Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet Part 101

I contrasted the policy and tendencies of the two parties on the question of protection to American industry, on good money redeemable in coin, on frauds in elections, on our pension laws, and on all the political questions of the day. I stated and approved the policy of the Republican party on the temperance question. I closed with an exhortation to support Governor Foraker and the Republican ticket and to elect a legislature that would place Ohio where she had usually stood, in the fore front of Republican states, for the Union, for liberty and justice to all, without respect of race, nativity and creed.

This speech was denounced by the Democratic press as "bitterly partisan;" and so it was and so intended. The Republican party during its long possession of power had divided into factions, as the Democratic party had in 1860. We had the Blaine, the Conkling and other factions, and many so-called third parties, and the distinctive principles upon which the Republican party was founded were in danger of being forgotten. It was my purpose to arouse the attention to the Republicans in Ohio to the necessity of union and organization, and I believe this speech contributed to that result. It was the text and foundation of nearly all I uttered in the canva.s.s that followed.

Early in September Governor Hoadley, in commencing his campaign in Hamilton, a.s.sailed by speech at Mt. Gilead, charging me with waving the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt, and reviving the animosities of the war. He claimed to be a friend of the negro, but did not deny the facts stated by me. He allowed himself to be turned from local questions, such as temperance, schools, economy, and the government of cities, in all of which the people of Ohio had a deep interest, and as to which the Democratic party had a defined policy, to national questions, and, especially, to reconstruction and the treatment of freedmen in the south. He thanked G.o.d for the "solid south."

Though an Abolitionist of the Chase school in early life, and, until recently an active Republican, he ignored or denied the suppression of the negro vote, the organized terror and cruelty of the Ku-Klux Klan, and the almost daily outrages published in the papers. On the evening of the 8th of September I made a speech at Lebanon, in which I reviewed his speech at Hamilton in the adjoining county. I said I would wave the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt as long as it remained b.l.o.o.d.y. I referred to the copious evidence of outrage and wrong, including many murders of negroes and of white Republicans, published in official reports, and challenged him to deny it. I said that by these crimes the south was made solid, and the men who had waged war against the United States, though they failed in breaking up the Union, then held the political power of the Confederate states, strengthened by counting all the negroes as free men, though practically denying them the right of suffrage. I said this was not only unjust to the colored man but unjust to the white men of the north.

In conclusion I said:

"Thirty-eight Members of Congress, and of the electoral college, are based upon the six million of colored people in the south.

The effect of the crimes I have mentioned is to confer upon the white people of the south, not only the number of votes to which they are ent.i.tled for the white population, but also the thirty- eight votes based upon the colored population, and, in this way, in some of the southern states, every white voter possesses the political power of two white voters in the northern states. The colored people have, practically, no voice in Congress and no voice in the electoral college. Mr. Cleveland is now President of the United States, instead of James G. Blaine, by reason of these crimes. I claim that this should be corrected. An injustice so gross and palpable will not be submitted to by the colored people of the south, nor by fair-minded white men in the south who hate wrong and injustice; nor by the great northern people, by whose sacrifices in the Union cause the war was brought to a successful termination. It will not be submitted to, and Governor Hoadley, from his former position, ought to be one of the first to demand and insist upon a remedy, and not seek to avoid or belittle it by cant phrases."

After I had spoken in the opera house at Lebanon I was told that the stage I occupied was within a few feet of the place where my father died. The room in the old hotel in which he was taken sick, and in which he died within twenty-four hours, covered the ground now occupied by the east end of the opera house. As already stated, he died while a member of the supreme court holding court at Lebanon.

This debate at long range continued through the canva.s.s. Governor Hoadley is an able man with many excellent traits, but in his political life he did not add to his reputation, and wisely chose a better occupation, the practice of his profession in the city of New York.

It is not worth while to enter into details as to the many speeches made by me in this canva.s.s. I spoke nearly every day until the election on the 13th of October. While Foraker and Hoadley continued their debate I filled such appointments as were made for me by Mr.

Bushnell. At Toledo, when conversing with a gentleman about the condition of affairs in the south, I was asked "What are you going to do about it?" In reply to this inquiry I said in my speech, at that place: "I do not know exactly how we are going to do it, but with the help of G.o.d we are going to arrange that the vote of the man who followed Lee shall no longer have, in national affairs, three times the power of the vote of the man who followed Grant.

The tendency of events guided by a growing popular opinion will, I believe, secure this condition."

The meetings grew in number and enthusiasm. The largest meeting I ever witnessed within four walls was at the Music Hall in Cincinnati, on the 22nd of September. The auditorium, the balcony, the gallery, even the windows were filled, and thousands outside were unable to enter. This and similar scenes in Cleveland and other cities indicated the success of the Republican ticket. Great interest was taken in the canva.s.s in Ohio by many other states, as the vote in Ohio would indicate the current of popular opinion.

The result was the election of Foraker by a majority of 17,451, and of Robert P. Kennedy as lieutenant governor. The legislature elected was Republican by a decided majority, the size of which depended upon the official returns from Hamilton county, where frauds had been committed by the Democratic party.

Soon after the election I was urged by Senator Mahone to take part in the canva.s.s in Virginia in which he was interested. I doubted the policy of accepting, but, a.s.suming that he knew best, I agreed to speak in Petersburg and Richmond. Governor Foraker accepted a like invitation and spoke in the Shenandoah valley. On my way I addressed a spontaneous crowd in Washington, the only place in the United States where no elections are held, and there I could talk about frauds at elections. I had denounced fraud and violence in elections in the south, and at Washington I had to confess recent frauds attempted or practiced in Cincinnati. The worst feature that the frauds in Ohio were forgery and perjury, committed by criminals of low degree for money, while in the south the crimes were shared by the great body of the people and arose from the embers of a war that had involved the whole country. I gave as a sample of the frauds in the 4th ward of Cincinnati this instance:

"As soon as the recent election was over an organized gang stopped the counting in fifteen precincts. n.o.body but the gang knew what the vote was. This could be for no motive but to commit fraud, and frauds enough were committed in Hamilton county to change the result on the legislative ticket of four senators and nine representatives.

"There were probably 500 or 600 voters in the 4th ward, and according to previous elections about one-fourth were Republicans and the rest were Democrats. Well, they made up a registration of 700.

When the day of the election came they tore up the registration papers and let every fellow vote as many times as he wanted until they got 996 votes in the ballot box. Then that was not all. The Republican judge got angry and went away, but he took the key.

Then they broke open the box, tied it up with a rope, and took it to the police officer, and then changed it so that when it was counted over 900 votes were Democratic and only 48 Republican!"

A similar fraud was attempted at Columbus in sight of the penitentiary.

The returns of elections had been filed with the county records.

Between Sat.u.r.day night and Monday morning thieves stole one of the returns and added three hundred tallies for every Democratic candidate, thus changing the number of ballots from 208 to 508.

The judges were about to count this return, knowing it was a forgery, when public indignation was aroused in the city of Columbus, shared in by its most distinguished Democratic citizens, and fraud was prevented. I felt, and so declared, that these mean crimes were infinitely more despicable than the violence in the south, which sprang from a fear of the southern people that their inst.i.tutions would be impaired by the votes of men debased by slavery and ignorance.

I went from Washington to Petersburg, where I was hospitably entertained by General Mahone. He had been greatly distinguished for his courage, ability and success, as a Confederate general in the Civil War, and had long been a popular favorite in Virginia.

He took the lead on questions affecting the debt of Virginia in opposition to the Democratic party, and a legislature in favor of his opinions having been elected, he became a Senator of the United States. He voted as a rule with Republican Senators, but maintained a marked independence of political parties. I admired him for his courage and fidelity, and was quite willing to speak a good word for him in the election of a legislature that would designate his successor.

The meeting at Petersburg was held in a large opera house on the evening of the 29th of October. When I faced my audience the central part of the house and the galleries seemed to be densely packed by negroes, while in the rear was a fringe of white men.

The line of demarkation was clearly indicated by color, most of the white men standing and seeming ill at ease. The speech was fairly well received. In opening I said my purpose was to demonstrate that what the Republican party professed in Ohio as to national questions was the same that it professed in Virginia, and that the practical application of the principles of the Republican party would be of vast benefit to the State of Virginia, while Democratic success would tend more and more to harden the times and prevent the industrial development of Virginia.

"Not only your newspaper," I said, "but the distinguished gentleman who is the Democratic candidate for Governor of the State of Virginia, has said to you that I was waving the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt while he was contending under the Union flag. If he meant, by waving the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt, that I sought, in any way, to renew the animosities of the war, then he was greatly mistaken, for in the speech to which he refers, and in every speech I made in Ohio, I constantly said that the war was over and the animosities of the war should be buried out of sight; that I would not hold any Confederate soldier responsible for what he did during the war, and that all I wished was to maintain and preserve the acknowledged results of the war. Among these, I claim, is the right of every voter to cast one honest vote and have it counted; that every citizen, rich or poor, native or naturalized, white or black, should have equal civil and political rights, and that every man of lawful age should be allowed to exercise his right to vote, without distinction of race or color or previous condition. I charge, among other things, that these const.i.tutional rights and privileges have been disregarded by the Democratic party, especially in the southern states."

The speech was largely historical in its character and evidently rather beyond the comprehension of the body of my audience. The scene and the surroundings made a vivid impression on my mind.

Here, I felt, were two antagonistic races widely differing in every respect, the old relations of master and slave broken, with new conditions undeveloped, the master impoverished and the slave free without the knowledge to direct him, and with a belief that liberty meant license, and freedom idleness. William McKinley, then a Member of the House of Representatives, and Green B. Raum then spoke, Mr. McKinley confining his speech mainly to a simple exposition of the tariff question, which his audience could easily understand.

The next day, at the invitation of John S. Wise, then the Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia, I went to Richmond, and spent a pleasant day with him. In the evening I attended a ma.s.s meeting in the open air, at which there was a very large attendance. There was no disorder in the large crowd before me, but off to the right, at some distance, it was evident that a party of men were endeavoring to create some disturbance, and to distract attention from the speeches. While I was speaking Wise rose and, in terms very far from polite, denounced the people making the noise. He succeeded in preventing any interruption of the meeting. The speech was made without preparation, but, I think, better for the occasion that the one in Petersburg. I stated that I had been born and lived in a region where a large portion of the population was from Virginia and Kentucky; that I had always been taught to believe in the doctrines of the great men ill.u.s.trious in Virginia history. To the charge made that I was engaged in waving the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt I said:

"If it means that I said anything in Ohio with a view to stir up the animosities of the Civil War, then, I say, it is greatly mistaken. I never uttered an unkind word about the people of Virginia that mortal man can quote. I have always respected and loved the State of Virginia, its memories, its history, its record, and its achievements.

"Again, although I was a Union man from my heart and every pulsation, just as my friend Wise was a Confederate soldier, yet I never heard in Ohio a man call in question either the courage or purity of motive of any Confederate soldier who fought in the Confederate ranks. I never uttered such a sentiment. I disclaim it. What I did say was this--what I say here in Richmond, and what I said in Petersburg is--that the war is over and all animosities of the war should be buried out of sight; that I would not hold any Confederate soldier responsible for what he did in the war, and all I ask of you is to carry out the acknowledged results of the war; to do what you agreed to, when Grant and Lee made their famous arrangement under the apple tree at Appomattox; to stand by the const.i.tution and laws of the land, to see that every man in this country, rich and poor, native and naturalized, white and black, shall have equal civil and political rights, and the equal protection of the law.

I said also, that by const.i.tutional amendment agreed to by Virginia, every man of proper age in this country was armed for his protection with the right to cast one honest vote, and no more, and have that vote counted, and you, as well as I, are bound to protect every man in the enjoyment of that right.

"There is the ground I stood on in Ohio, and the ground I stand on now."

I closed my address as follows:

"And now a word to the best citizens of Richmond. If the criminal cla.s.ses can deprive a colored man or a white Republican of his right to vote, as soon as they have accomplished it, then these rascals--because every man who resorts to this policy is a rascal --then these rascals will soon undermine their own party. They will begin to cheat each other after they have cheated the Republicans out of their political power. My countrymen, there is no duty so sacred resting upon any man among you, I don't care what his politics are. It is honesty that I like to appeal to. I say there is no man who can be deprived of his right to vote without injuring you, from the wealthiest in the city of Richmond down to the humblest man among you, white or black.

"There is no crime that is meaner, there is no crime that is so destructive to society, there is no crime so prejudicial to the man who commits it as the crime of preventing a citizen from partic.i.p.ating in the government. Here I intend to leave the question. I appeal to you, of whatever party, or color, or race, or country, to give us in Virginia at this election an honest vote and an honest count, and if Lee is elected, well and good; if Wise is elected, better yet."

The Democrats carried the state and Wise was defeated.

CHAPTER L.

ELECTED PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE.

Death of Vice President Hendricks--I Am Chosen to Preside Over the United States Senate--Letter of Congratulation from S. S. c.o.x-- Cleveland's First Annual Message to Congress--His Views on the Tariff and Condition of Our Currency--Secretary Manning's Report-- Garfield's Statue Presented to the Nation by the State of Ohio--I Am Elected a Senator from Ohio for the Fifth Time--I Go to Columbus to Return Thanks to the Legislature for the Honor--Business of this Session of Congress--Attempt to Inquire Into the Methods of Electing Mr. Payne to the Senate from Ohio--My Address on "Grant and the New South"--Address Before the Ohio Society of New York.

Congress convened on the 7th of December, 1885. The death of Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks, on the 25th of November, was announced by Senator Voorhees, who offered appropriate resolutions, the consideration of which was postponed until January 26, 1886, when eloquent orations by Senators Voorhees, Hampton, Saulsbury, Evarts, Ransom, Spooner and Harrison were delivered in commemoration of his life and death. I added my sincere tribute to his marked ability and personal worth.

On the first day of the session after the opening prayer, Mr.

Edmunds offered the following resolution:

"_Resolved_, That John Sherman, a Senator from the State of Ohio, be and he hereby is, chosen president _pro tempore_ of the Senate."

Following the usual form Mr. Voorhees moved to strike out the words "John Sherman, a Senator from the State of Ohio," and insert "Isham G. Harris, a Senator from the State of Tennessee."

This was decided in the negative by the vote of 29 yeas and 34 nays, and thereupon the resolution was adopted. I was escorted to the chair by Senators Edmunds and Voorhees and, having taken the oath prescribed by law, said:

"Senators, I return you my grateful thanks for the high honor you have conferred upon me.

"In common with all the people of the United States I share in profound sorrow for the death of the Vice President, especially designated by the const.i.tution to act as president of the Senate.

It is an impressive lesson of the uncertain tenure by which we all hold office and life. The contingency had happened which compels you now, at the beginning of the session, to choose a president _pro tempore_.

"In a.s.suming this position, without special apt.i.tude or experience as a presiding officer, I feel that for a time, at least, I shall have often to appeal to the habitual courtesy and forbearance of Senators. Fortunately the rules of the Senate are simple and clear.

My aim will be to secure the ready and kindly obedience and enforcement of them, so that in an orderly way the sense of the majority may be ascertained and the rights of the minority may be protected.

"I can only say, Senators, that while I hold this position I will endeavor, to the utmost of my ability, to be just and impartial, and I invoke from each of you a.s.sistance and forbearance."

This honor was unsought by me. The public prints had, as usual, discussed the choice of president of the Senate, but I made no mention of it to any Senator. I was gratified with the choice, chiefly because it would, in a measure, relieve me from burdensome details, and was an evidence of the good will of my a.s.sociates.

I received many letters of congratulation on this event, one of which, from Mr. c.o.x, I insert:

"United States Legation, } "Constantinople, January 23, 1886.} "Dear Mr. Senator:--I am reminded by my wife of a courtesy I have neglected. It is that of congratulation upon your accession to the post lately held by my friend (from Muskingum county) Thomas A. Hendricks. You have a.s.sociations with that valley also, and they are connected with the best friend I ever had in Congress, General Samuel R. Curtis, with whom I used to a.s.sociate in my callow congressional days.

"Besides, I never forget the kindness with which my father used to regard C. R. Sherman, your father, for making him clerk of the supreme court of Muskingum, in early days.

"Here I am, aloof from all old Muskingum memories, or rather, scenes. As I look out of my balcony, on this spring day in midwinter, I see the Golden Horn br.i.m.m.i.n.g full of ships and other evidences of interchange; and far beyond it, 'clear as a fountain in July, when we see each grain of gravel,' Mt. Olympus lifts a double crown of snow.