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 EDWARD STAN\VOOD, LITT. D. 
 
 AMERICAN TARIFF CONTROVERSIES IN THE NINE- 
 TEENTH CENTURY. 2 vols., large crown 8vo, $5.00 net. 
 Postpaid ^5.37. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY. Large Crown 8vo, 
 $2.50. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 Boston and New York 
 
 a
 
 A HISTORY OF THE 
 PRESIDENCY 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD STANWOOD, Litt. D. (Bowdoin) 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW TORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1906
 
 
 Copyright, 1808, 
 By EDWARD STANWOODl 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The basis of this book is the " History of Presidential Elec- 
 tions," originally published in 1884. In the preparation of 
 that work the meagreness and comparative inaccessibility of 
 material concerning the early elections made the chapters that 
 deal with that period somewhat barren. Increasing abundance 
 of material and greater familiarity with the political history of 
 more recent times caused a broadening of the plan, and led to 
 the result that the later chapters of the original work, and still 
 more the chapters added in subsequent editions, in 1888, 1892, 
 and 1896, were much more than a history of the elections. 
 
 I have thought that the usefulness of the book might be 
 greatly enhanced by rewriting a large part of it, supplying 
 deficiencies by a more diligent search for and study of the 
 facts relating to the presidency in the early days of the gov- 
 ernment, and enriching it throughout with new personal, 
 explanatory, and other enlightening matter, thus making the 
 whole work uniform in method. This has enabled me to 
 introduce a fuller discussion of some of the political problems 
 to which the constitutional provisions regarding the presiden- 
 tial office have given rise. More important still, the revision 
 and expansion of the work have given me a much-desired 
 opportunity to modify some opinions expressed in the original 
 book which a more careful and thorough examination of origi- 
 nal sources of information has led me to regard as not well 
 founded. The last consideration has the more weight in view 
 of the use that has been made of the book in the history depart- 
 ments of our colleges. 
 
 The changes and additions here noted have given the book
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 so mucli greater scope than it had in its first form, that a 
 broader title seems necessary. If it be urged that a history of 
 the presidency should include an account of the development 
 of the presidential office, and of the successive expansions or 
 limitations of the President's powers and duties, the reply may 
 be made that there has been no such development to record, 
 since the office is now what it was in the time of Washington, 
 — neither of greater nor of less weight in the government than 
 it was then. 
 
 I have endeavored to collect and present all important mat- 
 ters relating to the presidency, beginning with the constitu- 
 tional history of the office, covering every public event and 
 discussion which had a perceptible influence in determining 
 who should hold the office, and in connection therewith to 
 note the origin and sketch the history of all political parties, 
 however ephemeral, that rose above the rank of a local faction. 
 And, since one President is different from another, I have 
 tried to show wherein and in what manner the personal quali- 
 ties of the Presidents have affected the course of public events 
 and of the national history. 
 
 E. S. 
 Brookline, Massachusetts, July, 1898.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 V^Wl'N XJLxN ±0 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • I. 
 
 The Electoral System .... 
 
 1 
 
 II. 
 
 The First Election 
 
 20 
 
 lU. 
 
 AVashixgton re-elected unanimously . 
 
 32 
 
 IV. 
 
 John Adams 
 
 42 
 
 V. 
 
 The Jefferson-Bubr Contest . 
 
 54 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Democratic Regime .... 
 
 74 
 
 VII. 
 
 James Madison 
 
 86 
 
 VIII. 
 
 An Election in Time of War 
 
 97 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Last of the Virginia "Dynasty" 
 
 106 
 
 X. 
 
 The " Era of Good Feelings "... 
 
 115 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Defeat of "King Caucus" 
 
 125 
 
 XII. 
 
 Jackson's Triumph 
 
 142 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The "Old Hero" re-elected . 
 
 151 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Convention System .... 
 
 166 
 
 XV. 
 
 Van Buren 
 
 178 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Tippecanoe and Tyler too .... 
 
 190 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The First "Dark Horse" 
 
 206 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The "Free Soil" Campaign of 1848 . 
 
 226 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The Democrats reunited 
 
 244 
 
 XX. 
 
 The New Republican Party 
 
 258 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The Last Struggle of Slavery" . 
 
 279 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Lincoln re-elected 
 
 298 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 General Grant 
 
 313 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The Greeley Campaign .... 
 
 333 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Disputed* Ei^ction .... 
 
 356 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 A Republican Revival 
 
 394 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 The Mugwump Campaign .... 
 
 419 
 
 >vxvin. 
 
 Two Important Questions decided . 
 
 4.50 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The Second Harrison .... 
 
 457 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Cleveland's Second Election 
 
 486 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 The Free Silver Campaign 
 
 519 
 
 
 Index 
 
 571
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 
 
 The evolution of the Constitution of 1787 forms one of the 
 most interesting chapters in the history of human government. 
 For the first time, the representatives of an inchoate nation, 
 meeting to ordain and establish a fundamental law for them- 
 selves and their posterity, could write that law upon tabula 
 rasa. They had to expunge nothing, — to abolish no old 
 institutions, to violate no traditions, to reform no long-stand- 
 ing abuses. Their task was not made easier by their unex- 
 ampled freedom from the trammels of an established order ; on 
 the contrary, it was thereby rendered more difficult. To know 
 what is not liked goes far toward teaching one what will be 
 liked. The members of the Philadelphia Convention had no 
 indication of what would be agreeable to those for whom they 
 acted. Yet they proceeded, first to draw in the rough, and 
 afterward to fill in and refine the detail, of a constitution that 
 has converted the unorganized communities of a congeries of 
 mutually repellant States into a united nation, under a govern- 
 ment more conservative and less subject to change than that 
 of any other self-governing people in the world. 
 
 Particularly worthy of study is the process by which the 
 executive department of the government to be created was 
 moulded, as the perfect statue is developed from the rough 
 block of marble. By successive resolutions the convention 
 determined that there should be an executive ; consisting of 
 one person ; holding office for a limited period ; reeligible ; 
 elected ; endowed with certain powers. The Convention hesitated 
 upon many points ; the decisions first reached were not always, 
 not even usually, final. Indeed, almost every feature of the plan
 
 2 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ultimately adopted was at least once rejected, after full debate. 
 Yet it cannot be said, after a full study of the debates, that 
 the Convention was unduly vacillating. The truth is that it 
 was a series of independent propositions which was rejected in 
 all these cases, but that when they were combined in a whole, 
 the scheme became that toward which the Convention was all 
 the time working. This will explain why Hamilton, whose 
 plan of a government was widely different from that which 
 formed the basis of the Convention's deliberations, who, in- 
 deed, had but little part in the formation of the Constitution, 
 could without great inconsistency become a defender of the 
 instrument as a whole, and could write : ^ " The mode of the 
 appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is 
 almost the only part of the system of any consequence which 
 has escaped without some censure, or which has received the 
 slightest mark of approbation from its opponents." Notwith- 
 standing this statement, which was strictly true, it is now to 
 be said that the only part of the machinery of government, 
 ordained by the people when they adopted the Constitution, 
 that has suffered the least change since the government came 
 into being, is the article which then gave universal satisfaction ; 
 and that no part of the Constitution has been so earnestly and 
 so continuously criticised as this same article, already once 
 amended to remove a supposed defect. 
 
 The plan of a national government submitted to the Con- 
 vention on the 29th of May, 1787, by Mr. Edmund Randolph, 
 provided for " a national executive to be chosen by the national 
 
 legislature for the term of years," " and to be ineligible 
 
 the second time." Charles Pinckney proposed, at the same 
 time, " that the executive power be vested in a ' President of 
 the United States of America,' which shall be his style ; and 
 his title shall be ' His Excellency.' He shall be elected for 
 
 years, and shall be reeligible." In some of the propositions 
 
 made during the early days of the Convention the proposed 
 executive was styled the "governor; " but it was a mere sug- 
 gestion, resulting from the fact that as there was not, and 
 never had been, a model from which to copy the executive 
 which the Convention intended to create, no precedent existed 
 to guide them in giving him a title. The first question was. 
 In how many persons should the executive power be vested ? 
 One voice was raised in favor of three, — one to be chosen 
 1 Federalist, No. 67.
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 3 
 
 from the North, one from the Middle States, and one from the 
 South, It was speedily determined that there should be a sin- 
 gle chief magistrate, and the decision was not reopened or crit- 
 icised afterward. 
 
 The questions concerning the executive department of the 
 government divided themselves into two classes : What should 
 be the powers and duties of the President ? and. How and by 
 whom should he be chosen ? With the first class we have 
 nothing to do, save incidentally. To understand why the Con- 
 vention was puzzled, and why it changed its mind, apparently, 
 so often, it is necessary to inquire briefly what it was the pur- 
 pose of the Convention to accomplish, and against what appre- 
 hended evils it endeavored to guard. It was one of the guid- 
 ing principles, early adopted and rigidly adhered to, that the 
 legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the govern- 
 ment should be separate and mutually independent. There 
 were two, and only two, natural ways of selecting the Presi- 
 dent : by popular vote, and by the national legislature. At 
 no time was the proposition of a popular election received 
 with favor, although it had the support of powerful advocates, 
 particularly of Mr. Gouverneur Morris. The chief objections 
 urged against it were three : the great advantage this method 
 would give to the large States ; the probable ignorance of the 
 people at large as to the comparative merits of candidates, and 
 the consequent likelihood that they would in all cases give a 
 preference to a candidate each from his own State ; and the 
 general incompetence of the populace to decide a question of 
 such moment. Superficial writers are responsible for a popu- 
 lar impression that the third of these reasons was the control- 
 ling one, — that the Convention by its action registered its 
 distrust of the people, that if the members had felt a greater 
 confidence in the people, the decision would have been difiier- 
 ent. From this it is plausible to draw an argument that the 
 present generation, which knows that the people may be 
 trusted, should introduce the popular election. In truth, a 
 distrust of the good judgment of the people was expressed by 
 one member only, Colonel Mason, of Virginia, who happens to 
 have been one of the three members of the Convention who 
 did not sign the Constitution,^ in the often quoted remark 
 that it would be " as unnatural to refer the proper character 
 for chief magistrate to the people as it would be to refer a trial 
 1 The others were Eandolph and Gerry.
 
 4 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 of colors to a blind man." On the other hand, the fear of 
 aggrandizement by the large States was ever present as a con- 
 trolling principle ; for unless the frame of government were 
 such as the smaller States would adopt, the Convention must 
 be a failure. The consideration that the public characters of 
 the country were not generally known, save in the neighbor- 
 hood of their homes, was also potent, and was founded upon 
 a real condition. 
 
 Yet the alternative, an election by the legislature, was equally 
 objectionable on other grounds. To require that the Executive 
 should be independent of the law-making power, and at the 
 same time to give the election to the legislature, was an incon- 
 sistency so glaring as to shock the Convention whenever the 
 clause relating to the choice of a President came under consid- 
 eration. The only escape from it, and that but a partial one, 
 was to forbid the reelection of a chief magistrate, — a provision 
 which, as was pointed out, might and would sometimes exclude 
 from the office the person best fitted to exercise it. The pro- 
 position to avoid these difficulties by creating a body of elec- 
 tors for the sole purpose of choosing a President was made 
 early in the session. On the 2d of June, James Wilson pro- 
 posed that there should be " certain districts in each State 
 which should appoint electors to elect outside of their own 
 body." The objection was made that, inasmuch as the most 
 eminent citizens would be already serving as senators, repre- 
 sentatives, and State governors, the choice of a President 
 would, by this plan, be committed to a body of inferior men, 
 ignorant of the merits of citizens in all parts of the country, 
 and therefore apt to vote for candidates living in their own 
 State. Dealing with the conditions that prevailed in their 
 time, — a dearth of men capable of filling so many new posi- 
 tions as it was necessary to create, and an absence of the 
 means by which information regarding public men and public 
 affairs is now disseminated, — they were right. 
 
 The statement of the perplexities by which the Convention 
 was confronted prepares us to understand the frequent reversal 
 of its decisions. The first resolution, adopted before the objec- 
 tions to it had occurred to the members, was that the Execu- 
 tive should be chosen by the legislature. Then Elbridge 
 Gerry brought forward a suggestion that the President should 
 be elected by the governors of the States ; this was negatived. 
 Hamilton's plan of a government, offered on the 18th of June,
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 5 
 
 which was never considered by the Convention, committed the 
 election to a body of electors to be chosen by the people, by 
 districts. These electors were to meet, those for each State 
 within that State, and vote not only for a President of the 
 United States, but also for two " second electors." A majority 
 of all the "first electors" was to be necessary to make choice 
 of a President. Should such a majority not be obtained, the 
 " second electors " were to meet in one place, be presided over 
 by the Chief Justice, and effect a choice. 
 
 The convention returned to the subject of the Executive on 
 the 17th of July, and after a debate rejected a motion that he 
 should be chosen " by electors appointed by the legislatures of 
 the several States." On the 19th it adopted a motion in almost 
 the identical words of the rejected proposition : " to be chosen 
 by electors appointed for that purpose by the legislatures of the 
 States." The question as to the length of the President's term, 
 as well as that of his reeligibility, was closely involved with 
 the consideration of the body to which he was to owe his election. 
 A long term and ineligibility for a second term were both mea- 
 sures to insure the President's independence of the legislature. 
 The bugbear of legislative tyranny was held up before the Con- 
 vention almost as frequently as was that of a control of the 
 government by the larger States. Seven years, therefore, was 
 the term first agreed upon ; and the question of reeligibility 
 was left open. After the second vote, above noted, commit- 
 ting the choice to independent electors, the term was reduced 
 to six years ; and an amendment that a President should not 
 hold office more than six years of any twelve years was re- 
 jected. This was on the 19th of July. The next day the 
 Convention adopted Mr. Gerry's proposition regarding the 
 number of electors : Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia 
 were to have three each ; Connecticut, New York, New Jer- 
 sey, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina, two each ; 
 Rhode Island, Delaware, and Georgia, one each. On the 26th 
 the Convention reverted to the seven years' term, with the 
 provision of ineligibility for reelection. Then, on the same 
 day, the whole subject was referred to a committee of five. 
 The committee reported a draft of a Constitution on the 6th of 
 August. The article relating to the election of President was 
 in these words : — 
 
 Art. X., Sect. 1. The executive power of the United States shall 
 be vested iu a single person. His style shall be " The President of
 
 6 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the United States of America ; " and his title shall be " His Excel- 
 lency." He shall be elected by ballot by the legislature. He shall 
 hold his office during seven y^rs, but shall not be elected a sec- 
 ond time. 
 
 This section, which combined Mr. Randolph's and Mr. Pinck- 
 ney's plans, but which contained no trace of the electoral plan 
 adopted by the Convention, was the basis of future discussions. 
 But the scheme of a choice by the legislature was still as 
 objectionable as ever. It was at this point that Mr. Hugh 
 Williamson of North Carolina made a suggestion in which was 
 the germ of the plan ultimately adopted. He proposed to 
 refer the election to popular vote, each elector to vote for 
 three persons, and the choice to fall on him who obtained a 
 majority of all the persons voting. He thought this would be 
 a cure for the evil that the large States would govern. Gou- 
 verneur Morris at once caught up the idea, but suggested that 
 two votes only be allowed to electors, and that it be provided 
 that one at least of the two should not be given to a citizen of 
 the voter's own State. Mr. Madison also thought that some- 
 thing valuable might be made of Mr. Williamson's suggestion, 
 with Mr. Morris's amendment. He advanced the idea that 
 the second best man would probably be the first, that is, a 
 voter would place a citizen of his own State first, but would 
 give his second vote to a man selected on account of his fitness 
 for the place, and not on account of his residence. The voter 
 might give the preference to a local candidate in the hope that 
 he would get a majority ; but he would not throw away his 
 second vote also. The first judgment of the Convention was 
 against the proposition, yet it was defeated by one majority 
 only, — five States supporting and six opposing it. 
 
 On the 24th of August the question of the Executive was 
 again considered. The Convention rejected a proposition by 
 Mr. Morris to refer the election to electors chosen by the 
 people of the several States, and also a motion that the Presi- 
 dent be chosen "by electors." It rejected moreover a plain 
 election by the people, a motion to give to each State one vote 
 for President (in the election by *' the legislature," which in 
 all this discussion meant the House of Representatives and 
 not both branches of Congress), and another motion that when 
 the legislature should be equally divided the President of the 
 Senate should have the casting vote. It adopted two amend- 
 ments to the section quoted above, which made the third
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 7 
 
 sentence read as follows : " He shall be elected by joint ballot 
 by the legislature, to which' election a majority of the votes of 
 the members present shall be required." In the clause as 
 amended, it will be seen, the phrase " the legislature " signifies 
 both branches. 
 
 Up to this point no proposition had been made to appoint 
 a Vice-President. On August 31 " the questions not yet 
 settled " were referred to a committee of eleven, which reported, 
 on the 4th of September, a scheme for the election of the 
 Executive radically different from anything that had been 
 sanctioned by the Convention, — as different as the report of 
 a Congressional committee of conference, in our day, some- 
 times is from any version of a bill passed in non-concurrence 
 submitted to it. The committee proposed to strike all out of 
 the section printed above after the word " Excellency," and 
 to insert the following provisions : — 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as its legislature may 
 direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators 
 and members of the House of Representatives to which the State 
 may be entitled in the legislature. (A) 
 
 The electors shall meet in their resi^ective States, and vote by 
 ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab- 
 itant of the same State with themselves ; and they shall make a 
 list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for 
 each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, 
 to the seat of general government, directed to the President of the 
 Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in that house, open all 
 the certificates : and the votes shall then and there be counted. (B) 
 The person having the greatest number of votes shall be President, 
 if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ; 
 and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have 
 an equal number of votes, then the Senate shall choose by ballot 
 one of them for President; but if no such person have such ma- 
 jority, then, from the five highest on the list, the Senate shall 
 choose by ballot the President. And in every case, after the 
 choice of a President, the person having the greatest number of 
 votes shall be the Vice-President ; but if thei'e shovdd remain two 
 or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them 
 the Vice-President. 
 
 The legislature may determine the time of choosing and assem- 
 bling the electors, and the manner of certifying and transmitting 
 their votes. 
 
 When the article was taken up for consideration on the
 
 8 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 following day, September 5, many amendments were offered. 
 Those which were adopted show again most clearly that the 
 Convention now discerned definitely what it desired to ac- 
 complish, and that it could move directly to that end. At 
 the place marked (A) a provision was inserted that " no per- 
 son shall be appointed an elector who is a member of the leg- 
 islature of the United States, or who holds any office of profit 
 or trust under the United States." At the place marked (B) 
 was added the phrase, "in the presence of the Senate and 
 House of Representatives," — an important clause, in that it 
 implies that the President of the Senate was to count the elec- 
 toral vote, and that the members of the two houses were to 
 be present as witnesses only. The word " immediately " was 
 inserted in the direction to the Senate to choose the President 
 in case of a failure of the electors to give a majority to one 
 person. A motion to commit the election to the "legisla- 
 ture" instead of to the Senate was rejected by seven States 
 against three. The reason for this vote was evidently a de- 
 termination that when the electors did not effect a choice, the 
 result should be determined by a poll of States, each having 
 an equal voice ; for when Roger Sherman moved that the 
 election be made by the House of Representatives, each State 
 to have one vote, the motion was carried by ten States to one. 
 Then it was suggested that inasmuch as a majority of the 
 House of Representatives constituted a quorum, the election 
 might be carried, when the members of three large States 
 only were present, by a vote of two States to one. Madison 
 met this by offering an amendment, which was accepted, pro- 
 viding that when the House was assembled for the purpose of 
 electing a President, a quorum should consist of a member or 
 members from two thirds of the States, and that a majority 
 of all the States should be necessary to effect a choice. 
 
 Thus all the points of objection were met, and the scheme as 
 a whole was regarded with almost universal satisfaction. The 
 whole Constitution was referred to a committee " to revise the 
 style and arrange the articles agreed to by the House." The 
 committee, appointed on the 8th of September, reported on 
 the 12th. The articles were "read, debated by paragraphs, 
 amended, and agreed to," and the Convention adjourned on the 
 17th of September. The article, as finally adopted and rati- 
 fied, under which the first four elections were held, is, in full, 
 as follows : —
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 9 
 
 Art. II., Sect. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a 
 President of the United States of America. He shall hold his 
 office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice- 
 President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : — 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
 thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole num- 
 ber of senators and representatives to which the State may be enti- 
 tled in the Congress ; but no senator or representative, or person 
 holding an office of ti'ust or profit under the United States, shall 
 be appointed an elector. 
 
 The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by 
 ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab- 
 itant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a 
 list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for 
 each ; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, 
 to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the 
 President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in 
 the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all 
 the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person 
 having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if 
 such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- 
 pointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, 
 and have an eqi;al number of votes, then the House of Represen- 
 tatives shall imniediately choose by ballot one of them for Presi- 
 dent; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest 
 on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the Presi- 
 dent. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by 
 States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a 
 quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members 
 from tw^o thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States 
 shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of 
 the President, the person having the greatest number of votes 
 of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should 
 remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose 
 from them by ballot the Vice-President. 
 
 The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors 
 and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall 
 be the same throughout the United States. 
 
 What the electoral system has accomplished, and wherein 
 it has proved more or less defective, may be learned in detail 
 from the historical events narrated in subsequent chapters. It 
 is desirable, nevertheless, to consider in this place the general 
 working of the system, and its development in practice. In 
 the first place, let us see how far it has fulfilled the purposes
 
 10 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 and expectations of the framers of the Constitution. No 
 doubt it is unsafe to declare in precise terms what they 
 intended to accomplish by every clause and word of the 
 remarkable instrument they left for the use of their country- 
 men: nor is it just or expedient to regard their work as 
 imperfect in those parts of the Constitution wherein later 
 generations have departed from what seems to have been 
 their original intention, provided the modification, not in- 
 consistent with the letter of the Constitution, result in a 
 workable and equitable system. Bearing in mind these pre- 
 liminary cautions, we may say that the Convention sought to 
 accomplish, (1) the independence of the Executive ; (2) the 
 choice of the President by an electorate which (a) should be 
 intelligent, and free to choose the best, and (h) should not 
 be controlled by the large States ; (3) that in the event of 
 a failure of the electors to make a choice, each State should 
 have an equal voice. 
 
 The first of the above-enumerated objects has been realized, 
 although at one time it seemed to be defeated. In the Chap- 
 ter on the Convention System (XIV) it will be seen how the 
 Congressional Caucus became so obvious a necessity that it 
 would have been contrary to the plainest dictate of political 
 wisdom not to make use of it ; and yet it was directly in vio- 
 lation of the principle that the President must not owe his 
 election to the legislative department of the government. The 
 national convention has restored to the President as large a 
 measure of independence of Congress as is possible under any 
 system. So long as the strongest, wisest, and best-informed 
 public men have the greatest influence upon the choice, as 
 they ought to have, and so long as the people send such men 
 to Congress, as they ought to do, so long will the absolute 
 independence of the President be impossible ; but not his in- 
 dependence of Congress as a whole, or of his own party mem- 
 bers in Congress. 
 
 The most difficult requirement was that the electors should 
 be free agents, and qualified to make a wise choice by acquaint- 
 ance with the public men of the country. In the strictest 
 sense, the first part of this condition was not realized even at 
 the earliest elections. There was no second where Washington 
 was first ; but when he retired, the intelligence of the electors 
 needed to be instructed. It was many years before acquaint- 
 ance with public men was sufficiently general to enable all the
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 11 
 
 States to appoint electors who were competent to judge for 
 themselves. It is notorious that almost from the beginning, 
 the electors have been subject, in giving their votes, to a moral 
 stress so powerful that not one of them could separate himself 
 from his fellows and vote for any other than the candidate of 
 his party, without being held guilty of unpardonable political 
 treachery. The intrigues to detach Federal electors from 
 Adams, eight years only after the Constitution went into 
 effect, and the absolute unanimity of the anti-Federal electors 
 in support of both Jefferson and Burr, in 1800, show how 
 quickly the scheme of independent, free-acting electors came 
 to naught. Shall we say that it is surprising that the sagacious 
 statesmen of the Convention did not foresee that the govern- 
 ment they were instituting would be a government by party, 
 and that the success of parties would depend as much on their 
 discipline as on their principles ? They did foresee it. Or 
 rather, they feared, as some of them expressed it in debate, 
 that the electors would be influenced and controlled in their 
 action by designing men ; and they hoped only that the votes 
 would be free. 
 
 No argument is needed to prove that the scheme of the 
 fathers is not only impracticable, but that in its operation it 
 would now be intolerable. Were electors to be chosen merely 
 as party men, uncommitted to any candidates, one of two 
 things must happen. Either the choice of these candidates, 
 after the appointment of electors, would be made in the utmost 
 confusion, and would be attended with scandalous intrigues, 
 perhaps with corruption ; or, the election of a President would 
 be thrown into the House of Representatives, not occasionally, 
 but always. The most casual consideration of the subject will 
 convince every thinking man that the system we have is far 
 better than that which the fathers planned. We have, in the 
 convention system, a device which substitutes the judgment 
 of a whole ^arty for that of the individual elector, and which 
 enables the wishes of the largest party to be carried into effect, 
 instead of being scattered and wasted. The new system may 
 not, does not, carry out the exact intention of the Fathers, but 
 it conforms to the letter of the Constitution. 
 
 Four elections only were held under the provisions of the 
 Constitution as ratified by the States. Then a change was 
 made, in order to meet in a different way a state of affairs 
 which the Convention had foreseen. The circumstances in
 
 12 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ■which the will of the victorious party was nearly frustrated at 
 the election of 1800-1801 are fully narrated in a subsequent 
 chapter. It was to prevent a recurrence of the scandal, for it 
 was a scandal, in spite of the fact that it was constitutional, 
 that the change was made. Nevertheless the amendment cast 
 away the very feature which induced the Convention to 
 entrust the choice of President to a created body of electors, 
 and which was to make it certain that the large States should 
 not control. Consequently, it seems at first sight illogical to 
 amend the Constitution by ordaining a different course of pro- 
 cedure, for the sole reason that something had happened which 
 was distinctly foreseen and provided for. 
 
 It seemed both illogical and unwise to Gouverneur Morris, 
 who was at that time a member of the United States Senate 
 from New York.^ The twelfth amendment was proposed by 
 New York. Mr. Morris voted against it, and the resolution 
 of the House of Representatives was first defeated by his vote. 
 In a letter to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the 
 Assembly of New York, dated December 25, 1802,^ he gives 
 his reasons for his vote, three in number, of which one only is 
 pertinent. The evils complained of were foreseen in the 
 Convention. " The Convention not only foresaw that a scene 
 might take place similar to that of the last presidential election, 
 but even supposed it not impossible that at some time or other, 
 a person admirably fitted for the office of President might 
 have an equal vote with one totally unqualified, and that, by 
 the predominance of faction in the House of Representatives, 
 the latter might be preferred. This, Avhich is the greatest 
 supposable evil of the present mode, was calmly examined, 
 and it appeared that however prejudicial it might be at the 
 present moment, a useful lesson would result from it for the 
 future, to teach contending parties the importance of giving 
 both votes to men fit for the first office." Mr. Morris was a 
 Federalist, but his judgment in the crisis of 1801 had been 
 decidedly against the course pursued by the members of his 
 party in the House of Representatives, Thus he had seen an 
 example of that which he characterizes as " the greatest sup- 
 posable evil of the present mode." He must also have been 
 aware of the strenuous efforts put forth by men of his own 
 party to secure for Mr. Pinckney a larger electoral vote than 
 
 1 He represented Pennsylvania in the Convention of 1787. 
 
 2 Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. iii., p. 174.
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 13 
 
 that for Mr. Adams, in the year preceding that crisis. That 
 which he calls a " useful lesson " was then, and has at almost 
 every subsequent election been greatly needed, and usually 
 unheeded. Ko doubt, if a party victorious in the choice of 
 electors were always liable to the accident of having to submit 
 to an assembly politically hostile the choice between its two 
 candidates for the presidency, the nominations would be more 
 carefully made. But it is clearly evident that, with the aban- 
 donment of the theory of independent voting by electors, and 
 the consequent certainty that there would always be a tie be- 
 tween two candidates, and an election ultimately by the House 
 of Representatives, the change made after the Jefferson-Burr 
 contest was a wise one. 
 
 It has been said that to this change is to be attributed the 
 semi-degradation of the office of Vice-President. In support 
 of the assertion it may be stated with truth that not more than 
 two or three candidates for Vice-President of all parties, dur- 
 ing the last three quarters of a century, have been men who, 
 at the time of their nomination, had even been suggested as 
 candidates for President. Mr. Tyler, Mr. Wheeler, and Mr. 
 Hendricks may be named ; is there a fourth ? It may never- 
 theless be urged that under the original system there surely 
 would have been an evil greater than the choice of second-rate 
 men for the vice-presidency. Consider what would have hap- 
 pened had two such men as Clay and Webster been the candi- 
 dates, and the successful candidates, of the Whig party, in 
 1840. Receiving an equal vote from the electors, the House 
 of Representatives must have made choice between them. One 
 of the two would have gone to the White House ; the other 
 would have been condemned to the obscurity of the vice-presi- 
 dency. One can hardly conceive of a situation more conducive 
 to intrigue on the part of both, — to an effort of the successful 
 man to retain power by putting down his rival, of the unsuc- 
 cessful to supplant him. This consideration alone, — and others 
 might be mentioned, — should be sufficient to reconcile the 
 country to the change that resulted from the tie vote between 
 Jefferson and Burr. 
 
 No strong movement has ever been made to substitute a 
 direct popular vote for the existing system. The suggestion 
 is so clearly impracticable that a discussion of its merits 
 is useless. A three fourths vote of the States is needed 
 for an amendment of the Constitution. Under the present
 
 14 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 apportionment there are fifteen States which have no more 
 than two members each in the House of Representatives. One 
 third of the States, then, have a vastly greater power in de- 
 termining who shall be President than they would exercise 
 under the system of popular election. Not one of them would 
 give its consent to the change. Nor has there ever been a 
 time in our history when the number of small States which 
 would lose political power by the adoption of a system of pop- 
 ular election was not large enough to foredoom the proposi- 
 tion. 
 
 Numerous have been the suggestions of amendment of the 
 Constitution with a view to dispensing with the machinery of 
 electors, at the same time preserving to the States their rela- 
 tive weight in the election. The leading idea in the most of 
 them is : a direct vote by the people for President and Vice- 
 President; the result in each State to be determined by a 
 plurality ; the candidates who receive such plurality to be 
 credited with as many votes from that State as the electoral 
 votes they would have under the present system. The sole 
 practical advantage to be anticipated from any of these propo- 
 sitions is relief from the possibility of treachery on the part of 
 men designated as electors. Never but once has this danger 
 threatened. A complete remedy, much more easily applied 
 than an amendment of the Constitution, is the election of men 
 of high character as electors. 
 
 The language of the Constitution relative to the counting of 
 the votes is extremely precise up to the point of designating 
 by whom they shall be counted. It does not seem to have 
 suggested itself to any member of the Convention that there 
 might be a controverted election in any State, and conse- 
 quently that authority to make a decision should be lodged 
 somewhere. The vagueness of the direction led to a variation 
 in practice at the early elections, as will be observed in the 
 account of each election. Gradually Congress asserted its 
 right to make the count and to determine all questions arising. 
 If this is not clearly the intention of the framers of the Con- 
 stitution — who provided merely that the certificates of votes 
 should be opened in the presence of Congress — it is certainly 
 safer to entrust the decision to the two Houses than to the 
 discretion of one man. The process by which Congress as- 
 sumed the power will be most conveniently set forth in the 
 history of the successive elections.
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 15 
 
 The theory of the Constitution undoubtedly is that the elec- 
 tors are ofhcers of their respective States. As such the method 
 of their appointment is left entirely to the legislatures. From 
 the beginning there was a marked diflference in the States in 
 this regard, for while in most of them the legislature itself 
 made the choice, some entrusted the election to the people. It 
 will be seen from what follows that the tendency to the sys- 
 tem of popular election was not strong at first ; but in Mon- 
 roe's time it became general. When the election of 1824 took 
 place three fourths of the State legislatures had renounced the 
 privilege of appointment. During the whole period prior to 
 1824 there were numerous cases of the resumption of the right 
 of choice directly, by the legislatures of States in which a 
 political advantage was to be gained by so doing. At the 
 election of 1828, in Delaware and South Carolina alone were 
 the electors chosen by legislature. South Carolina clung to 
 that method of appointment until the civil war. Another 
 change in the mode of appointment accompanied or followed 
 that just mentioned. Originally, in most of the States where 
 the popular system prevailed, each voter cast his ballot for 
 three electors — two for the State at large, and one for the con- 
 gressional district in which he resided. But politicians soon 
 discovered that the weight of the State's influence was in- 
 creased by a general election of the whole number, by the plan 
 known in France as the scrutin de liste. As soon as a few of 
 the States had adopted this method it was necessary for the 
 rest to do the same, for self-protection. Maryland was the 
 last State to give up the district system, which she did after 
 the election of 1832. Since then no State has reverted to it, 
 with one exception, namely, Michigan in 1892. The party 
 accidentally in power adopted this device with the express pur- 
 pose of dividing the electoral vote of the State, w'hich it had 
 no hope of obtaining upon a general popular vote. It is in 
 this feature that the electoral plan of 1787 fails < most conspic- 
 uously. The general ticket greatly increases the power of the 
 large States. Since the first election of Jackson, when it 
 became the usual rule of election, no President has been chosen 
 in opposition to the vote of both Xew York and Pennsylvania, 
 and but four in opposition to the vote of either of them. 
 Nevertheless, it cannot be asserted that the general result 
 would have been different in many cases, if the district method 
 of election had prevailed universally. Gerrymandering might
 
 16 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 effect almost as much as the general ticket. Inasmuch as the 
 power to choose between the district and the general ticket 
 system rests exclusively with the legislatures, and since the 
 evil — whatever it may be — can be reached by amendment of 
 the Constitution only, the plan adopted will undoubtedly con- 
 tinue in use. 
 
 Since the electors of President and Vice-President are state 
 officers, whose appointment is certified by the governor ; who 
 meet, discharge their one duty, and adjourn, within the State 
 and under state authority, it follows that a fraud perpetrated 
 with the connivance of the chief officers of a State is subject 
 to no effective revision. Unfortunately there have been too 
 many instances of subversion of the will of the people by 
 fraudulent elections, falsified returns, and disfranchisement of 
 citizens by rejection of their legal votes, to admit of this be- 
 ing regarded as a fanciful danger. Indeed, it may be asserted 
 that from the time of the Plaquemines affair in 1844 to the 
 present time there have been few presidential elections which 
 are not believed by members of one party or another to be 
 tainted with electoral frauds. So long as the elections are 
 under state control this evil is beyond remedy. To introduce 
 the system of popular election of the President would not be a 
 cure, even in appearance. Moreover, the jealousy and alarm 
 that are always excited by every proposition to put elections 
 under national supervision, render the only possible remedy 
 wholly impracticable. Yet it needs no argument to prove that 
 fraud which gives the electoral vote of New York or Nevada, 
 the largest or the smallest State, to electors who have not a 
 plurality of votes, and by so doing changes the result of the 
 presidential election, entails a political injury not merely upon 
 the people of the State whose will has been nullified, but 
 upon the whole country. The wrong must go unpunished 
 and unredressed, because there is no appeal from the acts of 
 state authority. There was no apprehension of such wrong 
 when the Constitution was framed; but it has been suffered, 
 repeatedly, if not frequently. In 1876 a complication of elec- 
 toral disorders and controversies, in which neither party was 
 innocent, brought the country to the verge of a terrible crisis. 
 It would be sheer optimism to believe that evils equally peril- 
 ous to peace will not occur hereafter. 
 
 In the early days of the Republic most of the States re- 
 quired election to all offices by a majority of votes; and when
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 17 
 
 no candidate had more than a plurality, a fresh election was 
 held, and repeated until a majority appeared. At that time 
 it would have been thought a peril to the Republic, had any 
 candidate for President, elected under a popular system, ob- 
 tained the office supported by less than a majority of the 
 people. It is needless to repeat that the framers of the 
 Constitution required a majority of electoral votes, represent- 
 ing the States as units in the Federal Union ; or failing that, 
 a majority of States represented in the lower House of Con- 
 gress. In practice almost every President since Polk — the 
 first on the list — has had less than a majority of all the 
 votes. The exceptions are Pierce, Lincoln (in 1864), Grant 
 at both his elections, and McKinley. Two Presidents entered 
 office backed by less than a plurality of popular votes : Hayes, 
 and Benjamin Harrison. Even this cannot be deemed an 
 argument for a change from the present electoral system, 
 unless we are to abandon altogether the principle of elec- 
 tion by States and adopt that of election by a plurality of 
 individuals. 
 
 One phase of the practical working of the electoral system 
 should, in conclusion, be mentioned and examined. It is 
 customary for the newspapers, after each election, to draw 
 attention, in the tone of an alarmist, to the fact that the 
 change of a certain small number of votes from one candidate 
 to another in a few States, would have given the election to 
 that second candidate. The successful party in the contest 
 of 1896 aflfected, to an unusual degree, to regard the result 
 as a narrow escape, and the defeated party mourned that it 
 missed a victory by so small a margin. Yet, as a matter of 
 fact, Mr. McKinley was the first President since 1872 to 
 receive a clear majority of votes ; and he also had a larger 
 electoral majority than any President during the same period, 
 except Mr. Cleveland at his second election. The answer to 
 the ever-repeated arithmetical speculation is that the votes 
 never do have a tendency to redistribute themselves in the 
 way suggested. One election does not resemble another ; but 
 the tendency in one State at any given election is substan- 
 tially the same as in otlier States. It increases the ma- 
 jority of the winning party in its own States ; it carries some 
 States over to the opposition ; it reduces majorities in the 
 States held by the losing party, — these changes all being, 
 at any election, in the same direction. It appears that some-
 
 18 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 thing less than nineteen thousand votes transferred from 
 McKinley to Bryan in the States of California, Delaware, 
 Indiana, Kentucky, Oregon, and West Virginia, would have 
 given Bryan the election. It is overlooked that five of the 
 six States named were gained by the Republicans from the 
 Democrats, since they were carried by Mr. Cleveland in 1892 ; 
 and that the change was a part of the movement which gave 
 McKinley his election. It would have required a change of 
 8772 votes in Indiana to transfer that State from the Re- 
 publican to the Democratic column. Since similar causes 
 produce similar effects, we must suppose that in other States 
 as well as in Indiana, the Republicans would have lost 2.7 
 per cent, of their vote, and the Democrats gained 2.9 per cent. 
 That change throughout the country would have reduced 
 McKinley's plurality by about 360,000 votes. Applying to 
 the whole country the proportional change needed to give the 
 vote of Delaware to Bryan, the position of the two candidates 
 would be almost exactly reversed ; Bryan would have a plu- 
 rality of more than 600,000. This statement suggests strongly 
 that the result in a single State cannot be dissociated from the 
 result in other States. It is interesting as an arithmetical fact 
 that twenty thousand voters, carefully located, might have re- 
 versed the verdict of 1896 ; but as a political fact it is value- 
 less, and has no bearing upon the question of the practical 
 working of the electoral system. 
 
 Almost identical conditions, it may also be observed, are 
 found to exist at every election. In 1892, Mr. Cleveland had 
 277 electoral votes to 145 for Mr. Harrison — a larger excess 
 than that of McKinley over Bryan in 1896. A change of 
 26,000 votes in California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, 
 North Dakota, and Wisconsin, would have given Harrison 226 
 votes, and an election. In 1888 a change of 7200 votes in 
 New York alone would have elected Cleveland over Harrison. 
 A change of 600 votes in New York, in 1884, would have 
 elected Blaine over Cleveland. Garfield might have been 
 defeated in 1880 by the loss to Hancock of 10,517 votes in 
 New York, or by the loss of 11,452 votes in Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Connecticut, Indiana, and Oregon. Hayes, but 
 for circumstances favoring him, might have been replaced by 
 Tilden without the loss of one popular vote. A study of the 
 tables of popular votes in the following pages will reveal many 
 similar facts, even back to 1836, when a slight change in
 
 THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 19 
 
 Pennsylvania would have compelled Van Buren to seek his 
 election from the House of Representatives. It appears, then, 
 that the situation in 1896 was nothing unusual, nor one to 
 give the victors a lugubrious thrill, and the defeated a regretful 
 sigh for what might have been. It is ordinarily the case at 
 every election that some precincts, districts, counties, or States 
 are carried by the victorious party by narrow margins ; and it 
 is those which make the difference between victory and defeat. 
 That the same thing is true of our Presidential elections is not 
 a good ground for criticism of the electoral system. 
 
 Summing up the merits and faults of the system as modified 
 by experience, we may at least say this : that it has almost always 
 resulted in giving effect to the popular will, as well as to the 
 will of the States — which was what it was designed to do. 
 The restlessness which advocates radical change in any institu- 
 tion that has turned out not to be perfect, without due consid- 
 eration of fresh evils that may be introduced by the reform, 
 has devised many substitutes for the system which exists. Yet 
 every substantial evil that has been experienced under the 
 electoral clauses of the Constitution was introduced by politi- 
 cians for party purposes, and might be cured — granting the 
 desire to cure it — without altering these clauses. If any 
 scheme can be presented which politicians might not pervert, 
 it may be well to consider it.
 
 n 
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 
 
 It was provided by the Constitution of the United States 
 that " the ratification of the conventions of nine States shall 
 be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between 
 the States so ratifying the same." The Constitution was 
 adopted September 17, 1787. Before the close of the year it 
 had been ratified by the conventions of three States. Two 
 other States came to its support in January, 1788, one in 
 February, one in April, and one in May, bringing the number 
 up to eight. New Hampshire had the honor of giving the 
 ninth vote, which made the Constitution effective, on June 
 21 ; Virginia followed closely on the 26th of the same month ; 
 and New York yielded, after a memorable and bitter struggle, 
 on July 26. The States of North Carolina and Rhode Island 
 refused their assent to the Constitution, and adhered to the re- 
 fusal until Congress had proposed a series of twelve amend- 
 ments, ten of which were adopted. Neither of the two States 
 participated in the first election. 
 
 The Constitution having become operative, it was the duty 
 of the Congress of the Confederation, in obedience both to the 
 advice of the Convention of 1787 and to its own resolution, to 
 fix the time when the new government should come into 
 being. A long and dreary discussion as to the place where 
 the seat of government should be, caused a needless delay in 
 starting the machinery, and, as will be seen presently, has 
 resulted in a sudden stoppage of the legislative department on 
 a fixed day, every alternate year, for more than a century. It 
 was not until September 13, 1788, — New York City having 
 at last been chosen as the tempoi'ary seat of government, — 
 that a resolution was passed, reciting in a preamble that a 
 sufficient number of States had ratified the Constitution, and 
 directing that electors of President and Vice-President should 
 be appointed on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that 
 they should meet in their respective States and give in their
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 21 
 
 votes on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new 
 Congress should meet in New York on the first Wednesday in 
 March. The people everywhere had become impatient at the 
 tardy action of Congress, and hailed this resolution with great 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Nevertheless, the time allowed them was exceedingly short. 
 During the year that elapsed between the promulgation of the 
 Constitution by the Convention, and the summons to the first 
 political action under it, no preparations whatever had been 
 made for an election. If it cannot be asserted positively that 
 no state legislature had passed a law providing for the election 
 of Representatives and the appointment of electors, prior to 
 the adoption of the resolution of Congress just referred to, it 
 is nevertheless believed that this is the fact. Indeed, it must 
 have seemed to most people futile to pass laws providing for 
 elections under a Constitution that was bitterly opposed, and 
 that might never go into effect. It may well be doubted if 
 ^ongress would have directed the establishment of a govern- 
 ment in the nine States which first ratified the Constitution, if 
 Virginia and New York had not been included in the number. 
 
 Even in these days of railroads and telegraphs a period of 
 four months would be a short time in which to do all that was 
 to be done between September 13 and January 7. The legis- 
 latures were to be summoned, laws were to be passed to 
 provide for elections, and candidates for the new positions 
 were to be canvassed and chosen. At that time communi- 
 cation was slow. Intelligence of the resolution of Congress 
 would hardly reach some of the distant state capitals in two 
 weeks. The governor must then issue his proclamation sum- 
 moning the legislature, and here again allowance had to be 
 made both for the slowness of mails in notifying members in 
 the remote regions of the State, and for the time they must 
 necessarily consume in travelling to the capital. All this be- 
 fore a discussion, perhaps prolonged, as to the manner in which 
 electors should be appointed ; and, if it should be determined 
 to give the people the privilege of choosing them, all the pre- 
 parations for a popular election. It seems to have been gener- 
 ally inferred from the shortness of the time allowed, that 
 Congress intended that the legislatures themselves should 
 make the choice. " It is evident," wrote a newspaper corre- 
 spondent at Philadelphia, on October 1, 1788, '' that Congress 
 construe the Constitution that the legislatures of the several
 
 22 A HISTORY OF ^SHE PRESIDENCY 
 
 States, not the people, are to choose the electors, as that body 
 has ordered the choice of said electors to be on the first 
 Wednesday of January, and their meeting for the choice of 
 President four weeks later. For if the people, as hath been 
 asserted, are to choose the electors, is it possible that in the 
 large States of Massachusetts, Virginia, etc., the returns can be 
 made for the choice, notice given to the persons chosen, and 
 the persons thus chosen have time to meet together in the 
 short space of one month ? No, it is impossible, and can 
 only be remedied by the legislature, who, in fact, are ' the 
 States ' making the choice." 
 
 In five of the eleven States entitled to participate in the 
 election the governors did not summon the legislature in time 
 to provide for an election by the people, and thus they virtu- 
 ally required the legislature to make the appointment. These 
 States were Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, South Caro- 
 lina, and Greorgia. The proceedings in some of the other 
 States were interesting. The legislature of New Hampshire 
 assembled on the 5th of November and passed an act for the 
 election of representatives and electors on the third Monday in 
 December (the 15th). The people were to bring in their votes 
 for five electors, the full number to which the State was en- 
 titled. The votes were to be returned to the legislature, which 
 was to be in session at the beginning of January ; " and the 
 persons having a majority of votes shall, on the first Wednes- 
 day of January next, be duly appointed and declared elected." 
 In case the whole or any of the electors should not be chosen 
 by a majority, then the General Court was to choose as many 
 as might be wanting, from double that number of the candi- 
 dates, having the highest number of votes. No elector re- 
 ceived a majority, and it became the duty of the General Court 
 to appoint a full list. The law had not prescribed the method 
 of choice, and the two branches had great difficulty in coming 
 to terms. The Senate claimed equal power with the House 
 of Representatives in the appointment ; the House insisted 
 upon a joint ballot. The contest was prolonged far into the 
 night, the House stubbornly refusing to admit the pretension 
 of the Senate to a full negative upon its action. " The obser- 
 vations made by the members of the Senate, relative to their 
 prerogative," writes one reporter, quoted by the Hartford 
 '* Courant," " were pertinent, manly, a;id firm — those of the 
 House, ingenious, deep, and well-digested." It is not easy to
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 23 
 
 decide between two sets of adjectives so well balanced, which 
 branch of the General Court had the better of the argument. 
 Shortly before midnight, in order that the vote of the State 
 might not be lost to Washington, " the Great American Ya- 
 bius," the House yielded, with a protest against its action 
 being regarded as a precedent, and concurred in the list of 
 electors chosen by the Senate. They were all Federalists. 
 
 The plan adopted by the Massachusetts General Court was 
 not unlike that of New Hampshire. The people in each repre- 
 sentative district were to vote for two persons, inhabitants of 
 the district. From the two persons in each district liaving 
 the highest number of votes the General Court chose one ; and 
 it also chose, independently, two electors at large. The law 
 prescribed that the choice should be by joint ballot. 
 
 The vote of New York was lost. The two branches of the 
 legislature fell into a contest almost precisely like that in New 
 Hampshire. The Assembly was willing to divide the electors 
 with the Senate, when objection was made to its original pro- 
 position of a joint ballot. The Senate refused to agree to any 
 plan which did not give it a full negative upon the action of 
 the Assembly. The time for action was wasted in bitter con- 
 tention. New York was not enthusiastic over the new Con- 
 stitution, and many members of the legislature were rather 
 glad than sorry that the deadlock was not broken until the 
 time for an election had passed. 
 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia passed laws providing 
 for popular elections, which took place without great excite- 
 ment. Not only in these States, but in Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire, the vote was light. The two parties were 
 made up of those who favored the Constitution on the one 
 hand, and those who opposed it on the other. Political senti- 
 ment seems to have been largely one way or the other in each 
 community. Here, the Federalists comprised nearly the whole 
 population ; there, scarcely a Federalist was to be found. 
 There were thus present none of the elements necessary for a 
 great political contest. The majority cast perhaps a half of 
 their possible vote, the minority hardly appeared at the polls ; 
 in fact, they often had no candidates in the field. 
 
 The electors were, as the Constitution contemplated that 
 they should be, free agents in the choice of President and Vice- 
 President. Yet public opinion governed their action to a 
 far greater degree than might have been anticipated 'i the
 
 24 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 discbarge of a perfectly new function. One name, indeed, 
 came spontaneously to the thoughts of all. The newspapers of 
 the time and the private letters of statesmen show that it was 
 universally regarded as fitting that George Washington should 
 be President. As will be seen presently a suggestion of an- 
 other result was made, but it came not from those who desired 
 the defeat of General Washington, but from those who had or 
 affected a fear that others might desire it. So far as can be 
 ascertained, neither any elector nor any considerable number 
 of the people countenanced opposition to Washington. It was 
 from the first accepted as the obvious and proper course to give 
 him a unanimous vote. But the electors were to vote for two 
 persons, — he who received the highest number, being a major- 
 ity, to be President ; the candidate who received the next 
 highest number, whether a majority or not, to be Vice-Presi- 
 dent. Public opinion gradually concentrated upon John 
 Adams. 
 
 Most of the electors were, to use one of the phrases current 
 at the time, men of " strong federal opinions," and it was but 
 natural that they should desire to support a candidate who, 
 like themselves, favored the new Constitution. Since the 
 President was a citizen of a Southern State, it was deemed 
 just to take the Vice-President from the North. These con- 
 siderations, restricting the choice, were recognized early in the 
 discussion. Hamilton was a most conspicuous leader of Feder- 
 alist opinion ; but he had not attained the age of thirty-five 
 years, and therefore was not eligible to the office. A candidate 
 from New England was indicated as desirable. The names of 
 Governor Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and General 
 Henry Knox, were canvassed. Knox was a soldier, like Wash- 
 ington, and was speedily rejected as a candidate. It was 
 deemed necessary that Hancock should remain in the position 
 of Governor of Massachusetts. Samuel Adams had been an 
 opponent of the Constitution at the outset, and although he 
 had subsequently advocated it, his early attitude on the ques- 
 tion rendered him an unsuitable candidate. John Adams re- 
 mained, — at least as conspicuous a figure in public life as 
 any man in New England, qualified both by his talents and 
 by his experience for the highest place, and open to none of 
 the objections cited against the other Massachusetts candidates. 
 He was a civilian ; he would vacate no office where his ser- 
 vices were needed, by becoming Vice-President ; and he had
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 25 
 
 written a book in defence of the Constitution. Moreover, his 
 public services for many years, not the least of which had just 
 been rendered as minister to England, and had ended not 
 many months before in a dignified retirement, made him seem 
 to most Federalists a peculiarly acceptable candidate. The sen- 
 timents of the friends of the Constitution are well set forth in 
 an article in a Philadelphia paper under date of October 8, 
 1788, three months prior to the choice of electors : — 
 
 The electors of President of the United States on the part of the 
 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are to meet in the borough of 
 Reading, where it is universally hoped and expected that one moi-e 
 tribute of merited approbation will be given to George Washing- 
 ton, Esq., by their unanimous suifrages. Of the several respected 
 candidates in nomination for Vice-President, circumstances seem 
 most in favor of John Adams, Esq. While the conciliating talents 
 of Governor Hancock, and the attachment to him that prevails in 
 Massachusetts, render him necessary to the peace of New England, 
 Mr. Adams is perfectly at leisure to fill a seat for which nature, 
 education, and the experience of several years and various coui'ts 
 in Europe have eminently and peculiarly qualified him. 
 
 Nevertheless there was another side of the question. Adams's 
 relations to Washington during the Revolutionary war had 
 been such that doubt was entertained if he would be accept- 
 able to Washington. To an inquiry on this point there had 
 come from Mount Vernon a cautious reply that — 
 
 Having taken it for granted that the person elected for that 
 important place would be a true Federalist, in that case he was 
 altogether disposed to acquiesce in the prevailing sentiments of 
 the electors, without giving any unbecoming preference, or incur- 
 ring any unnecessary ill-will. 
 
 Hamilton was consulted. He had generalized upon what 
 he had seen of Mr. Adams ; and while admitting the merits 
 of that gentleman, had an almost prophetic foresight of the 
 political woes that would be caused by the infirmities of his 
 temper. " On the whole," he wrote, " I have concluded to 
 support him." It is impossible to say how much of American 
 history would have been changed had Hamilton followed this 
 resolution without modification. His distrust and misgivings 
 led him to take a step which aroused the resentment of Adams 
 and wounded his vanity. When we reflect how many of 
 the acts of Adams which led to his defeat and the rout of the
 
 26 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Federalist party are to be ascribed directly to his rancor toward 
 Hamilton, we seem almost to make the political history of the 
 country for more than a generation turn on a trivial circum- 
 stance. 
 
 Although in all the newspaper references to the coming 
 election, — one of which is quoted above, — Mr. Adams was 
 spoken of as a candidate for Vice-President, that gentleman 
 did not so regard himself, but rather as a candidate for the 
 presidency. If he received more votes than Washington, he 
 would be President ; if the votes were equal, the House of 
 Representatives would choose one of the two. He showed 
 plainly that he regarded his own merits as equal to those of 
 Washington. Hamilton's offence was that he also foresaw 
 the possibility that Adams's vote would be equal to Wash- 
 ington's, and took measures to prevent it. After the event 
 it was clear that there had never been any danger ; but it 
 does not, by any means, follow that Hamilton was over- 
 anxious and officious. There was an understanding that the 
 New York opponents of the Constitution would vote for 
 George Clinton, and for Adams, or some other than Washing- 
 ton. Ultimately, as we have seen, New York chose no electors. 
 It is said in the Life of Hamilton, by his son, that " for a time 
 the pretensions of Franklin " to the presidency " were dis- 
 cussed in private circles. But the incomparably superior 
 claims of Washington silenced this purpose, which there is 
 no evidence was encouraged by Franklin, whose extreme age 
 would alone have presented an insuperable objection." There 
 is no evidence that Franklin was aware of the suggestion. Yet 
 when such rumors were in the air, it was no more than com- 
 mon prudence on the part of Hamilton to do what he could 
 to make Washington's election sure by cutting down the vote 
 for Adams. This, moreover, was not only his right, but what 
 almost every man in the country except Adams would thank 
 him for accomplishing. 
 
 What Hamilton did was to send word into several States, 
 advising that a unanimous vote be given to Washington, and 
 that some of the votes which would naturally go to Adams 
 be scattered. No doubt his advice was followed more exten- 
 sively than was needful, and more than Hamilton himself 
 intended. If we may take his own word for it, he did not 
 at the time suppose that Mr. Adams would resent his action 
 In his famous letter on the character of John Adams, written
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 
 
 27 
 
 in 1800, with reference to the election of 1796 and the then 
 pending election which resulted in the overthrow of Adams, 
 he said, alluding to his interference in the first contest : — 
 
 Great was my astonishment and equally great my regret, when, 
 afterwards, I learned from persons of unquestionable veracity that 
 Mr. Adams had complained of unfair treatment in not having 
 been permitted to take an equal chance with General Washington, 
 by leaving the votes to an uninfluenced current. 
 
 No statement was ever made, so far as is known, how much 
 of the scattering vote was due to Hamilton's advice. It is 
 not difficult to attribute the seven votes given to other candi- 
 dates by Connecticut and New Jersey electors to his influence. 
 Those of Virginia seem rather anti-Federal than Hamiltonian 
 vagaries. At all events, the long list of scattering votes shows 
 how little reason there was for Hamilton's fears. 
 
 Under the Constitution the thirteen States were entitled to 
 sixty-five representatives and twenty-six senators ; and conse- 
 quently to ninety-one electoral votes. Rhode Island and 
 North Carolina, with three and seven votes, respectively, had 
 not adopted the Constitution ; the eight votes of New York 
 were lost ; and two electors of Maryland and two of Virginia 
 failed to appear on the day of voting — the 4th of February. 
 It was explained that the ice in the rivers and bay prevented 
 one of the absent Maryland electors from attending, and gout 
 held the other at home. The electoral votes were sixty-nine 
 in number, and were cast as follows : — 
 
 States. 
 
 i 
 
 la 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 1^ 
 
 a 
 o 
 bs 
 .3 
 fl 
 
 3 
 
 pa 
 s 
 
 fl 
 
 ■g 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 w 
 
 fl 
 
 •§ 
 
 fl 
 
 W 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 § 
 u 
 o 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 BO 
 
 13 
 .2 
 
 3 
 « 
 
 fl 
 
 ■§ 
 
 >-i 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 .•3 
 
 s 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 < 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 u 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 3 
 o 
 
 fl 
 a 
 
 t 
 
 New Hampshire 
 Massachusetts 
 Connecticut . 
 New Jersey 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware . . 
 Maryland . . 
 Virginia . . . 
 South Carolina 
 Georgia . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 10 
 7 
 6 
 10 
 3 
 6 
 10 
 7 
 5 
 
 69 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 34 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 1
 
 28 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 It may be well to note that, excepting John Jay and George 
 Clinton, of New York, and John Hancock of Massachusetts, 
 all the " scattering " candidates for Vice-President were 
 " favorite sons " of the States which gave them votes. 
 Georgia, in particular, distinguished itself by discovering four 
 of its own citizens worthy to be placed second to Washing- 
 ton. 
 
 The consummation of the election of General Washington 
 was an occasion of solemn joy throughout the country. The 
 accounts of the voting are meagre. One description only of 
 the scene has been found. In Massachusetts the electors had 
 their ballots, for Washington and Adams, prepared before 
 they came together. Having organized, they voted quickly 
 and adjourned. " There was not a word spoken," reports 
 the Worcester " Spy," " except in the choice of a chairman." 
 Many of the newspapers expressed their feelings in the ex- 
 uberant rhetoric of the day, when the election had taken place. 
 Here is one example from Baltimore : — 
 
 The important day in the annals of America is past, which 
 conferred on a single citizen those sovereign powers that require 
 to be placed in one person, in order to render a nation happy in 
 peace, and prosperous in war. Perhaps that day has exhibited 
 what has never happened before in any part of the globe ; above 
 three millions of people, scattered over a country of vast extent, 
 of opposite habits and different manners, all fixing their hopes 
 on the same man, and unanimously voting for him only, without 
 the intervention of force, artifice, plan, or concert. With what 
 delight will the lover of mankind dwell on this period of history 
 and cherish the memory of a people, who could thus feel and thus 
 reward a life of great and virtuous actions ? 
 
 The first Wednesday in March was the day fixed by the 
 Congress of the Confederation for the meeting of the new 
 Congress of the United States. It was more than a month 
 after that date, on the 6th of April, 1789, that a quorvim of 
 senators appeared in their seats. It was nearly as difficult t© 
 secure the acceptance of the senatorial position by suitable 
 persons, as it had been to persuade them to discharge the far 
 less important duties devolved on members of the Continental 
 Congress ; and the old vices of non-attendance and tardy at- 
 tendance were still persistent. Nevertheless, since the fourth 
 of March was the day appointed for the meeting, and since
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 29 
 
 some of the senators appeared in their seats on that day, it 
 was assumed that the whole government then came into being. 
 Although Washington was not inavigurated until the 30th day 
 of April, his first term was held to have ended on the 3d of 
 March, 1793. The first Congress came to an end on the 3d 
 of March, 1791 ; and every Congress since then has come to 
 its constitutional term on the same day of that month. A 
 more unfortunate period could not have been chosen, for the 
 result has been that every alternate session is virtually limited 
 to three months' duration. An earlier ratification of the Con- 
 stitution by New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York, and 
 greater promptness on the part of Congress, might have carried 
 the day of the birth of the government back to December ; 
 and there might have been two sessions of full length. Or 
 if the first Congress had taken the view that its term began 
 when it completed its organization, that would have given a 
 month more of time for the short session. Some half-hearted 
 attempts have been made during the century to change the 
 system which so greatly hampers and hurries Congress ; but 
 no action in that direction has ever been taken. 
 
 As soon as a quorum of senators was in attendance, imme- 
 diate steps were taken for inducting the President and Vice- 
 President into office. John Langdon, a senator from New 
 Hampshire, was elected " president for the sole purpose of 
 opening and counting the votes for President of the United 
 States." A message was sent to the House of Representatives 
 apprising that body of the presence of a quorum and of the 
 temporary organization, '' and that the Senate is now ready in 
 the Senate Chamber to proceed, in the presence of the House, 
 to discharge that duty ; and that the Senate have appointed 
 one of their members to sit at the clerk's table to make a list 
 of the votes as they shall be declared, submitting it to the 
 wisdom of the House to appoint one or more of their members 
 for the like purpose." 
 
 The House appointed two tellers, and, having given notice 
 to the Senate of its readiness to join that body, proceeded to 
 the Senate Chamber. The President of the Senate opened 
 and counted the vote. The Journal of the Senate reads 
 that — 
 
 The Speaker and the House of Representatives attended in the 
 Senate Chamber, and the president elected for the purpose of 
 counting the votes declared the Senate and House of Representa-
 
 30 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 tives had met, and that he, in their presence, had opened and 
 counted the votes of the electors for President and Vice-President 
 of the United States, which were as follows : [The table given 
 above is here inserted.] 
 Whereby it appeared that 
 
 George Washington, Esq., was elected President, and 
 John Adams, Esq., Vice-President, of the United States of 
 America. 
 
 Notification to the President and Vice-President of their 
 election was sent by the Senate by special messengers, and 
 great preparations were made for the first inauguration. The 
 journeys of Mr. Adams and General Washington — for Adams's 
 was first in point of time — were like a triumphal progress. 
 The Vice-President elect " sat out from Braintree," his home, 
 escorted by the Eoxbury troop of horse to Boston, where the 
 cavalcade was received by a throng of applauding citizens, 
 amid the ringing of the bells of the town. After a collation 
 in his honor given by Governor John Hancock, another 
 military company became his escort to Charlestown, and 
 through Cambridge to Marlborough, where still another troop 
 was waiting to receive him and accompany him on his way. 
 The details of his journey through Connecticut are not pre- 
 served ; but he was met at the New York State line by the 
 Light Horse of Westchester County, and escorted to the city. 
 On April 21 he was introduced to the Senate. President 
 Langdon left the chair and addressed Mr. Adams in a speech 
 of congratulation ; and then the Vice-President took the chair 
 and made a speech in reply. It is interesting to note that 
 although he presided over the Senate thereafter, he did not 
 take the oath of office until June 2. The Constitution pre- 
 scribes a form of oath for the President, but not for other offi- 
 cers of the government. The act prescribing an oath of office 
 was passed by Congress, and signed by the President on the 
 first of June. 
 
 The journey of General Washington was much longer than 
 Mr. Adams's, and was far more noteworthy for the popular 
 demonstrations of love and devotion. Along the whole route 
 he was greeted as only the sovereign of the people's hearts 
 could be greeted. His progress from the New Jersey shore 
 and his arrival in New York formed a fitting culmination of a 
 journey, the like of which has never been seen on this con- 
 tinent. The ceremonies of inauguration soon followed, on the
 
 THE FIRST ELECTION 31 
 
 30th of April. In the morning at nine o'clock, the people 
 assembled in their respective churches for services of prayer 
 for the success of the new government and the prosperity of 
 the President. At noon, Washington was escorted from his 
 house to the federal statehouse in Broad Street, where, upon 
 a balcony and in the presence of a vast throng, the oath of 
 office was administered by Chancellor Livingston. " I swear 
 it. So help me, God ! " ejaculated the first President. Then 
 while the people shouted " Long live George Washington, 
 President of the United States," he retired within the build- 
 ing to the Senate Chamber, where he delivered his inaugural 
 address.
 
 Ill 
 
 WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 
 
 The first administration was occupied chiefly in the organi- 
 zation of the new government, with the creation of departments, 
 the formation of a revenue system, an adjustment of the public 
 debt, and similar matters. JeflPerson, at the head of the State 
 Department, and Hamilton, at the Treasury, were the Presi- 
 dent's chief advisers. Circumstances gave to the younger 
 man much greater prominence as the constructive statesman, 
 at this momentous period, than to the author of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. The fact that to his department be- 
 longed naturally the duty of devising the financial measures 
 which were of first importance ; the personal intimacy between 
 the President and Hamilton ; and Washington's strong leaning 
 to the Federalist view of public questions ; these all combined 
 to render the Secretary of the Treasury conspicuous and success- 
 ful, and to leave the Secretary of State in comparative obscurity. 
 The line between parties was more clearly defined than one 
 would have expected it to be in a country which had just been 
 consolidated into a nation, and which had previously known 
 no political divisions save those indicated by the terms " large 
 States," ''small States," "North," and "South." Not a 
 few anti-Federalists were elected to Congress, and formed the 
 nucleus of an active opposition. There is no doubt that 
 Jefl'erson did what he could to thwart Hamilton and to defeat 
 or modify the measures he devised, although those measures 
 had the support of the President, the chief of both Secretaries, 
 As governments are now organized, such a course of action 
 Avould be regarded as base political treachery. It was not so 
 at the time. The Secretaries did not form a cabinet, in the 
 modern sense of the word ; Washington was not chosen Presi- 
 dent as the candidate of a party ; and being fully aware of 
 Jefferson's dissent from the measures which he himself wished 
 to be passed, he did not intimate a desire for the resignation of 
 the Secretary of State.
 
 WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 33 
 
 Jefferson therefore felt free to organize and direct the party 
 in opposition. It happened, unfortunately for Mr, Adams, 
 that the Senate was closely divided, and that he was required, 
 as Vice-President, to give the casting vote in favor of many of 
 the most important measures of legislation devised by Hamil- 
 ton. To no Vice-President since his time, it is believed, has 
 fallen so large a share in active legislation. Mr. Adams was 
 by nature and conviction a Federalist. He approved the mea- 
 sures brought forward, and, in spite of the grievance he had 
 against Hamilton, loyally supported them. Hamilton him- 
 self, writing in the year 1800, expressed his entire satisfaction 
 with Mr. Adams's course, and declared that it had the effect 
 of modifying the unfavorable opinion of that gentleman which 
 he had previously entertained. Indeed, while the canvass of 
 1796 was in progress he wrote to Mr. Adams, expressing a 
 strong interest in his election ; he referred to the A^ice-Presi- 
 dent at this time as " a firm, honest, and independent politi- 
 cian ; " and used all his influence to promote his success. But 
 Adams's course had the opposite effect with the anti-Federal- 
 ists. They could not or would not attack Washington ; they 
 trained all their guns on Adams. 
 
 The French Revolution was approaching one of its acute 
 crises when the presidential canvass took place, for the king 
 had already been deposed when the election took place, and 
 was guillotined before the second inauguration. The great 
 events in France were to have an important influence upon 
 American politics. Mr. Adams was the first to suffer. His ' 
 political enemies alighted upon some phrases in the published 
 writings of the Vice-President which, they declared, proved 
 him to be in favor of a monarchy, to have a liking for aristo- 
 cracy, and to regard the Constitution as but a makeshift soon 
 to be discarded for the system which they believed, or affected 
 to believe, he preferred. They rang the changes on a passage 
 in which he had extolled the working of government by " king, 
 lords, and commons ; " they jeered at his reference to the 
 " well born ; " and professed alarm lest he should be found 
 conspiring against the Constitution which he had characterized 
 as a " promising essay." Had such attacks been made before 
 the outbreak of the French Revolution, it is doubtful if they 
 would have caused anything but amusement. But now the 
 warm approval of the uprising carried with it sympathy with 
 the sentimental republicanism of the French people. The
 
 34 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 formality of the republican court at Philadelphia, the relations 
 between the President and Congress which were a distinct im- 
 itation of those between king and parliament, — none of these 
 things had offended the popular taste until sans-culottism 
 began to triumph at Paris. Now the Eepublicans — the new 
 name adopted by the anti-Federalist party — set up the spectre 
 of monarchy for the express purpose of terrifying themselves 
 into the eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty. 
 
 The opposition selected George Clinton of New York as 
 their candidate in opposition to Mr. Adams. The preliminary 
 electioneering was carried on in private letters between public 
 men, and in communications in the newspapers. Rufus King 
 wrote to Gouverneur Morris: "The opposition that now exists 
 arises from other principles than those which produced an 
 opposition to the Constitution, and proceeds from that rivalry 
 which always has and will prevail in a free country. Wash- 
 ington and Adams will be re-chosen this winter : the first with- 
 out opposition. Whether the opponents of Mr. Adams will 
 combine their opposition I consider as uncertain. Should this 
 be the case, Clinton will be their man." " A Citizen " wrote 
 to the " Baltimore Advertiser " that all were in favor of Wash- 
 ington, but that " men who have a sense of equality and a dis- 
 gust of supercilious superiority are, I am in hopes, linked as a 
 strong chain against the Vice-President." 
 
 The leader among the newspapers opposing Adams was the 
 "National Gazette," of Philadelphia, conducted by Philip 
 'Freneau. Freneau had gone to Philadelphia from New York, 
 on an appointment by Jefferson as translator to the State 
 Department, and had established his newspaper, which became 
 the organ and mouthpiece of those who abused and vilified the 
 Federalists and their measures, and particularly of those who 
 hated Mr. Adams. Although the salary drawn by Freneau from 
 the Government was a pitiful sum, his course as a proteg^ of the 
 Secretary of State and as the editor of the most violent politi- 
 cal newspaper in opposition to the administration was a public 
 scandal. Both Freneau and Jefferson refused to see it in that 
 light. The editor protested that his political course was unin- 
 fluenced by the secretary, and that his receipt of a salary from 
 the government should not hamper him or deter him from ex- 
 pressing his opinions. Jefferson said nothing, and left Fre- 
 neau's defence to stand for his own. It is not necessary to 
 know whether Freneau's sworn denial that Jefferson had
 
 WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 35 
 
 directly or indirectly dictated his course, was absolutely true 
 or a disingenuous but skillfully worded evasion. Surely the 
 situation, which either of the persons might have brought to a 
 termination in a day, was not defensible. It is equally cer- 
 tain that Freneau was all the time faithfully serving Jeffer- 
 son's purposes. 
 
 The other newspapers of the time had strong political lean- 
 ings one way or the other, which can be detected by the pre- 
 vailing tone of the communications printed by them. Yet 
 they admitted to their columns letters on both sides of the 
 question at issue. Classical signatures were much in vogue. 
 A long series of articles signed '^ Catullus " was widely copied. 
 That Hamilton was the author was suspected at the time. 
 The letters are included in Hamilton's " Works." The dis- 
 cussion was carried on by " Lucius," " Marcus," " Mutius," 
 " Antonius," " Philanthropos," and other Greeks and Romans. 
 As the close of the canvass drew near, the virulence of party 
 hatred became more intense. The enemies of Mr. Adams 
 brought out one " Ipcal issue " to draw away a few votes. 
 Congress had passed a bill apportioning members of the House 
 of Representatives after the ascertainment of population at the 
 first census. There was much bad feeling on this question. 
 The bill passed by Congress encountered the first executive 
 veto in the history of the government. Mr. Adams had, in 
 the progress of the measure through the Senate, given a cast- 
 ing vote against a ratio of one representative to thirty thousand 
 inhabitants. The defeat of that ratio reduced the representa- 
 tion of Virginia, and enraged the people of the State against 
 Adams. Every electoral vote of Virginia Avas given to Clin- 
 ton. 
 
 In most of the other States it was a strictly party contest. 
 New England was solid for Federalism. New York had been 
 carried, as before, by the Republicans. That is to say, it was 
 counted for that party. At the spring electioii of 1792, the 
 opposing candidates for governor were Clinton and Jay. 
 There was a plurality of votes for Jay, but the canvassers 
 threw out the returns from three counties and declared Clinton 
 elected. Hamilton, writing to assure Adams of a wish for 
 his success, intimated that the method of Clinton's election 
 would not help his canvass for the vice-presidency. There is 
 no evidence that it hurt his chances. The Middle States went 
 for Washington and Adams. North Carolina and Georgia 
 were carried for Clinton. This result was to have been antici-
 
 36 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 pated in North Carolina, which had come into the federal 
 Union after the Constitution went into effect, and with un- 
 feigned reluctance. 
 
 It was not until the last session of Congress before the elec- 
 tion, that the following act regulating the election of President 
 was passed. This law, modified and amended from time to 
 time, as will be noted hereafter, remained in force until it was 
 superseded by the act of 1887 : — 
 
 An Act Relative to the Election of a President and Vice-President 
 of the United States, and declaring the Officer loho shall be Presi- 
 dent in case of Vacancies in the Offices both of President and 
 Vice-President. 
 
 Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that, except in cases of the elec- 
 tion of a President and Vice-President of the United States prior 
 to the ordinary period, as hereinafter specified, electors shall be 
 appointed in each State for the election of a President and Vice- 
 President of the United States, within thirty-four days preceding 
 the first Wednesday in December, 1792, and within thirty-four 
 days preceding the first Wednesday in December in every fourth 
 year succeeding the last election, which electors shall be equal to 
 the number of senators and representatives to which the several 
 States may by law be entitled at the time when the President and 
 Vice-President thus to be chosen should come into office : Provided 
 always, that when no apportionment of representatives shall have 
 been made, after any enumeration, at the time of choosing electors, 
 then the number of electors shall be according to the existing 
 apportionment of senators and representatives. 
 
 Sec. 2. That the electors shall meet and give their votes on the 
 said first Wednesday in December, at such place in each State as 
 shall be directed by the legislature thereof ; and the electors in each 
 State shall make and sign three certificates of all the votes by them 
 given, and shall seal up the same, certifying on each that a list of 
 the votes of such State for President and Vice-President is con- 
 tained therein, and shall, by writing under their hands, or under 
 the hands of a majority of them, appoint a person to take charge 
 of and deliver to the President of the Senate, at the seat of govern- 
 ment, before the first Wednesday in January then next ensuing, 
 one of the said certificates ; and the said electors shall forthwith 
 forward, by the post office, to the President of the Senate at the 
 seat of government, one other of the said certificates ; and shall 
 forthwith cause the other of the said certificates to be dehvered 
 to the judge of that district in which the said electors shall 
 assemble. 
 
 Sec. 3. That the executive authority of each State shall cause 
 three lists of the names of the electors of such State to be made
 
 WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 37 
 
 and certified, and to be delivered to the electors on or before the 
 said first Wednesday in December; and the said electors shall 
 annex one of the said lists to each of the lists of their votes. 
 
 Sec. 4. That if a list of votes from any State shall not have 
 been received at the seat of government on the said first Wednes- 
 day in January, then the Secretary of State shall send a special 
 messenger to the district judge in whose charge such list shall have 
 been lodged, who shall forthwith transmit the same to the seat of 
 government. 
 
 Sec. 5. That Congress shall be in session on the second 
 Wednesday in February, 1793, and on the second \Vednesday in 
 February succeeding every meeting of the electors, and the said 
 certificates, or so many of them as shall have been received, shall 
 then be opened, the votes counted, and the persons who shall fill 
 the offices of President and Vice-President ascertained and de- 
 clared agreeably to the Constitution. 
 
 Sec. 6. That in case there shall be no President of the Senate 
 at the seat of government on the arrival of the persons entrusted 
 with the lists of the votes of the electors, then such persons shall 
 deliver the lists of the votes in their custody into the office of the 
 Secretary of State, to be safely kept and delivered over as soon as 
 may be to the President of the Senate. 
 
 Sec. 7. That the persons appointed by the electors to deliver 
 the lists of votes to the President of the Senate shall be allowed, 
 on the delivery of the said lists, twenty-five cents for every mile of 
 estimated distance by the most usual road from the place of meet- 
 ing of the electors to the seat of government of the United States. 
 
 Sec. 8. That if any person appointed to deliver the votes of 
 electors to the President of the Senate shall, after accepting his 
 appointment, neglect to perform the services required of him by 
 this Act, he shall forfeit the sum of one thousand dollars. 
 
 Sec. 9. That in case of the removal, death, resignation, or 
 disability both of the President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, the President of the Senate, pro tempore, and, in case there 
 shall be no President of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives, for the time being, shall act as President of 
 the United States until such disability be removed, or until a Presi- 
 dent be elected. 
 
 Sec. 10. That whenever the office of President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent shall both become vacant, the Secretary of State shall forth- 
 with cause a notification thereof to be made to the Executive of 
 every State, and shall also cause the same to be published in at 
 least one of the newspapers printed in each State, specifying that 
 electors of the President of the United States shall be appointed 
 or chosen in the several States within thirty-four days preceding 
 the first Wednesday in December then next ensuing ; provided, that 
 there shall be a space of two months between the date of such
 
 38 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 notification and the said first Wednesday in December ; but if there 
 shall not be the space of two months between the date of such 
 notification and the first Wednesday in December, and if the term 
 for which the President and Vice-President last in office were 
 elected shall not expire on the third day of March next ensuing, 
 then the Secretary of State shall specify in the notification that 
 the electors shall be appointed or chosen within thirty-four days 
 preceding the first Wednesday in December in the year next en- 
 suing, within which time the said electors shall accordingly be 
 appointed or chosen ; and the electors shall meet and give their 
 votes on the said first Wednesday in December, and the proceed- 
 ings and duties of the said electors and others shall be pursuant 
 to the directions prescribed in this act. 
 
 Sec. 11. That the only evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a 
 resignation of, the offices of President and Vice-President, shall be 
 an instrument in writing declaring the same, and subscribed by 
 the person refusing to accept or resigning, as the case may be, and 
 delivered into the office of the Secretary of State. 
 
 Sec. 12. That the term of four years, for which the President 
 and Vice-President shall be elected, shaU in all cases commence on 
 the fourth day of March next succeeding the day on which the 
 votes of the electors shall have been given. 
 
 Fifteen States took part in the election of 1792. Khode 
 Island and North Carolina had ratified the Constitution ; and 
 Vermont had been admitted to the Union March 4, 1791, and 
 Kentucky, June 1, 1792. Electors were appointed by the 
 legislatures in Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
 York, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and 
 Kentucky ; by the people and the legislature in New Hamp- 
 shire and Massachusetts ; by the people alone in Pennsylvania, 
 Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. In Massachusetts 
 the people chose electors in five districts ; in the other nine dis- 
 tricts no one had a majority, and the General Court appointed 
 electors for these districts and also two at large. In North 
 Carolina a peculiar system was adopted which was never prac- 
 ticed anywhere else, nor at any other time. The apportionment, 
 in accordance with the census of 1790, under which North 
 Carolina was entitled to ten members of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, did not become law until April 13, 1792. The 
 legislature was not then in session, nor did it meet again until 
 the 15th of November. The electors were to meet, under the 
 law of 1792, on the 5th of December. There was not time in 
 the interval to provide for a popular election. Accordingly 
 the legislature passed a law dividing the State into four dis-
 
 WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 39 
 
 tricts, and directing the members of the legislature residing in 
 each district to meet on the 25th of November and choose 
 three electors. This was a mere hasty makeshift, and the 
 legislature made permanent provision at the same session for 
 the choice of electors by the people by districts. 
 
 In the States where there was a popular election the vote 
 seems to have been very light. The largest number of votes 
 given for any person as elector in Massachusetts was cast for 
 Azor Orne, 693. In Pennsylvania, where, two or three 
 months before, forty thousand votes were cast for members 
 of Congress, less than four thousand voted for electors. 
 
 It may be mentioned, as illustrating the extreme jealousy 
 of state rights that prevailed at this time, that Governor 
 Hancock sent a special message to the Massachusetts legis- 
 lature, in the nature of a protest against the right of Con- 
 gress to require the Executives of the several States to certify 
 the lists required by section 3 of the act of 1792. He was 
 willing to perform the duty, but he would not concede the 
 right of Congress to direct him to do it. 
 
 The election passed off without excitement or serious con- 
 test anywhere. The result, by States, is indicated by the 
 following table : — 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 States. 
 
 bo 
 
 a 
 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 
 
 '.a 
 
 Q 
 
 S 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 .3 
 S 
 
 
 a 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 16 
 
 3 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 _ 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 New York 
 
 12 
 
 _ 
 
 12 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Delaware 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Maryland 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Virffinia 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 Georgia 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Total 
 
 132 
 
 77 
 
 50 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 

 
 40 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The counting of the electoral vote was for the first time 
 a matter of previous agreement between the two Houses of 
 Congress, and the system pursued in 1793 was, with occa- 
 sional slight but sometimes significant modifications, that 
 which was followed for a great many years. The House of 
 Representatives proposed, February 5, 1793, the appointment 
 of a joint committee " to ascertain and report the mode of 
 examining the votes for President and Vice-President, and 
 of notifying the persons who shall be elected of their elec- 
 tion, and to regulate the time, place, and manner of admin- 
 istering the oath of office to the President." The Senate 
 agreed, and the committee reported to the two Houses, Feb- 
 ruary 11 : — 
 
 That the two Houses shall assemble in the Senate Chamber on 
 Wednesday next at twelve o'clock ; that one person shall be ap- 
 pointed a teller on the part of the Senate (two on the part of the 
 House), to make a list of the votes as they shall be declared ; that 
 the result shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who 
 shall announce the state of the vote, and the persons elected, to 
 both Houses, assembled as aforesaid, which shall be deemed a de- 
 claration of the persons elected President and Vice-President, and, 
 together with a list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the 
 two Houses. 
 
 This mode was observed. 
 
 The two Houses having accordingly assembled, the certificates 
 of the electors of the fifteen States of the Union, which came by 
 express, were, by the Vice-President, opened, read, and delivered 
 to the tellers appointed for the purpose, who, having examined and 
 ascertained the votes, presented a list of them to the Vice-Presi- 
 dent, which list was read to the two Houses, and is as follows : 
 [Here follows the above table.] 
 
 Whereupon 
 
 The Vice-President declared George Washington unanimously 
 elected President of the United States for the period of four years, 
 to commence with the 4th of March next ; and 
 
 John Adams elected, by a plurality of votes, Vice-President of 
 the United States for the same period, to commence with the 4th 
 of March next. 
 
 It will be observed that in this case the Vice-President both 
 opened and read the certificates, and that the tellers did no more 
 than verify and tabulate the returns. The exclusive power 
 of the Vice-President to count the votes was thus asserted 
 and exercised in a marked manner. On the next occasion,
 
 WASHINGTON RE-ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY 41 
 
 as we shall see, the use of this power might have been a matter 
 of some importance. 
 
 The inaugumtion of "Washington at the beginning of his 
 second term was almost scandalously unceremonious, yet not 
 so informal as it came near to being. The mad passion 
 against outward show, an importation from France, led to 
 frequent criticisms in the Republican newspapers of the 
 semi-regal state in which the President was supposed to 
 live. Adams, of course, was not spared. He too was de- 
 nounced for the luxury of his mode of life, and the shafts 
 aimed at him took effect. He gave up his house in Phila- 
 delphia, sent his wife home to Massachusetts to manage the 
 farm, and himself went to reside in lodgings. When the day 
 upon which the oath of office was to be taken a second time by 
 the President elect drew near, the time and place of the cere- 
 mony became the subject of discussion in the cabinet. Jeffer- 
 son proposed that General Washington take the oath privately 
 in his own house and send a certificate thereof to Congress. 
 Hamilton fell in with this proposition ; but the other mem- 
 bers of the cabinet objected, and the plan was not adopted. 
 At noon, precisely, on the 4th of March, Washington unat- 
 tended entered the Senate Chamber, where were gathered 
 many of the senators, some of the representatives who lingered 
 after the adjournment of Congress, certain public officers, and 
 '' a number of private citizens." He took the oath of office, 
 delivered his inaugural address, and then retired as quietly as 
 he had come.
 
 rv 
 
 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 During "Washington's first administration, domestic ques- 
 tions occupied the government chiefly and gave rise to party 
 conflicts : the funding system and the excise law before all 
 others. The first, which reduced the chaos of national 
 finance to order, and restored the credit of the United States, 
 nevertheless had necessarily some features which seemed a 
 justification of the accusation that it was devised for the re- 
 lief of the well-to-do. Accordingly it aroused the antagonism 
 of the same class which, in modern times, denounces measures 
 for the payment of national obligations in good faith, in order 
 to maintain the credit of the country, as designed for the sole 
 benefit of the bondholders. The excise law was passed in 
 1791, after violent opposition in Congress. Its execution 
 was resisted more or less from the beginning ; but it was not 
 until 1794 that the situation became so acute that a large 
 armed force became necessary to quell what has passed into 
 history as the '' Whiskey Insurrection." At that time oc- 
 curred the first serious collision between federal and state 
 authority. Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, a Republican 
 partisan, refused to take the initiative, and Washington called 
 out the militia on the certificate of a federal judge that an 
 insurrection existed. Little more than a display of force was 
 required to put down the insurrection. The whole affair re- 
 sulted, not a little to the surprise of both parties, in strength- 
 ening the government and making it popular. The people 
 realized for the first time that they had created a power which 
 was capable of making itself respected at home. 
 
 Meantime two most serious questions of foreign policy had 
 been raised, and both of them had an important influence 
 upon the elections which determined who should be the 
 second President. The arrival, reception, and conduct of 
 " Citizen " Genet, the French minister sent over by the Gi- 
 rondist government, excited the most bitter party controversy
 
 JOHN ADAMS 43 
 
 the country had known. Although Jefferson himself, as 
 Secretary of State, wrote and signed the account of Genet's 
 diplomatic impertinences, and demanded his recall, yet his 
 political attitude toward the agitation and his strong sym- 
 pathy for the French rendered it impossible that he should 
 remain in the cabinet as a loyal supporter of the administra- 
 tion. The appointment of Jay, the Chief Justice, to negotiate 
 a treaty with England, aroused but little public feeling. The 
 treaty which he negotiated was ratified by the Senate, by ex- 
 actly the constitutional two-thirds majority, before its terms 
 were made public. But when it was published there arose 
 such a storm of opposition to its promulgation by the Presi- 
 dent as no Executive since Washington has had to encounter. 
 Public meetings at which the most violent language was used, 
 riots, burning the treaty and the effigy of Jay, — these were 
 every-day incidents in all parts of the country. This is not 
 the place to do more than refer to the events of the time and 
 indicate their bearing upon the ensuing election. The details 
 must be left to the general historian. It is sufficient to say 
 that the firmness of Washington was proof against the popular 
 clamor, against the personal abuse to which he was subjected, 
 even against the determination of a great majority of the 
 House of Representatives, as expressed in a resolution call- 
 ing upon him for a copy of the instructions to Jay, with a 
 view to the impeachment of the ambassador. He promul- 
 gated the treaty, he remained calm and silent under vituper- 
 ation, he returned a respectful but unflinching refusal to the 
 demand for Jay's instructions. In the end, too, the House 
 itself, by the narrowest of majorities, agreed to pass the mea- 
 sures necessary for carrying the treaty into effect. It is not 
 to be supposed that the sentiments of the, American people 
 were expressed in the noisy outcries of the opposition. Events 
 proved that it was a minority only that displayed such vio- 
 lence of hostility toward measures which were greatly to the 
 benefit of the United States during the next ten years. But 
 the apparent strength of the democratic societies not only in- 
 spired the opposition party with a hope of capturing the gov- 
 ernment, but caused apprehension and anxiety throughout the 
 ranks of the Federalists. 
 
 It was made known by Washington to his closest intimates, 
 early in the year 1796, that he intended to decline a reelection. 
 His purpose was rumored, but not definitely made public, early
 
 44 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 in September. Those who had been aware of his intention 
 had already canvassed the subject and were agreed upon their 
 candidates. Several names were considered for the presidency. 
 Hamilton was eligible, and he was the undoubted leader of his 
 party. But he had made many enemies, and his candidacy 
 would surely have aroused intense antagonism. There was a 
 stain upon his private character ; and a threat had been made 
 that should he come forward as a candidate, certain papers 
 alleged to be damaging to his integrity would be published. 
 There is no evidence worthy to be regarded either that a truth- 
 ful accusation against his financial honor could have been 
 brought, or that a fear of exposure deterred him from becom- 
 ing a candidate. He was rather a king-maker than a candidate 
 for the throne. 
 
 If Hamilton were not to seek the office, the two most promi- 
 nent candidates were Adams and Jay. It seems to have been 
 universally felt that although Jay's talents fitted him for the 
 office, his negotiation of the treaty with England would cost 
 him enough votes to endanger his election. Adams was di- 
 rectly in the line of promotion ; his services to the country 
 during a long public life had given him as good title as any 
 statesman had to the gratitude of his country ; and his con- 
 duct in the Vice-President's chair had been fully acceptable to 
 the Federal party. Accordingly it was agreed at a conference 
 of Federalist members of Congress that Mr. Adams should be 
 the candidate for President ; and Thomas Pinckney of South 
 Carolina was chosen as the candidate for Vice-President. The 
 date of the nominations is not known. The time is fixed 
 vaguely in a letter from Oliver Wolcott to Henry W. Edwards, 
 quoted by Gibbs (vol. ii. pi 488), as the summer of 1796. 
 
 At about the same time, as we learn from the same alithor- 
 ity, Jefferson and Burr were agreed upon by a conference of 
 Republican members of Congress, as the candidates of their 
 party. The Republicans seem to have arrived at a tacit under- 
 standing that Mr. Jefferson was to be their candidate, before 
 the conference was held. Jefferson had been the leader and 
 organizer of the party while still in Washington's cabinet. 
 From his retirement at Monticello he had conducted a copious 
 correspondence with the chief men of the party, full of com- 
 ment on passing events and of advice as to their course of 
 action. He was now the natural, and, indeed, the inevitable 
 candidate. Republican opinion, in the North at all events,
 
 JOHN ADAMS 45 
 
 accepted Aaron Burr as the candidate for Vice-President. Burr 
 had, by his political adroitness and activity, displaced Geoi'ge 
 Clinton as the leader in New York of the Republican party. 
 The second position was already regarded as one of importance 
 vastly inferior to that of the first. Neither Mr. Pinckney nor 
 Mr. Burr would have been generally regarded as possessing 
 strong claims to the presidency. The names of the candidates 
 for the vice-presidency were not usually coupled with those of 
 the leaders. " It requires no talent at divination," said a 
 writer in the "Boston Gazette," a Republican paper, in Sep- 
 tember, 1796, '' to decide who will be candidates for the chair. 
 Thomas Jetierson and John Adams will be the men, and 
 whether we shall have at the head of our executive a steadfast 
 friend to the rights of the people, or an advocate for hereditary 
 power and distinction, the people of the United States are 
 soon to decide." An unsigned letter from Virginia, dated 
 September 24, published in all the papers, stated: "I have 
 been informed that Mr. Edmund Randolph, who has lately vis- 
 ited Mr. Jefferson, says that Mr. Jefferson will serve in the 
 office of President of the United States, if elected." 
 
 The canvass began tamely enough. For two or three weeks 
 after the appearance of Washington's Farewell Address, which 
 was dated September 17, 1796, the subject of the coming elec- 
 tion was rarely even mentioned in the newspapers. But the 
 contest soon became earnest and bitter. For the most part it 
 took the form of an intensely partisan comparison of the re- 
 cords and views of the two candidates. The leading disputant 
 on the Federal side wrote, over the signature " Phocion," a 
 series of nearly thirty articles.^ Although the papers consisted 
 largely of attacks upon Jefferson, two or three of them were 
 devoted to a strong defence of Adams. The stoutest opponent 
 of the Vice-President adopted the signature "A Federalist." 
 His position and arguments were anything but Federalist. 
 Adams's record was assailed most virulently, and Jefferson was 
 warmly praised. It must be said that the debate on both 
 sides was disingenuous. Jefferson was not only berated for 
 acts which in the minds of his opponents constituted real 
 offences, but was accused of many things which it was easy to 
 
 1 The authorship of the letters is not known. They are attributed by some 
 historians to Hamilton ; but they are not included by J. C. Hamilton in a 
 list of his father's works, and Lodge, when preparing the memoir of Hamilton, 
 could find no evidence that they were written by him.
 
 46 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 show he had not done. But if he had reason to complain of a 
 certain degree of unfairness on the part of his enemies, the 
 misrepresentation of Adams's political opinions and public 
 writings was shameful and scandalous. His expressions were 
 garbled and deliberately misquoted. Perhaps no American 
 public man has ever been treated more foully in this respect 
 than was he. Bache's " Aurora " was a prototype of many a 
 party newspaper edited with a conscienceless purpose to win 
 political battles at any expense to the truth ; but none of its 
 successors have gone beyond it in malignity and unveracity. 
 
 There were some unconscious humors of the canvass, — 
 among which may be classed the appeal to the voters of the 
 country to support a " Christian President," — an attempt to 
 rally the religious sentiment of the country against Jefferson. 
 On the other hand nothing could have been more audacious, 
 and nothing less convincing to men who knew anything of pol- 
 itics, than this warning, published in the Philadelphia papers 
 shortly before the election : — 
 
 Freemen of Pennsylvania ! Take caution ! The aristocrats of 
 our country are endeavoring to deceive you with the name of 
 Washington. They presume to call theirs [the] " Washington 
 ticket." Beware, fellow citizens, of the Washington ticket. It is 
 intended to support the electors of the monarchist Adams, and 
 begins with the name of Israel Whelen. 
 
 Our Republican ticket begins with the name of Thomas McKean, 
 and is intended to support the election of the Republican Jeffer- 
 son. Believe us, fellow citizens, that your President Washington 
 loves a Republican and hates a monarchist. He therefore wishes 
 that the Republican Jefferson may be his successor. 
 
 Shortly before the election a '' bombshell " was thrown by 
 the minister of France, " Citizen " Adet. He addressed a 
 note to the Secretary of State, and also caused it to be pub- 
 lished in all the newspapers which would print it, reproaching 
 the administration with having violated its treaties with Prance, 
 and with conducting itself in a most ungrateful manner toward 
 a country which had rendered important assistance in the Re- 
 volutionary struggle. He also announced that he was directed 
 by his government to suspend his diplomatic duties. The 
 interruption of relations was, however, not to be interpreted 
 " as a rupture between France and the United States, but as a 
 mark of just discontent, which was to last until the govern- 
 ment of the United States returned to sentiments and to mea-
 
 JOHN ADAMS 47 
 
 sures more conformable to the interests of the alliance, and to 
 the sworn friendship between the two nations." 
 
 What effect this manifesto had upon voters cannot be stated. 
 Certainly it did not change the result, so far as Mr. Adams 
 was concerned ; but, considering the closeness of the vote in 
 Pennsylvania, it is more than possible, indeed it is quite prob- 
 able, that it contributed the electoral votes which made Jeffer- 
 son Vice-President. 
 
 Some light is thrown upon the political machinery of the 
 time by certain notices which appear in the newspapers. In 
 Pennsylvania, on the day before the adjournment of the legis- 
 lature, a conference of Republican members, together with cit- 
 izens from different counties of the State, met and agreed upon 
 a list of electors. This is the "ticket" just mentioned 
 " which begins with the name of Thomas McKean." On the 
 following day a similar meeting of Federalists made up a list 
 of electors supposed to be favorable to Adams. Meetings of 
 members of the two parties were afterward held at the county 
 seats, and the tickets were ratified. In Virginia the practice 
 of self-nomination, then and for a long time afterward followed 
 with respect to seats in Congress, was in operation. Charles 
 Sims offered himself as a candidate for elector in the Alexan- 
 dria district, and announced that, if chosen, he should vote for 
 Patrick Henry and John Adams. Ralph Wormeley, ill another 
 district, offered himself ; and said that he preferred Washing- 
 ton for President, but that if he refused to stand, '* it would be 
 my part most diligently to search out for his successor a char- 
 acter the most resembling his in political principles, in sound 
 judgment, in unexampled prudence, and in unshaken firm- 
 ness." As this statement of his purpose seemed to be too 
 vague, and he was asked for whom he would vote, he sent 
 another communication to a Richmond newspaper, in which 
 he discussed, and answered in the negative, the question 
 whether an elector should disclose his intention. It did not 
 become necessary for him to disclose it. He was not elected. 
 
 The appointment of efectors was made, on various days, 
 during the month of November, 1796. Sixteen States took 
 part in the election, Tennessee having been admitted to the 
 Union on June 1, 1796. The electors for that State were 
 chosen by the legislature. Those for North Carolina were 
 elected by the people. No other State changed its system, 
 and there were, therefore, six States where there was a pop-
 
 48 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ular election, while in the other ten the choice was made by 
 the legislature. The Federalists carried all the States north 
 of Pennsylvania ; the Republicans all the States from Virginia 
 southward. Pennsylvania was unexpectedly lost by the Fed- 
 eralists, who were nevertheless successful in Delaware, and in 
 six of the ten districts of Maryland — one of which they car- 
 ried by a majority of only four votes. 
 
 It is impossible to make a reasonably complete statement 
 of the popular vote, even in the States where the people made 
 the choice. But it is interesting to note how easily the result 
 might have been different from what it was. In Pennsylvania 
 the vote was extremely close. There were, as we have seen, 
 two tickets, each bearing fifteen names. The highest number 
 polled by any candidate for elector was 12,306 ; the lowest 
 of the thirty had 12,071. Thus 235 votes only represented 
 the greatest difference ; and two of the Federalist electors 
 were chosen. The fact that, nevertheless, Adams received but 
 one electoral vote in the State will be explained presently. 
 It is necessary now merely to observe that a change of less 
 than a hundred votes in Pennsylvania would have resulted in 
 the election of Thomas Pinckney, instead of Thomas Jefferson, 
 as Vice-President. It is even open to the student of history 
 to maintain, basing an argument upon the events which in- 
 tervened between the appointment of electors and the dis- 
 charge of their duty, that the change might possibly have 
 made Pinckney President and Adams Vice-President. Had 
 Governor Mifflin complied strictly with the law requiring re- 
 turns of the election to be made within fourteen days, when 
 the governor was to proclaim the result, Jefferson would cer- 
 tainly have been defeated. 
 
 The contest in Massachusetts was fierce, and the Republi- 
 cans showed unexpected strength. Governor Samuel Adams 
 was a candidate for elector in the Boston district, but was de- 
 feated. The legislature chose electors for the districts in 
 which no choice had been made by the people, in accordance 
 with the system that had been in operation at the two previous 
 elections. Among those thus appointed was Elbridge G«rry, 
 who was inclined to support the Republicans. He voted, 
 nevertheless, for Adams and Pinckney. The General Court 
 passed a resolution authorizing the electoral college to fill any 
 vacancies that might occur. Governor Adams signed the 
 resolution ; but the next day, having, no doubt, perceived that
 
 JOHN ADAMS 49 
 
 every vacancy would subtract a vote from John Adams, he 
 went to the office of the Secretary of State, erased his name 
 from the resolution, and sent a message to the General Court 
 communicating his reasons for so doing. Second thoughts are 
 best, no doubt ; but the right of the governor to act upon them 
 was not, in this case, admitted. 
 
 The canvass did not end with the appointment of the elect- 
 ors. "Phocion" still continued to give reasons why Jeffer- 
 son should not be chosen ; but the articles made no impression 
 upon the electors. The Republican candidate was sure of every 
 opposition vote. The situation was far from clear on the Fed- 
 eralist side. Hamilton had, from the beginning, urged an 
 equal support by the electors of Adams and Pinckney. He 
 gave frankly his reason for the advice, "All personal and 
 partial considerations must be discarded, and everything must 
 give way to the great object of excluding Jefferson." New 
 York would be unanimous for both the Federal candidates. 
 " I hope New England will be so too. Yet I have some ap- 
 prehensions on this point, lest the fear that he may outrun 
 Mr. Adams should withhold votes from Pinckney. Should 
 this happen, it will be in my opinion a most unfortunate policy. 
 It will be to take one only instead of Uvo chances against Mr. 
 Jefferson ; and well weighed, there can be no doubt that the 
 exclusion of Mr. Jefferson is far more important than any dif- 
 ference between Mr. Adams and Mr. Pinckney." 
 
 This is not the place to review in detail the points raised 
 by the grandson of Mr. Adams and the son of Mr. Hamilton 
 in the endeavor of each to cast upon the ancestor of the 
 other the blame of a controversy which was fraught with dis- 
 aster to the Federalist party. Mr. Adams himself did not 
 think, after the election was over, that Hamilton had plotted 
 his overthrow. In February, 1797, he wrote, " I believe they," 
 including Hamilton, " honestly meant to bring in me, but 
 they were frightened with a belief that I should fail, and they 
 in their agony thought it better to bring in Pinckney than 
 Jefferson." Mr. Adams changed his opinion on this point 
 afterward ; and it should be remembered, lest the change should 
 be counted against him, that when he wrote what has just 
 been quoted he had no evidence on either side of the question. 
 Hamilton himself supplied that evidence when his famous letter 
 on John Adams was published four years later. " It is true," 
 he wrote, " that a faithful execution of this plan " — an equal
 
 50 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 vote for the two candidates in the Northern States — '' would 
 have given Mr. Pinckney a somewhat better chance than Mr. 
 Adams ; nor shall it be concealed that an issue favorable to 
 the former would not have been disagreeable to me ; as indeed 
 I declared at the time in the circle of my confidential friends. 
 My position Avas that if chance should decide in favor of Mr. 
 Pinckney, it probably would not be a misfortune ; since he to 
 every essential qualification for the office added a temper far 
 more discreet and conciliatory than that of Mr. Adams." 
 
 It is only natural that Hamilton's cool disregard of Adams's 
 sensibilities ; his studied though veiled denial of Adams's 
 superior merits ; and his evident attempt to use Adams's own 
 friends to carry out a policy which would have humiliated the 
 Vice-President ; — that all these things were resented at the 
 time, and that they have been made the basis of serious accu- 
 sations against Hamilton's good faith. But while, on the one 
 hand, he cannot be exonerated from the charge that he was not 
 straightforward and that he concealed one of the chief reasons 
 of his action, on the other hand, it is not just to suppose that 
 his motives were unworthy. They were not selfish. He 
 sought no preferment for himself. In the circumstances of the 
 selection of the two candidates his motives were not disloyal 
 to the party. Moreover there is no reason to suppose that he 
 had recurred, at this time, to his former unfavorable opinion 
 of Adams, toward whom he cherished no personal animosity. 
 Nevertheless, his course brought present disaster to the party ; 
 and it laid the foundation of the estrangement, the mutual dis- 
 trust, and the bitter hatred between two men capable of large 
 and long continued service to the country, which led to the 
 ultimate ruin of the party. 
 
 Hamilton's plan failed. No less than eighteen electors in 
 New England resolved that Pinckney's vote should not exceed 
 Adams's, withheld their votes from the candidate for Vice- 
 President, and scattered them upon others. Three Maryland 
 electors did the same thing. Pinckney received, with Jeff"er- 
 son, the eight votes of South Carolina, and one vote more than 
 Adams in Pennsylvania. He had therefore twelve votes less 
 than Adams. Having also nine votes less than Jefferson, he 
 failed of an election. One vote for Jefferson in Pennsylvania 
 deserves notice, since it is believed to have been given by the 
 only elector in the history of the country who has ever be- 
 trayed the trust reposed in him by those who supported him.
 
 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 51 
 
 The closeness of the vote in Pennsylvania already has been 
 recorded, and the fact that two Federalist electors slipped in. 
 One of the two voted for Jefferson and Pinckney. The treach- 
 ery of this elector was the subject of an exceedingly plain- 
 spoken communication in the " United States Gazette " from 
 an exasperated Federalist. " What ! " he exclaimed. " Do I 
 chuse Samuel Miles to determine for me whether John Adams 
 or Thomas Jefferson shall be President ? 'No ! I chuse him to 
 act, not to thinks 
 
 Not until a week or two after the electors had voted was 
 the result definitely known, namely, that John Adams had one 
 vote more than the number necessary to elect him ; and that 
 Jefferson, having the next highest number, only two less 
 than a majority, was chosen Vice-President. The electoral 
 votes were, by States, as follows : — 
 
 Statm. 
 
 1 
 £ 
 
 •a 
 -<! 
 
 a 
 fi 
 o 
 
 1-S 
 
 g 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 H 
 
 d 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 •s 
 
 s 
 
 s 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 ji 
 H 
 
 pi 
 
 u 
 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 -91 
 
 < 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 § 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 i 
 > 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 (S 
 
 o 
 « 
 
 •-> 
 a 
 o 
 
 1-5 
 
 d 
 
 a 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 ■s, 
 
 a 
 
 «c 
 o 
 O 
 
 d 
 >^ 
 a" 
 
 § 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 "3 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 W 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 d 
 
 CO 
 
 1 
 
 d 
 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont . . 
 Massachusetts 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut . 
 New York . . 
 New Jersey . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware . . 
 Maryland . . 
 Virginia . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Georgia . . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 4 
 
 16 
 4 
 9 
 
 12 
 7 
 1 
 3 
 7 
 1 
 1 
 
 71 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 20 
 11 
 8 
 4 
 4 
 3 
 
 68 
 
 4 
 13 
 
 4 
 12 
 7 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 1 
 1 
 8 
 
 59 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 1 
 6 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 The proceedings in preparation for the count of the elect- 
 oral votes were in all respects similar to those of four years 
 previous, except that the proposition for a joint committee 
 originated this time in the Senate. The count itself is in-
 
 52 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 teresting on account of the fact that Mr, Adams himself pre- 
 sided, opened, and read the certificates, and declared himself 
 elected, when the rejection of four votes which had been 
 called in question would have defeated him and elected his 
 opponent. The legislature of Vermont had appointed elect- 
 ors, but had not previously passed a law directing how they 
 should be appointed. It was contended privately, by some 
 persons, that the appointment was invalid. But the ques- 
 tion was not raised in Congress, or at the joint meeting for 
 the count of the votes. Mr. Adams's opponents did not feel 
 sure of their ground, and probably did not know how to pro- 
 ceed to make their objections effective. Mr. Madison wrote 
 to Jefferson, January 8, 1797, " If the Vermont votes be valid, 
 as is now generally supposed, Mr. Adams will have seventy- 
 one and you sixty-eight, Pinckney being in the rear of both." 
 Mr. Adams himself could certainly not raise the question 
 of the validity of the Vermont votes ; but he seems to have 
 given an opportunity for objections if anyone should see fit 
 to raise them. The record shows this. When the tellers 
 had reported the result, Mr. Adams thus addressed the as- 
 sembled senators and representatives : — 
 
 Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, — By the 
 report which has been made to me by the tellers appointed by 
 the two Houses to examine the votes, there are 71 votes for John 
 Adams, 68 for Thomas Jefferson [and so on to the end of the 
 list]. The whole number of votes are 138; 70 therefore make a 
 majority ; so that the person who has 71 votes, which is the highest 
 number, is elected President, and the person who has G8 votes, 
 which is the next highest number, is elected Vice-President. 
 
 At this point Mr. Adams sat down for a moment. After 
 an interval of silence, he arose again and said : — 
 
 In obedience to the Constitution and laws of the United States, 
 and to the commands of both Houses of Congress, expressed in 
 their resolution passed in the present session, I declare that John 
 Adams is elected President of the United States for four years, to 
 commence with the fourth day of March next ; and that Thomas 
 Jefferson is elected Vice-President of the United States for four 
 years, to commence on the fourth day of March next. 
 
 And may the Sovereign of the Universe, the Ordainer of civil 
 government on earth, for the preservation of liberty, justice and 
 peace among men, enable both to discharge the duties of these 
 offices conformably to the Constitution of the United States, with 
 conscientious diligence, punctuality, and perseverance.
 
 JOHN ADAMS 53 
 
 The inauguration took place in the chamber of the House 
 of Representatives, which was crowded to its utmost capacity. 
 The oath was administered by Chief Justice Ellsworth. 
 General Washington was present, with a " countenance as 
 serene and unclouded as the day," so Adams reports in a let- 
 ter to his wife, descriptive of the ceremony, which he closes 
 by saying, " All agree that, taken altogether, it was the sub- 
 limest thing ever exhibited in America."
 
 V 
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 
 
 The administration of John Adams witnessed the total 
 V wreck of the Federalist party, a result of divided leadership. 
 N ^Although Mr. Adams had become President by an extremely 
 J narrow majority of votes, yet his party was stronger in both 
 ^ branches of Congress than it had been during Washington's 
 ■y\ second administration. Of the sixth Congress, during the 
 latter half of Adams's term, the Republicans formed but a 
 * small minority. The strength which the dominant party 
 ~' might wisely have used in consolidating its own power, 
 through the adoption of a policy in harmony with its prin- 
 ciples, was wasted in internal conflict. The blame, in a 
 political sense, rested upon both the Federalist factions. 
 Hamilton had become accustomed to exert a great, almost a 
 • \ controlling influence over Washington. He was consulted 
 
 ;by the general quite as freely after his retirement from the 
 cabinet as before. He was the leader of his own party in 
 the same sense that Jefi'erson was the leader of the Republi- 
 ''V cans. That is to say, the chief men of the party sought his 
 V advice ; he frequently volunteered counsel to them, upon the 
 O public questions that arose ; and his opinion was usually fol- 
 ^ lowed. Mr. Adams was not one of Hamilton's coterie, nor 
 was he a man either to seek advice as to his course of action, 
 or to accept it with equanimity. From this situation arose 
 all the bad feeling and secret intrigue that make this admin- 
 istration a period of political scandal. 
 
 Adams continued in office all the members of Washington's 
 cabinet ; Pickering, Secretary of State ; Wolcott, Secretary of 
 the Treasury ; McHenry, Secretary of War ; and Lee, At- 
 torney-General. These men were in frequent correspondence 
 with Hamilton. Before the first month of Adams's admin- 
 istration had closed, Hamilton wrote to Wolcott advocating 
 strongly the sending of three ministers to France. Wolcott 
 replied the next day ; and in his letter revealed to Hamilton,
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 55 
 
 " in the most perfect confidence," the fact that the President 
 had already proposed to him the formation of such a com- 
 mission to negotiate with France. In this incident is to be 
 found the key of the whole situation within the administra- 
 tion during the ensuing four years. Hamilton could not, or 
 would not, — at any rate, did not, — throw off the habit of 
 advising the government and endeavoring to control its ac- 
 tion. Since he had not the same influence over Adams as / ' / 
 he had exercised over Washington, he operated through the./>' ^'^'"^^Z)! 
 secretaries who were already accustomed to receive and act 
 upon his counsel. The secretaries, habituated to this influ- 
 ence, which had been so potent over the first President, whom 
 they revered more than they did the second, dropped insen- 
 sibly into the way of listening to Hamilton rather than to 
 their chief, and — what wrought all the mischief — of mea- 
 suring the intelligence and political sagacity of the President 
 by the degree of deference he paid to Hamilton's judgment. 
 It is not necessary to hold them base or even treacherous on 
 this account, as does John Adams's grandson and biographer^ 
 and as all the anti-Federalist historians do. But the situation 
 created was intolerable ; and a much more even-tempered man 
 than Mr. Adams might well be excused for losing control over 
 himself when he discovered that his own subordinates were 
 executing not his will, but that of another. In the very case 
 under consideration, Mr. Wolcott had been approached by 
 the President on the subject of a mission to France, and had 
 shown a decided opposition to the measure. But in replying 
 to Hamilton he wrote : '■'■ You know that I am accustomed to 
 respect your opinions ; and at any rate I am not so ignorant 
 of the extent of your influence with the friends of government 
 as not to be sensible that if you are known to favor the send- 
 ing a commission, either nothing will be done or your opinion 
 will prevail." Mr. Wolcott did not quite give up his opposi- 
 tion to the mission, but he was less strenuous after learning 
 what Hamilton thought. 
 
 As time went on, the secretaries, particularly Pickering and 
 Wolcott, besprinkled their correspondence with phrases indi- 
 cating their contempt for their chief. That he was vain, in- 
 discreet, opinionated, jealous, distrustful of many prominent 
 men in his own party, yet guilelessly trustful toward some of 
 the most artful of his political opponents, — all this must be 
 admitted. Yet it might have been prevented from causing the
 
 56 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 HtA^— >— ' 
 f^-v^ I confusion and disaster that followed, had the members of the 
 
 cabinet themselves been discreet and wise politicians. When 
 ' ' they found that they were unable to bend the President to 
 
 Hamilton's will, because he was headstrong and they were his 
 intellectual inferiors, they should have become the agents of 
 the President's will, or retired from office, 
 '" / The foregoing review of the situation is necessary, because 
 / in the relations between the President and the prominent men 
 s/w^ of the Federalist party is to be found the sole immediate cause 
 
 H>- — 4^ of the political overturn in the year 1800, Adams's inaugural 
 ■j . address was well received, even by those who had opposed his 
 
 jf election. The popularity which he thus achieved increased 
 
 and continued during the greater part of his term ; although 
 the dissatisfaction of the politicians of his own party grew more 
 intense as the prejudice against him on the part of the people 
 at large vanished. There was, all the time, an alert opposi- 
 tion, presided over by its ablest leader, whom circumstances 
 had placed in the most favorable position for observation and 
 for taking advantage of every mistake of the administration, 
 and yet relieved of all responsibility for the course of public 
 affairs. 
 
 The question which overshadowed all others during the 
 administration was the relations with France. The insulting 
 -Hj- rejection of Gen. C. C. Pinckney as minister, and his expul- 
 U>^ sion from French territory, became known officially to the 
 government on the 21st of March, 1797, before the administra- 
 ) tion had been three weeks in office. The appointment of 
 ^,.>a-'^ Elbridge Gerry, John Marshall, and General Pinckney as a 
 • J/t^'^P^<^i^l embassy ; the contemptuous treatment they received 
 "^r-^'^ from the French directory ; the corrupt proposals made to 
 them by Talleyrand, acting through an agent ; the X. Y. Z. 
 , letters ; Adams's manly refusal to send another minister until 
 assurance should be given that he would be received ; his 
 nomination of Murray as minister on the receipt of a vague in- 
 timation indirectly conveyed, that a minister would be received, 
 without consultation with any member of the cabinet ; the 
 substitution of a commission for a single minister ; the opposi- 
 tion of the secretaries to the step, and Pickering's studied 
 delay in making ready for the departure of the envoys ; and 
 Adams's petulant order that they should sail before a specified 
 day ; this is a mere catalogue of the chief events in the history 
 of the French negotiation. There were many echoes of the
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 57 
 
 aflfair in home politics : the resolution to organize an army, and 
 the ensuing difficulty relating to Hamilton's rank as a general 
 officer, ending with a victory for Hamilton, through the help 
 of Washington ; the establishment of a navy, a measure most 
 strenuously opposed by the whole Republican party, but heart- 
 ily supported by Federalists of both factions ; the Alien laws 
 and the Sedition act ; and the Virginia and Kentucky resolu- 
 tions of 1798 and 1799. 
 
 Of all these matters, as political issues between parties, the 
 last mentioned only survived the administration. An exami- 
 nation of other pages in this book will show that every Demo- 
 cratic national platform from 1844 until 1856 declared that -j.{^^_,,t^ 
 " every attempt . . . ought to be resisted with the same spirit -^ r- 
 
 which swept the Alien and Sedition laws from our statute- \-<- '^'''■'^ 
 book." The resolutions of 1798 and 1799 also appear in the 
 Democratic platforms of 1848 and 1852 as embodying princi- 
 ples to which the party still adhered. There were two " Alien " 
 laws. One of them authorized the President to " order such 
 aliens as he should judge dangerous to the peace and safety of 
 the United States, or should have reasonable grounds to sus- 
 pect were concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations 
 against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory 
 of the United States." The other act empowered the Presi- 
 dent, upon a declaration of war, to cause the subjects of the 
 hostile government " to be apprehended, restrained, secured, 
 and removed, as alien enemies." The Sedition act declared it 
 an offence, and prescribed the punishment and its mode, to 
 combine or conspire, with intent to oppose the government, 
 when directed by the proper authority, to intimidate an officer 
 from the performance of his duty, to incite riots or insurrec- 
 tions against the laws of Congress, or to publish false, scandal- 
 ous, and malicious writings against the government, either 
 House of Congress, or the President, with intent to bring them 
 into contempt, to stir up sedition, or to aid or abet a foreign 
 nation in hostile designs against the United States. Inasmuch 
 as the Sedition act and the first of the Alien laws expired by 
 self-limitation before Jefferson took the oath of office, and since 
 the second Alien law was never repealed, but stands to-day 
 substantially unchanged, a commendation of the " spirit which 
 swept " them from the statute-book involves a historical blun- 
 der. The resolutions of 1798 and 1799 were the first expres- 
 sions of the doctrine which subsequently became known as 
 nullification.
 
 58 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ■^_^^ I The canvass of 1800 opened early. The first step, perhaps, 
 G- ' was an attempt to draw General Washington from his retire- 
 , c^-jv ' jj^ent and induce him to stand again for the presidency. A 
 /k». suggestion to that effect was made, probably after a consulta- 
 
 tion among the Hamiltonians ; but Washington refused to com- 
 ply. Later, Gouverneur Morris wrote to him, December 9, 
 1799 : " During a late visit to New York I learnt that the 
 leading characters, even in Massachusetts, consider Mr. Adams 
 as unfit for the office he now holds ; " and he proceeded to 
 f * urge him to become a candidate. It is probable that Wash- 
 
 jT ington never read the letter. He was taken ill on the 13th of 
 
 'V^' December and died on the 14th. The scheme failed, and the 
 leaders, seeing that it would be impossible to supplant Mr. 
 Adams with any candidate of less authority than Washington, 
 resigned themselves to the inevitable. 
 
 Early in March articles began to appear in the Republican 
 papers, giving " dispassionate " reasons why Mr. Adams should 
 not be elected. The articles were answered at length by cor- 
 respondents of the Federalist newspapers. The discussion was 
 extremely bitter, and unfounded charges were made on both 
 ~-f sides. Probably the Federal ticket had been agreed upon at 
 '^^'■~'-^ , that time, although it was not authoritatively announced until 
 •/^ t ««-^^ tTiine. General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a brother of 
 I Thomas Pinckney, who had been the candidate most voted for 
 
 f with Mr. Adams in 1796, was associated with Adams on the 
 
 / Federal ticket. The manner in which the ticket was formed 
 
 is involved in much obscurity. Mr. Hezekiah Niles, whose 
 " Weekly Register " is a treasury of facts for students of our 
 early political history, tried to clear it up, but acknowledged 
 his failure. Early in the year 1800 a meeting of a few Feder- 
 alist members of Congress, for the purpose, as was said at the 
 time, of influencing the Presidential election, was held in the 
 Senate Chamber. So far as is known, no account of its pro- 
 ceedings was ever printed, but it was probably called for the 
 purpose of strengthening Mr. Adams's cause ; for Mr. Niles 
 says in another place ("Register," Vol. 24, p. 277) that "it 
 was well understood that many of the Federalists were opposed 
 to the taking up of Mr. Adams for the presidency, — that 
 they had nearly fixed on another person." Perhaps the nam- 
 ing a candidate for Vice-President may also have been one 
 of the objects of the meeting. But it is all a matter of conjec- 
 ture and uncertainty. Whatever may have been the purposes
 
 THE JEFFERSOX-BURR CONTEST 59 
 
 in view, the meeting excited the wrath of the Republicans, 
 and was denounced in the Philadelphia "Aurora" as a "Jaco- 
 binical conclave," — for which and other insulting remarks 
 the editor of the paper was arraigned at the bar of the Senate. 
 
 The Republican members themselves held a caucus some- 
 what later, — probably in February or March, 1800. It also'l'|^ 
 was a secret meeting. It was attended by a small number of 
 members only. It was called not so much for the purpose of LO V 
 nominating Mr. Jefferson, who was designated by the unani-' r 
 mous voice of his party as the natural candidate, as with the 
 idea of causing a union upon Burr, as well as upon Jefferson. 
 The situation and the course of events are explained in a let- 
 ter, already cited in the preceding chapter, from Oliver Wolcott 
 to Henry W. Edwards, printed in Gibbs's History, based on 
 Wolcott's correspondence (Vol. ii., p. 488). Wolcott wrote 
 that the division of the votes of Virginia in 1796 " gave great 
 offence to Mr. Burr, who complained of bad faith. At the 
 next conference, or caucus, of the Republican members of 
 Congress, Mr. Burr required as a condition of his consent to 
 be their candidate, that highly respectable members of the 
 Republican party should write letters, stating that their honor 
 was pledged to endeavor to procure for him an equal vote with 
 Mr. Jefferson. I have no doubt, from information which I 
 received (though I have never seen a letter to that effect), that 
 this condition was complied with ; at any rate, an equal vote 
 for Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr was in fact obtained." 
 
 Both parties entered upon the canvass with full confidence ; 
 but the Federalists soon suffered a severe 
 New York election took place in May. Later 
 revived and the Republicans became anxious 
 sured were the Federalists of success that the 
 tinel," of Boston, on December 13, after the electors had 
 actually voted, asserted that " there cannot be a doubt " of the 
 election of Adams and Pinckney. One week later the " Cen- 
 tinel " was forced to " concede " the " bad news " that Jefferson 
 and Burr were chosen. The result had finally been determined 
 by the vote of South Carolina, on which the Federalists had 
 counted as safe for their candidates. 
 
 In New York, the Republican assemblymen were successful 
 in New York city. In a fit of faintheartedness the Phila- 
 delphia "Gazette" declared that the result "ascertains the 
 election of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency," using the verb in
 
 60 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 I' i 
 
 ^^*^ a sense now obsolete. The suggestion filled other Federalists 
 
 -•-* ^ with indignant horror. " I trust," wrote one of them, " this 
 
 country is not yet so abandoned of God." The disaster led 
 Hamilton to write to Governor Jay, requesting him to call 
 together the old legislature, which was Federalist, to pass a 
 law giving the choice of electors to the people, by districts. 
 Another letter, evidently inspired by Hamilton, was also sent 
 to Jay urging the same step. The Governor replied to nei- 
 ther letter. He endorsed one of them, " proposing a Ineasure 
 for party purposes which I think it would not become me to 
 adopt." 
 r -v The politicians in other States were not so rigid in their 
 rvet- ' morality as he. Virginia, where the district system of popular 
 ■ yJ.„.M»^^ election had previously prevailed, and where the Federalists 
 *T had made some inroads since 1796, amended its law and 
 
 ^ ' instituted the practice of election on a general ticket, thus 
 
 ensuring its twenty-one votes for Jefferson. In Massachusetts 
 a situation the reverse of that in Virginia existed. Several of 
 its members of Congress were Republicans ; a bye-election of 
 a congressman in the spring of 1800 resulted in a Jefiersonian 
 success ; and when the State election took place, two or three 
 weeks afterward. Governor Strong had a clear majority of 
 only two hundred, and a plurality over Gerry of but 2611. 
 In order to save the whole vote of the Commonwealth for 
 Adams and Pinckney, it was necessary for the General Court 
 to assume to itself the appointment of the electors. A special 
 session was summoned, and a resolution changing the system 
 was passed. 
 
 The situation in Pennsylvania was peculiar. It had been 
 the practice in that State to pass a law regulating the mode of 
 . appointing electors just before each election, to be operative 
 ^o-i ■ for that election only. At each prior election the people had 
 ,/ enjoyed the privilege of choosing the electors by popular vote. 
 
 In the year 1796, fourteen Jefferson electors had been chosen, 
 and one Adams man. But in the time of Mr. Adams's popular- 
 ity the Federalists had carried the State once or twice ; and, as 
 the senators were elected by classes, for four years, it happened 
 that, in the year 1800, although the Governor and the House of 
 Kepresentatives were strongly Republican, the Senate was still 
 ^federalist by 13 to 11. As no law had been passed providing 
 rbr a popular election in time to enable the people to make a 
 choice, it became the duty of the legislature itself to choose
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 61 
 
 the electors. The House passed a law providing for an elec- 
 tion by joint ballot, the only way in which the legislature of 
 that State ever elected officers. The Senate rejected the bill 
 and proposed, instead, an election by concurrent vote. The 
 House refused to adopt that method.. At last the Senate pro- 
 posed that each House should name eight electors, and that 
 the two Houses should vote together for the combined list, or 
 for fifteen of the sixteen. The House was forced to yield, and 
 the result was that eight Jefferson and seven Adams electors 
 were chosen. The Federal senators — " the Federal thirteen," 
 as they were proudly termed by their admirers : — were loudly 
 praised for this act by the party organs. The editor of the 
 " United States Gazette," of Philadelphia, wrote on Decem- 
 ber 3, 1800, to his paper : — 
 
 The Federal thirteen deserve the praises and the blessings of all 
 America. They have checked the mad enthusiasm of a deluded 
 populace and the wicked speculation of designing demagogues. 
 On reviewing the recent aspect of our political affairs, it may be 
 figuratively said, They have saved a falling world! 
 
 It will be seen, from a consideration of what has been pre- 
 sented, that the Federalists had good reason to anticipate sue- ^ 
 
 /d^ 
 
 There were to be 139 electoral votes, of which 70 were 
 necessary for a choice. The solid vote of New England,' r" / 
 together with that of ISTew Jersey and Delaware, gave them/ -^^^ 
 49 votes ; Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina con- 
 tributed 16 more ; and the eight votes of South Carolina, 
 which the people of that State promised to them, again and 
 again, would make up the majority. Reserving until a little 
 later the story of the loss of those votes, let us say that it was 
 only political chicanery, — or if that is too strong a word, 
 exceedingly good play of the game of politics, that brought 
 them so near to victory. New York told the story of the 
 popular sentiment. Votes were saved to Adams in Pennsyl- 
 vania and Massachusetts by taking advantage of earlier elec- 
 tions. On the other hand, not more than two or three votes 
 were gained by the Republicans in Virginia by the adoption 
 of the district system. On the surface it appears as if the 
 Federalists were almost as strong as ever. In reality they 
 were saved from a much more crushing defeat than they expe- 
 rienced by measures which the political morality of our time 
 would condemn. 
 
 The pro_gress of the canvass developed the usual number of
 
 62 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 " campaign lies " and misrepresentations. When the overturn 
 in Adams's cabinet occurred, the Trenton " Federalist " asserted 
 
 ^ its knowledge that the step was the outcome of an agreement 
 ,..-c.»^v^'*^^etween Adams and Jefferson. Adams was to he re-elected, 
 and so was Jefferson ; the President was to arrange the offices 
 to the satisfaction of the Vice-President, who was to give his 
 firm support to the measures of the administration. The 
 statement was absurd, and might have been taken as a joke, 
 bad not the New Jersey paper been a serious organ of the 
 party. Of the same category was the report circulated by the 
 Federalist papers that Jefferson had discarded the Sabbath, 
 together with the Christian division of time into weeks, and 
 adopted in his household the French decade. 
 
 In May the Federalists expected to win by seventy-two 
 votes against sixty-six. They counted on five votes in North 
 Carolina, six in Pennsylvania, and four in Maryland, beside 
 the eight of South Carolina. In June they claimed seventy- 
 nine to fifty-nine. At about this time began to appear argu- 
 ments to show that it was most necessary for all Federalist 
 electors to give an equal vote to both candidates. For the 
 most part the internal discussions of the Federalists were kept 
 out of the newspapers. But occasionally something of the dis- 
 trust between Adams's friends and the adherents of Hamilton 
 appeared on the surface. It was not denied, because it was 
 evident to the dullest apprehension that only by the most loyal 
 adherence to the party programme could Jefferson be defeated. 
 Yet when Hamilton made a tour of New England, extended 
 as far as Maine, urging the equal support of both candidates, 
 
 y3 there was some criticism of his action in the Boston newspaper 
 ''vr most devoted to Adams's fortunes. The Federalists of South 
 Carolina, the State which had given its votes for Jefferson and 
 Thomas Pinckney in 1796, now promised loyal support of 
 Adams and C. C. Pinckney. Toward the close of the canvass 
 a distinct offer was made to them to repeat the division of votes 
 they had made at the former election, that is, to give an equal 
 vote to Pinckney and Jefferson. General Pinckney refused to 
 sanction- the coalition, and gave it to be understood that he 
 wished for no votes that were not given also to Adams. The 
 expectation was that Adams and Pinckney, under the bonds of 
 the agreement, would receive the same number of votes ; where- 
 upon the House of Representatives would elect Adams. It 
 was in the warmest period of the canvass that Aaron Burr, in
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 
 
 63 
 
 some way unknown, obtained possession of a part of Hamilton's 
 letter on the character of John Adams, and gave it to the press. 
 Hamilton then published the letter in full. An extract from 
 it has been given already, in the account of the election of 
 1796. Two sentences only will be quoted here. They fol- 
 low Hamilton's severe arraignment of the President : " Yet, 
 with this opinion of Mr. Adams, I have finally resolved not to 
 advise the withholding from him a single vote. The body of 
 Federalists, for want of a sufiicient knowledge of facts, are not 
 convinced of the expediency of relinquishing him." 
 
 As had been the case in 1796, sixteen States took part in 
 the election. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Pennsyl- 
 vania took away from the people the appointment of electors. 
 Rhode Island conferred the right upon them. There were, 
 therefore, four States only in which electors were chosen by 
 popular vote : Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, and North 
 Carolina. The electors of both parties, with a single excep- 
 tion, voted equally for both candidates. One Rhode Island 
 elector withheld his vote from Pinckney, and gave it to Jay. 
 The result, by States, was as follows : — 
 
 States. 
 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont 
 Massachusetts . 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut 
 New York . . 
 New Jersey 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware . . 
 Maryland * . . 
 Virginia . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Georgia . . . 
 Kentucky , 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 <0 
 
 u 
 
 a 
 
 tx 
 
 1 
 
 
 S 
 
 ^ 
 
 S 
 
 5? 
 
 ^ 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 "-» 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 ^ 
 
 dt 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 
 E3 
 
 d 
 
 •a 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 i-» 
 
 d 
 
 
 _ 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 4- 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 73 
 
 73 
 
 65 
 
 64 
 
 * One Maryland elector did not attend.
 
 64 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Before entering upon a narrative of the exciting events that 
 arose out of the equal vote for Jefferson and Burr, we must 
 record a most promising attempt to remedy by law the defi- 
 ciencies of the Constitution in the matter of the electoral count. 
 Inasmuch as the legislation then proposed subsequently formed 
 the basis of the " twenty-second joint rule," so famous in the 
 counts of 1869 and 1873, and of the electoral commission law 
 of 1877, it will be well to notice the proceedings at some 
 length. A resolution introduced in the Senate January 23, 
 1800, by Mr. Ross of Pennsylvania, directed the appointment 
 of a committee " to consider whether any, and what, provisions 
 ought to be made by law for deciding disputed elections of 
 President and Vice-President of the United States, and for 
 determining the legality or the illegality of the votes given 
 for those officers in the different States." The committee 
 reported a bill, February 14, of which the provisions were, in 
 brief, as follows : — 
 
 On the day before the second Wednesday in February of 
 any year when there was to be a count of electoral votes, each 
 House of Congress was to choose by ballot six of its own 
 members, who, with the Chief Justice of the United States, 
 or, in case of his disability from any cause, the next senior 
 justice, would form a " grand committee," with " power to 
 examine, and finally to decide, all disputes relating to the 
 election." 
 
 Each House was next to elect two tellers, to whom £he cer- 
 tificates of the electors, after they had been opened and read, 
 were to be delivered ; and the tellers were to note the dates of 
 the certificates, the names of the electors, the time and place 
 of their meeting, and the governors' certificates accompanying, 
 — these minutes to be read to the two Houses and entered on 
 the two Journals. 
 
 After the certificates had been opened, read, and minuted, 
 the President of the Senate was to administer to the members 
 of the grand committee an oath to examine the certificates im- 
 partially, " together with the exceptions and petitions against 
 them, and a true judgment give thereon, according to the evi- 
 dence." All the certificates, papers, petitions, and testimony 
 were then to be delivered to the chairman of the grand com- 
 mittee, which was to meet every day, sit with closed doors, 
 have ample power to send for persons and papers, compel at- 
 tendance of witnesses, and punish contempts. The powers of 
 the grand committee were stated in the following section : —
 
 THE JEFFERSJN-LURR CONTEST 65 
 
 Sec. 8. That the grand committee shall have power to inquire, 
 examine, decide, and report upon the constitutional qualifications 
 of the persons voted for as President and Vice-President of the 
 United States ; upon the constitutional qualifications of the electors 
 appointed by the different States, and whether their appointment 
 was authorized by the state legislatm-e or not ; upon all petitions 
 and exceptions against corrupt, illegal conduct of the electors, or 
 force, menaces, or improper means used to influence their votes ; 
 or against the truth of their returns, or the time, place, or manner 
 of giving their votes : Provided ahoayx, that no petition or ex- 
 ception shall be granted, allowed, or considered by the sitting grand 
 committee, which has for its object to dispute, draw into question 
 the number of votes given for an elector, or the fact whether an 
 elector was chosen by a majority of the votes in his State or dis- 
 trict. 
 
 The committee was to make a final report on the 1st of iU^/~}^^>^^ 
 March, stating the number of legal votes for each person, the 
 number rejected, and the reason for rejection ; such reasonaS 
 to be signed by those who agreed to them. A majority of 
 the committee was to decide finally all questions submitted, 
 and on the day after the report was made the two Houses 
 were to meet again in joint convention, when the result was to 
 be declared, and, if no person had been chosen President, the 
 House was to proceed immediately to make a choice according 
 to the Constitution. 
 
 When the bill came under discussion, a motion was made to 
 strike from it the first ten sections, — being all which contained 
 any reference to a grand committee, — and to insert instead of 
 them a single section, providing that when the two Houses 
 should be assembled for the purpose of having the certificates 
 of electors opened and counted, the names of the States should 
 be drawn in order by lot ; that all petitions and exceptions 
 should be read as well as the certificates themselves ; that, if 
 no objection should be made, the votes should be counted ; but 
 that " if the votes, or any of them, shall be objected to, the 
 members present shall on the question propounded by the 
 President of the Senate decide, without debate, by yea or nay, 
 whether such votes are constitutional or not ; " and so on, each 
 question being decided before the name of another State was 
 drawn. This proposition was rejected. Various other amend- 
 ments were offered, some of which were adopted, and the bill 
 was passed substantially as it was reported, except that the 
 constitution of the grand committee was changed so as to relieve
 
 66 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the Supreme Court from duty in connection with the electoral 
 count. Each House of Congress was to choose six of its mem- 
 bers for this service, and the Senate was also to select three 
 others of its members, of whom the House was to choose one by 
 ballot as the thirteenth member of the grand committee. 
 
 The whole subject was considered with extreme care by the 
 House of Representatives. After much debate upon it in Com- 
 mittee of the Whole, the bill was referred to a select committee, 
 of which John Marshall, afterwards Chief Justice, was chair- 
 man. The committee reported back the bill, in a wholly new 
 draft, on the 25th of April. It provided for a joint committee 
 of four members from each House, with " power to examine 
 into all disputes relative to the election of President and Vice- 
 President of the United States, other than such as might relate 
 to the number of votes by which the electors may have been 
 appointed." To this committee all petitions, exceptions, and 
 memorials against either the electors or the persons for whom 
 they had voted, were to be delivered. The committee was to 
 meet daily from the time of its appointment until it should make 
 its report ; it was to have the powers for reaching witnesses 
 and compelling the production of papers which the Senate had 
 given to the grand committee. The report of the committee 
 was to contain all the facts ascertained in the investigation, 
 but no opinion. The count was to be made in presence of the 
 two Houses immediately after this report was made — tellers 
 having been previously appointed in the manner already estab- 
 lished by precedent — in the following method : — 
 
 The names of the several States shall then be written under the 
 inspection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on 
 separate and similar pieces of paper, and folded up as nearly alike 
 as may be, and put into a ballot-box, and taken by a member of the 
 House of Representatives, to be named by the Speaker thereof ; out 
 of which box shall be drawn the paper on which the names of the 
 States are written, one at a time, by a member of the Senate, to be 
 named by the President thereof, and so soon as one is drawn the 
 packet containing the certificates from the electors of that State 
 shall be opened by the President of the Senate, and then shall be 
 read also the petitions, depositions, and other papers concerning 
 the same, and if no exceptions are taken thereto, all the votes con- 
 tained in such certificates shall be counted ; but if any exception be 
 taken, the person taking the same shall state it directly and not 
 argumentatively, and sign his name thereto ; and, if it be founded 
 on any circumstance appearing in the report of the joint commit-
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 67 
 
 tee, and the exception be seconded by one member from the Senate 
 and one from the House of Representatives, each of whom shall 
 sign the said exception as having seconded the same, then each 
 House shall immediately retire, without question or debate, to 
 its own apartment, and shall take the question of the excep- 
 tion, without debate, by ayes and noes. So soon as the question 
 shall be taken in either House, a message shall be sent to the 
 other, informing them that the House sending the message is 
 prepared to resume the count, and when such message shall have 
 been received by both Houses, they shall again assemble in the same 
 apartment as before, and the count shall be resumed. And if the 
 two Houses have concurred in rejecting the vote or votes objected 
 to, such vote or votes shall not be counted ; but, unless both Houses 
 concur, such vote or votes shall be counted. K the objection 
 taken as aforementioned shall arise on the face of the papers opened 
 by the President of the Senate in presence of both Houses, and shall 
 not have been noticed in the report of the joint committee, sueh 
 objections may be referred to the joint committee to be examined 
 and reported on by them in the same manner and on the same 
 principles as their first report was made ; but if both Houses do 
 not concur in referring the same to the committee, then such ob- 
 jections shall be decided on in like manner as if it had been 
 founded on any circumstance appearing in the report of the com- 
 mittee. The vote of one State being thus counted, another ticket 
 shall be drawn from the ballot-box, and the certificate and the 
 votes of the State thus drawn shall be proceeded on as is herein- 
 before directed, and so on, one after another, until the whole of 
 the votes shall be counted. 
 
 The bill was carefully considered, and various amendments 
 were proposed and negatived. It was passed on the 2d of 
 May by a vote of 52 to 37. On being returned to the Senate> 
 the bill was referred to a committee which reported several 
 amendments, of which only one was adopted, but that was 
 one of the greatest importance. The word " admitting '^ was 
 substituted for " rejecting," in the passage quoted above, and 
 the phraseology of the rest of the clause was changed to con- 
 form to the amendment ; thus providing that, unless the two 
 Houses concurred in admitting any disputed vote, it should 
 not be counted. This was precisely the principle of the twenty- 
 second joint rule of 1865, and the Senate adopted it in 1800 
 by a vote of 16 to 11. The House non-concurred, and a vote 
 in each branch to adhere to the disagreement defeated the bill. 
 
 The proceedings preliminary to the count, and the count 
 itself, were in all respects similar to those in former years:
 
 68 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 up to the declaration of the result, which was in these 
 words : — 
 
 That the whole number of electors who had voted was one 
 hundred and thirty-eight, of which number Thomas Jefferson and 
 Aaron Burr had a majority ; but, the number of those voting for 
 them being equal, no choice was made by the people ; and that, 
 consequently, the remaining duties devolve upon the House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 Already a committee had been appointed to prepare a set of 
 rules for the House, in case the count should show that it was 
 the duty of the House to elect a President ; and the rules, 
 having been discussed in committee of the whole, were adopted 
 as follows : — 
 
 First. In the event of its appearing, upon the counting and 
 ascertaining of the votes given for President and Vice-President, 
 according to the mode prescribed by the Constitution, that no per- 
 son has a constitutional majority, and the same shall have been 
 duly declared and entered on the Journals of this House, the 
 Speaker, accompanied by the members of the House, shall return 
 to their Chamber. 
 
 Second. Seats shall be provided in this House for the President 
 and members of the Senate, and notification of the same shall be 
 made to the Senate. 
 
 Third. The House, on their return from the Senate Chamber, 
 it being ascertained that the constitutional number of States are 
 present, shall immediately proceed to choose one of the persons 
 from whom the choice is to be made for President ; and in case 
 upon the first ballot there shall not appear to be a majority of the 
 States in favor of one of them, in such case the House shall con- 
 tinue to ballot for a President, without interruption by other busi- 
 ness, until it shall appear that a President is duly chosen. 
 
 Fourth. After commencing the balloting for President, the 
 House shall not adjourn until a choice is made. 
 
 Fifth. The doors of the House shall be closed dming the bal- 
 loting, except against the officers of the House. 
 
 Sixth. In balloting the following mode shall be observed, to wit : 
 The representatives of the respective States shall be so seated that 
 the delegation of each State shall be together. The representatives 
 of each State shall, in the first instance, ballot among themselves, 
 in order to ascertain the vote of that State ; and it shall be allowed, 
 where deemed necessary by the delegation, to name one or more 
 persons of the representation to be tellers of the ballots. After 
 the vote of each State is ascertained, duplicates thereof shall be 
 made ; and in case the vote of the State be for one person, then
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 69 
 
 the name of that person shall be written on each of the dupli- 
 cates ; and in case the ballots of the State be equally divided, 
 then the word " divided " shall be WTitten on each duplicate, and 
 the said duplicates shall be deposited, in manner hereafter pre- 
 scribed, in boxes to be provided. That for the conveniently tak- 
 ing the ballots of the several representatives of the respective 
 States, there be sixteen ballot-boxes provided ; and that there be, 
 additionally, two boxes provided for receiving the votes of the 
 States ; that after the delegation of each State shall have ascer- 
 tained the vote of the State, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall carry to 
 the respective delegations the two ballot-boxes, and the delegation 
 of each State, in the presence and subject to the examination of 
 all the members of the delegation, shall deposit a duplicate of the 
 vote of the State in each ballot>-box ; and where there is more than 
 one representative of a State, the duplicates shall not both be de- 
 posited by the same person. When the votes of the States are all 
 thus taken in, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall carry one of the general 
 ballot-boxes to one table, and the other to a second and separate 
 table. Sixteen members shall then be appointed as tellers of the 
 ballots, one of 'whom shall be taken fi'om each State, and be 
 nominated by the delegation of the State fi'om which he was 
 taken. The said tellers shall be divided into two equal sets ac- 
 cording to such agreements as shall be made among themselves, 
 and one of the said sets of tellers shall proceed to count the votes 
 in one of the said boxes, and the other set the votes in the other 
 box ; and in the event of no appointment of teller by any dele- 
 gation, the Speaker shall in such case appoint. When the votes 
 of the States are counted by the respective sets of tellers, the re- 
 sult shall be reported to the House ; and if the reports agree, the 
 same shall be accepted as the true votes of the States ; but if the 
 reports disagree, the States shall immediately proceed to a new 
 ballot, in manner aforesaid. 
 
 Seventh. If either of the persons voted for shall have a major- 
 ity of the votes of all the' States, the Speaker shall declare the 
 same ; and official notice thereof shall be immediately given to 
 the President of the United States, and to the Senate. 
 
 Eighth. All questions which shall arise after the balloting com- 
 mences, and which shall be decided by the House voting joer capita 
 to be incidental to the power of choosing the President, and which 
 shall require the decision of the House, shall be decided by States, 
 and without debate; and in case of an equal division of the votes 
 of States, the question shall be lost. 
 
 An active intrigue had been in progress among the Fed- 
 eralists, dating back almost to the day when they learned of 
 their defeat, which had for its purpose the prevention of the
 
 70 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 election of Mr. Jefferson. The first plan which occurred to 
 them was that the House of Representatives should ballot 
 fruitlessly for a President until the fourth of March had 
 passed, when both the offices of President and Vice-President 
 would become vacant. Then the law already passed by Con- 
 gress in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution ^ would 
 ..become operative, and a new election would be held. This 
 ^^acherae was outlined in the " Columbian Centinel " in December, 
 / 1800. Some of the Federalist writers have denied that such 
 a purpose as this was ever entertained ; but the proof is too 
 strong for denial that it was the first move made in the most 
 indefensible and scandalous act in the history of the Federalist 
 party. It was, nevertheless, soon abandoned ; and another 
 plan was adopted by preference. The plan was the support 
 of Burr, and his election over Jefferson. The Federalists seem 
 to have come slowly and reluctantly to the resolution to give 
 Burr their votes. They did so in opposition to the most 
 earnest remonstrances of Hamilton, who carried on an active 
 oorrespondenee with many public men. He argued directly 
 with influential members of Congress, and endeavored to enlist 
 the help of other prominent Federalists in dissuading the 
 party from disgracing itself. No act of Hamilton's public 
 life shows more conspicuously his high-mindedness and his 
 political sagacity. His position is epitomized in a brief pas- 
 sage from a letter to Gouverneur Morris : " I trust the Fed- 
 eralists will not finally be so mad as to vote for Burr. I 
 speak with an intimate and accurate knowledge of character. 
 His elevation can only promote the purposes of the desperate 
 and profligate. If there be a man in the world I ought to 
 hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I have always been person- 
 ally well. But the public good must be paramount to every 
 private consideration." The repugnance of the Federalists 
 who persuaded themselves to support Burr is well expressed 
 in a letter from Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, the 
 Speaker of the House : '' By a mode of election which was 
 intended to secure to preeminent talent and virtues the first 
 honors of our country, and forever to disgrace the barbarous 
 institutions by which executive power is to be transmitted 
 through the organs of generation, we have, at one election, 
 placed at the head of our government a semi-maniac, and who 
 in his soberest senses is the greatest marplot in nature ; and 
 1 Sec. 10. See p. 3T.
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 71 
 
 at the next a feeble and false, enthusiastic theorist, and a 
 profligate without character and without property, bankrupt 
 in both." 
 
 Hamilton's most powerful efforts to detach the Federalists 
 from Burr were exerted upon the one member of the House of 
 Representatives from Delaware, Mr. James A. Bayard. Mr. A.<^/<v«-«' 
 Bayard agreed with Hamilton in opinion ; but as he wrote to , . jf 1/^ 
 that gentleman, two or three weeks after the election : " I was^ ^"IJ 
 obliged to yield to a torrent which I perceived might be y^^,.,,-«yN- - 
 diverted, but could not be opposed." He '' contrived to lay 
 hold of all the doubtful votes in the House, which enabled 
 me, according to views which presented themselves, to protract 
 or terminate the controversy." The fact was that the Federal- 
 ists made strenuous efforts to obtain assurances from Burr that 
 he would, if elected, administer the government as a Federal- 
 ist. Burr could have been elected if he had committed him- 
 self to them. His character was such that his unwillingness 
 to do so must be attributed to doubts of success rather than to 
 principle. Letters written by him after his equality with 
 Jefferson in the race was ascertained, showed that he under- 
 stood and acquiesced in the agreement that Jefferson was to be 
 President. Yet he carried on an intrigue with the Federalists, 
 without ever going so far as to leave open no way back into 
 the confidence of the Republican party. His adroitness over- 
 reached itself. When Mr. Bayard had satisfied himself that 
 Burr would not commit himself, he took a decided step which 
 resi:lted in the election of Jefferson. 
 
 When the House of Representatives retired to its own hall, 
 balloting for a President began immediately. Every member, .. 
 with two exceptions, was present, and one of the two, too ill to / . '-- 
 attend, was in a committee-room adjoining the hall, where a /"~^' 
 bed had been prepared for him. From the first several Feder---^-'''^^ 
 alists voted for Jefferson, but the most of them supported 
 Burr. A New Jersey member, whose defection Jefferson had 
 predicted two months beforei, gave the vote of the State to 
 Jefferson. Georgia was entitled to two representatives. One 
 of its members, a Republican, had died not long before. The 
 other, a Federalist, voted for Jefferson, and thus gave him the 
 vote of the State. Jefferson had, in all, the votes of eight 
 States. Burr had the votes of six States. Maryland and 
 Vermont were divided, — Maryland because of the defection 
 of another Federalist ; the party division of the delegation was
 
 72 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 three Federalists and three Republicans. As the Constitution 
 required a majority of all the States to elect, the vote was not 
 effective. The House balloted nineteen times on the 11th of 
 February, nine times on the 12th, and once each on the 13th, 
 14th, 16th, and 17th, — thirty-five times in all. At every 
 trial the result was the same. It is exhibited in the following 
 table : — 
 
 States. 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Burr. 
 
 State voted for — 
 
 New Hampshire . . . 
 
 ^ 
 
 4 
 
 Burr. 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Divided — Blank. 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 Burr. 
 
 Rhode Island . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 Burr. 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 Burr. 
 
 New York . . 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Pennsylvania . 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 Burr. 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Divided — Blank. 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 Burr. 
 
 Georgia . 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Kentucky . , 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ~ 
 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 49 
 
 
 The thirty-sixth ballot, taken on the 17th of February, 
 resulted in the choice of Mr. Jefferson. The Federalists, 
 excepting those from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, and Connecticut, declined to vote. This action gave 
 the votes of Vermont and Maryland to Jefferson, raising his 
 number to ten ; it rendered blank the votes of Delaware and 
 South Carolina ; and left to Burr the four New England 
 States above named. Mr. Bayard, in the account of the elec- 
 tion which he gave to Hamilton, already quoted, says that 
 when he became satisfied that Burr would not commit himself, 
 he " came out with the most explicit and determined declara- 
 tion of voting for Jefferson. You cannot well imagine," he 
 continues, " the clamor and vehement invective to which I was 
 subjected for some days. We had several caucuses. All 
 acknowledged that nothing but desperate measures remained.
 
 THE JEFFERSON-BURR CONTEST 73 
 
 "which several were disposed to adopt, and but few were will- 
 ing openly to disapprove. We broke up each time in confu- 
 sion and discord, and the manner of the last ballot was arranged 
 but a few minutes before the vote was given." He reports 
 that but for one Connecticut member, all the Federalists would 
 have voted blank. When that member refused, the rest of his 
 delegation refused also, and thereupon the other New England 
 members, except the one from Vermont, joined them in their 
 action, and voted for Burr to the last. " The means existed," 
 he further declared, " of electing Burr, but this required his 
 cooperation. By deceiving one man (a great blockhead) and 
 tempting two (not incorruptible) he might have secured a ma- 
 jority of the States." 
 
 The inauguration was even more informal than that which 
 took place in 1793, when Washington took the oath the sec- 
 ond time. There is no evidence that either Washington on that 
 occasion, or Mr. Adams in 1797, made use of a carriage to 
 reach the Capitol. Nevertheless, an untrue story that Jeffer- 
 son rode on horseback, unattended, to the building where Con- 
 gress met, and that he hitched his horse to a fence post, has 
 been the basis of an idea that the new President brought the 
 style of government back to republican simplicity. The truth 
 is, that at ten o'clock on the morning of the 4th of March, 
 Burr appeared in the Senate Chamber, took the oath of office, 
 and began to pi'eside over the Senate. At noon Jefferson, clad 
 in his usual dress, walked from the boarding-house, where, as 
 Vice-President, he resided, accompanied by a company of artil- 
 lery from Virginia. He went to the north wing of the Capitol 
 where the House was in session, and was received by Vice- 
 President Burr. Having taken a seat between Burr and Chief 
 Justice Marshall, he soon rose and delivered his inaugural 
 address. The oath was then administered by the Chief Jus- 
 tice. President Adams was not present to witness the cere- 
 mony. Early on the morning of the inauguration he left 
 Washington on his journey to .^is home in Massachusetts.
 
 VI 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 
 
 A POLITICAL era began with the inauguration of Jefferson, 
 IForty years of uninterrupted ascendency of his party were 
 followed hy twenty years more, during which, although it was 
 twice defeated in the electoral colleges, its adversaries enjoyed 
 the sweets of power for four years only — one presidential 
 term. The Republican party was in its origin merely a party 
 of opposition. Its chosen designation had but a negative 
 signification, for it was adopted rather to bring an accusation 
 ■of monarchical tendencies against the party in power, than to 
 •embody a political programme of its own. It came into the 
 possession of the government without a plan or a promise. 
 Its adversaries applied to the members of the party the terms 
 ^'Jacobins" and "Democrats;" perhaps not inappropriately, 
 since much of their early political activity had been exerted 
 through the medium of democratic societies formed on the 
 model of the Jacobin clubs of Paris, Jefferson himself never 
 adopted the democratic name ; but gradually that which had 
 been used as a term of reproach became the ordinary designa- 
 tion of the party, and ultimately a name proudly held. The 
 Democratic party survived two great rivals, the Federalist and 
 the Whig parties ; and has come down to our own time in 
 unbroken succession, although not without more than one 
 radical change in its principles, For no one to-day holds the 
 Jeffersonian creed. No one believes in strict construction of the 
 Constitution, as he understood it ; no one places the State above 
 the nation, or accepts the doctrine of nullification, or denies the 
 right of the Supreme Court to act as an arbiter and interpreter 
 of the Constitution, or, in short, takes the view of Federalist 
 legislation which Jefferson took. The strictest construction of 
 our time concedes greater authority to the national government 
 than Hamilton ever claimed for it. 
 
 One must carefully avoid judging the statesmen and politi- 
 cians of the first quarter century under the Constitution by the
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGBIE 75 
 
 standards which later generations have set up. If Jeflferson 
 and those who acted with him deemed the States safer reposi- 
 tories of ultimate authority than the general government, we 
 must remember that the " more perfect union " was still an 
 experiment. If the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions as- 
 serted a doctrine which was to imperil the existence of the 
 government ; and if some Federalists of the highest authority 
 considered most seriously, although most secretly, a project 
 having for its purpose the dissolution of the Union, and the 
 establishment of a Northern confederacy ; it must be borne in 
 mind that the people had not had time to accustom themselves 
 to an authority paramount to that set up in their state capitals, 
 nor had the Union itself become an object of national love and 
 devotion. Descending to the less important matter, what was 
 the true interpretation of the Constitution, as it concerned the 
 respective functions and jurisdiction of State and nation, it is 
 not to be wondered at either that a most conservative view was 
 taken at first ; or that, as experience demonstrated both the 
 safety of intrusting larger powers to the general government, 
 and the necessity of conceding such powers to it, if the United 
 States were to make itself respected at home and abroad, the 
 more liberal construction prevailed. 
 
 Jefferson's inaugural address had in it a note of conciliation. 
 " We have called by different names brothers of the same 
 principle. We are all Republicans ; we are all Federalists." 
 But there was no conciliation in his administration. Con- 
 gress proceeded, under his leadership, to undo all it could of 
 the work of the Federalists. The judiciary system, established 
 at the close of the last session of Congress, was an object of 
 special detestation. The act was repealed and the judges de- 
 prived of their offices ; and the attack upon the judiciary was 
 followed up by impeaching judges obnoxious to the Kepubli- 
 cans who could not be disposed of by the repeal. The taxing 
 system was changed so as to get rid of a corps of Federal 
 officeholders. Jefferson exercised the power of removal and 
 appointment in order to reward party friends. The navy was 
 treated with neglect. The President was always ostentatious 
 in his efforts to restrain within most narrow bounds the 
 authority of the general government, and to expand the func- 
 tion of the individual States ; yet the most conspicuous act of 
 his first administration, indeed, of his whole term, was the 
 ucquisition of Louisiana — a measure involving a construction
 
 76 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 of the Constitution far more latitudinarian than that which 
 Hamilton put upon it. Many prominent Northern Federalists, 
 in their anger, their helplessness, their apprehension that the 
 rule of the Southern States was to be fastened upon the 
 country permanently, entertained the idea of a separation from 
 the rest of the Union, and the establishment of a new confed- 
 eracy, to consist of New England and New York. 
 
 The course of the Federalists at this juncture was such as 
 amply to justify the people in excluding them from the govern- 
 ment. Their excesses in opposition were not the same as those 
 which had been a reproach to the Republicans during the 
 administration of Washington and Adams. They did not fill 
 the public journals with false charges against the national 
 officers ; nor garble and misrepresent their words, their acts, 
 and their motives ; nor did they load their political enemies 
 with vituperative epithets. But they were childishly petulant 
 in defeat ; they tried to regain power by detestable intrigues 
 and unnatural coalitions ; and, as has just been said, some of 
 them consulted together as to a separation from those whom 
 they could not control, by breaking up the Union. Most of 
 this was carried on in secret at the time ; much of it has since 
 been brought to light. Hamilton was aware of it. Not 
 improbably it was his opposition to the scheme, in which 
 Burr and leading Federalists were engaged, that prompted the 
 Vice-President to challenge him to the fatal duel. Less than 
 a week before his death he said to Colonel Trumbull, " You 
 are going to Boston. You will see the principal men there. 
 Tell them from me, as my request, for God's sake, to cease 
 these conversations and threatenings about a separation of the 
 Union." 
 
 "With whatever bias or impartiality one may look upon the 
 contentions and the actors of that era, one thing is evident. 
 The people were with the President, and the administration 
 grew stronger as time passed. This is shown abundantly by the 
 progress which the Eepublican party made in the States where 
 previously it had been weak. It is not to be supposed that 
 the Federalist party was dead in Pennsylvania and the South ; 
 but the hopelessness of a struggle against the party in power 
 was so fully recognized as to deter the opposition from nomi- 
 nating candidates, in many cases. In New England one 
 Federalist stronghold after another was stormed ; some of them 
 were captured ; from more than one other the enemy was
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 77 
 
 repulsed with such effort as to exhaust the holders and encour- 
 age the assailants to hope that it would surrender at the next 
 attack. 
 
 Jefferson's hearing in the presidential office pleased the 
 people. He was informal and approachable. He discontinued 
 the levees which had been a social feature of the preceding 
 administrations — which, indeed, was a rather obvious thing 
 to do, now that the seat of government had been removed to a 
 small, ill-built little village in a vast swamp, which had no 
 society worthy of the name. He also abolished the custom of 
 a speech to Congress, to which each House was expected to 
 reply, and substituted a written message. This change seemed, 
 to the popular mind, a departure from a system borrowed 
 from the English government, and the adoption of a more 
 purely republican form. Jefferson learned a lesson from the 
 failure of his predecessor, to which the attitude toward him of 
 his cabinet ministers contributed. The Republican President 
 sought from his secretaries advice, not their consent to his mea- 
 sures. He realized that he alone was responsible for results, 
 and let it be known that the final decision rested with him. 
 The Federalists had supposed him a shifty time-server. They 
 found him a master in his own administration. They fancied 
 that he was of a nature to shrink from responsibility. They 
 saw him take boldly the great risk of purchasing Louisiana, 
 which they, — and even he, at a period not many months 
 earlier, — deemed a great violation of the Constitution. This 
 measure, extremely popular in the South, and hardly less so in 
 the North, beyond the somewhat narrow circle of Federalist 
 leaders, determined the result of the election of 1804 beyond 
 all doubt. Jefferson would probably have been elected easily ; 
 the acqiiisition of Louisiana reduced the opposition to him 
 almost to nothing. 
 
 The danger that the will of the people might be frustratea 
 by the selection of an inferior man as President, was fully re- 
 vealed by the election in 1800. It will be remembered that 
 it was to prevent this very occurrence that the Convention of 
 1787 had adopted the device of a vote for two persons without 
 designating who was to be President. The device had failed 
 signally. It is an interesting fact that the first formal propo- 
 sition of a change of system was made prior to that election, 
 and proceeded from Vermont. The legislature of that State, in 
 November, 1799, adopted a resolution urging an amendment
 
 78 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 of the Constitution to provide that the electors should desig- 
 nate for whom they voted as President, and for whom as Vice- 
 President. On February 28 of the following year, 1800, the 
 Massachusetts General Court passed a resolution approving 
 the amendment. Nothing came of the movement at that 
 time. 
 
 In 1801 Hamilton drafted two amendments, one of which 
 closely resembled the Vermont resolution ; the other was in- 
 tended to prohibit the choice of electors by legislatures or by 
 general ticket. It provided that Congress — not the State 
 legislatures — should divide each State into as many districts 
 as the number of electors to which it should be entitled, and 
 that one elector should be chosen by those qualified to vote 
 for the more numerous branch of the state legislature. These 
 two amendments were introduced in the ISfew York legislature 
 by De Witt Clinton, a Republican, and were adopted January 
 30, 1802. A resolution similar to the first was adopted De- 
 cember 15, 1801. Both sets of resolutions were presented in 
 Congress in February, 1802, but the matter was not brought 
 forward for consideration until just before the close of the 
 session. On May 1, with little debate, the Committee of 
 the Whole, in the House of Representatives, rejected a reso- 
 lution of amendment briefly providing that in all future elec- 
 tions the votes given should designate for which person the 
 elector voted as President and for which as Vice-President. 
 The vote was : ayes 42, noes 22. It was held by the speaker 
 — it is not now so held — that two thirds were necessary even 
 on preliminary motions. Reported adversely to the House by 
 the Committee of the W^hole, the amendment was neverthe- 
 less passed the same day by 47 to 14. The resolution reached 
 the Senate the next day, and was taken up and acted upon on 
 the 3d, the last day of the session. It was rejected by 15 votes 
 to 8, not two thirds. Gouverneur Morris, one of the New York 
 senators, voted against the amendment ; and felt bound, since 
 the measure had come to Congress as a proposition of the New 
 York legislature, to explain an act which defeated it. His 
 letter to the Governor of the State has been quoted already 
 (p. 12). 
 
 At the first session of the eighth Congress, which met in 
 October, 1803, the question was considered at great length 
 in both branches of Congress. An amendment of the Consti- 
 tution, in substantially the form in which it was ultimately
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 79 
 
 adopted, was introduced early in the session by DeWitt Clin- 
 ton, who was now a senator from New York. Senator Pierce 
 Butler, of South Carolina, a Federalist, proposed an amend- 
 ment to the resolution, forbidding the election of any person 
 as President who had held the office eight years, until a full 
 term of four years had intervened ; and allowing him thereafter 
 to be elected for only four years in eight. Senator Dayton of 
 New Jersey moved to strike out of the amendment all that re- 
 ferred to a Vice-President, his object being to abolish the office. 
 Neither of these propositions found favor, and the resolution, 
 after slight verbal amendment, was passed by the Senate on 
 December 2, by a vote of 22 to 10, — nearly a party division. 
 The House of Representatives meanwhile had passed and sent 
 to the Senate an amendment having the same purpose, but in 
 a form much shorter, and more nearly resembling Hamilton's 
 draft. Complaint was made in the House that the Senate had 
 not acted upon this other resolution ; but the Senate version 
 was taken up and was made the subject of a prolonged and 
 acrimonious debate. It met with substantially unanimous op- 
 position from the Federalist side of the House. The chief 
 objection urged against it was based upon the clause provid- 
 ing that when, the choice of President devolving «pon the 
 House of Representatives, that body does not efiPect an elec- 
 tion before the 4th of March, the Vice-President shall act as 
 President. It was held that the proposed amendment Avould 
 degrade the vice-presidency by inviting the nomination to the 
 office of men who would never be thought of for President ; 
 and the obnoxious clause would result in putting a second-rate 
 man into the first office whenever the House failed to elect. 
 Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, opposing the defeated amend- 
 ment of 1802, had uttered prophetic words regarding the pro- 
 posed change. " What," he exclaimed, " will be the effect 
 of this principle ? The office of Vice-President will be car- 
 ried to market to purchase the votes of particular States." It 
 would be invidious to specify the numerous cases in which this 
 prophecy has been verified ; but we need not go baek many 
 elections to find modern instances. Nevertheless, it was open 
 to the advocates of the change, if it would have been in good 
 taste to refer to the matter in Mr. Burr's presence, to- say that 
 the system under which they were then living had nearly 
 brought to the presidential chair one whom no party would 
 have selected deliberately for that position. Hamilton's com-
 
 80 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ment on Morris's excuse for voting against the amendment in 
 1802 is to the point : " One such fact as the late election is 
 worth a thousand beautiful theories." 
 
 In the course of the debate great stress was laid by Federal- 
 ist speakers on the supposed tendency of the impending 
 change to diminish the influence of the small States — an ap- 
 prehension which was ever before them, since they were ever 
 reminded of the dominance which Virginia, the greatest of the 
 States, had already assumed. So far as the selection of presi- 
 dential candidates is concerned, their expectation has been real- 
 ized. Since the system of nominating conventions was intro- 
 duced, three candidates only who were residents of small States 
 have been made the " standard bearers " of either of the lead- 
 ing parties, — Pierce, of New Hampshire ; Fremont, nominally" 
 of California, which was a small State in 1856 ; and Blaine, 
 of Maine. But the constitutional system, in giving equal 
 representation to the States in the Senate, has more than com- 
 pensated the small States for any loss they may have suffered 
 in other directions. 
 
 The amendment came to a vote in the House at last, and 
 was carried by the exact constitutional majority — 84 to 42; 
 but the vote of Mr. Speaker Macon was required to make up 
 the number in the affirmative. As had been the case in the 
 Senate, it was in general, a party division. Twenty-four of 
 the negative votes were given by New England members, and 
 only three members from that section supported the measure. 
 Yet it will be observed that the noes exceeded the whole 
 number of Federalist members in the House. Even among 
 the Republicans of the North there was a fear of Southern rule, 
 Virginia domination, and the control of the government by 
 the large States. The amendment, as adopted, was in these 
 words : — 
 
 The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by 
 ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, 
 shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; 
 they shall name in their ballots the persons voted for as Pre- 
 sident, and, in distinct ballots, the persons voted for as Vice-Pre- 
 sident, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for 
 as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and 
 of the number of votes for each ; which lists they shall sign 
 and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of 
 the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 81 
 
 President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
 Ilonse of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes 
 shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of 
 votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a 
 majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no 
 person have such majority, then from the persons having the 
 highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted 
 for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose im- 
 mediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the Pre- 
 sident the vote shall be taken by States, the representation from 
 each State having one vote. A quorum for this purpose shall 
 consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, 
 and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
 And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, 
 whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
 fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall 
 act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitu- 
 tional disability of the President. 
 
 The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-Presi- 
 dent shall be Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the 
 whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a ma- 
 jority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate 
 shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the pui-pose shall 
 consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a 
 majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But 
 no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall 
 be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 The resolution was not passed until December 8, 1803. 
 It was extremely doubtful if the ratification of " three fourths 
 )f the legislatures bf the several States" could be obtained 
 o as to make the amendment operative at the next election. 
 An effort was made, it may be remarked, in explanation of 
 the quotation marks, to amend the resolution submitting the 
 amendment, so as to read " the legislatures of three fourths 
 of the several States." To correct the ambiguity and dispel 
 the idea that a three-fourths vote was required of a State 
 legislature, would have sent the resolution back to the Senate, 
 and the objectionable phrase was allowed to stand. In order 
 to provide for any contingency a law was passed, the following 
 provisions of which remained in force until the passage of the 
 act of 1887. It was enacted that the electors — 
 
 shall vote for President and Vice-President of the United States, 
 respectively, in the manner directed by the above-mentioned
 
 82 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 amendment ; and having made and signed three certificates of all 
 the votes given by them, each of vi'hich certificates shall contain 
 two distinct lists, one of the votes given for President and the 
 other for Vice-President, they shall seal up the said certificates, 
 certifying on each that lists of all the votes of such State given 
 for President and of all votes given for Vice-President are con- 
 tained therein, and shall cause the said certificates to be trans- 
 mitted and disposed of, and in every other respect act in conformity 
 with the provisions of the act to which this is a supplement. And 
 every other provision of the act to which this is a supplement, and 
 which is not virtually repealed by this act, shall extend and apply 
 to every election of a President and Vice-President of the United 
 States made in conformity to the above-mentioned amendment to 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 It was further provided by the same act that until electors 
 should receive a notice that the amendment had been duly 
 ratified by a sufficient number of States, they should vote in 
 both ways, the old and the new, make out six certificates, and 
 send two sets of each kind to the President of the Senate ; 
 but only those which should be in conformity to the Consti- 
 tution at the time of the election were to be opened. This 
 provision became inoperative by reason of the promptness of 
 the States in ratifying the amendment, — which was de- 
 clared adopted by the Secretary of State in a notification ad- 
 dressed to the several governors on the 26th of September, 
 1804. Thirteen of the sixteen States ratified the amendment. 
 The dissenting States were Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
 Delaware. 
 
 The custom of selecting candidates for President and Vice- 
 President by a caucus of congressmen was 'now well estab- 
 lished. That which had previously been done secretly and 
 informally was by the Republicans done openly for the first 
 time. There was no need of a caucus for the choice of a 
 candidate for President. All were in favor of Mr. Jefi'erson. 
 But no one was in favor of Burr. The chief ofTences for the 
 commission of which his memory is execrated, had not yet 
 been committed ; but he had, long before, lost the confidence 
 of his early party friends. One hundred and eight members 
 of the two Houses of Congress attended the caucus on the 
 25th of February, 1804. Mr. Jefferson was nominated unani- 
 mously. George Clinton of New York was nominated .for 
 Vice-President. The vote stood : —
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 83 
 
 For George Clinton, of New York 67 
 
 " John Breckenridge, of Kentucky .20 
 
 " Levi Lincoln, of Massachusetts 9 
 
 " John Langdon, of New Hampshire 7 
 
 " Giedon Granger, of Connecticut 4 
 
 " Samuel Maclay, of Pennsylvania ...... 1 
 
 The Federalists agreed to support Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
 ney, of South Carolina, for President, and Rufus King, of 
 Kew York, for Vice-President. Where and by whom these 
 nominations were made is not known. The information is 
 not given in the newspapers of the time, nor is any meeting 
 for the purpose of nominating candidates referred to in the 
 published correspondence of public men. 
 
 There was no canvass. The Federalists deliberately with- 
 drew from serious opposition to the election of Jefferson, save 
 that in the States where they were still strong they fought 
 desperately to retain their ascendency. The purpose not to 
 make a general canvass was foreshadowed a year earlier by 
 Gouverneur Morris, who wrote to Roger Griswold in Novem- 
 ber, 1803, that it was the wise course "to leave the arena free 
 for the Democrats to squabble in, at the next election," pre- 
 dicting that they either would " divide with mortal hatred " 
 and honest men would come by their own, or would " unite 
 in their present chief." He added that " the confidence in- 
 spired by such appearance of universal approbation might take 
 from his vanity the snaffle which it now prances under, and 
 give you more mammoth expectations," — an excellent ex- 
 ample of the rhetoric of the time, but, still better, an illus- 
 tration of the delusion as to the sentiment of the people 
 under which most of the Federalists labored. 
 
 Seventeen States took part in the election, Ohio having 
 been admitted to the Union on November 29, 1802. A new 
 apportionment had been made, based upon the census of 1800, 
 increasing the number of Representatives from 106 to 142, 
 and the number of electors from 138 to 176. In seven of the 
 States electors were appointed by the legislature, — Vermont, 
 Connecticut, New York, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, 
 and Tennessee. They were chosen by the people on general 
 ticket in the other States, except in Maryland, North Carolina 
 and. Kentucky, where they were chosen by districts. Ken- 
 tucky was divided into two districts, eastern and western, and 
 four electors were chosen on general ticket in each. The
 
 84 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 number of candidates was very large ; but there -was not a 
 Federalist among them. Disaster overtook the Federalists of 
 New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It was proposed to re- 
 turn to the system of popular election, abandoned in 1800 for 
 the purpose of making Adams's election sure. The Repub- 
 licans urged that the electors be chosen by districts, but this 
 was refused. The Federalists had the mortification of seeing 
 both States carried by the JefFersonians A few election re- 
 turns have been culled from the newspapers They illus- 
 trate the onesidedness of the contest outside of New England. 
 Massachusetts gave 29,254 to Jefferson ; 25,139 to Pinckney. 
 Pennsylvania, 22,081 to Jefferson ; 1,239 to Pinckney. New 
 Jersey, 13,119 to Jefferson ; 19 to Pinckney. Ohio, 2,093 to 
 Jefferson ; 360 to Pinckney. 
 
 The electoral votes are shown in the following table : — 
 
 
 Pebsident. 
 
 ViCE-PEESroENT. 
 
 
 § 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 States. 
 
 t. 
 
 .a 
 
 § 
 
 
 
 !§ 
 
 Ph 
 
 a 
 
 bo 
 
 
 1-5 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 •j; 
 
 £? 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 03 
 
 -a 
 
 o 
 
 •3 
 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 1:4 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 Vermont 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 19 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 19 
 4 
 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 9 
 
 New York 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 : 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 _ 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 20 
 
 _ 
 
 20 
 
 _ 
 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 Maryland 
 
 2 
 
 Virginia 
 
 24 
 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 Georgia 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 _ 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 162 
 
 14 
 
 162 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 The proceedings in connection with the electoral count were
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC REGIME 85 
 
 noticeable for one incident only. The Vice-President said, 
 addressing the two Houses assembled in joint meeting : " You 
 will now proceed, gentlemen, to count the votes, as the Con- 
 stitution and laws direct." This was different from the prac- 
 ce of Mr. Adams, who himself counted the votes. 
 
 There were some irregularities in the certificates of the elec- 
 tors, and attention was called to them ; but no objection was 
 made to any votes, and the result was declared in accordance 
 with the above list. 
 
 1/
 
 VII 
 
 JAMES MADISON 
 
 The years of Jefferson's second administration were years of 
 increasing trouble. At the end of it the Republican party 
 escaped as by a miracle the fate which had overtaken the Fed- 
 eralists eight years before. During the whole term the Presi- 
 dent was nominally supported by an immense majority in 
 Congress. The Senate in the ninth Congress numbered twenty- 
 seven Republicans and seven Federalists ; the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, one hundred and nineteen Republicans and twenty- 
 five Federalists. The division was nearly the same in the 
 tenth Congress. Nevertheless, both in Congress and in the 
 community at large the opposition to administration measures 
 was large and powerful. In each of the three largest States of 
 the Union the Republican party was rent by feuds. In New 
 York, the Livingstons and Clintons having unitedly put down 
 the Burr faction fell into a quarrel that lasted many years, 
 and affected profoundly the politics of that State. In Penn- 
 sylvania the followers of Governor McKean, assisted by the 
 Federalists, defeated the " regular " nomination of Snyder, 
 who represented the more radical element, that styled itself 
 " Friends of the People." This dissension was brought to an 
 end by a shrewd piece of politics just in time to save the State 
 to the party in 1808. Virginia, under the lead of John Ran- 
 dolph, was for a short time an opponent of the administration, 
 and to the end of the canvass was divided between Madison 
 and Monroe. It is not untrue to say that the impossibility of 
 uniting the opposition rather than the strength of Mr. Madison 
 saved that gentleman from defeat. 
 
 The chief events of the administration were occurrences in 
 our foreign relations. Even before Mr. Jefferson had taken 
 the oath of office a second time Mr. Monroe, with Mr. Charles 
 Pinckney, began the negotiation with Spain for a recognition 
 of American claims for spoliation and for a cession of Florida. 
 Monroe was thwarted in his mission by France, and retired
 
 JAMES MADISON 87 
 
 from Madrid in humiliation. At Paris he had no better for- 
 tune, and when he returned to his post at London he was con- 
 fronted with judicial decisions, confirming the seizure of Amer- 
 ican vessels, which almost destroyed the rights of trade enjoyed 
 by the shipping of neutral nations. Our ministers in France 
 and Spain received hints which were duly transmitted to the 
 President, that although both governments denied that West 
 Florida was properly included in the Louisiana purchase, a few 
 million dollars paid to Spain would effectuate a cession of the 
 territory to the United States. Jefferson sent to Congress in 
 December, 1805, a message which breathed a spirit of defiance 
 toward Spain ; but in a private conference with Randolph, the 
 chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he suggested 
 that Congress offer to put two million dollars at his disposal for 
 the purposes of the negotiation. Randolph from that moment 
 turned against the administration. He saw in the President's 
 two attitudes — one public and the other private — a purpose 
 to gain credit with the people by a show of firmness and na- 
 tional self-assertion, meanwhile shifting upon Congress the 
 responsibility of what popularly might be deemed a more craven 
 policy, which he really desired to see adopted. Randolph also 
 recognized in Mr. Jefferson's course .a movement in behalf of 
 Mr. Madison as the presidential candidate at the ensuing elec- 
 tion. In spite of Randolph's vehement opposition the " two 
 million act " — an appropriation of that sum for the foreign 
 relations — was carried through both branches of Congress, sit- 
 ting with closed doors. But although the nominal strength of 
 the Republican party was nearly five to one in the House and 
 nearly four to one in the Senate, the bill received a majority 
 of fourteen only in the lower, and of six in the upper House. 
 
 The relations with England grew steadily w^orse. The doc- 
 trine that a neutral flag should protect the goods and the crew 
 sailing under it, strenuously argued by American diplomatists, 
 was contemptuously rejected and constantly disregarded by 
 Great Britain. Vessels and their cargoes were seized and con- 
 demned ; the crews of American ships were mustered on their 
 decks by British naval officers, and all men who seemed worth 
 taking were impressed into the service of the king and carried 
 away. Congress thereupon passed a joint resolution forbidding 
 the importation into the country, from Great Britain or else- 
 where, of any of an enumerated list of articles of British manu- 
 facture. Shortly afterward Mr. Jefferson, hoping to come to
 
 88 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 terms with England, appointed William Pinkney, of Maryland, 
 a joint commissioner with Mr. Monroe, to make a treaty with 
 Great Britain. A stipulation that the visitation of American 
 vessels by ''press gangs" and the impressment of American 
 sailors should cease was a sitie qua non insisted upon in the 
 instructions of the commissioners. This condition was rejected 
 without qualification by Lords Auckland and Howick, the 
 British commissioners, who nevertheless undertook that special 
 instructions should be given and enforced, enjoining great cau- 
 tion in the exercise of the right of visitation ; and promised 
 prompt redress in case the rights of native-born Americans 
 should be violated.^ The case before the American commis- 
 sioners was similar to that which had confronted Jay when he 
 was deputed by Washington to negotiate a treaty. If the 
 instructions were strictly complied with, no treaty could be 
 made. Monroe and Pinkney determined to accept what was 
 offered, and conclude the treaty. The situation of American 
 vessels at sea was steadily growing worse. Already a British 
 Order in Council had been issued, blockading the coast from 
 Brest to the Elbe, and prohibiting trade by neutrals from 
 port to port along that coast. While the Monroe and Pinkney 
 negotiation was in progress Bonaparte issued his Berlin de- 
 cree, declaring the British islands in a state of blockade. 
 Under this decree Americans, and all other neutrals, were for- 
 bidden to trade with the British islands ; and all vessels hav- 
 ing British merchandise on board were liable to seizure. Other 
 orders and other decrees followed, under which every American 
 vessel found at sea became the lawful prize of any English or 
 French naval vessel. 
 
 When the treaty negotiated by Monroe and Pinkney reached 
 Jefi'erson, he refused to submit it to the Senate. He had 
 decided to withhold it as soon as he learned from the letters 
 of the envoys what its purport was to be. This action of the 
 President greatly embittered the friends of Mr. Monroe, and 
 left a rankling wound in the breast of the envoy himself. 
 
 Next came the outrage upon the Chesapeake by the British 
 war vessel Leopard, an act of insolence almost unsurpassed in 
 the relations of two nations nominally at peace with each other ; 
 
 1 Great Britain never admitted, until many years after the War of 1812, 
 that a native-born Briton could divest himself of his obligation to his sover- 
 eign. The right of expatriation and of naturalization in a foreign country 
 was denied.
 
 JAMES MADISON 89 
 
 some weak and niggardly attempts at measures of defence ; and 
 the Embargo. This last act, which was in its earliest form 
 limited in its operation, though not by its terms limited in 
 duration, was at first popular. As it was evaded, more strin- 
 gent provisions were added ; and an act to enforce it was 
 passed. It caused widespread distress and ruinous loss in all 
 the commercial States. The first embargo act was passed in 
 December, 1807 ; two supplementary acts were passed, one in 
 January, and one in March, 1808. The evils caused by it. 
 began to be felt just as the presidential canvass was opening ; 
 they were intolerable before the election took place. 
 
 Jefferson announced, after his second inauguration, that he- 
 should not again be a candidate. At no time thereafter did he 
 make a secret of his wish that Madison should be his successor. 
 There can be no doubt that many of his official acts were influ- 
 enced by his desire to accomplish this object ; as little can it 
 be questioned that a part of the opposition which he encoun- 
 tered in his own party was dictated by a wish of many Repub- 
 licans to thwart this purpose. A large number of the Northern 
 Democrats were becoming exceedingly weary of the Virginia 
 dynasty. In the ninth Congress they broke away from South- 
 ern control and nearly defeated Macon for Speaker. He was 
 elected on the third trial only, and then by a bare majority. 
 In the tenth Congress they succeeded in defeating him and 
 electing Varnum, of Massachusetts. George Clinton, who had 
 been voted for at every election, and was now Vice-President, 
 was evidently not averse to profiting by the growing dislike of 
 Southern dictation. Moreover, by all the precedents he was 
 the natural successor, as Adams had been to Washington, and 
 Jefferson to Adams. Yet he could not count even on the sup- 
 port of New York, in pressing his claims, so fierce was the 
 contention with the Livingstons. 
 
 There was still another candidate, Monroe, who, as has been 
 already stated, had a grievance against the administration, and 
 who was warmly supported by John Randolph and all other 
 Southern Democrats who would not follow Jefferson and Madi- 
 son implicitly. The situation did not promise harmony in the 
 canvass of the ruling party. The Federalists adopted a wait- 
 ing attitude. They had, until the Embargo began to be 
 severely felt, no hope whatever of carrying through a candidate 
 of their own ; but they did all that lay in their power to fos- 
 ter Democratic division, and evinced a purpose to use their
 
 90 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 force in defeating Jefferson's candidate, if the dissentient 
 Republicans should organize an opposition. Later in the can- 
 vass, not only did they have hope for themselves, but they 
 alarmed the supporters of the administration. At the end of 
 June, 1808, Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 thought that " the Federalists will turn us out by 4th of 
 March next," and in August he reckoned no States safe for 
 Madison, save " the Western States, Virginia, South Carolina, 
 and perhaps Georgia." 
 
 The canvass opened in January. On the 21st of that month 
 the members of the Virginia legislature took the lead in nom- 
 inating candidates for President. Two caucuses were held on 
 that day. The first, attended by 119 members, unanimously 
 recommended Mr. Madison ; the other, attended by 60, gave 
 all but ten votes to Monroe. Two days before these caucuses 
 were held, Senator Bradley of Vermont issued a notice to the 
 Republican members of both Houses of Congress, requesting 
 them to meet in the Senate Chamber on the 23d of the month 
 at six o'clock. This call was issued " in pursuance of the 
 powers vested in me." The purpose of the caucus, the antici- 
 pated result, and the assumption of " powers " by the Vermont 
 senator, aroused instant opposition ; and then were heard tlie 
 first vehement protests against the nomination of Presidents by 
 congressional caucus, which were destined to grow in vigor and 
 in the number of their supporters until the system was over- 
 thrown. Mr. Gray, a member from Virginia, published an 
 answer to Mr. Bradley's summons, couched in the blustering 
 style of the political literature of that day : " I take the 
 earliest moment to declare my abhorrence of the usurpation of 
 power declared to be vested in you — of your mandatory style, 
 and the object contemplated. ... I cannot consent, either in 
 an individual or representative capacity, to countenance, by my 
 presence, the midnight intrigues of any set of men who may 
 arrogate to themselves the right, which belongs only to the 
 people, of selecting proper persons to fill the important offices 
 of President and Vice-President. Nor do I suppose that the 
 honest people of the United States can much longer suffer, in 
 silence, so direct and palpable an invasion upon the most 
 important and sacred right belonging exclusively to them." 
 
 A member from New York published a burlesque upon Mr. 
 Bradley's notification, in which, "in pursuance of a similar 
 power vested in me," he deemed it expedient for the purpose
 
 JAMES MADISON 91 
 
 of not nominating a President, not to call a Convention at the 
 same time and place, and requested members not to attend it, 
 '* to aid and sanction an infringement of one of the most im- 
 portant features and principles of the Constitution of the 
 United States." Nevertheless the caucus was held. It is said 
 to have been attended by 94 senators and representatives, 
 although only 89 votes were cast. Yet the attendance comprised 
 not only a large majority of the Republican strength in both 
 Houses of Congress, but more than one half of the whole 
 membership of both bodies. On a ballot Mr. Madison had 83 
 votes, Mr. George Clinton 3, and Mr. Monroe 3. The first 
 ballot for a candidate for Vice-President resulted in 79 votes 
 for Mr. Clinton, 5 for John Langdon of New Hampshire, 3 
 for Henry Dearborn of Massachusetts, the Secretary of War, 
 and 1 for John Quincy Adams. Messrs. Madison and Clinton 
 were then formally declared nominated. An announcement of 
 the action of the caucus was made in a resolution ; and a 
 statement was appended, which, in substantially the same form, 
 was employed by every subsequent caucus of the kind as long 
 as the system was in vogue. It declared " that, in making the 
 foregoing recommendation, the members of this meeting have 
 acted only in their individual characters as citizens ; that they 
 have been induced to adopt this measure from the necessity of 
 the case ; from a deep conviction of the importance of union 
 to the Republicans throughout all parts of the United States 
 in the present crisis of both our external and internal affairs ; 
 and as being the most practicable mode of consulting and re- 
 specting the interests and wishes of all upon a subject so truly 
 interesting to the whole people of the United States." 
 
 Harmony was not restored by the nomination. Seventeen 
 Republican members of Congress published a protest against 
 the selection of Mr. Madison. They denied both the regularity 
 and the expediency of the caucus. They asserted that the 
 times demanded a man able " to conduct the nation with firm- 
 ness and wisdom through the perils which surround it. . . . 
 Is James Madison such a man ? We ask for energy, and we 
 are told of his moderation ; we ask for talent, and the reply is, 
 his unassuming merit ; we ask what were his services in the 
 cause of public liberty, and we are directed to the pages of the 
 ' Federalist,' written in conjunction with Alexander Hamilton 
 and John Jay, and in which the most extravagant of their 
 iloctrines are maintained and propagated ! " The extent to
 
 92 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDEXCY 
 
 which the revolt extended at this time is indicated by the 
 fact that Clinton himself came out in a letter in which he dis- 
 avowed consent to the proceedings of the congressional caucus. 
 The candidate for the second place repudiated the proceedings 
 by which he had been put in nomination. 
 
 Of .calm consideration of the merits of the candidates, and 
 of argument why one party rather than the other should be 
 intrusted with power, there was none. The canvass was a 
 game of politics from beginning to end. In Pennsylvania, for 
 example, the " Constitutionalists," — that wing of the Demo- 
 cratic party which, allied with the Federalists, had put and 
 kept Governor McKean in office, when they found that there 
 was no other member of their faction who could command 
 Federalist votes for governor, — suddenly changed their 
 attitude and anticipated the other faction by coming out zeal- 
 ously for Madison. The " Conventionalists," as the anti- 
 McKean faction was called, followed their example, but 
 nominated a different set of electors. Then a harmonizing 
 committee made up a list which favored McKean, while the Mc- 
 Kean men gave their votes for Governor to Snyder, whom they 
 had been iighting for years. In our day this would be called 
 a " deal." It ensured to Madison the vote of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The friends of Mr. Monroe, in Virginia, were for a time 
 encouraged by the refusal of their candidate to withdraw. 
 When the nomination of Mr. Madison had been effected, Jef- 
 ferson maintained at least the outward appearance of neutrality 
 as between him and Monroe. Later in the canvass he exerted 
 his influence to persuade Mr. Monroe to withdraw ; and Avhen 
 the election took place, Madison had an overwhelming majority 
 in Virginia. So far as the candidacy of Mr. Clinton was con- 
 cerned, the only hope was in securing Federalist support. The 
 Livingstons were ardent Madisonians. Mr. Clinton's political 
 fortunes at this time were in the keeping of his nephew, 
 DeWitt Clinton, who did not — perhaps he would not, perhaps 
 he could not — come to terms with the Federalists. It is to 
 be hoped that it was the political virtue of the Federalists that 
 prevented the arrangement. Yet a party that had espoused 
 the cause of Aaron Burr could have had few qualms of con- 
 science in promoting the candidacy of the man with whom 
 their political opponents had once threatened to defeat George 
 Washington. 
 
 The ultimate course of the Federalists was not decided until
 
 JAMES MADISON 93 
 
 October. It seems first to have been announced at the begin- 
 ning of that month, less than five weeks before the appoint- 
 ment of electors, in the columns of the Charleston, South Car- 
 olina, '* Courier " : *' We are authorized to say that certain 
 accounts have been received in this city stating that Gen. 
 Charles Cotesvrorth Pinckney of this State will be supported 
 by the Federal Republicans throughout the several States at 
 the ensuing election, as President of the United States." 
 
 Even while the eff"orts to patch up a peace in the Demo- 
 cratic party were proceeding with a fair degree of success there 
 was much nervousness and anxiety among the leaders as to 
 the result. State elections in New Hampshire and Rhode 
 Island disappointed them greatly and caused them to fear the 
 loss of all New England with forty-five electoral votes. Dela- 
 ware was surely Federalist. It was feared that Maryland and 
 North Carolina might give a majority of their votes against 
 the administration. Then the loss of Pennsylvania and the 
 giving of a few New York votes to Clinton would defeat Mad- 
 ison. But the Pennsylvania state election in October relieved 
 them of their fears ; and Vermont, although it chose a Feder- 
 alist governor, had a Democratic legislature, owing to the sys- 
 tem then prevalent of an equal representation of towns, large 
 and small. 
 
 The number of States in 1808 was the same, seventeen, as 
 in 1804. Electors were chosen by the legislature in Vermont, 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, South Caro- 
 lina, and Georgia ; by the people on general ticket in New 
 Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio ; 
 by popular vote by districts in Maryland, North Carolina, Ken- 
 tucky, and Tennessee. Kentucky, as before, was divided into 
 two districts. In Massachusetts, as has been stated, there was 
 no permanent law for the appointment of electors. Governor 
 Sullivan was a Republican : the General Court, strongly Fed- 
 eralist. At its first session, in June, 1808, long before the 
 usual time, it elected Mr. James Lloyd as senator to succeed 
 John Quincy Adams. Mr. Adams had gone publicly over to 
 the Republicans, and had even attended the congressional 
 caucus, and voted for Madison. The legislature ignored the 
 governor altogether in making arrangements itself to appoint 
 the electors ; and adjourned to meet in November for that pur- 
 pose. When it re-assembled, Governor Sullivan sent in a 
 message, advising that the appointment of electors be submitted
 
 94 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 to the people. The General Court not only disregarded the 
 advice, but framed its order for the choice of the electors so as 
 to dispense with the certification of the Governor. Nineteen. 
 Federalist electors were duly appointed. Governor Sullivan, 
 did not certify the appointment, but he sent to Congress a 
 statement as to the method of appointment which was designed 
 to serve as the basis of an objection to the votes in case of 
 necessity. The alleged informality, which was no informality 
 at all, as a reading of the Constitution will show, was brought 
 to the attention of Congress by memorial, in December. A 
 resolution was introduced for raising a joint committee " to 
 examine the matter of said memorials and report their opinion 
 thereon to both Houses," but it was not acted on. A few 
 days later another resolution was introduced, directing the 
 memorials to be sent to the Senate. After some debate, in 
 which only one member expressed the opinion that Congress 
 could take action in the premises, the resolution was passed 
 and sent to the Senate with the memorials, where it was 
 ordered that all the papers be laid on the table ; and no action 
 whatever was taken upon them. 
 
 In New York the Democrats had a majority of the legisla- 
 ture ; but in the divided state of the party a compromise be- 
 tween the two factions was needful to save the vote of the 
 State. There is no evidence that the Clintonians demanded a 
 part of the electors as the price of abstaining from an alliance 
 with the Federalists. The fact that a division was made indi- 
 cates, nevertheless, that it was extorted. The "mixture list," 
 to use the phrase employed by the Federalists, received sixty- 
 five votes, the Pinckney ticket forty-six. There was a smaller 
 admixture of Clinton men in the list of electors chosen than 
 the Federalists supposed. 
 
 The case of New Jersey was peculiar. The law required 
 electors to be appointed within thirty-four days before the first 
 Monday in December. The legislature passed a law inadvert- 
 ently fixing the election — by the people — thirty-six and 
 thirty-five days ^ before the time for the electors to meet — on 
 the 1st and 2d of November. Attention was called to the 
 illegality of such action in ample season to remedy the over- 
 sight ; but the legislature, — this was a year when political 
 manoeuvring was almost universal, — chose to leave things 
 
 1 All elections in New Jer.sey, and in some other States, at that time, lasted 
 two days.
 
 JAMES MADISON 
 
 95 
 
 as they were. If the Federalists were snccessful, the election 
 would be null, and the vote of the State would be lost. If the 
 Democrats should carry the State, the legislature could meet 
 and appoint the same persons. The Democrats did have a 
 majority ; but the electoral vote depended for its validity on 
 the choice of the electors by the legislatvtre. 
 
 The count of electoral votes took place in the Hall of the 
 Representatives, but by some oversight there was no pro-vision 
 in the joint resolution directing how the count should proceed, 
 that the President of the Senate should take the chair. John 
 Randolph, who could always be depended upon to create diffi- 
 culties when there was opportunity, called attention to the fact, 
 and objected to the chair being vacated by the Speaker with- 
 out a vote of the House. " He did not wish the privileges of 
 this House any way diminished." The case was provided for 
 
 
 I^ESIDENT. 
 
 ViCE-PKESu>Eirr. 
 
 
 
 pi 
 
 6 
 
 >i 
 
 
 W 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 S5 
 
 m 
 
 t5 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 
 
 f> 
 
 >* 
 
 States. 
 
 a 
 
 § 
 
 
 a' 
 o 
 
 i 
 
 § 
 
 § 
 
 S5 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 5 
 
 a 
 
 
 •a 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 e 
 
 g 
 
 d 
 
 o 
 
 ft 
 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 •2 
 
 
 i-s 
 
 o 
 
 d 
 
 O 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 % 
 
 Vermont 
 
 (J 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 19 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 li* 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 New York 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 ^U 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 20 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Delaware 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Maryland 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 Virg'inia 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 11 
 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 ~ 
 
 3 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 — 
 
 Georg'ia 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky* 
 
 'i 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 'i 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 ,5 
 
 ~ 
 
 _ 
 
 5 
 
 ~ 
 
 3 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Ohio 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 Total 
 
 122 
 
 6 
 
 47 
 
 113 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 47 
 
 • One Kentucky elector did not attend. The State was entitled to eight TOtes.
 
 96 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 by a formal vote, and the Senate was admitted. When the 
 votes had all been opened and the returns tabulated, the Pres- 
 ident of the Senate was about to read the result, when one of 
 the tellers remarked that one return was defective, not having 
 a governor's certificate attached, referring, of course, to Massa- 
 chusetts. Nothing further was said, and the President of the 
 Senate, Mr. Milledge, senator from Georgia, proceeded to de- 
 clare the result, as shown by the table on page 95. 
 
 Mr. Madison's inauguration was almost as informal as Mr. 
 Jefferson's had been eight years before. He was conveyed in 
 a carriage to the Capitol, escorted by two companies of militia, 
 and went to the Representatives' Hall attended by two or 
 three members of the cabinet. The Vice-President had already 
 taken the oath of office, but Mr. Milledge still presided over 
 the Senate. Mr. Madison delivered his inaugural address in. 
 the presence of a distinguished company, having Mr. Jefferson 
 as his chief auditor ; and the oath was then administered by 
 Chief Justice MarshalL
 
 VIII 
 AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAK 
 
 It has been remarked by more than one historian that the 
 government of the United States was never weaker in all its 
 departments than during the first part of Madison's adminis- 
 tration. The times required that it should be strong. The 
 policy in the closing months of Jefferson's terns bad been 
 feeble and vacillating. The embargo not only had failed to 
 accomplish the object for which it was laid, but it had made a 
 large contingent of the Democratic party semi-allies of the 
 Federalists in opposing the administration measures. The last 
 session of the tenth Congress — December, 1808, to March 4, 
 1809 — witnessed the passage of an act to enforce the em- 
 bargo, and, just before the Congress expired, a complete change 
 of policy in the substitution of non-intercourse for the em- 
 bargo. A few only of the members knew the secret reason of 
 this volte-face. It was designed to facilitate the negotiations 
 about to begin with Mr. Erskine, the newly appointed British 
 envoy, Mr. Madison made Kobert Smith, of Maryland, his 
 Secretary of State, — the weakest incumbent of that office in 
 the history of the country. The agreement made with Mr. 
 Erskine was one which the instructions the envoy had received 
 did not authorize him to make ; and it was impatiently thrown 
 out by Mr. Canning. From that time on, until war was de- 
 clared in 1812, there was a diplomatic wrangle betAveen the 
 two governments. The relations of the United States with 
 both England and France were hopelessly and equally bad. 
 It would have puzzled much abler men than those who had 
 the fortunes of America in charge to decide what was the 
 wisest course, — to declare war against both the powers, to con- 
 tinue negotiations with a purpose to accept the best that could 
 be obtained, or to submit to conditions against which we were 
 too weak to struggle. 
 
 Madison chose none of these courses. He was sincerely de-
 
 98 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 sirous of peace, but he would not be satisfied to take what 
 England would offer. Demanding more, he got nothing. 
 Congress contained few strong men, almost none who supported 
 the administration. Yet the party majority was large enough 
 to give a subservient acquiescence in the measures proposed to 
 Congress, even though it lacked leaders. The interminable 
 controversy went on. Mr. Madison became weary of the war 
 in his cabinet between Mr. Smith and Mr. Gallatin, and re- 
 quired the resignation of the Secretary of State. He had 
 previously become reconciled with Mr. Monroe, and now ap- 
 pointed that gentleman to the State Department. Monroe en- 
 tered office with the laudable purpose of bringing the long 
 quarrel with England to a close, and with great confidence in 
 his own power to hold the administration back from the war 
 into which it was drifting. But a force greater than his own 
 entered into public affairs just three weeks before his return to 
 office, and soon swept him away. His appointment was dated 
 November 25, 1811. On the 4th of the same month the 
 twelfth Congress met. It contained in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives a group of young Republicans, or Democrats, who 
 assumed control of affairs in a masterful fashion : John C. 
 Calhoun, William Lowndes, and Langdon Cheves, of South Car- 
 olina, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Cheves, the oldest of the 
 four, was but thirty-five. Clay, who was thirty-four, was 
 elected Speaker by a great majority. Eelix Grundy, of Ten- 
 nessee, a new member and also a young man, acted with this 
 quartet of young men. William H. Crawford, a Senator from 
 Georgia, — afterward the victim of "King Caucus," — who 
 had been acting on somewhat independent lines, now became 
 a stanch party man. All the efforts of this coterie of youthful 
 leaders, of whom those just named were the most conspicuous, 
 tended directly to war with England, They overbore the op- 
 position of Mr. Madison, and carried Monroe along with the 
 current. It was reported at the time on the authority of Mr. 
 James Fisk, then a Republican member of the House from 
 Vermortt, that a committee waited upon Mr. Madison, and in- 
 formed him that war was resolved upon ; that, unless such a 
 step was taken, the Federalists might possibly carry the presi- 
 dential election ; and that if he was not ready to adopt that 
 policy he would be abandoned, and another candidate chosen 
 for the pending election. It is not possible either to verify 
 or to disprove this assertion. Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts,
 
 AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 99 
 
 repeated the statement, in a form as distinct as the rules of the 
 House would allow, during the following year ; and its truth 
 was not questioned. On the other hand, Mr. Clay is reported 
 to have denied the story ; but the form of his denial is not 
 given. Carl Schurz, in his Life of Clay, says that there is " no 
 evidence " that coercion was applied to Madison ; which is 
 true, but not conclusive. It is certain that the President 
 abandoned his settled policy at a time when nothing had been 
 changed except the attitude of the Democratic leaders in Con- 
 gress ; that he recommended an embargo, which was voted ; 
 and that he followed the recommendation with a war message, 
 to which Congress responded promptly, though not by so large 
 a majority as he could have wished, with a declaration of war, 
 in June, 1812. 
 
 The Republican caucus for the nomination of candidates for 
 President and Vice-President was held on the 12th of May. 
 No opposition to the caucus manifested itself. The members 
 who did not intend to be bound by the action which they could 
 foresee, absented themselves. There were at least one hun- 
 dred and thirty-three Republican senators and members, only 
 eighty-three of whom attended the caucus. New York was 
 represented by a single member, for New York had a plan of 
 its own. New England and New York combined did not 
 furnish as many members of the caucus as did Virginia alone. 
 Thus composed, the caucus was harmonious and unanimous. 
 Mr. Madison received eighty-two votes for President. Vice- 
 President George Clinton had died in office less than a month 
 before. In any event he would not have been nominated 
 again. On a ballot for Vice-President the venerable John 
 Langdon, of New Hampshire, the first President pro tempore 
 of the Senate, received 64 votes ; Elbridge Gerry, of Massa- 
 chusetts, 16 votes ; and two were scattering. The caucus 
 adopted a resolution recommending its candidates, and repeated 
 the declaration made four years before that the members acted 
 as private citizens. Mr. Langdon declined the nomination on 
 the ground of his age. A second caucus was held on the 8th 
 of June, when Mr. Gerry was nominated by 74 votes to 3 
 scattering. After the nomination was made, those who were 
 present who had not attended the first caucus were allowed an 
 opportunity to vote for a candidate for President. Ten mem- 
 bers voted for Mr. Madison. He thus had the support of 
 ninety-two members, at least, out of one hundred and thirty-
 
 100 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 three. It is an interesting fact, showing the ascendency of the 
 Southern States in the Democratic party, that the original nom- 
 ination of Mr. Langdon was attributed, by the "New Hamp- 
 shire Patriot," which may have derived the information from 
 Mr. Langdon himself, to the wish and influence of the South- 
 ern members. The Northern men preferred Mr. Gerry from the 
 first ; but the South, helped by subservient Pennsylvania, not 
 only dictated the nomination for the first place, but overruled 
 the New England Democrats in their choice of a candidate for 
 the second place. 
 
 The history of the canvass in opposition to Mr. Madison 
 forms one of the most unpleasant chapters in American politi- 
 cal history. The Democratic party in New York, for purely 
 personal and local reasons, resolved not to train with the rest 
 of the party. There was no question of principle involved. 
 DeWitt Clinton had become, in the strictly modern sense, the 
 " boss " of his party in New York ; and he willed to become its 
 candidate for President. He was avowedly in favor of war when 
 Madison was still for peace, and was quite willing to be nom- 
 inated by the congressional caucus on a war platform. When 
 Madison joined the war party Clinton shifted his ground, and 
 based his candidacy on the impropriety of congressional cau- 
 cuses and of Southern dictation. A caucus of Democratic 
 members of the New York legislature was held at Albany on 
 the 29th of May. Of ninety-five members of the party eighty- 
 seven were present, and the absence of four others was ac- 
 counted for satisfactorily. Mr. Clinton was nominated unani- 
 mously. A committee waited upon him after the caucus and 
 informed him of the action taken. His reply was diplomatic 
 in the extreme. He " sensibly felt and duly appreciated so 
 distinguished a proof of their confidence." The canvass in 
 behalf of Clinton was taken in charge by Martin Van Buren, 
 then a young man of thirty, who thus made his entrance into 
 national politics as the manager of a conspiracy to defeat the 
 candidate of the party which afterward elevated him to the . 
 highest place in the nation. 
 
 It is not easy to reconcile Clinton's action with the most 
 ordinary political prudence. His public life, even his course 
 during that (;anvass, forbids us to attribute his conduct to any 
 higher motive than personal ambition. Yet he refused over- 
 tures which were undoubtedly made to him to withdraw, with 
 a promise of the succession on the retirement of Madison.
 
 AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 101 
 
 From being an advocate of war before war was declared, he 
 proceeded to the point of becoming a critic of the administra- 
 tion because it did not prosecute the war with sufficient vigor, 
 and sought the votes of dissatisfied Democrats on that ground. 
 Then, since he would be in a hopeless minority without Fed- 
 eralist support, he stood willingly as the candidate of all who 
 were in favor of peace. Gouverneur Morris records in his 
 diary a conversation with De Witt Clinton just after the death 
 of his uncle, the Vice-President, in the spring of 1812, in 
 which an alliance between the Clintonians and the Federalists 
 Avas discussed vaguely. It seems not improbable that Morris 
 — who had come very near to the point of hating the Union 
 and of desiring a separation from the South — had much to 
 do in smoothing the way for a disgraceful coalition. The 
 echo of Clinton's words denouncing the whole Federalist party 
 as ■" fiends " had hardly died away when he was courting their 
 support. On their part they made up their minds to give 
 their votes to one who had no principles, — or, if that be too 
 harsh a judgment, no principles not opposed to their own. 
 
 The coalition was brought about by a convention held at 
 New York city in September, — a highly interesting meeting, 
 as being the first convention of the same sort as those which 
 now present presidential candidates. The meeting was strictly 
 private, and no report of its proceedings Avas published in any 
 newspaper. The fullest account of it is given in William 
 Sullivan's " Public Men of the Revolution." In the summer 
 of 1812 Mr. Sullivan and Jonathan Knight, both of Massa- 
 chusetts, and Governor Roger Griswold and another gentle- 
 man of Connecticut, being at Saratoga Springs, talked over 
 the state of the nation, and a convention of Federalists was 
 proposed. The result was the assembling at New York in 
 September of seventy persons representing eleven States of 
 the Union, as follows : from New Hampshire, 2 ; from Mas- 
 sachusetts, 8 ; Rhode Island, 3 ; Connecticut, 6 ; New York, 
 18 ; New Jersey, 12 ; Pennsylvania, 12 ; Delaware, 2 ; Mary- 
 land, 3 ; South Carolina, 4, The convention held a session 
 of three days. There was evidently great hesitation and op- 
 position to the plan which was in the minds of the projectors 
 of the meeting, since nothing whatever was done during the 
 first two days. Rufus King, Avho had twice been the party 
 candidate for Vice-President, denounced Clinton with such 
 vehemence and passion that — so Mr. Sullivan reports — his
 
 102 ■ A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 knees trembled under him. King was supported by other 
 members of the convention. As the meeting was on the point 
 of breaking up, having come to no decision, Harrison Gray Otis 
 arose, with his hat in his hand, as if about to depart, and be- 
 gan speaking in favor of Clinton. As he proceeded he became 
 more earnest, and soon had the convention enchained by his 
 eloquence. When he finished, the members decided by an 
 almost unanimous vote to support Clinton. A Pennsylvania 
 Federalist of somewhat mild type, Jared Ingersoll, was named 
 as the candidate for Vice-President. The administration organ, 
 the " National Intelligencer," got an inkling of what had 
 been done, and published in connection with the affair a state- 
 ment that Mr. Clinton had declared to a committee of the 
 convention that " all political connection between him and 
 the Democratic party in the United States had ceased and 
 would not be renewed." Mr. Otis denied this statement as 
 wholly false, and asserted that no communication had been 
 had with Mr. Clinton, and that no statement had been made 
 by him. We have had, in the most recent times, another 
 example of the withholding from candidates of a notice of 
 their nomination, expressly to relieve those candidates from 
 the necessity of accepting the nominations in terms which 
 might throw the party into confusion. All the facts that can 
 be gathered from contemporaneous writers concerning the Fed- 
 eralist convention of 1812 are contained in an article by J. S. 
 Murdock in the " American Historical Review " for 1896. 
 
 The opposition within the Federalist party to the candi- 
 dacy of Clinton was not quenched by Otis's eloquence. Rufus 
 King, in his correspondence, showed that* his opinion was un- 
 changed. When the electors were chosen by the New York 
 legislature, forty-five votes were given for a "straight" Fed- 
 eralist ticket. Twenty-three blank votes were cast, most or 
 all of them by Madisonians. The Clinton electoral ticket 
 had seventy-four votes. A convention was held at Staunton, 
 Virginia, on September 26, in which eighteen counties were 
 represented. A Federalist electoral ticket was nominated ; no 
 formal nomination of presidential candidates was made, but 
 the names of Rufus King, of New York, and General William 
 R. Davie, of North Carolina, were " commended to the electors 
 when appointed." Nevertheless, substantially the whole Fed- 
 eralist strength was bestowed upon Clinton. It may be re- 
 marked here that the coalition put an end forever to Clinton's
 
 AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 103 
 
 prospects in national politics. The canvass was a mere inci- 
 dent of the war, and of the efforts of its opponents to bring 
 about peace. No doubt men were then too strongly com- 
 mitted on one side or the other to be converted or perverted 
 by argument or persuasion of any sort. Nevertheless it is 
 singular that the editors of political journals issued their 
 papers week after week, in the autumn of 1812, devoid of all 
 reference to the pendency of an important election. 
 
 Eighteen States took part in the election, Louisiana having 
 been admitted to the Union on the 8th of April, 1812. The 
 mode of appointment of the electors was in general the same 
 as in 1808, but there were some interesting exceptions. In 
 New Jersey the law of 1807 giving the election to the people^ 
 but fixing the date more than the designated thirty-four days 
 before the meeting of the electors, (see p. 94) remained in force. 
 At the State election in 1812 the Democrats had a popular 
 majority, but the peculiarities of the apportionment gave the 
 Federalists control of both branches of the legislature. The 
 annual meeting of the legislature was held in October; and 
 on the 29th of that month, less than a week before the people 
 were expecting to choose the electors, the legislature repealed 
 the law of 1807, passed an act providing that electors should 
 thereafter be chosen by the Council and General Assembly^ 
 and a few days afterward appointed eight federal electors. 
 
 North Carolina had always adhered to the system of a 
 popular vote by districts. But it was anticipated in 1811 
 that there would be an increase of electoral votes in conse- 
 quence of a new apportionment, which would be made so late 
 that the State could not be districted. Accordingly it was 
 then enacted that the electors in 1812 should be chosen by 
 the legislature. Such was the excuse given for the act, but 
 it caused great excitement at the time ; and when the legis- 
 lature met in 1812 to appoint the electors there was much 
 fear of a popular outbreak. 
 
 Massachusetts offered by far the most interesting case. 
 Elbridge Gerry, the candidate for Vice-President with Madi- 
 son, had been Governor of the State two years, and had been 
 defeated for reelection the month before the congressional 
 caucus was held. His administration had been made note- 
 worthy, and his name historical, by the division of the Com- 
 monwealth into Senate districts, one of which was of so pecu- 
 liar a construction that a certain member of the legislature
 
 104 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 likened its shape to that of a salamander. Another member 
 exclaimed that it was a " gerrymander," and thus a new word 
 was added to the language. The apportionment gave the 
 Senate to the Democrats, although the House of Represent- 
 atives was strongly Federal. Accordingly, when the question 
 of establishing a method of appointing electors came up, the 
 two Houses were unable to agree. The House made several 
 propositions, all of which were rejected by the Senate, and the 
 General Court adjourned to meet in October to settle the 
 question. At the adjourned meeting the Senate was still in 
 opposition. It was willing to let the vote of the State be lost 
 by making no provision for an election, or to adopt any plan 
 that promised to neutralize the vote by setting one part oflf 
 against another. At last a proposition was made and accepted 
 to make use of the districts into which the State was divided 
 
 
 President. 
 
 Vice-Peesident. 
 
 States. 
 
 > 
 o 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 1-S 
 
 a 
 S 
 
 _a 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 a) 
 bo 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 60 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 25 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 4 
 9 
 
 29 
 8 
 
 4 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 25 
 15 
 11 
 
 8 
 12 
 
 8 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 20 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 4 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 9 
 
 New York 
 
 29 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 8 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 4 
 
 Maryland 
 
 5 
 
 Virginia 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 128 
 
 89 
 
 131 
 
 86 
 

 
 AN ELECTION IN TIME OF WAR 105 
 
 for the purposes of the Courts of Common Pleas. Massachu- 
 setts proper was divided into three districts, — the western, 
 middle, and southern, which chose six, five, and four electors 
 respectively. The District of Maine had also three districts, 
 which chose three, three, and one, respectively. The Demo- 
 crats hoped to get half the electors under this system, but 
 they were grievously disappointed. Every district chose Fed- 
 eral electors. The total popular vote was 50,333 for Clinton 
 electors, and 26,110 for Madison. 
 
 The electoral vote throughout the Union was much closer 
 than was anticipated. The " solid South " was arrayed in 
 favor of Madison ; most of the North voted for Clinton. Ver- 
 mont and Pennsylvania alone separated from their neighbors, 
 and the vote of Pennsylvania decided the election. The elec- 
 toral votes were as shown in the table on the opposite page. 
 
 The count of electoral votes, which took place on the 10th 
 of February, 1813, in the Kepresentatives' Hall, was marked 
 by no incident worthy of notice. It was a proceeding in all 
 respects similar to previous counts.
 
 IX 
 
 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 
 
 The fate of the Federalist party is one of the most singular 
 casualties in the history of politics. The party was destroyed 
 by the success of its own principles in the hands of its oppo- 
 nents. The anti-Federalists began their existence by opposing 
 the Constitution as destructive of the rights of the individual, 
 and particularly of the smaller States ; when in power, they 
 drove the Federalists near to the point of advocating a disso- 
 lution of the Union by perpetuating the domination of Vir- 
 ginia over the " confederacy." During the administrations 
 of Washington and Adams the Federalists were champions of 
 national supremacy, as opposed to the " State Rights " doctrines 
 expressed in the resolutions of 1798 and 1799 ; Jefferson's 
 policy in acquiring Louisiana, and the attitude of the Demo- 
 crats toward New England particularism during the war of 
 1812, went far beyond the Federalism of Hamilton. Finally, 
 the demand for peace on any terms, and a cessation of the 
 war, denounced by the Democrats as " moral treason," and 
 held up for the execration of all patriots, was precisely the 
 policy which Mr. Madison finally adopted ; and the Treaty of 
 Ghent did not even mention either of the objects for which 
 war had been declared. Yet the party that had, as it were, 
 led the way, Avas trampled in the dust by those who followed 
 after. No doubt the gradual and unconscious adoption by the 
 Democrats of the national principle which had been the origi- 
 nal bond of union of the Federal party made it easy for Feder- 
 alists to go over to the other side. But the disintegration 
 of the organization did not take place until the conclusion of 
 peace brought to an end the only issue that divided parties by 
 a broad line. 
 
 The Hartford convention was, beyond a doubt, the event of 
 Madison's second administration which had the most important 
 influence upon the ensuing presidential election. Whether it 
 should have been a death-blow to the Federal party is a ques-
 
 THE LAST OF THE \^RGINIA "DYNASTY" 107 
 
 tion that requires a much fuller and more dispassionate discus- 
 sion than it has ever had at the hands of a historian of high 
 standing. Writers have been prone to take the superficial view 
 that, since there were New England Federalists of the greatest 
 prominence in the party who expected and desired a dissolu- 
 tion of the Union, — which is undoubtedly true, — and since 
 those men were among the projectors and promoters of the 
 Hartford convention ; and since certain phrases in the report 
 of the convention refer to a dissolution as among the possibili- 
 ties of the future, — therefore the convention was a treason- 
 able assembly, whose members favored the formation of a 
 confederation of Northern States. The other view deserves 
 careful consideration, namely, that conservatives obtained con- 
 trol of a movement which radicals designed to be directed to 
 the destruction of the Union. George Cabot, the head of the 
 Massachusetts delegation and the president of the convention, 
 expressed his own opinion of the duty set before him when 
 he replied to a young friend who asked him what was to be 
 done at Hartford, " We are going to keep you young hotheads 
 from getting into mischief." Pickering, who was a disunion- 
 ist, was displeased with the choice of delegates ; and John 
 Lowell, who shared Pickering's dislike of the turn the move- 
 ment took, opposed the convention because he did not believe 
 it would recommend the " effectual measures " which he de- 
 sired. A study of the proceedings and of the report of the 
 convention, with a prejudice born of these facts, leads one to 
 quite a different conclusion from that of the historians who 
 express themselves on the subject in terms of unqualified 
 abhorrence of the convention and of all who took part in it. 
 
 Whatever be the view one holds of this unique assemblage, 
 one thing is certain. It was the most unpopular convention 
 ever held in the country, both during its session and ever since. 
 The commissioners of ]\Iassachusetts and Connecticut, appointed 
 to urge at the national capital the measures it recommended, 
 arrived at Washington just as intelligence was received of the 
 battle of New Orleans. Less than a fortnight afterward came 
 the joyful news that a peace treaty had been signed. Nothing 
 remained for Mr. Otis and his associates to do ; and they re- 
 turned home quietly, but pursued by shouts of derision from 
 the Democratic press. The possibility of a return of the Fed- 
 eralists to power ceased from that moment. 
 
 The new questions which arose, as soon as Congress was able
 
 108 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 to turn from the perilous and perplexing foreign problems 
 which had engaged its attention for many years, led ultimately 
 to a new party division. At the outset they merely broke 
 down the old lines. The incorporation of the second Bank of 
 the United States was carried by a great majority in a Con- 
 gress nearly two to one Democratic, and the act was approved 
 by Madison. The position taken by the anti-Federalists in 
 Washington's time, that such an act was unconstitutional, was 
 completely abandoned. The war, with its necessary accompa- 
 niment of non-intercourse, cutting off the supply of foreign 
 manufactured goods, had greatly stimulated domestic manufac- 
 tures. The resumption of commerce after the Treaty of Ghent 
 left the new industries exposed to violent foreign competition. 
 The urgent calls for protection by means of higher tariff duties 
 were responded to by the party in power, which thus adopted 
 another of Hamilton's principles. The protection sentiment 
 of that day had no more ardent supporter than John C. Cal- 
 houn. The question of internal improvements also began, at 
 this time, to acquire prominence ; but it was not until long 
 afterward that it became a party issue, and ranged the Demo- 
 cratic party, following its original doctrine of " strict construc- 
 tion," in opposition to the policy. 
 
 The only extensive stronghold of the Federal party, New 
 England, Avas endangered from within. A revolt against the 
 ecclesiastical supremacy of the Congregational Church gave 
 New Hampshire to the Democratic party ; it left the Federal- 
 ists but a meagre majority in Massachusetts ; even in ever- 
 faithful Connecticut it unsettled the hold of the Federalists. 
 Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinets of 
 Washington and Adams, became the candidate of the " tole- 
 ration " party for Governor, nominated by the influence of the 
 Episcopalians against his old Federal associates. 
 
 The presidential election drew near amid the general break- 
 ing-up of the Federal party. It had been understood between 
 Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe that the Secretary of State was 
 to be brought forward for the succession with all the power of 
 the administration. Yet it was not so easy as it might seem 
 from a consideration merely of Mr. Monroe's apparent strength 
 in the electoral colleges, second only to that of Washington, 
 to bring about his nomination. He had two dangerous com- 
 petitors. The Northern wing of the party, particularly the 
 New York contingent, was earnestly in favor of Governor
 
 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 109 
 
 Tompkins, of New York. Mr. Monroe was not a favorite 
 even with the Southern members ; and there was a great 
 intrigue to bring forward William H. Crawford, of Georgia. 
 The first step toward a nomination was the posting of an 
 anonymous notice, dated March 10, 181(5, inviting Republican 
 senators and members of Congress to meet in the Representa- 
 tives' Hall, on the 12th, " to take into consideration the pro- 
 priety of nominating persons as candidates for President and 
 Vice-President of the United States." Fifty-eight members 
 attended this meeting, at which it was resolved to call a caucus 
 for the 16th of the month, in the hope of a larger attendance. 
 Of 141 Republican members, 119 attended the second caucus. 
 The number was doubtless increased by the anxiety felt by the 
 friends of the several candidates lest one or another should be 
 nominated by a chance minority. The supporters of Mr. Mon- 
 roe were out in force. The " National Intelligencer " manifested 
 some trepidation lest the administration candidate should be 
 defeated. " If ever doubted," it remarked, '•' the public opin- 
 ion has been recently so decidedly expressed as to leave little 
 doubt that the prominent candidate will, in the end, unite the 
 suffrage of the whole Republican party." The " public opin- 
 ion " in favor of the existing regime was as easily manufactured 
 then as it is now, through the agency of the office-holders. 
 The candidacy of Governor Tompkins was seen, even before 
 the caucus was held, to be hopeless. He was known by but 
 few of the persons who were to make the nomination. It is 
 asserted in Hammond's " New York " that four fifths of the 
 New York members preferred Crawford to Monroe. One of 
 these members said that Martin Van Buren and Peter B. 
 Porter, for reasons of their own, — but what their motives 
 were is not known, — prevented the delegation from going to 
 Crawford ; and thus they secured the nomination of INIonroe. 
 
 Notwithstanding the inducements to attend the caucus, 
 twenty-two Republicans were absent, of whom fifteen were 
 known to be opposed to the caucus system of nomination. 
 Immediately after an organization of the meeting was effected, 
 Mr. Clay, and also Mr. John W. Taylor, of New York, moved 
 resolutions that it is inexpedient to present candidates. The 
 motions were rejected, — it is not recorded by what majority. 
 The vote for a candidate for President was then taken. It 
 resulted in the nomination of Mr. Monroe by the narrow ma- 
 jority of eleven votes. Monroe had sixty-five votes, Crawford
 
 110 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCr 
 
 fifty-four, Mr. Crawford's support came chiefly from five States, 
 which gave him forty of his votes : New York, New Jersey, 
 North Carolina, Kentucky, and his own State of Georgia. 
 Had all the New York members voted freely, the nomination 
 might have gone to him. Crawford himself professed after- 
 ward to have Muthdrawn from the contest before the caucus ; 
 but his friends seem not to have been aware of the fact when 
 they voted. No intimation is given in any of the political lit- 
 erature of the day that it was proposed to him to keep out of 
 the way of Monroe on a promise of future support. In view 
 of the attempted employment of similar tactics on former occa- 
 sions, in order to dispose of the pretensions of Monroe himself 
 and of De Witt Clinton, and in view also of the events of 1824, 
 it does not seem altogether improbable that his hesitation at 
 the last moment was due to suggestions of this sort. Gover- 
 nor Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, received eighty-five 
 votes as candidate for Vice-President and was nominated. 
 Governor Simon Snyder, of Pennsylvania, had thirty votes. 
 
 These proceedings startled the country, not so much because 
 of what had been done, for that the people were ready to 
 approve, but because the members who had assumed the right 
 to make nominations had come near making recommendations 
 which would not have been accepted. Numerous meetings 
 were held in various parts of the country to protest against the 
 caucus system, the most noteworthy of which, perhaps, was 
 held in Baltimore, in which meeting Roger B. Taney, after- 
 ward Chief Justice, took a most prominent part. That, pre- 
 cisely, was happening, against which the Convention of 1787 
 had endeavored most scrupulously to guard, — the dependence 
 of presidential candidates, and of Presidents desiring reelec- 
 tion, upon the favor of Congress. Moreover, the latest nomi- 
 nations signified the perpetuation of a dynasty ; the rule of a 
 single State of the Union ; the exclusion of every State except 
 Virginia — which had now ceased being the State most numer- 
 ously represented in Congress, although three fifths of her 
 slaves were counted — from the privilege of furnishing a chief 
 magistrate. 
 
 The nomination having been made, the election was decided. 
 The elements of an efi"ective opposition did not exist. Monroe 
 would doubtless have won a victory had all who preferred an- 
 other candidate formed a complete coalition. There was not a 
 symptom of a wish to bring about such a union. The position
 
 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 111 
 
 of the " old guard " of Federalists was indicated in a letter 
 from Gouverneur Morris to Eufus King, March 15, 1816, 
 This was Morris's latest utterance upon public affairs. His 
 death in November of the same year, just as the election was 
 to take place, closed a career which had begun at the Provin- 
 cial Congress in 1775. Mr. Morris wrote : — 
 
 That Mr. Madison's influence should decline is to be expected : 
 who is to be the successor ? It seems to be acknowledged that no 
 Federal character can run with success. Nevertheless I believe 
 that if Howard of Maryland were started against Monroe he would 
 stand a tolerable chance. The Democrats can, I believe, be heart- 
 ily united by nothing but the fear that a Federalist of superior 
 talents should be chosen, I have, at the same time, doubts 
 whether our friends in the Southern States would warmly support 
 a candidate from the North, 
 
 Nothing whatever was done to nominate candidates in oppo- 
 sition to Monroe and Tompkins, On December 3, the day 
 before the electors were to vote, the " Boston Daily Adver- 
 tiser," published in one of the three States which had chosen 
 Federal electors, remarked : " We do not know, nor is it very 
 material, for whom the Federal electors will vote." They all 
 did vote for Kufus King, who had twice been their candidate 
 for Vice-President. For the second place the Massachusetts 
 electors supported Mr. Howard, of Maryland, suggested as a 
 candidate for President by Morris. Five Connecticut electors 
 voted for James Eoss, of Pennsylvania, whom Morris men- 
 tioned in the letter above quoted as an available candidate for 
 the place. 
 
 In no State was there a real contest. The election of Mon- 
 roe was entirely unopposed in the States from Virginia south- 
 ward, and in Ohio. The legislatures of Massachusetts, Connect- 
 icut, and Delaware chose Federal electors ; those of Vermont 
 and New York, Democratic electors. In Rhode Island, which 
 the Federalists had just carried after a contest, no electors 
 were nominated in opposition to the Monroe ticket, which was 
 consequently chosen unanimously, not because the Federalists 
 doubted their ability to win, but because it was not worth 
 while, since the election of Monroe was assured. There was 
 an opposition ticket in Pennsylvania. The adage that politics 
 makes strange bedfellows was never more remarkably illus- 
 trated than by the fact that the ticket — which the Federalists 
 supported — was ''under the patronage of Duane," as the
 
 112 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 " Boston Advertiser " put it. Who was Duane ? The famous 
 editor of the " Philadelphia Aurora," the thick-and-thin advo- 
 cate of Jefferson, the persistent slanderer of Adams and of all 
 men and things " Federal," the Democrat to whose thinking 
 Madison and Monroe were too mild and timid ! The last ap- 
 pearance of the Federalist party in national politics was in 
 alliance with its most virulent foe. 
 
 The number of States whose votes were counted at this elec- 
 tion was nineteen. Indiana, which had adopted a constitution 
 in June, 1816, was admitted to the Union December 11 of 
 that year. The question whether or not its electoral votes 
 should be counted gave interest to the joint meeting of the 
 two Houses of Congress in February, 1817. The table of 
 electoral votes was as follows : — 
 
 States. 
 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut . . 
 New York , . 
 New Jersey . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware • . 
 Maryland . . 
 Virginia . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Georgia . . . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Tennessee . . 
 Louisiana . . 
 Ohio . . . . 
 Indiana . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 PkESU)ENT. 
 
 8 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 29 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 2.5 
 15 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 183 
 
 22 
 
 34 
 
 Vice-President. 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 29 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 183 
 
 22 
 
 22
 
 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA "DYNASTY" 113 
 
 The total number of electoral votes, it will be seen, was 
 217. A full vote would have been 221 ; but the three Federal- 
 ist electors chosen in Maryland, and one of the Delaware elec- 
 tors, did not see tit to attend. 
 
 The preliminary arrangements in regard to the electoral 
 count were made according to precedent. The two Houses 
 met in the Representatives' Hall, and the certificates were duly 
 opened. When all the returns except those from Indiana had 
 been opened, Mr. Taylor, of New York, — a member of the 
 House of Representatives, and afterward Speaker, — arose, and, 
 addressing the Speaker, expressed his regret at being compelled 
 to interrupt the proceedings, and to object to the vote from In- 
 diana. He was proceeding to state his objections, when the 
 Speaker (Mr. Clay) stopped him, and said that the two Houses 
 had met for the single specified purpose of performing the con- 
 stitutional duty which they were then discharging ; and that, 
 while so acting in joint meeting, they could consider no pro- 
 position nor perform any business not prescribed by the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 At this point Mr. Varnum, of Massachusetts, concurring 
 in what the Speaker had said, suggested the propriety of the 
 Senate retiring, in order that the House of Representatives 
 might deliberate upon the question raised by one of its mem- 
 bers. The President of the Senate put the question to the 
 senators, and in accordance with their vote the Senate with- 
 drew. When the House was by itself, Mr. Taylor immediately 
 took the floor, and urged that, since Indiana was not a State in 
 the Union at the time the election took place, its votes were 
 no more entitled to be counted than if they had come from 
 Missouri or any other Territory. He maintained that the 
 question should be considered and decided now, when the re- 
 sult Would not be aff'ected by it, and suggested that a joint 
 resohi^ion be passed declaring that the votes were illegal and 
 ought not to be counted. A resolution was moved declaring 
 the votes legal. On this a long debate took place. The sug- 
 gestion was made that the resolution should not be a joint one, 
 inasmuch as, by establishing a precedent, it might, at some 
 time thereafter, when the House and Senate should be op- 
 posed to each other, " deprive this House of one of its powers 
 by permitting the Senate to participate in this question." The 
 discussion turned wholly upon the point whether or not In- 
 diana was a State in the Union after it adopted its Constitu-
 
 114 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 tion, and before it was admitted by a formal act of Congress. 
 The power of Congress to reject the votes, if Indiana were not 
 a State for purposes of the election, was questioned by no one. 
 Finally, by an almost unanimous vote, the whole matter was 
 indefinitely postponed, and the House sent a message to the 
 Senate that it Avas prepared to resume the count. 
 
 Meanwhile a somewhat similar debate was taking place 
 in the Senate ; but, before a decision was reached, the message 
 of the House was received. Thereupon the resolution which 
 had been under discussion, declaring the votes of Indiana 
 legal, was withdrawn by its mover, Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, 
 and the Senate returned to the Representatives' Hall. After 
 the two Houses had assembled, the Speaker informed them that 
 the House of Representatives *' had not seen it necessary to 
 come to any resolution or to take any order on the subject 
 which had produced the separation of the two Houses." 
 Thereupon the count was completed, the result declared, and 
 the proceedings were terminated. 
 
 The first full account of the inauguration of any President 
 after Washington, to be found in the newspapers of the time, 
 describes the ceremonial observed when Mr. Monroe took office. 
 The order of proceedings on March 4, 1817, was almost ex- 
 actly that which has now become the usual order. At half 
 past eleven o'clock in the forenoon the President-elect left his 
 residence and proceeded to the Capitol, escorted by " a large 
 cavalcade of citizens on horseback," according to the tautologi- 
 cal reporter for the " National Intelligencer." When Mr. Mon- 
 roe arrived in the Senate Chamber the oath of office was first 
 administered to the Vice-President, who delivered a short ad- 
 dress on taking the chair. Then the Senate adjourned, and the 
 whole assembled party proceeded without the building " to an 
 elevated portico temporarily erected for the occasion, where in 
 the presence of an immense concourse of officers of the gov- 
 ernment, foreign officers, strangers (ladies as well as gentle- 
 men), and citizens, the President rose and delivered his ad- 
 dress." After he had finished reading it, the oath was admin- 
 istered to him by the Chief Justice. " Such a concourse," 
 declares the " National Intelligencer," " was never before seen 
 in Washington, the number of persons present being estimated 
 at from five to eight thousand." In the evening a great ball 
 was given, and thus ended the events of the day.
 
 THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 
 
 During the last year of Mr. Madison's administration Con- 
 gress passed an act changing the method of paying the mem- 
 bers, and, as is usual in such cases, increasing the amount of 
 their compensation. The change was from six dollars per diem 
 to fifteen hundred dollars a year. The " compensation act " 
 was exceedingly unpopular, and was repealed at the next ses- 
 sion. Many members who voted for it were defeated. There 
 was a large number of new members in the fifteenth Congress, 
 but the balance of parties was nominally little changed. The 
 new questions began to obliterate all party lines. The tariff 
 united most of the Southern Democrats, the representatives of 
 Pennsylvania and of the manufacturing districts, in favor of 
 the protective policy. Commercial Massachusetts opposed it. 
 The right to make " internal improvements " was rising into 
 importance as a political issue ; and here, too, the divisions 
 cut across the old party lines. Many Federalists took an atti- 
 tude of opposition, although logically, as broad constructionists, 
 they should have been the supporters, and the Democrats 
 should have been the opposers, of the policy. It is to be 
 feared that the views of these Federalists were too greatly in- 
 fluenced by the prospect that the Middle and Southern States 
 would profit most, and their own States least, by any appro- 
 priation Congress might make for the purpose. Congress de- 
 clared itself in favor of internal improvements by a resolution 
 that money constitutionally might be appropriated " for the 
 construction " of post and military roads and of canals. But 
 it rejected resolutions that the government constitutionally 
 might " construct " these specified works. The distinction, 
 rather fine-drawn and long ago abandoned by all parties, was 
 that, while Congress might aid in such works, it could not un- 
 dertake them. 
 
 Slavery loomed up for the first time, during Monroe's first 
 term, as a great political issue. The clause of the Constitution 
 which made the basis of representation in Congress the whole
 
 116 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 number of free persons, and three fifths of " all other persons," 
 had been a constant source of complaint on the part of the 
 Northern Federalists and those who chafed under the Virginia 
 rule. Up to this time, nearly all the Southern ex-members, 
 whenever they had had occasion to speak of the institution of 
 slavery, had spoken of it as an evil, but one which could not be 
 abolished without causing still greater evils than itself. Now 
 the question of the admission of Missouri to the Union thrust 
 itself upon Congress. Most of the representatives from the 
 North, including those of both of the old parties, united to 
 deny admission to Missouri except as a free State : the South 
 was still more united in demanding that Missouri be admitted 
 without restrictions. No previous debate upon a purely do- 
 mestic question had been so exciting and passionate as that 
 which took place on the Missouri bill. The whole country was 
 aroused. Meetings were held and resolutions were adopted in 
 cities and country towns ; state legislatures expressed their 
 opinions in strong language. In Congress the contest was 
 waged now with violence, now with strategy. The Southern 
 members with their Northern allies, to whom John Randolph 
 applied the term " doughfaces," — an appellation which stuck, 
 — succeeded in linking together the bill for the admission of 
 Maine as a separate State, to which there was no opposition, 
 and that for the admission of Missouri. The outcome of the 
 struggle was a compromise. An amendment was adopted which 
 virtually permitted the existence of slavery in the proposed new 
 State, but prohibited it forever in any of the remaining terri- 
 tory, ceded by France under the name of Louisiana, north of 
 the line thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, — the 
 northern line of Arkansas Territory. The amendment was 
 carried against the opposition of the Southern extremists ; and 
 the bill was then passed by the votes of all the Southern and a 
 few Northern members. This was the famous Missouri Com- 
 promise, which became the line of defence of the anti-slavery 
 sentiment of the country thirty years later, but which the 
 South then stormed and captured. It was not the end of the 
 contest over Missouri, for a clause in the Constitution framed 
 for the State contained a provision forbidding admission into 
 the State of free persons of color. The opposition aroused by 
 this clause, which was held by the anti-slavery people to be 
 inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, was 
 far more bitter than that manifested against the toleration of
 
 THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 117 
 
 slavery in the new State. The legislature of Missouri was re- 
 quired to make a solemn pledge that no act should be passed 
 that would exclude the citizens of any State from the privileges 
 and immunities to which they were entitled under the Consti- 
 tution. When this pledge had been given, and announced by 
 a proclamation by the President, Missouri was to become a 
 member of the Union. 
 
 All these exciting events took place in the year preceding 
 the presidential election. It is not likely that, if Mr. Monroe 
 had taken an active part in the great controversy on either 
 side, he could have been defeated. The time was too short 
 to organize a party of opposition with a prospect of success 
 at the polls. As a matter of fact, the President held aloof 
 altogether. When the " Enabling Act " for Missouri was laid 
 before him he submitted two questions to his cabinet, — first, 
 as to the constitutionality of an act to prohibit slavery in a 
 Territory, which all the members, Calhoun as well as John 
 Quincy Adams, answered in the affirmative ; and, secondly, 
 did the word " forever " in the compromising amendment ex- 
 tend to the time when the Territory should be erected into a 
 State ? Upon the second question there was a division, but 
 the form of it was changed, at Calhoun's suggestion, to an 
 inquiry if the proviso was constitutional. To this, again, all 
 the cabinet agreed ; and on March 2, 1820, Mr. Monroe signed 
 the act. The popular excitement died out quickly, when it 
 was supposed that the incident was closed. Had the subse- 
 quent action of the Missouri convention been foreseen, the 
 public feeling might have found expression in the ensuing 
 election. As it was, in one State only, Pennsylvania, was an 
 electoral ticket nominated in opposition to Mr. Monroe ; but 
 there the ground of opposition was, expressly, that the Presi- 
 dent was the candidate of the slavery party. 
 
 The administration of Mr. Monroe was called at the time, 
 and has since been known, as " the era of good feelings." 
 The Federalists of New England were satisfied with his prin- 
 ciples and with his conduct ; and as the time drew near for 
 an election they made no movement in opposition to him. 
 In the spring of 1820 a caucus was called, to which were in- 
 vited not only the Democrats, but such other members of 
 Congress as might see fit to attend. Less than fifty members 
 assembled. They adopted a resolution that it was not expedi- 
 ent to make any nomination, and adjourned.
 
 118 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 It has been said already that there was an opposition ticket 
 in Pennsylvania only. Where the electors were chosen by 
 popular vote, the number of votes was exceedingly small. The 
 largest number received by any elector in Connecticut was 
 3870, — about one vote to every seventy persons of the popu- 
 lation. Only seventeen persons went to the polls in Rich- 
 mond, Virginia. The fusion of parties was nowhere niore 
 pleasantly illustrated than in Massachusetts. A change was 
 made once more in the method of appointment. Electors 
 were chosen, one by each congressional district and two at 
 large. The venerable President John Adams was elected 
 unanimously as one of the two electors at large. Daniel 
 Webster was one of the district electors. The college con- 
 sisted, after vacancies had been filled, of eight Federalists 
 and seven Democrats. They all voted for Mr. Monroe, but 
 divided on the vice-presidency, the Federalists casting their 
 votes for Richard Stockton, of New Jersey. One elector of 
 New Hampshire gave his vote for John Quincy Adams for 
 President, and thus deprived Monroe of the honor of a unani- 
 mous election. It has been reported — and the statement was 
 repeated in the early editions of this history — that the dis- 
 senting elector withheld his vote from Mr. Monroe expressly 
 to prevent that statesman from sharing an honor previously 
 accorded to Washington alone. The statement is not correct. 
 The " scattering " vote was given by William Plumer, formerly 
 a senator in Congress and governor of the State, not so much 
 out of jealousy of Washington's record of unanimous election 
 as on account of his positive distrust of j\Ionroe. 
 
 Five new States participated in this election, namely, Mis- 
 sissippi, admitted December 10, 1817 ; Illinois, admitted De- 
 cember 3, 1818 ; Alabama, admitted December 14, 1819 ; 
 Maine, separated from Massachusetts and admitted as a State 
 March 15, 1820 ; and Missouri, which adopted a Constitution 
 in July, 1820, but was not proclaimed a State until August 
 10, 1821, when it had fulfilled the condition exacted of it by 
 Congress as a prerequisite to admission. The situation in 
 which IVIissouri stood at the time of the presidential election 
 raised again, and in an exceedingly perplexing form, the ques- 
 tion which had arisen in 1817 as to the right of Indiana to 
 participate in the election. For whereas Indiana, although not 
 fully admitted to the Union at the time the electors of 1816 
 voted, was a State in full standing when the votes were
 
 THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 119 
 
 counted, Missouri had not performed the duty imposed aa 
 a condition of admission, and it was not certain that its 
 legislature would ever give the pledge required. The in- 
 convenience of a discussion of this question in the joint con- 
 vention, and the doubts of members as to the result of an 
 attempt to decide it either in joint meeting or by the two 
 Houses separately, led to the invention of a method of avoid- 
 ing the point altogether. The joint committee of Congress 
 which was, in accordance with custom, appointed to ascertain 
 and report a mode of examining the votes, reported, in addi- 
 tion to the usual resolution, the following : — 
 
 Resolved, That if any objection be made to the votes of Mis- 
 souri, and the counting, or omitting to count, which shall not 
 essentially change the result of the election, in that case they shall 
 be reported by the President of the Senate in the following man- 
 ner : Were the votes of Missouri to be counted, the result would 
 
 be, for A. B. for President of the United States, votes ; if not 
 
 counted, for A. B. for President of the United States, votes. 
 
 But in either event A. B. is elected President of the United States. 
 And in the same manner for Vice-President. 
 
 A long debate took place on this proposition in the Senate. 
 The views advanced were various. But the Senate was per- 
 suaded to adopt the resolution upon the assurance of Mr. 
 Barbour, who reported it, that it was his intention thereafter 
 to bring up the matter of electoral votes objected to, to repair 
 what he considered as a casus omissus in the Constitution, 
 either by an act of Congress, if that should appear sufficient, 
 or by an amendment to the Constitution. 
 
 The discussion in the House was of a different character. 
 Mr. John Randolph attacked the resolution, providing for an 
 alternative statement of the vote of Missouri, on constitutional 
 grounds. He could not recognize in either House, or in both 
 conjoined, the power to decide on the votes of any State. The 
 electoral colleges were as independent of Congress as Congress 
 was of them ; and he would rather see an interregnum, or that 
 no votes should be counted, than that a principle should be 
 adopted which went to the very foundation on which the 
 presidential office rested. Several other gentlemen took simi- 
 lar views. The opposing argument was presented by Mr. Clay, 
 then a private member, who said that Congress had been in- 
 trusted with the duty of enumerating the votes for President, 
 and it was necessary for the two Houses to determine what 
 were votes.
 
 120 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The resolution was adopted by a vote of 90 to 67, but the 
 concurrence of the two Houses did not end the matter. When 
 the votes of Missouri were announced by the President of the 
 Senate and handed to the tellers, Mr. Livermore, of New 
 Hampshire, a member of the House, addressing the President 
 and the Speaker, objected to them on the ground that Missouri 
 was not a State in the Union. The Senate thereupon retired, 
 a motion to that efiect having been put by the President, 
 The Senate does not appear to have taken any action upon 
 the objection, but in the House a long debate took place 
 on a resolution that the votes ought to be counted. Mr, 
 Randolph made himself the most conspicuous person in this 
 discussion, and spoke upon the question with characteristic 
 violence of language. Mr. Clay came to the rescue with an 
 argument intended to show that the Prevsident of the Senate 
 had acted erroneously in putting the question on the retire- 
 ment of the Senate, the o})jeGtion having been already pro- 
 vided for by the joint resolution. On his motion the subject 
 was laid on the table, and the Senate was invited to return. 
 The count then proceeded, and the result was declared in ac- 
 cordance with the prescribed form. The votes given are shown 
 in the table on the opposite page. 
 
 As soon as the announcement had been made, Mr. Floyd, of 
 Virginia, and after him Mr. Randolph, demanded to know what 
 had become of" the votes of Missouri. Their voices were 
 drowned by cries of " Order ! " and they were required to re- 
 sume their seats. The Senate then retired, and Mr. Randolph 
 made another violent speech, which he closed by proposing a 
 series of resolutions reciting that the votes of Missouri have 
 been counted, but that the announcement of the whole num- 
 ber of electors appointed, and of the votes given by them, has 
 not been declared " agreeably to the provisions of the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, and that therefore the proceeding 
 has been irregular and illegal." While Mr. Randolph was 
 reducing these resolutions to writing, a motion was made and 
 carried to adjourn, and nothing more was heard of them. 
 
 The second inauguration of IVIr. Monroe took place on the 
 5th of March, 1821, — the 4th was Sunday, — in the hall of 
 the House of Representatives. The ceremony was a simple 
 one, but the company was as large as could be crowded into a 
 room which was by no means spacious. The President occupied 
 a platform in front of the Speaker's chair, and the Chief Justice
 
 THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 
 
 121 
 
 States. 
 
 Maine .... 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont . . . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut . 
 New York . . 
 New Jersey . 
 Pennsylvania *. 
 Delaware 
 Maryland . . 
 Virginia . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Georgia . . . 
 Alabama . . . 
 Mississippi * 
 Louisiana 
 Kentucky . 
 Tennessee * . . 
 Ohio .... 
 Indiana . 
 Illinois 
 Missouri . 
 
 Total 
 
 Vice-President. 
 
 231 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 IZ! 
 
 >-i 
 
 13 
 
 
 S 
 
 f\ 
 
 S 
 
 a 
 
 a. 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 a. 
 
 (2 
 
 i 
 
 M 
 
 K 
 
 1 
 
 fi 
 
 OQ 
 
 6 
 
 05 
 
 •3 
 
 s 
 
 ft 
 
 
 s 
 
 •§ 
 
 •S 
 
 •s 
 
 « 
 
 5 
 
 « 
 
 tf 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 9 
 
 29 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 2') 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 12 
 
 7 
 8 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 ~ 
 
 "" 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 ~ 
 
 218 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 * One elector in each of the States of Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Tennessee died 
 after appointment, and before the meetings of the electors. 
 
 stood by his side while he delivered his inaugural address. 
 So dense was the throng that fears were entertained as to the 
 safety of the crowd. 
 
 Questions concerning the presidential electoral system and 
 the electoral count were much discussed during Mr. Monroe's 
 administration, and at one time the prospect of submitting to 
 the States for ratification an amendment of the Constitution, so 
 that all elections might be uniform, seemed to be extremely
 
 122 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 good. The proposition had oiiginated when the mishap at the 
 election of 1800-01 was fresh in the minds of our public men, 
 and when the necessity of guarding against a recurrence of it 
 seemed imperative. It was then urged, as a part of the new 
 system of choosing one person as President and another as 
 Vice-President, that all the electors should be chosen by popu- 
 lar vote, the States to be divided for that purpose into dis- 
 tricts. Although the matter was somewhat discussed in the 
 newspapers from time to time, it does not appear to have been 
 heard of again in Congress until the close of 1813. On Decem- 
 ber 20 of that year, Mr. Pickens, of North Carolina, introduced 
 in the House a proposition to amend the Constitution in this 
 respect, and made a long speech in support of the measure. 
 He referred to the popular excitement which had prevailed in 
 his State in consequence of the act of the legislature of North 
 Carolina depriving the people of the right to choose electors, 
 in 1812, as the reason for bringing the matter to the attention 
 of Congress. The resolution for submitting the amendment to 
 the States was negatived after some debate, 57 voting in favor 
 of, and 70 against it. 
 
 Mr. Pickens introduced the subject again on one or two 
 occasions after this defeat, but he did not press the amend- 
 ment further until 1816. In December of that year he once 
 more presented his resolution, in a new form, embracing two 
 propositions. It provided that the States should be divided 
 into districts for the choice of representatives in Congress, and 
 also into single districts for the choice of electors. After some 
 debate in Committee of the Whole, the House adopted the 
 principle of the district system for representatives by a vote 
 of 86 to 38. That part of the system which related to electors 
 was approved by 87 votes against 51 ; but, as this was not a 
 two-thirds majority, the House never took the subject up. 
 
 At the next session two amendments, in almost identical 
 words, were introduced in the Senate by Mr. Dickerson, of 
 New Jersey, and by Mr. Macon, of North Carolina. Subse- 
 quently the proposition relating to electors was changed so that 
 one elector should be chosen from each representative district, 
 and that the two additional electors for each State should be 
 appointed " in such manner as the legislature thereof may 
 direct," following the words of the Constitution. This amend- 
 ment was negatived by 20 in favor to 13 opposed, — not two 
 thirds. Again in 1818 Mr. Sanford,of New York, introduced
 
 THE "ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS" 123 
 
 the amendment in the Senate, by instruction of the New York 
 legislature, as on previous occasions it had been introduced 
 by others according to instructions from the legislatures of New 
 Jersey and North Carolina. This time a great deal of atten- 
 tion was paid to the matter. It was debated at much length, 
 three times referred to committees, and at last passed by a vote 
 of 28 to 10. In the House it was laid on the table by 79 to 
 73. Introduced in the Senate again in 1819 by Mr. Dicker- 
 son, it was again passed, this time without debate, by 29 to 
 13. Having been debated in the House, it was agreed to by 
 the Committee of the Whole ; but when it was reported to the 
 House it was laid on the table, and never taken up. Yet at 
 tlie same session Mr. Smith, of North Carolina, introduced this 
 identical amendment, and, after debate, it was passed to a third 
 reading by a vote of 103 to 59 ; but on the question of its 
 passage it was lost, 92 voting in favor of and 54 against it, — 
 not two thirds. Tlie proposition never again came so near to 
 success ; but it was not abandoned, and as late as March, 1822, 
 the Senate again passed the amendment by 29 to 11. The 
 House did not take the matter up for consideration. 
 
 Another effort was made during Mr. Monroe's administration 
 to deal with the matter of the electoral count. The Commit- 
 tee on the Judiciary, of the Senate, was instructed to consider 
 the subject, and Mr. Van Buren reported a bill which, after 
 amendment, was passed on April 19, 1824. It covered the 
 whole ground of the election and the count. The electors 
 were to make five lists of their votes instead of three. One of 
 these was to be sent to the seat of government by a messenger, 
 two were to be deposited in the post-oflSce and forwarded by 
 two successive mails to the President of the Senate, and the 
 other two were to be delivered to the judge of the district in 
 which the electoral meeting was held. This was the only 
 change proposed in the method of electing the President. The 
 important section was the fifth, as follows : — 
 
 Sectiox 5. That at twelve o'clock of the day appointed for 
 counting the votes that may be given at the next election for Pre- 
 sident and Vice-President, the Senate and House of Representatives 
 shaU meet in the haU of the House of Representatives, and on all 
 future occasions in the centre room of the Capitol, at which meet- 
 ing the President of the Senate shall be the presiding officer, but 
 no debate shall be had nor question taken. The packet containing 
 the certificates from the electors of each State shall then be opened
 
 124 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 by the President of the Senate, beginning with the State of New 
 Hampshire and going through to Georgia, in the order in which 
 the thirteen original States are enumerated in the Constitution, 
 and afterwards through the other States in the order in which they 
 were respectively admitted into the Union ; and, if no exceptions 
 are taken thereto, all the votes contained in such certificates shall 
 be counted ; but if any exceptions be taken, the person taking the 
 same shall state it in writing directly, and not argumentatively, 
 and sign his name thereto ; and if the exception be seconded by 
 one member from the Senate and one member from the House of 
 Representatives, and each of whom shall sign the said exception as 
 having seconded the same, the exception shall be read by the Pre- 
 sident of the Senate, and then each House shall immediately retire, 
 without question or debate, to its own apartment, and shall take 
 the question on the exception, without debate, by ayes and noes. 
 So soon as the question shall be taken in either House, a message 
 shall be sent to the other informing them of the decision of the 
 question, and that the House sending the message is prepared to 
 resume the count ; and when such message shall have been received 
 by both Houses, they shall meet again in the same room as before, 
 and the count shall be resumed. And if the two Houses have con- 
 curi'ed in rejecting the vote or votes objected to, such vote or votes 
 shall not be counted. The vote of one State being thus counted, 
 another shall, in like manner, be called, and the certificate of the 
 votes of the State thus called shall be proceeded on as is hereinbe- 
 fore directed; and so on, one after another, in the order above 
 mentioned, until the count shall be completed. 
 
 The bill was sent to the House for concurrence, where it was 
 referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and was reported 
 back by Mr. Webster on the 10th of May without amendment. 
 It was then referred to the Committee of the Whole, and was 
 never taken up for consideration.
 
 XI 
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 
 
 The existence of a free government without a division into 
 parties is an impossibility. The " era of good feelings " was 
 a result, not of a radical change in human nature which per- 
 mitted all Americans to think alike upon questions of national 
 politics, but of a complete settlement of all the matters which 
 had been the basis of party division. We have already seen 
 that new issues began to loom into prominence even before 
 Mr. Monroe's second election. In the latter part of his term 
 they were causing differences, discussions, and divisions which 
 were destined to become more definite and habitual, and 
 eventually to range men on either side of a new party line. 
 All these new issues — internal improvements, the tariff, slavery, 
 and the rest — were to be decided one way or the other, accord- 
 ing to the view one took of the scope and power of the Con- 
 stitution. The two views were " strict construction " and 
 " loose construction." Thus, when the Democratic party had 
 substantially adopted the Federalist position in all the mat- 
 ters which pertained to the war of 1812, and the Federal- 
 ists had crossed over to the position formerly occupied by 
 their political opponents, the old question of interpretation 
 arose in a new form, and ultimately reestablished parties, 
 greatly changed in personnel, in methods, in motives, and in 
 aims. It will be seen, too, that issues not developed until 
 years afterward were equally to be decided by an applica- 
 tion of one or the other principle of interpreting the Con- 
 stitution, — the Bank, nullification, the surplus revenue, the 
 disposition of the public lands, in short, all the questions on 
 which parties differed between 1830 and 1860. 
 
 No development of parties took place during Mr. Monroe's 
 administration. In a few States the Federalist organization 
 was maintained ; but in no State was it in control of the 
 government, nor did it ever regain control anywhere. It might 
 and did exercise a certain influence by favoring one of two or
 
 126 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 more candidates, where the Democrats were divided. Except 
 locally, it had no candidates of its own. 
 
 The election of 1824 was pending nearly three years. As 
 early as April, 1822, Niles's Register remarked that there were 
 already sixteen or seventeen candidates for the succession to 
 Mr. Monroe. Soon after that the question how the candidates 
 were to be nominated began to be discussed earnestly. The 
 growth of an opposition to the system of nomination by con- 
 gressional caucus has already been noted. The opposition was 
 strong in 1816 ; but, inasmuch as the caucus had a result 
 which a large majority of the people approved, little objec- 
 tion was heard after the nominations were made. No caucus 
 was necessary in 1820. Now a determined resistance to the 
 system was the only possible policy for the friends of all the 
 candidates save one. It was understood universally that Mr. 
 William H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, was 
 the candidate preferred by the President ; and, although Mr. 
 Monroe did not obtrude his wishes upon the public in an 
 unseemly manner, the very fact that his official support gave 
 Crawford a larger body of partisans than any one of his rivals 
 had, emphasized the objection to this mode of making nomina- 
 tions. It was foreseen that a caucus, should one be held, 
 would be in Mr. Crawford's interest. Consequently the ad- 
 herents of all the other candidates were ^opposed to the caucus. 
 
 Before the close of the year 1822, the minor candidates for 
 the presidency had dropped out of the contest, and six only 
 were left, for four of whom electoral votes were cast two 
 years later. They were, in alphabetical order, John Quincy 
 Adams, Secretary of State ; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of 
 War ; Henry Clay, who had been Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives most of the time during the previous ten 
 years, but was just then in private life ; De Witt Clinton, 
 also in private life at that time ; William H. Crawford, Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury ; and Andrew Jackson, who had been a 
 representative and senator during Adams's administration, but 
 who derived his fame and his prominence from his military 
 achievements. 
 
 The first candidate who was put in formal nomination was 
 Mr. Clay. The members of the Kentucky legislature, on the 
 18th of November, 1822, recommended him as " a suitable 
 person to succeed James Monroe as President." In support 
 of their resolution they issued an address. to the people of the
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 127 
 
 cotintry in which they placed their preference upon "a warm 
 affection for and a strong confidence in their distinguished 
 fellow-citizen ; " and their feeling that the time had come 
 " when the people of the West may, with some confidence, 
 appeal to the magnanimity of the whole Union for a favor- 
 able consideration of their equal and just claim to a fair 
 participation in the executive government of these States." 
 They nevertheless made the first consideration much the 
 more prominent and important. The members of the Mis- 
 souri legislature held a meeting about the same time, and 
 adopted a resolution recommending Mr. Clay. Similar action 
 was taken in Illinois and Ohio in January, 1823, and in 
 Louisiana in March of the same year. 
 
 General Jackson seems first to have been nominated for- 
 mally — although it was well understood long before that he 
 was a candidate — by a mass convention of the people of 
 Blount County, Tennessee, in May or June, 1823, and after- 
 ward by numerous conventions in all parts of the country. 
 Mr. Adams was nominated by the legislatures of most of the 
 New England States early in 1824 ; Mr. Clinton, by several 
 counties in Ohio ; Mr. Calhoun, by the legislature of South 
 Carolina ; Mr. Crawford, by the legislature of Virginia. 
 
 It will be seen that the situation closely resembled that, 
 within each party, with which we of the present time are 
 familiar at the beginning of every recurring presidential can- 
 vass. All the candidates professed the same political prin- 
 ciples, at least to such an extent that any one of them might 
 be heartily supported by the whole party, the only party in 
 the country which had more than a local existence. A pre- 
 ference of one before the others might rest upon a conviction 
 that he possessed superior qualifications ; upon a personal lik- 
 ing for him ; upon local pride ; upon a disposition to be on 
 good terms with the administration, — a consideration which 
 laelped Crawford only. Similar differences within a party 
 are met nowadays, and they do not prevent a full and enthu- 
 siastic union of the whole organization in support of him whom 
 the general voice of the party designates as the candidate. 
 There then existed no body of men, and there was no way of 
 forming a body of men, who could take the ease in hand and 
 determine which of the six candidates should be the candidate 
 of all. The advocates of Mr. Crawford urged that the con- 
 gressional caucus was the tried and approved mode, — not a
 
 128 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 perfect mode, but one which had previously harmonized differ- 
 ences and united the party. The adherents of all the others 
 knew that a caucus would inevitably result in the choice of 
 Crawford, and they were too wary to be drawn into that trap. 
 It thus became evident, a long while before the canvass 
 should properly have begun, that the great question to be 
 settled was whether or not a caucus should be held. It was 
 discussed in every newspaper and in every political gathering. 
 The state legislatures were a common means of expressing 
 local sentiment. The first declaration in favor of a caucus 
 was, it is believed, made by the legislature of New York, on 
 May 23, 1823, when the following resolutions wefe unani- 
 mously adopted : — 
 
 That although a nomination by the Republican members of 
 Congress is not entirely free from objections, yet that, assembled 
 as they are from the different quarters of the Union, — coming 
 from the various classes of community, — elected during the pend- 
 ency and discussion of the question and in a great degree with 
 reference to it, they bring into one body as perfect a representation 
 as can be expected of the interests and wishes of all and of each ; 
 and that a nomination made by them in a manner which has here- 
 tofore been usual is the best attainable method of effecting the 
 object in view which has yet been suggested. 
 
 That we fully believe that a convention thus constituted will be 
 less liable to be influenced by those sectional jealousies against 
 which the Father of his Country has so solemnly and justly cau- 
 tioned us ; more likely to cherish those purely national feelings 
 which it is the interest and should be the pride of every State to 
 protect ; and better calculated to preserve unbroken those political 
 ties which hind together the Republicans of the North and the 
 South, the East and the West, and are consecrated by the recollec- 
 tion of times and events dear to the Democracy of the nation 
 which triumphed in the election and prospered under the adminis- 
 tration of the illustrious Jefferson. 
 
 A few months later the legislature of Tennessee adopted a 
 set of resolutions against the caucus, and instructing its mem- 
 bers in Congress to use their influence to prevent the hold- 
 ing of such a meeting. The resolutions were sent to all the 
 States for their approval. They were considered at the sessions 
 of many legislatures in the earliest months of 1824. Mary- 
 land alone gave a cordial assent to them. Mr. Tyler, after- 
 ward President, offered resolutions in the Virginia House of
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 129 
 
 Delegates approving the caucus. Although the resolutions 
 were not adopted, — owing to a delicate sense of propriety 
 which told the members that they ought not to take such action 
 in their legislative capacity, — a meeting was held — perhaps 
 it might be called a caucus — attended by three fourths of 
 the members, who resolved almost unanimously in favor of the 
 congressional caucus. Governor Troup, of Georgia, may be 
 pardoned for manifesting some annoyance at being called upon 
 to send to the legislature resolutions the sole purpose of which 
 was to prevent the elevation of Georgia's favorite son to the 
 presidency ; but the terms in which he communicated the reso- 
 lutions were childishly petulant. He remarked in the course 
 of this unique message that the word " caucus " was not in the 
 dictionary, was not an English word, and he hoped would 
 never be one. One branch of the South Carolina legislature 
 approved the Tennessee resolutions ; the other threw them out 
 with scorn. There was a like difference of opinion in the 
 North. The Ohio and Indiana legislatures postponed the reso- 
 lutions indefinitely. In Pennsylvania a report by a commit- 
 tee was rejected, by a vote of more than two to one, because 
 it contained a clause which by implication sanctioned a cavicus. 
 The New York legislature expressed its dissent from the Ten- 
 nessee resolutions and its approval of a caucus. In Massa- 
 chusetts, and also in Maine, caucuses were held and John 
 Quincy Adams was nominated ; subsequently in each State the 
 Democratic members met again, and, while repeating their nom- 
 ination of Mr. Adams, declared their wish that a congressional 
 caucus should be held, and agreed to abide by the result. 
 
 Deep political excitement accompanied all these proceedings. 
 The intensity of feeling is seen in the arguments on one side 
 and the other with which for many months the newspapers 
 were filled. There was no point in favor of the caucus or 
 against it that was overlooked, and all of them were discussed 
 and worked over until they were threadbare. The advocates 
 of the caucus were entirely right when they said that the old 
 method of nomination " tends to produce union, which the 
 other mode has a tendency to destroy ; " and doubtless, if the 
 Democratic party had been facing a strong and resolute enemy, 
 the refusal to submit the claims of all the candidates to the 
 arbitrament of the caucus would have been " bad politics." 
 Since it was free from that danger, the violent struggle within 
 the party was harmless, and it was useful in bringing to an
 
 130 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 end a dynasty which was making the government stale. The 
 difficulty in the way of a better system of nomination, together 
 with a hint as to the better way which was afterward adopted, 
 is set forth in resolutions adopted by the Democrats of Lancas- 
 ter County, Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1824 : " We be- 
 lieve the best and most unexceptionable method " to be " a 
 convention of delegates from all the States of the Union ; " 
 but as it would be " entirely impracticable, from the immense 
 extent of our country, and from the great expense necessarily 
 incident to an attendance from the extreme parts of the United 
 States," they deemed '* the old and tried mode," the caucus, 
 the best that was attainable. When we reflect that at this 
 time there was not a mile of railway in the country, and that 
 weeks of travel were necessary to compass the distance from 
 Louisiana and Missouri to the seat of government, the objection 
 to a national convention does not seem overdrawn. 
 
 The call for a caucus, dated February 6, 1824, appeared in 
 the " National Intelligencer " on the following morning. It 
 was signed by six senators and five representatives, members 
 from eleven States. It was addressed to the Democratic mem- 
 bers of Congress, and invited them to meet in the Representa- 
 tives' chamber on the evening of the 14th, " to recommend 
 candidates to the people of the United States for the offices of 
 President and Vice-President of the United States." Side by 
 side with this notice appeared another, to which were appended 
 the signatures of twenty -four senators and members, represent- 
 ing fifteen States, who asserted that they had satisfactory 
 information that, of the two hundred and sixty-one senators and 
 representatives, there were a hundred and eighty-one " who 
 deem it inexpedient, under existing circumstances, to meet in a 
 caucus " for the purpose named. 
 
 Although the accuracy of this canvass was impugned, the 
 event showed that it was nearly correct. Sixty-six members 
 only assembled in caucus. They represented sixteen States of 
 the Union, but a large majority of them were from four States. 
 New York supplied sixteen, from its delegation numbering 
 thirty-six ; Virginia, fourteen out of a possible twenty-four ; 
 North Carolina, ten of a delegation of fifteen ; eight of the 
 nine Georgia members were present. These four States sup- 
 plied forty-eight members, and the other twenty States only 
 eighteen members of the caucus. Eight States were not repre- 
 sented at all ; five States furnished one member each. A
 
 THE DEFEAT OF " KIXG CAUCUS" 131 
 
 motion was made to adjourn for six weeks, nominally in order 
 to wait for the action of the Pennsylvania State Convention, 
 really in order to drum up more members. Mr. Van Buren 
 spoke against the motion, and it was defeated. The caucus 
 then proceeded to ballot for a candidate for President. The 
 result was as follows : William H. Crawford had 64 ; John 
 Quincy Adams, 2 ; Andrew Jackson, 1 ; Nathaniel Macon, 1. 
 Two absent members, one each from Virginia and Georgia, 
 voted by proxy. 
 
 A ballot was next taken for a candidate for Vice-President. 
 Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania had 57 votes ; Erastus Koot 
 of Xew York, 2 ; and the following named, one each: John 
 Q. Adams, William Eustis of Massachusetts, Samuel Smith of 
 Maryland, William King of Maine, Richard Rush of Penn- 
 sylvania, John Tod of Pennsylvania, and Walter Lowrie of 
 Pennsylvania. The caucus then adopted a resolution formally 
 recommending Messrs. Crawford and Gallatin, and declaring 
 that : — 
 
 In making the foregoing recommendation, the members of this 
 meeting have acted in their individual characters as citizens ; that 
 they have been induced to this measure from a deep and settled 
 conviction of the importance of union among Republicans through- 
 out the United States, and as the best means of collecting and 
 concentrating the feelings and wishes of the people of the Union 
 upon this important siibject. 
 
 A committee was appointed to prepare an address to the 
 people of the United States. The tone of the address was far 
 from reassuring. " We will not conceal our anxiety," the 
 committee declared. " To our minds, the course of recent 
 events points to the entire dismemberment of the party ta 
 Avhich it is our pride to be attached." They were right. The 
 caucus seems not to have added a vote anywhere to Mr. Craw- 
 ford's strength. It seemed, indeed, to reveal his weakness, 
 even in Congress. The " National Intelligencer," the steadfast 
 advocate of Crawford, published a'statement of the preferences 
 of the members of both Houses. It set down 40 of the 260 
 members — there w^as one vacancy — as Federalists, and di- 
 vided the other 220 as follows : Crawford, 93 ; Adams, 38 ; 
 Clay, 32 ; Calhoun, 25 ; Jackson, 23. The canvass was 
 warmly disputed by the friends of the other candidates, one of 
 whom drew attention to the fact that the " Intelligencer " had 
 " lost " nine Democrats in its count, since the total number 
 accounted for was but 211.
 
 132 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Local and personal considerations predominated in the can- 
 vass that ensued. The caucus issue had served its purpose 
 and was not made prominent. The '* regularity " of the nom- 
 ination was urged by Crawford's friends, but other men cared 
 little about it. The " Boston Daily Advertiser " doubtless 
 expressed the feelings of many of Mr. Adams's supporters in 
 New England when it said they were going to vote for him 
 " because he is a citizen of this Commonwealth," and " not so 
 much because it is supposed that a majority of the electors 
 have felt any strong attachment for him." It is fair to say 
 that the '' Advertiser " was a Federalist paper still, and spoke 
 for its party friends, who still, perhaps, might have defeated 
 the Adams electoral ticket in Massachusetts if they had been 
 so disposed, and if it had been worth the effort. 
 
 The caucus ticket had been framed, in the selection of Mr. 
 Gallatin for A^ice-President, to capture the vote of Pennsylva- 
 nia. But it did not strengthen the cause. Mr. Gallatin's 
 eligibility was assailed, and he was forced to defend himself 
 against the charge of being a " foreigner." Although he had 
 been a resident of the United States since 1780, there was cer- 
 tainly a cloud upon his title as '* a citizen of the United States 
 at the time of the adoption of this Constitution." Neverthe- 
 less, he persisted in his candidacy until October, when he re- 
 tired from the canvass, " understanding that the withdrawal of 
 my name may have a favorable effect on the result " of the 
 approaching election. Mr. Calhoun had withdrawn as a can- 
 didate for the presidency, and there was a general concentra- 
 tion upon him as the candidate for the second place on the part 
 of all the anti-caucus forces, who had omitted, in their nomi- 
 nations, to name a Vice-President. It seems to have been in 
 the minds of the Crawford party that they might effect a coali- 
 tion with the supporters of Clay by giving the vice-presidency 
 to the Kentucky statesman. A suggestion of such a union 
 was rejected Avith scorn by the Clay men, and Mr, Gallatin's 
 retirement had no perceptible effect on the canvass. 
 
 Long before the voting began, it was evident to all that 
 there was to be no choice of President by the electors, and 
 that the election would go, for the second time, to the House 
 of Representatives ; furthermore, that each of the four candi- 
 dates — for Clinton had developed no strength in the can- 
 vass — would receive many electoral votes. Three only could 
 go before the House. It therefore was the aim of every group
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 
 
 to secure enough votes for its candidate to make him one of 
 the three. 
 
 As in 1820, twenty-four States took part in the election. 
 Electors were appointed by the legislatures in Vermont, New 
 York, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. In 
 the other eighteen States they were chosen by the people ; by 
 districts in Maine, Maryland, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri ; 
 elsewhere, by general ticket. 
 
 The legislature of New York (entitled to 36 electors) con- 
 tained supporters of three of the candidates. The law governing 
 elections by the legislature required that each house should 
 ballot separately until it made a choice by a majority of votes. 
 If the two branches agreed in the election, they met in joint con- 
 vention and declared the result. If different persons had been 
 elected, the election was made by ballot in joint convention ; 
 and here also a majority was required. The election began 
 on the 10th of November. On that day the Senate made 
 choice of the Crawford electors. The senators were divided in 
 their preferences thus : for Crawford, 17 ; for Adams, 7 ; for 
 Clay, 7. In the Assembly there was no choice : the Crawford 
 ticket had 43 votes, the Adams 50, the Clay 32. Combined, 
 therefore, the strength of the three candidates was : Crawford, 
 60 ; Adams, 57 ; Clay, 39. The balloting in the Assembly 
 continued on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of November with the 
 change of only a single vote. On the 12th, some of the Craw- 
 ford men announced their purpose of voting for the Adams 
 ticket in order to transfer the contest to a joint convention and 
 to defeat Mr. Clay. This threat produced an effect upon the 
 Clay men, who, on the following day, themselves supported 
 the Adams ticket and gave it the required majority. The fact 
 that an election had been effected by the Assembly was hur- 
 riedly communicated to some of the Crawford senators before 
 the oi^icial notice could be sent, and the Senate hastily ad- 
 journed. On Monday, the 15th, the joint convention was 
 held, and a ballot was taken. The whole number of ballots 
 was 157, but three of them were blank votes. Seven friends 
 of Mr. Clay, who had been placed upon the Crawford ticket 
 in hope of inducing the Clay men to support the whole ticket, 
 had 95 votes. The rest of the Crawford ticket had 76 votes. 
 Twenty-five of the names on the Adams ticket had 78 votes 
 each, which was exactly a majority of 154, the number of effec- 
 tive ballots, but one less than a majority of the whole number,
 
 134 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 including the blanks. A resolution was offered declaring the 
 thirty-two electors who had 78 or more votes to be chosen. 
 The Speaker of the Senate refused to put the question. A 
 long debate and a scene of tumult and confusion such as has 
 rarely taken place in a legislative body ensued ; and in the end 
 the presiding officer, followed by the sixteen Crawford sen- 
 ators, left the Assembly Chamber. But at last the resolution 
 was separately adopted by each House. The two branches met 
 again, and completed the election by the choice of four Craw- 
 ford men by a bare majority. 
 
 At tlie meeting of the electors, three of those who had been 
 expected to vote for Clay deserted him and went, one each, to 
 Adams, Crawford, and Jackson. It will be seen by reference 
 to the table of electoral votes (page 140) that, if they had all 
 voted for Mr. Clay, his vote and Crawford's would have been 
 equal, and the names of Adams and Jackson only would have 
 gone before the House of Representatives. 
 
 In Delaware there was a parliamentary problem of a charac- 
 ter somewhat similar to that in New York. The number of 
 members present at the joint meeting of the two houses of the 
 legislature was 30. One elector (for Adams) received 21 votes, 
 and was no doubt elected. Two Crawford men had 15 votes 
 each, and seven other candidates had from 1 to 10 each. The 
 law of Delaware provided that, "if an equal division of ballots 
 shall appear for two or more persons, not being elected by a 
 majority of the votes, the Speaker of the Senate shall have an 
 additional casting vote." This was clearly not a case of the kind 
 contemplated by the statute, which intended that the Speaker 
 should decide between two or more equal and opposing candi- 
 dates. If only one of the two Crawford men had received 15 
 votes, he could not have given a casting vote. As there were 
 two equal candidates he gave an additional vote for each, and 
 declared them elected. He followed the letter of the statute 
 beyond a doubt. 
 
 The election of 1824 is the first with reference to which an 
 attempt has been made to test the result by a comparison of 
 the popular vote for the several candidates. The statement 
 which is to be found in most of the political almanacs and com- 
 pendiums of political information, even to the present day, is 
 one which, it is believed, originated in an early number of Mr. 
 Greeley's Whig Almanac, as follows : —
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 135 
 
 For Jackson 152,899 
 
 Adams 105,321 
 
 Crawford 47,265 
 
 Clay 47,087 
 
 The statement is inaccurate ; and, when it has been cor- 
 rected, it is misleading. No exact table of popular votes can 
 be presented. In five States only were all four candidates re- 
 presented at the polls. In six others there were three tickets ; 
 in seven there were but two tickets ; in six States the electors 
 were chosen by the legislature. Throughout New England 
 the ticket in opposition to Adams was that supported by the 
 caucus committee, and the votes should doubtless all be given 
 to Crawford. In North Carolina there was a fusion of the 
 friends of Jackson and Adams. The " old North State " 
 had contained from the earliest times a strong body of Federal- 
 ists, who were all opposed to Crawford, and were disposed to 
 support Mr. Adams. It was estimated that at least five thou- 
 sand of them voted for the f\;sion electoral ticket ; but, inas- 
 much as the electors voted for Jackson, all their votes are cred-. 
 ited to him. A careful study of the returns from all the 
 States, in most cases official, and in every case a full return, 
 results in the table given on page 136. 
 
 The difference in the totals of the two statements is not 
 important. But neither statement is valuable as indicating the 
 will of the people on the question of the presidency. Vir- 
 ginia, with a white population of 625,000, cast an aggregate 
 of less than 15,000 votes ; Pennsylvania, with a population 
 of something more than a million, cast a few more than 47,000 
 votes, which was but a little larger number than that of 
 Massachusetts, 37,000, with a population of less than 600,000 ; 
 and Massachusetts, at the election of the previous year, had 
 given more than 66,000 votes for governor. If to such in- 
 equalities as these we add those produced by the total omis- 
 sion from the list of all votes from six States which contained 
 more than one fourth of the whole population of the country, 
 the lack of significance of the statement of popular votes may 
 be understood. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by more than two 
 thirds of the electoral votes. There was no choice of a Presi- 
 dent. Mr. Crawford, the caucus candidate, barely succeeded 
 in securing a place among the first three candidates. Con- 
 gress assembled on the 6th of December, five days after the
 
 136 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Maine . . . . 
 New Hampshire . 
 Vermont t . . . 
 Massachusetts 
 Rhode Island . . 
 Connecticut . . 
 New York J . . 
 New Jersey . . 
 Pennsylvania . . 
 Delaware | . . 
 Maryland . . . 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina . 
 South Carolina X 
 Georgia J . . . 
 Alabama . . . 
 Mississippi . . 
 Louisiana J . . 
 Kentucky . . . 
 Tennessee . . . 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 X3hio 
 
 Indiana . . . . 
 Illinois . . . . 
 
 Total . 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 10,985 
 36,100 
 
 14,523 
 
 2,861 
 20,4151 
 
 9,443 
 3,234 
 
 6,455 
 20,197 
 
 987 
 
 18,457 
 
 7,343 
 
 1,901 
 
 152,901 
 
 10,289 
 9,389 
 
 30,687 
 2,145 
 
 7,587 
 
 9,110 
 5,441 
 
 14,632 
 3,189 
 
 2,416 
 1,694 
 
 216 
 
 311 
 
 12,280 
 
 3,095 
 
 1,542 
 
 114,023 
 
 Crawford. 
 
 2,336* 
 643t 
 
 6,616* 
 
 200* 
 
 1,978* 
 
 1,196§ 
 4,206 
 
 3,364 
 
 8,489 
 
 15,621 
 
 1,680 
 119 
 
 312 
 
 219 
 
 46,979 
 
 Clay. 
 
 1,690 
 
 695 
 416 
 
 67 
 
 17,331 
 
 1,401 
 
 19,255 
 
 5,315 
 
 1,047 
 
 47,217 
 
 * Opposition ticket, t Opposition ticket, wrongly credited in former editions to Jack- 
 son. Z Electors appointed by legislature. § '"Convention" ticket. || "People's" 
 ticket. 
 
 meeting of the electors. Although it was known that there 
 had been no choice of a President, no notice was taken of the 
 fact until the 13th of January. 1825, when Mr. Wright, of Ohio, 
 oflfered a resolution for the appointment of a committee — 
 
 To prepare and report such rules as, in their opinion, may be 
 proper to be observed by this House in the choice of a President 
 of the United States, for the period of four years from the 4th 
 day of March next, if, on counting the votes given in the several 
 States in the manner prescribed in the Constitution of the United 
 States, it shall appear that no person has received a majority of 
 all the electors of President and Vice-President appointed in the 
 several States. 
 
 This resolution was adopted on the 18th of January, and 
 the committee was appointed, which reported, on the 26th, a 
 plan that was in some respects different from that adopted in 
 1801, but the changes were not important.
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 137 
 
 The Senate proposed, on the 1st of February, to raise a 
 joint committee " to ascertain and report a mode of examining 
 the votes " in the usual form. The committee was appointed, 
 and reported a resolution similar to those adopted in former 
 years, but containing a clause made necessary by the fact that 
 there was no choice of a President. When this resolution 
 came up in the Senate, Mr. Eaton, of Tennessee, moved to add 
 a new paragraph to the effect that, if objection should be made 
 to any vote, it should be filed in writing and entered on the 
 journals of the two Houses ; that the two Houses should not 
 separate until all the votes had been counted and reported ; 
 but that the report of the result should be " liable to be con- 
 trolled and altered by the decision to be made by the two 
 Houses, after their separation, relative to any objections that 
 may be made," provided that no objection should be considered 
 valid unless so voted by both Houses. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren opposed this clause, and after debate it was 
 rejected. No objections were made, it may be said here, to 
 any votes at the time of the count ; but in May, after the 
 election, Mr. Wilde, of Georgia, introduced in the House of 
 Representatives a resolution that a message be sent to the 
 Senate requesting copies of all the certificates of electoral 
 votes. In a long speech he gave his reason for making this 
 motion, which was that few of the certificates were strictly cor- 
 rect and in due form. They either did not assert that the 
 electors voted in distinct ballots for President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent, or they did not report a vote by ballot, — distinct bal- 
 lots being reqviired by the Constitution. The resolution was 
 opposed on the ground that it was too late, and that " the 
 elections in the States were not subject to revision by Con- 
 gress," and, on motion, was laid on the table. 
 
 Before the day for counting the votes, February 9, there 
 was a great scandal in the House of Representatives. The 
 situation was one which invited intrigue, and no doubt there 
 was much bargaining and attempted trading of votes. The 
 excitement ran high. The votes of thirteen States were 
 necessary for a choice. Mr. Adams was sure of the unani- 
 mous votes of the six New England States, and of a majority 
 in New York, Maryland, and Ohio. Mr. Crawford would 
 have Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. The 
 vmiversal expectation was that Mr. Adams would be chosen; 
 and a desire to avoid such a long and perilous contest as had
 
 138 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 taken place in 1801, as well as a desire to be on the winning 
 side, helped his cause. In the midst of the excitement a letter 
 was published in the '' Columbian Observer " of Philadelphia, 
 on January 28, dated at Washington, from which the follow- 
 ing is extracted : — 
 
 For some time past, the friends of Clay have hinted that they, 
 like the Swiss, would fight for those who would pay best. Over- 
 tures were said to have been made by the friends of Adams to the 
 friends of Clay, offering him the appointment of Secretary of 
 State for his aid to elect Adams. And the friends of Clay gave 
 this information to the friends of Jackson, and hinted that, if 
 the friends of Jackson would offer the same price, they would 
 close with them. 
 
 There was much more of the same sort, but this contains 
 the substance of the charge. ]VIr. Clay at once published a 
 card in which he asserted that he believed the letter was a 
 forgery, " but, if it be genuine, I pronounce the member, who- 
 ever he may be, a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard, 
 and a liar." Mr. George Kremer, of Pennsylvania, avowed 
 himself the author of the letter, and asserted his ability to 
 prove his assertions. The matter was brought to the attention 
 of the House by Mr. Clay, who was Speaker of the House at 
 the time, and a committee was raised to inquire into the mat- 
 ter. Mr. Kremer, in a long and labored but weak letter, 
 declined to appear before the committee. In spite of the 
 most positive denials of the truth of the story, and of an 
 absolute lack of any evidence to support the accusation, the 
 charge was persisted in and believed by all who had an in- 
 terest in believing it. Three years afterward, in the midst 
 of the ensuing canvass, General Jackson himself wrote a letter, 
 which was made public, in which he gave an account of an 
 interview in January, 1825, with a member of Congress 
 whom he understood to intimate that Mr. Clay's influence 
 might be detached from Mr. Adams and given to him on 
 certain terms. Jackson thus not only revived the old scandal, 
 but virtually affirmed his belief in the truth of the charge. 
 He afterward asserted that the member of Congress was James 
 Buchanan. Mr. Clay thereupon published a most emphatic 
 and sweeping denial, one sentence of which will suffice to 
 show its character : "I neither made, nor authorized, nor knew 
 of any proposition whatever to either of the three candidates 
 who were returned to the House of Representatives, at the
 
 THE DEFEAT OF " KING CAUCUS " 139 
 
 last presidential election, or to the friends of either of them, 
 for the purpose of influencing the result of the election, or for 
 any other purpose." Mr. Buchanan himself then made a 
 statement that it had " never once entered my head that he 
 [General Jackson] believed me to be the agent of Mr. Clay 
 or of his friends, or that I had intended to propose to him 
 terms of any kind from them." One might suppose that this 
 should have been conclusive. Even so thorough-going an 
 admirer of Jackson as James Parton admits that " no charge 
 was ever more plausible or more groundless . . . none was 
 ever more completely refuted." Yet Jackson persisted in 
 it to the end, and took pains, in 1844, only a year before his 
 death, to deny that he had " recanted " it, and to affirm that 
 his opinion " had undergone no change." 
 
 There is no need to rely on negative testimony to prove 
 Mr. Clay's innocence ; for almost immediately after the meet- 
 ings of the electors he had announced to Senator Thomas H. 
 Benton his intention to %upport Mr. Adams. Mr. Benton 
 records, in his "Thirty Years' View," the fact that Mr. Clay 
 made to him a communication of this intention before the 15th 
 of December, 1824, which, Mr. Benton believes, was " proba- 
 bly before Mr. Adams knew it himself." It is a pity that 
 Mr. Benton did not make public the evidence in his possession 
 until November, 1827, when all possible harm to Mr. Clay's 
 reputation which the false accusation could do had long been 
 done. Of course the purpose of keeping the scandal alive was 
 the defeat of Mr. Adams, who could not be innocent if Mr. 
 Clay had been guilty of the corrupt bargain. It is only be- 
 cause of its bearing on the ensuing election, and because the 
 accusation, if true, would have been an indelible stain upon 
 the character of one of our Presidents, that so much attention 
 has been given to it in these pages. 
 
 The electoral votes were counted on the 9th of February, 
 1825. The result as announced is given on page 140. 
 
 The President of the Senate, Mr. Gaillard, then declared 
 that no person had received a majority of the votes given for 
 President of the United States ; that Andrew Jackson, John 
 Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford were the three 
 persons who had received the highest number of votes, and 
 that the remaining duties in the choice of a President now 
 devolved upon the House of Representatives ; and that John 
 C. Calhoun was duly elected Vice-President.
 
 140 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 
 
 
 Pbesioent. 
 
 Vice-Pbebident. 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 (H 
 
 d 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 S 
 
 O 
 
 
 QQ 
 
 S<q 
 
 !zi 
 
 ^ 
 
 (h' 
 
 
 States. 
 
 o 
 
 I-9 
 
 1 
 
 ■o" 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 a' 
 § 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 g 
 "3 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 £ 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 t 
 
 d 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 U 
 
 i 
 
 
 •3 
 
 cy 
 
 n 
 
 o 
 
 5 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 > 
 
 t> 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 hj 
 
 ^ 
 
 PC 
 
 o 
 
 1-5 
 
 C3 
 
 in 
 
 08 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
 td 
 
 Maine 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Miissachusetts 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 15 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 4 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 8 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 New York . 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 26 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 29 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 28 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 — , 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 2 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 Alabama . . 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Mississippi . 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Ohio . . . 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Indiana . . 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Illinois . . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Total .... 
 
 99 
 
 84 
 
 41 
 
 37 
 
 182 
 
 30 
 
 24 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 The Senate having retired, the House immediately pro- 
 ceeded to elect a President. A roll-call showed that every 
 member of the House except Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, who 
 was sick at his lodgings in Washington, was present. Mr. 
 Webster, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, 
 were appointed tellers. The House conducted the election 
 according to the rules already adopted, and on the first bal- 
 lot Jahn Quincy Adams was chosen. The votes of thirteen 
 States were given to him, those of seven to Jackson, and of 
 four to Crawford. The Speaker declared Mr. Adams elected, 
 and notice of the result was sent to the Senate. The votes of
 
 THE DEFEAT OF "KING CAUCUS" 
 
 141 
 
 the States are shown by the following table, which indicates 
 both the divisions within the delegations and the person for 
 whom the vote of each State was given. 
 
 Maine . . . 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont . . 
 Massachusetts 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut . 
 New York . . 
 New Jersey . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware . 
 Maryland . . 
 Virginia . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Georgia . . . 
 Alabama . , 
 Mississippi 
 Louisiana . . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Tennessee . . 
 Missouri . . 
 Ohio. . . . 
 Indiana . . . 
 Illinois . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 Adams. 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 Crawford. 
 
 Vote for — 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 Adams- 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Adamsa 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Adams. 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 Adams. 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Adams. 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Adams. 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 Adams. 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 - 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 Crawford. 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 Adams. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 Crawford. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 Crawford. 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 _ 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 Crawford. 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 Adams. 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 _ 
 
 Adams. 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Adams. 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Adams. 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Adams. 
 
 87 
 
 71 
 
 54 
 
 
 The inauguration of Mr. Adams took place in the Repre- 
 sentatives' Hall. A military escort accompanied the retiring 
 President and the President-elect to the Capitol, where all the 
 departments of the governnient and representatives of foreign 
 powers had assembled. Mr. Adams, as all of his predecessors 
 had been on a similar occasion, was arrayed in a full suit of 
 plain cloth of American manufacture. Mr. Adams rose and 
 read bis inaugural address in a firm voice, after which the oath 
 was administered to him by the venerable Chief Justice Mar- 
 shall. Among the first to take the hand of Mr. Adams, after 
 the ceremony, was Senator Andrew Jackson.
 
 XII 
 
 JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 
 
 Mr. Adams was foredoomed to defeat in 1828, — from the 
 day of his inauguration. His political enemies were the most 
 astute managers the country had produced. They had the 
 chagrin of a failure to wipe out and avenge. They had a can- 
 didate ready for the canvass for whom it was easy to arouse 
 popular enthusiasm. On the other hand, Mr. Adams, while sup- 
 ported hy faithful and trusty statesmen, was surrounded also 
 by officers whom he retained in the places to which they had 
 been appointed by his predecessor, although he was fully aware 
 of their treachery toward himself. Senators came to him 
 to assure him that they were friendly to his administration, 
 and then went to the Capitol and voted with the opposition, 
 and assisted in passing some of the most malignantly insulting 
 resolutions ever spread upon the records of the Senate. One 
 member of the President's official family, the Postmaster- 
 General, not then admitted to the cabinet, used the patronage 
 of his office, during the whole of the four years' term, to the 
 injury of the administration. More than once the members 
 of the cabinet united in an earnest request to Mr. Adams to 
 remove him ; but he refused. The President would not, even 
 when another man would have been goaded by desperation to 
 turn upon his perfidious office-holders, remove any man because 
 that man was not his personal supporter. There are numerous 
 entries in his diary showing his steady adherence to a policy 
 which is most completely set forth in this passage : " I see yet 
 no reason sufficient to justify a departure from the principle 
 with which I entered upon the administration, of removing no 
 public officer for merely preferring another candidate for the 
 presidency." 
 
 Another fact which would alone have been fatal to Mr. 
 Adams's hopes of reelection, if he had entertained such hopes, 
 was his lack of the personal qualities that attract popular sup- 
 port. At best he had been, in 1824, but the candidate of a
 
 JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 143 
 
 minority. To ensure success at the next election it would 
 have been necessary to find new friends among those who had 
 been rather the adherents of other candidates than direct oppo- 
 nents of himself. He was not the man to conciliate. He was 
 made of too stern and uncompromising stuff. He would stoop 
 to none of the arts of the politician, not even to measures 
 which in these days of undoubtedly greater political virtue are 
 deemed innocent and harmless. He was too good for this 
 wicked world, — not too wise, not too tactful, not too tolerant. 
 He was nevertheless wise enough to be aware that he had little 
 or no chance of reelection. His diary during 1828 abounds 
 in comments upon the hopeful assurances of his visitors, stat- 
 ing in plain language that he was not deceived by them. He 
 remarks upon Mr. Rush's preference for the mission to Eng- 
 land to the chance of being elected Vice-President on the ticket 
 with himself: "I can easily conjecture what it is — the pre- 
 ference of the harbor to the tempest." Again, when he is 
 communing with himself upon the appointment of Governor 
 Barbour to the same place he says, May 1, 1828, " In my own 
 political downfall I am bound to involve unnecessarily none of 
 my friends." He thinks the effect of the appointment upon 
 the administration will be bad, — "violent, and probably deci- 
 sive. But why should I require men to sacrifice themselves for 
 me?" 
 
 The political questions that arose during Mr. Adams's ad- 
 ministration were by no means of such importance as to justify 
 the formation of parties where none existed before. It is 
 impossible to comprehend how men who, at the outset, had no 
 complaint against Mr. Adams save that he had been successful 
 over their own candidate, could have worked themselves into 
 opposition so rancorous as they manifested to the proposi- 
 tion of the Panama mission, — a conference of American repub- 
 lics. It was a harmless scheme that promised good results ; 
 but these men jumped upon it and trampled it under their 
 feet with fury, for no better reason than that it was a project 
 which the President and Mr. Clay desired most earnestly to 
 see carried through. It was upon this measure that, as Mr. 
 Adams himself records, in January, 1826, the first attempt was 
 made " to unite the Jackson, Crawford, and Calhoun forces." 
 The tariff became an issue in politics in 1828 ; but that was 
 long after the opposition was fully organized and felt itself on 
 the eve of victory. Mr. Adams's position on the question of
 
 144 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 internal improvements was not that of a majority of those who 
 had supported other candidates ; but the question was not one 
 of sufficient importance to alienate any of them. It was an 
 excuse rather than a reason for opposition. Moreover, General 
 Jackson, as a senator, had voted for internal improvements, 
 and had acted throughout with the protectionists in passing the 
 tariff act of 1824. The opposition press teemed with falsehoods, 
 absurd on their face or easily disproved, yet repeated in spite 
 of ample proof of their untruth. The popular outcry against 
 Freemasonry that arose after the affair of Morgan is a good 
 example of the misrepresentation to which the President was 
 subjected. He was not a Freemason ; indeed he was actively 
 opposed to the order. Yet in regions where the anti-masonic 
 feeling was strong, he was published as being a member of the 
 order, and a pretended transcript from the records of a lodge 
 was issued, in which his admission was recorded. The old 
 and oft disproved story of a *' corrupt bargain " between him- 
 self and Clay was revived. No tale was too preposterous to 
 be invented if it would make votes against this honorable, high- 
 minded man, whose intentions were as good and whose patriot- 
 ism was as pure as that of any man who ever sat in the Presi- 
 dent's chair. 
 
 The canvass of 1828 opened in October, 1825, before Mr. 
 Adams had met Congress at all, and before he had indicated, 
 except in his inaugural address, what was to be his policy. 
 The Tennessee legislature nominated General Jackson for the 
 succession. He accepted the nomination in an address which 
 he delivered before the two Houses of the legislature, and 
 resigned his seat in the Senate. Other legislatures, conven- 
 tions, caucuses, and public meetings in all parts of the country 
 also nominated the general. But in order to make his election 
 certain it was deemed necessary to bring to his support the 
 friends of Crawford. This is supposed to have been effected 
 by a mission through the South undertaken after the close of 
 the session of Congress in March, 1827, by Martin Van Buren 
 and Churchill C. Cambreling, — the two most prominent New 
 York politicians of the time. Mr. Van Buren, on his way 
 through Washington in May, called on the President. Mr. 
 Adams was not ignorant of the object of the tour. "They 
 are generally understood to have been electioneering, and Van 
 Buren is now the great electioneering manager for General 
 Jackson, as he was before the last election for Mr. Crawford."
 
 JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 145 
 
 The basis of the campaign was the alleged " wrong " done to 
 General Jackson in 1825 when, having the largest number of 
 electoral votes and of popular votes, he was set aside in favor 
 of Mr. Adams. Those who made this complaint paid but a 
 poor compliment to the intelligence of those to whom it was 
 addressed. If the framers of the Constitution had intended 
 that a plurality of popular or of electoral votes should decide 
 the election of President they would not have devised the 
 elaborate system of election by the House of Representatives. 
 Those who desire to see worked out the flimsy argument that 
 the people were defrauded in 1825 by the defeat of a candi- 
 date who had but a plurality of votes, given under a system 
 that did not contemplate popular elections, will find it in Ben- 
 ton's " Thirty Years' View." His exposition of what he calls 
 " the Demos Krateo principle " is a brilliant specimen of rea- 
 soning from false premises. 
 
 The candidacy of Mr. Adams for reelection was taken for 
 granted. If there were any meetings, legislative or other, at 
 which his name was formally presented, the nomination was of 
 no value in the canvass. The question of the vice-presidency 
 was much discussed. Calhoun, of course, was out of the ques- 
 tion. From the beginning he had been ian enemy of the 
 administration ; and it was plain to see that he was to be the 
 candidate of the Jacksonians for reelection. As early as 
 February, 1826, Mr. Clay mentioned to Mr. Adams that he 
 had been approached by many persons on the subject of the 
 vice-presidency, and inquired what were the President's wishes. 
 For his own part he preferred to retain his office of Secretary 
 of State, but he was willing to do whatever would be best for 
 the administration. Mr. Adams, without making a final deci- 
 sion, was inclined to think Mr. Clay more useful in the State 
 Department. Mr. Clay reported also that Governor Barbour, 
 the Secretary of War, was much considered for the vice-presi- 
 dency. Two months later another caller upon the President 
 referred to the question of who should have the second place 
 on the ticket, " which, he says, W. H. Harrison looks to very 
 earnestly." Still later the strange suggestion was made that 
 Mr. W. H. Crawford should be nominated, and, more remark- 
 able still, it was pressed rather urgently. Mr. Adams gave no 
 countenance to this proposition, which he felt sure would re- 
 sult in nothing but treachery.^ The matter was finally settled 
 1 Mr. Adams, at the beginning of the administration, asked Mr. Crawford
 
 146 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 by the nomination of Mr. Richard Rush, the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, by the " administration " convention of Pennsyl- 
 vania, which met at Harrisburg, January 4, 1828. 
 
 The friends of the administration believed, or professed to 
 believe, to the last moment, that Mr. Adams would be re- 
 elected. They classed Pennsylvania among the doubtful 
 States, counted confidently upon the new States of the north- 
 west, — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, — and were encouraged, by 
 the success of the administration party at the state election in 
 Kentucky, as late as August, 1828, to believe that Mr. Clay's 
 State would support them. The administration party was 
 grossly deceived. Mr. Adams received fewer electoral votes 
 than he had in 1824 ; and not one of the votes given for Clay 
 four years before was transferred to him. 
 
 The last days of the canvass were made noteworthy by a 
 political incident highly characteristic of Mr. Adams, — an inci- 
 dent which, in these times of rapid dissemination of intelli- 
 gence, would have destroyed instantly any chances which a 
 candidate in Mr. Adams's situation might have had. Probably 
 it actually had but the slightest effect on the vote, and of 
 course none whatever upon the result. In October, 1828, the 
 month preceding the election, Mr. William B. Giles, of Vir- 
 ginia, a man intensely hostile to Mr. Adams, caused to be 
 published a statement regarding the circumstances of that 
 gentleman's secession from the Federalist party in 1808, and a 
 part of certain correspondence between Mr. Jefferson and him- 
 self (Giles) in 1825. A lack of candor on Mr. Giles's part 
 and a failure of memory on Mr. Jefferson's placed the conduct 
 of Mr. Adams in a highly unfavorable light. The President 
 authorized a reply which was printed in the " National Intelli- 
 gencer," in the course of which he made against certain lead- 
 ers of the Federal party in Massachusetts the grave charge of 
 a purpose to dissolve the Union. Thirteen gentlemen, eleven 
 of whom were certainly entitled to represent themselves as 
 
 to remain as Secretary of the Treasury. Some time afterward he learned, 
 greatly to his surprise, that just hefore the close of Mr. Monroe's term Craw- 
 ford had had a wordy altercation with the President, and had applied to him a 
 term which one gentleman never addresses to another. After that affair the 
 President and his Secretary of the Treasury were not on speaking terms, and 
 transacted the public business through an intermediary. Mr. Adams, record- 
 ing these facts in his diary, expresses regret that he had proposed to take Mr. 
 Crawford into the cabinet. His knowledge of the affair explains his objec- 
 cioa to the idea of the candidacy of Mr. Crawford for the vice-presidencj'.
 
 JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 147 
 
 among the chief Federalists of the State in 1808, while the 
 others were sons of two such leaders, demanded that he should 
 substantiate his charge, or retract it. An acrimonious corre- 
 spondence ensued. Mr. Adams never gave to the world his 
 final word on the subject, which he wrote at enormous length 
 just at the close of his administration. It was first published 
 in his grandson's "New England Federaliem." A candid 
 view of the case seems to be that disunion was discussed by 
 some of the members of what was long known as the '' Essex 
 Junto ; " but that the discussion was in an extremely narrow 
 circle, and that even among them the idea found but the most 
 limited acceptance. At all events Mr. Adams named but two 
 or three men who had ever heard of the scheme, although he 
 hinted at a larger number. Of course the assault by Mr. 
 Adams upon the Federalists generally, when those who had 
 been members of that party had but lately and reluctantly 
 come to his support, was calculated to make them anything 
 but zealous in his cause. Nevertheless it could operate upon 
 the minds of voters in that community only where the name 
 of Jackson symbolized all that was evil in politics ; and for 
 that reason it cost Adams few popular votes, and no electoral 
 votes. 
 
 The number of States that participated in the election of 
 1828 was unchanged, — twenty-four. Since the preceding 
 election, however, there had been a general change on the part 
 of those States which had previously chosen electors through 
 the medium of the legislature, to the popular system. Of the 
 six States wherein the legislature had exercised this privilege 
 in 1824, four changed to a popular election before 1828, — 
 Vermont, New York, Georgia, and Louisiana. The change in 
 New York was not effected without a great agitation of the 
 people. The legislature held to the powers it exercised as 
 long as it dared. Governor De Witt Clinton recommended 
 the change to the legislature at a special session called in 
 1820, on which occasion the Senate of New York refused to 
 perform any legislative duty whatever, and treated the Gov- 
 ernor with such open disrespect as has hardly ever been shown 
 toward a state executive by any department of government. 
 A bill was passed once, perhaps twice, by one branch of the 
 legislature, some years later, to confer the right on the people, 
 but the other branch rejected it. At last, the legislature, 
 affecting a doubt whether the people really cared for the privi-
 
 148 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 lege, passed an act formally submitting the question to them. 
 If there had been any real doubt the result of the popular 
 vote speedily dispelled it, and the legislature reluctantly yielded 
 to the urgent demand. 
 
 But there still existed differences in the systeftis of election, 
 even among those where there was an appointment of electors 
 by popular vote.- In the following States the election of 1828 
 was by general ticket, — the system which is now universal : 
 New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
 necticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, 
 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, 
 Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, — eighteen. Some of these, 
 like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina, having 
 tried for many years to secure the district system by amend- 
 ment of the Constitution, had despaired of success, and adopted 
 the general ticket. Of the six States not named above, two, 
 Delaware and South Carolina, clung to the old method of legis- 
 lative appointment. In Maine and New York, an elector 
 
 States. 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 Adams. 
 
 Mode of Election. 
 
 Maine 
 
 New Hampshire .... 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Massachusetts .... 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 New York 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina .... 
 South Carolina .... 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Illinois 
 
 13,927 
 
 20,922 
 
 8,350 
 
 6,016 
 
 821 
 
 4,448 
 
 140,763 
 
 21,951 
 
 101,652 
 
 24,565 
 26,752 
 
 37,857 
 
 19,363 
 
 17,138 
 
 6,772 
 
 4,603 
 39,397 
 44,293 
 
 8,272 
 67,597 
 22,257 
 
 9,560 
 
 20,733 
 24,134 
 25,363 
 
 29,876 
 2,7.54 
 13,838 
 135,413 
 23,7(54 
 50,848 
 
 25,527 
 12,101 
 13,918 
 
 No opposition. 
 
 1,938 
 
 1,.581 
 
 4,076 
 
 31,460 
 
 2,240 
 
 3,400 
 
 63,396 
 
 17,052 
 
 4,662 
 
 Districts. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 Districts. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 Legislature. 
 Districts. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 Legislature. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 Districts. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 General ticket. 
 
 Total 
 
 647,276 
 
 508,064 

 
 JACKSON'S TRIUMPH 
 
 149 
 
 was chosen for each representative district, and the members 
 so appointed chose the two additional electors. In Maryland 
 and Tennessee, the States were specially divided into districts 
 for the choice of all their electors. There was, however, a 
 divided vote of the electors in three only of the States. 
 
 The table on page 148 shows the popular vote of the States, 
 and the manner of choosing electors in each State. 
 
 The electoral count was quite devoid of incident. The re- 
 sult, which was ascertained and declared in the usual manner, 
 was as follows : — 
 
 
 Pkesident. 
 
 VlCE-PBBSn)BNT. 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 States. 
 
 
 
 ai 
 
 
 o 
 
 03 
 
 
 S 
 
 <i 
 
 o 
 
 - 
 
 A 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 JS 
 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 o 
 
 ■3 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 
 •? 
 
 .9 
 
 o 
 
 Ph 
 
 ai 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 ^ 
 
 d 
 
 ^ 
 
 .£3 
 
 a 
 
 
 ■< 
 
 o 
 
 1-5 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 8 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 - 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 7 
 15 
 
 ~ 
 
 7 
 15 
 
 _ 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 _ 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 .8 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 _ 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 28 
 
 - 
 
 28 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 ~ 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 5 
 14 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 14 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Ohio 
 
 16 
 5 
 
 : 
 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 : 
 
 _ 
 
 Indiana 
 
 _ 
 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 : 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 : 
 
 _ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 178 
 
 83 
 
 171 
 
 83 
 
 7
 
 150 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 " Hurrah for Jackson ! " had been the rallying cry of the 
 campaign, and the answer to every campaign argument against 
 him, — some of them true, many of them false. Those who 
 had worked to bring him in felt sure that they were to be 
 rewarded, and they flocked to Washington for the inauguration 
 in such throngs as the capital had never before seen. General 
 Jackson's own progress from Tennessee to the seat of govern- 
 ment was one prolonged triumph. Shouting crowds of de- 
 lighted partisans were at every steamboat landing. On the 
 day of the inauguration the streets were so blocked that the 
 procession which accompanied the President-elect could hardly 
 make its way to the Capitol. The ceremonies took place on 
 the eastern portico of the building, in the presence of a vast 
 multitude of men from every part of the country, who could 
 not repress their joy at the prospect that " the rights of the 
 people " were at last restored to them.
 
 XIII 
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 
 
 There will always be two opinions concerning the character 
 of Andrew Jackson and of his administration, — as to the fit- 
 ness of the man for the position of President, as to the worthi- 
 ness of the motives which actuated his official conduct, as to 
 his influence upon the political morals of his country. His 
 administration was a period of turmoil, and, whether he was 
 right or wrong, he caused it. Another man than he would 
 have taken the view that the good name of the government 
 was of greater concern to him as its chief than that of any 
 man — or woman ; and would not have deemed it in accord- 
 ance with a dignified and high-minded conduct of public affairs 
 that the smallest — to say nothing of the greatest — govern- 
 mental questions should be involved with the question whether 
 or not a certain woman, however unjustly accused, should be 
 received in the society of the capital. Another man than he 
 would not have sought a quarrel with the officer with whom 
 he had been associated on the national ticket, on account of an 
 opinion by that officer ten years before, in the privacy of a 
 cabinet council, upon one of his — Jackson's — acts. These two 
 incidents, the attempt to force the unwilling wives of his cab- 
 inet officers to associate with Mrs. Eaton, and the breach with 
 Mr. Calhoun which was apparently planned deliberately by 
 the President and Mr. Van Buren, are striking examples of 
 the change that came over the government when Mr. Adams 
 went out and General Jackson came in. They were both 
 characteristic of the new regime ; neither would have been pos- 
 sible under the old. 
 
 The change was broad as well as deep. It began with the 
 reign of terror among the office-holders. Yet the upheaval 
 of the civil service effected by Jackson was the most logical 
 and consistent change that was introduced at this time. There 
 had been no reason for the rejection of Mr. Adams and the 
 election of General Jackson, save a personal preference for
 
 152 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Jackson. If that was a good reason for substituting one Pre- 
 sident for another, it was surely sufficient to justify " rotation " 
 in the minor offices, rotating out those who did not, and rotat- 
 ing in those who did, approve and assist in making the greater 
 substitution. No President before Jackson had so good reason 
 as he to regard his elevation as a personal triumph, or to as- 
 sume that the whole responsibility of government was intrusted 
 to him. That fact may explain why he felt justified in dis- 
 playing anger when the Senate exercised its constitutional 
 right to reject his nominations ; why he adopted a dictatorial 
 tone toward Congress"; why he discarded the old custom of 
 consulting the members of his cabinet on momentous public 
 questions, and sought the advice of a coterie of politicians, his 
 devoted slaves, who were derisively styled the *' kitchen cab- 
 inet." 
 
 He was conscious of no scruples in violating rules which he 
 himself had laid down for the conduct of others. In the letter 
 in which he resigned his seat in the Senate, in 1825, he put 
 more stress upon the importance of rendering the executive 
 independent of Congress than upon anything else. This les- 
 son came to him from the appointment of Mr. Clay, a member 
 of the House of Representatives, to a cabinet office, by Mr. 
 Adams. He urged, and argued at length in favor of, an 
 amendment to the Constitution, " rendering any member of 
 Congress ineligible to office under the general government dur- 
 ing the term for which he was elected, and for two years there- 
 after." Yet when he made up his own cabinet he took four 
 of its six members from Congress. A morbid suspicion of 
 others ; a combativeness of disposition that led him to see 
 causes of quarrel where none existed, and to take up the quar- 
 rels of others in the intervals of his own ; and a total lack of 
 that sense of proportion which might have informed him 
 what was and what was not worth fighting about ; — this com- 
 bination of personal qualities in the President had the effect of 
 making his administration as turbulent a period as has been 
 known in our history, and one on which those who enjoy a 
 quiet life can never dwell with pleasure. 
 
 It would be uncandid not to add that most of those who 
 have not studied the history of the time, and many of those 
 who have studied it, take a radically different view of the 
 matter from that which is here presented. To them Jackson 
 is a man who rescued the country from great constitutional
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 153 
 
 errors — the doctrines of his immediate predecessor ; who at- 
 tacked and destroyed the " Monster," — the Bank of the 
 United States ; who instituted a great reform when he made 
 a clean sweep of the office-holders, and filled their places with 
 " true Republicans ; " whose policy was, to use the words of one 
 of his stanchest admirers, Mr. Benton, " to simplify and purify 
 the workings of the government, and to carry it back to the 
 times of Mr. Jefferson — to promote its economy and efficiency, 
 and to maintain the rights of the people and of the States in 
 its administration." That he was the sturdiest and most faith- 
 ful of friends to those whom he liked and who were true to 
 him, is attested by his zeal in doing favors for them at the 
 sacrifice of his own dignity. Moreover, his masterful, over- 
 bearing character did not prevent — it might perhaps have 
 been the cause of — a personal popularity that outlasted his 
 administration and his life, and is perpetuated in a Jackson 
 cult to this day. To his conduct in one emergency, nullifica- 
 tion in South Carolina, none will give more unqualified and 
 unstinted praise than those who regard the period of his ad- 
 ministration as one of national demoralization. 
 
 Undoubtedly he was the man for his time. He had not the 
 support of those who regarded government as a serious busi- 
 ness, to be conducted from high motives and with calmness 
 and decorum. But those people were a minority. His adop- 
 tion of the principle first formulated by Marcy, that " to the 
 victors belong the spoils of the enemy," was applauded and 
 approved. He degraded national politics to the level of a 
 game wherein the shrewdest and the strongest, rather than the 
 best and the Avisest, were to come off the victors ; yet he 
 merely extended the operation of a principle that had long 
 been dominant in the affairs of the great States of New York 
 and Pennsylvania, and gave to a great majority of the people 
 of the country a government of a sort which they preferred to 
 that which had preceded it. Thus he attracted more than he 
 repelled ; he pleased more of the men of his generation than 
 he offended ; and when the appeal was made to the voters of 
 the country to pass judgment upon his doings, a compact, en- 
 thusiastic body of his supporters confronted a disorganized and 
 discordant opposition. 
 
 General Jackson, in his first message to Congress, December 
 8, 1829, expressed the opinion that " it would seem advisable 
 to limit the service of the chief magistrate to a single term of
 
 154 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 either four or six years.' ' ^ Three months afterward, in March, 
 1830, Major W. B. Lewis, one of the " kitchen cabinet," 
 Avrote to a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, urging the 
 importance of the reelection of General Jackson in 1832. He 
 enclosed a draft of a letter, addressed to the President, begging 
 him to stand for reelection, to be signed by the members of the 
 legislature. It was signed by sixty-eight members, and sent 
 to the general. Although he thought the liberties of the peo- 
 ple would be safer if a President did not seek reelection, he 
 evidently did not fear that those liberties would be endangered 
 by his own reelection ; for he acceded tacitly to the above- 
 mentioned spontaneous demand. 
 
 Few of the measures of the period between 1829 and 1832 
 had a direct bearing upon the question of the presidential suc- 
 cession ; for that was already settled. But they did have a 
 great part in bringing about a division of the people into 
 parties, and in determining which of these parties should be 
 successful. General Jackson made the question of internal 
 improvements one of leading importance by his veto of the 
 IMaysville-road bill, in May, 1830. He thus attached to the 
 party of which he was the chief, all those who, in this par- 
 ticular, favored a " strict construction " of the Constitution. 
 He took the part of Georgia and Alabama in their effort to 
 possess themselves of the lands owned by the Creek and 
 Cherokee Indians, and thereby gave encouragement to the 
 Georgia nullifiers, which he afterward more than neutralized 
 by his courageous and patriotic action against South Carolina 
 nullification. Jackson's attitude on the question of the dis- 
 position of the public lands made him popular in the western 
 States; although a disagreement between the two Houses of 
 Congress prevented defi-nite action. 
 
 The tariff of 1828, styled by its opponents a " tariff of 
 abominations," had been passed amid great excitement during 
 the last year of Adams's administration, but was by no means 
 an administration measure. It was most bitterly denounced 
 at the South, and caused the first steps toward nullification in 
 South Carolina. The defiance of the national authority by 
 that State became most serious when the tarifi" act of 1832 was 
 
 1 He repeated this recommendation, in conjunction with one for an amend- 
 ment of the Constitution providing for an election of President by the people, 
 in the five succeeding annual messages.
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 155 
 
 passed, leaving untouched the protective duties that had caused 
 the greatest otfence. 
 
 Jackson's most popular act was his assault upon the Bank 
 of the United States. It is not to the purpose to urge either 
 that he was right or that he was wrong ; that he undertook 
 the "war" because he thought Mr. Biddle, the president, 
 wished to thwart him, or because he believed the Bank en- 
 dangered the liberties of 'the people. The act was popular, 
 as assaults upon capitalists, '^ bloated bondholders," " trusts," 
 and " the money power " have always been, in this country. 
 
 The candidacy of General Jackson for reelection being 
 predetermined, the only matter which remained for the 
 Democrats to consider was the choice of a candidate for Vice- 
 President. The President was in favor of Martin Van Buren, 
 the Secretary of State. It is clear that he allowed Mr, Van 
 Buren to have a free hand, and to make all his arrangements 
 with a view to the succession. His letter resigning his seat 
 in the cabinet, April, 1831, was a skilfully worded announce- 
 ment that he was a candidate for the place when General 
 Jackson should retire. The President nominated him as 
 minister to England, and he departed for his post during the 
 recess of the Senate ; the Senate rejected the nomination, and 
 Jackson was more than ever determined that he should be 
 "Vice-President now, and President afterward." Parton says 
 that there was a " programme " laid down before Jackson had 
 been a year in office, — "a. programme of succession so long 
 that it would have required twenty-four years to play it out. 
 It was divided into three parts of eight years each : Andrew 
 Jackson, eight years ; Martin Van Buren, eight years ; Thomas 
 H. Benton, eight years." He does not give his authority for 
 this statement, which can be neither proved nor disproved. 
 
 The chronological order of events requires that we should 
 mention first the formal nomination of opposition candidates. 
 The alleged abduction, in 1826, of William Morgan, who was 
 supposed to have revealed the secrets of Freemasonry, caused 
 the origin of an Anti-Masonic party. From western New 
 York, the place of its birth, it spread over a large part of the 
 North and played an important part in some state elections. 
 In September, 1830, a national convention of Anti-Masons 
 was held in Philadelphia. Four New England States, New 
 York, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Mary- 
 land, — ten States in all, — together with the Territory of
 
 156 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Michigan, were represented by 9C delegates. It was voted to 
 hold a second national convention in Baltimore on the 26th of 
 September, 1831, to be composed of delegates equal in num- 
 ber to the representatives in both Houses of Congress from 
 each State, and to be chosen by the people opposed to secret 
 societies, for the purpose of making nominations for the offices 
 of President and Vice-President. 
 
 The convention was held at the time and place designated. 
 Delegates to the number of 113 were present, representing all 
 the New England and Middle States, Ohio and Indiana. It had 
 been intinided to nominate Judge McLean, of Ohio. McLean 
 was Postmaster-General under Mr. Adams, but had neverthe- 
 le.ss been a supporter of Jackson all through the administration. 
 When he displayed an unwillingness to administer the Post- 
 office Department as a part of the " spoils " with which 
 the Democratic workers were to be rewarded, the President 
 apix)inted him a justice of the Supreme Court. He seems to 
 have passed at once to the opposition. At all events, after 
 the convention of Anti-Masons in 1830, he had consented 
 provisionally to become the candidate of the party, if nomi- 
 nated. It appears that certain influential "National Eepub- 
 licans," as the opposition now termed itself, gave notice that 
 they could not support Judge McLean, and he accordingly 
 wrote a letter to the Baltimore convention withdrawing his 
 name. It was the avowed purpose of the Anti-Masons to 
 present the name of one upon whom all the opponents of 
 Jackson could unite. Their course was somewhat disingenu- 
 ous, since by far the largest section of the opposition desired 
 to vote for Mr. Clay. 
 
 The convention invited Chief Justice Marshall, who was in 
 the city, to sit with the convention, and he accepted the in- 
 vitation. A ballot was taken for a candidate for President. 
 William Wirt, of Maryland, received 108 of 111 votes cast. 
 Having more than the three fourths which it had been pre- 
 viously voted should be necessary for a choice, he was de- 
 clared nominated. A committee was sent to inform him of 
 his nomination. He Avent into the convention and delivered 
 one of the most remarkable speeches ever heard, in response 
 to such a notification. He avowed that he had been made a 
 Mason ; confessed that he never saw any harm in the order 
 until this political party was founded on the principle of 
 opposition to secret societies; declared that Masonry as they
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 157 
 
 conceived it " was not and could not be Masonry as under- 
 stood by Washington ; " and concluded by telling the dele- 
 gates that if they had nominated him under a misapprehension 
 he would permit them to substitute another name for his own. 
 After his address the delegates unanimously voted to stand by 
 the nomination. They completed the ticket by nominating 
 Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The 
 convention adopted no platform, but issued a long and verbose 
 address to the American people. 
 
 The next convention, that of the National Republicans, was 
 held at Baltimore on December 12, 1831. Seventeen States 
 were represented by 167 delegates. South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois were unrepresented. 
 How many delegates attended from each State, and how they 
 were chosen, cannot be ascertained. That it was not a gather- 
 ing of volunteers is evident from the facts that a committee on 
 credentials was appointed and that the convention adjourned 
 to give the committee time to do its work. General Abner 
 Lacock, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman of the 
 convention, and Governor James Barbour, of Virginia, the 
 permanent president. The members voted for a candidate for 
 President by rising in their seats as their names were called 
 and announcing their vote. The nomination of Henry Clay 
 was unanimous. In the same manner John Sergeant, of 
 Pennsylvania, was unanimously nominated for Vice-President. 
 A committee was raised, consisting of one member from each 
 State, to inform Mr. Clay of the nomination ; and the commit- 
 tee was constituted by the delegation from each State naming 
 its own member. Thus, in the earliest days of the convention 
 system, one of the most striking features of the nomination 
 was introduced in precisely the present form. In 1831, how- 
 ever, the notification was by mail instead of by a pilgrimage to 
 the residence of the candidate. The convention adopted no 
 resolutions, but it issued an address severely criticising the 
 administration for its corruption, partisanship, and abuse of 
 power ; for the hostility it had manifested to internal improve- 
 ment, for treachery on the tariff question, for the war on the 
 Bank, and for the humiliating surrender to Georgia in the 
 matter of the Cherokee Indians. 
 
 By recommendation of this convention a national assembly 
 of young men met in Washington in May, 1832, which accepted 
 the nominations made by the National Republicans and adopted
 
 158 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the following series of resolutions, — the first platform ever 
 adopted by a national convention : — 
 
 1. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, although 
 the fundamental principles adopted by our fathers, as a basis upon 
 which to raise a superstructure of American independence, can 
 never be annihilated, yet the time has come when nothing short 
 of the united energies of all the friends of the American republic 
 can be relied on to sustain and perpetuate that hallowed work. 
 ' 2. Resolved, That an adequate protection to American industry 
 is indispensable to the prosperity of the country ; and that an aban- 
 donment of the policy at this period would be attended with conse- 
 'quences ruinous to the best interests of the nation. 
 
 3. Resolved, That a uniform system of internal improvements, 
 sustained and supported by the general government, is calculated 
 to secure, in the highest degree, harmony, the strength, and the 
 permanency of the republic. 
 
 4. Resolved, That the Supreme Court of the United States is 
 the only tribunal recognized by the Constitution for deciding in 
 the last resort all questions arising under the Constitution and 
 laws of the United States, and that upon the preservation of the 
 authority and jurisdiction of that court inviolate depends the 
 existence of the nation. 
 
 5. Resolved, That the Senate of the United States is preemi- 
 nently a conservative branch of the federal government ; that upon 
 a fearless and independent exercise of its constitutional functions 
 depends the existence of the nicely balanced powers of that govern- 
 ment ; and that all attempts to overawe its deliberations by the 
 public press or by the national executive deserve the indignant 
 reprobation of every American citizen. 
 
 6. Resolved, That the political course of the present Executive 
 has given us no pledge that he will defend and support these great 
 principles of American policy and the Constitution ; but, on the 
 contrary, has convinced us that he will abandon them whenever 
 the purposes of party require it. 
 
 7. Resolved, That the indiscriminate removal of public officers, 
 for the mere difference of political opinion, is a gross abuse of 
 power; and that the doctrine lately "boldly preached" in the 
 Senate of the United States, that " to the victor belong the spoils 
 of the enemy," is detrimental to the interests, corrupting to the 
 morals, and dangerous to the liberties of this country. 
 
 8. Resolved, That we hold the disposition shown by the pre- 
 sent national administration to accept the advice of the King of 
 Holland, touching the northeastern boundary of the United States, 
 and thus to transfer a portion of the territory and citizens of a 
 State of this Union to a foreign power, to manifest a total destitu-
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 159 
 
 tion of pati-iotic American feeling, inasmuch as we consider the 
 life, liberty, property, and citizenship of every inhabitant of every 
 State as entitled to the national protection. 
 
 9. Resolved, That the arrangement between the United States 
 and Great Britain relative to the colonial trade, made in pursuance 
 of the instructions of the late Secretary of State, was procured in 
 a manner derogatory to the national character, and is injurious to 
 this country in its practical results. 
 
 10. Resolved, That it is the duty of every citizen of this repub- 
 lic, who regards the honor, the prosperity, and the preservation of 
 our Union, to oppose by every honorable measiu-e the reelection 
 of Andrew Jackson, and to promote the election of Henry Clay,of 
 Kentucky, and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania, as President and 
 Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 The Democratic convention, which was held at Baltimore 
 on May 21, 1832, was a striking example of the hold which 
 Jackson had on his party, perhaps still more of the authority 
 which the general's agents were allowed to exercise in his 
 name. Mr. Van Buren was not the free choice of the Demo- 
 crats for the office of Vice-President. Every contemporary 
 authority, except Benton, assures us of that fact. Yet Jack- 
 son desired his nomination, and the machinery was set in 
 motion to effect it. In May, 1831, Major Lewis, second audi- 
 tor of the Treasury, wrote from Washington to Amos Kendall, 
 fourth auditor of the Treasury, who was then in New Hamp- 
 shire, urging the propriety of having a convention to nominate 
 a candidate for Vice-President, in May of the following year ; 
 hinting that it would be well if the Kew Hampshire legislature 
 were to propose such a convention, and advising him to " make 
 the suggestion to our friend [Isaac] Hill." This scheme of 
 the " kitchen cabinet " — for it was at this time composed 
 of the three men named in the last sentence — was carried out. 
 The result was communicated to the public in " a letter of a 
 gentleman " in New Hampshire, printed in the " Globe," the 
 President's organ, in June, 1831. The '' gentleman " was 
 Mr. Kendall, and the extract printed was as follows : — 
 
 The Republican members of the New Hampshire Legislature, 
 to the number of about 169, met last evening. An address and 
 resolutions approving of the principles and measures of the present 
 administration, the veto of the President on the Maysville Road bill, 
 disavowing the doctrine of nullification, disapproving Clay's Amer- 
 ican system, but recommending a judicious reduction of the duties, 
 disapproving of the United States Bank, passed the convention
 
 IGO A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 unanimously. The convention also recommended a general conven- 
 tion of Republicans friendly to the election of General Jackson, to 
 consist of delegates equal to the number of electors of President in 
 each State, to be holden at Baltimore on the third Monday of May, 
 1832, to nominate a candidate for Vice-President, and take such 
 other measures in support of the reelection of Andrew Jackson as 
 may be deemed expedient. 
 
 The suggestion of a convention, thus put forth with ap- 
 proval in the newspaper which had been established for the 
 express purpose of being the mouthpiece of the administration, 
 was seconded by all the party organs ; and the delegates were 
 chosen. Most of them were ready to register the will of the 
 President, and measures were taken to secure the acquiescence 
 of such as were inclined to oppose it. Major Eaton, lately the 
 Secretary of War, and the husband of the famous Mrs. Eaton, 
 already referred to, was a delegate from Tennessee. He went 
 to Baltimore determined to oppose Van Buren ; but he found 
 there a letter from Major Lewis, advising him to support that 
 gentleman " unless he wished to quarrel with the general." 
 He yielded, and voted for Van Buren. At the " Jackson 
 state convention" of Pennsylvania, held in March, 1832, 
 Mr. Van Buren had no supporters. The Democrats of the 
 State were in favor of the Bank, and were angry at Van Buren 
 because the New York legislature had adopted resolutions 
 against the institution. There was a long contest in the con- 
 vention between the friends of Mr. Dallas, Mr. Buchanan, and 
 Mr. Wilkins, which resulted in favor of Mr. Wilkins. So 
 strong was the determination not to accept Mr. Van Buren 
 that the electors nominated were pledged to vote for ]\Ir. "Wil- 
 kins, and, if he should be induced to withdraw, or if, for any 
 other reason he should not be a candidate, to vote for Mr. 
 Dallas. Yet when the convention was held, every vote of 
 Pennsylvania was in favor of Van Buren. The electors never- 
 theless obeyed their instructions and gave Mr. Wilkins their 
 votes. 
 
 The convention met on the day named in the saloon of the 
 Athenaeum. Every State except Missouri was represented ; 
 and the number of delegates is reported to have been 326. 
 But according to the rules the States represented were entitled 
 to but 282 delegates. The number of votes cast for a candi- 
 date for Vice-President exceeded this number by one. Gen- 
 eral Robert Lucas, of Ohio, was the temporary and also the
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 161 
 
 permanent president. On the second day of the convention 
 the Committee on Rules reported the following : — 
 
 Resolved, That each State be entitled, in the nomination to be 
 made of a candidate for the vice-presidency, to a number of votes 
 equal to the number to which they will be entitled in the electoral 
 colleges, under the new apportionment, in voting for President and 
 Vice-President ; and that two thirds of the whole number of the 
 votes in the convention shall be necessary to constitute a choice. 
 
 This was the origin of the famous two-thirds rule, by which 
 all subsequent Democratic conventions have governed them- 
 selves in making nominations. On the first ballot for a can- 
 didate for Vice-President, Martin Van Buren had 208 votes, 
 Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, 49, and Richard M. Johnson, 
 of Kentucky, 26 votes. Virginia and South Carolina voted 
 solidly for Mr. Barbour, who had also fifteen votes of dele- 
 gates from Maryland, North Carolina, and Alabama, Colonel 
 Johnson had the full vote of Kentucky and Indiana, and two 
 votes from Illinois. Mr. Van Buren, having received more 
 than two thirds of all the votes, was declared the nominee. 
 General Jackson was recommended in the following resolu- 
 tion : — 
 
 Resolved, That the convention repose the highest confidence in 
 the purity, patriotism, and talents of Andrew Jackson, and that we 
 most cordially concur in the repeated nominations which he has 
 received in various parts of the Union as a candidate for reelection 
 to the office which he now fills with so much honor to himself and 
 usefulness to his country. 
 
 No other resolution was adopted. A committee was ap- 
 pointed to prepare an address to the people in support of the 
 action of the convention ; but on the last day of the session 
 a report was made that the time had been too short to fulfil 
 that duty ; and this was accepted as satisfactory. Possibly the 
 difficulty of saying anything upon the Bank question without 
 sacrificing the electoral vote of Pennsylvania, and the absurdity 
 of issuing an address in which no mention should be made of 
 the Bank, had more to do than had the lack of time Avith the 
 failure of the committee to put the principles of the party in a 
 fitting form of words. 
 
 The convention accomplished the object for which it was 
 held, although it did not wholly overcome the repugnance of 
 Democrats in all the States to Mr. Van Buren, or suppress the 
 movement in favor of rival candidates. A Jackson-Barbour
 
 162 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 convention was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, in June, 
 by which Mr. P. P. Barbour was formally nominated as the 
 candidate for the vice-presidency in conjunction with General 
 Jackson for President. Later in the same month a similar con- 
 vention was held in North Carolina, in which delegates from 
 eighteen counties participated. The candidacy of Mr. Wilkins 
 was purely local in Pennsylvania, and that of Mr. Barbour 
 came to nothing. 
 
 The tone of political discussion during the canvass which 
 preceded and followed these nominations was unexampled for 
 its violence and rancor. The veto by the President of the 
 bill rechartering the Bank of the United States, which had 
 been passed by both Houses of Congress in spite of executive 
 opposition, although there was a Democratic majority in each 
 House, intensified the bitterness of the conflict. It also 
 showed the strength of General Jackson's hold upon the 
 people, that he could still retain, not only the support of 
 the people, who were probably with him in his war on the 
 Bank, but that of the politicians as well, — including that of 
 men who had even voted to pass the Bank bill over the veto. 
 Mr. Dallas was one of this class. He had introduced the bill 
 for a new charter in the Senate, had supported it at every 
 stage, and voted for it after the veto ; and yet, within a month 
 after the failure of the bill, he was found addressing a meet- 
 ing in Philadelphia which adopted a series of resolutions refer- 
 ring to the Bank veto and expressing thanks to the President 
 for his fearless discharge of duty. Nothing was too severe for 
 the opponents of Jackson to say of him ; and the violence of 
 their denunciations was equalled by the angry vituperation 
 which the Democrats poured out upon the National Republi- 
 cans and all other advocates of the Bank. 
 
 The early elections were not clearly indicative of the re- 
 sult in November. In the Kentucky election, which took 
 place in August, a '* Jackson" governor and a "Clay" lieu- 
 tenant-governor were chosen, each by a small majority. Maine 
 was carried for the Jackson ticket in September, but by a 
 greatly reduced majority. The October elections also gave 
 the opposition hope, which the result in the ensuing month 
 was not to justify ; for Ohio, though giving a plurality to the 
 Jackson ticket, seemed capable of being captured by the op- 
 position if it could be united ; and Pennsylvania gave to Gov- 
 ernor Wolf, the Democratic candidate, but a few thousand
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 
 
 163 
 
 majority, — less, in fact, than a third of that two years before. 
 New Jersey and Maryland gave anti-Jackson majorities. The 
 chance of success in defeating the President led to fresh com- 
 binations and coalitions where there was not already union 
 among the several elements of the opposition. The National 
 Republicans adopted the Anti-Masonic electoral ticket in New 
 York, and there was a combination of the same kind in Ohio 
 and elsewhere. But the Democrats professed a serene confi- 
 dence in the result, and they were not mistaken. The doubt- 
 ful States, with the exception of Kentucky, gave majorities, — 
 some of them small but all-sufficient, — to the Jackson and 
 Van Buren ticket. The Jackson party had, however, wisely 
 determined not to put up a ticket in opposition to the Wilkins 
 electors in Pennsylvania, and in Soi;th Carolina the contest 
 for the legislature had been wholly between the Union men 
 and the Nullifiers ; the Nullifiers carried the legislature which 
 
 States. 
 
 Maine . . . 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont . . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut 
 New York . . 
 New Jersey 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware . . 
 Maryland . . 
 Virginia . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina t 
 Georgia . . . 
 Alabama J . , 
 Mississippi . . 
 Louisiana . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Tennessee . 
 Missouri . . . 
 Ohio .... 
 Indiana . . . 
 Illinois . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 Jacksou. 
 
 33,291 
 25,486 
 
 7,870 
 14,545 
 
 2,126 
 
 11,269 
 
 168,497 
 
 23,856 
 
 90,983 
 
 4,110 
 19,156 
 33,609 
 24,862 
 
 20,750 
 
 5,919 
 4,049 
 
 36,247 
 28,740 
 5,192 
 81,246 
 31,552 
 14,147 
 
 687,502 
 
 Clay.* 
 
 27,204 
 19,010 
 11,152 
 33,003 
 
 2,810 
 
 17,755 
 
 154,896 
 
 23,393 
 
 56,716 
 
 4,276 
 19,160 
 11,451 
 
 4,563 
 
 No opposition. 
 2,528 
 43,396 
 1,436 
 
 76,539 
 
 15,472 
 
 5,429 
 
 530,189 
 
 * The vote for Wirt is included in Clay's vote. 
 
 t No opposition to Jackson. 
 
 t By legislature.
 
 164 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 was to appoint the electors. On the whole it was a great vie* 
 tory for the Democrats. 
 
 As before, twenty-four States took part in this election, but 
 the number of electors was enlarged by the new apportion- 
 ment which had been made after the result of the census of 
 1830 was ascertained. Delaware joined the States which 
 permitted the people to choose the electors. South Carolina 
 alone followed the old system of appointment by the legis- 
 lature ; and she retained it until and including the election 
 of 1860. Maine, New York, and Tennessee also abandoned 
 at this time the district system of election. Maryland only 
 
 States. 
 
 Maine .... 
 New Hampshire 
 Vermont . . . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Rhode Island . 
 Connecticut . 
 New York . . 
 New Jersey . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Delaware . . . 
 Maryland . . . 
 Virginia . . . 
 North Carolina . 
 South Carolina . 
 Georgia . . . 
 Alabama . . • 
 Mississippi . . 
 Louisiana . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Tennessee . . 
 Ohio . . . . 
 Indiana 
 
 Illinois . . . 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 42 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 23 
 15 
 
 11 
 7 
 4 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 219 
 
 14 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 49 
 
 Vice-President. 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 23 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 4 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 189 
 
 14 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 49 
 
 30 
 
 11 
 
 30 
 
 11
 
 THE "OLD HERO" RE-ELECTED 165 
 
 adhered to it. With the exception of South Carolina and 
 Maryland, therefore, the method of choosing electors had now 
 become uniform throughout the country, without the inter- 
 position of an amendment to the Constitution. 
 
 The count of electoral votes was conducted in strict accord- 
 ance with precedent, without dis'^iute or incident. The result 
 of the popular and the electoral votes is exhibited on preceding 
 pages.
 
 XIV 
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 
 
 Since 1836 the system of nominating candidates for Pre- 
 sident and Vice-President by general party conventions has 
 been universal. During the intervening sixty years no can- 
 didate, in whose favor an electoral ticket has been presented 
 to the voters of any State, has been otherwise placed in nomi- 
 nation. It therefore becomes timely, at this point, to consider 
 how the national convention came to supersede the earlier 
 modes of nomination, and how it developed into the important 
 adjunct of the government which it has become. Even so late 
 as the time when the revolt against the congressional caucus 
 began, a national convention, supposing it to have been pos- 
 sible to constitute such a body for such a purpose, would have 
 been quite unsuitable. But just as the growth of our modern 
 civilization has rendered necessary the invention and the im- 
 mediate utilization of the improved instruments of rapid trans- 
 portation, and of instantaneous communication between people 
 at a distance from each other, so the evolution of political 
 parties as compact and disciplined organizations enforced the 
 adoption of the convention system. Neither could those 
 parties exist in their present efficiency without a central au- 
 thority ; nor can we conceive of a body better adapted to 
 the purpose than is the national convention. It is capable 
 of improvement in details, but the general structure is a case 
 of perfect adaptation to the end sought. Moreover, the pro- 
 position may be maintained that this extra-constitutional and 
 extra-legal institution supplements the electoral system in such 
 a way as to realize and make effectual the plans and purposes 
 of the framers of the Constitution. 
 
 Let us note anew the successive steps in the process by 
 which the necessity for this system arose. "When the Con- 
 stitution was adopted, the divergent interests of the people 
 of the thirteen States were almost as many and as important 
 as their common interests. The first division into parties
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 167 
 
 was really upon the question whether the common welfare 
 or the individual welfare of the States should be deemed 
 paramount, — that is, whether the Constitution, establishing 
 a more perfect Union, should be adopted. When that had 
 been decided, the public men of the country fell apart over 
 the discussion whether the Constitution should bind the States 
 together closely or loosely. The conditions under which par- 
 ties existed were widely different from those which prevail 
 now; and these conditions affected every election in which 
 national issues were involved. Party lines did not cut across 
 families and neighborhoods to such an extent as they do now, 
 Nor would it be true to say that they followed state lines. 
 Yet party association was to a degree a matter more of state 
 or of community public opinion than of individual opinion. 
 A few leaders determined the political course to be pursued, 
 the ground to be taken on public questions, and the candi- 
 dates for office to be supported. The majority accepted the 
 programme set forth by the leaders ; and since the minority, 
 recognizing the fact that it was outnumbered, rarely made 
 a stubborn contest, and consequently did not force the domi- 
 nant party to exhibit its full strength, the number of votes 
 polled was usually small. One example will suffice to illus- 
 trate this fact. So late as 1824, when the most fiercely 
 contested election of President known vip to that time took 
 place, eighteen States appointed electors by popular vote. In 
 eight of those States the candidate locally successful had more 
 than three times as many votes as the other three candi- 
 dates combined. The population of the eighteen States was 
 about 7,800,000, and their total vote was in round numbers 
 355,000, — less than one twentieth of the population. New 
 York and New Jersey, having in 1896 about as many inhab- 
 itants as the eighteen States in 1824, gave a total of 1,783,000 
 votes. New Jersey alone, in 1896, cast more votes than were 
 polled in the whole country in the great contest of 1824. 
 
 The framers of the Constitution expected that the electors 
 of President and Vice-President would exercise an individual 
 judgment in making a choice. But when the government was 
 first formed, the only people who possessed a sufficient acquaint- 
 ance with the public men of the land, save those of their own 
 State or part of the country, were the officers at the seat of 
 government and the members of Congress. Both of these classes 
 were excluded from service as electors. Consequently, if the
 
 168 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 electors were left to themselves, it was inevitable that they 
 would, in their lack of acquaintance with others, vote for can- 
 didates from their own or near-by States, and so fail to make a 
 choice ; and the election would always be thrown into the House 
 of Representatives. The selection of Washington Avas obvious 
 and easy. When he retired it seemed so natural that the 
 electors should choose ]\Ir. Adams for the succession that mem- 
 bers of his own party, exerting themselves against him, failed 
 to eifect his defeat. Thus the administration party was united 
 in spite of itself. The opposition took the course of a nomi- 
 nation by caucus of its party members in both Houses of 
 Congress, who were not merely the best but the only compe- 
 tent directors of the policy to be pursued, the only force that 
 could prevent the strength of the party from being scattered 
 and wasted, and the only means of enlightening the provin- 
 cialism of the electors. Consequently the congressional caucus 
 was in these times something more than a pardonable device 
 for concentrating public opinion ; it was an instrument with- 
 out which the party success of a great majority of the people 
 would have been impossible. 
 
 Nevertheless the congressional caucus outlived its useful- 
 ness. It ceased to be a necessity when national concerns at 
 laist outweighed local interests, and when the people became 
 acquainted with the character and ability of public men in all 
 parts of the country. Always — in spite of its usefulness — 
 contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, which enjoined a 
 strict separation and the full independence of the three depart- 
 ments of government, it became a menace to popular liberty 
 when it was used as a means of muffling the people, — depriv- 
 ing them of a voice in the selection of those who should fill 
 the first places in the state, and usurping that power in behalf 
 of men chosen for a different purpose altogether, and wholly 
 irresponsible with reference to the choice of a President. The 
 revolt came immediately upon a disregard of the will of the 
 people, and upon the selection of second-rate men as candidates, 
 to be accepted at the peril of a party defeat. 
 
 Nomination by state legislatures was the temporary make- 
 shift of those who rebelled against the caucus. Save that it 
 was not obnoxious to the spirit of the Constitution, it was 
 inferior to the caucus in every respect. Those who made the 
 nominations had, like the members of Congress, no commission 
 to undertake the duty ; and they had not the qualification for
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 169 
 
 the duty conferred upon congressmen by their opportunity to 
 take a general survey of the field, and to compare the merits 
 of candidates. Nomination by state legislature was either a 
 movement to bring forward a conspicuous citizen of the State 
 presenting his name, or, originating in that State, was a cun- 
 ningly devised scheme to create an appearance of the candi- 
 date's popularity and importance by procuring his nomination 
 by the legislature of another State. 
 
 John Quincy Adams and Jackson were the only Presidents 
 whose nomination came exclusively from state legislatures. 
 Adams was one of four candidates, three of whom were named 
 for the office by the legislatures of their respective States ; and 
 he owed his election to the House of Representatives. Jack- 
 son's nomination in 1825 by the legislature of Tennessee merely 
 gave his canvass an early start. He would have been elected 
 in any event. Of the Vice-Presidents chosen at the same time 
 as these two Presidents, Calhoun, having been nominated for 
 the first place by the South Carolina legislature, was indebted 
 for his first election to a concentration upon him, arranged by 
 correspondence between the political leaders of the anti-caucus 
 forces, after he had withdrawn as a candidate for the presi- 
 dency. His second election came from an alliance with Jack- 
 son, without any nomination. Van Buren came in under the 
 convention system. By no other means could he have been 
 made the candidate of his party. The caucus was discredited 
 and extinct. Nominations by friendly legislatures could be 
 had easily ; but there were unfriendly legislatures to be en- 
 countered, including that of the President's own State of Ten- 
 nessee, which, despite Jackson's great political influence and 
 strong preference for Van Buren, was never favorable to him. 
 The first Democratic national convention was called to impose 
 the President's will upon the whole party. From that time 
 until, but not including, the year 1896, every national conven- 
 tion of the party in power for the time being has been more 
 or less under the influence, in some cases under the control, of 
 the administration ; but the tendency has been and is toward 
 freedom from dictation by President or Congress. , 
 
 The idea of the nominating convention, commonplace as it 
 is to us, was neither a part of our political inheritance from 
 England, nor yet an early fruit of the new institutions that 
 came with the Constitution. In Great Britain, until within 
 a few years, candidates for Parliament ofi"ered themselves for
 
 170 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 election, or were presented to the constituency by the owner of 
 the " pocket borough " or by the general leader of his party. 
 The system of self-nomination, borrowed from Great Britain, 
 was the usual mode of making candidates in many of the 
 Southern States down to the time of the Civil War, and is even 
 yet not altogether extinct. In the North a caucus presented 
 candidates, but it was quite a different thing from the caucus 
 as we understand the term. The principle was not recognized 
 that all voters should be permitted to participate in the selec- 
 tion of candidates as well as in a choice between the candidates 
 offered for their suffrages. The caucus was therefore a select 
 gathering, to which those only were admitted who were in- 
 vited. Its chief function was the selection of candidates for 
 the legislature. In many of the States the governor and all 
 other state officers were chosen by the legislature. Where 
 they were elected by popular vote, the nominations were made 
 either by a legislative caucus or — rarely — by a convention, 
 which was not composed of elected delegates, but was virtually 
 an enlarged and general state caucus, consisting, like the small 
 local caucus, of persons bidden by the leaders and managers. 
 
 It is not easy, from the meagre materials at hand, to recon- 
 struct the political machinery in use during the first thirty 
 years under the Constitution. Nor must it be supposed that, 
 where many communities were developing political institutions 
 without much help from one another, because not in close 
 intercourse, any general statement regarding their practice is 
 true of all. We may trace back nearly to their origin institu- 
 tions that have since been universally adopted. It may be 
 stated — with some caution — that the earliest prototype of 
 the delegate state convention, from which no doubt the na- 
 tional convention was derived, forms a part of the political 
 history of Pennsylvania. Like many inventions in the arts, 
 it was originally the result of accidental necessity and crude in 
 form, but was afterward developed into a useful and efficient 
 instrument. The Republican party of Pennsylvania was 
 divided into two factions, one of which, by the help of the 
 Federalists, who were few in numbers, kept Governor McKean 
 in office from 1799 until 1808. His term was about to expire, 
 and the war between the two factions was to be renewed. 
 The partisans of Governor McKean determined to resort to the 
 usual device of a caucus of members of the legislature, where 
 they were strong, both in actual numbers and in the fact that
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 171 
 
 most of the counties of the State were represented by one or 
 more members of their faction. Their opponents also called a 
 caucus ; and, in order to make up the deficiency in their repre- 
 sentation, invited their supporters in every county which would 
 not be represented by a member of the legislature, to send del- 
 egates to the " convention." Although it is not essentially 
 a part of the history of the development of the convention, it 
 may be mentioned as an interesting series of facts that, in 
 that year, 1808, the " constitutionalists " and " convention- 
 alists " had a lively scramble for priority in adopting Mr. 
 Madison as a candidate ; that they composed their differences, 
 put up a joint electoral ticket, united on Simon Snyder, the 
 convention's candidate for governor, left the Federalists out of 
 the government altogether, and ruled the State for more than 
 thirty years thereafter. 
 
 The idea of the state convention was adopted, extended, and 
 improved in New York and other States, and had already be- 
 come an ordinary means of concentrating and organizing party 
 action, when the necessity of adapting it to national politics 
 arose, to be soon followed by the opportunity to introduce it. 
 So far as can be ascertained, the first suggestion to this effect 
 came also from Pennsylvania, in a resolution, already cited 
 (p. 130), adopted by the Democrats of Lancaster County in 
 1824. The difficulties therein mentioned were already disap- 
 pearing in 1832 with the construction of railway lines, and, 
 before 1840, were unworthy a moment's consideration in com- 
 parison with the great advantages of the new system. 
 
 The national convention of to-day is in its essentials what 
 it was at the beginning, seventy years ago ; but it has been 
 modified and reformed as the increasing refinement of party 
 machinery rendered changes necessary. This remark is more 
 accurate as applied to conventions of the older parties than to 
 those of the newer. The aim is always to constitute conventions 
 consisting wholly of duly elected delegates from every State 
 in the Union, an.d in numbers proportioned to the representa- 
 tion of the States in Congress. The national and universal 
 character of the assembly has from the first been the prime 
 requisite ; and, in order to render it national, it has been the 
 custom of parties in the process of formation to relax the rigor 
 of rules which would exclude delegates irregularly chosen, and 
 volunteer members, from States that would otherwise be un- 
 represented. Indeed, most of the parties which have been
 
 172 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 formed during the last half- century — most of them to con- 
 tinue in existence but a few years — have been forced at first 
 to resort to many devices to create an impression that they 
 were national in character. In the extreme youth of more 
 than one party, the national convention has consisted mostly 
 or wholly of volunteers, who came together ratlier as represent- 
 atives of their own opinions than as regularly chosen dele- 
 gates. In such cases it has been usual to allow all the persons 
 from any State, few or many, to cast a number of votes propor- 
 tioned to the electoral vote of the State. The first Democratic 
 convention, that of 1S.'>2, consisted of one delegate for each elect- 
 oral vote. F)Ut the practice came gradually into vogue of enlar- 
 ging the number of actual delegates, although their voting power 
 could not so be increased. It was a device for exerting ''pres- 
 sure " upon a convention in favor of a particular candidate or 
 a " plank " for the platform. In 1848, Virginia sent seventy 
 delegates to the Democratic convention, to cast seventeen 
 votes. Inasmuch as the system resulted in giving undue in- 
 fluence to the States which thus enlarged their delegations, since 
 it made conventions unwieldy, and led to competition between 
 the States by this means to increase their power, a reform was 
 introduced. The present practice of all the national parties 
 except the Populists is to constitute conventions of double the 
 number of electors, and not to allow a larger membership than 
 the number of votes to be cast.* 
 
 It is not easy, perhaps it is not possible, to ascertain how 
 the delegates to early conventions were chosen. There was no 
 uniform practice, and conventions were not over-particular in 
 scrutinizing credentials. If there was a case of contesting dele- 
 gations, which occasionally happened, the decision was not made 
 according to an established rule, — for in the variety of methods 
 of choice no rule could have been made, — but in favor of that 
 faction whose votes were most needed by the majority of the 
 convention. Or, if it were desirable to placate both factions, 
 the two delegations w-ere admitted to the convention, each 
 member to have half a vote. In the early days, delegates 
 were frequently chosen by the party members of the state 
 legislatures. So late as 1864, some of the delegates to the 
 Republican national convention were thus appointed. Dele- 
 gate state conventions were called, from the beginning, in 
 
 1 Save in cases where both rival delegations are admitted, with the privi- 
 lege to each member of giving a fraction of a vote.
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 173 
 
 some parts of the country, to select delegates to national con- 
 ventions. In such cases the whole delegation for the State 
 would be chosen by the state convention, either acting as a 
 whole, or dividing itself into groups representing the several 
 congressional districts. 
 
 These and other irregularities, which it is needless to spe- 
 cify, have disappeared. Delegates are now almost universally 
 chosen by conventions consisting of members elected in pri- 
 mary meetings to which the whole body of the party is admitted. 
 Four delegates at large are appointed by a state convention, and 
 two by a convention within each congressional district. The 
 Republican party not only prescribes this system, but requires 
 that the conventions shall be held between two specified dates. 
 The Democratic party has not adopted all these rules formally. 
 Yet public opinion within the organization requires a general 
 conformity to them. In one noteworthy recent case, the 
 Democratic convention for New York, prior to the national 
 convention of 1892, was held long before the natural and 
 usual time, in order to exercise a powerful influence upon the 
 result. It caused great indignation, and failed of its purpose 
 after all. 
 
 In another important respect the practice of the two parties 
 is diff'erent. The principle of the " general ticket " in choos- 
 ing electors was long ago introduced into national conventions, 
 where it is known as the " unit rule." The state convention 
 instructs all the delegates for the State to vote "as a unit" 
 on all questions that may arise. Such an instruction was 
 necessary to prevent confusion and collision when large dele- 
 gations, which might not be numerically a multiple of the 
 votes allowed to the State, were sent to national conventions. 
 It may be suggested, although it is not asserted, that this was 
 the origin of the rule. Be that as it may, the unit rule is 
 held to bind the district electors as well as those who repre- 
 sent the State " at large." Its effect is, obviously, not only 
 to nullify the will of any district which dissents from the 
 general policy of the party in the State, but to employ its 
 votes in carrying measures which it wishes to oppose. The 
 unit rule is still recognized in Democratic conventions as of 
 binding force ; and the presiding officers decline to permit the 
 instructions of state conventions to be disregarded. By no 
 means all the States bind their delegates by an injunction to 
 cast all their votes as a majority may decide ; but more than
 
 174 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 once in the history of the party important results liave been 
 achieved or prevented in national conventions by the enforce- 
 ment of this rule. The Republican party, which had already, 
 on more than one occasion, permitted individual delegates to 
 cast their votes in disregard of "unit" instructions, at last, in 
 1880, repudiated the rule altogether. 
 
 In the order of procedure all conventions are nearly alike. 
 There is a temporary organization, under v^hich committees 
 are appointed — all committees consist of one member from 
 each State, named by the delegation thereof — (a) to examine 
 and report upon the credentials of members ; {b) to nominate 
 permanent officers ; and (c) to prepare and present the plat- 
 form. The business is transacted in the above order : first, 
 contested elections are decided ; next the permanent president 
 of the convention is presented and installed ; and then the 
 platform of principles is reported, discussed, and adopted. 
 Afterward the nomination of candidates is in order. The 
 congressional caucus and the earliest conventions announced 
 their principles in an address to the people of the country, 
 which was not reported until after the nominations had been 
 made. In modern times the issues of the pending campaign 
 invariably are set forth before the candidates are named. It 
 has become a custom to present the several candidates to the 
 convention in nominating speeches, which are studiously con- 
 trived to have a dramatic effect upon the audience, and to 
 evoke enthusiasm. In cases where there is a contest for the 
 nomination, the partisans of each candidate endeavor to outdo 
 their rivals in the loudness, the fervor, and the duration of 
 their applause. When the time comes to vote, the roll of the 
 States is called in alphabetical order, and the vote of each state 
 delegation is announced by one of its members. The Repub- 
 lican party alone forbids the changing of votes once given. 
 The prohibition is designed to allow some time for reflection 
 when a sudden impulse seizes the members to " stampede " 
 in favor of a certain candidate. It has always been believed 
 that the nomination of Mr. Polk, in 1844, was carefully 
 planned before the Democratic convention met. Few per- 
 sons were in the secret, if the common belief as to the origin 
 of the movement is to be accepted. The defeat of Van Buren 
 was the one thing to be accomplished ; how it was effected is 
 told in the history of the election of 1844. There was a 
 similar occurrence in 1852 ; and Seymour was nominated in
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 175 
 
 1868 by a stampede which was probably not planned long be» 
 fore it was set in motion. The purpose of bringing Pierce 
 forward in 1852 was formed before the delegates came to- 
 gether, but he was held in reserve, and his name was not pre- 
 sented until the thirty-fifth vote. On the vote preceding that 
 which gave him the nomination, he had the support of less- 
 than one fifth of the convention. 
 
 It will be observed, from the summary just made, that the 
 Republican party has adopted several reforms in the consti- 
 tution, the election, and the proceedings of national conven- 
 tions, which have not commended themselves to the Democrats. 
 Moreover, the Democrats cling still to one rule which has never 
 been a part of the code of any other party ; that, namely, which 
 requires that a nomination shall be made by two thirds of the 
 convention. The origin and the history of this rule may be 
 foi^nd in the proper places in this book. It is appropriate to 
 say here, that it is a singular inconsistency, in a party which 
 permits the majority of a state delegation to take full posses- 
 sion of all the votes allotted to that State, to refuse to a ma- 
 jority of the whole convention the right to name a candidate, 
 and thus to enable a determined minority to enforce itg own 
 will or — as happened in 1860 — break up the convention. 
 
 It is easy to see in what features there is still room for 
 useful reform in the convention system. The time favorable 
 for making the necessary changes is not when a nomination is 
 pending ; for then there will assuredly be a faction that stands 
 to gain and another that stands to lose by the reform. It would 
 be well for a carefully prepared scheme to be presented to a 
 national convention, to be submitted to the conventions of 
 the several States for adoption or rejection, somewhat as 
 amendments to the Constitution are submitted. For example, 
 the Democratic convention of the year 1900 might ask the 
 state conventions of its party next to be held to vote whether 
 the two-thirds rule should be retained or dropped, and direct 
 that in case a majority, three fifths, two thirds, or any other 
 specified fraction of the state conventions adopted the change, 
 it should go into effect in the convention of 1904. 
 
 As for general reforms, it is clear that the undue influence 
 of the local opinion of the city and State in which the con- 
 vention is held should be neutralized ; that the " pressure " 
 exerted by the too numerous outsiders, who constitute some- 
 times a body of participators in the proceedings, rather than an
 
 176 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 audience, should be done away with altogether ; and that the 
 ordinary basis of representation is not defensible. The first- 
 mentioned evil, that of undue local influence, would be dimin- 
 ished by calling all national conventions to meet in Wash- 
 ington. A rule that, representatives of newspapers excepted, 
 the number of non-members admitted to witness the conven- 
 tion should not be greater than that of the members, would 
 put a stop to the practice of overawing conventions by an 
 organized claque. "With reference to the basis of representa- 
 tion, it requires no argument to show that a system that 
 gives to Texas (203,000 plurality for Bryan in 1896), which 
 never cast a single electoral vote for a Republican, and Massa- 
 chusetts (173,000 plurality for McKinley), which never con- 
 tributed a Democratic electoral vote save at Monroe's second 
 election, an equal vote in both the Democratic and the Repub- 
 lican conventions, is not a scientific system. It may not be 
 well to base representation wholly upon the number of party 
 votes cast ; but a combination of the representation of States 
 and districts, and of supporters of the party, would give an 
 improved basis. 
 
 Although defective in minor points, the national conven- 
 tion echoes accurately the voice of tlie party. It does not 
 result either always or usually in the selection of the foremost 
 men in the party ; but that is the fault of the party and not 
 of the convention. Whenever the party is united in its pre- 
 ference for one man it succeeds in nominating him. When 
 it is divided the result is commonly the selection of an obscure 
 candidate; and that would be the result under any system, 
 even the most perfect. 
 
 The peculiar excellence of the convention system is that it 
 renders possible the election of a President and Vice-President 
 in the mode prescribed by the Constitution, and is in a real 
 sense a means of taking an informal ballot. No doubt the 
 idea of the framers of the Constitution, that the electors should 
 express their individual preferences and judgment, is impracti- 
 cable. It was rendered so by the provision that the votes of 
 the electors are to be taken within the State for which they 
 are respectively appointed, and on the same day. In such 
 circumstances there would never be a choice by a majority 
 of electors, unless there were a previous agreement, or at least 
 a consultation, between those who think alike on public ques- 
 tions. As we have seen, the earliest consultation took place
 
 THE CONVENTION SYSTEM 177 
 
 between self-constituted leaders who were not electors ; next 
 between the representatives of parties in Congress ; after that, 
 until the convention was devised, there was no agreement, 
 and the electoral system bade fair to go to wreck. But the 
 convention, taking its commission directly from the people, 
 and giving an expression throvigh one party or another to 
 the will of all the people, furnishes a guide to the judgment 
 of the electors which they do not and should not disregard. 
 It IS based really although unintentionally upon the theory 
 of an indirect choice of the President by electors free to 
 choose, which was the theory of the fathers of the Consti- 
 tution. So long as the preliminary electors perform their 
 duty well, it is not to be deplored that the official and final 
 electors have merely the duty of giving formal effect to a 
 choice already made for them. " The King reigns but does 
 not govern " in a constitutional monarchy. It is not to be 
 regretted that a committee of the two Houses of the British 
 Parliament carry on the government subject to the will of the 
 people, and that the nominal sovereign is merely an agent 
 who gives formal assent to their plains, and may not overrule 
 them. As in that case of the British government, so in this of 
 our electoral system, safety lies in purifying and keeping pure 
 the source of actual power, — not ii. overturning the electoral 
 system because the intentions of the Fathers are not carried 
 out in all their exactness. Parties have acquired great power 
 in our government. That power would not be diminished by 
 an abolition of the indirect election. And yet the goodness 
 or badness of the choice of a President, and of the govern- 
 ment as a whole, is to depend upon the question whether 
 parties are honorable or corrupt. They are self-governing 
 fractions of the State. They make the President, and will 
 continue to make him under any system. Consequently it 
 should be the concern of all good citizens to make the na- 
 tional convention, through which parties act directly upon 
 the government, a free and independent body, expressive of 
 the best thought, the highest motives, and the truest patriot- 
 ism of the party.
 
 XV 
 
 VAN BUREN 
 
 General Jackson's first term ended in the midst of a 
 brief period during which he enjoyed almost universal popu- 
 larity. His vigorous, patriotic, and effective proclamation 
 against South Carolina nullification won for him unstinted 
 praise from men who were wont to find in his acts nothing but 
 evil. Parton quotes William Wirt (see p. 156) as saying at 
 this time : " My opinion is, he may be President for life if he 
 chooses." Yet in a few months he took another step which 
 caused a recurrence of the opposition in more than its former 
 violence. In a paper read to the cabinet in September, 1833, 
 he said : " Whatever may be the opinions of others, the Presi- 
 dent considers his reelection as a decision of the people against 
 the Bank." No doubt he had a right so to consider it. But 
 he had no right to fight ever, the " monster," which the people 
 had condemned, with the unfair and illegal weapons which he 
 employed. He had resolved to remove the deposits of the 
 United States from the Bank, in the face of the law which 
 made the Bank the custodian of the public funds, and of a 
 resolution of Congress, passed after an investigation, that the 
 Bank was solvent and the funds safe. He was forced to re- 
 move Mr. McLane, the Secretary of the Treasury, to the State 
 Department, because he was opposed to the removal of the 
 deposits. Mr. Duane, whom he chose for the Treasury De- 
 partment with the express purpose of ordering the removal, 
 flatly refused to be the President's agent in the transaction, 
 and was curtly dismissed from ofiice. Roger B. Taney, after- 
 ward Chief Justice, was transferred from the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral's office to the Treasury, and gave the order. This step 
 caused the greatest excitement, and stirred the opponents of 
 the President to a pitch of anger almost unexampled in our 
 history. The Senate refused to confirm Mr. Taney as Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, and it passed a resolution that the 
 President, by his removal of the deposits, " has assumed upon
 
 VAN BUREN 179 
 
 himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution 
 and laws, but in derogation of both." This was the resolution 
 which Thomas H. Benton soon afterward moved to " expunge " 
 from the journal of the Senate, and which, three years later, 
 was publicly expunged. 
 
 Another act, which marked the close of Jackson's first ad- 
 ministration, should be mentioned here. Congress passed an 
 act directing the distribution of the revenue derived from the 
 sale of public lands among the several States. The policy of 
 this act had been discussed long and earnestly. The opposition 
 of the President was well known ; yet the House of Represent- 
 atives passed the bill by a vote of 96 to 40 ; and the vote of 
 the Senate in its favor was 23 to 5. The bill was laid before 
 the President so near the expiration of the twenty-second Con- 
 gress that less time remained than the ten days which the 
 Constitution allows the President to retain a bill. General 
 Jackson neither signed nor returned the bill, and thus thwarted 
 the will of more than two thirds of both Houses of Congress. 
 This was the first case of a " pocket veto." 
 
 Almost all the measures adopted or even discussed during 
 Jackson's second term arose directly or indirectly from the 
 war on the Bank. The state bank question ; the " Specie 
 Circular," or order requiring all the land offices to receive gold 
 and silver only in payment for public land ; the widespread 
 commercial distress following an era of wild speculation ; the 
 distribution of the surplus revenue, — these were the subjects 
 that engaged the attention of Congress. The personal influ- 
 ence of the President was constantly felt in Congress, where he 
 was supported by a strong and trustworthy body of adherents 
 composing a majority of the House of Representatives, but, 
 owing to the hostility of State-Rights senators, constituting a 
 minority only of the upper branch. Among the people, too, 
 he was regarded as a demigod. Not only were his acts ap- 
 proved, but his sturdy obstinacy and fearless pugnacity gave 
 him favor with the masses of the people such as no other 
 President before him or since his time has enjoyed. 
 
 But the opposition was earnest and active. The largest 
 section of it was organized in 1834 as the AVhi^ party. The 
 name is not found in the public prints of the time before April 
 of that year, when it is mentioned in Giles's Register, with a 
 remark to the effect that the opposition party was so styled in 
 Connecticut and New York. Horace Greeley's Whig Almanac
 
 180 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 for 1838 describes the party as then constituted, consisting of 
 " (1) Most of those who, under the name of National Republi- 
 cans, had previously been known as supporters of Adams and 
 Clay, and advocates of the American system ; (2) Most of 
 those who, acting in defence of what they deemed tlie assailed 
 or threatened rights of the States, had been stigmatized as 
 Nullifiers, or the less virulent State-Rights men, who were 
 thrown into a position of armed neutrality towards the admin- 
 istration by the doctrines of the proclamation of 1832 against 
 South Carolina ; (3) A majority of those before known as 
 Anti-Masons ; (4) Many who had up to that time been known 
 as Jackson men, but who united in condemning the high- 
 handed conduct of the Executive, the immolation of Duane, 
 and the subserviency of Taney ; (5) Numbers who had not 
 before taken any part in politics, but who were now awakened 
 from their apathy by the palpable usurpations of the Executive, 
 and the imminent peril of our whole fabric of constitutional 
 liberty and national prosperity." 
 
 The party, at the beginning of the presidential canvass, 
 was purely and simply an opposition party. Some of the 
 elements of its composition, enumerated above, were never 
 fully fused with the rest, and, under the stress of Tyler's ad- 
 ministration, drifted back into the Democratic party. It was 
 not to be expected that the agreement of all the factions, in 
 hearty disapproval of General Jackson's policy, would hold 
 them together sufficiently to enable them to support one can- 
 didate heartily. Indeed, the sole motive to opposition, so far 
 as a large body of the so-called party was concerned, was an 
 objection to the President's quite unconcealed manoeuvring to 
 designate his own successor. Leaving the plans of the oppo- 
 sition for a time, let us observe the course of events in the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 It was no secret that the President desired that Mr. Van 
 Buren should be his successor. It was rumored at one time, 
 and quite generally believed, that he contemplated resigning 
 and leaving the presidential office to the Vice-President, but 
 that he abandoned this project in order the better to secure 
 the succession to Van Buren. However this may have been, 
 it is certain that an opposition to Van Buren, not unlike that 
 which had existed in 1831 and 1832, threatened to make itself 
 felt and to thwart the President's plans. It manifested itself 
 in the President's own State of Tennessee, where, in January,
 
 VAN BUREN 181 
 
 1835, the legislature formally presented Judge Hugh L. White, 
 then a senator from Tennessee, as a candidate to succeed Jack- 
 son. On the day when this action was expected to be taken, 
 there was placed on the desk of every member of the Tennessee 
 legislature a package containing three copies of the Washington 
 *' Globe," in which was a series of gross attacks upon Judge 
 White. The peculiarity of this circumstance lay in the fact 
 that these precious documents bore the frank of the President, 
 and some of them were addressed in his own hand. The 
 supporters of Judge White maintained with much plausibility 
 that he had stood by the administration, that he was as good a 
 Democrat as the President himself ; that there was no estab- 
 lished mode of nominating candidates ; and that General Jack- 
 son himself owed his nomination to the Tennessee legislature. 
 Eight years had wrought a vast change in the general's attitude 
 as to the respective rights of President and people ; and he 
 could see in his old colleague and supporter only a " traitor." 
 With characteristic determination he set about carrying into 
 execution his purpose to seat Mr. Van Buren in the presiden- 
 tial chair. Prompt action was necessary. . All but two of 
 the Tennessee delegation favored Judge White, and the legisla- 
 ture of Alabama had followed Tennessee in giving him a nomi- 
 nation. 
 
 In February, 1835, the President wrote to a friend suggest- 
 ing the holding of a national convention, to be composed of 
 delegates " fresh from the people," — a phrase upon which 
 the opposition played much during the ensuing canvass, — for 
 the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice- 
 President. The convention was called, and met in Baltimore 
 on the 20th of May, 1835. Mr. Andrew Stevenson, of Vir- 
 ginia, late the Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, was 
 called to the chair, and presided throughout all the sessions of 
 the convention. Twenty-two States and two Territories — 
 Michigan and Arkansas — were represented. No delegates 
 were present from Illinois, South Carolina, or Alabama. The 
 representation of the States would amuse those who are accus- 
 tomed to the exact methods of the present day. A list of 
 those who took part contains 626 names. Of these, 422 came 
 from the States of Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Penn- 
 sylvania. Maryland is mentioned first because it contributed 
 181 members. The state convention, called to select dele- 
 gates, was apparently unwilling to deny any of its own members
 
 182 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 an opportunity to take part, and accordingly resolved that all 
 of them should be delegates. Virginia- sent 108, New Jer- 
 sey 73, and Pennsylvania 60, being two contesting delega- 
 tions of 30 each. On the other hand, Tennessee sent no del- 
 egates ; but a citizen of the State who would vote for Van 
 Buren, chancing to be in Baltimore, presented himself, was 
 admitted, and cast the fifteen votes allotted to Tennessee. 
 His name was Rucker ; and he achieved fame through the 
 verb "■ to ruckerize," which was coined at the time, a piece of 
 political slang long since forgotten. Both sets of delega- 
 tions from Pennsylvania were admitted. The vote of the 
 State was allowed when they were on the same side, as in the 
 choice of candidates, and excluded when they were on opposite 
 sides. 
 
 The rules reported by the committee appointed for that 
 purpose included one that each State should be allowed to cast 
 as many votes as its number of electors; and "that a majority 
 of two thirds shall be required to elect the candidates for Pre- 
 sident and Vice-President." The two-thirds rule was vigor- 
 ously attacked as unrepublican. Mr. Saunders, of North 
 Carolina, who reported it, defended it. He explained that it 
 was designed to create ''a more imposing effect." Continuing, 
 he said that " it was to be presumed that no one had the 
 most remote desire to frustrate the proceedings of the conven- 
 tion ; and provided a majority should, on the first or second 
 ballot, fix upon an individual, it was reasonably to be expected 
 that the minority would be disposed to yield and unite with 
 the majority, so as to produce the effect contemplated." In 
 this view it seemed harmless ; but Mr. Saunders did not fore- 
 see that nine years later he would himself employ the device, 
 contrived to increase the '* effect " of the nomination of Mr. 
 Van Buren, to defeat that same gentleman. After debate, the 
 two-thirds rule was rejected by a vote of 231 to 210 ; but the 
 next morning the vote was reconsidered, and the rule reported 
 by the committee was adopted. Nominations were then in 
 order. Martin Van Buren received a unanimous vote as a 
 candidate for President. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of 
 Kentucky, had 178 votes for Vice-President, and William C. 
 Rives, of Virginia, 87. Before the voting began, Virginia gave 
 notice that she would support no candidate who did not up- 
 hold the principles of the party ; and after Colonel Johnson 
 had received the necessary two thirds and been declared the
 
 VAN BUREN 183 
 
 nominee, her delegates further announced that she would not 
 accept him as a candidate. 
 
 The opposition derided and denounced " the Van Buren con- 
 vention." The office-holders who took part in it were counted 
 and their names were published. The convention was declared 
 to be a revival of the caucus in an equally objectionable form. 
 The truth was that no convention could have brought the op- 
 posing factions into even a semblance of union, and that they 
 did not wish to unite. Their idea was to take advantage of 
 all the local elements of hostility to the reigning dynasty, to 
 throw the election into the House of Representatives, and — 
 to trust to luck for the rest. A Pennsylvania state conven- 
 tion of Anti-Masons held at Harrisburg, December 16, 1835, 
 nominated General William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, for 
 President, and Francis Granger, of New York, for Vice-Presi- 
 dent. The legislature of Ohio nominated, for President, 
 Judge John McLean, of that State, who was "mentioned" 
 for the presidency, off and on, from 1832 until 1860. The 
 Whigs of Massachusetts nominated Daniel Webster. It was 
 a cunning scheme. Tennessee, and perhaps one or two other 
 Southern States, would vote for White. South Carolina was 
 against Jackson, and was expected to throw its vote away on 
 some one who had no other supporters.^ Harrison or McLean 
 would carry several States in the West, and perhaps Pennsyl- 
 vania. Webster would hold New England. For Vice-Presi- 
 dent, Granger was accepted as the candidate in all the States 
 where Harrison was supported, and in ]\Iassachusetts ; while 
 John Tyler, of Virginia, went on the ticket with Judge White. 
 Although the scheme was a promising one and came near suc- 
 cess, the margin of safety was on the side of the Democratic 
 party once more, largely owing to the strictness of party dis- 
 cipline, and the determined use of the national patronage to 
 perpetuate the Jackson dynasty under a new head. The 
 battle between the contesting forces was a bitter one. Mr. 
 Van Buren was the embodiment of all that was objected to 
 on the part of the Whigs against General Jackson ; and, on 
 the other hand, the Democrats, honestly believing that the 
 
 iThe expectation was realized, for on December 7, 1836, the South Carolina 
 House of Representatives instructed the electors of the State not to vote for 
 Van Buren, White, or Harrison ; and then both branches instructed them to 
 vote for Willie P. Man^um, of North Carolina, for President, and for John 
 Tj'ler, of Virginia, for Vice-President.
 
 184 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 administration in power had acted for the best interests of 
 the country, could find no words too severe to denounce those 
 who would undo its work. They made it a special accusation 
 against the Whigs that they were for the Bank. While it 
 was true of the most of them, — and, considering what the Bank 
 had done for the currency, and the great disasters Avhich fol- 
 lowed its overthrow, it was greatly to their credit that it was 
 true, — they had not quite enough courage to avow their prin- 
 ciples in the face of the manifest but strange hostility of the 
 people to " Biddle's Bank." 
 
 As had happened in 1832, the early autumn elections did not 
 promise a sweeping victory for the Democrats ; they even gave 
 hope to the opposition that the election would be thrown into 
 the House of Representatives. Ohio and New Jersey, which 
 had given their votes to Jackson four years before, were car- 
 ried by the Whigs. The Democratic majority in Pennsylvania 
 was uncomfortably small, and in Maine there was no choice of 
 a congressman at the September election in any one of the 
 eight districts. But the Democrats worked with extraordinary 
 energy after these preliminary reverses and saved the day, al- 
 though they came out of the contest with a largely reduced 
 majority. 
 
 Twenty-six States took part in the election. Arkansas had 
 been admitted on the 15th of June, 1836. Michigan, which 
 had applied for admission as early as 1833, chose electors, and 
 their votes were counted, as we shall see, in the same manner 
 as were those of Missouri in 1821. The State was formally 
 admitted on the 26th of January, 1837, so that she was a 
 State at the time the electoral count took place. All the 
 States except South Carolina, whose electors were appointed 
 by the legislature, chose them by a popular vote and by gen- 
 eral ticket. The popular vote is given on page 185. 
 
 The usual resolution for the appointment of a committee to 
 report upon the manner of conducting the count of votes was 
 introduced in the Senate on the 26th of January, 1837. An 
 amendment offered by Mr. Clay, and adopted by the Senate, 
 directed the committee also " to inquire into the expediency 
 of ascertaining whether any votes were given at the recent 
 election contrary to the prohibition contained in the second sec- 
 tion of the second article of the Constitution ; and, if such votes 
 were given, what ought to be done with them ; and whether 
 any, and what, provision ought to be made for securing the
 
 VAN BUREN 
 
 185 
 
 States. 
 
 Maine . . . . 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Vermont . . . 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 New York . . 
 
 New Jersey . . 
 
 Pennsylvania . . 
 
 Delaware . . . 
 
 Maryland . . . 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina . 
 South Carolina* 
 
 Georgia . . . 
 
 Alabama . . . 
 
 Mississippi . . 
 
 Louisiana . . . 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 Kentucky . . . 
 
 Tennessee . . . 
 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana . . . 
 
 Illinois . . . . 
 
 Michigan . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 Van Buren. 
 
 22,990 
 18,722 
 14,039 
 33,542 
 
 2,964 
 
 19,291 
 
 166,815 
 
 25,592 
 
 91,475 
 
 4,153 
 22,168 
 30,261 
 26,910 
 
 22,104 
 
 20,506 
 
 9,979 
 
 3,653 
 
 2,400 
 
 33,435 
 
 26,129 
 
 10,995 
 
 96,948 
 
 32,478 
 
 18,097 
 
 7,332 
 
 762,978 
 
 Whig. 
 
 15,239 
 
 6,228 
 20,996 
 41,287 
 
 2,710 
 
 18,749 
 
 138,543 
 
 26,137 
 
 87,111 
 
 4,733 
 25,852 
 23,468 
 23,626 
 
 24,876 
 
 15,612 
 
 9,688 
 
 3,383 
 
 1,238 
 
 36,955 
 
 36,168 
 
 7,337 
 
 105,404 
 
 41,281 
 
 14,983 
 
 4,045 
 
 736,250 
 
 Whig Candidate. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Webster. 
 
 Harrison, 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 White. 
 
 White. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 * Electors chosen by the legislature. 
 
 faithful observance, in future, of that section of the Constitu- 
 tion." The House having agreed to the resolution in this 
 form, the committee reported to the Senate on the 4th of 
 February. After remarking that the shortness of the time 
 allowed had prevented a proper investigation of the matters 
 referred to the committee, the report proceeds : — 
 
 The correspondence which has taken place between the chair- 
 man of the committee and the heads of the different departments 
 of the executive branch of the government accompanies this report, 
 from which it appears that Isaac Waldron, who was an elector in 
 New Hampshire, was, at the time of his appointment as elector, 
 president of a deposit bank at Portsmouth, and was appointed and 
 acting as pension agent, without compensation, under the authority 
 of the United States ; that in two cases persons of the same names 
 with the individuals who were appointed and voted as electors in
 
 186 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the State of North Carolina held the offices of deputy postmasters 
 under the general government. It also appears that in New 
 Hampshire there is one case, in Connecticut there is one case, in 
 North Carolina there is one case, in which, from the report of the 
 Postmaster-General, it is probable that, at the time of the appoint- 
 ment of electors in these States respectively, the electors, or per- 
 sons of the same name, were deputy postmasters. The committee 
 have not ascertained whether the electors are the same individuals 
 who held, or are presumed to have held, the offices of deputy 
 postmasters at the time when the appointment of electors was 
 made ; and this is the less to be regretted as it is confidently be- 
 lieved that no change in the result of the election of either the 
 President or Vice-President would be affected by the ascertainment 
 of the fact in either way, as five or six votes only would in any 
 event be abstracted from the whole number ; for the committee 
 cannot adopt the opinion entertained by some that a single illegal 
 vote would vitiate the whole electoral vote of the college of electors 
 in which it was given, particularly in cases where the vote of the 
 whole college has been given to the same persons. 
 
 The committee are of opinion that the second section of the 
 second article of the Constitution, which declares that no senator 
 or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit 
 under the United States, shall be appointed an elector, ought to be 
 carried in its whole spirit into rigid execution in order to prevent 
 officers of the general government from bringing their official power 
 to influence the elections of President and Vice-President of the 
 United States. This provision of the Constitution, it is believed, 
 excludes and disqualifies deputy postmasters from the appointment 
 of electors; and the disqualification relates to the time of the ap* 
 pointment, and that a resignation of the office of deputy post- 
 master after his appointment as elector would not entitle him to 
 vote as elector under the Constitution. 
 
 Should a case occur in which it became necessary to ascertain 
 and determine upon the qualification of electors of President and 
 Vice-President of the United States, the important question would 
 be presented. What tribunal would, under the Constitution, be 
 competent to decide ? Whether the respective colleges of electors 
 in the different States should decide upon the qualifications of 
 their own members, or Congress should exercise the power, is a 
 question which the committee are of opinion ought to be settled 
 by a permanent provision upon the subject. 
 
 It may be remarked here that only in 1877 has a vote ever 
 been challenged, at the time of the electoral count, on the 
 ground that the person giving it was disqualified under the
 
 VAN BUREN 187 
 
 terms of the Constitution. In recent years parties have been 
 careful not to place upon their electoral tickets any one who 
 was even constructively '' holding an office of trust or profit 
 under the United States," — as, for example, a director in a 
 national bank, or other corporation chartered by Congress. In 
 the case before us the committee reported no bill or resolution 
 on the subject. It merely reported the usual resolution for 
 counting the vote, together with a second resolution, exactly 
 like that which had been adopted in 1821 in regard to the 
 votes of IVIissouri, to cover the case of Michigan. In the Sen- 
 ate this resolution provoked some discussion. Senators were 
 divided over the question whether Michigan was or was not a 
 State of the Union for the purposes of the election. The 
 resolution was finally adopted by a vote of 34 to 9. In the 
 course of the debate a senator asked Mr. Grundy, of Tennessee, 
 who reported the resolutions, what course would have been 
 pursued if the vote of Michigan would have varied the result ? 
 Mr. Grundy replied that the gentleman could not expect him 
 "to answer a question which the wisest of their predecessors 
 had purposely left undetermined. What might be done under 
 the circumstances adverted to, should they ever occur, the 
 wisdom of the day must decide." 
 
 The official count of the electoral vote may be found on 
 page 188. 
 
 The result was announced in the alternative form prescribed 
 by the joint resolution, concluding with the declaration that, 
 whether the votes of Michigan were counted or not counted, 
 Martin Van Buren was elected President, and that no person 
 had a majority of votes for Vice-President ; that an election 
 to that ofiice had not been effected ; that Richard M. John- 
 son, of Kentucky, and Prancis Granger, of New York, were 
 the two highest on the lists of electoral votes, and that it de- 
 volved on the Senate to choose a Vice-President from these 
 persons. 
 
 On returning to its own chamber, the Senate adopted a re- 
 solution prescribing the manner in which an election should 
 be made. The names of the senators were called in alphabeti- 
 cal order, and they voted viua voce. On the first trial, Rich- 
 ard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was chosen by a vote of 33 to 16 
 for Francis Granger. This is the only occasion in our politi- 
 cal history that the choice of the Vice-President has devolved 
 upon the Senate.
 
 188 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PBESmENT. 
 
 Vicb-Pbesidbnt. 
 
 States. 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 n 
 
 d 
 
 d 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 
 a" 
 1 
 
 g 
 
 U 
 
 & 
 
 5 
 
 > 
 
 OS 
 
 
 J 
 
 w 
 
 ^ 
 
 •s 
 ^ 
 
 a 
 
 a- 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 ^ 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 1 
 
 .a 
 
 ^ 
 
 a 
 
 
 IS 
 10 
 
 2 
 ^ 
 
 be 
 
 3 
 
 K 
 
 Q 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 i 
 fo 
 
 5 
 
 o 
 
 ■-5 
 
 % 
 
 Maine 
 
 - 
 
 New Hampshire . 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 •t 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont .... 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 U 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 'i 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 14 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 14 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island . 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New York . . 
 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 42 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New Jersey . . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 30 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 
 
 2'A 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 23 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 lo 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 Alabama . 
 
 
 
 
 
 'i 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 'i 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Louisiana . 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 lo 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Ohio . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana . 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 y 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Illinois 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 ■- 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 Total 
 
 170 
 
 73 
 
 26 
 
 14 
 
 11 
 
 147 
 
 77 
 
 47 
 
 23 
 
 The occasion of the inauguration of Mr. Van Buren was a 
 great triumph for the " old hero." It was what Jackson's 
 not too impartial and judicial biographer, James Parton, terms 
 the election of Van Buren, — " the consummation of his most 
 cherished hopes." There was no Jeffersonian simplicity in 
 the ceremony. The general and the President-elect rode 
 together, with a military escort, in the " Constitution phaeton," 
 drawn by four grays. There was a great throng to witness 
 the taking of the oath and to listen to the inaugural address.
 
 VAN BUREN 18;) 
 
 General Jackson, infirm and ill and racked with pain, but 
 still indomitable, sat uncovered during the delivery of the ad- 
 dress. He had had the satisfaction to witness, what he had 
 anticipated in a letter written to a friend two days before, 
 " the glorious scene of Mr. Van Buren, once rejected by the 
 Senate, sworn into office by Chief Justice Taney, also being 
 rejected by the factious Senate."
 
 XVI 
 
 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 
 
 The canvass of 1840, the "log cabin" and "hard cider" 
 campaign, stands unique in the political history of the country. 
 It was marked by intense and extraordinary enthusiasm on the 
 part of young men for a candidate who was close upon seventy 
 years of age. The party which won the victory was a party 
 in name only, for it had no other bond of union than opposi- 
 tion to the administration of the day. It announced no posi- 
 tive principles, it had no definite policy. Yet it triumphed 
 over the closely organized party which had governed the coun- 
 try since the beginning of the century, — unless the four 
 years' term of the second Adams is to be excepted, — which 
 was strongly intrenched in the offices, and was using the public 
 patronage without scruple to perpetuate its own power. 
 
 Many writers have put on record their estimate of Mr. Van 
 Buren's character, and of his rank in the list of those who 
 have occupied the presidential chair ; but neither his warm 
 partisans nor those who have placed the lowest estimate upon 
 him as a statesman attribute the disastrous defeat of the 
 Democracy in 1840 to causes personal to him. That he drew 
 the first breath of his public life in the atmosphere of political 
 intrigue, bargain, treachery, and confusion, which has hung 
 over the State of New York from the days of Washington to 
 the days of McKinley, explains much in the story of his career. 
 In his young manhood he was a distinguished party manager, 
 and owed his advancement to the arts which he then cultivated. 
 His adroitness in maintaining a non-committal attitude until it 
 was practically certain which side was to win, and then coming 
 out strongly on that side, was proverbial. Age, responsibility, 
 and experience made him almost a statesman. He intended 
 to make his administration a continuation of Jackson's.^ In 
 
 1 William Allen Butler, in his brief but beautiful tribute to his lifelong 
 friend, remarks: "Mr. Van Buren 'followed in the footsteps of his illustrious 
 predecessor.' The predecessor had been too illustrious, and his footsteps had 
 so shaken the whole social system that a great shock was inevitable."
 
 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 191 
 
 adherence to the political principles of his predecessor, the 
 purpose was carried out. But Van Buren was a gentleman, in 
 the sense of possessing culture and polished manners, and in 
 preferring peace and order to quarrel and turmoil ; and in this 
 he differed so greatly from General Jackson that his adminis- 
 tration could not be the same. He surrounded himself with 
 gentlemen, bore himself with dignity, and evinced a most 
 laudable desire to efface the memory of his achievements in the 
 political field as " the Little Magician," and the subserviency 
 to Jackson which insured him the succession. It was not 
 unlikeness to his predecessor that caused his defeat. It had 
 required all of Jackson's authority to carry him through in 
 1836, and his margin was small. To make use of an arith- 
 metical calculation much in vogue at the present day, which 
 is of little significance (see p. 17), a change of 2183 votes in 
 Pennsylvania would have lost him the electors of that State 
 and thrown the election into the House of Representatives. 
 More than the small change necessary to defeat him was forth- 
 coming in 1840, and the opposition had learned to unite for 
 that one purpose. It was Van Buren's misfortune that the 
 storm which Jackson had called from the sky, by his reckless 
 use of high explosives, burst just as Jackson reached shelter 
 and as the " Magician " stepped forth to take the great rain- 
 maker's place. The terrible panic of 1837 began when the 
 administration was but two months old, — a direct consequence 
 of the financial disorder produced by Jackson's war on the 
 Bank. The enforced liquidation of the greatest monetary in- 
 stitution in the country ; the transfer of the public funds to 
 banks much weaker and far more loosely managed than the 
 Bank of the United States; a wild speculation induced by the 
 excessive note-issues of state banks which had a fictitious 
 capital only ; and the inability of the banks to respond when 
 called upon to refund the sums intrusted to them, under the 
 law for ''depositing" the surplus revenue with the States, — 
 such were the events which brought about the suspension of 
 specie payments on the 10th of May, 1837. 
 
 It is true, as the defenders of Mr. Van Buren say, that he 
 met the crisis with courage. No man in his position was ever 
 known to admit that the catastrophe which he had to face — 
 and which in this case dealt his administration a deadly 
 blow — was caused by the measures which he had supported. 
 Kather, it confirmed him in his former opinions, and led him to
 
 192 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY • 
 
 recommend more radical steps in the direction of his previous 
 policy. That the memhers of his party did not all agree with 
 him is shown by the political history of his administration. 
 Although, during his whole term, there was a Democratic 
 majority in both Houses of Congress, he suffered repeated 
 defeats in carrying through his one favorite scheme and great 
 measure, the establishment of the Independent Treasury, — a 
 device contrary then and ever since to all sound views of 
 public and private finance. Nevertheless, it would be a mis- 
 take to represent either that Mr. Van Buren was abandoned 
 by his party, or that his administration was an unpopular one 
 among Democrats. On the contrary, a large majority of them 
 believed in him, approved his measures, and desired his re- 
 election. They were in favor of completing the work which 
 Jackson had begun, by divorcing the state altogether from 
 private banking corporations. Mr. Van Buren was then, and 
 to the end of his life, as his *' Political History " shows, an 
 enemy of hanks as well as of The Bank. It is probable 
 that if the issue in the canvass of 1840 had been made wholly 
 upon the bank question, the result would have shown that 
 the people were with Van Buren. The Whigs were too 
 shrewd to avow friendliness to the Bank, or to any bank. 
 They took advantage of the opposition to, and the bad re- 
 sults of, the Jackson- Van Buren fiscal plans, without declar- 
 ing themselves in favor of restoring what had been destroyed ; 
 and they also profited by the Southern hostility to the admin- 
 istration, without promising to reverse or even to modify 
 the policy of the general government on the subject of State 
 Eights. In short, the Democrats had principles and a policy, 
 right or wrong, as people may think ; the Whigs were united 
 only in condemning, and, whatever they may have intended, 
 whatever they may have done or attempted to do when they 
 were in power, did not venture to declare principles or policy 
 beforehand. 
 
 The state elections in 1837 and 1838 resulted unfavorably 
 to the Democrats. The most of the elections of members of 
 the twenty-sixth Congress took place in 1838 ; and they were 
 so decidedly adverse to the Democrats that extraordinary ex- 
 ertions were required in the spring elections of 1839 to rescue 
 their majority from extinction. So close was the contest that, 
 when the House assembled in December, 1839, there were 119 
 Democrats, 118 opposition, and 5 members from New Jersey
 
 , TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 193 
 
 whose seats were contested. The certificates were held by 
 Wliigs, who were not allowed to participate in the organization. 
 On that occasion Mr. Adams, the ex-President, who had re- 
 turned to the House of Representatives, prevented anarchy 
 by calling the members to order and persuading them to choose 
 a temporary chairman, — a position which was assigned to Mr. 
 Adams himself. 
 
 Long before this time, the plans of the Whigs had been 
 forming ; and, two days after the assembling of Congress, the 
 National Whig Convention met at Harrisburg, — on Decem- 
 ber 4, 1839. The leaders were resolved on union, and the 
 only question was as to the candidate who would command 
 the largest support. Mr. Clay had the advantage of a long 
 public service, and of having been a leader in national afifairs 
 for almost thirty years ; but he also labored under the double 
 disadvantage of being a Freemason, and as such not acceptable 
 to the faction which still mustered many followers in the 
 Eastern States, and of having been a conspicuous advocate 
 of the " American system," or protective tariff, which was 
 highly unpopular in the South Atlantic States. General 
 William Henry Harrison was not a great leader ; but he had 
 been more or less in the public service, military and civil, for 
 nearly half a century, and was well known throughout the 
 country. Moreover, he had made a gallant run for the presi- 
 dency in the Northern States in 1836, and was open to neither 
 of the objections urged against Mr. Clay, It was evident that 
 one of these two would be selected to lead the Whig opposi- 
 tion. Each had his strong partisans. Not only they, but 
 the candidates as well, were anxious chiefly that the Whig 
 party should carry the election. Mr. Clay's earnest and 
 laudable ambition to be President was not so great that he 
 would put it before the cause. Moreover, he was aware of 
 the objections to his candidacy which some Whigs entertained. 
 When the autumn elections of 1839 indicated a reaction in 
 favor of the Democrats, and the necessity of a complete union 
 of the opposition, he wrote, in a letter which was read at the 
 Harrisburg Convention, that, " if the deliberations of the Con- 
 vention shall lead them to the choice of another as the candi- 
 date of the opposition, far from feeling any discontent, the 
 nomination will have my best wishes and receive my cordial 
 support." He further begged his friends to " discard all 
 attachment or partiality to me, and be guided solely by the
 
 194 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 motive of rescuing our country from the dangers which now 
 encompass it." Already, during the preceding summer, he 
 had said in an address at Bulialo : *' If my name creates any 
 obstacle to union and harmony, away with it, and concentrate 
 upon some individual more acceptable to all branches of the 
 opposition," The action of the great " union and harmony " 
 convention of Pennsylvania, held at Harrisburg on the 4th of 
 September, probably did much to concentrate the Whig forces 
 on Harrison ; for, while that convention extolled Clay in ex- 
 travagant phrases, it expressed the opinion that General Harri- 
 son was the only man who could unite the anti-Van Buren party. 
 Two hundred and fifty-four delegates attended the Whig 
 convention, from twenty-two States. South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Tennessee, and Arkansas were not represented. The Whig 
 committee of Arkansas sent a letter authorizing Judge Porter, 
 of Louisiana, to cast the vote of Arkansas ; but the remembrance 
 of the Whig derision of " ruckerizing," at the Democratic con- 
 vention of 1835, forbade that the credentials should be accepted. 
 Isaac C. Bates, of Massachusetts, was the temporary chairman, 
 and Grovernor James Barbour, of Virginia, the permanent presi- 
 dent, of the convention. After a long debate, a plan of nomi- 
 nation was agreed upon. As this scheme was peculiar, and is 
 now quite obsolete, the order of the convention is given en- 
 tire: — 
 
 That the delegates from each State be requested to assemble as a 
 delegation, and appoint a committee, not exceeding three in num- 
 ber, to receive the views and opinions of such delegation, and 
 communicate the same to the assembled committees of all the 
 delegations, to be by them respectively reported to their principals. 
 And that thereupon the delegates from each State be requested to 
 assemble as a delegation, and ballot for candidates for the offices 
 of President and Vice-President, and, having done so, to commit 
 the ballot designating the votes of each candidate, and by whom 
 given, to its committee. And thereupon all the committees shall 
 assemble and compare the several ballots, and report the result of 
 the same to their several delegations, together with such facts as 
 may bear upon the nomination. And said delegations shall forth- 
 with reassemble and ballot again for candidates for the above 
 offices, and again commit the result to the above committees ; and 
 if it shall appear that a majority of the ballots are for any one 
 man for candidate for President, said committee shall report the 
 result to the convention for its consideration. H there shall be 
 no such majority, then the delegations shall repeat the balloting
 
 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 195 
 
 until such a majority shall be obtained, and then report the same 
 to the convention for its consideration. That the vote of a major- 
 ity of each delegation shall be reported as the vote of that State. 
 And each State represented here shall vote its fiill electoral vote 
 by such delegation in the committee. 
 
 It will be observed that this rule bears a resemblance to, 
 although it is not precisely like, the " unit rule," which has 
 caused so much trouble in Republican and Democratic con- 
 ventions since that time. The action of the committees and of 
 the delegations was not to be binding upon the convention 
 until accepted by it. The scheme was adopted as a method of 
 learning what candidate would be most acceptable to the 
 States. An effort was made the next day, by Mr, Cassius M. 
 Clay of Kentucky, to secure a reversal of the decision ; but 
 the convention by a strong vote adhered to its former resolu- 
 tion. The action of the committees and delegations is not a 
 part of the official record ; but it is known that on the first 
 informal ballot, in which the wish of each delegate was ex- 
 pressed, without unifying the votes of the States, Mr. Clay 
 had a small plurality. On the first ballot by States, Mr. 
 Clay had 103, General Harrison 94, and General Winfield 
 Scott 57. After repeated ballotings, late on Friday evening, 
 the third day of the convention, a report was made by the 
 committees that they had agreed upon a candidate. General 
 Harrison had 148, Mr. Clay 90, and General Scott 16. On 
 the next day a resolution was introduced declaring General 
 Harrison the nominee of the convention, and it was supported 
 in enthusiastic speeches by many of the friends of Clay. 
 While the jubilee was still going on, the committees, which 
 had been considering the question of Vice-President, made 
 a report that John Tyler had received the unanimous vote 
 of the convention. 1 His name was thereupon joined to that 
 
 1 Henry A. Wise, in his " Seven Decades of the Union," asserts that the 
 nomination of Mr. Tyler was prearranged, — that it had been agreed upon a 
 year before. Mr. Tyler had resigned as senator from Virginia rather than 
 obey the instructions of the legislature, and William C. Rives was elected to 
 succeed him. The senatorial term was to end in 1839, and Mr. Rives and Mr. 
 Tyler were candidates. Mr. Tyler discovered that the Whigs in Congress 
 were favoring the election of Mr. Rives, in the hope that in consideration of 
 their support he would act with them. According to Governor Wise a confer- 
 ence took place ; and Mr. Tyler withdrew from the contest and allowed Mr. 
 Rives to be chosen, under an agreement — Mr. Clay is named as the other 
 contracting party — that Mr. Tyler should be the candidate for Vice-Presi- 
 dent in 1840. Mr. Rives was elected, and acted with the Whigs.
 
 196 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 of General Harrison in the pending resolution, and the vote was 
 carried in a whirlwind of enthusiasm. The convention then 
 adjourned, without having given expression in any form to 
 the principles of the party which it represented. Even in the 
 many speeches made during the four days' session^ there was 
 hardly a positive assertion of a principle made by any delegate. 
 It was all hatred and opposition to Van Buren and the " Loco- 
 Focos." 
 
 The nomination was received with great enthusiasm by the 
 opposition. Meeting after meeting was held in many States, 
 and the candidacy of the " Old Hero of Tippecanoe " was 
 noisily ratified. The Whigs prepared to shout and sing their 
 candidate into office. In February, 1840, the "Whig Conven- 
 tion of Ohio, at Columbus, wa? made the occasion of a great 
 ** demonstration," a procession with banners, representations 
 of log-cabins, coon-skins, pictures of the " old hero " drinking 
 a mug of hard cider, and other equally logical appeals to the 
 political sound sense of the voters of Ohio. A still more im- 
 posing affair was the great procession in Baltimore, on the 4th 
 of May, in connection with the national convention of young 
 men, which was nicely timed to occur simultaneously with the 
 Democratic Convention in the same city. An excellent illus- 
 tration of the political eloquence of the time is afforded by the 
 ostentatious failure of the " Baltimore Patriot " to express the 
 emotions which this great procession excited ; but the editor 
 certainly tried to do his subject justice : — 
 
 Monday was a proud day for Baltimore, for Maryland, for the 
 Union. It was a day on which the Young Whigs of all the States 
 were to meet in grand convention. Never before was seen such an 
 assemblage of the people, in whose persons are concentrated the 
 sovereignty of the government. In the language of the president 
 of the day, " Every mountain sent its rill, — every valley its 
 STREAM, and, lo ! THE AVALANCHE OF THE PEOPLE IS 
 HERE ! " 
 
 It is impossible to convey the slightest idea of the sublime spec- 
 tacle presented by the procession as it moved through the city. 
 All that pen could write, all that the mouth of man could speak, 
 all that the imagination can conceive of beauty, grandeur, and sub- 
 limity, would fall short, far short, of the reality. The excitement, 
 the joy, the enthusiasm which everywhere prevailed, lighting up 
 the countenance of every man in the procession ; the shouts, the 
 applause, the cheers, of those who filled the sidewalks and crowded 
 the windows; the waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies; the
 
 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 197 
 
 responsive cries of the people ; the flaunting banners ; the martial 
 music ; the loud roar, at intervals, of the deep-mouthed cannon, — 
 all these and more, much more, must be described, seen in the 
 mind's eye, vibrate through the frame, fill the heart, before the 
 reader can approach to any conception of the reality ; and when 
 all these are done, if they were possible, he has still but a faint and 
 meagre impression of the scene that was presented. In no country, 
 in no time, never before in the history of man, was there a spec- 
 tacle so full of " natural glory." The aged veteran, whose declining 
 years forbade his joining the procession, looked on; his feeble voice 
 went to swell the general shout that penetrated even to the blue 
 vault of heaven ; his hand waved above his head, whilst down his 
 furrowed cheek ran tears, the overflowing of a heart full even to 
 bursting with joy and happiness and gladness, of all that goes 
 to make up life's best pleasures, and these crowded, as it were, 
 into one moment. The father who brought his children to see 
 the patriots of the land ; the mother to look upon her son, one of 
 the patriot crew ; the sister to behold the brother give vent to his 
 youthful and extravagant joy, — were all there, and all went to make 
 up the spectacle. Standing on an eminence commanding a view of 
 the line of the procession in the whole extent of Baltimore Street, 
 you beheld a moving mass of human beings. A thousand banners 
 burnished by the sun, floating in the breeze, ten thousand hand- 
 kerchiefs waved by the fair daughters of the city, gave seeming life 
 and motion to the very air. A hundred thousand faces were before 
 you, — age, manhood, youth, and beauty filled every place where 
 a foothold could be got, or any portion of the procession be seen ; 
 and you gazed on the pageant with renewed and increasing delight, 
 and words failed to express what your heart felt or your eyes be- 
 held. Nothing was wanting, nothing left to be desired, — the cup of 
 human joy was full. The free men of the land were there, — the 
 fiery son of the South, the substantial citizen of the East, the hardy 
 pioneer of the West, were all there. It was the epitome of a great 
 nation, in itself realizing, filling up the imaginings, and may have ' 
 been the very picture which the poet di-ew when he described our 
 country, our institutions, and our people as a "land beyond the 
 oceans of the West," where " freedom and truth are worshipped " 
 by a " people mighty in their youth." 
 
 That land is like an eagle, whose yonng gaze 
 
 Feeds on the noontide beam ; whose golden plume 
 Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze 
 
 Of sunshine gleams when earth is wrapped in gloom. 
 
 An epitaph of glory for the tomb 
 Of murdered Europe, may thy fame be made, 
 
 Great people! as the sand shalt thou become! 
 Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade; 
 The multitudinous earth shall sleep beneath thy shadCo
 
 198 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Thus much we may say in reference to what words can describe 
 
 the procession to be, not what it was ; for the reality we must give 
 the dry details of the programme by which it was arranged. We 
 can give nothing of the living spectacle, we can give nothing of 
 the joy and gladness which — 
 
 Spread through the multitudinous streets fast flj'ing 
 Upon the wings of hope — 
 
 from house to house replying 
 With loud acclaim; the living shook heaven's cope, 
 And filled the earth with echoes! 
 
 We can give nothing of these, and here all fail ; but we must 
 essay to present the scene, as far as feeble words can do it. 
 
 The procession does really seem to have been a grand affair, 
 and there were numerous emblems of the Whigs, — log-cabins, 
 barrels of hard cider, brooms to sweep the Augean stables, and 
 others which it would be tedious to enumerate. The poet was 
 with the Whigs that year. Among the mottoes on the ban- 
 ners was this : — 
 
 Farewell, dear Van, 
 You 're not our man; 
 To guide the ship, 
 We '11 try old Tip. 
 
 The Democrats, meanwhile, were in a situation which em- 
 barrassed them, but gave them no fear that they were about to 
 suffer defeat. They had had the people with them at every 
 election in forty years, excepting only in 1824 ; and they 
 maintained that even then the popular judgment was for Jack- 
 son. They despised the opposition, and regarded the method 
 of the canvass the Harrison party was carrying on as almost 
 unworthy of the notice of serious-minded men. They had 
 troubles of their own ; but Providence had always come to 
 their aid at the critical moment, and it would do so again. 
 So far as Van Buren was concerned, there was this time abso- 
 lutely no opposition to him within the party. Tennessee, 
 before unfriendly, would now give him its support ; and even 
 South Carolina, which had sulked for eight years, was ready 
 to vote for him. But there was a bitter opposition to the 
 Vice-President, Colonel Johnson. Party discipline was not 
 then what it is now. So hostile were many of the party to 
 Johnson that it was certain that he, at least, would fail to be 
 chosen by a majority of electors, whatever might be Van 
 Buren's fate. The situation was such that it seemed wise to 
 many of the leaders not to hold a convention at all, since to do
 
 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 199 
 
 so would merely advertise the party division. The Demo- 
 crats were all in favor of Van Buren ; the people had nomi- 
 nated him spontaneously. The Senate, which had once elected 
 Colonel Johnson, could be trusted to choose that Democratic 
 candidate who received the most electoral votes. It was as- 
 serted that there were ten States which had declined or would 
 decline to send delegates to a convention. By some of them 
 Mr. Van Buren had been named for reelection in conjunction 
 with William R. King, of Alabama, or James K. Polk, of 
 Tennessee, or Littleton W. Tazewell, of Virginia, or Colonel 
 Johnson himself. 
 
 There was then no such body as a national committee of the 
 party, and in fact no constituted authority to decide whether a 
 convention should be held or not. The conventions of 1831 
 and 1835 had both been called by the Democratic members of 
 the New Hampshire legislature ; and once again they issued a 
 call for a convention to meet at Baltimore on the 4th of May, 
 1840. Delegates were present from twenty-one States. Con- 
 necticut, Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, and Illinois were 
 unrepresented. The membership corresponded to the number 
 of votes allowed more closely than had ever before been the 
 case. New Jersey alone was over-represented by fifty-nine 
 delegates. There was but one member to cast the vote of 
 Massachusetts, and several of the Western States were thinly 
 represented. Governor Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, was 
 the temporary chairman, and Governor William Carroll, of 
 Tennessee, the permanent president. Pending the preparation 
 of business, there was an abundance of speech-making. All 
 who addressed the convention were sure that a great victory 
 for the Democratic party was impending, and each tried to 
 outdo the rest in jeering at the Whigs. The great procession 
 of the day before was referred to as an " animal show ; " the 
 Whigs were laughed at for shutting up their candidate and not 
 allowing him the use of pen and ink ; and one speaker said 
 that he had tried to get an introduction to some of the log- 
 cabin men in the procession " for the purpose of feeling their 
 soft, delicate hands," but " as soon as he had done so he was 
 pretty careful to put his hand on his purse." 
 
 On the second day of the convention the committee on reso- 
 lutions reported the following platform of principles : — 
 
 1. Resolved, That the federal government is one of limited 
 powers derived solely from the Constitution, and the grants of
 
 ^UJ>-■ 
 
 200 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 power shown therein ought to be strictly construed by aU the 
 departments and agents of the government, and that it is inexpe* 
 dient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers. 
 
 2. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer upon the 
 general government the power to commence and carry on a general 
 system of internal improvement. 
 
 3. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer authority 
 upon the federal government, directly or indirectly, to assume the 
 debts of the several States, contracted for local internal improve- 
 ments, or other State purposes ; nor would such assumption be just 
 or expedient. 
 
 4. Resolved, That justice and sound policy forbid the federal 
 government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of 
 another, or to cherish the interest of one portion to the injury of 
 another portion of our common country ; that every citizen and 
 every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon 
 an equality of rights and privileges, and to complete and ample 
 protection of person and property from domestic violence or for- 
 eign aggression. 
 
 5. Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch of the govern- 
 ment to enforce and practise the most rigid economy in conducting 
 our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised 
 than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 6. Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a United 
 States Bank ; that we believe such an institution one of deadly 
 hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our 
 republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calcu- 
 lated to place the business of the country within the control of a 
 concentrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the 
 people. 
 
 7. Resolved, That Congress has no power, under the Constitu' 
 tion, to interfere wdth or control the domestic institutions of the 
 several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges 
 of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by 
 the Constitution ; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, 
 made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, 
 or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead 
 to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all 
 such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness 
 of the people, and endanger the stability and permanency of the 
 Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our 
 political institutions. 
 
 8. Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the govern- 
 ment from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of 
 the funds of the government and the rights of tha people.
 
 TIPPECANOE AXD TYLER TOO 201 
 
 9. Resolved, That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson 
 in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Consti= 
 tution, which make ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the 
 oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in 
 the Democratic faith ; and every attempt to abridge the present 
 privilege of becoming citizens and the owners of soil among us 
 ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the Alien 
 and Sedition laws from our statute-book,, 
 
 The vote was put on each of these resolutions separately, 
 and every one of them was adopted by a unanimous vote. An- 
 other committee appointed to prepare an address to the people 
 next presented its report, — an address which nearly fills a 
 page of the Washington " Globe," in fine type, — and the pages 
 of the newspapers of that day were of generous size. The 
 address was listened to impatiently, for the convention was 
 anxious to get at the question of nominations. Senator Cle- 
 ment C. Clay, of Alabama, chairman of a committee to which 
 this subject had been referred on the previous day, reported 
 two resolutions, to each of which a preamble was affixed. The 
 first, having set forth that Mr. Van Buren had received many 
 nominations for the position which he already filled to tha 
 satisfaction of the party and the country, and that he was the 
 unanimous choice of the Democrats, formally presented him 
 for reelection. The preamble of the second resolution recited 
 that several gentlemen had been put in nomination for the vice- 
 presidency ; that the States presenting some of these gentle- 
 men had no representatives in the convention ; and that all 
 the candidates, by their discharge of public trusts, had shown 
 themselves worthy to be elected to the office. The resolution 
 itself was as follows : — 
 
 Resolved, That the convention deem it expedient at the present 
 time not to choose between the individuals in nomination, but to 
 leave the decision to their Republican fellow-citizens in the several 
 States, trusting that, before the election shall take place, their 
 opinions shall become so concentrated as to secure the choice of a 
 Vice-President by the electoral colleges. 
 
 The first resolution was adopted unanimously without de- 
 bate. The second was opposed and was warmly discussed. 
 The friends of Colonel Johnson were not satisfied that he 
 should not be commended to the electors, if a two-thirds vote 
 in his favor could be had. But it presently appeared that the 
 opposition to him was so determined that it would not be
 
 202 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDEXCY 
 
 yielded even after such a nomination ; whereupon opposition 
 ceased and the resolution was unanimously adopted. The 
 Whigs jeered at the Democrats as not being sufficiently united 
 to name a candidate for Vice-President. They hurled back 
 the rather neat reply that if they were not agreed upon men, 
 they were united upon principles. That was more than the 
 Whigs could say for themselves. 
 
 There was another convention, small in numbers and local 
 in character, which made a third nomination for the office of 
 President. Although the party cast but few votes in 1840, 
 it is mentioned here as the beginning of great things. The 
 Abolition party held a convention at Warsaw, Genesee County, 
 New York, at the beginning of December, 1839, and nominated 
 James G. Birney of New York for President, and Thomas Earl 
 of Pennsylvania for Vice-President. The question of slavery 
 had been much discussed in Congress and by the press for 
 many years, but the issue was not yet a really important one 
 in presidential elections. As will be seen from the platform 
 of the Democrats, that party was ready to take its stand against 
 any federal interference with slavery ; but the Whigs were 
 not, so long as they constituted a party, willing to make an 
 issue with the Democrats on that subject. 
 
 What the canvass had been from the beginning it continued 
 to be to the end. On the part of the Whigs it was a season 
 of great and enthusiastic meetings and stump-speeches. Gen- 
 eral Harrison himself appeared on the stump, and spoke at 
 length in September and October, 1840, at Urbana, Dayton, 
 Chillicothe, Columbus, and other places. In an address at 
 Carthage, on August 20, he explicitly asserted the right of 
 the people to discuss any subject, and to petition Congress for 
 the redress of any grievance, including that of slavery ; and 
 for this he was roundly denounced as an Abolitionist. The 
 Democrats were unable to understand, and still more unable 
 to look with patience upon, the shouting campaign of the Har- 
 rison men. They affected to treat the party and its candidate 
 with contempt, but they were really angry and alarmed. As 
 State after State upon whose electoral vote th'ey had counted 
 gave the Whigs a majority, they became more desperate. They 
 could not and would not believe that they were to be beaten, 
 and predicted that " the bubble would burst " before November. 
 That was a time when political slang was more current than 
 it was ever before or has been since. The phrases, " Crow,
 
 TIPPECAXOE AND TYLER TOO 
 
 203 
 
 Chapman, crow," "The ball is rolling on," " Clear the kitchen," 
 with numerous variations, and similar expressions, are still re- 
 membered by the men, now old, who took part in that famous 
 canvass. The Whig song to the tune of " The Little Pig's 
 Tail " has become historical, with its chorus : — 
 
 "For Tippecanoe and Tyler too — Tippecanoe and Tyler too; 
 And with them we '11 beat little Van, Van, 
 
 Van is a used up man; 
 And with them we '11 beat little Van." 
 
 The shouts of the Whigs over their success in Vermont, 
 Kentucky, Maine, Ohio, and other States had hardly ceased 
 ringing when the presidential election began. The choice of 
 all the electors was still made on any day within thirty-four 
 days preceding the meeting of the electors that might be fixed 
 upon by the state legislature. The election began in Penn- 
 
 States. 
 
 Maine . . . 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Vermont . . . 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 
 Rhode Island . 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 New York . . 
 
 New Jersey . . 
 
 Pennsylvania . 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 Virg'inia . . . 
 North Carolina . 
 South Carolina* 
 Geor^a . 
 
 Alahama . . . 
 
 Mississippi . . 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 Ohio .... 
 
 Indiana . . . 
 
 Illinois . . . 
 
 Michigan . • . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 Harrison. 
 
 46,612 
 26,163 
 32,440 
 72,874 
 5,278 
 31,601 
 
 22.5,817 
 33,351 
 
 144,021 
 
 5,967 
 
 33,528 
 
 42,501 
 
 46,376 
 
 40,261 
 28,471 
 19,518 
 11,296 
 58,489 
 60,391 
 22,972 
 5,160 
 148,157 
 65,302 
 45,537 
 22,933 
 
 46,201 
 32,761 
 18,018 
 51,944 
 3,301 
 25,296 
 
 212,527 
 S1,0?A 
 
 143,672 
 
 4,874 
 
 28,752 
 
 43,893 
 
 33,782 
 
 31,921 
 
 33,991 
 
 16,995 
 
 7,616 
 
 .32,616 
 
 48,289 
 
 29,760 
 
 6,766 
 
 124,782 
 
 51,604 
 
 47,476 
 
 21,131 
 
 Bimey. 
 
 1,275,016 1,129,102 
 
 194 
 
 126 
 
 319 
 
 1,621 
 
 42 
 
 174 
 
 2,808 
 
 69 
 
 343 
 
 903 
 
 149 
 321 
 
 * Electors appointed by the legislature.
 
 204 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE TRESIDENCY 
 
 sylvania and Ohio on the 30tli of October, and ended in North 
 Carolina on the 12th of November, so far as popular elections 
 were concerned. South Carolina, whose legislature made the 
 choice of the electors for that State, appointed them a fort- 
 night later. But it was evident as soon as the returns of Penn- 
 sylvania were in, showing a large gain for the Whigs, even 
 since the state election, four weeks before, that Harrison was 
 'to be President. The popular vote is given on page 203. 
 
 The electoral count was conducted in the usual manner, and 
 there was no incident to mark the proceedings. The result was 
 declared as follows : — 
 
 States. 
 
 Prksidrnt. 
 
 Maine .... 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Vennont . . . 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 
 Rhode Island . 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 New York . . 
 
 New Jersey . . 
 
 Pennsylvania . 
 
 Delaware • . 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 Virginia . . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina . 
 
 Georgia . . . 
 
 Alabama . . . 
 
 Mississippi . . 
 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 Ohio . . . . 
 
 Indiana . . . 
 Illinois 
 
 Michigan . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 42 
 
 8 
 30 
 
 3 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 5 
 
 15 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 234 
 
 28 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 60 
 
 ViCK-PRBSIDBirr. 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 4 
 8 
 
 42 
 8 
 
 30 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 9 
 
 234 
 
 22 
 
 48 
 
 11 
 
 11
 
 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 205 
 
 The inauguration on the Fourth of March, 1841, was a great 
 occasion for the Whigs. They flocked to Washington in large 
 numbers, many of them, alas ! attracted thither by the hope 
 of offices to be distributed by the new President to his party 
 friends. There was an imposing procession of volunteer mili- 
 tia to escort General Harrison to the Capitol. The President- 
 elect had himself arrived at the seat of government on the last 
 day of February, apparently in the enjoyment of perfect health.' 
 He rode upon a white charger, flanked on either side by a body- 
 guard of personal friends. The ceremony, which was witnessed 
 by a vast concourse of people, was preceded by the inauguration 
 of Mr. Tyler as Vice-President, in the Senate Chamber. After 
 the long line of official and non-official witnesses had come 
 from the building to the eastern portico. General Harrison 
 rose and delivered his inaugural address, save the last para- 
 graph. Then the oath of office was administered by Chief 
 Justice Taney, and the President pronounced the closing sen- 
 tences of his address. While the cheers of the victorious 
 Whigs were still rising, he retired, entered his private car- 
 riage, and drove to the White House.
 
 XVII 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 
 
 No election ever caused more disappointment, both to vic- 
 tors and to vanquished, than that of 1840. It would be 
 difficult to describe the feelings of the Democrats. They were 
 puzzled, they were grieved, they were angry. They honestly 
 did not believe the Whigs capable of governing the country. 
 It was almost too great a strain upon their trust in the fitness of 
 the people for self-government that confidence had been with- 
 drawn from them. As for the conduct of the campaign in 
 which they were defeated, with its claptrap of processions, 
 songs, emblems, and slang, words failed to express their dis- 
 gust. They declared that the victory had been won by fraud, 
 by the momentary madness of the people, by the power of 
 money, — the first but not the last complaint of the sort, — 
 by anything and everything except the excellent influences 
 that had always carried elections for the Democrats. However 
 much they might differ among themselves, and even with 
 themselves, as to the cause of the defeat, upon one thing they 
 were resolved, — that they would bring Van Buren forward 
 again and elect him. The canvass of 1844 began, therefore, 
 before Harrison was inaugurated. A St. Louis paper, almost 
 as soon as the result of the election was known, placed Van 
 Buren's name at the head of its columns as candidate for 1844, 
 and "nailed its colors to the mast." Senator Benton there- 
 upon wrote a letter to the editor commending his course, say- 
 ing that twice before the Democratic party had won a victory, 
 after its only two national defeats, by adopting at once the 
 candidate in whose person it had suffered a reverse. This 
 was the general sentiment of the party. In the three years 
 ensuing, as the Washington " Globe " asserted just before the 
 convention of 1844, twenty-four of the twenty-six States, in 
 their state Democratic conventions, pronounced in favor of 
 Van Buren, and more than three fourths of the conventions 
 instructed their delegates to Baltimore to support him.
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 207 
 
 The disappointment of the Whigs was of a different charac- 
 ter. It lay in the " Tyler too " part of their election pro- 
 gramme. One month after General Harrison took the oath of 
 office he died, and John Tyler became President. Congress 
 was summoned in extraordinary session on the 31st of May, 
 1841. Among the first subjects to which the attention of 
 Congress was called by the President was the question what 
 should be substituted for the sub-treasury system, — a finan- 
 cial device which had certainly been condemned by the popular 
 voice in the recent elections. The Whigs took this to mean 
 also the creation of a bank. Mr. Tyler held a different view. 
 His course in Congress had never been favorable to the Bank 
 of the United States. The Whig leaders supposed that Mr. 
 Tyler had given them an assurance that he was in favor of a 
 bank erected on a proper basis. Mr. Tyler did not admit that 
 he had done so. The truth of the matter will never be known. 
 When a bill creating a bank, which the Whigs supposed to 
 have been drawn in accordance with his views, was presented 
 to him for approval he vetoed it, and the Whig majority was 
 not strong enough to pass it over the veto. A second bill was 
 prepared, after a conference with the President, submitted to 
 him after it was drafted and approved, and then passed with- 
 out the alteration of a word. The President vetoed that bill 
 also, possibly in a fit of natural anger at a letter written by 
 John M. Botts, a leading Whig member from Virginia, — its 
 publication was a breach of confidence, — in which Mr. Botts 
 spoke with contempt of Mr. Tyler's " turns and twists." 
 
 It is needless to say that this act was received with uncon- 
 trollable indignation by the Whigs throughout the country. 
 All the members of the cabinet resigned, except Mi-. Webster, 
 the Secretary of State, who retained office for reasons which 
 were approved by many of the Whigs. A caucus of mem- 
 bers of the Senate and House of Representatives adopted an 
 address in which they announced that all political alliance be- 
 tween them and John Tyler was at an end, and that hence- 
 forth "those who brought the President into power can no 
 longer, in any manner or degree, be justly held responsible or 
 blamed for the administration of the executive branch of the 
 government." It is matter of history that ]\Ir. Tyler con- 
 tinued to the end of his term to be what his early acts as 
 President had indicated that he would be. In fact his course 
 was what his whole political life had indicated that it would
 
 208 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 be. He relied throughout upon those who had opposed him, 
 and thwarted the measures of those who had elected him. The 
 only inconsistency of which he was guilty was in supposing, 
 honestly no doubt, that he was " a firm and decided Whig," 
 when he was opposed to a bank, opposed to a protective tariff, 
 opposed to the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, 
 opposed to internal improvements, and devoted to tlie princi- 
 ple of " strict construction " of the Constitution. The Whigs 
 had not, to be sure, formally professed different principles 
 from his in resolutions adopted by a national convention ; but 
 they were really unanimous, or substantially so, in holding 
 all the views from which he dissented. 
 
 Whatever part an ambition to be reelected, not by the 
 Whigs, but by the Democrats, had in determining Mr. Tyler's 
 course, he did not gain new political friends when he lost 
 old ones. The Democrats were glad enough that the fruits 
 of victory were snatched away from the W^higs ; but, though 
 they took advantage of the opportunity which chance threw 
 in their way, they made no pretence of taking the President 
 up as their own man. They loved the sin, but hated the 
 sinner. There were some Democrats and Democratic papers 
 slightly tinctured with " Tylerism," but they were few and 
 uninfluential. By far the largest number- of the Democrats 
 were zealous and unwavering in their adherence to the fortunes 
 of Mr. Van Buren. Yet it was not their unanimous senti- 
 ment. South Carolina was in favor of Mr. Calhoun, and so 
 was Georgia ; and that gentleman carried his sense of pro- 
 priety so far that, in the autumn of 1843, he declined an in- 
 vitation to visit Ohio in a semi-public way, on the ground that 
 he ought not to do so while his name was before the country 
 as a candidate for its highest office. Colonel R. M. Johnson, 
 then lately Vice-President, was also advocated by the anti- 
 Benton men of Missouri, as well as by partisans in his own 
 State of Kentucky. He had no such scruples as those which 
 restrained Mr. Calhoun, for he made a tour through the 
 North, as far as Boston, in the course of which, if he was not 
 belied, he assured the people that nothing could prevent the 
 election of Mr. Clay in 1844 but his own candidacy. His 
 belief in himself is shown by a letter written early in January, 
 1844, wherein he said that he had worn a certain " red vest " 
 " when called upon to respond to my third unanimous nomi- 
 nation for the presidency by the annual convention of my
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 209 
 
 native State." His friends always spoke of him as " the old 
 hero " and " old Tecumseh." His willingness to be before 
 the people was further exemplified in a letter, written in an- 
 swer to an inquiry, in which he said plainly that he would 
 accept the second place on the ticket if he did not get the 
 first. The claims of General Lewis Cass were urged by some 
 of those who did not think the nomination of Mr. Van Buren 
 advisable. Finally, in Pennsylvania, Mr. James Buchanan 
 was brought forward as a " favorite son." 
 
 In point of fact, while a most decided preference was shown 
 for Mr. Van Buren before any and all others, those who 
 opposed him were bitter and determined. They declared that 
 he could not be elected, and that it would be suicide for the 
 party to nominate him. When the question of a convention 
 was under discussion. South Carolina refused to send dele- 
 gates ; and hot discussions arose in the Democratic newspapers 
 whether delegates should be chosen by districts or by general 
 ticket, and whether Virginia, which was for Van Buren, should 
 be allowed to enter the convention with her delegation num- 
 bering five times the votes she would be allowed to cast. 
 
 Such was the situation late in 1843. The Democrats 
 seemed to be, and Avere, in hopeless discord. The Whigs 
 counted upon an easy victory, for they were absolutely united 
 in supporting Mr. Clay, while the alleged treachery of Mr. 
 Tyler had given them what was better than unanimity in re- 
 spect of a candidate, — political union. The next succeeding 
 events seemed to work in their favor, for they were as con- 
 fident of their ability to defeat Mr. Van Buren as were that 
 gentleman's enemies in his own party that he could not be 
 elected. Mr. Buchanan formally withdrew his name in De- 
 cember, 1843 ; and in the following month Mr. Calhoun pub- 
 lished a letter Avhich was at first taken as a withdrawal, 
 but was afterwards seen to be only a refusal to allow his name 
 to go before the convention. His friends were thus left free to 
 give him their independent support if they would. Mean- 
 while many state conventions were instructing their delegates 
 to vote for Mr. A^an Buren, and his nomination seemed to be 
 inevitable. A clear majority of all the delegates could be 
 counted for him beyond a question, and it was not doubted 
 that he would receive the necessary two thirds. 
 
 But the situation was changed as if by magic. The ques- 
 tion of the annexation of Texas loomed up suddenly. An
 
 210 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 overture by Texas for absorption had been once rejected, years 
 before ; a suggestion from the government of the United 
 States that annexation might be acceptable, some time later, 
 had come to nothing ; and now Mr. Tyler thrust the matter 
 again before the people by submitting to the Senate a treaty 
 with Texas providing for its annexation to the United States. 
 " i?e-annexation " was the cry. Texas had been exchanged 
 for Florida in a negotiation with Spain ; it had in common with 
 Mexico, of which it formed a part, been separated from Spain ; 
 it had been colonized by filibusters from the United States, had 
 declared and achieved its independence in a war with Mexico, 
 and was now a republic by itself. But Mexico had only sus- 
 pended, not ceased, its efforts to reconquer Texas, and had not 
 acknowledged the independence of tlie republic. To annex it, 
 therefore, was to assume the obligation of a war with Mexico, 
 or to overawe her weakness by our own strength. 
 
 The sentiment of the South was very strong in favor of 
 " immediate re-annexation," for obvious reasons, chief among 
 them being the additional strength which would thereby be 
 acquired for the slavery interest. The question suddenly 
 became a political issue of the first magnitude. Mr. Tyler 
 sent the treaty to the Senate on the 22d of April, 1844, but 
 the fact that such a treaty was under consideration was made 
 public some weeks earlier. At the beginning of May, letters 
 were published from Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, in 
 which these two gentlemen, almost universally regarded as the 
 two prospective rivals for the presidency, answered inquiries as 
 to their views on the Texas question at length. Singularly 
 enough, their views were similar in this, — that they both fore- 
 saw that annexation meant war with Mexico ; that they re- 
 garded annexation without the consent of Mexico as dishonor- 
 able ; and that, consequently, both were opposed to the pending 
 measure. Mr. Clay went further, and expressed grave doubts 
 as to the wisdom of annexation at all, for reasons partly finan- 
 cial (Texas having a debt which must be assumed) and partly 
 political (the strong opposition that existed throughout New 
 England, and the North generally). Mr. Van Buren's letter, 
 perhaps the most courageous act of a public life which was not 
 characterized by great courage, and therefore one of the most 
 creditable, cost him the nomination. It was dated April 20, 
 1844, and made public a week later ; and the convention met 
 at Baltimore on May 27. The time was short, but it was long
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 211 
 
 enough to defeat him. The editor of the Richmond "En- 
 quirer," who had been as firm and steadfast a Van Buren man 
 as Senator Benton himself, presided at a meeting intended to 
 bring about a change in the instructions to the Virginia dele- 
 gates, who had been directed to support Van Buren, and to 
 instruct them to vote for a candidate in favor of immediate 
 annexation. Some delegates from Southern States resigned 
 rather than obey the instructions already given them to vote 
 for Van Buren. Others declared that, although so instructed, 
 they knew that the wishes of their constituents would be mod- 
 ified by the disclosure of Mr. Van Buren' s opinions, and that 
 they should support another candidate. 
 
 The convention was one of the most interesting ever held in 
 the country. The excitement among the arriving delegates 
 was intense. A great majority of them came with instructions 
 to support Van Buren ; but it was known that many of them 
 would disobey, and how far the treachery — for so the real 
 advocates of Mr. Van Buren regarded it — extended made men 
 suspicious and anxious. Mr. Clay had already been nominated, 
 and the Whigs were earnest, enthusiastic, and confident. The 
 party organ of the Democrats at the capital, the Washington 
 " Globe," said truly, just before the convention met, that the 
 assertion that Mr. Van Buren had lost his standing with the 
 people by reason of his Texas letter was not supported by 
 evidence. Many politicians had turned against him, but the 
 rank and file of the party would be for him still, unless their 
 leaders advised them to desert him. The " Globe " attributed 
 the whole anti-Van Buren movement to Calhoun. " It is the 
 last card of his desperate competitor, who has been playing for 
 twenty-five years for the presidency with the frenzy of a game- 
 ster. It cannot win." 
 
 Three hundred and twenty-five delegates appeared at the 
 convention at Baltimore on May 27, 1844. Virginia and Ken- 
 tucky only were greatly over-represented. For the most part, 
 the States sent exactly as many delegates as the electoral votes 
 to which they were entitled. South Carolina being unrepre- 
 sented, there were 266 votes in the convention. Hendrick 
 B. Wright, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman, and 
 was also appointed as the permanent president. As soon as 
 the temporary organization had been effected, General Saun- 
 ders, of North Carolina, who had championed the two-thirds 
 rule in Van Buren's interest in the convention of 1835, moved
 
 212 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 that the rules of the convention of 1832 be adopted for the 
 government of this convention. The significance of the mo- 
 tion was recognized at once. It was a motion for the two- 
 thirds rule. If it were not adopted, Van Buren was sure to 
 be nominated ; if it were adopted, he might be defeated. Con- 
 sideration of the motion was postponed as/ premature ; but 
 General Saunders persisted in bringing it forward, and at last it 
 was taken up. A warm debate ensued. The vote was taken 
 at about noon of the second day of the convention. The rule 
 was adopted by 148 votes against 118. Nearly two thirds of 
 the Northern votes were in the negative ; six sevenths of the 
 Southern votes were in favor of the rule. The Northern dele- 
 gates had it in their power to defeat the rule, and yet, being 
 perfectly well aware that the adoption of the two-thirds require- 
 ment handicapped the candidate tliey professed to support, they 
 lent themselves to the scheme of his opponents. The conclu- 
 sion is inevitable that they were willing that he should be sao- 
 riticed, but that they did not quite venture to appear with 
 daggers in their own hands, 
 
 "Balloting" for a candidate, as it was called, — although 
 the voting was viua voce, — began in the afternoon. It will 
 be seen from the table below that Mjf. Van Buren received a 
 majority of 26 on the first trial. He would have lacked but 
 ten votes of a nomination had all those who came to the con- 
 vention, instructed for him, given him their votes. He received 
 but 12 votes of the 105 from Southern States ; from the North, 
 134 votes out of 151. Seven trials took place before adjourn- 
 ment for the day, resulting as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes . . . 
 Necessary for a choice . . 
 Martin Van Bnren, New York 
 Lewis Cass, Michigan . 
 Richard M. Johnson, Kentucky 
 James Buchanan, Pennsylvania 
 Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire 
 Commodore Stewart, Pennsylvania 
 John C. Calhoun, South Carolina 
 
 1st. 
 
 266 
 
 178 
 
 146 
 
 83 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2d. 
 
 266 
 
 178 
 
 127 
 
 94 
 
 33 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 3d. 
 
 266 
 
 178 
 
 121 
 
 92 
 
 38 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 265 
 177 
 111 
 10.5 
 32 
 17 
 
 5th. 
 
 265 
 177 
 103 
 107 
 29 
 26 
 
 6th. 
 
 265 
 177 
 101 
 116 
 23 
 25 
 
 7th. 
 
 265 
 
 177 
 
 99 
 
 123 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 Early in the session on the following day an Ohio delegate 
 moved a resolution that Martin Van Buren, having received a 
 majority of votes on the first ballot, be declared the candidate.
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 213 
 
 It was ruled that this would require a two-thirds vote, as 
 rescinding an order of the convention. An angry and confused 
 debate took place over the point of parliamentary law, but an 
 appeal from the decision of the chair was withdrawn, and the 
 convention began once more to vote for a candidate. 
 
 The time had come to spring the sensation carefully prepared 
 in advance of the convention. The States were called in 
 geographical order, beginning with Maine. When New Hamp- 
 shire was called, the delegates from that State gave all their 
 votes to James K. Polk, of Tennessee. A member of the 
 Maine delegation had remarked, just before the voting began, 
 that " it was time to draw the fire of Tennessee." Seven 
 Massachusetts delegates, all those of Alabama and Tennessee, 
 and a few others, followed the lead of New Hampshire. The 
 result was announced : Van Buren, 104 ; Cass, 114 ; Polk, 44, 
 The ninth trial began without great evidence of excitement, 
 until, upon the call of New York, the chairman of that delega- 
 tion asked permission to retire for consultation. Meanwhile 
 the roll-call proceeded. When the New York delegation 
 returned, Mr. B. F. Butler made a speech, in the course of 
 which he produced a letter from Mr. Van Buren which he had 
 received before the convention met, authorizing the withdrawal 
 of his name, if it would conduce to harmony. Accordingly 
 Mr. Butler withdrew Mr. Van Buren, and cast the entire vote 
 of New York for Mr. Polk. Then ensued a "stampede," — a 
 scene repeated many times since that day in national conven- 
 tions. Delegation after delegation changed its vote, and when 
 the result was announced James K. Polk, of Tennessee, had 
 every vote, and was nominated. A scene of wild confusion 
 ensued. A despatch was sent by telegraph to Washington, — 
 the first line built in the country had not long before been 
 opened between the two cities, — and a congratulatory reply 
 was received from the Democratic members of Congress twenty 
 minutes after the nomination. 
 
 In the afternoon the convention voted for a candidate for 
 Vice-President, and nominated Silas Wright, then a Senator 
 from New York, almost unanimously, by 256 votes. Nine 
 members of the Georgia delegation refused to vote for him, 
 and supported Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire. Mr. 
 Wright was notified by telegraph, and declined the nomination 
 peremptorily. Although he was requested to reconsider, and 
 was waited upon that night by a committee of the convention,
 
 214 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 he persisted in his refusal to be a candidate. This is the only 
 case in the history of the country where a nomination for either 
 the first or the second place on a presidential ticket, by one of 
 the great parties, has been declined after it was made. Mr. 
 Wright felt that he could not, in honor, accept the candidacy. 
 He had been a sincere advocate of Mr. Van Buren's nomina- 
 tion. Moreover, a few days before the convention, he had 
 been approached by some of his own personal friends, who 
 suggested that the two-thirds rule might be adopted, that it 
 might result in the defeat of Van Buren, and that it might be 
 possible to turn the convention in his own favor. He rejected 
 the overture, and wrote a letter to be used in case the contin- 
 gency suggested were to arise. It did arise when Xew York 
 was about to withdraw Van Buren, and the letter was read at 
 the private meeting of the delegation. His determination was 
 conveyed explicitly in these words : " I am not and cannot 
 under any circumstances be a candidate before your convention 
 for that office." The whole letter is published in Hammond's 
 " Life of Silas Wright," which forms a part of the third vol- 
 ume of his " Political History of New York," and is highly 
 creditable to Mr. Wright's sense of honor. He explained 
 afterward that he felt that he could not accept the second 
 place and so gain a profit from the defeat of his friend, Mr. 
 Van Buren. 
 
 On the third day of the convention the members proceeded 
 to vote again for a candidate for Vice-President. On the first 
 trial. Governor John Fairfield, of Maine, had 107 votes ; Levi 
 Woodbury, of New Hampshire, 44 ; Lewis Cass, of ^Michigan, 
 39 ; R. M. Johnson, of Kentucky, 26 ; Commodore Stewart, of 
 Pennsylvania, 23 ; George ■NL Dallas, of Pennsylvania, 13 ; 
 William L. Marcy, of Xew York, 5. An inquiry was made 
 whether Governor Fairfield was in favor of annexation, but 
 the question could not be answered authoritatively, and he 
 was dropped. The convention was evidently in a less con- 
 ciliatory frame of mind than when it nominated ]\Ir. Wright, 
 who shared the views of Mr. Van Buren. On'the second vote 
 George M. Dallas had 220 votes ; Governor Fairfield, 30 ; Mr, 
 Woodbury, 6 ; and Mr. Dallas was nominated. 
 
 At the beginning of the morning session, before the nomi- 
 nation of Mr. Dallas, the following platform was reported 
 and adopted. In most of our political text-books the plat- 
 form appears in a mutilated form, and does not contain the
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 215 
 
 first resolution, with its sarcastic allusion to the canvass of 
 1840 : — 
 
 Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust, not 
 in factitious symbols, not in displays and appeals insulting to the 
 judgment and subversive of the intellect of the people, but in a 
 clear reliance upon the intelligence, patriotism, and the discrimi- 
 nating justice of the American people. 
 
 Resolved, That we regard this as a distinctive featui-e of our 
 political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world, 
 as the great moral element in a form of government springing 
 from and upheld by the popular will ; and we contrast it with the 
 creed and practice of Federalism, under whatever name or form, 
 which seeks to palsy the will of the constituent, and which con- 
 ceives no imposture too monstrous for the popular credulity. 
 
 Resolved, therefore, That, entertaining these views, the Demo- 
 cratic party of this Union, through the delegates assembled in 
 general convention of the States, coming together in a spii'it of 
 concord, of devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free represent- 
 ative government, and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the 
 rectitude of their intentions, renew and reassert before the Ameri- 
 can people the declaration of principles avowed by them on a for- 
 mer occasion, when, in general convention, they presented their 
 candidates for the popular suffrage. 
 
 [Here follow all the resolutions adopted by the convention 
 of 1840; see p. 199.] 
 
 Resolved, That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be 
 sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the Constitu- 
 tion ; and that we are opposed to the laws lately adopted, and to 
 any law, for the distribution of such proceeds among the States, as 
 alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the Constitution. 
 
 Resolved, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the 
 President the qualified veto power by which he is enabled, under 
 restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the pub- 
 lic interest, to suspend the passage of a bill, whose merits cannot 
 secure the approval of two thirds of the Senate and House of Re- 
 presentatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained 
 thereon, and which has thrice saved the American people from 
 the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the Bank of the United 
 States. 
 
 Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon 
 is clear and unquestionable ; that no portion of the same ought 
 to be ceded to England or any other power ; and that the re- 
 occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the ear= 
 liest practicable period are great American measure*!, which this
 
 216 A HISTORY OF TIIP] PRESIDENCY 
 
 convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy 
 
 of the Union. 
 
 After a formal resolution naming Polk and Dallas as the 
 party candidates, the platform concludes with the following 
 resolution : — 
 
 Resolved, That this convention hold in the highest estimation 
 and regard their illustrious fellow-citizen, Martin Van Buren, of 
 New York ; that we cherish the most grateful and abidiug sense 
 of the ability, integrity, and firmness with which he discharged 
 the duties of the high office of President of the Ignited States, and 
 especially of the inflexible fidelity with which he maintained the 
 true doctrines of the Constitution and the measures of the Demo- 
 cratic party during his trying and nobly arduous administration; 
 that in the memorable struggle of 18-iO he fell a martyr to the great 
 principles of which he was the worthy representative, and we revere 
 him as such ; and that we hereby tender to him, in honorable re- 
 tirement, the assurance of the deeply seated confidence, affection, 
 and respect of the American Democracy. 
 
 In order to present the events of the opening of the Demo- 
 cratic canvass without a break, chronological order has been 
 somewhat disregarded. Two conventions had already been 
 held when that of the Democrats met. The Abolitionists 
 had assembled at Buffalo at the end of August, 1843, and had 
 nominated James G. Birney, of New York, for President, and 
 Thomas Morris, of Ohio, for Vice-President. This action was 
 to have a most important effect upon the ensuing canvass, un- 
 worthy of notice as the convention seemed. Only one hun- 
 dred and forty-eight delegates were present, from twelve States. 
 It adopted the following platform : — 
 
 Resolved, That h uman brother hood is a cardinal principle of 
 
 true democracy, as well as of pure Christianity, which spurns all 
 
 inconsistent limitations ; and neither the political party which 
 
 ^ISEudiates it, nor the political system which is ijot based upon it, 
 
 can be truly democratic or permanent. 
 
 Resolved, That the Liberty Party, placing itself upon this broad 
 principle, will demand the absolute and unqualified divorce of the 
 general government from slavery, and also the restoration of equal- 
 ity of rights among men, in every State where the party exists or 
 may exist. 
 
 Resolved, That the Liberty Party has not been organized for any 
 temporary purpose by interested politicians, but has arisen from 
 ' among the people in consequence of a conviction, hourly gaining 
 ground, that no other party in the country represents the true
 
 ^^^ 
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 217 
 
 principles of American liberty, or the true spirit of the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States. 
 
 Resolved, That the Liberty Party has not been organized merely 
 for the overthrow of slavery. Its first decided effort must indeed 
 be directed against slaveholding as the grossest and most revolting - '" '. 
 manifestation of despotism, but it will also carry out the principle 
 of equal rights into all its practical consequences and applications, 
 and support every just measure conducive to individual and social 
 freedom. 
 
 Resolved, That the Liberty Party is not a sectional party, but a ;. ~X^^ 
 national party ; was not originated in a desire to accomplish a single ^ -^ 
 
 object, but in a comprehensive regard to the great interest of the ,' "^^^^^V, 
 whole counti-y; is not a new party nor a third party, but is the 
 party of 1776, reviving the principles of that memorable era, and y^t'-^'^'-'*-*' 
 striving to carry them into practical application. ^ G * 
 
 Resolved, That it was understood in the times of the Declarar 
 tion and the Constitution that the existejace-of slaTery in some of ' ' ty..*-^ 
 the States was in derogation oflKe prTnciples of American liberty,- 
 and a deep stain upon the character of the country and the implied' 
 faith of the States ; and the nation was [.Icl-.d that slavery should 
 never be extended beyond its tHen existing limits, but should be 
 gradually, and yet at no distant day wholly, abolished by state 
 authority. 
 
 Resolved, That the faith of the States and the nation thus 
 pledged was most nobly redeemed by the voluntary abolition of •'>-*" 
 
 slavery in several of the States, and by the adoption of the Ordi- . '^^/, 
 nance of 1787 for the government of the territory northwest of ' 
 the River Ohio, then the only territory in the United States, and 
 consequently the only territory subject in this respect to the con- 
 trol of Congress, by which ordinance slavery was forever excluded 
 from the vast regions which now compose the States of Ohio, Indi- 
 ana, Illinois, Michigan, and the Territory of Wisconsin, and an 
 incapacity to bear up any other than free men was impressed on the 
 soil itself. 
 
 Resolved, That the faith of the States and nation thus pledged 
 has been shamefully violated by the omission on the part of many 
 of the States to take any measures whatever for the abolition of 
 slavery within their respective limits ; by the continuance of slavery 
 in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories of Louisiana 
 and Florida ; by the legislation of Congress ; by the protection 
 afforded by national legislation and negotiation to slaveholding in 
 American vessels, on the high seas, employed in the coastwise slave 
 traffic ; and by the extension of slavery far beyond its original 
 limits by acts of Congress admitting new slave States into the 
 Union.
 
 o-«-^i/ 
 
 218 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Resolved, That the fundamental truth of the Declaration 'of 
 Independence, that all men are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
 ^msuit of happiness, was made the fundamental law of our national 
 government by that amendment of the Constitution which declares 
 that no ijerson shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property with- 
 out due process of law. 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize as sound the doctrine maintained 
 by slaveholding jurists, that slavery is against natural rights and 
 strictly local, and that its existence and continuance rest on no 
 other support than state legislation, and not on any authority of 
 Congress. 
 
 Resolved, That the general government has, under the Consti- 
 tution, no power to establish or continue slavery anywhere, and 
 therefore that all treaties and acts of Congi-ess establishing, con- 
 tinuing, or favoring slavery in the District of Columbia, in the 
 Territory of Florida, or on the high seas, are unconstitutional, and 
 all attempts to hold men as property within the limits of exclusive 
 national jurisdiction ought to be prohibited by law. 
 
 Resolved, That the provision of the Constitution of the United 
 States, whicli confers extraordinary political powers on the owners 
 of slaves, and thereby constituting the two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand slaveholders in the slave States a privileged aristocracy ; and 
 the provision for the reclamation of fugitive slaves from service, 
 are anti-republican in their character, dangerbus to the liberties of 
 the people, and ought to be abrogated. 
 
 Resolved, That the practical operation of the second of these 
 .- provisions is seen in the enactment of the act of Congress respect- 
 ing persons escaping from their masters, which act, if the construc- 
 tion given to it by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 
 case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania be correct, nullifies the habeas corpus 
 acts of all the States, takes away the whole legal security of per- 
 sonal freedom, and ought therefore to be immediately repealed. 
 
 Resolved, That the peculiar patronage and support hitherto ex- 
 tended to slavery and slaveholding by the general government 
 ought to be immediately withdrawn, and the example and influence 
 of national authority ought to be arrayed on the side of liberty and 
 /■free labor. 
 ^ Resolved, That the practice of the general government, which 
 prevails in the slave States, of employing slaves upon the public 
 works, instead of free laborers, and paying aristocratic masters, 
 with a view to secure or reward political services, is utterly inde- 
 Sensdble and ought to be abandoned. 
 
 Resolved, That the freedom of speech and of the press, and the 
 right of petition and the right of triall5y jury, are sacred and
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 219 
 
 inviolable ; and that all rules, regulations, and laws in derogation 
 oFeifher are oppressive, unconstitutional, and not to be endured 
 by free' people. 
 
 'Itesolvect, That we regard voting, in an eminent degree, as a 
 moral and religious duty, which, when exercised, should be by 
 voting for those who will do all in their power for immediate 
 emancipation. 
 
 Resolved, That this convention recommend to the friends of lib- 
 erty in all those free States where any inequality of rights and 
 privileges exists on account of color, to employ their utmost ener- 
 gies to remove all such remnants and effects of the slave system. 
 
 Whereas, The Constitution of these United States is a series of 
 agreements, convenants, or contracts between the people of the 
 United States, each with all and all with each ; and 
 
 Whereas, It is a principle of universal morality that the moral 
 laws of the Creator are paramount to all human laws ; or, in the 
 language of an Apostle, that " we ought to obey God rather than 
 men ; " and 
 
 Whereas, The principle of common law, that any contract, 
 covenant, or agreement to do an act derogatory to natural rights is 
 vitiated and annulled by its inherent immorality, has been recog- 
 nized by one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, who in a recent case expressly holds that any " contract that 
 rests upon such a basis is void ; " and 
 
 Whereas, The third clause of the second section of the fourth 
 article of the Constitution of the United States, when construed as 
 providing for the surrender of a fugitive slave, does " rest upon such 
 a basis " in that it is a contract to rob a man of a natural right, 
 namely, his natural right to his own liberty, and is, therefore, 
 absolutely void ; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood by 
 this nation and the world that, as Abolitionists, considering that 
 the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope for 
 it in our conformity to the laws of God and our respect for the 
 rights of man, we owe it to the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, as 
 a proof of our allegiance to him in all our ci\'il relations and offices, 
 whether as private citizens or as public functionaries sworn to sup- 
 port the Constitution of the United States, to regard and to treat 
 the third clause of the fourth article of that instrument, whenever 
 applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and 
 consequently as forming no i^art of the Constitution of the United 
 States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it. 
 
 Resolved, That the power given to Congress by the Constitution, 
 to provide for calling out the militia to suppress insm-rection, does 
 not make it the duty of the government to maintain slavery by
 
 220 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 military force, much less does it make it the duty of the citizens to 
 form a part of such military force. AVhen freemen unsheathe the 
 sword it should be to strike for liberty, not for despotism. 
 
 Resolved, That, to preserve the peace of the citizens and secure 
 the blessings of freedom, the legislature of each of the free States 
 ought to keep in force suitable statutes rendering it penal for any 
 of its inhabitants to transport, or aid in transporting, from such 
 State, any person sought to be thus transported merely because 
 subject to the slave laws of any other SUite ; this remnant of in- 
 dependence being accorded to the free States by the decision 
 of the Supreme Court in the case of Prigg v. The State of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 The Whigs, as has been said already, were enthusiastic and 
 completely united in the support of Mr. Clay. No other 
 candidate was mentioned or thought of in connection with the 
 nomination. The convention was held in Baltimore on the 
 1st of May, 1844. Every State in the Union was represented 
 by a full delegation. The whole business of the convention 
 was completed in a single sitting. Andrew F. Hopkins, of 
 Alabama, was the temporary chairman, and Ambrose Spencer, 
 of New York, the permanent president. Henry Clay was nom- 
 inated unanimously by resolution, with the utmost enthusiasm. 
 Four ballots were taken for a candidate for Vice-President. 
 On the first, Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey had 101 ; 
 John Davis of Massachusetts, 83 ; Millard Fillmore of New 
 York, 53 ; and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania, 38. Mr. Fre- 
 linghuysen gained on every ballot, and on the fourth received 
 155, against 116 for Fillmore and Davis combined. After 
 numerous speeches had been made, in which the candidates 
 were most highly commended and the triumph of the party 
 was confidently predicted, Mr. Reverdy Johnson of Mary- 
 land moved the following series of resolutions, which were 
 adopted : — 
 
 Resolved, That, in presenting to the country the names of Henry 
 Clay for President, and of Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States, this convention is actuated by the con- 
 viction that all the great principles of the Whig party — principles 
 inseparable from the public honor and prosperity — will be main- 
 tained and advanced by these candidates. 
 
 Resolved, That these principles may be summed as comprising : 
 A well-regulated currency; a tariff for revenue to defray the neces- 
 sary expenses of the government, and discriminating with special
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 221 
 
 reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the country ; 
 the distribution of the proceeds from the sales of the public 
 lands ; a singls~terffl for the presidency ; a reform of executive usur- 
 pations ; and generally such an administration of the affairs of 
 the country as shall impart to every branch of the public service 
 the greatest practical efficiency, conti'olled by a well-regulated and 
 wise economy. 
 
 Resolved, That the name of Henry Clay needs no eulogy. The 
 history of the country since his first appearance in public life is his 
 history. Its brightest pages of prosperity and success are identified 
 with the principles which he has upheld, as its darkest and more 
 disastrous pages are with evei-y material departure in our public 
 policy from those principles. 
 
 Resolved, That in Theodore Frelinghuysen we present a man 
 pledged alike by his Revokitionary ancestry and his own public 
 course to every measure calculated to sustain the honor and inter- 
 est of the country. Inheriting the principles as well as the name 
 of a father who, with Washington on the fields of Trenton and of 
 Monmouth, perilled life in the contest for liberty, and afterwards, 
 as a senator of the United States, acted with Washington in estab- 
 lishing and perpetuating that liberty, Theodore Frelinghuysen, by 
 his course as attorney-general of the State of New Jersey for twelve 
 years, and subsequently as a senator of the United States for sev- 
 eral years, was always strenuous on the side of law, order, and the 
 Constitution ; while, as a private man, his head, his hand, and his 
 heart have been given without stint to the cause of morals, educa- 
 tion, philanthropy, and religion. 
 
 The second only of these resolutions is printed in the politi- 
 cal text-books, and always with a faulty punctuation, — the 
 omission of a colon after the first phrase, — which makes non- 
 sense of the whole resolution. The first resolution of the 
 series is essential even to an understanding of the second, 
 which stated the principles of the Whig party. 
 
 Although Mr. Tyler had not been mentioned as a candidate 
 in the Democratic Convention, he had friends, — chiefly office- 
 holders, it was said, by both Whigs and Democrats, — who 
 held a convention, also in Baltimore, on the same day that the 
 Democrats met there. It was a mass convention, rather than 
 one of elected delegates. Mr. Tyler was unanimously nomi- 
 nated for the presidency, and accepted the nomination ; but 
 the movement fell dead, and Mr. Tyler withdrew his candi- 
 dacy in a long, argumentative, and somewhat bitter letter, dated 
 on the 20th of August.
 
 222 A HISTORY OF THE TKESIDENCY 
 
 The Democrats recovered themselves quickly from the sur- 
 prise to which their convention had treated them. Van 
 Buren's wrongs w^ere soon forgotten. Immediately after his 
 overthrow, Horace Greeley wrote in the New York " Tribune : " 
 " We can with difficulty realize that this active, skilful, in- 
 domitable man, accustomed to organize victories out of the 
 ruins of defeats which to another would seem annihilating, 
 is to be henceforth a reminiscence. Verily, what shadows we 
 are, what shadows we pursue ! " The Democrats wasted no 
 time even in reminiscence. The canvass began immediately, 
 and it was to some extent a repetition of the campaign of 
 1840, with the difference that this time there were shouting 
 and enthusiasm on both sides. Mr. Clay was undoubtedly 
 the most popular man in the United States ; but personal popu- 
 larity did not decide the issue. The Democrats were much 
 in earnest, both about the election and about Texas. Mr. 
 Polk was a comparatively unknown man, although he had 
 served as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He 
 therefore excited no antagonisms. He was particularly accept- 
 able to the South ; and the Northern Democrats had notliing 
 against him. It was believed and asserted that the movement 
 in his favor in the convention had not been so spontaneous as 
 its managers wished people to suppose, but that the matter 
 had been carefully canvassed beforehand, and that the plan, as 
 carried out, w^as laid some time before at Nashville. While, 
 therefore, the Whigs made an enthusiastic canvass, there were 
 not wanting signs that a majority of the people were still 
 Democratic, and that the reverse of 1840 was merely a 
 brief and half-thoughtless revulsion against certain abuses 
 ■which had crept in, which the people did not like at the time, 
 but to which they have since reconciled themselves most 
 bravely. The early elections gave indications here and there 
 of a slight Whig gain from the result in 1842, when the Demo- 
 crats had been again successful in carrying a majority of Con- 
 gress ; but these gains were partially offset by Democratic suc- 
 cesses, and were nowhere great enough to give the Whigs good 
 ground for hope of a victory in November. Yet they contin- 
 ued to hope and to fight to the last. 
 
 The number of States voting was twenty-six, as before ; 
 but owing to the new apportionment, by which the number 
 of representatives was cut down from 242 to 223, the number of 
 electors was reduced to 275. The popular and the electoral
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 
 
 223 
 
 votes are included in the same table, inasmuch as all the elec- 
 tors voted for both candidates of their respective parties : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Popular Vote. 
 
 Electobs. 
 
 
 M 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 tS 
 
 a 
 
 States. 
 
 ■3 
 
 CM 
 
 i 
 
 M^ 
 
 1 
 
 S 3 
 
 
 i4i 
 
 a 
 
 
 >, 
 
 a 
 
 4) 
 
 a 
 
 t3 
 
 Q'3 
 
 
 C8 
 1-5 
 
 K 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 
 Maine 
 
 4.5,719 
 
 34,378 
 
 4,836 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 
 27,160 
 
 17,866 
 
 4,161 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . . . 
 
 
 
 18,041 
 
 26,770 
 
 3,954 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 
 52,846 
 
 67,418 
 
 10,860 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 
 
 4,867 
 
 7,322 
 
 107 
 
 _ 
 
 4 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 
 
 29,841 
 
 32,832 
 
 1,943 
 
 
 6 
 
 New York . 
 
 
 
 
 
 237,588 
 
 232,482 
 
 15,812 
 
 36 
 
 - 
 
 New Jersey- 
 
 
 
 
 
 37,495 
 
 38,318 
 
 131 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 
 
 167,535 
 
 161,203 
 
 3,138 
 
 26 
 
 
 Delaware . 
 
 
 
 
 
 5,996 
 
 6,278 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Maryland . 
 
 
 
 
 
 32,676 
 
 35,984 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Virginia . 
 
 
 
 
 
 49,570 
 
 43,677 
 
 - 
 
 17 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 
 39,287 
 
 43,232 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 South Carolina* 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 — 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 
 
 44,177 
 
 42,100 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 Alabama . 
 
 
 
 
 
 37,740 
 
 26,084 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 — 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 
 
 
 25,126 
 
 19,206 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana . 
 
 
 
 
 
 13,782 
 
 13,083 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 
 
 
 
 51,988 
 
 61,255 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Tennessee . 
 
 
 
 
 
 59,917 
 
 60,030 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 
 
 
 
 41,369 
 
 31,251 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 
 
 
 
 9,546 
 
 5,504 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 Ohio . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 149,117 
 
 155,057 
 
 8,050 
 
 - 
 
 23 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 
 
 
 
 27,759 
 
 24,337 
 
 3,632 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana 
 
 
 
 
 
 70,181 
 
 67,867 
 
 2,106 
 
 12 
 
 — 
 
 Illinois . . 
 
 
 
 
 57,920 
 
 45,528 
 
 3,570 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 Totals . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,^7,243 
 
 1,299,062 
 
 62,300 
 
 170 
 
 105 
 
 * Electors appointed by the legislature. 
 
 It was not the closest election ever known in the country, 
 but it was extremely close. There were but four States in 
 which the plurality of Polk reached ten thousand ;. one State 
 only gave Clay so large a plurality as that. Three States gave 
 less than a thousand plurality each. Although Mr, Polk had 
 65 majority of the electoral votes, a change of 7918 votes, 
 carefully distributed in the States of New York, Pennsylvania^
 
 224 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Georgia, and Indiana, would have given Clay a majority of 
 103 electoral votes. These were not the only peculiar features 
 of the election. The Abolitionists defeated Clay. The Whigs 
 were wroth against the new political faction before the elec- 
 tion. The New York " Tribune " brought forward evidence 
 satisfactory to itself that Birney sought a Democratic nomina- 
 tion in New York, and tried to catch Democratic votes. In all 
 probability there was no truth in the charge, but it was be- 
 lieved at the time. Had the Abolitionists voted for Clay he 
 would have had a popular majority of 24,119 ; he would have 
 received the electoral votes of New York, 36, and Michigan, 5 ; 
 and he would have been elected by 146 electoral votes against 
 129 for Mr. Polk. No doubt the Abolitionists acted with 
 entire consistency in refusing to vote for Henry Clay, and no 
 doubt it is as impossible to tell what might have happened if 
 Clay had been elected as it would be to guess what would have 
 been the course of history if Van Buren had not written his 
 Texas letter ; but at all events the election of Clay would have 
 postponed the annexation of Texas, and possibly it would 
 have averted the Mexican war. 
 
 Another noteworthy incident of the election was what was 
 known as the Plaquemines fraud. It will be noticed in the 
 above table that the Polk majority in Louisiana is 699. The 
 parish of Plaquemines, bejow New Orleans on the Mississippi, 
 had voted in previous years, and was returned as voting in 
 1844, as follows : — 
 
 
 Democrat. 
 
 Whig. 
 
 Election of 1840 
 
 250 
 
 179 
 
 310 
 
 1,007 
 
 40 
 
 Election of 1842 
 
 93 
 
 Election of 1843 • 
 
 36 
 
 Election of 1844 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 The Democratic vote was larger by 697 than ever before, — 
 almost exactly the whole Democratic majority in the State. 
 The vote was also suspicious in this, that the Democratic vote 
 returned was greater in number than the entire white male 
 population, of all ages, in the parish in 1840. The explana- 
 tion that was given by the Whigs was that the steamboat 
 Agnes went down from New Orleans with a load of passengers
 
 THE FIRST "DARK HORSE" 225 
 
 under the charge of a political magnate of Plaquemines, and 
 that these passengers stopped at three different places and cast 
 each time a unanimous vote for Polk and Dallas. The steam- 
 boat Planter took down one hundred and forty others, who 
 also voted early and often for the same ticket. These asser- 
 tions M-ere not only made, but sworn to, by many witnesses, 
 including some persons, one of them a minor, who voted several 
 times each, under the direction of the learned judge who man- 
 aged the affair. The story bears all the marks of truth. If it 
 is not true, it is at least singular that it was ten years after 
 1844 tefore Plaquemines parish could muster half as many 
 Democratic votes as it gave that year to Polk. 
 
 Though the Whig newspapers rang with the charges of 
 fraud, and though the accusation was supported by strong tes- 
 timony, nothing was done about it. The election was lost, 
 and a rectification of the fraud would not have changed the 
 result. The Whigs submitted quietly ; and when the electoral 
 count took place in 1845, in the usual manner, no objection 
 whatever was made, and Polk and Dallas were in due form 
 declared elected. 
 
 The inauguration took place in the form which had now 
 become usual. The President and the President-elect rode 
 together, this time, in an open carriage ; and a feature of 
 the procession was a small band of ]^evolutionary veterans on 
 foot. Inasmuch as this ceremony took place sixty-two years 
 after the treaty of peace, the political enthusiasm of these 
 aged men was as remarkable as was the inhumanity of the 
 managers who suffered them to take such a part in the dis- 
 play of the day.
 
 xvin 
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAJVIPAIGN OF 1848 
 
 The slavery question, which had been growing in impor- 
 tance fitfully, as a political issue, since the contest and com- 
 promise on the admission of Missouri in 1820, dominated the 
 politics of the country in the election of 1844, and thereafter 
 until it was decided by secession, war, and emancipation. Not 
 that parties, statesmen, and politicians ranged themselves as 
 advocates or opponents either of slavery as an existing institu- 
 tion or of the extension of slavery, until the critical moment 
 of the struggle was near at hand. But every great measure, 
 beginning with the annexation of Texas, was considered and 
 decided with chief reference to the extension, the maintenance, 
 the restriction, or the overthrow of the "peculiar institution" 
 of the South. The opponents of slavery became bolder and 
 more aggressive ; its defenders more vigilant, more resentful of 
 attacks upon it, more rigid in their ostracism of public men at 
 the North who did not accept their principles, more resolute, 
 in the event of a denial of their " rights," in their purpose to 
 seek those rights by a separation from the Union. As the 
 feeling grew more intense, and the language of extreme parti- 
 sans increased in violence, well-meaning men tried to prolong 
 the peace by compromises and by endeavors to turn the current 
 of political thought to other subjects. How vain it was to 
 attempt to reconcile irreconcilable things, to repress the " irre- 
 pressible conflict," the history of the next few years shows 
 most plainly. 
 
 The South was better prepared for the conflict when it be- 
 came acute than was the North. It was more united. It had 
 control of one of the parties ; it terrorized the other. It knew 
 what it desired, and was ready to make demands and to in- 
 sist upon them, no matter what might be the consequences. 
 Thus it won the first victory of the great campaign, in the 
 annexation of Texas, and followed it up during the next 
 administration by the war with Mexico and the acquisition of
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 227 
 
 more territory available, as was supposed, for the spread of 
 the slavery system. Soon after the shocking accident on the 
 " Princeton," on February 28, 1844, in which the Secretary of 
 State, Mr. Upshur, and the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Gil- 
 mer, lost their lives, Mr. Calhoun was made Secretary of State. 
 Henry A. Wise asserts, in his " Seven Decades of the Union," 
 that he offered the position to Mr. Calhoun without authority 
 from the President, who nevertheless acquiesced in the selec- 
 tion so irregularly made of the most important member of his 
 cabinet. Mr. Calhoun negotiated a treaty for the annexation 
 of Texas, and was believed to be the active agent in defeating 
 the nomination of Van Buren, who opposed the measure. The 
 Senate rejected the treaty, 16 senators only favoring and 35 
 opposing it. Subsequently joint resolutions were offered, and 
 passed by the House of Representatives, providing for the 
 annexation. The resolutions would surely have failed in the 
 Senate but for the addition of an amendment giving the Pre- 
 sident discretionary power to bring in Texas under a new 
 treaty to be submitted to the Senate. Even this could not 
 secure the bare majority required until Mr. Polk, the Presi- 
 dent-elect, was known to have pledged himself to act, not 
 under the House resolutions, but under the Senate amendment. 
 Mr. Tyler affixed his signature to the resolutions on March 1, 
 1845. The same night he dispatched a special messenger to 
 Texas to consummate the annexation. Mr. Polk, inaugurated 
 three days afterward, refused to recall the messenger. The 
 opponents of annexation regarded the proceeding as a case of 
 remarkably sharp practice. 
 
 Mr. Polk was not a great man. His Democratic supporters, 
 and particularly the Southern men who controlled the party, 
 had no cause of complaint either of unwillingness on his part 
 to take the radical views they entertained on questions between 
 the South and the North, or of lack of courage in acting upon 
 those views. The Mexican war, which every one knew to be 
 an inevitable consequence of the intrigue to annex Texas, was 
 entered upon without hesitation. The Independent Treasury, 
 — Van Buren's pet measure, — which had been overthrown by 
 the Whiga, was reestablished. The Secretary of the Treasury, 
 Mr. Robert J. Walker, was given a free hand in drafting a 
 tariff bill, and Congress passed it, — the famous tariff of 1846, 
 framed in the most strict conformity to the wishes of the 
 Southern Democrats. In the platform of the party the title of
 
 228 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the United States to " the whole of the territory of Oregon " was 
 asserted to be " clear and unquestionable ; " and the " reoccu- 
 pation " of Oregon was linked with the " reannexation " of 
 Texas, as '' great American measures." The whole of Oregon, 
 as spoken of in those times, meant the territory lying north 
 of Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Wasliington, to the line of 
 54° 40' north latitude. ''Fifty-four forty, or fight," was a 
 Democratic rallying cry in the North, as the acquisition of 
 Texas was in the South. After the election there was no en- 
 thusiasm on the Oregon question ; an agreement was made, 
 without a murmur of Democratic dissatisfaction, upon the line 
 of 49°. 
 
 On every one of the three questions the Whigs were de- 
 cidedly against the administration. They deprecated the 
 Mexican war ; they opposed the sub-treasury and the ad va- 
 lorem low tariff of 1846 ; they jeered at tlie government for 
 the meekness shown in accepting the northern boundary line 
 offered by Great Britain. Yet slavery was to decide the can- 
 vass of 1848, not as a direct issue between the two great par- 
 ties, but by dividing one of them and so giving the victory to 
 the other. The opportunity of the anti-slavery men came to 
 them from a peculiar situation developed in the politics of the 
 State of New York. It would be almost true to say that 
 there has never been a time when the Democrats of New 
 York have not been divided into at least two factions. They 
 have exhibited a remarkable power of getting together on elec- 
 tion day, but at all other times they have been at war with 
 each other. Some of their dissensions have already been 
 mentioned. In the early days of the republic the contests were 
 largely personal struggles between rival leaders, — Burr, the 
 Clintons, and the Livingstons. During the second administra- 
 tion of Jackson a large faction was formed, professing ex- 
 tremely radical views, which called itself the Equal Rights 
 party, but was termed by its adversaries the Loco-foco party. 
 The name originated in an incident that occurred in New 
 York city just before the election in 1835.^ It was the 
 custom to submit nominations to a general meeting of Demo- 
 cratic citizens. The Equal Eights men, determined to oppose 
 the Tammany nominations, appeared in large numbers at the 
 meeting called in Tammany Hall. A scene of great confusion 
 
 1 Some authorities give the date erroneously as 1834. See History of the 
 Loco-foco Party, by F. Byrdsall, chap. i.
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 229 
 
 between the two factions ensued. At last the Tammany men 
 withdrew, and as they left the hall extinguished the gaslights. 
 The radicals, anticipating this, had provided themselves with 
 candles and the then new " loco-foco " matches, by means of 
 which the hall was relighted and the meeting proceeded. Some 
 years later the Whigs called all Democrats " Loco-focos." 
 
 The division of the party continued, with some changes in 
 the causes of dissension, as Avell as changes in their designa- 
 tions. During Polk's administration they were known as 
 " Hunkers " and " Barnburners," — Hunkers, because they 
 " hunkered " for office ; Barnburners, because they were so 
 much in earnest for the reforms they advocated that, as one 
 of their orators put it, they were willing to imitate the Dutch- 
 man who burned his barn in order to destroy the rats which 
 infested it. 
 
 It was narrated in the last chapter that Silas Wright re- 
 fused to profit by the intrigue that defeated his friend Van 
 Buren's nomination for the presidency. Nevertheless, as a 
 good party man, he did all in his power to help the Polk 
 and Dallas ticket, and at the solicitation of the Democrats 
 accepted reluctantly a nomination as governor of New York. 
 He was elected by about twice the majority given to Mr. Polk. 
 Whether intentionally or not, every step of the administration 
 was hostile to the faction represented by Governor Wright 
 and Mr. Van Buren, and in favor of the Hunkers. Governor 
 Marcy, a leader of the Hunkers, was Secretary of State; all 
 the federal office-holders appointed were of the same faction. 
 Silas Wright was regarded as one of the most promising can- 
 didates for the nomination in 1848 ; and if it had been the 
 intention of the administration to prevent his success, it could 
 not have employed more effectual measures than it did. When 
 he was again a candidate for governor in 1846, he was de- 
 feated. His friends all believed that his defeat was the act 
 of the President and his friends, although at the last moment 
 a great show was made of anxiety for his election. Indeed, 
 a circular was sent to all office-holders in New York forbid- 
 ding them, under penalty of dismissal, to vote against Gov- 
 ernor Wright. 
 
 This long explanation of the situation in New York has 
 been necessary because the Democratic division in that State 
 lost the election of 1848. It not only deprived the Democrats 
 of electoral votes which would have changed the result, but
 
 230 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 it gave to the anti-slavery wing of the party in other States 
 an opportunity to rally for their cause. Mr, Wright died 
 suddenly in August, 1847 ; but his death, instead of bringing 
 the serious party dissension to a close, aggravated it. As the 
 Avar with Mexico drew to a close, the contest, minus its per- 
 sonal elements, extended into other States. David Wilmot, 
 a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from 
 Pennsylvania, proposed, as an amendment to a bill placing 
 three million dollars at the disposal of the President for the 
 negotiation of a treaty extending the territory of the United 
 States, a proviso that slavery should not exist in any territory 
 so acquired. The " Wilmot Proviso " played a great part in 
 the debates of Congress, in the general struggle over the slavery 
 question, and especially in the ensuing election of 1848. 
 
 Meanwhile all was not union and harmony in the Whig 
 ranks. Henry Clay was still the most popular man in the 
 party ; but there was gradually springing up a feeling that, 
 after his repeated defeats, and in the face of the uncompro- 
 mising objections to him in anti-slavery quarters in the North, 
 he could not be elected. Moreover there were those who 
 thought that he should not have a permanent mortgage on 
 the Whig party. Mr. Webster had strong friends and sup- 
 porters to urge his pretensions. Judge McLean, General 
 Scott, Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, and Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, 
 were also put forward. But the movement in favor of General 
 Taylor was of a character to disarrange all the calculations of 
 the politicians. The campaign in his favor opened on Feb- 
 ruary 22, 1848, when a state convention of Louisiana, con- 
 sisting of delegates from thirty -six parishes (counties), elected 
 in primary meetings " without regard to party distinction," 
 brought forward General Taylor, and " decreed " in the name 
 of their constituents that they nominated him as a candidate 
 for President. Shortly afterward a mass meeting in Alabama, 
 and the Whig members of the legislature of that State, nomi- 
 nated General Taylor, and recommended that the Whigs of 
 Alabama should not send delegates to the national conven- 
 tion. A non-partisan mass meeting in Taylor's interest was 
 also held in Baltimore. These movements created a serious 
 situation. Apparently the nomination was to be taken out 
 of the hands of the party. Taylor's supporters threatened to 
 run him as a candidate whatever the Whig convention might 
 do. It became important to know how far General Taylor
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 231 
 
 lent himself to this feature of the canvass in his favor. Let- 
 ters were addressed to him to ascertain his purpose. Two of 
 his replies were made public. In the first (April 20) he 
 said that if nominated by the Whigs he "should not refuse 
 acceptance," provided he were left free of all pledges, and per- 
 mitted to maintain his independence of parties ; that he did 
 not design to withdraw his name if Mr. Clay should be nomi- 
 nated, nor in fact-, " whoever may be the Whig or the Demo- 
 cratic candidate ; " and — denying certain charges made against 
 him — that he never said he was in favor of the tariflp of 1846, 
 or of the sub-treasury ; nor had he asserted that he originated 
 the war with Mexico, or that, if elected, he should select his 
 cabinet from both parties. In the second letter (April 22) 
 he said that he was " a Whig, but not an ultra Whig ; " and 
 "on the subjects of the tariff, the currency, and the improve- 
 ment of our great highways, the will of the people as expressed 
 by their representatives in Congress ought to be respected and 
 carried out by the executive." 
 
 All this was highly unsatisfactory to many of the Whigs. 
 They had principles, — they had not all the same principles, 
 to be sure, — and General Taylor apparently had none. His 
 election would mean nothing. They could not be sure that 
 their President would favor one of their measures. But, on 
 the other hand, the election of Mr. Clay would not mean 
 much. He was identified with contests over questions that 
 had been decided. Where would he stand when the new 
 questions came to the front ? Texas had been annexed ; the 
 sub-treasury was reestablished ; the tarifi" of 1846, though 
 soon to develop defects, was working well ; the Oregon ques- 
 tion w^as settled ; and on the new issue then becoming promi- 
 nent, Mr. Clay could not be acceptable to the "conscience 
 Whigs." All these considerations, and others which have not 
 been mentioned, each in its own way, worked in favor of the 
 Taylor movement ; and his nomination was assured, although 
 not conceded, before the Whig convention met. 
 
 The first convention preliminary to the canvass of 1848 
 was that of the Xative Americans, — a party which had 
 some strength in the Middle States, and which for some 
 years past had even elected a few representatives in Congress 
 from New York and Pennsylvania. The convention met in 
 Philadelphia in September, 1847, and nominated General 
 Henry A. S. Dearborn, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President.
 
 232 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 It recommended, but did not formally nominate, General 
 Zachary Taylor for President. 
 
 In November of the same year the Liberty, or Abolition, 
 party met at New York, and nominated for President John P, 
 Hale, of New Hampshire, and for Vice-PresiJent Leicester 
 King, of Ohio. After the Barnburners' convention, hereafter 
 to be noticed, Mr. Hale withdrew from the canvass. It was 
 given out at the time that Mr. Van Buren was a good enough 
 Abolitionist for this party, though he " could not be regarded 
 as a perfect embodiment of their principles." The " Liberty 
 League," another Abolition body, held a convention at Koches- 
 ter, N. Y., on the 2d of June, 1848, and nominated Gerritt 
 Smith, of New York, for President, and the Rev, Charles E. 
 Foote, of Michigan, for Vice-President. An " Industrial Con- 
 gress " met at Philadelphia, June 13, 1848, and nominated 
 Gerritt Smith for the first place, and William S. Waitt, of 
 Illinois, for the second place on the ticket. So far as is 
 known, no votes were cast for any of these minor candidates in 
 any State. 
 
 The Democratic convention met at Baltimore on May 22, 
 1848. Judge J. S. Bryce, of Louisiana, was the temporary 
 chairman, and Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, the permanent 
 president. All the States were represented, most of them 
 fully, some by double or triple delegations. South Carolina 
 had but one delegate, who was chosen at a little local gather- 
 ing, numbering only eight or ten persons. There was not a 
 little discussion whether or not he should be permitted to cast 
 the nine votes of South Carolina ; he was finally allowed to do 
 so, by a formal vote of the convention. Before the session 
 closed, a resolution was adopted, 208 to 41, that in future con- 
 ventions each State should be entitled to as many delegates 
 only as the number of its electoral votes. This convention 
 also directed the appointment of a central committee of one 
 member from each State to take general charge of the canvass 
 and of the party's interests. This was the first national com- 
 mittee ever organized. 
 
 The great question, which dominated all others, which 
 raised before the convention the spectre of defeat, was that of 
 the New York delegation. There had been two state conven- 
 tions, and two full sets of delegates ; thirty-six " Hunkers " 
 and thirty-six " Barnburners " presented themselves, and each 
 delegation demanded not only recognition as representing the
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 
 
 233 
 
 New York Democrats, but the absolute exclusion of the other 
 faction. 
 
 The wrangling began as soon as the opening prayer had 
 been offered, — over the constitution of the committee on cre- 
 dentials. Nothing was done on the first day beyond settling the 
 membership of the convention, save as to the New York dele- 
 gations and effecting a permanent organization. On the morn- 
 ing of the second day the two-thirds rule was adopted, after 
 long debate, by 175 votes against 78. From that time until 
 the evening of the 24th of May the convention devoted itself 
 wholly to New York. On a resolution to- admit the '• Hun- 
 ker " delegation, an amendment was offered to admit both 
 delegations, the two combined to have only the vote to which 
 New York was entitled. This was carried by two majority,, 
 — 126 to 124. Of the affirmative votes, 99 came from North- 
 ern States, and the other 27 from Maryland, Delaware, Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas. The North gave only 
 33 negative votes. Although this was, s» far as it was a victory 
 for either side, a triumph for the " Bamburner&," they refused 
 to take part in the proceedings, as did also the "Hunkers.'' 
 The " Barnburners " openly withdrew from the convention. 
 
 As soon as the New York question was decided, balloting 
 for a candidate for President began. Four trials were neces- 
 sary, the result of which was as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 
 Necessary for a choice 
 L^wis Cass, Mich. . . 
 James Buchanan, Penn. 
 Levi Woodbury, N. H. 
 George M. Dallas, Penn. 
 W. J. Worth, Tenn. . , 
 John C. Calhoun, S. C. . 
 W. O. Butler, Ky. . . 
 
 1st. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 251 
 
 252 
 
 254 
 
 168 
 
 168 
 
 169' 
 
 12.5 
 
 133 
 
 15& 
 
 55 
 
 54 
 
 40 
 
 53 
 
 56 
 
 53 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 "" 
 
 4th. 
 
 253 
 
 169 
 
 179 
 
 33 
 
 38; 
 
 It will be noticed that Mr. Polk received no votes. Like 
 other Presidents, he had declared before his election his pur- 
 pose not to be a candidate for a second term ; but, unlike some 
 others, he had found, after a little manoeuvring for a nomina- 
 tion, that the case was hopeless, and had therefore reiterated 
 his original intention.
 
 234 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The vote for General Cass was at first almost exclusively 
 from Western and Southern States, but there was little 
 significance in this fact. All the candidates were against the 
 Wilmot Proviso, — they were all classed as " Northern men 
 with Southern principles," — and the preferences of delegates 
 were personal rather than political. The nomination was 
 made unanimous with enthusiasm. In the evening the con- 
 vention proceeded to vote for a candidate for Vice-President. 
 On the first trial. General ^Yilliam 0. Pmtler of Kentucky had 
 114 ; General John A. Quitman of Mississippi had 74 ; John 
 Y. Mason of Virginia, 24 ; William R. King of Alabama, 25 ; 
 James J. McKay of North Carolina, 13 ; Jefferson Davis of 
 Mississippi, 1. As 169 were necessary for a choice, the con- 
 vention proceeded to vote a second time. General William 0. 
 Butler was nominated, receiving 169 votes to 62 for Quitman 
 and 22 for all others. This nomination was also made unani- 
 mous. 
 
 On the fifth and last day of the convention, the platform 
 was reported. The resolutions were, for the most part, a re- 
 petition of those of 1844. The first was modified to read as 
 follows : — 
 
 Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust in the 
 intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of 
 the American people. 
 
 Then followed the resolutions adopted in 1840 and 1844, as 
 arranged in the platform of 1844, except that to the fifth 
 resolution (see p. 200) are appended the words : " And for 
 the gradual but certain extinction of the debt created by the 
 prosecution of a just and necessary war, after peaceful rela- 
 tions shall have been restored." The convention added to an 
 already ample platform the following new resolutions : — 
 
 Resolved, That the war with Mexico, provoked on her part by 
 
 . . *a years of insult and injury, was commenced by her army crossing 
 
 ^■^^ I 'the Rio Grande, attacking the American troops, and invading our 
 
 sister State of Texas ; and that, upon all the principles of patriotism 
 
 and the laws of nations, it is a just and necessary war upon our 
 
 part, in which every American citizen should have shown himself 
 
 on the side of his country, and neither morally nor physically, by 
 
 word or deed, have given aid and comfort to the enemy. 
 
 w,^ Resolved, That we should be rejoiced at the assurance of a peace 
 
 ^ with Mexico founded on the just principles of indemnity for the 
 
 past and security for the future ; but that, while the ratification of
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 235 
 
 the liberal treaty offered to Mexico remains in doubt, it is the duty 
 of the country to sustain the administration in every measure 
 necessary to provide for the vigorous prosecution of the war should 
 that treaty be rejected. 
 
 Resolved, That the officers and soldiers who have carried the 
 arms of theu' country into Mexico have crowned it with imper- 
 ishable glory. Their unconquerable courage, their daring enter- 
 prise, their unfaltering perseverance and fortitude when assailed on 
 all sides by innumerable foes, — and that more formidable enemy, 
 the diseases of the climate, — exalt their devoted patriotism into 
 the highest heroism, and give them a right to the profound grati- 
 tude of their country and the admiration of the world. 
 
 Resolved, That the Democratic National Convention of thirty 
 States, composing the American Republic, tender their fraternal 
 congratulations to the National Convention of the Republic of 
 France, now assembled as the free suffrage representatives of the 
 sovereignty of thirty-five millions of republicans, to establish gov- 
 ernments on those eternal principles of equal rights for which 
 their Lafayette and our Washington fought side by side in their 
 struggle for our national independence ; and we would especially 
 convey to them and to the whole people of France our earnest 
 wishes for the consolidation of their liberties, through the wisdom 
 that shall guide their counsels, on the basis of a democratic con- 
 stitution, not derived from the grants or concessions of kings or 
 dynasties, but originating from the only true source of political 
 power recognized in the States of this Union, — the inherent and 
 inalienable rights of the people, in their sovereign capacity, to 
 make and to amend their forms of government in such a manner 
 as the welfare of the community m&y require. 
 
 Resolved, That with the recent development of this grand politi- 
 cal truth, — of the sovereignty of the people and their capacity and 
 power for self-government, which is prostrating thrones and erect- 
 ing republics on the ruins of despotism in the Old World, — we 
 feel that a high and sacred duty is devolved, with increased respon- 
 sibility, upon the Democratic party of this country, as the party of 
 the people, to sustain and advance among us constitutional liberty, 
 equality, and fraternity, by continuing to resist aU monopolies 
 and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense 
 of the many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to those 
 principles and compromises of the Constitution which are broad 
 enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it 
 was, the L'nion as it is, and the Union as it shall be, in the full 
 expansion of the energies and capacity of this great and progres- 
 sive people. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded, tha-ough
 
 236 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the American minister at Paris, to the National Convention of the 
 Republic of France. 
 
 Resolved, That the fruits of the great political triumph of 1844, 
 which elected James K. Polk and George M. Dallas President and 
 Vice-President of the United States, have fulfilled the hopes of the 
 Democracy of the Union in defeating the declared purposes of their 
 opponents to create a national bank ; in preventing the corrupt 
 and unconstitutional distribution of the land proceeds, from the 
 common treasury of the Union, for local purposes ; in protecting 
 the currency and labor of the country from ruinous fluctuations, 
 and guarding the ippney of the people for the use of the people; 
 by the establishment of the constitutional treasury ; in the noble 
 impulse given to the cause, of freelra'de By the repeal of theJiU'iff 
 of 1842, and the creation of the more equal, honest, and productivo 
 tariff of 1846 ; and that, in our opinion, it would be a fatal error 
 to weaken the hands of a political organization by which these 
 great reforms have been achieved, and risk them in the hands of 
 their known adversaries, with whatever delusive appeals they may 
 solicit our surrender of that vigilance which is the only safeguard 
 of liberty. 
 
 Resolved, That the confidence of the Democracy of the Union in 
 the principles, capacity, firmness, and integrity of James K. Polk, 
 manifested by his nomination and election in 1844, has been sig- 
 nally justified by the strictness of his adherence to sound Demo- 
 cratic doctrines, by the purity of purpose, the energy and ability, 
 which have characterized his administration in all our affairs at 
 home and abroad; that we tender to him our cordial congratula- 
 tions upon the brilliant success which has hitherto crowned his 
 patriotic efforts, and assure him in advance that, at the expiration 
 of his presidential term, he will carry with him to his retirement 
 the esteem, respect, and admiration of a grateful country. 
 
 Resolved, That this convention hereby present to the people of 
 the United States Lewis Cass, of ISIichigan, as the candidate of the 
 Democratic party for the office of President, and William O. Butler, 
 of Kentucky, as the candidate of the Democratic party for Vice- 
 President of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Yancey, of Alabama, offered the following resolution as 
 an addition to the platform : — 
 
 ' Resolved, That the doctrine of non-interference with the rights 
 of property of any portion of the people of this confederacy, be 
 it in the States or Territories thereof, by any other than the par- 
 ties interested in them, is the true republican doctrine recognized 
 by this body. 
 
 The resolution was rejected by a vote of yeas, 36 ; nays,
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 
 
 237 
 
 216. All the affirmative votes were given by delegates from 
 the slave States. It is an illustration of the temporizing char- 
 acter of the politics of the time that some of the Southern 
 Democrats explained their vote against the resolution by say- 
 ing that they deemed it unnecessary, because the same doctrine 
 was otherwise expressed in the platform. This explanation 
 would do for Southern consumption ; meanwhile it was hoped 
 that the Northern members of the party could be held to their 
 allegiance by having it pointed out to them that the extremists 
 were defeated in their purpose to commit the party to the 
 Southern view of " the rights of property." 
 
 The Whig national convention met at Philadelphia on the 
 7th of June. John A. Collier, of New York, was the tempo- 
 rary chairman, and ex-Governor John M. Morehead, of North 
 Carolina, was the permanent president. All the States were 
 represented fully, save two. South Carolina had a partial 
 delegation ; Texas sent no delegates, but its state convention 
 authorized the delegates from Louisiana to cast the vote of 
 Texas. Inasmuch as the Louisiana delegation was strongly in 
 favor of Taylor, the question whether the proxy-voting should 
 be permitted was made a test of the strength of the general ; 
 but when it came to the vote, the request of Texas was granted 
 without a division. The convention reached the point of voting 
 for candidates on the evening of the second day. Four ballots 
 were taken on that and the following day, when General Tay- 
 lor was nominated. Before the voting began, a letter was read 
 from Taylor, in which he said that his friends would withdraw 
 his name if the choice of the convention should fall upon some 
 one else. The result of the four votes was as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes . . 
 Necessary for a choice . . . 
 Zaehary Taylor, Louisiana . . 
 Henry Clay, Kentucky . . . 
 Winfield Scott, New Jersey 
 Daniel Webster, Massachusetts 
 John McLean, Ohio .... 
 John M. Clayton, Delaware 
 
 1st. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 279 
 
 278 
 
 279 
 
 140 
 
 140 
 
 140 
 
 111 
 
 118 
 
 133 
 
 97 
 
 85 
 
 74 
 
 43 
 
 49 
 
 54 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 280 
 
 141 
 
 171 
 
 32 
 
 63 
 
 14 
 
 The vote for General Taylor on the first ballot came from 
 all parts of the country. There were only eight of the thirty
 
 238 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 States then in the Union from which he received no votes. 
 The New England States, except Maine, supported either Mr. 
 Webster or Mr. Clay, and gave Taylor but six votes. Maine 
 had a grievance against Mr. Webster in that he had nego- 
 tiated the Ashburton Treaty, by which the northeastern bound- 
 ary question was settled, involving the loss of a large slice 
 of territory to which Maine had asserted a claim, and had 
 defended it in what is still known as the "Aroostook War." 
 The speech nominating General Taylor was made by ex-Gov- 
 ernor Edward Kent, of Maine. On the final vote Taylor had 
 at least one vote from every State. The convention, after 
 giving itself up for a time to enthusiasm, proceeded to vote for 
 a candidate for Vice-President. A large number of nomina- 
 tions was made. On the first ballot, Millard Fillmore, of New 
 York, had 115 ; Abbott Lawrence, of Massachusetts, 109 ; and 
 51 votes were divided among ten other candidates. On the 
 second vote Fillmore had 173 ; Lawrence, 87 ; and all others, 
 6. Mr. Fillmore's nomination was then declared, and, after a 
 season of speech-making, the convention adjourned. No com- 
 mittee on resolutions was appointed, and the convention made 
 no declaration of principles whatever. Its attitude of non- 
 committalism was by no means approved by a large section of 
 the party ; and it was late in the canvass, when some addi- 
 tional letters from General Taylor had been published, giving 
 assurance that he really sympathized — mildly, at least — with 
 the purposes of the party, before some of the prominent Whig 
 leaders came cordially to his support. Daniel Webster, indeed, 
 had promptly pronounced the nomination one " not fit to be 
 made." 
 
 The " Barnburners," who had withdrawn from the Balti- 
 more convention with a frank avowal of their purpose not to 
 accept the nomination of General Cass, took active measures to 
 oppose his candidacy. They held a state convention at Utica 
 on June 22 and 23, in which delegates from Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, Ohio, and Wisconsin participated, and nominated 
 Martin Van Buren for President, and Henry Dodge, of Wis- 
 consin, for Vice-President. Mr. Van Buren accepted the nom- 
 ination, although with evident reluctance. Senator Dodge 
 declined, and supported General Cass. Later in the year an 
 Ohio state convention of persons dissatisfied with both the 
 nominations recommended and called a national convention, 
 which was held at Buffalo, August 9. Charles Francis Adams,
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 239 
 
 of Massachusetts, was made permanent president of the conven- 
 tion, which contained representatives of seventeen States, and 
 seems to have had a membership of about 300. On a ballot 
 for a candidate for President, Martin Van Buren had 159 votes, 
 and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, 129. Charles Francis 
 Adams, of Massachusetts, was nominated by acclamation for 
 Vice-President, The convention adopted the following resolu- 
 tions : — 
 
 Whereas, We have assembled in convention, as a union of free- 
 
 _^men for the sake of freedom, forgetting all past political differ- 
 
 eifces, in common resolve to maintain the rights of free labor against 
 
 the aggressions of the slave power, and to secure freg_soil for a free 
 
 people ; and 
 
 Whereas, The political conventions recently assembled at Balti- „ , ,>'^ 
 more and Philadelphia, the one stifling the voice of a great con- •■»> 
 
 stituency entitled to be heard in its deliberations, and the other 
 abandoning its distinctive principles for mere availability, have 
 dissolved the national party organizations heretofore existing, by 
 nominating for the chief magistracy of the United States, under 
 the slaveholding dictation, candidates neither of whom can be 
 supported by the opponents of slavery extension, without a sacri- 
 fice of consistency, duty, and self-respect ; and 
 
 Whereas, These nominations so made furnish the occasion and 
 demonstrate the necessity of the union of the people under the 
 banner of free democracy, in a solemn and formal declaration of 
 their independence of the slave power, and of their fixed determi- 
 nation to rescue the federal government from its control, — - 
 
 Resolved, therefore, that we, the people here assembled, remem- ■f=^' j_t^^/C^ 
 bering the example of our fathers in the days of the first Declara- 
 tion of Independence, putting onr trust in God for the triumph of 
 oiu" cause, and invoking his guidance in our endeavors to advance 
 it, do now plant ourselves upon the national platform of freedom, 
 in opposition to the sectional platform of slavery. 
 
 Resolved, That slavery in the several States of this Union which 
 recognize its existence depends upon state laws alone, which cannot u*. 
 
 be repealed or modified by the federal government, and for which 
 laws that government is not responsible. We therefore propose 
 no interference by Congress with slavery within the limits of any 
 State. 
 
 Resolved, That the proviso of Jefferson, to prohibit the existence 
 of slavery after 1800 in all the Ten-itories of the United States, 
 southern and northern ; the votes of six States and sixteen dele- 
 gates, in the Congress of 1781 for the proviso, to three States and 
 seven delegates against it ; the actual exclusion of slavery from the
 
 240 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Northwestern Territory by the Ordinance of 1787, unanimously 
 adopted by the States in Congress ; and the entire history of that 
 period, — cleai'ly show that it was the settled policy of the nation 
 not to extend, nationalize, or encourage, but to limit, localize, and 
 discourage slavery ; and to this policy, which should never have 
 been departed from, the government ought to return. 
 
 Resolved, That our fathers ordained the Constitution of the 
 United States in order, among other great national objects, to 
 establish justice, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- 
 ings of liberty, but expressly denied to the federal government, 
 which they created, all constitutional power to deprive any person 
 of life, liberty, or property without due legal process. 
 
 Resolved, That, in the judgment of this convention. Congress 
 has no more power to make a slave than to make a king ; no more 
 power to institute or establish slavery than to institute or establish 
 a monarchy. No such power can be found among those specifically 
 conferred by the Constitution, or derived by any just implication 
 from them. 
 
 Resolved, That it is the duty of the federal government to relieve 
 itself from all responsibility for the existence or continuance of 
 slavery wherever the government possesses constitutional authority 
 to legislate on that subject, and is thus responsible for its exist- 
 ence. 
 
 Resolved, That the true and in the judgment of this conven- 
 tion the only safe means of preventing the extension of slavery 
 into territory now free is to prohibit its existence in all such terri- 
 tory by an act of Congress. 
 
 ~ Resolved, That we accept the issue which the slave power has 
 forced upon us ; and to their demand for more slave States and 
 more slave territory our calm but final answer is, no more slave 
 States and no more slave territory. Let the soil of our extensive 
 domains be ever kept free for the hardy pioneers of our own land, 
 and the oppressed and banished of other lands seeking homes of 
 comfort and fields of enterprise in the New World. 
 
 Resolved, That the bill lately reported by the committee of eight 
 in the Senate of the United States was no compromise, but an 
 absolute surrender of the rights of the non-slaveholders of all the 
 States ; and while we rejoice to know that a measure which, while 
 opening the door for the introduction of slavery into territories now 
 free, would also have opened the door to litigation and strife among 
 the future inhabitants thereof, to the ruin of their peace and pro- 
 sperity, was defeated in the House of Representatives, its passage 
 in hot haste, by a majority embracing several senators who voted 
 in open violation of the known will of their constituents, should 
 warn the people to see to it that their representatives be not
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 241 
 
 suffered to betray them. There must be no more compromises 
 ■with slavery ; if made, they must be repealed. 
 
 Resolved, That we demand freedom and established institutions 
 for our brethren in Oregon, now exposed to hardships, peril, and 
 massacre by the reckless hostility of the slave power to the estab- 
 lishment of free government for free territoiy, and not only for 
 them, but for our new brethren in New Mexico and California. 
 
 Afid whereas, It is due not only to this occasion, but to the whole 
 people of the United States, that we should declare ourselves on 
 certain other questions of national policy ; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That we demand cheap postage for the people ; a re- 
 trenchment of the expenses and patronage of the federal govern- 
 ment ; the abolition of all unnecessary offices and salaries ; and the 
 election by the people of aU civil officers in the service of the gov- 
 ernment, so far as the same may be practicable. 
 
 Resolved, That river and harbor improvements, whenever de- , 
 manded by the safety and convenience of commerce with foreign '.-',,„.,«A(,A«r 
 nations or among the several States, are objects of national con- ^ jf- ^ 
 cern ; and that it is the duty of Congress, in the exercise of its y j 
 
 constitutional powers, to provide therefor. " 
 
 Resolced, That the free grant to actual settlers, in consideration 
 of the exjienses they incur in making settlements in the wilder- 
 ness, which are usually fully equal to their actual cost, and of the 
 public benefits resulting therefrom, of reasonable portions of 
 the public lands, under suitable limitations, is a wise and just 
 measure of public policy which will promote, in various ways, the 
 interests of all the States of this Union ; and we therefore recom- 
 mend it to the favorable consideration of the American people. 
 
 Resolved, That the obligations of honor and patriotism require 
 the earliest practicable payment of the national debt ; and we are, 
 therefore, in favor of such a tariff of duties as will raise revenue 
 adequate to defray the necessary expenses of the federal govern- 
 ment, and to pay annual in s talnaients of o ur debt, and the interest 
 thereon. 
 
 Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner, " Free^Soil, Free 
 Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men," and under it will fight on, 
 and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our ex- 
 ertions. 
 
 There was much in this platform which must have made 
 Martin Van Buren wince when he read it. ISTo doubt his 
 candidacy of a party professing such principles was grotesque. 
 Speaking of the Free Soil campaign of 1848, William Allen 
 Butler says : " Mr. Van Buren's name was in it, but not his 
 head nor his heart. Great words were inscribed on its banners :
 
 242 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ' Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.' But 
 they were words of advance and not of strategy, and Mr. Van 
 Buren was too deeply intrenched in his old political notions 
 to utter them in earnest." 
 
 Nevertheless his vote in New York exceeded that for Cass, 
 and the division which his candidacy caused defeated the 
 Democratic candidate, as it was intended to do. The can- 
 vass was short. On the part of the Whigs it was spirited 
 and confident, while on the Democratic side it was conducted 
 with little hope of success. The early elections showed that 
 the Whigs must carry the country. The number of States 
 which took part in this election was thirty. Florida had 
 been admitted as a State on March 3, 1845 ; Texas on De- 
 cember 29, 1845 ; Iowa on December 28, 1846 ; and Wis- 
 consin on May 29, 1848. For the first time all the electors, 
 except those from Massachusetts, were appointed on one day. 
 This was in accordance with an act passed in 1845, which, by 
 the way, was a party measure, and debated in Congress in an 
 intensely partisan spirit. The act was as follows : — 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., That the electors of President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent shall be appointed in each State on the Tuesday next after the 
 first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they 
 are to be appointed : 
 
 Provided, That each State may by law provide for the filling of 
 any vacancy or vacancies which may occur in its college of elec- 
 tors when such college meets to give its electoral vote : 
 
 And provided also, When any State shall have held an elec- 
 tion for the purpose of choosing electors, and shall fail to make 
 a choice on the day aforesaid, then the electors may be appointed 
 on a subsequent day in such manner as the State may by law pro- 
 vide. 
 
 In all the States except New Hampshire and Massachu- 
 setts, a plurality was sufficient to efi"ect a choice. New Hamp- 
 shire gave a majority to Cass over both the others. In 
 Massachusetts there was no choice, and the legislature met 
 and chose the Taylor electors. The aggregate vote at this 
 election was 2,871,906 against 2,698,605, — an increase of 
 173,301 over that of 1844. But of these additional votes 
 83,609 were cast in the four new States, so that the increase 
 in the old States was but 89,692, or barely three per cent, in 
 four years. This fact proves, not that slight interest was 
 taken in the election, but that the result was foreseen, and
 
 THE "FREE SOIL" CAMPAIGN OF 1848 
 
 243 
 
 that in many States less effort than usual to poll a full vote 
 was put forth. The count of electoral votes proceeded in the 
 usual manner, and was devoid of incident. 
 
 The popular and electoral votes in 1848 were as follows : — 
 
 
 
 
 PopiTLAR Vote. 
 
 Electoral 
 Vote. 
 
 
 
 
 2 . 
 
 1 
 
 u 
 
 States. 
 
 
 
 - o 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 £i 
 
 oT 
 
 g>^ 
 
 -« 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 .2 3 
 &.2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 Alabama 
 
 30,482 
 
 31,363 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 9 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 
 
 7,588 
 
 9,300 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 
 
 30,314 
 
 27,046 
 
 5,005 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware . . . 
 
 
 
 6,421 
 
 5,898 
 
 80 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Florida. . . . 
 
 
 
 3,116 
 
 1,847 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 
 47,544 
 
 44,802 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 Illinois . . . 
 
 
 
 53,047 
 
 56,300 
 
 15,774 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 Indiana . . ■ 
 
 
 
 69,907 
 
 74,745 
 
 8,100 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Iowa . . . 
 
 
 
 11,084 
 
 12,093 
 
 1,126 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 
 
 67,141 
 
 49,720 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 
 
 18,217 
 
 15,-370 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 
 
 85,125 
 
 39,880 
 
 12,096 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 
 37,702 
 
 34,528 
 
 125 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 61,070 
 
 35,281 
 
 38,058 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . . 
 
 
 
 23,940 
 
 30,687 
 
 10,389 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 
 25,922 
 
 26,.537 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 Missouri 
 
 
 
 32,671 
 
 40,077 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 
 14,781 
 
 27,763 
 
 7,560 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 
 40,015 
 
 36,901 
 
 829 
 
 7 
 
 ~ 
 
 New York . 
 
 
 
 218,603 
 
 114,318 
 
 120,510 
 
 36 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 43,550 
 
 34,869 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 Ohio. . . . 
 
 
 
 138,360 
 
 154,775 
 
 35,354 
 
 - 
 
 23 
 
 Pennsylvania . 
 
 
 
 185,513 
 
 171,176 
 
 11,263 
 
 26 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 
 6,779 
 
 3,646 
 
 730 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 South Carolina* 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 
 
 64,705 
 
 .58,419 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 ~" 
 
 Texas 
 
 
 
 4,509 
 
 10,668 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 
 23,122 
 
 10,948 
 
 13,837 
 
 6 
 
 — 
 
 Virginia 
 Wisconsin . . 
 
 
 
 45,124 
 13,747 
 
 46,586 
 15,001 
 
 9 
 10,418 
 
 - 
 
 17 
 4 
 
 Total . . 
 
 • 
 
 • ■ 
 
 1,360,099 
 
 1,220,544 
 
 291,263 
 
 163 
 
 127 
 
 * Electors appointed by the legislature.
 
 XIX 
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 
 
 To a large number of "Whigs, the result of their second 
 victory was almost as disappointing as was the administra- 
 tion of Mr. Tyler. Throughout the North the Whig party 
 was anti-slavery, — not abolitionist, not even unanimously 
 against slavery extension, but almost everywhere controlled 
 by the anti-slavery sentiment. General Taylor was a Vir- 
 ginian by birth, and a slaveholder. The Southern Whigs 
 supported him willingly ; the Northern contingent of the party 
 gave him its vote with misgivings, and with the expectation 
 that he would do nothing to resist " the aggressions of 
 slavery." Fillmore, on the other hand, had a consistent 
 record as an Anti-Slavery man, and was expected to be firm 
 and unyielding, should the circumstances which did occur 
 place him in the position of responsibility. Taylor lived 
 long enough to make it evident that slavery as a political 
 force could not rely upon him to assist it in its struggle with 
 Northern sentiment ; Fillmore, on his accession, became an ac- 
 tive agent in promoting the " compromise " measures which 
 the Anti- Slavery men abhorred. 
 
 To say that the slavery question dominated the politics of 
 the country, from the inauguration of Taylor until the out- 
 break of the Civil War, is to put the case mildly. It sub- 
 stantially excluded all other topics from consideration. The 
 sketch of the leading events of the time which can be given in 
 this place is necessarily of the most meagre and barren char- 
 acter. Much that excited a powerful influence upon the gen- 
 eral history of the country must be omitted altogether, and 
 those events only can be selected which had a certain direct 
 bearing upon our main topic, the presidency. By far the 
 best account hitherto written of the political events from the 
 election of Harrison until secession is to be found in Rhodes's 
 History. 
 
 The first session of the Thirty-first Congress was a memora-
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 245 
 
 ble one. It witnessed the last appearance in the senatorial 
 arena of the three intellectual giants, — Clay, Calhoun, and 
 Webster. They had entered Congress almost together, two in 
 1811, and the other in 1813 ; each had been Secretary of State, 
 one had been Vice-President ; all had had most promising as- 
 pirations to the presidency ; none had reached the goal. Clay 
 introduced the compromise resolutions ; Webster supported 
 them ; Calhoun opposed them. Calhoun died before the ses- 
 sion closed, and Clay and Webster retired from the Senate for- 
 ever, the one to engage in a combat which admitted of no com- 
 promise, — with incurable disease, — the other to take the chief 
 place in Mr. Fillmore's cabinet. It was not their disappear- 
 ance from the great stage of national public life that gave the 
 signal for the stern and strenuous contest which compromise 
 had long postponed ; but it was well for Clay and Webster 
 that they did not see the failure of the plans which their love 
 for the Union persuaded them would restore peace to the 
 country. 
 
 At the beginning of the administration, a problem confronted 
 Congress and the President which compelled a consideration 
 of the slavery question. A vast territory had been acquired 
 from Mexico, and it was necessary to organize a government 
 over it, Mexican law excluded slavery, but the territory had 
 been obtained for the express purpose of extending the area of 
 slavery. Mr. Clay, in January, 1850, introduced in the Sen- 
 ate a series of eight resolutions, embracing the following pro- 
 positions : the admission of California as a free State ; the 
 new Territories to be organized without restriction as to slavery ; 
 the boundary to be established between Texas and New 
 Mexico ; the United States to pay the public debt of Texas ; 
 slavery not to be abolished in the District of Columbia ; the 
 slave trade to be abolished in the District ; a fugitive slave 
 law to be passed ; Congress to declare that it had no power to 
 interfere with the slave trade between the States. All the 
 great senators debated these resolutions. Webster supported 
 them !n his famous Seventh of March speech, which cost him 
 the favor of the anti-slavery Whigs of the North, and gave 
 him no perceptible additional strength in the South. No act 
 of any American public man is worthy of more careful histori- 
 cal study than the stand Webster took on this occasion. That 
 it destroyed the last chance for the nomination and election of 
 the great man is all that can be said of it here.
 
 246 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The resolutions were discussed until the 18th of April, when 
 they were referred to a committee of thirteen senators, of 
 which Mr. Clay was chairman. The committee reported bills 
 covering all the points mentioned in the resolution. Three 
 of the recommendations were combined in a single measure, 
 which the President called an *' omnibus bill." By successive 
 amendments it was pared down to a measure for organizing 
 the Territory of Utah ; its opponents, in derision, declared 
 that the omnibus was upset. Nevertheless, the Senate event- 
 ually passed all the measures in separate bills. A most in- 
 teresting analysis of the votes in the Senate is given by Rhodes.^ 
 Some of the bills had the support of the slave States with a 
 sprinkling of Northern senators ; others were supported chiefly 
 by Northern men. Four senators only voted for all the bills ; 
 yet the closest division was a vote of two to one on the ad- 
 mission of California. During the debate, which dragged on 
 for nearly four months, President Taylor died and Mr. Fill- 
 more succeeded him. The policy of the administration was 
 reversed. General Taylor had been opposed to the compro- 
 mise ; the new President favored it strongly. The House of 
 Representatives devoted little time to discussion. In less than 
 a month the whole series of bills had been passed ; and they 
 •were signed promptly by President Fillmore. 
 
 Those who are curious in searching for the small and 
 seemingly insignificant causes of great events, ascribe Mr. Fill- 
 more's attitude on this important series of measures to the 
 personal relations between him and Governor Seward. Offices 
 have always played a great part in New York politics, what- 
 ever party was in power. Seward became a senator when 
 Fillmore became Vice-President. Who was to have the distri- 
 bution of the patronage in New York ? A division seemed 
 the natural solution of the problem. But Seward early ob- 
 tained a great hold upon President Taylor, and was regarded 
 as the most influential of his advisers. He suggested the posi- 
 tion which the President should take upon public questions, 
 and, incidentaNy, he took all the New York offices. Mr. 
 Fillmore was driven into an attitude of almost open hostility to 
 the administration, and, when he became President, took the 
 course, both on the great public questions and incidentally 
 with reference to the offices, most distasteful to Mr. Seward. 
 
 The compromise measures became law. Those who carried 
 
 1 Historj', vol, i, p. 181.
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 247 
 
 them through Congress, and those who supported them on the 
 stump and in the press, deluded themselves with the idea that 
 they were a finality ; that they took away all matters of differ- 
 ence, or at least established the principles upon which all 
 future questions arising out of them were to be decided ; and 
 that the people would regard a reopening of the agitation as 
 meddlesome and unpatriotic. 
 
 Acquiescence in the settlement was really quite general in 
 the Democratic party. The two wings of the party reunited, 
 and carried most of the elections, as against the Whigs, who 
 lost the unswerving Abolition and Anti-Slavery vote. It was 
 evident that the Democrats would go into the election of 1852 
 a united party, provided a candidate unobjectionable to both 
 wings could be found. It was equally evident that anything 
 like a hearty union of Whigs was out of the question. 
 
 There was much preparation, and there was a great deal of 
 discussion and intrigue, in each party, months before the time 
 of nomination. The leading candidate on the Democratic side 
 was General Cass, who had been defeated four years before. 
 Mr. James Buchanan also was strongly supported ; and 
 Stephen A. Douglas and William L. Marcy each had many 
 friends. But it does not seem to have been confidently antici- 
 pated that either of these gentlemen would succeed in securing 
 the necessary two thirds, and the experience of 1844 was fre- 
 quently in men's minds. 
 
 The Whigs were in a worse case. Mr. Webster was the 
 greatest of their statesmen, but after his Seventh of March 
 speech he was impossible as a candidate to that wing of the 
 party which regarded the compromise measures of 1850 with 
 abhorrence. On the other hand, the Southern members of the 
 party were firmly resolved not to accept any candidate who 
 was not in favor of those measures. Mr. Fillmore, although 
 an accidental President, had stood by them, and they were 
 in favor of nominating him for reelection. But as General 
 Taylor had loomed up four years before as a colorless and 
 non-committal candidate, so now there was a strong move- 
 ment in favor of General Winfield Scott. No one knew what 
 was his position on the subject of the " compromises," and 
 there was a careful and successful efibrt to keep the Whig 
 public in the dark. But, as has happened before and since 
 that time, the most energetic movements in favor of the can- 
 didate who was eventually to be nominated came from States 
 which could not be expected to give him an electoral vote.
 
 248 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Yet it is not easy to see what course could have been taken 
 to avert the fate which awaited the AVhigs in 185-. Had a 
 candidate been chosen who was identified with the compro- 
 mise of 1850, like Mr. Webster or Mr. Fillmore, he would 
 have been slaughtered remorselessly in the North ; had an 
 opponent of these measures been selected, he would have 
 failed to secure an electoral vote in the South ; and no other 
 non-committal candidate would have succeeded better than 
 General Scott did. 
 
 The Democratic national convention, the first to be held, 
 met at Baltimore on June 1, 1852. Although its session was 
 protracted until the 6th, it was not an interesting convention. 
 John W. Davis, of Indiana, was the permanent president. 
 Two days were occupied in organizing, and in adopting the 
 two-thirds rule, which was agreed to by an overwhelming 
 majority, after a short debate. Inasmuch as there was no 
 contest over principles, it was agreed to make the nomina- 
 tions before considering the platform ; and on the third day 
 voting for candidates began. On the first ballot General 
 Cass had 116; James Buchanan, 93; William L. Marcy, 27; 
 Stephen A. Douglas, 20 ; Joseph Lane, 13 ; Samuel Houston, 
 8 ; and there were 4 scattering. The number necessary for a 
 choice was 188. In the succeeding ballots the vote for Mr. 
 Cass fell off, while the number of delegates who voted for Mr. 
 Douglas steadily increased, until, on the twenty-ninth trial, the 
 votes were: for Cass, 27 ; for Buchanan, 93 ; for Douglas, 91 ; and 
 no other candidate had more than 26. At this point Cass began 
 to recover his strength, and reached his largest number on the 
 thirty-fifth trial, namely, 131. On that same ballot, Virginia 
 gave 15 votes to Franklin Pierce. Mr, Pierce gained 15 more 
 votes on the thirty-sixth trial ; but at that point his increase 
 ceased, and was then slowly resumed, as the weary repetition 
 of balloting without effect went on. The forty-eighth trial 
 resulted as follows : for Cass, 73 ; for Buchanan, 28 ; for 
 Douglas, 33 ; for Marcy, 90 ; for Pierce, 55 ; for all others, 
 8. The forty -ninth trial was the last. There was a " stam- 
 pede " for Pierce, and he received 282 votes to 6 for all others. 
 There is no doubt that the nomination of General Pierce was 
 carefully planned before the convention met. The originator 
 of the scheme was James W^ Bradbury, then a senator from 
 Maine,^ a college mate and lifelong friend of Pierce. 
 
 1 In 1898 he still survives, the only senatorial contemporarj' of Clay and 
 Webster.
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 249 
 
 Ten persons received votes in the nomination of a candidate 
 for Vice-President, — William R. King of Alabama had 126 ; 
 S. U. Downs of Louisiana, 30; John B. Weller of California, 
 28; William 0. Butler of Kentucky, 27; Gideon J. Pillow 
 of Tennessee, 25 ; David R. Atchison of Missouri, 25 ; Robert 
 Strange of North Carolina, 23; T. J. Rusk of Texas, 12; 
 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 2 ; Howell Cobb of Georgia, 
 2. On the second ballot, William R. King of Alabama was 
 unanimously nominated. 
 
 The platform adopted was made up of the previous plat- 
 forms of the party, with some additions. It was identical 
 with that of 1848, up to and including the res(51ution re- 
 specting slavery, numbered seven in the platform of 1840 
 (p. 200), following which are these two resolutions : — 
 
 Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and is intended 
 to embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitated in Congress ; and 
 therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this na- 
 tional platform, will abide by, and adhere to, a faithful execution 
 of the acts known as the " compromise " measures settled by the 
 last Congress, — the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or 
 labor included ; which act, being designed to carry out an express 
 provision of the Constitution, cannot with fidelity thereto be re- 
 pealed, nor so changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency. 
 
 Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at 
 renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery 
 question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made. 
 
 Then follow the resolutions in former platforms respecting the 
 distribution of the proceeds of land sales, that respecting the veto 
 power, and these additions : — 
 
 Resolved, That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and 
 uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia reso- 
 lutions of 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia 
 legislature in 1799 ; that it adopts those principles as constituting 
 one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved 
 to carry them out in their obvious meaning and import. 
 
 Resolved, That the war with Mexico, upon all the principles of 
 patriotism and the law of nations, was a just and necessary war on 
 our part, in which no American citizen should have shown himself 
 opposed to his country, and neither morally nor physically, by word 
 or deed, given aid and comfort to the enemy. 
 
 Resolved, That we rejoice at the restoration of friendly relations 
 with our sister republic of Mexico, and earnestly desire for her 
 all the blessings and prosperity which we enjoy under republican
 
 250 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 institutions ; and we congratulate the Amorican people on the re- 
 sults; of that war, which have so manifestly justified tiie policy and 
 conduct of the Democratic party, and insured to the United States 
 indemnity for the past and security for the future. 
 
 Resolved, That, in view of the condition of popular institutions 
 in the Old World, a high and sacred duty is devolved, with in- 
 creased responsibility, upon the Democracy of this country, as the 
 party of the people, to uphold and maintain the rights of every 
 State, and thereby the union of States, and to sustain and advance 
 among them constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all mo- 
 nopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the 
 expense of the many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to 
 those prinoiph'S and compromises of the Constitution which are 
 broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uj^hold tlie Union 
 as it is, and the Union as it should be, in the full expansion of the 
 energies and capacity of this great and progressive people. 
 
 The platform was adopted with but a few dissenting voices. 
 The resolution relating to the compromise measures set the con- 
 vention wild with delight. A re-reading of it was demanded, 
 and the applause with wliich it was received was vociferous 
 and prolonged. 
 
 The Whig convention met at Baltimore on the 16th of June. 
 All the States were represented. John G. Chapman, of Mary- 
 land, was the permanent president. The convention was, from 
 the beginning, a theatre of intrigue. On the first daj' of the 
 session the Southern delegates held a caucus and adopted a 
 platform, thus forestalling the action of the convention. It 
 is said that the platform was subsequently submitted to the 
 friends of Mr. Webster, and accepted by them. ISIr. Fillmore 
 was the candidate preferred by the Southerners ; General Scott 
 was the favorite in the North ; Mr. Webster had the greater 
 part of New England, but no votes from Maine, where his 
 negotiation of the Ashburton Treaty was still treasured up 
 against him. There is said to have been a secret understand- 
 ing that, if the platform drawn up by the Southern caucus 
 should be accepted by the convention, a sufficient number of 
 Southern delegates would go over to Scott and nominate him. 
 But there was still another scheme. A careful canvass was 
 made by the Southern friends of Mr. Webster, and it was be- 
 lieved that when Fillmore — for whom many of the South- 
 erners were instructed — should be abandoned, twenty-two of 
 them would probably go for Scott, but that one hundred and 
 six could be counted for Webster. If then the Northern men
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 251 
 
 could secure forty-one delegates, there would be enough to 
 nominate him. The necessary number could not be found. 
 Two Massachusetts men held out against Webster : not one 
 vote would Maine give him.^ 
 
 To return to the record of the convention. On the first 
 ballot for a candidate for President, Mr. Fillmore had 133 ; 
 General Scott, 131 ; and Mr. Webster, 29. The convention 
 voted fifty times before any material change took place. At 
 no time, in the first forty-nine votes, did General Scott fall 
 below his original 131, or receive more than 139. Mr. Fill- 
 more did not once receive more than 133 or fewer than 122. Mr. 
 Webster's highest vote was 32, his lowest 28. But from the 
 fiftieth vote on to the fifty-third, General Scott drew ahead 
 with 142, 142, 146, and 159, which last number was 12 more 
 than was necessary to a choice. William A. Graham of North 
 Carolina was nominated for Vice-President on the second ballot. 
 
 The platform, although reported by the committee on reso- 
 lutions almost unanimously, was not adopted without a struggle. 
 It was as follows : — 
 
 The Whigs of the United States, in convention assembled, ad- 
 hering to the great conservative principles by which they are con- 
 trolled and governed, and now, as ever, relying upon the intelli- 
 gence of the American people, with an abiding confidence in their 
 capacity for self-government, and their devotion to the Constitu- 
 tion and the Union, do proclaim the following as the political 
 sentiments and determination for the establishment and main- 
 tenance of which their national organization as a party was 
 effected : — 
 
 First. The government of the United States is of a limited char- 
 ao4:er, and it is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted 
 by the Constitution, and such as may be necessary and proper for 
 carrying the granted powers into full execution, and that powers 
 not granted or necessarily implied are reserved to the States re- 
 spectively and to the people. 
 
 Second. The state governments should be held secure to their 
 reserved rights, and the general government sustained on its con- 
 fjtitutional powers, and that the Union should be revered and 
 watched over as the palladium of our liberties. 
 
 Third. That while struggling freedom everywhere enlists the 
 warmest sympathy of the Whig party, we still adhere to the doc- 
 trines of the Father of his Country, as announced in his Farewell 
 Address, of keeping ourselves free from all entangling alliances 
 
 1 See Rhodes's History, vol. i. p. 259
 
 252 A HISTORY OF THE PllESIDENXY 
 
 CC^' 1 with foreign countries, and of never quitting our own to stand 
 upon foreign ground ; that our mission as a republic is not to pro- 
 pagate our opinions, or impose on other countries our forms of gov- 
 ernment by artifice or force ; but to teach by example, and show 
 by our success, moderation and justice, the blessings of self-govern- 
 ment, and the advantage of free institutions. 
 
 Fourth. That, as the people make and control the government, 
 they should obey its Constitution, laws, and treaties, as they would 
 retain their self-respect and the respect which they claim and will 
 enforce from foreign powers, 
 s^ Fifth. That the government should be conducted on principles 
 
 1^, I of the strictest economy; and reveime sufficient for the expenses 
 ^^.^ thereof, in time of peace, ought to be mainly derived from a iluty 
 on imports, and not from direct taxes ; and in laying such duties 
 sound policy requires a just discrimination, and protection from 
 fi-aud by specific duties, when practicable, whereby suitable encour- 
 agement may be afforded to American industry, equally to all 
 classes and to all portions of the country. 
 
 Sixth. The Constitution vests in Congress the power to open and 
 repair harbors, and remove obstructions from navigable rivers, 
 whenever such improvements are necessary for the common de- 
 *^'*'' fence and for the protection and facility of commerce with foreign 
 nations or among the States, — said improvements being in every 
 instance national and general in their character. 
 
 Seventh. The fnlcral and state governments are parts of one 
 system, alike necessary for the common prosperity, peace, and 
 security, and ought to be regarded alike with a cordial, habitual, 
 and immovable attachment. Respect for the authority of each, 
 and acquiescence in the just constitutional measures of each, are 
 duties required by the plainest considerations of national, state, 
 and individual welfare. 
 
 Eighth. That the series of acts of the Thirty-second Congress, 
 ■"■''"^' the act know'n as the Fugitive Slave Law included, are received and 
 (*J!>»- acquiesced in by the Whig party of the United States as a settle- 
 ment in principle and substance of the dangerous and exciting 
 questions which they embrace ; and, so far as they are concerned, 
 we will maintain them, and insist upon their strict enforcement, 
 until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of fur- 
 ther legislation to guard against the evasion of the laws on the 
 one hand and the abuse of their powers on the other, not impairing 
 their present efficiency ; and we deprecate all further agitation of 
 the question thus settled, as dangerous to our peace, and will dis- 
 countenance all efforts to continue or renew such agitation, when- 
 ever, wherever, or however the attempt may be made ; and we will 
 maintain this system as essential to the nationality of the Whig 
 party and the integrity of the Union.
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUMTED 253 
 
 The objection was, of course, to the last resolution of the 
 series. It was strongly opposed, but was adopted by a vote of 
 212 to 70. The negative vote was given exclusively by 
 Northern delegates, and by supporters of Scott as against Fill- 
 more and Webster. 
 
 The nomination of Pierce was well received by the Demo- . 
 crats ; that of Scott had a cold reception in many parts of the 
 Xorth, and was nowhere welcomed in a spirit which gave 
 promise of victory. The action of the Whig convention was 
 criticised by many of the party papers. The platform was 
 distasteful to the Northern wing of the party, and the can- 
 didate excited no enthusiasm anywhere. He was esteemed 
 as a gallant soldier, but he was not recognized as a statesman, 
 and his views were too little known to inspire either section 
 with confidence. On the other hand, Mr. Pierce, if not a very 
 prominent man, was known to have opinions in accordance with 
 the Democratic platform, upon which the party was substan- 
 tially united. 
 
 The Anti-Slavery organization, the Pree Soil Democrats, 
 though a much less important political factor than they had 
 been four years earlier, held their convention in Pittsburg on 
 August 11. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts presided. John 
 P. Hale of Xew Hampshire was nominated for President, and 
 George W. Julian of Indiana for Vice-President, and the fol- 
 lowing platform was adopted : — 
 
 Having assembled in national convention as the Democracy of 
 the United States ; united by a common resolve to maintain right 
 against wrong and freedom against slavery ; confiding in the intel- 
 ligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice of the American 
 people ; putting our trust in God for the triumph of our cause, 
 and invoking his guidance in our endeavors to advance it, — we 
 now submit to the candid judgment of all men the following 
 declaration of principles and measures : — 
 
 1. That governments deriving their just powers from the con- "^ 
 sent of the governed are instituted among men to secure to all Y /\ 
 those unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- U 
 ness with which they are endowed by their Creator, and of which 
 
 none can be deprived by valid legislation, except for crime. 
 
 2. That the true mission of American Democracy is to maintain v , a- 
 the liberties of the people, the sovereignty of the States, and the d^-^^ 
 perpetuity of the Union, by the impartial application to public ^^^^^ 
 affairs, without sectional discriminations, of the fundamental prin- _^. ^-> 
 ciples of human rights, strict justice, and an economical adminis-"] 
 tration.
 
 254 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 3, That the federal government is one of limited powers, derived 
 solely from tlie Constitution, and the grants of power therein ought 
 to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the 
 government, and it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubt- 
 ful constitutional powers. 
 
 4. That the Constitution of the United States, ordained to form 
 a more perfect Union, to establish justice, and secure the blessings 
 of liberty, expressly denies to the general government all power to 
 deprive any person of life, liberty, or proj^erty without due process 
 of law ; and, therefore, the government, having no more power to 
 make a slave than to make a king, and no more jiower to establish 
 slavery than to establish a monarchy, should at once proceed to 
 relieve itself from all responsibility for the existence of slavery 
 wherever it possesses constitutional power to legislate for its ex- 
 tinction. 
 
 w ' 5. That, to the persevering and importunate demand of the 
 slave power for more slave States, new slave Territories, and the 
 nationalization of slavery, our distinct and final answer is : No 
 more slave States, no slave Territory, no nationalized slavery, and 
 no national legislation for the extradition of slaves. 
 
 6. That slavery is a sin against God, and a crime against man, 
 which no human enactment or usage can make right; and that 
 Christianity, humanity, and patriotism alike demand its abolition. 
 
 7. That the fugitive slave act of 1850 is repugnant to the Con- 
 stitution, to the principles of the common law, to the sph'it of 
 Christianity, and to the sentiments of the civilized world. We 
 therefore deny its binding force upon the American people, and 
 demand its immediate and total repeal. 
 
 8. That the doctrine that any human law is a finality, and not 
 subject to modification or repeal, is not in accordance with the 
 creed of the founders of om* government, and is dangerous to 
 the liberties of the people. 
 
 9. That the acts of Congress known as the " compromise " 
 measures of 1850, — by making the admission of a sovereign State 
 contingent upon the adoption of other measures demanded by the 
 special interest of slavery ; by their omission to guarantee freedom 
 in the free Territories ; by their attempt to impose unconstitutional 
 limitations on the power of Congress and the people to admit new 
 States ; by their provisions for the assumption of five millions of 
 the state debt of Texas, and for the payment of five millions 
 more, and the cession of a large territory to the same State under 
 menace, as an inducement to the relinquishment of a groundless 
 claim ; and by their invasion of the sovereignty of the States and 
 the liberties of the people, through the enactment of an unjust, 
 oppressive, and unconstitutional fugitive slave law, — are j)roved
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUNITED 255 
 
 to be inconsistent with all the principles apd maxims of Demo- 
 cracy, and wholly inadequate to the settlement of the questions of 
 which they are claimed to be an adjustment. 
 
 10. That no permanent settlement of the slavery question can 
 be looked for except in the practical recognition of the truth that 
 slavery is sectional and freedom national ; by the total separation 
 of the general government from slavery, and the exercise of its 
 legitimate and constitutional influence on the side of freedom ; 
 
 and by leaving to the States the whole subject of slavery and the ti^V/^ 
 
 extradition of fugitives from service. • >7^ 
 
 11. That all men have a natural right to a portion of the soil ;■ '\ 
 and that, as the use of the soil is indispensable to life, the right of 
 
 all men to the soil is as sacred as their right to life itself. v,, 
 
 12. That the public lands of the United States belong to the ^ 
 people, and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to co^\ ^ 
 porations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of^y 
 
 the people, and should be granted in limited quantities, free of 
 cost, to landless settlers. 
 
 13. That a due regard for the federal Constitution and a sound 
 administrative policy demands that the funds of the general gov- 
 ernment be kept separate from banking institutions ; that inland /- 
 and ocean postage should bQ reduced to the lowest possible point ; -■, -^ 
 that no more revenue should be raised than is required to defray V » 
 the strictly necessary expenses of the public service, and to pay offvv\r 
 
 the public debt ; and that the power and patronage of the goverii- 1 
 ment should be diminished, by the abolition of all unnecessary 
 offices, salaries, and privileges, and by the election, by the people, 
 of all civil officers in the service of the United States, so far as may 
 be consistent with the prompt and efficient transaction of the pub- 
 lic business. n i 
 
 14. That river and harbor improvements, when necessary to tho/'v^r'^'^ 
 safety and convenience of commerce with foreign nations or among p, ImAso^Y 
 the several States, are objects of national concern ; and it is the d I 
 duty of Congress, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to 
 provide for the same. 
 
 15. That emigrants and exiles from the Old World should find 
 a cordial welcome to homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in 
 the New ; and every attempt to abridge their privilege of becoming 
 citizens and owners of soil among us ought to be resisted with 
 inflexible determination. 
 
 16. That every nation has a clear right to alter or change its 
 own government, and to administer its own concerns, in such a 
 manner as may best secure the rights and promote the happiness of 
 the people ; and foreign interference with that right is a dangerous 
 violation of the laws of nations, against which all independent
 
 256 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ^^^tfvv^'fgovernments should protest, and endeavor by all proper means to 
 yy- prevent ; and especially is it the duty of the American government, 
 "'■^'^ representing the chief republic of the world, to protest against, and 
 
 /^^-..v-* by all proper means to prevent, the intervention of kings and 
 emperors against nations seeking to establish for themselves repub- 
 lican or constitutional governments. 
 
 17. That the independence of Hayti ought to be recognized by 
 our government, and our commercial relations with it placed on a 
 footing of the most favored nation. | 
 
 18. That as, by the Constitution, the) "citizens of each State 
 shaThbe entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in 
 the several States,'] the practice of imprisoning colored seamen of 
 other States, vvhiW the vessels to which they belong lie in port, 
 and refusing the exercise of the right to bring such cases before the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, to test the legality of such 
 proceedings, is a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and an 
 invasion of the rights of the citizens of other States, utterly incon- 
 sistent with the professions made by the slaveholders, that they 
 wish the provisions of the Constitution faithfully observed by 
 every State in the Union. 
 
 19. That we recommend the introduction into all treaties here- 
 after to be negotiated between the United States and foreign 
 nations, of some provision for the amicable settlement of diffi- 
 culties by a resort to decisive arbitration. 
 
 20. That the Free Democratic party is not organized to aid 
 either the Whig or the Democratic wing of the great slave-com- 
 promise party of the nation, but to defeat them both ; and that, 
 repudiating and renouncing both as hopelessly corrupt and 
 utterly unworthy of confidence, the purpose of the Free Demo- 
 cracy is to take possession of the federal government, and ad- 
 minister it for the better protection of the rights and interests of 
 the whole people. 
 
 21. That we inscribe on our banner, V Free soil, free speech, free 
 tabor,, and free men) " and under it will fight on and fight ever 
 until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions. 
 
 22. That upon this platform the convention presents to the 
 American people as a candidate for the office of President of the 
 United States, John P. Hale of Xew Hampshire, and as a candi- 
 date for the office of Vice-President of the United States, George 
 W. Julian of Indiana, and earnestly commends them to the sup- 
 poi't of all free men and all parties. 
 
 The canvass was not a spirited one. All the early autumn 
 elections were favorable to the Democrats, and the result in 
 November was a crushing defeat of the Whigs in the popular 
 vote and one still more decisive in the electoral vote. Thirty*
 
 THE DEMOCRATS REUXITED 
 
 257 
 
 one States took part in the election, California having been 
 admitted to the Union September 9, 1850. A new apportion- 
 ment, based on the census of 1850, changed the number of 
 electoral votes of Hiany of the States. The popular and elec- 
 toral votes were "as follows : — 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama . . . 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 California . . . 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 Delaware . . . 
 
 Florida . . . . 
 
 Georgia* . . . 
 
 Illinois . . . . 
 
 Indiana . . . 
 
 Iowa . . . . 
 
 Kentucky . . . 
 
 Louisiana . . ■ 
 
 Maine . . . . 
 
 Maryland . . . 
 
 Massachusetts t . 
 
 Micliigan . . . 
 
 Mississippi . . 
 Missouri 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey . 
 New York 
 
 North Carolina . 
 
 Ohio . . . . 
 
 Pennsylvania . ■ 
 Rhode Island 
 South Carolina J 
 Tennessee . 
 
 Texas . . . . 
 
 Vermont . . . 
 
 Virginia . . . 
 
 Wisconsin . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 Poprr.AR Vote. 
 
 
 
 26,881 
 
 12,173 
 
 40.626 
 
 3;3;249 
 
 6,318 
 
 4.318 
 
 34,705 
 
 80,597 
 
 95,:340 
 
 17,76:3 
 
 53.806 
 
 18,&47 
 
 41,609 
 
 40.020 
 
 44.569 
 
 41.842 
 
 26,876 
 
 38,353 
 
 29.997 
 
 44.305 
 
 262,083 
 
 39,744 
 
 169.220 
 
 198,568 
 
 8,735 
 
 57.018 
 13,552 
 13,044 
 73,858 
 .33.658 
 
 1,601,474 
 
 
 15,038 
 
 7,404 
 
 35,407 
 
 30,359 
 
 6,293 
 
 2.875 
 
 16,660 
 
 64,934 
 
 80,901 
 
 15.856 
 
 57,068 
 
 17,255 
 
 32,54:3 
 
 35,066 
 
 52,683 
 
 33,859 
 
 17,.>48 
 
 29,984 
 
 16,147 
 
 38,056 
 
 2:34.882 
 
 39,058 
 
 152.526 
 
 179,174 
 
 7,626 
 
 58,898 
 4,995 
 22,173 
 58,572 
 22,240 
 
 1,386,580 
 
 X 3 
 41 
 
 156,667 
 
 Elsctorai; 
 Vote. 
 
 100 
 
 3,160 
 
 62 
 
 9,966 
 
 6,929 
 
 1,604 
 
 265 
 
 8,0:30 
 
 281 
 
 28,023 
 
 7,237 
 
 6,695 
 
 :350 
 
 25,329 
 
 59 
 
 31,682 
 
 8,525 
 
 &44 
 
 8,621 
 291 
 
 8,814 
 
 9 
 4 
 
 4 
 6 
 3 
 3 
 10 
 11 
 13 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 35 
 
 10 
 
 23 
 
 27 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 5 
 
 254 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 42 
 
 * A Webster ticket received 5324 votes in Georgia ; an independent Pierce ticket, 5811- 
 } Massachusetts gave Webster 1670 votes. + Electors appointed by the legislature.
 
 XX 
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 
 
 The election of 1852 gave a death-blow to the "Whig party. 
 That organization had outlived its usefulness. It was unable 
 to cope with the one vital issue of the day, that of slavery 
 in the Territories. The Democratic party was controlled by 
 its Southern contingent ; the Whig by its Northern mem- 
 bers. Both parties declared that the question was decided by 
 the compromises of 1850, and was eliminated from politics. 
 Although the extremists of the South had opposed the mea- 
 sureS; they speedily began to assume that the settlement was 
 a concession of their own contention, and to bring forward 
 propositions which would make the introduction of slavery into 
 the Territories easy and its exclusion therefrom impossible. 
 In this view of the matter they were, in a certain sense, sus- 
 tained by the anti-slavery men of the North, who, while they 
 resisted the new measures and declared them to be a violation 
 of the agreement, continued to denounce the acts of 1850 as a 
 surrender to the slaveholders. The Southern leaders put forth 
 the proposition that the natural right of every American citi- 
 zen permitted him to settle in any Territory, with his property 
 of every kind, including slaves, and entitled him to protection 
 of that property ; that no power was or could be given to a 
 territorial government to exclude slavery ; and that only when 
 the people came together to form a state constitution could the 
 power originate to decide whetfler slavery should or should 
 not be allowed to exist. Events in Kansas and elsewhere led 
 nltimately to a division of the Democratic party. Senator 
 Douglas held that the people of a Territory had the power to 
 exclude slavery. This was his doctrine of " popular sover- 
 eignty," or " squatter sovereignty," as its opponents called it. 
 In one or the other form the principle was adopted by the 
 Democratic party, although it was rejected in both forms by 
 a great body of its Northern members. The Northern Whig 
 party was overwhelmingly against the extension of slavery,
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 259 
 
 but it could not so declare itself without self-destruction. To 
 do so would at once drive out of the party almost all its South- 
 ern supporters ; it would alienate a great many Northern men 
 whom an apprehension of the terrible consequences of a sec- 
 tional issue rendered timid ; and at the same time it would 
 draw into the party neither the anti-slavery Democrats, who 
 differed from the Whigs on every question save this, nor the 
 Abolitionists, who went much further in opposition to slavery 
 than either Whigs or Democrats could go. 
 
 The only course left open for the Whig party was to delude 
 itself and to attempt to delude the country by asserting that 
 the slavery issue was decided. This was merely to live in 
 the past, to abandon the true function of an opposition. The 
 government was controlled by a party which, in spite of its 
 protestations to the contrary, supported the aggression of the 
 slave interest. The Whig party failed in the South because it 
 made the contest on an issue in which the people were not in- 
 terested ; in the North because it had not the courage to avow 
 opinions which a large majority of the party held. But the 
 Whig pretence, that the slavery question was settled by the 
 compromise measures of 1850, was kept up for some years 
 longer, until it became no longer possible to practise self- 
 deception. 
 
 The delusion soon after the election of 1852 took a new 
 phase. Native Americanism had been a favorite doctrine in 
 certain parts of the North for many years, and of late it had 
 been a growing sentiment. It was confined to no party ; and 
 the political method of those who believed in the principle 
 that " Americans must rule America," and who were animated 
 by hostility to the E-oman Catholic Church, was to choose 
 between candidates already nominated. Occasionally, in the 
 cities of New York and Philadelphia, they nominated candi- 
 dates of their own, and succeeded in electing theui to local 
 offices. The membership was carefully guarded ; for the so- 
 cieties were secret, and the initiated Avere bound by oaths. 
 The order which existed before 1850 was superseded, early in 
 Pierce's administration, by a new one, the Order of United 
 Americans, which became popularly known as the Know- 
 Nothing Order, from the ignorance, even of the existence of 
 such an association, which was professed by all its members. 
 A large number of the Whigs, hoping to transfer the political 
 issue from slavery to Native Americanism, joined the order.
 
 260 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 which for some years had extraordinary success in state elec- 
 tions ; but, as Horace Greeley predicted at the time when it 
 was at the height of its power, it was destined " to run its 
 career rapidly, and vanish as suddenly as it appeared. It may 
 last through the next presidential canvass ; but hardly longer 
 than tliat, ... It would seem as devoid of the elements of 
 persistence as an anti-cholera or an anti-potato-rot party would 
 be." It was chiefly contined to the East at first ; later it ex- 
 tended to the South, even as far as Texas, wliere it became 
 strong enough to carry one election ; but it never had much 
 success, nor an organization, in the iS^orthwest. 
 
 It was impossible to keep the slavery question out of sight. 
 Mr. Pierce congratulated the country, at the beginning of his 
 administration, that the agitation had ceased, and both parties 
 were pledged to treat a revival of the controversy as an un- 
 patriotic act ; but it was revived at once by the proposition to 
 organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which was 
 a declaration that the compromises of 1850 superseded the 
 Missouri Compromise, which was accordingly no longer opera^ 
 tive. The bill was referred to by anti-slavery orators and 
 journals as a *' repeal " of the IMissouri Compromise, and it 
 stirred popular sentiment at the North most profoundly. It 
 virtually created three factions in the Democratic party ; for 
 beside the Southern extremists there was now a new element, 
 the members of which became known as *' Anti-Nebraska 
 Democrats," and another which tried to stand between the 
 two, headed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Mr. Douglas 
 was chairman of the Senate committee on Territories, and 
 assumed a position of extraordinary prominence in the politics 
 of the country. The struggle between the pro-slavery and the 
 anti-slavery factions over Kansas, both within and without 
 the Territory, was one of unexampled bitterness and violence ; 
 but during the early part of Mr. Pierce's term the opponents 
 of the administration were without effective organization. 
 
 The Republican party originated in the West. A mass 
 meeting at Ripon, Wisconsin, early in 1854, followed soon after- 
 ward by a mass state convention at Jackson, Michigan ; and 
 state conventions in July in Vermont, Wisconsin, Ohio and 
 Indiana, brought the new party into being, with its present 
 name, and with ©pposition to the extension of slavery as the 
 one issue that united its members. Past differences were for- 
 gotten ; the jealousies that might be expected to arise in the
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 261 
 
 selection of candidates on account of those differences, were 
 strikingly absent. A Republican organization was not effected 
 in many States of the North in 1854, but the Anti-Nebraska 
 party, if we may so term it, under many names and with vari- 
 ous forms of fusion, had many successes at the polls.^ 
 
 A fresh example of the determination of the Southern lead- 
 ers to force the fighting and to obtain additional territory for 
 the extension of slavery was given in the " Ostend Manifesto." 
 At the instance of the Secretary of State, Mr. Marcy, of New 
 York, a meeting of the United States ministers to Great Bri- 
 tain, France, and Spain, Mr. James Buchanan, Mr. John Y. 
 Mason, and Mr. Pierre Soule, was held to consider the rela- 
 tion of the island of Cuba to the United States. They came 
 together at Ostend, Belgium, and drew up a report to the effect 
 that Cuba was territorially a part of the United States, that its 
 possession by a foreign poAver was detrimental to our interest, 
 that an offer should be made to Spain to purchase it, and that 
 in case Spain were to refuse to sell, " by every law, human 
 and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if 
 we possess the power." The "Ostend Manifesto" is referred 
 to repeatedly in the state and national platforms of the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 At the close of 1855 the situation was extremely compli- 
 cated. In the Eastern States there were four parties, — the 
 Democrats, the Whigs, the Know-Nothings, and the Republi- 
 cans. The Democrats and Whigs were inclined to coalesce in 
 order to withstand the common enemy, the Republicans, whose 
 party was acquiring gigantic strength. The days of the Know- 
 Nothing, or American, party were numbered, and most of the 
 members had fallen away to the Republican party. In the 
 West, — except in Ohio, where a remnant of the Whig party 
 survived, — the parties were two only, the Democratic and 
 the Republican. In the South the American party was at the 
 time of its greatest success, having absorbed most of the Whig 
 strength. Although the Whig party had not formally ac- 
 knowledged that it had ceased to exist, it was really only a 
 memory, and the members merely accepted and voted for the 
 candidates of the Know-Nothings. 
 
 The first convention preliminary to the election of 1856 
 was that of the Americans. It was held at Philadelphia, on 
 
 1 For a full and admirable analysis of the elections of 1854, see Rhodes's His- 
 tory, vol. ii. pp. 58 et seq.
 
 262 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Washington's birthday, February 22, 1856. But already the 
 *' National Council " of the order had been in session three 
 days, beginning on the 19th of the month, and had adopted 
 the platform of the party. This platform was as follows : — 
 
 1. An humble acknowledgment of the Supreme Being, for His 
 protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their successful revolu- 
 tionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their descendants, 
 in the preservation of their liberties, the independence and the 
 union of these States. 
 
 2. The perpetuation of the Federal Union and Constitution, as 
 the palladium of our civil and religious liberties and the only sure 
 bulwark of American independence. 
 
 3. Americans must rule America; and to this end native-born 
 citizens should be selected for all state, federal, and municipal 
 offices of government employment, in preference to all others. 
 Nevertheless, 
 
 4. Persons born of American parents residing temporarily abroad 
 should be entitled to all the rights of native-born citizens. 
 
 .5. No person should be selected for political station (whether of 
 native or foreign birth) who recognizes any allegiance or obligation 
 of any description to any foreign prince, potentate, or jiower, or 
 who refuses to recognize the federal and state Constitutions (each 
 within its sphere) as paramount to all other laws as rules of politi- 
 cal action. 
 
 6. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved 
 rights of the several States, and the cultivation of harmony and 
 fraternal good will between the citizens of the several States, and, 
 to this end, non-interference by Congress with questions apper- 
 taining solely to the individual States, and non-intervention by 
 each State with the affairs of any other State. 
 
 7. The recognition of the right of native-born and naturalized 
 citizens of the United States, permanently residing in any Terri- 
 tory thei'eof, to frame their constitution and laws, and to regulate 
 their domestic and social affairs in their own mode, subject only to 
 the provisions of the Federal Constitution, with the privilege of 
 admission into the Union whenever they have the requisite popu- 
 lation for one representative in Congress ; provided, always^, that 
 none but those who are citizens of the United States, undei* the 
 Constitution and laws thereof, and who have a fixed residence 
 in any such Territory, ought to participate in the formation of 
 a constitution or iu the enactment of laws for said Territory or 
 State. 
 
 8. An enforcement of the principle that no State or Territory 
 ought to admit others than citizens to the right of suffrage, or of 
 holding political offices of the United States.
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAX PARTY 263 
 
 9. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued 
 residence of twenty-one years, of all not heretofore provided for, 
 an indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding 
 all paupers and persons convicted of crime from landing upon our 
 shores ; but no interference with the vested rights of foreigners. 
 
 10. Opposition to any union between Church and State ; no 
 interference with religious faith or worship, and no test oaths for 
 office. 
 
 11. Free and thorough investigation into any and all alleged 
 abuses of public functionaries, and a strict economy in public 
 expenditures. 
 
 12. The maintenance and enforcement of all laws constitutionally 
 enacted, until said laws shall be repealed or shall be declared null 
 and void by competent judicial authority. 
 
 13. Opposition to the reckless and unwise policy of the present 
 Administration in the general management of our national affairs, 
 and more especially as shown in removing " Americans " (by 
 designation) and conservatives in principle from office, and placing 
 foreigners and ultraists in their places ; as shown in a truckling 
 subserviency to the stronger, and an insolent and cowardly bravado 
 toward the weaker powers ; as shown in reopening sectional 
 agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; as shown 
 in granting to unnaturalized foreigners the right of suffrage in 
 Kansas and Nebraska ; as shown in its vacillating course on the 
 Kansas and Nebraska question ; as shown in the corruptions which 
 pervade some of the departments of the government ; as shown in 
 disgracing meritorious naval officers through prejudice or caprice ; 
 and as shown in the blundering mismanagement of our foreign 
 relations. 
 
 14. Therefore, to remedy existing evils, and to prevent the 
 disastrous consequences otherwise resulting therefrom, we would 
 build up the " American Party " upon the principles hereinbefore 
 stated. 
 
 15. That each State Council shall have authority to amend 
 their several constitutions, so as to abolish the several degrees, and 
 substitute a pledge of honor, instead of other obligations, for 
 fellowship and admission into the party. 
 
 16. A free and open discussion of all political principles em- 
 braced in our platform. 
 
 The convention, which met on the 22d, consisted of 227 
 delegates from 27 States of the Union, — all except Maine, 
 Yermont, South Carolina, and Georgia. Having organized by 
 the choice of Ephraim Marsh, of New Jersey, as President, and 
 having decided cases of contested seats, the convention became 
 involved in a long and angry discussion of the right of the
 
 264 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 National Council to make the platform of the party. A reso- 
 lution was presented : — 
 
 That the National Council has no authority to prescribe a plat- 
 form of principles for this nominating convention, and that no 
 candidates for President and Vice-President who are not in favor 
 of interdicting slavery in territory north of 36° 30', by congres- 
 sional action, shall be nominated by this Convention. 
 
 A motion to lay this resolution on the table was accepted 
 as a test of the strength of the two wings of the party. The 
 motion was carried by a vote of 141 to 59. A motion to pro- 
 ceed to nominate a candidate for President was successful, 151 
 to 51. Thereupon nearly all the delegates from New England 
 and Ohio, and a part of those from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and 
 Iowa, withdrew from the convention. An informal ballot 
 gave Millard Fillmore 71 votes; George Law, of New York, 27; 
 Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, 13; and 32 votes were given to 
 seven other candidates, from one to eight each. On the formal 
 vote Mr. Fillmore had 179 ; Mr. Law 24 ; Kenneth Raynor, of 
 North Carolina, 14 ; Judge John McLean, of Ohio, 13 ; Garrett 
 Davis 10 ; and Samuel Houston, of Texas, 3. Mr. Fillmore 
 had a majority and was nominated. On the first ballot for a 
 candidate for Vice-President, Andrew J. Donelson, of Tennes- 
 see, had 181 ; Henry J. Gardner, of Massachusetts, 12; Kenneth 
 Raynor 8 ; and Percey Walker, of Alabama, 8. Mr. Donelson 
 was declared nominated ; and the convention adjourned. Soon 
 after this the seceding delegates met and nominated for Presi- 
 dent Colonel John C. Fremont, of California, and for Vice- 
 President ex-Governor William F. Johnston, of Pennsylvania, 
 
 The meeting of the Democratic national convention was 
 looked forward to with much interest. A great many mem- 
 bers still adhered to the party, who were not disposed to yield 
 to what the general drift of sentiment in the Northern States 
 regarded as the arrogant and unreasonable demands of the slave 
 interest. The division of the party was most serious in New 
 York, where the two factions were now known as the "hards" 
 and the " softs." Mr. Pierce was in high favor with the South- 
 ern delegates and with the Southern people ; the Northern and 
 more moderate wing of the party preferred Mr. Buchanan ; 
 while Mr. Douglas had a strong hold upon the popular heart, 
 and was regarded as the most natural successor to Mr. Pierce's 
 strength, should that gentleman's nomination become impos- 
 sible. The excitement at Cincinnati, where the convention was
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 265 
 
 to meet, ran high on the days before the session began, and 
 it was freely said that the Northern delegates would bolt if 
 Mr. Buchanan should be defeated. The preliminary intriguing 
 has probably never been greater in any national nominating 
 convention than it was at that time. 
 
 The convention met on the 2d of June. All the States 
 were fully represented, and two sets of delegates appeared 
 from each of the States of New York and Missouri. The 
 opponents of Senator Benton were the " regulars " from Mis- 
 souri. The contestants signalized their advent by knocking 
 down the door-keeper, who endeavored to prevent them from 
 entering the hall. The scene was an incipient riot. When 
 order had been restored, the presiding officer administered to 
 the intruders such a stinging rebuke for their lawless conduct 
 that they retired, and, as the committee on credentials reported 
 against their claim, they were seen no more. The " hards " and 
 " softs " of New York were quite as bitter in their quarrel as 
 the more turbulent Missourians ; but they waited peaceably, 
 and finally both delegations were admitted, each delegate to have 
 half a vote. The permanent chairman was John E. Ward, of 
 Georgia. There was no opposition to the two-thirds rule. On 
 the first vote for a candidate for President, James Buchanan 
 had 135 ; Franklin Pierce 122 ; Stephen A. Douglas 33 ; and 
 Lewis Cass 5. The Southern States gave on this vote 72 
 to Mr. Pierce ; 29 to Mr. Buchanan ; and 14 to Mr. Douglas. 
 The North gave 106 to Buchanan ; 50 to Pierce ; 19 to 
 Douglas ; and 5 to Cass. On the second and succeeding 
 votes Mr. Buchanan's strength increased very slowly but stead- 
 ily ; Mr. Pierce's fell off rapidly, and the most of his loss 
 was Mr. Douglas's gain ; on the sixteenth trial the result was, 
 for Mr. Buchanan 168 ; for Mr. Pierce none ; for Mr. Douglas 
 121 ; and for General Cass 6. Mr. Buchanan had had a ma- 
 jority on the tenth vote, and he now lacked but eighteen of 
 two thirds. On the seventeenth vote the delegations began 
 changing in his favor, he received all the votes, 296, and was 
 declared nominated. Ten candidates were voted for as can- 
 didates for Vice-President on the first trial. The leader was 
 John A. Quitman, of Mississippi, with 59 votes, closely fol- 
 lowed by John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, with 55. Linn 
 Boyd, of Kentucky, had 33 ; Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, 
 31 ; James A. Bayard, of Delaware, 31 ; Aaron V. Brown, 
 of Tennessee, 29 ; James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina, 13 ;
 
 266 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, 11 ; Trusten Polk, of Mis- 
 souri, 5 ; and Thomas J. Rusk, of Texas, 2. On the second 
 vote the names of Greneral Quitman and of most of the other 
 leading candidates were withdrawn, and Mr. Breckinridge was 
 unanimously nominated. 
 
 The platform, which was adopted without opposition, be- 
 gins with the preamble first adopted in 1844, and repeated 
 in subsequent platforms. Then follow ten of the resolutions 
 which form a part of previous platforms, namely, the first five 
 of 1840, in order, and those relating to the proceeds of the 
 public lands ; against a national bank ; in favor of a separate 
 treasury ; regarding the veto power ; and against abridgment 
 of the privileges of aliens to become citizens. To these the 
 following were added : — 
 
 And whereas, Since the foregoing declaration was uniformly 
 adopted by our predecessors in national convention, an adverse 
 political and religious test has been secretly organized by a party 
 claiming to be exclusively American, and it is proper that the 
 American Democracy should clearly define its relations thereto, 
 and declare its determined opposition to all secret political socie- 
 ties, by whatever name they may be called, 
 
 Resolred, That the foundation of this Union of States having 
 been laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and preeminent exam- 
 ple of free government built upon, entire freedom in matters of 
 religious concernment, and no respect of persons in regard to rank 
 or place, or birth, no party can be justly deemed national, consti- 
 tutional, or in accordance with American principles which bases 
 its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental 
 birthplace. And hence a political crusade in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, and in the United States of America, against Catholics 
 and foreign-born, is neither justified by the past history or future 
 prospects of the country, nor in unison with the spirit of tolera- 
 tion and enlightened freedom which peculiarly distinguishes the 
 American system of popular government. 
 
 Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed energy of purpose the 
 well-considered declarations of former conventions upon the sec- 
 tional issue of domestic slavery and concerning the reserved rights 
 of the States, — 
 
 1. That Congress has no power under the Constitution to in- 
 terfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several 
 States, and that all such States are the sole and proper judges of 
 everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the 
 Constitution ; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others made to 
 induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 267 
 
 incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most 
 alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have 
 an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and 
 endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought 
 not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions. 
 
 2. That the foregoing covers, and was intended to embrace, the 
 whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress ; and therefore 
 the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national plat- 
 form, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts 
 known as the " compromise " measures, settled by the Congress 
 of 1850, the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor 
 included ; which act, being designed to carry out an express provi- 
 sion of the Constitution, cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, 
 or so changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency. 
 
 3. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renew- 
 ing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, 
 under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made. 
 
 4. The Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the 
 principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 
 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia legislature in 
 1799 ; that it adopts these principles as constituting one of the main 
 foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out 
 in their obvious meaning and import. 
 
 And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a 
 sectional party, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation, now 
 relies to test the fidelity of the people. North and South, to the 
 Constitution and the Union, — 
 
 1. Resolved, That, claiming fellowship with and desiring the co- 
 operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under 
 the Constitution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sec- 
 tional issues and platforms concerning domestic slavery which seek 
 to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to 
 law in the Territories, and whose avowed purpose, if consummated, 
 must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy 
 recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws 
 establishing the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas as embodying 
 the only sound and safe solutioi» of the slavery question, upon 
 which the great national idea of the people of this whole country 
 can repose in its determined conservation of the Union, and non- 
 interference of Congress with slavery in the Territories or in the 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 2. That this was the basis of the compromise of 1850, confirmed 
 by both the Democratic and Whig parties in national conventions, 
 ratified by the people in the election of 1852, and rightly applied 
 to the organization of the Territories in 1854.
 
 268 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 3. That by the uniform application of the Democratic principle 
 to the organization of Territories, and the admission of new States 
 with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect, the equal rights 
 of all the States will be preserved intact, the original compacts of 
 the Constitution maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and ex- 
 pansion of the Union insured to its utmost capacity of embracing, 
 in peace and harmony, every future American State that may be 
 constituted or annexed with a republican form of government. 
 
 Besolred, That we recognize the right of the people of all the 
 Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the 
 legally and fairly expressed will of the majority of the actual resi- 
 dents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, 
 to form a constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be 
 admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the 
 other States. 
 
 Resolved, Finally, that in view of the condition of popular in- 
 stitutions in the Old World (and the dangerous tendencies of sec- 
 tional agitation, combined with the attempt to enforce civil and 
 religious disabilities against the rights of acquiring and enjoying 
 citizenship in our own land), a high and sacred duty is devolved, 
 with increased responsibility, upon the Democratic party of this 
 country, as the party of the Union, to uphold and maintain the 
 rights of every State, and thereby the Union of the States ; and to 
 sustain and advance among us constitutional liberty, by continu- 
 ing to resist all monopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit 
 of the few at the expense of the many ; and by a vigilant and con- 
 stant adherence to those principles and compromises of the Consti- 
 tution which are broad enough and strong enough to embrace and 
 uphold the Union as it was, the Union as it is, and the Union as it 
 shall be, in the full expansion of the energies and capacity of this 
 great and progressive people. 
 
 1. Resolved, That there are questions connected with the for- 
 eign policy of this country which are inferior to no domestic ques- 
 tion whatever. The time has come for the people of the United 
 States to declare themselves in favor of free seas, and progressive 
 free trade throughout the world, and by solemn manifestations to 
 place their moral influence at the side of their successful example. 
 
 2. Resolved, That our geographical and political position with 
 reference to the other states of this continent, no less than the in- 
 terest of our commerce and the development of our growing power, 
 requires that we should hold sacred the principles involved in the 
 Monroe doctrine. Their bearing and import admit of no miscon- 
 struction, and should be applied with unbending rigidity. 
 
 3. Resolved, That the great highway, which nature as well as 
 the assent of states most immediately interested in its maintenance
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 269 
 
 has marked out for free communication between the Atlantic and 
 the Pacific oceans, constitutes one of the most important achieve- 
 ments realized by the spirit of modern times, in the unconquerable 
 energy of our people ; and that result would be secured by a timely 
 and efficient exertion of the control which we have the right to 
 claim over it ; and no power on earth should be suffered to impede 
 or clog its progress by any interference with relations that it may 
 suit our policy to establish between our government and the gov- 
 ernments of the states within whose dominions it lies. We can, 
 under no circumstances, surrender oiu* preponderance in the ad- 
 justment of all questions arising out of it. 
 
 4. Resolved, That, in view of so commanding an interest, the 
 people of the United States cannot but sympathize with the efforts 
 which are being made by the people of Central America to regen- 
 erate that portion of the continent which covers the passage across 
 the inter-oceanic isthmus. 
 
 5. Resolved, That the Democratic party wiU expect of the next 
 administration that every proper effort be made to insure our 
 ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico, and to maintain permanent 
 protection to the great outlets through which are emptied into its 
 waters the products raised out of the soil and the commodities 
 created by the industry of the people of our Western valleys and of 
 the Union at large. 
 
 Resolved, That the administration of Franklin Pierce has been 
 true to Democratic principles, and therefore true to the great inter- 
 ests of the country. In the face of violent opposition he has main- 
 tained the laws at home, and vindicated the rights of American 
 citizens abroad ; and therefore we proclaim our unqualified admi- 
 ration of his measures and policy. 
 
 The first Republican national convention was the outcome 
 of a preliminary convention held at Pittsburg on Washington's 
 Birthday, February 22, 1856. The Pittsburg meeting was 
 called by the chairmen of the Republican state committees 
 of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. There were repre- 
 sentatives of twenty-three States in attendance. A long ad- 
 dress " to the people of the United States " was adopted ; and 
 it was voted to call a convention for the nomination of candi- 
 dates for President and Vice-President, to meet at Philadelphia 
 on the 17th of June, the anniversary of Bunker Hill, 
 
 The convention met on the day named. The delegates 
 were too enthusiastic and united in their purpose to be care- 
 ful about the proportionate representation of the States, or to 
 scrutinize closely the credentials of their fellow-members. All
 
 270 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the Northern States were represented, as were also Delaware, 
 Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, the Territories of Minne- 
 sota, Nebraska, and Kansas, and the District of Columbia. It 
 was reported that more than one thousand delegates were in 
 attendance, but the vote for candidates disclosed less than six 
 hundred. New York cast 96 votes, Pennsylvania 81, and 
 Ohio 69 ; but many of the more remote States were under- 
 represented. Robert Emmet, of New York, formerly a Demo- 
 crat, was the temporary chairman, and Colonel Henry S. 
 Lane, of Indiana, the permanent president. The enthusiasm 
 and the hopefulness of the delegates were unbounded. For 
 the first time they found themselves in a party united by 
 what they deemed a great moral purpose, and not by considera- 
 tions of temporary expediency. The convention gave itself up 
 to a season of speech-making of the most earnest and enthusi- 
 astic character. The extraordinary success of the new party, 
 barely two years old, seemed to justify them in their expecta- 
 tion of an immediate national victory. 
 
 Much depended, for such a party even more than for an old 
 and established party, upon the quality of the candidate. 
 William H. Seward, of New York, no doubt represented the 
 attitude of the Republican party on public questions better 
 and more prominently than any other public man ; but he had 
 seen the formation of the party with reluctance, and, not being 
 so optimistic as to expect an election, declined to be a candi- 
 date. The next choice might have been Senator Salmon P. 
 Chase, of Ohio ; but he had been so fully identified with the 
 Democratic party that his ability to carry Ohio was doubtful, 
 and he withdrew. John McLean, also of Ohio, Postmaster- 
 General under Monroe and Adams, and a Justice of the Su- 
 preme Court since 1829, was regarded as a strong candidate, 
 but his name was also withdrawn. The only remaining can- 
 didate who had been prominently mentioned was Colonel John 
 C. Fremont, whose political experience was limited to a brief 
 service as senator from California, and whose political opin- 
 ions were almost unknown. Upon an iirgent representation 
 that Frdmont would be unable to carry Pennsylvania, Judge 
 McLean was again brought forward as a candidate. On an 
 informal ballot Fremont received 359 votes. Judge McLean 
 196, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, 2, and William H. 
 Seward, of New York, 1. Colonel Fremont was thereupon 
 unanimously nominated. An informal ballot was likewise
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 271 
 
 taken for a candidate for Vice-President. William L. Dayton, 
 of Xew Jersey, had 259; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, 110; 
 Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, 46 ; and twelve other 
 candidates received some votes each. Mr. Dayton was then 
 unanimously nominated. The selection of Fremont was due 
 in no small degree to the fact that he had already been nomi- 
 nated by the seceding Know-Nothings, and a communication 
 from the officers of the convention which placed him in nomi- 
 nation was frequently referred to, but was not read. Gov- 
 ernor Johnston, who was nominated by the seceding Americans 
 for Vice-President, received two votes only in the Republican 
 convention. 
 
 The following platform was adopted : — 
 
 This convention of delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call 
 addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to 
 past political diiferences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present admin- 
 istration, to the extension of slavery into free territory ; in favor of 
 admitting Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action of the 
 federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson ; 
 and who purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of 
 President and Vice-President, do resolve as follows : — 
 
 Resolved, That the maintenance of the principles promulgated 
 in the Declaration of Indej^endence and embodied in the federal 
 Constitution is essential to the preservation of our Republican 
 institutions, and that the federal Constitution, the rights of the 
 States, and the union of the States, shall be preserved. 
 
 Resolved, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a 
 self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the unalienable 
 rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the 
 primary object and ulterior designs of our federal government 
 were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurist 
 diction ; that, as our republican fathers, when they had abolished 
 slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should 
 be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of 
 law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Consti- 
 tution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of estab- 
 lishing slavery in any Territory of the United States, by positive 
 legislation prohibiting its existence or extension therein; that we 
 deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any 
 individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to 
 slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the present 
 Constitution shall be maintained. 
 
 Resolved, That the Constitution confei's upon Congress sover-
 
 272 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 eign power over the Territories of the United States, for their 
 government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the 
 right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those 
 twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery. 
 
 Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was 
 ordained and established by the people in order to form a more 
 perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, pro- 
 vide for the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty, 
 and contains ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty, 
 and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of 
 the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken 
 from them ; their territory has been invaded by an armed force ; 
 spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers 
 have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by 
 the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitu- 
 tional laws have been enacted and enforced ; the rights of the 
 people to keep and bear arms have been infringed ; test oaths of 
 an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a 
 condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office ; 
 the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an 
 impartial jury has been denied ; the right of the people to be 
 secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unrea- 
 sonable searches and seizures has been violated ; they have been 
 deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law ; 
 the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged ; the 
 right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect ; 
 murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encour- 
 aged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished ; — 
 that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, 
 and procurement of the present administration ; and that for this 
 high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity, 
 we arraign the administration, the President, his advisers, agents, 
 supporters, apologists, and accessories, either before or after the 
 fact, before the country and before the world, and that it is our 
 fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious 
 outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment 
 hereafter. 
 
 Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a 
 State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once 
 the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment 
 of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of 
 ending the civil strife now raging in her territory. 
 
 Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that " might makes 
 right," embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect 
 unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 278 
 
 dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanc- 
 tion. 
 
 Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most 
 central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the 
 interests of the whole country, and that the Federal government 
 ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction ; 
 and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an 
 emigrant route on the line of the railroad. 
 
 Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement 
 of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the 
 accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are author- 
 ized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of govern- 
 ment to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 
 
 Resolved, That we invite the affiliation and cooperation of the men 
 of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in sup- 
 port of the principles herein declared ; and believing that the spirit 
 of our institutions as well as tlie Constitution of our country guaran- 
 tees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we 
 oppose all legislation impairing their security. 
 
 One other convention was held, that of the Whigs, at Balti- 
 more, on the 17th of September, in which there was a more or 
 less full representation of twenty-six States. No delegates 
 were present from Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, or Cali- 
 fornia. Edward Bates, of Missouri, was the president. The 
 proceedings were brief and uninteresting. The nominations of 
 Fillmore and Donelson were accepted by resolution, and the 
 following platform was adopted : — 
 
 Resolved, That the Whigs of the United States, now here as- 
 sembled, hereby declare their reverence for the Constitution of the 
 United States, their unalterable attachment to the national Union, 
 and a fixed determination to do all in their power to preserve them 
 for themselves and their posterity. They have no new principles to 
 announce, no new platform to establish, but are content to broadly 
 rest — where their fathers rested — upon the Constitution of the 
 United States, wisliing no safer guide, no higher law. 
 
 Resolved, That we regard with the deepest interest and anxiety 
 the present disordered condition of our national affairs, — a portion 
 of the country ravaged by civil war, large sections of our popula- 
 tion embittered by mutual recriminations ; and we distinctly trace 
 these calamities to the cxilpable neglect of duty by the present 
 national administration. 
 
 Resolved, That the government of the United States was formed 
 by the conjunction in political unity of widespread geographical 
 sections, materially differing not only in climate and products, but
 
 274 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 in social and domestic institutions ; and that any cause that shall 
 permanently array tlie different sections of the Union in political 
 hostility and organized parties, founded only on geographical dis- 
 tinctions, must inevitably prove fatal to a continuance of the 
 national Union. 
 
 Resolved, That the "WTiigs of the United States declare, as a 
 fundamental rule of political faith, an absolute necessity for avoid- 
 ing geographical parties. The danger so clearly discerned by the 
 Father of his Country has now become fearfully apparent in 
 the agitation now convulsing the nation, and must be arrested at 
 once if we would preserve our Constitution and our Union from 
 dismemberment, and the name of America from being blotted 
 out from the family of civilized nations. 
 
 Resolved, That all who revere the Constitution and the Union 
 must look with alarm at the parties in the field in the present 
 presidential campaign, — one claiming only to represent sixteen 
 Northern States, and the other appealing mainly to the passions 
 and prejudices of the Southern States ; that the success of either 
 faction must add fuel to the flame which now threatens to wrap 
 our dearest interests in a common ruin. 
 
 Resolved, That the only remedy for an evil so appalling is to 
 support a candidate pledged to neither of the geographical sections 
 now arrayed in political antagonism, but holding both in a just and 
 equal regard. We congratulate the fi'iends of the Union that such 
 a candidate exists in INIillard Fillmore. 
 
 Resolved, That, without adopting or referring to the peculiar 
 doctrines of the party which has already selected Mr. Fillmore as a 
 candidate, we look to him as a well-tried and faithful friend of the 
 Constitution and the Union, eminent alike for his wisdom and 
 firmness ; for his justice and moderation in our foreign relations ; 
 for his calm and pacific temperament, so well becoming the head 
 of a great nation ; for his devotion to the Constitution in its true 
 spirit; his inflexibility in executing the laws; but, beyond all 
 these attributes, in possessing the one transcendent merit of being 
 a representative of neither of the two sectional parties now strug- 
 gling for political supremacy. 
 
 Resolved, That, in the present exigency of political affairs, we 
 are not called upon to discuss the subordinate questions of admin- 
 istration in the exercising of the constitutional powers of the gov- 
 ernment. It is enough to know that civil w^ar is raging, and that 
 the Union is imperilled ; and we proclaim the conviction that the 
 restoration of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency will furnish the best 
 if not the only means of restoring peace. 
 
 The canvass which followed was an extraordinary one. It 
 was sluggish enough in the South, where the only candidates
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 275 
 
 were Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Fillmore ; for Mr. Buchanan had 
 the support of the entire slaveholding interest, and of all who 
 were concerned for the maintenance of the political power of 
 the slavery system. But in the North the Republicans con- 
 ducted a canvass rivalling that of 1840 in enthusiasm, and 
 having behind it what the " hard cider " campaign lacked, — a 
 definite moral purpose and a clearly understood policy. Great 
 political clubs were organized, which marched from place to 
 place visiting each other, uniformed and bearing torches. Im- 
 mense public meetings were held, and the Northern heart was 
 fired as it had never been before. Nevertheless the Republi- 
 can canvass was destined to end in defeat, although the earlier 
 elections of the autumn indicated a Republican victory. In 
 Vermont more than three fourths of the votes were Republican ; 
 and Maine, which had been carried in 1855 by a fusion party 
 of Democrats and " straight " Whigs, was now carried by the 
 Republicans by almost 18,000 majority. But the October 
 elections were unfavorable ; for, while Ohio gave a Republican 
 majority, Indiana was lost, and Pennsylvania gave the Demo- 
 cratic candidates on the state ticket a majority over the Re- 
 publican and Whig vote combined. " The Quakers did not 
 come out," it was said ; but all who could read the signs of the 
 time knew that the election was lost for the Republicans. 
 
 Thirty-one States participated in the election. The popular 
 and electoral votes are given on the next page. 
 
 The count of the electoral vote was enlivened by a scene 
 unlike any which had ever occurred. The usual resolution 
 for counting the votes was adopted. If it was known in 
 advance that there was anything unusual in the certificate 
 of any State, it does not so appear from the record ; but, in 
 point of fact, the electors for Wisconsin had not met on the 
 day fixed by law, which day, says the Constitution itself, 
 "shall be the same throughout the United States," but on 
 the next day after. A severe snowstorm had prevented the 
 electors from reaching the capital of the State in season to give 
 their votes on the 3d of December, and they had met and 
 voted on the 4th. « 
 
 When the votes of AVisconsin were presented at the joint 
 meeting of the two Houses, an objection was made to count- 
 ing them. The president pro tempore of the Senate, the 
 Hon. James M. Mason, of Virginia, ruled that debate was 
 not in order while the tellers were counting the votes. The
 
 276 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 
 
 
 Popular Vote. 
 
 Electoeal \ 
 
 OTE. 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 a 
 
 d 
 
 States. 
 
 "'a 
 
 1 . 
 
 as 
 
 2 
 
 o . 
 
 EM 
 
 n 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 rs 
 
 1 
 
 
 ll 
 a a 
 
 
 •SI 
 
 
 a 
 
 C3 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 £ 
 2 
 
 
 4^ 
 
 1-5 
 
 si 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 Alabama .... 
 
 46,739 
 
 _ 
 
 28,552 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 
 
 21,910 
 
 - 
 
 10,787 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 California . 
 
 
 
 53,365 
 
 20,691 
 
 36,165 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 
 
 34,995 
 
 42,715 
 
 2,615 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware . 
 
 
 
 8,004 
 
 308 
 
 6,175 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Florida . 
 
 
 
 6,358 
 
 - 
 
 4,833 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Geor^a 
 
 
 
 56,578 
 
 - 
 
 42,228 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Illinois . . 
 
 
 
 105,348 
 
 96,189 
 
 37,444 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana 
 
 
 
 118,670 
 
 94,375 
 
 22,386 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Iowa 
 
 
 
 36,170 
 
 43,954 
 
 9,180 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 
 
 74,642 
 
 314 
 
 67,416 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana . 
 
 
 
 22,164 
 
 - 
 
 20,709 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Maine . . 
 
 
 
 39,080 
 
 67,379 
 
 3,325 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland . 
 
 
 
 39,115 
 
 281 
 
 47,460 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 39,240 
 
 108,190 
 
 19,626 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 
 
 52,136 
 
 71,762 
 
 1,660 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 
 35,446 
 
 - 
 
 24,195 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 
 
 58,164 
 
 - 
 
 48,524 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New Hampsh 
 
 ire 
 
 
 32,789 
 
 38,345 
 
 422 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 
 
 46,943 
 
 28,3.38 
 
 24,115 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New York 
 
 
 
 195,878 
 
 276,007 
 
 124,604 
 
 - 
 
 35 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 48,246 
 
 - 
 
 36,886 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Ohio . . . 
 
 
 170,874 
 
 187,497 
 
 28,126 
 
 - 
 
 23 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 230,710 
 
 147,510 
 
 82,175 
 
 27 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 6,680 
 
 11,467 
 
 1,675 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 South Carolina* 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 
 73,638 
 
 - 
 
 66,178 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Texas . . 
 
 
 
 31,169 
 
 - 
 
 15,639 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . 
 
 
 
 10,569 
 
 39,561 
 
 545 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . 
 
 
 
 89,706 
 
 291 
 
 60,310 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Wisconsin .... 
 
 52,843 
 
 66,090 
 
 579 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 114 
 
 - 
 
 Total . 
 
 
 • 
 
 1,838,169 
 
 1,341,264 
 
 874,534 
 
 174 
 
 8 
 
 * Electors appointed by the legislature. 
 
 count having been concluded, Mr. Letcher, of Virginia, of the 
 House of Kepresentatives, inquired if it would then be in 
 order to move that the votes of Wisconsin be excluded. The 
 president ruled that it was not in order. Senator Crittenden, 
 of Kentucky, asked if the chair decided " that Congress, in
 
 THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY 277 
 
 no form, has power to decide upon the validity or invalidity 
 of a vote." The president, having disclaimed the intention 
 to make any such decision, proceeded to recapitulate the votes, 
 giving Buchanan and Breckinridge 174 each, and Fremont and 
 Dayton 114 each (which included the votes of Wisconsin), 
 and to declare the election of the Democratic candidates. Pro- 
 tests were raised on all sides, from hoth parties and by mem- 
 bers of both Houses. In spite of the declaration of the 
 presiding officer that no debate was in order, a long and 
 rambling debate ensued, in which the most diverse views 
 were advanced. The discussion was at last cut short by the 
 withdrawal of the Senate. The matter was immediately re- 
 sumed in each House, and discussion was continued for two 
 days. The debates on that occasion are the most valuable 
 for the student of political history, as to this casus omissus 
 of the Constitution, that have ever taken place, because the 
 question was considered without a spirit of partisanship. The 
 vote of Wisconsin would not affect the result, whether counted 
 or rejected. There was much ignorance of the Constitution 
 displayed by many of the speakers ; but, on the other hand, 
 some of them discussed the question with profound learning 
 and with great ability. 
 
 It is impossible here to give a sketch of this most interest- 
 ing debate. Nothing more can be done than to summarize 
 some of the views advanced. On the main question, Repub- 
 licans generally thought the votes of Wisconsin ought to be 
 counted ; Democrats, for the most part, took the contrary view. 
 Upon the question who, under the Constitution, should count, 
 that is, who decide what were votes, the divergence of opinion 
 was amazing. Some contented themselves with asserting that 
 the power was in Congress to decide upon the validity of votes, 
 leaving the method of exercising the power to be determined 
 by law. But it was maintained in the Senate, by Mr. Thomp- 
 son, of Kentucky, that the " votes are to be returned to us, 
 and counted by ns, and the House of Representatives are ad- 
 mitted to be present at the count to prevent a combination, a 
 clandestine operation, a secret session, a cotip d'etat. . . . The 
 votes are to be returned to the Senate, and counted by the 
 Senate." On the other hand, Mr. Humphrey Marshall, of 
 Kentucky, maintained in the House that that body was the 
 sole judge, and Mr. Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, took 
 the same view. The ground of this opinion was, that it was
 
 278 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 for the House to decide whether or not to go into an election 
 of President. 
 
 There was still another point on which the difference of 
 opinion was decided. The president of the Senate stoutly 
 affirmed that he had neither counted nor rejected the votes, 
 although he had said : " The state of the votes as delivered 
 by the tellers is . . . for John C. Fremont, of California, 114 
 votes." Many senators sustained the assertion of Mr. Mason 
 that he had not counted the votes, while others declared that 
 he had counted them. Numerous resolutions were offered in 
 each branch, but the debate produced nothing more than a 
 resolution of formal notification to Messrs, Buchanan and 
 Breckinridge that they had been elected. The opinion that 
 the whole subject ought to be taken up and considered, and 
 the doubtful points /determined by law, was generally ex- 
 pressed ; but, as soon as the matter in hand was disposed of, 
 the subject was dropped. The Congress was then in the last 
 month of its term, and it was too busy to take further notice 
 of a danger past which might never return. Consequently the 
 disputed point was left for a Republican Congress to decide, 
 according to the political exigency of the hour, in the midst 
 of a civil war.
 
 XXI 
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 
 
 During the whole of Mr. Buchanan's administration the 
 country was drifting steadily toward civil war. The issue 
 between slavery and anti-slavery was joined at all points. 
 The Dred Scott decision, promulgated by the Supreme Court 
 soon after the new President was inaugurated, sustained the 
 Southerners' contention as to their rights of property so fully 
 as to justify the bitter comment upon it that it made " Slavery 
 national, Freedom sectional." The Republicans would not 
 accept the dictuni as iinal. If the Constitution must be taken 
 to support the view taken by the court, they would refuse to 
 obey the Constitution and follow the " higher law " proclaimed 
 by Seward. 
 
 The struggle over Kansas, which had begun in the first year 
 of Pierce's administration, continued under his successor until 
 early in 1861, after secession had begun, when the State was 
 admitted without slavery. The story of the contest fills one 
 of the darkest pages of American political history. It is a 
 record of perfidy and violence. The attempt to force the 
 Lecompton constitution upon the people, under the patron- 
 age of the executive department of the government, was 
 matched in baseness by the offer by Congress of a bribe to 
 the people if they would accept it. The South, struggling 
 as it was to maintain the political power of the section and 
 of its social system, and backed by the highest judicial author- 
 ity in the land, had a technical justification for every claim 
 which it put forth to the possession of Kansas as a field for 
 the extension of slavery. But, on the other hand, the moral 
 sense of the Korthern people was outraged by the effort to 
 force slavery upon an unwilling people, and by the repeated 
 violations of good faith which were resorted to in order to 
 make the attempt successful. Kansas had seven governors 
 in five years. One of them was removed because he would 
 not be made the tool of the pro-slavery party. Another, a
 
 280 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Mississippian, an ex-senator, and Secretary of the Treasury 
 during the whole of Polk's administration, resigned because 
 the President would not keep officially the pledge which he 
 had made verbally to the governor, that the people of Kansas 
 should be allowed to vote on the whole Lecompton consti- 
 tution. 
 
 The line which separated the Republican and the Demo- 
 cratic parties was broad ; but there was a great variety of 
 opinion within the ranks of each party. Even the Aboli- 
 tionists were beginning to think that an organization had 
 been formed which they could join with consistency, one 
 from which they might hope great things. There was a 
 wide difference, nevertheless, between them and the most 
 conservative Republicans, who would not go beyond a firm 
 and decided conviction that slavery could not exist in any 
 Territory in opposition either to the will of Congress or to 
 that of the people of the Territory. But while the Repub- 
 licans, being a party in opposition, could and did act together, 
 the Democrats were split into two factions. Senator Douglas, 
 who had been a leader for the South in the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise, revolted against the attempt to force 
 the Lecompton constitution upon the people of Kansas. Pub- 
 lic opinion in the North was so strong as to carry almost the 
 whole of the Democratic party of that section with him. In 
 the South he had some followers, and in the North many 
 Democrats opposed his " popular sovereignty " doctrine and 
 accepted the Southern view. The office-holders stood by the 
 administration, which opposed Douglas, with a reasonable ap- 
 prehension of the consequences of taking another course. No 
 doubt there were many men at the North who were intellec- 
 tually convinced that the constitutional position assumed in 
 defence of slavery extension was correct ; while others were 
 with the administration because it was the administration, and 
 favored the Southern view because the ascendency of slavery 
 as a political power, if secured by their assistance, would give 
 them office and standing in the party. 
 
 Since the time of Andrew Jackson the personal qualities of 
 the President had had little influence upon the course of pub- 
 lic events. But now the weakness of Mr. Buchanan encour- 
 aged the Southern extremists to press their advantage ; it made 
 possible the formation of a strong Northern faction in open 
 revolt against administration measures, and it rendered the
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 281 
 
 Republicans more resolute in their opposition to all the aggres- 
 sions of slavery. Before the President was inaugurated, many 
 of his moderate Northern supporters had hoped that he would 
 incline toward a conservative policy, and resist the extremists 
 of both sections. They saw him resign himself into the hands 
 of the slavery propagandists and work their will. It is easy to 
 see, after the event, that the conflict, which assumed the form of 
 open war soon after his term closed, was really irrepressible, 
 and that sooner or later it would have come to that, no matter 
 who had been President. Yet there can be no doubt that 
 Buchanan's lack of force hastened the war by sustaining one 
 party in its greatest pretensions, and by goading the other party 
 to more desperate resistance. 
 
 Douglas won the applause of the Republicans by his opposi- 
 tion to the administration's programme in Kansas, but he 
 soon showed that his course was not prompted by hostility 
 to slavery. He adhered to his " popular sovereignty " theories, 
 and admitted that he did not care whether slavery "was voted 
 up or voted down." The great series of debates between him 
 and Abraham Lincoln, in the canvass of 1858, each of the dis- 
 putants being the candidate of his party for the Illinois sena- 
 torship, brought out in the clearest possible light the wide 
 difference between even Douglas's Democracy and the conserv- 
 ative Republicanism of Lincoln. Incidentally, while it strength- 
 ened Douglas as the favorite of the Northern Democrats for 
 the presidency, it disclosed to the astonished eyes of the Repub- 
 licans a leader worthy to take rank with the foremost. 
 
 The four years' term of Mr. Buchanan was filled with most 
 important events, which tended to embitter politics and to pre- 
 pare men for the great civil conflict that was impending. Be- 
 side those already mentioned, the John Brown raid at Har- 
 per's Ferry was the most startling. The tragic death of 
 Senator Broderick, of California, a supporter of Douglas, in a 
 duel with an adherent of the administration, stirred the people 
 of the North profoundly. These occurrences and many others 
 which cannot even be mentioned kept the popular pulse beat- 
 ing fast, and indicated to those who could read the signs of the 
 times the profound crisis in the health of the body politic 
 which was soon to come. There were large numbers of men. 
 North and South, who observed the growing strife between the 
 two sections of the country with almost agonized sorrow. Be- 
 side the old Whigs, whom time in its rapid flight had left
 
 282 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 behind the age, and the Native Americans of the South, who 
 hated the Democrats, and yet could not join the Republican 
 party, there were hosts of well-meaning men, all over the coun- 
 try, who feared that the bitter conflict would end in war. They 
 deemed it a duty to the Union to endeavor to restore harmony. 
 In the North they feared disunion more than they feared 
 slavery ; in the South they hated disunion almost as much as 
 they hated abolition. The several elements mentioned above 
 became temporarily united in the Constitutional Union party, 
 as patriotic a party as was ever organized, but one which could 
 not succeed in its mission because the time had come when the 
 self-preservation of the South, as a political power, and the 
 moral sense of the North, demanded that the pending question 
 be settled finally and forever. 
 
 A series of momentous conventions began when the dele- 
 gates of the Democratic party assembled at Charleston, South 
 Carolina, on the 23d of April, 1860. There was a full delega- 
 tion from every State of the Union, and contesting delegations 
 appeared from New York and Illinois. In New York the 
 " hards," led by Fernando Wood, had been elected by districts"; 
 while the " softs," who were favorable to Senator Douglas, 
 were chosen by a state convention, which met at Syracuse in 
 the autumn of 1859. The two Illinois delegations were 
 respectively for and against Mr. Douglas. As soon as Mr. 
 Francis B. Flournoy, of Arkansas, had taken the chair as tem- 
 porary presiding officer of the convention, an angry debate 
 began upon the contested seats, for the national committee had 
 given tickets of admission, in each case, to the Douglas dele- 
 gates, and had shut out their opponents. 
 
 On the first day of the convention nothing was done except 
 to appoint committees. On the second day Mr. Caleb Cushing, 
 of Massachusetts, was made the permanent presiding officer ; a 
 committee on resolutions was appointed ; and it was voted not 
 to vote for candidates of the party until a platform had been 
 adopted. The third day was occupied in deciding the contests 
 for seats, — in favor of the New Y'ork " softs," and the Doug- 
 las men from Illinois. It was only on the 27th of April, the 
 fifth day of the convention, that the committee on resolutions 
 reported to the assembly a majority and two or three minority 
 sets of resolutions. Two days of fierce debate, and of numer- 
 ous propositions to amend, followed ; and, on the 28th, a motion 
 was carried to recommit the whole subject to the committee.
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 283 
 
 Later on the same day the committee reported back a series 
 of resolutions, asserting, as the previous majority report had 
 done, the extreme Southern view of the question of slavery in 
 the Territories. These resolutions were subsequently adopted 
 by the convention of seceders some months later, and will be 
 found on page 287. A minority report was presented, which, 
 although signed by less than one half of the members of the 
 platform committee, represented more than one half the elec- 
 toral votes of the whole country. Gen. Benjamin F. But- 
 ler, of Massachusetts, who throughout the convention occupied 
 an attitude peculiar to himself, presented a second minority 
 report, which consisted of the Cincinnati platform of 1856, 
 without any change whatever. Much debate, and a determined 
 effort to postpone the vote on the substitution of the minority 
 reports, followed ; but on Monday, the 30th, a vote was reached. 
 General Butler's platform was rejected, by yeas 105, nays 198. 
 The minority resolutions presented by Mr. Samuels, of Iowa, 
 were then substituted for those of the majority, by 165 to 138. 
 These resolutions were in the following terms : — 
 
 1. Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in convention 
 assembled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unani- 
 mously adopted and declared as a platform of principles by the 
 Democratic conveiition at Cincinnati in the year 1856, believing 
 that Democratic principles are unchangeable in their nature when 
 applied to the same subject-matters ; and we recommend as the 
 only further resolutions the following : — 
 
 Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party 
 as to the nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legisla- 
 ture, and as to the powers and duties of Congress, under the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, over the institution of slavery within 
 the Territories, — 
 
 2. Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the deci- 
 sions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the questions of 
 constitutional law. 
 
 3. Resolved, That it is the duty of the United States to afford 
 ample and complete protection to all its citizens, whether at home 
 or abroad, and whether native or foreign. 
 
 4. Resolved, That one of the necessities of the age, in a military, 
 commercial, and postal point of view, is speedy communication be- 
 tween the Atlantic and Pacific States ; and the Democratic party 
 pledge such constitutional government aid as will insure the con- 
 struction of a railroad to the Pacific coast at the earliest practi- 
 cable period.
 
 284 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 5. Resolved, That the Democratic party are in favor of the acqui- 
 sition of the island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable 
 to ourselves and just to Spain. 
 
 6. Resolved, That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat 
 the faithful execution of the fugitive slave law are hostile in char- 
 acter, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their 
 effects. 
 
 This series having been substituted for the majority set, the 
 several resolutions were then considered singly, and, with the 
 exception of that numbered two, which was rejected, they 
 were adopted by an almost unanimous vote. This action was 
 the signal for the withdrawal of a large number of the Southern 
 delegates. Alabama led off with a formal protest. The dele- 
 gation had been instructed not to waive the issue, and, as the 
 convention had decided against the Southern view, they had 
 no alternative but to withdraw. Mississippi, Florida, and 
 Texas followed, with their entire delegations ; and all but two 
 of those from Louisiana, all but three from South Carolina, 
 three from Arkansas, two from Delaware, and one from North 
 Carolina joined the seceders. On the next day, May 1st, 26 
 of the 33 delegates who cast the 10 votes of Georgia also with- 
 drew. This made a loss of about 45 votes out of 303. 
 
 The convention, after listening to some remarkable speeches 
 by Southern men who did not secede, voted that two thirds 
 of a full convention, that is, 202 votes, should be necessary to 
 effect a nomination. The first vote for President resulted : — 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois 145^ 
 
 R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia 42 
 
 James Guthrie, of Kentucky 35 
 
 Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee 12 
 
 Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York 7 
 
 Joseph Lane, of Oregon 6 
 
 Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut 2^ 
 
 Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi 1-^ 
 
 Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire 1 
 
 The convention took, on that and the two following days, 
 57 votes. Mr. Douglas's strength rose slowly to 152|^ on the 
 32d trial, then dropped to 151^, and remained at the same 
 point from the 36th to the 57th vote. Mr. Hunter dropped 
 slowly to 16 votes, which was his almost uniform number dur- 
 ing the last twenty trials. Mr. Guthrie, who gained most of 
 the votes lost by Mr. Hunter, reached 66| on the 39th trial,
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 285 
 
 and had 65^ on the 57th. The strength of no other candidate 
 reached 21 votes on any one of the 57 contests. The last 
 vote of this series was : for Douglas, 151^ ; Guthrie, 65i ; 
 Hunter, 16 ; Lane, 14 ; Dickinson, 4 ; Davis, 1. 
 
 On the 3d of May, the tenth day of the convention, a reso- 
 lution was adopted to adjourn to meet in Baltimore on the 
 18th of June, and that it be recommended to Democrats to fill 
 the vacancies made by the withdrawal of delegates. This re- 
 solution was carried by 195 votes to 55. The only Southern 
 votes given, on both sides of this question, were : Maryland, 
 8 ; Virginia, 15 ; North Carolina, 14 ; Kentucky, 2 ; Tennes- 
 see, 12 ; Missouri, 9 ; Arkansas, 1 ; total 61, of the 120 to 
 which the South was entitled. 
 
 Meantime the seceders from the regular convention had met 
 in another hall in Charleston, organized by the choice of Sena- 
 tor James A. Bayard, of Delaware, as president, and adopted as 
 a platform the resolutions reported by the majority of the 
 committee on resolutions of the national convention (see page 
 287). After a session of four days they adjourned to meet 
 in Richmond, Va., on the 11th of June. On reassembling 
 at that time and place, Mr. John Erwin, of Alabama, was 
 made president, and a resolution was adopted to adjourn again 
 until the 21st of the month. At the adjourned session nothing 
 was done until the 23d, when what was left of the body 
 adopted the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane, made by 
 the seceders at Baltimore, and adjourned without day. 
 
 The regular convention reassembled at Baltimore on the 
 18th of June. The president, Caleb Cushing, on taking the 
 chair, made a long address, in which he stated the condition of 
 business, the significant part of which was an intimation that 
 the adoption of the platform was subject to reconsideration. 
 The first business in order was the admission of delegates from 
 those States whose representatives had withdrawn at Charles- 
 ton. Three whole days were occupied in the settlement of 
 these questions ; for in some cases the original delegates had 
 presented themselves for readmission, and in other cases there 
 were contesting delegations. The action of the convention was 
 in most instances in favor of the delegates pledged to Mr. 
 Douglas, and accordingly, as soon as the membership of the con- 
 vention was fully decided, a portion of the Virginia delegation 
 set the example of a second secession. They were followed by 
 most of the remaining members from the Southern States, and
 
 286 A HISTORY OF THE .PRESIDENCY 
 
 by a few from the North ; and Mr. Gushing, the president, also 
 Avithdrew and resigned the chair, which was taken by Governor 
 Tod, of Ohio. The convention then proceeded to vote again 
 for a candidate for President. On the first vote Douglas re- 
 ceived 173h votes ; Guthrie 10 ; and John C. Breckinridge 5, 
 and three votes were divided among four other candidates. 
 All the Southern States combined cast but 35 votes, and 15 
 of these were given by the contesting delegates just admitted 
 to the convention. On the announcement of the result, Mr. 
 Sanford E. Church, of New York, moved a resolution that, as 
 Mr. Douglas had received two thirds of the vote given in this 
 convention, he be declared the regular nominee of the party. 
 The objection was raised that the resolution indirectly rescinded 
 the rule requiring two thirds of a full convention to effect a 
 nomination ; but the resolution was declared in order, and a 
 long debate took place iipon it. Finally it was withdrawn to 
 allow another vote to be taken, which resulted in Mr. Douglas 
 receiving 181^^- ; Mr. Breckinridge 7.^- ; and Mr. Guthrie 5.V 
 votes. The resolution of Mr. Church was then taken up and 
 passed. Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was nominated for 
 Vice-President on the first vote, with almost complete unanim- 
 ity. The following resolution, proposed from the floor, was 
 adopted with only two dissenting votes, as an addition to the 
 platform : — 
 
 Resolved, That it is in accordance with the interpretation of the 
 Cincinnati platform, that, during the existence of the Territorial 
 governments, the measure of restriction, whatever it may be, ini- 
 jiosed by the Federal Constitution on the power of the Territorial 
 legislatm-e over the subject of the domestic relations, as the same 
 has been, or shall hereafter be, finally determined by the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, should be respected by all good citi- 
 zens, and enforced with promptness and fidelity by every branch 
 of the general government. 
 
 This finished the proceedings of the convention. Mr. Fitz- 
 patrick declined the nomination for Vice-President, and Her- 
 schel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was nominated by the National 
 Committee. 
 
 Upon leaving the convention hall the seceders proceeded to 
 organize a rival convention. They were joined by some dele- 
 gates who had withdrawn from the convention at Charleston, 
 and by the excluded contesting delegates. Mr. Cushing pre- 
 sided over the convention. Twenty-one States were wholly or
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 287 
 
 partially represented, but no delegates were present from the 
 States of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
 New Jersey, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Iowa, and Wisconsin. The convention made short work. It 
 adopted the platform reported by the majority of the commit- 
 tee on resolutions of the Charleston convention, nominated 
 John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph 
 Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President, both by a unanimous vote, 
 and adjourned. The platform adopted was as follows : — 
 
 Resolved, That the platform adopted by the Democratic party 
 at Cincinnati be affirmed, with the following explanatory resolu- 
 tions : — 
 
 1. That the government of a Territory organized by an act of 
 Congress is provisional and temporary ; and, daring its existence, 
 all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with 
 their property in the Territory, without their rights, either of per- 
 son or of property, being destroyed or im]3aired by congressional 
 legislation. 
 
 2. That it is the duty of the federal government, in all its de- 
 partments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and 
 property in the Territories, and wherever else its constitutional 
 authority extends. 
 
 3. That when the settlers in a Territory, having an adequate 
 population, form a state constitution, the right of sovereignty com- 
 mences, and, being consummated by admission into the Union, 
 they stand on an equal footing with the people of other States ; and 
 the State thus organized ought to be admitted into the federal 
 Union, whether its Constitution prohibits or recognizes the institu- 
 tion of slavery. 
 
 4. That the Democratic party are in favor of the acquisition of 
 the island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable to our- 
 selves and just to Spain, at the earliest practicable moment. 
 
 5. That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat the faith- 
 ful execution of the fugitive slave law are hostile in character, sub- 
 versive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect. 
 
 6. That the Democracy of the United States recognize it as the 
 imperative duty of this government to protect the naturalized 
 citizen in all his rights, whether at home or in foreign lands, to 
 the same extent as its native-born citizens. 
 
 Whereas, One of the greatest necessities of the age, in a politi- 
 cal, commercial, postal, and military point of view, is a speedy 
 communication between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, — 
 
 Therefore be it resolved, That the Democratic party do hereby 
 pledge themselves to use every means in their power to secure the
 
 288 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 passage of some bill, to the extent of the constitutional authority 
 of Congress, for the construction of a Pacific railroad from the 
 Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable 
 moment. 
 
 .This brief and meagre summary of the proceedings of the 
 Democrats gives no idea of the intense excitement that attended 
 the sessions of the convention, nor of the breathless interest 
 with which tlie country watched its proceedings. The " irre- 
 pressible conflict " existed, even in the party which had upheld 
 the Southern cause, although that party had been already more 
 than decimated in the North by secession to the Republican 
 ranks. The two-thirds rule had wrecked the convention. The 
 party had two sets of candidates, neither of which could claim 
 regularity of nomination according to ordinary Democratic 
 usage ; and two platforms, the one supported by a majority 
 as represented in the original convention, the other expressing 
 the views of a great majority of those who could give electoral 
 votes to Democratic candidates. It was evident to every one 
 that, unless the two factions could get together on election day, 
 probably even if they were able to patch up their differences, 
 the cause was lost and a Republican triumph was assured. 
 The Republicans themselves were delighted at a situation 
 which gave them such an opportunity. The southern Demo- 
 crats sent forth emphatic warning of the course they would 
 pursue should a Republican President be chosen, and began to 
 prepare for the grim struggle. Douglas's followers maintained 
 their ground. They^had gone as far as they would go in con- 
 cession to the South. 
 
 Soon after the Charleston convention adjourned, to reassem- 
 ble in Baltimore, the Constitutional Union party held its first 
 and only general convention, at Baltimore, on the 9th of May. 
 Most of the States were represented, though not in all cases 
 by delegates duly elected in primary meetings and conventions. 
 Young as it was, the party was divided into two wings. The 
 Southerners, mostly representatives of the still surviving Na- 
 tive American sentiment, desired to nominate General Sam 
 Houston, of Texas. The old Whigs of the North did not 
 relish such a candidacy. They were adjured not to pay too 
 much attention to gentility, but to take a candidate who, 
 rough as he might be, would carry many of the southern 
 States. Although the party was, by its very name, one of 
 union, it had no sooner organized, by the choice of Washington
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 289 
 
 Hunt, of New York, as president, than it fell into a bitter 
 debate as to the manner of voting, and as to the number 
 of votes which delegations might cast. The Houston party- 
 was present in great force, and it was feared that, unless a 
 strict rule were adopted, that candidate might be thrust 
 upon the convention. When this difficulty had been sur- 
 mounted, the committee on resolutions made a report, which 
 was unanimously adopted, and the following platform was ac- 
 cepted : — 
 
 Whereas, Experience has demonstrated that platforms adopted 
 by the partisan conventions of the country have had the effect to 
 mislead and deceive the people, and at the same time to widen the 
 political divisions of the country by the creation and encourage- 
 ment of geographical and sectional parties, therefore, — 
 
 Resolved, That it is both the part of patriotism and of duty to 
 recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the 
 country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws, 
 and that, as representatives of the Constitutional Union men of the 
 country in national convention assembled, we hereby pledge our- 
 selves to maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly, 
 these great principles of public liberty and national safety, against 
 all enemies at home and abroad, believing that thereby peace may 
 once more be restored to the country, the rights of the people and 
 of the States reestablished, and the government again placed in 
 that condition of justice, fraternity, and equality which, under the 
 example and Constitution of our fathers, has solemnly bound every 
 citizen of the United States to maintain a more perfect union, 
 establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
 mon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
 of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. 
 
 Two votes only were necessary to effect a nomination of a 
 candidate for President. They resulted as follows : — 
 
 First. Second. • 
 
 John Bell, of Tennessee 68^ 138^ 
 
 Samuel Houston, of Texas 57 68 
 
 John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky .... 28 8]^ 
 
 Edward Everett, of Massachusetts ... 25 9% 
 
 John McLean, of Ohio 22 — 
 
 William A. Graham, of North Carolina . 22 18^ 
 
 William C. Rives, of Virginia 13 — 
 
 John M, Botts, of Virginia 9^ 5J 
 
 William L. Sharkey, of Mississippi ... 6 5 
 
 William L. Goggin, of Virginia .... 3 —
 
 290 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The number necessary for a choice on the second vote 
 was 127, and Mr. Bell was accordingly nominated. Edward 
 Everett, of Massachusetts, was the only person proposed as a 
 candidate for Vice-President, and he was unanimously nomi- 
 na];ed. Not a little enthusiasm was manifested over the two 
 nominations, which, if they did not insure a vigorous treat- 
 ment of the questions of the day, did certainly represent the 
 desire of the convention that the country should have union 
 and peace. 
 
 All the political interest of the country was now concen- 
 trated upon the Republican convention called to meet at 
 Chicago on the 16th of May. While the Democrats were 
 divided and discordant, and were evidently unable to unite 
 upon a platform or a candidate, the Republicans were con- 
 fident. They had been successful in every Northern State 
 in which an election Avas held, in 1859, save four : California ; 
 Oregon, where the adverse majority was only 59 ; New York, 
 where the combined vote of the Democrats and third party 
 men was less than 2000 more than that of the Republicans ; and 
 Rhode Island, where they were defeated by a fusion of all 
 the opposition. Mr. Seward was the leading candidate. A 
 large, influential, and well-organized body of delegates went 
 to Chicago with a determination to eff'ect his nomination. 
 But the party was far from being united in his support. He 
 had the bitter hostility of Horace Greeley, whose " Tribune " 
 was the most powerful newspaper organ of Republican opin- 
 ion ; but that opposition did not count for so much as did 
 the calmer and less virulent objection of a large section of 
 the party which, though not unfriendly to Mr. Seward, and 
 though grateful for his services, questioned the wisdom of 
 putting in the field a candidate whose views were so pro- 
 nounced, and whose attitude might alienate some elements 
 which needed to be conciliated. 
 
 The political conditions were so favorable that the list of 
 willing candidates was a long one. Senator Chase was hardly 
 less prominent in politics than Mr. Seward, although his sup- 
 port was neither so large nor so general as that of the New 
 York candidate. Mr. Greeley supported Edward Bates, of Mis- 
 souri. Pennsylvania presented the name of Simon Cameron, 
 for trading purposes. But it was seen early in the preliminary 
 canvass that the only man who could be pitted against Seward 
 with hope of success was the rugged " rail-splitter " of Illinois,
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 291 
 
 the champion who had not hesitated to match himself against 
 the foremost debater of the Democratic party, and had emerged 
 from the logical conflict with a reputation not inferior to that 
 of his antagonist, — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 When the convention assembled there were delegates present 
 from all the free States, also from Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
 ginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Texas, and from the Terri- 
 tories of Kansas, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia, 
 David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman, 
 and George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, the permanent presi- 
 dent. There was a contest over the standing of the delegates 
 from some of the Southern States, owing to a strong suspicion 
 that they represented nobody but themselves, and were Re- 
 publicans of the States which they claimed as their own, for 
 convention purposes only. The convention took a liberal view, 
 and allowed the delegates to retain their seats with a somewhat 
 diminished voting strength in some cases. 
 
 On the second day there was a debate over the question 
 whether a majority of the whole number of delegates, were 
 all the States of the Union fully represented, or only a ma- 
 jority of the delegates voting, should be necessary to nominate. 
 The first proposition, which would have been almost equivalent 
 to the two-thirds rule of the Democrats, was rejected by 331 
 votes to 130. 
 
 The platform was reported, amended, and adopted as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Repub- 
 lican electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in 
 discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, 
 unite in the following declarations : — 
 
 1. That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has 
 fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization 
 and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes 
 which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and 
 now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitu- 
 tional triumph. 
 
 2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the 
 Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Consti- 
 tution, — " that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed 
 by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these 
 are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that, to secure these 
 rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
 
 292 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 powers from the consent of the governed " — is essential to the 
 preservation of our republican institutions ; and that the federal 
 Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States 
 must and shall be preserved. 
 
 3. That to the union of the States this nation awes its unpre- 
 cedented increase in population, its surprising development 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 Con- 
 gress has uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often 
 made by Democratic members, without rebuke and with applause 
 from their political associates ; and we denounce those threats 
 of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, 
 as denying the vital principles of a free government, and as an 
 avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the imperative duty 
 of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and forever silence. 
 
 4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, 
 and especially the right of each State to order and control its own 
 domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is 
 essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and 
 endurance of our political fabric depends ; and we denounce the 
 lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Terri- 
 tory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of 
 crimes. 
 
 5. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded 
 our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the 
 exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its der 
 sperate exertions to force the infamous Lecomptou constitution 
 upon the protesting people of Kansas; in construing the personal 
 relation between master and servant to involve an unqualified 
 property in person ; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on 
 land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of the 
 Federal courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local inter- 
 est ; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted 
 to it by a confiding people. 
 
 6. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extrava- 
 gance which pervades every department of the federal government ; 
 that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable 
 to arrest the systematic plunder of the public treasury by favored 
 partisans ; while the recent startling developments of frauds and 
 corruptions at the Federal metropolis show that an entire change 
 of administration is imperatively demanded. 
 
 7. That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force, 
 carries slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States,
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 293 
 
 is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit pro- 
 visions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, 
 and with legislative and judicial precedent ; is revolutionary in its 
 tendency, and siibversive of the peace and harmony of the country. 
 
 8. That the normal condition of all the territory of the United 
 States is that of freedom ; that as our republican fathers, when 
 they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordaiiTfed 
 that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property with- 
 out due process of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, when- 
 ever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of 
 the Constitution against all attempts to violate it ; and we deny 
 the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any 
 individual, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of 
 the United States. 
 
 9. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave- 
 trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of 
 judicial power, as a crime against humanity, and a burning shame 
 to our countiy and age ; and we call upon Congress to take prompt 
 and efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that 
 execrable traffic. 
 
 10. That in the recent vetoes, by their federal governors, of the 
 acts of the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery 
 in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted 
 Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sovereignty, 
 embodied in the Kansas-Xebraska Bill, and a demonstration of the 
 deception and fraud involved therein. 
 
 11. That Kansas should of right be immediately admitted as a 
 State under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by her 
 people and accepted by the House of Representatives. 
 
 12. That, while pro\nding revenue for the support of the general 
 government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an 
 adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the 
 industrial interests of the whole country ; and we commend that 
 policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen 
 liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and 
 manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enter- 
 prise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. 
 
 13. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others of 
 the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the 
 free-homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or sup- 
 pliants for public bounty; and we demand the passage by Con- 
 gress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which 
 has already passed the House. 
 
 14. That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our 
 naturalization laws, or any state legislation by which the rights of
 
 294 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands 
 shall be abridged or impaired ; and in favor of giving a full and 
 efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether 
 native or naturalized, both at home and abroad. 
 
 15. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor im- 
 provements of a national character, required for the accommoda- 
 tit)n and security of oui- existing commerce, are authorized by the 
 Constitution, and justified by the obligations of government to 
 protect the lives and property of its citizens. 
 
 16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded 
 by the interests of the whole country ; that the federal govern- 
 ment ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construc- 
 tion ; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail 
 should be promptly established. 
 
 17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and 
 views, we invite the cooperation of all citizens, however differing 
 on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirm- 
 ance and support. 
 
 The second resolution as originally reported did not contain 
 the passage from the Declaration of Independence therein 
 quoted. It was proposed by Mr. Joshua R. Giddings, of 
 Ohio, to insert it in the form of a separate resolution, " that 
 we solemnly reassert the self-evident truth that all men," etc. ; 
 but the motion was defeated. Mr. George William Curtis, of 
 New York, afterward moved to insert the passage in its present 
 place, and the motion prevailed. On the third day of the con- 
 vention the names of candidates for President were formally 
 presented, but no speeches were allowed to be made by those 
 who nominated the candidates. Three votes were taken amid 
 increasing excitement, with the following result : — 
 
 Whole number of votes .... 
 
 Necessary for a choice 
 
 William H. Seward, of New York 
 Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois . . 
 Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania . 
 Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio . . . 
 Edward Bates, of Missouri 
 William L. Dayton, of New Jersey 
 
 John McLean, of Ohio 
 
 Jacob CoUamer, of Vermont . . 
 Scattering 
 
 iBt. 
 
 2d. 
 
 46.5 
 
 465 
 
 233 
 
 233 
 
 173i 
 
 184i 
 
 102 
 
 181 
 
 50i 
 
 2 
 
 49 
 
 m 
 
 48 
 
 35 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 465 
 233 
 180 
 2311 
 
 24i 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 5
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 295 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was within one and a half votes of a nomina- 
 tion when the roll-call was completed. Ohio quickly trans- 
 ferred four votes to him, and then delegation after delegation 
 changed in his favor until he had 354 in all. On motion of 
 Mr. W. M. Evarts, of New York, seconded by Mr. John A. 
 Andrew, of Massachusetts, the nomination was made unani- 
 mous with the greatest enthusiasm. 
 
 At a later session on the same day the convention voted 
 twice for a candidate for Vice-President, with this result : — 
 
 First. Second. 
 
 Haunibal Hamlin, of Maine 194 367 
 
 Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky lOli 86 
 
 John Hickman, of Pennsylvania 58 13 
 
 Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania 51 - 
 
 Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts 38^ - 
 
 Scattering 15 - 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Hamlin having been made unani- 
 mous, the convention closed its proceedings by the adoption of 
 the following resolution, offered by Mr. Giddings, of Ohio : — 
 
 Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with those men who have 
 been driven, some from their native States and others from the 
 States of their adoption, and are now exiled from their homes on 
 account of their opinions; and we hold the Democratic party 
 responsible for the gross violation of that clause of the Constitu- 
 tion which declares that citizens of each State shall be entitled to 
 all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States. 
 
 The canvass which ensued after these several nominations 
 had been made was fierce and exciting. On the part of the 
 Republicans there was a well-grounded confidence that they 
 were to be victorious. The nomination of Mr. Lincoln, like 
 that of General Harrison twenty years before, was exceedingly 
 popular with young men ; although, of course, the remark is 
 true in the later case of the young men in the Northern half 
 of the country only. The tactics which had been so efficacious 
 in the successful Whig campaigns were again resorted to, and 
 the Northern States were alive with processions, torch-light 
 parades, and mass-meetings. In the South there was a grim 
 determination to win the victory if possible, but in no event 
 to submit to defeat. The mutterings of secession and war, 
 should Mr. Lincoln be elected, were frequently heard ; the 
 supporters of the Republican party refused to believe that the 
 South would be guilty of such madness. In the Northern sec- 
 tion of the Democratic party there was an earnest effort to fuse
 
 296 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 all the elements in support of a union ticket of electors, with 
 the implied, and in some cases the expressed, agreement that 
 in case the ticket should command a majority the electoral 
 votes should be given to that candidate who should come the 
 nearest to an election. This course was pursued in the close 
 States only. Where there was no hope that fusion would give 
 the Democrats a majority, the two wings of the party had each 
 its own electoral ticket. All the planning was without avail. 
 Had there been complete fusion in every State, the Republi- 
 cans would have lost no electoral votes save those of Califor- 
 nia and Oregon. The early elections in Maine, Ohio, Indiana, 
 and Pennsylvania, to say nothing of other States where the 
 contest was not so close, foreshadowed the certain election of 
 Mr. Lincoln, and the result in November more than justified 
 the deductions from the September and October elections. 
 Every Northern State except New Jersey was carried by the 
 Republicans, and even that State gave a divided electoral vote. 
 The decision was hardly made by the people of the country 
 before the South began to carry out the threats which had 
 been only muttered before the election ; and the new Presi- 
 dent succeeded to the administration of a government which 
 was to fight for its very existence. 
 
 Thirty-three States took part in this election. Minnesota 
 had been admitted to the Union on the 11th of May, 1858, 
 and Oregon on the 12th of February, 1859. The popular and 
 electoral vote, together with the details of fusion, are given on 
 the next page. 
 
 The official record of the electoral count contains nothing of 
 interest. The proceedings were in strict accordance with pre- 
 cedent. Nevertheless a single remark made by a member of 
 the House of Representatives after the count was over indi- 
 cates the condition of affairs at the time. Some trouble had 
 been feared on the occasion of the count of votes, and no doubt 
 precautions were taken against violence at any time, and par- 
 ticularly at that time. At all events, the Southerners scented 
 hostile preparations; and Mr. Hindman, of Arkansas, suggested 
 that the committee to wait on the President-elect " be directed 
 to inform General Scott that there is no further need for his 
 janizaries about the Capitol, the votes being counted and the 
 result proclaimed." The only attention paid to the sneer was 
 in a retort from Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, that " gentlemen 
 seem to trouble themselves a good deal about General Scott 
 on all occasions." The proceedings then terminated.
 
 THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY 
 
 297 
 
 
 
 Popular Votb. 
 
 Elbctoeai, Votb. 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 £ 
 S 
 
 i 
 
 J 
 
 g 
 
 i 
 
 
 States. 
 
 8 
 
 "3) 
 
 § . 
 
 Q.2 
 
 - o 
 
 a . 
 •a >> 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 "O 
 
 1 
 
 "S 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 |i 
 
 < 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 . » 
 
 a 
 ■§ 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 la 
 
 "3) 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 a 
 
 ■c 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 Alabama .... 
 
 
 13,651 
 
 48,831 
 
 27,875 
 
 
 Arkansas . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 5,227 
 
 28,732 
 
 20,094 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 California . . 
 
 
 39,173 
 
 38,516 
 
 34,334 
 
 6,817 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 43,792 
 
 15,522 
 
 14,641 
 
 3,291 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 
 3,815 
 
 1,023 
 
 7,337 
 
 3,864 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 _ 
 
 Florida . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 367 
 
 8,543 
 
 5,437 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 11,590 
 
 51,889 
 
 42,886 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 Illinois . . 
 
 
 172,161 
 
 160,215 
 
 2,404 
 
 4,913 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana . . 
 
 
 139,033 
 
 115,509 
 
 12,295 
 
 5,306 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Iowa . . . 
 
 
 70,409 
 
 55,111 
 
 1,048 
 
 1,763 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 
 1,364 
 
 25,651 
 
 53,143 
 
 66,058 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 7,625 
 
 22,861 
 
 20,204 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 
 62,811 
 
 26,693 
 
 6,368 
 
 2,046 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 2,294 
 
 5,966 
 
 42,482 
 
 41,760 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 106,533 
 
 34,372 
 
 5,939 
 
 22,331 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . . 
 
 
 88,480 
 
 65,057 
 
 805 
 
 405 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 
 22,069 
 
 11,920 
 
 748 
 
 62 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _, 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 - 
 
 3,283 
 
 40,797 
 
 25,040 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 
 17,028 
 
 58,801 
 
 31,317 
 
 58,372 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 37,519 
 
 25,881 
 
 2,112 
 
 441 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 58,324 
 
 62,801* 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4t 
 
 3t 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New York . . 
 
 
 362,646 
 
 312,510* 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 35 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 - 
 
 2,701 
 
 48,539 
 
 44,990 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 _ 
 
 Ohio. . . . 
 
 
 231,610 
 
 187,232 
 
 11,405 
 
 12,194 
 
 23 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Oregon . . . 
 
 
 5.270 
 
 3,951 
 
 5,006 
 
 183 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 268,030 
 
 16,765 
 
 178,871* 
 
 12,776 
 
 27 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 12,244 
 
 7,707* 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 South Carolinat 
 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 11,350 
 
 64,709 
 
 69,274 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Texas . . . 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 47,548 
 
 15,438 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 33,808 
 
 8,649 
 
 1,866 
 
 217 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 1,929 
 
 16,290 
 
 74,323 
 
 74,681 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 15 
 
 Wisconsin . . . 
 
 86,110 
 
 65,021 
 
 888 
 
 161 
 
 5 
 180 
 
 12 
 
 72 
 
 - 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 
 1,866,452 
 
 1,376,957 
 
 849,781 
 
 588,879 
 
 39 
 
 * Vote for fusion tickets, t Although the Fusion ticket in New Jersey received a 
 popular majority, four of the candidates were defeated by " scratching," and four 
 Lincoln electors had a plurality, t Electora appointed by the legislature.
 
 XXII 
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 
 
 Seven of the Southern States had taken the step of seces- 
 sion before the inauguration of President Lincoln. A futile 
 attempt to save the Union was made by the Peace Convention 
 which met in Washington on February 4, 1861, at the call of 
 Virginia. Within six weeks after the attack upon Fort Sum- 
 ter, Virginia and three other '' Border " States had joined 
 their more Southern sisters. The outbreak of the war almost 
 obliterated parties. The South was eliminated from the poli- 
 tics of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Democrats 
 eagerly adopted the view expressed by Douglas, '*' There can be 
 no neutrals in this war, — only patriots and traitors." Many 
 of the War Democrats became merged in the Republican party ; 
 others retained their political independence, but cordially sup- 
 ported all the war measures of the administration, and furnished 
 to the army their due share of officers and men. There were, 
 it is true, many Democrats who offered a persistent and un- 
 relenting opposition to the war, and were querulous critics of 
 the method of its prosecution. Not all who were denounced 
 as " Southern sympathizers " were really desirous of the suc- 
 cess of disunion ; but the Northern temper was naturally in- 
 tolerant, and, exaggerating the offence of those who opposed 
 the administration, classed them all as "traitors." The fa- 
 vorite term of opprobrium was " Copperhead," the name of a 
 venomous reptile. As the war proceeded, the spirit of acqui- 
 escence in the conduct of affairs diminished greatly, and a strong 
 political opposition developed. The effective prosecution of a 
 civil war necessarily involved the use of harsh and summary 
 measures against men who were suspected of giving aid to the 
 enemy. Nevertheless the suspension of the writ of habeas 
 corpxis, and the arbitrary arrests of citizens, drove into opposi- 
 tion many men whose loyalty could not be suspected. It was 
 their misfortune that they were forced to ^lake a political alli- 
 ance with the more virulent enemies of the administration, not
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 299 
 
 a few of whom rendered themselves obnoxious to the patriotic 
 by rejoicing openly over defeats of the Union armies. The 
 opposition was also ever ready to espouse the cause of generals 
 who for any cause fell into disfavor at Washington. This 
 was especially the case with respect to General McClellan, who 
 became more and more a favorite with Democrats as the real 
 or fancied wrongs which he suffered at the hands of the Presi- 
 dent increased. In 1862 the Republican party met with many 
 reverses, the most important of which gave the great State of 
 New York to the Democrats. 
 
 The President's trials did not come from those alone who 
 regarded his acts, and those of his officers and agents, as arbi- 
 trary and tyrannical. He was beset also by an active minority 
 of his own party, who chafed at his conservatism and his un- 
 willingness to adopt the radical measures which they were per- 
 suaded would hasten the success of the Union arms. They 
 urged the enrollment of colored troops and the complete eman- 
 cipation of the slaves. Mr. Lincoln moved slowly, because 
 public sentiment was slower still. The people at large learned 
 to trust his calmness and good sense. If they did not approve 
 all his acts, they were sure of his high purpose, and they par- 
 doned much to the terrible exigency that forced him to sanc- 
 tion doubtful or objectionable measures. The firmness with 
 which he withstood the demand for emancipation, when it was 
 clamorously urged upon him, made them all the more ready to 
 accept his judgment as to the wisdom of the step when at last 
 and with deliberation he proclaimed that all the slaves within 
 the territory held by the Confederacy were thenceforth free. 
 His wisdom and strength commended him to thoughtful men, 
 and his quaint shrewdness in word and act brought him near 
 to the common people. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln neither obtrusively urged himself as a candidate 
 fGr reelection nor made any coy professions of unwillingness to 
 be chosen again. He was simply and frankly a candidate. 
 He believed that it was best for the country, in the circum- 
 stances, that he should be continued in office. It was not good 
 policy, he said, — and the phrase made the one argument which 
 in any case would have turned the scale in his favor, — " to 
 swap horses while crossing a stream." 
 
 The certainty that the Republican convention — which was 
 called on February 22, 1864, to meet in Baltimore on the 7th 
 of June — would nominate Mr. Lincoln led certain radical
 
 300 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 opponents of his administration in various parts of the country 
 to attempt to forestall its action by calling a convention to 
 meet on an earlier day at Cleveland. Several calls were pub- 
 lished, all of them inviting the people to meet in mass conven- 
 tion in that city on the 31st of May. Among the signers 
 of these calls were the Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever, of New 
 York, B, Gratz Brown, of Missouri, Lucius Robinson, of New 
 York, and other gentlemen then or since prominent in public 
 affairs. Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, and others 
 sent letters approving the objects of the convention. 
 
 In answer to these calls, about three hundred and fifty per- 
 sons met in Cleveland on the appointed day. General John 
 Cochrane, of New York, was made president. A platform was 
 adopted as follows : — 
 
 First. That the Federal Union shall be preserved. 
 
 Second. That the Constitution and laws of the United States 
 must be observed and obeyed. 
 
 Third. That the rebellion must be suppressed by force of arms, 
 and without compromise. 
 
 Fourth. That the rights of free speech, free press, and the habeas 
 corpus be held inviolate, save in districts where martial law has 
 been proclaimed. 
 
 Fifth. That the rebellion has destroyed slavery, and the Federal 
 Constitution should be amended to prohibit its reestablishment, 
 and to secure to all men absolute equality before the law. 
 
 Sixth. That integrity and economy are demanded at all times in 
 the administration of the government, and that in time of war the 
 want of them is criminal. 
 
 Seventh. That the right of asylum, except for crime and subject 
 to law, is a recognized principle of American liberty ; that any 
 violation of it cannot be overlooked, and must not go unrebuked. 
 
 Eighth. That the national policy known as the " Monroe Doc- 
 trine " has become a recognized principle, and that the establish- 
 ment of an anti-republican government on this continent by any 
 foreign power cannot be tolerated. 
 
 Ninth. That the gratitude and support of the nation are due to 
 the faithful soldiers and the earnest leaders of the Union army and 
 navy for their heroic achievements of deathless valor in defence of 
 our imperilled country and civil liberty. 
 
 Tenth. That the one-term policy for the presidency adopted by 
 the people is strengthened by the force of the existing crisis, and 
 should be maintained by constitutional amendments. 
 
 Eleventh. That the Constitution should be so amended that the 
 President and Vice-President shall be elected by a direct vote of 
 the people.
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 301 
 
 Tioelfth. That the question of the reconstruction of the rebel- 
 lious States belongs to the people, through their representatives in 
 Congress, and not to the executive. 
 
 Thirteenth. That the confiscation of the lands of the rebels, and 
 their distribution among the soldiers and actual settlers, is a mea- 
 sure of justice. 
 
 General John C. Fremont was nominated by acclamation for 
 President, and General John Cochrane, a few dissenting, for 
 Vice-President. In letters dated at New York, June 4, both gen- 
 tlemen accepted these nominations. As a manifestation of one 
 phase of the opposition to Mr. Lincoln, these proceedings and 
 those which followed are interesting ; but the candidacy of Gen- 
 eral Fremont came to nothing. On August 20 a letter was 
 addressed to him by citizens of Boston, asking him if, " in case 
 Mr. Lincoln will withdraw, you will do so," and " unite the 
 thorough and earnest friends of a vigorous prosecution of the 
 war in a new convention." The ultimate result of this move- 
 ment, although Mr. Lincoln did nothing to promote it, was the 
 withdrawal of both General Fremont and General Cochrane 
 on the 21st of September, and the union of the Republican 
 party in support of its regular candidates. 
 
 The call for the Republican national convention was worded, 
 as the calls for many of the state conventions had been, so as 
 to include in the invitation to participate in it all, of whatever 
 former party relations, who would stand by the administration 
 and its measures. It was addressed to those " who desire the 
 unconditional maintenance of the Union, the supremacy of 
 the Constitution, and the complete suppression of the existing 
 rebellion, with the cause thereof, by vigorous war, and all apt 
 and efficient means." The convention met at Baltimore, June 
 7, 1864, and was presided over temporarily by the Rev. Dr. 
 Robert J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and, as permanent pre- 
 sident, by ex-Governor William Dennison, of Ohio. The plat- 
 form was reported by Mr. Henry J. Raymond, of New York, 
 and was adopted unanimously, as follows : — 
 
 1. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citi- 
 zen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union, 
 and the permanent authority of the Constitution and laws of the 
 United States ; and that, laying aside all differences of political 
 opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a com- 
 mon sentiment and aiming at a common object, to do everything 
 in our power to aid the government in quelling by force of arms
 
 302 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to 
 the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed 
 against it. 
 
 2. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the govern- 
 ment of the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to 
 offer them any terms of peace except such as may be based upon 
 an unconditional surrender of their hostility and a return to their 
 just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States ; 
 and that we call upon the government to maintain this position, 
 and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor to the 
 complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the 
 self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor, and the undying devo- 
 tion of the American people to their country and its free institu- 
 tions. 
 
 3. Resolved, That, as slavery was the cause and now constitutes 
 the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be, always and every- 
 where, hostile to the principles of republican government, justice 
 and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation 
 from the soil of the republic ; and that, while we uphold and 
 maintain the acts and proclamations by which the government, in 
 its own defence, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil, we 
 are in favor, furthermore, of such amendment to the Constitution, 
 to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall 
 terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the 
 limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. 
 
 4. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to 
 the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy who have perilled 
 their lives in defence of their country and in vindication of the 
 honor of its flag ; that the nation owes to them some permanent 
 recognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and per- 
 manent provision for those of their survivors who have received 
 disabling and honorable wounds in the service of the country ; and 
 that the memories of those who have fallen in its defence shall be 
 held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. 
 
 5. Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, 
 the unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity with which 
 Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of unparal- 
 leled difficulty, the great duties and responsibilities of the presiden- 
 tial office ; that we approve and indorse, as demanded by the emer- 
 gency and essential to the preservation of the nation and as within 
 the provisions of the Constitution, the measures and acts which he 
 has adopted to defend the nation against its open and secret foes ; 
 that we approve, especially, the proclamation of emancipation and 
 the employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held in 
 slavery ; and that we have full confidence in his determination to
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 303 
 
 carry these and all other constitutional measures essential to the 
 salvation of the country into full and complete effect. 
 
 6. Resolved, That we deem it essential to the general welfare 
 that harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we re- 
 gard as worthy of public confidence and official trust those only 
 who cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolu- 
 tions, and which should characterize the administration of the 
 government. 
 
 7. Resolved, That the government owes to all men employed in 
 its armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protec- 
 tion of the laws of war ; and that any violation of these laws, or of 
 the usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now 
 in arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. 
 
 8. Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has 
 added so much to the wealth, development of resources, and in- 
 crease of power to this nation, — the asylum of the oppressed of 
 all nations, — should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and 
 just policy. 
 
 9. Resolved, That we are in favor of a speedy construction of the 
 railroad to the Pacific coast. 
 
 10. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemp- 
 tion of the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this 
 purpose we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the 
 public expenditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation ; 
 and that it is the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit 
 and promote the use of the national currency. 
 
 11. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the govern- 
 ment, that the people of the United States can never regard with 
 indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by 
 force, or to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any republican 
 government on the Western Continent; and that they will view 
 with extreme jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence 
 of their own country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new 
 footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by foreign mili- 
 tary force, in near proximity to the United States. 
 
 On a formal vote for a candidate for President, Mr. Lincoln 
 received all the votes of every State, except those of Missouri, 
 which were cast, in accordance with instructions, for General 
 U. S. Grant. The nomination was then made unanimous. 
 On the first ballot for a candidate for Vice-President, Andrew 
 Johnson, of Tennessee, received 200 ; Hannibal Hamlin, of 
 Maine, 150 ; Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York, 108 ; and 
 seven other candidates an aggregate of 61. Before the vote 
 was declared, a great many changes took place, and the final
 
 304 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 result was : for Johnson, 494 votes ; for Dickinson, 17 ; for 
 Hamlin, 9. Mr. Johnson was declared the candidate. 
 
 The Democratic convention met on August 29, at Chicago. 
 Ex-Governor William Bigler, of Pennsylvania, was the tempo- 
 rary president, and Governor Horatio Seymour, of New York, 
 the permanent president. The platform was reported by Mr. 
 James Guthrie, of Kentucky, as follows : — 
 
 Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will adhere with 
 unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution as the only 
 solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people, 
 and as a framework of government equally conducive to the wel- 
 fare and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern. 
 
 Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the 
 sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to 
 restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under 
 the pretence of a military necessity, or war power higher than the 
 Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every 
 part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and 
 the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, — 
 justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that 
 immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a 
 view to an idtimate convention of the States, or other peaceable 
 means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace 
 may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States. 
 
 Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authori- 
 ties of the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky, 
 Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware was a shameful violation of the 
 Constitution ; and a repetition of such acts in the approaching elec- 
 tion will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means 
 and power under our control. 
 
 Resolved, That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to 
 preserve the federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired ; 
 and they hereby declare that they consider that the administrative 
 usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by 
 the Constitution ; the subversion of the civil by military law in 
 States not in insurrection ; the arbitrary military arrest, imprison- 
 ment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where 
 civil law exists in full force ; the suppression of freedom of speech 
 and of the press ; the denial of the right of asylum ; the open and 
 avowed disregard of state rights ; the employment of unusual test 
 oaths ; and the interference with and denial of the right of the 
 people to bear arms in their defence, — are calculated to prevent a 
 restoration of the Union and the perpetuation of a government 
 deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 305 
 
 Resolved, That the shameful disregard of the administration of 
 its duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who are now, and long have 
 been, prisoners of war and in a suffering condition, deserves the 
 severest reprobation, on the score alike of public policy and com- 
 mon humanity. 
 
 Resolved, That the sympathy of the Democratic party is heart- 
 ily and earnestly extended to the soldiery of our army and the sail- 
 ors of our navy, who are and have been, in the field and on the sea, 
 under the flag of our country ; and, in the event of its attaining 
 power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard that 
 the brave soldiers and sailors of the republic have so nobly 
 earned. 
 
 On the first ballot for a candidate for President, General 
 George B. McClellan was nominated. He had been repeatedly 
 mentioned in connection with the nomination for many months, 
 and the sentiments of the Democratic party were concen- 
 trated in his favor long before the convention met. The vote 
 as first taken resulted in 174 votes for McClellan ; 38 for 
 Thomas H. Seymour, of Connecticut ; 12 for Horatio Seymour, 
 of New York ; ^ vote for Charles O'Conor, of New York ; and 
 IJ votes blank. But belore the result was announced several 
 changes were made, and the announcement was : for McClel- 
 lan, 202|- votes ; for Thomas H. Seymour, 28|^. All the votes 
 for Mr. Seymour were given by delegates from Ohio, Indiana, 
 and the " border States." The nomination of General Mc- 
 Clellan was made unanimous, on motion of Mr. Vallandigham 
 of Ohio. 
 
 The first vote for a candidate for Vice-President resulted 
 as follows : James Guthrie, of Kentucky, 65^ ; George H. 
 Pendleton, of Ohio, 55|^ ; Lazarus W. Powell, of Kentucky, 
 32^ ; George W. Cass, of Pennsylvania, 26 ; Daniel W. 
 Voorhees, of Indiana, 13 ; John D. Caton, of Illinois, 16 ; 
 Augustus C. Dodge, of Iowa, 9 ; John S. Phelps, of Missouri, 
 8 ; blank, ^ vote. On the second trial, Mr. Guthrie's name 
 having been withdrawn, the friends of all the other candidates, 
 except those of Mr. Pendleton, withdrew their names also, and 
 Mr. Pendleton was unanimously nominated. 
 
 The canvass that followed was one of great spirit. The 
 attention of the country was, it is true, earnestly fixed upon 
 the progress of the war, and it could not be greatly or for a 
 long time diverted to a political contest ; but the reelection of 
 Mr. Lincoln was regarded and treated by the Pepublicans as
 
 306 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 one of the important campaigns of the war ; and they held that 
 those who were not with them in the accomplishment of that 
 object were against the Union. They denounced the Democratic 
 platform as a base and cowardly surrender to the enemy, and 
 as an encouragement to those in arms against the old flag to 
 persevere in their hostilities until the peace party should be in 
 a position to make terms with them on the basis of a peaceable 
 secession. The Republicans had called their convention as 
 one of Union men. War Democrats took a prominent part in 
 the proceedings of that assembly, and one of them was the 
 candidate for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with JMr. Lin- 
 coln. They called upon all Union men to support the armies 
 in the field by voting down the party which would make a 
 disgraceful peace. 
 
 The Democratic platform, unpopular from its first promulga- 
 tion, became more so as the canvass proceeded. General Mc- 
 Clellan repudiated its obvious meaning in his letter of accept- 
 ance. Where the convention had demanded " a cessation of 
 hostilities with a view to an ultimate convention of the States," 
 the candidate expressed the belief that so " soon as it is clear, 
 or even probable, that our present adversaries are ready for 
 peace on the basis of the Union, we should exhaust all the 
 resources of statesmanship ... to secure such peace." The 
 convention had proclaimed " four years of failure to restore the 
 Union by the experiment of war ; " General McClellan wrote : 
 " I could not look in the face of my gallant comrades of the 
 army and navy, who have survived so many bloody battles, 
 and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice of so many of 
 our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain ; that we 
 had abandoned that Union for which we have so often perilled 
 our lives." The convention said : Peace first, and Union 
 afterward, if it can be had. General McClellan said : The 
 Union first, and then peace ; " no peace can be permanent 
 without union." The convention said that the war had been 
 a failure ; General McClellan could not look his old comrades 
 in the face and say that. 
 
 His open repudiation of the expressed sentiments of the 
 party saved to General McClellan many of the votes which 
 would otherwise have been given to Mr. Lincoln. But 
 although the party held its forces together much more gener- 
 ally than might have been expected, the plain common sense of 
 the people taught them that Mr. Lincoln was the candidate
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 
 
 307 
 
 whose election meant earnest and uncompromising war until the 
 power of the rebellion was destroyed and the Union was re- 
 stored, and they supported him. The general result was at no 
 time in doubt. 
 
 In some of the States, provision had been made, before the 
 war broke out, for taking the votes of soldiers absent from 
 their respective States with the army. Other States adopted 
 
 
 Popular Vote. 
 
 SOLDIEES 
 
 ' Vote. 
 
 Electoeal Vote. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 d 
 o 
 
 d 
 o 
 
 States. 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 2 >. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 "2 
 
 
 ^ 
 
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 S 
 
 
 S° 
 
 d ^ 
 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 
 « J3 
 
 t> 
 
 d 
 
 ^H 
 
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 a 
 
 
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 £,» 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 
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 o 
 
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 3 
 
 
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 O 
 
 13 
 
 a 
 
 I-) 
 
 ^ 
 
 California . . 
 
 62,134 
 
 43,841 
 
 2,600 
 
 237 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 44,693 
 
 42,288 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 8,155 
 
 8,767 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Illinois . . . 
 
 189,487 
 
 158,349 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana . . . 
 
 150,422 
 
 130,233 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 Iowa . ... 
 
 87,331 
 
 49,260 
 
 15,178 
 
 1,364 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Kansas . . . 
 
 14,228 
 
 3,871 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 27,786 
 
 64,301 
 
 1,194 
 
 2,823 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 Maine .... 
 
 72,278 
 
 47,736 
 
 4,174 
 
 741 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 40,153 
 
 32,739 
 
 2,800 
 
 321 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 126,742 
 
 48,745 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . . 
 
 85,352 
 
 67,370 
 
 9,402 
 
 2,959 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Minnesota . 
 
 25,060 
 
 17,375 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 72,991 
 
 31,026 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 Nevada . . . 
 
 9,826 
 
 6,594 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 2* 
 
 - 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 36,595 
 
 33,034 
 
 2,066 
 
 690 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 New Jersey . . 
 
 60,723 
 
 68,014 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 7 
 
 New York . . 
 
 368,726 
 
 361,986 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 33 
 
 - 
 
 Ohio .... 
 
 265,154 
 
 205,568 
 
 41,146 
 
 9,757 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 Oregon . . . 
 
 9,888 
 
 8,457 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania . 
 
 296,389 
 
 276,308 
 
 26,712 
 
 12,349 
 
 26 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island . 
 
 14,343 
 
 8,718 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont 
 
 42,422 
 
 13,325 
 
 243 
 
 49 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 23,223 
 
 10,457 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Wisconsin . . 
 
 79,564 
 
 6:3,875 
 
 11,372 
 
 2,458 
 
 8 
 
 ~ 
 
 Totals . . . 
 
 2,213,665 
 
 1,802,237 
 
 116,887 
 
 33,748 
 
 212 
 
 21 
 
 ** Nevada chose three electors, one of whom died before the electioB.
 
 308 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 similar provisions before the election took place. The army 
 votes for President in 1864, which were counted in canvassing 
 the returns for electors, are, in the table on the preceding page, 
 separated from the home vote. It will be seen that in no case 
 does the addition of the two change the result. 
 
 The total vote counted, including both the home and the 
 army votes, was 4,166,537, and Mr. Lincoln's plurality was 
 494,567. The army votes of Kansas and Minnesota, which 
 arrived too late to be counted, and certain votes rejected for 
 informality in Wisconsin, would have brought up the total to 
 about 4,175,000, and Mr. Lincoln's majority to a number in 
 excess of half a million. 
 
 This was the first election since the adoption of the Consti- 
 tution at which any State had deliberately neglected to appoint 
 electors. In 1864 the authority of the United States was de- 
 nied in, and complete sovereignty was claimed by the regular 
 governments of, eleven States. But in some of them there 
 had been set up rival governments, asserting their own loyalty 
 to the Union, and claiming the recognition of Congress as the 
 true government of those States. In one case, at least, the ques- 
 tion presented was a puzzling one. The consent of the State 
 of Virginia to the erection of the State of West Virginia within 
 its territory — consent which was required by the terms of 
 the Constitution — was given by one of these mushroom gov- 
 ernments. After the creation of that new State, however, 
 the territory and the population which admitted the authority 
 of this government of Virginia were so small that Congress re- 
 fused to recognize the claims of those who presented themselves 
 as senators and representatives. 
 
 Nevertheless, pretended elections had been held in Louis- 
 iana and Tennessee, and the question was evidently to be 
 pressed upon Congress whether or not the electoral votes cast 
 in those States by a handful of men, many of them mere ad- 
 venturers, were to be received. No such question had ever 
 arisen before. Never had there been offered, at the joint 
 meeting of the two Houses of Congress, a certificate of elec- 
 toral votes which it was clearly the duty of Congress to reject, 
 if Congress had any power to reject. In most such cases a 
 decision of the question whether or not the disputed votes 
 should be counted had been evaded ; but in all these instances 
 a determination either way could not affect the result. Nor 
 would the admission or the rejection of the Southern votes in
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 309 
 
 1864 change the result. But if the votes were allowed, the 
 act would be equivalent to a declaration that the governments 
 by whose authority they were given were valid and regular, 
 and such a declaration might make trouble when the time for 
 reconstruction should come. 
 
 In these circumstances, and in order to fix the status of the 
 seceded States until their governments had been duly recon- 
 structed by Congress, a joint resolution was passed by both 
 Houses in January, 1865. It was in the following words : — 
 
 Whereas, The inhabitants and local authorities of the States of 
 Vii-ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala- 
 bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee re- 
 belled against the government of the United States, and were in 
 such condition on the 8th day of November, 1864, that no valid 
 election of electors for President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, according to the Constitution and laws thereof, was held 
 therein on said day ; therefore — 
 
 Be it resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the 
 States mentioned in the preamble to this joint resolution are not 
 entitled to representation in the Electoral College for the choice of 
 President and Vice-President of the United States for the term 
 commencing on the 4th day of March, 1865, and no electoral votes 
 shall be received or counted from said States concerning the choice 
 of President and Vice-President for said term of office. 
 
 The President was committed to the validity and regularity 
 of the governments of Louisiana and Tennessee. A state 
 government was in full operation in Louisiana, with Governor 
 Hahn at its head, and the election in Tennessee had been 
 ordered by Governor Andrew Johnson, Mr. Lincoln's asso- 
 ciate on the ticket. Accordingly, the President was earnestly 
 opposed to the resolution just recited, which virtually declared 
 the invalidity of governments which he recognized, although 
 Congress did not. But the Eepublicans in Congress were 
 resolved that the votes should not be counted, and they de- 
 termined that if they could not exclude Louisiana and Ten- 
 nessee by law, they would do so by joint action of the two 
 Houses in counting the vote. Owing to a fear that the Presi- 
 dent would not sign the joint resolution, the " twenty-second 
 joint rule," which played an important part during the six- 
 teen years it was in force, was hastily drawn and as hastily 
 adopted by both branches. At the same time great pressure
 
 310 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 was brought to bear upon the President to approve the joint 
 resolution. He finally yielded on the day the count was to take 
 place, February 8, but not in time formally to notify Congress 
 that he had done so. The joint rule, which would have been 
 unnecessary if he had signed the resolution promptly, and 
 which was to make much mischief in after years, served the 
 same purpose. It was as follows : — 
 
 The two Houses shall assemble in the hall of the House of 
 Representatives at the hour of one o'clock p. m., on the second 
 Wednesday in February next succeeding the meeting of the electors 
 of President and Vice-President of the United States, and the 
 President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer. One teller 
 shall be appointed on the part of the Senate, and two on the part 
 of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they 
 are opened by the President of the Senate, the certificates of the 
 electoral votes ; and said tellers, having read the same in the pre- 
 sence and hearing of the two Houses then assembled, shall make 
 a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates ; 
 and the votes having been counted, the result of the same shall be 
 delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon an- 
 nounce the state of the vote and the names of the persons, if any, 
 elected ; which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declara- 
 tion of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the 
 United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on 
 the journals of the two Houses. 
 
 If, upon the reading of any such certificate by the tellers, any 
 question shall arise in regard to counting the votes therein certi- 
 fied, the same having been stated by the presiding officer, the Sen- 
 ate shall thereupon withdraw, and said question shall be submitted 
 to that body for its decision ; and the Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives shall, in like manner, submit said question to the 
 House of Representatives for its decision ; and no question shall be 
 decided affirmatively, and no vote objected to shall be counted, ex- 
 cept by the concurrent votes of the two Houses, which being 
 obtained, the two Houses shall immediately reassemble, and the 
 presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question 
 submitted, and upon any such question there shall be no debate in 
 either House ; and any other question pertinent to the object for 
 which the two houses are assembled may be submitted and deter- 
 mined in like manner. 
 
 At such joint meeting of the two Houses, seats shall be provided 
 as follows : for the President of the Senate, the Speaker's chair ; for 
 the Speaker, a chair immediately upon his left; for the senators, in 
 the body of the hall, upon the right of the presiding officer ; for the
 
 LINCOLN RE-ELECTED 311 
 
 representatives, in the body of the hall not occupied by the sena- 
 tors ; for the tellers, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House 
 of Representatives, at the Clerk's desk ; for the other officers of the 
 two Houses, in front of the Clerk's desk, and upon either side of 
 the Speaker's platform. 
 
 Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the electoral 
 votes are all counted and the result declared ; and no recess shall 
 be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting 
 any of such votes, in which case it shall be competent for either 
 House, acting separately, in the manner hereinbefore provided, 
 to direct a recess, not beyond the next day at the hour of one 
 o'clock p. M. 
 
 The power assumed by Congress in the adoption of this 
 joint resolution has frequently been assailed as an invention 
 of the Republican party, and as a power never before asserted. 
 But by reference to the proceedings in Congress in the year 
 1800 (p. 64 et seq.), it will be seen that a bill making per- 
 manent provision for counting the electoral vote failed only 
 because the Senate then insisted that either branch of Congress 
 might reject a vote, while the House of Representatives main- 
 tained that it should be rejected only by a concurrent vote. 
 The act of 1887, which is now in force, permits the rejection 
 of the vote of a State by concurrent action of both branches. 
 
 On the 8th of February the joint meeting was held. The 
 Vice-President, Mr. Hamlin, presided. The votes were opened 
 by him and read by the tellers. When all the returns had 
 been read, and the result was about to be declared, Senator 
 Cowan of Pennsylvania inquired if there were any more re- 
 turns to be counted, and if so, " why they are not submitted 
 to this body in joint convention, which alone is capable of 
 determining whether they should be counted or not." The 
 Vice-President replied : — 
 
 The chair has in his possession returns from the States of Louis- 
 iana and Tennessee, but, in obedience to the law of the land, the 
 chair holds it to be his duty not to present them to the conven- 
 tion. 
 
 Senator Cowan thereupon asked if the joint resolution had 
 become a law by the signature of the President, to which the 
 Vice-President responded that it had been signed, but there 
 had been no official notification of the act. A debate ensued 
 upon the question whether the proceedings should have been 
 had under the joint resolution or under the joint rule. The
 
 312 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Vice-President ultimately acted under the resolution, and did 
 not present the doubtful votes. The election of Abraham 
 Lincoln, of Illinois, as President, and of Andrew Johnson, of 
 Tennessee, as Vice-President, for the term commencing March 
 4, 1865, was then proclaimed, and the joint convention was 
 dissolved.
 
 XXIII 
 
 GENERAL GRANT 
 
 Events moved rapidly between the time of Mr. Lincoln's 
 election and that of his entering upon his second term. The 
 South was exhausted by the struggle, and its army was hemmed 
 in on all sides. Although, in his second inaugural address, " no 
 prediction is ventured " as to the issue of the war, it was be- 
 lieved that the civil war was virtually at an end, and already 
 plans of " reconstruction " were much discussed. No one was 
 in favor of restoring to power, or of leaving in power, those 
 who had governed the States while they were in insurrection. 
 Nevertheless there was room for a wide diversity of opinion 
 as to the extent to which the disfranchisement of the former 
 voters in those States should be carried. Mr. Lincoln's own 
 views were much more liberal than those of most of the 
 Northern statesmen. There was even some apprehension of 
 a political conflict between him and Congress. Six weeks 
 after the inauguration the President was assassinated, and 
 Andrew Johnson became President. A man could not have 
 been found less fitted than he to enter into the plans of those 
 who, having determined the policy of the country during the 
 war, were resolved that the fruits of the war should be se- 
 cured. Compliance was not in his nature. He lacked that 
 characteristic of greatness which enables strong popular leaders 
 to persuade their followers to support measures which their 
 judgment does not approve. Jackson dragged his party after 
 him in his attack on the Bank, and ultimately inspired them 
 with such zeal for the war that his conduct in that aifair has 
 been held up for popular applause for more than half a cen- 
 tury after the conflict ended. Yet it was not praiseworthy 
 in its motive, in its conduct, or in its results. Lincoln would 
 probably have carried his liberal policy, in spite of Thaddeus 
 Stevens, Senator Ben Wade, and all the radicals, because the 
 people believed in Lincoln, in his motives, and in his wis- 
 dom. They saw, and history sees, in President Johnson much
 
 314 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 obstinacy, little wisdom, and no tact. But a combination of 
 circumstances alienated him, almost at the beginning of his 
 administration, from those to whom he owed his election, and 
 made him a more strenuous opponent of the conditions de- 
 vised by their leaders for the readmission of the southern 
 States than Mr. Lincoln could eeer have been. 
 
 The four years of Mr. Johnson's administration were a 
 period scarcely less agitated than the four years which pre- 
 ceded secession. Civil war between the two sections. North 
 and South, was succeeded by war, bloodless but severe, be- 
 tween the executive and legislative departments of the govern- 
 ment. Mr. Johnson's training had been that of a southern 
 state-rights Democrat ; and although his patriotism was strong 
 enough to keep him loyal when Tennessee voted herself out of 
 the Union, no sooner was the military conquest of the Southern 
 Confederacy accomplished than his former principles reasserted 
 themselves. The more radical Republicans of the North, 
 remembering the experience of the Whigs with Mr. Tyler, 
 were only too ready to see evidence that he was to betray the 
 party in all that Mr. Johnson did. They began to suspect 
 him and to criticise him unpleasantly upon the appearance of 
 his first proclamations. They feared the worst when he made 
 known his selection of provisional governors of the seceded 
 States. Little by little his adherence to his lifelong political 
 principles, and the unnecessarily persistent and violent oppo- 
 sition of the radical Republicans, widened the breach ; and at 
 last he found himself in full sympathy with the Democratic 
 party. 
 
 The chief cause of the difference between President and 
 Congress was the extra-constitutional position in which the 
 seceded States were left when armed hostility to the Union 
 was extinguished. War had been waged against them, or 
 rather against their inhabitants, upon the theory that a State 
 had no right to secede. The logical sequence of this proposi- 
 tion was that, since no State had seceded, the " States lately 
 in rebellion," as the phrase ran, were still members of the 
 Union ; and that their laws and acts, so far as they were not 
 contrary to the Constitution of the United States, were in full 
 force. Under this view of the case the white men of the 
 South, and they alone, would be entitled to reestablish rela- 
 tions with the other States, to send senators and members to 
 Congress, and, in short, to resume the position which they had
 
 GENERAL GRANT 315 
 
 abandoned in 1861, suffering no political penalty whatever for 
 their attempt to dissolve the Union. 
 
 It need not be said that not even the most moderate Repub- 
 licans allowed the theory of the indissoluble nature of the 
 Union to overcome the practical necessity of imposing condi- 
 tions to the reinstatement of the South in that Union. The 
 President's views, to which he referred as " my policy," were 
 that the States were already restored to their old position 
 when they chose to exercise their right by the election of 
 senators and members. Congress rejected this policy abso- 
 lutely, and, by a series of measures known as the reconstruc- 
 tion acts, required the southern States to abjure all the princi- 
 ples for which they had contended on the field of battle. The 
 States were placed under military governors until they should 
 have complied with the conditions of readmission. Thorough 
 revision of the state constitutions was required ; the assent of 
 the States to the amendments to the Constitution of the United 
 States was also a necessary preliminary to restoration. The 
 enfranchisement of the negroes, and the disfranchisement of 
 those who had been in arms against the Union, deprived the 
 former ruling class of its privileges. These measures and 
 others, some of which were subsequently declared unconstitu- 
 tional by the Supreme Court, made almost every southern 
 State Republican by the simple expedient of excluding the 
 Democrats who had participated in the war against the Union 
 from the exercise of the elective franchise. 
 
 Congress carried through its measures of reconstruction only 
 by overcoming a succession of vetoes. The President expressed 
 his constitutional views, which were shared by no Republicans, 
 in returning the bills : " to provide for the more efficient govern- 
 ment of the rebel States," to establish the Freedmen's Bureau, 
 to secure civil rights, to admit Colorado and Nebraska to the 
 Union, and many others. He tried to remove Republicans 
 from office, and to fill their places with Democrats ; and Con- 
 gress retorted upon him with the tenure-of -office bill, which 
 Mr. Johnson returned without his signature, and which Con- 
 gress promptly passed over the veto. By this act the power 
 of removal, always previously conceded to the President, was 
 denied, and the consent of the Senate to the removal was 
 required. The savage contest with Secretary Stanton, whom 
 the President was resolved to remove from the war office and 
 from the cabinet, his correspondence with General Grant, the
 
 316 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 disrespectful manner in which he spoke of Congress in 
 " swinging round the circle," — all these events aggravated a 
 contest which culminated in the impeachment of the President 
 by tlie House of Representatives and his trial by the Senate. 
 During all this time the Republicans in Congress were strongly 
 supported in the North, which then, constitutionally or not, 
 governed the country without assistance from the South. The 
 resolution that the long struggle against rebellion should not be 
 fruitless was firm and unchangeable, and the Republicans had 
 the satisfaction of seeing all their measures adopted, ineffectual 
 as some of them have since proved to be. 
 
 During this period another set of questions began to be dis- 
 cussed, and some of them Avere to be the basis of a new party 
 and of a new school of politicians, and to form the issue on 
 which future elections were to be decided. In the prosecution 
 of the war a great debt had been created, and a part of this 
 debt consisted of treasury notes, made a legal tender for all 
 public and private debts, except duties on imports and the 
 interest of the public debt. An attempt in the early part of 
 Mr. Johnson's term to reduce the amount of legal-tender notes, 
 or greenbacks, outstanding, had resulted in a temporary strin- 
 gency in the money market, and had led to action by Congress 
 which forbade a further reduction of the volume of the cur- 
 rency. The heavy taxation caused by the war, the high pre- 
 mium on gold, and the rapidly increasing value of government 
 bonds which were drawing gold interest, induced some politicians 
 to propose a variety of schemes which would lighten the burden 
 of the taxpayer at the cost of a virtual breach of faith on the 
 part of the government. One of the propositions was the taxa- 
 tion of bonds, which were by their terras expressly exempted 
 from state and municipal taxation. Taxation of them by 
 national avithority would have been the same thing as reducing 
 the rate of interest which had been promised upon them. The 
 most popular form of attack upon the bondholders was a 
 proposition to pay the principal of the bonds in greenbacks. 
 The letter of the law did not forbid this, but the Republicans 
 maintained that the spirit of the law was against it, and that 
 it would be virtual repudiation. A large number of Demo- 
 crats, particularly in the West, took up this proposition with 
 great enthusiasm. One of the most prominent among them 
 was Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, who had been General McClel- 
 lan's associate on the national ticket in 1864, and was now
 
 GENERAL GRANT 317 
 
 regarded as the leading candidate for the first place in 1868. 
 While this view of public policy was most prevalent among 
 Democrats, there were many Republicans also who shared 
 it. Thaddeus Stevens was the most conspicuous example of 
 dissent from the general opinion of the party, yet even he 
 finally voted in favor of a bill to strengthen the public credit, 
 which President Johnson defeated by a '' pocket veto." It 
 was in the canvass preliminary to the election of 1868 that 
 the Democrats first manifested that preference for the green- 
 back currency which continued to be a principle of the con- 
 trolling wing of the party until it transferred its affections to 
 silver. 
 
 A great many circumstances united to make Greneral Ulysses 
 S. Grant the natural and inevitable choice of the Republicans 
 for a candidate for President. The chief of these reasons were 
 his military success, and the conspicuous position into which he 
 was thrust by the controversy with Mr. Johnson. But added 
 to these recommendations Avas the confidence reposed in his 
 judgment in the choice of men ; and the fact that he was no 
 politician increased not a little his popularity with the people, 
 who were tired of the wrangles of the past few years. Gen- 
 eral Grant, it was well known, had never voted for Republi- 
 can candidates in his life. There were many persons who 
 feared that the risk was too great in taking for the leader of 
 the party, at such a time, a man whose political principles were 
 thought not to be well defined, and that the Republicans might 
 be about to repeat their own mistake of 1864. But nothing 
 could stay the tide of public sentiment in Greneral Grant's 
 favor, and the warnings of the dissentients were drowned 
 in the nearly universal demand that he should be selected. 
 The wisest and most cautious men of the party convinced 
 themselves by General Grant's letters and private conversation 
 that he was fully to be trusted, and their confidence was not 
 misplaced. 
 
 The question of the candidacy for the first place being fully 
 decided by the action of the state and district conventions, as 
 well as by popular sentiment, all the interest in the Republi- 
 can convention was concentrated upon the vice-presidency and 
 the platform. The vote of the Senate upon the impeachment 
 of the President had been taken the week before the conven- 
 tion met. Inasmuch as several Republican senators had voted 
 for acquittal on the eleventh article, which had been taken for
 
 318 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 a test, some of the more radical and impulsive delegates were 
 in favor of expressing decided condemnation of the act which 
 had rendered the removal of the President impossible. In 
 spite of the vehemence of the more hot-headed members of 
 the party, the proposed action was defeated, and the conven- 
 tion contented itself with expressing the opinion that those 
 who voted for conviction were in the right. 
 
 There was a long list of candidates for the nomination for 
 Vice-President, including Mr. Hamlin, who had been left off 
 the ticket four years before in order to give a representation to 
 the loyalty of the South ; Mr. Benjamin F. Wade, senator 
 from Ohio, who was President of the Senate during a part of 
 the time that the war between the President and Congress was 
 waging ; Mr. Colfax, the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives ; Senators Fen ton, of New York, and Wilson, of Massa- 
 chvisetts. Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, and other candi- 
 dates of less prominence. 
 
 Prior to the meeting of the national convention of the 
 Republicans, a convention of soldiers and sailors was held at 
 Chicago. It was presided over by General John A. Logan, and 
 was full of enthusiasm for General Grant. The Republican 
 convention met on May 20 at Chicago, and completed its work 
 in two days. General Carl Schurz was the temporary pre- 
 siding officer, and General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut, 
 was made permanent president. The first day was occupied 
 with preliminaries. On the morning of the second day the 
 committee on resolutions reported a platform, which was 
 adopted. Two additional resolutions were afterwards appended 
 to the platform, having been moved from the floor by Mr. 
 Schurz, and unanimously approved. The platform in full was 
 as follows : — 
 
 The National Republican party of the United States, assembled 
 in national convention in the city of Chicago, on the twenty-first 
 day of May, 1868, make the following declaration of principles : — 
 
 1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the 
 reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in 
 the majority of the States lately in rebellion, of constitutions 
 securing equal civil and political rights to all ; and it is the duty 
 of the government to sustain those institutions, and to prevent the 
 people of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. 
 
 2. The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men 
 at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety,
 
 GENERAL GRANT 319 
 
 of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained ; while the 
 question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the 
 people of those States. 
 
 3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime ; 
 and the national honor requires the payment of the public indebt- 
 edness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and 
 abroad, not only according to the letter, but the spirit of the laws 
 under which it was contracted. 
 
 4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be 
 equalized, and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 
 
 5. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preserva- 
 tion of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a 
 fair period for redemption; and it is the duty of Congress to 
 reduce the rate of interest thereon whenever it can be honestly 
 done. 
 
 6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is so to 
 improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at 
 lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay> 
 so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threat- 
 ened or suspected. 
 
 7. The government of the United States should be administered 
 with the strictest economy; and the corruptions which have been 
 so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly 
 for radical reform. 
 
 8. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of 
 Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession to the presidency of 
 Andrew Johnson, who has acted treacherously to the people who 
 elected him and the cause he was pledged to support; who has 
 usurped high legislative and judicial functions ; who has refused 
 to execute the laws ; who has used his high office to induce other 
 officers to ignore and violate the laws ; who has employed his ex- 
 ecutive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, the 
 liberty and life of the citizen ; who has abused the pardoning 
 power ; who has denounced the national legislature as unconstitu- 
 tional ; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by every means 
 in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction of the 
 States lately in rebellion ; who has perverted the public patronage 
 into an engine of wholesale corruption ; and who has been justly 
 impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pro- 
 nounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five senators. 
 
 9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, 
 that because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be 
 resisted at every hazard by the United States as a relic of feudal 
 times, not authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our 
 national honor and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled
 
 320 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 to protection in all their rights of citizenship, as though they were 
 native born ; and no citizen of the United States, native or natural- 
 ized, must be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign 
 power for acts done or words spoken in this country ; and, if so 
 arrested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the government to inter- 
 fere in his behalf. 
 
 10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there 
 were none entitled to more special honor than the brave soldiers 
 and seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, 
 and imperilled their lives in the service of the country ; the boun- 
 ties and pensions provided by the laws for these brave defenders of 
 the nation are obligations never to be forgotten ; the widows and 
 orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people, — a sacred 
 legacy bequeathed to the nation's protecting care. 
 
 11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much 
 to the wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power 
 to this republic, — the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, — 
 should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. 
 
 12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with aU oppressed 
 peoples struggling for their rights. 
 
 13. We highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbear- 
 ance with which men who have served in the rebellion, but who 
 now frankly and honestly cooperate with us in restoring the peace 
 of the country and reconstructing the southern state governments 
 upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received 
 back into the communion of the loyal people ; and we favor the 
 removal of the disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the 
 late rebels in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die 
 out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people. 
 
 14. We recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal 
 Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic 
 government ; and we hail with gladness every effort toward mak- 
 ing these principles a living reality on every inch of American 
 soil. 
 
 When the convention was ready to proceed with its nomina- 
 tions, General Logan presented the name of General Grant in 
 a brief but stirring speech, and, the roll of the States being 
 called, every vote — 650 in all — was given to him. While 
 the enthusiasm of the convention was at its height, a large 
 portrait of General Grant was uncovered behind the president's 
 chair, and the delegates again went wild with cheering. Five 
 votes were necessary to effect a nomination for the second place 
 on the ticket. The result of the several votes is shown in the 
 following table : —
 
 GENERAL GRANT 
 
 321 
 
 
 Ist. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 4th. 
 
 5th. 
 
 Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio . . 
 Reuben E. Fenton, New Torlc 
 Henry Wilson, Massachusetts . 
 Schuyler Colfax, Indiana . . 
 Andiew G. Curtin, Pennsylvania 
 Hannibal Hamlin, Maine . . 
 James Speed, Kentucky . . . 
 James Harlan, Iowa .... 
 John A. J. CresweU, Maryland 
 Samuel C. Pomeroy, Kansas . 
 William D. Kelley, Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 
 
 147 
 
 126 
 
 119 
 
 115 
 
 51 
 
 28 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 170 
 144 
 114 
 145 
 45 
 30 
 
 178 
 139 
 101 
 165 
 40 
 25 
 
 206 
 
 144 
 
 87 
 
 186 
 
 25 
 
 38 
 69 
 
 541 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Colfax, the youngest candidate of 
 all, was made unanimous, and the convention adjourned. 
 
 The Democratic convention was called to meet at Tammany 
 Hall, New York, on the fourth of July. Democratic soldiers 
 and sailors were invited to meet on the same day, also in New 
 York. The interest centred wholly in the nomination of a can- 
 didate for the presidency, and it was from the first a contest of 
 " the field " against Mr. Pendleton. Other candidates had strong 
 supporters. The sentiment in the soldiers' convention was 
 all in favor of General Winfield S. Hancock, who commended 
 himself to those who had favored the war by his own gallant 
 services, and to Democrats by his action as military commander 
 at New Orleans during Mr. Johnson's administration. The 
 Southern delegations were at least outwardly for Mr. Johnson 
 himself. There was an undercurrent in favor of Chief Justice 
 Chase. Most of the delegates from the Eastern States were 
 not bound by instructions, and were prepared to support any 
 candidate — except perhaps Mr. Pendleton — who seemed to 
 have a chance of success. 
 
 Meantime, the Northwest was strong for Mr. Pendleton, 
 though, as the event proved, the feeling was not deep. A 
 day or two before the convention a body of three hundred 
 men — the " Pendleton Escort " — arrived from Ohio, and 
 marched through New York, each man wearing, pinned to 
 his breast, a flag on which was a representation of a five-dollar 
 greenback, and an inscription demanding the payment of the 
 five-twenty bonds in that currency. 
 
 The fourth of July fell on Saturday. The convention 
 organized by the choice of Henry S. Palmer, of Wisconsin, as 
 temporary chairman. Governor Horatio Seymour, of New 
 York, was permanent president. The convention was from the
 
 322 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 first extremely suspicious of the Pendleton men. A motion 
 that the rules of the national House of Representatives be the 
 rules of the convention was offered, and voted down because 
 it was proposed by an Ohio man, and because of a fear that it 
 might mean an abrogation of the two-thirds rule. The two- 
 thirds rule was adopted without opposition. On the first day 
 the supporters of Mr. Pendleton were in favor of prompt work, 
 that a ballot might be taken before their opponents could 
 have an opportunity to concentrate ; but they were defeated, 
 and the convention adjourned until Monday. Afterward the 
 Pendleton men were in favor of all possible delay, and on 
 Monday they " filibustered " to retard the progress of business. 
 It was not until Tuesday that the committee on resolutions 
 was ready to report. The platform was unanimously reported 
 and unanimously adopted, as follows : — 
 
 The Democratic party, in national convention assembled, repos- 
 ing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating jus- 
 tice of the people, standing upon the Constitution as the foundation 
 and limitation of the powers of the government, and the guarantee 
 of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of sla- 
 very and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by 
 the war, or the voluntary action of the Southern States in consti- 
 tutional conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or re- 
 agitated, do, with the return of peace, demand, — 
 
 1. Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the 
 Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the 
 American people. 
 
 2. Amnesty for all past political offences, and the regulation of 
 the elective franchise in the States by their citizens. 
 
 3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly 
 as practicable ; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, 
 except so much as is requisite for the necessities of the govern- 
 ment, economically administered, being honestly applied to such 
 payment, and where the obligations of the government do not 
 expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were 
 issued does not provide, that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, 
 in right and injustice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United 
 States. 
 
 4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its 
 real value, including government bonds and other public securities. 
 
 6. One currency for the government and the people, the laborer 
 and the office-holder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and 
 the bondholder. 
 
 6. Economy in the administration of the government ; the re-
 
 GENERAL GRANT 323 
 
 duction of the standing army and navy ; the abolition of the freed- 
 men's bureau, and all political instrumentalities designed to secure 
 negro supremacy ; simplification of the system, and discontinuance 
 of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue, 
 so that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened ; the 
 credit of the government and the currency made good ; the repeal 
 of all enactments for enrolling the state militia into national forces 
 in time of peace ; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, 
 and such equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will 
 afford incidental protection to domestic manufacturers, and as will, 
 without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon, and 
 best promote and encourage, the great industrial interests of the 
 country. 
 
 7. Reform of abuses in the administration, the expulsion of cor- 
 rupt men from office, the abrogation of useless ofiices, the resto- 
 ration of rightful authority to, and the independence of, the execu- 
 tive and judicial departments of the government, the subordination 
 of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations 
 of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease. 
 
 8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born 
 citizens, at home and abroad ; the assertion of American national- 
 ity which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and fur- 
 nish an example and encouragement to peoples struggling for 
 national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights, 
 and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against 
 the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance, and the claims of 
 foreign powers to punish them for alleged crime committed be- 
 yond their jurisdiction. 
 
 In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the Radical 
 party for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and 
 tyranny which have marked its career. 
 
 After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of 
 Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of 
 the government and the preservation of the Union under the Con- 
 stitution, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under 
 which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried 
 our flag to victory. Instead of restoring the Union it has, so far as 
 in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in the time of 
 profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has 
 nullified there the right of trial by jury ; it has abolished the habeas 
 corpus, that most sacred writ of liberty ; it has overthrown the free- 
 dom of speech and the press ; it has substituted arbitrary seizures 
 and arrests, and military trials and secret star-chamber inquisi- 
 tions, for the constitutional tribunals ; it has disregarded, in time 
 of peace, the right of the people to be free from searches and seiz-
 
 324 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ures ; it has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even the 
 private rooms of individuals, and seized their private papers and 
 letters without any specific charge or notice or affidavit, as required 
 by the organic law ; it has converted the American Capitol into a 
 bastille ; it has established a system of spies and official espionage 
 to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to 
 resort ; it has abolished the right of appeal, on important consti- 
 tutional questions, to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threat- 
 ened to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irre- 
 vocably vested by the Constitution ; while the learned chief justice 
 has been subjected to the most atrocious calumnies, merely because 
 he would not prostitute his high office to the support of the false 
 and partisan charges preferred against the President. Its corrup- 
 tion and extravagance have exceeded anything known in history, 
 and, by its frauds and monopolies, it has nearly doubled the burden 
 of the debt created by the war. It has stripped the President of 
 his constitutional power of appointment, even of his own cabinet 
 Under its repeated assaults the pillars of the government are rock- 
 ing on their base, and should it succeed in November next, and 
 inaugurate its President, we will meet, as a subjected and con- 
 quered people, amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered frag- 
 ments of the Constitution. 
 
 And we do declare and resolve that, ever since the people of the 
 United States threw off all subjection to the British crown, the 
 privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, 
 and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the 
 political power of each State respectively, and that any attempt by 
 Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this 
 right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of 
 power, which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and, if sanc- 
 tioned by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can 
 only end in a single centralized and consolidated government, in 
 which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, 
 and unqualified despotism be established in place of a federal Union 
 of coequal States. And that we regard the reconstruction acts (so 
 called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations, and unconstitutional, 
 revolutionary, and void. 
 
 That our soldiers and sailors, who carried the flag of our country 
 to victory against a most gallant and determined foe, must ever be 
 gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor 
 must be faithfully carried into execution. 
 
 That the public lands should be distributed as widely as possible 
 among the people, and should be disposed of either under the pre- 
 emption or homestead laws, or sold in reasonable quantities, and 
 to none but actual occupants, at the minimum price established by
 
 GENERAL GRANT 
 
 325 
 
 the government. When grants of the public lands may be allowed, 
 necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, 
 the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, 
 should be so applied. 
 
 That the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, in 
 exercising the powers of his high office in resisting the aggressions 
 of Congress upon the constitutional rights of the States and the 
 people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, 
 and in behalf of the Democratic party we tender him our thanks 
 for his patriotic efforts in that regard. 
 
 Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal to every patriot, 
 including all the conservative element and all who desire to sup- 
 port the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past dif- 
 ferences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle 
 for the liberties of the people ; and that to all such, to whatever 
 party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right 
 hand of fellowship, and hail all such cooperating with us as 
 friends and brethren. 
 
 To this platform two additional resolutions were subsequently 
 appended, on motion, as follows : — 
 
 Resolved, That this convention sympathize cordially with the 
 workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the 
 rights and interests of the laboring classes of the country. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the convention are tendered to 
 Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase for the justice, dignity, and im- 
 partiality with which he presided over the court of impeachment 
 on the trial of President Andrew Johnson. 
 
 Voting for a candidate then began, and continued until 
 Thursday. The whole number of votes — each delegate hav- 
 ing one half a vote — was 317 ; and 212, two thirds of the 
 whole, were necessary for a choice. A few only of the twenty- 
 two separate trials are necessary to show the increase and de- 
 crease of strength of the respective candidates : — 
 
 George H. Pendleton, Ohio . , . 
 Andrew Johnson, Tennessee . . 
 Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania 
 Sanford E. Church, New York . . 
 Asa Packer, Pennsylvania . . . 
 Joel Parker, New Jersey .... 
 James E. English, Connecticut 
 James R. Doolittle, Wisconsin . . 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana 
 Salmon P. Chase, Ohio .... 
 A.11 others 
 
 Ist. 
 
 8th. 
 
 16th. 
 
 18th. 
 
 19th. 
 
 105 
 
 156i 
 
 107^ 
 
 56i 
 
 
 65 
 
 6 
 
 5^ 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 33i 
 
 28 
 
 113^ 
 
 144i 
 
 135^ 
 
 33 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 3^ 
 
 _ 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 2* 
 
 75 
 
 70i 
 
 87 
 
 im 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 * 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 
 i 
 
 ~ 
 
 H 
 
 33 
 
 5 
 135i 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 132 
 
 i
 
 326 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Great excitement had prevailed during the voting. On 
 Beveral occasions, delegates from States which had instructed 
 their members to vote " as a unit," insisted upon their right 
 to a record of their individual votes, but it was uniformly de- 
 cided that the delegations as a whole were empowered to decide 
 how the votes should be cast, and that only one spokesman from 
 a State could be heard. There was much intriguing during 
 the three days of voting. The New York and Pennsylvania 
 delegations, with a combined vote of 59, assisted by the dele- 
 gations from other Eastern States, prevented a nomination 
 more than once by abandoning candidates, whose strength was 
 increasing, when they were becoming too dangerous. On the 
 twenty-lirst vote the contest was apparently narrowed down to 
 Hancock and Hendricks, neither of whom was acceptable to 
 New York. At this point a sensation was created. When 
 the votes of a few States had been recorded at the twenty- 
 second trial, some votes were given to Horatio Seymour, the 
 president of the convention. Mr. Seymour promptly refused 
 to be a candidate, but there was a hurried consultation, and 
 the vote was persisted in. More votes were given to Seymour, 
 and a " stampede " began. Mr. Seymour withdrew from the 
 chair, and the changes of votes went on, amid the greatest 
 excitement and enthusiasm, until he was made the nominee of 
 the convention by 317 votes, — a full convention. It was 
 asserted then, as it has been on every other occasion of a nomi- 
 nation suddenly made after a long contest, from that of Mr. 
 Polk in 1844 to that of General Garfield in 1880, that the 
 whole affair was carefully planned and rehearsed beforehand. 
 In some cases the assertion was true. But if it was so in 
 1868, and not a line of evidence was ever adduced to prove it, 
 a few persons only could have been in the secret, and the en- 
 thusiasm of the delegates was genuine and sincere. Indeed, 
 the convention had selected one of the strongest men in the 
 party. 
 
 General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, was nominated 
 unanimously for Vice-President at the first trial. Mr. Blair 
 had just brought himself into prominence by a violent, not to 
 say a revolutionary letter, addressed to Colonel J. 0. Brodhead, 
 dated a few days before the convention met. The nomination 
 seemed to be, and probably was, a result of that letter. 
 
 The canvass was shorter than usual, and, although one-sided, 
 was decidedly interesting. The fame of General Grant, and
 
 GENERAL GRANT 327 
 
 the high regard in which he was held, did not allow the result 
 to be doubtful ; but there were already some noteworthy de- 
 fections from the Republican party at the North on account 
 of the radical character of its Southern legislation ; and a 
 new element of discord in politics appeared in the shape of 
 the movement, already mentioned, to pay the five-twenty bonds 
 in greenbacks. It was never seriously believed that Governor 
 Seymour was in favor of that measure, yet he " stood upon 
 the platform," and declared, in accepting the nomination, that 
 the resolutions '' are in accord with my views." The Repub- 
 licans made much of the virtual repudiation which such a 
 financial policy as the resolutions demanded would effect, and, 
 while they lost some votes of a certain class, they gained many 
 others which were better worth having, even if they did not 
 count any more. Toward the end of the canvass there was a 
 strong movement by business men to defeat the Democrats, 
 which contributed not a little to the overwhelming success of 
 General Grant. 
 
 The South was secure for the Republicans. Reconstruc- 
 tion with negro suffrage, protected by the general government, 
 and with extensive disfranchisement of those who had joined 
 in the rebellion, made the triumph of the Republican electoral 
 ticket a certainty. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Louis- 
 iana only, of all the Southern States, gave Governor Seymour 
 a majority ; but some of the States were not, under the act of 
 Congress, entitled to representation in Congress, and conse- 
 quently not to electoral votes. The votes of thirty-three 
 States were counted ; that of Georgia was treated as the vote 
 of Missouri had been in 1820. Nebraska having been ad- 
 mitted to the Union, — the proclamation declaring its admission 
 was dated March 1, 1867, — the number of States became 
 thirty-seven. All the Southern States, except Virginia, Mis- 
 sissippi, and Texas, had been readmitted to representation in 
 Congress, and to the right to choose electors. The position of 
 Georgia was in doubt. In the reorganization of South Caro- 
 lina the practice of a choice of electors by the legislature was 
 abandoned ; but Florida adopted the discarded system, and 
 accordingly there was not as yet complete uniformity. The 
 electoral and popular votes of the States, including Georgia, 
 were as follows : —
 
 328 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Statbb. 
 
 Alabama . . 
 Arkansas . . 
 California . . 
 Connecticut 
 Delaware . . 
 Florida * . . 
 Georgia . . . 
 Illinois . . . 
 Indiana . . . 
 Iowa .... 
 Kansas . . . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Louisiana . . 
 Maine . . . 
 Maryland . . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Michigan . . 
 Minnesota . . 
 Mississippi t . 
 Missouri 
 Nebraska . . 
 Nevada . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey 
 New York . . 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio .... 
 Oregon . . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Rhode Island . 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee . . 
 Texas t . . . 
 Vermont . . 
 Virginia t . 
 West Virginia 
 Wisconsin • . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 POPCLAB VOTB. 
 
 od'S 
 
 76,366 
 22,152 
 54,592 
 50,641 
 7,623 
 
 57,134 
 
 250,293 
 
 176,.552 
 
 120,399 
 
 31,049 
 
 39,566 
 
 33,263 
 
 70,426 
 
 30,438 
 
 136,477 
 
 128,550 
 
 43,542 
 
 85,671 
 
 9,729 
 
 6,480 
 
 38,191 
 
 80,121 
 
 419,883 
 96,226 
 
 280,128 
 10,961 
 
 342,280 
 12,993 
 62,301 
 56,757 
 
 44,167 
 
 29,025 
 108,857 
 
 3,012,833 
 
 72,086 
 19,078 
 54,078 
 47,600 
 10,980 
 
 102,822 
 
 199,143 
 
 166,980 
 
 74,040 
 
 14,019 
 
 115,889 
 
 80,225 
 
 42,396 
 
 62,357 
 
 59,408 
 
 97,069 
 
 28,072 
 
 59,788 
 
 5,439 
 
 5,218 
 
 31,224 
 
 83,001 
 
 429,883 
 
 84,090 
 
 238,700 
 
 11,125 
 
 313,382 
 
 6,548 
 
 45,237 
 
 26,311 
 
 12,045 
 
 20,306 
 
 84,710 
 
 2,703,249 
 
 Elbctoral Votb. 
 
 16 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 4 
 
 11 
 3 
 3 
 5 
 
 9 
 21 
 
 26 
 4 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 214 
 
 * Electors appointed by the legislature. 
 
 t No vote in the State.
 
 GENERAL GRANT 329 
 
 There were many charges of gross fraud in the election. 
 Aside from the iri^egularities alleged in the Southern States, 
 the most famous case was that of New York. At the time 
 the election took place, the *' Tweed Ring " was in full power ; 
 and some telegrams which the Republicans regarded as highly- 
 suspicious passed between members of the Democratic State 
 Central Committee and certain prominent politicians. It will 
 be observed that the vote as canvassed gave a majority of ex- 
 actly ten thousand to Mr. Seymour. This result, it was be- 
 lieved by many persons, was brought about intentionally, with 
 a view to saving certain large wagers upon the Democratic 
 majority in New York. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the fact that some of 
 the southern States were, while others according to the legis- 
 lation of Congress were not, entitled to vote for electors of 
 President and Vice-President. Congress had passed a joint 
 resolution declaring that no State of those lately in rebel- 
 lion should be entitled to electoral votes unless, at the time 
 prescribed for the election, such State had adopted a constitu- 
 tion since the 4th of March, 1867, under which a state govern- 
 ment had been organized ; unless the election was held under 
 the authority of that government ; and unless the State had 
 become entitled to representation in Congress under the recon- 
 struction laws. President Johnson vetoed the resolution on 
 July 20, 1868. Both Houses of Congress passed it over his 
 veto, the Senate by 45 to 8, and the House of Representatives 
 by 134 to 36, and it was proclaimed a law. Under the resolu- 
 tion, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were excluded absolutely 
 from the election. All the other seceded States, except 
 Georgia, had been admitted to representation in Congress and 
 were entitled to vote for President. The question whether or 
 not Georgia had complied with the terms of the act authoriz- 
 ing a representation of that State in Congress was in dispute. 
 Accordingly, on the 6th of February, 1869, two days before the 
 count of electoral votes was to take place, Mr. Edmunds, of 
 Vermont, mtroduced in the Senate a concurrent resolution, 
 which does not require the approval of the President, in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 Whereas, The question whether the State of Georgia has become 
 and is entitled to representation in the two Houses of Congress is 
 now pending and undetermined ; and whereas by the joint resolu- 
 tion of Congress, passed July 20, 1868, entitled " resolution exclud-
 
 330 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ing from the electoral college votes of States lately in rebellion 
 "which shall not have been reorganized," it was provided that no 
 electoral votes from any of the States lately in rebellion should 
 be received or counted for President or Vice-President of the 
 United States until, among other things, such State should have 
 become entitled to representation in Congress pursuant to acts of 
 Congress in that behalf ; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That, on the assembling of the two Houses on the 
 second Wednesday of February, 1869, for the counting of the 
 electoral votes for President and Vice-President, as provided by 
 law and the joint rules, if the counting or omitting to count the 
 electoral votes, if any, which may be presented as of the State of 
 Georgia, shall not essentially change the result, in that case they 
 shall be reported by the President of the Senate in the following 
 manner : Were the votes presented as of the State of Georgia to 
 
 be counted, the result would be, for for President of the 
 
 United States votes ; if not counted, for for President of 
 
 the United States votes ; but, in either case, is elected 
 
 President of the United States ; and in the same manner for Vice- 
 President. 
 
 Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, was the only senator who took 
 an active part in the debate against this resolution ; although 
 Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, expressed the opinion that it would 
 be best to count the vote of Georgia and say nothing about it, 
 and finally voted — alone among the Republicans — against 
 the resolution. It was passed by the House of Representa- 
 tives on the same day under a suspension of the rules. It is 
 worth noting that three of the candidates on presidential 
 tickets in 1884 — Messrs. Blaine, Logan, and Butler — voted 
 in the affirmative in the House on the passage of this resolu- 
 tion, while a fourth — Mr. Hendricks — voted against it in 
 the Senate, 
 
 The count of the electoral votes took place on the 10th of 
 February. It proceeded regularly until the votes of Louisiana 
 were presented, when a member from Tennessee objected to 
 them, under the twenty-second joint rule (see page 310), and 
 the two Houses separated to consider the matter. Although 
 no debate was in order, much time was consumed by the Sen- 
 ate in agreeing upon a form in which the decision of the ques- 
 tion should be put. In the end the Senate voted to admit 
 the votes by 51 to 7. The House promptly decided the ques- 
 tion the same way by 137 to 63. The count was then re- 
 sumed, and all the votes were opened and recorded, except
 
 GENERAL GRANT 331 
 
 those of Georgia. On the presentation of the votes of that 
 State, General Butler, of Massachusetts, arose and objected 
 in writing to them on four distinct grounds : first, that the 
 votes were not given on the day fixed by law, — the electoral 
 college of Georgia had met on the 9th instead of the 2d of 
 December, 1868 ; secondly, because at the date of the election 
 Georgia had not been admitted to representation in Congress ; 
 thirdly, because Georgia had not complied with the reconstruc- 
 tion acts ; and, fourthly, because the election had not been 
 fair and free. The question arose at once whether the con- 
 current resolution of the Senate and House, directing how the 
 vote of Georgia should be treated, or the joint rule, was to 
 govern. The presiding officer. Senator Wade, of Ohio, was at 
 first inclined to hold the two Houses to the concurrent reso- 
 lution ; but, as the situation became complicated, he led the 
 Senate back to its chamber. 
 
 The House of Representatives quickly decided, without 
 debate, — 150 to 41, — that the vote of Georgia should not 
 be counted. In the Senate there was a long and somewhat 
 ungoverned discussion. Mr. Wade explained that the reason 
 why he had yielded his first position in the joint meeting was 
 that two of Mr. Butler's objections were not of the kind con- 
 templated by the concurrent resolution directing how the votes 
 of Georgia should be declared. Many propositions were made ; 
 and at last the Senate voted, by 28 votes against 25, '' that, 
 under the special order of the two Houses respecting the elec- 
 toral vote from the State of Georgia, the objections made to 
 the counting of the vote of the electors for the State of Georgia 
 are not in order." The action of each House having been 
 communicated to the other, the Senate returned to the Repre- 
 sentatives' Hall. Then ensued one of the most remarkable 
 and disgraceful scenes ever enacted in Congress. Mr. Wade, 
 on taking the chair, remarked that the objections of the gentle- 
 man from Massachusetts had been overruled by the Sq^iate, 
 and that the vote would be announced according to the terms 
 of the concurrent resolution. General Butler said that the 
 House had sustained the objections, and proposed to ofi'er a 
 resolution, remarking, " I do not understand that we are to be 
 overruled by the Senate in that way." The President of the 
 Senate refused to entertain the resolution, and General Butler 
 appealed from the decision of the chair. The President 
 declined to entertain the appeal. A scene of indescribable 
 disorder and confusion followed, several members speaking at
 
 332 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 once, Mr. Butler distinguishing himself by the violence of his 
 language, and, as General Garfield said in the debate which 
 followed the joint meeting, by ''a manner and bearing of un- 
 paralleled insolence." Some of his remarks were omitted in the 
 revised version, which appears in the " Congressional Globe ; " 
 but they were referred to in the debate just mentioned. His 
 last remark, as revised, is thus reported : — 
 
 Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts : I move that this convention now 
 be dissolved, and that the Senate have leave to retke. [Continued 
 cries of " Order ! " " Order ! "] And on that motion I demand a 
 vote. [Cries of " Order ! " " Order ! " from various parts of the 
 hall.] We certainly have the right to clear the hall of interlopers. 
 
 The presiding officer, not noticing these interruptions, pro- 
 ceeded to sum up the result, as directed by the concurrent 
 resolution, and declared Grant and Colfax elected. The 
 Senate then retired. 
 
 As soon as the House was by itself, Mr. Butler rose to a 
 question of privilege, and offered a resolution that " the House 
 protest that the counting of the vote of Georgia by the order 
 of the Vice-President pro tempore was a gross act of oppression 
 and an invasion of the rights and privileges of the House." 
 Upon this resolution a long and most acrimonious debate took 
 place, which lasted three days. It contributed little or nothing 
 to the settlement of the constitutional questions that have 
 arisen in regard to the count of votes. The position of affairs 
 was quite novel, and the gentlemen who took part in the 
 debate seemed, without exception, to give hasty impressions 
 rather than the result of careful study. The only point which 
 was made clear was that the Constitution and the action of 
 Congress left room for a variety of views, and that no member 
 need be at a loss for precedents to sustain his own opinion. 
 General Butler changed his resolution several times before a 
 vote was taken. In one of its forms it proposed to abrogate 
 the twenty-second joint rule, — a proposition which was re- 
 ceived with derision by many Republican members, who 
 declared that it was not possible for one House to rescind a 
 joint rule. Nevertheless, eight years later the Senate rescinded 
 the same rule, and refused to be bound by it, although the 
 House was then in favor of acting under it. General Butler's 
 resolution, greatly toned down, and providing for the reference 
 of the subject to a select committee, was at last brought to a 
 vote, on a motion to lay it on the table, which was carried by 
 130 to 55, and the matter was dropped.
 
 XXIV 
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 
 
 The reconstruction of the ^uthern States had been sub- 
 stantially completed before the term of General Grant as Pre- 
 sident began. It remained for three States only to comply 
 with the conditions already established. This they did soon 
 afterward, and the legislation of the Forty-first Congress was 
 accomplished, with every State in the Union fully represented. 
 But the Southern question was not yet settled. The constitu^ 
 tions of the re-admitted States contained guaranties of the 
 right of the people to vote without distinction on account of 
 race, color, or previous condition of servitude ; but, in effect, 
 both the political and social rights of the colored people were 
 much restricted. A state of terrorism existed in some parts of 
 the South, where a secret organization known as the Ku-Klux- 
 Klan committed outrages upon the colored people, intended to 
 intimidate them and to prevent them from voting. To defeat 
 the schemes of those who endeavored by lawless acts to render 
 the legislation of Congress nugatory, the act for the enforce- 
 ment of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, com- 
 monly known as the Ku-Klux Act, was passed. This measure, 
 although it seemed necessary at the time, gave the Democrats 
 an opportunity, which they were not alow to improve, to sneer 
 at the inefficiency of a party which, with unlimited power, 
 had not been able in five years since the war closed to finish 
 its work with the South. Military force was constantly neces- 
 sary to uphold the southern state governments, and the internal 
 condition of some districts was sadly disturbed. 
 
 Beside the Southern question, there were others which now 
 began to assume political importance. The first act signed by 
 President Grant pledged the faith of the government to the 
 payment of the interest-bearing bonds of the United States in 
 coin, and to an early resumption of specie payments. For the 
 time being, the opposition confined their attacks upon the finan- 
 cial system to the national banks. The annexation of Santo
 
 334 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Domingo to the United States was a favorite scheme with the 
 President, and he did all that was in his power, both publicly 
 and privately, to accomplish it. In the course of his negotia- 
 tions to that end, and by other measures, he alienated the 
 support of Mr. Sumner and of Horace Greeley, whose standing 
 as Republicans and as public men was almost unique, and 
 whose adhesion to the opposition in the ensuing canvass was 
 deemed at the time to be most disastrous to the Republicans. 
 
 There was another issue, which had its origin at this time, 
 which has since played an important part in congressional and 
 presidential elections. The principle tersely expressed by Mr. 
 Marcy to justify the wholesale removals from office practised 
 by General Jackson, that " to the victors belong the spoils of 
 the enemy," had been adopted by every Democratic and oppo- 
 sition administration which followed that of Jackson. On the 
 accession of Mr. Lincoln, the Democratic officers were driven 
 out and Republicans took their places, in every department of 
 the government, from the foreign minister to the country post- 
 master. Mr. Johnson had been restrained from substituting 
 Democrats for them all by the tenure-of-office act. General 
 Grant found few Democrats to expel from public positions ; but 
 an evil which had grown up with that of a partisan civil 
 service now took on alarming proportions. Certain gentle- 
 men, usually one for each State, became practically recognized 
 as dispensers of patronage within those States, and, by the 
 exercise of the power which the virtual right to dismiss and 
 appoint to office gave them, made themselves " bosses " and 
 dictators of Republican politics in their respective States. 
 The heads of the custom-houses, the post-offices, and other 
 government offices were .in many cases the servants of these 
 bosses, and were forced to work in the interest of the personal 
 fortunes of their protectors, and to employ the subordinates 
 under them to promote the same object, — all under the pen- 
 alty of removal. Manipulation of the offices for private pur- 
 poses developed a demand for a reform of the civil service, and 
 emphasized the objections of many who had been sturdy Re- 
 publicans to the administration of General Grant. 
 
 The supporters of the administration were, however, neither 
 few nor inactive. In addition to those who cordially approved 
 the public acts of Grant, there were many others who w^ere 
 not prepared to abandon it on account of its mistakes. They 
 set down some of the President's errors to his inexperience in
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 335 
 
 civil life ; and while other errors could not be so explained, 
 the Republicans generally held that for certain tasks which 
 they thought remained to be done before the South could be 
 safely left to itself General Grant was the best executive the 
 country could have. While, therefore, the elements existed 
 for an unusually powerful opposition to the Republican party, 
 the leaders of that party had no doubt of their ability to carry 
 the election of 1872. 
 
 The beginning of a united opposition was made in Missouri 
 in 1870, when a part of the Republicans united with the 
 Democrats in a " liberal " movement, and carried the state 
 election. It was further developed the next year. Meetings 
 were held in St. Louis and Cincinnati in the spring, in which 
 opposition to the reelection of General Grant was freely ex- 
 pressed ; for even then it was assumed that he would expect 
 to be nominated for reelection. About the same time Mr. 
 Vallandigham, of Ohio, who had been identified with the most 
 extreme form of Democratic opposition to the war for the 
 Union, and had been equally radical in his condemnation of 
 Republican reconstruction and treatment of the South, pre- 
 sented and supported in a local caucus in Ohio a series of re- 
 solutions looking to a union of all elements of opp)osition on 
 the basis of a full acceptance of the results of the war, the 
 legislation already enacted, and the three amendments made to 
 the Constitution. Finally, at a mass meeting of Liberal 
 Republicans of Missouri, held at Jefferson City in January, 
 1872, in which nearly all the counties of the State were repre- 
 sented, it was voted to call a national convention of Liberal 
 Republicans, to be held at Cincinnati on the 1st of May. 
 
 The first conventions for making nominations for the pre- 
 sidency were held at Columbus, Ohio, in February. The 
 Labor Reformers met on the 21st of that month, with repre- 
 sentatives present from seventeen States. The party had its 
 origin in Massachusetts, where a trade union of shoemakers, 
 who took the name of Knights of St. Crispin, formed the 
 nucleus of a Labor Reform party. The reference in the sixth 
 resolution of the platform which follows, indicates this origin. 
 A Massachusetts maniifacturer who had trouble with his 
 " Crispin " hands brought a car-load of Chinese from Califor- 
 nia to operate his machinery. Mr. E. M. Chamberlin, of 
 Massachusetts, who was the permanent president of the con- 
 vention, had been the candidate of the party for governor.
 
 336 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The convention was in session two days, and adopted the fol- 
 lowing platform : — 
 
 We hold that all political power is inherent in the people, and 
 free government is founded on their authority and established for 
 their benefit ; that all citizens are equal in political rights, entitled 
 to the largest religious and political liberty compatible with the 
 good order of society, as also to the use and enjoyment of the fruits 
 of their labor and talents ; and no man or set of men is entitled to 
 exclusive separable endowments and privileges, or immunities from 
 the government, but in consideration of public services ; and any 
 laws destructive of these fundamental principles are without moral 
 binding force, and should be repealed. And believing that all the 
 evils resulting from unjust legislation now affecting the industrial 
 classes can be removed by the adoption of the principles contained 
 in the following declaration, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That it is the duty of the government to establish a just 
 standard of distribution of capital and labor by providing a purely 
 national circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of 
 the nation, issued directly to the people without the intervention 
 of any system of banking corporations ; which money shall be 
 legal tender in the payment of all debts, public and private, and 
 interchangeable at the option of the holder for government bonds 
 bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 per cent., subject to 
 future legislation by Congress. 
 
 2. That the national debt should be paid in good faith, accord- 
 ing to the original contract, at the earliest option of the govern- 
 ment, without mortgaging the property of the people or the future 
 earnings of labor, to enrich a few capitalists at home and abroad. 
 
 3. That justice demands that the burdens of government should 
 be so adjusted as to bear equally on all classes, and that the exemp- 
 tion from taxation of government bonds bearing extortionate rates 
 of interest is a violation of all just principles of revenue laws. 
 
 4. That the public lands of the United States belong to the 
 people, and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to cor- 
 porations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of 
 the people, and should be granted to landless settlers only, in 
 amounts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres of land. 
 
 5. That Congress should modify the tariff so as to admit free 
 such articles of common use as we can neither produce nor grow, 
 and lay duties for revenue mainly upon articles of luxury and upon 
 such articles of manufacture as will, we having the raw materials 
 in abundance, assist in further developing the resom'ces of the 
 country. 
 
 6. That the presence in our country of Chinese laborers, im- 
 ported by capitalists in large numbers for servile use, is an evil,
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 337 
 
 entailing want and its attendant train of misery and crime on all 
 classes of the American people, and shoidd be prohibited by legis- 
 lation. 
 
 7. That we ask for the enactment of a law by which all mechan- 
 ics and day-laborers employed by or on behalf of the government, 
 whether directly or indirectly, through persons, firms, or corpora- 
 tions, contracting with the State, shall conform to the reduced 
 standard of eight hours a day, recently adopted by Congress for 
 national employees, and also for an amendment to the acts of 
 incorporation for cities and towns, by which all laborers and 
 mechanics employed at their expense shall conform to the same 
 number of hours. 
 
 8. That the enlightened spirit of the age demands the abolition 
 of the system of contract labor in our prisons and other reforma- 
 tory institutions. 
 
 9. That the protection of life, liberty, and property are the three 
 cardinal principles of government, and the first two are more 
 sacred than the latter; therefore money needed for prosecuting 
 wars should, as it is required, be assessed and collected from the 
 wealth of the country, and not entailed as a burden upon poster- 
 ity. 
 
 10. That it is the duty of the government to exercise its power 
 over railroads and telegraph corporations, that they shall not in any 
 case be privileged to exact such rates of freight, transportation, or 
 charges, by whatever name, as may bear unduly or unequally upon 
 the producer or consumer. 
 
 11. That there should be such a reform in the civil service of the 
 national government as will remove it beyond all partisan influ- 
 ence, and place it in the charge and under the direction of intelli- 
 gent and competent business men. 
 
 12. That as both history and experience teach us that power 
 ever seeks to perpetuate itself by every and all means, and that its 
 prolonged possession in the hands of one person is always danger- 
 ous to the interests of a free people, and believing that the spirit 
 of our organic laws and the stability and safety of our free institu- 
 tions are best obeyed on the one hand, and secured on the other, 
 by a regular constitutional change in the chief of the countiy at 
 each election ; therefore, we are in favor of limiting the occupancy 
 of the presidential chair to one term. 
 
 13. That we are in favor of granting general amnesty and restor- 
 ing the Union at once on the basis of equality of rights and privi- 
 leges to all, the impartial administration of justice being the only 
 true bond of union to bind the States together and restore the 
 government of the people. 
 
 14. That we demand the subjection of the military to the civil
 
 338 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 authorities, and the confinement of its operations to national pur- 
 poses alone. 
 
 15. That we deem it expedient for Congress to supervise the 
 patent laws, so as to give labor more fully the benefit of its own 
 ideas and inventions. 
 
 16. That fitness, and not political or personal considerations, 
 should be the only recommendation to public oflBce, either appoint- 
 ive or elective, and any and aU laws looking to the establishment 
 of this principle are heartily approved. 
 
 One informal and three formal ballots were required to effect 
 the nomination of a candidate for President. These several 
 votes were as follows : — 
 
 
 Informal. 
 
 Ist. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 John W. Geary, Pennsylvania . 
 Horace H. Day, New York 
 David Davis, Illinois .... 
 Wendell Phillips, Massachusetts 
 J. M. Palmer, Illinois . . . 
 Joel Parker, New Jersey . . 
 George W. Julian, Indiana . . 
 B. Gratz Brown, Missouri . . 
 Horace Greeley, New York 
 
 
 60 
 59 
 47 
 13 
 
 8 
 7 
 6 
 
 21 
 
 88 
 76 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 59 
 93 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 201 
 
 7 
 
 On the first vote for a candidate for Vice-President, E. M. 
 Chamberlin, of Massachusetts, had 72 ; Joel Parker, of New 
 Jersey, 70 ; Alanson M. West, of Mississippi, 18 ; Thomas 
 Ewing, of Ohio, 31 ; and W. G. Bryan, of Tennessee, 10. On 
 the second trial, Parker had 112, Chamberlin 57, and Ewing 
 22. 
 
 The candidates were men of eminent ability and of high 
 standing, and would have dignified almost any convention 
 that might put them in nomination. But the Labor Reform 
 convention, although some of its members were able men, 
 was for the most part made up of trade union bosses and 
 political adventurers. Its platform seemed at the time the 
 utterance of madmen ; yet it is far less radical than other 
 platforms since adopted by much more important political 
 bodies. But no other convention would have failed to per- 
 ceive that when it resolved that the money needed for war 
 purposes should not be " entailed as a burden upon poster- 
 ity," posterity might be more than willing to bear the burden ;
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 339 
 
 or would have spoken of a " bond of union to bind the States 
 together ; " or would have asked Congress to " supervise " the 
 patent laws, instead of asking it to revise them. But if the 
 convention went mad in its platform, it was evidently directed 
 by skilful tacticians in making its nominations. Judge Davis 
 was popularly credited v/ith having political aspirations, and 
 was known to be no longer in full sympathy with the Eepub- 
 lican party. It seems to have been hoped that the united 
 opposition would adopt this ticket. Judge Davis sent a 
 non-committal dispatch to the convention, thanking it for the 
 honor without accepting the nomination. In June both he 
 and Judge Parker formally declined. The convention was 
 called together again, but only a small number of delegates 
 attended. Charles O'Conor, of New York, was nominated for 
 President, and no nomination was made for the second place 
 on the ticket. 
 
 Another party, destined to have a long life, although the 
 part it has played in national politics has not been an impor- 
 tant one, made its first appearance in this canvass. The advo- 
 cates of the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquor had 
 formed a more or less distinct group in the politics of many 
 States since the " Maine law " agitation in the early fifties. 
 During the civil war, all other issues save that of the Union 
 were thrust aside. But now the agitation was renewed, and 
 the Prohibition party met in national convention at Columbus, 
 Ohio, on February 22. One hundred and ninety-four delegates 
 were present, from nine States. Samuel Chase, of Ohio, was 
 the president. A very long platform was reported and adopted 
 by the convention, of which the newspapers of the day give but 
 a brief abstract. In addition to a declaration in favor of the 
 main principle of the party, — the legislative prohibition of 
 the sale of intoxicating liquor, — the resolutions declare that 
 sobriety is one of the main qualifications for a public officer ; 
 that officers should not be removed for political reasons ; that 
 public servants should be paid fixed salaries, and not by fees ; 
 that all possible measures should be adopted to prevent cor- 
 ruption in the government ; that Congress should pass laws 
 which Avill secure a sound national currency convertible at the 
 will of the holder into gold and silver coin ; that the rates of 
 inland and ocean postage, and the charges for transportation 
 by railway and water conveyances, and for communication by 
 telegraph, should be as low as possible ; that there should be
 
 340 A .HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 no discrimination in favor of capital against labor ; that mo- 
 nopoly and class legislation are evils ; that the right of suffrage 
 should be conferred without regard to sex ; that the common- 
 school system should be fostered ; and that all judicious means 
 should be employed to promote immigration. 
 
 The names of James Black, of Pennsylvania, as a candidate 
 for President, and of John Russell, of Michigan, for Vice-Presi- 
 dent, were presented by a committee on nominations, and ac- 
 cepted by acclamation by the convention. 
 
 The Liberal Republican convention attracted much atten- 
 tion, and caused not a little uneasiness in advance among the 
 friends of the administration. It was evident that the Demo- 
 crats were ready to take up with any good candidates whom 
 the dissatisfied Republicans might nominate. Suggestions were 
 numerous, but unity of purpose there was not. Some of the 
 most influential politicians and newspapers which supported 
 the movement were strongly in favor of a free-trade policy ; 
 Mr. Greeley and his " Tribune " being almost the only con- 
 spicuous exceptions. Of candidates there was a full supply. 
 Illinois furnished no less than three, — Judge David Davis, 
 Governor John M. Palmer, and Senator Lyman Trumbull. 
 Missouri brought forward her favorite son, B. Gratz Brown. 
 Ohio suggested ex-Secretary Jacob D. Cox, and Chief Justice 
 Chase was not forgotten. The candidate most spoken of at 
 the East was Mr. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts. 
 The aspirations of Mr. Greeley were well known, but, even 
 when the convention met, the idea of nominating him was 
 treated almost as a joke. 
 
 Just before sailing for Europe, as arbitrator at Geneva on 
 the Alabama Claims, Mr. Adams addressed a letter to Mr. 
 David A. Wells, which was made public a day or two before 
 the convention. The writer expressed his indifference in re- 
 gard to the nomination, and declared his unwillingness to 
 authorize any one to speak for him, except that, if he was 
 expected to give any pledges or assurances of his own honesty, 
 " you will please to draw me out of that crowd." In spite of 
 the cautious way in which Mr. Adams refused to commit him- 
 self to the movement, which alienated many who might have 
 supported him, his nomination was urgently pressed by his 
 friends upon the members of the convention as they arrived. 
 On the other hand some of the most influential Democrats in 
 Congress and elsewhere sent word that, should Mr. Adams be
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 341 
 
 nominated, they would oppose the acceptance of the Cincin- 
 nati ticket by the Democratic convention. As the Liberal 
 Republicans felt confident that, with the assistance of the 
 Democrats, victory was assured, the several cliques made 
 great exertions to secure the nominations for their respective 
 favorites. 
 
 The convention was a mass meeting. Except in a few 
 places the Liberal Republicans had no organization, and the 
 members were all volunteers. Mr. Stanley Matthews, of Ohio, 
 was made temporary chairman. The question of membership 
 was a puzzling one, certain States having but a small, and 
 others a large, number of representatives, while in the case 
 of New York there were two distinct and opposing factions. 
 It was finally determined that the membership should be on 
 the basis of two delegates for each senator and representative 
 to which a State was entitled ; that if a smaller number of 
 members were present from any State, they should be allowed 
 to cast the full vote of the State ; and that delegations too 
 numerous should meet and designate the delegates. The 
 New York quarrel was composed. The organization was com- 
 pleted by the choice of Gen. Carl Schurz, of Missouri, as per- 
 manent president. Although the free-traders were a majority 
 of the convention, the importance of uniting all who were 
 opposed to General Grant was recognized, and, greatly to the 
 chagrin of the most earnest advocates of free trade, a resolu- 
 tion on the subject of the tariff, which had been prepared by 
 Mr. Greeley, was adopted. The convention issued an address 
 to the people of the country and a platform of principles, 
 which are given in full : — 
 
 The administration now in power has rendered itself guilty of 
 wanton disregard of the laws of the land, and of usurping powers 
 not granted by the Constitution ; it has acted as if the laws had 
 binding force only for those who were governed, and not for those 
 who govern. It has thus struck a blow at the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of constitutional government and the liberties of the citizen. 
 
 The President of the United States has openly used the powers 
 and opportunities of his high office for the promotion of personal 
 ends. 
 
 He has kept notoriously corrupt and unworthy men in places of 
 power and responsibility, to the detriment of the public interest. 
 
 He has used the public service of the government as a machinery 
 of corruption and personal influence, and has interfered with tyran-
 
 342 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 nical arrogance in the political affairs of States and municipal- 
 ities. 
 
 He has rewarded with influential and lucrative offices men who 
 had acquired his favor by valuable presents, thus stimulating the 
 demoralization of our political life by his conspicuous example. 
 
 He has shown himself deplorably unequal to the task imposed 
 upon him by the necessities of the country, and culpably careless 
 of the responsibilities of his high office. 
 
 The partisans of the administration, assuming to be the Repub- 
 lican party and controlling its organization, have attempted to 
 justify such wrongs and palliate such abuses to the end of main- 
 taining partisan ascendency. 
 
 They have stood in the way of necessary investigations and indis- 
 pensable reforms, pretending that no serious fault could be found 
 with the present administration of public affairs, thus seeking to 
 "blind the eyes of the people. » 
 
 They have kept alive the passions and resentments of the late 
 civil war, to use them for their own advantage ; they have resorted 
 to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the organic law, in- 
 stead of appealing to the better instincts and latent patriotism of 
 the Southern people by restoring to them those rights the enjoy- 
 ment of which is indispensable to a successful administration of 
 their local affairs, and would tend to revive a patriotic and hope- 
 ful national feeling. 
 
 They have degraded themselves and the name of their party, 
 once justly entitled to the confidence of the nation, by a base syco- 
 phancy to the dispenser of executive power and patronage, un- 
 worthy of republican freemen; they have sought to silence the 
 voice of just criticism, and stifle the moral sense of the people, and 
 to subjugate public opinion by tyrannical party discipline. 
 
 They are striving to maintain themselves in authority for selfish 
 ends by an unscrupulous use of the power which rightfully belongs 
 to the people, and should be employed only in the service of the 
 country. 
 
 Believing that an organization thus led and controlled can no 
 longer be of service to the best interests of the republic, we have 
 resolved to make an independent appeal to the sober judgment, 
 conscience, and patriotism of the American people. 
 
 We, the Liberal Republicans of the United States, in national 
 convention assembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the following prin- 
 ciples as essential to just government : — 
 
 1. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold 
 that it is the duty of government, in its dealings with the people, 
 to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity^ 
 race, color, or persuasion, religious or political.
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 343 
 
 2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States, 
 emancipation, and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening 
 of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fif- 
 teenth Amendments of the Constitution. 
 
 3. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all dis- 
 abilities imposed on account of the rebellion, which was finally 
 subdued seven years ago, believing that universal amnesty will 
 result in complete pacification in all sections of the country. 
 
 4. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard 
 the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power. 
 The public welfare requires the supremacy of the civil over the 
 militaiy authority, and the freedom of the person under the pro- 
 tection of the habeas corpus. We demand for the individual the 
 largest liberty consistent with public order, for the State self-gov- 
 ernment, and for the nation a return to the methods of peace and 
 the constitutional limitations of power. 
 
 5. The civil service of the government has become a mere instru- 
 ment of partisan tyranny and personal ambition, and an object of 
 selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions, 
 and breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity of repub- 
 lican government. We therefore regard a thorough reform of the 
 civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour; 
 that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claims 
 to public employment ; that the offices of the government cease to 
 be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage and that public 
 station shall become again a post of honor. To this end it is 
 imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for 
 reelection. 
 
 6. We demand a system of federal taxation which shall not un- 
 necessarily interfere with the industry of the people, and which 
 shall provide the means necessary to pay the expenses of the gov- 
 ernment, economically administered, the pensions, the interest on 
 the public debt, and a moderate reduction annually of the princi- 
 pal thereof ; and, recognizing that there are in our midst honest 
 but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respect- 
 ive systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion 
 of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and the 
 decision of Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interfer- 
 ence or dictation. 
 
 7. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we de- 
 nounce repudiation in every form and guise. 
 
 8. A speedy return to specie payments is demanded alike by the 
 highest considerations of commercial morality and honest govern- 
 ment. 
 
 9. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the
 
 344 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 soldiers and sailors of the republic, and no act of ours shall ever 
 detract from their justly earned fame or the full rewards of their 
 patriotism. 
 
 10. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or 
 other corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to 
 actual settlers. 
 
 11. We hold that it is the duty of the government in its inter- 
 course with foreign nations to cultivate the friendships of peace by 
 treating with all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dis- 
 honorable to demand what is not right or submit to what is 
 wrong. 
 
 12. For the promotion and success of these vital principles, and 
 the support of the candidates nominated by this convention, we 
 invite and cordially welcome the cooperation of all patriotic citi- 
 zens, without regard to previous political aMiations. 
 
 Mr. Greeley was nominated for President on the sixth vote. 
 The several votes were as follows : — 
 
 Charles Francis Adams, Massachusetts 
 Horace Greeley, New York .... 
 Lyman Trumbull, Illinois .... 
 B. Gratz Brown, Missouri .... 
 
 David Davis, Illinois 
 
 Andrew G. Curtin, Pennsylvania . . 
 Salmon P. Chase, Ohio 
 
 let. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 4th. 
 
 5th. 
 
 203 
 
 243 
 
 2M 
 
 279 
 
 258 
 
 147 
 
 245 
 
 258 
 
 251 
 
 309 
 
 no 
 
 148 
 
 156 
 
 141 
 
 81 
 
 95 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 92i 
 
 75 
 
 41 
 
 51 
 
 30 
 
 62 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 2i 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 6th. 
 
 324 
 
 332 
 
 19 
 
 32 
 
 Before the result of the sixth trial was announced, mem- 
 bers began to change their votes. When the changes had been 
 made the result stood, for Greeley 482, for Adams 187. On 
 a motion that the nomination of Mr. Greeley be made unani- 
 mous, the negative votes were numerous. Two votes only 
 were required to effect a nomination of a candidate for Vice- 
 President. They were as follows : — 
 
 2d. 
 
 B. Gratz Brown, Missouri . . 
 Lyman Trumbull, Illinois . . 
 George W. Julian, Indiana 
 Gilbert C. Walker, Virginia . 
 Cassius M. Clay, Kentucky . 
 Jacob D. Cox, Ohio . . . . 
 John M. Sooville, New Jersey 
 Thomas W. Tipton, Nebraska 
 John M. Palmer, Illinois . . 
 
 237 
 
 435 
 
 158 
 
 175 
 
 134J 
 
 - 
 
 84* 
 
 76 
 
 34 
 
 - 
 
 25 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 _ 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 8
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 345 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Brown was then made unanimous, 
 and the convention adjourned. Its work was received by 
 Republicans throughout the country with a shout of derision. 
 Greatly as Mr. Greeley was esteemed for his sincerity and 
 respected for his ability, he had always been regarded as an 
 erratic man, and there were few persons who credited him with 
 the cool judgment and tact needed in a President. But the 
 cry of '' anybody to beat Grant " had been raised ; and al- 
 though many members of the Cincinnati convention were cha- 
 grined at the failure to present acceptable candidates, and 
 although many Democrats did not conceal their disappoint- 
 ment, it soon became evident that the Democratic convention 
 would adopt both the platform and the candidates of that con- 
 vention. The Tennessee Democratic convention, held the 
 week after Greeley and Brown had been nominated, instructed 
 its delegates to the Baltimore convention to support that ticket. 
 The New York Democrats did the same thing a week or two 
 later, and sixteen other Democratic state conventions held in 
 June followed the example. Accordingly it was not doubtful, 
 when the Democratic convention met, what its action would be. 
 
 The interest in the Eepublican convention was confined to 
 the question of the vice-presidency. The renomination of 
 General Grant by a unanimous vote was a foregone conclusion. 
 There was no dissatisfaction with Mr. Colfax as Vice-President. 
 He had been most assiduous in his attention to the few duties 
 of his office, and had given general satisfaction as presiding 
 officer of the Senate. The scandal which involved him and 
 others at a later date had not then been whispered. But Mr. 
 Colfax had given offence to certain of the fraternity of Wash- 
 ington correspondents, and they determined to use all their 
 power to prevent his nomination. They were assisted in their 
 work by the presentation of the name of Mr. Henry Wilson as 
 a candidate by the Republicans of Massachusetts. Consider- 
 ing the closeness of the vote in the convention, it is not too 
 much to say that Mr. Wilson owed his nomination to these 
 correspondents. 
 
 The convention met at Philadelphia on June 5, and did its 
 work with promptness and harmony. Mr. Morton McMichael, 
 of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman, and Judge 
 Thomas Settle, of North Carolina, the permanent president of 
 the convention. The committee on resolutions reported the 
 following platform, which was unanimously adopted : —
 
 346 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The Republican party of the United States, assembled in na- 
 tional convention in the city of Philadelphia on the fifth and sixth 
 days of June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its history, 
 and announces its position upon the questions before the country. 
 
 1. During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted with grand 
 courage the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic 
 rebellion, emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal 
 citizenship of all, and established universal suffrage. Exhibiting 
 unparalleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for 
 political offences, and warmly welcomed all who proved loyalty by 
 obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neighbors. It has 
 steadily decreased with firm hand the resultant disorders of a great 
 war, and initiated a wise and humane policy toward the Indians. 
 The Pacific Railroad and similar vast enterprises have been gener- 
 ously aided and successfully conducted, the public lands freely 
 given to actual settlers, immigration protected and encouraged, 
 and a full acknowledgment of the naturalized citizens' rights 
 secured from European powers. A uniform national currency has 
 been provided, repudiation frowned down, the national credit sus- 
 tained under the most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds 
 negotiated at lower rates. The revenues have been carefully col- 
 lected and honestly applied. Despite annual Isirge reductions of 
 the rates of taxation, the public debt has been reduced during 
 General Grant's presidency at the rate of a hundred millions a 
 year. Great financial crises have been avoided, and peace and 
 plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficulties 
 have been peacefully and honorably composed, and the honor and 
 power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world. 
 This glorious record of the past is the party's best pledge for the 
 future. We believe the people will not entrust the government to 
 any party or combination of men composed chiefly of those who 
 have resisted every step of this beneficent progress. 
 
 2. The recent amendments to the national Constitution should 
 be cordially sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated 
 because they are law, and should be carried out according to their 
 spirit by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can 
 safely be entrusted only to the party that secured these amend- 
 ments. 
 
 3. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all 
 civil, political, and public rights should be established and effectu- 
 ally maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate 
 state and federal legislation. Neither the law nor its adminis- 
 tration should admit any discrimination in respect of citizens by 
 reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude. 
 
 4. The national government should seek to maintain honorable
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 347 
 
 peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sym- 
 pathizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty. 
 
 5. Any system of the civil service under which the subordinate 
 positions of the government are considered rewards for mere party 
 zeal is fatally demoralizing, and we therefore favor a reform of the 
 system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage and 
 make honesty, efficiency, and fidelity the essential qualifications 
 for public positions, without practically creating a life-tenure of 
 office. 
 
 6. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to cor- 
 porations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain 
 be set apart for free homes for the people. 
 
 7. The annual revenue, after paying current expenditures, pen- 
 sions, and the interest on the public debt, should furnish a moder- 
 ate balance for the reduction of the principal, and that revenue, 
 except so much as may be derived from a tax upon tobacco and 
 liquors, should be raised by duties upon importations, the details 
 of which should be so adjusted as to aid in securing remunerative 
 wages to labor, and promote the industries, prosperity, and growth 
 of the whole country. 
 
 8. We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose 
 valor saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the 
 nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for their 
 country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. 
 We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of 
 the government to all soldiers and sailors who were honorably dis- 
 charged, and who, in the line of duty, became disabled, without 
 regard to the length of service or cause of such discharge. 
 
 9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers 
 concerning allegiance — " Once a subject always a subject " — 
 having at last, through the efforts of the Republican party, been 
 abandoned, and the American idea of the individual right to transfer 
 allegiance having been accepted by European nations, it is the duty 
 of our government to guard with jealous care the rights of adopted 
 citizens against the assumption of unauthorized claims by their 
 former governments, and we urge continued careful encourage- 
 ment and protection of voluntary immigration. 
 
 10. The franking privilege ought to be abolished, and the way 
 prepared for a speedy reduction in the rates of postage. 
 
 11. Among the questions which press for attention is that which 
 concerns the relations of capital and labor, and the Republican 
 party recognizes the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full 
 protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator 
 of capital, the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual 
 profits of these two great servants of civilization.
 
 348 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 12. We hold that Congress and the President have only fulfilled 
 an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent 
 and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions, 
 and for the protection of the ballot-box ; and therefore they are 
 entitled to the thanks of the nation. 
 
 13. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or 
 disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction 
 of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of interest upon the 
 balance, and confidently expect that our excellent national currency 
 will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment. 
 
 14. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the 
 loyal women of America for their noble devotion to the cause 
 of freedom. Their admission to wider spheres of usefulness is 
 viewed with satisfaction ; and the honest demand of any class of 
 citizens for additional rights should be treated with i-espectful 
 consideration. 
 
 15. We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending 
 amnesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of 
 peace and fraternal feeling throughout the land. 
 
 16. The Republican party proposes to respect the rights reserved 
 by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by 
 them to the States and to the federal government. It disapproves 
 of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing 
 evils by interference with the rights not surrendered by the people 
 to either the state or the national government. 
 
 17. It is the duty of the general government to adopt such 
 measures as may tend to encourage and restore American commerce 
 and ship-building. 
 
 18. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest purpose, 
 the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integ- 
 rity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have com- 
 mended him to the heart of the American people, and with him at 
 our head we start to-day upon a new march to victory. 
 
 19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the vice-presidency, known 
 to the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for 
 liberty as an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incorrup- 
 tible legislator, and representative man of American institutions, is 
 worthy to associate with our great leader and share the honors 
 which we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon them. 
 
 General Grant was nominated by the unanimous vote of all 
 the delegates, amid great enthusiasm. A single trial was suffi- 
 cient to give the nomination as Vice-President to Mr, Wilson, 
 who received 3641 votes, to 3211 for Mr. Colfax. 
 
 In spite of their apparent unanimity, the Democrats were
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 349 
 
 f 
 
 not really united in the movement for Greeley and Brown. 
 aSTevertheless most of the leaders believed that nothing better 
 remained to be done than to adopt the principles and the can- 
 didates of the Liberal Republicans, and they had gone too far 
 to recede. The convention met at Baltimore on July 9. Mr. 
 Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of Virginia, was the temporary 
 chairman, and ex-Senator James R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, 
 the permanent president. The committee on resolutions re- 
 ported the Cincinnati platform Avithout change. Its accept- 
 ance was strongly opposed by Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of 
 Delaware, but the platform was adopted by a vote of 670 
 to 62. It was decided not to nominate candidates by accla- 
 mation, but to take the vote as usual. Mr. Greeley received 
 686 votes ; Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, 21 ; Thomas F. 
 Bayard, of Delaware, 16 ; William S. Groesbeck, of Ohio, 2 ; and 
 7 votes were cast blank. Mr. Greeley was thus nominated by 
 much more than the necessary two thirds. On a vote for a 
 candidate for Vice-President, Mr. Brown received 713 ; John 
 W. Stephenson, of Kentucky, 6 ; and 13 votes were blank. 
 
 Although this result of the convention had been universally 
 expected, there was great dissatisfaction with it in many Demo- 
 cratic circles. Some members of the party were outspoken in 
 their objection to what they regarded as a cowardly surrender 
 of principle for the sake of a possible victory. Others said 
 little, but it was easy to see that they had not much heart 
 in the " new departure," and would not cordially support Mr. 
 Greeley, even if they should so far overcome their repugnance 
 as to vote the ticket. The open opposition to the Greeley 
 movement found expression in a call for a straight Democratic 
 convention, which was held at Louisville, Kentucky, on Sep- 
 tember 3, and was well attended. Mr. James Lyon, of Vir- 
 ginia, was the president. The following resolutions were 
 adopted : — 
 
 Whereas, A frequent recurrence to first principles, and eternal 
 vigilance against abuses, are the wisest provisions for liberty, 
 which is the source of progress, and fidelity to our constitutional 
 system is the only protection for either ; therefore. 
 
 Resolved, That the original basis of our whole political struc- 
 ture is a consent in every part thereof. The people of each State 
 voluntarily created their State, and the States voluntarily formed 
 the Union ; and each State has provided, by its written Constitu- 
 tion, for everything a State should do for the protection of life,
 
 350 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 liberty, and property within it ; and each State, jointly with the 
 others, provided a Federal Union for foreign and inter-state re- 
 lations. 
 
 Resolved, That aU government powers, whether state or federal, 
 are trust powers coming from the people of each State ; and that 
 they are limited to the written letter of the Constitution and the 
 laws passed in pursuance of it, which powers must be exercised 
 in the utmost good faith, the Constitution itself providing in what 
 manner they may be altered and amended. 
 
 Resolved, That the interests of labor and capital should not be 
 permitted to conflict, but should be harmonized by judicious legis- 
 lation. While such a conflict continues, labor, which is the parent 
 of wealth, is entitled to paramount consideration. 
 
 Resolved, That we proclaim to the world that principle is to be 
 preferred to power ; that the Democratic party is held together by 
 the cohesion of time-honored principles which they will never sur- 
 render in exchange for all the offices which presidents can confer. 
 The pangs of the minorities are doubtless excruciating ; but we 
 welcome an eternal minority under the banner inscribed with our 
 principles, rather than an almighty and everlasting majority pur- 
 chased by their abandonment. 
 
 Resolved, That, having been betrayed at Baltimore into a false 
 creed and a false leadership by the convention, we repudiate both, 
 and appeal to the people to approve our platform and to rally to 
 the polls and support the true platform, and the candidates who 
 embody it. 
 
 Resolved, That we are opposed to giving public lands to corpora- 
 tions, and favor their disposal to actual settlers only. 
 
 Resolved, That we favor a judicious tariff for revenue purposes 
 only, and that we are unalterably opposed to class legislation 
 which enriches a few at the expense of the many under the plea 
 of protection. 
 
 The convention nominated Mr. Charles O'Conor for Presi- 
 dent, and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice- 
 President. Mr. Adams had written a letter, in which he 
 said that, while he did not wish for the nomination, he would 
 not refuse it if Mr. O'Conor should head the ticket. Mr. 
 O'Conor, on being notified by telegraph of his nomination, 
 declined peremptorily. The convention then hastily passed 
 a vote nominating Mr. Lyon, the president of the convention, 
 in his place ; but Mr. Lyon wisely declined. Mr. Adams also 
 refused to take any but the second place, and not even that, 
 unless Mr. O'Conor were to stand at the head of the ticket. 
 Under these circumstances, the convention returned to Mr.
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 351 
 
 O'Conor, and left the ticket as it had been originally arranged, 
 whether its candidates would accept or decline. 
 
 The result of the canvass was at no time in doubt. Some 
 of the Democrats deluded themselves with the idea that there 
 was a chance for Mr. Greeley, and that gentleman departed 
 from the usual custom of candidates by going " on the stump." 
 The early elections showed clearly the drift of public opinion ; 
 and General Grant was elected by a larger majority than he 
 had received at his first election. As in 1868, thirty-seven 
 States formed the Union ; and on this occasion, for the first 
 time in the history of the government, all the States chose 
 electors by a popular vote. The apportionment which fol- 
 lowed the census of 1870 enlarged the number of electors. 
 Mr. Greeley died a few days after the choice of electors had 
 been made, and the Democratic electors cast their votes with- 
 out serious attempt at concentration. The popular vote is 
 given on the next page. 
 
 It will be observed that the popular vote of Louisiana is 
 given in two forms. Political afifairs in the State were in a 
 chaotic condition, both then and subsequently. The gov- 
 ernor, Henry C. Warmoth, had been elected as a Republican, 
 but had joined the Greeley movement, and was disposed to do 
 all that lay in his power to give the vote of the State to the 
 Democratic candidates. The votes of the State were at that 
 time canvassed by a " returning board," consisting of the gov- 
 ernor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, and two others. 
 The lieutenant-governor and one of the unofficial members 
 became disqualified by being candidates for office. The gov- 
 ernor then removed the secretary of state and appointed an- 
 other man in his place ; and he, with this new secretary, pro- 
 ceeded to fill up the vacancies in the returning board. But 
 the old secretary of state, before his removal, and the re- 
 maining unofficial member of the board, had previously filled 
 the vacancies. Accordingly there were two returning boards. 
 The official returns were canvassed by that board only of which 
 the governor was the head ; the other board made up returns 
 from the best sources of information it could command. Each 
 board seems to have manipulated the figures so as to bring 
 about a desired result. This is a very brief account of a long 
 and complicated controversy, full particulars of which may 
 be found in the newspapers and in official documents of the 
 time. Two sets of electors met, voted, and forwarded their
 
 352 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama ■ . . 
 Arkansas . . . 
 California . . 
 Connecticut . . 
 Delaware . . 
 Florida . . . 
 Georgia . . 
 Illinois ... 
 Indiana ... 
 Iowa . . . . , 
 Kansas . , . , 
 Kentucky . . 
 Louisiana * . . 
 Louisiana t 
 Maine . . . 
 Maryland . . 
 Massachusetts 
 Michigan . . 
 Minnesota . . 
 Mississippi . . 
 Missouri . . 
 Nebraska . . 
 Nevada . . . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey 
 New York . . 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio .... 
 Oregon . . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Rhode Island . 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee . . 
 Texas . . . 
 Vermont . . 
 Virginia 
 West Virginia 
 Wisconsin . . 
 
 Total 3,597,132 2,834,125 
 
 90,272 
 41,373 
 54,020 
 50,638 
 11,115 
 17,763 
 62,550 
 
 241,944 
 
 186,147 
 
 131,566 
 67,048 
 88,766 
 71,663 
 59,975 
 61,422 
 66,760 
 
 133,472 
 
 138,455 
 55,117 
 82,175 
 
 119,196 
 
 18,329 
 
 8,413 
 
 37,168 
 
 91,656 
 
 440,736 
 94,769 
 
 281,852 
 11,819 
 
 349,589 
 13,665 
 72,290 
 85,655 
 47,468 
 41,481 
 93,468 
 32,315 
 
 104,997 
 
 n 
 
 79,444 
 37,927 
 
 40,718 
 45,880 
 10,206 
 15,427 
 76,356 
 
 184,938 
 
 163,632 
 71,196 
 32,970 
 99,995 
 57,029 
 66,467 
 29,087 
 67,687 
 59,260 
 78,355 
 34,423 
 47,288 
 
 151,434 
 
 7,812 
 
 6,236 
 
 31,424 
 
 76,456 
 
 387,281 
 70,094 
 
 244,321 
 7,730 
 
 212,041 
 5,329 
 22,703 
 94,391 
 66,546 
 10,927 
 91,654 
 29,451 
 86,477 
 
 bt>i 
 
 Siz; 
 
 1,068 
 204 
 
 487 
 
 4,000 
 3,058 
 1,417 
 2,221 
 596 
 2,374 
 
 19 
 
 2,861 
 
 2,439 
 
 100 
 
 630 
 
 1,454 
 
 1,163 
 
 572 
 
 187 
 
 2,580 
 593 
 
 42 
 600 
 
 834 
 
 29,489 
 
 * "Custom-house" count. The total vote of the country, as given above, includea 
 these returns. 
 
 t Count by the Warmoth returning board. If these returns should be substituted 
 for the others, the total vote of the country would be : for Grant, 3,585,444 ; Greeley, 
 2,843,663.
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 
 
 353 
 
 returns to Washington ; but the vote of the State was excluded, 
 as will be noticed in the report of the electoral count. The 
 votes of the electoral colleges as actually cast, including both 
 the votes of Louisiana, are given below. These and all 
 others which were rejected by Congress are marked with an 
 asterisk : — 
 
 
 Peesident. 
 
 Vice-President. 
 
 States. 
 
 1 
 O 
 
 CO 
 
 5 
 
 a 
 1— 1 
 
 M 
 ■O 
 
 a 
 tS 
 <i 
 
 i 
 
 6 
 
 a 
 
 a" 
 o 
 
 n 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 1-5 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 n 
 
 1 
 o 
 
 m 
 
 ■a 
 
 a 
 
 60 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 K 
 
 ® 
 
 g 
 
 o 
 
 1-5 
 
 >> 
 
 « 
 
 & 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 i 
 
 Cm 
 
 1 
 
 .q 
 si 
 
 d 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 CO 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 a" 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 Alabama . . . 
 Arkansas . . 
 California . . 
 Connecticut . . 
 Delaware . . . 
 Florida . . . 
 Georgia . . . 
 Illinois . . . 
 Indiana . . . 
 Iowa .... 
 Kansas . . . 
 Kentucky . . 
 Louisiana t . . 
 Louisiana t • • 
 Maine .... 
 Maryland . . 
 Massachusetts . 
 Michigan . . . 
 Minnesota . . 
 Mississippi . . 
 Missouri . . . 
 Nebraska . . . 
 Nevada . . . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey . . 
 New York . . 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio .... 
 Oregon . . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Rhode Island . 
 South Carolina . 
 Tennessee . . 
 Texas .... 
 Vermont . . . 
 Virginia . . . 
 West Virginia . 
 Wisconsin . . 
 
 Total as declared 
 
 10 
 6* 
 6 
 6 
 3 
 4 
 
 21 
 15 
 
 n 
 
 5 
 
 8* 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 11 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 35 
 10 
 22 
 
 3 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 11 
 
 5 
 10 
 
 286 
 
 8 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 42 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 _ 
 
 8 
 18 
 
 3* 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 6* 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 21 
 15 
 11 
 5 
 
 8* 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 11 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 3 
 5 
 9 
 
 35 
 10 
 22 
 
 3 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 11 
 
 5 
 10 
 
 286 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 8* 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 47 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 5 
 5 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 * Rejected by Congress, t " Custom-house " electors, t Warmoth electors.
 
 354 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Many questions arose during the count of electoral votes, 
 which took place on February 12, 1873, was conducted in accord- 
 ance with the twenty-second joint rule, and occupied seven 
 hours. The first objection was made by Mr. Hoar, of Massa- 
 chusetts, to counting the three votes cast in Georgia for Horace 
 Greeley, on the ground that Mr. Greeley was dead at the time 
 the votes were given. This raised the question whether Con- 
 gress might take cognizance of the ineligibility of a candidate 
 for the presidential office. The next objection was raised by 
 Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, to the vote of Mississippi, on the 
 ground that the certificates did not state that the electors voted 
 by ballot. Mr. Potter, of New York, also objected especially 
 to one vote of Mississippi, cast by an elector chosen to fill a 
 vacancy, the choice of whom was certified only by the secre- 
 tary of state of Mississippi, and by him only upon information 
 and not of his own knowledge. Upon these three objections 
 the two Houses separated. The House of Representatives 
 voted to reject the Greeley votes in Georgia; the Senate voted 
 to accept them ; under the joint rule they were cast out and 
 not counted. Each House overruled both objections to the 
 vote of Mississippi, and it was counted. Upon the resumption 
 of the count, when the State of Missouri was reached, attention 
 was called to the fact that votes were cast for Mr. Brown both 
 as President and as Vice-President, but the objection that this 
 was contrary to the provision of the Constitution that electors 
 shall vote for two persons, " one of whom, at least, shall not 
 be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves," was 
 obviated by reading the concluding part of the certificate, that 
 no person who voted for Mr. Brown as President also voted 
 for him as Vice-President. The vote of Texas was next 
 objected to, on the ground that the choice of the electors was 
 certified to only by the acting secretary of state, and not, as 
 the law required, by the governor. A second objection was 
 made on the ground that four of the eight electors (not a ma- 
 jority) had met and filled vacancies. Both objections were 
 overruled by each House, and the vote of Texas was counted. 
 
 The count then proceeded until the only votes remaining to 
 he counted were those of Arkansas and Louisiana. The votes 
 of both States were objected to. The returns for Arkansas 
 were certified to by the secretary of state only, and his office 
 seal was the only one which the papers bore. Both sets of 
 electors for Louisiana were objected to. The two Houses
 
 THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN 355 
 
 having separated, the Senate passed a resolution that the votes 
 of Arkansas should not be counted ; the House of Representa- 
 tives agreed to admit them. The vote in the Senate was a 
 consequence of the bad rule that no debate should be allowed. 
 In fact the only seal in use in the State was that of the secre- 
 tary of state ; and the rejection of the vote was a hasty act 
 upon the most frivolous of pretexts. Both Houses voted not to 
 count any votes from Louisiana. The result of this action, 
 under the twenty-second joint rule, was that the votes of 
 Arkansas and Louisiana were excluded. The joint session of 
 Congress was then resumed, and the result of the electioa was 
 declared. ■
 
 XXV 
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 
 
 When slavery had been overthrown by the convulsion of 
 war, and when the fruits of victory had been secured, so far 
 as legislation could secure them, the original mission of the 
 Republican party was accomplished. The more or less success- 
 ful solution of the great moral and political problems which 
 caused the party to come into being was followed by several 
 changes that must be noticed briefly, since they explain the 
 political reverses that began during General Grant's second 
 term. 
 
 It was not yet time for the revival of old issues, the tariff, 
 for example, to send back into the Democratic party men who 
 had seceded from it when slavery became the predominant 
 question before the people. That change was to come later. 
 Many " war Democrats " who had acted with the Republi- 
 cans now felt that the reconstruction measures were too radi- 
 cal, and many of them returned to their old party allegiance. 
 But in the main the personnel of the Republican party re- 
 mained unchanged. There was, nevertheless, an internal modi- 
 fication that was to work mischief in the future. The long 
 possession of power increased the appetite for power, and led 
 some of the politicians to employ objectionable means for re- 
 taining it, — means that were possibly justified when the life 
 of the nation and its future well-being seemed to depend upon 
 the continuance of the Republican policy, but which were 
 reprehensible when no such necessity existed. All this implied 
 an alteration which is perhaps too harshly described as moral 
 degeneration. The demoralization did not affect the body of 
 the party, save that the change was regarded with too much 
 toleration ; but the leaders became overbearing and reckless. 
 The party sufifered greatly, also, by reason of the character of 
 its membership in the South. The great body of the party in 
 that section consisted of the newly enfranchised blacks, — not 
 too well qualified to exercise the right of suffrage, — who were
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 357 
 
 permitted by the white men to vote when and where only 
 their votes would not change the result of an election. The 
 white contingent of the party, a handful only, was made up 
 of " carpet-baggers " and " scallawags." Carpet-baggers were 
 Northern men who had removed — with hand-luggage only, it 
 was sarcastically asserted by the Democrats — to the South in 
 order to get elected to office by negro votes. Scallawags were 
 Southern-born men who had braved the social ostracism that 
 followed their non-conformity to the formula that " this is a 
 white man's government," for the same purpose of obtaining 
 office. 
 
 The overturn which resulted in the election of a Democratic 
 House of Representatives in 1874 was by no means caused 
 wholly by the changes just noted. A much more direct cause 
 was the great financial panic of 1873. There had been no 
 serious effort to reform the disordered currency, the excessive 
 volume of which produced an era of speculation and extension 
 of credit. When the crash came, there was widespread disaster 
 and insolvency. A season of hard times set in ; and, as is usu- 
 ally the case, the party in power was held responsible for the 
 evil. It was then that a party sprang up in many parts of the 
 country, particularly in the West, which held that the cause 
 of the disaster was not too much but too little paper money ; 
 and it urged not merely the retention of the greenbacks as the 
 permanent money of the country, but a large — even an un- 
 limited — increase of the amount. 
 
 As if the Republican party had even then not enough to 
 bear, the startling revelation of the condition of the public 
 service which was popularly supposed to be given by the dis- 
 covery of the complicity of high officers in the ''whiskey 
 ring " frauds upon the revenue, and the acts of General Bel- 
 knap, the Secretary of War, — more sinned against than sinning, 
 as the true history of the affair shows, — were scandals of a most 
 serious character. The people began, too, to be somewhat 
 weary of the Southern question, — of " waving the bloody 
 shirt," as it was called, — and no longer responded eagerly to 
 demands upon their loyalty to support further legislation, in 
 order that the blood spilled in the war might not be wasted. 
 Inasmuch as the Southern States themselves had become almost 
 " solid " already in the support of the Democratic party, it 
 required but a slight change in the North to give a majority 
 to the opposition.
 
 358 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Before entering upon a chronicle of the events of 1876, it is 
 advisable to record the efforts made in Congress to modify the 
 electoral system and to regulate the count of votes. 
 
 At the beginning of the session of 1874-5, Senator Oliver 
 P. Morton called up, and endeavored to secure action upon, 
 several propositions which had for their object to remedy the 
 constitutional defects which ninety years of experience had de- 
 veloped. The first of these was a proposition to amend the 
 Constitution, the origin of which was this : Under a resolu- 
 tion offered by Mr. Morton in March, 1873, the committee 
 on privileges and elections, of which he was chairman, was 
 directed to examine and report at the next session upon the 
 best and most practicable mode of electing the President and 
 Vice-President, and providing a tribunal to adjust and decide 
 all contested questions connected therewith. The committee 
 reported, May 28, 1874, a proposition to amend the Constitu- 
 tion by the adoption of the following new article : — 
 
 1. The President and Vice-President shall be elected by the 
 direct vote of the people in the manner following : Each State shall 
 be divided into districts, equal in number to the number of Repre- 
 sentatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress, to 
 be composed of contiguous territory, and to be as nearly equal in 
 population as may be ; and the person having the highest number 
 of votes in each district for President shall receive the vote of that 
 district, which shall count one presidential vote. 
 
 2. The person having the highest number of votes for President 
 in a State shall receive two presidential votes from the State at 
 large. 
 
 3. The person having the highest number of presidential votes 
 in the United States shall be President. 
 
 4. If two persons have the same number of votes in any State, it 
 being the highest number, they shall receive each one presiden- 
 tial vote from the State at large ; and if more than two persons 
 shall have each the same number of votes in any State, it being 
 the highest number, no presidential vote shall be counted from the 
 State at large. If more persons than one shall have the same 
 number of votes, it being the highest number in any district, no 
 presidential vote shall be counted from that district. 
 
 5. The foregoing provisions shall apply to the election of Vice- 
 President. 
 
 6. The Congress shall have the power to provide for holding and 
 conducting the elections of President and Vice-President, and to 
 establish tribunals for the decision of such elections as may be 
 contested.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 359 
 
 7. The State shall be divided into districts by the legislatures 
 thereof, but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter 
 the same; 
 
 The report which accompanied this proposition was one of 
 great ability and thoroughness. It was the work of Senator 
 Morton himself, who probably devoted more time and thought 
 to this part of the Constitution than have been given to it by 
 any other statesman of any period in our history. The reso- 
 lution of amendment was called up in the Senate on the 20th 
 of January, 1875, and Mr. Morton made a long speech in favor 
 of it, pointing out once more in forcible language what he re- 
 garded as the evils and dangers of the existing system. He 
 maintained that the twenty-second joint rule was grossly un- 
 constitutional. Senators Thurman, Conkling, and Anthony 
 followed. They all agreed that some change was absolutely 
 necessary, but the general judgment was that the greatest 
 danger lay in the matter of the electoral count. Mr. Anthony 
 went so far as to say that '' all the machinery of the existing 
 system is absurd." But notwithstanding the concurrence of 
 the leaders of the Senate in the opinion that some measure 
 should be passed, the resolution was laid aside and debate 
 upon it was never resumed. 
 
 A few days later, however, the Senate began a discussion of 
 a resolution, also submitted by Mr. Morton, that the twenty- 
 second joint rule be repealed. Subsequently he modified this 
 resolution. He proposed to amend, not to repeal the rule, 
 and to make an affirmative vote of both Houses necessary for 
 the rejection of an electoral vote. A long debate took place 
 upon this proposition ; and the resolution was finally referred 
 to the committee on privileges and elections. The committee 
 reported speedily a bill, which, if enacted, would take the 
 place of the joint rule. For the most part it followed the 
 language of that rule, but with these exceptions : no vote could 
 be rejected except by the concurrent vote of the two Houses ; 
 if more than one return should be presented from a State, that 
 one was to be accepted which the two Houses acting separately 
 should determine to be the true return ; and when the Houses 
 separated to decide upon any objection, debate Avas to be allowed, 
 each member being permitted to speak for ten minutes, once 
 only. When the debate had lasted two hours the House was to 
 have the right, by a majority vote, to order the main question 
 to be put. This bill was fully debated. Numerous amendments
 
 360 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 were offered, but none were adopted, except for the purpose of 
 perfecting the language. The only important suggestion of 
 amendment was made by Mr, Edmunds, of Vermont, who pro- 
 posed to substitute for the whole bill a plan for a joint com- 
 mittee, resembling the grand committee provided for in the 
 bill of the year 1800 (see p. 64 et seq.). The bill was passed 
 by a vote of 28 to 20. All the affirmative votes were given 
 by Republicans, but six members of that party, including Sen- 
 ators Carpenter, Conkling, Edmunds, and Windom, voted 
 against the bill. It was never taken up in the House of Re- 
 presentatives, 
 
 Mr. Morton was greatly in earnest in regard to this matter. 
 Immediately on the reassembling of Congress — it was a new 
 Congress, and the House of Representatives was Democratic — 
 he again introduced the bill. It was referred and reported 
 back, and on the 13th of March, 1876, a debate began which 
 occupied a large part of nearly every daily session until the 
 24th of the month, when it was passed, 32 to 26. Although 
 . this was nearly a party vote, Mr. Thurman supported the bill. 
 But he had an objection to one feature of it, and therefore 
 moved that the vote passing it be reconsidered for the purpose 
 of amendment. The motion was agreed to late in April, and 
 the bill was then laid aside. It was again taken up, just at 
 the close of the session, in August, but no action was had upon 
 the bill, and of course it failed. 
 
 It began to be rumored in 1875 that General Grant would 
 be a candidate for a third term. Since the time of Washington 
 it had been an unwritten law that eight years should be the 
 limit of any man's service at the head of the government. The 
 idea that the rule established by the Father of his Country 
 was to be broken was highly displeasing to a large body of 
 Republicans, and still more so to all Democrats. There was 
 much public and private discussion on the subject. The 
 President himself allowed it to be understood that he was not 
 disposed to refuse a third term if it should be offered him. In 
 a letter addressed to General Harry White, of Pennsylvania, he 
 expressed himself in terms that could not be misunderstood. 
 The Republican state convention, over which General White 
 presided, had passed a resolution of unalterable " opposition to 
 the election to the presidency of any person for a third term." 
 This drew from General Grant the letter referred to, in which 
 he said : " Now for the third term, I do not want it any
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 361 
 
 more than I did the first ; " but he also remarked that the 
 people were not restricted to two terms by the Constitution ; 
 that the time might come when it would be unfortunate to 
 ^make a change at the end of eight years ; and that he " would 
 not accept a nomination if it were tendered, unless it should 
 come under such circumstances as to make it an imperative 
 duty, — circumstances not likely to arise." The universal in- 
 terpretation of these phrases was that General Grant's friends 
 were at liberty to make it appear the imperative duty of the 
 Republicans to nominate him again, and of the President to 
 accept the nomination. But the idea made little headway 
 except among the officials of the government and the most de- 
 voted adherents of the President. There was, nevertheless, 
 much apprehension that the close organization of the official 
 class would make it possible to manipulate the primary meet- 
 ings and secure his nomination. A death-blow to the movement 
 was dealt soon after the opening of Congress, in December, 
 1875. A Democratic member from Illinois offered a reso- 
 lution, " that, in the opinion of this House, the precedent 
 established by Washington and other Presidents of the United 
 States, in retiring from the presidential office after their second 
 term, has become, by universal concurrence, a part of our re- 
 publican system of government, and that any departure from 
 this time-honored custom would be unwise, unpatriotic, and 
 fraught with peril to our free institutions." This resolution was 
 passed by the immense majority of 234 to 18. Not only did all 
 the Democrats present support it, but 70 out of the 88 Repub- 
 licans voting were also found in the affirmative. 
 
 Nothing more was heard that year of the third term, and 
 the Republicans who had been willing to entertain the idea 
 turned their attention to other candidates, while the Republi- 
 can leaders who had been special friends of the administration 
 felt themselves at liberty to become candidates for the Republi- 
 can nomination. There were many candidates. The favor of 
 the administration Avas believed to have gone chiefly to Senator 
 Conkling, of New York, when General Grant himself was put out 
 of the running ; but there was no hostility to Senator Morton, 
 of Indiana, who ultimately secured most of the southern dele- 
 gations. Both of these gentlemen had been ardent defenders 
 of the President whenever he had been attacked, and trust- 
 worthy supporters of all administration measures. 
 
 The strongest movement, outside of the official circles, was
 
 362 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 in favor of Mr, James G. Blaine, of Maine. Mr. Blaine had 
 been six years Speaker of the House of Representatives, and 
 had gained extraordinary popularity among members of Con- 
 gress. At the beginning of the Forty-fourth Congress, in 
 1875, the control of the House having passed into the hands 
 •of the Democrats, he had become the natural leader of the 
 minority on the floor, and had drawn the attention of the 
 country by some brilliant parliamentary victories. Many Re- 
 publicans, however, regretted tliat in so doing he had revived 
 memories of the war which they were entirely willing should 
 be forgotten. When the movement to make him the Republi- 
 can candidate became formidable some of them felt constrained 
 to oppose him. Soon afterward whispers were heard that his 
 public career was not free from acts which, if not corrupt, 
 involved corrupt motives and desires ; and these insinuations 
 took a form which led to an investigation into Mr. Blaine's 
 ■connection with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Com- 
 pany and the Union Pacific Railroad Company. In brief, Mr. 
 Blaine had, as Speaker, given a decision which facilitated the 
 passage of a bill authorizing the State of Arkansas to aid in the 
 construction of the Fort Smith road. Afterward he had become 
 interested in the securities of the company ; and it was asserted 
 that he had traded upon the service he had rendered to the 
 company to obtain specially favorable terms from those who 
 had the disposal of the securities. Mr. Blaine's prominence 
 in public affairs, and the strong position he occupied as a candi- 
 date for the Republican nomination, caused the scandal to attract 
 general attention. The letters he had written upon the sub- 
 ject were in hostile hands. Mr. Blaine obtained possession of 
 them, and in a memorably dramatic scene read them, with his 
 own explanation, to the House of Representatives. The effect 
 was precisely what might have been expected : those who were 
 previously convinced of his guilt saw in them proof of the 
 charges against him ; his ardent admirers, of whom there was 
 a host in all parts of the country, accepted them as a com- 
 plete exoneration. The present writer, who enjoyed a lifelong 
 personal friendship, and for many years was on terms of inti- 
 macy, with Mr. Blaine, always believed in his innocence not 
 only of the charges here referred to, but of others which his 
 political opponents made against him. The unpleasant chapter 
 in his history is recorded here because it had an important 
 bearing upon his aspirations to the presidency, but with keen 
 regret that a perpetuation of it is necessary.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 363 
 
 A strong movement was organized in the party in favor of 
 Mr. Benjamin H. Bristow, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
 Bristow had won the high opinion of the country by his 
 vigorous proceedings against the western " whiskey rings." 
 The heavy tax upon distilled spirit was a great temptation to 
 fraud in its manufacture. Evidence was obtained that many 
 western distilleries were enabled by collusion with government 
 officers to manufacture vast amounts of whiskey upon which 
 no tax was paid. They secured a great profit, which profit 
 was divided between those who committed the frauds and 
 those who permitted them. Certain persons near the adminis- 
 tration were implicated, or at least open to serious suspicion. 
 The President directed that the prosecutions should be pressed 
 with all vigor ; but Mr. Bristow received most of the credit 
 for the unrelenting vigor with which the prosecutions were 
 carried to a successful issue. Accordingly he became the 
 favorite candidate of those who were most opposed to what it 
 was the fashion to call " Csesarism " and " Grantism." 
 
 Ohio presented her governor, Rutherford B. Hayes, a gen- 
 eral in the Union army during the war, formerly a member of 
 Congress, and in 1876, for the third time, governor of Ohio. 
 Governor John F. Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Mar- 
 shall Jewell, who had been governor of Connecticut, minister 
 to Russia, and Postmaster-general, were also candidates. 
 
 The leading candidate on the Democratic side was Governor 
 Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, but his supremacy was not 
 undisputed. Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, who had received 
 most of the votes of Democratic electors in 1872, after the 
 death of Mr. Greeley, had strong western support. General 
 Hancock was a favorite of the soldiers, as he had been in 1868. 
 Ohio was in the field with ex-Governor William Allen, who 
 had carried the State in 1873. But as the state and district 
 conventions made Mr. Blaine the leading candidate on the 
 Republican side, so those of the Democrats placed Mr. Tilden 
 far in advance of all competitors. Mr. Tilden had gained a 
 high reputation by his warfare against the " Tweed ring " in 
 New York city some years before, and had added to it by his 
 career as governor of the State of New York. But he was 
 opposed most warmly by the Tammany organization in his own 
 city, and this was deemed by many a sufficient reason why he 
 should not be nominated. Such was the situation when the 
 season of national conventions began, in May, 1876.
 
 364 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The first convention of the series was that of the Prohibi- 
 tionists, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio, on the 17th of 
 May. This convention nominated, for President, Green Clay 
 Smith, of Kentucky, and, for Vice-President, G. T. Stewart, of 
 Ohio ; and adopted the following platform : — 
 
 The Prohibition Reform party of the United States, organized 
 in the name of the people to revive, enforce, and perpetuate in the 
 government the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, sub- 
 mit in this centennial year of the republic, for the suffrages of all 
 good citizens, the following platform of national reforms and mea- 
 sures : — 
 
 1. The legal prohibition in the District of Columbia, the Terri- 
 tories, and in every other place subject to the laws of Congress, of 
 the importation, exportation, manufacture, and traffic of all alco- 
 holic beverages as high crimes against society ; an amendment of 
 the national Constitution to render these prohibitory measures uni- 
 versal and permanent ; and the adoption of treaty stipulations with 
 foreign powers to prevent the importation and exportation of all 
 alcoholic beverages. 
 
 2. The abolition of class legislation and of special privileges in 
 the government; and of the adoption of equal suffrage and eligibil- 
 ity to office without distinction of race, religious creed, property, 
 or sex. 
 
 3. The appropriation of the public lands in limited quantities to 
 actual settlers only ; the reduction of the rates of inland and ocean 
 postage; of telegraphic communication; of railroad and water 
 transportation and travel to the lowest practicable point by force 
 of law, wisely and justly framed, with reference not only to the 
 interests of capital employed, but to the higher claims of the gen- 
 eral good. 
 
 4. The suppression by law of lottery and gambling in gold, 
 stocks, produce, and every form of money and property, and the 
 penal inhibition of the use of the public mails for advertising 
 schemes of gambling and lotteries. 
 
 5. The abolition of those foul enormities, polygamy and the 
 social evil, and the protection of purity, peace, and happiness of 
 homes by ample and efficient legislation. 
 
 6. The national observance of the Christian Sabbath, established 
 by laws prohibiting ordinary labor and business in all departments 
 of public service and private employment (works of necessity, char- 
 ity, and religion excepted) on that day. 
 
 7. The establishment by mandatory provisions in national and 
 state constitutions, and by all necessary legislation, of a system of 
 free pviblic schools for the universal and forced education of all 
 the youth of the land.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 365 
 
 8. The free use of the Bible, not as a ground of religious creeds, 
 but as a text-book of the purest morality, the best liberty, and the 
 noblest literature, in our public schools, that our children may 
 grow up in its light, and that its spirit and principles may pervade 
 the nation. 
 
 9. The separation of the government in all departments and 
 institutions, including the public schools and all funds for their 
 maintenance, from the control of every religious sect or other 
 association, and the protection alike of all sects by equal laws, 
 with entire freedom of religious faith and worship. 
 
 10. The introduction into all treaties hereafter negotiated with 
 foreign governments of a provision for the amicable settlement of 
 international difficulties by arbitration. 
 
 11. The abolition of all barbarous modes and instruments of 
 punishment ; the recognition of the laws of God and the claims of 
 humanity in the discipline of jails and prisons, and of that higher 
 and wiser civilization worthy of our age and nation, which regards 
 the reform of criminals as a means for the prevention of crime. 
 
 12. The abolition of executive and legislative patronage, and 
 the election of President, Vice-President, United States senators, 
 and of all civil officers, so far as practicable, by the direct vote of 
 the people. 
 
 13. The practice of a friendly and liberal policy to immigrants 
 from all natioiis, the guarantee to them of ample protection, and 
 of equal rights and privileges. 
 
 14. The separation of the money of government from all bank- 
 ing institutions. The national government only should exercise 
 the high prerogative of issuing paper money, and that should be 
 subject to prompt redemption on demand in gold and silver, the 
 only equal standards of value recognized by the civilized world. 
 
 15. The reduction of the salaries of public officers in a just ratio 
 with the decline of wages and market prices, the abolition of sine- 
 cures, unnecessary offices, and official fees and perquisites; the 
 practice of strict economy in government expenses, and a free and 
 thorough investigation into any and all alleged abuses of public 
 trusts. 
 
 Reference has been made already, in this chapter, to the 
 rise and growth of a party favorable to a paper money regime. 
 It had its origin as early as 1868, when the retirement of 
 greenbacks was prohibited by Congress on the ground that a 
 contraction of the currency was injurious to business. It 
 found expression in the canvass of that year, in the demand 
 that the bonds of the United States should be made payable 
 in greenbacks. After the panic of 1873 the secretary of the
 
 366 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 treasury issued a part of the notes retired six years before, 
 taking the position that the forty-four million dollars so 
 retired were a "reserve." It was urged on the one hand that 
 the volume of the currency ought to be still further, and 
 largely, increased; and on the other that "inflation" was but 
 feeding the financial disease, and that steps should be taken to 
 resume specie payments, suspended since 1862. The contro- 
 versy was severe. The sharp commercial and industrial dis- 
 tress disposed Congress to accede to the call for more paper 
 money, and in 1874 a bill was passed by both branches which 
 authorized an increase. The bill was vetoed by the President, 
 and failed. The advocates of resumption of specie payments 
 took courage from the veto, and an act was passed, as a Repub- 
 lican measure, in 1875, which not only fixed January 1, 1879, 
 as the date on which the government would redeem in coin all 
 its notes on demand, but clothed the secretary of the treasury 
 with practically unlimited authority to borrow money in pre- 
 paration for redemption, and to maintain specie payments 
 afterward. The resumption act was most vigorously opposed ; 
 but it was passed, approved by the President, and ultimately 
 carried into effect. During the period of the agitation over the 
 question a " greenback " convention was held in Indianapolis, 
 which adopted what was then known as " the Ohio idea," — 
 in brief that paper money was less fluctuating in value than 
 coin, and that the volume of the currency should be "equal to 
 the demands of business." Many of the " greenbackers," as 
 they were called, favored " fiat " money, that is, " coined 
 paper," — which was not to be redeemed in coin, but was to 
 be stamped as full legal tender and kept in circulation by the 
 fiat of the government. It may be remarked here that the 
 party which was organized to oppose resumption and to per- 
 petuate the paper money regime is the Populist party of later 
 times, under a new name, with kindred purposes, although it 
 now espouses the cause of silver instead of greenbacks. It 
 will be noticed that in the first platform adopted by the party, 
 three years after " the crime of 1873," — as the act discontin- 
 uing the coinage of the silver dollar has been called, — but 
 before the "crime" had aroused the indignation of the mem- 
 bers of the party, the bonds then being issued for resumption 
 purposes were spoken of as " gold bonds." Indeed, this plat- 
 form is worthy of notice in many points, by those who would 
 study the silver question historically.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 36T 
 
 The first national convention of the Independent National, 
 or Greenback, party, was held at Indianapolis, on May 18, 
 1876. Ignatius Donnelly, of Minnesota, was the temporary 
 chairman, and Thomas J. Durant, of Washington, D. C, the 
 permanent president. Peter Cooper, of New York, was nomi- 
 nated on the first ballot for President, and Senator Newton 
 Booth, of California, for Vice-President. Mr. Booth declined 
 the nomination, and General Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio, was 
 substituted. This convention, in which nineteen States were 
 represented by 239 delegates, adopted the following plat- 
 form : — 
 
 The Independent party is called into existence by the necessities 
 of the people, whose industries are prostrated, whose labor is de- 
 prived of its just reward, by a ruinous policy which the Republican 
 and Democratic parties refuse to change, and in view of the fail- 
 ure of these parties to furnish relief to the depressed industries of 
 the country, thereby disappointing the just hopes and expectations^ 
 of the suffering people, we declare our principles, and invite all 
 independent and patriotic men to join our ranks in this movement 
 for financial reform and industrial emancipation. 
 
 1. We demand the immediate and unconditional repeal of the' 
 specie-resumption act of January 14, 1875, and the rescue of our 
 industries from ruin and disaster resulting from its enforcement ; 
 and we call upon all patriotic men to organize, in every congres- 
 sional district of the country, with a view of electing representa- 
 tives to Congress who will carry out the wishes of the people in 
 this regard, and stop the present suicidal and destructive policy of 
 contraction. 
 
 2. We believe that a United States note, issued directly by the 
 government, and convertible on demand into United States obli- 
 gations, bearing a rate of interest not exceeding one cent a day on 
 each one hundred dollars, and exchangeable for United States; 
 notes at par, will afford the best circulating medium ever devised. 
 Such United States notes should be full legal tender for all pur- 
 poses except for the payment of such obligations as are, by exist- 
 ing contracts, especially made payable in coin, and we hold that it 
 is the duty of the government to provide such circulating medium, 
 and insist, in the language of Thomas Jefferson, that bank paper 
 must be suppressed, and the circulation restored to the nation, to 
 whom it belongs. 
 
 3. It is the paramount duty of the government, in all its legisla- 
 tion, to keep in view the full development of all legitimate busi- 
 ness, agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and commercial. 
 
 4. We most earnestly protest against any further issue of gold
 
 368 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 bonds, for sale in foreign markets, by which we would be made, 
 for a long period, hewers of wood and drawers of water for for- 
 eigners, especially as the American people would gladly and 
 promptly take, at par, all bonds the government may need to seU, 
 provided they are made payable at the option of the holder, and 
 bearing interest at 3.65 per cent, per annum, or even a lower rate. 
 5. We further protest against the sale of government bonds for 
 the pui-pose of purchasing silver, to be used as a substitute for our 
 more convenient and less fluctuating fractional currency, which, 
 although well calculated to enrich owners of silver mines, yet in 
 operation it will still further oppress, in taxation, an already over- 
 burdened people. 
 
 The Republican convention met at Cincinnati on June 14. 
 As the day approached, the public interest in the meeting 
 became very great. The delegates elected in most of the 
 States were pledged to one or another of the candidates. Each 
 of the three largest States had a candidate of its own. New 
 York, with 70 delegates, was substantially unanimous for Mr. 
 Conkling ; Pennsylvania, with 58 delegates, was instructed to 
 vote for General Hartranft ; Ohio, whose delegates numbered 
 44, was united in support of Governor Hayes. These three 
 candidates thus held 172 votes out of the 756 to which all the 
 States and Territories were entitled. Mr. Morton had, in addi- 
 tion to the 30 votes of his own Indiana delegation, nearly 100 
 more pledged to him, every one of which was from the South- 
 ern States. The Bristow strength was unknown, but was 
 believed to be about 100 votes. It was evident from the 
 beginning that, if the forces of these five candidates could be 
 united, the defeat of Mr. Blaine, whose delegates were more 
 than twice as numerous as those of any other candidate, was 
 assured. The party was roughly divided into two wings, one 
 of which was warmly in favor of the Grant administration, 
 while the other desired "reform within the party." The pre- 
 vailing sentiment was decidedly hostile to a perpetuation of 
 the Grant administration under a new head. The administra- 
 tion strength was represented, accurately enough, by the Conk- 
 ling and Morton contingents. The rest of the delegates were, 
 for the most part, opposed to any one who might seem to be 
 the political heir of the President. Many of the adherents of 
 Mr. Bristow were as strongly opposed to Mr. Blaine as they 
 were to what they called " the Grant dynasty." The charges 
 brought against Mr, Blaine were in process of investigation
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 369 
 
 almost up to the very day that the convention met. Many 
 delegates believed the charges to be true ; and although a large 
 majority of the delegates probably disbelieved them, some of 
 them deemed it bad policy to nominate a man who was so seri- 
 ously assailed. On the Sunday morning before the convention, 
 Mr. Blaine suffered a sunstroke, and was, for a day or two, 
 believed to be dangerously ill. This also was unfortunate for 
 him, and probably cost him some votes. 
 
 Theodore M. Pomeroy, of New York, was temporary chair- 
 man of the convention, and Edward McPherson, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, was the permanent president. On the second day the 
 adoption of the rules drafted by the committee on rules intro- 
 duced some important reforms in national convention work. 
 It was decided that the report of the committee on credentials 
 should be disposed of first, the platform next, and only then 
 should the nomination of candidates be in order. Another 
 rule put an end to the practice of " stampeding," by providing 
 that the roll-call should in no case be dispensed with ; and 
 that after the vote of a State for candidates was announced it 
 should not be changed on that ballot. 
 
 There were several contested elections, but the only impor- 
 tant case was that of Alabama, where one delegation, headed by 
 Senator Spencer, was in favor of Mr. Morton, the other, headed 
 by Mr. Haralson, a colored member of Congress, was divided 
 between Mr. Blaine and Mr. Bristow. The Spencer delegation 
 was refused admittance by a vote of 375 to 354, and the Har- 
 alson delegation was admitted. The following platform was 
 then reported by Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut : — 
 
 When, in the economy of Providence, this land was to be purged 
 of human slavery, and when the strength of government of the 
 people, by the people, and for the people, was to be demonstrated, 
 the Republican party came into power. Its deeds have passed 
 into history, and we look back to them with pride. Incited by 
 their memories to high aims for the good of our country and man- 
 kind, and looking to the future with unfaltering courage, hope, 
 and purpose, we, the representatives of the party in national con- 
 vention assembled, make the following declaration of principles : — 
 
 1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league. By 
 the combined workings of the national and state governments, 
 under their respective coiistitutions, the rights of every citizen are 
 secured, at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted. 
 
 2. The Republican party has preserved these governments to the
 
 370 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 hundredth anniversary of the nation's birth, and they are now 
 embodiments of the great truths spoken at its cradle, " That all 
 men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness ; that for the attainment of these ends gov- 
 ernments have been instituted among men, deriving their just 
 powers f]-om the consent of the governed." Until these truths are 
 cheerfully obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced, the work of 
 the Republican party is unfinished. 
 
 3. The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the 
 Union, and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free 
 enjoyment of all their rights, is a duty to which the Republican 
 party stands sacredly pledged. The power to provide for the en- 
 foi'cement of the principles embodied by the recent constitutional 
 amendments is vested by those amendments in the Congress of the 
 United States, and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of 
 the legislative and executive departments of the government to put 
 into immediate and vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers 
 for removing any just causes of discontent on the part of any class, 
 and for securing to every American citizen complete liberty and 
 exact equality in the exercise of aU civil, political, and public rights. 
 To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief Ex- 
 ecutive whose courage and fidelity to these duties shall not falter 
 until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall. 
 
 4. In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant, the 
 national government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose 
 to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and " sol- 
 emnly pledged its faith to make provision, at the earliest practi- 
 cable period, for the redemption of the United States notes in coin." 
 Commercial prosperity, public morals, and national credit demand 
 that this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress 
 to specie payment. 
 
 5. Under the Constitution the President and heads of depart- 
 ments are to make nominations for office ; the Senate is to advise 
 and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is 
 to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the 
 public service demands that these distinctions be respected ; that 
 senators and representatives, who may be judges and accusers, 
 should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in 
 appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity, and 
 capacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places 
 where harmony and vigor of administration require its policyto be 
 represented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons se- 
 lected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and 
 the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful 
 service to the country.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 371 
 
 6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people concern- 
 ing political affairs, and will hold all public officers to a rigid re- 
 sponsibility, and engage that the prosecution and punishment of 
 all who betray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, and un- 
 sparing. 
 
 7. The public-school system of the several States is a bulwark 
 of the American Republic, and, with a view to its security and per- 
 manence, we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of the 
 United States forbidding the application of any public funds or 
 property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sec- 
 tarian control. 
 
 8. The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obli- 
 gations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon 
 importations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to pro- 
 mote the interests of American labor and advance the prosperity 
 of the whole country. 
 
 9. We reaffirm our opposition to further grants of the public 
 land to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national 
 domain be devoted to free homes for the people. 
 
 10. It is the imperative duty of the government so to modify 
 existing treaties with European governments that the same pro- 
 tection shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is 
 given to the native-born ; and that all necessary laws should be 
 passed to protect emigrants, in the absence of power in the States 
 for that purpose. 
 
 11. It is the immediate duty of Congress fully to investigate the 
 effect of immigration and importation of Mongolians upon the 
 moral and material interests of the country. 
 
 12. The Republican party recognizes with its approval the sub- 
 stantial advances recently made toward the establishment of equal 
 rights for women by the many important amendments effected by 
 Republican legislatures in the laws which concern the personal 
 and property relations of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the 
 appointment and election of women to the superintendence of edu- 
 cation, charities, and other public trusts. The honest demands of 
 this class of citizens for additional rights, privileges, and immuni- 
 ties should be treated with' respectful consideration. 
 
 13. The Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power 
 over the Tei'ritories of the United States for their government, and 
 in the exercise of this power it is the right and duty of Congress to 
 prohibit and extirpate, in the Territories, that relic of barbarism, 
 polygamy ; and we demand such legislation as shall secure this end 
 and the supremacy of American institutions in all the Territories. 
 
 14. The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and 
 sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold
 
 372 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 those who imperilled their lives for the country's preservation in 
 the kindest remembrance. 
 
 15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feeling and tendencies. 
 We therefore note with deep solicitude that the Democratic party 
 counts, as its chief hoj)e of success, upon the electoral vote of a 
 united South, secured through the efforts of those who were re- 
 cently arrayed against the nation ; and we invoke the earnest atten- 
 tion of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved 
 would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and 
 human rights. 
 
 16. We charge the Democratic party with being the same in 
 character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason ; with 
 making its control of the House of Representatives the triumph 
 and opportunity of the nation's recent foes ; with reasserting and 
 applauding in the national Capitol the sentiments of unrepentant 
 rebellion ; with sending Union soldiers to the rear, and promoting 
 Confederate soldiers to the front ; with deliberately proposing to 
 repudiate the plighted faith of the government ; with being equally 
 false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial questions ; 
 with thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement 
 and obstruction of investigation ; with proving itself, through the 
 period of its ascendency in the lower House of Congress, utterly 
 incompetent to administer the government; and we warn the 
 country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant, 
 and incapable. 
 
 17. The national administration merits commendation for its 
 honorable work in the management of domestic and foreign affairs, 
 and President Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the 
 American people for his patriotism and his eminent services, in war 
 and in peace. 
 
 18. We present as our candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States two distinguished statesmen, of eminent 
 ability and character, and conspicuously fitted for those high 
 offices, and we confidently appeal to the American people to en- 
 trust the administration of their public affairs to Rutherford B. 
 Hayes and WUliam A. Wheeler. 
 
 The last resolution, of course, was added to the series after 
 the nominations had been made. When the resolutions had 
 been read, Mr. Edward L. Pierce, of Massachusetts, moved to 
 strike out the eleventh resolution, relating to the Chinese. 
 After a brief debate the motion was rejected, yeas 215, nays 
 532. Mr. E. J. Davis, of Texas, moved to strike out the fourth 
 resolution, and to substitute the following : — 
 
 That it is the duty of Congress to provide for carrying out the
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 
 
 373 
 
 act known as the Resumption Act of Congress, to the end that the 
 resumption of specie payments may not be longer delayed. 
 
 A debate took place upon this proposition also, but the 
 motion was rejected without a count, and the platform was 
 then adopted. The proceedings of the second day closed with 
 the formal nomination of candidates. Some of the speeches 
 were remarkable efforts, and excited the partisans of the several 
 candidates to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. 
 
 On the third day the nominations were made. On the first 
 vote Mr. Blaine received 285 ; Mr. Morton 125 ; IVIr. Bristow 
 113 ; Mr. Conkling 99 ; Mr. Hayes 61 ; Mr. Hartranft 58 ; Mr. 
 Jewell 11 ; and Mr. William A. Wheeler, of New York, 3. Mr. 
 Blaine's strength was made up of 77 votes from the South, 
 and of 208 from Northern States, including some votes from 
 almost every State except those which presented candidates 
 of their own, Mr. Morton had 30 votes from Indiana, and 
 95 from Southern States. Mr. Bristow's votes were given by 
 seventeen States and one Territory, and were strictly scatter- 
 ing, except the votes of Kentucky, his own State, 17 from 
 Massachusetts, and 10 from Tennessee. Mr. Conkling's 99 
 were made up of 69 from New York and a few scattering 
 votes from nine other States ; the South contributing 25 of 
 the 30. Mr. Hayes had 17 votes from other States than 
 Ohio. The other candidates received no votes except from 
 their respective States. Seven trials were necessary to effect 
 a choice. They resulted as follows : — 
 
 
 1st. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 4th. 
 
 5th. 
 
 6th. 
 
 7th. 
 
 Blaine 
 
 285 
 
 296 
 
 293 
 
 292 
 
 286 
 
 308 
 
 351 
 
 Morton . 
 
 
 
 125 
 
 120 
 
 113 
 
 108 
 
 95 
 
 85 
 
 _ 
 
 Bristow 
 
 
 
 113 
 
 114 
 
 121 
 
 126 
 
 114 
 
 111 
 
 21 
 
 Conkling' 
 
 
 
 99 
 
 93 
 
 90 
 
 84 
 
 82 
 
 81 
 
 - 
 
 Hayes . 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 64 
 
 67 
 
 68 
 
 104 
 
 113 
 
 384 
 
 Hartranft 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 63 
 
 68 
 
 71 
 
 69 
 
 50 
 
 _ 
 
 Jewell . 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Scattering 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Whole number . . 
 
 754 
 
 754 
 
 755 
 
 7.54 
 
 755 
 
 755 
 
 756 
 
 Necessary .... 
 
 378 
 
 378 
 
 378 
 
 378 
 
 378 
 
 378 
 
 379 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Hayes was made unanimous. It 
 seemed to be inevitable when the fifth ballot was announced.
 
 374 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Mr. Hajes was the only candidate who had made a gain on 
 ever}^ vote ; and as he was entirely unobjectionable to the friends 
 of all other candidates, it was less difficult to concentrate votes 
 upon him than upon any other person in the list. Mr. Blaine, 
 who was informed by telegraph at his house in Washington 
 of the progress of the voting, wrote a dispatch congratulating 
 Mr. Hayes immediately on receiving the result of the fifth 
 vote. 
 
 During the progress of the voting a stormy scene took place 
 upon the demand of four Pennsylvania delegates to have their 
 votes separately recorded. The delegation had been instructed 
 to vote " as a unit," and these delegates claimed the right to 
 vote for themselves. Mr. McPherson, the president of the 
 convention, sustained their demand, and, on an appeal, his 
 decision was affirmed, 395 to 354. Thus was broken the 
 famous '' unit rule," which, after one more contest at Chicago, 
 four years later, was abandoned by the Republicans, no doubt 
 forever. 
 
 Several candidates were presented for the nomination for 
 Vice-President, but, as the voting proceeded, nearly all the 
 votes were for William A. Wheeler, of New York. The other 
 candidates were thereupon withdrawn, and Mr. Wheeler was 
 unanimously nominated. The convention soon afterward ad- 
 journed, with cheers for the ticket. 
 
 The Democrats met at St. Louis two weeks later. The 
 convention was deprived of much of its interest by the fact 
 that Mr. Tilden's lead for the nomination was so great. He 
 was known to have more than four hundred delegates out of 
 the whole convention of 744, and, while his candidacy was 
 opposed, the opposition came from States which nevertheless 
 sent delegations unanimously in his favor. The delegates 
 who were not for him were not against him. His nomina- 
 tion was therefore universally expected, except by the more 
 sanguine friends of other candidates. 
 
 Mr. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, was the temporary chair- 
 man, and General John A. McCIernand, of Illinois, the perma- 
 nent president. On the second day the platform was reported 
 by Mr. Dorsheimer, of New York, as follows : — 
 
 We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States, 
 in national convention assembled, do hereby declare the adminis- 
 tration of the federal government to be in urgent need of im- 
 mediate reform; do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 375 
 
 convention, and of the Democratic party in each State, a zealous 
 effort and cooperation to this end ; and do hereby appeal to our 
 fellow-citizens of every former political connection to undertake 
 with us this first and most pressing patriotic duty. 
 
 For the Democracy of the whole country, we do here reaffirm 
 our faith in the permanence of the federal Union, our devotion to 
 the Constitution of the United States, with its amendments uni- 
 versally accepted as a final settlement of the controversies that 
 engendered civil war, and do here record our steadfast confidence 
 in the perpetuity of republican self-government. 
 
 In absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority, — the vital 
 principle of republics ; in the supremacy of the civil over the mili- 
 tary authority ; in the total separation of Church and State, for the 
 sake alike of civil and religious freedom ; in the equality of all 
 citizens before just laws of their own enactment ; in the liberty of 
 individual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary laws ; in the faithful 
 education of the rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy, 
 and transmit these best conditions of human happiness and hope, 
 — we behold the noblest products of a hundi'ed years of changeful 
 history ; but, while upholding the bond of our Union and great 
 charter of these our rights, it behooves a free people to practice 
 also that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty. 
 
 Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the hearts of the 
 whole people the Union, eleven years ago happily rescued from the 
 danger of a secession of States, but now to be saved from a corrupt 
 centralism which, after inflicting upon ten States the rapacity of 
 carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed the offices of the federal 
 government itself with incapacity, waste, and fraud; infected 
 States and municipalities with the contagion of misrule, and locked 
 fast the prosperity of an industrious people in the paralysis of hard 
 times. 
 
 Reform is necessary to establish a sound currency, restore the 
 public credit, and maintain the national honor. 
 
 We denounce the failure, for all these eleven years of peace, to 
 make good the promise of the legal tender notes, which are a 
 changing standard of value in the hands of the people, and the 
 non-payment of which is a disregard of the plighted faith of 
 the nation. 
 
 We denounce the improvidence which, in eleven years of peace, 
 has taken from the people in federal taxes thirteen times the 
 whole amount of the legal tender notes, and squandered four times 
 their sum in useless expense without accumulating any reserve for 
 their redemption. 
 
 We denounce the financial imbecility and immorality of that 
 party which, during eleven years of peace, has made no advance
 
 376 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 toward resumption, no preparation for resumption, but instead has 
 obstructed resumption, by wasting our resources and exhausting 
 all our surplus income ; and, while annually professing to intend a 
 speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hin- 
 drances thereto. As such hindrance, we denounce the resumption 
 clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal. 
 
 We demand a judicious system of preparation by public eco- 
 nomy, by official retrenchment, and by wise finance, which shall 
 enable the nation soon to assure the whole world of its perfect 
 ability and its perfect readiness to meet any of its promises at 
 the call of the creditor entitled to payment. 
 
 We believe such a system, well devised, and, above all, entrusted 
 to competent hands for its execution, creating at no time an arti- 
 ficial scarcity of currency, and at no time alarming the public 
 mind into a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of credit by which 
 ninety-five per cent, of all business transactions are performed, — a 
 system open, public, and inspiring general confidence, — would, 
 from the day of its adoption, bring healing on its wings to all our 
 harassed industries, set in motion the wheels of commerce, manu- 
 factures, and the mechanic arts, restore employment to labor, and 
 renew in all its natural resources the prosperity of the people. 
 
 Reform is necessary in the sum and modes of federal taxation, 
 to the end that capital may be set free from distrust, and labor 
 lightly burdened. 
 
 We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four thou- 
 sand articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and false 
 pretence. It yields a dwindling, not a yearly rising revenue. It 
 has impoverished many industries to subsidize a few. It prohibits 
 imports that might purchase the products of American labor. It 
 has degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior 
 rank on the high seas. It has cut down the sales of American 
 manufactures at home and abroad and depleted the returns of 
 American agriculture, — an industry followed by half our people. 
 It costs the people five times more than it produces to the treasury, 
 obstructs the processes of production, and wastes the fruits of 
 labor. It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest 
 officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all 
 custom-house taxation shall be only for revenue. 
 
 Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense, — federal, 
 state, and municipal. Our federal taxation has swollen from sixty 
 millions gold, in 1860, to four hundred and fifty millions cur- 
 rency, in 1870 ; our aggregate taxation from one hundred and fifty- 
 four millions gold, in 1860, to seven hundred and thirty millions 
 currency, in 1870 ; or in one decade from less than five dollars per 
 head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace, the
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 377 
 
 people have paid to their tax-gatherers more than thrice the sura 
 of the national debt, and more than twice that sum for the fed- 
 eral government alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in every 
 department, and from every officer of the government. 
 
 Reform is necessary to put a stop to the profligate vpaste of the 
 public lands, and their diversion from actual settlers by the party 
 in power, which has squandered two hundred million acres upon 
 railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has 
 disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers of the soil. 
 
 Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican 
 Congress, and the ei'rors of our treaties and diplomacy, which have 
 stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth and kindred race, re- 
 crossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and 
 have exposed our brethren of the Pacific Coast to the incursions of 
 a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and, in fact, 
 now by law denied citizenship through naturalization as being 
 neither accustomed to the traditions of a progressive civilization 
 nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy 
 which thus discards the liberty-loving German and tolerates a 
 revival of the cooly trade in Mongolian women imported for im- 
 moral purposes, and Mongolian men held to perfoi'm servile labor- 
 contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the 
 Chinese empire or such legislation within constitutional limitations 
 as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mon- 
 golian race. 
 
 Reform is necessary, and can never be effected but by making it 
 the controlling issue of the elections, and lifting it above the two 
 false issues with which the office-holding class and the party in 
 power seek to smother it : — 
 
 1. The false issue with which they would enkindle sectarian 
 strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment 
 and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which 
 the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation, and is 
 resolved to maintain without prejudice or preference for any class, 
 sect, or creed, and without largesses from the treasury to any. 
 
 2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the dying 
 embers of sectional hate between kindred peoples once estranged, 
 but now reunited in one indivisible republic and a common 
 destiny. 
 
 Reform is necessary in the civil service. Experience proves that 
 efficient, economical conduct of the governmental business is not 
 possible if its civil service be subject to change at every election ; 
 be a prize fought for at the ballot-box ; be a brief reward of party 
 zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned for proved competency, 
 and held for fidelity in the public employ ; that the dispensing of
 
 378 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 patronage should neither be a tax upon the time of all our public 
 men, nor the instrument of their ambition. Here, again, promises 
 falsified in the performance attest that the party in power cai> 
 work out no practical or salutary reform. 
 
 Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the pub- 
 lic service. President, Vice-President, judges, senators, represent- 
 atives, cabinet officers, — these and all others in authority are the 
 people's servants. Their offices are not a private perquisite ; they 
 are a public trust. 
 
 When the annals of this republic show the disgrace and censure 
 of a Vice-President ; a late Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives marketing his rulings as a presiding officer ; three senators 
 profiting secretly by their votes as law-makers ; five chairmen of 
 the leading committees of the House of Representatives exposed 
 in jobbery; a late secretary of the treasury forcing balances in 
 the public accounts ; a late attorney-general misappropriating pub- 
 lic funds ; a secretary of the navy enriched or enriching friends 
 by percentages levied off the profits of contractors with his depart- 
 ment; an ambassador to England censured in a dishonorable 
 speculation ; the President's private secretary barely escaping con- 
 viction upon trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the revenue ; 
 a secretary of war impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, 
 — the demonstration is complete that the first step in reform must 
 be the people's choice of honest men from another party, lest the 
 disease of one political organization infect the body politic, and 
 lest, by making no change of men or parties, we get no change of 
 measures and no real reform. 
 
 All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes, the product of sixteen 
 years' ascendency of the Republican party, create a necessity for 
 reform confessed by Republicans themselves ; but their reformers 
 are voted down in convention and displaced from the cabinet. 
 The party's mass of honest voters is powerless to resist the eighty 
 thousand office-holders, its leaders and guides. 
 
 Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. We 
 demand a change of system, a change of administration, a change 
 of parties, that we may have change of measures and of men. 
 
 Resolved, That this convention, representing the Democratic 
 party of the United States, do cordially indorse the action of the 
 present House of Representatives in reducing and curtailing the 
 expenses of the federal government, in cutting down salaries, ex- 
 travagant appropriations, and in abolishing useless offices and 
 places not required by the public necessities : and we shall trust 
 to the firmness of the Democratic members of the House that no 
 committee of conference, and no misinterpretation of the rules, 
 shall be allowed to defeat these wholesome measures of economy 
 demanded by the country.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 379 
 
 Resolved, That the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and the 
 widows and orphans of those who have fallen in battle, have a 
 just claim upon the care, protection, and gratitude of their fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 When the report was read, General Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, 
 moved to strike from the platform, in the eighth paragraph, 
 the words, " As such hindrance, we denounce the resumption 
 clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal," in 
 order to insert the words : " The law for the resumption of 
 specie payments on the 1st of January, 1879, having been en- 
 acted by the Kepublican party without deliberation in Congress 
 or discussion before the people, and being both ineffective to 
 secure its objects and highly injurious to the business of the 
 country, ought to be forthwith repealed." This was in accord- 
 ance with a minority report signed by eight members of the 
 committee on resolutions, representing the '' Ohio idea." The 
 amendment was rejected, ayes 219, noes 550 ; and the plat- 
 form as reported was adopted, ayes 651, noes 83. 
 
 The convention then proceeded to the work of nominating 
 a candidate for President. After the formal presentation of 
 names, two votes were taken amid great excitement, with the 
 following result : — 
 
 First. Second. 
 
 Samuel J. Tilden, New York 417 535 
 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana .... 140 60 
 
 Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania ... 75 59 
 
 William Allen, Ohio 56 54 
 
 Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware 33 11 
 
 Joel Parker, New Jersey 18 18 
 
 AUen G. Thurman, Ohio — 7 
 
 The whole number of votes on the second ballot being 744, 
 the number necessary to a choice was 496, — the two-thirds 
 rule having been adopted. Mr. Tilden was accordingly nomi- 
 nated, and the choice was enthusiastically made unanimous. 
 On the next day Thomas A. Hendricks was nominated for 
 Vice-President by a unanimous vote, though the Indiana dele- 
 gation protested that they did not know if he woiild accept 
 the second place on the ticket, and the convention shortly 
 afterward adjourned. 
 
 The canvass which followed was comparatively spiritless. 
 Mr. Hayes was not sufficiently well known to arouse enthusi- 
 asm, and Mr. Tilden, though commanding respect for his
 
 380 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ability, was not a candidate to draw to himself strong personal 
 supporters. The Republicans were on the defensive ; but 
 this fact served to make the political discussion of the time 
 more strictly a debate about measures and policies than it had 
 been for many years. The Democrats denounced the record 
 of the Republicans ; the Republicans derided the reform pro- 
 fessions of their opponents as insincere. Great efforts were 
 made by the Republicans to cast discredit upon Mr. Tilden for 
 his connection with certain railroad enterprises ; and a suit was 
 brought against him for income tax alleged to be due by him to 
 the government. The Democrats sneered at Mr. Hayes as an 
 unknown man, and roundly denounced the political assessments 
 which were levied mercilessly upon the office-holders for funds 
 to carry the elections. The Republicans made much of the 
 opposition of the Democrats to the resumption policy, though 
 it was well known that Mr. Tilden was a " hard-money man." 
 But on the whole there was less than the usual amount of ex- 
 citement during the canvass, and less of the usual fireworks of 
 presidential campaigns. Not many Republicans were confi- 
 dent of success, and the result of the early elections, particu- 
 larly that of Indiana in October, indicated that the Democrats 
 would have enough Northern votes, together with the " solid 
 South," to give them a victory. 
 
 Thirty-eight States participated in the election. Colorado 
 had been admitted to the Union in August, 1876, and, in 
 order to save an additional election, the choice of electors for 
 that occasion was conferred upon the legislature. All the other 
 States appointed them by popular vote. The polls had hardly 
 closed on the day of election, the 7th of November, when the 
 Democrats began to claim the presidency. The returns came 
 in so unfavorably for the Republicans that there was hardly 
 a newspaper organ of the party which did not, on the following 
 morning, concede the election of Mr. Tilden. He was be- 
 lieved to have carried every Southern State, as well as New 
 York, Indiana, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The whole 
 number of electoral votes was 369. If the above estimate 
 were correct, the Democratic candidates would have 203 votes, 
 and the Republican candidates 166 votes. But word was 
 sent out on the same day from Republican headquarters at 
 Washington that Hayes and Wheeler were elected by one ma- 
 jority ; that the States of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisi- 
 ana had chosen Republican electors.
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 381 
 
 Then began the most extraordinary contest that ever took 
 place in the country. The only hope of the Republicans was 
 in the perfect defence of their position. The loss of a single 
 vote would be fatal. An adequate history of the four months 
 between the popular election and the inauguration of Mr. 
 Hayes would fill volumes. Space can be given here for a 
 bare reference only to some of the most important events. 
 Neither party was over-scrupulous, and no doubt the acts of 
 some members of each party were grossly illegal and corrupt. 
 Attempts were even made to find a Eepublican elector who 
 would vote for Mr. Tilden in consideration of a large sum of 
 money as a bribe. The funds were provided, and mysterious 
 correspondence by telegraph was held between men who were 
 connected with Democratic political committees and those in 
 the several States who were seeking for a venal elector. The 
 whole scandal came to light afterward when the key to the 
 famous " cipher dispatches " was discovered. 
 
 In four States, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and 
 Oregon, there were double returns. In South Carolina there 
 were loud complaints that detachments of the army, stationed 
 near the polls, had prevented a fair and free election. 
 Although the board of state canvassers certified to the choice 
 of the Hayes electors, who were chosen on the face of the 
 returns, the Democratic candidates for electors met on the day 
 fixed for the meeting of electors and cast ballots for Tilden 
 and Hendricks. In Florida there were allegations of fraud on 
 both sides. The canvassing board and the governor certified 
 to the election of the Hayes electors, but, fortified by a court 
 decision in their favor, the Democratic electors also met and 
 voted. In Louisiana there was anarchy. There were two gov- 
 ernors, two returning boards, two sets of returns showing dif- 
 ferent results, and two electoral colleges. In Oregon the 
 Democratic governor adjudged one of the Eepublican electors 
 ineligible, and gave a certificate to the highest candidate on 
 the Democratic list. The Republican electors, having no cer- 
 tificate from the governor, met and voted for Hayes and 
 Wheeler. The Democratic elector, whose appointment was 
 certified to by the governor, appointed two others to fill the 
 vacancies, since the two Republican electors would not meet 
 with him, and the three voted for Tilden and Hendricks. All 
 of these cases were extremely complicated in their incidents, 
 and a brief account which should convey an intelligible idea of
 
 382 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 what occurred is impossible. For the first and only time in 
 the history of the country, the election ended in such a way 
 as to leave the result in doubt ; and in two States the number 
 of legal votes given for the electors was in dispute. In these 
 States the returns were also open to the suspicion of having 
 been manipulated by each party to bring about a desired result. 
 The table of the popular vote on the next page shows both 
 returns in the disputed States. 
 
 As soon as the electoral votes had been cast it became a ques- 
 tion of the greatest importance how they were to be counted. 
 Congress was divided, politically. The Senate and its Presi- 
 dent pro tempore, Mr. Ferry, of Michigan, were Republican ; 
 the House of Representatives was Democratic. It was evi- 
 dent that the Senate would refuse to be governed by the 
 twenty-second joint rule, — in fact the Senate voted to rescind 
 the rule, — and it was further evident that if the count were 
 to take place in accordance with that rule it would result in 
 throwing out electoral votes on both sides on the most frivolous 
 pretexts. It was asserted by the Republicans that, under the 
 Constitution, the President of the Senate alone had the right 
 to count, in spite of the fact that the joint rule, the work of 
 their party, had assumed the power for the two Houses of 
 Congress. On the other hand, the Democrats, who had always 
 denounced that rule as unconstitutional, now maintained that 
 the right to count was conferred upon Congress. A compro- 
 mise became necessary, and the moderate men on both sides 
 determined to effect the establishment of a tribunal, as evenly 
 divided politically as might be, which should decide all dis- 
 puted questions so far as the Constitution gave authority to 
 Congress to decide them. The outcome of their efforts was the 
 Electoral Commission law of 1877, which was passed as origi- 
 nally reported, as follows : — 
 
 An act to provide for and regulate the counting of votes for Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President, and the decision of questions arising 
 thereon, for the term commencing March 4, a. d. 1877. 
 Be it enacted, etc., That the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives shall meet in the hall of the House of Representatives at the 
 hour of one o'clock, post meridian, on the first Thursday in Feb- 
 ruary, A. D. 1877, and the President of the Senate shall be their 
 presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on 
 the part of the Senate, and two on the part of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 
 
 383 
 
 Statks. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 California . . . . , 
 Colorado* .... 
 Connecticut . . . . , 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Floridat 
 
 FloridaJ 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisianat 
 
 Louisiana! 
 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Massachusetts . . . . 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada 
 
 New Hampshire . . . 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 North Carolina . . . . 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Pennsylvania . . . . 
 Rhode Island . . . . 
 South Carolina . . . . 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Vermont ...... 
 
 Virginia 
 
 West Virginia . . . . 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Total Republican count 
 Total Democratic count 
 
 OS 
 
 102,989 
 58,071 
 76,468 
 
 61,934 
 
 13,.381 
 
 22,927 
 
 24,434 
 
 130,088 
 
 258,601 
 
 213,526 
 
 112,121 
 
 37,902 
 
 159,696 
 
 70,508 
 
 83,723 
 
 49,917 
 
 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 
 
 366,204 
 
 10,712 
 
 90,896 
 
 133,166 
 
 104,803 
 
 20,350 
 
 139,670 
 
 56,495 
 
 123,926 
 
 4,285,992 
 4,300,590 
 
 68,708 
 38,669 
 
 78,322 
 
 59,034 
 
 10,752 
 
 23,849 
 
 24,340 
 
 50,446 
 
 278,232 
 
 208,011 
 
 171,326 
 
 78,322 
 
 97,156 
 
 75,315 
 
 77,174 
 
 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 
 
 384,184 
 
 15,787 
 
 91,870 
 
 89,566 
 
 44,803 
 
 44,428 
 
 95,558 
 
 42,046 
 
 130,070 
 
 4,033,768 
 4,036,298 
 
 289 
 44 
 
 774 
 
 9',533 
 17,233 
 9,901 
 7,776 
 1,944 
 
 663 
 33 
 
 779 
 9,060 
 2,311 
 
 3,498 
 2,320 
 
 76 
 712 
 
 1,987 
 
 3,057 
 510 
 
 7,187 
 68 
 
 13*73 
 1^09 
 
 81,737 
 81,737 
 
 o 
 
 37S 
 
 141 
 
 36 
 
 110 
 
 818 
 
 10 
 
 84 
 
 766 
 
 72 
 
 64 
 1,599 
 
 43 
 2,359 
 
 1,636 
 
 1,319 
 60 
 
 27 
 
 9,522 
 9,522 
 
 • Electors appointed by the legislature, t Republican count. J Democratic count.
 
 384 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to 
 be certificates of electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall 
 be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of 
 the States, beginning with the letter A ; and said tellers having 
 then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses, 
 shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said 
 certificates ; and the votes having been ascertained and counted as 
 in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered 
 to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the 
 state of the vote and the names of the persons, if any, elected, 
 which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of 
 the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, and, together with a list of the votes, shall be entered upon 
 the journals of the two Houses. Upon such reading of any such 
 certificate or paper, when there shall be only one return from a 
 State, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. 
 Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly 
 and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and 
 shall be signed by at least one senator and one member of the 
 House of Representatives, before the same shall be received. 
 When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State 
 shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon with- 
 draw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its 
 decision, and the speaker of the House of Representatives shall in 
 like manner submit such objections to the House of Representa- 
 tives for its decision, and no electoral vote or votes from any State 
 from which but one return has been received shall be rejected 
 except by the affirmative vote of the two Houses. When the two 
 Houses have voted they shall immediately again meet, and the 
 presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the question 
 submitted. 
 
 Sec. 2. That if more than one return or paper, purporting to be 
 a return from a State, shall have been received by the President 
 of the Senate, purporting to be the certificates of the electoral 
 votes given at the last preceding election for President and Vice- 
 President in such State, unless they shall be duplicates of the 
 same return, all such returns and papers shall be opened by him in 
 the presence of the two Houses, when met as aforesaid, and read 
 by the tellers ; and all such returns and papers shall thereupon be 
 submitted to the judgment and decision, as to which is the true 
 and lawful electoral vote of such State, of a commission constituted 
 as follows, namely : — 
 
 During the session of each House on the Tuesday next preceding 
 the first Thursday in February, a. d. 1877, each House shall by 
 viva voce vote appoint five of its members, who, with the five
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 885 
 
 associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, to 
 be ascertained as liereinafter provided, shall constitute a coniinis- 
 sion for the decision of all questions upon or in resptHit of such 
 double returns named in this s(!ction. Ou the 'I'uesday nt^xt j)re- 
 ceding the first Thursday in February, A. d. 1H77, or as soon there- 
 after as may be, the associate justices of the Supi'eme Court ol' thd 
 United States, now assigned to the first, third, eighth, and ninth 
 circuits, shall select, in such manner as a nuijority of them shall 
 deem fit, another of the associate justices of said court, which fivo 
 persons shall be members of the said commission; and the j)erHon 
 longest in commission of said iive justices shall be tin; jjrcsidi'ut of 
 said commission. Mend»ers of said commission shall resi)eetively 
 take and subscribe the following oath : — 
 
 "I, , do solemnly swear (or adirm, as the case may b(!) 
 
 that I will impartially examine and consider all (luestions sub- 
 mitted to tlie comnussion of which I am a member, and a truo 
 judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the laws, 
 so help me God." 
 
 Which oath shall be filed with the secnitary of th(i SfMiate. 
 When the commission shall have been thus organized it shall not 
 be in the power of either House to dissolve the same, or to with- 
 draw any of its members ; but if any such senator or member shall 
 die, or become physically unable to perform the duties re(|nij"»!(I 
 by this act, the fact of such death or physical inability shall b(! by 
 said coiTimission, before it shall [troceed further, conimimieaUtd to 
 the Senate or House of Kei)resentatives, as the cas(! inay be, which 
 body shall immediately and without debate proceed l>y viva voce 
 vote to fill the place so vacated, and the p(;rsori so ajjftointed shall 
 take and subscribe the oath hereiiibef(;re prescribed, and become a 
 memVjer of said commission; and, in like manner, if any of said 
 justices of the Supreme Court shall die or become physically inca- 
 pable of performing the duties required by this act, the; other of 
 said justices, members of the said commission, shall immediatxily 
 appoint another justice of said court a member of said commission 
 (and in such appointments regard shall be had to the impartiality 
 and freedom from bias sought by the original appointments to said 
 commission), who shall thereupon immediately take and subscribe 
 to the oath hereinbefore prescribed, and brjcome a member of said 
 commission to fill the vacancy so occasioned. 
 
 All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificatfrJH of the 
 electoral votes of each State shall be oftened in the alphabetical 
 order of the States as provided in section 1 of this act; and when 
 there shall Vje more than one such certificate or paper, as the cer- 
 tificates or papers from such State shall so be ofiened (excepting 
 duplicates of the same return), they shall be read by the teller«,
 
 386 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 and thereupon the president of the Senate shall call for objections 
 if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state 
 clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, 
 and shall be signed by at least one senator and one member of the 
 House of Representatives before the same shall be received. AVhen 
 all such objections so made to any certificates, vote, or paper from 
 a State shall have been received and read, all such certificates, 
 votes, and papers so objected to, and all papers accompanying the 
 same, together with such objections, shall be forthwith submitted 
 to said commission, which shall proceed to consider the same, with 
 the same powers, if any, now possessed for that purpose by the two 
 Houses, acting separately or together, and, by a majority of votes, 
 decide whether any and what votes from such State are the votes 
 provided for by the Constitution of the United States, and how 
 many and what persons wei-e duly appointed electors in such State; 
 and may therein take into view such petitions, depositions, and 
 other papers, if any, as shall, by the Constitution and now existing 
 law, be competent and pertinent in such consideration, which deci- 
 sion shall be made in writing, stating briefly the ground thereof, 
 and signed by the members of said commission agreeing therein ; 
 whereupon the two Houses shall again meet, and such decision 
 shall be read and entered in the journal of each House, and the 
 counting of the votes shall proceed in conformity therewith, unless, 
 upon objection made thereto in writing by at least five senators 
 and five members of the House of Representatives, the two Houses 
 shall separately concur in ordering otherwise, in which case such 
 concm-rent order shall govern. No votes or papers from any other 
 State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to 
 the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 Sec. 3. That while the two Houses shall be in meeting, as 
 provided in this act, no debate shall be allowed, and no question 
 shall be put by the presiding officer, except to either House on a 
 motion to withdraw, and he shall have power to preserve order. 
 
 Sec. 4. That when the two Houses separate to decide upon an 
 objection that may have been made to the counting of any elec- 
 toral vote or votes from any State, or upon objection to a report of 
 said commission, or other question arising under this act, each 
 senator or representative may speak to such objection or question 
 ten minutes, and not oftener than once; but, after such debate 
 shall have lasted two hours, it shall be the duty of each House to 
 put the main question without further debate. 
 
 Sec. 5, That at such joint meeting of the two Houses, seats 
 shall be provided as follows : for the President of the Senate, the 
 Speaker's chair ; for the Speaker, immediately upon his left ; for the
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 387 
 
 senators in the body of the hall, upon the right of the presiding 
 officer ; for the representatives, in the body of the hall not provided 
 for the senators ; for the tellers, secretary of the Senate, and clerk 
 of the House of Representatives, at the clerk's desk ; for the other 
 officers of the two Houses, iu front of the clerk's desk, and upon 
 each side of the speaker's platform. Such joint meeting shall not 
 be dissolved until the count of the electoral votes shall be com- 
 pleted and the residt declared ; and no recess shall be taken unless 
 a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes 
 or otherwise under this act, in which case it shall be competent 
 for either House, acting separately in the manner hereinbefore 
 provided, to direct a recess of such House, not beyond the next day, 
 Sunday excepted, at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon ; and 
 while any question is being considered by said commission, either 
 House may proceed with its legislative or other business. 
 
 Sec. 6. That nothing in this act shall be held to impair or affect 
 any right now existing under the Constitution and laws to question 
 by proceeding in the judicial courts of the United States the right 
 or title of the person who shall be declared elected, or who shall 
 claim to be President or Vice-President of the United States, if 
 any such right exists. 
 
 Sec. 7. That said commission shall make its own rules, keep a 
 record of its proceedings, and shall have power to employ such 
 persons as may be necessary for the transaction of its business and 
 the ex3cution of its powers. 
 
 In neither House was the bill treated as a partisan measure. 
 In the House of Representatives 191 members voted in favor 
 of it, of whom there were 158 Democrats and 33 Republicans ; 
 86 members — 68 Republicans and 18 Democrats — voted in 
 the negative. In the Senate an attempt was made to forbid 
 the commission to " go behind the returns," but the amend- 
 ment was rejected, yeas 18, all Republicans ; nays 47, of whom 
 27 were Democrats and 20 Republicans. The bill was passed 
 by the Senate, yeas 47, — 26 Democrats and 21 Republicans ; 
 nays 17, — 16 Republicans and 1 Democrat. The bill became 
 a law, by the approval of the President, on the 29th of Janu- 
 ary. On the next day each House proceeded to choose five 
 members of the commission. The Senate made choice of Sena- 
 tors George F. Edmunds, Oliver P. Morton, and Frederick T. 
 Frelinghuysen, Republicans, and Allen G. Thurman and 
 Thomas F. Bayard, Democrats. The House of Representatives 
 chose Messrs. Henry B. Payne, Eppa Hunton, and Josiah G. 
 Abbott, Democrats, and James A. Garfield and George F.
 
 388 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Hoar, Republicans. The four justices of the Supreme Court 
 
 designated by the act were Justices Nathan Clifford, William 
 Strong, Samuel F. Miller, and Stephen J. Field, of whom 
 Messrs. Clifford and Field were Democrats in national politics ; 
 and they selected Justice Joseph P. Bradley as the fifth mem- 
 ber of the commission on the part of the Supreme Court. Mr. 
 Bradley was a Republican. The natural choice of the justices 
 would have been their associate, David Davis ; but he had 
 been elected five days before as a senator from Illinois, and it 
 was regarded by him and by others as improper that he should 
 serve. Thus the commission consisted of eight Republicans 
 and seven Democrats. If Judge Davis had been selected, the 
 majority would have been reversed, and the ultimate result 
 might have been different. 
 
 When the count began, on the 1st of February, 1877, each 
 party was confident of victory. The Democrats relied upon a 
 great variety of objections which had been prepared, the sus- 
 taining of any one of which, would be sufficient to give the 
 election to Mr. Tilden. The Republican hope was in a refusal 
 of the commission to "go behind the returns." Senator 
 Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan, President pro tempore of the 
 Senate, was the presiding officer, Vice-President Wilson having 
 died in 1875. The count proceeded, under the law, in the 
 alphabetical order of the States. When the vote of Florida was 
 reached, the certificates of the Hayes and also those of the Til- 
 den electors were read. Objections were made to each. The 
 Democrats asserted that the Hayes electors were not duly 
 chosen ; that the certificate of the governor to their election 
 was the result of a conspiracy ; that its validity, if any, had 
 been annulled by a subsequent certificate by the governor, to 
 the effect that the Tilden electors were chosen ; that a court 
 decision made certain the election of the Democratic electors ; 
 and that one of the Republican electors was a shipping com- 
 missioner under appointment from the government of the 
 United States at the time of his election, and was therefore 
 disqualified. The Republican objection to the Tilden votes 
 was that the returns were not duly authenticated by any per- 
 son holding at the time an office under the State of Florida. 
 It was only on the 7th of February that the commission, after 
 long arguments by eminent counsel selected to appear for the 
 two parties, decided the case of Florida. The decision was 
 that it wa^ not competent for the commission "to go into evi-
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 389 
 
 dence aliunde the papers opened by the President of the Sen- 
 ate, to prove that other persons than those regularly certified 
 to by the governor " were appointed. With reference to the 
 case of the elector alleged to have been disqualified, it was de- 
 cided that the evidence did not show that he held an office on 
 the day of his appointment. The several votes were passed 
 by eight to seven, — all the Republicans being on one side, 
 and all the Democrats on the other. The formal decision, 
 which was submitted to the two Houses, was that the four 
 Hayes electors, naming them, were duly appointed electors, 
 and that their votes were the constitutional votes. The 
 Houses met on February 10, and received this decision. 
 Formal objection was then made to the decision of the Elec- 
 toral Commission, and the Houses separated to consider it. 
 The Senate, by a strict party vote, decided that the votes 
 should be counted. The House of Representatives, by a vote 
 which was on party lines, except that one Democrat voted 
 with the Republicans, voted that the electoral votes given by 
 the Tilden electors should be counted. The two Houses not 
 having agreed in rejecting the decision of the commission, it 
 stood, and the joint session was resumed. 
 
 The votes of Florida having been recorded, the count pro- 
 ceeded until Louisiana was reached. The Republican objec- 
 tions to the Tilden votes from Louisiana were, like those to 
 the votes of Florida, brief and formal. The government, of 
 which W. P. Kellogg was the head, had been recognized by 
 every department of the government of the United States as 
 the true government of Louisiana, and the certificates of the 
 Hayes electors certified by him were in due form. The Demo- 
 crats made a great variety of objections to the Hayes votes. 
 They asserted that John McEnery was the lawful governor 
 of the State ; that the certificates asserting the appointment of 
 the Hayes electors were false ; and that the canvass of votes 
 by the returning board was without jurisdiction and void. 
 Special objection was made to three of the electors : to two of 
 them as being disqualified, under the Constitution ; and to the 
 third, Governor Kellogg, because he certified to his own elec- 
 tion. Several days were consumed in argument before the 
 commission. On the 16th of February the commission voted, 
 once more by eight to seven, that the evidence offered to prove 
 that the Tilden electors were chosen be not received, and that 
 the certificates of the Hayes electors were the true votes of
 
 390 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Louisiana. The decision having been communicated to the 
 two Houses, the count Avas resumed on the 19th. Objection 
 was made to the decision of the commission, and the two 
 Houses separated again to act upon them. The Senate voted, 
 by 41 to 28, that the decision of the commission should stand. 
 The House voted that the electoral votes cast by the Hayes 
 electors for Louisiana ought not to be counted, — 173 to 99. 
 In each case this was a party vote except that two Republicans 
 in the House voted with the Democrats. 
 
 The Houses then met again on the 20th, and resumed the 
 count, which proceeded without dispute as far as the State of 
 Michigan, when objection was made from the Democratic side 
 to one vote from that State, on the ground that one of the 
 pefsons chosen by the people held a Federal office at the time of 
 his appointment, and that the act of the other electors in filling 
 the alleged vacancy caused by his failure to act was not justi- 
 fied. This not being a case of double returns, the two Houses 
 separated to decide it for themselves. The objection was 
 overruled by each House. A somewhat similar case of an 
 elector for Nevada was the next stumbling-block in the count, 
 and it too was decided in favor of the elector objected to. 
 Oregon was reached in the count on the 21st. An outline 
 sketch of the extremely complicated situation of affairs in 
 Oregon has been given already. There were objections from 
 both sides to the votes, and the papers were referred to the 
 Electoral Commission, by whom further argument was heard. 
 The commission unanimously rejected the made-up vote of 
 the Tilden board of electors, but decided, eight to seven, that 
 the full board of Hayes electors were the legal electors for the 
 State. The decision was objected to, when communicated to 
 the two Houses. Once more they separated, and each decided, 
 substantially by a party vote, as before, — the Senate for ac- 
 cepting the decision, and the House of Representatives for 
 rejecting it. They then met again, 'and resumed the count. 
 In the vote of Pennsylvania another case was encountered of an 
 elector alleged to have been ineligible by reason of his having 
 been a centennial commissioner. The other electors treated 
 the place as vacant, and chose another person to act in it. The 
 Senate agreed, without a division, to a resolution that the vote 
 be counted. The House rejected it, 135 to 119, the affirmative 
 consisting entirely of Democrats, and the negative containing 
 only 15 of that party. The full vote of Pennsylvania was
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 391 
 
 accordingly counted under the law, the two Houses not having 
 agreed to reject. Ehode Island furnished a case not very dif- 
 ferent, but the two Houses this time concurred unanimously 
 in deciding that the disputed vote should be counted. 
 
 To the Hayes votes in South Carolina the Democrats next 
 objected that there was no legal election in the State, that 
 there was not, in South Carolina, during the year 1876, a 
 republican form of government, and that the army and the 
 United States deputy marshals stationed at and near the polls 
 prevented the free exercise of the right of suffrage. The 
 Republicans asserted that the Tilden board was not duly ap- 
 pointed, and that the certificates were wholly defective in form 
 and lacking the necessary official certification. The papers 
 having been referred to the Electoral Commission, that body 
 met again on the 26th. Senator Thurman was obliged to 
 retire from service upon the commission, on account of illness, 
 and Senator Francis Kernan took his place. After a day de- 
 voted to arguments, the commission voted unanimously that 
 the Tilden electors were not the true electors of South Caro- 
 lina, and, by the old majority of eight to seven, that the 
 Hayes electors were the constitutional electors duly appointed. 
 The two Houses separated upon renewed objections to the 
 decision of the commission, and as before the Senate sustained 
 the finding ; the House voted to reject it. 
 
 There were two further objections, the first to a vote cast 
 by an elector for Vermont, substituted for an ineligible person 
 who had been chosen by the people, on which the result was 
 vhe same as in the other similar cases ; the other was a case 
 of the same kind in Wisconsin, which was decided in like 
 manner. The Vermont case was complicated by the presenta- 
 tion, by Mr. Hewitt, of New York, of a packet purporting to 
 contain a return of electoral votes given in Vermont. The 
 President of the Senate having received no such vote, nor any 
 vote diff'erent from that of the regularly chosen Hayes electors, 
 refused to receive it. 
 
 The count had begun on the first day of February, and the 
 final vote upon Wisconsin was not reached until the early 
 morning of March 2. As question after question was decided 
 uniformly in favor of the Republicans, it became evident to 
 the Democrats that their case was lost. They charged gross 
 partisanship upon tlie Republican members of the Electoral 
 Commission, in determining every point involved in the dual
 
 392 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 returns for their own party, though as a matter of fact there 
 does not seem to have been much room for choice between the 
 two parties on the score of partisanship. Each member of the 
 commission favored by his vote that view which would result 
 in adding to the electoral vote of his own party. But as the 
 result of the count became more and more certainly a Republi- 
 can triumph, the anger of the Democrats rose. Some of them 
 were for discontinuing the count ; and the symptoms of a dis- 
 position to filibuster so that there should be no declaration of 
 the result gave reason for public disquietude. But the con- 
 servative members of the party were too patriotic to allow the 
 failure of a law which they had been instrumental in passing 
 to lead to anarchy or revolution, and they sternly discounte- 
 nanced all attempts to defeat the conclusion of the count. 
 The summing up of the votes was read by Mr. Allison, of 
 Iowa, one of the tellers on the part of the Senate, at a little 
 after four o'clock, on the morning of the 2d of March, amid 
 great excitement. That result, as declared, was as follows : — 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama . 
 Arkansas . 
 California . 
 Colorado 
 Connecticut 
 Delaware . 
 Florida . . 
 Georgia . . 
 Illinois . . 
 Indiana . . 
 Iowa . . . 
 Kansas . . 
 Kentucky . 
 Louisiana . 
 Maine . . 
 Maryland . 
 Massachusetts 
 Michigan . 
 Minnesota . 
 Mississippi . 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 •c 
 
 e 
 
 ■a 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 W 
 
 ■a 
 
 "O 
 
 i 
 
 § 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 >. 
 
 "O 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 6 
 
 _ 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 _ 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 l.S 
 
 _ 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 ~ 
 
 8 
 
 States. 
 
 Missouri . . 
 Nebraska . . 
 Nevada . . . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey . 
 New York 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio. . . . 
 Oregon . . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Rhode Island . 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee . . 
 Texas . . . 
 Vennont . . 
 Virginia . . 
 West Virginia 
 Wisconsin . . 
 
 Total. . . 
 
 22 
 3 
 
 29 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 185 
 
 15 
 
 35 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 5 
 
 184
 
 THE DISPUTED ELECTION 393 
 
 Mr. Ferry thereupon declared Rutherford B. Hayes elected 
 President, and William A. Wheeler Vice-President, of the 
 United States. The decision was acquiesced in peaceably by 
 the whole country, and by men of every party. But the 
 Democrats have never ceased to denounce the whole affair as a 
 fraud, and some newspapers have steadily refused to speak of 
 Mr. Hayes as having ever been rightfully in possession of the 
 presidential office. Their anger at the time was very great, 
 and it was excusable, since they honestly believed that Mr. 
 Tilden was fairly elected. It is to be hoped that the patriot- 
 ism of the American people and their love of peace may never 
 again be put to so severe a test as was that to which they were 
 subjected in 1876 and 1877.
 
 XXVI 
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 
 
 The circumstances that attended the election of 1876 led to 
 the introduction in Congress of many propositions intended 
 to render impossible a recurrence of the danger which was 
 then met and overcome, and to forestall other evils which 
 have often been apprehended, but have never happened. Certain 
 difficulties that arose in consequence of the silence of the Con- 
 stitution might be obviated by law ; others must be cured by 
 amendment of the. Constitution itself. Although the warning 
 Avas a serious one, and although many members brought for- 
 ward measures to meet the case, not one of the bills and reso- 
 lutions introduced was acted upon finally. Nevertheless, it 
 may be well to notice the suggestions which were made during 
 Mr. Hayes's administration, — during the special session of 
 Congress, October 15, 1877, and the regular session, which 
 followed witliout an interval. 
 
 Mr. Cravens, of Arkansas, offered a resolution of amendment 
 to the Constitution, providing that the people should vote 
 directly for President and Vice-President. Each State was to 
 have a number of presidential votes equal to its electoral votes 
 under the present system, which votes were to be apportioned 
 in each State among the several candidates, in the proportion 
 of tlie votes given to each ; the legislature of each State was 
 to direct the manner in which the presidential vote of that 
 State was to be ascertained ; on a day to be fixed by Congress, 
 or, in case of disagreement between the two Houses, on a day 
 to be named by the President, not less than fifteen nor more 
 than thirty days before the 4th of March, a joint meeting of 
 the two Houses was to be held, the President of the Senate 
 was to open the presidential votes certified to by the governor 
 of the State, and one list from each State was then to be 
 counted under the direction of the two Houses ; a majority of 
 all the presidential votes was requisite to a choice. In case
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 395 
 
 no choice had been made by such a majority, then the two 
 Houses, in joint convention, were to elect a President by viva 
 voce vote, each senator and member having one vote, the 
 choice being limited to the two highest on the list, unless two 
 persons should have an equal number of votes next to the 
 highest ; one senator and a majority of the representatives 
 from two thirds of the States were to constitute a quorum for 
 the purposes of this election. In case no person should re- 
 ceive a majority of the Congress so voting, the President in 
 office was to continue to be President until a choice was 
 effected. The election of Vice-President was to be made in 
 the same manner and at the same time as that of President. 
 Whenever the office of Vice-President became vacant, there 
 was to be an election by joint convention of Congress, within 
 ten days after the next meeting of Congress, or within twenty 
 days if Congress should be in session at the time the vacancy 
 occurred. 
 
 Mr. Springer, of Illinois, made a proposition, of which the 
 leading features were : a presidential term of six years, the 
 President not to be immediately reeligible ; each State to have a 
 number of presidential votes equal to its electoral votes accord- 
 ing to the present system, except that States having but one 
 tepresentative in Congress were to have but one presidential 
 vote, and States having but two representatives were to have 
 but three votes ; a direct vote for President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent ; a canvassing board in each State, with ministerial 
 powers only, — consisting of the governor, secretary of state, 
 and chief justice of the highest court, — to aggregate the votes, 
 apportion to each candidate his proportional part of the presi- 
 dential votes of the State, and to make return thereof to the 
 president of the Senate ; the two Houses to be in session on 
 the third Monday in January after a presidential election ; a 
 joint meeting to be held, to be presided over by the president 
 of the Senate, unless he should be a candidate for the office 
 of President, and in that case by the speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, and, if he were similarly disqualified, then by 
 a presiding officer chosen by the joint convention ; a plurality 
 of votes to elect both the President and the Vice-President ; 
 the joint convention to be the judge of the returns and quali- 
 fications of the persons who shall be President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent. If no conclusion upon the returns should be reached 
 by the second Monday in February, the convention was to
 
 396 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 vote viva voce upon the question who was constitutionally 
 elected President and who Vice-President, — a majority of 
 those present to determine all questions. 
 
 Mr. Maish, of Pennsylvania, proposed a popular election of 
 President, without the intervention of electors. The votes 
 were to be returned to the secretary of state of each State and 
 to be by him opened in the presence of the governor and the 
 cliief justice of the highest court, and these three officers were 
 to apportion electoral votes to each candidate in accordance with 
 the returns. The proposition did not deal with the matter of 
 a count of the votes. 
 
 Mr. Finley, of Ohio, proposed a direct vote of all the people 
 for President and Vice-President, disregarding state lines 
 altogether ; a plurality of votes was to elect in each case ; but if 
 two persons had an equal and the highest number of votes, 
 then the House of Representatives was to choose the President 
 from those two ; or, if the failure was in relation to the vice- 
 presidency, then the Senate was to make the choice. The 
 voting was to be viva voce, and each member was to have one 
 vote ; the canvass of returns for President and Vice-President 
 was to be made by Congress in a manner to be determined by 
 joint rules or by law, and, if the two Houses could not agree, 
 the matter in dispute was to be referred to the Supreme Court 
 for final decision. 
 
 Mr. Eaton, of Connecticut, proposed in the Senate an amend- 
 ment constituting a tribunal for the decision of controverted 
 questions arising out of the presidential election. Not less 
 than twelve months before the occurrence of such an election, 
 the governor of each State was to appoint, with the consent 
 of the Senate of the State, five qualified persons, who were 
 to hear and determine all questions of contests in relation to 
 the choice of electors, and to transmit their report, sealed, to the 
 president of the Senate. 
 
 A resolution offered by Mr. Piddle, of Tennessee, proposed 
 a direct election by the people, a clear majority being required 
 for a choice. In case such majority should not be obtained, 
 then a second election was to be held within two months of 
 the time of the first vote, when the choice should be limited 
 to the two highest on the list. In case of no choice, by reason 
 of a tie, on the second trial, the two Houses of Congress, in 
 joint convention, each member having one vote, were to elect. 
 
 Mr. Sampson, of Iowa, proposed that the relative electoral
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 397 
 
 power of the States should be as it now is ; that the people 
 should vote directly for the executive ; that the persons hav- 
 ing a plurality for the offices of President and Vice-President 
 in any State should receive the full presidential vote of that 
 State, or, in case of a tie, that the votes should be equally 
 divided among those having the highest number ; and if no 
 person received a majority of presidential votes, the choice of 
 either President or Vice-President was to be made in the same 
 manner as the Constitution now provides for cases where the 
 electors have not made a choice. 
 
 In May, 1878, Mr. Southard, of Ohio, from a committee of 
 the House of Representatives, appointed for the purpose, 
 reported a plan. It dispensed with secondary electors. Each 
 State was to be entitled to as many presidential votes as it 
 would have electors under the present system. The people hav- 
 ing voted directly for President and Vice-President, the vote 
 for each candidate in any State was to be ascertained by multi- 
 plying the number of votes given for any person by the num- 
 ber of presidential votes assigned to the State, and dividing the 
 product by the whole number of votes cast ; and the fractions 
 were to be ascertained to the third place of decimals. The 
 returns were to be made to the secretary of state of each State, 
 who was to open them in the presence of the governor and the 
 state auditor or controller ; and the apportionment of presi- 
 dential votes was to be made by them as a canvassing board. 
 Disputed questions might be passed upon by the highest judi- 
 cial tribunal in each State, and the decision was to be sent to 
 the president of the Senate at Washington. The votes were 
 to be counted by the two Houses of Congress, assembled under 
 the presidency of the president of the Senate, and all votes 
 were to be counted unless the two Houses concurred in reject- 
 ing them ; or, if there was a decision by the highest court of 
 the State upon a contest, that decision was to stand unless the 
 two Houses concurred in overruling it. If there Avere dual 
 returns, or two decisions purporting to be by the highest court, 
 that was to be accepted which the two Houses should decide 
 to be the true return or the true decision. A plurality of votes 
 was to elect the President, and in case of a tie the election was 
 to be made in the manner now provided for the case of a fail- 
 ure to elect by the electors. This proposition was never even 
 debated in the House. 
 
 A determined effort was made by the Senate, during the
 
 398 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 session of 1878-79, to amend the law relative to the count of 
 votes, by a statute covering the whole subject. The bill was 
 managed by Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont. A brief account of 
 its provisions only can be given. It changed the time for the 
 appointment of electors in the several States to the first Tues- 
 day of October in every fourth year. If a vacancy should 
 occur in both the offices of President and Vice-President more 
 than two months before the first Tuesday of October in any 
 year other than that in which electors would be regularly 
 appointed, a new election was to be held. The time for the 
 meeting and voting of the electors was to be the second Mon- 
 day in January following their appointment. The fourth sec- 
 tion was as follows : — 
 
 Each State may provide by law enacted prior to the day in this 
 act named for the appointment of the electors, for the trial and 
 determination of any controversy concerning the appointment of 
 electors, before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors, in 
 any manner it may deem expedient. Every such determination 
 made pursuant to such law so enacted before said day, and made 
 prior to the said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive 
 evidence of the lawful title of the electors who shall have been so 
 determined to have been appointed, and shall govern in the count- 
 ing of the electoral votes, as provided in the Constitution and as 
 hereinafter regulated. 
 
 The provisions of the bill in relation to the count followed 
 in general the custom of Congress under the twenty-second 
 joint rule, with these exceptions : No vote from a State from 
 which there was but one return could be rejected without a 
 concurrent vote of the two Houses. If there were two or more 
 returns, that only should be counted which was decided to be 
 the true return in the manner provided in the section just 
 quoted. If there were no such determination, or if there were 
 two or more decisions purporting to have been made in accord- 
 ance with a law passed in conformity with that section, that 
 return, or that decision only, could be accepted which the two 
 Houses acting separately should decide by affirmative vote to 
 be in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. When 
 the two Houses separated to consider objections to electoral 
 votes, each member of either House might speak once only, 
 for five minutes, and at the expiration of two hours it would 
 become the duty of the presiding officer to put the main ques- 
 tion. After several days of debate this bill was passed by the
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 399 
 
 Senate, 35 to 26. The negative vote consisted entirely of 
 Democrats; the majority was made up of Republicans, with 
 the exception of Messrs. Bayard, Merrimon, and Morgan, Dem- 
 ocrats, and Judge Davis, of Illinois, Independent. It was 
 referred in the House of Representatives to the select commit- 
 tee having the subject in charge, but no report was made upon 
 it. We shall see that the principles of this bill, little changed 
 in detail, were all adopted and enacted in the law of 1887, 
 which is given in a subsequent chapter, and which is now in 
 force. 
 
 In May, 1880, the Democrats having a majority in the Sen- 
 ate, Mr. Morgan, of Alabama, reported from a select committee 
 a joint rule for the government of the two Houses in counting 
 the electoral votes. It differed from the rescinded twenty- 
 second rule in several particulars. No vote from a State which 
 sent but one return was to be rejected except by the affirma- 
 tive action of both branches of Congress. If two or more 
 returns should be offered, neither was to be counted unless the 
 two Houses agreed in deciding that one of them was the true 
 and correct return. Provision was made for one hour's debate 
 in each House upon objections, no member to speak more than 
 once, or longer than ten minutes ; and also for debate by unan- 
 imous consent in the joint meeting. It was further provided 
 that an appeal might be taken from a decision by the presiding 
 officer, which was to be overruled only by concurrent action of 
 both Houses. This proposed rule was considered at length. 
 Mr. Edmunds moved his bill, already summarized, with some 
 changes, as a substitute for the rule. The motion was defeated, 
 all other amendments were rejected, and the rule was adopted 
 by the Senate, by a vote of 25 to 14, — a party vote, except 
 that Mr. Davis, of Illinois, voted with the Democrats. In the 
 House, the Republicans endeavored to have the rule referred 
 to a committee, but their motions having that object in view 
 were rejected. Finally the matter was postponed until the 
 first Monday in December, 1880. It was under consideration 
 several times during the session, but the Republicans persist- 
 ently opposed it, and on the last day that it was considered, 
 January 26, 1881, they filibustered successfully against its 
 passage. 
 
 Early in February of the same year a resolution was adopted, 
 which carried the conduct of the count back to the method so 
 long in use before the twenty -second joint rule was adopted.
 
 400 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 It provided, however, for two tellers on the part of the Senate, 
 which was an innovation introduced by the Electoral Commis- 
 sion Law of 1877. The second resolution directed that in 
 case it should appear that the electoral vote of any State had 
 been given on any other day than that fixed by law, the decla- 
 ration of the result should be in the alternative form first intro- 
 duced in 1821, with respect to the vote of Missouri. This 
 rule was adopted by both Houses. In the Senate there was 
 no division. In the House the second resolution was opposed 
 by 77 members, of whom six were Democrats and three Green- 
 backers. The count of 1881 took place under that rule. 
 
 Mr. Hayes, upon taking office, at once reversed the policy 
 of his predecessor in respect of the Republican governments 
 of South Carolina and Louisiana. He withdrew the military 
 assistance which had protected them from overthrow by the 
 white minority. The Democratic governments took instant 
 advantage of the opportunity ; and the last state governments 
 representative of negro and " carpet-bag " control were driven 
 from the capitals. The President's act practically eliminated 
 the Southern question from politics by the simple expedient of 
 non-resistance to the demands of those who proclaimed their 
 determination to restore white men's government at all hazards, 
 and by violence if necessary. It was not at all to the liking 
 of many Republican statesmen who, however disposed they 
 might be to concede the failure of the negro rule introduced 
 by universal suffrage, believed that the faith of their party was 
 pledged to the maintenance of the rights of the colored people. 
 Mr. Hayes did not strengthen his own political position by the 
 move. The Democrats were willing to profit by it ; but they 
 had as yet hardly become willing to acknowledge Mr. Hayes 
 as a legal President. A large faction of the Republican party 
 became estranged from him. The South was made " solid " 
 for the Democrats. In the Forty-sixth Congress, elected in 
 1878, four Republicans only were elected to the House of 
 Representatives in all the South ; there were 102 Democrats. 
 
 No other President — save Mr. Johnson, who was not 
 elected to the position, but succeeded to it on the death of Mr. 
 Lincoln — has been so unfortunate as was Mr. Hayes in the 
 political complexion of Congress during his term. The House 
 of Representatives was against him the first two years, and 
 both branches were Democratic during the last two years. 
 Although he was not possessed of great tact and exhibited
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 401 
 
 little skill in his management of men, yet his intentions were 
 so honorable and his standards so high that his administration 
 bears well a comparison with that of some men much more 
 able than he was. His cabinet was a strong one. There were 
 no scandals. Mr. Hayes was the first President to discourage 
 and to forbid the political activity of the civil servants of the 
 government. If he did not win applause for himself by his 
 administration, he did raise the tone of his party. He intro- 
 duced, without fuss, the reforms for which the Democrats 
 clamored obstreperously in their platform. And when the 
 time came for him to retire from office the people had recov- 
 ered the confidence in the Eepublican party which they had 
 well-nigh lost when he was elected. 
 
 Nevertheless the administration was not a quiet but a tur- 
 bulent one. There was a struggle during his whole term over 
 the question of attaching political legislation to appropriation 
 bills. The Democrats in Congress were determined to root 
 out the last remnants of Republican law which gave the gen- 
 eral government any supervision of elections in the South. 
 In the Forty-fifth Congress the contest was between the Senate 
 and the House. The Democrats endeavored to withhold the 
 necessary funds for the purposes of government unless the 
 Republicans would consent to the " riders" upon appropriation 
 bills, to prohibit the presence of United States troops near the 
 polls, to regulate the impaneling of juries, and to prevent 
 the appointment of deputy marshals for elections at which re- 
 presentatives were to be chosen. In the Forty-sixth Congress 
 the bills went to the President with the riders attached, and 
 the veto power was necessary to prevent their enactment. 
 The laws which it was then sought in vain to repeal afterward 
 fell into disuse, and the last vestige of them was removed from 
 the statute book under President Cleveland. 
 
 Financial questions were much discussed during this ad- 
 ministration. A great effort was made to repeal the act for 
 the resumption of specie payments. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives passed a repealing bill, but the Senate rejected it ; 
 and resumption took place successfully, and with great advan- 
 tage to business, on January 1, 1879. The silver question 
 was first agitated at the beginning of Mr. Hayes's term ; and 
 on February 28, 1878, the act for the coinage of silver dollars 
 was passed over the President's veto. Another question 
 which became prominent in politics at this time was that of
 
 402 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Chinese immigration. A bill forbidding such immigration was 
 passed, but was vetoed, and failed to obtain the necessary two- 
 thirds majority, 
 
 Mr. Hayes was not a candidate for reelection. But there 
 was no lack of candidates on the Republican side. Two of 
 them were extremely strong. Many persons who had been 
 strongly opposed to a third consecutive term for General Grant 
 saw no objection to electing him after an interval of four 
 years, and a numerous body of his adherents in all parts of 
 the country brought him forward with great enthusiasm. Mr. 
 Blaine was again prominent as a candidate in the West, and 
 indeed throughout the land. Those who were opposed to 
 both Grant and Blaine favored, some Mr. John Sherman, 
 Secretary of the Treasury, and others Senator George F. 
 Edmunds. On the Democratic side there was no concentration 
 of opinion. In the early stages of the preliminary canvass it 
 was universally conceded that Mr. Tilden would be nominated 
 if he would accept the candidacy ; but his health was known 
 to be infirm, and, as he gave no indication of his intentions, 
 his opponents worked secretly and successfully to secure dele- 
 gates who were opposed to him. 
 
 The Republican convention met at Chicago on the 2d of 
 June. Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, was the 
 temporary and also the permanent president. Three days 
 were occupied in preliminaries and in deciding cases of con- 
 testing delegates, of whom there were many. The opposition 
 which the candidacy of General Grant encountered was signi- 
 ficantly indicated by the following resolution introduced by 
 Senator Conkling, who managed the Grant canvass : — 
 
 Resolved, As the sense of this convention, that every member of 
 it is bound in honor to support its nominee, whoever that nominee 
 may be, and that no man should hold his seat here who is not 
 ready so to agree. 
 
 After a brief debate, this resolution was passed by a vote of 
 716 to 3 ; the negative votes were given by delegates from 
 West Virginia. Mr. Conkling offered a resolution that those 
 who had voted in the negative " do not deserve and have for- 
 feited their votes in this convention." To this summary way 
 of disfranchising delegates there were numerous objections, 
 and, in view of the possible rejection of the resolution, Mr. 
 Conkling withdrew it. 
 
 On the fourth day General James A. Garfield reported from
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 403 
 
 the committee on rules a code consisting for the most part 
 of the rules of the convention of 1876. One important 
 amendment was made, to the effect that when the vote of any 
 State should be announced by the chairman, if any excep- 
 tion should be taken to the announcement, " the president 
 of the convention shall direct the roll of members of such 
 delegation to be called, and the result recorded in accordance 
 with the votes individually given." This was a direct and 
 fatal blow at the "unit rule." A minority report was pre- 
 sented by General George H. Sharpe, of New York, on behalf 
 of himself and eight other members of the committee, recom- 
 mending the retention of the rule as it had been adopted by 
 the convention of 1876. The delegation from New York had 
 been instructed to vote as a unit for General Grant, and the 
 adoption of the new rule would allow several members of that 
 delegation, who were not in favor of the ex-President, to vote 
 individually for the person whom they might prefer. The 
 minority report was rejected without a division. An amend- 
 ment having been adopted directing the national committee to 
 prescribe a method for the election of delegates to the con- 
 vention of 1884, the rules were adopted. The platform was 
 then reported, as follows, by Mr. Edwards Pierrepont, of New 
 York : — 
 
 The Republican party in national convention assembled, at the 
 end of twenty years since the federal government was first com- 
 mitted to its charge, submits to the people of the United States 
 this brief report of its administration. It suppressed the rebellioK 
 which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the national 
 authority. It reconstructed the Union of the States with freedom 
 instead of slavery as its corner-stone. It transformed fotir mil- 
 lions of human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of 
 citizens. It relieved Congress from the infamous work of hunting 
 fugitive slaves, and charged it to see that slavery does not exist. 
 It has raised the value of our paper currency from thirty-eight per 
 cent, to the par of gold. It has restored upon a solid basis payment 
 in coin for all the national obligations, and has given us a currency 
 absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country. 
 It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where six per 
 cent, bonds sold at eighty-six per cent, to that where four per cent, 
 bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. Under its administration 
 railways have increased from thirty-one thousand miles in 1860 to 
 more than eighty-two thousand miles in 1879. Our foreign trade 
 has increased from seven hundred million dollars to one billion
 
 404 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 one hundred and fifty million dollars in the same time, and our 
 exports, which were twenty million dollars less than our imports 
 in 1860, were two hundred and sixty-four million more than our 
 imports in 1879. Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war 
 closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of government beside the 
 accruing interest on the public debt, and has annually disbursed 
 more than thirty million dollars for soldiers' pensions. It has paid 
 eight hundred and eighty-eight million dollars of the public debt, 
 and, by refunding the balance at lower rates, has reduced the annual 
 interest charged fi-om nearly one hundred and fifty-one million dol- 
 lars to less than eighty-nine million dollars. All the industries of 
 the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages have increased, 
 and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming 
 prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. 
 
 Upon this record the Republican party asks for the continued 
 confidence and support of the people, and this convention submits 
 for their approval the following statement of the principles and 
 purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts : — 
 
 1. We afiirm that the work of the last twenty-one years has been 
 such as to commend itself to the favor of the nation, and that the 
 fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved through im- 
 mense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace regained 
 should be cherished ; that the dissevered Union, now happily re- 
 stored, should be perpetuated, and that the liberties secured to this 
 generation should be transmitted undiminished to future genera- 
 tions ; that the order established and the credit acquired should 
 never be impaired ; that the pensions promised should be extin- 
 guished by the full payment of every dollar thereof ; that the reviv- 
 ing industries should be further promoted, and that the commerce, 
 already so great, should be steadily encouraged. 
 
 2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and 
 not a mere contract : out of confederated States it made a sovereign 
 nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are 
 denied to the States ; but the boundary between the powers dele- 
 gated and those reserved is to be determined by the national, and 
 not by the State tribunals. 
 
 3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the 
 several States, but it is the duty of the national government to aid 
 that work to the extent of its constitutional duty. The intelligence 
 of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several 
 States, and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the 
 genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. 
 
 4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law 
 respecting an establisTiment of religion, but it is idle to hope that 
 the nation can be protected against the influences of sectarianism
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 405 
 
 while each State is exposed to its domination. We therefore re- 
 commend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same 
 prohibition upon the legislature of each State, and to forbid the 
 appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. 
 
 5. We affirm the belief avowed in 1876, that the duties levied 
 for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor 
 American labor ; that no further grant of the public domain should 
 be made to any railway or other corporation ; that, slavery having 
 perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy, must die in 
 the Territories ; that everywhere the protection accorded to citizens 
 of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adop- 
 tion ; and that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and 
 improve our watercourses and harbors, but insist that further sub- 
 sidies to private persons or corporations must cease ; that the obli- 
 gations of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in 
 the hour of battle are undiminished by the lapse of the fifteen years 
 since their final victory, — to do them perpetual honor is, and shall 
 forever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American 
 people. 
 
 6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse 
 between the United States and foreign nations rests with Congress, 
 or with the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Re- 
 publican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the 
 Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of 
 those powers to restrain and limit that immigration by the enact- 
 ment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will pro- 
 duce that result. 
 
 7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the earlier 
 career of Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided 
 the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to him for a presiden- 
 tial candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief 
 Executive, and that history will accord to his administration the 
 honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge 
 of the public business, and will honor his interposition between the 
 people and proposed partisan laws. 
 
 We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of 
 patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust of office 
 and patronage ; that to obtain possession of the national and State 
 governments and the control of place and position they have ob- 
 structed aU efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the free- 
 dom of suffrage, and have devised fraudulent certifications and 
 returns ; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Con- 
 gress, to secure at all hazards the vote of a majority of the States 
 in the House of Representatives ; have endeavored to occupy by 
 force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people of
 
 406 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine's patriotic 
 sons ; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in prac- 
 tice, attached partisan legislation to appropriation bills, upon whose 
 passage the very movements of the government depend, and have 
 crushed the rights of individuals ; have advocated the principles 
 and sought the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have en- 
 deavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to 
 overcome its inestimably valuable results of nationality, personal 
 freedom, and individual equality. 
 
 The equal, steady, and complete enforcement of laws, and the 
 protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and 
 immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties of 
 the nation. The dangers of a solid South can only be averted by a 
 faithful performance of every promise which the nation has made 
 to the citizen. The execution of the laws and the punishment of 
 all those who violate them are the only safe methods by which an 
 enduring peace can be secured and genuine prosperity established 
 throughout the South. Whatever promises the nation makes, the 
 nation must perform, and the nation cannot with safety delegate 
 this duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by the 
 peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find 
 free expression, and to this end the honest voter must be pro- 
 tected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. 
 
 And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republi- 
 can party to use every legitimate means to restore all the States of 
 this Union to the most perfect harmony that may be practicable ; 
 and we submit it to the practical, sensible people of the United 
 States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest in- 
 terests of our country at this time to surrender the administration 
 of the national government to the party which seeks to overthrow 
 the existing policy under which we are so prosperous, and thus 
 bring distrust and confusion where there are now order, confidence, 
 and hope. 
 
 The platform was adopted unanimously, as was also the 
 following resolution offered by Mr. J. M. Barker, of Massa- 
 chusetts : — 
 
 The Republican party, adhering to principles affirmed by its last 
 national convention of respect for the constitutional rule covering 
 appointments to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, 
 that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical, 
 and complete. To this end it demands the cooperation of the 
 legislative with the executive department of the government, and 
 that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper 
 j)ractical tests, shall admit to the public service.
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 407 
 
 The day's and the week's session was concluded with the 
 formal presentation of the names of candidates. On Monday 
 the voting began, and twenty-eight trials to nominate a can- 
 didate were made on that day. General Grant was the lead- 
 ing candidate, with 304 votes, and during that day his number 
 fluctuated only between 302 and 309. Mr. Blaine came next, 
 with 284 votes on the first ballot ; his number varied on the 
 first day from 285, the highest, to 275, the lowest. Mr. Sher- 
 man began with 93 and ended with 91, having meanwhile 
 dropped to 88 and risen to 97. Mr. Elihu B. Washburne, of 
 Illinois, had 31 votes at the beginning, rose to 36, and had 35 
 on the twenty-eighth ballot. Senator Edmunds had 33 votes 
 at the start, dropped to 32 on the second ballot, to 31 on the 
 eighth, and held that number vinchanged through twenty more 
 ballots. Senator William Windom, of Minnesota, had ten votes, 
 those of his own State, on every ballot. The number of votes 
 necessary to a choice was in every case 378. The convention 
 ended the day's voting without having made any progress to- 
 ward a nomination. 
 
 On the morning of Tuesday there was a slight change. 
 About twenty of the supporters of Mr. Edmunds, joined by 
 a few others, transferred their votes to Mr. Sherman, giving 
 him 116. His number rose to 120 on the thirtieth ballot ; 
 but, inasmuch as not the slightest impression was made upon 
 the Grant and Blaine forces, the movement came to nothing, 
 and on the next trial his strength began to decline again. On 
 the thirty-fourth ballot 17 votes were given to James A. Gar- 
 field. General Garfield had received one vote on the second 
 ballot, the day before, and thereafter had received sometimes 
 one vote, sometimes two votes, and sometimes none. He was 
 present in the convention as a delegate and as tlie manager of 
 Mr. Sherman's canvass, and had been a conspicuous figure in 
 the proceedings of the convention. When he suddenly sprang 
 into prominence on the thirty-fourth ballot, the idea of making 
 him the candidate met with great favor. On the thirty-fifth 
 ballot a number of Mr. Blaine's delegates transferred their 
 votes to him, and gave him 50 votes. On the next trial, — 
 the thirty-sixth, — he received 399, and was nominated. The 
 history of the voting will be sufficiently exhibited by showing 
 in a table the result of the 1st, the 28th, the 30th, the 34th, 
 the 35th, and the 36th trials: —
 
 408 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant, Illinois 
 James G. Blaine, Maine . . 
 John Sherman, Ohio . . . 
 George F. Edmunds, Vermont 
 Elihu B. Washburne, Illinois 
 William Windom, Minnesota 
 James A. Garfield, Ohio . . 
 
 let. 
 
 304 
 284 
 93 
 33 
 31 
 10 
 
 307 
 279 
 91 
 31 
 35 
 10 
 2 
 
 306 
 
 279 
 
 120 
 
 11 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 312 
 
 275 
 
 107 
 
 11 
 
 30 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 35th. 
 
 313 
 
 257 
 99 
 11 
 23 
 3 
 50 
 
 36th. 
 
 306 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 399 
 
 The nomination was received with great enthusiasm by the 
 most of the members of the convention, and with general satis- 
 faction throughout the country. Garfield had been a gallant 
 general during the civil war, and after the close of that con- 
 flict he had served continuously as a member of Congress, 
 where he had risen to a position of honorable leadership. 
 More than once he had exhibited, in addition to talents of 
 a high order, great political courage. When the greenback 
 movement made such inroads into the Republican party of 
 Ohio that he was threatened with defeat unless he yielded 
 to it, he openly declared that he would suffer defeat rather 
 than give up his convictions. At the time of his nomination 
 he had been elected a senator from Ohio for the term begin- 
 ning in 1881. It was thought by many persons at the time 
 that he was in honor bound not to allow himself to be nomi- 
 nated, since he was the accredited and recognized champion of 
 Mr. Sherman. It is true he protested against being made 
 the candidate, but he did not hesitate to accept the nomina- 
 tion when it was tendered. One must nevertheless not for- 
 get that Mr. Sherman's candidacy was hopeless ; and the prize 
 was a great one. 
 
 While the Republicans everywhere hailed the nomination 
 as a good and strong one, some of the prominent leaders of the 
 Grant movement were sullen and discontented. A consulta- 
 tion took place between politicians of the two wings, and the 
 nomination of a candidate for the vice-presidency was conceded 
 to those who had been upholding the cause of General Grant. 
 Senator Conkling, who was recognized as the chief spokesman 
 for the ex-President, named Mr. Chester A. Arthur, of New 
 York. Mr. Arthur's only service in the national govern- 
 ment had been rendered as collector of the port of New York, 
 from which position he had been removed by Mr. Hayes.
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 409 
 
 The first ballot for a candidate resulted as follows : For 
 Chester A. Arthur, 468 ; Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, 
 199 ; Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, 43 ; Horace Maynard, 
 of Tennessee, 30 ; Edmund J. Davis, of Texas, 20 ; Blanche 
 K. Bruce, of Mississippi, 8 ; James L. Alcorn, of Mississippi, 
 4 ; Thomas Settle, of Florida, 2 ; Stewart L. Woodford, of 
 New York, 1. The nomination of Mr. Arthur was made 
 unanimous, and the convention adjourned. 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Arthur was most coldly received. 
 Indeed it was regarded in some quarters with dismay. The 
 events of the succeeding four years greatly modified public 
 opinion, and enabled Mr, Arthur to deserve and to win uni- 
 versal respect. Nevertheless at that time he was deemed by a 
 large section of the party unfitted, by his political instincts 
 and training, for the office of Vice-President. But those who 
 were dissatisfied with that part of the ticket were so well 
 pleased with General Garfield that, after once giving vent to 
 their feelings, they prepared to support both Garfield and 
 Arthur with zeal. Some of those who had set their hearts 
 upon the nomination of General Grant were not so easily re- 
 conciled to the situation. 
 
 The next convention in the order of time was that of the 
 Greenbackers. It met at Chicago on the 9th of June. The 
 Rev. Gilbert De La Matyr, of Indiana, was the temporary 
 chairman, and Richard Trevellick, of Michigan, was the per- 
 manent president. On the second day the following platform 
 was reported and adopted : — 
 
 1. That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power 
 to be maintained by the people for the common benefit. The dele- 
 gation of this right to corporations is a surrender of the central 
 attribute of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring 
 upon a subordinate irresponsible power absolute dominion over 
 industry and commerce. All money, whether metallic or paper, 
 should be issued and its volume controlled by the government, 
 and not by or through banking corporations, and, when so issued, 
 should be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private. 
 
 2. That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, 
 but paid as rapidly as practicable, according to contract. To en- 
 able the government to meet these obligations, legal tender cur- 
 rency should be substituted for the notes of the national banks, 
 the national banking system abolished, and the unlimited coinage 
 of silver, as well as gold, established by law. 
 
 3. That labor should be so protected by national and State
 
 410 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 authority as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution 
 of its results ; the eigh1>hour law of Congress should be enforced ; 
 the sanitary condition of industrial establishments placed under 
 rigid control ; the competition of contract labor abolished ; a bureau 
 of labor statistics established; factories, mines, and workshops 
 inspected; the employment of children under fourteen years of 
 age forbidden ; and wages paid in cash. 
 
 4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being 
 simply slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs 
 necessarily tends to brutalize and degrade American labor ; there- 
 fore immediate steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame 
 treaty. 
 
 5. Railroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfilment of 
 contract should be immediately reclaimed by government ; and 
 henceforth the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for 
 actual settlers. 
 
 6. It is the duty of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. 
 All lines of communication and transportation should be brought 
 under such legislative control as shall secure moderate, fair, and 
 uniform rates for passenger and freight traffic. 
 
 7. We denounce, as destructive to prosperity and dangerous to 
 liberty, the action of the old parties in fostering and sustaining 
 gigantic land, railroad, and money corporations, invested with, and 
 exercising, powers belonging to the government, and yet not re- 
 sponsible to it for the manner of their exercise. 
 
 8. That the Constitution, in giving Congress the power to borrow 
 money, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and 
 maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their 
 money for an interest consideration should be preferred to the 
 soldier and sailor who perilled their lives and shed their blood on 
 land and sea in defence of their country ; and we condemn the 
 cruel class legislation of the Republican party, which, while pro- 
 fessing great gratitude to the soldier, has most unjustly discrimi- 
 nated against him and in favor of the bondholder. 
 
 9. All property should bear its just proportion of taxation ; and 
 ■we demand a graduated income tax. 
 
 10. "We denounce as most dangerous the efforts everywhere man- 
 ifest to restrict the right of suffrage. 
 
 11. We are opposed to an increase of the standing army in time 
 of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous mili- 
 tary power under the guise of militia laws. 
 
 12. We demand absolute democratic rules for the government of 
 Congress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal 
 footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater 
 than that of the President.
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 411 
 
 13. We demand a government of the people, by the people, and 
 for the people, instead of a government of the bondholders, by the 
 bondholders, and for the bondholders ; and we denounce every 
 attempt to stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous 
 crimes against the people. 
 
 14. In the furtherance of these ends we ask the cooperation of 
 all fair-minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, 
 wage no war upon classes, but only against vicious institutions. 
 We are not content to endure further discipline from our present 
 actual rulers, who, having dominion over money, over transporta- 
 tion, over land and labor, and largely over the press and the ma- 
 chinery of government, wield unwarrantable power over our insti- 
 tutions, and over our life and property. 
 
 15. That every citizen of due age, sound mind, and not a felon, 
 be fully enfranchised, and that this resolution be referred to the 
 States, with recommendation for their favorable consideration. 
 
 An informal vote was taken for a candidate for President, 
 with the following result: James B. Weaver, of Iowa, had 
 224,^ ; Hendrick B. Wright, of Pennsylvania, 126^ ; Stephen 
 D. Dillaye, of New York, 119 ; Benjamin F. Butler, of Massa- 
 chusetts, 95; Solon Chase, of Maine, 89 ; Edward P. Allis, of 
 Wisconsin, 41 ; Alexander Campbell, of Illinois, 21. The dele- 
 gations began changing as soon as the strong lead of Mr. 
 Weaver was known, and that gentleman was unanimously 
 nominated. On a vote for a candidate for Vice-President, 
 B. J. Chambers, of Texas, had 403, and Alanson M. West, of 
 Mississippi, had 311. Mr. Chambers was thereupon unani- 
 mously nominated. 
 
 The Prohibitionists held a convention at Cleveland, Ohio, 
 on the 17th of June. It attracted so little attention that no 
 report of its proceedings was published in the leading news- 
 papers of the country. Twelve States were represented by 
 142 delegates. A platform presenting the principles of the 
 party, in much the same form as they were announced in 1876, 
 was adopted. General Neal Dow, of Maine, was nominated for 
 President, and A. M. Thompson, of Ohio, for Vice-President. 
 
 The series of national conventions was closed by that of the 
 Democrats at Cincinnati on the 22d of June. What that con- 
 vention would do was a matter of great uncertainty. Mr. 
 Tilden had still not indicated what was his wish in respect of 
 the nomination. It is probable that, if he had frankly 
 allowed it to be understood that he would be a candidate, he 
 could have secured enough delegates to make him the nominee
 
 412 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 on the first ballot. Since he neither encouraged nor discour- 
 aged his friends, and left them in the dark as to his purposes, 
 hardly a third of the delegates went to Cincinnati for Tilden 
 as their first choice. A great many Southern members of the con- 
 vention were in favor of Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of Dela- 
 ware. General Hancock was brought forward by Pennsyl- 
 vania, and had strong support in other States. Ohio presented 
 Senator Thurman ; and Mr. Hendricks, as well as other leaders 
 of the party, Mr. Henry B. Payne, of Ohio, Speaker Samuel 
 J. Randall, and Judge Stephen J. Field, had their friends. 
 A movement was begun in favor of Mr. Horatio Seymour, and 
 it made not a little progress in a quiet way. Mr. Seymour 
 was captured by an " interviewer," and expressed himself in 
 such terms that it was believed that he really would not accept 
 the nomination if it should be tendered ; and although he re- 
 ceived a few votes there was no opportunity to test his actual 
 strength in the convention. 
 
 Simultaneously with the assembling of the convention came 
 a letter from Mr. Tilden, in which he " renounced " the nom- 
 ination. The phraseology of the letter was such that it left 
 room for both the friends and the opponents of Mr. Tilden to 
 say that he would not refuse the nomination if it should be 
 tendered to him ; but the prevailing tendency of opinion was 
 to take him at his word. 
 
 Mr. George Hoadly, of Ohio, was the temporary chairman 
 of the convention, which did not eff'ect its permanent organiza- 
 tion until the second day, after the contested seats had been 
 passed upon. There were several cases of contest. Two sets 
 of delegates made their appearance from Massachusetts, and 
 the case*was decided by admitting both sets, with a half vote 
 for each delegate. A more difficult case was that of New York. 
 Here, too, there were two full delegations, one chosen by the 
 " regular " Democrats ; the other, the " Tammany " delegation. 
 The attitude of the Tammany organization towards Mr. Tilden 
 in 1876, and the open declaration of Mr. John Kelly and 
 other members of the contesting delegation, that if that candi- 
 date should be nominated again they would not support him, 
 did not give the delegation favor in the eyes of the conven- 
 tion ; and tlie committee on credentials reported against giving 
 them any recognition whatever. A minority of the committee 
 reported in favor of granting their request to be allowed twenty 
 of the seventy votes of New York. After a debate the
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 413 
 
 minority report was rejected by a vote of yeas 205|^, nays 457. 
 The New York delegation was excused from voting at its own 
 request. Thus Tammany was excluded from the convention 
 altogether. 
 
 Ex-Governor John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, having been 
 chosen permanent president of the convention, the platform was 
 reported by Mr. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, and unani- 
 mously adopted. It was as follows : — 
 
 The Democrats of the United States, in convention assembled, 
 declare — 
 
 1. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and 
 traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teachings 
 and example of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots, 
 and embodied in the platform of the last national convention of 
 the party. 
 
 2. Opposition to centralizationism and to that dangerous spirit 
 of encroachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the 
 departments in one, and thus to create, whatever be the form of 
 government, a real despotism. No sumptuary laws ; separation of 
 church and state for the good of each ; common schools fostered 
 and protected. 
 
 3. Home rule ; honest money, consisting of gold and silver, and 
 paper convertible into coin on demand ; the strict maintenance of 
 the public faith, state and national ; and a tariff for revenue only. 
 
 4. The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a 
 general and thorough reform of the civil service. 
 
 5. The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all 
 rights, and must and shall be maintained in every part of the 
 United States. 
 
 6. The existing administration is the representative of conspiracy 
 only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops 
 and deputy marshals, to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and 
 the unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and 
 despotic power, insult the people and imperil their institutions. 
 
 7. The great fraud of 1876-77, by which, ixpon a false count of 
 the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the 
 polls was declared to be President, and, for the first time in Ameri- 
 can history, the will of the people was set aside under a threat of 
 military violence, struck a deadly blow at our system of represent- 
 ative government ; the Democratic party, to preserve the country 
 from a civil war, submitted for a time in firm and patriotic faith 
 that the people would punish this crime in 1880 ; this issue pre- 
 cedes and dwarfs every other ; it imposes a more sacred duty upon 
 the people of the Union than ever addressed the conscience of a 
 nation of freemen.
 
 414 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 8. We execrate the course of this administration in making 
 places in the civil service a reward for political crime, and demand 
 a reform by statute which shall make it forever impossible for the 
 defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by 
 billeting villains upon the people. 
 
 9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candi- 
 date for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of 
 his countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of 
 the Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United 
 States with sensibility, and they declare their confidence in his 
 wisdom, patriotism, and integrity, unshaken by the assaults of a 
 common enemy, and they fui'ther assure him that he is followed 
 into the retirement he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and 
 respect of his fellow -citizens, who regard him as one who, by ele- 
 vating the standards of public morality, merits the lasting grati- 
 tude of his country and his party. 
 
 10. Free ships and a living chance for American commerce on 
 the seas and on the land. No discrimination in favor of transpor- 
 tation lines, corporations, or monopolies. 
 
 11. Amendment of the Burlingame treaty. No more Chinese 
 immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, 
 and therein carefully guarded. 
 
 12. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, 
 and public land for actual settlers. 
 
 13. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring 
 man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorant 
 and the commune. 
 
 14. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of 
 a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditure 
 forty million dollars a year ; upon the continuation of prosperity 
 at home and the national honor abroad ; and, above all, upon the 
 promise of such a change in the administration of the government 
 as shall insure us genuine and lasting reform in every department 
 of the public service. 
 
 The business of the convention was transacted so expedi- 
 tiously that the formal presentation of the candidates took 
 place on the second day, and one ballot for a candidate for 
 President was taken. It showed a slight lead for General 
 Hancock over Mr. Bayard ; yet the combined vote for both 
 these candidates did not constitute a majority of the conven- 
 tion. A second ballot was taken the next morning, when 
 General Hancock gained nearly one hundred and fifty votes, 
 and the delegations then began changing in his favor, and he 
 was nominated. The hand of Mr. Tilden was detected, or
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 
 
 415 
 
 rather suspected, in the voting, but if he had any part in the 
 affair he suffered a defeat. The vote of New York was at first 
 cast for Mr. Payne, of Ohio, who was believed to be Mr. Til- 
 den's heir ; but, on the second ballot, New York and nearly 
 all the recognized friends of Tilden voted for Mr. Randall, 
 who was also supposed to be a favorite of Mr. Tilden. It 
 was mentioned as a queer feature of the convention that none 
 of the delegates seemed to be enthusiastically in favor of their 
 respective candidates, and it was said that those who voted 
 at the beginning for General Hancock were ready to abandon 
 him if any other person should have a lead over him. Ac- 
 cordingly, although he had been presented as a candidate and 
 had received votes in the conventions of 1868 and 1876, and 
 although he was so prominent prior to the convention of 1880, 
 his nomination had all the effect of a surprise. The two bal- 
 lots, the second as it stood originally and also as it was when 
 the changes had been made, were as follows : — 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 Winfield S. Hancock, Pennsylvania 
 Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware 
 
 Henry B. Payne, Ohio 
 
 Allen G. Thurman, Ohio .... 
 Stephen J. Field, California . . . 
 William R. Morrison, Illinois . . 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana . . 
 Samuel J. Tilden, New York . . 
 Horatio Seymour, New York . . 
 Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania . 
 Scattering 
 
 1st. 
 
 2(i. 
 
 171 
 
 320 
 
 153* 
 
 113 
 
 81 
 
 - 
 
 6Si 
 
 50 
 
 65 
 
 65i 
 
 62 
 
 - 
 
 50i 
 
 31 
 
 38 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 128i 
 
 31 
 
 22 
 
 After 
 changes. 
 
 705 
 
 2 
 
 30 
 1 
 
 The names of two gentlemen as candidates for the vice-presi- 
 dency were presented : that of William H. English, of Indiana, 
 and that of Richard M. Bishop, of Ohio, " your uncle Dick,'* 
 as he was termed by the delegate who nominated him, in an 
 unsuccessful attempt to arouse enthusiasm. The preference 
 for Mr. English was so strongly expressed as the voting pro- 
 ceeded, that Mr. Bishop's name was withdrawn, and Mr. Eng- 
 lish was nominated by acclamation. 
 
 The canvass of 1880 was a remarkable one in several ways. 
 First, for the savage assaults that were made upon General 
 Garfield by the opposition. He was accused of numerous 
 improprieties in his conduct as a member of the House of
 
 416 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Kepresentatives, of complicity in corrupt contracts, and of hav- 
 ing been concerned in the Credit Mobilier, which had made a 
 great sensation in Congress in the years 1872 and 1873. At 
 one time the number " 329 " was painted, chalked, and printed 
 everywhere, on sidewalks, doors and dead-walls, and in the 
 opposition newspapers ; that being the number of dollars he 
 was alleged to have received as a Credit Mobilier dividend. 
 It probably had little effect. Neither Democrats nor Republi- 
 cans believed that General Garfield was corrupt. In the last 
 days of the canvass the famous " Morey Letter " was forged 
 and scattered broadcast, particularly in the Pacific States. 
 That letter, in which General Garfield's handwriting was 
 counterfeited with some success, addressed to a mythical person 
 named Morey, asserted principles on the Chinese question 
 which, if they had been held by General Garfield, would have 
 made him unpopular in California and the other States where 
 *' Chinese cheap labor " was regarded as a crying evil. It was 
 lithographed and printed in vast numbers, and scattered among 
 the voters in the Pacific States at a time when an effective 
 denial of its authenticity was impossible ; and it had a great 
 effect. 
 
 Another feature of the canvass was the sudden importation 
 of the tariff question into the political discussion a few weeks 
 before the election. The Democratic platform had declared in 
 favor of "a, tariff for revenue only." Republican speakers 
 seized upon this as an assertion of the baldest free-trade doc- 
 trine, and they denounced it with surprising vigor as assailing 
 the interests of American industry. The Democrats could 
 not make an effective reply, at least they did not ; and they 
 would not defend the phrase in its obvious meaning. No 
 one really supposed that General Hancock was a free-trader, 
 but some unfortunate sentences which were written and spoken 
 by him gave an opportunity to the Republicans to jeer at his 
 supposed ignorance upon all tariff questions. 
 
 The canvass was remarkable also for the conspicuous absence 
 of agitation upon Southern questions ; and indeed those ques- 
 tions had less influence upon the result than upon that of any 
 other election since the Abolitionists defeated Henry Clay in 
 1844. Another fact was the failure of the Democrats to ex- 
 cite the interest of the people in the " fraud issue," meaning 
 the result of the Electoral Commission law of 1877, which 
 issue, the Democratic platform had said^ " precedes and dwarfs
 
 A REPUBLICAN REVIVAL 
 
 417 
 
 
 
 
 POPni,AB VOTB. 
 
 Electoral 
 Vote. 
 
 States. 
 
 1 
 
 |1 
 
 > 
 
 
 u 
 
 S 
 .a 
 
 ■e 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 ta 5 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 "3 
 
 
 H 
 
 CO S" 
 
 ^1 
 
 gT 
 
 i 
 
 § 
 
 
 <o 
 
 4) ® 
 
 pq S 
 
 ai 
 
 2 
 
 o 
 
 
 a 
 
 «&H 
 
 o 
 
 — « 
 
 « 
 
 « 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 ga 
 
 S3 
 
 i 
 
 
 a 
 
 ^ 
 
 A 
 
 ^ 
 
 O 
 
 W 
 
 Alabama 
 
 56,221 
 
 91,185 
 
 4,642 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 
 
 42,436 
 
 60,775 
 
 4,079 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 California . . . 
 
 
 
 80,348 
 
 80,426 
 
 3,392 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 Colorado . . 
 
 
 
 27,450 
 
 24,647 
 
 1,435 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 
 67,071 
 
 64,415 
 
 868 
 
 409 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware . 
 
 
 
 14,133 
 
 15,275 
 
 120 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Florida . . . 
 
 
 
 23,6i>4 
 
 27,964 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 Georgia . . . 
 
 
 
 54,086 
 
 102,470 
 
 969 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 I^jnois . . . 
 
 
 
 318,037 
 
 277,321 
 
 26,358 
 
 443 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana . . . 
 
 
 
 232,164 
 
 22.5,.522 
 
 12,986 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 Iowa .... 
 
 
 
 183,927 
 
 105,845 
 
 32,701 
 
 592 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 Kansas . . . 
 
 
 
 121,549 
 
 59,801 
 
 19,851 
 
 25 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 
 
 106,306 
 
 149,068 
 
 11,499 
 
 258 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 
 
 *38,637 
 
 65,067 
 
 439 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 
 
 74,039 
 
 t 65,171 
 
 4,408 
 
 93 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 
 78,515 
 
 93,706 
 
 818 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 165,205 
 
 111,960 
 
 4,548 
 
 682 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 
 
 185,341 
 
 131,597 
 
 34,895 
 
 942 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 Minnesota . . 
 
 
 
 93,903 
 
 53,315 
 
 3,267 
 
 286 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Mississippi . . 
 
 
 
 34,854 
 
 75,750 
 
 5,797 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 
 
 153,567 
 
 208,609 
 
 35,135 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 Nebraska . . 
 
 
 
 54,979 
 
 28,523 
 
 3,950 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Nevada . . . 
 
 
 
 8,732 
 
 9,613 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 
 44,852 
 
 40,794 
 
 528 
 
 180 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 
 120,555 
 
 122,565 
 
 2,617 
 
 191 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 New York . . 
 
 
 
 555,544 
 
 534,511 
 
 12,373 
 
 1,517 
 
 35 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 115,874 
 
 124,208 
 
 1,126 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 Ohio. . . . 
 
 
 
 375,048 
 
 340,821 
 
 6,456 
 
 2,616 
 
 22 
 
 - 
 
 Oregon . . . 
 
 
 
 20,619 
 
 19,948 
 
 249 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania . 
 
 
 
 444,704 
 
 407,428 
 
 20,668 
 
 1,939 
 
 29 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island . 
 
 
 
 18,195 
 
 10,779 
 
 236 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 
 58,071 
 
 112,312 
 
 566 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 
 
 
 107,677 
 
 128,191 
 
 5,917 
 
 43 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 Texas . . . 
 
 
 
 57,893 
 
 156,428 
 
 27,405 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 
 45,567 
 
 18,316 
 
 1,215 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 
 84,020 
 
 1 128,586 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 
 46,243 
 
 57,391 
 
 9,079 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 144,400 
 
 114,649 
 
 7,986 
 
 69 
 
 10 
 
 "* 
 
 Total 
 
 4,454,416 
 
 4,444,952 
 
 308,578 
 
 10,305 
 
 214 
 
 155 
 
 * Two Republican tickets were voted for. 
 
 t Votes for a fusion electoral ticket, made up of three Democrats and four Green- 
 backers. A " straight " Greenback ticket was also voted for. 
 
 + Two Democratic tickets were voted for in Virginia. The regular ticket received 
 9f(,912, and was successful ; the " Readjusters " polled 31,674 votes.
 
 418 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 every other." The canvass was, finally, singular for the dis- 
 cord and sullenness among the Grant men in the Republican 
 party at the outset, followed, after a reverse in Maine in Sep- 
 tember, by a restoration of harmony and an increase of vigor 
 which immediately thereafter gave energy to the canvass, car- 
 ried Ohio and Indiana in October, and made General Garfield 
 President. Reference must also be made to the scandals con- 
 nected with the contributions of funds to the Republican 
 treasury, which brought into unpleasant prominence the con- 
 tributions of certain officials who were afterwards shown to 
 have obtained their money by corrupt or otherwise improper 
 acts. 
 
 General Garfield had but an insignificant plurality of the 
 popular vote over Hancock, and much less than a majority of 
 all ; but this was largely the result of abstention, voluntary 
 or enforced, on the part of Republican voters in the South. 
 Thirty-eight States took part in the election ; in each the ap- 
 pointment of electors was by popular vote. The popular and 
 electoral votes are given on the preceding page. 
 
 The count of votes took place under the resolution already 
 cited. The electoral votes of Georgia were counted in the 
 alternative manner first devised in 1821, as they had been cast 
 on the second Wednesday of December. The vote was so 
 close in California that one of the Republican electors was 
 chosen by " split tickets." The electoral count was entirely 
 devoid of incident, and General Garfield was duly proclaimed 
 elected.
 
 XXVII 
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAIVIPAIGN 
 
 There has never been a time in the history of the country 
 when party lines were so indistinct, and so easily and fre- 
 quently crossed, as during the four years that preceded the 
 election of 1884. During all that time there was hardly a 
 vote passed by either House of Congress in which the division 
 was strictly on party lines. There were no sharply defined 
 party issues ; and political matters were in such a condition 
 that if any fresh question of absorbing interest had arisen, 
 there must have been extensive changes of party association, 
 if not a complete reconstruction of both the great historical 
 organizations. In the absence of such questions, men con- 
 tinued to act, each with his own party, merely as a matter of 
 habit, and, up to the spring of 1884, there was nothing to 
 portend the violence and fury with which the canvass of that 
 year was to be conducted. 
 
 A brief survey of the leading events of the years from 1881 
 to 1884 will indicate how little occurred that had an influence 
 upon the result in the presidential year. There was, first 
 of all, the dissension in the Republican party caused by some 
 of Mr. Garfield's appointments, chiefly in New York, which 
 deeply offended Mr. Conkling, and led to the formation of two 
 factions, one of which called itself '' Stalwart " and stigma- 
 tized the other as " Half-breed." The assassination, the linger- 
 ing sickness, and the death of President Garfield ; the acces- 
 sion of Mr. Arthur, the scandal of the " Star route " mail 
 contracts, and the offensive incidents of the trial of the assas- 
 sin of the President, — these are chapters in our history which 
 every patriotic student would gladly forget. 
 
 The only important legislation during Mr. Arthur's adminis- 
 tration consisted of laws aimed at polygamy in Utah, and at 
 Chinese immigration ; the creation of the Tariff Commission in 
 1882, and the passage of a new tariff law in 1883 ; and the 
 Civil Service Reform Act. "While this was all, in one sense,
 
 420 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 political legislation, it was not, in the strict sense, party legis- 
 lation. The Tariff Act was an exception, for it divided Con- 
 gress nearly on party lines. In the Senate, one Democrat 
 only voted for the bill, and two Republicans against it ; while, 
 in the House of Representatives, fifteen Democrats and nine 
 Republicans separated themselves from their respective parties. 
 The Civil Service Reform Act was passed in each branch by 
 large majorities ; but in the Senate all the five negative votes 
 were given by Democrats, and in the House of Representa- 
 tives seven only of the forty-seven negative votes were given 
 by Republicans. Neither of these important acts was regarded 
 as a party measure to such an extent that any member lost 
 political standing by placing himself in opposition to the gen- 
 eral opinion of his associates ; and neither had a perceptible 
 effect upon the election of 1884. 
 
 Events, nevertheless, were occurring which weakened the 
 Republicans and prepared the way for the impending defeat 
 of the party. There was a feeling which found expression in 
 various ways that " the machine " was becoming too prominent 
 in the management of affairs, and that the " bosses " were de- 
 fiant of the better sentiment of the party in the selection of 
 candidates. In many States, the election of 1882 resulted in 
 Democratic victories which were largely due to a revolt against 
 what was, rightly or wrongly, deemed the arrogant dictation of 
 self-constituted leaders. Pennsylvania defeated the Republi- 
 can candidate for governor, to whom no one objected on per- 
 sonal grounds ; and New York gave to Grover Cleveland, the 
 Democratic candidate for governor, the unprecedented majority 
 of one hundred and ninety thousand. Yet the opposing can- 
 didate was Mr. Folger, the Secretary of the Treasury, formerly 
 the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and a 
 gentleman of the highest character, against whom nothing could 
 be said, except that he was a candidate chosen for the Repub- 
 licans, and not by them. These defeats were regarded as 
 warnings to the Republicans that they could win the coming 
 contest only by nominating good candidates, without the inter- 
 vention of the " machine " and the " bosses." 
 
 A step in the direction of greater freedom within the party, 
 and in curtailment of the powers sometimes exercised by 
 leaders in disregard of the popular will, was taken at a meet- 
 ing of the Republican national committee held in 1883. An 
 attempt was made so to change the basis of the national
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 421 
 
 convention as to enlarge the influence of the States and com- 
 munities giving Republican majorities, and to diminish cor- 
 respondingly the relative strength of those parts of the country 
 where the party was in a hopeless minority. Two proposi- 
 tions were submitted. According to the first, the national 
 convention would consist of delegates from each State as fol- 
 lows : (1) Four delegates at large ; (2) One delegate for each 
 Congress-district ; (3) One delegate for each twelve thousand 
 votes given in the State in 1880 for the Republican electoral 
 ticket. The other plan proposed for each State : (1) Four 
 delegates at large ; (2) One delegate at large for each Republi- 
 can senator representing the State ; (3) One delegate for each 
 Congress-district ; (4) One additional delegate for each dis- 
 trict represented in Congress by a Republican. Each of these 
 propositions was rejected, and the old basis of a national con- 
 vention was readopted. 
 
 But a radical change was made in the method of choosing 
 delegates. A time was prescribed for electing them, and the 
 right of districts to choose their own delegates was recognized 
 and secured. It was voted that the state conventions should 
 be held not less than thirty nor more than sixty days before 
 the time of meeting of the national convention, and after not 
 less than twenty days' public, advertised notice. District 
 delegates were to be elected either by separate district conven- 
 tions or by subdivision of the state convention. If separate 
 conventions were to be held, they were to meet within fifteen 
 days prior to the state convention ; and in any case their cre- 
 dentials were to be given and certified by district officers. By 
 the first of these provisions, security was given against fore- 
 stalling the action of the national convention by early conven- 
 tions in some of the States ; by the other, an opportunity was 
 given to minorities to make their influence felt, and power 
 was taken from a majority in the State to stifle opposition. 
 
 The first national convention held in 1884 was that of the 
 Anti-Monopoly party, which met in Chicago, May 14. The 
 party had no prior nor subsequent history. The attendance 
 was not large. Only seventeen States and the District of 
 Columbia were represented on the Committee on Resolutions. 
 Mr. Alson J. Streeter was the temporary chairman, and John 
 F. Henry the permanent president of the convention. The 
 following platform was reported, and adopted by a vote of 
 eighty-five to twenty -nine : —
 
 422 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The Anti-Monopoly organization of the United States, in con- 
 vention assembled, declares : — 
 
 1. 'That labor and capital should be allies ; and we demand jus- 
 tice for both, by protecting the rights of all against privileges for 
 the few. 
 
 2. That corporations, the creatures of law, should be controlled 
 by law. 
 
 3. That we propose the greatest reduction practicable in public 
 expenses. 
 
 4. That in the enactment and vigorous execution of just laws, 
 equality of rights, equality of burdens, equality of privileges, and 
 equality of powers in all citizens will be secured. To this end, we 
 declare : — 
 
 5. That it is the duty of the government to immediately exercise 
 its constitutional prerogative to regulate commerce among the 
 States. The great instruments by which this commerce is carried 
 on are transportation, money, and the transmission of intelligence. 
 They are now mercilessly controlled by giant monopolies, to the 
 impoverishment of labor, the crushing out of healthful competi- 
 tion, and the destruction of business security. We hold it, there- 
 fore, to be the imperative and immediate duty of Congress to pass 
 all needful laws for the control and regulation of those great 
 agents of commerce, in accordance with the oft-repeated decisions 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 
 6. That these monopolies, which have exacted from enterprise 
 such heavy tribute, have also inflicted countless wrongs upon the 
 toiling millions of the United States ; and no system of reform 
 should commend itself to the support of the people which does not 
 protect the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his face. 
 Bureaus of labor-statistics must be established, both state and 
 national ; arbitration take the place of brute force in the settle- 
 ment of disputes between employer and employed ; the national 
 eight-hour law be honestly enforced ; the importation of foreign 
 labor under contract be made illegal ; and whatever practical re- 
 forms may be necessary for the protection of united labor must 
 be granted, to the end that unto the toiler shall be given that pro- 
 portion of the profits of the thing or value created which his labor 
 bears to the cost of production. 
 
 7. That we approve and favor the passage of an Interstate Com- 
 merce bill. Navigable waters should be improved by the govern- 
 ment, and be free. 
 
 8. We demand the payment of the bonded debt as it falls due ; 
 the election of United States senators by the direct vote of the 
 people of their respective States ; a graduated income tax ; and a 
 tariff, which is a tax upon the people, that shall be so levied as to
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAJVIPAIGN 423 
 
 boar as lightly as possible upon necessaries. We denounce the 
 present tariff as being largely in the interest of monopoly, and de- 
 mand that it be speedily and radically reformed in the interest of 
 labor, instead of capital. 
 
 9. That no further grants of public lands shall be made to cor- 
 porations. All enactments granting lands to corporations should 
 be strictly construed, and all land grants should be forfeited where 
 the terms upon which the grants were made have not been strictly 
 complied with. The lands must be held for homes for actual set- 
 tlers, and must not be subject to purchase or control by non-resi- 
 dent foreigners or other specidators. 
 
 10. That we deprecate the discrimination of American legisla- 
 tion against the greatest of American industries, — agriculture, — 
 by which it has been deprived of nearly all beneficial legislation, 
 while forced to bear the brunt of taxation ; and we demand for it 
 the fostering care of government, and the just recognition of its 
 importance in the development and advancement of our land ; and 
 we appeal to the American farmer to cooperate with us in our 
 endeavors to advance the national interests of the country and the 
 overthrow of monopoly in every shape, whenever and wherever 
 found. 
 
 General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, was nomi- 
 nated as candidate for President on the first vote. He re- 
 ceived 122 votes, to 7 for Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, and 
 1 for Solon Chase, of Maine. The nomination of a candidate 
 for Vice-President was left with the national committee, who 
 adopted the candidate of the National or Greenback party, 
 General Alanson M. West, of Mississippi. 
 
 The National party — Greenbackers — held its convention 
 in Indianapolis, on the 28th of May. John Tyler, of Florida, 
 was the temporary chairman, and General James B. W^eaver, 
 of Iowa, permanent president. The following platform was 
 adopted : — 
 
 Eight years ago, our young, party met in this city for the first 
 time, and proclaimed to the world its immortal principles, and 
 placed before the American people as a presidential candidate that 
 great philanthropist and spotless statesman, Peter Cooper. Since 
 that convention, our party has organized all over the Union, and 
 through discussion and agitation has been educating the people to 
 a sense of their rights and duties to themselves and their country. 
 These labors have accomplished wonders. We now have a great, 
 harmonious party, and thousands who believe in our principles in 
 the ranks of other parties. 
 
 " We point with pride to our history." We forced the remone-
 
 424 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 tization of the silver dollar ; prevented the refunding of the public 
 debt into long-time bonds ; secured the payment of the bonds, until 
 " the best banking system the world ever saw," for robbing the pro- 
 ducer, now totters because of its contracting foundation ; we have 
 stopped the wholesale destruction of the greenback currency, and 
 secured a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States es- 
 tablishing forever the right of the people to issue their own money. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, never in our history have the banks, 
 land-grant railroads, and other monopolies been more insolent in 
 their demands for further privileges — still more class legislation. 
 In this emergency, the dominant parties are arrayed against the 
 people, and are the abject tools of the corporate monopolies. 
 
 In the last Congress, they repealed over twelve million dollars of 
 annual taxes for the banks, throwing the burden upon the people 
 to pay, or pay interest thereon. 
 
 Both old parties in the present Congress vie with each other in 
 their efforts to further repeal taxes in order to stop the payment 
 of the public debt and save the banks whose charters they have 
 renewed for twenty years. Notwithstanding the distress of busi- 
 ness, the shrinkage of wages, and panic, they persist in locking up, 
 on various pretexts, four hundred million dollars of money, every 
 dollar of which the people pay interest upon, and need, and most 
 of which should be promptly applied to pay bonds now payable. 
 
 The old parties are united — as they cannot agree what taxes to 
 repeal — in efforts to squander the income of the government upon 
 every pretext rather than pay the debt. 
 
 A bill has already passed the United States Senate making the 
 banks a present of over fifty million dollars more of the people's 
 money, in order to enable them to levy a still greater burden of 
 interest taxes. 
 
 A joint effort is being made by the old party leaders to over- 
 throw the sovereign constitutional power of the people to control 
 their own financial affairs and issue their own money, in order to 
 forever enslave the masses to bankers and other business. The 
 House of Representatives has passed bills reclaiming nearly one 
 hundred million acres of lands granted to and forfeited by railroad 
 companies. These bills have gone to the Senate, a body composed 
 largely of aristocratic millionaires, who, according to their own 
 party papers, generally purchased their elections in order to protect 
 great monopolies which they represent. This body has thus far 
 defied the people and the House, and refused to act upon these 
 bills in the interest of the people. 
 
 Therefore we, the National party of the United States, in na- 
 tional convention assembled, this twenty-ninth day of May, a. d. 
 1884, declare : —
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 425 
 
 1. That we hold the late decision of the Supreme Court on the 
 legal tender question to be a full vindication of the theory which 
 our party has always advocated on the right and authority of Con- 
 gress over the issue of legal tender notes, and we hereby pledge 
 ourselves to uphold said decision, and to defend the Constitution 
 against alterations or amendments intended to deprive the people 
 of any rights or privileges conferred by that instrument. We de- 
 mand the issue of such money in sufficient quantities to supply the 
 actual demand of trade and commerce, in accordance with the in- 
 crease of population and the development of our industries. We 
 demand the substitution of greenbacks for national bank notes, 
 and the prompt payment of the public debt. We want that money 
 which saved our country in time of war, and which has given it 
 prosperity and happiness in peace. We condemn the retirement of 
 the fractional currency and the small denomination of greenbacks, 
 and demand their restoration. We demand the issue of the hoards 
 of money now locked up in the United States treasury, by apply- 
 ing them to the payment of the public debt now due. 
 
 2. We denounce, as dangerous to our republican institutions, 
 those methods and policies of the Democratic and Republican par- 
 ties which have sanctioned or permitted the establishment of land, 
 railroad, money, and other gigantic corporate monopolies; and we 
 demand such governmental action as may be necessary to take from 
 such monopolies the powers they have so corruptly and unjustly 
 usurped, and restore them to the people, to whom they belong. ■ 
 
 3. The public lands being the natural inheritance of the people, 
 we denounce that policy which has granted to corporations vast 
 tracts of land, and we demand that immediate and vigorous mea- 
 sures be taken to reclaim from such corporations, for the people's 
 use and benefit, all such land grants as have been forfeited by rea- 
 son of non-fulfilment of contract, or that may have been wrong- 
 fully acquired by corrupt legislation, and that such reclaimed lands 
 and other public domain be henceforth held as a sacred trust, to be 
 granted only to actual settlers in limited quantities ; and we also 
 demand that the alien ownership of land, individual or corporate, 
 be prohibited. 
 
 4. We demand congressional regulation of interstate commerce. 
 We denounce " pooling," stock watering, and discrimination in 
 rates and charges, and demand that Congress shall correct these 
 abuses, even, if necessary, by the construction of national railroads. 
 We also demand the establishment of a government postal tele- 
 graph system. 
 
 5. All private property, all forms of money and obligations to 
 pay money, should bear their just proportion of the public taxes. 
 We demand a graduated income tax.
 
 426 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 6. We demand the amelioration of the condition of labor, by en- 
 forcing the sanitary laws in industrial establishments, by the aboli- 
 tion of the convict labor system, by a rigid inspection of mines and 
 factories, by a reduction of the hours of labor in industrial estab- 
 lishments, by fostering educational institutions, and by abolishing 
 child labor. 
 
 7. We condemn all importations of contracted labor, made with 
 a view of reducing to starvation wages the workingmen of this 
 country, and demand laws for its prevention. 
 
 8. We insist upon a constitutional amendment reducing the 
 terms of United States senators. 
 
 9. We demand such rules for the government of Congress as 
 shall place all representatives of the people upon an equal footing, 
 and take away from committees a veto power greater than that of 
 the President. 
 
 10. The question as to the amount of duties to be levied upon 
 various articles of import has been agitated and quarrelled over, 
 and has divided communities, for nearly a hundred years. It is not 
 now, and never will be, settled, unless by the abolition of indirect 
 taxation. It is a convenient issue, always raised when the people 
 are excited over abuses in their midst. While we favor a wise re- 
 vision of the tariff laws, with a view to raising a revenue from lux- 
 uries rather than necessities, we insist that, as an economic ques- 
 tion, its importance is insignificant as compared with financial 
 issues ; for whereas we have suffered our worst panics under low 
 and also under high tariffs, we have never suffered from a panic, 
 nor seen our factories and workshops closed, while the volume of 
 money in circulation was adequate to the needs of commerce. Give 
 our farmers and manufactui'ers money as cheap as you now give it 
 to our bankers, and they can pay high wages to labor, and compete 
 with all the world. 
 
 11. For the purpose of testing the sense of the people vipon the 
 subject, we are in favor of submitting to a vote of the people an 
 amendment to the Constitution in favor of suffrage regardless of 
 sex, and also on the subject of the liquor traffic. 
 
 12. All disabled soldiers of the late war should be equitably 
 pensioned, and we denounce the policy of keeping a small army 
 of office-holders, whose only business is to prevent, on technical 
 grounds, deserving soldiers from obtaining justice from the gov- 
 ernment they helped to save. 
 
 , 13. As our name indicates, we are a national party, knowing no 
 East, no West, no North, no South. Having no sectional preju- 
 dices, we can properly place in nomination for the high offices of 
 state, as candidates, men from any section of the Union. 
 
 14. We appeal to all people who believe in our princii^les, to aid 
 us by voice, pen, and votes.
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 427 
 
 The first vote for a candidate for President resulted as fol- 
 lows : — General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, 322 ; 
 Jesse Harper, of Illinois, 99 ; Solon Chase, of Maine, 2 ; 
 Edward P. Allis, of Wisconsin, 1 ; David Davis, of Illinois, 1. 
 General Butler was declared nominated. A motion to make 
 the nomination unanimous was declared adopted, though it was 
 received with hisses and shouts of " no." General Alanson 
 M. West, of Mississippi, was nominated for Vice-President by 
 acclamation. 
 
 As the time set for the meeting of the Republican conven- 
 tion approached, there was the usual activity among the parti- 
 sans of the several candidates. General Arthur had succeeded 
 to the presidency in trying circumstances, and had acquitted 
 himself in his high office with great credit. His moderation 
 had won for him the praise of many men who had heard of 
 his nomination for the vice-presidency, in 1880, with dismay. 
 The President was frankly a candidate for reelection. He 
 had hosts of friends and few enemies in the party. General 
 John A. Logan had not only the support of the Republicans 
 of his own State of Illinois, but many strong partisans among 
 the volunteer soldiers of the civil war. Senator John Sher- 
 man was supported by a compact body of Ohio Republicans. 
 Senator George F. Edmunds, of Vermont, was a favorite can- 
 didate with many of those members of the party who regarded 
 civil service reform as the great issue. But the candidate 
 who had the strongest, the most enthusiastic, and, as the event 
 proved, the prevailing body of followers, was Mr. James G. 
 Blaine, of Maine. This gentleman had been secretary of 
 state under General Garfield, the President's most intimate 
 friend, and his chief political adviser. He had narrowly 
 missed the nomination in 1876 and again in 1880, on his own 
 merits ; and he was now regarded as the natural heir of the 
 assassinated President. His own State supported him, but he 
 had no great strength in the other New England States. But 
 elsewhere, — everywhere else, — his partisans were numerous, 
 enthusiastic, and devoted. From the northwest, the southwest, 
 the Pacific coast States, from New York and Pennsylvania, 
 they gathered, and they had even successfully disputed the 
 claim of Ohio's and Illinois's " favorite sons " to united dele- 
 gations. It was evident, before the convention met, that the 
 supporters of Mr. Blaine and of General Arthur constituted a 
 large majority of the delegates. It was also evident that Mr.
 
 428 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Blaine was the leading candidate. His success was sure, un- 
 less all the opposing elements, those which were simply more 
 friendly to other candidates, as well as that element which was 
 unalterably opposed to his candidacy, could be held together 
 and concentrated upon one man. 
 
 The convention met at Chicago on June 3. The national 
 committee had named ex-Senator Powell Clayton, of Arkansas, 
 as the temporary chairman of the convention. This selection 
 was supposed to be in the interest of Mr. Blaine. A nomina- 
 tion of the Hon. John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, a distinguished 
 colored man, was made from the floor, and the convention, on 
 a vote by delegates, elected him to the position, by 431 votes 
 to 387 given for Mr. Clayton. On the next day, no other 
 business was transacted beyond the choice of the Hon. John 
 B. Henderson, of Missouri, as permanent president. 
 
 On the third day, the rules of the convention were reported 
 and adopted. One important rule was adopted, concerning 
 the constitution of the national committee, and the election of 
 future conventions. It provided that " no person shall be a 
 member of the committee who is not eligible as a member 
 of the electoral college." This provision excludes from the 
 committee all persons who hold offices of trust or profit tinder 
 the United States, as well as all senators and representatives, 
 and removes every opportunity to influence the action of the 
 party directly through the elected or appointed official class. 
 The same rule provides that all delegates at large shall be 
 chosen by state conventions, and that in each Congress-dis- 
 trict the delegates shall be elected " in the same way as the 
 nomination of a member of Congress is made in said district." 
 This provision abolishes altogether the practice of subdividing 
 a state convention to choose district delegates, and makes each 
 district absolutely free. An attempt was made to change the 
 basis of representation in the convention, but it met with small 
 encouragement, and the matter was not brought to a vote. 
 
 The following platform was reported and adopted : — 
 
 1. The Repiiblicans of the United States, in national convention 
 assembled, renew their allegiance to the principles upon which 
 they have triumphed in six successive presidential elections, and 
 congratulate the American people on the attainment of so many 
 results in legislation and administration by which the Republican 
 party has, after saving the Union, done so much to render its insti- 
 tutions just, equal, and beneficent ; the safeguard of liberty, and
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 429 
 
 the embodiment 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, assuring the rights 
 of all citizens ; for the elevation of labor ; for an honest currency • 
 for purity in legislation ; and for integrity and accountability in 
 all departments of the government. And it accepts anew the duty 
 of leading in the work of progress and reform. 
 
 2. 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 dur- 
 ing the short period of his office as President of the United States. 
 His distinguished services in war and in peace have endeared him 
 to the hearts of the American people. 
 
 3. In the administration of President Arthur we recognize a 
 wise, conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the country 
 has been blessed with remarkable prosperity ; and we believe his 
 eminent services are entitled to, and will receive, the hearty ap- 
 proval of every good citizen. 
 
 4. 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 most productive of general 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 duties shall be so levied as to afford security to 
 our diversified industries, and protection to the rights and wages 
 of the laborers, 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. 
 
 5. Against the so-called economical 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 unnecessary tax- 
 ation by a wise reduction of the surplus. 
 
 6. The Republican party pledges itself to correct the irregulari- 
 ties of the tariff and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and 
 indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by such meth^ 
 ods as will relieve the taxpayer without injuring the laborer or 
 the great productive interests of the country. 
 
 7. We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the 
 United States, the serious depression which it is now experien- 
 cing, and the danger threatening its future prosperity ; and we 
 therefore respect the demands of the representatives of this im- 
 portant agricultural interest for a readjustment of duties upon
 
 430 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 foreign wool, in order that such industry shall have full and ade- 
 quate protection. 
 
 8. We have always recommended the best money known to the 
 civilized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite all 
 commercial nations in the establishment of an international stand- 
 ard which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and silver 
 coinage. 
 
 9. The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and between 
 the States is one of the most important prerogatives of the general 
 government, and the Republican party distinctly announces its 
 purpose to support such legislation as will fully and efiiciently 
 carry out the constitutional power of Congress over interstate 
 commerce. 
 
 10. The principle of the public regulation of railway corpora- 
 tions is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all classes 
 of the people, and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust 
 discrimination and excessive charges for transportation, and that 
 shall secure to the people and to the railways alike the fair and 
 equal protection of the laws. 
 
 11. We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor ; 
 the enforcement of the eight-hour law ; a wise and judicious sys- 
 tem of general education, by adequate appropriation 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 settle- 
 ment of national differences by international arbitration. 
 
 12. The Republican party, having its birth in a hatred of slave 
 labor, and in 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 contract labor, whether 
 from Europe or Asia, as an offence against the spirit of American 
 institutions, and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law 
 restricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legis- 
 lation as is necessary to carry out its purposes. 
 
 13. Reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Repub- 
 lican administration, should be completed by the further exten- 
 sion of the reformed system already established by law to all the 
 grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and 
 purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appoints 
 ments, and all laws at variance with the objects of existing re- 
 formed legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers 
 to free institutions which lurk in the power of official patronage 
 may be wisely and effectively avoided. 
 
 14. The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 431 
 
 States, and should be reserved, as far as possible, for small hold- 
 ings by 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 incoriioration, in all cases where there has been no attempt 
 in good faith to perform the conditions of such grants. 
 
 15. The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the 
 Union soldiers and sailors of the late war ; and the Republican 
 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 itself to the repeal of the lim- 
 itation contained in the arrears act of 1879, so that all invalid sol- 
 diers shall share alike, and their pensions begin with the date of 
 disability, and not with the date of the application. 
 
 16. 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 aif airs, — the policy which seeks peace and 
 trade with all powers, but especially with those of the western 
 hemisphere. 
 
 17. We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time 
 strength and efficiency, that it may in any sea protect the rights of 
 American citizens and the interests of American commerce. We 
 call upon Congress to remove the burdens 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. 
 
 18. That appointments by the President to offices in the Terri- 
 tories should be made from the bona-Jide citizens and residents of 
 the Territories wherein they are to serve. 
 
 19. 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. 
 
 20. The people of the United States, in their organized capacity, 
 constitute a nation, and not a mere confederacy of States. The 
 national government is supreme within the sphere of its national 
 duties, but the States have reserved rights which should be faith- 
 fully maintained, and which should be guarded with jealous care, 
 so that the harmony of our system of government may be pre- 
 served and the Union kept inviolate.
 
 432 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 21. The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the mainte- 
 nance of a free ballot, an honest count, and correct return. We 
 denounce the fraud and violence practised by the Democracy in 
 southern States, by which the will of the voter is defeated, as dan- 
 gerous 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. 
 
 22. 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 passage of such legis- 
 lation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, 
 the full and complete recognition, possession, and exercise of aU 
 civil and political rights. 
 
 An evening session was held, at which the speeches were 
 made, putting the several candidates in nomination, but no vote 
 was taken until the next morning, Friday, June 6. Four votes 
 only were required to effect the nomination of Mr. Blaine, 
 which was then made unanimous. The votes were as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 James G. Blaine, Maine . . . 
 Chester A. Arthur, New York 
 George F. Edmunds, Vermont . 
 John A. Logan, Illinois . . . 
 John Sherman, Ohio .... 
 Joseph R. Hawley, Connecticut 
 Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois . 
 William T. Sherman, Missouri 
 
 334i 
 
 278 
 
 93 
 
 63i 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2d. 
 
 349 
 276 
 
 85 
 61 
 28 
 13 
 4 
 2 
 
 3d. 
 
 375 
 274 
 69 
 53 
 25 
 13 
 
 4tb. 
 
 541 
 
 207 
 
 41 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 2 
 
 At an evening session, John A. Logan, of Illinois, was nom- 
 inated for Vice-President by 779 votes to 7 for Lucius Fair- 
 child, of Wisconsin, and 6 for Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana, 
 and the convention adjourned. 
 
 Although there had been certain vague warnings in a part 
 of the Republican press that the party might forfeit the support 
 of many of its members in case the convention should adopt a 
 course contrary to that which the "reform element" of the 
 party desired, yet no one seems to have been prepared for 
 the extensive bolt which followed immediately upon the ad- 
 journment of the convention. Several important party organs, 
 and a large number of prominent Republicans, chiefly in the
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 433 
 
 Eastern States, announced, formally, that they would not sup- 
 port the candidates nominated. Independent committees were 
 at once organized in New York and Boston, for the purpose of 
 concentrating the Republican opposition to Mr. Blaine ; and 
 these committees, which had the cooperation of committees and 
 of independent voters in other cities, turned to the Democrats 
 with assurances that if they would make nominations accept- 
 able to the reformers, they could have the support of those 
 who were opposed to Mr. Blaine, and to what they deemed 
 the reckless disregard of good political morals by the Republi- 
 can convention. 
 
 The Republican revolt had a strong effect upon the action 
 of the Democrats. While most of the candidates who had 
 received votes for the nomination in 1880 were again in the 
 field with supporters in considerable numbers, — Bayard, Thur- 
 man, Randall, and others, — Democratic public opinion had 
 already fixed upon Grover Cleveland, governor of New York, 
 as the strongest candidate. He was the candidate who had 
 obtained the enormous majority of 190,000 in 1882, and he 
 had a large majority of the New York delegation, which was 
 instructed by the state convention to act as a unit on all ques- 
 tions. He was, moreover, the favori*"e candidate of the Repub- 
 lican dissidents, who looked upon him as a sincere reformer, 
 who would carry into practice the principles which he and 
 they professed. There was, in New York, nevertheless, not 
 a little opposition, chiefly of a personal nature, to Governor 
 Cleveland, for the powerful organization of Tammany Hall was 
 against him. 
 
 The convention met at Chicago, on July 8, and effected a 
 temporary organization, with Richard D. Hubbard, of Texas, 
 as chairman. The rules of the last Democratic convention 
 were adopted with one modification, namely, a provision that 
 after a State had given its vote for a candidate for President or 
 Vice-President, it should not change its vote until the roll-call 
 should be completed. The " two-thirds rule " was, of course, 
 adopted with the rest. The leader of the Tammany opposition 
 to Grover Cleveland endeavored to secure the adoption of a 
 rule that when any member of a state delegation disputed the 
 correctness of the vote of that State, as announced by the 
 chairman, the secretary should call the roll, and that " their 
 individual preferences as expressed shall be recorded as the vote 
 of the State." The object, of course, was to break down the
 
 434 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 unit rule, and particularly to allow the minority of the New 
 York delegation to be heard. The proposition was defeated by 
 about one hundred majority, and, although attempts were after- 
 ward made to cause the actual vote of the New York delegates 
 to be recorded, the presiding officer declared himself bound to 
 accept the vote of that delegation as a unit, in accordance with 
 the instructions of the state convention. 
 
 On the second day of the convention, William F. Vilas, of 
 Wisconsin, was elected permanent president ; and the several 
 candidates were presented to the convention, in nominating 
 speeches. An evening session was held, and the following 
 platform was reported and adopted : — 
 
 The Democratic party of the Union, through its representatives 
 in national convention assembled, recognizes that, as the nation 
 grows older, new issues are born of time and progress, and old 
 issues perish ; but the fundamental principles of the Democracy, 
 approved by the united voice of the people, remain, and will ever 
 remain, as the best and only security for the continuance of free 
 government. The preservation of personal rights ; the equality 
 of all citizens before the law ; the reserved rights of the States ; 
 and the supremacy of the federal government within the limits of 
 the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and 
 can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of rights 
 and powers which enables a continent to be developed in peace, 
 and social order to be maintained by means of local self-govern- 
 ment. But it is indispensable for the practical apphcation and 
 enforcement of these fundamental principles that the government 
 should not always be controlled by one political party. Frequent 
 change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to 
 the popular will. Otherwise, abuses grow, and the government, 
 instead of being carried on for the general welfare, becomes an 
 instrumentality for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are 
 governed, for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants 
 thus become arbitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the 
 country ; hence, a change is demanded. 
 
 The Republican party, so far as principle is concerned, is a 
 remiuiscence. In practice it is an organization for enriching those 
 who control its machinery. The frauds and jobbery which have 
 been brought to light in every department of the government are 
 sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican party ; 
 yet those in authority, made reckless by the long possession of 
 power, have succumbed to its corrupting influence, and have 
 placed in nomination a ticket against which the independent 
 portion of the party are in open revolt. Therefore a change is
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 435 
 
 demanded. Such a change was alike necessary in 1876, but the 
 will of the people was then defeated by a fraud which can never be 
 forgotten nor condoned. Again, in 1880, the change demanded by 
 tlie people was defeated by the lavish use of money contributed 
 by unscrupulous contractors and shameless jobbers, who had bar- 
 gained for unlawful profits or high office. The Republican party, 
 during its legal, its stolen, and its bought tenures of power, has 
 steadily decayed in moral character and political capacity. Its 
 platform promises are now a list of its past failures. It demands 
 the restoration of our navy ; it has squandered hundreds of mil- 
 lions to create a navy that does not exist. It calls upon Congress 
 to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been 
 depressed; it imposed and has continued these burdens. It pro- 
 fesses the policy of reserving the public lands for small hold- 
 ings by actual settlers ; it has given away the people's heritage, 
 till now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, individual and 
 corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between 
 the two seas. It professes a preference for free institutions ; it 
 organized and tried to legalize a control of state elections by fed- 
 eral troops. It professes a desire to elevate labor; it subjected 
 American workingmen to the competition of convict and imported 
 contract labor. It professes gratitude to aU who were disabled or 
 died in the war, leaving widows and orphans ; it left to a Demo- 
 cratic House of Representatives the first effort to equalize both 
 bounties and pensions. It professes a pledge to correct the 
 irregularities of our tariff ; it created and has continued them. 
 Its own tariff commission confessed the need of more than twenty 
 per cent, reduction ; its Congress gave a reduction of less than 
 four per cent. It professes the protection of American manu- 
 factures ; it has subjected them to an increasing flood of manufac- 
 tured goods and a hopeless competition with manufacturing 
 nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It professes to 
 protect all American industries; it has impoverished many, to 
 subsidize a few. It professes the protection of American labor ; it 
 has depleted the returns of American agriculture, an industry fol- 
 lowed by half our people. It professes the equality of all men 
 before the law, attempting to fix the status of colored citizens; 
 the acts of its Congress were overset by the decisions of its courts. 
 It " accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and 
 reform ; " its caught criminals are permitted to escape through 
 contrived delays or actual connivance in the prosecution. Honey- 
 combed with corruption, out-breaking exposures no longer shock 
 its moral sense. Its honest members, its independent journals, no 
 longer maintain a successful contest for authority in its canvasses or 
 a veto upon bad nominations. That change is necessary is proved
 
 436 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 by an existing surplus of more than $100,000,000, which has 
 yearly been collected from a suffering people. Unnecessary taxa- 
 tion is unjust taxation. We denounce the Republican party for 
 having failed to relieve the people from crushing war taxes, which 
 have paralyzed business, crippled industry, and deprived labor of 
 employment and of just reward. 
 
 The Democracy pledges itself to purify the administration from 
 corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for law, and to 
 reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due regard to 
 the preservation of the faith of the nation to its creditors and pen- 
 sioners. Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting 
 the occupations of the people should be cautious and conservative 
 in method, not in advance of public opinion, but responsive to its 
 demands, the Democratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a 
 spirit of fairness to all interests. But, in making reduction in 
 taxes, it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but 
 rather to promote their healthy growth. From the foundation of 
 this government, taxes collected at the custom-house have been the 
 chief source of federal revenue. Such they must continue to be. 
 Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for 
 successful continuance, so that any change of law must be at every 
 step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process 
 of reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of 
 justice : all taxation shall be limited to the requirements of eco- 
 nomical government. The necessary reduction in taxation can and 
 must be effected without depriving American labor of the ability 
 to compete successfully with foreign labor, and without imposing 
 lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any increased 
 cost of production which may exist in consequence of the higher 
 rate of wages prevailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to 
 pay all the expenses of the federal government, economically ad- 
 ministered, including pensions, interest and principal of the public 
 debt, can be got under our present system of taxation from custom- 
 house taxes on fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles 
 of luxury, and bearing lightest on articles of necessity. We there- 
 fore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff ; and, subject to the 
 preceding limitations, we demand that federal taxation shall be 
 exclusively for public purposes, and shall not exceed the needs of 
 the government economically administered. 
 
 The system of direct taxation, known as the " internal revenue," 
 is a war tax, and, so long as the law continues, the money derived 
 therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the relief of the people 
 from the remaining burdens of the war, and be made a fund to 
 defray the expenses of the care and comfort of worthy soldiers dis- 
 abled in the line of duty in the wars of the Republic, and for the
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAIMPAIGN 437 
 
 payment of such pensions as Congress may from time to time grant 
 to such soldiers, a like fund for the sailors having been already 
 provided ; and any surplus should be paid into the Treasury. 
 
 We favor an American continental policy, based upon more 
 intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen sister 
 republics of North, Central, and South America, but entangling 
 alliances with none. 
 
 We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of the 
 Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such 
 money without loss. 
 
 Asserting the equality of aU men before the law, we hold that 
 it is the duty of the government, in its dealings with the people, 
 to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens, of whatever 
 nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political. 
 
 We believe in a free ballot and a fair count ; and we recall to the 
 memory of our people the noble struggle of the Democrats in the 
 Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which a reluctant Re- 
 publican opposition was compelled to assent to legislation making 
 everywhere illegal the presence of troops at the polls, as the con- 
 clusive proof that a Democratic administration will preserve lib- 
 erty with order. 
 
 The selection of federal oflBcers for the Territories should be 
 restricted to citizens previously resident therein. 
 
 We oppose sumptuary laws, which vex the citizens and interfere 
 with individual liberty. 
 
 We favor honest civil service reform and the compensation of 
 all United States officers by fixed salaries, the separation of Church 
 and State, and the diffusion of free education by common schools, 
 so that every child in the land may be taught the rights and duties 
 of citizenship. 
 
 While we favor all legislation which will tend to the equitable 
 distribution of property, to the prevention of monopoly, and to the 
 strict enforcement of individual rights against corporate abuses, 
 we hold that the welfare of society depends upon a scrupulous re- 
 gard for the rights of property as defined by law. 
 
 We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and 
 most enlightened. It should, therefore, be fostered and cherished. 
 We favor the repeal of all laws resti-icting the free action of labor, 
 and the enactment of laws by which labor organizations may be 
 incorporated, and of such legislation as will tend to enlighten the 
 people as to the true relation of capital and labor. 
 
 We believe that the public land ought, as far as possible, to be 
 kept as homesteads for actual settlers ; that all unearned lands 
 heretofore improvidently granted to railroad corporations by the 
 action of the Republican party should be restored to the public
 
 438 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 domain, and that no more grants of land shall be made to corpo- 
 rations or be allowed to fall into the ownership of alien absentees. 
 
 We are opposed to all propositions which, upon any pretext, 
 would convert the general government into a machine for collect- 
 ing taxes to be distributed among the States or the citizens thereof. 
 
 In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic platform of 
 1856, that " the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the 
 Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution, 
 which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the op- 
 pressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the 
 Democratic faith," we nevertheless do not sanction the importa- 
 tion of foreign labor or the admission of servile races, unfitted by 
 habits, training, religion, or kindred, for absorption into the great 
 body of our people, or for the citizenship which our laws confer. 
 American civilization demands that against the immigration or 
 importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed. 
 
 The Democratic party insists that it is the duty of this govern- 
 ment to protect with equal fidelity and vigilance the rights of its 
 citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; and, to the 
 end that this protection may be assured. United States papers of 
 naturalization, issued by courts of competent jurisdiction, must be 
 respected by the executive and legislative departments of our own 
 government and by all foreign powers. It is an imperative duty 
 of this government to efficiently protect all the rights of persons 
 and property of every American citizen in foreign lands, and 
 demand and enforce full reparation for any invasion thereof. An 
 American citizen is only responsible to his own government for 
 any act done in his own country or under her flag, and can only 
 be tried therefor on her own soil and according to her laws; 
 and no power exists in this government to expatriate an American 
 citizen to be tried in any foreign land for any such act. 
 
 This country has never had a well-defined and executed foreign 
 policy, save under Democratic administration. That policy has 
 ever been in regard to foreign nations, so long as they do no act 
 detrimental to the interests of the country or hurtful to our citi- 
 zens, to let them alone. As the result of this policy, we recall the 
 acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, California, and the adjacent 
 Mexican territory by purchase alone, and contrast these grand 
 acquisitions of Democratic statesmanship with the purchase of 
 Alaska, the sole fruit of a Republican administration of nearly a 
 quarter of a century. 
 
 The federal government should care for and improve the Mis- 
 sissippi River and other great waterways of the republic, so as to 
 secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide- 
 water.
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 439 
 
 Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy, our mer- 
 chant marine was fast overtaking and on the point of outstripping 
 that of Great Britain. Under twenty years of Kepublican rule and 
 policy, our commerce has been left to British bottoms, and the 
 American flag has almost been swept oif the high seas. Instead 
 of the Republican party's British policy, we demand for the people 
 of the United States an American policy. Under Democratic rule 
 and policy, our merchants and sailors, flying the Stars and Stripes 
 in every port, successfully searched out a market for the various 
 products of American industry ; under a quarter of a century of 
 Republican rule and policy, despite our manifest advantages over 
 all other nations, in high-paid labor, favorable climates, and teem- 
 ing soils ; despite freedom of trade among all these United States ; 
 despite their population by the foremost races of men, and an 
 annual immigration of the young, thrifty, and adventurous of all 
 nations ; despite our freedom here from the inherited burdens of 
 life and industry in Old World monarchies, their costly war navies, 
 their vast tax-consuming, non-producing standing armies ; despite 
 twenty years of peace — that Republican rule and policy have 
 managed to surrender to Great Britain, along with our commerce, 
 the control of the markets of the world. Instead of the Republi- 
 can party's British policy, we demand, in behalf of the American 
 Democracy, an American policy. Instead of the Republican 
 party's discredited scheme and false pretence of friendship for 
 American labor, expressed by imposing taxes, we demand, in 
 behalf of the Democracy, freedom for American labor by reducing 
 taxes, to the end that these United States may compete with un- 
 hindered powers for the primacy among nations in all the arts of 
 peace and fruits of liberty. 
 
 With profound regret w^e have been apprised by the venerable 
 statesman, through whose person was struck that blow at the vital 
 principle of republics, acquiescence in the will of the majority, 
 tliat he cannot permit us again to place in his hands the leadership 
 of the Democratic hosts, for the reason that the achievement of 
 reform in the administration of the Federal government is an 
 undertaking now too heavy for his age and failing strength. Re- 
 joicing that his life has been prolonged until the general judgment 
 of our fellow-countrymen is united in the wish that that wrong 
 were righted in his person, for the Democracy of the United States 
 we offer to him, in his withdrawal from public cares, not only our 
 respectful sympathy and esteem, but also that best of homage of 
 freemen, — the pledge of our devotion to the principles and the 
 cause now inseparable in the history of this Republic from the 
 labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden. 
 
 With this statement of the hopes, principles, and purposes of
 
 440 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the Democratic party, the great issue of reform and change in 
 administration is submitted to the people in calm confidence that 
 the popular voice will announce in favor of new men, and new 
 and more favorable conditions for the growth of industry, the 
 extension of trade, the employment and due reward of labor and 
 of capital, and the general welfare of the whole country. 
 
 When the foregoing platform was reported, General Benja- 
 min F. Butler, of Massachusetts, proposed to substitute a se- 
 ries of resolutions embodying certain ideas of his own, which 
 he had previously offered to the committee on resolutions. 
 The position which General Butler occupied was peculiar. He 
 had, a few years before, abandoned the Republican party, with 
 •which he had acted since the civil war, and, after several fail- 
 ures, had been elected governor of Massachusetts, in 1882, as 
 a Democrat. He now appeared as a delegate to the Demo- 
 cratic national convention, supported by a majority of his 
 fellow-delegates from Massachusetts, urging his own nomina- 
 tion as a candidate for the presidency, to which position he 
 had already received two nominations, as has been recorded in 
 this chapter. To a notification of one of the nominations, he 
 had written a reply, in which he had adroitly omitted to say 
 whether or not he accepted the candidacy. His resolutions 
 were rejected, — yeas, 97|-, nays, 714|^, — and the platform as 
 reported was adopted without a division. General Butler's 
 name was not presented to the convention as a candidate, and 
 he received no votes. 
 
 Two ballots only were necessary to eifect the nomination of 
 a candidate for President. They resulted as follows : — 
 
 Grover Cleveland, New York 
 Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware . 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, Indiana . 
 Allen G. Thurman, Ohio . . . 
 Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania 
 Joseph E. McDonald, Indiana . 
 John G. Carlisle, Kentucky . . 
 RosweU P. Flower, New York . 
 George Hoadly, Ohio .... 
 Samuel J. Tilden, New York . 
 
 2d. 
 
 392 
 
 683 
 
 170 
 
 81* 
 
 - 
 
 145* 
 
 88 
 
 4 
 
 78 
 
 4 
 
 56 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 Governor Cleveland, it will be seen, had less than a majority
 
 THE MUGWmiP CAMPAIGN 441 
 
 on the first vote, although he led all the other candidates. 
 When the second roll-call was completed he still lacked 72 
 votes of the necessary two thirds, but numerous changes 
 were made, and his nomination was effected. 
 
 Several persons were named to the convention as candidates 
 for the nomination for Vice-President, — John C. Black, of 
 Illinois, William S. Rosecrans, of California, and George W. 
 Glick, of Kansas. The names were all withdrawn, and 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, was nominated by a unani- 
 mous vote. This completed the work of the convention. 
 
 Two conventions were held by Prohibitionists. The first, 
 which seems to have been, not a representative body, but 
 rather a mass convention of the whole party, was held at 
 Chicago, June 19, under the name of the American Prohibition 
 National Convention. It was presided over by J. L. Barlow, 
 of Connecticut, and adopted the following platform : — 
 
 We hold : 1. That ours is a Christian and not a heathen nation, 
 and that the God of the Christian Scriptures is the author of civil 
 government. 
 
 2. That the Bible should be associated with books of science 
 and literature in all our educational institutions. 
 
 3. That God requires and man needs a Sabbath. 
 
 4. That we demand the prohibition of the importation, manu- 
 facture, and sale of intoxicating drinks. 
 
 5. That the charters of all secret lodges granted by our federal 
 and state legislatures should be withdrawn and their oaths pro- 
 hibited by law. 
 
 6. We are opposed to putting prison labor or depreciated con- 
 tract labor from foreign countries in competition with free labor 
 to benefit manufacturers, corporations, and speculators. 
 
 7. We are in favor of a thorough revision and enforcement of 
 the law concerning patents and inventions, for the prevention and 
 punishment of frauds either upon inventors or the general public. 
 
 8. We hold to and will vote for woman suffrage. 
 
 9. We hold that civil equality secured to all American citizens 
 by articles thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of our amended national 
 Constitution should be preserved inviolate, and the same equality 
 should be extended to Indians and Chinamen. 
 
 10. That international differences should be settled by arbitrar 
 tion. 
 
 11. That land and other monopolies should be discouraged. 
 
 12. That the general government should furnish the people with 
 an ample and sound currency.
 
 442 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 13. That it should be the settled policy of the government to 
 reduce the tariffs and taxes as rapidly as the necessities of revenue 
 and vested business interests will allow. 
 
 14. That polygamy should be immediately suppressed by law, 
 and that the Republican party is censurable for its long neglect of 
 its duty in respect to this evil. 
 
 15. And, finally, we demand for the American people the aboli- 
 tion of electoral colleges, and a direct vote for President and Vice- 
 President of the United States. 
 
 The convention nominated Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, 
 for President, by 72 votes, to 12 for all others, and nominated 
 John A. Conant, of Connecticut, for Vice-President. It does 
 not appear that an electoral ticket was presented at the polls 
 in any State in support of the nominees of this convention. 
 
 The convention of the regular National Prohibition party 
 was held at Pittsburg, July 23. William Daniel, of Mary- 
 land, was the temporary chairman, and Samuel Dickie, of 
 Michigan, the permanent president of the convention, which 
 adopted the following platform : — 
 
 The Prohibition-Home-Protection party, in national convention 
 assembled, acknowledge Almighty God as the rightful sovereign 
 of all men, from whom the just powers of government are derived, 
 and to whose laws human enactments should conform. Peace, 
 prosperity, and happiness only can come to the people when the 
 laws of their national and state governments are in accord with 
 the divine will. 
 
 That the importation, manufacture, supply, and sale of alcoholic 
 beverages, created and maintained by the laws of the national and 
 state governments, during the entire history of such laws, is every- 
 where shown to be the promoting cause of intemperance, with re^ 
 suiting crime and pauperism ; making large demands upon public 
 and private charity ; imposing large and unjust taxation and pub- 
 lic burdens for penal and sheltering institutions upon thrift, in- 
 dustry, manufactures, and commerce ; endangering the public 
 peace ; causing desecration of the sabbath ; corrupting our poli- 
 tics, legislation, and administration of the laws ; shortening lives ; 
 impairing health ; and diminishing productive industry ; causing 
 education to be neglected and despised ; nullifying the teachings 
 of the Bible, the church, and the school, the standards and guides 
 of our fathers and their children in the founding and growth under 
 God of our widely extended country; and, while imperilling the 
 perpetuity of our civil and religious liberties, q,re baleful fruits by 
 which we know that these laws are alike contrary to God's laws, 
 and contravene our happiness ; and we call upon our fellow-citizens
 
 THE MUGWUIVIP CAMPAIGN 443 
 
 to aid in the repeal of these laws and in the legal suppression of 
 this baneful liquor traffic. 
 
 The fact that, during the twenty-four years in which the Repub- 
 lican party has controlled the general government and that of 
 many of the States, no effort has been made to change this policy ; 
 that Territories have been created from the national domain, and 
 governments from them established, and States admitted into the 
 Union, in no instance in either of which has this traffic been for- 
 bidden, or the people of these Territories or States been permitted 
 to prohibit it ; that thei'e are now over two hundred thousand dis- 
 tilleries, breweries, wholesale and retail dealers in these drinks, 
 holding certificates and claiming the authority of government for 
 the continuation of a business which is so destructive to the moral 
 and material welfare of the people, together with the fact that 
 they have turned a deaf ear to remonstrance and petition for the 
 correction of this abuse of civil government, is conclusive that the 
 Republican party is insensible to or impotent for the redress of 
 those wrongs, and should no longer be intrusted with the powers 
 and responsibilities of government ; that although this party, in 
 its late national convention, was silent on the liquor question, not 
 so were its candidates, Messrs. Blaine and Logan. Within the 
 year past, Mr. Blaine has publicly recommended that the revenues 
 derived from the liquor traffic shall be distributed among the 
 States, and Senator Logan has by bill proposed to devote these 
 revenues to the support of schools. Thus, both virtually recom- 
 mend the perpetuation of the traffic, and that the State and its 
 citizens shall become partners in the liquor crime. 
 
 The fact that the Democratic party has, in its national deliver- 
 ances of party policy, arrayed itself on the side of the drink mak- 
 ers and sellers, by declaring against the policy of prohibition of 
 such traffic under the false name of " sumptuary laws," and, when 
 in power in some of the States, in refusing remedial legislation, 
 and, in Congress, of refusing to permit the creation of a board of 
 inquiry to investigate and report upon the effects of this traffic, 
 proves that the Democratic party should not be intrusted with 
 power or place. 
 
 There can be no greater peril to the nation than the existing 
 competition of the Republican and Democratic parties for the 
 liquor vote. Experience shows that any party not firmly opposed 
 to the traffic will engage in this competition, will court the favor 
 of the criminal classes, will barter away the public morals, purity 
 of the ballot, and every trust and object of good governmej^t, for 
 party success ; and patriots and good citizens should find in this 
 practice sufficient cause for immediate withdrawal from all connec 
 tion with their party.
 
 444 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 That we favor reforms in the administration of the government, 
 in the abolition of all sinecures, useless offices and officers, in the 
 election by the people of officers of the government instead of 
 appointment by the President. That competency, honesty, and 
 sobriety are essential qualifications for holding civil office, and we 
 oppose the removal of such persons from mere administrative 
 offices, except so far as it may be absolutely necessary to secure 
 effectiveness to the vital issues on which the general administra- 
 tion of the government has been intrusted to a party. 
 
 That the collection of revenue from alcohol, liquors, and tobacco 
 should be abolished, as the vices of men are not a proper subject 
 for taxation ; that revenues for custom duties should be levied for 
 the support of the government, economically administered; and 
 when so levied, the fostering of American labor, manufactures, 
 and industries should constantly be held in view. 
 
 That the public lands should be held for homes for the people 
 and not for gifts to corporations, or to be held in large bodies for 
 speculators upon the needs of actual settlers. 
 
 That all money, coin and paper, should be made, issued, and 
 regulated by the general government, and should be a legal tender 
 for all debts, public and private. 
 
 That grateful care and support should be given to our soldiers 
 and sailors, their dependent widows and orphans, disabled in the 
 service of the country. 
 
 That we repudiate as un-American, contrary to and subversive 
 of the principle of the Declaration of Independence, from which 
 our government has grown to be the government of fifty-five mil- 
 lions of people, and a recognized power among nations, that any 
 person or people shall or may be excluded from residence or citi- 
 zenship with all others who may desire the benefits which our in- 
 stitutions confer upon the oppressed of all nations. 
 
 That while there are important reforms that are demanded for 
 purity of administration and the welfare of the people, their im- 
 portance sinks into insignificance when compared with the reform 
 of the drink traffic, which annually wastes eight hundred million 
 dollars of the wealth created by toil and thrift, and drags down 
 thousands of families from comfort to poverty ; which fills jails, 
 penitentiaries, insane asylums, hospitals, and institutions for 
 dependency ; which destroys the health, saps industry, and causes 
 loss of life and property to thousands in the land, lowers intellec- 
 tual and physical vigor, dulls the cunning hand of the artisan, is 
 the chief cause of bankruptcy, insolvency, and loss in trade, and, 
 by its corrupting power, endangers the perpetuity of free institu- 
 tions. 
 
 That Congress should exercise its undoubted power, and prohibit
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 445 
 
 the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages in the District 
 of Columbia, in the Territories of the United States, and in all 
 places over which the government has exclusive jurisdiction ; that 
 hereafter no State shall be admitted into the Union until its con- 
 stitution shall expressly prohibit polygamy and the manufacture 
 and sale of intoxicating beverages. 
 
 We earnestly call the attention of the laborer and mechanic, 
 the miner and manufacturer, and ask investigation of the baneful 
 effects upon labor and industry caused by the needless liquor busi- 
 ness, which will be found the robber who lessens wages and profits, 
 the destroyer of happiness and the family welfare of the laboring 
 man, and that labor and all legitimate industry demand deliver- 
 ance from the taxation and loss which this traffic imposes, and 
 that no tariff or other legislation can so healthily stimulate pro- 
 duction or increase a demand for capital and labor, or produce so 
 much of comfort and content, as the suppressing of this ti'affic 
 would bring to the laboring man, mechanic, or employer of labor 
 throughout the land. 
 
 That the activity and cooperation of the women of America for 
 the promotion of temperance has, in all the history of the past, been 
 a strength and encouragement which we gratefully acknowledge 
 and record. In the later and present phase of the movement 
 for the prohibition of the licensed traffic by the abolition of the 
 drinking-saloon, the purity of purpose and method, the earnest- 
 ness, zeal, intelligence, and devotion of the mothers and daughters 
 of the Women's Christian Temperance Union has been eminently 
 blessed by God. Kansas and Iowa have been given her as " sheaves 
 of rejoicing ; " and the education and arousing of the public 
 mind, and the demand for constitutional amendment now pre- 
 vailing, are largely the fruit of her prayers and labors, and we 
 rejoice to have our Christian women unite with us in sharing the 
 labor that shall bring the abolition of this traffic to the polls ; she 
 shall join in the grand " Praise God, from whom all blessings 
 flow," when by law our boys and friends shall be free from legal 
 drink temptation. 
 
 That we believe in the civil and political equality of the sexes, 
 and that the ballot in the hand of woman is a right for her pro- 
 tection, and would prove a powerful ally for the abolition of the 
 drinking-saloon, the execution of law, the promotion of reform in 
 civil affairs, and the removal of corruption in public life ; and thus 
 believing, we relegate the practical outworking of this reform to 
 the discretion of the Prohibition party in the several States, 
 according to the condition of public sentiment in those States ; 
 that gratefully we acknowledge and praise God for the presence 
 of his Spirit, guiding our counsels and granting the success which
 
 446 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 has been vouchsafed in the progress of temperance reform, and, 
 looking to Him from whom all wisdom and help come, we ask the 
 voters of the United States to make the principles of the above 
 declaration a ruling principle in the government of the nation and 
 of the States. 
 
 Resolved, That henceforth the Prohibition-Home-Protection 
 party shall be called by the name of the Prohibition party. 
 
 John P. St. John, of Kansas, was unanimously nominated 
 as the candidate of the party for President, and William Dan- 
 iel, of Maryland, was chosen with like unanimity for Vice- 
 President, 
 
 It became evident, as soon as all the nominations had been 
 made, that the canvass was to differ in important respects from 
 all that had preceded it. The defection of the independent 
 Republicans, who soon became known as '' Mugwumps," took 
 much of the spirit out of the party in the early days of the 
 contest. These men would not be wooed back into the ranks 
 of their former associates. They repeated the old charges 
 against Mr. Blaine, and added to them objections based upon 
 his course as secretary of state, which, they insisted, had a 
 tendency to involve the country in war. On the other hand, 
 serious personal accusations were brought against Mr. Cleve- 
 land. The Mugwumps openly supported Mr. Cleveland, but 
 for the most part asserted that they were still Republicans, 
 that they opposed Mr. Blaine only, and that Mr. Cleveland 
 was " better than his party." As a matter of history it may 
 be mentioned here that large numbers of them followed Mr. 
 Cleveland to the end, and became members of the Democratic 
 party. The canvass was, from first to last, conducted on per- 
 sonal grounds. The candidates were mercilessly lampooned, 
 and false accusations of the most preposterous character were 
 made against them. The earnest efforts of many Republicans 
 to introduce questions of principle, to direct the attention of the 
 people to the records and the tendencies of the two parties, and 
 thus to change the character of the canvass, were unavailing. 
 
 This was not the only peculiarity of the election contest. 
 The candidacy of General Butler was at times a source of 
 uneasiness to the Democrats, who feared that the support of 
 him by Tammany leaders and other malcontents in New York 
 might result in the loss of that State. But before the day of 
 election, Tammany yielded, and gave its support to Mr. Cleve- 
 land. On the other hand, the Republicans were greatly weak-
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 447 
 
 ened by the Prohibition party ; for that organization success- 
 fully invited many Kepublicans who would not support Mr. 
 Blaine, and who could not bring themselves to the point of 
 voting for a Democrat, to give their votes to Mr. St. John. 
 
 It would not be true, despite all these disturbing conditions, 
 to say that the canvass was not an enthusiastic one on both sides. 
 The Republican defection certainly chilled and well-nigh para- 
 lyzed the party in Massachusetts, and caused a serious loss in 
 other New England States and in New York. But in the 
 rest of the country the defection was not great. In the West, 
 the enthusiasm for Mr. Blaine was almost unprecedented. 
 During the canvass he made a tour from his home in Maine 
 through many of the States of the West, and was met and 
 cheered everywhere by enormous crowds of people. The Dem- 
 ocrats, jubilant over the accession of a fresh contingent of 
 voters, and hopeful of returning to power after many years of 
 exclusion therefrom, made a bold and confident fight. 
 
 Yet all observers could see that the result of the contest 
 was to be extremely close. The whole number of electoral 
 votes was 401. The Democrats, as usual, were sure of the 
 "solid South" with 153 votes, and they accordingly needed 
 to gain only 48 votes in the North. The October election in 
 Ohio showed that in the States usually Republican there was 
 likely to be no change ; in short, the Republicans could de- 
 pend upon all the Northern States except Connecticut, New 
 York, New Jersey, and Indiana, — that is, upon 182 votes. 
 The 66 votes of four States would decide the result. No one 
 could tell how these States would go. Each party hoped and 
 feared. For although in three of them the Republicans had 
 lost many strong supporters, Mr. Blaine was popular among 
 the Irish voters, and no one could guess whether from that 
 quarter enough recruits might not be found to offset the Mug- 
 wump defection. 
 
 Just on the eve of the election, an incident occurred which 
 dashed this hope of the Republicans. A delegation of clergy- 
 men met Mr. Blaine in New York, as he was returning from 
 the tour already mentioned, and one of their number made an 
 address to the candidate, in the course of which he said in 
 effect that the Republican canvass was directed against '' Rum, 
 Romanism, and Rebellion." The phrase was immediately 
 used with great effect to drive back the Irish supporters of 
 Mr. Blaine into the Democratic ranks. He had not used the
 
 448 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 
 
 PopuLAB Vote. 
 
 Elbctobal 
 Vote. 
 
 
 'i 
 
 
 S 
 = « 
 
 g 
 
 n 
 
 i 
 
 States. 
 
 1 . 
 
 S 
 
 «^ 
 
 ■g 
 
 •a 
 
 o 
 
 
 <aM 
 
 2 
 
 . M 
 
 >■> . 
 
 a 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 <u O 
 
 M 2 
 
 J3 
 
 Ǥ 
 
 a 
 
 •s 
 
 
 
 ..9 
 1 
 
 a a 
 
 a| 
 
 CO g 
 
 1 
 
 ■3.2 
 
 S 
 
 ct 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 
 o 
 
 4 
 
 » 
 
 ►ri 
 
 3 
 
 m 
 
 Alabama .... 
 
 93,951 
 
 59,591 
 
 873 
 
 612 
 
 10 
 
 _ 
 
 Arkansas . . 
 
 
 72,927 
 
 50,895 
 
 1,847 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 (California . . 
 
 
 89,288 
 
 102,416 
 
 2,017 
 
 2,920 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 Colorado . . 
 
 
 27,723 
 
 36,290 
 
 1,953 
 
 761 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 67,199 
 
 65,923 
 
 1,688 
 
 2,305 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 
 16,964 
 
 12,951 
 
 6 
 
 55 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Florida . . 
 
 
 31,766 
 
 28,031 
 
 - 
 
 72 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 94,667 
 
 48,603 
 
 145 
 
 195 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 Illinois . . . 
 
 
 312,355 
 
 337,474 
 
 10,910 
 
 12,074 
 
 - 
 
 22 
 
 Indiana . . 
 
 
 244,990 
 
 238,463 
 
 8,293 
 
 3,028 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 Iowa . • . 
 
 
 177,316 
 
 197,089 
 
 - 
 
 1,472 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 Kansas . . . 
 
 
 90,132 
 
 154,406 
 
 16,341 
 
 4,495 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 Kentucky . . 
 
 
 152,961 
 
 118,122 
 
 1,691 
 
 3,139 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana . 
 
 
 62,540 
 
 46,347 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 
 52,140 
 
 72,209 
 
 3,953 
 
 2,160 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 Maryland . . 
 
 
 96,932 
 
 85,699 
 
 531 
 
 2,794 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 122,481 
 
 146,724 
 
 24,433 
 
 10,026 
 
 - 
 
 14 
 
 Michigan . . 
 
 
 . 149,835 
 
 192,669 
 
 42,243 
 
 18,403 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 Minnesota . . 
 
 
 70,144 
 
 111,923 
 
 3,583 
 
 4,684 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 76,510 
 
 43,509 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 
 235,988 
 
 202,929 
 
 - 
 
 2,153 
 
 16 
 
 - 
 
 Nebraska . . 
 
 
 54,391 
 
 79,912 
 
 - 
 
 2,899 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 Nevada . . 
 
 
 5,578 
 
 7,193 
 
 26 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 39,183 
 
 43,249 
 
 552 
 
 1,571 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 New Jersey . « . 
 
 127,798 
 
 123,440 
 
 3,496 
 
 6,159 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 New York . . . 
 
 563,154 
 
 562,005 
 
 16,994 
 
 25,016 
 
 36 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 142,952 
 
 125,068 
 
 - 
 
 454 
 
 11 
 
 __ 
 
 Ohio . , . 
 
 
 368,280 
 
 400,082 
 
 5,179 
 
 11,069 
 
 - 
 
 23 
 
 Oregon . 
 
 
 24,604 
 
 26,860 
 
 726 
 
 492 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 392,785 
 
 473,804 
 
 16,992 
 
 15,283 
 
 - 
 
 30 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 12,391 
 
 19,030 
 
 422 
 
 928 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 69,890 
 
 21,733 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 
 133,258 
 
 124,078 
 
 957 
 
 1,131 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 Texas . . , 
 
 
 225,309 
 
 93,141 
 
 3,321 
 
 3,534 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 17,331 
 
 39,514 
 
 785 
 
 1,752 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 185,497 
 
 139,356 
 
 - 
 
 138 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 67,317 
 
 63,096 
 
 810 
 
 939 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Wisconsin .... 
 
 146,459 
 
 161,157 
 
 4,598 
 
 7,656 
 
 ~ 
 
 11 
 
 Total .... 
 
 4,874,986 
 
 4,851,981 
 
 175,370 
 
 150,369 
 
 219 
 
 182
 
 THE MUGWUMP CAMPAIGN 449 
 
 phrase, — indeed, it is doubtful if, in the confusion, he even 
 heard it as it was uttered ; but it was employed as though it 
 had been an expression of his own, and there is scarcely a 
 doubt that it affected enough votes in New York, which was 
 most closely divided, to change the whole result, and to elect 
 Mr. Cleveland instead of Mr. Blaine, — for the vote of New 
 York was decisive. 
 
 The excitement of the canvass did not die out with the elec- 
 tion, for the result was in great doubt. The early returns 
 showed that Mr. Cleveland had carried all the Southern States, 
 together with Connecticut, New Jersey, and Indiana. In all 
 the other Northern States, except New York, the Republicans 
 had been successful. The vote in New York was so close that 
 both parties claimed its electoral vote for several days, and the 
 corrected returns as they came in, showing differences from 
 the first hasty returns of a score or two, first in favor of one 
 party, then in favor of the other, were studied with intense 
 anxiety. But the final result, a plurality of 1149 in a total 
 vote of nearly 1,200,000, ended all doubt, and gave a Presi- 
 dent to the Democratic party for the first time since the close 
 of Mr. Buchanan's administration. 
 
 No State had been admitted since 1876, but a new appor- 
 tionment on the basis of the census of 1880 had increased the 
 number of electors. The result of the popular vote, and of 
 the vote by electors, has been given. 
 
 The count of electoral votes took place on February 11, 
 1885, in accordance with a joint resolution adopted by both 
 Houses of Congress without opposition. The resolution was 
 in the identical words of the first part of the resolution of 
 1881, and simply provided for the opening of the certificates 
 by two tellers on the part of each House, and a declaration of 
 the result by the president of the Senate. The count was 
 undisturbed by any event calling for notice.
 
 XXVIII 
 TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 
 
 The quadrennial period which completed the first century 
 of government under the Constitution was distinguished by 
 the passage of two acts of constitutional importance. By one 
 of them, the method of counting the electoral votes was settled 
 on principles so reasonable and equitable that there seems no 
 reason to apprehend that it will ever be changed, so long as 
 the system of electing the President indirectly is pursued. 
 Thus the famous casus omissus of the Constitution has been 
 supplied so far as that can be done without a formal amend- 
 ment. The amendment is unnecessary so long as parties are 
 willing to abide by a fair settlement of a much disputed point, 
 and it could not be adopted were either party opposed to it. 
 By the other act, the presidential succession has been com- 
 pletely changed. 
 
 The history of the adoption of these measures contains little 
 that is interesting. Neither was carried as a party measure, 
 and when brought to a vote the opposition to either was little 
 more than a symptom of that conservatism which usually re- 
 sists all change. 
 
 The Presidential Succession Act was the first in order of 
 time. The law of 1791 made the President pro tempore of 
 the Senate the successor to the office of President in the event 
 of the removal, death, resignation, or disability of both the 
 President and the Vice-President ; ^ and, after the President 
 of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 The Constitution conferred upon Congress the duty of desig- 
 nating what officer shall act as President in such cases. There 
 was, from the beginning, a doubt if the President j^ro tempore 
 of the Senate, or the Speaker, was an " officer," within the 
 meaning of the Constitution. But certain considerations of 
 personal politics at the time the act was passed caused Con- 
 
 1 See page 36.
 
 TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 451 
 
 grese not to take the members of the Cabinet, the natural suc- 
 cessors of the President and Vice-President in case of vacancy, 
 but to vest the succession in the President pro tempore of the 
 Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 Fortunately, the case has never occurred which called for an 
 application of the law of 1791. Nevertheless, on more than 
 one occasion the country was perilously near a crisis, owing to 
 the fact that the death of one person would cause the presi- 
 dency to lapse, since no one then held the position either of 
 President pro tempore or of Speaker. 
 
 It was this consideration, rather than the doubt if the law of 
 1791 was in conformity with the Constitution, that led to the 
 enactment of the law of 1886. Another reason was that 
 neither of the presiding officers of Congress designated for the 
 succession is necessarily or invariably a member of the party 
 which has been successful in electing the President ; and it is 
 universally admitted that political fair dealing demands that 
 the party which has carried the election shall not be deprived 
 of its victory by the death of the President and Vice-President. 
 
 The Presidential Succession bill was reported from the 
 Committee on the Judiciary, of the Senate, as early as June 
 19, 1882. It was considered and passed January 19, 1883 ; 
 but was not taken up for consideration in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives before the expiration of the Forty-seventh Congress, 
 March 4, 1883. A bill with identical provisions was passed 
 by the Senate on December 17, 1885, without a division. It 
 was taken up January 12, 1886, by the House of Representa- 
 tives, and, after several proposed amendments had been re- 
 jected, the bill was passed as it came from the Senate by a 
 vote of 185 to 77. The affirmative vote was given by 146 
 Democrats and 39 Republicans ; the negative, by 75 Republi- 
 cans and 2 Democrats. The act was approved January 18, 
 1886, and is in the following words : — 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., that in case of the removal, death, resigna- 
 tion, or inability of both the President and Vice-President of the 
 United States, the Secretary of State, or if there be none, or in 
 case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, 
 death, resignation, or inability, then the Secretary of War, or if 
 there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or 
 inability, then the Attorney-General, or if there be none, or in 
 case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Post-
 
 452 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 master-General, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, 
 death, resignation, or inability, then the Secretary of the Niavy, 
 or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, 
 or inability, then the Secretary of the Interior shall act as Presi- 
 dent until the disability of the President or Vice-President is 
 removed, or a President shall be elected : provided, that whenever 
 the powers and duties of the office of President of the United 
 States shall devolve upon any of the persons named herein, if 
 Congress be not then in session, or if it would not meet in accord- 
 ance with law within twenty days thereafter, it shall be the duty 
 of the person upon whom said powers and duties shall devolve to 
 issue a proclamation convening Congress in extraordinary session, 
 giving twenty days' notice of the time of meeting. 
 
 Section 2. That the preceding section shall only be held to 
 describe and apply to such officers as shall have been appointed by 
 the advice and consent of the Senate to the offices therein named, 
 and such as are eligible to the office of President under the Consti- 
 tution, and not under impeachment by the House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States at the time the powers and duties of the 
 office shall devolve upon them respectively. 
 
 Section 3. That sections 146, 147, 148, 149, and 150 of the Re- 
 vised Statutes are hereby repealed. 
 
 The final settlement of the mode of counting the electoral 
 votes stands as Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Forty-ninth Con- 
 gress, approved February 3, 1887. Its history is even less 
 eventful than that of the Presidential Succession Act, though 
 agreement upon the terms of the bill was only reached after 
 much consideration, many amendments, and the work of a con- 
 ference committee. Into this act, as will be seen from an exam- 
 ination of its provisions, has been introduced the principle that 
 a State may finally determine every contest arising out of a 
 presidential election. Such determination must be made in 
 accordance with a law passed before the electors are chosen, 
 and the decision must have been made at least six days before 
 the meeting of the electors ; but under these conditions the 
 two Houses of Congress cannot reverse the decision so reached. 
 The only case in which such a determination can be subverted 
 is when there is a conflict of tribunals, and the two Houses 
 cannot agree in deciding which of them is the lawful tribunal. 
 As to votes not made secure by a judicial determination, the 
 general principle is that none can be rejected except by con- 
 current vote of the two Houses. This is difi'erent from the 
 principle of the old " twenty-second joint rule," which allowed 
 either House to reject votes. The act in full is as follows : —
 
 TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 453 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., that the electors of each State shall meet and 
 give their votes on the second Monday in January next following 
 their appointment, at such place in each State as the Legislature 
 of such State shall direct. 
 
 Section 2. That if any State shall have provided, by laws en- 
 acted prior to the day fixed for the appointment of the electors, 
 for its final determination of any controversy or contest concern- 
 ing the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, by 
 judicial or other methods of procedure, and such determination 
 shall have been made at least six days before the time fixed for 
 the meeting of the electors, such determination made pursuant to 
 such law so existing on said day, and made at least six days prior 
 to the said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive, and 
 shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in 
 the Constitution, as hereinafter regulated, so far as the ascertain- 
 ment of the electors appointed by such State is concerned. 
 
 Section 3. That it shall be the duty of the executive of each 
 State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appoint- 
 ment of electors in such State, by the final ascertainment under 
 and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such 
 ascertainment, to communicate under the seal of the State, to the 
 secretary of state of the United States, a certificate of such ascer- 
 tainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such 
 electors and the canvass or other ascertainment, under the laws of 
 such State, of the number of votes given or cast for each person 
 for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast ; 
 and it shall also thereupon be the duty of the executive of each 
 State to deliver to the electors of such State, on or before the day 
 on which they are required, by the preceding section, to meet, the 
 same certificate, in triplicate, under the seal of the State ; and such 
 certificate shall be inclosed and transmitted by the electors at the 
 same time and in the same manner as is provided by law for 
 transmitting by such electors to the seat of government the lists 
 of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for 
 as Vice-President: and Section 136 of the Revised Statutes is 
 hereby repealed ; and if there shall have been any final determina- 
 tion in the State of a controversy or contest, as provided for in 
 Section 2 of this act, it shall be the duty of the executive of such 
 State, as soon as practicable after such determination, to commu- 
 nicate, under the seal of the State, to the secretary of state of the 
 United States, a certificate of such determination, in form and 
 manner as the same shall have been made ; and the secretary of 
 state of the United States, as soon as practicable after the receipt 
 at the State Department of each of the certificates hereinbefore 
 directed to be transmitted to the secretary of state, shall publish,
 
 454 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 in such public newspaper as" he shall designate, such certificates 
 in full ; and at the first meeting of Congress, thereafter, he shall 
 transmit to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and 
 every such certificate so received theretofore at the State Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Section 4. That Congress shall be in session on the second 
 Wednesday in February succeeding every meeting of the electors. 
 The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the hall 
 of the House of Representatives at the hour of one o'clock in the 
 afternoon, on that day, and the President of the Senate shall be 
 their presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed 
 on the part of the Senate, and two on the part of the House of 
 Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by 
 the President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers pur- 
 porting to be the certificates of the electoral vote, which certifi- 
 cates and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in 
 the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter A ; 
 and said tellers, having then read the same in the presence and 
 hearing of the two Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they 
 shall appear from the said certificates, and, the votes having been 
 ascertained and counted in the manner and according to the rules 
 in this act provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to 
 the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the 
 state of the vote, which announcement shall be deemed a suffi- 
 cient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice- 
 President of the United States, and, together with a list of the 
 votes, be entered on the journals of the two Houses. Upon such 
 reading of any such certificate or paper, the President of the Sen- 
 ate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made 
 in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argu- 
 ment, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one sena- 
 tor and one member of the House of Represenatives before the 
 same shall be received. When all objections so made to any 
 vote or paper from a State shall have been received and read, 
 the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be 
 submitted to the Senate for its decision ; and the Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such 
 objections to the House of Representatives for its decision ; and 
 no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been 
 regularly given by electors, whose appointment has been lawfully 
 certified to according to Section 3 of this act, from which but 
 one return has been received, shall be rejected ; but the two Houses 
 concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that 
 such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors 
 whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one return
 
 TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED 455 
 
 or paper ^purporting to be a return from a State shall have been 
 received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and those 
 only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given by 
 the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in 
 Section 2 of this act to have been appointed, if the determination 
 in said section provided for shall have been made, or by such suc- 
 cessors, or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the board of elec- 
 tors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in 
 the mode provided by the laws of the State ; but in case there 
 shall arise a question which of two or more of such State authori- 
 ties determining what electoi's have been appointed, as mentioned 
 in Section 2 of this act, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the 
 votes regularly given of those electors, and those only, of such 
 State shall be counted whose title as electors the two Houses, act- 
 ing separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the deci- 
 sion of such State so authorized by its laws ; and in such case of 
 more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a 
 State, if there shall have been no such determination of the ques- 
 tion in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and those only, shall 
 be counted which the two Houses shall concurrently decide were 
 cast by lawful electors appointed in accordance with the laws of 
 the State, unless the two Houses, acting separately, shall concur- 
 rently decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of the legally 
 appointed electors of such State. But if the two Houses shall 
 disagree in respect of the counting of such vote^, then and in that 
 case the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been 
 certified by the Executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall 
 be counted. When the two Houses have voted, they shall imme- 
 diately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce 
 the decision of the questions submitted. No votes or papers from 
 any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously 
 made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been 
 finally disposed of. 
 
 Section 5. That while the two Houses shall be in meeting as 
 provided in this act, the President of the Senate shall have power 
 to preserve order : and no debate shall be allowed and no question 
 shall be put by the presiding officer, except to either House on a 
 motion to withdraw. 
 
 Section 6. That when the two Houses separate to decide upon 
 an objection that may have been made to the counting of any elec- 
 toral vote or votes from any State, or other question arising in the 
 matter, each Senator and Representative may speak to such objec- 
 tion or question five minutes, and not more than once ; but after 
 such debate shall have lasted two hours, it shall be the duty of the 
 presiding officer of each House to put the main question without 
 further debate.
 
 456 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Section 7. Such joint meeting shall not be dissolve^ until the 
 count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared ; 
 and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in 
 regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this act, in 
 which case it shall be competent for either House, acting sepa- 
 rately, in the manner hereinbefore provided, to direct a recess of 
 such House not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday excepted, 
 at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon. But if the counting of 
 the electoral votes and the declaration of the result shall not have 
 been completed before the fifth calendar day next after such first 
 meeting of the two Houses, no further or other recess shall be 
 taken by either House. 
 
 During the same period of four years which witnessed the 
 passage of these two important acts, propositions to amend the 
 Constitution relative to the office of President were intro- 
 duced in unusual number and variety. Some of the old sug- 
 gestions were received, such as the lengthening of the term, 
 forbidding reelection, and changing the mode of election so 
 that voters should cast their votes directly and without the 
 intervention of electors. Other schemes, some of them highly 
 fanciful, were added to the list. But not one of them all, old 
 or new, had even the success implied in a favorable report by 
 a committee ; and no proposition of amendment excited the 
 smallest interest on the part of the general public.
 
 XXIX . 
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 
 
 When a political party acquires control of the executive 
 department of the government after passing twenty-four years 
 in the cold shade of the opposition, a redistribution of offices 
 is naturally the matter that first engages its attention. Mr. 
 Cleveland, entering upon the duties of President, found him- 
 self in a peculiar position. He owed his election as much to 
 a body of dissident Republicans as to the Democratic party. 
 His " Mugwump " supporters were for the most part thorough 
 believers in the principles of civil service reform, and had 
 supported him in the belief that he agreed with them on that 
 issue. They were totally opposed to a " clean sweep " of the 
 appointive officers of the government. On the other hand, the 
 main body of his adherents regarded the offices as the fruits 
 of victory, and would not be satisfied so long as Republicans 
 were drawing salaries from the Treasury. Mr. Cleveland so 
 shaped his course as not wholly to disappoint either wing of 
 his supporters. That he did not wholly satisfy either wing is 
 involved in this statement. Removals from office for political 
 reasons were numerous ; and at the end of the four years' term 
 a large proportion of the incumbents were Democrats. But in 
 one case Mr. Cleveland reappointed a Republican to an impor- 
 tant office ; the removals were not made with too unseemly 
 haste ; and in many instances Republicans were suffered to 
 serve out the full term of four years for which they had been 
 appointed. There was not much friction between the Presi- 
 dent and the Senate, although the Republicans controlled that 
 branch of Congress during Mr. Cleveland's term of office. The 
 Senate usually acquiesced in the removals, and confirmed the 
 President's appointments ; and before his term had half ex- 
 pired, it concurred with the Democratic House of Representa- 
 tives in repealing the Tenure of Office Act, which had been 
 devised to limit President Johnson's power of removal from
 
 458 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 office, and which, in a modified form, had been retained on the 
 statute book ever since. 
 
 Although the Senate interposed no great obstacles to the 
 President's distribution of the offices according to his pleasure, 
 it set up an effectual barrier to the enactment of legislation of 
 a political character. There was no serious attempt to draw 
 up the two great parties in line of battle during the con- 
 tinuance of the Forty-ninth Congress. The party wrangling 
 took place for the most part over the executive acts of the 
 President, the Democrats upholding and the Republicans 
 denouncing the disposition he made of the offices, and his use 
 of the veto power, which he exercised with unexampled free- 
 dom. Inasmuch as a large number of the bills returned to 
 Congress without the approval of the President were private 
 pension bills, the effort was made, not without a measure of 
 success, to represent Mr. Cleveland as but a half-hearted sym- 
 pathizer with the soldiers ; and the accusation that the interests 
 of the former defenders of the flag were regarded by him in a 
 too calculating spirit was used against him in the ensuing can- 
 vass. 
 
 But all other political questions were thrust completely out 
 of sight by the unusual and startling act of the President at 
 the beginning of the Fiftieth Congress. The question of the 
 tariff had been brought forward during the Forty-ninth Con- 
 gress in the so-called " Morrison bill," — Mr. Morrison, of 
 Illinois, was the chairman of the Committee on Ways and 
 Means, — but the division in the ranks of the Democratic 
 party on this issue had been deep enough to prevent the pas- 
 sage of the bill even by the House of Representatives, in which 
 the Democrats had a clear majority of forty members. At the 
 beginning of the first session of the Fiftieth Congress, in 
 December, 1887, the President, in disregard of unbroken prece- 
 dent, omitted altogether from his annual message a review of 
 government operations and a statement of international rela- 
 tions during the year past, and devoted the whole document 
 to a plea for a revision of the tariff. The party lines were 
 formed at once. The Republicans detected in Mr. Cleveland's 
 message an attack upon the principle of a protective tariff, and 
 closed up their ranks to defend the system of which they had 
 been the champions for a quarter of a century. Mr. Blaine, 
 who was making a long sojourn in Europe, in an " interview " 
 with an American newspaper correspondent examined Mr.
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 459 
 
 Cleveland's argument in detail, aiid set forth the Republican 
 side of the discussion in a way which made his " Paris 
 message," as it was called, the " keynote " of the Republican 
 defence of the protective tariff. The Democrats recognized in 
 the President's message a summons to move forward to the 
 attack. They responded to the call. The leaders resolved to 
 be no longer tolerant of differences. Those who would not 
 fight the battle of the Democracy must be coerced, or treated 
 as enemies and driven out of the camp. The measure which 
 the Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee 
 prepared under the leadership of Mr. Mills, the chairman, after 
 long deliberation and consultation, was made a quasi test of 
 party loyalty. Support of its main features, and support of 
 the bill itself after the work of amendment was completed, was 
 required of all Democrats in the House of Representatives. 
 Those who refused to give it their votes forfeited the favors 
 which it was in the power of the administration and the party 
 to bestow. The party became so well united in the support of 
 the Mills bill that when that measure came up on its passage 
 in the House of Representatives, four Democrats only voted 
 against it. When that vote was given, on July 21, 1888, the 
 great conventions had already been held, and the candidates 
 were before the people. 
 
 Six months before the meeting of the nominating conven- 
 tions it seemed to be certain that the presidential contest of 
 1888 would be between the same candidates who had been 
 pitted against each other in 1884, — Cleveland and Blaine. 
 The President made no public manifestation of his wish to be 
 nominated for reelection, but it was not necessary that he 
 should do so. It appeared to be the well-nigh universal wish 
 of his party that he should be again the leader of their forces, 
 and he was understood to be entirely willing to accept the 
 position. 
 
 On the other hand, the desire of the Republicans that Mr. 
 Blaine should head the ticket once more found overwhelming 
 expression among them. The unanimity of sentiment was 
 surprising. It is probably safe to say that had the delegates 
 to the convention been elected in December, 1887, there would 
 not have been chosen a dozen in all the country who would 
 have preferred any other candidate to Mr. Blaine. Great, 
 therefore, was the confusion into which the party was thrown 
 by the withdrawal of Mr. Blaine from the contest. On Jan-
 
 460 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 uary 25, 1888, he addressed, from Florence, Italy, a letter to 
 the chairman of the Republican national committee, in which, 
 on account of " considerations entirely personal to myself," he 
 announced that his name would not be presented to the 
 national convention. At the same time he congratulated the 
 party upon its cheering prospects, foretold that the tariff was 
 to be the great issue of the canvass, and expressed confidence 
 that the result could not be in doubt. Republicans were sur- 
 prised and disappointed by this letter. They saw that it was 
 a genuine and sincere refusal to accept the nomination, yet 
 many of his friends, in the earnestness of their wish that he 
 should be again the candidate, persuaded themselves that 
 he would accept the mandate of the party if it were expressed 
 with great unanimity. But while these excessively zealous 
 champions persisted in their purpose to choose and send to the 
 convention delegates who were for Mr. Blaine, " first, last, 
 and all the time," the acceptance of his withdrawal as a 
 finality by the party at large resulted in the coming forward 
 of many candidates. The unwillingness of Mr. Blaine's most 
 ardent friends to give up the hope of nominating him placed 
 that gentleman in a position of embarrassment from which he 
 extricated himself by a second letter, dated at Paris, May 17. 
 He had learned that some of his former supporters had not 
 taken his Florence letter as " absolutely conclusive in ultimate 
 and possible contingencies," as he had intended it to be ; and on 
 the strength of it canvasses had been begun for othpr candidates. 
 Therefore, if the nomination could by any chance be off'ered to 
 him, "I could not accept it without leaving in the minds 
 of thousands of these men [friends of other candidates] the 
 impression that I had not been free from indirection ; and 
 therefore I could not accept it at all." Even after this there 
 were some men who did not abandon hope that Mr. Blaine 
 might be nominated ; but the canvass within the Republican 
 party proceeded on the theory that the leading favorite was 
 entirely out of the contest. 
 
 Two conventions were held simultaneously in Cincinnati, 
 beginning on the 15th of May. These conventions were held 
 by two factions of the Labor party, known respectively as the 
 " Union Labor " and the " United Labor " party. 
 
 The Union Labor convention was made up of about two 
 hundred and twenty delegates, representing twenty States. 
 S. F. Norton was the temporary chairman, and John Seitz the
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 461 
 
 permanent president. The following platform was reported 
 by the committee on resolutions, and adopted after a long dis- 
 cussion : — 
 
 General discontent prevails on the part of the wealth-producer. 
 Farmers are suffering from a poverty which has forced most of 
 them to mortgage their estates, and the prices of products are so 
 low as to offer no relief, except through bankruptcy, and laborers 
 are sinking into greater dependence. Strikes are resorted to 
 without bringing relief, because of the inability of employers in 
 many cases to pay living wages, while more and more are driven 
 into the sti'eet. Business men find collections almost impossible, 
 and, meantime, hundreds of millions of idle public money, which 
 is needed for relief, is locked up in the United States Treasury, or 
 placed without interest in favored banks in grim mockery of dis- 
 tress. Land monopoly flourishes as never before, and more owners 
 of the soil are daily becoming tenants. Great transportation cor- 
 porations still succeed in extorting their profits on watered stock 
 through unjust charges. The United States Senate has become an 
 open scandal, its membership being purchased by the rich in open 
 defiance of the popular will. Various efforts are made to squander 
 the public money, which are designed to empty the Treasury with- 
 out paying the public debt. Under these and other alarming con- 
 ditions we appeal to the people of our country to come out of old 
 party organizations, whose indifference to the public welfare is 
 responsible for this distress, and aid the Union Labor party to 
 repeal existing class legislation, and relieve the distress of our 
 industries by establishing the following principles : — 
 
 Land. — While we believe that the proper solution of the finan- 
 cial question will greatly relieve those now in danger of losing their 
 homes by mortgages and foreclosures, and enable all industrious 
 persons to secure a home as the highest result of civilization, we 
 oppose land monopoly in every form, demand the forfeiture of 
 unearned grants, the limitation of land ownership, and such other 
 legislation as will stop speculations in land, and holding it unused 
 from those whose necessities require it. 
 
 "We believe the earth was made for the people, and not to enable 
 an idle aristocracy to subsist, through rents, upon the toil of the 
 industrious, and that corners in land are as bad as corners in food, 
 and that those who are not residents or citizens should not be 
 allowed to own lands in the United States. A homestead should 
 be exempt, to a limited extent, from execution or taxation. 
 
 Transportation. — The means of communication and transporta- 
 tion should be owned by the people, as is the United States postal 
 service. 
 
 Money. — The establishment of a national monetary system in
 
 462 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 the interest of the producer, instead of the speculator and usurer, 
 by which the circulating medium, in necessary quantity and full 
 legal tender, shall be issued directly to the people, without the in- 
 tervention of banks, or loaned to citizens upon land security at a 
 low rate of interest, to relieve them from extortions of usury, and 
 enable them to control the money supply. Postal savings banks 
 should be established. While we have free coinage of gold, we 
 should have free coinage of silver. We demand the immediate 
 application of all the money in the United States Treasury to the 
 payment of the bonded debt, and condemn the further issue of 
 interest-bearing bonds, either by the national government or by 
 States, Territories, or municipalities. 
 
 Labor. — Arbitration should take the place of strikes and other 
 injurious methods of settling labor disputes. The letting of con- 
 vict labor to contractors should be prohibited, the contract system 
 be abolished in public works, the hours of labor in industrial estab- 
 lishments be reduced commensurate with the increased produc- 
 tion by labor-saving machinery, employees protected from bodily 
 injury, equal pay for equal work for both sexes, and labor, agri- 
 cultural, and cooperative associations be fostered and encouraged 
 by law. The foundation of a republic is in the intelligence of its 
 citizens, and children who are driven into workshops, mines, and 
 factories are deprived of the education which should be secured to 
 all by proper legislation. 
 
 Pensions. — We demand the passage of a service pension bill to 
 every honorably discharged soldier and sailor of the United States. 
 
 Income Tax. — A graduated income tax is the most equitable 
 system of taxation, placing the burden of government on those 
 who can best afford to pay, instead of laying it on the farmers 
 and producers, and exempting millionaire bondholders and cor- 
 porations. 
 
 United States Senate. — We demand a constitutional amendment 
 making United States senators elective by a direct vote of the 
 people. 
 
 Contract Labor. — We demand the strict enforcement of laws 
 prohibiting the importation of subjects of foreign countries under 
 contract. 
 
 Chinese. — We demand the passage and enforcement of such 
 legislation as will absolutely exclude the Chinese from the United 
 States. 
 
 Wojnan Suffrage. — The right to vote is inherent in citizenship, 
 irrespective of sex, and is properly within the province of state 
 legislation. 
 
 Paramount Issues. — The paramount issues to be solved in the 
 interests of humanity are the abolition of usury, monopoly, and
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 463 
 
 trusts, and we denounce the Democratic and Republican parties 
 for creating and perpetuating these monstrous evils. 
 
 Alson J. Streeter, of Illinois, was nominated for President, 
 by acclamation. Samuel Evans, of Texas, was nominated for 
 Vice-President on the first trial. , He received 124 votes to 44 
 for T. P. Rynders, of Pennsylvania, and 32 for Charles R. 
 Cunningham, of Arkansas. 
 
 The United Labor party held what the chairman of the 
 national committee said was rather a conference than a con- 
 vention. The number in attendance was small. The chair- 
 man, both temporary and permanent, was William B. Ogden, 
 of Kentucky, and the Rev. Edward McGlynn, of New York, 
 was the chairman of the committee on resolutions. 
 
 The following platform was reported and adopted : — 
 
 We, the delegates of the United Labor party of the United 
 States, in national convention assembled, hold that the corrup- 
 tions of government and the impoverishment of the masses result 
 from neglect of the self-evident truths proclaimed by the founders 
 of this Republic, that all men are created equal, and are endowed 
 with inalienable rights. We aim at the abolition of the system 
 which compels men to pay their fellow-creatures for the use of the 
 common bounties of nature, and permits monopolizers to deprive 
 labor of natural opportunities for employment. 
 
 We see access to farming land denied to labor, except on pay- 
 ment of exorbitant rent or the acceptance of mortgage burdens, 
 and labor, thus forbidden to employ itself, driven into the cities. 
 We see the wage-workers of the cities subjected to this unnatural 
 competition, and forced to pay an exorbitant share of their scanty 
 earnings for cramped and unhealthful lodgings. We see the same 
 intense competition condemning the great majority of business and 
 professional men to a bitter and often unavailing struggle to avoid 
 bankruptcy ; and that, while the price of all that labor produces 
 ever falls, the price of land ever rises. 
 
 We trace these evils to a fundamental wrong, — the making of 
 the land on which all must live the exclusive property of but a por- 
 tion of the community. To this denial of natural rights are due 
 want of employment, low wages, business depressions, that intense 
 competition which makes it so difficult for the majority of men to 
 get a comfortable living, and that wrongful distribution of wealth 
 which is producing the millionaire on one side and the tramp on 
 the other. 
 
 To give all men an interest in the land of their country ; to ena- 
 ble all to share in the benefits of social growth and improvement;
 
 464 A fflSTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 to prevent the shutting out of labor from employment by the 
 monopolization of natural opportunities ; to do away with the one- 
 sided competition which cuts down wages to starvation rates ; to 
 restore life to business, and prevent periodical depressions ; to do 
 away with that monstrous injustice which deprives producers of 
 the fruits of their toil while idlers grow rich ; to prevent the con- 
 flicts which are arraying class against class, and which are fraught 
 with menacing dangers to society, — we propose so to change the 
 existing system of taxation that no one shall be taxed on the 
 wealth he produces, nor any one suffered to appropriate wealth he 
 does not produce by taking to himself the increasing values which 
 the growth of society adds to land. 
 
 What we propose is not the disturbing of any man in his holding 
 or title ; but, by taxation of land according to its value and not 
 according to its area, to devote to common use and benefit those 
 values which arise, not from the exertion of the individual, but 
 from the growth of society, and to abolish all taxes on industry 
 and its products. This increased taxation of land values must, 
 while i-elieving the working farmer and small homestead owner of 
 the undue burdens now imposed upon them, make it unprofitable 
 to hold land for speculation, and thus throw open abundant oppor- 
 tunities for the employment of labor and the building up of homes. 
 We would do away with the present unjust and wasteful system 
 of finance which piles up hundreds of millions of dollars in trea- 
 sury vaults while we are paying interest on an enormous debt; 
 and we would establish in its stead a monetary system in which a 
 legal tender circulating medium should be issued by the govern- 
 ment, without the intervention of banks. 
 
 We wish to abolish the present unjust and wasteful system of 
 ownership of railroads and telegraphs by private corporations, — 
 a system which, while failing to supply adequately public needs, 
 impoverishes the farmer, oppresses the manufacturer, hampers the 
 merchant, impedes travel and communication, and builds up enor- 
 mous fortunes and corrupting monopolies that are becoming more 
 powerful than the government itself. For this system we would 
 substitute government ownership and control for the benefit of 
 the whole people instead of private profit. 
 
 "While declaring the foregoing to be the fundamental principles 
 and aims of the United Labor party, and while conscious that no 
 reform can give effectual and permanent relief to labor that does 
 not involve the legal recognition of equal rights to natural oppor- 
 tunities, we, nevertheless, as measures of relief from some of the 
 evil effects of ignoring those rights, favor such legislation as may 
 tend to reduce the hours of labor, to prevent the employment of 
 children of tender years, to avoid the competition of convict labor
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 465 
 
 with honest industry, to secure the sanitary inspection of tene- 
 ments, factories, and mines, and to put an end to the abuse of con- 
 spiracy laws. 
 
 We desire also to simplify the procedure of our courts and dimin- 
 ish the expense of legal proceedings, that the poor may therein be 
 placed on an equality with the rich, and the long delays which 
 now result in scandalous miscarriages of justice may be prevented. 
 Since the ballot is the only means by which, in our Republic, the 
 redi-css of political and social grievances is to be sought, we espe- 
 cially and emphatically declare for the adoption of what is known 
 as the Australian system of voting, in order that the effectual 
 secrecy of the ballot, and the relief of candidates for public office 
 from the heavy expenses now imposed upon them, may prevent 
 bribery and intimidation, do away with practical discriminations 
 in favor of the rich and unscrupulous, and lessen the pernicious 
 influence of money in politics. 
 
 We denounce the Democratic and Republican parties as hope- 
 lessly and shamelessly corrupt, and, by reason of their affiliation 
 with monopolies, equally unworthy of the suffrages of those who 
 do not live upon public plunder ; we therefore require of those 
 who would act with us that they sever all connection with both. 
 
 In support of these aims, we solicit the cooperation of all patri- 
 otic citizens, w^ho, sick of the degradation of politics, desire by 
 constitutional methods to establish justice, to preserve liberty, to 
 extend the spirit of fraternity, and to elevate humanity. 
 
 Robert H. Cowdrey, of Illinois, was nominated for Presi- 
 dent, and W. H. T. Wakefield, of Kansas, for Vice-President. 
 
 The National Prohibition party began its convention at 
 Indianapolis on May 20. The gathering was a large one. It 
 was estimated that there were at least four thousand members 
 of the party in attendance on the convention, beside the dele- 
 gates. Nearly all the States were represented, and the com- 
 mittee on credentials reported that there were one thousand and 
 twenty-nine delegates present. A feature of the meeting was 
 the presence of James Black, candidate of the party for Presi- 
 dent in 1872 ; Neal Dow, the candidate in 1880 ; and John P. 
 St. John, the candidate in 1884 ; as well as two of the party's 
 former candidates for Vice-President. The Rev. H. A. Delano, 
 of Connecticut, was the temporary chairman, and John P. St. 
 John, of Kansas, was the permanent president, of the conven- 
 tion. The following platform was adopted. As at first reported, 
 the tariff plank did not contain the implied declaration in favor 
 of protection ; but it was amended on motion from the floor, 
 as noted hereafter : —
 
 466 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, ac- 
 knowledging Almighty God as the source of all power in govern- 
 ment, do hereby declare : — 
 
 1. That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transporta- 
 tion, and sale of alcoholic beverages should be made public crimes, 
 and punished as such. 
 
 2. That such prohibition must be secured through amendments 
 of our national and state constitutions, enforced by adequate laws 
 adequately supported by administrative authority ; and to this end 
 the organization of the Prohibition party is imperatively demanded 
 in State and Nation. 
 
 3. That any form of license, taxation, or regulation of the liquor 
 traffic is conti'ary to good government ; that any party which sup- 
 ports regulation, license, or tax enters into alliance with such 
 traffic, and becomes the actual foe of the state's welfare ; and that 
 we arraign the Republican and Democratic parties for their per- 
 sistent attitude in favor of the licensed iniquity, whereby thej'' 
 oppose the demand of the people for prohibition, and, through 
 open complicity with the liquor cause, defeat the enforcement of 
 law. 
 
 4. For the immediate abolition of the internal revenue system, 
 whereby our national government is deriving support from our 
 greatest national vice. 
 
 5. That, an adequate public revenue being necessary, it may 
 properly be raised by impost duties and by an equitable assessment 
 upon the property and the legitimate business of the country, but 
 import duties should be so reduced that no surplus shall be accu- 
 mulated in the treasury ; and that the burdens of taxation shall be 
 removed from foods, clothing, and other comforts and necessaries 
 of life, and imposed on such other articles of import as will give 
 protection both to the manufacturing employee and the producing 
 laborer against the competition of the world. 
 
 6. That civil service appointments for all civil offices, chiefly 
 clerical in their duties, should be based upon moral, intellectual, 
 and physical qualifications, and not upon party service or party 
 necessity. 
 
 7. That the right of suffrage rests on no mere circumstance of 
 race, color, sex, or nationality, and that where, from any cause, it 
 has been held from citizens who are of suitable age and mentally 
 and morally qualified for the exercise of an intelligent ballot, it 
 should be restored by the people through the legislatures of the 
 several States on such educational basis as they may deem wise. 
 
 8. For the abolition of polygamy and the establishment of uni- 
 form laws governing marriage and divorce. 
 
 9. For prohibiting all combinations of capital to control and to 
 increase the cost of products for popular consumption.
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 467 
 
 10. For the preservation and defence of the Sabbath as a civil 
 institution without oppressing any who religiously observe the 
 same on any other day than the first day of the week. 
 
 11. That arbitration is the Christian, wise, and economic method 
 of settling national diii'erences, and the same method should, by 
 judicious legislation, be applied to the settlement of disputes be- 
 tween large bodies of employees and employers ; that the aboli- 
 tion of the saloons would remove the burdens, moral, physical, 
 pecuniary, and social, which now oppress labor and rob it of its 
 earnings, and would prove to be the wise and successful way of 
 promoting labor reform ; and we invite labor and capital to unite 
 with us for the accomplishment thereof ; that monopoly in land is 
 a wrong to the people, and the public land should be reserved to 
 actual settlers, and that men and women should receive equal 
 wages for equal work. 
 
 12. That our immigration laws should be so enforced as to pre- 
 vent the introduction into our country of all convicts, inmates of 
 other dependent institutions, and of others physically incapacitated 
 for self-support, and that no person should have tjie ballot in any 
 State who is not a citizen of the United States. 
 
 Recognizing and declaring that prohibition of the liquor trafl&c 
 has become the dominant issue in national politics, we invite to 
 full party fellowship all those who, on this one dominant issue, are 
 with us agreed, in the full belief that this party can and wiil re- 
 move sectional differences, promote national unity, and insure the 
 best welfare of our entire land. 
 
 The only contest in the convention took place upon the 
 woman suffrage plank of the platform, — the paragraph num- 
 bered seven. There was a long debate upon the subject in the 
 session of the committee on resolutions, and the matter was 
 brought before the full convention by a minority report, in 
 which was recommended the substitution of a declaration in 
 favor of leaving the question to the action of States, promising 
 that " as rapidly as we come into power we will submit this 
 question to a vote of the people in the several States, to be 
 settled by them at the ballot-box." This resolution was de- 
 feated by an overwhelming vote. 
 
 An addition was made to the platform on a motion from the 
 floor, which was not opposed. To the tariff plank, the para- 
 graph numbered five, these words were appended : — 
 
 . . . " and imposed on such other articles of import as will 
 give protection both to the manufacturing employee and the 
 producing laborer against the competition of the world."
 
 468 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The platform, with this amendment, was adopted without a 
 division. 
 
 Clinton B. Eisk, of New Jersey, was made the candidate 
 for President, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, for Vice- 
 President. Both nominations were made unanimously and by 
 acclamation. 
 
 The Democrats assembled in national convention at St. 
 Louis on the 5th of June. Notwithstanding the certainty of 
 Mr. Cleveland's nomination, there was an enormous gathering 
 of prominent members of the party from North and South. 
 S. M. White, of California, acted as temporary chairman, and 
 Patrick A. Collins, of Massachusetts, was made permanent 
 president. The rules of the convention of 1884 were adopted, 
 with a slight change in the phraseology of the rule intended 
 to discourage a stampede. In its new form the rule provided 
 "that, in voting for candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent, no State shall be allowed to change its vote until the 
 roll of the States has been called, and every State has cast its 
 vote." 
 
 There was a contest within the committee on resolutions 
 as to the extent to which the convention should "indorse" 
 the Mills bill. While not only all the members of the com- 
 mittee, but all the delegates who composed the convention, 
 were in favor of a strong declaration for " tariff reform," there 
 were some who deemed it inexpedient in explicit terms to 
 express approval of the bill at that moment pending before 
 the House of Representatives. But the general sentiment of 
 the committee was that the Mills bill, as it stood, should be 
 made a party question. The minority yielded, and the com- 
 mittee made a unanimous report. Nevertheless there was a 
 half compromise ; for the indorsement of the Mills bill was 
 not made a part of the platform proper. The committee on 
 resolutions expressed its approval of three resolutions to be 
 offered from the floor, and one of the three was an unqualified 
 expression in favor of the Mills bill. The platform, as reported 
 and adopted, is as follows : — 
 
 The Democratic party of the United States, in national conven- 
 tion assembled, renews the pledge of its fidelity to Democratic 
 faith, and reaffirms the platform adopted by its representatives in 
 the convention of 1884, and indorses the views expressed by Pre- 
 sident Cleveland in his last earnest message to Congress as the 
 correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 469 
 
 reduction ; and also indorses the efforts of our Democratic repre- 
 sentatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation. 
 Chief among its principles of party faith are the maintenance of an 
 indissoluble union of free and indestructible States, now about to 
 enter upon its second century of unexampled progress and renown ; 
 devotion to a plan of government regulated by a written constitu- 
 tion strictly specifying every granted power, and expressly reserv- 
 ing to the States or people the entire ungranted residue of power; 
 thf^ encouragement of a jealous popular vigilance, directed to all 
 who have been chosen for brief terms to enact and execute the 
 laws, and are charged with the duty of preserving peace, insuring 
 equality, and establishing justice. 
 
 The Democratic party welcomes an exacting scrutiny of the 
 administration of the executive power which, four years ago, was 
 committed to its trust in the election of Grover Cleveland as Presi- 
 dent of the United States ; but it challenges the most searching 
 inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the pledges which 
 then invited the suffrages of the people. During a most critical 
 period of our financial affairs, resulting from over-taxation, the 
 anomalous condition of our currency, and a public debt unma- 
 tured, it has, by the adoption of a wise and conservative policy, 
 not only averted a disaster, but greatly promoted the prosperity of 
 the people. It has reversed the improvident and unwise policy 
 of the Republican party touching the public domain, and has 
 reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, 
 and restored to the people, nearly one hundred millions of acres of 
 valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens. 
 
 While carefully guarding the interests of the taxpayers and con- 
 forming strictly to the principles of justice and equity, it has paid 
 out more for pensions and bounties to the soldiers and sailors of 
 the Republic than was ever paid before during an equal period. 
 
 It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm and prudent 
 foreign policy, preserving peace with all nations, while scrupu- 
 lously maintaining all the rights and interests of our own govern- 
 ment and people at home and abroad. The exclusion from our 
 shores of Chinese laborers has been effectually secured under the 
 provisions of a treaty the operation of which has been postponed 
 by the action of a Republican majority in the Senate. 
 
 Honest reform in the civil service has been inaugurated and 
 maintained by President Cleveland, and he has brought the public 
 service to the highest standard of efficiency, not only by rule and 
 precept, but by the example of his own untiring and unselfish 
 administration of public aifairs. 
 
 In every branch and department of the government under 
 Democratic control the rights and welfare of all the people have
 
 470 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 been guarded and defended ; every public interest has been pro- 
 tected, and the equality of all om- citizens before the law, without 
 regard to race or color, has been steadfastly maintained. 
 
 Upon its record thus exhibited, and upon a pledge of a con- 
 tinuance to the people of these benefits, the Democracy invokes a 
 renewal of popular trust by the reelection of a Chief Magistrate 
 who has been faithful, able, and prudent. We invoke, in addition 
 to that trust, the transfer also to the Democracy of the entii-e 
 legislative power. 
 
 The Republican party, controlling the Senate and resisting in 
 both Houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and unequal tax 
 laws which have outlasted the necessities of war, and are now 
 undermining the abundance of a long peace, denies to the people 
 equality before the law, and the fairness and the justice which are 
 their right. Thus the cry of American labor for a better share in 
 the rewards of industry is stifled with false pretences, enterprise 
 is fettered and bound down to home markets, capital is dis- 
 couraged with doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be 
 properly amended nor repealed. The Democratic party will con- 
 tinue with all the power confided to it the struggle to reform 
 these laws, in accordance with the pledges of its last platform, 
 indorsed at the ballotrbox by the suffrages of the people. 
 
 Of all the industrious freemen of our land, the immense major- 
 ity, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from 
 excessive tax laws, but the price of nearly everything they buy is 
 increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legisla- 
 tion. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. It ds repug- 
 nant to the creed of Democracy that by such taxation the cost of 
 the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably increased to all our 
 people. Judged by Democratic principles, the interests of the 
 people are betrayed when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and 
 combinations are permitted to exist which, while unduly enrich- 
 ing the few that combine, rob the body of our citizens by depriving 
 them of the benefits of natural competition. Every Democratic 
 rule of governmental action is violated when, through unneces- 
 sary taxation, a vast sum of money, far beyond the needs of an 
 economical administration, is drawn from the people and the 
 channels of trade, and accumulated as a demoralizing surplus in 
 the national treasury. The money now lying idle in the federal 
 treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more 
 than one hundred and twenty-five million dollars, and the surplus 
 collected is reaching the sum of more than sixty millions annually. 
 Debauched by this immense temptation, the remedy of the Repub- 
 lican party is to meet and exhaust by extravagant appropriations 
 and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the accumulation of
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 471 
 
 extravagant taxation. The Democratic policy is to enforce fru- 
 gality in public expense, and to abolish unnecessary taxation. 
 Oui' established domestic industries and enterprises should not, 
 and need not, be endangered by the reduction and correction of 
 the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fail- and careful 
 revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the difference 
 bet\Yeen the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote 
 and encourage every branch of such industries 'and enterprises, by 
 giving them assurance of extended markets and steady and con- 
 tinuous operations in the interests of American labor, which 
 should in no event be neglected. The revision of our tax laws 
 contemplated by the Democratic party should promote the advan- 
 tage of such labor, by cheapening the cost of the necessaries of 
 life in the home of every workman, and at the same time securing 
 to him steady and remunerative employment. Upon this question 
 of tariff reform, so closely concerning every phase of our national 
 life, and upon every question involved in the problem of good 
 government, the Democratic party submits its principles and pro- 
 fessions to the intelligent suffrages of the American people. 
 
 The following are the three resolutions mentioned above, 
 offered with the sanction of the committee on resolutions, and 
 adopted unanimously by the convention : — 
 
 Resolved, That this convention hereby indorses and recommends 
 the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue now 
 pending in the House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That a just and liberal policy should be pursued in 
 reference to the Territories ; that right of self-government is 
 inherent in the people, and guaranteed under the Constitution ; 
 that the Territories of Washington, Dakota, Montana, and New 
 Mexico are, by virtue of population and development, entitled to 
 admission into the Union as States, and we unqualifiedly condemn 
 the course of the Republican party in refusing statehood and self- 
 government to their people. 
 
 Resolved, That we express our cordial sympathy with the strug- 
 gling people of all nations in their efforts to secure for themselves 
 the inestimable blessings of self-government, and civil and reli- 
 gious liberty, and we especially declare our sympathy with the 
 efforts of those noble patriots, who, led by Gladstone and Parnell, 
 have conducted their grand and peaceful contest for home rule 
 in Ireland. 
 
 For the first time since 1840, when Martin Van Buren was 
 nominated for reelection by resolution, and not by the individ- 
 ual votes of delegates, there was no formal vote for a candi- 
 date for President. A motion was made and carried with
 
 472 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 great enthusiasm to place Grover Cleveland in nomination for 
 a second term. The death of Vice-President Hendricks in 
 the first year of his term had left the second place on the 
 ticket open to a contest. Several candidates had appeared, but, 
 before the convention met, the sentiment of the delegates 
 was setting strongly in favor of Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio. 
 The brief contest pver the nomination of a candidate for Vice- 
 President gave rise to the most picturesque incidents that 
 characterized the St. Louis convention. During Judge Thur- 
 man's long service in the Senate the country had become ac- 
 customed to hear much about the " red bandanna " of which 
 he was in the habit of making use after indulging in a pinch 
 of snuflf. The friends of Governor Gray, of Indiana, were 
 present in strong force, all wearing high white hats as badges. 
 But the advocates of Judge Thurman had provided themselves 
 with a great quantity of red pocket-handkerchiefs, and these 
 articles proved to be far more popular badges than the white 
 hats. When the voting for a candidate was about to begin, 
 the California delegation displayed the bandanna at the top of 
 a long pole, and the appearance of the emblem w^as received 
 with the wildest cheering. The Indiana delegation strove in, 
 vain to offset the demonstration by elevating a white hat on 
 another pole. The red bandannas fluttered in all parts of the 
 immense hall, and delegates and spectators cheered until they 
 were hoarse for the flag of the " noble old Roman," as the 
 Democrats affectionately designated Mr. Thurman. The vic- 
 tory had, in reality, been won by Judge Thurman already. 
 The vote for a candidate showed an immense majority in his 
 favor. It resulted : for Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, 690 ; 
 for Isaac P. Gray, of Indiana, 105 ; for John C. Black, of 
 Illinois, 25. 
 
 The Republican convention was held at Chicago, June 19, 
 John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, was the temporary chairman, 
 and M. M. Estee, of California, was the permanent president. 
 The following platform was reported and adopted : — 
 
 The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their dele- 
 gates in national convention, pause on the threshold of their 
 proceedings to honor the memory of their first great leader, the 
 immortal champion of liberty and the rights of the people, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, and to cover also with wreaths of imperishable re- 
 membrance and gratitude the heroic names of our later leaders, 
 who have more recently been called away from our councils, —
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 473 
 
 Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Logan, Conkling. May their memories 
 be faithfully cherished 1 We also recall, with our greetings and 
 with prayer for his recovery, the name of one of our living heroes, 
 whose memory will be treasured in the history both of Republi- 
 cans and of the Republic, the name of that noble soldier and 
 favorite child of victory, Philii> H. Sheridan. 
 
 In the spirit of these great leaders, and of our own devotion to 
 human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of despotism 
 and oppression which is the fundamental idea of the Republican 
 party, we send fraternal congratulations to our fellow-Americans 
 of Brazil upon their great act of emancipation, which completed 
 the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents. 
 We earnestly hope that we may soon congratulate our fellow- 
 citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of home rule for 
 Ireland. 
 
 We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitu- 
 tion, and to the indissoluble union of the States ; to the autonomy 
 reserved to the States under the Constitution ; to the personal 
 rights and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories in 
 the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of 
 every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or 
 black, to cast one free ballot in public elections, and to have that 
 ballot duly counted. We hold the free and honest popular ballot, 
 and the just and equal representation of all the people, to be the 
 foundation of our republican government, and demand eifective 
 legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which 
 are the fountains of public authority. We charge that the pre- 
 sent administration and the Democratic majority in Congress owe 
 their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nul- 
 lification of the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
 
 We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of 
 protection. We protest against its destruction, as proposed by 
 the President and his party. They serve the interests of Europe ; 
 we will support the interests of America. We accept the issue, 
 and confidently appeal to the people for their judgment. The pro- 
 tective system must be maintained. Its abandonment has always 
 been followed by disaster to all interests, except those of the 
 usurer and the sheriff. We denounce the Mills bill as destructive 
 to the general business, the labor, and the farming interests of the 
 country, and we heartily indorse the consistent and patriotic action 
 of the Republican representatives in Congress opposing its pas- 
 sage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to 
 place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon 
 shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and ade- 
 quate protection to that industry. The Republican party would
 
 474 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 effect all needed reduction of the national revenue by repealing the 
 taxes upon tobacco, which are an annoyance and burden to agri- 
 culture, and the tax upon spirits used in the arts and for mechani- 
 cal purposes, and by such revision of the tariff laws as will tend 
 to check imports of such articles as are produced by our people, 
 the production of which gives employment to our labor, and re- 
 lease from import duties those articles of foi'eign production, except 
 luxuries, the like of which cannot be produced at home. If there 
 shall still remain a larger revenue than is requisite for the wants 
 of the government, we favor the entire repeal of internal taxes, 
 rather than the surrender of any part of our protective system, at 
 the joint behest of the whiskey trusts and the agents of foreign 
 manufacturers. 
 
 We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of 
 foreign contract labor, and of Chinese labor, alien to our civiliza- 
 tion and our Constitution, and we demand the rigid enforcement 
 of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legisla- 
 tion as will exclude such labor from our shores. 
 
 We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital, organ- 
 ized in trusts or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of 
 trade among our citizens, and we recommend to Congress and the 
 state legislatures, in their respective jurisdictions, such legislation 
 as will prevent the execution of all schemes to oppress the people 
 by undue charges on their supplies, or by unjust rates for the 
 transportation of their products to market. We approve the leg- 
 islation by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair 
 discriminations between the States. 
 
 We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the 
 United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers, 
 not aliens, which the Republican party established in 1862, against 
 the persistent opposition of the Democrats in Congress, and which 
 has brought our great Western domain into such magnificent de- 
 velopment. The restoration of unearned railroad land grants to 
 the public domain for the use of actual settlers, which was begun 
 under the administration of President Arthur, should be con- 
 tinued. We deny that the Democratic party has ever restored 
 one acre to the people, but declare that by the joint action of the 
 Republicans and Democrats about fifty millions of acres of un- 
 earned lands, originally granted for the construction of railroads, 
 have been restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the con- 
 ditions inserted by the Republican party in the original grants. 
 We charge the Democratic administration with failure to execute 
 the laws securing to settlers title to their homesteads, and with 
 using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent 
 settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretence of 
 exposing frauds and vindicating the law.
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 475 
 
 The government by Congress of the Territories is based upon 
 necessity only, to the end that they may become States in the 
 Union ; therefore, whenever the conditions of population, material 
 resources, public intelligence, and morality are such as to insure a 
 stable local government therein, the people of such Territories 
 should be permitted, as a right inherent in them, the right to form 
 for themselves constitutions and state governments, and be ad- 
 mitted into the Union. Pending the preparation for statehood, 
 all officers thereof should be selected from the bona Jide residents 
 and citizens of the Territory wherein they are to serve. South 
 Dakota should, of right, be immediately admitted as a State un- 
 der the constitution framed and adopted by her people, and we 
 heartily indorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice 
 passing bills for her admission. The refusal of the Democratic 
 House of Representatives, for partisan purposes, favorably to con- 
 sider these bills is a wilful violation of the sacred American prin- 
 ciple of local self-government, and merits the condemnation of all 
 just men. The pending bills in the Senate for acts to enable the 
 people of Washington, North Dakota, and Montana Territories to 
 form Constitutions and establish state governments should be 
 passed without unnecessary delay. The Republican party pledges 
 itself to do all in its power to facilitate the admission of the Ter- 
 ritories of New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Arizona to the 
 enjoyment of self-government as States, such of them as are now 
 qualified as soon as possible, and the others as soon as they be- 
 come so. 
 
 The political power of the Mormon Church in the Territories as 
 exercised in the past is a menace to free institutions, a danger no 
 longer to be suffered ; therefore we pledge the Republican party 
 to appropriate legislation asserting the sovereignty of the nation 
 in all Territories where the same is questioned, and in furtherance 
 of that end to place upon the statute books legislation stringent 
 enough to divorce the political from the ecclesiastical power, and 
 thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy. 
 
 The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and 
 silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic ad- 
 ministration in its efforts to demonetize silver. 
 
 We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per 
 ounce. 
 
 In a republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and 
 the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the 
 will of the peopk, it is important that the sovereign and the peo- 
 ple should possess intelligence. The free school is the promoter 
 of that intelligence which is to preserve us a free nation : there- 
 fore the State or nation, or both combined, should support free
 
 476 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY . 
 
 institutions of learning, sufficient to afford to every child growing 
 up in the land the opportunity of a good common-school educa- 
 tion. 
 
 We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by Con- 
 gress in the enactment of such legislation as wUl best secure the 
 rehabilitation of our American merchant marine ; and we protest 
 against the passage by Congress of a free-ship bill, as calculated to 
 work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged 
 in preparing materials as well as those directly employed in our 
 shipyards. 
 
 We demand appropriations for the early rebuilding of our navy ; 
 for the construction of coast fortifications and modern ordnance, 
 and other approved modern means of defence for the protection of 
 our defenceless harbors and cities ; for the payment of just pen- 
 sions to our soldiers ; for necessary works of national importance 
 in the improvement of harbors and the channels of internal, coast- 
 wise, and foreign commerce ; for the encouragement of the ship- 
 ping interests of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific States, as well as 
 for the payment of the maturing public debt. This policy will 
 give employment to our labor ; activity to our various industries ; 
 increase the security of our country ; promote trade ; open new 
 and direct markets for our produce, and cheapen the cost of trans- 
 portation. We affirm this to be far better for our country than 
 the Democratic policy of loaning the government's money, with- 
 out interest, to " pet banks." 
 
 The conduct of foreign affairs by the present administration 
 has been distinguished by its inefficiency and its cowardice. Hav- 
 ing withdrawn from the Senate all pending treaties effected by 
 Republican administration for the removal of foreign burdens and 
 restrictions upon our commerce, and for its extension into better 
 markets, it has neither effected nor proposed any others in their 
 stead. Professing adherence to the Monroe doctrine, it has seen, 
 with idle complacency, the extension of foreign influence in Cen- 
 tral America and of foreign trade everywhere among our neigh- 
 bors. It has refused to charter, sanction, or encourage any Amer- 
 ican organization for constructing the Nicaragua Canal, — a work 
 of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, 
 and of our national influence in Central and South America, and 
 necessary for the development of trade with our Pacific territory, 
 with South America, and with the islands and farther coasts of 
 the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 We arraign the present Democratic administration for its weak 
 and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question, and its pusil- 
 lanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which our fishing 
 vessels are entitled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 477 
 
 iPoiprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations, 
 and which Canadian fishing vessels receive in the ports of the 
 United States. We condemn the policy of the present administrar 
 tion and the Democratic majority in Congress towards our fisher- 
 ies as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to 
 destroy a valuable national industry and an indispensable resource 
 oi defence against a foreign enemy. 
 
 The name of American applies alike to all citizens of the repub- 
 lic, and imposes upon all alike the same obligation of obedience to 
 the laws. At the same time that citizenship is and must be the 
 panoply and safeguard of him who wears it, and protects him, 
 whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights, it should 
 and must afford him protection at home, and follow and protect 
 him abroad, in whatever land he may be, on a lawful errand. 
 
 The men who abandoned the Republican party in 1884, and con- 
 tinue to adhere to the Democratic party, have deserted not only 
 the cause of honest government, of sound finance, of freedom, of 
 purity of the ballot, but especially have deserted the cause of re- 
 form in the civil service. We will not fail to keep our pledges 
 because they have broken theirs, nor because their candidate has 
 broken his. We therefore repeat our declaration of 1884, to wit : 
 •' The reform of the civil service auspiciously begun under the 
 Republican administration should be completed by the further 
 extension of the reform system, already established by law, to all 
 the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and 
 purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appoint- 
 ments, and all laws at variance with the object of existing reform 
 legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to free 
 institutions, which lurk in the power of official patronage, may be 
 wisely and effectively avoided." 
 
 The gratitude of the nation to the defenders of the Union can- 
 not be measured by laws. The legislation of Congress should 
 conform to the pledge made by a loyal people, and be so enlarged 
 and extended as to provide against the possibility that any man 
 ■who honorably wore the Federal uniform shall become an inmate 
 of an almshouse or dependent upon private charity. In the pre- 
 sence of an overflowing treasury, it would be a public scandal to 
 do less for those whose valorous services preserved the government. 
 We denounce the hostile spirit shown by President Cleveland, in 
 his numerous vetoes of measures for pension relief, and the action 
 of the Democratic House of Representatives in refusing even a 
 consideration of general pension legislation. 
 
 In support of the principles herewith enunciated, we invite the 
 cooperation of patriotic men of all parties, and especially of all 
 workingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threatened by the fi'ee- 
 trade policy of the present administration.
 
 478 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The withdrawal of Mr. Blaine, as has been explained, had 
 left the field open for all contestants. Not only was there 
 an unusually large number of " favorite sons," but several pro- 
 minent public men, who were not brought forward as candi- 
 dates by the delegates representing the respective States of their 
 residence, were mentioned as possible candidates in case the con- 
 test should be long and the difficulty of agreeing upon a nomi- 
 nee great. Pervading the convention at all times, up to the 
 moment that a nomination was effected, was a feeling that the 
 name of Mr. Blaine might be presented in such a way, at a 
 critical period, that the convention would be carried away by 
 an outburst of irrepressible enthusiasm, and that he would be 
 summoned to lead the party again by a call so vociferous that 
 he could not decline. Mr. Blaine gave no countenance nor help 
 to this movement. At the opening of the convention, having 
 learned that some of his indiscreet friends were making unau- 
 thorized use of his name, and were assuming to declare what 
 he would do in certain contingencies, Mr. Blaine requested the 
 London correspondent of the " New York Tribune " to say 
 that all rumors " pretending to give letters or dispatches from 
 him or any of his party touching political topics of any kind 
 may be promptly discredited unless signed by Mr. Blaine him- 
 self ; " and, further, that he had written nothing concerning 
 the presidential nominations except the two published letters 
 from Florence and Paris, and that he had held no correspond- 
 ence of any kind with any one on political subjects. Even 
 this did not prevent many men from thinking that the nomi- 
 nation of Mr. Blaine was the most probable outcome of the 
 contest. Some of the delegates persisted in voting for him 
 from first to last ; and a Blaine stampede was the event which 
 the whole country expected. But the fitting moment for it 
 never came, and the judgment of the cooler members of the 
 convention was against it at all times, chiefly because they saw, 
 what Mr. Blaine had said so clearly, that he could not honor- 
 ably accept the nomination, even if it were thrust upon him. 
 
 The first vote for a candidate showed an extraordinary lack 
 of concentration. Senator John Sherman, who led all other 
 candidates, had but little more than one half of the number 
 necessary to nominate. Judge Gresham, the next on the list, 
 had less than half as many as Mr. Sherman, and not one of the 
 delegates from his own State of Indiana was among his sup- 
 porters. The votes were divided among thirteen candidates,
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 
 
 479 
 
 and even on the fourth trial the number had been reduced 
 only to ten. How greatly the votes were scattered may be 
 seen from the statement that, on the first vote for a candidate, 
 Senator Sherman received more or less support from twenty- 
 three States and Territories, Judge Gresham froiji twenty-three, 
 Mr. Harrison from twenty-three, Mr. Alger from twenty, Mr. 
 Allison from nineteen, Mr. Depew from sixteen, and Mr. 
 Blaine from thirteen. Only nine States of the Union gave a 
 solid vote to any candidate, and five of the nine presented 
 '* favorite sons " as candidates. 
 
 The session of the convention was one of the longest in the 
 history of the country. It began on June 19. The platform 
 was adopted on the 21st. Two votes for a presidential can- 
 didate were taken on the 22d, three on the 23d, and three on 
 the 25th (the 24th was Sunday). The history of fonner con- 
 ventions was repeated ; the leading candidate did not greatly 
 increase his vote, and a concentration took place gradually 
 upon one who had at the beginning a small but a compact and 
 aggressive body of followers. General Benjamin Harrison, of 
 Indiana, was nominated upon the eighth vote. The result on 
 each of the votes is shown in the following table : — 
 
 
 1st. 
 
 229 
 111 
 99 
 84 
 80 
 72 
 35 
 28 
 25 
 25 
 24 
 13 
 3 
 2 
 
 830 
 416 
 
 2d. 
 
 249 
 108 
 99 
 116 
 91 
 75 
 33 
 16 
 20 
 18 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 830 
 416 
 
 3d. 
 
 4th. 
 
 5tb. 
 
 6th. 
 
 7th. 
 
 8th. 
 
 John Sherman, Ohio .... 
 Walter Q. Gresham, Indiana . 
 Chauncey M. Depew, New York 
 Russel A. Alger, Michigan . . 
 Benjamin Harrison, Indiana . 
 William B. Allison, Iowa . . 
 
 
 
 244 
 123 
 91 
 122 
 94 
 88 
 35 
 
 16 
 5 
 
 2 
 8 
 2 
 
 830 
 416 
 
 235 
 98 
 
 135 
 
 217 
 
 88 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 11 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 829 
 415 
 
 224 
 87 
 
 142 
 213 
 99 
 
 48 
 
 14 
 
 827 
 414 
 
 244 
 91 
 
 137 
 
 231 
 
 73 
 
 40 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 830 
 416 
 
 231 
 91 
 
 120 
 
 278 
 
 76 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 831 
 416 
 
 118 
 59 
 
 100 
 544 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 Jeremiah M. Rusk, Wisconsin . 
 William W. Phelps, New Jersey 
 E. H. Fitler, Pennsylvania . . 
 Joseph R. Hawley, Connecticut 
 Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois . . 
 William McKinley, Jr., Ohio . 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 Joseph B. Foraker, Ohio . . 
 Frederick D. Grant, New York 
 Creed Haymond, California 
 
 
 8,30 
 
 Necessary for a choice . . . 
 
 
 416 
 
 Levi P. Morton, of New York, was nominated for Vice-Pre- 
 sident on the first vote. He received 591 votes to 119 for 
 William Walter Phelps, of New Jersey ; 103 for William 0.
 
 480 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Bradley, of Kentucky ; 11 for Blanche K. Bruce, of Missis- 
 sippi ; and 1 for Walter F. Thomas, of Texas. 
 
 The following resolution, which was offered from the floor, 
 at the close of the proceedings of the convention, was adopted 
 with but one dissenting vote : — 
 
 The first concern of all good government is the virtue and 
 sobriety of the people, and the purity of their homes. The Repub- 
 lican party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed 
 efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality. 
 
 A convention of a party which adopted the name of Ameri- 
 can was held at Washington on the 14th of August. It w^as 
 attended by 126 delegates, of whom 65 represented New York, 
 and 15 were from California. On the second day of the con- 
 vention a contest which had divided the meeting from the first 
 led to a split, and all the members except those from New 
 York and California seceded and held a convention of their 
 own. The issue which broke up the convention was the appor- 
 tionment of votes. The two States most strongly represented 
 desired that each delegate should have one vote, while the 
 minority insisted upon the usual rule of other conventions, 
 that the State or the Congressional district should be the unit 
 for voting power, rather than the individual delegate. The 
 seceders from the convention made no nominations. The New 
 York and California members who -were left completed their 
 work, not without some friction. They nominated for President 
 James Langdon Curtis, of New York, and for Vice-President 
 James R. Greer, of Tennessee. Mr. Greer subsequently declined 
 the nomination. 
 
 The following platform was adopted : — 
 
 Resolved, That all law-abiding citizens of the United States of 
 America, whether native or foreign born, are politically equals 
 (except as provided by the Constitution), and all are entitled to, 
 and should receive, the full protection of the laws. 
 
 Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States should be 
 so amended as to prohibit the federal and state governments from 
 conferring upon any person the right to vote unless such person be 
 a citizen of the United States. 
 
 Resolved, That we are in favor of fostering and encouraging 
 American industries of every class and kind, and declare that the 
 assumed issue " Protection " vs. " Free Trade " is a fraud and a 
 snare. The best " protection " is that which protects the labor 
 and life blood of the republic from the degrading competition with
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 481 
 
 and contamination by imported foreigners ; and the most danger- 
 ous " free trade " is that in paupers, criminals, communists, and an- 
 archists, in which the balance has always been against the United 
 States. 
 
 Whereas, One of the greatest evils of unrestricted foreign im- 
 migration is the reduction of the wages of the American working- 
 man and working-woman to the level of the underfed and under- 
 paid labor of foreign countries ; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That we demand that no immigrant shall be admitted 
 into the United States without a passport obtained from the Amer- 
 ican consul at the port from which he sails ; that no passport 
 shall be issued to any pauper, criminal, or insane person, or to any 
 person who, in the judgment of the consul, is not likely to become 
 a desirable citizen of the United States ; and that for each immi- 
 grant passport there shall be collected by the consul issuing the 
 same the sum of one hundred dollars to be by him paid into the 
 Treasury of the United States. 
 
 Resolved, That the present naturalization laws of the United 
 States should be unconditionally repealed. 
 
 Resolved, That the soil of America should belong to Americans; 
 that no alien non-resident should be permitted to own real estate 
 in the United States ; and that the realty possessions of the resi- 
 dent alien should be limited in value and area. 
 
 Resolved, That no flag shall float on any public buildings, muni- 
 cipal, state, or national, in the United States, except the munici- 
 pal, state, or national flag of the United States, — the flag of the 
 stars and stripes. 
 
 Resolved, That we reassert the American principles of abso- 
 lute freedom of religious worship and belief, the permanent sepa- 
 ration of church and state ; and we oppose the appropriation of 
 public money or property to any church, or institution adminis- 
 tered by a church. We maintain that all church property should 
 be subject to taxation. 
 
 The canvass which followed the nomination of candidates 
 presented no remarkable features until a short time before the 
 election. Political clubs took somewhat unusual prominence 
 in the contest. They were enabled to make their work more 
 effective by forming state and national leagues, and thus gain- 
 ing the advantage which is derived from organized and con- 
 certed effort. 
 
 The tariff was the great issue. It was the chief topic upon 
 which the Republican and Democratic candidates dwelt in their 
 respective letters of acceptance. It was the subject discussed 
 from the stump and in the party journals. The Democrats
 
 482 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 distinctly pledged themselves that, if they should gain full con- 
 trol of the government, they would reduce the tariff, taking for 
 general principles in the method of reduction the system 
 sketched by the " Mills bill." The Republicans, on the other 
 hand, committed themselves unreservedly by a declaration that 
 they would sweep away the whole internal revenue system be- 
 fore they would abandon any part of the protective duties on 
 imports. The public discussion was earnest. There were, 
 however, prior to the election itself, no decided indications 
 how the battle was going to result. Although each side pro- 
 fessed confidence that it would win from the enemy electoral 
 votes of States not counted as doubtful, there was little real 
 expectation on either side of such a result. The Democrats 
 were evidently sure of the entire Southern vote ; and the Re- 
 publicans had no fear of losing any Northern State, except Con- 
 necticut, New York, New Jersey, and Indiana. Upon these 
 States, therefore, most of the energy of both parties M'as con- 
 centrated. 
 
 Two weeks before the election a strange incident occurred, 
 and the importance attached to it — for no doubt it had a cer- 
 tain influence in the election — shows how highly wrought was 
 political feeling at that time. A correspondence was published 
 between a person, who adopted the fictitious name of Charles 
 F. Murchison, and Lord Sackville, the British Minister at Wash- 
 ington. The false Murchison represented himself to be a former 
 British subject, now naturalized as an American, but cherishing 
 a love for the mother country, and asking Lord Sackville's ad- 
 vice as to how he should vote at the coming election. The 
 incautious reply of Lord Sackville, who fell into a trap set 
 for him, implied, though it gave no direct advice, that a vote 
 for the Democratic candidate would be rather more friendly to 
 England than one for Mr. Harrison. The correspondence was 
 published on October 24. The Republicans seized upon it as 
 confirming what they had insisted upon, when discussing the 
 Mills bill, that the Democratic tariff policy was good for Eng- 
 land's interest, but bad for America. The President quickly 
 perceived the use that was to be made of the incident, and took 
 his measures accordingly. The view was taken that the advice 
 given by Lord Sackville was an interference by a foreign min- 
 ister with the internal politics of this country, — a repetition 
 on a small scale of the impertinence of Citizen Genet during 
 the administration of Washington. The attention of Lord
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 
 
 483 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama . 
 Arkansas . 
 California* 
 Colorado . 
 Connecticut 
 Delaware 
 Florida 
 Georgia 
 Illinoist 
 Indiana 
 Iowa . 
 Kansas 
 Kentucky 
 Louisiana 
 Maine . . . 
 Maryland 
 Massachusetts 
 Michigan . . 
 Minnesota 
 Mississippi . 
 Missouri . . 
 Nebraska 
 Nevada . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey . 
 New YorkJ . 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio . . . 
 Oregon . . 
 Pennsylvania 
 Rhode Island 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee 
 Texas . . 
 Vermont . 
 Virginia . 
 West Virginia 
 Wisconsin . 
 
 POPULAK VOTB. 
 
 Total 
 
 OS as 
 
 s5 
 
 56,197 
 
 58,752 
 
 124,816 
 
 50,774 
 
 74,584 
 
 12,973 
 
 26,657 
 
 40,496 
 
 370,473 
 
 263,361 
 
 211,598 
 
 182,934 
 
 155,134 
 
 30,484 
 
 73,734 
 
 99,986 
 
 183,892 
 
 236,370 
 
 142,492 
 
 30,096 
 
 236,257 
 
 108,425 
 
 7,229 
 
 45,728 
 
 144,344 
 
 648,759 
 
 134,784 
 
 416,054 
 
 33,291 
 
 526,091 
 
 21,968 
 
 13,736 
 
 138,988 
 
 88,422 
 
 45,192 
 
 150,438 
 
 77,791 
 
 176,553 
 
 5,439,853 
 
 
 117,320 
 
 85,962 
 
 117,729 
 
 37,567 
 
 74,920 
 
 16,414 
 
 39,561 
 
 100,499 
 
 348,278 
 
 261,013 
 
 179,887 
 
 103,744 
 
 183,800 
 
 85,032 
 
 50,481 
 
 106,168 
 
 151,856 
 
 213,459 
 
 104,385 
 
 85,471 
 
 261,974 
 
 80,552 
 
 5,362 
 
 43,458 
 
 151,493 
 
 635,757 
 
 147,902 
 
 396,455 
 
 26,522 
 
 446,633 
 
 17,530 
 
 65,825 
 
 158,779 
 
 234,883 
 
 16,785 
 
 151,977 
 
 79,664 
 
 155,232 
 
 o * 
 .S!zi 
 
 5,540,329 249,506 
 
 583 
 
 641 
 
 5,761 
 
 2,191 
 
 4,234 
 
 400 
 
 423 
 
 1,808 
 
 21,695 
 
 9,881 
 
 3,550 
 
 6,768 
 
 5,225 
 
 160 
 
 2,691 
 
 4,767 
 
 8,701 
 
 20,942 
 
 15,311 
 
 218 
 
 4,539 
 
 9,429 
 
 41 
 
 1,593 
 
 7,904 
 
 30,231 
 
 2,787 
 
 24,356 
 
 1,677 
 
 20,947 
 
 1,250 
 
 5,969 
 4,749 
 1,460 
 1,678 
 669 
 14,277 
 
 10,613 
 
 1,266 
 240 
 
 136 
 
 7,090 
 
 2,694 
 
 9,105 
 
 37,726 
 
 622 
 
 39 
 
 1,344 
 
 4,541 
 
 1,094 
 
 22 
 
 18,632 
 
 4,226 
 
 13 
 
 626 
 
 32 
 
 3,496 
 
 363 
 
 3,873 
 
 18 
 
 48 
 29,459 
 
 1,064 
 8,552 
 
 Elbctoral 
 Vote. 
 
 22 
 15 
 13 
 
 5 
 3 
 4 
 
 36 
 
 23 
 3 
 
 30 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 146,935 233 168 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 3 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 16 
 
 9 
 11 
 
 12 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 * 1591 for Curtis, American, t 150 for Cowdrey, United Labor, t 2668 for Cowdrey
 
 484 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Salisbury was called to the matter ; and when the British pre- 
 mier failed to regard Lord Sackville's indiscretion as a serious 
 offence, if indeed he regarded it as an offence at all, the Presi- 
 dent directed that the British minister be informed that he was 
 no longer persona grata, and that his passports should be given 
 to him. The incident was variously regarded at the time. 
 Some deemed the whole affair an amusing illustration of the 
 tendency to magnify what is really insignificant when an elec- 
 tion is pending. Those who took, or affected to take, a serious 
 view of the matter, vented their indignation, according to the 
 party to which they respectively belonged, upon the sharp pol- 
 itician who prepared a pitfall for the diplomatist, or upon the 
 minister, who, they said, had revealed the partiality of the gov- 
 ernment he represented for one of the two parties. Great Brit- 
 ain took the expulsion of Lord Sackville so seriously that it 
 refused to appoint another minister until after the close of Mr. 
 Cleveland's administration. 
 
 The number of States participating in the election was, as 
 in 1884, thirty-eight. The Democrats carried the entire South, 
 together with the States of Connecticut and New Jersey. The 
 other States of the North, including the doubtful States of 
 New York and Indiana, chose Republican electors. The pop- 
 ular and electoral votes are given on the preceding page. 
 
 The statement of the popular vote is that printed in Apple- 
 tons' " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1888. It differs slightly in 
 the vote of several States from that given in McPherson's 
 " Handbook of Politics," and in the New York " Tribune 
 Almanac," edited by Mr. McPherson. A comparison of the 
 totals is printed on the next page. The returns were " offi- 
 cial " in each case ; the reason why they do not agree does 
 not appear. It may be suggested that the return in the one 
 case is that of the vote for the leading elector on each ticket, 
 and in the other case the average vote for all the electors on 
 each ticket respectively. This is apparently not the true 
 explanation. The aggregate difference between the two state- 
 ments is not large. 
 
 There are other returns which differ from both of those 
 given. Possibly they also may have been obtained from " offi- 
 cial " sources. The discrepancies are not important, but they 
 illustrate the difticulty of obtaining exact statistics when the 
 ultimate authority varies its reply to the same question. 
 
 The count of electoral votes following this election was the
 
 THE SECOND HARRISON 
 
 485 
 
 Cleveland .... 
 
 Harrison 
 
 Fisk 
 
 Streator 
 
 Curtis 
 
 Cowdiey 
 
 Socialist and scattering 
 
 Total vote . . . 
 
 Appletons : 
 Cyclopaedia. 
 
 5,540,329 
 
 5,4:59,858 
 
 249,50(3 
 
 14(5,935 
 
 1,591 
 
 2,818 
 
 7,006 
 
 11,388,038 
 
 McPlierson : 
 
 Handbook aud 
 
 Aliuauac. 
 
 5,530,242 
 
 5,440,708 
 
 24(),876 
 
 146,836 
 
 1,591 
 
 3,073 
 
 9,845 
 
 11,385,171 
 
 first to take place under the act of February 3, 1887, and the 
 first in the history of the government under the Constitution 
 which was regulated by a general law, and did not require pre- 
 vious concurrent action by the two Houses of Congress for the 
 time being. The joint convention for counting the votes was 
 held in the hall of the House of Kepresentatives on February 
 13, 1889. The proceedings were devoid of striking incident. 
 Mr. Cox, of New York, called attention to a slight deviation 
 from the precise requirements of the law. It appears that Mr. 
 Ingalls, the President jjro tempore of the Senate, who presided, 
 did not " call for objections, if any," after the reading of each 
 certificate, as directed by section four of the law (see p. 454). 
 The official report of the proceedings does not state whether or 
 not the presiding officer changed his method after attention was 
 called to the matter. When the vote of Indiana was reported, 
 the vote of the President-elect's own State, there was applause, 
 which was quickly suppressed. Mr. Manderson, the first of 
 the Senate tellers, reported the state of the vote in detail, and 
 in a summary ; the presiding officer repeated the summary, and 
 added a formula, drawn from the law, that this announcement 
 of the state of the vote " is, by law, a sufficient declaration " 
 that Benjamin Harrison, of the State of Indiana, had been 
 elected President, and Levi P. Morton, of the State of New 
 York, Vice-President, for the ensuing term.
 
 XXX 
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 
 
 The victory of the Republicans, although narrow, was com- 
 plete. A safe majority of the electoral vote was supplemented 
 by a meagre majority in both Houses of Congress. A factional 
 quarrel among the Democrats of Delaware threw the legisla- 
 ture of that State into the hands of the Republicans, who thus 
 regained the one Senator, lost in Virginia, needed to give them 
 ascendency in the upper house. The House of Representa- 
 tives was so closely divided between the two parties as to give 
 some ground for the apprehension that certain Democratic gov- 
 ernors in southern States would revise and amend the returns 
 for Congressmen, and withhold certificates from candidates who 
 apparently had received a plurality of votes. In one case only 
 did a governor assume authority to pass judicially upon the 
 county returns, and his act was not sufficient to overcome the 
 Republican majority. The victorious party felt itself returned 
 permanently to power in the country ; and the exultant re- 
 mark was commonly made that, " if we behave ourselves well," 
 the Republicans could not be shaken from their hold upon the 
 government for twenty years to come. 
 
 The four years' term of Benjamin Harrison which followed 
 was a period of as bitter party strife as the country has ever 
 seen. It was crowded with events that had a direct bearing 
 upon the ensuing election. The Republicans proceeded to 
 carry through their measures with perfect confidence that they 
 had the people behind them ; the Democrats waged an aggres- 
 sive and unrelenting war upon them. In the end it was evi- 
 dent that the dominant party had exposed itself to attack at 
 too many points. The favor of the people was withdrawn 
 when the administration was at its mid-point, and given to the 
 opposition by an overwhelming majority. At the close of the 
 four years the control of every department of the government, 
 except the judicial, passed into the hands of the Democrats,
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 487 
 
 where it had not been placed since the election of James 
 Buchanan in 1856. 
 
 When the Fifty-first Congress met, in December, 1889, the 
 extremely small Republican majority in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, as elected in 1888, was reinforced by the addition 
 of five members from newly admitted States. The two parties 
 had been engaged in a competition for the favor of the people 
 of the Territories clamoring for admission to the Union. For 
 several years Republicans had urged the passage of an ena- 
 bling act for Dakota. The Democrats, knowing that the pro- 
 posed new State would be against them, had prevented its 
 admission until the Territory became populous enough, as it 
 was territorially large enough, to claim division, and admission 
 as two States. Then the Democrats proposed to offset the 
 two Dakotas by admitting at the same time Washington and 
 Montana, both of which they expected to control. The Re- 
 publicans feared that opposition to the admission of Washing- 
 ton and Montana — which they knew would b% futile in any 
 event — would insure their becoming Democratic States. Ac- 
 cordingly they gave their support to the " omnibus " bill, 
 which became a law in February, 1889. All four of the 
 States were carried by the Republicans at the first election, 
 and added eight votes to the strength of the party in the 
 Senate, and five — South Dakota elected two members — to 
 the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. 
 But after these five votes were added, the majority in the 
 House was still too small to be effective. The chance absence 
 of a few members might easily convert it into a minority. 
 Moreover, the rules of the House and the — to that time — 
 uniform interpretation of the quorum clause of the Constitu- 
 tion rendered a narrow majority powerless for affirmative 
 action in the face of determined " filibustering." 
 
 Mr. Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, Avho was chosen Speaker, 
 had long held two views directly opposed to accepted parlia- 
 mentary law. He maintained that the vote of a member was 
 not the only method of revealing his presence in the House as 
 a part of a constitutional quorum ; that the House itself, or 
 the Speaker as the organ of the House, might take cognizance 
 of his physical presence and count him as a present member. 
 Under the previously accepted theory, the ruling party could 
 pass no motion if, not mustering a full quorum of its own 
 members, the opposition unanimously refused to vote. Mr.
 
 488 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Speaker Reed acted upon his own theory, prior to the adop- 
 tion of any rules, by counting as present non-voting members 
 who were otherwise taking part in the proceedings. The other 
 point whereon he differed from earlier parliamentary authori- 
 ties was that of dilatory motions. Congress had long before 
 limited the " freedom of debate " by a rule which restricted a 
 member's right to occupy the floor on any motion to the space 
 of one hour. It had limited his right to make motions by the 
 "previous question." But it had left open for his use certain 
 privileged motions which, made alternately and decided in 
 each case by a roll-call, would put a complete and indefinite 
 stop to public business. The Speaker proposed a new code of 
 rules of parliamentary procedure, which included a recognition 
 of the right to " count a quorum," an absolute prohibition of 
 dilatory motions, and some minor amendments of the current 
 parliamentary law. The code was debated with great asperity, 
 but was finally adopted by a party vote. It made the majority 
 masters of the House, and enabled them to pass measures which 
 never would have been brought to a vote under the old sys- 
 tem. It added greatly to the power of the Speaker in the 
 conduct of business, and to his control over legislation. Mr. 
 Speaker Reed's strong will and undaunted courage, in enfor- 
 cing his new rules against violent opposition, earned for him 
 with the Democratic members the title of " Czar." Not a few 
 of them admitted that his position was sound and logical, 
 while they condemned his forceful maintenance of it. The 
 Republicans applauded ; and the whole country saw afterward 
 that it was upon him, far more than upon any other person, 
 that the responsibility rested for things done and left undone 
 by the Fifty-first Congress. 
 
 The Republicans proceeded, promptly and mercilessly, to 
 decide contested elections by ejecting Democrats and giving 
 the places to members of their own party, thus increasing their 
 effective majority. The fact that the number, both of con- 
 tested seats and of members displaced, was unusually large 
 they explained by asserting that fraud had been unusually rife 
 in the elections and returns. The opposition accused the ma- 
 jority of using its power to override and reverse the will of 
 the people expressed at the polls. In many cases the Demo- 
 crats refused to answer to their names when the resolutions 
 unseating their members were put to vote ; some of them were 
 counted, though not voting, to make up the quorum.
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 489 
 
 Both parties were committed, by platform and by the pro- 
 mises of their candidates and leaders, to a revision of customs 
 duties. A large part of the session was occupied in the elabo- 
 ration of a taritf bill. It was reported by Mr. McKinley, of 
 Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, in 
 April ; was passed by the House of Representatives in May ; 
 was passed by the Senate in September ; and, after an adjust- 
 ment of the differences between the two Houses by a confer- 
 ence committee, was sent to the President, by whom it was 
 signed on the 1st of October. The act was popularly styled 
 the " McKinley Bill," and as such played a great part in the 
 political events of the next three years. The principle of the 
 hill was to lighten the burden borne by the people by remov- 
 ing altogether the duty on sugar, the article most productive 
 of revenue of all commodities entered at the custom-houses, 
 and at the same time to make the system of " protection " 
 more thorough by raising the rates of duty on all foreign arti- 
 cles which, under the previous tariff, could compete success- 
 fully with similar articles of domestic production. The Amer- 
 ican sugar-planters were compensated for the withdrawal of 
 tariff protection by means of a bounty on their production. 
 The Tariff Act of 1890 went beyond any previous measure of 
 the kind in its levy of duty on agricultural productions im- 
 ported from abroad. The avowed intention of its partisans 
 was to give the farmer protection equal to that enjoyed by the 
 manufacturer. The McKinley Act aroused the unmeasured 
 opposition of the Democrats, who could find no words ade- 
 quate to express their detestation of it, and of what they 
 denounced as the bad faith of the Republicans. In their view 
 the people had demanded a substantial reduction of the tariff, 
 and had given the Republican party a commission to carry out 
 their will. That party had solicited and obtained the privi- 
 lege of making the reduction in a spirit friendly to the protec- 
 tive system and to the manufacturers. Now, so the Democrats 
 declared, the party in power had violated its pledge by bring- 
 ing forward a proposition in which increases of the rates of 
 duty were far more numerous than reductions. But the Re- 
 publicans were unmoved by the criticism, and persisted in 
 their course. Some of their leaders made no secret of an opin- 
 ion that the measure was too radical. In particular, Mr. 
 Blaine, the Secretary of State, expressed the opinion openly, 
 and directed attention to the fact that while the bill was
 
 490 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 professedly drawn in the interest of agriculture, it would not 
 open any foreign market to American flour and pork. His 
 influence was sufficient to secure the adoption by the Senate 
 of an amendment, afterward concurred in by the House, au- 
 thorizing the negotiation of reciprocity treaties providing for 
 the admission of American products, at favorable rates of duty, 
 into the countries with which the treaties might be concluded. 
 It may be remarked here that many such treaties were negoti- 
 ated under the terms of the McKinley Act, but, as will be 
 seen presently, they were denounced by the Democrats in 
 their national platform ; and during the ensuing administra- 
 tion the authorization of such treaties was withdrawn, and the 
 treaties themselves were abrogated. 
 
 Another most important measure of this session was the 
 act which subsequently became known as the Sherman Silver 
 Purchase Act. The history of this legislation, and indeed of 
 the whole agitation for the free coinage of silver during the 
 administration of President Harrison, is most interesting. 
 But, save that the act above mentioned served for the time 
 being to keep the Republican party together, it had no dis- 
 tinct bearing upon the election of the next President, and 
 therefore the record of what was done, and prevented, in 
 reference to silver, is reserved for the next chapter. 
 
 A third measure, which never became a law, did play a 
 certain part in the election, namely, the bill to regulate na- 
 tional elections, styled by the Democrats the " Force Bill." 
 The bill was passed by the House of Representatives at the 
 first session of the Fifty-first Congress ; it failed in the Senate 
 at the second session through the defection of a certain num- 
 ber of Republican senators who favored the free coinage of 
 silver. It was well understood, and indeed not concealed, 
 that there was a temporary alliance between these senators 
 and the Democrats. Some of the Democratic senators showed 
 at the time a toleration toward the silver movement which 
 they did not manifest before nor afterward. 
 
 The McKinley tariff act went into efi'ect just before the 
 general congressional elections of November, 1890. The 
 Democrats had succeeded in making it exceedingly unpopular 
 even before it was finally passed ; and they followed up its 
 enactment with vigorous assaults upon its promoters, and en- 
 ergetic efforts to convince the people that it was detrimental 
 to their interests. Success was comparatively easy, for the
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 491 
 
 increase of duty on certain articles of common consumption 
 was distinctly perceptible in the retail price. While it is im- 
 possible to estimate the exact influence of this event and that 
 in bringing about a political revulsion, and while there can be 
 no doubt that other acts of the Republican party contributed 
 their share toward its overthrow, certainly the quick popular 
 condemnation of the tariff act was the most potent agent in 
 determining the result of the congressional election in 1890. 
 The Republicans were overwhelmed at the polls. They lost 
 more than one half of their strength in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives ; and the Democrats lacked but a few votes of a 
 three-fourths majority. The sixteen Southern States, return- 
 ing 121 members, elected but three Republicans. Even New 
 England returned a majority of Democratic members. A 
 highly significant feature of this election was the great stride 
 made by the party which had begun its existence as the 
 " Farmers' Alliance," but which now became known as the 
 " People's Party," or " Populists." In several of the West- 
 ern States this party made a brave showing as an independent 
 organization, maintaining a separate existence and voting for 
 its own candidates. In others it allied itself with the Demo- 
 crats. It succeeded in electing nine members of the House of 
 Representatives, and held such a strong position in the legis- 
 latures of Kansas and South Dakota as to be able to send two 
 members to the Senate of the United States. 
 
 The political situation established by the elections of 1890 
 changed but slightly during the ensuing two years. The 
 conditions were of course not favorable to legislation, and the 
 Democrats wisely attempted nothing beyond proposing amend- 
 ments of the tariff. The few elections which took place in 
 1891 did not indicate that the Republicans had regained the 
 ground lost the year before ; but they did show some recovery, 
 and gave the party reason to hope that it might succeed in the 
 coming contest. Ohio and Pennsylvania, in particular, gave 
 evidence of a reaction in favor of the Republican party. The 
 local elections in New York State, and the annual election in 
 Rhode Island, in the spring of 1892, were still more encour- 
 aging to them. Indeed, a peculiar situation developed itself 
 about a year before the presidential election. The active 
 politicians of both the great parties were opposed to the lead- 
 ing candidates. On the Democratic side they attributed the 
 loss of the election in 1888 to Mr. Cleveland's forcing the
 
 492 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 tariff issue ; and, although the popular judgment had seemed 
 to be reversed in 1890, they were still afraid to appeal to the 
 people for a fresh verdict on the question of protection or free 
 trade. Moreover, Mr. Cleveland himself was not and had 
 never been personally popular with the men who managed 
 caucuses and conventions. Most important of all, as it then 
 seemed, there was a factional division of the party in New 
 York, Governor David B. Hill was in control of the party 
 machinery. He was himself an avowed candidate for the 
 presidency. Rightly or wrongly, he was accused of having 
 defeated the Democratic electors in New York in 1888, while 
 securing his own election as governor. The electoral vote of 
 New York was deemed absolutely essential to success, and 
 great stress was laid upon the inexpediency of nominating foi 
 President a man who was represented to be foredoomed to 
 defeat in that State. 
 
 Mr. Harrison, on the other hand, had not gained popularity 
 in his own party, either with the politicians or with the com- 
 mon people. It was understood that there was friction be- 
 tween him and Mr. Blaine, his Secretary of State ; and Mr. 
 Blaine's, devoted partisans were, for that reason, against the 
 nomination of the President for a second term, without know- 
 ing the cause of unpleasantness nor the merits of the case. 
 The President had won the esteem of his party by his admin- 
 istration, but to himself he had attached no large body of 
 personal admirers and adherents. Nevertheless there was a 
 general expectation that he would be again a candidate. The 
 general sentiment of the party may be best described as one of 
 indifference. The rank and file of the party were not opposed 
 to Mr. Harrison, as were many of the leaders, nor were they 
 eager for his nomination for a second term. The opponents of 
 the President endeavored to take advantage of this condition of 
 the public mind, and organized to defeat him. They turned, 
 of course, to Mr. Blaine as the natural candidate in such cir- 
 cumstances. But that gentleman disconcerted them by writ- 
 ing a letter in February, 1892, announcing that he was not a 
 candidate. Had there been no other reason for the decision, 
 Mr. Blaine's health was seriously and permanently impaired. 
 His withdrawal from the field left the opponents of Mr. Har- 
 rison no man of sufficient strength and prominence to make 
 headway against him, and, although they continued to protest 
 against his nomination to the last, their defeat was inevitable.
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 493 
 
 The campaign opened with a startling event. On January 
 25, almost as soon as the call for the Democratic national 
 convention had been issued, the New York Democratic state 
 committee called the state convention to choose the delegates, 
 to meet on the 22d of February, — four full months before the 
 national convention. The hand of Governor Hill was seen 
 clearly in this action. The plan was, and it was subsequently 
 carried out, to choose a full delegation to Chicago pledged to 
 vote for Mr. Hill and to oppose Mr. Cleveland. A chorus of 
 indignant protest against the " snap convention " was raised at 
 once by Mr. Cleveland's friends, who organized, not to control 
 that convention, which would be hopeless while all the party 
 machinery was in the hands of the enemy, but to send another 
 delegation to Chicago representing, as they asserted, a majority 
 of the Democratic voters of the State. Those who joined in 
 this anti-Hill movement were known popularly as " anti- 
 snappers." 
 
 During the spring months the delegates to the several con- 
 ventions were chosen. On the Republican side the party 
 elections were largely in favor of General Harrison. Never- 
 theless, the number of uninstructed delegates was so large that 
 his success was by no means assured. The Democratic state 
 and district conventions were overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. 
 Cleveland. It was evident that, unless the Hill delegation 
 from 'New York could rule the national convention by fear, 
 Mr. Cleveland would receive far more than the necessary two 
 thirds on the first vote. 
 
 The convention period was a time of great excitement, 
 despite the fact which all could see, save those who would 
 not see, that the nominations were predetermined. In the 
 case of General Harrison, and equally so in the case of Mr. 
 Cleveland, determined and bitter antagonism was manifested 
 to the evident choice of a majority of delegates until the very 
 end. The opponents of the President endeavored to rally 
 around Mr. Blaine, but his letter declining to be a candidate 
 stood in the way of their success. Although he added nothing 
 to that letter and took nothing away from it, yet some of his 
 adherents declared that he would not refuse a nomination if 
 tendered to him. But others of his oldest and stanchest 
 friends, who had become partisans of Mr. Harrison, after Mr. 
 Blaine's withdrawal, insisted that the Secretary of State would 
 not and could not be a candidate. Three days before th©
 
 494 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 meeting of the Republican convention Mr. Blaine suddenly 
 resigned from the Cabinet. His act threw the whole country 
 into a condition of amazed and wondering bewilderment. 
 What did it mean ? Had the relations between the Presi- 
 dent and the Secretary become intolerable ? Had the Secre- 
 tary changed his intention not to be a candidate ? Had his 
 health at last broken down ? An authoritative answer to the 
 series of questions has never been given. Every one who 
 discussed it believed that the act of resignation and the time 
 chosen for it had a direct connection with the approach of the 
 time for the meeting of the national convention. But since 
 it was as easy to give the interpretation that Mr. Blaine pur- 
 posed retiring from public life, as to deem his purposed resig- 
 nation a mark of willingness again to enter the field, the 
 startling change in the situation gave no help to the opponents 
 of Mr. Harrison, nor did it concentrate their efforts upon an 
 attempt to nominate Mr. Blaine. It, simply added to the pre- 
 vailing confusion. 
 
 The Republican convention met at Minneapolis, June 7, 
 1892. Mr. J. Sloat Fassett, of New York, was the temporary 
 chairman, and Governor William KcKinley, Jr., of Ohio, the 
 permanent president. The drafting of the platform was a 
 difficult task, owing to the demands of the partisans of silver 
 money that the party should make a declaration in favor of 
 free coinage. This demand was resisted, and the " plank " 
 relating to the money question was a compromise. The plat- 
 form, reported and adopted on June 9, was as follows : — 
 
 The representatives of the Republicans of the United States, 
 assembled in general convention on the shores of the Mississippi 
 River, the everlasting bond of an indestructible republic, whose 
 most glorious chapter of history is the record of the Republican 
 party, congratulate their countrymen on the majestic march of 
 the nation under the banners inscribed with the principles of our 
 platform of 1888, vindicated by victory at the polls and prosperity 
 in our fields, workshops, and mines, and make the following decla- 
 ration of principles : — 
 
 We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call at- 
 tention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous 
 condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legisla- 
 tion of the Republican Congress. 
 
 We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the 
 United States, except luxuries, should be admitted free of duty, 
 and that on all imports coming into competition with the products
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 495 
 
 of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the dif- 
 ference between wages abroad and at home. 
 
 We assert that the prices of manufactured articles of general 
 consumption have been reduced under the operations of the Tariff 
 Act of 1890. 
 
 We denounce the efforts of the Democratic majority of the 
 House of Representatives to destroy our tariff laws piecemeal, as 
 is manifested by their attacks upon wool, lead and lead ores, the 
 chief products of a number of States, and we ask the people for 
 their judgment thereon. 
 
 We point to the success of the Republican policy of reciprocity, 
 under which our export tirade has vastly increased, and new and 
 enlarged markets have been opened for the products of our farms 
 and workshops. 
 
 We remind the people of the bitter opposition of the Demo- 
 cratic party to this practical business measure, and claim that, 
 executed by a Republican administration, our present laws will 
 eventually give us control of the trade of the world. 
 
 The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimet- 
 allism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold 
 and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under 
 such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the 
 maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the 
 purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, 
 gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the 
 producers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen, demand 
 that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the government, shall 
 be as good as any other. 
 
 We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our 
 government to secure an international conference to adopt such 
 measures as will insure a parity of value between gold and silver 
 for use as money throughout the world. 
 
 We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be 
 allowed to cast one free and unresti'icted ballot in all public elec- 
 tions, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast ; 
 that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to 
 every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or 
 black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the Constitution. The 
 free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation 
 of all the people, as weU as their just and equal protection under 
 the laws, are the foundation of our republican institutions, and 
 the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the 
 ballot and the purity of elections shall be fully guaranteed and 
 protected in every State. 
 
 We denounce the continued inhuman outrages perpetrated upon
 
 496 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 American citizens for political reasons in certain Southern States 
 of the Union. 
 
 We favor the extension of our foreign commerce, the restora- 
 tion of our mercantile marine by home-built ships, and the creation 
 of a navy for the protection of our national interests and the 
 honor of our flag ; the maintenance of the most friendly relations 
 with all foreign powers, entangling alliances with none, and the 
 protection of the rights of our fishermen. 
 
 We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe doctrine, and believe 
 in the achievement of the manifest destiny of the republic in its 
 broadest sense. 
 
 We favor the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations 
 for the restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration. 
 
 We favor efficient legislation by Congress to protect the life 
 and limbs of employees of transportation companies engaged in 
 carrying on interstate commerce, and recommend legislation by 
 the respective States that will protect employees engaged in state 
 commerce, in mining and manufacturing. 
 
 The Republican party has always been the champion of the 
 oppressed, and recognises the dignity of manhood, irrespective of 
 faith, color, or nationality ; it sympathizes with the cause of home 
 rule in Ireland, and protests against the persecution of the Jews 
 in Russia. 
 
 The ultimate reliance of free popular government is the intelli- 
 gence of the people and the maintenance of freedom among men. 
 We therefore declare anew our devotion to liberty of thought and 
 conscience, of speech and press, and approve all agencies and in- 
 strumentalities which contribute to the education of the children 
 of the land ; but, while insisting upon the fullest measure of reli- 
 gious liberty, we are opposed to any union of church and state. 
 
 We reaffirm our opposition, declared in the Republican platform 
 of 1888, to all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or other- 
 wise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citi- 
 zens. We heartily indorse the action already taken upon this 
 subject, and ask for such further legislation as may be required to 
 remedy any defects in existing laws, and to render their enforce- 
 ment more complete and effective. 
 
 We approve the policy of extending to towns, villages, and rural 
 communities the advantages of the fi'ee delivery service, now en- 
 joyed by the larger cities of the country, and reaffirm the declara- 
 tion contained in the Republican platform of 1888, pledging the 
 reduction of letter postage to one cent, at the earliest possible 
 moment consistent with the maintenance of the Post-office Depart- 
 ment, and the highest class of postal service. 
 
 We commend the spirit and evidence of reform in the civil ser-
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 497 
 
 vice, and the wise and consistent enforcement by the Republican 
 party of the laws regulating the same. 
 
 The construction of the Nicaragua Canal is of the highest im- 
 portance to the American people, both as a measure of national 
 defence and to build up and maintain American commerce, and it 
 should be controlled by the United States government. 
 
 We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the 
 earliest practical date, having due regard to the interests of the 
 people of the Territories and of the United States. All the fed- 
 eral officers appointed for the Territories should be selected from 
 bona fide residents thereof, and the right of self-government should 
 be accorded as far as practicable. 
 
 We favor cession, subject to the homestead laws, of the arid 
 public lands to the States and Territories in which they lie, under 
 such congressional restrictions as to disposition, reclamation, and 
 occupancy by settlers as will secure the maximum benefits to the 
 people. 
 
 The World's Columbian Exposition is a great national under- 
 taking, and Congress should promptly enact such reasonable legis- 
 lation in aid thereof as will ensure a discharge of the expenses and 
 obligations incident thereto, and the attainment of results com- 
 mensurate with the dignity and progress of the nation. 
 
 In temperance we sympathize with all wise and legitimate 
 efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and pro- 
 mote morality. 
 
 Ever mindful of the services and sacrifices of the men who 
 saved the life of the nation, we pledge anew to the veteran sol- 
 diers of the republic a watchful care and recognition of their just 
 claims upon a grateful people. 
 
 We commend the able, patriotic, and thoroughly American 
 administration of President Harrison. Under it the country has 
 enjoyed remarkable prosperity, and the dignity and honor of the 
 nation, at home and abroad, have been faithfully maintained, and 
 we offer the record of pledges kept as a guarantee of faithful per- 
 formance in the future. 
 
 President Harrison was nominated for reelection on the first 
 vote, June 10. The result of the polling was as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 905 
 
 Necessary for a choice 453 
 
 Benjamin Han-ison, Indiana 535^ 
 
 James G. Blaine, Maine 182^ 
 
 William McKinley, Jr., Ohio 182 
 
 Thomas B. Reed, Maine 4 
 
 Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois 1
 
 498 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The fractional votes here reported resulted from the division 
 of the voting power between contesting delegates in North 
 Carolina and Mississippi. In the one case the division was 
 into thirds, and in the other into halves of votes. The com- 
 bination of fractions caused an erroneous appearance of a more 
 minute division than really existed. 
 
 Whitelaw Eeid, of New York, was nominated for Vice- 
 President by acclamation. 
 
 The Democratic convention met at Chicago on June 21. 
 William C. Owens, of Kentucky, was the temporary chairman, 
 and William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, the permanent presi- 
 dent. The platform was reported on the evening of June 22. 
 As adopted it was as follows : — 
 
 Section 1. The representatives of the Democratic party of the 
 United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm their 
 allegiance to the principles of the party as formulated by Jeffer- 
 son, and exemplified by the long and illustrious line of his suc- 
 cessors in Democratic leadership, from Madison to Cleveland ; we 
 believe the public welfare demands that these principles be applied 
 to the conduct of the federal government through the accession 
 to power of the party that advocates them ; and we solemnly de- 
 clare that the need of a retm-n to these fundamental principles of 
 a free popular government, based on home rule and individual 
 liberty, was never more urgent than now, when the tendency to 
 centralize all power at the federal capital has become a menace 
 to the reserved rights of the States that strikes at the very roots of 
 our government under the Constitution as framed by the fathers 
 of the republic. 
 
 Sec. 2. We warn the people of our common country, jealous 
 for the preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of 
 federal control of elections to which the Republican party has 
 committed itself is fraught with the greatest dangers, scarcely 
 less momentous than would result from a revolution practically 
 establishing monarchy on the ruins of the republic. It strikes at 
 the North as well as the South, and injures the colored citizen 
 even more than the white. It means a horde of deputy marshals 
 at every polling-place armed with federal power, returning boards 
 appointed and controlled by federal authority, the outrage of the 
 electoral rights of the people in the several States, the subjugation 
 of the colored people to the control of the party in power, and 
 the reviving of race antagonisms now happily abated, of the ut- 
 most peril to the safety and happiness of all ; a measure deliber- 
 ately and justly described by a leading Republican senator as 
 *'the most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 499 
 
 Senate." Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the 
 dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarch}' of office-holders, and 
 the party first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged 
 from power only by an appeal to the reserved right of the people 
 to resist oppression, which is inherent in all self-governing com- 
 munities. Two years ago, this revolutionary policy was emphati- 
 cally condemned by the people at the polls ; but in contempt of 
 that verdict, the Republican party has defiantly declared in its 
 latest authoritative utterance that its success in the coming elec- 
 tions will mean the enactment of the Force bill, and the usurpation 
 of despotic control over elections in all the States. Believing that 
 the pi-eservation of republican government in the United States 
 is dependent upon the defeat of this policy of legalized force'and 
 fraud, we invite the support of all citizens who desire to see the 
 Constitution maintained in its integrity, with the laws pursuant 
 thereto, which have given our country a hundred years of unex- 
 ampled prosperity ; and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be 
 intrusted with power, not only to the defeat of the Force bill, but 
 also to relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate 
 expenditure, which in the short space of two years has squandered 
 an enormous surplus, and emptied an overflowing treasury, after 
 piling new burdens of taxation upon the already overtaxed labour 
 of the country. 
 
 Sec. 3. We denounce the Republican protection as a fraud, a 
 robbery of the great majority of the American people for the 
 benefit of the few. We declare it to be a fundamental princij>le 
 of the Democratic party that the federal government has no con- 
 stitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the 
 purposes of revenue only, and we demand that the collection of 
 such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the government 
 when honestly and economically administered. 
 
 We denounce the McKinley tariff law enacted by the Fifty-first 
 Congress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation ; we in- 
 dorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the present Congress 
 to modify its most oppressive features in the direction of free raw 
 materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter into general 
 consumption, and we promise its repeal as one of the beneficent 
 results that will follow the action of the people in intrusting power 
 to the Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into oper- 
 ation, there have been ten reductions of the wages of laboring men 
 to one increase. We deny that there has been any increase of 
 prosperity to the country since that tariff went into operation, 
 and we point to the dullness and distress, the wage reductions and 
 strikes in the iron trade, as the best possible evidence that no suck 
 prosperity has resulted from the McKinley Act.
 
 500 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact that, 
 after thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of 
 foreign wealth in exchange for our agricultural surplus, the homes 
 and farms of the country have become burdened with a real estate 
 mortgage debt of over $'2,500,000,000, exclusive of all other forms 
 of indebtedness ; that in one of the chief agricultural States of the 
 West, there appears a real estate mortgage debt averaging $165 
 per capita of the total population, and that similar conditions and 
 tendencies are shown to exist in the other agricultural exporting 
 States. We denounce a policy which fosters no industry so much 
 as it does that of the sheriff. 
 
 Sec. 4. Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal advantage 
 to the countries participating is a time-honored doctrine of the 
 Democratic faith; but we denounce the sham reciprocity which 
 juggles with the people's desire for enlarged foreign markets and 
 freer exchanges by pretending to establish closer trade relations 
 for a country whose articles of export are almost exclusively agri- 
 cultural products with other countries that are also agricultural, 
 while erecting a custom-house barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes 
 against the richest countries of the world, that stand ready to take 
 cm- entire surplus of products, and to exchange therefor commo- 
 dities which are necessaries and comforts of life among our own 
 people. 
 
 Sec. 5. We recognize, in the trusts and combinations which are 
 designed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of 
 the joint product of capital and labor, a natural consequence of the 
 prohibitive taxes which prevent the free competition which is 
 the life of honest trade, but we believe their worst evils can be 
 abated by law ; and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws 
 made to prevent and control them, together with such further 
 legislation in restraint of their abuses as experience may show to 
 be necessary. 
 
 Sec. 6. The Republican party, while professing a policy of re- 
 serving the public land for small holdings by actual settlers, has 
 given away the people's heritage, tiU now a few railroad and non- 
 resident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than 
 that of all our farms between the two seas. The last Democratic 
 administration reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the 
 Republican party touching the public domain, and reclaimed from 
 corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored to 
 the people, nearly 100,000,000 acres of valuable land, to be sacredly 
 held as homesteads for our citizens, and we pledge- ourselves to 
 continue this policy until every acre of land so unlawfully held 
 shall be reclaimed and restored to the people. 
 
 Sec. 7. We denounce the Republican legislation known as the
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 501 
 
 Sherman Act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift, fraught -with possi- 
 bilities of danger in the future which should make all of its sup- 
 porters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal. We 
 hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of 
 the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver without 
 discrimination against either metal or charge for mintage; but 
 the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic 
 and exchangeable value, or be adjusted through international 
 agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure 
 the maintenance of the parity of the two metals, and the equal 
 power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the pay- 
 ment of debts ; and we demand that all paper currency shall be 
 kept at par with and redeemable in such coin. We insist upon 
 this policy as especially necessary for the protection of the farmers 
 and laboring classes, the first and most defenceless victims of un- 
 stable money and a fluctuating currency. 
 
 Sec. 8. We recommend that the prohibitory ten per cent, tax on 
 state bank issues be repealed. 
 
 Sf-c. 9. Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the declara- 
 tion of the Democratic national convention of 1876 for the reform 
 of the civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all 
 laws regulating the same. The nomination of a President, as in 
 the recent Republican convention, by delegations composed largely 
 of his appointees, holding office at his pleasure, is a scandalous 
 satire upon free popular institutions, and a startling illustration 
 of the methods by which a President may gratify his ambition. 
 We denounce a policy under which federal office-holders usurp 
 control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the 
 Democratic party to the reform of these and all other abuses which 
 threaten individual liberty and local self-government. 
 
 Sec. 10. The Democratic party is the only party that has ever 
 given the country a foreign policy consistent and vigorous, com- 
 pelling respect abroad and inspiring confidence at home. While 
 avoiding entangling alliances, it has aimed to cultivate friendly 
 relations with other nations, and especially with our American 
 neighbors on the American continent whose destiny is closely 
 linked with our own, and we view with alarm the tendency to a 
 policy of irritation and bluster which is liable at any time to con- 
 front us with the alternative of humiliation or war. We favor the 
 maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national 
 defence, and to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the 
 country abroad. 
 
 Sec. 11. This country has always been the refuge of the op- 
 pressed from every land, — exiles for conscience' sake; and in the 
 spirit of the founders of our government, we condemn the oppres-
 
 502 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 sion practised by the Russian government upon its Lutheran and 
 Jewish subjects, and we call upon our national government, in the 
 interest of justice and humanity, by all just and proper means, to 
 vise its prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these 
 cruel persecutions in the dominions of the Czar, and to secure to 
 the oppressed equal rights. We tender our profound and earnest 
 sympathy to those lovers of freedom who are struggling for home 
 rule and the great cause of local self-government in Ireland. 
 
 Sec. 12. We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to prevent 
 the United States from being used as the dumping-ground for the 
 known criminals and professional paupers of Europe ; and we 
 demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immi- 
 gration, or the importation of foreign workmen under contract, to 
 degrade American labor and lessen its wages ; but we condemn 
 and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of 
 the industrious and worthy of foreign lands. 
 
 Sec. 13. This convention hereby renews the expression of appre- 
 ciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the Union 
 in the war for its preservation, and we favor just and liberal pen- 
 sions for aU disabled Union soldiers, their widows and dependents ; 
 but we demand that the work of the Pension office shall be done 
 industriously, impartially, and honestly. We denounce the present 
 administration of that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful, 
 and dishonest. 
 
 Sec. 14. The federal government should care for and improve 
 the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the republic, 
 so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transporta- 
 tion to the tidewater. When any waterway of the republic is of 
 sufficient importance to demand the aid of the government, such 
 aid should be extended for a definite plan of continuous work 
 until permanent improvement is secured. 
 
 Sec. 15. For purposes of national defence and the promotion of 
 commerce between the States, we i-ecognize the early construction 
 of the Nicaragua Canal, and its protection against foreign control, 
 as of great importance to the United States. 
 
 Sec. 16. Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a 
 national undertaking of vast importance, in which the general 
 government has invited the cooperation of all the powers of the 
 world, and appreciating the' acceptance by many of such powers 
 of the invitation extended, and the broadest liberal efforts being 
 made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, 
 we are of the opinion that Congress should make such necessary 
 financial provision as sliall be requisite to the maintenance of the 
 national honor and public faith. 
 
 Sec. 17. Popular education being the only safe basis of popular
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 503 
 
 Bitffrage, we recommend to the several States most liberal appro- 
 priations for the public schools. Free common schools are the 
 nursery of good government, and they have always received the 
 fostering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means 
 of increasing intelligence. Freedom of education, being an essen- 
 tial of civil and religious liberty as well as a necessity for the 
 development of intelligence, must not be interfered with under 
 any pretext whatever. We are opposed to state interference with 
 parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of chil- 
 dren, as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine 
 that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of 
 others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the 
 best government. 
 
 Sec. is. We approve the action of the present House of Repre- 
 sentatives in passing bills for the admission into the Union as 
 States of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we 
 favor the early admission of all the Territories having necessary 
 population and resources to admit them to Statehood ; and, while 
 they remain Territories, we hold that the officials appointed to 
 administer the government of any Territory, together with the 
 Districts of Columbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of 
 the Territory or District in which their duties are to be performed. 
 The Democratic party believes in home rule, and the control of 
 their own affairs by the people of the vicinage. 
 
 Sec. 19. We favor legislation by Congress and state legislatures 
 to protect the lives and limbs of railway employees, and those of 
 other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inac- 
 tivity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican 
 Senate, for caiising the defeat of measures beneficial and protec- 
 tive to this class of wage-workers. 
 
 Sec. 20. We are in favor of the enactment by the States of laws 
 for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing con- 
 tract convict labor, and for prohibiting the employment in facto- 
 ries of children under fifteen years of age. 
 
 Sec. 21. We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an interfer- 
 ence with the individual rights of the citizen. 
 
 Sec. 22. Upon this statement of principles and policies, the 
 Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the American 
 people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party 
 in order that there may be a change of system and a change of 
 methods, thus assuring the maintenance unimpaired of institu- 
 tions under which the republic has grown great and powerfiil. 
 
 The platform as originally reported contained, instead of 
 the first paragraph of Section 3 above, the following : —
 
 504 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 We reiterate the oft-repeated doctrines of the Democratic party 
 that the necessity of the government is the only justification for 
 taxation, and whenever a tax is unnecessary it is unjustifiable; 
 that when custom-house taxation is levied upon articles of any 
 kind produced in this country, the difference between the cost of 
 labor here and labor abroad, when such a difference exists, fully 
 measures any possible benefits to labor ; and the enormous addi- 
 tiontwl impositions of the existing tariff fall with crushing force 
 upon our farmers and workingmen, and, for the mere advantage 
 of the few whom it enriches, exact from labor a grossly unjust 
 share of the expenses of the government ; and we demand such a 
 revision of the tariff laws as will remove their iniquitous inequali- 
 ties, lighten their oppressions, and put them on a constitutional 
 and equitable basis. But in making reduction in taxes, it is not 
 •oroposed to injm-e any domestic industries, but rather to promote 
 their healthy growth. From the foundation of this government, 
 taxes collected at the custom-house have been the chief source 
 of federal revenue. Such they must continue to be. Moreover, 
 many industries have come to rely upon legislation for successful 
 continuance, so that any change of law must be at every step re- 
 gardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process of 
 reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of 
 justice. 
 
 There had been a prolonged struggle, at a meeting of the 
 committee on resolutions, over the tariff " plank." The para- 
 graph just recited was, it will be perceived, an echo of the 
 tariff plank of 1884, with an implied promise to the " pro- 
 tected industries " that there should be no sweeping reduction 
 of duties to destroy their business. It was so far less aggres- 
 sive than the attitude of the party during the preceding six 
 years warranted as to seem like a complete change of front on 
 the tariff question. The radical tariff reformers, defeated in 
 committee, carried the contest into the convention, and on a 
 motion from the floor the paragraph was struck out, and the 
 paragraph printed in the platform was substituted, by a vote 
 of yeas 564, nays 342. An excited debate preceded the vote. 
 An impassioned appeal to the members to avow openly their 
 real opinions was received with applause, and cEtrried the day. 
 
 After the adoption of the platform, at a late hour in the 
 evening, the convention proceeded at once to the work of 
 nominating a candidate for President. Grover Cleveland was 
 nominated on the first vote. The result of the polling was as 
 follows : —
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 505 
 
 Whole number of votes - 909^ 
 
 Necessary for a choice (two thirds) 607 
 
 Grover Cleveland, New York 617|^ 
 
 David B. Hill, New York 114 
 
 Horace Boies, Iowa 103 
 
 Arthur P. Gorman, Maryland 36^ 
 
 Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois 16| 
 
 John G. Carlisle, Kentucky 14 
 
 William R. Morrison, Illinois 3 
 
 James E. Campbell, Ohio 2 
 
 William C. Whitney, New York 1 
 
 William E. Russell, Massachusetts 1 
 
 Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania 1 
 
 The nomination of a candidate for Vice-President was post- 
 poned until the following day, when the polling resulted as 
 follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 909 
 
 Necessary for a choice (two thirds) 606 
 
 Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois 402 
 
 Isaac P. Gray, Indiana 343 
 
 Allen B. Morse, Michigan 86 
 
 John L. Mitchell, Wisconsin 45 
 
 Henry Watterson, Kentucky 26 
 
 Bourke Cockran, New York 5 
 
 Lambert Tree, Illinois 1 
 
 Horace Boies, Iowa : . . 1 
 
 A motion was then made and adopted that Adlai E. Steven- 
 son, of Illinois, be the candidate for Vice-President. 
 
 The National Prohibition party held its convention at Cin- 
 cinnati, beginning on June 29. John P. St. John, of Kansas, 
 was the temporary chairman, and Eli Eitter, of Indiana, the 
 permanent president. The convention was in session only two 
 days. The platform as originally reported by the committee 
 on resolutions was as follows: — 
 
 The Prohibition party, in National Convention assembled, ac- 
 knowledging Almighty God as the source of all true government, 
 and his law as the standard to which all human enactments must 
 conform to secure the blessings of peace and prosperity, presents 
 the following declaration of principles : — 
 
 1. The liquor traffic is a foe to civilization, the arch enemy of 
 popular government, and a public nuisance. It is the citadel of 
 the forces that corrupt politics, promote poverty and crime, de- 
 grade the nation's home life, thwart the will of the people, and
 
 506 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 deliver our country into the hands of rapacious class interests. 
 All laws that, under the guise of regulation, legalize and protect 
 this traffic, or make the government share in its ill-gotten gains, 
 are " vicious in principle and powerless as a remedy." 
 
 We declare anew for the entire suppression of the manufac- 
 ture, sale, importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic 
 liquors as a beverage, by federal and state legislation ; and the 
 full powers of the government should be exerted to secui'e this 
 result. Any party that fails to recognize the dominant nature of 
 this issue in American politics is undeserving of the support of 
 the people. 
 
 2. No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of 
 sex, and equal labor should receive equal wages, without regard to 
 sex. 
 
 3. The money of the country should be gold, silver, and paper, 
 and be issued by the general government only, and in sufficient 
 quantities to meet the demands of business and give full opportu- 
 nity for the employment of labor. To this end an increase in the 
 volume of money is demanded, and no individual or corporation 
 should be allowed to make any profit through its issue. It should 
 be made a legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and 
 private. Its volume should be fixed at a definite sum per capita, 
 and made to increase with our increase in population. 
 
 4. We favor the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold. 
 
 5. Tariffs should be levied only as a defence against foreign 
 governments which put tariffs upon or bar our products from their 
 markets, revenue being incidental. The residue of means neces- 
 sary to an economical administration of the government should 
 be raised by levying a burden on what the people possess instead 
 of upon what we consume. 
 
 6. Railroad, telegraph, and other public corporations should be 
 controlled by the government in the interest of the people, and no 
 higher charges allowed than necessary to give fair interest on the 
 capital actually invested. 
 
 7. Foreign immigration has become a burden upon industry, 
 one of the factors in depressing wages and causing discontent ; 
 therefore our immigration laws should be revised and strictly 
 enforced. The time of residence for naturalization should be 
 extended, and no naturalized person should be allowed to vote 
 until one year after he becomes a citizen. 
 
 8. Non-resident aliens should not be allowed to acquire land in 
 this country, and we favor the limitation of individual and corpo- 
 rate ownership of land. All unearned grants of lands to railroad 
 companies or other corporations should be reclaimed. 
 
 9. Years of inaction and treachery on the part of the Republican
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOXD ELECTION 507 
 
 and Democratic parties have resulted in the present reign of mob 
 law, and we demand that every citizen be protected in the right of 
 trial by constitutional tribunals. 
 
 10. All men should be protected by law in their right to one 
 day's rest in seven. 
 
 11. Arbitration is the wisest and most economical and humane 
 method of settling national differences. 
 
 12. Speculations in margins, the cornering of grain, money, and 
 products, and the formation of pools, trusts, and combinations for 
 the arbitrary advancement of prices, should be suppressed. 
 
 13. We pledge that the Prohibition party if elected to power 
 will ever grant just pensions to disabled veterans of the Union 
 army and navy, their widows and orphans. 
 
 14. We stand unequivocally for the American public school, 
 and opposed to any appropriation of public moneys for sectarian 
 schools. We declare that only by united support of such common 
 schools, taught in the English language, can we hope to become 
 and remain an homogeneous and harmonious people. 
 
 15. We arraign the Republican and Democratic parties as 
 false to the standards reared by their founders ; as faithless to the 
 pi'inciples of the illustrious leaders of the past to whom they do 
 homage with the lips ; as recreant to the " higher law," which is 
 as inflexible in political affairs as in personal life ; and as no longer 
 embodying the aspirations of the American people, or inviting the 
 confidence of enlightened, progressive patriotism. Their protests 
 against the admission of " moral issues " into politics is a confes- 
 sion of their own moral degeneracy. The declaration of an emi- 
 nent authority, that municipal misrule is " the one conspicuous 
 failure of American politics," follows as a natui-al consequence of 
 such degeneracy, and is true alike of cities under Republican and 
 Democratic control. Each accuses the other of extravagance in 
 Congressional appropriations, and both are alike guilty ; each pro- 
 tests when out of power against the infraction of the civil service 
 laws, and each when in power violates those laws in letter and 
 spirit ; each professes fealty to the interests of the toiling masses, 
 but both covertly truckle to the money power in their administra- 
 tion of public affairs. Even the tariff issue, as represented in the 
 Democratic Mills bill and the Republican McKinley biU, is no 
 longer treated by them as an issue upon great and divergent prin- 
 ciples of government, but is a mere catering to different sectional 
 and class interests. The attempt in many States to wrest the 
 Australian ballot system from its true purpose, and to so de- 
 form it as to render it extremely difficult for new parties to exer- 
 cise the rights of suffrage, is an outrage upon popular government. 
 The competition of both the parties for the vote of the slums, and
 
 508 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 their assiduous courting of the liquor power and subserviency to 
 the money power, have resulted in placing those powers in the 
 position of practical arbiters of the destinies of the nation. We 
 renew our protest against these perilous tendencies, and invite aU 
 citizens to join us in the upbuilding of a party that, as shown in 
 five national campaigns, prefers temporary defeat to an abandon- 
 ment of the claims of justice, sobriety, personal rights, and the 
 protection of American homes. 
 
 A minority of the committee presented substitutes for the 
 financial and the tariff planks of the platform, and also offered 
 an additional resolution, which was ultimately adopted. The 
 platform as printed above was adopted, except the fourth reso- 
 lution, relating to the free coinage of silver, which was de- 
 feated by a vote of 696 to 335. The additional resolution 
 referred to was as follows : — 
 
 Recognizing and declaring that prohibition of the liquor traflBc 
 has become the dominant issue in national politics, we invite to full 
 party fellowship all those who on this one dominant issue are with 
 us agreed, in the full belief that this party can and will remove 
 sectional differences, promote nationality, and insure the best wel- 
 fare of our entire land. 
 
 John Bidwell, of California, was nominated for President. 
 The first and only vote was as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 911 
 
 Necessary for a choice 456 
 
 John Bidwell, California 590 
 
 Gideon T. Stewart, Ohio 179 
 
 W. Jennings Demorest, New York 139 
 
 Bascom 3 
 
 J. B. Cranfill, of Texas, was nominated for Vice-President 
 by the following vote : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 811 
 
 Necessary for a choice 406 
 
 J. B. Cranfill, Texas 417 
 
 Joshua Levering, Maryland 351 
 
 W. W. Satterly, Minnesota 26 
 
 Thomas R. Carskodon, West Virginia 19 
 
 The first national convention of the " People's party " was 
 held at Omaha, on July 2. C. H. Ellington, of Georgia, was 
 the temporary chairman, and H. L. Loucks, of South Dakota, 
 the permanent president. The platform, reported and adopted 
 on July 4, was as follows : —
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 509 
 
 Assembled upon the 116th anniversary of the Declaration of 
 Independence, the People's party of America, in their first na- 
 tional convention, invoking upon their action the blessing of Al- 
 mighty God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf of the people 
 of this country, the following preamble and declaration of prin- 
 ciples : — 
 
 The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation : 
 we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, 
 political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, 
 the legislature, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the 
 bench. The people are demoralized ; most of the States have 
 been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling-places to pre- 
 vent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are 
 largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business 
 prostrated ; our homes covered with mortgages ; labor impover- 
 ished ; and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. 
 The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self- 
 protection ; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages ; a 
 hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established 
 to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into Euro- 
 pean conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly 
 stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in 
 the history of mankind ; and the possessors of these, in turn, de- 
 spise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific 
 womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes of 
 tramps and millionaires. 
 
 The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich 
 bondholders ; a vast public debt, payable in legal tender currency, 
 has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions 
 to the burdens of the people. Silver, which has been accepted as 
 coin since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to 
 the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms 
 of property as well as human labor ; and the supply of currency is 
 purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise, and 
 enslave industry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been 
 organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of 
 the world. If not met and overthrown at once, it forebodes terri- 
 ble social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the estab- 
 lishment of an absolute despotism. 
 
 We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the 
 struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, 
 while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering 
 people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating 
 both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful condition 
 to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them.
 
 510 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They 
 have agreed together to ignore in the campaign every issue but 
 one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people 
 with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, 
 corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the de- 
 monetization of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers may all 
 be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and 
 childi-en on the altar of mammon; to destroy the multitude in 
 order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires. 
 
 Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation, 
 and filled with the spirit of the grand general chief who established 
 oiir independence, we seek to restore the government of the Re- 
 public to the hands of "the plain people," with whose class it 
 originated. We assert our purposes to be identical with the pur- 
 poses of the National Constitution, " to form a more perfect union 
 and establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
 common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
 blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity." We declare 
 that this republic can only endure as a free government while 
 built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the 
 nation ; that it cannot be pinned together by bayonets ; that the 
 civil war is over, and that every passion and resentment which 
 grew out of it must die with it ; and that we must be in fact, as we 
 are in name, one united brotherhood of freemen. 
 
 Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which 
 there is no precedent in the history of the world : our annual agri- 
 cidtural productions amount to billions of dollars in value, which 
 must, within a few weeks or months, be exchanged for billions of 
 dollars of commodities consumed in their production ; the existing 
 currency supply is wholly inadequate to make this exchange ; the 
 results are falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, 
 the impoverishment of the producing class. We pledge ourselves, 
 if given power, we will labor to correct these evils by wise and 
 reasonable legislation, in accordance with the terms of our plat- 
 form. We believe that the powers of government — in other 
 words, of the people — should be expanded (as in the case of the 
 postal service) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intel- 
 ligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the 
 end that oppression, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease 
 in the land. 
 
 While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon 
 the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelli- 
 gent, virtuous, and temperate, we nevertheless regard these ques- 
 tions — important as they are — as secondary to the great issues 
 now pressing for solution, and upon which not only our individual
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 511 
 
 prosperity but the very existence of free institutions depends ; and 
 we ask all men to first help us to determine whether we are to 
 have a republic to administer before we differ as to the conditions 
 upon which it is to be administered ; believing that the forces of 
 reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until 
 every wrong is remedied, and equal rights and equal privileges 
 securely established for all the men and women of this country. 
 
 We declare, therefore, — 
 
 First. That the union of the labor forces of the United States 
 this day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual ; may its 
 spirit enter all hearts for the salvation of the republic and the 
 uplifting of mankind ! 
 
 Second. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar 
 taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery. " If any 
 will not work, neither shall he eat." The interests of rural and 
 civic labor are the same ; their enemies are identical. 
 
 Third. We believe that the time has come when the railroad 
 corporations will either own the people or the people must own 
 the railroads ; and, should the government enter upon the work of 
 owning and managing all railroads, we should favor an amend- 
 ment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in the gov- 
 ernment service shall be placed under a civil service regulation of 
 the most rigid character, so as to prevent the increase of the power 
 of the national administration by the use of such additional gov- 
 ernment employees. 
 
 We demand, — 
 
 First, A national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by 
 the general government only, a full legal tender for all debts, 
 public and private, and that, without the use of banking corpora- 
 tions, a just, eqviitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to 
 the people, at a tax not to exceed two per cent, per annum, to be 
 provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' 
 Alliance, or a better system ; also, by payments in discharge of its 
 obligations for public improvements. 
 
 (a) We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold 
 at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one. 
 
 (b) We demand that the amount of circulating medium be 
 speedily increased to not less than fifty dollars per capita. 
 
 (c) We demand a graduated income tax. 
 
 (rf) We believe that the money of the country should be kept 
 as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we de- 
 mand that aU state and national revenues shall be limited to the 
 necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly 
 administered. 
 
 (e) We demand that postal savings banks be established by the
 
 512 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and 
 to facilitate exchange. 
 
 Second, Transportation. Transportation being a means of ex- 
 change and a public necessity, the government should own and 
 operate the .railroads in the interest of the people. 
 
 (a) The telegraph and telephone, like the post-oflBice system, 
 being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned 
 and operated by the government in the interest of the people. 
 
 Third, Land. The land, including all the natural sources of 
 wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopo- 
 lized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should 
 be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other corpora- 
 tions in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by 
 aliens, should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual 
 settlers only. 
 
 Subsequently the committee on resolutions made a supple- 
 mentary report, submitting a series of resolutions which it was 
 explained are not to be regarded as a part of the party platform, 
 but as expressive of the opinion of the party, as follows : — 
 
 Whereas, Other questions have been presented for our considera- 
 tion, we hereby submit the following, not as a part of the platform 
 of the People's party, but as resolutions expressive of the senti- 
 ment of this convention. 
 
 1. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in 
 all elections, and pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter 
 without federal intervention, through the adoption by the States 
 of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system. 
 
 2. Resolved, That the revenue derived from a graduated income 
 tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation 
 now resting upon the domestic industries of this country. 
 
 3. Resolved, That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pen- 
 sions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors. 
 
 4. Resolved, That we condemn the fallacy of protecting Ameri- 
 can labor iinder the present system, which opens our ports to the 
 pauper and criminal classes of the world, and crowds out our wage- 
 earners; and we denounce the present ineffective laws against con- 
 tract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable 
 immigration. 
 
 5. Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of 
 organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor, and demand 
 a rigid enforcement of the existing eight-hour law on government 
 work, and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law. 
 
 6. Resolved, That we regard the maintenance of a large stand- 
 ing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 513 
 
 menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition; and we 
 condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the 
 hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by federal officials. 
 
 7. Resolved, That we commend to the favorable consideration 
 of the people and the reform press the legislative system known 
 as the initiative and referendum. 
 
 8. Resolved, That we favor a constitutional provision limiting 
 the office of President and Vice-President to one term, and pro- 
 viding for the election of senators of the United States by a direct 
 vote of the people. 
 
 9. Resolved, That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any 
 private corporation for any purpose. 
 
 General James B. Weaver, of Iowa, was nominated for Pre- 
 sident. The vote stood: — 
 
 Whole number of votes 1263 
 
 Necessary for a choice 632 
 
 James B. Weaver, Iowa 995 
 
 James H. Kyle, South Dakota 265 
 
 Mann Page, Virginia 1 
 
 Leland Stanford, California 1 
 
 Norton 1 
 
 For Vice-President, James G. Field, of Virginia, was nomi- 
 nated. The vote was as follows : — 
 
 T\Tiole number of votes 1287 
 
 Necessary for a choice 644 
 
 James G. Field, Virginia 733 
 
 Ben. S. Terrell, Texas 554 
 
 The representation in this convention was irregular, as may 
 be seen from the fact that Texas cast 60 votes, New York 59, 
 Pennsylvania 21, Massachusetts 28, Illinois 83, and North 
 Dakota 25. 
 
 A Socialist Labor convention was held at New York on 
 August 28, by which Simon Wing, of Massachusetts, was 
 nominated for President, and Charles H. Matchett, of New 
 York, for Vice-President. The following platform was 
 adopted : — 
 
 Social Demands: 1. Reduction of the hours of labor in propor- 
 tion to the progress of production. 
 
 2. The United States shall obtain possession of the railroads, 
 canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means of public trans- 
 portation and communication. 
 
 3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads,
 
 514 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ferries, water-works, gas-works, electric plants, and all industries 
 requiring municipal franchises. 
 
 4. The public lands to be declared inalienable. Revocation of 
 ail land grants to corporations or individuals, the conditions of 
 which have not been complied with. 
 
 5. Legal incorporation by the States of local trade unions which 
 have no national organization. 
 
 6. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money. 
 
 7. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific manage- 
 ment of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste of the 
 natural resources of the country. 
 
 8. Inventions to be free to all ; the inventors to be remunerated 
 by the nation. 
 
 9. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances ; the smaller 
 incomes to be exempt. 
 
 10. School education of all children under fourteen years of age 
 to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by public assist- 
 ance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where necessary. 
 
 11. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary laws. 
 Unabridged right of combination. 
 
 12. Official statistics concerning the condition of labor. Prohi- 
 bition of the employment of children of school age, and of the em- 
 ployment of female labor in occupations detrimental to health or 
 morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract system. 
 
 13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States. 
 Equalization of women's wages with those of men where equal 
 service is performed. 
 
 14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations, 
 and an efficient employers' liability law. 
 
 Political Demands : 1. The people to have the right to propose 
 laws and to vote upon all measures of importance, according to 
 the referendum principle. 
 
 2. Abolition of the Presidency, Vice-Presidency, and Senate of 
 the United States. An Executive Board to be established, whose 
 members are to be elected, and may at any time be recalled, by 
 the House of Representatives, as the only legislative body. The 
 States and municipalities to adopt corresponding amendments to 
 their constitutions and statutes. 
 
 3. Municipal self-government. 
 
 4. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections. Universal and 
 equal right of suffrage, without regard to color, creed, or sex. 
 Election days to be legal holidays. The principle of minority 
 representation to be introduced. 
 
 5. All public officers to be subject to recall by their respective 
 constituencies.
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 515 
 
 6. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United States. 
 Administration of justice to be free of charge. Abolition of capital 
 punishment. 
 
 The canvass developed few features of special interest. The 
 result seemed to be in doubt, and both parties were hopeful. 
 The opposition which had existed, prior to the conventions, to 
 the President and the ex-President, the candidates of their re- 
 spective parties, disappeared for the most part. The Republi- 
 cans had been placed in a minority by the disaster of 1890 ; 
 but their leaders, their orators, their journalists, and the rank 
 and file of the party made no doubt that the defection was 
 temporary. The ticket did not arouse great enthusiasm ; but 
 the Republicans built great hopes upon the situation of the 
 Democrats in New York. There seemed to be an irreparable 
 breach in that State. An eloquent advocate of the nomination 
 of Governor Hill had said, in a speech before the Democratic 
 convention at Chicago, that Mr. Cleveland could not carry 
 New York. Tammany Hall protested its loyalty to the ticket ; 
 but the " anti-snapper " wing of the party feared, and the Re- 
 publicans hoped, that the protestations were insincere. An 
 element of humor was imparted to the canvass in New York 
 by an ostentatiously disingenuous attempt on the part of those 
 Democrats who did not subscribe to the free-trade plank in 
 the platform to make it appear that " negro domination " would 
 ensue upon the success of the Republicans. The New York 
 " Sun," which disliked Mr. Cleveland almost beyond its by no 
 means deficient power of expression, made " No Force Bill ! " 
 its campaign cry, to excuse its support of the Democratic can- 
 didate. 
 
 The growth of the Populist party in the West and in some 
 parts of the South led to coalitions which render an exact divi- 
 sion of the votes among the several parties quite impossible. 
 In five States — Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, and 
 Wyoming — the Democrats nominated no electors, but voted 
 for the Populist candidates. It was deemed possible that 
 neither party might secure a majority of electors. In that 
 case the election of President would devolve upon the House 
 of Representatives already chosen, in which the Democrats con- 
 trolled a large majority of the state delegations. Consequently, 
 for their purposes, a defeat of the Republicans, by the suc- 
 cess of the Populists in a few of the States, was as serviceable 
 as the election of a full majority of Democratic electors. In
 
 516 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Nevada the Democrats nominated an electoral ticket, but almost 
 the whole voting strength of the party was given to the Popu- 
 lists. In Oregon one of the four Populist electors was placed 
 on the Democratic ticket. In Minnesota there was a fusion of 
 Democrats and Populists on four candidates for electors. The 
 members of each party voted for their own candidates for the 
 other five electors. In the South the alliances of the Populists 
 were with Republicans. The fusion in Alabama was incom- 
 plete, but in Louisiana the electoral ticket was divided between 
 the two parties, — four electors for each party. This fusion 
 explains why the popular vote in Louisiana for Harrison and 
 for Weaver, in the following table, is substantially the same. 
 The vote for the fusion electors was 26,563. An independent 
 electoral ticket, by the so-called " Lily White " faction of the 
 Republican party of Texas, received 3,969 votes. 
 
 Still another complication was introduced at this election 
 by the action of the Democratic legislature of Michigan chosen 
 in the " landslide " year, 1890. An act was passed by that 
 legislature reestablishing the system of choosing electors by 
 districts. Maryland, the last State to cling to this method, 
 had abandoned it in 1836. It was a device, in the case of 
 Michigan, to enable a party which was conscious of being in 
 a minority to secure a few electors. The constitutionality of 
 the measure was attacked ; but it was clearly within the power 
 of the legislature to pass the act, and the Supreme Court of 
 Michigan so decided. 
 
 The result of the election was a great surprise to men of all 
 parties. Kot only was the South " solid " once more for the 
 Democratic candidates, not only did all the usually doubtful 
 States support Mr. Cleveland by large majorities, but Illinois, 
 Wisconsin, and California were drawn into the Democratic 
 ranks. Even Ohio, which had not given an electoral vote to 
 a Democrat since there had been a Republican party, was so 
 closely divided that one Cleveland elector slipped in. The 
 fusion against the Republicans was successful in Colorado, 
 Idaho, Kansas, and Nevada, It was partially successful in 
 North Dakota and Oregon. The popular vote for the several 
 candidates is given in the following table, as nearly as it can be 
 stated, but the " official returns " vary so greatly as to render 
 absolute accuracy impossible. The appended figures are made 
 up by a careful comparison of several sets of " official " returns, 
 and a choice of those that seem most trustworthy. It should
 
 CLEVELAND'S SECOND ELECTION 
 
 517 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Electoral 
 
 
 
 Popular Vote. 
 
 
 
 Vote. 
 
 States. 
 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 
 _r a 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 9 M 
 
 1' 
 
 .0 
 
 a 
 
 
 fe o 
 
 5" 
 
 u-9 
 a " 
 
 g 
 
 u 
 
 .2 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 U 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 
 hi 
 
 O 
 
 n 
 
 "^ 
 
 4 
 
 !» 
 
 3 
 11 
 
 n 
 
 
 Alabama .... 
 
 138,138 
 
 9,197 
 
 85,181 
 
 239 
 
 
 
 Arkansas . . 
 
 
 
 87,834 
 
 46,884 
 
 11,831 
 
 113 
 
 . - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 California . 
 
 
 
 117,908 
 
 117,618 
 
 25,226 
 
 8,056 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 Colorado . . 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 38,620 
 
 53,584 
 
 1,638 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 
 82,395 
 
 77,02.5 
 
 806 
 
 4,025 
 
 329 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Delaware 
 
 
 
 18,581 
 
 18,083 
 
 13 
 
 565 
 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Florida . . 
 
 
 
 30,143 
 
 - 
 
 4,843 
 
 475 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia 
 
 
 
 
 129,361 
 
 48,305 
 
 42,937 
 
 988 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Idaho . 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 8,599 
 
 10,520 
 
 288 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 Illinois 
 
 
 
 
 426,281 
 
 399,288 
 
 22,207 
 
 25,870 
 
 - 
 
 24 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Indiana 
 
 
 
 
 262,740 
 
 255,615 
 
 22,208 
 
 13,050 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Iowa . 
 
 
 
 
 196,367 
 
 219,795 
 
 20,595 
 
 6,402 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 Kansas 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 157,237 
 
 163,111 
 
 4,539 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 
 175,461 
 
 135,441 
 
 23,500 
 
 6,442 
 
 - 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 
 
 87,922 
 
 13,281 
 
 13,282 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 
 
 48,044 
 
 62,931 
 
 2,381 
 
 3,062 
 
 336 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Maryland 
 
 
 
 113,866 
 
 92,736 
 
 796 
 
 5,877 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 176,813 
 
 202,814 
 
 3,210 
 
 1,539 
 
 649 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan . . 
 
 
 
 202,296 
 
 222,708 
 
 19,892 
 
 14,069 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 3, 
 
 - 
 
 Minnesota . 
 
 
 
 100,920 
 
 122,823 
 
 29,313 
 
 12,182 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9* 
 
 ^ 
 
 Mississippi . 
 
 
 
 40,237 
 
 1,406 
 
 10,256 
 
 910 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 
 
 268,398 ' 
 
 226,918 
 
 41,213 
 
 4,331 
 
 - 
 
 17 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Montana . . 
 
 
 
 17,581 
 
 18,851 
 
 7,334 
 
 549 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 
 
 24,943 
 
 87,227 
 
 83,134 
 
 4,902 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 Nevada . . 
 
 
 
 714 
 
 2,811 
 
 7,264 
 
 89 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 
 42,081 
 
 45,658 
 
 292 
 
 1,297 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 
 171,042 
 
 156.068 
 
 969 
 
 8,131 
 
 1,337 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 New York . 
 
 
 
 654,868 
 
 609,350 
 
 16,429 
 
 38,190 
 
 17,956 
 
 36 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 132,951 
 
 100,342 
 
 44,736 
 
 2,636 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 North DakoU 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 17,519 
 
 17,700 
 
 899 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Ohio . . . 
 
 
 
 404,115 
 
 405,187 
 
 14,850 
 
 26,012 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 - 
 
 Oregon . . 
 
 
 
 14,243 
 
 35,002 
 
 26,965 
 
 2,281 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 452,264 
 
 516,011 
 
 t.8,714 
 
 25,123 
 
 898 
 
 - 
 
 32 
 
 - 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 
 24,335 
 
 26,972 
 
 228 
 
 1,654 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 
 54,692 
 
 13,345 
 
 2,407 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 
 
 9,081 
 
 34,888 
 
 26,544 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Tennessee . 
 
 
 
 138,874 
 
 100,331 
 
 23,447 
 
 4,851 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Texas . . . 
 
 
 
 239,148 
 
 81,444 
 
 99,688 
 
 2,165 
 
 - 
 
 15 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 
 16,325 
 
 37,992 
 
 43 
 
 1,415 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 
 163,977 
 
 113,262 
 
 12,275 
 
 2,738 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Washington . 
 
 
 
 29,802 
 
 36,460 
 
 19,165 
 
 2,542 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 
 84,467 
 
 80,293 
 
 4,166 
 
 2,145 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Wisconsin . 
 
 
 
 177,335 
 
 170,791 
 
 9,909 
 
 13,132 
 
 - 
 
 12 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Wyoming 
 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 8,454 
 
 7,722 
 
 530 
 
 ~ 
 
 277 
 
 3 
 145 
 
 ~ 
 
 Totol 
 
 5,556,543 
 
 5,175,582 
 
 1,040,886 
 
 255,841 
 
 21,532 
 
 22 
 
 be borne in mind that the Populist vote is overstated, and the 
 Democratic vote understated, by reason of the alliances just 
 mentioned.
 
 518 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Forty-four States participated in the election, six new States 
 having been admitted since the previous election, — North and 
 South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming. 
 In all the States, electors were chosen by popular vote ; in all, 
 save Michigan, on a general ticket. The popular and electoral 
 votes are included in the same table. 
 
 The count of the electoral vote took place on February 8, 
 1893. The proceedings of 1889 were followed exactly. No 
 incident occurred to enliven the occasion more important than 
 a round of Democratic applause when the vote of Illinois was 
 announced.
 
 XXXI 
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 
 
 The four years which cover the second term of Grover 
 Cleveland may be characterized as the most momentous period, 
 in a time of peace, in the history of the country, and as the 
 most interesting, from a political point of vievr, in either war 
 or peace. The prominence assumed by our foreign relations 
 would alone have distinguished it from preceding adminis- 
 trations ; and yet the diplomatic questions that confronted 
 us, although important, far-reaching, and exciting, became 
 almost insignificant in comparison with the domestic problems 
 and conditions with which public men had to deal. An 
 attempt which, since it was but partially successful, was not 
 successful at all, to introduce a new principle in the levy of 
 import duties ; a steady and large deficit in the revenue, not 
 corrected by additional taxation ; a currency hopelessly dis- 
 ordered, while no party was strong enough either to restore it 
 to soundness or to introduce a new element of confusion ; com- 
 mercial disaster and private distress, manifesting itself in 
 demonstrations that always excited apprehension, and in some 
 cases lapsed into lawlessness which the local authorities could 
 not or would not suppress, — such, in brief, were the evil con- 
 divions that prevailed during that eventful period. It was a 
 time full of surprises, the last and greatest of which was the 
 sudden rise, to an issue of overwhelming importance and in- 
 terest, of a question that had troubled the peace of American 
 politicians for twenty years, but had previously been dallied 
 with and avoided, never met squarely and with courage. 
 
 At the very beginning of the administration the President 
 signified his disagreement with his predecessor on a question 
 of foreign policy by withdrawing from consideration by the 
 Senate the treaty for the annexation of Hawaii. The position 
 ultimately taken by the new administration was that the revo- 
 lution in the island kingdom had been accomplished by an 
 improper use of the armed forces of the United States, and
 
 520 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 that the wrong should be righted by a restoration of the queen 
 to her throne. Upon the question of fact on which the policy 
 was based there was an exceedingly warm controversy; yet 
 there can be little doubt that, whatever opinion men held as 
 to the conduct of our minister at Honolulu, the restoration of 
 a monarchy by the armed intervention, or under the protecting 
 authority, of the United States was repugnant to the general 
 sentiment of the people. 
 
 The vigorous interference of the government in the difficulty 
 between Great Britain and Venezula was the most dramatic 
 passage in our recent diplomatic history. When it seemed 
 certain that England would put an end to the dispute, that had 
 been running more than half a century, as to the true bound- 
 ary between Venezuela and her possession of British Guiana, 
 by seizing the territory in question, the President brought the 
 subject to the attention of Congress in a message that contained 
 the broadest assertion of the Monroe doctrine ever made in a 
 state paper. The United States had been endeavoring for 
 years to bring about a settlement of the quarrel by arbitration. 
 The suggestion of the President was, in effect, that if the 
 contending parties could not come to terms, this government 
 should undertake a judicial investigation of the matter, and sus- 
 tain whatever rights it might find Venezuela to possess. The 
 message was received in some quarters as presaging war with 
 Great Britain ; and its first effect was to inflict almost absolute 
 paralysis upon business. In the end, after much negotiation, 
 just before the close of Mr. Cleveland's administration, Great 
 Britain and the United States agreed upon an arbitration of 
 the boundary question on nearly the terms originally proposed 
 by this country, — the most signal victory of American diplo- 
 macy in modern times. Had not domestic questions quite 
 overshadowed all matters of foreign policy, and left the ad- 
 ministration without a party to support it, this grand success, 
 giving the Monroe doctrine both a wider scope and a stronger 
 legal standing than ever before, must have played a great part 
 in the election of 1896. 
 
 On the other hand, the outbreak of a fresh insurrection in 
 Cuba increased greatly the perplexities of the administration. 
 The outspoken sympathy with the insvirgents, more or less sin- 
 cere, of journals and politicians, expressed itself, among other 
 ways, in heated denunciation of the President for his strict 
 observance of a friendly attitude toward Spain, and for the
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 521 
 
 steps which he took to prevent filibustering and other viola- 
 tions of the neutrality laws. In a position of extreme difficulty 
 he succeeded in avoiding complications that might lead to war, 
 but he did not and could not succeed in pleasing Spain, or the 
 Cubans, or their sympathizers in this country. 
 
 Another incident of the diplomatic history of this adminis- 
 tration must be alluded to, although it ultimately came to no- 
 thing, and had no marked bearing upon party politics or upon 
 the presidential election. Mr. Olney, the Secretary of State, 
 negotiated a treaty of general arbitration with Sir Julian 
 Pauncefote, the British minister at Washington, under which 
 all questions arising between the two governments were to be 
 submitted to international tribunals. The treaty was most 
 warmly attacked by many persons as placing the interests of 
 the country in jeopardy ; and on the other hand it was urged, 
 both wisely and unwisely, by men who thought they saw in it 
 the germ of a principle that was to put an end to war. The 
 treaty was not acted upon by the Senate before the close of 
 Mr. Cleveland's administration ; and, although his successor in 
 office recommended it most earnestly, it was rejected. 
 
 The most cursory review of this remarkable administration 
 would be incomplete without a reference to these stirring 
 events in our foreign relations. Nevertheless not one of them 
 had the least influence in shaping the canvass of 1896, or in 
 determining its result. Two acts of Congress, passed in the 
 year 1890, were the special object of attack by the Democratic 
 party in the election of 1892. The result of that election was 
 to give full power to the Democrats in the legislative as well 
 as the executive department of the government, and the Presi- 
 dent soon began the promised campaign for the repeal of those 
 obnoxious acts. The so-called " Sherman Silver-Purchase 
 Act " was a measure of concession by Republicans to the sen- 
 timent that " something ought to be done for silver." Both 
 parties. Republican and Democratic alike, were paralyzed by 
 the advocates of silver free-coinage. A majority of Democrats 
 favored, and a majority of Republicans opposed, the policy. 
 But it was difficult, and, as the event proved, impossible, to 
 persuade the opponents of the measure to act in harmony. 
 Some of them were even alarmed lest, should they agree upon 
 nothing to increase the use of silver money, the advocates of 
 free coinage would carry their point. Out of this situation 
 arose the compromise contained in the act of 1890. The
 
 522 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Silver Kepublicans accepted it as the least that would satisfy 
 them ; the anti-Silver members persuaded themselves that it 
 was safe ; and it was carried through as a party measure. As 
 for the Democrats, not one of them supported it, — the Free 
 Silver wing treating it with scorn, as a delusion ; the " Sound 
 Money " wing, as it came afterward to be known, regarding it 
 as a long step toward free coinage, if not a surrender to the 
 Silver Republicans. 
 
 The working of the act satisfied neither the Silver party nor 
 their opponents. The Democrats denounced it in terms, in 
 their national platform, as a '^ cowardly makeshift," and were 
 pledged to its repeal. When, however, in the spring and early 
 summer of 1893, the consequences of the execution of the act 
 began to make themselves felt, a line of division different from 
 the party line was established. All those who were opposed 
 to free coinage. Republicans as well as Democrats, were anx- 
 iously and earnestly in favor of repeal. The advocates of free 
 coinage, on the other hand, while maintaining consistently that 
 it was far short of the measure which they desired, protested 
 against repeal unless something quite as favorable to silver were 
 simultaneously enacted in its stead. Something like a panic 
 seized the banking and mercantile communities of the money 
 centres, and the alarm lest the country should fall to a silver 
 standard was widespread. In these circumstances the Presi- 
 dent, who was well known to be opposed to further legislation 
 in favor of silver, and strongly against free coinage, called 
 Congress together in extraordinary session for the purpose of 
 repealing the silver-purchase clauses of the act of 1890. The 
 situation was a peculiar one. It may perhaps be most briefly 
 explained by a statement of what occurred. The act of repeal 
 was passed by the House of Representatives on August 28, 
 1893, three weeks after the session began. It did not pass 
 the Senate until October 30. It was successful in the lower 
 House because the Speaker, Mr. Crisp, a silver advocate both 
 before and afterward, gave it his support and the weight of all 
 the influence a Speaker could exert. In the Senate the bill 
 was managed by Mr. Voorhees, also a free-coinage man. 
 
 The fact that, in spite of the passage of this bill, there was 
 a majority in each House of Congress in favor of free coin- 
 age, was proved abundantly at the subsequent regular sessions ; 
 but owing to the difficulty of carrying any measure through 
 both Houses in the face of a determined minority, nothing
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 523 
 
 was accomplished. A bill was, nevertheless, passed to " coin 
 the seigniorage." This act encountered a veto by the President, 
 May 27, 1894, and the two- thirds majority, necessary to pass 
 the bill notwithstanding his objections, could not be obtained. 
 The bill proposed to coin so much of the silver purchased under 
 the act of 1890 as represented the difference between the price 
 paid for the silver and its coining value, and to use the coin 
 for the current expenses of the government ; and afterward to 
 coin the rest of the silver owned by the Treasury for the pur- 
 pose of redeeming the treasury notes issued against the silver 
 purchased. This measure, to which Mr. Abram S. Hewitt 
 applied the catching phrase " coining a vacuum," was the only 
 one touching the silver question which reached the President 
 after the repealing act already mentioned. But the temper of 
 Congress was well shown by its absolute refusal to sanction an 
 issue of bonds payable, principal and interest, in gold. The 
 matter was brought to the attention of Congress by the Presi- 
 dent at a time when a large issue of bonds was pending ; and a 
 proposition by a bankers' syndicate to take the bonds on much 
 more favorable terms, provided the promise were made to pay 
 in gold what was to be lent in gold, was submitted at the same 
 time ; but Congress refused to allow the promise to be made. 
 A resolution authorizing an issue of gold bonds was rejected 
 by a large majority. 
 
 The significance of all these events, in their bearing upon 
 the election of a President in 1896, lies in the fact of a con- 
 stantly increasing difference between Mr. Cleveland and the 
 majority of his party as represented in Congress. At the be- 
 ginning of the administration, there were enough Silver Demo- 
 crats, who joined with the Gold Democrats, to give a majority 
 of the party in the House of Representatives in favor of the 
 repeal act of 1893. In the Senate the Democrats who opposed 
 the President were exactly as many as those who supported 
 him. Included among his supporters were seven senators who 
 were far more disposed to vote for free coinage than for the 
 repealing act. The President's influence was sufficient to se- 
 cure their vote for the bill. But this was the last occasion 
 on which they conceded anything to him or yielded their 
 opinion in the slightest degree. 
 
 As soon as the Silver-Purchase Repeal Act had been passed, 
 che President bent all his energies to the fulfilment of the 
 second pledge of his party, — the repeal of the McKinley Tariff
 
 524 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Act, and the passage of a customs revenue law " to reduce tax- 
 ation," The protective system had been denounced in 1892 
 from every Democratic stump, and Mr. Cleveland had been 
 elected with a distinct understanding that his victory would 
 signify a purpose to go as far as prudence would warrant in 
 the direction of free trade, or a " tariff for revenue only." 
 Accordingly, at the beginning of the regular session of Con- 
 gress in December, 1893, the President summoned his party 
 to the performance of this duty. The apparent unanimity of 
 the Democrats on this question, moreover, seemed to promise 
 an opportunity to heal the breach caused by the contest over 
 silver. The result made manifest a party division no less de- 
 plorable from a political point of view than that which had 
 been revealed at the extraordinary session, and one which 
 filled with humiliation those who wished honestly and faith- 
 fully to redeem the party pledge. A tariff bill framed as 
 nearly in conformity to the principle which the voters of the 
 country were supposed to have approved, as could be expected 
 of any party, was brought into the House by Mr. Wilson, 
 Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and was 
 promptly passed by that branch of Congress. When it 
 reached the Senate a singular state of affairs appeared. A 
 coterie of Democratic senators made an informal alliance with 
 the Republicans for the purpose of saving the protective du- 
 ties upon certain classes of goods in which the people of their 
 respective States were interested. Neither threats nor per- 
 suasion, and no consideration of party loyalty, availed to break 
 this alliance. The Democratic leaders were forced to accept 
 the amendments dictated by the wayward members of their 
 own party, including some that were insisted upon by the 
 Republicans as the price of their assistance. In these circum- 
 stances, the bill as it was passed by the Senate was one which 
 consistent upholders of the Democratic principle declared they 
 could never accept. Nevertheless, it was soon made evident 
 to them that no changes would be permitted, — that the choice 
 lay between taking the bill as the Senate had passed it, or 
 taking nothing, and thus leaving the McKinley act in force. 
 With unconcealed reluctance they took the Senate bill. The 
 only consolation they permitted themselves was the fact that 
 the bill made wool free of duty ; and the wool duty was re- 
 garded as the keystone of the protection arch.. The President 
 would neither approve the bill nor become responsible for the
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 525 
 
 failure of tariff legislation by vetoing it. He allowed the bill 
 to become law by lapse of time, without his signature. 
 
 During the ensuing two years the financial and business 
 situation became steadily worse. Each reacted upon the 
 other. The lower duties imposed by the new tariff act were 
 not followed by such an increase of importations as to make 
 good the loss of revenue. Foreign distrust in the stability of 
 our affairs led to a withdrawal of foreign investments, and 
 this caused a heavy exportation of gold, which was drawn 
 from the Treasury. The gold borrowed on government loans 
 to make good the reserve maintained to insure the redeema- 
 bility of the paper money was quickly lost ; for the greenbacks 
 paid out in excess of revenue were again presented for re- 
 demption, to procure more gold for export. The President, 
 in calling the attention of Congress to the subject, likened the 
 process to the operation of an ** endless chain." The constant 
 imperilling of the gold reserve caused frequent panics and 
 a paralysis of business. The labor situation became serious. 
 Great strikes took place, attended with extreme violence. 
 One in particular on certain great lines of railway centring in 
 Chicago led to a direct intervention of the national authority 
 and the employment of the army to protect the running of 
 trains, on the theory that it was necessary to continue the 
 operation of the postal service. The use of the government 
 troops was not solicited by the governor of Illinois, who pub- 
 licly protested that the intervention of the national author- 
 ity, by command of the President, prior to a request therefor 
 by the governor, was an unconstitutional invasion of State 
 rights. 
 
 The generally deplorable condition of affairs, which, as is 
 usually the case, was popularly attributed to the inefficiency 
 and failure of the party in power, caused a violent reaction 
 from the great Democratic victory of 1892. The Congress 
 elections of 1894 gave the Republicans a majority of more 
 than two to one in the House. Hardly a dozen Democratic 
 members were returned from all the Northern States. The 
 situation of the Democratic party did not improve, and at the 
 beginning of 1896 was as hopeless as it had been at any time 
 during the second administration of Mr. Cleveland. It was 
 at this time a common remark by Republicans, which their 
 opponents ventured only mildly to contradict, that they " could 
 nominate a rag baby and elect it President " that year.
 
 526 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Yet events so shaped themselves as to render the contest 
 one of the sharpest, most memorable, and for a brief season 
 the most doubtful, of all that have taken place since the elec- 
 tion of Mr. Lincoln in 1860. That which brought about the 
 change was the intrusion of the silver question into the canvass 
 as the dominant issue, in opposition to the wishes and efforts 
 of those who, in each of the old historic parties, had previously- 
 exercised a controlling influence in its councils. It is easy to 
 understand why they took this attitude of opposition. As 
 apostles of the gospel of success, they dreaded the division which 
 a plain and unmistakable pronouncement on the subject of silver 
 would cause. The Populist party alone was united on that 
 issue. The growing strength of that organization had filled 
 all the old politicians with alarm. In some of the Western 
 States it had even become formidable to the extent of outnum- 
 bering both the old parties combined. It was evident that, if 
 the silver question were to become the foremost issue in the 
 canvass, the old policy of a " straddling " platform would not 
 do ; since in that case all those who were resolved to have free 
 coinage at all hazards would flock to the Populist standard. 
 Out of this situation developed a sensational contest for the 
 control of the Democratic organization. The Eastern section 
 of the party was dominated by the advocates of the gold stand- 
 ard ; the Free Coinage wing was overwhelmingly strong in the 
 West and South ; and the great battle-ground was the central 
 Western States. The national administration employed all its 
 influence to secure the election to the national convention of 
 delegates who would oppose the demands of the Silver men. 
 Kentucky was the scene of the fiercest conflict ; and when the 
 primary elections resulted in a brilliant victory for free silver, 
 it was evident that the contest was ended, and that the only 
 hope of the opponents of free coinage was that the victors 
 might be persuaded not to carry their advantage to extremes, 
 — a hope which was destined to be disappointed. The ear- 
 nestness with which the struggle was carried on may be judged 
 from the fact that the Democratic conventions of no less than 
 thirty States resolved in distinct and emphatic language in 
 favor of the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. 
 Fourteen state conventions opposed free coinage, and ten of 
 them declared in set terms for the gold standard. One conven- 
 tion only, that of Florida, expressed no opinion on the silver 
 question. The sectional division on this issue is indicated by
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 527 
 
 the fact that the fourteen anti-Silver States were the New Eng- 
 land States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,, 
 and Maryland, with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 
 
 Meantime another contest had been attracting deep interest 
 throughout the country, — a contest, not of principle, but be- 
 tween rival candidates for the Republican nomination. Major 
 William McKinley, of Ohio, and the Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, had long been 
 avowed candidates for the nomination. Months before the 
 convention was to be held, the agents and partisans of each 
 were at work laying plans, conducting correspondence, and 
 dispatching emissaries to all parts of the country — particu- 
 larly into the Southern States — in order to secure the elec- 
 tion of delegates. By far the better organized, more aggres- 
 sive and systematic campaign was carried on in behalf of Major 
 McKinley, under the direction of his friend Marcus A. 
 Hanna, whose name became familiar as household words in the 
 mouths of all the stump speakers before the presidential canvass 
 ended. Mr. McKinley was proclaimed " the advance agent 
 of prosperity ; " and, in the renewed popularity of the protec- 
 tive system, no cry was more effective than the demand for 
 ''Bill McKinley and the McKinley Bill." Mr. Reed's im- 
 mense and universally admitted services to his party, his tal- 
 ents, his iron will, and his almost undisputed leadership, gave 
 him a host of supporters. New York brought forward her 
 governor, the former Vice-President, Levi P. Morton. Iowa 
 presented as a worthy candidate her senator, William B. Alli- 
 son ; and Pennsylvania named Senator Matthew S. Quay. 
 The efforts in behalf of the minor candidates availed little save 
 in their respective States ; the hopes of their supporters hardly 
 went further than this : that they might make such a display 
 of strength as to suggest that, if neither Mr. McKinley nor 
 Mr. Reed could carry the convention, one of them would be 
 available as a "dark horse." But it became evident long 
 before the convention, although the partisans of the other can- 
 didates would not admit it, that a strong majority of the dele- 
 gates favored the nomination of Mr. McKinley. During the 
 whole of this preliminary skirmishing in the Republican party, 
 the silver question was thrust into the background as much as 
 possible. Twenty-two state conventions, it is true, declared 
 against free coinage ; but many even of these gave greater 
 prominence and vigor to their expressions on the tariff than to
 
 528 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 their views on the money standard. Here also the gospel of 
 success prevailed. The States of the extreme West, the " min- 
 ing States," were practically unanimous in favor of silver. If 
 the Democrats could count as usual on a " solid South," if they 
 could hold the doubtful States of the Northwest, and if they 
 could win over the new States of the far Northwest by taking 
 ground in favor of free coinage while the Republicans opposed 
 it, the canvass was already decided against the Republicans. 
 It was announced by the Republican leaders in Colorado, 
 Idaho, and other States that their electoral votes were irretriev- 
 ably lost to the party if the national convention did not show 
 itself more " friendly to silver " than the Minneapolis conven- 
 tion of 1892. This consideration caused many of the managers 
 to do their utmost to retain the tariff as the leading issue, and 
 to contemplate a " straddle " on the silver question. Their 
 plans and purposes were overturned by influences too strong 
 for them to resist. 
 
 Afiairs were in this interesting situation when the time 
 arrived for holding the national conventions. The results of 
 these great assemblies were surprising to those even who had 
 gauged accurately the intensity of the public feeling on the 
 silver question. Never before were conventions so inharmoni- 
 ous, and never were there so many "splits" and "bolts" in 
 parties. The first convention to be held was that of the Pro- 
 hibition party, which met at Pittsburg on May 27, 1896. Mr, 
 A. A. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman, 
 and Mr. Oliver W. Stewart, of Illinois, the permanent presi- 
 dent of the convention. 
 
 The assembly was divided from the first into two factions, — 
 the " narrow gangers " and the " broad gangers." The real 
 contest was over the silver question. The " broad gangers " 
 favored a platform made up of resolutions on many topics, 
 upon which they held views closely approaching those of the 
 Populists. The " narrow gangers," opposing particularly the 
 adoption of a free coinage " plank," contended for a platform 
 which should make the prohibition of the manufacture and 
 sale of intoxicating liquors the only issue upon which the 
 party should appeal to the people. So sharp was the contest 
 between the two factions that a disruption was foreseen before 
 the convention was called to order. Leading men on each side 
 had announced that if their faction were defeated, they would 
 not support either platform or candidates. There was war
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 529 
 
 between them in the choice of presiding officers ; and the two 
 presidential candidates ultimately named had been agreed upon 
 in rival caucuses before the first session of the convention. 
 
 The platform was reported on the second day of the session. 
 A majority of the committee consisted of " narrow gangers,'' 
 and all the resolutions, six in number, were aimed at the 
 liquor traffic. A minority of the committee presented fifteen 
 additional resolutions, the first of which demanded the free 
 and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. 
 The convention, in order that it might consider the question as 
 a whole, first voted, yeas 492, nays 310, to append the minority 
 resolutions to those reported by the majority, and then pro- 
 ceeded to consider the resolutions seriatim. The first six 
 were adopted with unanimity. The next,^ opposing all bank 
 currency, and advocating the free coinage of silver, was warmly 
 debated, and was rejected by a vote of yeas 387, nays 427. 
 A motion was then made, and carried almost unanimously, to 
 substitute for the resolutions already adopted the following, 
 which became the platform of the convention : — 
 
 We, the members of the Prohibition party, in National Conven- 
 tion assembled, renewing our declaration of allegiance to Almighty 
 God as the rightful Ruler of the universe, lay down the following 
 as our declaration of political purpose : — 
 
 The Prohibition party, in National Convention assembled, de- 
 clares its firm conviction that the manufacture, exportation, im- 
 portation, and sale of alcoholic beverages has produced such social, 
 commercial, industrial, and political wrongs, and is now so threat- 
 ening the perpetuity of all our social and political institutions, that 
 the suppression of the same, by a national party organized therefor, 
 is the greatest object to be accomplished by the voters of our coun- 
 try, and is of such importance that it of right ought to control the 
 political actions of all our patriotic citizens until such suppression 
 is accomplished. 
 
 The urgency of this course demands the union, without further 
 delay, of all citizens who desire the prohibition of the liquor traffic , 
 therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That we favor the legal prohibition by state and na- 
 tional legislation of the manufacture, importation, and sale of 
 alcoholic beverages. That we declare our purpose to organize and 
 unite all the friends of prohibition into one party, and in order to 
 accomplish this end we deem it of right to leave every Prohibition- 
 ist the freedom of his own convictions upon all other political 
 
 1 See the third resolution of the National party, p. 531.
 
 530 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 questions, and trust our representatives to take such action upon 
 other political questions as the changes occasioned by prohibition 
 and the welfare of the whole people shall demand. 
 
 The following additional resolution was moved from the 
 floor and unanimously adopted ; but in order to save the con- 
 sistency of the '' narrow gangers," it was voted that the resolu- 
 tion should not be a part of the platform : — 
 
 Resolved, That the right of suffrage ought not to be abridged on 
 account of sex. 
 
 Immediately after the adoption of the substitute platform 
 and the defeat of the " broad gaugers," a delegate requested all 
 members of the convention who " wanted to work for human- 
 ity " to withdraw. Thereupon the " broad gaugers " retired 
 from the hall. Those who remained proceeded to make nomi- 
 nations. Joshua Levering, of Maryland, was chosen as the 
 candidate for President of the United States by acclamation. 
 A vote was taken for a candidate for Vice-President, and Hale 
 Johnson, of Illinois, was chosen. He received 309 votes, to 
 132 for T. C. Hughes, of Arizona. 
 
 The seceders from the Prohibition convention met in Pitts- 
 burg on the evening of May 28, chose Mr. A. L. Moore, of 
 Michigan, chairman, and proceeded to organize the " National " 
 party. The following platform was adopted. The six resolu- 
 tions of the Prohibition platform were condensed into one ; the 
 declaration in favor of woman suffrage was appended ; and the 
 other eleven " planks " were taken from the report of the 
 minority of the platform committee of the Prohibition con- 
 vention : — 
 
 The National party, recognizing God as the author of all just 
 power in government, presents the following declaration of prin- 
 ciples, which it pledges itself to enact into effective legislation 
 when given the power to do so : — 
 
 1. The suppression of the manufacture and sale, importation, 
 exportation, and transportation of intoxicating liquors for bever- 
 age purposes. We utterly reject all plans for regulating or com- 
 promising with this traffic, whether such plans be called local 
 option, taxation, license, or public control. The sale of liquors 
 for medicinal and other legitimate uses should be conducted by 
 the State, without profit, and with such regulations as will pre- 
 vent fraud or evasion. 
 
 2. No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of 
 sex.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 531 
 
 3. All money should be issued by the general government only, 
 and without the intervention of any private citizen, corporation, 
 or banking institution. It should be based upon the wealth, sta- 
 bility, and integrity of the nation. It should be a full legal ten- 
 der for all debts, public and private, and should be of sufficient 
 volume to meet the demands of the legitimate business interests 
 of the country. For the purpose of honestly liquidating our out- 
 standing coin obligations, we favor the free and unlimited coinage 
 of both silver and gold, at the ratio of 16 to 1, without consulting 
 any other nation. 
 
 4. Land is the common heritage of the people and should be 
 preserved from monopoly and speculation. AH unearned grants 
 of land subject to forfeiture should be reclaimed by the govern- 
 ment, and no portion of the public domain should hereafter be 
 granted except to actual settlers, continuous use being essential 
 to tenure. 
 
 5. Railroads, telegraphs, and other natural monopolies should 
 be owned and operated by the government, giving to the people 
 the benefit of service at actual cost. 
 
 6. The national Constitution should be so amended as to allow 
 the national revenues to be raised by equitable adjustment of 
 taxation on the properties and incomes of the people, and import 
 duties should be levied as a means of securing equitable commer- 
 cial relations with other nations. 
 
 7. The contract convict labor system, through which speculators 
 are enriched at the expense of the State, should be abolished. 
 
 8. All citizens should be protected by law in their right to one 
 day of rest in seven, without oppressing any who conscientiously 
 observe any other than the first day of the week. 
 
 9. The American public schools, taught in the English lan- 
 guage, should be maintained, and no public funds should be ap- 
 propriated for sectarian institutions. 
 
 10. The President, Vice-President, and United States senators 
 should be elected by direct vote of the people. 
 
 11. Ex-soldiers and sailors of the United States army and navy, 
 their widows and minor children, should receive liberal pensions, 
 graded on disability and term of service, not merely as a debt of 
 gratitude, but for service rendered in the preservation of the 
 Union. 
 
 12. Our immigration laws should be so revised as to exclude 
 paupers and criminals. None but citizens of the United States 
 should be allowed to vote in any State, and naturalized citizens 
 should not vote until one year after naturalization papers have 
 been issued. 
 
 13. The initiative and referendum, and proportional represen* 
 tation, should be adopted.
 
 532 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 The Rev, Charles E. Bentley, of Nebraska, was nominated 
 by acclamation for President of the United States ; and James 
 H. Southgate, of North Carolina, for Vice-President. Repre- 
 sentatives of twenty-seven States took part in the convention. 
 A roll-call showed the presence of 299 seceding delegates 
 accredited to the Prohibition convention. All the proceed- 
 ings of this assembly were completed at a single sitting, which 
 lasted until the dawn of May 29. 
 
 The Republican convention met at St. Louis on June 16. 
 The nomination of Major McKinley was a foregone conclu- 
 sion ; but the formation of the platform excited the most in- 
 tense interest among the delegates and throughout the country. 
 The complete victory of the Free Silver wing of the Demo- 
 cratic party in the choice of delegates to the convention soon 
 to assemble, and the determination expressed by its leaders to 
 declare for free coinage in the most radical terms, placed be- 
 fore the Republican politicians for solution a puzzling problem. 
 Should they try to evade the issue about to be set forth by 
 their enemies, and endeavor to make the canvass on the tariff 
 issue ? Or should they boldly anticipate the new issue and 
 declare against free coinage and in favor of the gold standard ? 
 A small but compact and persistent group of delegates from 
 the extreme West urged a third course, namely, a declaration 
 in favor of free coinage ; but that was manifestly out of the 
 qtiestion, since a vast majority of the leaders and of those 
 whom they represented was unalterably opposed to that policy. 
 
 The advocates of a timorous policy were defeated in the first 
 preliminary skirmish. Two facts which were set forth most 
 clearly convinced a great majority of the convention that there 
 was nothing to be gained and much to be lost by a " straddle," 
 — the first, that such a course would not pacify the Free Silver 
 delegates or keep them in the convention ; and the second, that 
 the advocates of the policy of saying plainly what almost all 
 the delegates except those from the " Silver States " thought, 
 would carry the contest into the convention if they were de- 
 feated in the committee. In these circumstances most of the 
 opposition to the insertion of the word " gold " in the platform 
 ceased. Even the phraseology of the resolution, which was 
 afterward changed but slightly, was agreed upon and published. 
 
 Nevertheless, after the convention met and organized, by 
 the choice of Mr. Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, as tem- 
 porary chairman, and Mr. John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, as
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 533 
 
 permanent president, the contest was renewed in the committee 
 on resolutions. It was not until the third day of the session, 
 June 18, that the platform was reported, as follows : — 
 
 The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their repre- 
 sentatives in national convention, appealing for the popular and 
 historical justification of their claims to the matchless achieve- 
 ments of the thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and confi- 
 dently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience, 
 and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration 
 of facts and principles : — 
 
 For the first time since the Civil War the American people have 
 witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted 
 Democratic control of the government. It has been a record of 
 unparalleled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster. In administrative 
 management it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue, 
 entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses 
 with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in 
 time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual 
 menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American 
 credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results 
 of successful Republican rule. 
 
 In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, blighted 
 industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed factories, re- 
 duced work and wages, halted enterprise, and crippled American 
 production while stimulating foreign production for the American 
 market. Every consideration of public safety and individual 
 interest demands that the government shall be rescued from the 
 hands of those who have shown themselves incapable of conduct- 
 ing it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and shall 
 be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it 
 with unequalled success and prosperity, and in this connection we 
 heartily indorse the wisdom, the patriotism, and the success of the 
 administration of President Harrison. 
 
 We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of pro- 
 tection as the bulwark of American industrial independence and 
 the foundation of American development and prosperity. This 
 true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home 
 industry ; it puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods ; it se- 
 cures the American market for the American producer ; it upholds 
 the American standard of wages for the American workingman ; 
 it puts the factory by the side of the farm, and makes the Ameri- 
 can farmer less dependent on foreign demand and price ; it diffuses 
 general thrift, and founds the strength of all on the strength of 
 each. In its reasonable application it is just, fair, and impartial,
 
 534 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 equally opposed to foreign control and domestic monopoly, to sec- 
 tional discrimination and individual favoritism. 
 
 We denounce the present Democratic tariff as sectional, inju- 
 rious to the public credit, and destructive to business enterprise. 
 We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign imports vphich 
 come into competition with American products as will not only 
 furnish adequate revenue for the necessary expenses of the govern- 
 ment, but will protect American labor from degradation to the 
 wage level of other lands. We are not pledged to any particular 
 schedules. The question of rates is a practical question, to be 
 governed by the conditions of the time and of pi'oduction ; the 
 ruling and uncompromising principle is the protection and devel- 
 opment of American labor and industry. The country demands 
 a right settlement, and then it wants rest. 
 
 We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangements negotiated 
 by the last Republican administration was a national calamity, 
 and we demand their renewal and extension on such terms as 
 wiU equalize our trade with other nations, remove the restrictions 
 which now obstruct the sale of American products in the ports of 
 other countries, and secure enlarged markets for. the products of 
 our farms, forests, and factories. 
 
 Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of Republican 
 policy and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly 
 struck down both, and both must be reestablished. Protection 
 for what we produce ; free admission for the necessaries of life 
 which we do not produce ; reciprocity agreements of mutual in- 
 terests which gain open markets for us in return for our open 
 market to others. Protection builds up domestic industry and 
 trade, and secures our own market for ourselves ; reciprocity 
 builds up foreign trade and finds an outlet for our surplus. 
 
 We condemn the present administration for not keeping faith 
 with the sugar-producers of this country. The Republican party 
 favors such protection as will lead to the production on American 
 soil of all the sugar which the American people use, and for which 
 they pay other countries more than $100,000,000 annually. 
 
 To all our products — to those of the mine and the fields, as 
 well as those of the shop and factory ; to hemp, to wool, the pro- 
 duct of the great industry of sheep husbandry, as well as to the 
 finished wooUens of the miUs — we promise the most ample pro- 
 tection. 
 
 We favor restoring the early American policy of discriminating 
 duties for the upbuilding of our merchant marine and the pro- 
 tection of our shipping in the foreign carrying trade, so that 
 American ships — the product of American labor, employed in 
 American shipyards, sailing under the stars and stripes, and
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 535 
 
 manned, officered, and owned by Anaericane — may regain the 
 carrying of our foreign commerce. 
 
 The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It 
 caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of 
 specie payments in 1879 ; since then every dollar has been as good 
 as gold. 
 
 We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to de- 
 base our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, 
 therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by inter- 
 national agreement with the leading commercial nations of the 
 world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such 
 agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be 
 preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained 
 at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to main- 
 tain inviolably the obligations of the United States and all our 
 money, whether coin or paper, at the present standai'd, the stand- 
 ard of the most enlightened nations of the earth. 
 
 The veterans of the Union armies deserve and should receive 
 fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable 
 they should be given the preference in the matter of employment, 
 and they are entitled to the enactment of such laws as are best 
 calculated to secure the fulfilment of the pledges made to them 
 in the dark days of the country's peril. We denounce the practice 
 in the Pension Bureau, so recklessly and unjustly carried on by 
 the present administration, of reducing pensions and arbitrarily 
 dropping names from the rolls, as deserving the severest condem- 
 nation of the American people. 
 
 Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, vigorous, and 
 dignified, and all our interests in the Western hemisphere care- 
 fully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian islands should be 
 controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should be 
 permitted to interfere with them ; the Nicaragua Canal should 
 be built, owned and operated by the United States ; and by the 
 purchase of the Danish islands we should secure a proper and 
 much-needed naval station in the West Indies. 
 
 The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy 
 and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that 
 the United States should exercise all the influence it can properly 
 exert to bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey, American 
 residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers and American 
 property destroyed. There and everywhere American citizens and 
 American property must be absolutely protected at all hazards 
 and at any cost. 
 
 We reassert the Monroe doctrine in its full extent, and we re- 
 affirm the right of the United States to give the doctrine effect
 
 536 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 by responding to the appeal of any American State for friendly 
 intervention in case of European encroachment. We have not 
 interfered and shall not interefere with the existing possessions 
 of any European power in this hemisphere, but those possessions 
 must not on any pretext be extended. We hopefully look forward 
 to the eventual withdrawal of the European powers from this 
 hemisphere, and to the ultimate union of all English-speaking 
 parts of the continent by the free consent of its inhabitants. 
 
 From the hour of achieving their own independence, the people 
 of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles 
 of other American people to free themselves from European domi- 
 nation. We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic bat- 
 tle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and oppression, and our 
 best hopes go out for the full success of their determined contest 
 for liberty. 
 
 The government of Spain, having lost control of Cuba, and 
 being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American 
 citizens, or to comply with its treaty obligations, we believe that 
 the government of the United States should actively use its influ- 
 ence and good offices to restore peace and give independence to 
 the island. 
 
 The peace and security of the republic and the maintenance of 
 its rightful influence among the nations of the earth demand a 
 naval power commensurate with its position and responsibility. 
 We therefore favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a 
 complete system of harbor and seacoast defences. 
 
 For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship 
 and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition 
 of low-priced labor, we demand that the immigration laws be 
 thoroughly enforced, and so extended as to exclude from entrance 
 to the United States those who can neither read nor write. 
 
 The civil-service law was placed on the statute book by the 
 Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew 
 our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly 
 enforced and extended wherever practicable. 
 
 We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be 
 allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such 
 ballot shall be counted and returned as cast. 
 
 We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized 
 and barbarous practice, well known as lynching, or killing of 
 human beings suspected or charged with crime, without process 
 of law. 
 
 We favor the creation of a national Board of Arbitration to 
 settle and adjust diiferences which may arise between employers 
 and employees engaged in interstate commerce.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 537 
 
 We believe in an immediate return to the free-homestead policy 
 of the Republican party, and urge the passage by Congress of a 
 satisfactory free-homestead measure such as has already passed 
 the House, and is now pending in the Senate. 
 
 AVe favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the 
 earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests of 
 the people of the Territories and of the United States. All the 
 Federal officers appointed for the Territories should be selected 
 from bonafde residents thereof, and the right of self-government 
 should be accorded as far as practicable. 
 
 We believe the citizens of Alaska should have representation in 
 the Congress of the United States, to the end that needful legisla- 
 tion may be intelligently enacted. 
 
 We sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen 
 and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality. 
 
 The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of 
 women. Protection of American industries includes equal oppor- 
 tunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. 
 We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, 
 and welcome their cooperation in rescuing the country from Dem- 
 ocratic and Populist mismanagement and misrule. 
 
 Such are the principles and policies of the Republican party. 
 By these principles we will abide and these policies we will put 
 into execution. We ask for them the considerate judgment of the 
 American people. Confident alike in the history of our great 
 party and in the justice of our cause, we present our platform and 
 our candidates in the full assurance that the election will bring 
 victory to the Republican party and prosperity to the people of the 
 United States. 
 
 Immediately after the reading of the platform Senator 
 Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, the leader of the Silver forces, 
 took the floor, and in behalf of a minority of the Committee 
 on Resolutions offered the following as a substitute for the 
 declaration in the platform on the subject of currency and 
 coinage : — 
 
 The Republican party favors the use of both gold and silver as 
 equal standard money, and pledges its power to secure the free, 
 unrestricted, and independent coinage of gold and silver at our 
 mints at the ratio of sixteen parts of silver to one of gold. 
 
 Mr. Teller pleaded for his substitute in an earnest speech, 
 which virtually recognized the impending defeat of the motion, 
 Jivul left no doubt that an adverse vote would be followed by the 
 withdrawal of himself and his associates from the convention.
 
 538 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 At the close of his speech a motion to lay the substitute on 
 the table, which was equivalent to rejecting it, was carried by 
 818A^ ayes to 105|- noes. Sixty-seven of the negative votes 
 were given by delegates from States west of the Missouri 
 River; 33.^- by delegates from Southern States; and five by dele- 
 gates from the Middle West. A separate vote was then taken 
 on the adoption of the financial plank reported by the majority. 
 The result was : ayes 812|-, noes 110|^. The rest of the plat- 
 form was adopted by acclamation and with unanimity. Mr. 
 Frank Cannon, United States Senator from Utah, then read a 
 carefully prepared protest signed by many members of the Sil- 
 ver wing of the party, after which thirty-four members of the 
 convention, including four United States senators and two 
 representatives in Congress, with Mr. Teller at their head, sol- 
 emnly withdrew from the convention. 
 
 William McKinley, of Ohio, was nominated as the candidate 
 for President on the first vote, which resulted as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 906 
 
 Necessary for a choice 453^ 
 
 William McKinley, Ohio 664 
 
 Thomas B. Reed, Maine 84^ 
 
 Matthew S. Quay, Pennsylvania 61-| 
 
 Levi P. Morton, New York 58 
 
 William B. Allison, Iowa 35^ 
 
 J. Donald Cameron, Pennsylvania ....... 1 
 
 Blank 4 
 
 Garret A, Hobart, of New Jersey, was nominated as the 
 candidate for Vice-President by the following vote : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 895 
 
 Necessary for a choice 448 
 
 Garret A. Hobart, New Jersey 535^ 
 
 Henry Clay Evans, Tennessee 277|f 
 
 Morgan G. Bulkeley, Connecticut 39 
 
 James A. Walker, Virginia 24 
 
 Charles W. Lippitt, Rhode Island 8 
 
 Thomas B. Reed, Maine 3 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew, New York 3 
 
 John M. Thurston, Nebraska 2 
 
 Frederick D. Grant, New York 2 
 
 Levi P. Morton, New York 1 
 
 The Socialist Labor party held a convention in New Yorg 
 city, beginning on the 4th of July and continuing for six days.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 539 
 
 Inasmuch as the Democratic convention was close at hand, the 
 newspapers paid but slight attention to its proceedings. No 
 exact statement can be made as to the number of members, or 
 the States from which they came. The following platform 
 was adopted : — 
 
 The Socialist Labor party of tlie United States, in convention 
 assembled, reasserts the inalienable right of all men to life, lib- 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 With the founders of the American republic, we hold that the 
 purpose of government is to secure every citizen in the enjoyment 
 of this right ; but in the light of our social conditions, we hold, 
 furthermore, that no such right can be exercised under a system 
 of economic inequality, essentially destructive of life, of liberty, 
 and of happiness. 
 
 With the founders of this republic, we hold that the true theory 
 of politics is that the machinery of government must be owned 
 and controlled by the whole people ; but in the light of our indus- 
 trial development we hold, furthermore, that the true theory of 
 economics is that the machinery of production must likewise 
 belong to the people in common. 
 
 To the obvious fact, that our despotic system of economics is the 
 direct opposite of our democratic system of politics, can plainly be 
 traced the existence of a privileged class, the corruption of gov- 
 ernment by that class, the alienation of public property, public 
 franchises, and public functions to that class, and the abject de- 
 pendence of the mightiest nations upon that class. 
 
 Again, through the perversion of democracy to the ends of plu- 
 tocracy, labor is robbed of the wealth which it alone produces, is 
 denied the means of self-employment, and, by compulsory idleness 
 in wage slavery, is even deprived of the necessaries of life. Human 
 power and natural forces are thus wasted that the plutocracy may 
 rule. Ignorance and misery, with all their concomitant evils, are 
 perpetuated, that the people may be kept in bondage. Science 
 and invention are diverted from their humane purpose to the 
 enslavement of women and children. 
 
 Against such a system the Socialist Labor party once more 
 enters its protest. Once more it reiterates its fundamental decla- 
 ration, that private property in the natural sources of production 
 and in the instruments of labor is the obvious cause of all eco- 
 nomic servitude and political dependence. 
 
 The time is fast coming when, in the natural course of social 
 evolution, this system, through the destructive action of its fail- 
 ures and crises on the one hand, and the constructive tendencies 
 of its trusts and other capitalistic combinations on the other hand, 
 shall have worked out its own downfall.
 
 640 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 We therefore call upon the wage-workers of the United States, 
 and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under the banner 
 of the Socialist Labor party into a class-conscious body, aware of 
 its rights and determined to conquer them by taking possession 
 of the public powers; so that, held together by an indomitable 
 spirit of solidarity under the most trying conditions of the present 
 class struggle, we may put a summary end to that barbarous 
 struggle by the abolition of classes, the restoration of the land, 
 and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribu- 
 tion to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of 
 the cooperative commonwealth for the present state of planless 
 production, industrial war, and social disorder ; a commonwealth 
 in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit 
 of his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization. 
 
 With a view to immediate improvement in the condition of 
 labor we present the following demands : — 
 
 1. Reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to the progress 
 of production. 
 
 2. The United States to obtain possession of the mines, rail- 
 roads, canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means of public 
 transportation and communication ; the employees to operate the 
 same cooperatively under control of the federal government and 
 to elect their own superior officers, but no employee shall be dis- 
 charged for political reasons. 
 
 3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads, 
 ferries, water-works, gas-works, electric plants, and all industries 
 requiring municipal franchises; the employees to operate the same 
 cooperatively under control of the municipal administration and 
 to elect their own superior officers, but no employee shall be dis- 
 charged for political reasons. 
 
 4. The public lands to be declared inalienable. Revocation of 
 all land grants to corporations or individuals, the conditions of 
 which have not been complied with. 
 
 5. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money. 
 
 6. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific manage- 
 ment of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste of the 
 natural resources of the country. 
 
 7. Inventions to be free to all ; the inventors to be remunerated 
 by the nation. 
 
 8. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances ; the smaller 
 incomes to be exempt. 
 
 9. School education of all children under fourteen years of age 
 to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by public assist- 
 ance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where necessary. 
 
 10. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary 
 laws. Unabridged right of comlnnation.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 541 
 
 11. Prohibition of the employment of children of school age, 
 and the employment of female labor in occupations detrimental 
 to health or morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract 
 system. 
 
 12. Employment of the unemployed by the public authorities 
 (county, city, state, and nation). 
 
 13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States. 
 Equalization of women's wages with those of men where equal 
 service is performed. 
 
 14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations, 
 and an efficient employers' liability law. 
 
 15. The people to have the right to propose laws and to vote 
 upon all measures of importance, according to the referendum 
 principle. 
 
 16. Abolition of the veto power of the executive (national, 
 state, and municipal) wherever it exists. 
 
 17. Abolition of the United States Senate and all upper legisla- 
 tive chambers. 
 
 18. Municipal self-government. 
 
 19. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections. Universal 
 and equal right of suffrage without regard to color, creed, or sex. 
 Election days to be legal holidays. The principle of proportional 
 representation to be introduced. 
 
 20. All public officers to be subject to recall by their respective 
 constituencies. 
 
 21. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United States. 
 Administration of justice to be free of charge. Abolition of capi- 
 tal punishment. 
 
 On the sixth day of the session, July 9, the convention 
 made its nominations. It is reported that there was a serious 
 — in the sense of sober, it is to be presumed, as well as in 
 the sense of active — contest for the nomination for Pre- 
 sident ; not that either of the candidates expected to be 
 elected, but because the victory of the party not later than 
 the year 1925 was confidently expected, and it was to be an 
 honor to be the standard-bearer of the party in 1896. Mr. 
 Charles H. Matchett, of New York, was nominated, receiving 
 43 votes to 23 for Matthew Maguire, of New Jersey, and 4 for 
 William Watkins, of Ohio. Matthew Maguire, of New Jersey, 
 was nominated by acclamation for Vice-President. 
 
 The result of the Republican convention intensified public 
 interest in the Democratic national convention, which met at 
 Chicago on July 7. The explicit declaration at St. Louis in 
 favor of the gold standard strengthened the position of the
 
 542 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 Silver wing of the Democratic party, which, having a sufficient 
 majority of the delegates, intended in any event to use its 
 power to the utmost. Meanwhile the control of the national 
 committee was in the hands of the anti-Silver wing, and most 
 of the " old-liners " of the North and West were on the same 
 side. A strenuous effort was determined on to prevent, if 
 possible, the adoption of a free-coinage resolution. All the 
 arts known to politicians were resorted to ; as the event proved, 
 without avail. The national committee proposed as temporary 
 chairman Senator David B. Hill, of New York. His election 
 was challenged on the floor of the convention, and after a 
 heated debate Senator John W. Daniel, of Virginia, the can- 
 didate of the Free Silver men, was chosen in his stead by a 
 vote of 556 to 349. On this, as on most other votes in the 
 convention, the unit rule was observed ; that is, the majority 
 of a state delegation cast the whole vote of the State for or 
 against a motion, or for a particular candidate. On the second 
 day of the session the Silver forces were augmented by three 
 changes in the membership proposed in the report of the Com- 
 mittee on Credentials : (1) the representation of each Terri- 
 tory was increased from two members to six ; (2) the Gold 
 Standard delegation from Nebraska was unseated and a dele- 
 gation favorable to Silver, headed by Mr. William J. Bryan, 
 was admitted ; and (3) four Silver delegates were substituted 
 for four Gold delegates from Michigan, which gave the Silver 
 party the control of the twenty-eight votes of that State. 
 After these changes had been made. Senator Stephen M. 
 White, of California, was made permanent president of the 
 convention. 
 
 On the third day of the session the platform was reported 
 as follows : — 
 
 We, the Democrats of the United States in national convention 
 assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential 
 principles of justice and liberty, upon which our institutions are 
 founded, and which the Democratic party has advocated from 
 Jefferson's time to our own, — freedom of speech, freedom of the 
 press, freedom of conscience, the preservation of personal rights, 
 the equality of all citizens before the law, and the faithful obser- 
 vance of constitutional limitations. 
 
 During all these years the Democratic party has resisted the 
 tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental 
 power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 543 
 
 scheme of government established by the founders of this repub- 
 lic of republics. Under its guidance and teachings, the great 
 principle of local self-government has found its best expression 
 in the maintenance of the rights of the States, and in its assertion 
 of the necessity of confining the general government to the exer- 
 cise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every cit- 
 izen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic 
 party has always been the exponent of political liberty and re- 
 ligious freedom, and it renews its obligations and reaffirms its 
 devotion to these fundamental principles of the Constitution. 
 
 Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others 
 at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the federal Con- 
 stitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of 
 the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress 
 under the Constitution made the silver dollar the money unit, and 
 admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver dol- 
 lar unit. 
 
 We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without 
 the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted in 
 the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of 
 commodities produced by the people ; a heavy increase in the bur- 
 den of taxation and of all debts, public and private ; the enrich- 
 ment of the money-lending class at home and abroad ; the prostra- 
 tion of industry and impoverishment of the people. 
 
 We are unalterably opposed to monometallism, which has locked 
 fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard 
 times. Gold monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption 
 has brought other nations into financial servitude to London. It 
 is not only un-American, but anti- American, and it can be fas- 
 tened on the United States only by the stifling of that spirit and 
 love of liberty which proclaimed our political independence in 
 1776 and won it in the war of the Revolution. 
 
 We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and 
 gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one without waiting 
 for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the 
 standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally with 
 gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legisla- 
 tion as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind 
 of legal tender money by private contract. 
 
 We are opposed to the policy and practice of siu'rendering to 
 the holders of the obligations of the United States the option 
 reserved by law to the government of redeeming such obligations 
 in either silver coin or gold coin.
 
 544 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the 
 United States in time of peace, and condemn the trafficking with 
 banking syndicates, which, in exchange for bonds and at enor- 
 mous profit to themselves, supply the federal treasury with gold 
 to maintain the policy of gold monometallism. 
 
 Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and 
 President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated 
 to corporations or individuals. We therefore denounce the issu- 
 ance of notes intended to circulate as money by national banks as 
 in derogation of the Constitution, and we demand that all paper 
 which is made a legal tender for public and private debts, or which 
 is receivable for duties to the United States, shall be issued by the 
 government of the United States and shall be redeemable in coin. 
 
 We hold that tariff duties should be levied for purposes of reve- 
 nue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally through- 
 out the country, and not discriminate between class or section, and 
 that taxation should be limited by the needs of the government 
 honestly and economically administered. 
 
 We denounce as disturbing to business the Republican threat 
 to restore the McKinley law, which has twice been condemned by 
 the people in national elections, and which, enacted under the 
 false plea of protection to home industry, proved a prolific breeder 
 of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the expense of the 
 many, restricted trade, and deprived the producers of the great 
 American staples of access to their natural markets. 
 
 Until the money question is settled we are opposed to any agi- 
 tation for further changes in our tariff laws, except such as are 
 necessary to meet the deficit in revenue caused by the adverse 
 decision of the Supreme Court on the income tax. But for this 
 decision by the Supreme Court, there would be no deficit in the 
 revenue under the law passed by a Democratic Congress in strict 
 pursuance of the uniform decisions of that court for nearly one 
 hundred years, that court having in that decision sustained con- 
 stitutional objections to its enactment which had previously been 
 overruled by the ablest judges who have ever sat on that bench. 
 We declare that it is the duty of Congress to use all the constitu- 
 tional power which remains after that decision, or which may 
 come from its reversal by the court as it may hereafter be con- 
 stituted, so that the burdens of taxation may be equally and im- 
 partially laid, to the end that wealth may bear its due proportion 
 of the expenses of the government. 
 
 We hold that the most efficient way of protecting American 
 labor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to 
 compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the 
 home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly
 
 fHE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 545 
 
 reduced by a vicious monetary system which depresses the prices 
 of their products below the cost of production, and thus deprives 
 them of the means of purchasing the products of our home manu- 
 factories ; and, as labor creates the wealth of the country, we 
 demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary to protect 
 it in all its rights. 
 
 We are in favor of the arbitration of differences between em- 
 ployers engaged in interstate commerce and their employees, and 
 recommend such legislation as is necessary to cai'ry out this prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our 
 leading railroad systems, and the formation of trusts and pools 
 require a stricter control by the federal government of those arter- 
 ies of commerce. "We demand the enlargement of the powers 
 of the interstate commerce commission, and such restrictions and 
 guarantees in the control of railroads as will protect the people 
 from robbery and oppression. 
 
 We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from 
 the people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations 
 of recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high, 
 while the labor that pays them is unemployed and the products 
 of the people's toil are depressed in price till they no longer re- 
 pay the cost of production. We demand a return to that simplicity 
 and economy which befits a democratic government and a reduc- 
 tion in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain 
 the substance of the people. 
 
 We denounce arbitrary interference by federal authorities in 
 local aifairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States 
 and a crime against free institutions, and we especially object to 
 government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of 
 oppression by which federal judges, in contempt of the laws of 
 the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, 
 and executioner^ ; and we approve the bill passed at the last ses- 
 sion of the United States Senate, and now pending in the House 
 of Representatives, relative to contempts in federal courts and 
 providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt. 
 
 No discrimination should be indulged in by the government of 
 the United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of 
 the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific Railroad 
 funding bill, and denounce the effort of the present Republican 
 Congress to enact a similar measure. 
 
 Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we 
 heartily indorse the rule of the present Commissioner of Pensions, 
 that no name shall be arbitrarily dropped from the pension roll ; 
 and the fact of enlistment and service should be deemed conclusive 
 evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.
 
 546 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 "We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico, 
 Arizona, and Oklahoma into the Union as States, and we favor 
 the early admission of all the Territories having the necessary- 
 population and resources to entitle them to statehood, and, while 
 they remain Territories, we hold that the officials appointed to 
 administer the government of any Territory, together with the 
 District of Columbia and Alaska, should be bonajide residents of 
 the Territory or District in which the duties are to be performed. 
 The Democratic party believes in home rule, and that all public 
 lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establish- 
 ment of free homes for American citizens. 
 
 We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a dele- 
 gate in Congress, and that the general land and timber laws of 
 the United States be extended to said Territory. 
 
 The Monroe doctrine, as originally declared and as interpreted 
 by succeeding Presidents, is a permanent part of the foreign pol- 
 icy of the United States, and must at all times be maintained. 
 
 We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic 
 struggle for liberty and independence. 
 
 We are opposed to life tenure in the public service, except as 
 provided in the Constitution. We favor appointments based upon 
 merit, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the 
 civil service laws as will afford equal opportunities to all citizens 
 of ascertained fitness. 
 
 We declare it to be the unwritten law of this republic, estab- 
 lished by custom and usage of a hundred years, and sanctioned 
 by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded 
 and have maintained our government, that no man should be 
 eligible for a third term of the presidential office. 
 
 The federal government should care for and improve the Mis- 
 sissippi River and other great waterways of the republic, so as to 
 secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide- 
 water. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient impor- 
 tance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be ex- 
 tended upon a definite plan of continuous work until permanent 
 improvement is secured. 
 
 Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of its 
 success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of prin- 
 ciples and purposes to the considerate judgment of the American 
 people. AVe invite the support of all citizens who approve them, 
 and who desire to have them made eifective, through legislation, 
 for the relief of the people and the restoration of the country's 
 prosperity. 
 
 A minority of the Committee on Resolutions, consisting of 
 the members from sixteen States, submitted a dissenting report,
 
 i 
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 547 
 
 expressing their inability to give their assent to " many declara- 
 tions " of the platform. " Some are ill-considered and ambig- 
 uously phrased, while others are extreme and revolutionary of 
 the well-recognized principles of the party." They offered two 
 amendments, the first a substitute for the financial plank, as 
 follows : — 
 
 We declare our belief that the experiment on the part of the 
 United States alone of free silver coinage and a change in the 
 existing standard of value, independently of the action of other 
 great nations, would not only imperil our finances, but would 
 retard, or entirely prevent, the establishment of international 
 bimetallism, to which the efforts of the government should be 
 steadily directed. 
 
 It would place this country at once upon a silver basis, impair 
 contracts, disturb business, diminish the purchasing* power of the 
 wages of labor, and inflict irreparable evils upon our nation's com- 
 merce and industry. 
 
 Until international cooperation among leading nations for the 
 coinage of silver can be secured, we favor the rigid maintenance 
 of the existing gold standard as essential to the preservation of 
 our national credit, the redemption of our public pledges, and the 
 keeping inviolate of our country's honor. 
 
 We insist that all our paper currency shall be kept at a parity 
 with gold. The Democratic party is the party of hard money, 
 and is opposed to legal tender paper money as a part of our per- 
 manent financial system, and we therefore favor the gradual re- 
 tirement and cancellation of all United States notes and treasury 
 notes, under such legislative provisions as will prevent undue con- 
 traction. 
 
 We demand that the national credit shall be resolutely main- 
 tained at all times and under all circumstances. 
 
 The other resolution was ofi"ered as an addition to the plat- 
 form : — 
 
 We commend the honesty, economy, courage, and fidelity of the 
 present Democratic administration. 
 
 A most earnest debate ensued upon the Free Silver policy, 
 the most dramatic and interesting event of which was an im- 
 passioned speech by Mr. William J. Bryan, of ^N^ebraska. 
 This gentleman excited the Silver men to the highest pitch 
 of enthusiasm by his oratory, and at once leaped into promi- 
 nence as a presidential candidate. Indeed, it was believed 
 that, if a vote had been taken on that day, he would have been 
 nominated almost by acclamation. The financial plank offered
 
 548 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 by the minority was rejected by ayes 303, noes 626 ; and the 
 resolution commendatory of President Cleveland's administra- 
 tion was defeated by ayes 357, noes 564. In all the votes 
 thus far reported, the minority consisted of the members from 
 New England, — except a few from Maine and Massachusetts, 
 — the coast States as far south as Maryland, and the delegates 
 from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Senator Hill 
 had offered, in addition to the amendments proposed by the 
 minority of the committee, two other amendments. The first 
 proposed to insert at the end of the clause opposing " the 
 demonetization of any kind of legal tender money by private 
 contract " the following proviso : — 
 
 But it should be carefully provided by law at the same time 
 that any change in the monetary standard should not apply to 
 existing contracts. 
 
 The other amendment was to add at the end of the finan- 
 cial plank the following pledge : — 
 
 Our advocacy of the independent free coinage of silver being 
 based on the belief that such coinage will effect and maintain 
 a parity between gold and silver at the ratio of sixteen to one, we 
 declare as a pledge of our sincerity that, if such free coinage shall 
 fail to effect such parity within one year from its enactment by 
 law, such coinage shall thereupon be suspended. 
 
 Both of these amendments were rejected without a division, 
 and the platform as a whole, unamended, was then adopted by 
 yeas 628, nays 301. 
 
 The overwhelming victory of the Silver wing of the party 
 made it certain that the defeated minority would be unable to 
 prevent a nomination under the two-thirds rule always gov- 
 erning Democratic conventions. The delegates who had con- 
 tended so earnestly against the adoption of the free coinage 
 plank were for the most part not men to yield their convic- 
 tions because they had been outvoted. They did not with- 
 draw from the convention, but on every convenient occasion 
 they reiterated their determination not to accept the platform 
 adopted, and not to take part in the nomination of candidates. 
 On the first vote for a candidate for President, 178 delegates 
 refused to be recorded, including the entire delegations of three 
 States. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for 
 President on the fifth vote. The successive trials resulted as 
 follows : —
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 
 
 549 
 
 Whole number of votes 
 
 Necessary for a choice (two thirds) . . 
 William J. Bryan, Nebraska .... 
 
 Richard P. Bland, Missouri 
 
 Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania . . 
 
 Horace Boies, Iowa 
 
 Jnspph S. C. Blackburn, Kentucky . . 
 
 Joseph R. McLean, Ohio 
 
 Claude Matthews, Indiana 
 
 Benjamin R. Tillman, South Carolina . 
 Sylvester Pennoyer, Oregon .... 
 
 Henry M. Teller, Colorado 
 
 Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois .... 
 William E. Russell, Massachusetts . . 
 
 James E. Campbell, Ohio 
 
 David B. Hill, New York 
 
 David Turpie, Indiana 
 
 Not voting 
 
 let. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 4th. 
 
 752 
 
 768 
 
 768 
 
 769 
 
 502 
 
 512 
 
 512 
 
 513 
 
 119 
 
 190 
 
 219 
 
 280 
 
 235 
 
 283 
 
 291 
 
 241 
 
 95 
 
 100 
 
 97 
 
 97 
 
 85 
 
 41 
 
 36 
 
 33 
 
 83 
 
 41 
 
 27 
 
 27 
 
 54 
 
 53 
 
 54 
 
 46 
 
 37 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 36 
 
 17 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 178 
 
 lf.2 
 
 162 
 
 162 
 
 768 
 512 
 500 
 106 
 95 
 26 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 162 
 
 The fifth vote, it will be seen, left Mr. Bryan twelve votes 
 short of a nomination. After the roll-call was completed and 
 before the result was announced, 78 delegates who had sup- 
 ported other candidates transferred their votes to Mr. Bryan 
 and gave him the nomination. Arthur Sewall, of Maine, was 
 nominated for Vice-President. Five trials were necessary to 
 etfect this nomination. They resulted as follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 
 
 Necessary for a choice (two thirds) . 
 
 Arthur Sewall, Maine 
 
 Joseph C. Sibley, Pennsylvania . . 
 
 Joseph R. McLean, Ohio 
 
 George F. Williams, Massachusetts . 
 Richard P. Bland, Missouri .... 
 Walter A. Clark, North Carolina . . 
 John R. Williams, Illinois .... 
 William F. Harrity, Pennsylvania 
 
 Horace Boies, Iowa 
 
 Joseph S. C. Blackburn, Kentucky . 
 John W. Daniel, Virginia .... 
 James H. Lewis, Washington . . . 
 Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania 
 Henry M. Teller, Colorado .... 
 Stephen M. White, California . . . 
 George W. Fithian, Illinois .... 
 Not voting 
 
 1st. 
 
 2d. 
 
 3d. 
 
 4th. 
 
 670 
 
 675 
 
 675 
 
 677 
 
 447 
 
 450 
 
 450 
 
 452 
 
 100 
 
 37 
 
 97 
 
 261 
 
 163 
 
 113 
 
 50 
 
 - 
 
 111 
 
 158 
 
 210 
 
 296 
 
 76 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 62 
 
 294 
 
 255 
 
 - 
 
 50 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 
 46 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 20 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 20 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 54 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 260 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 255 
 
 255 
 
 253 
 
 5th. 
 
 679 
 453 
 568 
 
 32 
 9 
 
 22 
 
 11 
 
 36 
 1 
 
 It long had been evident that this canvass was to witness 
 an unexampled shifting of the line between parties. In those 
 parts of the country where the silver idea was almost univer- 
 sally dominant, there had been an instant bolt of Republicans
 
 550 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 from the platform of the St. Louis convention. And now a 
 revolt of Democrats set in, not only greater in extent than any- 
 other in the history of American politics, but distinctly unlike 
 all others. Many of the oldest and most consistent Democra- 
 tic journals proclaimed in emphatic terras their determination 
 not to continue their support of the party, and not a few of 
 them boldly advocated the election of Mr. McKinley. The 
 dissension extended to all parts of the country ; and, although 
 it was most pronounced in the Eastern section, it was so wide- 
 spread that even in Kentucky, where the victory of the Silver 
 wing had virtually enabled that faction to carry its point in 
 the national convention, there was at the beginning of the can- 
 vass not one daily newspaper that advocated the election of 
 Mr. Bryan. At first, — so strong and aggressive were the 
 opponents of platform and candidates within the party, — it 
 was said openly by the leaders that in certain of the Eastern 
 States no electors would even be nominated by the Democrats. 
 The modification of this situation belongs to a later stage of 
 the canvass. 
 
 The next conventions in point of time were those of the 
 People's party, commonly called the Populists, and of the 
 Silver party, both of which met at St. Louis on July 22. If 
 the Chicago convention had driven out of the Democratic party 
 thousands of its oldest members and leaders, it had made easy 
 the cooperation of other thousands of Populists ; indeed, in 
 the view of many of the leaders of the party, the principles of 
 the Populists were most effectively to be promoted by accept- 
 ing the candidates nominated at Chicago. Yet there was an 
 earnest faction of the party which deprecated alliance or asso- 
 ciation with any other organization. The picturesque term 
 " Middle-of-the-road men " was applied to and adopted by 
 them, as indicating the independent course between the two 
 old historic parties which they thought it judicious to take. 
 The acceptance of the Democratic ticket involved the support 
 of Mr. Sewall as the candidate for Vice-President, — a nomina- 
 tion which was especially obnoxious to them. The conven- 
 tion organized by the choice of Senator Marion C. Butler, of 
 North Carolina, as temporary chairman. Senator William V. 
 Allen, of Nebraska, was the permanent president. A test of 
 strength between the "Middle-of-the-road" Populists and 
 those who were favorable to an alliance with the Democrats 
 ■was made upon an amendment ofi'ered to the report of the
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 551 
 
 Committee on Rules. The Middle-of-the-road wing proposed 
 that the usual order of proceeding should be reversed, and that 
 a candidate for Vice-President be nominated before the can- 
 didate for President. The motion was carried by ayes 785, 
 noes 615. The platform was reported on July 24, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 The People's party, assembled in national convention, reaffirms 
 its allegiance to the principles declared by the founders of the re- 
 public, and also to the fundamental principles of just government 
 as enunciated in the platform of the party in 1892. 
 
 We recognize that through the connivance of the present and 
 preceding administrations the country has reached a crisis in its 
 national life as predicted in our declaration four years ago, and 
 that prompt and patriotic action is the supreme duty of the hour. 
 We realize that while we have poUtical indepeudence our financial 
 and industrial independence is yet to be attained by restoring to 
 our country the constitutional control and exercise of the func- 
 tions necessary to a people's government, which functions have 
 been basely surrendered by our public servants to corporate mo- 
 nopolies. The influence of European money-changers has been 
 more potent in shaping legislation than the voice of the American 
 people. Executive power and patronage have been used to cor- 
 rupt our legislatures and defeat the will of the people, and plu- 
 tocracy has been enthroned upon the ruins of democracy. To 
 restore the government intended by the fathers and for the wel- 
 fare and prosperity of this and future generations, we demand the 
 establishment of an economic and financial system which shall 
 make us masters of our own affairs, and independent of European 
 control, by the adoption of the following declaration of princi- 
 ples : — 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 1. We demand a national money, safe and sound, issued by the 
 general government only, without the intervention of banks of 
 issue, to be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private ; a 
 just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to the 
 people and through the lawful disbursements of the government. 
 
 2. We demand the free and unrestricted coinage of silver and 
 gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without waiting 
 for the consent of foreign nations. 
 
 3. We demand that the volume of circulating medium be 
 speedily increased to an amount sufficient to meet the demands 
 of business and population and to restore the just level of prices 
 of labor and production.
 
 552 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 4. We denoiince the sale of bonds and the increase of the 
 interest-bearing debt made by the present administration as un- 
 necessary and without authority of law, and demand that no more 
 bonds be issued except by specific act of Congress. 
 
 5. We demand such legislation as will prevent the demonetiza- 
 tion of the lawful money of the United States by private contract. 
 
 6. We demand that the government, in payment of its obliga- 
 tions, shall use its option as to the kind of lawful money in which 
 they are to be paid, and we denounce the present and preceding 
 administrations for surrendering this option to the holders of 
 government obligations. 
 
 7. We demand a graduated income tax, to the end that aggre- 
 gated wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation; and we 
 regard the recent decision of the Supreme Court relative to the 
 income tax law as a misinterpretation of the Constitution, and an 
 invasion of the rightful powers of Congress over the subject of 
 taxation. 
 
 8. We demand that postal savings banks be established by the 
 government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people and 
 to facilitate exchange. 
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 1. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public ne- 
 cessity, government should own and operate the railroads in the 
 interests of the people and on a non-partisan basis, to the end that 
 all may be accorded the same treatment in transportation, and 
 that the tyranny and political power now exercised by the great 
 railroad corporations, which result in the impairment, if not the 
 destruction, of the political rights and personal liberties of the 
 citizen, may be destroyed. Such ownership is to be accomplished 
 gradually, in a manner consistent with sound public policy. 
 
 2. The interest of the United States in the public highways, 
 built with public moneys, and the proceeds of extensive grants of 
 land to the Pacific railroads should never be alienated, mortgaged, 
 or sold, but guarded and protected for the general welfare as pro- 
 vided by the laws organizing such railroads. The foreclosure of 
 existing liens of the United States on these roads should at once 
 follow default in the payment thereof by the debtor-companies ; 
 and at the foreclosure sales of said roads the government shall 
 purchase the same if it become necessary to protect its interests 
 therein, or if they can be purchased at a reasonable price ; and the 
 government shall operate said railroads as public highways for 
 the benefit of the whole people, and not in the interest of the few, 
 under suitable provisions for protection of life and property, giv- 
 ing to all transportation interests equal privileges and equal rates 
 for fares and freight.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 553 
 
 3. We denounce the present infamous schemes for refunding 
 these debts, and demand that the laws now applicable thereto be 
 executed and administered according to their true intent and 
 spirit. 
 
 4. The telegraph, like the post-office system, being a necessity 
 for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by 
 the government in the interest of the people. 
 
 1. The true policy demands that national and state legislation 
 shall be such as will ultimately enable every prudent and industri- 
 ous citizen to secure a home, and therefore the lands should not 
 be monopolized for speculative purposes. All lands now held by 
 railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs 
 should by lawful means be reclaimed by the government and held 
 for actual settlers only, and subject to the right of every human 
 being to acquire a home upon the soil, and private land monopoly, 
 as well as alien ownershiji, should be prohibited. 
 
 2. We condemn the frauds by which the land grants to the 
 Pacific railroad companies have, through the connivance of the 
 interior department, robbed multitudes of actual bond fide settlers 
 of their homes and miners of their claims, and we demand legisla- 
 tion by Congress which will enforce the exemption of mineral 
 land from such grants after as well as before the patent. 
 
 3. We demand that hona fide settlers on all public lands be 
 granted free homes as provided in the national homestead law, 
 and that no exception be made in the case of Indian reservations 
 when opened for settlement, and that all lands not now patented 
 come under this demand. 
 
 DIRECT LEGISLATION. 
 
 We favor a system of direct legislation through the initiative 
 and referendum under proper constitutional safeguards. 
 
 GENERAL PitOPOSITIONS. 
 
 1. We demand the election of President, Vice-President, and 
 United States senators by a direct vote of the people. 
 
 2. We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest sym- 
 pathy in their heroic struggle for political freedom and independ- 
 ence, and we believe the time has come when the United States, 
 the great republic of the world, should recognize that Cuba is and 
 of right ought to be, a free and independent state. 
 
 3. We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of 
 Columbia, and the early admission of Territories as States. 
 
 4. All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price 
 of labor and its products.
 
 554 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 5. In times of great industrial depression, idle labor should be 
 employed on public works as far as practicable. 
 
 6. The arbitrary course of the courts in assuming to imprison 
 citizens for indirect contempt, and ruling by injunction, should he 
 prevented by proper legislation. 
 
 7. We favor just pensions for our disabled Union soldiers. 
 
 8. Believing that the elective franchise and an untrammeled 
 ballot are essential to a government of, for, and by the people, the 
 People's party condemn the wholesale system of disfranchisement 
 adopted in some of the States, as unrepublican and undemocratic, 
 and we declare it to be the duty of the several state legislatures to 
 take such action as will secure a full, free, and fair ballot and an 
 honest count. 
 
 9. While the foregoing propositions constitute the platform 
 upon which our party stands, and for the vindication of which its 
 organization will be maintained, we recognize that the great and 
 pressing issue of the present campaign upon which the present 
 presidential election will turn is the financial question, and upon 
 this great and specific issue between the parties we cordially invite 
 the aid and cooperation of all organizations and citizens agreeing 
 with us upon this vital question. 
 
 There were three distinct minority reports from the Com- 
 mittee on Resolutions, each proposing amendments to the 
 platform. All of them, together with several independent 
 motions to amend, were rejected, and the platform as printed 
 above was adopted. 
 
 Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, was nominated for Vice- 
 President on the first vote, which resulted, on the roll-call, as 
 follows : — 
 
 Whole number of votes 1337 
 
 Necessary for a choice 669 
 
 Thomas E. Watson, Georgia 539| 
 
 Arthur Sewall, Maine 257^ 
 
 Frank Burkett, Mississippi 190| 
 
 Harry Skinner, North Carolina 142^ 
 
 A. L. Mimms, Tennessee ll^i% 
 
 Mann Page, Virginia ^^j^e 
 
 After the votes of all the States were announced, numerous 
 changes took place, and Mr. Watson was declared nominated. 
 No final declaration of the actual numbers seems to have been 
 made. 
 
 William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for Presi- 
 dent. The first vote resulted as follows : —
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 555 
 
 Whole number of votes 1375 
 
 Necessary for a choice 698 
 
 William J. Bryan, Nebraska 1042 
 
 S. F. Norton, Illinois 321 
 
 Eugene V. Debs, Indiana 8 
 
 Ignatius Donnelly, Minnesota 3 
 
 J. S. Coxey, Ohio 1 
 
 It should be said with reference to the membership of this 
 convention that the representation was on a different basis 
 from that of the conventions of the older parties. Texas, 
 entitled in those conventions to 30 votes, had 103 votes in the 
 Populist assembly, while New York had but 36. Kansas had 
 92 votes, Connecticut but 6. The number of delegates was 
 determined by the strength of the party in state elections. 
 
 The convention of the National Silver party was held at St. 
 Louis on July 22, simultaneously with that of the Populists. 
 Frank G. Kewlands, of Nevada, was the temporary chairman, 
 and William P. St. John, of New York, the permanent presi- 
 dent. No vote was taken during the session of the conven- 
 tion which disclosed the number of persons taking part in it, 
 or the States of which they were citizens. The members, 
 indeed, did not appear as duly accredited delegates, but rather 
 as individual members of the party. The platform, which 
 was reported on July 23, was as follows : — 
 
 The National Silver party of America, in convention assembled, 
 hereby adopts the following declaration of principles : — 
 
 First, the paramount issue at this time in the United States is 
 indisputably the money question. It is between the British gold 
 standard, gold bonds, and bank currency on the one side, and the 
 bimetallic standard, no bonds, government currency, and an Amer- 
 ican policy on the other. 
 
 On this issue we declare ourselves to be in favor of a distinctive 
 American financial system. We are unalterably opposed to the 
 single gold standard, and demand the immediate return to the 
 constitutional standard of gold and silver, by the restoration by 
 this government, independently of any foreign power, of the unre- 
 stricted coinage of both gold and silver into standard money, at 
 the ratio of sixteen to one, and upon terms of exact equality, as 
 they existed prior to 1873 ; the silver coin to be of f uU legal ten- 
 der, equally with gold, for all debts and dues, public and private ; 
 and we demand such legislation as will prevent for the future the 
 destruction of the legal tender quality of any kind of money by 
 private contract.
 
 556 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 We hold that the power to control and regulate a paper currency 
 is inseparable from the power to coin money, and hence that all 
 currency intended to circulate as money should be issued, and its 
 volume controlled, by the general government only, and should be 
 a legal tender. 
 
 We are unalterably opposed to the issue by the United States of 
 interest-bearing bonds in time of peace, and we denounce as a 
 blunder worse than a crime the present treasury policy, concurred 
 in by a Republican House of Representatives, of plunging the 
 country into debt by hundreds of millions in the vain attempt to 
 maintain the gold standard by borrowing gold ; and we demand 
 the payment of all coin obligations of the United States as pro- 
 vided by existing laws, in either gold or silver coin, at the option 
 of the government, and not at the option of the creditor. 
 
 The demonetization of silver in 1873 enormously increased the 
 demand for gold, enhancing its purchasing power and lowering 
 all prices measured by that standard ; and, since that unjust and 
 indefensible act, the prices of American products have fallen, upon 
 an average, nearly fifty per cent., carrying down with them pro- 
 portionately the money value of all other forms of property. 
 
 Such fall of prices has destroyed the profits of legitimate indus- 
 try, injuring the producer for the benefit of the non-producer ; 
 increasing the burden of the debtor, swelling the gains of the 
 creditor, paralyzing the productive energies of the American peo- 
 ple, relegating to idleness vast numbers of willing workers, send- 
 ing the shadows of despaii* into the home of the honest toiler, 
 filling the land with tramps and paupers, and building up colossal 
 fortunes at the money centres. 
 
 In the effort to maintain the gold standard the country has, 
 within the last two years, in a time of profound peace and plenty, 
 been loaded down with 1262,000,000 of additional interest-bearing 
 debt under such circumstances as to allow a syndicate of native 
 and foreign bankers to realize a net profit of millions on a single 
 deal. 
 
 It stands confessed that the gold standard can be only upheld 
 by so depleting our paper currency as to force the prices of our 
 products below the European, and even below the Asiatic, level to 
 enable us to sell in foreign markets, thus aggravating the very 
 evils of which our people so bitterly complain, degrading Ameri- 
 can labor and striking at the foundations of our civilization itself. 
 
 The advocates of the gold standard persistently claim that the 
 yeal cause of our distress is overproduction, — that we have pro- 
 duced so much that it made us poor, — which implies that the 
 true remedy is to close the factory, abandon the farm, and throw 
 a multitude of people out of employment, — a doctrine that leaves
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 557 
 
 us unnerved and disheartened, and absolutely without hope for 
 the future. 
 
 We affii'm it to be unquestioned that there can be no such 
 economic paradox as overproduction, and at the same time tens 
 of thousands of our fellow-citizens remaining half-clothed and 
 half-fed, atid piteously clamoring for the common necessities of 
 life. 
 
 Over and above all other questions of policy, we are in favor of 
 restoring to the people of the United States the time-honored 
 money of the Constitution, — gold and silver, not one but both, — 
 the money of Washington, and Hamilton, and Jefferson, and 
 ]Monroe, and Jackson, and Lincoln, to the end that the American 
 people may receive honest pay for an honest product; that the 
 American debtor may pay his just obligations in an honest stand- 
 ard, and not in a dishonest and unsound standard, appreciated 
 one hundred per cent, in purchasing power, and no appreciation 
 in debt-paying power ; and to the end, further, that silver standard 
 countries may be deprived of the unjust advantage they now 
 enjoy, in the difference in exchange between gold and silver, an 
 advantage which tariff legislation cannot overcome. 
 
 We therefore confidently appeal to the people of the United 
 States to hold in abeyance all other questions, however important 
 and even momentous they may appear, to sunder, if need be, all 
 former party ties and affiliations, and unite in one supreme effort 
 to free themselves and their children from the domination of the 
 money power, — a power more destructive than any which has 
 ever been fastened upon the civilized men of any race or in any 
 age. And upon the consummation of our desires and efforts we 
 invoke the aid of all patriotic American citizens, and the gracious 
 favor of Divine Providence. 
 
 William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for Pre- 
 sident, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for Vice-President. Both 
 nominations were made by acclamation. 
 
 Immediately after the adjournment of the Democratic con- 
 vention a movement was set on foot to organize into a party 
 those whom that convention had turned, politically, out of 
 doors. There were thousands of such men, who would not accept 
 a platform which their spokesmen at Chicago had pronounced 
 " extreme " and " revolutionary," and who nevertheless felt 
 that it would be impossible to vote for the Republican can- 
 didates. The result of repeated conferences among the leaders 
 of this group was a delegate convention which was held at 
 Indianapolis on September 2. Forty-one States and three 
 Territories were represented. There were no delegates pre-
 
 558 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 sent from Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The name 
 of National Democratic party was adopted as a designation. 
 Governor Koswell P. Flower, of New York, was the tempo- 
 rary chairman, and Senator Donelson Caffery, of Louisiana, 
 the permanent president, of the convention. The platform, 
 reported September 3 and unanimously adopted, was as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 This convention has assembled to uphold the principles on 
 which depend the honftr and welfare of the American people, in 
 order that Democrats throughout the Union may unite their pa- 
 triotic efforts to avert disaster from their country and ruin from 
 their party. 
 
 The Democratic party is pledged to equal and exact justice to 
 all men, of every creed and condition ; to the largest freedom of 
 the individual consistent with good government; to the preser- 
 vation of the federal government in its constitutional vigor, and 
 to the support of the States in all their just rights ; to economy in 
 the public expenditures ; to the maintenance of the public faith 
 and sound money ; and it is opposed to paternalism and all class 
 legislation. 
 
 The declarations of the Chicago convention attack individual 
 freedom, the right of private contract, the independence of the 
 judiciary, and the authority of the President to enforce Federal 
 laws. They advocate a reckless attempt to increase the price of 
 silver by legislation, to the debasement of our monetary standard, 
 and threaten unlimited issues of paper money by the government. 
 They abandon for Republican allies the Democratic cause of tarifE 
 reform, to court the favor of protectionists to their fiscal heresy. 
 
 In view of these and other grave departures from Democratic 
 principles, we cannot support the candidates of that convention 
 nor be bound by its acts. 
 
 The Democratic party has survived defeats, but could not sur- 
 vive a victory won in behalf of the doctrine and policy proclaimed 
 in its name at Chicago. 
 
 The conditions, however, which make possible such utterances 
 from a national convention are the direct result of class legisla- 
 tion by the Republican party. It still proclaims, as it has for 
 years, the power and duty of government to raise and maintain 
 prices by law, and it proposes no remedy for existing evils, except 
 oppressive and unjust taxation. 
 
 The national Democracy here convened therefore renews its 
 declaration of faith in Democratic principles, especially as appli- 
 cable to the conditions of the times. Taxation — tariff, excise, or 
 direct — is rightfully imposed only for public purposes, and not
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 559 
 
 for private gain. Its amount is justly measured by public expendi- 
 tures, wliich should be limited by scrupulous economy. The sum 
 derived by the Treasury from tariff and excise levies is affected by 
 the state of trade and volume of consumption. The amount re- 
 quired by the Treasury is determined by the appropriations made 
 by Congress. The demand of the Republican party for an increase 
 in tariff taxation has its pretext in the deficiency of revenue, 
 which has its causes in the stagnation of trade and reduced con- 
 sumption, due entirely to the loss of confidence that has followed 
 the Populist threat of free coinage and depreciation of our money, 
 and the Republican practice of extravagant appropriations beyond 
 the needs of good government. 
 
 We arraign and condemn the Populist conventions of Chicago 
 and St. Louis for their cooperation with the Republican party in 
 creating these conditions, which are pleaded in justification of a 
 heavy increase of the burdens of the people by a further resort to 
 protection. We therefore denounce protection and its ally, free 
 coinage of silver, as schemes for the personal profit of a few at 
 the expense of the masses, and oppose the two parties which stand 
 for these schemes as hostile to the people of the republic, whose 
 food and shelter, comfort and prosperity, are attacked by higher 
 taxes and depreciated money. In fine, we reaffirm the historic 
 Democratic doctrine of tariff for revenue only. 
 
 We demand that henceforth modern and liberal policies toward 
 American shipping shall take the place of our imitation of the 
 restricted statutes of the eighteenth century, which were long ago 
 abandoned by every maritime power but the United States, and 
 which, to the nation's humiliation, have driven American capital 
 and enterprise to the use of alien flags and alien crews, have made 
 the Stars and Stripes almost an unknown emblem in foreign 
 ports, and have virtually extinguished the race of American sea- 
 men. We oppose the pretence that discriminating duties will 
 promote shipping ; that scheme is an invitation to commercial 
 warfare upon the United States, un-American in the light of our 
 great commercial treaties, offering no gain whatever to American 
 shipping, while greatly increasing ocean freights on our agricul- 
 tural and manufactured products. 
 
 The experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of their 
 natural qualities, gold is the necessary money of the large affairs 
 of commerce and business, while silver is conveniently adapted to 
 minor transactions, and the most beneficial use of both together 
 can be insured only by the adoption of the former as a stand- 
 ard of monetary measure, and the maintenance of silver at a 
 parity with gold by its limited coinage under suitable safeguards 
 of law. Thus the largest possible enjoyment of both metals is
 
 560 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 gained with a value universally accepted throughout the world, 
 which constitutes the only practical bimetallic currency, assuring 
 the most stable standard, and especially the best and safest money 
 for all who earn their livelihood by labor or the produce of hus- 
 bandry. They cannot suffer when paid in the best money known 
 to man, but are the peculiar and most defenceless victims of a 
 debased and fluctuating currency, which offers continual profits 
 to the money changer at their cost. 
 
 Realizing these truths, demonstrated by long and public incon- 
 venience and loss, the Democratic party, in the interests of the 
 masses and of equal justice to all, practically established by the 
 legislation of 1834 and 1853 the gold standard of monetary mea- 
 surement, and likewise entirely divorced the government from 
 banking and currency issues. To this long -established Democratic 
 policy we adhere, and insist upon the maintenance of the gold 
 standard, and of the parity therewith of every dollar issued by 
 the government, and are firmly opposed to the free and unlimited 
 coinage of silver and to the compulsory purchase of silver bullion. 
 But we denounce also the further maintenance of the present costly 
 patchwork system of national paper currency as a constant source 
 of injury and peril. We assert the necessity of such intelligent 
 currency reform as will confine the government to its legitimate 
 functions, completely separated from the banking business, and 
 afford to all sections of our country uniform, safe, and elastic bank 
 currency under governmental supervision, measured in volume by 
 the needs of business. 
 
 The fidelity, patriotism, and courage with which President 
 Cleveland has fulfilled his great public trust, the high character 
 of his administration, its wisdom and energy in the maintenance 
 of civil order and the enforcement of the laws, its equal regard 
 for the rights of every class and every section, its firm and dig- 
 nified conduct of foreign affairs, and its sturdy persistence in up- 
 holding the credit and honor of the nation, are fully recognized 
 by the Democratic party, and will secure to him a place in history 
 beside the fathers of the republic. 
 
 We also commend the administration for the great progress 
 made in the reform of the public service, and we indorse its effort 
 to extend the merit system still further. We demand that no 
 backward step be taken, but that the reform be supported and 
 advanced until the un-Democratic spoils system of appointments 
 shall be eradicated. 
 
 We demand strict economy in the appropriations and in the 
 administration of the government. 
 
 We favor arbitration for the settlement of international dis- 
 putes.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 561 
 
 We favor a liberal policy of pensions to deserving soldiers and 
 sailors of the United States. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States was wisely established 
 by the framers of our Constitution as one of the three coordinate 
 branches of the government. Its independence and authority to 
 interpret the law of the land without fear or favor must be main- 
 tained. "VVe condemn all efforts to degrade that tribunal or im- 
 pair the confidence and respect which it has deservedly held. 
 
 l"he Democratic party ever has maintained, and ever will 
 maintain, the supremacy of law, the independence of its judicial 
 administration, the inviolability of contracts, and the obligations 
 of all good citizens to resist every illegal trust, combination, or 
 attempt against the just rights of property and the good order 
 of society, in which are bound up the peace and happiness of our 
 people. 
 
 Believing these principles to be essential to the well-being of 
 the republic, we submit them to the consideration of the Amer- 
 ican people. 
 
 John M. Palmer, of Illinois, was nominated for President 
 on the first vote. He received 769^ votes ; General Edward 
 S. Bragg, of Wisconsin, 118^ votes. General Siraon B. 
 Buckner, of Kentucky, was nominated by acclamation for 
 Vice-President. 
 
 The canvass so remarkably begun continued to be unique 
 and sensational to the end. The Republicans who seceded 
 from the convention at St. Louis, and most of those who 
 agreed with them on the silver question, made common cause 
 with the Democrats. The dissident Democrats were divided 
 in their course of action, but were animated by one and the 
 same purpose, namely, to defeat the regular candidates of their 
 own party in the only possible way, by helping the election of 
 Mr. McKinley. Where a separate organization seemed to pro- 
 mise to draw away more votes from Mr. Bryan, they rallied 
 around the " National Democratic " standard. Where direct 
 support of the Republican candidates seemed necessary, they 
 were ready to give that support. Many of them participated 
 in the nomination of National Democratic candidates for office, 
 and even addressed audiences on the stump in favor of them, 
 in order to draw away votes from Mr. Bryan ; hut they them- 
 selves voted for McKinley. The Prohibition party, never 
 large, was divided ; the faction which had insisted at the 
 national convention, that the question of the sale of intoxicat- 
 ing liquor was the great issue before the people, could not
 
 562 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 hold its own members to that position ; the other faction was 
 strongly attracted, in a body, toward the coalesced forces of 
 Free Silver. Even the Populists were in a state of hopeless 
 dissension. It was apparent to the merest tyro in politics 
 that a separate electoral ticket in any State for Bryan and 
 Watson was as little in favor of Bryan as the ticket for 
 Palmer and Buckner. In short, the " Middle-of-the-road " 
 programme was one of practical though undeclared hostility 
 to the head of the ticket it professed to support. This fact 
 was recognized by many of the leaders of the party, especially 
 by those who had been intrusted with authority to speak in 
 the name of the party. Mr. Watson, the candidate for Vice- 
 President, reproached them for taking a course which he re- 
 garded as resulting in a sacrifice of himself, of the principles 
 of the Populist party, and of its separate organization. It 
 does not seem unjust to them to surmise that they were, in 
 fact, chiefly desirous of the election of Mr. Bryan, and that 
 at any cost to Mr. Watson they would do that which they 
 thought would contribute most to the success of the head of 
 the ticket. 
 
 At first sight the action of the Democratic convention, in 
 taking a position where a great number of the members of the 
 party could not support platform and candidates without a 
 tremendous sacrifice of principle, might seem the height of 
 political folly. Examined more carefully and critically, the 
 reason of their action and the justification of it are obvious. 
 The leaders in the Silver movement had no hope of success 
 in a canvass based on the tariif issue. There was therefore 
 nothing to lose by shifting the field of contest. In taking a 
 firm stand in favor of free coinage, these men doubtless had 
 two things in view, as to both of which the event showed their 
 judgment to have been sound : first, that, whether it were self- 
 consistent or not, the great body of the party would continue 
 to support the ticket; and, secondly, that an addition of the 
 Populist vote to the Democratic vote would in many of the 
 States convert a minority into a majority. They were sure, 
 moreover, that all the so-called " Silver States " would give 
 their electoral votes to the Silver candidate ; and were con- 
 fident that in all the States there were many Silver Repub- 
 licans who would leave their party rather than vote for the 
 gold standard. In the early days of the canvass these facts 
 impressed themselves so strongly upon the Republicans that
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN f>63 
 
 many of them believed Mr. Bryan's chances of election to be 
 alarmingly good. The voters had never stood up to be counted 
 on the silver question. Democrats who had declared most 
 solemnly that they could never be drawn into the support of 
 Free Silver went back into the party ; some who would not 
 give their assent to the platform nevertheless announced their 
 purpose to vote for the candidates. The whole of the extreme 
 We«t and the Pacific coast seemed so devoted to the cause of 
 Free Silver that Republicans were inclined to concede all those 
 States to Mr. Bryan. 
 
 The first notable event of the canvass was the appearance 
 of Mr. Bryan in New York city, where he made a speech. 
 The time was midsummer, the most unpropitious season that 
 could have been chosen, and the extreme heat that prevailed 
 made against the candidate. Before the speech the Repub- 
 licans were in a state of alarm as to the result in November ; 
 after it they hardly regarded Mr. Bryan as a dangerous ant- 
 agonist. A week or two later, indications of the impending 
 result began to appear. Alabama and Arkansas elected state 
 officers in August. In each of the States the Democratic ma- 
 jority showed an increase over that of preceding elections ; but 
 no special significance was attached to the fact in any quarter, 
 save in so far as it gave reason for thinking that the new 
 departure of the Democratic party would not cause it a loss of 
 electoral votes in the Southern States. In September Ver- 
 mont gave a Republican majority of more than 29,000 over all 
 other parties combined — by far the largest majority ever given 
 in a Vermont state election. Next came the election in Maine, 
 where the Republican candidate for governor received more 
 than two thirds of the whole vote, and had a majority of 
 42,000 over the combined opposition. In these States the 
 result alarmed the Democrats as little as the Southern elec- 
 tions had disturbed the Republicans. Nevertheless, after the 
 event we can see that it foreshadowed the election of Mr. 
 McKinley. It indicated the drift of public sentiment through- 
 out the North. The causes which produced the great major- 
 ities in the two New England States were operating with 
 equal force in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and In- 
 diana, — the four doubtful States of the North in former 
 elections, — as well as in the large States of the central 
 Northwest. Yet the supporters of Mr. Bryan looked for- 
 ward with confidence to the verdict of the people. They
 
 564 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 were assured that thousands of the voters in every State were 
 concealing their intentions, and while professing to be in favor 
 of Mr. McKinley, and even wearing his badges, would never- 
 theless cast a quiet vote for Mr. Bryan on election day. Their 
 confidence was fostered by the extraordinary thronging of the 
 people to hear Mr. Bryan, who was travelling almost inces- 
 santly for several months in all parts of the country, and 
 addressing many audiences every day. Mr. Bryan's physical 
 endurance under the tremendous strain of his protracted and 
 busy campaign, and the eager desire of the people to see and 
 hear him, were two of the most remarkable incidents of the 
 canvass. 
 
 The days and weeks passed in the most intense popular ex- 
 citement. Almost nothing was discussed but the silver ques- 
 tion ; almost nothing excited interest save the prospects of the 
 two candidates. Mr. McKinley's part in the canvass was as 
 active as Mr. Bryan's, although quite different in method. He 
 remained at his home in Canton, Ohio, where he received and 
 addressed hundreds of visiting parties. Excursions to Canton 
 were organized not only all over Ohio, but in other and in 
 some far-distant States. Parties consisting of a large number 
 of persons went in many cases hundreds of miles to call upon 
 Mr. McKinley, to assure him of their support, and to be ad- 
 dressed by him. The Republican candidate was inclined at 
 first to lay more stress upon the tariff policy of his party than 
 upon the importance of maintaining the gold standard. But 
 the paramount interest in the financial question did not allow 
 him to continue on that line, and when he spoke upon the 
 money issue he spoke boldly and courageously. 
 
 The Silver forces effected an almost complete fusion. The 
 Populist managers disregarded to a great extent the policy 
 which their national convention had favored, — the " Middle- 
 of-the-road " policy. They were deaf to the somewhat frantic 
 expostulations of Mr. Watson, and effected a close alliance 
 with the Democrats. In twenty-six of the States they made 
 a division of the electors, but in eighteen of these States they 
 allowed the Democrats to have a majority of the candidates 
 on the ticket; in four there was an equal division, and in the 
 other four the Populists had one majority in each. In all the 
 twenty-six States there were 197 Democratic electors and 79 
 Populist electors on the fusion tickets. Mr. Watson was not so 
 blind as not to see that, even if Mr. Bryan were elected, there
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 
 
 565 
 
 would be no choice of a Vice-President by the electors ; that 
 Mr. Hobart and Mr. Sewall would be the two candidates eli- 
 gible, under the Constitution, to be voted for by the Senate ; 
 and that Mr. Sewall would probably be elected. The Pop- 
 ulist managers also were fully aware of this fact, but they did 
 not intend to imperil any chance Mr. Bryan might have by 
 presenting separate electoral tickets in order to please Mr. 
 Watson. In a few States, nevertheless, the '' Middle-of-the- 
 road " men refused to be " sold out " to the Democrats and set 
 up independent tickets. Por the most part, however, the two 
 parties worked in harmony. Indeed, the word "Popocrat" 
 was invented to describe the combined forces of the two 
 parties who, on other issues beside that of silver, — notably 
 the " government by injunction,'' and the income tax, — were 
 in full agreement. The following table shows how, had the 
 coalition been successful, the electoral votes for Vice-President 
 would have been distributed in the twenty-six States where 
 there was a fusion : — 
 
 States. 
 
 Arkansas . 
 California . 
 Colorado * . 
 Connecticut 
 Idaho* . . 
 Illinois . . 
 Indiana . . 
 Iowa . 
 Kentucky . 
 Louisiana . 
 Massachusetts 
 Michigan . 
 Minnesota . 
 Missouri 
 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 States. 
 
 Montana . . 
 Nebraska . . 
 New Jersey . 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio . . . 
 Oregon . . . 
 Pennsylvania . 
 Utah . . . 
 Washington . 
 West Virginia 
 Wisconsin . . 
 Wyoming . . 
 
 Total. 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 9 
 5 
 
 18 
 2 
 
 28 
 1 
 2 
 4 
 
 198 
 
 CL,H 
 
 78 
 
 * The Populist electors in Colorado and Idaho, and some others in other States voted 
 for Mr. Sewall for Vice-President. 
 
 At the close of the canvass the people were wrought up to 
 the highest pitch of excitement. Never before was the dis- 
 play of political emblems so profuse. The city streets Avere 
 decorated from end to end with huge flags and banners bearing 
 the names of the candidates. Lithograph portraits of McKinley
 
 566 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 or of Bryan were exhibited in the front windows of dwellings 
 and shops. Buttons showing the familiar features were worn 
 in the lappels of their coats by hundreds of thousands, if not 
 by millions, of men and boys. 
 
 Almost fourteen million citizens went to the polls. The num- 
 ber of votes given in the table on the next page is 13,936,957, 
 — by far the largest number ever cast at a popular election in 
 any country. Throughout the country the polling was orderly. 
 Although the indications of a great Kepublican victory had 
 been apparent for weeks, even months, to the most casual 
 observer, many of the supporters of Mr. Bryan entertained 
 hopes, some of them were even confident, of success to the 
 last. The earliest returns gave assurance of an overwhelming 
 majority for Mr. McKinley, and the prognostication was con- 
 firmed as one State after another was heard from. The East- 
 ern, Middle, and Central Northwestern States were carried by 
 the Republicans, without an exception, by unprecedented 
 majorities. The South even was not " solid " for Bryan. 
 Only during the reconstruction period had the Republicans 
 ever obtained any electoral votes in the States from Delaware 
 to Texas. Now Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia gave 
 McKinley substantial majorities ; and even Kentucky, the 
 " dark and bloody ground " of the Democratic conflict between 
 the Gold and the Silver forces, yielded him a narrow margin. 
 No northern State east of the Missouri River gave Bryan a 
 single electoral vote, and even on the Pacific slope the Repub- 
 licans won California and Oregon. 
 
 On the other hand the Democrats wrested from the Repub- 
 licans Kansas and Nebraska, together with the whole group of 
 mining States, except California ; and their majority in such 
 States as Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri, and Texas, was im- 
 mense. 
 
 In presenting the accompanying table of the popular vote, 
 it is proper to say that it differs from any other table pub- 
 lished. Errors more or less numerous are discoverable in all 
 the tables published by the political almanacs and by Apple- 
 ton's Annual Cyclopaedia. Where the figures given in these 
 tables differ, an attempt has been made to obtain from state 
 authorities the final official figures. In a few cases no re- 
 sponse has been made to requests for the true returns. It 
 cannot be claimed for the returns which follow that they are 
 absolutely correct, but they are believed to be more nearly so
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 
 
 567 
 
 POPULAR VOTE. 
 
 
 1 
 
 B 
 
 d 
 
 
 e3 
 
 u 
 
 .a 
 
 1 « 
 
 .a 
 
 States. 
 
 M 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 •3 <£ 
 
 
 «1 
 
 ^tS 
 
 
 .2 
 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 1 
 
 SS5 
 
 
 % 
 
 1 
 
 pq 
 
 
 
 •-5 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 Alabama .... 
 
 54,737 
 
 131,226 
 
 24,089 
 
 6,462 
 
 2,147 
 
 
 
 Arkansas . . 
 
 
 
 37,512 
 
 110,103 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 839 
 
 893 
 
 _ 
 
 California . 
 
 
 
 14G,C88 
 
 144,766 
 
 21.730 
 
 2,006 
 
 2,573 
 
 1,047 
 
 1,611 
 
 Colorado . . 
 
 
 
 26,271 
 
 161,269 
 
 2,389 
 
 1 
 
 1,717 
 
 386 
 
 160 
 
 Connecticut . 
 
 
 
 110,285 
 
 56,740 
 
 - 
 
 4,336 
 
 1,806 
 
 - 
 
 1,223 
 
 Delaware . . 
 
 
 
 20,452 
 
 16,615 
 
 - 
 
 966 
 
 602 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Florida . . 
 
 
 
 11,257 
 
 31,958 
 
 1,977 
 
 1,772 
 
 644 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Georgia . . 
 
 
 
 60,091 
 
 94,672 
 
 440 
 
 2,708 
 
 5,716 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Idaho . . . 
 
 
 
 6,324 
 
 23,192 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 181 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Illinois . . 
 
 
 
 607,130 
 
 464,-523 
 
 1,090 
 
 6,390 
 
 9,796 
 
 793 
 
 1,147 
 
 Indiana . . 
 
 
 
 323,754 
 
 305,573 
 
 - 
 
 2,145 
 
 3,056 
 
 2,267 
 
 324 
 
 Iowa . . . 
 
 
 
 289,293 
 
 223,741 
 
 - 
 
 4,516 
 
 3,192 
 
 352 
 
 453 
 
 Kansas . . 
 
 
 
 159,541 
 
 171,810 
 
 46,194 
 
 1,209 
 
 1,921 
 
 630 
 
 _ 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 
 
 218,171 
 
 217,890 
 
 - 
 
 5,114 
 
 4,781 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 
 
 22,037 
 
 77,175 
 
 - 
 
 1,915 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 
 
 80,461 
 
 34,587 
 
 2,387 
 
 1,866 
 
 1,589 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Maryland 
 
 
 
 136,978 
 
 104,746 
 
 - 
 
 2,507 
 
 5,922 
 
 136 
 
 588 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 
 
 278,976 
 
 105,711 
 
 15,181 
 
 11,749 
 
 2,998 
 
 - 
 
 2,114 
 
 Michigan . . 
 
 
 
 293,582 
 
 237,268 
 
 - 
 
 6,968 
 
 5,025 
 
 1,995 
 
 297 
 
 Minnesota . 
 
 
 
 193,503 
 
 139,735 
 
 - 
 
 3 222 
 
 4,363 
 
 - 
 
 954 
 
 Mississippi . 
 
 
 
 5,123 
 
 03,793 
 
 7,517 
 
 hon 
 
 485 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Missouri . . 
 
 
 
 304,940 
 
 363,652 
 
 - 
 
 2,355 
 
 2,169 
 
 293 
 
 599 
 
 Montana . . 
 
 
 
 10,494 
 
 42,.537 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 186 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Nebraska . . 
 
 
 
 103,064 
 
 115,999 
 
 - 
 
 2,797 
 
 1,243 
 
 797 
 
 186 
 
 Nevada . . 
 
 
 
 1,938 
 
 8,377 
 
 575 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 
 
 57,444 
 
 21,650 
 
 379 
 
 3,520 
 
 779 
 
 49 
 
 228 
 
 New Jersey . 
 
 
 
 221,367 
 
 133,675 
 
 - 
 
 6,373 
 
 5.614 
 
 - 
 
 3,985 
 
 New York . 
 
 
 
 819,838 
 
 5.51,369 
 
 - 
 
 18,950 
 
 16,052 
 
 - 
 
 17,667 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 
 
 155,222 
 
 174,488 
 
 - 
 
 578 
 
 676 
 
 245 
 
 - 
 
 North Dakota 
 
 
 
 26,335 
 
 20,686 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 358 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Ohio . . . 
 
 
 
 525,991 
 
 477,497 
 
 2,615 
 
 1,858 
 
 5,068 
 
 2,716 
 
 1,167 
 
 Oregon . . 
 
 
 
 48,779 
 
 46,662 
 
 - 
 
 977 
 
 919 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 728,300 
 
 433,2.30 
 
 11,176 
 
 10,921 
 
 19,274 
 
 870 
 
 1,683 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 
 
 37,437 
 
 14,459 
 
 - 
 
 1,166 
 
 1,160 
 
 5 
 
 558 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 
 
 9,313 
 
 58,801 
 
 - 
 
 824 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 South Dakota 
 
 
 
 41,042 
 
 41,225 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 683 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 
 
 148,773 
 
 166,268 
 
 4,525 
 
 1,951 
 
 3,098 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Texas . . . 
 
 
 
 167,520 
 
 370,434 
 
 79,572 
 
 5,046 
 
 1,786 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Utah . . . 
 
 
 
 13,491 
 
 &1,607 
 
 - 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Vermont . . 
 
 
 
 50,991 
 
 10,607 
 
 461 
 
 1,329 
 
 728 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 
 
 135,388 
 
 154,985 
 
 - 
 
 2,127 
 
 2,350 
 
 - 
 
 115 
 
 Washington . 
 
 
 
 39,153 
 
 51,646 
 
 - 
 
 1,668 
 
 968 
 
 148 
 
 - 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 
 104,414 
 
 92,927 
 
 - 
 
 677 
 
 1,203 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 
 
 268,135 
 
 165,523 
 
 - 
 
 4,584 
 
 7,609 
 
 346 
 
 1,314 
 
 Wyoming . . . 
 
 10,072 
 
 10,655 
 
 286 
 
 - 
 
 136 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 7,111,607 
 
 6,509,052 
 
 222,583 
 
 134,645 
 
 131,312 
 
 13,968 
 
 36,373 
 
 * Bryan and Watson's vote is included in the vote for W. J. Bryan. 
 
 than any previous table. They are made up upon the princi- 
 ple of giving the highest vote for any name on the electoral
 
 568 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENCY 
 
 ELECTORAL VOTE. 
 
 
 Pbesident. 
 
 Vice-Prbsidbnt. 
 
 States. 
 
 
 n 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 d 
 ^ 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 3 
 
 24 
 15 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 8 
 15 
 14 
 9 
 
 4 
 10 
 36 
 
 3 
 23 
 
 4 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 1 
 4 
 
 4 
 13 
 3 
 
 10 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 17 
 3 
 8 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 4 
 12 
 15 
 3 
 
 12 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 3 
 
 24 
 15 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 15 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 10 
 36 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 4 
 
 32 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 1 
 4 
 
 4 
 13 
 3 
 
 10 
 1 
 4 
 
 9 
 13 
 2 
 4 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 Florida 
 
 _ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 4 
 
 Maryland 
 
 - 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota • 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Utah 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 271 
 
 176 
 
 271 
 
 149 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 ticket, and not for the first name on the ticket. The vote for 
 Bryan is the combined vote for Bryan and Sewall, and for 
 Bryan and Watson. The Bryan and Watson vote is given 
 separately, but is to be disregarded in making up the total vote.
 
 THE FREE SILVER CAMPAIGN 569 
 
 According to the figures here presented the plurality for 
 Mr. McKinley was 602,555, and his majority over all the can- 
 didates combined was 286,257. 
 
 The electoral vote, which is given in a separate table, re- 
 flects the closeness of the vote in California and Kentucky, in 
 each of which States one elector voted for Bryan and Sewall. 
 
 The electoral count took place on the 10th of February, 
 1897. It was conducted in accordance with the law, and was 
 strictly without incident. The inauguration of Mr. McKinley 
 on the 4th of March was made the occasion of a great popular 
 demonstration by the Republicans, who flocked to Washington 
 in large numbers to witness the ceremony. 
 
 The immediate subsidence of excitement after the result of 
 the election was ascertained, and the good-humored acceptance 
 of that result by all save a few grievously disappointed lead- 
 ers of the defeated party, is not a new experience in American 
 political life. We have seen it after other historic struggles. 
 The Federalists thought that all was lost when Jeff"erson was 
 elected. Jackson's triumph seemed to his opponents a victory 
 of evil over good. The Democrats lost faith in popular gov- 
 ernment when Harrison was chosen. To the supporters of 
 Mr. Tilden the declaration that Mr. Hayes was elected was 
 nothing short of a great political crime. Yet after a momen- 
 tary loss of temper all these good people recovered themselves 
 and devoted their energies to the public service with zeal and 
 with undiminished hope and confidence. So it was in 1896. 
 In some respects the result was the greatest trial of the tem- 
 per of the defeated party the country has ever known. The 
 aims of the Democratic party were, — not to use the phrase 
 offensively, — in a certain sense revolutionary. They were 
 intended to array the weak, the poor, the debtors, the em- 
 ployed, against the men who were designated as plutocrats. 
 The failure of such an attack is sometimes almost as dangerous 
 to society as its success. The fact that, when the American 
 people had spoken at the polls upon questions that involved 
 the highest interests of society, the decision was quietly 
 accepted as conclusive until a new occasion should arise for 
 passing upon them in the orderly American way, is most cred- 
 itable to them, and a happy augury for the future.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abolitionists, condemned by tbe 
 Democrats, 200, 266 ; convention of 
 1839, 202; of 1843, 216; defeat Clay, 
 224 ; convention of 1847, 232 ; of 1852, 
 253. 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis, nominated 
 for Vice-President, 239; in canvass 
 of 1872, 340, 344. 
 
 Adams, John, suggested for .Vice- 
 President, 24 ; elected, 27 ; his jour- 
 ney to New York and inauguration, 
 30; reelected Vice-President, 39; 
 named for President, 44; virulent 
 attacks upon him, 45 ; elected Pres- 
 ident, 51 ; his inauguration, 53 ; 
 counts the votes and declares his 
 own election, 52; relations to the 
 Federalist party, 56; defeated in 
 1800,63 ; elector for Monroe, 1820, 118. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, goes over to 
 the Republican party, 93; on the 
 Missouri Enabling Act, 117 ; receives 
 one vote for President in 1820, 118, 
 121 ; candidate in 1824, 126, 129. 131 ; 
 popular votes for, 136 ; electoral 
 votes, 140 ; chosen by the House of 
 Representatives, 140 ; his inaugura- 
 tion, 141 ; his character and admin- 
 istration, 142; attacks Massachu- 
 setts Federalists, 146 ; popular votes 
 for, in 1828, 148 ; defeated, 149 ; in 
 the House of Representatives, 19.3. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy (the younger), 
 350. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, suggested for Vice- 
 President, 24; his course in the can- 
 vass of 1796, 48 ; votes for, in 1796, 51. 
 
 Adet, M.. French ambassador, endea- 
 vors to defeat John Adams, 46. 
 
 Alabama, admitted to the Union, 118. 
 
 Alien and sedition laws, 67, 201. 
 
 Alien ownership of land. See Land, 
 public. 
 
 Allison, William B., 392, 538. 
 
 American party. See Native Amer- 
 ican. 
 
 American party of 1888, conven- 
 tion, 480. 
 
 Annexation of Texas. See Texas. 
 
 Anti-Federalist party, 32 ; see Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 Anti-Masonic party, its origin, 155; 
 national convention in 1830, 155; 
 merged with Whig party, 180. 
 
 Anti-Monopoly party, convention of. 
 in 1884, 421. 
 
 Anti-Nebraska Democrats, 260. 
 
 " Anti-Snappers" of 1892, 493. 
 
 Arbitrary arrests during the Civil 
 
 War, 298, 304. 
 
 Arbitration, settlement of interna- 
 tional disputes by, 256, 365, 441, 462, 
 466, 507, 520, 621, 560. 
 
 Arkansas, admitted to the Union, 
 184 ; vote of 1872 objected to, 354. 
 
 Armstrongr, James, votes for in 1789, 
 27. 
 
 Army vote in 1864, 307. 
 
 Arthur, Chester A., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 408; elected, 417; 
 becomes President, 419 ; In canvass 
 of 1884, 427, 432. 
 
 Ashburton Treaty, 238, 250. 
 
 Baltimore, the Harrison procession 
 in, in 1840, 196. 
 
 Bank of the United States, second 
 bank incorporated, 108 ; war upon, by 
 Jackson, 155, 157, 178 ; veto of char- 
 ter renewal, 162; the panic of 1837, 
 191 ; Van Buren continues war upon, 
 192 ; condemned by Democrats, 200 ; 
 Tyler's opposition to, 207; in plat> 
 forms, 200. 
 
 Banks, national, in politics and plat- 
 forms, 333, 365, 367, 409, 544, 561.
 
 572 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Banks, Nathaniel P., 271 : electoral 
 vote for, 353. 
 
 Barbour, James, 114, 119, 145, 194. 
 
 " Barnbiirners," faction of the Dem- 
 ocratic party, 229 ; convention of, 
 1848, 238. 
 
 Bayard, James A., reasons for aban- 
 doning Burr, 71. 
 
 Bayard, Tbomas F., 349, 379, 387, 412, 
 
 414, 415, 440. 
 
 Bell, John, nominated for President, 
 289 ; popular and electoral votes for, 
 297. 
 
 Bentley, Charles E., nominated for 
 President, 532; popular votes for 
 567. 
 
 Bidwell, John, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 508. 
 
 Bimetallism. See Silver. 
 
 Bimey, James G., nominated for. 
 President, 202; popular votes for, 
 203; nominated, 1843, 216; popular 
 votes for, 223; accused of seeking 
 alliance with Democrats, 224. 
 
 Black, James, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 340 ; popular votes for, 352. 
 
 Blaine, James G., 330, 362, 368, 373, 
 402, 407, 408, 427 ; nominated for Pres- 
 ident, 432; popular and electoral 
 votes for, 448; Paris interview on 
 the tariff, 458; withdraws from the 
 canvass for 1888, 459; attempt to 
 stampede convention for, 478; Sec- 
 retary of State, 489, 492; resigns, 
 493 ; votes for, in convention of 1892, 
 497. 
 
 Blair, Francis P., Jr., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 326 ; popular and 
 electoral votes for, 328. 
 
 " Bloody shirt," waving the, 357. 
 
 Bonds, taxation of United States, 
 316, 322, 336 ; payment of, with green- 
 backs, 316, 322, 333, 336 ; issue Of, in 
 time Of peace, 544, 552, 556. 
 
 Booth, Newton, nominated for Vice- 
 President, and declined, 367. 
 
 Botts, John M., letter from, on Tyler, 
 207 ; in canvass of 1860, 289. 
 
 Bradley, Stephen R., call for a con- 
 gressional caucus in 1808, 90. 
 
 Bramlette, Thomas E., votes for, as 
 Vice-President in 1872, 353. 
 
 Breckinridgre, John C, nominated 
 for Vice-President, 265 ; elected, 276 ; 
 nominated for President, 285, 287; 
 
 popular and electoral votes for, 
 
 297. 
 
 Bristow, Benjamin H., 363, 368, 373. 
 " Broad g'augre " Prohibitionists, 
 
 528. 
 
 Brooks, John A., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 468. 
 
 Brown, B. Gratz, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 344, 349; electoral 
 votes for, 353. 
 
 Brown, John, raid by, 281. 
 
 Bryan, William J., 542, 547; nomu 
 nated for President by the Demo- 
 crats, 548; by the People's party, 
 554; by the National Silver party, 
 567 ; his personal canvass, 563, 564 J 
 popular votes for, 567 ; electoral 
 votes for, 568. 
 
 Buchanan, James, 138, 209 ; votes for, 
 in convention of 1844, 212; of 1848, 
 233 ; in canvass of 1852, 247 ; the Os- 
 tend Manifesto, 261; in canvass of 
 1856, 264; nominated, 265; elected, 
 276 ; his administration, 280. 
 
 Buckner, Simon B., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 561. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, votes for, in 1792, 39 ; 
 candidate with Jefferson in 1796, 
 44 ; votes for, 51 ; nominated by cau- 
 cus in 1800, 59 ; votes for, 63 ; be- 
 comes Vice-President, 73. 
 
 Butler, Benjamin F., 283, 330; in 
 electoral count of 1869, 331 ;" in can- 
 vass of 1880, 411 ; nominated for 
 President, 423, 427; popular votes 
 for, 448. 
 
 Butler. William 0., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 234; electoral votes 
 for, 243 ; in canvass of 1852, 249. 
 
 Calhoun, John C, 98, 117; proposed 
 for President, 126; candidate for 
 Vice-President, 132 ; elected, 135 ; re- 
 elected, 149 ; suggested for President 
 in 1844, 208; votes for, in conven- 
 tion, 212; negotiates treaty for an- 
 nexation of Texas, 227 ; votes for, in 
 convention of 1848, 233; the com- 
 promises of 1850, 245. 
 
 California, admitted to the Union, 
 246, 257; its vote divided in 1880, 
 418 ; in 1892, 517 : in 1896, 566. 
 
 Cambrelengf, Churchill C, political 
 mission in the South, 144. 
 
 Carlisle, John G., 440.
 
 INDEX 
 
 573 
 
 " Carpet-bagre'ers," 357. 
 
 Gary, Samuel F, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 367. 
 
 Cass, Lewis, votes for, in convention 
 of 1844, 209; nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 233; popular and electoral 
 votes for, 243 ; in canvass of 1852, 
 247. 
 
 Casus omissus, 119, 271, 450. 
 
 Caucus, Cougrressional, nominations. 
 Federalist and Republican, in 1800, 
 58, 59 ; JefEerson and George Clinton 
 nominated in 1804, 82 ; opposition to, 
 in 1808, 90 ; Madison nominated, 91 ; 
 nominations in 1812, 99; opposition 
 to, in 1816, 109, 110; abortive caucus 
 in 1820, 117 ; discussion of, and war 
 against, 1822 to 1824, 126, 130 ; result 
 of, 131 ; faults of the caucu^ system, 
 
 168. 
 
 Chambers, B. J., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 411. 
 
 Chase, Salmon P., 270, 290, 294, 321, 
 
 325, 340, 344. 
 
 Cherokee and Creek Indians, their 
 
 removal, 154, 157. 
 Chinese labor and immigration, in 
 
 politics and platforms, 335, 336, 371, 
 377, 401, 405, 410, 414, 416, 419, 430, 
 438, 444, 462, 469, 474, 502. 
 
 Cipher despatches, 381. 
 Civil rights bill vetoed by Mr. John- 
 son, 315. 
 Civil service reform, in politics and 
 
 platforms, 153, 158, 334, 337, 343, 34T, 
 370, 406, 419, 430, 437, 457, 466, 469, 477, 
 496, ,501, 536, 546, 560. 
 Clay, Henry, 98, 99 ; opposes the cau- 
 cus in 1816, 109 ; on electoral vote of 
 Indiana, 113; on electoral vote of 
 Missouri, 119; candidate for Presi- 
 dent in 1824, 126 ; suggestion of a 
 coalition with Crawford, 132 ; popu- 
 »lar votes for, 136; charged with a 
 corrupt bargain, 138 ; electoral votes 
 for, in 1824, 140 ; suggested for Vice- 
 President, 1828, 145 ; nominated by 
 National Republicans, 157 ; popular 
 votes for, 163 ; electoral votes, 164 ; 
 inquiry by, into qualifications of 
 electors, 184; his attitude in 1839, 
 193, 194; his letter on Texas, 210; 
 nominated by Whigs in 1844, 220; 
 popular and electoral votes for, 223 ; 
 defeated by Abolitionists, 224; in 
 
 canvass of 1848,230 ; defeated in con- 
 vention, 237; the compromises of 
 1850, 245. 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, elected Governor 
 of New York, 420, 433 ; nominated 
 for President, 440 ; elected, 448 ; and 
 civil service reform, 457 ; events of 
 his first administration, 458; nonii 
 nated for reelection, 471 ; popular 
 and electoral votes for, in 1888, 483; 
 in canvass of 1892,493 ; nominated in 
 1892, 504 ; elected, 517 ; foreign rela- 
 tions dm-ing his second administra- 
 tion, 519; alienated from his party, 
 523 ; Democratic convention refuses 
 to approve his administration, 547, 
 548; commended by National Dem- 
 ocrats, 560. 
 
 Clinton, DeWitt, 78, 79, 92 ; candidate 
 for President, 100 ; votes for, in 1812, 
 104 ; a candidate in 1824, 126 ; favors 
 popular vote for appointing elec- 
 tors, 147. 
 
 Clinton, Georgre, candidate of the 
 Anti-Federalists, 26; votes for, in 
 1789, 27 ; opposed to John Adams, 
 in 1792, 34 ; votes for, as Vice-Presi- 
 dent in 1792, 39 ; votes for, in 1796, 
 51 ; nominated by caucus for Vice- 
 President, 82 ; elected, 84 ; nomi- 
 nated in 1808, 91 ; repudiates the 
 caucus, 92; reelected, 95; died in 
 office, 99. 
 
 Cochrane, John, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 300 ; withdraws, 301. 
 
 Colfax, Schuyler, 318 ; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 321 ; elected, 328 ; 
 
 defeated in 1872, 348. 
 
 Colorado, act to admit as a State, 
 vetoed, 315 ; admitted to the Union, 
 380. 
 
 Colquitt, Alfred H., votes for, as 
 Vice-President in 1872, 353. 
 
 Commission, Electoral. See Elec- 
 toral Commission. 
 
 Compromises of 1850, 245; in plat- 
 forms, 249, 252, 254, 258, 267. 
 
 Conant, John A., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 442. 
 
 Conklingr, Roscoe, 361, 368, 373, 402, 
 
 408, 419. 
 
 Constitution of the United States, 
 provisions respecting election of 
 President, see Electoral System and 
 Presxdent.
 
 574 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Constitutional Union party, its for- 
 mation, 282 ; convention in 1860, 288. 
 Convention system : the first na- 
 tional convention, 101; convention 
 suggested in Pennsylvania. 1824, 130 ; 
 the system discussed, 166 ; origin of 
 the system, IVO ; development of the 
 idea, 171 ; reforms made and sug- 
 gested, 174, 175, 420, 428. 
 Conventions, party. Abolition or 
 Liberty party, in 1839, 202 ; in 1843, 
 216 ; in 1847, 232 ; in 1852, 253. 
 American, in 1888, 480. 
 Anti-Masonic, in 1830, 155. 
 Anti-Monopoly, in 1884. 421. 
 Barnburners, in 1848, 238. 
 Constitutional Union, in 1860, 288. 
 Democratic, in 1832, 160; in 1835, 
 181 ; in 1840, 199 ; in 1844, 211 ; in 
 1848, 232 ; in 1852, 248 ; in 1856, 264 ; 
 in 1860, 282 ; of seceders, 285, 286 ; 
 convention in 1864, 304; in 1868, 
 321 ; in 1872, 349 ; of " Straight " 
 Democrats, 349; convention in 1876, 
 374 ; in 1880, 411 ; in 1884, 433 ; in 
 1888, 468 ; in 1892, 498 ; in 1896, 541. 
 Free-soil, in 1848, 238 ; in 1852, 253. 
 Greenback party, in 1876, 367; in 
 
 1880, 409 ; in 1884, 423. 
 Know-Nothing, in 1856, 261. 
 Labor Keformers, in 1872, 335. 
 Liberal Kepublican, in 1872, 340. 
 Liberty League, in 1848, 232. 
 National Democratic, in 1896, 557. 
 National Kepublican, in 1831, 157 ; 
 
 of young men, in 1832, 157. 
 National party, in 18%, 530. 
 National Silver party, in 1896, 555. 
 Native American, in 1847, 231; in 
 
 1856, 261. 
 People's Party, in 1892, 508 ; in 1896, 
 
 550. 
 Prohibitionists, in 1872, 339; in 1876, 
 364; in 1880, 411; in 1884,441,442; 
 in 1888, 465 ; in 1892, 505 ; in 1896, 
 528. 
 Eadical Eepubliean, in 1864, 299. 
 Kepublican, in 1856, 269 ; in i860, 290 ; 
 in 1864, 301 ; in 1868, 318 ; in 1872, 
 345 ; in 1876, 368 ; in 1880, 402 ; in 
 1884, 427 ; in 1888, 472 ; in 1892, 494 ; 
 in 1896, 532. 
 Socialist Labor, in 1892, 513; in 1896, 
 538. 
 
 Union and Harmony, in 1839, 194. 
 
 Union Labor, in 1888, 460. 
 United Labor, in 1888, 463. 
 Whig, In 1839, 193 ; in 1844, 220 ; In 
 1848, 237 ; in 1852, 250 ; in 1856, 273. 
 
 Cooper, Peter, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 367 ; popular votes for, 383. 
 
 Copperheads, 298. 
 
 Corrupt barg'ain, alleged, of Henry 
 Clay, 138. 
 
 Count of electoral votes. See Elec- 
 toral votes. 
 
 Cowdrey, Bobert H., nominated for 
 President, 466; popular votes for, 
 483. 
 
 Cranfill, J. B., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 508. 
 
 Cravens, Jordan E., proposes amend- 
 ment to Constitution, 394. 
 
 Crawford, WiUiam H., 98; intrigue 
 in favor of, 109 ; favorite of the ad- 
 ministration, 126 ; candidate of the 
 caucus, 131; popular votes for, in 
 1824, 136 ; electoral votes, 140 ; votes 
 in the House of Representatives, 
 141 ; suggested for Vice-President, 
 in 1828, 145; his quarrel with Mon- 
 roe, 145 [note]. 
 
 Credit Mobilier, 416. 
 
 Creeks. See Cherokees. 
 
 Crittenden, John J., 275, 289. 
 
 Cuba, acquisition of, 261, 272, 284, 287 ; 
 the rebellion in, 520, 536, 546, 553. 
 
 Currency, the, in politics and plat^ 
 forms. See Greenbacks, and Silver. 
 
 Curtis, James L., nominated for Pres- 
 ident, 480. 
 
 Cushingr, Caleb, 282, 285, 286. 
 
 " Czar," Mr. Speaker Keed as, 488. 
 
 Dallas, George M., 162; nominated 
 for Vice-President, 214 ; elected, 223 ; 
 votes for. in 1848, 233. 
 
 Daniel, William, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 446. 
 
 Davis, David, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 338; declines, 339; in Liberal 
 Republican convention, 344; elec- 
 toral votes for, 353 ; retires from Su- 
 preme Court, 3S8. 
 
 Davis, Henry Winter, on power to 
 count electoral votes, 277. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, 284. 
 
 Dayton, William L., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 271 ; electoral votes 
 I for, 276 ; in canvass of 1860, 294.
 
 INDEX 
 
 575 
 
 Dearborn, Henry A. S., nominated 
 
 for Vice-President, 231. 
 
 Debt, the public. See Public Debt. 
 
 Delaware, appointment of electors 
 by, in 18'24, 134 ; adopts popular vote, 
 1G4. 
 
 Democratic party (successor of Ke- 
 publican), convention of 1832, IGO ; 
 of 1835, 181 ; of 1840, 199 ; condition 
 of, in 1843, 209; convention of 1844, 
 211; of 1848, 232; divisions in the 
 party, 233 ; convention of 1852, 248 ; 
 of 1856, 264 ; of 1860, 282 ; seceders' 
 convention, 285, 286; convention of 
 1864, 304 ; of 1868, 321 ; of 1872, 349 ; 
 " Straight " Democrats, 349 ; conven- 
 tion of 1876, 374 ; of 1880, 411 ; of 1884, 
 433 ; Of 1888, 468 ; of 1892, 498 ; divided 
 by the silver question, 526 ; conven- 
 tion of 1896, 541. 
 
 Dickerson, Mahlon, proposes an 
 amendment to the Constitution, 
 122. 
 
 Direct vote for President. See Pres- 
 ident. 
 
 Disqualified electors. See Electors. 
 
 District system of choosin? elec- 
 tors, 23, 38, 83, 93, 103, 148, 516. 
 
 Disunion, considered or threatened, 
 
 76, 146, 295, 298. 
 
 Donelson, Andrew J., nominated for 
 Vice-President by American party, 
 264;by Whigs, 273. 
 
 "Doughfaces," origin of the word, 
 
 116. 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 247, 258 ; In can- 
 vass of 1856, 264 ; leader of a Demo- 
 cratic faction, 280 ; debate with Lin- 
 coln, 281 ; in convention of 1860, 284 ; 
 nominated for President, 286 ; popu- 
 lar and electoral votes for, 247 ; sup- 
 ports the Union cause, 298. 
 
 Dow, Neal, nominated for President, 
 411 ; popular votes for, 417. 
 
 Dred Scott decision, 279. 
 
 Earl, Thomas, Abolitionist candidate 
 
 for Vice-President, 202. 
 Eaton, Mrs. General, 151, 160. 
 Eaton, William W., proposes an 
 
 amendment to the Constitution, 396. 
 Edmunds, George F., 329, 387, 398, 
 
 402, 407, 408, 427, 432. 
 
 Eight-hour day for labor. See Hours 
 of Labor. 
 
 Elections, federal interference in, 
 
 304, 401, 413, 498. 
 
 Electoral commission, text of the 
 law creating it, 382 ; its membership, 
 387, 391 ; action of, 388. 
 
 Electoral system, first proposed, 4; 
 adopted, 9 ; its working in practice, 
 9; law of 1792, 36; the system 
 changed, 11, 12, 80; propositions to 
 amend or abolish, 122, 358, 394, 395, 
 396, 397. 
 
 Electoral votes, time of casting, 36, 
 453 ; manner of voting, 9, 80 ; returns 
 of, 9, 36, 80, 453 ; determination of 
 contests, 64, 398, 453. 
 
 count of, in 1789, 29 ; in 1793, 40 ; in 
 1797, 51 ; in 1801, 67 ; in 1805, 84 ; in 
 1809, 95 ; in 1817, 112, 113 ; in 1821, 120 ; 
 in 1825, 139 ; in 1837, 184 ; in 1857, 275 ; 
 In 1861, 296 ; in 1865, 309 ; in 1869, 329 ; 
 in 1873, 354 ; in 1877, 382, 399 ; in 1881, 
 418 ; in 1889, 484. 
 
 rejection of, discussed and exer- 
 cised, 64-67, 114, 123, 275, 309, 329, 354, 
 388; twenty-second joint rule, 309; 
 text of, 310 ; pronounced unconstitu- 
 tional,359; rescinded by the Senate, 
 382 ; law Of 1887, 453. 
 
 Electors, methods of appointing: in 
 1789, 21 ; in 1792, 38 ; in 1796, 47 ; in 
 1800, 59 ; in 1804, 83 ; in 1808, 93 ; in 
 1812, 103 ; in 1824, 133 ; in 1832, 164 ; in 
 1868, 327 ; in 1872, 351 ; in 1876, 380 ; In 
 1880, 418 ; in 1892, 516, 518. 
 
 time of appointment, first election, 
 20; law of 1792, 36 ; law of 1845, 242 ; 
 Wisconsin's electors, in 1856, 276; 
 Georgia's electors in 1880, 418; law 
 of 1887, 453. 
 
 official returns of appointment, 9, 
 36, 80, 453. 
 
 determination of contests, by 
 grand committee, proposed, 64 ; law 
 of 1887, 453. 
 
 ineligible persons appointed, 185 ; 
 see also Electoral votes, rejection of. 
 
 attempted bribery of, 388. 
 EUmaker, Amos, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 157; electoral votes for, 
 164. 
 
 Ellsworth, Oliver, votes for. In 1796, 
 
 51. 
 Emancipation, 299, 302. 
 Embargo, the, 89, 97. 
 England. See Great Britain.
 
 576 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Engrlish, William H., nominated for 
 
 Vice-President, 415. 
 
 Equal Kig-hts party. New York fac- 
 tion, 228. 
 
 Era of grood feeling's, 115, 117. 
 
 Evans, Samuel, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 463. 
 
 Everett, Edward, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 290; popular and 
 electoral votes for, 297. 
 
 Expunging resolution, 179. 
 
 Farmers' Alliance, 491. 
 
 " Federal thirteen," the, 61. 
 
 Federalist party, the, at first elec- 
 tion, 24 ; supports Burr against Jef- 
 ferson, 69 ; its attitude during Jef- 
 ferson's administration, 76 ; coquets 
 with the CUnton faction, 92; sup- 
 ports Pinekney and King, in 1808, 
 93 ; its course in the election of 1812, 
 101 ; destroyed by the success of its 
 own principles, 106 ; last appearance 
 In national politics, 112; attacked 
 by J. Q. Adams, 146. 
 
 Field, James G., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 513. 
 
 Fillmore, Millard, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 238; elected, 243; 
 becomes President, 246 ; in canvass 
 of 1852, 247; nominated in 1856 by 
 Americans, 264 ; by Whigs, 273 ; pop- 
 ular and electoral votes for, 276. 
 
 Finley, Ebenezer B., proposes an 
 amendment to the Constitution, 396. 
 
 First election ordered by Congress, 
 
 20. 
 
 First national convention, in 1812, 
 
 101. 
 
 Fisk, Clinton B., nominated for Pres- 
 ident, 468 ; popular votes for, 483. 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, 266; nomi- 
 nated for Vice-President and de- 
 clined, 286. 
 
 Five-twenty bonds. See Bonds. 
 
 Florida, admitted to the Union, 242 ; 
 electors of, appointed by legislature, 
 in 1868, 327 ; vote of 1876 disputed, 
 381, 388. 
 
 Floyd, John, on vote of Missouri, in 
 1821, 120 ; votes for, as President, in 
 1832, 164. 
 
 Foote, Charles E.. nominated for 
 
 Vice-President, 232. 
 " Force Bill,' ' 490, 495, 498. 
 
 Fourth of March, beginning of Pres- 
 
 idential term, 29, 38. 
 France, relations with, as affecting 
 politics, 33, 41, 46. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, suggested for 
 
 President, 26. 
 "Fraud of 1876," in politics and 
 
 platforms, 413, 416, 435. 
 
 "Free ballot and fair count," in 
 politics and platforms, 413, 432, 437, 
 473, 495, 498, 512, 536, 554. 
 
 Free homesteads. See Land, pub- 
 lic. 
 
 Free-masonry, a political issue, 144, 
 
 155. 
 
 Free ships and navigation laws. 
 
 See Na vigation latvs. 
 Free silver, in politics and platforms. 
 
 See Silver. 
 Free-soil party, convention of 1848, 
 
 238 ; of 1852, 253. 
 
 Free trade, in politics and platforms. 
 See Tariff. 
 
 Freedmen's Bureau, 315, 323. 
 
 Frelinghuysen, Theodore, nomina- 
 ted for Vice-President, 220 ; electoral 
 votes for, 223. 
 
 Fremont, John C, nominated for 
 President, 264, 270; popular and 
 electoral votes for, 276; nominated 
 in 1864, 301 ; withdraws, 301. 
 
 French Bevolution, its influence on 
 American politics, 33, 41, 46. 
 
 Freneau, Philip, 34. 
 
 Fugitive-slave law, 245, 249, 252, 254, 
 
 284, 287: 
 Funding System, Hamilton's, 42. 
 Fusion, in 1860, 296; in 1880, 417 ; in 
 
 1892, 515, in 1896, 564. 
 
 Oallatin, Albert, nominated for Vice- 
 President by caucus, 131; with- 
 draws, 132. 
 
 Garfield, James A., 387, 402, 407; 
 nominated for President, 408 ; as- 
 saults upon, 415; elected, 417; as- 
 sassination of, 419. 
 
 Genet, " Citizen," French ambassa- 
 dor, interferes in American politics, 
 42. 
 
 Georgia, vote of, in 1868, 327, 329, 331 ; 
 
 votes for Greeley, in 1872, rejected, 
 
 354 ; its vote in 1880, 418. 
 Gerry, Elbridge, proposes choice of 
 
 electors by State Governors, 4 ; plan
 
 INDEX 
 
 577 
 
 of apportioning electors, 5; votes 
 for John Adams, 48 ; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 99 ; adds a word to 
 the language, 104 ; elected, 104. 
 
 Gold standaxd, in politics and plat- 
 forms. See Silver. 
 
 Graham, William A., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 261 ; defeated, 257 ; 
 in canvass of i860, 289. 
 
 Granirer, Francis, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 183 ; votes for, 188. 
 
 Grant, Ulysses S., 303, 315, 316 ; nom- 
 inated for President, 320 ; elected, 
 328 ; condemned by Liberal Repub- 
 licans, 341; nominated for reelec- 
 tion, 348; reelected, 352; on third 
 term, 360; vetoes the "inflation" 
 bill, 366 ; proposed in 1880, 402, 407, 
 408. 
 
 Great Britain, relations with, as af- 
 fecting politics, 43, 87, 97, 482. 
 
 Greeley, Horace, on Know-Nothing 
 party, 260 ; opposes Mr. Seward, 
 290 ; opposes Grant, 334 ; in canvass 
 of 1872, 340; nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 344, 349; dies, 351; popular 
 votes for, 352; electoral votes for, 
 353; votes for, objected to and re- 
 jected, 354. 
 
 Greenback party, convention of 1876, 
 367 ; of 1880, 409 ; of 1884, 423. 
 
 Greenbacks, payment of bonds with, 
 316, 322; volume of issue of, 365, 409, 
 
 429. 
 
 Greer, James K., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 480. 
 
 Groesbeck, William S., 349 ; electoral 
 vote for, in 1872, 353. 
 
 Habeas corpus, suspension of the 
 
 writ, 298, 300, 323. 
 Hale, John P., nominated for Pre- 
 sident, 232; withdraws, 232; nomi- 
 nated in 1852, 253 ; popular votes for, 
 257. 
 
 "Half-breed," a faction of the Re- 
 publican party, 419. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, on the elec- 
 toral system, 2 ; proposes choice of 
 electors by the people, 4, 5; decides 
 to support John Adams, in 1789, 25 ; 
 supposed intrigue against Adams, 
 26 ; antagonism with Jefferson, 32 ; 
 his funding system, 42 ; not a candi- 
 date for President, 44 ; his course in 
 
 the canvass of 1796, 49 ; his influence 
 over the members of Adams's cabi- 
 net, 54 ; opposes the Federalist sup- 
 port of Burr, 70; opposes Federal- 
 ist disunion intrigue, 76 ; proposes 
 amendment of the Constitution, 78. 
 
 Hamlin, Hannibal, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 295; elected, 297; in 
 canvass of 1864, 303 ; presides over 
 the count of 1865, 311 ; in canvass of 
 1868, 318, 321. 
 
 Hancock, John, suggested for Vice- 
 President, 24 ; votes for, in 1789, 27 ; 
 protests against law of 1792, 39. 
 
 Hancock, Winfield S.. 321, 325, 363, 
 379, 412, 414 ; nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 415 ; popular and electoral 
 votes for, 417. 
 
 Hard Cider campaign, 190. 
 
 "Hards," Democratic faction, in New 
 Yorlc, 264, 282. 
 
 Harper, Bobert G., votes for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1816, 112; in 1820, 121. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, nominated for 
 President, 479; popular and elec- 
 toral votes for, 483 ; declared elected, 
 485; his administration, 486, 492; 
 nominated for reelection, 1892, 497 ; 
 popular and electoral votes for, 517. 
 
 Harrison, Bobert H., votes for, in 
 1789, 27. 
 
 Harrison, William H., suggested for 
 Vice-President, 1828, 145 ; nominated 
 for President in 1836, 183; popular 
 votes for, 185; electoral votes for, 
 188 ; Whig candidate, 195 ; tal^es the 
 stump, 202 ; popular votes for, 203 ; 
 elected, 204 ; his inauguration, 205 ; 
 dies, 207. 
 
 Hartford convention, 106. 
 
 Hawaii, proposed annexation of, 519, 
 535, 546, 553. 
 
 Hayes, Butherford B., 363,368 ; nom- 
 inated for President, 373; popular 
 votes for, 383 ; declared elected, 393 ; 
 his administration, 400. 
 
 Hendricks, Thomas A., 325, 330; 
 votes for, as President, in 1872, 353 ; 
 nominated for Vice-President, 379; 
 in canvass of 1880, 412, 415 ; again 
 nominated, 441 ; elected, 448 ; death 
 of, 472. 
 
 Henry, John, votes for, in 1796, 51. 
 
 Hill. David B.. 492, 493, 505, 542, 548, 
 649.
 
 578 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hobart, Garret A., nominated for 
 
 Vice-President, 538 ; elected, 567, 568. 
 
 Homesteads, free, in platforms. See 
 Land, public. 
 
 Hours of Labor, in politics and plat- 
 forms, 370, 410, 422, 425, 462, 464, 512, 
 513, 540. 
 
 House of Representatives, election 
 of President by, 71, 140. 
 
 Houston, Samuel, 248, 288. 
 
 Howard, John E., suggested for Pres- 
 ident, 111 ; Votes for, as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, in 1816, 112. 
 
 " Hunkers," Democratic faction, 229. 
 
 HuntiniTton, Samuel, votes for, in 
 
 1789, 27. 
 
 Idaho, admitted to the Union, 518. 
 
 Illinois, admitted to the Union, 118. 
 
 Immigrration, restriction of, in poli- 
 tics and platforms, 303, 320, 371, 401, 
 405, 410, 414, 419, 430, 438, 444, 462, 
 467,474, 481, 496, 502, 506, 512, 531, 536, 
 544. 
 
 Impressment of American seamen, 
 
 87, 88. 
 Income tax, in politics and platforms, 
 410, 422, 425, 431, 462, 511, 514, 540, 
 544, 552. 
 
 Independent Treasury, 192, 207, 227. 
 
 Indiana, admitted to the Union, 112 ; 
 disputed votes of, in 1817, 113. 
 
 Informalities in certificates of elec- 
 tors, 85 ; of Massachusetts electors, 
 1808, 94 ; suspected in 1824, 137. 
 
 IngrersoU, Jared, Federalist candi- 
 date for Vice-President, 102; votes 
 for, in 1812, 104. 
 
 "Injunction, government by," 545, 
 554. 
 
 Internal improvements; in politics 
 and platforms, 115, 143, 154, 158, 200, 
 241, 252, 255, 273, 294. 
 
 Inter-state commerce; in platforms. 
 
 See Railroads, regulation of. 
 Intoxicating liquor; in poUtics and 
 
 platforms, 339, 364, 426, 441, 443, 466, 
 
 505, 529, 530. 
 Iowa admitted to the Union, 242. 
 Iredell, James, votes for, in 1796, 51. 
 Irregularities: See Informalities. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, candidate for 
 President, in 1824, 126; popular 
 votes for, 136; electoral votes for, 
 
 140; votes in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, 141 ; becomes a candi- 
 date for 1828, 144 ; popular votes for, 
 148 ; elected, 149 ; inaugurated, 150 ; 
 his conduct in office, 151; his influ- 
 ence upon politics, 153 ; his war on 
 the Bank, 153, 162 ; forces the nom- 
 ination of Van Buren, 160; nomi- 
 nated for reelection, 161 ; popular 
 votes for, 163; reelected, 164; his 
 popularity, 179; opposes Judge 
 Hugh L. White, 181 ; at Van Buren's 
 inauguration, 189. 
 
 Jacobins, opprobrious name of De- 
 mocrats, 74. 
 
 Jay, John, votes for, in 1789, 27 ; Brit- 
 ish treaty, 43 ; votes for, in 1796, 51 ; 
 in 1800, 63. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, antagonism with 
 Hamilton, 32 ; votes for, in 1792, 39 ; 
 leader of the Republican party, 44 ; 
 named for President, 44 ; attacked by 
 " Phociou," 45, 49; elected Vice- 
 President, 51 ; votes for, in 1800, 63 ; 
 elected by the House of Representa- 
 tives, 72; his inauguration, 73; his 
 course, in office, 74, 77 ; nominated 
 by caucus, 82 ; reelected, 84 ; rejects 
 Monroe's treaty, 88 ; induces Monroe 
 to withdraw, 92. 
 
 Jenkins, Charles J., votes for, as 
 President, 1872, 353. 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, 284; nominated 
 for Vice-President, 303 ; elected, 307 ; 
 becomes President, 313; his char- 
 acter and administration, 313 ; his 
 contest with Congress and impeach- 
 ment, 315; denounced by Republican 
 convention, 319; in the canvass of 
 1868, 321; praised by Democrats, 
 325. 
 
 Johnson, Hale, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 530. 
 
 Johnson, Herschel V., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 286; popular and 
 electoral votes for, 297. 
 
 Johnson, Sichard M., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 182 ; electoral votes 
 for, 188 ; elected by the Senate, 187 ; 
 opposition to, in 1840, 198 ; not re- 
 nominated, 201 ; electoral votes for, 
 in 1840, 204 ; candidate for the Presi- 
 dency, 1844, 208 ; votes for, in con- 
 vention, 212. 
 
 Jolinston, William F., nominated for
 
 INDEX 
 
 579 
 
 Vice-President, 264 ; not adopted by 
 Republicans, 271. 
 
 Joint rule, twenty-second. See Elec- 
 toral i>!/stem. 
 
 Julian, Georsre W., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 253; in canvass of 
 1872, 338, 344; electoral votes for, 
 352. 
 
 Kansas, the contest over, 258, 260, 
 268, 272, 279, 292. 
 
 Kentucky, admitted to the Union, 38 ; 
 legislature nominates Clay, 126; 
 contest in 1896 between Gold and 
 Silver forces, 626 ; electoral vote di- 
 vided, 567. 
 
 King:, Leicester, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 232. 
 
 King:, Bufus, 34; Federalist candi- 
 date for Vice-President, 83; votes 
 for, in 1804, 84 ; in 1808, 95 ; opposes 
 coalition with Clintonians, in 1812, 
 101, 102 ; votes for. for President, in 
 1816, 112. 
 
 King, William E., named for Vice- 
 President, 1840, 199; votes for, as 
 candidate, 1848, 234 ; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 249 ; elected, 257. 
 "Kitchen Cabinet," the, 152, 154, 
 
 159. 
 Know-Nothingr order and party, 259 ; 
 
 convention of 1856, 261. 
 Knox, General Henry, suggested for 
 
 Vice-President, 24. 
 Kremer, George, charge by, against 
 
 Henry Clay, 138. 
 Ku-klux-klan, the, 333. 
 
 Labor questions, in politics and plat- 
 forms, 325, 337, 347, 350, 409, 414, 422, 
 426, 430, 437, 441, 462, 503, 512, 531, 
 540. 
 
 Labor Reformers, party of, conven- 
 tion of 1872, 335. 
 
 Land, public, questions relating to 
 in politics and platforms, 154, 179, 
 215, 221, 236, 255, 293, 324, 336, 344, 347, 
 350, 371, 377, 410, 423, 425, 430, 437, 
 438, 444, 461, 463, 469, 474, 500, 506, 
 512, 514, 531, 536, 540, 553. 
 
 Lane, Joseph, 248, 284 ; nominated 
 for Vice-President, 285, 287 ; popular 
 and electoral votes for, 297. 
 
 Langdon, John, presides over the 
 first count, 29 ; votes for, as Vice- 
 
 President, in 1808, 95 ; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 99 ; declines, 99. 
 
 Lecompton constitution, for Kan- 
 sas, 279, 292. 
 
 Lee, Henry, votes for, as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, in 1832, 164. 
 
 Legral-tender notes. See Greeih- 
 backs. 
 
 Legislatures, State, as nominating 
 bodies, 168. 
 
 Levering, Joshua, 508 ; nominated for 
 President, 530; popular votes for, 
 567. 
 
 Liberal Republicans, origin of the 
 party, 335 ; convention in 1872, 340. 
 
 Liberty League, the, convention of 
 
 1848, 232. 
 Liberty party. See Abolitionists. 
 "Lily White" Republicans. 516. 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 271 ; the debate 
 with Douglas, 281 ; in the canvass of 
 1860, 290 ; nominated for President, 
 294; elected, 297 ; his administration, 
 299 ; nominated in 1864, 303 ; elected, 
 307 ; his reconstruction plan, 309, 
 313 ; assassinated, 313. 
 Lincoln, Benjamin, vote for, in 1789, 
 
 27. 
 "Little Magician," the [Van Bu- 
 
 ren], 191. 
 " Loco-focos," New York party fac- 
 tion, 228. 
 Logan, John A., 427 ; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 432; popular and 
 electoral votes for, 448. 
 Log cabin and Hard Cider cam- 
 paign, 190. 
 Louisiana, purchase of, 75 ; admitted 
 to the Union, 103 ; frauds in Plaque- 
 mines Parish, 16, 224; vote of the 
 State, in 1864, rejected, 311 ; vote in 
 1868 objected to, 330; returning 
 boards, 351, 381 ; vote in 1872 dis- 
 puted and not counted, 354 ; vote of 
 1876 disputed, 381, 389. 
 Lyon, James, nominated for Presi- 
 dent and declined, 350. 
 
 Machen, Willis B., votes for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1872, 353. 
 
 McClellan, George B., 299; nomi- 
 nated for President, 305 ; his view 
 of the Democratic platform, 306 ; 
 popular and electoral votes for, 
 307.
 
 580 
 
 INDEX 
 
 McKinley, William, "tbe McKinley 
 bill," 489, 499, 524 ; votes for, as can- 
 didate for President, 1892, 497; in 
 the canvass of 1896, 527, 532 ; nom- 
 inated for President, 538 ; his course 
 during the canvass, 564 ; elected, 
 566; popular votes for, 567; elec- 
 toral votes for, 568. 
 
 McLean, John, considered as a can- 
 didate for President, 1830, 156 ; nomi- 
 nated, 1836, 183 ; in canvass of 1848, 
 230 ; votes for, in Whig convention, 
 237 ; in conventions of 1856, 264, 270 ; 
 in canvass of i860, 289, 294. 
 
 Macon, Nathaniel, proposes amend- 
 ment to the Constitution, 122 ; votes 
 for, as Vice-President, in 1824, 140. 
 
 Madison, James, 6; nominated for 
 President, in 1808, 91 ; elected, 95 ; 
 his inauguration, 96; his first ad- 
 ministration, 97 ; yields to war party, 
 98; renominated, 99; elected a se- 
 cond time, 104. 
 
 "Magician, the little" [Van Bu- 
 ren], 191. 
 
 Maffuire, Matthew, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 541. 
 
 Maine, admitted to the Union, 118 ; 
 liquor law, 339. 
 
 Maish, Levi, proposes an amend- 
 ment to the Constitution, 396. 
 
 Manrum, Willie P., votes for, as 
 President, 188. 
 
 March 4th, beginning of Presiden- 
 tial term, 29, 38. 
 
 Marcy, William L., 153, 247, 261. 
 
 Marshall, Humphrey, on power to 
 count electoral votes, 277. 
 
 Marshall, John, on the proposed law 
 of 1800, 66 ; votes for, as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, in 1816, 112; attends anti- 
 Masonic convention, 156. 
 
 Maryland, last State to abandon the 
 district system, 164. 
 
 Mason, James M., on electoral votes 
 of Wisconsin, 275. 
 
 Mason, John Y., 261. 
 
 Massachusetts, choice of electors In 
 1789, 23 ; in 1792, 38 ; by the Legisla- 
 ture, in 1800, 60 ; defeat of Federal- 
 ists in 1804, 84; choice of electors, in 
 1808, 93; in 1812, 103; in the Hart- 
 ford Convention, 107. 
 
 Matchett, Charles H., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 1892, 513 ; nominated 
 
 for President, 1896, 541; popular 
 votes for, 567. 
 Mexico, and Texas, 226 ; war with, in 
 platforms and politics, 227, 230,234, 
 
 249. 
 
 Michig'an, admitted to the Union, 
 184 ; votes of, how counted in elec- 
 tion of 1837, 187; an elector of, ob- 
 jected to, in 1877, 390 ; chose electors 
 by districts, in 1892, 516. 
 
 "Middle of the Road" populists. 
 
 550. 
 
 Military interference with elec- 
 tions. See Elections. 
 Mills bill, tariff, 459, 468, 471, 473, 
 
 482. 
 
 Milton, John, votes for, in 1789, 27. 
 Minnesota, admitted to the Union, 
 
 296. 
 
 Minority Presidents, 17. 
 Mississippi, admitted to the Union, 
 
 118 ; votes of, in 1872, objected to, 
 
 3.54. 
 Missouri, question of admission to 
 
 the Union, 116, 118 ; controversy over 
 
 its vote in 1820, 118 ; its vote in 1872, 
 
 354. 
 
 Missouri Compromise, repeal of, 260, 
 
 271. 
 
 Monroe doctrine, 268, 300, 303, 476, 
 
 496, 520, 535, 546. 
 
 Monroe, James, diplomatic services 
 abroad, 86, 88 ; candidate for Presi- 
 dent, in 1808, 89, 90; persuaded to 
 withdraw, 92 ; votes for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1808, 95 ; opposition to, 
 in 1816, 108 ; nominated, 109 ; elected, 
 112 ; inauguration, 114 ; reelected, 
 118 ; second inauguration, 120. 
 
 Montana, admitted to the Union, 487. 
 
 Morey letter, 416. 
 
 Morris, Gouverneur, 3, 6, 12, 34, 58, 
 
 78, 83, 101, 111. 
 
 Morris, Thomas, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 216. 
 
 Morrison, William E., tariff bill, 
 458 ; votes for, as candidate for Pre- 
 sident, 505. 
 
 Morton, Levi P., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 479; elected, 483; in the 
 canvass of 1896, 527 ; votes for, as 
 candidate for President, 538. 
 
 Morton, Oliver P., proposes amend- 
 ment to the Constitution, 358 ; can- 
 didate for Presidential nomination.
 
 INDEX 
 
 581 
 
 361, 368, 373 ; member of the electoral 
 commission, 387. 
 " Mugrwumps," or independent Re- 
 publicans, 419, 432, 446, 457; de- 
 nounced by Republican convention, 
 477. 
 
 Murchison, Charles F. (fictitious 
 name), letter to Lord Sackville, 
 482. 
 
 "Narrow graugre" Prohibitionists, 
 
 528. 
 National Banks. See Banks. 
 National Democratic party (of 
 
 1896), origin of, 650, 657 ; convention, 
 
 558. 
 National party. See Greenback 
 
 party. 
 
 National party (of 1896), 530. 
 
 National Bepublican party, conven- 
 tion of, in 1831, 157 ; fusion with Anti- 
 Masons, 163 ; merged with Whig 
 party, 180. 
 
 National Silver party, convention of 
 
 189C, 555. 
 
 Native Americans, the party of, 231 ; 
 revival of, 259; convention of 1856, 
 261 ; condemned by Democratic con- 
 vention, 266. 
 
 Navigation laws and free ships, in 
 politics and platforms, 414, 431, 439, 
 476, 496, 534, 559. 
 
 Nebraska, act to admit as a State, 
 vetoed, 315 ; admitted to the Union, 
 327 ; an elector objected to, in 1877, 
 390. 
 
 Nevada, an elector for, objected to, 
 
 in 1877, ,390. 
 
 New Hampshire, choice of electors 
 in, in 1789, 22 ; in 1804, 84 ; calls Dem- 
 ocratic conventions, 159, 199 ; choice 
 of electors in, in 1848, 242. 
 
 New Jersey, a Democratic manoeuvre 
 in, in 1804, 94; extraordinary pro- 
 ceedings in, in 1812, 103 ; vote divided 
 in 1860, 297. 
 
 New York, loses its vote in 1789, 23 ; 
 decided the election of 1800, 59; in 
 the contest of 1824, 128, 129, 135 ; in 
 Democratic convention of 1848, 228, 
 232 ; its great influence in politics, 
 15, 59, 229, 447, 449 ; party warfare 
 and factions in, 23, 86, 100, 228 ; its 
 popular vote in 1868, 329, 
 
 NicaraGTua canal, 476, 497, 502, 535. 
 
 North Carolina, peculiar appoint- 
 ment of electors in, in 1792, 38 ; ap- 
 points electors by the Legislature, 
 in 1812, 103, 122. 
 
 North Dakota, admitted to the Un- 
 ion, 487. 
 
 Nullification, 154. 
 
 Objections to electoral votes. See 
 
 Electoral votes, rejection of. 
 
 0' Conor, Charles, 305,339; nominated 
 for President, 350 ; popular votes 
 for, 3,52. 
 
 Of&cial returns of elections, discrep- 
 ancies in, 484, 616, 568. 
 
 Ohio, admitted to the Union, 83. 
 
 Orders in council, British. 88. 
 
 Oregron question, the, 215, 228; the 
 State of, admitted to the Union, 296; 
 electoral vote of, in 1876, 381, 390. 
 
 Ostend Manifesto, the, 261, 272. 
 
 Pacific Bailroad, 273, 283, 287, 294, 
 
 303. 
 
 Palmer, John M., 321, 338, 340; elec- 
 toral votes for, as Vice-President, 
 in 1872, 353; nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 561 ; popular votes for, 567. 
 
 Panama mission, opposed by Ad- 
 ams's political enemies, 143. 
 
 Panic, financial, of 1837, 191 ; of 1873, 
 
 357. 
 
 Parker, Joel, 325; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 338 ; declines, 339 ; in 
 canvass of 1876, 379. 
 
 Pendleton, Georgre H., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 305; popular and 
 electoral votes for, 307 ; in canvass 
 of 1868, 316. 321, 325. 
 
 Pennsylvania, appointment of elect- 
 ors in 1800, 60 ; its vote in 1876, 390 ; 
 its influence in poUtics, 15, 60, 86, 92, 
 93, 100, 275. 
 
 Pensions, in politics and platforms, 
 302, 320, 324, 347, 371, 405, 426, 430, 436, 
 462, 476, 502, 507, 512, 531, 535, 645, 554, 
 561. 
 
 People's party, origin of, 491 ; con- 
 vention of 1892, 508; Of 1896, 550; 
 fusion on electors with Democrats, 
 564. 
 
 Pickens, Israel, proposes an amend- 
 ment to the Constitution, 122. 
 
 Pickeringr, Timothy, 54. 
 
 Pierce, Franklin, nominated for 
 President, 248 ; elected, 267 ; his at-
 
 582 
 
 INDEX 
 
 titude on' the slavery question, 
 260 ; in canvass of 185G, 264 ; of I860, 
 
 284. 
 
 Pinckney, Charles, plan of, for an 
 
 Executive, 2. 
 Pinckney, Charles C, votes for, in 
 1796, 51 ; minister to France, 56 ; re- 
 fuses to be a party to a treacherous 
 coalition, 62 ; votes for, in 1800, 63 ; 
 candidate of Federalists for Presi- 
 dent, in 1804, 83; votes for, in 1804, 
 84 ; in 1808, 95. 
 
 Pinckney, Thomas, candidate for 
 Vice - President, 44 ; votes for, in 
 1796, 51. 
 Plaquemines, frauds in, 16, 224. 
 Platforms, party. 
 Abolition or Liberty party, in 1843^ 
 
 216. 
 American, of 1888, 480. 
 Anti-Monopoly, in 1884, 422. 
 Barnburners, in 1848, 239. 
 Constitutional Union, in 1860, 289. 
 Democratic, in 1840, 199 ; in 1844, 215 ; 
 
 in 1848, 234 ; in 1852, 249 ; in 1856, 
 
 266 ; of Douglas Wing, in 1860, 283 ; 
 
 of Breclcinridge Wing, 287 ; in 1864. 
 
 304; in 1868, 322; in 1872, 349; of 
 
 "Straight" Democrats, 349; in 
 
 1876, 374 ; in 1880, 413 ; in 1884, 434 ; 
 
 in 1888, 468 ; in 1892, 498 ; in 1896, 
 
 542. 
 Free-soil, in 1848, 239 ; in 1852, 253. 
 Greenback party, in 1876, 367; in 
 
 1880, 409 ; in 1884, 423. 
 Know-Nothing, in 1856, 261. 
 Labor-Keformers, in 1872, 336. 
 Liberal Republicans, in 1872, 341. 
 National, in 1896, 530. 
 National Democratic, in 1896, 558. 
 National Silver, in 1896, 555. 
 Native American, in 1856, 261. 
 People's, in 1892, 509 ; in 1896, 551. 
 Prohibitionist, in 1872, 339; in 1876, 
 
 364; in 1880, 411; in 1884, 441,442; 
 
 in 1888, 466 ; in 1892, 505 ; in 1896, 
 
 529. 
 Radical Republican, in 1864, 300. 
 Republican, in 1856, 271 ; in 1860, 291 ; 
 
 in 1864, 301 ; in 1868, 318 ; in 1872, 
 
 346 ; in 1876, 369 ; in 1880, 403 ; in 
 
 1884, 428 ; iu 1888, 472 ; in 1892, 494 ; 
 
 in 1896, 533. 
 Socialist Labor, in 1892, 513 ; in 1896, 
 
 639. 
 
 Union Labor, in 1888, 461. 
 United Labor, in 1888, 463. 
 Whig, in 1844, 220; in 1852, 251; in 
 1856, 273. 
 
 Young Men's National Republican, 
 
 in 1832, 168. 
 
 Pocket veto, 179, 317. 
 
 Polk, James K., vote for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1840, 204; nominated 
 for President, in 1844, 213; elected, 
 223; his inauguration, 225; his ad- 
 ministration, 227 ; jealousy of, to- 
 ward Silas Wright, 229. 
 
 Polygamy, in politics and platforms, 
 364, 371, 405,419, 430, 442, 466, 475. 
 
 Pomeroy, Samuel C, nominated for 
 
 President, 442. 
 Popular Sovereignty, 258, 280. 
 Popular votes for President, in 1824, 
 
 135; in 1828, 148; in 1832, 163; in 
 1836, 185 ; in 1840, 203 ; in 1844, 223 ; 
 in 1848, 243 ; in 1852, 257 ; in 1856, 276 ; 
 in 1860, 297; in 1864, 307; in 1868, 
 328; in 1872. 352; in 1876, 383; in 
 1880, 417 ; in 1884, 448 ; in 1888, 483 ; 
 in 1892, 517 ; in 1896, 567. 
 
 Populists. See Peojjle's party. 
 
 President of the United States, 
 method of election of, 2-9, 68, 71, 77- 
 82, 121, 140, 358, 394 ; proposed elec- 
 tion of, by direct popular vote, 3, 13, 
 154, 300, 358, 365, 394, 396, 397, 431, 
 442, 553 ; length of term of office of, 
 9, 153, 395; reeligibility of, 1, 2, 6, 
 153, 221, 300, 337, 343, 395, 513 ; third 
 term, 360, 402, 546 ; resignation of, 
 38 ; special elections in case of va- 
 cancy, 37, 395; succession to the of- 
 fice, 37, 450. 
 
 Prohibitionist party, convention of 
 
 1872, 339 ; Of 1876, 364 ; Of 1880, 411 ; of 
 1884, 441, 442 ; of 1888, 465 ; Of 1892, 
 505 ; of 1896, 529. 
 
 Protection of American industry, 
 
 in politics and platforms. See Tariff. 
 
 Public debt, the, in politics and plat- 
 forms, 303, 316, 319, 322, 370, 409, 422, 
 462. 
 
 Public lands. See Land, public. 
 
 Badical Bepublicans, convention of 
 
 1864, 299. 
 
 Bailroads, land grants to, see Land, 
 public; regulation or public owner- 
 ship of, in politics and platforms^
 
 INDEX 
 
 583 
 
 337, 364, 41(1, 422, 425, 430, 461, 474, 506, 
 512, 513, 531, 540, 552. 
 
 £andolph, Edmund, plan for an Ex- 
 ecutive, 2. 
 
 Bandolph, John, opposition to Jeffer- 
 son, 87 ; makes an objection, 95 ; on 
 the count of Missouri vote, in 1821, 
 119, 120. 
 
 Readjusters of Virginia, 417. 
 
 Eeannexation. See Texas. 
 
 Reciprocity treaties, in politics and 
 platforms, 400, 495, 500, 534. 
 
 Reconstruction of rehellious States, 
 in politics and platforms, 301, 308, 
 313, 318, ,333. 
 
 Red handanna, 472. 
 
 Reed, Thomas B., Speaker, and the 
 rules of the House, 487 ; votes for, 
 as candidate for President, 1892, 497 ; 
 in the canvass of 1896, 527 ; votes for, 
 as candidate for President, 538. 
 
 Reeligrihility of a President. See 
 President. 
 
 Reid, Whitelaw, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 498 ; popular and electoral 
 votes for, 517. 
 
 Rejection of electoral votes. See 
 Electoral votes. 
 
 Removal of deposits from the Bank 
 of the United States, 178. 
 
 Removals from office, in politics 
 and platforms. See Civil Service Re- 
 form. 
 
 Republican party, creation of the, 
 260 ; convention of 1856, 269 ; of 1860, 
 290 ; Of 1864, 301 ; of 1868, 318 ; of 1872, 
 345 ; Of 1876, 368 ; of 1880, 402 ; of 1884, 
 427 ; Of 1888, 472 ; of 1892, 494 ; of 1896, 
 .532. 
 
 Republican party (Jeffersonian), 
 
 first known as Anti-Federalist, nom- 
 inates Jefferson and Burr, in 1796, 
 44 ; its triumph in 1800, 63 ; see De- 
 mocratic party. 
 
 Resignation of President. See Pre- 
 sident. 
 
 Resumption of specie payments, in 
 politics and platforms, 333, 343, 366, 
 367, 370, 372, 375, 376, 379, 401. 
 
 Returns of electors. See Electoral 
 System. 
 
 Rhode Island, an elector for, objected 
 
 to, in 1877, .SOI. 
 
 Riddle, Haywood Y., proposes an 
 amendment to the Constitution, 396. 
 
 Rives, William C, 182, 195 [note], 
 
 289. 
 
 Rodney, Daniel, votes for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1820, 121. 
 
 Ross, James, votes for, as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, in 1816, 112. 
 
 " Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion," 
 
 447. 
 
 Rush, Richard, vote for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1820, 118, 121 ; nomi- 
 nated in 1828, 146 ; votes for, 149. 
 
 Russell, John, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 340. 
 
 Rutledire, John, votes for, in 1789, 27. 
 
 Sackville, Lord, British minister, 482. 
 
 St. John, John P., nominated for 
 
 President, 446 ; popular votes for, 
 
 448. 
 
 Sampson, Ezekiel S., proposes 
 amendment to the Constitution, 396. 
 
 Sanford, Nathan, proposes amend- 
 ment to the Constitution, 122 ; votes 
 for, as Vice-President, in 1824, 140. 
 
 Santo Domingro, annexation of, 333. 
 
 " Scallawagrs," .357. 
 
 Schools, public, in politics and plat- 
 forms, 304, 371, 475, 502, 507, 514, 531, 
 540. 
 
 Scott, Winfield, votes for, in Whig 
 convention, 1848, 237 ; in canvass of 
 1852, 247; nominated for President, 
 251 ; popular and electoral votes for, 
 257. 
 
 Seceded States, electoral votes of, re- 
 jected, 309, 329. 
 
 Secession, 298. 
 
 Sergreant, John, nominated for Vice- 
 President, 157 ; electoral votes for, 
 164. 
 
 Sewall, Arthur, nominated for Vice- 
 President by the Democrats, 549; 
 votes for, in Populist convention, 
 554 ; nominated by National Silver 
 party, 5.57;. popular votes for, 567; 
 electoral votes for, 568. 
 
 Seward, William H., his relations 
 with Taylor and Fillmore, 247 ; in 
 the canvass of 18,56, 270 ; in the can- 
 vass of I860, 290, 294. 
 
 Seymour, Horatio, 304, 305. 321 ; nom- 
 inated for President, 326 ; his politi- 
 cal position, 327; popular and elec- 
 toral votes for, 328 ; in canvass of 
 1880, 412.
 
 584 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sherman, John, 402, 407, 408, 427, 432, 
 
 478, 479. 
 
 Sherman silver purchase act, 490, 
 501, 521 ; repealed, 522. 
 
 Silver question, the, in politics and 
 platforms, 366, 368, 401, 409, 413, 430, 
 437, 462, 475, 490, 494, 495, 501, 506, 508, 
 511, 521, 526, 529, 531, 532, 535, 537, 541, 
 543, 547, 551, 555, 559. 
 
 Slavery, in politics and platforms, 
 115, 200, 202, 216, 226, 236, 239, 249, 252, 
 254, 258, 262, 266, 271, 273, 279, 283, 287, 
 292, 299, 300, 302. 
 
 Smith, Gerrit, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 232. 
 
 Smith, Green Clay, nominated for 
 President, 364. 
 
 Smith, William, votes for, as Vice- 
 President, in 1828, 149 ; in 1836, 188. 
 
 Socialist Labor party, 513, 538. 
 
 "Softs," Democratic faction, in New 
 York, 264, 282. 
 
 Soldiers' vote, in 1864, 307. 
 
 "Solid South," 105, 406, 447. 
 
 South Carolina, appointment of elec- 
 tors by the Legislature, 148, 164; 
 abandons the system, 327 ; vote of 
 1876 disputed, 381, 391. 
 
 South Dakota admitted to the Union, 
 
 487. 
 
 Southgrate, James H., nominated for 
 
 Vice-President, 532. 
 Spain, relations with, 520, 536. 
 Special elections of president. See 
 
 President. 
 Specie circular, Jackson's, 179. 
 Specie payments, resumption of. See 
 
 Resumption. 
 Spoils System, and civil service, in 
 
 politics and platforms. See Civil 
 
 Service Reform. 
 Spring'er, William M., proposes an 
 
 amendment to the Constitution, 395. 
 " Squatter Sovereignty." See Pop- 
 
 ular Sovereignty. 
 "Stalwarts," a faction of the Eepub- 
 
 lican party, 419. 
 Stampede, rules for prevention of, 
 
 174, 369, 468. 
 Stanton, Ediwin M., contest with 
 
 President Johnson, 315, 405, 430. 
 Star-route frauds, 419. 
 State rigrhts, in politics and plat- 
 forms, 75, 106, 180. 
 
 Stevenson, Adlai E., nominated for 
 
 Vice-President, 505 ; elected, 511 j 
 votes for, as candidate for Presi- 
 dent, 1896, 549. 
 
 Stewart, G. T., nominated for Vice- 
 President, 364. 
 
 Stockton, Bichard, votes for, as Vice 
 President, in 1820, 121. 
 
 Streeter, A. J., nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 463; popular votes for, 483. 
 
 Succession to the presidency. See 
 President. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, 270 ; opposes Grant, 
 
 334. 
 
 Tammany Hall, 228, 363, 412, 433, 446, 
 
 615. 
 Tariff, the, in politics and platforms, 
 108, 115, 143, 154, 158, 200, 220, 227, 252, 
 268, 293, 336, 343, 347, 350, 371, 376, 405, 
 416, 419, 423, 426, 429, 436, 442, 444,458, 
 466, 467, 473, 480, 489, 494, 499, 504, 606, 
 508, 523, 531, 533, 544, 558. 
 
 Tariff commission of 1882, 419. 
 
 Taylor, Zachary, movement in his 
 favor, 230 ; recommended by Native 
 Americans, 231 ; nominated for Pres- 
 ident, by Whig party, 237; elected, 
 243 ; his conduct in office, 244 ; dies, 
 246. 
 
 Tazewell, L. W., named for Vice- 
 President, in 1840, 199; electoral 
 votes for, 204. 
 
 Telfair, Edward, votes for, in 1789, 
 
 27. 
 
 Teller, Henry M., 537, 538; votes for, 
 
 as candidate for President, 549. 
 Tennessee, admitted to the Union, 47 ; 
 
 legislature nominates Jackson, 144 ; 
 
 its vote not counted in 1864, 311. 
 Tenure of office act, 315, 457. 
 Term of the presidential office. See 
 
 President. 
 Texas, annexation of, 209, 215, 226, 
 
 227 ; state of, admitted to the Union, 
 
 242; vote of, in 1872, objected to 
 
 354. 
 
 Third term for a President. See 
 
 President. 
 Thompson, A. M., nominated for 
 
 Vice-President, 411. 
 Thurman, Allen G., 379, 387, 423, 'i40; 
 
 his red bandanna, 472; nominated 
 
 for Vice-President, 472 ; popular an*! 
 
 electoral votes for, 483. 
 Tilden, Samuel J., 363, 374: nos}i>
 
 INDEX 
 
 585 
 
 nated for President, 379; popular 
 votes for, 383; electoral votes for, 
 392 ; in canvass of 1880, 411 ; in can- 
 vass of 1884, 439. 
 
 Time of appointing electors. See 
 
 Electors. 
 
 Tippecanoe, the hero of, 196. 
 
 Tompkins, Daniel D., proposed for 
 President, 1816, 109; nominated for 
 Vice-President, 110; elected, 112 ; re- 
 elected, 1-21. 
 
 Treasury circular, Jackson's, 179. 
 
 Trusts, iu politics and platforms, 463, 
 466, 474, 496, 500, 507, 545. 
 
 Tweed ring, 329, 363. 
 
 Twenty - second joint rule. See 
 
 Electoral votes. 
 
 Two-thirds rule, iu Democratic con- 
 ventions, 161, 175, 182, 212, 233, 284, 
 286, 288, 433. 
 
 Tyler, John, favors a caucus nomina- 
 tion, 1824, 128; nominated for Vice- 
 President, 1836, 183 ; electoral votes 
 for, 188; nominated by Whigs, 195 
 elected, 204; becomes President, 207 
 his breach with the Whigs, 207 
 nominated for reelection and with- 
 draws, 221. 
 
 Union Labor party, convention of 
 
 1K88, 460. 
 
 United Americans, order of, 259. 
 
 United Labor party, convention of 
 1888, 463. 
 
 Unit rule, In conventions, 173, 374, 
 403, 433. 
 
 Utah, Territory of, 246; State of, fu- 
 sion in, 565 ; its fli-st vote for Presi- 
 dent, 567, 568. 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, his first appear- 
 ance in politics, 100; in caucus of 
 1824, 131; votes for, as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, in 1824, 140; political mission 
 in the south, 144 ; rejected as Minis- 
 ter to England, 155; candidate for 
 Vice-President, 155 ; nominated by 
 the Democrats, 161 ; elected, 164 ; 
 nominated for President, 182 ; popu- 
 lar votes for, 185 ; elected, 188 ; his 
 inauguration, 188; estimate of his 
 character, 190 ; his opposition to 
 banks, 192 ; renominated, 201 ; popu- 
 lar votes for, 203 ; defeated, 204 ; the 
 Democratic favorite for 1844, 206; 
 
 his letter on Texas, 210 ; defeated 
 by the two -thirds rule, 212, 213; 
 praised by Democratic convention, 
 216 ; nominated by " Barnburners," 
 238; by Free - soilers, 239; popular 
 votes for, 243. 
 
 Venezuela, President Cleveland's ac- 
 tion, 520. 
 
 Vermont, admitted to the Union, 38 ; 
 disputed validity of its votes, 52 ; its 
 electoral vote of 1876, 391. 
 
 Veto, "pocket," 179; power, in plat- 
 forms, 215 ; Mr. Johnson's numerous 
 vetoes, 315 ; Mr. Cleveland's use of 
 the, 458. 
 
 Vice-President, the office of, sug- 
 gested, 7 ; abolition of the office 
 proposed, 79; method of electing, 
 changed, 80 ; elected by the Senate, 
 187. 
 
 Virgrinia, and Kentucky resohitions, 
 of 1788 and 1789, 57. 249, 267 ; adopts 
 general ticket system in 1800, 60; 
 the " Virginia dynasty," 89, 106. 
 
 Voorhees, Daniel W., 305, 522. 
 
 Wakefield, W. H. T., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 465. 
 
 War Democrats, 298, 306, 356. 
 
 War of 1812,98,106. 
 
 Washington, Georgre, universal 
 choice for first President, 24; ac- 
 quiesces in the choice of Adams for 
 Vice - President, 25 ; election pro- 
 claimed, 30 ; first inauguration, 31 ; 
 reelected in 1792, 39 ; second inaugu- 
 ration, 41 ; opposes " Citizen " Genet, 
 42 ; supports the Jay treaty, 43 ; de- 
 clines a third term, 44 ; Farewell 
 Address of, 45 ; votes for, in 1796, 51 ; 
 attempt to elect him in 1800, 58. 
 
 Washingrton, State of, admitted to 
 the Union, 487. 
 
 Watson, Thomas E., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 554; his position in 
 the canvass of 1896, 562, 564 ; popu- 
 lar votes for, 567 ; electoral votes 
 for, 568. 
 
 Weaver, James B., nominated for 
 President, 1880, 411; popular votes 
 for, 417; nominated for President, 
 1892, 513 ; popular and electoral votes 
 for, 517. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, elector for Monroe, 
 in 1820, 118; nominated for Presi-
 
 586 
 
 INDEX 
 
 dent, in 1836, 183 ; popular votes for, 
 185 ; electoral votes for, 188 ; in can- 
 vass of 1848, 230 ; votes for, in Whig 
 convention, 237 ; the compromises of 
 1850, 245 ; in canvass of 1852, 247 ; un- 
 successful manoeuvre to nominate 
 him, 250 ; popular votes for, 257. 
 
 West, A. M., 423 ; nominated for Vice- 
 President, 427. 
 
 West Virginia, the State of, formed, 
 308. 
 
 Wheeler, William A., nominated for 
 Vice-President, 373 ; elected, 393. 
 
 Whig party, origin of, 179; attitude 
 of, on the Bank, 184, 192 ; convention 
 of 1839, 193; disclaims responsibil- 
 ity for Tyler's acts, 207 ; convention 
 of 1844, 220 ; of 1848, 237 ; Of 1852, 250 ; 
 moribund after the election of 1852, 
 258 ; convention of 1856, 273. 
 
 Whiskey insurrection, 42. 
 
 Whiskey riner, 357, 363. 
 
 White, Hug'h L., nominated for Pres- 
 ident, 183; popular votes for, 185; 
 electoral votes for, 188. 
 
 Wilkins, William, nominated for 
 Vice-President, 160; electoral votes 
 for, 164. 
 
 Wilmot proviso, 230. 
 
 Wilson, Henry, 318, 32-1, 345; nom- 
 inated for Vice - President, 348 ; 
 elected, 352. 
 
 Wilson, James, proposes electors, 4. 
 
 Wilson tariff bill, 524. 
 
 Wine, Simon, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, 513 ; popular votes for, 517. 
 
 Wirt, William, nominated for Presi- 
 dent, by anti - Masonic party, 156; 
 electtoral votes for, 164. 
 
 Wisconsin, admitted to the Union, 
 242 ; disputed electoral votes, in 
 1857, 275 ; in 1877, 391. 
 
 Woman suffraere, in politics and 
 platforms, 340, 348, 371, 426, 441, 445, 
 462, 466, 467, 506, 514, 530, 536. 
 
 Wood, Fernando, 282. 
 
 Wool, tariff on, 429, 473, 524, 534. 
 
 Wrigrht, Silas, nominated, and de- 
 clines, as Vice-President, 213; war 
 upon him in New York, 229; dies, 
 230. 
 
 Wyoming, State of, admitted to the 
 Union, 518. 
 
 Tancey, William L., resolution of° 
 fered by, 236.
 
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