A History of the Republican Party Part 8

CHAPTER XIII.

GRANT.

" ... I endorse their resolutions, and, if elected to the office of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with a view of giving peace, quiet and protection everywhere... Peace, and universal prosperity, its sequence, with economy of administration, will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the national debt. Let us have peace."

_Ulysses S. Grant's Letter of Acceptance_, _May_ 29, 1868.

The impeachment of President Johnson had not been finally disposed of in the Senate when the Fourth Republican National Convention a.s.sembled in Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, on May 20, 1868, for the purpose of nominating one whom, it was confidently believed, would succeed President Johnson and thus end the long controversy between the President and Congress, and between the North and the South. There was absolutely no question as to who would be the presidential nominee, for the overwhelming sentiment of the party had long since crystallized in favor of a man whose wonderful career and talents had made him pre-eminently the strongest candidate in the party.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ulysses S. Grant.]

Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio in 1822, and had graduated from West Point in 1843. He took part in the Mexican War, and was brevetted Captain for gallant services. A few years after the close of that war he resigned his commission and engaged in business until the call to arms in 1861. His great success in the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson brought him the rank of Major General and made him at once one of the most prominent and promising of the Union Generals. His subsequent successes in Tennessee, the capture of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi caused him to be appointed to the revived rank of Lieutenant-General, and taking personal command of the campaign against Richmond, he had, by his dogged persistence, brought success and ended the great conflict. He continued to remain at the head of the Army, and in the bitter contest between the President and Congress during the reconstruction period, though placed in a most trying position, he had displayed rare qualities of tact and judgment, and had gained the confidence of the entire party, and indeed of the American people. Such, briefly, was the career of the man who was now called to accept a presidential nomination.

The a.s.sembling at Chicago of a great convention of soldiers and sailors at the same time the Republican Convention met, made the latter even more enthusiastic than the convention of 1860, and the number in attendance was much larger. The Soldiers' Convention met before the Republican Convention, and amid scenes of the wildest enthusiasm, nominated Gen. Grant for the presidency, and condemned the seven Republicans--"traitors" as they were then called--who had voted against the impeachment of President Johnson. At noon, May 20th, the Republican Convention was called to order by Governor Marcus L. Ward, of New Jersey. He named Carl Schurz, of Wisconsin, as temporary Chairman.

The temporary Secretaries were B. R. Cowen, of Ohio, Luther Caldwell, of New York, and Frank S. Richards, of Tennessee. Committees on Credentials, Permanent Organization, Resolutions and Rules were then appointed, each of the committees, with some few exceptions, having on it a representative from each of the States. The name of Joseph R.

Hawley was reported for President of the Convention, and the names of one representative from each State as Vice-President, and also thirty-six secretaries. A delegation from the Soldiers' and Sailors'

Convention now presented a resolution nominating Gen. Grant for President, and it caused great enthusiasm. Such a procedure was contrary to the rules of the Convention, but the delegates were almost unanimous in desiring the nomination to be made at once, but order was finally restored. After some debate it was decided to give representation in the Convention to the Territories, and to the States not yet reconstructed.

The Convention then adjourned until the following morning at ten o'clock, at which time, on a.s.sembling, impatient attempts were again made to nominate Gen. Grant contrary to the rules, but the Convention finally quieted down and listened to speeches delivered by F. Ha.s.saurek, John M. Palmer and John W. Forney. The platform, reported by Richard W.

Thompson, of Indiana, was adopted with many cheers.

REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, 1868.

The National Republican Party of the United States, a.s.sembled in national convention in the City of Chicago on the 21st day of May, 1868, make the following declaration of principles:

1. We congratulate the country on the a.s.sured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, in the majority of the states lately in rebellion, of Const.i.tutions securing equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the government to sustain those inst.i.tutions and to prevent the people of such states from being remitted to a state of anarchy.

2. The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of grat.i.tude, 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 indebtedness 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 preservation 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 to so 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 threatened 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 of 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 executive 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 unconst.i.tutional; 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 p.r.o.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 ent.i.tled to protection in all their rights of citizenship as though they were native born; and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, 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 interfere in his behalf.

10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war there were none ent.i.tled to more especial 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 bounties 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 all oppressed people struggling for their rights.

13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and forbearance with which men who have served in the rebellion but who now frankly and honestly co-operate 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. That 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 making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil.

Nominations now being in order, John A. Logan, in a few words remarkable for their force and beauty, nominated Ulysses S. Grant for President.

After the enthusiasm had abated the roll of the States was called, and the unanimous vote of the delegates, 650 in number, was given to Gen.

Grant, and the audience went wild with delight. The great contest of the Convention now came over the nomination for Vice-President. Henry Wilson, Schuyler Colfax, Benjamin F. Wade, Reuben E. Fenton, James Speed, Andrew G. Curtin, Hannibal Hamlin, James Harlan, S. C. Pomeroy, J. A. J. Creswell and William D. Kelley were nominated. The leading candidates were Benj. F. Wade, of Ohio, Mr. Colfax, of Indiana, Mr.

Curtin, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Wilson, of Ma.s.sachusetts, and Mr. Fenton, of New York, all of whom had rendered the most conspicuous services to the party. Five ballots were taken as follows:

1st 2d 3d 4th 5th Ballot Ballot Ballot Ballot Ballot Wade .......... 147 170 178 206 38 Wilson ........ 119 114 101 87 Colfax ........ 115 145 165 186 541 Fenton ........ 126 144 139 144 69 Curtin ........ 51 45 40

Only the votes for the leading candidates are here given. Mr. Colfax was therefore nominated on the fifth ballot, and it was felt that his name added great strength to the ticket. He was then Speaker of the House, to which he had been elected with the organization of the party in 1854, and had served with great ability for six terms.

The Democratic Convention met in New York in Tammany Hall on July 4, 1868. It was a gathering composed princ.i.p.ally of Southern leaders and Generals and Northern Copperheads. After a troubled session of six days the Chairman of the Convention, Horatio Seymour, of New York, was nominated for President on the twenty-second ballot, and Francis P.

Blair, Jr., of Missouri, was nominated for Vice-President. The platform advocated the payment of the national debt in depreciated currency, the overthrowing of all that had been done under the reconstruction policy of Congress and the taxing of Government bonds. The platform practically doomed the party to defeat before the campaign had really opened. The canva.s.s was exciting, but the October States practically decided the contest, and the election on November 3d registered what had long been conceded. Grant and Colfax received the 214 electoral votes of twenty-six States; Seymour and Blair only carrying eight States, New York among them, with their 80 electoral votes. The popular vote gave Grant and Colfax 3,012,833, and Seymour and Blair 2,703,249.

The third session of the Fortieth Congress a.s.sembled on December 7, 1868. One phase of the slavery question still remained unsettled, that of giving the negro the right of suffrage. For several years a strong sentiment had shown itself in the North in favor of granting this right, and Congress had already recognized this sentiment by giving the negro the right to vote in the District of Columbia, which act was pa.s.sed over President Johnson's veto. The great injustice of freeing the negro and withholding from him the means of protecting his freedom by the right of suffrage was not generally felt, and it remained now for a Republican Congress to crown with a great act of justice the long labors of the party, to remove all the evils of insufferable bondage, and to complete the work of the Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

On February 27, 1869, Congress proposed, through the Department of State, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

This Amendment, after submission to the States, was proclaimed a part of the Const.i.tution in 1870.

In his message to Congress in December, 1868, President Johnson said:

"The holders of our securities have already received upon their bonds a larger amount than their original investment, measured by the gold standard. Upon this statement of facts it would seem but just and equitable that the six percent interest now paid by the Government should be applied to the reduction of the princ.i.p.al in semi-annual installments, which in sixteen years and eight months would liquidate the entire national debt."

The policy of repudiation advocated by the Democratic Party in the campaign of 1868 and the repudiation now advocated by President Johnson, were promptly rejected by the Republican Congress, and both branches pa.s.sed resolutions of condemnation.

General Grant was inaugurated on March 4, 1869, and the Fortieth Congress adjourned on the same day. The Forty-first Congress immediately convened and elected James G. Blaine, of Maine, Speaker by 105 votes to 57 votes for Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana. Mr. Blaine was also elected Speaker of the Forty-second Congress when it met on March 4, 1871. On the 18th of March, 1869, Congress decided by the "Act to strengthen the public credit," to remove as far as possible the damage done at home and abroad by the repudiation platform of the Democratic Party, and the repudiation message of President Johnson. This Act pledged the Government at the earliest practicable moment to pay in coin or its equivalent all obligations, notes and bonds except those where the law authorizing their issue stipulated that payment might be made in lawful money.

May 10, 1869, witnessed the opening for traffic of the Union Pacific Railroad, which had first been advocated by the Republican Party in its platform in 1856, and which was now brought to a successful opening by necessary subsidies of money and land given the railroad by Republican Congresses. The war had resulted in a wonderful development of the physical wealth of the North and West, and the railroad was opened at a most opportune moment to connect the East and West, and make possible the development of all the wonderful resources of the nation. It was unfortunate, however, that unwise management of the bonds and credit of the Western Railroads led to such a disastrous climax in the fall of 1873.

In the decade between 1860 and 1870 the admission of four new States-- Kansas in 1861, West Virginia in 1863, Nevada in 1864, and Nebraska in 1867--had raised the total number of States to thirty-seven. In addition, six new Territories had been organized--Colorado and Dakota in 1861, Idaho and Arizona in 1863, Montana in 1864, and Wyoming in 1868. The admission of these new States, the completing of the railroad, the discovery of precious metals, and the general awakening of the North caused a large increase in the population, especially in the West. The total population of the country in 1870 was 38,558,371, of which 4,880,009 were negroes, about 4,400,000 of them living in the Southern States.

The second session of the Forty-first Congress met December 6, 1869. The President in his message advocated the refunding of the National Debt, and this was done by the Act of July 14, 1870, which authorized the refunding of the debt at five, four and one-half and four percent, payable in coin and exempt from taxation.

The sentiment in favor of a general amnesty of all persons who had engaged in the rebellion was now growing in the North, and in December, 1869, and March, 1870, Acts were pa.s.sed removing legal and political disabilities from a large cla.s.s of persons in the South, but a full pardon was not yet extended to all. The South at this time was most bitter against negro suffrage, and the opposition was shown in a series of most violent outrages and murders perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klans and other similar organizations formed for the purpose of preventing the negro from voting and the "carpet bagger" from living in the community.

The outrages and murders done by these organizations became so flagrant that Congress pa.s.sed a special Act on April 20, 1871 (the Ku Klux Act), to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.

The other events of Gen. Grant's administration were chiefly of a diplomatic nature, and it is not necessary to dwell upon them in these pages. With the opening of 1872 came the year for another presidential campaign, and the only serious issue was the threatened split in the Republican Party over the question of the treatment of the South. The Democrats were demoralized and had no candidate, and the situation was the most peculiar and abnormal in the history of presidential campaigns.

A group of Republicans in Missouri were in favor of a more liberal policy toward the South, and President Grant was roundly condemned for his military rule. This movement became known as the Liberal Republican movement, and a convention was called to meet in Cincinnati on May 1st.

This year also witnessed the organization for political action of the Prohibition Party and the Labor Reform Party. The latter held the first of the political conventions and met at Columbus, Ohio, February 22, 1872. Judge David Davis, of Illinois, was nominated for President, and Judge Joel Parker, of New Jersey, for Vice-President; both subsequently withdrew, and in August this party nominated Charles O'Conor for President, who also declined. The platform of the Labor Reform Party demanded lower interest on and taxation of government bonds; the repeal of the law establishing the national banks and withdrawal of the national bank notes; the issue of paper money based on the faith and resources of the nation to be legal tender for all debts; exclusion of the Chinese; no more land grants to corporations, and the organization of a National Labor Reform party. The National Prohibition Convention also met in Columbus, Ohio, on February 22d, and nominated James Black, of Pennsylvania, for President, and Rev. John Russell, of Michigan, for Vice-President.

The National Liberal Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, May 1, 1872. It was a ma.s.s convention, and Carl Schurz presided as Permanent Chairman. The prominent candidates for the presidency were Judge David Davis, Lyman Trumbull, Chas. Francis Adams, B. Gratz Brown and Horace Greeley, whose name had not been seriously considered until the Convention a.s.sembled, and who, on May 3d was nominated on the sixth ballot for President, and B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, was nominated for Vice-President. The platform demanded universal amnesty and a liberal policy, no more land grants to corporations, and denounced repudiation.

The Republicans met in their Fifth National Convention at Philadelphia, June 5th, in the Academy of Music. There was no question but that President Grant would be renominated, and the only contest was that between Henry Wilson and Schuyler Colfax for the nomination for Vice-President. William Claflin, of Ma.s.sachusetts, called the meeting to order and named Morton McMichael as temporary Chairman. The usual committees were appointed, and while they were deliberating the convention listened to a number of stirring speeches, several by colored men, who appeared as representatives in a national convention for the first time. Thomas Settle, of North Carolina, was reported as permanent chairman. On the following day, after some preliminary business had been disposed of, Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois, nominated President Grant for a second term, and the vote, 752, was made unanimous. Henry Wilson, Schuyler Colfax, John F. Lewis, Edmund J. Davis, and Horace Maynard were nominated for Vice-President. One ballot was cast and resulted in the nomination of Henry Wilson, who received 364 votes to 321 for Colfax, 26 for Maynard, 16 for Davis, and one each for Jos. R. Hawley and E. F.