce in the fact that it is an administration, and will support it in that which is right because it is right and because it is for the public good, but not at all because of any fealty to the party that stands defeated and condemned by the people. The people cannot allow that the selection of their Chief Magistrate shall become a thing of chance or of sharp practice. The fraud first triumphant in American history must be assigned its proper place among the crimes against free and popular government, and be made so odious that no party in the future will dare to attempt its repetition. He who is elected President must be in- augurated ever hereafter. Until that is settled and made sure forever no Democrat can be persuaded or seduced from his devotion and allegiance to the party by the allurements of office, nor even by the stronger appeal of the abandonment by the Administration of political principles that we dislike and the adoption of better doctrines and just measures. The Democrats will rather continue their faith in the right of the majority to rule according to constitutional provisions. HENDRICKS OK THE TICKET WITH TILDES. 295 " All Democrats rejoice with unbounded joy that free republican governments have been allowed in the States of South Carolina and Louisiana. They rejoice in the good fruits that will follow. We all know that peace and order will prevail. We know that prosperity will return to those States, and that they will continue to give prosperity to our country. We all know that the bur- dens of bad government, the burdens of public corruption, will be taken from the shoulders of labor ; that capital will be made more secure, and labor safer and con- tented and happy. We all know, too, that production will increase, and that as a consequence there will be prosperity in those States, which will be the prosperity of every part of the country. But Democrats know very well that this had become inevitable. For many years the Democrats had contended in Congress and before the people in favor of the restoration of the republican gov- ernments in all the States of the South. " They had contended for that with such zeal and ear- nestness that it could be no longer resisted, because truth and right were too strong to be controlled in favor of wrong any more. In this Democrats find a reason to stand the more firmly by their party. I hear every now and then the suggestion that some Democrat, either -North or South, will join some Hayes party. It will not occur. Out of power, without patronage and without money to distribute, the Democratic Party during these 296 HENDRICKS ON" THE TICKET WITH TILDEN. last ten years have restored one State after another, until now the tread of soldiery is heard in no legislative hall ; until now, in every State of our Union, the people are governed by laws of their own enacting and officers of their own choosing." " I have but one word more to say. The outrage upon the rights of the people not upon me and not upon Mr. Tilden, except that we are citizens of the country the outrage upon the people in the act that denies to the peo- ple their own selection of the public officers according to the law and the Constitution, that wrong will work, as has been suggested, its own reform. "I have no fear of the future. Even if the adminis- tration that is now in power shall take Democratic princi- ples and ideas and undertake to build prosperity upon them, it can never gain the confidence and the heart of the American people. And it will never do to say that when one man has taken the land that belongs to another by a title that is not good, and holds it, that it is sufficient to say that that man who holds the land wrongfully will culti- vate it better than the true owner would have done. Before we reach that question we will settle the question, Who owns the land ? It is not because Mr. Tilden has been wronged, but it is because the voice of the Ameri- can people has been ignored when that voice was speaking according to the Constitution of the United States. And I fear not the result, as I have already said. A great and HENDRICKS ON THE TICKET WITH TILDES. 297 a sincere people will base their judgment and final action upon the truth. Democratic principles will be carried out into the affairs of government by Democrats and such fair-minded Republicans as will not make them- selves a party to the wrong that was done last winter." CHAPTER XVIII. MR. HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH SECRETARY (HANDLER. Hendricks's Speech at Indianapolis charging Fraud in a Bureau of the Navy Department. He suggests that the President Institute an Inquiry ami Order an Examination of the Books. Secretary Chand- ler's Lame Reply. A Vain Attempt to Shift the Responsibility. Heudricks's Characteristic Rejoinder. His Charges Substantiated by Chandler's own Admissions. Comments of the Press approving Hendricks's Onslaught upon the Secretary of the Navy. "Little Billy" and his Naval Equipment Lifted out of the Water. Twenty-four hours after the adjournment of the Chi- cago Convention at which Mr. Ilemlricks received the nomination for the Vice-Presidency, and before it was known whether he would accept the honor unexpectedly thrust upon him, in a speech delivered at Indianapolis he sounded the key-note of his canvass by calling public at- tention to a case of irregularity on the part of one of the officers of the Navy Department at "Washington, under the administration of William E. Chandler as Secretary. The episode was significant as showing the spirit with which Mr. Hendricks entered the campaign. lie said: "A month ago everybody supposed that all the em- HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. 299 ployes in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery were hon- est, and now, at the very first examination, it turns out they are not. But what is the remedy? Put them out and put honest men in. We cannot do that if we leave the same President and heads of departments and heads of bureaus in. I will tell you what we need Democrats and Republicans will alike agree upon that we need to have the books in the government offices opened for ex- amination. Do you think that men in this age never yield to temptation ? It is only two years ago that one of the Secretaries at Washington was called before a Senate committee to testify in regard to the condition of his department. In that department was the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. In that department an examina- tion was being made by the committee from the Senate, and it was ascertained by the oath of the Secretary who sits at the head of the department that the defalcation found during the last year, as far as it had been estimated, was sixty-three thousand dollars, and when asked about it he said that he had received a letter a year ago inform- ing him of some of these outrages, and that a short time since somebody had come to him and told him that there were frauds going on in the service, but that members of Congress had recommended the continuance of the head of the bureau with such earnestness that he thought it must be all right. And now it turns out that the public is sixty-three thousand dollars out, and how much more 300 HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER, no man, I expect, can now tell. But what is the remedy ? 'To have a President that will appoint a head of bureau who will investigate the condition of the books and bring all the guilty parties to trial." 6ECRETARY CHANDLER'S LAME REPLY. To this thrust of Mr. Hendricks, Secretary Chandler at once addressed a reply, in which he said : "Sin: A candidate for Vice-President should speak with decent fairness. In your speech at Indianapolis last Saturday night you made statements from which you meant that the public should believe that it appeared by my testimony that the frauds in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of this department amounted during the past year to sixty-three thousand dollars ; that I was in- formed of some of these outrages a year ago ; that after I was informed of the frauds I disbelieved them because members of Congress had recommended the continuance of the chief of the bureau, and that I took no adequate action concerning them, whereupon you demanded the election of a President who would appoint a chief of the bureau who would investigate the condition of the books and bring all the guilty parties to trial. " To the contrary of all this I testified that the sus- pected vouchers commenced as far back as June 21, 1880, although a small voucher was paid as late as January ii.">, 1884; that while an anonymous letter of about a year HENDKICKS'S CONTIIOVERSY WITH CHANDLER. 301 ago charged drunkenness upon the chief clerk, Daniel Carrigan, which the chief of the bureau, Dr. Philip S. "Wales, reported to me was not true, I had no informa- tion leading to the frauds until December or January last; that I determined simultaneously with beginning the investigation to have a new chief of the bureau in place of Dr. Wales, whose term was to expire January 26, and also a new chief clerk ; that great opposition to the change was made by members of Congress, but I per- sisted, and Dr. Wales went out on that date. Carrigan, was put out February 4, and the investigation of frauds and the arrest of guilty parties have since proceeded with due diligence. " It is true that I stated that the recommendations for reappointment of Dr. Wales, whom I found in office when I went in, April 7, 1882, were of such a character as to fully justify me in believing that the affairs of his bureau had been well administered. Senator McPher- son wrote the following letter : " ' UNITED STATES SENATE, WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 18, 1883. " ' To the President. " ' SIR : As the term of office of Surgeon-General Wales, of the Navy Department, is soon to expire, and considering it not a political office, I presume, as I am a perfect prodigal with the article of advice, to ask, for the good of everybody and everything relating to that ser- 302 HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. vice, that you reappoint him. I do this because he is an excellent officer, having ability and energy qualities not general in the naval service, and which, I think, should be nourished when discovered. I feel sure if any officer lias deserved such recognition from the appointing power by reason of faithful and efficient service in the past, that officer is Surgeon-General Wales. "'I am yours with great respect, 'J. II. Mrl'llKKSON. " < To Hon. C. A. Arthur, President: "A petition for reappointment, written by Carrigan, was sent to the President, headed by J. G. Carlisle, fol- lowed by Phil. B. Thompson, Jr., Leopold Morse, R. II. M. Davidson, D. Wyutt. Aiken, William McAdoo, George D. Wise, John C. XiclmlLs, P. A. Collins, H. B. Lovering, Robert B. Vance, D. W. Connolly, Charles B. Love, Albert S. Willis, Carleton Hunt, G. W. Hewitt, William H. Fiedler, and others, represen- tatives in Congress, saying of Dr. Wales, 'IK: lias ad- ministered the affairs of that bureau during the last four years with signal ability and success.' "United States Senators McPherson, Butler, Brown, Colquitt, Beck, Williams, C. W. Jones, Ransom, and thirty-two other Senators, also using Carrigan as their writer, petitioned for Dr. Wales's reappointment, stating that 'his administrative capacity has been fully demon- HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. 303 strated by the successful management of the bureau of which he now has charge.' " Senator McPherson and Speaker Carlisle and others of the most prominent of these gentlemen, who demanded Dr. Wales's reappointment, were with you in the Con- vention at Chicago and could have informed you that he had borne a good reputation ; that the law required that the chief of the bureau should be a naval surgeon, and placed the medical expenditures in his hands ; that hi? was in no sense a political office, but that if he had any politics, he was a Democrat, and that any attempt to make political capital out of frauds for which this naval surgeon, who is their intimate friend, is solely responsible, would be disingenuous and unfair. That they did not succeed in keeping Dr. "Wales and his chief clerk, Carri- gan, in office is very fortunate. " Yours respectfully, ~W. E. CHANDLER." HENDRICKS'S CONVINCING REJOINDER. Mr. Hendricks, however, did not regard the Secretary's reply as by any means disproving his charges of irregu- larities alleged to have occurred in his department, and forthwith addressed Mr. Chandler as follows : " INDIANAPOLIS, IND., July 14, 1884. "Jlon. W.R Chandler. " SIR : I find in the newspapers this morning a letter to me from yourself, written yesterday and 304 HEXDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. circulated through the Associated Press. You com- plain that I did you injustice in an address to the people of this city, made the evening before. In that address I urged that ' we need to have the books in the government offices opened for examination ;' and, as an illustration, I cited the case of a fraudulent voucher in one of the bureaus of your department, and stated that uppn your testimony before a sub-committee of the Senate it appeared that the frauds amounted to $63,000 : and is not every word of that true? You were brought before the committee and testified as I stated. You ad- mitted under oath that the sum of money lost amounted to $63,000 ; but your defence was that the embezzlement did not wholly occur under your administration, but that a part of it was under that of your predecessor. It seems to have covered the period from June 21, 1880, down to January 25, 1884. Does that help your case? You were at the head of the department a year and nine months of that period, and your predecessor about one year and ten months. He was in office at the pay- ment of the first false voucher, on July 21, 1880, and up to April 17, 1882. when you came in, and yon continued thence until the last false voucher was paid, January 25, 1884. The period was almost equally divided be- tween yourself and your predecessor. How much of the $63,000 was paid out under yourself and how much under your predecessor your letter does not show. HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. 305 "But, sir, upon tlie question that I was discussing, does it make any difference who was Secretary when the false vouchers were paid ? I urged that in cases like this, when frauds are concocted in the vaults or in the books of the department, tiie only remedy of the people is by a change in the control, so that the books and vouchers shall come under the examination of new and disinter- ested men. Do you think I am answered when you say I was mistaken in supposing that in this case the frauds were all under your administration when in fact a part of them extended back into that of your predecessors ? Why, sir, that makes your case worse. For the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery the defalcation is large ; but the more serious fact is that it could and did extend through two administrations of the department, a period of nearly four years, without detection. But it becomes more seri- ous, so far as you are individually concerned, when the fact is considered that you had notice and yet took no sufficient action. The information upon which I spoke was from Washington, the 26t.h of last month, by the Associated Press, the same that brings me your letter. The Associated Press obtained its information either in your department or from the investigating committee. If you were not correctly reported, that was the time for complaint and correction. You testified that the total of the suspicious vouchers discovered was about $68,000, and that the money fraudulently obtained was in some 306 IIEXDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. instances divided between a watchman in the department, Carrigan, a chief clerk, and Kirk wood, in charge of the accounts. Now, what notice had yon? According to the Associated Press report of your testimony, yon re- ceived a letter last year charging Carrigan, one of the parties, with drunkenness : and after that a man came to you and told you that Kirkwood and Carrigan were en- gaged in frauds. Did not that put you upon notice and investigation? You testified that some inquiry was made and the conclusion was that, while there were some suspicious circumstances, they did not warrant a conclu- sion of guilt. After a notice, verbal or in writing, vu left the men in office. You did not bring the frauds to light, nor the guilty parties to punishment. It was Gov- ernment Detective Wood who discovered the frauds ; and the Associated Press report says that "Wood declared he would have no further dealings with your department, but would press an investigation before Congress. "What is your next excuse? Worse, if possible, than all before. You say a large number of Congressmen, in- cluding some gentleman of great influence and position, recommended that the head of the bureau, Dr. Wales, should be appointed. Members of Congress knew noth- ing of the frauds ; they had no opportunity to know. It was within your reach and duty. They were probably his personal friends ; you were his official superior. I5ur, in fact, did you reappoint him? I understand not. Per- HENDRICKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHANDLER. 30? haps the detective discovered the frauds too soon. But Dr. Wales was not one of the three guilty parties. lie neither forged the vouchers nor embezzled the money. His responsibility in the case is just the same as your own. He was the official superior of the three rogues, as you were of himself as well as of them. Neither he nor yourself exposed the frauds or punished the parties. I have not thought or considered this as a case of politics. Addressing my neighbors, I said that this and like cases admonish them to demand civil-service reform in the re- moval of all from office who seek to promote it within the sphere of their official duty and authority. " Respectfully, "T. A. HENDRICKS." COMMENTS OF THE PRESS ON THE EPISODE. As a result of Mr. Hendricks's allegations several gov- ernment officers were promptly indicted by the grand jury at Washington. The spicy correspondence was widely published throughout the country, and freely commented upon. The New York Herald said : "Mr. Chandler does not make a good defence. As head of the department he is responsible for the con- duct of his subordinates, and it is significant that for four years false vouchers had been passed in the bureau without discovery. The fact that Senators and Repre- sentatives signed recommendations for the retention in 308 HEN-DRTOKS'S CONTROVERSY WITH CHAXDLER. office of tlie persons guilty of fraud does not relieve Secretary Chandler of any blame in the matter. lie, as a politician of the old school, ought to know how much such ' recommendations ' are worth about as much as party platforms. To undertake to lay the fault at the doors of these members of Congress, whose recom- mendation was rejected, is disingenuous, and is an at- tempt to shirk responsibility and throw tlie blame where it does not belong. We fear that it is Secretary Chandler who is trying to make political capital." "LITTLE BILLY" LIFTED OUT OF THE WATER. The following humorous editorial comment appeared in a prominent Georgia newspaper: "Mr. Hendrickfl gave an informal notice of his ac- ceptance of the nomination in his speech to his neigh- bors in Indianapolis ; and he has sent a fervid letter of acceptance to little Billy Chandler, which has had the effect of lifting little Billy and his entire naval equip- ment out of the water." CHAPTER XIX. MR HENDRICKS'S YIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. Speech at New Orleans on the Southern Question. The Fifteenth Amendment and the Rights of the Colored Race. The Equality of the Whites and the Blacks not one to be Regulated by Law. A Demand for Equal Laws and Just Taxation. "The Judgment of Mankind Mightier than the Earthquake." Mr. Hendricks in the Indiana Campaign of 1874. His Reply to the Address of the Con- gressional Committee. He Repels the Charge that the Republicans are Better than the Democrats. The Case of Martin Koszta. Mr. Hendricks Denounces the Proposition to Vote National Aid for Building Transportation Lines. Reform in our Revenue System and Civil Service. MR. HENDRICKS, after his retirement from the Senate in 1869, returned to his home and at once re- sumed the practice of his profession. But while he devoted himself to the law, he did not remain silent on the political issues of the day. SPEECH AT NEW ORLEANS ON THE SOUTHERN QUESTION. As illustrating his views on the Southern question, an extract from a speech delivered by Mr. Hendricks in New Orleans, in February, 1870, is given, as follows : 310 MB. HBKDKICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. "In one way or other the radicals intend to have it a fixed fact that the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitu- tion has been adopted. Right or wrong, they intend it shall be declared adopted as a part of the Constitution' of the United States. Under that provision, then, when it shall have been declared to have been adopted, the colored people of the whole country become voters ; they become clothed with political rights, as they have been before by Congressional action, as far as Congress could do it, clothed with civil rights. It is a question for you to consider very carefully what attitude you men of the South shall occupy toward the colored population. There is a deliberate purpose on the part of adventurers from the North a class of men who are described as 4 carpet-baggers' to appropriate the entire colored vote of the South to their cause. And what is their cause ? It is not your cause ; it is not the colored men's cause ; it is the cause of plunder. And the question presents itself in this form : Are you, men of the South, willing that these adventurers shall appropriate that large vote in some of the Southern States a majority of the entire vote ? Are you willing that this vote shall be appro- priated for such a purpose? How can we help it? Simply enough. It is a question simply of personal in- fluence between you, men of the South, ' to the manner born,' and those who have settled here, on the one side, and these haphazard adventurers of the North on the MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS OJT PUBLIC MEASURES. 311 other side. That is the way the question stands. New relations have come to exist between you and the colored people of the South. How will you place yourselves in regard to these new relations ? They have not been of your seeking, and they may, perhaps, not have been sought by the negro ; but he is a voter in Louisiana, as he will be in Indiana, if the Fifteenth Amendment is de- clared adopted ; and it is not worth your while, nor is it worth my while, to go back on the fixed fact. " That traveller in the mountain-pass is not wise, when he overtakes the storm, to be casting his eyes back upon the plain which he has left. It is his business to consider the dangers which menace him at the time, and to save himself from the threatened peril. How can you do it ? These new relations are upon you. How are you to conduct yourselves toward the colored people ? They were your friends. There were social relations between you the relations of master and servant. They had your confidence, and you had theirs. Is it possible that the stranger can now come in and make these ancient servants of yours his servants and your enemies ? There is no occasion, in these new relations which were forced upon you, that you should entertain sentiments of dislike to the negro because of it. It is not of his seek- ing ; he did not produce this change of relations. The altered condition of things has been forced on the coun- try and on you, not by the colored man, but by ambi- 312 MR. HENDRICKS'S TIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. tious politicians, North and South, who wish to make capital out of it. I hope to see Southern men takin.g this weapon which is placed in their hands and using it for their country's good. You have no cause to enter- tain prejudice against the colored people. When your young men were far off in the field, and even your aged men many of them were absent during the four years of the war you left these colored men at your homes, where they stood sentinels at the doors, and your wives and your children were safe under their protection. They labored and cultivated your lands, and raised those products which supported the armies in the fields. And now is it possible that the foreigner I speak not of the foreigner as a man of another country, but men foreign to your interests, men of other sections of the country is it possible that they shall come in and make these colored men to hate you and destroy you? Your inter- ests are the interests of the colored men. "A few colored men may be brought around the lobbies of the Legislature ; they may be temporarily in- vested with a few offices; but you go to work and per- suade the colored men that their interests are claimed by just laws alone, and that these apparent benefits which are conferred on a few of their number do not go to make up the benefits of the great body of them. Give ' them to understand that the offices which are conferred on the colored men here and the colored men there work ME. HENDEICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. 313 a positive injustice to the people at large. Let them understand that, with regard to their civil rights, yon are willing to give them just laws. The negro, of his own motion, is not going to ask for social equality or social rights. It is the Northern adventurer only who is try- ing to agitate that question, to make it a groundwork of ill-feeling between you and the colored man. In 1867, Senator Wilson, addressing an audience in this square, declared this true doctrine that no law in any land could open any man's parlor to him, and no law could open his parlor to any other man. The social rights, the social position of a man, depend upon himself. They are not regulated by law, and the man that insists that there will be social relations between the whites and the blacks inconsistent with the proper relations of those two races is the friend of neither. He is the enemy of both races. In my judgment, the colored people will be satisfied if you assure them that you will give them just laws, fairly administered. Do this, and then the outside adventurer cannot turn their votes against you. Let the colored man understand that the legislation of your State is being carried on to make a few men rich at the ex- pense of the great body of the people. " Appeal to the colored man to stand by you in your fight for honesty, for justice, for integrity, and for equal laws ; and that appeal will reach his heart as readily as it reaches the heart of the great body of the white people. 314 MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. I don't want you to consider what I have said as the ex- pression of a man who is well informed on the sublet. I have never been brought into close contact with colored men to any considerable extent. I don't know much of their habits; I don't know much of the influ- ence brought to bear upon them ; but I do believe that the men who have known them from childhood up the men who have been their friends in times past may, by a proper course, restore that influence in themselves which will enable them to secure the colored vote for the good of your State and for the good of the country. Let the consolidated sentiment of the men of Louisiana be brought to bear upon the Legislature and for the right. You ask nothing that is wrong ; you ask that you may be taxed only for the public good, and that the cor- rupt tide of special legislation shall be stopped. We have much to accomplish. What is it we intend ? That this Union shall be perpetual ; that it shall rest on the Constitution ; and that all the rights, privileges, and pre- rogatives of the State shall be maintained forever under that Government; and that the national Union, thus sup- ported by States clothed with all their rights, will be the temple in which freemen shall worship forever together. " What do we wish to accomplish ? Nothing that is wrong everything that is right. We wish to establish in the United States equal laws and just taxation. These we must have. This plunder of the State and MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. 315 national Treasury is becoming universal. There must be a return to a spirit of honesty in the public service, both national and State. There is a power greater than that of law. Daniel Webster, in one of his beautiful orations, when the question was agitating the heart of the world what treatment Russia would extend to Kos- suth, and whether Russia would demand the return of that patriot when he was under the protection of Turkey, said there was a power mightier than the earthquake, more terrible than the rumbling of the storm the judgment of mankind. " Let us, North and South, unite now for the purpose of maintaining the institutions of our country in the spirit in which they were established by the great men who founded this government." HIS SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1874:. During the campaign of 1874 Mr. Hendricks made a number of stirring speeches. The one delivered in In- dianapolis on September 14 attracted wide attention and was generally regarded as one of his best efforts. The recent adjournment of Congress and the appeal to the people in an. address signed by thirty-nine members of the Congressional Committee, in which they asked that officeholders be continued in power on the ground that the Republicans are better than the Democrats, afforded 316 MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. Mr. Hendricks an opportunity. In the course of his address he said : "Let us look at some of the specific charges in the ad- dress asrainst Democratic rule. ' "We bullied Austria out o of an Hungarian refugee.' That was the case of Martin Koszta, an Hungarian by birth, who had emigrated to this country, had lived in New York one year and eleven months, and in proper form, according to our laws, had declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States. In 1853 he went to Europe on business, carrying an authenticated copy of his declaration, and intending Boon to return. While at Smyrna he was seized by the emissaries of Austria and forcibly taken on board the Hussar, an Austrian brig-of-war, and held in close con- finement, to be carried back for punishment by that cruel government because of his aspirations for liberty. " Captain Ingraham, of our navy, was then in com- mand of the sloop-of-war St. Louis, in the Mediterranean, and, coming to anchor at Smyrna, was told by our consul what had taken place. After consulting our representa- tive at Constantinople, he demanded of the Austrian commander the surrender of Koszta, with the assurance that he would be taken if not surrendered. He was sur- rendered, and placed under the protection of the French consul, and returned to the United States, and Austria never laid her iron hand upon him again. For his gal- lant and noble conduct, Congress voted Captain Ingraham ME. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON" PUBLIC MEASURES. 317 a medal. Mr. Marcy, as Secretary of State, in a corre- spondence of extraordinary ability, maintained and vindi- cated our country's position and conduct, and established public judgment in our favor. Do you regret that Koszta was not left an Austrian prisoner ? If not, what think you of this charge against the Democracy by the Republican Congressmen ? " The next charge is in these words : ' We despoiled Mexico of a portion of her territory.' By treaty, at the close of the Mexican War, we acquired New Mexico and California ; we hold them still. From the latter we have realized untold wealth. But is it true that the acquisi- tion was not the result of legitimate war and fair treaty? that it was the act of force by the strong over the weak ? that it was robbery ? and that the officers and soldiers in that war were despoilers ? If that be so, then, however proud the people have been of the achievements of the soldiers, and of the magnificence of the acquisition, ought not the country to be restored ? No ; the question was long since settled. It is ours by legitimate and proper war and fair treaty, and the demand made that we should blush because of that war and its results only shows their inability to find real fault in Democratic Administrations. " They also charge, ' We demolished Greytown.' That is true. It was in 1854. It was on the line of travel and commerce between the Atlantic States and California ; 318 ME. HENDRICKS'S YIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. and after that the semi-barbarians and half-clothed sava- ges of that locality no more interrupted our commerce or murdered our people. " By what authority and in what manner our internal commerce shall be regulated is a question of present and deep interest, and party managers who ask an indefinite extension of power should declare their policy in unmis- takable terms. In their addresses the members of Con- gress evade it, except to say that, whatever may or may not be expedient to be done, 'only the Republican Party can be relied upon to do it.' Why so? Has that party not been in power, both State and national, long enough to have done something, if its leaders were really in favor of anything? " In respect to the proposition that Congress shall build a double-track railway from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, the Congressional address says, ' This is worthy of careful consideration ; ' and in respect to the proposed expenditure of $2,000,000 per year by Con- gress to open or enlarge several water-channels over the country, they say, 'We invite your earnest and careful consideration of that proposal.' Can you tell what they are in favor of? " But their utterances are yet more confused in respect to the regulation of fares and freights. Shall it be under the control of the States or of the companies? They say that the objections to State control ' are so serious MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. 319 that it should not be embraced if a better one can be found ; ' that it would drive capital from us. They add, ' It is now a mooted question whether that price (fare and freight) shall be named by the company or by the people.'. . . ' It is manifest that if the company be allowed to fix the price, they may demand too much. Tenders of all commodities are very apt to want all they can get. On the contrary, if the people or their agents fix the price, they may set it too low. Purchasers are very apt to want commodities as cheap as they can be had. It is not probable that either party to the trans- action would always hit upon the exact equivalent. The consequences of a mistake would probably be found most injurious if made by the people. If the company makes the mistake and charges too much, no one is obliged to employ it. The producer does his own carry- ing before the railway is built. He has the perfect right to do so after it is built.' . . . 'Under favorable con- ditions, indeed, the carrier may demand and receive more than a fair share of the profits of production. "Where such is the case, when the State finds the producer makes but ten per cent while the carrier makes fifteen or twenty per cent, it is very easy and perfectly legitimate for it to say to the company : " The work you do can be done for less money ; we will pay you for your road what it will cost to build such another, or you may keep your road and we will build another." So the 320 MR. HEXDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. people are not helpless against exorbitant charges. On the contrary, if the people set the price, and set it too low, the consequence may be graver.' " From the address I have read thus fully because it is a carefully-prepared appeal to the people, and speaks with authority for the party. And now I ask, "What are they for? What are they against? Is it a grand gov- ernment railroad, or water-lines of communication ? * "Worthy your careful consideration,' is the answer. This alone appears clear, that they oppose the regula- tion of fares and freights by public authority, and favor leaving their regulation to the companies. "Whatever you think of the position, the reasons given are vicious. 'If the people fix the rates, they are likely to be too low, and capital will be driven off.' "Why so? Intelligent legislation would regard railroads as important public agencies to be protected, if not encouraged. But they add: 'If the company makes the mistake and charges too much, no one is obliged to employ it. The producer does his own carrying before the railway is built. He has the perfect right to do so after it is built.' That language in the mouth of the company itself would be justly offensive. It does not correctly state the relations between the companies and society. The companies are created by law, as artificial persons, and clothed with important privileges, because of the bench' ts the con- struction and maintenance of their roads will be to the MR. HEXDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. 321 community. Except for that, they would not exist. Except for that, they would not be clothed by law with that quality of sovereignty which enables them, like the State, to appropriate private property. But for the fact that they are public, and for the public, and not private, they could not enter upon, condemn, and appropriate the lands and timber of the citizen. " This view is in accordance with legislation, judicial decisions, and public policy. And the companies cannot say to the producers, nor can these members of Congress say for them, ' If the fares and freights are too high, you can carry your own produce to market as you used to do.' The public corporation must serve the public at reasonable charges. That is the purpose of its existence, and the advantage of the members is but an incident. Highways, whether rail or gravel, might be made by the State directly, and in every respect would be under State control. The public corporation, created to build and maintain such highway, stands, in respect to its powers and its duties, in the place of the State. It is a creature of the State, endowed with a part of its powers, to serve the public. And if such a corporation refuses to serve the public at reasonable rates, the State may compel such service. I suppose the rule in respect to a private cor- poration would be different. In this I do not refer to the case in which the State may have expressly relin- quished the control to the corporation itself. In this 322 MR. HEXDRICKS'S VIEWS ON T PUBLIC MEASURES. State the power is expressly reserved to amend the general laws under which railroad companies have been organized since 1853. '" If possible, the other remedy against exorbitant charges, suggested by the Congressional address, is more objectionable. It is, that the State shall buy the road from the compam', or build another road by its side. It is not probable that the people of Indiana will ever again permit the State to enter upon the hazardous work of constructing or managing works of internal improvements. The reliable remedy is to be found in the wise and prudent exercise of the powers which the State has over her own institutions. "Under the pretext of regulating commerce among the States, the dangerous scheme has been devised of Congressional intervention and control over State cor- porations. The real purpose is to strengthen Federal au- thority and promote the concentration of power. Can you conceive a scheme of greater danger to the reserved rights of the States and of the people? " To secure a fair management of railroads and a just rate of transportation, are the farmers and mechanics not safer in the hands of their immediate representatives in the State Legislature than in the hands of Congress or of such commissioners? The responsibility of the people is more direct, and the representatives are more in your sympathy, and corrupting influences are less powerful. MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON" PUBLIC MEASURES. 323 " Tlicre is pending in the House a Senate bill, which, assumes the right to regulate the schools, public con- veyances, etc., in the States, and to declare by whom and up.on what terms they shall be enjoyed. These have al- ways been held to be domestic institutions, and subject only to State control. This is another effort to concen- trate power. " If Congress, upon any pretence, may prescribe who shall be admitted to the schools, may it not, on the same pretence, go further and prescribe the terms and regulate the treatment of the scholars in the schools, and do what- ever may be desired to preserve a supposed equality? " We hear no more of the foolish cry that the Demo- cratic Party is dead. Stanch, strong, and earnest, it has its work to do, the pleasing work of restoring good gov- ernment, wholesome and equal laws, and universal har- mony to a great people. It is cheered forward by the increasing respect and confidence of the people, as shown in the elections as they come on. When the day of com- plete triumph shall come, and the burdens and responsi- bilities of government shall rest upon its broad shoul- ders, Heaven forbid that the people shall be disappointed in their just expectations !" HENDRICKS ON REVENUE REFORM. On his return from Europe in April, 1884, Mr. Hen r 324 MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS OX PUBLIC MEASURES. dricks was interviewed for a New York newspaper, and said : " I think almost every reflecting person has come to the conclusion that there ought to be a reform in our revenue system, especially in view of the fact that exist- ing laws bring into the Treasury annually many millions of dollars more than an economical administration of public affairs can require. The people will consider the obligation of the Democratic Party as discharged if, when clothed with sufficient power, it shall introduce and consummate all needed reforms. But the public will hardly hold the party responsible merely because it con- trols one branch of Congress. Revenue and adminis- trative reform that are impossible I mean that may be impossible in a House of Representatives as a partisan body with a powerful minority adverse, and with a Sen- ate and Executive in opposition, may become easy and certain after the discussions brought out by the general election, and after the election of a President in harmony with the sentiments of the people as established in such discussions. " Revenue reform is a work of great difficulty and delicacy, but surely it will be possible and practicable when undertaken by all the responsible departments of the government, acting in harmony. The President's recommendation, alone, should have great weight and influence. He will directly represent ull the interests MR. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. 325 aftd sections of the country, and his possible relations to the subject will be considered by the people when they make their selection. The present House of Repre- sentatives, although Democratic by a large majority, may not be able to harmonize and agree upon a measure of revenue reform that can pass the whole ordeal of legis- lation; yet I have entire confidence that Democratic success this year will result in legislation just to the great interests of the country, affording relief to the Treasury from the present plethora, and greatly reducing the bur- den of the tax-payers. Of course it is a prime idea, as respects revenue reform, that the revenue shall be re- duced, and that in the reduction the greatest care shall be taken that unequal burdens shall not be imposed on some and special advantages given to others. Of course the carrying out of this idea requires the exercise of the highest judgment. It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives has not agreed on the subject. I regret it, and I hope some fair and proper adjustment may be made. But, however that may be, I have no doubt but that harmony will characterize the proceedings of the National Convention, because it will be the duty of that Convention to harmonize in order that success may fol- low, not for the promotion of any particular individual, but in order that needed conservative reforms may not only be possible but sure." 326 ME. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON PUBLIC MEASURES. HENDRICK8 ON CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM. Hendricks said as long ago as 1872, at the meeting in Indianapolis in July of that year to ratii'y the nomina- tion of Mr. Greeley: "Governor Morton thinks we do not know what civil-service reform means. lie will find that we understand it, and that the people, with- out respect to party differences, understand it, and that they will have the reform. The plainest mind, if honest, easily comprehends it. It means that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claim to public em- ployment it means that men are not to be appointed to office merely because they are relatives or subservient tools of party leaders ; it means that men are not to be appointed whose only claim is that they have been the corrupt agents of a party, and with foul hands have defiled the people's ballot-box ; it means that the public offices belong to the people, and that their duties are to be discharged by faithful men and only for the public good. I believe it means all that, and this, too : that men who hold appointments to discharge administrative duties, who are faithful and efficient, and do not prosti- tute their positions to the service of party, ought not to be removed because of their political opinions. If men of that character are retained they become a check upon the supporters of the party in power who may attempt fraudulent practices upon the Treasury. Touchers ME. HENDRICKS'S VIEWS ON" PUBLIC MEASURES. 327 could not then be withdrawn and raised, and additional thousands drawn upon them. The sum of the whole matter is that the public offices ought to be filled and their duties discharged for the benefit of the country, and not for a party." CHAPTER XX. MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. Pen-Portrait of Mr. Hendricks. Description of his Residence at Indianapolis. His Social Relations. Mrs. Hendricks. A Woman of Rare Talent and a Brilliant Conversationalist. Her Husband's Confidential Adviser and Constant Companion. "Thomas will bo Too Old to be placed at the Head of the Ticket iu 1888." Mr. Hendricks's Law-Practice. Important Suits in which he has been Engaged. Mr. Hendricks's Speech at Indianapolis after his Nomina- tion. " There ought to be a Change." His Confidence in the Suc- cess of the Ticket. " Dave" Gooding's Little Joke. MR HENDRICKS is a man of medium height and symmetrical form. He is erect, active, and vigorous. His figure is manly and his face is handsome. The fea- tures are large and expressive, and while there is a soft, good-humored expression in the large blue eyes and in the mouth and dimpled chin, the brow, forehead, and full, heavy jaw indicate wisdom and resolution. His complexion is florid, and he looks like one who has lived a happy life, encountered no great sorrows, and yielded to no great vices. His disposition is as sunny as his com- plexion, and in social life he is a great favorite. To MB. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 329 acquaintances he is affable and pleasant, to close friends warm and lovable, and to political associates courteous but cautious. He would rather conciliate an enemy than oblige an ally. His voice is rather a thin tenor and has nothing imposing in its tones, but is audible to a great distance when he speaks with earnestness. He appears to the best advantage before a crowd, for then he kindles with the excitement of the occasion, and an interruption or a jest from some dissenting auditor is all that is neces- sary to make him forget his habitual deliberative cast of thought and fling himself into dashing and aggressive argument. His private and public life is above reproach. " He is addicted to none of the vices, great or small," says one biographer, " and his walk through life has been un- usually circumspect." The best likeness of Mr. Hen- dricks is one which was photographed by Van Loo. The portrait of the ex-Senator in the Indiana State Library, painted by Freeman, conve} T s the idea of a high liver, which is not just, Mr. Hendricks being rather abste- mious than otherwise in his habits. The Van Loo does justice to the pose of the finely-formed head, the brow is clear, the eyes are penetrating, and the expression is pleasing and intellectual. The picture even conveys an idea of the delicacy of complexion and soft, brown tint of hair which mark his Scotch descent. He has never belonged to more than one secret society, 330 MB. HENDRICKS AT HOME. the Odd Fellows. lie is a charter-member of the "Wells- ville Lodge, but a long time ago ceased to actively par- ticipate in its work. lie was nurtured in the Presby- terian faith, and was a member of that communion until the organization of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Indianapolis in the year 1862, when he became a mem- ber of that parish and was elected senior warden. Mr. Ilendricks has seldom left his own State in recent years, but with his wife he made a trip to Europe in the spring of 1884. He visited Rome, Naples, Genoa, Florence, and Venice, and stayed some time in Paris and also in London. MR. HENDRICKS'S RESIDENCE AT INDIANAPOLIS. Mr. Ilendricks has been a resident of Indianapolis for many years, and among the many pleasant homes of that city none is more comfortable or less ostentatious than his. It is a two-story brick dwelling, standing in a spa- cious, grassy, and well-shaded lawn not closely trimmed, decorated with old-fashioned country garden-flowers. Across the avenue the splendid State Capitol, the cor- ner-stone of which was laid under Governor "VVilliams's administration, when Mr. Hendricks delivered the ora- tion, is being erected. All around the home appearances speak of simple comfort and quiet hospitality. It is not a house of many rooms, but they are large and handsome and have an air of comfort foreign to most more preten- ME. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 331 tions dwellings. The hall is especially spacious, and with the open door and inviting chairs and sofa makes a pleasant reception-room in summer. Mr. Hendricks's private and political library is upstairs, and there he has a table and telephone, and receives the politicians who crave a special hearing. Mr. Hendricks is, without doubt, the most popular man in his party in Indiana, and this position he has attained by uniform urbanity, courtesy, and considera- tion for the feelings of others. In his social relations he is not at all hypocritical or pretentious, but he is a cultured and refined gentleman a fact that even his bitterest political enemies will readily acknowledge. MR. HENDRICKS'S MARRIED LIFE. Mr. Hendricks was married near Cincinnati, on the 25th of September, 1845, to Miss Eliza C. Morgan. Mrs. Hendricks is a fine-looking lady, about fifty years old, rather small of stature, with dark hair and eyes. She wears an eye-glass, which gives her something of a distinguee appearance, and she dresses richly but plainly. She is a brilliant conversationalist and a lady of rare tact. For many years she has devoted much attention to charitable matters, and for four years was one of the board of trustees, appointed by the Repub- lican Governor, of the State institution for the reforma- tion of girls. While president of the board a legislative 332 MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. investigation of the institution was held, and developed the fact that its affairs had been managed ranch more economically and effectively than when under control of men. When Mr. Hendricks was Governor of the State she visited with him the various penal and reformatory in- stitutions, and was not satisfied with a casual inspection of them', but inquired into their affairs closely. She is valuable to him in many ways, for she has an extended knowledge of political affairs and excellent judgment regarding them. All of his carefully prepared speeches bear the impression of her work. They are a charm- ing couple, thoroughly congenial and almost equally talented. Mi's. Hendricks is his confidential adviser, and is al- ways consulted before he takes any important step. She is, if anything, more ambitious than her husband, and has done much to increase his popularity by her grace- ful ways and feminine shrewdness. Although they are people of aristocratic breeding and tendencies, they by no means hold themselves aloof from others, but all who come to see them are made welcome and entertained so cleverly that all existing differences of rank or social */ position are forgotten. "THOMAS WILL THEN BE TOO OLD." One who knows the family intimately says: "She is MR. HEtfDRICKS AT HOME. 333 generally present at his conferences with his political friends, and often participates in them. She accompanies him in his travels, being his companion abroad as well a,s at home, and she is to him what God designed the wife should be to the husband his constant companion and friend. They have no children living, the only one born to them a boy having died many years ago ; and as they go through life together, hand in hand, they pre- sent one of the most beautiful examples of confidence and domestic felicity anywhere to be seen." A New York correspondent who visited Mr. Hen- dricks to obtain his views on the Chicago platform wrote : " Mrs. Hendricks was present during the inter- view, and was evidently well pleased with the honor con- ferred upon her husband. ' This will tend to make Mr. Hendricks more prominent than ever for years hence,' suggested the correspondent, and may result in his being placed at the head of the ticket in 1888.' ' Oh, no,' replied Mrs. Hendricks, with a smile, ' Thomas will then be too old.' " MR. HENDRICKS 6 LAW-PRACTICE. Mr. Hendricks in the practice of his profession is as- sociated with Messrs. O. B. Hood, A. "W. Hendricks, and Conrad Baker, who had preceded him in the guberna- torial office. The four years of his executive term was 334 ME. HENDRICKS AT HOME. the only period when Mr. TTend ricks did not practice law, and yet he resumed professional work with such diffidence, lest he had lost ground therein, that the gain- ing of his first case was very much of a surprise to him. It was a famous canal case, which had run the gauntlet of the courts for a dozen years and had its root in 'mat- ters dating back twenty-seven years. Perhaps the most important case which has engaged his attention was that of the Pennsylvania Railway, in which he held his own with such distinguished talent as that of Judge Hoadly, Stanley Matthews, and Mr. McDonald. His argument at Newport covered one hundred pages of printed matter and is a marvel of legal acumen. Another great case was that of the Toledo and Western. To a degree in which hardly any other American pub- licist has succeeded, Mr. Hendricks has retained his hold upon his immediate constituency, and kept the party organization of his State free from factional discord. He and his friends were alike surprised at the demon- stration over his name and presence in the Chicago Con- vention, and nothing short of it could have reconciled him to the entrance upon a political struggle involving his own . election to office, all thought of which he had surrendered with the retirement of his illustrious col- league of the " old ticket." Mr. Hendricks never sat in a National Convention he- fore that of this year, and never saw one save as a spec- ITR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 335 tator for a few liours of the Chicago Convention of 1864, which named McClellan and Pendleton. MR. HENDKICKS'S SPEECH AFTEK HIS NOMINATION. On his return from the Chicago Convention to Indi- anapolis, Mr. Hendricks was invited to be present at a grand ratification meeting, which was attended by eight thousand people. The meeting was held under the au- spices of a new political labor organization known as the " Autocrats." The correspondent of a Cincinnati news- paper thus describes Mr. Hendricks's appearance : " The coming of the distinguished gentleman was the signal for long-continued and enthusiastic cheering, the vast crowd waving hats and handkerchiefs, and filling the air with huzzahs. Mr. English presided, and in his acceptance he recounted the causes, dating back to 1876, which had led to this remarkable gathering. He was very happy in his allusions to the ticket nominated at Chicago, and in his more direct personal reference to Mr. Hendricks. " Following him Mr. Hendricks was introduced, and as he came forward the cheering broke out afresh, and continued unabated for several minutes, Mr. McDonald being conspicuous with hat and cane in giving it empha- sis. It was this tumultuous greeting which led Mr. Hendricks to remark : ' You are almost as bad as they 336 MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. were in the Convention at Chicago,' and this started the hnzzahs anew and with freshened vigor. "Mr. Hcndricks talked for sometime in his pleasant conversational way, but not attempting to conceal his personal gratification over the tremendous welcome which had been extended to him. In all that he said he was cautious not to offend, and his manner was chivalric and sympathetic as he touched lightly upon his own nomina- tion, and the disappointment which came to others seek- ing higher preferment." The following is his speech on this occasion : " MY FELLOW-CITIZENS : You are almost as bad as they were in the Convention at Chicago. I thought they would not stop up there at all, and I thought there was no limit to the crowd of people there; but I find there is a larger, almost, here. I am very much encour- aged and delighted to meet you on this occasion. You come to celebrate and to express your approval of the nominations that were made at Chicago. I am glad that you are so cordial in this expression. " This is a great year with us. Every fourth year we elect two great officers of the Government. This year is our great- year; and every man, whatever his party associations may be, is called upon to reconsider all ques- tions upon which he is disposed to act ; and having re- considered, to cast his vote in favor of what he believes to be right. The Democrats of Indiana appointed me MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 337 .one of the delegates to the Convention at Chicago. I spent nearly a week in attendance in that city, and now I return to say a few things to you, and only a few things, in regard to that Convention. "It was the largest convention ever held in America. Never has such an assemblage of people been seen before. It was a convention marked in its character for sobriety, deliberation, and purposes. It selected two men to carry the banner ; and leaving that Convention and going out before the people, the question is, Will you help carry the banner? I do not expect I have no right to ex- pect that I will escape criticism, and it may be slander, of the opposite party. I have not in my life suffered very much from that. But I come before you, Demo- crats, conservatives, independents, all men who wish to restore the Government to the position it occupied be- fore these corrupt times, and to all such men I make my appeal for your support for the high office for which I have .been nominated by the Democracy at Chicago. " Governor Cleveland is the nominee for President, a man promoted to his high office by the largest majority ever deciding an election in New York. He is a man of established honesty of character, and if yo.u will elect him to the Presidency of the" United States you will not hear of star routes in the postal service of the country under his administration. " My fellow-citizens, I believe that for such a duty as 338 MR - HENDRICKS AT HOME. this, for the purpose of maintaining the United States Government for the people of this country, I can com- mend to your confidence Governor Cleveland, of New York. Not long since there were troubles in the local government of the city of Buffalo, and the conservative people of that city nominated Grover Cleveland as candidate for Mayor, not upon a party ticket, but npon a citizens' ticket, with the dutv assigned to him of cor- s O recting the evils that prevailed in the government of the city of Buffalo. He was elected, and entered upon the duties of office, and made corrections in the management of the affairs of that city so clearly and so well defined that the people of New York took him up and made him Governor of the State, and that is the way he comes be- fore you now. He who corrects all evils in a badly- administered city, and who goes from that service into the affairs of the State government and makes correc- tions there, will then step, in the natural order of pro- ceeding, into the affairs of another government and bring about reforms there. " My fellow-citizens, I did not intend to speak thus long to vou. The Convention at Chicago did not realize O / O all that we expected. For myself I had no expectations. In no respect, in no sense, was I a candidate for any office whatever. We did not realize all that we expected, but I believe that is the fate of humanity almost every- where and under almost every circumstance. But havo MR. HEKDRICKS AT HOME. 339 we realized that which should encourage us to make an effort for good government ? Not that I want the office to which I was nominated, for you know that I did not desire that ; but somebody must be nominated for Vice- President to run on the ticket with the candidate for President, and when the ticket is presented to you, yon are called upon to pass judgment upon it in respect to its merits throughout. Will you support it ? " And in asking that question I wish to ask you an- other. Do you not, all of you, Democrats and Republi- cans, believe that the affairs of government have been long enough in the hands of one set of men ? And do you not all believe that we have reached a period when there ought to be a change ? I do not ask that all shall be turned out. That is not the idea. It is not the idea that if a man has done his duty well and faithfully, if he has not used the powers of his office to disturb the rights of the people, if he has not furnished money to corrupt elections, if he has simply confined himself to the duties of his office I am not clamoring for his official blood. But, my fellow-citizens, of these one hundred and twenty thousand men that now fill official positions in the country, we have no right to suppose, from all that has taken place, that they are all honest. " I have every faith that this ticket will be elected. I think I know something about Indiana. We will prob- ably stand here together, won't we ? And this banner 340 MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. of liberty, of right, of justice, of fair government, that has been put in the hands of Cleveland and Heiulricks shall be carried and placed in glorious triumph on top of the national Capitol in November next. Shall this be the people's banner ? I have lived a good while. I have tried to secure your confidence and to preserve it, and all I ask of you is your support, not for myself, but for your- selves and for your children and all people. Now, I have spoken longer than I intended. I know when any of my Republican friends who are intending to stand by their party still longer shall see this numerous crowd here to-night, they will think the doom of the fates has come at last. Why, I happened up street a few weeks ago, it was just after Elaine and Logan were nominated, and I saw a little gathering of very honest and honor- able people behaving themselves exceedingly well and very quietly, and General Harrison was delivering to them a speech about the nominations ; and really if you were to bring that crowd here and drop it right down among you, we should hardly notice it at all. What does this mean ? It means that the people intend to have reform : and that is the watchword that is written upon every Democratic banner. It was written upon the Democratic banner eight years ago, and Tilden and Hend ricks carried that banner. But reform was defeated by defeating the right of the people to elect their own rulers ; and what is the consequence ? There has been no reduction of public ex- penditures, although the war is all the while passing fur- MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 341 ther and further away from us. Still the Republican Party makes no reduction in the public expenditures. Shall we have cheap government? Shall we have lower taxes? They tell us that the Government can be well carried on for $100,000,000 less than is now collected from the public. If Cleveland shall come into the Presidential office, I believe he will bring the expenditures down to the last dollar that will support the Government economically administered. And then when he does that he will have accomplished what General Jackson said was the duty of any government. A government has not the right to collect a dollar from the people, except what is necessary to meet the public service. Whatever a government needs it has a right to come to me and to you and to all of us and make us pay for ; but when it gets all that it needs for economical administration it has not the right to take another sixpence out qf our pockets. When this ticket shall triumph, that idea will be established in this country." Hon. David S. Gooding also spoke, and in his adroit way caught the ear of the audience. The happiest thing he said was in recalling the time when Mr. Hendricks first ran for Congress, and how he coached him in his first political race. "Why," said the speaker, "I made Thomas A. Hendricks, and that's the way I made him ; and when he goes to Washington I hope lie won't forget his maker." Mr. Hendricks was convulsed with laughter, 9-nd nodded that he wouldn't. CHAPTER XXI. ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Party Divisions in Colonial Times. " Whigs" and "Tories." The Conflict of Colonial Legislatures and Colonial Governors. Franklin Suggests a Continental Congress. The Whig the Only Party of Patriots at the Beginning of the Revolution. Jefferson's Absence during the Establishment of the Constitution. His Sym- pathy with French Revolutionists. His Distrust of a Monarchical Tendency in America. He enters Washington's Cabinet, but fears that Federal Power is too great. He Founds a New Party, which was at first called " Republican " because " Democrat " was a Term of Reproach. The French Revolution Widens the Breach between Federals and Republicans. The^Famous Alien and Sedition Law. Republican Resolutions against it which Destroy the Federal Party. In Colonial times party divisions in America were reflections of those in England. As long as the mother- country conceded to the Colonial inhabitants the rights and privileges to which they were entitled under the Magna Charta, the division of sentiment was not strongly marked ; but as the new country developed and the exac- tions of King George III. became more oppressive, the party spirit grew until in 1765, when the Stamp Act was passed, excitement reached a high pitch, and the terms ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 343 " Whig" and " Tory" had a stronger meaning in America than in England. The Whigs were the patriots ; and so great was their majority that for a time it seemed that only those who were directly in the pay of England were willing to be called Tories. The Colonial Assem- blies were Whig, but the Colonial governors were Tories, and the conflict for the preservation of the rights of the Colonies resulted in a clash of legislative and executive authority. In Virginia, Henry, Kandolph, Lee, Washington, and Wythe were leaders ; and when Lord Dunmore prorogued the Assembly, they established a " committee of corre- spondence," and in 1774 that body deprecated the closing of the port of Boston, and set apart a day to implore the interposition of God for the relief of the Colonies. The " general correspondence " was perfected in the first Continental Congress, suggested by Dr. Franklin the year before, but not convened until September, 1774, in Philadelphia. The second Continental Congress met in 1775, and the immortal Declaration drafted by Thomas Jefferson was adopted in the following year. Up to that time, and during the long struggle which followed, there was only one party of patriots the Whig. THE BEGINNING- OF PARTIES IN THE NEW NATION. Thomas Jefferson retired from Congress in October, 1776, and during the War of the Revolution he served 344 ORIGIN AXD HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. liis country chiefly in his own State, where he reorga- nized the government, revising the Virginia laws and holding the office of governor from 1779 to 1781. In 1783 he returned to Congress, and as chairman of a com- mittee he reported the treaty of peace with Great Britain. Two years later he succeeded Dr. Franklin as Minister to France, and he remained at the French Court until 1789. During his absence from the country, in May, 1787, the Convention to draft the Federal Constitution was held at Philadelphia, and on the 4th of March, 1789, the government of the nation was organized under the Constitution. During the confederation which is the link between the revolutionary administration and gov- ernment under the Constitution, it was feared by many that the nation would fall apart, and at the time of the Constitutional Convention the danger was still recog- nized, inability to pay soldiers who had been disbanded in 1783 causing extreme embarrassment. A strong party in the Convention opposed the Constitution, clinging to the old confederacy of States and urging a renewal of the old articles of confederation, with enlarged powers for Congress. Jefferson's residence in France had given him an in- tense sympathy with the French revolutionists who de- sired to destroy " the conspiracy of the kings," and he became extremely suspicious of an attempt to overthrow ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 345 popular government and establish a monarchy in his own. country. When he returned to America in 1789 he en- tered the Cabinet of Washington as Secretary of State, but lie was distrustful of the power of the Federal Gov- ernment over the States and desired to provide some method to protect their rights. THE FOUNDER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Jefferson soon formed a party which was at first com- monly called " Republican," and the title was retained until December, 1805, when the name of " Democrats " was formally adopted by the party. Jefferson himself was always fond of the latter name, but at the outset the charge was made that the party would carry their democratic theories to the extreme of " mob-rule," and to choose the name " Democrats," it was feared, might give their enemies a foundation for the charge. Jef- ferson was the unquestioned leader of the new party, as Colonel 'Alexander Hamilton then was of the Federal Party, and the strife between the two leaders was often, acrimonious. As early as 1793 the party-line between Federalist and Republican was very distinctly drawn, but Washington desired to retain both Hamilton and Jeffer-^ son, the leaders of the factions, in his Cabinet as long as he remained in office. 346 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION WIDENS THE BREACH. Soon after "Washington's second inauguration, Genet, an envoy of France, excited a new strife in the Cabinet by an attempt to secure recognition for the French Re- public and embitter the relations of the United States with Great Britain. Washington, as well as Hamilton and other Federalists, favored non-intervention, but Jef- ferson and his Republican followers declared that grati- tude to France for aid during the Revolutionary War demanded the proffer of assistance in her struggles, re- gardless of the danger of exciting another war with the British. The authority of Washington was decisive, however, and lie issued his famous proclamation of neu- trality which has ever since been accepted as the true policy of the government in all similar emergencies. The second President, John Adams, was a Federalist, and during his administration party strife was very fierce. Jefferson had retired from the Cabinet in 1791, return- ing to Virginia to write political tracts and complete the organization of the Republican Party, of which he wa.s the recognized founder. He thus escaped the effect of mistakes made by his party associates in Congress, and he was a formidable candidate for the Presidency, receiving onlv three less votes than Adams. James Madison was the Republican leader in Congress during Jefferson's re- tirement, and he fought the party battles with much vigor. ORIGIN" AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 347 Adams was inaugurated in Philadelphia on March 4th, 1797, and in his inaugural address he was careful to deny that the Federal Party was in sympathy with Great Brit- ain ; but the French revolution was then at its highest point, and Republicans fiercely assailed the administra- tion for indifference to the French cause. The policy of neutrality was maintained, however, although it was found necessary to establish a n?.vy to protect our com- merce. An outbreak of war with France was narrowly escaped early in 1798, and the Federalists advocated the enlargement of both the army and the navy, but the Re- publicans asserted that the military power of the govern- ment was already sufficient. The Federalists gained strength by their prompt re- pulsion of French aggression, and the} r endeavored to fortify their position by the enactment of the celebrated Alien and Sedition Law, which gave the President au- thority " to order all such aliens as he shall judge danger- ous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the United States within such time as shall be expressed in such or- der." The Federalists also desired a naturalization law which would permit no alien to vote until after a resi- dence in the United States of fourteen years. 348 ORIGIX AXD HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. THE FIRST POLITICAL PLATFORM IN THE UNITED STATES. A storm resulted from these measures, and both Jef- ferson and Madison drafted resolutions pronouncing the Alien and Sedition Law unconstitutional. The famous Virginia resolutions of 1798 wen: drawn l>y Madison, and. constitute the iirst political platform enunciated in the United States. That fact, together with the interest at- taching to their definition of the rights of the States, re- quires their insertion in this place. "!N THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES, Friday, Dec. 21st, 1798. "fiesolved, That the General Assembly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the constitution of this State, against every aggression either foreign or domestic; and that they will support the Government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. "That this Assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the Union of the States, to maintain which it pledges its powers ; and that, for this end, it is their duty to watch over and oppose every infraction of those principles which constitute the only basis of that Union, because a faithful observance of them can alone secure its existence and the public happiness. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PAHTY. 349 "Tkat tliis Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare that it views the powers of the Federal Govern- ment, as resulting from the compact to which the States are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no farther valid, than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact ; and that in case of a deliberate, palpa- ble, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the States, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, arid for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them. "That the General Assembly doth also express its deep regret that a spirit has, in sundry instances, been manifested by the Federal Government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional char- ter which defines them ; and that indications have ap- peared of a design to expound certain general phrases (which, having been copied from the very limited grant of powers in the former Articles of Confederation, were the less liable to be misconstrued) so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases, and so as to consolidate the States by degrees into one sover- eignty, the obvious tendency and inevitable result of which would be to transform the present republican 350 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. .-ystcin of the United States into an absolute, or at best a mixed, monarchy. " That the General Assembly doth particularly protest against the palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the ' Alien and Sedition Acts,' passed at the last session of Congress; the first of which exercises a power nowhere delegated to the Federal Government, and which, by uniting legis- lative and judicial powers to those of executive, subverts the general principles of free government, as well as the particular organization and positive provisions of the. Federal Constitution ; and the other of which acts exer- . in like manner, a power not delegated by the Con- stitution, but, on the contrary, expressly and po.-itivelv forbidden by one of the amendments thereto; a power which, more than any other, ought to produce universal alarm because it is levelled against the rigkt of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right. 'That this State having by its Convention which rati- fied the Federal Constitution expressly declared that, among other essential rights, 'the liberty of conscience and the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified by any authority of the United States,' and, from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights from every ORIGIN AND FISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 351 possible attack of sophistry and ambition, having with other States recommended an amendment for that pur- pose, which amendment was, in due time, annexed to the Constitution, it would mark a reproachful inconsistency, aiod criminal degeneracy, if an indifference were now shown to the most palpable violation of one of the rights thus declared and secured, and to the establishment of a precedent which may be fatal to the other. "That the good people of this commonwealth having ever felt, and continuing to feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other States ; the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuating the Union of all ; and the most scrupulous fidelity to that Constitution which is the pledge of mutual friendship and the instrument of mutual happiness : the General Assembly doth solemly appeal to the like dispositions in the other States, in confi- dence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts afore- said are unconstitutional ; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each for co-operating with this State in maintaining unimpaired the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people. " That the governor be desired to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the executive authority of each of the other States, with a request that the same may be communicated to the legislature thereof ; and 352 ORIGIN AND HISTOBT OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. that a copy be furnished to each of the Senators and Representatives representing this State in the Congress of the United States. "Attest, JOHN STEWART. " 1798, December 24. Agreed to by the Senate. "II. BROOKE. " A true copy from the original deposited in the office of the General Assembly. " JOHN STEWART, Keeper of Rolls." AX ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. The address to the people which accompanied the resolutions set forth principles which must be studied by those who would understand the early history of the Democratic Party, as follows : " FKi.r.ow-OYn/.KNs : Unwilling to shrink from our rep- resentative responsibility, conscious of the purity of our motive?, but .acknowledging your right to supervise our conduct, we invite your serious attention to the emer- gency which dictated the subjoined resolutions. Whilst we disdain to alarm you by ill-founded jealousies, we recommend an investigation, guided by the coolness of wisdom, and a decision bottomed on firmness but tem- pered with moderation. " It would be perfidious in those entrusted with the guardianship of the State sovereignty, and acting under the solemn obligation of the following oath, 'I do swear ORIGIN" AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 353 that I will support the Constitution of the United States, 5 not to warn you of encroachments which, though clothed with the pretext of necessity, or disguised by arguments of expediency, may yet establish precedents which may ultimately devote a generous and unsuspicious people to all the consequences of usurped power. " Encroachments springing from a government whose organization cannot be maintained without the co-opera- tion of the States, furnish the strongest incitements upon the State legislatures to watchfulness, and impose upon them the strongest obligation to preserve unimpaired the line of partition. 'The acquiescence of the States under infractions of the federal compact would either beget a speedy consoli- dation, by precipitating the State governments into im- potency and contempt, or prepare the way for a revo- lution, by a repetition of these infractions, until the people are aroused to appear in the majesty of their strength. It is to avoid these calamities that we exhibit to the people the momentous question whether the Constitution of the United States shall yield to a con- struction which defies every restraint and overwhelms the best hopes of republicanism. "Exhortations to disregard domestic usurpations until foreign danger shall have passed is an artifice which may be forever used ; because the possessors of power, who are the advocates for its extension, can ever create 354 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. national embarrassments, to be successfully employed to soothe the people into sleep whilst that power is swell- ilently, secretly, and fatally. Of the same character are insinuations of a foreign influence, which poize upon a laudable enthusiasm against danger from abroad, and distort it by an unnatural application, so as to blind your eyes against danger at home. 'The Sedition Act presents a scene which was never expected by the early friends of the Constitution. It was then admitted that the State sovereignties were only diminished by powers specifically enumerated, or neces- sary to carry the specified powers into effect. Now Federal authority is deduced from implication, and from the existence of State law it is inferred that Congress possesses a similar power of legislation ; whence Con- gress will be endowed with a power of legislation in all cases whatsoever, and the States will be stripped of every right reserved by the concurrent claims of a para- mount legislature. " The Sedition Act is the offspring of these tremendous pretensions which inflict a death-wound on the sover- eignty of these States. "For the honor of American understanding, we will not believe that the people have been allured into the adoption of the Constitution by an affectation of defin- ing powers, whilst the preamble would admit a con- struction which would erect the will of Congress into a ORIGIN" AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 355 power paramount in all cases, and therefore limited in none. On the contrary, it is evident that the objects for which the Constitution was formed were deemed at- tainable only by a particular enumeration and specifica- tion of each power granted to the Federal Government ; reserving all others to the people or to the States. And yet it is in vain we search for any specified power embracing the right of legislation against the freedom of the press. " Had the States been despoiled of their sovereignty by the generality of the preamble, and had the Federal Government been endowed with whatever they should judge to be instrumental towards union, justice, tran- quillity, common defence, general welfare, and the pres- ervation of liberty, nothing could have been more friv- olous than an enumeration of powers. "All the preceding arguments rising from a de- ficiency of constitutional power in Congress apply to the Alien Act, and this act is liable to other objections peculiar to itself. If a suspicion that aliens are dan- gerous constitutes the justification of that power exer- cised over them by Congress, then a similar suspicion will justify the exercise of a similar power over iKitives. Because there is nothing in the Constitution distinguish- ing between the power of a State to permit the residence of natives and aliens. It is therefore a right originally possessed and never surrendered by the respective 356 ORIGIN- AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. States, and which is rendered dear and valuable to Vir- ginia because it is assailed through the bosom of tlio Constitution, and because her peculiar situation renders the easy admission of artisans and laborers an interest of vast importance. " But this bill contains other features, still more alarming and dangerous. It dispenses with the trial by jury; it violates the judicial system ; it confounds legis- lative, executive, and judicial powers; it punishes with- out trial ; and it bestows upon the President despotic power over a numerous class of men. Are such meas- ures consistent with our constitutional principles? And will an accumulation of power so extensive in the hands of the executive, over aliens, secure to natives the bless- ings of republican liberty ? "If measures can mould governments, and if an un- controlled power of construction is surrendered to those who administer them, their progress may be easily fore- seen and their end easily foretold. A lover of mon- archy who opens the treasures of corruption by dis- tributing emolument among devoted partisans, may at the same time be approaching his object and deluding the people with professions of republicanism. He may confound monarchy and republicanism by the art of definition. He may varnish over the dexterity which ambition never fails to display, with the pliancy of lan- guage, the seduction of expediency, or the prejudices of ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC TARTY. 357 the times. And lie mav come at length to avow that so v o extensive a territory as that of the United States can only be governed hy the energies of monarchy ; that it cannot be defended except by standing armies; and that it cannot be united except by consolidation. "Measures have already been adopted which may lead to these consequences. They consist : " In fiscal systems and arrangements which keep a host of commercial and wealthy individuals embodied and obedient to the mandates of the Treasury. " In armies and navies which will, on the one hand, enlist the tendency of man to pay homage to his fellow- creature who can feed or honor him ; and, on the other, employ the principle of fear, by punishing imaginary in- surrections, under the pretext of preventive justice. " In swarms of officers, civil and military, who can in- culcate political tenets tending to consolidation , nd monarchy, both by indulgences and severities ; and can act as spies over the free exercise of human reason. "In restraining the freedom of the pi-ess, and invest- ing the executive with legislative, executive, and judicial powers over a numerous body of men. " And, that we may shorten the catalogue, in establish- ing by successive precedents such a mode of construing the Constitution as will rapidly remove every restraint upon federal power. " Let history be consulted ; let the man of experience CHAPTER XXII. THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. Jefferson's Election to the Presidency. His Letter to Nathaniel Mucon outlining his Policy. A Uniform System of Naturalization established. The Embargo Act passed by Congress. Madison's Administration. His Views on State Supremacy. "The Era of Good Feeling." The Monroe Doctrine and the "American System." Jackson's Differences with Calhoun. Van Buren and Harrison's Uneventful Terms. The Compromise Act of 1833. The Contest of 1844. The "5440 Plank." The Elections of 1848 and 1852. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun on the Tariff Question. Ex-President Theodore D. "Woolsev, of Tale College, has expressed the opinion that the French Republic is not likely to be permanent because it lacks the balance which our system of State governments gives to the Re- public of the United States. As the exponent of the doctrine of State rights the Democratic Party was estab- lished by Thomas Jefferson, and its services in giving to this country the balance which France lacks have been invaluable. It is true that Calhoun and some other dis- tinguished Democrats carried the doctrine too far, yet it was not their mistake but slavery that caused the great THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. 361 civil war of 1861-65, and the principle as harmonized with the Constitution by the founder of the Democratic Party cannot be successfully assailed. Thomas Jefferson, the defender of State rights, the advocate of economy of administration, the exponent of true democracy, is a figure in history to which the eye ever turns with delight, and as a leader he embodied the principles which are still the foundation of the party which he established. THE CONTEST OF 1800. In the election of 1800 there was a breach in the Fede- ral Party, owing to dislike of Adams, and the Democrats used the Alien and Sedition Law with powerful effect against him. The Federalists were defeated. Jefferson o and Burr had each seventy-three votes in the Electoral College, and the election was carried to the House of Representatives. For seven days the balloting proceeded, and after it was ascertained that a Democrat would be elected the Federalists voted for Burr as being less ob- jectionable than Jefferson, and they were all mortified and humiliated by Jefferson's triumph. Soon after his inauguration he addressed the following letter to Na- thaniel Macon, in Congress, indicating his policy : I "WASHINGTON, May 14th, 1801. "DEAR SIR: Your favors of April the 20th and 23d had been received, and the commission made out for Mr. CHAPTER XXII. THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. Jefferson's Election to the Presidency. His Letter to Nathaniel Macon outlining his Policy. A Uniform System of Naturalization established. The Embargo Act passed by Congress. Madison's Administration. His Views on State Supremacy. "The Era of Good Feeling." The Monroe Doctrine and the "American System." Jackson's Differences with Calhoun. Van Buren and Harrison's Uneventful Terms. The Compromise Act of 1833. The Contest of 1844. The " 54-40 Plunk." The Elections of 1848 and 1852. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun on the Tariff Question. Ex-President Theodore D. "Woolsey, of Tale College, lias expressed the opinion that the French Republic is not likely to be permanent because it lacks the balance which our system of State governments gives to the Re- public of the United States. As the exponent of the doctrine of State rights the Democratic Party was estab- lished by Thomas Jefferson, and its services in giving to this country the balance which France lacks have been invaluable. It is true that Calhoun and some other dis- tinguished Democrats carried the doctrine too far, yet it was not their mistake but slavery that caused the great THE PAKTT'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. 361 civil war of 1861-65, and the principle as harmonized with the Constitution by the founder of the Democratic Party cannot be successfully assailed. Thomas Jefferson, the defender of State rights, the advocate of economy of administration, the exponent of true democracy, is a figure in history to which the eye ever turns with delight, and as a leader he embodied the principles which are still the foundation of the party which he established. THE CONTEST OF 1800. In the election of 1800 there was a breach in the Fede- ral Party, owing to dislike of Adams, and the Democrats used the Alien and Sedition Law with powerful effect against him. The Federalists were defeated. Jefferson and Burr had each seventy-three votes in the Electoral College, and the election was carried to the House of Representatives. For seven days the balloting proceeded, and after it was ascertained that a Democrat would be elected the Federalists voted for Burr as being less ob- jectionable than Jefferson, and they were all mortified and humiliated by Jefferson's triumph. Soon after his inauguration he addressed the following letter to Na- thaniel Macon, in Congress, indicating his policy : I "WASHINGTON, May 14th, 1801. "DEAR SIR: Your favors of April the 20th and 23d had been received, and the commission made out for Mr. 362 THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. Potts before I received the letter of the 1st inst. I have still thought it better to forward the commission in the hope that reconsideration or the influence of yourself and friends might induce an acceptance of it. Should it be otherwise, you must recommend some other good person, as I had rather be guided by your opinion than that of the person you refer to. Perhaps Mr. Potts may be will- ing to stop the gap till you meet and repeal the law. If lie does not, let me receive a recommendation from you as quickly as possible, and in all cases, when an office be- comes vacant in your State, as the distance would occa- sion a great delay were you to wait to be regularly con- sulted, I shall be much obliged to you to recommend the best characters. There is nothing I am so anxious about as making the best possible appointments, and no case in which the best men are more liable to mislead us by yielding to the solicitations of applicants. For this rea- son your own spontaneous recommendation would be desirable. Now to answer your particulars seriatim. " Levees are done away. "The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all subsequent ones, by message, to which no answer will be expected. '"The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be re- duced to three ministers. " The compensation to collectors depends on you and not on me. THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. 363 " The army is undergoing a chaste reformation. " The navy will be reduced to the legal establishment by the last of this month. " Agencies in every department will be revised. " We shall push you to the utmost in economizing. " A very early recommendation had been given to the Postmaster-General to employ no printer, foreigner, or revolutionary tory in any of his offices. This depart- ment is still untouched. "The arrival of Mr. Gallatin yesterday completed the organization of our administration. " Accept assurances of my sincere esteem and high re- spect. " TH: JEFFERSON." JEFFERSON S UNIFORM SYSTEM OF NATURALIZATION. The Seventh Session of Congress, on the recommenda- tion of President Jefferson, established a uniform system of naturalization, and the first sinking fund for the redemption of the public debt. The purchase and admission of Louisiana was the most important occur- rence under his first administration. He recommended the passage by Congress of an act prohibiting the Afri- can slave-trade after January 1st, 1808, and it was passed accordingly. Jefferson's recommendation to Congress for the passage 364 THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. of the Embargo Act in 1807 was another important event in his administration. By it lie sought to forbid the American people from trading with the French and English, in the expectation that these two nations for the want of our raw material and produce would hasten to respect our flag and no more board our merchantmen in search of articles contraband of war, nor press our seamen into service. MADISON'S ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY. Madison, who succeeded to the Presidency at a gloomy period in our history, received 122 electoral votes. Representing as he did the same party as Jef- ferson, he resolved to follow the same policy as his predecessor. His views on the question of State su- premacy are best understood by reference to a letter which he addressed to Edmund Randolph in 1787, in which he wrote: "I hold it for a fundamental point that an individual independence of the States is utterly irreconcilable with the idea of aggregate sovereignty." During his term of office Congress, at his suggestion, established a protective tariff. In 1S1G he was anxious to establish a national bank, and a bill for that purpose was introduced in Congress, but was strongly opposed by Democrats and many Federals. THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. 365 THE "ERA or GOOD FEELING." The election of James Monroe as President, in 1816 by 183 electoral votes, against 34 cast for Rufus King, was followed by what has ever since been known as the "Era of Good Feeling." While Monroe professed to believe that a free government could exist without political parties, he sought to bring all the people into the Democratic fold. The famous "Monroe Doctrine" was embodied in his annual message of 1823. President Monroe gave his approval during his second administra- tion to what was then known as the- "American system" for the protection of home industry. "OLD HICKORY'S" ADMINISTRATION. In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected to the Presi- dency, receiving 178 electoral votes, against 83 received by John Quincy Adams. Calhoun, who was elected Vice-President, was personally alienated from Jackson. Jackson's course relative to appointments on political grounds caused much offence. Calhoun's followers advo- cated nullification, and demanded the reduction of duties to the extent of the disavowal of the protective princi- ple, threatening that South Carolina would nullify the revenue laws if they should not be repealed. Jackson was opposed to a high tariff, but was determined to en,- 366 THE PARTY'S LEADERS AXD PRINCIPLES. force existing laws. Finally, through the influence of Henry Clay, a compromise was effected, which resulted in the modification of the tariff. The 4th of March, 1837, ushered in another Demo- cratic administration the beginning of the term of Mar- tin Van Buren, who received 170 electoral votes. The present practice of " pairing off" was introduced for the first time in Congress at the first session of the Twenty- sixth Congress in 1839. Mr. Yan IJuivn was at the cud of his term renominated, being opposed by "William H. Harrison and James G. Birney. The result of the elec- tion was a complete rout of the Democratic Party, but without the moral effect of victory ; Harrison receiving 234 votes, against Van Buren's 60. Harrison, who was a Whig, was the first President not a Democrat after the installation of General Jackson. Harrison died just one month after his inauguration, and at the extra session of the Twenty-seventh Congress, which met on May 31st, 1841, a proposition to appropri- ate one year's salary to the widow of the late President was strenuously opposed by the Democratic members as unconstitutional, and as establishing a dangerous prece- dent. THE COMPROMISE ACT OF 1833. John Tyler had assumed the Presidency by virtue of his office. At this session the tariff occupied the atten- THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. 367 tion of Congress. The Compromise Act, as it was called, of 1833, which was composed of two parts, one to last nine years, for the benefit of manufacturers, the other to last forever, for the benefit of the planting and consum- ing interests, was passed in pursuance of an agreement between Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun and their re- spective friends, at the time the former was urging the necessity for a continuance of high tariff for the protec- tion of revenue, and the latter was justifying before Con- gress the nullification ordinance adopted by the legisla- ture of South Carolina. The chief measure of the ses- sion was the recharter of a national bank. The President while a member of the Democratic Party had been op- posed to the United States bank, and he vetoed the bill. This movement almost caused the establishment of a new party, with Mr. Tyler at its head, earnest efforts having been made in that direction by Whigs and Democrats. THE CONTEST OF 1844. "When the Democratic Presidential Convention assem- bled in Baltimore in 1844, a majority of the delegates favored Martin Van Buren's nomination, but his oppo- nents were successful in depriving him of a two-third vote and he failed to receive the' nomination. Henry Clay received the Whig nomination. The main issues in the election which ensued were the tariff and Texas an- nexation. Polk received 170 electoral votes, against 105 368 THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. received by Clay. The " American Party" first made its appearance after Mr. Folk's inauguration. It should be here noted that the Ashburton treaty of 184:2 regarding the boundary-line of the country on the Columbia River in Oregon had been considered in the Democratic Con- vention of 1844, which in its platform declared for the 54- degrees 4:0 minutes dividing line, and the 54-40 prin- ciple became the cry of the campaign. The war with Mexico was the principal event of President Polk's ad- ministration. In 1848 Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate for Presi- dent, received 163 electoral votes, and Lewis Cass, his opponent on the Democratic ticket, 127. The Demo- cratic Convention at Baltimore at which Cass was nomi- nated declared that " no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the Government, and for the gradual but certain extinction of the debt created by the prosecution of a just and nec- essary war." The Presidential election of 1852 was the last campaign in which the Whig Party appeared in national politics, and resulted in the election of Mr. Fillmore by 254 elec- tral votes to 42 for General Scott. THE TARIFF QUESTION IN EARLY YEARS. In 1823 Henry Clay said the United States was grow- ing poor through want of a manufacturing system. THE PARTY'S LEADERS AND PRINCIPLES. 369 Daniel Webster opposed the protective system. He said the age in which he lived demanded no prohibition, and that competition was far better than monopoly. Mr. Webster, however, so modified his views as to support the tariff bill of 1828. After the close of the war of 1812 John C. Calhoun introduced a tariff bill to apply to cotton goods. Thomas Benton in 1828 advocated protection. In 1832 Clay delivered a three days' speech in support of the American system. When Mr. Hayne of South Carolina threatened that a tariff bill would lead to a dissolution of the Union, Clay inquired : " What would be the condition of the Union if Pennsylvania and New York were firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed and their prosperity blighted by the enforcement of the British colonial system under the delusive name of Free Trade?" THE LAST DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT. James Buchanan received 174 of the electoral votes of 1856, against 129 received by Fremont, and the doctrines of the platform upon which he was elected, like those of the platform upon which Samuel J. Tilden stood in 1876, reappear in the Democratic platform of 1884. CHAPTER XXIII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS HISTORY. Preliminaries to the Struggle for Independence. Tho Convention of 1765. Articles of Confederation. The "Declaration of Rights" and other Papers. The Continental Congress. Work of the Com- mittee ury of the United States. They shall in all cases, ex- cept treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from :irre>t durinir 'heir attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil otliee under the authority of the United Stall's, which shall have been created, or the emolu- ments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office under the United State- shall be a mem- ber of cither house during his continuance in oflice. SEC. 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. Kvery bill which shall have parsed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Pre>i(lent of the United States: if he approve he shall sign it. but if not, he shall return it, witli his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, which shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 379 reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it. unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be. necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, accord- ing to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. SEC. 8. The Congress shall have power To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises ; to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the sev- eral States, and with the Indian tribes ; To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States ; To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ; To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; To establish post-offices and post-roads ; To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ; 3SO CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high md offenses against the law of nations; To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and \\ater; To raise and support armies; hut no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; To provide and maintain a navy; To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United Stati-s reserving to the States, re-pectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congr. To exercise exclusive legislation in all eases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of par- ticular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the ^inie shall be, for the erection of forts, maga- zines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carry- ing into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. SEC. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such im- portation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder or ex post facto shall be passed. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 381 No capitation, or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in pro- portion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be pub- lished from time to time. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolu- ment, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. SEC. 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con- federation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any im- posts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be abso- lutely necessary for executing its inspection laws: and the net ^produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships-of-war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such emi- nent danger as will not admit of delay. 382 CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. ARTICLE II. SECTION 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : Each State shall appoint in such manner as the legislature there- of may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress : but no Senator or Representative, or person hold- ing an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. [The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab- itant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of vote- fur each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed t<> the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The | having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the per- son having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall he the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.] The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 383 and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same throughout the United States. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his i death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a Presi- dent shall be elected. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath of affirmation: " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." SEC. 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators 384 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein hitherto provided for, and which shall be established by law; hut the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. SEC. 3. He shall from time to time give to the congress infor- mation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consid- eration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or cither of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other pub- lic .Ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. SEC. 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. ARTICLE III. SECTION 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as the Con- gress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges both of the Supreme and inferior courts shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. SEC. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting Ambassadors, otherpublir Ministers and Consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction ; CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 385 to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States ; between a State and citizen of another State; between Citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects. In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such reg- ulations as the Congress shall make. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. SEC. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV. SECTION 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. SEC. 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privi- leges and immunities of citizens in the several States. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, 386 CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. shall on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof escaping to another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. SEC. 8. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the con- sent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all need- ful rules and regulations respecting the Territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. SEC. 4. The Constitution shall guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on application of the Legislature, or of the executive (when the Legislature can not be convened) against domestic violence. ARTICLE v. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legislature of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 387 the first article ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE vn. The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independ- ence of the United States the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names. GEO. WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia. 388 CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 1TEW HAMPSHIRE. John Langdon, Nicholas Gihnan. MASSACHUSETTS. Nathaniel Gorham, Ruf us King. VIRGINIA. John Blair, James Madison, Jr. PENNSYLVANIA. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris. CONNECTICUT. Win. Samuel Johnson, DELAWARE. Roger Sherman. George Reed, Gunning Bedford, Jr., J hn pledge NEW YORK. John Dickinson, Alexander Hamilton. Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. NORTH CAROLINA. William Blount, Rirh'd Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson. SOUTH CAROLINA. Charles C. Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler. NEW JERSEY. William Livingston, David Brearley, William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton. GEORGIA. William Few, Abraham Baldwin. MARYLAND. James M'Henry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. Attest: WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. At the first session of the first Congress in New York, March, 1779, many amendments to the National Constitution -were pro- posed. Congress submitted ten of them to the legislatures of the States, and they were ratified, in accordance with the Fifth Article of the Constitution, by the end of 1791. The eleventh amend- ment was proposed in 1794, and ratified in 1798; the twelfth amendment was proposed in 1803, and ratified in the folio iring year. In 1810 Congress proposed an amendment prohibiting any citizen of the United States from receiving or accepting anj title of nobility or honor, or any present, pension, office, or emolu aent CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 389 of any kind whatever, from any ' ' person, king, prince, or foreign power," without the consent of Congress, under penalty of dis- franchisement or ceasing to be a citizen of the United States. This proposed amendment was never ratified. The thirteenth amendment was proposed by Congress in 1865, and ratified in the same year by the requisite number of States. The fourteenth amendment was proposed in 1866, and was intended to complete the work of the thirteenth. Two years later it had received the requisite number of votes in its favor to make it a part of the Constitution. The fifteenth amendment was submitted to the legislatures of the States by resolution of Congress in February, 1869, and ratified by the necessary number of States in the early part of 1870. One State, New Jersey, ratified it nearly a year after the proclamation of the Secretary of State announcing that it had become a part of the Constitution AMENDMENTS. ARTICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. AKTICLE n. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. ARTICLE in. No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in tune of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable 390 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized. ABTICLE V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. AKTICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be con- fronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. ARTICLE VII. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE vin. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. ARTICLE IX. The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 391 ARTICLE X. The powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitu- tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ARTICLE XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. ARTICLE xn. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shaM not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate ; The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the grestest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of 392 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votrs as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. ARTICLE XIII. SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or in any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIY. SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed; but when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 393 any of the male inhabitants of such State, (being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States,) or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Con- gress, or Elector, or President, or Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legisla- ture, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insur- rection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; but Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pen- sions and bounties, for services in suppressing insurrection or re- bellion, shall not be questioned ; but neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss of or emancipation of any slave. But all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. SEC. 5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. ARTICLE xv. SECTION 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. CHAPTER XXIV. GEORGE WASHINGTON, FIRST PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION. His Remarkable Modesty. Opposed to Slavery Although a Slave- holder. The Country Bordering on Anarchy. Quarrels Between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Not a Partisan Himself. His Virtues Derived from His Mother. Mount Vernon an Inheritance from His Brother. His Sense of Justice. Love of Truth and Per- sonal Honor. Farewell Address to His Army. His Admirably Bal- anced Character. "Washington's Cabinet. His Retirement to Private Life at Most Welcome. Although six years elapsed between the resignation of George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the con- tinental army and his inauguration as first President of the United States, there was never any doubt in the minds of the mass of his fellow-countrymen that, what- ever form the new executive office might take, he would be called upon to fill it. No American has ever been so distinctly the first, citizen of his country, albeit he was at the time the cen- tral figure of a group of men more remarkable as a (394) LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 397 group, perhaps, than any the nation has since produced. His successors, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, were his contemporaries, co-laborers, and friends in the difficult initial years of national life ; and he had beside, to aid in his cabinet counsels, men of such distinguished ability as Alexander Hamilton of New York ; General Henry Knox of Mas- sachusetts, and Edmund Randolph of Virginia. But the power which made Washington preeminently the leader, resulted from the extraordinary equipoise of the traits of his character. A better-balanced man has seldom been born ; and everywhere, and under all circumstances, this peculiar evenness made him superior in action to men whose purely intellectual qualities were greater than his. To his strength of character was principally due Washington's grand success ; for he had no unusual ad- vantages in his childhood and youth to open to him an easy road to fame. Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 22, 1732, George was the second and younger son of Augus- tine Washington and Mary Ball, his second wife. Augus- tine Washington was a man of considerable landed prop- erty, as were most of the Virginia country gentlemen. As the laws of primogeniture were yet in force at that period, his elder son, Lawrence, received far more bene- fit from his father's means than did George, whose sole education was gained at the neighboring schools, consist- 398 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. ing mainly of the three essentials, reading, writing, and arithmetic. To these, he himself contrived to add book- keeping and surveying, for which he had a special apti- tude, and which, later in life, served him in excellent stead. All the anecdotes of his childhood and youth show that he early developed the keen sense of justice, the high regard for truth and deep sense of personal honor which distiii<_ r uislicd him until his death. As a lad, he was a noted athlete, a bold and graceful rider, and did well whatever he undertook. His father, Augus- tine Washington, died when George was nine years old, leaving the estate of Mount Yernon, on the Potomac River, to the elder son Lawrence. George, being a great favorite with his elder brother, thereafter spent much of his time at Mount Vernon, so that his early as well as his late years are associated with the pleasant old home- stead. It was at one time intended that George should enter the navy ; but, in deference to his mother's strong opposition, he gave up the idea, and devoted himself most earnestly to the study and practice of surveying, which he proposed to make his profession. It is declared that George Washington inherited from his mother as many other great men are thought to have done those qualities of mind and character which made him great. Mrs. Washington was a woman of vigorous intellect and indomitable will, with a strong sense of right and wrong ; and a deep determination to make up LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 899 in the training of her son, George, so far as possible, for the early loss of his father. So well did she succeed in her efforts that, almost before he had reached manhood, he was quite fitted to take a man's part in life. When George was barely nineteen, he received the appointment of Adjutant, with the rank of Major, in the military ser- vice of Virginia, which, in anticipation of the beginning of the French and Indian war, was mobilizing as rapidly as possible the troops at command. For a short time, he served with credit ; but was soon compelled to resign, in order to accompany his brother Lawrence to Barba- does in search of his swiftly-failing health. The trip failed of its purpose, and Lawrence returned to die at Mount Vernon in the following year, 1752. In the event of the death of his infant daughter, which very shortly took place, Lawrence Washington bequeathed Mount Yernon to his beloved brother George, and it was ever after his home and favorite residence. At this juncture the difficulties of the French and Indian troubles became so great that Washington was entrusted with a delicate mission to the French com- mander, which he performed with such skill, in the face of such dangers and disasters, that he became almost instantly famous. Offered the colonelcy of a new regi- ment, he modestly declined it, accepting the lieutenant- colonelcy instead ; but, in consequence of the death of the colonel, he was soon after compelled to fill the 400 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. position he had previously declined. He continued in the army, serving with ability, though not always with success, for five years, until the fall of Fort Duquesne, and the expulsion of the French from the Ohio valley practically closed the war, and gave him an opportunity to resign with honor, in order to return to the country life he preferred. Another fact, which doubtless influ- enced his decision more than he chose to admit, was that he had fallen in love with a charming widow, Mrs. Martha Custis, to whom he was married the marriage proved happy, but childless on January 17, 1759, in the twenty-seventh year of his age. Having been trained by his mother in admirable habits of thrift and manage- ment, he had already been enabled to considerably increase the property left him by his father and his brother, and during the few years of his retirement at Mount Vernon, he increased it still further. Although a slave-holder, as were all the property owners of his day, he was sincerely opposed to the institution ; neither bought nor sold slaves, and declared in his will that he would gladly manumit all of his, but for the complica- tions which would arise in connection with those inher- ited by his wife, and which could not be freed until her death. So considerate a master was he that he abandoned the cultivation of tobacco, chiefly because he believed it to be injurious to the hands who raised it. Washington was not one of those who early desired a LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 401 rupture with England; but when, convinced that the Colonies could not get justice from the home government, he became an ardent patriot, and was appointed Com- mander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary army on June 15th, 1775, two months after the first shot had been fired at Concord. Probably, no commander ever entered a war, conducted and conquered it, who was so ill prepared in every material way. His troops were inexperienced, ill clothed, ill fed, ill paid, if they chanced to be paid at all ; he was himself unaccustomed to handle large bodies of troops, nor had any of his assistant-commanders greater experience on which he might draw. He had to conduct his campaigns over a large area of country against an enemy superior in everything but pluck and principle. He had private enmity and public opposition to en- counter; but he patiently, hopefully, and skillfully car- ried the conflict to a successful close. On December 23, 1783, he made a most beautiful parting address to his army, unbuckled his sword, and returned to his farming on the Potomac. For some years succeeding the close of the Revolution, the United States were in a condition bordering on anarchy. The country experienced a strong sense of relief when a preliminary convention at Annapolis in 1787, assembled to consider the generally hopeless con- dition, called another and more important convention in the following May at Philadelphia. It was at this con- 402 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. vention that the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted ; and it was immediately after, that George Washington was elected President and John Adams Vice-President of the then infant country. In view of the importance with which the vote of the State of New York is now regarded in Presidential elections, it is a curious historical fact that New York was the only State that cast no vote at the first election of Washing- ton. It was apparently from mere want of interest in the new constitutional government that New York neglected so important a duty. In Washington's first cabinet sat Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State ; Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury ; Henry Knox as Secretary of War, and Edmund' Ran- dolph as Attorney-General; and the administration opened with brilliant promise. It was not long, ho\v- ever, before the interests of the Federalists and anti- Federalists began to clash in the persons of their leaders in the cabinet, Hamilton and Knox on the former side, Jefferson and Randolph on the latter. President Wash- ington carried himself with great tact between the op- posing factions, although his personal leanings were slightly toward the Federalists ; but they ultimately dis- membered his cabinet, depriving him of the strong sup- port he had relied on, and toward the latter years of his second term, despoiling him of much of his popularity. Washington had not desired a reelection, and only con- LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 403 sented to a second term at the most earnest solicitation of men whose advice he felt bound to take. There can be no doubt that he welcomed the day of his permanent return to Mount Vernon. He lived three years after his retirement from the Presidency, and died at Mount Yernon of an attack of acute laryngitis after twenty-four hours of illness, on December 14, 1799, in the sixty- eighth year of his age. CHAPTER XXV. JOHN ADAMS. \D PRI>II'K.\T OF THE UMTKD STA'i Not by any Means so Popular as His Predecessor. Elected by Three Vote* Only. The Country Beginning to be an Independant Nation. Commenting Life as a School Teacher. His Wife a Re- markable Woman. Adam* a Vigorous Speaker and Pointed Writer of Choleric Temper. Bitter Hostility Between Parties. Employed on Delicate Misaiona. Extremely Active in Political Life. One of the First to See a Final Rupture with the Mother Country Inevitable. When John Adams, the second President, succeeded Washington in the executive chair on March 4. 17'.7, he was by no means the unanimous choice of the people his predecessor had been. Indeed, his election was secured by only three votes more than Thomas Jefferson, his most powerful rival of the opposition, received. As the custom then prevailed of the candidate receiving the second largest vote becoming Vice-President, Jef; assumed that office, and the anomalous spectacle was presented of a President and Vice-President of opposing (404) LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 405 political parties. During the eight years of Washing- ton's administration, the United States had been grad- ually and surely taking on the characteristics of an inde- pendent nation, although a nation so young as not to have arranged its domestic economies, or adjusted its foreign relations. As the sense of general security increased, factional and sectional differences were greatly _ augmented, because the leading men had then more time and attention to give to secondary matters. Therefore, although John Adams found an organized body politic where Washington found chaos, he also met internal dissension, intense personal enmities, and European complications that rendered the Presidency anything but desirable to any one who was not a strong man and a true patriot. Both of these Adams unquestionably was. Born in that portion of the old town of Braintree, now known as Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 30th of October, 1735, he was the eldest son of John Adams, an estima- ble farmer of limited means. Possessed by the charac- teristic Xew England desire for education, the father did his best for the son, who was graduated from Harvard College in 1755. Like many who have become famous in the history of this country, he began his practical life, after leaving college, by teaching school, at Worcester, Massachusetts. Having exceptional intellectual power, and a lively ambition, the atmosphere of a grammar school neither suited nor satisfied young John ; and in 406 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the hope of opening a new path to fame and fortune, he began, while still teaching, the study of law. He had thought of becoming a clergyman, but witnessing cer- tain church quarrels in his native town, he was, to quote his own words, *' terrified out of it." He would have been glad to enter the army, had he possessed the influ- ence to secure a commission. That being out of the question, the law seemed his only resource, and he applied himself with such energy to it, that in two years he began to practice in Boston, at the Suffolk County Bar. Before very long he had built up a practice which, as he considered, justified him in marrying, and, accord- ingly, in 1764, he united himself to Abigail Smith, the daughter of a prominent clergyman of Weymouth. This union, which at the time it took place, promised to bring young Adams considerable worldly advantage, his wife's family connections being much more prominent and pros- perous than his own, proved in every way to be most for- tunate. Abigail Adams was one of the most remarkable women of the Revolutionary period. Her qualities so ad- mirably supplemented her husband's, and her nature so thoroughly assimilated with his that the marriage not only brought him personal happiness, but it enabled him to grasp all of the great opportunities which later crowded his life. Wherever and whenever his public duties ren- dered it necessary for him to neglect his private duties, his wife more than made good the neglect. With less of the LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 407 womanly softness and charm of her successor in the White House, pretty Dolly Madison, Abigail Adams had a strength of character and a vigor of mind that found full vent in the troublous times in which she lived. She was so true a helpmate that wherever his life is told, hers should not be omitted. The early shadows of the Revolution were beginning to fall when John Adams was married ; and the agitation of the Stamp Act called him to the political front in his native town. He was appointed junior counsel with Jeremiah Gridley and James Otis, to present a memorial to the Governor and Council praying that the courts might conduct their business without the use of stamps. From that time on, Adams was continually in public and poli- tical life until he retired from the Presidency in 1801. He held many offices, beginning with that of Represen- tative to the General Court (Legislature), ardently work- ing with tongue and pen for what he believed to be the best good of the country. He was a vigorous speaker ; a terse and pointed though not eloquent writer ; and be- ing naturally somewhat pugnacious, he found plenty of occasion for the use of his best ability. As the difficulties with the mother country increased, and the future of the colonies became more uncertain, Adams was one of the first to conclude that a final rup- ture was inevitable ; and as soon as he had come to this conclusion, threw himself with all the ardor and energy 408 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. of his nature into the work of preparing the country for the impending conflict. It was mainly through his efforts that tin- important Congress of 1775, which sent a final petition for rights to King George III, also passed a bill to put the colonies in a state of defence, in the event of the threatened war. It \vas he also who per- ceived the importance of making Washington Commander- in-Chief, although he suggested it rather from the politic motive of binding the .Southern Stales to the interests of the Revolution, than because he then regarded him as the greatest colonial General. Aliotit this time, some of his private letters, full of candid e.\pres>ions concerning men and measures, fell into hands for which they were not intended, and their publication caused consider- able excitement, and aroused some distrust of him, though not enough to compel him in any way to abandon his public career. Indeed, throughout his life Adams' inclination to unwise letter-writing frequently got him into trouble, and finally sent him out of the Presidential office under an unhappy cloud. When the Revolution was finally entered upon, Adams and Jefferson were appointed a committee to draw up articles of war to govern the army ; but the principal labor of preparation fell upon Adams, as did also the work of getting the necessary legislation in Congress, the latter being by far the harder part. In spite of the impulsiveness of his acts, and the frequent intemperance LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 409 of his speech, Adams' opinion and advice were constantly in demand, and he was ever one of the foremost figures of that important period. His really clear head and in- tegrity of purpose were always patent, and he was called upon to fill the most important positions. He was sent to Paris on the delicate mission of securing the alliance of Prance for the revolting colonies ; to England to treat for peace and negotiate a commercial treaty ; to Hol- land to raise a loan for the almost bankrupt States. His services in Europe were so important to his country that he was kept there in one and another capacity for fully ten years, closing his career there, at last, in the capacity of Minister to the Court of St. James. Almost immediately upon his return to America, he was elected Vice-Presi- dent, and occupied that office for two the terms of Wash- ington's Presidency. During Adams' Presidency, the antagonism between the Federal and anti-Federal parties became so intense, and party feeling ran so high that the President, an ar- dent Federalist, was led into many injudicious public acts that lessened the general confidence in his judgment, and in connection with foreign complications, ultimately overthrew the party of which he was the distinguished head. After his second nomination, he was so thoroughly beaten by his chief antagonist, Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the anti-Federalists, that he quitted the capital in bitterness of spirit and deep disappointment before 410 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. the newly-elected Executive was inaugurated. Although, to a certain extent, Adams brought his defeat distinctly upon himself, still he was largely justified in considering that his country had made him a poor return for more than a quarter of a century's absolute self-devotion to its interests. He was as honest and true a patriot as a man could be ; and united to a large mind a character, which, while it was not lovable, commanded always the the highest esteem and respect. Adams lived twenty-five years longer in retirement at his home in Braintree, dying on the 4th of July, 1826, at the age of ninety, within an hour or two of the demise of his old friend and old rival Thomas Jefferson. Within the last dozen years of their lives, the breach between them caused by Adams's final political overthrow, was healed, and they opened a correspondence which was to each a great consolation during their last inactive years. CHAPTER XXVI. THOMAS JEFFERSON, THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. His Pride in the Authorship of the Declaration of Independence. The First Genuine Democrat. His Radical Revision of the Laws of Virginia. The Final Treaty of Peace. His Views Opposed to Hamilton's. Genest's Extraordinary Conduct as French Minister. Love of France and French Institutions. Jefferson and Aaron Burr Receive the Same Number of Votes for President. Simplification of Customs and Manners. His Dislike of Titles. His Personal Appear- ance and Delightful Companionship. Thomas Jefferson, the third President, will be remem- bered in history as tlie author of the Declaration of Independence, when his Presidency has been forgotten. He was much prouder of having written that immortal document than of having held any office, and desired that the fact should be inscribed on his tomb. " The Declaration is equal," says Edward Everett, "to any- thing ever born on parchment, or expressed in the visible signs of thought." "The heart of Jefferson, in writing it," remarks George Bancroft, " beat for all (411) 412 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. humanity." Jefferson was born at Shadwcll, Ya., not far from Monticello, the place associated with his name and death, April 2, 1743, and was the oldest of eight children. His parents were Peter Jefferson, a man of great mental and physical strength, and Jane Randolph, of direct and distinguished English descent. Thomas began at nine his classical studies, and, eight years after, entered an advanced class at William and Mary College at Williamsburg, where he was noted for his diligence and proficiency in languages. Having studied law he was admitted to the bar at twenty-four, and was so successful that he earned the first year about $3,000, equivalent to five times the sum at the present time. He began his public career, two years later, as a member of the House of Burgesses, where he had heard, while a student, Patrick Henry's great speech on the Stamp Act, having formed his acquaintance when Henry was an insolvent shop-keeper. In 1773, he joined with Henry, and other patriots, in devising the famous Com- mittee of Correspondence and Inquiry for spreading intelligence between the Colonies. Just before this, he had married Martha Skelton, a young and attractive widow, the daughter of a prominent lawyer. She had considerable property in land and slaves, and as he also had a good patrimony, the united estate, added to his professional earnings, was quite valuable. Elected in 1774 to a convention to choose delegates LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 413 to the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia, he drew up for their instruction his renowned " Summary View of the Rights of British America." This was rejected as too radical, but was afterward issued by the House of Burgesses, and published in Great Britain, after some revision by Edmund Burke. On the 21st of June, 1775, he took his seat in the Continental Congress, and was conspicuous in that body on account of his intellectual attainments and political acumen. He served on the most important committees, and aided John Dickinson in preparing a declaration of the cause of the Colonies taking up arms. As George III rejected their final petition, and thus destroyed all hope of an honorable adjustment of their grievances, Jefferson was made chairman of a committee, early in 1776, to pre- pare a Declaration of Independence. It was unani- mously adopted July 4th, and signed by every member present except John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, who believed it to be premature. Several months later, he resigned his seat to take part in the discussions and examinations of the Virginia Assembly. Having fur- nished a preamble to a State Constitution previously adopted, he spent two years and a half in radically revising the laws of the Commonwealth ; procuring the repeal of the laws of entail, the abolition of primogeni- ture, and the restoration of the rights of conscience. He was persuaded that these and kindred reforms would destroy every fibre of ancient and future aristocracy. 414 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. In June, 1779, Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia, and retained the office for one term ; declining a reelection on the ground that, at so critical a period, the community would have more faith in a military man. He had hardly retired from office when his estate at Elk Hill was laid waste by the British, and he and his family had a narrow escape from capture. Sent back to Congress in 1783, he reported, as chairman of a committee, the final treaty of peace concluded at Paris, September 3, 1783, acknowledging the independence announced in the Declaration of 1776. A bill, establishing the present Federal system of coin- age as a substitute for the British system, he also proposed, and caused to be passed by Congress. In May, 1784, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate, with Adams and Franklin, treaties of com- merce and amity with foreign powers, and the next year he succeeded Franklin as resident-minister at Paris. He became very fond of France and of French institu- tions, infinitely preferring them to those of England, and manifested his predilection ever afterward. His residence abroad was one of the happiest periods of his life. While there he published his "Notes on Virginia," referring to commerce, politics, manufactures, etc., which attracted attention throughout Europe. He per- formed his diplomatic duties with marked ability ; became intimate with D'Holbach, Condorcet D'Alembert, LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 415 and other liberal minds ; found leisure to travel in the provinces, Germany and Italy, and profited much by his opportunities and experiences. Having obtained per- mission to return home, he quitted Paris in September, 1789, and reached Virginia soon after the election of Washington, who offered him the Secretaryship of State, which he accepted. The Federal Constitution, then recently adopted, he did not approve, because he thought there were as many bad as good things in it an opinion he afterward materially modified. During Washington's administration, the two great political parties of the country, the Republicans and Federalists, respectively under the leadership of Jeffer- son and Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, began their vehement opposition. Jefferson passionately combated Hamilton's funding system, his national bank, and other financial measures, and ear- nestly advocated aiding France with our arms, when war had broken out between her and Holland and England ; Hamilton contending, on the other hand, for a strict neutrality. The Republicans were disposed to fit out privateers in American ports, to cruise against English ships, while the Federalists denounced any such action as unjust, and as likely to involve us in war with a friendly nation. The President, who had just entered on his second term, warned, in a proclamation, the citizens of the United States against carrying to the 416 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. hostile powers articles contraband of war, or doing aught that would violate the neutrality laws. Jefferson favored receiving a minister from the French Republic, who was received in the person of Edward Genest, and was so cordially welcomed in some parts of the country as a representative of the nation which had helped us to secure our freedom, that he tried to persuade the people here that they ought to do all they could for France. He fiercely abused the Government for its want of sympathy, and even fitted out privateers from Charleston, and projected hostile expeditions airainst Florida and Louisiana, then colonies of Spain, lit- armed a prize, and ordered her to sail as a privateer. Hamilton advocated the erection of a battery to prevent this, and denounced Genest as a man determined to embroil us with Great Britain. Jefferson declared the vessel would not sail ; but she did sail, and the Federal- ists urged that the Frenchman should be ordered out of the country forthwith. It was finally determined that a request should be made for his recall, and he was recalled. But he decided to remain ; he settled in the State of New York, was naturalized, and married a daughter of George Clinton. These differences caused violent discussions in the Cabinet, particularly between Jefferson and Hamilton, who carried all his measures against his rival. Jefferson resigned his office December 31, 1793, and retired to Monticello. LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 417 At the close of Washington's administration, Jefferson was, as has been said, nominated for the Presidency by the Republicans, against John Adams, nominated by the Federalists. At the election Adams got the largest number of votes, and was declared President, and Jeffer- son coming next, was, according to a then existing rule, the Vice-President. Accordingly he became President of the United States Senate. The administration was very stormy, in consequence of disputes with France and other delicate and difficult questions. At the next gen- eral election, Jefferson and Adams were again candidates of their respective parties, and the Republicans were victorious, though casting an equal number of votes seventy-three for Jefferson and Aaron Burr. This threw the election into the House of Representatives, which, on the thirty-sixth ballot, declared Jefferson President and Burr Vice-President. They took their seats March 4, 1801, in Washington, to which the capital had, a short time previous, been removed. Jef- ferson and his principles had triumphed at last, and he carefully refrained from doing anything to diminish his great popularity. The Federalists were treated with consideration, and they rapidly dwindled until few of them were left, and those few were the reverse of ag- gressive. Dress and manners became far more simple ; the pompous dignity and ceremony of Washington's epoch disappeared, to give place to extreme simplicity, to which the new Executive had always strenuously inclined. 418 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. The government bought Louisiana, which had been ceded by Spain to France, for $15,000,000, aud the advantage of the purchase was great. Captains Lewis and Clark received instructions from Jefferson to explore the Con- tinent to the Pacific. Commodore Preble sustained the riirhtof the nation in the Mediterranean against Morocco, and Decatur obliged Tripoli to sue for peace after a most gallant exploit. These events augmented the popularity of Jefferson's administration, and contributed greatly to his reflection. The year following, he was obliged to arrest Burr on a charge of treason, and he was blamed by the Federalists for his apparent anxiety to procure his conviction. International questions about the loss of foreign trade, Napoleon's blockading European ports, and the right of search caused much commotion during the President's second term ; but it was materially abated when he retired from office, and closed his political life. The next seventeen years he spent tranquilly at Monti- cello, looking after the interests of his large plantation, receiving his friends and admirers, and founding, near Charlottesville, the Central Col logo, now known as the University of Virginia. Several years before his death, he became embarrassed by his exceeding generosity, especially in the way of indiscriminate hospitality. He breathed his last July 4th, in his eighty-fourth year, his mind and all his faculties remaining clear to the end. Xo American, unless it be Washington, has exorcised a greater or more endearing influence on his country and LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 419 countrymen. He was an original thinker, a thorough reformer, and a genuine democrat. In theology, he was what is styled a deist ; in politics, he was inimical to strong government, always maintaining that the world was governed in excess. He believed implicitly in State Rights and the power and wisdom of the people. His life-long repugnance to Hamilton arose from the con- viction that he favored a monarchy in the United States. Many of his political views were moderated as he grew older, but socially he was an uncompromising and un- varying democrat. He disrelished all titles of honor, objecting even to the common, though meaningless, " Mr." While he never made a formal public speech, he was an expert politician, and a masterly manager of men and shaper of events. He regarded slavery as a positive evil, morally and politically, though he did not favor any change in the agricultural system of the Southern States. He was a devoted husband, a tender father, a gentle master, and a warm-hearted friend. He was more than six feet high ; he had a muscular, well- knit frame, a pleasant face with a fair ruddy complexion, light hazel eyes and reddish hair. His voice was agree- able, his conversation intellectual, fresh, and eloquent, and his companionship delightful. His reputation has not been impaired, but rather increased in the fifty- eight years that have passed since his death, and he will always be honored as one of the ablest and noblest of the fathers of the Republic. CHAPTER XXVII. JAMKS MADISOX, JAMKS MONROE, AND JOHN (riNVY ADAMS, FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH PRESIDENTS OF Till] UNITED STATES. Conciliatory Character of Madison's Administration. His Opin- ions on the Federal Government. His Charming Wife. Decline ami Death of Federalism. Monroe's Election Almost Unanimous. His Gallant Service in the Field. Wounded at Trenton. Tin Km of Good Feel i 111?. Monroe's Views of Coercion. Bitter Disputes with Great Britain Leading to the War of 1812. The Fifth 1'resi- dent's Successful Efforts to Restore the Public Credit. He Dies In- volved in Debt. Adams' Early Advantages and Experiences. His Honorable and Distinguished Career in the House. JAMES MADISON. The Maclisons were among the first emigrants from Great Britain to the Colonies, having disembarked on the shores of Chesapeake Bay very soon after the settle- ment of Jamestown. James Madison, the fourth Presi- dent, the son of Eleanor Conway and James Madison, of Orange County ,Va., a prosperous planter of high standing, was born, March 16, 1751, on the paternal estate, named (420) THE CABINET ROOM. INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE. WASHINGTON, LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 421 Montpelier, and was the eldest of seven children. He was sent, after a preliminary education, to Princeton, N. J., where he was graduated at twenty, though he re- mained there another year to pursue a course of general reading under the direction of the president of the college. His application to books was so close as to impair his health, which continued delicate through life. After returning home he studied law, combining it with other studies, theology, philosophy, and literature in particular, thus enriching a naturally fine mind. He appears to have had a strong leaning to Orthodoxy an inclination of the time and to have been deeply inter- ested in discovering, so far as possible, the evidences of Christianity. He might have passed years in such grateful occupations, had he not been gradually drawn into public affairs. At twenty-five he was chosen a member of the Virginia Convention, but was defeated the year following, because he refused to "treat" the voters, treating was then a universal custom in the common- wealth, and because he showed no oratorical powers. In 1779 he was elected to the General Congress, and re- tained his seat for three years, strongly opposing the issue of paper money by the States. From that time he became a most conspicuous figure in political events ; he was reflected in 1786, and was also a member the next year of the National Convention, which met in Philadelphia to frame the Constitution of the United States. He warmly advocated its adoption 422 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. in debate, and by a series of essays, afterward published in the Federalist, the joint production of Madison, Ham- ilton, and Jay. He was a member of the Virginia Con- vention, which, in 1788, after a passionate discussion, adopted the Federal Constitution by a small majority. The year following he entered Congress, taking sides with the Republicans in opposition to the political views of Washington and the financial measures of Hamilton. He was not a partisan, however; his words and acts were moderate, all his efforts being directed toward tho reconciliation of party leaders. Much attached to Wash- ington and Hamilton, he disliked exceedingly to differ from them; but he was so amiable* and kind-hearted that their differences never affected his personal feelings. His views concerning the Federal Government are pre- served in the autograph of Washington, which contains the substance of a letter written to him by Madison, ad- verse to a plan of complete centralization. He is equally op- posed to the " individual independence of the States," and to the " consolidation of the whole into one simple Repub- lic." But he favored giving to Congress the power to exer- cise a negative in all cases whatever on the legislative acts of the States, as heretofore exercised by the kingly pre- rogative. He believes that " the right of coercion should be expressly declared ; but the difficulty and awkward- of operating by force on the collective will of a State renders it particularly desirable that the necessity of it should be precluded." He afterwards materially LIVES OP THE PKESIDENTS. 423 altered these views, though he cherished and expressed them, earnestly in the Philadelphia Convention. At forty-three he married Mrs. Dorothy Todd, a Vir- ginian, lovely, amiable, and accomplished, the widow of a Philadelphia lawyer. She was constantly spoken of as the fascinating Dolly Madison. Their marriage was entirely harmonious ; but they had no children. It is generally supposed that eminent men desire sons, at least, to perpetuate their name and fame, though the sons of eminent men seldom distinguish themselves. The early Presidents were not fortunate in this. "Washington was childless ; so was Madison and Jackson, and Jefferson had two daughters only. At forty-two he declined the Secretaryship of State, vacated by Jefferson, but remained in Congress until he was forty-six. He was adverse to the Alien and Sedition Laws, and he wrote the Resolutions of 1798, as they were called, inveighing against all attempts to augment the power of the Federal Government by strained construc- tions of general clauses of the Constitution. Appointed Secretary of State by Jefferson in 1801, he filled the office for eight years in a manner entirely acceptable to his fellow-citizens. In 1808 he was made President, receiving one hundred and twenty-two out of one hun- dred and seventy-five electoral votes ; the Federal candi- date, Charles C. Piiickney, receiving forty-seven. During his first term the country had numberless acrimonious disputes with Great Britain on account of her impressing 424 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. American seamen, searching American vessels for de- serters, and injuring the national commerce by orders in council. As no redress could be had, these continued outrages led to a declaration of war on our part the war of 1812, as it is commonly called. In the autumn of the same year, Madison was reelected against De Witt Clin- ton, getting one hundred and twenty-eight electoral votes from the Slave States, added to Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The war, very unpopular in many quarters, was continued for two years and seven months, when a treaty of peace was signed at Client. Commodore Perry gained a naval battle on Lake Erie ; a small British force ascended the Chesapeake, and by a sudden move- ment burned Washington; the battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane were fought in Canada, and Jackson won the memorable victory at New Orleans, January 8, 1815 the news of the peace not having then reached these shores. On the 4th of March, 1817, he retired from public life, to Montpelier, where he died in his eiuhty- sixth year. His last appearance in public was in the Virginia Convention, assembled in 1829, to reform the old Constitution. He was quite feeble then ; he was dressed in black, his thin gray hair still powdered, and he spoke in so low a tone that the members were obliged to leave their seats and stand near him to hear his words. Not possessed of the orator's gift, he was yet an effec- tive speaker through his honesty, simplicity, and direct- ness, and wielded great influence in debate. He was LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 425 universally esteemed and loved ; his manners were always gentle and winning; his reputation was without a spot. JAMES MONROE. Like all his predecessors, James Monroe belonged to the aristocratic class of Virginia, the well-educated, highly-connected, refined, and prosperous. He was born on his father's plantation, in Westmoreland County, Ya., April 28, 1758, being descended on the paternal side from an officer in the army of Charles I. He was edu- cated at William and Mary College, but had been there only two years, when the adoption of the Declaration of Independence so fired his soul that he determined to join our feeble militia against the trained soldiers of England. He went to Washington's headquarters in New York, and enrolled himself as a cadet. Our ill-fed, ill-clothed troops were disheartened, and the Tories were very arrogant, as defeat followed defeat to the Continental cause. Young Monroe was as chivalrous as he was patriotic ; he fought heroically ; was active as a lieu- tenant in the campaign on the Hudson ; was wounded in the attack on Trenton, and made a Captain for his gallantry. As aide to Lord Stirling with the rank of major, he distinguished himself at Brandywine, German- town, and Monmouth. Thus losing his rank in the regular line, and unable to reenter the army as a commissioned officer, he went back 426 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. to Virginia, and began studying law under Thomas Jef- ferson, then Governor D the State. After the British had invaded Virginia, he did what he could to organize the militia of the lower counties, and when they moved southward, he was sent as military commissioner to South Carolina. In 1782 he was elected to the Assembly of Virginia, and was made a member of the Executive Council at twenty-three. Having been chosen delegate to Congress, and being persuaded that the country could not be governed under the old articles of confederation, he favored an extension of the powers of the body, and proposed, later, that it should have authority to regulate trade between the States. This led to the convention at Annapolis, and afterward to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Monroe formed an ingenious plan for set- tling the public lands, and was a valuable member of the commission to determine the boundary between Massa- chusetts and New York. At twenty-seven he married the daughter of Lawrence Kortright of New York, a noted belle and social leader, and settled at Fredericksburg, Va. As a member of the Convention of Virginia in 1788, he was against the Con- stitution of the United States, because it gave, as lie thought, too much power to the general government. f His course placed him in the ranks of the Republicans who were instrumental in sending him for four years to the national Senate. In 1794 he svas appointed Minister LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 427 to France, but having offended the native government by his open sympathy with the French republicans, he was recalled after two years. After having been Gov- ernor of Virginia for three years, he went to France as envoy-extraordinary to unite with the resident Minister, Edward Livingston, in arranging for the purchase of Louisiana, which embraced the entire valley of the Mis- sissippi, and which was sold by Bonaparte for f> 15,000,000. After performing other diplomatic missions abroad, he returned home in 1808, and spent two years in retire- ment. In 1811, he was again chosen Governor of Vir- ginia. The same year he was appointed Secretary of State by President Madison, and after the capture of Washington, he took the head of the War Department, without resigning his former office. He labored long and successfully to restore the public credit, and improve the condition of the army, pledging his private fortune to the former end. He continued to act as Secretary of the Treasury until the close of Madison's administration ; he was the President's private adviser in many things, and was then chosen as his successor by the party who called themselves Democratic Republicans. Soon after he traveled through the Eastern and Middle States, in the undress uniform of a Continental officer, inspecting arsenals, fortifications, garrisons, reviewing troops, and closely studying the military capability of the country. He was much liked personally and politically ; party 428 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. rancor, which had been so fierce, was almost extinguished, and the time was spoken of as the Era of Good Feeling. During his first term, Maine, Illinois, and Mississippi were admitted into the Union ; a convention was concluded between this country and England concerning the New- foundland fisheries, and other matters of importance, and lvi-t ami West Florida, with the adjacent islands, was ceded by Spain to the United States. In 1820, Monroe was reflected almost unanimously, the Federal party having become extinct. The next year Missouri was taken into the confederacy after a long and exciting debate, resulting in the famous Missouri Com- promise, by which slavery was allowed in that State, but forever prohibited elsewhere, north of the parallel 36 30'. What is now known as the Monroe Doctrine was announced in his message of December 2, 1823, on the policy of our not interfering with the affairs of Europe, and not allowing Europe to interfere with those of the Western Continent. He said that any attempt on the part of the Old World States to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere would be regarded by us as dangerous to our peace and safety, and would be strenuously resisted. At the close of his administration, he retired to Oak Hill, London County, Virginia. He was afterward made a Justice of the Peace, and at seventy-one became a member of the Virginia Conven- tion to revise the old Constitution. He was chosen to LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 429 preside over that body ; but ill health prevented, and he went back to Oak Hill. In his last years he was troubled with debt, notwithstanding that he had received for his public services more than 6350,000. His wife died before him, and then he removed to New York, to the residence of his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, where he expired at the age of seventy-three. He was singu- larly discreet, single-minded, and patriotic, and did more than any of his predecessors to develop the resources of the Republic. He was tall, well-proportioned, of fair complexion and blue eyes, and his face was a reflection of his pure and benevolent nature. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. John Quincy Adams is the only instance in the Repub- lic of a son succeeding his father as President ; he being the sixth and John Adams the second. As the eldest son, he had rare and exceptional opportunities for edu- cation. In childhood he was taught by his mother, a grand-daughter of Col. John Quincy, and a woman of superior mind. When but eleven, he went to France with his father, and attended school in Paris, making much progress in the native language and other studies. Two years later, he again accompanied his father to Europe, and took a course at the University of Leyden. At fourteen, he was appointed private secretary to Francis Dana, Minister to Russia, remained fourteen months in 430 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. St. Petersburg, and then traveled leisurely through Scandinavia and Denmark to Holland, where he resumed his studies at the Hague. He came home to finish his education and was graduated at Harvard in his twenty- first year. Admitted to the bar in 1791, he began to practice in Boston. His first publications were a number of essays in journals of that city, pointing out the whim- seys and sophistries of radical French politicians, and declaring that the country should be strictly neutral in the war between France and England. They attracted wide attention, and commended him to Washington, who appointed him Minister to Holland in 1794, having formed a most elevated opinion of his character and capacities. At thirty, lie espoused Louisa Catherine Johnson, a daughter of Joshua Johnson, of Maryland, then Consul at London. He was elected to the United States Senate for the term beginning March, 1803, and two years after was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres at Harvard, accepting the place only on condition that he should perform his senatorial duties while Congress was in session. He offended the Feder- alists, with whom he had been allied, by sustaining Jef- ferson's embargo act, and from that cause went over to the Democrats, or National Republicans, as they preferred to call themselves. He resigned his scat in the Senate, being unwilling to obey the will of the Federalists, then in the majority of Massachusetts, and angered them LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 431 greatly by accusing some of their leaders of having formed a plot to dissolve the Union, and set up a North- ern Confederacy. This accusation is thought to have been one of the most potent causes of the enmity and suspicion so long cherished toward New England by the Southern and other States. Adams became conspicuous in the Senate as an able debater and a finished scholar, and in 1809 was sent by Madison to Russia, where he originated the friendly feel- ing which has ever since been maintained between that power and our own. In 1813, he was one of the com- missioners to negotiate a treaty with Great Britain at Ghent, and performed his part with signal ability. Going to England in a ministerial capacity in 1815, he stayed there for two years, when he returned to fill the office of Secretary of State, under Monroe. He dis- charged its duties as satisfactorily as he had those of diplomacy. In 1824, Adams, Jackson, Crawford, and Clay, all substantially having the same politics, that of the Democrats, were candidates for the Presidency. Adams received eighty-four electoral votes, Jackson ninety-nine, Crawford forty-one, and Clay thirty-seven, which rendered it necessary for the House of Represent- atives to decide the question. Clay threw all his influ- ence in favor of Adams, and secured his choice. As the President appointed Clay Secretary of State, Jackson and his supporters charged the Keutuckian with corrupt 18 432 LIVES OF THK I'll KSI DENTS. motives, and imputed to the President a Lack of integ- rity. Although there is no good reason for believing those charges, they probably had much weight in defeat- ing him for a second term, when he received only eighty- three votes out of two hundred and sixty-one. Adams favored internal improvements, the protection of homo manufactures, and was principled against removing men from ollice merely for difference of political views. March 4, 1829, he retired to Quincy, .Mass., formerly called Braintree, where he had been born July 11, 1707, nearly sixty-two years before. The next year lie was sent to Congress, to the surprise of everybody, because previous Presidents had never been willing to return to Washington in any political capacity. He continued in the House of Representatives for seventeen years, show- ing more ability and gaining more reputation than ever before. He was generally regarded as a model legislator, no one surpassing him in application and powers of endurance, not to speak of talents and learning. While he generally sided with the Whigs, he was independent in his opinions and conduct. He won most renown by his defense of the right of petition and his unyielding oppo- sition to what he denounced as the constant encroach- ments of the slave power. Although the House had adopted a rule that no petition bearing on slavery should be read, printed or debated, Adams persisted in present- ing such petitions, one by one, sometimes to the number LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 433 of two hundred in a day, and demanding action on each separate petition. The most violent anger, menace, and abuse from the Southerners never moved him from his conscientious course, and his coolness, under the circum- stances, only added to and intensified their vituperative wrath. He died at his post of an attack of paralysis, February 23, 1848, aged eighty, his last words being, " I am content." John Quincy Adams was more scholarly than his father, but not his equal in native force of intellect. He wrote fluently and copiously, but his style was verbose and inflated, wholly inferior to John Adams's simple, strong, idiomatic English. They were Unitarians ; they resembled one another in appearance as well as in energy, firmness, and unwavering courage, and both had passion- ate tempers and hot prejudices. They were eminently representatives of New England, and despite their faults, many though not grievous, they were of sturdy stuff and an honor to American history. CHAPTER XXVIII. ANDREW JACKSON, MARTIN VAN BUREN, AND W.M. IIKNIJV IIARHISON, SKVENTII, KICIITH, AND NINTH PRESIDENTS OF Till-: UNITED STATES. Jackson, the First Unmixed Democrat. His F.lectimi Keiranlcd in Virginia and Massachusetts with Surprise and Pi-trust. His l"n- couth and Untanirht Youth. His Chivalrous Delicacy JTowanl Women. His Morbid Sensibility about his Wife's Imputation. His Combats with Indians. Various Kccounlers and Duels. The ller- initaire. The Sominole War. Battle of New Orleans. His Deter mination to Ilan.ir the Xullitiers. Honest. Single minded, and Pat- riotic. Van Buren as Democrat and Free -soiler. His Contented Old Ap'. Harrison as an Indian Fighter. The Log Cabin Campaign. ANDREW JACKSON. A greater difference than that l>etween Andrew Jack- son and his Presidential predecessors can not well be con- ceived. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and the Adamses, had all been men of education, refinement, breeding, accustomed to good society and polite usages. Jackson was an illiterate, untrained, rustic, violent man, whose life, spent in a semi-civilized region, had been marked by savage personal combats and many disgrace- ful scenes. His choice as Chief Executive denotes a (434) LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 435 new era in politics, a great change in public sentiment. It is easy to understand with what surprise, pain, and disgust the gentlemen of Virginia and Massachusetts, the two States that exercised the most influence on the young Republic, must have regarded the election to the Presidency of a military chieftain, backwoodsman, cock- fighter, and tyrant, who had never shown respect for law, or recognized any authority but his despotic will. Jack- son was, indeed, the first unmixed Democrat, politically and socially, that had been placed in the highest position of trust and pow< r. It was the beginning of an epoch, which opened a new volume of the national history. Andrew Jackson, the seventh President, was of Scotch' Irish extraction, and born in what was known as the Waxhaw Settlement, N. C., so near the line that he always supposed himself a native of South Carolina. He bore the full name of his father, a very poor man who came to this country in 1765, and never struggled out of penury. His mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson, of very humble origin, brought him into the world some days after his father's death, under very hard and most depressing circumstances. He was the youngest of three boys, whom their mother reared as best she could, in a common cabin in which she lived with her brother-in- law, doing the hard work of the house, while his wife, her sister, was incapacitated from labor by permanent invalidism. Andrew, or Andy, as he was commonly called, greatly loved and revered his mother, who died 436 l.IVHS OF THE when he was a youth, leaving him literally alone in the world, and a very hard part of the world in those days, was the Wa. \ha\v Settlement. I le mourned her deeply, and in after life often referred tenderly to her virtues. One of his best traits was his inherent and unvarying respect for women, toward whom he ever conducted him- self with ehivalrous delicacy, not to he expected in a man of such antecedents, and of so impetuous and turbulent a disposition. He grew up wild, homely, awkward, pro- fane, quarrelsome, overbearing, fond of physical exercise, and with no more instruction than enabled him to rend, write a very indifferent hand he never learned to spell, and master rudimentary arithmetic. Jackson was only fourteen when he first fought against the British. His elder brother Hugh had already died of heat and exhaustion at the battle of Stono. having gone forth in a company of volunteers to attack Tarlcton. Andrew and Robert, his other brother, were zealous "Whigs, and having been taken prisoners by the enemy, were both seriously wounded by a brutal English officer, whose boots they had refused to clean. They caught the small-pox while in captivity, and were exchanged by the exertions of their mother, who took them home, where Robert died of the disease. She soon after went to Charleston, to take care of the sick and wounded Amer- icans, and fell a victim to ship-fever. Andrew, com- pelled literally to earn his bread, worked in a saddler's LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 437 shop, and taught school, which must have been of a queer sort, if he could teach it. At seventeen, he began the study of law at Salisbury, N. C., but was more inter- ested in cock-fighting, horse-racing, card-playing, and all rude sports, than in his studies. He was called a very hard case, though he had many redeeming traits, chief among them being hatred of oppression and love of justice. At twenty, he was licensed to practice, and the next year was appointed public prosecutor of the western district of the State, now Tennessee. He went to Nash- ville immediately, and entered upon his duties, gaining many clients, and serving them faithfully. That was a wild region then, and his constant travel was done at the risk of his life. But he feared neither Indians nor any- thing else, and he had so many narrow escapes that his rude neighbors thought him danger-proof. At twenty-four, he took for wife Mrs. Rachel Rob- ards, daughter of Col. John Donelson, of Virginia, one of the pioneers of Tennessee, after whom was named Fort Donelson, captured by General Grant the second year of the Civil War. Mrs. Robards and her first hus- band were boarding with Mrs. Donelson, then a widow, when Jackson reached Tennessee, and became a boarder under the same roof. Mrs. Robards was, in a frontier way, vivacious and sportive, a rattling talker and a fine rider. Her husband, suspicious and morose, was very jealous of her, and made her very unhappy. Jackson 438 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. was fond of her society, thonirh he in no manner passed the boundaries of the most conventional decorum. Her husband believed, or pretended to believe, that he was his wife's lover, and applied to the Virginia Legislature for an act preliminary to divorce. Jackson and Mrs. Robards supposed the act itself a divorce, and they were married two years before divorce had been allowed. This innocent mistake (they were married again when it was discovered) was the source of endless annoyance and sorrow to the second husband, who, to the day o[ his death, was so sensitive and fiery on the subject that, if any man hinted at any impropriety in their relations, he was certain to be called to account by Jackson, pistol in hand. Indeed, lie was little less than a monomaniac in regard to his wife. Several of his most savage con- flicts grew, directly or indirectly, out of what he believed or imagined to be reflections on her fair fame. If ever a man was connubially mad, that man was Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Robards was an honest and worthy, though an uneducated and very ordinary sort of woman ; but he fancied her to be a goddess, an angel, a saint, a creature entirely apart and above humanity, and . he wanted to kill anybody who dared express any other opinion. Much of Jackson's early life in Tennessee was spent in fighting the Indians and his private enemies, of whom he always had a host. He was one of the most irascible LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 439 and pugnacious of mortals, and his ire, aroused by the slightest cause, was deadly. Possessed of many gener- ous and noble qualities, he was often in his resentments no better than a barbarian. When he was one of the judges of the supreme court of Tennessee, John Sevier was governor. They had quarreled, and Jackson had challenged the governor who had declined the challenge. Still on bad terms, they met one day in the streets of Knoxville, and after exchanging a few words, Sevier made some slighting allusion to Mrs. Jackson. Her husband roared out, " Do you dare, villain, to mention her sacred name ? " And whipping out a pistol, fired at the governor, who returned the shot. They fired again, ineffectually, and then bystanders interfered. Not long after, they encountered one another on horseback on the road, each accompanied by a friend. Again they shot at one another, the friends taking part, and murder would have been done, had not some travelers, who had chanced to come up, separated the combatants. Jackson had the reputation of being a dead shot ; but he frequently missed his man. owing doubtless to the excitement of the occasion. A friend of Jackson, William Carroll, having chal- lenged Jesse Benton, a younger brother of Thomas H. Benton, Jackson was induced to act as his second. The principals were wounded, Benton seriously, which angered the elder Benton, because he thought Jackson under 18* 440 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. obligations to him, ami prompted him to say such things as a choleric man is apt to say of anybody who has offended him. The ahusivr remarks were repeated to Jackson, and he, in one of his customary bursts of pas- sion and profanity, declared that he would horsewhip Benton the first time he should see him. Hearing, a few weeks after, that his foe was at the City Hotel in Nashville, he sought him there in the company of a friend. Armed with pistols and a small sword, he advanced with a whip in his hand, on Benton, who was standing at the front door, -cry near his brother Jesse. ' I'm going to punish you, yon blank blank villain," he cried; "defend yourself."' Thomas Benton made as if to draw a weapon; his adversary pulled a pistol, and leveled it at his breast. Benton retreated slowly through the hall, followed closely by Jackson, when Jesse Benton fired at the latter and shattered his arm and shoulder. Lyinu' helpless and bleeding on the floor, his friend dis- charged a pistol at Thomas Benton, and finding lie had missed him, hurried forward, and was about to strike him with the butt, when Benton stumbled and fell to the bottom of some stairs he had not observed at the end of the hall. While Jackson's friend was looking after him, his nephew attacked Jesse Benton with a bowie-knife, and the two had a savage and bloody encounter until they were pulled apart. This was not an uncommon scene in the Southwest in those days; nor would it be LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 441 very uncommon there now. Jackson was then -forty- seven ; had been a member of Congress, as United States Senator, and was at the time a Major-General of militia. One of the most tragical of his experiences was his duel, some years before, with Charles Dickinson, who had committed the unpardonable sin of commenting freely on Mrs. Jackson. They had several disagree- ments, and Jackson finally spoke of Dickinson in so violent a manner that his language was repeated, as the General wished it should be, to the man himself. There- upon, Dickinson, who was about to start for New Orleans on a flat boat, wrote Jackson a letter, denouncing him as a liar and a coward. On his return, Jackson challenged him, and they met on the banks of the Red River in Logan County, Ky., early in the morning of May 30, 1806. Dickinson got first fire, breaking a rib, and making a serious wound in the breast of his oppon- ent, who showed no sign of having been hit. He had felt sure of killing his antagonist, and exclaimed, " Great God, have I missed him ?" Jackson, taking deliberate aim, pulled the trigger ; but the weapon did not explode. It stopped at half-cock. He cocked it fully, and again calmly and carefully leveling it, fired. The bullet passed through Dickinson's body, just above the hips: he fell, and died that night after suffering terrible agony. Jackson never recovered from the hurt, and never expressed the least remorse for what many persons pronounced a cold-blooded 442 LIVES OF THE rilE-IT>; murder. There is no doubt that he had made up his mind to kill Dickinson. Any man who had .spoken dis- creditably of Mrs. Jackson had, in his opinion, forfeited the right to live. Not long after his marriage, Jackson removed from Nashville to a farm, some thirteen miles distant, \\hich he named the Hermitage, where he died in his seventy- ninth year. lie lived in a spacious home, and had for a store a block house, where he sold goods to the Indians, and the settlers in the neighborhood, lie did a profitable business his assistant transacted most of it frequently sending corn, tobacco, and cotton, which lie raised on his land, with the assistance of his slaves, to the New Or- lr:iiis market. He had no abhorrence of slavery, though he- \vas always a kind and considerate master. He was a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution of Tennessee in 1796, and was elected to Congress from the new State, then entitled to only one Representative. The next year, he was sent to the National Senate, but soon resigned his seat. He acted as a Judge of the Supreme Court for eight years. He enlisted in the war of 1812 ; defeated the Creek Indians, acquiring great popularity thereby, and was made a Major-General in the regular army. His victory at New Orleans gave him a great rep- utation, and rendered him an idol of the people of the Southwest. In 1817-18, he carried on prosperous war against the LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 443 Seminoles in Florida, seized Pensacola without authority, as was his wont, and hanged two British subjects for in- citing the Indians to hostile acts. It was a great sur- prise to the Eastern and Middle States when he received the largest number of votes of any one of the four can- didates for the Presidency in 1824. After Adams had been chosen by the House of Representatives, Jackson seemed to have permanently withdrawn to the Hermitage ; but all the opponents of Adams supported him in the next campaign, which was the most bitter ever known in the country, and he was triumphantly elected. His two terms were stormy enough. His veto of the bill granting a new charter to the United States Bank created great excitement, and his removal of the public deposits cre- ated still more. His proclamation against the nullifiers of South Carolina was electric in its effect, and that he would have hanged them, as he afterward said, if he had had cause to, is altogether probable. While he was with many one of the most detested Presidents that have sat in the executive chair, he was extremely popular with the masses. Nor can it be denied that most of the acts for which he was once savagely denounced have come to be generally approved. He was narrow, ignorant, overflow- ing with passion and prejudice ; but he was, nevertheless, honest, single-minded, and, according to his light, a true and conscientious patriot. 444 LIVES OF THK IMIMSIKKNTS. MARTIN VAN HU11KX. Martin Van Burcn, the eighth President, largely owed his office to the friendship and influence of General Jack- son, with whom lie had made himself a particular favorite. Born at Kinderhook, N. V.. December 5, 1782, he died near tin-re in his eightieth year. Kducated at the local academy, he studied law and was admitted to the bar by the time he was nineteen. He began very early to take part in politics as a Democrat, and at thirty was elected to the State Senate. He favored the war of 1812, and was made Attorney-General of New York. He was the ruling spirit of the Albany Regency, formed to oppose De Witt Clinton, which controlled the State politically for twenty years. Having been twice chosen United States Senator, he resigned his position to enter the Cabinet of Jackson. He was nominated Minister to Eng- land, and went there; but his nomination was rejected by the Senate, in which the Whigs the name taken dur- ing the previous administration by the opponents of Jack- son had then a majority. To indemnify him for this mortification, the Democrats made him Vice-President during Jackson's second term. At its termination, "Van Buren was put forward as a candidate for the Presidency against Harrison, a Whig, and was easily elected. The year after 1837 there was a great financial panic, with an extraordinary commercial depression, and in May of that year all the banks in the country suspended specie LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 445 payment. Van Burcn, in his message, recommended an independent treasury, which was established by law in 1840. All his political friends voted for the resolution that Congress should lay all petitions for the abolition of slavery on the table without reading, a resolution which, as has been seen, John Quincy Adams gallantly defied. In 1840 he was renominated against his former com- petitor "Harrison ; but he was so assailed by the Whig newspapers and orators as responsible for the commercial prostration and monetary distress incident to his term of office, and so charged with extravagance, corruption, and indifference to the condition of the laboring classes, that, rendered odious to the masses, he was overwhelmingly defeated. In 1844 his name was again presented, and a majority of the delegates of the convention, held at Bal- timore, were for him. But the Southerners opposed him, because he had expressed himself adversely to the annex- ation of Texas, and by making a vote of two-thirds necessary to a choice, defeated his prospects. He subse- quently became a free Democrat, or Free-Soiler. After 1848, he returned to private life on his estate at Linden- wald, near Kinderhook, enjoying leisure, wealth, and a contented old age. Long before his death, the prejudice that had been excited by party politics wore away, and he was seen in his true character. He was an amiable and accomplished gentleman, and his domestic relations were very happy. His son John, a brilliant lawyer in New York city, survived his father but four years. 446 LIVP:S OF THI-: WILLIAM HI:M;V HAIMUSON. The administration of William Henry Harrison, the successor of Martin Van Bui-en, and ninth President, was the briefest in tin- history o!' the country. It lasted ex- actly one month, from the 4th of March, 1841, when he was inaugurated, to the 1th of April, when he died, after a week's illness, supposed to have been brought on by the excitement and fatigue of the campaign and the inauguration. He was older being sixty-eight than any man who has been called to the Executive office, and possibly on this account less able to bear the strain. Harrison was born in Berkeley, Charles City County, Virginia, February 9, 1773, and died in Washington. Jlis father was Governor Benjamin Harrison, and his family enjoyed good social position. He entered the army some time before his majority, and rose in time from Ensign to Major-General. His most important campaigns were against the Indians, whom he managed so well that, in treating with diiVerent tribes at different times, he obtained from them very important concessions of land. It was during his Indian fighting that the suc- cessful defense of his camp at Tippecanoe gave him that nick-name. He took a creditable part in the short War of 1812 with England ; and, after it, went into an honorable retirement for a time at North Bend, Ohio, where he had a. farm. He was sent to Congress in 1816; after a few years, to the Senate ; and was appointed by John Quincy MVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 447 Adams, Minister to Colombia. He was quickly recalled upon Jackson's inauguration, and remained in private life until he was nominated for the Presidency in 1836, in opposition to Martin Van Buren. He was defeated, but renominated in 1840. The military element having been introduced into politics by General Jackson's elec- tion, it was thought that a second attempt, with a good military record, would be more certain than the first had been to defeat Van Buren. Harrison was, therefore, again put forward, with John Tyler of Virginia for Vice- President, and the ticket polled a very large and success- ful vote. The methods of conducting political cam- paigns had greatly changed during this period mass meetings, torch-light processions, and manufactured enthusiasm becoming the order of the day. The oppo- sition had cast it as a slur upon Harrison that he had at some time lived in a log-cabin, and had only hard cider to drink. It was stupid and silly ; for what a man is, not where he has lived, is the important thing in this country ; and the Whigs quickly caught the words, and used "log-cabin " and " hard cider" with excellent effect. Harrison was a man of pleasing address, agreeable man- ners, and a thorough gentleman. CHAPTER XXIX. JOHN TYLER AND .JAMES K. POLK, TENTH AND ELEVENTH PRESIDENTS OF Till- UNITED STATES. Tyler the First Vice-President to Swreed the Chief Executive by Death. A Representative of the Same Social ('hiss as Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. Education ami Wealth Really Disadvan- tageous to Him. A Career of Continuous Vetoes. Making Himself Extremely Unpopular. Forcing His Cabinet to Resign. The Annexation of Texas a Favorite Scheme. A Member of the Peace Convention in 1861. A Former Chief Magistrate in Open Rebellion Against the Government. Polk and the Mexican War. A Common- place President. JOHN TYLER. Upon the death of President Harrison, Vice-President Tyler succeeded to the office, and was the first of the four Vice-Presidents who have become President on the death of the elected Executive. By an odd coincidence, he was born in the same county Charles City in Virginia, which gave birth to Harrison, though the latter so early made his home in Ohio that he is commonly reported as an Ohioan. Tyler was much younger than Harrison, having been born March 29, 1790, and was the second son of John Tyler, a distinguished revolutionary patriot. (448) THE SEXATE CHAMBER. INSIDE THE CAPITOL. \FASHIXGT01V. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 449 He belonged to the same social class with Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, but was a man of very different caliber. He was narrow-minded where they were broad, bigoted where they were liberal, reactionary in his politi- cal principles where they were progressive, and was indeed, what has recently been considered a typical Southerner rather than a typical American. In his youth he had all the advantages of education and wealth ; but, to a man of his turn of mind, they were really dis- advantages. Tyler held many offices, beginning with the Virginia Legislature, passing on to the House of Representatives in Washington, and thence to the Senate, before being nominated to the Vice-Presidency. In the Senate he succeeded the famous John Randolph, and while there began his well-known career of opposition to progress which resulted in continual Presidential vetoes during his administration. As Senator, he voted against all efforts toward internal improvements by the general gov- ernment, against various tariff bills, and against many things which showed an enlightened public spirit. He made himself very unpopular, but was finally nominated for the Vice-Presidency, in order to draw the Southern vote to JIarrison, with whose nomination the South was much dissatisfied, having preferred Henry Clay. Tyler was then acting with the Whig party, but soon after his accession to the Presidency he began to offend his party by his ill-considered acts, and speedily forced all his cab- 450 LIVK> OF THE PRESIDENTS. inct except Daniel Webster, the Secretary of State, to resign. His course became so unsatisfactory during the second year of his administration that the Whig mem- bers of Congress felt called upon to publicly declare themselves as entirely at odds with the President, and no longer his adherents. The annexation of Texas occurred during President Tyler's administration, and was a scheme much favored by him. It w;is only successfully carried, however, with the aid of the Democrats in Congress, whose influence Tyler continually sought, after antagonizing his own party. Although Tyler accepted a renomination from a con- vention composed mainly of office-holders, held in May, 1844, it soon became evident, even to him. that he would certainly be ignominiously beaten; consequently he with- drew his name from the candidacy. He was the first 'lent to express himself actively in favor of slavery, and everything which looked toward a limitation of the " institution " aroused his most violent opposition. In 1861, he was a member of the " Peace Convention," held in Washington, in the futile hope of arranging the diffi- culties between the seceded States and the National Government. The convention being without result, he threw in his fortunes with the Confederacy, and presented the humiliating spectacle of a former Chief Magistrate in open Rebellion against the Government of which he had once been the head. LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 451 Tyler was twice married, and was the father of several children. He died on January 17, 1862, at Richmond, Virginia, -while a member of the Confederate Congress. JAMES K. POLK. James Knox Polk, the eleventh President, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, November 12, 1795. He did not, like the Virginia Presidents, spring from the wealthy and cultured class, but was the son of a farmer in very moderate circumstances, who removed in 1806 to Tennessee. His early education was very limited ; but he managed to prepare himself for college, and was graduated in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. He began to practise at the bar in 1820 ; was elected to the State Legislature in 1823 ; was sent to Congress in 1825, where he was strongly opposed to President John Quincy Adams' administration. Later he became ardently devoted to General Jackson, and remained a most earnest Democrat during his life. In 1835, Polk was elected Speaker of the House. After being in Congress fourteen years, lie declined a renoin- ination, and retired to Tennessee, only to b'e immediately made Governor of the State. In May, 1844, the National Democratic Convention nominated him for President, with George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania for Vice-Presi- dent. The Whig candidates were Henry Clay and The- dore Frelinghuysen. Polk and Dallas were successful, and entered office March 4, 1845. The annexation of 4-">2 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. Texas had just been advised by President Tyler, and it became the most important effort of President Pulk's administration to defend the frontier of our ne\v po^ses- sioii. He sent General Taylor with a small foree to occupy the disputed land between the Nueces river, which Mexico claimed as the boundary, and the Rio Grande, which the Government claimed as the boundary. In April, 1846, active fighting began between (General Taylor and General Arista, tin.- Mexican commander. The President then declared that war existed, and a>ked Congress for men and money. Authority was given to call for fifty thousand men, and 810,000,000. Although the war was generally unpopular at the North, it was proseeutcd with energy, our forces even penetrating to the very capital of .Mexico. Mexico ended by ceding all that was demanded of her, yielding upper California and New Mexico, and granting the Rio Grande from its mouth to El Paso, as the southern boundary of Texas. Beside the Mexican war, the important events of Polk's administration were certain modifications of the tarilT, the creation of the Department of the Interior, the admis- sion of the State of Wisconsin, and the very important event of establishing the National Treasury system in Washington, independent of all the State banks. Having agreed not to seek a renomination, President Polk retired from office March 4, 1849, and three months later died, after a few days' illness, at his home in Nashville. CHAPTER XXX. ZACHARY TAYLOR, MILLARD FILLMORE, AND FRANKLIN PIERCE, TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, AND FOURTEENTH PRESIDENTS, OF THE UNITED STATES. Taylor purely a Military Man. His Reputation made in the Mexican "War. His Death in Four Months. His Disqualifications for Politi- cal Life. Fillmore's Early Success. His Foreshadowing of the National Banking System. Approval of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Irreparable Injury it did Him. A Candidate of the American Party. Pierce a Northern Man with Extreme Southern Principles. His constant Sympathy with and Sustainmcnt of Slavery. His Gallantry in the Field. Retirement to Private Life Equivalent to Extinction. The twelfth President, General Zachaiy Taylor, was the last of the Presidents born in Virginia. He first saw the light on September 24, 1784, -in Orange County, from which his father, Colonel Richard Tay- lor, removed to the neighborhood of Louisville, Ken- tucky, in 1785. Until he was twenty-three, Zachary remained on his father's plantation ; but in 1808, his elder brother, Hancock, died in the army, and the com- mission that of Lieutenant which he held, was (453) 454 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. offered to Zachary. This was the beginning of a mili- tary career which lasted nearly all his life. After the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, he being then a Captain, was placed in command of Fort Harrison on the Wabash River, not far from Yincennes. This was furiously attacked at night by the Indians; but Captain Taylor, with a handful of men, two-thirds of them being ill, made a brilliant and successful defense, and received as his reward from President Madison, the brevet rank of Major the first time a brevet rank was ever conferred in our army. Having thus established his military reputation, he constantly held important commands until the peace in 1815, when, for a brief period, he resigned his commission, and retired to private life. He was soon ^appointed, however, and took con- si.icuons part in the Black Hawk War, and in the conflicts with the Indians in Florida in 183G-37, and in 1840 was appointed Commander of the First Depart- ment of the Southwest. About this time he purchased an estate at Baton Rouge, and removed his family thereto. In July, 1845, following the annexation of Tv'xas, he was ordered with fifteen hundred troops to dej'end our new poaeeasion against invasion by Mexico. He encamped near Corpus Cliristi, and his force was soon increased to four thousand. It was pretty plainly indicated to General Taylor that the Government would LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 455 be glad to have him throw down the gauntlet to Mexico by moving into the disputed territory. Taylor, how- ever, was too wise to commit any overt act until expressly ordered to do so by President Polk. Being positively ordered to advance, he began to move toward the Rio Grande on March 8, 1846, and on the 28th, reached the bank of the river opposite Matamoras. On the 12th of April, General Ampudia, in command of the Mexican forces near by, sent word to General Taylor to retire to the Nueces River, while the boundary question was being settled by the respective govern- ments, at the same time declaring a failure to comply with the advice would be construed as a declaration of war by Mexico. General Taylor replied that his instructions did not permit him to retire, and that if the Mexicans chose to begin hostilities, he was pre- pared. Such was the beginning of the Mexican War. On the 8th of May, the battle of Palo Alto, the first of the war, was won by General Taylor ; and from that day until his return home in November, 1847, " Old Rough and Ready," as he was called by his soldiers, was almost uniformly successful. In June, 1848, he was nominated for President by the Whigs, upon the express understanding that he should be unbound by pledges. Millard Fillmore of New York was nominated for Vice-President. Although the nom- ination of General Taylor was quite popular among the 19 466 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. people, it gave considerable offense to a number of the northern delegates, and Henry Wilson and some others withdrew from the convention to form the Free Soil party, the basis of which was opposition to the extension of slavery. The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass ; but on account of his known pro-slavery principles, many of his party refused to vote for him, giving their suffrages to the Free S,>il candidates, Martin Van Ilurcn and Charles Francis Adams. General Taylor was, however, elected, and was inaugurated on Monday, March 5, 1849. The most important questions of his administration concerned the admission of California as a State, the or- ganization of the new territories, and the still vexed boundaries of Texas ; the vital point being the relation of Slavery to the new sections. At that time, there were an equal number of Slave and Free States, giving an ex- act balance of power in the Senate, and the admission of California either as a Free or a Slave State was a matter of vital importance to both political parties. President Taylor recommended that California be admitted ; that the new territories should draw up constitutions to suit themselves on the subject of slavery, and be ultimately admitted as States on these bases. This view was too liberal for the slave-holding leaders of the South, and many of them already threatened secession. In the Senate, Henry Clay was attempting to effect some sort of compromise compromise which has ever been the LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 457 bane of the country when President Taylor was attacked with bilious fever on July 4, 1850, and died five days later at the White House. Few of the Presidents have been less prepared to fill that high office. He was ignorant, not only of state-craft and politics, but he had not had the most ordinary ad- vantages of education. On the other hand, he had ster- ling qualities of character ; he was simple, modest, loyal, and thoroughly desirous to do his duty as far as a limited understanding made it plain ; and he died amid sincere regret. He left several children, one of his daughters being the first Mrs. Jefferson Davis. MILLARD FILLMORE. Millard Fillmore, the thirteenth President, was born January 7, 1800, in Locke, now Summerhill, Cayuga County, New York. The region was then a wilderness, and his opportunities for education were limited to the most elementary parts. At fourteen, he was apprenticed to learn the fuller's trade ; but in his nineteenth year determined to study law. He agreed, therefore, to buy the rest of his time from his employer, and with a neigh- boring lawyer arranged to earn his lessons. In 1821, he made his way on foot to Buffalo, and arrived an utter stranger with his entire fortune of $4 in his pocket. He obtained employment by teaching school, and assisting the post-master while he prosecuted his studies, and the 458 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. energy and determination which had helped him so far, carried him to the bar before the usual period of prepara- tion. He began practice at Aurora, New York, where his father then resided. He gradually built up a pros- perous practice, and in 1830 removed to Buffalo, which was ever after his home. His political life began in 1828, on his election to the State Legislature by the anti-Masonic party. He parti- cularly distinguished himself by advocating the abolition of imprisonment for debt; the bill in relation to which was mainly drafted by him. In 1832, lie was sent to Congress on the anti-Jackson ticket. In 1836, he was sent again by the Whigs, and remained until 1842, when he declined a renomination. Fillmore earnestly sup- ported President John Quincy Adams in his course con- cerning the reception and reading in Congress of peti- tions adverse to Slavery. He declared himself adverse to the admission of Texas as a Slave State ; he was in favor of the immediate abolition of Slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia, and of Congress using all its consti- tutional powers to prevent the slave trade between the States. lie would not, however, pledge himself not to change his opinions on these vital questions. Fillmore was a most devoted Representative, and was one of the mo>t active members during his entire term in Congress. He retired in 1843, and was a candidate for the nomina- tion of Vice-President in 1844, but was defeated. He LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 459 was also defeated for Governor of New York in 1845 by Silas Wright. In 1847 he was elected Comptroller of the State, and in his report in 1849, suggested that a national bank, with United States stocks as a basis for the issue of currency, would be a great convenience for the people ; thus foreshadowing our present national banking system. In June, 1848, Fillmore was really nominated for the Vice-Presidency with General Taylor for President, and was elected the following November. When John C. Calhoun was Yice-President, he had made the rule that the Yice-President had no power to call the Senate to order. Fillmore, however, in a brief but telling speech, announced his intention of keeping order in that body, and reversing any previous rules, if necessary. His course was highly commended by the senators of all parties. On the 10th of July, 1850, he was sworn in as Presi- dent upon Zachary Taylor's death. The question of the constitutionality of the act compelling the return of fugi- tive slaves soon came up for decision, and was referred to the attorney-general, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. He decided in favor of the bill, and the President con- curred in the decision. This was one of the most unpop- ular measures of Fillmore's administration ; for many members of the Whig party were opposed to encourag- ing Slavery, although not avowedly of the anti-slavery 400 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. faith. The execution of this law was constantly resisted, and although the President declared it should be main- tained because it was the law, those who resisted it were not, in consequence of its unpopularity, often molested. The signing of the Fugitive Slave Hill, as it was called, was nl HIM ! the only very unpopular act of Fillraore's administration, which in many respects was remarkably successful ; but he was so distasteful to the northern pub- lic that, when a candidate for renomination in 1852, he could not secure twenty votes in the Free States. Once afterward, in 18f>i'>. he was nominated by the American or Know-Nothing party for President, against Hm-hamm nominated by the Democrats, and Fremont by the Repub- licans. He received quite a large popular vote; but Maryland alone gave him its electoral vote. After this, he wholly retired from public life, and lived in Buffalo until his death, March 8th, 1874. FRANKLIN PIERCE. Franklin Pierce, fourteenth President, although well born his father being a Revolutionary general, and Governor of his native State and well educated, was one of the most unenlightened Executives the country lias had. His body was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, November 23, 1804 ; but his mind was native to the most bigoted region of the South. He was gradu- ated at Bowdoin College in 1824, in the same class with LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 461 Nathaniel Hawthorne ; he studied law at Portsmouth and Amhcrst, N. H., and Northampton, Mass., and was admitted to the bar in 1827. At the age of twenty-five, he was elected to the Legislature, remaining four years. At twenty-nine, he was sent to Congress, and in 1837, when barely of legal age, was sent to the Senate. This rapid political advancement indicated that he was regarded as an exceptionally able young man ; but it also indicates that the constituency which thus recognized his ability must have been no less narrow-minded than himself. All his congressional course was in the line of political retrogression, and he uniformly voted with the southern members in favor of all pro-slavery and other mistaken acts. He ardently approved the annexation of Texas, and was in such cor- dial sympathy with President Polk concerning the Mexi- can war, that he enlisted in one of the earliest volunteer regiments. He was shortly after made Colonel of the Ninth regiment, and was commissioned Brigadier-General before he departed for the seat of war. The appoint- ment, however, was justified by his bravery and wisdom on the battle-field ; and at the close of the war he returned to his home and his law practice covered with laurels. In 1852, he was nominated by the Democrats for the Presidency, and elected by an overwhelming majority. In his inaugural address he foreshadowed his future blind policy. He argued that Slavery was recognized by the 462 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Constitution ; that therefore the Fugitive Slave Law was right, and should be carried out ; and he denounced all agitation of the slavery <|iicstion. Amon.ir the most im- portant events of his administration were the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the organization of the Terri- tories of Kansas and Nebraska, under the Kansas- Nebraska Act, ahd the negotiation by Commodore Perry of our first treaty with the hitherto unknown country of Japan. It was about this time that the troubles between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery citizens of Kansas began ; and on January 24, 1856, President Pierce sent a message to Congress declaring the formation of a Free-State gov- ernment in Kansas an act of rebellion. The President's course in relation to the border troubles, as they were then called, gave great offense, and justly, to a very large part of the North, although anti-slavery tenets were then by no means popular. There is little doubt, however, that his evident southern proclivities helped to dei'cat Pierce for renomination ; for sectional feeling, which resulted later in civil war, was already beginning to run high. As long as he remained the Executive, Pierce did his utmost to prevent the new States, Kansas especially, from being free, and when he retired, on March 4, 1857, he left the way open for his weak-kneed successor, James Buchanan, to do the same. After leaving the White House, Pierce made a protract- ed European tour, and returned to New Hampshire about LIVES OF. THE PRESIDENTS. 463 the beginning of the Rebellion. During its progrsss he declared in a public speech his entire sympathy with the South. He passed into a retirement which became prac- tically oblivion, and died at Concord, October 8, 1869. Personally he was amiable, courteous, and refined, and much liked by his intimate friends ; but his peculiar bias prevented him from comprehending both sides of a question. 19* CHAPTER XXXI. JAMES BUCHANAN, FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. An Unpopular Administration. James Buchanan's Early History. Sent to Congress at Twenty-nine. The Weakest of Presidents. His Total Inadequacy for the Great Emergency in which He was Placed. Shrewd for His Own Interest. An Admirer and Fol- lower of Jackson Without His Will or Courage. The Anti-Slav- ery Excitement in Kansas. The Cause of the Civil War Inherent in the Constitution. The Nation on the Eve of a Conflict. Admission by Buchanan of the Right of the Southern States to Secede. A Pitiful Spectacle of Imbecility. General Relief at the End of His Administration. No administration, unless it was John Tyler's, has over been so unpopular as James Buchanan's. Odious throughout the North on account of what was declared to be his cowardly and treacherous yielding to the out- rageous and rebellious acts of the South, it was, towards its close, bitterly condemned by the South, which accused him of perfidy to them in sustaining the unconstitutional aggressions of the North. He shared the fate of most men who, in times of fierce dissension between two great parties, try, in a feeble and vacillating way. to avoid (464) THE HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES. INSIDE THE CAPITOL. WASHINGTON. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 465 offending either, and end by offending both. The best that can be said of Buchanan is that, placed in a most difficult and critical situation, which would have tested the powers of the strongest man, he was found weak and irresolute, and shamefully inadequate to the vast emergency. His father was a Scotch-Irishman, who had immigrated to this country without means or prospects, and had married, soon after arrival, Elizabeth Speer, a farmer's daughter. They sought their fortunes in an unsettled region of Pennsylvania; the young husband cutting down the trees, and building a log hut for their future home. There, at the base of the eastern ridge of the Alleghanies, in Franklin County, Jaines was born, April 22d, 1791, and spent eight years. He died near Lan- caster in June, 1868. His father, who, like most of his race, was industrious, shrewd, and thrifty, prospered in a humble fashion, and removed to the village of Mercers- burg, where the boy was sent to school. He showed great aptitude and native talents, and entered Dickinson College at Carlisle at fourteen, and, four years later, was graduated with distinction. Like almost every other President, he took to law at Lancaster, and began prac- tice when he had attained his majority. He is reported to have been tall, well-formed, vigorous, exuberant of spirits, and fond of manly sports. Very diligent and ambitious, he advanced rapidly, gained a lucrative prac- 466 LIVES OF THE PKFSIDKNTS. tice, and at thirty was ranked as one of the first lawyers in the State. Having been sent to Congress at twenty-nine, lie remained there for ten years, and when lie had reached forty, he retired from business, having acquired what was then regarded as wealth. In politics he began as a Federalist; but he favored the war of 1812, and even volunteered for the defense of Baltimore. Subsequently he turned Republican, properly Democrat, largely through his admiration of (leneral Jackson, and from sympathy with his doctrines, the kind of admiration, it is pre- sumed, which a flabby nature has for a strong one. In 1831, he was appointed by the President Minister to Russia, and discharged his duties faithfully and accepta- bly. On his return, two years later, he was chosen to the United States Senate, where he came into contact with Silas Wright, Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, the last of whom never liked him, regarding him as a timid, self-seeking, time-serving man. He almost invariably reflected the views of the administration, and was accused by his opponents of obsequiousness and sub- serviency, lie defended Jackson for his course in removing from office all who would not support him, or were of different politics a course that has been incal- culably mischievous to the government, and for which Jackson is entirely responsible and insisted that it was not only justifiable, but commendable. This greatly LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 467 pleased Jackson, who never could distinguish between flattery and sincere appreciation, and who considered every man his enemy that had a will of his own. Con- sistently with his peculiar character, he sustained the administration of Van Buren, and ardently advocated the annexation of Texas. He was returned to the Senate, and kept his seat until Polk assigned him (1845) a place in his Cabinet as Secretary of State. Buchanan naturally employed all his energy against the Wilmot Proviso, by which Slavery should be excluded from all territory obtained from Mexico, and was con- tinually nervous and troubled about the anti-slavery movement, at that time steadily growing. From first to last, he was always actively on the side of the peculiar institution, and was secretly despised therefor by not a few of the most zealous southerners. Conservative to a point of timorousness, he was ever in dread of a disso- lution of the Union. He did not think the North could do too much cringing and skulking to placate the inso- lent and arrogant South. He was willing that the Republic should be materially preserved by the sacrifice of all principle on the part of the Free States. In a speech in the lower house, he said, "I shall forever avoid any expression, the direct tendency of which must be to create sectional jealousies, and at length disunion, that worst and last of all political calamities." Discussing the admission of Michigan and Arkansas, in the Senate, 468 LIVKS OK THK PHKSIir he declared, "The older I grow, th<- more I am inclined to be a states-rights man." He maintained, concerning petitions about Shivery, that "Congress had no power to legislate on the subject," and that t lie body "might as well undertake to interfere with Slavery under a foreign government as in any of th- States where it now exists." More southern than the Southerners, lie was without their motive of material interest, and without their excuse of local tradition and sectional prejudice. Is it strange, therefore, that in 1S50 he was put forward as their candidate for the presidency, against John C. Fremont, the first Republican candidate of the new order, and Millard Fillmore, Native American ? As was said at the time, they could not find a more willing servant, or a more pliant tool. He received at the Cincinnati convention one hundred and seventy-four electoral votes out of three hundred and three, and became the fifteenth President. Extraordinary excitement was produced, the first year of his administration, by an effort to introduce Slavery into Kansas, where civil war was waged. He was, of course, an aider and abettor of the South. He argued in his message that the Lecompton Constitution, which was directly in the interest of the pro-slavery men, should be adopted ; but Congress resisted, and Kansas came in free. He wanted to buy Cuba for the advantage of slavery ; he filled his Cabinet with Democrats and LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 469 their friends, and negatively, at least, helped the cause of secession by every means in his power. Everybody saw the long-deferred, but never-settled sectional conflict at hand ; that the contest which had been suppressed and glossed over by the Constitution would, after nearly a century, have to be fought out. The founders of the Republic had secured peace by bequeathing the unavoidable battle to their posterity. It was in 1861 as it had been in 1789. That was the armistice ; this was the resumption of hostilities. It was Federalist and anti-Federalist then ; it was Unionist and Disunionist now ; but, although the words were changed, the meaning was the same. The cause of the civil strife was the outward agreement and the inward disagreement of the Constitution. Washington perceived its defects, but believed it the best that could be devised, the sole alternative for anarchy and civil war. And so it was ; but the Civil War came and was bound to come in due season. America compromised then, and kept compro- mising for two generations, and the result of the com- promise was a mighty fraternal struggle which for blood- shed and horror has never been equaled. The cause of the conflict was the hollow compromise of the Constitu- tion. Its framers were most thoughtful, prudent, saga- cious. They did all that they could. They saw the present ; they could not perceive the future. And now that future is, fortunately, behind us ; and we as a people 470 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. are, for the first time, united by common losses, common sufferings, and common sorrows. As Buchanan's term drew toward a close, the people of the North became more and more aroused against him for his constant concessions to the slave power. The anti- slavery feeling grew more and more intense, and culmi- nated in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for Presi- dent, who had Driven assurances that he would be the itive of the whole country. The South pronounced him a sectional candidate, and declared it would go out if he should be elected. It had said the same thing about Fremont. It had been threatening to dissolve the Union so long it had always kept political control by menacing the North that the I-Ycr States had finally got tired of hearing the threat. They were anxious to learn whether it was in earnest or not. If not, they ought to know it ; if in earnest, they should know it also. The knowledge could not come too soon. The disrupture might as well be then as at any time better, indeed. So they elected Lincoln, and the disintegration began. Buchanan admitted the right of the Southern States to secede, and held that Congress had no power to pre- vent them. He sat, nevertheless, in his bewilderment, and saw the arms of the Republic stolen, the national forts surrendered, State after State discarding its alle- giance. There was no remedy for it, in his flaccid mind. He did not even remonstrate. All his censure was for LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 471 those averse to the extension of slavery. His words were : " The long-continued interference of the Northern people with Slavery in the South has at length produced its natural effects." It was a pitiful spectacle of imbe- cility., How differently Andrew Jackson, whom he had assumed to admire, would have acted in his place ! He would have done something, and something decisive. -He would have taken the responsibility. He would have taught the Rebels a lesson at the outset. The War would at least have begun earlier. Two months before the inauguration of Lincoln, the South had prepared itself for an aggressive struggle ; had strengthened its position by seizing government property, and the head of the nation had not lifted a finger against them. If he had been hired to cooperate with them, he could hardly have served them more effectually. Many conciliatory measures were proposed by the North ; but the Rebels rejected them. They evidently scorned the government, as they had reason to, with such an unex- ecutive Executive. Buchanan seemed concerned only with the date of the 4th of March, when his administra- tion would end, and his responsibility for overt acts would cease. It did end, and the North breathed freer, and experienced a sense of relief and of diminished shame that there would be no more of him forever. CHAPTER XXXII. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Contrast Between Lincoln and Buchanan. His Lonely Boyhood and Severe Youth. The Cause of his Detestation of Slavery. The Campaign with Douglas in Illinois Introduces him to the Nation. The Irresistible Magnetism of the Rail-Splitter. His Nomination at Chicago. Deplorable Condition of the Country at the Time of his Inauguration. His Resolve to Preserve the Union at all Hazards. Distressing Effect of his Assassination. His Personal Appearance and Power of Persuasion. How the Future will Regard the Great President. There has scarcely ever been a greater contrast between two men in power than between James Bu- chanan and Abraham Lincoln. They were antipodes. One was an embodiment of feebleness, the other an incar- nation of strength. The best of Buchanan was outside ; the best of Lincoln inside. You had to know one to measure his weakness, and the other to understand his greatness. That such men should succeed one another is one of the antitheses in which History and Nature delight. (172) LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 473 The sixteenth President, who is as certain of lasting fame as Washington, was born in Hardin (now Larue) County, Ky., February 12, 1809, his ancestors having gone from Pennsylvania to Virginia, whence they had removed to Kentucky. His father, Thomas Lincoln, anc* his mother, Nancy Hanks, were Virginians. The child- hood of Abraham Lincoln was lonely, sterile, and full of hardship. At eight years of age, his parents went to Spencer County, Ind., and he remembered how severe the journey was, and how much he endured in making it. Two years later, he lost his mother, a bitter loss which he never ceased to mourn. She had taught him to read, and did much to form his character, young as he was. Among the few books that he had and prized in his boyhood were " Robinson Crusoe," " Pilgrim's Pro- gress," and a " Life of Washington," which left a marked impression on his mind, and from which he could repeat long passages after he had become a man. At twenty- one he went to Macon County, Illinois. He volunteered for the defense of the frontier settlements on the break- ing out of the Black Hawk War in 1832, but it came to an end before he had seen any service. In the same year, he advocated the cause of Henry Clay against that of General Jackson, and was sorely troubled at the former's defeat, having formed an enthusiastic admira- tion for him. In 1834, he was elected to the Legislature, and reflected in 1836 and 1838. He had already formed 474 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. decided opinions on Slavery, and had proclaimed that it was founded on injustice and bad policy. He had seen slaves chained and whipped when he was a young man at New Orleans, and he hated slavery ever after. Ad- mitted to ihe bar, he began to practice at Springfield, III., in 1837, and five years after he married Mary Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd of Lexington, Ky. Having become prominent as a Whig in his own State, he was sent to Congress in 184G, and while there always acted on the side of freedom. But his reputation was local until he had been nominated, in 1858, by the Repub- lican Convention of Illinois for the United States Senate in opposition to the reelection of Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln challenged his adversary to canvass the Stair, and they did so, speaking in joint debate seven times. It was a remarkable campaign, and attracted national attention. The main question was on the admission of Kansas as a Free or Slave State. Douglas's assumptions of superiority, and allusions to his opponent's early poverty and humble employment, were received with entire good nature, and with such humorous turns and telling retorts that the Little Giant was put at disadvan- tage. Indeed, skillful and brilliant debater though he was, he was no match for Lincoln, whose homely com- mon sense and sagacious mind had far more influence with the people. The rail-splitter, as he was called he had often split LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 475 rails to build cabins was one of the most persuasive and effective speakers. Nobody who had ever heard him once, whatever his prejudice beforehand, could fail to like him. He was so simple, so fair, so direct, so convincing, that he would always carry his audience with him. It is doubtful if he has ever had his equal in this respect in the United States. " To listen to Lincoln," said a prom- inent politician, " is to be on his side. There is no resist- ing him or his conclusions." Lincoln actually compelled Douglas during that memo- rable campaign to array himself against the Dred-Scott Decision, and this so enraged the extreme Southern Democrats that they refused to support him for Presi- dent in 1860. They nominated John C. Breckinridge instead, and this frustrated Douglas's hopes and burning ambition. Lincoln was defeated by a peculiar arrange- ment of the legislative districts, notwithstanding that he had a plurality of more than 4,000 votes over his rival. But the Illinois campaign made him President. In 1^60, he delivered a strong and eloquent speech on the vital question of slavery at the Cooper Institute in New York, and then went to New England, where he also spoke most effectively. The Chicago Convention denied in its platform the right of Congress, of a Terri- torial Legislature, or of any individual or individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States, and on the third ballot nominated Lincoln 47<> LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. as the Republican candidate. \Vm. II. Scward's friends were greatly disappointed, for they had been confident of his success, particularly after he had led Lincoln on the first two ballots; but they soon became reconciled. The canvass was most enthusiastic and demonstrative, and the feeling all over the country was that we were on the eve of a crisis. Lincoln received 180 electoral votes, JJreckeiiridge 72, John Bell 39, and Douglas 12. When Lincoln had taken his seat, seven States had formally seceded, and seven more were contemplating secession. The North was, thanks to the administration of Buchanan, deprived of all the requirements of war ; the small army and navy had been purposely scattered; the treasury was empty. The Free States had scarcely decided what course to take when the attack by South Carolina on Sumter forced civil war upon them. Then they were unanimous in raising money and men; they were ablaze with patriotism; they were as belligerent as the South, though less boastful and confident. For four years war raged fiercely, success alternating with defeat. There were many despondent hours and dark days, and the President was urged to various measures for the good of the country, which he declined. Fault was found with him in various quarters; he was termed slow, obstinate, wrong-headed; but the end proved his consummate wisdom. He was a born leader of men. He understood his fellow-countrymen, the drift of events, LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 477 and the needs of the time as no one else understood them. He steadily refused to proclaim Emancipation until the occasion was ripe (September 22, 1862), and he was the man who knew when that would be. The Fugitive Slave Law was repealed in June, 1864, and, about that date, Lincoln said in an interview : " There have been men base enough to propose to me to return our black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what may, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. My enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this Rebellion without the use of the eman- cipation policy, and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the Rebellion." The war, which had cost a million of lives, and mill- ions on millions of money, practically closed with the fall of Richmond, April 9, 1865. But, while the popular rejoicing was at its height, the assassination of the great President shocked the nation, and filled its heart with mourning. No single event has, it is safe to say, ever so filled the country with anguish and a sense of be- reavement. The whole people were stunned and dis- tressed beyond expression. Lincoln had grown upon 478 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. them steadily and rapidly until they had all learned to admire, to trust, to love, and to revere him. He had become to every man, woman, and child as a near and dear personal friend. He was a most exalted character, one of the noblest representatives of humanity, a credit to his kind, an almost matchless man. lie was the Father of his Country as much as Washington had hern. The one gave us a Republic : the other preserved it, when assailed by domestic enemies. As Emerson puts it, "By his courage, his justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the center of a heroic epoch." As time goes on, his reputation will grow. "We are still too near him to measure his greatness. He was such a man as Nature produces only at long intervals; he was of the grandest type of men, of whom there have been few in the world. Sprung from the humblest, a mere backwoodsman, without education, training, or any kind of assistance or advantage, he learned, as by intui- tion, to use his native language, the greatest of all tongues, as the ripest scholars could not. In force and fitness of expression he has hardly been surpassed. His letters and speeches are models, the classics of unstudied effort, the oracles of the popular heart. Queer, raw, angular, awkward, homely of feature, no one could he long in his presence and hear him speak without feeling his unquestionable superiority. One forgot his physical LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 479 defects and his strange uncouthness in the power and spirit of his wonderful individuality. He was as good as he was great, as broad as he was tender. He will not be forgotten ; he is unforgetable. Even if America should decline and decay, he would make it be remem- bered. He will always be recalled as the great Ameri- can. If ever mortal were, Abraham Lincoln is booked for immortality. His fame is fixed in the center of ages. The future will revere him as an ideal of humanity. 20 CHAPTER XXXIII. ANDREW JOHNSON AND ULYSSES S. GRANT, SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH PRESI- DENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Johnson's Early Life and Hard Struggles. A Tiiilor who was more than the Ninth Part of a Man. His Vicw> of Slavery and Seces- sion. His Personal Courage and its Good Effects Politically. His Disagreement with Congress about Reconstruction. The Impeach- ment Trial. Grant in the Mexican War. His Incompetency in Business. Finding his Place in the Civil War. His Extraordinary Success in the Field. Called to Command the Army of the Poto- mac. His Political Mistakes and Greed of Power. Andrew Johnson's chief claim to distinction in the future will probably be that he was elected Vicc-Pn-si- dent on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln, and that he succeeded him as President, after his assassination, April 1 "), 1865. His early life was very creditable, denoting what industry, energy, and perseverance may accomplish against extreme poverty, want of education, and evory kind of obstacle. Born at Raleigh, N. C., December 29, 1808, he learned the trade of a tailor, his father, who died when he was a child, had been a constable, a sexton, (480) THE MARBLE BOOM. INSIDE THE CAPITOL. WASHINGTON. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 481 and a porter, and followed it for many years at the lit- tle town of Greenville, Tenn. He was a ragged urchin, a street Arab, until he was ten years old, supported by the manual labor of his mother, who belonged to that most unfortunate class known as the poor whites of the South. He could not even read then ; indeed, he did not learn the alphabet until some time after. At eighteen, he married a girl of intelligence and considerable educa- tion, who became his instructor, reading to him while he worked at his humble calling, and teaching him in the evening arithmetic, geography, and history. He gained considerable influence over mechanics and manual laborers, and by the time he was of age had taken quite an interest in politics, to which he adhered through life. He ardently espoused their cause, and arrayed himself against the rich and ruling class, so strong and arrogant in the days of Slavery. After filling several small local offices, he was chosen to the lower House of the Legislature. He was then twenty-seven, and proclaimed himself a Democrat of the Jacksonian school. In 1840 he took the stump for Martin Van Buren against Harrison, and became a ready and popular speaker with the kind of people he addressed. He was very fond of alluding to the fact of his being a mechanic and a wholly self-made man, he never recovered from the habit, and these constant allusions, whether in good taste or not, won over the common people. In 1843 he 482 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. was sent by the Democrats to Congress, and kept there for ten years, and in 1857 he was elected to the United States Senate. In regard to Slavery, his views were those of a South- erner and a Democrat. He accepted it, and believed it protected by the Constitution, 'though he did not think it would last, or that it ought to, if it should endanger the Union. In the canvass of 1860, he supported Breckinridge, the candidate of the extreme Southerners ; but when they threatened secession he opposed them, declaring any such attempt both unjust and madly foolish. He maintained that they should contend for their rights in the Union, not out of it ; that to secede would ruin whatever prospects they might have. He boasted that he had voted and spoken against Lincoln, and spent money to prevent his election. But as time went on, he grew more and more inimical to the doctrine of State-Rights, and the action of the secession party. One day, a mob entered the railway car in which he was returning home, for the purpose of lynching him ; but when he drew his pistol, the mob retired in disorder. Johnson was, per- sonally, very brave, as he had often proved, and his brave- ry, doubtless, preserved him from frequent assaults. The most furious Rebels had a sense of prudence which prevented them from attacking a man they hated, when they knew he would defend himself desperately. Not daring to molest him, they were contented to burn him in LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 483 effigy, which pleased them, and did him no harm. His wife and child were driven from their home, and his nine slaves confiscated. Having been appointed Military Gov- ernor of Tennessee by Lincoln, he discharged his difficult and dangerous duties ably and fearlessly, exercising a most favorable influence in the State. Elected Vice-President in 1864, he was at first very severe on the enemies of the Government, but afterward changed his policy to one of conciliation, which rendered him very unpopular in the North. He became President at Lincoln's death, and was soon involved with Congress because he was inimical to their views of reconstruction and the rights of freedmen. He vetoed various acts which were passed over his head, and put himself in so antagonistic a position to the body that its members decided to impeach him. Charged, among other offences, with violating the Act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices he had suspended Secretary Stanton from the war office without the consent of the Senate he was formally impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. At the close of the trial, thirty-five Senators voted him guilty, and nineteen not guilty ; and as a two-thirds vote was required to convict, Johnson escaped by just one vote. He declared, in his defense, that his policy of reconstruction had been outlined and agreed upon by President Lincoln and his Cabinet, and that Stanton him- self had pronounced the tenure-of-office Act unconstitu- LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. tional. His undignified, inconsistent and intemperate course had forfeited the esteem in which the Nation had held him, and he went out of office with genera] approval. Still seeking place and power, he was elected United States Senator in January, 1875 ; but he died, at sixty- six, the next July, of paralysis. Andrew Johnson was one of the men who had lived too long for his own fame or for his country's good. ULYSSES 8. GRANT. Ulysses S. Grant is a notable instance of a man who does not find the work he is best fitted for until his youth has passed. But for the Civil War, and the opportunities it gave him of displaying his military talents, it is entirely probable that he would have been to-day unrecognized and obscured. If any one had predicted, on the election of Lincoln, that Grant would be one of the greatest Gen- erals of the war and President of the United States, he would have been laughed at. No one seems to have suspected that Grant was in any way remarkable until he had demonstrated it by deeds. It is, indeed, doubtful if he had ever suspected it himself. But he is so quiet and reticent that it will never be known what opinion Grant entertains of Grant. It may be that he was more sur- prised than anybody else when he made the discovery of his own heroship. He may have questioned his own identity or have thought, like the Irishman, that he had been changed during the night. LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 485 Grant is, as his name indicates, of Scotch extraction, but remotely. His parents were both Pennsylvanians, though he is a native of Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, having been born April 27, 1822. Having received a partial education at a common school, he entered West Point as a cadet at seventeen, and was graduated four years later, standing twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, which is not a flattering record. He went with his regi- ment as Lieutenant to Mexico, and distinguished himself in divers engagements, having been breveted Captain for gallantry at Chapultepec. After the capture of the city of Mexico, he returned with his regiment, mar- ried Julia T. Dent of St. Louis, sister of one of his classmates, and at thirty-two resigned his commission. He went upon a farm belonging to his father-in-law, near St. Louis ; he was a real-estate agent in that city, and a clerk for his father, then a leather merchant at Galena, 111., but did not prosper. He appeared to be impractical, indolent, careless, and was generally regarded as a ne'er- do-well. It is said that ho was never able to provide for his family, which would have come to want but for his father-in-law, who often regretted that his daughter was the wife of so incompetent a person. When the Civil War had broken out, he was one of the first to enlist, and was elected Captain of a company of Illinois volunteers, who reported for duty at Springfield. He was afterward made Colonel of an Illinois regiment, 486 LIVES OF THE the twenty-first, ami became in two months a Brigadier. His first battle was at Belmont, Mo., claimed by both sides, where he had a horse shot under him. In conjunc- tion with the gunboats he ascended the Tennessee, and Fort Henry fell into our hands, but mainly through the flotilla, lie attacked Fort Donelson on the Cumberland and forced it to surrender. February l-~>, 1S62, with some fourteen thousand prisoners. This, the first great success of the war for the Union army, filled the North with en- thusiasm ; gave Grant a high reputation and the rank of Major-GeneraL General Albert Sidney Johnston attacked Grant April 6th, at Shiloh,on the Tennessee, with far su- perior force; drove back the Union troops, and took several thousand prisoners. The next day, Grant having combined with General Buell, renewed the fight, and won a victory, General Johnston being killed. After a siege of six weeks, he took Yicksburg July 4, 1863, and thirty thousand prisoners. This brilliant achievement turned the admiring eyes of the North upon him, and advanced him to the rank of Major-General in the regular army. The following November he defeated Bragg at Missionary Ridge, near Chattanooga, and revealed him- self as the proper man to take charge of the Army of the Potomac, which had never achieved any permanent suc- cess, but had experienced any number of reverses. Jlis repeated and bloody engagements in Virginia (he was the only General of the Potomac who had ever forced and LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 487 continued the fighting) until he had obliged Lee to evacuate Richmond, and then to surrender at Appomatox, are too well known to require recapitulation. Every honor was heaped on Grant ; he had conquered peace ; he had crushed the Rebellion ; he had preserved the Republic. It was thought fitting, therefore, to put him at the head of the government, and he was elected, 1868, the eighteenth President, against Horatio Seymour, receiving two hun- dred and fourteen electoral votes, and his competitor eighty. Grant being in harmony with his cabinet and the majority of Congress, which Johnson had not been, the reconstruction of the States, lately in rebellion, steadily advanced. He declared himself in favor of the Fifteenth Amendment, forbidding the disfranchisement of any person on account of race or color ; and the machinery of the government, disordered by the obstinacy of the previous Executive, again ran smooth. Grant was reelected in 1872 against Horace Greeley, who had obtained the nomination of the Democrats as well as of the Liberal Republicans, greatly dissatisfied with Grant's administration. While they regarded some of Grant's measures as wise, they regarded other measures as very unwise. They had no reason, they said, to believe that a mere soldier, who had had no knowledge and no experience in political life, should be an acceptable Presi- dent. He had been nominated on account of his sup- 20* 488 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. posed availability which had been proved, nnd for that reason he was again put forward. His second term was more censured than the first. Nobody questioned his integrity or patriotism these had been repeatedly tested in the field but he often seemed indifferent and obstin- ate. He was sharply criticized for his excessive attach- ment to unworthy and unprincipled men whom he ranked as his friends. His confidence in them was pronounced excessive; he would believe, it was said, nothing against thrin ; would not listen to those who wished for his own good and the good of the country to open his eyes. It would seem that Grant is not a judge of men.* If he had been, he would not and could not have selected for office persons who constantly abused his trust, and filled his administration with scandals. Fidelity to friends may be an admirable trait in private citizens, but such fidelity in high officials, particularly when their friends are totally undeserving, is apt to become mischievous, and is always dangerous. Grant has been criticised, too, for what has been called his lust of power. Many Republicans turned against him because of his desire for a third term. While there is 110 law against a third term, except the unwritten law which custom and precedent have made, the general feel- ing in the community is earnestly opposed to it. Grant's advocates asserted for months that he did not want it, but that it would be superfluous and foolish for him to LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 489 decline what had not been offered. Nevertheless, the outward indications were directly otherwise, and the Chicago convention of 1880 made it plain that he was once more a candidate of the most uncompromising arid contumacious kind. This was pointed out by the Inde- pendents as a corroboration of their opinion, that Grant was greedy of gain and office, and that he felt, because he had beaten the Rebels, as if the Presidency were his by right, and the Nation could not do too much for him and his. They cited as evidence his willingness to take presents of any sort from anybody and everybody, and their energy of assertion unquestionably injured Grant in many quarters. It is said by those Independents and others that but for the late disgraceful failure of the firm in which the General was a partner, his name would again have been presented and urged at the recent Con- vention. It was never mentioned, and Grant's bitterest opponents now admit that the third-term ghost is forever laid. Grant's connection with Grant & Ward was most unfortunate, and while nobody has the hardihood to attempt to implicate him in its rascalities, his absolute ignorance of the character of the business of the house in which he was a partner, has given color to the charges of his unreserved faith in unworthy men, and of bis de- fective judgment concerning them. But when every- thing has been said, the fact remains that General Grant continues to be widely esteemed, and to excite sincere 490 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. sympathy on account of his recent financial adversities from which a much inferior, though different order of man, would have been protected. All things considered, it would, perhaps, have been better for Grant, had he never entered into politics. But, despite the mistakes he has made in public life and out of it, the general feeling is that he has put the Nation under a debt of gratitude which it never can and does not wish to repay. CHAPTER XXXIV. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, JAMES A. GARFIELD, AND CHESTER A. ARTHUR, NINETEENTH, TWENTIETH, AND TWENTY-FIRST PRESI- DENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Hayes as Lawyer, Politician, and Soldier. Nominated because an Ohioan. The Electoral Commission. Great Outcry Against him, but Still a Creditable President. Garfield's Hard Fight with Fortune at the Outset. Ambition to be a Canal-Boat Captain. His Career in the Army. Leader of the House of Representatives. His Admir- able Equipment for Political Life. His Nomination at Chicago Wholly Unexpected. The National Sorrow at his Assassination. Arthur Born in a Log Cabin, and Ruling in the White House. Rutherford B. Hayes is of New England extraction his parents were Vermonters though an Ohioan by birthright, having been born at the town of Delaware, October 4, 1822. His father, who was in comfortable circumstances, and had a prosperous mercantile business at Brattleborough, suddenly decided, after the war of 1812, to go west. He had a fancy for Ohio, then regarded as the remote frontier, which, indeed, it was, and after a preliminary journey of inspection, he was so well pleased with the new region that he went back and brought his (491) 492 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. family and household goods thither by forty days of most fatiguing travel in a covered wagon. His father, who set up a country store in the village, and conducted it profitably, died before Rutherford's birth, but left his family very well-off. The youth was graduated at Ken- yon College, Gambier, at twenty, studied law, and briran practice at twenty-three at Sandusky. He afterward removed to Cincinnati, opened an offce, and married Lucy W. Webb, daughter of a physician of Chillicothc. A staunch Republican in opinion, he was chosen City Solicitor, and grew prominent in local politics. Joining the Literary Club, he became a friend of a number of the members, among them Salmon P. Chase, John Pope, and Edward F. Xoyos, who afterward obtained celebrity in the field and in the councils of the Nation. At the first call for troops, the Literary Club formed a military company with the name, Burnett Rifles, and offered its services to the government. Not less than seventy-five members became commissioned officers, more than half of tbesc being lawyers. Hayes was made Major of the Twenty-third Ohio infantry, of which Stanley Matthews was Lieutenant-colonel, and William S. Rosecrans Colonel, and was assigned to duty in West Virginia. lie was very energetic in campaign- ing, was wounded at South Mountain, and at the close of October was appointed a Brigadier, and early in 1865 a Major-Geueral by brevet for gallant conduct in the field, LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 493 especially at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. In the Autumn of 1864, he was sent to Congress from one of the Cincinnati districts, and was sent back two years later. Although he seldom participated in debate, he performed a deal of hard work, and was of more value than many of the glib talkers in the House. Having been chosen governor in 1867 against Judge Thurman, Democrat, he resigned his seat to go to Columbus, and was reflected two years later. Ten years ago, a rich uncle, Sardis Birchard, died and left him a handsome property. In 1875, having again been put forward as Governor, because it was considered very important that the Republicans should carry Ohio, he received a majority of 5,544 over William Alle'n. This naturally introduced him as a candidate for the Presidency, and the Ohio Republican Convention in March, 1876, recommended his nomination. At the National Convention in Cincinnati in June, before which Elaine and Roscoe Conkling were most prominent, it was found impossible to nominate either of them ; conse- quently the opponents of Elaine united on Hayes, and on the seventh ballot gave him 384 votes ; Elaine getting 351, and Benjamin H. Bristow 21. In the returns of the November elections, Samuel J. Tilden, it will be remem- bered, had 184 electoral votes, and Hayes 172 that were unquestioned. The votes of Florida and Louisiana, and one of the votes of Oregon were in dispute on different 494 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. grounds between the parties. There was much excite- ment over this, and there seemed to he no way of set- tlinir the matter. Finally, it was agreed that the decision should be left to a commission of five Senators, five Re- presentatives, and five Judges of the Supreme Court. Thive of the Senators were to be Republicans and two Democrats, three of the Representatives Democrats and two Republicans. Four Judges, two of each party, were elected, and these were to name a fifth, who was a Re- publican. Thus the commission stood eight Republicans to seven Democrats, and they all voted strictly in accord- ance with their party, declaring Hayes elected over Til- den by one vote, and he, Hayes, was duly inaugurated nineteenth President of the United States. There was a great Democratic outcry that Hayes had not been honestly elected, and he was roundly abused for two years. But he preserved a firm, dignified demean- our, and conducted his administration to a creditable close. It was the fashion to ridicule him as unfit for the position ; but the facts showed nothing of the kind. He is not a great or a brilliant man few of our Presidents have been but he was honest, modest, and conscientious in his high office, and is entitled to, and has won the es- teem of unbiased citizens. LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 495 JAMES A. GARFIELD. James A. Garfield was another of the self-made men who have become Presidents of the United States, al- though there was no more likelihood in his youth of such an occurrence than of his becoming the Mikado of Japan. Although self-made, he was better made than the great majority of men who are so called. He secured a regular education, and achieved scholarship in the teeth of the most formidable difficulties by a degree of indus- try, energy, and perseverance that is seldom equaled. He nobly won all the prizes that were his. They did not fall to his lot : he wrested them from reluctant fortune. He was from Orange township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio Ohio has become the Northern mother of Presidents having been born there November 19, 1831. Some of his biographers aver that he was of noble English descent. His father, a native of Worcester, N. Y., had emigrated and made what he considered a home in the primeval forest, cutting down the trees, and building a log cabin for his family. To that uninviting place, four children had been bidden, James being the youngest they might not have come voluntarily and participated with their parents in the desperate struggle for existence, inevitable in such a region. Everything was of the rudest. They lived little better than savages. The cabin was with- out windows or doors, holes serving for the purpose and two or three acres of cleared land furnishing the 496 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. grain, and the woods the game on which they subsisted. In such an abode the future President cut wood, dug up stumps, watched cattle, and tilled landed until he was twelve years old. His father died when he was a lml>y, and lie might have starved except for his elder brother and his mother her maiden name was Eliza Ballou who labored night and day to keep the wolf from the door. A relative of Abram Garlield, who lived in the neighborhood, pitied their poverty, and aided them to the extent of his limited ability. James does not seem to have been different from other boys. He showed no precocious talents, or, in fact, talents of any sort until he had reached his teens. His first ambition was to be the Captain of a canal boat ; but he never got any further than to drive a mule on the tow- path on the Ohio canal. He was fond of reading, and as he went to Cleveland frequently to sell wood or buy provisions, he had opportunities to get books. A noma- dic teacher and preacher whom he had met, inspired him with a desire for education, and by practicing all sorts of self-denial, he was enabled to attend an academy in the adjoining township of Chester. In one of the classes there he made the acquaintance of Lucretia Rudolph, who afterward became his wife. He subsequently went to the Eclectic Institute, now Hiram College, where he was fitted for Williams College, being graduated at twenty-five. Returning to Hiram, he taught there for a LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 497 while, and was in a short while appointed its President. He also studied law, of course nearly every public man in the Republic is or has been a lawyer and was admit- ted to the bar. Politics likewise engaged his attention, and he was sent by the Republicans to the State Senate, where he exhibited decided ability. At the beginning of the war, he entered the field as colonel of the 42d Ohio volunteers, and was ordered to Kentucky. He defeated Humphrey Marshall at Paint- ville with a much inferior force, and drove him out of the State, receiving therefor a brigadiership at an earlier age thirty than any other Union soldier. He afterward served at Shiloh, Corinth, and in Alabama, and in 1863 was appointed chief of staff of the army of the Cumber- land under Rosecrans. For meritorious conduct at Chi- chamauga he was made a Major-General. He went to Congress the same year; was reflected eight times, and after Elaine had been transferred to the Senate 1876 he was acknowledged to be the Republican leader of the House. Garfield had become a diligent student and a tire- less worker, and did such excellent work on committees as to earn a national reputation. No man in the country advanced more intellectually from the time he entered Congress until he stepped into the Executive Mansion. He was by temperament, training, and ambition a leader. He appeared to be at the time of his death the national chief of the Republican party, and he would no doubt 498 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. have kept the place, had he lived. He was an able speaker, acquainted with finance, railways, the public needs, and such political questions, not to speak of his knowledge of human nature, as a man in his position ought to be, and he went to the bottom of things. in January, 1880, he was elected to the National Sen- ate from Ohio, and at the National Convention in June, which he attended at a delegate, he was nominated to the Presidency on the thirty-sixth ballot. Having gone to Chicago to support John Sherman, he had no thought of his own nomination, for he was not a candidate. firant and Blaine wore most conspicuous before the Con- vention, and most of (Grant's opponents at the last went over to Garfield. He received in November the votes of nearly all the Northern States. No one can forget the sad day when (luiteau, from anger at not getting an office, and from morbid love of notoriety, shot the Presi- dent, or the still sadder day when lie died. The eighty days in which his life trembled in the balance, were days of such anxiety, compassion, and sorrow throughout the land as had never before been felt. And when he breathed his last, the whole Republic mourned as if it had sustained a personal bereavement of the nearest and dearest ; and thousands and tens of thousands are still unresigned to a stroke of destiny so needlessly cruel. LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 499 CHESTER A. ARTHUR. Chester A. Arthur is the fourth Yice-President who has become President by the death of the Chief Magis- trate, and two of the deaths, strange to say, have been assassinations in a land that has an instinctive horror of assassins. Before Harrison's decease, it used to be said by politicians, " It matters little whom we nominate for Yice-President. A Vice-President is nothing but President of the Senate ; he can do no harm, and very little good. Almost any man will answer for that office." The experience of forty odd years has taught us the contrary. We have learned that an American President is as mortal as any of his fellows, and that Vice-Presidents are very uncertain. Not one of the Vice-Presidents, Arthur excepted, redeemed the expec- tations formed of them ; and two of them rendered themselves odious and infamous to the party that had put them in power. Fillmore, the best of the three that are dead, made himself so unpopular by approving of the Fugitive Slave Law that he never could have o been elected again. Arthur has gained a repute at the head of the Nation which he certainly did not have as the holder of the second place. When nominated, he was not generally approved ; he was believed to be too much of a politician, and too little else. It was understood that he had been put on the ticket with a view to carrying New York, and that this constituted 500 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. his principal claim. Following his election, his rampant " stalwartism," his over-anxiety to serve Conkling at Albany, after his resignation from the Senate, was harshly and justly commented on. But when (iurfield died, he acted with delicacy and discretion, and has so acted ever since. His views have been broad and statesman-like, his bearing dignified, his policy enlightened. Nobody will say that he has not been a good President. He will go out of office with honors that, when he entered it, were not his. This is no light praise. And more; he has removed the doubt and apprehension that have been associated with Vice-Pre- sidential succession. Arthur is the son of a Baptist clergyman from the North of Ireland, who had settled in Eastern Canada, and had, with unconscious forecast, removed just across the border, to give his eldest hoy a geographical chance to be President of the United States. He was born at the hamlet of Fairficld in a log cabin; was one of five children, whom his father, preaching for 350 a year in an old barn, could hardly afford to have. But families were not then regarded financially, nor were they the dispensable luxuries that they are now, particularly in large and expensive cities. The poor clergyman was obliged to eke out his necessary expenses by manual labor in field or shop, and even when his circumstances LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 501 improved, was but an itinerant pulpiteer, continually perplexed with making both ends meet. Chester Arthur, who is a polished man of society, and noted as an elegant dinner-giver, must contrast some- times the sumptuousness of these days with the Spartan plainness of the days of his boyhood, spent in the rude school-house of the rural districts of the time. He was only eighteen when he was graduated at Union College, Schenectady. After teaching a while in his native State, he was admitted to the bar at twenty -eight, and settled in New York City. His first case that made any noise was the Lemmon Slave Case, in which he was attorney for the people, and Wm. M. Evarts leading counsel on the same side. They maintained that eight slaves whom their master, Jonathan Lemmon of Vir- ginia, had brought to New York, were made free by his voluntary act. Charles O'Conor and Henry L. Clinton appeared for Lemmon ; but after various ap- peals, Arthur and Evarts' position was sustained. Arthur acted as counsel for a colored woman who had been expelled (1856) from the horse-cars on account of her color, and gained a verdict for damages for his client, which secured equal rights for negroes in all public vehicles. One of the first Republicans, he has always acted with the party. He was appointed Engi- neer-in-Chief by Governor Morgan in 1861, and, the year following, Quartermaster-General of the forces of 502 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. the State (whence his title), and discharged his duties admirably. For seven years he was Collector of the Port of New York, and was removed by Hayes because he thought the office was used as a political power in the State. He then resumed the practice of law, but has always been a very active, perhaps too active, politician. He is now, as every one knows, the twenty- first President of the Republic. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. a ;:"''"' t DEC NOV24 1974 nwnw SEP 1 4 884 KC'D L: FEB L Form L9-Series 4939 UNIVERSITY OF Cfi LOS flNGELES 3 1158 00955 6431 c-i ( tlBBARYQr ,*HBAllV0/v Jtft IINMRJ/A ^vlOS-ANCnfj-.. iirrlfiirrl ii