THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 :\W .ir 
 
 Jfc^- -%
 
 

 
 OF 
 
 JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 
 EMBRACING 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH ; HIS EDUCATION ; THE BEGINNING OF 
 HIS PUBLIC CAREER; HIS RISE AS A STATESMAN ; HIS PART IN THE ADMIN- 
 ISTRATION OF GARFIELD ; HIS LITERARY WORK, AND HIS NOMI- 
 NATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A SKETCH OF THK LIFE OF 
 
 GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN, 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 A Compendium of Political Statistics and Information, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 LIVES AND ADMINISTRATIONS OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES; HIS- 
 TORY OF ALL POLITICAL PARTIES ; TABULATED SUMMARIES, GIVING 
 THE STATISTICAL FACTS AND FIGURES CONNECTED WITH 
 EVERY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ; THE WHOLE 
 CONSTITUTING AN INVALUABLE 
 
 VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 By JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D., 
 
 Author of a Popular History of the United States, Life and Work of Garfield, etc., etc, 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WM. H. ELAINE. 
 
 MARTIN GARRISON & CO. 
 
 i;<>STON\ MASS: -V, ;
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1884, BY JOHN T. JONES.
 
 PRBFACE. 
 
 FOR as many as three general reasons the nomination of 
 JAMES G. ELAINE for the Presidency may be received 
 with great satisfaction. The first of these is that at the 
 Chicago Convention of 1884 the Dark Horse folly was ef- 
 fectually, let us hope forever, buried out of sight. As a 
 c/j general rule, the big brained men have been kept from pre- 
 ferment under our political system. The theory which the 
 i obscure many have adopted for the subordination of the 
 illustrious few is that it is fatal for a man to have a record. 
 l He must be great, but have no record. He must be eloquent, 
 |Q but never say any thing ; work, but never do any thing ; lead, 
 g but never lead any thing. On several occasions in our polit- 
 ical history this theory has prevailed to the extent of thrust- 
 g ing aside the great Americans to the end that some obscure 
 6 Accident without a record might go up to the high places 
 I of power. 
 
 It might be invidious to specify the instances in our 
 
 J history in which the notion that unknown mediocrity is 
 
 ' more " available " than genius has prevailed over common 
 
 sense. Time and again we have witnessed the spectacle 
 
 of some unheard-of intelligence stepping into the arena and 
 
 carrying off the wreath which patriotism had woven for the
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 forehead of the great. At last, however, the reaction has 
 set in, and as a consequence the Dark Horse droops his head. 
 He is no longer admired. It is doubtful whether he will 
 ever again be an object of interest. His stall in the politi- 
 cal livery is, for the time, at least, abandoned, and it is not 
 likely that the crowds will ever again return. For this re- 
 sult the Nation is indebted to the steady and determined 
 supporters of Mr. Elaine in the Chicago convention. They 
 had made up their minds that the great Equus niger Amer- 
 icanus should be turned to grass, and that the man with a 
 record should hereafter be preferred to the political Nobody. 
 The result is satisfying. 
 
 In the second place, the Chicago convention is notable 
 for this, that the grand army of office-holders has gone to 
 the rear ; they have fallen back before a victorious charge 
 of the people. There is no doubt that for a time, at least, 
 the unorganized masses have triumphed over the organized 
 cohort of officials, determined as they were to keep them- 
 selves in power forever. One of the most dangerous ten- 
 dencies recently exhibited in American politics has been the 
 continuance of men in office until their terms have run be- 
 yond the usual limit, then to transfer them to other posi- 
 tions in the service, and so on ad infinitum. 
 
 The American Government does not belong to any class 
 of men. As a matter of fact, it is a government of the 
 people, and is intended to be only incidentally beneficial to 
 those who are in office. For some time past it has appeared 
 that the opposite theory and practice were about to prevail ; 
 that the government is intended to be a government of the 
 office-holders, and only incidentally beneficial to the people.
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 Against the latter principle the Chicago Convention planted 
 itself defiantly, victoriously. In that body the officials 
 were, as a rule, determined to compass the defeat of him 
 who, in the end, proved to be too strong for their battalion. 
 The office-holder who favored the nomination of Elaine was 
 a bird as rare as his plumage was fair. Doubtless the Re- 
 publican candidate is himself a politician, skilled in all the 
 tactics which may be suggested by profound originality and 
 varied experience. Doubtless, too, he has long held office, 
 and is well acquainted with, the ways by which the office 
 once gained is kept. Still the fact stands as before, that 
 Mr. Elaine was the people's man at Chicago, and that the 
 office-holders of the country were against him almost to a 
 unit. The people for once won the battle, and the victory 
 has become in some sort a pledge and vindication of the 
 principle that the offices of the Republic do not belong of 
 prescriptive right to the occupants. 
 
 In the third place, the nomination of Elaine marks the 
 reappearance of civic abilities in the high places of the 
 Nation. It was inevitable that the Civil War should trans- 
 mit to the American people a vast array of military talent 
 and reputation, not specially distinguished for skill in the 
 management of the state. It was equally inevitable and 
 perhaps right, that the people should for more than two dec- 
 ades after the close of the conflict continue, sometimes at 
 their own expense, to honor those who had defended the 
 Nation with their lives by raising them to high office, this 
 without an over-scrupulous regard to fitness. But it was 
 also necessary that in the course of time statesmanship, a 
 thing withal not less necessary and honorable than military
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 heroism, should reassert itself in the conduct of public 
 affairs. It remained for the year 1884 to witness, not indeed 
 the neglect of the soldier, but the vindication of the citizen, 
 and the recognition of his rights to the joint honors of his 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Elaine is a civilian. His tremendous influence over 
 the opinions and actions of his fellow-men proceeds wholly 
 from his abilities as a statesman. Thoroughly loyal to the 
 soldier, his own activities have been exerted in the manage- 
 ment of civil affairs, the direction of legislation. Albeit no 
 soldier himself, he has been the soldier's champion in the 
 arena of fierce conflict, and has won for the defenders of the 
 Union victories almost as renowned as those which they 
 themselves achieved in the bloody field of war. 
 
 The Republican candidate for the Presidency has a tre- 
 mendous hold upon the affections of his party friends. He 
 is popular. It is not to be denied or overlooked that his 
 positive and aggressive spirit has aroused the antagonism of 
 not a few prominent men in the ranks of his own party. It 
 was impossible that he should not do so ; but it is very 
 hard for any one to say that he does not hold Elaine in 
 high respect. Jfot only Republicans, but Democrats as well, 
 have as a general rule been constrained to acknowledge 
 this the sterling qualities of the Chicago nominee and his 
 great strength with the people. It was the peculiarity of 
 the Democratic notices of the result at Chicago that very 
 few underrated the powerful ticket which the Republicans 
 had put into the field. This sentiment may well be illus- 
 trated in the following extract from the leading editorial in 
 the Cincinnati Enquirer of the 7th of June :
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 " The idol of the Republican masses has achieved a most decis- 
 ive victory. The politicians, tricksters, manipulators, and profes- 
 sional schemers for power and place have been overthrown, and 
 the man of the people chosen. 
 
 "James G. Blaine was not born with a silver spoon in his 
 mouth. As a boy he was compelled to battle with poverty, and in 
 the hand-to-hand struggle with life had to push aside the arro- 
 gance which wealth invariably begets and wears. As a young man, 
 he was compelled to be the tutor instead of the spoiled and pam- 
 pered pupil. When he dared to enter political life, he was met by 
 that rascality which wealth is too often the parent of. But Mr. 
 Blaine always maintained a steadfast course, and to-day he is the 
 most conspicuous figure and the strongest man in his party. It 
 must be conceded that he is the most capable man and the most 
 thorough master of politics that can be found within the Republi- 
 can hosts to-day. Blaine is a statesman, while too many of his 
 contemporaries are merely politicians. Always the defender of 
 American interests, he will awaken an enthusiasm that no other man 
 in his party possibly could. 
 
 "The means by which certain of his own party sought to com- 
 pass his defeat were of the vilest and most vicious character, and 
 naturally have fallen harmless upon him. To the unparalleled lying 
 of a few of the daily newspapers and the low caricatures of a portion 
 of the illustrated press, Mr. Blaine should feel much indebted. 
 The magnanimity, the manliness and the spirit of fair play which 
 predominate in the American character asserted themselves by 
 awarding the victory to Blaine in answer to the vile attacks which 
 were made upon him." 
 
 Another striking circumstance of the Chicago Convention 
 was that the second place on the ticket was not flung away 
 to a Nobody. In this respect the delegates exercised great 
 care and circumspection. It is known to all the world, that 
 General John A. Logan made a strong race for the head of the
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 course, and but for the invincible strength of Mr. Elaine might 
 have succeeded in gaining the coveted position. By the law of 
 fitness General Logan was precisely the man to name for the 
 Vice-presidency. His brilliant record as a soldier of the 
 Union is happily balanced against the equally brilliant rec- 
 ord of Elaine as a civilian. There is just enough of un- 
 likeness in the men to give great strength to the combina- 
 tion. The "team" is as strong as their coupled names are 
 euphonious. 
 
 Such are the principal sources of interest in the Repub- 
 lican standard-bearers of 1884. Added to these is the ex- 
 citing fact that the pending election is in the very nature 
 of things destined to be a close and hot encounter, and the 
 other fact that presidential elections in the United States 
 always attract the closest attention of the people and a pro- 
 found interest in their candidates. 
 
 These reasons are sufficient for opening to American 
 voters, especially to those of the Republican faith, an account 
 of the lives and deeds of their favorite leaders. 
 
 j. c. R.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 PARTIES AND PARTISANS. 
 
 Value of freedom. Necessity thereof in Republican form of Govern- 
 ment. Laborers and wages. Free vs. pauper labor. Advantage of 
 parties. The Republican party in particular. Protection to American 
 industry A party of the people. Democracy anarchic. The attempt 
 to destroy the Union. The Democratic regime. Responsibility of 
 Democratic leaders. The Party revolutionary. Attitude of the Democ- 
 racy in 1860. What a party is. The present Democratic organization. 
 Americanism and Republicanism synonymous. Should the Government 
 remain under Republican control? Pages 17-32 
 
 Life and Public Services of James G. Elaine. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TYPICAL MEN OF THEIR EPOCH. 
 
 Scarcity of genius. The ancient Greek. Charlemagne. His work. 
 Washington. His character and deeds. Lincoln. His place in his- 
 tory. Henry Clay. His greatness. Distinguished men of the present. 
 Elaine in particular, Pages 33-40 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 
 
 Birth and parentage. Ephriam and Ephriam L. Blaine. The 
 mother. Early training. Anecdotes. Preparation for college. Blaine 
 as a student. A teacher. Professor in military institute. Marries Miss 
 Stanwood. Removes to Maine. Career as journalist. Takes up poli- 
 tics. Elected to Congress. Three times Speaker. Senator. Secretary 
 of State. Candidate for presidential nomination, in 1876 and 1880. 
 Personal appearance. Magnetic qualities. Elaine's vote in '76. Also 
 in '80. The four ballots at Chicago in 1884 Nominated, . Pages 41-54
 
 10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN LEADER. 
 
 Elements of Elaine's leadership. Relations to Garfield's administra- 
 tion. Necessity of vigor in the presidential office. Protection to the bal- 
 lot. Republican lease of life. Qualities of Elaine's mind. Likeness to 
 Clay. Democratic free trade. Elaine's jealousy of foreign influence. 
 Heads the party of progress. Extract from his "Twenty Years in Con- 
 gress." Testimony of a former pastor to Elaine's integrity, Pages 55-64 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 The eighth National Republican Convention. Description of the 
 great hall. The personalities. Mahone. The Clayton-Lynch contest. 
 George William Curtis. Lynch. Kellogg. Phelps. The delegations. 
 The women. Sabin opens the convention. Lynch temporary chair- 
 
 .. His speech. Routine, Pages 65-80 
 
 man 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 The second day. Ladies and Resolutions. Hawkins. Knight. 
 Curtis again. Henderson for permanent chairman. His speech. Shall 
 we support the nominee ? The veterans want in. More resolutions and 
 speeches, Pages 81-90 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 The committee on credentials report. The platform. Evening ses- 
 sion. The nominating speeches. Enthusiasm for Elaine. Ready for 
 ,the crisis, Pages 91-98 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 Fourth day. First ballot. Second ballot. Third ballot. Fourth 
 ballot and Elaine. Uproar over the result. More speeches. Eve- 
 ning session. Nomination of Logan. An infinity of oratory. Votes of 
 thanks, and adjournment sine die, Pages 99-124
 
 CONTENTS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 What Storrs had to say about it. And the New York Tribune. 
 And the Chicago Tribune. The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. And 
 Murat Halstead. The Philadelphia Times. The Boston Journal. The 
 Philadelphia Ledger. The Philadelphia Press. The Philadelphia In- 
 quirer. The Providence Star. And the St. Louis Call. The St. Louis 
 Democrat. And the Washington Republic. And a hundred others. 
 Mrs. Garfield sends a dispatch. The people for Blaine, especially in Re- 
 publican States. Likeness of Clay and Blaine, . . . Pages 125-159 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 Able men in Congress. Integrity and strength. Moral power in 
 politics. State of the country when Blaine entered the House. Ag- 
 gressive men then demanded. Leaders in '63. Amendments to the 
 Constitution. Elaine's early aspirations. Speaks for Maine. On the 
 Conscription bill. "What the government owes its subjects." On the 
 Greenback question. Elected Speaker. His speech on taking the 
 chair. Receives the thanks of the House. Re-elected. Speaks again. 
 Debates with Ben. Butler. And then a third time. Valedictory. 
 The Democrats in power. Elaine's speech on amnesty and pensioning 
 Jeff. Davis. Discusses the Currency question, . . . Pages 160-223 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. CONTINUED. 
 
 Blaine is appointed Senator. Opposes the electoral commission. 
 Antagonizes the Southern policy of Hayes. Speaks on the silver dol- 
 lar. Address on the Halifax fishery award. Advocates the purity of 
 elections. Views on the tariff. Discusses Jefferson Davis again. The 
 use of troops at the polls. Blaine a candidate for the Presidency. 
 Beaten at Chicago. In Garfield's cabinet. Retires, . Pages 224-275 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. CONTINUED. 
 
 Reminiscences of the Plumed Knight. Anecdotes of his school 
 days. His life at the capital. At home in Augusta. Political scandals
 
 1 2 CONTENTS. 
 
 and their refutation. Harper's Weekly in particular. Public speeches. 
 The currency question at Biddeford. Cooper Institute speech. Elaine 
 is officially notified of his nomination. Frye's speech in the convention 
 of 1880, Pages 276-301 
 
 Logan, the Soldier Statesman. 
 
 . 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 Value of biographies. Birth and early life of Logan. Education. 
 Election to office. Sent to Congress. A soldier of the Union. At 
 Belmont. Donelson. Corinth. Vicksburg. Commands the Fif- 
 teenth Army Corps. A part of the " Snapper." South of Atlanta. 
 In command of the Army of the Tennessee. Jonesboro. Flint 
 River. Returns to Congress. Makes his mark. Succeeds Yates in 
 the Senate, Pages 302-307 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 
 
 Outbreak of the war. Davis's treasonable speech. South Carolina 
 secedes. The Confederate Government organized. Logan's previous 
 military career. A loyal Democrat. Resigns his place in Congress. 
 Colonel of the Thirty-first Illinois. Gallantry at Belmont. Services at 
 Henry and Donelson. Wounded before Vicksburg. At Kenesaw. 
 Death of McPherson. Ought to command the Army of the Tennessee. 
 His heroism. Exploits beyond Atlanta. Bravery at Jonesboro. High 
 estimation among the officers of the army. His care of the men. 
 Stumps Illinois for Lincoln. -Farewell address to the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee, Pages 308-331 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IN THE COUNCIL. 
 
 Logan a Republican. Speaks on Democratic principles. His loyalty 
 to General Grant. Advocates placing the latter on the retired list. 
 Opposes the restoration of Fitz John Porter. His great address on that 
 question. The arrogance of the Confederacy at the beginning of the 
 war. Logan's courage. Anecdote of his heroism before Atlanta. His 
 composure in battle, Pages 332-364
 
 CONTENTS. 13 
 
 PART II. 
 
 HISTORY OK POLITICAL 
 
 Necessity of party spirit. Free government sustained thereby. Two 
 parties necessary in a republic. Genealogy of the Democracy. First 
 division of political parties in our country. Federalist and Anti-Feder- 
 alist. Condition of affairs under Jefferson and Madison. The Era of 
 Good Feeling. The election of Adams. Jackson's relations to party 
 history. Van Buren appears in the horizon. The father of modern 
 Democracy. Harry of the West. Van Buren and Clinton. The party 
 in power usurps the name Democratic. Jackson's military and civil 
 career. Puts his friends in office. His methods and principles. Hos- 
 tility to the bank. Van Buren succeeds to the Presidency. Whigs and 
 Democrats. One term of Van Buren enough. The Sub-treasury bub- 
 ble. Brief triumph of the Whigs. Tyler's political defection. Princi- 
 ples of the Whigs. Polk shoots up to the Presidency. Birth of the Re- 
 publican party. Its cardinal principle. James Buchanan. Democracy 
 in secession. The party revolutionary. And half treasonable. Democ- 
 racy, ancient and modern. The party's responsibility for various here- 
 sies. Secession among the number. Bayard as a mouth-piece. Stephen 
 A. Douglas. Career of the Republican party, . . . Pages 365400 
 
 Policy of protection. Its first assertion. Is it retaliatory? Great 
 Britain would keep the American Colonies hi commercial dependence. 
 Various acts of the House of Commons. Jealousy of the mother coun- 
 try on account of our manufactures. Anxiety of the board of trade to 
 abolish all American enterprise. Acts of 1732 and 1750. The stamp 
 act a part of the system. The Revolution, and afterwards. Anxiety of 
 Great Britain to keep our country dependent. We should produce, and 
 she should manufacture. Our rising industry. Calhoun's tariff of 
 1816. Ruin of 1817-20. Henry Clay arises. Tariff of 1824-28. 
 Great Britain still active to keep us down. She becomes the benevolent 
 evangelist of free trade. Sly Mr. Bull. Parliament would fain govern 
 America. Tariff of 1842-64. Robert J. Walker." A tariff for reve- 
 nue only," ............... Pages 401-416
 
 14 CONTENTS. 
 
 OK THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 GEOEGE WASHINGTON. Birth and ancestry. Education. French 
 and Indian war. Washington's marriage. In the House of Burgesses. 
 His modesty. Stands firm for colonial liberty. In Congress. Com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army. His diffidence. Goes to the field Dor- 
 chester Heights. Enters Boston. Retreat across the Jerseys. Trenton 
 and Queenstown. Chad's Ford. Valley Forge. Treason of Arnold. 
 France to the rescue. Yorktown. Washington and the Constitution. 
 Elected President. His administration. Troubles in his cabinet. Un- 
 popularity of his measures. Relations with Great Britain. The Jay 
 treaty. Treaty with Spain. Farewell Address. Death, Pages 417-434 
 
 JOHN ADAMS. Birth and education. Marriage. Opposes the stamp 
 act. A writer. Sent to Congress. Nominates Washington. On com- 
 mittee of Declaration. Sent to France Minister to England. Vice-pres- 
 ident. President. Retires. Old age and death, . . Pages 435-439 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. Birth and childhood. Education. A law- 
 yer. Enters public life. Marries. A Democratic patriot. In the Bur- 
 gesses. In Congress. Writes the Declaration. Secures the revision of 
 the statutes of Virginia. Governor. In Congress. His measures. 
 In Paris. Secretary of State. President. Death, . Pages 439-447 
 
 JAMES MADISON. Birth and education. Early entrance into public 
 life. Services in Congress. Aids in the formation of the Constitution. 
 Again in the Virginia Legislature. Marries. Secretary of State. 
 President. His Administration. Death, .... Pages 447-450 
 
 JAMES MONROE. Birth and education. In the Revolutionary army. 
 In the Virginia Legislature. In Congress. Marries. Again in the 
 Virginia assembly. In the Senate. Minister to France. Governor of 
 Virginias Negotiates the purchase of Louisiana. Minister to Great 
 Britain. Again Governor of Virginia. Elected to the Presidency. 
 Events of his administration. Retiracy and death, . Pages 450-455 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Birth and youth. In Europe. Extensive 
 education. Literary abilities. Esteemed by Washington. Minister to 
 Holland and Portugal. And Berlin. In the Massachusetts Senate In 
 Congress. Professor in Harvard. Plenipotentiary to Russia. Minister 
 to Ghent. And St. Petersburg. And St. James. Secretary of State.
 
 CONTENTS. 15 
 
 And President. His administration. Re-elected to the House. The 
 old man eloquent. Death, % . . . Pages 455-463 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON. Birth and boyhood. Lad of the Revolution. 
 A soldier at fourteen. Battle of New Orleans. Seminole war. Hangs 
 Arburnot and Armbrister. Governor of Florida. Candidate for the 
 Presidency. Beaten by the House Elected in 1828. His administra- 
 tion. Devoted to the Union. Dies at 78, . . . . Pages 464-470 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN. Birth and education. Lawyer and politi- 
 cian. Judge and Senator. Secretary of State. Minister to England. 
 Elected President. Beaten for re-election. Death, . Pages 470-472 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. Birth and education. Enters the 
 army. At Fort Washington. Governor of Indiana. Elected to Con- 
 gress. President. Inaugurated and dies, .... Pages 472-474 
 
 JOHN TYLER. Succeeds to the Presidency. His youth. In Con- 
 gress. Governor and Senator. Breaks with the Whigs. President of 
 the Peace Congress. A Confederate Senator. Death, . Pages 474-475 
 
 JAMES KNOX POLK. Birth and youth. Education. Congress- 
 man. A conservative. Speaker of the House. Governor of Tennes- 
 see. Elected President. His administration. Dies, . Pages 476-477 
 
 ZACHARY TAYLOR. Birth and education, A soldier. In the 
 Florida war. In command on the Rio Grande. At Palo Alto and 
 Buena,Vista. Elected President. Dies in office, . . Pages 477479 
 
 MILLARD FILLMORE. Succeeds to the Presidency. Birth and educa- 
 tion. A lawyer and Whig. Elected Vice-president. His administra- 
 tion. Re-nominated and beaten. Death, .... Pages 479-481 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE. Birth and education. Lawyer and legislator. 
 United States Senator. In the Mexican war. Elected President. 
 Events of his administration. Death, . .'-*... Pages 481-483 
 
 JAMES BUCHANAN. Birth and education. Minister to Russia. 
 Senator. Secretary of State. Minister to England. President. His 
 administration. Retirement and death, Pages 483-485 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Birth and boyhood. Farmer and captain. 
 Lawyer. In the Legislature of Illinois. A lover of freedom. Debates 
 with Douglas. Nominated for the Presidency. Elected. Policy of
 
 16 CONTENTS. 
 
 Lincoln. His greatness during the conflict. Re-elected. Assassin- 
 ated. Summary of his character, Pages 486-498 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON. Birth and youth. Tailor and Mayor of 
 Greenville. In the State Senate. Elected to Congress. In the United 
 States Senate. Military Governor of Tennessee. Elected Vice-presi- 
 dent. Succeeds to the Presidency. Death, .... Pages 498-500 
 
 ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. Birth and education. In the Mexican 
 war. In the Union army. In Tennessee. Major-general. His career 
 in the war. Nominated for the Presidency. Elected. Administration. 
 Re-elected. His tour of the world. In private life, . Pages 500-503 
 
 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES. Birth and education. A lawyer. 
 In the Union army. Wounded and promoted. A representative in Con- 
 gress. Three times Governor of Ohio. Elected President. So said the elec- 
 toral commission. His administration. In private life, . Pages 503-506 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. Birth and youth. Enters public life. 
 A soldier of the Union. Elected to Congress. Senator of the United 
 States. President. Assassinated, Pages 506-508 
 
 CHESTER ALLAN ARTHUR. Succeeds to the Presidency. Birth and 
 education. A lawyer. Quartermaster -general. Collector of New 
 York. Removed by President Hayes. Elected Vice-president. His 
 administration, . , Pages 508-510 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, 511-516 
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES, 517-528 
 
 POLITICAL STATISTICS. 
 
 Summary of popular and electoral votes, . . . 529-531 
 
 Popular vote of 1880 and 1876, .... 532 
 
 Electoral vote of 1880, 533 
 
 Presidents and their cabinets, . . . . . 534-538 
 
 Public debt of the United States, 538-539 
 
 Qualifications of voters, ...... 539 
 
 Apportionment of representatives in Congress, . . 540 
 
 Aggregate issues of paper money in wars, . . . 540 
 
 Population of the United States by races in 1880, . . 541 
 
 Citizenship with a total male population in 1880, . 542 
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GARFIELD, . . ... . 543-560
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 By WILLIAM H. ELAINE. 
 
 " The greatest glory of a free-born people 
 Is to transmit that freedom to their children." 
 
 HAVAKD. 
 
 PARTIES AND PARTISANS. 
 
 FREEDOM is a blessing. In servitude, no race of men 
 was ever prosperous or happy. Life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness are the guarantees of free government. 
 If all men are created equal, then these blessings should be 
 equally guaranteed to all. Certainly, every man, woman, 
 and child beneath the American flag should be protected in 
 their enjoyment. 
 
 In speaking of freedom, we do not mean license. The 
 first is the desire and the pride of the good man; the sec- 
 ond the boast of the bad. It is the just remark of a mod- 
 ern writer that the coveted liberty of a state of nature 
 exists only in a state of solitude. In every kind and degree 
 of union., and intercourse with his species, it is possible that 
 the liberty of the individual may be augmented by the very 
 laws which restrain it; because he may gain more from the 
 limitation of other men's freedom than he suffers from the 
 diminution of his own. Natural liberty is defined as the 
 right of common upon a waste; civil liberty is the safe, ex- 
 clusive, unmolested enjoyment of a cultivated inclosure. 
 
 The fourth article of the Constitution declares that " the 
 
 2 17
 
 1 8 INTROD UCTION. 
 
 % 
 
 United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union 
 a republican form of government." But there can be no re- 
 publican government until every citizen of the United 
 States is protected in every right guaranteed by the Con- 
 stitution and the laws. American slavery so far, at least, 
 as its legality is concerned is a thing of the past. It was 
 destroyed by the civil war, and we have gone through the 
 form of conferring political privileges upon the freed people; 
 but have we adequately protected them in the exercise of 
 these privileges ? Have we placed them in a position to assert 
 civil and political rights equal to those enjoyed by the domi- 
 nant race ? Evidently not. It is true that in many localities 
 the people of color vote, and their votes are honestly returned. 
 In other localities it is only the form of voting the shadow 
 without the substance for the ballots of the colored popu- 
 lation are thrown out of the count, as was discovered at the 
 South in 1876; and in still other places the colored man is 
 not permitted to vote at all, unless he deposits the ballot 
 prepared for him by his employer, or some one equally 
 posted in public affairs. If we seek to benefit the colored 
 man, these irregularities should be promptly reformed. 
 
 The privilege of engaging in remunerative toil is one of 
 the blessings of freedom which ought to be highly appre- 
 ciated in the United States. In this country, wages are 
 high. They are, and they ought to be, higher than in any 
 other country of the world. The reason is, that the labor- 
 ers of this country are the country itself. The vast pro- 
 portion of those who own the soil cultivate their own acres. 
 The proprietors are the tillers the laborers. But this is 
 not all. The citizens of our country are part and parcel of
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 the government. Such a state of things exists nowhere 
 else upon the face of the globe. 
 
 If we desire to maintain free government, we must 
 see to it that labor with us is not put in competition 
 with the ignorant pauper labor of Europe. Our men who 
 labor have families to maintain, to educate, and fit for the 
 responsible duties of freemen. They have sons to fit for 
 the discharge of the manifold duties of life; they have a 
 responsible and intelligent part to act for themselves and 
 their connections. And is labor like this to be reduced to a 
 level with that of the half-fed, half-clothed, ignorant, de- 
 based, dependent wage-serfs of the great part of Europe? 
 America must then cease to be free and independent. 
 Her government must then be taken from the hands of the 
 people ; for t^ey would be unfit to rule, if reduced to the 
 condition which free trade would make inevitable. What 
 would the free traders give us in return for our republican 
 institutions? But it is scarcely necessary to ask. The re- 
 sources of all the world are too poor to afford an equivalent 
 exchange for them. Free trade is inimical to our best de- 
 velopment, to our independence, and to the very genius of 
 republicanism. It should be stamped out of all our politics 
 as a pestiferous heresy. 
 
 The predominant interests of our countrymen are involved 
 in the issue of great and oft-recurring political contests. 
 These contests are always of prevailing concern, at times 
 all-absorbing; and the leading intellects of the country, so 
 long as our institutions shall happily remain free, must be 
 largely devoted to the discussion of questions pertaining to 
 the management of the national government. As the coun-
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 try progresses in extent and increases in population and 
 wealth, these questions are becoming more varied and 
 complicated. 
 
 The necessity for new measures, and for the enlarged 
 application of established principles to meet the exigencies 
 of the times, demand constant action upon the part of those 
 to whom the people have committed their most sacred affairs, 
 and the formation of parties assuming antagonistic positions 
 upon these matters is a necessary result aside from the 
 inducements to division arising from personal ambition, cu- 
 pidity, and love of place and power, which are found mixed 
 up with all human interests. Of such organizations, numer- 
 ously existing or constantly springing up, the greater part 
 are indeed of a local nature, or grow out of temporary ex- 
 citements ; two, however, embrace all the rest, and mainly 
 divide the commonwealth. These great organizations are 
 born of different elements, exist by different means and in 
 a different atmosphere. In every thing of vital concern 
 their relation by principles, policy, practice, is that of natu- 
 ral, unavoidable opposition. 
 
 That to whose principles, policy, and practice we have 
 devoted special attention in the following pages, is the real 
 party of progress and improvement. It commends itself to 
 the people and is supported by them, not less for its stead- 
 fast and unyielding loyalty to the nation for its unwaver- 
 ing support of constitutional and established rights, and its 
 endeavors to preserve law. liberty, and order inviolate 
 than for the ameliorating and liberalizing tendency of its 
 principles and policy. In all that tends to give strength to 
 the Union, and knit together its various sections by the in-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 dissoluble bands of a common interest and affection, the 
 REPUBLICAN PARTY occupies the advance, and proposes to 
 maintain it. 
 
 Protection to the laborer and the producer, to the merchant, 
 the manufacturer, and the agriculturist; integrity and econ- 
 omy in the discharge of official trusts ; the vigilant defense, 
 as against the world, of national dignity and honor; the ob- 
 servance of good faith in all our dealings with and treatment 
 of other nations ; the maintenance of a sound currency ; an 
 extension of the resources of the country by the construc- 
 tion of harbors, the improvement of water-ways, and assist- 
 ance to other means of commerce as the wants of the people 
 demand ; a vigorous administration of the laws ; the separa- 
 tion of the seats of justice, by all possible barriers, from 
 popular impression ; the general promotion of knowledge and 
 an enlargement of the means of education ; the reservation 
 of the public lands for the use of actual settlers ; the protec- 
 tion of every citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and 
 the products of his own hand and brain, these form an out- 
 line of the distinctive principles of the Republican party ; by 
 these and other cognate sentiments and measures it is known 
 and celebrated, and will be known to the remotest posterity. 
 
 It is distinctively the party of the people, and when 
 the personal rivalries and partisan asperities of the day 
 shall have been forgotton, and the mellowing hand of time 
 shall have consigned to the future only the virtues of the 
 present, the positions, the aims, and the glorious achieve- 
 ments of the Republican party will stand out like watch- 
 towers and beacon-lights upon the most elevated points of 
 history, and be referred to and quoted as monuments to
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 inspire, as precedents to guide, another race of statesmen 
 and patriots; and whatever it may now do, the world will 
 then acknowledge the moral heroism of those who, doubtless 
 with some defects and some temporary mistakes, withstood 
 in their day the assault of treason armed and determined, 
 the tide of corruption, the insidious arts of demagogues, 
 and the clamors of faction, and taking their stand upon the 
 platform of the Constitution, defended the honor, the integ- 
 rity, the very life of their country, from open and secret 
 assault, and preserved to their countrymen the inestimable 
 blessings of a free government. 
 
 The other great political division is essentially anarchical 
 in its principles and tendencies. In saying this we would 
 not be understood as denying to the great body of its 
 members their claim to sincerity; for the mass of the 
 people, whatever may be their predilections, and however 
 erroneous their views, are unquestionably sincere and honest 
 in their professions. Whatever the pretensions of their 
 leaders may be, they are practically working to destroy the 
 prosperity of the country, to corrupt the morals of the 
 people, to weaken the authority of law, and utterly to change 
 the primitive elements of the government, precisely as they 
 worked for these ends twenty-five years ago. Had they the 
 power, they would yield to the South its once desired Con- 
 federacy, with all the name implies, provided the South 
 would receive it. These are grave charges, but they are 
 substantiated by the record and by living evidence. 
 
 There is an unhappy and imperishable part of our na- 
 tional history which convicts the leaders of this antagonistic 
 party of a systematic, determined, and long-continued
 
 INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 attempt to dismember and destroy the American Union. 
 Larger ability for destruction was all they needed to insure 
 its downfall. Professing an exclusively democratic creed, and 
 pretending to entertain an earnest desire to advance the 
 greatest good of the greatest number, every period of the 
 dominancy of this party in the government was signalized 
 by wide-spread ruin and distress, as plainly as the smolder- 
 ing pile and the ravaged field ever marked the course of an 
 invading army. 
 
 A profligate waste of the public treasure ; a general de- 
 pression in all the various branches of business and enter- 
 prise; the country without a currency at all equal to its 
 wants; depreciation of nearly every species of property; a 
 denial to the people of their only safe means of securing an 
 adequate market for the products of the soil, cheating hon- 
 est industry of its rewards; a dishonorable treatment of 
 public creditors ; a blind obedience to party dictation, in 
 which the voice of conscience is stifled, and patriotism and 
 the eternal principles of right and justice thrown aside as 
 worthless considerations; a corruption of the elective fran- 
 chise; the civil power defied and the military degraded; 
 countenance and support to organized revolutionary parties 
 acting in direct hostility to the laws, and in subversion of 
 all government ; the basest perfidy toward foreign nations ; 
 the boldest disregard of the most sacred trusts, these acts 
 and consequences have attached themselves to and distin- 
 guished the party which has strangely arrogated to itself the 
 title of DEMOCRATIC as if democracy consisted not in level- 
 ing up and preserving, but in reducing all things to an 
 equality of faithlessness, degradation, and ruin.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Practical errors of individuals or of nations are com- 
 paratively of little consequence. They are of the present 
 and may be retrieved. They belong to history, and their 
 effects become weaker with remoteness in the past. It is 
 the elements native to the character, the ineradicable prin- 
 ciples and tendencies, that are of abiding concern. And 
 these, with the leaders of the Democratic party, appear to 
 us subversive of all correct principles and thoroughly perni- 
 cious. The rank and file of the party are led on by delu- 
 sive cries, they know not well to what; but discerning men 
 can not fail to see that they are, in different ways, according 
 to different sections of the country, practically working to 
 relax the whole spirit of law among us, to disorganize and 
 change the original frame-work and proportions of our 
 government, and under the deceptive name of advancement, 
 descending in a rapid progression to schemes of evil. There 
 is scarcely any dangerously radical opinion, any specious, 
 delusive theory upon social, political, or moral points, which 
 does not in some part of the country find its peculiar ali- 
 ment and growth among the heterogeneous elements of this 
 party. 
 
 They are not content with sober improvement, but desire 
 a freedom larger than the Constitution. They have a feel- 
 ing that the very fact an institution has long existed, makes 
 it insufficient for the growth of the age for the wonderful 
 demands of the latter-day ripping up and tearing down. In 
 a word, revolution with them is progress, and the more 
 destructive the greater the advance. Whenever the mad- 
 dened voice of faction or the mercenary designs of party 
 leaders demand a triumph over established institutions and
 
 INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 rightful authority, they the party rush blindly but exult- 
 ingly forward, and call it " reform." They have always 
 shown themselves ready to set aside the most solemn 
 covenants upon a bare change of majorities. In some sec- 
 tions of the country they have exhibited :i marked hostility 
 to useful corporations, even to the crying down institutions 
 of learning as aristocratic monopolies. They have always 
 been disposed to make the stability of legislation dependent 
 upon the dominancy of a party, and to consider the law of 
 the land v as having no majesty, no authority, no divine force 
 inherent in itself; as not a great idea enthroned among 
 men, coeval with Eternal Justice which feeling alone can 
 keep it from being trampled under foot of the multitude 
 but as derived from and existing by the uncertain sanction 
 of the popular will. And in all this they are not merely 
 loosening the foundations of order and good government, as 
 they did in the act of secession ; they are paving the way 
 or would, if they could first, to anarchy ; then to despotism. 
 Such is the natural tendency of the Confederate notions they 
 fought for once, and to which they are ready to sacrifice the 
 country whenever they obtain control of the government. 
 We are well aware of the serious character of this ar- 
 raignment; but it is a true bill. The Democratic party 
 during the past twenty-five years has resorted to the most 
 desperate trickery that political bankruptcy could suggest 
 to the cunning of the mountebank, the delusions of the 
 stock gambler, and conditional promises of empire to the 
 sworn enemies of the government. Trained in a disci- 
 pline which regards politics as an arena, not a battle-field, 
 and dealing with its conflicts as mere prolusions of arms,
 
 26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and not an honest and serious warfare; bred in a school of 
 absolute political skepticism, where anything or nothing 
 may be professed for the time being, to answer the demand 
 of the hour, they, one and all, leaders and followers, masters 
 and disciples, demagogues and dupes, regard a political cam- 
 paign as merely a game of skill and chance, in which the 
 spoils of office are the highest stake at risk, and when they 
 are lost, Democratic grief is comfortless. 
 
 The great leader of the Democratic party in 1859-60, 
 interposed no serious objection to an unconditional surren- 
 der of the government into the hands of the Secessionists, 
 and our armory, our military chest, and many of our im- 
 portant defenses, were betrayed to them in a spasm of weak- 
 ness and treachery beyond the descriptive power of words; 
 but they were unquestionably devoted to some promised 
 advantage to the Democratic cause. The situation brought 
 about by this treason, this surrender to the slave power, was 
 unparalleled in all history. It bred throughout the country 
 a political pestilence, temporarily enfeebling to the nation, but 
 apparently surcharged with vitality for the embittered fol- 
 lowers of Davis, Vallandigham, Toombs & Co. How is it 
 possible to brand deep enough the infamy of this act, which 
 was so full of woe to free institutions, and so imperiling to 
 the beneficent dominion of constitutional government? It 
 was the murderous devotion of the results of our first cen- 
 tury of independence to the fire and sword of faction, the 
 judgment of traitors, the mercy of spoilsmen. Faction is 
 the proper term. The Democratic party merged itself into 
 secession as naturally as ever the purwiggy merged into the 
 batrachian, and then it found its true level in faction.
 
 INTR OD UCTION. 2 7 
 
 Let us explain. A party is an organized union upon the 
 basis of a principle or a system of principles, and proposes 
 the good of those it represents. Opposing parties differ in 
 their principles, and of course in their measures, but agree 
 in their objects the common weal. A faction confines its 
 aims and objects within itself; "its be all and its end all" 
 is self-aggrandizement. Factions, then, are as much the 
 foes of popular government as parties are its ministers and 
 defenders. The generous spirit of party, vehement though 
 it be, invigorates and warms, cherishes and sustains, the 
 whole fabric of the State. The gnawing tooth of faction 
 corrodes every prop, and exhausts every spring of public 
 prosperity. It venerates nothing whose destruction seems 
 to promise the success of its schemes, and opposes nothing, 
 however criminal it may be, which bids fair to assist the 
 realization of its hopes. Little parties operating within nar- 
 row limits, dealing with small interests, and, of necessity, 
 somewhat confounding public and personal concerns, are 
 constantly in danger of sinking into factions; but the dig- 
 nity, amplitude, and diversity of the elements which make 
 up the character and the substance, the soul and the body, 
 of a great national party, had, up to twenty-five years ago, 
 been supposed to present sufficient obstacles to a general 
 degradation of its objects and a universal profligacy in its 
 means and measures. But such general degradation and 
 universal profligacy, when they once thoroughly obtain in a 
 powerful party of an empire or a State, augur a lamentable 
 decay of public virtue in many of the leading minds of a 
 people, and a coldness of patriotism in its common mass, 
 which, unchecked, must precipitate its ruin. This is what
 
 28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they threatened for the Union of these States, when the Dem- 
 ocratic party, or faction, assumed the position of bottle- 
 holder for the solid South; and had there been no Repub- 
 lican party in 1860, to-day there would be no United States 
 upon the American continent! And we would have had 
 no one to thank or criticise for its absence but the so-called 
 Democratic party. 
 
 It is of interest to inquire as to what this Democracy 
 has busied itself in and about since 1860, and what its po- 
 sition is at the present time. During the civil war, it 
 exerted its best talents to help the enemies and discourage 
 the friends of the Union. Its disciples at the North were 
 the most despicable traitors a country ever harbored spies 
 in the camp of the Union and at the South they were 
 destroying the lives of the Nation's defenders, hoping 
 through their destruction to drain the life-blood of the gov- 
 ernment. Since the war, they have resolved themselves 
 into the old factional condition taught by previous experi- 
 ence ; but having no question of slavery to bank upon, no 
 Fugitive Slave-law to discuss, no Dred Scott Decision to 
 celebrate, no Kansas and Nebraska Bill to resolve about, 
 they have been forced into a mere negative position upon 
 every question except the protective tariff, upon which their 
 partisans in the various sections of the country adhere to 
 every variety and shade of doctrine yet discovered by civ- 
 ilized man. What the real " democracy " of the question is, 
 seems quite past finding out. 
 
 The great plank of their platform is Democracy in the 
 Abstract, not embodied in any system of principles, nor yet 
 shaped into any project of measures, and not even incar-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 nate in the form of any man, since the self- withdrawal from 
 public view of the lamented Tilden. If the factional Democ- 
 racy has its will, the omnipotence of the "popular element" 
 will be illustrated and established in the approaching cam- 
 paign beyond all cavil; for out of nothing it will create 
 something. The right and the capacity of the people to 
 choose their own rulers will be vindicated by the extremest 
 test requiring them to vote for (1), Abstract Democracy; 
 (2), Abstract Availability; (3), Abstract Spoils. If they 
 declare this to be their platform, they will prove the po'sses- 
 sion of more honesty than they have exhibited at any time 
 in the past quarter century ; for, seriously and truthfully, it 
 is all they would have to go upon. And they would like 
 to realize upon this soon as possible ! 
 
 The American flag is the banner of the Republican party. 
 By the Republican party has it been preserved, and its 
 bright stars kept untarnished and undimmed. Through blood 
 and anguish the Republican party made it, twenty years ago, 
 the flag of the freedman. 
 
 The motto of the Republican party is, " JS Pluribus 
 Unum" It is theirs by right of conquest. Without their 
 aid it would have been erased from the great seal. With- 
 out their prowess and good judgment, it would long ago 
 have become inapplicable to the great seal, and practically 
 meaningless to Americans. 
 
 Is there a citizen of the United States who does not ap- 
 preciate the benefits and blessings of our free government? 
 What is it now as compared with its condition under the 
 administrations of Pierce and Buchanan? Then it was 
 weak, timid, anarchical. Now it is strong, self-assured, and
 
 30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 united. From 1852 to 1860 it passed through eight years 
 of desperate feud and faction, and then, weak, crippled, and 
 despairing, it was surrendered into the hands of the Repub- 
 licans. We respectfully request the obliging reader to 
 peruse the history of our country for the past thirty-two 
 years, and then decide whether he wishes the control of the 
 government to remain with the Republican party, or whether 
 he is willing to turn it over to the political executors of 
 that faction which disregarded its covenants and mangled 
 its integrity. 
 
 W. H. BLAINE.
 
 ANNOUNCING iTHE RESULT OF THE FOURTH BALLOT. 
 
 CALIFORNIA AND MAINE DELEGATES EN ROUTE TO AUGUSTA.
 
 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 JAMES G. ELAINE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TYPICAL MEN OF THEIR EPOCHS. 
 
 " Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God, and secret 
 passages running deep beneath external nature give their thoughts inter- 
 course with higher intelligences, which strengthens and consoles them, 
 and of which the laborers on the surface do not even dream." 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 r I ^HERE is a curious sentiment of Lavater, that the pro- 
 JL portion of genius to the vulgar is like one to a million ; 
 but genius without tyranny, without pretension, that judges 
 the weak with equity, the superior with humanity, and 
 equals with justice, is like one to ten millions. We can not 
 look upon a really great man without advantage to our- 
 selves. The more we study him, the greater will be our 
 profit from the observation, from knowledge of his methods, 
 deeds, and results. For us the man of the epoch is the 
 living light -fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be 
 near; the light which enlightens the dark places of the 
 world and the gloom of human hearts; and this, not as a 
 kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary, shin- 
 
 3 JJ
 
 34 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 ing by the grace of God ; a brilliant light-fountain of native 
 original insight, of manhood and heroism, in whose radiance 
 all minds are cheered and ennobled. In the world's records 
 the names of such are few, but the history of some is inter- 
 leaved with the annals of those times called " barbaric," and 
 of the dark ages, and even then they sowed the seeds of 
 that civilization which has fructified in the liberal enlighten- 
 ment of the present day. 
 
 From the era of the great prophet, who saw in the burn- 
 ing bush that which the mind of man is powerless to com- 
 prehend, and whence the first great promise of human 
 emancipation, mental as well as physical, was received, 
 down through all the circling years, through the crumbling 
 of empires and the downfall of States, through the sorrows 
 of war, pestilence, and cruel wrong, as well as sometimes 
 through the brief sunlight of triumph and joyfulness, down 
 to the era of Lincoln, who, for truth and a better manhood, 
 died, not alone for his country, but for the holy cause of 
 liberty to the world, there have lived men in every age 
 who have stamped its achievements and its laws with the 
 indelible impress of their genius. With them success has 
 followed upon the heels of every effort ; steadfast well- 
 doing has brought them renown and the highest favor ; and 
 their names are enrolled upon the register of the centuries 
 in a form as imperishable as history. Their deeds are sub- 
 stantially the history of the time in which they lived cer- 
 tainly the most instructive part of it. How much interest 
 would the history of the eighth century elicit from the 
 reader of to-day, were the achievements of Charlemagne 
 that master-mind who laid the first solid foundation for a
 
 TYPICAL MEN OF THEIR EPOCHS. 35 
 
 permanent system of Christian government and institu- 
 tions omitted from its details? 
 
 He was the author of many of the laws and the ardent 
 promoter of the best elements of civilization. Succeeding 
 to an empire torn by intestine feuds, he checked its turbu- 
 lence with vigor and address, compelled the recognition of 
 national law, inspired a wide circuit of Europe with a com- 
 mon interest and common objects, and led men to pursue 
 these interests and maintain these objects with collective 
 counsel as well as with united resources and efforts. He 
 founded the original of all royal societies and academies, 
 and was the first to combine in one military monarchy a 
 feudal nobility, a somewhat free commons, and a kind of 
 constitutional assembly of States. He is justly regarded as 
 the father of the modern policy of Europe, and has claims 
 which are universally acknowledged to the regard and vener- 
 ation of the ages which have benefited from his doings and 
 his life. The world dates a new era from his wise and be- 
 neficent reign. Insensibly it may be, but surely, his spirit 
 pervades the thoughts and politics of all modern nations, 
 teaching them, by precept and example which can not be 
 too highly esteemed, how best to pursue the gradual paths 
 of an aspiring change. 
 
 The American student of men possesses a higher arche- 
 type of nobility for his imitation than any of those em- 
 balmed in ancient story. It was our good fortune to begin 
 the active life of this government under the guidance of 
 Washington a man whose highest point of honor was loy- 
 alty to his country and his God; whose judgment was 
 ripened by the most arduous experience in the struggle for
 
 36 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 independence ; whose intelligence was comprehensive and 
 admirably adapted to the exigencies of his administration. 
 Every word of high encomium yet applied to man belongs 
 to him, for in his eyes duty was the law of every correct 
 life ; duty, the upholding principle through which the weak- 
 est become strong ; without which all strength is unstable 
 as water. He believed that the conviction of duty implies 
 the soundest reason, the strongest obligation of which our 
 nature is susceptible, and while " he stood firm before the 
 thunder, he yet worshiped the still small voice." Duty is 
 the prompting of conscience. Washington was a conscien- 
 tious man, and his intelligence directed conceptions of duty 
 to heroic deeds. The auspicious occasion assisted him, but 
 any occasion for the exercise of heroism would have proved 
 equally auspicious. Patriotism, nobility, and soldiership are 
 all synonyms of duty, and these qualities culminated in his 
 life. He was the man of the eighteenth century, as was 
 Charlemagne of the eighth not so much by force of his 
 genius, as by his purity and trustworthiness. He was faith- 
 ful in small things as well as in great. Every talent con- 
 ferred upon him was put to the best possible use. He fol- 
 lowed the dictates of conscience, whichever way they led. 
 " Honest, truthful, diligent," were the insignia of his creed. 
 His best products, as are those of all deliberate men, were 
 happy and sanctifying thoughts, which, when once formed 
 and put in practice, are capable of extending their fertilizing 
 influence for thousands of years, and from generation to gen- 
 eration. But the life of Washington has been so often writ- 
 ten that it is unnecessary in this place to refer to it further 
 than to point out the thorough conscientiousness, the self-
 
 TYPICAL MEN OF THEIR EPOCHS. 37 
 
 sacrificing spirit, the purity of motive with which he entered 
 upon and carried out to completion the liberation and inde- 
 pendence of his country. No man could be more pure, no 
 man more self-denying. In victory he was self-controlled ; 
 in defeat, unshaken. Throughout he was magnanimous and 
 pure. In his life it is difficult to learn which to admire 
 most ardently, the nobility of his character, the firmness 
 of his patriotism, or the purity of his conduct ; but the com- 
 bination made him a man of divine temper, and "take him 
 for all in all," it is not to be expected that we shall look 
 upon his like again. 
 
 Lincoln was of another, but not less heroic mold. His 
 greatness was morally gigantic and unexplainable. 
 
 "Ev'n to the dullest peasant standing by, 
 Who fasten'd still on him a wondering eye, 
 He seem'd the master-spirit of the land." 
 
 He was incomparable, and his character and achievements 
 more difficult of analysis than those of any American in 
 history. The great charms of the man were his honesty, 
 geniality, and faithfulness, and these, thank God ! will always 
 remain the pre-eminent charms of poor humanity ; but we 
 must not forget that Lincoln encountered obstacles, assumed 
 duties, and conquered impediments which were entirely new 
 to every American citizen previous to his time. Difficulties 
 and calamities sharpened his apprehension, and called into 
 activity all the faculties of his powerful intellect. His mind 
 was brightest in disaster most alert under defeat. It is 
 thought probable that Madame de Maintenon would never 
 have mounted a throne had not her cradle been rocked in a 
 prison. So with hundreds who have risen to greatness. 
 
 461443
 
 38 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 There was needed something in their path to surmount be- 
 fore they could rise to the gaze of the world. Difficulties 
 are a mere stimulus to men like Lincoln, supplying the disci- 
 pline which greatly assists their onward and upward course. 
 He, like thousands of great men before him, was a disciple 
 of Plato, but, perhaps, unconsciously so ; at any rate, he fol- 
 lowed the advice of that wonderful philosopher, " Let men 
 of all ranks, whether they are successful or unsuccessful, 
 whether they triumph or not, let them do their duty and 
 rest satisfied." But the qualities of the man most difficult 
 of analysis were those which compelled the admiration and 
 respect of the civilized world; which conquered the preju- 
 dices of political opponents, and commanded the love of all 
 who knew him personally. Said a Virginian, who had 
 called upon him at the prompting of idle curiosity : " I be- 
 lieve he is the greatest man in the world. When I went 
 there I expected to find a fellow to make fun of, but I 'm 
 the one to laugh at. He knows more about my State than 
 I do, and I was born in Old Virginia, and thought I knew 
 all about her. When I told him I was a Democrat, he 
 smiled and said some of his best friends were troubled with 
 the same disease, but he supposed they could n't help it. 
 After it had run its course he thought they would come out 
 all right, if they lived. We had a hearty laugh, and he asked 
 me to call whenever I came to Washington. I tell you, if 
 all radicals were like him, I 'd be one myself." 
 
 This incident appears simple in the reading, but it illus- 
 trates the power of Lincoln over every mind with which 
 he came in contact. And this is the power no one has 
 yet attempted to analyze, although some observers call it
 
 TYPICAL MEN OF THEIR EPOCHS. 39 
 
 " personal magnetism," and seem content without explana- 
 tion. It was possessed in a large degree by Henry Clay, 
 and attracted the people toward him like the obedient steel 
 which turns "forever to the pole. Garfield had the same 
 power in a degree which remains a wonder to his friends ; 
 and Elaine is endowed with it beyond precedent or example. 
 It is the magnetism if that is the proper term of intel- 
 lectual supremacy; the regality of mind which is apparent 
 to the world, but of which the possessor is unconscious; 
 which can not result from instruction, but is self-creative, 
 and springs up under every disadvantage. It works its sol- 
 itary but irresistible way through all obstacles, while nature 
 seems to delight in disappointing the assiduities of art, with 
 which it would rear dullness to maturity ; and to glory in the 
 vigor and luxuriance of her chance productions. She scat- 
 ters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some may 
 perish among the stony places of the world, and some may 
 be choked by the thorns and brambles of early adversity, 
 yet others will now and then strike root even in the clefts 
 of the rock, struggle bravely up into the sunshine, and 
 spread over their sterile birthplace all the beauties of vege- 
 tation. Although genius may be conscious of its advan- 
 tages, in minds like those referred to it is rarely aware 
 of superiority to associate minds; and its achievements 
 which others celebrate are frequently but its ordinary per- 
 formances. 
 
 Charlemagne was born for the glory of his country; 
 Washington, Jefferson, Clay, Webster, Lincoln, Grant, Gar- 
 field, and Blaine for the glory of theirs. These names are 
 used to typify the qualities of mind and heart we are cele-
 
 40 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 brating ; not to distinguish them above all others who have 
 lived; for hundreds who have blessed the world are equally 
 deserving of praise. One of these great names is just now 
 in the mouths of all the people, and it brings " smooth com- 
 fort" to such a multitude, that we shall devote to the his- 
 tory and qualities of its honored bearer several of the suc- 
 ceeding chapters of this work.
 
 JAMES GILLESP1E ELAINE. 41 
 
 CHAPTBR II. 
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 
 
 "He is a noble gentleman ; withal 
 Happy in 's endeavors ; the general voice 
 Sounds him for courtesy, behavior, language, 
 And every fair demeanor an example. 
 Titles of honor add not to his worth, 
 Who is himself an honor to his title." FORD. 
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE, Republican nominee for 
 President of the United States, at the Chicago Conven- 
 tion, June 6, 1884, was born January 31, 1830, in Union 
 Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. 
 
 His boyhood years were spent in Washington County, 
 where many reminiscences of the lad are now extant, and 
 where the elderly gossips have suddenly awakened to an 
 appreciation of his early cleverness. The country awak- 
 ened to an appreciation of his great abilities near twenty 
 years ago. 
 
 A word about his ancestors. His great-grandfather, 
 Ephraim Elaine, was an officer in the war of the Revolution, 
 and was with Washington at Valley Forge, with the thinly 
 clad and inadequately fed patriots who were encamped 
 there in the winter of 1777-78, the details of whose experi- 
 ence upon this occasion furnish one of the most pathetic 
 records of the struggle for independence. To the arduous 
 labors and cool judgment of Colonel Elaine as commissary-
 
 42 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 general is attributed in a great measure the preservation of 
 the American forces during the most trying emergency our 
 patriot forefathers were compelled to encounter. 
 
 The father of the subject of this chapter, Ephraim L. 
 Elaine, was one of the leading men in his county, a magis- 
 trate of great influence, and well deserving the title, " a 
 gentleman of the old school." Liberal, hospitable, full of 
 that genial sociability which is so prominently developed in 
 his elder son, his home was the gathering point for all the 
 choice spirits of the neighborhood, where the feast of 
 reason was not infrequently followed by a banquet of more 
 substantial quality. His reputation for open-hearted gener- 
 osity was well-founded, and so fully illustrated in his life 
 that in a few years he became a poor man, but his good 
 name never suffered from the reverse. His old friends and 
 neighbors speak of his integrity with veneration, and cele- 
 brate many instances of true Spartan honesty which were 
 characteristic of his life. 
 
 The maiden name of Mr. Elaine's mother was Gillespie. 
 She was of Celtic parentage and a Catholic, but she united 
 her fortunes with those of Ephraim Elaine, a Presbyterian, 
 and found a congenial match. She was a lady of great in- 
 telligence, commanding beauty and quick observation, and to 
 her sterling qualities of head and heart is James G. Elaine 
 indebted for the early training which laid the foundation for 
 his life work. 
 
 Father and mother are now lying at rest in the church- 
 yard near their old home, where a monument erected by 
 their distinguished son marks the place of their earthly 
 repose.
 
 JAMES G1LLESP1E BLAISE. 43 
 
 The early training of young Blaine was supplemented by 
 the village school, where he developed great aptness of 
 memory and. a decided taste for history and mathematics. 
 These were sure indications at this early age of the practi- 
 cal mind which has since estimated occasions and results 
 with so much accuracy, and upon whose wonderful reten- 
 tiveness'many of the sharpest repartees ever made in the 
 houses of the American Congress hinged and balanced. 
 
 An old friend of the family at West Brownsville relates 
 the following anecdote : At the close of a school term, when 
 Blaine was a mere lad of nine or ten years, he among others 
 was called upon for a declamation, or, as it was called, to 
 " speak a piece." He pleaded lack of preparation ; but the 
 teacher replied that he must stand up and repeat something, 
 no matter what. Arising from his seat, he declaimed, with 
 wonderful gestures and astounding emphasis, the Apostles' 
 Creed, which he remembered from hearing it repeated a few 
 times by a school-mate. It answered the emergency. 
 
 Many stories are told of his aptness, his combative tend- 
 encies, his early habits of industry, his youthful friendships 
 and enmities, all of which are miniatures of the qualities 
 which now shine with so much brilliancy in the developed 
 man, whose honest, ardent nature never fails to make 
 friends of those who can appreciate it, and probably ene- 
 mies of those who can not. 
 
 He left the elementary school to attend an academical 
 institution at Lancaster, Ohio, where he prepared for college. 
 Here, in the family of his uncle, Hon. Thomas Ewing, then 
 Secretary of the United States Treasury, he enjoyed every 
 advantage for social and literary advancement, and improved
 
 44 LIFE AND SER VICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 them to the utmost. His preparatory course was finished 
 in two years, and then he returned to Pennsylvania and 
 entered Washington College, whence he graduated in 1847. 
 
 Mr. Gow, a Pennsylvania editor, who was one of Elaine's 
 classmates, has this to say about his school-days : " Elaine 
 graduated in the class of '47, when he was only seventeen 
 years old. I graduated in the same class. We were 
 thrown a great deal together, not only in school but in 
 society. He was a great favorite in the best social circles 
 in the town. He was not noted as a leader in his class. 
 He could learn his lessons too easily. He had the most re- 
 markable memory of any boy in school, and could commit 
 and retain his lessons without difficulty. He never demon- 
 strated in his youth, except by his own wonderful memory, 
 any of the great powers as a debater and thinker that he 
 has since given evidence of." It is not always easy for a 
 youth of seventeen to pass unerring judgment upon the 
 capabilities of a comrade in school. The official record says 
 that he graduated at the head of his class. 
 
 It is said that upon leaving college he besought the influ- 
 ence of Hon. Thomas Ewing to procure him an appointment 
 to some federal office; but the old statesman discouraged 
 this scheme, and advised him to seek a living in a more 
 independent occupation. He adopted teaching, and in this 
 choice we note the similarity between the early bent of his 
 mind and the minds of such men as Webster, Wright, Clay, 
 Garfield, and a host of great workers in the vineyard of 
 humanity. It is the most exclusively intellectual employ- 
 ment known to man, and peculiarly attractive to those who 
 desire distinction in mental work.
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 45 
 
 He secured a professorship in the Western Military In- 
 stitute, at Georgetown, Kentucky, where he remained two 
 years, and was eminently successful as a teacher. During 
 this time he applied himself diligently to the study of the 
 law in hours which did not belong to the duties of his reg- 
 ular employment, and to such good purpose that at the end 
 of the period he was admitted to the bar ; but he has never 
 been a practicing attorney. In the fine logic of many of his 
 forensic efforts the effect of his legal reading is apparent to 
 the critical observer. 
 
 While at Georgetown he became acquainted with Miss 
 Stanwood, a New England lady of distinguished family, and 
 married her. Soon thereafter he removed to Maine, where 
 an engagement in journalism was open for his acceptance. 
 He assumed control of the Kennebec Journal, an old paper 
 of respectable antecedents, but with a limited income. It 
 proved insufficient for the comfortable support of those de- 
 pendent upon it, and Mr. Elaine transferred his services to 
 the Portland Advertiser. But it was not long before he re- 
 turned to Augusta, where he has continued to live for near 
 twenty-five years. 
 
 As a journalist he made a brilliant reputation. He knew 
 the wants of newspaper readers, and administered to them 
 intelligently and promptly. His editorials were not lengthy, 
 but they were clear, crisp, and pointed, expressing ideas in 
 a way to please and convince, without offense, but still in 
 that positive, uncompromising tone that brooks no half-way 
 measures. A great many editors who write what they 
 mean, do not impress the public with the idea that they 
 really mean it, and thus their editorials have no effect. A
 
 46 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 sincere and positive writer opens his heart with his pen and 
 makes dissimulation and doubt impossible. No one who has 
 read his editorials or his speeches will doubt that Mr. Elaine 
 is a very sincere and a remarkably positive man. He has 
 always declared his convictions without fear or favor, with 
 becoming modesty, but at the same time with the genuine 
 courage of the true reformer. Evidently, he long ago agreed 
 with Mrs. Browning, that 
 
 "There's too much abstract willing, purposing, 
 In this poor world. We talk by aggregates 
 And think by systems, and, being used to face 
 Our evils in statistics, are inclined 
 To cap them with unreal remedies 
 Drawn out in haste on the other side the slate." 
 
 No man who does not scorn hypocrisy and pretense can 
 write or speak as he does. No man who lacks the absolute- 
 ness of honesty in his inmost soul can write or speak as he 
 does. No man living writes or speaks with more directness 
 or effect than James G. Blaine. 
 
 The step from journalism to politics was natural and 
 easy. In 1858 he first came before the people as a candi- 
 date for their suffrages, and he was elected as a representa- 
 tive to the Legislature of Maine by a handsome majority. 
 In 1860 his fellow-members elected him Speaker of the 
 House, and it was while in this position that his fame began 
 its most rapid growth. With great assiduity he perfected 
 his knowledge of parliamentary law, and his rulings were in- 
 variably prompt and correct. So much ability did he dis- 
 play in this position that his constituents prevailed upon him 
 to make the race for Congress, and in 1862 he was elected 
 to the National House of Representatives by a majority of
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 47 
 
 3,422. For the six terms to which he was subsequently 
 elected he received the following majorities : 
 
 1864 .". 4,328 
 
 1866 6,591 
 
 1868 3,346 
 
 1870 2,320 
 
 1872 3,568 
 
 1874 2,830 
 
 He was three times chosen Speaker of the House, and 
 served six years in that capacity, from March 4, 1869, to 
 March 4, 1875. He received the nomination for the Speak- 
 ership upon each occasion, in the Republican caucus, by ac- 
 clamation an honor not enjoyed by any other candidate for 
 the Speakership before nor since and he never had a de- 
 cision reversed or overruled by the House during the entire 
 time of his holding that onerous and difficult office. He 
 presided with dignity and impartiality, and commanded the 
 respect of members of both political parties. 
 
 He was appointed Senator July 8, 1876, to fill the va- 
 cancy caused by the resignation of Lot M. Morrill to be- 
 come Secretary of the Treasury, and he was elected Senator 
 January 16, 1877, both for the long and short terms, by 
 the unanimous vote of the Republicans in the Maine Legis- 
 lature, both in caucus and in their respective Houses. He 
 was made Secretary of State March 4, 1881, by President 
 Garfield, and held that office until December 12, 1881, when 
 he was succeeded by F. T. Frelinghuysen. Mr. Elaine's 
 public life began in January, 1858; it closed temporarily at 
 the end of 1881, being a period of twenty-four years. It 
 was continuous. He was promoted by the people from one 
 place to another, and he never got before the people that he was
 
 48 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 not elected. His defeats have been confined to two National 
 Conventions of his own party, in both of which he was the 
 undoubted choice of a majority of the delegates from the 
 Republican States. The politicians have beaten him twice, 
 but the people never. 
 
 Fresh in the memory of every one is the fight, hard and 
 heroic, of Elaine's supporters, who sought his nomination at 
 the Cincinnati Convention, of June 6, 1876. Three hundred 
 and seventy-nine votes for Hayes, three hundred and fifty- 
 one for Elaine, and twenty-three for Bristow, stood the sev- 
 enth ballot. Again in 1880, he renewed his candidacy, and 
 was successful in defeating the third-term movement, and 
 largely instrumental in bringing about the nomination of 
 Mr. Garfield, whose cabinet he entered in March, 1881, as 
 Secretary of State. His career since then is too familiar to 
 need recital. His personal appearance is altogether striking. 
 A rugged mien, a face furrowed with strongly marked lines 
 surrounding the mouth, and other features, bespeak will- 
 power indomitable, and firmness unswerving. Sparse, closely 
 cut hair, and full, frosty beard betray the approach of life's 
 autumn. A youthful elasticity of movement, however, 
 seems to belie the years written to his account in a tell- 
 tale Congressional record. His height is nearly six feet, his 
 frame almost colossal. His attire is altogether appropriate 
 to a carriage too manly to admit of any slouchiness, even 
 in apparel. Neither mind nor body is lacking in muscle 
 and sinew. Face and form alike convey an impression of 
 vigor and resolution. 
 
 It is, however, in a certain psychological influence over 
 Ms fellow-men that Mr. Elaine is most conspicuously dis-
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 
 
 49 
 
 tinguished from his companions in high political life. His 
 power flows from his mind and enters the minds of others. 
 Men call it magnetism. He gives off to those with whom he 
 associates and receives from them the electrical currents of 
 sympathy and fraternity. Men are drawn to him. They 
 follow him by preference, and sway to the movements of 
 his will. To no other of the present political leaders in 
 our republic do men look with so much enthusiasm as to 
 the magnetic Elaine. 
 
 The following table exhibits Mr. Elaine's vote in the 
 Cincinnati Convention of 1876, and in the Chicago Conven- 
 tion of 1880, by States. It is specially valuable for refer- 
 ence at this time: 
 
 STATES. 
 
 1876 
 
 1880 
 
 STATES. 
 
 1876 
 
 1880 
 
 Alabama 
 
 17 
 11 
 6 
 6 
 2 
 6 
 8 
 14 
 35 
 
 1 
 12 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 8 
 10 
 26 
 22 
 6 
 1 
 2 
 14 
 7 
 
 21 
 4 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 6 
 10 
 16 
 17 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Nevada 
 
 
 New Hampshire, .... 
 
 7 
 12 
 9 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Connecticut ....... 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 North Carolina. 
 
 Florida. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 9 
 6 
 23 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 2 
 
 Georgia 
 
 
 6 
 30 
 2 
 7 
 6 
 1 
 
 Illinois 
 
 
 Indiana 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 22 
 10 
 
 South Carolina ..... 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Texas . 
 
 Louisiana, 
 
 14 
 14 
 16 
 5 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Maine 
 
 Virginia ........ 
 
 14 
 6 
 16 
 14 
 
 3 
 8 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 284 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Vv^est Virginia 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Territories 
 
 Minnesota . 
 
 9 
 
 Total 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 351 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 20 
 
 
 Following are the details of the ballots taken upon his 
 nomination at Chicago, June 6, 1884, in the most convenient 
 form for easy reference :
 
 50 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 FIRST BALLOT. 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 S5 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 Arthur... 
 
 Elaine.... 
 
 Edmunds 
 
 5 
 
 Sherman 
 
 Hawley... 
 
 Lincoln.. 
 
 W. T. 
 
 Sherman 
 
 
 20 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 9 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 16 
 
 5i 
 
 
 2* 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 9 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 28 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 95 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Michigan ........- 
 
 26 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 9 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 (5 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 NBW Jersey 
 
 18 
 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 ^few York 
 
 72 
 
 31 
 
 28 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 9? 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ohio 
 
 46 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 11 
 
 47 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 24 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Texas 
 
 26 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Virginia 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 99 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 District of Columbia, .... 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Utah 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 820 
 
 278 
 
 334J 
 
 93 
 
 63 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Whole number of votes cast, 818.
 
 CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 
 
 GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN. 
 
 GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 
 
 JAMES G. ELAINE. 
 
 CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 
 Republican Convention, Chicago, 1884.
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 
 
 51 
 
 SECOND BALLOT. 
 
 STATES AND TEKKITORIES. 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 Arthur ... 
 
 Elaine.... 
 
 Edmunds 
 
 a 
 
 Sherman 
 
 Hawley .. 
 
 Lincoln.. 
 
 %* 
 a> 
 
 9 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 20 
 14 
 16 
 6 
 12 
 6 
 8 
 24 
 44 
 30 
 26 
 18 
 26 
 16 
 12 
 16 
 28 
 26 
 14 
 18 
 32 
 10 
 6 
 8 
 18 
 72 
 22 
 46 
 6 
 60 
 8 
 18 
 24 
 26 
 8 
 24 
 12 
 22 
 
 17 
 3 
 
 2 
 11 
 16 
 6 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Colorado, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 1 
 7 
 24 
 1 
 9 
 
 2 
 17 
 9 
 
 4 
 3 
 4 
 
 1 
 17 
 10 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 17 
 16 
 11 
 
 21 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Florida, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 3 
 18 
 26 
 13 
 5 
 4 
 12 
 12 
 1 
 15 
 7 
 1 
 7 
 8 
 6 
 
 9 
 28 
 3 
 23 
 6 
 47 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 11 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 Indiana, 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 Iowa, 
 
 
 
 
 Kansas 
 
 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 . . 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 24 
 5 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Michigan, 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Minnesota, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Nebraska, 
 
 
 
 
 Nevada, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 New Hampshire, 
 
 3 
 6 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 New York 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 North Carolina, 
 
 Ohio 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 Oregon 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tennessee . 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Texas, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 AVest Virginia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 District of Columbia 
 
 
 1 
 ? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Idaho, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Utah . . 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total vote 
 
 820 
 
 
 
 85 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 276 
 
 349 
 
 62 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 Whole number of votes cast, 818.
 
 52 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 THIRD BALLOT. 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 No.Votes 
 
 Arthur.... 
 
 Blaine 
 
 Edmunds 
 
 f 
 
 Sherman 
 
 Hawley... 
 
 Lincoln... 
 
 W. T. 
 Sherman 
 
 
 20 
 14 
 16 
 6 
 12 
 6 
 8 
 24 
 
 17 
 3 
 
 2 
 11 
 16 
 6 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alabama, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 24 
 
 5 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Florida, 
 Georgia, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 44 
 30 
 6 
 
 1 
 10 
 
 o 
 
 18 
 fi 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 26 
 16 
 12 
 
 16 
 9 
 
 15 
 6 
 4 
 I 9 
 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 28 
 26 
 14 
 18 
 32 
 10 
 6 
 8 
 18 
 72 
 22 
 46 
 6 
 GO 
 8 
 18 
 24 
 26 
 8 
 24 
 
 4 
 3 
 4 
 2 
 
 lo- 
 ll 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 32 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 17 
 11 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 1 
 
 18 
 7 
 1 
 12 
 10 
 6 
 
 11 
 28 
 4 
 25 
 6 
 50 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 24 
 3 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ohjo 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tennessee, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Texas, 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 West Virginia, 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 f) 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Idaho, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Montana, 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wyoming, 
 
 c 
 
 <i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals, 
 
 820 274 
 
 3751 69j 53 
 
 25 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 Whole number of votes cast, 819.
 
 ROBERT T. LINCOLN. 
 
 GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 
 
 GEN. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY 
 
 JOHN SHERMAN. 
 
 CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 
 Republican Convention, Chicago, 1884.
 
 JAMES GILLESPIE ELAINE. 
 
 53 
 
 FOURTH BALLOT. 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 No. Votes. 
 
 Arthur.... 
 
 Blalne 
 
 Edmunds 
 
 1 
 
 Hawley. . 
 
 'Lincoln .. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 *>o 
 
 I 9 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 California 
 
 16 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 Colorado 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 1?, 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 Florida 
 
 g 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 Georgia 
 
 'M 
 
 94 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Illinois 
 
 44 
 
 1 
 
 34 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Indiana . ........ 
 
 so 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 9 6 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kansas .... . 
 
 18 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 9 6 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maine 
 
 I 9 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maryland 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 Michigan 
 
 9 6 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 14 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 Missouri ............... 
 
 33 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nebraska^ 
 
 10 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nevada 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 New Hampshire ........... 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 18 
 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 New York 
 
 79 
 
 SO 
 
 29 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 99 
 
 I 9 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Ohio, 
 
 46 
 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oregon 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pennsylvania ........... 
 
 60 
 
 8 
 
 51 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 94 
 
 I 9 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 Texas 
 
 9 6 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vermont . 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 ?4 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ~\ e > 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 "Wisconsin 
 
 99 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arizona, 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dakota 
 
 9 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Idaho 
 
 9 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Montana, 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Utah, . .' 
 
 9 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^Vashino'ton 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total, 
 
 8 9 
 
 207 
 
 541 
 
 41 
 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Whole number of votes cast, 813.
 
 54 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 The nomination was promptly made unanimous amid great 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Thus have we faintly outlined Mr. Elaine from his youth 
 up to his nomination for the highest earthly honor, glancing 
 only at the salient points of his history until we get him 
 fairly before the reader, and purposely reserving details for 
 those more intimate interviews which are to follow.
 
 THE REPUBLICAN LEADER. 55 
 
 CHAPTKR III. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN LEADER. 
 
 " A brave captain is as a root, out of which, as branches, the cour- 
 age of his soldiers doth spring." SIDNEY. 
 
 leader of leaders, James G. Elaine," exclaimed 
 
 A Ingersoll, in 1876. It seemed a startling announcement 
 then ; but now every body acknowledges, and nearly every 
 body appreciates, its appropriateness. He has been a leader 
 of leaders from the moment he stepped out as the vanguard 
 of the Republican party, more than ten years ago, and it is 
 a position he will not be apt to surrender soon ; at least, 
 such is the public hope. The people understand what his 
 leadership means. They know that it means, when the 
 necessary power is secured, justice to every human being 
 under the American flag, to be asserted peaceably if we can, 
 forcibly if we must. 
 
 It means due protection to every American interest, 
 whether agricultural, commercial, mechanical, social, or legal ; 
 not for revenue only, but for the commonwealth. 
 
 It means national preservation, let the cost be what it 
 may ; and arrays itself in opposition to such " entertain- 
 ments" as have recently been popular in Copiah County, 
 Mississippi. 
 
 It means the policy of Garfield, revivified and animated 
 by the combativeness and vim of Elaine. 
 
 What could be more comprehensive and desirable ?
 
 56 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 But the reader will say that the policy of Garfield was 
 the Elaine policy from the beginning. Steady, good friend ! 
 It was the Elaine policy expressis verbis, but not always in 
 action. To be, is one thing ; to act, another. Shakspeare 
 declares that " strong reasons make strong actions ;" but 
 there are too many exceptions for mere proof of the rule. 
 Had he lived, Garfield would have given us an administra- 
 tion with plenty of himself and a goodly sprinkling of 
 Elaine in it, and therefore such an administration as it 
 would be difficult to improve upon; but circumstances have 
 changed since Garfield's decease. There was never more 
 positive need of a strong government in the United States 
 than at the present time. If the object of fighting the 
 South in the late civil war was the preservation of the 
 Union in its original integrity, it failed of some portion of 
 its attempt, and therefore a good part of the point must be 
 gained under the reign of peace. But it must be a strong 
 reign, by a hand that can not falter in the right, guided by 
 a cool and determined head. 
 
 It must protect the ballot, wherever it is and by who- 
 ever cast whether it is a Republican ballot, a Democratic 
 ballot, or a ballot under some other name. Whatever the 
 ballot is, if legally cast, it must be made free to* every free- 
 man, without regard to partisanship, color, or previous con- 
 dition; whether it is cast at the North or the South, the 
 East or the West. This is not only Republican doctrine 
 under the truest and brightest light of Republicanism, but 
 American doctrine under the most ordinary construction of 
 Republican rights and privileges. The Republican party is 
 the only organization, however, that honestly attempts to
 
 THE REPUBLICAN LEADER. 57 
 
 sustain and defend it; and unless it is so sustained and de- 
 fended, it will cease to be, and the party will cease to be at 
 the same juncture. 
 
 It is believed that the Republican party has still a long 
 lease of life, and that its mission has only just begun. For 
 twenty-five years its history has been filled with brilliant 
 achievements, and during this period its annals contain, sub- 
 stantially, the history of the country. In the early years 
 of its existence it sowed some dragon's teeth, at which a few 
 of its weak members were affrighted; but when they sprang 
 up armed men, as at ancient Thebes, and fought the illustri- 
 ous battle of freedom in triumph, the down-trodden of all 
 the world greeted the party as a new Emmanuel, and prayed 
 that its good right arm might be extended for them day and 
 night until the emancipation of man became universal. It 
 was the party of freemen, in the noblest sense of the designa- 
 tion. And what does this imply? The essence of all re- 
 ligion that was and that will be, says Carlyle, is to make 
 men free. Who is it that in this life-pilgrimage will conse- 
 crate himself, at all hazards, to obey the higher law and its 
 servants, and to disobey the devil and his? With pious 
 valor this free man walks through the roaring tumults invin- 
 cibly, the way whither he is bound. To him in the waste 
 Saharas, through the grim solitudes peopled by galvanized 
 corpses and doleful creatures of rebellion, there is a lode- 
 star ; and his path, whatever that of others be, is towards 
 the Eternal. Such a man is well worth consulting, well 
 worth taking the vote about matters temporal ; in fact, 
 the only kind of man worth considering in an age of 
 great deeds.
 
 58 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Such a man was Lincoln; such was Garfield ; and, "in 
 full and rounded measure," such is Elaine. To the calm 
 judgment of Lincoln and the stern honesty of Garfield, he 
 adds an intelligence which is illuminated by the effulgence 
 of reason, and this he reflects upon all surroundings in life 
 and deed. And he has courage sufficient for any emergency; 
 not that courage which consists in blindly overlooking dan- 
 ger, but in confronting it face to face, and conquering it at 
 all risks. He dares do "all that may become a man," but 
 he does not believe in sneezing every time a foreign poten- 
 tate takes snuff ! He has been called the Henry Clay of his 
 party, and this is a title of peculiar honor; but he is in a 
 striking degree a combination of Clay, Webster, and Seward. 
 To the brilliancy of the first he adds the prescience of the 
 second and the liberality of the third, and he crowns all 
 with something still nobler true Christian manhood. From 
 the ranks has he fought his way up to the exalted position 
 of leadership. To him the contest has been what the Italian 
 campaigns were to Napoleon the foundation of, and prep- 
 aration for, his eventual supremacy. The enemies of the 
 government look upon the impending election with the ex- 
 pectation that it will decide whether the Union is to be 
 preserved complete and impregnable, or whether it is to be 
 surrendered to the dominion of the solid South ; and under 
 this view of the situation no one should be surprised at 
 their objections to the candidacy of Elaine. He is at least 
 as strong as that abstract Democracy whose platform is 
 simply an invoice of negatives, and whose great idol of free 
 trade seems to have "fallen with its face to the ground," 
 like Dagon in the house of the Philistines; and the foot-
 
 THE REPUBLICAN LEADER. 59 
 
 prints of the pilgrims to its altar are all reversed, as if in 
 hasty flight. 
 
 This is the. book of the generation of free trade in the 
 I United States: The South disliked the North in the days 
 of slavery, and was jealous of the prosperity of our manu- 
 facturers. For the purpose of getting even with these 
 manufacturers, and at the same time adding some strength 
 to the tenure of the " patriarchal institution," they op- 
 posed a tariff for protection, in the hope that they would 
 be enabled to bring our labor into close competition with 
 that of Europe, which would reduce our toilers to the con- 
 dition of serfs; and then the Northern States would be- 
 come the home of slavery as abject as that under the black 
 "institution" in the sunny clime. But since slavery in the 
 South has been abolished, manufactures have sprung into 
 existence there, and the natural resources of that section are 
 bringing opulence to free labor. In those localities where 
 the best progress has been made, the friends of a protective 
 tariff are increasing rapidly, and the day may not be very far 
 distant when the Southland will send up a plea for protection 
 to her industries, quite as eloquent, fully as logical, and doubt- 
 less in every point as convincing, as was ever any similar pe- 
 tition from New England or Pennsylvania. Free trade in the 
 United States is the enemy of free labor. It tends to rob 
 enterprise of its spirit and vigor; to a declaration of de- 
 pendence upon Great Britain. We are not just ready to go 
 under the colonial yoke again, and it is to be hoped we will 
 be slow in getting ready. 
 
 Mr. Elaine feels less interest in the inhabitants of foreign 
 countries than in our own people. This is one reason why
 
 60 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 he believes in protection to home industry. He is strong in 
 the view that our own markets should be first enjoyed by 
 our manufacturers, farmers, and merchants, who pay taxes 
 to sustain the institutions which protect them ; and then, if 
 there is a demand for the products of the foreigner, let him 
 come and sell under such regulations as subject him to a 
 due proportion of the tax. What is more reasonable than 
 an arrangement like this ? It is not desirable, we presume, 
 to tax our citizens for something we would grant free to 
 aliens. He believes we are a Nation, as contradistinguished 
 from a confederation, and entitled to rank with the great 
 nations of the earth. A few individuals profess to believe 
 that there is danger in this sentiment, and that its assertion 
 will embroil us with foreign powers. Whether dangerous or 
 not, he would be a poor apology for an American who would 
 not assert and maintain it against all comers. He would 
 lack manly dignity and forfeit every claim to respect. Be- 
 sides all this, Mr. Elaine is opposed to permitting foreign 
 governments to gain any additional foot-hold upon this con- 
 tinent. He prefers to have them keep their enterprises, 
 their little schemes of empire, and their pauper labor away 
 from our shores ; but if they have any good, industrious, 
 honest laborers to spare, he is ready to promise them cheap 
 lands for homes, or steady work at fair wages in mechanical 
 or agricultural employment. We fail to discover any thing 
 to criticise in views like these. If the foreigner encroaches 
 upon our heritage, and attempts to possess any part of it, he 
 should be smitten hip and thigh, as Samson smote the 
 Philistines; and it would be a poor specimen of American 
 patriot who would not join in the disturbance.
 
 JAMES G1LLESPIE ELAINE. 61 
 
 There are no apologies to make for Mr. Elaine. He 
 stands at the head of the party of the Nation ; the party 
 of the Peoplej the party of Progress; of Enlightenment; 
 of Civil and Religious Liberty; of Equal Rights to all 
 who claim the protection of the American flag ; and if any 
 one ever proved his title clear to the leadership of such a 
 party, James G. Elaine is the man. He is the man of the 
 Nation, of the People, of Progress, and of all those mas- 
 terly qualities which recommend his party to the public re- 
 gard. He commands the respect and veneration of every 
 true Republican in the same degree that Henry Clay ex- 
 cited these sentiments in the breast of every true Whig, by 
 the magetism of his great, sympathetic heart, which beats 
 in unison with the patriotic impulses of his powerful brain. 
 He is not only a representative Republican, but a represen- 
 tative American ; not only a representative statesman, but a 
 representative Man. Nobody with native sense has the 
 least idea of calling him the candidate of " availability." 
 He was nominated by the people months before the Chicago 
 convention assembled. That convention did little more than 
 ratify the people's choice, and make a platform which re- 
 sponds to the people's faith. And now that he is to be our 
 President, let his own words declare the sentiments which 
 animate his patriotism and dictate his statesmanship upon 
 those questions in which he is supposed to feel the strong- 
 est interest. We quote the concluding lines of the first 
 volume of his " Twenty Years in Congress : " 
 
 "This brief history of the spirit rather than the events 
 which characterized the foreign relations of the United 
 States during the civil war, has been undertaken with no
 
 62 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 desire to revive the feelings of burning indignation which 
 they provoked, or to prolong the discussion of the angry 
 questions to which they gave rise. The relations of nations 
 are not and should not be governed by sentiment. The interest 
 and ambition of States, like those of men, will disturb the 
 moral sense and incline to one side or the other the strict 
 balance of impartial justice. New days bring new issues, 
 and old passions are unsafe counselors. Twenty years 
 have gone by. England has paid the cost of her mistake. 
 The Republic of Mexico has seen the fame and the fortunes 
 of the emperors who sought her conquest sink suddenly 
 as into the pits which they themselves had digged for their 
 victims and the Republic of the United States has come 
 out of her long and bitter struggle so strong that never 
 again will she afford the temptation or the opportunity of 
 unfriendly governments to strike at her National life. Let 
 the past be the past, but let it be the past with all the in- 
 struction and the warning of its experience. 
 
 "The future safety of these continents rests upon the 
 strength and maintenance of the Union, for had dissolution 
 been possible, events have shown with what small regard 
 the interests or the honor of either of the belligerents would 
 have been treated. It has been taught to the smaller re- 
 publics that if this strength be shattered, they will be the 
 spoil of foreign arms and the dependent provinces again of 
 foreign monarchs. When this contest was over, the day of 
 immaturity had past, and the United States stood before the 
 world a great and permanent Power. That Power can 
 afford to bury all resentments. Tranquil at home, devel- 
 oping its inexhaustible resources with a rapidity and sue-
 
 THE REPUBLICAN LEADER. 63 
 
 cess unknown in history, bound in sincere friendship, and 
 beyond the possibility of hostile rivalry with the other re- 
 publics of the continents, standing midway between Asia 
 and Europe, a power on the Pacific as well as on the 
 Atlantic, with no temptation to intermeddle in the ques- 
 tions which disturb the Old World, the Republic of the 
 United States desires to live in amicable relation with all 
 peoples, demanding only the abstinence of foreign intervention 
 in the development of that policy which her political creed, 
 her territorial extent, and the close and cordial neighbor- 
 hood of kindred governments, have made the essential rule 
 of her national life." 
 
 So long as other nations behave themselves, we propose 
 to treat them right; when they misbehave, they may ex- 
 pect us to chastise them more in sorrow than in anger, 
 perhaps, but in a way they will not forget. 
 
 A few Republicans have conceived the idea that this is to 
 be a defensive campaign, and they are fortifying accordingly. 
 But they may as well come out of the entrenchments at 
 once, and drive the foe from the field. There is nothing to 
 defend in either candidate or platform, but probably some- 
 thing to gain by a prompt assault upon the opposing ranks. 
 Democrats have no fresh powder to burn in their attacks 
 upon Elaine, and all the old campaign bombs were exploded 
 long ago, without hurting any one but their compounders. 
 While we are referring to this part of the subject, however, 
 a voluntary tribute from Mr. Elaine's former pastor, who 
 knew him intimately for ten years (1872-82), may be sub- 
 mitted to the reader. His name is J. H. Ecob, and he re- 
 sides now at Albany, New York. Following are his words :
 
 64 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 "I have been very near to Mr. Elaine, not only in the 
 most trying political crises, but in the sharper trial of great 
 grief in the household, and have never yet detected a false 
 note. I would not be understood as avowing too much for 
 human nature, but I mean that as I have known him he has 
 stood loyally by his convictions; that his word has always 
 had back of it a clean purpose, and that purpose has always 
 been worthy of the highest manhood. In his house he was 
 always the soul of geniality and good heart; there was 
 always summer in that house, whatever the Maine winter 
 might be without, and not only his rich neighbors and kins- 
 men welcomed him home, but a long line of the poor hailed 
 the return of that family as a special providence. In the 
 Church he is honored and beloved. The good old New Eng- 
 land custom of Church-going, with all the guests, is en- 
 forced strictly in the Elaine household. Whoever is under 
 his roof, from the President down, is expected to be with 
 the family at Church. Fair weather or foul, those pews 
 were always well filled. Not only his presence, but his in- 
 fluence, his wise counsels, and his purse are freely devoted 
 to the interests of the noble old South Church of Augusta. 
 The hold which Mr. Elaine has maintained upon the hearts 
 of such great numbers of his countrymen, is not sufficiently 
 explained by brilliant gifts or magnetism; the secret lies in 
 his generous, manly, Christian character. Those who have 
 known him best are not surprised that his friends all 
 over the country have been determined that he should se- 
 cure the highest honor within their gift. It is because they 
 believe in him. The office has sought the man, the political 
 papers to the contrary notwithstanding."
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 6 5 
 
 * 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 ' ' The nobly born are not the only noble ; 
 There is a line more royal, more majestic, 
 Than is the sceptred line of mighty crowns ; 
 An ancestry so bright with glorious names 
 That he who truly feels himself akin to such, 
 May stand before the throne, noble 
 Amidst the noblest, kingly amid kings. 
 He that inherits Honor, Virtue, Truth, 
 Springs from a lineage next to the divine, 
 For these were heirs of God; and we, their heirs, 
 Prove nearest God when we stand next to them. 
 Man heir to these is rich, and wealth may bow 
 To greatness it can cherish, not create." SWAIN. 
 
 THE CONVENTION. 
 
 I^HE Eighth National Convention of the Republican party 
 assembled at Chicago on Tuesday, 3d June, 1884. Its 
 place of assemblage was the large hall of the beautiful Ex- 
 position Building, which is of extraordinary dimensions and 
 admirably adapted to auch a meeting. Some of the most 
 graphic writers upon the press of Chicago supply us the sub- 
 joined description of the hall and the scenes of opening. 
 
 " The elliptical area of the hall in which the delegates 
 assembled, the lofty walls and the rising of the tiers of seats 
 resemble somewhat the ancient Coliseum in the days of its 
 glory; but in another respect it was like the Flavian reser-
 
 66 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 voir on which the great amphitheater was built. It was a 
 reservoir yesterday, and then a modern Coliseum. It was a 
 reservoir into which there began to trickle through little 
 leaks, as it were, from the great human flood that surged 
 outside. The leaks grew into rivulets, and these into streams 
 and torrents as the swollen waters of a river first push rills 
 through the levees, and then, growing in dimensions, carry 
 all before them. 
 
 "And then the reservoir became a Coliseum. The hu- 
 man tides flowed in till all the spaces were black with people. 
 These people covered the level floor ; they surged up and 
 occupied the elevated seats ; they swarmed far up into the 
 high galleries, and even thronged what seemed like little 
 dove cotes above the eaves beneath the roof. By and by the 
 surge of the tides ceased, and there was peace. 
 
 "The interior of the hall is imposing as to dimensions, 
 fairly good as to proportions, variegated as to color, and in- 
 artistic as to effects. There are the blue of the rafters and 
 the ceiling of the roof; the dull red of the arches ; the 
 brown of the barricades ; and staring prominently from every- 
 where the red, white, and blue of flag, shield, and banner. 
 There is no blending of the various dyes with which the in- 
 terior is decorated. Moral harmony amidst such intrusive 
 accessories will be heroic. 
 
 "In time, after the citizens had taken their places, the 
 doors of the arena opened wide, and the gladiators marched 
 in. They were shimmering with decorations, which were 
 resplendent with all the colors of Iris. The crowd recognized 
 its favorites, and gave them plaudits as did the Romans their 
 renowned athletes. The first who attracted attention, and
 
 REP UBLICAN NO Ml N A TIONS. 6 7 
 
 who got a hand from the spectators, was a short, slender 
 man in black, who jauntily swung a soft felt hat in his hands 
 as he tripped along. His hair is down to his shoulders, his 
 face open and smiling, his shirt-front expansive beyond the 
 requirements of the temperature or the fashion. He is the 
 ogre of Democratic Virginia Mahone. He is so light, airy, 
 insouciant, so delicate as to waist and slender as to foot and 
 hand that no stranger would recognize in him the famous 
 leader of the cohorts of readjustment. There were others who 
 were recognized, but the fates were hostile to an entry full of 
 dignity and in which the heroes were individually conspicuous. 
 The procession was hustled in. There was no opportunity for 
 a loftiness of carriage or dignity of personal bearing. All of 
 these were lost in the jam. The contingent from the Em- 
 pire State was intensely respectable as to appearance, noted 
 men all of them, but were so thrust about and intertwisted 
 that they were scarcely to be recognized as differing from 
 the delegates from a Territory or the Far-West States. In 
 time all had ranged themselves beneath the banners of their 
 respective States, and the convention of 1884 was called to 
 order. 
 
 " Whether afflicted by the inharmonious colors, or the 
 east wind, or the profundity of their own reflections, the 
 auditory did not seem inspirited. Possibly the formalities 
 of the opening were too commonplace for them, too dull to 
 excite their interest. The great masses beyond the lobbies 
 had little to say. They evidently were waiting for the real 
 battle to begin. They understood nothing of the preliminary 
 disposition of troops, and did not comprehend that the out- 
 come of a combat may often be settled before a blow is
 
 68 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 struck. Clayton and Lynch did not interest them. They 
 did not suspect that there was maneuvering for position. 
 
 " But there was a lobby that seemed to possess vitality 
 and lungs. When a delegate voted for Lynch the lobby was 
 exhilarated ; when somebody else announced that he cast his 
 ballot for Clayton, the lobby was jubilant. Taking Lynch 
 as the keynote, there was a psean of triumph ; starting at 
 the sounding of the pitch of Clayton, a massive chorus took 
 up the theme, and roared it till the blue rafters thrilled with 
 the clamor. 
 
 " There was a noticeable level, a dead sort of a plane of 
 faces with nothing to distinguish one of them from another. 
 The display seen from the front was that of a floor paved 
 with heads. One could see no bodies, no hair, only the up- 
 turned faces, creating the grotesque impression that the level 
 was covered with dissevered heads. From out these there 
 occasionally shot up a noticeable figure. George W. Curtis, 
 of New York, reared himself to the height of a chair, as a 
 tribune from which to speak. Then there came into view a 
 man of medium stature, square as to back and shoulders, 
 gray, bushy side-whiskers, smooth upper lip, a face as if of 
 wrinkled parchment, and features suggestive of a combina- 
 tion of the lineaments of Wendell Phillips and William H. 
 Seward. His gray- white hair is worn short behind his ears, 
 and nicely banged and parted in the middle on his forehead. 
 He speaks not ungracefully, with great self-possession, and 
 in a voice which has some of the tremolo which comes from 
 overuse. 
 
 "Ajiother figure that came into view for a brief second 
 was that of a substantial delegate, who rose, said "Lynch,"
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 69 
 
 and seated himself in a flash. The face and head are mas- 
 sive, filled out by a full beard and unimpaired headgear of 
 nature's own make. The face is calm, modest, self-reliant, 
 and indicative in its composure of limitless reserves of 
 strength. Such is the pilot, Robert Smalls, of South Caro- 
 lina, whose gallant achievements during the war have given 
 him a world-wide renown. 
 
 "Out of the mass rose, betimes, Illinois's old citizen, 
 William Pitt Kellogg. He has grown gray; his organs of 
 ideality and veneration are denuded of their hirsute cover- 
 ing, and in all he resembles the grandfather of himself as 
 in the troublous days of reconstruction his prow entered the 
 political waters of Louisiana. Pinchback, tall, stately, and 
 swart, responded to the imperative conjuration of Lynch or 
 Clayton. General Carr, of Illinois, rotund, huge-voiced, 
 genially bald, and mustached, came up from the mass of 
 heads, and was cheered for his effort. Taft, of South Caro- 
 lina, rose up and held the audience for a brief minute with 
 an impassioned utterance. Young Roosevelt, of New York, 
 stood for a moment on a chair, and one saw a young man 
 of less than medium size, with eye-glasses, reddish as to 
 hair and complexion, determined in the cut of features, 
 awkward but forcible as to speech and gesture, and who re- 
 ceived a round of applause for his appearance. Horr, of 
 Michigan, small, spectacled, white of hair, a purplish-gray of 
 face, smooth-shaven, gentle and deprecatory as to voice and 
 manner, made himself heard for a moment, and obtained a 
 cheer for his effort. When he voted he was rapturously 
 applauded by his admirers, and seated himself as if he were 
 satisfied that all were serene.
 
 70 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 "W. Walter Phelps, of New Jersey, said 'Clayton,' when 
 he was called on for an opinion and a vote. He is small, in- 
 telligent in expression, quick in motion, and retiring in ap- 
 pearance. He was greeted with a substantial cheer as he 
 took his seat. When Mahone rose to his feet and responded 
 'Lynch,' there appeared to be born a great joy among some 
 of the spectators and delegates. Many rose to their feet 
 and threw up their hats and cheered again and again, as if 
 the millennium had now truly come, and the dapper little 
 gentleman were the one who had brought it. He bore his 
 honors well, and smiled, bowed, and waved his thanks as 
 gracefully as if he were Irving himself responding to a final 
 call before the curtain on the last night of a successful engage- 
 ment. Flanagan, of Texas, was duly recognized, and so was 
 the voting for Clayton by some of the colored delegates 
 from Mr. Flanagan's State. 
 
 "Lynch is a small man, about as dark as a Frenchman, 
 and lighter than a Spaniard. He has square shoulders, an 
 oval face, a good forehead, large, dark, handsome eyes, a 
 coal-black mustache and chin whiskers. He has a clear 
 voice which reaches well out through the vast audience. He 
 gestures little, speaks without hesitation, and it may be said 
 to his credit and that of his race, that, as an orator, he 
 ranks below no man who at the first day's session addressed 
 the convention." 
 
 The following pencil sketch of the scenes at the opening 
 is furnished by another Chicago journalist : 
 
 " The crowd that filled the house numbered between six 
 thousand and seven thousand persons, about seven hundred 
 being females. It was sad to see the number of unoccupied
 
 REP VBLICAN NOMINA T10NS. 7 1 
 
 seats in the lower end of the building, and remember the 
 crowds of people outside who would have made almost any 
 kind of a sacrifice for them. The only people in the vast 
 throng who were not alert were the delegates. They came 
 straggling along in all sorts of order, some alone and some 
 in squads of six and eight. The New York men came in 
 en masse, and were handsome and fair to look upon. They 
 were all fine-looking fellows, well dressecl, and polished, and 
 almost every man was shod in new, French calf, low-cut 
 shoes. They carried themselves like so many Stalwarts, 
 and their very bearing was Oriental. As a rule, they were 
 serious, taciturn, and the far-away look in some of their 
 eyes did not portend the greatest assurance of success. 
 The leader was Mr. George William Curtis, with his handsome 
 white whiskers and blue-edged handkerchief, daintily per- 
 fumed with sweet-pea. He had on his arm Theodore Roose- 
 velt, who bowed right and left to delegates and newspaper men. 
 "The Georgia delegates were modest and so shy that 
 they came in softly, sat down quietly, folded their hands, 
 and looked as demure as though preparing for some relig- 
 ious exercise of a solemn character. 
 
 " Three black-eyed, broad-shouldered Missourians came 
 next, and by the time they had found comfortable quarters 
 all the Ohio men appeared, some with toothpicks, some with 
 rolls of papers, and not a few gloved, and as trim and 
 spruce as so many cadets. The Nevada men were as bald 
 as some of their own mountain-tops ; the California folks 
 looked well-fed and well-to-do; the Connecticut men were 
 nearly all dyspeptics; the Arizonians all strange; while the 
 familiarity of the Iowa men was equally remarkable.
 
 72 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 "Any one could tell that the Virginia fellows had 
 been in some kind of mischief the night before, for they 
 came in with eyes downcast and saw nobody till they were 
 seated. 
 
 "The Illinois folk did not arrive till after twelve o'clock. 
 They looked plump and rosy, and as one of the men had a 
 bit of strawberry shortcake on his chin, it was the inference 
 that they had luncned first. 
 
 " Senator Mahone with a fan in his hand, his lip in his 
 mouth, and a buttercup in his lapel, lead the van. This del- 
 egation moved the house to plaudits, which the senator 
 acknowledged with a low bow and gracious smile. 
 
 " The Rhode Islanders, almost as small as their State, 
 came in behind the Massachusetts people, and about that 
 time Governor Oglesby, white, smiling, and serene, came in 
 through the press door and went upon the stage, where he 
 was seated in the front row. 
 
 "Miss Phoebe Couzins led the way for her distin- 
 guished-looking father, who was trying very hard to see 
 somebody over his left shoulder. 
 
 "As the musicians in Hand's orchestra struck up a 
 march there was a general tnrning of heads, and really the 
 rudeness was pardonable, for the picture was magnificent. 
 There was a perfect sea of faces; faces belonging to beauti- 
 ful women and intellectual men; the house was flooded with 
 light ; gay little fans swayed to and fro wafting the perfume 
 from a thousand fragrant flowers that ornamented corsage 
 and lapel. 
 
 "There were no women on the main floor, which was re- 
 served for the delegates. There were two noticeable fea-
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 73 
 
 tures about this great body of men ; they were all as quiet 
 and as bald as so many babies. The boxes on either side 
 of the house were reserved for guests. The most distin- 
 guished ones, however, had been assigned to chairs back of 
 the stage. 
 
 " There was a little storm of excitement among the 
 leaders when Senator Sabin appeared on the platform and 
 began to rearrange the floral design that some one had 
 placed on the chairman's table. The fair creatures mistook 
 him for Senator Logan, and his heavy black mustache, pale 
 face, and bright eyes became the topic of conversation. A 
 search was then made for Mrs. Logan, who was not found. 
 
 " The entrance of Powell Clayton was a signal for ap- 
 plause. He wore a glossy, well-fitting coat, and his empty 
 sleeve won the hearts of the women instantly. His face 
 was almost as pale as his white mustache and heavy 
 goatee. 
 
 " The female portion of the audience was restless long 
 before the chairman was elected, and doubtless many were 
 disappointed. One young woman wanted to see "the dark 
 horse." Another nearly blinded herself with a poor opera- 
 glass looking for Elaine. She had found, as she thought, 
 Arthur, Conkling, and Mayor Harrison, and, although she 
 carried a photograph of the ex-Secretary of State, had failed 
 in finding the original up to two o'clock. 
 
 " A box full of ladies ' got hungry as bears,' although 
 they had been masticating caramels and chocolate creams 
 for an hour or more. They agreed to draw lots to see who 
 should go out for some sandwiches. The politician of the 
 group lost, and, collecting some forty cents, went off 'to
 
 74 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 the Crawford for some nice tongue sandwiches/ but, like the 
 Three Fishermen, she never came back any more. 
 
 " Girls with tally-sheets and gold pencils grew weary of 
 waiting, and some of them nibbled off the corners of the 
 pasteboard for want of something better. The inconsist- 
 ency of woman was shown in the galleries, where ladies for 
 Elaine wore Arthur badges, because, as one said, ' They 
 were so sweet, and would do for patch-work.' 
 
 "When at last the roll-call was over and John R. Lynch, 
 of Mississippi, was declared elected chairman of the Re- 
 publican Convention they clapped their little gloves together 
 and prepared to be interested, but great was the dismay in 
 the west boxes when he was found to be ' not white.' 
 
 " Mr. Lynch is a slender man of the average height, 
 with narrow shoulders, long head, and high forehead. Be- 
 sides being an easy, graceful, and terse speaker, he is a man 
 of fine executive ability, intolerant of the slightest disorder, 
 but with all his decisiveness and persistency he is amiable, 
 firm, and patient. That Senator Clayton felt his defeat 
 keenly was evident, for as he passed the writer, escorting 
 Lynch to the chair, his face was deathly pale, his hand 
 trembled, and the tremor in his lip was perceptible from be- 
 neath his heavy mustache. As he returned from the ros- 
 trum after the address of Lynch he was greeted by scores 
 of friends. Governor Oglesby and ex-Governor Beveridge 
 reached over the stage gallery to shake hands with him, 
 and even Norman Williams patted him on the back, and told 
 him to be of good cheer." 
 
 At twenty-five minutes past twelve, noon, Senator 
 Dwight M. Sabin, of Minnesota, chairman of the National
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 75 
 
 Republican Committee, rapped with his gavel upon the desk 
 from which the nomination of James A. Garfield was 
 announced four years ago. When comparative quiet was 
 gained, he addressed the assemblage as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Eighth Republican National Convention : 
 The hour having arrived appointed for the meeting of this 
 convention it will now be opened with prayer by the Rev. 
 Mr. Bristol." 
 
 At the conclusion of the prayer, Secretary Martin, of 
 the National Committee, read the formal call for the Con- 
 vention. Then Chairman Sabin addressed the delegates in 
 the following eloquent words : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Convention : On behalf of the Na- 
 tional Republican Committee permit me to welcome you to 
 Chicago. As chairman of that committee, it is both my 
 duty and pleasure to call you to order as a National Repub- 
 lican Convention. This city, already known as the City of 
 Conventions, is amongst the most cherished of all the spots 
 of our country, sacred to the memories of a Republican. It 
 is the birthplace of Republican victory. On these fields of 
 labor gathered the early fathers of our political faith and 
 planned the great battle for the preservation of the Union. 
 [Applause.] Here they cho^e that immortal chief that led 
 us on to victory Abraham Lincoln. [Cheers.] Here were 
 gathered in council those gifted men who secured the fruits 
 of that long struggle by elevating to the first place in the 
 Nation the foremost chieftain of that great contest General 
 Grant. [Cheers.] Here was afterwards witnessed that 
 signal triumph which anticipated the wish of the Nation by 
 nominating as color-bearer of the party that honored
 
 76 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 soldier, that shining citizen, that representative American, 
 James A. Garfield. [Long continued cheers.] Every de- 
 liberation of Republican forces on this historic ground has 
 been followed by signal success. [Applause.] And every 
 contest planned on this spot has carried forward our line 
 of battle until to-day our banners overlook every position of 
 the enemy. 
 
 " Indeed, so secure now is the integrity of the Union, so 
 firmly embodied in the Constitution and laws of the land 
 are the safeguards of individual liberty, so fairly and fully 
 achieved is the past, that by general consent the time has 
 now arrived for new dispositions of the party forces in con- 
 templation of new lines of operation. 
 
 " Having compassed the defeat of our opponents on all 
 former occasions, the party is about to set its house in 
 order and take counsel as to the direction and management 
 of its future course. In the comparative lull of party 
 strife which distinguishes the present condition of National 
 politics, there is observable an increasing disposition to look 
 after the men who are to execute and the methods that are 
 to guide them in the execution of the powers committed to 
 them for the management of the affairs of the Republic. 
 
 "As the result of a rule adopted in the last National Con- 
 vention this convention finds itself constituted by a large 
 majority of gentlemen who have been clothed with delegated 
 powers by conventions in their several congressional districts. 
 On this consideration may be grounded a hope that the 
 voice of the people [applause] will, beyond recent precedent, 
 be felt in molding the work you are summoned to perform, 
 so that its results may be such as to win the unhesitating
 
 REP US LIC AN NOMINA TIONS. 7 7 
 
 
 
 and undeviating support of every lover of those principles 
 by which the party has heretofore triumphed and yet will 
 triumph. [Applause.] 
 
 "When we consider the memories of the past, so inti- 
 mately connected with this city, and even with this edifice, 
 which the people of Chicago have so generously placed at 
 your disposal, when we reflect upon the deep-seated concern 
 among all people in the result of your deliberations, and the 
 various incentives to the abandonment of personal ambitions 
 in the interest of the party welfare, you can not wonder 
 that the committee, and beyond it the great Republican 
 masses, extend you a most hearty welcome to this scene of 
 labor, in the confident hope that your efforts will result in 
 such an exposition of Republican doctrine and disclose such 
 a just appreciation of Republican men in the choice of your 
 nominees as to rejoice the hearts of your constituents and 
 keep victory on the side of our ever victorious banners." [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 There was a spirited contest over the election of tem- 
 porary chairman of the convention. Chairman Sabin pro- 
 posed as the nominee of the National Committee, Hon. 
 Powell Clayton, of Arkansas. Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, of 
 Massachusetts, placed in nomination Hon. John R. Lynch, 
 of Mississippi. This was in contravention of the precedents 
 of forty-four years, during all of which time it has been the 
 custom for the National Committee to name the temporary 
 chairman of conventions. It led to extended debate, which 
 was characterized by considerable eloquence, but no exhibi- 
 tions of bad temper. Upon a call of the roll it was found 
 that of eight hundred and eighteen votes cast, Hon. John R.
 
 78 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Lynch received four hundred and thirty-one; Hon. Powell 
 Clayton three hundred and eighty-seven. 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN. Mr. John R. Lynch having received a 
 majority of the votes of this convention is declared the 
 nominee. 
 
 GEN. CLAYTON. Mr. Chairman, I move to make the elec- 
 tion of Mr. Lynch unanimous. 
 
 The motion was carried. 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN. John R. Lynch is declared the tempo- 
 rary chairman of this convention. The chair will appoint as 
 a committee to escort Mr. Lynch to the platform Gen. Powell 
 Clayton, of Arkansas, Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, 
 and Mr. Taft, of South Carolina. The gentlemen will please 
 wait upon Mr. Lynch to the platform. 
 
 The committee escorted Mr. Lynch to the platform amid 
 great applause. 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen of the convention, I have the 
 honor and the great pleasure to present to you as tempo- 
 rary chairman of this convention the Hon. John R. Lynch, 
 of Mississippi. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Lynch on assuming the chair addressed the conven- 
 tion as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Convention : I feel that I ought not to 
 say that I thank you for the distinguished honor which you 
 have conferred upon me, for I do not. Nevertheless, from 
 a standpoint that no patriot should fail to respond to his 
 country's call, and that no loyal member of his party should 
 fail to comply with the demands of his party, I yield with 
 reluctance to your decision, and assume the duties of the 
 position to which you have assigned me. [Applause.]
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS 79 
 
 Every member of this convention who approached me upon 
 this subject within the last few hours knows that this posi- 
 tion was neither expected nor desired by me. If, therefore, 
 there is any such thing as a man having honors thrust upon 
 him, you have an exemplification of it in this instance. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " I wish to say, gentlemen, that I came to this conven- 
 tion not so much for the purpose of securing the defeat of 
 any man or the success of any man, but for the purpose of 
 contributing to the extent of my vote and my influence to 
 make Republican success in November next an assured fact. 
 [Applause.] I hope and believe that the assembled wisdom 
 of the Republican party of this Nation, through its chosen 
 representatives in this hall, will so shape our policy and will 
 present such candidates before the American people as will 
 make that victory beyond the shadow of a doubt. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " I wish to say, so far as the different candidates for the 
 presidential nomination are concerned, that I do not wish 
 any gentleman to feel that my election by your votes is in- 
 dicative of any thing relative to the preference of one can- 
 didate over another. [Applause.] I am prepared, and I 
 hope that every member of this convention is prepared, to 
 return to his home with an unmistakable determination to 
 give the candidates of this convention a loyal and hearty 
 support, whoever they may be. [Applause.] Gentlemen 
 of the convention, I am satisfied in* my own mind that 
 when we go before the people of this country our action 
 will be ratified, because the great heart of the American 
 people will never consent for any political party to gain the
 
 80 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 ascendency in this government whose chief reliance for 
 that support is a fraudulent ballot and violence at the polls. 
 [Applause.] I am satisfied that the people of this country 
 are too loyal ever to allow a man to be inaugurated Presi- 
 dent of the United States whose title to the position may 
 be brought forth in fraud and whose garments may be sat- 
 urated with the innocent blood of hundreds of his country- 
 men. [Applause and cheers.] I am satisfied that the 
 American people will ratify our action, because they will 
 never consent to a revenue system in this government 
 otherwise than that which will not only raise the necessary 
 revenue for its support, but will also be sufficient to protect 
 every American citizen in this country. [Applause.] 
 
 " Gentlemen, not for myself, but perhaps in obedience to 
 custom, I thank you for the honor you have conferred upon 
 me." [Applause.] 
 
 The further proceedings of the first day's session were 
 wholly routine, consisting of the appointment of honorary 
 officers, the arrangement of the various committees, discus- 
 sion of rules and the introduction of some unimportant reso- 
 lutions. By some friends of other candidates, the election 
 of Lynch to the temporary chairmanship was construed as 
 inimical to Elaine, but it had no such significance, as the 
 subsequent proceedings proved. Unless considered discour- 
 teous to the National Committee, the selection was probably 
 as good as could have been made.
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA T10NS. 8 1 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 "If I am asked who is the greatest man, I answer the best; and if I 
 am required to say who is the best, I reply, he that has deserved most 
 of his fellow-creatures." SIR WILLIAM JONES. 
 
 THE CONVENTION CONTINUED. 
 
 A CORRESPONDENT kindly furnishes the following 
 general view of the second day's proceedings: 
 
 " There was something in the atmosphere of the hall at 
 the beginning of the second day's session quite different 
 from that of the opening day. There was a suggestion of 
 eagerness and expectancy in the faces of all. The audience 
 was charged as if with a sort of moral or mental electricity. 
 The contact of negative and positive points was incessant, 
 and gave out sparks which, while not always seen were 
 felt. There was a charged battery, of which the delegates 
 were the chemical components, \which made its currents felt, 
 now in tingling anticipation, now in shocks which permeated 
 the entire audience. As if in expectation of something un- 
 usual there had been some more flags added, with the result 
 to still more confuse the eye with multifarious hues, and 
 to add still more incompatible details to the inharmoni- 
 ous whole. 
 
 " There were more ladies in the boxes, the galleries, and 
 on the sloping stage. There was a gorgeous bouquet on the
 
 82 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 chairman's desk, one both fragrant and sightly, and by the 
 side of which the complexion of the swarthy occupant be- 
 came imbued with a yellow tinge. The opening prayer 
 was quite as eloquent as the day before, although not so 
 clear an exposition of the political situation. The crowd 
 around the press-table was, as before, three reporters to 
 each seat, with one-third of the seats vacant, and held for 
 some one who did not come. 
 
 " The usual cargo of resolutions arrived, and its charac- 
 ter was duly announced in detail by the patient chairman 
 and partly listened to by the impatient audience. An 
 amendment to the Constitution of the United States seems 
 to be in the nature of a catholicon for all evils, or at least 
 is so regarded by innumerable people. By and by there 
 came a resolution which, unlike all its predecessors, attracted 
 some attention. Mr. Hawkins, of Tennessee, was the gen- 
 tleman who secured the first general hearing for a resolu- 
 tion. It was the same as that of Conkling four years ago, 
 pledging the delegates to support the nominations. Hawkins 
 is rather a fine-looking man. Tall, with a long, flowing, 
 light-brown beard; well-formed, and broad of chest, clad in 
 a tight-fitting black frock-coat, as is ever the fashion in the 
 South, he presented a rather imposing appearance, as he 
 stood upon a chair and argued his resolution. 
 
 " Mr. Knight, of California, favored the resolution in a 
 vehement address. He was effective as a speaker; he is 
 broad, solid, with a good head, a brown mustache above 
 gleaming teeth, and a voice full of feeling, and far-reaching. 
 Conspicuous from his size and the intensity of his utter- 
 ances, he secured silence and universal attention. When
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 83 
 
 with long, swinging gestures he hurled a defiance at the 
 "editors of newspapers," or "great weekly periodicals," 
 there was the first electric shock poured through the audi- 
 ence, and all eyes were at once turned on the seats of the 
 New York delegation. Curtis was on his feet at this allu- 
 sion, and for the first time seemed to have lost his profound 
 indifference. His gray eyes were flashing angrily, his 
 fingers were clinching in his palm and opening nervously, 
 and he presented the appearance of an enraged tiger-cat 
 about to spring on some intruder. When the gentleman 
 from California had finished, the editor of a "great weekly 
 periodical " gained the altitude of the seat of his chair and 
 turned his back to the audience so as to face the delegates. 
 He was evidently a trifle angry ; his voice was deep and 
 hoarse, the expression on his face intense, and the light in 
 his eyes was a blue, steely incandescence. He spoke at his 
 best. The intensity of his feelings was transferred to his 
 words, and the effect was like a series of electric shocks. 
 When he sat down the roof echoed again and again the 
 roars of his admirers. 
 
 " There is something kaleidoscopic about Curtis. The 
 day before, his face seemed made up of features taken 
 from Wendell Phillips and William H. Seward. Yesterday 
 he had lost these, and one could readily detect in his coun- 
 tenance a mixture of Gladstone and James Russell Lowell. 
 Does he shadow forth these men according to the mood in 
 which he happens to be ? It may even be possible that in 
 the eyes of the gentleman from California, who called him to 
 his feet, the editor of a "great weekly periodical" may pre- 
 sent the gleaming and suggestive features of a Catiline.
 
 84 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 " Mr. Lynch laid down his gavel, and his place was taken 
 by Henderson. The audience saw, as the latter was being 
 escorted to his place, a tall, slender gentleman, whose figure, 
 close-clipped beard and mustache, and compact head, remind 
 one of General Sherman. He is fairly tonsured by nature on 
 the crown of his head possibly an unintended but never- 
 theless apropos species of consecration for the duties of the 
 high position to which he has been elevated by the conven- 
 tion. His face is rather a finished one ; there have been left 
 no rugged prominences or undue protuberances ; there is a 
 suggestion of energy in the countenance, but nothing of rude 
 strength or grinding friction. He commenced to read his 
 address in a voice which was hoarse from a cold or embarrass- 
 ment. Those in the vicinity listened politely for a few mo- 
 ments, but finding that they could hear only an occasional 
 fraction of a sentence they gave their attention to something 
 else, and resolved to get the remarks from the newspapers. 
 The speaker took a sip or two of water, and his voice im- 
 proved. It extended further and further from the desk, and 
 soon reached far into the black mass that rolled on beyond 
 the delegates. And now, suddenly, those who had resolved to 
 wait and read his speech in the morning papers found them- 
 selves listening. He began to speak of the men whom the 
 convention had for a choice of candidates. He spoke of 
 what Vermont had to offer, and there was a fair wave of 
 enthusiasm that swept over the audience in the shape of 
 cheers and waving of hankerchiefs. Illinois was mentioned, 
 and the services of her " favorite son " on the battle-field 
 and in official life were hinted at, and the response from the 
 delegations was emphatic in one or two localities, but did not
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 8 5 
 
 make any excursions outside of the barricade among the 
 people. New York was gracefully mentioned as one of the 
 States which is. in a position to furnish what the convention 
 and the party need to win the coming battle. And then the 
 uproar began. Portions of the delegates cheered vocifer- 
 ously, and here and there from out the distant masses there 
 came roars of approval. And then in choice and elegant 
 language he brought up Maine, and eulogized the gift to the 
 Nation which that State is prepared to make. 
 
 " In a second a majority of the delegates, the long blocks 
 of people to the right and left, to the rear, and from gallery 
 to gallery, and from pit to dome, were on their feet, and the 
 grand structure rocked with the thunders of the cheers ! 
 The air was white and black with waving hankerchiefs and 
 flying hats. It was a veritable thunder-storm of enthusiasm. 
 It rolled from horizon to horizon of the hall, it roared up the 
 cloud-banks of people to the zenith of the roof, and as it died 
 away it was taken up and again and again repeated till it 
 seemed as if the storm were without end ! What was most 
 apparent in this tumultuous outburst was, that it was with- 
 out the slightest premonition. It came as unexpectedly as 
 a flash of lightning sometimes does out of a clear sky. It 
 was spontaneous and unpremeditated as is the fall of a stone 
 to the earth when its support is withdrawn. One instant, 
 the vast audience had possibly not even the thought of 
 Blaine in its minds, and the next it was wild with an en- 
 thusiasm which even those who were most affected could 
 not wholly explain. 
 
 " The speaker closed his address, after the repeated and 
 long drawn-out enthusiasm of the people would permit him
 
 86 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 to resume, by an allusion to what was within the reach of 
 Ohio in the person of one who is distinguished as a patriot, 
 and the greatest of living soldiers, and who might be avail- 
 able in case the demand of the States for a leader should 
 fall upon Ohio. There was considerable hurrahing over this 
 allusion to the warrior member of the Sherman family, but 
 nothing so enthusiastic as over the proffered gift of Maine. 
 How far the compliments of the chairman to General Sher- 
 man were intended as a civility to a great captain, and how 
 far as an attempt to familiarize the people with the name of 
 a possible candidate is something which was not precisely in 
 the address. 
 
 " The two episodes referred to rescued the morning hour 
 from any thing like stagnation. The attempt to make the 
 delegates agree to bind themselves to sustain the nomina- 
 tion, whoever it might be, found an indignant opponent in 
 Curtis, who asserted that he was a free man and needed no 
 chains to bind his honor. He denounced the intended move- 
 ment as an insult to every member of the convention, and 
 did it so effectively that he carried the sympathies of the 
 delegates and the audience with him, and placed himself in 
 the very front of the speakers who have thus far obtained a 
 hearing. The Elaine episode shows the inflammable nature 
 of the people ; one moment the vast assembly-room was of a 
 twilight obscurity, and the next it was blazing in every por- 
 tion of its space. To kindle them, as in the case of certain 
 matches, it is only necessary to scratch them on the proper 
 chemical surface. In the present case, the Maine chemical 
 composition seems to have been the one needed to secure the 
 ignition of the masses.
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 87 
 
 "At night the convention was slow in assembling, and 
 still slower in coming to order after the hall was filled. 
 Despite the thunder-storm and the pouring rain, every seat 
 was taken, the women turning out in immense force. 
 The gaslights and the gay colors of the lady visitors were 
 exhilarating, the audience was cheerful, and there were fond 
 anticipations of an evening of sensational enjoyment. The 
 square jaws and resolute mouth of young Roosevelt were 
 detected in close proximity to the ear of the chairman; 
 Curtis was surrounded in one of the aisles by a mysterious 
 crowd of half a dozen ; the gigantic Ex-Congressman Donnan, 
 of Iowa, was seen to be engaged in whispered interviews 
 with some members of the press, from all of which acute 
 observers were led to conclude that the prospects were ex- 
 cellent for a lively evening session. 
 
 " Matthews, of the Illinois contingent, caught the eye 
 of the chairman, and sent up a resolution that 500 addi- 
 tional entrance-tickets be printed for the use of veteran 
 soldiers who might be in the city. The mover then pro- 
 ceeded to describe the condition of the veterans who had 
 come here from all parts of the Union to witness the pro- 
 ceedings of the assemblage. When assured that a ticket for 
 every seat in the hall had been sold, Mr. Matthews movingly 
 implored that the travel-worn veterans be permitted to occupy 
 a seat here and there when the regular owner was absent, 
 and the remainder of the time they could lie about the porti- 
 coes on the outside of the building. Somehow the delegates 
 did not take kindly to the movement. There was a sarcastic 
 motion that the distribution of the additional tickets be given 
 to the Illinois delegation, whereat there was much laughter.
 
 88 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 " The debate over the resolution drew out several speak- 
 ers, but none were friendly save a venerable colored dele- 
 gate from Florida, Mr. Lee, who beamed benevolently over 
 the great audience through enormous spectacles, and mag- 
 nanimously proposed, as there are no veterans from his 
 State, the tickets due the delegation should be given to 
 some State which has veterans of its own." 
 
 The routine proceedings previous to the permanent or- 
 ganization were not important, except to those immediately 
 interested. They consisted in the introduction of miscella- 
 neous resolutions and much desultory discussion. General 
 John B. Henderson, of Missouri, was selected as permanent 
 president, and Hon. Charles W. Clisbee, of Michigan, as 
 permanent secretary. The regulation number of vice-presi- 
 dents and honorary secretaries were also reported. Upon as- 
 suming the chair, President Henderson addressed the conven- 
 tion as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Convention : We have assembled on 
 this occasion to survey the past history of the party, to re- 
 joice as we may because of the good it has done, to correct 
 its errors, if errors there be, to discover, if possible, the 
 wants of the present, and with patriotic firmness provide for 
 the future. Gentlemen, our past history is the Union pre- 
 served, slavery abolished, and its former victims equally 
 and honorably by our sides in this convention ; the public 
 faith maintained, unbounded credit at home and abroad; a 
 currency convertible into coin, and the pulses of industry 
 throbbing with renewed health and vigor in every section 
 of a prosperous and peaceful country. These are the fruits 
 of triumphs over adverse policies gained in the military and
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 89 
 
 civil conflicts of the last twenty-four years. Out of these 
 conflicts has come a race of heroes and statesmen challeng- 
 ing confidence ajid love at home and respect and admiration 
 abroad. 
 
 "And when we now come to select a standard-bearer 
 for the approaching contest, our embarrassment is not in the 
 want but in the multiplicity of presidential material. New 
 York has her true and tried statesman [applause], upon 
 whose administration the fierce and even unfriendly light 
 of public scrutiny has been turned, and the universal ver- 
 dict is: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." 
 [Cheers.] Vermont has her great statesman, whose mind 
 is as clear as the crystal springs of his native State, and 
 whose virtue is as firm as its granite hills. [Applause.] 
 Ohio can come with a name whose history is but the his- 
 tory of the Republican party. [Applause.] Illinois can 
 come with a man who never failed in the discharge of pub- 
 lic duty [cheers], whether in counsel-chamber or upon fields 
 of battle. [Cheers.] Maine has her favorite, whose splen- 
 did abilities and personal qualities have endeared him to the 
 hearts of his friends, and the brilliancy of whose genius 
 challenges the admiration of mankind. [Cheers and waving 
 of handkerchiefs for several minutes.] Connecticut and In- 
 diana also come with names scarcely less illustrious than any 
 of these. [Applause.] And now, gentlemen, in conclusion, 
 if because of personal disagreements amongst us, or the 
 emergencies of the occasion, another name is sought, there 
 yet remains that grand old hero of Kenesaw Mountain and 
 Atlanta. [Applause.] When patriotism calls, he can not, 
 if he would, be silent; but grasping that banner, to him so
 
 90 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 dear, which he has already borne in triumph upon many a 
 bloody field, he would march to a civic victory no less re- 
 nowned than those of war. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I thank you for this distinguished mark of 
 your confidence, and will discharge the duties imposed at 
 least with impartiality." [Applause.] 
 
 In the course of the proceedings the following pream- 
 ble and resolution were introduced by Mr. Johnston, a dele- 
 gate from California : 
 
 " In behalf of those who represent the great and fundamental 
 industry of our country, we demand that agriculture shall have a 
 special representative in the President's cabinet ; therefore, be it 
 
 " Resolved, That the commissioner of agriculture be made 
 cabinet officer." 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN. The resolution will go to the Committee 
 on Resolutions, of course. 
 
 The convention adjourned at an early hour, but the 
 larger portion of the delegates and spectators remained to 
 listen to stirring and patriotic speeches from Governor 
 Oglesby, of Illinois, and Congressman Horr, of Michigan.
 
 R EP UBL1CAN NOMINA TIONS. 9 1 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 
 " Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they 
 discuss it freely." MACATJLAY. 
 
 THE CONVENTION CONTINUED. 
 
 THERE was an idea abroad that the nominating speeches 
 would be made at the morning session of Thursday, 
 June 5th, and therefore every seat in the vast hall was 
 filled at an early hour. But the anticipations of the im- 
 mense assemblage were disappointed. Routine proceedings 
 were the order of the hour, and there was little to interest 
 the ordinary spectator. 
 
 "The unanimity of the report of the Committee on Cre- 
 dentials disappointed many who had hoped to see a fight at 
 this stage of the proceedings. There was a little ripple of 
 excitement and a few not ear-splitting; cheers when the report 
 announced that the Mahone delegates were to retain their 
 seats, and a tolerable welcome in the way of cheers greeted 
 the little Readjuster as he, with a gratified smile, walked 
 down the aisle to his seat. The presentation of the report on 
 rules afforded an hour which tried men's souls. Innumerable 
 amendments were offered, substitutes were presented, the pre- 
 vious question moved, no body could hear anybody else, the 
 aisles were filled with moving people, and the gavel of the 
 chairman punctuated in rapid measure the confusion, adding to 
 instead of subduing it. Finally, there came an amendment to
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 the rules by which it was ordered that no person shall be 
 a member of the National Committee who is not eligible as 
 a member of the Electoral College. This attracted some 
 little attention, for it was explained by the venerable Sena- 
 tor Hoar that it was meant to prevent Federal officers from 
 contributing to or soliciting money from other Federal offi- 
 cers for party purposes. 
 
 "The most exciting occurrence of the morning session 
 was the presentation and discussion of the minority report 
 in regard to the appointment of delegates to future conven- 
 tions. It brought several speakers to their feet, among 
 whom Lynch, the colored delegate from Mississippi, and 
 Judge W. 0. Bradley, of Kentucky, carried off the honors. 
 The latter is a very large but not a badly proportioned man, 
 with a good face, and fairly good oratorical ability. He de- 
 nounced the report as an injury and an insult to the South. 
 He was vehement in his utterances, and by the very inten- 
 sity of his action succeeded in inspiring a large sympathy, 
 which was manifested in much applause during his speech 
 and a hearty round at its conclusion. Lynch was called for 
 by the crowd, although there were a dozen other men on 
 their feet trying to get the eye of the chairman. He deliv- 
 ered one the best speeches of the session. It was brief, but 
 immensely forcible both in the character of its arguments 
 and the intensity and earnestness with which it was deliv- 
 ered. He was long and freely applauded. Mr. West, the 
 blind delegate from Ohio, gained the floor for a few minutes, 
 during which he spoke against the report in a manner so 
 impassioned that at times he was almost incoherent. 
 
 "The withdrawal of the obnoxious minority report was
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 9 3 
 
 greeted with extravagant delight, especially by the colored 
 delegates, who exhausted all possible available agencies, such 
 as hats, hands, lungs, newspapers, and the like, in order to 
 give emphasis to their satisfaction. 
 
 Reading of the platform resolutions was listened to with 
 marked attention, and many of the strong points were 
 greeted with loud huzzas. It is a strong and well consid- 
 ered declaration of views and its unanimous adoption was 
 effected in that matter-of-course style which proved every 
 delegate fully informed in all the details of Republican doc- 
 trine. The business of this day's session was dispatched in 
 a prompt, orderly way, and although there was a good deal 
 of it, the morning session was concluded at 2 P. M. Be- 
 sides the report of the Committee on Resolutions, the Com- 
 mittees on Credentials, Rules and Order of Business, all 
 made elaborate reports, and there was extended diftussion 
 of a resolution introduced by Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, 
 to change the basis of district representation in national 
 conventions. 
 
 The adjournment from 2 o'clock/ 1 till 7, evening, was a 
 surprise to the crowd, but not to a large number of dele- 
 gates. It was announced that the nominating speeches 
 would be made at night, and then it became generally un- 
 derstood that the adjournment had been brought about by 
 influences more friendly to the candidacy of others than to 
 that of Mr. Blaine. It was thought Jbest to have the 
 speeches so late that no ballotings could be had thereafter 
 until the delegates had slept upon their impressions, and this 
 plan was thought to favor any aspirant rather than the man 
 of Maine.
 
 94 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND .LOGAN. 
 
 How ridiculous this pretense appeared to those who 
 were giving it attention outside the convention, and who 
 knew that the moral pressure concentrated in the hopes 
 and prayers of four million Republican voters would pre- 
 vent the nomination of any but Elaine. Nominating- 
 speeches do not make votes in conventions composed of 
 alert and intelligent delegates, such as were here assembled. 
 If they did, Judge Foraker's effort would have greatly in- 
 creased the strength of Senator Sherman, for it was the 
 most eloquent and finished speech of the occasion. All the 
 speeches were good; but among those specially compli- 
 mented were, West's, Foraker's, and Long's, made respect- 
 ively for Elaine, Sherman, and Edmunds. 
 
 The evening session was the brilliant culmination of the 
 Convention. At 7 o'clock the exposition building groaned 
 with people ; every foot of room was filled, and thirty min- 
 utes later the doors were closed. None of the aisles were 
 permitted to be occupied, but up in the galleries every pil- 
 lar was encircled by a score or more men. 
 
 The band played "The Stars and Stripes." All the 
 house looked anxious and ready to have the work begin. 
 The delegates were nearly all seated, but there was no ap- 
 parent restlessness on their part, and the curious faces seen 
 in their ranks defied analysis. 
 
 The chairman was nursing a cold, and ate first a licorice 
 drop and then a troche, and, after a draught of water to 
 wash them down, tried chewing at the end of a piece of 
 oolt's-foot. Back of him sat Senator Lapham, his white 
 hair, round, rosy face, and smiling countenance making him 
 the object of universal attention.
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 95 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt, of New York, stood out in the front 
 aisle with his arm round some Ohio delegate's neck. He 
 listened attentively, pulled his mustache vigorously, and 
 looked out of the corner of his eye-glasses at the ladies in 
 the east box. 
 
 Mr. McPherson, for many years clerk of the House, did 
 the coaching for the chairman, and had a hard time to ex- 
 change pleasantries with ever body who passed him. 
 
 The first speaker, Augustus Brandegee, of Connecticut, 
 mounted the stage and took position at the left of the chair- 
 man. He looked like a little iron war-horse, with his small, 
 narrow frame well covered with a net-work of muscles, and 
 iron-gray chin beard and mustache, and a pair of steel-gray 
 eyes that fairly flashed with fire and animation. He pounded 
 his little, fat hands on the table, and filled the great hall 
 with his eloquence, which, however, was far in excess of 
 his voice. Water was served, but in less than five minutes 
 he was as hoarse as the chairman at his side. And when 
 the yells of the crowd outside were heard he was as red as 
 the badge on his bosom, and the perspiration rolled down his 
 face in little streams. 
 
 When Maine was called, it was like springing a mine. 
 Up to their feet sprang five thousand men and woman with 
 the cry of " Elaine." The storm of cheers raged until it 
 seemed that human nature must give out. Brazen music 
 tried to drown the noise, but the thousands of tongues 
 refused to be overcome. A white plume perched on top of 
 a pyramid of flowers was held aloft on the stage. It was 
 saluted as the insignia of the great commoner. Flags were 
 torn from their decorations, and were dipped from the galleries.
 
 96 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. . 
 
 Delegates whirled around their hankerchiefs, and even opened 
 umbrellas, and danced them up and down. The chair could 
 not, with his gavel, bring about order. But at last human 
 nature did. Judge West made the nominating speech. 
 Some passages were magnificent in their eloquence. 
 
 When he mentioned the name of Hon. James G. 
 Elaine, the convention rose en masse, and such rounds 
 and storms of enthusiasm were not heard in the city since 
 the nomination of James A. Garfield. Men got up, took off 
 their coats, and pulled down the flags and banners that 
 draped the gallery rails. These stars and stripes were given 
 to the ladies, who waved them as long as their strength 
 lasted. Umbrellas were raised, whistles and shouts rent the 
 building and reached the throng out on the street. 
 
 The great staff of patrolmen and police were set aside, 
 and thousands of men and boys scaled the balconies, and 
 not only filled every window, but opened those that were 
 closed, and lent their fresh lungs to the tired throats in the 
 house. 
 
 The ladies at this moment sent greetings to the " Plumed 
 Knight, the champion of the land that above all lands cham- 
 pions and respects the cause of women." The tribute con- 
 sisted of a helmet made of pink and white roses, over which 
 waved a plume of white yak hair. Bands of red, white, and 
 blue satin strings finished the typical design. This was 
 seized and hoisted on the apex of one of the American flags 
 in sight of the yelling crowd. The sight of it renewed the 
 people to louder and longer plaudits, and it was more than 
 half an hour before the sightless orator could finish his 
 remarks.
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 9 7 
 
 Again was the vast building filled with wild huzzahs 
 when the orator repeated the name of Elaine, and the throng 
 took them up outside. Could the popular preference be mis- 
 taken? men asked. Grow, for Pennsylvania, and Platt, for 
 New York, seconded the nomination. So did Colonel Goodloe, 
 for Kentucky, in passionate and brilliant eulogy. Arthur re- 
 ceived a rival demonstration when New York was called. It 
 was grand. But in after mention of the President it was 
 evident that the popular heart was not touched. Townsend, 
 of Troy, made a bad mess of the nominating speech. An 
 attack was made on Conkling that was in exceeding bad 
 taste, and was deservedly hissed. 
 
 In nominating Sherman, Judge Foraker received quite an 
 ovation. He was listened to with great attention. Nobody 
 who heard Foraker could doubt his loyalty to John Sherman. 
 It was peculiar that while the Sherman part of the Ohio 
 delegation refused to participate in the Elaine demonstration, 
 the entire delegation joined in the applause fo v Sherman. 
 Foraker spoke of Arthur. There were a few cheers. Then 
 he expressed his admiration for that brilliant chieftain of 
 Maine. The Elaine fever broke out again. Foraker gave 
 Elaine, merely by an incidental reference, the biggest boom 
 he had had yet. The galleries got uncontrollable. The white 
 plume was seized and put on top of a starry flag, and amid 
 the wildest imaginable scenes it was carried around the 
 center aisle. Foraker conducted himself amazingly under 
 the ordeal. He made a good point when quiet again reigned 
 over the convention, by reminding his hearers that they 
 should not shout until they had got out of the woods. The 
 happy turn was greeted with applause and cheers. 
 
 7
 
 98 LIFE AND SER VICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Judge Holt, of Kentucky, seconded the nomination of 
 Sherman in a good, practical, well-put speech. 
 
 Governor Long's effort in behalf of Edmunds was forcible, 
 clear-cut, logical, and earnest. Like Foraker's, it was an ap- 
 peal to sober judgment. In beauty of imagery, Governor 
 Long's speech was a masterpiece of oratory. 
 
 George Wm. Curtis seconded the nomination of Edmunds. 
 His rich voice, schokrly enunciation, and purity of style 
 attracted the deep attention of his hearers. 
 
 It should have been mentioned in due order, that when 
 Illinois was called, Governor Cullom presented the name of 
 General John A. Logan, in an eloquent and well considered 
 address, which was received with enthusiastic plaudits.* 
 
 At the close of Mr. Curtis's second of the nomination 
 of Edmunds, half an hour after midnight, the nominating 
 speeches were concluded. Then there was considerable 
 skirmishing to reach a ballot, and no little managing by those 
 opposed to a ballot at this juncture to secure an adjourn- 
 ment. Finally, an adjournment was decided upon, till Fri- 
 day morning, June 6th. 
 
 * This speech, and several others which are thought to be important to the 
 completeness and interest of this volume, are reproduced in some of the later 
 pages.
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 99 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 
 "WHEN GREEKS JOIN'D GREEKS, THEN WAS THE TUG OF WAB." 
 
 ' ' The streets adorn'd, the doors with statues graced, 
 Vast thronging crowds retard the great procession, 
 Whose loud repeated shouts divide the air. 
 With garlands crown'd, the Virgins strew the ways, 
 And in glad hymns repeat his glorious name." HIGGON. 
 
 THE CONVENTION CONTINUED. 
 
 TTPON the fourth and last day of its session, the Eighth 
 \J National Republican Convention was called to order at 
 11.20 A. M., by Chairman Henderson. The session was 
 opened with an invocation by Rev. Dr. Scudder, of Chicago. 
 After the effusions of eloquence last night in presenting 
 the names of candidates, the workers arose this morning for 
 renewed efforts on the home stretch. One of the things 
 sought by Senators Miller and Chaffee, Congressman Elkins 
 and other Elaine managers, was to hold their vote for a con- 
 tinued struggle of a hundred ballots, if need be. They said 
 they would be more steadfast than the "Old Guard," if 
 necessary. In this they scored their success. No dilatory 
 motions for recess or anything else could break their march 
 or in any manner demoralize them. They felt their strength, 
 and in the hotel lobbies this morning, while their followers
 
 100 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 were still noisy, the managers were confident and cool. 
 They said they were simply working to prevent the will of 
 the people from being defeated ; that the boom for Elaine 
 needed no motive power, but that they had only to look out 
 for breakers and trickery. 
 
 The attention of the morning session was given to the 
 ballot for the nomination of a Presidential candidate. Hav- 
 ing given the details of the ballots in a previous chapter, 
 only the aggregates are here presented: 
 
 FIRST BALLOT OFFICIAL FOOTINGS. Elaine 334 i, Arthur 
 278, Edmunds 93, Logan 63*, John Sherman 30, Hawley 13, 
 Lincoln 4, General Sherman 2. 
 
 SECOND BALLOT. The result of the second ballot was an- 
 nounced at 1.20, and the increase of Elaine's vote was the 
 cause of an exuberant demonstration on the part of the 
 audience. 
 
 Official footings of the second ballot : Whole number of 
 delegates, 820; whole number of votes cast, 818; necessary 
 to a choice, 411. Elaine received 349, Arthur 277, Edmunds 
 85, Logan 61, John Sherman 28, Hawley 13, Lincoln 4, Gen- 
 eral Sherman 2. 
 
 THIRD BALLOT. The result of the third ballot was an- 
 nounced at 2 .10. 
 
 The official footings were : Whole number of votes cast, 
 819. Elaine received 375, Arthur 274, Edmunds 69, Logan 
 53, John Sherman 25, Hawley 13, General Sherman 2, 
 Lincoln 8. 
 
 The gains made in the Elaine vote, and the understand- 
 ing that the Logan vote would probably be transferred to 
 Elaine, produced another storm of cheering and wild enthusi-
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 101 
 
 asm for Blaine. Bingham of Pennsylvania, William W. Phelps 
 of New Jersey, and one or two colored delegates endeavored 
 to get a hearing,, and vociferated and gesticulated without 
 succeeding in being heard, their voices being drowned in 
 tumultuous yells, cheers, and demands for a call of the roll. 
 Not deterred by their failure, Roosevelt of New York, car- 
 ried away by the excitement, got up on his seat, waving his 
 arms, and appeared as if he was saying something, but not a 
 word was heard from him. 
 
 Finally, at 2 .30, the taking of the fourth ballot was be- 
 gun. Before the vote of Alabama was given, there was 
 another uproar, in which Butcher, Roosevelt, and other New 
 York delegates took prominent parts. It arose upon the 
 technical point that a motion to take a recess had been made, 
 and had been decided by the Chair in the negative, although 
 calls had been made for a vote by States. At last a Blaine 
 delegate appealed to his friends to have the vote on the 
 recess taken by States, and at 2 .30 the vote by States 
 began. 
 
 The result of the vote on the motion for a recess was, 
 yeas 364, nays 450. The announcement was hailed with 
 vociferous applause, as a Blaine triumph. It was a long 
 time before order was restored sufficiently to have business 
 proceeded with. Judge Foraker, of Ohio, proposed to 
 nominate Blaine by acclamation, but Mr. Burrows, of Michi- 
 gan, insisted that the taking of the ballot should go on. It 
 was evident that the crisis was at hand, and that nothing 
 could stay the coming deluge. 
 
 FOURTH BALLOT. Finally, at 3 .15, the convention pro- 
 ceeded to the fourth ballot. The changes from the third
 
 102 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 ballot were as follows : Alabama, Blaine gains 6, Arthur 
 loses 5, Logan loses 1 ; Arkansas, no change ; California, no 
 change ; Colorada, no change ; Connecticut, no change ; Dele- 
 ware, no change; Florida (vote being polled), Blaine gains 
 2, Arthur loses 2 ; Georgia, no change. Illinois being called, 
 Senator Cullom rose and said he wished to read a dispatch 
 which he had just received from General Logan. Objections 
 were promptly made and sustained. [The dispatch received 
 by Senator Cullom read as follows : 
 
 "WASHINGTON, D. C., June 6th. 
 " To S. M. CULLOM, Illinois Delegation : 
 
 " The Republicans of the States that must be relied on to elect 
 the President, having so strongly shown a preference for Mr. Blaine, 
 I deem it my duty not to stand in the way of the people's choice, 
 and I recommend my friends to assist in his nomination. 
 
 "JOHN A. LOGAN."] 
 
 Mr. Cullom then withdrew the name of General Logan, and 
 cast 34 votes of Illinois for Blaine. The change in Illinois 
 from Logan to Blaine made Elaine's vote 414. Mr. Cullom 
 completed his report, giving Blaine 34, Logan 7, and Ar- 
 thur 3, a gain to Blaine of 31, a gain to Arthur of 2 
 and a loss to Logan of 33. Indiana cast 30 votes solid for 
 Blaine, a gain to Blaine of 12 and a loss to Arthur of 10, 
 and to Logan of 2. Iowa, Blaine loses 2, x Arthur gains 2. 
 Louisiana, Blaine gains 5; Maine, no change; Maryland, 
 Blaine gains 3 ; Kansas, Blaine gains 3 ; Kentucky, Blaine 
 gains 3 ; Massachusetts, vote polled ; Michigan, Blaine gains 
 8 ; Minnesota, Blaine gains 2 ; Mississippi, Blaine gains 1 ; 
 Missouri, Blaine gains 22 ; New Hampshire, Blaine gains 3 ; 
 New Jersey, Blaine gains 6. [A dispatch was received
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 103 
 
 from President Arthur by Mr. Curtis, of the Inter-Ocean, 
 saying : " If Blaine is nominated on this ballot have Dutcher 
 ask to make the nomination unanimous, and thank my 
 friends for me."] New York (vote polled), no change; 
 North Carolina, Blaine gains 5; Ohio, the whole vote 
 was cast for Blaine, a gain of 21 ; Oregon, no change ; 
 Pennsylvania gave Blaine 51 votes, a gain of 1 ; Rhode 
 Island, Blaine gains 7 (the Illinois delegation has tele- 
 graphed to Logan asking whether he will accept the nomi- 
 nation for the Vice-presidency, and is waiting for an an- 
 swer) ; South Carolina, no change ; Tennessee, Blaine gains 
 4 ; Texas, Blaine gains 1 ; Vermont, no change ; Virginia, 
 no change ; West Virginia, no change ; Wisconsin cast her 
 22 votes for Blaine, a gain of 11 ; Idaho, Blaine gains 1; 
 Montana, Blaine gains 1 ; New Mexico, no change ; Utah, 
 Blaine gains 2 ; Washington, no change ; Wyoming, Blaine 
 gains 2. 
 
 The result was announced at 4.40. Instantly, and even 
 before the last figures were pronounced by Mr. McPherson, 
 the vast audience arose and broke out into another mad dem- 
 onstration of enthusiasm. Cheers resounded, the band 
 struck up an inspiring air, hats, handkerchiefs, and national 
 flags were waved. A large square banner from Kansas was 
 carried through the hall, promising a large majority in that 
 State for Blaine, and with its two uprights capped with new 
 brooms. A stuffed eagle from Colorado was also carried 
 around in the procession. The roar of artillery outside was 
 heard, booming with the louder roar of voices inside, and 
 amid great enthusiasm the nomination was made unanimous; 
 suggested by telegraphic request from President Arthur.
 
 104 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN, after a comparative lull in the tumult 
 James G. Elaine, of Maine, having received the votes of a 
 majority of all the delegates elected to this convention, 
 the question now before the convention is, shall the nomi- 
 nation of Mr. Elaine be made unanimous ? [Applause.] 
 On this motion the Chair recognizes Mr. Buiieigh, of 
 New York. 
 
 MR. BURLEIGH, of New York Mr. President and brother 
 Republicans, in behalf of the President of the United States, 
 and at his request, I move to make the nomination of James 
 G. Elaine, of Maine, unanimous, and I promise for the 
 friends of President Arthur, who are always loyal at the 
 polls, and for Old Northern New York, twenty thousand 
 Republican majority in the north ; and I promise you all that 
 we will do all we can for the ticket and the nominee, and 
 we will show you in November next that New York is a 
 Republican State. [Cheers.] It elected James A. Garfield, 
 and it will elect James G. Elaine, of Maine. [Applause.] 
 
 SENATOR SABIN, of Minnesota Mr. Chairman, four years 
 ago in this very hall, and as a delegate to the National Re- 
 publican Convention, I was opposed to Chester A. Arthur 
 and to the elements with which he then associated. Since 
 then he has been called, under the most trying circumstances, 
 to fill the first place in the gift of the people of this country. 
 So well, so nobly has he filled that trust ; so happily has he 
 disappointed not only those of his opponents, but his 
 friends ; so fully has he filled the position of the gentleman 
 that he is of a scholar, and of a gentleman possessed of 
 that great, good common sense which has made his admin- 
 istration a great and pronounced success that he has grown
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMJNA TIONS. 105 
 
 upon me, until to-day I honor and revere Chester A. Arthur. 
 As a friend of his, I no less honor and revere that prince of 
 gentlemen, that- scholar, that gifted statesman, James G. 
 Elaine, and it affords me the greatest pleasure to second the 
 motion to make his nomination unanimous, with the predic- 
 tion that his name before this country in November will pro- 
 duce that same spontaneous enthusiasm which will make him 
 President of the United States the fourth of March next. 
 
 SENATOR PLUMB, of Kansas Mr. Chairman, this conven- 
 tion has discharged one of its most important trusts, and is 
 now, notwithstanding the length of time it has been in ses- 
 sion and the exciting scenes through which it has passed, 
 in thorough good humor, and I believe ready to go on and 
 conclude the business which brought us here. [Cries of 
 " No !" " No !"] Mr. President, before proceeding to this, 
 I desire also, in connection with the senator from Minnesota, 
 and responding to the sentiment which pervades this entire 
 convention, to second the motion that this nomination be 
 made unanimous, and I hope there will not be a dissenting 
 voice in all this vast assemblage. [Applause.] 
 
 THE SECRETARY I have been requested to read to the 
 convention the following telegraphic dispatch : 
 
 The President has sent the following dispatch to Mr. Blaine : 
 " The Hon. James G. Blaine, Augusta, Maine. As the candi- 
 date of the Republican party, you will have my earnest and cordial 
 support. CHESTER A. ARTHUR." 
 
 The announcement was received with applause. 
 THE CHAIRMAN The motion is, Shall the nomination of 
 Mr. Blaine be made unanimous ? 
 
 The motion was carried amidst much cheering.
 
 106 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 During the final ballot it was with the utmost difficulty 
 that the excitement could be repressed until the roll was 
 complete and the official result was announced, which was 
 done by Secretary McPherson. The latter, in announcing 
 the vote, began with the lowest, leaving Elaine to the last. 
 When the latter's name was reached McPherson got no 
 further than " Elaine, five hundred," when the storm of ap- 
 plause burst, and the additional votes above the five hun- 
 dred were unheard. Then ensued a scene which beggars 
 description. For fully fifteen minutes the vast crowd was 
 on its feet, and the roar of cheers and yells was continuous. 
 Men paraded the aisles with banners of strange device. 
 From outside the building, where vast crowds were in wait- 
 ing, came the echoing cheers and the booming of cannon. 
 It was a magnificent demonstration of satisfaction at a result 
 which is as clearly the people's choice as any that was ever 
 made by a political party. On the motion to make the nom- 
 ination unanimous there was not a dissenting vote or voice 
 in all the immense throng. 
 
 George William Curtis was loudly called for after the 
 nomination was made, but he refused to respond. The del- 
 egates from the Pacific States could find no bounds to their 
 joy. Before the recess was taken, the cannon began boom- 
 ing all along the lake shore ; the printing presses were rat- 
 tling off pictures of the great leader, and the city that has 
 its exchanges rattling away all the time with as much noise 
 as a National Convention, was soon alive with the "Hurrah 
 for Elaine." 
 
 At the evening session, the roll of States was called for 
 the nomination of candidates for Vice-president.
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 107 
 
 When Illinois was called, Senator Plumb, of Kansas, 
 came forward, and spoke as follows : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Convention: This 
 convention has already discharged two of the most serious 
 obligations which rested upon it the adoption of a platform 
 and the nomination of a candidate for the Presidency. [Ap- 
 plause.] The platform is one upon which all good Repub- 
 licans and all good citizens can unite, and of which they can 
 well feel proud. The candidate for the presidency needs no 
 eulogium from me, and I can also say for him that he can 
 meet any man in the Democratic party, whether that man be 
 dead or alive. [Applause.] Upon that statement it might 
 seem a matter of comparative indifference as to who should 
 fill the second place ; but, Mr. President and gentlemen, 
 there is such a thing as proportion. Having nominated a 
 statesman of approved reputation, a man of whom we are all 
 proud, we owe it to the party to nominate the best and 
 most available man we have for the second place. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 "Mr. President, this is the first time in the history of 
 the Republican party since the war when the man who is 
 to fill the first place is not a soldier. There are a million men 
 yet living who served their country in the late war. And 
 now, Mr. President, twenty years after the lapse of that 
 war they are bound together by ties as strong as they ever 
 were while serving under arms, and the great brotherhood 
 of the soldiery of the United States is one of the most im- 
 portant factors in the social and political life of the Ameri- 
 can Republic. [Applause.] It is due, not as a matter of 
 availability, but as a matter of just recognition to that great
 
 108 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 body of soldiery who made the Republican party possible, 
 that a fit representative of theirs should have the second 
 place upon the team a man who, wise within himself, has 
 not only the qualities of a soldier, but also the qualities of 
 a statesman because the American people are becoming 
 now considerate of the second place upon the National 
 ticket, and it is a matter of grave concern that the man to 
 be chosen shall be fit to step into the shoes of the man in 
 the first place. [Applause.] 
 
 " Mr. President, as I said, if it were only a question of 
 electing a ticket, we might nominate any body. But it is 
 more than that. It is not only a question of carrying and 
 electing a President and a Vice-president, but it is a ques- 
 tion of the election of a majority of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives in Congress. It is a question of rehabilitating 
 States where Legislatures have been lost, and, consequently, 
 representatives in the Senate have been equally lost. You 
 want especially to strengthen this ticket, if so it may be, by 
 adding to it a man who has his representatives in all por- 
 tions of this broad land, in every township, in every school 
 district, in every representative district, and in every 
 county, in order that the ticket may be carried to the far- 
 thest confines of the Republic, and its remotest places, with 
 that good will and recognition which will make sure of a 
 full vote. [Applause.] 
 
 "We have come to that point since the war when the 
 kindly feeling growing out of association has come to be a 
 power, and out of that kindly feeling has grown the organ- 
 ization of the Grand Army of the Republic, which has now 
 in its communion more than three-fourths of the men who
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 109 
 
 lately wore the blue. [Loud applause.] They are Repub- 
 licans because the Republican party is true to them, to their 
 interests, and ta all those things for which they fought and 
 sacrificed ; and it is only just and proper that, in making 
 tickets and in making platforms, we should recognize that 
 great body of honorable and self-sacrificing men. 
 
 " Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, in presenting to you a 
 candidate, I shall present one to you who, I believe, fills all 
 the qualifications necessary for even the first place upon this 
 ticket; a man whose military and civil record will not be 
 obscured by even so brilliant a one as that of the head of 
 the ticket. [Loud applause.] That is the kind of a man 
 we want a man tried in war and in peace, a man who has 
 in every capacity in which he has been tried so acted that 
 to-day his name and fame are a part of the proud heritage 
 of the American people. [Loud applause.] By the terms 
 of your resolution you have abridged that which I would 
 say ; but it is enough for me to say that the man whom I 
 present for your consideration, believing that he will add 
 strength to the ticket, and believing that he will justify the 
 words I have spoken, is General John A. Logan, of Illinois." 
 [Loud applause.] 
 
 The applause at this point was repeatedly renewed, and 
 lasted for several minutes. 
 
 The speaker, resuming, said : " His reputation is no 
 more the property of Illinois than it is of Kansas; but 
 there are seventy-five thousand ex-soldiers of the late war 
 upon the prairies of Kansas who, with one accord, when 
 they hear of the nomination of John A. Logan, will rise up 
 and indorse it and ratify it. [Loud applause.] I know
 
 110 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Illinois begrudges him to the country ; like Hosea Bigelow's 
 wife, they want him for home consumption. But, Mr. 
 President, it is a command which we have a right to lay 
 upon them, and I know that in Illinois, with that command 
 upon them, they will do as General Logan would do him- 
 self. He obeys the duty and obligation of party, the com- 
 mand of the party and the country ; and, in fact, he never 
 disobeyed but one order, and that was when he disobeyed 
 an order not to fight a battle. 
 
 " Therefore, in behalf of the ex-soldiers of the Union, in 
 behalf of the State of Kansas, by whom I am commissioned 
 for this purpose, and in behalf, generally, of the great body 
 of the Republican party of the Union, who admire and 
 esteem this man, I present his name for your consideration, 
 and hope that he may receive the nomination at your hands." 
 [Loud applause and shouts.] 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN. Judge Houck, of Tennessee. 
 
 JUDGE HOUCK. Mr. Chairman, gentlemen of the conven- 
 tion : Thus far, while I have not received my first choice, 
 this convention has done well. [ Cries of " Good !" 
 " Good !" and applause.] Under the leadership, at the 
 head of the ticket, of the Plumed Knight of Maine, we 
 expect in November, all other conditions being equal, to 
 march to glorious and final victory over the Democratic 
 party in the United States. [Applause.] Now that the 
 first part of our duties has been discharged ; now that we 
 have a candidate at the head of the ticket whom every 
 genuine Republican in these United States, whether for or 
 against him in this contest, can cheerfully and heartily sup- 
 port; now that we have started thus well, let us complete
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. Ill 
 
 our work by adding as the candidate for Vice-president of 
 the United States one who, as we all know, may have to 
 enter the Executive Mansion and discharge the duties of 
 the first office of the Nation I say, let us now see if we can 
 not come to an understanding and agreement and unite upon 
 one who will do equal honor in that position as the distin- 
 guished leader who is at the head of our ticket. 
 
 And in looking over all this country, looking through 
 the halls of Congress, going back over the reminiscences of 
 the war, analyzing the character of men upon the field or 
 in the halls of legislation, wherever he has been called to 
 duty, John A. Logan has never been found wanting [cheers 
 and loud applause] ; and it has been well said by the gen- 
 tleman who has preceded me that, having nominated a 
 civilian for the first time since the war, it is now all-impor- 
 tant to give to the soldiers of the country, who fought the 
 battles of the Union to preserve it to the people, a repre- 
 sentative upon that ticket. That being so, in whom can we 
 find all the elements necessary to make up the statesman- 
 ship which is necessary to discharge the duties of this high 
 office, but in General John A. Logan? I can do it the more 
 cheerfully it is perfectly natural to me ; it becomes a part 
 of my nature and goes into my sympathies, into the very 
 sympathies of my heart to advocate his nomination com- 
 ing as I do (perhaps I will give you something that some 
 of you never thought of), coming as I do, as a representa- 
 tive of that part of the country where two Congressional 
 Districts, the First and Second of Tennessee, gave more 
 soldiers to fight under the flag than any two other Districts 
 in the United States of America. [Applause.] That being
 
 112 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 so, representing these elements, I know that when the wires 
 shall have transmitted the news of the nomination of John 
 A. Logan for the Vice-presidency of the United States to 
 the soldier boys of East Tennessee, they will rejoice there, 
 as they will rejoice everywhere the news is transmitted. 
 [Cheers and loud applause.] It is an inviting theme, but I 
 am admonished that under the rules I should desist after a 
 few more words. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, let us join hands. The truth is, there 
 ought not to be any other nomination. [Applause and 
 cheers.] John A. Logan ought to be nominated by acclama- 
 tion. Our delegation, as you have seen, has been somewhat 
 divided on every thing else, but when you come to John A. 
 Logan we are united twenty-four strong. [Great applause.] 
 Mr. President and gentlemen of the convention, for the con- 
 siderations which I have mentioned, I now place John A. 
 Logan's destinies in your hands, with the full conviction that 
 when the roll is called you will make him the candidate of 
 the party, and in November victory will perch upon our 
 banners. [Great applause.] 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN Mr. Thurston, of Nebraska. 
 
 MR. THURSTON Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the con- 
 vention : In seconding this magnificent nomination on behalf 
 of a great veteran constituency I have only this to say, let 
 us write upon the banner of the Republican party for this 
 glorious campaign this invincible legion " Blaine and 
 Logan" [great applause] "Blaine and Logan: Peace 
 and War." The great gratitude of the American people will 
 crown these victors of them both with their grand and 
 glorious approbation. [Loud applause, and cries of " Time ! "]
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 118 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN Mr. Lee, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 MR. LEE Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the conven- 
 tion : You have. inaugurated here to-day a glorious victory 
 for November [applause] by nominating for President a na- 
 tive of Pennsylvania, but whose fame was too great for his 
 own State. It is of the whole country. You will complete 
 the work which you have so well begun. The people be- 
 lieved, with a belief which amounted to conviction, that 
 you would recognize their sovereign will in the nomination 
 which you would here ' make, and you have not disap- 
 pointed them. 
 
 And so with you, knights of the great Commonwealth 
 of Kansas, in seconding the nomination of a man for Vice- 
 president who was fit to be President of the United States, 
 I second, on behalf of the great Middle States of Pennsyl- 
 vania and Ohio, the nomination of John A. Logan. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 MR. HORR, of Michigan Mr. Chairman 
 
 Calls were made to Mr. Horr to take the stand, but he 
 declined, and continued as follows : 
 
 " I will be through before I can get to the stand. I 
 simply rise, Mr. Chairman, in behalf of that large army of 
 us men who stayed at home during the war [laughter], and 
 at the request of the State of Michigan, to second the 
 nomination of John A. Logan, of Illinois [applause], and I 
 only wish to say that in doing that we will light the camp- 
 fires among the soldiers of the country from one end of this 
 Nation to the other." [Applause.] 
 
 MR. DANCY, of North Carolina Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
 men of the convention : I am here, the humble representa- 
 
 8
 
 114 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 tive of twelve hundred thousand colored voters in this coun- 
 try ; and I believe, gentlemen of the convention, that with 
 the nomination already made of the Hon. James G. Blaine, 
 of Maine, if to that you will add the name of John A. 
 Logan, you will strengthen the confidence and courage of 
 this twelve hundred thousand colored voters, and each and 
 every one of them on the day of the election will be found 
 at the polls casting their votes for him. [Applause.] Gen- 
 tlemen, we know John A. Logan in the South ; we have 
 learned to love him and to honor him. He has stood by us 
 under any and all circumstances. We will be certain 
 to stand by him. [Applause.] Great in war, he has been 
 likewise great in peace, and, keeping the even tenor of his 
 way, he has won the confidence and the respect, not only of 
 the Republican party, but of the Democratic party as well 
 [applause] ; and I believe that he can command as many 
 votes in the State as any man who could be named ; and, as 
 we have a State that was Democratic by only three hun- 
 dred, two years ago, we know that with this ticket we can 
 carry it and give five thousand majority in this election. 
 [Applause.] And so, speaking for North Carolina, I say for 
 it, as I say also for some others of the Southern States, we 
 are for John A. Logan first, last, and all the time. 
 
 Mr. Arnold, of Georgia, was recognized by the Chair. 
 Some enthusiastic delegate moved that Logan be nominated 
 by acclamation, but was not recognized. 
 
 MR. ARNOLD Mr. Chairman : As the representative of 
 twenty -four true and noble men as ever trod the soil, and 
 who stood by Chester A. Arthur until his flag went down, 
 I rise in my place to second the nomination of John A.
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMLNA TIONS. 115 
 
 Logan. [Applause.] And while we, sir, in Georgia, are not 
 able to give you an electoral vote, we pledge to you our 
 aid, sympathy, active support, and all that there is within 
 us. [Applause.] 
 
 MR. DAWES, of Missouri Mr. Chairman, I move you that 
 the nomination of John A. Logan be made by acclamation. 
 
 Mr. Howe, of Nebraska, make a similar motion. 
 
 The Chairman put the question on the motion, and, on 
 the vote being had, said : " It requires two-thirds to suspend 
 the rules, and the Chair being in doubt the roll will be 
 called." 
 
 The Clerk called the State of Alabama. 
 
 MR. CARR, of Illinois Mr. Chairman, there have several 
 gentlemen expressed a desire to speak, and so far every one 
 who has spoken, has spoken words that are grateful and 
 precious to every Illinois heart. There are others who still 
 desire to speak and I hope that the roll will not be called. 
 I hope that this action will be suspended until gentlemen 
 from other States who desire to speak shall have been heard 
 from. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Bradley, of Kentucky, had been standing on his 
 chair attempting to get the attention of the Chairman, and 
 loud calls were made for him. 
 
 MR. HOWE, of Nebraska Mr. Chairman, we are assured 
 by the gentlemen who have already spoken that it is only 
 a question of time that the nomination of John A. Logan 
 will be made unanimous, and I withdraw my motion to 
 make it by acclamation. 
 
 Considerable confusion was caused by delegates in all 
 parts of the hall attempting to gain the eye of the Chair-
 
 116 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 man. One delegate suggested to the Chair that he ought to 
 preserve order or put some one in the chair who could. 
 
 Mr. Lee, of South Carolina, was recognized by the 
 Chairman, but the calls for Bradley were renewed, and Mr. 
 Lee was unable to proceed. 
 
 A delegate from Mississippi suggested that the gentle- 
 man from Kentucky go ahead on the east side of the hall 
 and Mr. Lee on the west. [Laughter.] 
 
 MR. LEE I most cheerfully yield to the distinguished 
 gentleman from Kentucky, provided I shall be accorded the 
 privilege of speaking for the Republicans of my State when 
 he shall have finished. 
 
 MR. BRADLEY, of Kentucky Mr. Chairman, I am warned 
 by the condition of my voice not to undertake to speak 
 against the tumult of this multitude. I simply arise as one 
 of those fifteen faithful Kentuckians who, through sunshine 
 and through storm, followed the fate of our gallant leader, 
 Chester A. Arthur, to second the nomination of the great 
 volunteer soldier of Illinois a statesman wise in council, a 
 soldier upon whose sword there is no stain of dishonor, a 
 friend of the oppressed. No more gallant knight ever drew 
 lance upon the bloody fields of Palestine, or fell beneath 
 the gleaming scimiter of Saladin. I arise for the purpose of 
 seconding the nomination of General Logan in behalf of the 
 hundred thousand, yes the hundred thousand brave soldiers 
 who have marched under the Union flag, and kept step to 
 the music of the Union from the State of Kentucky. 
 [Cheers.] You have given us a great statesman from Maine, 
 and I for one bow my humble acquiescence, and am willing, 
 with all the Republicans of this Union, to follow where his
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 117 
 
 white plume shines. [Loud cheers.] With Elaine as our 
 candidate for President, with Logan as our candidate for 
 Vice-president we shall sweep the country and wipe from 
 the political map the name of Democracy, so that the places 
 that know it now shall know it no more forever. [Loud 
 applause.] I would like to say more upon this fruitful 
 theme, but the condition of my voice, as well as the state 
 of your patience, remind me that I have said enough. [Cries 
 of "Go on, go on."] And now, in conclusion, fellow-citi- 
 zens of the whole Republic who are assembled here and del- 
 egates in this convention, down in the State of Kentucky, 
 where the black cloud of Democracy still hovers over us, 
 let me say to you that, while we can not give you our elec- 
 toral votes, we will in November poll for Elaine and Logan 
 120,000 brave men and true. [Applause.] I have said 
 enough, and I thank you again and again for your kindness 
 in asking me to second this nomination. [Loud applause.] 
 MR. LEE, of South Carolina I come from a State that 
 gave the United States Government the first colored sol- 
 diers that the United States Government ever had in its 
 army. In 1862, in the town of Beaufort, South Carolina, 
 Colonel Higginson, of Massachusetts, organized the first 
 colored troops. I am here to-night, and I am glad that it 
 is my privilege upon this occasion, to say to the American 
 people assembled here in a Republican National Convention 
 that those people in South Carolina never can forget the 
 memorable march through that State of Sherman's army. 
 In that army was the gallant and brave John A. Logan. 
 [Applause.] They know him and they love him, and their 
 anxious hearts have been waiting, hoping to hear from this
 
 118 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 convention, that if the first choice, Chester A. Arthur, 
 should not not made the nominee of this convention, their 
 hearts would be made glad by the news being wired to 
 them that John A. Logan was the fortunate choice of this 
 convention. [Applause.] 
 
 MR. PETTIBONE, of Tennessee Mr. Chairman, in the name 
 of three-quarters of a million of the old soldiers of the Re- 
 public who did not stay at home, but went to the front, and 
 in the name of 30,000 ex-rebel soldiers of Tennessee, we all 
 of us rejoice in the name of Black Jack Logan. [Cheers.] 
 
 MR. LEE, resuming, said : Tennessee feels at liberty 
 to take any privilege she sees a chance to take. [Laugh- 
 ter.] Mr. Chairman, I shall not move to strike out the gen- 
 eral s part, for he and I, away from the close relations that 
 our States bear to each other, are closely allied as individ- 
 uals, until I am always proud to be connected with him in 
 any way. And I wish to say also, briefly, that South Car- 
 olina gave the first volunteer to the United States navy in 
 the person of the hero, Robert Smalls, who carried the ban- 
 ner to the harbor of Charleston, and brought it over from 
 the Confederate army and delivered it up to the Federal 
 navy. The people in South Carolina will go to the polls if 
 John A. Logan is upon the ticket with the brilliant genius 
 of James G. Elaine, and will get there at any risk, as they 
 have done before ; and no name connected with James G. 
 Blaine will create that enthusiasm in South Carolina as the 
 name of John A. Logan. 
 
 Several delegates at this point tried to attract the atten- 
 of the Chair, but there was too much confusion and cries of 
 " Call the roll."
 
 REPUBLICAN NOMINATIONS. 119 
 
 The Chair finally recognized Mr. Frank Morey, of Lou- 
 isiana, who advanced to the platform and spoke as follows : 
 
 MR. MOREY -Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the con- 
 vention : At the request of the solid delegation of more than 
 one Southern State besides the State of Louisiana, I rise to 
 second the nomination of John A. Logan. Mr. Chairman, 
 in 1861, when I left my prairie home in Illinois to assist in 
 fighting the battles of the Union, it was my good fortune to 
 be under the command of General John A. Logan in our 
 march from the Ohio River on our way to the Gulf. At 
 the conclusion of the war, and after peace had settled upon 
 the country, and when a fighting constituency had sent me 
 from my new home in Louisiana to the halls of Congress, 
 my first committee work was done on the Committee of 
 Military Affairs, of which General John A. Logan was the 
 Chairman. Mr. President, I know him well, and I love him 
 with my whole heart. I have watched his career as a 
 statesman, and on all public questions he has been almost 
 invariably right, and upon all questions touching the pro- 
 tection of the lives and the liberties, particularly the polit- 
 ical and civil rights of the Republicans, both white and 
 black, in the South, he has been always right. And, sir, 
 the Republicans of the South will feel, in the election of 
 General John A. Logan as Vice-president, that they will 
 always have a true friend and tried counselor having 
 the confidence of the Chief Executive of the Nation. It 
 will give renewed courage to the saddened hearts of South- 
 ern Republicans now fighting the unequal battle of Repub- 
 licanism in the South. General Logan is the grand develop- 
 ment of the brave, generous, and courageous sentiment of
 
 120 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 the people, and combines the glorious manhood of the true 
 and gallant soldier and the eminent statesman. [Applause.] 
 Every element of his character is that of a true American, 
 and his nomination as Vice-president, with James G. Elaine 
 [loud applause], will electrify the patriotic sentiment of the 
 loyal people of this country [loud applause] and will fee the 
 cap-sheaf of the magnificent work begun by this convention. 
 
 MR. HILL, of Mississippi I suggest that we proceed to 
 nominate General Logan by acclamation, and let us go to bed 
 and have the other speeches printed. [Laughter.] 
 
 MR. BLAIR, of Virginia I speak by request of General 
 Mahone, the chairman of the Virginia delegation, and inas- 
 much as Senator Mahone is not able to be here to-night by 
 physical disability. I am here to represent in this convention 
 the Union soldiers that followed General John A. Logan in the 
 last contest, but I am here as a member of the Republican 
 Virginia delegation, that represents in Virginia 30,000 Con- 
 federate soldier that have come to the rescue of the Republic. 
 I was a Confederate soldier myself for four years, as were 
 many of the delegation with whom I am now associated, 
 and I serve notice upon these Northern Republicans that 
 they must look well to their laurels, because in old Virginia 
 we have erected the standard of Republicanism, and in the 
 vocabulary of Virginia liberalism, there is no such word as 
 fail. [Loud applause.] And that little handful of ex- 
 Confederate soldiers and Virginians who raised the revolt 
 against Democratic outrage have grown in their growth and 
 strengthened with their strength until to-day we have 127,000 
 that will vote for James G. Elaine and John A. Logan as 
 President and Vice-president of the United States. I, there-
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 121 
 
 fore, in behalf of the Virginia delegation, rise to second the 
 nomination of John A. Logan, and move that the nomina- 
 tion be made unanimous. 
 
 MR. TAYLOR, of Illinois I now renew my motion that 
 the rules be suspended and General John A. Logan be de- 
 clared the nominee of this convention for Vice-president. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 GENERAL J. S. ROBINSON, of Ohio Mr. Chairman: In 
 behalf of the Republicans of Ohio, I desire to second the 
 nomination. I followed General Logan on many a hard- 
 fought field, and he never in any instance failed to respond 
 to the sound of the enemy's musketry. I therefore move 
 to suspend the rules to nominate General Logan by accla- 
 mation. [Loud applause.] Mr. Chairman, I insist upon my 
 motion, which has been seconded by several delegations, to 
 suspend the rules and nominate General Logan by acclama- 
 tion. 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN It is moved that the rules be sus- 
 pended, and that General Logan be nominated by acclama- 
 tion. All in favor of that motion will say aye. 
 
 The motion was carried almost unanimously, and General 
 Logan was declared the nominee of the convention for Vice- 
 president. 
 
 MR. LAMPSON, of Ohio Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of 
 the convention : The Nineteenth District of Ohio, the banner 
 district of the Union, which was so long and so ably repre- 
 sented in the National Congress by that grand statesman and 
 civilian whom the last Republican National Convention de- 
 lighted to honor with the highest position in the gift of the 
 Republican party [loud applause], promises 20,000 Republi-
 
 122 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 can majority for the bosom friend of our martyred Garfield, 
 James G. Elaine, of Maine, and the grand old soldier, John 
 A. Logan, of Illinois. [Loud applause.] 
 
 MR. DAVIS, of Illinois Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the 
 State of Illinois, I ask that the roll shall be called, at the 
 request of our delegates, in the nomination. [Applause and 
 a voice : " Amen !"] 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN The Secretary will call the roll. 
 
 The Secretary then called the roll of States, with the 
 following result : 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 3 
 p 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 f 
 
 20 
 14 
 16 
 6 
 12 
 6 
 8 
 24 
 44 
 30 
 26 
 18 
 26 
 16 
 12 
 16 
 28 
 26 
 14 
 18 
 32 
 10 
 6 
 8 
 18 
 
 f 
 a 
 
 Gresham.... 
 
 Foraker 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 5-5 
 
 p 
 
 < 
 o 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 Gresham 
 
 Foraker 
 
 Alabama, 
 Arkansas 
 
 20 
 14 
 16 
 6 
 5 
 6 
 8 
 24 
 44 
 30 
 26 
 18 
 26 
 16 
 12 
 16 
 12 
 26 
 14 
 18 
 30 
 10 
 6 
 8 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 New York 
 
 72 
 22 
 46 
 6 
 60 
 8 
 18 
 24 
 26 
 8 
 24 
 12 
 22 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 00 
 22 
 46 
 6 
 59 
 8 
 18 
 24 
 26 
 8 
 24 
 12 
 19 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 779 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 1 
 
 North Carolina, . . . 
 Ohio 
 
 California 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Connecticut, .... 
 Delaware 
 
 Pennsylvania, . 
 Rhode Island, . 
 South Carolina, 
 Tennessee, . 
 Texas, . - 
 Vermont 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 Illinois, 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa, 
 Kansas 
 
 
 West Virginia, . . . 
 
 Kentucky .... 
 
 Louisiana, 
 
 
 Maine, ' 
 Maryland, 
 
 Dakota, 
 District of Columbia, . 
 Idaho, 
 Montana 
 
 Massachusetts, . . . 
 Michigan, 
 Minnesota, .... 
 Mississippi, .... 
 Missouri, 
 
 New Mexico, 
 
 Utah 
 
 
 Nebraska, 
 
 Wyoming, 
 Total 
 
 
 New Hampshire, . 
 New Jersey, .... 
 
 820 
 
 ( 
 
 J 1 
 
 
 When the Chairman of the Massachusetts delegation 
 (Senator Hoar) announced the vote of that delegation to be
 
 REP UBLICAN NOMINA TIONS. 123 
 
 nine for Logan and three for Fairchild, of Wisconsin, it was 
 greeted with hisses. After the vote of Mississippi was an- 
 nounced, Mr. Cra<po ? of the Massachusetts delegation, said : 
 " Mr. President, I desire to announce again the vote of Massa- 
 chusetts. [Cries of " No objection," " Unanimous," " Go 
 ahead."] Those of the delelates that are here vote twelve 
 for Logan, being the entire number that are present." [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 When New York was reached in the call of States, Mr. 
 Curtis said : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, I desire that New York may be allowed a 
 little time to complete her tally. [Cries of " Go on !"] New 
 York is not quite ready to report her vote; I ask that a 
 little time be given me to complete the count." [" Time !" 
 "Time!"] 
 
 MR. HUSTED, of New York Mr. Chairman, I ask that the 
 rule may be suspended so that the other States may be 
 called and New York called afterwards. I ask unanimous 
 consent. 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN It will be so ordered without objection. 
 
 When the District of Columbia was reached Mr. Conger 
 sprang to his feet and in clarion tones yelled : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, I cast my vote for John 
 A. Logan." [Laughter and great applause.] 
 
 Mr. CARSON Mr. Chairman, this is the first time the 
 gentleman has agreed with me. [Renewed laughter.] I 
 cast my vote for John A. Logan. 
 
 At the end of the roll-call New York was again called 
 upon to cast her vote. Mr. Curtis announced the vote as 
 follows :
 
 124 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 " One vote for Foraker, six votes for Gresham, sixty 
 votes for John A. Logan." 
 
 The crowd then broke forth into loud and prolonged up- 
 roar, the band playing the " Star Spangled Banner," while 
 the Chairman sought to restore order. When order had 
 been partially restored, Mr. Winston, of North Carolina, ad- 
 dressed the Chair as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, I move that the nomination of Mr. 
 Logan be made unanimous." 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN The question now is, Shall the nomina- 
 tion be made unanimous ? 
 
 It was carried. 
 
 MR. HUSTED, of New York Mr. Chairman, I move that 
 the thanks of this convention be tendered to the temporary 
 and permanent officers of the convention for the faithful per- 
 formance of the duties which have been placed upon them. 
 
 Which was carried, and amid the most hearty enthusiasm, 
 at 9.45 P. M., the great convention stood adjourned sine die.
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 125 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. VOX POPULI. 
 "The noblest motive is the public good." VERGIL. 
 
 T7MORY A. STORKS: We have at the head of the 
 I J ticket a man who is the spirit of independent and gen- 
 uine Republicanism made manifest in the flesh. We have a 
 man who believes in the dignity of our existence and in the 
 necessity of preserving and maintaining it. We have a man 
 who believes in giving no insults to any individual or 
 Power, and will tamely submit to no Power under God's 
 heavens. [Applause.] We have a man who believes that 
 this continent belongs to us, and all of it. [Applause.] 
 We have a man who believes in the protection of our 
 large and multiplied industries ; a man who believes, and 
 believes it in his soul, that the producer is more worthy 
 than the product, and that the policy of our govern- 
 ment is not the cheap shoe, but the prosperous and 
 happy shoemaker. We have a man who believes that 
 the Nation, when it makes any promise, must keep it, 
 and if that promise be a protection to the citizen, it must 
 protect that citizen wherever he may be, even at the cost 
 of war. [Applause.] We have a man at the head of our 
 ticket who believes that a national engagement means some- 
 thing solid and solemn, and that underneath the stars no 
 man resting under the flag on any foot of ground shall
 
 126 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 have his right to vote challenged and the counting of that 
 vote as cast questioned. We have a man who believes 
 supported by another man who believes that the spirit of 
 our institutions stands proudly enthroned among the stars, 
 and that, when the poorest and humblest citizen is insulted 
 and outraged in his rights, that spirit will come down with 
 sword and shield, take the quivering and trembling black 
 man by the hand, lead him safely through the files of the 
 enemy until he can vote, and speak, and think as he 
 pleases. [Applause.] This is our platform. These are 
 our candidates. Your second choice, selected with a unanim- 
 ity almost marvelous in great conventions of this charac- 
 ter, had every trace of Democratic blood fired out of him 
 when the first shot exploded upon the walls of Sumter. 
 From that time to this, undeviating, unwavering, and unfal- 
 tering, there has never been a Republican idea of which 
 John A. Logan has not been a vigorous and aggressive, an 
 eloquent, and a courageous champion. [Applause.] We 
 have the real spirit of the fiber of the party embodied and 
 illustrated by this great ticket. We have a platform broad 
 enough for every citizen to stand upon. 
 
 NEW YORK Tribune: James G. Elaine has been nomi- 
 nated by the people, and will be elected by the people. For 
 a quarter of a century no other candidate has been more 
 clearly preferred by the voters. Patronage had no part in 
 his nomination. Even in the hour of their defeat his 
 opponents did not attribute his success to any unworthy 
 influence. By them it was admitted, as it must be admitted 
 by all, that the people desired the nomination of Mr. 
 Elaine. Mr. Elaine is the strongest candidate the Repub-
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 127 
 
 lican party could have nominated, because he best repre- 
 sents its convictions. The name of Mr. Elaine had been so 
 identified with tjie economic policy which the Republican 
 party holds most dear that the popular preference for him, 
 at a time when that policy was threatened by a Democratic 
 majority in Congress, was exceedingly natural. The nomi- 
 nation of General Logan for Vice-president was also espe- 
 cially fortunate. He has great strength at the West, and 
 with the soldiers everywhere, and his name will kindle the 
 enthusiasm of Republicans at the South. The ticket can 
 not be beaten. 
 
 CHICAGO Tribune: No living American statesman ever 
 filled the hearts of the people more completely than Blaine 
 does. The martyrdom of Lincoln and Garfield has won for 
 them a peculiar veneration which no man in life can hope 
 to attain, but Blaine has reached the highest place in pub- 
 lic esteem. He is admired as the most brilliant statesman 
 of his day ; he is loved for his warm nature ; his American- 
 ism is so broad, bold, and spirited that it has won the ap- 
 plause of his political opponents. The elevation of such a 
 man to the Chief Magistracy will be a matter of pride to 
 every patriotic American citizen. The same universal admi- 
 ration which pushed him into nomination will achieve 
 his election. 
 
 If a plebiscite of the Republican party could have been 
 ordered on the nomination, Blaine would have received 
 four million out of the five million Republican votes against 
 all other candidates. The opposition to him came from the 
 shoulder-straps ; the rank and file were nearly all for him, and 
 it is the rank and file which furnish the votes on election-
 
 128 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 day. The same popular sentiment which has nominated him 
 will elect him. Any resentment among the politicians born 
 of chagrin just at this moment will vanish into thin air be- 
 fore the steady march of popular feeling. No man who is 
 at heart with the Republican party can hold out against 
 the masses of the party. Those who have worked against 
 Elaine will be influenced b*y the prompt and cordial tender 
 of hearty support made by President Arthur the very mo- 
 ment it became evident that Elaine would be nominated. 
 This example will be imitated with a contagion which will 
 sweep through all factions and extend from Maine to Cali- 
 fornia. Maine will start the ball in September, Ohio will keep 
 it moving in October, and it will grow into an avalanche in 
 November, to which every Northern State, and at least 
 West Virginia and Delaware among the Southern States, 
 will contribute its strength. 
 
 Elaine, in addition to all his personal claims, is the legit- 
 imate successor to the popular confidence which Garfield's 
 brief administration inspired. Elaine and Garfield were 
 closely united in personal and political sympathy. Elaine, 
 as Garfield's Premier, was almost as conspicuous a figure as 
 Garfield himself, and he was the originator of a continental 
 American policy which was the most striking and brilliant 
 conception of Garfield's administration. Had Garfield lived, 
 neither Elaine nor his friends would have disputed his right 
 to a renomination under the precedents which reward a suc- 
 cessful and popular President with a second term; but Gar- 
 fild's death left Elaine his natural heir to the glory of his 
 administration. It is no reflection upon President Arthur 
 that he was not able under the circumstances to capture the
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 129 
 
 people from Elaine; it would have been strange if he could 
 have done so. The people have chosen their leader and 
 raised their banner. They will march on to victory under 
 the Plumed Knight as surely and steadily as the Blaine 
 army in the convention proceeded to the nomination, gather- 
 ing new strength at every step. No Presidential candidate 
 ever had a better assurance of election than Blaine has to- 
 day, unless it was General Jackson or Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 CINCINNATI Commercial Gazette : James Gr. Blaine is the 
 Henry Clay of his age and generation, with the personal 
 fascination and charm of Clay, with all his fine audacity 
 and more than his political prudence. It was an unwise 
 letter that defeated Clay forty years ago, and not the power 
 or the malice of his enemies,_or the mistakes of his friends. 
 We are sure of a glorious candidate in Blaine. The more 
 we hear from him the better, and we are likely to hear very 
 much. The magnetic storm which has raged in Chicago for 
 a week, and broke "forth there in an illumination that like 
 the northern lights, shone over the skies, will overspread 
 the country *from the lakes to the gulf and sea to sea. It 
 will quicken the whole people of the United States and 
 brighten their public life to elect Blaine President, and the 
 safety and splendor of his administration will solidify Re- 
 publicanism at home, and lift the great Republic still higher 
 among the Nations of the earth. . . . Not only has the ma- 
 jority of the party clearly declared for Blaine, but the enthu- 
 siasts, in urging the nomination, have everywhere been the 
 brightest and the foremost in the party service. 
 
 MURAT HALSTEAD: There is potentiality in the names of 
 Blaine and Logan, and those who think the Republican party,
 
 130 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 embattled under its chosen leader, can be overthrown with the 
 aid of personalities, in cartoons and squibs, that the Demo- 
 cratic party may be enabled to make, with its head shaken by 
 paralysis, and its hands stained with murder, are mistaken. 
 The Republican party was never so strong as now, and the 
 Democratic party never had less to show the people in the way 
 of reasons for trusting it with our weightiest public affairs. 
 
 If there is a possibility of beating Elaine, it is because 
 New York is European rather than American, and I do not 
 concede that there is enough of that to overpower the man 
 who represents the height and the breadth of American 
 policy and politics. If the Democrats gather strength so as 
 to seriously threaten the defeat of Elaine and Logan, there 
 will be such a campaign as never yet has shaken this country. 
 If it were not for the votes of the Solid South, there would 
 be no more chance for the defeat of Elaine and Logan than 
 there would have been to beat Elaine in either of the three 
 latest National Republican Conventions, if the delegation 
 had been made up in the several States according to the 
 Republican strength. $ 
 
 PHILADELPIA Times : He will be the master spirit, the lea- 
 der of leaders, in his own campaign. The party will follow 
 him with the devotion and enthusiasm of the army that bore 
 the eagle of France when Napoleon marched for Moscow, and 
 even in defeat he would be worshiped by the rank and file 
 as was the man of destiny after Russia and Elba. He will 
 start the contest of 1884 with spontaneous energy in every 
 section of the country. He will carry Ohio in October, 
 even with German prejudices strongly against him. He will 
 disturb Democratic confidence in West Virginia, the other
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 131 
 
 important October State, and he will be likely to recall 
 California and Nevada from their Democratic diversion of 
 1880 to join Oregon in a solid Republican electoral vote on 
 the golden slope of the Pacific. 
 
 BOSTON Journal: It is sufficient for us, as members of 
 the Republican party, to know that Mr. Elaine is to lead the 
 party in the coming campaign. He is to stand upon a plat- 
 form which was adopted by the Republican delegates, and 
 to give him, therefore, as the accepted leader, cordial sup- 
 port, is a duty which every Republican owes to the party. 
 Of the election of Mr. Elaine there in very little question. 
 The campaign thus far has shown his wonderful strength 
 with the people. We confess that the spontaneous move- 
 ment for Mr. Elaine at the West is something unprecedented. 
 No effort on his part was made to secure delegates. They 
 flocked to his banner as soon as it was raised at Chicago. 
 And his supporters are not political adventurers of the 
 noisy element which is found in every party. They repre- 
 sent the best type of Americans and the strongest Republi- 
 canism. In this State there is a feeling of opposition to Mr. 
 Elaine, which makes it more difficult for many Republicans 
 to admit that his supporters ^are among the ablest and most 
 conscientious men in their respective communities. This we 
 shall come to understand and appreciate as the contest pro- 
 ceeds. We do not underrate the disadvantages incident to 
 a campaign under ; his leadership, but we must not lose sight 
 of the assurance given at Chicago, that he possesses a follow- 
 ing greater than that of any other man in the party. He is 
 the choice of the Republican convention honestly and fairly 
 nominated, and as such will receive the cordial support of
 
 132 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 the men who have voted for Lincoln, Grant, Hayes and 
 Garfield. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA Ledger : As a student of American political 
 history under the Constitution of the United States, there 
 is probably no man better versed and very few so well. 
 This knowledge has not been wholly acquired through his 
 contact with public affairs in the House of Representatives, 
 the Senate, and the State Department, but has been supple- 
 mented by extensive reading. In these respects, of large 
 experience in our public affairs and acquired knowledge of 
 our political history, it is quite probable that he is more 
 amply equipped for the Presidential office than any nominee 
 heretofore presented to the people by his party. What his 
 supreme ability in debate is, and of what high character is 
 his intellectual force, are matters within the common knowl- 
 edge of all who know anything of the affairs of the Federal 
 Government ; and so, too, of his party courage and devotion, 
 and his intense patriotism as an American. His party, con- 
 sidering it as the lineal successor of the old Whig organiza- 
 tion, has had no such brilliant, forcible, and popular champion 
 since the days of Henry Clay. His nomination must be 
 accepted everywhere, abroad as well as at home, as that of 
 one of the foremost among living American statesmen ; and 
 if he should be elected, no one can reproach the people of 
 the United States as having gone to the subordinate ranks 
 of their public men for the Chief Executive of their country. 
 PHILADELPHIA Press: Any other nomination would have 
 caused a disappointment to the Republican masses so deep 
 as to be closely akin to resentment. There never was any 
 doubt about Mr. Elaine's nomination except that which arose
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 133 
 
 from the fear that the representatives of the Republican 
 voters in convention might disregard the will of the people. 
 The number of those who carried their opposition to Mr. 
 Elaine to such length constituted but a small fraction of the 
 convention, and represented an altogether insignificant frac- 
 tion of the Republican party. The nominee of the conven- 
 tion will have the support of the whole party ; and now, 
 with such a candidate claiming their suffrages, it will be im- 
 possible for any portion of the people to be indifferent. 
 Those on whom the party ties sit lightly, and those who 
 ordinarily neglect the privileges of suffrage, will be drawn 
 to the support of Elaine by the irresistible attraction of his 
 strong personality and by the conviction which none can 
 escape, that of all our public men he is pre-eminently fit for 
 the office of President of the United States. The conven- 
 tion could not have made a nomination which would have 
 been as acceptable to the Republican masses or which would 
 have made its success in November nearly as certain or as 
 easy as it will now be. The nomination of John A. Logan 
 for Vice-president rounds out to grand proportions the ticket 
 so grandly led by Elaine. Patriot, Congressman, soldier, 
 senator, and always bold, brave, and aggressive, John A. 
 Logan's name is inseparably associated with the history of 
 the heroic period of the Republican party, and his appear- 
 ance at the front of the campaign of 1884 will be a bugle 
 call to the impulses which found their fruitage in a recon- 
 structed Union and an emancipated Republic. It is a happy 
 circumstance and one full of good omen that the two States 
 which put forth the ticket which lifted the Republican party 
 to favor in 1860 are again to the front in 1884, with the
 
 134 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 order of honors reversed, it is true, but a combination worthy 
 in all true senses of the succession of Lincoln and Hamlin. 
 PHILADELPIA Inquirer: The contest was one which was 
 distinctly drawn between the people on one side and the 
 federal office-holders upon the other. The people won, the 
 office-holders lost, and the entire host of the postmasters, 
 tide-waiters, and gaugers were sent to the rear. The victory 
 was a double one inasmuch as it not only placed in nomination 
 the most popular leader of the rank and file of the Repub- 
 lican party, but that it did not place in nomination one whose 
 nomination would have been synonymous with irretrievable 
 disaster. The country, and especially the Republican party, 
 has reason to congratulate itself not only upon the success 
 of Mr. Elaine, but as well upon the defeat of Mr. Arthur, 
 whose candidacy represented all that was repellent to sin- 
 cere, patriotic Republicans. His supporters were chiefly 
 federal office-holders, the major part of them representing 
 those "rotten boroughs" of the South without a single elec- 
 toral vote, which claimed like representation with the great 
 Republican States of the North from which are to come all 
 the electoral votes for the Republican ticket. Can Mr. Elaine 
 be elected ? Yes, if any Republican can. The popular enthu- 
 siasm which his name evokes proves that he can carry New 
 York and Ohio, the crucial States, and he is probably the 
 one Republican leader who, being nominated, could be elected 
 without the vote of New York. There were enough doubt- 
 ful States before the convention without New York. They 
 are so few now as to make the vote of New York no longer 
 necessary. The status of the States of the Pacific Slope 
 and of the South-west, which were all doubtful, are now fill
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 135 
 
 certain for Elaine and victory. His is a name to win with. 
 The campaign will be a crusade ; the election a triumphal 
 march of the first choice of the people to the Presidency of 
 the great Republic. 
 
 PROVIDENCE Star: The announcement of the nomination 
 of James G. Elaine on the fourth ballot at Chicago, yester- 
 day afternoon, was received with more enthusiastic demon- 
 stration of joy than would have been manifested upon the 
 success of either of the other candidates, and to-day the 
 country enters upon a presidential campaign which will be 
 memorable in the political history of the Nation for the 
 aggressive vigor with which it will be prosecuted by the Re- 
 publicans. The ticket nominated at Chicago yesterday must 
 be elected. We have thought that it would be easy to nomi- 
 nate some other candidate on a conviction that some one 
 else, against whom less animosity has been aroused, might 
 more easily secure the electoral vote of certain doubtful 
 States ; but the National Convention, representing the Re- 
 publican voters of the whole country, has decided differently, 
 and we hold it now to be the duty of every man who believes 
 that the great principles of the Republican party ought to 
 triumph to fall into line and give the ticket the most hearty 
 and effective support in his power. 
 
 ST. Louis Call: Our candidate is " the tattooed man." 
 So his calumniators call him ; so will his opponents in this 
 campaign call him; so will we call him. When, in the 
 sixteenth century, the people of Holland, oppressed by 
 Spanish tyranny, sought of the Princess Margaret an ame- 
 lioration of their condition, they were called by the premier 
 at the Palace, Geux (Beggars). Stung by the reproach, but
 
 136 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 glorying in their cause, the people took up the name. " Long 
 live the Guex!" they cried. Almost ere the sun had set 
 the name became the password of liberty, the battle-cry of 
 freedom, the terror of the oppressors, and the " Guex " 
 threw off and trampled on the Spanish yoke. They have 
 called him " the tattooed man." So let it be ; the word of 
 reproach shall be a word of honor. The word of envy 
 shall be a title of glory. He is a tattooed man. The 
 wounds of the fore front of every battle for the people's 
 rights during the last quarter of our century have left their 
 marks upon him. He is tattooed with every thing that is 
 highest and noblest and dearest in our history. The pres- 
 ervation of the union of the States, the redemption of na- 
 tional credit, the defeat of the rebels in war, and the more 
 dangerous traitors in peace with all these is this leader 
 tattooed. Tattooed with this, and more, tattooed with a 
 genius that is marvelous; tattooed with a magnificence as 
 a leader, with generosity as an opponent, with wisdom as a 
 statesman ; tattooed with a list of deeds in public life that 
 in spite of calumny mark him a great, true, noble man. 
 
 ST. Louis Globe-Democrat: Yesterday Mr. Elaine was 
 simply an individual to be passed upon for a certain use arid 
 object; to-day he .stands not for himself any longer, but for 
 the heroic and potent organization that has declared him to 
 be its leader of leaders and its brightest champion. His 
 personality has ceased to be a question for Republicans to 
 dispute about or to deal with otherwise than as the verdict 
 in his favor requires. He passed the sort of scrutiny that 
 is decisive and complete, and he is the embodiment now of 
 those beliefs and hopes, those doctrines and purposes, by
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 137 
 
 virtue of which the party has achieved all its glories in the 
 past, and upon which depend all its chances of prolonged 
 existence and usefulness. There can be no difference and no 
 ground of controversy about Republican principles nor about 
 the desirability of vindicating and maintaining them. The 
 fate of those principles is bound up with the fortune which 
 shall come to the man who has been selected to specify them 
 and to hold the position of foremost honor in the great im- 
 pending struggle for their continued application to the affairs 
 of the government and the interests of the people. There 
 is no room, therefore, for any thing but loyalty and good 
 faith, and no time to be wasted in regrets, or grumbling, or 
 lukewarmness. There seemed to us to be reasons why some 
 other man would have proved stronger, partially in doubtful 
 and vital localities, but we must have judged mistakenly. 
 It is certain, at least, that the sober, average, conclusive 
 opinion of the Republican party is not only that he is the 
 most fit and deserving man, all things considered, who could 
 be put into the field, but that he can be and will be elected. 
 He owes his nomination to a convention representing the 
 best thought and feeling, aspiration and conscience, of the 
 American people, and the verdict of such a body, rendered 
 in tones so emphatic and so enthusiastic, is not to be criti- 
 cised or sulked over or appealed from. The obligation of 
 all Republicans, whatever may have been their views in the 
 contest just closed, is plain and definite, and that is to ac- 
 cept the action of the convention in a cheerful spirit and 
 with a hearty and determined purpose to carry the old flag 
 again to victory over the obstinate and pestilent influences 
 of the party that lies eagerly in wait for a chance to change,
 
 138 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 undo, and dishonor, as far as possible, the wonderful story 
 of the last twenty-five years of national progress. There is 
 no room to claim that Mr. Elaine's selection was the result 
 of a sudden impulse, or a mere stroke of good luck. 
 
 WASHINGTON Republican : " As you are the nominee of 
 the Republican party you will have my earnest and cordial 
 support." Chester A. Arthur. These magnanimous and no- 
 ble words, uttered by President Arthur to James G. Elaine 
 by telegram to Augusta immediately after the news had ar- 
 rived that the latter had defeated the former for the presi- 
 dential nomination, express the sentiments which should 
 inspire every Republican from this day to the election in 
 November. The question is not one of men, but of measures, 
 not a personal issue, but one of policy. Shall the Republican 
 party, with its principles of free speech, individual sovereignty, 
 protection of home and industry, and the laboring man, gov- 
 ern the nation from 1885 to 1889, or shall the Bourbon De- 
 mocracy dominate the country, suppressing freedom and free 
 utterances, trampling upon individuals, submitting to the rule 
 of a few arrogant and antiquated negro-haters, and sacrificing 
 the diversified occupations and the comfort and prosperity of 
 the American workmen to give profits to the English, French, 
 and German manufacturers who employ only pauper workmen 
 and pay them only starvation wages ? Before this issue men 
 are nothing, principles are every thing. President Arthur, 
 known to be wise, considerate, patriotic, sure of the electoral 
 vote of New York, would have been the best candidate. No 
 doubt would for a moment have been felt concerning his elec- 
 tion. But James G. Elaine has been fairly nominated. The 
 supreme duty of every patriot is to labor for his election.
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 139 
 
 Magnetism and enthusiasm will not do the work. But such 
 loyalty to the party as President Arthur has manifested, 
 followed by earnest and cordial labor, will give success. 
 There is no excuse for bolting. The Independents who 
 voted for Edmunds could have nominated Arthur instead of 
 Elaine. They preferred the latter, and nominated him by 
 their persistency. If any men are bound to support Mr. 
 Elaine, George William Curtis, Andrew D. White, Theodore 
 D. Roosevelt are thus committed, for to them he owes his 
 nomination in a fair convention. Let them now rally 
 grandly and nobly to his support, and give him the victory. 
 President Arthur has shown his self-sacrifice and devotion 
 to the party of freedom and progress. Let these pure and 
 heroic idealists, proud of their defeat of Clayton and their 
 nomination of Elaine, throw their souls into the great con- 
 test before the people and give victory in November to the 
 ticket of Elaine and Logan. 
 
 PORTLAND Oregonian: When great men find themselves 
 in the midst of their greatest responsibilities they always 
 develop their greatest wisdom. This is axiomatically true, 
 and this is what will take Mr. Elaine out of and above the 
 faults we have found in him. This is the hope ; at least, our 
 belief. The men who look for an overturning jingo policy, as 
 some of Mr. Elaine's acts in the past would seem to indicate, 
 will find themselves most sadly disappointed. Elaine is the 
 choice of the convention and of the people. Let us look at 
 his strength as it appears after this grand display at Chicago. 
 He is the prime representative of what is possible to a man 
 in this country who has the greatness to harbor great ambi- 
 tions and brains to sustain himself at every step upwards.
 
 140 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Two previous conventions have said to him his time had not 
 come, and he has by his persistent will said to the country, 
 " My time will come." It has come, and he will be elected. 
 The average voter, Republican or Democrat, regards him as 
 already made President, waiting only the formalities of No- 
 vember. Oregon is delighted at the selection. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO Chronicle : Elaine is the man who as Pres- 
 ident will do more to make this country and its citizens re- 
 spected than has ever been done since the foundation of the 
 government. Unless we much mistake his mettle, with this 
 man at the helm we shall have no slipshod, shilly-shally, 
 back-do wn-and-s wallow-insult foreign policy. We count upon 
 his election as an event as sure as any thing in the future 
 can be. As for this coast, every Pacific State will cast its 
 vote, for Elaine and Logan. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO Bulletin : The whole atmosphere of Chi- 
 cago has been Elaine. The platform that was adopted be- 
 fore the nomination was made was Elaine all over. It 
 would have been perfectly ridiculous to have placed any 
 other candidate upon it. We want a strong government. 
 Mr. Elaine will give it to us. Continued prosperity can not 
 be secured without protection. Mr. Elaine is one of the 
 oldest exponents of the system. A new and insidious form 
 of slavery in the form of coolie contract labor threatens us. 
 Mr. Elaine understands the question in all its details. We 
 believe that Elaine will be elected. We can assume before- 
 hand that his administration will be brilliant and success- 
 ful. His nomination will excite the greatest joy all over 
 the country. 
 
 OHIO State Journal : The selection of Mr. Elaine at Chi-
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 141 
 
 cago as the standard-bearer of his party was born in enthu- 
 siasm and consummated in a grand climax of popular de- 
 mand. This sentiment among the people was very strong 
 months ago. It never abated, but kept on growing till it 
 was able to overcome the field in the National Convention. 
 There was at no time a stampede for Blaine. He led on 
 the first ballot, and continued to climb up until he had two- 
 thirds of the whole number of votes on the fourth ballot. 
 He never lost the votes that once came to him, but by a 
 steady pull attained the nomination in the midst of the great- 
 est demonstration ever held on the continent. The vast 
 assemblage of ten thousand people went wild when it knew 
 that he was the winner in a race that had been so fair and 
 creditable. The end reached is not only satisfactory, but 
 what is better, it has been reached in a most satisfactory 
 way. There was no accident about the selection, nor was it 
 that of a man with a "record of obscurity," as George 
 William Curtis called it. 
 
 General Logan's career has been a brilliant one alike in 
 military and in civil life. Commanding a division under 
 Grant in the siege of Vicksburg, and later the Fifteenth 
 Army Corps, and, on the death of McPherson, the Army of 
 the Tennessee, he distinguished himself on many a battle- 
 field by his dash and military skill. The surviving soldiers 
 of the war know General Logan, and his name will revive 
 the glorious memories of many a well-fought field. It will 
 also kindle the enthusiasm of the veterans wherever they are 
 found, and be a watchword of victory around the Republi- 
 can camp-fires in the political conflict now impending. 
 Probably no two men could have been associated together
 
 142 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 who combine in themselves such varied and powerful ele- 
 ments of personal popularity as James G. Elaine and John 
 A. Logan. But they are not only popular men they are 
 men of brains, men of public experience, men whom the 
 Democratic party may be challenged to match. The ticket 
 and the platform are invincible. 
 
 HARTFORD Courant : Mr. Elaine has been a conspicuous 
 party leader for twenty years ; he has taken part in all the 
 great civil struggles of the period; he has won his way to 
 the front rank of leadership by native ability and splendid 
 acquirements ; he has made hosts of devoted friends, resem- 
 bling Henry Clay in the respect of an idolizing personal fol- 
 lowing, and he has made bitter personal enemies; but that 
 he is the choice of a majority of the Republican party there 
 is no room for doubt, and the enthusiasm for him carried 
 him to his triumph. With his great capacities, Mr. Elaine 
 has faults plain to see, but the arguments against Mr. 
 Elaine's candidacy are answered by the tremendous enthu- 
 siasm that has borne him to his position. We have not to 
 deal with an unknown man of an unknown cause. 
 
 COLUMBUS Dispatch : The platform of the National Re- 
 publican Convention is an avowal of Republican doctrine 
 which can not fail to please the party. It is frank and per- 
 spicuous on every point that it touches. When there is 
 anything to be said it is put clearly and forcibly, without 
 circumlocution or any apparent desire to hide intentions be- 
 hind a specious verbiage. There is no hedging in the tariff 
 plank. It denounces the theory of tariff " for revenue only," 
 and demands the imposition of such duties on foreign im- 
 ports as shall afford security to our diversified industries
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 143 
 
 and protection to the rights and wages of the laborers, and 
 pledges the party to correct the inequalities of the tariff 
 and to reduce the surplus by such methods as shall relieve 
 the taxpayer without injury to the laborer. The wool in- 
 dustry receives its proper recognition and a promise of a 
 readjustment of duties that will give it full and adequate 
 protection. This is comprehensive and satisfactory. It 
 accurately represents the position of the Republican party 
 on the important tariff question. It recognizes the neces- 
 sity of caution in the adjustment of duties, and repudiates 
 the idea that the party, when it has made a false step, is 
 self-willed and headstrong to such an extent as to deny its 
 error and refuse to correct it. The wool-tariff clause is all 
 that the men engaged in the industry could have expected. 
 The clauses against the importation of foreign contract 
 labor, in favor of national aid to education, and against .the 
 acquisition of large tracts of land by non-resident aliens are 
 all in the interest of the citizens in poor or moderate cir- 
 cumstances; nor are they hypocritical bids for votes, but 
 honest declarations of party purpose. It is for the people 
 to say whether these purposes shall be given the oppor- 
 tunity of fruition. 
 
 TOLEDO Telegram : In James Gr. Elaine we have a candi- 
 date against whom every kind of political warfare has been 
 exhausted. He has been assaulted in the party and out of 
 it. His record has been examined with the microscope and 
 the telescope. The worst and meanest possible to say of 
 him has been said. There is nothing new which the most 
 malignant jackal of the opposition can resurrect from the 
 relics of the past. If James G. Elaine is not the next
 
 144 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLA1NE AND LOGAN. 
 
 President of the United States it will be because the Great 
 Commoner is not wanted. This time we have neither a 
 giraffe ticket nor a dark-horse ticket. We have at both 
 ends the strongest and best men of the party stronger 
 than any other combination of men that could have been 
 made James G. Elaine and John A. Logan. We are con- 
 tent beyond words. The Republican party has never gone 
 into a contest better equipped for victory. It has the 
 strongest platform ever written and the strongest men of the 
 party to stand up for it. The air is magnetic with the 
 thrill of triumph. 
 
 OMAHA Republican : The people have triumphed. Elaine 
 has triumphed, and in the victory of such a man is to be 
 found the gratification of a Nation's tribute to the great 
 heart, the noble intellect, and the pure, devoted life of a 
 thorough statesman. Republicanism is born again, under 
 the leadership of the best exponent of our national progress, 
 and the first American of his time ; the people are rallying 
 to a new victory. Our platform is as bold and as aggres- 
 sive as our candidate. No prominent man in the United 
 State save Elaine could stand upon that platform with per- 
 fect consistency. 
 
 WHEELING Intelligencer : After years of hopeless combat 
 with an opponent physically our superior, West Virginia 
 stands at the masthead of a new era. The nomination of 
 James G. Elaine for President will complete the work so 
 happily begun within our own borders, and the mountain 
 State will be wrested from our Bourbon domination and 
 again placed where she belongs in the ranks of the Repub- 
 lican States. The State needs the moral influence of that
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 145 
 
 position more than the Republican party needs her support. 
 She must shake off the shackles and move on to the march 
 of progress politically and industrially. Her mines, her fac- 
 tories, her flocks, and her workshops need the fostering care 
 of Republican protection. Her children need the enlighten- 
 ment of Republican education, the State needs Elaine. 
 The Democrats affect to ridicule the idea of Republican 
 victory in West Virginia. So did they affect to ridicule 
 the idea of the election of Goff to Congress, but he was 
 elected, and just as easily, just as surely, can we redeem 
 the whole State with the prestige Elaine and Logan will 
 give us. 
 
 CLEVELAND Herald: The voice of the Republican people 
 has been heard and heeded. That voice has been ringing 
 out Elaine, of Maine. The convention's roar was but a faint 
 echo of the people's voice. Not the convention, but the 
 people made Elaine the nominee. For the convention to 
 have rejected him would have been a defiance of the clearly 
 expressed wish of the Republican voters. It would have 
 been at once a blunder and a crime. Wild as was the en- 
 thusiasm which swept that great assemblage off its feet at 
 the announcement of the people's favorite, it was but a pub- 
 lic indication of the tremendous wave of enthusiastic energy 
 whose resistless tide will carry all before it this Fall and 
 bear Elaine in triumph into the White House next March. 
 His history as a public man is that of the Republican party 
 and the Nation. He is a typical American. It would have 
 been impossible to make a nomination that would be better 
 received in Ohio, or that would exercise a stronger influence 
 
 for good on the fortunes of the Republican party in this 
 
 10
 
 146 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 State at the coming elections. In Northern Ohio, especially, 
 Elaine is the popular idol. His intimate association with 
 Garfield, and the part he bore in the tfagic events of the 
 closing months of the martyred President's life completely 
 won their hearts. He became the natural heir to the affec- 
 tion* they bore the deeply-loved and cruelly-lost Garfield. 
 No man could so stir the hearts of the people of Ohio, par- 
 ticularly in the Republican strongholds, and bring out the 
 Republican vote to the last man, as James G. Elaine, the 
 personal friend, the devoted adherent, the political other self 
 of the martyred President, James A. Garfield. His nomina- 
 tion insures a sweeping victory in October and a crowning 
 triumph in November. 
 
 TOPEKA Capital: No man in America will inspire more 
 zeal and a greater degree of enthusiasm in the Republican 
 party than he who yesterday received the nomination for 
 the Presidency. There is something so American about the 
 man. The masses love him. He has grown up among the 
 people a conspicuous specimen of healthy, vigorous man- 
 hood. In all the details of public affairs he is as well 
 equipped as any man now living. Mr. Elaine is a model 
 American. He believes that the people of the United States 
 form a Nation ; that the people are more interested in their 
 own affairs than in those of other nations ; that we are capa- 
 ble of adopting our own policies and protecting our own in- 
 terest. Springing from the common people, he knows the 
 wants of humble homes. He is a man of the Garfield type. 
 He is friendly, social, generous, big-hearted, manly, and 
 frank. With such a man and with such a platform the Re- 
 publican party will achieve success.
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 147 
 
 PITTSBURGH Commercial Gazette : In thus honoring Elaine 
 the convention has done an act which will meet the hearty 
 approval of the .great body of Republicans all over the 
 country. It has made success certain beyond the possibility 
 of a doubt, and will infuse a vigor and spirit into the cam- 
 paign which will be irresistible. He is the popular leader in 
 the country to-day, and will arouse greater enthusiasm, in- 
 spire a higher degree of confidence, and command a larger 
 support in those States which must be depended on for Re- 
 publican Electors, than any other man who could have been 
 named. Ohio, Connecticut, and California have been taken 
 at once out of the list of doubtful States. New York and 
 Indiana will rally to the standard of Elaine and Logan with 
 an alacrity and enthusiasm which will take the sting from 
 any latent opposition within the party. The prestige of his 
 name will give the party a fighting chance in Virginia, West 
 Virginia, and Florida, and if proper efforts are made in the 
 South, two or three States rated as " solid " may be cap- 
 tured. The nomination of General Logan for second place is 
 one which will commend itself to general approval. It is a 
 recognition of the soldier element, which will be fully ap- 
 proved and balance the geographical claims of the two great 
 sections with satisfactory precision. 
 
 PITTSBURGH Dispatch : Viewing the matter solely with re- 
 lation to the November verdict, it is scarcely to be ques- 
 tioned that Elaine's nomination will draw all of force and 
 fire there is in the Republican party. It has been charged 
 that he must assume the defensive on account of past mis- 
 takes ; but while he has, like all other public men, some of 
 these to his account, it will be well to bear in mind that
 
 148 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 those who have attacked Mr. Elaine have generally caught 
 a Tartar. There is positively nothing in the intimation that 
 the business interests of the country fear him. On the con- 
 trary, in so far as he is more progressive and active than 
 his contemporaries, the business interests may fairly expect 
 that under his administration the development of the great 
 natural resources of the country would go on with quickened 
 energy. The American people will all the time prefer a live 
 man working within fair and honest limitation to an aristo- 
 cratic figure-head or an intellectual mummy. 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS Times : In the nominees of the Chicago Con- 
 vention the country can repose confidence. Their records 
 are well known. In Congress, James G. Elaine has given 
 his high talents and his great eloquence in the support and 
 defense of the principles of the party. He has been fore- 
 most in every encounter. His talents, his genius, and his 
 powers have so impressed themselves upon the party, that 
 notwithstanding two defeats that would have crushed a man 
 of smaller caliber, he has again entered the field and wrested 
 the victory even from a President whose course has been so 
 universally commended. He was the choice of a majority 
 of the Republicans of Indiana, and the action of its dele- 
 gates in casting its united vote for him will be ratified in 
 November. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS Journal: The prophecy of the early morn- 
 ing was fulfilled ere the afternoon had grown old. James 
 G. Elaine, of Maine, was nominated on the fourth ballot. 
 The nomination creates unbounded enthusiasm. Elaine will 
 make a roaring, hip-hip-hurrah campaign, and will doubtless 
 be elected over any man the Democrats can put up. There
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 149 
 
 is one advantage this time we don't have to explain who 
 our candidate is. Everybody knows him. His record is 
 familiar to all, and upon it he must stand or fall. That he 
 will stand by a large majority and be our next President are 
 the indications of the hour. 
 
 HARRISBURG Telegraph : A united North will greet the 
 people's choice. Elaine, of Maine, will be our next Presi- 
 dent. Defeated and dismayed, his detractors will spit their 
 venom, but the people will properly answer the scandal by 
 their enthusiastic indorsement. The Plumed Knight will 
 lead his hosts to assured victory. The cheer that greeted 
 his nomination will be continued until the 4th of March, 
 1885. 
 
 BALTIMORE American : Elaine is the choice of the people. 
 His nomination is a victory of the people over the politicians. 
 A great enthusiasm formed itself spontaneously in the hearts 
 of Republicans, and burst like a huge wave over the petty 
 dykes that hostile factions and official discipline had built 
 up against it. Elaine has been the object of the keen attacks 
 of enemies without and within the party. He has had for years 
 to meet calumny and detraction, and to see his good work 
 evil spoken of. Base motives have been ascribed by malice 
 to his noblest actions. His genius has been underrated, his 
 popularity underestimated, and yet there is something about 
 the man that makes the people love him. Twice had the 
 popular voice called him to the nomination, and twice had 
 the politicians thwarted its will. But now the voters rose 
 with a power not to be withstood, and made him their can- 
 didate. His nomination unites the party as none other could. 
 The third-term party, defeated four years ago, now disappears.
 
 150 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Its leaders are now Elaine men. Not since Grant's first term 
 has the Republican party been so united as now. Not since 
 Lincoln's second term has any leader been so beloved. The 
 value of this personal popularity can hardly be overrated, in 
 the close States. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New 
 Jersey have sometimes suffered themselves to go Democratic, 
 but by default. This has always happened at periods of dis- 
 content with the Republican party management. But on a full 
 vote these States are Republican. Elaine's popularity will 
 bring out a fuller party vote than could have been brought out 
 by any other leader. It has been given to only a few Ameri- 
 cans to excite affection of this sort. Andrew Jackson, Henry 
 Clay, and Abraham Lincoln are among the few who have en- 
 joyed public esteem and love as James G. Elaine does. The 
 campaign of calumny and abuse has already begun. The ashes 
 of old accusations will be raked over in the hope of kindling 
 anew the fires of persecution and slander. But this will avail 
 nothing. Envenomed slander did its worst against Garfield, 
 but it did not hurt him. It can not hurt Elaine. 
 
 ALBANY Evening Journal: As we write the electric wires 
 are pulsating with tidings which thrill the hearts of Repub- 
 licans throughout the land. The Republican party, invincible 
 as the exponent of progressive ideas and courageous actions, 
 will be worthily led by the man whom it has honored with 
 its approval this day. All citizens who desire that this 
 country shall stand before the world as a Nation, great and 
 benignant in its might, as the robust type of successful 
 government by and for the people, will heartily approve the 
 nomination of the illustrious statesman from Maine. If the 
 Republican party has yet a mission to fulfill, it has shown
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 151 
 
 wisdom in the selection of a candidate who has been un- 
 swerving in obedience to its decisions and powerful in cham- 
 pionship of its settled policies. If there is need of honesty, 
 vigor, leadership, and capacity in the chief executive, those 
 qualities will be supplied in the triumphal election of that 
 candidate to the office of President. 
 
 ILLINOIS State Journal: James G. Elaine will be the next 
 President of the United States. This is the will of the Re- 
 public, and this foregone conclusion rests in the fact that no 
 other man lies so near the hearts of the American people as 
 the Maine statesman. His devotion to the whole body of 
 Republican doctrines is as unimpeachable as was that of 
 either of our immortal martyr Presidents, and to this fealty 
 he adds unequaled courage, discretion, penetration, and de- 
 cision. What other men require weeks or months to under- 
 stand he comprehends at a glance. If now the Democrats 
 nominate Tilden, it will simply be a contest between a pigmy 
 and a giant athlete, and nature decides all such contests. 
 
 MILWAUKEE Sentinel: The Republican Convention nomi- 
 nated James Gr. Elaine yesterday as its candidate for Presi- 
 dent of the United States. On the fourth ballot he received 
 a clear majority over all, and his nomination was made unani- 
 mous. It is known the Sentinel did not favor the nomination 
 of Mr. Elaine, for the reason that it believed there were sev- 
 eral other gentlemen urged as candidates equally well qualified 
 and more available, but in the selection of candidates the ma- 
 jority has the right to command, and party organization is un- 
 practicable when that right is denied. It is an undoubted fact 
 that the news of Mr. Elaine's nomination will give greater 
 satisfaction to a majority of the party than would that of any
 
 152 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 other man who was proposed as a candidate, and that there 
 are a large number of Republicans who opposed him in the 
 recent contest solely because they questioned his availability, 
 who would be as sincerely gratified by his election to the 
 office of President as the most earnest advocates of his nomi- 
 nation. 
 
 DEsMoiNES Register: The convention has nobly answered 
 the popular demand of a strong, magnetic candidate, and the 
 enthusiasm of this campaign will exceed that of 1880, with 
 an equally glorious result. 
 
 EX-GOVERNOR CHAS. FOSTER: For once has a great con- 
 vention registered with fidelity the will of the great mass 
 of the people. While doubt may have existed in the minds 
 of some as to the propriety of Mr. Elaine's nomination, it is 
 apparent he is the choice of four-fifths of the people of the 
 land. Out of office, with no patronage at his command, and 
 without perhaps his own consent, he was nominated by a 
 spontaneity almost unparalleled in the history of the country. 
 
 SENATOR HARRISON : I am highly pleased with the nomi- 
 nations. Elaine has great elements of strength; he is strong 
 with the Irish, and will carry the Pacific Slope, New York, 
 and Indiana. The scandalous stories against him are not 
 believed. His own State approved of him, and Garfield gave 
 him his confidence in the most conspicuous manner possible. 
 His foreign policy is approved by every one, conceding that 
 we ought to come in closer relations with the States of South 
 America, and have some of that immense trade which Eng- 
 land now enjoys. It was nonsense to think he would involve 
 us in war, and the business of the country has nothing to 
 fear from him. He is sound on all great economic questions.
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 153 
 
 Of similar literature, the compiler of this chapter has 
 enough in his possession to make a book of probably 3,000 
 pages. The preceding excerpts are presented to indicate the 
 dominant sentiment from Maine to California, and additions 
 of the same tenor can not strengthen the exhibit. One of the 
 most pathetic expressions is embodied in the following tele- 
 gram : 
 
 CLEVELAND, June 8th. 
 Hon. JAS. G. ELAINE, Augusta: 
 
 Our household joins in one great thanksgiving. From the 
 quiet of our home we send the most earnest wish that through the 
 turbulent months to follow, and in the day of victory, you may be 
 guarded and kept. LUCRETIA R. GARFIELD. 
 
 How suggestive are these simple words, few in number, 
 but deep in their significance. They take us back to the 
 second of July, 1881, when President Garfield was murder- 
 ously assaulted at the National Capital, and they go with 
 us through that whole pitiful detail of watching and waiting 
 for the grim messenger till he came for the good President, 
 the devoted husband, the loving father, the full embodiment 
 of the noblest work of God, on the twentieth of September 
 following. And although the faithful wife was the chief 
 watcher through all the weary days and nights of this op- 
 pressive sadness, there was another whose faithfulness was 
 excelled by only her whose heart bled for the wounds and 
 the peril of her husband. That other watcher was the man 
 of Maine. His sympathy for, and devotion to, Garfield en- 
 deared him to the people, and it is not to be wondered at 
 that the widow of the man by whose death the government 
 was bereaved as sorely as was her gentle heart, should be 
 among the first to offer thanks that her husband's intimate
 
 154 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 friend and trusted confidant is so soon to succeed him in the 
 highest seat of the Nation. 
 
 The expression of the press, of public men and private 
 citizens of his own party, is as cordial for Elaine as it was 
 for Garfield in 1880, with this addition the enthusiasm of 
 the masses is infinitely more hearty. Those who were hope- 
 lessly disappointed at Chicago are few, and they go off upon 
 the inexpediency of the nomination simply because they fear 
 the fearlessness of Elaine in a great national campaign. 
 Fearlessness in political life and action will be at a premium 
 after this year, especially in the United States. It will be 
 found valuable to its possessors. The Republican party, as 
 a whole or as a combination of various parts, has never b.een 
 for a moment superior to the man they recognized as their 
 leader on the sixth of June, at Chicago. It is true that his 
 brilliancy, his prominence, his success, have excited the envy 
 of some individuals in the Republican ranks, and this is per- 
 haps natural; that is to say, the cause is so great that prob- 
 ably these individuals can not control the promptings of 
 jealousy ; but however this may be, it is very certain that 
 they are not strong enough to harm its object. The paper 
 pellets showered upon him by a little junta of " independ- 
 ents," in New York, fall as harmless as snow-flakes upon a 
 hundred-ton pile-driver; and it is predicted that for every 
 vote he loses in New York, from the beauocracy, he will 
 gain ten from the bone and sinew. It will be found out 
 that in a great political contest, a vote scented with lavender 
 counts no more than one with the flavor of toil upon it, and 
 the intelligent toiler knows his friend in James G. Elaine. 
 He knows that the friend of the people must, perforce, be
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 155 
 
 the people's friend, and that the overwhelming influence 
 which bore upon the Chicago Convention, and smashed every 
 anti-Elaine movement even the kid-glove and white necktie 
 cohorts was the imperative demand of the people for the 
 recognized leadership of the Plumed Knight. 
 
 It is unquestionable that the convention nominated the 
 man who is strongest with the people, and that in reality 
 the action of the convention was simply the ratification of 
 the people's will. It is unquestionable that, as a well-known 
 writer graphically states it, the convention " escaped the 
 colossal foolishness of being stampeded, like a head of wild 
 asses of the desert, into a nomination which would surprise 
 the country, and would dissolve party allegiance." It es- 
 caped the demoralization of the nomination of an obscure 
 candidate, and brought forward a nominee whose position, 
 talent, and requirements indicate that ability, distinction, and 
 leadership in the party combine in a formidable recommenda- 
 tion for the place at the head of the party. 
 
 Weeks before the Chicago Convention it was in the or- 
 dinary conversation of intelligent men in all parts of the 
 country, that Elaine would be the nominee. Other candi- 
 dates had their friends, who were faithful in claiming high 
 qualities and distinguished statesmanship for those preferred, 
 but they were not self-confident, as were the friends of 
 Elaine ; and the consciousness that the statesman of the 
 Lumber State was by a large majority the preference of the 
 country soon took possession of the public mind. That in 
 a large degree the wish was father to this consciousness, 
 there is no question, but the public press was not backward 
 in coming to its assistance and furnishing an intelligent echo
 
 156 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 of the general sentiment. And in the extracts which make 
 up a goodly portion of this chapter, the press echo is simply 
 continued. 
 
 A point worthy of more than passing note was proved 
 at the Chicago Convention, and with an emphasis which de-" 
 mands some patient afterthought. Had the nomination of 
 Elaine depended alone upon the votes of delegates from the 
 Republican States, there would have been no contest. The 
 prize would have been his by an overwhelming majority on 
 the first ballot. His support from these constituencies 
 would have been as spontaneous as the electric flash from 
 the surcharged elements, and as effective in shivering all op- 
 posing forces. The strength of President Arthur's candi- 
 dacy was with the Southern delegates and in the vast pa- 
 tronage of the administration ; not to any extent in the 
 National Republican party. Senator Sherman had some 
 strength in his own State; General Logan carried his State 
 delegation, and so did that pure Republican, Hon. Joseph 
 R. Hawley. Senator Edmunds had the warm support of 
 a goodly part of New England and a very pretty slice of 
 New York and all of these were upon a better basis of 
 support than the following of President Arthur. Yet Presi- 
 dent Arthur was Elaine's principal rival, and he was readily 
 beaten by the man who had nothing to promise, nothing to 
 give, and who has from the first despised every thing like 
 finesse and strategy as the price of preferment. 
 
 It is no part of the object of this work to criticise Re- 
 publicans in any section of the country, but we have desired 
 to show in a few words how completely the course of 
 Elaine's friends in the convention was and is justified by the
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 157 
 
 voice of Republican voters ; and how much nobler their 
 action proved than any dark-horse strategy that could have 
 been desired, or any action that would have thrust upon the 
 people a candidate they did not want. There was genuine 
 bravery at Chicago, and it was shown in the confident and 
 open tactics of Mr. Elaine's supporters after a style which 
 gives the nomination great distinction. Says Mr. Samuel 
 R. Reed : " Not only does the action of the convention make 
 the leading Republican the leader of this campaign and the 
 official head of the party, but it will have a lasting moral 
 effect on future conventions by killing the base doctrine 
 that the national convention is a slaughter-house for the 
 leaders of the party, and that he who is most popular is the 
 most unlikely to be nominated. It lays out for good the 
 mean assumption that the convention is the place for jockey- 
 ing tactics to defeat the will of the people by the ( field ' of 
 weaklings combining to beat the popular leader. The great 
 principal of natural selection and the survival of the fittest 
 has ruled the event. The strongest leader is put in the 
 lead. The party is marshaled in the natural order for the 
 campaign. Future conventions will be braced up by this 
 precedent in the rule that the leader is not to be sacrificed, 
 but to be nominated." 
 
 People and press are enjoying comparisons between Mr. 
 Elaine and Henry Clay. This is in the nature of a compli- 
 ment to the living great man and to the distinguished dead 
 alike, and at the same time it is suggestive in a political 
 sense. The life and character of Henry Clay should be 
 carefully studied by the youth of America. To those of 
 advanced age they are well known, but our young men can
 
 158 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 find nothing more instructive in the way of American 
 biography. His humble childhood and early struggles, his 
 subsequent, long, and brilliant career, his great public ser- 
 vices and eminently noble qualities, are all rife with in- 
 structive lessons. 
 
 From his birth in a Virginia farm-house, amid the con- 
 flict of the Revolution, and his entrance, an unfriended 
 youth, into the hardships of a professional life in the West, 
 up to his last exit from the chief council of the Nation; 
 whether uttering the words of eloquence at the bar or in 
 the senate-chamber; whether raising a determined voice for 
 the birth of other republics in the new world, and against 
 the oppression of long-struggling, famished, and down-trod- 
 den Greece, or presenting an equally determined front to 
 the encroachments of executive power at home; whether 
 representing the dignity and worth of the American name 
 in a foreign country, or, in our own midst, forming, defend- 
 ing, establishing the great American system of finance ; or, 
 by the efforts of an almost despairing eloquence, seeking to 
 save the Republic from dishonor, disunion, and ruin ; no one 
 of these, or the many other high stations occupied by him 
 before the public in a long and busy life, did Mr. Clay ever 
 leave with the suspicion of stain upon his character, or 
 without an addition to his honorable fame. 
 
 In some things he was greater, because more advanced, 
 than his party ; and in this respect Mr. Elaine was like 
 him ten years ago. The party has now overtaken the 
 leader. Mr. Clay was the most brilliant and versatile 
 statesman of his time. His dash, his daring, his clear- 
 sighted comprehension of affairs, and hence, his successes,
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE. 159 
 
 excited the jealousy of his compatriots and the intense 
 hatred of his opponents. Herein the comparison holds good 
 again. Mr. Clay was a national man. This statement re- 
 quires no proof. Neither would a similar statement of Mr. 
 Elaine's position. Mr. Clay was in the best sense an honor- 
 able, high-minded man, whom his friends were always ready 
 to trust in his measures, because they were fully convinced 
 of the soundness and elevation of his principles. The con- 
 fidence Mr. Elaine's friends repose in him could not be more 
 fully described in a sentence. But it is possible that Mr. 
 Elaine has a larger grasp of the public " situation " than 
 was ever enjoyed by Clay, and a more alert prescience of 
 the course of events. However, there is so much to ad- 
 mire in both, and so little to condemn in either, we may 
 rest content with the points of likeness already established.
 
 160 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 " Who makes by force his merit known, 
 
 And lives to clutch the golden keys, 
 
 To mould a mighty state's decrees, 
 And shape the whisper of the throne : 
 And moving up from high to higher, 
 
 Becomes on fortune's crowning slope, 
 
 The pillar of a people's hope, 
 The center of a world's desire." TENNYSON. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 IN the past twenty-five years the atmosphere of politics 
 has been cleansed, and a vigilant supervision over all de- 
 partments of the public service encouraged, by the election 
 to Congress of more able and fair-minded men than had im- 
 mediately, previous to the period named, distinguished that 
 representative body. For the better part, we think, these 
 men have been practical, matter-of-fact individuals, whose 
 rights and duties were not theories, but crystalized facts ; 
 whose heroism in their defense sprang from clear concep- 
 tions of truth and justice; whose consistency has been treas- 
 ured as a jewel indeed. Many of them have enjoyed sin- 
 gular felicity in expression and emphasis of truth. This 
 does not mean rhetorical self-elation, nor forensic fisticuffs, 
 nor any trick of words, but that spontaneous welling up of 
 fact and principle which comes in spite of opposition, and
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 161 
 
 sometimes thrives upon its opposing forces. It rests upon a 
 substratum of that degree of integrity which was tested by 
 one of the Romaa emperors. Wishing to place the most 
 worthy of his courtiers in the important offices, he resolved 
 upon an ingenious expedient to ascertain their merits. He 
 pretended that he would banish all those from his presence 
 and court who did not renounce Christianity. A considerable 
 number, in whom the love of place was stronger than religious 
 integrity, renounced Christianity with remarkable promptness. 
 The prince then promoted those who kept firm to their faith 
 and banished the others from his court, saying : " They who 
 are untrue to their God will not be faithful to their prince." 
 Those public servants who are not governed by integrity 
 will be untrue to their trusts, whenever the occasion prom- 
 ises to gratify their ambition or result in their pecuniary 
 profit. We need not go back to remote ages for examples. 
 It is unnecessary to cite Warren Hastings, or Arthur Gor- 
 gey, or Benedict Arnold, in proof of the depravity charged. 
 Modern instances are quite too plentiful to need a support 
 from precedent, and, although we can not insist that a pub- 
 lic man shall be in advance of his age in the exercise of the 
 higher virtues, we certainly have a right to expect that our 
 law-makers will furnish living examples of obedience to law 
 and order. We have a right to expect from them better 
 examples than were furnished in that era of passion when 
 Charles Sumner was stricken down by a blow from a bludg- 
 eon in the hands of a fellow-member of our national Legis- 
 lature ; and, thank God ! our government is now in a position 
 to enforce the realization of this expectation, if force ever 
 
 becomes necessary for such purposes. 
 
 n
 
 162 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 Its strength in twenty-five years has increased five thou- 
 sand fold, divided as follows : 
 
 Moral strength, 1,000 
 
 Intellectual strength, 1,000 
 
 Physical strength 1,000 
 
 Self-respect, . . 1,000 
 
 Respect of the World, ... . . . . 1,000 
 
 How has this result been reached ? By growth ; by the 
 assertion of power long dormant; by a general awakening 
 to the fact that we are a Nation. Thirty years ago we 
 were more strange to ourselves than to the world. We had 
 come into the belief that our institutions were permanently 
 established ; that nothing could disturb them ; that exertion 
 on our part to ward off dangers which apparently threatened 
 was mere waste of energy; in fact, that we were invulner- 
 able ; in effect, that republican institutions were a palladium 
 to protect us against dangers from without and within. Our 
 people had no idea that there were citizens of the Union 
 base enough to defile the ark of republican covenant and 
 break the tables of the organic law however poisonous the 
 scummy threat that often rose to the surface of debate. 
 Most of these threats were mere vaporings for the occasion, 
 and probably none were more surprised than their utterers 
 when they were partially realized in events. Those who 
 threatened civil war with the greatest show of passion 
 were among th'e last to believe in the possibility of such a 
 result. 
 
 When Mr. Elaine entered the National House, the country 
 was being torn by internecine conflict between two sections 
 without natural geographical division, and having no disagree-
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 163 
 
 ment except upon one point of Republican doctrine, that the 
 majority should make the laws and direct the government. 
 A considerable faction denied this right upon the question 
 of slavery in the Territories, and upon permitting slavery in 
 new States as they were admitted, and therefore they declared 
 and waged war against the majority, who believed that re- 
 publican institutions should not be subordinated to any ques- 
 tion of expediency, nor, in fact, to any question. In the 
 language of Mr. Seward, this minority represented " the per- 
 version of a temporary and partisan excitement, and an incon- 
 siderate purpose of unjustifiable and unconstitional aggres- 
 sion upon the rights and the authority vested in the Federal 
 Government." This was a corre3t view of the insurgents at 
 the beginning of active hostilities, but neighborhood sym- 
 pathy and coercion all combined to enlarge the forces of the 
 rebel element, and make them more formidable in the field 
 than they had shown themselves in the arena of debate. 
 
 Mr. Elaine entered Congress in 1863, at a time when 
 conflicts between the forces of the Union and the Confed- 
 eracy " were frequent, and in which the palm of victory was 
 about equally divided ; or, if there was any difference, it 
 favored the side of disunion. It was just after Gettysburg 
 and Chickamauga. The North was enveloped in gloom as 
 with a pall. Volunteer additions to the army had almost 
 ceased, and an order for heavy conscriptions had been made. 
 The President and the Congress were evidently involved in 
 the perplexities of an obscure problem, for which there was 
 no rule, and no way to a solution except through a miracle. 
 This is the picture the situation presented to people of obser- 
 vation in the autumn and winter of 1863-4, and they looked
 
 164 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 to Congress and the President to improve the status. The 
 fact is, neither our army nor our people had, until this epoch, 
 been aggressive enough for the purposes of real warfare. We 
 had been afraid of hurting the people of the South, either in 
 their persons or their sensibilities, and some of our generals 
 had preferred the plan of frightening them into submission 
 by digging entrenchments remote from their positions to ball 
 cartridge at short range, and steel to steel in a charge of 
 cavalry. There had been some desperate fighting, but much 
 of it was like the sham engagements of the old citizen militia 
 on muster days, when perspiration, not blood, was shed in 
 lavish abundance. 
 
 So it will be seen that Mr. Elaine entered Congress at a 
 time when aggressive men were in demand men quick and 
 firm in action, with strong determination, without desultori- 
 ness or ambiguity men who, like Burke, regarded difficulty 
 as " a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordi- 
 nance of a parental guardian and legislator, who knows us 
 better than we know ourselves. He that wrestles with us, 
 strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill," says Burke. 
 " Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty 
 obliges us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and 
 compels us to consider it in all its relations." The truth of 
 these words was proved by the great leaders of the Thirty- 
 eighth Congress, among whom were Ramsey, Morgan, Trum- 
 bull, Harlan, Morrill, Garfield, Davis, Sumner, Chandler, 
 Hale, Wade, Sherman, Wilmot, Anthony, Foot, Farnsworth, 
 Ingersoll, Washburne, Colfax, Julian, Orth, Allison, Bout- 
 well, Dawes, Windom, Fenton, Ashley, Schenck, Kelley, 
 Baxter, Wallace, and fifty others scarcely less distinguished.
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 165 
 
 Mr. Elaine did not essay any of the functions of leadership 
 in this Congress. He was but thirty-three years of age, 
 and, as he expressed it, "felt more like studying his duty 
 first, and then he could perform it with more satisfaction to 
 himself and the country." He proved a good student. 
 The first session of this Congress was largely devoted to the 
 consideration of the abolition of slavery. For the further- 
 ance of this object, it was proposed to submit to the States 
 a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The public 
 mind was ready for it, and anxious to bring to a test the 
 vexed question which had occasioned so much anxiety and 
 bloodshed in the past three years. 
 
 Congress and the President had recognized, in the inevi- 
 table course of events, that the abolition of American slav- 
 ery was a foregone conclusion, and on January 1, 1863, the 
 Proclamation of Emancipation had been promulgated. Al- 
 though it was a surprise to the people, it was greeted at 
 the North by thousands upon thousands as a war measure 
 of most excellent device; whereas, as a measure of peace, 
 these same thousands would have denounced it as an expe- 
 dient of the most wicked robbery. The President resorted 
 to it with reluctance, and only as a military necessity. He 
 was anxious to compensate the border States for all pecun- 
 iary loss it might occasion them, and they, with several 
 designated localities in other slave States, were excepted 
 from the operation of the Proclamation. Mr. Lincoln was 
 one of the most conservative men of his party, and depre- 
 cated precipitation in the change of any established order. 
 The first proposition in Congress so to amend the Constitu- 
 tion as to prohibit American slavery, was made by Hon.
 
 166 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 James M. Ashley, of Ohio, and zealously advocated by him 
 from the beginning to the date of its final accomplishment. 
 Mr. Elaine earnestly seconded him in speech and vote 
 through the entire contest, and assisted in defeating an op- 
 position at once intelligent and unscrupulous ; but the young 
 Congressman was modest, and did*not come to the front as a 
 leader for several years. So slight an impression did his 
 appearance make upon Speaker Colfax, at first, that he was 
 placed near the tail of the Military Committee, which was 
 otherwise composed of six generals, fresh from the field, 
 and two Democrats, fresh from their constituents. What an 
 opportunity was that for a civilian who had never smelled 
 gunpowder ? The clerk of that committee, now a journalist, 
 relates that the young Congressman from Maine captured his 
 heart without ceremony by his terse, interesting, paragraphy 
 way of talking, and his perfect remembrance of all impor- 
 tant political facts in our national history. He told this 
 clerk, in a confidential chat one day, that he meant to get 
 upon the Appropriations Committee in the next Congress, 
 and in the Congress following he hoped to get a chair- 
 manship. Then, he said, he would look forward to the 
 speaker's chair. Observe this evidence of his prescience ; 
 for it all came about as he had planned, except that he be- 
 came Speaker two years sooner than he had thought would 
 be possible. His plans were always made in advance the 
 full line of his future marked out and faithfully worked up 
 to ; hence his systematic performance and distinguished suc- 
 cess. In less than two years from the time he thus spoke 
 of the objects of his ambition, he was chairman of the Ap- 
 propriations Committee, and in four years was speaker of the
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 167 
 
 House, by the unanimous nomination of the Republican 
 members in caucus. 
 
 A brief sketch^of Mr. Elaine's position upon the ques- 
 tions which agitated the country immediately succeeding 
 the civil war, and previous to his elevation to the speaker- 
 ship, will furnish the reader with all necessary information 
 regarding the' subject of this memoir during the period 
 named. It is scarcely necessary to premise that his posi- 
 tions upon all questions of general interest are positive, and 
 often pronounced, even to the point of aggressiveness. No- 
 body can charge him with dodging an issue or seeking to 
 evade any responsibility that seemed proper for him to as- 
 sume. We make the following extracts from his remarks in 
 reply to reflections cast upon the State of Maine by Hon. 
 S. S. Cox, delivered in the House, June 2, 1864 : 
 
 " If there be a State in this Union that can say with 
 truth that her federal connection confers no special benefit 
 of a material character, that State is Maine. And yet, sir, 
 no State is more attached to the Federal Union than Maine. 
 Her affection and her pride are centered in the Union, and 
 God knows that she has contributed of her best blood and 
 treasure without stint in supporting the war for the Union ; 
 and she will do so to the end. But she resents, and I, 
 speaking for her, resent the insinuation that she derives 
 any undue advantage from federal legislation, or that she 
 
 gets a single dollar she does not pay back I 
 
 have spoken in vindication of a State that is as inde- 
 pendent and as proud as any within the limits of the 
 Union. I have spoken for a people as high-toned and 
 as honorable as can be found in the wide world many
 
 168 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 of them my constituents who are as manly and as brave 
 as ever faced the ocean's storms. So long, sir, as I have 
 a seat on this floor, the State of Maine shall not be slan- 
 dered by the gentleman from Ohio, or by gentlemen from 
 any other State. 
 
 "A great deal has been said recently in the other end 
 of the Capitol in regard to the fishing bounties, a portion 
 of which is paid to Maine. I have a word to say on that 
 matter, and I may as well say it here. According to the 
 records of the Navy Department, the State of Maine has 
 sent into the naval service since the beginning of this war 
 six thousand skilled seamen, to say nothing of the trained 
 and invaluable officers she has contributed to the same 
 sphere of patriotic duty. For these men the State has 
 received no credit whatever on her quotas for the Army. 
 If you will calculate the amount of bounty that would have 
 been paid to that number of men had they enlisted in the 
 army, instead of entering the navy, as they did without 
 bounty, you will find it will foot up a larger sum than 
 Maine has received in fishing bounties for the past twenty 
 years. Thus, sir, the original proposition on which fishing 
 bounties were granted that they would build up a hardy 
 and skillful class of mariners for the public defense in time 
 of public danger has been made good a hundred and a 
 thousand-fold by the experience and the developments of 
 this war." 
 
 On the 21st June he added this further testimony upon 
 the same subject : " The sentiment of Maine is loyal to the 
 core, and she has shown her loyalty by complying with 
 patriotic readiness to all demands thus far made upon her
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 169 
 
 for soldiers to recruit the army or for sailors to man the 
 navy." 
 
 On the same .day, June 21, 1864, he spoke upon the 
 Conscription bill, and the following extract will afford a fair 
 idea of the spirit of his remarks : 
 
 "A conscription is a hard thing at best, Mr. Speaker, 
 but the people of this country are patriotically willing to 
 submit to one in this great crisis, for the great cause at 
 stake. There is no necessity, however, for making it abso- 
 lutely merciless and sweeping. I say, in my judgment there 
 is no necessity for making it so, even if there were no ante- 
 cedent question as to the expediency and practicability of 
 the measure. I believe the law, as it stands, allowing com- 
 mutation and substitution, is sufficiently effective, if judi- 
 ciously enforced. It will raise a large number of men by its 
 direct operation, and it will secure a very large amount of 
 money with which to pay bounties to volunteers. 
 
 " I can not refrain from asking gentlemen around me, 
 whether in their judgment the pending measure, if submitted 
 to the popular vote, would receive the support of even a 
 respectable minority in any district in the loyal States? 
 Just let it be understood that whoever the lot falls on must 
 go, regardless of all business considerations, all private in- 
 terests, all personal engagements, all family obligations ; that 
 the draft is to be sharp, decisive, final, and inexorable, with- 
 out commutation and without substitution, and my word for 
 it, you will create consternation in all the loyal States. Such 
 a conscription was never resorted to but once, even in the 
 French Empire under the absolutism of the first Napoleon; 
 and for the Congress of the United States to attempt its en-
 
 170 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 forcement upon their constituents is to ignore the first prin- 
 ciples of republican and representative government." 
 
 When the Enrollment bill was under consideration in the 
 House, February 21, 1865, Mr. Elaine moved to amend the 
 second section by adding the following : 
 
 " Provided, That in any call for troops, no county, town, 
 township, ward, precinct, or election district, shall have 
 credit except for men actually furnished on said call, or 
 preceding call, by said county, town, township, ward, pre- 
 cinct, or election district, and mustered into the military or 
 naval service on the quota thereof." 
 
 In favor of this amendment, among other things, Mr. 
 Elaine said : " Throughout the whole country we hear of 
 substitute brokers selling these credits, obtained in some 
 mysterious way, as one would sell town scrip in the market ; 
 and from this source has risen a large number of those con- 
 structive ' paper credits ' against which my amendment is 
 leveled, and which, for the future, it will prevent. It may 
 not be in our power to remedy the wrong practices of the 
 past, but from this time forward we can guard against the 
 repetition of these practices. We can deal with equal and 
 exact justice to all men and to all sections; and above all, 
 we can deal justly by the government in its struggle for 
 existence. In its hour of peril it calls for men living, 
 active, resolute men, and it is worse than madness to answer 
 this call with any thing else than men. 
 
 " Let me say in conclusion, Mr. Speaker, that nothing so 
 discourages and disheartens the brave men at the front as 
 the belief that proper measures are not adopted at home for 
 re-enforcing and sustaining them. Even a lukewarmness or
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 171 
 
 a backwardness in that respect is enough ; but when you 
 add to that the suspicion that unfair devices have been re- 
 sorted to by those -charged with filling quotas, you naturally 
 influence the prejudices and passions of our veterans in the 
 field in a manner calculated to lessen their personal zeal and 
 generally to weaken the discipline of the army. After four 
 years of such patriotic and heroic effort for national unity as 
 the world has never witnessed before, we can not now afford 
 to have the great cause injured or its fair fame darkened by 
 a single unworthy incident connected with it. The improper 
 practices of individuals can not disgrace or degrade the 
 Nation ; but after these practices are brought to the attention 
 of Congress, we shall assuredly be disgraced and degraded 
 if we fail to apply the requisite remedy when that remedy 
 is in our power. Let us then, in this hour of triumph to 
 the national arms, do our duty here, our duty to the troops 
 in the field, our duty to our constituents at home, and our 
 duty, above all, to our country, whose existence has been in 
 such peril in the past, but whose future of greatness and 
 glory seems now so assured and so radiant." 
 
 During the whole period of reconstruction, Elaine was 
 one of the most active, energetic, and useful members of the 
 House. He was vigorous, but calm; determined, but not 
 acrimonious ; urgent in the presentation of fact and argu- 
 ment, but willing to hear and weigh all his opponent had to 
 present. In shaping some of the more important features 
 of the Fourteenth Amendment, particularly that relating to 
 the basis of representation, his efforts were unceasing till 
 they were crowned by success. There are few things more 
 valuable and interesting in the history of Congress than the
 
 172 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 deliberations which led to practical reconstruction, and in 
 every phase of these, by word and deed, Mr. Elaine bore a 
 prominent part. 
 
 December 10, 1866, he spoke upon, " What the Govern- 
 ment Owes Its Subjects." We quote briefly as follows: 
 
 " Among the solemn duties of a sovereign government is 
 the protection of those citizens who, under great temptations 
 and amid great perils, maintain their faith and their loyalty. 
 The obligation on the Federal Government to protect the 
 loyalists of the South is supreme, and they must take all 
 needful means to secure that protection. Among the most 
 needful is the gift of free suffrage, and that must be guaran- 
 teed. There is no protection you can extend to a man so 
 effective and conclusive as the power to protect himself. 
 And in assuring protection to the loyal citizens, you assure 
 permanency to the government ; so that the bestowal of suf- 
 frage is not merely the discharge of a personal obligation 
 toward those who are enfranchised, but it is the most far- 
 sighted provision against social disorder, the surest guaranty 
 of peace, prosperity, and public justice." 
 
 While Mr. Elaine was absent in Europe, in 1867, there 
 was quite an excitement in various parts of the country over 
 the specious theory of paying the debt of the government 
 in greenbacks or in other words, taking up one form of obli- 
 gation by substituting another. Mr. Pendleton in Ohio, and 
 General Butler in Massachusetts, had set this paper ball in 
 motion, and it seemed to be making some headway. Shortly 
 after his return, in the autumn of 1867, at a special adjourned 
 session of Congress, Mr. Elaine attacked the Pendleton- 
 Butler heresy in a speech which showed up the absurdity
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 173 
 
 of the theory upon which it was based, and the utter folly 
 of calling the means it proposed by the commercial name of 
 payment. This speech is reproduced in another part of the 
 present work, but herewith we submit a shorter effort on 
 the same subject which will be found interesting. It was 
 delivered by Mr. Elaine in the House, March 7, 1868, and 
 is as follows : 
 
 " The questions involved in paying off the five-twenty 
 bonds, Mr. Chairman, are surrounded to a considerable ex- 
 tent with gratuitous misrepresentations of heated partisans, 
 and to no small degree, I fear, with honest misapprehensions 
 on the part of those who desire the maintenance of the 
 public credit untarnished and inviolate. Having addressed 
 the House at some length on this subject at the opening of 
 the session, I desire now to add a few words by way of appen- 
 dix, and possibly of explanation of some errors which are 
 industriously disseminated through the country. 
 
 " First. Many persons seem to imagine, and many Demo- 
 cratic papers have deliberately stated, that a proposition has 
 been made in Congress to pay off the five-twenty bonds in 
 coin at this time, while gold commands a heavy premium over 
 greenbacks. And on this groundless premise many honest- 
 minded men wax exceeding worth, and cry out with proper 
 indignation against the bondholder having gold when the 
 pensioner, the soldier, and the day-laborer have to take green- 
 backs for what is due to them. Now, to all persons afflicted 
 with this error, let me say that no man in Congress has been 
 fool enough or knave enough to propose that the five-twenties 
 be paid in gold a single day before the greenbacks shall be paid 
 in gold likewise. The man who holds a greenback holds the
 
 174 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 government obligation to pay in gold just as much as a man 
 who holds a five-twenty bond, and it would be just cause 
 of complaint if the government should anticipate the pay- 
 ment of the five-twenties in gold before it is ready to pay 
 the greenback in gold also. The first series of the five- 
 twenties will not fall due until May, 1882, more than four- 
 teen years from this time. Long before that date is reached 
 we shall be on specie-paying basis, and every holder of a 
 greenback will be able to secure gold for it at his option, 
 and then there will no longer be any objection to paying the 
 bondholder in gold also. Nor, indeed, on the other hand, 
 will the bondholder then object to being paid in greenbacks, 
 as the two kinds of currency will then be convertible and 
 co-equal. 
 
 "Second. Those who clamor for paying off the five- 
 twenties in greenbacks at this time, on the ground that 
 money which is good enough for the pensioner, the soldier, 
 and the day-laborer, is good enough for the bondholder like- 
 wise, seem to forget that the process by which they would 
 so easily get rid of the bondholder involves most destructive 
 consequences to the pensioner, the soldier, the day-laborer, 
 and every other person who owns, handles, or uses green- 
 backs. It is palpable and admitted that the five-twenties can 
 not be paid off in greenbacks without a very large inflation 
 of the currency, and to inflate the currency is to render 
 each particular dollar worth so much less, to rob each par- 
 ticular dollar of its purchasing power, to the precise extent 
 that the inflation is carried. And if this inflation be carried 
 to the $300,000,000 of new and additional issue advocated 
 by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler), in his
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 175 
 
 elaborate speech a few weeks since, the result must be 
 ruinous and distressing in the extreme to pensioners, soldiers, 
 day-laborers, and ajl other classes whose means are limited. 
 Indeed, with the amount of inflation named, I confidently 
 believe that the classes of citizens to whom I have referred 
 and all others similarly situated would be deprived in effect 
 of nearly one-half of what they now receive. To my mind 
 no more ingenious and certain way of robbing the class who 
 have small fixed incomes or who work for daily wages could 
 possibly be devised than to pay off the five-twenty bonds in 
 greenbacks procured by an additional and inflated issue. On 
 the other hand, if no mischievous delusion of this kind be 
 resorted to, we shall without any farther contraction of the 
 currency, and without any financial convulsion, gravitate 
 steadily and safely toward specie payment. We shall thus, 
 without diminishing the present volume of greenbacks, be 
 continually enhancing their purchasing power, making the 
 money of pensioners, soldiers, and day-laborers far more 
 valuable to them, month by month and year by year, and in 
 the end render a paper dollar the full equivalent of a gold 
 dollar. Then, when the government shall be paying its green- 
 back creditor in gold, there will certainly be no objection to 
 paying the bondholder in gold also; and no one proposes to 
 do it a day earlier I 
 
 " Third. Does any sane man doubt that the inflation of 
 the currency would speedily result in its depreciation? If 
 so, he shuts his eyes to the prominent facts of history, to our 
 own experience as a Nation, and to the plainest deductions of 
 common sense. An excess of irredeemable money at once 
 raises the price of all commodities necessary for daily con-
 
 176 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 sumption. Clothing becomes higher and food becomes higher 
 without a corresponding increase on the part of those of 
 limited means to purchase these articles. The rich can 
 stand it, but what would become of the poor? The man 
 who lives by his daily toil would find the necessaries of life 
 run up in price far beyond any increase he could hope to 
 secure for his labor; and it would soon become a struggle 
 for existence with him and his family. I do not think any 
 imagination can picture or foretell the misery that would be 
 inflicted on this country if the currency should be inflated 
 to the extent necessary tp pay the five-twenties in green- 
 backs, as advocated by the gentleman from Massachusetts 
 [Mr. Butler], and the gentleman from Ohio, not now a mem- 
 ber of this House [Mr. Pendleton]. And in this connec- 
 nection I desire further to say that it is an immense delu- 
 sion to attribute any of the dullness now prevalent in busi- 
 ness circles to a scarcity of money. We have over seven 
 hundred million of dollars of paper money now in circulation 
 nearly three times as much as the entire bank circulation of 
 the United States prior to 1861, while it is quite notori- 
 ous that the money markets in our chief business centers 
 were rarely known to be easier, or more abundantly sup- 
 plied than during the whole of this winter. Moreover busi- 
 ness of all kinds in France and England at this time is far 
 duller than with us ; and yet, in both these countries the ple- 
 thora of money is in excess of what was ever known before. 
 The Bank of France alone holds a surplus of $200,000,000, 
 and a corresponding amount is held in the Bank of England 
 and by the large banking houses at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
 In view of these facts it seems to me that no delusion is so
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 177 
 
 absurd as to suppose that any relief could come from an in- 
 flation of the currency. Misery, wide-spread and hopeless, 
 would be its onlyjand inevitable result. 
 
 "Fourth. Nor do I see how any gentleman can consist- 
 ently propose an inflation of the currency in the face of 
 an express and solemn pledge to the contrary by Congress. 
 When the government was very hard pressed for money, and 
 when the great fear was that our whole financial fabric, like 
 the continental system of our Revolutionary ancestors might 
 be utterly and hopelessly ruined by a deluge of paper money, 
 Congress, by deliberate enactment of June 30, 1864, pledged 
 to all the public creditors that " the total amount of treas- 
 ury notes issued or to be issued should never exceed $400,- 
 000,000." We are now within $40,000,000 of that amount, 
 and if we were ever so eager to pay off our five-twenties in 
 greenbacks we are absolutely estopped by the $400,000,000 
 pledge. If we disregard that pledge we might just as well 
 trample on others and take a short cut at once to repudia- 
 tion and national bankruptcy. A government that will dis- 
 regard one solemn pledge can not expect to be trusted on 
 other pledges. 
 
 "Fifth. Being thus estopped from procuring greenbacks 
 by an additional issue, where else can we secure them for 
 the purpose of paying off our five-twenty bonds at this 
 time? We have no surplus in the treasury available for 
 this purpose, and there remains but one resource, and that 
 is to secure them by taxation. But do the people desire at 
 this time to be taxed for the purpose of anticipating the 
 payment of a debt which does not fall due for more than 
 
 fourteen years to come? The general, I may say universal, 
 
 12
 
 178 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 demand from the people is for a reduction of taxes to the 
 lowest point consistent with a rigidly economical administra- 
 tion of the general government; and, for one, I am in favor 
 of the repeal and removal of every tax that can possibly be 
 dispensed with especially those taxes that hinder and em- 
 barrass the manufacturing and productive industry of the 
 country. With the taxes thus reduced we can certainly 
 hope for no surplus to apply to the redemption of the five- 
 twenties, and it would seem to me an intolerable burden and 
 an inexcusable folly to lay taxes on the people at this time 
 for the purpose of anticipating the payment of a large por- 
 tion of the entire national debt. It is enough, in all con- 
 science, to pay the interest; and it seems little short of 
 madness to propose levying taxes for the purpose of taking 
 from the pockets of the people a sufficient amount of green- 
 backs to anticipate the payment of a large share of the 
 principal ! 
 
 " Sixth. There is in the United States to-day an amount 
 of gold and silver coin variously estimated at from two hun- 
 dred and fifty to four hundred and fifty million dollars, 
 every cent of which is as useless for purposes of a circu- 
 lating medium as though it were all buried in the depths 
 of the ocean. To inflate the currency is to increase the 
 premium on gold and remove it still further from sight. 
 But if we do not destroy our currency by a wild inflation, 
 we shall, within a brief period, reach a point where paper 
 will be the equivalent of gold, and then the vast amount of 
 specie will at once spring into circulation. There is no 
 danger of inflation from an excess of gold and silver, because 
 the laws of export and of supply and demand resulting
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 179 
 
 from our commercial intercourse with other nations will 
 always maintain a just equilibrium in the matter of a specie 
 currency. The danger of inflation, with its manifold and 
 multiplying evils, arises only when we have an irredeemable 
 paper currency, which can not be used to pay a single dol- 
 lar that we owe abroad, and whose permanent existence is 
 an anomaly at war with all the interests of commerce and 
 trade. As soon as we reach the point where the govern- 
 ernment is able to pay gold for its greenbacks we shall 
 thereby and at once call the whole mass of gold, now so se- 
 curely hoarded, into the channels of circulation, to quicken 
 industry and give stability to our financial system. Is not 
 that a far better and wiser course than to inflate our cur- 
 rency by a forced attempt to anticipate the payment of our 
 five-twenties, and thus launch our whole country on a wild 
 career of paper money, in which speculators will make enor- 
 mous fortunes, and in which rich men will uniformly grow 
 richer, but in which the poor will be ground down to abso- 
 lute beggary, the men of moderate means deprived of their 
 resources, and the day laborer be utterly unable to subsist 
 on the fruit of his toil? This era of speculation, with all 
 of its evils, would be the direct result of that policy which 
 clamors to-day for the payment of the five-twenties in 
 greenbacks the greenbacks to take care of themselves 
 when they have done their work of financial ruin leaving 
 us a bankrupt people with a dishonored debt and a debased, 
 unredeemed, and irredeemable currency. The other policy, 
 which I have done my utmost to support and uphold, is to 
 pay both bond and greenback in gold not now, but in our 
 own good time and not to pay the bond in gold until after
 
 180 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 the greenback shall be paid in gold likewise. In other 
 words, the policy which I advocate is to bring our entire 
 currency in due season, without haste, without rashness, 
 without contraction, without financial convulsion, up to the 
 specie standard : calling into circulation the vast amount of 
 gold and silver which now lies hidden and buried having 
 all our business conducted on a safe and secure basis, when 
 labor shall meet with its full reward, when every man will 
 know what he is dealing in and how much he is worth, and 
 when the entire country will rejoice in an abundant circula- 
 tion of both gold and paper, in which paper will be as good 
 as gold, and gold no better than paper." 
 
 Mr. Blame's position upon the currency question and upon 
 the finances of the country has been sound and conservative 
 from his first entrance into public life. He always labored to 
 bring the greenback up to par with gold, and fought the plan, 
 when introduced into Congress, of retiring the greenback 
 while its value was depreciated. He favored the contraction 
 of the greenback issue as soon as it could be safely and 
 honestly effected ; opposed inflation in all forms ; and coun- 
 seled economy in every department of the government. 
 While chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, it was 
 his practice to scrutinize every item introduced into a bill, 
 and his policy to reduce as many as would bear reduction. 
 He had several forensic tilts with General Logan on his 
 attempts to cut down the cost of maintaining the army. 
 
 Mr. Elaine's anticipations regarding the then impending 
 administration of General Grant were thus expressed in the 
 House on December 10, 1868 : 
 
 " General Grant's administration will have high vantage
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 181 
 
 ground from the day of its inauguration. Its responsibili- 
 ties will indeed be great ; its power will be large ; its oppor- 
 tunities will be splendid ; and to meet them all we have a 
 tried and true man, who adds to his other great elements of 
 strength that of perfect trust and confidence on the part of 
 the people. And to reassure ourselves of his executive 
 character, if reassurance were necessary, let us remember 
 that great military leaders have uniformly proved the wisest, 
 firmest, and best of civil rulers. William III, Charles XII, 
 Frederick of Prussia, are not more conspicuous instances in 
 monarchial governments than Washington, Jackson, and Tay- 
 lor have proved in our own. Whatever, therefore, may lie 
 before us in the untrodden and often beclouded path of the 
 future whether it be financial embarrassment, or domestic 
 trouble of another and more serious type, or misunderstand- 
 ings with foreign nations, or the extension of our flag and 
 our sovereignty over insular or continental possessions, 
 north or south, that fate or fortune may peacefully offer to 
 our ambition let us believe with all confidence that Gen- 
 eral Grant's administration will meet every exigency, with 
 the courage, the ability, and the conscience which American 
 nationality and Christian civilization demand." 
 
 March 4, 1869, Mr. Elaine was elected Speaker of the 
 House, being then in his thirty-ninth year. The vote 
 stood : For James G. Elaine, of Maine, 135 votes ; for 
 Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana, 57 votes. 
 
 Upon taking the chair, he addressed the House as 
 follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : I thank you 
 profoundly for the great honor which you have just con-
 
 182 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 ferred upon me. The gratification which this signal mark of 
 your confidence brings to me finds its only drawback in the 
 diffidence with which I assume the weighty duties devolved 
 upon me. Succeeding to a chair made illustrious by the 
 services of such eminent statesmen and skilled parliamen- 
 tarians as Clay, and Stevenson, and Polk, and Winthrop, 
 and Banks, and Grow, and Colfax, I may well distrust my 
 ability to meet the just expectations of those who have 
 shown me such marked partiality. But relying, gentlemen, 
 on my honest purpose to perform all my duties faithfully 
 and fearlessly, and trusting in a large measure to the indul- 
 gence which I am sure you will always extend to me, I 
 shall hope to retain, as I have secured, your confidence, your 
 kindly regard, and your generous support. 
 
 "The Forty-first Congress assembles at an auspicious 
 period in the history of our government. The splendid and 
 impressive ceremonial which we have just witnessed in 
 another part of the Capitol appropriately symbolizes the 
 triumphs of the past and the hopes of the future. A great 
 chieftain, whose sword at the head of gallant and victorious 
 armies has saved the Republic from dismemberment and 
 ruin, has been fitly called to the highest civic honor which 
 a grateful people can bestow. Sustained by a Congress that 
 so ably represents the loyalty, the patriotism, and the per- 
 sonal worth of the Nation, the President this day inaugu- 
 rated will assure to the country an administration of purity, 
 fidelity, and prosperity ; an era of liberty regulated by law, 
 and of law thoroughly inspired with liberty. 
 
 "Congratulating you, gentlemen, upon the happy aug- 
 uries of the day, and invoking the gracious blessing of Al-
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 183 
 
 mighty God on the arduous and responsible labors before 
 you, I am now ready to take the oath of office and enter 
 upon the discharge, of the duties to which you have called 
 me." [Applause.] 
 
 The oath of office was then administered to the Speaker- 
 elect by Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, the senior 
 member of the body. 
 
 On the 3d of March, 1871, the Forty-first Congress ex- 
 pired. On that day Mr. S. S. Cox, of New York, offered the 
 following resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, in view of the difficulties involved in the per- 
 formance of the duties of the presiding officer of this House, 
 and of the able, courteous, dignified, and impartial discharge 
 of those duties by the Hon. J. G. Elaine during the present 
 Congress, it is eminently becoming that our thanks be and 
 they are hereby tendered to the Speaker thereof." 
 
 The resolution was agreed to. Speaker Elaine, in ad- 
 journing the House at noon of that day, said: 
 
 " Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : Our labors 
 are at an end; but I delay the final adjournment long 
 enough to return my most profound and respectful thanks ' 
 for the commendation which you have been pleased to be- 
 stow upon my official course and conduct. 
 
 " In a deliberative body of this character a presiding 
 officer is fortunate if he retains the confidence and steady 
 support of his political associates. Beyond that you give 
 me the assurance that I have earned the respect and good- 
 will of those from whom I am separated by party lines. 
 Your expressions are most grateful to me, and are most 
 gratefully acknowledged.
 
 184 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 " The Congress whose existence closes with this hour en- 
 joys a memorable distinction. It is the first in which all 
 the States have been represented on this floor since the 
 baleful winter that preceded our late bloody war. Ten 
 years have passed since then years of trial and of triumph ; 
 years of wild destruction and years of careful rebuilding; 
 and after all, and as the result of all, the national govern- 
 ment is here to-day, united, strong, proud, defiant, and just, 
 with a territorial area vastly expanded, and with three ad- 
 ditional States represented on the folds of its flag. For 
 these prosperous fruits of our great struggle let us humbly 
 give thanks to the God of battles and to the Prince of 
 peace. 
 
 "And now, gentlemen, with one more expression of the 
 obligation I feel for the considerate kindness with which 
 you have always sustained me, I perform the only remain- 
 ing duty of my office, in declaring, as I now do, that the 
 House of Representatives of the Forty-first Congress is ad- 
 journed without day." [Great Applause.] 
 
 When the Forty-second Congress convened on the 4th 
 of March, 1871, Mr. Blaine was re-elected Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, the vote standing as follows : 
 
 James G. Blaine, of Maine, received 126 votes. Geo. 
 W. Morgan, of Ohio, received 92 votes. 
 
 After Mr. Blaine had been conducted to the chair he ad- 
 dressed the House as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen : The speakership of the American House of 
 Representatives has always been esteemed as an enviable 
 honor. A re-election to the position carries with it peculiar 
 gratification, in that it implies an approval of past official
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 185 
 
 bearing. For this great mark of your confidence I can but 
 return to you my sincerest thanks, with the assurance of 
 my utmost devotion to the duties which you call upon me 
 to discharge. 
 
 " Chosen by the party representing the political majority 
 in this House, the Speaker owes a faithful allegiance to the 
 principles and the policy of that party. But he will fall far 
 below the honorable requirements of his station if he fails to 
 give to the minority their full rights under the rules which 
 he is called upon to administer. The successful working of 
 our grand system of government depends largely upon the 
 vigilance of party organizations, and the wholesome legisla- 
 tion which this House produces and perfects is that which 
 results from opposing forces mutually eager and watchful 
 and well-nigh balanced in numbers. 
 
 " The Forty-second Congress assembles at a period of 
 general content, happiness, and prosperity throughout the 
 land. Under the wise administration of the national gov- 
 ernment peace reigns in all our borders, and the only serious 
 misunderstanding with any foreign power is, we may hope, 
 at this moment in process of honorable, cordial, and lasting 
 adjustment. We are fortunate in meeting at such a time, 
 in representing such constituencies, in legislating for such a 
 country. 
 
 " Trusting, gentlemen, that our official intercourse may 
 be free from all personal asperity, believing that all our la- 
 bors will eventuate for the public good, and craving the 
 blessing of Him without whose aid we labor in vain, I am 
 now ready to proceed with the further organization of the 
 House ; and, as the first step thereto, I will myself take the
 
 186 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 oath prescribed by the Constitution and laws." [Loud Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 The oath of office was then administered by Hon. H. L. 
 Dawes, of Massachusetts, who had served longest continu- 
 ously as a member of the House. 
 
 From the first the success of Mr. Elaine as a Speaker was 
 conspicuous. Well versed in parliamentary law, his rulings 
 were succicnt and impartial. Within twelve days after tak- 
 ing his seat occurred the memorable contest on the floor of 
 the House between the Speaker and Benjamin F. Butler, of 
 Massachusetts. The subject under consideration was a reso- 
 lution for a committee of inquiry on alleged outrages in the 
 Southern States. An amendment to the resolution had been 
 added in the committee at the suggestion of Mr. Blaine, and 
 this fact coming to the knowledge of Mr. Butler, the latter 
 gentleman made it a basis of one of his violent and rather 
 unscrupulous attacks. Hereupon the Speaker called William 
 A. Wheeler, of New York, to the chair, and entered the 
 arena against his wily and able antagonist. The member 
 from Massachusetts began the onset by saying : 
 
 " What would the gentlman have thought of me and ten 
 of my associates if we had come into the House after the 
 caucus had made their nomination for Speaker, and had voted 
 to throw the speakership into the hands of the minority of 
 this House as might have been done? It is a caucus called 
 merely for the purpose of nominating a candidate for Speaker." 
 
 MR. PETERS I should have supposed you had some 
 devilish design underneath. [Laughter.] 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts That is exactly what I 
 think about this; you and I agree exactly.
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 187 
 
 MR. ELAINE, the Speaker (Mr. Wheeler, in the chair) I 
 I desire to ask the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
 Butler), whether he. denies to me the right to have drawn 
 that resolution ? 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts I have made no asser- 
 tion on that subject, one way or the other. 
 
 MR. BLAINE Did not the gentleman distinctly know that 
 I drew it? 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts No, sir. 
 
 MR. BLAINE Did I not take it to the gentleman and read 
 it to him ? 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Yes, sir. 
 
 MR. BLAINE Did I not show him tjie manuscript ? 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Yes, sir. 
 
 MR. BLAINE In my own hand-writing ? 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts No, sir. 
 
 MR. BLAINE And at his suggestion I added these words : 
 " and the expenses of said committee shall be paid from the 
 contingent fund of the House of Representatives" [applause], 
 and the fact that ways and means were wanted to pay the 
 expenses was the only objection he made to it. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts What was the answer 
 the gentleman made ? I suppose I may ask that, now that 
 the Speaker has come upon the floor. 
 
 MR. BLAIXE The answer was that I immediately wrote 
 the amendment providing for the payment of the expenses 
 of the committee. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts What was my answer ? 
 Was it not, that under no circumstances would I have any- 
 thing to do with it, being bound by the action of the caucus?
 
 188 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 MR. ELAINE No, sir ; the answer was that under no cir- 
 cumstances would you serve as chairman. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Or have anything to do 
 with the resolution. 
 
 MR. ELAINE There are two hundred and twenty-four 
 members of the House of Representatives. A committee of 
 thirteen can be found without the gentleman from Massachu- 
 setts being on it. His service is not essential to the con- 
 stitution of the committee. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Why did you not find 
 such a committee, then ? 
 
 MR. ELAINE Because I knew very well, that if I omitted 
 the appointment of. the gentleman, it would be heralded 
 throughout the length and breadth of the country by the 
 claquers who have so industriously disturbed this letter this 
 morning, that the speaker had packed the committee, as the 
 gentleman said he would, with " weak-kneed Republicans," 
 who would not go into an investigation vigorously, as he 
 would. That was the reason [applause]. So that the chair 
 laid the responsibility upon the gentleman of declining the 
 appointment. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts I knew that was the trick 
 of the chair. 
 
 MR. ELAINE Ah, the "trick"! we know what the gentle- 
 man meant by the word "trick". I am very glad to know 
 that the " trick " was successful. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts No doubt. 
 
 MR. ELAINE It is this "trick" which places the gentle- 
 man from Massachusetts on his responsibility before the 
 country.
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 189 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Exactly. 
 
 MR. ELAINE Wholly. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of .Massachusetts Wholly. 
 
 MR. BLAINE Now, sir; the gentleman from Massachu- 
 setts talks about the coercion to vote for the resolution. I 
 do not know what any one of them may have to say; but 
 if there be here to-day a single gentleman who has given to 
 the gentleman from Massachusetts the intimation that he felt 
 coerced, that he was in any way restrained from free action, let 
 him get up now and speak, or " forever after hold his peace." 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Oh, yes. 
 
 MR. BLAINE The gentleman from Massachusetts says in 
 his letter : 
 
 "Having been appointed against my wishes, expressed both 
 publicly and privately, by the speaker, as chairman of a committee 
 to investigate the state of affairs in the South, ordered to-day 
 by Democratic votes, against the most earnest protest of more than 
 two-thirds of the majority of the Republicans of the House." 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Yes, sir. 
 
 MR. BLAINE This statement is so bald and groundless 
 that I do not know what reply to make to it. It is made 
 in the face of the fact that on the roll-call fifty-eight Repub- 
 licans voted for the resolution, and forty-nine besides the 
 gentleman from Massachusetts against it. I deny that the 
 gentleman has the right to speak for any member who voted 
 for it, unless it may be the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
 Maynard), who voted for it for the purpose, probably, of 
 moving a reconsideration, a very common, a very justifiable, 
 and proper course whenever any gentleman chooses to adopt 
 it. I am not criticising it at all, but if there be any one of
 
 190 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 the fifty-eight gentlemen who voted for the resolution under 
 coercion I would like the gentleman from Massachusetts to 
 designate him. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts I am not here to retail 
 private conversations. 
 
 MR. ELAINE Oh, no; but you will distribute throughout 
 the entire country unfounded calumnies, purporting to rest 
 upon assertions made in private conversation, which, when 
 called for, can not be verified. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Pardon me, sir, I said 
 there was a caucus. 
 
 MR. BLAINE I hope God will pardon you ; but you 
 ought not to ask me to do it! [Laughter.] 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts I will ask God, and not 
 you. 
 
 MR. BLAINE I am glad the gentleman will. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts I have no favors to ask 
 of the devil, and let me say that the caucus agreed upon a 
 definite mode of action. 
 
 MR. BLAINE The caucus? Now, let me say here and 
 now that the chairman of that caucus, sitting on my right, 
 " a chevalier " in legislation, " sans peur et sans reproche" the 
 gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Blair] stated, as a man of 
 honor, as he is, that he was bound to say officially from 
 the chair, that it was not considered and could not be con- 
 sidered binding upon gentlemen ; and more than that, talk 
 about tricks, why, the very infamy of political trickery 
 never compassed a design so foolish and so wicked as to 
 bring together a caucus and attempt to pledge them to the 
 support of measures which might violate not only the politi-
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 191 
 
 cal principles but the religious faith of men, to the support 
 of a bill drawn by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. 
 Butler], which might violate the conscientious scruples of 
 men, and yet, forsooth, he comes in here and declares that 
 whatever a caucus may determine upon, however hastily, 
 however crudely, however wrongfully, you must support it ! 
 Why, even in the worst days of the Democracy, when the 
 gentleman himself was in the front rank of the worst wing 
 of it, when was it ever attempted to say that a majority of 
 a party caucus could bind men upon measures that involved 
 questions of constitutional law, of personal honor, of religious 
 scruple ? 
 
 The gentleman asked what would have been done ? He 
 asked my colleague [Mr. Peters] 'what would have been 
 done in the case of members of a party voting against the 
 caucus nominee for Speaker. I understood that was intended 
 a thrust at myself. Caucus nominations of officers have al- 
 ways been held as binding. But just here let me say that if 
 a minority did not vote against the decision of the caucus that 
 nominated me for Speaker, in my judgment, it was not the 
 fault of the gentleman from Massachusetts. [Applause.] 
 If the requisite number could have been found to have gone 
 over to the despised Nazarenes on the opposite side, that 
 gentleman would have led them as gallantly as he did the 
 forces in the Charleston Convention. [Renewed applause 
 and laughter.] 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Mr. Speaker 
 
 MR. BLAINE I have the floor ; I do not very often ask it. 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts Let not your conscience 
 accuse you.
 
 192 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 MR. ELAINE Mr. Speaker, in old times it was the or- 
 dinary habit of the Speaker of the House of Representatives 
 to take part in debate. The custom has fallen into disuse. 
 For one, I am very glad that it has ; for one, I approve of 
 the conclusion that forbids it. The speaker should, with 
 consistent fidelity to his own party, be the impartial admin- 
 istrator of the rules of the House, and a constant participa- 
 tion in the discussion of members would take from him that 
 appearance of impartiality which it is so important to main- 
 tain in rulings of the chair. But at the same time I despise 
 and denounce the insolence of the gentleman from Massachu- 
 setts when he attempts to say that the representative from 
 the third district of the State of Maine has no right to frame 
 a resolution, has no right to seek that under the rules that 
 resolution shall be adopted; has no right to ask the judg- 
 ment of the House upon that resolution. Why, even the 
 insolence of that gentleman himself never reached that sub- 
 lime height before. [Applause.] 
 
 And that is the whole extent of my offending. That I 
 wrote a resolution, that I took it to various gentlemen on 
 this side of the House, that I said to gentlemen on the other 
 side of the House, " This is a resolution on which you ought 
 not to fillibuster ; it is a resolution demanding a fair, impar- 
 tial investigation, and under the rules I desire that this reso- 
 lution may be offered, and my colleague (Mr. Peters) will 
 offer it." And then the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
 Butler) telegraphs, he knows to how many papers through 
 the whole United States, for doubtless his letters will be 
 found in extenso wherever he could get it inserted in this 
 morning's journals, that this was a "legislative trick."
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 193 
 
 MR. BUTLER, of Massachusetts And I repeat it now. 
 
 MR. ELAINE There are certain repetitions which do not 
 amount to slander 4 and the gentleman may repeat every 
 thing in that connection, as his colleague [Mr. Davis], very 
 well says, " Except the truth." 
 
 MR. BUTLER I did not hear my colleague say that. 
 
 MR. BLAINE The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. 
 Butler], in his remarkable letter, uses this language: 
 
 "Because, the very resolution which authorized the committee 
 was so framed, and in my belief, purposely, in the interests of the 
 Democratic party, that such committee can not report, under the 
 rules of the House, in the face of the Democratic opposition, and 
 by their permission, in more than a year from this time, the usual 
 power not being inserted in it l to report at any time.' " 
 
 The gentleman from Massachusetts is a very astute law- 
 yer, but it has fallen under my observation that he is ex- 
 tremely ignorant of the rules of this House. Had the res- 
 olution contained those words it would have been tantamount 
 to suspending the rules, and one objection would have pre- 
 vented its coming in. What does the resolution say ? That 
 the committee shall be appointed with power to report in 
 December. A report from the meeting of Congress during 
 the entire month of December shall be in order at any time 
 the committee may wish to make report. 
 
 Eight and a half months intervene between now and De- 
 cember for the committee's labors, and they have one full 
 month with the privilege to report at any time, and yet the 
 gentleman says the resolution was purposely so framed as 
 to exclude the committee from the power to report at all. 
 It was purposely framed and carried over the gentleman's 
 
 13
 
 194 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 point of order. It was to avoid that point of order I omit- 
 ted those words, presuming that if the committee got 
 through their labors at the end of nine months, one whole 
 month at the beginning of the session would be ample in 
 which to make their report. 
 
 I am admonished by the gentlemen around me of a fact, 
 with which I am myself familiar, that the power to report at 
 any time does not always carry with it the exercise of that 
 power. The gentleman himself has been chairman during 
 the entire Congress of a committee empowered to report at 
 any time on this very identical subject, and on other sub- 
 jects committed to it, and the members of that committee 
 will say whether the gentleman always exercised his full 
 power under the rules, and whether, if the power to report 
 at any time had been given to that gentleman, as a chair- 
 man to this committee, and had he accepted the appointment 
 he might not have construed it as he has construed it for 
 nearly two years on the reconstruction committee, to be the 
 power to report at no time ? 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, nobody regrets more sincerely than 
 I do any occurrence which calls me to take the floor. On 
 questions of propriety I appeal to members on both sides 
 of the House, and they will bear me witness that the circu- 
 lation of this letter in the morning prints, its distribution 
 throughout the land by telegraph, the laying it upon the 
 desks of members, was intended to be by the gentleman 
 from Massachusetts, not openly and boldly, but covertly I 
 will not use a stronger phase an insult to the Speaker of 
 this House. As such I resent it. I denounce the letter in 
 all its essential statements, and in all its misstatements, and
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 195 
 
 in all its mean inferences and meaner inuendoes. I de- 
 nounce the letter as groundless, without justification, and 
 the gentleman himself, I trust, will live to see the day when 
 he will be ashamed of having written it. 
 
 When the second session of the Forty-second Congress 
 adjourned, June 8, 1872, Mr. Niblack, of Indiana, took the 
 chair temporarily, when Mr. Samuel J. Randall, of Penn- 
 sylvania, submitted the following resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and hereby 
 tendered to James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House, for the able, 
 prompt, and impartial manner in which he has discharged the 
 duties of his office during the present session." 
 
 The resolution was unanimously adopted. 
 
 On the 3d of March, 1873, Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana, 
 spoke as follows, Hon. Wm. A. Wheeler, of New York, in 
 the Chair : " I rise to present a matter to the House in 
 which I am sure every member will concur. In doing so I 
 perform the most pleasant duty of my entire service on this 
 floor. I offer the following resolution. It has the sincere 
 sanction of my head and of my heart. I moVe its adoption :" 
 
 The clerk read as follows : 
 
 " Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are 
 hereby tendered to Hon. James G. Blaine, for the distinguished 
 ability, and impartiality with which he has discharged the duty of 
 Speaker ot the House of Representatives of the Forty-second 
 Congress." 
 
 The resolution was adopted unanimously. 
 
 On the same day, in adjourning the House sine die, Mr. 
 Blaine spoke as follows: 
 
 " Gentlemen : For the forty-second time, since the Federal 
 Government was organized, its great representative body
 
 196 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 stands on the eve of dissolution. The final word which 
 separates us is suspended for a moment that I may return 
 my sincere thanks for the kind expressions respecting my 
 official conduct, which, without division of party, you have 
 caused to be entered on your journal. 
 
 "At the close of four years' service in this responsible 
 and often trying position, it is a source of honorable pride 
 that I have so administered my trust as to secure the confi- 
 dence and approbation of both sides of the House. It would 
 not be strange if, in the necessarily rapid discharge of the 
 daily business, I should have erred in some of the decisions 
 made on points, and often without precedent to guide me. 
 It has been my good fortune, however, to be always sus- 
 tained by the House, and in no single instance to have had 
 a ruling reversed. I advert to this gratifying fact, to quote 
 the language of the most eloquent of my predecessors, 'In 
 no vain spirit of exhalation, but as furnishing a powerful 
 motive for undissembled gratitude. 
 
 " And now, gentlemen, with a hearty God bless you all, 
 I discharge my only remaining duty in declaring that the 
 House of Representatives for the Forty-second Congress is 
 adjourned without day." [Applause.] 
 
 On the second day of December, 1873, Mr. Blaine was 
 chosen Speaker of the House for the third time, receiving 
 189 votes to 80 votes cast for all others. After being con- 
 ducted to the chair by Mr. Maynard, of Tennessee, and Mr. 
 Wood, of New York, he addressed the House as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : The vote 
 this moment announced by the clerk, is such an expression 
 of your confidence as calls for my sincerest thanks. To be
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 197 
 
 chosen Speaker of the American House of Representatives 
 is always an honorable distinction; to be chosen a third 
 time enhances the -honor more than three-fold; to be chosen 
 by the largest body that ever assembled in the Capitol im- 
 poses a burden of responsibility which only your indulgent 
 kindness could embolden me to assume. 
 
 " The first occupant of this Chair presided over a House 
 of sixty-five members, representing a population far below 
 the present aggregate of the State of New York. At that 
 time in the whole United States there were not fifty thous- 
 and civilized inhabitants to be found one hundred miles dis- 
 tant from the flow of the Atlantic tide. To-day, gentle- 
 men, a large body of you come from beyond that limit, and 
 represent districts then peopled only by the Indian and ad- 
 venturous frontiersman. The National Government is not 
 yet as old as many of its citizens ; but in this brief span 
 of time, less than one lengthened life, it has, under God's 
 providence, extended its power until a continent is the field 
 of its empire and attests the majesty of its law. 
 
 "With the growth of new States and the resulting 
 changes in the centers of population, new interests are de- 
 veloped, rival to the old, but by no means hostile; diverse, 
 but not antagonistic. Nay, rather are all these interests in 
 harmony; and the true science of just government is to 
 give to each its full and fair play, oppressing none by undue 
 exaction, favoring none by undue privilege. It is this great 
 lesson which our daily experience is teaching us, binding us 
 together more closely, making our mutual dependence more 
 manifest, and causing us to feel, whether we live in the 
 North or in the South, in the East or in the West, that
 
 198 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 we have indeed but ' one country, one Constitution, one 
 destiny.'" 
 
 At the expiration of the Forty-third Congress on the 
 third day of March, 1875, Mr. Potter submitted the follow- 
 ing resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are here- 
 by tendered, to Hon. James G. Elaine, Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, for the impartiality, efficiency, and distinguished 
 ability with which he has discharged the trying and arduous duties 
 of his office during the Forty-third Congress." 
 
 The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 
 
 On the same day, when the clock indicated that the 
 hour for the dissolution of the Forty-third Congress had 
 arrived, Speaker Blaine delivered the following valedictory 
 address : 
 
 " Gentlemen : I close with this hour a six years' service 
 as Speaker of the House of Representatives a period sur- 
 passed in length by but two of my predecessors, and equaled 
 by only two others. The rapid mutations of personal and 
 political fortunes in this country have limited the great ma- 
 jority of those who have occupied this Chair to shorter 
 terms of office. 
 
 " It would be the gravest insensibility to the honors and 
 responsibilities of life, not to be deeply touched by so signal 
 a mark of public esteem as that which I have thrice re- 
 ceived at the hands of my political associates. I desire in 
 this last moment to renew to them, one and all, my thanks 
 and my gratitude. 
 
 "To those from whom I differ in my party relations 
 the minority of this House I tender my acknowledgements
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 199 
 
 for the generous courtesy with which they have treated me. 
 By one of those sudden and decisive changes which distin- 
 guish populaf institutions, and which conspicuously mark a 
 free people, that minority is transformed in the ensuing 
 Congress to the governing power of the House. How- 
 ever it might possibly have been under other circumstances, 
 that event renders these words my farewell to the Chair. 
 
 "The speakership of the American House of Represen- 
 tatives is a post of honor, of dignity, of power, of respon- 
 sibility. Its duties are at once complex and continuous ; 
 they are both onerous and delicate ; they are performed in 
 the broad light of day, under the eye of the whole people, 
 subject at all times to the closest observation, and always 
 attended with the sharpest criticism. I think no other offi- 
 cial is held to such instant and such rigid accountability. 
 Parliamentary rulings, in their very nature, are peremptory : 
 almost absolute in authority and instantaneous in effect. 
 They can not always be enforced in such a way as to win 
 applause or secure popularity; but I am sure that no man 
 of any party who is worthy to fill this chair will ever see 
 a dividing line between duty and policy. 
 
 " Thanking you once more, and thanking you most cor- 
 dially for the honorable testimonial you have placed on rec- 
 ord to my credit, I perform my only remaining duty in 
 declaring that the Forty-third Congress has reached its con- 
 stitutional limit, and that the House of Representatives 
 stands adjourned without day." [Applause.] 
 
 The Forty-fourth Congress differed in hue from several 
 of its illustrious predecessors. The Democracy had revived 
 spasmodically and achieved a majority in the National
 
 200 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 House. At the date of convening, December 6, 1875, 
 Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana, was elected Speaker, and Mr. 
 Elaine took his position upon the floor as a recognized 
 leader of the Republican minority. 
 
 It was natural that the civil war should entail an infinity 
 of bitter memories. It still remains to be seen how lontr 
 
 C 
 
 the passions enkindled by that strife will continue to burn. 
 Certain it is that the close of the first decade after the end 
 of the strife and the collapse of the rebellion still found the 
 American heart almost as inflammable as ever to the recol- 
 lections of the conflict. The fact that the opening of the 
 Forty-third Congress witnessed the advent of a great num- 
 ber of the leaders of the Confederacy into the Congress of 
 the United States, did not tend to allay the feelings of re- 
 sentment which had long burned in the loyal heart of the 
 North against those who had tried to destroy the Union. 
 About sixty brigadier-generals of the late Confederate army 
 came into that Congress, nor was their conduct in that body 
 marked with such modesty of demeanor as was likely to 
 elicit favor from the Republicans. They asserted themselves 
 with not a little of their old-time audacity. They ex- 
 pressed regret for nothing that they had done. They 
 seemed rather to glory in the fact that they had been the 
 adherents of the Lost Cause. When ever a debate was 
 sprung touching upon the issues which had been involved in 
 the war they came to the front with as much arrogance as 
 in the ante-bellum epoch. Finally, when the amnesty bill, 
 presented by Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania, was under con- 
 sideration, the clause appended in the way of an amendment, 
 exempting Jefferson Davis from the operations of the bill,
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 201 
 
 gave to the brigadiers a full opportunity to show their tem- 
 per and resubscribe to the heresies, not to say atrocities, of 
 the Rebellion. Foremost among the debaters in the House 
 at this time was Benjamin Hill, of Georgia, who, with more 
 logic than wisdom, undertook to show that he himself and 
 many others were well-nigh as guilty as the chieftain of the 
 ex-Confederacy. It was at this juncture that Mr. Elaine again 
 walked into the arena as the champion of the North. Per- 
 haps he never appeared to a better advantage in a Congres- 
 sional debate than in that which occurred on the 10th of 
 January, 1876. He took advantage of the occasion, and it 
 can not be doubted that his speech was one of the most 
 effective and powerful ever delivered in Congress. The re- 
 port of it resounded through the country like a bugle call, 
 and the impending presidential contest took its tone and 
 character in a large measure from the passionate, patriotic 
 appeal of Mr. Elaine. The measure was entitled " a bill to 
 remove the disabilities imposed by the third section of the 
 fourteenth article of the amendments of the Constitution of 
 the United States." Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania, moved to 
 suspend the rules and take the pending bill from .the 
 Speaker's table. At this juncture Mr. Elaine arose and 
 said: 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, I rise to a privileged question. I move 
 to reconsider the vote which has just been declared. I pro- 
 pose to debate that motion, and now give notice, that if the 
 motion to reconsider is agreed to, it is my intention to offer 
 the amendment which has been read several times. I will 
 not delay the House to have it read again. 
 
 "Every time the question of amnesty has been brought
 
 202 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 before the House by a gentleman on that side for the last 
 two Congresses, it has been done with a certain flourish of 
 magnanimity, which is an imputation on this side of the 
 House, as though the Republican party which has been in 
 charge of the government for the last twelve or fourteen 
 years had been bigoted, narrow, and illiberal, and as though 
 certain very worthy and deserving gentlemen in the Southern 
 States were ground down to-day under a great tyranny and 
 oppression from which the hard-heartedness of this side of 
 the House can not possibly be prevailed upon to relieve 
 them. 
 
 " If I may anticipate as much wisdom as ought to char- 
 acterize that side of the House, this may be the last time 
 that amnesty will be discussed in the American Congress. 
 I therefore, desire, and under the rules of the House, with 
 no thanks to that side for the privilege, to place on record 
 just what the Republican party has done in this matter. I 
 wish to place it there as an imperishable record of liberality, 
 and large-mindedness, and magnanimity, and mercy, far be- 
 yond any that has ever been shown before in the world's 
 history by conqueror to conquered. 
 
 "With the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Randall], 
 I entered this Congress in the midst of the hot flame of 
 war, when the Union was rocking to its foundations, and no 
 man knew whether we were to have a country or not. I 
 think the gentleman from Pennsylvania would have been 
 surprised when he and I were novices in the Thirty-eighth 
 Congress, if he could have foreseen, before our joint service 
 ended, we should have seen sixty-one gentlemen, then in arms 
 against us, admitted to equal privileges with ourselves, and
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. . 203 
 
 all by the grace and magnanimity of the Republican party. 
 When the war ended, according to the universal usage of 
 nations, the government, then under the exclusive control of 
 the Republican party, had the right to determine what should 
 be the political status of the people who had been defeated in 
 war. Did we inaugurate any measure of persecution ? Did 
 we set forth on a career of bloodshed and vengeance ? Did we 
 take property ? Did we prohibit any man all his civil rights ? 
 Did we take from him the right he enjoys to-day, to vote ? 
 
 " Not at all. But, instead of a general and sweeping con- 
 demnation, the Republican party placed in the fourteenth 
 amendment to the Constitution only this exclusion; after 
 considering the whole subject, it ended in simply coming 
 down to this : 
 
 " 'That no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Con- 
 gress, or elector of President and 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 
 Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to 
 support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged 
 in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or com- 
 fort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by vote of two- 
 thirds of each House, remove such disability.' 
 
 " It has been variously estimated, that this section at 
 the time of its original insertion in the Constitution included 
 somewhere from fourteen to thirty thousand persons ; as 
 nearly as I can gather together the facts of the case, it in- 
 cluded about eighteen thousand men in the South. It let 
 go every man of the hundreds of thousands or millions, if 
 you please who had been engaged in the attempt to destroy
 
 204 LIFE AND SEE VICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 this government, and only held those under disability who, 
 in addition to revolting, had violated a special, and peculiar, 
 and personal oath to support the Constitution of the United 
 States. It was limited to that. 
 
 . " Well, the disability was hardly placed upon the South 
 until we began in this hall, and in the other wing of the 
 capital, when there were more than two-thirds Republicans 
 in both branches, to remit it, and the very first bill took 
 that disability off from 1,578 citizens of the South ; and the 
 next bill took it off from 3,526 gentlemen by wholesale. 
 Many of the gentlemen on this floor came in for grace and 
 amnesty in those two bills. After these bills specifying 
 individuals had passed, and others of smaller numbers, which 
 I will not recount, the Congress of the United States in 1872, 
 by two-thirds of both branches, still being two-thirds Repub- 
 lican, passed this general law : 
 
 " ' That all political disabilities imposed by the third section of 
 the fourteenth article of amendments of the Constitution of the 
 United States, are hereby removed from all persons whomsoever, 
 except Senators and Representatives of the Thirty-sixth and Thirty- 
 seventh Congresses, officers in the judicial, military, and naval 
 service of the United States, heads of departments, and foreign 
 ministers of the United States. 7 
 
 "Since that act passed a very considerable number of 
 the gentlemen whom it still left under disability have been 
 relieved specially, by name, in separate acts, but I believe, 
 Mr. Speaker, in no single instance since the act of May 22, 
 1872, have the disabilities been taken from any man ex- 
 cept from his respectful petition to the Congress of the 
 United States that they should be removed; and I believe,
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 205 
 
 in no instance, except one, have they been refused, upon the 
 petition being presented. I believe in no instance, except 
 one, has there been any other than a unanimous vote. 
 
 "Now I find there are widely varying opinions in regard 
 to the number that are still under disabilities in the South. 
 I have had occasion, by conference with the Department of 
 War and of the Navy, and with the assistance of some 
 records which I have caused to be searched, to be able to 
 state to the House, I believe, with more accuracy than it 
 has been stated hitherto, just the number of gentlemen in 
 the South still under disabilities. Those who were officers 
 of the United States Army, educated at its own expense at 
 West Point, and who joined the rebellion, and are still in- 
 cluded under this act, number, as nearly as the War Depart- 
 ment can figure it up, three hundred and twenty-five ; those 
 in the Navy, about two hundred and ninety-five : those 
 under the other head Senators and Representatives of the 
 Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, officers in the 
 judicial service of the United States, heads of departments, 
 and foreign ministers of the United States make up a 
 number somewhat more difficult to state accurately, but 
 smaller in the aggregate. The whole sum of the entire list 
 (it is probably impossible to state it with entire accuracy, and 
 I do not attempt to do that) is about seven hundred and 
 fifty persons now under disabilities. 
 
 "I am very frank to say, then, in regard to all these 
 gentlemen, save one, I do not know of any reason why am- 
 nesty should not be granted to them as it has been to many 
 others of the same class. I am not here to argue against 
 it. The gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Kasson] suggests, 'on
 
 206 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 their application.' I am coming to that. But as I have 
 said, seeing in this list, as I have examined it with some 
 care, no gentleman to whom I think there could be any ob- 
 jection, since amnesty has already become so general and 
 I am not going back of that question to argue it I am in 
 favor of granting it to them. But in the absence of this 
 respectful form of application which, since May 22, 1872, 
 has become a sort of common law, as preliminary to am- 
 nesty, I simply wish to put it that they shall go before a 
 United States court, and in open court, with uplifted hand, 
 swear that they mean to conduct themselves as good citi- 
 zens of the United States ; that is all. 
 
 "Now, gentlemen may say that- this is a foolish exaction. 
 Possibly it is ; but somehow or other I have a prejudice in 
 favor of it, and there are some petty points in it that ap- 
 peal as well to prejudice as to conviction. For one, I do 
 not want to impose citizenship upon any gentleman. 
 
 "In my amendment, Mr. Speaker, I have excepted Jef- 
 ferson Davis from its operation. Now, I do not place it on 
 the ground that Mr. Davis was, as he has been commonly 
 called, the head and front of the rebellion, because on that 
 ground I do not think the exception would be tenable. Mr. 
 Davis was just as guilty, no more so, no less so, than thou- 
 sands of others, who have already received the benefit and 
 grace of amnesty. Probably he was far less efficient as an 
 enemy of the United States ; probably he was far more use- 
 ful as a disturber of the councils of the Confederacy than 
 many who have already received amnesty. It is not be- 
 cause of any particular and special damage that he above 
 others did to the Union, or because he was personally or
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 207 
 
 especially of consequence, that I except him; but I except 
 him on this ground: That he. was the author, knowingly, 
 deliberately, guiltily ^ and willfully, of the gigantic murders 
 and crimes at Andersonville." 
 
 A MEMBER "And Libby." 
 
 MR. BLAINE " Libby pales into insignificance before An- 
 dersonville. I place it on that ground, and I believe to-day 
 that so rapidly does one event follow on the heels of an- 
 other, in the rapid age in which we live, that even those of 
 us who were contemporaneous with what was transpiring 
 there, and still less those who have grown up since, fail to 
 remember the gigantic crime then committed. 
 
 "Sir, since the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Ran- 
 dall] introduced this bill, last month, I have taken occasion 
 to re-read some of the historic cruelties of the world. I 
 have read over the details of those atrocious murders of the 
 Duke of Alva, in the Low Countries, which are always men- 
 tioned with a thrill of horror throughout Christendom; I 
 have read the details of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 
 that stands out in history as one of those atrocities beyond 
 imagination ; I have read anew the horrors untold and un- 
 imaginable of the Spanish Inquisition, and I here, before 
 God, measuring my. words, knowing their full extent and im- 
 port, declare, that neither the deeds of the Duke of Alva, in 
 the Low Countries, nor the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 
 nor the thumb-screws and engines of torture of the Spanish 
 Inquisition begin to compare in atrocity with the hideous 
 crime of Andersonville. 
 
 " Now, I do not .arraign the Southern people for this ; 
 God forbid that I should charge any people with sympa-
 
 208 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 thizing with such things ! There were many evidences of 
 great uneasiness among the Southern people about it; and 
 one of the great crimes of Jeiferson Davis was that, besides 
 conniving at and producing that condition of things, he con- 
 cealed it from the Southern people. He labored not only to 
 conceal it, but to make false statements about it. We have 
 obtained, and have now in the Congressional Library, a com- 
 plete series of Mr. Davis's messages the official imprint 
 from Richmond. I have looked over them, and I have here 
 an extract from his message of November 7, 1864, at the very 
 time that these horrors were at their acme ; mark you, when 
 those horrors, of which I have read specimens, were at their 
 extremest verge of desperation, Mr. Davis sends a message 
 to the Confederate Congress at Richmond, in which he says : 
 
 " ' The solicitude of the government for the relief of our cap- 
 tive fellow-citizens has known no abatement, has, on the contrary, 
 been still more deeply evoked by the additional sufferings to which 
 they have been wantonly subjected by deprivation of adequate 
 food, clothing, and fuel, which they were not even permitted to 
 purchase from the prison sutler/ 
 
 And he adds that the 
 
 " ' Enemy attempted to excuse their barbarous treatment by 
 the unfounded allegation that it was retaliatory for like conduct 
 on our part.' 
 
 "Now, I undertake here to say that there is not a Con- 
 federate soldier now living, who has any credit as a man in 
 his community, and who ever was a prisoner in the hands 
 of the Union forces, who will say that he ever was cruelly 
 treated ; that he ever was deprived of the same rations that 
 the Union soldiers had the same food, and the same clothing."
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 209 
 
 MR. COOK, of Georgia, said " Thousands of them say it 
 thousands of them ; men of as high character as any in this 
 House." 
 
 MR. ELAINE " I take issue upon that, there is not one 
 who can substantiate it, not one. As for measures of retali- 
 ation although goaded by this terrific treatment of our 
 friends by Mr. Davis, the Senate of the United States specif- 
 ically refused to pass a resolution of retaliation, as contrary 
 to modern civilization and the first precepts of Christianity. 
 And there was no retaliation attempted or justified. It was 
 refused ; and Mr. Davis knew it was refused just as well as 
 I knew it, or any other man, because what took place in 
 Washington, or what took place in Richmond, was known 
 on either side of the lii\e within a day or two thereafter. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, this is not a proposition to punish Jeffer- 
 son Davis; there is nobody attempting that. I will very 
 frankly say, I myself thought the indictment of Mr. Davis, 
 at Richmond, under the administration of Mr. Johnson, was 
 a weak attempt, for he was indicted only for that of which 
 he was guilty in common with all others who went into the 
 Confederate movement. Therefore, there was no particular 
 reason for it. But I will undertake to say this, and, as it 
 may be considered an extreme speech, I want to say it with 
 great deliberation, that there is not a government, a civ- 
 ilized government on the face of the globe I am sure there 
 is not a European government, that would not have arrested 
 Mr. Davis, and, when they had him in their power, would 
 not have tried him for maltreatment of the prisoners of war, 
 and shot him within thirty days. France, Russia, England, 
 Germany, Austria, any one of them would have done it. 
 
 14
 
 210 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 The poor victim, Wirz, deserved his death for brutal treat- 
 ment and murder of many victims, but I always thought it 
 was a weak movement on the part of our government to al- 
 low Jefferson Davis to go at large, and hang Wirz. I con- 
 fess I do. Wirz was nothing in the world but a mere sub- 
 ordinate, a tool, and there was no special reason for singling 
 him out for death. I do not say he did not deserve it he 
 did, richly, amply, fully. He deserved no mercy, but at the 
 same time, as I have often said, it seemed like skipping 
 over the president, superintendent, and board of directors 
 in the case of a great railroad accident, and hanging the 
 brakeman of the rear car. 
 
 " There is no proposition here to punish Jefferson Davis, 
 nobody is seeking to do it. That time has gone by. The 
 statute of limitations, common feelings of humanity, will su- 
 pervene for his benefit. But what you ask us to do is to 
 declare, by a vote of two-thirds of both branches of Congress, 
 that we consider Mr. Davis worthy to fill the highest offices 
 in the United States, if he can get a constituency to indorse 
 him. He is a voter; he can buy and he can sell; he can go 
 and he can come. He is as free as any man in the United 
 States. There is a large list of subordinate offices to which 
 he is eligible. This bill proposes, in view of that record, 
 that Mr. Davis, by a two-thirds vote of the Senate and a 
 two-thirds vote of the House, be declared eligible and worthy 
 to fill any office up to the Presidency of the United States. 
 For one, upon full deliberation, I will not do it. 
 
 " One word more, Mr. Speaker, in the way of detail, 
 which I omitted. It has often been said in mitigation of 
 Jefferson Davis, in the Andersonville matter, that the men
 
 EL A INE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 211 
 
 who died there in such large numbers (I think the victims 
 were about 15,000), fell prey to an epidemic, and died of a 
 disease which would not be averted. The record shows that 
 out of 35,000 men about 33 per cent died, that is, one in 
 three, while of the soldiers encamped near by to take care 
 and guard them, only one man in 400 died; that is, within 
 a half-mile only, one in 400 died. 
 
 " As to the general question of amnesty, Mr. Speaker, as 
 I have already said, it is too late to debate it; it has gone 
 by. Whether it has in all respects been wise, or whether 
 it has been unwise, I would not detain the House here to 
 discuss. Even if I had a strong conviction upon that ques- 
 tion, I do not know that it would be productive of any great 
 good to enunciate it, but at the same time it is a very singu- 
 lar spectacle that the Republican party, in possession of the 
 entire government, have deliberately called back into public 
 power the leading men of the South, every one of whom 
 turns up its bitter and relentless and malignant foe ; and to- 
 day, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, the very men who 
 have received this amnesty are as busy as they can be in 
 consolidating into one compact political organization the old 
 slave States, just as they were before the war. We see the 
 banner held out blazoned again with the inscription that, 
 with the united South and a very few votes from the North, 
 this country can be governed. I want the people to under- 
 stand that is precisely the movement; that that is the ani- 
 mus and the intent. I do not think offering amnesty to the 
 seven hundred and fifty men who are now without it, will 
 hasten or retard that movement. I do not think the grant- 
 ing of amnesty to Mr. Davis will hasten or retard it.
 
 212 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 " I heard it said, ' We will lift Mr. Davis again into great 
 consequence by refusing amnesty.' That is not for me to 
 consider. I only see before me, when his name is presented, 
 a man who by a wink of his eye, by a wave of his hand, 
 by a nod of his head, could have stopped the atrocity of 
 Andersonville. Some of us had kinsmen there, most of us 
 had friends there, all of us had countrymen there, and in 
 the name of those kinsmen, friends, and countrymen, I here 
 protest, and shall with my vote protest against their calling 
 back and crowning the man who organized that murder." 
 
 On the great question of a sound currency based on 
 specie, Mr. Elaine has never given forth an uncertain sound. 
 He has shown himself opposed to all heresies relating to the 
 over-issue and unstable basis of paper money. During the 
 Forty-fourth Congress he had occasion in several debates to 
 express his views with an emphasis not to be mistaken. He 
 showed himself to be an ardent supporter of the national 
 credit, and spoke with fearless freedom against the doctrines 
 of inflation and an irredeemable paper. On the 10th of 
 February, 1876, he spoke for an hour on this subject, hold- 
 ing the closest attention of the House, and eliciting praise 
 even from his adversaries. The following paragraph will 
 give a general notion of the logic and eloquence of his speech : 
 
 MR. ELAINE " Mr. Chairman, the honor of the national 
 government and of the prosperity of the American people, 
 are alike menaced by those who demand the perpetuation 
 of an irredeemable paper currency. For more than two years 
 the country has been suffering from prostration in business; 
 confidence returns but slowly; trade revives only partially; 
 and to-day, with capital unproductive and labor unemployed,
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 213 
 
 we find ourselves in the midst of an agitation respecting the 
 medium with which business transactions shall be carried 
 on. Until this question is definitely adjusted, it is idle to 
 expect that full measure of prosperity to which the energies 
 of our people and the resources of the land entitle us. In 
 the way of that adjustment one great section of the Demo- 
 cratic party possibly its controlling power stubbornly 
 stands to-day. The Republicans, always true to the primal 
 duty of supporting the nation's credit, have now cast behind 
 them all minor difference and dissensions on the financial ques- 
 tion, and have gradually consolidated their strength against 
 inflation. The currency, therefore, becomes of necessity a 
 prominent political issue, and those Democrats who are in 
 favor of honest dealing by the government and honest money 
 for the people, may be compelled to act as they did in that 
 still graver exigency when the existence of the govern- 
 ment itself was at stake. 
 
 " To this uniform adherence to the specie standard the 
 crisis of the rebellion forced an exception. In January, 1862, 
 with more than a half million of men in arms, with a daily 
 expenditure of nearly two millions of dollars, the govern- 
 ment suddenly found itself without money. Customs yielded 
 but little, internal taxes had not yet been levied, public 
 credit was feeble if not paralyzed, our armies had met with 
 one signal reverse, and nowhere with marked success, and all 
 minds were filled with gloom and apprehension. The one 
 supreme need of the hour was money, and money the gov- 
 ernment did not have. What, then, should be done rather 
 what could be done ? The ordinary note had been tried and 
 failed, and those already issued were discredited and below
 
 214 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 the value of the bills of country banks. The government in 
 this great and perilous need promptly called to its aid a 
 power never before exercised it authorized the issue of one 
 hundred and fifty millions of notes, and declared them to 
 be a legal tender for all debts, public and private, with two 
 exceptions. 
 
 "The necessities of the government were so great, and 
 expenditures so enormous, that another hundred and fifty 
 millions of legal tender notes were speedily called for and 
 granted by Congress, the Democrats again voting under Mr. 
 Pendleton's lead against the measure. With varying fortunes 
 the last year of the war was reached, with three hundred mill- 
 ions of legal tenders in circulation. With the strain of our 
 public credit, and the doubts and vicissitudes of the struggle, 
 these notes had fallen far below par in gold, and it became 
 apparent to every clear-headed observer, that the continued 
 issue of legal tenders, with no provision for their redemp- 
 tion, and no limit to their amount, would utterly destroy the 
 credit of the government, and involve the Union cause in 
 irretrievable disaster. But at that moment the military sit- 
 uation, with its perils and its prospects, was such that the 
 government must have money more rapidly than the sale of 
 bonds could furnish it, and the danger was that the sale of 
 bonds would be stopped altogether, unless some definite limit 
 could be assigned to the issue of legal tender notes. Accord- 
 ingly, Congress sought, and successfully sought, to accomplish 
 both ends at the same time, and they passed a bill granting 
 one hundred millions additional legal tender circulation 
 making four hundred millions in all and then incorporated 
 in the same law a solemn assurance, and pledge that 'the
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 215 
 
 total amount of United States notes, issued and to be issued, 
 shall never exceed four hundred millions of dollars,' and to 
 this pledge every Pemocratic Senator and Representative 
 assented, either actively or silently, as the journals of both 
 Houses will show. The subsequent readiness of many of 
 those gentlemen to trample on it must be upon the broad 
 principle of ethics that the government should keep those 
 pledges which are profitable and disregard those which it 
 will pay to violate. 
 
 " When the war was over and the Union saved, one of 
 the first duties of the government was to improve its credit 
 and restore a sound currency to the people ; and here we might 
 have reasonably expected the aid of the Democratic party. 
 But we did not receive it. Irreconcilably hostile to the 
 issue of legal tenders when that form of credit was needed for 
 the salvation of the country, the Democracy, as soon as the 
 country was saved, conceived a violent love for these notes, 
 and demanded an almost illimitable issue of them. 
 
 " As I said at the outset of my remarks, Mr. Chairman, 
 the country is suffering under one of those periodical revul- 
 sions in trade common to all commercial nations, and which, 
 thus far, no wisdom of legislation has been able to avert. 
 The natural restlessness of a people so alive and alert as 
 ours, looks for an instant remedy, and the danger in such a 
 condition of the public mind is that something may be 
 adopted that will ultimately deepen the disease rather than 
 lay the ground-work for an effectual cure. Naturally enough, 
 in such a time the theories for relief are numerous, and we 
 have marvelous recipes offered whereby the people shall be 
 enabled to pay the dollar they owe with less than a hun-
 
 216 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 dred cents; while those who are caught with such a delu- 
 sion seemingly forget that, even if this be so, they must 
 likewise receive less than a hundred cents for the dollar that 
 is due them. Whether the dollar that they owe to-day or the 
 dollar that is due them to-morrow will have the greater or 
 less number of cents depends on the shifting of causes which 
 they can neither control nor foresee; and, therefore, all cer- 
 tain calculation in trade is set at defiance, and those branches 
 of business which take on the form of gambling are by finan- 
 cial paradox the most secure and most promising. ... 
 "The national bank system, Mr. Chairman, was one of 
 the results of the war, and the credit of its origin belongs 
 to the late Salmon P. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, 
 and it may not be unprofitable just here to recall to the 
 House the circumstances which at the time made the na- 
 tional banks a necessity to the government. At the outbreak 
 of the war there were considerably over a thousand State 
 banks, of various degrees of responsibility or irresponsibility, 
 scattered throughout the country. Their charters demanded 
 the redemption of their bills in specie, and under the pressure 
 of this requirement their aggregate circulation was kept within 
 the decent limits, but the amount of it was, in most instan- 
 ces, left to the discretion of the directors, and not a few of 
 these banks issued ten dollars of bills for one of specie in 
 their vaults. With the passage of the legal tender act, 
 however, followed an enormous issue of government notes; 
 the State banks would no longer be required to redeem in 
 specie, and would, therefore, at once flood the country with 
 their own bills, and take from the government its resources 
 in that direction. To restrict and limit their circulation, and
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 217 
 
 to make the banks as helpful as possible in the great work 
 of sustaining the government finances the national bank act 
 was passed. 
 
 It is greatly to be deplored, Mr. Chairman, that many- 
 candid men have conceived the notion that it would be a 
 saving to the people if all banks could be dispensed with, 
 and the circulating medium be furnished by the government 
 issuing legal tenders. I do not stop here to argue that this 
 would be in violation of the government's pledge not to issue 
 more than four hundred millions of its own notes. I merely 
 remark that that pledge is binding in honor until legal ten- 
 ders are redeemable in coin on presentation, and when that 
 point is reached there will be no desire, as there will cer- 
 tainly be no necessity, for government issuing additional 
 notes. . . . 
 
 " It is a singular circumstance, Mr. Chairman one of 
 those odd happenings sometimes brought about by political 
 mutations that those who urge this scheme upon the gov- 
 ernment are Democrats, every one of whom would doubtless 
 claim to be a true disciple of Andrew Jackson, and yet all 
 the evils of which Jackson warned the country in his famous 
 controversy with the United States Bank are a thousand 
 fold magnified, and a thousand fold aggravated, in this plan 
 of making the treasury department itself the bank, with 
 Congress for the govering board of directors. I commend 
 to gentlemen of Democratic antecedents a careful perusal 
 of Jackson's great message of July 10, 1832, and I wish 
 them to frankly tell this House how they think Jackson 
 would have regarded the establishment of a great national 
 paper-money machine, to be located for all time in the treas-
 
 218 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 ury department, the bills of which shall have no provision 
 for their redemption, and the amount of those bills to be de- 
 termined by a majority vote in a party caucus. . . . 
 
 " It is urged by the opponents of the banking system that 
 the three hundred and twenty millions of bank circulation 
 can be supplied by legal tenders and the interests on that 
 amount of bonds stopped ! How ? Does any gentleman sup- 
 pose that the bonds owned by the banks, and on deposit in 
 the treasury, will be exchanged for legal tenders of a new 
 and inflated issue? Those bonds are payable, principal and 
 interest, in gold; and, with the present amount of legal ten- 
 der notes, they are worth in the market $1.16 to $1.25. 
 What will they be worth in paper money when you double 
 the amount of legal tenders and postpone the day of specie 
 resumption far beyond the vision of prophet or seer? And 
 this enormous issue of legal tenders to take the place of 
 bank notes is only the beginning of the policy to be inau- 
 gurated. The 'wants of trade' would speedily demand an- 
 other issue, for the essential nature of an irredeemable cur- 
 rency is that it has no limit till a reaction is born of crushing 
 disaster. A lesson might be learned (by those willing to be 
 taught by fact and experience) from the course of events 
 during the war. When we had one hundred and fifty mill- 
 ions of legal tender in circulation, it stood for a long while 
 nearly at par with gold. As the issue increased in amount 
 the depreciation was very rapid, and at the time we fixed 
 the four hundred million limit, that whole vast sum had less 
 purchasing power in exchange for lands, or houses, or mer- 
 chandize than the hundred and fifty millions had two years 
 before. In the spring of 1862, $150,000,000 of legal ten-
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 219 
 
 der would buy in the market $147,000,000 in gold coin. In 
 June, 1864, $400,000,000 of legal tender would buy only 
 $140,000,000 in gold coin. , . . 
 
 "Among the anomalies presented in the currency dis- 
 cussion, Mr. Chairman, is that the West and the South shall 
 have so large an element clamorous for inflation. Of all sec- 
 tions interested in the specie standard, the West and the 
 South stand first. The great staples produced in those vast 
 and fertile regions, wheat, corn, flour, beef, pork, hides, 
 tobacco, hemp, cotton, rice, and sugar, are inevitably and 
 peremptorily subjected to the gold standard when sold. The 
 price of cotton sent to Lowell is just as much determined 
 by the gold standard as that which is exported to Man- 
 chester, and the breadstuffs sold in New York are daily 
 equaled with the prices of Liverpool Corn Exchange. And 
 so of all the other commodities ; and yet we hear representa- 
 tives of the great interests that are thus compelled to sell 
 at gold prices, resolute and determined in their demands 
 that they shall be allowed to purchase all their supplies on 
 the paper basis. When it is remembered that the whole of 
 the annual crop in this country, reckoning all products, 
 reaches the enormous amount of three thousand millions on 
 the gold basis, and that the surplus not consumed by the 
 producers is many hundreds of millions of dollars, and thnt 
 the value of the whole is estimated by the gold standard, the 
 farmers of the country may find profitable food for reflec- 
 tion in calculating what the agricultural interest loses every 
 year by an irredeemable paper currency. . . . 
 
 " There is not a cotton plantation in the South, not a 
 grain or grazing farm in the West, not a coal-pit or iron
 
 220 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 furnace in Pennsylvania or Ohio, not a manufactory in New 
 England, not a ship-yard on the Atlantic coast, not a lum- 
 ber-camp from the Penobscot to the Columbia, not a mile 
 of railway between the two oceans, that would not feel the 
 quickening, gainful influence of a final and general acquies- 
 cence in measures looking to specie payment. The Repub- 
 licans meditate no harsh, or hasty, or destructive policy on 
 this question, but one that shall be firm, considerate, and 
 conclusive. The Democracy, by refusing to co-operate in 
 the good work, can keep the matter in agitation and pro- 
 long the era of dullness and inactivity in the country. 
 Having stubbornly refused to vote for legal-tenders when 
 the salvation of the Union demanded them, that party 
 can now fittingly complete its financial record by resisting 
 all honest efforts to restore the specie standard to the 
 people. . . 
 
 " To-day, the total debts of the American people, na- 
 tional, State, and municipal, are not so large in proportion to 
 already acquired property as was the national debt alone in 
 1790, and when we take into the account the relative pro- 
 ductive power of the two periods, our present burdens are 
 absolutely inconsiderable. When we reflect what the rail- 
 way, the telegraph, the cotton-gin, and our endless mechani- 
 cal inventions and agencies have done for us in the way of 
 increasing our capacity for producing wealth, we should be 
 ashamed to pretend that we can not bear larger burdens 
 than our ancestors ; and remember, Mr. Chairman, that our 
 wealth from 1790 to 1870 increased more than five times as 
 rapidly as our population, and the same development is even 
 now progressing with a continually accelerating ratio. Re-
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 221 
 
 member, also, that the annual income and earnings of our 
 people are larger than those of any European country, 
 larger than those of England or France, or Russia or the 
 German Empire. The English people stand next to us, but 
 we are largely in advance of them. The annual income of 
 our entire people exceeds six thousand millions in gold, and de- 
 spite financial reverses and revulsions is steadily increasing. 
 
 " In view of these facts, it would be an unpardonable 
 moral weakness in our people always heroic when heroism 
 is demanded to doubt their own capacity to maintain 
 specie payment. I am not willing myself to acknowledge 
 that as a people we are less competent than were our ances- 
 tors in 1790 ; still less honorable, less courageous, or less 
 competent than were our ancestors in 1790; still less am I 
 ready to own that the people of the entire Union have not 
 the pluck and the capacity of our friends and kinsmen in 
 California; and last of all would I confess that the United 
 States of America, with forty -four millions of inhabitants, 
 with a territory surpassing all Europe in area, and I might 
 almost say all the world in fertility of resources, are not 
 able to do what a handful of British subjects, scattered 
 from Cape Grace to Vancouver Island, can do so easily, so 
 steadily, and so successfully. . . ij . 
 
 " The act providing for resumption in 1879 requires, in 
 the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury, some addi- 
 tional legislation to make it practical and effective. As it 
 stands it fixes a date, but gives no adequate process; and 
 the paramount duty of Congress is to provide a process. 
 And in all legislation looking to that end it must be borne in 
 mind that, unless we move in harmony with the great busi-
 
 222 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 ness interests of the country, we shall assuredly fail. 
 Specie payment can only be brought about by wise and 
 well considered legislation, based on the experience of other 
 nations, embodying the matured wisdom of the country, 
 healthfully promoting all legitimate business, and carefully 
 avoiding every thing that may tend to create fear and dis- 
 trust among the people. In other words, what we most 
 need as the outgrowth of legislation is confidence, public 
 and private, general and individual. To-day we are suffer- 
 ing from the timidity of capital, and so long as the era of 
 doubt and uncertainty prevails that timidity will continue 
 and increase. Steps toward inflation will make it chronic; 
 unwise steps toward resumption will not remove it. We 
 shall have discharged our full duty in Congress if we can 
 mature a measure which will steadily advance our currency 
 to the specie standard, and at the same time work in har- 
 mony with the reviving industries and great commercial 
 wants of the country. 
 
 "In any event, Mr. Chairman, whatever we may do, or 
 whatever we may leave undone, on this whole financial ques- 
 tion, let us not delude ourselves with the belief that we can 
 escape the specie standard. It rules us to-day, and has 
 ruled us throughout the whole legal tender period, just as 
 absolutely as though we were paying and receiving coin 
 daily. Our work, our fabrics, our commodities, are all 
 measured by it, and so long as we cling to irredeemable 
 paper money we have all the burdens and disadvantages of 
 the gold standard, with none of its aids and gains and prof- 
 its. 'The thing which hath been is that which shall 
 be.' The great law-giver of antiquity records in the very
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 223 
 
 opening chapters of Genesis that 'the gold of the land of 
 Havilah is good/ and, with another precious metal, it has 
 maintained its rank to this day. No nation has ever suc- 
 ceeded in establishing any other standard of value; no 
 nation has ever made the experiment except at great cost 
 and sorrow, and the advocates of irredeemable money to- 
 day are but asking us to travel the worn and weary road, 
 traveled so many times before a road that has always 
 ended in disaster, and often in disgrace."
 
 224 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 CHAPTKR X. 
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. Continued. 
 
 " The great high road of human welfare lies along the old highway 
 of steadfast well-doing ; and they who are the most persistent, and work 
 in the truest spirits, will invariably be the most successful ; success treads 
 on the heels of every right effort." SMILES. 
 
 IN THE SENATE. 
 
 JULY 3, 1876, Governor Connor, of Maine, appointed Mr. 
 Elaine to the high and important position of Senator of 
 the United States, to succeed Hon. Lot M. Morrill. Mr. 
 Morrill had resigned to accept the post of Secretary of the 
 Treasury, just vacated by the retirement of Hon. Benjamin 
 F. Bristow. At the succeeding session of the Maine Legis- 
 lature, Mr. Blaine was elected to the Senate. 
 
 An exciting presidential campaign was just getting warm, 
 with Hayes as the nominee of one party and Tilden of the 
 other. The result seemed to indicate that if either was 
 elected, both were, so evenly balanced were the returns. 
 The complication thus occasioned was grave indeed, and 
 some leading men of the country professed to fear all sorts 
 of untoward things, even civil war. At the meeting of Con- 
 gress in December, a plan was agreed upon for settlement of 
 the dispute. A bill providing for an Electoral Commission, 
 to consist of five Senators, five Representatives, and five 
 Judges of the Supreme Court, was agreed upon by a coin-
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 225 
 
 mittee composed of members of both Houses, and promptly 
 reported. After a heated debate, it became a law in January, 
 1877, and provided .that all disputed election returns should 
 be referred for adjudication to the commission thus created. 
 The count was not concluded till the 2d of March, when 
 it was decided that 185 electoral votes were cast for Hayes 
 and Wheeler, and 184 for Tilden and Hendricks. Mr. Elaine 
 opposed the Electoral Commission bill, and while it was 
 pending in the Senate spoke upon it as follows : 
 
 " Mr. President, I have, I trust, as profound an apprecia- 
 tion as any Senator on this floor of the gravity of the situa- 
 tion. I would not, if I could, underrate it, and no public 
 good can result from overstating it. I have felt anxious 
 from the first day of the session to join in any wise measure 
 that would tend to allay public uneasiness and to restore, 
 or at least maintain, public confidence. In this spirit I 
 followed the lead of the honorable chairman of the J.udiciary 
 Committee [Mr. Edmunds], in December, in an effort to se- 
 cure a Constitutional Amendment, which would empower the 
 Supreme Court of the United States to peacefully and 
 promptly settle all the troubles growing out of the disputed 
 electoral votes. I knew there were weighty objections to 
 any measure connecting the judiciary with the political 
 affairs of the country ; but I nevertheless thought, and I 
 still think, that under the impressive sanction of a Constitu- 
 tional Amendment, the angry difficulties growing out of a 
 presidential contest might with safety and satisfaction be 
 adjusted by that supreme tribunal which, combining dignity, 
 honor, learning, and presumed impartiality, would be regarded 
 by men of all parties as a trustworthy repository. 
 
 15
 
 226 LIFE AND SER VICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 " It was in that spirit and with these views that I voted 
 for the Constitutional Amendment, which I regret to say 
 failed to commend itself to the Senate. It was defeated, 
 and I refer to it now only to show that I have not been 
 reluctant to make any proper and constitutional adjustment 
 of pending difficulties. I am not wedded to any particular 
 plan except that of the Constitution, nor have I any pet 
 theories outside of the Constitution; and, unlike a good many 
 gentlemen on both sides of the chamber with whom I am 
 newly associated here, I have no embarrassing record on this 
 question of ' counting the votes.' 
 
 " But Mr. President, looking at the measure under con- 
 sideration, and looking at it with every desire to co-operate 
 with those who are so warmly advocating it, I am compelled 
 to withhold the support of my vote. I am not prepared to 
 vest any body of men with the tremendous power which 
 this bill gives to fourteen gentlemen, four of whom are to 
 complete their number by selecting a fifteenth, and selecting 
 a fifteenth under such circumstances as throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land impart a peculiar interest, I might 
 say an absorbing interest, to what Mr. Benton termed in the 
 Texas Indemnity bill, 'that coy and bashful blank.' I do 
 not believe that Congress itself has the power which it pro- 
 poses to confer on these fifteen gentlemen. I do not profess 
 to be what is termed, in the current phrase of the day, a 
 ' constitutional lawyer,' but every Senator voting under the 
 obligations of his oath and his conscience must ultimately 
 be his own constitutional lawyer. And I deliberately say 
 that I do not believe that Congress possesses the power itself, 
 and still less the power to transfer to any body of fourteen,
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 227 
 
 or fifteen, or fifty gentlemen, that with which it is now pro- 
 posed to invest five Senators, five Representatives, and five 
 Judges of the Supreme Court. I did not at this late hour 
 of the night rise to make an argument, but merely to state 
 the ground, the constitutional and conscientious ground, on 
 which I feel compelled to vote against the pending bill. I 
 have had a great desire to co-operate with my political friends 
 who are advocating it, but every possible inclination of that 
 kind has been removed and dispelled by the very arguments 
 brought in support of the bill, able and exhaustive as they 
 have been on that side of the question. 
 
 " I beg to make one additional remark through you, Mr. 
 President, to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that 
 while this subject is now in the public mind as it never has 
 been before from the foundation of the government, when 
 the leading jurists of the country have been investigating it 
 as never before, that they will not allow this session of Con- 
 gress to close without carefully maturing and submitting to 
 the States a Constitutional Amendment which will remove so 
 far as possible all embarrassments in the future. The people 
 of this country, without regard to party, desire in our govern- 
 ment due and orderly procedure under the sanction of law, 
 and that I am sure is what is desired by every Senator on 
 this floor, and by none more ardently than by myself. Let us 
 then, if possible, guard against all trouble in the future by 
 some wise and timely measure that will be just to all parties 
 and all sections, and, above all, just to our obligations under 
 the Constitution." 
 
 Senator Elaine opposed President Hayes's Southern policy, 
 and took a decided stand against the President's action in
 
 228 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 recognizing the Democratic State Governments in South 
 Carolina and Louisiana in the Spring of 1877. 
 
 When the Senate considered the bill authorizing the free 
 coinage of the standard silver dollar, and to restore its legal 
 tender character, Mr. Blaine offered a substitute for the bill, 
 containing three propositions, as he states in these words : 
 
 " 1. That the dollar shall contain four hundred and twenty- 
 five grains of standard silver, shall have unlimited coinage, 
 and be an unlimited legal tender. 
 
 "2. That all profits of coinage shall go to the govern- 
 ment, and not to the operator in silver bullion. 
 
 "3. That silver dollars or silver bullion, assayed and 
 mint-stamped, may be deposited with the assistant treasurer 
 of New York, for which coin certificates may be issued, the 
 same in denomination as United States notes, not below ten 
 dollars, and that these shall be redeemable on demand in 
 coin or bullion, thus furnishing a paper circulation based on 
 an actual deposit of precious metal, giving us notes as valu- 
 able as those of the Bank of England, and doing away at 
 once with the dreaded inconvenience of silver on account of 
 bulk and weight." 
 
 Mr. Blaine presented his views on the Silver Question 
 in a rather lengthy and very able speech, on the day he of- 
 fered his substitute, which was February 7, 1878. The 
 concluding portion of his speech read thus : 
 
 " The effect of paying the labor of this country in silver 
 coin of full value, as compared with the irredeemable paper, 
 or as compared even with silver of inferior value, will make 
 itself felt in a single generation to the extent of tens of mill- 
 ions, perhaps hundreds of millions, in the aggregate savings
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 229 
 
 which represent consolidated capital. It is the instinct of 
 man, from the savage to the scholar developed in child- 
 hood and remaining with age to value the metals which in 
 all tongues are called precious. Excessive paper money 
 leads to extravagance, to waste, and to want, as we pain- 
 fully witness on all sides to-day. And in the midst of the 
 proof of its demoralizing and destructive effect, we hear it 
 proclaimed in the halls of Congress that 'the people de- 
 mand cheap money.' I deny it. I declare such a phrase to 
 be a total misapprehension a total misinterpretation of the 
 popular wish. The people do not demand cheap money. 
 They demand an abundance of good money, which is an en- 
 tirely d'fferent thing. They do not want a single gold 
 standard, that will exclude silver and benefit those already 
 rich. They do not want an inferior silver standard, that 
 will drive out gold and not help those already poor. They 
 want both metals, in full value, in equal honor, in whatever 
 abundance the bountiful earth will yield them to the search- 
 ing eye of science and to the hard hand of labor. 
 
 " The two metals have existed, side by side, in har- 
 monious, honorable companionship as money, ever since in- 
 telligent trade was known among men. It is well-nigh forty 
 centuries since ' Abraham weighed to Ephron four hundred 
 shekels of silver current money with the merchant.' Since 
 that time nations have risen and fallen, races have disap- 
 peared, dialects and languages have been forgotten, arts 
 have been lost, treasures have perished, continents have been 
 discovered, islands have been sunk in the sea, and through 
 all these ages, and through all these changes silver and gold 
 have reigned supreme as the representation of value, as the
 
 230 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 media of exchange. The dethronement of each has been at- 
 tempted in turn, and sometimes the dethronement of both; 
 but always in vain! And we are here to-day, deliberating 
 anew over the problem which comes down to us from Abra- 
 ham's time the weight of the silver that shall be 'current 
 money with the merchant.' ' 
 
 It has been a prominent part of the policy of Mr. Elaine, 
 in public life, to stand armed against the undue domination 
 of foreign states in the affairs of America. He has consist- 
 ently and persistently denied the right of any foreign state 
 to exercise a control over questions purely American. When- 
 ever a measure has been sprung, touching the strict inde- 
 pendence of the country, Elaine has been found with drawn 
 sword ready to repel the assault. This policy has led him, 
 not infrequently, to take the arena in opposition to measures 
 which he deemed likely to aifect unfairly the high, rank of 
 the American Republic. It was this principle of action 
 which brought him into prominence during the debate in the 
 Senate on the Halifax Fishery Award, in 1878. He was 
 one of the most indignant of all at what he deemed the 
 treachery and overreaching of Great Britain in that matter. 
 Finally consenting to accept the report of the Committee on 
 Foreign Relations, he nevertheless left on record a ringing 
 protest against some of the principles and facts involved in 
 the controversy. On the first of June he delivered an ad- 
 dress in the Senate, the spirit of which may be inferred 
 from the following extract : 
 
 " Mr. President, I shall support the report made by the 
 Committee on Foreign Relations, although I wish that some 
 amendments could be made to it. But I do not concur in
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 231 
 
 what was implied in the remarks of the Senator from Ohio, 
 on this subject, that Great Britain had discharged her duties 
 under this treaty with exemplary fidelity, and that we were 
 in danger of not following a good example. I maintain that 
 from the first, throughout the whole of the treaty and I 
 know I am taking what has not been heretofore a popular 
 side, or the generally accepted version it has been a treaty 
 of a singularly one-sided character, in which, as I shall show, 
 the entire advantage was gained by Great Britain, and in 
 the parts that she has not esteemed it to be her interest to 
 fulfill it, she has declined to fulfill it. Up to this day one 
 of the most important parts of the treaty has been evaded, 
 and its fulfillment refused by Great Britain. Let me explain. 
 When the Joint High Commission came to consider what 
 were known as the Alabama Claims, they agreed upon three 
 rules which Great Britain diplomatically disavowed through 
 her commissioners to have been accepted rules of inter- 
 national law at the time, but said that they would agree to 
 them as the basis of a settlement, and they might go before 
 the tribunal as if they had been in force as principles of in- 
 ternational law at the time of their alleged infraction. Then 
 Great Britain and the United States, in binding themselves 
 to the observance of these rules in future, assumed another 
 mutual obligation in this clause of the treaty : 
 
 " 'And the high contracting parties agree to observe these rules 
 between themselves in future, and to bring them to the knowledge 
 of the other maritime powers and to invite them to accede to 
 them.' 
 
 " Unless I am entirely misinformed, and I think I am 
 correctly informed, Great Britain has refused up to' this
 
 232 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 time, and it has been seven years this month since the treaty 
 was perfected, to join with the United States in asking the 
 other maritime powers to agree to those rules. I have 
 ground for believing this statement to be substantially, if not 
 literally, true, and if the Senate will support me in a reso- 
 lution which I shall offer, we shall find out, authentically, 
 that Mr. Fish, lately Secretary of State, advised Great 
 Britain that, refusing to join with the United States in pro- 
 posing these rules for other maritime powers, the United 
 States would be justified in treating them as a nullity. I 
 do not pretend at all to be inside of the secrets and aims 
 and purposes of British diplomacy, but I do know that hav- 
 ing got those three rules which bind us very tightly, which 
 makes us keep a very sharp police on fifteen thousand miles 
 of ocean front that encircle our own dominions, and hold us 
 accountable for any privateers or depredators or * Alabamas,' 
 or any sort of cruisers that may get out in case Great Bri- 
 tain goes to war with Russia, as is now possible if not prob- 
 able (I hope not even probable), and makes us accountable 
 in damages afterward for any losses thus resulting to her 
 subjects that while she holds us thus closely under the 
 three rules, she has not asked another nation in all Europe 
 to be bound by those rules; she has refused to join the 
 United States in asking the maritime powers to accept them 
 and be bound by them. I do not believe in having one 
 part of the treaty quoted on us to the letter i which killeth,' 
 and then to have the part which does not exactly comport 
 with the interest of Great Britain, absolutely slurred over 
 and denied. 
 
 "I repeat, I do not pretend to see any further through
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 233 
 
 secret and hidden motives than any body else, and I do 
 not pretend to know, much less do I pretend to state, what 
 the motive of Great Britain is, although I have heard it, 
 and I have he*ard it was because the government of the 
 German Empire objected to those rules being made general 
 in Europe. At all events it is known, and we ought to 
 know here authentically and it would be some advantage 
 to know it before we pass on the measure we ought to 
 know authentically what has transpired between this gov- 
 ernment and the government of Great Britain with regard 
 to these three rules, which were so finely chiseled and so 
 closely drawn and so narrowly constructed that when we 
 got into the tribunal, at Geneva, we were practically pow- 
 erless. When confessedly the aid and support of Great 
 Britain to the rebellion had been hundreds of millions of 
 dollars of damage to this country; when they swept our 
 mercantile marine, two-thirds of it, out of existence ; when 
 their aid and countenance to the Confederacy had destroyed 
 one of the great leading interests of the United States, we 
 consented to such a narrow construction of these three rules 
 as absolutely cut us down to fifteen and a half million dol- 
 lars for damages, and Great Britain at once gets seven and 
 a half millions of that back two millions on the Washing- 
 ton Claims Commission, of 1871-72, and now five and a 
 half millions more on this fishery award. 
 
 "So, when the Senator from Ohio holds up the example 
 of Great Britain to us to imitate in this matter, I beg him 
 to observe what Great Britain's course has been in regard to 
 this part of the treaty. It was Great Britain's highest in- 
 terest to pay the Geneva award. She never paid fifteen
 
 234 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 million dollars in her life that was so good an investment as 
 that was, under the circumstances. Whether we can find 
 any body, under the narrow rules that were laid down, that 
 is a lawful claimant for the money awarded us at Geneva, 
 is quite another thing; that is for us to determine; but 
 Great Britain herself gained the incalculable advantage of 
 making us a practical ally to her, willing or unwilling, in 
 all her contests with European powers. The Russians are 
 watched by every form of observation if they land on the 
 coast of Maine, or if they buy a vessel in New York or Phil- 
 adelphia; and the moment there is a declaration of war, 
 instead of Great Britain doing the watching, we shall be 
 compelled, under the three rules, to do it ourselves. We 
 shall be forced on the anxious-seat, and if a Russian vessel 
 should escape from our coast, and Great Britain could show 
 that we have not used due diligence, we are to be responsi- 
 ble in the amounts of money that may result from her dep- 
 redations on British commerce. Great Britain gets all these 
 vast advantages out of us, and then refuses, as I say, for 
 some reason, and continues to refuse, up to this time, to 
 agree that other maratime nations, in whose adoption of 
 these three rules we might have very great interests, shall 
 act on them refuses even to submit them, as the treaty 
 bound her to do and she has permitted seven years to go 
 by without so much as uniting with us in asking a single 
 European power to accept them. 
 
 "Now, let us go back a little, inasmuch as we are dis- 
 cussing this subject generally, as the Senator from Ohio has 
 introduced it. When the war broke out, in 1861, Mr. Sew- 
 ard, through our minister at the Court of St. James, Mr.
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 235 
 
 Adams, immediately proposed that the United States should 
 become a party to the treaty of Paris, to which there had 
 been forty-six or forty-seven nations of the earth already 
 parties, to suppress privateering. Lord John Russell, re- 
 cently deceased, apparently received the proposition with 
 the utmost complaisance, and agreed to it; and after the 
 agreement was made, and we thought the treaty was about 
 to become a regular convention between the two govern- 
 ments, he put in a condition that it should not at all affect 
 the existing relations between Great Britain and the Con- 
 federate States, or that the question should not in the least 
 degree be affected by the relations of any internal dissen- 
 sions in the United States ; in other words, that if we lived 
 to survive the Rebellion in the United States, the very time 
 when we should not need the advantage of this treaty, we 
 might enjoy it; but that, pending that, we should not have 
 any advantage from it at all. And the British Government 
 would not agree, on the other hand, that if any disturbance 
 should take place in any part of the British Empire, we 
 should not be similarly bound as England was then. Let 
 me read just what Mr. Seward said on that point : 
 
 " ' The proposed declaration is inadmissable, among other reasons, 
 because it is not mutual. It proposes a special rule by which her 
 majesty's obligations shall be meliorated in their bearing upon in- 
 ternal difficulties now prevailing in the United States, while 
 the obligations to be assumed by the United States shall not be 
 similarly meliorated, or at all affected in their bearing on inter- 
 nal differences that may now be prevailing or may hereafter arise 
 and prevail in Great Britain. 1 " 
 
 " The whole of it was one-sided. And now I will give 
 the honorable Senator from Ohio a very substantial reason
 
 236 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 why the government of the United States ought to proceed 
 to the payment of the fishery award in a different manner 
 from that which the government of Great Britain adopted 
 with reference to the Geneva award. The struggles between 
 the Dominion of Canada, or that which now constitutes the 
 Dominion of Canada, the British-American provinces, and 
 the United States, for reciprocal relations of trade and com- 
 merce, have been troublesome questions for eighty years, 
 and every time we have attempted to adjust them, the fish- 
 eries have been put forward as the stumbling-block in the 
 way of a fair agreement; and the payment of the five and 
 a half millions settles the question for only twelve, years, 
 and then it is all open again. But, on the other hand, the 
 fifteen and a half millions, paid in pursuance of the Geneva 
 award, closed that account for all time ; or, if it left it open 
 at all, it left it open with the three rules operating in Great 
 Britain's favor. But let us pay this five and a half millions, 
 as the honorable Senator from Ohio invites us to do ; let us walk 
 up without saying one word, and pay this five and a half mill- 
 ion of dollars to Great Britain, and what is the result? It 
 is inevitably accepted by the government of Great Britain 
 as a concession on the part of the government of the United 
 States, as a just measure of value of those fishery privileges, 
 and any subsequent notice that we might give, six or eight 
 years hence, would be treated as an afterthought. If we do 
 not make that point at this time, we lose all the advantage 
 of making it at all ; and if we now pay that money without 
 in some form emphatically entering our dissent from it as a 
 just measure of the value of the fisheries, we are estopped 
 from ever pleading it hereafter, and we shall have committed
 
 ELAINE IN P UBL1C LIFE. 237 
 
 ourselves to the conclusion that those fisheries, in reciprocal 
 arrangements for trade between the Dominion of Canada and 
 the United States, are to be reckoned as of the value of a 
 half million dollars per annum bonus from the United States, 
 in addition to the admission of Canadian fish free of duty 
 to our markets. 
 
 " This question, Mr. President, has some sectional and 
 local relation, I know. We are much more aifected by it 
 where I come from than are the people where the' Senator 
 from Ohio comes from. It is a matter of daily, very press- 
 ing interest with us, and we know very well that if we sit 
 still here and consent to this award being accepted publicly 
 as a just measure of value, we can never have the trade 
 between the Dominion of Canada and the United States 
 regulated thereafter upon any fair, equitable, amicable basis." 
 
 On no subject have the views of Mr. Elaine been more 
 pronounced and unequivocal than on that relating to the 
 freedom and purity of elections. On this subject he has 
 never given forth an uncertain sound. During the third 
 session of the Forty-fifth Congress he distinguished himself 
 in the Senate by his tremendous outcry against the fraudu- 
 lent methods by which the electors of the Southern States, 
 both black and white, had been terrorized to the level of a 
 degraded servitude. One of his best speeches was delivered 
 during that session on the exercise of the elective franchise. 
 
 The resolutions which brought on the debate were pre- 
 sented by himself, as follows : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed 
 to inquire and report to the Senate whether at the recent elections 
 the constitutional rights of American citizens were violated in any
 
 238 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 of the States of the Union ; whether the right of suffrage of citi- 
 zens of the United States, or of any class of such citizens, was de- 
 nied or abridged by the action of the election officers of any State 
 in refusing to receive their votes, in failing to count them, or in re- 
 ceiving and counting fraudulent ballots in pursuance of a conspi- 
 racy to make the lawful votes of such citizens of none effect ; and 
 whether such citizens were prevented from exercising the elective 
 franchise ; or forced to use it against their wishes, by violence or 
 threats, or hostile demonstrations of armed men or other organiza- 
 tions, or by any other unlawful means or practices. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be further in- 
 structed to inquire and report whether it is within the competency 
 of Congress to provide by additional legislation for the more per- 
 fect security of the right of suffrage to citizens of the United 
 States in all the States of the Union. 
 
 " Resolved, That in prosecuting these inquiries the judiciary 
 committee shall have the right to send for persons and papers." 
 
 On these resolutions Mr. Elaine addressed the Senate as 
 follows : 
 
 " Mr. President, the pending resolutions were offered by 
 me, with a two-fold purpose in view : 
 
 " First, to place on record, in a definite and authentic 
 form, the frauds and outrages by which some recent elections 
 were carried by the Democratic party in the Southern States. 
 
 " Second, to find if there be any method by which a 
 repetition of these crimes against a free ballot may be 
 prevented. 
 
 "The newspaper is the channel through which the 
 people of the United States are informed of current events, 
 and the accounts given in the press represent the elections 
 in some of the Southern States to have been accompanied by 
 violence ; in not a few cases reaching the destruction of life ;
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE, 239 
 
 to have been controlled by threats that awed and intimated 
 a large class of voters, to have been manipulated by fraud 
 of the most shameless and shameful description. Indeed, in 
 South Carolina" there seems to have been no election at all 
 in any proper sense of the term. There was instead a series 
 of skirmishes over the State in which the polling-places 
 were regarded as forts to be captured by one party and 
 held against the other, and where this could not be done 
 with convenience, frauds in the count and tissue-ballot 
 devices were resorted to in order to effectually destroy the 
 voice of the majority. These, in brief, are the accounts 
 given in the non-partisan press of the disgraceful outrages 
 that attended the recent elections, and so far as I have seen 
 these statements are without serious contradiction. It is 
 but just and fair to all parties, however, that an impartial 
 investigation of the facts shall be made by a committee of 
 the Senate, proceeding under the authority of law, and repre- 
 senting the power of the nation. Hence my resolutions. 
 
 " But we do not need investigation to establish certain 
 facts already of official record. We know that one hundred 
 and six representatives in Congress were recently chosen in 
 the States formerly slave-holding, and that the Democrats 
 elected one hundred and one, or possibly one hundred and 
 two, and the Republicans four, or possibly five. We know 
 that thirty-five of these representatives were assigned to 
 the Southern States by reason of the colored population, 
 and that the entire political power thus founded on the 
 numbers of the colored people has been seized and appro- 
 priated to the aggrandizement of its own strength by the 
 Democratic party of the South.
 
 240 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 "The issue thus raised before the country, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, is not one of mere sentiment for the rights of the 
 negro, though far distant be the day when the rights of any 
 American citizen, however black or however poor, shall 
 form the mere dust of the balance in any controversy ; nor 
 is the issue one that involves the waving of the " bloody 
 shirt," to quote the elegant vernacular of Democratic vitu- 
 peration ; nor still further is the issue as now presented only 
 a question of the equality of the black voter of the South 
 with the white voter of the South. The issue, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, has taken a far wider range, one of portentous magni- 
 tude ; and that is, whether the white voter of the North 
 shall be equal to the white voter of the South in shaping 
 the policy and fixing the destiny of this country ; or 
 whether, to put it still more baldly, the white man who 
 fought in the ranks of the Union army shall have as weighty 
 and influential a vote in the government of the republic as 
 the white man who fought in the ranks of the rebel army. 
 The one fought to uphold, the other to destroy, the union of 
 the States, and to-day he who fought to destroy is a far 
 more important factor in the government of the Nation than 
 he who fought to uphold it. 
 
 "Let me illustrate my meaning by comparing groups of 
 States of the same representative strength North and South. 
 Take the States of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisi- 
 ana, they send seventeen representatives to Congress. Their 
 aggregate population is composed of ten hundred and thirty- 
 five thousand whites and twelve hundred and twenty-four 
 thousand colored, the colored being nearly two hundred 
 thousand in excess of the whites. Of the seventeen repre-
 
 SLA INE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 241 
 
 sentatives, then, it is evident that nine were apportioned to 
 these States by reason of their colored population, and only- 
 eight by reason of their white population; and yet, in 
 choice of the entire seventeen representatives the colored 
 voters had no more voice or power than their remote kin- 
 dred on the shores of Senegambia or on the gold coast. 
 The ten hundred and thirty-five thousand white people had 
 the sole and absolute choice of the entire seventeen repre- 
 sentatives. In contrast, take two States in the North, Iowa 
 and Wisconsin, with seventeen representatives. They have 
 a white population of two million two hundred and forty- 
 seven thousand considerably more than double the entire 
 white population of the three Southern States I have named. 
 In Iowa and Wisconsin, therefore, it takes one hundred and 
 thirty-two thousand white population to send a representa- 
 tive to Congress, but in South Carolina, Mississippi, and 
 Louisiana every sixty thousand white send a represen- 
 tative ; in other words, sixty thousand white people in those 
 Southern States have precisely the same political power 
 in the government of the country that one hundred and 
 thirty-two thousand white people have in Iowa and Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 "Take another group of seventeen representatives from 
 the South and from the North. Georgia, and Alabama have 
 a white population of eleven hundred and fifty-eight thou- 
 sand, and a colored population of ten hundred and twenty 
 thousand. They send seventeen representatives to Congress, 
 of whom nine were apportioned on account of the white 
 population and eight on account of the colored population. 
 But the colored voters were not able to choose a single rep- 
 
 16
 
 242 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 resentative, the white Democrats choosing the whole seven- 
 teen. The four Northern States, Michigan, Minnesota, Ne- 
 braska, and California have seventeen representatives, based 
 on a white population of two and a quarter millions, or 
 almost double the white population of Georgia and Alabama, 
 so that in these relative groups of States we find the white 
 man South exercises by his vote double the political power 
 of the white man North. 
 
 " Let us carry the comparison to a more comprehensive 
 generalization. The eleven States that formed the Confed- 
 erate Government had by the last census a population of 
 nine and a half millions, of which in round numbers five 
 and a half millions were white and four millions colored. 
 On this aggregate population seventy-three representatives 
 in Congress were appointed to those States forty-two or 
 three of whom were by reason of the white population, and 
 thirty or thirty-one by reason of the colored population. At 
 the recent election the white Democracy of the South seized 
 seventy of the seventy-three districts, and thus secured a 
 Democratic majority in the next House of Representatives. 
 Thus it appears that throughout the States that formed the 
 late Confederate Government, sixty-five thousand whites 
 the very people that rebelled against the Union are enabled 
 to elect a representative in Congress, while in the loyal 
 States it requires one hundred and thirty-two thousand of 
 the white people that fought for the Union to elect a rep- 
 resentative. In levying every tax, therefore, in making 
 every appropriation of money, in fixing every line of pub- 
 lic policy, in decreeing what shall be the fate and fortune 
 of the Republic, the Confederate soldier South is enabled
 
 BLAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 243 
 
 to cast a vote that is twice as powerful and twice as influ- 
 ential as the vote of the Union soldier North. 
 
 " But the white men of the South did not acquire, and 
 do not hold this superior power by reason of law or justice, 
 but in disregard and defiance of both. The Fourteenth 
 Amendment to the Constitution was expected to be and was 
 designed to be a preventive and corrective of all such possi- 
 ble abuses. The reading of the clause applicable to the 
 case is instructive and suggestive ; hear it : 
 
 " ' Representatives shall be apportioned among the sev- 
 eral States according to their respective numbers, counting 
 the whole number of persons in each State, excluding In- 
 dians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any elec- 
 tion for choice of electors for President and Vice-president 
 of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the exec- 
 utive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 
 Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants 
 of such State being twenty-one years of age, and citi- 
 zens of the United States, or in any way abridged, ex- 
 cept for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the 
 basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the pro- 
 portion which" the number of such male citizens shall bear 
 to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of 
 age in such State.' 
 
 " The patent, undeniable intent of this provision was 
 that if any class of voters were denied or in any way 
 abridged in their right of suffrage, then the class so denied 
 or abridged should not be counted in the basis of the rep- 
 resentation, or, in other words, that no State or States 
 should gain a large increase of representation in Congress
 
 244 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 by reason of counting any class of population not permitted 
 to take part in electing such representatives. But the con- 
 struction given to this provision i-s that before any forfeiture 
 of representation can be enforced the denial or abridgment of 
 suffrage must be the result of a law specifically enacted by 
 the State. Under this construction every negro voter may 
 have his suffrage absolutely denied, or fatally abridged by 
 the violence, actual or threatened, of irresponsible mobs, 
 or by frauds and deceptions of State officers from the gov- 
 ernor down to the last election clerk, and then, unless some 
 State law can be shown that authorizes the denial or abridg- 
 ment, the State escapes all penalty or peril of reduced rep- 
 resentation. This construction may be upheld by the courts 
 ruling on the letter of the law, ' which killeth,' but the 
 spirit of justice cries aloud against the evasive and atrocious 
 conclusion that deals out oppression to the innocent, and 
 shields the guilty from the legitimate consequences of will- 
 ful transgression. 
 
 "The colored citizen is thus most unhappily situated; 
 his right of suffrage is but a hollow mockery ; it holds to 
 his ear the word of promise, but breaks it always to his 
 hope, and he ends only in being made the unwilling instru- 
 ment of increasing the political strength of that party from 
 which he received ever-tightening fetters when he was a 
 slave, and contemptuous refusal of civil rights since he was 
 made free. He resembles, indeed, those unhappy captives 
 in the East who, deprived of their birthright, are compelled 
 to yield their strength to the upbuilding of the monarch 
 from whose tyrannies they have most to fear, and to fight 
 against the power from which alone deliverance might be
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 245 
 
 expected. The franchise, intended for the shield and de- 
 fense of the negro, has been turned against him and against 
 his friends, and has vastly increased the power of those 
 from whom he has nothing to hope and every thing to dread. 
 " The political power thus appropriated by Southern 
 Democrats, by reason of the negro population, amounts to 
 thirty-five Representatives in Congress. It is massed almost 
 solidly, and offsets the great State of New York ; or Pennsyl- 
 vania and New Jersey together ; or the whole of New Eng- 
 land ; or Ohio and Indiana united ; or the combined strength 
 of Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Nevada, Nebraska, 
 Colorado, and Oregon. The seizure of this power is wanton 
 usurpation ; it is flagrant outrage ; it is violent perversion of 
 the whole theory of republican government. It inures solely 
 to the present advantage, and yet, I believe, to the perma- 
 nent dishonor of the Democratic party. It is by reason of 
 this trampling down of human rights, this ruthless seizure of 
 unlawful power that the Democratic party holds the popular 
 branch of Congress to-day, and will, in less than ninety days, 
 have control of this body also, thus grasping the entire legis- 
 lative department of the government, through the unlawful 
 capture of the Southern States. If the proscribed vote of 
 the South were cast as its lawful owners desire, the Demo- 
 cratic party could not gain power. Nay, if it were not 
 counted on the other side, against the instincts and the inter- 
 ests, against the principles and prejudices of its lawful own- 
 ers, Democratic success would be hopeless. It is not enough, 
 then, for modern Democratic tactics that the negro vote shall 
 be silenced ; the demand goes farther, and insists that it 
 shall be counted on their side, that all the Representatives
 
 246 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 in Congress, and all the presidential electors apportioned by 
 reason of the negro vote, shall be so cast and so governed as 
 to insure Democratic success regardless of justice, in defi- 
 ance of law. 
 
 "And this injustice is wholly unprovoked. I doubt if it 
 be in the power of the most searching investigation to show 
 that in any Southern State, during the period of Republican 
 control, any legal voter was ever debarred from the freest 
 exercise of his suffrage. Even the revenges which would 
 have leaped into life with many who despised the negro were 
 buried out of sight with a magnanimity which the " Superior 
 Race" fail to follow and seem reluctantly to recognize. I 
 know it is said in retort of such charges against the Southern 
 elections as I am now reviewing, that unfairness of equal 
 gravity prevails in Northern elections. I hear it in many 
 quarters and read it in the papers, that in the late exciting 
 election in Massachusetts, intimidation and bulldozing, if 
 not so rough and rancorous as in the South, were yet as 
 widespread and effective. 
 
 " I have read, and yet I refuse to believe, that the distin- 
 guished gentleman who made an energetic but unsuccessful 
 canvass for the governorship of that State, has indorsed and 
 approved these charges, and I have accordingly made my 
 resolutions broad enough to include their thorough investi- 
 gation. I am not demanding fair elections in the South 
 without demanding fair elections in the North also ; but ven- 
 turing to speak for the New England States, of whose laws 
 and customs I know something, I dare assert that in the 
 late election in Massachusetts, or any of her neighboring 
 commonwealths, it will be impossible to find even one case
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 247 
 
 where a voter was driven from the polls, where a voter did 
 not have the fullest, fairest, freest opportunity to cast the 
 ballot of his choice and have it honestly and faithfully 
 counted in the "returns. Suffrage on this continent was first 
 made universal in New England, and in the administration 
 of their affairs her people have found no other appeal neces- 
 sary than that which is addressed to their honesty of con- 
 viction and to their intelligent self-interest. If there be 
 anything different to disclose, I pray you show it to us that 
 we may amend our ways. 
 
 " But whenever a feeble protest is made against such in- 
 justice as I have described in the South, the response we get 
 comes to us in the form of a taunt, ' What are you going to 
 do about it ?' and ' How do you propose to help yourselves ?' 
 This is the stereotyped answer of defiance which intrenched 
 wrong always gives to inquiring justice ; and those who im- 
 agine it to be conclusive do not know the temper of the 
 American people. For, let me assure you, that against the 
 complicated outrage upon the right of representation lately 
 triumphant in the South, there will be arrayed many phases 
 of public opinion in the North, not often hitherto in harmony. 
 Men who have cared little, and affected to care less, for the 
 rights or the wrongs of the negro, suddenly find that vast 
 monetary and commercial interests, great questions of reve- 
 nue, adjustments of tariff, vast investments in manufactures, 
 in railways, and in mines, are under the control of a Demo- 
 cratic Congress, whose majority was obtained by depriving 
 the negro of his rights under a common law Constitution and 
 common laws. Men who have expressed disgust with the 
 waving of bloody shirts, and who have been offended with
 
 248 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 talk about negro equality, are beginning to perceive that the 
 pending question of to-day relates more pressingly to the 
 equality of white men under this government, and that, how- 
 ever careless they may be about the rights of their own race 
 and the dignity of their own firesides and their own kindred. 
 "I know something of public opinion in the North. I 
 know a great deal about the views, wishes, and purposes of 
 the Republican party of the Nation. Within that entire 
 great organization there is not one man whose opinion is en- 
 titled to be quoted that does not desire peace and harmony and 
 friendship, and a patriotic and fraternal union between the 
 North and South. This wish is spontaneous, instinctive, uni- 
 versal throughout the Northern States ; and yet, among men 
 of character and sense, there is surely no need of attempting 
 to deceive ourselves as to the precise truth. First pure, 
 then peaceable. Gush will not remove a grievance, and no 
 disguise of State's rights will close the eyes of our people 
 to the necessity of correcting a great National wrong. Nor 
 should the South make the fatal mistake of concluding that 
 injustice to the negro is not also injustice to the white man; 
 nor should it ever be forgotten that for the wrongs of both 
 a remedy will assuredly be found. The war, with all its 
 costly sacrifices, was fought in vain unless equal rights for 
 all classes be established in all the States in the Union. 
 And now, in words which are those of friendship, however 
 differently they may be accepted, I tell the men of the 
 South, here on this floor, and beyond this chamber, that 
 even if they could strip the negro of his constitutional 
 rights, they can never permanently maintain the inequality 
 of white men in this Nation ; they can never make a white
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 249 
 
 man's vote in the South doubly as powerful in the administra- 
 tion of the government as a white man's vote in the North. 
 
 " In a memorable debate in the House of Commons, Mr. 
 Macaulay reminded Daniel O'Connell when he was moving 
 for repeal, that the English Whigs had endured calumny, 
 abuse, popular fury, loss of position, exclusion from Parlia- 
 ment, rather than the great agitator himself should be less 
 than a British subject, and Mr. Macaulay warned him that 
 they would neyer suffer him to be more. Let me now re- 
 mind you that the government, under whose protecting flag 
 we sit to-day, sacrificed myriads of lives and expended 
 thousands of millions of treasure that our countrymen of the 
 South should remain citizens of the United States, having 
 equal personal rights and equal political privileges with all 
 other citizens, and I venture now and here to warn the men 
 of the South, in the exact words of Macaulay, that we will 
 never suffer them to be more !" [Applause in the galleries, 
 which the Vice-president checked by rapping with his 
 gavel.] 
 
 April 22, 1879, Mr. Blaine offered the following resolu- 
 tions for the consideration of the Senate : 
 
 " Resolved, That any radical change in our present tariff 
 laws would, in the judgment of the Senate, be inopportune, 
 would needlessly derange the business interests of the 
 country, and would seriously retard that return to prosperity 
 for which all should earnestly co-operate. 
 
 "Resolved, That, in the judgment of the Senate, it should 
 be the fixed policy of this government to so maintain our 
 tariff for revenue as to afford adequate protection to Ameri- 
 can labor."
 
 250 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 On the first of May, 1878, Mr. Elaine called up his reso- 
 lutions and urged their passage. He objected to the ap- 
 pointment of a tariff commission, in regard to which he 
 said: 
 
 "I think one of the most mischievous measures in its 
 effects, not of course so designed by the gentleman who may 
 move it, would be to have a roving commission on the idea 
 that, when they get through running hither and thither over 
 the country, and examining this way and that way about 
 the tariff, certain recommendations are to be made and cer- 
 tain changes are to take place. Nothing would more ef- 
 fectually unsettle the business of the country than that. 
 That is only having the agitation of the subject which is 
 now disturbing the country by its appearance in Congress 
 transferred to a Commission. You only elongate the evil, 
 you only increase it, you only keep drawing it out over a 
 long time. There is no form, in my judgment, which the 
 tariff discussion or tariff legislation could take that would be 
 fraught with more mischief to the country than to have a 
 commission sitting upon it. After they had made their re- 
 port, it could not effect legislation here or influence the 
 opinion of any person in either branch of Congress one way 
 or the other. We have had many of these commissions 
 upon divers and sundry subjects, and I have never known 
 them to do a particle of good, so far as producing a result 
 in practical legislation." 
 
 After which Senator Beck, of Kentucky, launched out on 
 a tirade against our tariff laws, in response to which Mr. 
 Blaine said : 
 
 "Mr. President: The honorable Senator from Kentucky
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 251 
 
 [Mr. Beck] quite prematurely, and without my expectation, 
 launched forth into an argument on the subject of the tariff; 
 and very naturally, taking the side he does, he quarrels 
 with the civilization of the nineteenth century. He says it 
 is the machinery that is to blame. We have got machinery 
 in this country, he says, that will do the work of one hun- 
 dred and seventy-five million men, and there is where all 
 the trouble is. Of course, the logical result of the Senator's 
 argument is to abolish the locomotive, the steam-engine, and 
 all modern appliances of transportation and manufacture, 
 and go back to the hand-loom and the wagon." 
 
 MR. BECK " Oh, no ; I beg pardon." 
 
 MR. BLAINE " I did not interrupt the Senator, and I 
 hope he will allow me to get through my argument." 
 
 MR. BECK "You surely will not say that I intended 
 any such thing as that." 
 
 MR. BLAINE "I do not see any other result. The Sen- 
 ator says the whole trouble grows out of the fact that we 
 have labor-saving machinery." 
 
 MR. BECK "Allow me to put the Senator right there. 
 My argument was that we need no protection because we 
 have machinery equal to any other machinery, and that 
 machinery can compete in the markets of the world. I 
 wish we had more." 
 
 MR. BLAINE " The Senator said he may correct his 
 argument now that we had the machinery here, which was 
 the slave of the owners of it, that they could command it to 
 stand still or to turn when they chose, that the laborer was 
 their servant, and that he had no independence outside of 
 the machinery. I do not understand any logical result, or
 
 252 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 see how the Senator can free the laborer from the position 
 he puts him in, but by abolishing the machinery; I do not 
 understand it otherwise. And I think among the anomalies 
 that American politics turn up and we meet many of them 
 in this chamber among the strange contradictions that his- 
 tory develops, is that the seat of Henry Clay, in the Senate 
 of the United States, should be the place from which a free- 
 trade argument to overthrow the American system and take 
 the side of the free-trader should be made. It is one of 
 the anomalies of American politics ; and the argument of 
 the Senator of Kentucky goes right back to what was said 
 before the war by a distinguished Southern man that he 
 hoped to see the day when the old barter between the En- 
 glish ship that was anchored in the Savannah or the Poto- 
 mac, or the Cooper or the Ashley, should be resumed with 
 the planter who shipped directly to England ; and it is that 
 spirit to-day which holds in manacles and paralyzes the de- 
 velopment of the Southern country. 
 
 " The Senator recalled to us the great tariff of Robert 
 J. Walker, and cited to us the vast achievement of political 
 philosophy and economy that man presented to us in his 
 three reports of 1845, 1846, and 1847. Well, the tariff of 
 Robert J. Walker had abundant opportunity to ' run and be 
 glorified ' in this country, and it ran us into bankruptcy, and 
 want, and ruin. It was modified in 1857, going still further 
 in the same direction. The years 1857-60 were years of 
 financial ruin, and wide-spread disaster and want, in which 
 the laborer was not employed. Those four years were much 
 more severe in many portions of this country than even the 
 four past years which we have just gone through.
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 253 
 
 " So, when the Senator presents to us the fact that 
 Robert J. Walker established the tariff of 1846, he presents 
 it as a beacon of warning to every man who remembers its 
 effects throughout the length and breadth of the manufac- 
 turing industries of this country. 
 
 "There we see developed a little collison between our 
 friends on the other side. When the Senator from Ken- 
 tucky [Mr. Beck] was laying down the Simon Pure Demo- 
 cratic doctrine as it was announced at the last national san- 
 hedrim of that party, the Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
 Wallace] put in an exception, and the Senator from Penn- 
 sylvania said that it was fully understood that the free- 
 trade side of the tariff question was not to be a Demo- 
 cratic doctrine, but that all the congressional districts were 
 to be left to determine that matter for themselves. Every- 
 body knows that was a contrivance got up for the benefit 
 of gentlemen placed exactly in the delicate attitude of the 
 Senator from Pennsylvania, who have protective-tariff con- 
 stituents behind, allied with the free-trade party in the coun- 
 try at large; and the guise which was made for the benefit 
 of Mr. Greeley in his campaign, was boldly thrown off at St. 
 Louis when Mr. Tilden became the standard-bearer. 
 
 " The Senator from Kentucky warned us that the 
 trouble is radical, and he called up the fact of an American 
 ship being launched a few days since on the Delaware; and 
 he said you may build that ship at the same rate that an 
 English ship is, load her with goods manufactured in this 
 country as cheaply as in England, and send her to her port, 
 and the trouble is, she has nothing to bring back. I wish 
 the Senator would give me his attention this moment.
 
 254 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 " The Senator mentioned the City of Para and the port 
 to which a vessel was destined to run. The City of Para 
 was launched for a Brazilian line, and all the parade of Con- 
 gress and the President that went over there was to inaugu- 
 rate that line. Is not that the fact? You may mention 
 any other South American port, but you do not change the 
 argument a particle. We take a great deal more from all 
 these countries than we send to them, and yet the Senator 
 says the trouble is we can get no return cargo. His argu- 
 ment does not stand at all. Mr. President, there is no 
 more hurtful agitation to-day in this country than the agi- 
 tation of the tariff. The Senator talks of a lobby being 
 here. That is always the cry when any thing comes up, 
 * there is a lobby!' Has the Senator seen a tariff lobby 
 here? 
 
 " There is one very remarkable exception of raw material, 
 and that is hemp, which is produced by the State of Ken- 
 tucky. While the tariff-makers took good care to make almost 
 all other raw materials cheap, I think the honorable Senator 
 from Kentucky wisely looked out for his own State, and got 
 a very large duty put on hemp, jute, and all kindred grasses. 
 
 "All I know on the point is that the Senator from Ken- 
 tucky was a member of the Committee of Ways and Means, 
 and that in the tariff bill reported there was a very large 
 protection, which I believe still exists, on hemp. It was 
 exceptionally large, as contrasted with the other raw ma- 
 terials needed for the manufactures of this country, and I 
 always gave credit to the Senator from Kentucky, who is a 
 watchful and able and zealous representative of his con- 
 stituents, for getting that protection put in. He took good
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 255 
 
 care to have his own door-step swept very clean, but seems 
 to have cared very little about what became of his neigh- 
 bor's. 
 
 "If the Senator can show that there has not been, from 
 the time he was a member of the Committe of Ways and 
 Means, an exceptionally heavy duty on hemp, then he can 
 show that I am mistaken, and I will very gracefully, or as 
 gracefully as I can, acknowledge it; but I think the Senator 
 from Kentucky will not be quite able to show the fact. I 
 do not wish to trench upon the time given to other measures 
 before the Senate, but this matter I hope will come up when 
 we can have a freer discussion." 
 
 Here the debate closed. 
 
 On the bill making appropriations for arrears of pensions, 
 March 1, 1879, Senator Elaine spoke as follows : 
 
 " Mr. President: The Senator from Ohio [Mr. Thurman] 
 indulged himself in a line of remark which I hardly think 
 was justifiable. He was arraigning this entire side of the 
 chamber for running at the name of Jefferson Davis. I wish 
 to say to the honorable Senator from Ohio, and to all the 
 Senators on that side, that neither in this chamber nor in the 
 other in which I have served, did I ever hear what he would 
 call an attack made on Jefferson Davis, until he was borne 
 into the chamber for some favor to be asked and some vote 
 to be exacted. Who brought him here to-night? Who has 
 brought him into Congress at different times? No Re- 
 publican. No Republican Senator or Representative has 
 ever asked censure or comment, or reference to him ; but you 
 bring here and ask us either to vote or keep silent ; and if 
 we do n't keep silent, then the honorable Senator is aston-
 
 256 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 ished and indignant, and the honorable Senator from Missis- 
 sippi [Mr. Lamar] thinks that a wanton insult is intended. 
 I want the country to understand that it is that side of the 
 chamber and not this side that brings Jefferson Davis to the 
 front." . . . 
 
 MR. THURMAN " I wish to ask the Senator to explain 
 what he means by bringing Jefferson Davis here ? Does he 
 mean introducing the proposition to pension soldiers who 
 served in Mexico?" 
 
 MR. ELAINE " Yes, the measure you are agitating brings 
 him here." 
 
 MR. THURMAN " Then it is a crime ?" 
 
 MR. ELAINE " Not a crime at all. I am not charging 
 the Senator with a crime, but I resent with some feeling 
 that the Senator should look over to this side of the chamber 
 and complain that we are taking some extraordinary course 
 with the name of Jefferson Davis. We do not bring him 
 here. You bear his mangled remains before us, and then if 
 we do not happen to view them with the same admiration 
 that seems to inspire the Senator from Ohio, we are doing 
 something derogatory to our own dignity and to the honor 
 of the country, and when the honorable Senator from Mis- 
 sissippi comes to his defense, the first word he had to speak 
 for Mr. Davis was that he never counseled insurrection 
 against the government. I took the words down." 
 
 MR. OGLESBY " Since when ?" 
 
 MR. ELAINE "Since the close of the war. He has 
 never counseled insurrection ! Let us be thankful. Why 
 should we not pension a man who has shown such loyalty 
 that he has never counseled insurrection ? That is from the
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 257 
 
 Representative of his own State. I took the words down 
 when he spoke them. I was amazed ; I did not exactly con- 
 sider the words of the honorable Senator from Mississippi a 
 wanton insult to apply to me or anybody else, but I con- 
 sider them to be most extraordinary words, that when plead- 
 ing the cause of Jefferson Davis at the bar of the' American 
 Senate to be pensioned on its roll of honor, his personal 
 representative, his associate, his friend, his follower, com- 
 mends him to the American people, because he has been so 
 loyal that he has never counseled insurrection since the war 
 was over. 
 
 " This is the man brought in here who, according to the 
 Senator from Mississippi, is to go down to history the peer 
 of Washington and Hampden, fighting in the same cause, 
 entitled to the same niche in history, inspired by the same 
 patriotic motives, to be admired for the same self-conse- 
 cration. 
 
 " Let me tell the honorable Senator from Mississippi, 
 that in all the years that I have served in Congress I have 
 never voluntarily brought the name of Jefferson Davis before 
 either branch, but I tell him that he is asking humanity to 
 forget its instincts and patriotism to be changed to crime 
 before he will find impartial history place Mr. Jefferson Davis 
 anywhere in the roll that has for its brightest and greatest 
 names George Washington and John Hampden." 
 
 After Mr. Lamar had replied to this speech, Mr. Elaine 
 resumed as follows : 
 
 " Why, Mr. President, does the honorable Senator from 
 Mississippi declare that the policy of the government of the 
 United States, administered as it has been through the R-e- 
 
 17
 
 258 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 publican party, has been one of intolerance toward those 
 who were prominent in the war if I may use the euphemism, 
 and leave out rebellion which is offensive to his ears? Do 
 I understand the honorable Senator to maintain here on this 
 floor that the government of the United States has been in- 
 tolerant ? Certainly the Senator does not mean that." 
 
 After a colloquy with Mr. Lamar, Mr. Elaine resumed 
 thus : 
 
 "The government of the United States never disfran- 
 chised or put under political disabilities more than fourteen 
 thousand men in the entire South. Out of two millions who 
 were in the war it never disfranchised over fourteen thou- 
 sand men. There are not two hundred left to-day with polit- 
 ical disabilities upon them. There is not one that ever 
 respectfully or any other way petitioned to be relieved and 
 was refused. I know very well what the honorable Sena- 
 tor from Ohio meant, when he said that Hon. Jefferson 
 Davis should be commended because he was not an office- 
 seeker and had not asked to be relieved of disabilities. 
 Why, if the newspapers are to be credited, especially those 
 in the Southern Democratic interest, Mr. Davis is a candi- 
 date for office ; he is pledged to sit on the other side of this 
 chamber two years hence, and the honorable Senator from 
 Ohio will in the next Congress with his eloquence I am 
 predicting now urge that these disabilities be removed from 
 him. I predict further, that he will urge it without Jeffer- 
 son Davis paying the respect to the great government against 
 which he rebelled, simply asking in respectful language that 
 disabilities be taken from him. He has never asked it ; I 
 am very sure that another great leader in the South, Mr.
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 259 
 
 Toombs, of Georgia, has boasted that he would never do it, 
 and in the House of Representatives three years ago, when 
 the general amnesty bill was pending and it was proposed 
 that the amnesty should be granted merely on the condition 
 that it should be asked for by each person desiring it, that 
 it was resisted to the bitter end this great government was 
 to go to them and ask them if they would take it. The 
 action of the Democratic House of Representatives I am 
 speaking of the past now, which is quite within parliamen- 
 tary limits the action of the Democratic House of Repre- 
 sentatives was not that Jefferson Davis might have his dis- 
 abilities removed upon respectful petition, but that we should 
 go to him and petition him to allow us to remove them." 
 
 When the bill to restrict Chinese emigration was under 
 consideration in the spring of 1879, Mr. Elaine took a de- 
 cided stand in its favor. 
 
 The following speech by Mr. Elaine, was delivered in the 
 Senate, April 14, 1879 : 
 
 [The Senate having under consideration the bill (H. R. 
 No. 1), making appropriations for the support of the army 
 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and for other pur- 
 poses.] 
 
 "Mr. President: The existing section of the Revised 
 Statutes numbered 2002, reads thus : 
 
 " ' No military or naval officer, or other person engaged in the 
 civil, military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, 
 bring, keep, or have under his authority or control, any troops or 
 armed men at the place where any general or special election is 
 held in any State, unless it be necessary to repel the armed enemies 
 of the United States, or to keep the peace at the polls.'
 
 260 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 
 
 "The object of the proposed section, which has just been 
 read at the clerk's desk, is to get rid of the eight closing 
 words, namely, 'or to keep the peace at the polls,' and 
 therefore the mode of legislation proposed in the Army Bill 
 now before the Senate is an unusual mode; it is an extra- 
 ordinary mode. If you want to take off a single sentence 
 at the end of a section in the Revised Statutes the ordinary 
 way is to strike off those words, but the mode chosen in this 
 bill is to repeat and re-enact the whole section, leaving those 
 few words out. While I do not wish to be needlessly suspi- 
 cious on a small point, I am quite persuaded that this did 
 not happen by accident, but that it came by design. If I 
 may so speak, it came of cunning, the intent being to create 
 the impression that, whereas the Republicans in the admin- 
 istration of the general government had been using troops 
 right and left, hither and thither, in every direction, as soon 
 as the Democrats got power they enacted this section. I 
 can imagine Democratic candidates for Congress all over the 
 country reading this section to gaping and listening audiences 
 as one of the first offsprings of Democratic reform, whereas 
 every word of it, every syllable of it, from its first to its 
 last, is the the enactment of a Republican Congress. 
 
 "I repeat that this unusual form presents a dishonest 
 issue, whether so intended or not. It presents the issue 
 that as soon as the Democrats got possession of the Federal 
 Government they proceeded to enact the clause which is 
 thus expressed. The law was passed by a Republican Con- 
 gress in 1865. There were forty-six Senators sitting in this 
 Chamber at the time, of whom only ten, or at most eleven, 
 were Democrats. The House of Representatives was over-
 
 ELAINE IN P TJBLIC LIFE. 261 
 
 whelmingly Republican. We were in the midst of a war. 
 The Republican administration had a million, or possibly 
 twelve hundred thousand, bayonets at it command. Thus 
 circumstanced and thus surrounded, with the amplest possi- 
 ble power to interfere with elections had they so designed, 
 with soldiers in every hamlet and county of the United 
 States, the Republican party themselves placed that pro- 
 vision on the statute-book, and Abraham Lincoln, their 
 President, signed it. 
 
 "I beg you to observe, Mr. President, that this is the 
 first instance in the legislation of the United States in 
 which any restrictive clause whatever was put upon the 
 statute-book in regard to the use of troops at the polls. 
 The Republican party did it with the Senate and the House 
 in their control. Abraham Lincoln signed it when he was 
 commander-in-chief of an army larger than ever Napoleon 
 Bonaparte had at his command. So much by way of cor- 
 recting an ingenious and studied attempt at misrepre- 
 sentation. 
 
 " The alleged object is to strike out the few words that 
 authorize the use of troops to keep peace at the polls. 
 This country has been alarmed I rather think, indeed, 
 amused at the great effort made to create a wide-spred im- 
 pression that the Republican party relies for its popular 
 strength upon the use of the bayonet. This Democratic 
 Congress has attempted to give a bad name to this country 
 throughout the civilized world, and to give it on a false 
 issue. They have raised an issue that has no foundation in 
 fact that is false in whole and detail, false in the charge, 
 false in all the specifications. That impression sought to be
 
 262 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 created, as I say, not only throughout the North American 
 continent, but in Europe to-day, is that elections are at- 
 tempted in this country to be controlled by the bayonet. 
 
 " I denounce it here as a false issue. I am not at lib- 
 erty to say that any gentleman making the issue knows it 
 to be false; I hope he does not; but I am going to prove to 
 him that it is false, and that there is not a solitary inch of 
 solid earth on which to rest the foot of any man that makes 
 that issue. I have in my hand an official transcript of the 
 location and the number of all the troops of the United 
 States east of Omaha. By ' east of Omaha,' I mean all 
 the United States east of the Mississippi River and that belt 
 of States that border the Mississippi River on the west, in- 
 cluding forty-one million at least out of the forty-five mill- 
 ion of people that this country is supposed to contain to- 
 day. In that magnificent area I will not pretend to state 
 its extent but with forty-one million people, how many 
 troops of the United States are there to-day? Would any 
 Senator on the opposite side like to guess, or would he like 
 to state how many men with muskets in their hands there 
 are in the vast area I have named? There are two 
 thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven ! And not one 
 more. 
 
 "From the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the 
 lakes, and down the great chain of lakes, and down the 
 Saint Lawrence, and down the valley of the Saint John, 
 and down the Saint Croix, striking the Atlantic Ocean, and 
 following it down to Key West, around the gulf, up to the 
 mouth of the Mississippi again, a frontier of eight thousand 
 miles, either bordering on the ocean or upon foreign terri-
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 263 
 
 tory is guarded by these troops. Within this domain forty- 
 five fortifications are manned and eleven arsenals protected. 
 There are sixty troops to every million of people. In the 
 South I have the entire number in each State and will 
 give it. 
 
 " I believe the Senator from Delaware is alarmed, greatly 
 alarmed about the over-riding of the popular ballot by the 
 troops of the United States ! In Delaware there is not a 
 single armed man, not one. The United States has not even 
 one soldier in the State. 
 
 " The honorable Senator from West Virginia [Mr. Here- 
 ford], on Friday last, lashed himself into a passion, or at 
 least into a perspiration, over the wrongs of his State, 
 trodden down by the iron heel of military despotism. 
 There is not a solitary man of the United States, uni- 
 formed, on the soil of West Virginia, and there has not been 
 for years. 
 
 " In Maryland ? I do not know whether my esteemed 
 friend from Maryland [Mr. Whyte] has been greatly 
 alarmed or not ; but at Fort McHenry, guarding the entrance 
 to the beautiful harbor of his beautiful city, there are one 
 hundred and ninety-two artillerymen located. 
 
 " In Virginia, there is a school of practice at Fortress 
 Monroe. My honorable friend [Mr. Withers], who has 
 charge of this bill, knows very well, and if he does not I 
 will tell him, that outside of that school of practice at For- 
 tress Monroe, which has two hundred and eighty-two men 
 in it, there is not a federal soldier on the soil of Virginia 
 not one. 
 
 " North Carolina. Are the Senators from that State
 
 264 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 alarmed at the immediate and terrible prospect of being 
 over-run by the army of the United States ? On the 
 whole soil of North Carolina there are but thirty soldiers 
 guarding a fort at the mouth of Cape Fear River -just 
 thirty. 
 
 " South Carolina. I do not see a Senator on the floor 
 from that State. There are one hundred and twenty artil- 
 lerymen guarding the approaches to Charleston Harbor, and 
 not another soldier on her soil. 
 
 "Georgia. Does my gallant friend from Georgia [Mr. 
 Gordon], who knows better than I the force and strength of 
 military organization the senior Senator, and the junior 
 also are both or either of those Senators alarmed at the 
 presence of twenty -nine soldiers in Georgia ? [Laughter.] 
 There are just twenty-nine there. 
 
 " Florida has one hundred and eighty-two at three sepa- 
 rate posts, principally guarding the navy yard, near which 
 my friend on the opposite side [Mr. Jones] lives. 
 
 "Tennessee. Is the honorable Senator from Tennessee 
 [Mr. Bailey] alarmed at the progress of military despotism 
 in his State? There is not a single federal soldier on the 
 soil of Tennessee not .one. 
 
 "Kentucky. I see both the honorable Senators from 
 Kentucky here. They have equal cause with Tennessee to 
 be alarmed, for there is not a federal soldier in Kentucky 
 not one ! 
 
 " Missouri. Not one. 
 
 "Arkansas. Fifty-seven in Arkansas. 
 
 "Alabama. I think my friend from Alabama [Mr. 
 Morgan] is greatly excited over this question, and in his
 
 ELAINE IN P US LIC LIFE. 265 
 
 State there are thirty-two federal soldiers located at an 
 arsenal of the United States. 
 
 " Mississippi. The great State of Mississippi, that is in 
 danger of being trodden under the iron hoof of military 
 power, has not a federal soldier on. its soil. 
 
 " Louisiana has two hundred and thirty-nine. 
 
 " Texas, apart from the regiments that guard the 
 frontier on the Rio Grande and the Indian frontier, has 
 not one. 
 
 "And 4;he entire South has eleven hundred and fifty-five 
 soldiers to intimidate, over-run, oppress, and destroy the 
 liberties of fifteen million people ! In the Southern States 
 there are twelve hundred and three counties. If you dis- 
 tribute the soldiers there is not quite one for each county ; 
 and when I give the counties I give them from the census 
 of 1870. If you distribute them territorially there is one 
 for every seven hundred square miles of territory, so that 
 if you make a territorial distribution, I would remind the 
 honorable Senator from Delaware, if I saw him in his seat, 
 that the quota for his State would be three " one ragged 
 sergeant and two abreast," as the old song has it. [Laugh- 
 ter.] That is the force ready to destroy the liberties of 
 Delaware ! 
 
 " There are thirteen thousand polling places in the South, 
 and there are eleven hundred and fifty-five soldiers down 
 there, and this great intimidation is to be carried on by one 
 soldier distributing himself around to twelve polling places. 
 That is the intimidation that threatens the South just now; 
 and I am just reminded by the honorable Senator from Wis- 
 consin [Mr. Carpenter] that the Supreme Court decided
 
 266 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 a fact I did not recall at the moment that the war did not 
 close till April, 1866; a state of peace had not come, and 
 therefore the honorable Senator from Kentucky does not 
 bring himself within the line of evidence. He only saw 
 troops there in 1865, during the war. Has he seen them 
 since April, 1866, in time of peace?" 
 
 MR. WILLIAMS "No." 
 
 MR. BLAINE "He has not. [Laughter.] Then I should 
 like some other Senator, if there is any one who has testi- 
 mony to give; I should like to see some other Senator that 
 has seen troops around the polls, bulldozing, and brow-beat- 
 ing, and intimidating, and controlling the popular wish, to 
 rise, if he has any testimony to give on the subject." 
 
 MR. LOGAN "If the Senator will allow me, perhaps I 
 can make a statement about soldiers in Kentucky in 1865 
 myself. I happened to be in Louisville in 1865, at the time 
 of an election for Congress, when General Rosseau was a 
 candidate for Representative in Congress. I was stationed 
 at Louisville and had sixty-five thousand soldiers under my 
 command. I was there on the day of election, and I made 
 a speech there the night before the election. Those sixty- 
 five thousand soldiers were stationed all around Louisville, 
 and I never saw a more quiet, peaceable election in my life, 
 and under orders, the soldiers were kept from the polls and 
 out of the city during the day of the election, under my 
 own orders." 
 
 MR. BLAINE "All we get, then, in the testimony is, 
 that the Senator from Kentucky says he saw troops in his 
 State during the war, and the Senator from West Virginia 
 says he saw them in his State once since the war ten
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 267 
 
 years ago. That is the amount of actual testimony we get 
 on the subject. Now, Mr. President, I say this bill connects 
 itself directly with the provisions which are inserted by 
 the Democratic caucus in the Legislative, Executive, and 
 Judicial bill. The two stand together ; they cannot be sep- 
 arated ; because if to-day we enact that no civil officer what- 
 ever shall appear under any circumstances with armed men 
 at the polls I am not speaking of federal troops, or mili- 
 tary, or naval officers I should like to know how, if you 
 strike that out to-day in the military bill that is pending, 
 you are going to enforce any provisions of the election 
 laws, even if we leave them standing. . . . 
 
 " There, too, is the Congressional library that has be- 
 come the pride of the whole American people for its mag- 
 nificent growth and extent. You say it shall not have one 
 dollar to take care of it, much less add a new book, unless 
 the President signs these bills. There is the Department 
 of State that we think throughout the history of the gov- 
 ernment has been a great pride to this country for the abil- 
 ity with which it has conducted our foreign affairs; it is 
 also to be starved. You say we shall not have any inter- 
 course with foreign nations, not a dollar shall be appropri- 
 ated therefor, unless the President signs these bills. There 
 is the light-house board, that provides for the beacons 
 and the warnings on seventeen thousand miles of sea and 
 gulf and lake coast. You say those lights shall all go out, 
 and not a dollar shall be appropriated for the board, if the 
 President does not sign these bills. There are the mints 
 of the United States at Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, 
 San Francisco, coining silver and coining gold not a dollar
 
 268 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 shall be appropriated for them if the President does not 
 sign these bills. There is the Patent Office, the patents is- 
 sued which embody the inventions of the country not a 
 dollar for them. The Pension Bureau shall cease its oper- 
 ations unless these bills are signed, and patriotic soldiers 
 may starve. The Agricultural Bureau, the Post-office De- 
 partment, every one of the great executive functions of the 
 government, is threatened, taken by the throat, highway- 
 man-style, collared on the highway, commanded to stand and 
 deliver in the name of the Democratic Congressional caucus. 
 That is what it is ; simply that. No committee of this Con- 
 gress, in either branch, has ever recommended that legisla- 
 tion not one. Simply a Democratic caucus has done it. 
 
 " Of course this is new. We are learning something 
 every day. I think you may search the records of the 
 Federal Government in vain ; it will take some one much 
 more industrious in that search than I have ever been, and 
 much more observing than I have ever been, to find any 
 possible parallel or any sensible suggestion in our past his- 
 tory of any such thing. Most of the Senators who sit in 
 this chamber can remember some vetoes by Presidents that 
 shook this country to its center with excitement. The veto 
 of the National-Bank bill by Jackson in 1832, remembered 
 by the oldest in this chamber ; the veto of the National- 
 Bank bill in 1841 by Tyler, remembered by those not the 
 oldest, shook this country with a political excitement which 
 up to that time had scarcely a parallel ; and it was believed 
 whether rightfully or wrongfully is no matter it was be- 
 lieved by those who advocated those financial measures at 
 the time, that they were of the very last importance to the
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 269 
 
 well-being and prosperity of the people of the Union. 
 That was believed by the great and shining lights of 
 that day. It_ was believed by that man of imperial 
 character and imperious will, the great Senator from Ken- 
 tucky. It was believed by Mr. Webster, the greatest 
 of New England Senators. When Jackson vetoed the one 
 or Tyler vetoed the other, did you ever hear a suggestion 
 that those bank charters should be put on appropriation bills, 
 or that there should not be a dollar to run the government 
 until they were signed? So far from it that, in 1841, when 
 temper was at its height ; when the Whig party, in addition 
 to losing their great measure, lost it under the sting and 
 the irritation of what they believed was a desertion by the 
 President whom they had chosen; and when Mr. Clay, 
 goaded by all these considerations, rose to debate the ques- 
 tion in the Senate, he repelled the suggestion of William C. 
 Rives, of Virginia, who attempted to make upon him the 
 point that he had indulged in some threat involving the in- 
 dependence of the Executive. Mr. Clay rose to his full 
 height, and thus responded : 
 
 " I said nothing whatever of any obligation on the part of the 
 President to conform his judgment to the opinions of the Senate 
 and House of Representatives, although the Senator argued as 
 if I had, and persevered in so arguing after repeated correc- 
 tion. I said no such thing. I know and I respect the perfect in- 
 dependence of each department, acting within its proper sphere, 
 of the other departments." 
 
 "A leading Democrat, an eloquent man, a man who has 
 courage and frankness and many good qualities, has boasted 
 publicly that the Democracy are in power for the first time
 
 270 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 in eighteen years, and they do not intend to stop until they 
 have wiped out every vestige of every war measure. Well, 
 ' forewarned is forearmed,' and you begin appropriately on 
 a measure that has the signature of Abraham Lincoln. I 
 think the picture is a striking one, when you hear these 
 words from a man who was then in arms against the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, doing his best to destroy it, 
 exerting every power given him in a bloody and terrible re- 
 bellion against the authority of the United States, and when 
 Abraham Lincoln was marching at the same time to his 
 martyrdom in its defense ! Strange times have fallen upon 
 us, that those of us who had the great honor to be asso- 
 ciated in higher or lower degree with Mr. Lincoln, in the ad- 
 ministration of the government, should live to hear men in 
 public life, and on the floors of Congress, fresh from the 
 battle-fields of the rebellion, threatening the people of the 
 United States that the Democratic party, in power for the 
 first time in eighteen years, proposes not to stay its hand 
 until every vestige of the war measures has been wiped out ! 
 " The late Vice-president of the Confederacy boasted 
 perhaps I had better say stated that for sixty out of the 
 seventy-two years preceding the outbreak of the rebellion, 
 from the foundation of the government, the South, though 
 in a minority, had, by combining with what he termed the 
 anti-centralists in the North, ruled the country ; and in 1866 
 the same gentleman indicated in a speech, I think before the 
 Legislature of Georgia, that by a return to Congress the 
 South might repeat the experiment with the same successful 
 result. I read that speech at the time ; but I little thought 
 I should live to see so near a fulfillment of its prediction. I
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 271 
 
 see here to-day two great measures emanating, as I have 
 said, not from a committee of either House, but from a 
 Democratic caucus in which the South has an overwhelming 
 majority, two-tKirds in the House, and out of the forty-two 
 Senators on the other side of this chamber professing the 
 Democratic faith, thirty are from the South twenty-three, 
 a positive and pronounced majority, having themselves been 
 participants in the war against the Union, either in military 
 or civil station. So that it is a matter of fact, plainly dedu- 
 cible from counting your fingers, that the legislation of this 
 country to-day, shaped and fashioned in a Democratic caucus 
 where the Confederates of the South hold the majority, is 
 the realization of Mr. Stephens's prophecy. And, very ap- 
 propriately, the House under that control and the Senate un- 
 der that control, embodying thus the entire legislative powers 
 of the government, deriving its political strength from the 
 South, elected from the South, say to the President of the 
 United States, at the head of the executive department of 
 the government, elected as he was from the North elected 
 by the whole people, but elected as a Northern man ; elected 
 on Republican principles, elected in opposition to the party 
 that controls both branches of Congress to-day they natu- 
 rally say, 'You shall not exercise your constitutional power 
 to veto a bill.' 
 
 "All the war measures of Abraham Lincoln are to be 
 wiped out, say leading Democrats ! The Bourbons, of 
 France, busied themselves, I believe, after the Restoration, 
 in removing every trace of Napoleon's power and grandeur, 
 even chiseling the ' N ' from public monuments raised to per- 
 petuate his glory; but the dead man's hand from Saint.
 
 272 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Helena, reached out and destroyed them in their pride and 
 in their folly. And I tell the Senators on the other side of 
 this chamber I tell the Democratic party North and 
 South South in the lead and North following that the 
 slow, unmoving finger of scorn, from the tomb of the 
 martyred President on the prairies of Illinois, will wither 
 and destroy them. ' Though dead he speaketh.' " [Great 
 applause in the galleries.] 
 
 The PRESIDING OFFICER (MR. ANTHONY, in the chair) 
 " The sergeant-at-arms will preserve order in the galleries, 
 and arrest persons manifesting approbation or disappro- 
 bation." 
 
 MR. BLALNE "When you present these bills with these 
 threats to the living President, who bore the commission of 
 Abraham Lincoln, and served with honor in the army of the 
 Union, which Lincoln restored and preserved, I can think 
 of only one appropriate response from his lips or pen. He 
 should say to you, with all the scorn befitting his station : 
 ' Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ?' " 
 
 Mr. Elaine's services in the Senate proved conclusively 
 that " the chiefest action for a man of spirit is, never to be 
 out of action." His industry was great, his performance 
 prodigious. His speeches and a fair history of his public 
 acts would fill several volumes. The speeches already pre- 
 sented, in whole or in part, sufficiently indicate his position 
 upon the leading questions of the day. On the death of 
 Senator Chandler he delivered a memorial address which 
 was the fitting forerunner of his eulogy on the martyred 
 Garfield. 
 
 In the Republican Convention of 1880, Mr. Elaine was
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 273 
 
 one of the most prominent candidates for the presidential 
 nomination, and was supported through thirty-five ballots 
 with all that enthusiasm and energy for which his friends 
 have been pre-eminent in three successive conventions of the 
 party. On the thirty-sixth ballot his principal strength, to- 
 gether with that of Messrs Sherman and Washburne, went 
 over to General Garfield, securing his nomination. 
 
 March 4, 1881, Mr. Elaine entered President Garfield's 
 Cabinet as Secretary of State. No happier selection could 
 have been made. These two leading minds were in full 
 sympathy upon the questions of policy then before the 
 country, and in perfect accord as to what constitutes a 
 State and what a Nation. They had learned to distinguish 
 between nationality and confederacy in* an expensive school, 
 and were not likely to disregard the moral force of the les- 
 son. There was a measure of agreeableness between them 
 which seemed to promptly assure the country, that good 
 work would be done, and unquestionably this assurance 
 would have been justified had President Garfield lived. 
 After the cruel assassination of our last hero-statesman who 
 occupied the chair of the Nation, Mr. Elaine was virtually 
 President for eighty days till death came and relieved the 
 real Executive. The country understood this fact and 
 rested easily upon it, for the people had confidence in the 
 man who was recognized as the President's confidential ad- 
 viser and faithful friend. And they had confidence in him 
 for his own great qualities. 
 
 All the world remembers and will not soon forget the 
 place which Mr. Elaine held in public sympathy, on account 
 of his manly and noble bearing toward the family of the 
 
 18
 
 274 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 dying President. Every day, during the time when the 
 wounded Garfield lay waiting the final summons, the news- 
 papers bore to the American public the continued story of 
 
 BLAINE READING MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY TO MRS. GARFIELD. 
 
 the attentions and considerate conduct of the Secretary of 
 State towards the wife and children of his chief. It thus 
 happened that from one end of the land to the other, where- 
 ever the news was read, the praise of Elaine was mingled
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 275 
 
 with the sorrow of the people for the fallen President and 
 his household. Each day the Secretary was wont to visit 
 Mrs. Garfield in person, and to read to her, as a brother to 
 his sister in sorrow, the words of condolence and sympathy 
 which came to her from every quarter of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 Mr. Elaine remained in the Cabinet several months after 
 President Arthur's inauguration. Some disagreement upon 
 details of state-craft was reported ; some want of accord upon 
 the foreign relations of the government; some anticipated 
 demand in the contemplation of Mr. Elaine, it was said, 
 upon Great Britain, for a modification of the Clayton-Bulwer 
 treaty ; his opposition to the course of Chili in her victorious 
 struggle with Peru; his project of a Congress of all the 
 American republics to settle international disputes these, 
 in part or in whole, we were told, were at the bottom of 
 Mr. Elaine's retirement from the Cabinet, because his views 
 and those of the President were irreconcilable. Perhaps the 
 reasons were wholly different from any thing that has yet 
 reached the public ear, but that whatever they were, they 
 were thought sufficient by the parties concerned, is un- 
 doubted.
 
 276 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE Continued. 
 
 ' ' With grave 
 
 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
 A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven, 
 Deliberation sat, and public care ; 
 And princely counsel in his face yet shone 
 Majestic." MILTON. 
 
 IN THE GREAT WORLD. 
 
 AT Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela River, 
 a good many reminiscences of Elaine's boyhood and 
 early youth are now revived, and they go pretty well to 
 prove, if such proof were needed, that the child is indeed 
 father to the man. Instances of his industry, honesty, 
 versatility, and activity of both body and mind are recalled 
 and related, with many shrewd comments and cheerful pre- 
 dictions of great renown. 
 
 "He was a master boy," says one old lady of Browns- 
 ville, " to lead off. He would get together a lot of young- 
 sters and propose a frolic in the hills, a game of ball, or a 
 fishing jaunt, and all agreed to his suggestion and joined in 
 whatever he proposed. It was enough to insure the sport 
 of the boys that Jimmy Blaine had charge of the game or the 
 frolic, for it was understood he would not fail to do his part 
 for the general entertainment. He protected the younger
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 277 
 
 boys against the older, but taught them all to rely upon 
 themselves as much as possible. He was cheerful, generous, 
 and truthful, and always ready to do a good turn for friend 
 or neighbor. He came to our house to borrow a net one 
 morning, and father that's what I called my husband 
 didn't want to let it go. 'I'll bring it back to-morrow,' 
 said Jimmy. ' It is n't bringing it back that I 'm talking 
 about, but letting it go,' said father. Jimmy thought a min- 
 ute ; then he replied, ' You 'd better lend it to me than to 
 somebody that'll never bring it back.' Father laughed, and 
 then I knew he would give in. Jimmy got the net, and, of 
 course, returned it according to agreement. 
 
 " Once I got him to stand still long enough to answer a 
 few questions. He was so full of life and fun that it was 
 hard work to keep him quiet for any length of time. I 
 asked him some questions in history, geography, and the 
 catechism, and he answered all correctly that is, if I knew 
 the correct answers and then I asked him what he expected 
 to follow when he grew up. ' Maybe I'll be a preacher or 
 a steamboat captain,' he replied, 'but I'd rather be a mem- 
 ber of Congress.' He hadn't forgotten this reply when he 
 was here a few years ago, and acknowledged that he had 
 had his preference." 
 
 Another aged dame remembered him as the most chari- 
 table boy she ever knew. " Why, he would give away his 
 dinner rather than have any one else go hungry. He gave 
 his pennies and his fruit and his candy to the children of 
 poor parents, and did this so often that it was talked about 
 in the town. He played jokes upon some of his mates, but 
 only upon his equals in strength and opportunity. He
 
 278 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 seemed to despise every thing in the way of a mean advan- 
 tage. I can't remember the particulars of any of these 
 jokes, but some of them were very cute." 
 
 We had better luck with a bright-eyed old gentleman of 
 clear memory. " When we were boys," said he, " down on 
 Indian Hill farm, Jim Elaine was a lively chap. He kept 
 the whole township in arms. Once I got even with him. I 
 was down in the meadow pitching hay. He knew that I 
 was going to do that job, and he went down there a day or 
 two before and fixed one of the haycocks so it could not be 
 lifted. He ran a long wire through it in such a way as to 
 hold it together, and then fastened it under the middle of 
 the stack to a post which he had driven in the ground. 
 Some of the other boys knew about the game, and they 
 stood around looking kind of sneaking and smiling a little. I 
 tackled the doctored stack early in the day. I drove my fork 
 into the top, and, spitting on my hands, bore down upon it. 
 It didn't budge. I tried it once more, with a little extra 
 strength, and broke the fork clean off at the handle. A 
 boy sitting on a rail fence snickered, and I knew something 
 was up. A moment's examination convinced me that the 
 stack was tied down, and just then the boy who had laughed 
 pointed in the direction of another stack not far away. I 
 felt in my bones that Jim Elaine was hiding there. So I 
 crawled up kind of easy, and finding him watching the per- 
 formance on his hands and knees, with some of the grass 
 thrown over him, I got behind him and raised him one with 
 my boot. I was mad, and I put a good deal of heft into 
 that kick, for he shot out of the stack head first, as if he 
 had been fired from a cannon. It humped him for a while, I
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 279 
 
 tell you, and there was a lively scattering among the rest 
 of the boys. 
 
 "He was always great in learning some good piece for 
 speaking in school. It was nothing for him to get it by 
 heart, as the boys called it. He generally told the boys 
 what he was going to speak, so that none of them would get 
 the same ; but once a fellow, whose name was Ames or Amos, 
 pitched upon the same piece Jim had, just for a joke, and 
 as his ,name was called first, he took all the wind out of 
 Jim's sails by pretty good speaking. Jim did n't appear to 
 mind it much, but the teacher remarked that they had bet- 
 ter have an understanding in future, and avoid repetition. 
 The time came pretty soon when they had a school exhibi- 
 tion, and each one who took part had to write his own 
 piece. Elaine was given his choice between the first and 
 last speeches, and he chose the first. It was grand. I 
 do n't think he has made a better one since. When Ames's 
 name was called he was n't there, although a few minutes 
 before he was seen in his seat. 'Gone home, sick,' said 
 one of the boys. It finally leaked out that Ames lacked 
 either the ability or the disposition to write a piece for him- 
 self and had gone to Elaine for help, and that Jim, not 
 caring to keep all the good things, and remembering Ames's 
 favor on a former occasion, had copied and given him most 
 of his own speech, and had only followed Ames's example 
 in using it first. Ames left the school and this part of the 
 country shortly afterward." 
 
 Men who have been in Congress for a long series of 
 years are disposed to look upon new members in about the 
 same light as that through which senior collegians view
 
 280 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 freshmen. It is not favorable to the new members. Said 
 one of the old stagers to Elaine, upon his first appearance 
 as a member of the House : " Well, you are here fresh from 
 the people, and probably with their instructions in your 
 pocket ; now what do you propose to do ?" " Nothing that 
 my constituents will be ashamed of, or ever have reason to re- 
 gret" was the reply. That old member is still in Congress, 
 and he feels that he was not only properly answered, but 
 that the purpose expressed in the answer has been grandly 
 realized. 
 
 These incidents are brought forward now to illustrate 
 the foundation of Mr. Elaine's character and greatness. No- 
 body in childhood and youth poses before the community 
 for mere effect. Whatever acts are performed in tender 
 years must be regarded as the spontaneous outpouring of 
 nature, prompted by the untaught and unsophisticated heart 
 and brain. No parent expects his ten, or twelve, or fifteen- 
 year-old boy to do any thing for mere effect, and most cer- 
 tainly not in a country town where all affectation is absurd, 
 where every body knows every body, and where the least 
 pretense of moral or mental superiority would be very jeal- 
 ously scanned. The boy's life supplied the true horoscope 
 of the future legislator and statesman, and the American 
 people are disposed to put the predictions of that young 
 life strongly to the proof in a further trial. 
 
 From a distinguished correspondent who has known Mr. 
 Elaine intimately for many years, we gather the following 
 interesting details of his daily life and habits : 
 
 " At first he lived in Washington in a nomadic way in 
 hotels or boarding-houses, as do most Congressman but
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 281 
 
 when he was elected Speaker he bought a house on Fifteenth 
 Street, in the best quarter of the town. Opposite lived 
 Hamilton Fish, then Secretary of State ; next door lived 
 Fernando Wood ; General Sherman's house was only a few 
 doors distant, and General Butler could be found just around 
 the corner. Elaine's house was thought a handsome one at 
 that time, but it was only a plain brick structure in a row, 
 and it cuts no sort of a figure in these days when big man- 
 sions in the Queen Anne, Elizabethan, Norman, and I know 
 not how many other styles abound at the capital. There 
 were two big parlors on the first floor, and back of them a 
 sitting-room and dining-room, and all four rooms connected 
 by folding doors, so that the crowds that used to surge in 
 at the Speaker's official receptions were measurably well ac- 
 commodated. In the belongings of this, his first Washing- 
 ton home, Elaine showed a fondness for engravings, for sub- 
 stantial furniture, and for books. He was much given to 
 hospitality, and never appeared so happy as when entertain- 
 ing a congenial dinner party at his big round table. For 
 his dinner-table talks he had an inexhaustible fund of anec- 
 dotes and witticisms. I never heard him tell the same story 
 twice. He did not resemble in the least the hand-organ 
 type of man who has only one little set of tunes. Indeed, 
 I think he might dispute with Henry Ward Beecher for the 
 honor of being the most original man in America. No mat- 
 ter what the topic may be, he is sure to contribute to the 
 conversation something particularly bright and entertaining. 
 "When not entertaining friends at his own house he 
 usually dined out. I remember to have warned him once of 
 the perils of the diner-out how an eminent man had come
 
 282 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 to an untimely end by eating big dinners. He said he ob- 
 served a strict rule at dinner parties he took soup and roast 
 beef, but no prepared dishes. No dessert, except a little ice- 
 cream, and no wine save dry champagne. By sticking closely 
 to this dietary programme, he could dine out every day in the 
 week without injuring his digestion. In those days Elaine was 
 not a great letter-writter, either with his own hand or vicar- 
 iously through that of his secretary. He did not, like Gar- 
 field, reply to all the letters he received. He was a great 
 newspaper-reader, and always knew the attitude of every 
 really important journal in the country on the dominant 
 issues of the day. He knew the history of these journals, 
 too, and something of the men who made them, and if there 
 was any power behind the chairs of their editors he was 
 pretty sure to be informed about it. He was not accessible 
 at all times and to all the world, as many men who cherish 
 great political ambition think it necessary to be. The im- 
 passable black guardian of the hall door was never quite 
 sure that Mr. Elaine was in, but he would see. If the visi- 
 tor was not welcome he would manage to make him believe 
 that the Speaker had just gone out a few minutes before. 
 This colored person had a fine instinct for discerning the 
 men whom his master would probably wish to receive. They 
 were shown into the front parlor; others waited in the hall. 
 " In the Fifteenth Street house Elaine lived while in 
 Washington until after the death of Garfield. He had pre- 
 viously begun to build a huge, expensive red-brick pile out 
 on the P Street Circle, deeming himself comfortably rich at 
 the time, and thinking the position of Secretary of State 
 carried with it duties of enlarged hospitality. The house
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 283 
 
 was a mistake, as he soon found. He lived in it only about 
 a year. As a private citizen it was much too large for his 
 needs ; besides, -a considerable share of his fortune melted 
 away in the great shrinkage in stocks, and he did not feel 
 able to support the expensive establishment which the house 
 demanded. He considered himself very fortunate to be able 
 to lease it for a sum which amounted to 6 per cent, on its 
 cost. Then he condensed his household into a dwelling of 
 moderate capacity, facing on Lafayette Square. From his 
 front window he could see the White House through the 
 trees in the pretty park. Not many of his own belongings 
 came with this house save his books and a few pictures. In 
 it he did most of the work on his ' Twenty Years of Con- 
 gress,' living as retired as his friends would let him, and 
 getting his exercise mainly from a daily morning walk to 
 the Capitol, whither he went to consult the books in the Con- 
 gressional Library. 
 
 " All this time his real home, if the attachments of him- 
 self and the members of his family were considered, was 
 the large, old-fashioned, broad-fronted white house, with its 
 green blinds, its maples, and its grassy yard, which stands 
 on a quiet, shady street near the State Capitol, in Augusta, 
 Me. This house typifies the well-to-do phase of village life 
 in New England, as it expressed itself in architecture before 
 the recent mania for colors, angles, balconies, and fanciful 
 forms came in. It represents the plainness, solidity, and 
 conservatism of the last generation. Mr. Elaine has modi- 
 fied it very little, and not at all at the expense of its sober, 
 old-time appearance. He has added two or three rooms in 
 the rear one large library, which is his work-room, and
 
 284 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 which during the many hard fights he waged with the Demo- 
 crats when he was chairman of the State Republican Com- 
 mittee used to be a rendezvous for his lieutenants from all 
 parts of the State. In the course of two Maine campaigns 
 I saw a good deal of Mr. Elaine. He was the busiest man 
 in the State, hurrying from county to county to address 
 mass-meetings, writing telegrams on the trains, getting a 
 pocketful of dispatches at every town, dictating letters at 
 night to his secretary, yet always cheerful and campanion- 
 able, and with a good joke or anecdote ready to enliven 
 every occasion. He knew the whole State as well as his 
 own dooryard, and was acquainted with the leading men in 
 every town. He brought the canvass down to the school 
 districts. The hurrah work of processions, banners, and big 
 meetings he estimated at its proper value, but he never de- 
 pended on it to produce results. The real business of a 
 campaign was to perfect local organization, ascertain who 
 were the doubtful voters, and bring argument and personal 
 influence to hear upon them through the efforts of their 
 Republican neighbors. 
 
 " Saturdays we special correspondents used to manage to 
 get back to Augusta if we could, to spend a quiet Sunday 
 afternoon with Elaine at his house. In the evening some 
 musical friends of the family would usually corne in, and we 
 had a good time singing old-fashioned Church tunes, for which 
 Elaine had a fondness, and in which he would join with his 
 children and with all the members of the company who 
 could make any show of a voice." 
 
 As it respects politicial scandals, it is well known that, 
 in 1870, a story was started that Mr. Elaine had done some-
 
 ELAINE IN P UBLIC LIFE. 285 
 
 thing wrong while Speaker of the House in assisting to 
 renew the land grant of the Little Rock & Fort Smith Rail- 
 road, of Arkansas. It was a false and malicious charge, in- 
 stigated by those who were jealous of Mr. Elaine's success and 
 rapid progress in the public regard. Nobody who knew him 
 believed it for a moment, and those who took the trouble to 
 investigate, found it to be utterly without foundation. In 
 proof of this we append what Harpers Weekly, of May 13, 
 1876, had to say about it. For several reasons, it will be 
 found quite interesting just at this juncture : 
 
 "In speaking of the railroad-bond scandal about Mr. 
 Elaine we said that at least it would be admitted that he 
 had always shown himself acute enough to escape the traps 
 into which the honest but dull often fall. If high principle 
 should be denied to him, and if, as is sometimes asserted, 
 he is merely a politician, yet surely he is a politician of 
 sagacity enough to know that, in public life, honesty, if 
 nothing more, is certainly good policy. The substance of 
 the charge against Mr. Elaine was that when he was the 
 Speaker of the House, and when Mr. Thomas Scott was 
 president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, he caused 
 the company to buy bonds to the amount of $75,000, which 
 were almost worthless, for $64,000, and the insinuation was 
 that this was a bribe to secure the favor of Mr. Elaine for 
 Mr. Scott's railway projects before Congress. Plainly stated, 
 this was the charge. Of course, if believed, it was fatal to 
 Mr. Elaine ; and at this time, when the public mind is very 
 suspicious, the mere accusation was not unlikely to be of 
 great injury to him. The story had been privately whis- 
 pered, and there had been a conference of Republican editors
 
 286 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 at Cincinnati, which ended by acquainting him with the 
 rumor. Suddenly it was made public in a Democratic paper 
 at Indianapolis, and in other journals in other parts of the 
 country. Then, of course, it was echoed and re-echoed 
 through the whole press. Mr. Blaine instantly published an 
 absolute and complete denial, and having collected evidence 
 that is apparently conclusive, he made a brief, clear, simple 
 statement in the House, which was as thorough a refutation 
 as was ever made, and in the absence of other evidence, leaves 
 him unspotted." 
 
 The Chicago Tribune, date of June 14, 1884, under the 
 head of "Mr. Elaine's Vindication," refers to the old false- 
 hood, and thus disposes of it : 
 
 " The charge is : 
 
 " That in the spring of 1869 Mr. Blaine being at that 
 time Speaker of the House of Representatives a bill re- 
 newing the land grant of the Little Rock and Fort Smith 
 Railroad in the State of Arkansas was before the House, 
 and that in his capacity of Speaker he promoted its pass- 
 age because he had a pecuniary interest in the road. 
 
 " The truth is : 
 
 "1. That Mr. Blaine at the time of the passage of the 
 bill had no pecuniary interest whatsoever in the railroad or 
 its land grant, and expected to have none. 
 
 " 2. That he had no acquaintance with any persons who 
 did have any pecuniary interest in the railroad or its 
 land grant. 
 
 " 3. That he did not < promote ' the passage of the bill, 
 and that it did not need his influence, inasmuch as it had 
 already passed the Senate by a unanimous vote, and was
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 287 
 
 not objected to by any body in the House. In fact, it 
 passed the House by a unanimous vote, as soon as it was 
 before that body, on its merits. 
 
 "4. That Mr. Elaine's sole connection with the bill was 
 to rule out an amendment tacking to it the very odious and 
 objectionable land-grant of the Texas and Pacific Railroad, 
 a measure which ought not to pass, and which, if it had 
 been fastened on the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad 
 measure, would probably have dragged it down to an un- 
 merited defeat. When this highly offensive amendment was 
 proposed, Mr. Root, one of the Arkansas members, called the 
 Speaker's attention thereto, and at Mr. Elaine's suggestion 
 Mr. John A. Logan, then a member of the House, raised the 
 point of order that the amendment was not germane, and it 
 was ruled out of order forthwith. The bill then passed by 
 a unanimous vote. 
 
 "Nearly three months after these events Mr. Elaine for 
 the first time obtained an interest in the railroad, pur- 
 chasing the stock and bonds as any other buyer might do, and 
 then for the first time formed the acquaintance of those who 
 had been instrumental in pushing the enterprise in the State 
 of Arkansas. He bought a block of securities belonging to 
 the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, including stock 
 and first and second mortgage bonds, in June, 1869, after 
 the adjournment of Congress, and placed the first mortgage 
 bonds during the three months following with a number of 
 his friends in Massachusetts and Maine. The entire series 
 of bonds at his disposal was closed out during the months 
 of July, August, and September of 1869, so the transaction 
 was ended when, in his letter of October 4, 1869, Mr. Elaine
 
 288 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 wrote to Fisher, and merely in the way of a curious remin- 
 iscence called attention to the fact of his unsolicited and ac- 
 cidental services to the road the April previous, when he 
 was in no way interested in its affairs, and had no reason to 
 suppose that he ever would be. The truth is, that his 
 attention was first directed to the railroad by its application 
 to Congress for a renewal of its land grant, and it first 
 seemed to him a favorable investment after its land grant 
 had been renewed by a unanimous vote of both houses of 
 Congress. 
 
 "Mr. Elaine sold his securities of the road to his friends 
 with a personal promise that if any loss should ensue he 
 would take back the stock and bonds at the price for which 
 he sold them. Shrinkage did ensue, and the stock and 
 bonds were thrown back upon his hands, and, though he had 
 given no written guarantee of redemption, he paid for them 
 at a great personal sacrifice out of his own pocket. The 
 New York Evening Post has since alleged that he unloaded 
 his disastrous investment upon the Union Pacific Railroad, 
 but it has produced no proof of any such transaction, 
 whereas Mr. Elaine has exhibited the sworn statements of 
 the officers of the railroad that no such transfer was ever 
 made ; and his statement has been accepted as conclusive by 
 those who are familiar with the circumstances of the case. 
 Indeed, it was this part of the controversy that George 
 William Curtis considered in Harpers Weekly when he 
 wrote in May, 1876, that Mr. Elaine's statement was 'as 
 thorough a refutation as was ever made.' " 
 
 It would seem strange indeed to find it necessary to de- 
 fend Mr. Elaine, were we not able to remember that the
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 289 
 
 purest and best men the country ever possessed were to 
 some extent the victims of vile calumniation. It was true 
 of Washington, of Clay, of Lincoln, of Grant, of Garfield. 
 In the case of each, the scandals were promptly disproved, 
 but they were repeated again and again, to the utmost limit 
 of "damnable iteration," even after disproval. There are 
 very good people who yet believe that Garfield wrote the 
 Morey letter, although it was proved a black forgery. 
 None who were acquainted with the man, whether they 
 were his political friends or not, believed it for a moment 
 after his disclaimer. " I wonder if Garfield thinks deny- 
 ing that letter will do him any good ? " queried a gentleman 
 of Hon. John G. Carlisle, now Speaker of the House. "If 
 he denies it, you may rely that he did not write it," re- 
 sponded Carlisle. "I have known Garfield intimately for 
 many years, and I know he would lose every thing he has 
 in the world, and the prospect of ever having any thing 
 again, before he would be guilty of untruthfulness." This 
 was the manly expression of a great mind, who, although a 
 political opponent, is above the ordinary prejudice of party. 
 It was said during the presidential campaign of 1880. 
 
 Mr. Elaine's reputation is of the same order, with those 
 who know him. His integrity is above suspicion among his 
 associates, no matter what their politics may be. Therefore 
 he thought it necessary to disprove some of the* lies that 
 have been uttered to smirch his fair name. But they are re- 
 iterated by unscrupulous foes, who are well aware that, al- 
 though " a lie has no legs, and can not stand, it has wings, 
 and can fly far and wide." Nobody pretends that he is per- 
 fect, for that is not in humanity ; but that he is a great, 
 
 19
 
 290 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 generous, whole-souled, honest man, full of vim and intelli- 
 gence, is enough for a personal platform ; and the man is 
 lucky who can stand upon such a platform deservedly. 
 Jealousy will attack him, as it has the great hearts who 
 have lived before and worn themselves out in the service of 
 the people. But truth crushed to earth rises very rapidly 
 upon our free soil. Mr. Elaine has shown too much inde- 
 pendence to suit the truckling politicians of the day, and for 
 this they seek to wound him. He spoke and voted against 
 the Electoral Commission bill, as did Morton, and there 
 are some mousing partisans who seek to knife him, politi- 
 cally, for this alone. Some wonderful statesmen have con- 
 ceived the idea that nothing should be done but at the behest 
 of the party, and every thing else is treason. Mr. Elaine 
 has never hesitated to declare his independence of party 
 whenever it claimed his allegiance in a course he could not 
 approve ; and this should certainly testify to his political 
 honesty, if nothing further. In all this he is a thorough 
 Republican, however, for if Republicanism is not political 
 freedom, what in the world is it ? We have read of his 
 Republican views in Congress and perused his speeches there ; 
 now, let us see how the views he expressed outside, in the 
 great world, agree with his Congressional platform. For this 
 purpose we make an extract from his speech on the currency, 
 at Biddeford, Maine, August 21, 1878 : 
 
 " By common consent, the currency question is the great 
 question before the people. This I regret ; because, if there 
 is one thing people can not afford, it is a political currency 
 question. Let us settle it, and settle it right. Let us re- 
 view the circumstances that brought us where we are now.
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 291 
 
 In 1861 an extra session of Congress was called, and it au- 
 thorized the treasurer to borrow $400,000,000, as there was 
 no money in the treasury. Fifty millions of demand notes 
 were also authorized, and when Congress assembled after the 
 Christmas holidays they assembled with an empty treasury. 
 In this particular strait, the government provided for an is- 
 suance of $150,000,000 of legal-tender notes. That was a 
 measure of absolute necessity. It was useless to stand upon 
 a very fine-drawn point at such a time. It was a question 
 of life. We declared the notes legal tender. Before another 
 year had expired we were called upon to issue another 
 $150,000,000, and when Congress assembled in December, 
 1863, the report of the Secretary of the Treasury brought 
 before us a very embarrassing condition. The government 
 was without currency again. We were at that time appeal- 
 ing to every civilized nation of the world for money. Forty 
 or fifty million dollars were due the army, and ready cash 
 was demanded. Out of this state of affairs came the Loan 
 Act, which really supplied funds which were necessary for 
 the salvation of the Nation. The 'Loan Act had not only 
 authority of law, but in a peculiar and strong sense it is 
 binding upon us. In this act was a proviso as follows : 
 1 That the total amount of those notes issued, and to be is- 
 sued, shall never exceed $400,000,000.' It was the limit 
 which, in extreme urgency, we pledged ourselves to, and if 
 there is any honor in the American people they would as 
 soon sign away their birthright as violate this pledge. The 
 most fearful thing that could happen to this country would 
 be the issuance of an unlimited amount of currency. How 
 are you going to contract the currency?
 
 292 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 "Whatever else the American people do with currency, 
 let me say to you that there is no body of men so little 
 competent to determine the question of money as Congress- 
 men. I voted in Congress for the Greenback bill. I voted 
 that greenbacks should not be contracted. 
 
 " Greenback people say that we should not have any 
 banks. For seven hundred years we have had banks, and 
 we could not conduct the business of the country for a min- 
 ute without banks. Why are banks a necessity? A bank is 
 a place where the borrower of money meets the lender ; where 
 surplus money is deposited. Suppose a man wants to bor- 
 row $10,000 to go into business. Greenbackers would send 
 him all over the country, borrowing $50 here and $50 there. 
 There are at the present time three bills in Congress for 
 'resurrecting' the State banks. New England enjoyed, un- 
 der the old system, the best banks in the country ; but they 
 owed their reputation to the personal integrity of the men 
 who stood behind the counter." The speaker aptly illustrated 
 the weakness of the system by referring to the Lumberman's 
 Bank, which might be said to have been owned by the pres- 
 ent Greenback candidate for governor. This bank had a 
 capital of $50,000, but at one time had on hand unsigned 
 bills to the amount of $165,000, which would be signed as 
 fast as any body wanted them. " In fact, the old system of 
 banking was based upon the personal notes of the stockhold- 
 ers. If you will have banks, then what kind will you have : 
 responsible or irresponsible ? National banks are perfectly 
 free for every man to engage in, with just one little condi- 
 tion that the government insists upon that you shall not 
 issue any bills until you have put into the United States
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 293 
 
 treasury an amount equal to ten per cent additional to pro- 
 tect the bill-holders. 
 
 " If you hold a national bank bill, you do n't care whether 
 the bank is burst or not. In regard to taxing bonds, Green- 
 backers say 'here is an exempted class.' The only man in 
 the United States who pays absolutely full tax on his prop- 
 erty is the holder of government bonds ; for instance : A 
 invests $10,000 in government 4 per cents. ; B invests 
 an equal amount in Maine State 6s; and C invests a like 
 amount in Maine Central 7 per cents. In the first case the 
 investor in government bonds pays his taxes in advance, but 
 in the case of the other bonds, is it within your experience 
 that holders thereof flock to the assessor's office asking to 
 be taxed ? Facts show that but a very small portion of the 
 bonds are taxed. It is the easiest thing in the world for 
 your brother in California to own them, or your uncle in some 
 other part of the country. Then why delude yourselves 
 with the idea that if you tax governnent bonds they would 
 be any more likely to turn up for taxation than these State or 
 railroad bonds. If you succeed in taxing bonds you merely 
 place upon your shoulders an additional burden of $40,000,- 
 000. Government bonds never could nor never should be 
 taxed. There are five kinds of money that the United 
 States stands sponsor for : gold and silver and gold is better 
 than silver. Moses, in the second chapter of Genesis, tells 
 us 'that gold is good;" and it makes no difference whether 
 it is stamped by the United States or Venezuela. Then there 
 is the old-fashioned, war-honored, patriotic greenback, that 
 did such great work, that says the United States will pay 
 
 ), or as it may be, reserving to the United States when
 
 294 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 they would pay. In 1875 it did say when they would pay, 
 viz : January 1, 1879. The advance school of Greenbackers, 
 represented by General Butler, do n't want this kind of green- 
 back at all. They want another kind. They don't want 
 anything stamped with ' promise to pay.' They want this 
 greenback to say, ' this is $10,' or any sum. Such talk is 
 merely nonsense. Why not say, 'this is a horse?' Why not 
 make it $1,000? It takes no more paper or time to print it, 
 but it is not so with gold. The next government money 
 is National bank bills, and lastly the silver certificates. 
 
 " We fancied during the greenback craze that we were 
 all getting rich. In 1873 we found out we had been buying 
 $800,000,000 more than we were selling. There is nothing 
 so mysterious about national finances. The same principles 
 are involved in private finances. If a farmer is buying more 
 than he is selling from his farm, he is growing poorer, but 
 if he- is selling more than he is buying, he is getting richer. 
 This idea holds good with the trade of the country. Now 
 things are changed. We are buying less abroad and have a 
 balance in our favor of $630,000,000. No people in the 
 world are so able to maintain a specie basis as the United 
 States, if they say they will. We are just in the sight of the 
 day of redemptiom. We can look right into the promised land; 
 but Greenbackers say, ' Do n't go in. Come, now, and wan- 
 der with us for years more.' You depreciate your currency, 
 and you might as well by one shock of mighty power paralyze 
 capital from one end of the country to the other. You reduce 
 the country from that of a great commercial people to a 
 beggarly small retail affair. The things which this day frighten 
 men are wild schemes of finance. What the United States
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 295 
 
 needs in this matter is a large amount of l let-alone-ative- 
 ness.' You can not keep this currency as a political foot-ball. 
 You can not settle this question until you settle it right." 
 
 Some time in the fall of 1879 he delivered a speech at 
 Cooper Institute, New York City, which has heen more 
 widely discussed, probably, than any other of his public 
 efforts. We can not give the address, but the country was 
 thrilled with the echo. 
 
 The official notification to Mr. Elaine of the action of 
 the Chicago Convention was quietly performed at his home 
 in Augusta, Maine, on Saturday, June 21, 1884. The com- 
 mittee was one of the largest that ever waited upon the 
 nominee of a National Convention, and considering the dis- 
 tance some of the members had come, was quite a remarkable 
 gathering. 
 
 The reading of the letter of notification took place on 
 the lawn in the front of Mr. Elaine's residence, and was a 
 scene long to be remembered by those in attendance. Be- 
 neath a stately butternut-tree, and in front of some low 
 clumps of cedars and hemlocks, at the east of the house, and 
 near Capitol Street, the committee took a position in the 
 form of a semi-circle. In front was Mr. Elaine with folded 
 arms. Just to the rear were stationed Mr. Walker Elaine, 
 and J. G. Elaine. Jr. On the right of Mr. Elaine and a few 
 feet distant was Chairman Henderson. Standing by the 
 fence which separates the lawn and Capitol Street was a 
 bevy of ladies, among whom were Mrs. Elaine and Mrs. 
 Elkins. Mr. Elkins and several Augusta gentlemen were 
 near at hand. 
 
 Chairman Henderson read the letter in a clear, powerful
 
 296 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOG AN. 
 
 tone of voice which was distinctly audible to all. After 
 Mr. Elaine had finished reading his response, Chairman Hen- 
 derson took a step forward and said : " To one and all of 
 you I introduce the next President of the United States." 
 This was greeted with cheers, Mr. Elaine responding with a 
 bow. Hardly had the applause subsided when General 
 Henderson moved to the side of Mrs. Elaine, who was stand- 
 ing near, exclaiming at the same time : " With equal pleas- 
 ure I take the liberty to introduce the coming lady of the 
 White House." Three cheers for Mrs. Elaine were given 
 with much power. 
 
 Mr. Elaine listened to General Henderson's address with 
 his arms folded on his chest, and his eyes usually cast down 
 but at times wandering about and scanning the faces of the 
 audience. When General Henderson had concluded speak- 
 ing, Mr. Walker Elaine, the candidate's son, stepped for- 
 ward and handed his father the manuscript of the address 
 in reply to that of the committee. Mr. Elaine then read 
 as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the National Committee : 
 I receive, not without deep sensibility, your official notice 
 of the action of the National Convention already brought 
 to my knowledge through the public press. I appreciate, 
 more profoundly than I can express, the honor which is im- 
 plied in the nomination for the Presidency by the Republi- 
 can party of the Nation, speaking through the authoritative 
 voice of its duly accredited delegates. To be selected as a 
 candidate by such an assemblage from the list of eminent 
 statesmen whose names were presented, fills me with embar- 
 rassment. I can only express my gratitude for so signal an
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 297 
 
 honor and my desire to prove the worth of the great trust 
 reposed in me. 
 
 " In accepting the nomination, as I now do, I am im- 
 pressed and I am also oppressed with a sense of the labor 
 and responsibility which attaches to my position. The bur- 
 den is lightened, however, by the host of earnest men who 
 support my candidacy, many of whom add, as does your 
 honorable committee, the cheer of personal friendship to the 
 pledge of political fealty. A more formal acceptance will 
 naturally be expected, and will, in due season, be communi- 
 cated. It may, however, not be inappropriate at this time 
 to say that I have already made a careful study of the 
 principles announced by the National Convention, and in 
 whole and in detail they have my heartiest sympathy and 
 meet my unqualified approval. 
 
 " Apart from your official errand, gentlemen, I am ex- 
 tremely happy to welcome you all to my house. With many 
 of you I have already shared the duties of public service, 
 and have enjoyed most cordial friendship. I trust your 
 journey from all parts of the great Republic has been agree- 
 able, and during your stay in Maine you will feel that you 
 are not among strangers, but among friends. Invoking the 
 blessing of God upon the great cause which we jointly rep- 
 resent, let us turn to the future without fear and with 
 manly hearts." 
 
 Mr. Elaine's reply is a model of dignity and manliness. 
 It reflects throughout his appreciation of the importance of 
 his position, the labors and responsibilities which attach to 
 it, the burden of its duties, and the high honor of the prize 
 for which he is contending.
 
 298 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Now let us turn for a moment to Washington City, the 
 head-quarters for political information, and learn what the 
 great party leaders, some of whom were candidates for the 
 presidential nomination at Chicago, have to say of the Re- 
 publican standard-bearer. On the evening of June 19th an 
 immense Elaine and Logan ratification meeting was held in 
 front of the City Hall, and during its continuance was ad- 
 dressed by a large number of prominent speakers, among 
 whom were Senators John Sherman, Hawley, Harrison, and 
 Mahone, and William Walter Phelps. 
 
 More than fifty thousand perhaps more than one hun- 
 dred thousand Elaine speeches were made at ratification 
 meetings within thirty days after his nomination. All 
 breathe the same sentiment of unbounded confidence in the 
 chosen standard-bearer of the Republican forces the same 
 high trust that four years ago was testified for him by the 
 State of Maine, when Hon. William P. Frye made the fol- 
 lowing little speech in the National Republican Convention 
 of 1880. It has lost none of its interest since the date of 
 delivery : 
 
 "I saw once a storm at sea in the night-time, and our 
 staunch old ship battling for its life with the fury of the 
 tempest 5 darkness everywhere; the wind shrieking and 
 howling through the rigging; the huge waves beating upon 
 the sides of that ship, and making her shiver from stem to 
 stern. The lightnings were flashing; the thunders were 
 rolling. There was danger everywhere. I saw at the helm 
 a calm, bold, courageous, immovable, commanding man. In 
 the tempest, calm ; in the commotion, quiet ; in the dismay, 
 hopeful. I saw him take that old ship and bring her
 
 ELAINE IN PUBLIC LIFE. 299 
 
 into the harbor ; into still waters ; into safety. That man 
 was a hero. 
 
 " I saw the - good old ship, the State of Maine, within 
 the last year, fighting her way through the same darkness, 
 through the same perils, against the same waves, against 
 the same dangers. She was freighted with all that is 
 precious to the principles of our Republic with the rights 
 of American citizenship; with all that is guaranteed to the 
 American citizen by our Constitution. The eyes of the 
 whole Nation were upon her; an intense anxiety filled 
 every American heart, lest the grand old ship, the State of 
 Maine, might go down beneath the waves forever, carrying 
 her precious freight with her. But, sir, there was a man at 
 the helm. Calm, deliberate, commanding, sagacious, he made 
 even the foolish men wise. Courageous, he inspired the 
 timid with courage ; hopeful, he gave heart to the dismayed; 
 and he brought that good old ship proudly into the harbor; 
 into safety; and there she floats to-day, brighter, purer, 
 stronger, from her baptism of danger. That man, too, was 
 a hero, and his name was JAMES G. ELAINE. Maine sends 
 greetings to this magnificent convention. With the memory 
 of her own salvation from impending peril fresh upon her, 
 she says to you, representatives of fifty millions of Ameri- 
 can people, who have met here to counsel how the Repub- 
 lic shall be saved, she says to you, representatives of the 
 people, ' Take a man, a true man, a staunch man, for your 
 leader, who has just saved her, and who will bear you to 
 safety and certain victory.' " 
 
 How do the vilifiers of this great statesman like that 
 testimony from the Pine Tree State? How did they enjoy
 
 300 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Mr. Elaine's election to the Senate by the Legislature of his 
 State, immediately following the publication of their scan- 
 dalous traducings ? How can they tolerate a man who, rele- 
 gated to private life through no fault of his own, but through 
 the calamity of Garfield's death, has shown such fortitude, 
 such determination, in subduing the hopelessness that would 
 have overwhelmed an ordinary man, that he proves indeed, 
 
 ' ' True courage is not the brutal force 
 Of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve 
 Of virtue and of reason ?"
 
 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 *' A valiant and brave soldier seeks rather to preserve one citizen 
 than to destroy a thousand enemies, as Scipio the Roman said ; there- 
 fore, an upright soldier begins not a war lightly or without urgent cause. 
 True soldiers and captains make not many words; but when they speak 
 the deed is done." LUTHER. 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES of great men are valuable mainly as the 
 development of ideas which were the leading inspiration 
 of their subjects. Whoever has transcended in thought, and 
 then in action, the beaten path of ordinary opinion and en- 
 deavor, has become a legitimate object of general inquiry 
 and interest. Whoever has not thus transcended has no 
 claim upon our personal interest or study, though nations 
 bow to his scepter, and monarchs tremble at his frown. " All 
 the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine 
 years, and he died" such are the comprehensive and sig- 
 nificant terms in which the father of Sacred History wisely 
 chronicles a life blameless indeed, but signalized by no ex- 
 tension of the boundaries of human thought, no decided con- 
 tribution to the well-being of the race. Terence says, "My 
 advice is to consult the lives of other men as you would a 
 looking-glass, and from thence fetch examples for your own 
 
 imitation." 
 
 301
 
 302 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 The people of the United States know a good deal about 
 General John A. Logan, but they regard him as a man 
 about whom they can not know too much. Many of the 
 best points in his life are known to only a few chosen 
 friends, and as they concern his social and domestic relations 
 alone, it is scarcely possible to obtain his consent to their 
 publication. As a faithful and loving husband, a generous 
 neighbor, and a true, self-sacrificing friend, General Logan's 
 reputation is beyond encomium, and he enjoys, as he de- 
 serves, one of the happiest homes in all the broad expanse 
 of this sunny Republic. This sketch is intended to furnish 
 but the mere outline of his career, touching none but the 
 prominent features of his life, to be followed in succeeding 
 chapters with all details of interest in his public experience. 
 
 John A. Logan was born in Jackson County, Illinois, 
 February 9, 1826. His father, Dr. John Logan, emigrated 
 to this country from Ireland in 1823, and selected Illinois 
 as his abiding-place. His mother, whose maiden name was 
 Elizabeth Jenkins, was a native of Tennessee. 
 
 The early life of John A. Logan was spent in Jackson 
 County, and the rudiments of his education were obtained 
 from such schools as were then in existence there, supple- 
 mented by occasional instruction at home. At the outbreak 
 of the Mexican War, young Logan volunteered, and was 
 chosen a lieutenant in a company of the First Illinois Infantry. 
 As a soldier he did good service, and was for some time 
 adjutant of his regiment. In the fall of 1848, upon his re- 
 turn to his home, he commenced the study of law in the 
 office of his uncle, Alexander M. Jenkins, formerly lieuten- 
 ant-governor of Illinois.
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 303 
 
 In November, 1849, he was elected clerk of Jackson 
 County. In 1850 he attended a course of law lectures at 
 Louisville, Ky.,- receiving his diploma in 1851, when he en- 
 tered into practice with his uncle. The following year he 
 was elected prosecuting attorney of the Third Judicial Dis- 
 trict, and in the fall of the same year he was chosen to 
 the State Legislature, to which position he was three times 
 re-elected. In 1856 he was a presidential elector on the 
 Democratic ticket for the Ninth Congressional District, and 
 voted for James Buchanan for President. Two years later 
 he was elected a member of Congress from the same district, 
 receiving a large Democratic majority, and at the expiration 
 of his term he was re-elected. In the campaign of 1860 he 
 gave his ardent support to Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 He was among the first to enlist for the war of the Union. 
 He attended the called session of Congress in July, 1861, 
 and immediately joined the troops going to the front. He 
 was in the first battle of Bull Run, and among the last to 
 leave the field. Returning to his home September 1st, he as- 
 sisted in raising troops, and September 13th the Thirty-first 
 Regiment of Illinois Infantry was organized, with Logan 
 commissioned as colonel. 
 
 The first engagement in which he and his command par- 
 ticipated was the battle of Belmont, in November of the 
 same year, when his ability as a commander, and his dash 
 and intrepidity, foreshadowed the fact that he was to play 
 a conspicuous part in the operations of the army. He par- 
 ticipated in the movements at Fort Henry, and was present 
 at the battle of Fort Donelson, where he received a severe 
 wound, and did not rejoin his command until some weeks
 
 304 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 afterward, on the evening of the last day of the battle of 
 Shiloh. On March 3, 1862, he was made brigadier-general, 
 and participated in the siege of Corinth, as commander of 
 the First Brigade in General Judah's division of the right 
 wing of the army, and for his valiant services was publicly 
 thanked by General Sherman in his official report. When 
 the attempt to take Vicksburg began in the fall of 1862, 
 General Logan was in command of the First Division of 
 the right wing of the Thirteenth Corps. 
 
 On the arrival of the command at Memphis, December 
 31, 1862, the Seventeenth Army Corps was organized, and 
 on January 11, 1863, General. Logan was assigned to the 
 Third Division, in which position he remained until the fall 
 of Vicksburg, when he was assigned to the command of the 
 Fifteenth Army Corps. In the movements about Vicks- 
 burg from February, 1863, until July 4th, when General Pem- 
 berton surrendered, General Logan with his command was 
 actively engaged, and it was through a number of brilliant 
 movements by him that important advantages over the 
 enemy were gained, and the final result hastened. He was 
 selected by General Grant for consultation during the inter- 
 views with General Pemberton, looking to the terms of the 
 surrender ; and in consideration of his admirable services, 
 General Logan's command was ordered to take the lead in 
 the march into Vicksburg, July 4h, after which he was given 
 the command of that post, which he retained until placed 
 in command of the Fifteenth Corps, November 14, 1863. 
 
 During the latter part of December and January he 
 organized an expedition into Northern Alabama, where he 
 dispersed the rebel conscript officers, for which he was
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 305 
 
 officially complimented. In the Atlanta campaign General 
 Logan's corps was a part of McPherson's command, which, 
 as General Sherman said, was the snapper to the whip with 
 which he proposed to punish the enemy. During the move- 
 ment Logan was conspicuously at the front, and the forces 
 under his immediate command bore an important part in all 
 the actions and maneuvers that resulted finally in the taking 
 possession of Atlanta and the surrounding strongholds of 
 the Confederate forces. At Dallas, as at Resaca, General 
 Logan's command was in the front, and the desperation 
 with which the men under him fought showed their implicit 
 confidence in their commander to lead them to victory even 
 under the most perilous circumstances. 
 
 On July 22, 1864, Logan, as commander of the Fifteenth 
 Army Corps, was ordered in pursuit of the enemy south of 
 Atlanta. In the hard-fought cattle that followed, General 
 M^Pherson was killed, and General Logan succeeded him 
 in command of the Army of the Tennessee. The success 
 of the battle was accorded to Logan by General Sherman's 
 official report. The battle of July 28th, which followed, was 
 another hotly contested fight, in which Logan's command 
 was equally as conspicuous and successful. At Jonesboro, 
 August 29th, he was again in advance, and, seeing the neces- 
 sity of prompt action, without waiting for orders he pushed 
 forward and saved the bridge across Flint River, went into 
 a fortified position within a mile and a half of Jonesboro, 
 fought a sharp battle, and won a decided victory. 
 
 On January 20, 1865, the campaign of the Carolinas was 
 commenced, the movements being for the purpose of en- 
 countering Johnston's Army of the Potomac. This march 
 
 20
 
 306 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 was full of peril and privations, in all of which General 
 Logan was with his men day and night, wading swamps and 
 streams, and doing all that the men of his corps were called 
 on to suffer. The command moved on, driving the enemy 
 at every point, passing through Columbia, Goldsboro and 
 Fayetteville, until it reached Raleigh, near which the sur- 
 render of Johnston took place, and the campaign was closed. 
 
 After the close of the war, General Logan was offered 
 the position 'of minister to Mexico, but declined. In 1866 
 he was elected to Congress from the State at large in Illinois 
 by a majority of 55,987, and in the Fortieth Congress was 
 one of the managers of the impeachment of President John- 
 son. In the next, the Forty-first Congress, Logan began to 
 make his mark. He was then chairman of the Military 
 Committee, and was charged with the duty of investigating 
 the sale of cadetships to the naval and military academies. 
 A number of Southern carpet-bag Republicans, it was 
 thought, had swelled their exchequer in this wise. Pursuing 
 the investigation with assiduity, Logan caught a South 
 Carolina carpet-bagger named Whittemore, and exposed 
 him in a speech in the House. 'To save expulsion, Whitte- 
 more resigned and resumed his profession of lay preacher. 
 
 In 1870, Logan was elected by the Illinois Legislature to 
 the United States Senate to succeed Richard Yates. After 
 serving his term he was defeated by the Independents, who 
 united upon Hon. David Davis as his successor, but he was 
 again elected to succeed Oglesby in 1879. He has always 
 taken an active part in all the legislation of the Senate, 
 and has introduced many useful bills. His efforts for the 
 soldiers have been as tireless as patriotic.
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 3Q7 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 
 
 "Ten struck battles 
 
 I sucked these honored scars from, and all Roman; 
 Four years of bitter nights and heavy marches, 
 When many a frozen storm sang through my cuirass, 
 And made it doubtful whether that or I 
 Were the most stubborn metal, have I wrought through, 
 And all to try these Romans. Ten times a night 
 I have swam the rivers, when the stars of Rome 
 Shot at me as I floated, and the billows 
 Tumbled their watery ruins on my shoulders, 
 Charging my battered sides with troops of agues ; 
 And still to try these Romans." TALFOUKD. 
 
 "ARM A VIRUMQUE CANO." 
 
 DECEMBER 20, 1860, Mr. Clarke, of New Hampshire, 
 offered a resolution in the Senate of the United States, 
 to inquire into the condition of the forts in Charleston Harbor. 
 Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, arose in his place and 
 opposed the resolution in the following extraordinary lan- 
 guage : 
 
 " I propose to show that it is improper we should make 
 this inquiry. We know that it must inflame the public 
 mind to agitate this question. Whatever the garrison may 
 be, the fact is that the President has not the power to in- 
 crease it; that he could not send a company there without 
 the fact being known before the company arrived. This
 
 308 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 would certainly precipitate action, and it would convey a 
 threat, attended by preparation to execute it, and naturally 
 result in bringing about the very collision which every man 
 who loves the peace of his country is now endeavoring to 
 avert. 
 
 "In every view of the case, it is in my view utterly 
 improper that we should institute such an inquiry as this. 
 Senators here this morning spoke as if the garrison at Fort 
 Moultrie were in hostile attitude against the city of Charles- 
 ton. If so, the garrison should be removed. The site 
 was given, as the army is maintained, for defense. Who 
 will or can reverse the purpose ? 
 
 " I trust there will be no collision. I trust these troops 
 are but to perform the ordinary, and, so far as our country 
 is involved, the peaceful, function of holding that fort until 
 transferred to other duty. But if there be danger, permit 
 me here to say, it is because there are troops in it, not be- 
 cause the garrison is too weak. Who hears of any danger 
 of the seizure of forts where there is no garrison ? There 
 stand Forts Pulaski and Jackson, at the mouth of the Savan- 
 nah River. Who hears of any apprehension lest Georgia 
 should seize them? There are Castle Pinckney and Fort 
 Sumter, in Charleston Harbor. Who hears of any danger 
 of seizure there ? The whole danger arises from the 
 presence of United States troops." 
 
 Thus the modern Catiline. Within six days from the 
 date of this utterance, the little garrison in Fort Moultrie, 
 alarmed at the preparations making in Charleston for their 
 capture, evacuated the fort at night and took refuge in Fort 
 Sumter. Next morning the rebels in Charleston robbed the
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 309 
 
 arsenal, where the treacherous Floyd had stored, for their use, 
 ten years' ordinary supplies ; and armed bands from the city, 
 thus supplied with stolen weapons and munitions of war, 
 immediately seized Forts Moultrie and Pinckney, and com- 
 menced throwing up batteries for the bombardment of Sum- 
 ter. All this they called a peaceful operation, which our 
 government had no right to resist. Much more than this. 
 They went so far as clamorously to assert that the action 
 of the United States in removing a feeble garrison from one 
 of its own forts, where it was menaced by an assault which 
 it could not resist, to another fort where it would be more 
 secure, was an insult to the State of South Carolina, and a 
 declaration of war. 
 
 On the day that Mr. Davis was opposing, in the United 
 States Senate, the strengthening of garrisons at forts in the 
 harbor of Charleston, a convention of a few score of the " domi- 
 nant race " in South Carolina, assumed to break up the govern- 
 ment of the American Union, and demolish the United States 
 as one of the nations of the earth, by adopting the following 
 resolution : We, the people of the State of South Caro- 
 lina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it 
 is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted 
 by us in convention, on the 23d of May, in the year of our 
 Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States 
 of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts 
 of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying the amend- 
 ments of said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the 
 union now subsisting between South Carolina and other 
 States, under the name of the United States of America, is 
 hereby dissolved" Therefore, according to the action of
 
 310 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 South Carolina, dissolution of the Union was a determined 
 fact on the 20th of December, 1860. 
 
 As this is not a history of the rebellion, but the preface 
 of a memoir of one of the distinguished generals who re- 
 pelled the onslaughts of secession, we are not particularly 
 concerned in the details of the Confederate Government insti- 
 tuted at Montgomery, February 4, 1861, by the action of 
 forty-two individuals, who adopted a constitution and by- 
 laws, and chose Jeiferson Davis President and Alexander 
 H. Stephens Vice-president of the Southern Confederacy ; 
 an are not particularly concerned in the fact that it was 
 we organization in which the people had no voice, and that 
 its audacious usurpation had no parallel in history. Its 
 arrogant assumptions were entirely overshadowed by the 
 crimes it afterwards committed in the name of law, and its 
 annals, if truthfully rendered, would condemn it to eternal 
 execration. 
 
 In the preceding chapter it was found convenient to give 
 a sketch in outline of the career of General Logan. It is 
 proposed in the present chapter to supplement what was said 
 in the former by adding the details of the more interesting 
 parts of the general's public life. It is well known that he 
 has chiefly drawn to himself the admiration of his country- 
 men by his exploits in the civil war, and it is to that part 
 of his career that we now turn with pride. His military 
 heroism is a legacy to the patriotic annals of our country, 
 and the part which he bore in the day of our great trial 
 must ever give him an honorable place among our great 
 captains. As already said, General Logan's first military 
 experience was as a soldier in the Mexican war. He was
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 311 
 
 at the time of his enlistment in that conflict but nineteen 
 years of age, but his bearing in arms was such as to win for 
 him from the first the esteem of his comrades and the ad- 
 miration of his commanding officers. 
 
 July 21, 1861, was fought the first battle of Bull Run. 
 Among the soldiers who bore arms in the ranks of the 
 Union was a young Democratic Congressman from Illinois. 
 He had experienced some of the toils and privations of a 
 military campaign in the Mexican War, where, at the age of 
 nineteen, he earned a reputation for soldierly courage and a 
 lieutenancy; and when his country again called, he shoul- 
 dered a musket and marched to the front in defense of the 
 stars and stripes. He saw his country's cause wounded and 
 distressed on that fateful Sunday at Manassas, and, under 
 the impulse of a noble patriotism, resolved to devote himself 
 to her relief. 
 
 The soldier Congressman was John A. Logan. In Sep- 
 tember, 1861, he returned to his home, and immediately 
 busied himself in raising men for the army. When the 
 Thirty-first Illinois Regiment was organized, he was com- 
 missioned as its colonel, and almost immediately took the 
 field. On the seventh of the succeeding November this 
 young regiment engaged in its first battle at Belmont, Mis- 
 souri. The camp of the enemy was situated on a slight 
 eminence, which rose a little back from the Mississippi, and 
 thus the foe were enabled to witness the debarkation of the 
 three thousand troops brought there to dislodge them. 
 They were not only prepared to give the Union boys a 
 warm reception on their own account, but, owing to the 
 timely intimation they had of the attack, had secured a re-
 
 312 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 enforcement of four regiments from Columbus, " on the old 
 Kentucky shore." 
 
 A march of a mile and a half brought the national troops 
 within range of the enemy's guns. The rebel camp was not 
 protected by earthworks worth consideration, but in lieu 
 thereof some twenty acres of timber had been felled imme- 
 diately in front of their position. Concealed behind this 
 very formidable abatis, over which it was almost impossible 
 for our troops to force their way, the rebels fought with 
 desperation, hurling a storm of bullets into the bosoms of 
 the patriots who were struggling through the entangling 
 branches ; but after a struggle of more than two hours, 
 the Union boys succeeded in surmounting the obstructions, 
 and gained the clear space in front of the camps. The com- 
 mand was then given for a charge, and it was made with re- 
 sistless impetuosity by the right, the left, and the center. 
 The rebels numbered seven to eight thousand men. Three 
 thousand, in a semi-circle, under the flag of the Union, were 
 rushing upon them with a battle-cry which rose above the 
 roar of artillery and the incessant volleys of musketry. 
 Soon all these thousands were mingled in inextricable con- 
 fusion, grappling hand to hand in the death struggle. A 
 conflict like this must be, necessarily, brief. There rose, 
 suddenly, a shout, louder, longer, more continuous than had 
 been heard before, and which resounded far above the thun- 
 der of war's tempest. No one could mistake it. It was not 
 the frenzied cry of onset, but the exultant peal of victory. 
 The rebel flag was in the dust and the stars and stripes 
 waved proudly, announcing that the field was redemed from 
 the degradation of secession. The Twenty-seventh and
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 313 
 
 Thirty-first Illinois the latter Colonel Logan's regiment 
 and the Seventh Iowa, were the first who gained the camp- 
 ing ground of the enemy; but they were almost instantly 
 followed by their equally eager comrades. The rebel troops 
 retreated in great disorder, and their camp, stores, fixtures, 
 and all belongings were utterly destroyed. Colonel Logan's 
 soldierly qualities his good judgment, coupled with impet- 
 uous dash and boldness attracted the notice of General 
 Grant in this engagement, and it doubtless had due influ- 
 ence upon the promotion of the gallant Illinoisan. 
 
 Colonel Logan's regiment performed conspicuous service 
 at the taking of Forts Henry and Donelson, in February, 
 1862. At Donelson he was seriously wounded, and did not 
 rejoin his command till the evening of the last day of the 
 battle of Shiloh, the 7th of the succeeding April. In the fol- 
 lowing month he commanded a brigade at the siege of Cor- 
 inth, which was by no means a terrible siege, but was so 
 adroitly managed as to force the rebels from their position 
 without a general engagement. But General Logan took a 
 part in the operations so efficient and satisfactory that he 
 elicited the warmest praise from General Sherman in the 
 official dispatches. He had previously been promoted to the 
 rank of brigadier-general. 
 
 General Logan's division of General McPherson's corps 
 usually occupied the advance in the investment of Vicks- 
 burg, and on May 12, 1863, they came up with two brigades 
 of the enemy, three miles in front of the town of Raymond. 
 They were strongly posted in a piece of timber, from which 
 they were driven, after some hard fighting. Falling back a 
 little, they rallied at Fainden's Creek. The banks of this
 
 314 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 stream are steep, and then contained but little water. In front 
 there was an open field. Crouching in this creek a natural 
 rifle-pit the rebels completely swept the field before them 
 with their fire. A charge was ordered. After a brief but 
 terrible struggle, the rebels were driven pell-mell from their 
 ditch, in a thoroughly demoralized condition, and away they 
 scampered in the utmost disorder, throwing away arms, 
 knapsacks, and blankets. The Union loss was sixty-nine 
 killed, three hundred and forty-one wounded, and thirty-two 
 missing. Apparently the rebels had no time to report their 
 loss, but it was more than double that of the patriots. 
 
 At the battle of Champion Hill, May 16th, the rebel gen- 
 eral, Pemberton, occupied a strong position. His army was 
 upon an eminence covered by a dense growth of timber. 
 The battle commenced about nine in the morning. Know- 
 ing that several divisions of the Union army were hurrying 
 forward to take part in the conflict, the rebels decided not 
 to await their arrival, but to promptly assume the offensive. 
 Massing their troops, they hurled them upon the center of 
 General Hovey's line. Hovey held his position with great 
 firmness for a time, but was at length compelled to fall 
 back. About this time word came that General Logan had 
 gained a position on the rebel left, and was threatening 
 their rear. The patriots now charged with a huzza; the 
 rebels were driven in confusion into the woods, and being 
 vigorously pursued, they were pressed onward in full re- 
 treat. This battle decided the fate of Vicksburg. It was 
 thenceforth impossible for Generals Pemberton and Johnston 
 to effect a junction. Over one thousand prisoners, and two 
 batteries, fell into the hands of the victors.
 
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 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 315 
 
 July 4, 1863, after a campaign of nearly six months, the 
 city of Vicksburg, with its entire garrison, surrendered to the 
 Union army. This event found General Logan in command 
 of the Fifteenth Corps, and his personal merits, as well as 
 those of his men, were signalized by the assignment to them 
 of the post of honor in marching to occupy the city. 
 
 The well-known historian, John S. C. Abbott, in his ac- 
 count of the " March to Atlanta," says : " It seems invidi- 
 ous to select any one commander as entitled to special men- 
 tion, when nearly all alike were patriotic and heroic in the 
 highest possible degree. Thomas, McPherson, Logan, Sco- 
 field, Rosseau, Butterfield, and a host of others, merit a 
 whole volume to do justice to their achievements. There 
 was scarcely a day during this momentous campaign in 
 which there were not engagements that, in the early his- 
 tory of the war, would not have been considered important 
 battles." 
 
 Details of the many attacks against the rebels when 
 they were intrenched upon Kenesaw Mountain, prove the 
 military wisdom of General Logan in advising against them. 
 With General McPherson, he was at General Sherman's 
 head-quarters, when it was decided to make the first attack 
 upon Kenesaw. At once he protested, although he could 
 scarcely believe the intention to make the assault was ear- 
 nest. Upon discovering that it was really contemplated, he 
 emphasized his protest, coupling it with the opinion that to 
 send troops against that mountain would only result in use- 
 less slaughter. Finding his opinion likely to be disregarded, he 
 went still further, and declared it to be a movement which, 
 in his judgment, would be nothing less than the murder
 
 316 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 of brave men. In all of this he was warmly seconded by 
 General McPherson. They did not succeed in averting the 
 slaughter. 
 
 After many previous unsuccessful attempts to dislodge 
 the foe, two attacks were made upon his strongholds on the 
 29th of June, 1864. General Sherman says: "Both failed, 
 costing us many valuable lives ; among them those of Generals 
 Harker and McCook. Colonel Rice and others were badly 
 wounded. Our aggregate loss was near eight thousand, 
 while we inflicted comparative little loss upon the enemy, 
 who lay behind his well-formed breastworks." General Sher- 
 man resolved upon a flank movement. On July 2d, General 
 McPherson moved his whole army down to Turner's Ferry, 
 across the Chattahoochie. Much of the march was after 
 sunset. It was a night of fearful storm and darkness. Gen- 
 eral Sherman hoped, under cover of night and the storm, to 
 gain his position without exciting the suspicion of the foe. 
 But rebel scouts detected the movements, and General John- 
 ston fearing the inevitable result of such a position gained 
 in his rear, abandoned Kenesaw, and all his important earth- 
 works there, and retreated to the Chattahoochie. Next 
 morning the banner of beauty was unfurled from the sum- 
 mit of Kenesaw, and the army of freedom, led by General 
 Sherman, triumphantly entered the streets of Marietta. 
 Johnston entrenched himself strongly on the Chattahoochie, 
 but was soon "driven out by another splendid flank move- 
 ment, and onward marched the victorious legions of the 
 Union to Atlanta, where they at once commenced vigor- 
 ously forming their lines of siege. 
 
 July 20th, the first engagement occurred, begun by a
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 317 
 
 sortie from the rebels. Their repulse was complete. At 
 every point they were driven back. When the sun went 
 down and darkness covered the bloody field, the ground was 
 covered with the abandoned rebel dead and wounded. The 
 loss of both sides was heavy. The patriot killed and 
 wounded was fifteen hundred. Our troops buried near seven 
 hundred of the rebel dead. Their total loss, according to 
 General Sherman, could not have been less than five thou- 
 sand. Abbott says, "General Logan was conspicuous in 
 this battle. His achievements merit more minute detail 
 than it is possible to give in a general history." 
 
 Morning of July 21st, about two o'clock, the army was 
 roused by sounds of movements within the rebel lines. Their 
 whole army was concentrating for a general attack, but dis- 
 covery thwarted the design of surprise. A terrible battle was 
 fought, but with signal disaster to the foe. On the morning 
 of the 22d, General McPherson, with the right of the army, 
 was on both sides of the railroad from Decatur. General 
 Logan was on the right, near the railroad. 
 
 The troops were all busy strengthening their fortifica- 
 tions. Immediately after the change of position previously 
 indicated, the rebels emerged from their ramparts, heavily 
 massed, and plunged in fiercest onset upon the troops com- 
 manded by Generals Leggett and G. A. Smith. They came 
 in such overpowering numbers that our men, though valiantly 
 returning the fire, were driven back, and were in imminent 
 peril of utter rout. Their defeat would enable the foe to 
 outflank the Army of the Tennessee, and to. menace it with 
 destruction. Intelligent patriot soldiers perceived all this, 
 and fought with desperation. For three hours the unequal
 
 318 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 contest continued. At length the Sixteenth Corps, which 
 which was on the move to re-enforce General Logan, arrived, 
 and, uniting with the heroes of the day, rushed into the 
 open field, and met the enemy face to face. The ground 
 was broken and rocky and covered with thorny shrubs. The 
 whole Army of the Tennessee was engaged, and, though 
 greatly outnumbered, held its own. General McPherson was 
 at all points, encouraging, directing, and inspiring his men. 
 About twelve o'clock, as with his staff he was riding along 
 the embattled lines, a fatal impulse led him into a gap be- 
 tween the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Corps. Being in 
 advance of his staff, he rode to the top of a ridge near by. 
 A party of rebels sprang from ambush, and fired a volley 
 of bullets upon him. The brave commander fell, mortally 
 wounded. 
 
 General McPherson was among the noblest of that band 
 of martyrs, who fell victims of the infamous rebellion of the 
 South. " He was," writes General Sherman, " a noble youth, 
 of striking personal appearance, of the highest professional 
 capacity, and with a heart abounding in kindness, that drew 
 to him the affections of all men." By the death of General 
 McPherson, the command of the Army of the Tennessee 
 devolved upon General Logan, "a man," says Sherman, 
 " rivaling his predecessor in bravery, patriotism, and military 
 ability." General Logan, as the news was transmitted to 
 him on the field that the command now rested with him, 
 brandished his sword, and cried out, " Come on, boys ; let 
 McPherson be the rallying cry." For two hours more the fight 
 raged. Says Abbott: "Hood was a mere reckless, desperate 
 ' fire-eater.' In a frenzy like that which reigns in a drunken
 
 THE SOLDIER STA TESMAN. 319 
 
 row, he hurled his masses, infuriated with whisky, upon the 
 patriot lines. He seemed reckless of slaughter, apparently- 
 resolved to carry his point or lose the last man. General 
 Logan was by no means his inferior in impetuous daring, 
 and far his superior in all those intellectual qualities of cir- 
 cumspection, coolness, and judgment requisite to constitute 
 a great general." At three o'clock in the afternoon the 
 rebels, defeated at every point, retreated from the field. 
 Their loss was enormous. " I entertain no doubt," writes 
 General Sherman, "that the enemy sustained an aggregate 
 loss of eight thousand men." Our loss was three thousand 
 seven hundred and twenty-two. 
 
 On the 24th of July General Sherman ordered two 
 forces of cavalry to move south from Atlanta to tear up 
 railways and cut off Hood's sources of supply. One, of five 
 thousand men, under General Stoneman, took the route to 
 McDonough. The other, of four thousand, under General 
 McCook, took the road which led through Fayetteville. 
 Hood observed these movements and comprehended the 
 threatened danger to his army. He therefore determined, 
 at every risk, to break Sherman's line. On the 28th he 
 massed his forces for the desperate endeavor. About noon 
 of that day an immense force was hurled against the Fif- 
 teenth Corps, General Logan, but the charge was so sternly 
 received, and such volleys of death poured into their ranks, 
 that the insurgent officers could no longer control their men, 
 and they broke and fled. Again and again were the routed 
 rebels rallied by their desperate leaders. Six times between 
 noon and four o'clock they were driven toward the frail in- 
 trenchment, behind which the patriots awaited them, and six
 
 320 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 times they were scattered with terrific slaughter. Hood 
 fought with the brute energy of a madman. Says one of 
 the foremost historians of the rebellion, "On that bloody 
 day General Logan's corps won great renown. Almost 
 alone they met the assault of these vastly superior numbers, 
 thus desperately hurled upon them." 
 
 McCook, Kilpatrick, Howard, and other efficient men 
 had been south of Atlanta several weeks, and had accom- 
 plished good work in the destruction of railroads and other 
 means of communication. Before Atlanta heavy engage- 
 ments of arms had been of daily occurrence, without per- 
 ceptibly weakening its defenses. But now a movement was 
 made by General Sherman to cut off communication of 
 every sort, and so occupy all the avenues by the Union 
 army as to send starvation into the streets of Atlanta and 
 seal its doom. The rebels made one last desperate endeavor 
 to prevent this movement, which, being successfully accom- 
 plished, would drive them fugitives from the " Gate City of 
 the South." General Sherman had marched more than a 
 hundred miles over the hills and through the beautiful val- 
 leys of Northern Georgia. He had, day after day, in unin- 
 terrupted victory, driven the whole rebel army before him. 
 And now the capture of Atlanta, with its arsenals, its mag- 
 azines, its manufactories, its military stores, would open up 
 to him an unobstructed path through the very heart of the 
 State to the sea. He had fought his way through dense 
 forests and mountain gorges. He was now to enter upon a 
 level country, where no serious impediment could block his 
 path. The rebels understood this perfectly, and stiffened 
 their sinews for the greatest effort of their lives.
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 321 
 
 When General Howard arrived within half a mile of 
 Jonesboro', about noon of the 31st of July, the rebels 
 plunged upon him, inspired by all the energies of fury and 
 despair. General Logan received the first onset. "He was 
 just the man for the place and the hour," says Abbott. Gen- 
 eral Kilpatrick had gained an important eminence, from 
 which his guns dealt destruction to the foe. In accumu- 
 lated masses the surging rebels rolled up the hill. In a mo- 
 ment there was a portentous silence, until the serried hosts 
 were within a few feet of the guns. Then came flash and 
 roar, peal upon peal, volley after volley. The range was 
 perfect. There was no need for deliberation or aim. The 
 gunners worked with superhuman rapidity; shell, grape, 
 canister, swept through the ranks of the foe like the hail 
 of hell. Fifteen minutes passed. A puff of wind swept 
 away the billowy smoke. The rebel column had vanished. 
 The ground was red with blood and covered with the man- 
 gled, ghastly victims of war some still in death, many 
 writhing in mortal agony. 
 
 It was now life or death with the rebel " cause." De- 
 feat was remediless ruin. A second column was forced up 
 the hill. A second burst of war's terrific tempest swept 
 them to destruction. And thus the battle raged till night. 
 Hardee, the rebel leader at that point, had no regard for the 
 lives of his men. Those most wretched of all the victims 
 of the rebellion, the "poor whites," who by merciless con- 
 scription had been forced into the war, were driven to cer- 
 tain slaughter with that disregard of life which always char- 
 acterizes venomous fanaticism. Next morning the battle 
 
 was renewed. Nearly the whole of General Thomas's Di- 
 
 21
 
 322 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 vision was now at hand to aid the Army of the Tennessee. 
 After standing upon the defensive for a few hours and blood- 
 ily repelling several charges, the Union boys, in their turn, 
 began making assaults. General Davis made one of the 
 most gallant of these charges. Union and disunion struggled 
 hand to hand over the barricade. The star-spangled-banner 
 and treason's flag intertwined their folds. After a fight of 
 four hours the whole rebel line was carried, find their bat- 
 tery of twenty-four guns captured. The foe retreated in 
 confusion. The gloom of the night, the unknown, pathless 
 forest, and the ragged nature of the ground forbade pursuit. 
 
 The disastrous intelligence was conveyed to Hood at At- 
 lanta. At two o'clock in the morning heavy explosions were 
 heard in the city, nearly twenty miles distant. Hood was 
 blowing up his magazines, in preparation for flight. Next 
 morning, August 2d, General Slocum, who was watching the 
 movements of the rebels at Atlanta, discovered their retreat. 
 They were escaping by roads which lead eastward towards 
 Augusta. Slocum immediately entered the city in triumph. 
 The colored population received him as their deliverer. 
 Tongue can not tell the enthusiasm of their greeting. 
 There were a few loyal citizens in the place, " faithful 
 among the faithless." For their persistent patriotism they 
 had suffered untold outrages. With tears which could not 
 be restrained, and heartfelt thanksgiving, they welcomed 
 the return of the flag of the free. 
 
 The foregoing group of some of the main incidents in 
 General Logan's military career will guide the reader to 
 those portions of our country's history which relate them 
 in detail. There still remains an event of great im-
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 323 
 
 portance, which raised him very high in the estimation 
 of the friends of General Thomas. He had been cut 
 off from joining his command for the march to the sea, 
 and subsequently reported to City Point for orders. He 
 reached there just after the first order for General Thomas's 
 removal before Nashville had been telegraphed to Washing- 
 ton, and its promulgation delayed. For the second time 
 General Grant had become exceedingly impatient, and de- 
 cided to remove Thomas. Upon the appearance of Logan, 
 Grant ordered him to proceed at once to Nashville and await 
 orders. His instructions contemplated his relieving General 
 Thomas, if, on his arrival, no attack had been made upon 
 Hood. Here was a most brilliant position offered that of 
 commander of the Army of the Cumberland, just as it had 
 been reorganized and put in order for battle, and stood 
 in its trenches ready for the word to advance. Had ambi- 
 tion alone actuated him, here was the opportunity of a life- 
 time of active service. But instead of obeying the spirit 
 of his instructions, he proceeded with such deliberation as 
 to prove beyond room for cavil that self-seeking was not the 
 motive which controlled Logan in the war. 
 
 He moved to his new post without undue haste. He 
 seemed to appreciate the situation far better than Grant 
 himself. His leisurely journey to Nashville gave time for 
 the battle to open under Thomas. And, when it opened, 
 Logan telegraphed announcing the beginning of Thomas's 
 success, and asking to be ordered to his old command. 
 There is nothing in Logan's military history more creditable 
 than this. Veterans of the Army of the Cumberland will 
 neither forget nor fail to appreciate its true nobility.
 
 324 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Peace came shortly after the last of the foregoing 
 events, and was hailed by the country with unbounded de- 
 light. It had been conquered in the interest of the Consti- 
 tution and the Union, and was therefore heartily welcome 
 to all good citizens. It was especially grateful to the dis- 
 tinguished leaders who had brought this success through 
 much disaster, and whose business had been war, to the ex- 
 clusion of every thing else, during four calamitous years. 
 Under date of September 12, 1864, General Sherman thus 
 expressed himself to the citizens of Atlanta : " The use of 
 Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its charac- 
 ter as a home for families. War is cruelty, and you can not 
 refine it ; and those who brought war on our country deserve 
 all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I 
 know that I had no hand in making this war, and I know 
 that I will make more sacrifices than any of you to-day to 
 secure peace. But you can not have peace and a division 
 of our country. If the United States submit to a division 
 now, it will not stop, but will go on till we meet the fate of 
 Mexico, which is eternal war. You might as well appeal 
 against the thunder-storm as against the terrible hardships 
 of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people 
 of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at 
 home is to stop this war, which can alone be done by admit- 
 ting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride. We 
 don't want your negroes, or your horses, or your houses, or 
 your land, or any thing you have. But we do want, and we 
 will have, a just obedience to the laws of the United States." 
 
 It is wholly a false notion that those whose vocation is 
 war enjoy it for its carnage and destruction. When Caesar
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 325 
 
 was engaging all the world in war, he wrote to Tully, 
 " There is nothing worthier of an honest man than to have 
 contention with" nobody." It was the highest aggravation 
 that the prophet could find in the description of the 
 greatest wickedness, that " the way of peace they knew 
 not ;" and the greatest punishment of all their crookedness 
 and perverseness was, that " they should not know peace." 
 A greater curse can not befall the most wicked nation than 
 to be deprived of peace. There is nothing of real and sub- 
 stantial comfort in the world that is not the product of 
 peace ; and whatsoever we may lawfully and innocently take 
 delight in is the fruit and effect of peace. All this was 
 fully understood by the great generals of the Union, and 
 they were willing to sacrifice their own peace and comfort 
 for a time, and even their lives, if necessary, to the end that 
 peace might be restored to the country. Most of the vol- 
 unteers in the army of the Union offered the same great 
 sacrifice to secure peace. The loyal men of our country 
 were compelled to conquer a peaceful condition, or live in 
 anarchy. Their patriotism and strong desire for the restora- 
 tion of law and order sent them to the front. 
 
 There are many noticeable things in the military record 
 of General Logan. He took excellent care of his men, and 
 never endangered their lives or sacrificed their comfort when 
 it was avoidable. A battle was never lost or made doubtful 
 through any action or lack of action on his part ; but many 
 were gained through his promptness, intrepidity, and address. 
 General Schofield is credited with the assertion that " Logan's 
 care of his division, and his personal presence and example, 
 made it equal to two of the ordinary divisions of the army."
 
 326 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Herein he was like the Chevalier Bayard, who inspired his 
 men with indomitable courage. His device was a porcupine, 
 with the motto: "Vires agminis unus habet" one man pos- 
 sesses the power of a whole troop. It is said that this was 
 given him in consequence of his having singly defended a 
 bridge against two hundred Spaniards. His example was 
 constantly before his men to excite them to deeds of the 
 greatest valor, and at the same time all his acts were con- 
 trolled by justice and tempered with mercy. Logan was 
 invariably as cool as was General Perer at the battle of 
 Minden. His corps of grenadiers were exposed to a battery 
 that carried off whole files at once. Perer, wishing them 
 not to fall back, rode slowly in front of the line with his 
 snuff-box in hand, and said : " Well, my boys, what's the 
 matter ? Eh, cannon ? Well, it kills you, it kills you ; that's 
 all, my boys. March on, and never mind it." 
 
 No man in the army ever made headway more rapidly 
 than did Logan. He made his way through oppositions as 
 readily as some men tread the flowery paths of ease, and 
 forced recognition of his merits through the high imperialism 
 of genius. His displacement from a position which he had 
 earned as the legitimate successor of General McPherson, 
 and the promotion of Howard, was a blow from which Logan 
 will never recover. He considered it a cruel and uncalled- 
 for humiliation, as it undoubtedly was, and but for the en- 
 treaties of friends he would have resigned. Succeeding the 
 evacuation of Atlanta, he went to Illinois to stump the State 
 for Lincoln. After the election he returned to camp and 
 led his corps in the remarkable campaign through the Caro- 
 linas. At the close of actual fighting, he marched his men
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 327 
 
 to Alexandria, and rode at their head in the grand review 
 at Washington. Upon retiring from the military service he 
 issued the following 
 
 FAREWELL ADDRESS. 
 
 " HEADQUARTERS ARMY OP THE TENNESSEE, " 
 
 "LOUISVILLE, KY., July 13, 1865. / 
 
 "Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee: 
 
 " The profound gratification I feel in being authorized to 
 release you from the onerous obligations of the camp, and 
 return you laden with laurels to the homes where warm 
 hearts wait to welcome you, is somewhat embittered by the 
 painful reflection that I am sundering the ties that trials 
 have made true, time made tender, suffering made sacred, 
 perils made proud, heroism made honorable, and fame made 
 forever fearless of the future. It is no common occasion 
 that demands the disbandonment of a military organization, 
 before the resistless power of which mountains bristling with 
 bayonets have bowed, cities have surrendered, and millions 
 of bravt* men been conquered. Although I have been but a 
 short time your commander, we are not strangers ; affections 
 have sprung up between us during the long years of doubts, 
 gloom and carnage which we have passed through together, 
 nurtured by common perils, sufferings, and sacrifices, and 
 riveted by the memories of gallant comrades, whose bones 
 repose beneath the sod of an hundred battle-fields, which nor 
 time nor distance will weaken or efface. The many marches 
 you have made, the dangers you have despised, the haughti- 
 ness you have humbled, the duties you have discharged, the 
 glory you have gained, the destiny you have discovered for 
 the country in whose cause you have conquered, all recur at
 
 328 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 this moment in all the vividness that marked the scenes 
 through which we have just passed. From the pens of the 
 ablest historians of the land daily are drifting out upon the 
 current of time, page upon page, volume upon volume of 
 your heroic deeds, and, floating down to future generations, 
 will inspire the student of history with admiration, the 
 patriot American with veneration for his ancestors and the 
 love of republican liberty, with gratitude for those who in a 
 fresh baptism of blood reconsecrated the powers and ener- 
 gies of the Republic to the cause of constitutional freedom. 
 Long may it be the happy fortune of each and every one of 
 you to live in the full fruition of the boundless blessings 
 you have secured to the human race. Only he whose heart 
 has been thrilled with admiration for your impetuous and 
 unyielding valor in the thickest of the fight can appreciate 
 with what pride I recount the brilliant achievements which 
 immortalize you and enrich the pages of our National his- 
 tory. Passing by the earlier, but not less signal triumphs 
 of the war, in which most of you participated and inscribed 
 upon your banners such victories as Donelson and Shiloh, 
 I recur to campaigns, sieges, and victories that challenge the 
 admiration of the world and elicit the unwilling applause of 
 all Europe. Turning your backs upon the blood-bathed 
 heights of Vicksburg, you launched into a region swarming 
 with enemies, fighting your way and marching without ade- 
 quate supplies, to answer the cry for succor that came to 
 you from the noble but beleagured army at Chattanooga. 
 Your steel next flashed among the mountains of the Tennes- 
 see, and your weary limbs found rest before the embattled 
 heights of Missionary Ridge, and there with dauntless cour-
 
 THE SOLDIER STA TESMAN. 329 
 
 age you breasted again the enemy's destructive fire, and 
 shared with your comrades of the Army of the Cumberland 
 the glories of a" victory than which no soldiery can boast a 
 prouder. 
 
 " In that unexampled campaign of vigilant and vigorous 
 warfare from Chattanooga to Atlanta, you freshened your 
 laurels at Resaca, grappling with the enemy behind his 
 works, hurling him back dismayed and broken. Pursuing 
 him from thence, marking your path with the graves of 
 fallen comrades, you again triumphed over superior numbers 
 at Dallas, fighting your way from there to the Kenesaw 
 Mountain, and under the murderous artillery that frowned 
 from its rugged heights, with a tenacity and constancy that 
 find few parallels, you labored, fought, and suffered through 
 the broiling rays of a Southern midsummer sun, until at 
 last you planted your colors upon its topmost heights. 
 Again on the twenty-second of July, 1864, rendered mem- 
 orable through all time for the terrible struggle you so 
 heroically maintained under discouraging disasters, and that 
 saddest of all reflections, the loss of that exemplary soldier 
 and popular leader, the lamented McPherson, your match- 
 less courage turned defeat into glorious victory. Ezra 
 Chapel and Jonesboro, added new luster to a radiant record, 
 the latter unbarring to you the proud Gate City of the 
 South. The daring of a desperate foe in thrusting his 
 legions northward exposed the country in your front, and 
 though rivers, swamps, and enemies opposed, you boldly sur- 
 mounted every obstacle, beat down all opposition, and 
 marched onward to the sea. Without any act to dim the 
 brightness of your historic page, the world rang plaudits
 
 330 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 when your labors and struggles culminated at Savannah, 
 and the old 'Starry Banner' waved once more over the 
 walls of one of our proudest cities of the seaboard. Scarce 
 a breathing spell had passed when your colors faded from 
 the coast, and your columns plunged into the swamps of the 
 Carolinas. The sufferings you endured, the labors you per- 
 formed, and the success you achieved in those morasses, 
 deemed impassable, form a creditable episode in the history 
 of the war. Pocotaligo, Salkahatchie, Edisto, Branchville, 
 Orangeburg, Columbia, Bentonville, Charleston, and Raleigh 
 are names that will ever be suggestive of the resistless 
 sweep of your columns through the territory that cradled 
 and nurtured, and from whence was sent forth on its mis- 
 sion of crime, misery, and blood the disturbing and disorgan- 
 izing spirit of secession and rebellion. 
 
 " The work for which you pledged your brave hearts 
 and brawny arms to the government of your fathers, you 
 have nobly performed. You are seen in the past gathering 
 through the gloom that enveloped the land, rallying as the 
 guardians of man's proudest heritage, forgetting the thread 
 unwoven in the loom, quitting the anvil, and abandoning the 
 workshops to vindicate the supremacy of the laws, and the 
 authority of the Constitution. Four years have you struggled 
 in the bloodiest and most destructive war that ever drenched 
 the earth with human gore; step by step you have borne 
 our standard, until to-day over every fortress and arsenal 
 that rebellion wrenched from us, and over city, town, and 
 hamlet from the lakes of the gulf, and from ocean to ocean, 
 proudly floats the ' Starry Emblem' of our national unity 
 and strength.
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 331 
 
 "Your rewards, my comrades, are the welcoming plau- 
 dits of a grateful people, the consciousness that in saving 
 the republic you have won for your country renewed re- 
 spect and power at home and abroad, that in the unex- 
 ampled era of growth and prosperity that dawns with 
 peace there attaches mightier wealth of pride and glory 
 than ever before to that loved boast, ' I am an American 
 citizen.' 
 
 "In relinquishing the implements of war for those of 
 peace, let your conduct ever be that of warriors in time of 
 war and peaceful citizens in time of peace. Let not the 
 luster of that bright name that you have won as soldiers be 
 dimmed by any improper act as citizens, but as time rolls 
 on let your record grow brighter and brighter still. 
 
 "JOHN A. LOGAN, Major-general." 
 
 '* Victorious the hero 
 
 Returns from the wars; 
 His brow bound with laurels 
 
 That never will fade, 
 While streams the free standard 
 
 Of stripes and of stars, 
 Whose field in the battle 
 
 The foemen dismayed. 
 When the Secession hosts 
 
 In their madness came on, 
 Like a tower of strength 
 
 In his might he arose, 
 Where danger most threatened 
 
 His banner was borne, 
 Waving hope to his friends 
 
 And despair to his foes."
 
 332 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOO AN. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. Continued. 
 
 " Strange are the destinies of men and States! 
 
 And oft, within the little round of life, 
 
 Where effort and effect, so stern in strife, 
 Wage battle 'neath the banner of the fates, 
 The strong will works a noble purpose out, 
 
 By giving scope to energies sublime, 
 
 By putting age-old evils to the rout 
 Making mankind its debtor for all time. 
 
 The soldier-statesman history re-cast, 
 
 And sent his spirit through its regions vast." ANON. 
 
 IN THE COUNCIL. 
 
 SOME of Logan's old political associates in Illinois ex- 
 pressed surprise that he could come back from the army 
 a Republican, but this was only for talk. They knew his 
 Republicanism dated from his first encounter with Democ- 
 racy armed, at Bull Run, and that he stumped his State for 
 the Republican ticket during the second Lincoln campaign. 
 They were aware, too, of his ability to defend Republican 
 principles, for he had proved it by deeds of valor whose 
 fame is imperishable. If they were to judge the soundness 
 of his conversion by the clearness and unanswerable force 
 of its declaration, or by deeds, which are a still better test, 
 then there was no lack of testimony; and in confirmation 
 of it all, General Logan went back to Congress in 1866,
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 333 
 
 elected by the State at large, by a majority of 55,987. He 
 made his mark in the House by that persistent activity 
 which had characterized his military life during a cam- 
 paign of four busy years, and was promptly recognized by 
 his associates and the country as one of the great lead- 
 ers of the Republican party. He has been a genuine 
 worker in the national councils. A fair record of what he 
 has said and done there would fill a score of ponderous 
 volumes, and prove of striking interest to every student of 
 political history. 
 
 Early in this new era of his legislative life he made a 
 speech in the House, on "Democratic Principles," which was 
 everywhere regarded as a remarkable effort; and for a clean 
 and thorough dissection of the subject, it has never been 
 excelled. The joints were severed "at the clavicle, elbow, 
 hip, ankle, and knee," and then the members articulated to 
 properly show the skeleton of an organization which had 
 nothing to recommend it but dead men's bones. He was 
 found to be quite as skilled in the use of the mental scalpel 
 as in the Toledo blade of the man of wrath, and exhibited 
 the " equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth " in all its 
 native hideousness. During ten years or more the Demo- 
 cratic party had been a subject for dissection, in general 
 and in detail, and although, under the battery of events, it 
 made an occasional spasmodic movement, it possessed neither 
 pulse nor brain, and long previous to the date referred to 
 its heart had been sealed hermetically in a bottle of high- 
 wines. 
 
 This speech was delivered July 16, 1868, after the nom- 
 ination of Grant, by the Republicans, and Seymour, by the
 
 334 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Democrats. We would be glad to reproduce it in full, but 
 have space for only a few paragraphs. Referring to the 
 platform of the New York (Seymour) Convention, he says: 
 
 "The Democratic platform is a monument which is in- 
 tended to hide decay and conceal corruption. Like many 
 other monuments, it attracts attention by its vast propor- 
 tions and excites disgust by the falsity of its inscriptions. 
 The casual observer, knowing nothing of the previous life 
 of the deceased, who reads this eulogy upon the tomb, might 
 imagine that all the virtues, the intellect, and the genius of 
 the age were buried there. But to him who knows that 
 the life had been a living lie, an incessant pursuit of base 
 ends, the stone is a mockery, and the panegyric a fable. 
 
 " It is my purpose to show, sir, that this Democratic 
 platform is mockery of the past, and that its promises for 
 the future are hollow, evasive, and fabulous; that it disre- 
 gards the sanctities of truth, and deals only in the language 
 of the juggler. It is like the words of the weird witches, 
 who wrought a noble nature to crime and ruin, and then in 
 the hour of dire extremity 
 
 " ' Kept the word of promise to the ear, 
 And broke it to the hope.' 
 
 "If we find that its proclamations of principles are only 
 a bait for votes ; if we find that its resolutions are incon- 
 sistent, the one with the other, and all contradictory of the 
 resolutions of previous years ; if we find that instead of 
 being a party promoting the prosperity of the country it is 
 the party who attempted the life of the country ; if we find 
 that it is a party whose policy was suicidal in peace and
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 335 
 
 fratricidal in war; if we find that it is a party which has 
 adhered to no principle in times past except the principle 
 of perpetuity ; if we find that the men who now lift their 
 voices as its leaders are unworthy men who bared their 
 blades in rebellion; if we find there a gathering of all who 
 are wildly ambitious, thoroughly unscrupulous, and danger- 
 ously discontented, then we may safely say their pledges 
 are all false, and we may warn not only the soldiers and 
 sailors, but all good men, and particularly all young men, to 
 avoid their snares and flee from their delusions. It requires 
 an unusual condition of public affairs to produce such an 
 unusual platform, and we require to know what that condi- 
 tion is before we can judge of it. Let us see what is the 
 condition, and what produced it. A very few years ago the 
 Democratic party were in power. They had been in power 
 for many, many years before. Whatever of good there was 
 in their policy they had time to develop it. Whatever of 
 evil there was they had had opportunity to correct. They 
 did neither the one thing nor the other. There were no hos- 
 tile armies then. The people imagined that there was peace. 
 A few only believed that there could be war. But war was 
 imminent. Under the surface of peace that party were pre- 
 paring for war. In the council-chambers of the Nation 
 they howled for war. In the different departments of the 
 government where they were trusted and uncontrolled they 
 were preparing for war. In the minds of the young and 
 unsuspecting they sowed the seeds of war. In their news- 
 papers they threatened war. In the lecture-room, in tKe 
 college, from the pulpit and the rostrum, they invoked war, 
 and finally, when they judged the time had come when the
 
 336 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 Nation was most helpless, and the weapons of defense most 
 useless, they made war, and war of what kind ? Actual 
 war, treasonable war, war against those who had loved and 
 fostered them, upon co-dwellers under the same roof and 
 brothers by birth and blood. How did war find us ? It found 
 us as the ship is found when pirates scuttle her, open to the 
 mercy of the waves and ready to be ingulfed. . . . 
 
 "I have shown how we wrestled with our adversity, 
 and finally how we overcame our enemies. We bore the 
 brunt of arms for the sake of our country, and to uphold 
 its constitution, its laws, and its liberties. We had but one 
 desire, and that was, ' Peace to our country.' We had but 
 one anxiety, and that was to preserve intact this chosen 
 land. Well, sir, as I said, the war was over and the victory 
 was ours. There was no longer a rebel in arms. They had 
 dispersed, as we supposed, never to meet again. 
 
 " But, sir, we were mistaken ; they have met again. 
 Where ? Why, this time upon Northern soil and in a North- 
 ern city, in the city of New York, the great metropolis of 
 this country, in Democratic convention. I do not say that 
 every man who met there had been a rebel; but I do say 
 that all the rebels met there who are now leading in public 
 life, and who hope for public position. It was the same old 
 story over again. The same old faces to see. The men who 
 had held this government for years and plotted to destroy 
 it while they held it were there. The men who fought to 
 destroy this government when they could no longer hold it 
 were there. The men who, though they had never plotted 
 to destroy it or fought against it, yet quietly acquiesced in 
 the designs of those who did, were there. The men who
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 337 
 
 have always given blind allegiance to the behest of party 
 regardless of the good of the country, were there. The 
 men who have always been the praters and croakers and 
 false prophets of the country, were there; and a few men 
 who had once served their country, but were lured off by 
 fatal ambition and the hope of spoils, were there. Good 
 men may have been there; but bad men were most certainly 
 there; and just as certainly the bad outnumbered the good; 
 and these are the men, sir, who complain of us. These are 
 the men who say we have violated the law and usurped the 
 Constitution. We have told them to the contrary many and 
 many a time. In these very halls, before they deserted 
 their places, we assured them that we desired nothing but 
 the law and the Constitution. After they had erected their 
 first batteries, and before they fired on Fort Suiater, they 
 were again assured that the law and the Constitution should 
 be kept inviolate. Even after they had waged their fiercest 
 war upon us, the President of the United States once more 
 proclaimed that we fought only to protect the Constitution 
 and the laws. 
 
 " Again and again, by the camp-fire, under the flag of 
 truce, and in the hospitals, and in exchange of prisoners and 
 in parleys and communications they were made acquainted 
 with the fact that we had but one object, and that was to 
 enforce the Constitution and the laws. And yet again, sir, 
 when the battle was at a white heat, and strong arms and 
 strong hearts wrought wounds and death, when the air 
 was filled with lamentations and pierced by cries of agony, 
 when the greedy earth drank up the gushing blood of our 
 bravest and our best, we still advanced but the one standard. 
 
 22
 
 338 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 which was the old starry banner, emblematic of the Consti- 
 tution, the laws, our unity and strength. Ah, sir, it must 
 have been a humiliating scene at that convention. Were the 
 loyal soldiers and citizens of this country looking on when 
 the rebel General Preston nominated the former Union Gen- 
 eral Blair? Did the loyal sailors and soldiers hear the rebel 
 Wade Hampton second the nomination ? Did the rank and 
 file of the loyal men listen to the butcher of Fort Pillow 
 Forrest ? Where were then the memories of former treach- 
 eries, of a nation undone and a Constitution usurped, of laws 
 violated and civil slaughter instituted? 
 
 "I have no desire to keep alive old animosities, or to 
 recall the past with a view to let it rankle. I am willing 
 that the lessons of the war should be their own monitor to 
 those who learned them. But when I hear those who risked 
 their lives to save our country charged with betraying our 
 country ; when I hear those whose shorn limbs and maimed 
 trunks are witnesses of their devotion to the laws charged 
 with breaking the laws ; when I hear those who are now ly- 
 ing in their premature graves for the cause of the Constitution 
 charged with usurping that Constitution, I can not help it if 
 my indignant heart beats fast and my utterance grows thick, 
 while I demand to know, ' Who are ye that denounce us ?' 
 
 "It is for this reason, Mr. Chairman, that I say the 
 present issue is one which concerns our young men greatly, 
 because it contains the question whether in any future war 
 it is worth while for our young men to embark in it. Here- 
 tofore, it has always been held in all ages, ancient and mod- 
 ern, that he who defended his country was entitled to the 
 gratitude of his country. But if it shall be decided by this
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 339 
 
 election that he who defends his country is to be aspersed 
 by his country, .then the sooner it is understood the better 
 it will be for those who would have otherwise periled their 
 existence at the call of their people ! That issue is involved 
 in this campaign, and no artifice or chicanery should be per- 
 mitted to bury it out of sight. But what right have those 
 to complain who were in the Democratic convention but yet 
 were not in the rebel ranks? Did they aid us to suppress 
 the rebellion? Were they prompt with men and money in 
 our need ? Were they hopeful in our dark days and joyful 
 in our bright days? Did they cheer our soldiers and give 
 them the strength of their blessings and a God-speed ? Did 
 they nurse them when sick and succor them when wounded ? 
 No, sir ; they did not, or else they would not be found to- 
 day in such company. The civilian who supported the 
 military in the day of the war has never yet complained 
 that we have done great wrong, or never yet desired to take 
 the reigns of government from the Republican party. 
 
 " This is no schism in our own ranks. This is no falling 
 off of those who once were with us because of our misdeeds. 
 This is no branch of the Union party saying that we are 
 tyrants and usurpers and robbers and destroyers, and that 
 therefore they can support us no longer. Not at all. It is 
 simply our old enemies who have fought us in the halls of 
 Congress and on the battle-field and in campaigns for years, 
 never winning, ever failing, but always fierce and hateful. 
 It affords me sincere pleasure that I may look again upon 
 those who met so lately in convention at the city of Chicago. 
 What a sight was there ! Mr. Chairman, there were gath- 
 ered together the men who had served their country in
 
 340 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 every capacity to which duty called them ; the men whose 
 devotion had been as unswerving as their fidelity was un- 
 questioned ; men whose sole thoughts and whose constant 
 thoughts were for their country's good, and how best and 
 soonest to make it manifest and permanent ; men from the 
 closet, men from the camp, men from the public station, men 
 from private life, men of distinction, men unknown but 
 men, all of them, whithersoever they came and whatsoever 
 they were, all of them men who came on the one thought 
 of how yet to aid their country." 
 
 The Republicanism of the man who uttered these words 
 will scarcely be doubted. 
 
 Among other incidental characteristics of General Logan 
 may be mentioned his consistent and devoted loyalty to 
 General Ulysses S. Grant, late commander-in-chief of the 
 Union army and President of the United States. It will 
 have been noted that on General Grant's retiracy from the 
 Presidency he was still in the hale vigor of mature man- 
 hood. It became a curious question what should be done 
 with so illustrious a citizen. Among other plans was one 
 proposed by the Senate bill No. 1992, to place that distin- 
 guished personage on the retired list of the army. The 
 measure came up for consideration on the 24th of January, 
 1881. During the session of that day the bill was called by 
 General Logan, who said : " I desire to call up for consider- 
 ation the bill to place Ulysses S. Grant, late general and late 
 President of the United States, upon the retired list of the 
 army. I did not intend to detain the Senate a moment; 
 but inasmuch as the remarks of the Senator from Delaware 
 have been to a certain extent directed to me, appealing to
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 341 
 
 me to allow this matter to go over on account of some im- 
 portant bill in a similar direction, I shall be excused for 
 saying a word. It is a matter entirely with the Senate to 
 say what disposition it shall make of this bill. I will not 
 discuss the bill as providing for an exceptional case. I 
 will not discuss the propriety of retiring ex-Presidents of 
 the United States in connection with this bill; but I will 
 merely say, that in a great republic like this, where there 
 have been so many bills passed in the Senate for cases of an 
 exceptional character in connection with the military service, 
 the opposition to such a bill as this looks to me as being 
 rather of a personal character than on account of the features 
 of the biU. 
 
 " When this great country was seething and writhing in 
 pain, and a man led the victorious armies of this Union to 
 preserve it for the benefit of you on that side of the chamber 
 as well as of us on this side, shall we be less magnanimous 
 than monarchs have been in past ages ? When we read the 
 history of England and see what was done for Wellington, 
 their great general, and for Nelson, at the head of the En- 
 glish navy, I ask, is it wise for us, when a similar act 
 shall be asked for one of the greatest leaders who ever led 
 the army for the preservation of the peace and prosperity of 
 this great land, to higgle about the question as to whether 
 a man should be retired as an ex-President or as an army 
 officer ? 
 
 "The office of major-general was made in the Senate 
 but one week ago for an officer of the army, that he might 
 be retired upon that rank, he never having held that posi- 
 tion ; and that bill was passed by unanimous consent, not a
 
 342 LIFE AND SERVICES OF BLAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 vote against it. When a man was placed on the retired list 
 one of the colonels of the army as a brigadier-general but 
 a little over a year ago, there was no voice raised against 
 it. When a man residing in Oregon, who resigned his colo- 
 nelcy in the army at the beginning of the war for reasons 
 that I will not now mention, was made a colonel in the army 
 by the action of the Senate and the House, and by almost a 
 unanimous vote, that he might go on the retired list, not 
 one objection, though in fact no great military service had 
 been rendered in the cause of this great government, but 
 merely because the persons benefited were favorites with a 
 few, I will not say in this chamber, but in this country. All 
 this has been done without objection ; but when the name 
 of the great captain and leader of all the mighty host of 
 this Nation is presented by those who are friendly to him, 
 that he may be placed on the retired list merely with the 
 rank that he held before (a position which he was much 
 disinclined to part from and give up I know this of my 
 own knowledge) when he through his friends to-day asks 
 that the same thing may be done for him that has been done 
 for others I will not say some that are unworthy, but for 
 men certainly not deserving as much at the hands of this 
 great Republic of ours as is Ulysses S. Grant opposition is 
 made to it. 
 
 " I intend to insist while this session of Congress* exists 
 that this bill shall be voted on in the Senate. Look at the 
 banner that hangs upon the walls of this house in which we 
 are to-day, typical of the banner upon the walls of this 
 mighty Nation ; it reminds me that the people of this country 
 owe one debt of gratitude that they never can pay, and that
 
 THE SOLDIER STA TESMAN. 343 
 
 is the debt they owe to the defenders of this mighty Re- 
 public. I now desire to know if that has been wiped out from 
 the memories and hearts of the American people. 
 
 " But recently we were told and asked to believe that the 
 hand that presented a shadow on the wall of this mighty 
 Nation of ours, calculated at least to arouse fears in the 
 minds of the people as to the future happiness and peace 
 of this great Republic, would soon be withdrawn, and the 
 shadow disappear. I hoped that that might be true ; but 
 when the name of the man of all others to whom this 
 country is indebted, yea, sir, indebted more than all the mill- 
 ions of gold now within the vaults of the treasury could pay, 
 is presented to the American Congress, there are substitutes 
 offered ; there are various and divers ways of maneuvering 
 and dodging around it, that something else may be done which 
 will not make this an exceptional case.- To retire this man 
 as an ex-President, along with others, does not make it an 
 exceptional case. I desire that it shall be exceptional, and 
 that it shall be a recognition of Grant, not as President of 
 the United States, but as the great captain of the loyal 
 legions of this mighty Republic. It is for that reason that 
 I desire this bill passed, and for no other reason. 
 
 " But a few days have gone by since, by one united vote 
 and eifort on the part of the other side of this chamber, a 
 person was retired, at least as far as the Senate could do it, 
 with the highest rank he had ever held in the regular army 
 of the United States. Let me ask, Senators, why retire that 
 man? For his great services? For his great loyalty to this 
 country ? I will not say he was disloyal ; but certainly he 
 was condemned by his peers in the army and dismissed from
 
 344 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 the service for improper conduct. Day after day Senators 
 on that side of the chamber stood up and pressed his claim, 
 and against all the protests from this side that bill was 
 passed. Then when there is presented the name of a man 
 against whom no word can be uttered as to his loyalty, as 
 to his courtesy, as to his great ability as a soldier in the 
 war of this mighty Nation for its preservation, objections 
 are made. 
 
 " Sir, all I have to say is, let the future history of this 
 mighty Nation of ours, if it refuses to do this act for this 
 man, stand out so that all the Nations of the earth may read 
 it and judge as to the generosity of the United States." 
 
 One of the principal episodes in the Senatorial career of 
 General Logan has been his determined antagonism to the bill 
 for the relief of General Fitz John Porter. The nature of the 
 question involved in this measure is well understood by the 
 public. It will be remembered that in the second battle of 
 Bull Run General Porter was charged with purposely with- 
 holding his division of the army from the field until Pope was 
 ruinously defeated. A military trial ensued, and Porter was 
 condemned on this charge, dismissed from the service and 
 reduced to infamy. In the course of time, however, some 
 new light was thrown upon his conduct at the battle, and 
 his friends exerted themselves to procure a reversal of the 
 sentence. To this end a bill was introduced into Congress. 
 The measure for his restoration was for the most part ap- 
 proved by the Democrats and opposed by the Republicans. 
 General Logan was among the number who believed Porter 
 to have been guilty, and, so believing, he made a vehement 
 opposition to the bill before Congress. His great address
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 345 
 
 on the subject was begun in the Senate on the 29th of De- 
 cember, 1882. -General Logan said : 
 
 " Mr. President : I know that it is very difficult for Sen- 
 ators to be required at each session of Congress to listen to 
 a protracted discussion of this question, but I deem it my 
 duty as long as I hold a place in the Senate, having very 
 strong convictions in reference to this question, to oppose 
 the consummation proposed by the Senator from New Jersey 
 [Mr. Sewell], and if Senators will give me their attention I 
 shall try to discuss this proposition upon the law and the 
 facts. I think there would be no difficulty in arriving at a 
 correct conclusion in reference to the guilt or innocence of 
 this person, who was charged before a court-martial, if we 
 could divest ourselves of much of what I might term extra- 
 neous matter that is constantly thrust into the case. 
 
 "This seems to be the court of last resort in this case. 
 In other words, the Congress of the United States is asked 
 by- this bill to take up and review the proceedings of a 
 court-martial, to examine the evidence given before a Board 
 of Inquiry subsequent to the court-martial, and to decide 
 whether or not that court-martial made a proper decision 
 according to the law and the facts. 
 
 " If the court-martial decided correctly, according to the 
 law and the facts before it, then Congress ought certainly 
 not to place this man in the army again. If that court- 
 martial decided against the law and the facts, I do not deny 
 that the power exists in Congress to authorize his nomina- 
 tion to a place in the army. I deny the power of Congress 
 to review the court-martial ; but that they have the right to 
 authorize him to be put in the army I do not deny. When
 
 346 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 this case was formerly before the Congress of the United 
 States there was then a continuing sentence of the court- 
 martial which prohibited him from holding any office of trust 
 or profit under the United States. The main question dis- 
 cussed before the Senate at that time, or the one that en- 
 grossed the mind of the Senate, was whether or not Congress 
 had the power to review the action of a court-martial, and 
 set aside its sentence. I took the ground then and main- 
 tained it, I believe, by decisions of the courts from the time 
 decisions were made in this country in reference to ques- 
 tions of that kind, that Congress did not have the power. 
 Since that time an application has been made to the Presi- 
 dent of the United States to remit so much of the judgment 
 of the court-martial as prohibited him from holding any office 
 of trust or profit. That has been done. Now the question 
 is whether or not the record of the court-martial shall be 
 examined by Congress, and Congress decide that that court- 
 martial went beyond its jurisdiction, beyond the law and 
 the facts, in finding a verdict of guilty. If Congress comes to 
 the conclusion that it did, then Congress may by an act 
 give the President of the United States authority to nom- 
 inate him again to a position in the army. Now, what is 
 the point ? There are but two questions : First, What is 
 the law. Second, What is the evidence applicable to that 
 law for this tribunal to examine. As I said, if much extra- 
 neous matter was laid aside there would be but little diffi- 
 culty in arriving at a correct conclusion in this case. 
 
 " The Senator from New Jersey yesterday, in making his 
 remarks, might have been saved a great deal of trouble if he 
 had asked for the first volume of the proceedings of this
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 347 
 
 board of officers. If the latter part of it had been read to 
 the Senate, it would have saved him from making his speech. 
 If any one will examine the arguments which have been 
 made in his behalf from the time this case was first pre- 
 sented to Congress down to the present time, he will find it 
 is a repetition of the argument made and filed before that 
 board by Fitz John Porter himself, and all the letters, 
 orders, documents, and every thing that was presented here 
 yesterday are found in connection with his argument before 
 that board. 
 
 "I was criticised yesterday by the Senator from New 
 Jersey because of a report which I made. But before pro- 
 ceeding to that, if the Senate will excuse me, I desire to 
 state the propositions I am going to discuss. 
 
 "It has been attempted in all the arguments made in 
 defense of Fitz John Porter to impress upon the minds of 
 the Senate and the country maxims that would apply to this 
 case. As read, re-read, reiterated everywhere, it has been 
 said that in these maxims it is found that a commanding 
 officer's order is not necessarily to be obeyed, unless he is 
 present and observing the situation. That is not the law, 
 and I will show it. 
 
 " One of the great leading maxims in Napoleon's military 
 experience you will find it in all his campaigns, and it was 
 a standing order to all his corps commanders was that 
 when the general of the army was not present to give 
 orders, each corps commander should march to the sound of 
 the enemy's guns. That was a general order in all his cam- 
 paigns. We were told yesterday, and were told by the 
 board which is considered immaculate by Senators and by
 
 348 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 some gentlemen in this country, that Pope was mistaken first 
 as to the road. Second, he was mistaken as to what was 
 in Porter's front at the time. Pope mistaken. Why, Mr. 
 President, all the argument that has been made in defense 
 of this man has been an attempt to try General John Pope 
 and not to try the facts in the case of Fitz John Porter. I 
 desire to reply now, before I go any further, first to the 
 Senator's remarks of yesterday in reference to my report, 
 and then I will come back and confine myself to the law 
 and the facts in this case. 
 
 "The Senator from New Jersey criticised my report 
 because I had charged that this was an illegal board, with- 
 out responsibility, without the power to try or to decide or 
 to swear witnesses, and he undertook to argue that I had 
 attacked the board because I stated these facts in my report. 
 Did I state any thing that was not true ? 
 
 "But, sir, before proceeding further, I want to say that 
 during all the time I shall discuss this question from now 
 until I conclude I am willing to be interrupted, and asked 
 any question on any law proposition or any of the facts, 
 in order that we may all understand it and have it 
 made plain. 
 
 " Did that board have authority to try this case ? I say 
 no. Why? Where did the President get authority to 
 authorize any person to administer oaths, who was not a 
 competent officer to administer oaths? Will some one tell 
 me ? Where does the President get authority to appoint a 
 board to re-examine court-martial proceedings that have 
 been approved ? I should like some lawyer to show me the 
 law. Sir, this was attempted when we discussed this ques-
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 349 
 
 tion here before. A Senator got up and read law to the Senate, 
 and called my attention to the fact that the law authorized a 
 court of inquiry. That only proved to any one who had 
 any knowledge of military law that that Senator did not 
 understand military law. The board of inquiry authorized 
 by the statute is a board to inquire into an officer's conduct 
 then in the army, to see whether his conduct is such that 
 charges should be preferred against him before a court-mar- 
 tial. That is a court of inquiry. This was not a court of 
 inquiry. It was a board of three officers appointed by the 
 President of the United States, without any law, without 
 any authority, without any justification or excuse in law. 
 
 "As I said before, I say again, if the President wanted 
 to authorize three officers, or a dozen officers, to examine 
 into a question and report to him, to say what the facts 
 were, so that he might form an opinion as to his right to 
 pardon a man, that is one thing; but when a board exam- 
 ines a case and makes a recommendation that a man should 
 be restored to the army and paid over $70,000, which was 
 their recommendation (that is, it would have been that 
 amount to have put him back as they recommended him to 
 be put back), that is beyond their authority; it is beyond 
 the scope of the authority of any power that exists in law, 
 and I defy contradiction from any man lawyer, judge, or 
 Senator. 
 
 "Mr. President, any man who will examine this case 
 carefully, and I may say that I have examined it carefully, 
 without prejudice, will come to the conclusion that this 
 board paid little attention whatever to the evidence; they 
 perverted and distorted it in every possible way. Sir, curi-
 
 350 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 ous things may strike a board as well as other people. I 
 should not have said a word about this board in this debate 
 if it had not been that it has been brought forward again 
 as the judgment of a court that we could not gainsay. I 
 ask any man to read it fully and see if it is not a trial of 
 McDowell, too. Strange to say, McDowell was then of an 
 age, or would have been in a few months, to be retired 
 from the major-generalcy, and Pope was the next ranking 
 officer. Two of the gentlemen on this board were applicants, 
 one for McDowell's place, and one for the brigadiership. If 
 one could succeed, both could ; if one failed, both must fail. 
 That should not affect their judgment, however, and perhaps 
 did not; but, strange to say, in every thing, up to the time 
 that John Pope was appointed and confirmed, there has been 
 in this case a war upon Pope to destroy him. Of course 
 that board had no such idea in view, because neither of the 
 two gentlemen who were on the board expecting place would 
 do such a thing. They are honorable gentlemen, and we ex- 
 onerate them from every thing of that kind ; but it is curious 
 that the attack has always been on Pope. I presume that 
 will stop now, inasmuch as he has been appointed, and there 
 will be no further necessity for making war upon him. Let 
 us go a little into the unwritten history of this matter. Sir, 
 it was very generally believed that Fitz John Porter and 
 George B. McClellan, and others that might be named, 
 formed a little coterie in the Army of the East. One was 
 to be President; what the others were to be, God only knows. 
 McClellan had been relieved from the command of the Army 
 of the Potomac, and Pope had been put in his place. It 
 was said, too, all through the campaign, that in every pos-
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 351 
 
 sible way he sneered at Pope, ridiculed him and his 
 movements. 
 
 "Mr. President, the Senator who votes that Fitz John 
 Porter was not convicted properly and legally votes that he 
 obeyed that order, or that it was impossible to obey it ; any 
 one who votes to relieve this man from the sentence of that 
 court-martial votes in the face of all the testimony that was 
 given, even by his own friends, and votes that the court- 
 martial found him guilty when he ought to have been found 
 not guilty, when, in fact, the evidence shows that he never 
 attempted to obey the order. The law says that he must 
 obey it; that he subjects himself to the death to obey it. 
 He violated the law, and violated the order; and yet, for- 
 sooth, you say he is not guilty ! Well, if gentlemen can do 
 that, it is for them to say, and not for me ; but that is the 
 fact, and there is the law. Under the law and the evidence, 
 the judgment of that court-martial was as righteous a judg- 
 ment as ever was given. It was just, it was right, because 
 it was in accordance with the law, and in accordance with 
 the evidence. 
 
 "If commanders of divisions and corps are to be per- 
 mitted to be judges for themselves, as to whether they will 
 obey an order or not, then I would not give a straw for all 
 the armies of the United States. If a corps commander or 
 division commander say the same, why can not their colo- 
 nels and their captains say the same? What kind of an 
 army would you have if you' gentlemen were all division 
 commanders or corps commanders, and were off some miles, 
 the enemy was approaching, and the commanding general 
 should send orders to each one of you to concentrate at day-
 
 352 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 light to-morrow morning, for the reason that he expected either 
 to make an attack or to be attacked, and each man should 
 say, "Well, it is too dark; I will not go until to-morrow 
 morning," and no one of you started? If one of you may 
 disobey an order, all may. Suppose no one starts, and the 
 general is left there with a small force to fight, the next 
 morning, nobody to come to his rescue, nobody to obey his 
 orders; what kind of an army would you have? 
 
 " The truth is, he was determined not to fight. He was 
 determined not to obey that order. He was determined 
 that John Pope should be whipped that day, which he was, 
 or at least on the next day he was whipped, but that day 
 was the cause of it. His troops were so broken up and de- 
 moralized that day that when the fresh troops came in he 
 was not sufficiently strong to withstand the force that was 
 brought against him. 
 
 "Will it do for any one to argue here that because a 
 man thinks he has not force enough to whip an army that 
 therefore he must not assault that army, if a fight is going 
 on anywhere in connection with that and another army ? 
 Will any man say that it is good military discipline, that it 
 is good soldierly quality, that it is the proper way for an 
 officer to perform his duty ? Would any one say so ? What 
 difference would it have made to him as a soldier? Sup- 
 pose he had gone in there feeling that he would be whipped. 
 He says in his own dispatch that he thinks Pope's army 
 was being driven to the rear, that it was retiring. Was it 
 any worse for him to be retiring than it was for some of 
 the others to be retiring, or to be driven back than another ? 
 It is the fate of war that men shall be whipped. It is the
 
 THE SOLDIER STA TESMAN. 353 
 
 fate of war that men shall be driven back and pushed for- 
 ward. If I had- a mind to stop here and quote the history 
 of the different battles that we all know and are conversant 
 with, so far as historical accounts are concerned, I could 
 show where small detachments of troops have saved a great 
 army. Without quoting it, read the battle of Marengo, 
 where a small force, late, when the day was apparently lost, 
 came in and won the battle. 
 
 "When the Senator from New Jersey was quoting one 
 of the maxims of Napoleon I answered it by quoting an- 
 other, that troops should always march to the sound of the 
 enemy's guns. It was because that maxim of Napoleon was 
 not followed out that Napoleon fell. It was because at the 
 battle of Waterloo one of his general's did not march to 
 the sound of the enemy's guns that lost Napoleon that bat- 
 tle and lost him his power. If the maxim of Napoleon had 
 been followed out, in all probability he would have been suc- 
 cessful on that battle-field as well as he was on others. 
 
 "During the whole day, as Senators will understand 
 from reading this evidence, the only order he gave that he 
 executed was in reference to hiding his men in the woods 
 when two little pieces of artillery at Hampton Cole's 
 house fired a couple of pieces of railroad iron, as some 
 of the witnesses state; others say that there were four 
 shots fired ; others say more, some say two, but it is imma- 
 terial. Suppose there were twenty shots fired, what was 
 the order from General Porter ? One battery, under Mor- 
 rell, replied to it. The evidence shows that the rebel bat- 
 tery was silenced. What was Porter's order? It was to 
 hide his men in the woods and deceive the enemy, to play 
 
 23
 
 \ 
 
 354 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 the same game on them that they would play on him. 
 Morrell reports back, ' I put my troops all in the woods,' ex- 
 cept what? ' Except Hazlett's battery.' He was told to put 
 that in too, but he testifies that he did not do that for he 
 wanted to reserve one battery for defense. That is the 
 character of the orders that Fitz John Porter gave on the 
 twenty-ninth. 
 
 "Mr. President, if this man had been a volunteer sol- 
 dier he would not have been permitted to stay in this coun- 
 try. There is no man who was in the volunteer service, a 
 mere volunteer, who would ever have had e cheek ' enough 
 to come before Congress or any other body and ask that 
 this evidence be spread out before the world and on it a 
 reversal of his sentence. Sir, this only shows one of the 
 dangers to the future of this country. Class, sir, once on 
 the bounty of the government always on the bounty of the 
 government, no matter what wrongs they may perpetrate. 
 See them swarm now at Washington, plying their influence 
 in this unholy cause. 
 
 " Last night when I made the statement that Longstreet's 
 forces were engaged on the twenty-ninth, the Senator from 
 New Jersey denied it. He said they were not engaged, and 
 that if I could prove it I would put the chief commander in 
 a very bad position. As I said then, I was not discussing 
 the chief commander but discussing the conduct of Fitz 
 John Porter. The truth is, the evidence when taken all to- 
 gether shows that the Confederate testimony, at least as to 
 the time of arrrival of Longstreet on the battle-ground, is 
 doubtful ; it disagrees very materially with the evidence on 
 the other side showing the position the troops occupied near
 
 . THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 355 
 
 Groveton and by Lewis's Lane and by the Leachman House. 
 At the time Fifcz John Porter made his first defense, as the 
 Senator well knows, he claimed that there were only ten or 
 fifteen thousand troops on his line that he would have to en- 
 gage. Now he claims that there were 25,000. It was im- 
 material whether there were 25,000 or 50,000. 
 
 " Gentlemen try to excuse this man Porter, with 12,500 
 men, according to the reports, from attacking not the same 
 number or near the same number as his own when the flank 
 was exposed and it was not a front attack. This is the 
 most astounding thing to me I have ever known, that one 
 minute they will insist that Porter thought there were 10,- 
 000 or 15,000 troops in his front and he was afraid to 
 attack those, and then a great chief will come up and put 
 the lines square in front and tell you there were 25,000 
 men there ready to drive Porter right in the front. Then 
 you read the report of Lee, of Longstreet, of Stuart, of 
 Rosser, of Hood, of every one of the Confederates and I 
 have their reports right here they every one show that the 
 corps of Porter was on Longstreet's flank, and they show 
 that Longstreet had in the battle of Groveton from 4 o'clock 
 that evening until 12 o'clock that night, when they were 
 brought back on the road toward Haymarket, over twelve 
 thousand troops engaged with Pope's command at Groveton 
 which were drawn from his corps ; and yet they insist that 
 Porter would have had to attack twenty-five thousand men 
 after he got the 4.30 order. 
 
 " Sir, you may take this case from one end to the other, 
 and it has the most singular history of any case that ever oc- 
 curred during any war. It shows that this man intended
 
 356 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE ANJ) LOGAN. 
 
 from the first that Pope should never succeed. He went just 
 far enough to make a pretense of obeying orders without 
 obeying them; just far enough only to have it understood 
 that he tried in some degree to obey orders, but in this in- 
 stance he tried in no degree. He refused to obey the orders, 
 refused to move forward. Suppose it had been twelve 
 o'clock at night. I remember a little incident that occurred 
 once during the war, showing what a man may do after 
 night. At Resaca there was a line of troops probably the 
 Senator from Georgia knows the situation of Resaca oppo- 
 site fortifications in the direction of a bridge that ran across 
 the river. I suppose the Senator from Georgia remembers 
 the bridge ? " 
 
 MR. BROWN "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. LOGAN "This line ran down to protect the fortifi- 
 cations, throwing a wing down in the direction of the river. 
 They were occupied by a few troops I do not know how 
 many. A brigade under General Charles Woods, a brother 
 of Judge Woods, of the Supreme Bench, who was in my 
 command at the time, was ordered to assault those works at 
 nine o'clock at night. He moved his. brigade in the dark 
 and got under cover of a little stream, and assaulted them 
 at nine o'clock at night and took the works. Will a man 
 tell me, when a small brigade can assault breastworks at nine 
 o'clock at night, when no moon was shining for it was a 
 darker night than the one in question that it is an excuse 
 for an officer who receives an order to attack at once that it 
 is too late for him to attack? Why was it not too late for 
 Longstreet's forces to attack Pope's forces near Groveton? 
 Was it too late for McDowell's troops to be moving that
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 357 
 
 night at eleven o'clock and twelve o'clock, when these two 
 commanders, GTeneral Wilcox and General Hood, both report 
 that they moved between eleven and twelve o'clock back on 
 that road in the direction of Haymarket on the night of the 
 29th ? Then you tell me it was too dark for this man to 
 attack ! Was it any worse for him to attack than it was for 
 the other side? This reminds me of one peculiar feature 
 that is always the case in war : a soldier who commands an 
 army or part of an army, who has full opportunity to man- 
 age his troops, the next morning after a battle, if you ask 
 him as to the condition of his troops, will tell you, ' They 
 are cut all to pieces.' I have heard it a hundred times: 
 4 My troops have been cut all to pieces.' You will hear that 
 from commanding officers of regiments, of brigades, and of 
 divisions. But suppose you ask the question, ' What do you 
 think is the condition of the troops on the other side?' and 
 the reply will be, * Cut all . to pieces.' But he does not 
 think of that ; tyg only thinks of his own troops ; he does 
 not think of the condition of the other side. 
 
 " In conclusion, I want to ask Senators on both sides of 
 this chamber, and I want some one to tell, why it is that 
 when this case comes up it seems to be decided on political 
 grounds. What is there in this case of politics? It is a 
 mere question as to whether this man was properly convicted 
 or improperly convicted. It is not a question that politics 
 should enter into at all. It is the case of a man who was 
 convicted during the war, while a great many of you gen- 
 tlemen were down South organizing your court-martials and 
 trying your own officers if they misbehaved. You tried 
 them according to the laws which you considered ruled and
 
 358 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 governed your army at that time. We tried ours on our 
 side according to the rules which governed our army at that 
 time and govern it now. 
 
 "Is it possible that history is going to record the fact 
 that with this man as guilty as he was of violating the or- 
 ders sent to him, each and every one, upon which he was 
 convicted, that our friends, because they differ with us . in 
 politics, because this man is of the politics they are, are go- 
 ing to decide, without reference to the facts and without ref- 
 erence to the law, the judgment of this court-martial should 
 be reconsidered, set aside, and this man be put back in 
 the army? There is no other ground on which you can do 
 it. It is a prejudice against the court, against the parties at 
 the time, and nothing else. I hope that does not exist ; I 
 hope that will not exist any longer. It should not. 
 
 " I do not think it comes with the best grace for men 
 who tried their own disobedient officers in their own way to 
 use their power and influence to restore officers whom we 
 dismissed from our service in the army in order to disgrace 
 the courts which convicted them and the President who 
 signed the warrants. I do not think it is policy for men to 
 come here and undertake to reverse that which was done ac- 
 cording to fact and according to law. Let those men who 
 were derelict in duty on our side, whom we dealt with, go. 
 They are of no service to you and none to us. They are of 
 no more service to the country. They may serve them- 
 selves, but no one else. 
 
 "With the views I entertain concerning this case believ- 
 ing as I do, that this man disobeyed lawful orders ; that he 
 disobeyed those orders without reference to the effect it would
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 359 
 
 have upon the people of the United States ; that he did it 
 for the purpose. of having Pope relieved and some one else 
 put in his place who would be more congenial to him 
 [Porter] believing as I do, that this man out of his preju- 
 dice against McDowell urged Patterson not to fight Johnston, 
 which lost the first battle of Bull Run ; that he refused to 
 obey the first order he received from Pope to move to the 
 field, refused to obey both orders that he received to rush 
 forward and attack believing all these facts to be com- 
 pletely proven by the evidence, and knowing the law to be 
 what it is, authorizing the court to inflict the penalty of 
 death, and when they inflicted the milder penalty believing 
 that they let this man off with a much less penalty than 
 would have been adjudged had he been tried by a court- 
 martial in any foreign country with all these facts before 
 me, with the knowledge I had of the generosity of President 
 Lincoln, with the knowledge I had of the big-heartedness 
 of General Garfield, with the knowledge I had of General 
 Hunter, with the knowledge I had of the other officers 
 who sat upon the court-martial, before I would give a vote 
 to restore this man to the army and let him live the balance 
 of his days on the bounty of the tax-payers of this country, 
 I would go across the Potomac River and kneel down by 
 that tomb on which is inscribed : ' Here sleep the unknown 
 dead;' I would go among those little white head-stones that 
 mark the place where those boys sleep who fell on the 
 battle-field of Groveton on the 29th of August, and I would 
 there in the presence of those whitening bones on my knees 
 pray to Almighty God to forgive me for the wrong that I 
 am about to do to the dead who have gone, and the wrong
 
 360 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 I am about to inflict on this country, on the law, and on the 
 facts by the restoration of this man to his place as an officer 
 of the army. Sir, I would stand in the rays of the majestic 
 king of day and appeal to the sainted spirit of Abraham 
 Lincoln, who has gone before us, and say : ' Inasmuch as 
 in examining this case you thought this man was guilty and 
 signed the order, and when he appealed to you again on the 
 re-examination of this case you declined to take any action 
 in it, before giving this vote for his restoration to the army 
 I appeal to you to take my hand and help me through this 
 trouble and forgive me for perpetrating the wrong against 
 your good name.' 
 
 "Sir, I would turn again and recount the wrongs that 
 have been tried to be perpetrated on the life and character 
 of Garfield in reference to his views on this question. I 
 would turn to him in his silent tomb, and say : { While you 
 were in life and health and sound in judgment, you gave 
 this verdict, and by a re-examination of the whole record 
 you prepared yourself again to defend that which you had 
 done, but, I, on account of the pressure, on account of what 
 has been said by certain military men, am going out to do 
 this great wrong for their sake. They are living, you are 
 dead. kind and generous spirit, forgive me that in my 
 weakness I do your judgment, your conscience, and fair 
 name a great wrong.'" 
 
 Under date of February 12, 1861, the leading news- 
 papers of South Carolina, the Charleston Courier, premised 
 as follows : " The South might, after uniting with the new 
 Confederacy, treat the disorganized and demoralized Northern
 
 THE SOLDIER STA TESMAN. 361 
 
 States as insurgents, and deny them recognition. But if 
 peaceful division ensues, the South, after taking the Federal 
 Capital and being recognized by all foreign powers as the 
 government de facto, can, if they see proper, recognize the 
 Northern Confederacy, or confederacies, and enter into treaty 
 stipulations with them. Were this not done, it would be 
 difficult for the Northern States to take a place among the 
 nations, and their flag would not be respected or recognized." 
 This was not only a fair echo of Southern sentiment, but 
 substantially the expression of a very considerable faction at 
 the North. It was the out-growth of such expression that 
 cost our government $3,000,000,000 of treasure and a mill- 
 ion precious lives to suppress. It was the menace thus 
 thrown out and practically acted upon that aroused the pa- 
 triotic fervor of the North, and incited her millions to go 
 forth and conquer the rebellion. Previous to the war, it 
 was genuine belief that such threat could be easily realized 
 which struck down a Senator at his post of duty by the 
 murderous bludgeon of slavery. During the war, it was the 
 same belief which burned at the stake and hung innocent 
 men, women and children ; that bayonetted helpless boys, 
 fainting and dying upon the battle-field ; that shot unarmed 
 prisoners ; that called to the aid of " the cause " the rifle, 
 club, and scalping-knife of the savage ; that made trinkets 
 of the bones and drinking cups of the skulls of patriots ; 
 that burned and froze and starved to death sixty thousand of 
 our noble young men who were helpless in the hands of trai- 
 tors. And it was the same spirit which at the close of the 
 war assassinated the good President, who had toiled through 
 four years of calamity to restore the integrity of the Union !
 
 362 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 It is not strange that a man of Logan's perception dis- 
 covered the nature of this hydra at the beginning, nor that 
 he fought it with all his might to the end. His patriotic 
 impulse was well sustained by a lion heart and a knowledge 
 of war gained through experience, and it is conceded that the 
 services he performed in the field were never excelled by a 
 general with corresponding opportunities. Upon this point 
 the evidence is overwhelming. Incidents are plentiful. He 
 was always anxious to lead his men in person, and did so at 
 every opportunity. At the siege of Vicksburg his division 
 were ready to follow wherever he led, and their spirit and 
 dash became a proverb. On one occasion he charged forward 
 and back through a greatly superior force of the enemy 
 several times, and finally drove them helter-skelter into 
 their entrenchments with great loss, while his command suf- 
 fered but few casualties. It was in one of the engage- 
 ments before Atlanta where his intrepidity and address were 
 most grandly distinguished. Chivalric courage, great skill 
 and wonderful coolness had carried him through a variety 
 of emergencies and attracted the attention of rebel officers 
 on many occasions, and it was resolved by Hood to put him 
 to the extreme test at the .first opportunity. Special prep- 
 arations were made to overwhelm him, and the rebel com- 
 mander at a seasonable time hurled upon his division an 
 immense body of both infantry and cavalry. Logan was over- 
 matched, at least three to one, and, like a prudent man, im- 
 mediately called for help; but he stood upon the defensive 
 only long enough to extend his lines and make ready for 
 real work. Then he ordered a charge, which is described 
 as one of the most remarkable movements.
 
 THE SOLDIER STATESMAN. 363 
 
 The patriots assailed the foe with the greatest impetu- 
 osity, and gained "a slight advantage. Then a hand-to-hand 
 conflict ensued, the rebels fiercely contesting every foot of 
 ground, but they very gradually retired toward their en- 
 trenchments. This mode of fighting lasted more than an 
 hour, and during its entire continuance the tall form of Lo- 
 gan, mounted upon his strong and trusty steed, towered 
 above all other moving objects, in the thickest of the fray, 
 directing and encouraging his men and furnishing an exam- 
 ple of the greatest endurance. Just as the desired re-en- 
 forcements appeared in sight, Hood's squadrons were disap- 
 pearing behind their shot-proof earth-works, and the Union 
 general emerged from the smoke and dust of conflict covered 
 with blood and powder stains just in time to dismount before 
 his faithful horse fell in death, from twenty horrible wounds. 
 A few minutes afterward the rebels sent up a great huzza, 
 which was first thought to be the signal for an another 
 sortie ; but, as was afterwards learned from prisoners, it 
 was in hearty recognition of the Union leader's bravery ! 
 
 A performance like this reminds one of Marshal Murat 
 on Mount Tabor. With a force of only five thousand he 
 found himself hemmed in by thirty thousand Turks. Fif- 
 teen thousand cavalry came thundering down upon this 
 brigade, which was drawn up in form of a square. For 
 hours they maintained the unequal combat, when Napoleon 
 arrived with succor on a neighboring hill. The shot of a 
 solitary twelve-pounder announced to his exhausted coun- 
 trymen that relief was at hand. Then they assumed the 
 offensive and immediately charged bayonet. Nothing was 
 visible but a mass of turbaned heads and flashing cimeters,
 
 364 LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELAINE AND LOGAN. 
 
 
 
 except in the center, where was seen a single white plume 
 tossing like a rent banner over the throng. For awhile the 
 battle thickened where it stooped and rose as Murat's war 
 steed reared and plunged amid the saber-strokes that fell 
 like lightning on every side, and then the multitude surged 
 back as a single rider burst through, covered with his own 
 blood and that of his foes, the arm that grasped his drip- 
 ping sword red to the shoulder. Murat's eye seemed to 
 burn with four-fold luster, and with a shout which those who 
 surrounded him never forgot to their latest day, he wheeled 
 his exhausted stallion on the foe, and at the head of a body 
 of his own cavalry, trampled every thing down that opposed 
 his progress. In view of this feat a cheer ascended from 
 the entire field, from friend and foe alike, which seemed to 
 resound from the empyreal heights, "and the red field was 
 won." Bravery is recognized and honored by every nation- 
 ality and under every sun, no matter by whom exercised or 
 under what circumstances proved. 
 
 Logan's self-composure in battle was the wonder and ad- 
 miration of his men. Surrounded by the most appalling 
 dangers, under the fire of terrific batteries, while balls were 
 whistling in an incessant shower around his head, he sat 
 upon his steed and eyed every discharge with a coolness 
 wholly indescribable. A lofty feeling in the hour of peril 
 bore him above all fear, and through clouds of smoke and 
 the roar of a hundred cannons he would detect at a glance 
 the weak point of the enemy. These are the qualities 
 necessary for successful warfare in the field, and in civil 
 life they have proved of no little value to Logan, the brave 
 Representative and irreproachable Senator.
 
 PART II. 
 
 HISTORY' OF POLITICAL PARTIES 
 
 IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 BY HON. LEONARD BARNEY. 
 
 Southey tells us how the political equilibrium is preserved : "In age 
 we dislike all change, as naturally as in youth we desire it. The 
 youthful generation, in their ardor for improvement, and their love of nov- 
 elty, strive to demolish what ought religiously to be preserved. The 
 elders, in their caution and fear, endeavor to uphold what has become 
 useless and even injurious. Thus, in the order of providence, we have 
 both the necessary impulse and the needful check." 
 
 IN "Thoughts on Various Subjects," by Pope and Swift, 
 party is called " the madness of many for the gain of a few/' 
 This sentiment is true in England, where it originated, and 
 true at times in all countries where parties divide the voting 
 population into antagonistic sections. In our country, two 
 parties are necessary, that one may hold in check the ex- 
 travagances and encroaching tendencies of the other. Great 
 differences of opinion actually existed among both public 
 and private individuals at and immediately succeeding the 
 formation of our government. They had no regard to the 
 principles of freedom and legal equality, for these were rec- . 
 ognized by all, but to the offices and powers of the Federal 
 Government, the duration of terms of office, and the con- 
 stitution and functions of the judiciary and the legislature. 
 A free government was then an untried experiment, 
 
 365
 
 366 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 adopted with anxious hope and confided in with trembling. 
 Its wisest framers did not fully comprehend its capacities ; 
 its whole mode of action was not yet fully determined, and 
 cherished theories were for the first time to be reduced to 
 practice. It was natural that in such a state of affairs dif- 
 ferent views of things should arise, even among the wise 
 and patriotic. Nearly every man in and about the govern- 
 ment had undergone the perils of war for freedom, and all 
 were anxious to protect the great and dearly purchased boon 
 for the benefit of those who should come after them. In a 
 warmly contested law-suit, it is seldom that an intelligent 
 jury of twelve honest men can agree upon a result, even 
 after an undoubted basis of facts has been established by 
 evidence. Much less could it be expected that uniformity 
 of opinion would be attained in so serious a matter as that 
 of the formation of a government for a vast country, em- 
 bracing a multitude of details and providing for the exigency 
 of a thousand unknown circumstances. 
 
 At first these differences divided the people widely, and, 
 with, some modifications for many years, into two distinct 
 parties. They were so far parallel to the parties of the 
 present day as to be, the one for, the other against, those 
 elements of a general government which experience has 
 shown are best suited to the condition and permanent inter- 
 ests of the people of our land. The party which at this 
 'day is called "Democratic," was even at that early date 
 represented mostly by negatives. The leaders were in- 
 variably obstructionists, whom the modern Democracy are 
 slow to acknowledge as their originals; yet they can not 
 disown their ancestry. It is true, they are able to discover
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 367 
 
 quite a distinction between the managers of the old party and 
 of the new, but* it is not thought to be of a kind to which 
 they attach value. It is this : the leaders of the troublesome 
 minority in the early day were persistent in a certain line of 
 policy. But now, after so many years of reasonable growth 
 and prosperity, with the government as at first constituted 
 practically unchanged, if professed statesmen are yet found 
 supporting opinions that involve a practical opposition to some 
 of its most important principles, what remains but to con- 
 sider them incapable as they are vacillating. 
 
 The earliest division of the people was occasioned by 
 the primitive attempts to form a confederacy of the States, 
 and subsequently upon the question of adopting the Consti- 
 tution, so anxiously and wisely framed. Discussions in the 
 several States were protracted and earnest. The friends of 
 the Constitution, with Washington at their head, were called 
 Federalists; the enemies of the Constitution, anti-Federal- 
 ists. The "Anti's" were the shouters for State rights. But 
 the Constitution once adopted and acquiesced in, the ques- 
 tions which had arisen were rapidly lost sight of; and the 
 latter designation becoming odious, it was readily exchanged 
 for the more popular name of Republicans. 
 
 With the election of Jefferson, in 1800, power passed 
 away from the hands of the Federalists ; the old controverted 
 points were forgotten for the time; new and exciting ques- 
 tions, as the impressment of seamen, the embargo, and vari- 
 ous foreign relations, followed, engrossing the public mind 
 and essentially changing the character and position of par- 
 ties. Finally the war of 1812 ensued, which, however it 
 may have been regarded in its origin, eventually created, for
 
 368 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 the most part, a community of sentiment throughout the 
 country; and at the close of Madison's administration, all 
 previous party distinctions were effectually obliterated. We 
 state only the results and facts which are fully established by 
 contemporaneous history. 
 
 Mr. Monroe entered upon his office by a nearly unani- 
 mous choice of the people. The Republican party of the 
 preceding period, known as such, had placed itself upon the 
 important practical questions of the day rather than upon 
 any exclusive claims to democracy certainly none such as 
 are now put forth. Sometimes, it is true, an alarm was 
 even then occasionally sounded by the demagogue about 
 " aristocratic tendencies " with which opponents were charged ; 
 but they had not made, as now, a popular title the battle-cry 
 of the party their first, their last, their only argument. 
 Great measures of foreign policy, almost wholly absorbing 
 men's minds, had not permitted this game to be played. 
 In consequence, moreover, of the termination of these ques- 
 tions, and the defeat of the Federalists with reference to 
 them, that party ceased to exist as an opposition. During 
 the whole of Mr. Monroe's administration they gave a cor- 
 dial support to the government and became merged with 
 their former antagonists into a united people, wearied with 
 political strife and disposed to take a calm review of former 
 contests. 
 
 It was, in truth, the " Era of Good Feeling." Here and 
 there were some of those small men who feel that at such 
 times they have no chance to emerge from that obscurity for 
 which nature designed them, who were endeavoring to main- 
 tain the old distinctions of names in local and State elections ;
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 369 
 
 but their efforts received little countenance from the mass 
 of the people. "The nation desired repose and a concen- 
 trated attention to those matters of internal improvement 
 we use the term in its largest and best sense which had 
 before to give way to the all-absorbing questions arising 
 from our foreign relations ; and upon those questions of 
 national improvement there was at that time but little dif- 
 ference of opinion at the North or the South. Southern 
 men had no doubt of the constitutionality and expediency 
 of protecting our home industries. The North concurred in 
 this sentiment, although at that time its ostensible interests 
 were no more connected with the question than those of 
 other sections of the Union. All felt the importance of a 
 national currency, and there was scarcely a shadow of dif- 
 ference as to the means by which alone it could be secured. 
 Neither was the election of 1824 conducted upon party 
 grounds. Local interests and personal predilections predom- 
 inated. Adams, Clay, Crawford, and Jackson were the promi- 
 nent candidates for the Presidency. They were all recog- 
 nized as Republicans, and supported as such. Failing of an 
 election by the people, the House of Representatives, under 
 the provisions of the Constitution, elected Mr. Adams to the 
 Chief Magistracy. In the contest between these several 
 candidates, the members of the old Federal party were about 
 equally divided. The Democratic party of to-day had not 
 become organic at that period. All pretended affinities of 
 a more ancient date are unsupported by fact, for it is cer- 
 tain that the old Republicans held few opinions which are 
 entertained now by the modern Democracy. Most opinions 
 of the old Republicans were entitled to respect. 
 
 24
 
 370 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 While the country was enjoying this fortunate period of 
 political amity an incident occurred which is worthy of more 
 than ordinary notice. It illustrates how the most violent 
 spirits had felt the composing influences to which we have 
 alluded, and yielded to the general spirit of peace, of Unity 
 and Nationality which pervaded the land. Some other con- 
 clusions may also be legitimately drawn. Gen. Jackson 
 wrote a letter to President Monroe principally devoted to a 
 celebration of the harmony between the two parties, and its 
 delightful effects upon the returning prosperity of the coun- 
 try. He prayed for a continuance of this happy condition, 
 and therefore advised the Chief Magistrate, as from his high 
 standing in the regard of the Nation he had a perfect right 
 to do, that then was the time, to destroy forever the " mon- 
 ster party spirit" that he, the President, should take all 
 pains to promote so high and laudable an object, and that 
 in furtherance of it he could not do better than compose his 
 cabinet equally from the two great parties into which the 
 country had been divided ! 
 
 General Jackson thus took an attitude as a non-partisan, 
 as a peace-maker, as an adviser of the appointment of Feder- 
 alists to office. Although it is matter of solemn history, not 
 many Democrats will believe it in this age. Better impeach 
 the record than admit any thing so horrifying to and subver- 
 sive of pure Democratic principles. But let us look a little 
 ahead of the date of this letter, and carry our minds along the 
 course of events some seven or eight years. Mr. Monroe's 
 administration had been conducted on the noble, liberal, and 
 most truly national principles embodied in General Jackson's 
 advice, and it had passed away. His successor, Mr. Adams,
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 371 
 
 had maintained the same high ground, although tempted to 
 depart from it by the most unprincipled attacks. His suc- 
 cessor was General Jackson, and what did he when he found 
 himself in a position where he might have readily and 
 properly carried out the spirit of his advice to others ? What 
 did he? 
 
 Surprising as the fact may be, the warmest friend 
 and the most determined foe of modern Democracy will 
 agree alike, that since the establishment of the Consti- 
 tution there has not been witnessed an administration in 
 which so bitter a party proscription was carried on as in 
 the reign of Andrew Jackson ; no period in which the poli- 
 ticians plea was so unblushingly avowed, that to the victor 
 belong the spoils. At no time have the waters of political 
 strife been let out in such an overflowing torrent. A bitter- 
 ness and savage fierceness unknown to former conflicts 
 marked all the administration of this most willful man; 
 and a more prescriptive party never ruled any age or 
 time than that which had been studiously, designedly, and 
 with the utmost care brought into being and fostered during 
 that period which, according to the noble sentiment of Jack- 
 son's letter to Monroe, ought to have been the golden age 
 of peace, of harmony, of freedom from party spirit, and 
 united the public feeling in the promotion of every benefi- 
 cent national work. 
 
 The great Jackson proved himself to be a time-server ; 
 a peddler of advice so superior to his practice that it might 
 remind one of the old saying about the chief of the Pluto- 
 nian realm quoting Scripture. Doubtless the general had 
 been honest in his advice to Monroe. Men are always
 
 372 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 so in the declaration of their abstract sentiments. The 
 events which followed were not primarily his. There had 
 been a strange genius working in another part of the 
 Union, who, combining subtlety and talent, playing upon 
 the ungovernable passions of the military chieftain, had so 
 transformed the scene, and dissipated the fair prospect which 
 the letter had given reason to anticipate. The general burnt 
 his fingers while clawing the chestnuts out of the fire for 
 some one else. A charge like this against Old Hickory has 
 a strange look on paper, but it embodies one of the facts of 
 history, and therefore, of course, is not set down in malice. 
 This genius in question was Martin Van Buren, who, dur- 
 ing the close of Mr. Monroe's administration and the continu- 
 ance of Mr. Adams's, had been acting the role of " the mousing 
 politician" in the State of New York. As the saying is, " he 
 was in a hole." The circumstances surrounding him were 
 peculiar. A very great man then had possession of the 
 gubernatorial chair of the Empire State. No one will deny 
 this meed of praise to DeWitt Clinton. He felt the spirit of 
 the times, and this, combined with the workings of his noble 
 and clear-sighted intellect, led him to seek honorable fame 
 in promoting the best interests of the country. Ambitious 
 he was, but in the noblest sense, to take advantage of return- 
 ing peace with a foreign nation, and renewed unity at home, 
 in projecting and accomplishing that great scheme of internal 
 improvement the New York and Erie Canal from which 
 the country has since enjoyed such incalculable benefit. He 
 completely overshadowed Van Buren. It was a shade from 
 which he could find no way to emerge into the distinction 
 he so ardently coveted, and which he felt himself unable to
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 373 
 
 obtain by any means requiring the qualifications of a lofty 
 statesmanship. 
 
 But he resolved that Mr. Clinton must be supplanted. 
 He was an obstacle bidding defiance to any competition to 
 be waged upon high and honorable grounds. There were, 
 too, at that time other great men intimately connected with 
 great national interests, and most honorably known in their 
 country's records. Not only Clinton and Adams, but that 
 noble presence at the mention of which, even then, every 
 heart in the nation warmed the noble and disinterested 
 statesman of Kentucky once the Mill Boy of the Slashes, 
 now Harry of the West. All stood uncovered before him. 
 The remotest comparison between his high qualities and the 
 mental patch-work of Van Buren would have been resented 
 with indignation. 
 
 Clinton, however, was the special object of Van Buren's 
 jealous rage, because the nearest, and therefore the most un- 
 comfortable, impediment. The others were assailable in their 
 order. Clinton must be supplanted. How ? His antagonist 
 had no resources in the field of exalted statesmanship. His 
 name was connected with no services in the war which had 
 just been brought to a conclusion. He had no plans of in- 
 ternal improvement for the benefit of generations yet unborn. 
 He had no reputation in the world of letters and philosophy, 
 like his accomplished rival. What then were his resources ? 
 They were of a kind corresponding with the dimensions of 
 the man ; and the humiliating recollection that they were suc- 
 cessful is almost lost when we consider the tremendous con- 
 sequences for evil with which the power that filched that 
 success was invested.
 
 374 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Van Buren set himself to a task for which his abilities 
 were nicely calculated. He found here and there some who, 
 amid the general harmony, were unreconciled to civil service 
 reform, and were mourning in obscure places over that ob- 
 literation of party names through which their own small 
 hopes of distinction would be forever blotted out. He laid 
 his schemes secretly with these congenial spirits, and soon 
 they set themselves at the noble work noble from the 
 Democratic outlook of stirring once more the dying embers 
 of party strife. In the absence of all meritorious deeds, 
 they hoped to rise into prominence by the revival of those 
 old titles which Jackson had desired to consign to eternal 
 oblivion. Unprincipled men were tempted by the hope of 
 office, and weak men were found in sufficient numbers to 
 form the material for the demagogue. Year after year the 
 object was pursued with that pertinacity which is so often 
 a trait of the smallest souls. These cullings from the polit- 
 ical slums appropriated to themselves the title of Democrats, 
 and it was under these exact conditions that the present 
 Democratic party was formed. Their opponents, in contempt 
 of the trick, silently permitted their success in the larceny 
 of a name. As in all organizations, before and since this 
 date, there were unprincipled men in the old Federal party, 
 and they attached themselves to this new phoenix of Democ- 
 racy which had so little likeness to its alleged sire and, 
 as might be expected, became "Democrats" of the most 
 rampant sort. In a word, the elements of party conflict 
 were again revived with more than their ancient rancor. 
 
 Federalist was the name by which Mr. Clinton and his 
 friends were designated, but for what reason no one could
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 375 
 
 tell. Among them were several of the most eminent mem- 
 bers of the old Republican party. While Clinton, Clay, and 
 Adams were projecting great schemes of general improve- 
 ment, recommending national universities, national observa- 
 tories, and various works of internal improvement ; devising 
 plans for a sound national currency ; encouraging the efforts 
 of the then dawning republics in South America; rendering 
 secure the national credit; and in the use of all honorable 
 means striving to give our government a national character, 
 which, but for the subsequent dark days of Democratic re- 
 pudiation, might have made us the envy of the world ; while 
 these true statesmen were thus employed, Mr. Van Buren 
 and his co-conspirators were engaged in the sublime vocation 
 of " rousing the Democracy," of exhuming the long-buried 
 remains of old Federalism, and holding them up as a scare- 
 crow for those of their clique who had too little intelligence 
 to discern the miserable cheat. Then they were all national- 
 bank men, all tariff men, all internal-improvement men, be- 
 cause a sound and wholesome popular sentiment upon these 
 subjects pervaded the country, instead of that spurious vox 
 populi which afterwards resulted from their own clamor and 
 false pretenses, and which is the only species of domestic 
 manufacture to which they were ever at heart favorable. 
 But all these matters were held in reserve as subordinate to 
 the other great matters in which they were so zealously em- 
 ployed the getting up in some way the old party names; 
 smirching, if possible, all who were opposed to them ; adroitly 
 taking to themselves the name of Democrat, and sticking 
 to it through thick and thin as their organic declaration. 
 Such was their policy then, and such it has continued
 
 376 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 to be under the "Democratic" management of their suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 The word "Democracy," in the insignificant application 
 of the term we have described, elevated General Jackson to 
 the executive chair. We state this as a fact of history, and 
 with no desire to under-rate the successor of John Quincy 
 Adams. Jackson possessed undoubted executive ability 
 by which we mean those great qualities which give to one 
 an indisputable command over the many. Born upon 
 American soil while this continent yet owned the sway of 
 the House of Hanover, he enlisted as a soldier of liberty 
 before the flush of manhood had deepened in his cheek. 
 His growth was in a sparsely settled country, hardly to be 
 distinguished from a wilderness, where the force of law, the 
 restraints of society, or the rules of civilized life had but 
 little weight. In such a situation self-preservation and self- 
 protection are paramount to all other considerations. Self- 
 instructed and with no one to render him assistance or 
 make the opening pathway of life smooth to his steps 
 without fortune, friends, or adventitious aids he acquired 
 an independence of thought and action, a disdain of danger, 
 and a contempt of opposition which followed him through 
 all the vicissitudes of his career. Vigorous in action, ener- 
 getic in the execution of his plans, ignorant of or despising 
 alike the arts of the courtier and the nice distinctions of 
 the casuist, he in early life acquired an influence in the 
 border State of Tennessee which never deserted him while 
 he had an ambitious wish to gratify or a personal desire to 
 be fulfilled. 
 
 It was not because he was deemed a statesman that he
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 377 
 
 was nominated for the Presidency, in exclusion of other 
 great men of the Republic. It was not because he was 
 supposed to be possessed of any peculiar insight into the 
 nature of our government, or of any intuitive appreciation 
 of the duties of its chief executive, that the American peo- 
 ple bestowed upon him their suffrages almost by acclama- 
 tion. In accurate knowledge of the science of government 
 and the details of legislation, Webster and Clay, Calhoun 
 and Crawford, were immeasurably his superiors. His im- 
 mediate predecessor was the most accomplished statesman 
 of the day ; profoundly learned in all branches of knowl- 
 edge; versed in the history of his country; understanding 
 practically all its varied and multiform interests. Thus en- 
 dowed, however, for profound and wide-seeing statesman- 
 ship, and fitted to remain at the head of a great and grow- 
 ing Republic, with all its complicated interests and foreign 
 relations ; matured among the heroes of the era of Independ- 
 ence, and himself the son of a Revolutionary statesman, 
 John Quincy Adams was, notwithstanding, put down by a 
 whirlwind of clamor and abuse, of falsehood and detraction, 
 such as had never before been witnessed in the political his- 
 tory of the nation ; but which was afterwards matched in 
 the moral assassination of Clay, and will be, if possible, out- 
 done at any time the Democracy find the smallest pretense 
 to malign a candidate who has been consistent in the sup- 
 port of a well-defined and aggressive policy. 
 
 General Jackson had other claims to popular homage. 
 It was the glory of his military career which gave him this 
 commanding prominence and secured the enthusiastic sup- 
 port of the people. He had performed signal service for
 
 378 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 the country in its struggle with Great Britain ; he had con- 
 ducted our Indian wars with signal success ; he had " assumed 
 the responsibility" and invaded the territories of another 
 nation without the sanction of his own government, captured 
 its capital, imprisoned its governor, and dictated terms of 
 peace with the assumed authority of a sovereign. How does 
 that look for an aggressive foreign policy ? 
 
 Right or wrong, he never hesitated in his movements ; 
 and as success invariably" attended his undertakings, he 
 gained credit for sagacity and wisdom. The shrewdness of 
 a few politicians discovered in his character a combination of 
 qualities that seemed requisite in a party leader. The new 
 cry of " Democracy " was raised ; and the self-commissioned 
 invader of a foreign territory suddenly found himself the idol 
 of an organization that was not over-scrupulous in its means 
 of warfare or its choice of weapons. The event justified 
 the accuracy of their calculations. The brilliancy of his 
 deeds in the field ; the sternness of his character ; the ob- 
 duracy of his will ; the craftiness of his methods ; and, it 
 may not be out of place to add, his political obtuseness all 
 were reflected from his person through the long line of his 
 partisans, and conspired to fill even the humblest with an 
 ardor they were incapable of analyzing, but which they well 
 understood presaged a party triumph. 
 
 As a citizen, the conduct of General Jackson had been 
 equally distinguished by stirring events. Rough and tum- 
 ble street fights, rencounters, duels, and all those customs 
 which make border life exciting, in which rapidity of move- 
 ment and personal courage are decisive, were the means 
 chosen by him to settle private controversies ; and these
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 379 
 
 were sufficiently frequent to claim a good deal of attention. 
 As a legislator he had not distinguished himself, unless it 
 may be in the characteristic threats to cut off the ears of 
 an unlucky member of Congress who had ventured to 
 inquire into the legality of his acts. He made no preten- 
 sion to learning or scholarship of any kind. His education 
 was wholly superficial, and barely enough to conduct him 
 decently through life. Such are the outlines of the charac- 
 ter and history of the man who was chosen to preside over 
 a government of seventeen millions of people, as enlightened 
 as any portion of the world. 
 
 The history of his administration forms a counterpart to 
 his military career and his private life. He entered upon 
 the discharge of the duties of his high office with an honest 
 desire to serve his country faithfully and with the intention 
 of observing strict justice and equity in regard to men and 
 measures. But the affairs of a great nation and the diver- 
 sified interests of a widely extended country could not be 
 managed without many differences of opinion arising be- 
 tween the two great parties, nor, indeed, without creating 
 serious dissensions in the dominant party itself. The plans 
 and policy of the President did not by any means meet 
 with universal favor, and at the first serious opposition his 
 wrath was kindled. He could never forget nor forgive any 
 one who placed an obstacle in his path from the conception 
 to the accomplishment of a design. Regarding his own 
 opinion as the law of the land, he looked upon every man 
 who withstood his will as a villain. Bold measures, hastily 
 conceived and entered upon with little apparent delibera- 
 tion, were pertinaciously adhered to and crammed down the
 
 380 THE VOTERS 1 HANDBOOK. 
 
 throats of his partisans; not, however, without some grim- 
 aces and contortions of countenance. Obedience to the com- 
 mands of the party had become a settled law ; and as the party 
 derived its vitality and strength from the character and energy 
 of its chief, his simple word was in all controverted cases held 
 paramount to the Constitution. In the matter of infallability 
 he was allowed precedence of all rulers, both temporal and 
 spiritual. The voice of the people expressed through their 
 chosen representatives was to him and his adherents as an 
 idle mind. The behests of sovereign States conveyed through 
 their senatorial guardians were equally ineffectual. At one 
 time the Constitution was not broad enough to meet his pur- 
 poses. He gave to. its provisions an interpretation of such 
 latitudinarian scope as to astonish a section even of his 
 allies, and their anathemas, neither few nor indistinctly ut- 
 tered, were hurled against him. At another time he was 
 found to be so strict a constructionist as to refuse the ex- 
 ercise of those discretionary powers which, for great ends, 
 have been wisely deposited in the executive. 
 
 It was expected, of course, that he would fill all the 
 chief posts of trust with those friendly to his interests and 
 holding similarity of views. Harmony in the government 
 would require this, to say nothing of the policy and pro- 
 priety of the course on other grounds. But the supreme 
 dictator went far beyond this point. Acting upon the prin- 
 ciple that the honors and emoluments of office were spoils 
 to be awarded to the victors in the political arena, and 
 treating all who were of another party as enemies to their 
 country, he thrust out thousands of incumbents from the 
 petty posts scattered from Maine to Georgia and from the
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 381 
 
 Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. This was done irrespec- 
 tive of character, services, and situation, till there was 
 scarcely a postmaster or petty tide-waiter in office who had 
 not blown his penny trumpet in honor of the victorious 
 chief, or lisped with becoming reverence and precision the 
 shibboleth of " the party." Patriotism and love .of place do 
 not go hand in hand. If office be the sure reward of party 
 fealty and devotion, hypocrisy and a contempt of the well- 
 being of society will most surely follow. For this innova- 
 tion in our political system, the country must render due 
 thanks to General Jackson. That he was besieged by a 
 host of applicants clamorous for benefactions, and often 
 violated his own views of propriety to favor a friend, is no 
 doubt true ; but this does not lessen the evil nor diminish 
 the responsibility of his acts. He was President of the 
 Nation, and it is a sorrowful reflection indeed that he had 
 not virtue enough to forget that he was chief of a party. 
 It is vain to imagine what civil service reform might have 
 done for such a man, in whose administration there was 
 really so much room for improvement, for spoils became his 
 prime end and aim before the first twelve months of his 
 term had expired. 
 
 Some of his methods are worth studying for the lesson 
 they inculcate. An enemy was at the head of one of the 
 branches of the United States Bank. The President failed 
 to influence his removal and procure the appointment of a 
 friend. The managers of the bank did not consult him in 
 regard to the provisions of the new charter applied for, and 
 he had not succeeded in bringing that institution under his 
 control. Impetuous in all things, defying all things, whether
 
 382 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 of gods or men, this was an opposition to his imperial will 
 by no means to be endured. He commenced, forthwith, a 
 war of words and measures against that ill-starred corpora- 
 tion, in which he was backed by all the powers of the gov- 
 ernment, and aided by all the art of his shrewd advisers. 
 They first - destroyed the business of the bank, and threw 
 discredit and suspicion upon its solvency, never before 
 suspected. Then, by crippling the resources and business 
 interests of the country, they weakened its securities and 
 impeded the collection of its vast and extended claims, till, 
 by a series of calamities and governmental hostilities beat- 
 ing upon it, the great fiscal institution of the country fell, 
 and great was the fall thereof. In its ruins were crushed 
 the fortunes of hundreds of innocent men, women, and chil- 
 dren, of widows and orphans, whose entire means of sub- 
 sistence were embarked in its immense capital. It had been 
 chartered by President Madison, a good man and pure 
 patriot; and it had been sustained by nearly all the Repub- 
 licans of the day. It should be remembered that General 
 Jackson himself did not then profess to be opposed in prin- 
 ciple to a bank, but to the bank ; for he expressly declared 
 that if application had been made to him, he could have given 
 Congress a plan for a National Bank which would have ac- 
 complished the desired end ; and it would probably have 
 contained a clause empowering the President to appoint all 
 the managers and their subordinates. It was reserved to 
 the "Democracy" of a later day to reach that sublimation 
 of political wisdom which perceived certain ruin in a fiscal 
 charter, Federalism in a paper dollar, and rank treason in an 
 innocent bill of exchange. General Jackson was thought to
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 383 
 
 be something of a Democrat in his day, but he had not at- 
 tained this degre'e of acute discrimination. He was strongly 
 in favor of the State banks ; fostered them by all the ap- 
 pliances in his power ; induced the creation of scores, in 
 place of one ; and left the currency of the country in a con- 
 dition of hopeless depreciation. 
 
 The destruction of the United States bank was really 
 the principal measure of the Jackson administration. We 
 may look in vain for any important principle settled by it, 
 or any new theory brought forward, except in regard to the 
 currency. In the management of our foreign interests, the 
 honor of the country was protected, and our relations were 
 generally maintained with dignity and caution. There was 
 one notable instance of impropriety. We refer to the un- 
 warrantable and uncalled-for introduction of our internal po- 
 litical divisions into his official correspondence with Great 
 Britain by Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary of State. This 
 was a proceeding without precedent, in every point of view 
 indefensible, and a disgrace to its author. Whatever may be 
 our internal dissensions, towards all other nations the Amer- 
 ican people should present an undivided front. National 
 dignity and self-respect require the strict observance of this 
 rule ; the honor of the people demands it. With all his ob- 
 stinacy and independence, General Jackson was easily con- 
 trolled by a few designing men who had their own sinister 
 ends in view. Van Buren, with his usual fallacy, had gained 
 a commanding influence over the President, whose ungov- 
 ernable passions were played upon in such a way that, while 
 he thought himself the noblest Roman of them all, he 
 became the mere tool of one of the subtlest of dema-
 
 384 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 gogues ; and it was soon apparent that a suggestion from 
 that plausible gentleman was sufficient to gain for any new 
 design a ready adoption by the supreme dictator. How 
 skillfully that influence was exerted has now become matter 
 of history. The little magician called spirits from the vasty 
 deep that under better influences would have never seen the 
 light. In the ranks of his own party, Van Buren had many 
 enemies of no mean character and standing. They were all 
 driven from executive favor with as much seeming zeal and 
 alacrity as would have been exercised had they been open 
 enemies of the republic. As no situation in life, no high 
 degree of ability and attainment, is absolute proof against 
 intrigue and cunning machination, Van Buren was soon left 
 without a rival, either in the cabinet or in the ranks of the 
 party. Calhoun was distanced in the race, and finally 
 driven over to the opposition with great show of indignation 
 and obloquy. One cabinet was dismissed without ceremony 
 and on the most frivolous pretexts, and another was over- 
 awed and forced into submission. It may have been purely 
 accidental, but it was a singular circumstance that in all 
 these commotions and difficulties, while other gentlemen were 
 discarded, outcast, overwhelmed, Van Buren was strengthen- 
 ing his position and gathering force to reach the station al- 
 ready long occupied in mind by his anticipative ambition. 
 
 It would seem that the last three years of General Jack- 
 son's term was almost wholly employed in preparing the 
 way for the succession of the favorite. The President had 
 time, however, to make fierce war upon the State banks 
 so long his favorites which had sprung up virtually under 
 his supervision. But he never made any pretension to con-
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 385 
 
 sistency. An exclusively metallic currency and a quick re- 
 turn to the age of iron had now become the desire of his 
 heart, and with this measure bequeathed to his successor, 
 his administration closed. He had come into power upon a 
 wave of popularity whose reflux had buried many of his 
 truest friends. The country had begun to groan under the 
 weight of his measures ; but the power of his name and his 
 unscrupulous use of executive appliances w,ere still sufficient 
 to elevate Martin Van Buren to the Presidency. 
 
 The Whig party at that time confined its exertions 
 principally to preserve the balance of power between the 
 different branches of the government, as the Constitution 
 had wisely left it. The concentration of all the powers of 
 the government in the hands of one man was an innovation 
 too dangerous to the safety of our institutions to be sanc- 
 tioned or permitted. They also endeavored to protect the 
 business interests of the country from the ruin which it was 
 too truthfully predicted would follow the sudden and violent 
 changes recommended by the executive. They desired to 
 see the resources of the country developed, and to place the 
 agricultural, mechanical, and manufacturing interests on 
 such a basis as to defy the competition of foreign pauper 
 labor and the hostility of foreign legislation. 
 
 We may dismiss General Jackson and his administration,, 
 with the remark that when the President was left to his 
 own better judgment he acted honestly and uprightly. But 
 passion and deep prejudices intervened ; he was ill-advised 
 and moved by insidious arts and practices ; and we believe 
 it not unjust to say that no chief magistrate ever left so 
 bad an example to posterity. The country owes him a debt 
 
 25
 
 386 THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 of gratitude for his services in the field ; and for these he 
 will be remembered by the American people so long as the 
 broad savannahs of the South expose their surface to the 
 sun, or the waters of the Mississippi roll down to the gulf. 
 We would not detract in the smallest degree from his just 
 claims to respect, but ther"e are points in his civil career 
 which can not be passed without condemnation. 
 
 The advent of Mr. Van Buren did not at first materially 
 change the situation of parties. He commenced with a 
 formal declaration of principles at his inauguration. It was 
 sufficiently void of meaning to be wholly unattractive except 
 as to one point, and in regard to that he was peculiarly un- 
 fortunate. He undertook in advance to veto any law the 
 National Legislature in*" its wisdom might enact upon a par- 
 ticular subject. The design of this was obvious, and its im- 
 propriety equally so. We speak of this without the least 
 reference to the merits of that question, in itself considered, 
 and merely as to the threat of the President in advance of 
 legislative action. It conciliated no interest, and displeased 
 if it did not disgust all right thinking men. That one so 
 cautious in his general policy, and so uniformly careful to 
 avoid all probable causes of discontent as Mr. Van Buren 
 had been through his whole life, should have been guilty of 
 a positive impropriety in the first step of his executive 
 career, was matter of no little surprise. But his subse- 
 quent acts threw this circumstance so completely into the 
 shade that it was soon forgotten by the general public. His 
 whole administration exhibited a series of measures unfor- 
 tunate beyond the examples ; and they fell upon the people 
 with crushing weight. These measures centered upon one
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 387 
 
 point the currency in regard to which he followed out 
 the intentions "of his "Illustrious Predecessor." But the 
 name of that I. P. had lost its charm. The time had gone 
 by when a bad measure, although sealed with the imperial 
 assent, could be forced into popularity. It was discovered, 
 at last, that even his opinion was not infallible ; that his arbi- 
 trary dictum was not sufficient to regulate the laws of trade 
 and the whole domestic policy of the country. The dis- 
 orders of the time opened the eyes of intelligent men. They 
 beheld in the vista, not that golden age which the prophets 
 and seers of the spick new Democracy had predicted, nor 
 that ineffable state which should betoken the advent of a 
 social and political millenium ; but, instead, the confusion of 
 ruin the very " blackness of darkness " and all pervading 
 distress. 
 
 The previous action of the government had called into 
 being a multitude of local banks, and these institutions had 
 been made the depositaries of the government treasure. 
 Stimulated by this impulse, with a superabundant capital, no 
 power in existence to keep them in check, and relying upon 
 the continuance of government favor, these banks extended 
 their business beyond all bounds of prudence. Speculation 
 in every description of property had become universal ; 
 villages and even cities had sprung up in every nook of the 
 remote West, which needed only buildings, business, and 
 people to render them discoverable by the unfortunate pur- 
 chaser of lots ; and " intrinsic value " had become an obso- 
 lete term. This state of things had its origin partly in 
 other causes, but mainly in the action of the government ; 
 and by a more sudden action it was checked. The bubble
 
 388 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK 
 
 burst and carried with it not only the illusory hopes of 
 the rash speculation, but the more solid basis of the 
 prudent and circumspect. Commercial houses that had stood 
 firm through all changes for half a century were crushed ; 
 the activity of business throughout the land was suspended; 
 confidence and credit were destroyed ; the banks, which had 
 been fostered and then attacked by the government, suspended 
 payment ; State obligations were neglected, in some instances 
 repudiated ; and even the Federal Government could not 
 always meet its engagements. It was at this juncture when 
 Van Buren disclosed his great measure and made it the 
 law of the land. The panacea which he recommenced in 
 this disordered state of the body politic was the sub-treasury 
 system; and this was the principal measure of his adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 The introduction of such a scheme in the most healthy 
 and prosperous times would have produced, of necessity a 
 disastrous revulsion ; and it then added immeasurably to the 
 public distress. The sole pretext for the measure was to 
 protect the government from losses through the banks; the 
 real design was to destroy every moneyed corporation in the 
 land. It is a sufficient commentary to state that the govern- 
 ment lost four times as much, in the space of three years, 
 by the faithlessness and rascality of its sub-treasurers, as it 
 had ever lost by all the banks since the adoption of the 
 Constitution. The fallacy of the system was promptly 
 shown. Peculation and corruption became at once the order 
 of the day; nor was it long before the officer who had only 
 abstracted his hundred thousand was looked upon as a toler- 
 able pattern of sub-treasury trustworthiness. It is fitting to
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 389 
 
 remark that, in 1834, this same sub-treasury scheme was de- 
 nounced by the" whole Van Buren party as a measure unquali- 
 fiedly infamous; in 1837 he was equally denounced who was 
 not in its favor so much had the fresh Democracy become 
 "enlightened" in the interval. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren very justly regarded himself as the 
 founder of "the party," and, in a large measure, its owner. 
 It was certainly his by right of discovery; and now the 
 time has rolled around when he regards his re-election of 
 greater moment than the welfare of the States. This, how- 
 ever, was not to be. Public dissatisfaction was expressed in 
 all forms, in every section of the country, and even "the 
 party" was divided and rent. Partisan trammels could no 
 longer prevent an honest expression, and thousands left the 
 ranks of the " Democracy " and denounced the measures 
 which had brought down destruction upon their heads. But 
 the President still believed in the efficacy of party discip- 
 line. Possibly he thought, that as General Jackson in 
 whose footsteps he declared it was his highest ambition to 
 follow had succeeded in bold measures and radical innova- 
 tions, he, too, might gain some laurels by a similar course. 
 But events were otherwise ordered. The policy he had 
 pursued left him no power except that which was inherent 
 in the office he held. When the day of trial came, his ap- 
 peal to the " sober second thought of the people " was an- 
 swered by shouts of triumph and songs of rejoicing at the 
 election of General Harrison. 
 
 We have presented the few prominent points which dis- 
 tinguished the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, 
 for the purpose of showing when and in what the Demo-
 
 390 THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 cratic party, so-called, had its origin, and the great prece- 
 dents which authorize it to believe in one line of policy 
 to-day, in another to-morrow, and, if it feels so disposed, in 
 nothing but "the party" next day. Every thing has a 
 character of some sort, but it is not always easy to discover. 
 The trouble with the Democracy is, that a mere name, and 
 falsely assumed, has been made a convenient, external, uni- 
 versal habit for " the party," covering all sorts of form aud 
 feature, or their total lack, as may be most acceptable for 
 the occasion. There is no general character belonging to 
 the organization throughout the country, expressed in a dec- 
 laration of principles. It is everywhere traversed and 
 broken asunder by sectional doctrines, or questions of policy 
 wholly discordant. But all the members are "Democrats," 
 and their explanation of the happy term if they are able 
 to give any explanation is ever according to the locality 
 in which they happen to be at the time. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to mention the administration 
 of John Tyler, unless to give a record of folly in all its 
 phases; of treachery, perfidy, and imbecility unparalleled in 
 history; of the dishonorable use of the highest power, and 
 the wanton waste of the greatest opportunities. He had no 
 party, no support, -no principles, and none of the popular 
 respect which the incumbent of the most eminent elective 
 office in the world should elicit; and he was indeed very 
 much like that man without a country who roamed aimless 
 through the earth as a just penance for treason to his gov- 
 ernment. All there was of the Tyler faction is summed up 
 in the most insignificant numeral, and was composed of 
 the most insignificant figure that ever appeared in politics.
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 391 
 
 In 1844 the Whig party declared for a well-regulated 
 currency ; a tariff for revenue to defray the necessary ex- 
 penses of the government, and discriminating with special 
 reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the 
 country ; distribution of the proceeds of the sales of public 
 lands among the States ; reform of executive usurpations ; 
 and generally such an administration of the affairs of the 
 country as should impart to every branch of the public ser- 
 vice the greatest practicable efficiency, controlled by a well- 
 regulated and nice economy. In the same year the Democ- 
 racy favored State rights ; opposed internal improvements ; 
 opposed a protective tariff; opposed a national bank; fa- 
 vored slavery, and denounced all abolitionists ; favored the Van 
 Buren sub-treasury system ; favored taking by force, if need 
 be, the whole of Oregon, and the re-annexation of Texas. 
 In 1848 the Whigs declared against any extension of slave 
 territory ; against acquisition of foreign territory by con- 
 quest ; in favor of protection to home industry, and the cir- 
 cumscription of executive power. In the same year the 
 Democrats re-affirmed previous platforms (1840-44) and 
 adopted fresh resolutions condemning "federalism" which 
 is not defined a national bank, and the agitation of the 
 slavery question ; favoring " economy," the war with 
 Mexico, and the administration of President Polk. There 
 was little change in either the Whig or Democratic plat- 
 form at the conventions of 1852, but in 1856 the Whigs 
 made a strong protest against the agitation of the slavery 
 question, and passed a special resolution condemning the Re- 
 publican party ; and the Democrats adopted what has ever 
 since been known as "the Cincinnati Platform."
 
 392 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 The Republican National Convention in 1856 resolved 
 against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the ex- 
 tension of slavery into free territory ; in favor of admitting 
 Kansas as a free State, and of restoring the action of the 
 Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jef- 
 ferson. They also favored the Pacific railway, and the im- 
 provement of rivers and harbors. It was an admirable plat- 
 form; but it was left for the Republican resolutions of 1860 
 to make a clean sweep of the Whig and "American" parties, 
 and either attach their members to the Republican organi- 
 zation, or drive them into the ranks of the Democracy. 
 They protest against the admission of any but free States 
 into the Union; against the dogma that the Constitution, of 
 its own force, carries slavery into any or all the territories; 
 against re-opening the African slave trade; in favor of pro- 
 tection to American industry, and internal improvement 
 upon a liberal scale. The Democratic party held its 
 national convention for 1860 in series the first at Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina, on 23d April; the second at Richmond, 
 Virginia, llth June; the third at Baltimore, Maryland, 18th 
 June. The second, which was made up of Southern seceders 
 from the first, anxiously awaited the action of the third, 
 arid upon the nomination of Douglas, at Baltimore, nominated 
 Breckenridge and Lane, adopted a strong pro-slavery plat- 
 form, and adjourned. The first plank in the platform was 
 the re-affirmation of the Cincinnati resolutions. 
 
 James Buchanan, an intimidated old man, had been 
 placed in the Presidential chair at the election of 1856, to 
 do the bidding of the slave oligarchy, and was only Presi- 
 dent in name, while Toombs, Davis, Wigfall, Mason, Floyd,
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 393 
 
 Benjamin, etc., performed all the functions of the Presi- 
 dential office which they deemed important, and conspired 
 against the government at the same time. Buchanan's ad- 
 ministration was only an intense illustration of the subser- 
 viency of Northern doughfaces to the slave power, whose in- 
 cursions upon our political life had from year to year grown 
 more exacting, until the demand had now come to legalize 
 the African slave traffic by the laws of the United States, 
 or accept the alternative of disunion! Senators of the 
 United States, heads of departments, Representatives in 
 Congress, officers of the army, and other agents of the gov- 
 ernment were in this conspiracy. D. L. Yulee, Senator 
 from Florida, wrote to a traitorous convention at Talla- 
 hassee, under date of Washington, January 7, 1861, as 
 follows : 
 
 . . . "It seemed to be the opinion, if we left here, 
 force, loan, and volunteer bills might be passed, which would 
 put Mr. Lincoln in immediate condition for hostilities ; 
 whereas, by remaining in our places till 4th of March, it is 
 thought we can keep Mr. Buchanans hands tied, and disable 
 the Republicans from effecting any legislation which will 
 strengthen the hands of the incoming administration." 
 
 So it seems that in January, 1861, through the com- 
 plaisance of a Democratic administration, the government 
 was already controlled by the Secessionists. It was no part 
 of their original plan to divide the country into two separate 
 nationalities, but to change the government over the whole 
 of it; a revolution, not a secession, although "disunion" 
 was the convenient threat. Viewed in this light, it was a 
 cunning and well-devised plot; and it came very near a
 
 394 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 temporary success. Viewed in any other light, the attempt 
 was little short of insanity. Leaders in the rebellion were 
 well aware that the Constitution could not be changed as 
 they desired by peaceable means. They therefore deter- 
 mined to accomplish it by revolution. The commissioner 
 from Mississippi to Maryland, when urging that State to 
 join the rebellion, stated, in a speech to citizens of Balti- 
 more, 19th December, 1860 : " Secession is not intended to 
 break up the present government, but to perpetuate it. We 
 do not propose to go out by way of breaking up or destroy- 
 ing the Union, as our fathers gave it to us, but we go out 
 for the purpose of getting further guaranties and security 
 for our rights. Our plan is for the Southern States to 
 withdraw from the Union at present, to allow amendments 
 to the Constitution to be made, guaranteeing our just rights. 
 This question of slavery must be settled, now or never. 
 The country has been agitated seriously by it for the past 
 twenty or thirty years. It has been a festering sore upon 
 the body politic. Many remedies have failed, and we must 
 try amputation to bring it to a healthy state." Amputation 
 was certainly found effective, but it was not the sort con- 
 templated by the gentleman. 
 
 It is no part of our intention or desire to excite sectional 
 animosity by any thing contained in this chapter; but it 
 seems to us that the logical result of the administrations of 
 Jackson and Van Buren by and through which the so- 
 called Democratic party was founded came to the surface 
 in Buchanan's subserviency to the South and the following 
 rebellion by the slave power. The cardinal principles of 
 the Jackson- Van Buren party were indeed but two iron-
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 395 
 
 clad support of " the regular nominations," and " to the vic- 
 tors belong the spoils of office." All measures of a positive 
 kind, having in view the substantial interests of the country, 
 were studiously avoided ; because, upon such grounds, it was 
 seen that the harmony of the heterogeneous elements of " the 
 party " would be constantly endangered. There is something 
 in positive measures which requires discussion ; discussion 
 produces thought; thought leads to inquiry. Hence, the 
 Democracy must not think. Hence, the conduct of this 
 faction, while it boasts so much of principle, and censures 
 its opponents because, like independent men, they sometimes 
 differ among themselves, has been ever negative and de- 
 structive. It opposes protection to home industry ; but, 
 lacking the courage of its convictions, dares not declare for 
 free trade. In the days of Jackson it destroyed the national 
 currency, and put " wild-cat " paper in its place ; and in the 
 early days of the war it attempted to discredit the green- 
 back, without any thing to offer in its place, unless it 
 was contemplated to substitute the plentiful " promises " 
 of the Southern Confederacy. It denies to the central gov- 
 ernment all legitimate and healthy powers ; but whenever it 
 had the authority, it enormously increased the corrupt pa- 
 tronage of the government, thus tending ever to make it 
 strong for evil and impotent for good. It has always looked 
 with an evil eye upon the national judiciary, because its 
 leaders have instinct enough, if not intelligence, to discern 
 that there can be no friendship between itself and the spirit 
 of constitutional law. At the same time, it professes that 
 reverence for the Constitution is the prime article of its 
 creed. It seeks to set the farmer against the manufacturer,
 
 396 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 and the merchant against both. By its stupid cry of 
 "aristocracy" it has sought to engender the most unnatural 
 war between those natural allies, the rich and the poor. It 
 pretends to be progressive, but opposes wholesome schemes 
 of internal improvement ; and, while professing a quality and 
 degree of patriotism superior to that entertained by any 
 other party, in either ancient or modern history, it forms an 
 intimate coalition with those recently in arms against the 
 government, and stakes all its hopes for success upon " a 
 solid South." 
 
 This wonderful modern Democracy ought to be able to 
 display itself in the light of truth. It is not a form of 
 Democracy that Jefferson knew any thing about; with 
 which the Clintons, the Madisons, the Crawfords, the Mon- 
 roes, of former days, could have held communion. It is the 
 Democracy of prostration, of repudiation, of nullification, of 
 State bankruptcies, of squatter sovereignty, of anti-nation- 
 ality, of secession, of draft riots, of hard money, f an irre- 
 deemable paper currency, of complicated and circumbendibus 
 negatives. It delights in the dregs of all that was really 
 objectionable in old Federalism, and execrates the memory of 
 Alexander Hamilton, because he was educated beyond the 
 ordinary rudiments of knowledge. When Frances Wright 
 came upon her self-appointed mission to this country, " the 
 party " discovered something in the ideas she advocated 
 which it could heartily support, and therefore it hoisted the 
 bespattered banner of free love, and found itself with one 
 positive plank to offset a hundred negatives. Then the 
 wildest notions respecting community of property and mar- 
 riage, hostility to religion and to the bloated monopolies of
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 397 
 
 academies and colleges, took possession of the young Democ- 
 racy and incited it to run riot over the ruins of churches, 
 schools, and the established institutions of society. And in 
 all this time, what had become of Mr. Van Buren ? 
 
 By gradual progression, he had gone through all the 
 several metamorphoses of Democrat to " barnburner," " barn- 
 burner" to free-soiler, free-soiler to abolitionist; and, in the 
 very irony of fate, had thus finally become that thing which 
 his party was born specially to extinguish ! His ambition 
 was still unquenched ; but as he had always followed those 
 schemes which seemed to promise a realization of his hopes, 
 without regard to even an appearance of consistency, he evi- 
 dently thought he saw in abolitionism a sentiment which would 
 grow rapidly and eventually reseat him in the curule chair. 
 After his defeat in 1840, which he doubtless thought would 
 be followed by the utter disruption of his party, he was at 
 a loss where to fix himself in order to regain his departed 
 prestige. This was most likely the only reason why he left 
 the young Democracy. He felt within him the small re- 
 mains of that once happy state induced by a satisfied ambi- 
 tion, and longed heartily for a return of state and station. 
 For his delinquency he forfeited his just fame, and now the 
 foundation of " the party " is invariably ascribed to Jefferson 
 by those who do not know better and by many that do. 
 
 Beyond the certainty that evil will follow, it is impossi- 
 ble to predict what the American people have to anticipate 
 if modern Democracy shall again succeed to the government. 
 If the country passes to the guidance of such an organiza- 
 tion, it will at last be divided into factions, each pursuing 
 its downward course with fatal celerity, seeking to crush in '
 
 398 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 its way all those institutions and laws which have given to 
 the American Union its strength, freedom, and respectability. 
 
 At the beginning of the war, Senator Bayard was one 
 of the Democratic leaders, and he is still recognized as 
 such. He then spoke for his party in 1861 : 
 
 "Shall we make war upon and subjugate this new con- 
 federacy, or shall we peacefully treat with them and con- 
 sent to their self-government, trusting to time, which is the 
 great healer of all wrongs and passions, to bring them 
 again voluntarily into a common government with us ? " 
 
 After drawing a picture of the horrors of civil war he asked : 
 
 " Is such a war necessary for the peace and happiness 
 of the United States ? Why may not two American con- 
 federacies exist side by side without conflict, each emulat- 
 ing the other in the progress of civilization? With such a 
 sickening alternative as civil war, why should not the ex- 
 periment at least be made ? " 
 
 Then Mr. Bayard proceeded to answer the questions 
 which he had asked : 
 
 " I believe with the late Senator Douglas that a ' war is 
 disunion, certain, final, inevitable,' and, so believing, I oppose 
 it. I believe solemnly that the war inaugurated by Abra- 
 ham Lincoln and his cabinet is worse than fruitless that it 
 will prove more disastrous to the North than to the South, 
 and never will accomplish its professed object." 
 
 A little later he said : 
 
 " Human governments were ordained for the happiness 
 and protection of society. If peace will restore and secure 
 these blessings to the people of the United States, even 
 though a number of their former associates have gone off
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 399 
 
 under a new and independent organization, in the name of 
 Heaven let us raise our voice for it !" And, in conclusion : 
 
 "Let us, fellow-men, follow peace as our bright north 
 star, whose radiance may be mild, but never delusive or un- 
 certain, while in the calamities of war, and that worst of 
 wars, a civil war, we shall only reach by sheer exhaustion 
 the peace we can now command in ten days by treaty." 
 
 Mr. Bayard should have quoted Senator Douglas's idea 
 of the right of secession. " President Buchanan," said he, 
 "has recommended that we purchase Cuba. According to 
 this doctrine of secession, we might pay $300,000,000 for 
 Cuba, and then the next day Cuba might secede and re-annex 
 herself to Spain!" We paid immense sums for a portion 
 of the territory the secessionists proposed to take, and Mr. 
 Douglas's illustrations came home to our people with 
 peculiar force. 
 
 The history of the Republican party since 1860 is 
 worthy of generous contemplation. Every work it has un- 
 dertaken in twenty -four years has been performed; every 
 promise made the people fully redeemed. It has given its 
 best work, its best blood, and plenteously of its treasure to 
 preserve the integrity of the Union. What further recom- 
 mendation does it need? Is there in the world a nation 
 that has so prospered in all the elements of wealth and 
 greatness as has the United States under Republican ad- 
 ministrations ? And under what conditions did a Repub- 
 lican President take his seat in 1860? Modern Democracy, 
 under Pierce and Buchanan, had then ruled the land for 
 eight weary years. Schism and disorder were rampant, the 
 principal departments of the government were in the hands
 
 400 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 of its enemies, and war was imminent. Who, then, was 
 responsible for these conditions? Upon whom does the 
 odium of the war, the great debt, and the attempted dis- 
 memberment of the Union fall ? It is no time to disguise 
 facts, when the party that gave aid and comfort to those 
 who were aiming a deadly blow at our institutions, again 
 seeks to control the destinies of the government its cowar- 
 dice and imbecility almost destroyed. Is there an American 
 who does not appreciate the benefits and blessings of the 
 Union ? If so, he should be a member of " the party " to- 
 ward which the principal criticism of this sketch is aimed ; 
 but let him cast his eyes across the sea and behold men 
 fighting with their fellows for very crusts ; let him review 
 their unpaid labor in contrast with luxurious indolence; 
 excesses of wealth and the direst poverty; pauperism in all 
 its disgusting forms ; taxes upon every thing, from the light 
 of heaven to the furniture of the grave; and then let him 
 return to his own country and reflect that within a century 
 and under the Constitution formed by his fathers, it has 
 grown great and prosperous ; its population increased from 
 three millions to fifty-five millions, and all well fed, and well 
 paid, and equally protected by the laws. He will then no 
 longer undervalue protection to home labor, or the import- 
 ance of domestic peace and unity, but will nerve himself 
 for every contest in which he can do service for the Con- 
 stitution and the Union. We believe that the altar upon 
 which the fire of Republican enthusiasm is kindled, is the 
 altar of principle ; that its flames are fed with the pure oil 
 of patriotism, and the vestal guardians, liberty and law, 
 keep holy watch over its embers. They shall never die !
 
 THE TARIFF. 
 
 Shall it be a Protective Tariff, or a Tariff for Revenue Only ? 
 
 A QUESTION ANSWERED BY HISTORY IN A TONE SO POSITIVE 
 THAT IT ADMITS BUT ONE INTERPRETATION. 
 
 "Let Labor have its due! my cot shall be 
 From chilling want and guilty murmurs free. 
 Let Labor have its due ! then peace is mine, 
 And never, never shall my heart repine." BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 UPON the subject of the Tariff, facts are in better demand 
 than theories, and reason is of more worth than asser- 
 tion. So long as we have history to refer to, that is most 
 desirable. Facts from the record can not be impeached. The 
 history of Tariff legislation in the United States is an over- 
 whelming vindication of what may be called the policy of 
 Protection, while the reverse of this record, the history of 
 free trade, presents some of the darkest and most deplor- 
 able chapters in the experience of the Nation. 
 
 The first assertion of the policy of Protection in the 
 United States occurred in 1789. In March of that year, 
 the first petition presented to the First Congress, before 
 Washington's inauguration, came from the mechanics and 
 other citizens of what was then the town of Baltimore, 
 asking that Congress by imposing protective duties upon 
 foreign manufactures, would make the country "indepen- 
 
 26 401
 
 402 THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 dent in fact as well as in name." The citizens of New 
 York, Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other cities pre- 
 sented petitions of like character, A bill introduced in the 
 House of Representatives by James Madison embodied the 
 views and wishes of the petitioners. It was passed, and on 
 the fourth day of July, 1789, it received the signature of 
 Washington, and became a law. It was our first Protective 
 Tariff, and " it was the first act of general legislation passed 
 under the new Constitution of the United States." This 
 act settled the right as well as the expediency of im- 
 port duties. 
 
 A few people at this date denounced the law as retalia- 
 tory. Perhaps it was, and with great justice if it was. 
 Let us see what the facts were. While this country re- 
 mained in a relation of colonial dependence upon Great 
 Britain, it was a leading and openly avowed object of 
 British policy to confine our people, so far as possible, to 
 the production of what were called colonial staples to the 
 cutting of timber, mining ores, raising grain, curing pork, 
 beef, etc., for the markets of the mother country, and forc- 
 ing them to procure thence their supplies of all descriptions 
 of manufacture. Even Lord Chatham, our friend in the 
 great struggle against arbitrary power, declared that Ameri- 
 cans should not be permitted to manufacture even a hob-nail ! 
 
 Accordingly acts of Parliament were passed from time 
 to time, from the moment a disposition to minister to their 
 own wants was manifested by our people, to discourage 
 and thwart that disposition. So early as 1699, only 
 seventy-nine years after the landing of the Pilgrims years 
 in great part devoted to desperate conflicts with savage
 
 THE TARIFF. 403 
 
 nature, more savage men, and the wily and powerful civil- 
 ized foeman on our northern frontier the jealousy of 
 England had been awakened by the progress of our house- 
 hold manufactures, and Parliament enacted that "no wool, 
 yarn, or woolen manufactures of their American plantations 
 shall be shipped thence, or even laden in order to be trans- 
 ported, upon any pretense whatever." Not a great deal of 
 British free trade in that enactment ! 
 
 But they sought to draw the line still tighter. In 1719 
 the House of Commons declared that " the erecting of manu- 
 factories in the colonies tends to lessen their dependence upon 
 Great Britain." Complaints continued to be made to Parlia- 
 ment of the setting up of new trades and manufactures in the 
 colonies, to the detriment of the trade of the mother coun- 
 try. Thereupon the House of Commons, in 1721, directed 
 the board of trade to inquire and report "with respect to 
 laws made, manufactures set up, or trade carried on, detri- 
 mental to the trade, navigation, or manufactures of Great 
 Britain." The board reported in February, 1722, and their 
 report gives the best account now extant of the condition 
 of our infant manufactures at that time. It informs Par- 
 liament that the government of Massachusetts Bay had 
 lately passed an act to encourage the manufacture of paper, 
 " which law interferes with the profit made by the British 
 merchant on foreign paper sent thither." 
 
 The board also reported that in all the colonies north of 
 Delaware, and in Somerset County, Maryland, the people 
 had acquired the habit of making coarse woolen and linen 
 fabrics in their several families, for family use. This, it 
 was suggested, could not well be prohibited, as the people
 
 404 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 devoted to this manufacture that portion of time in winter 
 when they could do nothing else. It was further stated 
 that the higher price of labor in the colonies made the cost 
 of producing cloths fifty per cent greater than in England, 
 and would prevent any serious rivalry with the manufac- 
 tures of the mother country. Still, the board urged that 
 something should be done to divert the attention and enter- 
 prise of the colonists from manufactures; otherwise they 
 might in time become formidable. To this end, they urged 
 that new encouragement be held out to the production of 
 naval stores. "However," say the board, "we find that 
 certain trades are carried on, and manufactures set up, which 
 are detrimental to the trade, navigation, and manufactures 
 of Great Britain." 
 
 Answers from the royal governors of the several colo- 
 nies to queries propounded to them by the board were next 
 requested. They generally reported that few or no manu- 
 factures were carried on in their several jurisdictions, and 
 these few were of a rude, coarse kind. In New England, 
 leather was made, a little poor iron, and a considerable ag- 
 gregate of cloths for domestic use; but the great part of 
 the clothing of the people was imported from Great Britain. 
 The hatters of London complained that a good many hats 
 were made in America, especially in New York. The board 
 summed up the report as follows : 
 
 " From the foregoing statement it is observable that 
 there are more trades carried on and manufactures set up in 
 the provinces on the continent oT America, to the north- 
 ward of Virginia, prejudicial to the trade and manufactures 
 of Great Britain, particularly in New England, than in any
 
 THE TARIFF. 405 
 
 other of the British colonies; which is not to be wondered 
 at, for their soil, climate, and produce being pretty nearly 
 the same with ours, they have no staple commodities of 
 their own growth to exchange for our manufactures, which 
 puts them under great necessity, as well as under great 
 temptation, for providing for themselves at home; to which 
 may be added, in the charter governments the little depend- 
 ence they have on the mother country, and consequently 
 the small restraint they are under in any matters detri- 
 mental to her interests." The report closes by repeating 
 the recommendation that measures be taken to turn the in- 
 dustry of the colonies into new channels serviceable to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Parliament proceeded to act upon these suggestions. 
 That year (1732) an act was passed "to prevent the expor- 
 tation of hats out of any of his majesty's colonies or plan- 
 tations in America, and to restrain the number of apprentices 
 taken by the hat makers in the said colonies, and for the 
 better encouraging the making of hats in Great Britain." 
 By this act, not only was the exportation of colonial hats 
 to a foreign port prohibited, but their transportation from 
 one British plantation to another was prohibited, under 
 severe penalties; and no person was allowed to make hats 
 who had not served an apprenticeship for seven years; nor 
 could any hatter in the colonies have more than two ap- 
 prentices at any one time; and no black or negro was per- 
 mitted to work at the business of making hats. 
 
 The interdiction of hats proved only the prologue of the 
 great drama. The manufacture of iron soon came in for a 
 share of the paternal regard of Parliament. In 1750 that
 
 406 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 maternal authority permitted pig-iron and bar-iron to be 
 exported to England duty free, but prohibited the erec- 
 tion of any mill or other engine for slitting, or rolling iron, 
 or any plating forge to work with a tilt-harnmer, or any fur- 
 nace for making steel in the colonies, under the penalty of 
 two hundred pounds. And any such mill, engine, forge, or 
 furnace was declared a common nuisance, and the governor 
 of the colony, upon the information of two witnesses on 
 oath, was ordered to cause the same to be abated within 
 thirty days, or to forfeit the sum of five hundred pounds. 
 Such was the spirit, such were the exactions, of British leg- 
 islation while our patriot fathers remained subject to the 
 mother country. 
 
 The consequences of this state of enforced and abject 
 dependence upon Great Britain for the great mass of our 
 fabrics were such as have been many times realized in the 
 history of commerce. Although allowed a nearer approach 
 to fair trade with the mother country than she has ever 
 vouchsafed us since our independence, the colonies were 
 never able to sell enough raw produce to England to pay 
 for the manufactures with which she was constantly flooding 
 them. Our people had cleared much land, built houses, and 
 provided every thing essential to physical comfort, but the 
 course of buying more than their exports would pay for 
 could not be evaded. In the midst of outward prosperity, 
 the colonies groaned under an increasing load of debts, 
 which were constantly effecting the transfer of American 
 property to owners in Great Britain. It was the persistent 
 charge of the English that our revolutionary fathers flew to 
 arms to evade the payment of their mercantile debts and
 
 THE TARIFF. 407 
 
 the importunities of their creditors. The Congress which 
 assembled in 1765 to remonstrate against the Stamp Act, 
 drew a graphic though sad picture of the calamities which 
 had befallen the people ; the multiplication of debts, the dis- 
 appearance of money, the impossibility of payment, the 
 stagnation of industry and business, all through the exces- 
 sive influx of foreign fabrics. 
 
 The war of the Revolution corrected this tendency by 
 cutting off importations and largely increasing our own 
 household manufactures. But peace, in the absence of all 
 protective legislation by this country, revived the mischief 
 which had been trampled beneath the heel of war. The 
 struggle for independence had left all the States embar- 
 rassed, trade completely disordered, and the whole country 
 overwhelmed with worthless paper money. The unchecked 
 importation of foreign fabrics still further multiplied and 
 magnified debts, deprived us of our specie, broke down the 
 prices of our products, and created a general stagnation and 
 distress. From the state of desperation thus engendered, 
 arose the disgraceful outbreak of insurrection in Massa- 
 chusetts, known as " Shay's Rebellion." This was but one 
 symptom of a general disease. 
 
 Attempts were repeatedly made to put an end to this 
 condition of things by imposing duties upon imports. But 
 the Congress of the old Confederation had no power to do 
 this, except with the concurrence of each of the State gov- 
 ernments. This could not be obtained. Rhode Island, then 
 almost wholly a commercial State, objected, although the 
 duty imposed was but five per cent, and the object the pay- 
 ment of debts incurred in the Revolution. Here was pre-
 
 408 THE VOTERRS 1 HAND BOOK. 
 
 sented that stringent necessity which alone could have 
 overcome the prevailing jealousies of, and aversion to, a 
 stronger and more National Government. A convention was 
 called, a Constitution framed and adopted, and the second 
 act of the new Congress stands upon the records entitled, 
 "An act to make provision for the necessities of govern- 
 ment, the payment of the national debt, and the protection 
 of American manufactures" It passed both Houses of Con- 
 gress by substantially a unanimous vote. 
 
 Great Britain now became alarmed for the stability of 
 her market in America. Our people had been among her 
 most profitable customers. Her board of trade made a report 
 on the subject, in 1794, urging the negotiation of a com- 
 mercial treaty with the United States, based upon two prop- 
 ositions, the first being that " the duties on British manufac- 
 tures imported into the United States shall not be raised 
 above what they are at present." The second proposed 
 that the productions of other nations should be admitted 
 into our ports in British vessels the same as if imported in 
 our own. But the English government did not venture to 
 press these propositions. 
 
 It was plainly discerned by the British economists of 
 that day that, while our Congress had explicitly asserted 
 the principle of protection, and had intended to act consist- 
 ently with that principle, yet from inexperience and a 
 natural hesitation to change abruptly the direction which 
 circumstances had given to our national industry, they had 
 fallen far short of this. The few articles of manufacture 
 already produced in this country, .to a considerable extent, 
 were in general efficiently protected ; but the greater por-
 
 THE TARIFF. 409 
 
 tion of the manufactures essential to our complete emanci- 
 pation from colonial dependence, were left unprotected to the 
 extent of five to fifteen per cent. Years of hard experience 
 and of frequent- suffering were required to teach the mass 
 of our statesmen the advantage and benefit of extending 
 protection also to these articles which had not been but 
 might easily and profitably be produced in our own country, 
 if the producers were properly shielded from the destruct- 
 ive rivalry always brought to bear upon- a new branch of 
 industry by the jealous and powerful foreign interests which 
 it threatens to deprive of a lucrative market. Our people 
 had scarcely begun to learn the truths which form the basis 
 of a wise and beneficent national economy, when the break- 
 ing out of the great wars in Europe opened up to them large 
 and lucrative foreign markets for raw staples, and the heads 
 of many of the most sedate thinkers in America were nearly 
 turned by the tempting prizes proffered to mercantile enter- 
 prise by the convulsions of the Old World. It seemed as 
 though we had but to produce what was easiest and most 
 natural to us, and Europe would take it at our own price, 
 and pay us bountifully for carrying it where she directed. 
 
 This was a pleasant dream while it lasted, but it was 
 very brief. Our people were awakened from it by seizures, 
 confiscations, embargoes, and, at last, war, which imposed 
 upon us the necessity of commencing nearly every branch 
 of manufacture under the most unfavorable auspices, and of 
 course at a ruinous cost. The war with Great Britain was 
 in this respect a substantial benefit to the country. Eng- 
 land had continued to send us, up to the beginning of this 
 war, large supplies of manufactured goods, which were
 
 410 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 thrown upon the American market at prices less than the 
 same articles were sold for at London or Liverpool, all the 
 profit sacrificed to the object of repressing and breaking down 
 our rising industries. With the doubling of duties at the be- 
 ginning of the war of 1812, and the extraordinary exigen- 
 cies of the country, our home interests were greatly stimu- 
 lated, and in the succeeding three years grew vigorously, 
 many new industries springing up. " The arrival of peace 
 found the country," says Mr. Greeley, in his Political 
 Economy, " dotted with furnaces and manufactories, which 
 had suddenly grown up, during the few last preceding years, 
 under the precarious shelter of embargo and war. These, 
 not yet fairly established in a country whose commerce was 
 almost entirely external, or confined to the seaboard, steam 
 navigation being yet in its infancy, and canals and railroads 
 unknown among us, found themselves suddenly exposed to 
 a determined and resistless competition from abroad." To 
 meet this condition, the tariff act of 1816, chiefly the work 
 of John C. Calhoun, then a protectionist, and William 
 Loundes, was devised. But it proved wholly inadequate, 
 except as to two or three comparatively unimportant indus- 
 tries. 
 
 Great Britain continued to flood the American markets 
 with the products of her manufactories, at prices with which 
 our home manufacturers found it impossible to compete, and 
 one by one, in rapid succession, American manufacturing 
 establishments were closed, and products of American skill 
 disappeared from the markets. All the devastations of the 
 war had been as nothing compared with the devastation and 
 losses of manufacturing capital under the tariff of 1816.
 
 THE TARIFF. 411 
 
 Our manufacturers went down like grass before the mower; 
 our agriculture and the wages of labor speedily followed. 
 In New England it is judged that fully one-fourth the prop- 
 erty went through the sheriff's mill, and the prostration was 
 scarcely less general in any part of the country. More 
 American families were reduced from comfort to want in the 
 years 1817-20, than in the succeeding half century. These 
 facts illustrate with great force the disastrous effects of that 
 sort of tariff legislation which is now demanded by a con- 
 siderable faction under the specious title of "a tariff for 
 revenue only." Under such a tariff from 1816 to 1823, a 
 few unimportant industries barely escaped the assaults of 
 foreign competition, but these trifling exceptions were not 
 sufficient to relieve that period of its memorable character 
 as the most disastrous in the early history of the country, 
 a period referred to in 1832 by Henry Clay as without a 
 parallel since the formation of the government in its exhibi- 
 tion of " wide-spread dismay and desolation." But the germ 
 of industrial independence had been planted in a soil fertil- 
 ized by blood, and the plant was destined to live and flourish, 
 though exposed to rude blasts and chilling frosts in its 
 spring-time. 
 
 The tariffs of 1824-28 marked a period of seven years 
 in striking contrast with the term of the same length which 
 had just preceded. Never were the comparative merits of 
 two antagonistic policies more fully and decisively illus- 
 trated. The energies of the country were re-vitalized, the 
 spirit of enterprise again walked abroad in the land, capital 
 sought labor and labor responded to the appeal, and in their 
 union and mutual efforts each won honorable and just re-
 
 412 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 ward. The Nation grew in wealth, and everywhere the 
 people were prosperous, tranquil, and happy. At the very 
 height of this grand fruition and splendid promise came the 
 compromise tariff of 1833, with its provisions for a gradual 
 reduction of duties on manufactures to a revenue standard. 
 Business revulsion and the financial disaster of 1837 fol- 
 lowed. Our manufacturers were driven to the wall and 
 many of them hopelessly bankrupted. There are hundreds 
 living to-day and in active business, who still vividly remem- 
 ber the unhappy era from 1835 to 1842, with that desolat- 
 ing year of 1837 standing like a great, black, appalling 
 chasm in a wilderness of wreck and ruin. This compromise 
 measure, this tariff for revenue only, bore its legitimate fruit 
 in the final collapse alike of industry and revenue, and the 
 despoiled and suffering country again turned to protection 
 for the restoration of its crushed and shattered industries. 
 It would seem that experience and observation are of 
 little use if we fail to regulate our conduct by them. The 
 spirit of the same policy which the British government pur- 
 sued toward this country while in its dependent colonial 
 state, still enters into the favorite measures of that govern- 
 ment toward the United States. It would be no difficult 
 matter to show that upon every agitation of the question of 
 protection in Congress, the British Parliament or its Board 
 of Trade has taken some action in order to distract, if pos- 
 sible, the attention of our statesmen, and to induce among 
 our people an opposition to any measure which would 
 establish protection to industry as the settled policy of the 
 Nation. The Parliament even carried this sort of intermed- 
 dling so far, that in May, 1840 a time when the whole
 
 THE TARIFF. 413 
 
 people of this country were thoroughly waking up to the 
 importance of the home system they raised a select com- 
 mittee in the House of Commons to inquire whether the du- 
 ties levied by the British tariff " are for protection to simi- 
 lar articles " manufactured in that country, or " for the pur- 
 poses of revenue only." This select committee, in their re- 
 port of August 6, 1840, appear to have lost sight of the 
 principal object apparent upon the face of the resolution au- 
 thorizing their examination and report, and content them- 
 selves by observing that the English tariff " often aims at 
 incompatible ends;" the duties are sometimes meant to be 
 both productive of revenue and for protective objects. But 
 they stated that they had discovered " a growng conviction 
 that the protective system is not, on the whole, beneficial to 
 the protected manufactures themselves" Upon the same 
 hypothesis which enabled them to arrive at this conclusion, 
 they might find that, upon the whole, health could not be 
 made beneficial to a sick man ! 
 
 After such a discovery and its solemn announcement by 
 the select committee aforesaid, it might reasonably be 
 imagined that some steps would be taken towards rectifying 
 that " incompatibility " in the British policy, and in aban- 
 doning that system which they represent as having been 
 found not to be beneficial to their protected manufactures. 
 But if we expect any such thing from that quarter, we 
 reckon without our host. Mr. Bull is sly sly as Joey 
 Bagstock. That report was grown and ripened for the 
 American market, and was not designed for any real effect . 
 upon the proceedings of the House of Commons. It was 
 intended to convince the American Congress and the Ameri-
 
 414 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 can people that Great Britain was almost ruined by her pro- 
 tective system a system of ruin which she adhered to with 
 astonishing pertinacity; that our protective tariff would in 
 like manner prove ruinous to us ; and that our only salva- 
 tion was in adopting free trade at" once ; opening our ports 
 to all British manufactures, and becoming, in fact, merely a 
 market for British labor. 
 
 Finding that their recommendations had no effect upon 
 the measures of our government, they ceased to be careful 
 of the principles they put forth to the world, and seeing no 
 longer any good reason for disguise, leading men in both 
 houses of Parliament soon afforded us a fine commentary 
 upon the text of that report of the select committee. Among 
 others, the Duke of Wellington, with the frankness of his 
 known character, stated in the House of Peers the true 
 policy of Great Britain, that " when free trade was talked 
 of as existing in England, it was an absurdity. There was 
 no such thing, and there could be no such thing as free trade 
 in that country. We proceed," said he, "on the system of 
 protecting our own manufactures and our own commerce 
 the produce of our labor and our soil ; of protecting them 
 for exportation and protecting them for home consumption; 
 and on that universal system of protection it is absurd to 
 talk of free trade." 
 
 Under the tariff of 1842, business experienced a revival 
 which continued during four years, and the country was 
 comparatively prosperous ; but scarcely had the wounds of 
 . preceding disaster healed over, when the act of 1846, re- 
 ducing duties enacted through the treachery of Pres- 
 ident Polk and his Secretary of the Treasury, Robert J.
 
 THE TARIFF. 415 
 
 Walker stepped in to reverse the wheels and start the in- 
 dustries of the country upon another retrograde march. In 
 1857, under the administration of President Buchanan, Con- 
 gress again legislated in the further interest of foreign man- 
 ufacturers, and the prompt response to this aggravation of 
 folly was the financial crash of that year, predicted by the 
 advocates of protection as an inevitable consequence of the 
 abandonment by Congress of the industrial interests it is 
 their duty to nourish. Four years prolific of evil to the 
 material interests of our people were 1857, 1858, 1859, 
 1860. Never before was the investment of capital in busi- 
 ness less profitable, nor the wages of toil more meager. 
 For near fourteen years we have tested a tariff for revenue 
 only, and most expensive and bitter was the price the coun- 
 try paid for the experiment. Utter and universal bank- 
 ruptcy, both public and private, would have been our doom 
 had we not returned to the policy of protection. In 1861 
 the Morrill tariff became a law, and it was the beginning of 
 a series of protective enactments which are still in force. 
 The Morrill bill was reported to the House in March, 1860, 
 and passed that body in the following May. The work of 
 improvement began in anticipation of its assured final adop- 
 tion by Congress ; so that when it passed the Senate in Feb- 
 ruary, 1861, and received the approval of the President the 
 current of the new industrial life had already been set in 
 motion. No man at this day will assert that without this 
 ^policy the country could have sustained its energies during 
 the four years' desperate struggle, 1861 to 1865, or so, 
 speedily repaired the desolating effects of that contest after 
 its close.
 
 416 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 We may rest here with the reflection upon the preceding 
 array of facts that it ought to be sufficient to convince any 
 reasonable man of the inestimable value of a protective 
 tariff to see the enormous progress of all our productive in- 
 terests under its operation, and their rapid decline the mo- 
 ment it ceases to operate. Free trade advocates always 
 seek to evade this argument by attributing our prosperity 
 to other causes, but they only use the subterfuges of the 
 pettifogger. They suppose we forget that the protective 
 system was in operation in England for more than three hun- 
 dred years, and it was mainly to the success of that system 
 that British industries were indebted for the gigantic 
 strength which finally enabled them to endure the order of 
 comparative free trade. The same system is now building 
 up the vast internal resources of Russia, and rendering the 
 French Republic impregnably strong by reliance upon her 
 own internal development. What protection has thus done 
 for the industries of Europe, it is now doing for the indus- 
 tries of our own country. The question, therefore, is, 
 whether we shall have a tariff so governed and regulated as 
 to foster, encourage, and stimulate American production of 
 all kinds, or a tariff so adjusted as to protect foreign manu- 
 facturers against the competition of American capital, labor, 
 skill, and enterprise?
 
 '"*"- JllL&i 
 
 
 
 jf^"% 
 
 ; >T, ' "' "^
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 GEORGE \VASHINGTON. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON, first President of the United 
 States, was born in Westmoreland Co., Va., Feb. 22> 
 1732. He was the eldest of six children of Augustine and 
 Mary Washington, wealthy people for the time, who traced 
 the Washingtons from the early days of the Plantagenets, 
 when the De Wessyngtons did manorial service in the battle 
 and the chase for the military bishop of Durham. George 
 enjoyed slight educational advantages. When he lost his 
 father, in 1743, the good woman whose name will always 
 be associated with that of her distinguished son as " Mary, 
 the mother of Washington," took charge of his mental train- 
 ing, and laid the solid foundation of his future usefulness. 
 All the school instruction he received was complete before 
 he arrived at the age of sixteen. 
 
 But he learned surveying, military tactics, and other 
 useful branches of knowledge of whatever he essayed in a 
 masterly way. He served for a short period as a midship- 
 man in the British navy, and soon thereafter entered the 
 military service of the Colonies. 
 
 In 1750 rumors of imminent French and Indian aggres- 
 sions on the frontier began to engage attention, and prepara- 
 tions were made to resist the threatened attack. In 1751, 
 
 27 417
 
 418 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 when he was but nineteen, Washington was placed in charge 
 of a military district, with the rank of major. In 1753, 
 affairs on the frontier having become pressing, Governor 
 Dinwiddie selected him to bear a message to the French 
 commander, on the Ohio, remonstrating against the advanc- 
 ing occupation 
 of the territory. 
 This service 
 was full of dan- 
 ger, but it was 
 performed with 
 intrepidity and 
 address. There- 
 ply he brought 
 from the 
 Frenchman 
 confirmed the 
 growing im- 
 pressions of the 
 design of the 
 enemy, and mil- 
 itary prepara- 
 tions were made 
 
 with spirit. A Virginia regiment of three hundred men was 
 raised for frontier service, and Washington appointed its 
 lieutenant-colonel. Advancing with a portion of the com- 
 mand, he found that the French were in the field, and that 
 hostilities had actually begun. Watchful of their move- 
 ments, he fell in with a detachment under Jumonville, which 
 he put to flight, with the death of their leader. His supe- 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 419 
 
 rior officer having died on the march, the entire command 
 now fell upon Washington, who was soon joined by addi- 
 tional troops from South Carolina and New York. With 
 these he was on his way to attack Fort Du Quesne, when word 
 was brought of a very superior force of French and Indians 
 coming against him. This led him, in his unprepared con- 
 dition, to retrace his steps to Fort Necessity, at the Great 
 Meadows, where he received the attack. The fort was gal- 
 lantly defended, both within and without, Washington com- 
 manding in front, and it was not until serious loss had been 
 inflicted upon the assailants that it surrendered to superior 
 numbers. In the capitulation, the garrison was allowed to 
 return home with the honors of war. 
 
 We next find him upon the staff of General Braddock, 
 who, in 1755, marched from Virginia against Fort Du Quesne 
 with a force of royal troops and provincials. This army ad- 
 vanced without regard to the danger to be apprehended 
 from the savages, and although Washington warned the gen- 
 eral of the necessity for watchfulness, it did no good. 
 When they were within ten miles of the fort, on the 9th of 
 July, they were ambushed by the French and Indians, and 
 routed with terrible slaughter. Braddock was mortally 
 wounded, and died a few days later. In 1758 another ex- 
 pedition was planned to capture Fort Du Quesne, and this 
 time it was successful. Washington with his Virginians 
 traversed the ground whitened by the bones of his former 
 comrades in Braddock's disastrous march, and with his entry 
 of the fort closed the French dominion on the Ohio. 
 
 In January, 1759, Washington married Mrs. Martha 
 Custis, of the White House, county of New Kent. This
 
 420 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 lady, born in the same year with himself, and in the full 
 bloom of youthful womanhood at twenty-seven, was the 
 widow of a wealthy landed proprietor, whose death had oc- 
 curred three years before. Her maiden name was Dandridge ; 
 she was of Welsh descent ; % and the prudence and gravity 
 of her disposition eminently fitted her to be the wife of 
 Washington. She was her husband's executrix, and man- 
 aged the estates he left, involving the raising of crops and 
 their sale in Europe, with ability. Her personal charms 
 are greatly praised. The well-known portrait, by Woolaston, 
 painted at this period, presents a neat, animated figure, with 
 regular features, dark, chestnut hair, and hazel eyes, in a 
 dress, which, the style having changed frequently in the in- 
 terval, the whirligig of fashion restored a few years ago, 
 and it is even now, 1884, considerably worn. The wedding 
 was attended with great eclat, at the bride's estate at (he 
 White House, and the honeymoon was the inauguration of a 
 new and pacific era of Washington's hitherto troubled mili- 
 tary life. 
 
 But his state of repose proved the introduction to new 
 public duties. He was elected a member of the House of 
 Burgesses, and took his seat shortly after his marriage. 
 Upon this occasion an incident occurred which has been fre- 
 quently narrated. The Speaker, having been directed by a 
 vote of the House to return thanks to him for his eminent 
 military services, at once performed the duty with warmth 
 and eloquence. Washington rose to reply, but became too 
 embarrassed to utter a syllable. " Sit down, Mr. Wash- 
 ington," was the courteous expression of the gentleman 
 who had addressed him; "your modesty equals your
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 421 
 
 valor, and that surpasses the power of any language I 
 possess." 
 
 He continued a member of this House, diligently attend- 
 ing to its business till he was called to the work of the 
 Revolution, in this way adding familiarity with the practi- 
 cal duties of a legislator and statesman to his experiences in 
 war. He was constantly present at the debates, it having 
 been a maxim with him through life, as his biographer, Mr. 
 Sparks, observes, "to execute punctually and thoroughly 
 every charge which he undertook." 
 
 Incidentally, some of the seeds of the Revolution were 
 sown in the contest with France. There and then America 
 became acquainted with her own powers, and learned to esti- 
 mate the strength and weakness of British soldiers and 
 placemen. To no one had the lesson been more thoroughly 
 taught than to Washington. By no one was it studied 
 with more attention. There was no faction in his opposition. 
 The traditions of his family, his friends, the provinces, were 
 all in favor of allegiance to the British Government. He 
 had nothing in his composition of a disorganizing character, 
 nothing in common with the mere political agitator, the 
 breeder of discontent. The interests of his large landed es- 
 tates, and a revenue dependent upon exports, bound him to 
 the British nation. But there was one principle in his 
 nature stronger in its influence than all these material ties 
 love of justice ; and when Patrick Henry rose in the House 
 of Burgesses with his eloquent assertion of the rights of the 
 colony in the matter of taxation, Washington was there, and 
 heartily responded to the sentiment. 
 
 To this memorable occasion, May 29, 1765, has been
 
 422 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 referred the birth of that patriotic fervor in the mind of 
 Washington, welcoming as it was developed a new order of 
 things, which never rested till the liberties of the country 
 were established upon the firm foundations of independence 
 and civil order. From the beginning, he was an earnest 
 supporter of the constitutional liberties of the country, and 
 met every fresh aggression of Parliament as it arose in the 
 most resolute manner. He took part in the local Virginia 
 resolutions, and on the meeting of the first Congress in Phila- 
 delphia went up to that honored body with Patrick Henry 
 and Edmund Pendleton. 
 
 The second Continental Congress, of which Washington 
 was also a member, met at Philadelphia in May, 1775, its 
 members gathering to deliberate with the musketry at Lex- 
 ington ringing in their ears. The overtures of war by the 
 British troops in Massachusetts had gathered a little provin- 
 cial army about Boston. National organization was a measure 
 no longer of choice, but of necessity. A commander-in- 
 chief was to be appointed ; and though the selection was not 
 altogether free from local jealousies, the superior merit of 
 Washington was seconded by the patriotism of Congress, and 
 on June 15th he was unanimously elected to the high position. 
 His modesty in accepting the office was as noticeable as his 
 fitness for it. He was not the man to flinch from any duty 
 because of the hazard; but it is worth knowing, that we 
 may form a due estimate of his character, that he felt to 
 the quick the full force of the sacrifices of ease and happi- 
 ness he was making, and the new difficulties he was inevitably 
 to encounter. He was so impressed with the probabilities 
 of failure, and so little disposed to vaunt his own powers,
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 423 
 
 that he begged gentlemen of the House to remember, " lest 
 some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to his repu- 
 tation," that he thought himself, with the utmost sincerity, 
 unequal to the command he was honored with. He declared 
 his intention, with a manly spirit of patriotic independence 
 worthy the highest eulogy, to keep an exact account of his 
 public expenses, accept nothing more for his services a 
 resolution which was faithfully kept. 
 
 He took command of the army at Cambridge on the 
 third of July. Bunker Hill had been fought, establishing 
 the valor of the native militia, and the- investment of Boston 
 was already begun, though with inadequate forces. There 
 was excellent individual material in the men, but every thing 
 was yet to be done for their organization and equipment. 
 Above all, there was absolute want of gunpowder. It was 
 impossible to make any serious attempt upon the British, 
 but the utmost heroism was shown in cutting oif their resour- 
 ces and hemming them in. Humble as were these inefficient 
 means in the present, the prospect of the future was darkened 
 by the short enlistments of the army, which were made for 
 only the year, Congress expecting in that time a favorable 
 answer to their second petition to the king. The new 
 recruits came in slowly, and means were feebly supplied, but 
 Washington determined upon an attack. For this purpose 
 he fortified Dorchester Height. The British made an attempt 
 to dislodge him, which was interrupted by a storm ; and 
 General Howe, having already resolved to evacuate the city, 
 a few days after ingloriously sailed away with his troops to 
 Halifax. The next day, March 18, 1776, Washington entered 
 the town in triumph. Thus ended the chapter of his Revo-
 
 424 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 lutionary campaign. There had been little opportunity for 
 brilliant action, but great difficulties had been overcome and 
 substantial benefits gained. 
 
 New York was evidently to be the next point of attack 
 by the British, and thither Washington gathered his forces 
 and adopted every available means of defense on land. By 
 the beginning of July, when the Declaration of Independence 
 was received in camp, General Howe had made his appear- 
 ance in the lower bay of New York, from Halifax, where 
 he was speedily joined by his brother, Lord Howe, the ad- 
 miral, who came with propositions for reconciliation. The 
 substance of his overtures was incorporated in a letter ad- 
 dressed, " George Washington, Esq.," and sent by a mes- 
 senger ; but Washington, divining the nature of the communi- 
 cation, and knowing it ought to be addressed to him in his 
 official capacity, if at all, declined to receive it. Another 
 messenger was sent with the letter addressed to General 
 Washington, but even the "General" would not have it. 
 The British adjutant, however, verbally reported the contents 
 of the epistle, to which Washington replied, that it related 
 wholly to pardons, and the Americans, who had committed 
 no offense, but stood only upon their rights, were in no need 
 of clemency from the mother country. Thus terminated the 
 interview. 
 
 Re-enforcements to the royal troops on Staten Island 
 soon arrived from England. They made a landing on Long 
 Island, and a battle was imminent. It occurred on the 27th 
 of August, and was disastrous to the American arms. 
 The slaughter was great. Still the main works occupied 
 by the American troops at Brooklyn remained as they were,
 
 LIVES OF THE f> RESIDENTS.. 425 
 
 though no longer tenable, exposed to the enemy's fleet. 
 But the day after the battle, and the next, were passed 
 without any decisive movements on the part of the 
 British, who weje about bringing up their ships, and who 
 doubtless, as they had good reason, considered their prey 
 secure. On the twenty-ninth, Washington took his meas- 
 ures for retreat, and so perfectly were they arranged that 
 the whole force of nine thousand, with artillery, horses, and 
 the entire equipage of war, were borne off that night, under 
 cover of the fog, to the opposite shore in triumph. It was 
 a most masterly maneuver, planned and superintended by 
 Washington from the beginning. He did not sleep or rest 
 after the battle till it was executed, and was among the last 
 to cross. 
 
 After this followed in rapid succession, though with no 
 undue haste, the abandonment of New York, the withdrawal 
 of troops into Westchester, the affair at White Plains, the 
 more serious loss of Fort Washington, and the retreat 
 through the Jerseys. It was the darkest period of the 
 war the days of which Paine wrote in the opening num- 
 ber of his " Crisis : " " These are the times that try men's 
 souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, 
 in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country ; but he 
 that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man 
 and woman." 
 
 After the battle of Long Island, there had been little 
 but weariness and disaster in the movements of Washington 
 to the end of the year, when, as the forces of Howe were 
 apparently closing in upon him to open the route to Phila- 
 delphia, he turned in very despair, and by the brilliant affair
 
 426 THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 at Trenton retarded the motions of the enemy and checked 
 the growing despondency of his countrymen. It was well- 
 planned and courageously undertaken. Christmas night, of 
 a most inclement season, when the river was blocked with 
 ice, was chosen to cross the Delaware, and attack the British 
 and Hessians on the opposite side. The expedition was led 
 by Washington in person, who anxiously watched the slow 
 process of transportation on the river, which lasted from 
 sunset till near dawn too long for the contemplated sur- 
 prise by night. A storm of hail and snow now set in, as 
 the general advanced with his men, reaching the outposts 
 about 8 o'clock. A 1 gallant onset was made, in which Lieu- 
 tenant James Monroe, afterward President, was wounded. 
 Sullivan and the other officers, according to a previously ar- 
 ranged plan, seconded the movement from another part of 
 the town ; the Hessians were disconcerted, and their gen- 
 eral, Rahl, slain, when a surrender was made, nearly a thou- 
 sand prisoners laying down their arms. General Howe, 
 astounded at the event, sent out Cornwallis in pursuit, and 
 he had his game seemingly secure when Washington, in 
 front of him at Trenton, on the same side of the Delaware, 
 made a bold diversion in an attack upon the forces left be- 
 hind at Princeton. It was conducted at night, and, like the 
 other, attended by success, though it cost the life of the 
 gallant Mercer. After these brilliant actions the little army 
 went into winter quarters at Morristown. 
 
 The next spring and summer were marked by no strik- 
 ing events except the withdrawal of the British troops 
 from the Delaware ; the advance of Burgoyne from Canada ; 
 the embarkation of General Howe for the purpose of mak-
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 427 
 
 ing his way up the Chesapeake to gain access to Philadel- 
 phia from Maryland ; the arrival of Marquis de Lafayette as 
 a volunteer in the cause of liberty ; and the battle of Chad's 
 Ford, on the east side of the Brandywine. A stand was 
 made at this point, to which Knyphausen was opposed on 
 the opposite bank, while Cornwallis, with a large division, 
 took the upper course of the river and turned the flank of 
 the position. A rout ensued, but the utter defeat of the 
 Americans was saved by General Greene, who was placed at 
 an advantageous point. Lafayette was severly wounded. 
 Washington was not dismayed ; on the contrary, he kept the 
 field, marshaling and maneuvering through a hostile coun- 
 try one thousand of his troops, as he informed Congress, 
 actually barefoot. He would have offered battle, but was 
 without the means to resist effectively the occupation of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Thus closed the campaign of 1777 in Pennsylvania, 
 while Burgoyne was laying down his arms to the northern 
 army at Saratoga. The encampment at Valley Forge suc- 
 ceeded the scenes we have described. It is a name synony- 
 mous with suffering. Half clad, wanting frequently the 
 simplest clothing, without shoes or blankets, the army was 
 hutted in the snows and ice of the inclement winter. With 
 the return of summer came the evacuation of Philadelphia 
 by the British, who pursued their route across New Jersey 
 to embark upon the waters of New York. On the 28th of 
 June, 1778, they were attacked by Washington's forces at 
 Monmouth Court House, and defeated with some loss. The 
 remainder of the season was passed by the American army 
 on the eastern borders of the Hudson, in readiness to co-
 
 428 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 operate with the French, who had now arrived under D'Es- 
 taing, and in watching the British in New York. 
 
 The event of the next year in the little army of Wash- 
 ington, was the gallant storming of Stony Point by General 
 Wayne. This was one of the defenses of the Highlands, on 
 the Hudson, which had just before been captured and 
 manned by Sir Henry Clinton. General Henry Lee's 
 spirited attack on Paulus Hook, within sight of New York, 
 followed, to cheer the encampment of Washington, who now 
 busied himself in fortifying West Point. Winter found 
 our army again quartered in New Jersey, this time at Mor- 
 ristown, where the hardships and severities of Valley Forge 
 were even exceeded in the distressed condition of the troops 
 in that rigorous season. 
 
 The most prominent event of the year 1780, in the per- 
 sonal career of Washington, was the defection of Arnold, 
 with its attendant execution of Andre. We may not pause 
 over the subsequent events of the war, the renewed exer- 
 tions of Congress, the severe contests in the South, the 
 meditated movement upon New York in the following year, 
 but hasten to the sequel at Yorktown. The movement of 
 the army of Washington to Virginia was determined by the 
 expected arrival of the French fleet in that quarter from the 
 West Indies. Cornwallis had arrived from the South, and 
 was entrenching himself on York River. Washington, who 
 had been planning an attack upon New York with Rocham- 
 beau, now suddenly and secretly directed his forces by a 
 rapid march southward. Extraordinary exertions were 
 made to expedite the troops. The timely arrival of Colonel 
 Lawrens, from France, with an installment of the French
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. ^ 429 
 
 loan in specie, came to the aid of the liberal efforts of the 
 financier of the Revolution, Robert Morris. Lafayette, with 
 the Virginians, was hedging in the fated Cornwallis. Wash- 
 ington had just left Philadelphia, when he heard the joyous 
 news of the arrival of DeGrasse in the Chesapeake. The 
 combined French and American forces closed in upon York- 
 town, which was fortified by redoubts and batteries, and on 
 the first of October the place was completely invested. The 
 first parallel was opened on the sixth. On the ninth Wash- 
 ington lighted the first gun. The storming of two annoying 
 redoubts by French and American parties was set down for 
 the night of the fourteenth. Hamilton, at the head of the 
 latter, gallantly carried one of the works at the point of the 
 bayonet without firing a gun. The redoubts gained were 
 fortified and turned against the town. The second parallel 
 was ready to open its fire. Cornwallis vainly attempted to 
 escape with his forces across the river. He received no re- 
 lief from Sir Henry Clinton, at New York, and on the 17th 
 he propbsed a surrender. On the 19th, the terms having 
 been dictated by Washington, the whole British force laid 
 down their arms. It was the virtual termination of the war; 
 the crowning act of a vast series of military operations 
 planned and perfected by the genius of Washington. 
 
 During the remainder of the war his efforts and vigilance 
 were not relaxed. The news of peace arrived in the early 
 summer of 1783, and the army prepared to separate. In 
 memory of their fraternity the Society of the Cincinnati 
 was founded, consisting of officers of the Revolution and 
 their descendants, with Washington at their head. In the 
 beginning of November he took leave of the army in an ad-
 
 430 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 dress from head-quarters, with his accustomed warmth and 
 emotion, and on the 25th entered New York at the head of 
 a military and civic procession, as the British evacuated the 
 city. On the 4th December he was escorted to the harbor, 
 on his way to Congress to resign his command, after a touch- 
 , ing scene of farewell with his officers, when the great heart 
 did not disdain the sensibility of a tear and the kiss of his 
 friends. On the 23d of the month he restored his commis- 
 sion to Congress, with a few remarks of great felicity, in 
 which he commended "the interests of our dearest country 
 to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the 
 superintendence of them to his holy keeping." 
 
 In 1787 he was placed at the head of the convention 
 which gave a government to the scattered States and made 
 this country a Nation; and soon thereafter he was again 
 called to listen to the highest demands of his country in his 
 unanimous election to the Presidency. With what emotions, 
 with what humble resignation to the voice of duty, with 
 how little fluttering of vainglory, let the modest entry in 
 his diary of April 16, 1789, cited by Washington Irving, tes- 
 tify : "About ten o'clock," he writes, "I bade adieu to 
 Mount Vernon, to private life and to domestic felicity; and 
 with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sen- 
 sations than I have words to express, set out for New York 
 with the best disposition to render service to my country in 
 obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its ex- 
 pectations." His inauguration took place on the 30th of 
 April. His administration is noted for the perfection of 
 plans for a republican government. In September an act 
 was passed by Congress, providing for a department of
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 431 
 
 foreign affairs, a treasury department, and a department of 
 war. Jefferson was made secretary of the first, Knox of 
 the second, Hamilton of the third. A supreme court was 
 also organized, John Jay receiving the appointment of first 
 chief-justice. Edmund Randolph was chosen attorney-gen- 
 eral. On 29th September, 1789, Congress adjourned till 
 the following January, and Washington- availed himself of 
 the interval to make a tour of the Eastern States. He was 
 everywhere greeted with the most enthusiastic receptions, 
 and returned to New York greatly improved in health. 
 
 The indebtedness of the United States at this time was 
 eighty millions ; and for a while raised some threatening 
 questions. The genius of Hamilton, however, triumphed 
 over every difficulty. Through his advice a duty was laid on 
 the tonnage of merchant ships, with discrimination in favor 
 of American vessels ; and imports were levied upon all goods 
 from abroad. These schemes were violently opposed by 
 quite an array or doctrinaires, but Hamilton's policy was 
 happily sustained and the credit of the government soon 
 firmly established. In 1791, Vermont came into the Union 
 as the fourteenth State, and in 1792 Kentucky was admitted. 
 At the presidential election held in the autumn of 1792 
 Washington was again unanimously elected, and John Adams 
 was elected Vice-president. 
 
 Our relations with foreign governments were considerably 
 excited during Washington's second administration. The 
 French Revolution of 1789 was still running its riotous 
 course. The king had been murdered. Citizen Genet was 
 sent as minister to the United States by the new republic. 
 On his arrival at Charleston, and on his way to Philadelphia
 
 432 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 he was greeted enthusiastically, and taking advantage of 
 these evidences of popularity, he soon began to abuse his 
 authority, fitted out privateers to prey upon the commerce 
 of Great Britain, planned expeditions against Louisiana, and, 
 although the President had already issued a proclamation 
 of neutrality, demanded an alliance with the government. 
 Washington and his cabinet firmly refused, and the audacious 
 minister threatened to appeal to the people. In this out- 
 rageous conduct he was sustained and encouraged by the 
 anti-Federal party. But Washington was unmoved, declared 
 the conduct of the French minister an insult to the United 
 States, and demanded his recall. The authorities of France 
 heeded the demand, and Genet was superseded by Citizen 
 Fouchet. 
 
 At about this time there was trouble in the cabinet. 
 Hamilton's financial measures were attacked with vehement 
 animosity by Jefferson ; and the policy of Jefferson, in his 
 relations and duties as secretary of foreign affairs, furnished 
 the occasion for much bitter criticism from Hamilton's 
 glittering pen. Both these officers were patriots, and both 
 had insisted upon Washington's re-election to the Presidency. 
 But in 1794, Jefferson resigned his office and retired to the 
 privacy of Monticello. A year later Hamilton also retired 
 from the cabinet, and was succeeded by Oliver Wolcott, of 
 Connecticut. In 1793 a series of dastardly outrages were 
 committed upon the commerce of the United States by 
 Great Britain. George III had issued secret instructions 
 to British privateers to seize all neutral vessels that might 
 be found trading in the French West Indies. Our govern- 
 ment received no notice of this measure ; and American
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 433 
 
 commerce to the value of many millions was swept from the 
 sea by a process equal to highway robbery. War seemed 
 imminent, but prudence prevailed over passion, and in May, 
 1794, Chief-justice Jay was sent as envoy extraordinary 
 to demand redress of the British Government. Contrary to 
 expectation, his mission was successful, and in the follow- 
 ing November an honorable treaty was concluded. It was 
 specified in this treaty that Great Britain should make ample 
 reparation for the injuries done by her privateers, and sur- 
 render to the United States certain Western posts which 
 until now had been held by English garrisons. 
 
 The boundary between the United States and Louisiana 
 was settled by a treaty with Spain in 1795. Tennessee, the 
 third new State, was organized and admitted into the Union 
 in 1796. These were among the last acts of Washington's 
 administration. The time had arrived when his views were 
 not cordially supported by Congress, and he longed for the 
 retirement to private life ; but so long as he occupied the 
 presidential chair he proved to be stronger than Congress. 
 So strong were the President's views in determining the action 
 of the people, that Jefferson, writing to Monroe, at Paris, 
 said : " Congress has adjourned. You will see by their pro- 
 ceedings the truth of what I always told you, namely, that 
 one man outweighs them all in influence over the people, 
 who support his judgment against their own and that of 
 their representatives. Republicanism resigns the vessel to 
 the pilot." 
 
 He was solicited to accept the presidential office for a 
 third term, but firmly declined. Yet he parted fondly with 
 the Nation, and like a parent, desired to leave some legacy of 
 
 28
 
 434 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 counsel to the offspring of liberty. Accordingly he published 
 in September, 1796, in the Daily Advertiser at Philadelphia, 
 the paper known as his Farewell Address to the People of 
 the United States. It had long engaged his attention. He 
 planned it himself, and, careful of what he felt might be 
 used as a political landmark for ages, consulted Jay, Madison, 
 and Hamilton in its composition. The spirit and sentiment, 
 the political wisdom and patriotic fervor, are every whit his 
 own, and the production will always remain a valuable legacy 
 to the American freeman. 
 
 After Washington's retirement to Mount Vernon, new 
 complications with France were threatened. Active hostili- 
 ties were anticipated. The President looked to Washington 
 to organize the army and take command, should it be brought 
 into action, and he busied himself with the necessary prepa- 
 rations. He thought it best to be prepared for the emer- 
 gency. Fresh negotiations for settlement of the dispute 
 were opened, but he did not live to witness their pacific re- 
 sults. On the 12th of December, 1799, he was prostrated 
 by exposure to a heavy storm, and died on the 14th. His 
 remains were buried at Mount Vernon, and there the remains 
 of his beloved wife, who died 22d May, 1802, are also de- 
 posited. Those who imitate his virtues and heed his coun- 
 sels will conceive for the Union of these States " a cordial, 
 habitual, and immovable attachment," and entitle themselves 
 to the confidence and approval of good men everywhere.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 435 
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
 JOHN ADAMS, second President of the United States, 
 was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, October 19, 1735. 
 He graduated from Harvard College at the age of twenty, 
 and immediately occupied the position of Latin master in the 
 grammar school 
 at Worcester. 
 While teaching 
 school he found 
 time to read law 
 with an attorney 
 at Worcester, and 
 in 1758 he was 
 formally ad- 
 mitted to the bar 
 as attorney-at- 
 law in his maj- 
 esty's courts of 
 the province. In 
 1764 he married 
 Abigail, daughter 
 of Rev. William 
 Smith, of Wey- 
 mouth, and granddaughter of Colonel John Quincy, of Mt. 
 Wollaston, of colonial fame. 
 
 Adams began his political career by offering public reso- 
 lutions at Braintree, and maintaining an argument in behalf 
 of the town of Boston, addressed to the Colonial Govern- 
 
 JOHN ADAMS.
 
 436 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 ment in opposition to the Stamp Act. He published, at 
 about the same date, several papers in the Boston Gazette, 
 which were reprinted in London by Thomas Hollis, who 
 gave them the unfortunate title, "A Dissertation on the 
 Canon and the Feudal Law," which has probably prevented 
 many persons looking at the tract who would be interested 
 in its review of the principles of the New England settle- 
 ments and its vigorous appeal to the people in the then ex- 
 isting struggle. Shortly thereafter he was elected to the 
 General Court, as the legislative body was then called in 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1774 he was appointed by the General Court one of 
 the representatives to the Congress at Philadelphia, his as- 
 sociates being Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, and Robert 
 Treat Paine. The business of Congress at once engaged his 
 attention, and a session full of work was experienced, if not 
 enjoyed. Returning to Massachusetts after the performance 
 of these duties, he was chosen to the Provincial Congress, 
 already quite busy with revolt. Three weeks after the bat- 
 tle of Lexington he was at Philadelphia, in attendance upon 
 the Second Congress. Early upon the assembling of that 
 body he proposed Washington for commander-in-chief ; "the 
 modest, the virtuous, the amiable, generous, and brave," as 
 he called him in a letter to his wife. 
 
 During the session, Adams was diligently employed in 
 the preparatory measures which led to the Declaration of 
 Independence. July 3, 1776, on the passage of Lee's reso- 
 lution of independence, he wrote to his wife as follows : 
 "Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever 
 was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 437 
 
 nor will be decided among men. The second day of July, 
 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of 
 America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by 
 succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It 
 ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by 
 solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be 
 solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, 
 sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end 
 of this continent to the other, from this time forward, 
 for ever more." 
 
 Adams was on the committee to prepare the declaration, 
 and was active in the debate. In the absence of the pres- 
 ent system of executive duties of government, the old Con- 
 gress was compelled to resort to the awkward expedient of 
 boards, in which the honor and efficiency, rather than the 
 toil, were diminished by the division of labor. Adams was 
 made chairman of the Board of War, and was much em- 
 ployed in military affairs till his departure from Congress at 
 the close of the next year. 
 
 Having become dissatisfied with the management of 
 Silas Dean in France, Congress, in 1777, appointed Adams 
 in his place. He remained abroad only eighteen months, 
 and was recalled at his own request. He arrived at Boston 
 on the second of August, 1779, and within a week from that 
 date was elected by his fellow-citizens of Braintree their 
 delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts. 
 Before this duty was complete, he was again sent abroad to 
 negotiate treaties of peace and alliance with foreign nations, 
 at which he was employed for several years, and in 1785 he 
 was appointed the first American minister to England.
 
 438 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 In the spring of 1788 he returned to America. It was 
 the period of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and 
 when that instrument went fully into effect it was found 
 that Adams had been chosen Vice-president, he having re- 
 ceived the greatest number of votes of the electors, next to 
 Washington. He held this office during both terms of 
 Washington's administration, and gave active and often im- 
 portant assistance and support to the President. 
 
 In 1797 he succeeded to the Presidency, by a vote of 
 seventy-one over sixty-eight for Jefferson. He found the 
 country in imminent danger of a conflict with France, but 
 the difficulty was peacefully settled. His administration is 
 noted by the fact that under it the celebrated alien and se- 
 dition laws were enacted. His Presidency closed with a 
 single term and the obstinate struggle which resulted in the 
 election of Jefferson. In his retirement at Quincy he was 
 full of activity, writing for the press and reviving for pos- 
 terity past scenes of the history in which he was a part in 
 an autobiographical memoir. 
 
 In 1818, when he was in his eighty-third year, his wife, 
 one of the mothers of America, full of the sweetest and 
 grandest memories of the past, was taken from him. His 
 last public service was an occasional attendance at the con- 
 vention for the formation of a new Constitution for Massa- 
 chusetts, he then being eighty-five. Returning to thoughts 
 of early friendship, he corresponded with Jefferson. The 
 two venerable fathers of the Republic, Jefferson at the age 
 of eighty-three, John Adams at ninety, died simultaneously 
 upon the fiftieth anniversary of the Nation's birth, July 4, 
 1826. A few days before his death, the orator of his native
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 439 
 
 town called upon Adams for a toast to be presented at the 
 ensuing anniversary. " Independence forever !" was the re- 
 ply. As the sentiment was delivered at the banquet amid 
 ringing plaudits," the soul of the dying patriot was passing 
 from earth to eternity. - 
 
 THOMAS JEKKERSOK. 
 
 1 ^HOMAS JEFFERSON, third President of the United 
 States, was born at Shadwell, Virginia, April 2, 1743. 
 He had good private tutors during childhood and youth, and 
 in 1760 entered William and Mary College. Here he re- 
 mained but two years, but his education was happily con- 
 tinued in his immediate entrance upon the study of the law 
 with George Wythe, the eminent chancellor of Virginia in 
 after days. 
 
 In 1767 he was introduced to the bar of the General 
 Court of Virginia, and immediately entered upon a success- 
 ful career of practice, interrupted only by the Revolution. 
 He was a well-trained, skilful lawyer, an adept in the cas- 
 uisty of legal questions. He was more distinguished, how- 
 ever, for ability in argument than for power as an orator. 
 
 His first entrance upon political life was in 1769, when 
 he was sent from the county of Albemarle to the House of 
 Burgesses. It was at the entrance upon a troublous time 
 in the consideration of national grievances, and we find him 
 engaged at once in preparing the resolutions and address to 
 the governor's message. The House, in reply to recent 
 declarations of Parliament, reasserted the American princi-
 
 440 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 pies of taxation and petition, and other questions in jeop- 
 ardy, and in consequence was promptly dissolved by Lord 
 Botetourt. Next day the members, George Washington 
 among them, met at the Raleigh tavern and pledged them- 
 selves to a non-importation agreement. 
 
 Next year, after the conflagration of the house at Shad- 
 well, he took up his residence at the adjacent " Monticello," 
 
 also upon his pa- 
 ternal grounds, in 
 a portion of the 
 edifice so famous 
 afterwards as the 
 dwelling-place of 
 his maturer years. 
 In 1772, on New- 
 Year's Day, he 
 assumed the re- 
 sponsibilities of 
 domestic life in 
 marriage with 
 Mrs. Martha Skel- 
 ton, a widow of 
 twenty-three, of 
 THOMAS JEFFFRSON. much beauty, ex- 
 
 tensive general culture, and many winning accomplishments. 
 Political affairs were soon calling for additional legisla- 
 tive attention. The renewed claim of the British to send 
 persons for State offenses to England, brought forward in 
 Rhode Island, awakened a strong feeling of resistance among 
 the Virginia delegates. A portion of them, including Jef-
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 441 
 
 ferson, met at the Raleigh tavern and drew up resolutions 
 ' creating a committee of correspondence to watch the pro- 
 ceedings of Parliament and keep up communication with the 
 colonies. These resolutions passed the Burgesses, and a 
 committee, all notable men of the Revolution, was appointed. 
 It included Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick 
 Henry, and others, ending with Jefferson. Then the Earl 
 of Dunmore, following the example of his predecessor, dis- 
 solved the House. 
 
 Next year the new Legislature met, and roused by the 
 passage of the Boston Port Bill, a few members, says Jef- 
 ferson, including Henry and himself, resolved to place the 
 Assembly "in line with Massachusetts." 
 
 The expedient they hit upon was a fast day, which, by 
 the help of some Puritan precedents they "cooked up" and 
 placed in the hands of a grave member to lay before the 
 House. It was passed, and the governor, as usual, dissolved 
 the assembly. The fast was appointed for the first of June, 
 the day on which the obnoxious bill was to take effect, and 
 there was certainly one man in Virginia who kept it. We 
 may read in the diary of George Washington of that date, 
 "Went to Church and fasted all day." 
 
 The dissolved assembly again met at the Raleigh and 
 decided upon a convention, to be elected by the people of 
 the several counties, and held at Williamsburg, so that two 
 bodies had to be chosen, one to assemble in the new House 
 of Burgesses, the other beyond reach of government con- 
 trol. The same members, those of the previous House, 
 were sent for both. Jefferson again represented the free- 
 holders of Albemarle. The instructions which the county
 
 442 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 gave, supposed from his pen, assert the independence of 
 the Colonial Legislature as the sole fount of authority in 
 new laws. 
 
 The Williamsburg convention met and appointed dele- 
 gates to the first general Congress. Jefferson was detained 
 from the assembly by illness, but he forwarded a draft 
 of instructions for the delegates, which was not adopted, 
 but ordered printed by the members. It bore the title, "A 
 Summary View of the Rights of British America." It 
 reached England, was taken up by the opposition, and, with 
 some interpolations from Burke, passed through several edi- 
 tions. Though in advance of the judgment of the people, 
 who were slow in coming up to the true principles of the 
 great reform, the "view" undoubtedly assisted that judg- 
 ment. But so slow was the progress of opinion at the out- 
 set that, at the moment when this paper was written, only 
 a few leaders, such as Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, 
 were capable of appreciating it. The country was not yet 
 ready to receive its virtual declaration of independence. 
 
 The Congress of 1774 met, but adopted milder forms of 
 petition, better adapted to the moderation of their senti- 
 ments. Meanwhile committees of safety were organized in 
 Virginia, and Jefferson headed the list in his county. He 
 also attended the second Virginia convention at Richmond, 
 and listened to Patrick Henry's impassioned appeal to the 
 God of battles, " I repeat it, sir, we must fight !" The as- 
 sembly adopted the view, and set about preparing means of 
 defense. Delegates to the first Congress were elected to 
 the second, and it was understood that in case Peyton Ran- 
 dolph should be called to preside over the House of Bur-
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 443 
 
 gesses, Thomas Jefferson was to be his successor at Phila- 
 delphia. The House met. Randolph was elected and Jeffer- 
 son departed to fill his place, bearing with him to Congress 
 the spirited resolutions of the assembly, which he had 
 written and driven through in reply to the conciliatory 
 propositions of Lord North. It was a characteristic intro- 
 duction, immediately followed by his appointment on the 
 committee charged to prepare a declaration of the causes of 
 taking up arms, Congress' having just chosen Washington 
 commander-in-chief of a national army. 
 
 June 11, 1776, a committee was appointed in Congress 
 to prepare a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson took 
 the place of Richard Henry Lee on the committee, with 
 John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and 
 Robert R. Livingston. The preparation of the instrument 
 was intrusted to Jefferson. "The committee desired me to 
 do it; it was accordingly done," says his autobiography. 
 The dr*aft thus prepared, with a few verbal corrections from 
 Franklin and Adams, was submitted to the House June 
 28th. On July 2d it was taken up in debate, and earnestly 
 battled for three days, when, on the afternoon of the ever- 
 memorable Fourth, it was finally reported, agreed to, and 
 signed. The paper stands substantially as first reported by 
 Jefferson. It is intimately related to his previous resolu- 
 tions and reports in Virginia and the Congress, and what- 
 ever merit may attach to the composition belongs to him. 
 
 He was elected to the next Congress, but pleading the 
 state of his family affairs, and desirous to take part in the 
 formative measures of government then arising in Virginia, 
 he was permitted to resign. He declined also, immediately
 
 444 THE VOTERS' HANDBOOK. 
 
 after, an appointment by Congress, as fellow-minister to 
 France with Dr. Franklin. In the following October he 
 took his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, and com- 
 menced those efforts of reform with which his name will 
 always be identified, and which did not end till the social 
 condition of his State was thoroughly revolutionized. His 
 first great blow was a bill abolishing entails, which, with 
 one subsequently brought in, cutting off the right of primo- 
 geniture, leveled the great landed aristocracy which had 
 therebefore governed in the country. He was also, at about 
 the time of the passing of these acts, created one of the 
 committee for the general revision of the laws, his active 
 associates being Edmund Pendleton and George Wythe. 
 This vast work was not completed till June, 1779 an in- 
 terval of more than two years. Among the one hundred 
 and sixteen new bills reported, was one by Jefferson estab- 
 lishing religious freedom which abolished tithes, and left 
 all men free "to profess, and by argument to maintain their 
 opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in 
 nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." A 
 concurrent act provided for the preservation of the glebe 
 lands to Church members. 
 
 He proposed a system of free common school education, 
 a method of re-organization for William and Mary College, 
 and provision for a free State library. 
 
 In 1779 Mr. Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as gov- 
 ernor of Virginia, falling upon a period of administration re- 
 quiring military defense of the State less suited to his 
 talents than the reforming legislation in which he had been 
 recently engaged. His wife died in September, 1782. Her
 
 LIVES OF TEE PRESIDENTS. 445 
 
 illness had prevented his acceptance of an appointment in 
 Europe, to negotiate terms of peace. A similar office was 
 now tendered him the third proffer of the kind by Con- 
 gress and, looking upon it as a relief to his distracted 
 mind, as well as a duty to the State, he accepted. Before 
 preparations for his departure were completed, intelligence 
 was received of the progress of peace negotiations, and the 
 voyage was abandoned. 
 
 November, 1783, he was returned to Congress, where 
 one of his first duties the following month was as chairman 
 of the committee of arrangements for the reception of Wash- 
 ington on his resignation of command. In 1784 we find him 
 making his mark in the debates upon the ratification of the 
 treaty of peace. In his suggestions upon the establishment 
 of a money unit and a national coinage, which were subse- 
 quently adopted, he gave us the decimal system and the 
 denomination of a cent ; the cession of the Northwestern 
 Territory by Virginia, with his report for its government, 
 proposing names for its new States, and the exclusion of 
 slavery after the year 1800 ; and taking an active part in 
 the arrangement of commercial treaties with foreign nations. 
 In the latter he was destined to be an actor as well as de- 
 signer, for Congress, on 7th May, appointed him to act in 
 Europe with Adams and Franklin in the accomplishment of 
 these negotiations. 
 
 In the summer of 1785 Dr. Franklin resigned from the 
 French embassy, and Jefferson remained in Paris as his suc- 
 cessor. Returning to the United States in 1789, President 
 Washington appointed him Secretary of State, which posi- 
 tion he filled with honor till 1793, performing noble work.
 
 446 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Four years he remained in retirement at Monticello, and in 
 1797, upon the election of John Adams, reappeared upon 
 the political stage as Vice-president. The storm of party 
 began under Adams, and one of its results was the election 
 of Jefferson to the Presidency in 1800. 
 
 Among the earlier of his measures, and the most im- 
 portant during his eight years as Chief Magistrate, was the 
 acquisition of Louisiana by purchase from France. From 
 the first moment of learning that this territory was passing 
 from Spain to France, he dropped all political sympathy 
 with the latter, and saw in her possession of the region only 
 a pregnant source of war and hostility. An active European 
 nation of the first class in possession of the mouth of the 
 Mississippi was utterly inadmissible to his sagacious mind. 
 He saw and felt the fact in all its consequences. At the 
 succeeding presidential contest, Jefferson was borne into of- 
 fice, spite of a vigorous opposition, by a voe of one hundred 
 and sixty-two in the electoral college to fourteen for Charles 
 C. Pinckney. 
 
 The main events of his second administration were the 
 trial of Burr for his alleged Western conspiracy and the 
 measures adopted against the naval aggressions of England, 
 which culminated in the famous " Embargo," by which the 
 foreign trade of the country was annihilated at a blow that 
 Great Britain might be reached in her commercial interests. 
 His second term expired in 1809, and he retired from office 
 while the country was in an agitated state in reference to 
 its foreign policy, but with many elements at home of en- 
 during prosperity and grandeur. 
 
 He had been too much of a reformer not to suffer more
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 447 
 
 than most men the obloquy of party ; but he lived in retire- 
 ment during the remaining seventeen years of his life under 
 the popular designation, " the Sage of Monticello." If in 
 his latter days ainy subject was dearer to his heart than an- 
 other it was the course of education in the organization and 
 government of his favorite University of Virginia. Its cur- 
 riculum reflected his tastes ; its government was of his con- 
 trivance ; he looked abroad for its first professors ; and its 
 architectural plans, in which he took great interest, were 
 mainly arranged by him. He was chosen by the board of 
 visitors and appointed by the governor its rector, and died 
 holding the office. An inscription for his monument, which 
 was found among his papers after death, reads : " Here lies 
 buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of 
 American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Re- 
 ligious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia." 
 On the 4th July, 1826, his spirit passed to the other shore. 
 
 MADISON. 
 
 JAMES MADISON, fourth President of the United 
 States, was born in Orange county, Virginia, March 16, 
 1751. He received his early education at a boarding-school, 
 presided over by Donald Robertson, with whom he was 
 placed at the age of twelve. He was prepared for college 
 by the clergyman of his parish, Rev. Thomas Martin, and 
 entered Princeton in 1768. In three years thereafter he 
 graduated with honor.
 
 448 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 In the first General Convention of the State of Virginia, 
 which organized its independence in 1776, at Williams burg, 
 Madison was a delegate from his district. He was one of 
 a committee appointed to frame a constitution, and rendered 
 valuable services. He sat with Jefferson in the first Legis- 
 lative Assembly under the Constitution at Williamsburg, but 
 
 lost his election 
 to the next ses- 
 sion by his re- 
 sistance to the 
 popular custom, 
 inherited from 
 the Anglican co- 
 lonial times, of 
 "treating" the 
 electors. 
 
 He was sent 
 to the National 
 Congress, at Phil- 
 adelphia, in 1780, 
 where he served 
 till the conclusion 
 of peace. The 
 services rendered by him during this period were rather 
 those of a counselor and committee-man than those of a de- 
 bater. But if we hear little of the oratory of Madison, 
 there is much to be said of his services to the old Congress. 
 They were those of the statesman, continually employed in 
 eking out the resources, sustaining the credit, and adjusting 
 the irregular machinery of an imperfect system of govern- 
 
 JAMES MADISON.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 449 
 
 ment. After the first glow of patriotism, in the early 
 scenes of the Revolution, there was more of toil than of 
 glory in the labors of Congress. But they had one com- 
 pensation. They were well calculated to discipline the 
 statesmen who engaged in them, and enlighten the public 
 upon the necessities and claims of a just government. Out 
 of the troubled strife and confusion came forth, with others, 
 Jay, Hamilton, and Madison, and the Nation, after long 
 pains, brought forth the Constitution. 
 
 We find him, at one time, discharging with consummate 
 ability, duties which in these days would fall to a Secretary 
 of State ; among other things the preparation of a paper to 
 be sent to the minister in Spain, enforcing the claim to the 
 free navigation of the Mississippi. Upon his return to Mont- 
 pelier, he gave special attention to the study of the law, 
 but rather with a view to statesmanship than with any 
 intention to engage in the ordinary conflicts of the pro- 
 fession. 
 
 From 1784 to 1786 he was a member of the Virginia 
 Legislature, and in the latter year was re-appointed a mem- 
 ber of the old Congress. In 1794 he was married with 
 Mrs. Todd, a young widow of Philadelphia, better known 
 by her maiden name, Dolly Payne. The marriage was most 
 happy. Upon the 'election of Jefferson to the Presidency, 
 in 1801, Madison became Secretary of State, and discharged 
 the duties of the office till he was in 1809 called to succeed 
 his friend at the head of the government. 
 
 The conflict with England was the chief event of Madi- 
 son's administrations. He was a man of peace, not of the 
 sword, and needed not the terror and indecorum of the flight 
 
 29
 
 450 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 from Washington, and the burning of the Capitol, to impress 
 upon him the unsatisfactory necessities of war. Public 
 opinion was divided as to the wisdom of the contest, and it 
 is to the credit of Madison that, although he entered upon 
 the apparently inevitable hostilities with reluctance, he 
 maintained the struggle firmly and brought it to an early 
 close. 
 
 He retired to his seat at Montpelier in 1817, and with 
 the exception of his participation as a member of the con- 
 vention at Richmond, in 1829, for the revision of the Con- 
 stitution of Virginia, he is said never to have left his district 
 for the remainder of his life. He died June 28, 1836, the 
 last of the signers of the Constitution to join " the silent 
 majority." 
 
 "Purity, modesty, decorum a moderation, temperance 
 and virtue in every thing," said the late Senator Benton, 
 " were the characteristics of Mr. Madison's life and manners." 
 
 JAMES MONROK. 
 
 THE fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, 
 was born in April, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Vir- 
 ginia, on the Potomac a region remarkable in the history 
 of the country as the birthplace of Washington, Madison, 
 and of the distinguished family of the tees. 
 
 He was educated at the College of William and Mary, 
 which he left to take part in the early struggles of the army 
 of Washington a cause which in the breast of Virginians 
 superseded all ordinary duties and occupations. He joined
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 451 
 
 the American forces at New York in time to participate in 
 the courageous retreat after the battle of Long Island. 
 
 He was in the action at Harlem Heights and the subse- 
 quent battle of White Plains, and in the retreat through the 
 Jerseys. His company was in the van of the,, battle of 
 Trenton, where he 
 was severely 
 wounded. He was 
 with Lord Stirling, 
 acting as his aid in 
 the campaigns of 
 1777-78, and dis- 
 tinguished himself 
 at Brandy wine, 
 Germantown, and 
 Monmouth. In 
 1780 he was spe- 
 cially employed by 
 Governor Jefferson 
 to visit the South- 
 ern army as a mili- 
 tary commissioner, 
 to make a report 
 upon its condition. 
 
 In 1782 he was elected a member of the Virginia Legis- 
 lature, and shortly promoted by that body to a seat in its 
 executive council. In June, 1783, he' was chosen member 
 of Congress, and sat at its meeting at Annapolis when Wash- 
 ington resigned his military commission at the close of the 
 war. 
 
 JAMES MONROE.
 
 452 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 The three years' service of Mr. Monroe in Congress closed 
 in 1786. During that term he married Miss Kortright, a 
 lady of New York, of an old and respectable family of the 
 State, of whose personal merits John Quincy Adams said : 
 " It were impossible to speak in terms of exaggeration. She 
 was, for a period little short of half a century, the cher- 
 ished and affectionate partner of her husband's life and 
 fortune. . . . The companion of his youth was the solace 
 of his declining years, and to the close of life enjoyed the 
 testimonial of his affection, that with the external beauty and 
 elegance of deportment, conspicuous to all who were honored 
 with her acquaintance, she united the more precious and 
 endearing qualities which mark the fulfillment of all social 
 duties, and adorn with grace and fill with enjoyment the 
 tender relations of domestic life." 
 
 In 1787 he was returned to the Assembly of Virginia. 
 In the year following he was a member of the convention 
 of his State, called to decide upon the acceptance of the 
 Constitution. In 1789 he was elected to the Senate of the 
 United States to fill the vacancy caused by the death of 
 William Grayson, one of the first members chosen. He con- 
 tinued in the Senate until 1794, when he was appointed by 
 Washington minister to France, contemporaneously with 
 Chief-justice Jay to the court of Great Britain. 
 
 He was recalled in 1797, and succeeded by General C. 
 C. Pinckney. He was immediately returned to the Virginia 
 Legislature, and soon elected governor of the State, holding 
 the office for the constitutional term of three years. Early 
 in 1803 he was again called upon by the President to pro- 
 ceed to France as minister extraordinary to take part in
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 453 
 
 the negotiations already commenced by the resident minister, 
 Robert R. Livingston, for the purchase or cession of Loui- 
 siana. Within a month after Monroe's arrival in Paris, the 
 treaty was concluded, ceding Louisiana to the United States. 
 A more advantageous purchase has seldom been made by any 
 nation, and the successful event of the negotiation was the 
 glory of Jefferson's administration. 
 
 Mr. Monroe went from Paris to London, the successor 
 of Rufus King as minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain. 
 He immediately entered upon his duties, and was busy with 
 the open maritime questions between the two nations, when 
 he was called by President Jefferson to proceed to Spain 
 and assist Charles Pinckney, the minister to that court, in 
 the negotiations respecting claims for damages and the settle- 
 ment of the disputed Louisiana boundary question. Though 
 little resulted at the time from the discussions, the diplo- 
 matic papers of Monroe remain, in the language of John 
 Quincy Adams, " Solid monuments of intellectual power ap- 
 plied to national claims of right, deserving the close and 
 scrutinizing attention of every American statesman." 
 
 In 1805 he resumed his duties in London, and in the 
 question of England's aggressions upon our commerce, was 
 enabled to conclude a treaty in 1807, which, although not 
 satisfactory, was the best obtainable under the complicated 
 difficulties of the times, when England had her war interests 
 to maintain, and the United States had not the means of 
 enforcing her positions. 
 
 Monroe's next public office was governor of Virginia for 
 the second time, in 1810 ; and toward the close of the fol- 
 lowing year he was called by Madison to the Secretaryship
 
 454 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 of State. He continued in this relation during the remain- 
 der of Madison's Presidency. Monroe was called to the 
 Presidency in 1819 by a large majority of the electoral vote. 
 His inaugural, which was well received by the public, intro- 
 duced the topics of a new era. He urged measures for the 
 national defense, and favored the elements of national pros- 
 perity in internal improvements and home manufactures. 
 His conciliatory policy looking to the welfare of the country 
 was evident. 
 
 The chief events of Mr. Monroe's first term were the ad- 
 mission of Mississippi, Illinois, and Alabama as new States, 
 and the important cession of Florida by Spain, in 1819, 
 completing the work of annexation commenced in the pur- 
 cha'se of Louisiana. When the time for re-election came 
 around, President Monroe was again chosen, with but one dis- 
 senting vote, that of New Hampshire, which was given to 
 John Quincy Adams. 
 
 He continued to pursue a liberal policy of internal im- 
 provements within the limits of the Constitution, to forward 
 the military defenses on land, and the growth and employ- 
 ment of the navy at sea. At the close of his administra- 
 tion, he thus took leave of the. public : " I can not con- 
 clude this communication," ends his eighth annual message, 
 "the last of the kind which I shall have to make, without 
 recollecting, with great sensibility and heart-felt gratitude, 
 the many instances of public confidence, and the generous 
 support which I have received from my fellow-citizens in 
 the various trusts with which I have been honored. Hav- 
 ing commenced my service in early youth, and continued it 
 since, with few and short intervals, I have witnessed the
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 455 
 
 great difficulties to which our Union has been exposed, and 
 admired the virtue and courage with which they were sur- 
 mounted." 
 
 He retired from Washington to a temporary residence in 
 Loudon County, where, true to a policy of usefulness which 
 had governed him through life, he discharged the duties of 
 justice of the peace. He was chosen president of the con- 
 vention which sat to revise the Constitution of Virginia, in 
 the winter of 182930, but ill health and the infirmities of 
 advanced life, compelled him to resign his seat before the 
 adjournment of that body. He died July 4, 1831, " the 
 flickering lamp of life holding its lingering flame as if to 
 await the day of the Nation's birth and glory." 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, sixth President of the United 
 States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in that part 
 of the town which was afterwards set off and incorporated 
 by the name of Quincy, llth of July, 1767. 
 
 Mr. Adams was favored in the period which his life cov- 
 ered, as well as in the influences under which it commenced. 
 His history runs back to the beginning of the Revolution, 
 embraces its trying and stimulating experiences, and in- 
 cludes the entire range of wonderful events which were ac- 
 cumulated in the action of near seventy busy years. 
 
 At the age of eleven he accompanied his father to 
 France, and during the period of their stay about eighteen
 
 456 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 months he was kept in a French school, studying the 
 native language, with the usual classical exercises, which 
 were nowhere better taught at that time than in the insti- 
 tutions of Paris. He returned in 1779, but in three months 
 Congress again dispatched his father to Europe, and John 
 Quincy accompanied him. 
 
 Upon this trip the frigate in which they sailed sprang a 
 leak, in a gale of wind, and was forced to vary from her 
 
 port of destination, 
 which was Brest, 
 and to put into the 
 port of Ferrol, in 
 Spain. From there 
 they traveled to 
 Paris ; from Paris 
 to Holland. The lad 
 was put to school in 
 Paris, afterwards, in 
 Amsterdam, and fi- 
 nally, in the Uni- 
 versity of Leyden. 
 In July, 1781, 
 Francis Dana, who 
 had been secretary 
 to the embassy of 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS John Adams, was 
 
 commissioned plenipotentiary to Russia, and he took with 
 him John Quincy Adams, then at the age of fourteen, as 
 his private secretary. 
 
 His letters from St. Petersburg to friends in America
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. . 457 
 
 betray a marked intelligence and power of observation early 
 awakened. He remained in Russia with Mr. Dana till Oc- 
 tober, 1782, when he left St. Petersburg and returned alone, 
 through Sweden", Denmark, Hamburg, and Bremen, to Hol- 
 land, spending the winter in the route, and stopping some 
 time in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Hamburg. In Holland 
 he remained several months, till his father took him from 
 The Hague to Paris, where he was present at the signing of 
 the treaty of peace, in September, 1783, and from that time 
 to May, 1785, he was with his father in England and Holland, 
 as well as in France. At London he had rare opportunities 
 for the early formation of the future statesman, enjoying 
 the advantage of introductions by distinguished members of 
 Parliament, upon the floor of the House, and listening many 
 times to the eloquence of Burke, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, and 
 other eminent orators, whose great talents at that time 
 adorned the British nation. 
 
 In his eighteenth year his father yielded to his solicita- 
 tions and permitted him to return to his native land. He 
 entered Harvard University at an advanced standing, and was 
 graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1787 with distinguished honor. 
 He then entered the office, at Newburyport, of the cele- 
 brated Theophilus Parsons, afterwards chief-justice of Mas- 
 sachusetts. Upon completing the study of the law, he en- 
 tered the profession, and established himself in Boston. He 
 remained there four years, extending his acquaintance with 
 the first principles of law, and taking part in the important 
 questions which then engrossed the attention of the people. 
 
 In April, 1793, before Washington had published his 
 proclamation of neutrality, and before it was known he con-
 
 458 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 templated doing it, Mr. Adams published three articles 
 signed "Marcellus," strongly arguing that the United States 
 ought to assume such a position in the war then begun be- 
 tween England and France. In these papers he laid down 
 his creed, as a statesman, in two great central principles, to 
 which he ever afterwands steadfastly adhered, namely: 
 Union among ourselves, and independence of all entangling 
 alliance, or implication, with the policy or condition of for- 
 eign states. In the winter of 1793-94 he published 
 another series of papers, indicating the course of President 
 Washington in reference to the French minister, Genet. 
 
 These writings, in connection with Mr. Adams's previous 
 career, attracted the marked regard of Washington, and in 
 1794 he was appointed, without any intimation of such a 
 design to him or his father, minister of the United States to 
 the Netherlands. It appears that Mr. Jefferson recommended 
 him for this appointment. For a period of seven years 
 1794 to 1801 he was in Europe on diplomatic missions to 
 Holland, England, and Prussia. 
 
 Just before Washington retired from office, he appointed 
 him minister plenipotentiary to Portugal. On his way to 
 Lisbon he received a new commission, changing his destina- 
 tion to Berlin. He continued there from November, 1797, 
 to April, 1801, and completed an important treaty of com- 
 merce with Prussia. At the close of his father's adminis- 
 tration he returned home, arriving at Philadelphia in Sep- 
 tember, 1801. 
 
 In 1802 he was elected from Boston a member of the 
 Massachusetts Senate, and soon after, by the Legislature, a 
 Senator in Congress from the 4th of March, 1803. While
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 459 
 
 Senator he was appointed professor of rhetoric and oratory 
 at Harvard University, and his lectures, delivered in the re- 
 cesses of Congress, attracted great attention, and gathered 
 crowded and admiring audiences in addition to academical 
 hearers. They were subsequently published in two octavo 
 volumes. His powers of elocution were pre-eminent. He 
 resigned his seat in the Senate in 1808. In 1809 Madison 
 sent him as plenipotentiary to Russia. 
 
 While in Russia his services were of vast importance, 
 and produced effects upon our foreign relations yet felt 
 most beneficently. By his instrumentality the emperor of 
 Russia was induced to mediate for peace between Great 
 Britain and the United States, and President Madison named 
 Adams at the head of the commissioners sent to negotiate 
 the treaty which brought the war of 1812 to a close. This 
 transaction was at Ghent, in December, 1814. Henry Clay 
 and Albert Gallatin were upon the same commission. After 
 its conclusion, Adams proceeded, accompanied by them, to 
 London, and negotiated a convention of commerce with 
 Great Britain. He was then appointed minister at the court 
 of St. James. 
 
 There is a coincidence here worthy of note. As the 
 father, John Adams took the leading part in negotiating the 
 treaty with England, at the close of the Revolutionary war, 
 and was the first American embassador in London after that 
 event, so the son was at the head of the negotiators who 
 brought the second war with Great Britain to a close, and 
 presented his credentials as the first American embassador 
 at that court after the restoration of peace. In 1817 he 
 was called home by President Monroe, to what is really
 
 460 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 the second office in the government, the Secretaryship of 
 State. 
 
 This was the close of Mr. Adams' career as a foreign 
 minister. It was perhaps the most brilliant, as it certainly 
 was the most varied and interesting, portion of his life. His 
 first appointment as minister was conferred upon him by 
 Washington, in accordance with the strong recommendation 
 of Jefferson. Madison, during his whole administration, 
 committed to him the most important trusts ; appointed him 
 to represent the United States at the two most powerful 
 courts in the world, St. Petersburg and St. James, and as- 
 signed him as the chief of that distinguished embassy which 
 arranged the treaty of Ghent. The encomium which Wash- 
 ington pronounced upon him, when as early as 1797 he de- 
 clared him "the most valuable public character we have 
 abroad, and the ablest of all our diplomatic corps," is but 
 the judgment that belongs to the whole long period of his 
 public service in Europe. 
 
 The act of Mr. Monroe in placing him at the head of 
 his cabinet met with the fullest approval of the country. 
 General Jackson gave utterance to his sense of approbation 
 when he pronounced Adams "the fittest person for the 
 office ; a man who would stand by his country in the hour 
 of danger." The portfolio of State was held by Mr. Adams 
 during the whole of Monroe's administration, a period of 
 eight years ; and the duties were discharged with such 
 ability and success as greatly increased the public confi- 
 dencein him as a statesman and patriot. The adjustment 
 of the claims of Spain, the acquisition of Florida, the recog- 
 nition of the South American Republics, with many other
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS.. 461 
 
 important issues effected by his talent or under his potent 
 influence, and the vast amount of labor, generally, which he 
 expended in the service of the country, are matters of his- 
 tory, and we would gladly enlarge upon them did space 
 permit. 
 
 In the presidential election of 1824 Mr. Adams was one 
 of four candidates. As no one of them received a majority 
 of the electoral vote, the election was thrown into the House 
 of Representatives. On the 9th February, 1825, the two 
 branches of Congress convened together in the hall of the 
 House, to open, count, and declare the electoral vote. An- 
 drew Jackson was found to have 99, John Quincy Adams 
 84, William H. Crawford 41, and Henry Clay 37 votes. In 
 accordance with the Constitution, the Senate then withdrew, 
 and the House remained to cast ballots till a choice should 
 be made. It was required to vote by States. The Consti- 
 tution limited the election to the three candidates who had 
 the highest electoral vote ; and the balloting was to continue 
 till a majority of the States had declared for one of the 
 three. Mr. Adams having received as many popular votes 
 as General Jackson, the fact that the latter had received a 
 larger electoral vote did not have so much influence as 
 'would otherwise have belonged to it; so that at the moment 
 of balloting it was entirely uncertain which would be suc- 
 cessful. Thirteen States were necessary to a choice, the 
 whole number then being twenty-four. The ballots were 
 cast, and it was found that the six New England States, 
 with New York, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Mis- 
 souri, and Louisiana (thirteen) had declared for John Quincy 
 Adams ; and he was therefore duly elected President of the
 
 462 * THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 United States for four years, from the 4th March, 1825. 
 Henry Clay was instrumental in throwing the vote of 
 Kentucky in his favor, and perhaps the votes of other 
 States. 
 
 " His administration," says Edward Everett, " was, in its 
 principles and policy, a continuation of Mr. Monroe's. The 
 special object which he proposed to himself was to bind the 
 distant parts of the country together, and promote their 
 mutual prosperity by increased facilities of communication." 
 He was the most scholarly and best-informed President the 
 American people had ever elected, and his administration 
 was eminently dignified, moderate, conciliatory toward for- 
 eign powers, and wisely regardful of the future welfare of 
 the country. There were many elements of opposition at 
 work against a re-election, and in the complicated struggles 
 of the times there was no chance for a modest, retiring man, 
 no matter what his abilities might be. Adams encountered 
 a full measure of unpopularity, not for what he had either 
 done or omitted, but in response to the clamor of those who 
 were hungry for his place, and who were not scrupulous as 
 to the means employed to satisfy their ambition. He retired 
 to Quincy, to the home recently desolated by the decease of 
 his honored father. 
 
 But there was still something for him to do in the serv- 
 ice of his country. He was elected in November, 1830, 
 by his district to the House of Representatives, and served 
 in this capacity for more than sixteen years. He was the 
 most punctual man in the House, always on the alert, cool, 
 resolute, even pugnacious. The number and excellence of 
 speeches he made, and the amount of really good, valuable,
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 463 
 
 conscientious work he performed in these later years would 
 be a sufficient monument to his fame were it not that his 
 previous services were so distinguished and so infinitely su- 
 perior to those of most of his contemporaries. 
 
 He was approaching eighty, but still in the exercise of 
 his extraordinary faculties, when, in a recess of Congress, 
 walking in the streets of Boston in November, 1846, he was 
 stricken by paralysis, from which, nevertheless, he recovered 
 in time to take his seat in Congress early in the session. 
 The House rose to greet him, and he was conducted to 
 his chair with marked honors. He continued in the House 
 another year, when the final messenger came, on Monday 
 morning, February 21, 1848. After passing Sunday in har- 
 mony with his elevated, religious life, he was observed to 
 ascend the steps of the Capitol with his accustomed alacrity. 
 As he rose to address the Speaker he was seized by a re- 
 turn of paralysis and fell, uttering, " This is the last of 
 earth; I am content." He was taken, as the House ad- 
 journed, to an adjacent room, where he lingered over 
 Washington's birthday to the 23d, when he died in the 
 Speaker's apartment, under the roof of the Capitol. His re- 
 mains were taken to Boston, reposed in state in Faneuil 
 Hall, and were quietly laid by the side of his parents in a 
 grove at Quincy. Thus lived and toiled and died "the Old 
 Man Eloquent."
 
 464 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 A NDREW JACKSON, seventh President of the United 
 jL\. States, was born hi the territory now known as Union 
 County, North Carolina, March 15, 1767. His father died 
 a few days previous to his birth, and having left no means 
 
 of support for the 
 family, the mother 
 found a home for 
 herself and chil- 
 dren with a bro- 
 ther-in-law living 
 just over the line 
 in South Carolina. 
 Young Jackson 
 had fair advan- 
 tages of education, 
 for at quite an 
 early age we find 
 him at an academy 
 at Charlotte. 
 
 It is said to 
 have been his mo- 
 ther's design to 
 prepare him for the calling of a Presbyterian clergyman. 
 Such, indeed, might well have been his prospects, for he had 
 a nature capable of the service, had not the war of the Revo- 
 lution carried him in quite .a different direction. In 1779 
 came the invasion of South Carolina, the ruthless expedition 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 465 
 
 of Prevost along the seaboard preceding the arrival of 
 Clinton and the fall of Charleston. The latter event oc- 
 curred in May of the following year, and Cornwallis felt 
 free to carry out his plan for the subjugation of the country. 
 Sending Tarleton before him, the very month of the surren- 
 der of the city, the war of devastation was carried to the 
 border of the State, to the very home of Jackson. The en- 
 gagement at the Waxhaws was one of the bloodiest in a se- 
 ries of bloody actions, which ended only with the final 
 termination of hostilities. It was a massacre rather than a 
 battle, and American blood was poured forth like water. 
 The mangled bodies of the wounded were brought into the 
 church of the settlement, where the mother of young Jack- 
 son, then a boy of thirteen, with himself and a brother, at- 
 tended the sick and wounded. That gory bed of war, con- 
 secrated by the spot where his father had worshiped, and 
 near where he reposed in lasting sleep, summoned the boy to 
 his baptism of blood. 
 
 He really began his military career at the age of four- 
 teen, and was soon after taken prisoner, together with an elder 
 brother. During his captivity he was ordered by a British 
 officer to perform some menial service, which he promptly 
 refused, and for this he was severely wounded with the 
 sword which the Englishman disgraced. He was educated 
 for the bar, and began practice in Nashville, Tennessee, but 
 soon relinquished his legal pursuits to gain a name in arms. 
 
 In the early part of the war of 1812, Congress having 
 voted to accept fifty thousand volunteers, Jackson appealed 
 to the militia of Tennessee, when twenty-five hundred en- 
 rolled their names and presented themselves ready for duty. 
 
 30
 
 466 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Jackson was their leader by nature as well as by choice. 
 They were accepted, and ordered to Natchez to watch the 
 operations of the British on the lower Mississippi. 
 
 Not long after, the commander received orders to disband 
 his men, as their services were no longer needed. To obey, 
 he foresaw, would be an act of great injustice to his follow- 
 ers, besides reflecting dishonor upon the country, and he re- 
 solved to disobey. He accordingly broke up his camp and 
 returned to Nashville, bringing all his sick with him whose 
 wants on the way he relieved with his private means and 
 there disbanded his troops in the midst of their homes. 
 
 After a short interval he was called to the field again, 
 and the course of his duty was marked out in the wild con- 
 tests of Indian warfare. Here for years he labored and 
 fought and diplomatized, with the most consummate wisdom 
 and undaunted courage. His treaty with the Creek Indians 
 on the " Hickory Ground " gave him the familiar sobriquet 
 of Old Hickory, but he was quite as much entitled to it on 
 account of his strength and endurance. The crowning glory 
 of his whole military career was gained at the battle of New 
 Orleans ; and it will ever illumine one of the brighest pages 
 of American history. On the 10th of December, 1814, the 
 British army under Sir Edward Packenham entered the out- 
 let of Lake Borgne, sixty miles north-east of New Orleans. 
 Four days afterward a flotilla of gun-boats which had been 
 placed to guard the lake was captured tyy the British, but 
 not till a severe loss had been inflicted upon the captors. 
 
 On 22d of December Packenham's advance reached the 
 Mississippi, nine miles below New Orleans. On the night 
 of the 23d, General Jackson sent a schooner down the river
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 467 
 
 to bombard the British camp, while at the same time he and 
 General Coffee advanced with two thousand Tennessee rifle- 
 men to attack Packenham's camp in front. After a bloody 
 assault Jackson was compelled to retire, the enemy losing 
 most in the engagement. On the following day Jackson fell 
 back and took a strong position along the canal, four miles 
 below the city. Packenham advanced, and on the 28th can- 
 nonaded the American position, with but little effect. On 
 New Year's day the attack was renewed. The heavy guns 
 of the British had been brought into position; but the 
 Americans easily held their ground, and the enemy was 
 again driven back. Packenham now made arrangements to 
 lead his whole army in a grand assault upon the American 
 lines. 
 
 Jackson was prepared for him. Earthworks had been 
 constructed and a long line of cotton bales and sand bags 
 thrown up for protection. On the morning of the memorable 
 8th of January, the British advanced. The battle began by 
 the light of early dawn and was ended before nine o'clock. 
 Packenham hurled column after column against the Ameri- 
 can position, and every column was hurled back in death 
 and dismay. The Americans, behind their breastworks, 
 were almost entirely secure from the enemy's fire, while 
 every discharge of the Tennessee and Kentucky rifles told 
 with awful effect upon the exposed veterans of England. 
 Packenham, trying to rally his men, was killed ; General 
 Gibbs, second in command, was mortally wounded; General 
 Keene fell disabled ; only General Lambert was left to call 
 the shattered fragments of the army from the field. Of the 
 British, quite seven hundred were killed ; fourteen hundred,
 
 468 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 wounded ; five hundred, prisoners. The American loss was 
 eight killed and thirteen wounded. So far as operations by 
 land were concerned, this was the close of the war. Jackson 
 marched into New Orleans with his victorious army, and was 
 received with unbounded enthusiasm. 
 
 He returned to his home in Nashville; but in 1818 he 
 was again called upon to render military service in the ex- 
 pulsion of the Seminoles. Eager for the service, he sprang 
 to the work and conducted it in his own fashion, " taking 
 the responsibility " throughout, summoning volunteers to 
 accompany him from Tennessee without the formality of the 
 civil authority, advancing rapidly into Florida after his arri- 
 val at the frontier, capturing the Spanish fort of St. Marks, 
 and pushing thence to the Suwanee. General Mclntosh, the 
 half-breed who accompanied his march, performed feats of 
 valor in the destruction of the Seminoles. At the former 
 of these places, a trader from New Providence, a Scotchman 
 named Arbuthnot, a superior member of his class, and a pa- 
 cific man, fell into his hands ; and at the latter, a vagrant 
 English military adventurer, one Ambrister. Both of these 
 men were held under arrest, charged with complicity in the 
 Indian aggressions, and though entirely irresponsible to the 
 American commander, were summarily tried under his order 
 by court-martial on Spanish territory, at St. Marks, found 
 guilty, and executed on the spot. He refused to receive the 
 reconsideration by the court of its sentence, of Ambrister, 
 substituting stripes and imprisonment for death. He was 
 shot, and Arbuthnot was hung from the yard-arm of his own 
 vessel in the harbor. The remaining event of the campaign 
 was the capture of Pensacola, in which a garrison was left.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 469 
 
 General Jackson was the first governor of Florida, ap- 
 pointed by President Monroe after its acquisition by the Uni- 
 ted States. Previous to his nomination for the Presidency, 
 he had been judge, major-general, governor, and United States 
 Senator, and in every position had performed acts which 
 were famous enough to be talked about in all parts of the 
 Union. He was nominated to the high office in 1824, but 
 there were four candidates, none of whom had a majority 
 of the electoral vote; consequently the election was thrown 
 into the House, and John Quincy Adams was chosen. In 
 1828 Jackson was again nominated, and was triumphant. 
 In 1832 he was re-elected by a very large majority. 
 
 The record of these eight years of his presidential ser- 
 vice is the real beginning of a new history of the Demo- 
 cratic party; of the exertions of its most distinguished 
 representatives; of the establishment of its most cherished 
 principles its anti-bank creed in the overthrow of the 
 United States Bank, and the origination of the sub-treasury 
 system, which went into operation with his successor; the 
 reduction of the tariff; the opposition to internal improve- 
 ments ; the payment of the national debt. In addition to 
 the settlement of these long-agitated questions, his admin- 
 istrations were signalized by the removal of the Cherokees 
 from Georgia and the Creeks from Florida; while their for- 
 eign policy was candid and vigorous, bringing to a satisfactory 
 adjustment the outstanding claims upon France and other 
 nations, and maintaining friendly relations with England. 
 In all these measures the energetic hand of Jackson was 
 felt, but particularly was his character manifested in the 
 general conduct of the bank question, the collection of the
 
 470 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 French indemnity, and the enforcement of the national au- 
 thority in South Carolina. 
 
 General Jackson's love of the Union was a deep and 
 abiding passion. He had no toleration for those who sought 
 to weaken this great instinct of nationality. No sophism 
 could divert his understanding from the plainest obligation 
 of duty to the whole country. He saw as clearly as , the 
 subtlest logician in the Senate the inevitable tendency of 
 any argument which would impair the allegiance of the 
 people to the central authority. " The Union must and shall 
 be preserved " was a prime article of his creed, but he little 
 anticipated at what cost it would be finally sustained. 
 
 He has passed away, but his record is enduring. On 
 the 8th of June, 1845, this child of the Revolution, this 
 conqueror of the implacable savage, this savior of New Or- 
 leans, this idol of his party an old man of seventy-eight, 
 but still young in spirit, closed his eyes in lasting repose. 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN. 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN, eighth President of the United 
 States, was born at Kinderhook, New York, Septem- 
 ber 5, 1782, and in his early years received the best edu- 
 cation that could then be obtained in the schools of his im- 
 mediate vicinity. Having sufficiently prepared himself for 
 the study of the law, he entered the office of Francis Syl- 
 vester, where he remained six years. He adopted the legal 
 profession to acquire the craft of statesmanship, rather than 
 as an occupation.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 471 
 
 In 1808 he was appointed surrogate of Columbia County. 
 In 1812, and also in 1816, he was elected a member of the 
 New York Senate. In 1821 he was elected a Senator of 
 the United States. In 1828 he was elected governor of 
 New York, but served in that capacity only a few weeks. 
 In March, 1829, 
 General Jackson 
 tendered him the 
 State portfolio in 
 his cabinet, which 
 he accepted and 
 held for two years, 
 when he resigned 
 to accept the ap- 
 pointment of min- 
 ister to England. 
 When his nomina- 
 tion to this latter 
 office was submit- 
 ted to the Senate 
 June 25, 1831 it 
 was rejected by the 
 casting vote of the 
 Vice-president, Mr. 
 Calhoun, and Mr. Van Buren was recalled. In May, 1832, 
 he was placed in nomination for the Vice-presidency and 
 elected by a large vote. 
 
 In 1836 he was nominated and elected to the chief 
 magistracy. The principal measure of his administration 
 was the establishment of the independent sub-treasury, by 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN.
 
 472 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 which the business of the government was entirely separ- 
 ated from the affairs of the people. The panic of 1837 had 
 followed immediately upon the close of Jackson's adminis- 
 tration, and the people were anxious for some measure of 
 relief. The sub-treasury failed to help them. 
 
 General Harrison was elected to succeed Mr. Van Buren 
 in 1840, when he visited Europe. Upon his return, in 1848, 
 he was nominated for the Presidency by the Free-Soil party, 
 but did not receive any part of the electoral vote. In July 
 24, 1862, he died, at the ripe age of eighty years. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth President of 
 the United States, was born at Berkeley, Charles City 
 County, Virginia, February 9, 1773, and was educated at 
 Hampden-Sydney College. He was designed for the medical 
 profession, and, indeed, had made some progress in acquiring 
 a knowledge of its mysteries, when the death of his father 
 changed all his plans. He resolved to go into the army, and 
 was granted by Washington an ensign's commission in the 
 First Regiment U. S. Infantry, which was stationed at Fort 
 Washington, the present site of Cincinnati. The battle on 
 the Miamis was fought August 20, 1794, and a year after 
 brought forth its peaceful fruits in Wayne's treaty of Green- 
 ville, which closed the war. 
 
 Harrison was then tw,enty-three. He had won the rank 
 of captain, and was placed in command of Fort Washington, 
 where he at about the same time married with the daughter
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 473 
 
 of John Cleves Symmes, whose name is so honorably dis- 
 tinguished as the founder of Cincinnati. Shortly thereafter 
 President Adams appointed him secretary of the North-west 
 Territory, then under the government of St. Glair. After 
 the Territory was organized and entitled to a delegate in 
 Congress, in 1799, Harrison was chosen its representative. 
 Upon the division 
 of the Territory he 
 was withdrawn 
 from Congress to 
 discharge the du- 
 
 Territory of Indi- 
 ana, which includ- 
 ed the present 
 States of Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan, 
 and Wisconsin. 
 
 At the battle of 
 Tippecanoe, fought 
 November 7, 1811, 
 Harrison gained 
 great renown as a WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 
 
 successful commander against the savages. The intelligence 
 of his victory was received throughout the country with a 
 great outburst of enthusiasm. During the war of 1812 he 
 was made commander of the North-western Army of the 
 United States, and he bore a conspicuous part in the leading 
 events of the campaigns of 181213.
 
 474 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 In 1814 he was appointed, in conjunction with his com- 
 panions in arms, Governor Shelby and General Cass, to 
 treat with the Indians of the North-west, at Greenville ; and 
 in the following year he was placed at the head of a com- 
 mission to treat generally with the Indians. In 1816 he 
 was elected to Congress from Ohio, and in 1818 was elected 
 to the United States Senate. In 1828 he was appointed 
 minister plenipotentiary to Colombia, but was recalled upon 
 the accession to the Presidency of General Jackson. 
 
 The National Whig Convention of 1836 nominated him 
 for the Presidency, but he was defeated by Van Buren. In 
 1840 he returned the compliment with interest, receiving 
 two hundred and thirty-four electoral votes against sixty for 
 Van Buren. He was inaugurated on 4th March, 1841, and 
 on the 4th of the following month the American people were 
 bereaved in his death. His last words, heard by his phy- 
 sician, but spoken as if addressed to his successor, are 
 worthy of repetition : " Sir, I wish you to understand the 
 true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. 
 I ask nothing more." 
 
 JOHN TYLKR. 
 
 JOHN TYLER, tenth President of the United States as 
 the constitutional successor of President Harrison, was 
 born at William sburg, Virginia, March 29, 1790. At the 
 age of twelve he entered the College of William and Mary, 
 whence he graduated in five years. Then he read law, was 
 admitted to the bar at nineteen ; elected to the Virginia
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 475 
 
 Legislature at twenty-two; sent to Congress at twenty-six; 
 governor of Virginia at thirty-five ; United States Senator 
 at thirty-seven. In the latter office he firmly supported the 
 administration of- Jackson, voting against the tariff bill of 
 1828, and against chartering the United States Bank. 
 
 President Harrison had called a special session of Con- 
 gress just previous to his decease, and after Tyler's succes- 
 sion a bill for the 
 establishment o f 
 "The Fiscal Bank 
 of the United 
 States " passed both 
 houses and was 
 sent to the Presi- 
 dent for signature. 
 He promptly vetoed 
 it. To meet his ob- 
 jections some modi- 
 fi cat ions were 
 made, but he again 
 vetoed the bill. 
 His administration 
 was stormy, and 
 quite unsatisfac- 
 tory to those to 
 whom he was indebted for his election to the Presidency. 
 
 In February, 1861, he was President of the memorable 
 Peace Convention, at Washington. Subsequently he was 
 chosen a Senator from Virginia, in the Confederate Congress. 
 He died on the 18th of January, 1862, at Richmond. 
 
 JOHN TYLER.
 
 476 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 JAMES KNOX POLK. 
 
 TAMES K. POLK, eleventh President of the United 
 States, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 
 November 2, 1795. He did not enjoy the best advantages 
 of elementary instruction, and, therefore, had arrived at the 
 age of twenty before he was fully prepared to enter the 
 
 University of North 
 Carolina, at Chapel 
 Hill. Here he was 
 very studious, and 
 graduated in 1818 
 with the first hon- 
 ors of his class. 
 
 He read law with 
 the celebrated Felix 
 Grundy, at Nash- 
 ville, Tenn., and 
 was admitted to 
 practice in 1820. In 
 1825 he was elected 
 to Congress from 
 Tennessee, and was 
 a member of the 
 JAMES KNOX POLK. House during four- 
 
 teen successive years. He was one of the strictest of the 
 strict constructionists, opposed to the re-charter of the Bank 
 of the United States; to a protective tariff; to internal 
 improvements ; to all enlarged ideas of nationality. He was
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 477 
 
 chairman of the committee of Ways and Means in Jackson's 
 administration, and at the sessions of 1835-37 was elected 
 Speaker of the House. 
 
 In 1839 he was elected governor of Tennessee, and while 
 in this office he recommended to his State a "well-regulated 
 system of internal improvements." At the National Demo- 
 cratic Convention held at Baltimore in 1844, he was nomi- 
 nated for the Presidency, and received the vote of fifteen 
 States to eleven for Clay, giving him a majority of the elec- 
 toral college of sixty-five. 
 
 The leading events of his administration were, the ad- 
 justment of the Oregon question with England, and the 
 war with Mexico. One of the results of the war, quite un- 
 anticipated, was the development of a candidate for the 
 Presidency as a successor for Mr. Polk, and another, equally 
 unlocked for, was the settlement and wonderful develop- 
 ment of California. 
 
 Little more than three months after his retirement from 
 the Presidency, June 15, 1849, Mr. Polk died, in the fifty- 
 fourth year of his age. 
 
 TAYLOR. 
 
 ZACHARY TAYLOR, twelfth President, was born in 
 Orange County, Virginia, November 24, 1784. His early 
 education was limited. In 1808 Jefferson appointed him a 
 lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry. In 1812 he was with 
 General Harrison in the West, and gained credit for his vig- 
 orous defense of Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, for which 
 President Madison conferred upon him the rank of major.
 
 478 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 He was employed in the various Indian wars. In the 
 Black Hawk War of 1832 he appeared in the field and took 
 an active part as colonel in the concluding battle of Bad 
 Axe River. For distinguished services in the Florida war, 
 in 1836, he was rewarded with the brevet rank of brigadier 
 
 general, a nd 
 shortly after 
 with the chief 
 command in the 
 State. He re- 
 mained in Florida 
 tilll840,whenhe 
 was assigned to 
 the command of 
 the South-west- 
 ern division of 
 the army, with 
 head-quarters at 
 Fort J e s s u p , 
 Louisiana. He 
 was ordered to 
 Texas in 1845, 
 and in March of 
 the fo How ing 
 year was directed to advance to the Mexican boundary, the 
 Rio Grande. 
 
 On the bank opposite Matamoras he built Fort Brown 
 and established a camp. The commander of the Mexican 
 forces summoned him to retire, which, of course, he refused. 
 A few days thereafter occurred the battle of Palo Alto, fol- 
 
 ZACHARY TAYLOR.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 479 
 
 4 
 
 lowed immediately by that of Resaca de la Palma ; and in 
 due course the storming of Monterey and the terrible strug- 
 gle at Buena Vista added fresh laurels to the victorious 
 wreaths of General Taylor. 
 
 The war closed in 1847, settling all points in dispute 
 between this country and Mexico. In the following year 
 the National Whig Convention nominated General Taylor 
 for the Presidency, and the vote of the electoral college 
 was cast for him to the number of one hundred and sixty- 
 three against one hundred and twenty-seven for General 
 Cass. His short administration was moderate in tone, char- 
 acterized by deliberation and sound judgment, and his death, 
 after he had held the office but fifteen months, was univer- 
 sally lamented. He died at the executive mansion in Wash- 
 ington, July 9, 1850. 
 
 MILLARD FILLMORE, thirteenth President, as the 
 constitutional successor of President Taylor, deceased, 
 was born in Cayuga County, New York, January 7, 1800. 
 The limited means of his parents denied him the facilities 
 for education, beyond the most ordinary rudiments, and from 
 the age of fifteen to nineteen he was compelled to earn his 
 own subsistence. He then formed the acquaintance of Judge 
 Wood, at Niles, New York, who very generously became his 
 patron, took him into his office, gave him the use of a fine 
 library, and furnished him money to meet necessary expenses 
 while he pursued the study of the law. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one he removed to Erie County,
 
 480 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 and entered a law-office in Buffalo, and in 1823 he was ad- 
 mitted to the bar and began practice at Aurora. In 1828 
 he was elected a member of the New York Legislature ; in 
 1833 he was elected to Congress, and also in 1836, 1838 
 and 1841. Although re-nominated by the Whigs of his dis- 
 trict, he declined further re-election. In 1847 he was chosen 
 
 comptroller of New 
 York, and com- 
 menced his new du- 
 ties at Albany at 
 the beginning of 
 1848, but before 
 the year closed he 
 was nominated and 
 elected Vice-presi- 
 dent. 
 
 He entered upon 
 the Presidency of 
 the Senate in 
 March, 1849. It 
 was an office whose 
 duties he was well 
 fitted to discharge, 
 MILLARD FJLLMORE. and he left behind 
 
 him, when he was called to the higher station, a happy im- 
 pression of his moderation and urbanity. On 9th July, 1850, 
 while Congress was in session, the sudden death of General 
 Taylor devolved upon him the cares and responsibilities of 
 the Presidency. On the 10th. attended by a committee of 
 the two Houses and the members of the late President's
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 481 
 
 cabinet, the oath of office was administered to him in the 
 hall of Representatives. 
 
 Under President Fillmore's administration the boundary 
 between Texas and New Mexico was adjusted, California 
 was admitted, Utah Territory was organized, and the Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law was enacted. His term closed in March, 
 1853. The following year he made a tour of the South, and 
 in 1855 visited Europe. In 1856 he was nominated for the 
 Presidency by the "American" party, but received the vote 
 of only the single State of Maryland. He died in 1874. 
 
 T^RANKLIN PIERCE, fourteenth President, was born at 
 A Hillsboro, New Hampshire, November 23, 1804, and at 
 an. early age received the advantages of a liberal education. 
 After taking the collegiate course at Bowdoin, which he en- 
 tered at the age of sixteen, he was admitted as a student to 
 the office of Judge Woodbury, at Portsmouth, whence he 
 was transferred, at the expiration of a year, to the law 
 school at Northampton, where he remained two years, and 
 then finished his studies with Judge Parker, at Amherst. 
 Although his rise at the bar was not rapid, by degrees he 
 attained the highest rank as a lawyer and advocate. 
 
 In 1829 he was elected to represent his native town in 
 the State Legislature, where he served four years, and during 
 the last two was Speaker. From 1833 to 1837 he was a 
 Representative in Congress, and was then elected to the 
 United States Senate, having barely reached the legal age 
 
 31
 
 482 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 to qualify him for a seat in that body. At the expiration 
 of his senatorial term he was re-elected, but resigned the 
 following year to devote all his time to his legal practice, 
 which had become very extensive. 
 
 In 1846 he declined the office of Attorney-general, ten- 
 dered by President Polk ; but when war with Mexico broke 
 
 out he was active 
 in raising the New 
 England regiment, 
 and afterwards ac- 
 cepted the commis- 
 sion of brigadier- 
 general, and at once 
 repaired to the 
 scene of conflict, 
 where he was dis- 
 tingished in sev- 
 eral battles. The 
 Democratic Con- 
 vention at Balti- 
 more, in 1852, 
 unexpectedly nom- 
 inated him for the 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE. P T Q S 1 d 6 n C y , to 
 
 which office he was elected by a large majority. 
 
 His administration was marked by no extraordinary 
 events of foreign or domestic policy, except the revival of 
 the slavery agitation in the passage of the Kansas and Ne- 
 braska Territorial bill in 1854, setting aside the geograph- 
 cal limit imposed by the compromise of 1850. At the
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 483 
 
 expiration of his term, March 4, 1857, he returned to New 
 Hampshire and remained in private life to the end of his 
 days, October 8 ; 1869, when he died greatly lamented. 
 
 JAN1KS BUCHANAN. 
 
 JAMES BUCHANAN, fifteenth Presidenf of the United 
 States, was born at Stony Buttes, Franklin County, 
 Pennsylvania, April 23, 1791. He was well educated from 
 early youth till his entrance upon public life. At the age 
 of fourteen he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle. He 
 received his degree in 1809, and three years thereafter was 
 admitted to the bar. Applying himself diligently to his 
 profession, at Lancaster, he early acquired a lucrative 
 practice. 
 
 In 1814 he began political life as a member of the Legis- 
 lature of Pennsylvania. In 1820 he was sent as a Representa- 
 tive to Congress, where he remained ten years, at the expira- 
 tion of which period he declined a re-election. In 1831 he was 
 appointed minister to Russia, by President Jackson, of whom 
 he was always the consistent friend and supporter, and with 
 that power he negotiated a commercial treaty which proved 
 of great advantage to American commerce. 
 
 In December, 1834, he took his seat in the Senate of 
 the United States, and continued a member of that body till 
 1845, when he accepted the State portfolio in the cabinet 
 of President Polk. He held this responsible position till 
 the expiration of President Polk's term, when he returned 
 to Lancaster. But he did not, by any means, become an
 
 484 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 idle spectator of passing events. His letters and speeches 
 prove that he was no less vigilant as a private citizen than 
 as a counselor in the cabinet or a Representative and Sen- 
 ator in Congress. 
 
 Upon the accession of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency, in 
 1853, Mr. Buchanan was appointed minister to England. 
 
 With that country 
 questions were then 
 pending which re- 
 quired great pru- 
 dence and discrimi- 
 nation for satisfac- 
 tory adjustment. In 
 his intercourse with 
 the British diplo- 
 matists he was not 
 only discreet, but 
 displayed sound 
 sense, courtly for- 
 bearance, a just as- 
 sertion of our 
 rights, and the true 
 dignity of the 
 JAMES BUCHANAN. American character. 
 
 So entirely unexceptional was his whole course while 
 abroad, that, on his return to this country, he was received 
 with an almost universal enthusiasm seldom accorded to 
 political men. 
 
 In June, 1856, Mr. Buchanan was nominated for the 
 Presidency by the National Democratic Convention at Cin-
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 485 
 
 cinnati, and although there were powerful elements arrayed 
 against him, he was triumphantly elected. His administra- 
 tion was eventful. It comprised the settlement of the 
 Kansas difficulties, and the advent of secession. Its last 
 year was devoted to preparation for the impending civil war 
 on the part of the South. In December, 1860, occurred the 
 secession of the first of the Southern States. Others soon fol- 
 lowed in the same course; and while payment of customs 
 was refused, the national flag dishonored, government prop- 
 erty seized, and the crisis fast approaching, Mr. Buchanan 
 held that he had no power to coerce a State, even if it were 
 in rebellion. His embarrassment was extreme. His last 
 months in office were distracted with such troubles as had 
 never before fallen to the lot of a chief magistrate. He had 
 neither the force of character nor the political principle 
 requisite for such an emergency. His timid conservatism 
 was blown about like a feather in the premonitory gusts of 
 the coming tempest. He was seemingly as helpless as a 
 child in the midst of the tremendous complications which 
 were breaking around him. He stood trembling while the 
 last days of his public life were ebbing into the receding 
 gulf of the American Middle Ages. Of the courage of Jack- 
 son he had as little as of the prescience and heroic patriot- 
 ism of his great successor. 
 
 At the close of his administration, Mr. Buchanan retired 
 to his home at Wheatland, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 
 where his remaining years were spent in the quiet of pri- 
 vate life. He died June 1, 1868.
 
 486 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 LINCOLN. 
 
 A BRAHAM LINCOLN was born in Larue County ^ 
 JT\. Kentucky, February 12, 1809. He was probably de- 
 scended from the Lincolns of Massachusetts, though his 
 parents were of 
 Quaker stock, and 
 emigrated from 
 Pennsylvania to 
 RockinghamCoun- 
 ty, Virginia, from 
 which his grand- 
 father, Abraham, 
 removed to Ken- 
 tucky in 1781. 
 
 In 1816 his pa- 
 rents removed to 
 what is now Spen- 
 cer County, Indi- 
 ana, and here 
 young Abraham 
 enjoyed a few ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 months' schooling. It was the only duly organized school 
 he ever attended. Whatever he afterward learned from 
 books was without the aid of the school-master, through 
 his own energy and perseverance. Poverty, hardship, and 
 destitution of modern social advantages, contributed to 
 strengthen the essential elements of greatness within him. 
 The frame-work of his mental and moral being was honesty.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 487 
 
 In 1830, just as he had completed his twenty-first year, 
 the family removed to Illinois, and opened and fenced a farm, 
 ten miles west of Decatur, in the county of Macon. Abra- 
 ham had maste'red the science of rail-splitting previous to 
 this time, and here his accomplishment was more practically 
 applied than ever before. He performed a full quota of 
 labor in clearing up and fencing the new place. His life 
 was that of an ordinary youth of the frontier till 1832, 
 when the Black Hawk War broke out. He immediately 
 joined a volunteer company, composed principally of the 
 young men of his neighborhod, and was chosen captain by 
 acclamation. He had about him the elements of popularity 
 and those traits of character which mark the leader, and 
 even at this early age the germ of a superior mind was dis- 
 covered and appreciated. He served to the end of the cam- 
 paign, and to the day of his death retained ownership of 
 the land upon which his warrants for this service were 
 located. 
 
 Immediately upon his return from the Black Hawk cam- 
 paign he was nominated for membership in the State Leg- 
 islature, but was defeated. His own precinct, however, cast 
 277 votes for to 7 against him, and this, too, when he was an 
 avowed and enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Clay, and the 
 same precinct at the election one year thereafter returned a 
 majority of 115 for General Jackson over Mr. Clay. This 
 is the only time that Lincoln ever suffered defeat by a di- 
 rect vote of the people. 
 
 He read law with such diligence that in 1837 he was 
 enabled to form a co-partnership with Major John F. Stuart, 
 of Springfield, who, at that date, was one of the leading
 
 488 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 advocates of Illinois. In 1834 Lincoln was elected to the 
 Legislature, and re-elected in 1838 and 1840. He soon became 
 a prominent leader of the Whig party, and was upon the 
 electoral ticket in several presidential campaigns. In 1844 
 he canvassed the entire State of Illinois in the interest of 
 Mr. Clay, and made every exertion in his power for the dis- 
 tinguished favorite of his party. In 1846 Mr. Lincoln was 
 elected to Congress, and took his seat in December, 1847, 
 the only Whig representative in the National House from 
 his State. 
 
 His votes and speeches from this time were invariably 
 liberal for freedom and opposed to oppression of every 
 kind ; in favor of internal improvements ; opposed to a dec- 
 laration of war against Mexico, but in favor of troops and 
 money to carry on the contest after it was begun ; in favor 
 of protection to American industry, and all cognate measures. 
 
 In June, 1858, a Republican State Convention at Spring- 
 field placed Mr. Lincoln in nomination for the United States 
 Senate. Stephen A. Douglas was the Democratic nominee, 
 and a man of more than ordinary ability was wanted to meet 
 him on the stump. The nomination of Lincoln under these 
 circumstances was something more than a compliment. It 
 was not the voice of his constituents merely saying, " We 
 believe you a man of sterling talent, unquestioned integrity, 
 and brilliant legislative ability, and, therefore, we place you 
 in nomination for this great office." It declared with em- 
 phasis to this effect : " You are the best man our party has 
 among all the distinguished men of the State to meet a po- 
 litical casuist who has no superior in the world; who is 
 justly entitled the Rienzi of the American foruin. We put
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 489 
 
 you forward as the champion of our principles against a 
 master of political strategy, an intellectual giant, and heart- 
 ily pray for your victory." 
 
 We need no't make lengthy reference to the contest 
 which ensued. Its fame is wider than the country. It 
 was a series of the most wonderful engagements of mind 
 with mind ; of the most versatile and interesting debates of 
 a vexed question it was ever the fortune of the American 
 people to hear; comprising the most daring achievements of 
 logical reasoning and forensic pyrotechnics that ever charac- 
 terized a similar campaign. The result was a senatorship 
 for Mr. Douglas, and, substantially, the Presidency for Mr. 
 Lincoln. 
 
 At the National Republican Convention, in 1860, he was 
 nominated a candidate for the Presidential office, and tri- 
 umphantly elected over three rivel candidates, Breckenridge, 
 Douglas, and Bell. The platform of the convention by 
 which Mr. Lincoln was nominated was explicit upon the 
 principles and objects of the party. The highest devotion 
 was expressed for the Union, but there seemed to be an 
 underlying fear that the Union was in danger of attack from 
 the opposing party. The most noteworthy part of the decla- 
 ration was contained in these words : 
 
 "To the Union of the States, this Nation owes its un- 
 precedented increase in population; its surprising develop- 
 ment of material resources ; its rapid augmentation of wealth ; 
 its happiness at home and its honor abroad ; and we hold in 
 abhorrence all schemes for "disunion, come from whatever 
 source they may; and we congratulate the country that no 
 Republican member of Congress has uttered or countenanced
 
 490 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 a threat of disunion, so often made by Democratic members 
 of Congress without rebuke, and with applause, from their po- 
 litical associates ; and we denounce those threats of disunion 
 in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, as deny- 
 ing the vital principles of a free government, and as an avowal 
 of contemplated treason, which it is the imperative duty of an 
 indignant people strongly to rebuke and forever silence" 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated on 4th March, 1861. His 
 inaugural address recommended him to the favorable con- 
 sideration of all reasonable men, as well as to the highest 
 regard of his party. He counseled conciliation between the 
 sections, but so far as the effect upon the South was con- 
 cerned, he might as well have counseled war. Substantially 
 the South had declared war already. Their leaders had 
 threatened that if Lincoln was inaugurated the slave States 
 would leave the Union not that they meant this, but they 
 imagined that a terrible threat from them would as usual 
 prove effective. They had ruled Northern doughfaces so long 
 by the power of words that nothing stronger was deemed nec- 
 essary ; but Mr. Lincoln had been inaugurated notwithstand- 
 ing, and now the South would leave us to fight the battle of 
 government alone. Not quite. There was power and deter- 
 mination and intelligent foresight in the new administration, 
 where weakness, timidity and misdirection had been hoped 
 for by Disunionists and their sympathizers. 
 
 But we could not part company with the Sunny South. 
 It was in direct opposition to the genius of our republican 
 institutions to nurture children so long and then permit them 
 to break away from wholesome restraint and go incontinent 
 to the dogs. Four years of bloody war was waged against the
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 491 
 
 government by the Disunionists, and then they were brought 
 back repentant and forlorn. They were years of great anx- 
 iety and immense toil to the great and good President, who, 
 although fully conversant with the forms and practices of 
 peaceful government when he came to the office, was com- 
 pelled to learn the art of war; the means for raising great 
 armies and placing over them effective and trustworthy offi- 
 cers; the appliances for paying this immense force, and the 
 conduct of civil affairs in a way which would best adapt them 
 to the new and strange conditions. Through it all President 
 Lincoln toiled with an eye single to the best good of the whole 
 country, and went wearily forward to his fate. " With malice 
 toward none, with charity for all," were the memorable words 
 of his address at the second inauguration, on 4th March, 
 1865, "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the 
 right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind 
 up the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow and orphans ; to do all which 
 may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves and with all nations." 
 
 The peace that seemed so desirable to him when these 
 words were uttered was near at hand, but he, alas ! was 
 destined to enjoy none of its fruits. General Lee surren- 
 dered the principal rebel army to Grant on the 9th of 
 April, and on the 14th President Lincoln was assassinated 
 by John Wilkes Booth, a natural son of the Slavocratic 
 rebellion. That so good a life should go out into the 
 night of the Unknown by the hand of a vulgar desperado 
 who was simply the agent of a plot only partially ex- 
 plored is grief indeed ; and at a time when the country
 
 492 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 and the world were ready to say, " Well done, good and 
 faithful servant; enter thou into the peace and joys of the 
 kingdom ! " 
 
 Hon. James G. Elaine, in his " Twenty Years of Con- 
 gress," thus refers to the subject of our sketch : 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln was calm and philosophic. He loved the 
 truth for the truth's sake. He would not argue from a false 
 premise, or be deceived himself or deceive others by a .false 
 conclusion. He had pondered deeply on the issues which 
 aroused him to action. He had given anxious thought to 
 the problems of free government and to the destiny of the 
 Republic. He had for himself marked out a path of duty, 
 and he walked in it fearlessly. His mental processes were 
 slower, but more profound, than those of Douglas. He did 
 not seek to say merely the thing that was best for that 
 day's debate, but the thing which would stand the test of 
 time and square itself with eternal justice. He wished 
 nothing to appear white unless it was white. His logic was 
 severe and faultness. He did not resort to fallacy, and 
 could detect it in his opponent, and expose it with merciless 
 directness. He had an abounding sense of humor, and 
 always employed it in illustration of his argument never 
 for the mere sake of provoking merriment. In this respect 
 he had the wonderful aptness of Franklin. He often 
 taught a great truth with the felicitous brevity of an ^Esop 
 fable. His words did not flow in an impetuous torrent as 
 did those of Douglas, but they were always well chosen, 
 deliberate, and conclusive." 
 
 Again, he says : 
 
 " Mr. Lincoln united firmness and gentleness in a singu-
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 493 
 
 lar degree. He rarely spoke a harsh word. Ready to hear 
 argument and always open to conviction, he adhered tena- 
 ciously to the conclusions which he had finally reached. Al- 
 together modest," he had confidence in himself, trusted to 
 the reasoning of his own mind, believed in the correctness 
 of his own judgment. Many of the popular conceptions 
 concerning him are erroneous. No man was farther than he 
 from the easy, familiar, jocose character in which he is so often 
 painted. While he paid little attention to form or cere- 
 mony, he was not a man with whom liberties could be 
 taken. There was but one person in Illinois, outside of his 
 own household, who ventured to address him by his first 
 name. There was no one in Washington who ever at- 
 tempted it. Appreciating wit and humor, he relished a good 
 story, especially if it illustrated a truth or strengthened an 
 argument, and he had a vast fund of illustrative anecdote, 
 which he used with the happiest effect. But the long list 
 of vulgar, salacious stories attributed to him were retailed 
 only by those who never enjoyed the privilege or exchang- 
 ing a word with him. His life was, altogether, a serious 
 one, inspired by the noblest spirit, devoted to the highest 
 aims. Humor was but an incident with him, a partial re- 
 lief to the melancholy which tinged all his years. He pre- 
 sented an extraordinary combination of mental and moral 
 qualities. As a statesman, he had the loftiest ideal, and it 
 fell to his lot to inaugurate measures which changed the 
 fate of millions of living men, of tens of millions yet to be 
 born. As a manager of political issues and master of the 
 art of presenting them, he has had no rival in this country, 
 unless one be found in Jefferson."
 
 494 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 He speaks in the highest terms of his executive talent, 
 his superb self-reliance, the wonderful breadth of his relig- 
 ious toleration, combined with his reverence and his painful 
 sense of responsibility. 
 
 ' ' He had a most silver flow 
 Of subtle-poised counsel in distress 
 
 Eight to the heart and brain, though undescried, 
 Winning its way with extreme gentleness 
 
 Through all the outworks of suspicious pride." 
 
 A recent writer furnishes the following interesting and 
 discriminating estimate of the great man : 
 
 " Whoever shall write a faithful biography of Abraham 
 Lincoln, up to the time when he entered upon his duties as 
 Chief Magistrate, will make an invaluable contribution to 
 American history. Besides showing the healthy unfolding 
 from youth to mature manhood of one of the richest types 
 of American character which this Western world has produced 
 since its evolvement from barbarism, such a work must 
 necessarily set forth the growth and development of what 
 may be called the constitutional side or phase of the anti- 
 slavery agitation, dating from the time nearly fifty years 
 ago, when Abraham Lincoln and Dan. Stone placed upon the 
 legislative records of Illinois their protest against pro-slavery 
 legislation. He who shall tell this story of Lincoln's life 
 will be a chronicler worthy of a crown of laurel. 
 
 "When that story is told, the ignorant, coarse, bare- 
 footed rail-splitter, bearing the stamp of ignoble birth, the 
 keen backwoods pettifogger, the joke monger of the cross- 
 roads coterie, the ' Uncle Abe ' who had a mythical popu- 
 larity with the groundlings, will disappear; and in place
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 495 
 
 thereof will emerge the respectably born and well-bred 
 youth, proud and self-containing in the midst of poverty, as 
 dignified in every respect as the young Washington, never 
 descending in all the years of youth or manhood to an am- 
 biguous action or an ambiguous policy ; thoughtful, stu- 
 dious, ambitious, energetic, persistent; availing himself 
 of every opportunity (not at all rare in Illinois in his day) 
 of associating with the gifted in mind and the accom- 
 plished in manners ; manifesting at the very entrance 
 upon his majority qualities of statesmanship in no way 
 unworthy to be compared to those of the younger Pitt; 
 early trusted by the people with their confidence, repaying 
 that confidence with never-failing faithfulness to their in- 
 terests ; and through nearly thirty years of mingling in pub- 
 lic life, ten years of which were in a legislative capacity, 
 addressing himself with clearness, cogency, and unsurpassed 
 eloquence to the discussion and elucidation of important is- 
 sues of civil polity. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln was one statesman in a thousand in 
 respect of never having changed his position upon the politi- 
 cal questions of his day. When he changed from the Whig 
 into the Republican party or rather, when he bridged over 
 the chasm from a moribund to a formative party, by carry- 
 ing over the discussion of the same issues he had for years 
 elucidated by his statesmanlike analysis and his elevated 
 eloquence he kept his record intact. The slavery question 
 was no new one to him; and the issue raised by the Kansas- 
 Nebraska question, therefore, found him ready to meet it at 
 every point. In 1854, after Mr. Douglas had introduced 
 his celebrated bill for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
 
 496 THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln headed the movement in Illinois against the 
 great Democratic senator and leader, and by a discussion 
 equally as masterful as that of four years later, laid strong 
 the foundations of the Republican party. 
 
 "Then came the senatorial canvass of 1858, in which, 
 according to the popular notion, Mr. Lincoln first manifested 
 those qualities which stamped him with a national character. 
 In the estimation of those who had heard him during the 
 score of years preceding that canvass, there were many of 
 his previous efforts that surpassed those of this world-re- 
 nowned debate. As one evidence in support of this asser- 
 tion, reference may be had to one of the members of the 
 present Supreme Bench of Illinois, an old Whig colleague 
 of Mr. Lincoln's, who declared as his deliberate judgment, 
 that Mr. Lincoln's speeches during this canvass were inferior 
 to those he had delivered during any political season in his 
 career. While Mr. Lincoln's efforts that day were but con- 
 sistent with and a logical sequence of all he had ever 
 uttered on the slavery question, yet they were unsatisfac- 
 tory to the extremists of Northern Illinois, many of whom 
 had come out of the Democratic party and had defended or 
 apologized for slavery while Mr. Lincoln had been bearing 
 testimony against it. 
 
 " It was the very fact that Mr. Douglas was not able, at 
 Freeport, a radical stronghold, to induce Mr. Lincoln to vary 
 one hair's breadth from the position he had maintained in 
 the more conservative central and southern portions of Illi- 
 nois that Mr. Lincoln's logical triumph lay at Freeport (to- 
 gether of course, with the fact that he drew out the damag- 
 ing i unfriendly legislation' admission from Douglas), rather
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 497 
 
 than in any extra-masterful dialectics of Lincoln on that oc- 
 casion. It was because he was true to his intellectual 
 greatness, and had that moral consistency which, united 
 with and over topping pilitical consistency, made him equal 
 to the supreme occasion, that gave him the advantage over 
 Douglas. It was the old Lincoln and the old Douglas pitted 
 against each other as they had often been pitted before, 
 but with Douglas off his guard and with new and untried 
 weapons, or at least in a new armor. This is the secret of 
 Freeport. 
 
 " The Cooper Institute speech in New York of the win- 
 ter immediately preceding his nomination was, although one 
 of the grandest efforts of American oratory, but the cap- 
 stone of the edifice that Lincoln had for a generation been 
 slowly, deliberately, studiously, earnestly, building an edi- 
 fice of character and genius upon which the fame of that 
 great man should eventually rest, rather than upon the acts 
 of a period during which he was hampered by annoying and 
 prejudical circumstances, which tended to repress or deflect 
 his mighty genius." 
 
 Following is the anti-slavery protest referred to in the 
 first paragraph of the foregoing essay: 
 
 MARCH 3, 1837. 
 
 "Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having 
 passed both branches of the general assembly, the undersigned 
 hereby protest against the passage of the same. 
 
 "They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on 
 both injustice and bad policy ; but that the promulgation of aboli- 
 tion doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils. 
 
 " They believe that the Congress of the United States has no 
 
 32
 
 498 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 power, under the Constitution, to interfere with the institution of 
 slavery in the different States. 
 
 " They believe that the Congress of the United States has the 
 power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District 
 of Columbia ; but that the power ought not to be exercised unless 
 at the request of the people of said District. 
 
 " The difference between these opinions and those contained in 
 the said resolutions, is their reason for entering this protest. 
 
 " DAN. STONE, 
 " A. LINCOLN, 
 11 Representatives from the County of Sangamon." 
 
 ANDRETW JOHNSON. 
 
 \ NDREW JOHNSON, seventeenth President, was born 
 IX at Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808. At 
 the age of ten he was apprenticed to a tailor, and worked 
 at that business in South Carolina till his seventeenth year. 
 He never attended school, but acquired a good common edu- 
 cation by studying without a teacher. 
 
 Having removed to Greenville, Tennessee, he was chosen 
 mayor of that city in 1830. In 1835 he was elected to the 
 State Legislature, and to the State Senate in 1841. In 
 1843 he was elected to Congress, and served ten years in 
 the House. In 1853 he was elected governor of Tennessee, 
 and re-elected in 1855. In 1857 he was elected to the 
 United States Senate for the term ending with 1863. In 
 politics he was a Democrat, and supported Breckenridge and 
 Lane in the presidential election of 1860. At the outbreak 
 of the rebellion he declared for the Union and supported the
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 499 
 
 measures of the administration. In 1862 President Lincoln 
 appointed him military governor of Tennessee. In 1864 he 
 was nominated by 
 the National Re- 
 publican Conven- 
 tion for the Vice- 
 presidency and 
 duly elected. 
 
 Upon his acces- 
 sion to the Presi- 
 dency, consequent 
 upon the assassina- 
 tion of President 
 Lincoln, the war 
 was substantially 
 closed, and the work 
 of reconstruction, 
 restoration, and the 
 reduction of the 
 great military and 
 naval force then 
 employed, were the problems of his administration. His 
 views did not coincide with those of the majority in Con- 
 gress, and his administration was therefore agitated and 
 stormy. In February, 1868, articles impeaching the Presi- 
 dent passed the House, and the Senate, after due delibera- 
 tion, resolved itself in a court, and tried him upon these ar- 
 ticles. In the following May the vote was taken upon 
 three of the articles there were eleven in all and resulted 
 in an affirmative vote by thirty-five Senators and a negative 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON.
 
 500 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 of nineteen. As two-thirds was required to convict, he was 
 acquitted upon these, and the vote upon the remainder was 
 indefinitely postponed. 
 
 At the close of his term he returned to his home in 
 Tennessee, to again mingle in the political contests of the 
 State. He died July 31, 1875. 
 
 ULYSSES SIMPSON QRANT. 
 
 TTLYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, eighteenth President, was 
 \J born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, April 
 27, 1822. His early youth was spent at his native place, 
 and he acquired 'the rudiments of an English education 
 near Georgetown, in Brown County. In 1839 he was ad- 
 mitted to the military academy at West Point, whence he 
 graduated June 30, 1843. It is said he exhibited no pecu- 
 liar aptness for the studies at West Point, but that what he 
 acquired was through indefatigable industry and hard work. 
 July 1, 1843, he entered the army as brevet second- 
 lieutenant, and was attached to the Fourth Infantry. He 
 served under General Taylor, and afterwards under General 
 Scott, in the Mexican war. For gallant and meritorious 
 conduct at the battle of Chapultepec, Lieutenant Grant re- 
 ceived a brevet of captain in the regular army, to date from 
 September 13, 1847, and a full commission of captain, dat- 
 ing from August, 1853. July 31, 1854, Captain Grant re- 
 signed his commission in the army, settled in St. Louis, and 
 engaged in commercial pursuits till 1859, when he removed 
 to Galena, Illinois.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 501 
 
 Upon the breaking out of rebellion in the spring of 
 1861, Grant offered his services to the country through 
 Governor Yates, 
 of Illinois. He ' 
 was appointed on 
 the governor's 
 staff as muster- 
 ing officer of vol- 
 unteers. June 
 15, 1861, the 
 governor a p- 
 pointed him to 
 the colonelcy of 
 the Twenty-first 
 Illinois Regi- 
 ment, and on the 
 23d of the fol- 
 
 lowing August 
 he was detailed 
 from the com- 
 mand of this regiment and appointed a brigadier-general of 
 United States volunteers, with rank and commission from 
 May 17, 1861. 
 
 As a reward for his skill and gallantry during the cam- 
 paigns in Kentucky and Tennessee, he was promoted to the 
 rank of major-general of volunteers, to date from the sur- 
 render of Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862 ; and, after the 
 capture of Vicksburg, he was made a brigadier-general, and 
 subsequently a major-general, in the regular army. The 
 Thirty-eighth Congress revived the rank of lieutenant-gen- 
 
 ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT.
 
 502 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 eral, and the President, after the passage of the bill, nomi- 
 nated General Grant for the position. This nomination was 
 unanimously confirmed by the Senate March 2, 1864, and 
 on the 8th of the same month the general arrived in Wash- 
 ington, received his commission from the hand of President 
 Lincoln on the 9th, and on the 10th assumed command of 
 the armies, with "head-quarters in the field." April 9, 
 1865, he received the surrender of General Lee and the 
 main body of the army of secession. 
 
 His successes in the field in terminating the rebellion, 
 with the good sense and ability, mingled firmness and mod- 
 eration, which he had uniformly displayed as a leader of 
 events, marked him as the inevitable candidate for the 
 Presidency of the party to whom had fallen the conduct of 
 the war ; and when the National Republican Convention 
 met at Chicago in May, 1868, he was unanimously nomi- 
 nated for the highest office in the gift of freemen. He was 
 elected by the vote of twenty-six States, and by a popular 
 majority exceeding three hundred thousand. 
 
 His administration was very generally in accord with 
 the action of Congress and the prevailing sentiment of the 
 people. Among the leading features of its domestic policy 
 was the gradual restoration to the South of its privileges 
 forfeited by the necessities of war, and the reduction of the 
 public debt ; while its foreign policy secured the negotiation 
 of the treaty of arbitration with England for the settlement 
 of claims arising from the negligence or wrong-doing of that 
 country in relation to certain questions of international law 
 during the rebellion. 
 
 In 1872 he was again chosen by the Republican party
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 503 
 
 as their canditate for the Presidency, and this time received 
 the vote of thirty-one States, giving him a popular majority 
 of more than seven hundred and fifty thousand. His second 
 administration Was conservative and conciliatory, and almost 
 invariably in accord with Congress and the people, and in 
 1877 he retired with the general commendation, "Well done, 
 good and faithful servant." Shortly thereafter he made his 
 great trip around the world, and was everywhere received 
 with distinguished honor. Recently he has been engaged 
 in business in New York, where several years ago he took 
 his residence. 
 
 RUTHKRKORD BIRCHARD HAYES. 
 
 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, nineteenth President, was 
 born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822. He received 
 many advantages of instruction in youth, and at the age of 
 sixteen was admitted to Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio, 
 whence he graduated in 1842, at the head of his class. He 
 chose the law as a profession, and immediately began its study 
 in the office of Thomas Sparrow, at Columbus. Subse- 
 quently he took a course in the Harvard Law School, at 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts. During a session of the courts 
 at Marietta, in 1845, he was admitted to the bar, smd pur- 
 sued the practice of law at Fremont, Ohio, for about four 
 years. 
 
 In 1849. he removed to Cincinnati, where he enjoyed a 
 large practice. In 1858 he was appointed city solicitor by 
 council, to fill a vacancy. He accepted this position with
 
 504 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 much reluctance, but so well did he perform its duties that 
 at the next election he was chosen by the people to con- 
 tinue the exercise of its functions by an unprecedented 
 majority. 
 
 In 1861 he entered the army as major of the Twenty- 
 third Regiment Ohio Volunteers, with which he reached 
 
 Clarksburg, West 
 Virginia, July 27, 
 1861, where the 
 regiment was as- 
 signed to the duty 
 of protecting the 
 Baltimore & Ohio 
 Railroad, and de- 
 fending the border 
 from raids. This 
 duty and occas- 
 sional scouting in 
 the neighborhood 
 occupied the entire 
 season and the fol- 
 lowing summer. 
 Meanwhile Hayes 
 RUTHERFORD B HAYES. had been promoted 
 
 to a lieutenant-colonelcy, and in August, 1862, his regiment 
 was added to General J. D. Cox's division in the Army of 
 the Potomac. 
 
 The battle of South Mountain was fought September 14, 
 1862, and during the engagement Colonel Hayes's arm was 
 shattered by a grape-shot. This wound kept him in the
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 505 
 
 hospital several weeks. Late in the season he, as acting 
 brigadier-general, was placed in command of the Kanawha 
 division of the army, to which the Twenty-third Ohio was 
 attached. A raiH was made by a portion of his force in the 
 vicinity of Saltville, and many miles of railway destroyed. 
 He also took a hand in the interception of John Morgan, 
 as he was attempting to leave Ohio by crossing the river 
 above Pomeroy. 
 
 Early in 1864 the battle of Cloyd Mountain was fought; 
 in July Lynchburg was attacked, followed by the battles 
 of Berryville, Winchester, and North Mountain in all of 
 which General Hayes took conspicuous part. In fact, he 
 participated in all the subsequent engagements of the Shen- 
 andoah campaign, and was brevetted major-general "for 
 gallant and distinguished services during the campaigns of 
 1864 in West Virginia, and particularly in the battles of 
 Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek." 
 
 In 1864, while yet in the army, he was elected to rep- 
 resent the Second Congressional District of Ohio, in the 
 National House. He refused to serve till all the fighting 
 was done necessary to suppress the rebellion, and abided by 
 this resolution ; but took his seat at the opening of the ses- 
 sion of 1865-66. He was re-elected in 1866. In 1867 he 
 was nominated and elected governor of Ohio, and again in 
 1869. In 1875 his party called upon him once more to 
 make the State campaign, and for the third time he was 
 elected to the gubernatorial office. 
 
 June 14, 1876, he was nominated by the National Re- 
 publican Convention, at Cincinnati, for the Presidency, and 
 in the succeeding election the vote was so close that an
 
 506 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 electoral commission was instituted to ascertain the rights 
 of opposing candidates. After careful investigation of all 
 matters in dispute, General Hayes was declared elected, and 
 he was duly inaugurated on March 4, 1877. 
 
 His administration was distinguished for its conciliatory 
 tone, its ready recognition of the rights of those recently 
 in arms against the government, and a determined move- 
 ment for reform in the civil service. At the expiration of 
 his term he retired to his home at Fremont, and has not 
 since entered public life. 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARKIELD. 
 
 JAMES A. GARFIELD, twentieth president, was born 
 November 19, 1831. Before he had attained his sec- 
 ond year his father died, leaving the mother with four 
 children the eldest but ten years impaired health, and a 
 mortgaged homestead. Nevertheless, she resolved to suc- 
 ceed, and history proves the heroism of her exertions. 
 
 Severe toil was the birthright of all the children, and 
 nobly did they improve it. But they found time and op- 
 portunity to acquire the rudiments of an English education, 
 and James was especially fond of books. His spare hours 
 few enough they were invariably found him at study. 
 He grew up, through the clearing, the corn-field, the tow- 
 path, and the log school-house, to enter college in 1854. 
 Here he remained but two years, but they were well 
 employed.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 507 
 
 In 1859 he was elected to the Ohio Senate. In 1861 
 he entered the army as lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-sec- 
 ond Ohio. In January, 1862, a force under his command 
 drove Humphrey Marshall and several thousand Confed- 
 erates out of Kentucky. For this service he was made a 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 
 
 brigadier-general. Through his entire army life his success 
 was proverbial, and when he finally became General Rose- 
 cran's chief of staff, his judgment and advice were valued 
 as highly as the counsel of any officer in the regular army.
 
 508 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 In 1862 he was elected to represent his district in Con- 
 gress, and at the solicitation of many friends, President 
 Lincoln among them, he consented to leave the army and 
 take his seat in the House. This he did in December, 
 1863, and he remained a member of Congress for sixteen 
 years. In January, 1880, he was unanimously elected by 
 the Ohio Legislature a Senator of the United States, but 
 the National Republican Convention of 1880 nominated 
 him for the Presidency, and therefore he did not fill the 
 Senatorship. 
 
 He received 214 of the electoral votes, against 155 for 
 his opponent. His inaugural address, on March 4, 1881, 
 gave promise of an administration of great vigor, which 
 would bring about some needed reforms and greatly im- 
 prove the civil service. His cabinet was selected with rare 
 judgment, and his appointments, so far as they were made, 
 gave satisfaction to the country. He had the affairs of the 
 Nation well in hand, and as he was about to indulge in a 
 short vacation for needed rest, on July 2, 1881, he was shot 
 down by a vulgar assassin, and died from his wound on the 
 19th of the following September. No death was ever more 
 heartily mourned. 
 
 CHESTKR ALLAN ARTHUR, 
 
 /^HESTER A. ARTHUR, twenty-first President, as the 
 V_y constitutional successor of President Grarfield, was born 
 in Franklin County, Vermont, October 5, 1830. He was 
 educated at Union College, and graduated in the class of.
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 509 
 
 '49. In 1851 he entered the office of Judge E. D. Culver, in 
 New York, as a student of the law. After admission to the bar, 
 he met with great success in the practice of his profession. 
 
 CHESTER ALLAN ARTHUR. 
 
 Previous to the outbreak of the rebellion, he was judge- 
 advocate of the Second Brigade New York State Militia, 
 and Governor Morgan, soon after his inauguration, selected 
 him as engineer-in-chief of his staff. In 1861 he held the 
 post of inspector-general, and soon after was advanced to 
 that of quartermaster-general.
 
 510 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 It was through General Arthur's efforts and influence 
 that Hon. Thomas Murphy was made State Senator in New 
 York. Upon the resignation, by the latter, of the collector- 
 ship of the port of New York, November 20, 1871, Presi- 
 dent Grant nominated General Arthur to the position, and 
 four years later, when his term expired, renominated him 
 an honor that had never been shown to any previous col- 
 lector in the history of the port. He was removed by Presi- 
 dent Hayes, July 12, 1878, despite the fact that two 
 special committees made searching investigations of his ad- 
 ministration, and both reported their inability to find any 
 thing upon which to base a charge against him. 
 
 Immediately upon his removal, President Hayes offered 
 him the consul-generalship at Paris. In a letter acknowl- 
 edging a tender of the office, General Arthur expressed his 
 appreciation of the compliment, and his regret that his pri- 
 vate interests were in such a condition that he could not ac- 
 cept it. At the National Republican Convention, at Chicago, 
 in June, 1880, he was nominated for the Vice-presidency 
 on the first ballot, by the vote of 475 delegates to 276 for 
 eight opposing candidates. His letter of acceptance, written 
 on the fifteenth of the following month, was a well-consid- 
 ered document, and attracted attention for the large grasp 
 of ideas and their clear expression. Immediately following 
 the death of President Garfield, General Arthur was invested 
 with the presidential office, and assumed his new duties at 
 once. His administration has been vigorous without offense, 
 and thorough without radicalism. Its record will occupy a 
 desirable page in the annals of the country.
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. 
 
 Unanimously adopted by the Convention at Chicago, June 5, 1884 
 
 THE Republicans of the United States in National Con- 
 vention assembled renew their allegiance to the principles 
 upon which they have triumphed in six successive presiden- 
 tial elections, and congratulate the American people on the 
 attainment of so many results in legislation and administra- 
 tion by which the Republican party has, after saving the 
 Union, done so much to render its institutions just, equal, 
 and beneficent, the safeguard of liberty, and the embodi- 
 ment of the best thought and highest purposes of our 
 citizens. 
 
 The Republican party has gained its strength by quick 
 and faithful response to the demands of the people for the 
 freedom and equality of all men ; for a united Nation, assur- 
 ing the rights of all citizens ; for the elevation of labor ; for 
 an honest currency ; for purity in legislation ; and for integ- 
 rity and accountability in all departments of the govern- 
 ment. And it accepts anew the duty of leading in the work 
 of progress and reform. 
 
 We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound 
 statesmanship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise 
 of a strong and' successful Administration, a promise fully 
 realized during the short period of his office as President of 
 the United States. His distinguished services in war and 
 peace have endeared him to. the hearts of the American 
 
 511
 
 512 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 people. In the Administration of President Arthur we rec- 
 ognize a wise, conservative, and patriotic policy, under 
 which the country has been blessed with remarkable pros- 
 perity ; and we believe his eminent services are entitled to 
 and will receive the hearty approval of every citizen. 
 
 It is the first duty of a good government to protect the 
 rights and promote the interests of its own people. The 
 largest diversity of industry is the most productive of gen- 
 eral prosperity, and of the comfort and independence of the 
 people. We therefore demand that the imposition of duties 
 on foreign imports shall be made, not for revenue only, but 
 that in raising the requisite revenues for the government 
 such duty shall be so levied as to afford security to our di- 
 versified industries and protection to the rights and wages 
 of the laborer to the end that active and intelligent labor, as 
 well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring 
 man his full share in the national prosperity. Against the 
 so-called economic system of the Democratic party, which 
 would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we enter 
 our most earnest protest. The Democratic party has failed 
 completely to relieve the people of the burden of unneces- 
 sary taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. The Re- 
 publican party pledges itself to correct the irregularities of 
 the tariff and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and 
 indiscriminating process of horizontal reduction, but by such 
 methods as will relieve the tax-payer without injuring the 
 laborer or the great productive interests of the country. 
 
 We recognize the importance of sheep-husbandry in the 
 United States, the serious depression which it is now expe- 
 riencing, and the danger threatening its future prosperity; 
 and we, therefore, respect the demands of the representa- 
 tives of this important agricultural interest for a re-adjust-
 
 THE REP UBLICAN PL A TFORM. 513 
 
 ment of duties upon foreign wool in order that such indus- 
 try shall have full and adequate protection. 
 
 We have always recommended the best money to the 
 civilized world, and we urge that efforts should be made to 
 unite all commercial nations in the establishment of an in- 
 ternational standard which shall fix for all the relative value 
 of gold and silver coinage. 
 
 The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and be- 
 tween the States is one of the most important prerogatives 
 of the General Government, and the Republican party dis- 
 tinctly announces its purpose to support such legislation as 
 will fully and efficiently carry out the constitutional power 
 of Congress over inter-State commerce. 
 
 The principle of the public regulation of railway corpo- 
 rations is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all 
 classes of the people, and we favor legislation that shall pre- 
 vent unjust discrimination and excessive charges for trans- 
 portation, and that shall secure to the people and the rail- 
 ways alike the fair and equal protection of the laws. 
 
 We favor the establishment of a National Bureau of 
 Labor ; the enforcement of the eight-hour law ; a wise and 
 judicious system of general education by adequate appro- 
 priation from the national revenues wherever the same is 
 needed. We believe that everywhere the protection of a 
 citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens by 
 American adoption, and we favor the settlement of national 
 differences by international arbitration. 
 
 The Republican party, having its birth in a hatred of- 
 slave labor and a desire that all men may be truly free and 
 equal, is unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in 
 competition with any form of servile labor, whether at home 
 or abroad. In this spirit we denounce the importation of 
 
 33
 
 514 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 contract labor, whether at home or abroad, as an offense 
 against the spirit of American institutions, and we pledge 
 ourselves to sustain the present law, restricting Chinese im- 
 migration, and to provide such further legislation as is neces- 
 sary to carry out its purpose. 
 
 Reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under 
 Republican administration, should be completed by the fur- 
 ther extension of the reform system already established by 
 law to all the grades of the service to which it is applica- 
 ble. The spirit and purpose of the reform should be ob- 
 served in all executive appointments, and all laws at variance 
 with the object of existing reform legislation should be re- 
 peajed, to the end that the dangers of free institutions 
 which lurk in the power of official patronage may be wisely 
 and effectively avoided.. 
 
 The public lands are a heritage of the people of the 
 United States, and should be reserved, as far as possible, 
 for small holdings of actual settlers. We are opposed to the 
 acquisition of large tracts of these lands by corporations or 
 individuals, especially where such holdings are in the hands 
 of non-resident aliens, and we will endeavor to obtain such 
 legislation as will tend to correct this evil. 
 
 We demand of Congress the speedy forfeiture of all 
 land-grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance 
 with acts of incorporation in all cases where there has been 
 no attempt in good faith to perform the conditions of such 
 grants. 
 
 The grateful thanks of the American people are due to 
 the Union soldiers and sailors of the late war, and the Re- 
 publican party stands pledged to suitable pensions for all 
 who were disabled and for the widows and orphans of those 
 who died in the war. The Republican party also pledges
 
 THE REP UBLIGAN PL A TFORM. 515 
 
 itself to the repeal of the limitation contained in the Arrears 
 Act of 1879, so that all invalid soldiers shall share alike 
 and their pensions begin with the date of disability and not 
 with the date of application. 
 
 The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep 
 us from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and which 
 gives us the right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain 
 from meddling in American affairs a policy which seeks 
 peace and trade with all powers, and especially with those 
 of the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time 
 strength and efficiency, that it may in any high sea protect 
 the rights of American citizens and the interests of Ameri- 
 can commerce. We call upon Congress to remove the bur- 
 dens under which American shipping has been depressed, so 
 that it may again be true that we have a commerce which 
 leaves no sea unexplored and a navy which takes no law 
 from superior force. 
 
 Resolved, That the appointment by the President to of- 
 fices in the Territories should be made from the bona fide 
 citizens and residents of the Territories wherein they are to 
 serve. 
 
 Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such 
 laws as shall promptly and effectually suppress the system 
 of polygamy within our Territories, and divorce the political 
 from the ecclesiastical power of the so-called Mormon Church, 
 and that the law so enacted should be rigidly enforced by 
 the civil authorities, if possible, and by the military, if- 
 need be. 
 
 The people of the United States, in their organized cap- 
 acity, constitute a Nation, and not a mere confederation of 
 States. The National Government is supreme within the
 
 516 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 sphere of national duties, but the States have reserved rights 
 which should be faithfully maintained, and which should be 
 guarded with jealous care, so that the harmony of our sys- 
 tem of government may be preserved, and the Union kept 
 inviolate. 
 
 The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the main- 
 tenance of a free ballot, an honest count, and correct re- 
 turns. We denounce the fraud and violence practiced by 
 the Democracy in Southern States, by which the will of the 
 voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free 
 institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party 
 as being the guilty recipient of the fruits of such fraud and 
 violence. 
 
 We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless 
 of their former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and 
 pledge to them our most earnest efforts to promote the pass- 
 age of such legislation as will secure to every citizen, of 
 whatever race and color, the full and complete recognition, 
 possession, and exercise of all civil and political rights.
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES. 
 
 I^HE formal nomination of James Gr. Elaine for the 
 
 Presidency of the United States was made by Judge 
 
 West, of Ohio, at Chicago, June 5, 1884. The nominating 
 address is as follows : 
 
 "Gentlemen of the Convention : As a delegate in the Chicago 
 Convention of 1860, the proudest service of my life was 
 performed by voting for the nomination of that inspired 
 emancipator, the first Republican President of the United 
 States. Four and twenty years of the grandest history in 
 the annals of recorded time have distinguished the ascend- 
 ency of the Republican party. The skies have lowered ; re- 
 verses have threatened ; our flag is still there, waving above 
 the mansion of the Presidency ; not a stain on its folds, not 
 a cloud on its glory. Whether it shall maintain that grand 
 ascendency depends on the action of this great council. 
 With bated breath the Nation awaits the result. On it are 
 fixed the eyes of twenty millions of Republican freemen in 
 the North.' On it, or to it, are stretched forth the imploring 
 hands of ten millions of political bondmen in the South 
 while above, from the portals of light, is looking down the 
 immortal spirit of the immortal martyr who first bore it to 
 victory and bade it God speed. Six times in six campaigns 
 has that banner triumphed. That symbol of union, of free- 
 dom, of humanity, and of progress, some time borne by that 
 silent man of destiny, the Wellington of American arms, 
 
 517
 
 518 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Ulysses the Great and last by him whose untimely taking- 
 off the Nation bewailed and wept above great Garfield's 
 grave: shall that banner triumph again? Commit it to the 
 bearing of that chief, the inspiration of whose illustrious 
 character and great name will fire the hearts of our young 
 men and stir the blood of our manhood and fervid veterans. 
 The close of the seventh campaign will see that holy ensign 
 spanning the sky like a bow of promise. Political condi- 
 tions are changed since the accession of the Republican 
 party to power. The mighty issues of struggling free- 
 dom and bleeding humanity, which convulsed the continent 
 and racked the Republic, united, inspired the forces, the pa- 
 triotism, and the force of humanity in one consolidated pha- 
 lanx. These great issues have ceased their contention; the 
 subordinate issues resulting therefrom are settled and buried 
 away with the dead issues of the past. The odds of a Solid 
 South are against us. Not an electoral gun can be expected 
 from that section. If triumph come, the North the Repub- 
 lican States of the North must furnish the conquering bat- 
 talion; from the farm, the anvil, and the loom; from the 
 mine, the workshop, and the desk ; from the huts of the 
 trapper on snowy Sierra, from the hut of the fisherman on 
 the banks of the Hudson. As the Republican States must 
 furnish this conquering battalion, if triumphant, does not sound 
 political wisdom dictate and demand that a leader shall be 
 given to them whom our people will follow, not as conscripts 
 advancing by funeral marches to certain defeat, but a grand 
 civic hero, whom the souls of the people desire to serve swell- 
 ing the lines with the enthusiasm of volunteers as they sweep 
 on and onward to certain victory ? In this contention of forces,
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES. 519 
 
 to whom as a candidate shall be intrusted our battle-flag? 
 Citizens, I am not here to and may my tongue cleave to 
 the roof of my .mouth if I abate one tittle from the just 
 fame, integrity, and public honor of Chester A. Arthur, our 
 President. I abate not one tittle from the just fame and 
 Republican integrity of George F. Edmunds ; of Joseph R. 
 Hawley, of John Sherman, of that grand old Black Eagle of 
 Illinois ; and I am proud to know that these distinguished 
 Senators whom I have named have borne like testimony to 
 the public life, the public character, and the public integrity 
 of him for whose confirmation they voted to the high office, 
 second in dignity to the office of the President himself 
 the first premiership in the administration of James A. Gar- 
 field. The man for whom these Senators and rivals will vote 
 for Secretary of State of the United States is good enough 
 fort he plain flesh-and-blood God's people to vote for for 
 President. Who shall be our candidate ? 
 
 " Not the representative of a particular interest, or a par- 
 ticular class, send the great apostle to the country. Name 
 the doctors' candidate, the lawyers' candidate, the bankers' 
 candidate, the Wall Street candidate, and the hand of res- 
 surrection would not fathom his November grave. Sir, he 
 must be a representative o f American manhood a repre- 
 sentative of that leading Republicanism that demands the 
 amplest industrial protection and opportunity whereby labor 
 shall be enabled to earn and eat the bread of independent 
 enjoyment, relieved of mendicant competition with pauper 
 Europe or Pagan Chinese. He must be a representative of 
 that Republicanism that demands the absolute political, as 
 well as personal, emancipation and disenthrallment of man-
 
 520 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 kind; a representative of that Republicanism which recog- 
 nizes the stamp of American citizenship as the passport to 
 every right, privilege, and consideration at home or abroad, 
 whether under the sky of Bismarck, under the palmetto, un- 
 der the pelican, or on the banks of the Mohawk that Re- 
 publicanism that regards with detestation a despotism which 
 under the "sic semper tyrannis" of the Old Dominion anni- 
 hilates by slaughter in the name of Democracy; a Repub- 
 licanism that is embodied and stated in the platform of 
 principles this .day adopted by your convention. Gentle- 
 men, such a Republican is James G. Elaine, of Maine." 
 
 [The immense concourse then broke out into great and 
 continued applause, continuing nearly half an hour.] 
 
 " Gentlemen of the convention, it has been urged that in 
 making this nomination every other consideration should 
 merge every other interest be sacrificed, in order and with a 
 view exclusively to securing the Republican vote and carrying 
 the State of New York. Gentlemen^ the Republican party 
 demands of this convention a nominee who has inspiration, 
 a glorious prestige which shall gain the Presidency with or 
 without New York ; who will carry the Legislatures of the 
 several States and avert the sacrifice of the United States 
 Senate ; who shall sweep into the tide Congressional dis- 
 tricts sufficient to recover the House of Representatives and 
 restore it to the Republican party. Three millions of Re- 
 publicans believe that that man who, from the baptism of 
 blood on the plains of Kansas to the fall of the immortal 
 Garfield, in all that struggle of manhood and progress 
 wherever humanity desired succor, wherever freedom called 
 for protection, wherever the country called for a defender,
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES. 521 
 
 or wherever blows fell thickest and fastest, there in the fore- 
 front of the battle was seen to wave the white plume of 
 James G. Elaine, our Henry of Navarre. 
 
 "Nominate him, and results of a September victory in 
 Maine will be re-echoed back by the thunders of the Octo- 
 ber victory in Ohio. Nominate him, and the camp-fires and 
 beacon lights will illuminate' the Continent from the Golden 
 Gate to Cleopatra's Needle. Nominate* him, and the mill- 
 ions who are now in waiting, will rally to swell the column 
 of victory that is sweeping on. 
 
 " In the name of the majority of the delagates from the 
 Republican States, and their glorious constituencies who 
 must fight this battle, I nominate James G. Elaine, of 
 Maine." [Great and long-continued applause.] 
 
 General John A. Logan was named for the presidential 
 office, at Chicago, June 5, 1884, by Senator Shelby M. 
 Cullom, of Illinois. The Senator's speech is herewith re- 
 produced : 
 
 " Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : Twenty- 
 four years ago the Second National Convention of the Re- 
 publican party met in this city and nominated its first suc- 
 cessful candidate for President of the United States, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln led the Republican party 
 to its first great victory, and stands to-day in the estimation 
 of the world as the grandest figure and most majestic figure 
 in all modern time. Again, in 1868, another Republican 
 convention came together in this city, and nominated as its 
 candidate for President of the United States, another emi- 
 nent citizen of Illinois, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and the Re-
 
 522 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 publican party was again victorious. Still again, in 1880, 
 the Republican party turned its face toward this political 
 mecca, where two successful campaigns had been organized, 
 and the martyred Garfield led the Republican hosts to 
 another glorious victory. Mr. President and fellow-citizens, 
 it is good for us to be here. There are omens of victory 
 in the air. History repeats itself. There are promises 
 of triumph to the Republican party in holding its national 
 nominating conventions in this great emporium of the 
 North-west. 
 
 " The Commonwealth of Illinois, which has never wavered 
 in its devotion to Republican principles since it gave to the 
 Nation aye, to the world the illustrious Lincoln, has com- 
 missioned me, through its Republican voters, to present to 
 this convention, for its consideration, as the standard-bearer 
 of the Republican party, another son of Illinois, one whose 
 name will be recognized from one end of this land to the 
 other as an able statesman, a brilliant soldier, and an honest 
 man, Gen. John A. Logan, of Illinois. 
 
 " He is a native of the State which he now represents in 
 the councils of the Nation. Reared among the youth of a 
 section where every element of manhood is early brought 
 into play, he is eminently a man of the people, identified 
 with them in interest, in taste, and in feeling, and enjoying 
 their sympathy, respect, and confidence. The safety, the 
 permanency, and the prosperity of the Nation depend upon 
 the courage, the integrity, the intelligence, and the loyalty 
 of its citizens. When yonder starry flag was assailed by 
 enemies in arms, when the integrity of the Union was im- 
 periled by organized treason, when the storm of war threat-
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES. 523 
 
 ened the very life of this Nation, this gallant son of the 
 Prairie State resigned his seat in the Congress of the United 
 States, returned. to his home, and was among the first of 
 our citizens to raise a regiment, and to march to the front 
 in defense of his country. Like Douglas, he believed that 
 in time of war, men must be either patriots or traitors, and 
 he threw his mighty influence on the side of the Union, and 
 Illinois made a record second to none in the history of 
 States, in the struggle to preserve this government. 
 
 " Among the large number of the brave soldiers of the late 
 war, whose names are proudly written on the scroll of fame, 
 none appear more grandly than the name of Logan. His 
 history is a part of the history of the battles of Belmont, of 
 Donelson, of Shiloh, of Vicksburg, of Lookout Mountain, 
 of Atlanta, and of the famous March to the Sea. He never 
 lost a battle. I repeat again, Mr. President and fellow-citi- 
 zens, he never lost a battle in all the struggles of the war. 
 When there was fighting to be done he did not wait for 
 orders, neither did he fail to obey orders when received. 
 His plume, like the white plume of Henry of Navarre, was 
 always to be seen at the point where the battle raged the hot- 
 test. During the long struggle of four years, he commanded, 
 by authority of the government, first a regiment, then a bri- 
 gade, then a division, then an army corps, and finally an army. 
 He remained in the service until the war closed, when, at 
 the head of his army, with the scars of battle upon him, he 
 marched into the capital of the Nation, and, with the brave 
 men whom he had led on a hundred hard-fought fields, was 
 mustered out of service under the very shadow of the Capi- 
 tol building which he had left four years before as a
 
 524 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 member of Congress, to go out and fight the battles of his 
 country. 
 
 " Then, when the war was over, and gentle peace, which 
 'hath her victories,' returned, he was again called by his 
 fellow-citizens to take his place in the councils of the Na- 
 tions. In a service of twenty years in both Houses of Con- 
 gress he has shown himself to be no less able and distin- 
 guished as a statesman than he was renowned as a soldier. 
 Cautious, prudent, conservative in the advocacy of measures 
 involving the public welfare, ready and eloquent in debate, 
 fearless yes, I repeat again, fearless in defense of the 
 rights of the weak against the oppressions of the strong, he 
 stands to-day and I say it without disposition to pluck one 
 laurel from the brow of any man whose name may be pre- 
 sented to this convention I say he stands to-day in my 
 judgment closer to the great mass of the people of this 
 country than almost any other man now engaging public 
 attention. No man has done more in defense of those prin- 
 ciples which have given life, and spirit, and victory to the 
 Republican party than has John A. Logan, of Illinois. In 
 all that goes to make up a brilliant military and civil career 
 and to commend a man to the favor of the people, he, whose 
 name we have presented here to-night has shown himself 
 to be the peer of the best. 
 
 " We ask, you, therefore, to give him this nomination be- 
 cause he would not be assailed and he is not assailable. 
 We ask you to nominate him because his public record is so 
 clean that even political calumny dare not attack it. We 
 ask you to nominate him in behalf of the hundreds of thou- 
 sands of brave veteran volunteer soldiers who are to-night,
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES. 525 
 
 all over this broad land, standing around the telegraph 
 offices waiting to know whether that gallant leader of the 
 volunteer soldiers of this country is to receive the nomination 
 at your hands. We ask you to nominate him in behalf of 
 the white and black Republicans of the South who are here 
 by the hundreds appealing to this convention, as the repre- 
 sentative of our grand old party, to give your protection 
 and to vindicate them in their rights in the South. 
 
 " Now, my friends, standing in the midst of this vast 
 assembly of representative citizens of this grand Republic 
 aye, in the sublime presence of the people themselves, rep- 
 resented here to-night in all their majesty we offer you 
 the name of a tried hero and patriot, the sagacious and in- 
 corruptible statesman, the man who, as we all know, never 
 sulked in his tent; we offer you General John A. Logan, 
 of Illinois, and ask you to make him your nominee. If 
 you will give him the nomination he will give you a glori- 
 ous victory in November next; and when he shall have 
 taken his position as President of this great Republic you 
 may be assured you will have an administration in the in- 
 terest of labor, in the interest of education, in the interest 
 of commerce, in the interest of finance, in the interest of 
 peace at home and peace abroad, and in the interest of the 
 prosperity of this great people." 
 
 No speech of the same length in the English language 
 ever occasioned such a furore as that of Hon. Robert G. 
 Ingersoll in presenting the name of James G. Elaine for the 
 presidential nomination, at the Cincinnati convention in
 
 526 THE VOTERS 1 HAND-BOOK. 
 
 June, 1876. It is in persistent demand everywhere, and is 
 herewith reproduced for permanent preservation : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Republicans 
 of the United States demand as their leader in the great 
 contest of 1876 a man of intelligence, a man of well-known 
 and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman ; 
 they demand a reformer after as well as before the elec- 
 tion. They demand a politician in the highest, broadest, 
 and best sense a man of superb moral courage. They 
 demand a man acquainted with public affairs, with the 
 wants of the people ; with not only the requirements of the 
 hour, but with the demands of the future. 
 
 " They demand a man broad enough to comprehend the 
 relations of the government to the other nations of the 
 earth. They demand a man well versed in the powers, 
 duties and prerogatives of each and every department of 
 this government. They demand a man who will sacredly 
 preserve the financial honor of the United States ; one who 
 knows enough to know that the National debt must be paid 
 through the prosperity of this people ; one who knows 
 enough to know that all the financial theories in the world 
 can not redeem a single dollar ; one who knows enough to 
 know that all the money must be made, not by law, but by 
 labor; one who knows enough to know that the people of 
 the United States have the industry to make the money, 
 and the honor to pay it over just as fast as they make it. 
 
 "The Republicans of the United States demand a man 
 who knows that prosperity and resumption, when they 
 come, must come together ; that when they come they will
 
 NOMINATING SPEECHES. 527 
 
 come hand in hand through the golden harvest fields ; hand 
 in hand by the whirling spindles and the turning wheels ; 
 hand in hand past the open furnace doors ; hand in hand by 
 the chimneys filled with eager fire, greeted and grasped by 
 the countless sons of toil. 
 
 " This money has to be dug out of the earth. You can 
 not make it by passing resolutions in a political convention. 
 
 "The Republicans of the United States want a man 
 who knows that this government should protect every citi- 
 zen, at home and abroad ; who knows that any government 
 that will not defend its defenders and protect its protectors 
 is a disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a man 
 who believes in the eternal separation and divorcement of 
 Church and school. They demand a man whose political 
 reputation is as spotless as a star ; but they do not demand 
 that their candidate shall have a certificate of moral char- 
 acter signed by a Confederate Congress. The man who has 
 in full-heaped and rounded measure all these splendid 
 qualifications is the present grand and gallant leader of the 
 Republican party James G. Elaine. 
 
 " Our country, crowned with the vast and marvelous 
 achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of 
 the past and prophetic of her future ; asks for a man who 
 has the audacity of genius ; asks for a man who is the 
 grandest combination of heart, conscience, and brain beneath 
 her flag such a man is James G. Elaine. For the Repub- 
 lican host, led by this intrepid man, there can be no defeat. 
 
 " This is a grand year a year filled with recollections 
 of the Revolution ; filled with the proud and tender memo- 
 ries of the past ; with the sacred legends of liberty a year
 
 528 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 in which the sons of freedom will drink from the fountains 
 of enthusiasm; a year in which the people call for a man 
 who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon 
 the field; a year in which they call for the man who has 
 torn from the throat of treason the tongue of slander for 
 the man who has snatched the mask of Democracy from the 
 hideous face of rebellion ; for this man, who, like an intel- 
 lectual athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and chal- 
 lenged all comers, and who is still a total stranger to defeat. 
 
 " Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James 
 G. Elaine marched down the halls of the American Congress 
 and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen 
 foreheads of the defamers of his country and the maligners 
 of his honor. For the Republican party to desert this gal- 
 lant leader now is as though an army should desert their 
 general upon the field of battle. 
 
 " James G. Elaine is now, and has been for years, the 
 bearer of the sacred standard of the Republican party. I 
 call it sacred because no human being can stand beneath its 
 folds without becoming and without remaining free. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the convention, in the name of the great 
 Republic, the only republic that ever existed upon this earth ; 
 in the name of all her defenders and of all her supporters; 
 in the name of all her soldiers living ; in the name of all her 
 soldiers dead upon the field of battle, and in the name of 
 those who perished in the skeleton-clutch of famine at An- 
 dersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly remem- 
 bers, Illinois Illinois nominates for the next President of 
 this country that prince of parliamentarians that leader of 
 leaders James G. Elaine."
 
 THE VOTER'S HAND-BOOK. 
 
 529 
 
 SUMMARY OF POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES 
 
 For President and Vice-president of the United States, 1789 188O. 
 
 Year of Election.. 
 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 3D 
 
 r* 
 
 1 
 
 j 
 
 | 
 
 ? 
 
 M 
 
 POLITICAL 
 PARTY. 
 
 * PRESIDENTS. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 VOTE. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 Blec'ral Vote. 
 
 3 
 o 
 
 States 
 
 Popular. 
 
 Electoral. 
 
 1789 
 
 1792 
 1796 
 
 1800 
 
 tio 
 
 15 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 73 
 
 133 
 138 
 
 138 
 
 
 Geoi'ge Washington.... 
 
 
 
 (fl 
 
 
 
 
 John Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 6 
 6 
 4 
 3 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 4 
 
 
 John Jay 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 R. H. Harrison 
 John Rutledge 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Hancock 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Geoi'ge Clinton 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Samuel Huntingdon.. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jolni Milton 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 James Armstrong 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bi'ijjaniiu Lincoln 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Edward Telfair 
 
 
 
 
 
 Federalist.... 
 Federalist..... 
 Republican- 
 
 Vacancies'. 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 George Washington.... 
 
 
 
 1<?> 
 
 
 John Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 77 
 50 
 4 
 1 
 3 
 
 George Clinton 
 Thomas Jefferson 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Aaron Burr 
 
 
 
 
 
 Federalist,... 
 Republican- 
 Federalist.... 
 Republican.. 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 John Adams 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 
 Thomas Jefferson 
 
 
 
 
 
 68 
 59 
 30 
 15 
 11 
 7 
 5 
 3 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 
 Thomas Piuckney 
 
 
 
 
 
 Aaron Burr 
 
 
 
 
 
 Samuel Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oliver Ellsworth 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 George Clinton 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John J;iy 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 James Iredell 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 George Washington... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Henry 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S. Johnson 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles C. Pinckney.. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Republican.. 
 Republican- 
 Federalist.... 
 Federalist.... 
 
 Thomas Jefferson 
 
 
 
 ITS 
 
 
 Aaron Burr 
 
 
 
 
 
 {73 
 65 
 
 64 
 
 1 
 
 John Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles C. Pinckney... 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Jay 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * Previous to the election of 1804 each elector voted for two candidates for President ; 
 the one receiving the highest number of votes, if a majority, was declared elected Presi- 
 dent; and the next highest, Vice-president. 
 
 t Three States out of thirteen did not vote, viz.: New York, which had not passed an 
 electoral law ; and North Carolina, and Rhode Island, which had not adopted the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 t There having been a tie vote, the choice devolved upon the House of Representa- 
 tives. A choice was made on the 36th ballot, which was as follows: Jefferson Georgia, 
 Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, 
 Vermont, and Virginia 10 States; Burr Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire 
 and Rhode Island 4 States ; Blank Delaware and South Carolina 2 States.
 
 530 
 
 THE VOTERS HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Summary of Popular and Electoral Votes Continued. 
 
 Year of Election... 
 
 | No. of States 
 
 Total Elec'l Vote. 
 
 POLITICAL 
 PAETY. 
 
 PRESIDENTS. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 VOTE. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 Elec'ral Vote. 
 
 States 
 
 Popular. 
 
 Electoral. 
 
 1804 
 1808 
 
 1812 
 1816 
 
 1820 
 1824 
 
 1828 
 1832 
 
 1836 
 
 17 
 17 
 
 18 
 19 
 
 24 
 24 
 
 24 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 176 
 17(i 
 
 218 
 221 
 
 2.'55 
 2lil 
 
 261 
 
 288 
 
 294 
 
 Republican.. 
 Federalist.... 
 
 Republican.. 
 Federalist.... 
 
 rhoiiias Jefferson 
 
 IT) 
 
 
 102 
 14 
 
 122 
 17 
 
 Ueorge Clinton 
 
 162 
 14 
 
 113 
 47 
 9 
 3 
 3 
 1 
 
 131 
 
 86 
 1 
 
 183 
 22 
 5 
 4 
 3 
 4 
 
 218 
 8 
 4 
 
 1 
 1 
 3 
 
 182 
 30 
 24 
 13 
 9 
 2 
 1 
 
 171 
 83 
 7 
 
 189 
 49 
 11 
 7 
 30 
 2 
 
 147 
 77 
 47 
 23 
 
 Charles C. Pinckney... 
 
 2 
 
 
 Rufus King 
 
 James Madison 
 
 1" 
 
 
 George Clinton 
 
 Charles C. Pinckney.... 
 
 6 
 
 
 Kut'ns Kiiui 
 
 George Clinton 
 
 
 
 (i 
 
 John Liingdon 
 
 
 
 
 
 James M:idison 
 James Monroe 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Republican.. 
 Federalist.... 
 
 Vacancy.. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 James Madison 
 
 11 
 
 
 128 
 81) 
 1 
 
 Klbi'idge Gerry 
 
 De Witt Clinton... 
 
 
 
 Jared lngersoll 
 
 Vacancy 
 
 
 
 
 Republican.. 
 Federalist.... 
 
 James Monroe. 
 
 10 
 
 
 18:; 
 
 3-1 
 
 D. D. Tompkins 
 John E. Howaid 
 James Ross 
 
 Kufus King 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Marshall 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Robert G. Harper 
 
 Republican.. 
 Opposition... 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 James Monroe 
 
 'M 
 
 
 2,31 
 1 
 
 D. D Tompkins 
 Richard Stockton.... 
 Diuiiel Rodney 
 
 John Q, Adams... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Robert G. Harper 
 Richard Rush 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Republican.. 
 Coalition 
 Republican.. 
 Republican.. 
 
 Vacancies . 
 
 
 
 jj 
 
 
 Andrew Jackson 
 John Q. Adams 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 8 
 8 
 
 155,872 
 105,321 
 44.282 
 4,587 
 
 *9!l 
 84 
 -11 
 37 
 
 John C. Calhoun 
 Nathan Santord. 
 Nathaniel Macon 
 Andrew Jackson 
 M. Van Bureii 
 
 Win. H Crawford 
 Henry Clay 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Henry Clay 
 
 Democratic.. 
 Nat. Repub.. 
 
 Vacancy. .. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Andrew Jackson 
 
 15 
 9 
 
 647,231 
 509,097 
 
 178 
 83 
 
 John C, Calhoun 
 Richard Rush 
 
 John Q,. Adams ... 
 
 
 William Smith 
 
 Democratic.. 
 Nat. Repub. 
 
 
 15 
 7 
 1 
 1 
 
 687,502 
 530,189 
 
 33,108 
 
 219 
 49 
 11 
 7 
 
 M Van Buren 
 
 Henry Clay 
 
 John Sergeant 
 
 John Floyd i 
 
 Henry Lee 
 
 Anti-Mason 
 
 William Wirt ) 
 
 Amos Ellmaker 
 William Wilkins 
 
 
 Democratic.. 
 Wliig. 
 
 Vacancies.. 
 
 
 
 
 Martin VimBuren 
 Win. H. Harrison 1 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 761,549 
 736,656 
 
 17(1 
 21 
 
 n 
 11 
 
 R. M. Johnson f 
 Francis Granger 
 lohn Tyler 
 
 Whig 
 
 Hugh L. While 1 
 Daniel Webster [ 
 W. P. Manguiu ) 
 
 Whig 
 
 William Smith 
 
 Whig 
 

 
 THE VOTER'S HAND-BOOK. 
 
 531 
 
 Summary of Popular and Electoral Votes Continued. 
 
 Year of Election... 
 
 No. of States 
 
 :;_ 
 H 
 
 ^" 
 f 
 
 POLITICAL 
 PARTY. 
 
 PKEMDENIS. 
 
 VICK-PRESIDENIS. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 TOTE. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 Elec'ral Vote. 
 
 StntPH 
 
 Popular. 
 
 S 
 
 ? 
 ?_ 
 
 284 
 00 
 
 1840 
 
 1844 
 1848 
 1852 
 1856 
 1860 
 
 1864 
 1868 
 1872 
 
 1876 
 1880 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 aa 
 
 81 
 
 31 
 88 
 
 :J6 
 
 t-;7 
 n 
 
 88 
 88 
 
 ..".U 
 
 275 
 J'HI 
 JOG 
 -m 
 90S 
 
 :i!4 
 517 
 
 :JC6 
 
 :;>;: 
 .<( 
 
 Whig- 
 
 Wm. H. Harrison 
 Martin Van Buren 
 James G. Birney 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 1,275,017 
 1,128.702 
 7,059 
 
 John Tyltr 
 
 234 
 
 48 
 
 Democratic . 
 Liberty 
 
 R. M. Johnson 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L. W. Tazewell. 
 
 11 
 1 
 
 170 
 105 
 
 Democratic.. 
 Whig 
 
 James K. Polk 
 
 lo 
 11 
 
 1,337,243 
 1,299,06S 
 62,300 
 
 1,360,101 
 1,220,544 
 291,263 
 
 17H 
 105 
 
 James K. Polk 
 Geo. M. Dallas 
 
 Henry Clay 
 
 T. Frelinghuysen 
 
 Liberty 
 
 Whig'. 
 Democratic.. 
 Free Soil 
 
 Democratic.. 
 Wiiig 
 
 James G. Birney 
 
 Zachary Taylor 
 Lewis Cass 
 Martin Van Buren 
 
 15 
 15 
 
 !(>> 
 127 
 
 Millard Fillmore 
 Wm. O. Butler. 
 
 168 
 127 
 
 C'has. F. Adams ... 
 
 Franklin Pierce 
 
 27 
 4 
 
 19 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 11 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 >2 
 3 
 11 
 
 1,601,474 
 1.SW.578 
 106,149 
 
 1,838,169 
 1,341,264 
 874,534 
 
 1 ,806,352 
 845,7( 
 589,581 
 1,375,157 
 
 2,216,067 
 1,808,725 
 
 L'54 
 4'.' 
 
 174 
 114 
 
 S 
 
 INI 
 72 
 80 
 12 
 
 212 
 21 
 
 M 
 
 Wm. R. King 
 
 254 
 42 
 
 Winfield Scott. 
 
 Win. A. Graham 
 Geo. W. Julian 
 
 Free Dem.... 
 
 Democratic.. 
 Republican. 
 
 American.... 
 
 Republican- 
 Democratic.. 
 Cons. Union 
 Ind. Dein.... 
 
 Republican.. 
 Democratic- 
 Republican.. 
 Democratic- 
 Republican. 
 Dem. & Lib.. 
 Democratic.. 
 Temperance 
 
 John P. Hale 
 James Buchanan 
 
 J. C. Breckinridge.... 
 Wm Ij. Dayton 
 
 174 
 114 
 8 
 
 180 
 72 
 39 
 12 
 
 212 
 21 
 81 
 
 214 
 80 
 23 
 
 286 
 47 
 5 
 5 
 3 
 3 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 14 
 
 185 
 184 
 
 John C. Fremont 
 
 Millard Fillmore 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 J. C. Breckiuridse 
 John Bell 
 
 A. J. Donelsou 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin... 
 Joseph Lsine 
 
 Edward Everett 
 H. V. Johnson 
 
 S. A. Douglas 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 Geo. B McClellan 
 Vacancies. 
 
 Andrew Johnson 
 G. H. Pendletou 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant 
 
 2H 
 
 8 
 1 
 
 3,015,071 
 2,709,613 
 
 214 
 Bb 
 
 2;> 
 
 Schuyler Colfax 
 
 Horatio Seymour. 
 
 F. P. Blair, Jr 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant 
 Horace Greely 
 
 31 
 6 
 
 3,597,070 
 2,834,079 
 29,408 
 
 2.>i 
 
 Henry Wilson 
 
 B. Gratz Brown 
 
 Charles U'Conor . 
 
 Geo. W. Julian 
 
 James Black 
 
 
 5,608 
 
 '4.: 
 
 1?5 
 1 
 I 
 
 A. H. Colquitt 
 John M. Palmer 
 T. E. Bramlette 
 W. S. Groesbeck 
 Willis B. Maclien 
 N. P Banks 
 
 flios. A. Hendricks.... 
 B. Gratz Brown 
 
 
 
 Charles J. Jenkins 
 
 
 
 
 Davil Davis 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Republican.. 
 Democratic.. 
 Greenback... 
 Prohibition. 
 
 I Not Counted. 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 Rutherford B. Hayes.. 
 Samuel J. Tilden 
 Peter Cooper 
 
 L'l 
 
 17 
 
 4,033,950 
 
 4,284,88.5 
 81,740 
 
 ls.5 
 1S4 
 
 Wm. A. Wheeler.... 
 T. A. Hendricks 
 
 Green Clay Smith. 
 
 
 9,522 
 2,636 
 
 
 
 
 Scattering 
 
 
 
 
 
 Republican. 
 Democralic.. 
 Greenback.... 
 
 James A. Garfleld 
 Winfleld S. Hancock- 
 James B. Weaver 
 
 19 
 1!) 
 
 4,449,053 
 4,442,035 
 307,306 
 12,576 
 
 J14 
 
 155 
 
 Chester A. Arthur. ... 
 Wm. H. English 
 B. J. Chambers 
 
 214 
 155 
 
 Scattering 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * Eleven States did not vote, viz. : Alabama. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missis- 
 sippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 
 
 ' Three States did not vote, viz: : Mississippi, Texas, iind Virginia. 
 
 I Three electoral votes of Georgia ca*t lor Hor-ice Greely, a id the votes of Arkansas, 6, and 
 Louisiana, 8. cast for U. S. (Jrant, were i ejected. If all had been included in the count, the elec- 
 toral vote would have been 300 for U. S. Grant, and 66 for opposing candidates.
 
 532 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 POPULAR VOTE AT THE ELECTION OF 1880 AND 1876. 
 
 STATES. 
 
 188O. 
 
 1876. 
 
 Hancock. 
 Dem. 
 
 Garfleld. 
 Rep. 
 
 Tilden. 
 Dem. 
 
 Hayes. 
 .Rep. 
 
 
 90,687 
 60,489 
 80,426 
 24,647 
 64,417 
 15,183 
 27,964 
 102,522 
 277,321 
 225,528 
 105,845 
 59,789 
 147,999 
 65,310 
 65,171 
 93,706 
 111,900 
 131,300 
 53,315 
 75,7-50 
 208,609 
 28,523 
 9,611 
 40,794 
 122,565 
 534,511 
 124,204 
 340,821 
 19,948 
 407,428 
 10,779 
 112,312 
 128,191 
 156,228 
 18,181 
 127,976 
 57,391 
 114,634 
 
 56,178 
 41,661 
 80,348 
 27,450 
 67,073 
 14,150 
 23,654 
 52,648 
 318,037 
 232,164 
 183,904 
 121,520 
 104,550 
 37,994 
 74,039 
 78,515 
 165,205 
 185,190 
 93,903 
 34,854 
 153,567 
 54,979 
 8,732 
 44,852 
 120,555 
 555,544 
 115,878 
 375,048 
 20,619 
 444,704 
 18,195 
 58,071 
 107,677 
 57,845 
 45,090 
 84,020 
 46,243 
 144,397 
 
 102,002 
 58,071 
 76,465 
 By Legis 
 61,934 
 13,381 
 22,923 
 130,088 
 258,601 
 213,526 
 112,099 
 37,902 
 159,690 
 70,508 
 49,823 
 91,780 
 108,777 
 141,095 
 48,799 
 112,173 
 203,077 
 17,554 
 9,308 
 38,509 
 115,962 
 521,949 
 125,427 
 323,182 
 14,149 
 366,158 
 10,712 
 90,906 
 133,166 
 104,755 
 20,254 
 139,670 
 56,455 
 123,927 
 
 68,230 
 38,669 
 79,269 
 lature. 
 59,034 
 10,752 
 23,849 
 50,446 
 278,232 
 208,011 
 171,327 
 78,322 
 97,156 
 75,135 
 66,300 
 71,981 
 150,063 
 166,534 
 72,962 
 52,605 
 145,029 
 31,916 
 10,383 
 41,539 
 103,517 
 489,207 
 108,417 
 330,698 
 15,206 
 384,122 
 15,787 
 91,870 
 89,566 
 44,800 
 44,092 
 95,558 
 42,698 
 130,668 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Florida 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maine 
 
 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Missouri 
 
 
 Nevada 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 North. Carolina 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Oregon, 
 
 Pennsylvania ... 
 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 Tennessee .... 
 
 Texas, 
 
 
 Virginia 
 
 
 Wisconsin ........ 
 
 Total, 
 
 4,442,035 
 
 4,449,053 
 7,018 
 ,882 
 ,970 
 
 4,284,757 
 250,807 
 93 
 8,412 
 
 4,033,950 
 
 ,298 
 ,605 
 
 Plurality 
 
 All others ....... 
 
 319 
 
 9,210 
 
 Total vote 

 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 533 
 
 POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTE FOR PRESIDENT, 1880. 
 
 STATES. 
 
 Garfield. 
 Rep. 
 
 Hancock. 
 Dem. 
 
 Weaver. 
 Gr. 
 
 Scat- 
 tering. 
 
 Total 
 Popular 
 Vote. 
 
 Electoral vote. 
 
 Gar- 
 field. 
 
 Han- 
 cock. 
 
 To- 
 tal. 
 
 Alabama, .... 
 Arkansas, - . . 
 California, . . . 
 Colorado, . . . 
 Connecticut, . . 
 Delaware, . . . 
 Florida, .... 
 Georgia, .... 
 Illinois, .... 
 Indiana, .... 
 Iowa 
 
 56,178 
 41,661 
 80,348 
 27,450 
 67,073 
 14,150 
 23,654 
 52,648 
 318,037 
 232,164 
 183,904 
 121,520 
 104,550 
 37,994 
 74,039 
 78,515 
 165,205 
 185,190 
 93,903 
 34,854 
 153,567 
 54,979 
 8,732 
 44,852 
 120,555 
 555,544 
 115,878 
 375,048 
 20,619 
 444,704 
 18,195 
 58,071 
 107,677 
 57,845 
 45,090 
 84,020 
 46,243 
 144,397 
 
 90,687 
 60,489 
 80,426 
 24,647 
 64,417 
 15,183 
 27,964 
 102,522 
 277,321 
 225,528 
 105,845 
 59,789 
 147,999 
 65,310 
 65,171 
 93,706 
 111,960 
 131,300 
 53,315 
 75,750 
 208,609 
 28,523 
 9,611 
 40,794 
 122,565 
 534,511 
 124,204 
 340,821 
 19,948 
 407,428 
 10,779 
 112,312 
 128,191 
 156,228 
 18,181 
 127,976 
 57,391 
 114,634 
 
 4,642 
 4,079 
 3,392 
 1,435 
 868 
 
 412 
 
 151,507 
 106,229 
 164,166 
 53,532 
 132,770 
 29,333 
 51,618 
 155,651 
 622,312 
 470,678 
 322,706 
 201,019 
 264,304 
 97,201 
 143,853 
 173,039 
 282,512 
 352,441 
 150,771 
 117,078 
 397,221 
 87,355 
 18,343 
 86,363 
 245,928 
 1,104,605 
 241,218 
 724,967 
 40,816 
 874,783 
 29,235 
 170,956 
 241,827 
 241,478 
 64,593 
 212,135 
 112,713 
 267,172 
 
 1 
 3 
 6 
 
 21 
 
 15 
 11 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 11 
 5 
 
 3 
 5 
 35 
 
 22 
 3 
 29 
 4 
 
 5 
 ' 10 
 
 H) 
 6 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 11 
 
 ' 12 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 15 
 
 3 
 9 
 
 ' 10 
 
 7 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 ' 11 
 5 
 
 10 
 6 
 6 
 3 
 6 
 3 
 4 
 11 
 21 
 15 
 11 
 5 
 12 
 8 
 7 
 8 
 13 
 11 
 5 
 8 
 15 
 3 
 3 
 5 
 9 
 35 
 10 
 22 
 3 
 29 
 4 
 7 
 12 
 8 
 5 
 11 
 5 
 10 
 
 
 
 481 
 26,358 
 12,986 
 32,327 
 19,710 
 11,498 
 439 
 4,408 
 818 
 4,548 
 34,795 
 3,267 
 5,797 
 35,045 
 3,853 
 
 596 
 630 
 257 
 235 
 
 799 
 1,156 
 286 
 677 
 
 Kansas, .... 
 Kentucky, . . . 
 Louisiana,*. . . 
 Maine,t .... 
 Maryland, . . . 
 Massachusetts, . 
 Michigan, . . . 
 Minnesota, . . . 
 Mississippi, . . 
 Missouri, . . . 
 Nebraska, . . . 
 Nevada, .... 
 New Hampshire, 
 New Jersey, . . 
 New York, . . . 
 North Carolina, 
 Ohio 
 
 528 
 2,617 
 12,373 
 1,136 
 6,456 
 249 
 20,668 
 236 
 566 
 5,916 
 27,405 
 1,212 
 139 
 9,079 
 7,980 
 
 189 
 191 
 2,177 
 
 '2,642 
 
 1,983 
 25 
 
 43 
 110 
 
 161 
 
 Oregon, .... 
 Pennsylvania, . 
 Rhode Island, . 
 South Carolina, 
 Tennessee, . . . 
 Texas 
 
 Vermont, . . . 
 Virginia, .... 
 West Virginia, 
 Wisconsin, . . . 
 
 Total,. . . . 
 Plurality, . 
 Per cent, .... 
 
 4,449,053 
 7,018 
 48.26 
 
 4,442,035 
 
 307,306 
 
 12,570 
 
 9,204,428 
 
 214 
 59 
 5800 
 
 155 
 
 42.00 
 
 369 
 
 48.25 
 
 3.33 
 
 .13 
 
 
 
 
 *ln Louisiana, two Republican Electoral tickets were voted for: the regular Re- 
 publican, and the Beattie or Grant Republican. The latter received about 9,740 votes, 
 not returned in the first table published. 
 
 fin Maine the Hancock Electoral ticket was styled " Fusion," containing 3 Demo- 
 cratic and 4 Greenback Electors Besirl.-s this a " Straight " Greenback Electoral ticket 
 Was voted for, with Weaver's name at the head.
 
 534 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 PRESIDENTS AND THEIR CABINETS. 
 
 PRESIDENTS. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 QUALIFIED. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 QUALIFIED. 
 
 George Washington 
 George Washington 
 John Adams .... 
 
 April 30, 1789 
 March 4, 179; > 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 John Adams . . . 
 John Adams . . . 
 Thomas Jefferson . 
 
 June 3, 1789 
 Dec. 2, 1793 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 Thomas Jefferson . 
 
 March 4, 1801 
 
 Aaron Burr .... 
 
 March 4, 1801 
 
 Thomas Jefferson . 
 
 March 4, 1805 
 
 George Clinton . . 
 
 March 4, 1805 
 
 James Madison . . 
 
 March 4, 1809 
 
 George Clinton* . 
 
 March 4, 1809 
 
 
 
 Wm. H. Crawfordt 
 
 April 10, 1812 
 
 James Madison . . 
 
 March 4, 1813 
 
 El bridge Gerry* . . 
 
 Marcli 4, 1813 
 
 
 
 John GaillardT 
 
 Nov. 25, 1814 
 
 James Monroe . . . 
 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 Daniel D. Tompkins 
 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 James Monroe . . . 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 Daniel D. Tornpkins 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 John Quincy Adams 
 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 John C. Calhoun . 
 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 Andrew Jackson . . 
 
 March 4, 1829 
 
 John C. CalhounJ . 
 
 March 4, 1829 
 
 
 
 Hugh L. Whitet . 
 
 Dec. 28, 1832 
 
 Andrew Jackson . . 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 Martin Van Buren 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 Martin Van Buren . 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 Richard M. Johnson 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 William H.Harrison* 
 
 March 4, 1841 
 
 John Tyler .... 
 
 March 4, 1841 
 
 John Tyler .... 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 Samuel L. Southardt 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 
 
 Willie P. Mangumt 
 
 May 31, 1842 
 
 James K. Polk . . . 
 
 March 4, 1845 
 
 George M. Dallas . 
 
 March 4, 1845 
 
 Zachary Taylor* . . 
 
 March 5, 1849 
 
 Millard Fillmore . 
 
 March 5, 1849 
 
 Millard Fillmore . . 
 
 July 9, 1850 
 
 William R. Kingt , 
 
 July 11, 1850 
 
 Franklin Pierce . . 
 
 March 4, 1853 
 
 William R. King* . 
 
 March 4, 1853 
 
 
 
 David R. Atchisont 
 
 April 18, 1853 
 
 
 
 Jesse D. Brightt. . 
 
 Dec. 5, 1854 
 
 James Buchanan . . 
 
 March 4, 1857 
 
 John C.Breckinridge 
 
 March 4, 1857 
 
 Abraham Lincoln . 
 
 March 4, 1861 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin . 
 
 March 4, 1861 
 
 Abraham Lincoln* . 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 Andrew Johnson . 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 Andrew Johnson . . 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 Lafayette S. Foster! 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 
 
 Benjamin F. Wadet 
 
 March 2, 1867 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant . . 
 
 March 4, 1869 
 
 Schuyler Colfax . . 
 
 March 4, 1869 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant . . 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 Henry Wilson* . . 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 
 
 Thomas W. Ferryt 
 
 Nov. 22, 1875 
 
 Rutherford B. Hayes 
 
 March 5, 1877 
 
 William A. Wheeler 
 
 March 5, 1877 
 
 James A. Garfield . 
 
 March 4, 1881 
 
 Chester A. Arthur 
 
 March 4, 1881 
 
 Chester A. Arthur . 
 
 Sept. 20, 1881 
 
 David Davis . . . 
 
 Oct. 13, 1881 
 
 On the 6th of April, 1841, John Tyler succeeded to the presidency, on the 
 death of William Henry Harrison. Millard Fillmore was the second Vice- 
 president to occupy the presidential office. On the 9th of July, 1850, he was 
 summoned, by the death of Zachary Taylor, to assume the duties of Presi- 
 dent. By the assassination of President Lincoln, on the 14th of April, 1865, 
 Vice-president Andrew Johnson was, on the following day, raised to the chief 
 magistracy. In like manner Chester A. Arthur was, on the 20th of Septem- 
 ber, 1881, called to the presidency by the death of James A. Garfield. 
 
 * Died In office. t Acting Vice-president and President pro tern, of the Senate 
 t Resigned the Vice-presidency December 28, 18*2.
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND BOOK. 
 
 535 
 
 Secretaries of State. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson . 
 
 Sept. 26, 1789 
 
 Daniel Webster . . 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 Thomas Jefferson . 
 
 March 4, 1793 
 
 Hugh S. Legare . . 
 
 May 9, 1843 
 
 Edmund Randolph " 
 
 Jan. 2, 1794 
 
 Abel P. Upshur . . 
 
 July 24, 1843 
 
 Timothy Pickering . 
 
 Dec. 10, 1795 
 
 John C. Calhoun . 
 
 March 6, 1844 
 
 Timothy Pickering . 
 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 James Buchanan . 
 
 March 6, 1845 
 
 John Marshall . . . 
 
 May 13, 1800 
 
 John M. Clayton . 
 
 March 7, 1849 
 
 James Madison . . 
 
 March 5, 1801 
 
 Daniel Webster . . 
 
 July 22, 1850 
 
 James Madison . . 
 
 March 4, 1805 
 
 Edward Everett. . 
 
 Nov. 6, 1852 
 
 Robert Smith . . . 
 
 March 6, 1809 
 
 William L. Marcy . 
 
 March 7, 1853 
 
 James Monroe . . . 
 
 April 2, 1811 
 
 Lewis Cass .... 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 James Monroe , . . 
 
 March 4, 1813 
 
 Jeremiah S. Black . 
 
 Dec. 17, 1860 
 
 John Quincy Adams 
 
 March 5, 1817 
 
 William H. Seward 
 
 March 5, 1861 
 
 John Quincy Adams 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 William H. Seward 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 Henry Clay .... 
 
 March 7, 1825 
 
 William H. Seward 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 Martin Van Buren . 
 
 March 6, 1829 
 
 Elihu B.Washburne 
 
 March 5, 1869 
 
 Edward Livingston . 
 
 May 24, 1831 
 
 Hamilton Fish . . 
 
 M'rchll, 1869 
 
 Louis McLane . . . 
 
 May 29, 1833 
 
 Hamilton Fish . . 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 John Forsyth . . . 
 
 June 27, 1834 
 
 William M. Evarts 
 
 M'rchl2, 1877 
 
 John Forsyth . . . 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 James G. Elaine . . 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 Daniel Webster . . 
 
 March 5, 1841 
 
 F. T. Frelinghuysen 
 
 Dec. 12, 1881 
 
 Secretaries of the Treasury. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton 
 
 Sept. 11, 1789 
 
 Walter Forward . 
 
 Sept. 13, 1841 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1793 
 
 John C. Spencer . 
 
 March 3, 1843 
 
 Oliver Wolcott . . . 
 
 Feb. 2, 1795 
 
 George M. Bibb . 
 
 June 15, 1844 
 
 '< 
 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 Robert J. Walker . 
 
 March 6, 1845 
 
 Samuel Dexter . . . 
 
 Jan. 1, 1801 
 
 Wm. M. Meredith 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 Albert Gallatin . . . 
 
 May 14, 1801 
 
 Thomas Corwin . . 
 
 July 23, 1850 
 
 it it 
 
 March 4, 1809 
 
 James Guthrie . . 
 
 March 7, 1853 
 
 ( t 
 
 March 4, 1813 
 
 Howell Cobb . . . 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 George W. Campbell 
 
 Feb. 9, 1814 
 
 Philip F. Thomas . 
 
 Dec. 12, 1860 
 
 Alexander J. Dallas 
 
 Oct. 6, 1814 
 
 John A. Dix . . . 
 
 Jan. 11, 1861 
 
 William H. Crawford 
 
 Oct. 22, 1816 
 
 Salmon P. Chase . 
 
 March 7, 1861 
 
 (< 
 
 March 5, 1817 
 
 Wm. Pitt Fessenden 
 
 July 1, 1864 
 
 it 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 Hugh McCulloch . 
 
 March 7, 1865 
 
 Richard Rush- . . . 
 
 March 7, 1825 
 
 <> tt 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 Samuel D. Ingham . 
 
 March 6, 1829 
 
 George S. Boutwell 
 
 March 11, 1869 
 
 Louis McLane . . . 
 
 August 2, 1831 
 
 Wm. A. Richardson 
 
 March 17, 1873 
 
 William J. Duane . 
 
 May 29, 1833 
 
 Benj. H. Bristow . 
 
 June 4, 1874 
 
 Roger B. Taney . . 
 
 Sept. 23, 1833 
 
 Lot M. Merrill . . 
 
 July 7, 1876 
 
 Levi Woodbury . 
 
 June 27, 1834 
 
 John Sherman . . 
 
 March 8, 1877 
 
 ft it 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 William Windom . 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 Thomas Ewing . . . 
 
 March 5, 1841 
 
 Charles J. Folger 
 
 Oct. 27, 1881 
 
 it it 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 

 
 536 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Sercetaries of War. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 Henry Knox .... 
 
 Sept. 12, 1789 
 
 John C. Spencer . . 
 
 Oct. 12, 1841 
 
 < 
 
 March 4, 1793 
 
 James M. Porter . . 
 
 March 8, 1843 
 
 Timothy Pickering . 
 
 Jan. 2, 1795 
 
 William Wilkins . . 
 
 Feb. 15, 1844 
 
 James McHenry . . 
 
 Jan. 27, 1796 
 
 William L. Marcy . 
 
 March 6, 1845 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 George W. Crawford 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 Samuel Dexter . . . 
 
 May 13, 1800 
 
 Charles M. Conrad . 
 
 Aug. 15, 1850 
 
 Roger Griswold . . 
 
 Feb. 3, 1801 
 
 Jefferson Davis . . 
 
 March 5, 1853 
 
 Henry Dearborn . . 
 
 March 5, 1801 
 
 John B. Floyd . . . 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 (< < C 
 
 March 4 1805 
 
 Joseph Holt 
 
 Tan 18 1861 
 
 William Eustis. . . 
 
 March 1\ 180'J 
 
 Simon Cameron . . 
 
 March 5, 1861 
 
 John Armstrong . . 
 
 Jan. 13, 1813 
 
 Edwin M. Stan ton . 
 
 Jan. 15, 1862 
 
 tt K 
 
 March 4, 1813 
 
 tt i> 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 James Monroe - . . 
 
 Sept. 27, 1814 
 
 < < 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 William H. Crawford 
 
 Aug. 1, 1815 
 
 U. S. Grant, ad int. 
 
 Aug. 12, 1867 
 
 George Graham . . 
 
 ad interim 
 
 Lorenzo Thomas . . 
 
 Feb. 21, 1868 
 
 John C. Calhoun . . 
 
 Oct. 8, 1817 
 
 John M. Schofield . 
 
 May 28, 1868 
 
 u 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 John A. Rawlins . . 
 
 March 11, 1869 
 
 James Barbour. . . 
 
 March 7, 1825 
 
 William W. Belknap 
 
 Oct. 25, 1869 
 
 Peter B. Porter . . 
 
 May 26, 1828 
 
 " << 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 John H. Eaton . . 
 
 March 9, 1829 
 
 Alphonso Taft . . . 
 
 March 8, 1876 
 
 Lewis Cass .... 
 
 Aug. 1, 1831 
 
 James D. Cameron . 
 
 Mav 22, 1876 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 George W. McCrary 
 
 March 12, 1877 
 
 Joel R. Poinsett . . 
 
 March 7, 1837 
 
 Alexander Ramsey . 
 
 Dec. 10, 1879 
 
 John Bell 
 
 March 5 1841 
 
 Robert T. Lincoln . 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 It li 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 
 
 Secretaries of the Navy. 
 
 Benjamin Stoddert . 
 
 May 21, 1798 
 
 Abel P. Upshur . . 
 
 Sept. 13, 1841 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1801 
 
 David Henshaw 
 
 July 24, 1843 
 
 Robert Smith . . . 
 
 July 15, 1801 
 
 Thomas W. Gilmer 
 
 Feb. 15, 1844 
 
 J. Crowninshield . . 
 
 March 3, 1805 
 
 John Y. Mason . . 
 
 M'rch 14, 1844 
 
 Paul Hamilton . . . 
 
 March 7, 1809 
 
 George Bancroft . . 
 
 M'rch 10, 1845 
 
 William Jones . . . 
 
 Ian. 12, 1813 
 
 John Y. Mason . . 
 
 Sept. 9, 1846 
 
 i. it 
 
 Mar Sh 4, 1813 
 
 William B. Preston 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 B. W. Crowninshield 
 
 Dec. 19, 1814 
 
 William A. Graham 
 
 July 22, 1850 
 
 tt a 
 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 John P. Kennedy . 
 
 Julv 22, 1852 
 
 Smith Thompson . . 
 
 Nov. 9, 1818 
 
 James C. Dobbin . 
 
 March 7, 1853 
 
 <! tt 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 Isaac Touc.ey . . . 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 Samuel L. Southard . 
 
 Sept. 16, 1823 
 
 Gideon Welles . . . 
 
 March 5, 18(51 
 
 tt tt 
 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 K 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 John Branch . . . 
 
 March 9, 1829 
 
 U (( 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 Levi Woodbury . . 
 
 May 23, 1831 
 
 Adolph E. Borie . . 
 
 March 5, 1869 
 
 <* it 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 George M. Robeson 
 
 June 25, 1869 
 
 Mahlon Dickerson . 
 
 June 30, 1834 
 
 tt . 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 a ti 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 Rich'd W. Thompson 
 
 M'rch 12, 1877 
 
 James K. Spaulding 
 
 June 25, 1838 
 
 Nathan Goff, Jr. . . 
 
 Jan. 6, 1881 
 
 George E. Badger . 
 
 March 5, 1841 
 
 William H. Hunt . 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 tt 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 William E. Chandler 
 
 April 1, 1882
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 537 
 
 , 
 
 Secretaries of the Interior. 
 
 NAMR. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 Thomas Ewing. . rf 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 Orville H. Browning 
 
 July 27, 1866 
 
 Alex. H. H. Stuart . 
 
 Sept. 12, 1850 
 
 Jacob D. Cox . . . 
 
 March 5, 1869 
 
 Robert McClelland . 
 
 March 7, 1853 
 
 Columbus Delano . 
 
 Nov. 1, 1870 
 
 Jacob Thompson 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 <* < 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 Caleb B. Smith . . 
 
 March 5, 1861 
 
 Zachariuh Chandler 
 
 Oct. 19, 1875 
 
 John P. Usher . . . 
 
 Jan. 8, 1863 
 
 Carl Schurz .... 
 
 March 12 1877 
 
 i< 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 Samuel J. Kirkwood 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 Henry M. Teller . . 
 
 April 6, 1882 
 
 James Harlan . . . 
 
 May 15, 1865 
 
 
 
 Postmasters-General. 
 
 Samuel Osgood . . 
 
 Sept. 26, 1789 
 
 Cave Johnson . . . 
 
 March 6, 1845 
 
 Timothy Pickering . 
 
 Aug. 12, 1791 
 
 Jacob Collamer . . 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1793 
 
 Nathan K. Hall . . 
 
 July 23, 1850 
 
 Joseph Habersham 
 
 Feb. 25, 1795 
 
 Samuel D. Hubbard 
 
 Aug. 31, 1852 
 
 c< < 
 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 James Campbell . . 
 
 March 5, 1853 
 
 <i 
 
 March 4, 1801 
 
 Aaron V. Brown . . 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 Gideon Granger . . 
 
 Nov. 28, 1801 
 
 Joseph Holt .... 
 
 March 14, 1859 
 
 i< 
 
 March 4, 1805 
 
 Horatio King . . . 
 
 Feb. 12, 1861 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1809 
 
 Montgomery Blair . 
 
 March 5, 1861 
 
 Return J. Meigs, Jr. 
 
 March 17, 1814 
 
 William Dennison . 
 
 Sept 24, 1864 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 *< 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 < 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 '< 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 
 John McLane . . . 
 
 June 26, 1823 
 
 Alex. W. Randall ' 
 
 July 25, 1866 
 
 n 
 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 John A. J. Creswell 
 
 March 5, 1869 
 
 William T. Barry . . 
 
 March 9, 1829 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 it n 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 Marshall Jewell . . 
 
 Aug. 24, 1874 
 
 Amos Kendall 
 
 May 1, 1835 
 
 James N. Tyner . . 
 
 July 12, 1876 
 
 i. 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 David McK. Key . . 
 
 March 12, 1877 
 
 John M. Niles . . . 
 
 Mav 25, 1840 
 
 Horace Maynard . . 
 
 June 2, 1880 
 
 Francis Granger . . 
 
 March 6, 1841 
 
 Thomas L. James . 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 Timothy O- Howe . 
 
 Dec. 20, 1881 
 
 Charles A. Wickliffe 
 
 Sept. 13, 1841 
 
 
 
 Attorneys- General. 
 
 Edmund Randolph . 
 
 Sept. 26, 1789 
 
 Caesar A. Rodney . 
 
 March 4, 1809 
 
 < 
 
 March 4, 1793 
 
 William Pinckney . 
 
 Dec. 11, 1811 
 
 William Bradford . 
 
 Jan. 27, 1794 
 
 K 
 
 March 4, 1813 
 
 Charles Lee .... 
 
 Dec. 10, 1795 
 
 Richard Rush . . . 
 
 Feb. 10, 1814 
 
 " " 
 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 Theophilus Parsons 
 
 Feb. 20, 1801 
 
 William Wirt . . . 
 
 Nov. 13, 1817 
 
 Levi Lincoln .... 
 
 March 5, 1801 
 
 K 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 Robert Smith . . . 
 
 March 3, 1805 
 
 
 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 John Breck in ridge . 
 
 Aug. 7, 1805 
 
 John M. Berrien . . 
 
 March 9, 1829 
 
 Caesar A. Rodney . 
 
 Jan. 27, 1807 
 
 Roger B. Taney . . 
 
 July 20, 1831
 
 538 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 Attorneys-GeneralContinued. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 APPOINTED. 
 
 Roger B. Taney . . 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 Edward Bates . . . 
 
 March 5, 1861 
 
 Benjamin F. Butler 
 
 Nov. 15, 1833 
 
 T. J. Coffey, ad int. 
 
 June 22, 1863 
 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 James Speed .... 
 
 Dec. 2, 1864 
 
 Felix Grundy . . . 
 
 July 5, 1838 
 
 <( U 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
 Henry D. Gilpin . . 
 John J. Crittenden . 
 
 Jan. 11, 1840 
 March 5, 1841 
 
 Henrv Stanberry . . 
 
 April 15, 1865 
 July 23, 1866 
 
 a n 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 William M. Evarts . 
 
 July 15, 1868 
 
 Hugh S. Legare . . 
 John Nelson .... 
 
 Sept. 13, 1841 
 July 1, 1843 
 
 E. Rockwood Hoar . 
 Amos T. Ackerman 
 
 March 5, 1869 
 June 23, 1870 
 
 John Y. Mason . . 
 
 March 6, 1845 
 
 George H. Williams 
 
 Dec. 14, 1871 
 
 Nathan Clifford . . 
 
 Oct. 17, 1846 
 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 Isaac Toucey 
 
 June 21, 1848 
 
 Edwards Pierrepont 
 
 April 26, 1875 
 
 Reverdy Johnson . 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 Alphonso Taft . . . 
 
 May 22, 1876 
 
 John J. Crittenden . 
 
 July 22, 1850 
 
 Charles Devens . . 
 
 March 12, 1877 
 
 Caleb Gushing . . . 
 
 March 7, 1853 
 
 Wayne McVeagh . 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 
 Jeremiah S. Black . 
 
 March 6, 1857 
 
 Benj. H. Brewster . 
 
 Dec. 19, 1881 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton . 
 
 Dec. 20, 1860 
 
 
 
 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 To January ist of each year to 1842. To July 1st, from 1843-1883. 
 
 1791 . 
 
 . $75,463,476 52 
 
 1815 . 
 
 . $99,833,660 15 
 
 1839 . 
 
 . $3,573,343 82 
 
 1792 . 
 
 . 77,227,924 66 
 
 1816 . 
 
 . 127,334,933 74 
 
 1840 . 
 
 . 5,250,875 54 
 
 1793 . 
 
 . 80,352,634 04 
 
 1817 . 
 
 . 123,491,965 16 
 
 1841 . 
 
 . 13,594,480 73 
 
 1794 . 
 
 . 78,427,404 77 
 
 1818 . 
 
 . 103,166,633 83 
 
 1842 . 
 
 . 20,601,226 28 
 
 1795 . 
 
 . 80,747,587 39 
 
 1819 . 
 
 . 95,529,648 28 
 
 1843 . 
 
 . 32,742,922 00 
 
 1796 . 
 
 . 83,762,172 07 
 
 1820 . 
 
 . 91,015,566 15 
 
 1844 . 
 
 . 23,461,652 50 
 
 1797 . 
 
 . 82,064,479 33 
 
 1821 . 
 
 . 89,987,427 66 
 
 1845 . 
 
 . 15,925,303 01 
 
 1798 . 
 
 . 79,228,529 12 
 
 1822 . 
 
 . 93,546,676 98 
 
 1846 . 
 
 . 15,550,202 97 
 
 1799 . 
 
 . 78,408,669 77 
 
 1823 . 
 
 . 90,875.877 28 
 
 1847 . 
 
 . 38,826,534 77 
 
 1800 . 
 
 . 82,976,294 35 
 
 1824 . 
 
 . 90,269,777 77 
 
 1848 . 
 
 . 47,044,862 23 
 
 1801 . 
 
 . 83,038,050 80 
 
 1825 . 
 
 . 83,788,432 71 
 
 1849 . 
 
 . 63,061,858 69 
 
 1802 . 
 
 . 86,712,632 25 
 
 1826 . 
 
 . 81,054,059 99 
 
 1850 . 
 
 . 63,452,773 55 
 
 1803 . 
 
 . 77,054,686 30 
 
 1827 . 
 
 . 73,987,357 20 
 
 1851 . 
 
 . 68,304,796 02 
 
 1804 - 
 
 . 86,427,120 88 
 
 1828 . 
 
 . 67,475,043 87 
 
 1852 . 
 
 . 66,199,341 71 
 
 1805 . 
 
 . 82,312,150 50 
 
 1829 . 
 
 . 58,421,413 67 
 
 1853 . 
 
 . 59,803,117 70 
 
 1806 . 
 
 . 75,723,270 66 
 
 1830 . 
 
 . 48,565,406 50 
 
 1854 . 
 
 . 42,242,222 42 
 
 1807 . 
 
 . 69,218,398 64 
 
 1831 . 
 
 . 39,123,191 68 
 
 1855 . 
 
 . 35,586,858 56 
 
 1808 
 
 . 65,196,317 97 
 
 1832 . 
 
 . 24,322,235 18 
 
 1856 . 
 
 . 31,972,537 90 
 
 1809 - 
 
 . 57,023,192 09 
 
 1833 . 
 
 . 7,001,698 83 
 
 1857 . 
 
 . 28,699,831 85 
 
 1810 . 
 
 . 53,173,217 52 
 
 1834 . 
 
 . 4,760,082 08 
 
 1858 . 
 
 . 44,911,881 03 
 
 1811 . 
 
 . 48,005,587 76 
 
 1835 . 
 
 37,513 05 
 
 1859 . 
 
 . 58,496,837 88 
 
 1812 . 
 
 . 45,209,737 90 
 
 1836 . 
 
 336,957 83 
 
 1860 - 
 
 . 64,842,287 88 
 
 1813 . 
 
 . 55,962,827 57 
 
 1837 . 
 
 . 3,308,124 07 
 
 1861 - 
 
 . 90,580,873 72 
 
 1814 . 
 
 . 81,487,846 24 
 
 1838 . 
 
 . 10,434,221 14 
 
 1862 . 
 
 . 524,176,412 13
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 539 
 
 Public Debt of the United States Continued. 
 
 1863 . $1,119,772,138 63 
 1864 . 1,815,784,370 57 
 1865 . 2,680,647,869 74 
 1866 . 2,773,236,173 69 
 1867 . 2,678,126,103- 87 
 1868 . 2,611,687,851 19 
 1869 . 2,588,452,213 94 
 
 1870 . $2,480,672,427 81 
 1871 . 2,353,211,332 32 
 1872 . 2,253 251,328 78 
 1873 . 2,234,482,993 20 
 1874. 2,251,690,46843 
 1875 . 2,232,284,531 95 
 1876 . 2,180,395,067 15 
 
 1877 . $2,205,301,392 10 
 1878 . 2,256,205,892 53 
 1879 . 2,245.495,072 04 
 1880 . 2,120,415,370 63 
 1881 . 2,069,013,569 58 
 1882 . 1,918,312,994 03 
 1883 . 1,884,171,728 07 
 
 THOSE WHO ARE ENTITLED TO VOTE. 
 
 STATES. 
 
 > 
 ? 
 
 REQUIREMENT AS TO 
 CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 -,.1 
 
 n 
 
 Residence 
 in 
 County.. 
 
 REGISTRATION. 
 
 Alabama, . . . 
 Arkansas . . . 
 California . . . 
 Colorado . . . 
 Connecticut . . 
 Delaware . . . 
 Florida .... 
 Georgia .... 
 Illinois .... 
 Indiana .... 
 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 Actual citizens 
 
 I yr. 
 l yr. 
 1 yr. 
 6 mo 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 6 mo 
 6 mo 
 6 mo 
 2yrs 
 1 yr. 
 
 3 mo 
 1 yr. 
 1 vr 
 
 3 mo 
 6 mo 
 90 ds 
 
 6 mo 
 1 mo 
 6 mo 
 6 mo 
 90 ds 
 60 ds 
 60 ds 
 
 1 yr. 
 
 6 mo 
 
 6 mo 
 
 No law. 
 Prohibited. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Not required. 
 Required. 
 No law. 
 Required. 
 No law. 
 Required. 
 Req'd in cities. 
 Not required. 
 No law. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Req'd in cities. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Req'd in cities. 
 Req'd in cities. 
 Required. 
 Not required. 
 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Required, 
 Not required. 
 Prohibited. 
 Required. 
 Required. 
 Prohibited. 
 Required. 
 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual county taxpayers. . . 
 U. &. citizens or decl'd intent'ns 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Kansas .... 
 Kentucky . . . 
 Louisiana . . . 
 Maine 
 Maryland . . . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Michigan . . . 
 Minnesota . . . 
 Mississippi. . . 
 Missouri . . . 
 Nebraska . . . 
 Nevada .... 
 NewHampshire 
 New Jersey . . 
 New York . . . 
 North Carolina. 
 Ohio 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens ........ 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens 
 
 - 1 /* 
 
 3 mo 
 4 mo 
 6 mo 
 1 yr. 
 6 mo 
 6 mo 
 
 1 yr. 
 
 1 yr. 
 1 vr. 
 
 1 mo 
 60 ds 
 
 3o'ds 
 5 mo 
 4 mo 
 90 ds 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens 
 Actual tax-paying citizens . . . 
 Actual citizens 
 
 1 yr. 
 6 mo 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 i yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 1 yr. 
 
 1 yr. 
 
 60 ds 
 6 mo 
 6 mo 
 
 60 ds 
 
 Oregon .... 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Rhode Island . 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee. . . 
 Texas 
 Vermont . . . 
 Virginia .... 
 West Virginia. 
 Wisconsin . . . 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention . 
 Actual citizens 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention
 
 540 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS, 
 
 And Ratio of Representation by the Constitution and at each Census. 
 
 STATES. 
 
 Admitted to the 
 Dnlou 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES TO WHICH EACH STATE WAS ENTITLED BY 
 
 si 
 
 ' 
 
 K 2 
 
 " r 
 
 ~ e 
 
 5 1 
 
 a s 
 
 K 2 
 3 ? 
 
 5 3 
 
 3 8 
 
 ? 1 
 
 ? 2 
 
 K -3 
 
 14 
 
 -*3o 
 
 i! 
 
 Yl 
 
 ~B- 
 
 **!?" 
 
 ?- 
 
 .j?o 
 
 
 *I 
 
 --So 
 
 * 1 
 
 w * 
 
 s I 
 
 
 . c 
 
 i 
 
 " m 
 
 P i 
 
 Ratio of Repre- 
 sentation 
 
 
 30,000 
 
 33,000 
 
 33,000 
 
 35,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 47,700 
 
 70,680 
 
 93,423 
 
 127,381 
 
 6 
 3 
 3 
 
 131,425 
 
 154,325 
 
 
 1819 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 1 
 
 7 
 2 
 2 
 
 8 
 4 
 4 
 
 1 
 4 
 1 
 2 
 9 
 19 
 13 
 9 
 3 
 10 
 6 
 5 
 6 
 11 
 9 
 3 
 6 
 13 
 1 
 1 
 3 
 7 
 33 
 8 
 20 
 1 
 27 
 2 
 5 
 10 
 6 
 3 
 9 
 3 
 8 
 
 8 
 5 
 6 
 1 
 4 
 1 
 2 
 10 
 20 
 13 
 11 
 7 
 11 
 6 
 4 
 6 
 12 
 11 
 5 
 7 
 14 
 3 
 1 
 2 
 7 
 34 
 9 
 21 
 1 
 28 
 2 
 7 
 10 
 11 
 2 
 10 
 4 
 9 
 
 
 1836 
 
 
 
 
 
 /*!< ^ V 
 
 1850 
 1876 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 5 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 1 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 1 
 1 
 8 
 9 
 11 
 2 
 
 4 
 1 
 1 
 7 
 14 
 11 
 6 
 1 
 9 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 10 
 6 
 2 
 5 
 9 
 *1 
 
 3 
 5 
 
 31 
 7 
 19 
 1 
 24 
 2 
 4 
 8 
 4 
 3 
 11 
 
 
 
 Florida 
 
 1845 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 9 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 7 
 10 
 
 Illinois 
 
 1818 
 
 
 ISIIi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1846 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1861 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1792 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 3 
 
 7 
 9 
 13 
 
 13 
 3 
 8 
 8 
 12 
 
 10 
 4 
 7 
 6 
 10 
 3 
 
 10 
 4 
 6 
 6 
 11 
 4 
 
 5 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 I8'>0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 8 
 
 8 
 14 
 
 9 
 17 
 
 9 
 20 
 
 Massachusetts .. 
 
 1837 
 
 
 lK=i8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1817 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 4 
 5 
 
 
 1821 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1867 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1864 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 New Hamps'e.. 
 
 
 3 
 4 
 6 
 5 
 
 4 
 5 
 10 
 10 
 
 5 
 6 
 17 
 12 
 
 6 
 6 
 27 
 13 
 6 
 
 6 
 6 
 34 
 13 
 14 
 
 5 
 6 
 40 
 13 
 19 
 
 4 
 5 
 34 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 5 
 33 
 8 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 6 
 10 
 2 
 3 
 13 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 
 New York 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio 
 
 isif? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pennsylvania... 
 Rhod Island... 
 Mouth Carolina. 
 Tennessee 
 
 1796 
 1845 
 
 8 
 1 
 5 
 
 13 
 2 
 6 
 
 18 
 2 
 8 
 3 
 
 23 
 2 
 9 
 6 
 
 26 
 2 
 9 
 9 
 
 28 
 2 
 9 
 13 
 
 24 
 2 
 7 
 11 
 
 Vermont. 
 Virginia 
 
 1791 
 
 .... 
 
 2 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 21 
 
 4 
 15 
 
 West Virginia. 
 
 1863 
 1848 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Whole number 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 105 
 
 141 
 
 181 
 
 213 
 
 240 
 
 223 
 
 237 
 
 243 
 
 293 
 
 325 
 
 AGGREGATE ISSUES OF PAPER MONEY IN WAR TIMES. 
 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 AMOUNT ISSUED. 
 
 Amount 
 per btad. 
 
 Continental money 
 
 3,000,000 In 1780. 
 
 $359,546,825 
 
 $119 84 
 
 French assignats.... 
 
 26,500 000 (France in 1790 ) 
 
 9,115,600,000 
 
 343 98 
 
 Confederate currency 
 
 9,103 332 (11 Confederate 
 
 654,465,963 
 
 71 89 
 
 Greenbacks and national 
 bank-notes 
 
 States, 1860.) 
 31 443 321 (United States in 
 
 Highest amount in 
 circulation. Jan. '66. 
 
 
 
 I860.) 
 
 5750,820,228 
 
 23 87
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 541 
 
 POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, BY RACES, IN 1880. 
 
 From the Official Returns of the Tenth Census. 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 Total 
 Population. 
 1880. 
 
 White. 
 1880. 
 
 Colored. 
 1880. 
 
 Chinese. 
 1880. 
 
 Indians civ. 
 or taxed. 
 1880. 
 
 1 
 
 Alabama, . . . 
 
 1,262,505 
 
 662,185 
 
 600,103 
 
 4 
 
 213 
 
 2 
 
 Arizona, .... 
 
 40,440 
 
 35,160 
 
 155 
 
 1,632 
 
 3,493 
 
 3 
 
 Arkansas, . . 
 
 802,525 
 
 591,531 
 
 210,666 
 
 133 
 
 195 
 
 4 
 
 California, . . . 
 
 864,694 
 
 767,181 
 
 6,018 
 
 75,218 
 
 16,277 
 
 5 
 
 Colorado, . . . 
 
 194,327 
 
 191,126 
 
 2,435 
 
 612 
 
 154 
 
 6 
 
 Connecticut, . . 
 
 622,700 
 
 610,769 
 
 11,547 
 
 129 
 
 255 
 
 7 
 
 Dakota, .... 
 
 135,177 
 
 133,147 
 
 401 
 
 238 
 
 1,391 
 
 8 
 
 Delaware, . . . 
 
 146,608 
 
 120,160 
 
 26,442 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 Dist. Columbia, . 
 
 177,624 
 
 118,006 
 
 59,596 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 Florida, .... 
 
 269,493 
 
 142,605 
 
 126,690 
 
 18 
 
 180 
 
 11 
 
 Georgia, .... 
 
 1,542,180 
 
 816,906 
 
 725,133 
 
 17 
 
 124 
 
 12 
 
 Idaho, 
 
 32,610 
 
 29,013 
 
 53 
 
 3,379 
 
 165 
 
 13 
 
 [llinois, .... 
 
 3,077,871 
 
 3,031,151 
 
 46,368 
 
 212 
 
 140 
 
 14 
 
 Indiana, .... 
 
 1,978,301 
 
 1,938,798 
 
 39,228 
 
 29 
 
 246 
 
 15 
 
 [owa 
 
 1,624,615 
 
 1,614,600 
 
 9,516 
 
 33 
 
 466 
 
 16 
 
 Kansas, . . . . 
 
 996,096 
 
 952,155 
 
 43,107 
 
 19 
 
 815 
 
 17 
 
 Kentucky, . . . 
 
 1,648,690 
 
 1,377,179 
 
 271,451 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 18 
 
 Louisiana, . . . 
 
 939,946 
 
 454,954 
 
 483,655 
 
 489 
 
 848 
 
 19 
 
 Maine, 
 
 648,936 
 
 646,852 
 
 1,451 
 
 8 
 
 625 
 
 20 
 
 Maryland, . . . 
 
 934,943 
 
 724,693 
 
 210,230 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 Massachusetts, . 
 
 1,783,085 
 
 1,763,782 
 
 18,697 
 
 237 
 
 369 
 
 22 
 
 Michigan,. . . . 
 
 1,636,937 
 
 1,614,560 
 
 15,100 
 
 28 
 
 7,249 
 
 23 
 
 Minnesota, . . . 
 
 780,773 
 
 776,884 
 
 1,564 
 
 25 
 
 2,300 
 
 24 
 
 Mississippi, . . . 
 
 1,131,597 
 
 479,398 
 
 650,291 
 
 51 
 
 1,857 
 
 25 
 
 Missouri, .... 
 
 2,168,380 
 
 2,022,82(5 
 
 145,350 
 
 91 
 
 113 
 
 26 
 
 Montana, . . . 
 
 39,159 
 
 35,385 
 
 346 
 
 1,765 
 
 1,663 
 
 27 
 
 Nebraska, . . . 
 
 452,402 
 
 449,764 
 
 2,385 
 
 18 
 
 235 
 
 28 
 
 Nevada, .... 
 
 62,266 
 
 53,556 
 
 488 
 
 5,419 
 
 2,803 
 
 29 
 
 New Hampshire, 
 
 346,991 
 
 346,229 
 
 685 
 
 14 
 
 63 
 
 30 
 
 New Jersey, . . 
 
 1,131,116 
 
 1,092,017 
 
 38,853 
 
 172 
 
 74 
 
 31 
 
 New Mexico, . . 
 
 119,565 
 
 108,721 
 
 1,015 
 
 57 
 
 9,772 
 
 32 
 
 New York, . . . 
 
 5,082,871 
 
 5,016,022 
 
 65,104 
 
 926 
 
 819 
 
 33 
 
 North Carolina, . 
 
 1,399,750 
 
 867,242 
 
 531,277 
 
 1 
 
 1,230 
 
 34 
 
 Ohio 
 
 3,198,062 
 
 3,117,920 
 
 79,900 
 
 112 
 
 130 
 
 35 
 
 Oregon, .... 
 
 1174,768 
 
 163,075 
 
 487 
 
 9,512 
 
 1,694 
 
 36 
 
 Pennsylvania, . 
 
 4,282,891 
 
 4,197,016 
 
 85,535 
 
 156 
 
 184 
 
 37 
 
 Rhode Island, . 
 
 276,531 
 
 269,939 
 
 6,488 
 
 27 
 
 77 
 
 38 
 
 .South Carolina, 
 
 995,577 
 
 391,105 
 
 604,332 
 
 9 
 
 131 
 
 39 
 
 Tennessee, . . . 
 
 1,542,359 
 
 1,138,831 
 
 403,151 
 
 25 
 
 352 
 
 40 
 
 Texas .... 
 
 1,591,749 
 
 1,197,237 
 
 393,384 
 
 136 
 
 992 
 
 41 
 
 Utah, .... 
 
 143,963 
 
 142,423 
 
 232 
 
 501 
 
 807 
 
 42 
 
 Vermont .... 
 
 332,286 
 
 331,218 
 
 1,057 
 
 
 11 
 
 43 
 
 Virginia, .... 
 
 1,512,565 
 
 880,858 
 
 631,616 
 
 6 
 
 85 
 
 44 
 
 Washington, . . 
 
 75,116 
 
 67,199 
 
 325 
 
 3,187 
 
 4,405 
 
 45 
 
 West Virginia, . 
 
 618,457 
 
 592,537 
 
 25,886 
 
 5 
 
 29 
 
 46 
 
 Wisconsin, . . . 
 
 1,315,497 
 
 1,309,618 
 
 2,702 
 
 16 
 
 3,161 
 
 47 
 
 Wyoming, . . . 
 
 20,789 
 
 19,437 
 
 298 
 
 914 
 
 140 
 
 
 Total U. States 
 
 50,155,783 
 
 43,402.970 
 
 6,580,793 
 
 105,613 
 
 66,407,
 
 542 
 
 THE VOTERS' HAND-BOOK. 
 
 CITIZENSHIP, WITH THE TOTAL MALE POPULATION, 1880. 
 
 From the Official Returns of the Tenth Census. 
 
 STATES AND TERRITORIES. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 VOTING POPULATION. 
 
 Males of 21 years and over. 
 
 Total. 
 
 White. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 White. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 
 1,262,505 
 40,440 
 802,525 
 864,694 
 194,327 
 622,700 
 135,177 
 146,608 
 177,624 
 269,493 
 1,542,180 
 32,610 
 3,077,871 
 1,978,301 
 1,624,615 
 996,096 
 1,648,690 
 939,946 
 648,936 
 934,943 
 1,783,085 
 1,636,937 
 780,773 
 1,131,597 
 2,168,380 
 39,159 
 452,402 
 62,266 
 346,991 
 1,131,116 
 119,565 
 5,082,871 
 1,399,750 
 3,198,062 
 174,768 
 4,282,891 
 276,531 
 995,577 
 1,542,359 
 1,591,749 
 143,963 
 332,286 
 1,512,565 
 75,116 
 618,457 
 1,315,497 
 20,789 
 
 662,185 
 35,160 
 591,531 
 767,181 
 191,126 
 610,769 
 133,147 
 120,160 
 118,006 
 142,605 
 816,906 
 29,013 
 3,031,151 
 1,938,798 
 1,614,600 
 952,155 
 1,337,179 
 454,954 
 646,852 
 724,693 
 1,763 782 
 1,614,560 
 776,884 
 479,398 
 2,022,826 
 35,385 
 449,764 
 53,556 
 346,229 
 1,092,017 
 108,721 
 5,016,022 
 867,242 
 3,117,920 
 163,075 
 4,197,016 
 269,939 
 391,105 
 1,138,831 
 1,197,237 
 142,423 
 331,218 
 880,858 
 67,199 
 592,537 
 1,309,618 
 19,437 
 
 600,320 
 5,280 
 210,994 
 97,513 
 3,201 
 11,931 
 2,030 
 26,448 
 59,618 
 126,888 
 725,274 
 3,597 
 46,720 
 39,503 
 10,015 
 43,941 
 271,511 
 484,992 
 2,084 
 210,250 
 19,303 
 22,377 
 3,889 
 652,199 
 145,554 
 3,774 
 2,638 
 8,710 
 762 
 39,099 
 10,844 
 66,849 
 532,508 
 80,142 
 11,693 
 85,875 
 6,592 
 604,472 
 403,528 
 394,512 
 1,540 
 1,068 
 631,707 
 7,917 
 25,920 
 5,879 
 1,352 
 
 141,461 
 18,046 
 136,150 
 262,583 
 92,088 
 173,759 
 50,962 
 31,902 
 31,955 
 34,210 
 177,967 
 11,669 
 783,161 
 487,698 
 413,633 
 254,949 
 317,579 
 108,810 
 186,659 
 183,522 
 496,692 
 461,557 
 212,399 
 108,254 
 508,165 
 19,636 
 128,198 
 25,633 
 104,901 
 289,965 
 30,981 
 1,388,692 
 189,732 
 804,871 
 51,636 
 1,070,392 
 75,012 
 86,900 
 250,055 
 301,737 
 32,078 
 95,307 
 206,248 
 24,251 
 132,777 
 338,932 
 9,241 
 
 118,423 
 2,352 
 46,827 
 266,809 
 1,520 
 3,532 
 641 
 6,396 
 13,918 
 27,489 
 143,471 
 3,126 
 13,686 
 10,739 
 3,025 
 10,765 
 58,642 
 107,977 
 664 
 48,584 
 5,956 
 6,130 
 1,086 
 130,278 
 33,042 
 1,908 
 844 
 5,622 
 237 
 10,670 
 3,095 
 20,059 
 105,018 
 21,706 
 7,993 
 23,892 
 1,886 
 118,889 
 80,250 
 78,639 
 695 
 314 
 128,257 
 3,419 
 6,384 
 1,550 
 939 
 
 
 Arkansas, . . 
 California, 
 Colorado 
 
 Connecticut, . . . 
 Dakota 
 
 Delaware 
 
 District Columbia . 
 Florida 
 
 
 Idaho 
 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Kentucky, .... 
 Louisiana, 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland, 
 Massachusetts, . . . 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota, .... 
 Mississippi, .... 
 Missouri, 
 
 
 
 Nevada, 
 
 New Hampshire, . 
 New Jersey, .... 
 New Mexico, . . . 
 New York, .... 
 North Carolina, . . 
 Ohio .... 
 
 Oregon, 
 
 Pennsylvania, . . . 
 Rhode Island, . . . 
 South Carolina, . . 
 Tennessee .... 
 Texas, 
 
 Utah, 
 
 Vermont, 
 
 Virginia . . . 
 
 Washington, . . . 
 West Virginia, . . 
 Wisconsin, .... 
 Wyoming 
 
 Total, 
 
 50,155,783 
 
 43,402,970 
 
 6,580,793 
 
 11,343,005 
 
 1,487,344 

 
 i
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 A MEMORIAL ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 27, 188& 
 
 BY JAMES G. ELAINE, 
 
 EX-SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. After the first sorrow for President Garfield's death was somewhat 
 modified by time, what may be called the formal sorrow of the people began to seek a more 
 elaborate expression. It was felt to be fitting that the nation, as such, by her highest repre- 
 sentative body, should, by some suitable memorial services, commemorate the life and death 
 of the late honored Chief Magistrate. Very soon after the opening of Congress, in December 
 of 1881, various resolutions were introduced, looking to a formal observance in memory of 
 the dead. After considerable discussion, the 27th of February, 1882, was fixed upon as the 
 memorial day, and ex-Secretary Elaine was chosen as speaker to pronounce a suitable eulogy 
 on the life and character of Garfield. The occasion was one of the utmost state and solem- 
 nity. There were present, besides the two Houses of Congress, the President and his Cabinet, 
 the ministers resident of foreign powers, the generals of the army and commanders of the 
 navy, and hundreds of the most distinguished men and women in America. The orator and 
 the eulogy itself were in keeping with the occasion, and it has been deemed appropriate by 
 the publishers to append to this work the full text of Mr. Blame's oration, which here 
 follows. J C. R. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : For the second time in this generation the great depart- 
 ments of the Government of the United States are assembled in the Hall of 
 Representatives to do honor to the memory of a murdered President. Lin- 
 coln fell at the close of a mighty struggle, in which the passions of men had 
 been deeply stirred. The tragical termination of his great life added but 
 another to the lengthened succession of horrors which had marked so many 
 lintels with the blood of the first born. Garfield was slain in a day of peace, 
 when brother had been reconciled to brother, and when anger and hate had 
 been banished from the land. " Whosoever shall hereafter draw the portrait 
 of murder, if he will show it as it has been exhibited where such example 
 was last to have been looked for, let him not give it the grim visage of 
 
 Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let 
 
 543
 
 544 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 
 
 him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an 
 example of human nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as 
 an infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his 
 character." 
 
 From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth till the uprising against 
 Charles I., about twenty thousand emigrants came from old England to New 
 England. As they came in pursuit of intellectual freedom and ecclesiastical 
 independence rather than for worldly honor and profit, the emigration nat- 
 urally ceased when the contest for religious liberty began in earnest at home. 
 The man who struck his most effective blow for freedom of conscience by 
 sailing for the colonies in 1620 would have been accounted a deserter to leave 
 after 1640. The opportunity had then come on the soil of England for that 
 great contest which established the authority of Parliament, gave religious 
 freedom to the people, sent Charles to the block, and committed to the hands 
 of Oliver Cromwell the supreme executive authority of England. The En- 
 glish emigration was never renewed, and from these twenty thousand men, 
 with a small emigration from Scotland and from France, are descended the 
 vast numbers who have New England blood in their veins. 
 
 In 1685 the revocation of the edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV., scattered to 
 other countries four hundred thousand Protestants, who were among the 
 most intelligent and enterprising of French subjects merchants of capital, 
 skilled manufacturers, and handicraftsmen, superior at the time to all others 
 in Europe. A considerable number of these Huguenot French came to Amer- 
 ica; a few landed in New England and became honorably prominent in its 
 history. Their names have, in large part, become Anglicized, or have disap- 
 peared, but their blood is traceable in many of the most reputable families, 
 and their fame is perpetuated in honorable memorials and useful insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 From these two sources, the English-Puritan and the French-Huguenot, 
 came the late President; his father, Abraham Garfield, being descended from 
 the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other. 
 
 It was good stock on both sides none better, none braver, none truer. 
 There was in it an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of imperishable love 
 of liberty, of undying adherence to principle. Garfield was proud of his 
 blood ; and, with as much satisfaction as if he were a British nobleman read- 
 ing his stately ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he spoke of himself as 
 ninth in descent from those who would not endure the oppression of the Stu- 
 arts, and seventh in descent from the brave French Protestants who refused to 
 submit to tyranny even from the Grand Monarque. 
 
 General Garfield delighted to dwell on these traits; and during his only visit 
 to England he busied himself in discovering every trace of his forefathers in 
 parish registries and on ancient army rolls. Sitting with a friend, in the gal-
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GARFIELD. 545 
 
 lery of the House of Commons, one night, after a long day's labor in this field 
 of research, he said, with evident elation, that in every war in which, for three 
 centuries, patriots of English blood had struck sturdy blows for constitutional 
 government and human liberty, his family had been represented. They were 
 at Marston Moor, at Naseby, and at Preston ; they were at Bunker Hill, at 
 Saratoga, and at Monmouth, and in his own person had battled for the same 
 great cause in the war which preserved the Union of the States. 
 
 Losing his father before he was two years old, the early life of Garfield was 
 one of privation, but its poverty has been made indelicately and unjustly 
 prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined him as the ragged, starving 
 child, whose reality too often greets the eye in the squalid sections of our 
 large cities. General Gartield's infancy and youth had none of their destitu- 
 tion, none of their pitiful features appealing to the tender heart and to the 
 open hand of charity. He was a poor boy in the same sense in which Henry 
 Clay was a poor boy ; in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy ; in which 
 Daniel Webster was a poor boy ; in the sense in which a large majority of the 
 eminent men of America, in all generations, have been poor boys. Before a 
 great multitude of men, in a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this testimony: 
 
 " It did not happen to me to be born in a log-cabin, but my elder brothers 
 and sisters were born in a log-cabin raised amid the snow drifts of New 
 Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke rose first from its rude 
 chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a 
 white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. 
 Its remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to 
 it to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone 
 before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the 
 early affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with 
 all I know of this primitive family abode." 
 
 With the requisite change of scene the same words would aptly portray 
 the early days of Garfield. The poverty of the frontier, where all are engaged 
 in a common struggle and where a common sympathy and hearty co-operation 
 lighten the burdens of each, is a very different poverty different in kind, 
 different in influence and effect from that conscious and humiliating indi- 
 gence which is every day forced to contrast itself with neighboring wealth 
 on which it feels a sense of grinding dependence. The poverty of the frontier 
 is indeed no poverty. It is but the beginning of wealth, and has the bound- 
 less possibilities of the future always opening before it. No man ever grew 
 up in the agricultural regions of the West where a house-raising, or even a 
 corn-husking, is matter of common interest and helpfulness, with any other 
 feeling than that of broad-minded, generous independence. This honorable 
 independence marked the youth of Garfield as it marks the youth of millions 
 of the best blood and brain now training for the future citizenship and future 
 government of the republic. Garfield was born heir to land, to the title of 
 
 35
 
 546 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 
 
 freeholder which has been the patent and passport of self-respect with the 
 Anglo-Saxon race ever since Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of Eng- 
 land. His adventure on the canal an alternative between that and the 
 deck of a Lake Erie schooner was a farmer boy's device for earning money, 
 just as the New England lad begins a possibly great career by sailing before 
 the mast on a coasting- vessel or on a merchantman bound to the Farther India 
 or to the China Seas. 
 
 No manly man feels any thing of shame in looking back to early struggles 
 with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when he 
 has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble mould 
 desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, as having 
 been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having suffered the evils of 
 poverty until relief was found at the hand of charity. General Garfield's 
 youth presented no hardships which family love and family energy did not 
 overcome; subjected him to no privations which he did not cheerfully accept ; 
 and left no memories save those which were recalled with delight and were 
 transmitted with profit and with pride. 
 
 Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely 
 limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to learn. 
 He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the advantage 
 of the district school. He read all the books to be found within the circle 
 of his acquaintance : some of them he got by heart. While yet in childhood 
 he was a constant student of the Bible, and became familiar with its litera- 
 ture. The dignity and earnestness of his speech in his maturer life gave evi- 
 dence of this early training. At eighteen years of age he was able to teach 
 school, and thenceforward his ambition was to obtain a college education. To 
 this end he bent all his efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's 
 bench, and, in the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neigh- 
 borhood. While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his 
 studies, and was so successful, that at twenty-two years of age he was able to 
 enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the Presidency of the 
 venerable and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his powers, sur- 
 vives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable service. 
 
 The history of Garfield's life to this period presents no novel features. He 
 had undoubtedly shown perseverence, self-reliance, self-sacrifice, and ambition 
 qualities which, be it said for the honor of our country, are everywhere to 
 be found among the young men of America. But from his graduation at 
 Williams onward to the hour of his tragical death, Garfield's career was emi- 
 nent and exceptional. Slowly working through his educational period, re- 
 ceiving his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound 
 to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was 
 successively President of a college, State Senator of Ohio, Major-General of 
 the Army of the United States, and ^Representative elect to the National
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GAKFIELD. 547 
 
 Congress. A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so 
 brief, and to a man so youug, is without precedent or parallel in the history 
 of the country. 
 
 Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than such 
 as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his march 
 to the field. Stepping from civil life to the head of a regiment, the first order 
 he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume command of a bri- 
 gade, and to operate as an independent force in Eastern Kentucky. His 
 immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey Marshall, who was 
 marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of occupying, in connection 
 with other Confederate forces, the entire territory of Kentucky, and of pre- 
 cipitating the State into secession. This was at the close of the year 1861. 
 Seldom, if ever, has a young college professor been thrown into a more em- 
 barrassing and discouraging position. He knew just enough of military 
 science, as he expressed it himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, 
 and with a handful of men he was marching, in rough winter weather, into a 
 strange country, among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior 
 force, under the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had 
 seen active and important service in two preceding wars. 
 
 The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the endurance, 
 the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the courage he imparted to his 
 men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted to increase his 
 force, and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his num- 
 bers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, the capture of his camp, 
 the dispersion of his force, and the emancipation of an important territory 
 from the control of the rebellion. Coming at the close of a long series of dis- 
 asters to the Union army, Garfield's victory had an unusual and extraneous 
 importance, and in the popular judgment elevated the young commander to 
 the rank of a military hero. With less than 2,000 men in his entire com- 
 mand, with a mobilized force of only 1,100, without cannon, he had met an 
 army of 5,000 and defeated them driving Marshall's forces successively from 
 two strongholds of their own selection, fortified with abundant artillery. 
 Major-General Buell, commanding the Department of the Ohio, an ex- 
 perienced and able soldier of the regular army, published an order of thanks 
 and congratulation on the brilliant result of the Big Sandy campaign, which 
 would have turned the head of a less cool and sensible man than Garfield. 
 Buell declared that his services had called into action the highest qualities of 
 a soldier ; and President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the 
 more substantial reward of a brigadier-general's commission, to bear date 
 from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall. 
 
 The subsequent military career of Garfield fully sustained its brilliant be- 
 ginning. With his new commission, he was assigned to the command of a 
 brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part in the second and decisive
 
 548 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 
 
 day's fight in the great battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the year 1862 was 
 not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was not to the armies with which he 
 was serving. His practical sense was called into exercise in completing the 
 task, assigned him by General Buell, of reconstructing bridges and re-establish- 
 ing lines of railway communication for the army. His occupation in this 
 useful but not brilliant field was varied by service on court-martials of im- 
 portance, in which department of duty he won a valuable reputation, attracting 
 the notice and securing the approval of the able and eminent Judge Advocate- 
 General of the Army. That of itself was warrant to honorable fame; for 
 among the great men who in those trying days gave themselves, with entire 
 devotion, to the service of their country, one who brought to that service the 
 ripest learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most varied attainments, who 
 labored with modesty and shunned applause, who in the day of triumph sat 
 reserved and silent and grateful as Francis Deak in the hour of Hungary's 
 deliverance was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who in his honorable retirement 
 enjoys the respect and veneration of all who love the Union of the States. 
 
 Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the highly important and responsible 
 post of chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans, then at the head of the Army of 
 the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great military campaign no subordinate officer 
 requires sounder judgment and quicker knowledge of men than the cfyief-of- 
 staff to the commanding general. An indiscreet man in such a position can 
 sow more discord, breed more jealousy, and disseminate more strife, than any 
 other officer in the entire organization. When General Garfield assumed his 
 new duties he found various troubles already well developed and seriously 
 affecting the value and efficiency of the Army of the Cumberland. The 
 energy, the impartiality, and the tact with which he sought to allay these dis- 
 sensions and to discharge the duties of his new and trying position will always 
 remain one of the most striking proofs of his great versatility. His military 
 duties closed on the memorable field of Chickamauga, a field which, however 
 disastrous to the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of winning imperish- 
 able laurels. The very rare distinction was accorded him of a great promotion 
 for his bravery on a field that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a 
 major-general in the Army of the United States for gallant and meritorious 
 conduct in the battle of Chickamauga. 
 
 The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized, under the command of 
 General Thomas, who promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. He was 
 extremely desirous to accept the position, but was embarrassed by the fact 
 that he had, a year before, been elected to Congress, and the time when he 
 must take his seat was drawing near. He preferred to remain in the military 
 service, and had within his own breast the largest confidence of success in the 
 wider field which his new rank opened to him. Balancing the arguments on 
 the one side and the other, anxious to determine what was for the best, de- 
 sirous above all things to do his patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GAEFIELD. 549 
 
 by the advice of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom as- 
 sured him that he could, at that time, be of especial value in the House of 
 Representatives. He resigned his commission of major-general on the 5th day 
 of December, 1863, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the 
 7th. He had served two years and four months in the army, and had just 
 completed his thirty-second year. 
 
 The Thirty-eighth Congress is pre-eminently entitled in history to the desig- 
 nation of the War Congress. It was elected while the war was flagrant, and 
 every member was chosen upon the issues involved in the continuance of the 
 struggle. The Thirty-seventh Congress had, indeed, legislated to a large extent 
 on war measures but it was chosen before any one believed thai secession of 
 the States would be actually attempted. The magnitude of the work which 
 fell upon its successor was unprecedented, both in respect to the vast sums of 
 money raised for the support of the army and navy, and of the new and ex- 
 traordinary powers of legislation which it was forced to exercise. Only 
 twenty-four States were represented, and 182 members were upon its roll. 
 Among these were many distinguished party leaders on both sides, veterans in 
 the public service, with established reputations for ability, and with that skill 
 which comes only from parliamentary experience. Into this assemblage of 
 men Garfield entered without special preparation, and it might almost be said 
 unexpectedly. The question of taking command of a division of troops under 
 General Thomas, or taking his seat in Congress, was kept open till the last mo- 
 ment so late, indeed, that the resignation of his military commission and his 
 appearance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He wore the uniform 
 of a major-general of the United States army on Saturday, and on Monday, 
 in civilian's dress, he answered to the roll-call as a Representative in Congress 
 from the State of Ohio. 
 
 He was especially fortunate in the constituency which elected him. Des- 
 cended almost entirely from New England stock, the men of the Ashtabula 
 district were intensely radical on all questions relating to human rights. Well 
 educated, thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affairs, acutely discerning of 
 character, not quick to bestow confidence, and slow to withdraw it, they were 
 at once the most helpful and most exacting of supporters. Their tenacious 
 trust in men in whom they have once confided is illustrated by the unparal- 
 leled fact that Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings, and James A. Garfield 
 represented the district for fifty-four years. 
 
 There is no test of a man's ability in any department of public life more 
 severe than service in the House of Representatives ; there is no place where 
 so little deference is paid to reputation previously acquired, or to eminence 
 won outside ; no place where so little consideration is shown for the feelings 
 or the failures of beginners. What a man gains in the House he gains by 
 sheer force of his own character ; and if he loses and falls back he must expect 
 no mercy, and will receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the survival
 
 550 LIFE OF JAMES A. GABFIELD. 
 
 of the strongest is the recognized rule, and where no pretense can deceive and 
 no glamour can mislead. The real man is discovered, his worth is impartially 
 weighed, his rank is irreversibly decreed. 
 
 With possibly a single exception, Garfield was the youngest member in 
 the House when he entered, and was but seven years from his college gradua- 
 tion. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his ability was re- 
 cognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the front with the confidence 
 of one who belonged there. The House was crowded with strong men of both 
 parties; nineteen of them have since been transferred to the Senate, and 
 many of them ' have served with distinction in the gubernatorial chairs of 
 their respective States, and on foreign missions of great consequence ; but 
 among them all none grew so rapidly, none so firmly as Garfield. As is said 
 by Trevelyan of his parliamentary hero, Garfield succeeded " because all the 
 world in concert could not have kept him in the background ; and because, 
 when once in the front, he played his part with a prompt intrepidity and a 
 commanding ease that were but the outward symptoms of the immense re- 
 serves of energy, on which it was in his power to draw." Indeed the appar- 
 ently reserved force which Garfield possessed was one of his great character- 
 istics. He never did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done 
 better. He never expended so much strength but that he seemed to be hold- 
 ing additional power at call. This is one of the happiest and rarest distinc- 
 tions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much in persuading an 
 assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument. 
 
 The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the House 
 of Representatives. His military life, illustrated by honorable performance, 
 and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, prematurely terminated, and 
 necessarily incomplete. Speculation as to what he might have done in a field 
 where the great prizes are so few can not be profitable. It is sufficient to say 
 that, as a soldier, he did his duty bravely ; he did it intelligently ; he won an 
 enviable (ame, and he retired from the service without blot or breath against 
 him. 
 
 As a lawyer, though admirably equipped for the profession, he can 
 scarcely be said to have entered on its practice. The few efforts he made at 
 the bar were distinguished by the same high order of talent which he exhib- 
 ited on every field where he was put to the test ; and if a man may be ac- 
 cepted as a competent judge of his own capacities and adaptations, the law 
 was the profession to which Garfield should have devoted himself, But fate 
 ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history will rest largely upon his 
 service in the House of Representatives. That service was exceptionally long. 
 He was nine times consecutively chosen to the House, an honor enjoyed by 
 not more than six other Representatives of the more than 5,000 who have 
 been elected from the organization of the government to this hour. 
 
 As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely joined, where
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GARFIELD. 551 
 
 the position has been chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield must be 
 assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, than any man with whom he was 
 associated in public life, he gave careful and systematic study to public 
 questions, and he came to every discussion in which he took part with elabo- 
 rate and complete preparation. He was a steady and indefatigable worker. 
 Those who imagine that talent or genius can supply the place or achieve the 
 results of labor will find no encouragement in Garfield's life. In preliminary 
 work he was apt, rapid, and skillful. He possessed, in a high degree, the 
 power of readily absorbing ideas and facts, and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art 
 of getting from a book all that was of value in it by a reading apparantly so 
 quick and cursory that it seemed like a mere glance at the table of contents. 
 He was a pre-eminently fair and candid man in debate, took no petty advan- 
 tage, stooped to no unworthy methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely ap- 
 pealed to prejudice, did not seek to influence passion. He had a quicker eye 
 for the strong point of his adversary than for his weak point, and on his own 
 side he so marshaled his weighty arguments as to make his hearers forget any 
 possible lack in the complete strength of his position. He had a habit of 
 stating his opponent's side with such amplitude of fairness and such liberality 
 of concession that his followers often complained that he was giving his case 
 ' away. But never in his prolonged participation in the proceedings of the 
 House did he give his case away, or fail in the judgment of competent and 
 impartial listeners to gain the mastery. 
 
 These characteristics, which marked Garfield as a great debater, did not, 
 however, make him a great parliamentary leader. A parliamentary leader, sa 
 that term is understood wherever free representative government exists, la 
 necessarily and very strictly the organ of his party. An ardent American 
 defined the instinctive warmth of patriotism when he oflered the toast: "Our 
 country always right ; but right or wrong, our country." The parliamentary 
 leader who has a body of followers that will do and dare and die for the cause, 
 is one who believes his party always right ; but right or wrong, is for his party. 
 No more important or exacting duty devolves upon him than the selection 
 of the field and the time for contest. He must know not merely how to 
 strike, but where to strike, and when to strike. He often skillfully avoids the 
 strength of his opponent's position and scatters confusion in his ranks, by at- 
 tacking an exposed point when really the righteousness of the cause and the 
 strength of logical intrenchment are against him. He conquers often both 
 against the right and the heavy battalions; as when young Charles Fox, in 
 the days of his Toryism, carried the House of Commons against justice, 
 against its immemoral rights, against his own convictions, and in the interest 
 of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a tyrannical sovereign, drove 
 Wilkes from the seat to which the electors of Middlesex had chosen him and 
 installed Luttrell in defiance, not merely of law, but of public decency. For 
 an achievement of that kind Garfield was disqualified disqualified by the
 
 552 LIFE OF JAMES A. GABFIELD. 
 
 texture of his mind, by the honesty of his heart, by his conscience, and by 
 every instinct and aspiration of his nature. 
 
 The three most distinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto developed in 
 this country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglas, and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Each 
 was a man of consummate ability, of great earnestness, of intense personality, 
 differing widely, each from the others, and yet with a signal trait in common 
 the power to command. In the give and take of daily discussion, in the art 
 of controlling and consolidating reluctant and refractory followers ; in the 
 skill to overcome all forms of opposition, and to meet with competency and 
 courage the varying phases of unlooked-for assault or unsuspected defection, 
 it would be difficult to rank with these a fourth name in all our Congressional 
 history. But of these Mr. Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, be im- 
 possible to find in the parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to Mr. 
 Clay iu 1841, when at sixty-four years of age he took the control of the 
 Whig party from the President who had received their suffrages, against the 
 power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the 
 Senate, against the herculean efforts of Caleb Gushing and Henry A. Wise 
 in the House. In unshared leadership, in the pride and plenitude of power, 
 he hurled against John Tyler, with deepest scorn, the mass of that con- 
 quering column which had swept over the land in 1840 and drove his ad- 
 ministration to seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. Mr. Doug- 
 las achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful, when, in 1854, against the se- 
 cret desires of a strong administration, against the wise counsel of the older 
 chiefs, against the conservative instinct, and even the moral sense of the 
 country, he forced a reluctant Congress into a repeal of the Missouri compro j 
 mise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, in his contests from 1865 to 1868, actually ad- 
 vanced his parliamentary leadership until Congress tied the hands of the Presi- 
 dent, and governed the country by its own will, leaving only perfunctory duties 
 to be discharged by the Executive. With $200,000,000 of patronage in his hands 
 at the opening of the contest, aided by the active force of Seward in the Cabinet 
 and the moral power of Chase on the bench, Andrew Johnson could not com- 
 mand the support of one-third in either House against the parliamentary upris- 
 ing of which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating spirit and the unquestioned 
 leader. 
 
 From these three great men Garfield differed radically, differed in the 
 quality of his mind, in temperament, in the form and phase of ambition. He 
 could not do what they did, but he could do what they could not, and in the 
 breadth of his Congressional work he left that which will longer exert a 
 potential influence among men, and which, measured by the severe test of 
 posthumous criticism, will secure a more enduring and more enviable fame. 
 
 Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry, and ignorant of the details of 
 his work, may, in some degree, measure them by the annals of Congress. No 
 one of the generation of public men to which he belonged has contributed so
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GAEFIELD. 553 
 
 much that will be valuable for future reference. His speeches are numerous, 
 many of them brilliant, all of them well studied, carefully phrased, and ex- 
 haustive of the subject under consideration. Collected from the scattered 
 pages of ninety royal octavo volumes of Congressional Eecord, they would 
 present an invaluable compendium of the political history of the most im- 
 portant era through which the national government has ever passed. When 
 the history of this period shall be impartially written, when war legislation, 
 measures of reconstruction, protection of human rights, amendments to the 
 Constitution, maintenance of public credit, steps toward specie resumption, 
 true theories of revenue may be reviewed, unsurrounded by prejudice and dis- 
 connected from partisanism, the speeches of Garfield will be estimated at their 
 true value, and will be found to comprise a vast magazine of fact and argu- 
 ment, of clear analysis, and sound conclusion. Indeed, if no other authority 
 were accessible, his speeches in the House of Representatives, from December, 
 1863, to June, 1880, would give a well-connected history and complete defense 
 of the important legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute 
 his parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be found to 
 forecast many great measures yet to be completed measures which he knew 
 were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but which he confidently believed 
 would secure popular approval within the period of his own lifetime, and by 
 the aid of his own efforts. 
 
 Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant parliamentary leaders, it is 
 not easy to find his counterpart anywhere in the records of public life. He 
 perhaps more nearly resembles Mr. Seward in his supreme faith in the all- 
 conquering power of a principle. He had the love of learning and the patient 
 industry of investigation, to which John Quincy Adams owes his prominence 
 and his Presidency. He had some of those ponderous elements of mind 
 which distinguished Mr. Webster, and which, indeed, in all our public life 
 have left the great Massachusetts Senator without an intellectual peer. 
 
 In English parliamentary history, as in our own, the leaders in the House 
 of Commons present points of essential difference from Garfield. But some 
 of his methods recall the best features in the strong, independent course of 
 Sir Robert Peel, and striking resemblances are discernible in that most prom- 
 ising of modern conservatives, who died too early for his country and his 
 fame, the Lord George Bentinck. He had all of Burke's love for the sublime 
 and the beautiful, with, possibly, something of his superabundance; and in 
 his faith and his magnanimity, in his power of statement, in his subtle 
 analvsis, in his faultless logic, in his love of literature, in his wealth and 
 world of illustration, one is reminded of that English statesman of to-day, 
 who confronted with obstacles that would daunt any but the dauntless, re- 
 viled by those whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those whose supposed 
 rights he is forced to invade, still labors with serene courage for the ameliora- 
 tion of Ireland, and for the honor of the English name.
 
 554 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 
 
 Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted or anticipated, 
 was not a surprise to the country. His prominence in Congress, his solid 
 qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened by his then recent election as 
 Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the very 
 highest rank among those entitled to be called statesmen. It was not mere 
 chance that brought him this high honor. " We must," says Mr. Emerson, 
 " reckon success a constitutional trait. If Eric is in robust health and has 
 slept well, and is at the top of his condition, and thirty years old at his de- 
 parture from Greenland, he will steer west, and his ships will reach New- 
 foundland. But take Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder man, and 
 the ships will sail 600, 1,000, 1,500 miles further and reach Labrador and New 
 England. There is no chance in results." 
 
 As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popular favor. He was met with a 
 storm of detraction at the very hour of his nomination, and it continued with in- 
 creasing volume and momentum until the close of his victorious campaign : 
 
 No might nor greatness in mortality 
 Can censure 'scape ; backwounding calumny 
 The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 
 Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ? 
 
 Under it all he was calm and strong, and confident; never lost his self- 
 possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered word. Indeed, 
 nothing in his whole life is more remarkable or more creditable than his bear- 
 ing through those five full months of vituperation a prolonged agony of trial 
 to a sensitive man, a constant and cruel draft upon the powers of moral en- 
 durance. The great mass of these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, and 
 with the general d&bris of the campaign fell into oblivion. But in a few in- 
 stances the iron entered his soul, and he died with the injury unforgotten, if 
 not unforgiven. 
 
 One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unprecedented. Never before in 
 the history of partisan contests in this country had a successful Presidential 
 candidate spoken freely on passing events and current issues. To attempt any 
 thing of the kind seemed novel, rash, and even desperate. The older class 
 of voters recalled the unfortunate Alabama letter, in which Mr. Clay was sup- 
 posed to have signed his political death-warrant. They remembered also the 
 hot-tempered effusion by which General Scott lost a large share of his popu- 
 larity before his nomination, and the unfortunate speeches which rapidly con- 
 sumed the remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley in a series 
 of vigorous and original addresses, preparing the pathway for his own defeat. 
 Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the advice of friends, Garfield spoke 
 to large crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in August, to a great 
 multitude in that city, to delegations and deputations of every kind that 
 called at Mentor during the summer and autumn. With innumerable critics, 
 watchful and eager to catch a phrase that might be turned into odium or
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GAKFIELD. 555 
 
 ridicule, or a sentence that might be distorted to his own or his party's injury, 
 Garfield did not trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems 
 all the more remarkable when it is remembered that he did not write what he 
 said, and yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of thought and such ad- 
 mirable precision of phrase as to defy the accident of misreport and the 
 malignity of misrepresentation. 
 
 In the beginning of his Presidential life Garfield's experience did not yield 
 him pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a portion of 
 the President's time were distasteful to him, and were unfavorably contrasted 
 with his legislative work. " I have been dealing all these years with ideas," 
 he impatiently exclaimed one day, "and here I am dealing only with persons. 
 I have been heretofore treating of the fundamental principles of government, 
 and here I am considering all day whether A or B shall be appointed to this 
 or that office." He was earnestly seeking some practicable way of correcting 
 the evils arising from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldly patronage 
 evils always appreciated and often discussed by him, but whose magnitude 
 had been more deeply impressed upon his mind since his accession to the 
 Presidency. Had he lived, a comprehensive improvement in the mode of 
 appointment and in the tenure of office would have been proposed by him, 
 and, with the aid of Congress, no doubt perfected. 
 
 But while many of the executive duties were not grateful to him, he was 
 assiduous and conscientious in their discharge. From the very outset he ex- 
 hibited administrative talent of a high order. He grasped the helm of office 
 with the hand of a master. In this respect, indeed, he constantly surprised 
 many who were most intimately associated with him in the government, and 
 especially those who had feared that he might be lacking in the executive 
 faculty. His disposition of business was orderly and rapid. His power of 
 analysis, and his skill in classification, enabled him to dispatch a vast mass 
 of detail with singular promptness and ease. His cabinet meetings were ad- 
 mirably conducted. His clear presentation of official subjects, his well con- 
 sidered suggestion of topics on which discussion was invited, his quick decision 
 when all had been heard, combined to. show a thoroughness of mental training 
 as rare as his natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged 
 field of labor. 
 
 With perfect comprehension of all the inheritances of the war, with a cool 
 calculation of the obstacles in his way, impelled always by a generous en- 
 thusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might be done by his administration 
 toward restoring harmony between the different sections of the Union. He 
 was anxious to go South and speak to the people. As early as April he had 
 ineffectually endeavored to arrange for a trip to Nashville, whither he had 
 been cordially invited, and he was again disappointed a few weeks later to- 
 find that he could not go to South Carolina to attend the centennial celebra- 
 tion of the victory of the Cowpens. But for the autumn he definitely counted
 
 556 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 
 
 on being present at three memorable assemblies in the South the celebration 
 at Yorktown, the opening of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and the meet- 
 ing of the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He was already turning 
 over in his mind his address for each occasion, and the three taken together, 
 he said to a friend, gave him the exact scope and verge which he needed. At 
 Yorktown he would have before him the associations of a hundred years that 
 bound the South and North in the sacred memory of a common danger and a 
 common victory. At Atlanta he would present the material interests and the 
 industrial development which appealed to the thrift and independence of 
 every household, and which should unite the two sections by the instinct 
 of self-interest and self-defense. At Chattanooga he would revive mem- 
 ories of the war only to show that after all its disaster and all its suffering, 
 the country was stronger and greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, and 
 the future, through the agony and blood of one generation; made brighter 
 and better for all. 
 
 Garfield's ambition for the success of his administration was high. With 
 strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of attempt- 
 ing rash experiments or of resorting to the empiricism of statesmanship. But 
 he believed that renewed and closer attention should be given to questions 
 affecting the material interests and commercial prospects of 50,000,000 of peo- 
 ple. He believed that our continental relations, extensive and undeveloped 
 as they are, involved responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable 
 friendship or be abandoned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He be- 
 lieved with equal confidence that an essential forerunner to a new era of na- 
 tional progress must he a feeling of contentment in every section of the 
 Union, and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government 
 would be common to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability 
 and ambition may do under republican institutions, he loved his country with 
 a passion of patriotic devotion, and every waking thought was given to her 
 advancement. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he looked to 
 the destiny and influence of the United States with the philosophic composure 
 of Jefferson and the demonstrative confidence of John Adams. 
 
 The political events which disturbed the President's serenity for many 
 weeks before that fateful day in July form an important chapter in his career, 
 and, in his own judgment, involved questions of principle and of right 
 which are vitally essential to the constitutional administration of the Fed- 
 eral Government. It would be out of place here and now to speak the lan- 
 guage of controversy, but the events referred to, however they may continue 
 to be a source of contention with others, have become, so far as Garfield is 
 concerned, as much a matter of history as his heroism at Chickamauga or his 
 illustrious service in the House. Detail is not needful, and personal antago- 
 nism shall not be rekindled by any word uttered to-day. The motives of 
 those opposing him are not to be here adversely interpreted, nor their course
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GAEFIELD. 557 
 
 harshly characterized. But of the dead President this is to be said, and said 
 because his own speech is forever silenced, and he can be no more heard ex- 
 cept through the fidelity and love of surviving friends: From the beginning 
 to the end of the controversy he so much deplored, the President was never for 
 one moment actuated by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to others. 
 Least of all men dfd he harbor revenge, rarely did he ever show resentment, 
 and malice was not in his nature. He was congenially employed only in the 
 exchange of good offices and the doing of kindly deeds. 
 
 There was not an hour, from the beginning of the trouble till the fatal shot 
 entered his body, when the President would not gladly, for the sake of restor- 
 ing harmony, have retraced any step he had taken if such retracing had 
 merely involved consequences personal to himself. The pride of consistency, 
 or any sense of supposed humiliation that might result from surrendering his 
 position, had not a feather's weight with him. No man was ever less subject 
 to such influences from within or from without. But after most anxious de- 
 liberation, and the coolest survey of all the circumstances, he solemnly believed 
 that the true prerogatives of the Executive were involved in the issue which 
 had been raised, and that he would be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if 
 he failed to maintain in all their vigor the constitutional rights and dignities 
 of his great office. He believed this in all the convictions of conscience when 
 in sound and vigorous health, and he believed it in his suffering and prostra- 
 tion in the last conscious thought which his wearied mind bestowed on the 
 transitory struggles of life. 
 
 More than this need not be said. Less than this could not be said. Jus- 
 tice to the dead, the highest obligation that devolves upon the living, demands 
 the declaration that, in all the bearings of the subject, actual or possible, the 
 President was content in his mind, justified in his conscience, immovable in 
 his conclusions. 
 
 The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. In 
 his early youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that great 
 Baptist communion which, in different ecclesiastical establishments, is 
 so numerous and so influential throughout all parts of the United States. 
 But the broadening tendency of his mind and his active spirit of inquiry were 
 early apparent, and carried him beyond the dogmas of sect and the restraints 
 of association. In selecting a college in which to continue his education, he 
 rejected Bethany, though presided over by Alexander Campbell, the greatest 
 preacher of his Church. His reasons were characteristic : first, that Bethany 
 leaned too heavily toward slavery ; and, second, that being himself a Disciple, 
 and the son of Disciple parents, he had but little acquaintance with people of 
 other beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own 
 words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle and be 
 under new influences. 
 
 The liberal tendency which he anticipated as the result of wider cult-
 
 558 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 
 
 ure was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, 
 and with eager interest pushed his investigations in the direction of modern 
 progressive thought. He followed with quickening step in the paths of ex- 
 ploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden by Darwin, by Huxley, by 
 Tyndall, and by other living scientists of the radical and advanced type. 
 His own Church, binding its disciples by no formulated creed, but accepting 
 the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God with unbiased liberality of 
 private interpretation, favored, if it did not stimulate, the spirit of investiga- 
 tion. Its members profess with sincerity, and profess only, to be of one mind 
 and one faith with those who immediately followed the Master, and who 
 were first called Christians at Antioch. 
 
 But however high Garfield reasoned of "fixed fate, free will, foreknowl- 
 edge absolute," he was never separated from the Church of the Disciples in 
 his . affections and in his associations. For him it held the ark of the cov- 
 enant. To him it was the gate of heaven. The world of religious belief is 
 full of solecisms and contradictions. A philosophic observer declares that 
 men by the thousand will die in defense of a creed whose doctrines they do 
 not comprehend, and whose tenets they habitually violate. It is equally 
 true that men, by the thousand, will cling to church organizations with in- 
 stinctive and undying fidelity when their belief, in maturer years, is radically 
 different from that which inspired them as neophytes. 
 
 But after this range of speculation, and this latitude of doubt, Garfield 
 came back always with freshness and delight to the simpler instincts of re- 
 ligious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest survive. Not many weeks 
 before his assassination, walking on the banks of the Potomac with a friend, 
 and conversing on those topics of personal religion, concerning which noble 
 natures have an unconquerable reserve, he said that he found the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the simple petitions learned in infancy, infinitely restful to him, 
 not merely in their stated repetition, but in their casual and frequent recall as 
 he went about the daily duties of life. Certain texts of Scripture had a very 
 strong hold on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh, 
 some years ago, an eminent Scotch preacher who prefaced his sermon with 
 reading the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been 
 the subject of careful study with Garfield during all his religious life. He 
 was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher, and declared that it 
 had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of St. 
 Paul. He referred often, in after years, to that memorable service, and dwelt 
 with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant promise and the assured hope with 
 which the great apostle of the Gentiles was " persuaded that neither death, 
 nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
 separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 The crowning characteristics of General Garfield's religious opinions, as,
 
 ELAINE'S EULOGY ON GAEFIELD. 559 
 
 indeed, of all his opinions, was his liberality. In all things he had charity. 
 Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the qualities which he 
 possessed himself sincerity of conviction and frankness of expression. With 
 him the inquiry was not so much what a man believes, but does he believe it? 
 The lines of his friendship and his confidence encircled men of every creed, 
 and men of no creed ; and to the end of his life, on his ever-lengthening list 
 of friends, were to be found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an 
 honest-minded and generous-hearted freethinker 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the President was a contented and 
 happy man not in an ordinary degree, bu-t joyfully, almost boyishly happy. 
 On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious 
 enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a 
 keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory 
 vein. He felt that after four months of trial his administration was strong in 
 its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor, and destined to grow stronger ; 
 that grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely 
 passed; that trouble lay behind him and not before him ; that he was soon to 
 meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but 
 lately disquieted and at times almost unnerved him ; that he was going to his 
 Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, 
 and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest had followed 
 every step of his upward progress from the day he entered upon his college 
 course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his country- 
 men. 
 
 Surely if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this 
 world, on that quiet July morning, James A. Garfield may well have been a 
 happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him ; no slightest premonition 
 of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant 
 One moment he stood erect, strong, confident, in the years stretching peace- 
 fully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed 
 to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. 
 
 Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the 
 very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he 
 was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspi- 
 rations, its victories, into the visible presence of death and he did not quail. 
 Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could 
 give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly 
 languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently 
 borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. 
 What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell ! What 
 brilliant broken plans ! what baffled, high ambitions! what sundering of strong, 
 warm, manhood's friendships ! what bitter rending of sweet household ties ! 
 Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a
 
 560 LIFE OF JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 
 
 cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil 
 and tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his ; the little boys 
 not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; 
 the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day 
 and every day rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his heart the eager, 
 rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him desolation and great dark- 
 ness! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with 
 instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weak- 
 ness, he became the center of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a 
 world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his 
 suffering. He trod the winepress alone. With unfaltering front he faced 
 death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac 
 hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resigna- 
 tion he bowed to the divine decree. 
 
 As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately 
 mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he 
 begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from 
 its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great 
 people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to 
 die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of 
 its manifold voices, with wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, 
 he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders, on its far sails, 
 whitening in the morning light ; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to 
 break and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arch- 
 ing low to the horizon ; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let 
 us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt 
 and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the reced- 
 ing world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt 
 already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning.
 
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